July 01, 2002: Today has been just horrible. I think Jasmine has a cold or something. She's coughing, and screaming non-stop for hours, no matter how the situation is taken care of. She has very few little 5 minute cat naps, but that's it; then she wakes up screaming. Her skin is itching really bad. I have to put socks on her hands so that she won't scratch her head to death! So then she can't use her hands to scratch or play with her toys, and she gets even more mad. Her Grandma B. is coming to visit for awhile tomorrow afternoon. I hope she will be ok when the time comes. I just know she'd hate to see Jasmine this way! I called Dr. Bob, and couldn't get an appointment for her anymore this afternoon, but I got one for July 5th. I couldn't get in on the 4th because of Independence Day. The office must be closed that day. Momma's back hurts from being on her feet all day, and her head hurts from all this crying, and just exhausted from being on the go "constantly". Momma has a hair cut appointment at 5:00 tonight, and tanning after... so that's my break for the day!
July 02, 2002: Today Grandma and Grandpa M. went to Arkansas for a concert and wont be back until tomorrow afternoon. Grandma B. came to visit Jasmine and I today. We went out to lunch. It was pretty good. Jasmine was happy and mad at the same time. She was getting tired and fussy. She fell asleep on the way home, and stayed sleeping for about an hour afterwards. Jasmine's also getting a cold. Her eyes get all red and watery and she's got a pretty bad constant cough, but no fever~ thank god! I called Dr. Bob's office today to talk to someone about non-prescription medicines for infant coughing, and she told me how much to take of certain cough medicines. I think I'll pick some up first thing tomorrow. I think her itch medicine and Tylenol knocked her out pretty good, because she's been sleeping most of the day since we got home this afternoon. I'm so incredibly bored. I'm all caught up on laundry and most of the cleaning I have to do. Ah! I should shut my mouth! Jasmine just woke up! Figures! Time to go play! Until tomorrow.... g'night! =)
July 03, 2002: Jasmine's cough is getting much worse, and she now has a runny nose and itchy red and watery eyes. She's not cranky at all, just really sleepy and probably a little bit in pain from her hard cough and stuffed up nose. I tried to get her some liquid infant Dymatap for all of her symptoms, but they're all out. So later tonight I'm going to try to look at the grocery store or at the drug store. I got some more pictures developed today while I went tanning. There are only a few of Jasmine on that roll. I have another roll that I need to fill up before I can develope those. I think I only have 1 or 2 more to take yet. I wish I had a scanner again, so I could get all these new pictures on this page! Jasmine is napping now, so I'm going to grab some supper and realx a bit.
July 04, 2002: Today is Jasmine's first 4th of July. It was kind of a crappy day. Nothing special really happened, and Jasmine was sleeping pretty much all day long, and when she wasn't...she was cranky from being so sick. We were supposed to get together with some friends for a festive meal, but I decided not to go since the whole family wasn't going. My mom wasn't feeling well, and I wasn't looking forward to it, cuz it's just a bunch of older people talking nonsense, and insulting eachother.
July 05, 2002: Today I took Jasmine to the doctor to see about getting some subscription shampoo for her. I was only in there for about 5 minutes, then decided to get her prescriptions filled right away since the pharmacy was just a 2 buildings down from Tibbs Clinic. The instructions were to wash her hair every night before bedtime for 2 weeks, then use as needed after that. It smells so bad, but if it will make my baby's head stop itching, I'm all for it. She has got scratches galore on her head! On top of that, a cold! Poor thang! I also went to Wal-Mart after that to pick up some needed items for when we go to Wisconsin. I still need to get Jasmine some more things before we go, but I'm broke at the time.
July 06, 2002: Today is Jasmine's Grandma M.'s birthday ( My mom/ Erin's Mom). She saw her cards and got her gifts and I was going to take my mom out to lunch this afternoon, but the place that we wanted to go to was closed, so we looked around, and everything was either closed or was not what we were looking for. We walked out of one place because I really didn't want to eat there, and my mom felt bad, because all I was going to get was fries and water. So we came home... I was in a bad mood, and my mom was bummed out, my dad was sleeping on the couch, and Jasmine was cranky. What a day. So there goes lunch. My mom and I changed out of our good clothes, and my mom and dad are now doing yard work, and Jasmine is sleeping. Fun fun fun! I feel bad, because my mom wants to do something for her birthday, but there's nothing to do. Everything is closed because it's Saturday, and it's too hot to go play tennis or anything. Besides... my mom can't play tennis for awhile cuz she's on some new medication that won't let her be active like that for as long as she's on it. She was showing signs of plurcy again, but the doctor caught it on time.
