Happy Happy Day!!!

Isaac is growing up so fast. It is remarkable and wonderful and crazy and a bit scary. He's not a teenager yet, but its going to come faster than I will be ready for. This year he really wanted an army birthday party. So I made camo cupcakes with army guys on top. We had his party yesterday so we would have all afternoon to play. We started with pizza. We had (including Ike) 6 fifth graders, and 2 third graders. We played all kinds of games and the kids had fun. Towards the end things got a little intense so we ended by having them all sit at the table and we played spoons. I found it interesting (and good) that they liked it better when I played with them. I will take it while I can get it! I am so proud of him. He is so amazing! Happy Birthday Ike:) In the mean time Chris, his Dad and his uncle left last week to hang out in the Big Horns and hunt Elk. Chris got one opening day and was able to pack it out the next day. He said that it was pretty cold and snowey up there. At least a foot or more deep so it limited where they could hunt. I really haven't heard much from him, but he will be back tomorrow. Pround of him too:) My month isn't slowing down just yet. We still have CJ's first birthday and his baptism on the same day. So trying to get everything coordinated for that. I am so exctied for this weekend. A celebration that we all made it to his birthday and finally getting baptized. This is not the first time we have had this scheduled so pray that nothing goes wrong and no surprise trips this time.

Give crayons. Adults are disturbingly impoverished of these magical dream sticks. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com

Mondays are always busy! I don't have any scheduled hours at New Therapeutic Solutions so I cram everything else in that I can. Today I dropped the kids off at school at 8:30. I don't know if that is the right time or not, but its what happened. School times changed this year and has completely thrown me off schedule and now I can never remember the time they are actually supposed to be there. So it was just me and CJ for the day. We went to the bank (since it was closed Friday and Saturday due to the snow storm). Then we headed to the rec center. I got there good and early to feed him before dropping him off in the kids zone. I always feel so guilty about leaving him there right when its his feeding time. I don't think the girls really mind feeding him, but I worry that they will get busy with other kids and I feel kinda demanding for the services they provide. After my personal training client we went to the Celebration Station to see what we could find for Ike's birthday party. Yay!! They had army stuff! Ike will be so excited. Then we headed to CJ's accupuncture appointment. He always does so good there. He just lets her put those needles in. And it has been paying off too!! His hormone levels have almost tripled, so I have high hopes that we will not have to deal with them diminishing and having to add more meds to his list. My favorite part of the day--LUNCH!!I made a cheesey casadea (ok I have no idea how to spell that)but I put some ham in it and thought it was a hot ham and cheese sandwich even though I used a tortia. It looked like a ham and cheese sandwish. However, I added some of my newly made homemade salsa. The salsa was wonderful but I guess that means it was still just a casadea and not a true sandwich I guess. After feeding CJ we dropped some paper work off at Gillette Physical Therapy. Went to CJ's dietary appointment at the hospital. I have worked with Heidi in the past and she is great. I am so glad to have her help me with Cole's transition to regular foods. I am so scared to feed him anything that I don't really think I have tried to hard to get him used to things. After dietary we went to physical therapy. This Momma wants her baby sitting by his birthday! He worked really hard today. He is such a trooper. After that we went and picked the kids up from school and made a quick stop at the hockey store to see what Zoey is going to do for hockey this year. She is super excited. She chose volleyball last year over hockey and intensly missed it. Now off to all those never ending chores like supper and laundry and general cleaning--yay!

I loved autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it. ~Lee Maynard

I have decided to start blogging again. With so many things racin in my head right now, its either good to just things get things out or with any luck it will be a stepping stone to bigger better things. We have officially entered the fabulous month of October! This month has always been a full party month with Isaac's birthday being on the 16th. Normally people come and go this month as their schedule allows. But now we also have Chris leaving for the Mountains for a good 10 days to hunt elk with Wayne and Uncle Keith. CJ's birthday is on the 26th. We are having a baptism for CJ also on the 26th and after we get all that squared away we have halloween. The kids are doing fabulous! Isaac gets to go duck hunting this year. I guess he kinda missed most of it. We were in MN one weekend and got a blizzard the following weekend. Not sure if its closed right now or if big game season has just taken over. He is getting good grades and loves going to gate to get that little extra challenge. However, I think learning the viola will be challenging as well. Soccer season has just ended. He really likes to play and its fun to see him play hard and actually take the ball from an opponent. He prefers defence, but is a great scorer on offence. He will have a break from sports for a while. Basketball is next on our list but that doesn't start until January. Zoey just plain has an interest in everything right now! She is learning so fast. She just ended her soccer season also. They had to keep her on defence because even though she can also score she is the quickest one to the ball and gets it right outta there! This week I will check to see if I can still get her signed up for hockey. They are starting a new league this year for parents just like us (yeah!) It is a house team that competes here in town. So its more than learn to play but we don't have to travel out of town for games. She also is doing much better in school this year. I just wish she wasn't growing up so stinkin fast. She was my little girl for so long and now she likes to cook her own meals and read her books and she is even kind of learning the piano. Not official lessons yet,but she knows some of the songs in the book we have. Work is good. I only work part time so people are having a hard time getting scheduled with me. I am almost always full. Plus right now is a busy time anyway for me with sports being in season like college cross country, gillette hockey and high school football. Plus the college basketball teams are getting ready for their season. So I am always on the fence wondering if I should be working more but then not really having more time to give, especially this month with Chris being gone so much and so many things going on. I would really like to find some more on line work. I have been reading about some online successes and wondering if I could make it work too. I don't have the same passion for on line work as I do for athletic training and massage, but I have the drive to work from home. Anything where I can make my own schedule and work around my kids schedule is perfect work for me at the momtent!

Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change. ~Author Unknown

Last Thursday was supposed to be field day for the kids.  However, there was a wind warning and gusts up to 60 or 65 MPH so they rescheduled for Friday.  Isaac and Zoey of course competed at the same time so Chris and I split up and did our best to cheer each one on.  This year they had a new gym teacher and honestly I really liked this years field day much better.  They actually had quite a few field events plus the regular tug of war, Frisbee throwing and three legged race.  The kids did great and got Popsicles and ribbons when they were done.  The weather was so nice on Friday.  Perfect for field day.

Saturday the kids and Chris went fishing.  They caught a lot of Bass out at Brad's Ranch.  Later that night we went to Justin and Shawna's for supper.  It was good to hang out with good friends and just relax.

Monday the kids did not have school so they were stuck with me all day.  Zoey had a friend sleep over on Sunday night and Ike's friend from Idaho came to Gillette for the summer so our house was busy.  We took CJ in to get his sodium checked.  With his new doctors we are working at keeping his sodium a little lower than what we have in the past.  We are hoping that by using medication to reduce the amount he pees that he can drink less water and more formula. Obviously babies don't grow with water like flowers do.  So even though I like the idea of keeping him off medicine--if he is drinking more formula in theory he should grow more.  We will see.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

Well I guess a lot has happened since I last blogged.  Part of the reason is that my computer broke. Luckily we still had 7 days left on the warrenty.  Unfortunately, tho it was the power connection on the computer that was broken.  The company that fixed my computer said that I needed to back up the hard drive.  Well I didn't have power so that didn't sound easy to me.  I didn't know how much it would cost so I lollygaged taking it in.  But it is fixed and back and things are good.

I see my last post suggested we had a baptism date for CJ.  Um, yeah, that didn't happen.  Grandparents made it out the weekend of April 6.  However, that Wednesday before I took CJ in for his shots.  He was cranky on Thursday, which I expected and then on Friday he was vomiting all day.  I finally took him to the ER for fluids. We spent the night, but the antinausa meds they gave him didn't work.  He was still vomiting the next day.  He had a seizure.  They decided to get a CT scan and before they could take him down there they needed to intubate him.  We flew to Denver, where they decided to put in a shunt.  Apparently a canal closed up creating a blockage and the fluid in his head backed up.  The shunt re routes the extra fluid from his head to his tummy.  It was a stressfull weekend.  But everything went extremely well.  Recovery time from the surgery was minimal and getting off the vent was the biggest issue.  Even with that it was our shortest Denver stay so far.  He truely is amazing!:)

This past month we had quite a few Dr. appointments.  We used Pilots for Christ to get us to our follow up appointments in Denver.  The surgery is successful and everything looks great.  He is on medicince to reduce his chance of having more seizures but I hope just adding the shunt will help too.  He had his 6month check up here in town and is doing well.  Then we had appointments at Mayo.  Some doctors were worried that there may be more underlying conditions and if I was going to be transfered anywhere else I wanted to go to Mayo to be in Minnesota.  I couldn't go at the time but with the connection of doctors they got us in for consultations.  We used Pilots for Christ again.  Our flight out was a bit bumpy.  It was right before all the storms hit between here and Minnesota.  It was quite a weekend.  Very overwhelming.  I got to eat supper with Grandpa one night.  That was great.  Friday we had appointments all day.  We did lay to rest that there is anything else going on.  It was the oppinion at Mayo that he has the proper diagnosis and that we are on the proper track for his care and that was good to know. They did want to run some blood work that for him will be routine.  So we tried to get that done on Saturday.  The nurses couldn't get it so we left.  Because it took so long I didn't make it to Grandpa Ed's burial but I did make it to lunch.  Later that night I got to see my niece Libby at her dance recital and she was awesome! It was a late night, but the next day I got to meet my college besties for breakfast. How wonderful! Spent some of the afternoon with my brothers.  Monday came way too early, but we had to get back in time to try and retake the bloodwork.  We got it done and went to our last appointment.  During that appointment we got called out, saying that the results were not right and needed to be rested. Eventually we were directed to go to the ER at St. Mary's.  If the results didn't come back normal they wanted to admidt us to the ICU.  In the mean time we were talking back and forth with the pilot.  He was having difficulty getting to Rochester due to the storms. I didn't know what to tell him. I wanted him to get there soon, but if we were going to be admitted then I didn't want him to waste his time and fuel.Well as it turns out, it was just a difficult test to get.  The abnormal numbers were not Cole's issues but had to due with the finiky test.  All worked out in the end.  But our short day turned into all day, with no lunch. ---eehhh. 

