Trying to get ahead...

Does anyone else feel like that? They're constantly trying to "get ahead." Why is that? Why do we always have to be so worried about the future and money and plans??? Big Joey and I have been dealing with a butt load of medical bills. Just to brief you- we had 3 bills from when LJ was a Riley. The St. Francis ER bill (mind you we were only getting sub par service for 25 minutes of the 4 1/2 hours we were there) was $3,000. The ambulance bill was $7,000 and Riley was only $9,000. Pretty amazing how these don't make a bit of sense. I would have paid Riley $50,000 for the wonderful 24 hour care we received for 4 days. I just don't get it. So, Joey and I have made a plan to get these bills paid last night. We felt so good seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on how we were going to do this. Then today, Joey brought my car in for an oil change- oh what do I need?? $500 worth of rotor and calibers. AAHH!!! It just doesn't end. I do have a feeling we aren't the only people feeling like this, but geeze louise!!

I do, however, feel blessed we have our health. I can go to bed at night feeling good knowing we are healthy. Today a coworker asked how LJ was doing. I replied, "he's eating and drinking." That's true. It's such a great feeling to know he's doing okay.

Now I have a few goals I have been wanting to tackle. Hear me out if these seem realistic.

1. I want to play a musical instrument. Actually, Kris Allen from American Idol inspired me. I started taking guitar lessons about 2 months ago. I'm having a blast. I only know how to play "Sweet Home Alabama," "The Star Spangled Banner" (which my mom says sounds like "The Battle Hymm of the Republic"), "Don't Fear The Reaper," and "Yesterday." Random mix, huh? I don't know how long I'll take, but I feel this is something I can do with LJ and I'm so excited to keep learning.

2. Join a small group bible study. Now this one hasn't been accomplished yet- actually I feel so far from accomplishing this. I need to find a good group that either allows little ones or there's a daycare. I'm struggling with this one, but hopefully in time (with enough prayer, right?).

3. Clean out our guest bedroom. Please tell me I'm not the only one that is using their only other bedroom in the house as storage. AHHH!! I hate this soooo much, but what are we to do with all of our "stuff?" Do we really need a storage facility?? Uck!

4. Reach out to other couples with little ones. I feel like I'm always seeking out other parents with their experiences. I get some great advice from the girls at work and the girls I used to work with, but I feel like it'd be so helpful to be able to spend more time with other coupleswith little ones. Big Joey and I both feel there is just soo much to learn with the babe.

Well, I'm exhausted. I have more goals, but I'm done for now. I'm working part-time for my Uncle now. I work Thursday 11:30-6:30 and Friday 6:45am-2pm, so it's time to go to bed.

Night!

P.S. LJ still isn't walking. Big Joey and I were talking about what age we were going to start him in sports today.

Joey's first thought was "As long as he's walking."

My response, "He's a fast crawler. He'll be fine."

Joey's response, "Well, with soccer you can't use your hands."

My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

It was yesterday. I don't even know where to begin. It was awful- definitely top 10 for the worst days EVER!!!!

I'll give you a quick update first. For the last two weeks, LJ has been dealing with Thrush. Due to all of the antibiotics he's been on (IV, oral), he developed a yeast infection in his mouth. It has looked terribly painful- big white cottage cheese, patchy blisters, and cracked, bleeding, swollen lips. Well after experimenting with 2 anti-fungal meds and taking him to the pediatrician and oral surgeon, we thought we finally had a handle on things... until Monday night when he decided to stop eating and drinking. Every time I would try to give him his sippy cup, he threw his head back with huge alligator tears. He was miserable. I started getting worried because it seemed like the Thrush went away, but now there were these scrapes and vessicle like lesions that had developed on his tongue- big ouchy!!

OK, so now we're at Tuesday at 6:30am. Big Joey wakes up early on Tuesday so he can get on the road because he has meetings at Carmel (1 hour with traffic) by 7:30. LJ and I wake up at 7:15 am. Well I woke up to him being a big grouch. So, we do our routine where I change his diaper and clothes (while he's screaming versus stretching/yawning/cute baby faces), grab his sippy cup for him (which he wings across the room crying) and head to the garage to throw away his diaper. This is where I found MAGETS- like hundreds of magets crawling everywhere... up my door, on my car, up the trash can, trying to get in the house... EVERYWHERE!!!!! Oh my gosh- they are the most disgusting, disturbing white little worm I've ever seen. I just began screaming. What do I do??!!!! So, I throw LJ (who's also screaming) in the car, throw the trash cans outside and grab his diaper bag and my cell phone to put in the car. Then I went to town. I sprayed the indoor (kid/eco friendly) insect spray all over the place, but these terrors were getting faster. I then used Home Defense (faster), Raid (they're started to storm the house), and the outdoor bug killer that you have to mix together. NOTHING WORKED!!!!!!!

So I called my Aunt Cathy to ask for her advice. She said it was from my trash and to get that outside, then to spray everywhere and they'll eventually die. She seemed a little more calm than I was- ewww, they were so gross!! So off to Menards we went. I was in tears. My baby wasn't eating and I had magets in my freakin' garage. Well I got to Menards and begged for someone to help me find the most powerful spray (as I was crying). They told me to get Sevin. We pulled up to the check out and guess who forgot their purse- yep, this genius. I remembered I had an $8 rebate card in my car somewhere, so out we went to search for the card. God was definitely in my car looking for it before me because I think he strategically placed it in the first place I looked. Well, we got the spray and back to the house.... oh, I forgot we went to Starbucks for some coffee therapy (luckily I had my $2.63 in change). Cathy and the boys met us at the house to spray, sweep and shake out the rugs. We checked indoors and we were clear. Shew!!

