I hate HOSPITALS!!

It has been a pretty crappy week – so let me jump right into all of that and fill you in. As some of you already know, I spent Wednesday – Sunday of this past week in the hospital. It started with some severe stomach pains on Wednesday afternoon. (I originally thought I must have eaten some gluten or something.) I wound up leaving work around 4pm to head home because I could not work with the pain. After about 10-15 minutes of driving home (on I-40), the pain became so severe that apparently my breathing became shallow – which caused my arms and legs to go numb – like dead weights. My hands and feet started to curl inward and I became very aware that I was not going to make it home – it was not safe to drive anywhere at that point. So I pulled over and called 911 and had an ambulance come get me and take me to the hospital.

Needless to say, after going through triage, they admitted me to the hospital. I had more blood taken during my visit then I thought my body could hold, lots of *other* samples taken, a CT scan, an MRA and a Flex Sig (a shorter colonoscopy). I was told that I had Colitis – and they suspected Ischemic Colitis (meaning there wasn’t enough blood flowing to my colon). However, this is a little strange since only elderly people tend to get Ischemic Colitis. The Doc at the hospital’s best guess is that somewhere in my body is throwing out blood clots and they are going to my bowel, wreaking havoc then passing through before they can see them – but even that is farfetched. Anyway, with still a bunch of questions to be answered, I finally got out of there on Sunday. Thanks to all that visited, called and had me in their prayers. And a special thanks to my parents for coming up to help out with Olivia for the weekend and to Sara and Randy for helping with Olivia on Wed and Thurs nights. It really meant a lot to us!

I have since been to my regular GI specialist from Duke (today) and they took even more blood. She is going to go back and do an additional Flex Sig on Monday because the biopsy results from the hospital still leave a lot of questions. So, hopefully they will be able to figure this out – but we may need to consult with Dr. House to get to the bottom of it.

On an upside, I may not have Celiac Disease after all. This episode was not related to that or consistent with that diagnosis and since this is similar to my previous 2 episodes (that led to the diagnosis by a different doc), this may be the culprit all along. Hopefully they can get this figured out and fix it and then resolve me of my Celiac Diagnosis so I can go on living my life like a well adjusted person (ok, *somewhat* well adjusted!).

So, I just wanted to give you all an update of how I am doing at this point. I am doing better, still a bit slow and nauseous – but definitely on the mend. I am looking forward to finding out what is going on with my digestive system and we have made this our priority.

Locks, Zoo and Hanging Out

Hello again. Ok, now that I've filled you in on all the drama - let me fill you in on the fun stuff we've done over the past couple weeks. First I have a little before & after for you. I had been growing my hair out for locks of love for a while now and it was getting pretty long. I liked it long, but it was too much to deal with sometimes. So I went ahead and took the plunge (or scissors, as the case may be) on Friday, the 8th.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

I really like the hair cut - and was thankful to have it short and easy to deal with at the hospital.

Ok, enough about me - I know you all just read the blog to hear about the little one, so onto her. So that same Friday that I cut my hair off, my parents decided on an impromptu visit (my dad hurt his back and wanted to get Grant to look at it, and oh yeah, I think they might have wanted to hang out with the little one, too!). We had a nice quite visit with them Friday night and Saturday. We also had to make a trip to the little gym and to Masyn's 3rd Birthday party (which, they opted out for - I don't blame them). Now we have a ton of mickey mouse character silly bands from the party floating around our house and Olivia is becoming obsessed with them. lol.

Anyway, on Sunday we had planned to go to the zoo. So my parent went on home (dad wasn't up for all that walking with his back) and the 3 of us headed off to the zoo. (we have memberships, which I highly recommend - their cheap and it makes a great day trip). Here are some pictures and a video from our trip:

Lazy Polar Bear

This is where the buffalo and elk were hanging around

In the center of the zoo (between Africa and North America), there is a little area with food, shops, a Dora 4D ride and a carousel. This is the first time we've actually had the time to stop in to try it all out. Olivia LOVED the carousel!!! She even picked the wolf (go wolfpack) to ride. I knew we were raising her right! lol

She also loved the Dora 4D show/ride. It was one of those 3D interactive movies where the seat moves, they blow air on you and sprinkle water on you. She even kept her glasses on the whole time. Here's some goofy pics of us with our cool 3D shades on:

After we finished the zoo, we headed to PF Changs to eat (my FAVORITE gluten free restaurant). Then went home to crash. What a long day - but lots of fun.

Here are just a couple more pics and videos from around the house. Olivia was very carefully setting up her chairs and putting her babies (and Mr. Wuf) on them - and Grant got her to make a cheese face for the camera:

Here she is riding her bike around the house like a mad woman. She loves her bike and even though she can't reach the petals yet, she's pretty fast. And we had just got our floors redone (no more carpet on the 1st floor), so she was loving it!

