Ever Heard of a 'Yankee Dime?' Our Weekend......

Harrison was the first of the four to lose a tooth and Logan was second.

She actually had TWO loose teeth - one center top and one center bottom.

That bottom one was hanging by a thread!

There was much excitement in Quadville last night when it came out and a lot of celebrating over the Tooth Fairy's visit this morning.

The Tooth Fairy business is much bigger than it was when my children were little.

The first tooth lost fetches a hefty $5! All the others go for a buck!

Trystan was the first one to wake up Saturday and she crept down the stairs and opened the door to the guest room at 7:45. That's a decent time and she and I chatted in bed for a half hour before I was ready to get up. She suggested we have a 'coffee party' so that's exactly what we did.

She gets a few spoons of coffee and a lot of milk.

I need to take a creamer and a few small scale coffee cups and leave them stored in the guest room for just such occasions as this.

The kids were all so sweet!

We were at the kitchen table talking about hands. I forgot how we got on that but I showed them my hands and said I have big ones for a lady. When I asked Granddad to show them his, he said he charged for that! Harrison offered him a penny and Kailey said she would give him a nickel.

Louis Dean said, "Tell you what....I'll take a Yankee dime!"

"n.— «“Yankee dime” is a slang term used in some sections of the United States, particularly in the South, to denote a kiss, just as “Dutch quarter” is used to mean a hug."

The kids got a big kick out of that!

After breakfast, we finished up the coffee cozy the quads sewed.

Trystan and Logan were naturals at using a needle and thread.

The kit I had included a needle threader and all four took turns threading.

The stitches may not be even but this was stitched with love!

It was about noon when we gathered our things up and headed for home.

We stopped at Lowes to get some rose bushes and mulch.

I always buy red mulch and so we did again.

However, this was a different color of red than what we bought at Home Depot.

No matter.....I think I actually like this one better!

The neighbor house behind ours has a now HUGE cottonwood tree.

It has been snowing cotton like never before!

Look at all that white stuff on top of the new mulch we had spread just a few days ago!

Cottonwood trees are fast growing - this one is now the tallest tree in our neighborhood - but it only lives about 50 years.

The cotton falling is a sign that pollination has already happened so there's a less than 7% chance that you would be allergic to it. The cotton will continue to fall for two weeks.

I discovered that when you water the mulch down, the cotton dissolves!

Now this is a fun pic I made especially for Sandra aka The Mad Snapper!

I was going to take a pic of the cotton and had accidentally flipped the camera view.

I was standing in front of the wreath on the door and it looked like I was wearing a fancy hat!

Now, this is NOT what I actually looked like! It was a Saturday afternoon and I was wearing my grungy clothes and was not looking pretty.

Several heavy edits later.......

While Louis Dean kept working outside,

I went inside where I am going room by room doing some housecleaning.

Saturday's room was the den.

We had to replace our sound bar for the TV and that meant moving all the debris from around where you see the clock. That made it a perfect time to do some real cleaning and changing things up.

This morning Louis Dean and I went to church. I love going to the same church Amber, Mike and the kids go to!

We stopped by the Car Wash on Beltline on our way home.

I used to have a van and kept it clean and decorated!

Vans are big and you can do that.

Now I have a little Ford Fusion and it gets washed once in a blue moon!

We went back to work when we got home.

Louis Dean pulled his truck up on the grass and gave it a good washing!

I came in and cleaned the living room, foyer and kitchen.

The number of clean rooms in our house is growing!!

I have loved 'clean' for as long as I can remember and enjoy the process of making it so.

Now an update on my friend, Jessica.

She is out of ICU but remains in the hospital for a few more days.

Prayers are gifts we can give for others and she is grateful for every single one of them.

Most of what I see on my Facebook feed is of family and friends and how and what they are doing.

I also enjoy lots of humorous posts and occasionally I see some for prayer request that truly touch my heart. I remember all the prayers prayed for Amber while she was in the hospital trying her best to hold on to the quadruplets until they would be able to survive. Then more prayers during their infancy and then again when Kailey had open heart surgery. I have a responsibility to pray for others as others have prayed for us.

