Thursday, February 26, 2009

The good and the not-so-good

First off, thanks for the prayers for my Grandma... she's back at home now after spending about 6 days in the hospital with bronchitis. The doctor said she also has some emphysema which is contributing to her difficulty breathing. She had quit smoking about a year ago (after smoking for 50 years or so!), but unfortunately she's back to smoking again, though not as much as before.

Anyway, she was sent home from the hospital with oxygen and a portable tank, being that her breathing still wasn't up to par. The nurse checked her oxygen on room air prior to her being discharged, and it was only 87%, so she won herself an oxygen tank. She also has to have breathing treatments at home every so often. Since she has a really hard time seeing now (macular degeneration), my aunt and mom have been taking turns going over my Grandma's and giving her treatments to her. Gram has a doctor's appointment in 1 month, so she'll be on the oxygen at least until then. She's feeling much better though, thank GOD! Her birthday is tomorrow and she really wants to see everyone, so we are having a little family party for her tomorrow evening, just for an hour or two, so she doesn't get worn out. I called a local bakery and ordered her a white cake with raspberry filling and whipped icing, and it'll say "Happy 79th Birthday" on it. I was going to joke with her and have "Happy 30th" or something put on it, but I didn't...lol.

So that's the news with my Grandma. But I swear, when it rains it pours... The day my Grandma went in the hospital, I found out that the pastor at our church was admitted to a Pittsburgh hospital for emergency surgery!! He had been getting sick and throwing up, then come to find out he had a perforated bowel. Needless to say he had MAJOR bodywide infection and unfortunately he is allergic to a TON of things, so I don't know exactly which antibiotics they ended up using to treat him. He was very critical the first 24 hours, and was sedated and on a ventilator in ICU. I just received an email tonight saying that he's been moved to a step-down unit, is off the ventilator and is doing alot better. I guess the staff had to ask that his cell phone be taken away because he was CONSTANTLY on the phone after getting off the ventilator! He is SUCH a talker! Like he said in church one day, "I could find a brick wall and have a conversation with it!" I'm just so happy he's doing better...he's become such a friend of the family and I'd hate to see anything happen to him :-(

On a lighter note...

Russ and I have planned a short vacation for April!! Russ has been so stressed and has been on my back to plan a trip for us. I was just a little on the fence about the whole thing because he wanted it just to be the two of us, and I just HATE to leave Alyson! I know she'll be in great hands with my parents and Russ's mom, but I still hate leaving her. Russ REALLY needs to get away though, and really wanted to go somewhere in the Caribbean. We wanted a nonstop flight if possible, and remembered USA3000 airlines flies nonstop to Cancun and Punta Cana. (Anyone fly that airline before?) We ended up finding a nonstop flight from Pittsburgh to Cancun for mid-April.... I can't wait. We're only going for 3 nights, since "Alyson withdrawal" will surely have set in, even during that short period of time!! We ended up booking a suite at the Sun Palace in Cancun. It was completely renovated and reopened in January 2007 after being destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in October of 2006. The rooms all have private hot tubs in them (I can't wait to fill it all up with bubbles...hey, they provide them so why not!) The place looks gorgeous. I read practically every review and looked at a ton of pictures on Tripadvisor.com, so I think I made a good choice. The place is ranked #3 of all the hotels/resorts in Cancun, so that can't be a bad thing!

Here are some pics:

View of the resort:


View of the beach:


View of the suite:


I'm really excited to go, and it will be nice to spend time alone with my husband. Plus, it'll be a darn good birthday gift! (My bday is the 13th, and we leave on the 16th) :-)

