Yummmm! Warmness.

Thomas: Mom, what's that stuff called that you're cooking?

Me: It's called soup.

Thomas: What kind?

Me: Potato and sausage.

Thomas: Oh! I like that kind.

Me: What do you like about it?

Thomas: I like the smell and I like the taste of it. And I like the warmness.

Busy weekend

Time is just whizzing by! I don't want off the ride, but I might enjoy it more if it wasn't going so fast.

James and I had a date of convenience Friday night. This is how it went - Wesley needed a ride up to Hillsboro for a banquet with a friend. It's too far to make two trips in one night so we told Richard that he was babysitting, then James and I set out to deliver Wesley and we made a date out of it! There is a nice little Mexican restaurant in this little town and not much else, unless you consider Wendy's or Sonic date-worthy. We had a nice dinner. It wasn't like the mouthwatering food we had in Arizona, but not bad for the mid-west. Then we closed down the local Alco. I guess you could say we "did" the town!

Saturday was interesting. My sweet friend Mary offered to babysit my children, all of them-even Ralph, all day long - 11:30am - 7pm!! She did this for several families that day as a Christmas gift. My only dilemma was whether to go home and sleep all day or go Christmas shopping. So what do you think I did? Shopping of course!

I had a long list of errands, tasks and gifts to buy. James and I went together and knocked off a good portion of my list! It's pretty incredible for me to spend any time with him at all much less two days in a row. We wasted a lot of time browsing and thinking and revising our gift ideas for the kids. It was a good time.

Sunday was also a busy day. After church I had furniture to move and vacuuming to do. You see, we promised the kids that we would for sure put up the Christmas tree today. Quite a project. Many of my ornaments are things that the kids have made over the years. Some are ready for the dumpster! The sequins are gone, the popsicle sticks have come unglued and such. The only really nice ornaments are from my quilting group's Christmas party ornament exchange! This year's party is next week - not to be missed!

Isn't this young man getting to be rather tall?

Ralph was an angel the entire time! I was worried that he would be messing around with the tree a lot. He hasn't even touched it in the past two days! Leroy on the other hand...

Big kids helped little ones spread the ornaments out nicely. I put on the hooks!

All done! By the way, how to you keep shirts on your young boys? I am forever requesting that they please put on a shirt! Now everyone was ready to watch the movie Prince Caspian. A fun way to end a busy weekend!

More turkey!

We got two more turkeys today! One is from a mystery friend and one is the one we ordered for ourselves. Yikes! The freezer is full! We should invite some friends over for a turkey feast.

Ralph had a follow-up appointment today. His lungs sound perfectly clear, isn't that great? The thimerasol-free flu vaccine shipment arrived this week so Ralph got his flu shot today. He's been on a waiting list for the mercury-free version.

Can you believe that the mercury-free stuff is not widely available for babies and children? If you don't know to ask, you would never know what your child is getting. Of course, I had to sign an insurance waiver. This is so the doc's office can charge me $60 if my insurance company declines to pay. Whatever.

Since Ralph has been sucking up more oxygen than usual, we had to go to the home health office to pick up some extra tanks this afternoon. Some of you know how I feel about this screwy outfit. Every time I deal with them I ask myself why I haven't yet switched to another company. Today was no exception.

I called this morning to make sure I could pick up 10 tanks. They recommended that I come to their downtown office, since it was closer to me. I told them I would be there at 2pm. I got there at 2pm. No tanks. Apparently someone had to go pick them up at another location and she wasn't back yet. We (me, Wes, Thomas, Leroy and Ralph) waited for 40 minutes for her to show up. Since I had to be home before 4pm to get kids off the bus and get Wesley to work on time, I didn't get to finish all my errands. I didn't have a choice of whether to wait for the tanks or not - we were out at home.

This is the same company that called me last month here in Kansas because they had an order to deliver tanks to me in Tulsa. Oh, they also thought my name was Connie. This is the same company that can't figure out how to file an insurance claim from the information listed on my insurance card. Somehow the hospital and doc's office can. I don't know how many times I've called them trying to get them to file a claim. Then they had the nerve to send our bill out for collection! That's been taken care of, but we still get an automated phone call from them EVERY day.

