Extremely Busy Weekend

It is hard to believe we survived this weekend!! Thursday night, Mike and I had to be at the Young Life banquet at 6:30. We picked Maggie up at 9:15 and everything seemed fine until she woke up at 1:00 crying her eyes out from the pain in her right ear. I knew instantly that the lingering cold she has been fighting had moved into her ear. She woke again at 3:00 with more intense pain and I was almost certain that it would rupture by morning at the rate we were going. I gave her tylenol at 1:00 and motrin at 3:00. Instead of calling at 8:00 for an appointment, I just took her straight to the doctor's office. They were not thrilled to see me, but there was no way I was leaving to hike Mt. LeConte without having her seen by a doctor first. Luckily, Dr. Meyer was able to see her right away and she confirmed a severe ear infection. I also had her check the lymph node under her right arm and by the look on her face, I was beginning to think my day was going to be spent at children's hospital instead of hiking. She was alarmed by the size of it, but since she had an infection on her thumb she decided we would blame that for time being. She put her on a string dose of amoxocillin and told us to watch it for 10-14 days. If it has not gone back to normal by then, we are to return to the doctor's office. I am praying that the medicine will do it's job!! I gave Maggie her first dose of medicine, ear drops and some breakfast and dropped her off at school with Granny's number in case she got worse.

We left for Mt. LeConte at 10:00 (a little behind schedule). We met everyone at Cracker Barrel at 10:30, ate a big breakfast and hit the trail a little after 1:00. We made it to the top of the mountain in 3 hours and 15 minutes. It was wet and cold on the way up, but we had a blast in spite of it. Dinner was served at 6:00 and then we walked out to the point to watch the most amazing sunset. The lodge was rather full, so we sat around in a big circle in our little cabin and talked, laughed and had a good time until 11:00. We all got into our beds and attempted to sleep, which was not very successful. I was sure after not having much sleep the two nights before that I would sleep like a baby - wrong!! Breakfast was served at 8:00. We gathered our belongings, took lots of pictures and headed back down the mountain. We were making good time until Sandra twisted her ankle. She was quiet a trooper and made it down the rest of the mountain in mismatched shoes and walking sticks. We stopped for a late lunch at the Chop House and then headed home. After a much needed shower, I picked the girls up around 5:00.

We played hookie from church because I was not sure what time Jane would arrive. We cleaned house, lounged around until she arrived at 1:00. The girls were very excited about spending time with her. We hung out at the house all day and had a yummy dinner at home to avoid going out in the wet weather.

This morning, Molly and I enjoyed a yummy breakfast at Webster's with Jane. We have ran a couple of errands with her, but have spent the majority of the day at home. I think Jane is shocked by the amount of energy that Molly has. She NEVER stops. They have played Candyland and Dora together and she is currently running around some of the UT stuff that Jane brought.