Looking back...

Now that the holidays are over I've had time to go through my camera and my notes from the last couple of months. I came across something that I wrote while Addison was in the hospital...

written November 15th, 2008

"I'm sitting here in the hospital room staring at Addison, my baby, lying in the bed and I'm listening to Trace Atkins song "You're Gonna Miss This" and while I know that I'm not going to miss this agonizing time in the hospital I am wondering where DID the time go? And did I relish the time enough with her when she was inside me and a baby and then a toddler? Now she's in pre-school and two short years from now she'll be in Kindgergarten!

The past few days have been an eye-opening experience for me. I've been so blessed in my life and Brian and I have been riding a wave of good news lately--and then God does something to remind you how precious life is--that you need to celebrate every day and never take for granted your blessings. This Thanksgiving I'm going to have the biggest thanks ever. Thank you for healing my baby--my life! I'm still in shock that we are at Children's Hospital. That Addison's life was in jeopardy.

I'm so grateful to have a job that's optional if I work or not (substitute teaching). I'm being reminded right now that my number one job is to be a mother. This week Addi needed me more than ever. She went back to being in diapers and needed me to change them, she couldn't eat, she couldn't even roll over or sit up let alone walk on her own. I liked being there for her. And Brian amazed me. He was truly super dad! We both stayed at the hospital day in and day out since Sunday and he never let anything get to him. He's been my rock and Addi's healing hands. "

Oh how things have changed since then...less than two short months ago. Addison went in for her checkup and they cleared her of all illness. We did have a great Thanksgiving and December was great because Addison didn't even have so much as a cold! Just two days short of starting a new year it was good to look back on what I wrote and use that as somewhat of a New Year's Resolution. My one and only resolution for 2009 is to strive to be the best mother and wife I possibly can. Nothing else really matters. Brian and I have no idea where 2009 is going to take us...literally...we still haven't decided where we are going to move! Haha. But, one thing I do know is that I'm going to put family first. So, wherever we are living or whatever direction my career takes us in we'll be a solid, healthy family :)

I'm back and ALOT has happened!

Things are finally back to normal here so I figured it was time to update the blog. I'm sorry I was MIA for the entire month of November, but believe me, I have a good excuse! For those of you that didn't know...Addison was hospitalized for 12 days this past month. Here's the story...

Brian, Addi and I went out to Ashville, NC to visit some friends...while we were there Addi began getting a fever and complaining of her tummy hurting. Thinking it was the flu or a virus I started administering children's motrin and children's tylenol to take away the fever....same thing pretty much any mom would do during this season. For the next three days we fought the fever and it never really went away. The whole while she was complaining constantly of her tummy hurting and she was so weak. She didn't eat for four days (did take in liquids thank goodness) but she had no vomitting or diahrea. So, on the morning of the fourth day I took her to a clinic in NC and they tested her for Strep throat, flu and ear infections...all came back negative. Thinking it was probably a gastro-intestinal virus they sent us home and said to check back in if the fever didn't go away in a day or two. The fever didn't go away and I was starting to feel that this supposed stomach ache was actually turning into stomach pain (but you can't expect a 3 year old to tell you the difference). So, the next morning we flew home and as soon as we landed went staight to Children's Hospital Urgent Care. When we arrived her fever was at 104.8!!! They felt around on her stomach and right away knew that she had inflamation in her abdomen...probably due to appendicitis. We had her blood drawn and a CT scan and the surgeons came by to talk to us. They were admitting us into the hospital but were still not sure exactly what was wrong with her. They thought it was appendicitis but could not find the appendix on the CT scan or ultrasound. We stumped the doctors for a few days but in the end we found out she had an abcess on her kidney (pocket of fluid) and some fluid in her right lung. They put a drain in her side to get all the fluid out and then sent it to the lab to be examined. The type of germs inside the fluid would tell us what caused the infection. Turns out it was an internal staf infection...which is rare and they don't know how she got it. In total we were in the hospital for 12 days and for 5 days before that she had a fever. So, 17 days of November she was sick! Poor thing didn't eat for probably 12 of those days (they had her on nutrients through her IV) and she didn't have a bowel movement for about 7 days straight! Through the coarse of those 12 days in the hospital I had to see my baby have a feeding tube, be put on oxygen, have a catheder and be poked for blood so many times it broke my heart. I never thought in a million years I'd be experiencing that.

Addi is doing really well now. Yesterday was her last round of antibiotics and she sees the doctor Dec 10th for a checkup...hopefully everything will check out fine with that. Thankgoodness she got better before Thanksgiving and we can enjoy all of Decemeber with a healthy child :)

Addison during not so happy times. Addison feeling better and SO happy about face paint!




In other news...I'm pregnant! We found out a week before Addison was hospitalized that we're expecting our second little angel. I had a little bit of morning sickness while Addi was in the hospital but not bad. Mostly just the smell of certain things bothered me. But this week has officially started the hell of first trimester. I am losing energy fast and everynight after 7pm I don't feel very well. I haven't vommitted but it is an all over bad feeling in the evening. Nothing sounds good to eat...can't wait for my appetite to come back. But, it has been an easier pregnancy so far than Addison's. That or maybe I just knew what to expect from morning sickness this time around! I'm 9 weeks getting ready to start 10 weeks so just two more weeks until I should feel like a whole new lady! Haha. Second trimester can't get here fast enough!