I haven't posted many pictures lately. My son, Richard, has been hogging his camera! Here are a couple of cute ones:

Unwinding

Ralph is doing quite well. I'm not as good.

I didn't realize how much sleep I missed over the weekend until it hit me on Tuesday. I still feel hungover today! I need a good 12 hours, uninterrupted, to unwind properly. One good thing about St. Francis - the macaroni and cheese is the best!

We got another package from Honeybaked Ham Co. today. Steaks! My husband's company gives out a voucher for a turkey, or a comparably priced item, from Honeybaked Ham to their employees as a holiday gift. Apparently some folks thought it would be a good idea to send in their voucher and have the turkey, or other item, to us! So far we have received a huge cheesecake, a turkey and now the steaks! What a nice bunch of folks, huh?

Today I'm signing Chipper up for String Fling. This is an orchestra festival in January that I attended when I was young. Things have really changed in the last 25 years. Did you know at his school they don't challenge for chairs anymore? For me, much of the incentive to practice was to challenge the person ahead of you for their chair. If you played better you get to move up one chair. Are these teachers trying to make wussies out of our kids?

Wesley and dad went hunting today. It was opening day of rifle season. I know that Wesley was hoping to fill up our poor freezer even more. Too bad they didn't see anything.

An hour? What a joke!

So, Dr. K said we'd be ready to go in an hour. She wrote instructions in Ralph's progress notes to discharge him. Then the attending physician writes the discharge orders. Then we get to leave. Right?

Right.

God bless the persistent nurses who kept reminding him, and reminding him, and reminding him that we were still waiting for discharge papers and prescriptions. Have you ever met someone who was a little too focused? Someone who couldn't multi-task to save their life? Men!

Mental note to self: residents begin a new rotation on December 1st. Attending Dr. may be preoccupied. Be prepared for dumb questions and long waits.

By the way, Ralph's cultures came back positive for para-influenza virus, AKA croup!

So we got home at 4pm. Four hours later than I had expected. It's OK. We are here, life is good.

I managed to clean up the front room and rearrange some furniture so we have room for our Christmas tree. The carpet is appalling! I'll rent a carpet cleaner later in the week. If that doesn't help, I may be in the market for an area rug. I am re-instituting the "remove your shoes and wash your hands" rule upon entering the house. Don't forget it! Can't be too careful, can you?

Thanks for all the prayers! Ralph is not 100%, so don't stop now.

11 am

I just saw the doc! We'll be out of here in about an hour!!! I really like Dr. K. She always seems very reasonable to me and I can tell that she trusts me. Phew!

Is it really Monday already?

I was looking forward to putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend. Maybe even putting some lights on the house, shhhh! Now it is Monday and the kids are back to school. I'm still sitting in a hospital room with Ralph and I'm sure the house is wrecked.

I'm really hopeful that he will get to come home today. His sats were very good all night long, but then he was getting breathing treatments every 2 hours. His sats are good unless his nose is plugged up. I was trying to clean his nose this morning when he got another bloody nose! Then I noticed he was breathing through his mouth a few minutes ago so I cleaned his nose again. Another bloody nose!

The nurse says that lots of kids do that here because the air is so dry. I just hope this nose business isn't the thing that keeps us here another day. It is 10:30 am and still no doctor, not our doctor anyway. But you can surely tell that it is Monday! This morning we have seen a medical student, 2 student nurses, one nurse in orientation, Ralph's nurse, resp tech. and the resident! I like the weekends because it is so quiet up here.

Another medication snafu this morning! The nurse brought in Ralph's 7 am meds and asked me if I want his lasix pills crushed or what. Pills? She said they were in his medicine box. I sent her back to look for the little brown glass bottle of liquid lasix. Grrrr.

I asked our day nurse, because she is the one that I totally trust, to check out his medicine box and let me know what is going on. She said that I can request that the medicine bottles be brought to me so that I can draw up the doses! Wow! I wish I had known this 3 or 4 days ago. I'm so uncomfortable with other people in charge of his medication. It turns out that the pills are, indeed, his. They were sent up from the pharmacy because they didn't know that he had home meds here. But, pills?

I'll update after I see the doctor. I certainly hope that today is the day we get to come home. I'll let you know.