April 17, 2015

Fly on the Wall - April 2015



Welcome to a Fly on the Wall group post. Today 15 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house.

Buzz around, see what you think, then click on these links for a peek into some other homes:

 Baking In A Tornado

 Spatulas on Parade

 Follow me home

 Menopausal Mother

 Stacy Sews and Schools

 Battered Hope

 Just A Little Nutty

 The Momisodes

 Someone Else’s Genius

 Disneyland in Kentucky

 Searching for Sanity

 Sanity Waiting to Happen

 The Sadder But Wiser Girl

 Dinosaur Superhero Mommy

 Juicebox Confession  



At Our House:

Me
The Hubby
Jacob (our 21 yr old son)
Joshua (our 19 yr old son)
Deanna (our 18 yr old daughter)
Cailey (our 11 yr old daughter)
Colin (our 8 yr old son)
TJ (Jacob's friend that lives here)


Oh, my... It has been an extremely long month here at our house. 

Let's start with the day of the last Fly post. 

While many of you were reading Fly posts we were here -


We went to the symphony. Oh, it was just AWESOME!!! The building itself was gorgeous!! 
The music just might have moved me to tears. It had been soooo long since I had heard live orchestra music!!!
Cailey, Colin, Deanna and I just LOVED it. We are trying to talk The Hubby into getting us tickets for the Looney Tunes performance!! :)

The next day was Cailey's birthday party.


We had a few friends over for cake, ice cream and FUN!!!!! 

Later on that day, The Hubby brought Cailey and Colin surprise birthday gifts.


DUCKS!!!!!!!
Cailey's thinks that Cailey is its mommy. It follows her all over the place. SO CUTE! They aren't very little now but still very cute. ;) 

The NEXT day was free museum day!!! (Well, the day of Cailey's party was, too, but we were too busy.) So, we hit two local museums. 




Our first stop was the Poe Museum. Deanna was in heaven!!!! 
It was so cool even Cailey and Colin enjoyed it. 
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pics of the actual displays. 
It is housed in 4 different buildings, one of which is the oldest house in the city! How cool!!!! 
The gardens were beautiful, too.
They even had a scavenger hunt for skeleton parts set up for the kids! LOL 

We all succumbed to the gift shop. ;) Colin got a raven finger puppet, Cailey a quill, Deanna a stuffed Poe, and me a funeral fan. 




Then we hit The Museum of the Confederacy. That's when we found out that it wasn't free, only the White House of the Confederacy was. That's OK. We explored the gift shop while waiting on our tour time. And once again we just had to buy something!! I got postcards, Cailey got a paddle ball set with civil war info on it, and Colin got a harmonica.
The tour was fascinating!!! If you want to learn about an extraordinary woman, look up Varina Davis!  

After that we had a fairly boring week. 

My birthday came and went. I did manage to find a couple of great deals for my birthday. I went into Godiva for my monthly free piece of chocolate only to discover that I had a $10 birthday coupon! WOO HOO!!! Then I went to Yankee Candle and stocked up on $1 tarts AND I had a $5 coupon! 

Then we had Colin's birthday party on the weekend. 


Once again we had friends over for cake, ice cream and FUN!!!!! 
And that's the last fun day we've had. 

Early on the morning of Colin's actual birthday, 3 am to be exact, I woke up to find him on the couch gasping for breath. A short time later we were at the ER. He had an extreme asthmatic episode, his first ever. It was the scariest time of my life. To read the full story, see last week's Use Your Words post. 

Here is a picture of Colin on his actual birthday. Deanna is giving him cuddles. 


He spent that day in a regular room, it wasn't until 5am the next morning that he was rushed into PICU. 

He spent a total of 6 days in the hospital, 4 of those in PICU.

He went in on his birthday and came home on Easter. 


This was Easter morning. The Easter Bunny brought him 2 baskets!!! 

We never got to color our eggs or make bunny butt cupcakes or rice treat chicks. Thankfully the nurses set up an Easter Egg hunt for Colin and another child that was on the pediatric floor. He found the golden egg and won a stuffed bunny. 

I learned how much my older children have grown and how much they really love each other. I wouldn't have made it through those 6 days without Jacob, Joshua and Deanna. They were there for Colin, Cailey and me.


It has been a very long road.

I have been having horrible nightmares. I wish they would stop. 

Colin should be on his breathing treatments as needed now but we haven't been able to move him to that yet. Right now he is getting them every 8 hours. Hoping that we can move him to every 12 before the end of the weekend. If not, it's off to the doc we go, again.





It has been sooooo hard to keep him in and his activity levels down. 
This was his first time out to play since the whole thing happened. 

2 things - 
 1-The boy loved his vest treatments (it is wrapped around his middle and filled with air, it then shakes like an off balanced washing machine during a spin cycle). He cracked up all the respiratory therapists! He would make silly noises through the whole thing! It got to where we (including the nurses) would ask him for favorites.
 2- He loves sponge baths and tried to talk me into giving him them at home. 

