Pink

The wind is still relentless, though it's finally gone down from the 30 mph gusts that have been tearing at everything. Now if we can just get rid of all the coughing...that would be nice. Ian seems to be doing better, though the cough is still there, a little.
Now it's Erin's turn again, to hack and hack, a dry then a wet cough that makes her choke and gag and wake up and cry. Last night was not a good night. Now I am just sitting here listening to the coughing/gagging. We were hoping that the allergy doctor would figure out a way to fix this. We're hoping the blood tests will yield treatable results. It's strange that you get so used to being sick all the time that it starts being normal. Then you realize that not everyone else makes weekly and bi-weekly visits to the doctor and pharmacy. I think those offices have our numbers on speed dial. The pharmacy knows us by our prescriptions and just may get a picture of the kids at Christmas. Not really, but it's comparable to being so familiar to the Chinese takeout place where you call and they say "The usual?"
It still stinks that our camera is malfunctioning because I got some prime shots of Erin after she decided to decorate her arm and legs with pink marker.
I think she knew she was naughty because she brought me the marker when she was finished. The cap, too. I scolded her like she expected and then she kept saying "stuck, stuck!" Ian was scandalized. "Ooooh, Mommy! Look what Erin do to her!"
I told them that it probably wouldn't come off (though Erin tried with wet wipes). The worst part is that some of it came off in the tub and now she has faint pink marks, like she's been scratched. It looks like she's recovering from being dragged through the briar patch. Except it was a marker and not a pen, so the lines are thicker. Anyway, it's obvious enough that you want to inform everyone of it before they decide to call a social worker on you.
Big fun tomorrow. I am trying a new hair stylist, the praise leader from church. She is so busy by herself that she doesn't often take new clients, so I am relieved. Or I will be relieved if I leave her studio without a bowl cut, a puffball or a mullet, which seems to be the specialty around here. For females, anyway.
Ian's pre-k program is also tomorrow. He has to dress up like a cowboy (please, no guns or spurs). He will receive a blue bandana when he gets there. I know there are songs involved because he's been singing a garbled version of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" that took me a while to translate from "Mommy, do you know that song, "Tha-Gadda-ma-Kutchy Boy?" He looked a little confused and then happy when he understood the real words to the title (I can't help him with the rest of the song, unfortunately). I think he inherited that skill from me. Though I have JD, my very knowledgeable step-dad, to thank for revealing, after 20 years, the real words to "Take On Me," even though there is one line still in dispute.
We'll try for some camera phone pics, and maybe some video. Cross those fingers! And pray that God sends us a camera that works.

Blah-Choo

Well, after getting everyone else mostly recovered, it's my turn to sneeze, wheeze, drip and spin. Well, my head is spinning, figuratively. And due to some kind of insanity, there's no school tomorrow! Monday is supposed to be some kind of Teacher Work Day. So school starts back on Tuesday instead.
Then it's January as usual. MLK Jr Day is not a school holiday here. I don't know why. There are one or two African Americans in our entire county. That probably has something to do with it. But the sad, and sometimes amusing, truth is that I live in one of those areas (the misled majority is Democrat) that did not vote for Obama because "he is a Black Muslim." I heard that 6% of Texas holds that belief as well.
Anyway, if I don't seem very cohesive, it's because my brain is stuffy, along with my sinuses and nose. So I got Ian ready for church this morning, called one of his friends and arranged for him to be picked up and transported to church, and woke my HC up. Then I went to bed. When I woke up, it was after 2. Erin had already napped and gotten up. Ian had been home and gone again, to his friend's house to play with his new Power Wheels Gator and freeze outside. My HC had stuffed Erin with every kind of goody he could think of to buy her silence and happiness. How did I know? Follow the trail of crumbs, the caches of half-eaten Cheez-Its and gooey bits of fruit snacks. Of course after he went to work, I had to deal with the gastrointestinal distress that comes from having way too much junk food.
She had yogurt for supper.
I made myself some Potato Cheese soup, a comfort food for me, since no one else in my house will eat any kind of soup. I had a small bowl and realized that I wasn't hungry. If only we felt that way every day, the world would be a size 6. Until then, I have to find a Tupperware for my leftovers. I don't think there is one. We have melted a lot of Tupperware in the dishwasher. When they say "top rack only" they mean it!
I hope everyone, including me, has a good Monday. And I really hope I feel better tomorrow, because no one has any clean underwear left. It's Mommy's fault because she took a sick day.

