Scouts - Rocket Derby

I'm so behind in my blogging!  This was from Tyler's first Pack Meeting.  They did a rocket derby and made their "I'm a Mormon" commercials and posters.  It was a lot of fun.  This was the first night I took Brena out after her sickness.  She did ok - everyone commented on how skinny she looked.  It was nice to get out of the house!

At this pack meeting Tyler earned his chess pin and belt loop and some rocket pin.  He is thoroughly enjoying scouts.

 He shot his rocket off and it landed in the trees across the parking lot.

 Can you see his little orange parachute man in the top of the tree?

Sickness hits our house

This is going to be one long post!  For 3 weeks I had the sickest kid I've ever seen.  It all started on April 9.  We noticed Brena's neck was getting a big bump on the side.  I just thought her allergies were acting up.  The kid has the world's largest tonsils - no joke.  You can't see the uvula in the back of her mouth - it's just attached to her left tonsil.  It's always like that.  Every time she goes to the doctor they tell me she'll grow out of it.  But, Monday night when she wouldn't get off the couch, I knew something was wrong.  We went to the doctor Tuesday where they got her temp at 102.7.  The doctor looked at her mouth and said she had "a raging case of tonsillitis and strep."  He put her on Penicillin for 10 days and steroids for 48 hours.  She seemed to do better, then after the steroids were gone her fever shot back up to 103.7 and didn't go down.  She was also still not doing any better.  She didn't want to do anything but sleep. 

We went back to the doctor and he said he was baffled.  He took her off the penicillin and put her on a stronger medicine - Augmentin.    He also sent us up to ENT to make sure she didn't have an abscess on her tonsil - which can be fatal.  Thankfully that was negative.  We went home and she had the augmentin for a few days and she still was not getting better.  Still 103.7 temps and sleeping constantly.  I took her back to the doctor.  Doctor is still baffled.  They say throw the augmentin out, we are putting her on the strongest med they can - clyndimicin (no clue if I'm spelling any of these right).  That was a week after we originally took her to the doctor.  The next morning she wakes up and runs to the bathroom - she says she had an accident.  Oh no - here we go with diarrhea.  I thought it might be a one time thing.  She had thrown up a couple days ago and that just happened once.  Boy oh boy was I ever wrong...

 So, now I think we are over the tonsillitis - finally.  But, she is still have 103.7 fevers, constantly and now we have a new symptom - the diarrhea.  And, this is not just any diarrhea.  She is bleeding, filling toilets full of blood.  Blood dripping down her legs.  Bloody underwear.  The first night it happened TJ was flying.  I called my neighbor over to see what she thought.  Brena was asleep on the couch and her underwear was all bloody.  My neighbor said she would stay with Tyler while I took Brena around the corner to an ER.  That was a really bad night at that ER.  The nurse that did her vitals said he would just wait until the morning and take her back to the base and have her checked, that she would be ok through the night.  They did say stop all medications and not to take anymore.  I was so freaked out.  I couldn't get a hold of TJ - he had no idea this was happening.  I called the squadron and they said they would let him know as soon as he landed.  He finally landed at around midnight.  That was one very long night...

The next day we took her to the doctor where they did a stool test.  It was a 3-5 day wait for the results.  Meanwhile we are having to buy pull-ups for the first time in a few years for the poor child because she literally can't hold it.  It just runs out of her.  If I could tell you how many times a day that kid went to the bathroom - it would be well over 25/day.  It was the most awful experience.  And, it went on like that for 8 DAYS!   We had to set up folding chairs in the bathrooms because she needed us in the bathroom with her.  She would rest her head in your lap while she cried and moaned over the pain in her stomach.  It was so sad.  I cried a lot.  I didn't think I would be able to keep going on like this.  The doctors were telling me this was normal, augmentin can do that to you and it should go away.  Well, it didn't. 

We went back to the ER on base one morning because we felt that she was still not getting any better and we didn't want to go through the weekend without her being seen.  They took another stool sample.  We went back to the doctor on Monday 4/25 and they finally gave us a referral to a Pediatric GI Specialist at a Children's Hospital here in Jacksonville because they didn't know what else to do.

