We've been looking forward to the month of March for a while now. And...if I had one word to describe the last month I would wrap it up and say the word "Visits" sums all the craziness up. Some were expected and planned visits and others were very last minute and not what we had in mind. Yet other visits were ones we do not want to make again. So hopefully I don't bore you as I write about these visits, this may be long....as I try to wrap all the visits up into one post.
Both Stephen's parents and my parents were planning on visiting us this month and these two visits were ones we couldn't wait for! We love having visitors and enjoy having an excuse to go and play.
Stephen's parents spent a week at the beginning of the month and we had a wonderful time. They always help out so much with Andrew and of course Andrew loves all the grandparent attention.
I just love this picture! Andrew loves playing in the sunshine and I caught him and grandma cuddling on the floor in the sun.
We spent one day at the Dallas Arboretum. It was seriously one of the most beautiful places to walk through. It's right up against White Rock Lake in Dallas and had some pretty amazing gardens. All of the spring flowers were in full bloom. I absolutely love any and all spring flowers, so naturally I took a bunch of pictures. Here's a few of my favorites!
We found some "soft" grass to play in...this is a rare occurrence in Texas.
We also decided to head to Dinosaur Valley State Park. Stephen's Aunt goes there frequently with her dog and she wanted to show everyone all the wonderful sights. I unfortunately wasn't feeling too well that day so opted to stay home, but Stephen and his parents took Andrew and went to play for the day. Andrew had a blast and loved riding in our new hiking backpack. While daddy, grandpa and even grandma took turns carrying it.
We also had a little visit from Flat Stanley who my niece sent....I did this with my kids a few years when I taught school and it was fun to receive one in the mail. So we took Stanley to a few of our favorites around the Dallas area and the dinosaur tracks were one of them!
We also decided to do an early birthday celebration for Andrew while they were in town. So after dinner one night, we grabbed some yummy cold stone ice cream and then of course came home and unwrapped presents.
Another not so expected visit, was an ER trip for Andrew. Yep. This would be the third ER trip for him in the last 8 months. This time though, I was grateful for being so quick in responding.
It started out just like any other day. We went and did a quick errand before our library's storytime. As Andrew was walking with me and holding my hand he kept tripping over his feet. I found this to be unusual and thought, I'd better keep a close eye on him. So after our errand we headed to library time, and as we were waiting for it to start he climbed up into my lap. I looked down and before I knew it he'd thrown up all over me. We quickly ran to the bathroom to get cleaned up and I noticed he had a hard time keeping his head straight. We headed for home and after we got there he threw up once again. We decided to call his neurosurgeon's nurse before we dashed over to the hospital. She told us we'd better get it checked out and to plan to stay the night. At this point Andrew had fallen asleep on my shoulder (extremely unusual for this kid) and I quickly packed a bag and threw a few things together. By this time Stephen could not keep him awake and he was very floppy. I couldn't believe how fast things happened. From his first time throwing up at (10:30am) to the time we got into the car and headed to the hospital (1:00pm) I was starting to get really scared. Of course the logical side of me kept telling myself that all of these things were exact signs of a shunt malfunction and I knew what it was and that the doctors could fix it. Yet on my drive to the children's hospital in Fort Worth, the mother side of me came to the forefront. It was hard to control the emotions and see my little boy like this.
One good thing is, when you get to the ER and you tell them your boy may have a possible shunt malfunction, they put you to the front of the list and you get right in. We've never had to wait more than 2 or 3 minutes. After some CT scans and x-rays it was clear that he needed emergency surgery to fix the shunt. Within the hour we were talking with doctors and anesthesiologists and he was rushed off into surgery. It was such a whirlwind of a day. I was so grateful Stephen was able to make it to the hospital before they took him for surgery and was able to give Andrew another priesthood blessing.
Giving piggy back rides around our hospital room to keep this little guy entertained the next day.
Found a playroom at the hospital FULL of lots of fun toys. Of course he was drawn right to the truck, cars and trains.