Hope and Disappointment

We started our new year off with a frenzy of house cleaning, in preparation for a much anticipated visit. We called to check up on our visitor late afternoon and were informed that they weren't coming. Nice, huh? We made the necessary emotional adjustments and explanations to Ian and enjoyed our clean house. And wondered what we were supposed to eat, since we had emptied our freezer in anticipation for promised seafood, deer meat and pork to be delivered by the visitor. Oh well. It gives me something to do tomorrow.
We had our black-eyed peas and ham (with rice for my insatiable family; I really miss potatoes!) and went out to pop our poppers. It was cold and fun. Even though I popped my first party popper into my palm. It hurt! Ian thought I was funny, for once. Erin didn't care about the poppers as much as she did the sidewalk chalk. And I think she thought she was doing something naughty because when I went to draw with her, she threw the chalk to one side and ran off. I caught both of them and we drew some before Ian tried to run us over with his bike ("I was running over poppers, Mommy. I not hit you.") We chose life and moved anyway. We burned a little bit of trash and I pushed the kids on the swings. My HC went to work. I installed some child-proof cabinet locks in the bathroom and on the computer desk. Yay.
That was our first day of the new year.
On the hope side of this year, we are hoping with all our might for a new baby announcement. Don't get all het up now, because it's not going to be MY baby. Please keep reading before you grab the phone and start gabbing. The baby (or babies) will be the long awaited offspring of my dearest friend Rachel. After a heart-wrenching 2008 of disappointment and disillusion, fundraiser after fundraiser, prayer after prayer, the IVF process has yielded that much coveted little red line on the pregnancy test. And there may be more than one in there. Shoot, there may be three!
It is still in the early stages, but they are there. And darn it, nothing can take that moment away from her. So we are hoping with all that we have and praying with all our hearts that God will give her a safe and successful pregnancy and that she will hold her babies in her arms this summer. Then let the fun begin. I think I should send her some under-eye concealer, just to get a head start on those eye bags. :)
Her first ultrasound is very soon, to determine how many little miracles are in there.
In other news, school starts on Monday!! Ian is very excited, though he will miss watching movies every night before bed (this is a weekend/vacation only activity), he misses his friends and teachers more. He misses his circle time, recess and exercising. He has tried to demonstrate the exercises they do in PE, but it involves a lot of flailing and rolling around, so I'm not exactly sure. But I know that Ian loves it.
Erin is battling through another round of cold/sickness. With the breathing difficulties, every cold lasts for weeks. We are finishing up a round of antibiotics for ear infection, but we are still having congestion, runny nose, phlegmy coughing and extreme irritability. Sigh! Daddy is the only one that can make my little niblet smile. I am just there for on-demand holding, feeding and drink stealing.
One thing I'm happy about. As of tomorrow, the world restarts. No more holidays for a while (at least until the 19th), Walmart will be a little less dangerous, and things will start to get back to normal.
My HC asked me about New Year's resolutions. I've never really been one to make those, but when I have, they've seemed kind of generic. And ongoing. And unchanging. Uh...things like 1)getting more sleep (Whaaaaaaa-hahahahahahahaha), 2)shaving more often (Hoho hohohoho hahahahahahahaa), 3)keeping the house a little cleaner (my sides are starting to really hurt), and writing more (I sincerely wish this last one happened more). But a lot of my wishes and intentions (including the amusing ones above) are realistically, well, unrealistic. The most important thing I can do is to take care of my HC and my kids, because this stage in our lives is not going to last forever and I am determined to enjoy every little bit of it. So there. My New Year's resolution is to enjoy every bit of this year. To revel in the good parts and to learn from the bad ones. And to keep the peace, I guess I will try to shave a little more. Or pray for a gift certificate for laser surgery. :D

