A Couple of Ordinary Days

We've had a couple of uneventful days around here--which is good in my book! Yesterday was beautiful (a little windy, but that kept it from getting too hot). Clayton and I sat outside for a long time hoping we'd get some sun on our white legs. Don't think we had any luck! The dog is always interesting. She is constantly wanting to go outside and then when we actually go outside for a while, she stands by the door wanting to go in. What's up with that???

And in true Arkansas fashion, today was almost cold. We actually walked around the block and my hands were pretty darn chilled afterwards--don't worry, it was a short walk and I had Clayton bundled up. He didn't seem to mind at all because once we got back he talked for an hour about riding on the four wheeler. I'm not about to try that on my own, so I loaded him up in the van for a ride around town. I'm sure I raised a few eyebrows because I decided it would be a good time to get some pictures I need for my upcoming Scrap Etc. trip. We are supposed to take pics of "places we go," so I pulled up in front of several places and stuck my camera out the window to snap the picture. I even drove by our old apartment and snapped a pic there for a future scrapbook page. I'm sure some people were wondering why I was taking pics of their house or place of business. Oh well, maybe they'll think I was a private eye or something! There is one thing that this assignment made me realize--we don't GO very many places!! Just the same ones over and over!

Clayton is still the same--it's pretty weird because one of the nurses we deal with all the time called and said she had another mom call her today with the same "symptoms" or lack thereof . . . she was just like me, starting to wonder if the monitor was even right! Maybe this is just some weird strain of a virus that's going around. Who knows???

A Long Road

So until the beginning of this month, Clayton had been doing awesome on his oxygen sprints--he was up to five hours off during the day and probably could have gone more if I hadn't taken it slow. But then sickness hit. He started needing more oxygen around the first week of March and it's steadily gotten worse and worse. We've been doing lots of breathing treatments, and still haven't seen any change for the better. The crazy thing is he hasn't run fever or "acted" sick during all this time. I kept him home last week from therapy to see if that would help, and between staying in all week and the extra steroids, he almost drove me crazy! He had just a tad too much cabin fever! I finally let him go to therapy this week on "light duty" mainly for both of our sanitys, and he was soooo glad to see everyone at the clinic. But that didn't change the fact that he was still needing way too much oxygen. Finally took him to the doctor this morning, and guess what? Clear chest x-ray. Normal blood gas. SOOO, what the heck does that mean? Means he's not deathly ill for one thing, but that this cold he has is affecting him far worse than the rest of us. So we'll keep doing breathing treatments and pray that he slowly gets better. (Or quickly gets better!)

But this has opened my eyes to just what a long road we have to a completely "oxygen-free" life we have. I knew he would have to sleep with it for lots longer than he would need it during the day, but I guess I thought the days of colds (or a virus?) affecting him this much were behind us. As usual, I thought wrong.

Please say a prayer for Clayton's lungs tonight/today. Pray they will be strong enough to oxygenate better and that all the congestion clears up. THANK YOU!

Easter Photo

He Is Risen!

There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me!

For I am His and He is mine—bought with the precious blood of Christ!

No guilt in life, no fear in death—This is the pow'r of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny!

No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand.

Till He returns or calls me home—Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand!

Good Friday

**Beautiful day outside!

**Ran a couple of errands, now I think we'll ride over to the park and hope that everyone else didn't have that idea!

**Looking forward to Easter Sunday--we have a full day of plans!

Challenge Time

I'm hosting a sketch challenge on Noel's blog.

Come check it out!

Doing Better

I was able to turn Clayton's oxygen flow down a bit this morning, so I hope that means he's on the mend. It just takes so long for his lungs to recover even after he's germ-free. I'm still doing the breathing treatments because I'm determined he'll get over this as fast as possible, even if that means days . . .

In other news, I can't believe Easter is this Sunday. The weather certainly doesn't reflect it, but isn't that how it always is in Arkansas this time of year? No band practice this week again, but I have Bible Study and then Praise Team practice after that on Wednesday night. Plenty of music to keep me busy. I've basically just been holding and entertaining Clayton today. I'm thinking he may get to go to therapy later in the week, so we'll see. Hope everyone else's Monday is going well!

Does He Look Sick to You?

Nope, didn't think so . . . but apparently he is because for the last three days he's been needing more and more oxygen. I slowly started doing C.P.T. (chest physiotherapy) in the beginning of the week and upping his inhalers. That's what they would do if we took him to the hosptial (believe me, we have plenty of experience!) I finally called Dr. Lyle's nurse this morning because even though he hasn't been "acting" sick, he does cough some and has lots of mucus in his nose that I'm constantly suctioning out. He's even asking me to suction him which is something totally new since that machine is so loud it even scares me sometimes! Anyway, the nurse talked it over with Dr. Lyle and he's pretty much sure it's RSV. Oh, JOY! Since he's not running fever and doesn't act like he feels bad, he's almost certain that's what it is. All that mucus is keeping his lungs from properly ventilating. Nothing really to do except let it run it's course and step up the breathing treatments big time. We'll only go to the hospital if it gets to a point where we can't give him the amout of oxygen he needs. Other than that, we'll hang out here and do the breathing treatments ourselves. And it sounds like Clayton won't be participating in the Easter egg hunt tomorrow or even getting to carry his little palm branch on Sunday for Palm Sunday. Bummer. Hopefully he'll be all better by Easter (he has a habit of getting sick around holidays for some reason). I am glad he is still wanting to play and not running fever. That fever throws him for such a loop--so there is a praise in all this rambling!

Face With the Name

I talk about Noel and her store all the time, so I thought I'd share our picture from the California trip. It was great to finally meet her in person because I think we've probably had at least a thousand emails pass between the two of us over the past year!! And besides being taller than I imagined, she was exactly as I thought she would be (all in a good way!).

And with that being said, I wanted to mention she is having a spring cleaning sale, so be sure and check it out!!

Snow Much Fun

{WHILE IT LASTED}

Snowstorm?

NOT QUITE!! But we'll take what we can get I suppose! It's still snowing, but it's not near cold enough to actually call it a winter storm in my opinion. I think Clayton liked it but I was worn out (and so was Sherman, our neighbor) after holding him for just a few minutes. If it had been super deep and fluffy snow, I would have just laid him down in it and let him play . . . but instead it's wet and dirty Arkansas snow, so I avoided sitting him down in it. We got a few good snapshots--love that the snow is actually falling in them. Maybe we'll get some more later when Brian gets home.

Hmmmm . . .

This past weekend--short sleeve weather, sunny on Saturday

Monday--pouring rain ALL DAY LONG

Tuesday morning--at least an inch of snow on the ground

Tuesday afternoon--no snow, lots of sunshine

Wednesday--beautiful day, no need for a jacket, riding with the windows down

Thursday--forecast: storms

Friday--forecast: six inches of snow

Just when I had given up on an actual winter and started looking forward to warm weather, we get crazy weather like this! Definitely the life in Arkansas!