Croup-Tastic...

So after just over 24 hours of hearing my daughter sound like a spawn of a Donkey and Darth Vader I called the pediatrician to have her seen. Took her in today just prior to lunch because, well she was hee hawing like a donkey....seriously.....

Come to find out...she's got Croup.........good news is, because we caught it within the first 48 hours, they can give her a steroid to help it pass. Bad news, it could possibly get worse with sleep/laying down or overexertion which could cause us to make a quick (ha) trip to the ER for a special breathing treatment.

Good news, because she can get the two doses of steriods (sans roid rage I was assured by our fab pediatrician LOL) she hopefully will feel much better, and stop hee hawing in a few days!

And as if that wasn't just fabulous enough to win me the Mom of the Year award.... well ... Chad has hurt his back somehow. How? Dunno............. but it's bad. He left work yesterday halfway through the day and called me in OBVIOUS pain to tell me he was heading to the Chiropractor because it hurt to walk, sit, stand, breath, live......................... after spending time being tortured with the midevil devices at the Crack Doctor (get it... crack your back...hahaha...come on, comedy is the only thing getting me through this day...) it is actually WAY worse. He's in bad shape and even had to stay home from work today because he can't move. He's wearing a back brace for lumbar support and must return to the chiro tomorrow.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

A Night in Nashville

So for spring break my inlaws were awesome and wanted to take the kids for the entire week.  Thus allowing Chad and I wee little break from "mom & dad" role and instead we just got to be Chad and E...

So for the first weekend of Spring Break we met my inlaws in Nashville and got a hotel right in the midst of downtown (mere walking distance to all the honkey tonks) and the rents kept the kiddoes overnight there so Chad and I got all gussied up and headed out........

Our intentions where to check out a brewhaus called the Flying Saucer (which we did, sorry no pictures...didn't think about it in there) and sample some beers...yum.   After this the plan was to stroll along and hit Coyote Ugly Nashville, however there was a HUGE line outside and it just wasn't worth it (we'd be there before no big deal)...... however the FIL had told us about Printers Alley.  Apparently he had just been in Nashville two weeks earlier to celebrate a friends birthday for the weekend and they hit the bars in the alley.  It literally is just an "alley" nestled in between some building and off the beaten path.... see...

Notice the sign?  Yup, it does say it.... you read it right...NUDE KARAOKE!!!  Unfortunately we missed out on naked singing by drunk people...

However, we did head to the far end of the Alley to a place called Bourbon Street Blues Club and saw this....

Yea, get you a mouthful of sauce...

No really, we saw these guys

However, Im so horrible..I don't remember their name! 

Then I got this at the end of the night (just mere moments before I convinced my inebriated husband that my feet hurt so bad in my heels that he must tote me back to the hotel on his back......)

oh and lest we forget this.... so I was taking some photos (because that's what I do... I like to get "stuff" that we can blow up for art for our house) and this gal stumbles outta the alley and says "shey there, takes a picture of meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" and proceeds to jump right in front of my camera... so I did...

Everyone say hi to drunk lady... I don't recall her name, but her friends were screaming for her to hop into the cab with them from across the street, but she was too busy posing for the paparazzi

And as a final thing... I got this shot, last shot of the night, I like it, want to blow it up for art somewhere in our house... (not sure where) but something just doesn't seem "right"... I love the lighting on the building, I love the "slope" of the photo... I think its those damned awnings that are throwing me off... any thoughts???? 

So the other night.....

I was just sitting on the couch with Chad, the kids were tucked soundly into their beds. Chad and I finally had some "alone" time and we were catching up to one of our million shows in Tivo (a total traffic jam in there because of the week he spent out of town). I look over and just "watch" him........ just sitting there brought me back to the beginning. When we first met, fell in love, got married, had our first baby, bought our first house, our first minivan....... okay so that took us like almost 3 years into our marriage but hey...whateva....... The thing is...I fell in love with him all over again. Really.....

We have our moments where I'd rather spit in his eye than tell him I love him, and I'm sure he sometimes feels the same about me LOL, in fact, I'm sure of it...I wouldn't want to be married to me...so frankly I think he deserves a medal for putting up with me for this long!

Anyhow, the thing is......7.5 years later, 3 kids later, umpteen moves later, two times of buying houses later, three jobs later................he still is my best friend. Even on those "spit in your eye" days......

I sit and think about the sacrifices he makes for us to be the family that we are. Moving, Changing jobs, him doing with the not so fabulous vehicle so I can have the new van to cart the kids around, putting up with people he doesn't really like or a job that he doesn't love or even like, going back to school for another degree, putting in shifts on the weekends, holidays, nights, all of this he does so we can be the family we are.

I remember a few weeks back we were all sitting around, the kids and I were talking about the excitement of going back to school and all that. Elisa pipes up with the "And when brenna gets 4 she can go to my old school like I did, and then she can turn 5 later and go to my new big school too" and I jokingly said "yea, and then mommy will have to have another baby". This is when Chad pipes into the convo... his comment "Why" and I said "Well I figure if I am gonna stay outta work, then I best be raising babies" to which his reply was simply "Honey, if you want to stay home, I want you to stay home....it's great that you can be there for the kids whenever at school or at home"............

So.....with that...you'll find that for now, the first song that pops up on the blog is Macy Gray - I Try - when Chad and I first met, this song had just started "getting out" there and we both really dug it. It ultimately ended up being the song we danced to for the first time as Husband and Wife...why...because during our dating period whenever that sucker came on we'd stop whatever we were doing and start dancing around ....well with the exception of driving...but it never failed when that song came on we connected. (Or view the vid at the end of the post)

Sometimes I think about "how it might have been" if we would have not had Aidan, or moved from St. Louis, or got married, or met, or....well you get the point, and frankly, I'm SO GLAD all of those things DID happen...... I wouldn't want it any other way......