Picture Overload

I am still trying to "catch up" this blog. This post is basically going to be a huge picture dump from September 2013 through December 2013. I don't really have a lot to say, as most of those details are long forgotten :(

September 2013

We used to go to Pigeon Forge in August or September to rent a cabin for the weekend. We were Dollywood season passholders, so that is where we spent our time. My parents were gracious to invite the kids and grandkids up for the weekend. This trip was me and Maddy, my sister and her two kids, and my dad's sister and mom drove up for a day to spend some time with us. We always looked forward to this trip each year. I am not allowed to post pictures of my sister's kids now. I completely understand the reasoning, but I hate not getting to include them. Once they are adults I will hopefully have their permission to post their pictures :)

October 2013

Another tradition we have each year is to visit our local pumpkin patch. We do all the fun slides and swings first, then go on a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins, then we do the corn maze last.

For Halloween Maddy was Dora. She looks real enthused here doesn't she? lol

November 2013

December 2013

I love our church at Christmas time! 

Santa brought Maddy a big girl bed for this Christmas. She was quickly outgrowing her toddler bed. I love that she said it grew! I know Santa had a lot of little elves to help pull this off because not only did he bring her a bigger mattress, but he hauled off her old one. 

We survived the enormous amount of pictures 😳 whew! I'm having a hard time finding 2014 pictures on my computer, but have a whole album on Facebook. My plan is to go through those to pick and choose the pictures I can remember the details for and write about them. I promise this blog won't be this boring the whole time. My OCD just can't handle jumping in with current events and then going back in and filling in the gaps lol. I for one love all the memories I have, but I know if you don't know me or my family, this might be boring for you...we will get more interesting over time :) I hope you all have a wonderful day <3 p="">

June 21, 2014

It is 11:29 pm and I am in total shock. This will be a day I never forget, and a day that has changed our family forever. My mom, Maddy, and I were on our way to Baskin Robbins to get ice cream/cappuccino blast. We weren't even halfway there when my mom got a call from my grandmother begging her to get my uncle because something had happened to my grandfather. We turned around to head to my grandmother's. All the way there I kept thinking we would pull in the driveway and it would be no big deal. As soon as we pulled into the driveway my mom got a text saying he had gotten too hot. I thought it would be just fine and we were out of the woods...I was wrong. We were there not even five minutes and my mom got back in the car to go look for my uncle. She told me she thought he had a heat stroke, there again I thought everything would be fine. My uncle wasn't home and when we got back to my grandmother's, my mom told me they had called an ambulance. Up to this point I hadn't really said much to Maddy other than we had to go help Opa...that's what the grandkids call him. I didn't want her to get out of the car because I didn't want her to witness anything that would scare her. My mom offered for me to take her car so I could get Maddy out of the situation once the ambulance was called, but at that point I couldn't leave. I needed to make sure he was going to be okay. I turned around to prepare Maddy for what she was about to see and hear. I told her Opa needed to go to the hospital and there is an ambulance on the way that is going to help him and it might be real loud, but it's ok. She was concerned he might get a shot because she knows shots hurt real bad. Just as soon as I got done explaining I hear screaming from the porch, which is where he was. I heard, "DADDY PLEASE BREATHE, COME ON BABY BREATHE! BREATHE!!!! That's when I knew it was not going to be okay. Hearing my grandmother and mom screaming and crying and pleading for the Lord to help him is something I will never forget. I had no idea what to do. I was trying to help my mom out and I called my sister to let her know he had passed away. My sister kept saying somebody had to do CPR. A light in my head went off when I heard my mom begging 911 to please hurry. I was going to take the phone or do CPR myself because I knew my mom was in no shape to do much of anything. Obviously I was not thinking straight at all because my stepdad and uncle were both there to take care of him. I went up to the porch and at that point I saw my grandfather and was not prepared for what I saw. His body was blue and he was just laying there. They got him breathing again but they kept having to do CPR on him. My mom went down to the end of the driveway to help the ambulance know where to go, so I offered to do that so she could be with her dad. She needed to be away, so she stayed. Another idea popped in my head...I could switch Maddy's car seat over to my dad's truck and be ready to go. The ambulance finally got there. They had my dad continue doing CPR on my grandfather while they got set up. They weren't in any big hurry truthfully. Once they got there I hopped in the truck,looked out the window and saw them shocking my grandfather, but he just lay on the stretcher. They got him loaded up in the ambulance and off they went. There was a police officer there that stopped us and told us not to follow the ambulance and to remind us that we had to follow the laws. Basically he was saying you can't run red lights and speed. On the way to the hospital my mom just kept shaking her head as if she were saying no. Maddy kept asking when she was going to get her ice cream. She clearly had no idea just how serious the situation was lol. Once we got to the hospital we went to the ER and tried to figure out where we needed to go. They had us sit in the ER waiting room first, then they called us all back to a room. Once I saw we were being called into a room I knew immediately he was no longer with us. We had to wait on my grandmother before anybody would talk to us. Once my sister got there I took Maddy to the bathroom to start preparing her for what was about to happen. I told her that I needed to talk to her about something really important. I went on to tell her that I thought Opa was in heaven with Jesus, and that she was probably fixing to see Nana and Oma and Uncle Mike and a lot of other people cry a whole lot. I wanted her to know that Opa really was okay in heaven, and people would be crying because they will miss him so much here on earth. We went back to the room to wait and finally my grandmother got there and the doctor came pretty soon after. He first asked my grandmother what had happened during the day prior to this incident. She explained they had had a good morning together on the porch, and then he went out to work in the yard. It was an extremely hot day and he started not feeling well so he took a break. He started feeling a little better so he did some more yard work, but he then got dizzy and sick and felt like he was going to pass out. He also had cold chills even though he was burning up. The doctor informed us all that he did indeed have a massive heart attack and unfortunately he did not make it. Maddy handled it extremely well. She was concerned that everybody was crying, but she didn't seem afraid and that was my goal. The doctor allowed us to go and see him. I chose not to go. I was scared of what he would look like and I wanted to remember him how I last saw him. The last time I saw my grandfather, was at my cousin's birthday dinner at Shogun. My grandfather was being so silly as he usually was and put his napkin around his head as if he had on a sweatband. He seemed genuinely happy that day and laughed a lot.

