Nana and Poppa Visit!

Charlotte and I had a very long but very enjoyable morning yesterday!  We got to spend some great time with Nana (my Dad's mom) and Poppa (Dad's dad)!  We used to go up to their house every Wednesday evening and meet my Dad and we would all have dinner together.  Both my grandparent's health declined over the past few months so we had to stop these Wednesday visits.

My grandmother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and has been going through treatments and surgery for that for the past few months.  She has handled it all with the best spirit and hopefully just one more surgery then a titch of radiation will be needed and she'll be cancer free.  My grandfather has a myriad of issues relating to his heart, diabetes, and spinal stenosis. Because of these issues, plus the fact that my grandmother cannot care for him any longer, he is currently residing in a long term health facility.  Unfortunately the facility he is currently in is in Smyrna, about 30 minutes away from Nana's house.  Because of these things, we haven't been able to visit as often, but hoping to remedy this soon!  Now that I have my Wednesdays off (and soon will have Thursdays too) I'm looking forward to making the visit to Nana's and the trek to Poppa's more often.

Anyway, back to yesterday!  We played some at Nana's with all the toys in the toy box, then loaded up in the car and drove to Smyrna.  Charlotte was a little freaked out at first as we wound through the halls towards Poppa's room, but after a few minutes in Poppa's room and making friends with a little bunny stuffed animal he had on his window sill, she warmed right up.  We got to spend some great time with Poppa!  He is looking and acting better than he had in a while, he was actually sitting in a chair vs. the bed, carried on conversation with us, and ate his lunch well too. (all things that haven't happened that well in the past few months)  We stayed for about 30-45 minutes until Charlotte was ready for lunch and Poppa was almost ready for an after-lunch-nap.  All in all, it was a great visit and I was so happy to see Poppa doing well.

For those of you that know Nana, you can see how much weight she has lost! She is a whole different woman!

It was difficult to get all 3 of us looking and smiling while Nana was trying to work the iphone camera! :)

At this point poor Charlotte was past her lunch time and almost at her nap time and we still had a 30 minute drive and had to pick up BBQ for lunch.  By the time we got to Nana's Charlotte was just about fed up and ready to eat some lunch!  We had a great lunch of BBQ and was able to enjoy a few minutes of outdoor time with Nana before we headed back home.



I'm so glad my grandparents/Charlotte's great grandparents live so close that we are able to have visits like this!  I'll cherish these memories that Charlotte is making with them.

This is Charlotte after a short nap once we got home at 2:00 - you can see she is still tired!  We had a lazy rest of the day and watched Tangled :)

Progress!

I feel like this past week has been filled with wonderful progress!!  It has made the start of this week so much better too!

First off, we successfully got a full week of the low carb diets under our belts!  Proud to announce a weight loss of 9 pounds!  Super excited to see that in the first week - I know it will become less and less per week as we go on, but I can't help but dreaming what losing this much weight a week would be like!  Overall, the diet wasn't as hard as I had remembered it and while I am already losing interest in some of the foods, seeing that 9 pounds off the scale feels better anyway!  Hopefully gonna try some new foods/recipes this week to change it all up!   I have decided that I will only be weighing weekly.  Before I got caught up so much in the numbers every day and could get really discouraged by it - so just a week at a time people!

Secondly, we got a treadmill!  I have been looking at craigslist for weeks now, every day, to find a free/cheap treadmill to get.  This one was $70 so a little higher than what I wanted but I feel like it is a good deal.   Thanks to my Dad and Jeff for picking it up and hauling it upstairs to our room!  So far I have worked out twice (I'm doing an every other day thing for now) and have walked a mile each time.  I am soooo out of shape people!   But the second time I was able to shave 2 minutes off my initial time!  The treadmill is old and has some quirks for sure, its  really a tad loud so a little hard to watch TV while I'm doing my thing, but I'm thinking if I keep at it long enough and prove that I'll use it maybe I'll get a new (ie quieter) one!



I'm sure the above two items of "progress" has really had a hand in this as well, but I just FEEL so much better!  My stress level is down, my productivily level is up, and my skin has finally cleared back up!  I account a lot of it to having this past week (and forever) without the extra two kids.  It's tough having 5 kids 3 and under anyway, but when 2 of them are having some major stress inducing issues, it does not make life easier!  I have gotten so much done, the house stays cleaner, and I am in a better mood.  Even Jeff has noticed the overall stress level in our house is so much lower.  Say it with me "ahhhhhh"  :)

This week I am looking forward to just 2 more days of childcare and 2 days in Owensboro Kentucky!  Another thing that letting these kids go has allowed me to do - have some days off :)  I'm happy that Charlotte will get to spend some time with her Nana and we'll have a little girls vacay!

