New Town, New Fun!

So, we have been in our new house for a few weeks now. We haven't gotten to explore much, but what we have found has been so fun!

Whenever my parents come to visit, we always venture out to find new places. We were able to spend a few days home before they left back to Arkansas. One of the places we went to was Dana Point. We ate a great lunch down at the Harbor and did a little shopping. As we were leaving out, we found a strawberry stand with fresh berries! So good. We took them home and dipped them in chocolate! Yum! The next day we went to Laguna and Newport Beach. It is always one of our favorites. We did some shopping at Balboa Island. I love it that this place is only about 30 minutes away.

Today, the boys and I went up to Mission Viejo, which is about 15 minutes away. I was trying to find an Old Navy and ended up at the most glorious mall I have ever been to!! It had a Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Restoration Hardware, Williams Sonoma, H & M, Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Changs, and then Old Navy. :) It also had all of the normal mall stores, but I was so glad to see a normal mall with extra! I can't wait to go back. Although next time I will be going by myself, because Thompson has gotten as bad as Robert on the shopping patience level.

Where we live now is about a mile or so from the beach. I really think I am going to love it here! So much to do!

Although... I will have to admit that the Chick-fil-A is about 15 minutes away. Boo... It's not an easy run-to spot like it was in Oceanside. But it is in the same town as all the other big stuff, so it will be easy to get to when we have to run errands!

That's about all we have found so far! I will have to finish my house and finally get some pictures on here!

Thompson- Part 2

Ok, as I was leaving off... Rady's Children's Hospital found out that Thompson had an infection in his neck/throat, not an injury!

So after just a few hours at Children's they transferred us to the Naval Hospital in San Diego. (Yes, that would mean we were at 3 different hospitals in 1 day.) We got there and they started him on some antibiotics. Robert and I rotated shifts, he would stay during the night and I would take the day. Luckily, my mom and dad flew out Wednesday night to help out. It was sooooo nice. It was great to have help with Brycen during the day and it was nice that we didn't have to drive back and forth. We stayed at a hotel that was just about a mile or 2 away and made getting to/from the hospital so easy. Thursday, Thompson finally broke his fever for good. Thank God for antibiotics! They also did another CT scan and blood draw and all of them showed him heading in the recovering direction. Friday, we were told we were going to have to stay til Saturday, but that afternoon they said that he was doing so well that he could go home! YAY!!! We were so excited! He was glad to get out and get a good bath. Poor guy looked pitiful from being shacked up in the hospital for 4 days.

We went back to the doctor this past Tuesday and they said he was doing great. We still have a few days left on his antibiotic, but everything seems to be working. Tuesday, was also the first day he could move his neck to the left.

It has been a been a long journey, but I am so glad he is feeling better. He is terrified of having to go back to the doctor and getting "pinched" again. Poor guy.

On a side note... I am so thankful for the health of my child. Staying in the hospital and seeing so many kids with cancer and other things is just awful. There was a family there and the little boy, probably about 9 years old, had some sort of cancer. His mom and sister was there the whole time. I spoke with her a little bit and she was just so joyful. I know she was probably going through a lot, but she took the time to talk with me and ask about Thompson. She was always smiling and playing with her kids. I just wanted to hug her. In such a stressful/emotional time, she stayed strong for her kids. Amazing.

MIA- Part 1

Well, I had been doing such a great job of blogging here lately.

Then...

Thompson got sick! Let me tell you the story...

Monday night (1-31-11), Robert came home from work and I had ran to get us some dinner. About 10 minutes later he calls me and said that Thompson was hurt and I needed to come home quick. I race back to the house to find Thompson sitting on the couch with his chin down neck cocked to the left. He had a huge knot on the side of his neck. Robert said that he was picking him up and the next thing he knew Thompson was whimpering saying his neck hurt. We were sure that he had gotten hurt somehow. So we rush to the ER and they proceed to check us in. We find out Thompson is running about a 102.5 fever. They then do some x-rays and a CT scan. Everything showed that nothing was broken or fractured. They gave him some Motrin and we were back home at 2am Tuesday morning.

The next day (Tuesday), Thompson woke up, still not able to move his neck and still running a fever, and came and layed on the couch. I made him some waffles and chocolate milk and noticed he couldn't eat. I let him lay there all morning and carried him to the bathroom. (I didn't want to hurt his neck worse, thinking he had a neck injury) I gave him some more medicine and watched him gag the whole time trying to get it down. It sounded like he was about to start vomiting any second. I promised him a popsicle if he took his medicine and the poor boy couldn't eat it. He said it hurt him to. :( So then I started noticing his hands shaking every time he went to take a bite. Then I noticed he couldn't swallow and he was drooling everywhere. I freaked out! I called my mom and gave her the rundown and we both decided to call the paramedics. I called Robert at work to let him know what was going on and he too thought we needed to call them. All I could think is that there was some neurological problem and we needed someone to see him now. The paramedics came and next thing I know 15 people were crowded in the living room all making sure my baby boy was ok. They told us that his vitals were fine and we could either transport him to the hospital or they could. After calming down a bit, I decided that we could just take him in. So we loaded him up and took him. We got there and explained our story 20 more times and they kept getting so puzzled. They didn't know why his neck was still stuck that way. They didn't know why he was running a fever. They didn't know what the lump on his neck was. So many questions, very few answers. They did some blood work and a ultrasound on his neck. The blood levels came back highly elevated for some sort of infection and his white blood count level was very high. The ultrasound showed that his lymph nodes were huge. They did some more x-rays. By this time they said that they didn't feel comfortable letting us go home til they could give us some answers. We tried to get into the Naval Hospital in San Diego but they were full. So we had to stay at Pendleton til they could transfer us to the Rady's Children's Hospital the next day.

