Yep...Santa paid our house a little visit just in time for Christmas Morning. There were many presents for Emily and Ethan stacked nicely under the tree, and stockings full of fun toys and candy. Even though Emily isn't much for unwrapping presents at the moment, Santa had all of her presents neatly wrapped.
She was excited to see that Santa had eaten her cookies and the reindeer had eaten the carrots.
She got many cool things from Santa. All toys to play with!
In the end, yes, she has been a very good girl this year and Emily had a GREAT CHRISTMAS...but...we have NO IDEA where we are going to put all this stuff she got!!
As many of you know, Christmas Eve is equally as important as Santa coming on Christmas Day. In the Swedish Tradition, Christmas Eve is celebrated rather than Christmas Day. So, growing up, we always had two Christmas'...one on Christmas Eve and one on Christmas Day. It was an AWESOME THING as a kid!!!
And, in keeping with tradition, Emily has had the exact same Christmas I have had growing up. Being in Alaska was no different, with the exception of the absence of family. :0( We were fortunate enough to have Mom, Dad, and Lisa join us this Christmas in Alaska; mom brought Lutefisk, and everything, to help make this Christmas no different than all those Christmas' from year's past.
Emily got some wonderful gifts and I find myself wondering... WHERE IN THE HELL AM I GOING TO PUT ALL THIS STUFF?!?!?!
She loves it all and is very thankful to everyone for the gifts you sent!
Here are some pictures and video from Christmas Eve.
(stay tuned...pics from Christmas Day to come soon!)
Emily has been a Big Girl and a Big Sister with her new brother, Ethan. She helps with the bottles and likes to give him kisses and hugs.
She doesn't seem to mind him too much, although there are 3 additional people here to help with the transition, and I believe that's why she is doing so well with Ethan. (Mom, Dad, and Lisa are here for the Holidays.) So, there has been enough attention to be spread between Ethan and Emily.
...I'm sure all the new Christmas toys have helped as well.. :0)
Emily came home! It's been a little over 5 weeks since she went off to California to visit with the family. I know she had a great time with all of you, and I can't thank you guys enough for spending time with her while we brought Ethan home.
It took her just a few seconds to realize who we were, but once she realized mommy and daddy were standing in front of her she was overjoyed!
A few days before my water broke, more surprises arrived from our family and friends back home. We were once again surprised to learn that Lisa included a Diaper Run as a second-half to the Surprise Baby Shower. Boxes and envelopes arrived, all FULL of diapers!
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I will apologize ahead of time, I was planning to send out Thank You cards to everyone that sent diapers, but then Ethan decided to come early...now, a month has gone by and I am finally getting around to catching up with everything we left behind.
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In the meantime, we arrived home with Ethan after our long journey and, considering that we were NO WHERE NEAR PREPARED to bring him home on account that he was so early, we tore right into those Diaper boxes you'all sent...and I don't think we'll be needing to buy diapers for quite some time.
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Thank you to all of you who sent diapers. We are extremely lucky to have such wonderful, and supportive friends and family in our lives.
I went back to work last week. After being in the hospital for the previous three weeks, just sitting around waiting for Ethan to finally be discharged, I couldn't wait to get "back to life." We got back home to Kodiak on a Sunday, and I went back to work on the following Tuesday. Chris stayed home for an extra week so that I could focus on getting into a routine before he went back to work this past Monday. It's been a transition for the both of us, but I think our schedules compliment each other nicely and things are running smoothly.
Well, since I went back to work I've run into a small dilemma. What to wear?
When a woman returns from maternity leave does she go back to work wearing the old maternity clothes? Or, is a woman expected to be back in her pre-maternity clothes? Or, perhaps, is a woman expected to get a whole new wardrobe?
When the belly started forming I packed away all my pre-maternity clothes to cut down on the closet clutter, which only left me with maternity clothes to wear day-to-day. Now that I'm no longer pregnant I began to unpack the old clothes and work them back into the closet rotation.
This brought up a few questions. Yes, I lost 20 lbs after Ethan was born...but it really didn't disappear; it was just displaced. The odd thing is that I only gained a total of 20 lbs throughout this ENTIRE PREGNANCY, not too shabby. (I think I gained about 40-60 lbs with Emily.) But, now that I've lost those 20 I gained, you think I'd be back to square-one...right?
