Random Twenty-Seven on Saturday

Someone recently mentioned the Random Five on Friday linky party that I occasionally participated in a year or so ago. 

This week has been a whirlwind. I definitely can't sum it up in just five random thoughts (and I obviously didn't post it on a Friday). 

I started out the week with a feverish ladybug. Lauren was acting fine but felt a bit warm when I checked on her Saturday night. As she slept, I kept shoving the thermometer under her tongue to see how high her fever was going. 

Early Sunday morning, I packed a just-in-case bag and headed to the ED at Children's Hospital in Denver. Lauren actually looked great, other than the fever. That's actually what worries me the most -- I don't trust her with a fever when I can't find anything to blame.

All of the doctors agreed that she looked great . . . until the labs came back. (Interesting side note: my picture of her in the ED shows her eating her favorite hospital meal -- bacon and jello.)

One of Lauren's new transplant medicines had worked far more effectively than anybody could predict, and her immune system was very weak. Her fever was an indication of the low blood counts and thankfully was not a sign of infection. After 48 hours of observation, they switched Lauren's transplant medicines again and let her come home on Tuesday.

After the traditional post-hospital window shopping trip at the American Girl store, Lauren made it home in time for her first American Heritage Girls meeting that evening.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we jumped back into schoolwork and I made a bit more progress with unpacking and organizing. It was just a few baby steps, but I love getting things organized and neatly put away. (Look, Michele, I'm getting caught up with the 34 Weeks of Clean assignments -- all my office things are done.)

Even though there's still some organizing and decorating work to be done at our new house, we took advantage of Tim's four day weekend to explore the area in search of some fun.

On Friday, we visited the Royal Gorge Bridge. Last summer we saw the Brusge from afar, but the bridge and visitors center had not yet reopened after the fire that damaged much of the grounds a few years ago. This year we got close enough to walk across.

This morning, we drug the kids out of bed really early to see the first lift-off at the balloon festival in Colorado Springs. We took tons of pictures, but perhaps my favorite part was that we could walk right up next to the balloons as they were being inflated.

Lauren's big news for this week is that she finally got her ears pierced this afternoon. She's very proud of her sparkly flower earrings!

I have high hopes that the coming week will be less busy than this one has been. Lauren has a long afternoon of appointments with the Eosinophilic Didorders clinic on Thursday, but we certainly don't expect it to turn into another spa vacation in the hospital.