A day in our life...: Six Degrees from a disaster...

Ok, so next to our Bug, this is the cutest little baby. This is our nephew Killian. Look at those eyes!?! What a cutie...

Well, once again, we had a interesting weekend. We went to visit my side of the family. Upon arrival, we found no Grandma--She was in the hospital. Friday afternoon, the doctors concluded she suffered a TIA (transient ischemic attack), or in laymans terms--a mini-stroke. She had some scary episodes of confusion, and extremely high blood pressure at home (200ish/180ish), and my uncle took her into the ER. Eight hours later, she was finally admitted and stayed under close watch for two days. They did a CAT scan which was clear, and showed no bleeds, but they did find a blockage in an artery in her neck. They said (at her age-89) they weren't going to do surgery or anything for the blockage. She was released and got home just as we were leaving to head home. We are happy she is home and feeling better. Luckily, it was only a TIA and nothing more. Now we just have to make her behave herself--sometimes that isn't an easy task for a stubborn, old norweigan lady!

We enjoyed our visit to IA, although we didn't get to see much of Gr-Grandma, or Grandpa (he was working insane hours all weekend, and couldn't get out of it). Mommy and Bug are planning a two day visit during the week in the near future (since Gr-Grandma and Grandpa didn't get to see much of Bug). Bug loved running around playing hide and seek with her cousins, and of course kissing' on her baby cousin! We had a fun game night on Saturday (complete with strawberry margaritas, sans the rum for me! I am such a lightweight!! I made a batch of nada-margaritas for my nephew and I). We played this game called "Buzz"(trivia game-game show style, complete with buzzers), on the Playstation 3. After that we played "Apples to Apples". I was on a roll--I beat everyone out on both games!! I wanted to keep going, but everyone who drank the real margaritas were tired!! I guess they were the real lightweights!!

So, when we leave for the weekend, we usually turn down the heat to about 60 to save money/energy, etc. I did this on our way out on Friday late afternoon. (for those unaware of the frigid weather in the midwest this weekend--the high today was 1 degree)Well, we unloaded the car into the house, and felt how cold it was in the house. I ran up and instantly turned up the thermostat, and checked the temperature. Any guesses?? It was 38 degrees in our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE (insert some mild obsenities) IS GOING ON???? I turned up the heat, and of course the furnace didn't kick on. DH goes down and checks on the furnace, and realized (luckily) that Bug must have flipped the switch (while I was doing laundry late friday afternoon--it is right at her level), turning the furnace completely off.

Right now it is 8pm, and I still can't feel my toes. Our closet in our bedroom could serve as a meatlocker. Poor Bug didn't get her bath tonight, because our bathroom was also meatlocker temperature. Did I mention when we arrived home, I had to use the facilities?? When you drive for five hours without stopping, what is the first thing you do when you arrive at your destination?? Imagine how it felt having to sit on that ring!! Let's just say... the ring was flippin' cold. We actually got out the blowdryer to warm Bug's fingers and cheeks. She was so cold, and wouldn't let us wrap her in a huge blanket (without screaming constantly). It is up to 60 in here currently (at 8pm), and I am still shivering. Can you even imagine what we would have come back to if we would have stayed an extra day? Or even if we didn't come back till much later tonight?? Needless to say, DH slapped a huge piece of duct tape over the switch (of course in the "on" position!), so we won't have to worry about this happening again. That is, until Bug figures out how to take the duct tape off. So that is the story of how six more degrees could have been an immense diseaster for us...

Since I am chattering, and shivering so much, I will just leave you with some pictures from our intersting/fun/freezing weekend--(Captions: Bug with Great-Grandma at the hospital, Bug being bored at the hospital, keeping Bug happy at the hospital because she was bored, cousin Killian opening his early 1st Birthday gift, Bug and cousin Killian "playing" Buzz, Bug jammin' to some tunes on the way home, Mommy keeping Bug warm in the sub-zero temperatures at home!)