Visiting time

I actually went to a "Derby Breakfast" in Crofton this morning.

A bunch of places were having Derby Breakfast's this morning because of the Kentucky Derby running tonight.

Mom was glad to go with Randy, Becky and many others to Crofton to eat good food and see many people she hasn't seen since she was a child.

I wish that this was enhanced a little, but it is Carole, Caroline, Reese (Lori's daughter), Gail, me and mom.
Mom, Carolyn, Carole and Gail. Carolyn went to school with Gail for years and is still real close with Mom and Carole. Carolyn graciously let us use her home to get ready for the party.

After breakfast, we went and visited at Randy's and looked at how their new house is coming along.

Mom and I also went by the cemetery where her father is buried and another cemetery where many of her family members are.

For dinner, we met Carole, Gail and Caroline at a restaurant called Dot's. Here is a picture of us there before 'the incident'.
I had an amazing salad until I found a large, dead fly in it.

YUCK!

We went to bed early and head out to the airport to fly back in the morning.

Party Day!

Today was the party.

I worked harder here than I would have at home taking care of everyone and doing all my usual stuff.

I did have a great amount of fun though.

Gail, Mom and Carole
Rolled turkey, ham and chilled shrimp. I rolled the meat! Can you believe that? Me!!!
Gail and I took a quick second to snap a picture during our preparing for the party.
Cheese ball shaped in a "70!" I had to align almond slivers. Seriously.
Crackers, fruit, you name it. It is there. I even did the strawberry thing you see in the upper left corner. I never knew that I could be so 'artsy'. :)
Caroline, my cousin, brought me an apron so I would look cute while working.

No need to take Tylenol PM tonight, that is for sure!

Carole was really, really surprised. Mom and I had called her in the morning, acting as if we were in Florida and Gail, her sister, talked to her as if she was in Utah.

Needless, to say, we weren't in Florida and Utah, we were in Kentucky, preparing for her party. :)

On my way to Kentucky!

My mom and I flew out of Tampa this morning for Nashville, Tennessee!

My mom's family lives in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and the surrounding areas and we are going up there for a surprise birthday party for my mom's cousin, Carole.

All it did was rain.

Mam-Mom and Mom. Mam-Mom wanted Captain D's for lunch so Mom and I stopped there for her on our way in.
I took this, as you can tell, of Mam-Mom and me. The last time I saw her was April of 2006. It has been too long!
After a quick bite to eat, Mom and I headed over to help Gail get ready for the party tomorrow.
Gail and Mom

I went to Nashville twice today. Once when I flew in with Mom and then again with Gail, to pick up Caroline.

We stopped at Costco to get stuff for the party and then I remembered...Krispy Kreme!

We headed there and I ate 5, yes 5, hot and fresh now doughnuts!

Yummy!

Brennan's first temple trip

It's tonight! I am so excited for him and he is excited too!

I am sad that I am going to miss it. But, maybe he will do better there when he gets to focus on himself and what is going on and not worry about his mom or dad.

I won't be posting until next week. You'll see why then. :)

It is swimming time!

The weather is getting warmer every day. No rain in sight either. But, a good thing about that is that the pool is warming up very quickly! Greyson and Aislinn decided to take a dip before we pick up all the other kids today. They all swam yesterday too.
Aislinn is swimming for a toy.
Greyson in the spa fishing out all the toys he threw in there.
Cutie patootie! Isn't it nice when she smiles? In contrast to the pictures from Sunday when she was screaming.
This is Ooh-Rah thinking, "I wonder how I can get out there to chew up some new pool toys?"

Looks okay

I spoke with the nurse at the nephrologist's office today.

The ultrasound looked fine.

The urine the first time had 3 contaminants in it. I'm not too sure what that means except it is not good.

The urine the second time was clear. That is good.

So. What does that mean?

We wait and see. They could not find a 'cause' of the urinary tract infection.

Family Visit

After church today, when we received about 60 new active members to our ward from Apopka, and were told that we would meet in the Apopka building until our new building is complete, we went to Lakeland for a quick family visit.
Nana came down with Carolyn for the weekend so we were needing to see her, for sure!
Brennan and Lauklan relaxing.
Ricky and Carolyn
Mom and me
Carolyn and me
The kids. Look at Aislinn pouting.
Everyone, minus me.
The seven of us. Aislinn is screaming there. We went from sitting to screaming!
Chris and me
Nana and Chris

No news!

I am so frustrated!

We went for the ultrasound this morning.

We went for the IV antibiotics this afternoon and I fully expected to have the ultrasound results this afternoon, but no!

The nephrologist's nurse did say that it could be a good sign that they didn't get a call from the radiologist that was 'reading' the ultrasound because they usually call if they see something 'bad'. So maybe that is good. Right?

However, what is wrong then? How is her urine now?

I hope that Monday brings a bunch of answers.

On a positive note, Aislinn is feeling much better and is in good spirits.

Right now

We had the IV put in today and they ran IV antibiotics. That was not pretty, to say the least!

