Summer Flood

Right around the time that school finished for 2013 we had major flooding. We are near the Grand Rapids area and all around the rivers overflowed. In our little town we have the Grand River and the Flat River. They meet just past the downtown area. We happen to live within sight of the Flat River. When we moved here I asked my mother-in-law if the river had ever flooded. She scoffed and told me there was never a flood to worry about. Yeah....

 Train bridge by the flour mill that is downtown. This picture was taken when we first moved here. The picture below is the same train bridge taken during the flood. The water actually got higher than this.

 See that road above? That is the main street of town. The above picture is when we moved here and the picture below is from the flood. Of course, the flood picture was taken while I could still get over that way. The water got higher than this.

The water flooded the Riverwalk and the Showboat. It made its way towards the library. The library was cleared out as much a possible. The main street was closed down which cut us off from town and the grocery store. A 20 minute alternate route through dirt roads was the only way to get around for a day. The police finally started letting people that lived in our area through but you had to give the address that you were going to. The power company decided they would shut the power down to our side of the city since there was a large transformer type thing right near the Riverwalk and rising water. We got the notice and decided to leave our place. In the end we were only gone for one night since the water finally stopped rising.

Our street did flood while we were gone. We actually got taken out by the Grand River. It flooded across Main Street and met up with flooding from the Flat River. The water was too much for the storm drains. The city had pumps and tubes running from one set of storm drains to another in the hope of keeping the water down.  There was a lot of damage done to homes and businesses. The Kent County Fairgrounds had tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

 

Of course, the water receded and today everything is frozen over and covered in mounds of snow.  

 

 



2014

A new year has started. It is very cold here with wind chill temps at 21 degrees below zero. School was suppose to start up on Monday, but we are on our second snow day. Considering that the last day of school before the Christmas break was cancelled for ice, the children have had an extra 3 days of vacation time.

Less than a week after writing the last post in August my beloved Chang Po died. He was 12 years old and had been my baby since the day he was born. His passing was unexpected and very quick. I am thankful that I got to hold him and tell him how much I love him. I wrapped him in the cardigan my mother always wore and we buried him next to his mother in my in-laws' backyard. I would love to write an entire post based on him and all his Tibetan Spaniel silliness, but even writing this much has me in tears. He is much loved and very missed. However, I am at peace with his passing. A long life lived to the fullest and a dignified, swift passing.

LuLu has been much more clingy since Chang's death. She does not like being an 'only dog' and she hates being left alone for more than half an hour. She sits on my lap whenever I sit down and being a Lab-mix she is not actually lap-dog size. Still, she is my comfort and my friend.

That last post in August had us taking Irene to a Pediatric Cardiologist. We went, she had another EKG and we met with a fantastic doctor. He was very charmed by her. Irene was given the lowest grade of heart murmur. She never has to mention it on forms and is not required to see the cardiologist for it ever again. Great news!

Things here are as they ever were. I have been suffering from insomnia for the last two and a half months. It is like living in a nonstop fog. I find that I have a low tolerance for noise. After a day of the kids being silly I have to sit with headphones in and music playing. By the end of the day I feel like my skin is full of prickles. I have to be careful of content when I read because of horrible dreams when I do get some sleep. It is like living in a slightly warp version of actual life.

Today the kids and I will watch The Avengers and Thor. We have become huge fans of The Avengers so we watch Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America, Thor and whatever other ones I may be missing. The kids all have their favorite character and Christmas gifts this year reflected that. Gavin wants Captain America bedding.

And....that is life in a nutshell. I do hope that 2014 finds everyone healthy, wealthy, and wise!

Welcome Back!

Well, my one month planned break from the blog turned out to be a little longer. Sickness has not stopped visiting us. We spent every month since March with someone being sick. Unfortunately, June and July it was Irene and she was very sick indeed.

 

After school finished we had Irene's 6th birthday which was an absolute blast. She is all about Build-A-Bear so she got a lot of gift certificates to the place. We enjoyed a couple of weeks of summer just relaxing. Then Irene got a pain in her side. Then a high fever. Then a very high fever. We ended up taking her to one of the urgent care places in the city. I gave them all the info about her fever and pain. The doctor decided that because of the area that Irene was experiencing pain and the very high fever we needed to take her to the Children's Hospital. The doctor called them to let them know we were on our way. At the time it was suspected that Irene had appendicitis.  

