Fever, Fever, Fever!

Today is day 4 of fever. Well, yesterday was a fever free day, so I guess it's actually day 3 with fever. Rachel woke up Thursday morning and told me she needed medicine. (sometimes I think she is a little hypochondriac!) Anyway, that afternoon, the daycare called me at work to let me know she was running a fever of 102.4. So I left work since the man was in Houston for a doctors appointment himself.

When I got to the daycare, she was listless and burning up! I called her doctor (cause I am the momma that runs to the doctor) and since she had just gotten over the bronchitis and ear infection, they told me to bring her in to the office. We were a work in, so you know what that means....yep...we sat and waited for 2 1/2 hours to see a doctor! The only positive thing about that is that Rachel slept the whole time.

Once we got in they took a swab to check for strep and it came back negative. Therefore, the diagnosis was a virus. A virus that they had been seeing with high fevers for 24 hours up to 5 days! Her fever has been as high as 103.4 and that's with Motrin and Tylenol!

She was fever free on Saturday, but woke up this morning telling me she needed medicine. She was on Carlton's side of the bed and he said, "Angie, I think you need to get the thermometer." Sure enough her temp was 101......UGH!

Pray for my little princess!

Overdue!

Below are some pictures I have been meaning to load for a LONG time now! I am just so busy and overwhelmed with all this new stuff at school that I just haven't had the time. SO...here you are....

Some summer fun with cousin Caleb....He adores Rachel!

Rachel and Timothy's first catch.....and some fries!

Timothy, Rachel and I joined Daddy at Disciple Now this year. Carlton wasn't able to get them their own DNow shirts, so I made them their own.....they loved them....and everyone else thought they were cute. Look at her face!!! LOL

My Boy's on Timothy's first day of school!

Timothy and Rachel....they really do love each other like this A LOT!

I don't do pictures well(I close my eyes all the time), and almost left this one out...but what the heck!

Timothy and his Kindergarten teacher.

There....got it done! Can check it off the list....now on to other stuff!!!

Rachel's Twirling Debut

Well tonight was the football game that Rachel had been waiting for! Well, kind of....

She was suppose to "march" in the homecomming parade with the twirlers, but that didn't work out so well, therefore there are no parade pictures! :) Then after the parade I kept asking her if she was really going to twirl on the track with the girls and she kept assuring me she would. But when we first got there, she didn't want to and she started to cry. :(

However, with the help of some amazing teenagers, she particpated and had a blast!

We didn't stay for the game though since she has still been struggling with the bronchitis, and that didn't make her happy. But I would rather her continue to get well than have her happy this time!

My Summer Thus Far (part 1)

Well, I tried to load some pictures to go with this post but for some reason I am having a tuff time with Blogger here at my parents house. I wanted to catch you all up to date on what's been going on so far this summer. I know that my cousin Melissa checked my blog everyday before school was out so I told my mother she is probably having "withdrawals"! LOL

Well, where do I start......I SO wish I had pictures....

Let's see......Ok...the first thing that happened after school let out....a TUBING TRIP! Carlton took a group of youth on an overnight trip to New Braunsfels (sp) and I actually got to go without the kids! It was a much needed trip for me. We had a blast.

The next couple of days I spent getting Rachel's costume ready for her first recital. Did I mention I wish I could have loaded some pictures! Well, this was an interesting 1st recital to say the least. The dress rehearsal was extremely long! The dads were told to be there for the Daddy/Daughter dance part of the rehearsal @ 6:30 so they could be on stage by 7:00. Well, they were all there, many of them against their will, however they didn't go on stage until 10:00!!No, I am not kidding. So you can guess that the daddy of this house was very frustrated! At this point he had been the only staff member in town since two staff resigned and our pastor was on a trip in the Holy Land! He had spent the day with a family that he was preparing his first adult funeral for that day and was suppose to meet with them the following morning! He was one pooped Daddy!

The next day, Saturday, was the recital. We hung around the house as much as we could, the leisurely got ready. I took Rachel and left the house at 5:45 to arrive at the theater by 6:00 for what I thought was a 7:00 recital. BUT I was ALL wrong! The recital started at 6:00! As I was pulling down the street to the theater, the line mother called me and said "panically"...."Angie, where are you!!! We are lining up!"

