How One of My Middle Children Gets Quality Time

Thank you so much for kind thoughts yesterday. You have no idea how much they helped--esp. because yesterday Sarah still hurt and needed some intense narcotics for pain. A little child in pain is just the worst.

Sarah came home from school as talkative as ever. Happy and hungry.

She ate about two bites of food and suddenly declared she was no longer hungry.

Then she had a stomach ache.

Then she fell asleep at 5 in the afternoon.

Then she refused dinner.

Then started to cry in pain. I brought a trash can to her bed thinking she got a stomach bug.

Then she got a fever.

I ran through her symptoms. Severe pain on her lower right torso and a fever and nothing else. I knew it could be  a number of things but there was one thing it could be, her appendix. And at a little after 11 I was driving my shivering, reeling in pain, little girl to the ER. Just her and mommy.

We got to the ER and the poking and prodding began. They brought us straight to a room via a wheel chair--the pain was so bad she could no longer walk. Then the pricking began and Sarah begged to nurse to make it not hurt. She was given a weird dye to drink and the doctor took me aside and said he thought it was her appendix. 

I was horrified.

The nurse asked her to pee in a cup and Sarah got very upset. 

The nurse asked if it hurt to pee.

"Only a little, maybe more," Sarah paused. "Only one or two or three times."

I sighed, a bladder infection. All this pain and a fever from a bladder infection. I could only hope that was the real problem.

We did x-rays for possible walking pneumonia (I still don't get this since she did not have a cough or anything.) and she was getting weaker and harder to keep calm by the second.

And then some results came back. She did have a bladder infection and, thank the Lord, her white blood cell count was OK. They thought it was merely a bladder infection.

The doctor mentioned getting her antibiotics and then looked at Sarah.

"To be safe, you should take her to her doctor this afternoon," he looked at her again. "Actually I'd bring her in as soon as they open."

I looked at Sarah. She was in real pain. I had had bladder infections before. I was never in this type of pain.

I looked at the doctor and made that pricey decision, "Ya know, I'd sleep better if we could rule out her appendix with the cat scan. She's already forced herself to drink that dye (she could not eat or drink anything without feeling sick) and since we are already here...."

The doctor nodded, "Better safe than sorry."

I looked at my poor Sarah.

She was in real honest to goodness pain.

I asked the doctor if she could take anything for the pain. And almost never even give my kids Tylenol (the last time was last year during our chicken pox festival).

Both the nurse and doctor agreed. Our room was right in front of the main ER desk and they heard her crying and saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.

The nurse inserted morphine in the tube in her arm. Slowly, she was not hurting as bad.

"But I still hurt a little," she whispered as I pulled to front curtain and turned down the lights.

I pulled out my iphone and we watched 'Cars' as we waited for the cat scan.

The cat scan was weird. More injections in her tube and a tech who kept asking why I didn't take Sarah to a children's hospital.

Like a broken record I kept repeating 'because she was screaming in pain and I was not about to drive for 40 more minutes than I needed to so she could see a doctor' but by the fifth time he asked I just shrugged and agreed next time.

Back in the room, I turned on the TV and Sarah giggled at 'Good Eats'--she loves that goofy show.

And finally at almost 4, we got the final results. The appendix appeared normal and the final diagnosis was bladder infection. YAY! I asked if this much pain is normal and the nurse told me it can be even worse. So I'll say we were very lucky.

Driving home all I thought about was getting into bed. It was odd that if this was a normal night, I'd be getting up in half an hour for spin  class (not happening today or even this day!) and then Sarah asked if we could watch a movie together.

"We could watch Christmas because you love Christmas,"she smiled. The morphine was really kicked in!

So we dropped off the prescriptions and drove home to watch Elf.

I watched the baby climb into Santa's bag and suddenly Buddy is opening a present with maple syrup. I am guessing I slept through a bit of it ;)

But I looked over at Sarah and she was smiling.

"This is fun mommy."

I really need to spend more time with her without doctors and nurses :) 

Running on Pure Java

A little girl with severe right side stomach pain

+

a fever

=

An ER  trip

An ER trip at 11 pm

+

half a dozen tests

=

Getting home at 4 am

Getting home at 4 am

+

A homeschool day

+

A messy home

=

More coffee than a Starbucks house floating in mommy's body

Details when I am back with the land of the living.

Because I have a warped sense of humor--that's why!

I have a fantasy. I have friends over during the holiday season and put on what I like to call my 'favorite playlist'. I brag about how awesome the music is and how I have just the best taste in music in the world and then I turn on the music.

Then out blares "Last Christmas" by Wham--the absolute worst Christmas song ever. 

(Yes, my opinion  but have ya heard it? Reallly.) 

This follows with anything from the Jingle Cats.

And in the meantime, I will be dancing, smiling and singing (or meowing). 

I wonder--would my friends be polite and just nod their heads or would they tell me the truth--it was the worst music they ever heard. I'd like to think they would be honest but we are in the South so who knows. Regardless, I am betting their expressions would be priceless.

