Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Unexpected turn of events... landed in the hospital!


As most of you know, we have not been able to escape sickness this year...  Well it has struck again.  Little J has been sick for about a week, and took a turn for the worse late Monday night.  He was at home and had slept all day, when he woke up at about 9:30pm, he was un-responsive to Allen and I.  I called our Doctors office and was told to take him to the ER immediately.

I took Jayden by myself (note to self, always bring someone with!!) not knowing what we had in store for the night.  We waited about 45 minutes to see the doctor.  The doctor came in, looked over J, and it was like he had a moment of panic.  He stopped what he was doing and said "Now, I need you to understand that this is serious, and that we need to get him moving, and moving fast.  I will have my team start an IV, get X-rays, blood draws and we will have to do a Lumbar puncture..."  (A WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!)  I was so in shock that I did not know what to ask, and before I knew it, a team of about 6 people rushed in and started on him right away.  I was never once told to move away from the bed, which I thought was awesome!!  The doctor actually had nurses working around me because he wanted me to stay by his side.

Onto the LP. (Lumbar Puncture)  I was terrified of this term.... it really is a spinal tap, which is such a nicer way of explaining it.  Long story short, he was not having it!!  He screamed and responded very well to that needle in his back.  Plan B: Sedation.....  That was the craziest thing for sure.  He was still awake, with his eyes wide open, but he was completely sedated.  I noticed the nice handsome nurse kept checking me during this procedure, probably making sure I was holding up.  I did just fine.  ( I cried later once I realized everything he went through)  I was pleased with how the staff handled everything, including this exhausted and fearful mommy.  At this point in the evening (3am) I was still not being told anything.

They admitted us at about 6am, and told me that they are concerned he may have meningitis.  WHHAAAT????  I have been up for 24 hours, hadn't eaten for 13, and needless to say I was T-I-R-E-D! This was not the news I wanted. I finally decided it was time to call family and let them know what was going on. I called the trusted Mommy, and she swooped in to help me at the hospital just as I knew she would.

I was not able to get a wink of sleep with all of the commotion in the hospital, and I finally decided that I needed to go home at 9pm to get some good rest. Hour count: 39 hours awake and 28 hours of no food. It was time to take a time out for me. I cried and felt selfish for leaving, but I knew it needed to happen.

Here is Jayden as I was getting ready to leave. He was feeling much better and was in great spirits! Made it a little easier walking out of the hospital without him. (his bio dad came to stay with him)
Jayden decided after dinner that he needed a little snack, and his sweet nurse brought him some Mac N Cheese and graham crackers.  Yum-O, he was happy!
 

J also decided that he felt well enough to push his own IV cart in and out of the bathroom.  And sorry, but Allen packed Gages underwear, so they are just a tad big....



Here we are today.  Still in the hospital waiting for some answers from the Doctors.  J was in a great mood, and wanted to sit by the window and watch some cartoons.  Check out the view from his room!!
Amazing right? Even on a cloudy morning, its gorgeous out there.

I have finally talked to the Doctor, and it was not such great news. GREAT that I made the decision to take him to the ER, but he has been diagnosed with Meningococcemia (men-in-juh-cock-see-me-uh) The doctor did not want to say this, but he did, it is a deadly bacterial infection, and he gave me praise for being on top of his condition and having him seen right away. (not in my wildest dreams would I have thought he had something like this) One in 5 people are killed from this bacteria if not treated in time.  Made me cringe....

What does this mean for the rest of us? Well, to start I had to sit down and make a list of everyone that has been in close contact with him over the last week (over 4 hours at a time, and close enough to pass bodily fluids), then we got a serious dose of antibiotics phoned in for everyone on that list!

J will spend 5 days in the hospital while this is treated through the IV and the rest of us are under close watch for ANY signs. Then it means a trip via ambulance (mandatory) to the hospital for treatment, no exceptions!! YAY!!

I ask for your prayers that Jayden recovers well from this, and that it does not infect anyone else involved!!
I will post updates when I have them.

Here is one last picture of J with his new toys his sweet nurse gave him today!
 
Such a brave little boy, who has been through too much!  Love him dearly!!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Final Reveal of the Living room

It is finally complete!  And I am in LOVE!!!   I will add some more accessories as we got, but if you ask me today, it is D-O-N-E!!  I am one happy mama!

Here are the pictures I took last night.  You will notice my sick baby sleeping on the couch, so normally he's not not a part of the fixtures.  Love him, and hoping he's better soon!