Dr. Montane came in and talked with me and checked Aislinn out. She got the ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow morning at Arnold Palmer hospital. I have to leave the house around 6:40 in the morning to be there for 7:30 registration and an 8:00 ultrasound.

Dr. Montane said that she would have her nurse call and check on the culture tomorrow, when it should be ready and talk to Dr. Rich, which is the urologist that performed Aislinn's surgery in December.

We have to go back tomorrow afternoon to have another round of the antibiotics done through the IV. Aislinn still has the IV in place so that we can hopefully avoid having to do another stick tomorrow.

We did not have a fever until about a hour or two ago. It has creeped up to 101.6 again. I know that it doing that is NOT a good sign. Especially that she is pumped full of antibiotics.

What is going on here? I really hope that the ultrasound gives the doctors some information that is greatly needed to address the issue at hand.

Please know that your prayers are felt and greatly appreciated.

Just as last time, great friends have stepped in without hesitation to offer support and shuttle kids. It brings me to tears just thinking about it. To say that I am humbled and grateful for their service to our family would be a great understatement!

Update

I have to have Aislinn in Orlando at the Nephrologist's office at 1 p.m. for them to run IV antibiotics.

They are going to have a renal ultrasound done too. Not likely today, but soon.

Say it isn't so!

I got a call, as you know from the pre-school yesterday morning. Aislinn came home and took a nap, I also gave her Motrin.

But... only 4 hours later, she was running a fever again of 101.6. This was about 3:30. Finally, around 4:15 it hit me. This is exactly how she would act when her kidney was acting up before the surgery, no symptoms, just a fever, out of nowhere, and that fever would be persistent and high.

I called her pediatrician, but they were closing and they told me that given her history, if I wanted I could take her to After Hours Pediatrics to get her seen last night because they couldn't see her until this morning.

I knew that I had to take her in. Thankfully, friends got Kerstyn and Brennan to their church activities, and Chris could stay home and watch Lauklan and Greyson while I took Aislinn to Sanford to the doctor.

Her fever was 101.6 again after only 3 hours since taking Tylenol and her urine showed a large amount of LEU (white blood cell) count. Apparently the number should be between 0 and 10 and her's was 500.

I texted Chris to call her nephrologist immediately. He did and she called him back within a few minutes. It made me tear up when Chris told me what he said to her. He said something to the effect of telling her his name and that she may not remember him, but she said, "Oh, I remember you, you're Aislinn's dad.". She proceeded to hear about her symptoms and urine results.

She told us that if Aislinn got worse through the night, to call her and she would admit her to the hospital. She said that if we could make it through the night, we could call her office this morning and schedule some tests. She did tell us to get the prescription filled and give it to Aislinn because she felt it should work and to run the Tylenol and Motrin as needed.

I stopped on the way home and filled the prescription and gave it to her immediately with some Motrin. Her fever was so high that she was shaking at the time, around 8:30 p.m. We went home and got her in bed.

I was shocked this morning to find that she did not have a fever again and was feeling better.

What a blessing! I know for a fact it is because of many prayers offered in her behalf!

I called the nephrologist's office this morning and had to leave a message. I told them in the message how she was currently doing and am waiting on a call back from them.

Wow! What is going on?

Happiness...

I felt like as soon as I sat down at work today that the world was caving in on me! I had too many things to do and most certainly, not enough time to get them done! Everything was the most important thing to do and I had too many of those 'most important' things on my list!

To top it off, I got a call around 10:45 this morning from the pre-school saying that Aislinn was under the weather.

So... not only do I have too much to do at the office, I now have to leave to go get my daughter. I believe that she is just really tired. She had nothing wrong with her this morning, or any time recently. A month or two ago, she did this, came home and took a nap and was fine. She's napping now, so we'll see...

Since I couldn't get all of my work stuff done, I came home and did some other 'work'.

Happiness is, for me of course...
a freshly vacuumed floor
and a freshly vacuumed pool!
My backyard oasis!
See, the leaves are gone! Outstanding! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new vacuum, for the pool, that is!
I think that our plants might come back eventually...
Even without them, this is a great place to sit and relax and apparently I need to do that!

I feel better now. Odd, isn't it?

Asthma

I had a crazy busy day today. I worked until 12:15 and then hurried to pick up Aislinn and Greyson.

Aislinn had a 1:15 appointment with the asthma doctor. I believe he is called a pulmologist. It isn't a big deal except for the fact that his office is in Winter Park which is not a nice drive. Can be about an hour if the traffic is bad. But, it wasn't too bad and we made it there on time.

They always have her do some breathing machine where they can see how well she is doing.

The doctor said that she is showing great improvement.

I was glad.

But...

We had to hurry back into the car and rush home to pick up 5 more kids from school. Again, the traffic was manageable and we arrived back in town around 5 minutes before we had to, so I could breathe myself again. :)

I headed to the gym after I got the kids home and homework completed.

I rode like crazy in cycle class.

I needed that!

What lifts my spirit

The flowers, that I bought for myself and the sign. Both of which, lift my spirit.

