WE ARE BACK!!

Thanks to Andy Bowers' help we returned home around 4:30 this morning! Even though I have loads of laundry to do and the fact that it is super hot right now....there is n other place I would rather be! It was such an amazing trip!

We were in Ohio for a week and left on the 24th. The night that we left Hannah decided that it was a good time to get sick and threw up many times in the car. With the help of my dad and Curtis we made it through the night! The next morning we were at the Mall of America and spent the day there. That mall has EVERY store that one could think of! And that is not including the theme park, aquarium, mini-golf, and Lego-Land! We started the day out slow because Hannah had just thrown up at breakfast and I was not feeling well at this point. We, however, ended really strong even convincing the kids to ride a few rides at the theme park.

After that we drove through the night in order that we could reach Badlands National Park, South Dakota by the morning. That ended up to be really sweet! We spent a lot longer there then we had anticipated! Here are some pictures from the Badlands!






Oops, I forgot! When we were traveling through the night we hit a huge electrical storm that lasted for hours. It was continuous lighting like one right on top of another. It is really hard to describe but imagine that you are super famous and you arrive at a red carpet event. When you step out of your car, all of the flashbulbs from cameras start to illuminate the sky! It was so crazy that we had to pull over and wait it out because it was so bright we couldn't see where we were going!

Also, at the Badlands, I got my first bug bite. I had a horse fly bite me and drew blood! Apparently, horse flies are pretty nasty and vicious. So, somehow the bite spread and now I have bumps all over my ankle. Ok, I think that is enough for now. I will type more later about visiting Yellow Stone and the Tetons. Until then.........

Checking In

Hey Everyone! Well, we made to Ohio safely and are having a great time!! Yesterday we went to the Toledo Zoo, which is apparently one of the top ten zoos in the US, that was really fun. Today we headed up to Ann Arbor Michigan to get a glimpse of the University of Michigan. The football stadium is under construction right now and we couldn't see anything! Oh well, we could still feel being in the presence of greatness! We also went to a local mall and stocked up on all of our Michigan gear for the next year. Curtis seems to go hog wild when he is in a U of M store. Today we probably spent over an hour in this little dinky store as he tried to narrow down what he exactly wanted. We have a busy weekend ahead of us with other family driving in but I just wanted to say hi. We are planning on leaving Tuesday, June 24 and then heading up to Minnesota to go to the Mall of America, and then heading down through Yellow Stone National Park. Lord willing we will be back Sunday or Monday. So, I will give a recap when I get back on all of the adventures that we have come across!

Help, I'm Drowning!

I saw Dr. McBride yesterday in this ongoing saga of my.....I don't even know what to call it anymore.....sinus, no voice, coughing, thing. After listening to me try to breathe he made the comment that I was drowning in my own mucas, that is a nice thought! Anywho, he immediately thought that it was allergies because I was feeling great while I was pregnant and usually acid reflux gets worse when you are pregnant, while allergies get better. So, I was poked, prodded, and dripped on by all of these different oils such as cats dander, grass, weed, mold and anything else you could imagine. Also, they put a drop of histamine that would insure that the test was working. After 15 minutes or so the nurse came back in to see the results and just like I had thought.....no allergies. In fact I barely had a reaction to the histamine. The nurse told me that it would itch and feel like a bug bite. Now, I am not allergic to any kind of bugs so I didn't know what a bug bite feels like. Now, I do!

Then they sent me across the street to get a CT scan. I think that the technician was pretty annoyed with me. She asked my if I was pregnant and I replied that I didn't know. She didn't understand how I couldn't know. I told her that I had just finished ovulating the week before and didn't know if I was pregnant. She must have been new because she was going to order a blood test to see if I was or not. I had to explain to her that if I was, I was too early in my pregnancy for the results to be positive even with the blood test. She looked really confused by this point. Thankfully, the other technician stepped in to explain the process of how the fertilized egg has to travel out of the tube and attach to the uterine wall and then like a week or so after that is when you would get a positive result. I don't think that she was expecting a lesson in reproduction. At this point she asked the other tech to finish up because she felt her pager go off! HAHAHAHA! Sorry that was a LONG rabbit trail. Anyways, the scan came back normal, in fact Dr. McBride stated that my septum was text book perfect, not a single curve or bend in it. I guess that is a good thing.

So now we are going with the acid reflux option and see how it works. If it is not acid reflux then I will get scoped to see if I have any polyps on my vocal cords, if I did, I would need surgery to cut them out. I don't know about you, but THAT sounds like a lot of FUN!! While we were discussing about the things that I could do to help treat GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease), he talked about not eating any fat past dinner time. I explained to him that I couldn't really have anything high in fat anyways because I don't have a Gall Bladder. And then he told me that there is a pill that I could take in order to eat high fat foods without getting me sick! As I was gasping for breath, I asked him to explain about this wonder drug. He said that there is a pill one could take that helps the body to absorb fats. Then he put it in layman's terms for me. If I wanted to go to Chicago and have a deep dish Chicago style pizza, just take a couple of pills before you eat and you would be fine! THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER!!!!!! Why hasn't anyone said this before!!! I can't even fathom having french fries again!!! That news alone made my day, who cares now if I get better or not! I can have french fries again! And pizza! And hotdogs! And a peanut butter sandwich!!! How crazy is that!!!

So, all that to say, my appointment went well, and I am now in the Dr. McBride fan club and Lord willing I will be feeling better soon! Thanks everyone for their prayers and concerns! You guys rock!

Michigan looks good on everyone!

Lily came over a couple of times last week and I got out Ben's old Michigan hat just for fun. Lily looked super cute with it on. Recruiting Michigan fans one baby at a time!!