Alayna in the ER last night

Last night Kristi picked up Alayna from school and instead of playing, Alayna was sitting on the step watching everyone else play. Kristi thought that Alayna was in time out so she asked the substitute teacher and she said "Alayna was just a really quite little girl." Kristi said, "No, this means that she is sick. She would be in the middle of playing if she felt good." Kristi brought her home and Alayna was ok...for about 10 minutes. Then she started screaming and holding her left ear. We gave her some medicine and Papa rocked her until dinner. At dinner she cried the whole time so Kristi told her to get her jammies on and we would spend the night rocking her. But, we could hear her screaming in pain while she was changing her clothes so Kristi said that she couldn't take it and took her to the ER.

After just a few minutes the ER doctor said that she thought she was a very sick little girl and was sure she had strep throat along with other stuff. They did a strep test and it was positive. On top of that she has an ear infection in her left ear. The doctor said that she wasn't worried about her cough since her lungs sounded clear. We were afraid that she might have a touch of pneumonia. They gave us some medicine to help the pain in her ear and some antibiotics for the strep.

They said that she is really contagious so she can't go to school today. I bet you can't guess who is going to get to spend quality time with Alayna today...yep! Me. I charge a lot...10 kisses and 5 hugs. I am not sure that Kristi and Alayna can afford this after paying for the week of daycare. In fact, Tom and I have decided that we might keep her home for the rest of the week just to make sure she gets totally over this and ready for the full week next week. I am off all week and Tom is off from Wednesday until Monday. We wanted to do a lot of stuff like go to the movie during the day, but will have to change our plans to either include a 5 year old or not go at all. What we do for our granddaughter.

Happy Birthday Owen

Today is Owen's birthday...Should I sing? I saw the date on my computer when I turned it on this morning and thought about him. So, Happy Birthday to Owen, Happy Birthday to Owen, Happy Birthday dear Owen, Happy Birthday to Owen. And many more!!!!!

Now, you can take your fingers out of your ears...I am done singing. :) And Tom said that I should go on the show "Don't forget the Lyrics" since I always know the songs...I don't want to embarrass the family with my singing!!

Christmas with Carl & Janice

We had a great time with Carl and Janice for our Christmas celebration on Saturday. We spent the day with everyone getting a chance at the Wii game with a lot of rivalry! We had a great meal and everyone laughed a lot. This was a great day!

What a day!

This has been a nice day - spent the morning cleaning and paying bills this went to lunch with the girls at work. Now, I am watching the 1st season of the Partridge Family and and working on stuff for work. Why can't I have a nice TV at work that I can watch stuff like this while working? Mom is sick and has spent most of the last two days in her apartment. I think Alayna and Kristi were a bit too generous with Christmas presents and gave her this cold. I want to spend the next few days in my scrapbook room - I am so far behind.

Christmas 2008

This has been a nice, quiet Christmas. Alayna came home from school on Tuesday under the weather. She didn't care that Santa was thinking about coming, she just wanted to be left alone. She went from a 98 degree temperature to 102 degree temperature and a really deep cough. So, this made for a quiet night since most of her medicine knocks her out. She didn't like the one medicine Kristi gave her so she turn around and threw up. She has that part down pat - gags and then it is all up! Of course, that is the medicine that was working the best. Today she is feeling better, still have the cough but no fever. Yesterday, Christmas day she didn't even care about opening gifts - she looked like she didn't want to be here. We told her that we would wait until after she took a nap and she said no. But, as soon as we were done she was in bed.

I am not sure if the kids liked their "WOW" present this year. Tom and I paid their personal property tax to help them out. We thought that would be the most practical present since it is something they both needed. Brian got a lot of stuff for work like long underwear, gloves, and mugs for his hot chocolate. Kristi got several different pieces of jewelry and a new faucet for her bathroom. Mom got a lot of sewing stuff, a new faucet, and night gown and robe. Tom got jeans, socks, and lighthouses. I got a dash cover for Amy (my van) and a beautiful pendent with rubys which is Alayna's birthstone. I also got a shark to help clean the floor in the kitchen.

Alayna and I made 2 batches of cookies today and decorated them. I have to give some to a girl at work, we are taking some to Granny & Grandpapa's tomorrow, and mom is taking some to her friends. Tom cut a tree after have to make a run to Home Depot for a new chain saw. Alayna slept about 4 hours today - which is what she needed.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

The day before the day before Christmas!

