Visitors!!

My mom and dad came on Sunday night to visit and stayed until this morning. We had a great time with them! On Tuesday, we finally did some touristy stuff here and went to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was a key battle in the Civil War, lasting about 6 weeks and covering most of the city.

Bryan, Lily and Mom in front of the Shirley house--the family refused to leave for much of the battle, but finally did when their home got hit. They fled to a nearby cave, where they lived for several days! It's pretty amazing that the house is still here!


Lily loved the Illinois monument and ran around it yelling to hear her own echo!




We enjoyed looking around the battlefields and monuments. Then we went to see the USS Cairo, a warship sunk during the civil war and recovered from the Yazoo River--Lily thought this giant boat was very cool! Bryan and Lily on the USS Cairo.

We then headed back to Madison. When we were almost home, we were passed by a 500 series Mercedes (an $80,000 car, according to Bryan) which was flying down the road--Mom even commented on how fast they were going. Right after that, we witnessed a wreck caused by that Mercedes--we were the car immediately behind the 2 cars involved. We were all on a bridge over another road. Thanks to Bryan's great driving, we didn't get hit and thank goodness the car behind us was also able to stop. We pulled over to call 911 and to check on the people involved. We saw the door of the Mercedes open and a young guy in a wife beater got out and started walking away from the car. He sat down on the cement side of the bridge, turned around and jumped about 20 feet to the road below and ran away!! A lady got out of the other car and limped across the highway to the side of the road. Then we noticed that the license plate on the Mercedes said "Retired Navy" and figured out that the guy had probably stolen the car. The police arrived and opened the trunk and there were several canes in it. Bryan gave a statement to them. While doing so, the police officer noticed a car slowly driving by on the road underneath the bridge we were on. Bryan confirmed to him that the driver of the Mercedes was in the passenger seat and so the police officer put an APB out on that car. Crooks really are stupid!! We felt so sorry for the person whose car was stolen and for the poor lady who know has to deal with having a totaled car and all of the hassel that comes with that. Hopefully it didn't ruin their Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving was quite interesting because little Lily was sooo sick!! She had a horrible night the night before Thanksgiving and was clingy and whiney all day on Thanksgiving. She didn't eat a thing all day, had a low fever, was coughing like crazy and breathing fast. We decided to take her to an urgent care clinic, but apparently there aren't any in this town! So we just dealt with it through last night, which was awful again, and took her to the doctor this morning. She has a case of bronchiolitis and had to go on an inhaler. We haven't had to do that since she's been out of daycare, but it's not hard, and I know it will make her feel better. Unfortunately, we have the AeroChamber at our house, but because my parents were on their way out of town and were giving Bryan and Lily a ride, we couldn't go back for it. So we had to buy another $65 one because the doctor hadn't written a prescription for it and I was trying to hurry so we didn't call back for a prescription. I've been saying that's Lily's Christmas present this year!! Despite Lily's sickness, we had a great Thanksgiving because my parents were here and the food was FABULOUS!!

Anyhow, Bryan and Lily have arrived safely in Acworth and my parents are finally on their way to Greenville. We are so appreciative of their visit and their help moving back!

The Cutest Thing Ever!

Lily has just recently started saying her own name when prompted. It is one of the cutest things I've ever heard!! This video also makes me laugh because she doesn't really say "Mommy" clearly when I ask her too, yet she yells/says/whines it quite clearly 987 times everyday!

Go Wolfpack!!

I just left Bryan at a sports bar at halftime so that he could watch the rest of the NC State/UNC game without us there distracting him.

We started out today with a quick clean-up. Now that our house is on the market, we clean every day. I guess we probably should anyway! Because the house looked great, we wanted to get out of it, so that it would stay that way! Besides, we knew someone was coming to see it around 11:00 a.m., so we had to be out for that anyway. We went to breakfast and then went out to Bass Pro Shops so that Lily could meet Santa. We wanted to do it out there because the sitting is free and parents get one free 5x7 to keep and then if you like it, you can order more on-line. Because we knew Lily would SCREAM and we wouldn't want to order anymore, we thought this free stuff was a great idea! Lily, of course, did scream, but was fine as soon as we picked her back up. The picture is quite funny!! I wish I had a scanner and I would put it on here.