Anyway, tonight we are having a shrimp dinner. My mom wanted broiled shrimp for her birthday, so my dad, who is such a great cook, is going to prepare the meal for her (and us) tonight. She's on a diet, but today is her day, and this day she made an exception. Totally understandable! So I hope it goes well, because today has so far been pretty much a "bummer day". Including Jasmine's day! My birthday is in a week (July 12th), but I'm not really looking forward to it. Big deal. It's only my 20th birthday. It's just like any other ordinart day for me. I will be in Wisconsin when it's my birthday, and I might just spend the day with friends. I'm not sure yet.
July 08, 2002: Today we did a lot of running around towm. We first (Grandma M. and Momma) dropped Jasmine off at Grandpa B.'s office whicle Momma took Grandma out for lunch for her birthday. Nothing was open on her real birthday , which was on the 6th. Then we picked Jasmine up and went to get some stuff we needed to buy for our trip to Wisconsin. We got home at about 3pm, and left to Greenville. I needed a new, bigger diaper bag, so we got that and looked around for awhile. We got home a few hours later, and unpacked all the stuff we bought, and began to pack all of the things we were going to bring on our trip. Plus, I had a ton of laundry to do. Very exhausting day! But Jasmine just had a blast the whole day. I don't think she cried one time while we were gone. She was smiling, laughing, and screaming happily-- and everyone was stopping her (including guys) to say how cute of a baby Jasmine was!
July 09, 2002: Today we decided to leave for Wisconsin tonight instead of tomorrow morning. We were planning on 8pm, but left at about an hour earlier. I packed all morning, afternoon, and evening. There's a lot of stuff in the van. We also decided to drive straight through if Jasmine wasn't getting uncomfortable. But she did just fine!
July 10, 2002: We are now on the road, and entering the morning of the day we arrive in Wisconsin. It's not 6:30am and Jasmine is happy and playing with her toys. We are now in Chicago, IL. I'm going to sleep now! *Hahaha*
We arrived in Wisconsin at about 10:30am I'm thinking. We visited with family for awhile, then unloaded the van and unpaked. Jasmine was in sucha good mood when we got there. She was smiling away and playing on the floor while rolling around! Great-Aunt Denise and the girls came over later in the afternoon. Courtney loves "Baby Jasmine" so much. She was all over her the whole time she was there. That night we went to their house and had a campfire and munched a little bit by the fire. It was a lot of fun.
July 11, 2002: Today I had an idea, just an idea-- joking around a bit, but we ended up doing it anyway. We were wondering what we were going to do for the day, and I wanted to go to Door County. So we got ready as fast as possible and left. We all had a blast. It was so beautiful there! The water and the landscaping was emaculant! I took a lot of pictures that I will hopefully be able to post on this page soon. The weather was georgous and we had the sunroof open and some windows too, along the lake. Even in Manitowac-- it was so beautiful! Jasmine was having a blast too! You could tell!
When we got there, we decided to find somewhere to eat. We decided to go to a place where we could get outdoor seating, and we found a really nice place. Everyone was "ooohing and ahhhing" at Jasmine. Of course! I mean... Look at her! Hahaha She's beautiful! & has the most beautiful smile ever! But anyway... Then we decided to take a walk along Lake Michigan. By the beach there was a dock where there were a ton of boats docked. We walked along them and looked at the beautiful water and took some more pictures. After that we went to Door County to the peak of the state. It was so pretty, and the weather was just perfect. There's a ferry ride that you can take to the island. We saw it while it was out on the water, and then again, when it arrived back to the tip where we were. We would have liked to take a ride also, but we didn't have the time for that. We walked down to the beach and pur out feet in the water a bit and took some more pictures! We left there, went to a few shops to get some souvineers and gifts. We went to a cherry place and a winery. After that we got some ice-cream! Yum!!! **haha** And then to some clothing shops to get some more souvineers for ourselves and friends. By then it was 5:30pm. We decided to head back to my grandparents' house. We got home around 8:30pm, and ate a late supper. I noticed that my shirt and Jasmine's shirt that I just bought, along with some extra clothes I brough along for Jasmine (just in case) were no where to be found. Blake insisted on going back to Sturgeon Bay (2 hours away) to look for the bag at a gas station that we stopped at and thew some garbage away on the way back. My mom decided to go along... Well, my grandma got a call on her cell phone from my parents early in the morning (like 2am), saying that they couldn't find the bag of clothes anywhere and said they were going to just stay at a hotel for the rest of the morning and look at the shops again when they open again. Well, I know that I had them with me in the van because I took the shirts out to look at them again on our way home. They headed back in the afternoon. ON MY birthday! I just figured that when I opened the van when I changed Jasmine's diaper at the gas station, that the bag just fell out or something.... because it was placed pretty close to the door. Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it now... it was just a pretty expensive purchase to just forget about without trying to do something about it.
