A Little Decorating for my Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and I wanted to go to the Christmas Tree Shop.  This is a store that a friend had told me about and she gave it such high reviews that she claimed it as her favorite store!  I immediately pictured Christmas decorations and had no interest in going there.  That's the last thing I need is more Christmas decor.  But then I started getting the ads for it in the mail and there wasn't one Christmas item in them?  Instead, there was lots of cute and cheap stuff for sale and some of it caught my eye.

Like this bookshelf.  I've been searching for a couple night stands in white that weren't too pricey but also were sturdy so when bumped they wouldn't fall over.  I also wanted it to be more than just a table top but also have some functional purpose.  A drawer would be nice or cupboard or these shelves!

I also got this lantern looking light and it was only $7.  It uses a nightlight type light so it isn't a good reading lamp but creates a nice low light setting.  I thought it would come in handy in the middle of the night when the baby awakens and needs to be fed.

By the way, I have to say that we didn't buy all this stuff ourselves for my birthday but used birthday money sent to me.  I bought this nice floor lamp so I can sit in my chair in our bedroom and read.

And then I found these pretty place mats for only 50 cents each on clearance. They match my kitchen perfectly with the blue and red.

My favorite item that my family bought me are these ducks!  They each picked one to represent themselves and bought them for me!

This is me at 44 years old after my baby's born since you see him or her hanging off my back!

These are the different ones that my children picked.  They are only $2 each for the small ones and $6 for the large ducks that have the babies on them.  I just love this gift because not only is it cute but it has meaning to me.

I don't usually do posts on decorating so I hope this struck you as fun and not meaningless.  I like to think of my style of decorating as "cottage style" and not country but it always seems to look country instead.  I have so many friends whose decorating style is eccentric and they make it work!  I'm not so creative and that style isn't really me anyway, even though I like it.

Oh, did I mention that my husband bought me an apple pie instead of cake for my birthday?  I love pie so much more than cake.  Apple pie and vanilla ice cream is a dreamy dessert!  I'm glad my husband knows me well! He never could have picked out all these decorative items on his own for me but desserts he knows well! 

My Life . . . Boring?

 My life is sooo NOT boring!  Especially with little Micah around.  After posting about him getting lost and then CPS investigating our family, we had about a month and 1/2 reprieve.  Normal life resumed with me trying to finish up school with the kids.  Throw 2 birthdays in there and an 8 day anniversary trip out of the country and our focus was quickly on other things.  Oh!  And as I'm thinking back on why I haven't blogged and what did I do during April and May, I'm remembering dentist appointments for 4 out of 5 kids, plus myself, a guest who stayed with us for about 5 days, and my parents came for a week!

Then on May 11th, while I was at the dentist getting two fillings replaced, Micah had an "episode."  We called it a seizure because we've seen "spells" like this before with our oldest daughter, Olivia.  Good thing Rich had just come home for lunch when it happened.  Micah just seemed to slip into another world for a really long time.  He was unresponsive with his eyes open and head back.  His body went limp so Rich rushed him to the ER which is literally 7 minutes from our house.  Micah finally came to when Rich had carried him all the way into the ER and was checking in.  We estimate the whole thing lasted 10-15 minutes.  

Of course, we spent the next 4 hours at the ER doing blood tests, X-rays, urine tests, and a CT scan of his brain.  The picture above is of him in the hospital with an IV in his arm.  When I got home from the dentist, the kids told me what happened so I rushed over to meet Rich at the ER.  Micah snuggled right into my arms and fell asleep.  He kept doing that in between tests, sleeping.  Having your brain shut down and restart really makes you tired.  Olivia used to sleep for at least an hour after having a seizure.

All the memories of Olivia and her first "episodes" came flooding back to us.  It's been at least 12 years since we first learned about epilepsy and seizures.  She grew out of them and has been seizure free for 4 years now and better yet, doesn't require any medication to keep her that way.  Praise God, that years of praying for her, he chose to honor our prayers so that she struggles with this no more.

So what did we do next?  More appointments were needed.  Since May 11th, Micah has seen a neurologist for a consultation and May 25th he had an EEG conducted to see if he has any abnormal brain activity and when does this occur.  For a child who has only seen a doctor a handful of times in his little life and most of those were during his first year, he has cooperated marvelously.  I couldn't be more proud of him.  

Above, the EEG technician is drawing on his head, measuring and marking where to put the electrodes.  She let him draw with a big red marker on the hospital sheets to occupy him!  It's washable but I just hope he doesn't think this is ok at home.

 Here he is with all the electrodes on his head.  He does look like he came out of a Si-Fi movie!

Then she wrapped this gauze around his head to hold everything in place.  He was done at this point and ready to get down but she tempted him to stay by telling him it was time to play some games.  She flashed a blinking light in his face and he was to open and close his eyes when she told him to.  He did great at this game.  Then she gave him a pinwheel to blow on to make it spin.  He was supposed to keep blowing for 2 whole minutes without stopping!  Well, if any of you have ever tried this, it's pretty hard and makes you light headed.  He lasted about a minute and then just gave up.  We tried to get him to keep going but he kept simply saying "no".  He was also supposed to sleep while there so they turned out the lights and gave him a pillow.  How you are supposed to sleep with all that stuff on your head plus 3 people in the room waiting for you to fall asleep is beyond me.  Olivia never slept for these tests and neither did Micah even though we had only given him 6 hours the night before.  Of course when he got home and I put him down for a nap, he slept for 5 hours!

We have yet to get the results from this test.  I suspect they will be abnormal because Micah had his 2nd episode this afternoon.  We have been keeping an extra eye on him just in case for the past 2 weeks.  I was at a friends house this afternoon and all the kids were playing upstairs.  Anytime he is out of my sight, I make sure someone is with him.  Julia was upstairs with all the little ones (my friends kids and Micah) when we heard her calling us.  She was saying, "Micah is having another seizure."  By the time we reached the top of the stairs, he was coming out of it but I could tell he'd had another "spell".  He was wobbly and listless in his eyes.  He collapsed on my shoulder and wouldn't speak.  I held him for a bit and talked to him.  After about a min. or two, he spoke and then wanted to go play some more.

No, life is not dull around here.  This could be the beginning of Micah being diagnosed with Epilepsy.  Not really a part of my plans for my life or his but I know that God is in control and will protect him.  I would appreciate your prayers when you think of us trying to keep him safe.

8 1/2  weeks to go and I'll be having another baby.  After my in-laws visit the beginning of June, this is what we'll all be getting ready for.  What a whirlwind!  I haven't even had a chance to really think about it!  It's getting hard to forget that I'm pregnant since I'm getting so large and every night I'm reminding as this little one moves and kicks me while I sleep, but I still feel like this has been the fastest pregnancy I've ever experienced.  Let's hope the delivery is just as quick!