Swimming when there is snow on the ground!?

My friend, Rabia, informed me of a free swim at our local recreation department today at 3:00. I asked the kids if they wanted to go swimming. Once they realized we were not going swimming at Grammy's house and understood that we were swimming inside--where there was heat--they were very excited! We met Rabia and her family there and swam with them for about an hour. (they arrived before us and left before us). After they left we swam for another hour and "closed the place down." The kids had so much fun!!

I stopped by my mother's house (where we keep the kids life jackets because of their pool) to pick up their life jackets. I got Ryan's belt too. None of the three of them use these when they can touch--and Ryan only uses his when he jumps off the diving board--but I did not know what to expect or know how many people would be there and I thought it would just be better to know the three of them were not drowning.

This pool has a dome over it. It is an outdoor pool, but they put this tent thing over it in the winter time.

I love the last picture . . . in the set up of the "Free Polar Bear Swim" they gave you tickets to redeem. These tickets got each person a hot coca and a snow cone. Lydia and Emily wanted a snow cone and hot coca and Ryan and I just had hot coca. Nothing like sitting at the pool, with your hair wet from swimming, and drinking hot coca. Too funny!! Great day!!

Happy New Year!!!

I was so upset with myself on New Year's Eve when I received a text at 12:15 am, wishing me a Happy New Year, that woke me from a very good sleep. "I missed it all!" I thought to myself. Since Mike and I have had children, we typically invite another couple who has children over to celebrate with us, but this year Mike was scheduled to work New Year's Day and would be getting up quite early so we decided to skip the festivities and look at it as just another day. While I was sad then, I am really glad I got that sleep when I did.

On Friday (New Year's Day) at 9:05 AM, Mike calls from work saying he has a severe, sharp pain in his side and is going to the hospital. The kids and I get dressed and are at the hospital in record time. We find Mike laying in a room waiting to go down for a CAT/SCAN to see if they could officially identify the problem. They were leaning towards thinking it was a kidney stone, but they would not know without looking. 4 hours later the 5 of us were sent home with pain narcotics and told the size of the kidney stone was "moderate" and someone of Mike's stature could pass it naturally. They gave him directions to follow up with the family doctor as soon as he could. Keep in mind, this is a Friday and is New Year's Day--Doctor's offices are only taking emergency situations. No one ever died from a Kidney Stone so we were instructed to take the pain medication and the stone should pass in a few days.

Friday, in the middle of the night, Mike experiences a lot of pain and has waited too long to take the medication. After talking to someone in the ER we double up the dosage and eventually it relieves the pain enough for Mike to fall back to sleep about 2 hours later.

Saturday pain continued, but Mike was able to sleep some. In fact, he ate dinner with us that night and Emily did not feel like eating. We were eating some of her favorites and we thought it was odd that all she wanted to do was drink something. She went back to her room and laid down-another strange thing for her. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later her lunch came back up. Two more times in a 3 hour period and she finally fell asleep. 1:00 AM I am scared awake by Mike who is rolling in pain. We try medicine, doubling up, etc. and it does not touch it. In his decision to go back to the ER we decide not to wake the kids since Emily had been sick so the ambulance came to get him. They arrived about 2:15 AM. At 5:45 AM my phone rings saying my husband is ready to come home and I need to come get him. I put coats on the kids, carry them to the van, and we head to the hospital. Pick him up, carry everyone back inside (Mike was able to walk on his own--with his new pain medication--trying something else), and try to go back to sleep. Ryan and Lydia did not end up going back to sleep so we were up for the day.

Sunday night at 12:30 am (Monday morning) Mike awakes again doubled over in pain. He takes 4 Percocet in a 2 hour period and it does NOTHING for his pain. After checking with the ER to make sure this would not kill him, he decides he needs to go back to the ER. So, again, I put coats on the kids and I carry them all out to the van. I can't stay there with Mike because of the kids (this was hard to just drop him off). The kids and I go back home, carry them all back in the house and they fall back to sleep by 2:00 am or so. With the anticipation that I will be receiving another call to come get Mike, I tossed and turned and never really slept. I contacted the hospital several hours later to see what was happening since I had heard nothing. The Urologist had been contacted in the middle of the night and instructed the ER department to admit him--that he would be in to see him in the morning.