Wednesday morning came and Thompson and I were up getting ready to leave for Rady's. They had to call a critical care team to transfer him because at this time he was still being treated as a trauma patient because of the neck injury. They had to get his IV in him before being transferred. Let me tell you... I HATE what they did to him. Hate it. He was dehydrated and the nurses tried 4 times to get his IV in. No luck. They said they couldn't try anymore and they would have to call the anaesthesiologist to try to get it in. He and and another doctor came in and they tried 4 times. I cried. He CRIED. It was horrible. I was on the verge of yelling at them so bad, but had to remind myself that they were trying to help him. It's just the worst feeling watching your child in pain. They finally got the IV in his foot. The transfer team was there and we were loaded up in the ambulance ready to go. We get to Rady's and the doctors start talking to us about Thompson. One doctor (our hero!) looks at his x-rays, looks at Thompson, then tells us that he does not have a neck injury at all. He apparently has retro pharyngeal abscess in his neck. Basically, it is an infection started from an infection, that settles in his neck and creates pus pockets (his lump) that grow and eventually cuts off the airway. There is so much swelling of the glands and this is why his neck was swollen and he couldn't move. This also explains all of the blood work results and fever issue. Apparently Pendleton was never looking for an infection, all they were worried about was trauma. The infection was right there on the x-rays and that is how the doctor found it.

We were so glad the doctor realized exactly what it was! I will be back later for part 2 of the story...

Just another Manic Monday!

We have been going non-stop today! I got the boys up and around had to go down to pick up our elliptical at the Sears about 40 minutes away. We dropped off the truck to go ahead and have it serviced while we there. So the boys and I walked around the mall to browse. I have been wanting to go to the H&M store since I found out they carry childrens clothes. I found the store and picked up a cute tshirt for Thompson. We then picked up the truck and elliptical and headed to Target. I was wanting to look at their patio furniture to see if they had any I liked. I wasn't crazy about any of them, so I just grabbed the boys their Valentine's Day shirts and left.

I had to make a 4:00pm dentist appointment so we were having to hurry! I got there on time and went on back. The boys were able to stay up front and play, which was nice. They were having to re-do a filling that I had done about 4 years ago. So they got me all numbed up and went to work. Little did I know what was going on right outside... a bank robbery! Literally, next door! The police came asking if anyone saw anyone suspicious and so on. Apparently they are still on the loose because cops were everywhere! 3 hours later and my mouth is still as numb as ever. Nice. Thankfully, we have our new "redneck Sonic" on base so I can go grab me a chocolate milk shake for dinner!

The boys are ROWDY!! Brycen has learned to climb onto the couch and now does it approximately 4,352 times a day. And then he jumps on the couch, which scares me to death.

We are just waiting on Robert to get home so he can watch the kids while I run away for a bit to find my sanity. Hope everyone's Monday has treated them well. I know all of my family and friends back in Arkansas are gearing up for a HUGE snow/ice storm! Crazy!! So glad I am not there experiencing that. I do remember all of the fun memories I had when I would have my girlfriends over so we all would get snowed in together! Fun, fun! Hope y'all all stay safe!!

It's the simple things...

All pictures taken from my phone

Relaxing Weekend!

Just what I needed...

I swear it is taking me forever to recover from the fast and furious move! I am starting to get some energy back. Thank goodness, because this house needs decorated!

Last night to celebrate 6 years together, Robert and I took the boys to back down to Oceanside. We had a few errands to run and thought we would do a nice dinner too. Well, I decided to buy an elliptical machine last night at Sears and it took for-ev-er! By the time we left there, the mall was closed and we were so tired. We had been out and about since 3 and we still hadn't ate dinner. Robert asked if we could just grab something light and do a nice, big dinner next weekend. I happily obliged. :) So I chose my new favorite place, Jersey Mike's. It is sooooo good! Afterwards, we headed home. Our neighbors were getting together to celebrate a birthday so Robert and I went out to visit for a bit. It was nice. Everyone got along well and moving to a neighborhood, I am always skeptical.

Today, Thompson wanted donuts (again!) so I took him the donut shop and then we met up with one of our neighbors for a quick trip to Lowe's and then on to McDonald's to let the kids play. They have a little girl who is Thompson's age and a little boy who is 9 months old. It was cute because Hailey, the little girl, kept calling Thompson, Thomason. As we were leaving it started to rain. So we came home and I laid the boys down for a nap.

Tonight, I made beef stroganauf for dinner. So far it tastes really good. I used beef top round and it is just still so tough. I am going to keep cooking it for a bit and hopefully it will tender.

That's about it! Hopefully going to relax and watch some of my shows tonight!! Perfect!

Friday Night!!!

Wouldn't you think by that post something EXCITING was going on?!?!

I've got you fooled!

Unless, you consider the fear of Thompson having a stomach virus. The child rarely says anything hurts, but tonight after his nap he came and laid down on the couch complaining about his belly. Crossing my fingers nothing is wrong!

Robert is still working hard. I think I have seen him for like 2 hours this whole week. I know he works a lot, but I am secretly jealous of all of the husbands that get off at a normal time. There are many jobs in the Marine Corps that has this awesome routine, however, my husband never chooses those jobs. Oh well.

Tomorrow, Robert and I are celebrating 6 years of being together. Yes, I am one of those who still celebrates a dating anniversary! ;) Why not, it is another excuse for a nice dinner or something! ha!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I am going to make Robert do something tomorrow after he gets off work. Sunday is back to work. Boo...

Is this cycle over yet???