Fun Day At The Beach

Chantel made a list of everything she wanted to do this summer...one of those things was go to the beach. Janae also wanted to go to take a photo of her dogs for the calendar she is working on and so today off to the beach we went! Gage was tired from daycamp, and he is going to the beach later this week, so Jerry stayed home with him.

I love going to the Oregon coast and we should do it so much more often.

It was 70 degrees today in Seaside--just perfect! At first it was so sunny it was a bit too bright--but then it clouded up a bit and became perfect for us fair skinned Oregonians!

We brought Janae's dogs---which is was the first time Bentley had been to the beach. They love to dig in the sand!

I enjoyed being able to relax and take pictures of the kids.

Janae got the perfect picture for her calendar!

 

Feeling thankful that I live in Oregon :)

I hope this finds you getting to do something you enjoy.

Thanks for visiting!

Look what I found!

I can't believe that it has been 10 days since my last post.  Sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging! First of all, Gage is doing great. Thank you for all your prayers and sweet comments. He seems as good as new :) He has been happy and shows no signs of the horrible seizure he had. Tomorrow he is going rafting on the Sandy river! Tonight his physical therapist texted me to tell me she promises to keep him the raft...she knows how much I worry!

I have been so busy with so many things going on in our feline family...some happy, some sad, all deserving of a post I will do soon. I have also been busy with some sewing projects...and trying to stay cool because I once again feel like I have been in a oven for a few weeks. Really looking forward to being revived by some clouds and good old Oregon rain! I don't get much sleep in this kind of weather and with everything that goes in with the kids this time of year. I am always on "seizure watch" too. I would really love to get some sleep....soon!

But what I wanted to share today is a little beauty I found a couple weeks ago at Thrift City.

I was so happy I almost did a happy dance when I saw this old crystal chandelier marked $19.99...and then it was half price day so I got it for $10!

That fits into my Kool Aid budget just fine.

It has the old wiring and I didn't know if it would work...or need to be rewired. For $10 there was no way I was leaving without it.

It looks quite old to me. Anybody have any ideas how old it might be?

It had 2 missing candle sleeves and so I bought new ones at Ace hardware. I put spray glue on them and sprinkled them with white gold glitter. Now they match :)

My husband is so handy he rewired it to hang as a swag chandelier and I made a cord cover with some white satin my Mom found at a garage sale.

Then my husband checked all the wiring and made sure it was safe....

and it works!

I am pretty delighted with this find.

I hope this finds everyone staying cool and enjoying the summer. I hope to get to all your blogs soon and see what you have been up too!

Tonight we had a birthday party for little Bunny FuFu at Janae's house. Happy Birthday FuFu...and many more!

Thanks for visiting!

Not the weekend I had planned

This weekend I had planned on hours of sewing. It wasn't suppose to be too hot--and I have so many sewing projects calling my name. But things don't always work out as planned.

On Friday about 2:30 my son Gage was taking a nap in the livingroom by where his twin brother Wyatt was playing video games. Wyatt told me that Gage looked odd--that he was hitting himself in the chest (which got Wyatt's attention) and then he just started staring straight ahead and coughing a bit like he was having a hard time breathing. Thank God for Wyatt paying attention to his brother! Gage was totally limp---like a wet noodle (an 80 lb wet noodle!) and he was totally unresponsive. He then started to occasionally twitch--but nothing like his seizures were when he was a baby. I gave him the rectal Valium that I have to stop his seizures and it did nothing. He was breathing so instead of waiting for an ambulance I swooped him up with super human Mom power and I told Wyatt to get in the car and I would put Gage's head in his lap so he could hold Gage's head while we drove so he wouldn't choke. I went to the closet hospital I thought could help him (our local hospital I have learned is not the place to go). It is probably a 10 minute drive but I am sure I made it in 5.

The minute we walked into the emergency room the lady at the front desk called a team to come out and get him. I told her I couldn't find his insurance card and she said, "Oh honey...we can worry about that later". So they got Gage, Wyatt, and I into a room and they started working on him. They got as much information as they could from me and then started the drugs. At times there were so many people in the room that I went out in the hall and just watched from there as to stay out of the way. I thought how wonderful it was that they had so many people helping him...but then realized it was very serious or they wouldn't have that many people in there! The emergency room was very busy and we were hogging most of the staff. They told me that they were having to give him so many meds that they were afraid they could relax to the point that he stopped breathing, or that his heart stopped. They couldn't get the seizures to stop and he was totally unresponsive. They had teams of people there for respiratory, pharmacy, all that stuff. They called Doernbecher's Children hospital and they said they were sending a Panda team. Gage has been cared for by them before--they are awesome! They are a team of paramedics (3) that drive a ambulance that is all painted on the outside with cute kids drawing and decorated on the inside too...in Panda motiff. These paramedics  are highly trained in issues with children...and especially with specials needs and medically fragile kids. Anyway--before transferring him to the Intensive Care Unit at Doernbecher's they wanted to get a CT scan. They were worried about a brain bleed or a tumor since they couldn't get the seizure's to stop. That was so scary! But they quickly got the results and everything was normal. Thank God! Then slowly it seemed that the seizing was stopping and he was still breathing on his own (though he was receiving oxygen) and the doctors said it was the most meds they had given to anyone to stop a seizure but at least he was stable. Also he was still breathing on his own..a miracle. Now to pray he would wake up. It has been almost 3 years since his last seizure. I was hoping we were done with them.

