Al Dente (To the Tooth)

A few months ago, at her 6-month dentist visit, the doctor said Joie had a malformed 2-year molar where the enamel didn't form right, most likely from being born a month early.  As a preventative measure, the doctor thought it should be capped.  On November 12, she went in for that procedure. She was her usual serious self at first, not cracking so much as a smile.  Add in laughing gas, and she was making silly faces, talking more, and being much sillier.  As always, she was quite a trooper, even during the numbing process.  As you can see, hours later, the numbness still hadn't worn off...

Halloween

A week after our return home from Florida was Halloween. Livvi had a party at her martial arts club on Friday the 29th, where she tried her costume out for the first time. She went dressed in a painter's smock, cowboy hat, and a star badge, armed with paint brushes in her holster.  That's right, she went as a martial (marshall) artist.  Get it?  My parents came and watched Joie at Liv's party while Heather and I went to dinner with some friends from high school.

Liv wore the same costume on Halloween while Jo dressed as a little princess. My parents and Heather's mom came over and hung out with us as well. Heather and her mom took the girls through the neighborhood while my parents and I handed out candy. We also had pizza (for us), hot cider, and had the fire pit going as it was a little chilly!

When the girls came back, they assumed the candy distribution role. Livvi even poured her newly acquired candy into the candy bowl to hand out to the other kids.  I got the telescope out to check out some stuff in the sky (Jupiter, the Moon, etc.).  I was hoping to show everyone Pleiades, but it didn't appear until after everyone left.  Besides, my mom calling me a nerd really hurt my feelings. :-)  She just calls them as she sees them!  :-)  It was good hanging with everyone that night!

Florida Vacation

We were blessed by several things and people that allowed us to go to Orlando this year for an entire week.  We are fairly sure this was the first week-long vacation away from home we've had since our honeymoon (11 years ago). We really looked forward to it! Heather recovered (mostly) from her illness, and we were ready to go!

We flew out of Cincinnati the night of Friday, October 15 and arrived in Orlando around 9:00 p.m. We didn't get to our resort until about 10:00 p.m.; a little late, but at least got us to our destination.

On Saturday, we hit the local IHOP for breakfast, where we got a visit from a balloon artist and the girls got a pony (Liv) and a butterfly (Jo).  We then just hung out at the resort's beautiful pool (whose water was pretty chilly as I recall). We decided we wanted some dinner. As we walked to the pizza place, we noticed a skywriter.  Pretty cool, especially when we figured out he wrote "U + God = :-)  Jesus Loves U"

On Sunday, we had another lazy day at the pool and rented the movie "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue". We rested up for the days to come.

On Monday, we began our first of four trips to the Disney parks.  Epcot was our first stop. As a family of nerds, we enjoyed this park (first visit for all of us).  Our most favorite attraction was probably Mission: Space, which is a Space Shuttle simulation.  Joie was too little for this one. Liv and I also did the Test Track. Heather and Liv did Soarin' together and we all did The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Spaceship Earth and most everything else.  One thing we thought was pretty neat was the Living with the Land exhibit. It was a "14-minute boat ride in Future World...that explores agricultural advances in the rain forest, Africa and beyond."  Pretty cool ways to grow crops!  We also sampled some different cuisines from the international parts of the park.  At each of the parks we visited, Joie wanted to see all the characters, but absolutely did NOT want to meet or talk to any of them (too shy)!  The long day ended with a most spectacular fireworks show. There were boats in the lake that shot off the fireworks and a couple of them were armed with something like flame-throwers.  These things would be engulfed in fire we could feel 100 yards away!

On Tuesday, we celebrated Heather's birthday by heading to Animal Kingdom. She even got a special button to wear and most everyone of the "cast" wished her a Happy Birthday throughout the day!  We enjoyed the safari and checking out all the animals in the park, including the petting zoo.  Heather and Liv even tried their hand at an African Dance:

Later in the afternoon, around 3:00 p.m., we decided to give Kali River Rapids a try.  We ended up soaking wet! We then watched one of the Disney parades.  Once we left the park, we headed straight to Pops' house (Heather's Dad) to have dinner and celebrate Heather's birthday.  We enjoyed a nice meal and cake with Pops, Gram, Amber, Austen, and Aiden. We were exhausted by the time we left after 8:00 p.m. (and, yes, still wet from the rapids)!

