Nebraska Happenings

This past weekend, we made a visit to my sister and her husband in McCook, NE.

They made a huge and life-altering decision to move to McCook (small town - such as that of Douglas, Wyoming - where we grew up) from the bustling outskirts of Washington, D.C. after my brother-in-law, Ty and his family decided to open a grocery store. The store is called Schmick's Market and their only direct competition is none other than the retail giant, Wal-Mart SuperCenter.

We decided to leave earlier on Thursday because, yet again, another storm was headed this way. With bags mostly packed the night before, we woke up on Thursday morning to Ava's 102 degree fever. First, off to the doctor, to rule out an ear infection since Caedmon had made a visit to the ER the week before for a croup attack and then an ear infection. Nothing was seriously wrong with her (no infection to speak of), so we set off to Nebraska. We were not daunted by the fact that MapQuest was telling us that we were to spend 168 miles on a two-lane road...no. But, man, that was a drive with a whole lot of nothin'.

McCook itself is a great little town. Everyone is really nice, it has a fair amount of stoplights, cute little shops including a kitchen store that had all sorts of neat stuff (I bought a few things) and a great little bakery that serves lunch with the best sandwich I've had in a while.

My sister and brother in law's house is another interesting feature of McCook. When they were first married and still lived in Virginia, they bought a house for a fair amount, completely renovated it themselves and sold it for an outstanding profit. They bought their house in McCook - a turn of the century-style home - for cash. Not very much cash. And you can tell. Wood paneling covers the living room...white wood paneling...with the most hideous teal blue "custom" curtains I've ever seen. The house had not been lived in two years. And, this could be because I watch too many supernatural shows, but I suggested they get the house blessed before they moved in. They've been there for a year or so and as you can imagine with the two of them running their own small businesses, there hasn't been a ton of time to renovate. 4 rooms have been done. The kitchen (awesomely beautiful), their bedroom, my sister's office and a really cool slate covered bathroom. They had added an addition to the back of their house and this is where their dog-children sleep. The addition has not been caulked at all. And the cold front/storm that was predicted hit on Friday. I think the high that day was 16 degrees. COOOOOOOOLLLLLD!! brrrrr....

Anyway, Ava's cold got progressively worse. Snot-factory-child that she was, she was obviously not a happy girl. Sleep was fleeting for everyone involved. Caedmon woke up screaming both nights about 3 times, Ava cried intermittently in the office (we keep them separate) and Jack slept in with Aunt Brandi and Uncle Ty. Doggies heard us in the living room and whined here and there, but the real issue was the crying babes. On Friday night somewhere between one of the multiple crying jags of Caedmon's and Ava's I told Brad, "I think we should go home." So on Saturday morning we told Brandi and Ty we were going to think about traveling home because of the babies. As we were sitting around the breakfast table, Ava was crawling into the newly redone kitchen and grabbed something around the corner that we couldn't see. It was a metal step ladder that promptly slipped on the beautiful hardwood floors and smashed down on her little hand. I jumped up, rushed over and saw that her hand was already gushing blood. SCARY!!! She was crying, of course, and I could see that her pinky finger was completely cut open from the nail bed down to the second knuckle. We jumped in the car to the hospital.

McCook Hospital. Very nice. We were the only people there, I think, with the exception of the two nurses, receptionist and the doctor we saw. I guess the new thinking is to not stitch finger wounds because of the greater risk of infection, so they just bandaged her finger, as they told us, "like Fort Knox." We were given instructions to go see our pediatrician once we returned home. This gave us the decision we were struggling with. Let's go home.

We got back to my sister's house and as Brad is trying to put a shirt on Ava's (her old one was covered with blood), her "fort knox" bandage came off. So, while I packed, Brad returned, yet again, to the hospital. 45 minutes later, he returned with this poor little girl and her new white boxing glove. At least that's what it looks like. Poor baby....I will post pictures later this week.

Even though she is snotty, having coughing fits and wears a boxing glove, she is in great spirits and it's interesting that she is already so adept with just one hand. Tomorrow we find out what the next step is, but we know for sure, she will lose her nail.

I'm really praying this is the end of our ER streak.