Keeping Memories Close: Wish You Were Here!

This is where we are right now: in beautiful Seagrove Beach! I know you're jealous. That's my purpose. :) Jk. We've earned it. I will have a lot of pictures from this trip, and to keep myself motivated and my memory fresh, I thought I'd start from the beginning.

Mom, Mema, and my brother, Kevin, drove from Kentucky and arrived to our house on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning, we all headed down this way for our week long vacay. My kids have been excited for WEEKS about this, particularly Sage, because she understood what we were doing. I hate the drive to the beach. It's not really that FAR, but it's all on roads through towns instead of interstate, and it feels like it takes forever, but in this case, it did. On Thursday, I cut Sage's fingernails, and she warned me to be careful of one that was really sore. She had a hangnail that she'd been messing with, and I convinced her to let me cut it off. I didn't think anything else of it until she was still complaining of her finger hurting the morning we were leaving for the beach, but I just assumed she was being Sage and none of us really looked at it. We stopped to eat in Montgomery, and as we were getting in the car, Travis told me to come look at it. The same finger where I'd cut the hangnail off looked like this. Oh. My. Lord.

I was instantly sick. I'm the worst mother when it comes to my kids and injuries. Travis thought it was a blister because...well, it was just so shocking at first, but when we really looked at it, we saw that it was actually infection. Mema put Neosporin on it and then we all got in our respective cars. Sage is crying. Travis and I are trying to figure out what exactly happened. I'm laying back in the seat with the air on full blast to stay conscious. Then Travis recalls killing a brown recluse right where Sage was playing in our pool the day before. I am seriously about to pass out at this point. I'm reading things on my phone about deaths happening in kids under 7 with them. We had NO idea what to do, and we're trying to decide while Sage is trying to catch EVERY word we say. She is bawling. We're in the middle of nowhere. Then I remembered...I had their pediatrician's cell number. She'd given it to me on our first visit after our nightmare with the previous one over Jaggar's ear. We'd just seen her 3 days before because Jaggar had strep throat and an ear infection. So I texted her a picture of it and the situation..and wait while we drive. We move on...I showed Chrissie. She said it could be a spider or ant bite.

We get to Troy, and Travis spots a CVS. He thought they could tell us where an urgent care center was...and maybe the pharmacist could even tell us what it may be. In the meantime, I also called the on-call nurse at the doctor's office, even though I didn't really think she could do much over the phone. Travis takes Sage into CVS. I stay out in the car with Jaggar while they all sit in their car next to us. I get out to tell all of them what we're doing. I walk back to my car and realize I've missed the nurse's return call. OF COURSE.

Travis and Sage come back out and he said the pharmacist looked at it and said, "You know...that looks like staph infection to me. We all have it on our skin and any kind of cut or scrape can allow it to get in." SO, cutting a fingernail would definitely be a possibility for that to happen. I have INSTANT relief flood over me in knowing a brown recluse bite is out. Everything I was reading was beyond terrible about that: surgeries, nerve damage, skin rotting....ugh...so my blood pressure can instantly come down. But we decide to wait to for the on-call nurse to call back to decide if we need to go to urgent care because she still has infection. I take the kids into the bathroom in CVS where a lady goes in in front of me with her 2 children and says, "We'll be just a minute." 15 minutes later, I knock on the door and go, "Ma'am, you think you might be out any time soon? My kids really need to go." She says something like, "I'm sorry...blah blah blah....There's another bathroom!" UM, do you know where?" Right next to this one. It was towards the back and unmarked. Sure wish I'd known that an HOUR ago. We go in and are seriously out BEFORE that lady. NO clue if they were okay in there. While we were in there, Sage had calmed down a lot and said, "I knew it was okay when God told me to calm down and not be scared." :)

When we finally came back out to the car, Travis is on the phone with the on-call nurse. I hear him giving her weight. No, no red streaks. No marks from a bite. Yes, she said staph infection, too. Um...okay...I'll tell her and let HER decide. He gets off the phone, "She said that it does sound like staph, but she cannot call in antibiotics. She said that if it were HER, she would pop it to drain it. If it was still bad looking the next day, THEN take her to the doctor." Hmmm....okay. I feel okay with that. The salt water in the ocean would help. Sage is freaking out over popping it, and all of a sudden I get a text. Dr. Dela Cruz! She said, "Oh dear! It looks infected! You have a pharmacy where I could call in antibiotics? Need her date of birth too." Thank you, God! PERFECT timing. We are still sitting in CVS parking lot. I give her the info and thank her a million times over. She said to pop it and that it looked like staph and after thanking her some more, she said, "Sure! Hug the babies for me!" What a blessing! While we wait for that to be filled, the pharmacy gives us a syringe to pop it, which takes some convincing, but Sage allows Mom to do it. Phew! Sound like a detour??? You better believe it! But Jaggar did find his dream come true in the CVS!

Even though check in was 4:00, because of all of that, we didn't arrive until 6:30. But it was so worth it because...THIS was our new home.

This place is 1900 square feet and just beautiful inside. Fully updated and perfect with arched doorways and plantation shutters in every window. And the pool is literally right outside our back door, and we've definitely been utilizing that.