Well, my work week is finally over and I now have 12 days off work. I don't have to go back to work until January 5th - and it will be a blessing. I have soooo many things I want to get done before I go back to work and I have a feeling that I will not get to most of them. But, it will be nice to be off work even if I have several big reports that I have to finish before I go back.

Tom is going to work on December 29th and 30th, but otherwise he is off as well. He wants to catch up on his movies, cut wood, and relax. I am all for that!

Kristi is off the rest of this week and then only January 1st next week. We plan on taking Alayna to school all next week so Tom and I can get other stuff done. I am not sure that will work, mainly because if she finds out that we are home she will want to be here as well.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. The kids wanted a snack and game day. So, we are having a lot of snack foods and you eat when you want. I am not making breakfast either - it will be a junk food day with a lot of Wii games. I even bought 2 new ones to play tomorrow - some classic games. We are going to let Alayna to open a few of her presents since she has had several come in the mail. It is suppose to be snowy tomorrow, which will make it really nice to stay inside and play. Alayna and I have to make cookies (if she feels like it) since she wants Santa to have "fresh cookies." Mom and I usually go to a beautiful church downtown for the midnight Christmas Eve service but the weather might keep us at home this year. Mom and I both love the huge pipe organ they have and it has become a wonderful tradition that we share. We have been going to this service for about 10 years now. It always amazes me that Santa waits until we come home and go to bed before he arrives - so it is well after midnight before he visits our house.

Alayna is really feeling under the weather tonight. She has a deep chest cough and you can tell she doesn't feel well. She really amazes me because she has such a high tolerance for pain. She will be very sick before you realize it. I hope that a few days at home resting will allow her to enjoy time with Granny & Grandpapa on Saturday. I figure that she will sleep a lot tomorrow.

I got the rest of the presents wrapped tonight. I can't believe that we ended up with this many presents under the tree since we were not going to do much this year. So many of them are practical gift - something that someone really needed.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas. Enjoy your time with your family, laugh, and love a lot. Remember that Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Enjoy his day.

Kristi and the Oncologist

Today, Kristi had her first visit with her oncologist. I went with her for moral support and was glad that I did since I had questions as well. We really liked both this doctor and her nurse. They actually talked to us and explained a lot of the reasons for these bad paps and the "steps" in which the this "cancer" would take. I use the term "cancer" loosely in this explanation since the doctor said that this "may become full-blown cancer in 3 months or 20 years" it all depends on Kristi's immune system and how her body deals with these cells. It is too early to tell what will happen. The doctor explained that everyone is born with cancer cells and it depends on your immune system and environment as to whether it develops and where. In Kristi's case it is on the stairs to the cancer room, but not there yet. It was funny when the doctor said that everyone was born with cancer cells because mom's doctor said the same thing to her when she was diagnosed - so I had heard this about 6 months ago. After her exam and more biopsies the doctor said that she doesn't believe in doing exams and biopsies more then every 6 months. She said that if you do it every 3 months, you don't give your body enough time to recover before you insult it again which isn't helping the cause. Now, if the biopsies come back questionable or needing further action, then Kristi will have to go back sooner. Let's pray for 6 months.

So, in a few quick words - Kristi had another biopsy on her cervix and then a new biopsy on her uterus today. We will not have the results for about 3 weeks due to the upcoming holidays. But, the doctor said that she was pretty sure that she would be seeing Kristi again in 6 months for another round of biopsies. Also, the doctor said that from now on she would be her gynecologist and the only person that she would see for any female related issues. Good news for now.

Alayna in the Nutcracker

Last night we were blessed to attend a showing of the Nutcracker by the Academy of Fine Arts School in which Alayna attends. This was quite a performance with around 200 kids ranging in age from newborn to probably 6 or 7. The performance was with both of the pre-schools and was held at Jessie Hall on the MU Campus. Believe it or not, it was just right for this large of a performance. Of course, this opportunity to see Alayna perform cost us about $125 total - again the school had it's hand out and the $200/weekly fee wasn't enough. Anyway, the performance was great and we had a nice time. Alayna was in the performance twice which was nice. She had a lot of fun and smiled a lot which made for some really great pictures. Kids can be so unpredictable and with 200 of them, that was the case. One kid stood on stage and said very loudly to the dark auditorium "Hi Mommy" and another girl in one of the segment just screamed.