This is after we did our big remodel, but before we started on all the pretty stuff.  This is the day we moved our furniture back in.

 And here are pictures from last night:




Thanks for stopping by, and following us as we completed this task!  It turned out just the way I had wanted!  Now, on to the next project!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Oregon Duck Basketball and Matt Knight Arena.

Most of you know that we are HUGE Duck fans in our house!  I have grown up at these events, and continue to enjoy attending them.  My dad is a donor to the Duck Athletic Fund, which in turn means GREAT seats for us.  haha

They just had an amazing basketball facility built this year, thanks to this man here:

Mr Nike: Phil Knight himself!  The stadium is called Matthew Knight Area, in honor of his son who died in a scuba diving accident.

Here are a couple photos of the new building


Now, onto the fun part.  My parents belong to the MacArthur club, which is a private facility just off the court, where you have concessions, lounges, restrooms and the only place alcohol is allowed.  It's actually really nice being down there, I will admit.  But the best part is this:

This is what the wall looks like down there:


 YAY!!  This is my family!!  I was out of town, so sad to say I am not on there, but the  man in white in the front row, sitting next to the woman hugging the little girl... that's my Dad, and my mom and my daughter!!

Directly behind them in my hubby and my son!  This was such an exciting find for my parents.  They are forever a piece of that stadium!  And, when they were constructing the arena, certain donors got to come in and sign the "top out" beams up above before they were placed.  My dad signed his name, but my mom wrote all 5 grandkids names, so even more history for my children!!
 This picture just shows you how up front and center they are on the wall!!  Truly could not have been better!!
The Ducks are currently playing in the CBI tournament, so here are some fun pictures from the last few games.

My mom, dad and their best friends have floor seats, and this is my dad trying his hardest to get everyone to pose for me to take a picture... but that was a fail!

 Our daughter Gabi (right) and her friend (soon to be neighbor) Abi at the game!The camera men were eating them up all night, and they were constantly on the big screen.
This is the best photo I could get of them on the jumbo tron.  They were boogie'in away!!
It was so much fun with the girls, and we have another game there Wednesday, and another one if they win!!!

Proud to be a DUCK!!!

Scrapbook Convention/ Girls Weekend!!

I had such a blast! I didn't do very well taking pictures, but it was because we were having to much fun laughing and shopping!!

Convention was great. There were a ton of vendors with lot's of new products, and we even took 5 new classes. I learned that Dazzles are NOT for me! If you don't know what they are, google them. Ick!

Misty and I decided to use priceline for the first time on this trip.  I had never used it before, and was scared to do it this time.  So, I bit the bullet and offered $55 for a room near the convention center.  I GOT IT!!!  I was thrilled.  It was the Red Lion which is directly across the street from the convention center and is a 3 1/2 star hotel.  When we arrived and checked in, we grabbed the luggage cart and started loading all of our crap scrapbooking stuff. 

Here is our cart, FULLY loaded!  I only have 3 bags on there, and a pillow.  Honestly!

 And here we are, BARELY fitting in the elevator!  By this time, we were laughing so hard we could hardly contain ourselves...
Once we got into our room and got unloaded, we decided to order room service and stay in and scrapbook the night away.

Here is out quaint little room that we crowded with our tables and worked our little hearts away.

 As you may or may not notice, the room is pretty much run of the mill, and not very big.  But for $55, I was not about to complain
My goal for the weekend was to try to get as much done on my wedding album as possible.  It has only been 5 1/2 years.  Here is the first page I created, and the only page I took a picture of.




I did manage to get about 10 pages done, but I had hoped for more. 

The second night, Misty pricelined a room, and we had to move hotels.  We literally moved 2 blocks further, and up about 9 floors.  We were overlooking the river, convention center and the downtown Portland city skyline.  It was gorgeous!  I didn't get a picture of it at night, but here it is during the day.


This time we were staying at the Doubletree which is now owned by Hilton.  It was a FABULOUS hotel!!  We checked in and they gave us nice warm cookies, and when we asked for a luggage cart, this handsome man said "I would be happy to help you with that"  Ummm???  I had to ask him if he was sure.  At this point, I am dying inside of laughter, just thinking of what was about to come.

Here is what was in the car, after an entire day of shopping at the convention, on top of what we had the night before. 

This poor guy, had no idea.  I really wanted to take a picture of him pushing our cart, but I didn't want to be too obvious.  So, here is the best I could do.