In the mean time Isaac and Zoey are in sports and 4-H and getting started with musical instruments.  Isaac is in baseball and really enjoying it.  He plays for the Rangers this year.  Zoey has started fast pitch softball.  They use the pitching machine.  She really enjoys it also.  This is our first year in 4-H.  Things are much different here than in Minnesota but 4-H nonetheless!  We are working on demonstrations for our next club meeting. For fair this year Isaac is going to take shooting sports (which includes air riffle, .22 and shotgun this year) and gardening.  Zoey is going to take horticulture, vet science and knitting.  So we have not had a lack of things to do lately.  Zoey has had an interest in the piano so I have been working with her on that a little bit.  I hope by the fall we will be a little more scheduled that lessons might fit in better. But for now she is stuck with me.  Next year Isaac will be old enough to start band and they have chosen their instruments.  Isaac has chosen the viola.  I am so excited!! I am sure my ears will hurt for a  while, but that's ok.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

We have moved on to Zoey playing volleyball.  She is on the pink team and the team name is The Pink Panda's.  We will see.

I am finally making Cole more of the family.  More than just on our health insurance.  We finally have a baptism date set.  Saturday April 6 at 5pm.  Right now that is all I know, but hope to make plans for an actual welcoming for Cole with family and friends to see him and hold him without worry.  I am pretty excited.  I also have a picture on the wall with the rest of my kids.  All three are now together. Slowly,but surly.

If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it. ~Toni Morrison

Life has been busy.  Happily busy.  CJ has been out of the hospital for 5 consecutive weeks now.  So exciting!!!  He is growing slowly, but gaining.  He is eating cereal and a few veggies.  Still taking a bottle 8 times a day.  We had to increase his oil some to increase the calories.  But smiling and cooing more everyday.  Starting in March he will be starting day care two days a week.  Kinda excited about that, but we will see how it goes.

Isaac's last basketball game is today.  His team has really shown progress.  Chris subbed and coached his last practice.  He is fun to watch, even though you sometimes wish you could help them on the court some.  Baseball will be coming up soon.  And he has been asking to start on the traveling soccer team.

Zoey starts volleyball tomorrow.  She is so excited to try something new.  Her team color is pink, very appropriate!  I never know how she will do, but she seemed to have gotten the Rogne athletic gene. She seems to be good at everything she tries.  This summer will bring on fast pitch softball.

I have been back to work. Trying to stick to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, but a few Fridays and Saturdays always sneek in.  We are growing by leaps and bounds.  Making the transition last summer was a great choice.  We are changing our main office location at the end of the month.  Three of us just had baby boys and soon all of us will be back to work again. In the mean time we have hired two more therapists.  We are starting to dot ourselves all over town.  We have a location at Familiy Medical Care, Health Source (chiropractic), a salon, and Gillette Physical Therapy.  I am still a little stressed getting things back the way everything needs to be, but for the most part everything is great.  It is so nice to have something to call normal again--even if its our regular caos!!

Chris has been working mostly, but he did just finish up dart season.  He went to Casper for State Dart Tournament and won first place in singles cricket level three.

I was hoping to get some more  pics posted, but of course there has been a change in scheduling.  Friday, CJ got another fever. I took him to the ER and we were admitted again.  They found a bacterial infection and treated it with antibiotics when we could get/keep an IV line in.  But CJ tends to  kick them out and he is a very hard stick.  What would be optimal is to give him a pick line.  Gillette has recently hired one person to do this and he starts in July.  Not too helpfull for us.  We needed to know why he is getting infection and get him a pick line so we went back down to Denver to the pediatric floor this time.  Yes this is the third time we have flown to Denver for the little guy.