Me... "No way, are you kidding me....I thought it started at 7!"
Line Mom.."No, it starts in 5 minutes!"
Me..."Oh MY GOSH!!! I am outside, be in there in a minute...."

Then I frantically get on the phone and call Carlton to tell him to get there NOW! So, after me explaining to him that I had gotten the times wrong, we hung up and he got himself and Timothy dressed.

In the mean time I realized as we were getting out of the car that I had left Rachel's costume ON THE BACK OF THE CHAIR AT THE HOUSE!! I got on the phone and called Carlton....

C - "What...where is it???"
M - "On the chair......hurry....they are on after production!"

As I am running in, the other mother's start asking "where is Rachel's costume?" Personally, I am about to have a nervous breakdown. Then my phone rings.......

Okay, this has gotten long, and my kids are giving me fits right now, so I will have to finish this later.....hopefully tonight, but if not, then tomorrow....come back, and hang tight, it gets CRAZY.....broken glass...cracked walls......OH YEAH.....it gets CRAZY.....

Girls Night Out and My Ballerina

Well, it has been a week and a half now and I am FINALLY getting some pictures on here from our first ever GNO! I guess it really should have been called GNI since we stayed IN all night. Anyway....for some reason most of the pictures I took came out too dark, so these were some of the better ones. Just showing some of the fun we had.

My princess stayed with us! She was a hoot..... I think in this picture the time was about 12:30 and yes she was still running!!

Here she is eating her "mushmellow". That's what she calls them!

Some of the girls wanted to straighten my hair. You know it has only been curly since having both kids, mainly since Rachel! Anyhow, as they were doing it, someone thought it would be funny to turn me into a WHO. So with they accomplished that with help if a plastic cup and a scrunci. Then in the picture below is one of our girls....she has long hair too and a lot of it, so they did the same to her!

These two were a hoot, you'll see their handy work below. They decided to tape two of the girls that went to sleep to the floor! I have to say I did have a little to do with that....helping at least!

These were some other helpers! They had the tape ready when we came back for it!

Displaying their handy work!

This is the "All Night Crew" Not one of us went to sleep. Oh, there is also the one behind the camera.

My princess being woke up to head home! Would you believe that she stayed up til 2:30!!! I am not joking, that girl is a party animal!

After we got home Rachel and I went straight to my bed and slept til 12:00! Could have slept longer, but my dear hubby just had to mow the grass!!! LOL

The pictures below are of Rachel. I had to practice getting all of her hair slicked back for recital in a couple weeks. SO, with the help of water and some hair glue, we got it back. For some reason she wasn't wanting to give me a smile, so she was trying to frown!

Then after I snapped a few shots of her, she wanted to take one with her "brodder"! Look at him all beat up! He is ALL BOY!!!! He never goes a day without some kind of scratch or bruise!

Spoke TOO soon!!!

Ok, many of you had been asking how I was feeling and as of Monday morning I was feeling much better. A little bloated from all the Prednisone, but better. Then came my drive home.....

On the way home I called and talked to my mother for a few minutes. After I got off the phone, I started noticing a tight feeling in the muscle under my chin. Then within seconds there was a numbness in my face. Do you remember going to the dentist and having that mask with the "laughing gas" put on your face? Do you remember the way your nose and mouth started feeling a little numb? Well, that is exactly how my face felt! My gums even felt like they had rubbed some of that cherry flavored numbing gel on them. VERY WEIRD!!!!

SO, I called my hubby (yes I called him first...I was a little freaked out by it all) then called the doctor's office. After explaining to 3 or 4 different people what was going on, they told me to come on in to the office. (little did they know I was parked outside about to come in ANYWAY!)

I got in, explained what was going on to the doctor, and he was completely dumbfounded! He actually told me he had no idea what was going on. He looked in my mouth and could see where the floor muscles were swollen. He ordered a lot of blood tests (of which he said would take a few days to come back), made me give a urine sample (of which came back fine) and gave me ANOTHER steriod shot in the hip! (That's the 3rd one in less than two weeks now mind you!) Then he had his nurse call the Allergist/Immunologist's office and tell them that I needed in there to see them the next day.

