There we were....

An almost empty house only filled with boxes and moving supplies. This was Monday, March 31st. The movers had packed up all the things for the day, waiting for the following day to load the truck. Not much else to do since we didn't have computer, tv, toys, or books....so its only natural to make use with what you have.

Corky and Emily found the dolly quite amusing! Also, doing acrobatics off of the empty entertainment center!

Sundays at Ft. Irwin.

All the things I wanted to do and talk about at Ft. Irwin, I saved until the very end. Very typical of me. The most rewarding and by far my favorite thing about living there was our branch. It was small, but not really small. I am pretty sure it qualifies to be an actual ward but we don't have a church building to call our own. The church owns some property just outside the military property, about 20 minutes away, but apparently, and it hasn't been comfirmed or denied, but tortoises have more rights than people and so there has been lots of problems getting it finally built. Anyway, so the branch has made do with what is provided by the military installation. While it has its trials, it is one of the many things that made the branch so unique.

Come along with me as I guide you through an LDS Sunday service.

We first start out at the Blackhorse chapel. It is a non denominational chapel that has about 20 rows. This is where we hold our sacrament meeting services. The children in this room outnumber the adults by a lot. Just when I felt my children were by far the worst behaving children in the room, I would look around and think to myself "Its like WWF in here!" All the parents seemed to be wrestling their little ones! It was so much fun and I will always miss the buzz that could be heard in the middle of the meeting of so many children.

After sacrament meeting, everyone gets into their cars and drives to the Catholic chapel where primary is held. We do our best to make this large activity room look like an LDS primary room!

After sharing/music time, the children then walk next door to this building. It is called the Family Ministry building. It is designated for the teaching of children of any faith. The walls are always scattered with pictures from children who are there in the middle of the week that are learning bible stories and coloring pictures about Jesus, Noah's Ark, Moses, Easter, etc. This building is also where we would have enrichment meetings most of the time.


While the children are in primary, the adults go to this building where Sunday school is held. There are some small classrooms that are in the back of a small bank. Sunday school is usually crowded when the men and women are combined (like I really know, I have been in Primary for how long?) But then they split for priesthood and relief society lessons, those classrooms are just the right size.


And here are a couple of pictures of just a few of the people that we love and will miss so much there.

This is Corky and the rest of the branch presidency. I had to literally track down a couple of them before they went home so I could get this picture! They are all good sports! Left to right Ben C. (ward clerk), Mark A. (branch president), Corky (2nd counselor), Eric S. (1st counselor)

This is me with a couple of my friends that worked in the primary with me. From left to right. Alisa Y., Me, Lori C., Mindy L., Kelly S., Carey A.

This branch will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Hello from Kingman.

So we are here. Our internet isn't set up in our house yet so I am at the library right now and time is limited. But a couple of quick things.

The library here is AWESOME! We have been here at least 4 times this week, looking at books and playing with puzzles. The story time is so much fun for thekids. Maybe because I am only used to Ft. Irwin's tiny library, but this one is great!

We were in our house for 4 days maybe when Gracey was playing around and sliced her forehead, right above her left eyebrow. Yep, it required stitches. Can someone please tell me this accident prone phases of hers will be over soon.

We love our house. We were both nervous since we only saw it once and didn't pay much attention to it. Now being in it, Corky and I both wonder why it didn't strike us as being "the house" in the first place.

We have eaten out more this week than we had in the past 12 months!! Gross.

And that is about all I have time for now! I can't wait to have internet at my house so that I can post pictures!! I have some from Ft. Irwin that I want to post and some new ones. So stay tuned my peeps!

Conversations worth noting.

Today, like everyday, I asked Gracey how her day was at school. Today she told me this story, I thought it was worth recording!

"Mom, today Ms. Tina said 'Come here, Grace.' and I said, 'Ms. Tina, it's not Gwace, it's Gwacey." and then I thought 'whateber!'"

When did my 3 year old become such a big girl?

Another story from tonight as we drove home from the bowling alley, Corky was telling Gracey that tomorrow a really big truck was going to come and load our things. He described the truck as being bigger than her head. She said "no, my head is small!" After a few seconds of Corky trying to explain that that is what he meant, I jumped in and told them both to "drop it." Gracey started crying and when we asked her what the matter was she replied "I don't want to drop my head!"

We can't help but smile.

So after getting a picture taken in your Easter dresses.....

Then looking at what the Easter bunny brought you.....

