'Snow' storm

I have been waiting for the opportunity to blog about something other than sick kids the past couple days and Mother Nature has provided my chance.

It snowed here today according to Brynn. All she knows is...snow is white. She has no clue of its silence, its lightness, its fluffiness, its softness and its purity, nor is she aware of the feeling as it lands on your skin (can you tell I miss the snow just a tad?). No, quite the contrary...she thinks it sounds like raging bulls running across the roof and boulders being thrown at our windows (okay...maybe not boulders, but you get my point). Brynn thinks hail is snow!

Yes my friends we had a good ole' central Texas 'severe thunder storm'. I think the weather men should have just called it a 'hail storm' warning instead of a thunder storm warning. Luckily I had the TV on and was able to get a least one car in the garage. The other one...well let's just say I am glad its paid for. We had hail ranging from pea to golf ball size and it came down hard and fast. I heard in other parts of town the hail was as large as tennis balls!

Every one here is safe. We will have our roof looked at just to be on the safe side (we have already 'been there done that' with the roof leaking...not fun). Other than Danny's vehicle and several of succulents (I'll cry later) we survived what could have been a lot worse. We pray for the families that weren't so lucky.

I thought I would share with you some of the photos I took during and after the storm.

Brynn watching it 'snow'.

Some hail from the backyard

Our backyard


more of the backyard

Brynn showing off her 'snow'

3.25.09 'Snow' storm

A Qick Update....

My last blog post we thought the puppy was the cause of Brynn's wheezing, but last Friday I had to take her back to the doctor because even being on the breathing treatments her cough was not getting any better. Her doctor sent her for chest x-rays and we found out she had pneumonia. Wow! I was not expecting that (and I don't think her doctor was either). She did not show any of the 'typical' symptoms; in fact she never even 'acted' sick. We even went to dance class right before the appointment. Kids are amazing (and scary).

She finished her last bit of antibiotic yesterday and her cough has improved quite a bit. She did spike a fever on Monday (the only time during this whole thing) and I took her back to the doctor. They tested her for the flu (to be on the safe side) and everything came back negative. Her fever is gone today and I am hoping we are on our way to being healthy again.

Once she is completely better we will be bringing Lacy back into the picture. That poor puppy has been shifted from house to house and is probably so confused. Right now my in-laws have her and she's probably eating scrambled eggs for breakfast!

We may have a sad little girl on our hands....

I spent my entire mornings both yesterday and today at the pediatrician’s office. Yesterday it was Braden and today was only suppose to be a quick drop-off of urine and a short follow-up (to get the results) Instead it was 2 1/2 hours, chaos, purchase of a nebulizer and a trip to Walgreens pharmacy.

Let me back-track a little and try to do this with the short version:

Braden has been sick on and off for a little over a week with some on and off symptoms. I finally decided to take him to the doctor yesterday. His doctor wanted to do a blood and urine sample to rule out anything serious. Braden of course did not cooperate for the urine sample so I got the pleasure of doing it at home.

So this morning the plan was to deliver the urine sample and get results. I called ahead to let them know we were on our way and to see if Dr. C had time to see Brynn as well. On Monday she woke up with a slight cough that now sounded horrible and since we were going to be there anyway, I figured it would save us a trip later.

We arrive at the office and are seen right away. Braden's tests come back normal - great news except we still are not sure what is causing the vomiting and low-grade fever. So we watch him and we wait.

Next she wants a urine sample from Brynn (we went to Emergency-care two weeks ago and had a UTI and bladder infection and she wanted to make sure it was cleared up ~ a whole other story). Getting the urine sample was a complete and utter mess. I won't go into details, but it involved a change of clothes for Brynn (that I luckily had in the car), me cleaning up urine off the floor and myself (Yuk!) while Braden destroyed the changing table full of diapers and wipes. A finger slammed in the door and tons of tears. (Ohh...the joys of motherhood!)

Once we were changed and back in the office, Dr. C listens to Brynn as she takes deep breathes. And she listens...and she listens....and she listens (okay you get the point).

She finally looks up at me and says, "She's wheezing."

Me: "What?"

Doctor: "Has she complained of her chest hurting?"

Me: "No, this morning she was telling me her heart beats fast." (I didn't think anything of it because last week at school she learned about her heart, so I just thought she was making conversation.)

Doctor: "I want to do a breathing treatment on her now and listen to her again."

So now I am trying to convince Brynn to strapped this mask to her face and breathe 'normal' for TEN minutes. Have you met my daughter? This is the sort of thing that just might send her over the edge. Not to mention the 22 month old destroyer I have in the room with me....I was SO not looking forward to this. And then I remembered my friend Staci telling me about how she gives her kids candy during portrait sessions to ensure perfect smiles. A few seconds later, Braden is sucking on a lollipop and I am bribing Brynn with one to put the mask on and take the medicine. We did not get the actual mask on, but she agreed to hold it to her face and breathe. I was happy with that. (Thanks Staci!)

A few moments later Dr. C is back in and listening to Brynn again. She looks up and says, "No more wheezing."

Me: "That's it."

Doctor: "She was having a small asthma attack and something trigger it." "Has anything changed with her?"

