Sick and School

I haven't blogged for a while for 2 reasons.

1)I was VERY sick last week. I had parotitis. Basically bacterial, unilateral, mumps. You can google it. It's gross. One side of my face was CRAZY swollen and hard as a rock and I had a fever, sore throat etc. The doctor said they only see this in the elderly and HIV patients and he has no idea why I would have gotten it. His best guess is that I was dehydrated. Weird. Anyway, antibiotics and some gross (squeezing the pus out) treatments later, I'm all better! Yay!

2)I had about 35 pages worth of papers due last week. About 12 pages of that was a word-for-word (cough-for-cough, sigh-for-sigh) verbatim of 20 minutes of one of my counseling sessions. I have been hearing since I started this program how hard verbatims are and how they take FOR.EVER. Chris has also been hearing this from me and decided there had to be ways to make it easier. So, being the fabulous husband that he is, he came up with all kinds of things that were a HUGE help. It was SO sweet that he cared enough about a project I had to do to put time and thought into making it easier. Thank you SOOO much! Practically, the process was much easier but it is slightly painful to watch yourself do therapy on video and have to record every "umm" and "like" (I discovered I say "kinda" A LOT). I did get a better understanding of what I need to work on from analyzing my every word so I guess it was a worthwhile exercise :-)

Speaking of work-it's going well. Slightly crazy that I'm "allowed" to be a therapist for unsuspecting clients but God is blessing the process. All of my clients are women or kids affected by domestic violence/abuse. I'm liking this population much more than I expected and also liking the people I work with quite a bit. I think it helps that almost of my clients are out of the abusive relationships and we're working on rebuilding their lives. Good stuff! I look forward to three more months there :-)

So, that's why I haven't blogged but get ready cause I have a bunch of posts in mind!

Sick but still sweet

We're sick. It stinks. I have an upper respiratory infection and Ella has a lower respiratory infection. She went to the doctor last night, she went with me for my appt. this morning, and we went to another doctor for her to get a chest x-ray before that because she might have pneumonia (her cousin and my dad both do). She's been remarkably good through all of it and doesn't really seem sick even though she has a horrendous sounding cough and horribly runny eyes and nose. Not much lethargy and no more whining than normal are great signs that she'll be better soon. Hope that's true for all of us. So, not much to blog about but here's a conversation we just had a few minutes ago.

Ella: Mom, I love you more than Cinderella
Me: Really? Thanks Ella!
Ella: I love you more than all the Princesses!
Me: Wow! Thanks!
Ella: I love Daddy more than Raleigh (the dog)
Me: That's good
Ella: Mom can we get a kitty-cat?
Me: I don't think so, Raleigh wouldn't like that
...long pause...
Ella: Mom, I love you more than princesses and kitty-cats. I really do.

How cute is she?? Right now princesses and kitty-cats are at the TOP of the totem pole so I'm feeling pretty special :-)


A little sick day fort fun :-)

Sick and Productive

Ella is sick but I was productive-maybe the good and bad even each other out. Yesterday Ella woke up from her nap with a cough and was hot to the touch. We found out that her cousins (who she played with the day before) had just gone to the doctor and have a combo of ear infections, pneumonia, and bronchitis. After talking to a nurse about her symptoms and drama including two car seats coated in vomit, Ella made it to the Urgent Care Clinic and was diagnosed with an ear infection and a pretty bad cold (her temp. was 102.6). It definitely could be worse so we're hopeful that she'll be feeling better soon. It's so sad to see her so lethargic and her breathing so whistle-ey and labored. Poor baby. Since we were home all day though, we moved our guest room and Chris' office so I was mighty productive in between cuddling Ella.


All tucked in on the couch with her juice, tissues and baby doll

I came out of the bedroom and she had moved this ottoman over the wall and was pointing and telling her doll who was in each picture on the Christmas cards! SO cute!!

Playroom/guest room in the midst of the move

still in the midst

all done!

The Office/Guest room pics still to come...