a very yucky weekend

I wanted to go ahead and get this up so that everyone is in the know about why I have been and am laying low...very, very low.

Friday morning, I woke up feeling not the greatest, but I was okay. I got Kaleb to school, and spent a quiet day at home with Gabe and Shiloh, who cooperated with me beautifully. But, my stomach was hurting worse and worse. So badly was it hurting, in fact, that I called Mom, asking her to leave work early to pick Kaleb up from school, which is not something I ever ask her to do. She did, because she is wonderful, and then offered to take him to the park to play for a while to let me rest before having all three of the kids at home again.

I agreed, but was soon hurting so badly that I couldn't stand up straight and was in tears, so I called Mom and pretty much said "I need my Mommy." So, she came to my house with Kaleb. She sat with me for a while and after watching me and talking to me, told me that if I was feeling that badly, I needed to see somebody. After first trying and Urgent Care Clinic, she ended up taking me to the E.R. and then taking the kids to the park to get some energy out. This was a huge blessing. While I would have liked to have someone with me in the E.R., having the kids there would have been so distracting, it was just better that way, knowing that the kids were with her, and that I didn't have to worry about them.

The doctor's were very kind and took me seriously, and after much poking, prodding, and testing, they determined that I had appendicitis. From there, things moved rather quickly, and to be completely honest, I am a little hazy on alot of it, because the seriously strong pain meds that started coming my way, but I was able to talk to Tyrone, who was worried but, even all the way from Iraq, was an incredible calming influence for me, as he always is (he is a rock for me!) I called Mom several times to let her know what the latest was, and she was comforting and let me know that all I had to worry about was getting me better, that my kids were in good hands. I did not want to be alone, so I called Melissa. I love my best friend. She has worked everyday this past week, but when she answered the phone and I said "I need you in Savannah, I'm about to have surgery" what she said was "I'm on my way."

We did the pre-op, where I had gathered a small fan club of people who knew me as "the red headed girl with 3 babies whose husband is in Iraq" Anyhow, that was all that I remember until I came out of surgery.

When I woke up, I was incredibly anxious and scared, irrationally so, as the anesthesia still had a pretty good grip on me. I don't remember everything that I said or did, but I remember the feeling, and it was horrible. But, Melissa was there when I woke up, and she was an absolutely tireless advocate for me. She knows me well, and she knew what I needed, and when, and from whom. She was everywhere that I needed her to be, even making sure that I got to talk to Tyrone when he called before they gave me Morphine, so that I would be somewhat lucid while talking to him. Then, she slept beside my bed for the rest of the night in a recliner, holding my hand when I kept waking up from nightmares.

The next morning went better, although I was still in a good amount of pain. Mom still had the kids, and, again, this was so wonderful. I cannot stress enough what a relief it was to know they were with my Mom, whom I trust with everything! This was such an incredible, selfless thing that Mom did for me. That night (Sat.)my friend Erica came and sat with me at the hospital for several hours, easing my lonliness. Even when I would drift off, she would sit and read quietly until I was awake and chatting again. This warmed my heart!

Even my new friend Salina offered to do anything she could to help, and her daughter is sick! Also, my neighbor Rita brought me some girly gifts to cheer me up and is taking Kaleb to school for me in the morning. I was discharged from the hospital this afternoon, and am glad to be home. I am still in some pain, and feeling sick from my meds. I am also missing my husband incredibly right now. More than I can say.

But, through this very yucky weekend, My friends and family have shown me an amazing amount of love, and I just wanted to thank them all. You all mean the world to me, and I am so blessed to have you in my life. Thank you.

random favorites

This exchange with Gabe:

Going into Wal-mart, on a tight schedule:

Me: Gabe, we have to be efficient. Can you say efficient?

Gabe: No, Mommy. Because I am not a fish.

This moment with Kaleb:

Kaleb brings the trashcan back from the curb now on trash days.

And he beams with pride, thanks me for letting him help, and begs me to tell him the moment his Daddy calls so he can tell him how he is taking care of Mommy, like he promised.

This face from Shiloh:

erica!

Today my friend Erica and I reconnected!! We were good friends back in high school before she moved to Texas, and then we lost touch for several years....I believe that we were 16 the last time we saw each other! I tracked her down online and she recently moved back to the area. We had a BLAST together, just hanging out and catching up.

It was one of those times where it seems like no time at all has passed....we just talked and talked and talked....it was absoulutely wonderful! AND, Ms. Erica (or, America, as Gabe decided) was a big hit with all of my children. She even played wild with the boys! Oh, AND she's a fan of Oswald the rat!

Seeing Erica again made me so happy!

