Wild Cat Den

We took the kids to Wild Cat Den over near Muscatine. Yes, that is the same spot I raced at a few weeks ago and fell, spraining my ankle. When I was there racing I was reminded of this hidden treasure that I had never taken my kids too.

The weather was a little less than ideal. We still had a great time & spent many hours exploring the trails, caves & rock formations. At one point though we got on a trail that kept taking us away from where the van was parked. So Jim & I agreed that I would go back & get the van and meet them at the end of the trail which was also at the entrance of the park. I did that, but there seemed to be a big break down in communication and I could not find Jim & the rest of the kids. It turned into a combination of them being lost, Andrew being very tired and walking slow and the weather taking a turn for the worse, getting colder and stating to rain. I kept walking down trails to try to find them only to find myself getting lost & making circles amongst myself. It was a bit funny and frustrating all at the same time.

I'd love to take the kids back, perhaps making it a more frequent event.

This is what is the cats den. It was too cold & slippery to let them climb up in there.


This is called Fat Man's Squeeze. If you can't fit through the two rocks, well....you're "too fat".


There are years & years of grafitti etched into the rocks & walls of the whole place. Some dates & names going back almost 100 years.


The Devil's Punch Bowl


Walking through the trails.


The happy couple.


Do you see the face?


Family picture time. I actually had hopes of an awsome picture to include in the Christmas letter this year. Instead I got this:




More trail walking. I actually raced along this trail a few weeks prior, but this tree was not in the way.


That is a worm hanging out of Jim's mouth. Yes, he ate it! EWWWW!


Just a pretty scene amongst the trails.

Croup

Baby Carmen had quite the adventure last month when she got sick. One I'm sure she'd rather forget and never take again. What started as a simple cold escalated into a much bigger problem that landed her in the hospital for a few days.

When I put Carmen to bed on a Saturday I could hear the difference in her breathing & had a feeling she would wake up one sick little girl. And true to my intuition she woke up miserable the next morning. Jim stayed home with her while I took the rest of the kids to church. During church I had the urge to check my cellphone (set to vibrate, but sitting in my purse on the floor)and wouldn't you know it, Jim was trying to call me at that very moment to inform me he was taking Carmen to the ER. Jim never takes such matters lightly so I knew he had good reason to. Once we were all there the Dr. checked out Carmen & diagnosed her with upper & lower respiratory infection. We were sent home.

The rest of the afternoon was hard and quite miserable for Carmen. She could not seem to sleep or eat and her breathing was quite labored off & on. Twice I saw her lips start to turn blue as she gasped for air. To make the whole situation a bit confusing she would go through spells of her breathing being quite calm & normal. We monitored her closely and toward evening began to wonder if we should wait this out at home or take her back to the hospital. Finally late in the evening I made the decision to take her in. What prompted me was when I looked down Carmen's throat, there was no throat to look down. Her airway was so swollen I could not see anything but a mass of tissue.

Since it was late, Jim stayed home with the kids while I went. Once we got the the ER, it was very busy and we had to wait for quite awhile in the waiting area. Carmen settled down to sleep, the first time since she had gotten up that morning. For awhile she seemed almost too calm, but when they called us back to be seen she woke up & went into respiratory distress. I was slightly glad for that, I wanted them to see her at her worst. Once we were through the initial check in process the pediatrician on call told them to admit her.

While we waited for that process (that took MANY hours) we had an x-ray taken on her throat. While her airway was never in danger, it was so swollen that the Dr. could not see down into her throat. An x-ray helped them see how much of an airway she did have. And just FYI, an x-ray on an infant at 1:30 a.m. is not a walk in the park. Once that ordeal was over she needed labs drawn. Of all the children, Carmen has horrible veins. I know this from plenty of previous experience. I warned them before they started and still had to endure the process of them poking and poking AND POKING at her to find a vain. Once they did, they told me that while the got the blood they needed, her vain had burst in the process. (I'm getting tired just re-living this process while typing it out). That blood test came back with an elevated white blood count. So that meant she needed an i.v. More poking at such an insane hour of the morning. She had had very little sleep I had had none.

