A Glimpse into the Other Activities (Fun and Otherwise) in Our Lives

While most of the past few weeks have been chores, party prep, summer camp and gardening, we did a few other things that were worthy of pictures too!

One day, we lost power for two hours!!!  It was hailing and storming for a short time but had long cleared by the time we had power again.

During the outage, Emily, William and Grace played Nerts with me!  (William had already left the table by the time we took a picture.)

When the power went out, we were in line for getting Grace's prescription, but that's when the power went out!  We saw the 'lightening' like flashes from when the tree branch struck the electrical wires.  

When the power came back on, we got a notification that her prescription was now ready, but when we made the trip back by, they were still closed (I mean, how much can you really accomplish in a dark, hot shop?)  So, I went back a fourth time, and finally got to start Grace's Swimmer's ear regimen! 

William ended up at the dollar tree with me on many of my runs to complete my projects.  He was a good companion for sure!

On the trip to our closest one, I also wanted to get some Hoisin Sauce from Bo Bo, who is next door.

Once inside, I asked him to help me find it. Halfway down the sauce aisle, William confusedly, and totally non-accusingly asked why I needed "Poison sauce." Oh, my sweet boy.  We use it for dumplings and egg rolls. = )

We were invited to a party that took place yesterday, and I wasn't sure if we would be able to go, with our party being the night before (and I just can't leave my house in a sad state and have a good time.)  But, luckily, were able to go and hand out with oodles of children and good company!

William really enjoyed the zip line!

I think my kids' favorite part was the silly string fight.  

But Emily definitely lost. lol.

The twins also enjoyed the motorized car (that they pushed each other in, just like when they were little!)

The food was amazing, and our hosts were gracious as always!  It was a fun time, and we were able to just walk home!!!

later days

The Other Fun Events of July

 Emily and Grace helped me with a Yard Sale.  It was pretty cool, and the mosquitoes were terrible, but we sold lots of stuff.  The kids made some money on a covid lemonade stand: Bottled water & mix your own lemonade pack.  And, my streak of no more than one car at the end of a sale still holds up!

I'm in use up gift card mode, and that took us on a trip to Panera!  We were returning the school shoes that we had ordered online that did not fit, and Panera was a nice convenient stop.

For Avia's birthday, Haley flew up from Texas and Sarah agreed to a picture.  I made a German chocolate cake for all to enjoy, but I think Avia enjoyed it the most.  = )  Hopefully she had a great birthday!

We had some playdates this month, and when Abby came, she went with Emily to the mural meeting.  Grace wanted to go too.

William attended a board breaking camp, and loved it so much, we signed him up for karate.  It's twice a week, and he's already earned his white belt!

As part of the summer reading program, the kids all received a book coupon to a book store in East Lansing.  So, we headed that way to pick out books, eat a pizza lunch, and then went to cold stone (to use up another gift card that I had had in my walled for years.)  I told the kids that Cold Stone is where Daddy and I went on our first date when we were in college.  They were all shocked, because their initial thought was that we came to this particular one. lol.

Alice did not eat lunch, so she skipped the ice cream and went back to the car with Avia.  The other four wanted to recreate the picture that I took of Daddy in the snow. = )

Grace's friend Zoey invited us to go out to MooVille with them.  It was a much more fulfilling experience this go round.  Everyone enjoyed some ice cream, the petting zoo and playground!  We attempted to go to the park in nearby Nashville that we had spied on our previous trip, but there were so many mosquitoes, that even with spray it was unenjoyable.

At his last appointment, we learned that William gained enough weight (yay!) to move up to the next dosing of his medication.  An unforeseen consequence of this is that we will now be receiving two shipments of medication, since he will be taking two shots.  = /

Building towers with the twins!

later days

How we spend the Winter

Aside from the snow, cold, crafting, and daily routines, here's how we've been spending our winter months.

The snow forced us to reschedule dinner with the Eatons, so we ended up eating Emily's creations alone, but enjoyed their company the following weekend.  Sadly, I didn't take a picture of her new edible artwork or of them during our enjoyable evening.  It was fun times though. = )

William is finally on the mend, but after his ER trip, we had a long haul of stinky medicine (and ice cream to help it go down) for 10 days and 3 times each day.  For probably the first time ever, he didn't miss a single dose!