Erica! (I don't know what's up with Shiloh's face here...)

"America" playing wild with the boys

a doozie of a day

Like the title says, today was a doozie. This morning around 3, I heard Gabe wheezing. This is never a good sign, but I gave him his prednisone and his inhaler and went back to sleep with him right next to me. He did alright for the rest of the night, but when we were getting ready for church, I had to give him his inhaler again. It did not even touch the wheezing that I was hearing. So, Mom graciously took K to church for me while Shiloh, Gabe, and I went to the ER in our Sunday best. We were treated like gold, and after THREE breathing treatments (it doesn't normally take but one...MAYBE two) we were on our way with a very hyper Gabriel (the treatments have that effect, if you didn't know).

We had planned to go to the beach with Melissa & Co. after church today, and I considered not going. But even the doc at the ER said "You're gonna need to let him run around the yard or something to get that energy out!" And, normally after a breathing treatment, we are fine to continue on with a normal day. So, we went and had alot of fun (see pics) but after we had been there for close to an hour, Gabe was cold, shivering, and, yes, wheezing again. So, it was home for us! We came home, had an early dinner, and did bathtime. I was hoping that stopping all the activity along with the steamy water and his inhaler would be enough to get Gabe's symptoms under control. It was not. :(

SOOO....back to the ER. This time, Mom watched both Kaleb and Shiloh so that I could focus all of my attention on Gabe, who by this time was crying, not wanting to walk, and telling me his chest hurt. Now, for any of you who know my Gabe, you know that this is NOT normal behavior. The kid is unstoppable,and will NEVER tell you anything hurts. This was the first time that I had seen him this way during an asthma attack.

Again, we were treated wonderfully, we even got the same Respiratory Therapist that we had this morning, which was nice. She already knew how he had sounded this morning, what we had already tried, and had a rapport with Gabe, which was nice since he was not his usual charming self. He received another treatment, which helped alot, but did not end his wheezing. The good thing about this is that they decided to send us home with a nebulizer, which is what we have been waiting on! SO...tonight it is up ever four hours to give the boy his "smoke" (this is what he calls it.)



I am glad, though, that we got the break at the beach between ER visits, and extremely grateful that Gabe is okay. Please pray for his poor little self, the breathing treatments are a double edged sword because they do help him breathe better, but they also take away alot of his sleep (he is still awake now, at almost 3 hours past his normal bedtime.) So, hopefully we will not need them for long. Now, pics from today!

The girls!

looking for something...

beach beach beach!!

what should i do next??

Kearstin and Landon, I think they have beach water in their veins!

fun day

Today, Mom took the day off to spend time doing something fun with us!! How cool is that? It was a half day for Kaleb, so early this morning, we got up, got ready, and took him to school. After that, we went straight to Mom's, picked her up, and headed to the beach. We had a grand time! Shiloh LOVED kicking at the water and sticking her feet in the wet sand. Gabe, ever the explorer, had sooooo much fun checking out the tidal pools, jumping over waves with Mommy, discovering little critters, and, yes, falling into the water!

We left the beach to go pick Kaleb up at noon. Mom and Kaleb went to get lunch for all of us while I cleaned up a very sandy and salty Gabe and fed Shiloh, and then it was off to the park! We hung out at the park for a good bit, playing and visiting, and having alot of fun. When it was time to leave there, we went and bought my new double stroller! whooo hooo! (something I've wanted for a while...it will help me do so much more with the kids!)

From there, we had dinner at Mom's, and then went for a walk around the Lake, taking the kid's new ride for a spin. WONDERFUL!!! By the time we left the Lake, it was just about bedtime, so it was bath and bed for my three very sleepy sweetie pies! It is only just after 8, but everyone is QUITE passed out, we wore them out for sure today! This is a good thing!!!

Another really good thing about today is that Mom played our "paparazzi" for the day...I'm not terribly fond of pics of myself, but my husband fusses that there aren't enough. So, you'll notice that I am in alot of the pics from today! Oh, and I'm sorry that there are so many, but the beach and the park are such great photo ops that I couldn't choose just a couple...but I did seriously cut down on the 72 (yes, really) pics from today!!

Gabe the rockstar!

Enjoying the water with Grandma

Mommy and Gabe

Shiloh loving her Grandma!

Gabe and Grandma looking over the side of the pier

Gabe, all wet!

walking under the pier

walking along the water

splashing

that's us way out there! I thought mom did a great job getting a shot of the pier

Mom caught us checking out the critters in the tidal pool

playing

Shiloh is a beach kinda girl!

at the park, checking out the sky

"something's in my shoe!"

Kaleb on a mission

Kaleb took this pic of us girls!

