The MOST amazing place you NEVER want to go....

Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta---Scottish Rite......................That's right, we have spent a surreal week in a place I prayed I'd never have to be .......... And blessed that we were there surrounded by no less than 10,000 angels !!

Since I have been a very behind blogger, I'll start from the beginning..........After I tell you my sweet baby boy is wonderful and home safe and sound............

Friday, October 29th landed us at our favorite pizza place with some of our favorite people in the whole world............We had quite the time which I am not swearing by it but may have included 6 lemon drop shots, lots of beer and a few frowns from fellow diners..............HA! I noticed baby boy was doing a little bit of limping but he said he hurt his foot on the playground, oh well no worries..............

Saturday, He still wouldn't put any weight on his heel but got around just find and we certainly went about our day with lots of pre halloween fun, including a trip trick or treating with grandmother and grandaddy while mommy and daddy celebrated a pretty good football game that should have had a better ending........damn dawgs................

Sunday, Halloween, my sweet boy woke up pretty miserable, still favoring his left foot. So, since it was halloween, I decided to head to our urgent care place up the street for some Xrays........NOTHING.........Nothing but a referall to an orthopedic surgeon for the next day............

Monday, The 1st of November, my sweet boy got a cast.........even though a second set of Xrays showed NOTHING, again. Now, I have a little bit of cast experience since baby girl had one at age 2.........So, I thought, no worries, off in 10 days, just in time for the birthday party............

WRONG!

By Wednesday, his sweet 3rd birthday, he was screaming pretty much all day and all night..........So, Thursday, I marched myself into a DIFFERENT pediatric orthopedic surgeons office and demanded the damn cast come off!! They did a third set of Xrays, again, NOTHING.........and out we went with a walking boot...........which lasted one day..........

Now, as I politely called the Dr's office, AGAIN, on Monday, November 8th...........and politely explained to them that I did NOT have a medical degree, however, I was a MOM and therefore felt pretty comfortable in the knowledge that NOBODY seems to know what the HELL is wrong with my baby!! His heel is now swollen and very hot to the touch...........SOMETHING WAS WRONG!! And then I politely explained to them that I would be back into their office the following morning...................which, actually, the hubby did............

And how we got to Children's Healthcare.....................

And how my sweet boy had lots of blood taken, two sedations, bone marrow taken, more Xrays, many bags of antibiotics pumped through his tiny little body and last but not least, an MRI...........which would tell us that he has OsteoMylitis.........An infection in his bone............cause---unknown.

We saw orthopedic surgeons, nurses, pediatric doctors, and lots of infectious disease doctors with Harvard degrees..............all telling us how common this was........Yeh? Really? HMMM, didn't seem very common to me!!

Good news is that my sweet baby was mostly clueless about why we were there..........he had lots of jello, lots of pudding, lots of popcicles, lots of attention and non stop movies..........ALL HOURS OF THE NIGHT!!

It was pretty tough on us parents, but he did great............And every minute, we were reminded as to just how blessed we were..........And how prayers really do get answered..........Especially when you have the kind of prayer chain we had!! Thank you, my friends.......

Did I mention Birthday party? That's right, the one scheduled for both of my babies on Sunday!! The one that I hadn't quite gotten all the details done for...........The one that was at our house..........with about 35 kids coming..............The one still decorated for Halloween :) And the one that I wasn't quite ready to cancel just yet.................

So, we finally get to Friday, the day some doctors agreed we could leave and the day some doctors disagreed we could leave...............hmmmmm, bottom line, Brayden needed to change from IV antibiotics to oral antibiotics........No big deal, right? well.............no big deal until he threw up the first two tries...................

the hubby and I were exhausted............my sweet boy was exhausted............but how do you reason with a barely turned 3 year old that he only had one more chance?? Chocolate.

Chocolate syrup to be exact.

Our horribly dry harvard grad, Dr. Long, subscribed chocolate syrup as the combo to get the medicine down. and to stay down.

Now, that would have been great to know the first time, because he wasn't really sure he was gonna try for a third time to get down something that truly smelled awful..........

but he did..........

and we left..........

But not after thanking all of the nurses, all of our friends and families, sleepovers for my sweet girl, the great doctors, the great staff, and mostly God. mostly God.

10,000 angels, koi pond, media room, craft center, basketball court, it was pretty cool!! but, I don't want to go back...........

So four happy people slept well Friday night.................but saturday came VERY early!! We had a party to pull off...............

And pull off we did.....stay tuned!

RRROOOOAAAARRRR......

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M TURNING THREE..........Oh wait, that's my mom! Where has time gone? Stay tuned for many posts all about ME!!

Bye Bye Paci.................

I will miss you..............

Not because I really liked you. Actually, I strongly disliked you..........However, I will miss the silence you caused as soon as you were found..........I will miss the 15 extra minutes I was given at a restaurant to eat my luke warm food.............And I will truly miss the amazing talent you had of keeping my sweet boy asleep till around 7:15am..............

So, in your place, I now have high pitched tantrums, cold food and 6:30 am wake up calls...........

And a sweet baby boy who probably is one step closer to not being a baby...........sigh.........sniff sniff.................

