Sunday Morning Styles

The Past 24 Hours

Tests. Tests of patience. Tests of strength. Tests of all kinds. That is what our last 24 hours have been like. Thank you all for your prayers for B, he is doing better today but still exhibiting symptoms. Hopefully, his medication over the next week will squash those. Here is a recap of what happened yesterday...
Ben woke up coughing yesterday morning. We didn't think anything really of it other than his allergies must be acting up again so we gave him some nasal spray and dropped him off at daycare. I received a phone call from his daycare around 4 pm saying that he was having some issues with his breathing. He was "belly breathing". When I got to daycare I saw that he was breathing really hard using his abdomen. I took him to StatCare and they got us in to see a nurse really fast. They took his O2 levels and breathing and saw that he was breathing about 60x a minute (should be 40) and his oxygen levels were lower than normal. They gave him one breathing treatment there and told me that they were going to need to transport us by ambulance to one of the hospital ERs...that is when I started to try to not freak out. Whenever an ambulance is used, that is pretty serious, right? I asked the Dr. how serious this was, and he said the ambulance was a precaution because sometimes the little guys will just stop breathing. At that point I was just praying that he would be okay and that Jeff would get there soon. He had called and said that he had gotten my message and was on his way from practice. He finally got there and that helped calm us both down.
After the breathing treatment, I rode with Ben in the ambulance to the ER where we were until he was discharged at 12:40 am last night. Over the course of those 6 hours, he was given 6 more breathing treatments, a dose of steroids and a couple of chest x-rays. He did really well with the breathing treatments after the first couple and once they would just let him leave his thumb in his mouth while he did them. We were all really tired by the end of the night and they were talking about having us stay the night unless his O2 levels did not stay consistently higher than 93 (they should be around 100). After his final treatment, his levels finally stayed high so we got to go home.
This is probably the first part of a long journey ahead of him and us. We will need to schedule more appointments with his Dr. and perhaps specialists to figure this out. They are thinking that it is asthma but we don't know what triggered this attack or anything else. Please pray that those appointments will provide answers and ultimately, a treatment that works for B. Please pray for B's safety and for any possible flare-ups in the future. We are so grateful for the care that he has received and for everyone's concern for our son. Thank you all. We are truly blessed.

Football Practice

Preseason practice has been going on for the past week but B and I finally got to attend practice for the first time today. We went to pretty much the entire morning practice and after nap, got to be at the afternoon practice for the last half hour.



We decided to start B's training a little early so we ran through some light exercises today. We ran back and forth across the field, hit the sled a couple of times, and rolled the big weight ball around. Not too much, just enough to break a sweat ya know.

 

Dining Room Project 1

I am a big fan of taking old things and making them new again. Since I first settled on a paint color and "idea" for our dining room I have been keeping my eyes open for accessories. I find this the hardest part of decorating because I can never make up my mind and I don't want to spend the money if its just not going to look right when I add it to the room. Lucky for me, I prefer to shop at flea markets, Goodwill, and the Habitat Restore. This makes it a lot easier on my wallet and if I mess something up I can always store it away to maybe use for another project.
The idea for this project started when I saw a couple of large bird prints at a flea market that I went to at the start of summer. I thought they would look perfect in the dining room with the color of blue that I had picked out. Then, about a month or so after, I was at the Goodwill store near our house and found a pair of matching frames that were a pretty cool yellowy-white finish and they looked large enough. If you have never thought to go into second hand stores you really should give them a shot, if nothing else but to just browse around in the household section. Frames are pretty cheap there and can be made to look however you want for only a few bucks. People are usually selling them because they have the UGLIEST artwork in them (see my example below). Anyways, there is a framing store near our house and I finally took the time to stop in there this past weekend to see about getting some large mats cut to display the bird prints in the Goodwill frames. They did a great job, at minimal cost. After I picked up the mats, I took out the old pictures and mats, inserted the new pics and mats (twice because for some reason the words did not line up the first time and I knew that would bother me since they would be hanging side by side) and used the old mats as the backing. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. I think that they are quite Pottery Barnish, don't you? You will have to wait and see them up on the wall though. I'm not quite done with the rest of the room.

Flea Market Print


Old Goodwill Frame (with ugly pic)


Finished Print in Frame

Free Home Tour!

Yep, you read right, this tour won't cost you a dime. :-) Thank you to the Hehman family for being our lovely home show models. They look great don't they! I was actually giving Liz and the boys a tour of the house not long after we got the keys. A LOT has happened to it since then. Hopefully, I will be able to reveal room by room as the projects wrap up. We shall see how long that will take since football started today.

I Figured It Out!

We got a new computer and I finally figured out how to do slideshows...or finally sat down and made myself take time to do it. Here are the much delayed and probably much anticipated 1st Birthday Party shots from May.

It Was Time

B finally got his second haircut the other day. We were letting him have his "California" summer/blondie locks for the majority of the summer but sadly, it was time for them to go. The little towhead did pretty good during the cut, though I think that last spray the hairdresser gave him sent him over the edge.

15 Months

B had his 15 month appt. this morning. He is doing great (having a little seasonal allergy problem, but other than that great)! We are so blessed to have a happy and healthy little boy.

The Stats:
Weight: 28 lb 13 oz (93%)
Length: 33 1/4 in (95%)
HC: 19 1/4 in (90%)

He has grown 2 inches in the past 3 months!!

Some other tidbits...
B is wearing a 3T shirt, 24 months/2T pants, and size 5 shoes.
He is saying around 15 words now.
He is trying to jump, but can only do calf raises or lift one leg off of the ground. :-)
He is a great helper and puts things away and hands things to Mommy or Daddy when asked (at least when he is in the mood to do so).
He gets super excited to see Diego every morning and when he gets home from "school".
He loves to take the pots and pans out of the cabinet and place them all over the house.
He can often be found bustin' a move whenever he hears music.
He likes to go up stairs the "big boy" way.
He has finally settled into enjoying his bath time and no longer tries to stand up in the tub for the whole thing.
He is still very much the thumbsucker and is soothed by skin contact.

...No, I Am Not Crazy.

What A Couple Of Cuties