I'm Back!!!

Unwillingly, I have obviously been absent from blog land for quite some time...Unfortunately, it wasn't for a happy reason. Rylee, my picture of perfect health, was up at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital for a week. When going through the usual round of health questions over and over and over (I could keep going), my answer to each "Any history of ____?" was NO. At first, when she first got sick, we were told that it was just the flu. Me, being intuitive of my own daughter and questioning ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, did not believe that easy diagnosis. I swear, doctors never listen to mommy's. We know our kids! Anyway (stupid St. Peter's Hospital), after one very long 7 1/2 hour ER visit and two regular doctor's visits, in which the only test done was an ultrasound, we were sent up to Mary Bridge's ER. My thoughts were: Normal flu's don't usually involve 104.5 to 105 degree fevers for 6 days and severe leg pain in one particular spot. No cough, no sniffles, no sore throat, and besides the pains that go along with a high fever, no body aches. Granted, I have no P.H.D., but it sounded a little fishy to me. Can anyone tell that I'm a little bitter regarding the high-paid professionals that put my little girl in harms way so they could say they think it's the flu?

So, MB got her right in to the emergency room, shot her over to radiology, took a CAT scan and an X-ray, and scheduled her for an MRI. By this time, we could hardly get her fever to come down at all. My pale little 4 year old baby lay on the hospital bed, crying and cringing when anyone would even get close to her because her leg hurt so bad. They finally got her up for her sedated MRI, which by the way works F.A.S.T! I wish we could get some of that for bedtime... After an hour and almost a half, out she came still sedated, with the words from the pediatric doctor: Keep her sedated and get her up to the O.R. immediately, the surgeon's waiting for her. Oh my gosh...you can't even imagine the thoughts that were rushing through my head! I don't think that I've ever been so scared~ not even the time that I got caught at Mike's house when I was supposed to be at my friend's house, scared me as much as that moment in time. All I could think was "I wish my mom was here, I wish my mom was here, she'd know what to do." But she wasn't...so we were on our own.

As not to not write for days, I'll make a long story a little shorter. She went into surgery so the doc could drain as much fluid out of a pocket on her hip joint, and an abscess on the tip of her femur, as he could. Somehow, bacteria entered her body, infected her blood, and flowed around until it found a nice place to settle and infect, which happened to be her hip joint. This infection had stopped any blood supply going to that part of her body and caused it to begin degenerating... well that and the huge infection that had settled.

After she came out of surgery, we were finally admitted to her own room and settled in for the night. That is where we spent the next week. She went from just having an IV with tons of different medicines (including morphine) continually dripping into her, to having a PICC line inserted into her vein up through the top of her heart. Phew...it just kept getting better and better! She had so many traumatic things done to her in such a short time, that she is still recovering from the stress. I was basically hooked to her the entire time and could not get more than a couple of feet away from her at any given time. Talk about stressful and exhausting at the same time. Mike, the wonderfully giving person that he is, slept on the floor and let me have the chair. He made sure I was eating and drinking and tried so hard to get me to get some fresh air, but I just couldn't. I felt like my heart was breaking every time I stepped out of her room.

She had so many doctors and nurses that I couldn't keep them all straight. She even had a team of 6 doctors that came in every morning and did a debriefing. Those were separate from the specialists and on-calls and all of the rest. Poor Rylee didn't like any of them! She screamed anytime her door would open and someone would walk in. Horrible horrible experience for all involved. We finally got to come home with a wheelchair and a walker because she could not walk, and her PICC line with antibiotics we had to administer every night for 45 minutes. We had a home nurse coming 2 to 3 times per week and numerous doctor visits in between. I'm so scared to open my mailbox every day because the bills are starting to trickle in.

So good news now, she's on oral antibiotics for another 6 weeks, walking with a slight limp still, no PICC line anymore, and the latest MRI showed that her Acute Osteomyelitis is getting better. Yay!!! What a scary time. I'm so thankful to all of our friends and family that offered up prayers and were so generous to our needs. I'm also thankful to Kelly for keeping my other girls at home while we were gone, and so sorry that Alyssa was so sick. We have such great support... Both mine and Mike's employers were also very understanding and supportive, thankfully. I wanted to include a few pictures I was able to take with my phone (sorry some are blurry) and a video of Rylee when she finally had enough strength to start using the wheelchair. She was a pro from the start! Surprising when you've lost 10% of your body weight from not eating for a week and a half :)

The first ER visit at St. Pete's


Right after surgery at MB




Trying to find some humor from her many stuffed animals


All of her glow stick necklaces together~Feeling a little better!