OH! And would you believe, his first night home from the hospital and Deanna wakes up at 2am puking! YILES!!!! She had a 24 hour bug. 
Then I ended up with some terrible respiratory bug. 
Thankfully Colin hasn't caught either of those things!! Although, I have to wonder if I didn't catch that bug from him. It was vicious and could possibly have been the culprit behind his sudden asthma attack along with the nasty allergies. 


So, please, bear with me. I will be back to blogging full time soonish. Right now I am focusing all my energy into taking care of my little guy and seeing how things will be for him in the future. 




24 comments:

  1. Stacy I'm so glad to see Colin looked healthy and being home. Lots of stress but you are moving forward and learning that you raised great kids, helpful and loving.Parties, cake, presents and coupons! I'd say it hasn't been all bad. HUGS
    Spatulas On Parade

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    1. Thank you so much, Dawn!
      Yeah, I am so happy that we had all the parties and stuff over with before all that happened.

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  2. oh no, glad Colin is feeling better, how scary. Happy belated birthdays to Cailey and Colin!

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  3. Stacy, I am praying for Collin and for you. Ashtma is a horrible and scary thing. So sorry for Collin. I know it scared you all. Nothing can compare to the fear of our children battling to breathe. Take care of your baby boy and take care of yourself too.
    HUGS,Judy
    ps I am very proud of your older kids too.. SO happy to see them sticking together.

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    1. Thank you, Judy! It's by far the scariest thing I have ever been through.

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  4. So many birthdays and blessings in one month. I'm SOOO glad Colin is home and feeling a bit better. Prayers that things don't get that bad again for him. I can't imagine how awful that was for you and your family to go through.
    I do love, however, reading about how your other children rallied around your little guy. That's family, man. <3 <3
    Take care

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    1. Thank you so much!!!
      You are absolutely right, that's family. I am so proud of them!!!!!

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  5. Other than that whole hospital (capped off by the puking thing) you really had quite a month. So glad that everyone's getting back to normal.

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    1. THANK YOU!!!!! :D
      We actually did 12 hours between treatments today!! SO THRILLED!! But we had to double up on the allergy meds.

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  6. Wow! Birthday season is in full swing at your house. Happy Birthday to you, Cailey and Colin!
    I love free museum day! Those are some of the sweetest memories that my kiddos look back on too.
    Ducks too! Awww. What a fun pet to enjoy!
    Poor Colin. I am so grateful that he is better but my heart breaks for you all to have to have gone through such terrifying times. Huge hugs to you! There is nothing worse than watching your child experience something so horrendous that you are powerless to control. It shakes you to the very core. I am so sorry.
    Thank heavens you are all on the mend! Phew! Let's hope that the rest of the month is nothing but awesome times and great things.

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    1. Thank you so much, Meg!! Keeping my fingers crossed!!!!!!
      There are tons of things that I want to do with the kids but I am so afraid that they might set off an attack for Colin. Baby steps, I guess.

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  7. Do the docs have any idea what caused the sudden attack? I'm glad he's home and I truly hope your nightmares stop. I've been sending positive thoughts your way, so I hope you get them! :)

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    1. Possibly a virus and allergies but they were never certain. :/ Both The Hubby and I have asthma but neither of us have ever had really major attacks.
      THANK YOU!!!!!

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  8. You take care of those kids, your blog will be waiting patiently while you do that :) I'm so glad he's on the mend!!

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  9. Oh my word, you have had a crazy busy month! I'm so happy to hear that Colin is doing better---what a scary episode! Love the ducks----do they make good pets? I always wanted one. Do you keep them in the house?

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    1. Thank you!!!
      They do make good pets. We kept them in the house at first but even changing out the bedding every day they were stinky. They are now outside and The Hubby is making them a nice pen with a pool. ;)

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  10. Poor Colin!! I felt so bad for him. I was praying for him the whole time he was in the hospital. So happy he is feeling much better! I love ducks. I always wanted one, but never could have it. Now that I can, I probably won't get one. lol

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    1. Thank you so much, Sarah!!! I kept showing him where everyone was praying and wishing him well.

      The ducks are so much fun. We put them in the bathtub to let them swim. Today one went crazy and splashed water everywhere! LOL Then it kept diving and swimming under the water. It was hilarious.

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  11. Stacy, do you live in RVA? I'm in Chesterfield. You've got me wanting to go to the symphony now. Can't remember the last time I've heard orchestra music. And I LOVE the Poe Museum and the Valentine. So much great stuff in Richmond.

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    1. Yes!! We are in RVA! :D
      We almost went to the Explore the Outdoors in Chesterfield on Sunday but I was worried about Colin being out in the pollen all day.
      You should check out the symphony's page! They were marvelous and that building is awe inspiring!
      Have you been to the art museum? It's huge and FREE!!!

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  12. Birthday parties, hospital stays, the symphony, and ducks?!

    I daresay you've been quite busy love!!

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    1. Oh, most definitely. Ready for some boring right now!!!

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