Take Me out to the Ballgame! Chase's first Braves game!

We were so excited to bring Chase to his first spring training game. He loves all sports and we expected him to be so excited to see the game up close. We were nervous about how he was going to handle it since it was so close to his nap time. Well it was pretty much a disaster. It was so hot and our seats were in the blazing sun right behind home plate. Great seats if it were not so hot! Chase just kinda whimpered most of the time. We moved to a shady place, and then in the grassy area. He just would not calm down and he seems miserable. We left and he immediately fell asleep in the car. He napped at home for over 3 hours. I woke him up and he was burning up. The poor thing had a fever of 103.6! Poor baby was sick! So you can see that the pictures of him look pretty pathetic. I feel so bad!

Cute hat though!

Here is a digital layout I did of our trip to Holden Beach with all our friends. This one highlights all the kids. I still have more to do and will post them as I do them. I have been really into the digi scrapping in hopes of being able to pack up my craft room. That room will becomes Chase's big boy room when the new little one comes.

Sorry for no recent posts. The Brinkley house has been pretty sick. It started with Chase getting sick at his Nanna's house on Valentines Day. Dawson and I were at a Van Halen concert. Chase started throwing up that night so I picked him up the following morning. Unfortunately, he got Nanna and Mammaw sick too. This is the sickest Chase has ever been. I called the docs many times and they feel that it was the flu even though he got the flu shot. The poor boy was pathetic and miserable for several days. He lost at least a pound and he did not have that much to lose. He was sick for a whole week. Dawson had to stay home with him last Wednesday so that I could go to work. Well, I guess Chase was still contagious because Dawson started throwing up Thursday night. He is back to work, but still not 100%. Fortunately, it appears that I have escaped the illness this time. Phew.

BALL!!!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This year Christmas was very special for us. Chase was very into the season and enjoyed all the festivities! Whenever we turned on the Christmas lights on our tree, he would OOOHHH and AHHHH! This year he was able to open some of the presents by himself. One of his favorite Christmas movies is Frostie the Snowman, just like his mom! He is growing up so quickly!

My parents came to visit us for Christmas so that we could celebrate Christmas with Dawson's family as well. It was so nice to be with family on Christmas Day! Mammaw (a young 92 years old) made 2 pots of her famous Chicken and Dumplins! Alex (Dawson's cousin) and Nick were in town from Virginia. They got married while in town and Chase was the ring bearer!

I hope you enjoy the pics in the slideshow above. As you can see, we have a little Dave Matthews fan like his parents. We put onthe DMB DVD from Piedmont Park (concert I went to with Steph earlier this year) and Chase was mesmerized. He grabbed his guitar so he could be like Dave. When Carter would have a drum solo, Chase grabbed his drum sticks and beat on his drum. After each song, he clapped with the audience. I love it!!!

Who is Mr. 2 Bits???
I realize I have a mixed bag of friends and family... So here is an explanation for all you Seminoles, Wildcats, Volunteers, Dawgs, Cocks and Darn War Eagles!!!

Happy Halloween!

This year was so much fun dressing up Chase for Halloween. I was a little nervous about how he would react to seeing me with paint on my face. He is going through that stranger anxiety phase and gets uncomfortable with unfamiliar faces. Fortunately, he loved it. He would get the biggest smile on his face when he looked at me and would ROAR! It was hilarious!

Chase really suprised me by the way he would just walk up to people and dig right into the candy bowl. I think he was just excited to see so many little people his size running around in funny outfits. We even braved the very scary house down the street and Chase did fine (even when the monster ran out with the chainsaw)!

At the end of the night, Chase ran to the front door every time the doorbell rang. He pulled the blinds aside to look out the window and squealed with delight when he saw the trick or treaters on our doorstep. Dawson had to hold Chase back when I passed out the candy. A few times, Chase ran out the front door after the other kids. He did not want the night to end!

Hope you all had a great Halloween this year. I want to see come pictures of you all dressed up!

h

Happy Dave Matthews Day!

