Believe it or not...this is NORMAL!!!

Therapy is so much easier with an IV full of Darvon and Percocet!!

Last look at an umarked knee...

A New Knee...

Kelly had her knee surgery early this morning. Dr. Shelbourne went in with the scope around 9:30 am, where he found a completely torn ACL (main ligament that runs through the center of the knee) and some moderate cartilege damage. I've been at the hospital with Kelly all day, working with her on her PT every two and a half hours. It's sore going, but it's going. Right out of surgery she already had full extension and flexion, so that's a great thing. Most of the swelling will come over the next couple days, though, so that's when the work really gets hard. Of course, the camera came with, but I have no way to offload and process the photos from the hospital room (I'm just glad I found a wireless network in here to hack on to...I've been working on my class stuff all day between PT sessions). So photos of the gimp will have to wait a couple more days. :)

Svedka Party, 2006

Svedka being a great Swedish vodka. Long long ago, we wanted to play soccer. So we started a league. One of the 'founding fathers' so to speak was a slightly weird Swedish guy named Joel. Well, over the years, the core gang of us got to be really good friends, having huge drunken bashes a couple times a year. We all ended up playing on the same soccer team and figured what better team name to go with than our favorite Swede's favorite vodka...and thus F.C. Svedka was born. And we were happy.

Just before the start of 2006, we got the unfortunate word that Joel's time with our group was going to be coming to an end--his work visa was expiring, and his company was transferring him back to Sweden. What better way to send him off, we thought, than one last big Svedka bash. Here are some of the photos taken before the bar really opened up...

Hey exciting news! We went to see Dr. Shelbourne, Kelly's orthopaedic surgeon (who also happens to be the team doctor for Purdue and for the Indianapolis Colts). She 'tweaked' her knee a few weeks ago playing soccer. So he's poking at her knee and asking her what she thinks is wrong. (We've had so many injuries over the years, we're pretty good at self-diagnosis.) She's saying something about possible MCL tear and maybe some meniscus damage. Then he did the Lochman's (sp?) test, which consists of grabbing her lower leg and pulling it forward away from her upper leg. A normal leg should not move at all. Kel's leg slid out a good inch or so. ICK!!!!

So Dr. Shelbourne asks Kelly when she's thinking about having her surgery. Yep...torn ACL. Luckily, the reason we go to Dr. Shelbourne is that he is a world-renouned (did I even come close to spelling that right??) ACL surgeon. In fact, he repaired Kelly's other ACL five years ago. So after a quick re-hash of the post-op exercises and therapies, Kelly is on the books for Monday morning.

Too bad I can't bring my camera to the operating room.

Molly playing in the ditch. Oh my.

WHEW, what a weekend! And it's only Saturday evening!

Thursday I had a great photo shoot with one of Kelly's soccer girls (Kelly is a high school soccer coach). Danni was a great subject, and we got a boatload of awesome shots. Here are just a couple of the highlights...

Friday was "man-day"...at least in the morning. I spent the morning on the golf course, relaxing with one of the most stressful "games" ever conceived by man. It could be worse, I guess. I had at least one par hole. :)

Then today I was in the studio all damn day. Don't get me wrong, I love doing studio photography. But I was there for over 10 hours today and shot four sessions (doesn't sound like a lot, but that's actually a pretty heavy shooting load). The last session should've counted for about four, though. A two-year-old and a four-year-old, both boys, both nearly uncontrollable by their parents. Oh man I came out of that one with a splitting headache! Got some good shots, though, so i guess that's what really matters.

I have a love/hate relationship with days like this. It's the middle of April, and supposed to be sunny and 79F today. On one hand, it's one of the first really nice days this year, and I've got a full slate of fun things lined up...I'm doing a set of senior pictures early this afternoon, and hope to play some golf after that. If the golf falls through, I'm going to just spend some time in the back yard with my wife and daughter. Sounds like a good time, yeah? It is, and I'm looking forward to it.

But at the same time I am most definitely NOT a fan of summer. I'd much prefer it to be October than June. I hate heat, I hate humidity, I hate always being sweaty, I hate flaming-hot car steering wheels, I hate not having hockey season, I hate bugs, I hate bug-bites, I hate wondering why in the hell my grass only grows in tufts and clumps... You get the idea.

So while I am looking forward to today because it'll be nice to get outside for awhile, I'm not looking forward to it because it's the first in a long string of sweaty summer days.

Okay I had so much fun posting a Molly photo, I had to do another. ;-) I'm sure when she's old enough she's going to be sick of me always carrying a camera around, but for now she loves it. This is one of her easter photos.

You know what I really hate. Kidney stones. Yep, I've got kidney stones, and they are just a little bit not fun. I was in the studio this past Saturday shooting 6 sessions, pretty much in a row. Bad enough I could hardly stand without screaming, but then to have to chase toddlers around in that kind of mood. Ummm no thanks.

First photo on our new blog...got to be the Molly! She is the pride and joy (and exhaustion) of our lives. :)

She's just over 16 months old, and has just started climbing. Holy hell is that a terrifying experience...walking into her playroom and seeing her standing on her rocking chair. Yeahhhhh time for a whole new level of childproofing!

Hi, and welcome to our new blog! Honestly I have no idea where this thing will go, so for the moment I'm just sitting back and enjoying the ride! :)