On the single day they went to school last week, I had a short grocery list (since it was the end of the week) and I had time to work on my chair covers.  They are gross, so I was going to recover them.  I bought some test fabric before 'investing' in the covers I want. However, I don't think I could emotionally handle the first thing that spilled on my freshly covered chairs, so I  will be attempting to put the old cover back on (now that I've washed it.)  I'll wait until my children are grown and have finesse and common sense to recover them.

But I may attempt to wash them each, if I can find a staple remover (I used a screwdriver and pliers and one chair took forever!)

The twins like to 'dress like twins.'

Grace wanted to eat her m&ms in rainbow color order. <3

My mops group had a swap, and I offered to take the leftovers to the thrift shop afterwards.  On a particularly warm day (above freezing) I cleaned out the car seats and emptied the car for the cast offs.

Of course, I promptly reloaded it with the things that I brought to the swap. = )

Juliet had some impressive static!

Not to repeat my no picture mistake, when we hosted the Mitterlings, I remembered to snap a picture before they walked out the door!  I forgot to take one of Emily's pretty appetizers (again), and was concentrating too much on learning how to play Dominions, so that was another missed opportunity. It was another fun evening, documented here:

The final picture is of Emily attending Allison's birthday party.  There were other kids in attendance, but they were out skating.

Spending the winter indoors isn't too bad when you have friends and activities to spend it with!  I do miss my mild Texas winters though.

later days

William's Swollen Lymph Node

A week ago Thursday, when William climbed into the car, I could see his giant swollen lymph node in my rearview mirror.  I asked him if it hurt, and he said no, but after a google search of all the terrible things that it could be, I made him an appointment the next morning.  

The appointment wasn't until the afternoon, and when I went to pick him up from school, he wasn't in his classroom, and he wasn't in the office.  It turns out that he complained of pain while swallowing to his teacher just before I arrived and he was going to be checked out by the stand in nurse.

When we arrived at her office, he was extremely sedate and sat or laid each room we were moved to.  She tested him for strep, which came back positive, and he also had a touch of pneumonia, in the lower region of one of his lungs.

She prescribed him the 2nd tier of antibiotic, because she wanted to make sure he kicked the strep.  She had see more cases of pneumonia at her practice in the past three months, than in the past 5 years combined.   She said that he would probably crash, then slowly improve, as he coughed, but if he did not improve in 48 hours, not to wait for her and instead go to the urgent care.

The medicine itself wasn't bad and William had no trouble with it.  He did crash on Saturday, and slept somewhere around 16 hours.  On Sunday he seemed to have improved drastically, so we continued with our plan to celebrate daddy's birthday at chuck e cheese.

He started showing signs of slowing down, which was understandable considering all he was fighting, but in the car he fell asleep.  Billy and I discussed whether or not this merited a weekend  trip to the hospital.  When we came into the house, he curled up in the chair closest to the door, and fell asleep.  Ultimately, I ended up taking him to the urgent care, but they sent us along to the ER since they didn't have any imaging machines.

The wait in the lobby was almost two hours, then they gave him a room, but he wasn't allowed to eat.  They drew blood, and I gave a summary of his complex medical history, a few times.  The resident didn't correct me, but was surprised that I really meant hypophosphatasia and not hypophosphatemia.

He was still not allowed to eat, until they were certain that he wouldn't need an ultrasound.  The strep test came back negative (yay!) but he still had pneumonia in his lung.  He was finally cleared to eat, and then he slept.

As late as it was, I crawled in next to him, since he wasn't hooked up to anything.  He was sound asleep and I was almost asleep when they gave us the go ahead to leave.  They gave him the next tier antibiotic which we were able to procure from the 24-hour pharmacy in the lobby.

It is foul smelling, so after each dose (3x a day,) he gets some ice cream.  He stayed 'home' with me on Monday, and was able to rest some.  On Tuesday,  he went to school, happily, I did give his teacher the run down, and apologized, but my chaperone commitment fell at a poor time. = ( The ER doctor wanted us to follow up with his regular doctor on Tuesday,  so we made it happen.

He was still not himself, and was resting in the back of the classroom when I went to collect him.  The doctor was concerned and gave him a steroid, and prescription for an inhaler, but before we left their office (in a huge rush) he had a breathing treatment.  He thought the 'smoke' coming out of the sides of the mask was entertaining.

After 5 days on his newest meds, I'm pleased to report that today's follow up was wonderful.  She said his lungs sound much improved, and his energy level is rebounding quickly.

Thankful for good doctors and a healing little boy.  oh, and that my mom is back.  so.thankful.

later days