After this tiring performance, the entire school got to enjoy PJ day today. Alayna is still in her PJ's and doesn't want to change. When Kristi pulled up at school today she went to help Alayna out of the car and Alayna told her "Mom, lets just go back home. I am tired!" But, at 3 pm today, she had her holiday party with her class and wanted to stay.

Holiday Lighting Display

Here is a picture of our house after Tom got done with his decoration. Notice that even the swing set is decorated with lights. I still think this is a lot of work for a few weeks - not to mention we live in the middle of nowhere and how many people are really going to see all his hard work. Anyway, he was safer this year and didn't ski off the roof and land with a fractured leg. If you notice, you can see the Christmas tree in the window in the lower left side of the picture. I assume that he will add more lights next year, maybe the basketball goal with be festive.

Quite week - without a phone

This has been a busy week, but a quiet one. It started on Monday when we realized that our home phone was out again. I called the phone company and they sent someone out on Tuesday. He found that a mouse had built a nest and had chewed through our phone line. He fixed it, but it was more than that we found out. The phone guy said that when the line blew he took out our phone. Meaning that our main line phone is now history! It has 4 phones that connect to the base unit that is now gone. Buying a new phone system like this is complicated and we have not decided on a phone yet, so that means that the phone isn't ringing and it is sooooo nice. If you know us well enough, you know mom's phone number and that line works fine, but it isn't ringing so it has been nice all week without a phone. I will have to break down and buy a new phone but we are looking for a 2 line phone with the extensions so that we can get rid of mom's phone on the counter and her phone would still ring over here.

Work has been crazy this week. OTSCON celebrated our 20th anniversary celebration and holiday party on Friday. It lasted 4 hours plus the set-up and tear-down time made it an all day event. It was really nice and well decorated. The committee did a great job and I wasn't part of that committee, but of course got delegated into working the celebration.

Kristi and I ran to Target last night to pick up the few Christmas Presents for Alayna. We are not going to do a lot this year and think that Alayna might be done. I am not sure if I am done yet or not. Got other things I need to buy and of course Christmas is here so I am not sure what is going to come first.

Today has been busy with cleaning house and all the cooking I did. I decided a few days ago that Alayna and I were going to make sugar cookies and decorate them. I made one batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies and then a triple batch of sugar cookies. I got the stuff to decorate them as well. This took a lot longer than I expected, but we had fun. Some of the cookies are really cute and others (towards the end) are just covered in frosting with sprinkles.

Tomorrow I am planning on working on Christmas cards and a project that I need to do. I am not sure how far I will get. Brian is coming to eat and Tom has a plan to try to cut up one of the four trees he "dropped" last Friday. He got the trees to the ground, but they are laying there. We need to cut them up for firewood.

See how boring our lives are...make me wonder why I have trouble sleeping...I am bored!

Decorated Cookies

Here is an overview of the cookies. You really can't tell, but some are really cute.

Yukky Missouri Weather

It started snowing here on Saturday night. Not much snow, just really some flurries. We only had snow on the grassy areas. It didn't even appear to be slick yesterday. But, today was a totally different story. I was listening to the radio this morning while getting supper started in the crock pot and they said that they had reports of very slick roads. I looked out and it didn't look that bad. I was the first to leave since I had to be a work at 7 this morning. Well, as some of you know I work REALLY close to my house, only about 5 miles to work. I got about 4 miles to work with no problem...crossed over I-70 and all hell broke loose. It was a solid sheet of ice for the half-mile or so to the plant. I was a safe distance behind this car and she started to slow down to turn and Amy (my van) didn't think she should do that. She started to slide towards the other car. I begged Amy to stop and she did...just missing the other car. I made it to work, but was shaking really hard. I called home to warn Kristi and Tom. Kristi didn't even make it to Alayna's day care. The road to get there is hills no matter which way you go. Cars in the ditch, across the road, etc. So, Kristi called me very upset and said that she was going home, it wasn't worth risking her life and Alayna's life. So they had a "stay at home day" after they got back here. It was really nice, because when I came home from work at 6 tonight, she had supper almost done. Alayna helped me clear the table and load the dishwasher so that mommy and Bubby could go to the movie. Help came from all different directions.