Once again it has been almost a month since my last post. My how time flies. I am currently waiting on a phone call from Harold (my boss). I got a call from Kimball that there is another new patient that needs a PT eval, so need to know when Harold can go down to do the eval. So this might be a very long or very short post, depending on what Harold says.

I was looking at the side show from my last post, and seeing the difference in weather. Those pictures are full of snow, and even though the cold weather has not completely left, it is getting warmer. Today is suppose to be 75 and tomorrow is 81, then we start cooling down and are suppose to get some rain on Thursday and Friday. I am rushing around trying to get as many loads of laundry as I can get, on the line before I go to work. Yesterday was a nice day. Kyra spent most of the day outside with her dad and friends. Lexi wasn't feeling well, so took a 4 hour nap. The Strawn's came over for supper, and Sarah the kids and I got a walk in before it was time to cook.

On Friday, after school and work, we loaded up the Tahoe with a bunch of suit cases and sleeping bags, plus 4 girls and headed to Crawford. They had the annual scout tree planting at Fort Robinson this weekend. For those of you that don't know, a fire went through Fort Robinson in 1989, burning a good potion of trees. The boy scouts started replanting trees several years ago, and the girl scouts joined in a few years later. There were 10,000 trees to plant this weekend. We had 3 adults that split our group up. I had 4 Brownies, and we were able to plant 50 trees in the 2 hours we were out. We were very excited, when the other groups came back having only planted 25 trees each. It was a cold windy day, but we got down in some draws, and were blocked from the wind, so it wasn't too bad. On a personal note, my husband and Father-in-law have always complained that the fort has the scouts plant trees in places where there were never trees growing, so I made sure my girls were planting by fallen trees and in areas that had a lot of trees. The rest of the day was spent eating lunch, then the Fort had the museums open to the scouts to tour. All the girls and leaders headed back to Bridgeport about 2:30 p.m., but we stayed until 6:00 p.m., so our girls could visit with Grandma and Grandpa.

This week will continue on the "too busy to get everything done theme", with Holy week, and needing to get 3 bulletins done. Not sure what we are doing for Easter. I guess if Strawn's aren't invited anywhere, we will spend time with them. Grandma and Grandpa COWS may come down, but not sure as of today. I just hope the weather turns out nice. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Just got my call from Harold. He is going to Kimball on Wednesday, so I will have that day off. We are closing the clinic on Friday, then I will see patients on Monday, as he will still be out of town. Lexi has an orthodontist appointment on Monday, so Harold is going to schedule everyone early so we can be gone to Scottsbluff by 11:00 a.m. Her appointment is at 11:50 a.m., then we will eat lunch then the girls will go with me to Kimball. They enjoy spending time at the nursing home. The activity director always gives them a job to do. Lexi also enjoys pushing wheel chairs for me, and helping in other ways.

Good morning. Yes, it has been a few weeks again since I have posted, but hopefully my routine is back to normal and will have Monday mornings off (my posting day), so can get things done like I use too.

Last weekend, our family took a mini vacation to Cheyenne WY. We have had a gift card to a Marriott hotel for 15 months, so needed to get that used up. We also had 2 gift cards to Red Lobster. We headed out Saturday morning, and got to Cheyenne about 11:00. We did a little shopping, then headed to Olive Garden to eat lunch. We then shopped some more then headed to the hotel. We all donned our swim suits and headed for the pool and hot tub. After showers, Mark and I left the girls to watch TV, and we went to look at campers. We couldn't afford anything, but it was fun to look and dream. We picked up the girls went to the mall and looked at more campers then headed to Red Lobster where we ate so many appetizers that we were full before our meals got to us. We then headed to Sam's to walk off our meal. Back to the hotel were the girl's and Mark swam and sat in the hot tub while I sat and read my book. Sunday morning we did a little more shopping then grabbed lunch before heading home. Sorry there are no pictures of our trip. I never even got the camera out.

This last weekend was busy for us. The girls were out of school on Friday. Lexi had a girl scout activity in Chadron, so was gone all day. She got car sick on the way up there, then they went to a planetarium and she was sick in there with all the movement going on, then was sick for the car ride home even though her leader put her in the front seat. Lexi then had another girl scout activity in Sidney on Saturday through Sunday morning. We made sure she took her Dramamine before she left on Saturday.

Mark, Kyra and I headed to Scottsbluff on Saturday afternoon. Kyra has been saving her money for a bike, so Saturday was the day to go and get it. As you can see by the above pictures she is very happy with her purchase.

Sunday afternoon was a nice windy day. We went and cut a pickup load of wood, then came home a split and stacked it. We then went to Strawn's for supper. It was so nice not to have to cook after being out of the house all day.

Now it is Monday again, so the work week begins. I now have a patient down in Kimball, so will be heading there this afternoon. Hope everyone has a good week. We are suppose to get rain for 3 days then wind, then maybe nice again for the weekend.

All's well... for the moment

I have been so negligent in writing this blog. I will try to catch everyone up on what has been going on in the Douthit house.