We walked all around Bass Pro Shops, which I thought was weird and creepy because of all of the taxidermy, but Lily LOVED!! She loved petting the taxidermied animals and looking at the fish tank and waterfall, playing in the tents, etc. They told us that lots of people took Christmas pictures in front of their big Christmas tree or fireplace, and we took some pictures, but because of all the taxidermy, Lily was too distracted and I would NEVER send out a Christmas card with dead animals on it. Am I alone on that one? Anyway, here are some of the pics we took.

Lily and her Daddy on the giant fireplace. The big tree is to their right and that is what Lily cannot take her eyes off of!

Lily loving her new Camelbak water bottle. Her best friend, Kaitlyn, has one that Lily always tries to steal and drink out of. I thought if it made her actually drink some plain water that Lily should have one too! She feels so cool with it!!

In front of the taxidermy Christmas tree. Strangest Christmas tree I've ever seen!!! Even worse than the plastic white ones in my opinion!

We came home just to get Bryan's car and the people looking at our house were already leaving and it was still before 11:00 a.m. We don't know what time they got here, but it seems like they couldn't have been here too long, which I don't think is good. We did have 2 other people come by yesterday, so we are keeping our fingers crossed! We went outside to take some pictures because we are starting early to try to get a photo for the Christmas card. I don't think we got any today. She won't smile for the camera and usually blinks and ends up looking like Anna Nicole in photos! This is sort of a cute one, but not Christmas card material.

She loves my keys now and actually knows which one is the car key, can put it in the door and turn it to unlock the doors!! She can do a lot now, some of which I'm not sure I like!

Bryan left to go to a sports bar to watch the game and Lily and I met him for lunch!

Here she is enjoying climbing all over the stadium seating! There were 2 girls there that she also was fascinated with.

Here she is after lunch while still sitting at the table. I think Lily likes football about as much as I do. And, yes, she does have a black eye--it actually looks a lot better. While we were playing at Kaitlyn's house this week, she feel and landed on a toy--very sad!!

Anyway, hopefully Bryan will be home soon and in a good mood!!

A Big Scare!

As everyone knows, I have been quite stressed about the move/selling the house, etc that is going on in our lives. It seemed HUGE until yesterday.

While on the way out to dinner with friends, I got a terrifying call. 2 little boys who I love very much had suddenly become lethargic for no apparent reason. Their parents had taken them to the urgent care unit at which point the littlest one was becoming nonresponsive and the doctor at the urgent care told them to go immediately to the hospital. They called an ambulance to take the littlest one, who was worse than the older boy. That was all I knew after the first phone call, and I started to pray for their recovery immediately!

Apparently, the ride to the hospital was quite terrifying--the little guy's heart rate was in the 20s, his clothes were cut off of him, the EMTs called the hospital and were yelling about the 2 year old crashing and lots of doctors and nurses met the ambulance outside because it was such a bad situation. Once at the hospital, the older boy perked right up with some oxygen, but the little one took longer. They did scans and took all of the labs needed to try to determine what had happened because at this point, no one knew why they were in this state. The carbon monoxide test, which everyone thought it may be, came back negative.

The parents and doctors were brainstorming to try to think of anything that they may have gotten into that could cause this. Imagine that your children are very sick, hooked up to machines, low heart rates, have been stuck and pricked without making a peep about it and you have no idea why!! The boys' mom remembered that the night before they had been playing with lots of little cups and water on the coffee table. A bottle of Visine was out and the boys squirted some into one of the cups but neither of their parents knew. Their mommy cleaned up before bed and put all of the cups on the kitchen counter. The next morning, one of the boys got the cup down and both boys drank out of the one cup that contained some Visine. While brainstorming about what could have happened, their mom remembered finding the empty Visine bottle and told the medical staff that they may have ingested it. When she initially told this to the doctors and nurses, they all stated that small amounts of Visine couldn't cause this type of reaction. Thankfully, the kids' pediatrician did think it was possible and advised the hospital to call the Center for Poison Control. They stated that this was a textbook reaction to Visine ingestion. Apparently, unbeknownest to almost everyone, Visine can severely depress the central nervous system when ingested even in very small doses.

