It's July already?

And, moving towards the middle of July with incredible speed. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. So much has happened since my last post. I wanted to write more regularly, and again I've had this huge lapse. So, I'll pull myself back up on the wagon for another shot.

The morning after my last post, I was up and in the emergency room with Marissa by 5 am. I guess it was a good thing I had such a great night of sleep the night before. It had been such a nice afternoon, just the 3 of us girls. We stopped off at the book store and picked out a few reads. Then we headed for the airport. Once we we had Ron with us, we headed out for dinner. But, suddenly, Marissa was not feeling well. Her mouth hurt, and her face began to swell. Within a few hours I was terribly concerned. We tried to sleep, thinking we would take her to urgent care in the morning, but it became obvious that it couldn't wait, and off to the ER we went.

After she was checked out by two doctors, it was decided that she had an infection that had caused an abscess that was continuing to expand and needed to be drained in the operating room. This meant a transfer to a different hospital with pediatric ICU, as they would have to put her out and put her on a respirator. Everything went as smoothly as possible, but this was all followed by 24 hours in ICU, where she was kept completely sedated. And, then another over night in a regular room while they watched for possible return of the infection.

It was exhausting and probably the scariest thing I have ever been through. It was incredibly hard to sit and watch my precious little one with all those tubes coming out of her, even though I knew everything was going to be okay. My heart breaks for all those parents who have to experience chronic and life threatening illnesses thrust upon their children. I don't know how they are able to deal with it.

And then, as quickly as it came on, it was over. She was back to normal so fast, and able to go to her last day of school, and I was able to attend Baily's 6th grade graduation and watch her receive the Presidential Academic Award. I was very proud of her.

Then, I hopped a plane back home to California, where we had 25 days until our lease was up. And, we had not found yet found a place to move into. I began packing, and watching the rental listings obsessively. Finally, by the middle of the month, we found something and after a few little hurdles, we signed a lease.

The next couple of weeks included frantic packing, moving, and unpacking, along with an 8th grade graduation, another 6th grade graduation and the arrival of Baily and Marissa for the summer.

So, now, we are all settled in and enjoying the summer. We've gone to and Angel's game, Disneyland and spent days at the pool. This weekend is a yard sale and a minor league baseball game. It's a constant whirlwind of activity, and I must close this post to go feed a 12 year old boy and get him off to baseball practice.

Tonight will be a mellow evening with only 3 kids. The 4 younger girls have gone to spend the night at Grandma's house. My husband laughed and said people would probably look at us crazy for saying it was a quiet evening with a full of energy 7 year, a jr high age boy, and teenage girl. But, it sure seems quiet to me.