Mackenzie's eye

I haven't had a lot of time to be able to update many of you on the situation with Mackenzie's eye. On Sunday, Dec. 13, she woke up with a really swollen eyelid. The eye itself looked just fine, but her eyelid was almost swollen shut. She said it didn't hurt too bad, and as the morning went on, the swelling seemed to go down a bit. I actually tried to take her to a clinic that Sun. afternoon after a Christmas party at church, but it was a zoo there & after waiting 45 min. & only 1 person being called back to see the doctor, we left. We had a busy week, and didn't end up getting her in to the doctor that week either....her eyelid remained "puffy" all week, although nothing serious. I kept thinking it would just resolve itself eventually. Well, this past Saturday (the 19th) it had been a week since the whole thing started & it didn't seem to be really getting better. I decided that before we left for our Christmas vacation I should really have it checked out. SO, we spent 3 1/2 hours at a clinic on Sat. afternoon & found out that she has a scratch on her cornea. The dr. gave us some medicine that he said would help with the swelling, and also a prescription for eye drops to help prevent an infection in her eye. It ends up the medication for swelling did NOTHING, and by Monday morning, she was now running a fever. I ended up taking her into our pediatrician Mon. afternoon, and he felt like we really needed to see a pediatric opthamologist & got an appt. for us early Tues. morning.

Kenzie & I headed to that dr. Tues. morning at Children's Hospital in Birmingham. He took a look at it, and after consulting with another colleague, decided it was preseptal cellulitis. He gave us a prescription for an oral antibiotic and also sent us to have a CT scan done to make sure that it is not spreading to the back of her eye or to her brain. Basically it's a bacterial infection in her eyelid that could have been caused from the scratch on her eye, and if it's not treated can spread to other areas. I might mention that her eyelid had started swelling worse again & that she had some bubbly stuff on her eye as well which the dr. said was probably caused from the pressure of her eyelid. She was also still battling a fever every now & again.

We left for Ohio Tues. evening, and the doctor called us back Wed. to let us know that the CT scan showed it has not spread anywhere else, and that her sinuses looked enflamed, but that the antibiotic should help that as well. He asked how she was doing, and at that point I said she looked about the same. As of this morning, her eye is looking a little better....not as red, but still swollen. I am more concerned at this point that she is still getting a fever, and she complains that her stomach hurts quite often. I make sure that she takes her medicine with food to help prevent stomach ache, but it sure is frustrating that it is taking so long for her to recover, especially when we're away from home! Please pray for her to feel better & that her fever would go away, and the swelling would go away completely! Thank You!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Thanksgiving

We spent our Thanksgiving in NY with Ruth's family this year. We flew out to NY on Thursday. We did a little black Friday shopping around 11:00 a.m. on Friday, and when we returned home, found that Camden had started a fever. Never fails...

We enjoyed our big Thanksgiving dinner Friday evening, and some fun family games Friday night. On Saturday, we headed over to my cousin's house to see all the home improvements he & his wife have made on their "new" house!! I say "new" because it's really my grandma & grandpa's old house. Now that they've passed away, Nate & Michelle have fixed the house up & it looks SPECTACULAR!!!

Sunday we enjoyed the church services at my parent's church, and continually tried to deal with a sick Camden. Poor kid felt miserable, but of course there was nowhere to take him over the weekend!

We ended up getting Camden in to see a doctor on Monday, and turns out he had strep throat & 2 ear infections. So we got him some antibiotics, and within a couple hours he was a different kid! Of course this was just in time to eat dinner, then pack up & head out to my brother's house. We spent the night there since our flight back home left at 6:15 a.m.!

We got back in to Atlanta Tuesday morning, drove back to Alabama, and dropped Tom off at work, Jenna off at school, and the rest of us came home & crashed! Trevin slept all of about 15 minutes on the airplane, then a bit in the car, but he was tired, and has started coughing. Mackenzie never slept a wink from the time we got her up Tues. morning (4:45 a.m.), so I knew she would never make it through the rest of the day at school. And I didn't get any sleep on the plane either, so I was exhausted. Camden slept on the plane, so he was rested up I guess....he watched TV while Trevin, Mackenzie & I slept!

So now we're back home & getting back into the routine of things!

