Dear Grandpa

Dear Grandpa, Oh where to begin! So much has happen in the last 7 years since you went Home. The first thing I had to get through which was probably the hardest for me was my college graduation. I know you tried so hard to stay strong and wanted to be there for me, but I also know that you were in a much better place. I wish you could've been there. After graduation I moved up to Nebraska to go to Grad school at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. That place is windy! In January of 2006 Damon and Mandy welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Michael Solomon. He's 6 now and such an amazing boy, he's so funny and so smart! During this time frame Justin and Betsy moved from San Fransisco to Oklahoma. I think Justin wanted to be closer to the family down there and he was trying to finish up some college classes too. During my time in grad school I got married! Jeremy is such a wonderful man and you would've loved him! I wanted him to meet you before you left but we just never had a good time to come down, of course now any time would've been a good time. We got married in March of 2007, I wish you could've been there. Things in Nebraska were good for the most part, we liked the city we were in and had a great family that helped take care of us when we needed them. They hosted a graduation party for me when I graduated. I graduated in May of 2008, I wish you could've been there. A couple days after graduation we made the move back to Indiana and had to live with Damon and Mandy for about a month, or should I say got to :). About the same time that we moved, Justin and Betsy made a move to Seattle! Can you believe it... they are so far away now. They now have two "four-legged" kids who are so cute! You'd like them, their names are Dixie and Brody (but I can never remember which one is which!) Justin is finishing up college and graduating in December and Betsy is tearing it up with her artwork out there! After we finally got a place in Indianapolis I started working at Hobby Lobby and Jeremy started serving, we both just needed to get jobs right away. We got our first little one in October of 2008, don't worry, it was just a puppy! He's so adorable and fun, his name is Mac and he loves grandma! I bet he would've loved you too, he's the perfect size dog for you and he's so loyal! Damon and Mandy welcomed their 2nd baby in August of 2008, Micah Lynn, she has the prettiest blue eyes you've ever seen! She is a beautiful little girl and she's so funny. Her and Solomon are definitely 2 peas in a pod! Damon and Mandy are doing well, Damon is working hard as a youth pastor and Mandy is fabulous teacher, I'm sure you guys could share a few teaching stories! Mom and Dad are doing great, they are wonderful parents! They have a big camper that you would be super proud of and they camp out multiple times through out the summer. They even drove the camper all the way to Nebraska for my gradation! They go to Disney World almost every year now :) And finally, Jeremy and I had Paige in August of last year. She's amazing, I wish you could've been there. I remember you constantly, from the American flag pin on my purse, to the old car driving down the street, to the random person smoking a pipe on a nice spring day. You are everywhere. I love you and miss you.

The dreaded doctor....

So let's go back to February 3rd, 2012. I was so excited to have the day off. I had just finished working 10 hour days Mon-Thurs so I wouldn't have to go downtown on Friday and deal with Super Bowl traffic. I had lots to do on Friday because I was throwing a baby shower for a good friend on Saturday and hadn't really done much at all! So I wake up to Paige (as usual) and I get her changed and I feed her. After that she started coughing so much! I was planning to take her to day care for a few hours that day so I could get stuff done, but her cough really started to worry me. So I called the doctor and got an appointment scheduled and that's when we found out she had an ear infection in her left ear. Poor baby... but other than the cough I wouldn't have even thought about taking her to the doctor because she was acting perfectly normal! So we got the antibiotic and went back 2 weeks later for a check-up.

February 17th was the next check-up. At this appointment the doctor thought she heard something in her lungs. So this time we had to do a breathing treatment (incredibly hard to do by yourself with a six month old who can't sit still!) and she wanted to get a chest X-ray as well :(. All that came back was that now she had an ear infection in both ears... so on to antibiotic #2 and a follow-up appointment in 7 days.

February 23rd... yay! No more ear infection!!

February 29th... 6-month check up (not sure why we couldn't combine the 23rd and 29th appointments, but whatever)... Ear infection is back, on to antibiotic #3 and another check-up in 2 weeks.

March 12th... yay! No more ear infection!!

March 27th... Paige had been coughing again for the previous 2 days, to the point where she had to sleep in her car seat next to the bed because it's the only way she wouldn't cough all through the night - and the only way I could get any sleep. So we took her to the doctor again... and guess what... another double ear infection! So on to antibiotic #4, and since this is her fourth one we got referred to the ENT. The office called and the ENT appointment was set for April 11th so we didn't need to schedule a check-up with our doctor's office.

April 9th... The 4th antibiotic didn't seem to do it's job because Paige was still coughing pretty bad towards the end of the anitbiotic. Sunday night Jeremy was getting a little worried about all the coughing and I agreed. We called the doctor's office Monday morning to ask if we should wait until our ENT appointment or come in for some more medicine. We went ahead and took her in and this time she had to get a shot :(! Not only 1 shot, but I had to take her back on the 10th for a follow-up shot!

Today (April 11th)... 3:10 appointment with the ENT... pretty sure we will end up getting tubes, please just take a moment to pray for our visit and that all goes well. I'm not worried about getting her tubes if that is what's best for her, I just want to stop taking her to the doctor all the time! :)

Through all this Paige has been an amazing little girl! Other than the coughing and occasional grabbing of her ears you wouldn't even know she's sick! She is such a happy baby!