What a difference a day makes

Carolyn had yet another kidney infection.  They come on with a vengeance and absolutely no warning.

Three day, three pictures show what happens to her with these infections.

Sunday - we saw santa at the grocery store.  There was absolutely no indication that an infection was brewing.  This picture was taken early evening.

Monday - she woke up vomiting around 6am.  I really hoped it was the GI bug that everyone else is dealing with.  However, when the vomiting stopped and the fever spiked (to 103.9) by 10, I knew it was time to get to the doctor and confirm that it was a new infection.  Shots of antibiotics were administered by 11am.  She had to be carried in and out of hospital and could barely keep her eyes open.

Tuesday - at 7am she woke up drenched in sweat and proclaimed that she was better.  Look at the smiles on her face later that morning at 1030am,  when we leaned that a second dose of shots was not required and that the bacteria was confirmed to be e coli (an easy one to treat).   She has low energy still, and keeps complaining of headaches when she tries to do much of anything. 
The other troubling development with this infection.... Her blood pressure was pretty evated on monday and remained high today.  😕

Here's to hoping we can fix these sooner or later.  None of us like waiting for these ugly and scary infections to appear.

Holiday Brunch

Our winter holiday party has brought some bad luck in the past:

Without fail, it has always fallen on the day with the worst snowstorm of the year; people cannot get into the neighborhood; they get stuck.  Then, two years ago, Carolyn took a nap after the party was over and her fevers started and took her to the hospital for the first time.  As you know, this was followed by a series of kidney infections and surgeries over the past two years.  Given this and because we traveled over Christmas time last year, we decided not to host the brunch party last year.  We did not want to deal with the stress of whatever unexpected outcome would come from the party.

This year, we threw caution to the wind and decided to host it once more.  Fortunately, no one woke up sick after the party was over, and it was the nicest weather possible.  As you can see from the photos, the kids played outside almost the whole time.  The food and drink was plentiful and delicious.  We served our traditional homemade pretzels with ham and cream cheese, platters of roasted veggies, curried chicken salad, several egg casseroles, yogurt and berry compote, fruit skewers, banana pudding, scones with jam, a coffee bar, and mimosas. 

I think we have broken the curse, and will be less hesitant to host it again in the future.

Work Party

My department keeps the holiday party pretty simple -- a catered lunch in the department conference room on one of the final days of the semester.  A few years ago, we started a white-elephant gift exchange, which has been elevated to a whole new level of novelty and amusement. 

Here are some of the laughs we had this year.

And, here are some of the more memorable gifts that came out this year.  

Post-it-notes and beer coozies with one of our faculty members' face:

A full-size cut-out of one of our admin staff.

Printed t-shirts with another faculty member's face.

And, then there were the other more expected white elephant gifts like the made-for-tv products, flip flops made out of maxi pads, a nutcracker that looked like Hillary Clinton, the complete TaeBo set on VHS, canned unicorn meat, and below is one of the more creative gifts that I was lucky enough to bring home (no one wanted to steal it from me):

Thanksgiving in Ohio, 2014

A quick trip to Ohio. It was only for 5 nights, but it is always the holiday I most enjoy.  Steve arrived almost a week earlier than we did, and was able to spend the time in Cleveland with his parents.  The girls and I flew out on Tuesday evening, and thankfully, they were both well behaved and cooperative on the airplane.

It is always nice to pull up to this site.. 

Thanksgiving day is always a lot of fun.  And chaos.  And food.  And games.

This year, there was even a performance, led by Grandma Joyce

Click here for videos of the performance:

    http://youtu.be/hqn2F-mBnag

    http://youtu.be/JZf00aLvQDc

A holiday would not be a holiday if there were not matching jammies involved.

We crammed a lot of "cousin" fun into our few short days in Ohio.

A quick visit from Kristin and her daughter and niece was another highlight.  I am pretty sure the girls liked the outing to get their nails painted.

The girls and I drove up to Cleveland for a quick and very nice visit with Grandpa Harry and Grandma Carol.  We got to see Uncle Bill and Uncle Scott, as well as cousins Michael, Rachel, and Travis when we all watched a Browns game togeher.  Steve drove back to Cleveland a day earlier than we did, so he could attend his 30th high class reunion.  Unexpectedly, the car broke down halfway between Dayton and Cleveland.   He took a tow truck for over 2 hours, but made it to his reunion.  While in Cleveland, I am sad I did not pull out the camera, other than to take a picture of the girls by the "there's no place like home" sign.