And what's a post without mentioning Alyson? (I really need to start updating HER blog that I started awhile back...) Well, Alyson is steadily growing into Little Miss Independent. She wants to do EVERYTHING on her own, and will let you know what she thinks (mainly by dropping down to her knees and bouncing up and down while whining...) if you try to tell her otherwise. She's doing SO great with feeding herself, but she still doesn't understand why mommy wants (well, NEEDS) to help her with the messy stuff. She's currently loving applesauce,Gogurt, jell-o fruit cups, Jr.Lunchables, and Mac and Cheese....lol. Oh, and Cocoa Crispies and Oatmeal Squares. She LOVES some cereal. Takes after her mommy in that aspect! (Probably because that's basically all I ate while I was pregnant---CEREAL!) Currently Alyson is obsessed with her bellybutton and showing it to EVERYONE (and wanting everyone to show her THEIR bellybutton!), and she's still playing with the dogs food and mixing it in their water. Also, anytime she finds a paper towel, dishrag, etc, she dips it in the dogs' water bowl and then goes running off like a mad woman, with a trail of water behind her. That's always fun to clean up. Earlier today since it was mild outside, she decided to make a few trips out the dog door and run out onto the deck. It's always something... I could go on and on.

How about I'm already looking around online for ideas for Aly's 2nd birthday party!! I'm thinking we're going with Strawberry Shortcake this year. Aly is SUCH a strawberry girl! She will eat a whole container of strawberries if you let her.

I just can't believe she's gonna be 2 in June.... pretty soon we're gonna have to start trying for baby #2! I'm starting to hear, "So are you ready for another one?" and "When are you having another baby?" and "Alyson needs a brother or sister" more and more lately. I'm ready for another baby, but I still need to get my husband to jump on board the baby train again...lol. So we'll see.

Well, I'm getting tired so I'm gonna end this here. Hope everyone enjoys their weekends :-)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Updates...

Here I go becoming a blog slacker again... better update a little.

First off, I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day this past Saturday. Though a romantic "date night" with my husband would have been great, I was just as happy going out as a family on Friday night. We took Alyson out to dinner on Friday night, since we knew all the restaurants would more than likely be packed on Saturday. Russ kept asking me, "What do you want for Valentine's Day??" but I told him dinner was fine. I've never really made a big deal out of Valentine's Day. For such a long period in my life (pre-Russ) , February was just SUCH a crappy month for me for a lot of different reasons... so I'm just happy to have a wonderful guy to spend V-day with. Anyway, for V-day we ended up getting Alyson a cute pink teddy bear with a heart pillow that says "princess" on it, and a Strawberry Shortcake "Be My Valentine" book. I read the book to her, but I think it only kept her attention for, like, 2 pages. Oh well...

As for Alyson, she's STILL in that mischievous "I want to get into everything" stage... boy, does she keep me hopping!!! The girl DOES NOT STOP. I wish I had half her energy. She's just GO GO GO from the minute she gets up in the morning. Her latest antics include attempting to crawl out the dog door (she had stopped that, but now she redeveloped an interest in it....), and pouring the dog's food into their water bowl and stirring it around with a spatula she grabbed out of the silverware drawer.

Sorry if this post is jumping all over the place... I just don't have much to write about...that I can THINK of anyway. There are a few things I'd LIKE to talk about in here but it would take way too long to type out right now, and I'm getting too tired to think straight. I'll just continue this another time. Just figured I should update since it's been awhile.

Well, I'd better attempt to get some sleep. Tomorrow I'll be heading to the hospital to see my grandma... she had to be admitted today because she was having a lot of trouble breathing. Come to find out, she has bronchitis. She's had a lingering cough and it seems that she never fully recovered from the last cold she had. So now she'll be on IV antibiotics and supplemental oxygen. I don't know many details yet, but I'm sure I'll find out more tomorrow. My mom and my aunts all keep eachother informed, but by the time info gets passed from one person to the next to the next, and then *I* hear it, the info has always gotten a little mixed up from what was heard in the beginning. You know, kinda like that game "telephone." Anyway, any prayers would be appreciated :-)

Nighty night...

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Talk about DOWN TO THE WIRE!!!

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HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!!!

Wow...what a game!!! By the end of the game I had a headache, was totally sick to my stomach, and had tears in my eyes! I couldn't sit down AT ALL for the last 3 minutes of the game. The dogs were looking at me like I was nuts because I kept jumping up and down and yelling at the TV...lol. They were staring at me as if to say, "Puh-leeeeeeeease SIT DOWN!!"

I'm just so happy the Steelers got a win... the "Six-Burgh Steelers" now have their six pack! Woo hoooooooooooo! :-)