Mom liked this pic of us :)

Brave K, he was quite the acrobat today!

"I stole Mommy's straw!!"

hungry&sleepy

It would appear that I started making my own baby food just in time for Shiloh's appetite to explode!! She loves eating her food now! Here she is at lunch a few min. ago, eating sweet potatoes and pears!!

In other Shiloh news....she has said her first words! This started two days ago, she said Mama! and, only hours later, I got her to repeat Dada!! And, to make it even better, Tyrone called me that night, and I was able to get her to talk for him!

"Mom! I'm concentrating on eating here!"

Poor little Gabe...he's all worn out! We've been having busy days lately!

my melissa

Look what Melissa gave me. I love you, girly!

ft. pulaski

Today I decided that we would take advantage of Spring Break and take the kids to somewhere that I have always loved, and that captivated me as a child. We went to Ft. Pulaski, a confederate War fort! This is a big deal around here, and was the first assignment for Robert E. Lee when he graduated from West Point. Also interesting was the fact that it was EXACTLY 146 years ago today when the Fort was surrendered to Union forces in The War of Northern Aggression. (ok, I'm pretty sure that my mother laughed at that...you may have had to live in my house when I was growing up to be amused, though.)

So, we went to Ft. Pulaski....

We took a good look at the moat first thing, and, lo and behold, there was an alligator in there! Talk about excited boys of mine!!

So, then we walked around, exploring the old underground tunnels, looking at all of the casements, out of the windows, climbing on cannons, and all of those fun boy things :)

And then, with me being a little overly ambitious, we got Shiloh, her stroller, me, and both of the boys to the top of the Fort....think old timey castle where they attack people from on top of the outer wall. So, I was just looking at the pics again, and it kinda seems in at least the first 2 that we are at ground level....I promise, we're not. We were WAAAAY up there!




After all of that, I needed to feed Shiloh, so we thought that the jail would be a nice shady place to sit and feed her while the boys ran around and let there imaginations run wild. Imagine it....2 boys, ages 3 and 6, turned loose in a jail from the 1800s to play, play, play! (they loved it!)

It would not have been a Martin family outing without someone getting hurt and making mommy's hear skip a beat or two, so Kaleb obliged (he's ok now, but note that if you look closely, there is also a bruise on his throat. Playing in the jail ended up getting a little rowdy) :(


We had alot of fun! I'm really glad I decided that we should get out of the house and enjoy the last weekday of spring break. We kinda miss having K around in the daytime, so this was nice!!

update on tyrone

I know that this has been a long time coming, and I am sorry. Tyrone has had a lot of things going on and lots of changes, but it is hard to share these things, because I have to weed out what can be said here and what can't, which I posted about here.

So, what can I say? Tyrone has transferred to a new base. As I couldn't say where he was at before on this blog, I can't give his new one out, either. But, by all accounts, it is bigger and better, which is great. Tyrone is also doing what he was trained to do now, which is a huge morale boost. I don't think that anyone wants to work really hard to learn valuable skills, and to be one of the top people in their class at that, only to be given menial chores. Before, Tyrone's whole platoon was basically working on people's "honey do" lists (funny thought, huh?) Now, Tyrone is somewhere where he feels important, and useful. And, best of all, he is being treated with respect and like he has something to contribute, which had been lacking of late where he was.

I do have Tyrone's new address, and, unfortunately, I have decided that I cannot give it out over the internet at all. I will be happy to mail it to whoever would like to send him things, so e-mail me (or mom) your address and I will pass it along. I do not get to talk to Tyrone as often as I did, which is hard, but is just one more adjustment for us.

The most significant change about Tyrone being at this new base is that I can hear the relief in his voice. This is a blessing that we've been praying for. He is more upbeat and positive these days, and it's a direct result of the people around him giving him credit for being an intelligent soldier with important things to contribute. Oh, and guess what? The other day he called me for a quick "hi, how are you?" on the office phone and he had to stop to give orders to some people under him...how cool is that? He's been waiting a long time to not be low man on the totem pole!

Anyway, I want to thank everybody for praying for all of us, and especially Tyrone. Slowly but surely, this deployment is going by....

in the martin household, today will always be known as...

...the day that Bailey finally made her own baby food and then felt incredibly silly for having ever been intimidated by it. :) So, I decided today could be baby food making day....and we made...

apples
bananas
avacodos
sweet potatoes
pears
plums
carrots
zucchini
brown rice
oatmeal

and I may have gotten a little excited with it all....anybody have an extra hungry baby or two??

All I have to say in closing is "YAY ME!!"

7 months

Sweet Shiloh is now officially 7 months old! She definately has her own little sparkling personality! She continues to be the happiest baby that I have ever met, but has her likes and dislikes!

