Updating...warning this is really long....

I am terribly sorry for not updating this blog in the last six weeks or so.  Please understand that I have been incredibly busy, either on the road (visiting some of you!), in the hospital with Nicholas, sick myself, or tending to one of my two increasingly more active children.  Here is a brief history to catch you all up on our ins and outs for the past few months: 

We left our home July 23rd and set out for the ranch where we spent a week hanging with Grandma, Papa, Dylan, Uncle James (briefly), Dylan's friends, my friend Belen and her five kids and her boyfriend, Brandon.  We had a great time, even Jeremy got to hang out with us.  Then he cleaned Virginia's truck and packed, I mean PACKED it for our trip out east.  We had a bunch of stuff we were taking out to KaLee and Gabe for their baby, but just traveling for the length of time we planned to be gone generates a lot of stuff for my own two rugrats!

On July 28th we set out across country.  Virginia and I took turns driving.  We made it to Amarillo the first night and stayed in what looked like a nice hotel, until we drove a mile around the back to where they put us!  Our "wing" of the hotel looked downright spooky, like an asylum, down to the padlocks on the door.  I was a little frightened, mostly due to watching way too many scary movies in my day.  The next night we got to Ft. Smith, Arkansas.  Then we made it to Grandma Joan's!  We had a really nice visit with her.  She has two adorable kittens, Squeaker and Candy, and Sophia was in love!  They, wisely, did not come out until our third day there, and were way more active at nighttime.  We enjoyed singing nightly with Grandma Joan, our new favorite song is "Trust and Obey" which we learned while there.  Sophia is so cute walking around singing it!  She really enjoyed her visit with Grandma Joan. She followed her around the house, read books with her, sang and talked with her.  It was so cool to see them enjoy each other.  One of the highlights was listening as Grandma played her violin in a rehearsal for an upcoming concert.  The music was Phantom of the Opera, one of my favorites!  We really enjoyed our time with Grandma Joan.  At last we said goodbye to Grandma Joan and hit the road headed to Georgia, vowing to return in a few weeks...

We arrived at Gabe and KaLee's August 3rd. We had a wonderful time with them, relaxing, swimming in the pool, delivering baby stuff.  I always feel like I am in my second home at KaLee's house.  Of course the food was great and we had an amazing time.  It was a real treat to see KaLee pregnant.  She was beautiful (as usual) and glowing!  She looked very happy and seemed very ready to be a mommy!  Sharon, Hilary, Gabrielle and Angel arrived soon and we all spent some time hanging out, including some time in the pool, and waking Sharon up the hard way ;)  Then we were off to Florida to visit Tia Rosie.  We went to the beach where we were almost blown away by a storm five minutes after arriving.  We literally just finished applying sunblock and taking a few pictures, then the lifeguard blows his whistle and leaves.  The lifeguard left.  You know it is going to be a bad storm when the lifeguard leaves.  We disregarded his warning for a few minutes then, when the sand really started to fly, I freaked out about sand getting into my children's eyes and we hit the road.  Back to Rosie's for some swimming in her pool (fun!), eating homemade enchiladas and flan (delicious), and visiting (wonderful!)  We had a great, albeit short time with her and then we were on our way back to Georgia.  We spent a few more days in Georgia-KaLee gave us a tour of her plant which was really cool, then were on the road, yet again, and headed to North Carolina. 