But that sweet baby boy gave you up to another baby in need.........He's cool like that!

WARNING!!

I suck at blogging...........hell, I suck at a lot these days! But, anyway, our computer got a virus, AGAIN, I got the big ax at work, although I have to keep working through November, and I am desperately trying to count my blessings............So, I promise to get better at blogging, get a job, and count my blessings, again!

The Sprouts!!

Our first organized soccer team....................The Sprouts!! The girls are playing out of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (PRUMC) since we totally missed the sign up for our local league...........of course, right!! And they are totally ORGANIZED..........."they" being PRUMC........Some might call it a soccer game, I'd like to call it Comic Relief!! For us, it all began with the uniform.................

"That is for boys, MOM!"

"I don't like black!!"

"I am ONLY wearing a dress!!"

"But why is not PINK????"

And it went on and on and on........................But she finally agreed and off we went!!



See........Here's proof that she actually put ON the uniform! Morgan's dad, Greg, and Jeff are the coaches...........

Here's Greg giving the girls some coachin!!................not sure they listened.........

Team Sprouts!!


And of course, what sporting event is complete without a little sibling making a beeline across the field, right????



And check out our fantastic fans!!


This sweet girl had the stance down..........only problem was that she stayed in that EXACT stance every time a ball came by...............Oh well, not sure our experience level was too high!!

My sweet girl not only stayed on the field, she actually made contact with the ball and there were NO TEARS!! And she was NOT one of the four that refused to leave their moms laps on the side!!

And oh yeh, that's right, we played a team in PINK...........How do you think that went over in our house???? Not too well..............And let me tell you, those Peaches were damn good! Not sure what kind of bootcamp had been going on but they had some major game plans..........Seriously? Seriously!! Those 4yr olds kicked our little sprout hineys!!

But after a great team meeting, starting with which end of the field was ours, we are looking forward to today!!

And of course the pizza and ice cream helped too!!

I am so proud of my little sprout!! Will keep you posted on today's game!!

See ya Summer!!

So we sent summer out in style...........right on Lake Sinclair with family friends!!
The Phifer family have been friends of our family for almost 18 years!! They have four lovely daughters and now many grandchildren and spouses later............Great times, starting with golfcarts and dogs!!



We certainly didn't want for food..............Friday night started with homemade spaghetti, Saturday night was barbecue and Sunday ended with filets and crab legs!!
Adorable little tushies.............
The best thing about this weekend? was Isabelle.........Emery's "for the moment" new best friend! 10 years old and I am sure we owe her some major money for all the babysitting she did!



well.........My mom will kill me, but this was so sweet........he was so snug and happy!

And once again, Isabelle!
Here are the boys cleaning their allotment of Dove that was hunted........two out of the three were not actually involved in the "delivering" of the doves, however it was most humorous when Brayden asked his grandaddy if they could still fly!!


We mostly relaxed in a beautiful cove but some of the youngins took the Jet ski out for a little ride!



Now, here are the patriarchs of the family! Brothers? well, maybe brothers by another mother! cause at equal weights, they even make me pause! SCARY!

All the lovely Phifer ladies!!

We really had the best weekend...................Great friends, way too much great food and so much fun! It was so easy to look around and count all the many blessings!! We look forward to many more gatherings.................

Music on Mondays................

So, it's football season............And I love sports talk radio during football season..........Except when my team loses..........And then it's music on Mondays..........Cause I just can't take it! Damn Dawgs!!

Not too bad for TWENTY....................

My Reunion was GREAT!! It was held at the Stone Mountain Park Marriott in a very small ballroom with a mediocre DJ and I NEVER touched the food............But the night was really FUN!! It started with dinner at Watershed in Decatur with Chris and Tinsley Hayes....I went to highschool and college with Chris and we had a wonderful dinner and easy conversation. No pictures of that, unfortunately!

My parents watched the kids for us and apparently were having their own dance party...........






Here are some great friends from school..........Cheerleaders with me........yeh, yeh, our hair has changed!!
Carol Anne Tucker, Laura Pate and Sharon Haney............



Here I am with Candi..........I used to spend the night at her house when I was little.........

Here's Mike Green, Diana Brown & Robert Fulgham.........After a few cocktails, I apparently invited myself and my family to Robert's house in Colorado..........HA! He was polite enough to not say "hell n0" so that's a plus, right?

Oh my sweet Diana Brown...........Loved seeing her!!

Here's the attempt at a group photo..................Didn't go so well, probably should have tried earlier in the evening!!


Laura Gallagher and I grew up together in the same neighborhood and here we are with Christi Elmore and Kristie Hennecy!

Felicia Scales, (Chad Johnson) Mary Hill, & Kristie and I had such a great time catching up!

After we were kicked out of the ballroom, we all moved over to the hotel bar........this is where it gets a little fuzzy...........




But it really was so nice to see everybody and EVERYBODY really looked great! I would even kind of like a "Do Over" so you could really talk and catch up.........I think every body was just so excited to be out, it was mostly drinkin and dancin!

Overall, I am so glad I went!!

And it's my blog............so I can "leave out" various details, right?!?! hahahaha Let's just say SUNDAY was when I really needed a babysitter............