This was an incredible day! Dawson and I left Chase with my parents and went to West Palm to our hotel room. Immediately, we went to city Place to find a bar to watch the Gators. We were so happy to see the Gators DOMINATE over the Vols (ha ha Uncle Ed)! Then, we were off to the Dave Matthews concert! We had the best time. We danced our butts off and had the time of our lives. We got seats dead center on the 19th row and sweat down to our underwear! I love a good concert and that definately goes to the top of my list of best times!!!

Holden Beach Helicopter Weekend 2007!

Well, we just got back from an amazing vacation in Holden Beach, NC! This was the first trip we took Chase with us and it was so much fun! Chase was able to experience his first plane ride and for the most part did great.

JP's mom was so generous to let us all (Celones', Schwiegerath's, Brinkley's and McLaughlin's) stay at her beach house. All the kids were there and it was so cool seeing them play together. The older boys had a secret club with a hidden fort. Later, we found that they hoarded a bunch of junk food in their secret fort where they would snack all day. No wonder they were never hungry for their meals!

Speaking of meals, we were all spoiled because JP cooked most of our amazing meals! I am talking omelets, strawberry pancakes, T-bone steak, chicken that falls off the bone, and baked spaghetti. It was incredible! I must not forget to also mention that Ben smoked a pork butt and brought that for us on the first night. It was so good! He brought a "special sauce" to go on it that was incredible. I may need him to send me some since I cannot find anything like it in Publix!

Our days were filled with fun at the beach. Chase would squeal with excitement when we put his feet in the sand. Then, he would take off like a bullet running for the ocean. Fortunately, there was a lot of beach before the shoreline so we had time to catch him. He really enjoyed riding the big waves in the sea. I can't wait til he can swim on his own so that I don't have to hold him the whole time.

Jason and JP tried to catch some fish for dinner, but only came up with two sharks! Scary! Even scarier is that the guys were on a sandbar when they caught the baby sharks. Fortunately, momma shark did not come to rescue her babies.

I look forward to this becoming an annual thing. It was so nice to catch up with old friends and see the children develop lasting friendships. I hope that those of you who could not attend this year will make in the future. Thank you so much JP, Michelle, Karen and Jim for making this trip a reality! We have been talking about this for so long and I am so happy we finally did it!

First Boat Ride

This [ast Saturday, the Brinkley crew stayed with the Massey's in Vero. We enjoyed an amazing day on their boat. Thank you guys so much for taking us out! It was Chase's first boat ride and he absolutely loved it. He especially liked the shrimp bucket. He kept trying to reach in and pull out the shrimp. At one point, he got so excited and his paci fell out of his mouth and into the bucket. fortunately, we grabbed it before he could put it back into his mouth. The kids played hard all day and finally crashed mid afternoon. Check out Marley and Chase taking their afternoon nap on the boat.

Cooper plays so well with Chase and Marley. It is so cute watching them all interact! In the morning, Chase crawled into Marley's baby stroller and Cooper pushed Chase all over the house. Marley was trying to get Chase to kiss her baby. It is just too darn cute!!!!

The following day, Chase and I drove to Boca to visit my family. We had a blast hanging out with Liam at a little kids waterpark. Mimi even got her hair wet! Chase loves playing with the dogs and they really miss him when he is gone!

Digi Scrapping!

I know it is summer and I am just getting around to doing my Christmas pics. It is hard with a toddler running around. I am trying to learn how to do this digi scrapping, but there is a huge learning curve. This was made with a template from atomic cupcake.

Monkey Joe's!

Over the weekend, the Brinkley family joined the McLaughlin's and Ragan's at Monkey Joes. Monkey Joe's is a huge warehouse full of Bounce Houses (Moon Walk) and

blow up slides, etc. It was packed since it was the weekend and quite overwhelming. He had a great time playing with Chase on all the fun slides. It was so funny watching him try to walk in the Bounce House.

