Okay so double posting but anyway

I just had an interesting little visit at the blog home of Amy Wade. If you remember, a few months back, I totally blamed the Wade family for spreading their germs via the internet. (See my old post about A Big (Sarcastic) Thank you to the Wades).
Anyhow, apparently now Amy is sick with the exact same crud that I am! So I told her today that I was no longer going to be blogstalking her because apparently this germ curse is still about. Heh.
I'm just kidding, the Wades are great people and it's always fun to check up on their family via the internet. And I can't help but laugh at some of the posts because seriously, Jacksonisms are like the cutest thing ever. Almost as cute as Jackson himself!

Babysitters, Nice weather, Good drugs!

Wow, what a topic of conversation, huh?
Gracie spent her first "official" day with Mrs. Chelsey yesterday, and although there was some minor whining, whimpering, and clinging it was nothing like the all-out sobfests she normally has at Sunday School time. She actually didn'ty start crying until I picked her up, when she wailed, "I want my Mawmaw and my Tina!!!"
Of course we had to explain that Mawmaw is in Qatar, at work, which is funny to hear Gracie say because it almost comes out like "Kat-tar". Close enough, anyway.

We missed out on church Sunday because I wanted to spend the day with my mom, and to say it felt "weird" to be out and about all day is an understatement. I did go back for choir practice that afternoon, but I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things next weekend.

And on the good drug front, I have officially contracted the "I'd feel better if I died today" junk I call the crud. However, this kept me up all night with fever, chills, and chest pain and I was praying this morning that it wasn't pneumonia or the flu. Thankfully the doctor did x-rays and found no pneumonia, and Gracie was an angel when she had to sit with the receptionist while I had the x-rays done. Dr. Coady seems to think it is just a viral infection, but I told him that literally it felt like someone had attacked my head with a sledge hammer. He advised me to get some tylenol or motrin for my head and chest pain, but someone at work recommended a quicker solution in Goody Powder's new Cool Orange. Let me first state that I have never, ever, EVER been a fan of Goody powders and actually find them rather disgusting. Although this new orange flavor leaves a small after taste, it did the trick and my headache is gone!

In other news, Gracie kept me laughing this morning despite my chest pain, when I realized that my 2-year-old little girl was in her carseat singing, "Who let the dogs out? WHO WHO?" I have no clue where it came from, but what a laugh I had at her silly expense. And she kept me company and "held my hand" at the doctor's office, so I really can't complain. God has blessed me with one of the sweetest little girls on earth.

Been a while...

Okay, maybe a few days. We have pretty much settled in at my mom's house, and have been living here for the last week. I miss church. I miss it something awful. I skipped Wednesday night's service so we could keep moving stuff, and I just miss it. Anyway....we had been talking about having our pictures taken as a family before my mom left. Jessica finally broke down and made an appointment last night. Bryan wasn't feeling up to it (he's been working and doing alot of the heavy moving) and that's why he is MIA from the picture fun.
On a side note, Gracie seems to have adjusted to our "new" house so far. And she met her new babysitter, Miss Chelsey, on Thursday. She'll be going permanently starting Monday and then in the summer, she'll be going to Preschool and Extended Day Care Victory Baptist School.
I had hoped she would be able to go to the Mom's Day Out program at Glynwood, but it just didn't work out for us.
And on to the fun stuff...picture time! We went to Potrait Innovations last night and had a blast!

Up close of Gracie

Another photo of Gracie

My favorite, she's smiling!

Kayla, Jessica, Tina (L to R back row)
Mom, Me, Gracie (L to R front row)

Jessica & Gracie in Jessica's "Lady Pirate" softball attire

Kayla and Gracie

Mommy and Gracie

My mom with Gracie

Jessica, Tina, Kayla, and Me

Tina and Gracie

There are no words

I'd left my family, the love I had known
I couldn't believe how caullosed I'd grown
Then I woke up one morning in cold, freezing rain
And said, "I'll go back where I'd caused so much pain."

Just inside of the place where the lane meets the road
The Father was waiting to carry my load
His big arms were open to draw me to Him
Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven....again

If you've broken the trust and betrayed your bestfriend
If you're lost and confused,wondering where it will end
There's a way you can know that where ever you've been
You can make your way home and be forgiven again

Just inside of the place where the lane meets the road
The Father is waiting to carry our load
His big arms are longing to draw you to Him
Forgiven, forgiven, forgiven...again
(Forgiven Again-Ernie Hasse & Signature Sound)

Happy Birthday, Claire!!!

So for those of you who didn't know, Lil' Miss Claire McCrory (the beautiful daughter of our former Youth Minister at GBC, Russell and his wife, Lyndsey) celebrated her birthday and dedication this weekend!
Happy birthday Claire!

