When will it end??

If you can't tell by the title, I am still sick as a dog. It is getting really old. On Thursday, since I was getting no better, we decided I should head back into the walk in clinic....and let me tell you, it was a blog worthy experience.

Let me start by saying that I officially HATE walk-in clinics. Since we are new to the area though, we do not yet have a primary family Dr. ---but that is top on my list of things to get accomplished once I get better. I go in and explain that I was there on Monday---told them who I saw and told them that nothing had changed. I am still not able to keep much more than a small bit of water down---and when I got on the scale I had lost 5 lbs (which I can't say I am complaining about---but there have to be better ways). They take me back to the waiting room pretty quickly and I am pumped, thinking it might be a quick visit....mind you I feel as though I am walking through a germ infested jungle as I make my way back to the room.

So I wait about 20 minutes and a student comes in saying that she will see me and then explain my symptoms to the nurse practitioner who will then come talk to me. (I am thinking...seriously?? Why am I not just seeing the person I saw on Monday?) Anyhow she looks at my ear and asks if I think it is worse than it was on Monday---are you kidding?? I have no idea, I didn't look in there. My glands are still the size of softballs and I am tired as all get out, puking up water when I drink too much. So she leaves and about 20 minutes later I hear her explaining to the woman I saw on Monday what she saw. That woman proceeds to come in and do exactly the same thing. She says it looks no better and they will run a mono test and put me on a stronger antibiotic as well as give me nauseau meds. Great---write the script and I am out----oh no, another 20 minutes goes by and the student comes back in and says that they will come soon to draw my blood for mono but could she interview me---she has a paper to write this weekend and it needs to be on a patient that they can't quite diagnose----are you serious---and then it occurs to me, I am on some Dr. House Bloopers show.

So that takes about 30 minutes and they never come to draw the blood. No joke I wait another 20 minutes and 2 people walk in and say they are going to take my blood---barely acknowledge me and then you can tell one is teaching the other saying "make sure you don't poke a tendon and you want to make sure you do not go all the way through the vein----"At this point I am almost laughing. They are reassuring me though that they will put a rush order on the lab results. I finally get the perscriptions and 2 1/2 hours later I am out of there. So I call on Friday for the results and of course they are no where to be found---likely story. I am hoping to the high heaven to find something out early tomorrow and then I will be off to a REAL DR.

Chris's sister came to town to help us out this weekend, which we were so thankful for. I have had some crazy cravings but none of the food stays down---it is so frustrating....and no, i am NOT pregnant, I have taken 2 tests to be absolutely sure. Saturday all I wanted were fish sticks and gatorade. YUCK!! And I cannot tell you how much I miss feeding and taking care of MaryCate. I play with her for 10 minutes and I am exhausted, Chris has to take over----and poor Chris I asked him what he was having for dinner tonight-----A Cheese, onion and pickle sandwich---Lord help us all. If you are praying people I am begging you to just say a simple prayer that I can get some meds that will make me well. I just want to feel better and be able to take care of my little girl---and NEVER have to go to another walk in clinic again. Enjoy the pics of the neat new outfit MC got in the mail a few weeks ago!!

Shout out to my Rinks---and thanks to Andrew for the sweet onesie he got MC

Even though mommy is sick, I am as happy as a buzzing little bee

Sick Sick Sick

---the title says it all. I have been able to avoid being sick pretty much since MaryCate was born, but that was brought to a screeching halt the beginning of this week. The Funny thing is, I wasn't feeling great over the weekend but I partially thought it was because I stayed up until midnight to watch the Badgers upset FL State in the first round of March Madness. So I thought I was just tired. Then as it got worse, and I was really achy---Chris says to me "ya know babe, you did stop pumping about a week ago, maybe it is all hormonal."----I totally fell for it, and believed him. I did decide though I should go to the walk in clinic to see if I should maybe pump again or what I could do to make it better. I explained to the Dr. what I thought was going on and he looked in my ear and just laughed and said "honey I hate to break it you, but your boobs have nothing to do with your massive ear infection." Then he touched my right gland and I squeeled like a baby pig, holy smokes is that thing swollen.....Anyhow I am on a great antibiotic and have been sleeping for about a day straight.

Chris took over with MaryCate and it has been such a relief. The best part was when I got up this morning and asked how the night went, to which he replied, "I decided to feed her at 3am----it was just easier that way." Yea, this girl has got him wrapped around her finger and she has a new thing coming when I am in charge again. No way is she getting up at 3am to eat.

SO I have been putting off cooking my big St. Patricks day dinner because I want to be able to enjoy it---but I can put off no longer, the meat will go bad. So tonight I am preparing one of my all time favorite meals and I will probably eat toast. Hoping by tomorrow I can enjoy the left overs. We didn't have it last week because we went out for our anniversary on Tuesday and then the days kept getting away from us and dinner plans kept coming up, oh well!!

To spare you pictures of my sickly self I included some fun pics of 2 weekends ago. We went to Bradenton for our friend Beth's wedding and had a blast. MaryCate LOVED staying at the Price's where she got ample attention from their 2 little ones, Reid and Lana. We also spent some time at the park with all of our friends and their new baby's----lots of fun!!