It's only natural to be found digging in the dirt in your pretty Easter dress.

Right?

recent loveys

Moonlight path shampoo, from Bath and Body works. I got this as a party favor from a baby shower and LOVE IT! It makes my hair feel really clean and I can smell it on my head for 2 days. I don't use the conditioner either, all the smell comes straight from the shampoo. Since getting this, I have used the other flavor of Coconut Lime Verbena but it doesn't linger nearly as nice as this scent does.Egg salad sandwiches. They are one of the best parts about having lots of hard boiled easter eggs hanging around.

My new Checi foot file thingy. This thing is amazing! My heels have never, ever been so smooth and soft. My feet are softer now than they are when I walk out of a professional pedicure.

My target brand knock off of Jergen's Daily Glow self tanning lotion. This stuff brings my skin down a knotch, from flourescent to bright white. It doesn't stink and it dries really quickly.

Nerds, the candy. My girls scored big with them this year at the St. George City Easter Egg hunt....I am reaping the benefits.

My space bags. They are saving me tons of room as I am packing our house up. I can put all my sweaters, pillows, blankets, socks, and underwear in them. Then I just vacuum all the air out and voila! They are flat as a pancake!

The Name Game

Corky Travis-
Yes, his real name is Corky. The first time we met and he told me his name, I said "is that your real name, like on your birth certificate?" (I was so tactful, right?) The story goes that his dad came home from some army training, at Ft. Irwin of all places, and told his mom that their next son would be named Corky. Apparently Corky's mom and Grandma Ruby (Corky's grandmother) fought him on that name for a long time but to no avail. Apparently the compromise was Jean, his mom, could pick whatever she wanted for the middle name. Travis seemed normal enough to balance out the first name I guess.

Morgan Velette (pronounced vull-(rhymes with full) et (rhymes with pet))
My first name is after the famous model from the 70's, Morgan Fairchild. My dad had a big crush on her and really like her name. Growing up, I wasn't a huge fan. Even though I always knew I was named after a woman, I still felt like Morgan was more of a boy name. I don't care too much anymore. My middle name is my mom's middle name and my great-grandma's middle name. At least I wasn't name after her full name, her full name was Bertha Velette Skilicorn. I definitely didn't like it growing up, but I liked that my middle initial was a V for some reason.

Gracey Mae
I have had this name picked out for my first-born daughter since I was about 12. Corky barely had a say in it. Luckily he liked it or else we would have had issues. For some reason, ending Gracey with an "ey" just seemed a little more girlie girl to me and something inside me knew that Gracey would be a tomboy, so that was intentional. Her middle name just seemed to flow with her first name. My grandmother's middle name is also Mae, so I figured I could spell it the same and to tie them together somehow.

Emily Velette (see pronunciation above)
This name is a little more random. All while I was pregnant with Emily, I thought we would name her Rachel. I LOVE the name Rachel but will admit now that something wasn't sitting well with me everytime I would tell people we were naming her Rachel. I hated that because I loved the name so much. One day when I was about 8 months pregnant with her, Corky came home and said "A name came to mind today that struck me. What do you think of Emily?" It was seriously like a weight was lifted of my chest. I responded, kind of sighing "Ohhh, I like it!" She was Emily Velette from there on out. What's kind of funny is the girl that I was a nanny for in Connecticut was named Emily, but I had never considered that name until that day Corky mentioned it. So its kind of fun to have that name tied to a special time in my life.

She just couldn't catch a break.

Gracey had quite the dramatic week last week. First, she and corky were wrestling in the front room one evening and somehow she had a run-in with the table. Here are pictures of the night of, and the next morning. You can see it wasn't a tiny little bump, but this is one tough girl. She makes her daddy proud.

As if the head bump wasn't bad enough, Gracey looses her footing at the playground. Gracey is the most coordinated 3 year old I have ever known, but she simply missed a step and ate a stair. Nearly knocking out her 2 front teeth and cutting her lip pretty badly. She freaked out from all the blood and I luckily before it started gushing out of her mouth too badly, I was able to put one of her front teeth back in its place. (gross, right?!) We ran across the street to my friends house where we were able to clean up a bit before heading our way to the E.R. There wasn't anything that could be done for her lip since it was all cut on the inside but they were concerned about her teeth. One of our closest friends and a member of our branch is a dentist so I told them that I would just take care of it, rather than waiting in the ER any longer. Our friend hooked us up with xrays and determined that she would be okay as soon as her loose teeth tightened back up.

