Since Nathan was still not 100% healthy last night, I slept in the guest room upstairs. Good thing too, since I woke up at 8 a.m. to James saying "I'm going to frow up!" and running to the bathroom. Yep, he threw up. Luckily he didn't have much in his stomach so it was fine. He stood up, flushed the potty and said, "Bye bye frow up!" with a wave and a cheery voice. He says that when he says bye bye to pee pee and poop too. :)
He threw up one more time and had some bad pooping episodes, but it could have been a lot worse. He's still sick though, running a temp., coughing, etc. No school for James tomorrow.
Kaitlyn and I are still sidestepping the flu, but she has slept a ton today. She slept until I woke her up at 11! Then, she had some banana, goldfish and Gatorade and went back to bed at noon. Both kids and MOMMY had wonderful naps. It was definitely a jammies and movie day.
We set a record today too... both kids bathed, in bed and asleep by 7! I hope they don't wake up at 5 a.m.!
I'm still waiting for my bout with the flu... I've had a few nauseous moments today, but luckily, I think I'm in the clear... so far.
Monday, December 1, 2008
What a long strange trip it was....
Wow did we have a trip to Iowa.
We arrived in Iowa, as noted in the last blog, with ease and excitement, which continued throughout the first few days. Kaitlyn already had a cold when we left Florida, and then gave it to me and James.
On Thursday, we headed up to Charles City for Thanksgiving with the DeBolt family and we were welcomed into Grandma and Grandpa DeBolt's condo. We had to take two vans since our family has multiplied to 10. The guys (Gary, Nathan, Chris) took the older boys (James and Harrison) in one van and the women (me, Marilyn and Beth) took the babies (Kaitlyn and Bennett) in the other van. James and Harrison got to watch Madagascar on the way up, what lucky kids. :)
We had a nice drive up, and it actually went pretty quickly. Beth and I had a nice, yes nice, conversation about politics, Obama, McCain, Rush Limbaugh, etc. which made the trip go a bit faster. There is nothing like good conversation to get the time going.
It was great to see all of the family: Grandma and Grandpa, Karen and Andy, Pat and Rich and Ben. At the start of dinner we remembered Bobby with nice words and stories. Grandma and Karen worked very hard for us to have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we did. Stuffed... totally overstuffed. :)
Friday was a nice relaxing day for Marilyn, me and the kids. Nathan and Gary drove down to Des Moines to help Chris and Beth rip up their kitchen floor and put down new plywood. The finished project will be wonderful. They had carpet in their kitchen, which is really weird, and Beth is super excited that it's gone.
Friday night, Nathan and I and Beth and Chris left our kids with Grandma and Grandpa for the night so we could go out to eat and have a little fun. We had a very nice dinner accompanied by Ted and Heidi at Star Bar. Very very good. I was sick by this point of our trip with a cold, so being the natural party pooper that I am, insisted we go home by 11. We still didn't get to bed until 1 or so, as we indulged ourselves in Friend's trivia questions and Totinos pizza.
This was the night that we also found out that Emily Wilcke had gone to the hospital for intense stomach pains. It was found that she had a gall stone that was passing, which causes incredible pain. She was in the hospital for three days, and still, I'm not sure if she's home or not. This woman has gone through so much in her life!
On Saturday, Beth and Chris had us and the rest of the family (Randy, Marcy, Marc, Fuzzy and Jean) over for chili and appetizers. We had such a great time in their cozy home, and loved every minute of playing Trivial Pursuit twice. As we were ready to head back to Ames for the night, Nathan came down with the stomach flu. Rockin' times. He thought he was done with it, so he attempted to drive back to Ames, but around 25 minutes into the drive, he finally listened to reason (aka Meredith) and let me finish the drive. The sickness continued through the night so James had Mommy as a sleep mate. Poor Nathan, he really had the brunt of it.
On Sunday, Marilyn and Gary put on a wonderful lunch for us with ham, salads, potatoes, etc. all of the good things we like. Beth and Chris and boys came up too, but Nathan spent much of the day in bed. Mind you... our flight was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. on Sunday and my husband is lying in bed sick as a dog.
