Relish

(To join Ketchup and Mustard)

Okay, let's see if I can finish up July in one epic post!

I loved all the yard in bloom.  The colors and richness were delightful.

Kate's Birthday

 For Kate's Birthday Activity she invited two friends.  We went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 in the movie theater, then went out for ice cream.  It was a whole lot of fun on a hot July afternoon.

For her birthday Kate got a new bike.  She actually "got it" a couple of months ago so it would be useful all summer, so she opened a couple of little gifts on her actual birthday.  She chose clam chowder for dinner.

 This is actually from the ice cream parlor (thus the blue colored lips).  Sabrina had a bug bite on the bridge of her nose and was trying very hard to see it.  Yes, I laughed.  I still giggle at these pictures.

Lizzie's Pneumonia

 We happened to have Michael's sisters come over for a visit one evening.  Lizzie went from doing okay (remember that long fever she'd had?) to just crashing while they were here.  One of them happens to be a pediatric nurse and just happened to have her stethoscope and a sat monitor in her car!  Lizzie was seeming really borderline -- maybe okay, maybe not.  We finally took her in to the after-hours and ended up in peds at the hospital.  Lizzie's oxygen sats kept dropping just low enough to make you worry, but not quite low enough to REALLY worry.  They put in an IV, which was a real job as Lizzie is VERY afraid of needles.  They gave her a dose of IV antibiotics, did chest x-rays, took blood for labs, and let her go home for the night.  She ended up in hospital jammies anyway because she threw up after the IV was placed.  Awesome.

 The next day she was still really borderline but we finally just took her back in.  She sounded worse than she had before and just wasn't improving.  So we went and were admitted at the hospital.  She only required one night and a few more rounds of IV antibiotics to kick it and get onto the path to health.  It was a while before it was all gone, of course, but it did turn around then.  She got to play lots of nintendo while in the hospital.  They brought in an extra bed so I could sleep in it that night with Lizzie.  The other girls were happy to come visit the next afternoon.  Another x-ray showed that her lungs were starting to clear, so that was good news.

 Daddy stayed with Lizzie the next day for a while until they let her come home.  We were so happy to be home in our own beds!  The hospital, while not ideal, was a good thing.  The nurses were wonderful (helps that we'd brought our own for the check-in night since Janice works with them all there!), the doctors were great, the food was decent, and the room was HUGE.  They even gave her a blanket she got to bring home and keep.

Fun with Cousins

 While Lizzie was busy in the hospital my sisters family came to town for a few days.  We don't get to see them often so we were sad to miss out on some of the time they were here.  While Michael was with Lizzie in the hospital I got to take the other girls to play with their cousins.

 The cousins even got to come see out house.  The sun was beautiful and I played with a few pictures (cause that's how I roll, ya know).  The teenagers were less intrigued by the Barbies and bitty bikes, but they took down that dead tree in our side yard in no time.  Those boys were FAST!  My brother in law helped them not remove any human limbs and they had the whole thing tidied up with the wood in logs stacked for fires.  It was incredible!

 The kids of many ages put on a stellar play complete with costumes, side effects, and a director (grandma).  They did a version of Cinderella.  Sabrina was the Cinderella-in-rags and when Cinderella zings into her fancy clothes they just swapped actresses!  Cousin Naomi (similar in age to Sabrina) was the Cinderella-in-finery.  It was very funny.  I did get a video of it, but you can barely hear a word of dialogue.  When I have the time (ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!) I'll go through and subtitle it.  It's really worth it.

 Temple Square

 We went for a day at Temple Square in Salt Lake.  We got to ride all the way to the top of the Church Office Building where there's a spectacular view.  We even got to eat in the special employees only cafeteria in the basement (since we were there with one of Michael's sisters who is, in fact, an employee there).  We even ran into Grandpa and Grandma Southern there and walked around a bit.

Cousin Birthday Party

Happy First Birthday!  Celebrating another cousin's birthday.  This coming January the 50th cousin is due.  Well, that counts our three girls.  So technically our girls "only" have 47 cousins as of this coming January.  There is no shortage of insta-friends!  This was a brilliant birthday party where we played all of the birthday boy's favorite things: water, sprinklers, squirt bottles, etc.  A fabulous time was had by all.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Oh, I wish I'd made a big deal out of it!  Happy Birthday to my sweetheart.  It was kinda lame with everything else going on.  Sorry.  I love you anyway!  

Sadly,

A big part of the reason Michael's birthday was so lame: I managed to pull a humdinger of an infection in my foot.  Dumb foot.  All those circled areas got swollen, red, and awful looking.  I was given a shot of one antibiotic and put on two others orally.  When it continued to spread I was also put on a buff anti-fungal.  Apparently the combination of the meds made my anxiety soar, so I had it checked it out yet again and it was declared starting to improve.  Phew!  We were SO close to having to do IV antibiotics for me too!  Thankfully we avoided that.  The infection finally cleared.  I think I've had two sinus infections since then.  So bring on the antibiotics!  My foot is 98% better.  It keeps getting a bit red and irritated, but hasnt' been swelling any more, so we're calling it good and done.  I hate getting in the way of a good party!

Thus we come to the end of July.  It was a busy month!  In fact, you should be grateful I fit everything in so concisely.  Trust me, I could have stretched this out a lot more.  I have over 900 pictures from this month alone!  Stay tuned for August. ;)