We finally got taken upstairs & into our room at 4 a.m. We both finally got about 2 hours of solid sleep. Once her regular pediatrician came in he explained in great detail what was going on, she had croup. Which croup can have many levels of intensity, Carmen's was obviously on the worst end. He ordered a round of strong medicine to help combat her breathing issues and whatever else infection she had brewing in her little body. He also got he started on just plain i.v. fluids. After nearly 10 hours, she had yet to even wet her diaper. Of course, it couldn't be that simple though, the i.v. they had put in had gotten tangled up and had to be pulled out and another one inserted. Even with nurses from the pediatric unit it took them several tries on both arms to find a vain that would work. I was beyond myself at this point, tears wouldn't even do me justice as I watched this whole process again.

Back at home, Jim took care of usual Monday business & did a fine job of being Mr. Mom. He got the kids up & ready & out the door for school. He took Andrew to swimming lessons. All of this being a slight advantage since he doesn't get to do the day to day things with the kids that I always take care of. Finally, he arrived at the hospital to release me for some R & R back home.

With the medicine & fluids Carmen rebounded and looked much better later in the day. The next night in the hospital she slept or 9 hours straight. After 48 hours, she was back to healthy status & released from the hospital. It was quite the ordeal though, even though she was physically healthy she was still pale & over tired for the next few days. Soon she was back to our precious baby girl.

Of course you know, no event goes without a bunch of picture taking. Warning though: some might make you squirm and just break your heart.

First ER trip:
Finally asleep, this was taken at some early morning hour.

First i.v. put in.

Finally up in our room asleep.

Second i.v. put in. They had to put it in the bend of her wrist so she had to have it splint to prevent her from moving it. Not to mention she tried to pull it out on more than one occasion. She really was gonna have none of this & let the nurses know this too!

They made her arm all pretty and extra secure. I'm not kidding you we thought we'd have to superglue it on her, she was intent on taking it out.

We were able to take her on short wagon walks. She really liked that. A bright spot in her otherwise miserable stay at the hospital. She had to stay hooked up to her i.v. though. When we started on our first walk it made me reflect on how lucky we were. I thought of all the terminally ill children who have this as a way of life. We have in fact, been very blessed to have extremely healthy children. Sure we have this bout of sickness here & there, but count our blessings that it's all we've had to battle. Just a bit of perspective.

Waiting to come home from the hospital. A much different attitude from when we walked in.

HURRY!

If I hurry I might be able to get done blogging about the month of September before the month of October gets over. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Super Chick/Barlow Girl concert

For Angel's birthday I took her to a Super Chick & Barlow Girl concert. The band Vota (formerly known as Casting Pearls) also performed. For those that don't know, those groups/bands are all into the genre of contempory Christian & Christian rock. It was quite the rockin' concert. Some of the songs I could not understand the words they were saying and even at times my head pounded from the music being so loud. Angel on the other hand seemed to know all the words and didn't mind the sound at all. She had a great time! It really was all Christ centered and we had a great time.

Super Chick

Barlow Girl (this group is 3 sisters, but for some reason I only got pics of the one performing)


Here she is reading from the Bible & giving a short devotional before lauching into their next song.


After the concert all of the bands were in the lobby meeting & greeting the fans. They were all very nice & generous with their autographs & picture taking. Christian concerts seem to take that more one on one approach with their fans (not always, but definately when possible). Plus, this concert was held in a smaller venue which allowed for this kind of closeness. Certainly makes it more worth your buck when you get this kind of attention.

With the band Vota:


With Super Chick:


With Barlow Girl:

The Real Deal

I still have much blogging to catch up on. I have something fresh in my head & wanted to get it out before I forgot (I am getting old, ya know).

I faced a delima this morning. First off, I really didn't want to get up & out of bed. I got to bed about 45 min. later than I should have (shopping on ebay). Then I didn't sleep good, kept waking up for no apparent reason & Andrew came down in the middle of the night which always makes sleeping more interesting (how many times can his foot end up in my face?!?!?!). When my alarm went off at it's usual 4:30 a.m., I was slightly reluctant to get moving. I purposely place my alarm clock across the room so I HAVE to get up to turn it off. Once I'm up I slowly shuffle to the kitchen to start the coffee.