This is McKenna.......and the freak accident that put this healthy 15 month old precious baby in the hospital fighting for her life.

May 3 at 8:15am · 

PLEASE EVERYONE we need as many prayers as we can get!!!!! My niece and her husband had a freak accident last night. Their daughter McKenna was hit in the head by a stray softball at a softball game. Waverly had her air lifted to Mayo. She has a fractured skull and 2 blood clots in her brain that are causing her to have seizures. They are giving her meds for the seizures but they aren’t helping like they need to. My SIL and I are heading to Mayo here shortly. WE NEED PRAYERS!!!! PLEASE SHARE as you feel led. We need many, many prayers!

Morning Rounds Update: McKenna has been seizure free for 48 hours! Praise God! That's our girl!

The doctors will start lowering the Versed a little every hour, and then at night they back it off to every 2 hours. Versed is the seizure med that she was maxed out on.

McKenna has experienced quite a bit of fluid positivity. This means she is retaining fluid and because she cannot get rid of it in normal ways because she's laying still (urinating, being held, moving), she is retaining more and more. This is why she looks puffy. This is perfectly normal in this situation. Last night they gave her a dose of Lasix and it didn't have much effect. This morning they decided to up the Lasix to 4 every 12 hours because she's up a whole kilo on her weight. (Everything is by kilogram, instead of pounds, so it's confusing sometimes. 1 kilo = 2.2 pounds) It's important to get rid of the fluid to be able to take the breathing tube out when the time comes and they can't remove it, if she's retaining a lot of fluid.

They did see something in her lung scan when she went for her scheduled CT this morning, but it’s very normal with a breathing tube, so they are not worried about it at this time. The CT came back stable, but they are still seeing the spots of possible brain damage. However... We don't know the extent IF ANY until she wakes up. Her blood levels were great! Labs are stable. They are keeping her NPO at the time, which means she is not receiving Kassy's milk.

To understand the enormous balancing act these unbelievable doctors are doing, I'm going to try to put this all in layman's terms. McKenna is on too many meds to count... There are seizure meds, blood pressure meds, meds for nourishment, etc. and so forth. I couldn't begin to name them all. Each drop she receives is less than one drop of water. Her total intake of meds each day is 15 ml. Take a look at the dosing on a med cup for your Children's Motrin or Tylenol... It's less than half of that small cup. With each med it's a delicate dance to not give her too much or too little. We have been in awe of the PICU doctors, nurses and neuro teams at Mayo. There's a reason why they're the best in the world! We are comforted knowing that she is in the very best place to heal her and remain positive about the outcome. Please continue to pray for these skilled hands and minds. They see things each day that we cannot even fathom. They have hearts of gold and nerves of steel! Each one of them is so compassionate and we are very blessed that McKenna is in such loving and caring hands. For any that are following this page... We watch and we see you. Your hard work and dedication is not going unnoticed. We love you all! - Laura

Quick update: McKenna was a champ last night!!! They did start her on a Lasix and she is responding to that very well! No new changes, she stayed very stable....she is getting ready to head down to have a scheduled CT. Hopefully gonna make some progress today by decreasing some meds but taking it an hour at a time!!! Asking for everyone to pray and keep your fingers crossed for continued good news! 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ -Kassy

The family has created a Facebook page you can check for updates.......

Healing for McKenna

Thank you in advance for any and all prayers on behalf of Baby McKenna.

Before I close, I want to show you what was sitting at my front door when we got back from church today!

This is from my dear long time friend, Mary Jo!

And speaking of country......

we will be picking Dean up from the airport tomorrow afternoon and take him back to the ranch. 

He's been up in Washington state teaching at a Karate event.

We will stay an extra day or so at the camper before we come back home.

This works out perfectly for us since we need to unload the new table and four chairs and some other things. If y'all don't hear from me tomorrow, you will at least know where I am!