Recap of the last 3 weeks

We have officially been in Richmond for 3 weeks now. The adjustments have been smooth. I have stayed completely busy cleaning and unpacking.

Our"new" house is a two story rental in a beautifully wooded neighborhood.

Built way back in 1991, so I have to get used to the older windows and no garden bathtub. I didn't have to get used to the glass/crystal chandelier in the foyer. The owner quickly replaced it out with a newer silver tone fixture. Thank God.

I am a complete neat freak so I wasn't too happy when we first moved in and I realized how much cleaning would need to be done before I could even begin to unpack.

I must have overdid it because one week in to our new home and on the kids first day of school, John had to rush me to the ER. I had started cramping REALLY bad in my lower right abdomen.

It was to the point where I couldn't even walk. I was scared. I thought it had to be kidney stones or my appendix. Both of which would put me out of commission and that scared me.

It was at that point, laying on a cot in the ER when it hit me how far away from home I truly was.

John had brought me to the ER with Tate. We can't leave Tate alone with the boys because he could have a seizure. The hospital was only a few miles away so we left Ashton and the teens at home.

While I was in the ER I noticed Tate looking at me with the saddest most confused look on his face. Then it hit me that the last time we were in a hospital it was with Papa Bud. Tate had sat with Papa on the last day of his life. I could read Tate's little mind and so I told John to take Tate home. I would be fine by myself.

After a couple of hours and a lot of tests---xrays, 2 cat scans, 2 sonograms--I broke down. I wanted my mom and I knew this time she wasn't going to be able to be here for me. I truly felt helpless and missed my family more than I ever thought possible.

A nurse came into my room. She had taken a look at my CT scan and noticed 2 small objects in my lower right abdomen.

"Have you ever been knifed?" she asked me.

Are you kidding me I thought!!! Then I realized how BAD I must look. No makeup, bruises all over me from moving......maybe I did look like one of those women who at 35 decide the timing is perfect to get jumped into a gang!

"No" I answered her. She wasn't so sure. She even wanted to talk to my mom and John to make sure.

What kind of freggin backwoods hospital am I at that a nurse reads the CT scans I began to think!

She came back into the room an hour later to announce that the two objects were the Pepto Bismol pills I had taken earlier. (Which by the way I think she is still wrong because I took the dissovable tablet kind and why would they be in my abdomen and not my digestive system 9 hours after the fact?? I just wanted out of there by that point so I agreed that must be it!!!)

"Wow, so smart this one is" I thought. Instead of playing detective I would have preferred my nurse to play nurse and have her change my empty IV fluid bag because the empty one that stayed injected into my arm bled out everywhere.



3 injections of Dilaudid later I was feeling much better and at 3am I was finally released. They never were able to pinpoint what had caused my pain.

The next morning I awoke to a lovely red, blood filled eye. My sister, Raini--a real life nurse--said it was from the pain. Lovely!


A few days later and I was back to unpacking and cleaning.

Here are some quick random shots of the house.

Ashton's new room

Tate's new room

Jonathan & Justin are sharing a room but it is HUGE. And beautifully DUKE decorated!

Foyer minus ugly glass/faux crystal chandelier

RIP ugly chandelier. There is no room for you in the new millennium.

Front room--temporary office