Trip to Arizona

I have decided to set aside the laundry & other housework that needs to be done & take some time to update you on what is going on in our lives....

One of the biggest things in our life right now are the decisions to be made about Tom's job. I think I mentioned last time that Harley announced they are consolidating their test facilities into 1 location out in Yucca, Arizona. This means that if he wants to keep his current job, we would have to move out there. SO, in order to help us make that decision, Harley paid for Tom and I to make a trip out there for a visit. After making arrangements for childcare for all 4 of our kids, we headed out there the weekend before Thanksgiving. We flew into Las Vegas on a Wed. night,



then headed to the Grand Canyon on Thursday.



It was beautiful, and we got to walk one of the trails for a couple hours before watching the sunset! We saw some deer (one of them VERY close up I might add!),



found a funny book in the gift shop,



and then after dark headed to Kingman, AZ. First thing Friday morning, Tom met up w/his friend Jeff & they went to Yucca for a tour of the facility. In the meantime, Jeff's wife Tracy & I met w/a realtor & got a tour of Kingman and saw a few houses.



After our tour we headed to Lake Havasu to meet up with the guys. We made a little mistake & got on 40 east instead of 40 west, so it took a bit longer to get there, but we made it none the less. We ate some lunch, then Tom and I met with another realtor & saw some houses in Lake Havasu.



We learned a lot about both locations! We met up w/Jeff & Tracy again for dinner, checked out the London Bridge,



and once again headed back up to Kingman. Saturday morning, I took Tom on a little tour of Kingman, then we headed over to Flagstaff to meet up w/Tom's brother Jim and 2 of their kids. We went with them to visit Sunset Crater National Park, which is basically an old volcano. We got to see black lava all around, and various formations that had formed after the volcano erupted. (As a side note, there is a $250 fine for taking any pieces of lava!!)



After that, we also got to see some pueblo ruins.



After our sightseeing, we enjoyed a delicious dinner before saying good-bye to Jim and the girls and heading back to Las Vegas. We walked the strip for a while then headed back to our hotel where we each gambled away $1.00! Such big spenders....

We came back to "reality" on Sunday. Overall, we enjoyed our trip, but realized that we have no desire to move there unless Harley gives us more incentives. As of right now, they are offering no incentives whatsoever.

Tom has met with his boss a couple times & it looks like he'll be able to keep his current job until the end of June. But, as we've learned before, things change consistently. So, until we hear more, that's the scoop. In the meantime, Tom has been working on his resume & keeping his ears peeled for any available jobs! We're trusting the Lord for whatever He has planned for us.

Our latest news...

We have been going along as usual around here. I will try to put some pictures up in the next few days, but I'm on my laptop & don't have my pictures on here.

Jenna lost her 2nd tooth a couple weeks ago, and she had her 1st "real" birthday party.

Mackenzie has been doing very well in school - she tells me her favorite subjects are math & reading. She LOVES to read, and has started reading lots of chapter books!

Camden is talking more & more, and many of his words sound so similar, but he tries so hard to get across what he wants! It's so cute!

Trevin is definitely off & running, and climbing all over the place. He has started screaming when he wants some attention - it's SO irritating!

Two of my friends from Indiana came down to visit last weekend. They were here to speak at a pregnancy care center banquet. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it was to have them here. Tom watched the kids a ton throughout their stay so that we could go out & eat, watch a movie, and just hang out!!! It was wonderful!

Tom got some big news at work this last week....they are consolidating all Harley test facilities out to Arizona! UGH! We're not positive yet what all that will mean for us, but it will mean changes no matter what! Please pray for us as we seek the Lord's will for our family. We'd love to stay around here, but if we do, that means Tom will need to find a new job.

So that's a quick summary of the last few weeks. Sorry I've not been too good at keeping the blog up to date...guess that happens with 4 kids!

A year ago....

It occurred to me this morning that it was a year ago today that Jenna ended up in the hospital for a week in the midst of us trying to get moved into our new house, my parents being here to help, and just plain chaos in our lives! I still look back & am so thankful that the doctors were able to diagnose Jenna's calcium problem & get it under control. What a scary time it was, but God saw us through each day & gave us the friends & family we needed when we needed it. He is so good!