In loving memory....

I am not a fan of the Rick and Bubba show, I don't listen to it quite as often as my husband does...but I heard about this from our district manager at work this morning. This adorable picture you see is of Bronner Burgess, son of Rick, one of the hosts of "The Rick & Bubba Show."
Apparently the kids were all out playing in the snow on Saturday evening and somehow Bronner managed to get outside and tragically drowned in the family's swimming pool. Information on his funeral service can be found atRick and Bubba's website.
My heart absolutely aches for this family, I can't imagine losing someone like that, especially a child so young.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program....

BECAUSE IT'S SNOWING IN ALABAMA!!!
Though I realize that snow in Alabama is about as common as Simon Cowell paying someone a compliment on American Idol, I had to document this for future reference. I believe the last time it snowed in Alabama, we have home video of Kayla and Jessica (a few years old) playing in it. They are 18 now.

The statue that is usually in our front yard, but has been moved due to Christmas decor and still has not been put back.

The front yard, including my car, which had more snow on it before I came home from work on my lunch break

A wider shot of the backyard.

I was too cold to go outside, so I took the pictures from just inside the back door.

Our front yard again, with the big flakes falling.

I realize for people like my friend Susie, who lives just outside of Denver, Colorado, that snow is nothing to get excited about when it happens daily. However, it was exciting for me until we were swamped at work because the crazy people in Alabama buy all bread, milk, water, and fire logs any time we even get a tornado/hurricane watch. This time that included chips, lunch meat, and canned stuff.

Oh and after Gracie's bronchitis episode last Tuesday, we went back to see the doctor on Thursday and now we have an EAR INFECTION!!! Yay!!!

Probably won't post much this weekend, considering that we're trying to get moved into my mom's house. Oh and I am currently baking the cake recipe you can find on
Rachel's blog. We used blueberries and berry blue jello, and it smells heavenly.I will let you know how it turns out!

Mucinex=YUCK!!!

Okay so yesterday I posted about Gracie's current illness with bronchiolitis. I may have mentioned that the pediatrician suggested Robitussin DM. However our pharmacist (who I trust to give us good advice) warned us that most kids won't take the Robitussin because of the horrible taste. She suggested we try Mucinex for Kids, which is basically the same thing so I picked up this one.

When we tried to give it to Gracie last night, she gagged and coughed (her drama queen side coming out) and I just very calmly told her it would make her feel all better.

So at 12:30 this morning when I got up to use the bathroom, she was asleep on the couch. I didn't wake her up, just went back to bed. At 4:45 this morning, she was calling me to come "fix" her runny nose and put medicine on it. (I've got this Johnson's balm I've been putting on her nose because it is really dried out and red). I talked her into getting back in her bed.

Well this morning she seemed to be feeling better, and my mom suggested last night we refrigerate the Mucinex to see if it would go down better with less complaining from Gracie. I had no sooner given her a half a teaspoon full when it ALL started coming back up. She literally threw up ALL over the kitchen floor, because she would panic, throw up, and then move to get out of my way so I could clean it up. I was 45 minutes late to work because of all this!

So when I called her pediatrician, they suggested either Robitussin or maybe Mucinex Mini-Melts instead. My aunt was watching Gracie while my mom had her taxes done, and she said that Gracie gobbled up the powder form that was bubble-gum flavored.

Needless to say, I'll be avoiding the liquid cough syrup from here on out.

I <3 my Pediatrician

I love my pediatrician. Okay, well technically she's Gracie's pediatrician but that is beside the point. Gracie was three months old when she was exposed to another baby (my second cousin, Emma) who had RSV. Having read everything I could get my hands on during pregnancy and right after her birth, I knew the seriousness of not catching it early enough. When my cousin Celena, called and told me that Emma had RSV, they actually had to immediately hospitalize her because Emma has a condition called Reactive Airway Disease. Basically what it means is that any respiratory illness Emma gets is more severe because she already has RAD. So I called my pediatrician, who assured me (against my own nervous assumptions) that unless Gracie was running a fever of 103, they didn't need to see her.

I must have called that office four different times in two days. I knew from reading that RSV was highly contagious, very serious in infants, and in some cases fatal. And to top it off, Gracie had this 80-year-old man cough. This deep throated, severely bad cough that racked her whole body. A friend at work advised me to get a second opinion, and we found a small practice called Pediatric Care Group that had an opening with a young, very nice woman named Dr. Dina Winston.
Dr. Winston was very nice to us, very warm, and immediately after hearing Gracie cough said, "That poor baby has RSV."
We hadn't even been in her office ten minutes and we had a positive diagnosis, and were given a breathing treatment before another list of prescriptions and instructions.

