Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Christmas Part 2

Now that it's almost February, I guess I should try and finish documenting our Christmas experience.  You could say that our Christmas was unusual this year...not something we would like to repeat.  We spent the weekend before Christmas in Birchwood, celebrating with Jeremy's extended family and his parents.  That Friday we had Christmas at Jeremy's Aunt Reba's house.  We were very sad to find out when we got there that Jeremy's cousin, Becky, (who we hadn't seen in ages) was sick, so she was leaving the house so that she wouldn't expose the kids to anything.  They thought she had food poisoning...  However, we ended up having a really fun evening.  Cora Leigh was in rare form, singing for everyone, playing, and acting crazy.  She acted like Uncle Billy was her best friend, and half the time she is so shy around him she won't even look at him.  I don't know who enjoyed it more!  Here are some pics of the evening:



The next day, we had Christmas with Jeremy's parents.  We had a very nice, relaxing day.  Cora enjoyed opening her gifts; Micah enjoyed the wrapping paper and bows.  :)





Jeremy started feeling bad later that evening.  We headed home early enough so that Cora Leigh and I would have time to make sugar cookies for her Sunday school teachers and for Santa Claus too!  Jeremy wasn't feeling good, but he thought it might be something he ate not agreeing with him.  He pushed through it and took care of Micah while Cora and I baked and decorated.  We had a wonderful time!  She really loved rolling out the cookie dough and using the cookie cutters.  I hate I don't have any pictures, but when you're trying to keep a 3-year old from making a major mess, the camera is that last thing you're thinking about!  We were able to get enough cookies baked and decorated to have some ready for church the next morning. 

By the kids' bedtime, Jeremy had gone from not feeling good to sick.  I won't go into too much detail because it's gross.  I'll just say it was bad.  I volunteered to sleep on the couch to stay away from the germs, and then Jeremy would have easy access to the bathroom.  I don't think either of us slept because he kept getting sick, and while we were separated by some distance, I was very much aware of what was happening.  Around 1 or 2 am, Jeremy decided that he probably needed to go to the ER because he was so dehydrated.  It's at times like that when I am SO thankful that we live close to family.  I called Jeremy's parents and told them what was going on.  They got out of bed, dressed, and drove to our house so they could take Jeremy to the hospital.  It seems they got back to the house between 4 and 5.  They had given Jeremy fluids and anti-nausea meds in the ER and sent him home with a collection of prescriptions.  The next day, we did not make it to church.  The cookies went in the freezer, and then began the disinfecting.  I had Jeremy stay in our bedroom pretty much the entire day.  I was lysoling like crazy, washing my hands, doing everything I could to protect myself and the kids from this nasty virus.  I was also very sleep deprived from the night before, trying to take care of everyone.  It was a rough day.  Thankfully, Jeremy's nausea was much better....until it wasn't.  He woke up that afternoon and was not able to make it to the bathroom before he vomited.  As if that weren't nasty enough, it was black.  Now, I'm no medical expert, but I have sense enough to know that it is not normal for your vomit to be black.  I asked Jeremy to check his meds and make sure that couldn't be a side effect.  Nope.  So I did what anyone else who wants to get to the truth of the matter would do - I went to the internet.  :)  I was able to get some good information and found out that it is definitely not normal to have black vomit, and that it indicates bleeding.  Not good.  SO, I called Jeremy's parents again.  I know they were exhausted too, but they came back to get Jeremy and take him back to the ER.  Jeremy had asked me at this point to take the kids to my parents' house to try and get away from the germs.  We loaded up, on the eve of Christmas Eve, and made the trip to Jasper.  It was really nice to be able to have someone to help take care of the kids so I could get some rest.  I knew Jeremy was in good hands.  Sometime after I had gone to bed...which was early...Jeremy's mom called and told me that they were admitting him.  I was not surprised.  He was actually sent to the ICU, was given more fluids, potassium, and they put in an NG tube to check for the bleeding (tube up the nose, down the throat, into the stomach).  The tube was making Jeremy gag and vomit again.  Apparently it's about the worst thing he's ever experienced.  When they were able to take out the tube, Jeremy did much better.  Then began the waiting game for a endoscopy...  In the meantime, the kids were enjoying time at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Cora Leigh and I went with Grandma to a nearby nursing home where Mom plays piano every month.  Cora LOVED hearing the Christmas music - she was singing along at the top of her lungs and even danced for the residents!  Everyone seemed to get a little extra cheer from watching and listening to her.  It was really fun and special.  In the meantime, it was not looking very promising that we were going to get to spend Christmas morning together as a family.  We were heading to the hospital to visit Jeremy, and I got a call from his dad out of the blue saying that he was going to be discharged!!  The endoscopy showed that Jeremy had an ulcer and the beginnings of another ulcer that may have been the source of some of the blood.  He also had a lot of irritation.  The GI doc said that he didn't see a tear in his esophagus, but based on Jeremy's blood count, he was pretty certain that is what had happened.  Bottom line, he didn't see anything so severe to keep Jeremy away from his family for Christmas.  :)

