New Baby.....

Ella's new favorite food: potato chips.

She has also learned to climb. Great.

Note: She is usually dressed a lot cuter than this, but both these pictures were taken right before bed.

HAHAHA!! I bet you all thought I was referring to myself, but I tricked you all!! My sister in law just gave birth a few days ago and it has started me thinking, when will Ella get her sister? (I am convinced I will only give birth to girls, as I was cursed by my mother to do so. Don't laugh, the curse is powerful. I also do not plan on having more than 2 children.) I have been asked the "when is the next one coming" question since Ella was blessed at the ripe ol' age of 5 weeks. Isn't it interesting that in the LDS community the anticipation of the arrival of the NEXT child is so often speculated on! I remember at Brent and my wedding reception, we were asked when we were planning on having a baby. I looked at that person and with a naughty smile said, "Well, there is a very important step that has to come first, and we can't leave here for 45 more minutes." Said person was embarrassed. I was delighted. BUT, back to my original question: when is Ella's little sister coming? WHEN THE SHOCK FROM HAVING HER WEARS OFF.

Oh good Grief....

Everyone should feel very bad for my daughter. Come to find out, Ella not only suffered from strep throat BUT she was ALSO cutting her front tooth, AND had a urinary tract infection. (Mother of Pearl!!!) No wonder she was so miserable!! I received a phone call from the doctor, and she said that a urine culture they took grew ecoli.... WHAT!! I instantly thought of mad cow, bad ice cream and the 15 teenagers that died from it in Minnesota a few years back. The lovely medical assistant assured me it was not the same but still not good. So now my poor daughter has to have a serious of tests performed on her to make sure her kidneys and urinary track are not...well....screwed up. I think (I don't remember the details) it involves running dye through her urinary track to make sure it is running properly and then an MRI (or an x ray or something else. I don't remember) Yeah, this is going to be great.
1st: There is no way in hell Ella is going to be docile during these procedure. She is going to FREAK OUT ROYALLY!!!
2nd: I get the opportunity to be the one to watch her get tortured. She won't understand why she is strapped to a table and stuffed in an MRI (or x ray or whatever) machine, alone and terrified. She will wonder where her mommy is and why I am letting them do this to her.
Well, there is something to look forward to. (note: sarcasm)
Oh why can't my baby be healthy?

(Note: self pity and pity for my little girl)


It seem slike its been forever since I had a HAPPY post!! Sorry.....

Sick Again!!

Warning: The content of this post contains scathing anger directed towards medical personal. If you, or a loved one a is a medical person, please do not be offended. I am ANGRY at a certain person, not all doctors in general.


Ella woke up on Monday morning at 5am with ANOTHER high fever. (Insert expletive here) I made an appointment right away for the following day. The doctor is only in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We suffered through a sleepless night and showed up for our appointment the following day. I explained that she had a very high fever that I was having a hard time controlling and her urine smelled really strong. She also refused to eat. The doctor tried and FAILED to collect urine, did not have the equipment to do so, so sent me home with a PLASTIC BAG and some tape to try and tape to Ella to collect a sample......okay...... She looked in her ears. Tried to look in her throat. Informed me there wasn't anything in there to worry about and sent me on my way. It took until the next day to collect said sample. When I took this tiny cup full of baby pee back to the clinic, I was greeted by some silly, empty head girl who said "like, umm" EVERY OTHER WORD. She told me I would have to wait for the doctor to call me because she didn't know what she was supposed to do with it. Lovely.
SOOO, I wait all day for the doctor to call me and say she didn't know what was wrong but it was probably just a viral infection and she would prescribe me some antibiotics.
I called a doctor in mesquite and went the next day to see her. Nothing wrong with a 2nd opinion, right? Dr. #2 takes lots of time asking questions, looking in nooks and crannies and pronounces her tonsils are extremely swollen. Strep test.... POSITIVE!!!!!!!!!!! I am PISSED because she was at a doctor 2 days before and no one did a strep test. NOT A HARD TEST TO DO, MIND YOU!! So she had to suffer 2 extra days with a raging fever and practically starving to death. Dr #2 also confirms she is WAY below weight and I should start pedisure immediately. Dr #1 told me it was no big deal. In actuality, it WAS!! SO, I am currently ANGRY at stupid doctors who don't give a FLYING FRISBEE and just rush through everything. It was an awful, infuriating experience. I am so sad for my daughter who has been sick for, I swear, a month. She feels awful, no one would help her and I have to watch her burn and starve to death.