The poor girl had a fat lip that pictures don't do justice for. The next morning she went to school like normal but I was scared that her teachers were going to think we were beating her. The bruise on the forehead and the fat lip are pretty suspicious looking. About 15 minutes after her school started, I got a phone call and was SURE that it was the school, or the police, or the social services, contacting us for questioning! Luckily it was our dentist friend, seeing how Gracey was doing.

Gracey is pretty much all healed up now. Her bruises are looking good. Her teeth are loose still and one of them is slightly darker, but we were told it would lighten up. They will probably remain slightly crooked but there isn't much we can do about that at this point and it really isn't too noticeable. We still think she is cute! :)

This deserves the happy dance.

Emily had her follow up last week at Loma Linda University Hospital. For the past month and half she has been taking an anti-siezure medicine that really seems to be doing the trick. This appointment was actually with the head of pediatric-neurology and she really knows her stuff. She was very happy to see Emily and to see her happy, unlike her personality when she stayed in the hospital. After her examination and questions she did decide to raise the dose of her medicine, but that is no big deal to us. It is a liquid and Emily has no problem taking it twice a day. Emily will be on this medicine, called Keppra, for at least 2 more years. After 2 years she will receive another EEG and then they will determine if she has outgrown her abnormality in her brain or if the medicine is just suppressing siezures. With all that said, Emily is as healthy as can be. She is happy, stubborn, sassy, and cute as ever.

Help us choose

Our friend took our pictures this weekend and now we need help deciding which ones to purchase. Also, this way I don't have to post picture of myself with my new haircut. I know, I know....I have changed my hair style what seems like a million times in the last year. We thought they turned out pretty good, considering the girls were going C-R-A-Z-Y!! They still aren't the finished product, he will touch them up and stuff when we decide which to buy (which won't be many because they pricey!!!) Go to http://www.leavittphoto.com/
then click on VIP Client and are top secret password is "whipple"!

Big news that is long overdue

The week that Emily spent in the hospital was quite stressful to say the least, and not just because of obvious reasons. That was a week that Corky had received some job offers that we needed to decide on. Going from the army to civilian life is quite different already. In the army when you change jobs, the army tells you what you will be doing and where you will be going. You just deal with it. Not really any decisions on your part are required. Now that Corky has more freedom in what he will be doing, we found it to be quite stressful. We really wanted to get it right and go somewhere that we would be so excited about. We narrowed it down to 3 options: Phoenix, AZ, Fishkill, NY, or Kingman, AZ. In my head, Kingman could have been scratched completely off the list. I had only driven through Kingman a few times but it had nothing that I knew of to be desired. However, the job opportunity for Corky was really great. That is the ONLY reason it stayed on the list. It was our "backup" just in case the other places didn't work out.

I wrote this in a notebook a few weeks ago, try to follow.

"You know when something that you don't want to feel right, feels right? And the thing that you want to feel right actually doesn't feel right. So you pretend that the thing that doesn't feel right actually does feel right, in the hopes that it will eventually really feel right. That is where Corky and I are at right now. I really wanted Phoenix to work out, but I know that Kingman is where we are supposed to go right now."

We were both so ready to move to Phoenix that we went down house hunting one weekend while Corky had another interview. I looked at 11 houses that would be have been excellent and I was so excited about. As soon as I got back to my brother in law's house, I got this really stressed out feeling that I couldn't pin down. Audie and Candice probably remember me grilling them about Phoenix and that I was wearing my heart (and stress) on my sleeve. Anyway, Corky had many of those same stresses.

Then of course, the next day was when Emily had her seizure. That gave us a few more days to think more about where we should move to. After some long talks and prayer on both mine and Corky's parts, we had a very strong yet peaceful feeling about Kingman, AZ. The day after Emily was released from the hospital was the day that Corky accepted the job there. He will be a department manager for Southwire. It is a manufacturing company that produces copper and aluminum wiring for residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. He is really excited about the job and there is great potential for him to grow with it.

So after accepting the job we researched homes online in the Kingman area. We went down for a day and looked at about 12 houses. After spending the entire day looking at house after house, we decided on the very first home we looked at (isn't that how it always works?) It was a foreclosed home that was in great condition. We put an offer on the home and the bank accepted. We are really excited about it, I wish I had some pictures to post. It just had its inspection this week and everything looks great. Corky now just has a "honey-do" list with little things like a leaky faucet, slow drain, etc. We will immediately be putting carpeting in throughout the house and will build a new pantry, but other than that there isn't much else to do.