Both little boys are fine now--the older one recovered that same night and was released and the little one had to stay overnight in the hospital. This was a complete fluke that could happen to anyone.

I have frequently let Lily play with my bathroom stuff if I need her occupied while I get ready. She is fascinated by all of the bottles that she takes in and out of the drawers and bags. I can think of numerous times she played with Bryan's Visine. Thank goodness she can't open the bottles yet--I had no idea that it was such dangerous stuff. Everyone I've talked to thought it was basically saline or sterile water--since you put it into your eyes, it seems like it would be pretty mild stuff. It is not!! This is a warning to parents to be certain that it is out of reach of your children.

The stress of moving has definitely been put into perspective--all of the little ones that I love are healthy and okay and that is enough for me!! I am so thankful!!

I am including a link to one of the many websites I found that confirms what Visine can do to kids. This is a link to Snopes, which seems a funny source to use, but it spells it all out in detail the most. However, more "medical" sites coroborate with what Snopes says.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/myths/visine.asp

Moving Update and Pictures

Our house officially goes on the market today, which just seems crazy since we haven't even lived here a year and most of our family and friends haven't even seen this house. We will be coming to Atlanta sometime shortly after Thanksgiving though we don't know the exact date. My sweet friend, Cheryl, who tried so hard to visit, asked me to share some pictures of the house since she couldn't get out here despite her best efforts. Thanks to her and to the visitors that we did have--Bryan's Mom and David, Elizabeth, AJ and Ethan and my Mom and Dad! We really appreciate you guys making the loooooong trek out here--we know it wasn't easy and we will always appreciate that you did it.
Our home!!!

The front door.


The living room--you go through the foyer and then this is the view from the front door.


Lily enjoying some fruit in the dining room.

The kitchen--looking back at the dining room.

The wet-bar in the kitchen...and Sammy.


The hallway bathroom.

The very bland guest room.

Lily's not-very-bland room. And yes, everyone asks for some reason, but it was already this color when we bought the house!

Our bedroom--though it didn't look like this for most of the time we lived here--our realtor made us change the color.

The backyard--we love it out here!!!

Halloween

We had such a great Halloween this year! Our neighborhood has a lot of kids, but most aren't really trick-or-treating age, so I invited us over to my friend, Amanda's, house for Halloween to help pass out candy to the zoodles of kids in their neighborhood. Then our friend, Nancy's, plans got canceled so she decided to come as well. We all brought food and had a great dinner together, and passed out candy, which Lily thoroughly enjoyed! She figured out quickly how exciting it was to run to the door everytime the doorbell rang! Then we took the kids out to "trick-or-treat". None of them can say trick-or-treat and can't eat most of the candy we got, so I use that term loosely. Mainly we just walked them around and showed them off. We had such a good time!! Thanks, Amanda!!

The kids when we first arrived. Barrett is the little green turtle and Kaitlyn is the cheerleader.

The Zoo!!

Back we went to the zoo today!! We had such a good time. It was a MOMS Club activity, but only my friend, Nancy, with her 13 month old, Kaitlyn, were there. It was actually very nice because then we could kind of do what we wanted when we wanted. Plus, Nancy is one of my good friends--it's very nice because Lily definitely has gotten to know her and likes her a lot!! In face, while at the petting zoo, Lily wanted to be picked up and when I said no, she walked over to Nancy and asked to be picked up! It was so pitiful!! Anyway, we put the girls in Kaitlyn's wagon and pulled them all over the zoo. They had such a good time checking out the animals and snacking while going around in the wagon. Lily especially loved the giraffes, and said the word "giraffes" several times. She also loved the carousel ride we took after seeing all of the animals--she was a little uncertain at first, but soon decided she loved it! We then enjoyed an extremely nutricious lunch of hotdogs and fries at the zoo before heading home and taking a 3 and a half hour nap! Who knew riding in a wagon was so exhausting!?!

The girls in the wagon--such good friends!!

After trading snack cups--of course, they both thought the other one had something better!!