Vacation?

We left Seattle last Monday for Houston. Our plane was supposed to take off at 6:06, was delayed till 7, and didn't leave the ground until 8. The only good part about being delayed was that our friends the Streadbecks were there too, and we got to hang out for a bit. We landed around 2AM on Tues and haven't had a full nights sleep yet. Dade had some eye goopies that first night, but we weren't sure what it was. He wasn't acting too sick, just cranky to be in a new bed. Then on Thursday he started to cough, and not sleep at night. By Friday he had a fever of 104 even with regular doses of Tylenol. That night Michael and his Dad and brother-in-laws gave Dade a blessing, and he slept well that night. The next day we were supposed to Drive to Dallas to see Joel and Cynthia's baby boy be blessed, and to see my parents. Saturday Morning Dade seemed better so we went. We had a really nice time with my family and left right after lunch on Sunday for Houston. Dade's sickness was getting worse, and even with Curious George playing he cried all the way home. Yesterday Michael's sister Laura called her pediatrician and got us in. We now know that Dade has horrible ear infections in both ears most likely caused by a nasty virus. The virus has also caused him to have a horrible croupy cough, stuffed up nose so it's hard to sleep, and a low fever. This is a new experience for Michael and I since Dade has never been sick before. The only time he's had Tylenol before was when he got his shots. We're now dosing him with three different medicines several times a day. We leave Wednesday at 5pm, as long as there aren't any more winter storms with delays all around. Hopefully the antibiotics will have taken affect by then, and the plane ride won't be miserable.
I know that was a whole lot of not fun stuff, and really its been wonderful to be here with Michael's family. They have all been extremely helpful with Dade, even taking care of the sicky so Michael and I can go out alone. I just wish that Dade wasn't so miserable so that Michael could be more relaxed on this "vacation". I'll definitely post some family pictures and talk about Christmas later on when we are back home. Hopefully the next couple of days Dade will feel better and we'll get to sleep more.

It's been a little while since I've been able to update since our PC busted. I'm now using Michael's Mac and it's taking some getting used to. Right now if I had my way I would be on a good old lap top, but it's not really worth the $200 it would take to fix it.

Today was Michael's graduation day from the Art Institute. Unfortunately due to inclement weather the school canceled the ceremonies. They are allowed to walk in the March graduation ceremony, and I think Michael will. After all what good is a cap and gown unless you walk across a stage and pick up your diploma. Here is Michael explaining, and Dade's first walk in the snow.

We took our laptop to Best Buy for data extraction so that we could save all of the pictures and videos of Dade. We would have been really sad to lose memories. Such as these pictures...

Like Dade talking on the Streadbecks play phone,

getting ready to go out. ;)

and being just oh so cute.

My friend Heidi let us borrow her nice camera and tripod to take our own Christmas pictures. We went to Howarth Beach in Everett, and even though it was a little chilly the sun was out. I'm not going to post the picture that we chose since that would ruin the surprise of our Christmas card, but I will post a couple of cool pictures from that day.

Dade had fun until he fell down in the wet sand, and got really cold.

I think this will do for now. We'll be leaving for Houston on Monday, so I'm not sure when I'll get another chance to blog... So Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

word of caution

It's been awhile since I've posted.    Michael and I have been trying to save all the pictures and videos off the laptop that crashed last week.     One day I turned on the computer and it just wouldn't work.    Michael tried taking it to some friends from work, who said that they have never seen a virus like it.   Not good news since all of Dade's videos, and most of our recent pictures are on that computer.   We haven't given up hope yet, but I haven't had any new pictures to publish.   So as a word of caution -Back up ALL your important files off your computer.