Me: "I am not sure; she woke up on Monday morning with a slight cough, nothing else. This morning it sounded even worse and that is why I brought her in with me."

Doctor: "It's a good thing, but something is really bothering her."

Me: "Oh my (a light bulb goes off in my head), could it be Lacy?"

Doctor: "Excuse me?"

Me: "We just got a puppy on Sunday. Do you think it is the dog?"

Doctor: "Sounds like it might be."

You can only imagine where this went from here and I should have never said anything in front of Brynn. She was really upset and made it very clear it was not Lacy to me and Dr. C that is making her sick. Poor little girl...she has wanted this puppy for so long and it will be horrible if she is allergic to her.

For all of our sakes, I am praying it is not Lacy and is just a coincidence. Dr. C told us to find a temporary home for Lacy for the next few days, clean the house really well including all the linens, continue with the nebulizer and come back on Friday to see her. If Brynn is better, we can then introduce Lacy back in the picture and see what happens.

We have followed all of the doctor’s orders and Lacy is staying with some friends of ours (thanks Mistin, Edy and Sunee) for the next few days. I can only hope this all goes well or we will have one broken hearted little girl on our hands!

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Meet Lacy

There is a new edition in the Boatright household and her name is Lacy. I am not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to this, but she is here and I can't help to be delighted. She is little (which I am not fond of), she is furry (which I am not fond of) and she will shed (which I am not fond of), but she is pretty darn cute.

How did this come to be? My dog-free home of nearly two years....well it starts with a little girl named Brynn.

Brynn has been asking us for months "when is my puppy coming?" Funny thing is I don't recall any conversation about agreeing to a puppy, ever. Sure I entertained the idea from time to time; after all I grew up with dogs. Every kid needs a dog and EVENTUALLY we would get one...a BIG one.

See when Danny and I were first married we both wanted dogs and had agreed he would pick the dog of his choice (Chihuahua/Dachshund mix aka: wein-a-hua-hua) and I would choose the dog of my choice (Boxer or a Rotti). Well, somehow I got the short end of that stick and we ended up with two litter mates (wein-a-hua-huas), Missy and Liberty. I don’t dislike little dogs, I just prefer larger ones. I dealt with it and may have even grown to like them a little.

So years later we have Brynn and Missy takes to her and Liberty well doesn't. After a few snapping episodes and breaking skin it was time for Liberty to go. There was one problem. They were litter mates and could not stand to be separated (even for five minutes), so they both had to go. Luckily, Danny had a friend who took them both and they went to a good home.

Why am I telling you this? Well, because this friend called us about a month ago and let us know Missy AND Liberty both had puppies, see where this is going? Yes, Missy had five puppies and Liberty had four. And why are they telling us this? Well, it turns out Liberty died a week after giving birth and Missy was now feeding all nine puppies! And, some where along receiving this information I new Brynn's puppy was coming.

We made the trip this weekend and picked out Brynn's puppy. We went with the intentions of getting one of Liberty's puppies, but Lacy grabbed our attention the minute we showed up. She was extremely friendly, had lots of energy and Brynn really liked her. She was our dog.

Lacy has been with us for one full day and she has been great. She barely whined at all last night and the kids love her. Brynn sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her today before her nap and Braden tried to feed her some goldfish crackers. She is making herself right at home.

Just catching up....

You may be asking where have I been the last few weeks? I assure you nothing tragic has happened, we have just been busy, REALLY busy.

I won't go into great detail, but I will post some photos from February (one thing I have been keeping up with).

Feb 28th ~ G-ma, Grandpa Jerry and Aunt Erin were in town again this weekend. Grandpa Jerry is teaching Brynn how to fly her brand new Dora kite at Me-maw and Papa's house (of course mommy was working :(

Feb 27th ~ Me eating dinner with two fabulous women I met at work! Here's to getting to know each other.

Feb 26th ~ Braden eating his favorite meal, chicken nuggets and apples at McDonald's after a long morning of running errand with mommy.

Feb 25th ~ Brynn dancing in the living room to the soundtrack of Studio 54. This girl loves to dance!

Feb 23rd ~ We planted our first crops today; white and red potatoes, garlic and sweet onions.

Feb 22nd ~ Some of Brynn's artwork from school this year.

Feb 21st ~ Danny took the kids to his parents house for dinner while I was working. Looks like a fashion show took place! He must have been modeling his mother's jacket....not sure what was going on here. The photo was on my camera, so that makes it fair game!

Feb 20th ~ I had the evening off and we all worked in the backyard getting the garden ready. Braden picked me a 'flower'. What a sweet boy!

Feb 19th ~ Dan took Braden to get a 'big boy' haircut.

Feb 18th ~ Started wearing my pedometer. This was the first day....I know you are suppose to have at least 10,000 steps a day.

Feb 17th ~ Girl's Night for me! We went to Trudy's for dinner and drinks and then headed to the skating rink. Yes, you read that right. It had been 22 years since I have been on roller skates and I did not even fall! We had a blast and I could not believe how sore I was the next day.