Unfortunately, I don't think it works that way. I feel that my ass has taken the brunt of the changes, and has just ballooned into it's own timezone. And, the belly; ya...there's still a little jiggle in there. But, seriously...the old pants don't fit.
So, do I wear maternity pants? And, if so, for how long? Perhaps I'm still losing the weight and the 'distribution' will get back to normal. But, when do you give up and just admit that your body won't look like it used to; and then go out to buy a new pair of pants?
(Ok, I'm come to terms that I will never be the same size as I was when we got married...but, that doesn't mean that I need to remain where I'm at, right?)
In the meantime I can always rely on my hometown-favorites - My stretchy pants. Stretchy pants don't care if you are, or ever were, pregnant...that's what makes them so wonderful...they're stretchy!!
We've learned a lot since we've been in Alaska. There are many things that, as a Californian, you'd never come-across in your daily routine. Today's latest "lecture" is about firewood.
First, let me say that burning firewood can drastically increase the heat in a cold house, and severely cut down on the high costs of fuel oil. But, how do you get wood? Where do you get wood? Everyone here on the island has STACKS of wood piled up outside their houses...where did they get it???
Chris and I have been on the "hunt" for wood for about a month or two. Wal-Mart sells small bundles of wood for $8.00, and one of those bundles will last you about 2-4 hours. Often times Wal-Mart will be sold out of wood, so we're left to rely on our small electric space heaters for those cold nights.
There is one company on the island that sells large quantities of wood -- They're called "cords" of wood. A cord of wood will cover the space of a pallet, stacked about 8 feet high...it's A LOT of wood. So, this ONE company on the island (Yes, there is only one company that sells wood) that actually sells cords of wood only sells "green wood." This has been another learning lesson.
What is "green wood"? Well...green wood hasn't been dried and is freshly cut from the tree. This matters because green wood doesn't burn well in a fireplace; it does, however, do really well in wood-burning stoves. We have a fireplace. This company was going to sell us a cord-and-a-half of green wood, which may or may not burn in our fireplace. (Wood-burning stoves get hotter than a regular fireplace, which is why green wood will burn in a stove and not in a fireplace.)
We kept looking for wood, and we were able to find a local man who sells "seasoned" wood. Seasoned wood is another word for "dried" wood. It has been dried for 7 months and is ideal for fireplace burning.
Over the weekend we got our cord delivery of seasoned wood. It took a few hours, but Chris, and a friend of his from work, stacked our new found heat-source against the house to prepare us for the winter. Gosh, I just hope this stack will last us through the season.
PS - That stack in the picture is about 6 feet high and 10-12 feet across.
It's been a few weeks since we were whisked off to Anchorage after my water broke. We sat around in the hospital for a week and then had a baby who ended up in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and now we finally get to go home. It's been a long and emotionally-stressful journey, but it's coming to an end.
Here we are on Thanksgiving Day, waiting to be discharged from the hospital. No, there will probably be no turkey dinner tonight, nor stuffing or pie...but Ethan will be out of the hospital and we will be free to move forward with our lives.
We will plan to make flight arrangements back to the Emerald Isle as soon as we're released. We are all looking forward to getting back to life; and as soon as Emily returns, our little family will be complete once again.
We are thankful to all our friends and family who have supported us through this difficult time, and thankful for all of the kind people here in Anchorage who have been so welcoming.
Remember all those stupid charity walk-a-thons you did as a child? Your teachers would hand you a piece of paper and asked you to go door-to-door like a vacuum salesman pedaling your silly cause to your neighbors, family, and parents’ coworkers. You had no idea what you were raising money for, nor did you care; the only thing you cared about, as a six year old child, was getting the most money so that your earnings would qualify you to get the totally cool, multi-rainbow, state-of-the-art, long-distance, grand prize winning Frisbee.
As a child you never thought that the money you were raising went to anything important. And, after the fact, you didn’t care where the money went because in two weeks time that totally cool, multi-rainbow, state-of-the-art, long-distance, grand prize winning Frisbee would be arriving and every kid in your second grade class would know that you raised the most money. I know you know what I’m talking about – we have all participated in countless walk-a-thons where we’ve raised money for a cause we knew nothing about.