Warped? Yeah, I'll admit that :)

Anyway, I think I really want to make the 'worst Christmas music playlist' and carry out my fantasty. 

Any songs you think I need?

(I'd like to say "Christmas Shoes" is the worst song but for some reason people think a kid going to the store on Christmas Eve to buy his dying mom a pair of shoes on Christmas Eve and scamming another customer out of his money  is sweet--I call it sappy. I mean how do we know mama is really dying or did he just practice the little 'Sir I wanna buy these shoes' speech just so he could spend his money on some Transformer he had his eye on? And if even if the kid is telling the truth,  do you really want to hum a tune about a dying mama and a broken hearted poor boy while filling out Christmas cards for friends? Again--I'm warped but in my defense it was named in the 52 most depressing songs, "I Hate Myself and I Want To Die.")

Karl Rove, tex-mex, Super Mario and the Cleveland Browns--Can you get more random?!

So in spin class, there's this really short, muscular guy with a mustache and curly hair. When my legs are searing in pain, I watch short little guy and imagine he is Super Mario jumping over wood barrels and I hear the sound effects and everything. It helped me get through 60 minutes of biking to nowhere. Well this morning, he walks in the room and he has a go-tee (spelling?). My total distraction is ruined. I may very well have to drop a note in Super's  gym and tell him to go back to just his 'stash--and I'll address it Super M. Maybe he'll think it mean Super Man and someone has a crush on him and he'll listen. Right?!

Right now I'm eating some stuffed jalepenos Mike brought home. So yummy--it's time like these I wish everyone lived in Texas and could enjoy some Tex-Mex.

Most memorable moment of election night? Maybe not the most historic or most important but on Fox news (bet you can't guess who I vote for ;) ) Karl Rove, the political shark, brought cookies to share with the crew. I am not kidding. He passed out cookies and he was really excited to share the cookies. You just wonder did he go vote that day and think hey, I think I'll surprise my friends with cookies tonight while we cover the election. It will be so much fun--now should I go with chocolate or sugar? I wonder if it's on youtube.

Hey, ho--Kellan Winslow's got to GO! Seriously, you hate living in Cleveland and guess what? Cleveland hates you! We've got Brady Quinn--Spanky (my TWO year old) could catch his bullet passes. Yet, you--you blow simple school yard bread and butter plays. And cost us the game. The Browns aren't losers--YOU ARE.

Well folks--there's a green chili quesadilla calling my name.

Happy Weekend!

WW--An American Hero

We are quite the political household

With the nonstop news of the election, my kids have picked up names and, the older ones, various issues. We have had great talks about who we support and why. (I have stayed strong from offering my viewpoints on this blog and I am not about to break this less than 24 hours before the election so I will not delve into my beliefs.)

But our great debaters are Spanky and Dino.

Dino loves to say "Obama" and who can blame him? It just rolls off the tongue and it's pretty fun to say.

So we are driving to yet another function and the radio is discussing the election.

Dino begins "O-bam-a,  o-bam-a."

And out of nowhere Spanky screams and I mean screams "MCCAIN!"

Dino, and the rest of the car, is stunned to silence and then Dino whispers "Mccain".

And our car is the site of another political bullying.

Regardless if agree with Dino or Spanky, be sure to vote tomorrow. Your vote matters and if you don't vote, don't complain ;)

Music to My Ears

(Press play to listen and enjoy.)

Now that the costumes are placed ever so loving in the dress up clothes and the Great Pumpkin has taken the candy, I can finally play my Christmas music!

Really I just love Christmas music. My very favorite Christmas song of all-time is the one you hear, " The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole. I don't know what it is about this song but it manages to give me chills and a warm fuzzy feeling all at the same time. It just pure perfection!

My favorite Christmas album/CD is "White Christmas" by Elvis Presley. Honestly, your Christmas collection is not complete with this one. Every song from the ever popular "Blue Christmas" to the gospel favorite "Peace in the Valley" is just heavenly. And let's face it--no one can sing like The King.

Then of course, I have lots of other must-haves (for me anyway) from  Sinatra's "Old Fashion Christmas" to the more modern Josh Groban and Michael Buble hits. Oh and absolutely every Christmas song from John  Denver--esp. the Muppets "Christmas Together" ones. 

To date I have 4 unique playlists on my iPhone--"Joy to the World"--breakfast playlist; "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"--daytime playlist; "A Christmas Dinner"--dinner playlist; and finally "Oh Holy Night"--relaxing night playlist.  The playlists equal close to 7 hours of music (and that is not all the music I have, trust me). To say I have a lot of Christmas music would be an understatement. Yet, I am always on the search for music I have never heard, music that brings the feeling of Christmas to my soul. So I'd like to know--What is the Christmas song that means Christmas to you?

I hope you enjoy the music on this post today. I hope it helps to lift your spirits and bring some joy in this rather frazzled time we live in. And if the music doesn't warm  your soul...perhaps you'd like some blurred warm coco with hand-made marshmallows we made today :)