First time getting out of bed!

And she made it with the help of her walker!

Taking a picture of herself while I was talking to the doctor

Ry and daddy in the play room putting together a puzzle

Look at that hair! The staff called her "Rockstar"

Her hair was so matted by the time we left, it took 3 1/2 hours to get the dreads out. It was like a baseball helmet!

Driving home, after stopping at the "wheelchair store" as Rylee put it, it felt like we had been gone a month instead of a week. As we came into Shelton, this is the beautiful scene that greeted us:

I'm so glad this is almost completely behind us. Maybe I can get caught up on some things now... including my blogging!

Deep Thoughts Of a 4 Year Old

Rylee: I love you so much mommy!

Me: I love you too sweetie.

Rylee: But I love you more.

Me: No, I love you more.

Rylee: No, I love you more!

Me: I love you most! I've loved you since you were in my tummy.

Rylee: No, I love you most since I was in your tummy!

Me: Honi, I love you the most.

Rylee: Mommy....you're right. You do love me most!

Gotta love the kid's honesty!

All Grown Up..

The other day, I was cleaning Alyssa's closet which was apparently the storage area from cleaning her room. When I opened the door, I was almost lost forever... No joke, I think it was 2 feet deep with papers and clothing. Anyway, I decided to just do it to get it over with instead of waiting 3 years for it to get done. Rylee was right along side of me "helping."

Rylee: Mom!! Look what I found! Remember these shoes that used to make me look so cute, that I used to wear when I was just a little girl??

Me: Yes honi, I remember them. But aren't you still a little girl?

Rylee: Oh no mom, don't you know? I'm a big girl now...I'm not little anymore :-(

Just a Few...

I have a few pictures of Rylee at soccer practice that I want to share. We have a ton more, but I figured that I'll wait to get some real action ones at her first game.

Rylee and Coach Bob.....

Look at her go!!!!

Coach tying her shoes again....

Giving the kids a pep talk~~Colton deep in thought...

And Colton decided it was time to pick flowers :)

4 Year Olds and Soccer

Monday was Rylee's first soccer practice. For weeks now, we have been reminding her that neither mommy or daddy (nor sissy's) can be out on the field with her when she's playing. We will be on the sidelines cheering her on of course, but she is a very clingy, shy little girl if she doesn't know someone and I was afraid that she would refuse to go out on her own. Colton, her cousin, is on the team with her kind of as a support player :-) The only problem is: Colton plays soccer as though it were football!!! He even yelled "Yay!! I'm tackling everybody!!" LOL

As we were driving to practice, I asked her if she knew her coach's name. She did not but when I told her it was Bob, just like her papa, she said, "But I'm not gonna call him papa, just Bob." I told her that was probably a good idea.

Since we got her soccer gear i.e ball, shin guards, socks, and cleats, she has been putting them on every evening and "practicing." While we were shopping, she was almost in tears because we could not find any shin guards that were pink. She kept telling me to keep looking because she knew they were in there somewhere. Low and behold, she was right! In the very back, on the very bottom, there was one pair in her size in pink. When I held them up in victory for her to see, she said, "See....I told you they were there." (Sniff sniff) so much for go mommy! We grabbed the pink ball to match and we were set.

So anyway, when we got to practice, she surprised me by walking right out onto the field and telling her coach that she is Rylee and is 4 years old. From the second she stepped out there until the time practice was over, she was a running, giggling soccer player and I was thinking to myself, "Who is that child and where did mine go??" By the end of practice, she was hungry and tired and ready to go; however, as soon as we got home she told me she was ready to go back to soccer practice. When I told her she didn't have practice again until Wednesday, she started sobbing her big alligator tears telling me that she wanted to go back right now!! If she was that upset over the 2 day wait, I can't imagine what the whole week/weekend wait will be like! I'm so glad she likes it though and am still very surprised how independent she was out there. My baby is one of the big kids now!

Can you imagine being a coach of a team of 10 four year olds?? Yikes!!

