Meet Murphy Brown....

here is our new friend and family member, Murphy!


Allison and Murphy bonding.

Chillaxin!

So it's been awhile since my last blog, I figured I'd better update since a lot has happened this month!

We started the beginning of the month with Allison being sick, as most of you have already been told, we took her to the ER with a high temperature on the 30th of January. They sent us home the same day, after 5 hours in the ER with medicine for an ear infection. Since it was a Friday, Chuck had to take off to Kansas City for work. Saturday morning came along and Allison was just plain sick, flu like sick. She just didn't feel good at all, you could tell. By the end of Saturday she looked a little better, but was a bit worried b/c she hadn't eaten a whole lot, however, she was still drinking fluids. Sunday Allison and I stayed home from church to keep her rested, especially since the past 2 nights had been long nights. Monday came along, Chuck was home and I headed to work. Chuck came in during the late morning to help me prepare the lunch for the day as we were a little short handed....and you could just tell something was wrong with Allison. So after I got home from work, we went straight back to Sioux Falls to the ER. We got there around 4 and they were going to let us go home after putting a little bit of fluids in her (they determined she was pretty dehydrated) Well after they started an antibiotic for her ears, the iv blew. so they had to try to get another iv in. they poke her about 6 more times to get one in!! at this time we were all a little frustrated and just ready to go home. so by the time all the fluids were going again, it was close to midnight and then they just decided to admit allison. We were thinking a night in the hospital would be ok, but it ended up turning into 3 nights!! we were happy to go home late morning on thursday. Felt good to just be home and you could tell allison was feeling a bit better. we thought we were going to end up back in the ER later that night as she started vomitting. But we kept pushing fluids and kept a fever from breaking through. She is now back to herself, took her awhile to get her energy back to 100%. we don't plan on going through that again any time soon!
So that was just the 1st and 2nd week of the month.

The next part is a fun happy part! The saturday after we got home, yes i know, i am crazy, a crazy animal lover.....we adopted a puppy from a local rescue group. he is now 12 weeks old, he is a lab/terrier mix but we think he's got a little bit of pitt in him too. His name is Murphy....Murphy Brown. I will post some pictures soon.

So now it's the end of the month, and we have been driving down to Sioux City everyday, since Tuesday. Chuck's grandpa Palmer "Gramps" isn't doing too great,they don't think he will have too much longer, unfortunately, so most of the family has been here during these past 3 days. we are praying hard that everything goes smoothly, whether that be with him making a recovery or with him making his way to heaven. He looks so peaceful right now, making him as comfortable as we are able to. we all love him so dearly, so please keep him in your prayers, and also for Nana, (grandma) as she struggles with possibly losing her life long friend, lover, and partner in crime =)

I'm going to leave it at that, as I'm now going to take my turn sitting with Gramps. We are looking forward to spring time here, which I'm sure everyone else is wishing for also! Take care!

Day in the Snow

So....we had an awesome/gorgeous/fabulously warm day last week and we took advantage of it. I got home from work and asked Allison if she wanted to play in the snow and go sledding...and of course...I got a big squeal! Which I'm assuming meant YES! So we bundled her up and headed on out! Now, this may not be a big deal to most of you, but....this was Allison's first actually day out in the snow playing! It's been so frigid cold here that we've kept her in most of the winter, plus she had been fighting off a bad cold and cough...lasted about 4 weeks!

So, we were pretty excited to get outside. Here are a few photos from our day in the snow.



Throwing a snowball...you can see it in the top left corner of the photo!


Laughing after she hit me with the snowball!


Getting a ride in HER sled!


Rascal, our outdoor cat, decided to enjoy the sun while he watched us play in the snow!

Surviving!

Yep, just doing it like everyone else, turning up a heat a bit, grabbing as many blankets as possible and staying inside! That's how we are managing the cold. We've had to manage staying warm a lot more than normal lately as our furnace has been on the fritz, won't stay lit, cold air just moving through the house. However, finally got it fixed today after dealing with it for over a week and a half. So I am extremely happy that it's fixed, even though we are suppose to have a warm up this next week. That'll be nice, it'll give us a break from using so much propane to heat the house.

Allison has finally gotten over her nasty cold and cough, lasted about 2 1/2 weeks!!! I was pretty sure she was going to have to visit the ER one night as she had a pretty high temperature, but managed to bring it down after staying up with her all night. So I'm glad that the sickness is gone from our home....at least for now! Seems almost everything has been through our house!

We are making some good progress with Allison and her potty training. As soon as the diapers run out it's onto the pull ups we purchased a few months back. So that will be a change for us and hopefully these go up and down easier for her! Oh yea, don't ya just love potty training talk!
Chuck has been working on ABC's and numbers with Allison. Still can't get her to do all the talking we would like her to do, but in part that's my fault for keeping that little thing called a "binky" around!!!

Not much else to update on. We survived the bitter cold and hoping that it doesn't return. Looking forward to maybe getting out into the snow with Allison the next few days....if there is anything left after our "heat wave".

Hope everyone survived the cold and is doing well!