Re-reading my little note I wrote to myself a few weeks ago, I have to laugh. Wouldn't life just be so much easier if we all just went with our gut more often and followed our first instinct? I know I could have saved myself from all that stress if I wouldn't have tried so hard to make what didn't feel right, feel right. I suppose though I wouldn't have learned a lesson, nor would I have such a confusing paragraph written down in my journal that I will be able to always laugh at.

Since committing to Kingman we have been talking to residents and reading a lot on the city website. It actually sounds like it will be a really great place to live. It has a lot of tourist attractions nearby, some great schools, and men, women, and co-ed sports leagues, which will be SO FUN! It only has about 40,000 people (I think?) and so it isn't tiny like it used to be but still has that small-town feel. Not to mention, it is closer to both my family and Corky's family.

Kind of funny how the very thing that I dreaded a month ago, I have completely changed my tune about.

March resolution

I am making a goal of writing a new blog entry at least twice a week.....starting tomorrow. Hopefully. (such conviction and motivation, right?)

Just like my diet, it always starts tomorrow!

This was in Phoenix about a month again when we were down visiting.

We are teaching our girls right.

Proactiv, a true and loyal friend.

Yes, its true! It always pulls through for me when I am in desperate need, such as now. I swear that the older I am getting, the worse my acne is. I have either been using prescriptions soaps and creams, or Proactiv for the past few years. Just as I begin to embrace my fair skin, all these red pimples decide to show up...leaving me with what could be porcelain skin, instead looking like a 13 year girl who is wearing her first training bra. I always go running back to my Proactiv though. Our friendship is quite the cycle. I start using it and it clears me up immediately and I stay quite clear for a month or so. Then my skin goes back to normal so I stop using it. After a few months of just using my dove soap and benzoil peroxide, or my acne-aid soap and scrubber, I come running back to Proactiv, begging for her forgiveness and her help!!

And if any of you have used it lately, how about the new snap lids instead of the stupid lids that you have to twist on and off. Genius, I tell ya! AND the new moisturizer with SPF 15. That's what I am talking about!!

FYI-Every single picture of me from Emily's hospital stay was touched up, so don't go saying "you don't have acne" or "you don't need acne medication".

Thank you photoshop, another dear and trusted friend of mine.

The Kite Runner

This was an excellent book. Very sad, but very thought provoking and moving. I had about 80 pages left and have been anxious to finish it. Not just because I loved the book, but because it was due back at the library yesterday. (oops!) I decided to hit mute on my remote control during the commercials of American Idol tonight so that I could pluck away a little at a time. About half way into the 2 hour show I found myself not caring so much about who was singing what. All I cared to do was finish the book.

I added the movie to our Netflix que. Has anyone seen it? Comments? I hope it's good. I think it was up for Golden Globe or something this past year.

While I surprisingly didn't cry while reading the book, I am sure I will bawl my way through the movie.

Literally speaking.

Tonight on our way home from a days worth of errands in Barstow, Gracey decided that as we were driving right through the middle of nowhere, she needed to go to the bathroom. We asked her if it was number 1 or number 2....of course it is number 2! We are minutes away from being home and so we asked if she can hold it. She says she can. My sister Bailey, who is visiting us for the weekend, says "Squeeze your cheeks!"

A minute later we turn around and can you guess what Gracey is doing? Yup! Squeezing her cheeks. Both hands on her face, squishing it as hard as she can.

Gracey is one funny gal! I guess for a 3 year old, all things are literal.

And now we are home

Emily was released yesterday and we are so happy. she is still coughing a lot but is so full of anti-biotics that the doctors didn't seem to worried about it anymore. She will be taking an anti-seizure medicine for at least 2 years now. It is called Kepra and we really hope that because of this medicine that we will never have to experience a seizure again. She will have to do follow up EEGs and other check ups, but right now life is looking pretty bright.

She had just gotten the IV taken out. Still not sure she likes the nurse or not.

Taking our last trip in the wagon

Loving the elevators

It sure is amazing how fast life can change. One minute I was playing with my bright-eyed little girl, the next minute she was in the emergency room and we weren't sure what in the world was going to happen. We are truly blessed to have such amazing doctors, technology, and facilities. We also feel blessed to have such amazing family and friends who were ready and willing to drop anything to help us, all we needed to do was to say the word. Corky and I are very thankful to have both of our girls home with us. Life is good.