And so, it was a year ago that we were also moving into our brand new house. Some days it doesn't seem possible that it's been a year, other days, it seems like we've been here for much longer! It's definitely looking like it's been lived in for a year, but then again there's the landscaping, or should I say lack of landscaping?? :) Ah, one of these years we'll get around to it!

Thanks to those of you that have been able to stop in for a visit (or 2, or 3...), and we hope many more of you will be able to come stay with us in the coming year! We love visitors, and it's always a motivator to get the house cleaned....

Thanks for reminiscing with me for a minute, now I've got to get back to "work"!

Junior

My friend Jen just posted a sweet post on her blog about our dear friend Junior who went home to be with the Lord today. (I stole the picture above from her blog: www.potterwonderfullife.blogspot.com) I am so saddened by the news, and could hardly even talk to tell the girls about it. He was supposed to go in & have heart surgery today, and when they opened him up discovered that their diagnosis was wrong, and that he desperately needed a heart transplant. He ended up not making it through the day, and now he is in Heaven with his Lord & Savior!

Words can't even describe what Junior and his mom Pat mean to us! They are dear friends of ours from Fort Wayne, and they LOVED our children (as well as all the children at our church) like their own. Before we moved to Alabama, Junior was ALWAYS available to watch our kids, and repeatedly told us he loved watching them, and some days seemed to beg to watch them if they hadn't been there in a week or so! And my kids loved Junior too! There was NEVER a tear shed when Junior was going to watch them. They loved the fact that he got on the floor with them & played whatever games they wanted. And he worked in the church nursery every Sunday, Wed. night, Tues. morning and whenever else he was needed. It seems every kid in church knew Junior, and loved him. Very few cried about being dropped off every week because they knew Junior was there & knew everyone's "routine".

Since moving to Alabama, I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've said aloud "I sure could use Junior now!!!" And every time we've been back in Ft. Wayne, we've made a point of seeing him & his mom, Pat.

I am so sorry for Pat's loss, and would ask that you pray for her (& the rest of his family) in the days and weeks ahead. Junior lived with her, and took care of so many things for her. I can't even imagine what she will do without him. Pat, or "Miss Pat" as all the kids from Cubbies knew her, is such a loving, Godly woman, and would do anything for you. We love you, Pat!

We will miss you, Junior!

Jenna lost her 1st tooth!

When Jenna got home from school today she wanted to eat an apple. She had a bottom front tooth that has been loose for about a week now, and she is so anxious for it to come out. So, after eating on the apple for a while she begged me to pull it. I gave a quick tug and out it came! She is SO excited!! She put it under her pillow & is hoping the tooth fairy comes tonight. Speaking of which....I'd better get off here and get some "work" done!! :)

What's new...

For those of you that may not have heard, Harley Davidson is doing another big round of layoffs. Tom seems really nervous that he's going to lose his job this time around. We thought originally we were going to find out the 1st of September, but then they had a meeting the last of August, and now we won't find out until the end of September. Aaarrgghhh....I just want to know already. Some days I am fully prepared for this to happen, and other days, I have no idea what we'll do if it happens! I continually remind myself that God is in control and that HE will take care of us no matter what, so honestly, I haven't worried about it too much, but it is on my mind often.

And now for a few pictures from the weekend...

Swimming at some friends' pool Friday evening:

Trevin decided to try climbing the back deck stairs Mon. morning without help, and fell down 2 steps landing on his head. OUCH! But, he only cried for like 10 seconds after I picked him. I brought him inside & put him in his chair to get a wet cloth for his head and already he was smiling! His poor head looks horrible, though!

A few updates

Ok, so I realize I have a few things to update since the last post....
We all took our tamiflu, well, except Tom quit after a couple doses because he felt like that's what was making him throw up. And, after a quiet weekend around the house where Trevin & I escaped a couple times to get out of quarantine, everyone was back to their normal schedule by Tuesday. Jenna made it to school an entire week!

But, then the following Monday I got a call from the school around 11:15 letting me know Jenna was running a fever again, so I had to go pick her up. I took her straight to the dr's office and they said it must be the antibiotics she was on didn't heal the pneumonia, and that it had gotten worse. The doctor described it as a "bad" case since she could hear no air flow on one side of her lungs. So, she got a stronger prescription, and after missing another day of school, was back in the routine once again. As a side note, I just took her to her regular pediatrician this week for another follow-up to make sure the pneumonia was gone this time, and he said everything sounds great, so let's hope we're done being sick for a while!!!