Busy Busy Weekend

(Butterfly in flight)

Well, we survived the weekend! It was quite hectic but I am alive to speak of it today. I would have written prior to this but it took me two days just to recover! We started the week off again with games. Alyssa played in Tumwater on Monday, which was also Bobbi's birthday (thank goodness for DQ) and McKenzie played last night at MCRA. Alyssa and Ambrosia make quite a duo with Brosia in the pitcher spot and Alyssa at 1st base. They can get just about every batter out! McKenzie's game last night was awesome! They were on fire and with an ending score of 10-0, it really showed! She hit a double and playing first base, she got every single batter out! The girls were very excited and were so loud in the dug-out that other teams couldn't hear their ump's calls. I just smiled :-)

So back to our crazy weekend, it started out with practice at 9 am and then Connor's party at the pool at 10. For some reason, Rylee is terrified of swimming. She will cling to the side of a pool or hang out on the first step, but she will NOT venture out into the actual water. The pool party was no exception. If I try to get her to let me hold onto her life jacket and put her into the water, she turns into a monkey and is worse than trying to get a cat into a bucket of water...you know the funny videos of them clinging for dear life to anything in reach! That's her. This time however, I pointed out that Colton cannot swim either and the only reason he was staying afloat was because of his trusty life jacket. For some reason, unbeknownst (it's a word!) to myself, she listened to me!! I was able to hold her out away from the edge and she kicked and paddled back all by herself. She was very excited to point that out too..."LOOK MOMMY, NO HANDS AND I'M DOING IT ALL BY MYSELF!!!!" I was so proud of her that I almost jumped in...ok not quite that far but I did have tears in my eyes. Who is this little independent girl and where is my baby?

Look at the swimming pro!

After the pool party, we had just about 40 minutes to grab some lunch and then head back to MCRA for Alyssa's game where, by the way, they kicked butt! Luckily the weather was very nice so we were able to work on our non-existent tans for a couple of hours. After the game, we headed back home for Rylee/Matthew/Karrissa's triple birthday party. Grandma Linda, Shelly, and Tausha broke into my house and had the house decorated when we got home and were working on the above pictured cupcakes. It was supposed to be a soccer theme since Matthew is playing soccer, Rylee will be in June, and Karrissa is always playing...but for some silly reason, soccer decorations are either unearthly expensive or just not in stock. I thought that Walmart of all places would have at least soccer ball plates or black streamers....NOPE! No biggie though, we just kind of settled for lots of colors and it all went together perfectly.

As soon as we walked through the door, Rylee insisted on putting her party dress on, along with a clean face and a Princess birthday button. She walked out of the bedroom with a smile on her face for everyone!



Could she be any more of a ham?

It was a good party and all of the kids had fun. My husband, however, did end up in the dog house right along with the new puppy that he decided to bring home without consulting me. Oh yes, the dreaded "Mommy! Look at what daddy said we can have!! Can we keep her pretty please??" What was I supposed to say? It was followed up by "But you said we could get another puppy since Charlie (our chocolate lab) died and then we had to give Capone (the Doberman we had for a couple short months but had to give back because he kept biting) back. You promised!!" Ok, I don't know about anybody else, but how could this not pull at my heart strings? Yes I hate dogs and would rather eat dirt than have another one, but on the other hand, my girls love them. How can I deny a cute little girl giggle with a puppy on her belly?? I grudgingly agreed and Auntie Kelly has nicely agreed to keep this little bundle of fur named Alice (from Twilight of course) occasionally since she's the one that told Mike about the free puppies... Love you Kelly!! :-)

We then headed out for Bobbi's birthday beginning with dinner at the Ram (yummy!) and then drinks back in Shelton. It was fun but I was so tired that I was almost falling asleep in the booth. By the time Jen dropped me off at home, I could barely see straight. Going out just doesn't have the same appeal that it used to. I'd rather stay at home and go to bed early...man I am old!

Sunday was pretty much a laid back day, enough that I sat out in the sun and painted my nails. Ahhhhh....sunshine on your back, slight breeze blowing, the smell of fingernail polish... Kids laughing with the dog in the background. Baseball pictures were scheduled for 5 and 5:30 pm. We didn't actually get out of there until almost 6:30 and then did some quick grocery shopping for a small dinner with friends that we haven't seen in several months. Thanks for coming over Debbie and family!! It's getting to that time of year that BBQ's are calling our name and we start migrating out of the house and getting together again with friends and family. I'm very excited for the summer to begin!

Random Friday Ramblings

This week has been so crazy that I can't catch my breath! Monday through Thursday, we had baseball games every night. Additionally, Wednesday was Rylee's birthday and Thursday was Connor's birthday so we went out to dinner each of those nights AFTER the games. Our regular 8:30 bedtime was moved up to almost 10:00 both nights....talk about tough to get up the next mornings! I'm thinking ok we've at least got Friday night free so that we can clean up our tornado of a house before the triple birthday party tomorrow afternoon....Wrong again! I receive a message this morning that Alyssa has a make-up game tonight from 6-7:30(8) ish.. I'm not entirely sure I can hack this extra game. We've got two practices tomorrow along with a birthday party from 10-noon and another 3-person birthday party at 3:30. Following that busy schedule, we are also going out to celebrate my sister's birthday as well. Sunday is baseball pictures for both girls and then we get to start it all over again on Monday. Where's my weekend?? LOL...I do love it but it sure gets hectic sometimes and my poor house will never be the same!