Finally going home!

Friday and Saturday

I forgot to mention that my mom drove me and Gracey home Thursday night while Corky stayed with Emily. I really needed a good night's sleep (because I felt and looked like death) and Gracey had school the next day. We got home and I crashed. I knew that I would sleep pretty good considering that I had slept a total of 10 hours in the past 3 days, but I didn't think I would sleep for 12 solid hours. It felt excellent. I felt refreshed and relaxed, better than I had all week. I had good reason to feel better, Emily's anti-seizure medicine seemed to be working and her pneumonia was getting better. Slowly and surely but at least it was definitely getting better.

So Friday and Saturday were pretty much uneventful. We kept busy by taking long walks around the hospital....and that's about it. Not much else to do. The weather in San Bernardino was excellent. We enjoyed being outside in the courtyard and Emily's favorite thing was the elevators. They were the fastest elevators I have ever been in. Your stomach is sure to drop just going one floor at a time. Emily giggled every time we went in them.

Saturday was especially nice because while my mom took Gracey to a nearby mall, Corky and I took turns with Emily while the other one went to the Redlands Temple that was only about 10 minutes away. It was so nice and peaceful, and a great ending to the crazy week.

Here are a bunch of pictures taken during those two days.

Emily sleeping with her best buddy, Mike

Grandma Joyce and Emily

Checking out the fishies.
Being silly with her baby doll

Daddy and Emily

Milk, it does a body good.
Clutching her baby doll tight.
Gracey was so sweet to bring her some yogurt and feed it to her.
Gracey, who has magically grown before out eyes this week.
I LOVE this picture of these two. This picture also shows how pretty the L.A. area can really be.

Corky recycling wishes(we didn't have any loose change on us), and pretending to fall in the water.

Emily laughing at her daddy being a goof.

We are so happy that we can be together.

Gracey having to show off her inner, thrill-seeking, dare-devil

Emily following in her sister's footsteps

Emily practicing her pucker!

Giving some big kisses to her baby doll. I don't know why the baby doll is so special....I ask for kisses all the time and don't get them this good! (just kidding, I do...but I am still jealous!)

Wednesday night and Thursday

Wednesday afternoon, we are feeling pretty happy that Emily has been transferred to the regular children's wing and out of the ICU. She is now able to drink, eat, and do whatever she can at this point. She is coughing a lot and is congested, but they determined that she has a bout of pneumonia but nothing too serious.

Corky decided that he will drive back to Fort Irwin (about 110 miles) to pick up Gracey, shower, and sleep for the night. I would stay with Emily. Emily is exhausted and falls asleep at about 6:30. Meanwhile, I am recognizing that the crumminess that I am feeling isn't just from being tired and worried. I can tell that I am getting sick myself. Emily finally fell asleep and the only way for me to see a doctor is just go downstairs to the E.R. there at Loma Linda. Had I known I would be there for 6 hours I would have gone a lot earlier. I went at 10:00pm and waited for 3 hours. I began to worry that Emily would wake up by herself and be scared so I went up to the front desk and in all of my sobbing glory tell them my story. They said that I could go back up and visit her for probably 30 minutes. I went back and she was still asleep so I lay down and took a 10 minute cat-nap, and then headed back down to the E.R. where I waited until 2:30am. I finally saw the doctor and he ruled out strep throat, which is what I thought I was getting again. He told me that he would prescribe me a z-pack and that he would be right back. I listened through the curtain for another 45 minutes to him and another doctor talk about the Lakers, and Kobe Bryant's 3-point shot, and the San Antonio Spurs, and basketball playoff games, etc, etc, etc. I was getting SO UPSET! All I wanted to do was be with my baby. No wonder there stupid emergency room was backed up 6 hours!!!!!!!! Oh! My blood boils just thinking about it.

Anyway, back to Emily. I get back up to her bedroom at 4:00am and she is awake and they are giving her a breathing treatment. Apparently her oxygen levels dipped a little while I was gone. After the breathing treatment she was over, she fell right back asleep but I had the realization that Corky and I needed more help. We didn't know what to do with Gracey. Our friends were more than happy to keep her but we were afraid that she would feel abandoned. I finally relented to the fact that I am not Superwoman and I needed my mommy! ;) I called her the next morning and asked her to come. She left her work, packed her bags, and hit the road within an hour’s time. I was so grateful.