8:00 I put Ryan, Lydia and Emily on the bus and drive to the hospital. The Urologist arrived as I was coming in. He talked to us telling us that the kidney stone is not moving the way they expected and told us our options. He mentioned this "moderate" kidney stone was 4.5 mm. Typically, if a kidney stone is less than 4 mm they say the person can pass it on their own, but bigger than that and they don't send you home--unless it is a holiday of course :(. He told us we could wait it out or get put on the list for surgery later in the day. There is a procedure where they take a scope in to "blast" the kidney stone and "suck out the fragments." There were 8 people signed up in front of Mike so the wait was going to be quite long. I was not at the hospital 15 minutes and I received a call from the school saying Lydia had gotten sick and someone needed to come pick her up. In my panic I am not certain what to do with my sick daughter since I can not take her back to the hospital and I need to be there with Mike. My parents, who live about 40 minutes from my house, are in Florida and are clearly not available. My mom has an amazing friend, Alice, who is also a retired teacher. She cancelled all of her plans on Monday so that I could leave my sick, throwing up daughter with her and head back to the hospital. I left the hospital around 2:15 to go meet Ryan and Emily as they got off the bus. When I left, Mike still had not gone into surgery. I took them to my center where my wonderful friend, Rabia, kept them until she got off work. We exchanged vehicles so she would have access to the van, to take them home, and I headed back to the hospital.

When I arrive at the hospital around 4 he has just left. We were told the procedure would take 45 minutes to 1 hour. After he had been gone almost 2 hours I really began to panic. I contacted my sister-in-law (Destiny), who works in the OR, but her shift was over and she had gone home. I texted a million questions to her on the length of time and what was happening and why was he not finished yet, etc. In my panic I know I drove her nuts, but she made me feel better by telling me what was probably happening and why it was taking so long and that if they were having complications they would DEFINITELY be letting me know!! At 7:05 they wheeled him up from recovery telling us that he would need to stay the night and be discharged tomorrow. I contacted Rabia (at my house now with the kids) to tell her what was happening and when I would be home, etc. and she tells me that on their way home Ryan got sick in the van. "UGGGHHHH!!! What is going on!?" is going through my head. Now I have left two of my throwing up kids with my friends (at least they used to be my friends :))

I get home at 9:00 and to my children being in bed and Ryan having thrown up one more time. I end up getting sick myself prior to the night coming to an end. Whatever this crap was it was VERY contagious and I am just praying Mike does not get it!! Maybe all these trips to the hospital have kept him out of the germs.

I am happy to announce Mike's grandparents brought him home this morning around 9 AM. He is in a little pain due to his stint, but all in all is in good shape--just tired--like the rest of us. Ryan, Lydia and I are home today recovering. Hoping tomorrow will get us back to some normalcy. We want to thank everyone who helped us out, called and prayed with and for us!! You are all wonderful and we love you all!!!

To our family and friends, we hope you all had a wonderful New Year's and here's to a awesome 2010!!

Three for tea

I am such a lucky person! Today was such a neat day! First of all, since I work 4, 10 hour days, today was my day off. I started my day by putting Ryan on the school bus. At 10:00 I reported to Ryan's classroom where I volunteered until 12:20 (I am able to volunteer every other Friday for approximately 2 hours each time--I would volunteer every Friday, but Mike works every other Friday and I can't take Lydia and Emily with me). I love volunteering there! The kids are great and I enjoy spending that time with Ryan. I also really enjoy helping Ms. Clark (Ryan's teacher)--she is really great and he really likes her!

