Big Girl Bed

Yeah! Addie has moved from a crib into her "big girl bed." Now, as you can see, this bed is still just her crib, with the front rail taken off, but it'll do! She is very proud and excited about this accomplishment and we are excited that it's been almost a week and she hasn't gotten out of her bed! We were prepared for battle if needed, but the motivation of turning the bed back into a crib if she has a problem with getting up was enough for her.

If you look closely, you can also see another new thing at our house- Addie's hair in french braids. Amazingly, I had never learned to do this when I was yonger, so Addie has been my french braiding gineau pig. Not an easy task to perfect on a two-year-old, but we're making progress.

Other new things in the last week? She's been calling me "Honey," which has caused us some good laughs. We told her that in order to be respectful, she has to say "Mommy Honey." (I just couldn't bear to have her stop- I love it!). Also, we're turning into professional pool mooches- thanks to the hot weather. We spent the morning in the pool with our friend Ashley this morning and it felt great! Addie loves to swim and loves her water wings.

She's also out of sorts yesterday and last night. She was a mess of whining and meltdowns yesterday and was up every three hours last night, just crying. We couldn't get her to tell us what's wrong, so we'll wait a few more days and see if she can explain what's bothering her. Today she's been telling me she has "yuckies" in her mouth and it hurts, so it's probably reflux. We'll hope it passes within a day or two, like it did last time. We'll keep you posted.

Looking Worse but Feeling Better

This morning when I got Addie up and went to change her diaper, I spotted something surprising (that one was for you- Amy & TJ). Addie was spotted! Red dots were all over her tummy and neck. A few hours later, and they were on her face too. But by then, thanks to my mother-in-law and WebMD, we found out that it is Roseola, a pretty much harmless rash. It was actually great to find this out, because it explains the high fever and diarrhea she's had for the last few days. The spots are supposed to stay for a day or two and then go away on their own, no need for medicine. Yeah! We also did not have to go into the doctor again, which is GREAT.


So here's the back,











the face,

and the tummy.







The arrival of the bumps mean that the fever is almost gone, more good news! We can tell she is really starting to perk up and feel better. And as for me (Niki), I feel GREAT! So much better! What a relief!
Greg is still trying to fight away the junk and we aren't sure if he's winning or losing at this point. But at least two of the three of us are getting better!

A providential decision

Greg here.

So.... we didn't get to go on the church Couple's Retreat, but it has turned out to be a providential decision.

By friday morning, Niki and Addie's antibiotic treatments did not dramatically improve thier disposition.
I felt like I was getting sick myself, so we decided at that point to wave-off going to the retreat.

Niki called the church office to tell them that we had to cancel, and were later informed that we will get our money back, even though it was such a late cancellation! Whew, that was so nice.

The rest of the day, Addie and Niki coasted with no real improvement, and maybe a little worse as Addie had a bout of the big D * (*see previous posts about this.)

We all slept the whole night, and it was as though the Lord knew I would need the rest.

By lunch time, Addie developed a high fever and more big D. After her nap, she perked up a bit, but Niki was still pretty out of it. By the way, did you know that there are pills, that if even slightly scuffed, render the pill to be the most utterly bitter-tasting substance on the planet. Niki does.

Anyhow, Addie now riding the break-the-fever rollercoaster while we hope that the antibiotics take care of business.

As for me, It looks like I have missed this round of the yuck. Other than a little stuffiness and achines on Friday, I have otherwise forded the great river of sickness for now.

