The Beach, Getting Lost & A Hospital Visit. Whew!

Terry was on call for the weekend so my Mom took the weekend off and helped out with the kids so I could go on a trip to the beach with some girlfriends. Kathleen, Jane, Amiee and I took off on Friday morning and headed towards the beach. We decided to take a leisurely trip down and stopped for lunch, coffee and some shopping at the outlet mall. We didn't end up leaving the outlet mall (which is only about 25 min. away from home) until after 5 pm and we didn't arrive at the beach until after 7. It was great to not be in a hurry and a perfect way to start the weekend. Aideen drove down on her own and joined us on Saturday afternoon and we had a GREAT weekend of shopping, eating (way too much brie cheese), drinking and staying up way to late. We laughed so hard we cried and took a stab at solving the worlds problems (if not our own) and had a really wonderful time.

On Sunday, after making the coffee trip Jane, Aideen and I decided to take a walk on the beach (even though it was raining). It was so great to walk on the sand and smell the ocean air, there is just something about being on the sand and smelling the air that just makes you happy. We walked as far as we could down the beach to a big rock wall and then turned around and headed back when Aideen said that she gotten a landmark and knew where we should head up the beach. I was glad she had taken notice because I didn't even think to. So we walked and walked and walked and walked some more all the while talking about what looked familiar and what did not. We even convinced ourselves as we were jumping over a wide stream that it was one that we had jumped over before and should continue on. We all ended up with at least one wet foot by the time we got over and then continued to walk but by now were sure we had gone too far so we headed up the next set of stars we saw. Once we got off the beach we went into an office to figure out where we were and found out that we were at least a mile past where we needed to be. We knew our way along the freeway (we had made several trips into town for coffee and shopping) so we headed to the freeway and walked back to the beach house. By the time we got there we looked like drowned rats. (need pictures from one of the girls)

I drove home with Aideen and she helped me bring my stuff in the house and as soon as I walked in and said "hi" to my mom I knew something was up. I said she sounded terrible and she said she felt bad. She could hardly breath and I knew she needed to get a breathing treatment. Without hesitation Aideen offered to stay with my kids (terry was on call and had gotten called in). On the way to the hospital my mom was saying that she could breath fine now and felt silly but I reminded her of the last time she sounded that way that I ended up taking her to the hospital in the middle of the night. When we got to the hospital they put a oxygen monitor on her finger and her oxygen level was 88. Even after 3 breathing treatments and a shot of steroids whenever they took her off oxygen and put her on room air her levels would drift back down to the 80's so they decided to keep her over night. When I got home "Mrs. Gaffney" was playing a game of tag and running around the house with Ian, Sarah and Emily and the kids were having such a great time they didn't want her to go.
Whew! What a busy weekend! I had such a great time and thank goodness Mom is doing fine now.