Glad to be alive!

Sometimes we take little things for granted...like good health, breathing, and just being alive!!! I had quite the scare a couple weeks ago--another near death experience for the year! I think I've reached my 'spare life' quota! How many extra chances does one person get!?!

Well it was the day before Halloween and I started feeling really sick. I had a fever and chills to the extreme. I hurt all over and I thought for sure it was the flu. As the week went on I felt worse and worse! Every fiber of my being was in pain--especially my back! (I thought I had hurt my back the previous weekend from moving fire wood!) I tried everything I had to get feeling better but nothing helped!

Finally I decided it was time to go see the doctor! One listen to my lungs and he knew right away my problem: pneumonia! My lungs were filled with fluid. He gave me two antibiotics and said if I wasn't better by Saturday to call him. Well the next day I wasn't any better--in fact I was worst! My face had been itchy all day and by night time my eyes were swollen and puffy. I had an allergic reaction to one of the antibiotics. I felt so incredibly terrible I thought I was going to die.

My neighbor came over and Nate and he gave me a priesthood blessing. I am grateful for the power of the priesthood and the faith I had to make me better...but I knew even the blessing I had just received wasn't going to make me better instantly and I knew I needed medical help right away. I could barely move. I could barely talk. I had zero energy or life in me. I said to Nate "I don't think I will make it though the night if I don't go to the hospital right now." He immediately called my friend who came right over and watched the kids while he rushed me to the ER.

Once I finally got checked in the doctor looked at my vitals and they were off the charts! They started running every test they could. I had x-rays, blood tests, eceo-cardio (some heart test) you name it they did it! One of the results came back from my blood work and said I had a blood clot in my lung. That really made the doctor panic so he had a CAT-scan done. When all the results were in: the blood clot was negative, but he said I had extreme pneumonia. The antibiotics I took did not even touch the surface of my illness. I was one sick little lady!

They started me on an IV with a different antibiotic and put me in ICU for the night. The doctor wanted a close eye on me and make sure my vitals started improving. By morning I felt a little better than death! I knew I wasn't going to die, but I sure didn't feel good yet!

Saturday afternoon they moved me from ICU to my own room. Meanwhile back home...

Grandma & Grandpa Lewis came to our rescue! We called them Friday night and told them what was happening and first thing Saturday morning they drove down to come and help us out! What would we do without family?! It was so comforting to me knowing that my kids were happy and all was well with Grandma and Grandpa! Grandma brought blocks to play with, stories, games, movies! They kids were delighted!

The kids loved these blocks Grandma brought. Ty made a basketball stadium with his! He told me all about it, so I was glad that daddy took a picture so I could see it!

Mara was really good at the blocks and memorized which blocks had how many numbers associated with the colors!

Sunday the kids came over for a visit. I still wasn't feeling great but I felt a lot better when they came and saw me! In fact the nurse said my oxygen levels went the highest when my kids were there! So they did help me feel better. It was wonderful to see them. Oh how I missed my kids! I think I've been away from them only when I've been to the hospital!

Monday the kids woke up to their first snow storm of the season! They were so excited they put on their snow clothes and went out and played in the snow before school!

That is the saddest face I have ever seen on my boy! Maybe he misses his mama! (Or maybe he just white-washed his brother and got in trouble!)

I was finally released from the hospital Monday afternoon. It felt like I was there a week! I was sure glad to go home. Lucky for us Grandma Lewis had the week off of work and was able to stay and take care of us while I recovered.

I am feeling back to normal. I'm still trying to get my energy levels back up but I sure feel great compared to feeling like death!

How grateful I am for great doctors and nurses that took such good care of me and got me feeling better. But most of all I am so grateful for a loving and caring husband who took a lot of time off of work to care for his sick wife and family. He played the role of mom and dad and did a fabulous job! (He even learned to do Mara's hair!) He was so loving and patient and I wouldn't have survived without him! Thank you Nate! And Thank You Grandma and Grandpa Lewis for coming down (again) to help us in our time of need! So grateful for wonderful friends and family who took such good care of us!

Life is a test. I thought my test was coming to an end last weekend! But I am still alive! I am grateful to be alive! I hope to never take life for granted! It is too precious and short!
Live. Love. Laugh.

Halloween Festivities!