When we got to North Carolina, we visited with my mom Monday night.  They had made some wonderful changes in their home, a new couch, new mattress in the guest room and a bevy of toys and clothes for my kids!  It was like Christmas.  I should mention that everywhere we went, people had gifts for my spoiled rotten children!  Grandma Joan, KaLee and Gabe, Sharon, Hilary, my mom, Rosie...it was out of control.  I was very touched with the amount of love they have for my kids!   It was so nice to be with my mom.  She is the best mom a daughter could ask for and I am so lucky to have her in my life!  The next day we went to Wet -n- Wild water park and both of my kids went on their first water slides!  Virginia also went on her first water slide!  It was so much fun.  My children really enjoyed themselves and so did I!  We got rained out of there and ended up getting rain checks to come back later, even though we had already enjoyed a full day of fun in the sun.  The next day, Virginia and I visited with my grandparents and went to Old Salem, then Virgina dropped me off at my mom's house and hit the road for Virginia and Washington D.C.  She returned five days later, having seen much of Virginia and D.C. and having some great stories and pictures!  We stuck around North Carolina, visiting with family and going to a really cool pool called Homeplace, with another water slide and a rope swing!  That was a very fun day, I also got to spend time with my little brother Steven and my nieces and nephew, in addition to my mother.  It was a little crazy with an 8 month old, a ten month old, an eighteen month old, a two year old and a three year old, all in diapers, except Sophia (the two year old.)  That is a lot of little kids!  On Sunday, Hilary and Gabrielle came down to go to the water park with us ( to use those rain checks) but it was rainy at my mom's house so she did not want to go.  Hilary and Gabrielle went by themselves and mom took me and the kids shopping.  Virginia showed back up and Sophia seemed to be coming down with something.  She had a fever and became very clingy to me.  My mom took us to a lake to go see some huge fish, poor Sophia did not feel well the whole time.  We went home and I spent the rest of the night taking care of Sophia, trying to get her to sleep, but she just did not feel well.  The next morning Hilary and Gabrielle (who I spent very little time with due to taking care of Sophia) left at dawn with Virginia, the kids and I.  We headed west, homeward bound at last!  I knew the trip was wearing on us all, Sophia had been asking about daddy and home a lot more and was very clingy even before getting sick.  I could feel the pull of home, too.  Sophia, who never eats much, was eating less than usual and was running a fever off and on.  We drove by the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, then onward to Tennessee.  We ended up staying the night in Memphis, where we had another bad hotel experience!  After unpacking the kids and all of the stuff needed to sustain the children overnight (coolers, breast pumps, diaper bags, clothing bags, food bags, odds and ends) we rushed down to the pool for a swim to relax after a long day on the road.  Sophia was still not feeling great, but she seemed to really want to swim.  When we finished swimming, we headed back to our room to get the kids in the bath and get them to bed.  The water would not come out warm out of the tub!  I called the hotel staff, who insulted me by saying I was probably doing it wrong and he would come look at it.  After he looked at it and realized I was not an idiot who did not know how to turn on a faucet, he said he would change our room.  He moved us up two floors, to what we are pretty sure is a smoking room.  Now, I am still wet, with a crying, sick little girl permanently glued to my arms, trying to move all of our stuff up two stories so I can get my kids a bath and get them to bed.  An hour later, this was finally accomplished, after which I had to pump for another hour.  Needless to say, I fell asleep pumping...
The next day we made it to Great Grandma Joan's house.  Sophia seemed to be feeling a little better, so that was good!  We unpacked the truck and settled in for a day.  On Wednesday, we started to pack up the truck again, adding a cool gun case that grandpa Danny had made.  We, miraculously were able to fit it all in, then we went to sleep.  Nicholas woke Virginia up, struggling to breath in the night.  She noted he had a temperature, was able to get him breathing normal and back to sleep.  The next morning, we took our show on the road, again.  About twenty minutes down the road, Nicholas had a hard time breathing and was coughing.  We took him out of his car seat, and he coughed a weird cough and seemed to hack something up.  We decided to take him to urgent care, just in case.  The urgent care diagnosed him as having Croup, saying, "It is just Croup, just keep him around a cool air mist humidifier and he will be fine."  We left there and went straight to Walmart, where I bought the worlds cutest humidifier.  We kept it next to him in the car the whole trip.  He did okay, not really improving, and definitely getting worse at nighttime.  