On Wednesday, we went to Magic Kingdom. We took the boat in with the thought of taking the tram back at the end of the day.  More on that later.  We entered the park to see it all decorated for Fall and Halloween. We spent the day riding rides, seeing the sights, watching parades (day and night), and just having all kinds of fun.  We ended the day with the Main Street Electrical Parade and fireworks. While this was a great time of year to go to Disney (weather and smaller crowd size), I think everyone else had the idea to watch the fireworks as well.  They were spectacular! We even got to see Tinkerbell fly from the top of the castle down towards the front of the park!  However, trying to leave that place with thousands of others was quite frustrating and exhausting. As most everyone headed for the tram, we made way for boat and headed back to the car.  We were spent, but had a great time!

On Thursday, we decided to head back to Magic Kingdom to catch the stuff we didn't see the day before. The park closed early that day for a Halloween party later that evening.  We intended to just stay a few hours, but ended up staying until they kicked us out at 7:00 p.m.  Joie's favorite ride was Dumbo and that is what we ended with while Heather helped Livvi pick out a souvenir. We made our way to Downtown Disney where we grabbed dinner at Wolfgang Puck Cafe, then headed back to the resort for one last night.

On Friday, we finished the week as we started it...at IHOP.  Pops joined us this time and we headed back to the resort to hang out at pool until we had to leave for airport. Our flight to and from was uneventful (always a good thing). All of a sudden, our vacation was over. To this day (2 months later), I still wish we were on that vacation.  I loved spending that time with my family.  We really had a good time, without a care in the world! God has truly blessed me beyond what I deserve!

MANY MORE PICTURES HERE

Evacuation Update

We have an update in our previous post.  According to a reliable source, it turns out there was a pop in the basement and a strange odor resulted. Long story short, the line on a generator in the basement broke and gasoline poured out in the basement and must have mixed with something in the drain to produce an odd odor. As the neighbor is a firefighter as well (trained in haz mat), he called 911 and evacuated the immediate neighbors. Each fire department has a haz mat person or team and that is why there were several different departments represented that night. It is good having a firefighter and no less than 4 police officers on our street alone!

Evacuation

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I got home from work to change, then left to meet up with Heather and the girls at Livvi's Tae Kwon Do practice. From there, we went to Heather's mom's so I could install their wireless network so she could use her new laptop. From there, I left to go to my workout, while Heather and the girls stayed behind for a little longer visit.  After my workout, I texted Heather about 8:15 p.m. to see if she was home, yet.  She called me back to say she can't get down our street as there are emergency vehicles everywhere (Cleves Fire, Miami Township Fire & EMS, Addyston Police, Cincinnati Haz Mat, Forest Park Fire, Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services, etc.  Long story short, the house immediately across from our house had some type of chemical spill or other hazardous issue going on.  All the homes immediately next to or across from this house were evacuated.  We were not allowed down to our house, even to just get some clothes, supplies, etc.  They weren't sure what would happen and it would be safer to stay clear from the area.  I asked how long it would be and they couldn't tell me, but had already been at it for 2 hours.  We got back in our cars and headed for my parents house to hang out and possibly sleep, if need be.  I called the Cleves Fire Department at 10:30 p.m. and got the "All Clear" to go home.  We dragged Joie out of bed and all headed home.  Needless to say, we're exhausted today!  We still don't know what spilled or how.

Hills of Tennessee

Heather's mom and step-dad asked us to join them in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee the weekend of August 20. We drove down that Friday and arrived in mid afternoon. After dinner, we went to the Comedy Barn. This was hilarious and family-friendly! We highly recommend it, if you are ever in that neck of the woods. They gave the kids a chance to come up and dance on stage and Livvi never lets those opportunities go by without taking advantage!

The next day, it rained, so we played some arcade games and indoor miniature, black light golf. That night, we had dinner and a show at the Black Bear Jamboree. Our table was dead-center in front of the stage. It was also immediately next to the stage. By 'immediately next to' I mean I could rest my arm on it! See picture below. I was on Heather's right. The show was also really good with a lot of singing and dancing and the meal was decent as well. While our time was short (we left after breakfast on Sunday), we had a good time and the car ride wasn't too bad. The only bad part was Joie needing to go to the bathroom so we stopped...only to have her refuse to go (strange bathroom). That in and of itself isn't the bad part. The fact this went on for miles, hours, and multiple stops until we arrived in Florence was the annoying part. Otherwise, a good trip!

