A Little Late With the Stars and Stripes…

I’m a little late with my 4th of July post.  I got busy and kept meaning to write and just didn’t. 

We had our annual party here at the house.  Tommy got the slide and the pool out and Uncle Matt and Aunt Mimi brought William.  Mom and Daddy were here and my friend Sharon and her family came.  It was a small group but so much fun. 

As usual our cul-de-sac did fireworks even though it is against the HOA rules.  I thought maybe the Constable would show up but they didn’t.  Most everyone in the cul-de-sac came out.  We started about 8:30 and ended about 10:00.  We took turns shooting them off and sharing sparklers for the kids.

William doesn’t dig fireworks so the Ammermans split early, but Michael, Sharon and the kids stayed.  I was so glad they did.  It was a redneck kind of celebration with all the lawn chairs and cheap fireworks but it was fun.

I think Erin’s favorite part was the smoke bombs.  They would light them and throw them into the middle of the street and all the kids would run out there to run thru the smoke.  After every big blast while we were sitting and watching Erin would yell “Bravo”.  I’m not even sure where she learned that word, but she was using it correctly!

Here are a couple of pics from that day/night.

 

Successful Sleep Over…

We hadn’t seen Luke and Jake all summer so we invited them for a sleep over. 

I picked them up yesterday afternoon and we went and picked Erin up at school.  They immediately talked me into getting them a sno-cone.  We got home and they hit the back yard.  They played outside for a long time. 

When it was time to eat, we had make your own pizzas.  As I tend to do, I burned mine and Erin’s.  The boys eat glutten free so their pizzas were ready before ours.  I didn’t set the timer again and burned mine and Erin’s. 

I had promised them homemade ice cream but then they got the sno-cone so I thought we wouldn’t do it.  Jake promptly reminded me as soon as the pizza was gone that I promised.  So, we got the ice cream maker out and make ice cream.  I had a lot of helping hands…

Next was bedtime.  I set up the tent in the living room and made a big pallet inside.  They eat found a place to sleep and an hour later they all finally went to sleep.  Erin came into our room 4 times before she settled down.  Luke crashed first, but he played pretty hard.  Jake and Erin were both awake for a while. 

Erin woke up at 6:00 and the boys were up right after that.  I fixed breakfast and then they wanted to jump on the trampoline.  We let them go out in their pajamas.  They thought that was the coolest thing ever. 

Our very kind and gracious neighbor offered us the use of her pool.  So at 8:00 we were in the pool 2 houses down.  We let them swim for about an hour and then got them out.  We watched some movies and they’re playing in the playroom now.  Our visit is just about over.

All in all they were great.  Hardly had any fighting or cross words.  We will do this again.  It was a lot of fun.

 

 

More Pictures…

 

Family Picture Time…

The pictures from the family photo session on in!  I made a Shutterfly book out of mine.  Can’t wait for it to come in. 

Here’s some shots:

A Little Ride in the Ambulance…

I picked Erin up from school on Wednesday afternoon.  They were good so the teachers were handing out peppermints. 

We got in the car and were about a mile and a half from the school.  Erin made a weird noise in the backseat and I looked back and she had tears coming from her eyes and croaked that she was choking.  I had forgotten about the peppermint and thought she just swallowed some water wrong.  I told her to take another tiny sip and it immediately came back up.  She croaked peppermint and I knew it was stuck.

I wheeled the car into a parking lot and jumped out.  She wasn’t blue and could talk so I knew she was getting air.  I will never forget the terror in her eyes.  She was crying and I was trying to calm her down.  I didn’t want to try to fish it out in case I got it more stuck.  I had her drink a little more water and the water came back up.  I told her we were going to have to go to the doctor and she immediately started crying again and told me she didn’t want a shot.  I told her they wouldn’t give her a shot and she asked if they were going to cut her tummy open.  I reassured her they wouldn’t. 

We drove to the Urgent Care about 2 miles away.  I was constantly turned around watching her and nearly killed us with my driving.  We pulled up and ran in and they told me they couldn’t help us there that we needed to go to the ER.  Really?  I was dumbfounded.  As I turned to walk out the door the woman asked if I wanted to call 911.  I told her yes. 

At the urgent care they took us to the backroom and put her on the oxygen monitor.  She was getting plenty of oxygen so they had us wait there until the ambulance arrived.  Queue the train.  Yes, the ambulance got held up by the train we could hear.  It seemed like it took forever but I think it was only about 10 minutes.  Tommy got there right before the ambulance.

Erin was eerie quiet and really still.  I think she was scared.  I kept asking her if she would breathe and if it had moved down.  She would shake her head.  The paramedics arrived and assessed her.  They asked if we wanted to go to the nearest hospital or up about 5 more miles to the other hospital.  St Luke’s has a Texas Children’s ER in it.  I had no idea.  So, we opted for that one since we’ve had such great luck with Texas Children’s.

The paramedics had me get her car seat out of the truck.  They put it on the stretcher and strapped her in that way.  Erin was smiling some at them and talking a little so they decided we would run w/o lights and sirens.  Tommy followed us and was able to keep up.  I’m not sure if the ambulance ride was completely necessary but I wasn’t sure I could have driven us to the ER without having an accident.  My driving to the urgent care was bordering on erratic.

We got to the ER and they took us in immediately.  The doctor walked in within seconds of us getting there.  She examined E and thought that with something to drink she might be able to get it down without them having to do an x-ray.  So they got her some Gatorade.  She was able to keep it down as we thought it might have moved in the ambulance.  From there they kept us for about and hour and a half and had her drink the whole can of Gatorade.  The doctor was pretty convinced it had gone down and that she was feeling a scratch in her throat where it had been lodged.  It made perfect sense to me.  They let us go with explicit instructions to return if she started throwing up again. 

All was fine and she told us she was hungry on the way home.  We stopped at Carrabbas and got her some spaghetti.  It seemed nice and soft.  She ate it like a prisoner and wanted something else.  We managed to get her full and off to bed we went.  And yes, when she asked to sleep with me Tommy and I both jumped at it.  He slept on the couch upstairs and Erin slept with me in our room. 

We were all 3 exhausted.  That was a very traumatic experience.  I had never been in an ambulance and I’m pretty sure I never want to be in one again!