Monday, November 27, 2006

The Last Week of November

We are home from our vacation! We made it home last night, rolling in at about 10 pm. The kids are at school and ds4, Baby Girl, and I have just walked in the door. We went to an appointment this morning with one of my midwives. It went well. I have gained 1 pound so far and everything looks great. Baby is very active and hides from the doppler thingy that they use to hear the heartbeat. :) Last month it took her 15-20 minutes to get a heartbeat and this time it took at least 5 minutes. That seems like forever when you are lying there waiting, especially when you have had 2 times in the past when there was no heartbeat to be found.

This week we're having warm weather (70s) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Then Wednesday night and early Thursday we are dropping into the 20s. The high Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is in the low 40s. We are also supposed to have freezing rain/sleet Thursday and Friday. My kids will be thrilled if they get out of school. They love school, but it's always fun to get out for bad weather.

I left the house last week in a hurry to go out of town, which means that I left a mess. Dh and dd12 were here through Wednesday, so I assumed they would do some picking up and make things look nice again. Wrong assumption. So I have quite a messy house to clean this week. I also need to go through storage (the garage) and find the rest of my maternity clothes, the rest of the kids' winter clothes, and the Christmas decorations.

That's all for now! Check back Thursday and I'll let ya know if we really got the sleet and freezing weather. :)

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

What We're Doing Today

We are at my parents' house for the week. Dh and dd12 are still at home; they will join us tomorrow. On Thanksgiving Day we will go to my in-laws' house in the afternoon.

This morning Annie came over and cut my four boys' hair. Their hair was so long that it was no longer cute. Some boys look good with longer hair (my 4 year old does), but my oldest 3 boys DO NOT look good with longer hair. They look neglected. So, Annie saved them from looking neglected! All of their hair looks so cute!

I got to sit and visit with her wonderful 16-year old daughter, Amanda for a while. That is always fun! I love Amanda. When she was little, she was watching the Miss America pageant with Annie. She asked Annie, "Which one is Julie?" She won my heart right then and there. :)

Now the boys and Baby Girl are playing/watching the Disney station. We do not have cable at home, so they love to watch TV when they are here. Of course, my mom can't stand TV, so she shoos them outside when she gets home from work.

This afternoon I want to bake sugar cookies and just hang out. I have 2 friends I want to go see, but I am enjoying just being home.

The boys are going to build a dog house for Smokey this afternoon. My dad is going to help them. Won't that be fun? and memorable? Yesterday the boys helped Paul (a young man that works for my dad who just happens to be a hottie) unload a trailer of fire wood. They were so cute and so happy to get to be helping do "men's work." And Paul said they were a lot of help. He seemed surprised. Doesn't he know my boys are wonderful little men??

I found out last night that a girl I used to know in high school has a brain tumor. Actually, to tell the truth, we were flat out ENEMIES!!! My first serious boyfriend, if you know what I mean, broke up with me to go out with her. I was 15 and she was 14. They dated forever and are now married with 2 kids, last I heard.
They are starting treatment on Monday. I feel so bad for her, her husband, her kids, and her family. She is only 28 years old. She still hates me, which is sad. The stuff between us happened14 years ago. I feel terrible that we are still enemies and that she is going through this.
I am just going to focus on praying for her. That is all I can do anyway.

"May the Lord bless and protect you; may the Lord's face radiate with joy because of you; may he be gracious to you, show you his favor, and give you his peace."
Numbers 6:24-26 TLB

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 17, 2006

Kids say the cutest things!

Ds6 #2's teacher said to him, "Your little sister is just so cute!"
Ds6 #2 said. "Yeah, she never gets uncute."
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This morning ds4 screamed, "MOMMY! Baby Girl is losing her teeth! Look, look, she has lots of missing teeth!!"
He was relieved to find out that she is not losing teeth, but still working on growing teeth. :)

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Thanksgiving Program pictures and a short update


Here is a picture from ds6 #1 and ds6 #2's Thanksgiving program. It was the cutest school program I have been to in years. I loved it!
The children sang cute little Thanksgiving songs and recited poems. Then we all had a meal together. That is another story!!
Since we are short on funds this week, I attempted to be frugal and wise. I had a few frozen pizzas at home (the good, crust-rising ones) so I cooked those, cut them up, and put them in a container. When it was time to eat, I took out our pizzas, thinking I was so smart. When I opened the container I saw that all of the cheese from both pizzas had melted! So we had a big cheesy mess. There was no way to get one slice out at a time. I just packed it back up, we left, and went to Sonic for dinner. So much for being frugal!