Health Scare

We had quite a scare in the very early hours of Monday, September 21. The afternoon before, Heather noticed some pain starting on the left side of her chest, at bedtime, it was under her arm, and in the middle of the night, it was in her left shoulder. She woke me asking what we should do as she was having extreme pains on the left side of her chest and in her shoulder. We've seen the emails about women having heart attacks and possibly not knowing it and she wasn't sure if she was over-reacting or not. When she nearly passed out, I had her lay back down and I called 911. The paramedics came and gave her some nitroglycerin and took her to the hospital. Things never really improved in the ER so they admitted her. On top of the pain she was having, the nitroglycerin was giving her extreme headaches... to the point where she almost wanted to just give up. They kept running test after test and kept her overnight. She left with some pain medication and some acid reflux medicine, but no real diagnosis as to what the problem was (though they ruled out it was her heart).

When we got her home, she showered and noticed blotches on her chest, which I thought were from all the heart monitoring equipment that was taped to her. Heather had an idea what it might be so she grabs her laptop and does her own research and confirms her own diagnosis. She calls the doctor and after meeting with him, the diagnosis was confirmed: Heather had shingles. The rash spread down her left arm into her palm (instead of going around her body, like it usually does). Thankfully, it did not go to her face, where it could affect hearing and eyesight. She dealt with the extreme pain and itching for more than two weeks. Once the pain subsided, she then had to deal with the itching for at least another 2 weeks. She doesn't have any pain anymore, but still a little rash and occasional itching on the left side of her chest. Having discovered what it was early allowed the antiviral meds to reduce the time and severity. She's still tired some, but that might just be life. :o) Praise the Lord, she's OK now, but I told her she's not allowed to scare us like that any more!

Birthdays

With Joie's birthday in December (not a good time to have outdoor fun), we decided this year we'd combine the girls' birthdays into one big party. Heather came up with the idea of having a carnival in our backyard on September 18. The weather was fantastic and I think everyone had a great time! Pops (Heather's Dad) also came up from Florida and was a great help in the prep for this party. The other grandparents helped out during the party. 19 kids showed up and played carnival games, won prizes, and ate cupcakes. Livvi turned 9 on Sept 9 and Joie will be 4 on Dec 22!

New School Year

Livvi started 4th grade this year. Heather continues to homeschool her in the Ohio Virtual Academy with the K12 curriculum. They both really enjoy it and Livvi continues to do really well. Joie is learning quite a bit as well. While she doesn't have any formal curriculum, yet (still in pre-school), she really knows her numbers and letters and is starting to sound out words when reading. All three go to a co-op one day a week to be with other kids doing the same curriculum. Heather helps to teach and Joie really seems to enjoy her pre-school class at the co-op as well!

There are mostly Christians in the co-op, with lots of really great kids, families, and friends. A few kids in Liv's class also have siblings in Jo's class. Heather teaches 10 preschoolers and assists in Liv's science class. While every parent has an area of responsibility, everyone helps out anywhere there is need.

Our co-op is well organized with lots of hard-working people and the highlight for all the kids that go. They really hate if they have to miss or if we have a week off from co-op. The co-op covers Composition, History, Art, and Science, and takes care of most of the year's curriculum for those subjects.

Heather leads morning devotions nearly each week. Occasionally someone will volunteer to do them for her, but she does the bulk of them (and she does great).

Like last year, Joie wouldn't get her picture taken with her class. She's not a big fan of getting her picture taken.

With Sunday school every week, American Heritage Girls two times a month, tae kwon do 2-4 times a week, co-op on Thursdays, we don't really have much to worry about whether our homeschool kids are getting enough socialization, but they do get to play with the kids in the neighborhood when those kids are done with their homework.

Cage Fitness

The first week of August, I started a new exercise program, Cage Fitness, at Livvi's martial arts club. Their site can give you a glimpse of what goes on, but let me tell you it is a lot harder than it looks. The usual class is five rounds of seven 45-second exercises in a row with a 45-second rest between each round. Occasionally, the instructor will do 5 rounds of ten 30-second exercises in a row with a 30-second rest between rounds. This is a killer! The entire exercise program is over in only 30 minutes! Just when you feel like dying, it's over! Exercises are things like punching, squats, sprawls, pushups, crunches, kicking, cardio, etc. On day one, I thought I was nearly going to die. Here I am now with more than three months under my belt (and just a little less hanging over my belt...I might have to adjust my eating as well to eliminate even more) and it still kicks my can, but I mostly enjoy it and certainly feel better about myself.

