when it rains, it pours

lots going on at our house these days...

eden's "asthma"* has been well under control... until she got a little virus... i'm quickly learning that a "little bug" or "little virus" can be a big deal for a kid with "asthma"*

*i still used quotes because she's not been OFFICIALLY diagnosed with that--she's too young...

this bug/virus/creepy crud thing she got inhibited the effectiveness of her asthma controller meds... what does that mean? recipe for disaster.

she'd been coughing and spiked a fever... so, we headed to the doctor (peds, not the specialist) to find out she's on the brink of a 2x ear infection. her pulse-ox levels were pretty stable even though her pulse had shot up and the doctor could hear wheezing... HOWEVER, the doctors applauded us catching it early so we could be a little ahead of it this time--so, in addition to the 2 meds a day that she was on for her "asthma" we added to the list:

zyrtec (allergies)
motrin (ear pain)
z-pack (antibiotic for ear infections)
albuterol nebulizer treatments (coughing)
prednisolone (steriods--asthma "booster")

...yes, that's SEVEN total. but today, she finished up her steroids and antibiotic. she seems to be on the right track, and i'm beginning to change my mind about albuterol nebulizers.

you see, up until now, they've NEVER WORKED. ever. but i'm understanding why--because her "asthma" wasn't under control and the albuterol couldn't do the ALL work of the other meds... it seems to work really well when her controller meds (flowvent, singulair) are doing their jobs--albuterol just picks up the slack.

oh, did i mention that we have a nebulizer that works now, too? its so much nicer when a "5-7 minute treatment" doesn't take 25 minutes :) (the nebulizer we had wasn't effectively turning the liquid meds into a fog--so the liquid meds stayed in the little storage well while eden got wigglier and wigglier) ...holding a toddler still for 25 minutes is like wrestling a blue marlin. now, a "5-7 minute treatment" takes 5-7 minutes... imagine that!

...the timing of the whole thing i've just told you about? while i was sitting in the waiting room at the hospital during my dad's surgery last thursday. great.

i left the hospital, met mom at the doctor with eden (1/2 way expecting her to be sent to the er again--wouldn't that be convenient to have everyone at the same place!?), filled e's prescriptions, went back to the hospital just in time to get the memo that dad had just been moved to his room--he was out of recovery. whew! and it worked out great that lee could take off work friday so eden wouldn't infect everyone at kristin's house. and by saturday she was doing much better (yay for detecting it early!!!!!)

...

dad's home now... resting and recooperating. and now i've decided to enjoy some allergies and pollen pollution. yuck. but i'm surviving. i've managed to do a spring spruce-up to my wardrobe and purge some old stuff that i never wear. bleck. so wasteful.

i absolutely couldn't have done ANY of this during this past week without the help of lee, my mom, granny pat, aunt lisa, or anyone else i'm forgetting at the moment. wow. meals, checking on dad, caring for eden, work... i simply cannot do it all and am thankful for those willing to step in and help where they can! whew!

that's about all the update that i even feel like giving right now. i'm tired. we've been sleeping with the tv off (something i've not done since i was in late middle school--maybe early high school) and its been GREAT!! i wake up feeling so much more rested in the mornings--no matter what time... lee has even said the same thing! we should've done this years ago!!! what an awful habit--sleeping with the tv on. anyway. goodnight.

breathtaking

i know i'm a little biased, but isn't she beautiful?!

bit by bit

lee and i moved in our house almost 4 years ago, 

since then, i've been looking for the perfect way to decorate this big wall in our kitchen...

didn't really have room for a hutch or piece of furniture

we also thought about doing a "photo wall" of various family pictures

[since the photo wall thing can be a pretty fluid shape, we opted to do that on the "triangle wall" (the wall that is the staircase) in our living room]

and i wasn't willing to settle until i found exactly what i wanted.

i had a huge clock over the fireplace in the living room (that we both LOVED) 

that had been taken down after we had the tv mounted there...

i decided to hang it on that wall

and wouldn't you know it, i found two pictures that were EXACTLY what i'd been looking for

something sorta funky with blues and browns to tie the living room color scheme into the kitchen color scheme

what do you think?

