Better

What a difference a day makes. For the first night in almost a week Ellie and I slept good. We finally rolled out of bed around 10:00, just in time to get ready and meet Mom and Dad, Nanny and Nick for dinner at our favorite Texas Roadhouse. Ellie loves eating there.

After dinner, Ellie and I stopped by my aunt and uncle's house to visit for a bit. We had a nice time and Ellie loved playing with Annette and Dennis's cat.

Next on the list of rounds we stop for a visit with Grandma and Papaw Jenkins. We did not stay long because we had to get home to let Chloe out. Plus Ellie was starting to get quite tired and she definately needed a nap.

Finally the time had arrived, my favorite dinner with my best friend. Ever since Melissa called me last night to invite Ellie and me (Bob is still out of town) to dinner, my mouth has been watering. Juanita wanted to also celebrate Melissa's upcoming birthday with cake. So everyone was there and we had such a great evening. Dinner was awesome as always. I am so blessed to have such a best friend.

Melissa nicely threatening me NOT to take a picture

Ellie refused to eat until I handed the spoon over to her
My two favorite gals
Cameron and Maranda "enough pictures already"
Ellie eating Juanita's cake

Best Friends

First Trip to the Urgent Care

So as I posted earlier, Ellie has been running a fever for the last few days. She still had at a majority of the day. She has also been fussy on and off all day. Mom and Dad had Ellie for most of the day because I had a brunch to attend, plus I wanted to try and find Bob something for his birthday coming up. When I picked Ellie up, I decided that we should go home. She was pretty tired and the poor thing could not keep her head up. She had not developed any other symptoms besides the fever. Weird.

So when we got home, I gave her dose of Tylenol (for the first time since she could take Motrin). Then she settled down for a nap. About an hour later I woke her up because she had two large hives that had formed on her arms. One was the entire length of her forearm and it was burning hot. So I thought symptom number two. After I checked her body for any other signs of rashes, I settled down because it was only the two hives. Something else concerned me, he fever was not going down.

So after about 30 minutes I decided that I that I would take her to Urgent Care to get checked, she acted like she was so tired and irritated. My first visit her was not anything like the horror stories I have heard in the past. We were the only ones there and she got right in.

After about 2 hours and a lot of tears they ruled that she has a UTI and the rashes were hives caused my an allergic reaction. In the time I was waiting Mom and I saw one common factor of the hives (she had gotten one a few days ago too), Tylenol. I am allergic to it, so it only makes since that she could be as well.

Whew, what a long night. I am exhausted.

Fever

Ellie has only really ran a fever once in her life. She was about 5 months old and had a common cold. It got pretty high for her (it was 101 and her normal temp ranges around the low 96s). When I picked her up from Mom's yesterday evening she was her normal self. As we were leaving her eyes were heavy, but she had not slept much all day. At home she played a lot, but was a little fussy, and I mean a little--she never fusses. She felt like she was heating up, but I thought that could be just use playing around. Around 9:00 when we went to bed to settle down she was burning up. Her temperature had reached 100.5. I quickly gave her some medicine, shredded some clothes, and started to wipe her down with a cold rag (which she loved--she actually did that for me--her baby got a bath too).

I knew I would not get much sleep. Finally her fever broke, but I was restless all night checking on her, she has no other symptoms??????

Needless to say, I overslept an hour this morning and barely made it to school in time to open the door for the students as the first bell was ringing.

Boy I am so tired.

Resolutions

I know it is already eight days into the New Year, but I have already made my list, but I am posting it here to be held more accountable.

1.) Find a new devotional and read it everyday. (Northside put one together for the last part of the year and I loved reading to Ellie every night)

*If anyone one has any good suggestions of a devotional to read, please let me know.

2.) Spend more time reading and teaching Ellie.

3.) Write more, enough said.

4.) Read more. I have not really read since the summer and I miss that.

Two Hour Delay

Everyone who has been reading my blog has been subject to my bias against snow and snow days. Sorry, for that broken record. This morning I was surprised when I woke up around 4:00 to take Chloe out to see everything covered in white. All I could think was YAH hopefully we will have a 2 hr delay. I don't think I sleep really well until I got the phone call, then I was able to stretch and roll over and slumber for a few hours more (we don't have to be there until the students do, I am shocked to here that there are teachers that still have to go in :( bummer). Ellie woke up with me and she was in such a good mood. Here are some pictures of her this morning.

Love this face

Chloe is such a good dog

The day ended up flying by as all delay days do. I could use a few more of these. But now I am behind in all my classes and the midterm is tomorrow. So watch out kids tomorrow is bell to bell.

A Typical Evening

Tonight Ellie and I spent much of the evening just hanging out around the house. After school I picked her up from Mom and Dad. We ate dinner there and then headed home to get in out of the cold. I hate the winter, because all I want to do is get home out of the cold. I can not wait until summer or spring at least. Then I may want to do something besides hybernate inside of the house.

Here are a few cute pics from the night.

She is already trying to learn to type, I am curious to see how old she is when she can first learn to use the computer by herself. (Bob was in late high school when he first used a computer and for Me it was in 7th or 8th grade, my how the times have changed)

Ellie blowing kisses to Daddy.

