Vacations, ERs and Courtrooms

Wow, doesn't that title just make you want to read this! It sounds almost like a weird episode of Law & Order or something...

So, we made it to Colorado this year for vacation, Spring Break. We can't just go when we feel like it anymore, we have to kind of follow the school schedules. We knew this would happen, and we only have another 18 YEARS of it... oh well.

We had a great time in Colorado. We went to the snow, about a 45 minute drive through beautiful scenic Colorado, up part way to the top of Grand Mesa. We played in snow that had to be 8 feet deep. It lasted all of about 30 minutes until we heard the cries of "I'm cold!" and "My feet hurt!" This time we had my brother, future sis-in-law and future step-niece with us. They are much more used to snow, but still, it didn't last long. We did sled down a hill a few times, made snow angels, and licked icicles, so it was all around a perfect trip to the snow I think.

We also helped my dad clean out an old trailer on his property, well, we started anyway. There were years and years worth of junk, but we did find some treasure, including a bunch of cool books and two sets of spirographs! The old trailer will be slowly emptied, then dumped into a giant burn pit that was dug while we were there, and burned to bits. Too bad we won't be there for that, I do love a good bonfire.

We collected all of my old Nancy Drew books, and a huge set of Choose Your Own Adventure books, which Glee has started to devour. Those will be coming home with our luggage in the next couple of days because we Fed-ex'd it home.

Glee was also happy because we picked up chicks (12 for one of my aunts, 8 for grandpa and we got turkens, three. No typo there, they are turkey/chicken hybrids... kind of like mutants, so they are named Wolverine, Storm and Gambit). Glee made a list of directions for my aunt, who has had chickens a number of times. Once I upload my photos I will post the list. It was very cute, especially the line where she says they need to be cuddled everyday. My aunt will roll over laughing about that one.

So, in the middle of vacation my mom had serious flu that lasted about three days. Then my future step-niece got it (she's 2) and it lasted a day... then Thomas got it. He threw up all day Saturday, and was a little better on Sunday, which is when we flew home. He slept A LOT on Saturday, and was groggy on Sunday... then we come to the next part of our story... the Emergency Room at Torrance Memorial.

So, we get home Sunday about 6:30pm. Thomas, still sick, not eating, and hadn't eaten anything really (part of a banana and 2 saltines) since Friday, went to bed. About 9pm I hear him talking, and go up to see him. He's delirious. He has a fever, he's talking about his feet and we can't quite get him all the way awake. So, I make an executive decision to go to the ER. So, we get there about 9:45pm. We wait until about 11:30pm when they put us back in a bed. In the ER there were lots of people, most of them throwing up. Gross. So, he is checked by a doctor who says he seems dehydrated and they can do one of two things... either he gets a pill which will help him rehydrate over the next 12 hours, during which I need to keep giving him sips of juice and water, but not too much because then he will throw up more, or they do IV fluids. Then she checked his ears, and he had a double ear infection as well. When I told her he was coughing, she sent him for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia... which he didn't have (thank the heavens!). So, they start the iv about midnight. It took a whole bag of slow drip, and we got home about 3:30am. I had been up since about 8am, well, we got up at 6:30am to see what the Easter Bunny left, then went back to sleep... but I hadn't really slept well for two days because I was worried about Thomas!

So, he's much better... not 100% but at least 70%. We took him to his doctor yesterday for follow up and the doc said his ear infections were pretty bad, but they didn't hurt him any. Good thing, that would have been a nightmare on the airplanes. I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years and it wouldn't be enough. I know as soon as he is 100% I will get the flu... it's how things always work...

Oh, and that brings me to today, the end of my story. I took Thomas with me to get a trial date to fight a traffic ticket, and I have to say, there are some dumb people in the world, and I think most of them end up in traffic court. Man.