This was the first unexpected tragedy I have experienced in my family. I've experienced family members passing away, but we knew their time was coming to an end. I never in a million years expected my grandfather to pass away on that day. He was fairly healthy. We will miss him greatly!

Just a little note to say that I originally started this post the night this occurred. I finished the post on 11/20/19, so some of the little details I have forgotten.

Hello Again

I am beyond ecstatic to have my blog back! So much has happened in between the time I stopped blogging and now. One day I will be an open book and share all the details, but for now I will just say I am happy to be back!

To briefly catch up, Maddy is now in the 4th grade 😲 I can't even believe it! We are still homeschooling and loving it. The older she gets, the more we mix and match her curriculum. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to homeschool her and know at any given time it can be yanked away. Maddy has gotten involved in extra curriculars outside of home to help her socialize with kids her age.

Drunk Maddy

I have a whole year's worth of stuff to catch up on here, but I want to go ahead and talk about today. Maddy had her first sedation. Of all places, it was at the dentist office. I had no idea what to expect. In fact I thought maybe she might feel just a little tired and she would be calm and peaceful. Boy was I ever wrong! Her appointment was at 10:30 and she could not eat or drink anything until after her appointment. Thankfully she slept in until 9:16. She would have slept longer but I woke her up to get ready. They had a little trouble coaxing her back to get her sedation juice. They bribe the kids with getting a prize to get them back there. She came out and told me she chose punch, but instead of punch it came out pooch. The instructions said it could take up to an hour for the sedation to take effect for some kids. For this kid it took all of 1 minute. She started getting wobbly real quick and her speech was off. She was hilarious for about 30 seconds and then a switch flipped on and she turned quite angry. She wanted to walk, but she couldn't without falling down or into something. I had her hands to help protect her and she would yell at me, "WHY ARE YOU HOLDING ME?!?!?!?!" Everything I did was wrong. I wouldn't let her walk, I wouldn't get off of her (she was actually the one on top of me), I wouldn't let her go (she actually was holding onto my hands), I didn't understand half the things she wanted. Her mood would go from screaming to the top of her lungs at me to laughing all in a matter of a second. I did record a video of her, but honestly it was very hard to record her because she was all over the place.

Her procedure went good. She didn't like having to bite the gauze and apparently she let them know how she felt about it lol. She got furious with me on the way home because I wouldn't let her take it out. Once we got home it was just horrible. It was the same moody temper and trying to figure out how to make her feel better was just impossible. She finally got out that her mouth hurt. She kept saying her front teeth. She didn't have any work done to her front teeth so I was very confused. I finally asked her to point to where it hurt and it was actually her back tooth on top, which is the one that had work. I gave her some Tylenol which ended up helping her to feel better. She said her tooth still hurt, but it was not as bad. It is currently 9:36 pm and I believe she still has some sedation in her. She can walk and talk just fine but her attitude is all over the place. She just let out a loud squeal/coo out of the blue in her room.

Her procedure was basically like a root canal for kids and they put a crown on it. They also put some sealant on some of her teeth. She says she remembers doing what she did in the video, but the look on her face says she really doesn't. I tried asking what it was like when they were working on her, but she just gives me vague answers. She said they had computers on while they were working. I asked if they were nice and she said yes. I wanted to ask if anything hurt, but I didn't want to spark that memory if there is a memory of it. I snapped a picture of her playing video games prior to the oral sedation.