Emergency Christmas Graduation

We have had a lot of adventures in the last week--some planned, some definitely UNplanned--that have all been occupying or tiring enough that I haven't gotten them posted. I generally don't like posting too many events all at once, but I want to get this all out there before Christmas or they will end up lost in the shuffle.

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Brenda's Graduation
Saturday, December 19

Brenda graduated from BYU-Idaho, and the four of us made the trek up to Rexburg and back on Saturday to take part in the festivities. We went to Chris's graduation only a week before Brenda's, and I noticed a few distinct differences between USU and BYU-I commencement ceremonies...

Graduation started with an opening hymn and prayer.

The speeches given were about paying tithing and listening to the Spirit.

An organist played Christmas hymns while the diplomas were being awarded.

And, my favorite, there was a mother's lounge in the auditorium's restroom.

Congratulations, Brenda, on finishing college!

~

Petty Christmas Party
Sunday, December 20

We drove to Draper on Sunday (and back, after driving to Rexburg on Saturday...) for my mom's family's Christmas party. Oddly enough, we have all grown a bit since we were kids, and all the cousins, spouses, and extra children no longer fit as well in Grandma's house as we used to.


In addition to the regular relatives, there were five great-grandkids in attendance:

Luke (in the camouflage--this was the only picture I managed to get of him)

Jane




Trey




Dalton





Blade




and Megan

And, of course, the progenetors of this large group:

Grandma Petty


and Grandpa Petty

It was the first time Grandma and Grandpa had met Megan, so we had to take the chance to get a four-generation picture with Grandma, me, my mom, and the girls.


On our way to Salt Lake, we saw a cool-looking shadow. I'm not sure how this worked out, but it grabbed our attention enough to take a picture. You can see the white line of smoke from a plane, and to the left is the gray shadow of that line of smoke.


I'm going to miss this drive when we don't live in Logan anymore.


I'm also going to miss pajama parties with the Datwylers!

random picture, I know, but it was just too cute to leave out

~

Megan in the Emergency Room
Sunday, December 20-Monday, December 21

When we got home from Salt Lake on Sunday night, Megan felt really warm when I got her out of the carseat and was holding her. The thermometer revealed her temperature to be 103.8.

For those of you who may not know, the recommendation for children under 3 months is a temperature over 100.4 warrants an immediate trip to the doctor. 103.8 is significantly higher than 100.4. So, after talking to the pediatrician on call, we headed across town to the emergency room at 10:30 at night.

The initial examination did not reveal any likely cause for the fever, so they had to draw blood and take a urine sample (via catheter) to run some tests.

Yes, my infant daughter is lying on a table with a needle sticking out of her arm and two strange men leaning over her--and I stopped to take a picture. They wouldn't let me touch her while they were drawing blood. I had to do something.

We didn't leave the hospital until after 1:00 that morning. We were kind of tired while we were waiting for the test results.


In the end, it turned out that Megan has a urinary tract infection (sound familiar? like mother, like daughter). The nice thing was that the test was very obviously positive, so the doctors were very confident that it was that infection causing the fever. It was also nice because it is easily treatable with antibiotics. And, I confess, it was also nice to have a good reason for having to go to the emergency room. It's nice to know you've spent lots of money for a real purpose.

Megan is doing fine now. She had one large shot of antibiotics in the emergency room and another at the pediatrician's office the next morning. Now we have some oral antibiotics we give her morning and evening. We'll go back to the doctor next week to go over the cultures and determine if we have to take any preventive measures so this doesn't happen again.

Jane, while all of this was happening, was home with a friend and neighbor from our ward. He came over and slept on the couch while she was in bed. She did wake up once, and he went and ending up reading her a story. I have to imagine that it was pretty bizarre for Jane to wake up to find some guy she didn't know. She never woke up again--it was probably easier to just ignore it and go to sleep than try to figure out what was going on.

~

Laura in the Instacare
Wednesday, December 23

When I first became a teacher, I bought a pair of slip-on Born shoes. I bought Born because I had heard that they last a long time and are good if you're on your feet all day. (I bought slip-ons because I was pregnant at the time and it was too hard to bend over to tie my shoes.) The shoes have served me quite well for the last two and a half years, with one large exception.


Notice the traction? Oh, wait, THERE ISN'T ANY.

During the majority of the year, this doesn't matter. During the winter, however, this has slip on the ice and die written all over it. So, I bought these.


Basically just studs sticking out, they work quite well for gripping ice and snow. When I have these on, I am much more confident--and safe--in slick walking conditions.

But if I'm in a hurry to get into the car because we're late for an appointment with a mortgage broker and I have them in my hands instead of on my shoes with the idea that I'll put them on in the car on the way to the appointment...I'll end up here instead.


Thank goodness, my arm isn't broken. But it is severely sprained. I have a large brace to wear night and day and a full compliment of ibuprofen. It certainly makes life more complicated to have only limited use of my right hand. And picking up a baby shouldn't be painful, but it is now.

The really lame thing is that I slipped and fell on a wet floor at school early last week, so I had already been wearing a smaller brace on my right hand. That injury, though, was such that if I had the brace on to somewhat restrict movement, I could pretty much do anything I would have anyway and it didn't hurt. Now, I have a much larger brace on that restricts movement to a much greater extent, and it HURTS way more. But because I have already been wearing a brace (which I didn't have on when I fell this time, ironically), it doesn't appear that I'm hurt any more than I was. Lame.

~

We are back in Salt Lake again for Christmas and house-hunting. Exciting updates on those coming soon. Be excited.