My real life

My friend Em and I were talking a couple weeks ago how when you look at people's blogs, it's easy to think their life is so perfect. What you usually see is the best pictures, all the fun trips and activities they've been doing, and all the wonderful things they say about their friends and family. So Em recently had a blog entitled "Keeping it Real"; I thought it was perfect. Although I love my life, it is far from perfect. Most of my days consist of:

1) Dealing with Emily waking up several times in the night, then coming into our bed and kicking us all night. That's not even to mention the past week spent in the hospital or dealing with her whininess (although her throat really does hurt after getting her tonsils out.)

2) Being in my pajamas half the day, hoping to squeeze a shower in somewhere.

3) Dealing with the constant arguments between Emily and Bri -- fighting over which DVD to watch, which tricycle to ride, what to have for lunch, fighting over the same toy which neither has cared about the last 3 months, and then dealing with Bri after she pushes Emily.

4) Struggling with them actually getting dressed and brushing their hair (optional on most days since Bri puts up such a fuss that it hurts). Before I had kids, I always saw those kids with dirty clothes and messy hair and thought, I'll never be that mom! Then I became one and suddenly those things didn't seem that important. Or you'd like things to be a certain way but don't have the patience or energy to deal with them!

5) If I do make it out of the house for a trip to Target or Aldi, dealing with the girls wanting to walk instead of ride in the cart (Emily is fine with this, Bri is not, therefore I usually have to make both of them ride in the cart.) Then to keep them occupied we usually bring snacks, and on most trips Bri spills them through the bottom of the cart. Not to mention where do you actually put the groceries with 2 kids in the shopping cart?

6) Trying to keep the house halfway clean amidst a St. Bernard shedding like crazy.

7) Working on the never-ending pile of laundry. As soon as you think you're actually caught up, you look in the closet and there's already 2 more baskets full. Or there's 3 baskets full of clean, folded clothes (thanks mom!) that still are not put away in drawers. It's like, none of these things take that long to do, but you just can't do everything!

8) Trying to stay caught up with my "log business" -- all the emails, phone calls, typing, scanning, faxing, and more emails.

9) All the other household duties that we try to squeeze in amidst taking care of kids. Moms, I'm sure you can relate.

10) Now if I'm so short on time, what am I doing writing this? :)

Ok, here was my attempt at "keeping it real." Now, I have to show you a few of the pictures our friend Scott took a few weeks ago. He did an amazing job.

Home

Just wanted to let you know that Emily came home from the hospital this morning. She is still a little under the weather and could barely walk at first (her legs weren't working after laying in a hospital bed for 4 days!) But she is good, playing and eating/drinking a little. It's great to be home again. Thanks for all the prayers.

Not home yet

Emily improved a lot today but is still not home, we are hoping tomorrow. She drank a little bit (not a lot), ate some sherbet, cake, donut, pudding, and a couple popsicles. Lots of real healthy food! But at this point, who cares! They reduced her IV so she is only getting a small amount to keep the vein open just in case, and didn't have any morphine today, just a couple doses of tylenol via suppositories (never done that before.) She was in good spirits today and even had a bath. So, hopefully the night and morning will go well and she'll be able to come home tomorrow.

I can't wait to have this smiling face home and feeling well again.

Emily update

Emily definitely improved today but is still in the hospital, probably until at least tomorrow. She slept most of the morning but still refused to drink anything. She has been hooked up to an IV since we took her in Tuesday and she's getting fluids and morphine that way. But later this afternoon Jeremy brought her a blizzard from DQ and she was interested in a few bites of that. Then dinner arrived from the cafeteria and she wasn't interested in jello but rather the dinner roll, which was strange! You think, here's a kid who just got their tonsils out and can eat all the ice cream, yogurt, sherbet, jello, and popsicles they want, and they go and eat a dinner roll. She hardly drank anything but ate almost the whole roll. She also ate some cake and frosting.

Jer is staying with her again tonight (what a guy) on that little hospital chair that extends to a single bed (can you even call it a bed?) We are hoping she continues to eat and drink tomorrow and would love if she could come home, but that might be premature, we'll see.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for all the phone calls (even if you didn't call us directly my mom gave us your messages) and especially all the prayers.