(i used two camera settings--the color of the walls looks different)

so, after 4 years, i've finally "finished" this wall! :)

too much fun

we made it to church today! WAHOOO!!

after the storms last night, eden woke up a time or two... and ended up sleeping "a little late" this morning

8:30!!! oh my word... 

there was TONS of babies at church this morning... 

eden was worn out when we picked her up

we were headed to rocky mount to celebrate lee's mom & dad's 40th wedding anniversary

which worked out well--she could nap on the way

i buckled her in, gave her an animal cookie & her juice cup and we hit the road!

i wasn't expecting her to fall asleep so quickly

...mid-cookie.

yes, she's asleep with her arm in the air, 1/2 way to her mouth

while the cookie is in her mouth.

silly girl.

bye bye, baby food

in the stresses of unsuccessfully attempting to ween eden off of her bottle,

i've been pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to transition her out of baby food

...so easy, in fact, that i didn't even realize i'd done it!

it was one of those "transitions" i wasn't focusing too much on at the moment

because she's a great eater (she really LOVED her baby food!)... 

and well,

according to the doctor, she shouldn't be entirely on "chewable food" 

until she has SOME teeth on the top.

poor girl STILL only has her two bottom teeth!!!

but she's become a master of fruit cups, pasta, steamed veggies, macaroni & cheese, 

bojangles biscuits, french fries, mashed potatoes, pizza, rice, peanut butter (and honey) sandwiches,

applesauce, animal crackers, pancakes, yogurt, and even the occasional chicken nugget or two!!

and good gracious--the cheese quesadilla!

now, she always gets a few bites of whatever i'm having (whether its listed above or not)

and if she gets a "better offer" than what she has in her mouth,

she takes it OUT of her mouth and replaces it with her "better offer"

she's also gotten really good at sharing her food

whether its what she just pulled out of her mouth, or something she didn't want to begin with...

she loves to share with us and she REALLY loves to share with

you guessed it...

nershi!

he's always very gentle

and sometimes unsure if its ok to eat it because

"she's sharing"

or if he's about to get in trouble because he just took food out of her hand...

sweet boy!!

just look at those ears laid back :)

victims

in years past, when planting flowers & sprucing up the yard, 

i've tried to go for themes like

"pretty" or "i saw this in a magazine"

this year my theme is "what have i done in the past that worked"

and "what is nearly impossible to kill"

i have a desire to have a green thumb, but just lack...well,

THE GREEN THUMB.

but i also have a thing for vines...

blah blah blah about some of them "overtaking your house" or whatever

listen up, NOTHING thrives like that at my house.

so, i've got nothing to worry about, right?

i've wanted ivy for years (since we bought the house)... i love ivy...

the leaves, the color, the way it spills and climbs...

heck, i even thought about naming eden "ivy"

(eh, you never know, that name may get recycled one day)

but somehow i'm always talked out of it

not this year!!

i've got ivy and a few other climbing plants

lemme give you a tour!

here's my first pot of ivy

its on the end of the porch that we don't hang out on that much

(because the swing isn't there.)

this area gets more sun than the other side, but its still shady in the late late afternoon

now to the end of the porch that we're always at...

with the SWING!

here's a pot of confederate jasmine

[sniff sniff...and enjoy the HEAVENLY scent]

here's the yellow carolina jasmine 

and if you peek behind it and to the left you'll see my cute new birdhouse

i put it there for eden (and nershi) to enjoy

coming down the steps you have my 3 pots of geraniums.

these are new for me, but i've heard they're pretty hearty.

and my lamp post.

here i've planted my clematis plant

(one similar to the one i've round-upped)

hoping this likes this post and climbs right on up to the top

...wouldn't that be so charming?!

and here are my latest two victims.

i REALLY hope these guys work out...

blooming cherry trees!

now, these pictures are meant to be more than just a picture of the tree

...i was trying to give you some perspective

eh, and maybe you can even imagine them getting bigger

 and blooming so beautifully where they're at!

