Second week....

Well I'm onto the second week of my new job. It's great! I absolutely love it! There is so much to learn, but I think that I'm getting the hang of it. It's just going to take me a little while until I get my speed up. I'm very careful right now not to screw anyting up. =) All in all it's going really well. The day flies by. I'm always doing something. I love that. I can't stand to be bored. I don't mind it if it's for a short period of time, but all day...........no way! The guys are a hoot. I love just sitting back and listening to their conversations. Hilarious! I think that I'll learn a few things about how guys think from listening to them. =)

Over the weekend we went to Backstreet's and ate with Kellie and Matt. I LOVE that place! It was DELICIOUS! After dinner we came home and hung out for a while and then went to bed. I really wanted to go out for a little while since Britt's mom had Ashlyn for the night, but we couldn't find anyone to go out with us. =( Those party poopers.........Not you Kellie. You're pregnant, so I COMPLETELY understand why you didn't want to go out.

Saturday Britt went to play golf, so I went and picked Ashlyn up from Joyces. Then we headed to Hickory to get a little shopping done. I went to Kohls and got a birthday gift for Britt's dad, and a few other things for Ashlyn and myself. As soon as I got home Britt was feeling pretty good after his golf game. He shot terrible, which means he drank more. =) I packed everything up and we were ready to go to Winston to celebrate Jerry's birthday over at Kerry (Britt's sister) and Ryan's house. Ashlyn was so excited to get to spend some time with Reid and Alaina. Kerry cooked the best dinner! We were all stuffed! We had a wonderful time with everyone. Ashlyn, Reid, and Alaina played all night long! We had planned on staying the night, but around 11 we decide to just go home so that we could crawl in our own beds. We were all tuckered out once we got home. We slept like we hadn't had sleep in 10 years. Then we woke up and went to Cracker Barrell.............my favorite place for breakfast. It too was DELICIOUS!!! I absolutely love Cracker Barrell. Ashlyn does too. Everything that she saw in the store she wanted. It's "mommy look at that. Isn't it cute?", "mommy, can I have this? Look at how precious he is." She wants EVERYTHING! We did get her a ducky that swims in the bathtub. We haven't tried it out yet, but I'm sure that she'll love it. Sunday evening it was time for Ashlyn to go to children's church. She looks forward to going and seeing all of her friends there. She learns so much there. I love it, and I know that she does. It's a GREAT thing for the parents and the children.

That's my weekend. Back to the work week now. Hopefully everything will continue to go well this week at work. I'll keep you posted. Have a great week everyone!

Old and New.......

Today was the last day of my job with Deerwood Fasteners. It was a GREAT place to work. Everyone there were like family. That made it very tough to leave. I even cried. I know...........How Cheezy?

Tomorrow I will start my new job with Metal Roofing Systems. I'm very excited and a little nervous about starting this new job. It's a great opportunity! I just hope that I don't screw anything up too bad. =) It's just going to be alot to learn, but I can do it! I probably won't even be able to sleep tonight due to my nerves. =) I'll keep you posted during the day. WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update on Ashlyn

Since Monday Ashlyn has been getting a little better every day. Up until today she was still running a low grade fever, but finally today her fever has broke. I have been a VERY WORRIED mother. It is SOOOOO scary to see your child sick like this for 10 days straight and not know what's going on. THANK GOODNESS she is finally getting her strength back and beginning to get back to her normal healthy self. I had to go to the doctor Tuesday myself. I had another terrible migraine.........probably from a combination of PMS, stress, and lack of sleep. It was one of the worst headaches that I've ever had. Everyone in the doctor's office was asking me about Ashlyn. The doctor was very concerned about her. He told me that it was a nasty little virus that she had, but if she wasn't better by today he still wanted to do some further testing. We didn't take her back today since she is showing some very strong improvement. I still would like to take her sometime in the future to have some allergy testing. I really think that she may have some nasty allergies, and these allergies may be one of the reasons that her immune system is so weak. That's Dr. Mom's thoughts. =) Thanks for all of the prayers. They have definitely been working! Let's just hope and pray that she gets healthy and stays healthy from here on out!

And the story continues....