I am so amazed at the miracle of modern medicine. Time and time again I thank my heavenly father to be living in such a time and that my little boy is able to benefit so grately from it. That night he was pretty groggy from all the anesthesia, but the next morning he was right back to his old self. You would never know that he'd had just had brain surgery. He was talking and wanting to walk, just like always. I was truly amazed at the difference a working shunt makes.
The next week we had a few more visitors come! My parents flew down from Utah to come and spend the week with us. I was excited to see them and show them around. This was a first trip since their mission and we were excited to play.
Andrew was spoiled once again and loved all the time and attention he received from Grandma and Grandpa. He woke up every morning and went to the room next door that they were sleeping in and would wake them up first thing. He was so excited and couldn't wait to play with them.
We once again had birthday celebrations since it was just a few days after his birthday. Nothing like celebrating an entire month right?
One place we wanted to take them was to the Fort Worth Stockyards. This has become a tradition to all those who come and visit us for the first time. It definitely gives you a little taste of cowboy and truly makes you feel like you are in Texas. We were able to catch the long horned cattle drive in the morning and walked around to the different sights. Enjoyed some delicious lunch with my favorite deep fried pickles. We saw the end of a gun show, then walked the shops and up and down the cobblestone streets.
We love Texas!!!
The next unexpected visit we made was again to the ER. This time it was my turn. I went to bed one Sunday night in extreme pain in my left side. I've been on some medication that had made my stomach bloated the last month and I wondered if this pain was associated with that. After about 3 hours and throwing up because of the extreme pain. I had Stephen wake up my parents and we headed to the ER. I was so grateful my parents were just upstairs and we could just take off and leave for the hospital at 2 am. After two doses of morphin and a dose of hydrocodone. I was still in extreme pain. They couldn't find anything from the ultrasounds and sent me home with pain medication. I called my doctor that morning and I was thankfully able to get right in that afternoon. The pain had continued to escalate. After looking at another ultrasound his only conclusion was that my ovary was twisted and emergency surgery was the only way they could fix it and see if that was really what was going on. By this point I was happy for anything. Thank goodness his office is attached to the hospital and they wheeled me right over for surgery.
I don't think Stephen has seen me in this much pain. EVER. I mean to give some perspective...I had no meds during pretty much my entire labor with Andrew and labor pains were nothing compared to this and we were going on 16 hours of this pain. I almost blacked-out from hyperventilating and was pretty delirious as they were taking me over to the hospital. Most likely from the pain and not the amount of medication I was on. All three doctors in my Dr.'s practice were there to help with the surgery. I guess ovarian torsions are pretty rare and they all wanted to be apart of the procedure. We were pretty lucky that they got me in as quick as they did. The torsion cuts off the blood supply to the ovary and although it was a blue/grayish color when they opened me up, there was thankfully no necrosis and they were able to save it. A few more hours of going undiagnosed and they would have had to remove it. Once again how grateful we were to my parents for being in town. We did not have to worry about Andrew one bit. They just took him for the day and Stephen was able to stay with me through the entire ordeal.
This was definitely not what we had planned for their visit out here in Texas, but I think it was a tender mercy of our Heavenly Father that they were here while all this happened. They were able to take care of Andrew and me, cook and clean our house. Boy we were sure grateful for all their help, and we were able to just take it easy and relax while I recovered the next few days.
We did a few low key things the next few days, my mom helped me pull out some Easter decorations. A year ago this time I was in Austria visiting them on their mission. I brought home a bunch of hand-blown, hand-painted easter eggs. So we pulled them out and reminisced of our Austrian Easter together as they helped me tie them to the pussy willow branches. Then we made our own. They showed me how to blow our own easter eggs and we each decorated them. Even Stephen got in on the action.
Hanging Easter Eggs (A tradition in Austria you see everywhere)
Blowing the yolks
Although not your typical spring easter egg, Stephen's turned out pretty cool.
The last night they were there I was feeling pretty good and we decided to take them to a German restaurant near by to see how authentic it really was. They loved it and had a good time just pouring over the menu (which was all in German) complete with accordion dinner music. It was a great way to end the wonderful week.
Needless to say we've had quite the month. We are hoping that April will be a bit more calm around our house. I've already told Stephen that I hope he's not feeling too left out...because there will be NO MORE emergency room visits from this family.
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