(above) new tree on the far right

this is our side yard...well, its really our "back yard" but its not fenced in,

so we've always called it the side yard.

i didn't want it smack in the middle of the side yard--

so, hopefully we'll have some room to play

(below) this is the view off of the back of my deck.

again, trying to plan a little farther out here...

thinking we may get a swing set one day and

 trying to plant the tree somewhere we'll have room for that, too!

...my original plan was to have crepe myrtles--but,

we already have 3 of those... and i wanted something that 

would look a little different and bloom a different bloom

the tag on these babies says "full sun"

...well, if that's true, they ought to be REALLY happy where we planted them!

laughter

i could listen to this over and over and over and over.

happy birthday, kiekie

arriving early

staying late

doing laundry hannah hates

changing diapers

reading books

enjoying eden's silly looks

fixing lunch

playing pretend

taking this chance to say thank you again!

half a century

young at heart

but now you're an old fart

(just kidding, it rhymed)

we love you so much

appreciate what you do

enjoy your day celebrating YOU!

--a hannah original.

spring cleaning and toddler-proofing

generally speaking, our house is pretty "eden-proof", but the time has come to depart with my favorite rug... the one under our kitchen table.

bless its heart--it was so full of fashion... funky circles... brown and blue and khaki colored... tied the kitchen and the living room together so nicely... but these last few months of table food for the toddler haven't been kind...

i'm simplifying... one less thing to clean... i can just swiffer to my hearts content now... from the laundry room, through the kitchen, down the hall and into the hall bath... with out the gigantic "swiffer dead spot" that i have to vacuum and/or sweep and/or scrub pooch hair out of it.

the house looked so fresh and spring-y, eden and i ventured to lowe's and got a couple of plants for our porch!

don't worry--i only got plants i've been remotely successful with in the past. and on the way home, i apologized to each of them in advance.

a carolina jasmine plant and a clematis... both crawling vine type plants that in the past, i've managed to sustain for more than the trip home from the store.

my jasmine plant was left outside during the snow a "couplah" years ago and didn't make it...

and the clematis i've even round-upped by accident and wouldn't you know it, it's coming back this year!! wow!...now THAT's the plant for me!! hahah

i've also been wanting to get a hook hanger thing for the awesome wind chime we picked up in jamaica... and i even indulged the impulse shopping trip a little futher by getting a bird feeder. i've been wanting to get one for e--i know she'll love hearing the birds and watching them :)

does anyone know of a strong man to cLimb a step ladEr with thE drill and hang up this stuff?

happy spring, y'all!

renewed and restored

today i got to do something i've been wanting to do for about a while now... i got my wedding rings fixed!!

just to refresh your memory... the rings in their original state and broken click here

and when i say fixed, i don't just mean re-sized... ever since lee gave me the engagement ring, the setting has been a little high for my taste (well, i just didn't realize how many things i could snag or how many things i could hit it on when it was sitting up so high)

after i had them cut off, i decided that when i had them fixed, i would also see about having the setting re-done.

the folks at jolly's made the suggestion of having the main stone put in a bezel setting--it could sit really low and it would be really secure in its setting... she also mentioned it would make the ring look really clean and contemporary... and that sounded right up my alley!

i got to go pick them up today and i could NOT be happier!! i'm in love all over again!!

the setting is MUUUUUCH lower and its hard to see from the picture, 

but the main stone is completely encapsulated, 

so no dirt or grime can get under the stone! yippeeee!!

(below: the outer "rim" of the stone is the setting now)

i certainly loved my wedding set before, but i REALLY love it now! 

(not to mention the sizing is better this go 'round, too!!) my rings individually could be worn at the size they were before, but the problem was when worn together, the bands are pretty thick at the bottom--it makes it like wearing a MUCH thicker band--so you go up a size or two... (and THAT probably didn't help the situation when i felt like my finger was gonna fall off! oh well.)