My Gut

For the last 6 months or so, I (Colleen) have been experiencing a lot of pain to the left of my navel. I met with the dr., who put me on a regimen of miralax and citrucel every morning, which helped with the "regularity" issues, but did nothing to get rid of the pain. So, we had to go to the next step.

A couple weeks ago I had a CT scan...actually, I had two. I had it in the morning, so didn't eat before hand, went to Pella, got the IV, got the CT scan, finished up, and went to work in DSM, because I have a LOT of work to do right now. The IV gave me a headache. I had a bowl of oatmeal after the CT scan, and was about to eat some leftovers that afternoon, when the hospital called and said the "forgot" to take a couple pictures. They told me not to eat. So I drove back to Pella, waited around for abou an hour, then went in for the 2nd CT scan of the day. The nurse tried unsuccessfully to get the iv in twice, and then i told her to just put it in the giant vein where they did it earlier that day...then said, "I think I might pass out first." They gave me some apple juice, I recovered, and they did the 2nd scan. Afterwards I thought I might be OK to drive home, made it one block, then went to my parent's house and asked Scott to pick me up.

There were no problems in the CT Scan, so they decided to do a colonoscopy. The day before I could not eat anything except Jello and beverages. In the late afternoon I took some dulcolax, then drank an entire bottle of Miralax mixed into 64 oz. of Gatorade. At least it tasted nice. Let me tell you, one capful of Miralax a day will keep you regular. An entire bottle will clear you out. That was interesting.

The colonoscopy went just fine, and they found no problems. Scott brought me home and I slept the day away.

They have officially diagnosed me with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which is one of those things that has no known cause, and no known solution. I have some drugs to try, but I also am going to start eating a diet that will (hopefully) not trigger pain...from my research so far, that means lots of fiber, and not much caffiene, fats, red meat, carbonation (in other words, everything yummy).

Thanksgiving Celebrations

On Thanksgiving Day, Scott and I drove through Creston to pick up Scott's grandma, then went to Western Iowa to celebrate at Scott's Mom's house. We had a good time, and had a delicious meal. On Black Friday Scott and I went Christmas shopping. If we had a choice, we would NEVER have gone shopping that day. Unfortunately, it was the only day both of us could do any Christmas shopping together. We got ALL of our present, wrapped them that night, and put up the Christmas tree and decorations on Saturday.

On Sunday we had Thanksgiving with the Evenhouse family at my parents' house. I had made turkey and pumpkin nametags, and my nieces helped color them.

This is the turkey Hannah colored for Scott. Notice the green mohawk, the ankle bracelets, and you might even be able to see the nose piercing in the turkey's beak.
We turned the table at an angle and lined up the other table with it. here we all are, ready to eat!

Mammoth Cave Photos

Here's some pictures from Mammoth Cave in Kentucky--Scott chose the pictures, but it became my job to label them. Here we are at the entrance. I did get a stamp in my national park passport!

I had visited the cave before on a family vacation. I think it was the summer right before 7th grade. Scott hadn't been there before.

We took the Historic tour, which is just over 2 hours, and about 2 miles. This is the historic entrance to the cave. During the War of 1812, they person that owned the cave used slaves to mine nitrite in the cave to be used as gunpowder. They used the hollowed out trunks of poplar trees as a pipe system to bring water into the cave to flush it out. Many of the poplar trunks and some of the mining equipment is still in the front part of the cave.This is the "butterscotch pudding" formation in the Mammoth Cavern. This cave was formed by the flowing of an underground river, and it is mostly dry now, so there aren't relaly stalagmites or stalactities.
This was one of my favorite parts of the tour--Fat Man's Misery. It was originally filled with sand, and in the early days of tourism in the cave they dug out the sand, and there was a nice pathway in the rock! However, it is thin, and it gets low!

Maybe it should be Fat & Tall Man's Misery!

This was what they originally called the Bottomless Pit. When they first led tours, it was by torch light, so they couldn't see to the bottomw. When they dropped burning paper, they would land in water or sand, so they never heard anything land, and thought it was bottomless. Now we know better.Hey, it's a picture with Scott! Somehow when Scott chooses the pictures, they are mostly of me...

The night before Scott and I went to Mammoth Cave, we had a conversation at supper about dairy cows. Lance mentioned that he has always wondered what happened to dairy cows when they were past their prime. I don't have a lot of farm experience, so I couldn't answer. On the way home from the Cave, we saw a sign by the side of the road that explained it all:

It smells good!

This weekend Scott has his 2nd to last drill weekend ever for the Army Reserves. He just received his orders this week for retirement, and the date is Dec. 31, 2009. He will have one more drill weekend next month, and will have to unload his locker and bring everything home after about 14 years with this unit in Ames. He is looking forward to the free time, but after 22 years, I'm sure that NOT going to drill every month will be strange.