Here is a video of her trying to sing her ABC's. She can do much better than this video now, but it's all I've got to show at the moment. She shy's up in front of the camera. But she has been singing her ABC's, ring around the rosy, itsy bitsy spider and several other little songs a lot lately. She loves music and always starts trying to sing (or dance) to it when she hears it.

Well, that's all I've got for right now. I'll work on trying to catch her singing some more for you guys. Until next time - take care!

Random-ness . . .

Just wanted to catch you all up on the last several weeks - so here is a random assortment of pictures and videos.

Here are some cute pics of Olivia with her little piggy tails:

I also got her an umbrella, boots and a little backpack that all match. She loves them! I need to get a picture of her with the boots and umbrella together to show you (we've been getting a lot of rain around here lately, so the umbrella has come in quite handy!).

You all know how we switch off date-nights with Randy and Sara, so here are some pictures from when we had Gracie last week. Here they are eating their ravioli (at least Gracie was eating them!).

Then we had a *mock* slumber party for them. I made a pallet on the floor for them to lay on (since our couch is out getting re-upholstered). They had a great time!

We have also been having a pretty decent start to football this year (GO PACK!), we are actually 4-0 (the only undefeated team in the ACC right now - but I know I just jinxed us for the game we are going to this weekend against VA Tech). Anyway, I got Olivia a cute little NC State jersey to wear and she's been going around telling everyone that she wears wolfpack.

Last weekend we had a potluck picnic with my sorority at Lake Johnson. It was really good to see everyone again and hang out. There were even a couple gluten free dishes that some wonderful friends brought for me! :) And one friend brought me some GF bread! Here's Olivia and Daddy going down to see the ducks:

And here are some funny videos of Olivia and our "pet weasel" - it's one of those toys from cracker barrel that runs around. She was getting a kick out of trying to catch it.

Here you can see her getting creative to catch it:

That's about all that is going on here right now. We are going to the football game with Olivia this weekend so I'll try to get some pictures from that. And I'm going to see if I can get over to Harmony's to see those babies! Until next time, take care and GO PACK!

Jordyn's Party and Hanging out

Sorry for blogging everything from the last month all at once, but we had our floors done and had to pack up our entire first floor and I could not find the camera cord to upload my pictures to the computer from my camera. So, I will update you all in pieces.

Here are some pictures of Olivia and I hanging out in our jammies one morning. (this is one of the mornings that Olivia had my camera in the previous post).

We were also invited to Jordyn's 2nd birthday party a couple weekends ago. (She is in Olivia's daycare). It was a Dora party and Olivia had a good time -until Dora showed up! Let's just say that Olivia (and Jordyn and DJ - also from daycare - DO NOT like the large characters in person yet!). When she first came into the room the 3 of them (only those 3) started screaming and crying. It was a bit pitiful. She was asked to come back later to take pictures and she showed up while I was washing my hands in the bathroom. When I came out, Olivia was being held by Jordyn's grandmother - she apparently ran to the first adult she could find for safety! Here are some pictures from the party:

yummy - cake!

DJ, Olivia and Jordyn - all from Ms. Angie and Ms. MurMur's daycare (only missing Ethan from her group)

The dreaded . . DORA! (this is where you run and scream and hide!)

Maybe sometime soon she'll grow out of being afraid of the characters, but we're not there yet. We still had a good time at the party and were happy to be invited.

Olivia's Photography

So, Olivia may be taking up photography! She has figured out how to turn on and take pictures with my digital camera all on her own. One morning, she woke up, turned on her light, opened her door, climbed over the gate at her door and snuck downstairs (turning on every light on the way) and found my camera and started taking pictures before we even knew she was up (this was about 5 in the morning). Here are some of the better pictures she has taken over the last couple weeks with my camera:

This is actually the first picture she took! (then she realized she needed to point it the other way!)

Her little Shami

Her friend Elmo

Her feet (this will become a running theme) - notice that her fingers are a bit in the way (also a theme)

more fingers

a picture of Mama

Daddy - ok, at this point, she was running around and everything gets blurry

more feet!

Just a sampling of some of her work. Be looking for her at the local art shows! :)

Congratulations to Harmony and Brian!

Well, they are finally here! Harmony hit 38 weeks on Tuesday and was very discouraged that Chloe and Ian weren't here yet. So I had made plans to take Harmony to lunch on Wednesday. Well . . . Wednesday morning I got a text that her water had broken and she was on her way to the hospital - yeah!!! (See we just needed to make plans for them to *spoil* them - just kidding - we are so happy that they did!)

Here is the proud new Mama and her new little ones:

They all look so great! Chloe was born at 12:34 AM, 5lb 7oz & Ian was born at 2:04 AM, 6lb 7oz.