I'll share a fun little story to wrap up this little post!  I got in my latest Scentsy order today, and Charlotte loooves when Scentsy comes in.  She loves to help me unpack it all, to smell all the bars, and then to climb in the boxes when they are empty.

She was so enthusiastic in getting the paper out!

Then it was her turn to sit in her box, smell her bars...

And watch TV in her new spot :)

Finally a Fab 5 Friday!

I have been absent on my Fab 5 Friday posts for 2 reasons  - lack of motivation, lack of fabulous things to post (I know that sounds uber melodramatic), and lack of time.  Ok, maybe 3 reasons.  Today I have lots of Fab things to say!

1. Babies babies and more babies!  My dear friends Wade and Allison Combs are bring Laney Sinclair Combs into the world today!!  I am so so so excited for them.  Their 2 year old son Hazen and Charlotte are super buds, I know he is going to be a great big brother! I have been praying for them all day during Allison's scheduled C-section and can't wait to meet Laney tomorrow morning.   AND more awesome baby news, my lifelong friend (and pastor) Josh Howerton and his wife Jana have been in the adoption process and received news that they have been chosen!  They will travel to KY on Monday to pick up Eliana Charis Howerton, a beautiful 1 month old baby girl!  I am beyond excited for them and the Howerton clan. Take a peek at Josh's FB status below - so cool!

The Combs Family (until today!)

2. I am now providing childcare for 4 kids part time instead of 6 kids part time - amazing what that changes for me!  Instead of having 5 kids (including Charlotte) 5 days a week, I'll have 3 kids 3 days a week, 5 kids 1 day a week, and then 1 day off!  This will last about 6 more weeks and then I'll just have 2 kids 3 days a week and 2 days a week of.  I know, it's a lot of numbers.  What it really means: my sanity level feels a little more back to normal, my house is a little more tidy, and I'm really looking forward to those mid-week days off.  It may not last forever for financial reasons, but I'm basking in it for now!

This is me and Charlotte doing puzzles, just the two of us :)

3.  Stockpile!  I know I have posted this before, quite a few times actually.  I tried a couple organizational things with it over the past few months and nothing really worked well.  This time I have it all downstairs in only 2 places, instead of spread out in 3+ places on 2 levels.  The biggest success here is that I have finally made my stockpile list! (Dry goods is done, fridge and freezer should be done soon)  I think it will be much easier to get my list and such done.  Woohoo!

Can goods on shelves, boxed items in tubs below (will be labeled)

Kitchen cabinet for cereal, chips, crackers (takes up too much space in a tub)

Sample of my stockpile check list

4.  I know you aren't supposed to list people, but Charlotte has just been super cute lately in developing her fashion sense, I have to count that as a Fab!

5. Low Carb.  We are back on the low carb diet!  While this is not my favorite diet, I am listing it as a Fab so that it can be motivation to keep on keeping on, and because it is a diet that I know works (I lost 70 pounds on it 2 years ago!) so it is fabulous :)  Sadly, I have gained backed that 70 pounds so it feels very much like I am starting over.  In some ways it was easy to lose that 70 pounds over 6 months, but thinking about it now, I can't imagine doing this for 6 months more, longer than that if I want to actually get down to my goal weight! But anyway, that is more info than this post requires for a Fab.

Amateur Photo Session!

Today was a beautiful sunny day, my 'work' day ended a little early, so Charlotte and I decided to head to the park!  Her biggest joy lately has been the slide  - "slide, fast, slide!"  She looked super cute today with her little pony tail and khaki capris so I decided to take our nice camera along.  That then turned into, let's take a different outfit and shoes and hair thing and voila!  Amateur Photo Session Commence!

We took "casual" ;0) photos with her capris and tshirt and pony tail while she was climbing all over the play gym and swinging. (and go figure, she never actually went down the slide today!)



Then we got more "serious" and went to the car to change into a cute little dress, sandals, and brushed the hair all curly like.  We took a walk in the grass and along the path and by Charlotte's request, across the bridge and the little creek.  She loved "run fast," and picking up leaves, and peeking through the rails of the bridge at the babbling brooke.


In the end I took like 182 photos... maybe a handful of those are even good!  I thought when I was out there clicking away with my little finger I was the greatest photographer and was taking perfect picture after perfect picture. :(  But hey, I got a few good ones and we had fun in the sun!!!  More photos are on Facebook or Mobile Me.

2 year well check up

...and concussion follow up!  What a day...

We had Charlotte's 2 year well child check up scheduled for today, so it turned into a follow up for her concussion as well.  Charlotte loved being in the lobby and seeing all the fish.  As soon as the nurse opened the door to walk us back... the tears started :(  I'm thinking once the nurse in the scrubs showed up and we started walking down these muted colored hallways, she was flashing back to our 3+ hours in the hospital and undergoing a tortuous time in the CT room.