After my volunteer work Lydia, Emily and I went to Ms. Hardesey's Tea Room to meet my friend Rabia and her daughter, Frances. Ms. Hardesey's Tea Room is an old house in downtown Harrisonburg that has been converted into a restaurant/tea room. We had an official tea party today. All three girls dressed in their best princess dresses and pretty shoes and sat at the table with their tea cups. They all laid their napkins on their laps and drank their Tutti Fruity flavored tea out of the kid sized tea cups and saucers. Rabia and I each had our own tea in adult sized tea cups and saucers. We ate lunch and finished up with apple spice and cinnamon scones. It was so much fun and such a neat Halloween tradition that hopefully Rabia is up for doing each Halloween with our girls.

Gus Bus Birthday

I hate to admit that I am just now blogging about something that happened last Saturday! Last Saturday we were invited by Rabia and her two children to accompany them to The Gus Bus Birthday Party. There is a reading program here in Harrisonburg called The Reading Road Show. The Reading Road Show provides book bags to the area preschools and daycare facilities that are filled with books. These books are swapped out each week so the children are exposed to many different books over the course of the year. In addition to the book bag swapping, the Gus Bus is part of the Reading Road Show and comes to the preschools one day a month, inviting the children to climb aboard. The Gus Bus is a Bookmobile type vehicle that is designed for children. Mr. Mike drives the Gus Bus and reads books to the children while theyare on the bus and sings songs with them. They LOVE it!!! It is such a wonderful program that is now in it's fifth year. This non-profit program celebrated it's fifth birthday last Saturday by inviting all of the vehicular friends of Gus's. Gathered at the convocation center were buses, tractors, cranes, race cars and dump trucks that the kids were able to climb over and through and pretend to drive. All five kids had a wonderful time!! The highlight of the day was having fun with the James Madison University gymnasticteam. They brought mats out to let the kids flip and walk on a balance beam. I believe the kids flipped for 45 minutes anyway:). They also had a scavenger hunt for the kids. While climbing on the different vehicles you were to look for small stuffed bunnies. Each bunny was numbered--you were to identify where you found each bunny. After compiling all of the bunny locations, you took your paper up to collect you prize. Ryan picked a moose mask and Lydia and Emily picked Reading Rainbow shirts. We finished off the day with a $1.00 hot dog for everyone and some free ice cream--we then went home for naps. It was great!

Our County Fair

On Thursday, we took the kids at the Preschool to the county fair. We took 10 two year olds, 10 three year olds, and about 15 to 17 four year olds and school agers. It was great!! We saw cows, chickens, rabbits, sheep, goats, and turkeys. My two year olds were able to pet a cow, baby goat, and a sheep. They were so excited!! Mike was off work that day and was able to come along with Lydia and Emily and ride the bus with them and everything!! Ryan was along on the trip as well, but was with his class. They rode in a different vehicle and they did some other things that my guys and the three year olds did not do. After seeing all the animals, we went to the little circus that was inside the fairgrounds. The kids loved it!! Especially watching the motorcycles driving in the "globe of death." After this great fair time we all parked ourselves on some picnic tables, under a shelter, and ate our packed lunches. It was great!! As you can see, we made Mike our balloon transporter.That evening, we decided to go back as a family. One of the perks of being a police officer in Rockingham County, is that you and your family get into the fair free of charge. We decided we should not pass up this opportunity. Upon arriving we had dinner. Eating at the fair, quite a big deal!! In venturing over to the rides, we ran into my friend Rabia and her family. Her daughter, Frances, and Ryan rode the motorcycles together while Lydia and Emily hitched a ride on another one. After riding the motorcycles and the cars we were out of ride money:) (buying tickets for three kids to ride . . . takes a lot-we stop after two rides per child). Luckily, we still have children that enjoy the "free rides" as well. The kids love sitting on the tractors just as much as the rides that cost money! Frances and her little brother, Henry, joined us at the tractors as well. While hanging out on the tractors, we ran into my parents. They were walking around checking things out. After meeting up with them, Rabia and her family left to get some dinner and we visited the livestock animals as well as the petting zoo. After eating ice cream and stealing a peek at the tractor pull, we headed out of the fair. All three kids fell asleep before making it home. No one made it to bed before 10:00 pm. It was a great day and night!!!