Another upgrade

Another much needed upgrade. Jeff's mom, dad and Grandma Risenmay were coming to visit the weekend of Jan 30. I realized I only have 2 guest towels which I've had for about 12 years - freshman year at BYU.....wow, I'm old.....

Decided to change things up a little and buy new guest towels. I spent a lot of time wandering the same three aisles in Walmart, putting stuff in my cart, finding something new and returning stuff back to the shelf....probably a good hour trying to decide on colors. My favorite colors are blue and black, Jeff loves green, but I was trying to branch out......so hard for me!

So I came home with this and put it together before I got Jeff's opinion - I wanted to see it all together before we decided yes or no. For some reason he was home on a weekday and this is what we have.......

When Lea came home from school - she was so excited and informed me that the other "beach" curtain was actually "ugly". :) Plus I don't know the last time I changed out the liner - it was time.

Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas was a month ago - let's not go there k? 

My present from Jeff was to buy the pavers for our extended patio and have them installed. He was even willing to pay someone to install them!!!?!?!? Now if you know Jeff at all, this is HUGE....he's a big proponent of "doing things himself". hehe 

Well of course work got in the way and he was unable to do it himself. So the pavers came and sat by the side of the driveway since the first week in January.

We tried to have them done a couple weeks ago and my luck, it's the only 2 weeks it rained so the ground was too wet......more waiting......been waiting for this since we moved in......2005.

Friday was the big day - Feb 5th - I think Jeff was trying to stretch this out for Valentine's day too. :) Lucky for him I'm not a big fan of $50 for a dozen roses and chocolates so we celebrate the next day with the clearance flowers. :) Another post on how cheap we are. haha!

the BEFORE

prepped ground - took them 5 hours to get the ground level and ready to go.....thank goodness they did this and not us!

stacked pavers

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The BIG REVEAL!

AWESOME! And it rained Saturday night, woke up to a lovely patio and no more mud!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! (to Jeff, Guillermo and Alberto)

Sweet sounds

Sweet sounds of the Risenmays:

*Jeff - Sun/Mon was a cross between Darth Vadar and Marge's sisters from the Simpsons and he missed Monday of work.

*Lea sounds like a barking dog - dry cough that just hurts to listen too. lucky it never got into her lungs so no breathing treatments - whew.

*Abbey has just been whining and crying - her ears have hurt and I think she just got used to the whining....

*Lucas - well he just repeats himself every 2 seconds until you finally respond - grrrrrr.......

*Me - this is what Jeff likes to refer to as "Pretty" Alison. Congested (allergies, possible sinus infection), can't breathe, sneezing, can barely hear, kleenex up my nose because it just. feels. better., just need a nap - why won't you sleep too!? :)

Ahhh, Sweet Harmony. :)
And thank goodness for the sale on kleenex last week. We've been pretty snotty.

Quick update

Lea's fever is gone and she's back to 98.9 - haven't seen that temp for her in a while. YEAH no doctor visit today! For some reason, when she gets sick, her fever spikes immediately. Always has - she's been known to wake up with a temp of 104 and Jeff saw 105 a couple weeks ago when she had the flu. It always comes down and settles around 102, but it's always been like this. So the throwing up was a one time thing last night and she slept soundly for the rest of the night. Now she's bored to tears literally and wanting to play, but I won't let her (mean mom - that's me!). Another day of school missed and it was a half day anyway. Crossing our fingers she's back tomorrow for another half day.

Nap time was mandatory today and everyone slept for at least 2 hours - that was beautiful!

Day 3

I thought we were in the clear. Lea had a 102 fever Monday night (day1) and a yucky cough. The cough (because of her past asthma problem) worried me more than the fever so we headed to Dr. Kanagal at Scottsdale Children's Group Tuesday afternoon. Tested for strep - nada, ears - nothing, tonsils - nope, lungs - clear...........waiting to hear back on the culture for strep to the out-of-office lab. Come back Thursday if she continues to go down hill. K, great - it's only my second visit to her in the past 5 days. Took Abbey in last Friday and she had a double ear infection, runny nose, wheezing and just all around miserable. She's doing better and full of life now.

Lea missed Tuesday (day 2) and today Wednesday (day 3) of school and seemed ready to go back. Our only exercise was walking to the park and she wasn't allowed to play, just hang out by me. Ate dinner, bathed, bed. Now it's 11:26 pm and she has just thrown up and the fever is back to 102.6. She's asleep on my bedroom floor in the designated puke spot. Looks like we're headed back tomorrow - good thing we love our doctor. We see her A LOT.

Lea's teacher is very understanding and I met with her the other day - she loves Lea and gave me her homework for her to work on. And not to worry about getting it right back - she needs to feel better first. Mrs. Noyes is great - knows what she's talking about, positive, loves teaching and loves the children.

Pray for Lea to recover and pray for the rest of us that we don't get whatever she has.

Things to be Grateful for:

wonderful doctors

modern medicine

battery operated and QUICK thermometers

puke buckets

  good health insurance

prayer

a warm place to sleep, running water and electricity

and a mom who taught me by example or I wouldn't know what to do.

My list could keep going, but this will do for now.

What? Huh? I don't know.

Ever had one of these days......ugh!? :)