She ended up crying the entire time the nurse was in the room with us, making it really hard to brag on Charlotte and all her milestones!  We cried through the taking of weight and height too, here are her new stats:  26 pounds in the 45th percentile (up from the 25%)  and 2 feet 9 inches in the 75 % (down from 85%)

Once the nurse left us alone, Charlotte calmed down and we played some games and read some books.  However, when the doctor came back in... tears again!  More here than ever, I saw how Charlotte was just like her momma - the more I cry, the more my face gets all red and white and splotchy, C's did the exact same thing!!   More crying through the talking, but we were able to go over all the important things.  Charlotte is doing wonderful with her vocabulary, motor skills, eating, growing and thriving!!   He did advise us to start her on some vitamins, so that's a new thing, but that's about it, just keep on keeping on.

As far as the concussion goes, he reiterated all the same things that the ER doc said - over the next 2 weeks we may still see signs of the concussion.  If any of them last longer than or happen often past a 10 minute period, we'll need to contact the doctor.  He assured me that it is very rare that anything else will happen, but you want to keep watch cause there is always a story about someone who thought they were fine and a week or two later something happens.

The next update on this topic won't be until her 3 YEAR appointment! Can you believe...

I'll leave you with a picture of my 2 year old from a couple days ago eating one of her first PBJ sandwiches!  Doesn't she look so very very grown up!

C is for Concussion

Well, we have had an eventful couple days!  A very special thank you to all those who have prayed and sent "get well soon" wishes to Charlotte.  The world of Twitter and Facebook is amazing at keeping friends, family, and our support system that spreads across the world updated at the push of a button.  As much info as I have been able to send out in 140 character bits, I know some people want to know what actually happened!  So here's Charlotte's story:

Yesterday, Tuesday March 1st, Charlotte and two of her little friends that I watch during the day were eating lunch at the table.  I was feeding the baby over on the couch with my back turned to the big kids.  Charlotte sits in a booster seat that is strapped to our wooden kitchen chair, she has tried before to scoot her chair back from the table by pushing off on the table top with her feet.  She has been told "no" multiple times and usually doesn't get very far.  This time was a different story!  She pushed hard enough that she tipped the entire chair backwards so it landed on it's back on the tile kitchen floor.  Thankfully Charlotte's head hit the wooden chair back and not the actual tile, but it was still a very hard fall.  (she was strapped in the booster seat so she did not actually fall out of the chair)

She was shocked at first, then started crying and didn't really want to be comforted.  Jeff was on his way home from a meeting at that point, but even with Daddy arriving she cried more on than off for the next hour.  Then the throw up began.  All her lunch came out in 3 successive throw up events - ugh!  She handles throw up like a champ but man oh man.  At this point we are worried about a possible concussion but I also had to send home 2 of the kids I watch for a stomach bug at the same time all this was happening so there was a possiblity the head bonk and the throw up was unrelated.  I went ahead and called her doctor and we talked over the signs to watch for: continuous throw up, irregular pupil size, and changes in balance, personality, or mental awareness.  They did say that she was allowed to sleep for up to 2 hours, since it was already past nap time at this point we went ahead and laid her down.

She slept for just over 2 hours and woke up throwing up again :(  At this point, she was crying, pretty docile, and while she could answer questions like she normally would - what color is this, who am I, what is this, etc - she seemed to be a little out of it.  We decided it would be best to head to the ER and get her checked out.  A huge thank you to Shelley Stedman who was over here in less than 5 minutes after my phone call to watch the 2 remaining kids for their last 45 minutes of care until they were picked up.

Once we got to the ER we did all the needed paperwork, registration, and triage care and were placed in the "Fast Track" with 2 people ahead of us.  All in all we waited about and hour and 15 or so to get back into the actual ER.  At this point Charlotte was still throwing up - in the car, in the waiting room, and then in our little hospital room.  We spoke with a physicians assistant and he seemed amazed by how many times she had thrown up, so that combined with her lethargy and docile behavior, he ordered a CT scan for our little bug.  This was to check for any brain bleeds, which could be either serious or something that would heal on its own.

This was the worst part of all this, in my opinion.  Once we were in the CT room, it took forever to actually get started, we had this one tech that was super loud and overly excitable which was making Charlotte more uncomfortable than making her feel ok with laying down on this bed thing.  They did bring Charlotte a little bear to take home so that helped calmed the waters for a minute.  The crying and kicking started when we had to lay her down, wrap her in a lead blanket, and hold her head still.  Ugh. Jeff and I were both holding her and singing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Rock-A-Bye-Baby" over and over while the machine moved her back and forth.  Prayers were answered when the 10 most important seconds of the scan, she held perfectly still and seemed mesmerized by our singing - thank you Jesus!

