Between a rock and a… nose???

Y’all. Seriously. My child may send me to the loony bin. Friday afternoon, Zach picked Ava up and she was crying that her nose hurt. She’d had a runny nose and we just thought maybe it was raw from us wiping her nose.

So, when I got home and tried to wipe it, she SCREAMED. Ok. That was unusual so we just rubbed some medicine on the outside and she said it was better.

Every time we’d try to blow her nose over the next two days, the same thing would happen. She woke up this morning and after getting out of the shower, her eye looked a little swollen and irritated. We went on to church and during church, she had a little snot with a tiny bit of blood coming out of her nose. I figured we’d need to probably make a trip to the doctor tomorrow. A while after we got home, I noticed a long trail of snot and tried to wipe her nose. She freaked, kicking and screaming and going crazy.

I told Zach to get a flashlight so we could look at her nose. It didn’t look irritated. Zach yelled at me to get the tweezers and I came in with them and he said “She has a rock in her nose.” Are you freaking kidding me?!?! So I go in there and can totally see a rock amidst all the snot. Just keepin’ it real, here. Zach was able to just wiggle her nose a little and worked the rock out with his hands. So after that, I was thankful and thought maybe we were clear. Oh no. Then Zach realized there was another one in there, only much higher!

At this point I realized we probably needed to get some help. I didn’t know whether to go to the walk-in clinic or the ER. On our way home, we passed one walk-in clinic and no joke, every single parking space was filled. I wasn’t crazy about the ER option either. My mom told me to call our pediatrician’s answering service b/c he’s been known to meet people at the ER and if that was the case, maybe we wouldn’t have to wait as long. Well, in between calling the answering service, and them calling me back, Ava sneezed twice and after the second one, the second rock came flying out.

We don’t think there are any more up there, but the nurse who called us back told us to definitely monitor her and her breathing today and to follow up with her doctor tomorrow to make sure there are no more rocks. I’m also concerned about an infection just because after having rocks blocking her sinuses for 2 days, it could be possible. Her eye still looks awful and I can’t help but think it’s all related.

And here they are, folks! The round one was the one that came out first. The flat one was wedged quite a ways up there. Praying, praying, praying that there are no others in there.

What else is this girl going to throw our way?!

A beautiful Valentine’s Day!

I don’t know about where you live, but it is gorgeous here today!! The sun is shining. It’s almost 70 degrees. Beautiful! I love it!!!

I’ll share some pics of our cute little valentine in just a minute, but first I thought I’d share some from yesterday. The weather was beautiful, so in the afternoon we took Ava outside to ride her “bicycle”. Our driveway is very steep so we just took her down to the street, and she rode back and forth and had so much fun! She didn’t want to stop riding! I can’t believe how grown up she is looking these days. She seems to be losing her last bit of “babyness”. Sad.

She was having a Valentine’s party today at school so we dressed for it! (She has one tomorrow too – they always have 2 to make sure all the kids who only come on certain days get to participate).

Mom and her sweet Valentine!! 

My two loves!!!!

Wishing you and yours a Happy Love day!

more snow

Zach and Ava had another snow day today. And they have another tomorrow. I have to say, I’m glad that the prediction of our area to get the heavy band of snow was a little off. 60 miles north of here, they saw 2 feet of snow, which is crazy for our area!

I, of course, still had to work. When I got home a little early, we bundled Ava up for a bit of time outside. She used to love the snow, and now she pretty much doesn’t like it.

We have a fairly steep driveway so we decided to see if she’d enjoy sledding down it in the recycle can lid. She didn’t really like that either! Look at the excitement – ha!

 

The other night we saw a re-cap of the Christina Aguilera butchering the national anthem, Ava picked up her microphone and started mimicking her by raising her hand. It was funny!

I have had a cruddy cold this week. I have felt pretty yucky, but with all the nastiness going around, I’m not complaining. I’ll take a cold over some of the sicknesses any day! I’m definitely ready for winter to wrap up and spring to move on in!

Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday – that means we are another day closer to the weekend! Hope you are all safe and warm!!

a blog post with absolutely no substance

It’s Superbowl Sunday? I really don’t care about the big game. Sure they commercials are fun, and don’t forget the food. But the game doesn’t excite me much.

However, the GLEE episode coming on after is what I’m waiting for!!! And not only do we get tonight’s episode, we get another one Tuesday! Woohoo! 

I’d been trying to get in a better habit of blogging lately but there just wasn’t much going on this week. Zach and Ava got two snow days and could be looking at more this week. As for me, I’m done with the snow. I hate worrying about whether or not the roads will be safe when I finally get to leave work. Goodbye, winter. C’mon spring.

One thing i want to make sure and get down is last weekend we officially transitioned Ava to her toddler bed. As long as she wasn’t climbing out, we weren’t moving her. She learned how to climb out a long time ago but it scared her enough she didn’t do it again until a few weeks ago, and then she did it every night. So now she’s in her converted bed and doing well. Another step closer to big girl land. Now if the potty training would come…

Although for some reason, Saturday morning she woke up at 4:00 a.m…. ugh.. and was up for the day. She fell asleep in the car for just a bit.

Unfortunately she woke up as soon as we got home and then didn’t feel like sleeping again. Oh well. We survived.

Wish I had something more interesting to write about but for once, life is quiet. Hope you all have a good week and don’t get blasted by the next snow storm!

Explaining it all….