I have a group of moms that I meet to run with most mornings. On this particular morning I'm pretty sure none of them are coming. There is always that what if person shows up and waits in the cold for me and I'm a no-show. So I continue to move and gather my clothing, which required me a stop down in the basement. Going down to the basement means I cruise past the back door. And I hear it.....that awful dreaded sound of RAIN! I stop & listen closely and even open the door to double confirm my findings. Yep, a nice steady stream of rain. I inwardly let out a little "yessssss" and realize I have the perfect excuse to not go out for my run.

Here comes my dilemma, the first part anyway. Do I get dressed and head to the Y which opens at 5:30 a.m. and still get a workout? On a non rain day I would run about 7 miles outside, then go into the Y and lift weights. The thought of 7 miles on a treadmill is torture, pure evil torture. Which is funny for me to say because until just a few months ago all I ever did was run on a treadmill. I used to say the opposite....running outside for that long was pure torture. Things have flipped. I want the real deal. Not some make shift, going through the motions while staring at my reflection in the window deal. Blech! And I don't even have to go to the Y to get this accomplished. I have a treadmill sitting right here in my own home! No thank you. (I do realize that I will eventually have to succumb to the machine once winter really kicks in and I really can't run outside, but I'll put that off for as long as I can).

The second part of my dilemma is not wanting to get out of my jammies & out into the drizzling, dark cold. 99.9% of the mornings I'm not home when Jim gets up & leaves for work or when the 2 oldest get up and get ready for school. I usually get home just in time to see them walk out the door for the day. It would be nice to just be here. Fix my husband a hot breakfast, greet the girls when they wake up, get the dishes done that I left in the sink last night, fold the laundry that I didn't finish yesterday....BLOG! So, yes, I stayed home and accomplished all of that AND got 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies made (the dough was made the other day, I just needed to get them baked).

It might seem like a win-lose situation. Really I see it as win-win. Sure I missed out on a little exercise this morning. If you know me, skipping only part of my workout, still makes most of you look like lazy bums. What I gained means so much more. Now I need to get out of these jammies & moving for the day. More kids need to rise for the day and I need to head out for some exercise! : )

Like Mother Like Daughter

People tell me all the time how much Angel looks JUST LIKE ME. I never understood that. I mean, I get where she resembles me, after all she is my daughter. But, JUST LIKE ME as in a spittin image????? I would always chuckle and say "ok, whatever."

Then I saw this picture. OH MY GOODNESS! She looks JUST LIKE ME!

Watch Mom!

Fall decor

I got my house all decorated for the fall/Halloween season. Here is the finished product.


One might think of this if I told you about the big spider I found in my front porch area.


At least that one is "cute" if there is such a thing when referring to spiders. Instead though I found this guy:


In general spiders don't bother me. I didn't see this guy hanging on it's web until it was a few inches from my face as I walked past it. That would illicit a blood curling scream from me and send me running. It had spun an amazing web that stretched from a tree branch over to the bush next to the stairs. I grabbed my camera and spent a 1/2 hour snapping many, MANY pictures of this creature. I'll spare you & only post this picture though. And then....well, let's just say that funeral services are pending notification of family members.

You'll also find these creatures lurking about my front porch. Only because they are plastic are they allowed to stay there. I liked these pictures I snapped of them.

One can never have too many pacis.

Scroll down

I had this great idea to upload some pictures for my posts and work on them that evening. Except that evening turned into the next week before I got them done & posted. When I do that, the posts show up under the original date that it was started on. So it may appear that I haven't updated in a few days, but if you scroll down you'll see some new posts.

Everyday

I think I'm gonna "catch up" on this blog. I have posts from a month ago I want to put up. Of course, every time I do "catch up" a bunch of stuff happens to need added on. Ya know....LIFE! It just keeps happening and going on! That's a good thing though. It shows how blessed we are.