Today I am baking rolls for both the Platt family Thanksgiving on Thursday, and the Evenhouse family Thanksgiving on Sunday. I made 3 different kinds of rolls, and some french bread. Yum!

Tomorrow is tryouts for volleyball. I'm working with the Osky HS coach, and the William Penn University coach to start a new, regional club team. I am not coaching, as I don't want to make that big of a time commitement, but I am doing the admin stuff. I'm very excited!

Last week we took a trip to Kentucky to spend a few days with Lance (Scott's brother) & Dorothy, and Esther, Hannah, and our other new nephew Nathan. I will post some pictures eventually--they are all on Scott's computer, which is with Scott!

leaves, leaves, leaves

The last couple of weekends have involved a lot of stuff with leaves. We have a large yard with a number of mature trees, and all the leaves have fallen!

Over Halloween weekend my nieces Rhea and Olivia (4 and 2) spent Friday night with us so my sister could go to the State XC tournament. We watched Backyardigans on Friday night, and this was about the calmest they were the whole time... We had pancakes for breakfast on Saturday.
Then we walked to the poste office, and then played in the leaves. We raked up a little pile on the side of the house. Rhea loved it, but apparently Olivia doesn't like getting dirty, and never wanted to go in the pile of leaves.

Leaves are fun!!

We took the girls back to Pella in the evening, but dressed them up in their Halloweed costumes first. All the nieces went as "Barbie and the Three Muskateers."

This past weekend, we watched the Iowa football game on Saturday (first loss of the season), then burned a large pile of leaves. We still had a humongous pile of leaves next to the house, another huge pile on the other side of the sidewalk, and another huge one by the street. On Sunday we borrow a truck and after 4 loads had the pile next to the house gone. We aren't quite sure when or if we will be getting rid of the rest of the leaves.

October--weekend 4

We had grand plans to install the new storm door that has been sitting in our living room for a couple weeks. Saturday morning after we got up I put some potato soup in the crock pot, made some bread, and made a coffee cake for Sunday. Scott got out the directions for the storm door, and started reading them over. Turns out, we don't have 1/2 the tools needed (we have no storage and no garage, and no place to work with tools anyway!). We thought about buying, but instead decided we would just pay someone else to install the door.

So, our Saturday afternoon was instead spent watching college football. We watched Iowa State beat Nebraska (shocker!), then watched Penn state beat Michigan, and ended the evening watching Iowa beat Michigan State to go to 8-0 for the first time in school history. I think I watched more college football on Saturday than I have total for the rest of my life.

I must admit that I didn't just sit and watch. I decided to finish knitting projects. This first one is not some strange hat...it is a dog sweater I made for Pedro Hoke. This is a ski/snowboard balaclava I made. It has holes on the side for your helmet strap, and also a hole to put your pigtails through, so everyone on the slopes knows that you are a girl!! Since I don't really ski or snowboard, I will be gifting this to some lucky woman.
This is a hat I started a long time ago for my niece Olivia. Scott is modeling it so nicely!

On Sunday after church we went to my parents house for lunch and to celebrate Olivia's 2nd birthday. Scott spent a lot of time holding my new nephew Garion. Garion isn't quite sure what to make of Scott.

Our friend Jacob joined us for dinner, and Scott plopped Garion into his arms. I don't think Jacob has much experience holding small babies. :)

Here is Olivia showing off her new hat, her new monkey doll, and Dora the mermaid.

When we got home, Scott went outside and took pictures of the spectacular fall colors by our house.

Our house looks so little in pictures, but it is a lot bigger on the inside than it looks.

Senior Picture Time

October--weekend 3

No pictures from weekend three--it was busy.

Friday to Saturday--I went to a ladies conference in Des Moines with some church ladies, and played the piano on praise team, so had 3 sessions of music time. Helped break down all the sound equipment at the hotel, drove back to Osky, and helped get it all set up again in church.

Saturday to Sunday--Scott had drill in Ames

Sunday--we had a guest speaker at church, so had a morning and an evening service. Sessions 4 & 5 of praise team. Scott got back just in time to play his guitar with us at night. I made a quick trip to Pella between services to have lunch the family.

Monday--early to work, the home for the final service with the guest speaker--Session 6 of praise team. Good speaker, but didn't get home until approximately 10:30pm.

Tuesday--got home after work and sat on the sofa.

Wednesday--work, the normal Wed. night church service. Session 7 of praise team in 6 days.

October--Weekend 2

This past weekend Scott drove to Council Bluffs on Friday to pick up Melanie from IWCC. She dyed her hair blue to show her Riever spirit as it was homecoming weekend. :)

We met at Pella Christian HS for a Dordt College alumni and friends tailgater, then went to the PC football game. PC won 45-15. It was very cold.
Saturday morning we woke up to snow!! It was all melted away by the afternoon.