Theology and Mucous

I apologize in advance if this post is strange, but it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm up blogging because I can't sleep thanks to the intense pressure in my sinuses. It is pretty dangerous to share my middle-of-the-night thoughts with the greater internet world, but hey, why not live dangerously.
We at the Spangler house are getting an opportunity this weekend to deal with our theology in the land of unexpected unpleasantness. What the heck am I talking about? Well, Greg and I are supposed to leave in a little over 24 hours to go to Couple's Retreat, our first overnight away from Addie, and it's not looking to likely that we'll be going. We're waiting till the last minute to make the final call, but yesterday's news wasn't great.
Addie and I have been fighting this ick for a week now, and fighting hard. We hit it with the EmergenC, the Zicam, the Mucinex, the Cough Syrup, the Expectorant, the Day-time, the Night-time... you name it. I even drank some magic elixir from our neighbor that tasted like I'd licked a tree. And I think I can still hear it... or maybe feel it... saying "Is that all you got?" I was determined to fight it off and not get on antibiotics because Addie and I have both had more than our fair share of antibiotics and our bodies need a chance to learn to fight on their own. Well, we fought, but we didn't win.
We went to the doctor yesterday. My doctor in the morning, her doctor in the afternoon. My doctor said, "Yep, you fought, but it's not going anywhere. Time for some antibiotics."
At Addie's doctor I expected to hear that she had a sinus infection and would need the drugs, but what I DID NOT expect was to be told, "Um, one of her ear tubes is coming out. And that ear seems to be infected." At which point I carried on the grand tradition of making Addie's ped think I'm nuts and started crying. Man, I was tired and that left hook came out of nowhere! Every vivid memory of the winter of '06/'07 came right to my mind- the constant doctor's visits, the crying, the screaming, the meds, the ear tube surgery... And to think of doing it all over again!
And that is why I say that we're dealing with our theology in this ugly land of infections. Because what do you do when you don't get the fun things you want (weekend away, health, sleep) and instead face a potential trial? You can get overwhelmed, have a huge pity party, and be a touch mad at God. And I'll be honest, there was some moments of that yesterday. But we sat down and talked about it. Is God good? You bet. Does he withhold good from His children? Nope. So how do I explain this? I back up, stop looking at myself, and start looking at God.
Yes, we're sick and miserable and tired, etc, etc, but also we're so blessed. Knowing that I have an eternity before me to be in God's presence, removed from sickness, what's a little time here? Just a blip. Even a fun weekend away, even at a church retreat, only has limited value. But serving the Lord with gladness where He has me- that has eternal value. Bringing praise as a sacrifice when it's not easy is a privilege.
I am so thankful for the promise of eternity because it gives us hope. When life doesn't seem so rosy, I'm so glad I can know that I'm not living for this life!
So thanks for letting me vent people. We look forward to keeping you up to date on the great weekend ahead of us- whether that's Greg and Niki at the Beach and Addie's fun time with the Kropfs, or whether it's a weekend together as a family loving and serving each other in sickness.

Finally, I leave you with a little story to sum up how we feel:
The other night, after we put Addie down to bed, we heard her over the monitor making more noise than usual. I asked Greg, "Is she crying?" Putting the monitor up to his ear he said, "I think she's singing!" We leaned in to hear better and heard our daughter singing
"God is so good,
God is so good,
God is so good,
Heee's goooooood to me."

A Wee Bit 'O The Nasty

St. Patrick's day brought a special surprise to our home- a touch of food poisoning!

You would think it would be from something like green-dyed corn beef, which would make you all say, "well of COURSE you got food poisoning!"- but it was actually something as simple as some funky ground beef. At least that was the only common denominator we can figure out!

It hit Addie the hardest, and she puked a couple times that night. Greg and I were relieved to have nothing more than a gross feeling in our guts for the next day or so.

We're fine now, and Addie is recovery slowly. She's mostly back to her same spunk, but just doesn't want to eat. She has existed the last few days on Cheerios, a few grapes, a little banana and some rice.

You'll forgive me, I'm sure, for not taking pictures of this latest adventure.

We're just glad that we'll probably be feeling great in time to celebrate Easter this Sunday! We've been using "Ressurection Eggs" this year to teach Addie about the Easter story and we've done one or two eggs each night before bed. She is loving them! (If you're not familiar with Ressurection Eggs, they are a set of a dozen plastic eggs and inside each egg is a little symbol of part of the story of Jesus' crucifiction, burial, and vistory over death. For instance, a little crown of thorns, a donkey, etc.). We are looking forward to opening the last egg with her on Easter morning, an empty egg, talking about Jesus' empty tomb, and then celebrating with praise at church Sunday morning. Of course, there's all the other Easter fun like a new dress, the Spangler jellybean hunt, and the ham dinner at our friend's, the Kaneversky's house! We will take lots of pictures!

