Thanksgiving

So I guess it is telling that the only picture I got of our Thanksgiving experience this year is the ones of Nate in the hospital.  It was a very stressful week with a few good highlights.  

The fact that my sister and her whole family came to visit was pretty great!  The kids had a blast with their cousins.  The toy room mess can attest to that... which I also didn't get a picture of, but the girls and I spent an hour and a half cleaning it tonight!

We picked Mel up at BYU on Wednesday afternoon and there was literally a river of water running down her street.  She was stranded on the other side and had to be rescued by a cop.  He was nice!  I do have a picture of that.  The girls and I really missed having Melanie around!  She eats the crust I take off of sandwiches and toast, and she helps me eat bananas.  She is also fun to tease and always quick with a smile!  She's also very helpful with the girls.

My grandparents came over for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was so great to see them outside of their nursing home.  It was great to talk to them about gratitude and to get perspective on things.  Their love and faith has been such an example to me.  I love all the time I’ve had with them.

Nate’s sister, Katrina, and her family came to see us the Friday before Thanksgiving and the Saturday after. 

Obviously, I washed a lot of sheets! LOL!  But it is so great to have family around.  It’s so nice to live close enough that people actually visit.  And it is wonderful to see the girls get to know our family.  So many things to be thankful for.

And one more… I’m extremely thankful for Nate.  Every single thing about him.  There’s nothing like a sudden, intense bout of pneumonia which puts someone you love in the hospital to make you appreciate them.  Also, there’s nothing like their slow recovery to make you appreciate everything they do around the house that they can’t do anymore.

I won’t rehash all the details since most of you followed the saga on Facebook.  But I will tell you that Tuesday he was fine.  Wednesday he was in pain and had a chest x ray with no pneumonia showing.  By Friday morning he was worse and had another chest x ray which showed pneumonia.  By Friday afternoon he was coughing blood and by Friday night he was in the hospital with pneumonia with sepsis.  Sepsis is a set of distinct symptoms: High White Cell Count, Fever, Low Blood Pressure, and High Pulse.

And a little advice… never say “It can only go up from here” unless you are really prepared to test that theory.  After I spent the majority of Monday at Costco for a stupid mistake and the majority of Tuesday filling out a police report for a hit and run on my van AND at a body shop getting it fixed, I thought my week could only get better.  I also thought that was all I could handle in the stress department.

But on Saturday morning when I woke up to a broken furnace, a croupy coughing Iris, my sister leaving and Nate in the hospital, I really knew I was at my limit.  That’s when the smoke detector started chirping.  Yep… I’m not even kidding.

But through it all, I was buoyed up by the prayers of my family and friends and the help of those around me.  It always amazes me how much people give to others. 

So my husband is home, recovering.  My furnace is fixed.  Iris’s breathing treatments have done wonders.  And the smoke detector was yanked out of the ceiling and is “resetting” in my garage. 

The moral of the story is that when you think you can’t take anymore… [fill in the blank]

The river of water outside Mel's dorm.

Rescued!

ER

The girls make a visit

"I am smiling"

"Enough already!"