Our Summer in Pictures- Part 2

This summer was crazy and busy.  We went to baseball games, celebrated birthdays, hugged and kissed more goats, etc.  Unfortunately, most of my summer was clouded by some anger and frustration due to the blood clot I developed in my right arm, compliments of a radiology department at a certain hospital here in St. Louis, that shall remain nameless.

I spent a lot of time crying and being angry at the situation.  The side effects of the coumadin were starting to catch up to me. My hair was falling out, I started experiencing severe lower back pain, and my "monthly visitor" was HORRIBLE! (sorry, TMI, I know) Not to mention the WEEKLY trips to the lab for blood draws to determine the correct dosage of coumadin. 

Bottom line is...I am alive and well.  I am not at risk to develop any more blood clots and so I am thankful for that.  I only have 3 days left to be on blood thinners and I am going to celebrate!

Although I feel like I was in some sort of "funk" for that last 3 months, I still took pictures...and I'm glad I did!  I have enjoyed looking back at them because a part of me feels like I wasn't really there. Or that I was there...just not myself.  So seeing them brings back good memories and makes me smile!  I hope some of them make you smile, too!

Lovin' and Laughin' with Grandma Birdie!

Maria's Special Day at Build A Bear

 Her new friend, Jackie the cat!

And at Monkey Joe's

She's going so fast, she's blurry!

The girl's first Cardinal's Game

 Dairy Queen after the game...mmmm!

Looking pretty at 15 months!

Actually smiling at the camera for once!

Olivia's 2nd Birthday!

 Birthday Girl!

Frick and Frack

Devon love!

Me and my girls!

Playing on the deck

 Future WNBA star??

Sister Love

 Grant's Farm with Laurie and Kayla

 Goats!

 Just her size!

 Of course I let my kids hug and kiss the goats.  They're clean...right?

Come back soon!  Yes...there's a few more!



Our Summer in Pictures - Part 1

I am back for good, this time! The new computer is up and running and I am so excited to be back in the blogging world. I have missed my pictures, my blog and all of my bloggy friends! Luckily I have been able to keep up with most of the blogs I read via the iPod, although I haven't been able to comment as much....I have still been reading them.

I have spent the past 2 days updating, uploading and cleaning up all my pictures from 2 old laptops, 3 memory cards and 1 external hard drive.  It's no lie when I say that my pictures were never fully organized. (I still haven't gone through all my CDs from Walgreens and Costco that have pictures on them.)  I'm sure there are many duplicates, but it's so time consuming!!! With this new computer,  I made a promise to my husband and to myself that I would be better about storing and organizing my pictures.  Let's hope I can stick to it!

Anyway, I never really posted much this summer and I am excited to share what we did.  So here are some pics for your viewing pleasure!  Enjoy!

June 17th, 2010- We welcomed our first nephew, Dominic Robert, into the world! 

June 19th, 2010 - My favorite mom in the world celebrated her 60th birthday!

June 19, 2010 - Family reunion for my dad's side of the family.



4th of July at Aunt Karen and Uncle John's House

July 10th and July 20th - Maria's 3rd Birthday Celebrations



More to come in the next few days!  It's so good to be back!  See you soon!!!!

I'm Baaaack!

Okay...only for 1 post, though.  I didn't realize this hiatus would go on for 6 weeks now!  But it has and I've learned to deal with it and we still don't have a new laptop. So, I am borrowing my husband's work computer, but there will be no pictures  :(

Oh blog, how I've missed you! The withdrawals, at first, were so painful.  Then I just got used to it.  I am still able to check other blogs, Facebook and email from the iPod.  But to try and type anything coherent from that thing is near impossible.

The reason I just had to post is because so much has happened in the past 6 weeks that if I don't write it down I will start to forget it.  Since I use my blog as a journal of the daily ins and outs of family life, I thought I would get to it!

I don't want to bore you all with the details, so I will try to keep it short and use bullets.

• Probably the biggest, most life changing event that has happened was the dreaded DVT I had in my arm in early July.  Yes...you read that right.  Deep Vein Thrombosis, aka: blood clot!  Holy cow!  Who would ever know how much of a PITA these things are.  Well, I guess you would know if you had one.  But I never did until that fatefull day...July 2nd, 2010.  I had a routine abdominal CT Scan for some...uh...let's just call them bowel issues for the time being. (Or at least that's what we thought they were.  More on this later) Not a big deal...just go in, drink the stuff, get the scan and go home, right? Well, I had to get an IV for the contrast dye and something went a little crazy.  When they pushed the dye through, my bicep muscle started contracting and twitching...almost like the beginning of a Charlie horse.  It was very painful but only lasted for 30 seconds, so I thought maybe it was normal.  That night, my bicep was so sore.  I kept rubbing it and telling Gerry how bad it hurt.  It felt like someone punched it over and over.  By Saturday, there was a huge knot in the center of the muscle, Sunday morning I woke up with a red oval on the skin and it was warm to touch.  In the afternoon (which was 4th of July) my arm and hand started going numb and tingly.  After a pointless visit to Urgent Care where the d-bag doctor reassured me numerous times it was not a blood clot, that some dye had leaked into the muscle and irritated it, I was sent home with a prescription for steroids.  Fast forward to Wednesday.  Arm is not better...at all.  Still painful, still going numb.  I finally got in to see my primary's assistant who, thank, God, sent me over for an ultrasound.  Sure as shit...it was a blood clot.  Okay, so give me some medicine and I'll go home, right?  Nope.  Wrong.  This bought me a 2 night stay in the hospital on IV blood thinners.  I was a wreck.  Maria's 3rd Birthday party was in 2 days...who was going to watch my girls...I didn't even say goodbye to them when I left b/c they were just waking up from a nap and I was in a hurry! I cried and cried all night long. 