Corky finished a couple of things at work while Gracey was at school. They came down and I was SO HAPPY to see Gracey, and so was Emily. Not long after that, my mom showed up. Also on a happy note, Emily was a lot happier riding around in the wagon and seemed to be a bit more like herself.


That day, I met with the team of neurologists and they told me that the EEG did come back with abnormalities. It showed seizure activity in the front left lobe of her brain. They say it is hard to say tell exactly what caused the seizure but with her starting to get pneumonia that may have been what did it. Not that she had a seizure because of pneumonia, but that she is prone to them and so the pneumonia triggered the seizure. The doctors told us that way that Corky and I described her seizure and the mini-seizure she had a few weeks ago matches perfectly of what they would expect from that part of the brain. The blank stare, staring off into space, the slight trembling, etc. Another of my concerns was that because the most recent seizure last so long (45 minutes) that it caused permanent damage. The neurologists were able to confidently say that there was no permanent brain damage because of it! Victory!!

PICU at Loma Linda Children's Hospital.

It’s probably a good thing that I couldn't ride with Emily in the helicopter. I would have been a crazy/bored mess waiting at the hospital to come. Corky and I got there about 2 hours later and still couldn't see her for another 2 hours. As soon as she had arrived, they started doing a bunch of testing on her. An EEG test, a lumbar puncture, and a ct scan. She had to be sedated again in order for them to perform all those tests, not to mention that being intubated probably isn't all that comfortable.

When Corky and I arrived at the hospital and were finally directed to the Pediatric ICU, we were told to sit in the quiet room to wait for the doctor. We sat there for what seemed like an eternity. Eternity is not what a waiting parent wants when they don't know what is going on, especially in that quiet room where you only imagine the unimaginable. Finally, the doctor comes in and speaks to us. He first praised the Fort Irwin doctors for handling her so well and responding so quickly. (That was good to hear) Then he told us that her ct-scan came back perfectly normal...another HUGE relief. No growths, tumors, or bleeding on the brain to be concerned for. They were still waiting on the lumbar puncture to know if she had meningitis or any other type of infection. Until they knew for sure though, they began anti-biotic. The EEG would have to be analyzed by a neurologist before we knew anything more.

Finally we got to go into her room and see her. Talk about heart wrenching, seeing her with all those tubes and wires and then strapped down to her crib. I was so glad she was still sleeping.

She finally woke up a few hours later and DID NOT like that tube in her throat. The doctors saw that as a good sign and decided to remove the breathing tube. Once that tube was out and she was able to actually voice her dislike for it, she did. She felt so crummy from all the drugs that she didn't like much of anything at that point. For about 3 hours, Corky and I passed her back and forth to one another. She was fussy and very irritable. At about 2:30am, the nurse came in told Corky and I to take a break. She could see how exhausted we were. They gave her a small dose of medicine to help her relax and so when Corky and I returned, she was sound asleep. We all were able to rest for about 4 more hours, which we all were in dire need of.

The next morning, Emily was a lot more eager to be held and snuggled and she was allowed some apple juice. It had been more than 24 hours since she had had anything to eat or drink. She continued to be monitored for seizures for the next while but was finally released from the ICU that afternoon. I think the biggest relief for her was being able to leave her room. She was getting really stir crazy and just kept pointing to the outside.

Emily's scare.

Last Tuesday (has it really been almost a week? It feels like a month) started off like any normal day. Sort of. We had made a quick trip to Phoenix the past weekend for a job interview with Corky and a little house-hunting, and we drove home Monday night. We arrived at our house at about 3:00am Tuseday morning, so as expected we were all exhausted Tuesday morning. We joke now that there was some divine intervention because rather than going back to bed Tuesday morning, I got up and unpacked all of our suitcases, started and finished a load of laundry and still managed to have myself and my girls showered and dressed by noon. If you know me at all, it takes me a good 2 days to recover from a trip like that. After I had finished my hair, it was noon exactly, me and my girls were heading downstairs to make lunch. Emily sat at the top of the stairs with a blank stair and kind of trembling, almost as if she had been startled by something.


Rewind to 3 weeks ago, Corky and I heard her blabbing in the middle of the night. I went into check on her and she was babbling and twitching. I pick her up from her crib and she seemed awake but was not acting herself. Corky and I took her into the other room where for about a half hour she wouldn't stand on her own, would blab, and woudn't focus her eyes on anything. Suddenly she snapped out of it and we all went back to sleep, not thinking much about it afterwards. We figured she was still in a sleepy daze.