Neither Virginia or I were getting much sleep.  Sophia still did not feel well, and was intensely clingy, practically sleeping on top of me at night.  Nicholas was couching is weird Croupy barking cough and having periods where he just did not sound like he could breathe.  We took turns sitting in the bathroom with the door closed and steam from the shower billowing around to try to help him feel better.  Virginia really did this more than I did.  The next day, we pushed on to New Mexico and made it to Blue Water lake in time for dinner.  George cooked us some delicious steaks and we unpacked and repacked 8:30pm.  I got about 30 minutes down the road then realized I did not have my wallet!  I had to turn around and go back, at which point I realized God was telling me I did not need to drive through the night.  It was another rough night with two sick babies.  I realized, too, that I was coming down with what they had.  Both kids were up a lot, but Nicholas won the awake most award, also keeping Virginia and George awake all night.  Virgina took Nick into the bathroom for a steam bath.  He did not seem to be improving, if anything he was getting worse!  The next morning the kids and I high tailed it out of there (wallet in hand.)  I was suffering!  I had had very little sleep and was achy, sore, feverish, and all around feeling crappy! I made it home sweet home at about 1:30pm.  I asked Jer if I could take a nap, as all I craved was my own bed.  He watched the kids for a little bit, but about 2pm, I was back up, giving Nicholas a steam, trying to get his breathing better.  At about 3:30pm, after waffling back and forth, we decided to take Nick to urgent care.  Urgent care said they would not see him because he was too sick and sent us directly to the ER.  We got to the ER around 4pm and they took him right back, our bottoms did not even touch a waiting room chair.  We had Sophia with us, of course, so Jer and I took turns wrangling her and keeping an eye on Nicholas, trying to pay attention to the doctors.  His initial diagnosis was pink eye, croup and pneumonia.  They started him on breathing treatments, steroids, and antibiotics.  They ended up admitting him.  Jeremy stayed with him at the hospital overnight.  It broke my heart leaving him there, but I knew that Sophia would wake up in the night and be inconsolable without me there with her, not to mention, I was pretty ridiculously sick myself.  Let me just take this moment to say that the illness that befell my children and ultimately me, Jeremy and Virginia, was no little cold.  That virus knocked us out!  It was really awful!
They kept Nick Saturday night, Sunday they sent him home.  We were home by 6pm.  By midnight Jeremy and Nicholas were back at the ER.  I was home with Sophia, again.  Poor Jeremy had two nights in the hospital at this point.  On Sunday, in the oxygen tent, with the breathing treatments, Nicholas had looked great.  They were planning to send him home, so when I heard that Jeremy's best friend, Sophia's godfather, Jim was going to Hawaii alone to celebrate his graduation with an MBA, I told Jer to check plane tickets and see about going with him.  Jeremy found reasonable tickets and bought them, at my insistence.  I felt that the kids and I are always going away and seeing our friends, and he never gets to go anywhere.  We had no way of foreseeing that Nick would be back in the hospital.  When I called Virginia to update her, she insisted on coming down to help out.  She is an amazing woman!  She stayed in the hospital with Nicholas when I was taking Phia to doctor's appointments (she had pink eye, too.)  She slept in the hospital overnight.  She was there with us and really helped make that horrible time manageable.  I am not sure if she will ever know how much that meant to me.  Bonnie also called and came down and spent a day with Sophia, affording me time to spend with Nicholas in the hospital.  Sophia loves her and went right to her.  They had a great time together.  My neighbor, Mai, helped watch Sophia for me for a bit so that I could get my broken phone fixed and go to the doctor myself.  I am so lucky to have such a great support network! 
We finally got Nicholas home on Wednesday and took him straight to his doctor.  She prescribed him a nebulizer which looks like a penguin and is the cutest thing you ever did see.  This has kept us from needing to go back to the ER several times!  Also, she diagnosed Sophia with a double ear infection (I know, we just can't catch a break!)  I asked Sophia if her ears hurt and she said they did not.  The doctor said Sophia had a really high pain tolerance because the infection should be causing her a lot of pain!  Oh, on the way home from Sophia's doctor appointment, at 113 degrees outside, my air conditioner in my car decided to quit working.  Yeah, I know, this is starting to sound like a country song.  It took a week and a half for the part to come in.  Needless to say, I did not go anywhere for a week, until my sister in law, KaLee went into labor a month early!  But that is a story for another day, if you made it this far, sorry my "brief" update was not that brief!