The Panda team took Gage to Doernbecher's in their fancy ambulance and they told me I should go home and pack a bag before coming to the hospital because there was no doubt I would be spending the night..or two. I took a minute while at home and posted a prayer request for Gage on Facebook. There was such a huge response--everyone from family to current friends and friends I haven't seen in years were praying for Gage and sending sweet and caring comments. Facebook is such an awesome way to let everyone know about something like this. It is so comforting to know how many people care.

I got to the Intensive care unit and watched my sweet boy sleep.

The night was filled with the sounds of monitors and sometimes weeping of parents so sad with a very sick child. I think it would be such a hard place to work.

There was a quite comfortable bed for me but sleeping in a situation like this is pretty hard. There was no cell phones allowed but there was a room phone and Janae kept me company for over an hour on the phone.

Then at 4:30 am I heard Gage stir. I went and sat by his bed and all of the sudden he sat up and looked at me like "Where in the world are we? What is going on?" I swear, even though he doesn't speak I can read his expressions just like he could talk. :)

He could tell how happy I was and I said to him, "Is my Gage back?" and he gave me a big smile. At that moment it seemed all was right with the world.

The nurse came in and said, "He's back!" as Gage was pulling off  his leads and trying to pull out his I.V. and making all sorts of alarms go off.

They still wanted to keep us possibly another night in a regular room (not in intensive care) just because he had had so many drugs and they were just amazed that he was awake and alert so soon and they wanted to make sure everything was okay. But after he ate a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, and potatoes I convinced them that we would be better off going home and getting some sleep. After all, this is not our first rodeo...we have done all of this before. I think it helped them hurry our discharge papers when Gage was loudly laughing and "singing" and trying to pull down every cord he could get too--and there are a lot of them in those rooms!

So now we are home and I am exhausted--both physically and mentally. Gage is all rested and basically ready for a party! I feel that this was a real lesson in the power of prayer. Also a wonderful awakening to me about what a support team of family and friends I have. So though this is not the kind of weekend I like to have, it does make me thankful for everything I do have.

My sewing projects? They are still waiting for me. It will probably take me a couple days to totally recoup from how tired I am--but I am still really motivated to get to them! So I promise--soon there should be some cute projects posted :)

So hold close the people you love, and thanks for visiting!

Favorite Summer Dessert

My family loves a good dessert. Our favorites being Double layer pumpkin pie and Peanut butter pie. Those desserts though delicious, don't seem like they fit in very well with summer menu's. I recently found a recipe for this Strawberry Trifle on Facebook and it is a new family favorite. I have seen several different versions of it but this is how we like it.

This is the one I made for the fourth of July. I added blueberries to make it look more festive!

Strawberry Angel Food Trifle

1 box of instant vanilla pudding (5 serving size)

3 cups milk (to make the pudding)

angel food cake (I like to get a premade one in the bakery section)

frozen sweetened strawberries (24 oz or larger)

Cool whip (16 oz)

This is super easy to put together--make your pudding and let it set in the refrigerator. If you are making your angel food cake do that and let it cool.

About 4 hours before serving put your trifle together. On the bottom tear up half of your cake and place it on the bottom of your Trifle dish. On top of that put half of your pudding, spooned onto the cake. On top of the pudding put your strawberries and any other fruit you might like to add. You can add blueberries or bananas and it is delicious. Then cover that with Cool whip and repeat. On the very top it looks pretty to put some fresh strawberries. (I didn't have any this time)

Then put it in the refrigerator and tell your family not to touch it for 4 hours (that is the only hard part). That's it...easy peasy and so delicious! I think it would last a couple days in the refrigerator but I wouldn't know because my kids inhale it.:)

I wish there was some left right now!

On a personal note today my husband and I have been married 17 years.

It is hard to believe it has been that long...but as my husband pointed out at dinner tonight it is hard to believe how grown up our kids are getting! Sometimes I wish life would slow down just a bit.

My wedding bouquet (which hangs in our livingroom) has age gracefully in the last 17 years!

I hope everyone is enjoying your summer...

Thanks for visiting!

Our 4th of July

We had such a nice 4th of July. Just a relaxing day with our family, and my brother in law, his girlfriend and her son. Thought I would share photos of our day.

We had a houseful of pups--as we had our 3, Janae's 3, 2 that Janae is dog sitting, and Scott's dog too!

Jaxson--my brother in laws, girlfriends son--we consider him our nephew

Having all those pups and a 2 year old too made for a fun day!

Brooklyn---our dog niece

Janae played football with the dogs :)

The kids had fun hanging out on the trampoline.

Gage was a happy boy--so glad that our heatwave has broken---at least for awhile!

We got some sparklers and little fireworks we knew Jaxson would enjoy.

I was so relieved that we had a nice cool day--I think it got to maybe 80 degrees. It felt wonderful! Towards the evening it started to get cold--so only Janae, Chantel, Wyatt, and I braved the cooler temps and went to see the fireworks in Banks. I thought it felt heavenly!

What a wonderful 4th of July--so happy I was born in the USA! 

Thanks for visiting!