The upside to having an uneventful night is the gain in sleep. Good night to all.

Please

We have been trying to teach Ellie to say please and thank you. She has thank you down in sign language. It is so cute when she signs it. So now I have switched to please. Well those of you who have met Chloe our dog who is like our child, knows how incredibly smart she is. Chloe knows hundreds of words. We taught her to say please when she was a puppy. So whenever we tell her to say please she barks. There are very few times when she is not around Chloe. So anytime Chloe wants something we make her say please.

So this evening when I asked Ellie to say please, she said "ruff." All I could do was laugh. I asked her to say please again and again she said "ruff." I guess it could be worse.

Right now she is walking around the house with a towel on her head. Go figure.

Visit with a great friend

One of my best friends is getting ready to start her first nursing job. This was her last free weekend, so we invited her and her two pugs down for a visit. We went out for a nice dinner at Beef o' Brady's, one of my favorite places to eat.

Ellie saying "Go Colts" (but the colts did not go)

After dinner we came back to the house to sing our night away. I really really love my new Wii game. And Amy is my Karaoke partner.

Amy singing the classics

Marco and Vinny

Ellie wanted to take her turn

We all finally crashed around midnight. Amy and the pugs stayed the night.

Ellie woke us up about 8:30, and Bob made an awesome pancakes. We had such a great time with Amy. I was sad to see her go.

Daddy loves spoiling his baby girl. We went to Babies R Us tonight and she had to have this chair.

New Game

I love to sing, and I love to play the Wii. After spending all day Thursday at home we decided to get out of the house today. We did a little shopping. One of our purchases was American Idol (only a few more weeks until the next season comes on--yah yah) Encore. It is a Karaoke game that has the three judges critic the singer. As soon as I got home I immediately started the game. It was so much fun, I am officially hooked. I put a pot of deer chili on (my first time making chili with deer meat) and invited Meghan and Josh up to hang out.

Meg rockin it out

Josh and Bob in a friendly Mario Kart challenge.

Ellie is facinated with Meg's belly

After we tired of Idol we all settled down to watch a movie. This was such a fun night.

Also: we have completed another few nights of Ellie sleeping in her own bed. YAH.

Reflection

It is 8:3o and I should be sleeping, but no Ellie woke up ready to play. But she woke up in her bed not ours.

2008 has been such a great year here are some of the best times.

JANUARY

Bob celebrated his 30th Year

FEBRUARY

Wii came into our lives and we were never the same

MARCH

Too many snow days!Ellie's first Easter

APRIL

A Cold Thunder, but Ellie's first

Bob cousin's Wedding

MAY

Ellie's first time swimming/Tyler's birthday party

My best friend Karol (left) moved to Portland :(

JUNE

Bob and Janet celebrated 40 Years of MarriageCharlestown turned 200!

JULY

Too much to list, but this is my favorite pic

AUGUST

Celebrated Maranda's birthday

SEPTEMBER

Celebrated Janet's 60th birthday on the Bell of LouisvilleHurricane Ike = No power for 5 days = week vacation from school

OCTOBER

Breast Cancer walkEllie's first Halloween

NOVEMBER

Ellie's first birthday party
Meghan's Baby Shower

DECEMBER

A wnderful Christmas season

Here's to an even better 2009.

Laid Back New Years Eve

We are trying to transition Ellie into her room and her bed. We are doing this is a two step process (for Mommy just as much as Ellie). Step One: Get her out of our bed! We still have her bassinet/play yard in our room. So last night we put her there. She cried for about 15 minutes, but once she fell asleep, she was out. She slept so well (and so did we). Bob had to go to work, so we slept in. I was able to get up and start getting some stuff done, and she was still fast asleep. Then the phone rang around 9:30, I tried to catch it, but it was too late. She woke up very happy though. Mom and Dad invited us to breakfast, so we got ready and headed to town. Breakfast was very yummy. Ellie and Chloe thought so too. Thanks guys. We hung out with Mom and Dad for a while, then we came home to get some stuff done, but we ended up playing and soon after Bob got home Ellie and I settled in for quite a long nap.

Finally we got up and I decided to try something that I love but have never made Strawberry Petzel Salad (click for recipe). It turned out really good. The only difference I would make, would not make it 30 minutes before I leave because it needs time to set up.

Ellie enjoyed helping me crush the pretzels

I was making the treat to take to my aunt and uncles how where my Mom's sisters were getting together to hang out and welcome in the New Year. There was lots of great food and fun (of course).

Ellie and Aunt Joan

Ellie hanging out in Danielle's room

Self Portraits are the best (Me and Nette)

Me and Dennis

It is 11:30 and she is still holding on (she finally sleeps about 10 min later)

A couple of other things:

Step Two: Is getting her out of our room.

Funny story-After we got up from our nap, Ellie took off. She does like to wonder, but not too often. The next thing I hear is her in the pantry. When I go to check on her, she is carrying the Lucky Charms box. She carries it to her rocking chair sits down, and starts to pick the marshmellows out of the box. It was so cute, I couldn't stop her.

Hope everyone had a great New Years Eve!