Been Awhile ...

Ugh. So I thought I would be doing really good at this whole blogging thing, but apparently not!! Oh well. I'll try and recount the last month I've been away from the blog.

Christmas was fabulous. My family came to stay for the week right before Christmas and that was lovely. I sure love having them stay in our home. My Dad cooked his traditional giant pot of homemade chili and to me, that always signifies Christmas. It snowed while they were here, so my Mom took Kyleigh out to play in the snow and taught her how to make and throw a snowball. Important stuff for a kid to learn, you know. My folks got Kyleigh some really great Christmas stuff, and I got a lot of games for gifts, as requested. Kyleigh got several zoo animals. They're little figures that she can hold in her hands, and she's been carrying them everywhere. Kyleigh simply LOVES animals, and my Mom sure knows what Kyleigh likes!! There's two sizes of several of the animals. A "mommy" zebra and a "baby" zebra, a "mommy" elephant and a "baby" elephant, and also a "daddy" giraffe and a "baby" giraffe. The giraffe is a "daddy" giraffe instead of a "mommy" giraffe because it squeaks when you squeeze it, and the squeak hole is located right under the tail, and we figured that daddies tend to "squeak" more often than mommies, right?? (Who designed that giraffe, anyway??) Fun stuff! My sister Cathryn taught me and my other sister Stacie how to knit while she was here. I got a knitting loom thing for Christmas and then was also taught how to knit using needles. It's pretty exciting to make something. I think I have about three or four scarves going right now. Going yarn shopping is a BLAST! I had no idea it could be so fun and Hobby Lobby is my new favorite store! I think I'm going to try and find someplace to take sewing lessons this summer. My Mom got me a sewing machine a few Christmases back and I've never learned how to use it. But I can only imagine that if knitting a scarf is this much fun, that sewing dresses for my girls and making curtains and such would be all the more fun!!

My mother-in-law sent a neat vintage spinning top for Christmas for the girls. It's giant, and you pump it up and it spins and hums/whistles while it twirls around. Kyleigh says it sounds like a train. Then for Christmas we got Kyleigh several toys that she has REALLY enjoyed and that was so fulfilling!! (Getting your child something that makes them really happy is such a wonderful feeling. I can totally see how some people might go overboard with that and get their kids everything!!) We didn't spend a ton of money this year or anything, but we got her a couple of things that she is just really loving. A Little People princess castle that's similar to a dollhouse, and a Little People airport that came complete with a little airplane, helicopter, and taxi cab. Kyleigh calls the helicopter a "helitocker" and the taxi cab is a "taxi truck". She's having a lot of fun with that too. It snowed this year so we even had a white Christmas, and I had tons of Christmas decorations up. It was really nice. :) I think next year will be even more exciting because Kyleigh will know that Christmas morning is coming and that she will get to open presents. Matt and I are still debating on whether or not we are going to let the girls believe in Santa Claus or not.

I was planning on sending out "Happy New Year" cards this year instead of Christmas cards, and had all the ingredients to make little goodie bags for all our friends. I was going to make fudge (thanks Renee, for showing me how!) and other various sweets to be divied up and passed out in cute little snowflake baggies to all our our buddies out here. Then I got sick. REALLY sick. And so no cards went out, and no goodies got made. Sorry, everyone. I think I'll send out Valentine's goodies and cards instead.

New Year's was NOT so much fun. *sigh* The day after Christmas I came down with mastitis. I was running a high fever and was in a lot of pain. I've had this several times before, so when it happened this time, I just called the doctor and got them to phone me in a prescrip for an antibiotic. Normally it takes about 2 days on the antibiotic and I'm feeling much better, but that was not the case this time. After 3 days on the prescrip, not only was I not any better, I was much WORSE. The pain was excruciating, and to any of you reading this who has ever had a breast infection while nursing a baby - you KNOW the pain. But this was different. Way, way, way worse than any of my previous mastitis experiences. There was a huge lump in there, like HUGE. Like seriously, the size of one of those apple pie things from McDonald's. And holy crap did it HURT!! I actually went into the doctor on the 30th and he felt around and said, "are you sure it's not just a plugged duct?" and sent me home with instructions to continue on my oral antibiotic and call him if I ran another fever. I was so mad!! Sure enough, I ran another 103 that night, and called the office the next morning. I guess the first doctor (who was not my usual doctor but was the guy on-call that day - Dr. Chang) didn't believe how serious I was about the pain and the fevers, but the next day's on-call doc was Dr. Lorenz, and he DID take me seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he had me go to the ER that evening and be admitted to the hospital for observation, pain relief, and IV antibiotics. Apparently, if mastitis goes on for too long, it turns into an abscess, which has to be surgically drained. If the infection gets out of control, it can start leaching into your bloodstream and can affect your entire system. Since my infection was on my left side and directly over my heart .... well, you see what I mean.

So, I spent two days in the hospital with an IV in my arm, and that's where I spent New Year's Eve too. Apparently, they had me on some "heavy duty" antibiotics. My nurses kept calling them the "big guns". It wasn't an altogether unpleasant stay. Since I am still nursing Maezie, she had to be in the hospital with me, which wasn't any fun for either of us. Nor was it very restful, but oh well. Then I got discharged and home health nurse came into my house once a day to administer another dose of IV antibiotics. So I had that stupid IV in my arm for a week! Ugh! I'm doing much better now, and so far, the infection hasn't come back. The lump isn't totally gone, but it's really close to being gone and it's very small now.

Special thanks to the Adams family for watching Kyleigh. Penny went with me to the ER when I had to check in, and stayed with me until after midnight on New Year's Eve. She helped me with Maezie while the doctors were examining me and what-not. Then she went home to get a few hours of sleep and then showed up at my house at 6:45 the next morning to take care of Kyleigh while Matt went to work. The Adams' are my landlords, but they are now also probably our closest friends out here in Farmington. They are just amazing and take SUCH good care of us. I honestly have NO idea what I would do without them.

My pastor's wife dropped by the hospital and brought some kind of a smoothie she made. OMG it was delicious. All it was made from was ice, almonds, bluberries, and bananas. No milk. It was heavenly. My friend Franny from church came to hospital to pick me up and drive me home. Several folks from the church brought meals by to help out while I was down. I love our church - Calvary Chapel. I need to buy some thank-you cards while I'm out and about today.

My Mom came out the same day I got discharged and ended up arriving shortly after I got home from the hospital. *relief* There is just nothing like having your Mommy with you when you don't feel well, you know what I mean?? Even if you're 26. She's incredibly helpful and put my house back together for me and helped me with the kids while Matt worked. It's so wonderful that I have a loving mother who is not only willing but ABLE to make the trip out here in a day's notice to help me if something goes wrong. I pray that someday I can be as loving and sweet and helpful to my own daughters as my mother is to me.

Anyhow, the same day the nurse discharged me, we left to go on our annual Donaghey side family reunion/ski trip in Taos. But that's another entry altogether, and I've been sitting at the computer for too long already. So I'll make that post later. :)

Blessings to all, and Happy New Year everyone!!

I'm pretty sure we have already reached our annual out-of-pocket maximum for our insurance. And it's only January. Bet they love us!