I love the picture above of Chase getting ready to go down the slide. This is totally his "very excited" face. Now, doesn't that make you smile!

We made it 2 hours at that place. By the time we left, Dawson and I were sweating bullets. It was so nice to visit with Nicki, Skip, Aidan and Izzy. Thanks for stopping by on your way to Sarasota!

The Beach!!!

Last Friday, Chase and I joined some friends at Cocoa Beach. There were 7 adults and 15 kids...I know, crazy! It completely wore Chase and me out!

I brought a toddler raft for Chase to ride the waves. He absolutely loved it! He had no fear of the water and really enjoyed playing at the shoreline. His swimmy diaper started getting really heavy (from all the sand and water) and it would make him off balance. I wish you could have seen him stumbling all over the place.

Next time, Daddy will need to join us. Hopefully, we will be able to make it over to the beach for his birthday.

This is a cute clip from Chase's bath last night. He was a root a toot tooting! make sure you let it buffer before watching it.

Here is a cute picture of Chase's new haircut. We cut off a little more this time and he looks like a little man (sniff sniff). He also has a bit of a wave to his hair now that it is shorter on top. So cute!!!

Last week, Dawson and I celebrated for 6 days in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. We were celebrating our anniversary (late) and his BIG PROMOTION to Finance Director. Finally, he is reaping the rewards for all his hard work. We found out the day before we left for vacation! What a way to go!

The Dominican Republic is beautiful, but a very poor third world country. Where we stayed it is known as the "kite surfing capital of the world". They were actually having a kite surfing championship the week after we left (right on the beach of our resort)! We didn't see the signs for free lessons until it was too late (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). Besides, there were about 50 kite surfer and 50 windsurfers out there at any given time. I was nervous that I would get caught up in someone elses line. I have tried windsurfing once and it was so hard.

We went on an amazing waterfall tour. We were told that we had to walk through the water to get to the waterfalls. Therefore, we had to wear a lifevest, swim shoes, and a helmet. We both thought that we would be able to wade in the water and see the waterfalls. Nooooo...we actually climbed up all seven waterfalls. At times, I did not know how we would be able to do it. It just seemed impossible, but our tourguides made it all possible. Seriously, we climbed on top of our guides ande they also pulled us up to the next level. It was exhillerating looking up at the beautiful rock formations and water rushing down. Once we finally reached the top, we slid down 5 of the falls and then got to jump down the last two. It definately got our hearts pumping! I wish we had pictures to show you. It was an amazing an amazing experience that I would do again and again!!!

Chase stayed with his Nanna and Mammaw. It was very hard being away from him for so long, but definately a much needed vacation. He loves being over there and kept them busy.

My mom still has the pins in her arms, but is able to do so much more now. She will have surgery to remove the pins in 2 weeks. Then rehab.

Happy Father's Day!

We had a wonderful day celebrating the men in our life. Sheryl had the family over for a wonderful lasagna dinner. Chase had a great time running all over Sheryls house and sharing his toys with Max (the dog). Chase also got to experience stairs for the first time. He was so proud of himself when he reached the top. I am glad we don't have stairs at our house. It sure would be exhausting following him up and down the stairs all day.

Dawson and I are going on a much needed vacation for a week. Nanna, Mammaw and Sheryl will be watching Chase for us. I am feeling a bit sad about leaving him for that long, but we really need the time away.

It has been 2 weeks since my mom's surgery. She is doing a lot better than she was the first week after the surgery. She can now do more things with her hands and has gotten out of the house quite a bit. She will have the pins in for another month and then rehab.

Chase (14 months) and Liam (15 months)

Things are better at the Brinkley household. I am so glad May is over! The swelling in my hand has gone down and hopefully soon will have my normal full range of motion back.

My mom ended up needing surgery on both wrists and this was done last Monday. She has pins in both arms and has been in excruciating pain. She needs help doing everything. Chase and I went down to Boca on Sunday for a few days to help out my parents. It lifted my moms spirits seeing Chase and Liam together. The boys are walking/running all over the place.

