The last few days of "vacation"!

Most of you know my goddaughter, Chelsea Rose. Chelsea has had her share of struggles over the last few years which just culminated in her graduation from high school and her acceptance at Loyola in New Orleans. ON Tuesday she left for school and shortly after she arrived the governor ordered a mandatory evacuation of the area due to Hurricane Gustav. Chelsea is on her way to Mississippi right now with her roommate and her roommate's grandmother who happened to be there this week visiting. They will stay in a hotel there for a few days until they know how long the evacuation will last and than Chelsea and her parents will decide if she should come home for awhile or not. I'm not sure how Chelsea's mom, Sondra, is staying so calm except that she has raised an incredibly independent and strong willed child! PLease keep Chelsea and her classmates and neighbors in your prayers as this latest hurricane tests the new levis and accomodations repaired after Hurricane Katrina. I'll update you on what is going on but right now we at least know that Chelsea is out of New Orleans and safe with a loving grandmother!

Bob and I loving Chelsea at her graduation in June!
My beautiful goddaughter at her graduation party!

Poor Annie had a rough couple of days in DC. Based on the pediatrician's recommendation after Annie had a fever of over 102 for 4 days we ended up in the George Wasington University ER on Wednesday night. The poor kid had been miserable and couldn't eat, sleep or soothe herself - very unusual for Banana! When the Ibuprofen kicked in Annie would have a few hours of normalcy but even then she was quieter than normal and not herself. We all ended up in the ER until after midnight and poor Annie had to endure bloodwork and a catheterization just to find out that the rash and high fevers were all symptoms of a very serious virus that they could do nothing about. Annie slept most of the way home yesterday but is still really not feeling great - we checked in with our pediatrician today and will go in for further tests if the fever is not totally resoved by tomorrow at noon. They are fairly certain that we are not dealing with an infection since we had all the tests done in the ER but a persistant fever in a child her age is an issue so.............

A moment of fun with MOlly sharing her Red Sox hat with Annie and putting a smile on her sister's face!
Molly-doll looking super cute - does she ever look any other way?
Annie learned to drink through a straw - yeah!
Annie fell asleep on the bed on Wednesday morning.

And this was Thursday after our night in the ER!
Thank goodness for Grammy blankies and big bird!
Our sweet, sick baby girl.

And how did the ride home from DC go - you might ask? Molly rode for an hour this way due to a tummy ache and a few minutes after this picture she heaved for 10 minutes straight. What a trooper she is, though. She got everything in the bag and felt better after and was her normal happy self - not a care in the world. And about an hour later when we stopped for lunch we let her eat chicken nuggets and fries. So there were many fun moments on the trip but it was tiring and hard to have fun knowing how awful Annie was feeling. The only thing worse - I decided - was if I had gone alone and was not there for Annie while she was sick so I was counting my blessings that at least we were all together and I could be with my baby while she was sick - even if it was in a hotel room in a strange city!

So now we are getting ready for our 1st Birthday Bash for Annie and our official 1st day of school on Tuesday! We are hoping the virus that Annie has does not move on to anyone else in the family!

GNM - ILY!