Mimi's ordeal

I remember growing up with asthma, and I remember it was unpleasant--scary at times. But I never experienced it from the perspective that my mom must have...until now.



God bless my sweet little princess. What a trooper. She went from THIS (see above) to THIS:


All within the space of just a few hours. Can you imagine? Here's the email I sent out to our church:

Mia's been at Children's Hospital Chattanooga since Monday afternoon, in respiratory distress. On our last day at the beach, she developed a bit of a runny nose which progressed into a cough, and over the course of a few hours had seized her lungs. By the time I pulled into our driveway Monday afternoon, she was grayish, barely responsive, and struggling a great deal to draw breath, so I rushed her to her pediatrician, who after examining her, determined that she needed to be hospitalized immediately. They had to call us an ambulance to transport her to Children's. The hospital has been administering steroids, IV fluids, albuterol treatments, and oxygen, and she's been slowly improving. Our hope is that we get to take her home tomorrow, if her oxygen saturation levels remain high overnight. We will be meeting with her doctors to discuss a long-term maintenance plan for her asthma so that she doesn't end up back in the hospital any time soon. Pray for our little girl!

We were blessed to be at Children's Hospital. Every doctor and nurse treated her with such TLC (as she began to feel better, she was nicknamed "the chatterbox" by a few of the staff!), and we could not have asked for more. Cinderella came to visit her, as well as a therapy dog or two! We're so relieved to have her home, and although we're grateful for the loving care she received while in the hospital, it's my hope that we never have to see those folks again. I said that in April. I still mean it.

My gratitude goes out to all of you who prayed for my sweet girl. She's doing great today, and we are managing at home with new meds. Hopefully, the maintenance drugs will keep us out of the hospital from now on.

His first work of fiction

Today, Connor came bouncing home from preschool as usual, just bursting with new information.
"Guess what, Mom? A person who writes words is an author and a person who draws pictures is an illustrator!" I told him that was right on, and then asked him if he'd like to try his hand at authorship and illustration. Here is his first creation, destined to become a bestseller:

EDEN AND SARAH
by J. Connor Medlin, age 4

Once there was a cat named Eden.



She lived in a house that was right so close to a fire station.




She put on all her stuff and she liked to get in the fire truck. One day, the fire alarm went off. Eden hurried to the fire truck. The truck hurried to a house that was on fire.



The fire fighters went inside and started fighting the fire. Eden ran up the stairs and found a little girl named Sarah hiding under her bunk bed.




Sarah followed Eden out of the house. And they were happy because Sarah was saved.

THE END.

At the peak of ripe-ness

I can't stand it any longer. I have to photograph those little chocolate sprinkles on my boy before they're gone with the summer breeze. Somebody gimme a spoon.

The young artist at work:








This face? That's all Mommy:




Now...this one? Unmistakeably Daddy:




Oh, World. Are you in trouble.