Finally, at noon on Tuesday, they called and wanted me there at 1:00. SO I headed on over. ALL they did was take more blood and told me to come back in a week to go over the results! I was not pleased with this doctor nor his nurse practicioner. Maybe because I am so tired and worn out, but they were not very informative. All he really said was that it didn't sound like a true "angioedema" but that it sounded like it could be something "metabolic". He didn't seem to want to expand on that, and I was too tired, physically and emotionally, to ask anymore questions.

I figured I will have to go in to see him next Tuesday and I will have a list of questions for him when I do!

Just continue to pray for me!

On another note....Rachel's speech evaluation went really good! She did wonderful and they told me that they saw nothing that couldn't be corrected without some good modeling at home! They bragged about how intellegent she is for a little 3 1/2 year old. I told them that I think she hides that intelligence from me sometimes! HeeHee....not really....I knew she was very smart for her age, I was just a little concerned about her language and how it was affecting her behavior. They were all in agreement that her language was well above normal and that she is just a strong-willed stubborn child! :) (all said in love of course!)

So, just pray for her and us as we continue on to learn how to raise this very strong-willed stubborn child of ours......

A Couple of Must Reads!!

Ok, I don't have much time to post today, but I will take time later to respond to both of these blog posts.

The first one is over at Angel's place...it is the Dangerous Surrender Chapter Two post! You must read it! There is so much I want to share about that post, but it will have to wait a day or two. I just don't have the time to type it all up in one sitting.

Then next one is over at Rachel Anne's.....it is titled The Goodest Mom. Go read it! (Am I sounding a little pushy?? Oh well!!

On another note...I am feeling much better. I still haven't heard from the doctor's office yet about the scheduling with the Allergist/Immunologist, but I am sure I will soon. And for Rachel, tomorrow is her speech/language evaluation with the school district. Please pray for her in the morning.

Thanks to you all!

MORE updates!

First of all, if you haven't read my post below this one....titled Surrender....go read it....and visit the other blogs that I link to, they are really good!



Ok, now for updates....



Rachel - We went to the ENT on Wednesday. We discovered that the tube that we thought was still in her right ear was not there any longer. As a matter of fact, it was rolled up in a ball of wax that was literally the size of my pinkie finger nail (the pink area that is)! After they pulled that ball of wax out they sent us down for the hearing tests. In doing the tests we discovered that she does have about a 45% hearing loss in that right ear. The doctor later informed us though that the loss should be reversible once we get rid of the thick fluid that was build up behind the ear drum.



That's right......thick fluid!



Obviously we had tubes put in her ears the first time because of this fluid. SO, what's next.....Well, the doctor has us giving her Zyrtec every day for 30 days. Instead of jumping into a second set of tubes, he would like to see if this is just an allergy issue. IF after 30 days the fluid is STILL there, then we will look into another set. And if we do put in another set, then he will also remove her adenoids and her tonsils. Her tonsils have always been big, just like my mother's. They literally look like quarters in the back of her throat. And if they do this, he will draw some blood to do allergy screenings.



SO what does that say about her behavior....



Well, to me it says this.....If she has had this issue off and on for months (or longer, maybe even since she got the tubes) then this could be a large factor in her language/speech delays. If her frustration is linked to the fact that she doesn't feel understood, then this is something I, and speech/language therapy, can work on with her. It also says to me that some of the behaviors could be because she has felt all this pressure in her little head from the fluid build up and it has caused some these behaviors. I know that when I have a lot of sinus pressure I don't want to be messed with...do you?



Knowing all this sets me a little more at ease with all these behavior issues.....this is something that would be a lot easier to deal with than if it were all some kind of behavior disorder.



Now, for my GYN visit.........



Well it seems that my uterus is completely retroverted. It lays so far back that it sits on my rectum....I know that may be a little TMI for some. Because of this, my cervix is very tilted too and when hubby and I, well you know...... then his you know.....it hitting my cervix which causes so much pain at times that all action has to cease! We have tried all kinds of different things to make it better, but nothing really seems to help. This, on top of several other "hormonal" issues I have makes a hysterectomy sound really good to me right now. It all comes down to a "quality of life" issue to me.

We have two beautiful children. I have had two "chemical" pregnancies and this new doctor agreed with me that with this retroverted uterus, I could possibly have more if I were to "try" to get pregnant. However, the possibility is the same either way. The problem with a hysterectomy for me is not "having it all removed", the problem is that it can not be done the easy way.