Well, last night we were at Ethan’s bedside. We had just finished giving him a bottle, and he was sleeping soundly. A lady walking around the room approached us and introduced herself as the “Trish, The Parent Navigator” – she explained that she was the liaison for parents to use as a resource between the community and the NICU, where Ethan is currently admitted. She handed us a “Welcome to the NICU” goody bag full of pamphlets and additional information. She explained that her daughter spent 90-days in the NICU after she was born and is now a healthy seven-year-old. Trish’s job as the Parent Navigator is to help support parents with their questions and ease emotions during their stay at the NICU.
We exchanged stories and talked about the different hospital services that were available to the parents. When she left I looked more closely at the goody bag she gave us. It was a purple reusable-style shopping bag. I skimmed through the booklets inside; there were booklets about taking your baby home, infant safety, a paperback baby book, and a disposal camera to leave for the nurses’ use while at your child’s bedside. When I was finished skimming through everything inside the bag, I held it up to look at the bag before placing it on the floor with there rest of our stuff. There, on the outside of this purple bag, in white lettering, were the words “March of Dimes” and their logo.
It took me a moment to register, why this bag had that particular logo…and then it hit me, and I started crying. The bag had that logo because the March of Dimes supports the funding and research of premature babies. All those silly walk-a-thons, the door-to-door child salesman, hitting up the neighbors for money…all of that went to a cause that would eventually give back and support me.
My child is alive because thousands of children walked for a cause that they knew nothing about. Because thousands of children wanted that totally cool, multi-rainbow, state-of-the-art, long-distance, grand prize winning Frisbee. The money that these kids helped to raise went to the March of Dimes who, in turn, funded research that would eventually end up paying for a parent support package, and research that would save my son’s life.
Twenty years ago I walked for my future and never knew it.
We may not understand some of the things that we participate in, and we may never know our true impact; that is until perhaps you, yourself, are one day the recipient of a cause you had previously supported.
About a year and a half ago we drove to Alaska all the way from California. Over half of our journey was considered to be "Moose Country." I wanted nothing more than to see a wild moose! We looked and looked throughout our journey, always skimming the forest for just a glimpse of one of those tall creatures.
Well, it's been a year and a half since our drive and I FINALLY SAW MY FIRST MOOSE!!!
We were leaving the hospital around 12:30am and we decided to stop at McDonald's for a late night snack. While in the drive thru at the pick-up window I noticed a horse-shaped figure on the sidewalk across the street. It took me a moment to register what it actually was and I shouted out: "OH MY GOD!!!" It startled Chris a bit, but then I immediately shouted again with glee: "OH MY GOD...A MOOSE!!!" I couldn't believe it...it was actually a moose! A wild moose! On the sidewalk!
We left the drive thru with our greasy snacks and slowly drove closer to the wild moose. We pulled up alongside the moose and the thing was MASSIVE!! He was a beast!! We were in the car on the parked road, he was on the sidewalk...we were so close that I could have stretched out my arm and touched him.
As, I'm sure, most of you may already know or may have heard...we're still in Anchorage. Ethan was admitted into the NICU on Thursday. We were concerned for his health because he had stopped breathing late Wednesday night while asleep; subconsciously we woke up because we heard the inconsistency in the breathing and then woke him up to get him to breath again. The next morning we spoke to the doctor about our concerns and he decided to admit Ethan into the NICU for 24 hours so that they could observe him.
24 hours later we arrived at the NICU to pick up Ethan and take him home; there had been no further concerns with his breathing, so we were going home. Just as we were washing our hands and entering the NICU, we noticed the doctors and nurses gathered around Ethan's crib side. What was going on? Well, he had an "event" (as they call it here). The "event" was that he had stopped breathing and his stats dropped; he held his breath for longer than 60 seconds and that was cause enough to earn him a free ticket for an extended stay at the NICU.
It's been an emotional past few days. It's difficult to come to grips with the fact that you don't get to take your baby home. We left the hospital later that evening...with an empty car full of flowers and balloons that wouldn't be enjoyed as soon as we were hoping.
We have been at the hospital everyday since. Going back and forth from the house we're staying at, to the hospital where Ethan is living for the moment. We're at the hospital for the majority of his feedings, where he is awake and alert...the rest of the time, he just sleeps.
The "Plan" is that we should be going home late next week (Good news is that we'll be in Anchorage for Black Friday! -- Bad news is that we'll be having Thanksgiving at the hospital.) The doctors have started Ethan on a caffeine treatment. The caffeine is supposed to help mature his brainstem and tell the preemie-neurons to "breath" on their own. No, he's not hooked up to a breathing-machine, or anything like that. He has a few wires that read his heart-rate, breathing pattern, and oxygen levels...all that can be transmitted through stickers on his chest.