Am I being over dramatic?.....MAYBE!! I have slept since Saturday and that is NOT AN OVER DRAMATIZATION!!!!

Draculina

Ella has four teeth. Her 2 bottom teeth and, as you can tell, her 'I' teeth. Yes this is my little vampire. I should have know this from beginning, due to the fact that she has never wanted to sleep at night! Isn't this an evil, scary picture!!

My nose is in the picture. I was nomming her face to get her to smile.

.....Sigh.....

Brent and I were recently talking about how we never get out anymore. We wished something exciting was going on so we could get out and about. We didn't know what we wished for.

Ella has been perpetually irritable lately and I chalked it up to teething. She was tugging at her ears and always wanting to chew. WELL, Saturday she just kept looking more and more miserable! She felt warm...and then warmer....and then warmer. She sat on my lap with her arms wrapped around me and just whimpered. I started Tylenol, bathed her, and stripped her. She fell into a fitful sleep around 11pm. She woke up around 1am and was BURNING hot. She was trembling was so weak she couldn't sit up. I tried to wet her down ad she just sobbed. I decided, I have the insurance and the money, I'm going to let a professional handle this. At 1:30 am we set off for the Emergency Room. I had all sorts of horror stories going through my head: swine flu, meningitis, a new strain of flu yet undiscovered. The ER was empty (a blessing) and they got us straight in. The doctor was wonderful and very patient with my hysterical daughter. He checked her out and announced she had 2 severely infected ears. (Insert me feeling like $%&# here) They gave her an insane amount of Motrin and Tylenol and started her on antibiotics.

She was already cooler when she went to sleep and woke up feeling a lot better. Unfortunately she was getting warm when she went down for a nap. Sigh.... My poor baby. We both feel terrible!!

(Note: I didn't put in a picture because it was just too pathetic)

Long Live My Husband

I saw this post on Lauren's Blog and thought I would also pay tribute to my husband.

I am madly in love with my husband! He is the MOST patient person on this earth! He deals with me and my drama every day and has for the last 4 plus years. He listens, and soothes my fears. He doesn't mind when I wake him up in the middle of the night because I had a nightmare or 'thought I heard something'. He gets up with Ella every Saturday morning so I can have the chance to sleep in. He is one of the few people who gets my weird and sometimes morbid sense of humor. He respects me. He trusts me. He believes in me.

He is also silly and so very, very cute!! He sings in the morning when he wakes up. He doesn't mind cooking or cleaning, but he does draw the line at changing 'chicken noodle poop'. (When Ella eats chicken noodle for dinner it is quite un pleasant the next day) He loves holidays and isn't too macho to be excited about Christmas morning. He always tries to cheer me up or calm me down. (I'm intense.)

I love his unwavering faith in UNLV, his tolerance for the ignorant, and his courage. I love that he is unafraid to walk into a house when he doesn't know who or what is there, just because someone needs help.

I love his faith, his testimony, and his sense of humor.

The best day of my life was the day I married my husband.

Green Eyed Monster

I woke up last Saturday and tried to put in my contacts. I have to wear a special toric lens for my left eye and sometimes it bothers me. I was fussing and poking at it, but it wouldn't fit on my eye. I blinked hard and it fell out of my eye, and into the sink.... while Brent was running the water and brushing his teeth. NOOOOOOO! I rummaged in the drawer, thinking I had one more disposable left. No. The last one had gone down the sink with Brent's discarded plaque. I did however find a free trial pair of green contacts that the doctor let me have. I put one into my left eye. I didn't think they made much of a difference but the contrast between left green eye and brown right eye was too different to wander around in. I put the other green contact in the right eye and tada! A whole different me!... Just kidding. My family didn't even notice for 3 days. But if you notice, don't think I am having an identity crisis. I just ran out of options!Normal, brown eyes
Altered, green eyes