Feb 16th ~ My mom and step-sister (Erin) were here for the weekend and Brynn got Aunt Erin to play dress up with her. The blue 'wig' is a tutu!

Feb 15th ~ Brynn was invited to a Birthday party for her pal Aiden. It was a robot theme and they made their own robots out of marshmallows and pretzels. Notice hers is headless.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! No mushy stuff here, just two pretty darn cute kids...

Not to long ago a photo like this one would never have made the download from my camera, much less posted on my blog.

I can not tell you how many photos have fallen into this category all because I was caught up in 'the rules' of photography. I can tell you I wish I had them all back. There was a lot happening in those photos and just because they were less than 'perfect' did not mean they were not worth keeping. I wish I would have realized that then.

Today I do realize it and I keep all kinds of mishaps, some of them even make 'my favorites' folder. They are perfect "Photoshop playtime" photos and the minute I saw this photo I was immediately drawn to it. It was definitely a keeper.

Sure it is blurred and badly focused, but I could not help but notice the look on Brynn's face. The look behind the blur is her famous 'I have a surprise for you' look. My surprise ~ the flower (or weed). And somehow this blurred photo makes me think of every flower she's given me. I love how the focus is on the flower. I am glad I am breaking the rules, because not to have given this photo a second glance is unthinkable.

So next time you find yourself hitting the delete button on that 'less than perfect photo' think again.

Project Closet ~ Check!

After two days of multiple trips to Lowe's, sore muscles (for me) and stepping over and maneuvering through piles we have finally finished the closet! We started moving things back in yesterday and I love how clean it is. Now, I am left with several piles of 'do we really need this stuff?' to go through and under NO circumstances are these items making there way back into the closet without a home!

This project went really smooth and probably one of the cheapest we have ever done. Danny is a great husband for jumping in and not complaining one bit. I think he was secretly excited about getting this done. After all, he found a few missing items of his.

I really wish I had taken better photos through this process to really show the change (like a before and after of the inside of the closet), but I didn't even think about it at the time. So, I will just share the ones I have.

All of my scrapbooking stuff I had shoved in the closet.

One of the shelves we removed. This was the shelf I was about to remove myself we Danny came home. You can see how nicely the wall looked after he removed it. Thank goodness he came when he did, I am pretty sure it would have been a very different photo had I done it myself.

This is several photos all merge in one of the finished project.

I am happy with the results. The fact I can see my floor is exciting to me and the snow-ball effect has began. I am ready to organize, organize and organize some more!

Blind-sided

If Danny had any idea to what he was coming home to today he might have reconsidered coming home at all.

Today....I had one of my days. I am notorious for deciding in a split second to take on a project I have been pondering for months. Sometimes I have the project completely planned out and other times (like today) I dive in and just 'wing it'. The 'wing it' projects are the times I feel sorry for my husband because he ends up completely blind-sided.

So you can imagine how Danny felt today when he walked through our bedroom door and every item from our closet was occupying every inch of the floor, the bed and the tops of our dressers. I know it does not seem possible, but it is true. Our closet has become the dumping grounds for anything without a place in our household and it has been going on way to long. Today became 'THE DAY' I decided to tackle this mess when I could not find something I was looking for.

Not only had I decided to pull everything out of the closet to start fresh, but I also made the executive decision to rip out the built-in shelves put in by the builder. I have never liked these shelves and have wanted to do this for years, but always made do. I have mentioned several times in the past about doing this, but just never gave an exact date. So he kind of knew it was coming, I just don't think he expected it to be now. Lucky for him, he walked in just in time for the demolition. I had already removed all the screws and the support bar; all that needed to be done now was the removal of the actual shelves. It was a good thing he showed up when he did because my approach was completely different than his and would have caused a lot more patch work.

I am off to get spackle, paint, supplies and dinner.....

To be continued.......

Pink, Purple and Sparkly

Okay, I know what you’re thinking....she posted a picture of her daughter’s hands and feet? And YES, I completely understand you may be questioning my judgment right now, but there is a story here (isn't there always?)

Tonight Brynn asked if I would repaint her finger and toe nails as last weeks sparkly paint was looking in her words "pretty pre-dic-o-lous" (which I’m sure meant 'ridiculous').

So we had a little 'girl time' after her bath tonight. We began with trimming and shaping, leading up to choosing an actual color. I only bring this up because you probably noticed we have two different colors going on; you just have no idea how hard it was to get here. First Brynn wanted pink, no purple and then something sparkly like last week, but not last weeks polish. (For heaven's sake just decide on a color. Why don't we just paint them clear like mommies?).

Finally, I (fighting the words) suggested we paint them with a sparkly pink and a glossy purple nail polish alternating every other finger and toe. I was now the best mommy in the world. She was so thrilled. I even received several I love yous during our painting session.

So after we were finished I of course was planning on this photo for Project 365, I just was not planning on posting it to my blog. Out of the blue, she tells me I should put it on my computer so G-ma (my mom) could see. I knew she was referring to my blog and when I told her maybe we shouldn't she said, "But you put a picture of your radio on there." Wow! She had a point, how could I post a photo of the inside of my car and not her hands and feet?

So here's to Brynn and her beautiful hands and feet!