 

 

We were taken back to a room as soon as we got there. An ultrasound was scheduled. After the ultrasound, blood work and urinalysis the news came back that Irene had a very bad urinary tract infection that was well on its way to involving her kidney. The emergency doctor decided that Irene needed to stay in hospital so that she could be given massive doses of antibiotics. Plus, she was still experiencing the high fevers.

 

We were moved to their observation unit which is just a hallway away from the emergency area. This unit had crafts for the kids to do and Irene made two beaded bracelets and painted. All the rooms in the hospital have tvs that have access to a ton of movies. We watched a lot of movies during our stay.

 

Irene spent about two days in hospital. When the discharge doctor was doing her final assessment she asked if Irene had a heart murmur. Uh...no. Never has any of her doctors said that they've heard one. Well, this doctor said she could definitely hear it and that illness with make a murmur much more noticeable. We left the hospital with several prescriptions for Irene and a new report to take to her doctor for a follow up visit.

 

We went to Irene's doctor for the follow-up. At the time she was feeling better and her office urinalysis came back clean. The doctor had an EKG done in the office after listening to her heart and hearing the murmur himself. The doctor felt that this murmur is showing all the signs of being an 'innocent murmur' which means that it isn't too serious. However, because it is a new murmur and discovered during an illness she has to see a pediatric cardiologist. They will do an echo cardiogram and ultrasound to see how the blood is flowing to and from her heart and how the valves are working.

 

We went home with this new info and set about waiting for the appointment with the cardiologist and trying to get our summer back on track. Then about a week after finishing the antibiotics Irene starting complaining that her side hurt. Then she started with a fever. Then the high fever. As soon as the fever started climbing we were back into the doctor's office. Another urinalysis was done and another, longer and stronger, antibiotic was given. She was put on restricted activity and told to drink a lot of fluids to flush out her kidneys. Another follow-up appointment was made.

 

I am happy to say that this last dose of antibiotics seem to have done the trick. August has been spent illness free for Irene. We do have the cardiologist appointment set up for the first week of September. Unfortunately, that means she'll miss a day of school that first week of school, but I've already spoken to her teacher about it.

 

So, we have fully gotten into 'getting ready for school to start' mode. Henry will be in second grade this year and starting at a new school. Irene will be in first grade and has the same teacher that Henry had last year. Gavin will be starting preschool. He even got a scholarship through Great Start that covers the cost of the entire year. He'll be in the same preschool program that Irene was in when we first moved here. I think they did a great job with her and I'm looking forward to what Gavin will do in the program.

 

We finish August with school meetings and getting ready for September. Let's hope for good things to come!!

Taking a Small Break...

February has kicked our backsides in the way of sickness. I've never had a month like that one. Each of us hit with illness after illness. I am still fighting an exhausting cough and cannot find the extra mental energy to compose posts for the blogs.

I hope March will be a month of healing and we'll come back in April healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Take Care! We'll be back soon.

Playing in the Snow!

 For Christmas Henry got a sled. Unfortunately, we didn't have very much snow so he didn't get a chance to try it out until the end of January. We finally had enough snow to take it to a nearby park.

 There was a small hill that was perfect for beginning sledders. All three of them took turns on it and had a blast doing so.

 There was playground equipment and a slide to play on as well. We discovered that there is also a very small ice skating rink set up at this park. The kids don't have ice skates, but if winter has finally hit us we may get some.

 We got a lot of snow here Thursday and Friday. I think it was 10 inches. While I hate it the kids were out playing in it yesterday and it does make for good sledding. I think the nearby Meijer may have some sleds on sale. I think Irene would like her own.

 The children had no school on Friday. They went out and jumped around in the snow and tried to shovel. The snow is so wet and heavy that it was hard for them to pick up the shovel. When they came in they were drenched. Hot chocolate was given out to warm them up.

At least the kids can enjoy the snow!

A Doctor!

Since we've moved down here a year and a half ago we have not been able to find doctors in the area. No one here takes our insurance. Well, that isn't entirely true. There is a Spanish speaking clinic and a free clinic in a terrible part of town that will take us, but that is it.