I wasn't going to stay at our house though. It was was of the feelings where I just kept itching even though I knew there weren't any bugs on me--- ahhhh!!! GROSS!! We went over to Cathy's to enjoy some breakfast and the swings. Oh by the way, LJ is still refusing to eat.

I need to start shortening this story, so I'll try. We went home at 11am for LJ to take his nap. I called the Dr. 4 different times. 1. to explain symptoms 2. to ask for a prescription for his pain in his mouth 3. schedule an appt so he could see him visually 4. to request an order to be sent to the medical lab for blood work/mouth swab. There was noooo way I was going to let LJ get dehydrated again.

The doc called in a special script, which I call a potion, at 12. I called at 1pm- not ready. I called at 2-not ready. I went over there at 2:45- they said they were working on it in the back and had been for several hours. They then sternly said "We'll call you, Mrs. Matis. Please don't bug us anymore." I wanted to ask them if they wanted to watch LJ for the rest of the day then.

Well, we then went to the medical lab for lab work. Oh we got there at 3:00 and at 2:50, CVS called and the prescription was ready- of course!!!!! Now I'm all the way across town. We sit there at the med lab waiting. Our orders haven't been faxed over from the docs yet. So we wait and at 3:30 they are. Then the lady comes out and tells us how we need to wait on the expert who works on kids. Well "the expert" got there at 4:15 and still couldn't figure out how to draw blood on him. She recommended taking him to St. Francis- HAHAHHAHAHAHHHAHAH!! RIIIIIGHTTTTTT! So we left with nothing done. Awesome.

We had an appt. with our ped at 5:15. He really wanted the lab results and all he could suggest was that the blisters on his tongue was a severe allergic reaction. WHAT!!! What have I been giving him to put this poor child in pain???!!

Well, we picked up the potion, used it and LJ finally took a hot dog and sippy cup. I took off for the northside hospital at 6pm to see my mom who had surgery on Monday and Big Joey put the Little Man to bed.

This morning we headed to Riley first thing and did the lab work in no time. At 2, we got word from the Doc and his blood work is perfectly normal. What a huge blessing/relief/miracle!!!! We are soooooo lucky. He did say his eosinophil count was really high, which is his allergy blood cells. So it's definitely an allergic reaction.


Now we are starting from square 1 and introducing one food at a time. Dear Lord, please help us get through this.

Thank you for listening to me to vent. I love you all and thanks for the prayers.


Who knew it'd be this hard?!!

SHARKS!

Um, did I mentiong there is a shark petting exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo?? YAH- freakin' cool! My dad is the biggest shark man. He shark fishes in Florida, and he's actually caught a few. Jaws anyone? Lil' Joey-- yah, not so sure about the sharks.

The elephants- ya buddy!!


Our family. Healthy. Lucky. Happy.

LJ was exhausted after our long morn at the zoo. He's such a sweet little boy (still not walking though-grrr).

Random updates

One of my very best friends, Brittany Whalen, took me out for my birthday last Thursday. Man, am I lucky to have such an amazing!! I'm so lucky she was put in my life and it's really funny how it happened. Her and I pretty much became sisters once her brother and I started "going out" when I was in the 7th grade. Since then we have been able to see each other eye to eye, and I'm truly able to call her and talk about anything and she throws it right back at me. She has some of the most unbelievable qualites as a friend, and like I said I'm blessed, very blessed to have her. As your looking at this next pic the girl to the right of me IS GOING TO BE MY FUTURE REALY SISTER-IN-LAW, Julia Santi!!!! The other girl, Katie Lory, is my brother's best friend's wife- she's a little bit of wonderful too. Welll......you have absolutely no idea how excited my family is to have her in ours. Beau, my brother, is incredibly lucky to have her. She is a bit of everything- she's a homemaker, a D-1 athlete, a knock-out 6 foot blonde, a dentist, and a sweetheart. She has a heart of gold and her family is QUALITY!! We are so pumped for the August wedding--- ahhhh! We can't wait!!

OH geeze, GT!!!! Look at that silly face my dad is making. We tried 10 times to take this pic and my dad kept goofin' off!! What are we going to do with him???!! Anyway, these are my parents. My priceless, one of a kind, outstanding parents. Where would I be without them?? Probably in a ditch- no, I'm kidding. Seriously, they are there for me from sun up to sun down (not so much the early am hour, hehe- jk). They aren't too fond of the drunk dial :) Did I mention that I'm lucky?? Well I am!

My incredible sis, who I might add is due to have a little baby in September. Doesn't she look fabulous?? We are so jacked for the new little baby!! Get ready SLOANIE!!!! Please keep the fam in your thoughts and prayers for a safe and healthy delivery.

My hubby- my fabulous hubby. Today we celebrated our 2 year Anniversary! I can't believe it! We went to the Indianapolis Zoo first thing in the morning, did some deck painting, went to the pool, took a nap, and played played played with Little Joey. He's wonderful, and pretty good looking too (Big Joey, that is)!!!!

The Power of Prayer

Do you believe in the power of prayer? I wouldn't say I was ever skeptical, but I had never felt the power of prayer like we did when we were at Riley. I have always felt looked after-- not a lot of hard things have happened to me in my life. I did, however, feel it while Joey was sick. I felt so much comfort after we sent out a mass text or right when I got off the phone with someone. It was pretty amazing. If you have never felt it before, I hope you do. My life will be forever changed.

There is a blog I follow and they need prayers. I have never met this family, and I'm not exactly sure how my blog crossed theirs. They need you though. Please take a peak and if you could say a few words to the Big Man upstairs, that'd be awesome. Thanks.

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