Wednesday 4/27, I get a call from the hospital saying that her stool tested positive for salmonella.  I still can't believe it.  I cannot for the life of me figure out where she could have picked it up.  Yes, you get it from chicken, eggs, reptiles, etc.  It can actually come from almost anything.  But, here's the thing - she didn't go anywhere - she slept on the couch for days without moving.  She didn't eat anything - she lost over 10% of her body weight.  She had bones sticking out where I didn't even know you had bones.  The health department called me on Friday and I had to answer their questions - normal procedure when there is a confirmed Salmonella case.  They couldn't figure it out either.  So, we will never know how/where she got it.  All I can say it I hope to never, ever deal with Salmonella again. 

Now, 3 weeks and 3 days later my little girl is finally normal and eating like a famished prisoner of war.  I am so happy to have a normal life back!   I guess that is until we go in for her tonsilectomy in June...

Easter

The Easter Bunny made it to our house.  Our Easter Bunny always comes on the Friday night before Easter so we can have Easter Sunday to celebrate the true reason of Easter.  Brena was still really sick, so TJ stayed home with her.  She was feeling a tad better in the afternoon and went out looking for some eggs.

My future Eagle Scout

TJ's mom saved his scout shirt - bless her heart - from 1986!  Those things are like $30!  I admit I was cursing  not happy unpicking all the patches off the shirt - there were A LOT of them - but I am grateful she saved it.  How neat is that?  He gets to wear his daddy's scout shirt!  I had to take off every single patch except one.  Even the flag was not in the right spot for nowadays. 

Before:

After:

I don't know much about scouting.  I don't have any brothers, so this is kind of my first experience.  I admit I'm a little worried with it being EVERY Wednesday night - if you read my blog you know how I am about a commitment like that.  But, I'm going to try really hard to keep at this.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

TJ and I actually had a couple hours to our selves one Friday because of late night flights the night before.  When he woke up we went to Target to get some things we needed.  We saw some kites there and thought the kids would love to fly a kite.  We were right, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves!  The weather has been GORGEOUS!

 We did have some problems with them getting stuck in the trees sometimes.   Daddy rescued the kites more than once.

Family fun!

We had a wonderful weekend spending time with family!  Tyler and papa always play chess every time they get together.

 Tyler's new favorite toy - bay blades!

 Tyler and papa in a heated game of basketball!

 Silly girls jumping on the tramp.

We love it when people come to visit us!!

Tyler's belated celebration

We were excited to have Aunt Steph come to FL!  Not only because we were so excited to see her, but because she makes awesome cakes!  She graciously agreed to make Tyler's 8th birthday cake.  She had a few helpers too!

 This was the perfect cake for Tyler because he LOVES Mario anything!  Super Mario Brothers, Mario Kart, Mario Sluggers...it goes on and on!

 Tyler was so excited to get his very own set of scriptures for his birthday.

Happy birthday Ty toad!!

Tyler's baptism day

It was a very special day!  Tyler was baptized by his daddy on April 2, 2011.  I am so proud of this little boy!

 We called Brenalee and Takiah the program Nazis because they wouldn't let a family have more than one program.

 My cute family.

 Tyler was lucky to have grandpa and grandma Landes come and speak at his baptism.  Aunt Stephanie led the music.

Now for a funny story about Tyler's baptism day.  Because papa came in Friday night - Tyler couldn't sleep.  He wanted to stay up all night and play with papa.  We let him stay up until almost midnight - then made him go to sleep.  He was still so excited he woke up at 5:30am to get papa (which was 3:30am papa's time!).  So, Tyler actually crashed about an hour before his baptism.  We woke him up and went to the church.  We all went in the church and TJ went to change his clothes.  I told Tyler to go with his dad - but I looked around and couldn't find Tyler!  We called for him and he wasn't there.  We went back to the car - and there he was in the car asleep!  We left him in the car and didn't even realize it!  We teased him that he almost missed his own baptism.