I have decided over the last few weeks that I like to look at flowers. Kenney gave me the idea a year or so ago and since I am a slow learner, I just took it up. So, they last about 2 weeks and I have purchased the last 2 bouquets at Publix when I am there getting groceries.

I like it. I like it quite a lot!

Dragging

Why, oh why?

Why do my kids think it is a good idea to DRAG each other on the ground while they drive the four-wheeler?

Seriously?

Our neighbor called and told us that she saw the kids driving the four-wheeler while Lauklan and Greyson were dragging on the ground.

Nobody saw a problem with that.

Oh my!!!

On another subject, the bishop read today in sacrament meeting that we, the Eustis Ward, will be having Sacrament Meeting only next week at 10 a.m. with the Apopka Ward.

Hmmm...

I'm updated!

Make sure you go all the way back to Friday, April 10. I put the pictures there that I promised and then updated all through today!

Whew!

Let me know what you think. Please.

Busy Saturday

Mom and I at Cracker Barrel this morning.

Hmmm

Mom

We had a great time last night. So much fun, in fact, that we slept in until 9 this morning!

When we finally got going, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast/lunch.

I then headed home and arrived around 2 to find Chris and the kids ready to go to Blizzard Beach.

We got to the park at 3 and stayed until it closed at 6.

On the way home, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. Yes, I know that was 2 times for me today. However, I did only eat a salad for dinner. :)

I had a great day.

Tom Jones!

I got up this morning and had several errands to run before being able to head over to Mom's for the concert tonight.

We went to Publix, got a prescription and some lunch for Chris. Ended up buying some other things too because, that is just what I do...

Dropped both the prescription and lunch to Chris at the office.

Headed to the banks to make deposits for the firm.

Got gas.

Went to Wal-Mart.

Stopped at Pinch a Penny to have the pool water tested and purchased the chemicals needed to get the water right.

Headed home with groceries and chemicals.

Put the stuff away and the chemicals in the pool.

Got stuff packed to leave.

Debbie Clayton and Jensen arrived to babysit.

Gave them 'the spiel'.

Headed to Hudson.

Had a BLAST!!!

Mom and I outside the house ready to leave for the concert.

We drove to Clearwater and ate at TGI Friday's for dinner.

Dinner picture before we realized how full we really were.

She and I ate way too much!

Off the the concert.

He was great! I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

Blizzard Beach, FINALLY!

Well, I meant it!

When I said, "We need to get up and head out", I really do mean it.

We woke up this morning like we had to go to school.

I fed the kids breakfast.

Got them dressed and hit the road!

Blizzard Beach, here we come!

We pulled into the parking lot at Blizzard Beach at 9:10. It opened at 9 and we were in! How exciting!

All of the kids ready for fun.

Aislinn going down one of the slides in Tike's Peak. Where you have to be smaller than 48 inches or something like that to play there. Very cute.

Aislinn sliding again.

Lauklan practicing his balancing skills.

I would have gotten more pictures, but I couldn't keep the kids still long enough.

We had a great day. Getting there at 9:10 and staying until the park closed at 6 made it a long, but very fun day!

The kids and I ate dinner at Pizzeria Uno and really enjoyed that too. We didn't make it home until after 9 and we were all exhausted!

Nobody can ever say we didn't do anything this spring break!

Wonderful Wednesday

Brennan had an appointment with Dr. Ingalls to have his two new 12 year old molars sealed this morning at 11 so we went to that as a family. Let's talk about fun...

After the appointment, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch in Altamonte Springs.

With full tummies, we headed to Disney to go to Blizzard Beach, but it was at capacity and closed, so we went to Typhoon Lagoon again.

We got there around 1:30 and stayed until it closed at 7.

The kids were kind of bummed that Blizzard Beach was closed, but I told them we would get up early in the morning and head over to make sure we got in the park right about the time it opened.

I always have a great time with the kids at the water parks. We play and eat, and eat and play.

Brennan and Greyson

Brennan - I think he has grown about 3 inches in the last few months. Wow! Soon, he'll be taller than me.

Greyson

Oh my! I am making good progress on those crow's feet though!!!

Lauklan

Kerstyn

Aislinn

Aislinn again.

Typhoon Lagoon - Day 3!

Mount Dora with Mom

Mom came over to Mount Dora today with Mrs. Scarborough, a friend that she taught with for years, even before I was born and Roberta Rose, a mother to one of my mom's great friends that passed away several years ago.

It hasn't rained down here in Central Florida in months and this morning, it rained like the skies just opened up. We were under a tornado watch and then, even a warning.

However, Mom endured, and made it here safely!

I was very proud of her and quite happy to see her.

We ate at the Lakeside Inn restaurant then walked around downtown for several hours.

I always love to see my mom!

Spring Break Monday

I worked all day today.

The kids were babysat by Nashua and Nellie.

All was well when I got home and I loaded them all up and took Nashua and Nellie home then headed to the gym for the sauna and cycle class.

A very busy day. Good, but busy.

Happy Easter!

The kids got their baskets this morning, even though a little late, they were still quite happy with them.

Sacrament meeting was wonderful as we focused on the Savior and His life.

I believe that we had a nice Easter Sabbath Day!