I could not resist this picture, MC got a quilt from my good friend Eric's mom and as you can tell she LOVES it---the sesame street characters put her over the edge!!

Reid always wanted to help out---and Lana too.....or monkey see monkey do

Hanging with Dakota VanEerden, she seems like a big girl to me, but I am actually 4 months older

Hnaging out at the park the day before the wedding with Leighton Johnson

3 Years and going strong

Yesterday was our anniversary and we are both amazed it has only been 3 years....not in a bad way but we agree that the past year felt like three in and of itself. I remember saying to Chris the summer we got engaged "if we can paint the outside of your house without killing each other, surely we will make it"---little did I know how easy painting a house would seem after the year we have had.

We were so blessed to have our Young Life committee treat us to a wonderful night out. Our good friend Monique came over and watched MaryCate for us and they treated us to a dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse. It was DELISH!!! As we were leaving Monique said we could stay out as late as we wanted. We got a kick out of that, did she not realize that American Idol started at 8pm and we would be racing home to watch it---not to mention the fact that we are hard pressed to make it past 10pm these days.

At dinner we talked about where we hoped we would be a year from now or what we hoped for====Chris just hoped that he would get CBS so that he could watch March Madness (of course, my anniversary will never be complete unless I am reminded that I decided we should get married the weekend March Madness started) and honestly I just want to be in a house and settled. We are still in the LNOG process of looking and it is getting quite old. We are thankful it is a buyers market but ready to be the buyers with some luck~~Will keep you posted. Here are a couple of pictures of us getting ready to go on our WILD night out!!

Top of the morning to you

Happy St. Patricks Day to all. So I am a day late, we like to stretch the holiday out here as much as we can!! MaryCate's first St. Patricks Day was a great one. As you can see from the pictures she had bibs to last her all day long, and I am pretty sure a few were in the wash. I just LOVE this holiday. I typically look forward to cooking a HUGE Irish dinner but this year Chris and I went out for our anniversary, which is today, so we will celebrate this weekend. MaryCate topped the day off with all green foods---peas and Green beans---she was thrilled with me!! Enjoy the pics and we will have more to post about our weekend last week and the rest of this week!!


Again---I look crazy, she looks great

Here I am telling her how much WE LOVE this holiday

The start of many , many , St. Patty's Day traditions!!

Update

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever think another baby is 1/2 as cute as MaryCate...I mean I look around and I seriously do not think they come close to comparing. I always remember fearing having an ugly baby but I am not sure what I was thinking---I mean check out my HOT husband!!


So last week, one day it was a bit chilly here in FL. Chris took MaryCate for the morning and I picked her up at the YOungLife office around lunch. I laughed so hard when I saw the awesome outfit he put her in----forget changing her out of her PJ's, just put a pair of cords over and they were off for the day, crack me up, I love them both!!


MC went to her first baby shower and I LOVE the dress she wore. This is the very first dress I bought for her thinking she could wear soon after we left the hospital----here we are, 9 moths old and it fits perfect. I may look like a freak but she looks adorable, welcome to the rest of my life!!



Here is MaryCate busy reading the very first St. Patricks Day card she got from her cousins McBrady and O'Clare Shea!!

We had a Young Life club here on Sunday night with our committee and leaders----as you can tell we had a blast!!

Conversations with MaryCate

Here is a video of what most of my days and nights are like with MaryCate. I know at times it seems like she is fussing but honestly this is her communicating, when she fusses it is a full out BLOW UP!! We have been having a ton of fun with oatmeal and rice cereal and tonight we are going to try peas....she has scarfed down everything I have given her so we will see how this goes. That is about all for now. It has been a quiet week around here and very cold, we are so glad that Andrew and Katie cam last week, they lucked out on the weather!

Spring Break Begins

Since I have lived in FL, it has always served as a great spring break trip for my family who lives in the North, where winter lasts sometimes close to 6 months. This year is no different and it started last week with a visit from my cousin Katie and her 3 1/2 month old Andrew. Katie came about 6 years ago to visit me and I'd like to take the opportunity to reflect on how this trip was a bit different than the last.

6 years ago I remember riding around in my VW Cabrio with the top down, blasting music and screaming at the top of our lungs, we were cool and we knew it. This year, we would roll down our windows in traffic when people would cut us off so they could hear our kids screaming too, and we still think we are cool.

6 years ago the goal was to get as tan as we possibly could, look as cute as we possibly could, relax and get as much rest as we possibly could and indulge in delicious FL food! This year we had 50 spf for the kids and sat under an umbrella, we thought we looked cute in our puke stained yoga pants, t-shirts and maternity swim suits, we just hoped the kids would sleep until 6am and we were counting every calorie.

6 years ago we dreamt about this time, having kids frolicking on the beach while we sat there with our latte's and our gossip magazines---not a worry in the world, this year we laughed at ourselves, as we spent the entire time trying to get the kids to nap so we could relax even for just 30 minutes.

I might go back to 6 years ago for a day but I would not trade my sweet MaryCate and I would bet my cousin wouldn't trade her naughty little Andrew for anything in the world. We had a blast both times and I am counting down the days until Spring Break 2010. Until then MaryCate and I are anxiously awaiting her cousins who will come for a visit in a little over a month!!