Day 45

206 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies - that's how many Chloe sold. Today we put all the orders together and she went out with Lexi to deliver the ones to the folks in the neighborhood. We have a ton for my work and my sister's work, too. We'll be delivering them this week -so have your money ready! Thanks for supporting this cute little Daisy.

My mom is feeling better and I'll take her to the doctor tomorrow (thank goodness it's a holiday and I'm off of work). She asked for her cookies and I told her she couldn't have them until she promised not to scare us like that again! What a weekend.

Day 44

Today has been a day of recovery for everyone - Mom is resting and Erin is taking care of her. I have some sort of stomach bug (probably picked it up at the hospital last night, I'm clever like that) that is making me miserable. Thank goodness my kids are good at entertaining themselves.

Here's a picture of my Hippo collection that I mentioned the other day. It started off with a big red hippo my cousin, Debra, made for me when I was a baby. Then I got a squishy purple hippo when I was like 7. That was pretty much it until Mike started buying them for me. Then, everyone started getting them for me. The big one on the right was bought at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans the summer of 1993 - we had to carry it back to St. Charles on the Street Car. The huge one in the middle was from my brother a couple of years ago for Christmas - he somehow got it into a tiny box and when I opened it it just burst out all over. I have quite a few and I'm running out of room for them!

Wouldn't it be great if that was all I had to worry about?

Day 43

I only took two pictures today and both were with my cell phone camera at the hospital, where my mom spent her evening.

My sister called me around 4:30 and told me she thought Mom was having an allergic reaction - she was complaining of swelling so she was going to keep an eye on her and she gave her some Benedryl. I stopped at a friend's house on the way home from work so Bradley and I could pick up Chloe's boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. I heard my phone ringing, but ignored it so we could get the car loaded. When we were ready to go, I looked at my phone and my sister had called 9 times. I called her back and she said she was taking Mom to the emergency room because she had started complaining of chest pains and difficulty breathing. Her blood sugar had jumped from 91 to 195 in less than 20 minutes and her blood pressure was high. She gave her an aspirin and they were en route - and she left her kids at her house. I quickly picked Chloe up from extended day and dropped her and Bradley off with Mike and then left to go get Erin's kids. I got there quickly and took the three of them back to my house and started getting dinner ready for everyone when Erin called again.

My Mom had started slurring, drooling, and couldn't move anything on her left side. She stopped at the Missouri City Police/Fire headquarters and they called for transport. The fire fighters worked on her until the EMT pulled around from the back of the building and then they took over. They all thought she was having a stroke and took quick action and headed for the ER. Erin was on her way and told me I needed to come immediately. I told Mike what was going on, told Lexi to help with the kids, and rushed to the ER, too. It's about a 20 minute drive and it was crazy rush hour traffic through Sugar Land, but I got there in about 15 minutes. On the way there I got hold of my brother, Matt (who was at work), and told him what was going on. Meanwhile, Erin called her husband at his work and he was on his way to pick Matt up.

We all rendezvoused at the ER and just waited. They made us wait for over an hour before we were allowed to see her. It was incredibly stressful and frustrating because my Mom doesn't know all the meds and such she is on so we were worried that the doctors and nurses wouldn't have complete information. Once we were finally able to see her someone in scrubs came in and was very short with us and didn't introduce herself or anything. The blood they had drawn when my mom first arrived was still sitting on the counter. It turned out the rude woman was actually the attending MD. She insisted it was nothing to worry about - a reaction to her blood pressure medicine (something about ace inhibitors?). We had more questions and she just cut us off. She mentioned getting more tests, but they never did because the blood was still there. She also told us that my mom's blood pressure never got over 120. Oh. Okay. Check out the screen, lady. It's funny how it seemed that the hospital was going to run more tests until right about the point we told them she didn't have any insurance. Then everything was fine and we could just sign right on the line.

She released Mom with orders to stop taking her blood pressure medicine. Tonight Erin, Matt, and I will stay up watching her because her bp is already high. We'll try to get her another appointment on Monday. I have to go to bed - I am completely exhausted.

Day 42

I just can't enough of Chloe and Bradley's art work. This morning before we left for school, Chloe was working on this little guy. Isn't he cute? It's the first time she has drawn ears like that, where they actually look more real rather than just two circles on the head. Wouldn't he make a cute stuffed animal? He kind of looks like some sort of koala. Mike thoroughly believes that Chloe passed him up in artistic talent a while back. He's probably right - if you ever come over to play Pictionary you don't want to be on his team. Trust me.

Day 41

What could be more snuggly than a big ol' hippo hug? I have this collection of Purple Hippos - I don't know what it is about them, but I love them. Did you know that real hippos are the most dangerous animals in Africa? It's true - they kill more people than any other animal. Crazy, I know! This hippo, though, just wants to smooch on cutie Alyssa. I have very tame hippos. I'll have to take a picture of them soon. :)

Day 40

Chloe has been trying to work on her Take Home Science project for several days - but it's all about shadows and it has been nothing but overcast and gloomy (if not raining) for the past several days. This afternoon when we got home from school we took a quick picture so we could get the "afternoon" data part of the project done. She was quite impressed with how big she could make her shadow stretch. (Please ignore my crazy, messy patio!) Hopefully we'll have some sun tomorrow morning so we can do the "morning" part.

Day 39

I think my kids are on to me. This morning they were arguing over who was going to get their picture taken for the computer! They decided to share the limelight this go around.

This is them right before they got on their jackets to leave for school - Chloe's hair is already escaping the braid it was in, Bradley has who-knows-what on his shirt. But, they are all smiles and ready to have a great day. Let's hope it lasts!!