Dh is in chicago this week. The high there was 44 today. The high here today is supposed to be 58, but we haven't made it past 51. The wind is fierce! We can hear it howling and howling. Last night ds4 thought we had a tornado because he kept waking up thinking he heard the tornado siren.

My boys get out of school early Friday and they are out all next week. Dd12 has to go next Monday and Tuesday and then gets out early Wednesday. I am taking Baby Girl and the boys and going home to Oklahoma for a visit, since I didn't get to weekend before last. That was the weekend Baby Girl was sick. Dh and dd12 will join us in Oklahoma on Wednesday evening.

Baby Girl is no longer nursing. Today is the third day that she hasn't nursed at all. She had cut back to nursing only at night, to get to sleep and now I can just put her in her bed and she goes to sleep by herself. She is sleeping all night in her own bed! This is a first for her. To sleep all night is a biggie and to sleep in her own bed is miraculous!! I am happy! AND. she is napping for 2 hours every day.

Now if I can only get ds4 out of my bed...

Has everyone voted for their favorite Dancing With the Stars man? Of course, my favorite is Emmitt! You can still vote at www.abc.com!

One Thousand Gifts

Y'all need to go to this website http://largefamilylogistics.lifewithchrist.org/ and read her "One Thousand Gifts".
Scroll down and it is on the left.

Enjoy! I love reading it daily.

Here is another link to read the original post on One Thousand Gifts.
http://www.christianwomenonline.net/One_Thousand_Gifts.html

Nat, can you put this on my blog, also?

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Halloween Pictures


The whole gang, almost! George Bush was taking the picture, so he didn't get in it.



Mommy and Ladybug

Flylady's Holiday Control Journal

www.flylady.net

Go to the Flylady website, then find the Holiday Cruising section. You will find all kinds of goodies, including a Holiday Control Journal. I used it during the 2004 Holiday season and it really helped. A friend called me OCD when she saw it, but that's okay.

The goal of Flylady's Holiday Cruise is to get all Christmas prepping done by December 1st, so you can "cruise" through the holiday without stress. I am not going to be able to get my gifts all bought by December 1st, but hopefully I can do everything else and figure out what gifts I am going to buy. So when I get paid on December 5th, I can go buy all of the gifts and be finished.

Check it out! It's fun!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Baby Girl's Rough Weekend

This weekend has been quite rough for little Baby Girl. Let me tell you about it...
Thursday morning she started running a fever. No big deal. Kids run fever for lots of reasons so I didn't think much about it. Ds4 had also been running a fever for a few days and he was better, so I figured she had his bug.

Friday morning early (3 am) she had what I thought were seizures. It was really strange and scary. I took her to her pediatrician Friday morning and he thought she had had febrile seizures and that she had a virus. He said if the seizures happened again, to take her to the ER at children's hospital.

Saturday morning (5 am) it happened again, just once. We took her to the ER. My mom was here to help for the weekend so she stayed with the older kids. At the ER, they thoroughly checked her out. They did blood work, a urine test, a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia, and also a spinal tap. Everything came back normal except the blood work. Her white blood cell count was high, so they gave her an antibiotic shot and sent us home. DH and I felt confident that she was on the mend and we were so glad we took her in to the hospital. The doctors and nurses were great with her and it was not a bad experience.

Well, she slept the whole way home (1 hour). When we got home, she cried for 2 hours straight and she held her neck while she was crying. Her pediatrician said it was probably a headache from the spinal tap. He said to lay her flat and it would go away within 24 hours. Yeah, right! Have you ever tried laying a hysterical 17-month old flat down? Impossible.

We finally got to sleep and had a very tense night. She was miserable all night.

Sunday morning she was still holding her neck and she was not walking right. Her body was hunched over like an old person and she would take a few steps and then say, "Owie!"

I called the nurse on-call at our pediatrician's office and she said to take her back to the hospital.

We took her back and the dr. said that she was having side effects from the spinal tap. He said to give her Motrin every 6 hours and to follow up with her dr. in the morning. This morning she is feeling quite a bit better. Her fever is completely gone. She is still experiencing neck pain and stiffness, but it seems to be improving.

I have called her dr. and he wants me to keep an eye on her and let him know if she has any other symptoms that alarm me.