What I mean by that is I can not have it done laproscopically. Back in college we discovered that I have "pelvic kidneys". My kidneys are fused at the bottom and are pulled forward into the pelvic area. They lay parallel to the ground right under my belly button......I know....FREAK!! (That's what my hubby says!!)

Because of this, I can not have laproscopic procedures, however, I didn't realize this until I visited this doctor. No other doctor had ever told me this before. SO, since this is the case, the only time I can "afford" to have this kind of surgery would be during the summer, when I already have time off. HOWEVER, we all know that a YOUTH MINISTER's busiest time is during the summer!

Just pray for me.....I'm a little bummed about it all. I know that all things happen for a reason. Maybe God wants to bless us with another little angel...who knows. The pain is not so much that I can't function, but it gets a little burdensome on hubby if you catch my drift! But he is a good man, and very understanding!

My brain is so scattered right now and things are starting to feel as if I am rambling....

Oh, pray for Timothy....his eye appointment is tomorrow at 1:30. I'll let you know about that later.

Pictures

Ok, I was FINALLY able to load all these pictures! WHEW....it took a while! As you can tell I have not had my camera with me at work in a while. These pictures are all from the month of April.

Come back tomorrow for an update on my doctor's visit. I wanted to wait till I took Rachel for her hearing check this afternoon. That way I could post them both together. Oh, Timothy's eye appointment was scheduled this morning for Tuesday, 29th of April...next week.

So, let's get started.....

These first few are from Tables On Parade. The women of our church all decorate tables and the men serve us dinner. We have special music and a speaker that night as well. This is my table. Simple, just like me! :) There were some AMAZING tables for sure....However, I didn't get pictures of them all, there were so many and I was too busy getting mine together and hosting it as well.

Here are the kids after we finally got home that night. They were dying to smell the roses in the car. So as soon as we got home, just barely in the back door, Timothy insisted that I put them on the floor so he could smell them!

Now, this next set of pictures are just a sample of the ones I have from the Sage conference at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler. If you all haven't heard of Sage, then go check them out! Great girls ministry! The theme for the weekend was Simplicity: feedom from chaos. The talked about ways to simplify your life so that you have more time to focus on God and your relationship with Him. They also do a fashion show/slide show of ways to dress/not to dress. The girls we took had a great time....although, several of them didn't even want to go!

This is Nolen. He was our bus driver. You can tell he was very excited about the weekend! LOL I snapped this picture and told him that it WOULD be posted somewhere at some point. So, Nolen, here it is! (He said I was wrong for taking this shot!)

Merritt Johnston is the main speaker. She is awesome. The girls loved her.

A time for praisin' and worshipin' our Lord with the ALL GIRLS Sage band! Our girls thought they "rocked!" Megan Charles was the "lead" singer for the group. She is on staff at Green Acres as their Girls Minister.

Rachel's 1st Tea Party! She had a blast....well...to be honest, she was very shy and reserved for the whole thing..... They had princess dresses for all of them to wear and then they had two young girls there doing hair and makeup....Rachel insisted that she sit in my lap while they "dolled her up". Then she made her way to the table. The mother of this birthday girl had gone to different garage sales and thrift stores/antique shops to find (a ton of) tea cups and saucers. They were all cute! She put them all on the table at each place setting and then the girls got to choose which one to sit at; this is the one that Rachel chose.

The special prize for the party was that Cinderella came! The girls were so excited! Rachel finally smiled! But she was still hesitant of Cinderella until Mommy talked to her too.

Now for my little MAN....well, Sunday before last he decided that he wanted to wear a suit with a tie just like Daddy does. We had this coat, shirt and tie that someone had given him a little over a year ago that had been hanging in his closet. It HAD been too big for him, but not anymore! However, the shirt would not button around the neck! It fit him perfect everywhere else, but would NOT button around the neck. He was very upset about it but still determined to wear the tie....so I did the best I could....I clipped that little Veggie Tale clip-on tie to the next button down.

What's a Momma to do on a Sunday morning as she is trying to walk out the door (already running 15 minutes late!!) and her little man is upset!

Isn't he handsome!!! Sunburn (from t-ball and the first "warm/sunny Saturday in months), bummed chin and all!

Well, that's it....actually there were many other pictures to share....but these were just a few to highlight the month so far! (there is still more of it to come...)