This post is going to be hard to write but I think it’s time. This will probably turn into a long post, but will explain a lot. Over the past few months, I’ve made several references to things being difficult and have asked for prayer for our family.

The bad started back right after we returned from our summer vacation in July. That week, my dad was let go from his job of 18 years. They couldn’t give a good reason, just that they weren’t “satisfied” with his performance. This being the first time he’d heard that in all 18 years, he asked if he could have a chance to make it better. They said no. However, that same day, the other owner (one came to talk to my dad), went to Oklahoma City and also let go the man in the same position as my dad in that office. Coincidence? Don’t think so.

I have to stay, in spite of this, we have all been so proud of my dad. Not many people I know would be out the same day as losing a job, looking for a new one. He was willing to do whatever it takes. We prayed long and hard for something to come open for him. He had several leads early on and sadly none of them panned out. Fortunately, before he ever went to work for this company, he worked with my grandpa and uncle doing home construction. They don’t build homes, but rather work on cosmetic things on the inside and outside. They still have this business to this day and my uncle offered my dad to work until something more permanent came open.

One by one, the Lord worked things out. They found short term medical insurance that was affordable. Another uncle whose truck just sat in the driveway b/c of having a company car let my dad drive his truck for a few months (he’d had a company vehicle he obviously had to turn in). We prayed for a new job for months. The bad thing was is that my dad worked in a very specialized line of work. It’s not something that you will find everywhere. So, despite having impressive experience as well as an MBA, the job search wasn’t easy. He faced two things: finding a new job in a new area or leaving here. He wasn’t crazy about either option but just continued to pray for guidance.

In the middle of October, someone who worked for another company in the same field and had heard of his predicament, called and said they had the same position job open and would he be interested in it? Huge praise. The downside: it is six and a half hours away in Amarillo, TX. Not so much a praise.

They headed out to Amarillo at the end of October to just check it out. After that, they decided they needed to look into the job further. My dad went through the interview process. For a while, we didn’t think it would come to fruition because of several factors. But the company really wanted him. And as happy and sad it made us at the same time, he took the job. He started in mid-December.

I have a sister who is 18 and in her last year of high school. My parents decided that they didn’t want to take her away from her last year. So, she and my mom are sticking around here for the time being. My mom will move later this year. Our family has an exciting summer/early fall. My older brother and his wife are expecting my first niece or nephew in June and Stephen and Leslie are getting married in September. After that, mom will pack up and join dad.

This has been really hard on all of us. We are all very close and it makes me so sad to think of my family living so far away. As of now, my dad comes home to visit every other weekend. Because it is a bit of a drive, it’s not one that you can do easily for just a weekend but fortunately his new work is being very understanding and accommodating about his family being here. He always really likes the new job and in all reality, it will probably end up being the best thing for him.

It’s so funny how so often God takes something that can be so hard to deal with and turns it into something positive. And in reality, God knows that it will turn out ok. But He uses that time to draw us closer and cling to him for peace. The offer of the job was definitely an answered prayer and although it wasn’t answered how we’d hoped, it was answered nonetheless. And for that we are thankful. This has pretty much been my mantra the last few months: “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Thessalonians 5:16-18

I’m sure as this plays out, it will be hard over the months to come to see my childhood home packed up and my parents to leave for good. But I know that God’s will is always right, so everything will be ok. How could it not?

If you made it this far, thanks for hanging in there!

And because I hate to post w/no pictures, here’s a couple from the weekend. It was a dad in town weekend. Ava and I had dinner with them last night because Zach had to be out of town most of the day. Ava really enjoyed some dessert:

 

And today we celebrated my mom’s birthday. Ava had to help blow out candles and thought everyone was singing to her! 

I hope you have all had a great weekend. Word is that we might get a tremendous snow storm this week. Hoping it’s not the case! Yesterday was in the 70s. The high Wednesady is 23. Blech.

Fun opportunity!!

I was contacted by the wonderful people at CSNStores.com this week asking if I would be interested in hosting another giveaway or in reviewing a product! Since I’m planning a fun giveaway very soon (when I reach the magic 100 followers – soooo close!) and since I gave the opportunity to my readers last time, I decided I’d take this one for us to get something to review. What will we get? The possibilities are endless! Something for me? Something for Zach? Something for Ava like one of these awesome swingsets? With their over 200 online stores, we have our pick of pretty much anything! We’ve yet to decide but be watching – we’ll review whatever it is we get! And if you haven’t checked out this awesome shopping site, DO IT!

Walking contradiction

Thanks for the help on my previous post about Disney! I have lots of research to do!

Last night, for a change, Ava was hamming it up for me for the camera. So unusual for her. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her precious curls. Love.them.

Tonight was my 2nd class for Financial Peace University! My work is offering this class and I signed up for it. We got a great deal! They are paying for half of it, and we get to do one of the 2 hours on work time, and the other on our time. I have already learned SO much and am excited to apply some of the lessons to our lives. Zach is totally on board and we are sharing ideas and ways to improve our financial being. I think this will be really beneficial to us and our financial future. Have any of you done FPU? Thoughts? Suggestions??

And because this is just a little contradictory to my taking FPU, let me just share with you this bag I am currently drooling over.

Seriously. My friend Amanda has this and I saw it last week when we had lunch. I want it SO bad. I’m not usually that way about purses, but man I like this one!

So how’s your week going? Tomorrow is hump day, and I for one am ready for another weekend!