Just thought I'd let you all know why the blog has been quiet this week.
Hope you all have a blessed Easter!

Here to Stay

This week has, up to this point, been taken up with dealing full-time with Addie's health. Not my first choice in how to spend my week, but that's just how it goes.

We saw Addie's GI doctor on Monday for a check-up on the reflux situation. He confirmed what we already suspected, which is that Addie's reflux will probably not go away in time like we had all once hoped. To put it another way: She's not going to outgrow it. Surprisingly, this wasn't some huge dissapointing revelation, because like I'd said, we kinda had suspected this. Thankfully, Addie's dr has prepared us all along by giving us statistics instead of promises (as in, "98 percent of kids will outgrow this by a year"). So we have a kid that falls into those little leftover percentages, and we arent' surprised. Somehow, though it's hard to explain, that just fits who Addie is. She is NOT normal, but in the most fabulous ways!

The other reasons we aren't too bothered by this are:
#1- God has been with us, and promises to be with us, each step of this path. There will probably be many more times in the future of bad sleep, of a simple cold turning into a big deal, etc., but He got us through so much already, how can we doubt He will continue to give us the strength for each day?
#2- God is using this to improve Greg and I's character in some really important ways. For instance, I am not known to be the most patient person, so a long-term challenge is extra hard for me. But God has already taught me so much about patience through this, I can see the good in it! I needed it!
#3- God has a unique plan for our family, and if this is part of it, then it is GOOD. Why? Because God is good. His plans are good. His purposes for us are good. We can trust Him.
So we're just gonna keep chugging along, one bit at a time. Actually, we are going to give thanks for it, because God tells us to "Give thanks in all circumstances."

The future for Addie and reflux looks like this: we will try to wean her off the meds one more time, even though none of us (dr included) think it will work. But to be thorough, it's a good thing to do. To do this, we have to wait until she's "healthy", so we might be waiting until.... January? :)

Once we try the wean and it fails, we schedule an endoscopy, which is an out-patient procedure where they look down Addie's GI system, to check for damage to her esophogus, which can happen with long-term reflux. It shouldn't be a huge deal, but I'm not really looking forward to it. It involves Addie being knocked out, so it's not easy, but thankfully it's not a risky or scary procedure.

Now, after the doctor appointment on Monday, when we talked through all this, Addie came down with a rotten cold and only slept 3 hours that night. So Tuesday was spent trying to survive through the day (all of us) and get back into our wonderful bed as soon as possible! So far Wednesday is going nicely though, in case you're interested. I am so thankful that God didn't allow Addie to get sick before this! The last two weeks have been packed full of outside activities and commitments and things are finally quiet on the home front, so we actually have the time to be home and recover, and not ditch out on important stuff.

Whew! Didn't mean to be so wordy! Just thought I would catch you all up. Due to the cold and lack of good sleep, it may be awhile before the next post. Be patient with me! :)

You are what you swallow

Greg got Addie dressed the other day and later we came to a startling discovery. We had dressed our daughter like her pills. Let me explain.













Here is a picture of the medicine Addie takes every day for her reflux.




Sad, isn't it?

Diagnoses

Yeah! It's not an ear infection! The doctor took one look at Addie's throat and had much compassion for her. He says there's a rotten virus going around causing high fevers and sore throats. Of course we wouldn't want this, but we can't help but be relieved that her ears are not the problem. And though the next few days will not be fun, a virus means that we don't have to go to the pharmacy again! Yeah! We will, however, be short on sleep for awhile, but that's a familiar issue for us. So no blog posts for a few days at least- try to survive. :)

High Scores, High Temps

An exciting weekend at our house...

Some of you may not know that we are Cavs fans around here (Cleveland Cavaliers), out of loyalty to Niki's half-sister Carolyn, who is married to the Cav's coach, Mike Brown. Well there was a big game on Saturday and the Cavs beat the Detroit Pistons, taking them to the NBA FINALS for the first time in the history of the team! It was a very exciting game and we were extra thrilled to see lots of shots of Mike with his sons, our nephews, accepting the Championship trophy after the game. They are the cute boys in red, in case you're not sure.













