Celebrating the Fourth in the city of Rock and Roll... Memphis, TN

For the Fourth of July, our company Family Heritage, had its mid year meeting in Memphis, TN, home of Graceland, Elvis, and The Peabody Hotel. If you have never heard of the Peabody hotel, it is famous for the ducks. There is a huge fountain the main lobby and at 10am and 4pm the ducks waddle from the elevator down a red carpet and climb the couple of stairs and hop into the fountain. It brings people from everywhere to see this. I am talking there was like 10 people deep no matter where you went on the main floor and upstairs. It was crazy. Even on a Tuesday at 10... dont people have jobs. lol. Well, Leila was excited to see the ducks. She thought they were pretty cool. Brian, Leila, Carla (Brian's mom), and I were already for a busy weekend full of fun.

Saturday night was dinner and drinks at Alfredo's. The food was good and the drinks were great! It was outside and i wont lie i was loving the heat. You know you have been out of Florida too long when you long for heat and humidity!

Sunday was really special and we got to take a tour of St. Judes Childrens hospital. In case you dont know, its one if not the best cancer hospitals for children. The people we met were great and the facility is completely geared for children and keeping their spirits high. There was a wall of the ABC's of Cancer, where each letter was written by a different child. Here are a few, some are funny, but they all show the childrens fight.

The Hospital's budget is 1.7 million dollars a day! A day! Thats amazing. That money goes towards research for better and more accurate treatments, housing the children AND their families, paying for their transportation, schooling the children, and even providing therapy or guidance for all the family members. Its an amazing thing that they do. I applaud all of the staff and research specialist that are working with these children for a better tomorrow.






After the tour, we all went to a baseball game. The rocky redbirds may be the name... i dont know. I spent more time hanging out with some friends i havent seen in years. There was a minor rain shower, but it cooled the temperature down and made for a great game! Leila spilled two beers, but atleast she was keeping up. lol JUST KIDDING!

Monday was the 4th. A day which is normally filled with fireworks, hot dogs, hamburgers, watermelon, maybe some coleslaw if you like, and a softball tournament that we had arranged. A little competition between the different organizations. The weather was sunny and hott, so we were sure to pack extra water. But then at 5am, Leila woke up coughing. I rushed to her bed thinking maybe she woke up and put something in her mouth, but to my surprise she was puking. She has never done that before. I was worried, so i scooped her up, but she fell right asleep. For the next 3 hours every 20 minutes, Leila would wake up puke and go back to sleep. I called our pediatrician back in FL after a couple hours and asked what she should because i was nervous of her dehydrating. They said if there is a 30 minute span where she doesnt puke, give her 2 teaspoons of pedialite every 5 minutes. During that phone call leila got sick again. I was not about to chance it, especially since we had been in the heat the day before. So Carla and I took Leila to the ER.

I felt so helpless. Here she is sick, puking up nothing because its all out but her body is heaving. Almost brings me to tears again. The Doc says its a stomach bug and that she will give her some anti nausea and some pedialite. Small doses of course. A stomach bug, like they could be more vague. How did she get it? Possibly from the ducks at the hotel? is it contagious? What can i do to help it go away? all these questions but she was outta there. For the rest of the day we took it easy. Leila napped good, and i was right there in case anything were to happen. When she woke up, it was as if she was never sick. Her mood was drastically different and enthusiasm was at an all time high. She was ready to play. We still took it easy.

That night at dinner, she had had some formula and out of nowhere she got sick again.

The next day was our national meeting. So i only got to see Leila at lunch and right before getting ready for Graceland! Brian and I had already gone, but it was going to be fun to attend the sock hop at the Kings Palace. Then things took a turn for the worst. Brian and I both got sick. At least it was on the Kings Throne... sorry i had to throw in some potty humor!! Needless to say We went straight home. I may or may not have puked in front of the VP of our company in the Lobby! Nice one Malia!  All i have to say is that was the worst pain Brian and I have been in in our entire lives. I would have given birth 5 more times than go through what we did again. I will digress with the details but just know it was bad.

Our next day was a trip planned to see my host Family in Jackson. We were moving a bit slower than usual, but we got there and were able to hang out and visit with our amazing friends. Leila really like Pat and Sid. We will have to come back when we are feeling better for sure.















Thursday we flew out of memphis, not a day later, we were ready to be back in our beds, which wasn't going to happen for another 4 days, but at least get us away from memphis! We had a lot of fun while it lasted. The airplanes had downgraded the plane to a sardine can and lucky for us we were the second to last row. YAY! 30 minutes into Leila pukes all down Brian's shirt. The nice flight attendant then took the next 10-15 minutes to flirt and get drinks for the men behind us. I was about to throw some bows. While Brian was washing up, Leila then continued to projectile vomit on me and the seat next to me. Now you know i normally have Leila in a cute outfit especially on vacations, but she landed in Minneapolis wrapped in a red delta blanket and shoes! Just the perfect way to end the perfect vacation!!

So that was how we celebrated our country's independence. I hope you all had better holiday weekends. At least we got to spend the time together. What doesnt kill us makes us stronger?


I will also try to update on life in MN soon... Ta ta for now!!