Last night Ashlyn was MISERABLE! She didn't want to go to sleep in her bed. She wanted to be right by mommy and daddy. We let her sleep on the couch while we watched our Sunday night shows. I finally picked her up off of the couch at 10:00 and put her in her bed. She whined a little and the fell right off to sleep. I woke her up at midnight to give her another dose of Tylenol for her fever. I figured that she would take the medicine and then fall right back to sleep. Well I was WRONG! She took the medicine and then cried for what seemed to be an eternity. I got her up and calmed her down. She was BURNING UP with fever. Then I put her in the bed with me and Britt slept in the extra bedroom. Neither Ashlyn or myself got any sleep last night. She tossed and turned and moaned and groaned ALL NIGHT LONG! We took her to the doctor this morning. The doctor did another blood count. Her white blood cells were still down which meant that she still has a virus. And as you know there is NOTHING that you can do for a virus except to let it run it's course. The doctor was still a little concerned that she has had it for a week now and she hasn't gotten any better. He checked her ears, throat, lungs, heart, everything. Everything seemed to look ok other than her rash and the fever. He told us to take her home and continue doing what we are already doing. If she's not better by Thursday we are to bring her back to the doctor and he is going to have her admitted to the hospital to run all sorts of tests. Please just continue to pray for her! My nerves are shot! I'm sure that she'll be fine. I just keep having the "what if" questions run through my mind. It's just the worrying of a mother for her sick child. I'll make sure to keep you posted.

Soooo.........

Ashlyn is STILL SICK!!!! Yes, my baby girl has not gotten any better since last Monday, only WORSE! The rash spread even more last week, then she started running a fever and had the rash. The doctor did tell us that she probably would run a little fever with the virus, but that she should be better in a week. It will be a week tomorrow and everyday she has gotten worse. We had to take her back to the doctor at the end of the week. The rash had gotten TERRIBLE on her bottom. The doctor thought that this was a reaction from the virus. He prescribed some cream for us to put on it twice a day. It seems to have helped a little bit, at least in that area. Mom and Dad kept her last night so that we could go out with Ida and Bradley for Bradley's birthday. I was planning on meeting my parents and Ashlyn at church this morning. The phone rang at 9:30 and it was Mom. She said that Ashlyn was burning up with a fever all night long. She only slept maybe 2 hours total. Mom said that she just moaned and cried all night long. It breaks my heart because I can't do anything to make her pain better, or make her fever go away. We've given her Tylenol and Motrin all day long. They may help for an hour and then her fever spikes back up again. We are taking her BACK to the doctor AGAIN tomorrow! If she had a little virus she should be feeling some better now instead of getting worse everyday. My nerves are SHOT! It's no fun when your child is sick, especially when she's been sick ALL WINTER LONG! She can't get better for getting sick again. Just say a prayer for her and us that she gets healthy and stays healthy for a long time. When Ashlyn doesn't feel well, our whole house is miserable! NO KIDDING! She is SOOOOOO demanding, bossy, whiny,............basically if she doesn't get her way, well were basically screwed! She will scream and cry until she does get her way. I just want my sweet, HEALTHY child back. So.......just keep us in your prayers. We NEED all of the prayers that we can get. I'll keep you posted on what the doctor says tomorrow. Hopefully he'll have a better answer for us.

So much to blog about....