Well, I have lots of pictures from North Carolina and other activities so be ready for a more posts! Thank you to everyone that sent Addison cards and for all the prayers and concern! We appreciated it :)

La la la la la la...la la la la la.

This weekend was alot of fun. Our nice weather in Columbus came back just in time for trick or treating on Friday. I was getting a little scared too...Monday and Tuesday were freezing prompting me to stay in and hibernate until the sun came out on Wednesday. So the weather was great and Addi got in full form with her bumblebee costume- facepaint and all. We met up with some friends of ours that happen to live on our street and went trick or treating with their 2 year old daughter, also named Addison, and their 3 year old boy, Avery. Addi got a ton of candy and even managed to say "thank you" each time :)

After trick or treating Brian and I dropped Addison off with her babysitter and headed out for a little adult Halloween fun. We went to an airline party. Brian dressed as Papa Smurf and I dressed as Smurfette. We had a good time. I hope everyone else enjoyed this beautiful weekend and had a great Halloween!

Who doesn't like Giveaways?

One of my favorite blogs to follow is Metropolitan Mama. She keeps me in the loop with all things mommy and even better all things free on the internet. Who knew that blogging had become such a business over time? Well, today Metropolitan Mama just posted about the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Bloggy Carnival. Over 1,000 giveaways and all you have to do is put a comment on that particular blog! I know that I may be lessening my chances of winning some of these awesome prizes by sharing with all of you...but that's alright. Now you owe me :) Haha. Good luck and let me know if any of you win.

Deadline is October 31st!!!

Subbing, new jobs and homecoming, OH MY!

After many months of reading, stalking and enjoying other friends and family member's blogs, I have decided to stop procrastinating and join the blogosphere. I hope for "The Pohl Place" to be an outlet to update readers on the happenings in my family life, school life, give useful information and be a creative outlet to relay my thoughts and opinions. So, here goes...

Last week was a crazy whirlwind of a week. From my worst subbing experience (Boo!) to Brian finding out he got hired by Southwest Airlines (Woohoo!) to spending the weekend at Purdue celebrating Homecoming with members of both our families, there is much to write about.

So first off...the subbing experience. It was my first time subbing in a classroom for 7 consecutive days. It was fine the first couple days but then the whole newness of a substitute wore off and the resentiment of book work set in. I'm not gonna lie...the kids had ALOT of work to do while their teacher was gone. But, what was the alternative...study hall for 7 days? No way...that would have been mass chaos and who knows how many detentions would have been doled out. A busy student is a good student-or so I thought. The teacher I was subbing for taught high school Anatomy, Physics and Biology. Not easy shoes to fill. But her plans we well thought out and very efficient. I just didn't see the mutiny coming by day 3. I literally had a student stand up in class and say, "I don't want to take this test. What about the rest of you?" Like as if I was going to really give the class a choice. This one kid was able to turn the entire class on me. From then on I literally dreaded that period every single day. The kids were so disrespectful. Between the kids that refused to do any homework, the girl that told me "You suck", to the many kids whom I had to threaten to confiscate their cell phone because they actually thought I was born yesterday and didn't realize they weren't just resting their hands in their backpack the whole hour but texting instead, and the 3 boys that ran away during a fire drill, I was mentally done for. Homecoming couldn't come fast enough. Don't get me wrong...it was a worthwhile experience, but my goodness, I have never had to dig as far down within myself to test my character and patience before. I have to admit...I was a mean substitute. But, I kept telling myself,
If I don't establish respect in my classroom now, it will just be harder for me later on when I have each of these students in another classroom. At least they'll know that they can't get away with anything when Mrs. Pohl is subbing. Then later on I can let them see the nice side of me.
Only time will tell if my strategy worked.

On to better and brighter things--Congratulations to Brian for getting hired with Southwest Airlines!!! I'm not just saying this because he is my husband, but I don't know anyone that deserved this job more. He is a walking advertisement for the type of people SWA strives to hire. He has wanted to work for this airline since he was 18 and got his private pilot license. Even when his other friends started going towards other airlines he never changed his mind...never once did I hear him talk about going elsewhere. I'm so proud of him! The first thing everyone asks when hearing of our news is "Are you going to move?" Well, yes, eventually. But for now we're staying put unitl at least this summer. It doesn't sound like he'll start training until early next year or spring of next year...so, we'll just wait and see what sounds like the best option. Right now we're predicting either Orlando or Chicago.

I think this is a little much for my first post, so I'll end now and post about Homecoming next time.

**Funny Addison Quote of the Week: Yesterday Addi came up to me and said "Mom, I'm a different kind of lady." I almost peed my pants! I mean, what 3 year old says that and WHERE did she hear that from? Haha.**