A daughter is a gift of love. ~Author Unknown

My beautiful daughter turned 8 on December 13th.  She has been so excited.  Has it ever been mentioned that December is her FAVORITE month-by far! She held her party at Mac & Roonies (an arcade). Its a little loud and crazy for me, but they set up, order the pizza and pop, provide all the party favors and clean up.  This year CJ and I traveled from Denver to Gillette on her birthday.  Eric brought us home.  Thankfully a mild winter as we had no bad whether or roads to worry about.  We were able to leave early enough to take her out to eat on the day of her birthday.  Her party was held on Saturday the  15th and invited her best friends.  They all ran around like crazy 8 year olds playing arcade games.  Then I gathered everyone up and we had pizza followed by a zebra striped cake that was made from cupcakes.  Zoey had a blast! Oh, and you wonder what she got for her birthday--a new bike! She was starting to grow out of her old one.  She had a great birthday this year:)

Babies are always more trouble than you thought - and more wonderful. ~Charles Osgood

We were home three weeks when CJ got his first fever.  This was strange for me as when we brought him home he was cold so I would put him in a onsie, an outfit, a blanket and kept the fireplace running.  I brought him to the ER where the on call baby doc thought he had diabetes insipidus.  We were arranged to fly to Denver right away for further testing and a clear diagnosis.  Chris and Isaac were still in Montana with family and came back early.

CJ was poked more than you can imagine and went through several tests to determine that he does have diabetes insipidus.  Most people just hear the diabetes part and assume that its diabetes melitis like most people in the US have with poor control of their blood sugar.  This is  not related to that other than the fact that he pees,  a lot.  In his case he is unable to regulate the sodium in his body.  His pituitary gland does not release the chemical that tells his kidneys how much to pee so his kidneys just keep going.  Having high sodium or low sodium are both problematic leaving him at risk for seizures and dehydration.  So right now we are able to control this by adding the water right back into his system.  It is a little tricky to determine how much water to give him.  But right now we are taking him to the lab twice a week to have it monitored.  We are adding the water right to the breast milk in his bottle.  This cuts the calories he is eating (no cals in water) so we are also adding canola oil to the mix as well in hopes he keeps growing.  He lost a pound after he was born and had difficulty putting it back on because he keeps peeing so much. Fluctuations in his sodium make him cranky so he's not the happiest baby I've had and sleeps like Zoey (only when I hold him, screams when I put  him down).  So after running antibiotics and getting his sodium under control we went home after about a week and a half.  We were sent home with oxygen because when he was off of it his stats kept dropping.  So after we got home a company came and dropped off a ton of equipment for  his oxygen.  However, we drove home on Saturday and he got a fever again on Wednesday.  We were home for three days.  We were admitted to Gillette's hospital for observation where things got bad and they flew us back to Denver.  He was given fluids, antibiotics and even a transfusion and he was back to doing great.  But we had to wait 7 days for the full dose of antibiotics this time.  Not giving him the weenie doses anymore.  While we were there a cancellation came up for the sleep study and we snatched it up while we were there.  It was determined from that that he does not need oxygen anymore.  YEAH!

Babies are such a nice way to start people. ~Don Herrold

When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they're seeing angels. ~Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994

I can't believe that I've not posted in so long.  I have had the time. 

To back track (a lot)--I was planning to have a baby on Nov. 1st.  The last week of October I didn't feel well at all and knew I would feel better if the baby just came.  I had an appointment on Tue, but the doc didn't say we should go ahead and I still wanted a November baby.  So I made another appointment for Friday October 26th.  Chris came with me to that appointment.  The doc said we could go that day, but it would be scheduled and therefore after hours, I would need another doc.  Or we could have the baby on Monday which worked better for Chris.  I was torn, so the doc said to go to the hospital and we would check the contractions and let the baby decide.  I felt a couple of contractions but none after I was being monitored.  I told Chris that they were going to send us home and I would have to wait til Monday.  No  sooner than I had said that the nurse came in letting me know that I was having contractions every two minutes with variables.  We were not allowed to go home.  We needed to have the baby as soon as possible (which meant my doc would be there). But that was a busy baby day.  I had to wait until there was a room available to have my c-section in.  In the mean time they were trying to get an IV started and had much difficulty.  I had 5 bruises after three separate people poked at me.  Everything else went fabulously! I had a beautiful baby boy that filled me with such joy and happiness and also fulfilled my family.  His name is Cole Jacob Soost (often called CJ) born on October 26, 2012 and weighed in at 8 pounds and 9 ounces and 20 inches long.  The little stinker though at the time of discharge (literally, we had the van packed and ready to go) the nurses did one more set of vitals on him and he was cold 96.5.  We were not able to go home.  He got two days of IV antibiotics before he was able to go home.  But he warmed up and we went home on Halloween.