Rylee (thankfully) was happy enough to go to Denny's for dinner on her birthday. The staff, however, are not top on my list of favorite people. It was mostly empty but do you think that a little birthday girl got any better service?? NO! She didn't even get a "Happy Birthday" said to her nor any goodies. I thought that Denny's, of all family restaurants, would do something. When we went to El Sarape the next evening for Connor's birthday, we got a special room, he got to wear the sombrero, they sang to him, and he got a huge free dessert. Poor Ry got the short end of the stick! LOL

We brought her presents into the restaurant so she went in plain and came out a movie star (Hannah Montana eat your heart out!)~thanks Aunt Bobbi! I included a little video to show off her talent:

She cracks me up so much! I bought her some little green high heels from the dollar store and I thought for sure they'd fit but unfortunately, her little feet were just a tad too wide. I was surprised though because she is so small and I always have to worry about things being too big, not too small. She was not discouraged however, she proudly sported them during dinner and out to the car. She walked out with her sunglasses, fake hair, earrings, bracelet, and high heels on, holding her microphone and her gift bag, all the while singing Hannah Montana songs. She also added her "I love my mommy" song in there a couple of times so I figured she was happy with her loot and her day in general. Just a couple photos of her enjoying her presents~

She wants to save and take her flowers to Hawaii with her when we go next year!!

Wish you could see the shoes...

Maybe I should go to trusty Walmart after work in my spare time and get some Calgon. Maybe it will find a place to take me away to....for a few minutes anyway.

My Baby is Turning 4 Today!

Birthdays are a time of excitement and expectations....when you're a kid. When you're a parent, it's a whole different story. Of course we look forward to their first birthday even though it marks that very important milestone... a barrier between baby and toddler. We then think that maybe their disposition will change as they continue to grow, but each age seems to add something new. I don't know about anyone else, but I think that it's very bittersweet to watch our babies grow. No longer do we look forward to our own birthdays, knowing that they bring new aches and pains and sags and bags; nevertheless, we celebrate right along with our kids and their birthdays. I, however, am not feeling all that great this day.

Rylee decided that she was coming out about 20 minutes after I got into my hospital room 4 years ago today. I can't believe that it's all ready been that long...and so many other babies have been born since her (none being mine of course). Alyssa was this age when I decided that I was ready to get pregnant again so her turning 4 and getting ready for kindergarten the next year really wasn't THAT big of a heartache. I knew I would soon have another little baby to nurture and spend time with that would take much longer to grow up.....RIGHT!!! She has grown just as quickly and is now talking about going to school and I don't know where I stand.... What do I do now? We've decided that we are not having any more kids and 3 is a good round number, but I find myself stuck in an emotional rut. I know that the decision we have made is good for our future but it's the present that I'm having a hard time convincing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that we should have another baby and I certainly don't think that I could mentally survive 4 children but it's the combination of turning 32 and my baby turning 4 that's got me thinking "Holy moly, I'm at the age of almost being too old to have any more." That magic age of 35 is right around the corner which brings all of the wonderful "cautions" regarding having kids. I'M OLD!!! LOL. I'm just being dramatic now, but it certainly gives me something to think about. McKenzie and Alyssa say that they want a little brother but I told them that I haven't had that much luck in the past regarding that "Y" chromosome so they'd probably end up with another sister. Like we don't have enough estrogen in the house all ready...poor Mike! Even our pets are usually girls :-) As the girls were discussing this, Rylee pipes up with "Mommy, I don't want you to have another baby....I want to be your only baby." Awww... like that didn't pull at my heart strings. She also told me that the only thing she could think of that she wants for her birthday is for mommy not to have to work anymore so that I can stay home with her. That really didn't help my emotional pull of not wanting to work anymore either. If only I could find some way to get paid for staying home...

Anyway, enough of this melancholy...my baby turned 4 today! Alyssa has a baseball game tonight so we are going to dinner afterward. Uncle Jerry is meeting us, as well as Aunt Bobbi and family so we'll wreak havoc at Denny's! We are having a triple birthday party on Saturday for Rylee, Matthew, and Karrissa so I will hopefully get some good pictures to post. Hey, come to think of it, this is the first post I've done without a picture...weird!

Off to baseball!