Another Hike- This Time to Stone Door

The kids had off school for MLK day and rather than sit around and watch tv all day, we wanted to get them out moving around. We decided to take them to a place named Stone Door. It's part of newly made state park, Savage Gulf... which is a part of the Cumberland Plateau. It's a beautiful area of Tennessee and I love going anywhere in that area.

On the way there is this old LDS church. The plaque says 1944. The building isn't in use anymore, there's a newer, bigger one nearby, but it's cool to see this older one!

 

The first overlook. This area is pretty, but it is just a taste of what you get later.

Told ya- he's always carrying a football!

It was windy up there! And of course pictures never do it justice. But you have an entire panoramic view of the area. It's stunning- and high!

These really cool stairs lead you down a crack in the rocks. It's pretty steep but really cool.

After we finished exploring that area, we took another little loop towards Laurel Falls. I had never been there before, but it was beautiful. I don't know how we missed it the first time!

It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend a day off! I told the kids this was my birthday gift. Heaven knows I don't need anything else. But just being with them, exploring the world was present enough for me.

 

A Few Things We Did This Week

The Allen's gave the kids a Axe Throwing thing for Christmas. It's all plastic and the kids have had a blast with it. It started leaving notches on the wall though, so I outlawed it upstairs. Having personally hung all that drywall- I'm not ready for it to be destroyed!

 

Tyler always find unique places to lay. I don't know what was wrong with the perfectly good couch behind him....

The dog likes to nuzzle in. He must have been cold.

We've established a good routine with the kids after dinner. One has to load the dishwasher and wash anything needed, another dries everything and puts it away, the third sweeps and wipes down the counters and tables. It's been amazing. And the best part? Lee and I just sit back and watch! haha. Tyler likes to make soap bubble beards.

Marty is obsessed with Lee. He barks like crazy everytime Lee comes home.

It was Grandma's 93rd birthday.... only we don't live in New York. But we wanted to celebrate... so we bought a cake and celebrated!

Tyler and Amy swiped my phone at church.

 

Lee's Hospital Stint

We rang in the New Year with friends and had a great time doing it. But after that, lets just say it started off with a bang! Well, not literally, but it did start off with a hospital visit.

For many, many year Lee has had a heart condition called SVT, which is Supraventricular tachycardia. It's an arrhythmia problem where the heart will speed up and race like crazy until it resets itself into a normal beat. Typically he has 2-3 episodes a year and moves on with life. He's seen a cardiologist a few times with it and they've always said everything was normal.

Well, on January 2nd, he had 6 episodes within an HOUR. He had gone to work and then called as said, "Should I go to the ER?" Um, YES. Once there he had a big episode. The doctors and nurses swarmed in- that was a sight to behold, it looks just like the movies! Someone was putting in a IV. Someone was setting up and EKG. People were all over the place, doing their jobs. The thing that raised my eyes the biggest was when they were charging up the defibrillator. I guess if the medication they gave him didn't work, they would have to shock his heart back to normal. I'll admit, that freak me out a little. But thankfully he responded to the medication. After a little while they let us go with some medication and a follow-up with the Cardiologist. 

He was starving, so we stopped at the local Panda Express that is around the corner from the hospital. We just barely ordering when he said, "Sarah! It's happening again!" So back to the hospital we went. We never got our food. (Later he regretted that!) When he walked in his heart was at 190 beats a minute. They took him right back, hooked him back up and that was the start of our 24 hour ER visit.

His heart went back and forth for the rest of the night. At one point it just kept on and kept on. We have no idea why it kept acting up. But luckily each time it did respond to the medication so they never had to shock him. When he had these events, his heart would jump to 200-215 beats per minute. Because it was technically a holiday (January 1 was a Sunday, so everyone had off work on January 2) the cardiologists weren't making rounds and there weren't any beds to move him into the actual hospital. The ER was packed, but the ER is where we stayed. All night. We didn't get any sleep. I think he was able to rest a little, but all they had for me was a very uncomfortable waiting room type chair. I remember thinking "I'm not going to make it... I'm so tired... there's no way I'm going to make it until morning...." But as each hour ticked away I would think, "ok, I made it until 2am... I can make it until 3. I made it until 3... I can make it until 4..." and so forth. Around 6am they moved us to a different room and around, 7am his Cardiologist came by.

He has since also seen a specialist- called an electrophysiologist. Basically what Lee has is something in his heart that is causing it to act up. The electrophysiologist goes into the heart, through the groin artery and takes a map of the heart. Once in there, he can fix it. It's one of 3 things and they are easily fixed. This way it never happens again. It's either that or be on medication forever. It can still happen on medication and while it wont kill him (He assured Lee of that!) it's very uncomfortable and can lead to another ER trip. Lee opted for the surgery. That is currently scheduled for the middle of March and he's on medication until then. 

 So while it was a scary 24 hours, the news was good and we are all ready for this to be over. I went to the ER originally that morning and by the time we knew we were going to stay the night it was pretty late. We had several friends offer to stay with the kids, but I talked to them and felt alright being by themselves. It was just overnight. I came home around 9pm to get a change of clothes and such. And then they went to bed a bit later and I knew they'd sleep in the next morning. Amy and Will have phones and we have great neighbors and friends close by. They did great. We were so proud of them! And it turned out that Will told one neighbor what was going on and she brought dinner to the kids! How nice was that!? They were well taken care of. 

Mom and Dad were at Anna's and were willing to come down, but there wasn't much they could do so they stayed until Wednesday when they were supposed to come anyway. It was great to have them here though- just having another set of hands in case anything went wrong. Nothing did. And I was glad the kids hadn't started back at school- what a blessing that was! But Mom cooked, Dad cleaned and worked on a project, and we were able to get some rest. We aren't as young as we used to be! That 24 hours of being awake wiped us out!

But Lee is feeling great now. The surgery is scheduled, the kids are back at school and things are getting back to normal! But it was a certainly a "fun" start to the New Year! Geesh!!

Happy New Year- A Hike!

January 1st fell on a Sunday this year. Normally we would have been at church... however back around Christmas we had a really fast freeze. It went from 55 degrees to 2 degrees in merely 12 hours and needless to say it caused a lot of damage. One of the things it ruined was our church building. Several pipes burst, and since the pipes are int he ceiling.... well... it made a mess. So church was cancelled.

We had friends over last night and needless to say, there is still confetti everywhere. That's the sign of a good party!!

I suggested we go on a family adventure and enjoy the day. We went to a local state park named Henry Horton. It was a beautiful day (you would never know the week before it was single digit!) and we enjoyed ourselves. Amy and Tyler have decided they like fishing and brought poles. The fish aren't biting this time of year, but it was fun for them to cast. 

Tyler is ALWAYS carrying a football!

We have a favorite dessert around here- we call it Cherry Cheesecake. I made it for our New Years party but forgot to serve it. So we brought it along. Tyler was especially happy, it's his favorite!

Will is developing an interest in video and stop motion. So instead of fishing, this is what he worked on.