All Better Now

It has been quite a while since the last update and there is so much to tell! Rather than doing it all in one post, I'll do several shorter posts to update you on what's been happening in the Shaut family since early August.

Livvi went back to the doctor on August 25 and x-ray's revealed an arm that was healing up very nicely. She now had no restrictions and can resume normal activities, including every aspect of her martial arts training. Praise the Lord! It was really cool to see how our incredibly created bodies can heal so quickly. Amazing!

Cast Off

Livvi went back to the doctor on July 26 to see how well her arm was healing. They took the cast off and did yet another X-ray. They were pleased with the progress and gave her a brace to wear when she is active (which is pretty much all the time). If she's laying around watching TV, reading, or sleeping, she doesn't wear it, but swimming, Tae Kwon Do, playing, etc. she wears it. All is really well! Thank you all for your prayers!

Here is her X-ray:

Belt Test

After breaking her arm the day before her belt test, Livvi missed out on her promotion. However, since she got her less-restrictive cast, she went back to her Tae Kwon Do classes and was asked to promote on July 24 about 5 weeks after she broke her arm. She tested and got promoted, cast and all. Fortunately, the break she had to do was a kicking break (shown below). We are very proud of her! Congratulations, Olivia!

Joie Unplugged and Unstapled

I forgot to mention Joie went from a toddler bed to a "big girl" bed (twin) last Friday...the day before she bumped her head. The transition was flawless.

Joie got her staple removed yesterday morning and handled it really well...didn't even flinch! Here is the staple after being removed:

Earlier this week, I tried to get Joie singing. Here is some video of my efforts:

She's actually a pretty good singer! I regret not recording longer, but thought she'd get mad if she found out I was recording. She's singing the song "Magic". If you are like me, this is the version I remember. This is the version from which she learned it. Regardless, each of the three singers has pretty hair.

Not To Be Outdone

Today, Joie fell off the couch at church, hitting the back of her head on either the floor or the chair next to it. We didn't think much of it until we saw blood. We couldn't see the wound very well as her blood soaked hair kept blocking our view. Heather thought it best to take her to Children's to make sure everything was fine. Here is the best shot we could see:

A picture of the band-aid they put on it to apply the numbing ointment:

Long story short, Jo needed a staple to fix it and was a trooper throughout the process (though she never spoke to anyone there). She is doing great and is already her old self. We have some tough kids! I just hope we're done getting them damaged!

Below are more pics and a video of the stapling. Two of the pictures are of Joie blowing in the cuff they used to take her blood pressure.

On the Mend - Part 2

Livvi went back to the hospital on Wednesday for a follow up to see how her arm was healing. The old cast was removed and Liv headed to x-ray.

The x-rays indicated it is healing nicely. While the view from the top doesn't look like it, this is apparently well within the range of acceptability (and hasn't moved since being set 3 weeks ago). The view they are most concerned with is the side view and that is perfect!

With the good news, Liv was able to get a new, waterproof cast! More good news is it doesn't go over the elbow. Even more good news is, after about a week, she can start many of her activities again. This means she can resume her Tae Kwon Do, though she obviously can't be sparring (or any other activity that involves her hitting that hand against anything). We are certainly encouraged by her progress thus far! She didn't waste any time and jumped in our small pool shortly after she got home!

In other news, Joie's eye is feeling much better!

Shy?

Most of you have a hard time believing Joie speaks. She is very shy in public, but in private, she can be a different little girl. We were reminiscing this evening about her singing about a year and a half ago as posted on our blog. I also came across a video I shot back in March:

Tonight she was trying to "(s)pin like a princess" in the restaurant where we had dinner (in public) and smacked her head on the table. Probably gonna leave a nice shiner.

She's doing pretty good now. And all is quiet...she's asleep!

On the Mend

Livvi went back to the hospital on June 23 to see how the bone was healing. After reviewing the new x-ray, it appears the bone has not moved and seems to be healing nicely. She then had the ace bandage taken off the splint and a cast was put over the splint, making it much heavier. Here are some pictures:

Getting the glitter added in that last picture!

She went back to the hospital on June 30 for yet another x-ray and, again, everything is looking really good. She'll need to keep this cast+splint for one more week. Next week, she has a good shot at getting a waterproof cast.