The "caffeine plan" is a lengthy plan...meaning that he'll be on this treatment for 6-8 weeks. Don't worry, we won't be in Anchorage that long, we're going to go home with a monitor that will read all of Ethan's vitals. And, for the next 6-8 weeks, this monitor will record and alert us of any issues regarding his breathing pattern. The caffeine will help him along with his development and, thankfully, there will be no long-term results from all of this. There's really nothing "wrong with him" -- he just needed more time to bake in the oven; unfortunately time that he wasn't given and now he's having to play catch up here in the NICU.
We got admitted into the Anchorage Providence Hospital on Tuesday, November 10th because Ethan was coming a little too early...6 weeks early, to be exact. We spent one week in the perinatal wing of the hospital, under bed rest, so that Ethan and I could be observed. Once we hit 35 weeks, Ethan's chances of complications dropped dramatically. So, only one week of waiting until he was ready to go.
We were induced Tuesday afternoon, November 17th. It was an easy labor, and before we knew it, Ethan had arrived. There were many people in the room when he was delivered because his chances of being a NICU-baby were still pretty high. He was born at 6:24pm and was 6 lbs. 3oz. (Yes, he's a little guy.) The doctor from NICU observed Ethan for about 45 minutes before she said that he appeared to be healthy enough to go to the postpartum room just like the normal babies. Exciting news!
The evening was spent getting to know one-another. Although we didn't get much sleep, Ethan got quite a bit. Because Ethan was born so early he sleeps a lot; his little body doesn't have the strength nor energy of a full-term baby, so he has been spending most of his time sleeping. We wake him to feed and change him...and then right back to sleep. Of all the possible complications that could have arisen by having a preemie, we were blessed to end up with a healthy baby boy.
The latest lung maturity results came back today and they have almost doubled since our last test which was done on Tuesday. Very Positive!! So, the doctor has scheduled for us to be induced on Tuesday morning at 7am!
On Tuesday we'll be 35 weeks along, and with the recent lung results, we should expect to have a perfectly healthy baby with little complications. We'll probably still be stuck in the hospital for the rest of next week so we can all be observed. But, it looks like there may be an end to this madness!
Wednesday night Lisa arrived at the Anchorage Airport. It wasn't an easy decision, but considering all the possibilities/complications with being in the hospital, we decided that it would be in Emily's best interest for her to spend some time down south.
It looks like we'll be here in the hospital for at least a few weeks, and there isn't much for her to do here. Not only that, but Chris would need to become a full-time babysitter and therefore not be able to visit the hospital as often; and if Ethan gets transferred to the NICU, then Emily won't be able to visit at all, which means that Chris wouldn't be able to visit either.
Lisa was nice enough to fly up and bring Emily back home with her. They left this morning for CA. Emily will be in California until mid-December, and return when the entire family will be coming to Alaska. They all originally had plans to come to Kodiak for the baby's "expected due date" and stay through the Holidays. So, Emily will be coming back home with them in December.
In the meantime, I know everyone back home will get plenty of face-time with Emily. And, I'm sure Emily will have a BALL with you all! I'm sure there will be many trips to Disneyland, the Zoo, Aquarium, Park, movies, and even just family visits. She'll be staying with the Fam, and they're going to be doing their best to make sure that Emily gets to see everyone. Call them if you want to babysit or see the lil rascal.
But, back here in Alaska, things will be a little quite without her. I don't think I've been away from her for more than a day or so; and I know it will be hard to talk with her on the phone or via webcam. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. But, all in all, it's for the best...and I know she will be in good hands.
I'm sure most of you have heard by now...but, yes, we're in the hospital. My water broke Tuesday afternoon, and five hours later, we were in Anchorage. We're at 34 weeks, 6 weeks early, so the doctors were concerned that the baby may not be fully developed. It only took 2 hours to arrange all the emergency travel arrangements to fly to the "big city" in Anchorage - Kodiak is not equip to handle pre-term labor situations, thus the reason we were swooped off to Anchorage.
Emily was excited to go on an airplane, but it was a little stressful knowing that we were about to go on an hour plane ride with a possible 'labor' situation. We arrived safely in Anchorage where it was snowing. We drove straight from the airport to the hospital, only diverting to get a late dinner at Carl's Jr. (We haven't had Carl's in over a year!)