Everyday, my mom's pain seems to improve. She will have the pins in for 6 weeks and then will need to have therapy. Amanda has been a huge help by going over there everyday to help my mom do the most basic things. Please pray for her pain to subside and a speedy recovery.

What a great day this was. It was last weekend while my parents were here. We went to City Walk and ate at Margaritaville. Chase and my father loved all the great Buffet decorations all over the restaurant. I was starting to feel better and was so happy to get out of the house.

Now for the unfortunate news...
I'm still on antibiotics for the hand since the pharmacy wrote the wrong dose on the bottle. Fortunately, I reacted to the half prescribed dose or I would have needed hand surgery! GRRR. Another reason why I love electronic medical record!

Chase started throwing up on Friday and I thought it could have been bad milk or something. He was acting fine otherwise, but did throw up 4 times that day. I knew that something had been going around his daycare,b ut he was not there for 3 weeks while I was recooperating. Denial is a great thing. Unfortunately Sunday morning at 3:30 am I woke to Dawson vomiting and that continued for hours. He didn't get out of bed until 4:30 pm when I started barfing and he needed to take care of baby Chase. We are better today then yesterday, but still not totally normal.

WORST OF ALL...
I got a frantic call from my sister today that my mom broke both her wrists. I am not clear if it is wrists or lower arms, but definately both of them. The ortho doc didn't come into the hospital to see her (not life threatening and it is Memorial Day - GRRRR). He wanted them to splint her up and make an appt for tomorrow. Very frustrating. Chase and I will be heading down to Boca this Friday-Tuesday so my sister and I can tak team and help her.

That is it. This our three bad things...no more!!! JUNE HAS TO GET BETTER.

Pray for my mom!

Ali

Flesh Eating Bacteria!
Yep, that is what the doctors told me yesterday. Very scary. They also said that I am so lucky that I went to the hospital when I did because it could have been so much worse. Just imagine those gory pictures on the internet you find when you google it. Too disgusting. I am so thankful that I went to work that morning and showed it to the nurse and physician I work with. They told me that I needed to go to my doctor an get antibiotics. Boy were they right!!!

The great news is that the ID doc will discontinue my oral and IV antibiotics THIS MONDAY! That means this PICC line can finally come out! I will be free! My hand is still a little sore and stiff. My arm is peeling from the infection. The swelling has gone down, but I probably won't e back to my new normal for a couple weeks. The redness is gone and I have not taken any pain meds since Monday! Praise the Lord!

I plan to return to work on Wednesday and I am looking forward to normalcy. My parents leave Sunday and have been a tremendous help. Chase is just as cute as can be. He is having a wonderful time playing ball with Brewster, my parents border collie.

Thanks again for all your prayers and well wishes.

Yesterday, we had a bit of a scare. My hand started to swell and become sore over the weekend. I even had to start taking the Percocet again starting on Sunday. I made an appt to see the ortho hand doc to check out my hand and check to see if an abcess was forming. He didn't think there was an abcess and picked off my scab (ewwww). He suggested that I see the ID guy since I may need a different antibiotic. The ID doc saw me right away and he freaked me out. He was very concerned that I was developing compartment syndrome. This would mean hospitalization and hand surgery. He started me on Clinda (oral) three times daily for 7 days and extended my IV Rocephin for another 7 days. he said he was puzzled as to why this was happening. I did have a rash all over my trunk over the weekend (now gone). He was not sure what that was all about either.

I was concerned because Chase started getting what looked like zits on his face, ear and hand. I showed the ID guy and he of course told me to show my pediatrician. Most adult guys won't touch kids. He said he takes pustules very seriously in children and Chase needed to be seen right away! So I made an appt with Dawn Andrew, his pediatrician. Before I had Chase, I worked with her at the hospital. She was a hospitalist at APH. Well, Dr. Andrew made me feel so much better about my condition. She knew more than the ID guy!!! She told me the rash was from the strep and that my new antibiotic regimen should do the trick. She also told me that Chase did not have pustules and that it was likely bug bites! Phew!!!

I got my dressing on my PICC line changed today. They do it once per week. For all you non medical people out there, a PICC line is an IV access that is permanently on my arm until I am finished with IV antibiotics. It goes in my arm directly to my superior vena cava (heart). Scary. You have to be very careful and clean when dealing with the line. I am looking forward to getting this line OUT!!!

3 doctors appts in one day is more than I ever want to do again. I now have a deeper understanding of what my patients go through. It sucks!!!

Thanks for all your prayers, phonecalls, flowers, gifts and well wishes. Keep praying. I am feeling better today than yesterday. It doesn't feel like I have acid on my hand anymore and I have not taken Percocet yet today. I think this Clinda has really turned things around. Praise God! I will keep you updated. I go to ortho and ID docs again on Thursday.

First Haircut!

Yesterday, Mimi and I took Chase to get his first haircut! His hair was getting long and he was starting to sport a mullet so we had to get that taken care of right away. Chase was so good and did not cry at all. He actually liked having his hair combed.

Don't mind the shiner and bum lip. He has started walking and had some spills. He's tough, he's a boy!

I still have IV antibiotics for another 5 days. I can't wait to put this all behind me. I visited with the Infectious Disease Doctor yesterday and he made it very clear how sick I truly was. I was very close to having my arm sliced open in several places to drain". I am feeling better every day. Dawson and I are going to go on a date this Saturday for a late anniversary celebration. I am looking forward to that.

Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and well wishes.

Correction: It was group A step. Dawson told me that they cultured my nose and yes that is what is was. I was really out of it in the hospital and somethings were not clear to me until talking about it later.

I AM FINALLY HOME FROM THE HOSPITAL!!! This was definitely that worst week of my life. It started last Tuesday when I noticed a very small blister on the top of my hand. I scratched it and clear fluid came out of the blister. It did not hurt at that time so I didn’t pay much attention to it.

When I woke up the next morning, half of my hand was swollen and it hurt. I joked with Dawson that I must have gotten a spider bite and I was going to die!!!! I went on to work that day and showed my hand and to the physician and nurse to get their opinion. By then, it was even worse than it was when I woke up. Dr. Weatherly told me that I should make an appt with my primary care physician because it looked like I needed antibiotics. I made the appointment for later that day. I was just concerned that I was not going to be able to go on the two trips I had planned over the next two weeks.

The pain started getting worse and worse. It was now moving up to my elbow. I couldn’t stand it anymore so I went home to wait for my appt. I cried the whole way home. By the time I reached my primary care physician’s office, my fever was 103.6. I was in so much pain. I couldn’t even rip the toilet paper off the roll with my bad hand! My primary care looked at the infected arm and thought I really needed to go to the emergency room to get IV antibiotics. Woah Nelly…this meant it was really something serious.

I drove myself to the ER and asked Dawson to get Chase and have his mom watch him that night. It all went down hill from there. The pain was becoming unbearable. I was begging for pain medication because the pain was like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was all happening so fast. I was getting really scared that I was going to lose my arm or something worse.

I think I was finally getting my IV pain killers when Dawson got to the ER. I know I really scared him because I couldn’t control my shaking and I was moaning from the pain. I had to be admitted to the hospital for IV antibiotics and to determine the source of the infection.

I had so many things done to me (MRI, chest Xrays, PICC line placement for long term IV antibiotics). We don’t really know what happened. I could have been bitten by a spider or just got some sort of infection. I was convinced it was a spider bite from our weekend stay at Ft. Wilderness. They cultured the surface of the site and it came back positive with Group A Step. I mention that the SURFACE showed that because they could not get anything out of the wound. We all have Staph and Strep on our skin at any given time, but don’t necessarily react to it. So who knows if it is really Group A Strep or a spider bite. Honestly, I don’t even care anymore, I just want to get better.

