Hello? It's me!

I know I haven't been around for a while but I do have a lot of catching up to do. The problem is that now I cannot remember all of the things that have been happening so I'll go with what I do remember.

A couple of days after Aubrey's birthday, I got sick. Normally when I catch a cold, I just go on with my daily routines. This time, it hit me hard. It didn't really start out as a cold or the flu. I felt extremely weak and tired and couldn't do anything but lay in bed. That was a Tuesday. The next day, I felt OK but then again by Thursday, I was back in bed again for a couple of days. That's when I started to cough and had a stuffy nose only at night.

I planned a trip to go to Arizona to see Jeff's family and decided to detour for an extra $50 to Denver. I left on Apr 5th, flying to Denver first to visit with my brother Rick, his wife Julie and the family. One of the reasons I wanted to go to Denver was to also experience the American Girl Doll store there. This is me and Julie. Kelsey is off to my right and Rick's granddaughter Chloe, is hiding behind the tree to Julie's left. Rick and Chloe's dad, Todd were taking this picture. The store was interesting. Every time I turned around, I noticed something else on the same display I walked past several times before. I wanted to buy so many things but my heart was set on buying one particular doll. The store didn't have her. I wasn't about to settle so I decided to wait and order her online. As it turned out anyway, the doll I wanted was discontinued. I bought a similar one instead. I still walked out of the store within my budget. I bought a dress and shoes for Kit, a tee shirt, capris, sunglasses, two shopping bags (all dolly size)and Kit's bed time accessories which should be called Kit's Desk accessories. There were several other things I wanted to buy and would have if I had brought two suitcases. After we spent a couple hours in the store, Rick took us out to eat dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. His son Matt and his girlfriend met us there. Although the store was fun, I am so glad I had even just a little time to spend with Rick and his family. I haven't seen them in at least 8 years I think so our visit was especially important to me.

The next day I flew from Denver to Arizona to stay for a week. All the time I was there, I had a horrible cough. No matter what I took, it didn't seem to help. I was so worried that I was going to make everyone there sick. On Friday, Jessica was not feeling well so I stayed with Rylie while Jess went to get a vitamin IV treatment from her doc. By Saturday, Jess could not get out of bed. She was pretty sick and in pain from what she suspected to be a kidney infection. On Sunday, Jeff took her to the hospital. They admitted her with a severe kidney infection and severe dehydration. I was scheduled to go home on Wednesday and Jess was still in the hospital so Jeff and I decided I should take Rylie home with me. We booked a flight for Jessica to come and pick Rylie up the next week.

Sunday is our bowling day so we took Rylie with us. Papa bought her two glow toys and she sat in her stroller for about three hours just watching everyone and playing with her toys. I forgot to pack her bottle but she didn't cry or fuss in the least.

Sunday, I noticed a sharp pain in my chest on the right side. It hurt when I breathed but was especially painful when I lifted anything or reached for anything.

Jessica came on Monday and after I picked her up from the airport and brought her to the house, I let her have some time alone with Rylie while I went and did some grocery shopping. By Monday night, the pain in my right side was getting pretty bad. It felt like I had cracked a rib. I went to bed and the pain got so bad within such a short amount of time. I don't think I even slept more than 30 minutes the whole night. I couldn't lay down so I tried to sleep sitting up on my chaise. That didn't work either. By 4am, I decided I couldn't handle the pain anymore so I got Brent up. He normally get's up at 4:20 to get ready for work anyway. I told him I thought he should take me to the hospital. We got to the ER about 4:30. After a chest x-ray, a CT scan, two doses IV doses of pain meds, I was released with a prescription for percocet and the diagnosis of Bronchitis and Pleurisy. Oh, they also found that I have gall stones. The ER doc said that if I don't feel better in 4-5 days, to call my doctor. The percocet didn't help much and I still couldn't stop coughing. Jess left on Friday morning and I called my doctor the following Monday. He gave me some cough medicine and that seemed to help. Since I wasn't coughing so much, I wasn't aggravating the pleurisy and the pain was starting to lessen. Today, I still have a little pain when I cough (still coughing but not as much) or when I reach for things. The doc said I just have to let it run its course.

So, that's what's been going on the last couple of months. Here's a slide show of my cute Rylie bug!
http://s440.photobucket.com/albums/qq128/terriesn/Rylies%20visit%20April%202011/
Sorry, I couldn't get the slide show to load from photobucket. Click on the link and it will take you to my album.

I have to say, I think Rylie is so smart. I was playing with a yoyo that has a tension string on it. I was flipping it around while I was talking to Jess. I took it off my finger and set it on the counter. Rylie picked it up and put the little ring on her finger and tried to flip it around. Rylie is only 7 months old. How observant of her to know to put that little ring on her finger.

Oh yeah, I am in the process of making a doll house. Well, Brent is building it for me but here's what I have together so far. These cubes will not be stacked in this order :
I am making some of the furniture like a couch:
but I ran out of this fabric so now I have to re-cover it in something else. This will be for the top level family game room.