The people at the hospital were waiting for us; they had been expecting our arrival since we left the doctor's office in Kodiak at about 4pm. At this point it was almost 10pm by the time we arrived to the hospital. Emily and Chris stayed at the hospital until about 1am until they went off to the hotel to get some sleep.
The first night in the hospital was extremely difficult and scary. It was FULL of new and terrifying information about the endless complications of having a preemie. The magnitude of this situation hit me hard, and the news coming in wasn't good.
I'll save you all the back-and-forth of information. To cut to the chase, Ethan's lungs are not fully developed and he needs more time "baking in the oven" before he is ready to come out. So, as it is now (2 days later) I'm chilling in the hospital, bedridden, trying not to go into labor. Yes, my water broke days ago, but they're monitoring me closely and giving me a ton of penicillin to prevent any infections. I've got the best doctor in the entire State of Alaska, and I'm not just saying that...she's seriously "the best."
We're hoping to "stay pregnant" for at least another week, and then Ethan will probably have another week in the hospital before we can take him home...this is Best Case Scenario. Worst case scenario...we'll be here till Christmas. We're all hoping for the best and hoping for positive results from each coming test.
Now that we're settled in our "new home" in the Anchorage hospital, I'll try to update the blog as things change.
Yesterday we caught word that the Coast Guard Base received 50 swine flu vaccinations from the State of Alaska. These vaccines were sent for the purpose to be used on Coast Guard Dependents ONLY (USCG spouse's & children.)
The email announcement came through at 4pm yesterday. The "shot clinic" was to be held the following day from 1pm to 3pm....and, remember, only 50 vaccines.
I planned my whole day around this shot clinic. My plan was to leave work at 12:15 and get to the Base by 12:30 so that I could wait in line. All morning long I watched the clock; as soon as noon hit I was packing things up and ready to walk out the door.
I got to the Base a little after 12:30...there were already 2 women waiting, and their combined 4 children. (that's 6 shots already...I was adding in my head.) The Base Clinic closes for lunch, so they were all waiting in the breezeway. Chris went to get Emily out of school so that she too could get the shot and then they joined me. Over the next ten minutes (still a quarter to 1pm) there were about 8 women and their combined 15 children all squeezed into that breezeway waiting for the Clinic to open. (25 shots...including Me & Em)
The hysteria here is crazy. There was an article in the newspaper yesterday talking about how the school district is considering closing all of the schools for a month so that this "bug" stops spreading! So, to hear that someone, anyone had vaccines...YOU BET THERE WOULD BE A LINE!
Once they opened we wrote our names on a list in order of who got there first. However, that didn't do much good because they decided to distribute the vaccine based on "urgency/priority" -- pregnant women first, next care givers, then small children, then older children, and then everyone else.
So, props for being pregnant...I was actually the very first person to get the shot this afternoon. The folks holding the Shot Clinic were so disorganized with this whole mess that we were able to get Emily in there with me, and she got the shot as well. She actually got 2 shots...one in each leg. The seasonal flu and the swine flu. The kicker is...those two shots were just "primer" shots because she hasn't had a flu shot before, so we need to go back in a month and do it all over again for her. (Hopefully they'll have more by then.)
Thank God this all worked out! My boss was there as well to get the shot, but she is considered a "care giver" and therefore she is a "second priority" - she said she was waiting there for 2 hours! When we had left the building and went back through the lobby there were at least 50-70 people in there all waiting - and this was at 1:30pm by the time we were done. They DEFINITELY had to turn people away!
We woke up, as any normal day. Chris had duty last night, so it was just me and Emily this morning. I planned on going to work late so that she could sleep in a bit this morning, but as soon as 8:30am hit - my phone was blazing with call, after call, after call. My phone actually died mid-afternoon because it had too much activity today.
It all started with a phone call from Chris from the Coast Guard Base. He called me to tell me that there was a child at Emily's school with a confirmed case of the Swine Flu. At that point the question becomes: Do we take Emily to school? Chris was on duty still, so he couldn't get off work to look after her...and, although I had a ton of work waiting at the office, I was the only person available to stay home with Emily. Don't worry, Emily isn't sick...but after much discussion, we couldn't take the chance of her getting sick by entering an infected building.
