Back From Medical Leave

ATTENTION: This blog is not dead.

True, it has been on life support. But I'm not ready to pull the plug just yet.
I really never intended to neglect it for the last three months, but I've been on a medical leave of absence of sorts.

It all started so innocently, with Park giving Presli some type of cold on steroids the last two weeks of January and the first week of February.

Then there was a week of reprieve before my big ambulance ride.

It was a preschool morning and the kids were both in the car in front of our house when I jumped out to help Park with a stubborn seat belt. Unfortunately, there happened to be a stealthy patch of ice I was unaware of. In Park's words, I "flew through the air" and landed on my tailbone, all of which officially made me his favorite superhero. I vaguely remember feeling woozy, but desperate not to pass out on the street with the kids in the running car, I crawled (that's right..hand and knee style, folks) to the front door. I managed to ring the doorbell, but passed out in Chris' arms the minute he answered the door.

The next thing I remember was laying on the floor of my house looking up into Chris tear stained eyes as he screamed into the phone, "Thank you Lord. Yes, she is conscious now!!!" When I heard the sirens, I knew I must be dying. That had to be the only explanation for my famously cool under pressure husband to be in hysterics. *People, let's not forget that this is the same man that never broke a sweat when a roadside delivery of Presli came into question!

Poor guy assumed I had knocked myself unconscious from hitting my head on the ice. Turns out, I had simply passed out from the pain of my backside. I'd seriously love to know where that "black out" coping mechanism was when I was in the throws of natural child birth, for crying out loud!!

But, other than a month of tailbone trauma and nearly sending Chris into cardiac arrest, we were no worse for the ware.

However, somewhere in the middle of that injury Park came down with high fever and extreme congestion. He got over it so quickly that we never realized it was the flu until Presli got it. Poor baby had the flu and RSV at the same time. And two weeks later that escalated into pneumonia. But, thanks to many prayers, she escaped hospitalization and things seemed to be looking up. That girl is quite the trooper, I tell you. She never stopped smiling through the whole ordeal.

We took a quick getaway to the lake and had a great time with family. But upon arriving home, Chris came down with something awful. It was the sickest I have ever seen him and lasted over a week. His glands swelled up and his voice became unrecognizable. After being tested for strep and mono, it turned out to be an out of control sinus infection. I'm so thankful the kids and I escaped that one, but we came down with sore throats, runny noses, and nasty coughs a week later.

And that is our current status. We are believing the plague is behind us and that the months ahead hold great health and clear breathing. I completely understand if you want to avoid us in real life for a few more weeks just in case:)

And here you thought I was going to give the same old "dog ate my homework" excuse for not blogging. (*Side note- speaking of canines, is it wrong that when Park asked me for a dog recently I told him, "We already have one, sweetie. It just lives at Grandma's house."?)

But, in the midst of Health Crisis '10, we have also experienced many great things. One of which is we have been shown an outpouring of love from our church's Cares Ministry. I seriously had no concept of how much warm meals, cards, Easter baskets and extra special touches could mean to a family in need until we found ourselves on the receiving end. It moved me to tears.

I also have to give the Lord some credit for providing me with many opportunities to be a better servant. I tend to be selfish when it comes to giving of my time and taking care of sick kiddos sure helped me work some of that out. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a slow learner, but thankfully, our God is a patient God. I didn't always do it without grumbling and complaining, but there were some breakthroughs in the my circumstances will not dictate my joy department.

Some other big things going on in our household over the last 3 months are:

Presli learned, forgot, and has finally remembered how to sleep through the night again. She has taken, refused, and learned to enjoy again an occasional bottle, although she loves her sippy cup and drinking through a straw even more. She is crawling around everywhere and loving her new found freedom. Although nursing remains her primary source of sustanance, she is pumped for solid foods and screeches, "MMM MMM MMM!!!" the minute she sees something coming. So far, she is a big fan of rice cereal, squash, green beans, and sweet potato. And even though she is our little Sweet P, she wasn't so much a fan of eating them. I think she comes by this naturally since I was gagging as I attempted to shovel them in her mouth.

She is also loving being pushed in her outdoor swing by her beloved big brother. Baby girl has been known to squeal in delight as he pushes her to new heights that make Mommy cringe. Those two are already ganging up on me.

My goal is to backtrack and record some posts of updates on the kiddos, but for now I'll just close with some pics.

AND since I've used up all my sick days, if the blog doesn't get updated soon just assume I'm taking vacation time:)

(Speaking of vacation, I'm headed to the Emerald City this weekend. Can I just tell you how PUMPED I am for our church's FLAVOUR women's conference this weekend??? If you live in the DFW area, it is not too late to be apart of it!)