What is today again? Oh yes - Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  We've had quite a bit going on here that I kind of forgot today was supposed to be something special.  Actually, shouldn't every day be something special?  

For instance, yesterday was special because McGee and Miss Em built a "love train" in our dining room and we were all able to board as passengers while conductor McGee took us on a trip.  It was also special because we saw Grammy & Papa who we hadn't seen in a couple of weeks.

Sadly Thursday was special because it marked our first trip to the Emergency Room with Miss Em.  McGee was with Grandma & Grandpa, Daddy was at worship practice at church and Em and I were home alone.  I was making a Chicken Jambalaya dish and after adding the last of my ingredients, I heard Miss Em start to cry a bit and turned around from the stove to see she had taken the tomato can out of the garbage and gotten her finger stuck between the sharp lid and inside of the can.  I freed it fairly easily and went to rinse it off when I noticed her face was COVERED in blood!  Yikes!  

Seriously, fingers bleed...a lot.  She had sliced her right pointer finger from the tip down around to where the first joint is.  I tried to stop the bleeding, but our girl is STRONG and DETERMINED and she had determined she wanted me to have nothing to do with her finger.  Every bandage I put on she took right off.  I rushed around the kitchen and there was just blood everywhere.  I knew right away she would need stitches and assumed she would need a tetanus shot too so I knew we needed to head to the hospital.  I called Kyle and he came right home and I ran over to my brother and sister-in-laws so they could help me get some pressure on the wound and bandage it up before heading to the ER.  Daddy arrived and we enjoyed the rest of the evening WAITING in the ER.  Four hours later we were on our way home with no tetanus shot and 3 stitches.  The cut was pretty crude and the stitch job even more crude (in my opinion).  Miss Em?  She was the sunshine of the ER, wanting to get down and play and make friends with everyone (not that these germophobe parents let her).  Maybe God just knew the ER needed a little joy that night because I can think of about 6 people for sure that Miss Em brought smiles (and even laughs) to their faces in what was probably one of their worst possible nights.

Here's a very blurry picture from yesterday.  You can't really see the finger, but her agony over having us touch her finger is evident.

The sock we put on to try and keep her from taking the bandages off (this FAILED)

Our little trooper - did I mention we were at the doctor's on Tuesday for her with a UTI as well?

A shot of the tip of her finger and stitches you can see from the top opening of the bandaid

When we arrived home from the ER what did we find?  Grandma, Grandpa and McGee had come home and brought the dogs from Matt & Alanda's backyard (they had escaped from our house when I was putting Em in the car).  After coming inside they noticed blood tracking all over the house and realized Matt had already cleaned up our kitchen from Em's bloody mess - where could this blood be from?  Well from our knucklehead dog Ben, who somehow sliced his paw on the way back home.  Grandpa and McGee (I heard he was really quite a big help) got Ben all bandaged up and Friday morning my dad and I took Ben to the vet.

Two house and nearly $200 later we left with new bandages for Ben (we decided to forego the $550+ sutures), antibiotic for Ben, pain meds and ear rinse and medication for the ear infection we didn't know he had.  Fun times.

A sock for Ben too!

Now here we are on Sunday, Valentine's Day and Mr. McGee has a nasty, nasty cough - one that kept he and I up most of the night.  Em is showing she has a tiny cough too.  No church today.  We even broke our "no cartoons/tv on Sunday mornings" rule today and I let the kids watch recorded Mickey Mouse and Chuggington.  It seemed having McGee focused on the television gave him at least a few minutes respite in between each coughing fit.

Aw...Em came in for some Valentine's snuggles with her big brother

Friday night Grandma & Grandpa stayed with the kids so Daddy and I could have a rare night out.  We went out to celebrate our friend Becca's 30th birthday and had a very enjoyable night being with friends and having one-on-one conversation with each other.  A little pre-Valentine's date for us.

Happy Valentine's my love!  Wishing us a better week ahead. :)