Mark is well (for the most part). He finished his antibiotics last week, but is still tired a lot. He also wears out easy. The weather has been a little nicer, so he has been trying to get out and get fresh air when he can. He went to an equipment auction yesterday, but his mean wife would not give him the checkbook to buy a tractor.

Kyra had her 9th birthday last Saturday, February 6. I talked her into postponing her party until this weekend, as Mark had come down with a stomach bug and was not feeling the best. The girls both were sick with this bug and it had a tenancy to make you sick leave then come back 2-3 more times. After having to postpone Kyra's party last year because she had strep throat, then having to change plans the next week when I got it, I decided that I was going to make sure everyone was well before the party. This year worked out great! The girl's were out of school Friday, so we went to the bowling alley at 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon. We had the entire place to ourselves. The kids had a blast. They bowled 2 games, then we headed home. They were able to play outside for a while, then came in and opened presents while the pizza was cooking. After pizza we had cake and ice cream then more playing until I made them start winding down at 11:00. I had 2 fall right to sleep, another one in about 30 min., then I made the T.V. go off and sat in the dark until I heard deep breathing. I got to bed about 12:15. The next morning started bright and early with giggling girl's at 7:00 a.m. I proceeded to fix breakfast of apple pancakes, sausage and eggs. At one point I was deemed the "Best Cook", to which Kyra responds "that's why I hired her". OK where is my pay for all this work? The girl's got to play for a while, then had to take 3 in for basket ball games, so took everyone home at 9:30. The rest of Saturday was spent napping, doing laundry and cleaning the basement.

Today we went to church and bible study, then came home to the most pleasant sight. The dog had diarrhea on the carpet upstairs (of course the light colored one). What I want to know is why they never go on the linoleum that is only 2 feet away. On went the rubber gloves, and out came the carpet cleaner. Mark said after it was all cleaned up "boy that really stunk", you think, yeah, my stomach was getting queasy, jeez all the way in the kitchen, I didn't have any problems being right next to it cleaning it up! Men!

Tonight we have the "Sweet heart" dinner for the hospital foundation. I guess that will be our Valentines dinner this year, a nice intimate dinner with 150 other people in the gym at the community center. Oh well, it is for a good cause.

Sick but better

This is sure to be a short post, but wanted everyone to know that Mark is doing better. When last I wrote, Mark had been put into the hospital for an over night observation. He was dismissed on Monday morning, after having several rounds of antibiotics and steroids with the IV fluids. He came home and by Tuesday afternoon was still feeling rough. He complained that his heart was racing, and he could not sleep. Called the Dr., and he wanted Mark in for an EKG. That turned out to be fine, but Mark's O2 sats were low. After a chest X-ray and a C-T scan, it was determined that he still had the sinus infection and he now also had pneumonia. Mark was admitted that night, and got out of the hospital on Friday afternoon. As punishment for making me take care of him for 2 weeks, I made Mark go to Wal mart yesterday. The walking did him good, and fortunately there are enough benches that he was able to sit and rest when he needed to. Today he is talking about cleaning the chimney, so better go see that he doesn't over do.
Laura

Sick... and not in the good way!

Once again it has been a couple of weeks since I posted. This will most likely be a shot post, as I am tired and ready for bed. Unfortunately, if I don't write this tonight, it will not get done.

As you have probably guessed from the title of this blog, someone is sick in the family. I will give you 3 guesses... Yes, it is Mark again! He has been sick for a week, and was put into the hospital today. It all started last Sunday with a fever. Lexi had a similar sickness during Christmas break, so figured Mark had the same thing, which I am still convinced that he did. Anyway, Lexi ran a temp for 4 days, then had a set back and ran a temp one more day. When Mark was sick for 3 days I figured he had the same thing going on. He felt some better on Thursday, and decided to spend some time outside since it was a nice day. Of course when you are outside you have to scoop the ice off the driveway, right? So he had a set back, and started running a temp again. Went to the Dr. finally on Friday. Mark was put on anitbiotics and some cough meds, because now he has a sinus infection on top of the flu. So Saturday comes and he is feeling better, so he has to change the oil in my car, right? So now we have another setback. This morning, he is feeling the worst he has felt the entire time, so I call the Dr. and he has Mark come in for an out patient Rx in the hospital. After we get to the hospital, they decided to keep him overnight, and push the fluids and the antibiotics also they are going to give him some steroids to decrease the swelling in the sinuses. His temp has gone from 101 to 99.2 when I left tonight. The plan is for Mark to come home tomorrow, and hopefully he will be on the mend.

The girls are staying with friends tonight, as I have to be to work at 7:30 in the morning, and there will be no one here to get them up and on the bus in the morning. I am looking forward to a full nights sleep with no kids or husband waking me up... of course the dog is still here, so will have to have a talk with him before going to bed.

One bit of new news is that Lexi is no longer playing the trumpet in band. She got pushed off the risers during practice right before Christmas and broke her trumpet (fortunately she was just using one of the school's). Her band teacher asked if she would like to switch instruments and she decided to play the clarinet. She is the only one in her class that is playing the instrument, and she is doing much better on it than on the trumpet.

Well, better get to bed. Keep Mark in your prayers.