We had some more excitement today (Sunday) when Addie came down with a fever of 103. Yuck. There isn't any obvious sign of what she is fighting, so our best guess at this point is it's the ears again. We will be visiting our dear friends at the Pediatrician's office AGAIN tommorow! Poor thing, she is more pathetic even that "normal" sick Addie and we are giving her lots of cuddles and video time. We'll let you know what we find out. I'm sure this illness will do a good job at distracting us during the long wait for Thursday night's playoff game between the Cavs and the San Antonio Spurs.

Never Boring for Long

The other night, as we were going to bed, Greg asked me, "What does your day look like tomorrow?" With a sigh I said, "Oh, I'll wake up, dress Addie, feed Addie, change Addie's diaper, shower, play in Addie's room..." and proceded to list off an entire day's routine, all in a tone of voice that communicated "my life has become one monotonous routine."

Well, that'll teach me. It did seem as if life without the drama of illness was getting pretty mundane. Well thank the Lord, He has ended that for me!

First, my parents arrive for a visit in just a few days. We are really looking forward to it! I have a list of things to get done before they arrive and that is enough on my plate. But wait, there's more!

Addie started waking up again at night. Not just crying a little and going back to sleep, but waking and not being able to go back to sleep for hours. I had thought her behavior seemed "off" for almost a week now, but doubted myself. Last night, Greg insisted that I call the doctor today. So in we went, and Greg, who insisted that I should listen to my instincts, was right. Addie has an ear infection.

How can this happen? She has tubes! This is what I said to the doctor, who sweetly informed me that tubes or no tubes, things can still happen. This confirms that Addie's reflux is still going strong, since there is still fluid in her ears to trap bacteria and let an infection grow. The intensity of this infection is much better than in times past- since she has the tubes there is no pressure building up. But nonetheless, it is there. You can see from these shots I took today after we got home from the doctor that our little trooper is OK.


It does still hurt some, but at least now we know why she is more irritable and sleeping worse. And we know to expect waking up at night for a few more nights and we know why. That helps.
And the ear infection is not the only thing shaking our life up a bit! As you can see, Addie is practicing her cowgirl skills, and it's a good thing, because we're going to visit Dallas in a few weeks!

As of Yesterday at this time, we had no ideas about going on such a trip, but...


Let me give you some background information to explain.









Over the last few months, Greg and I have been talking about relocating at some point in the future. We had considered several options, but became more and more interested in Texas. There are lots of reasons: There are good oportunities in his company in the Dallas area, we have several friends that live in the same area, the cost of living is much lower, and we know of a good church in the area too! From what we've learned about the local culture, it sounds like a good fit for us (we love BBQ & Mexican food, country music- well, Niki does- and a slower pace of life). We did a lot of research and Greg talked to his company's Regional Supervisor to find out about job opportunities. Well, there are none at this point that are a good fit, but the Regional Supervisor did say he would keep Greg's name on a short list for when new opportunities arrive. Who knows if that really means anything, but just the same...

We thought a visit to the area might be good, but had no plans made. Then we got a phone call last night from our friend Chris Kropf's parents. It seems Chris' brother is getting married over Memorial Day weekend and they proposed a trade. If Greg would come and photograph the wedding, they would provide substantial help in getting us out there. It was too good of a deal to pass up!

So just like that, we're going to Dallas for Memorial Day! We are really excited! Not just to see the area, but some good friends too, and we'll be out there with our good buddies, the Kropfs. We'll get to visit the church we've heard so much about and maybe even get some BBQ!!!! Yeehaw!

So like I said, The Lord knew that a little boredom over the last few weeks was good for us, since all this excitement was just around the corner. I can't help but think of Ephesians 3:20- "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." He is full of surprises indeed!

So if you find yourself thinking life has settled into a dull routine- watchout! You never know what one 24 hour span of time can bring!