July 12, 2002: My parents got back from Door County and brought me back a new t-shirt and onesie for Jasmine. We had lunch, and Ben & the girls cam over again ~ and had some birthday cake for me. It's my 20th birthday, by the way! =) Yay! *haha* My mom and dad gave me a card with money inside, and so did my grandparents. The girls sang happy birthday to me and we ate, visited for awhile, then walked over to the picnic with everyone for about an hour. It was pretty much dead that night...there was some horrible kereokee going on...I'm not kidding! There was a redneck woman singing some diva song, and a bunch of 8 year olds singing Britney Spears song "Oops I did it again" and they barely knew the words and didn't know how to hold the microphone right. It was so embarassing, so we went back home.
July 13, 2002: Today my mom and I decided to go shopping by ourselves to Kohl's. Well, Jasmine came along too. My dad went golfing with a friend, and my grandma had plans with my aunt. I bought some clothes and toys for Jasmine. Kohl's has really cool stuff with good sales! I love Kohl's so much! I wish we had one in Mississippi or Memphis. Then I picked up some pictures I had developed while we were shopping, and we went back home. My parents got ready to go to an early dinner with some good friends of theirs- (Hank and Lana). They came back later than they had said. They got home around 8pm and said they'd be back no later than 7:30pm. We were all ready to go over to the picnic at the park. Ben and the girls got here and we walked over. We watched a band play for awhile, and I took the girls to play on the park toys for awhile. Then I went with the girls on the carousel horses. We went over to watch teh fireworks at 10pm. They were so cool. The best I've seen ever... I think! At least at a event that wasn't on tv. Especially for such a small town. Jasmine loved them. She was all bundled up and sitting on my lap, looking up and smiling at the fireworks. Courtney was by Jasmine the whole time. She'd rather watch Jasmine over the fireworks! =) then Jazzy girl fell asleep through the last 5 minutes of the show and was sleeping the whole way we walked home.
July 14th, 2002: This morning was the NH parade. Everyone was there. It was the same as it was when I was a little girl. *haha* But it's tradition, I guess! Jasmine slept through half of it. It was really sunny and hot outside. Later on that night Doris and Gary, Joey and Haley came over to celebrate with the Summers' and us for a belated birthday party for my grandpa's 70th birthday. My dad cooked the meal and we had ice cream cake afterwards. While all the grown up-s talked.... I went outside with Alyssa, Courtney, Joey, and Haley to play in the yard. We played just about every game there was and then some as far as outdoor games go. *Haha* It was fun though. I hadn't gotten to really get to spend time with my cousins for a long time.
July 15th, 2002: Early this morning the girls were back at my Grandma's house. Denise was starting her first day of work at her new job, and Grandma was going to watch the girls until the afternoon. My mom went to spend the day with her friend, Lana. And Blake went driving around with my Grandpa a little bit. So it was just Grandma, myself and Jasmine. There was a lot of cartoon watching, coloring, and wild play.... Alyssa is so wild! When Denise got back, they went home, or out to eat or something, I don't remember... but anyway, Alyssa stayed over here while Denise and Courtney went back home to take a nap. They all came back for supper a few hours later. I was so tired. It had been such a long day. Then later on, we all drove seperately to Kiel to go to Dairy Queen and sit down to visit. Cam home, and went to bed!
July 16, 2002: Today is the day we left. We packed everything up pretty early so that we could just leave after an early supper. For lunch we went to Runday's to get some side orders on the menu. Everyone loves the food at Runday's Bar and Grill. Well we didn't want to eat too much for lunch because we would be having an early supper, so we just snacked on cheese nuggets, fried mushrooms, and jalepeno poppers. Everything was so good. But we all ate more than what we had planned on eating for lunch. When it came time for supper, none of us were real hungry, but still hate a little something of our dinner. We all said our good-byes, cried, and left on our way back to Mississippi.