The next bit draaaaaged on for 30-45 minutes (Jeff wouldn't let me keep track of the time cause he knew I'd drive myself crazy)  So we all just sat in the little room and watched House Hunters and waited on the doctor.   We finally got the good news that the CT Scan came back totally normal!   Her diagnosis was officially a concussion, so we went over what the next 24 hours would hold, what to watch for, and were even told that she could show effects of the concussion for the next 2 weeks!  Amazing.  Charlotte was giving some anti-nausea meds which she threw up at first (at this point we were 3 hours into our ER stay and would have loved to have these meds a little earlier!) But we tried again with another piece of "candy" aka the anti nausea meds and a purple popsicle!  She scarfed that thing down and actually held it down!  We were given the all clear at this point to head home, boy were we all beat! (here is the only photo I took of the entire ordeal)



Charlotte watched tv and cuddled for about 25 minutes when we got home at 8, then she was ready for bed.  She crawled right into bed and we didn't hear a peep from her til 7:45 this morning!  She woke up crying, but hadn't thrown up.  She was hungry and thirsty so we started her out with an anti-nausea pill and juice.  Too much!  The juice all came right back up :(  I won't give you every detail of our day today, but we did have a little more throw up, but then were able to move into 3 hours of non-throw up time, so she had some snacks and some more juice, held it all down, and went for a nap. Unfortunately she only napped for about 45 minutes and woke up crying :(  I think she was too hot and sweaty to nap, she hadn't thrown up, maybe her head was hurting?  She has some ibuprofen in her, some crackers and apple juice, and while she is tired, she is playing some and watching tv, so that's good!

We already had her 2 year check up scheduled for today, so we are keeping that appointment and doing a concussion follow up as well.  So thankful that our CoverKids FREE insurance for Charlotte went into effect yesterday, March 1st!  Again, we have amazing friends and family and are so grateful to have you all praying for a quick recovery for Charlotte and for Jeff and I as we take the best care of her as possible.  Be watching twitter and facebook for updates!

Emo Post headed your way...

Some friends of mine call their complaining/emotional tweets "emo tweets" so I figured this would be an appropriate name for this blog post!  If you follow me on twitter, you'll notice a theme to my tweets lately - ugh.  That pretty much sums it up.  Emotionally, physically, mentally, I just feel 'ugh' and I've been pretty vocal about it.

I can't decide if I should just let it out and call it "transpariency" or keep it out of the public eye so I'm not making people feel awkward, or keep my troubles to myself becaue there is someone else that always has it worse.  Then that makes me feel like I shouldn't feel like this - I am so blessed!  I have a great husband who provides for our family and is able to work at home so we spend so much wonderful time together.  I have the cutest kiddo who is so smart and well behaved and easy to take care of.  I have a big house with room for everything we need.  And my family - how can I not feel blessed to have my fantastic family??  I know quite a few people who would love to have what I have.  And yet this week has kicked my butt. I feel like I want to crawl into bed and never get back out.

I won't go into detail, but my 'day job' is really stressing me out as each of the 4 kids I watch, as well as my own, have had issues in the past week or two that has added to the difficulty of watching 5 kids 3 and under during the week.  Jeff has been blessed by being super busy (which is rare in his business during the first couple months of the year) but this selfishly means he isn't as able to come downstairs and help me out, he is working many nights into the wee hours of the morning, so he is tired and stressed out on his own.  I have about 4 major projects that need to happen but don't have the energy or time to get them done.  This means my house is too cluttered by these mid-completed projects and my wonderful Merry Maids cleaning from last weekend seems to be disappearing bit by bit.  And then some how, I seem to have hurt my back and it keeps getting worse every time I get up in the morning.  How can I do any of this when it hurts to sit, stand, and move??  Let's not even get into my exhaustion and how I feel like I am ready to sleep any minute now.

So, does that feel like enough to be an 'emo' blog about everything that I feel 'ugh' about right now?  So how can I fix it?  I tried laying around the other day and doing the bare minimum, but it just meant the next day had more mess and more to-do's that had to get down.  I can't sleep in.  I can't get away.  I want to say that some 'girl time' or 'couple time' or 'me time' would solve it all, but I have no clue.  I also want to throw my hands up and quit this 'day job' of mine but logically, I know I can't.   So here I am, complaining to my computer and anyone who is 'listening.'  Maybe I'll go get a chiropractic adjustment today at least...

Then I was jumping on Facebook and I saw this on a friends status:

‎"'Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'"-Matthew 11:28-30

This is exactly what I need to hear right now.  This is exactly what I need to pray right now.  I know this isn't a quick fix, I don't really even see what it looks like in my life, but I find a bit of comfort in the thought of it and the fact that maybe I can acheive it.  Someday.  For now, just believing it in helps. ".... you will find rest for your souls..."