Bless this man!  He was a sport, and laughed the whole way with us.  I did give him a generous tip for hauling our load!!

Here is what out new room looked like!  SO much bigger!!!  And the CRAZY thing is that she got this room for $50.  $5 less than the one I got!!  Craziness!!

 Ahhh, space!!!
 Fun touches right down to the pillows!

Sweet Dreams they were. 

We had a blast, but I had to share the funny story of our hotel adventures, and using priceline for the first time!!  I HIGHLY suggest priceline to anyone wanting to save some money on hotel rooms!!!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Has it really been 22 DAYS?!?!?!? I have BIG plans for you!!!!

I promise, I am still around. Just drowning in the everyday life struggles with 3 kids, a husband and a full time job! haha

We are still passing every bug around through our house as if it were a hot potato. My hubby and I were so fortunate (insert sarcasm here) to get sick at the same time! He got the stomach flu and I got strep throat... needless to say, our house was neglected along with a child or two. You know I am absolutely kidding, we had some help from friends, family and neighboors. Special thanks to all of them!

At this momemt, our daughter still has an underlying cough, but better than the pneumonia she had, or the appendicitis, they were watching her for! No joke when I say we've had it all since January 1st!!

As for the rest of the house, not a whole lot has taken place in the way of work.

But, BIG NEWS!! My husband has talked me into waiting until the fall to do our kitchen remodel. So I bargained with him to get the walls and cabinets that we have painted until then. I WON!!! : ) I will post pics very soon, promise!!

I have also been sewing a TON, and I will also do posts on that.

So, coming up for the month of April will be: (this is my accountability)

1) Kitchen Mini-makeover
2) Family Command Center
3) Final pictures of the living room with trim & Fireplace
4) Craft room tour & update on final touches and additions
5) Star Wars 8th Birthday party
6) Pink Cupcake 6th Birthday Party
7) POSSIBLY some furniture re-finishing (crossing my fingers)
8) Sewing tutorials
9) Backyard OVERHAUL!!!
10) Planting our garden (tips & tricks)

Ok, so I think that is enough to keep this blog busy for a while!!

As for today, I am off on my very first all girls weekend!! I am heading up to Portland Oregon for 3 days to attend Scrapbook convention!! No kids, no husband, just the girls and LOT'S and LOT'S of scrapbooking, shopping and laughing along the way!!! I leave in 5 hours!!!

Promise I will post pictures when I return, and get started on my list of promises for you all!

Thanks so much for sticking with me!!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Scrap Necklace.. quick post!

I made this for my daughter last night out of some scrap ribbon, fabric and a broken necklace!  I love how it turned out, and can't wait to make some more!!

I do not have a tutorial, but you can find similar ones all over blog land.  I was actually inspired by a Stella and Dot jewelry catalog.  Enjoy!




Hallway of sickness and snow!

Well well well.... today is Wednesday, and I am pretty sure I have not posted in over a week.  Luck would have it that in the past week, my son got the stomach flu, and my daughters cough that would not go away turned into pneumonia.  NOW, we are headed to the DR in about an hour, because my son now may very well have strep throat.  I am almost 100% sure he does.

So, I thought I should pop on here and post while I have a little time before his appt.

Last Thursday we had a snow day.  Now, here in Oregon, we only need about an eighth of an inch for them to close the schools, whic was the case.  Good news is that it meant a day off for the hubs and I, AND the snow is gone within a couple hours so we can actually go do things.  We both decided that day to tackle the hallway!  YAY!!

We had done the trim in our living room/dining area here, and I really wanted to continue it into the hallway.  We also really wanted to brighten up our little entry way.

This is what our hallway looked like before...


This is our entry way.  It's pretty tiny, so there is not much room to work with!

 Here is the reveal of our new trim work in the hall!  I am in absolute love with it!  It dressed i up, without making it feel cluttered.
 I also love how it is continued into the living room.  Makes for a complete design!

 I chose a light blue color for the entryway.  I love this color as well, and it makes it super bright in there!!  Again... LOVE!
 Behind the door we had previsouly installed some coat hooks.  Super easy.  I just grabbed a couple 1x4's and screwed them into the wall, and then screwed in some hooks onto the boards.  It made for a great coat rack, and of course the lower ones are for the youngsters!

 Then I used some wood buttons to cap the screw holes.
Well thats all I've got for today. I have great decorating plans for these two spaces and will be back soon with those.  As for now, I am off to the doctor and praying that  we have a healthy house soon!!