• I learned that had the blood clot migrated to my lungs, I could've had a pulmonary embolism and died within seconds.  All I could think about was how many times I was driving the girls around in the van, or being home alone and giving them a bath.  Even if they weren't in immediate danger, what if I would've dropped dead right in front of them and they were all alone until Gerry got home?  Maria would remember that for the rest of her life?  How scarred would that leave her?  I was so angry.  I felt violated, vuvulnerable, helpless.  But I also felt so incredibly lucky to be alive.  So lucky they caught it when they did.  So grateful for God guiding me to be pushy and not back down when the doctor couldn't get me in on Wednesday.  Perseverance.  Intuition.  I knew something wasn't right.

• After a few days in the hospital, they sent me home on Heparin injections and Coumadin.  Only because of my family's support and help were we able to pull off Maria's birthday party.  I didn't feel it at the time, but looking back I was a zombie.  I was exhausted and weak.  But I had fun and I know Maria loved it!  She had been talking about her Kai Lan birthday cake for 3 months so there was no way I could cancel it on her.

• The party was a success.  Maria got some wonderful gifts, including a mini golf game, mini bowling game, cute dresses and outfits, TONS of Kai Lan stuff, books, a backpack, coloring books, educational toys, a few Barbies, gift cards, etc!!!

• Some other things that have been going on:  we had blinds installed in our kitchen - one on each window over out sink and we got a track panel over our sliding glass doors.  I know you're probably thinking ==Big Deal!  Well, it was a huge deal for me because ever since we got the deck, the sun comes into our kitchen with a vengance. It is so bright and so hot it is almost unbearable until 11:00am.  Well, that's not so great when you are trying to serve breakfast to 2 little girls.  It made me so crabby to be in the kitchen.  First of all, I couldn't even see half the time because the sun's reflection bounced off the floor and secondly...I had the boob sweat!  Sorry people.  But if you have boobs, you know what I'm talking about.  It makes a girl miserable. Add that to 2 sippy cup throwing, couch jumping, dog chasing, head banging, hair pulling, hungry little demons girls, and you have the set up for the world's biggest meltdown....from ME! So my husband finally agreed to hook me up! And I couldn't be happier!  (unless I had a new laptop...he he) The blinds look awesome.  I can't believe it took us 5 years to actually do something like this.  It blocks out so much heat, it's amazing!  Who knew, right?

• Gerry and I have been getting out a little and doing some things without the kids lately.  We went to a lake party at his boss' house and went tubing together!  It was a blast.  Later that night, we FINALLY went to see Eclipse, only to come out to a dead battery in the van.  That meant a late night visit from my big brother who drove us to Wal-Mart at 11:00 pm so that we could buy and he could install a new battery in a hot movie theater parking lot.  Fun times!

• Both of the girls started swimming lessons.  It's Naomi's first time and Maria's first time in the water without me.  (That is so exciting for so many reasons!!!) They both do really well.  Gerry takes Naomi and I sit on the side and watch Maria.  She is making huge improvements and seems to be a lot more comfortable in the water.  She still won't jump in off the side, though. 

• Last weekend, my niece, Hailey, stayed with us while Jeff and Kelly went on a get away.  We loved having her around.  She played with the girls non-stop and they were in heaven.  We had some cute pics taken at Picture People.  My mom got in a few as well.  We needed to get Maria's 3 year pics done anyway and my mom always wanted to get some professional pics with all her granddaughters.  Many of them turned out so cute!  We were very happy with them!

• This past weekend, we decided to have a special day for Maria.  We did this kind of as an extended birthday thing.  We wanted to devote an entire day to just her.  So after swimming, we dropped Naomi off at Gerry's parent's house and took Maria out for her day of surprises.  We started out getting some lunch, and then headed to Build-A-Bear.  She picked out a gray kitty cat and named her Jackie.  Jackie looks lovely wearing the colorful heart shirt, jean skirt and matching tennis shoes that Maria picked out for her all by herself.  Maria had a blast dressing her, giving her a bath and talking to her the whole ride home.  It was hilarious.  After that, we headed to Monkey Joe's where Maria could do her favorite things in the whole world...run and jump!  Gerry and I were in shock when she climbed the tallest ladder and went down the biggest, fastest slide in the whole place.  She was a champ.  And she did it over and over again.  She loved the bouncy houses, and loved the slides.  She kept giggling the entire time.  I can't wait to take her again!

I am going to leave it there for now.  If you've made it this far...thanks for reading.  I have pictures of all the good times listed above that I promise to share someday.  I will save my continuing health saga for another post.  Yes, there's more!  Can you believe it?  Hopefully I won't wait this long to post next time!