One Day Without Shoes

I could not wait to post this blog just to show off my cute students' toes!
For those of you that have not heard about Toms let me provide you with a little background.

One for One Movement

In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.

Why Shoes?

Many children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or going to school, these children are at risk:

•A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.

•Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.

•Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

April 5th was TOMS One Day Without Shoes Day to raise awareness! The link below explains it all!

http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

So I got really excited since I LOVE TOMS... I own the black sparkle pair, the silver sparkle pair, and the red canvas ones.... So I came to school yesterday morning with a mission to spread the word to my students and go the day without shoes.
When class began I asked my kids, "Why do we wear shoes?" This question completely stumped them. After a little more digging around the ideas started flying: "so our feet dont get dirty," "so our feet dont stink," "so we dont step on glass," "so we dont step on bugs," and answers continued to roll. Then I said, "Do you know that there are children all around the world that do NOT have any shoes?" Their jaws dropped. They could not believe that they have lots of shoes in their closest and other kids had to walk around with no shoes at all. So I then proposed to them that we would honor all of those kids by spending the day in class barefoot.... At first you heard a few giggles and snickers but as soon as I took off my shoes all the students followed suit! Here are a few pictures of our feet!

Baby Cash and Win's Birthday

Congratulations to Ginia and Russell! It's a BOY! CASH (Richard Cash Luker) made his debut at 11:58pm on March 15th (9 pounds 1 ounce, 21 inches)! We are so excited for them and couldn't wait to meet the little man. So on Monday the 21st Win and I made a day trip to Austin to meet Cash... He is absolutely precious! Mom looks great and is way more calm and collected than any new mom I have ever seen. And Russell is a natural as well! Enjoy the pictures below!







Today is my wonderful husband's 27th Birthday! With Win's new job he has been working the 2nd shift meaning he does not arrive home until after 2am in the morning, making it extremely hard to spend much time together. So I had to get creative with his birthday celebration this year. So as I was fast asleep when he arrived home last night (the early morning hours of his birthday) this is what he found in his spot in bed!



He was very excited to receive the Ping golf bag because my dad had given him a set of Ping clubs for Christmas! And I was nice enough to get him the Cowboy blue one... yes this was difficult for me considering the sales man kept trying to talk me into getting him the red and black one (the red raider in me wanted that one too). I then told Win we would be going to breakfast in the morning so the alarm was set for 8 am... he was not very thrilled about this plan but he went along with it anyways! :) So at 8 we woke up and got ready to go.... One last surprise... I told Win he was going to be blindfolded! Win's response, "seriously Katy!" :)



We then traveled to Lewisville to Ham and Eggs where Win was greeted by his mom, dad, sister, and best friends John and Ryan! Ham and Eggs is famous for there LARGE portions of food! We all ate ourselves silly! Unforunately Win had to spend the rest of his birthday working :( I however spend the rest of his birthday sleeping off a full tummy! Here is a typical breakfast at Ham and Eggs!


Tomorrow Win has to work yet again and I will be headed down to Dallas to cheer on my friends running in the Susan B Komen Rock n Roll Half Marathon!

Recovery

I want to begin this post by saying a big THANK YOU to each and every one of our family and friends that took time to say a prayer for us, post a comment, send flowers, cook us food, or come and visit. We have been overwhelmed with the thoughtfulness from everyone. Now that I am home and recovering I feel the need to blog. First of all my husband, Win, is the most amazing man in the entire world. I have known this for a long time now but having to depend on him to lay me down in bed each night with all my pillows stacked up, he sets his alarm to wake up and give me my pain medicine in the middle of the night, and then in the morning he picks me up out of bed because the pain is too much for me to sit up on my own. He is always one step ahead of me not letting me open any doors that may be too heavy or reach too high to grab a glass or plate.... he truly is amazing! Next the outreach from my family, friends, and coworkers. I can not say it enough how blessed I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. To each and every one of you out there that has supported us through this time, I hope we in return are able to share the same with you because we love you all.