By 4 p.m., which was time to pack up and start the moving out process, Marilyn got sick. Now I was convinced that the kids or I would start puking momentarily. I told Nathan, "If the kids or I start puking before the flight, we are NOT going." Against my desire, we headed for Des Moines. Weather: cold. Roads: slippery. Highway 30 onramp: closed. Since we couldn't enter the onramp due to cars in the ditch or an accident blocking Eastbound traffic, we turned around and headed south on Highway 69... slowly. It's a good thing that we left early, as we needed all of that extra time to go 40 mph all the way to Ankeny when we finally got back to I-35. From then on out we were fine, I relaxed a bit, and no one else was throwing up. Good.
We got our three bags, two car seats, two kids and one stroller out of the rental car and Nathan took the car to be returned. The kids and I patiently waited for him by the check in counter and when he arrived, we moved all of our stuff to check in. As things were being finalized and our boarding passes printed, James tells Nathan that he's going to throw up. RUN!!!!!!!!!!! Nathan took James to the bathroom walking quickly and trying not to run, but came back pretty soon after and said that nothing had happened, that James was fine. Whew.
We got through security without a hitch (which to me was a surprise because the rest of the trip had been hellish), ate dinner at the restaurant, and boarded our flight without problems. Nathan and Kaitlyn slept in the row behind James and me, eventually. James and I watched Barney, and then I tried to get him comfortable to fall asleep on my lap, but he twitched and stirred until he couldn't handle it anymore. He finally passed out, and we immediately started our decent into Sanford. Perfect timing James! ;)
I could barely wake him up enough for him to walk out of the plane after we pulled up to the gate. He had to walk, we had so much stuff to carry, but he refused. Nathan carried him and Kaitlyn's car seat and I rolled Kaitlyn in the stroller to the baggage claim. We eventually made it home at 1 a.m. and headed to bed at 2 a.m.
It was very nice to see everyone, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but I'm very thankful to be HOME.
We arrived in Iowa, as noted in the last blog, with ease and excitement, which continued throughout the first few days. Kaitlyn already had a cold when we left Florida, and then gave it to me and James.
On Thursday, we headed up to Charles City for Thanksgiving with the DeBolt family and we were welcomed into Grandma and Grandpa DeBolt's condo. We had to take two vans since our family has multiplied to 10. The guys (Gary, Nathan, Chris) took the older boys (James and Harrison) in one van and the women (me, Marilyn and Beth) took the babies (Kaitlyn and Bennett) in the other van. James and Harrison got to watch Madagascar on the way up, what lucky kids. :)
We had a nice drive up, and it actually went pretty quickly. Beth and I had a nice, yes nice, conversation about politics, Obama, McCain, Rush Limbaugh, etc. which made the trip go a bit faster. There is nothing like good conversation to get the time going.
It was great to see all of the family: Grandma and Grandpa, Karen and Andy, Pat and Rich and Ben. At the start of dinner we remembered Bobby with nice words and stories. Grandma and Karen worked very hard for us to have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we did. Stuffed... totally overstuffed. :)
Friday was a nice relaxing day for Marilyn, me and the kids. Nathan and Gary drove down to Des Moines to help Chris and Beth rip up their kitchen floor and put down new plywood. The finished project will be wonderful. They had carpet in their kitchen, which is really weird, and Beth is super excited that it's gone.
Friday night, Nathan and I and Beth and Chris left our kids with Grandma and Grandpa for the night so we could go out to eat and have a little fun. We had a very nice dinner accompanied by Ted and Heidi at Star Bar. Very very good. I was sick by this point of our trip with a cold, so being the natural party pooper that I am, insisted we go home by 11. We still didn't get to bed until 1 or so, as we indulged ourselves in Friend's trivia questions and Totinos pizza.
This was the night that we also found out that Emily Wilcke had gone to the hospital for intense stomach pains. It was found that she had a gall stone that was passing, which causes incredible pain. She was in the hospital for three days, and still, I'm not sure if she's home or not. This woman has gone through so much in her life!
On Saturday, Beth and Chris had us and the rest of the family (Randy, Marcy, Marc, Fuzzy and Jean) over for chili and appetizers. We had such a great time in their cozy home, and loved every minute of playing Trivial Pursuit twice. As we were ready to head back to Ames for the night, Nathan came down with the stomach flu. Rockin' times. He thought he was done with it, so he attempted to drive back to Ames, but around 25 minutes into the drive, he finally listened to reason (aka Meredith) and let me finish the drive. The sickness continued through the night so James had Mommy as a sleep mate. Poor Nathan, he really had the brunt of it.