Dawson was such a source of strength for me. He really took wonderful care of me. He really meant what he said on our wedding day when he would “take me in sickness and in health”. The poor guy had to guide me to the bathroom so many times, got vomited on, and was there for ANYTHING I needed him to do for me. I was so loopy from the pain and the drugs that I was hallucinating, falling asleep while drinking water, or falling asleep on the toilet. Through it all, he was right there with me. I am so thankful to have him as a husband. It’s kinda ironic that we spent our 6th wedding anniversary in the hospital and he even made that special for me.

It has been so difficult being away from Chase this whole time. I know that he was in good hands at his Nanna and Mammaw’s house, but I wanted to see him, smell him and hold him. I woke up Sunday crying because I missed him so much. The nurses said it would be ok for me to visit with him downstairs. He was too young to be exposed to the germs upstairs in the hospital. We had WONDERFUL brief visit, but enough to lift my spirits.

My mom comes today to take care of Chase and me for the next 2 weeks. Chase will finally come home today. I hear he is more of a walker than a crawler. It will be one great “mother and child reunion”. I have 9 more days of home IV antibiotics and many follow-up doctors appts. I was supposed to be leaving for CABO tomorrow! It is so great to be out of the hospital, but I am not out of the woods yet…

Thank you to all that has helped me, called me and prayed for me.

I can't believe it has been a year since Chase was born. It has been such a wonderful year for the Brinkley family. I can't imagine my life any different! I truly love waking up each morning seeing his smiling face. It is so wonderful seeing Dawson's face light up every time he sees his little boy.

We had a birthday party on Saturday for the little man. Chase had a great time playing with his cake. He also went swimming in our pool. Poor little guy had blue lips before it was all said and done. At the end of the night Mimi and Gramps (my parents) watched him and Liam (Amanda's son) so the parents could go out.

Chase is growing up so fast. I feel so blessed that I can be home with him 5 days a week to watch him and play with him.

Love ali

So many new things happened over the last few weeks...

Chase has gone to the newly remodeled Lake Eola park and really LOVES the swing! He has an instant smile when you put him in it. He even cried when we took him out. While we were at the park, we fed the duckies and the swans. Chase just looked stunned at all the birds as they flew over our heads. It must ave been a little freaky to him.

Last week, when I picked up Chase at the YMCA daycare, I was told that he broke out of the infant area. He seemed to really enjoy hanging with the big kids. They suggested that he wear shoes just in case some of the other kids stepped on his little toes. It was time to get Chase some shoes. We brought him to the mall to get his first pair of Stride Rite shoes! He is getting to be a big boy. Afterward, we took him on the carosel in the mall. As you can see, he just loved it. It is so cool to watch his amazement with each new thing he does.

Last weekend, Chase and I had the opportunity to visit with one of my best friends, Kelly "Stout" Hutcheson and her sister Jen. It has been several years since we have gotten together. When we got together with Kelly and Jen, it was if we were back in high school. We had so much to talk about and enjoyed the afternoon laughing and catching up on our lives.

As you can see, Chase loves to brush his teeth. He was so interested in our Crest Spin Brush. We decided to get his very own Spidey spin Brush. He cries when we take it away...and that is after 10 minutes!!!

Happy 92nd Birthday to Mammaw!

Last weekend we were able to get together with family to celebrate Mammaw's special day. Dino and Taylor's birthdays were celebrated too.

Check out Chase sharing and playing with his cousin Bella. It was adorable watching them interact. Pretty soon they will be running all over the place with the older kids (Anthony, Michael, and Samantha).

Just wanted to make a quick post for you all to see the latest family gathering. Please keep Norman in your prayers as he continues his battle with cancer. It was so wonderful visiting with him. You should see how much Bella loves her grand daddy. She just sits so peacefully in his lap and snuggles him. So cute!!!