Friday night Britt, Ashlyn, and I decide to go eat supper at the Olde Hickory Taproom. We had a coupon for buy one dinner and get one free. We are starting to use coupons more and more. They are really a tremendous help financially! We paid $12 for dinner. That included Britt's beer too! You can't beat that! I got a cheeseburger there. It was DELICIOUS!!!! Then we went by Blockbuster and rented a few movies. We watched The Inside Man. If you've never seen it you ought to check it out. It was a really good movie. We had a great night together as a family. On Saturday my mom was ready to get out of the house for a little while. She hasn't been anywhere in the past week other than to the doctor. So Mom, Ashlyn, and I went to Hobby Lobby. I had a picture that I wanted to have framed there. We spent almost 4 hours in this place........It really isn't that hard to do. I absolutely love this place! I had a 16x20 of Ashlyn framed in a 22x24 frame with double matting and the works. It only costs me $80.00. The people who were in line in front of me got the exact same frame and everything. They had gone to Michaels first and it was going to cost them $225 there. It was less than half of the price at Hobby Lobby. I'm telling you.........check it out! They did an awesome job on it. After shopping all day long we called Dad and Britt to see if they wanted to meet us for supper. We went to Texas Roadhouse. This is another one of my favorite places to eat. And it too was delicious. After eating we finally headed home. We weren't planning on doing much, until we got a phone call from Ida. Her and Bradley wanted to go bowling. So we took Ashlyn and met them at Pin Station. Ashlyn LOVED it! She was too cute! She actually beat Britt the first round. =) She had a few nasty falls while we were there though. First she was trying to climb out of the chair and fell on her face and busted her lip. Then she was playing with a balloon and got tripped on the string and fell right into the corner of a chair. She's so clumsy! Sunday we were all tired. We just laid around for most of the day. I took Ashlyn to Mom and Dad's Sunday afternoon. We had Kellie, Matt, Ida, and Bradley over to watch the Super Bowl. I made spaghetti and Kellie made her famous Mexican dip. We had a grand time! After the Super Bowl we went out to Windy City Sundries and had a few more drinks. Then it was back home and straight to bed.
Monday we went to pick Ashlyn up from Mom and Dad's. When we got there she had a rash all over her body, from head to toe. It looked horrible. We left and went to drop a few bids off for Britt's lawncare business. Then we went and looked at a daycare that's right down the road from our house. We are going to start her in a pre-school when she turns 3, so we wanted to check a few places out and get her on a waiting list. We really like this center. It seems to be a wonderful center. The thought scares me to death to think of her going to pre-school, but she needs to gain socialization skills and start preparing for kindergarten. After taking the tour we checked her rash and it had gotten worse. We took her on to the doctor. The doctor took one look at it and was almost positive that it was Scarlet Fever, which is a form of Strep. He did a Strep test, but it came back negative. Now they had to prick her finger. Oh what fun! She did great though. She didn't even cry! I could't believe my ears. =) They got the results from her blood work and she has some sort of virus. He said that the rash would probably get worse and will last for about a week. The doctor must love us........I mean we have paid him so much money the past few months. I swear that it's our second home. =)
More news...........I will be starting a new job in 2 weeks. I was offered the job at Metal Roofing Systems. YAY! I'm so excited! I put in my notice today. That was really difficult! The people here are great and they have been nothing but good to me! It's for the best though. I think that I'll like it down there. I will be working with a excellent group of people.
So.......that's basically it. Alot has gone on in the past few days. Hopefully this time Ashlyn will get better and not get sick again until next fall/winter.

Miss Whiny Pants

It's been another hectic week around the Cody house. When Ashlyn's sick it always an adventure. She is so whiny and demanding when she doesn't feel well. I swear that she is OBSESSED with having her nose wiped! She wants it wiped every 5 seconds. I don't know what her deal is. Her nose won't even be running and she wants it wiped. I know that her nose and mouth have to be sore. The skin is raw from where she has continuously wiped it.
You can definitely tell that she is my child by her sleeping habits. This child likes to sleep as much as me. I don't know how I got so lucky! I know that my second child probably won't sleep a wink. She has me spoiled! I just wonder if she'll sleep this well once I get her in a big girl bed? She will be 3 in June and is STILL in a crib! Is that bad? She doesn't mind it though, so we've just left it alone until now. We went over to Bibi's house about a week ago. Ashlyn and Halle had a ball together! Halle has a big girl bed, and they crawled up in her bed and played for a while. Ever since that night Ashlyn has been asking us when she's going to get a big girl bed. So.........we decided that we are going to have my old bedroom suit repainted. I figured that it's better to go that route than to buy a whole new bedroom suit. Ashlyn is so finicky though. A few months ago I just rearranged her furniture and she had a cow. She wouldn't go to sleep until we moved everything back to it's original spot, so I don't know how she'll deal with all new furniture and having a new bed. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Update

I just wanted to post an update on Mom's eye.

Thanks for all of the prayers!

She has gone back to the doctor every day to have more medicine put in and have it re-bandaged. Today when she went back the doctor said that her cornea had a 98% improvement. That's great news! We're still hopeful that she will get her vision back. There's always a chance that it may never come back, but the doctor is very positive. Just keep praying for her. They seem to be working! Thanks again!