Long time, no post

Thank you, Kim, for checking in on me! That was so sweet. No, I haven't fallen off the planet. I have just been incredibly out off schedule lately.

About three weeks ago we were put on alert that my grandmother in Louisiana was extremely ill. By the end of the week we were told if we wanted to see her, we needed to make the trip. She was in CCU and on a ventilator, and they believe she had one, possibly two strokes. We left on Friday, spent the night in a hotel and then made it to the hospital on Saturday afternoon. From my understanding, she was in multi-system failure.

We only had 4 half hour periods in which we were allowed to visit and kids under 12 years of age were not allowed in the CCU, so keeping the kids occupied was a necessity. Luckily, we happened to be visiting during the Mardi Gras season, so we were able to bring the kids to parades starting that first evening. More on that in a little bit. ;)

On that first Monday, they took Grandma off the machines and she was alert. She told all of us that this was what she wanted. She asked several times for a Coke, and the nurses eventually gave in an let her have it. There were a lot of tears and laughs. Three days later she was moved to a private room. I was happy that my kids were finally going to get to see her after all this time. She had only met my boys once and had never met the girls, so it was good for all of them. She loved seeing them. Jacob didn't know what to talk to her about so he started talking about cars. Grandma was a Nascar fan, so that seemed to fit nicely. Joshua was so silly and cute. He was curious about the oxygen tube in her nose and so we explained that it helped Grandma get some air. He went over to the bed and proceeded to demonstrate to her how to breathe. She chuckled about it, as did we. Cassie was shy, but Elena took to her nicely.

The kidney doctor checked in on her one day while I was visiting and he told us that he felt her kidneys were going to eventually begin functioning again and they would continue dialysis until they kicked into full gear.

I think it was last Friday (the 16th) when I went to visit that I was alone with her for about an hour and a half. I noticed her breathing seemed more labored than I remembered seeing in the days before. She pretty much slept from that day onward. On Sunday, we went to visit after a parade and some lunch, and my aunt greeted us with news that Grandma was running a fever and was not waking up still after basically three days of sleeping. At some point the kidney doctor had come in and said he thought she had aspirated some food. After a short visit with the kids, we went back to my aunt's house debating on whether or not we should go home to Florida in the morning like we had planned. At 11:30pm my mother called and said that Grandma had passed away. They funeral was on Wednesday.

The kids did pretty well with everything. I'm not sure that Josh and Cassidy fully understand that Grandma is gone. Jacob seems to know what is going on, especially since we lost Meemaw only a year and a half ago. I will have to dig up the papers that I read to Jacob back then that answered a lot of question kids have about death. When told them about Grandma passing away, Joshua had a sad look on his face and said "Oh no". Cassie looked sad and hugged me, but didn't say too much. At the viewing, she wanted to go up and see Grandma. We let her and it didn't seem to really phase her too much. Joshua was concerned about the fact that she was wearing glasses, and in the hospital she did not have them. That was all he has really said to me about all of it. On the day of the funeral, as we were getting dressed, Cassidy smiled and said she couldn't wait for Grandma to wake up and see her in her pretty dress. I tried explaining again, but it was obvious she still does not get it. So, we will just keep working on explaining it when she asks questions.

I mentioned our entertainment during the past two weeks - the Mardi Gras parades. Our first one was on the night we got into town. The kids had a blast, but poor Joshua had a complete meltdown. He was tired from the trip, out of his normal routine, we were directly next to a DJ with the music blaring, and it was night, so the police cars and their flashing lights and noise from the motorcycles were just complete overload to his system. He did eventually find a small wagon one of my cousins brought, and he happily sat in it behind the crowd.

As time went on, there were more and more parades. Almost every single time, he would bounce in the trucks that were were sitting in or would run around on some grass behind the crowds, completely oblivious to what was going on. However, at the last parade we attended (the night before the actual Mardi Gras celebration) he let me hold him while the floats passed. The little stinker actually caught some beads. He was so excited, and in typical sweet Joshua fashion, he put them around my neck and gave me the biggest smile. I told him I would keep those since he caught them for me. He later got a toy helicopter and a toy ATV. That completely made his day. He just beamed and kept telling us he liked Mardi Gras now. LOL

Jacob and the girls enjoyed the parades from the start and those kids racked up on so much junk. LOL We have bag after bag after bag of beads, pixi sticks, stuffed animals galore, cups, doubloons, yardstick sized bubble gum, footballs out the wazoo, little purses and flowers for the girls, tons of toys, and who knows what else. We actually had to have my parents take most of it home in their van since we didn't have room for it all. Needles to say, we are giving a ton of it away!

That was a long update, but in all fairness, it has been a long month. We did no school while we were gone, so we will be playing catch-up next week, which should go over great with the kids, I'm sure. :) Hopefully it won't be so long between this post and my next one. :)