The Confessing Lunatic

If you're a parent, gather your kids and kiss them. Tell them how much you love them. Hug them so tight they beg for air! If you're a grandparent, call your grandkids and tell them you miss them and just how much you love them. What has prompted this? I confess...after 14 years of parenting I didn't realize just how blessed I was to have healthy, happy, well-adjusted kids. In 14 years, not one overnight stay until now. It wasn't until I was walking back into the hospital after staying one night at home while Jim stayed with Cali that I understood just how blessed Jim and I are. Sure, we've had our bumps and bruises. We've had our sleepless nights. We've even had multiple trips to the Emergency Room (more with some kids than the others). But nothing that compares to this recent illnes of Cali's. And in the grand scheme of things, Cali's illness is nothing compared to other children. Don't get me wrong, it was scary enough. I never left her side u...

I confess...this has been the strangest September, a September of firsts. Many of you know how extra difficult my job is during the months leading up to and including September. In fact, this year I started working overtime in May so yeah, it's been a difficult year. There hasn't been a September in 13 years (except the one or two while I was a stay at home mom) when I didn't work a lot of overtime in September. Then this year I have been wearing three hats at work since I got a promotion -- my new job, my old job (because we haven't hired anyone) and that of Section Chief since that Chief deployed to Afghanistan. To top it off, Jordan is in the high school marching band...HIGH SCHOOL. I am still freaked out about this since I only have four years with him before he goes to college. I am quite certain I'm not ready for this -- heck, I cried the day we discovered he was officially taller than me! And, Cali started pre-school three days a week. I can't bel...

Thank you for your prayers for Cali. For those who haven't heard, Cali has been in the hopsital since Saturday. We learned on Thursday that she had pneumonia. She was given a shot of antibiotics and went home from the doctor's with an oral antibiotic. On Saturday (September 12th) when she looked like she was getting worse despite the antibiotics, we took her back to the doctor where she got another shot. Despite that, we still ended up at the emergency room. After taking x-rays, they admitted her due to the complications from the pneumonia. Her right lung was completely white-ed out on the x-ray. We were told that we should expect to be here a week to 10 days. As medically advanced as we are, pneumonia is just not a disease that goes away quickly. Today was an improvement, Cali felt well enough to play with dishes and play dough. Now though, as the fever has come back she is sitting in her big hospital bed shivering. What I'm beginning to understand about pneumonia is that...