Jeremy's parents had stayed at our house between visiting hours on Christmas Eve.  I am so thankful that his mom had already cleaned and disinfected the house.  I still went in behind her with the lysol wipes on all the door handles, light switches, water faucets, toilet flushers, and remote controls.  Better safe than sorry!  But we were in much better shape than we could have been.  Jeremy got home and we settled in and got ready for Christmas!  Cora Leigh did leave some sugar cookies out - one for Santa and one for Mrs. Claus.  :) 


And Santa Claus came!!!


It looks like I'm going to have to post a Christmas Part 3.  :)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Christmas Part 1

We had a very busy and a little unusual Christmas season this year!  We kicked off the season right on December 1st with a visit to the Christmas tree farm.  This is the second year we visited McDowell's Big Fork Nursery on Suck Creek Mountain, and we have been very pleased both years.  This year, we opted to go with a Eastern White Pine tree.  The needles are much softer than the Norway Spruce that we got last year, and the needle retention was awesome!  Cutting down the tree was a different story.  For those who may not know Jeremy very well, patience is not his gift.  As he was sawing the tree, Cora, Micah, and I were standing back watching.  I asked him to let us know when it was about to fall, and Cora would yell "timber!"  Well, he said it was about to fall, and he sawed....and he sawed....and he continued to saw.... and then he ended up with a bloody hand and arm.  At that point, I managed to convince him to take a break and let me try.  Now, I will say that he had done the majority of the work, but I finished the job and got to cut down the tree!  It just fit in the back of our new minivan, and we made our way back down the mountain.  When we got our tree last year, Jeremy's parents had gone with us and his dad had brought along some equipment.  We got our Christmas tree home and realized that we didn't have a saw to cut off the bottom.  Oops.  Thankfully, Ace Hardware is just a couple of minutes down the road, so we now own a hand saw!  Hopefully we'll be a little more prepared next year.  Here are a couple of pics from our adventure.


Getting ready to cut down the tree

This was before he got angry at the tree.  :)

Lights on

Cora wanted to put the star on the tree :)

Cora helping decorate the tree

Micah eating the decoration boxes

I don't think I have to explain this one...  :)
Cora made her musical debut at church at the hanging of the greens service.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a video of her 3 year old group.



We did a couple of other special, fun things this year.  Cora Leigh, my mom, my sister, and I all went up to Nashville to see the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular.  I was a little nervous about how Cora would do, but she was great!  We really enjoyed the show, but couldn't take any pics.  Here's one picture of us in front of Mandy's tree before the show.


Our little family of four (and a half) also took advantage of a groupon offer and went to see the Christmas lights at the Chattanooga Zoo.  Cora Leigh was SO excited to see Santa Claus.  It was all that she talked about on the way and when we arrived.  However, when we actually got to where Santa was, she did not want to talk to him or get close to him - just a peek from across the room was enough for her.  We did enjoy the lights and getting to see the animals.





We had our first family celebration in the middle of the month and celebrated Christmas with my Dad's family and Jeremy's birthday.  We missed my brother and his family at the celebration as they were out of town, but we really enjoyed getting to visit with extended family who we don't get to see very often.  AND we got to hang out with my cousin's baby girl - cute pics below. :)

Little Ainsley

Helping her mommy open the gift

Cora helping with Daddy's birthday gifts



And here are some other random pics from this month.  Hopefully I'll be able to post Christmas Part 2 soon!

Bath time is a lot of fun at our house these days!


I'm pretty sure this was Jeremy's favorite birthday gift.  ;)  A little encouragement for his workplace.