Now, I want to go back & talk about the whole swine flu thing. Evidently down here the swine flue is going around like crazy. Somehow it's not on the national news anymore, which is just as well since it was sounding like a deadly thing. But anyways, from what I've been told, there is so much of it going around down here that the state has told dr.'s not to even send the tests in anymore, and just to treat those that test positive for type A. So, does this mean Mackenzie did test positive for swine flu? I'm still not sure of the answer to that, but she did test positive for type A flu and supposedly all those testing positive for type A are diagnosed as having swine flu. Luckily all she ever had as far as symptoms was a fever for a few hours and even that was low grade. The flu is still going around like crazy down here....all sorts of people from our church are sick, so I'm really hoping we got ours done & out of the way, and that we're safe since we've taken the medication for the flu!

A pharmacy at our house

Well, Jenna made it 2 days at school before coming home with a 102 fever! Yuck...

I took her to the doctor a week ago & they said she had an upper respiratory infection & put her on antibiotics. In the meantime, we had heard of several people from church who had been testing positive for different types of flu. Trevin ran a fever for a while last Thurs. evening, but after 1 dose of ibuprofen, he was fine.

Thurs. night, Tom came home & said he thought he was getting the same cough as Jenna. So, he headed to the dr. 1st thing Friday morning. He came home with an antibiotic as well for bronchitis & some cough medicine. As the day progressed, though, he said he felt worse & really felt like he was running a fever & felt like he had the flu. Jenna started a fever again Fri. afternoon as well, and by about 5:00 after Kenzie got home from school, she was running a slight fever and so was Camden!! A friend of mine from church called to let me know that another little girl at church had tested positive for swine flu, so to be safe, I loaded everyone up in the van & headed to a clinic that is open in the evenings. Long story short, they did a chest x-ray on Jenna because her oxygen level was a little low & found she had a mild case of pneumonia as well. Then, Mackenzie tested positive for type A flu, which is the type that can also be swine flu. So, they swabbed her nose again & had to send it off to be tested. But, since most everyone else was running fevers, the doctor said they probably still had some type of flu and he wanted everyone (including Trevin & I) on tamiflu since we were all exposed. I've never heard back whether Kenzie ended up testing positive for swine flu, so I'm sure she didn't, but even if she had, the dr. said you still treat it with tamiflu.

This is what we ended up with b/w all the doctor's visits & prescriptions...

And this didn't include the medicine that Jenna already takes on a daily basis for her calcium!

As of Tuesday, though, everyone was back to school & work and feeling better. Let's hope we don't go through this again! :)

Jenna's 1st Day!

Here's some pictures from this morning...



The funny thing about this last picture is that once I took the 1st picture of her in front of the bus, she took off running to get on the bus, and my camera couldn't snap a picture fast enough to catch her crossing the street, so you'll see she is just about to get on the bus!

On another note...getting ready this morning proved to be interesting since those of you that know Jenna well, know she HATES socks & is very particular about her socks & shoes! At their school, they have PE class every day, so every day they have to have gym shoes & socks to participate. They don't necessarily have to wear them to school, but they have to change into them for gym if they don't already have them on. Anyways, with that in mind, I took her to Wal-Mart yesterday to specifically find socks that she would wear...didn't go too bad. I had also bought her a new pair of school shoes Sun. night that she tried on Monday & said they were good. So, I removed the tags from the shoes & threw them away. This morning, she put a pair of socks on, said they didn't feel right, and I immediately reminded her that she had promised me she would wear these! Ok, so she agrees, then puts on her shoes, and now tells me that they don't feel right, and after taking about 5 steps towards the bathroom is whining that her feet hurt with every step. AAAGGGHHH!! I give up! I told her to take them off then & in the end, Mackenzie convinced her to just wear her white shoes (which are slip on shoes) and I packed her gym shoes & socks for her to take to school. I hope her teacher has better luck with her! :)

Just some misc. stuff

Here are some other odds & ends pictures from the summer:

We did some dog-sitting at some friends' house for a couple days..the girls LOVED it. Here they are with Bo & Bear:

Trevin sporting his black & blue head after falling out of the stroller:

Camden riding his bike:

Mackenzie taking Trevin for a ride in the jeep:

Jenna riding the 4 wheeler:

Trevin riding his "bike":

Vacation

We went on vacation the last week of July. Actually, the girls were on vacation a week before that, too. To make a long story short, my grandfather passed away July 15, so on July 16 the girls & I flew to NY for the funeral. It was already planned for the girls to spend the following week with my parents, so I flew back to AL by myself Sun. morning. We spent much of the week cleaning up the house, doing laundry, and getting packed for the big trip the following week. We left Thurs. evening & drove through the night to my sister's house in Ohio for the weekend. We arrived at 3:45 a.m.! On Saturday, I drove to meet my parent's south of Cleveland to pick up the girls. We left my sister's house Mon. morning & headed to Pokagon state park in Indiana for a week with much of Tom's family. We left there on Friday & headed to Fort Wayne to visit with friends, and finally headed back home to Alabama on Sunday. We had a great time every place we went and are so glad we got to spend time with lots of family & friends.

Playing at Aunt Lori's house...."So Big"

So proud of himself for riding the big boy toys:

Cousins Grant & Camden:

Mackenzie water skiing:

Camden's 1st pony ride:

Trevin all tuckered out from playing:

Playing in the sand with the cousins:

Trevin wearing Uncle Dan's "Captain's hat":

Jenna water skiing:

Cousins; (back row L-R: Jenna, Chance, Macey, Mackenzie, Hayley, Keira, Sara; front row L-R: Trevin, Camden, Josie, Emma)


And finally a family photo:

Trevin's birthday

Trevin turned 1 over the weekend. As usual, we didn't do much for his birthday. We've gotten fairly lazy about birthdays around here....except we will do a party for Jenna this year since Kenzie had one when she was in Kindergarten.

Anyways, we had a puppy dog cake that the girls helped me make and then the girls found some various things from around the house to wrap up for him to open. They were so excited to do this...they wrapped up toys and even some of his clothes! It was pretty funny to see them get so excited!

Looking at the cake a little confused as we all sang:

Then he wanted to pull it to himself & dig in:

And finally he dug in!!!

Getting ready for school

Today was the 1st day of school for Mackenzie, but last week we were able to go & meet both girls' teachers and take all of their school supplies to their classrooms. Jenna starts tomorrow, so I will do my best to post a couple more pictures tomorrow from her "big day"

Jenna & her teacher Mrs. Lee:


Mackenzie & her teacher Mrs. Smith: (this is actually her 1st grade teacher's step-sister!)

Mackenzie ready to go on her first day of 2nd grade:

Getting on the bus by herself for the last time...

Talladega

For those of you that may not remember, Tom and I got to do what's called the racing experience at Talladega Superspeedway. I bought a package where you ride with a professional driver around the track for 6 laps with another car. I had bought it as a gift for him for Christmas, and due to a mix-up in May, they gave me a free ride! So, a little over a week ago, we got to do our race! It was beyond spectacular! Unbelievable!! 180 mph around the track while racing side by side, or drafting is definitely a racing experience!

Here we were with our suits on waiting for our names to be called to race

Getting into the cars...Tom is in the blue #5, and I'm in the red #9


Racing side by side

Drafting

Coming into pit road at the end of the race

Jenna with her "boyfriend" Ty. His mom came to the track to watch the girls while we raced & take pictures for us

Now I know it looks in these pictures like Tom's car was always in the lead, but we actually kept switching back & forth for the entire 6 laps, and on the last lap when we raced side by side, my car actually BEAT Tom's by about half an arm length over the finish line :)

And let me mention that it was HOT the day we got to do it!! It was about 95 degrees, not including the humidity. By the time you put on the racing suit & a helmet, it's crazy hot. But, again, so worth it! They had a couple tents set up for the spectators to sit under, but it was still hot for the kids to sit out & watch us. Plus, my friend Jennifer took them up the tower that I think the media uses on race day, where you can see the entire track, and it's literally right next to pit road, so the kids were more than ready to go when we were done! But, they said it was fun to watch us going so fast. If you ever have a chance to do this, I would definitely recommend it!