Saturday night, we went to Des Moines and ate supper at De Hessenhaus, which is a German restaurant/bar. There was a live polka band, which was pretty exciting.

Then we went to the civic center for Wicked!!!! It was awesome!!!! (much better than the polka band)

We took a picture in the auditorium before the show started (and before they tell you cameras are forbidden.) You may notice that behind our seats is a curtain...that is because we were in the very last possible row. And that is why they were the less expensive tickets.

Sunday we went to church, at lunch at my parent's house, then drove Melanie home. We borrowed my sister's van and picked up a new storm door in Des Moines, and brought home a china hutch from Scott's mom. Got home shortly before midnight. Yawn. I will post pictures of the china hutch later, as right now it is sitting in the living room wrapped in a blanket still.

October--Weekend 1

FRIDAY NIGHT

Our friend Travis was back in Iowa for a few days, so he and Jacob came over. Travis brought a special surprise in a box...a PS2 and Karaoke Revolution! Yeah! Who knew that Scott knows every word to every song ever made, and would be so good at karaoke?

I apologize again for my inability to remember that when you to a video you can't turn the camera sideways...

SATURDAY

On Saturday we went to a wedding in Pella--Dan De Cook and Angela Smith. It was a beautiful wedding! The original plan was to have the reception outside at the Historical Village. However, it was very cold and wet, so the reception was in the fellowship hall at Third Church.

Their decorations were lovely.

Instead of wedding cake, the family matriarchs had made apple cake, homemade ice cream, homemade caramel sauce, and dutch letters. yum yum! In the midst of Scott wondering if they were made in a temperature controlled environment or if they wore gloves (you can't take the inspector out of him...he still ate it!) I snapped this picture.

SUNDAY

Sunday after church, we had a delicious lunch, then started working on pears. We have a very tall pear tree that was never pruned, so the lowest branches are about 10 feet high. We bought a fruit picker and it worked quite well! Even with the picker and on the ladder, we will never reach the top of the tree.

Jacob came by and helped...honestly, he did more than just eat pears! Right off the tree, the pears are pretty hard, but if you let them sit in a paper bag for a few days, they are delicious!

Scott demonstrates: catch the fruit with the wire, and pull it so it drops into the lovely padded basket...

...then flip it right into the bucket!

American Pear Gothic:

We made pear sauce, pear butter, pear scones, and some pear-pineapple jam. We have another full 5 gallon bucket of pears in the house, and we've been giving them away like crazy. If you want pears, let me know!

Excitement at the Mall

Not too much excitement in the Platt household lately. Scott had drill last weekend, so he drove my car up to Ames where he has drill, and Tim (my brother-in-law) fixed the suspension links. Now that I have new struts and new suspension links, i just have to get 4 new tires and an alignment, and it will drive like a dream. And I will be broke.

I finished painting the porch and did some cleaning around the house while Scott was gone on Saturday. On Sunday I drove to Cedar Rapids for our annual award meeting for work, and did a presentation on our new online tournament entry system. It was a beautiful, sunny day, about 80 degrees, and I wasn't in a hurry, so on the way home I took country roads, listened to folk music on the radio, and had the windows down. It was nice.

Scott did have his retirement interviews while at drill, and all his paperwork and meetings are now finished and turned in! He requested an Army retirement date of Dec. 31, and now we wait to hear what the Army says. They say it usually taked 3-6 months to retire, and we have no idea when they will let us know, but it is in process!

Other than that, not too much excitement for us. Scott had a conference in Des Moines for work this week, so I stayed in the hotel with him--much shorter commute for me! We stopped at the mall to pick up some shirts for Scott, and there we had our most exciting moment of the week--we saw Dora the Explorer!!!!! We didn't actually go downstairs and hug her, but it was exciting nonetheless!

Busy weekend

This past weekend was a busy weekend. On Saturday morning I went to PC and kept score at the freshman tournament. Scott got up early and worked in the yard and did some cleaning.

I got home around 2:30pm from the tournament, and then Scott and I painted the porch until we ran out of paint.

In the evening Scott got to veg at home, and I went to a briday shower for Angela Smith and hung out with the girl friends. We had a great time! Here is Angela before she opened her first gift. I will not be posting any additional incriminatory pictures from the party.

On Sunday after church, Scott's brother and family (Shawn, Audrey, Wesley, and Seth) drove out from Iowa City to spend some time with us. We packed a picnic lunch and went out to Lake Keomah State Park--which was practically empty! After our lunch we hiked all the way around the lake, then went home and ate dessert while we watch the 3 stooges.


Senior Pictures!!!!