Rollercoaster

I know I'm not the only one who gets them.  I call them the February blahs.  That dreary feeling you get in February when you haven't seen the sun or been outside to breath clean air for weeks and weeks.  Everyone is sick with something and you are just sick of the same old same old day in and out.  This year was no exception. So to combat it, we took a trip to Utah to visit family and attend a baby blessing!  We spent the time in Orem catching up with the Stubbs family.  It was really fun! The kids ate up every second with Grandma and Grandpa.  They played like crazy with their cousins.  We were totally spoiled, like usual.  It was so great!

 After our trip, we thought we could start to enjoy the early signs of spring.  Except we just couldn't kick those viruses that pounded us down in February.  In fact we have spent the last four weeks with at least one person on an antibiotic to clear up a secondary bacteria infection from those stupid viruses.  Afton was the lucky one to get strep throat.  That was nasty.  Here she is at her Valentine's party at school... picking up said Strep Throat all while eating candy.  And then here she is waiting in the Urgent Care to get her throat swabbed.  She humors me and smiles for the camera.


Cade had a painful ear infection.  We're actually still working on getting rid of that one. And poor Ben went through the ringer.  Any time he gets a cold it triggers an extreme asthma attack.  We spent two full weeks on the edge of taking him to the ER.  He did a course of steroids to open up his lungs but instead of really helping, the steroid caused "steroid psychosis" in his confused little body.  Some of the symptoms were being overly excited, extremely irritable and depressed.  He would have rapid mood swings and get violent with me when I came near him.  It was like having an alien take over his body and he'd be so crazy it would scare me. I felt so bad for him because he'd be in the middle of screaming about something and then he'd just start to sob because he couldn't control all the emotions pulsing through him.  It was awful for him.  At the fourth consult with the Dr in one week, we realized he wasn't improving at all so we had to take him in for a chest x-ray.  It was thankfully ruled out that he did not have pneumonia.  So we decided to take the route of calling it a severe sinus infection and started him on antibiotics.  Thanks for all of the prayers that were offered on his behalf.  I truly believe that prayer power saved the day.  After 36 hours on the antibiotic we finally started to see glimpses of our true Ben.  He smiled for the first time in a week.  He hummed a little tune and he didn't try to hurt me.  It was wonderful! Here he is doing what he did for two weeks.

I'm happy to report that he is still on the recovery trail and each day I get to see my sweet boy come back to us.  It's good to have him back. :)

Now, while all of this drama was going on, we were working on a very fun home project.  After five years of talking about it but not actually getting around to it, we decided to get our kitchen fixed up. We "know a guy" who is a retired painter and was willing to do our cabinets for next to nothing.  He came in and made magic happen in our run down kitchen.  Ready for before and after photo?  I love these!

 Before:

 

After: