Words You Never Want to Hear

Baffling. Interesting. I've never seen anything like this before. Hmmmmmm.

As we sat in the doctor's office Monday evening, these were the words we were hearing. And you never want to be "interesting" to a doctor.

It all began on Monday morning when Elle woke up with strange markings on the palms of her hands. All the soft puffy parts on the palms of both hands were red and purple. They looked bruised, like she played too hard on the monkey bars (which she hadn't been on) I sent her to school with a note to the teacher to keep an eye on her hands. Her teacher (thankfully) called me around 1:30 to inform me that the palms looked no better and now red lines were running up her arm from the markings on the palms. I immediately called the doctor and got her in around 3:00.

"Interesting". "I've never seen an infection so symmetrical before." "Why would it be on both hands??"

Followed by a blood test. Followed by "Her white counts are too high, I want to admit her to the hospital to get her on antibiotics and figure this out." Followed by tears (those would be mine). Followed by a walk down the hall and into the hospital, into her room, into a gown with an IV into her arm. Just like that.

Now, I must add a side note here. We were in such good hands. Elle wasn't even in her gown yet and my sister arrived to whisk the boys away for a fun evening with their beloved girly cousins. A Pastor and good friend from our church arrived to pray with Elle. My parents helped with getting the boys to and from school. And my sister works just down the hall from where Elle stayed, so she was able to visit often. This is why we moved. To be closer to family, and...little did we know, so we didn't have to drive an hour to get to the hospital when necessary. The whole experience was easy, considering everything we had to do.

OK...back to Elle...she saw 3 specialists. One thinks it's bacterial, one thinks it's viral, and one doesn't know, so she does a skin biopsy on Elle's hand, taking skin to send away to Milwaukee for analysis. In the end, it seemed as though the IV antibiotics did their job as her palms went back to normal, the red streaks went away and she feels just fine. They still don't know what it was, but hopefully we get an answer soon.

Elle was a trooper! She never complained about the IV stuck in her arm, being attached to her bed, peeing in a "hat" in the toilet, or having her vitals taken all day long and all night. She did complain that she missed her brothers,and she missed her school. Did I mention yet that her teacher came up to visit her too??

In the end, we are glad she seems to be OK. We are still waiting on some results, but I am confident that whatever she had, it wasn't that big of a deal. In the end, I bet those orginal words will still ring true...Baffling...Interesting....I wonder what it was she had....

Guess What We Did This Weekend....

Thaaaaaaaat's right. The Nienhouse Swimming Hole is back up for business. Ok, maybe it's not quite the same type of swimming hole, but it is a body of water nonetheless. And it just wouldn't be a Nienhouse without the pool.... of some sort....as it were. S0 - for those of you who were debating if you wanted to make the long drive up to see us, maybe this will help inspire you to set a date to come up and hang with us. AND - this little Nienhouse Swimming Hole plans to stay open all year round :o) Current temperature: 102 degrees.

Room Makeover #1

Welcome to the first of many TreeHouse Makeovers. Unfortunately, I don't have a before picture, but the room was white prior to the new paint color. I just had to decorate one room right away so I could have a place I could relax in and call my own. The TreeHouse is currently a little outdated, so the paint is going to come fast and furious, and as I have new rooms finished, you will see the progress too! Enjoy...

.....next room: Sam's room. Currently pink.

(ps....thanks to IL friend, Lisa P...I used the same blue you have in your house!)

First Day of School

Easily, the weirdest thing I have done since moving back to my hometown was sending my children off to school.

Renting an Apartment = Not weird, not fun, but not weird.

Buying a house = Not weird.

Changing Churches = Not weird.

Buying a Tahoe = Not weird.

Sending children to their cousin's grade school = VERY WEIRD.

We had attended many a function at this grade school while visiting my family. All of a sudden, I am walking down the hallway to see Sam and Elle's names by their coat hook on the wall. Strange. I couldn't believe they were going to go to this school now!

So the first day of school went without a hitch for the kids. I, on the other hand, did not do so well. I kept it together in front of the kids, but the minute I turned around to leave them, I started bawling. I think it was a lot of things. Moving into the house so recently, everything was different and now it was different for the kids too, Elle going to school all day long (yes, all day kindergarten) AND she's a young 5 year old who didn't have the pre-K experience all the others in her class had. Not only did I cry, but I continued to cry for 45 minutes after I got home!! Poor Jack, stuck with his sappy mother all morning long.

On his first day of preschool, Jack wanted to know if I was going to cry again. I asked him if he wanted me to, he said NO, and so I told him I wouldn't cry. I didn't. I went shopping instead :o) Alone :o)

The Fire Pit

In all our years of owning a home, we have never had a firepit. One of our first projetcts at the TreeHouse was to put a fire pit in. The best part about it was that we gathered all the rocks for the pit from our own property. So....come over sometime, I'm great at making smores :o)

No longer livin' in the Burbs..........

We've arrived! After surviving a 3 month stay in our 2 bedroom apartment, various trips between Wausau and McHenry, re-doing grandma's kitchen, packing and unpacking old house and apartment, we have arrived in our new home! To say we love this house and yard is a complete understatement. Having come used to the small apartment, this house feels like a mansion to us. And the yard showcases God's creation to us everyday. (Some day I will have to blog on the deer and wild turkeys we have living on our land!) The pics you see above were taken on our property over labor day weekend. With all the exploring there is to do, I don't think the kids will miss the pool....that much :o)

So, why the new blog name??? We definately are NOT living in any sort of suburb anymore. Although we have a neighborhood, the lots are large and the trees are many. We can be as secluded as we want, or we can take a walk and meet the neighbors. It is so different from our previous neighborhood. So...as we were sitting at the dinner table one night last week, Dean was looking around the house and said "It feels like we live in a treehouse". "That's it! That's my new blog name!" And there you have it...Life in the TreeHouse.

Never have I felt more at home so quickly in a new house. This house fits like an old baseball glove. We've only been here a little over a week and it feels like home. I love the sound of that. Home.