Emily's school is like any other "government agency" - they are very secretive about any diseases spreading through the facility, and they don't say anything to confirm or deny the existence of a widespread disease. The bad part is, however, that we're a small community...their lack of explanation only causes more panic because everyone talks about what's going on!
So, 8:30am this morning I get the swine flu phone call. Which kid is it? Is that kid in Emily's class? Has Emily already been exposed? Should we take her to school anyway? No answers from the school...in fact, no one even picked up the phone at her school. About 6-10 people that work with Chris were pulling their kids from school and taking them home - this only causes more panic! In addition, the school was requesting an emergency closure from the Base Command. It wasn't an environment I wanted to send my child into.
I called the doctor's office to see if we could get a vaccine. Nope. There are NO H1N1 vaccines on the island. I called them a week or so ago about getting a vaccine for myself...at the time they had only 7 vaccines and ALL were gone within 2 hours time. So, the chances of getting an H1N1 vaccine are extremely limited, even though we're in the high risk group. It doesn't matter...there just isn't enough to go around.
The Base suggested getting the regular flu vaccine to help ward off any flu symptoms. I called doctor's office again about getting Emily a regular flu vaccine (I got mine weeks ago) and the earliest I can get an appointment for a flu shot is sometime next week...LIKE IN 10 DAYS! Screw That! We switched doctors...we didn't like that old doctor much anyway. So, the new doctor's office tells us that they don't do flu vaccines for children as young as Emily. We're going to try to go to the Base Clinic tomorrow and beg for a flu shot for Emily...it's our last resort.
A few hours later...Emily and I home for the day...a few hours later I learn that 133 high school students were home sick yesterday with flu-like symptoms, and 60 elementary school kids were home sick with the same thing. Yes, that may not seem like a lot to you - but, we're on an island with only 6,000 people in total...190 kids out of school is SIGNIFICANT!!!!
I also learned that a 3-year old co-worker's child from the Base was airlifted off the island yesterday because his airways closed due to the swine flu that he had contracted. In addition, Wal-Mart is out of Children's Ibuprofen. If Wal-Mart's out of medicine, the island is out of medicine!
This may sound a little silly in your world, but we're on an isolated island. It is a small island and everyone knows everyone. When a "cold" comes to the island, everyone gets sick. It may take a month or two to spread...but, guaranteed, everyone on the island will get sick. It's not like back in California where you can take your chances of encountering someone with the an infectious disease - it is guaranteed that if someone on the island has IT, you will have IT.
I've been an emotional wreck all day today! I've been stuck at home, not being able to do anything but sit here in panic and wait for more information. I can't get any flu shots for my family and the Island is Sick. The only information I have is information of panic. And, being 8 months pregnant, every nerve in my body is shot! I'm on the verge of a meltdown.
It's an epidemic and I am truly scared about "what to do" - I think the scarier thing is that we do not have the resources needed to try to protest ourselves. We're all just waiting to get sick.
This afternoon I got an email from the Coast Guard Command calling this epidemic "FLUCON LEVEL IV" Here's the email as they describe what's happening:
The clinic will begin to use a 5 point influenza condition scale (FlUCON)for future updates detailing our local level:
FLUCON 1- no reported casesCommand response- none needed
FLUCON 2- sporadic cases in the communityCommand response- institute social distancing when able, reinforce need forproper personal hygiene techniques (coughing into sleeve, hand washing, act)
FLUCON 3- sporadic cases in the local Coast Guard populationCommand response- plan for a possible reduction in key personal, personnelare able to either utilize the clinic for sick call or may stay at homeafter notifying their supervisor(preferable)
FLUCON 4- wide spread sustained illness reported in the local Coast Guardpopulation.Command response- consider canceling previously planned large meetings oractivities, institute work from home measures if possible, ill people shouldnot report to the clinic for sick call- the clinic will institute phonetriage of ill people (sick people call 487-5757 ext 155) and they will bedirected to stay home, come in to clinic, or head to the hospital dependingon the severity of their symptoms. However, no one would be turned awayfrom the clinic if the showed up.
FLUCON 5- Widespread contact and death reported in the community or in theCoast GuardCommand response- same as level 4
Based on the above proposed scale, we are at FLUCON 3. (this was before they advanced it to Level 4) I therefore recommend to all commands that you plan for a possible reductionin key personal in the near future, that you continue to encourage socialdistancing when able, reinforce need for proper personal hygiene techniques,and expect that personnel who are ill to come to the clinic for sick callunless you otherwise direct them.This clinic will update you periodically as the situation warrants.
