Massachusetts 2010: Family, Baseball, Quilt, and Ear Infection

We just returned home from our annual summer trip to visit family in Massachusetts.  Thankfully, we got the AC in the van fixed before we left, because the temps were in the high nineties! Last summer we made the 14 hr trip in July with no AC, and the kids were threatening mutiny if we tried that again!

As always, it was wonderful to spend time with my parents, Mark's mom, and our brothers, sisters, nieces, and nephews.

Mark, Jason, and Sarah were able to go to Fenway Park to see the Boston Red Sox play against the Texas Rangers on Thursday night.  Jason is a huge fan!

Amanda worked all week on a quilt that she started a few years back, but she and Grammy got it almost completely done this week! Gram will finish adding the border and backing and then have it machine quilted. It is GORGEOUS!


 Friday was Amanda's 17th birthday!  We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The food there was delicious!   She would have enjoyed it more if she wasn't suffering from an awful ear infection that started the day before.  Friday morning, Mark took her to a walk-in Urgent Care clinic in RI to get an antibiotic. He wasn't terribly impressed with the place.  We found that there  are very few walk-in clinics in southern MA - and we desperately wanted to avoid the expense of a visit to the hospital ER. 

We drove back home via Lynchburg, VA, where we dropped Amanda off at Liberty University for a week of Worldview Academy Leadership Camp.  Good thing we planned to arrive a day early, because we had to make another trip to Urgent Care ( thankfully, there was one right across the street from our hotel that was open until 8pm on Saturday!)  The ear canal was swollen  and very painful, and had been draining liquid all day - with little to no relief from the meds started the day before. This time, the doctor spent a LITTLE more time and actually cleaned out the ear so she could see what was going on in there. She prescribed a different antibiotic, some ear drops, and a decongestant.  Things weren't looking much better 24 hours later at camp registration.  But I'm praying that there is marked improvement today! 

***I can't load pictures until Amanda gets home with her camera, because my camera refuses to cooperate with my computer.  But come back in a few days to see the pictures that go along with this post!