I spoke with the insurance company and they said that we could go pretty much anywhere as long as the office was willing to bill our insurance. I found one in our town that listed the insurance on their website. When I called them though, holy cow! You'd think I had asked them to part the sea! Talk about rude and nasty. The woman on the phone was absolutely offend that I suggested that they take the insurance. I told her it is on their website. Hmm, as for her answer...the gist of it being that I must not be able to read. Customer service must not be high on their list. I wouldn't go there even if they did accept our insurance.

I would check the insurance site once a week in the hope that a new one would pop up. Then one week I got a shock. New doctors! Only 20 minutes from our house! I immediately called Mark with the info so he could call for an appointment. He was in the most need of going. He called and yes, they just started taking the insurance. Mark would be the first one signed up. He went in and liked the doctor, the office and how things were handled. We decided to sign the kids up, too. Unfortunately, I have a different insurance plan then Mark and the kids, so I didn't get to sign up. Still, happiness for a doctor nearby!

We took the kids in for a well child check-up. The office was easy to get to and nice. They even have a big room that is all play area for kids. The doctor we saw (the same one Mark saw) was excellent and easily handled my three monkeys.

Thankfully, we found this office. At the appointment the doctor found that Irene had a very swollen lymph node on her right side. Since she had been sick two weeks before the appointment we all figured it was from that. The doctor said to keep an eye on it. About two week later she told me her neck hurt. The huge gland was still there, but a hard, marble-like node had popped up lower down her neck. A day later another one popped out between the marble one and the huge one.

We went back to the doctor. This time it was the other doctor in the practice. He was also very good with her. He measured the lymph nodes and also found that her tonsil on that side is swollen. Since she has no other symptoms he couldn't give a definite diagnosis. We are on a 'wait and see' for six weeks. It is possible that the infection she had back at Christmas just settled in those glands and it is taking a while for them to go down. If they go away and no other symptoms or problems appear then all is good. If they don't go away or if other symptoms appear then we'll do the invasive tests. The ultrasound and blood draws. Of course, he mentioned the dreaded c-word. Still, he'd rather go with the simple infection idea. Frankly, so would us all.

Now we wait. While I worry and am nervous, checking her neck every day, she runs around like a normal little girl. Loving life and school and being especially dramatic.

Another Holiday Finished

 Another Christmas finished in the Williams Household. The weeks leading up to the big day was full of picking the tree off the floor and cleaning up broken ornaments. One morning I got up and discovered the tree on the floor. As I stared at the broken pieces I felt an overwhelming desire to toss it all out the door.

 Instead, I left it on the ground and got the kids ready for school. Once they were in school I tackled the mess. I had some moments of tears as I picked up broken pieces of my tree topper. It was a limited edition Waterford made to look like Christmas past. I cannot get another and I admit I just loved the look of it. It made me think of the 30's and 40's tree toppers. It invoked memories of my grandma.

 Also lost was the Northwood University ornament. The lovely blue ornament in the pic above. My brother gave it to me and there are so many special memories wrapped into that one ornament. Among the broken bits were Polish ornaments, another Waterford special edition, and ornaments we had just bought. My 'Nicole' ornament, that lived on my mother's tree for 3 decades, also met its end.

 I cleaned up the mess, took apart the tree and waited for Mark to come home from the road. I put the tree back up, tied to the window this time, and decorated it for the second time. A few hours later the damn thing fell over. This time it fell toward the window. Nothing was broken, but it was clear that the tree was not going to remain upright. Once again, the ornaments came off and the tree was sent on its way. We bought a tree at Walgreen's for $30. Ornaments put on...for the third time.
Our plan for next Christmas is to buy a better made tree. One with a metal stand. It'll cost more so money is being saved. Still, I do not want another year of smashed memories.

 Christmas arrived and poor Irene spent 12 hours of the day throwing up. She managed to get up and open gifts. After, she was back on the couch sleeping. She didn't play with anything until after dinner.

 Mark and I made a Christmas brunch. We had coffee from Madagascar that I had given to Mark. If you have ever seen the show Dangerous Grounds you'll know the coffee. The rest of our day was spent relaxing and playing and watching movies.

 Poor Irene spent the rest of the week with a fever although, thankfully, the throwing up stopped.

 The rest of the week was spent having lazy days. Mark was off for the week and we just relaxed.

 The new tree and the new tree topper. Below is a pic of some of our decorations.

The kids had two weeks off from school. It was a nice break from the hectic mornings. Of course, the adjustment back into school was a little rough. Another holiday season is finished and I am looking forward to spring.