Now back to Tuesday, this is how she started acting again but this time we had been playing right before and I knew she hadn't been sleeping. I call Corky and say "Remember a couple of weeks ago when Emily was acting funny in the middle of the night? Well, she is doing that again." He tells me that he is on his way home for lunch and is just coming into the neighborhood. Within that next minute, her face become even more catatonic, her trembling had worsened, and her heart was racing. As soon as Corky walked in the door we knew she had to the to E.R. So I held her as Corky drove to the hospital, which was about 1 mile away from our house. During that drive, her breathing became more of a snort and she still wasn't responsive. Something inside of me knew she was having a seizure even though it wasn't at all what you see on tv. She wasn't flailing her arms and legs, just minor twitches.


So Corky drops me and her off at the entrance so we can run inside while he parks the car. I rush her in and tell the front desk that she is responding. She is immediately taken from my arms and rushed back to the trauma room. I was so afraid that they were taking her away from me and that I wouldn't be able to hold her again. Thankfully they let me follow though. I stood in that back room as they immediately started working on her. People rushing all around trying to do their jobs. They confirmed to me that she was in fact having a seizure. A few minutes later (I think? I have no timeline except for when the seizure started and stopped) I see a close friend and member of our branch come around the corner. He was a nurse anesthetis and was actually the one who assisted my doctor for my c-section when I delivered Emily. When he (Neil) saw me all upset and realized it was Emily they were treating, he rushed in and did what he could to help until the other anesthetis could arrive. I was so relieved to see a familiar face even though it was still chaotic at that point. At that point, 2 more pediatricians show up from the clinic across the street. There were about 15 people in that room, all doing what they could to help Emily.


Changing gears a little....this was Corky's perspective. He sat in the E.R. with Gracey as soon as they parked the car. He would have come back to find out what was going on but Gracey couldn't go and he didn't want to leave her there on her own. As he sat there waiting, he saw loads of doctors and nurses, literally running into the E.R. and going to the backroom. He knew it was because of Emily. I can't imagine how scary that must have been for him. I am sure he was imagining the worse (we all were quite honestly) and not knowing anything. Not to mention the feeling of helplessness.

After 45 minutes the seizure finally stopped. They pumped so much valuum into her little body that they put a breathing tube in her throat and were breathing for her. They assured me that she could probably breath on her own but rather than making her body work harder than needed, they did it for her. They were able to stabalize her enough to prepare her for the helicopter ride to Loma Linda University Hospital.


We feel very fortunate to have so many great friends and neighbors. I know anybody would have taken Gracey if I had asked but I called my friend Kelly and she was more than willing to take her. Corky dropped her off while I stayed with Emily. Our friend Neil called our branch president who met me at the E.R. Once again, it was so comforting to see a familiar face. When Corky returned, the E.R. staff allowed Corky and President Anderson to give Emily a blessing before she would board the helicopter. It was a beautful blessing that brought great comfort to not only Emily I'm sure, but to me and Corky. I really needed to hear it because it still seemed chaotic with all the people still working on Emily and all the machines and noises that were going on in there. While my heart totally broke because there wasn't room on the helicopter for me or Corky, I was comforted by the fact that her pediatrician and nurse would be accompanying her during the ride to make sure she remained stable.


So they got the helicopter all prepped and ready and they wheeled her out. By that time, I had my wits about me and was just so grateful and impressed by the hospital staff that I was overwhelmed with appreciation. We still didn't know what was going to happen but I had a sense of relief that I was so in need of. However, as they wheeled her outside, they had to wheel her through the E.R. public entrance. I saw a mom there with her child that was just younger than Emily and saw her heart break for me. I have no idea who she was but seeing her face snapped me back to reality. I realized that she was seeing me experience something with my child that every mother dreads. I felt her compassion and sorrow and I wanted to just hug her....maybe I should have.

Anyway, so off Emily goes in the helicopter. Corky and I watched as it took off and I joked that she beat me to a helicopter ride. I have always wanted to ride in one, but not like that.

picture 1- Loading Emily into the helicopter. Her nurse is in the scrubs and her doctor is just getting into the helicopter.

picture 2, 3, 4- Heading off to Loma Linda, about a 40 minute helicopter ride.