On Sunday, Marilyn and Gary put on a wonderful lunch for us with ham, salads, potatoes, etc. all of the good things we like. Beth and Chris and boys came up too, but Nathan spent much of the day in bed. Mind you... our flight was scheduled to leave at 8 p.m. on Sunday and my husband is lying in bed sick as a dog.
By 4 p.m., which was time to pack up and start the moving out process, Marilyn got sick. Now I was convinced that the kids or I would start puking momentarily. I told Nathan, "If the kids or I start puking before the flight, we are NOT going." Against my desire, we headed for Des Moines. Weather: cold. Roads: slippery. Highway 30 onramp: closed. Since we couldn't enter the onramp due to cars in the ditch or an accident blocking Eastbound traffic, we turned around and headed south on Highway 69... slowly. It's a good thing that we left early, as we needed all of that extra time to go 40 mph all the way to Ankeny when we finally got back to I-35. From then on out we were fine, I relaxed a bit, and no one else was throwing up. Good.
We got our three bags, two car seats, two kids and one stroller out of the rental car and Nathan took the car to be returned. The kids and I patiently waited for him by the check in counter and when he arrived, we moved all of our stuff to check in. As things were being finalized and our boarding passes printed, James tells Nathan that he's going to throw up. RUN!!!!!!!!!!! Nathan took James to the bathroom walking quickly and trying not to run, but came back pretty soon after and said that nothing had happened, that James was fine. Whew.
We got through security without a hitch (which to me was a surprise because the rest of the trip had been hellish), ate dinner at the restaurant, and boarded our flight without problems. Nathan and Kaitlyn slept in the row behind James and me, eventually. James and I watched Barney, and then I tried to get him comfortable to fall asleep on my lap, but he twitched and stirred until he couldn't handle it anymore. He finally passed out, and we immediately started our decent into Sanford. Perfect timing James! ;)
I could barely wake him up enough for him to walk out of the plane after we pulled up to the gate. He had to walk, we had so much stuff to carry, but he refused. Nathan carried him and Kaitlyn's car seat and I rolled Kaitlyn in the stroller to the baggage claim. We eventually made it home at 1 a.m. and headed to bed at 2 a.m.
It was very nice to see everyone, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving, but I'm very thankful to be HOME.
Grandma Lois Casey
I got this email from my mom today, on the anniversary of my Grandmother's death. I think it is important to include in the blog, especially to keep the memory of this wonderful woman alive in our hearts.
Hi dears,
Today is the anniversary of my mom's death. Can you believe it's been a whole year? I keep thinking of this day last year, how my brothers, my sisters-in-law and I were all around her bed, talking to her, even tho we were not sure she could hear us, and how good the nurses were about coming in and turning her, changing her sheets, treating her with such care and dignity. It was during one of these times that we all stepped out of the room,the guys went to check a football score in the lunch room and Sharon and I were visiting right outside Mom's door. The nurse from hospice was standing in the doorway, and gently told us that mom had not taken another breath for about 30 seconds. So we all came back to her bedside and she never did take another breath. And so her life ended here on earth, but the love she left behind still is with us and within us. She was a dear.
And you all are dear to me. Love, MOM
Grandma, Kathy and Kaitlyn
Four generations.
Hi dears,
Today is the anniversary of my mom's death. Can you believe it's been a whole year? I keep thinking of this day last year, how my brothers, my sisters-in-law and I were all around her bed, talking to her, even tho we were not sure she could hear us, and how good the nurses were about coming in and turning her, changing her sheets, treating her with such care and dignity. It was during one of these times that we all stepped out of the room,the guys went to check a football score in the lunch room and Sharon and I were visiting right outside Mom's door. The nurse from hospice was standing in the doorway, and gently told us that mom had not taken another breath for about 30 seconds. So we all came back to her bedside and she never did take another breath. And so her life ended here on earth, but the love she left behind still is with us and within us. She was a dear.
And you all are dear to me. Love, MOM
Grandma Lois Casey, Kathy and James
Grandma, Kathy and Kaitlyn
Four generations.
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