*Shiloh has figured out that some people are STRANGERS....and, at times, even well known and well loved people are not okay. Sometimes, you just need Mom! You can tell when this is going on, because her bottom lip slowly starts inching out, until it is waaaay out there, and then her nose scrunches a little, and then there are a couple of quiet tears, and then really real (really loud) crying. poor baby.

*We have now introduced all of the stage 1 foods (except prunes. why would you do that?) We liked everything...except peaches. Who doesn't like peaches? She'll scarf down some carrots and butternut squash, though! :)

*Shiloh can go from sitting to being on her tummy. The method leaves something to be desired, but it IS effective. She does a face plant and then kicks her legs out behind her...I've learned to put something soft in front of her when she is sitting on hard surfaces. Doing this prevents lots of tears!

*Courtesy of my mom, Shiloh will get VERY excited and shake her rattle, or whatever else is in her hand, when you sing "Shake shake shake, shake shake shake, shake the rattle, shake the rattle!" It's pretty funny.

CHICAGO!! (or, melissa the hero)

Last night, Melissa and I got to go out and have a girl's night!! Her mother kept her children, and mine kept my children (THANK YOU MOM!!!) and we went out! This has been been more than a month in the planning stage, and it was great! First, we went out to eat at Applebee's, where I told Melissa that it was a little strange to not have to get crayons from the hostess. Dinner was wonderful, and then it was off to see the musical Chicago!

The Broadway in Savannah group is so talented! Right from the beginning, it was captivating...I almost forgot where I was....until a very loud THUMP about 45 min. into the show. It was obvious that someone had fallen (Have I mentioned that Melissa is a nurse?) She looked at me and said "I think I should go" I said "Go!" and that was the last I saw of Melissa for a little over half an hour. Of course I knew that if nothing was wrong, she would have come right back, so I got more and more concerned.

Finally, at the very end of intermission, she came back. An older gentleman had fallen and hit his head. He had seemed fine, just in need of a stitch or two, was lucid, answering Melissa's questions about his medical history, when he suddenly started seizing. So, Melissa and her help (another medical professional came to help from the audience....he was an EMT...unfortunately, he was also drunk.) EMS was a long time in responding, so Melissa was busy keeping him from hurting himself and keeping an eye on his pulse, etc.

When she finally got back, she was sweaty and out of breath, but boy! was I proud of her! I was so glad that she was there to help and has the commitment to get up and go when someone needs her. YAY for Melissa!!

Anyway, then we enjoyed the rest of the show and headed back to the house, where I laid out everybody's church clothes, was lucky enough to get a call from my wonderful husband, and then passed out!! It was a great night, I am so so so glad we got to have a night out together. Thank you, Mom, for allowing me to go out and have fun! It was a great gift!

the everyday craziness....

This first one is of Shiloh and Kaleb bonding....yes, this is what my house sounds like :) But I love how Kaleb does things with her (although he is still a 6 year old boy...quite evident! hehe) and I love how she loves to make him laugh. Also, you can see when she notices the camera and starts hamming it up even more!

AND...here is the next big thing....American Idol, watch out!

And this was all in the 45 min. since I just picked K up from school....and it's now officially spring break. Wish me luck with that!! Now, I totally understand if you need to go take some Advil, I already have! :)

funny things my boys say

1.) We were sitting at the table, eating. All of a sudden, Kaleb strips off his shirt and says "Mommy, LOOK! I've got BIG muscles!" I started to reply, but before I could, Gabe leaned forward (towards K), squinted his eyes, and said "But Kaleb, where?!" (Kaleb was not amused)

2.) Gabe is working on his manners, and he pretty reliably asks to be excused when it's appropriate....except for it doesn't sound like "excuse me"....it sounds like "accuse me!!"

3.) Kaleb has more wiggly teeth. Somehow (where do kids get these ideas?) he thought that his new tooth was growing out of the tooth beside it, rather than out of his gums. But, now, that other bottom tooth is about to come out. In Kaleb's mind, this meant that he wasn't going to have ANY teeth soon if they all fell out before a new tooth could grow in....I hope I explained that clearly. He came to me completely listless last night, asking me what he was going to get to eat if he couldn't chew anymore...it took a good 20 min. to figure out what was going on his his mind!

4.) I was being very silly, jumping up and down, making funny noises and strange faces, all for the benefit of Gabe and Shiloh, who were laughing at me alot. I said "I know, I'm silly" And Gabe (whom I have trained well, and whose wife will one day thank me--we can hope--) said "No, Mommy, you're not silly, you're BEAUTHIFUL!!"