I was cleaning the house the other day, and I just had to take some pictures.
We have worked long and hard making this house "our home" over the last few months. We recently killed the rest of our savings by buying some new furniture that we have wanted for years; and after cleaning, the house just looked so nice - I thought I needed to post some pictures so you all could see. (It was decorated for Halloween.)
This is the main living room area from the front door. It's an odd-shaped room, so it is set up similar to how the previous owners had their furniture arranged.
This is the living room from the other angle. The drapes were left by the previous owners, and they blended with our design, so we kept them.
This is the kitchen. Originally the kitchen was a hunter green and so dark that it looked like a cave. It took us a few days, but we lightened up the walls with a tan-coffee color, and it really accents the wood cabinets much better. We still need to order some sort of blind for that window - it's so large that we'll need to special order something and we haven't decided what to get just yet. You can't see it, but there's a skylight in the ceiling...totally helps keep energy costs down!
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So, those are all the pictures I'll show you for now. Our current projects coming up are the kids' room and the downstairs bathroom. We're hoping to have both those projects completed within the next 2-3 weeks. I'll be sure to post some pictures up when they're ready.
We got another package in the mail on Friday. It was from our friends Mitch, Jess, Emma and Kaitlyn in Albuquerque. Emily was excited to open the package and see all of the neat stuff for her brother. Emma was also really thoughtful, and added in a present for Emily; Emily really liked the cool purse, necklace and headbands.
Thank you Emma (and the rest of the fam) for sending a present to Emily and her soon-to-be baby brother.
The entire month of October we've prepared Emily for Halloween.
~
We decorated the house, and talked about all of the decorations.
She got a Trick-or-Treat pumpkin bag, and we practiced knocking on our door and giving her candy. We explained Trick-or-Treating many, many times throughout the month so that she would understand for the Big Day.
~
And, over the course of the month, we've tried-on the different Halloween Costumes with the constant comment from her "I don't like it."
So, because she was so "I don't like it" with all the costumes, we had on standby: Elmo, Snow White, Monkey and a Rescue Swimmer costume...but... ~
The big question this year was: What is Emily going to be for Halloween?
~~~
Her costume was going to be a surprise to us all. What was her day-of choice for a Halloween Costume...???
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She ran at the sight of a dress for Snow White...she wouldn't even try that one on.
No Snow White.
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Was it Elmo...?
Nope...not Elmo.
Was it the Rescue Swimmer? Nope...not a rescue swimmer.
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Was it a monkey?
Well...it didn't look like it at first. ~
~ But, then she changed her mind, and Emily was a monkey this Halloween. ~~~
So, we took our little monkey out trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It was about 7pm, and dark outside. Luckily we've had beautiful sunny weather the past week, and the clear skies stayed-put for Halloween Night - perfect for a night out! It was still dark outside, but there were a lot of kids out; I think we had about 40-50 come to our door.
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(I should probably mention that although we had clear skies it was still 35 degrees outside...and snow is forecasted for the remainder of the week. Yes, it was COLD!)
~
Emily was a little shy to go to the door. She wouldn't say "Trick or Treat" to the people, but she had no trouble holding her bag out for the candy...and then she would say "Thank you" when the candy went in her bag. It was sweet.
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We visited about 6 houses in total. It was cold and I don't want her eating a lot of candy. So, we let her get a "feel" for Halloween and then we went home. Once home she was excited to dig into her 'pumpkin purse' and start eating the candy she got.
In the end, she had a really good time and next year will be a whole lot easier!
Emily had her first "school performance" on Thursday. They had a Fall Festival where the parent's were invited to come and watch the kids sing and dance. It was kind of a cluster with a room FULL of toddlers and babies, but she participated...somewhat.
Tonight we carved pumpkins. I wasn't sure how Emily was going to handle this...she's been carting around her little pumpkin this last week as if it were her new baby.
How would she handle it when we cut it open??
She did really well and had a smile on her face the entire time. She wasn't too keen on getting dirty, so it took her a while before she stuck her arm in the pumpkin to pull out the seeds with her fingers.
In the end, she had a great time carving her pumpkin.
The next little dilemma was lighting the pumpkins.
She thinks that the candles are "birthdays" and that she must blow out the candles once they are lit. (She sings Happy Birthday and everything; it's cute)