July 17, 2002: We are arriving in Mississippi, on our way home. I slept pretty much the whole way back. And Jasmine slept all the way from Chicago, IL to Cleveland, Mississippi. Amazing, huh? When we got home at about 7 or 8am in the morning... just a guess... I don't remember the time reallu. But anyway, we all crashed. Jasmine went back to sleep shortly after we got home, so I took a nap on the couch for a little bit. I was so tired, and so didn't want to get started on unpacking everything because there was just soooo much stuff to unpack! It was overwhelming! But the whole day after I woke up, I took my time slowly unpacking my things because Jasmine wasn't having a very good day. She was probably jet-legged.
July 19, 2002: Today Grandma M. and Momma went to Greenville to shop for school supplies that we are going to donate to some kids who's parents can't afford to buy their kids things for school. Our church has a Christmas in July where you can pick some cut-outs of some people off a tree, and we picked a few. So we got the school supplies, and went shopping around a little more, and then to Lowes. We wanted to check out the new store, and we looked around at ideas for decorating my bathroom and bedroom/guest bedroom for when we're going to start remodeling them (which will be before Labor Day! It should be done by then.... that's our goal anyway). Jasmine was such a good girl today... she was just filled with happy screams and bubbles.... it was so cute! We had a good time.
July 20, 2002: Today Grandma and Grandpa M. went to Greenville back to Lowes so that they could make estimates and decisions on the things they were going to all need to remodel the guest bedroom and bathroom. Jasmine and I just chilled here pretty much all day. She had an ok day. She's a little gassy yet, and tends to spit up a little more than usual these days, so her tummy must hurt a little.
July 21, 2002: This morning was Jasmine's baptism at St. Luke Methodist Church (our church). Rev. Wade Holland did the Christening today, and it went very well. Jasmine's Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma K. were there to share this special day, along with the other sets of grandparents and us parents. Jasmine looked so sweet, of course! And she didn't cry at all... she just got a little sleepy so she made her tired noise. It was so sweet, everyone was smiling. It went very well. The 2 sets of Grandparents, and the parents went up along with Jasmine during the ceremony. Afterwards we went to Greenwood to the country club to eat lunch as a group. It was nice because there weren't a whole lot of people there we we arrived, so I didn't have to worry about Jasmine if she would start to fuss. We put her in a highchair and she just played with her toys. Content as can be. I kept her in her christening gown for the dinner so that we could take pictures. It was nice visiting with everyone again. I had a good time. When we were done eating, Jasmine was going to spend the rest of the day with her Grandma and Grandpa B. and her Great-Grandma and Grandpa K. in Greenwood. On our way back to Cleveland, we decided to go to Lowe's AGAIN, then went home. Jasmine got home around 8pm, and I was laying down. I had a killer headache and I just couldn't fight it. I'm not sure what the cause of it was, but it made me want to throw up. I was crying... my head was pounding so badly. But when Jasmine got home, I got up and fed her, and layed with her for a little while on my bed. My head just hurt so bad, and I couldn't sit up anymore. My parents came in the house and offered to watch Jasmine while I layed my head down to rest awhile. Well, I just kept on sleeping up until 1am the next morning. I was so tired, but it took me awhile to fight off my headache and concentrate on something other than my killer headache. I got up at 1am and changed out of my clothes and went back to sleep. I was still so tired. By that time Jasmine had been changed into her pj's, fed, and put down to sleep. I didn't hear a thing while I was napping. And thank god she didn't wake up in the middle of the night. She woke at about 7am or so. When I woke later on in the morning, there were "get-well" signs everywhere. *haha*
July 23, 2002: Today my mom and I decided to take Jasmine with us to Memphis to go shopping for a highchair and an exersaucer. We left at about 10am. First we went to Target to look at some bed and bath decor for the guest bedroom and bathroom. Grabbed something to eat, then went to Babies "R" Us (one of my fav. stores!, as well as Target!) and found the exersaucer I saw online and in stores that I wanted to get, and also a highchair. It was the most expensive one there, but it was a very good one, so it's worth it, I guess! So I bought those things, and we took off to Goldsmith's to look for bed and bath decor again. Then on the way back home, we stopped at Target again so my mom could pick up a few things she couldn't find at Goldsmith's. We were then on our way home. I'm just glad we stopped to get gas in Tunica when we did, because we only had about 30 miles left, and it started to storm so badly! I mean BAD! Thundering so loud, and lightening that looked like it was only 3 feet from us. The wind was so bad with the rain that it looked like drifting snow across the street. You couldn't see more than 3 feet from the vehicle, and it was just pouring like you wouldn't believe. We called a friend in Tunica to see if there were tornado warnings out or something, but no one answered. Then we called Blake, and he didn't answer, so we called our neighbor, and she said he was mowing the lawn. He said there were no tornado warnings out, just bad thunderstorms. There were cars pulling over to the sides of the roads everywhere. Right in front of us, on the other side of the highway in traffic going the opposite direction there was a semi turned on it's side completely. It really really scared us. But of course Jasmine was sleeping soundly through the whole thing. We made it home alright, but very slowly! Later on that night the storm made its way to Cleveland. I couldn't sleep for awhile cuz' the lightening was so bright and the thunder was rumbling so loud, but eventually fell back to sleep. Jasmine was sound asleep too. I just felt better being at home when the storm was going on, rather than on the road.
