It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at our house!!!

We put up our Christmas decorations the friday after Thanksgiving and the saturday. We have soo many decorations and not enough places to put them. Here are some pictures of our house.

Here are the stairways....

The outside of the house...

The chest with our stockings, past christmas pictures with santa and some other christmas decorations......

And the Christmas tree.......

Expeditionary Learning Night

Above are pics of Paige speaking at her school tonight!

The girls attend an Expeditionary Learning School. Tonight they had Expeditionary Learning Night. It is an opportunity for them to show off what they have learned so far this year. They started off the night with a "community circle," which the school has twice a month. It is a time when the whole school comes together to talk about what they are learning and to show the other students in the school. At the community circle tonight the kindergarteners sang a song called "Put a wing on it." The song is about caterpillers and butterflies which they learned about in their first expedition of the year. The song was to the tune of Beyonce's "All the single Ladies". The song was sooo cute. They sang and did motions to the song. Here are some pictures....

Here is a short video of Faith and the kindergarteners singing their song.....

On the road to recovery....

As some may know I have been very sick lately. On November 1st, I spiked a fever and started coughing and feeling really tight in my chest. I took some nyquil and went to sleep that night. The next morning I never woke up, I slept all day and again into the next day (which was now tuesday and this started sunday). When I got out of bed on Tuesday I felt horrible. I finally decided to go to urgent care. I was coughing uncontrollably, my body hurt, my chest hurt, and I was still running a high fever. Urgent care diagnosed me with "H1N1" after doing a flu swab. I was put on medications and warned by the doctor that if I did not improve or in the least bit declined that I needed to come back in because I have asthma and it is common for people with asthma as an underlying condition to become very ill with "H1N1." At this point, I was scared. The doctor had really scared me. I went home and went straight to bed. I took my medicine as directed and did not feel better at all. On thursday I called the urgent care because I was feeling so bad. They instructed me to call my primary care doctor who wanted to see me immediately. My mom took me to the doctor on thursday afternoon. My doctor took my oxygen levels (which were 83%) and one look at me and told my mom to take me straight to the hospital to be admitted. After arriving at the hospital they took a chest x-ray and informed me that I had pneumonia. The "H1N1" had become pneumonia in my right lung. I was admitted to the hospital and put in isolation since I was "h1n1" positive. Every doctor and nurse that came in contact with me wore safety goggles, face mask, body gear, shoe covers. It was like I had the plague. I was admitted to the hospital on thursday (nov. 4) and was not discharged until tuesday (Nov.10). While in the hospital I was given tamiflu, z-pak, and prednisone for my lungs. I was on oxygen for 3 days while in the hospital. My oxygen levels were not stable for a lot of the time in the hospital. Upon being discharged my fever had been gone for 2 days. My oxygen levels were much better (in the 90-92) but I still had pneumonia in my lung. The doctor said that was normal as it takes a while. I have been to the doctor for a checkup since being discharged for an x-ray. The pneumonia is still in my lung and I will be going back to the doctor next week for another x-ray. I am feeling much better. I have been tired and weak compared to what I was before being sick. The doctor said that I was "a very sick person" and it will take me at least a month to get to where I was before. This was very difficult for me to go through. I didn't get to see the girls for 6 days. I talked to them everyday. They were so strong through it all, which helped me get better. I turned 30 on Monday(the 16th) and this whole experience has made me appreciate life a lot more. It's crazy how I went from being such a healthy person to being soo sick in the hospital. I am soo thankful to be alive and home and well. It was the best birthday present I could of had.

Getting Started

I have started this blog to try and keep family across the country involved in our lives. The girls are growing up so quickly and it's harder for us to travel these days with them in school. Hopefully this will help keep everyone updated on what is going on in our life!! I will try to get some things posted over the next week.