I figure I should post our Halloween pictures before Thanksgiving arrives! We've just had a lot going on lately and I am finally getting around to blogging!
Halloween is only one day right?! Well we celebrated it almost everyday here for a week! Between school, church, and community parties...and finally trick-or-treating it was a week long celebration!

Caleb turned into a little pumpkin head! Funny kid!

Presenting: Toy Story--Woody, Jessee, & Buzz!!
Ty's school always does a Halloween carnival which is always a lot of fun!

I love going over to the insurance agency here and picking out pumpkins! It's a great fund-raiser, all the money goes to Angel Tree.

There are so many pumpkins to choose from it's always a hard choice!

We went to Ty's school and watched the Halloween Parade. It was fun seeing all the creative and cute costumes!

Ty's class had a Halloween party, but they had so many mom's helping out I didn't stay. It's always fun for Mara & Caleb to see Ty at school.

Now it's pumpkin carving time! We cheated and printed off patterns off the computer! It worked out really well for the kids, they had fun choosing the faces and I helped them carve the faces.

Mara didn't want a jack-o-lantern face! She chose a moon and bat, which was actually harder than it looked!!

The kids took their pumpkin carvings over to the church for the Halloween Party. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of their finished pumpkins with candles!

They had a costume parade at the church party. Here goes Jesse strutting her stuff!!

And I must say...Caleb makes one cute Buzz Lightyear! "To Infinity and Beyond!"

Here are two cute cowboys!! Ty with Caleb's little friend Will!

And here is the rest of the Toy Story Family: I dressed up as Malibu Barbie! It was kind of fun being a blond for a night!
And I was so proud of Nate! He not only came up with his costume but made it himself! He is Sid--the neighbor next door that blows up toys! I LOVE IT!
It was sure fun all dressing up as a family! The kids talk non stop about what they want to be next year as a family....I guess we'll just have to see what we can come up with! Glad it's a year away and I don't have to think about it now!

It's finally Halloween Night! Yay! It's trick-or-treating time!! The kids were so excited but I think Nate was the most excited! He took the kids this year and we put a big bowl of candy on the porch and I laid on the couch sick, sick, sick!!!

The kids actually made two rounds of trick-or-treating! They came home and dumped out all their candy to show me, and then Nate said "Come on guys! Let's go get more candy!" So they went back out and got twice as much! They all had a fun time and the weather was perfect!

Fall Break!

For Fall Break we headed to Mimi & Papa's to spend a few days helping, serving and playing! Ty was out of school so we had a few extra days to spend with family. We also had special visitors coming into town: Blake & Maren from California came to visit!

We took our work clothes and the kids were great helpers painting Mimi & Papa's shed.

Papa had been working on this project all summer and wanted to get it painted before the winter storms came.

Nate was a great help to my dad painting the shed. With lots of helping hands the work got done quickly!

We took a trip up Middle Canyon to see the leaves. It was a beautiful sunny fall day!

Ty had a lot of fun balancing on the log.

And this handsome-happy boy loved playing in the leaves and collecting rocks!

And Miss Mara doesn't get much more photogenic than this!! She had a different pose every time I looked at her!

She took the opportunity for her own personal photo shoot!!

She loved climbing on the rocks and stumps!

The leaves were gorgeous! The next day when Blake & Maren arrived we drove them up the canyon to see the leaves since they don't get to see the colors of fall in California.

I loved the carpet of leaves on the ground. So many terrific fall colors.

We couldn't let a beautiful day pass without playing at the park! It was the perfect weekend with nice weather, fun activities, and just hanging out with family!

The kids couldn't get enough of their Uncle Blake! Especially Mara who has a deep love for her uncle and spent every waking moment and as often as she possibly could spend with him!!

The kids especially loved all of Uncle Blake's electronic toys he brought: Ipad, Iphone, electronic games!! (We don't have such electronics at our house!) They thought it was so fun having a electronic toy they could hold in their hand and play! (Who needs fancy electronic devices when you can just use Uncle Blake's when he comes to town!)

It was fun to have Kate and Anna out to visit too. All the nieces and nephews attacked Uncle Blake and all tried riding him at the same time!

The kids loved wrestling and climbing on Uncle Blake! He is such a great uncle!

It was a fast and busy weekend with a bridal shower for Maren and catching up with friends and family for the newly-weds but it was so good to be together! We sure miss Blake & Maren and glad we could see them for a fun fall break weekend!