I had debated several times since moving to Millbrook about finding a pediatrician closer to home, or maybe using my own doctor but I can't bring myself to do it. Maybe it's because they seem to be able to reassure me when I feel like Gracie is deathly ill, and they don't hesitate to answer any questions I might have. All this leads to this morning. After Bryan's appointment with his neurologist, I called the pediatrician to see if they could work Gracie in because she was wheezing this morning when she got up. And when I tried to give her the Triaminic we've been giving her for allergies, I got the pleasure of a nasty clean up when she coughed some of it back up. When we got to the pediatrician's office, Gracie behaved like she never has before.
She didn't cry, didn't fight Dr. Winston (who had to listen to my heart and check my ears before she could do Gracie's) and she was an absolute ANGEL when they said they were going to give her a breathing treatment before making a final decision on treatment.
For those of you who don't know much about it, RSV can cause children who have had it to be much more prone to respiratory illness (this is Gracie's second one this winter) and also to develop asthma later on. So when it comes to coughing/wheezing and breathing problems, I don't play around with waiting it out to call the doctor. And they never fail to make me feel better about bringing her in to catch it early. They diagnosed her with bronchiolitis this morning, or asthmatic bronchiolitis.

The rest of these pictures are just random ones from the last week or so:

My baby sister (sniffle) Christina, turned 16 on January 7th. She's able to drive now so everybody should stay off the road!

When Bryan and I went to see his neurologist today, Gracie went to "work" with her Aunt Tara. This is Gracie, dressed for work. Notice her kitty was stuffed into her purse?

So anyway....

I totally understand that this website is entitled "Life With Gracelynn" and at first it was just that. But lately, especially during the holidays, it has kind of turned into a family blog. However, I'm not going to change the name simply because I want to talk about other things at random moments like this.

Bryan had a seizure on Wednesday night, around 10:15. We had gone to bed about 45 minutes before the seizure, and I can not begin to explain exactly what it feels like to be sound asleep (although I'm a light sleeper) and be jolted awake by something like that. And while they are only trying to comfort me, it's especially hard when people try to tell me to "relax" and go back to bed. First of all, my nerves are shot and I'm an emotional mess. I actually called the paramedics Wednesday night because after he came out of his seizure, Bryan got up and was stumbling around in the bedroom. He wasn't responding to me like a normal person who was awake, he was mumbling alot and asking me weird questions like what my name was.

The RN at his neurologist's office called this post-ictal, which basically lasts about 30 minutes after the seizure. She says the person is usually disoriented/confused, and may try to walk around as if everything is normal. However, she did reassure me that my idea of not restraining him to the bed was a good idea - it could have aggitated him more. So I let him stumble around but I was afraid he might fall, so I called the paramedics.

I don't know why I'm rambling about this....it is the second time since last August that he has had a seizure, the last time he had one was in our old apartment and that was before Gracie even existed.

Needless to say my nerves are shot, and I have not been sleeping well the last few days. His neurologist has no desire to see him, unless the bloodwork Bryan had done on Thursday is any indication that his medication levels are low. They advised us to make sure he gets at least 7 hours of sleep a night, and that he is eating throughout the day and not starving himself. Of course, no alcohol and no large amounts of caffeine. But we knew all that before.

He complained alot about his arms being sore (I called out of work for him on Thursday) and his tongue was sore. Apparently he bites down on it during the seizure, which to me is just odd because the only way I know he's having a seizure is that he's making a ridiculously loud snore/choke sound and his body is jerking.

Bryan seems to think this has been the worst seizure he's ever had, and I would agree only because of the stumbling around part. The only other time I've called 911 was when he had one and fell off the bed, and took the night stand down with him. And I think that was several, several years ago.

Bryan blames himself for alot of it because due to his short term memory issues, I have to question him repeatedly about whether or not he took his medication. And sometimes he'll say yes to shut me up, even if he hasn't.

I'm sorry, I'm done. I just needed to vent about it.

In Gracie news, she has stopped getting up in the middle of the night and out of her bed. We are slowly moving our things to my mom's house, as that is where we will be living while she is gone to Saudi Arabia.
Gracie is also learning how to drink from a "big girl" cup (we introduced it after her second birthday when I bought them) and she is doing really, really well with that. She is now sitting at the table with us in her booster chair and although it can be messy sometimes, she's doing good there too.

I guess that's it for now. Sorry for the long post.

Oh wait! One more...I pass this small church on the way from my mom's to my house (can't remember the name - ever!) but their church billboard outside said "We're not Dairy Queen, but we do have good Sundays."
Sorry, thought it was funny!