July 24, 2002: Today Jasmine went by her Grandma and Grandpa B.'s house today to visit, along with her Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa. The GrandMA's came to pick her up this morning. My dad put together the exersaucer lastnight and she got to play in it before she went to bed, and she loves it. Luckily it fit in the trunk of Christie's car, to bring along with them to Greenwood. I think that think will be a life-saver for me, like her vibrating chair was when she was younger. Now I can finally get things done around the house without having to worry about what she's getting into. She can play on that thing all day long, and won't really go anywhere. I'm glad I got it, and I'm glad she likes it! Let's see how her day goes today! My parents left this morning to Jackson. My dad had a meeting he had to give for work, and my mom went along, because she has a scheduled surgery for tomorrow. She still isn't sure if they will keep tomorrow's date, or if they will reschedule it for another time. They're still waiting for a call from the insurance company, I believe. They are moving her jaw...it's a whole part of the process of fixing her teeth with her braces and all. My parents also have a funeral to go to, if my mom's surgery date has been canceled... otherwise they won't be able to make it.
I got a call from my dad tonight saying that Mom will be getting her surgery tomorrow. She doesn't have to come in the night before, she just has to go in at 6am. I wish I could be there, cuz she was there for me when I was in pain when I had Jasmine. But it's not possible. I may send some flowers to her room if Blake tells me the hospital name and room number. She's gonna be in a ton of pain! OMG I can't imagine!!!
Jasmine got home around 9pm. Sabrina dropped her off and she was wide awake and talking away. After she left, I played with Jasmine for a few minutes, then set her in her exersaucer and put in a "Blue's Clues" tape for her to watch while I unpacked all of her things and washed and prepared her bottles. Then I made her a bottle and got her ready for bed. She gulped down that bottle and fell asleep in no time at at all. I guess she had a good day in Greenwood, but she didn't nap a whole lot. She was there for a long time today. She left here at about 10am this morning, and cam home at 9pm. I missed her so much. Today seemed so boring and the house seemed so quiet and bare and lonely without her here at the house with me. But I guess it's only fair that her other family gets to see her as much as possible. As long as she always comes home to her Momma's arms! Yah!!! Ok, I have a headache...I need to get some sleep... it's really late.
July 25, 2002: Today my mom got her surgery done in the morning. My dad called this morning and said she had been in there for over an hour, and should be out in about 23 minutes. Then he called later on and said she was out, but in the recovery room yet, she wouldn't be back in her room for another hour or so. I called back in afternoon and late afternoon and she was sleeping, so I told my dad to call me when she woke up so I could at least talk to her. even if she can't really talk back. She's in a lot of pain. I talked to her at about 8:30 tonight and she wasn't liking the pain. No one knows yet when she will be getting to come home, but I'm going to have to do my best to make her feel better, and to keep her mind off of the pain. Jasmine probably missed her grandparents all day today, cuz she wasn' t in a good mood all day today. She hardly napped and when I set that girl down she cried. Nothing could occupy her time for very long. She finally took a nap at about 6:30 for about a half-hour to an hour, and went back to sleep at about 10pm. Of course I stayed up way later than that, just atching up on my day. I hardly got a thing done today.
July 26, 2002: Today I thought my parents were coming home from Jackson, but I called the hospital this morning and my dad said my mom had to stay one more night. She's totally miserable, I feel so bad for her. She said that we won't recognize her, but we will. I know she's not going to look the same for awhile, of course! But I don't care! It's all part of the process. I just want her to come home. Jasmine is still having a rough time. She hasn't slept all day, except for about 15 minutes just now. But she's awake again. She's just so restless. Jasmine got a hold of a bag of doritos today! Ahhh!!! And I caught her in the act and took a picture of her. I also got some good footage of Jasmine watching "Blue's Clues" in her exersaucer. She thought it was quite funny =) I should get going, Jasmine's calling, AGAIN!!!
