Four Years of Awesome

I married this pure form of AWESOMENESS four years ago...yesterday.  Oops - kinda forgot to give my honey his well deserved shout out on the proper day.  Oh well.  He knows I love him and think he's wonderful.  Besides, I threw out a few words in the name of love on Facebook.  That counts, right?

Actually the main reason I let yesterday go by without recognizing it via my blog is because we always wait until the weekend to celebrate.  We have plans for tomorrow night - BIG plans from what I understand.  Hmmm.  Guess I'll just have to wait and see.  No matter what we do though, it will be fantastic to have a little one-on-one time.  I just want to hold hands.

Is this Hell?

I have been bed ridden for the last five days due to a viral infection that I picked up from Evan.  And as if that wasn't bad enough, my body is also trying to fight off a severe case of strep throat.  Talk about pure misery.

Massive headaches, 103+ fevers, body aches, vomiting, coughing, and congestion - that about sums up the viral infection.

Swollen glands/lymph nodes, inflamed tonsils with puss pockets, neck pain and the I wanna die right right now feeling every time I swollow - that would be strep throat.

I made a visit to the doctor on Friday because I knew I had either tonsilitis or strep throat on top of all these other symptoms.  Unfortunately, me and tonsil related ailments go way back.  So far back I should've had them removed to save myself some grief over the years.  Oh well.  Here we are again.

I knew the viral infection would just have to run its course, but strep throat would have to be treated unless I wanted it to continue to worsen.  No, thank you.  I got a prescription (Amoxicillin) from the doctor on Friday and began taking it immediately.

Saturday morning - no improvement
Sunday morning - no improvement, in fact, condition may have worsened

I cried a lot Sunday morning.  I had been in bed for five days and all I wanted to do was feel better.  The medicine wasn't working - nothing was helping.  Robert was home all day on Sunday so I stayed doped up on Nyquil so I could at least sleep.

Here it is Monday.  I made a call to the doctor's office and left a message with the nurse's station to let them know I needed a stronger antibiotic.  That was at 8:05 am.  It is now 10:40 am and I have not heard anything from them yet.  Do efficient doctor's offices exist?  I didn't even mention the two hours I waited at my initial visit just to confirm what I already knew and to get a prescription.

I need serious help. 

Memorial Day Weekend

We planned a trip back to Tennessee over the holiday weekend to visit with Robert's family.  We had four full days to cram in a lot of people and a lot of activity and, as usual, we felt like we needed more time.  One of our four days was lost due to a sick little boy that needed to stay home and rest.

Evan was fighting a fever all day Wednesday and we had planned to leave Thursday morning.  When he woke up on Thursday morning he seemed to be doing a little bit better until the throwing up began.  We almost made the decision not to leave, but the vomiting subsided after an hour or two.  So we piled in the car and headed west, but it was very clear that Evan was miserable.

To allow for more rest, we spent Friday hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Bopps.  Evan was intrigued by the mama dove who made a nest in a ceramic bowl on Grandma's patio.  The mama and daddy doves would take turns sitting on the baby birds and feeding them.  I was blown away by how close they allowed us to get to the nest.

We also played the backyard and enjoyed the summer evening.  I marveled at all the vegetables Dixie and Phil had growing in their garden and Evan was thrilled to be hanging out on the "farm" (he thought the shed was a barn therefore he was on a farm).

Evan still wasn't 100% on Saturday, but we met Robert's dad at Fort Loudon Lake where he keeps his boat.  We spent a few hours boating around the lake and stopped off to swim for a little bit too.  The water was freezing so that "little bit" was shortlived, not to mention the lake was starting to get crowded as more boaters made their way out to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Every visit to Knoxville means a visit to the Knoxville Zoo.  Sunday was dedicated to the animals.  Evan and his cousin, Kaylin, enjoyed seeing all the animals.  They both joined me on a camel ride which, by the way, is the most uncomfortable animal to ride.  We were all pooped after our three hour excursion - and I'm sure the 90 degree weather had a lot to do with that too.

To celebrate Memorial Day, we met my dad for lunch at Calhoun's on the River.  We then made our way over to Sharon and Rob's for a cook out.  Don and Kathy, Dennis and Melissa + kids and Matthew and Heather were also there.  The kids spent the entire afternoon/evening in the pool as well as some of the adults.  Everybody cut loose and had a good time.

We gathered our things on Tuesday morning and packed up the car to head back to SC.  We said our sad goodbyes to Granny, Grandma and Grandpa Bopp.  I always think I have my emotions in check until I look at Dixie.  It never fails, she always makes me cry.  As she watched us pack up the car this was what she was holding on to...

 
It would be hard not to cry knowing you had to let this sweet baby go.

We look forward to another visit soon!