Hospital

We had to take Emily to the emergency room this morning because of dehydration from her tonsillectomy. Due to her very sore throat she didn't want to drink anything, including her medicine. This morning we decided we better take her in and it was a good thing we did, she was very dehydrated. They hooked her up to an IV and started running lots of fluids through her. She is spending the night there tonight (Jer is staying with her tonight and I came home to get some rest), and could be there another few days if she doesn't start taking fluids orally tomorrow. Please pray that she starts to feel better soon, and that her throat starts to heal so she is willing to swallow and drink. Thank goodness my mom is here to help with Bri, what a blessing she's been.

Here's a belated Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world:

On another note, please pray for Emily. She got her tonsils out this morning and is having a rough recovery. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Up North Getaway

Every year Jeremy can work extra hard and earn a trip with American Family -- so far we have been to New York City and Orlando -- and this year's trip was to Cancun. He qualified this year but they ended up canceling the trip due to issues in Mexico, and gave money instead. So we decided to use part of the money to pay bills but still take a smaller trip to replace Cancun. We decided on a 3-day trip up north to Lutsen. Lutsen is actually a mountain for skiing, but there's a lot to do in the summer, too.

At the very last minute (and I mean "last minute", we were into our 2nd hour of driving and had already passed the exit), we decided to take a detour north to Tower, MN, to golf at probably the nicest course in Minnesota -- The Wilderness at Fortune Bay. The course was amazing and we had a great time.


Here is our building at "Eagle Ridge Resort" in Lutsen. We got a great deal on lodging -- only $180 for 3 nights, our room even had a jacuzzi. We didn't spend much time in the room but were really happy with it. You never know when you just book something online.

Some friends met us up there and we had a lot of fun golfing Superior National (the views were amazing and we even had a deer walk right by us on one hole), . . .

hiking, looking for animals (very disappointed we didn't see any moose), canoeing, . . .

and eating!

Now it's back to regular life! That's good, too.

Joyful Noise Family Fest

Sorry, I'm slacking on the blogging here! My parents arrived from Nebraska last Friday, just in time for us all to go to the Joyful Noise Family Fest on Saturday, a big Christian concert nearby. We actually got free tickets from a friend which was awesome! We brought the girls in the morning -- they had a blast with all the inflatables and the carousel. They also got to meet "Bob and Larry."

We took the girls home for naps, then went back later (minus the girls) for great concerts -- PFR, Tenth Avenue North, Lincoln Brewster, and Mercy Me. It was a fun day with perfect weather and amazing music.

Bri's Birthday Party

Bri had a wonderful birthday today. It started off with a donut with sprinkles (daddy's birthday tradition for the girls.) After a morning playing around the house, it was lunch at McDonalds. Then we came home and Bri opened her birthday gifts. Here is one from Annie that she loved:


While Bri was taking her nap, a big surprise was being set up in the backyard:

The girls absolutely loved it. Bri is obsessed with jumping (she has to jump into everything -- into her diaper, into her clothes to get dressed, etc.) And if they don't sleep good tonight after all the jumping they did today, something's wrong!
Here is Bri before her "Bee-Day" party. We decided on the bee theme since Bri's nickname is "Bee." The bumblebee costume that I dug out of the closet was just a bonus (Emily's Halloween costume from 2 years ago!)

Grandma Susanne got a Jelly Belly dispenser for her little "jelly bean."

The inflatable was a big hit at the party. The kids didn't know there would be one here (we didn't even know until this morning!), so it was funny to watch their reaction when they came into the backyard and saw it!

Bri had been waiting all day to eat her bumblebee cake:

It was a great day and a fun party, but I'm not sure who's more tired right now, the kids or mom!

Happy Birthday, Bri!

It's hard to believe our baby is already two years old today. Happy Birthday Bri Bri! You have brought so much joy to our lives. Your silly smiles and fun spirit always brighten our day. I hope year 3 is as much fun as year 2 has been!