-Recovery- each day is one step closer to being healed. Pain is worst in the mornings, while I'm trying to sleep, and if I push myself too far. On my breathing treatment device I have reached 1000 which is great because I was barely hitting 500 in the hospital! It is a personal goal for me to get back to 2500 which is what I was at the morning before surgery. I will keep you posted!

-Win's Job Hunt- THE HUNT IS OVER!!!!! Win got a job working for Ceva Logistics in Lewisville. He is very excited about this new beginning because he will be working with a team of people again! Be looking for posts about his new job in the future!

Today is a very exciting day for my best friend Ginia and her husband Russell. She was induced this morning and we are still waiting for lil baby Luker to make his/her appearance! By next blog I will FINALLY know if its a boy or girl!!!!! :)

I really think Im going to like this blogging stuff... Happy Spring Break Everyone! -Katy

HOME!!

So I didn't bring it up last night because I didn't want to jinx it, but things remained well enough that they let us take her home!! We just got her settled on the couch with some pillows and a blanket and the doggies. She is fighting a migraine/headache so far and is pretty worn out from all the activity yesterday and this morning so she is just taking it easy. She feels up for visitors this afternoon if anybody wants to make the trip just give us a call,. So another major hurdle jumped and we are just super relieved to have her home and get to sleep in our own bed (I am super stoked for that my back has had it with that couch/bed lol). So on to the next phase we are gonna keep her as active as she can handle and keep trying the breathing treatments and do what we can to keep the pain under control. Thank you all so so much for all the thoughts and prayers they have clearly been answered so far!


Win

More Progress

Today has been a good day, Katy went on 4 walks today the first 3 were 2 laps around and the last one was 3 laps. She ate a few times today with dinner being some cheese enchiladas from her favorite mexican food place Casa Rita's that I ran and grabbed this evening. The pain has continued to stay at a manageable level with the pain mostly coming from coughing which she needs to do to continue moving anything left lingering around her lungs around/out, and the breathing treatments are cause for for some chest pains since she has to try to take as deep breaths as she can in and out. The power from her breathing is still low but the Dr. says if she keeps up the walking and moving the numbers will come and not to worry so much about that. Off to bed now hope to a good nights sleep as she was real active today.

Win

Gatekeeper

Last night seemed to be a good night, after getting all her tubes out except the main IV line she was able to take a real shower last night and put on some of her comfy PJ's. She got more sleep last night then any before to go with her finally giving in and napping some during the day (I'm right more then she likes to admit ^_^) so this rest will do her good as her breathing this morning sounded better then yesterday. So with the tubes all out of the way, it's time to hit the walks and breathing exercises hard now to get those lungs goin. Now for those of you that want to start making visits, I know strep throat and viruses have been going around and if you are even kind of feeling sick and haven't been to the Dr. to prove otherwise I have to be the mean old troll gatekeeper and ask that you refrain from making a trip to see her please as it can be real bad news for her to catch anything in her condition right now. I know mean old Win, but you've all known I'm a jerk for awhile so there ;). Anyways, hopefully today continues to be on the path we're on and she will be able to come home sooner rather then later cause them doggies miss her. Thanks again everybody for all the offers for help and well wishes you sure do make us feel loved!

Win

Tubeless

Well hopefully another step in the right direction, the X-ray showed the air being out from around the lungs and just some fluid remaining near the bottom. They decided to do a ultrasound to pinpoint where the fluid is to go in and drain it so it doesn't sit in there and fester any longer, the ultrasound didn't provide a good picture so they went with a CT Scan and found no fluid after the CT. Apparently when the air was in the way and her breathing became labored she compensated (unconsciously) with one lung more then the other and her diaphram came up and began to restrict the lung from inflating. So they took her incision drain, chest tube and heart lead wires out. Hopefully the relief from getting the chest tube out will allow her to breath better and get that lung back up to speed. She also will be able to take a shower later this evening (she's super excited about that). She has gotten a little more rest today also, hopefully the breathing starts to get stronger with the air gone from around her lungs and the chest tube out of the way. She also ate a grilled cheese for lunch so she has eaten more today then she has any day combined since surgery. This has been a good day so far and hopefully this trend continues :)

Win