I am Woman! R-O-A-R

Okay, so contrary to how my post from yesterday may sound, I had a totally wonderful and awesome day.
Bryan and I took care of some issues yesterday morning regarding our home and living arrangments, and some things with our vehicles but we came out of everything still smiling.
We came home from a trip to Wal-mart and put Gracie down easily for her nap. After we watched Days of our Lives, I decided to clean out my car.
What I mean here is COMPLETELY cleaned it out. Washed it, sprayed air freshener.

This morning, I was even going to be at work early for a change.
And then it happened.

I had no sooner stepped out the front door and noticed my neighbor approaching. "You know about your flat, right?"
Look of shock and frustration appears on my face.
This kind neighbor of mine helped by taking the flat off, but at 6 o'clock in the morning where do you go with a flat tire?
You call your mom to drop you off at work and put the tire in the trunk.

I go to a wonderful church with some of the most kind, generous people in the world. Some of you who go to that same church might already know that. But the response I got from my email for help to get my tire changed on my lunch break actually made a crappy day so much brighter.
And one of the first people to volunteer was Kellyn, :)Amy'slittle sister. When I asked her if she knew how to change a tire (because I don't) she assured me that her husband, Jason, had shown her how to do it at least twice.

So after I struggled with jacking the car up even more so Kellyn could get the tire on, I felt a rush of excitement at learning how to do something so simple I should've learned how to do it years ago. And once the excitement wore off, I was just plain tired.

So thank you, Kellyn, for helping me change my tire.

Reflecting

I had a moment of sheer panic the other afternoon when Gracie and I were home alone. We had come back from being outside, and I usually let her follow in behind me and close the front door. Well this time for some reason I got distracted unloading my things and the door was left open, Gracie nowhere to be found.
I checked her bedroom.
I checked the bathroom.
I called for her several times, to the point that I went into panic screaming for her.
I checked my steps again. I even went down to the end of the driveway. Surely she hadn't gone out into the street.
When I turned back to the house, my heart pounding in my throat, there she was.
Standing in the doorway, looking about as terrified as I felt at that moment.

And in two seconds flat, my thoughts shifted to Rachel. I don't know why, possibly because I am a huge blog-stalker and I keep up with her family on a daily basis. I admire her strength, although she may not see it in herself, to pick up each day and carry on for Brien and Lily.
I love the way she remembers Hannah, or the places she remembers her in (like Bath & Body Works). And somehow, those memories have transferred themselves into my own life. I left Rachel a comment once about how after hearing a story of Hannah and her
"fruit salad" (Hannah loved B&BW and had to mix scents for her fruit salad aroma!) that I started to delight in that with Gracie.
Our best ritual is on Sunday morning when I'm getting ready for church, she gets her "poo-fume" on. It's this little sample of something I have, but she holds out both wrists and says "right-dare Mommy".
Reading through Rachel's pain of losing Hannah and her regrets of things left undone (even the simplest and smallest projects), I find myself wanting to delight in Gracie more. Reading books, singing silly songs, snuggling on the couch.

I'm sure it's hard to lose a child, young or older, but to be robbed of a child whose life seemed so short is heartbreaking. And losing Gracie in those few seconds it took me to find her almost sent me into cardiac arrest.



I am rambling, but the reason for this post tonight is because I saw a yellow butterfly again today. This is the second time this has happened, and after the first incident I emailed Rachel and told her how those gorgeous, solid yellow creatures made me think of Hannah. They just stood out, plain and simple, and as I've heard Rachel talk about Hannah and how she stood out with her views of the world and her love for absolutely everything.

It is not fair that Hannah was taken from her family so suddenly, at such a young age. And there is the fear that in her death, Hannah will be forgotten. Rachel if you are reading this, I can promise you that even in her death Hannah has lived on. Whether it is in the silly little moments you recount on your blog with her stories, or in the simple wonder of a little butterfly flittering about.

Wow, it's been a while!

Ok, so not necessarily. But I just realized that my last post was almost a week ago. Blame it on the fact that my mom got home late Sunday night. Anyhow, she came over for dinner Monday night and then Tuesday night we ran errands. Wednesday night we had church, Thursday night I went shopping with Mom, Tina, and Gracie and then last night we ran errands again and rented movies.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of Bryan and Gracie laying around the house and being lazy this evening.



So my mom told me yesterday that she is going today to buy Hairspray for me, and then bringing it over so we can watch it! Yay! I'm jetting off to cook dinner before she gets here.

Update on my Mom's work plans aka our childcare situation: My mom probably won't leave for Saudi Arabia until the end of January/beginning of February, so right now she is keeping Gracie again. We discussed the option of a full-time daycare center but I'm just not happy with that idea right now, so a girl I work with mentioned someone at her church who keeps her son for $20.00/day. This works out for us because we will only have to pay what Gracie goes, but I have yet to call and see if this woman is taking anymore children (she keeps four, two babies and two toddlers - but she never has all four in one day.)