A Crazy Week

I have been absent from Blog World for the past week because several things have happened this week that have required my attention. So far, I have done 78 loads of laundry, yet still have piles of dirty in the laundry area. I also made a pecan pie, which was wonderful, but now we are all pecan-ed out. Erin is sick again, so she's been back and forth to the doctor trying to get rid of whatever it is that's making her wheeze, cough, phlegm up and have diarrhea. We have been on the nebulizer, breathing in smoke for 4 fours a day (+nights) ever since. Sigh. The diarrhea is now going even stronger (no pun intended, he he) because she was put on a z-pack, which kills good bacteria too, so we are eating a lot of Gogurt. I also set the house on fire, by way of our natural gas heater. So I've been cleaning smoke residue off of everything ever since. And we had to get a new heater, because the old one was pretty crisped.
I'm not sure I want to get into all that right now, but just for my peace of mind, can everyone make sure their smoke alarms are still working? Just for me?? Because I had both kids in the tub and I wouldn't have known about the fire in time if ours hadn't been working so well. I got both naked-but-towel-wrapped kids outside and into the car (it was 30 degrees out!), called 911, eventually got the fire department there, got Buddy out of the house and the Jeep backed into the driveway across the street. I was very grateful that I at least had diapers and sweatpants in the diaper bag. After a lot of commotion, we were let back into the house, where it got to air out a lot more. Then the cleanup started, as well as shopping for a new heater, which was financed by God with the option of low interest payments.
And we have company coming in 2 days!
Then Ian got the cough from Erin, which makes him throw up every time he bends over. So we had a lot of that. But he can keep everything down just fine as long as he doesn't cough within 10 minutes of eating anything. So...yeah. Ew.

Add a couple of sleepless nights, mess mess mess, bug bombing because the smoke was some sort of attractant to every bug still alive after the last frost.
And there is a renegade cat (whose name should be Heathcliff) in the neighborhood who is targeting our trash cans and taking great delight in stringing it out all over our porch.
And Berry ate our $30 waterhose. It is in small pieces all over the yard still. Sigh.
And we got an unexpected bill that made our eyes bug out a little (ah-OOOga). [Think Roger Rabbit]
Ian is now on Thanksgiving Break. No school all week long, which I'm happy about, for his sake. We still have homework, but that's okay, he missed school because of his gag reflex, so we can catch up on our reading no problem.
How come these things pile up right before family comes to visit???

Not School Again!

Just read the title in a whiny voice and you'll get what I've been hearing from Ian. We really need to start getting to bed earlier. Like at 7. Erin has been sick again. More Reactive Airway stuff and a cold with it. So she is wheezing and coughing a lot and is attached to the nebulizer even more now that the PA-C is doubling her Pulmacort. And if she's wheezing, it's best to do the Albuterol before the Pulmacort, so that's at least 20 minutes of holding a squirming, energetic curly-haired noodle while trying to get her to breathe smoke. And Someone deposited a Goldfish cracker into the nebulizer's mouthpiece and I didn't notice it right away, resulting in a soggy extraction and a multitude of giggles and ewws from both offspring. That case remains unsolved, though both suspects are under surveillance.

So I've been getting up in the night to do neb treatments. And Erin's lava lamp bulb blew, so I've been lighting tealights. And her heater fried itself last night. Poor Erin is having a rough few days. It was another 3 hour trip to the doctor, too, yesterday. Our appt was for 8:15. They called our name at 9-something. We got home at 11-something. By now I can do it myself. I just wish the nurses would listen to me when I tell them to do her pulse/ox. (We watch her O2 levels when she's sick to make sure she's getting enough oxygen. Yesterday was 95, not too bad, but bad enough to where we had to do a breathing treatment in the office, which would have been irrelevant if they'd seen us at 8:15 and we'd have gone home and done it ourselves!) So we have a follow-up appt Thursday, where we will again go sit in that stupid empty office for hours. Anyway, I didn't mean to go into a diatribe about doctors.
Ian got reader #6 and can't quite seem to remember the bear's name, Tim. He keeps wanting to say Tang. Explanations are fruitless. This one is for the teacher.
We are down to the last week before our holiday visitors arrive. Yay! Ian already has extensive plans for the games they will play and the books they will read and how much time they will spend outside in the freezing temperatures looking for something to do (this is really killing time before you can bang on the door and ask for hot chocolate). We are especially looking forward to going hiking at Devil's Den. Except Elmo will be staying home and Erin will be in the carrier on a grown-up's back. Just to make all that clear. But in the meantime, it is a big toy.
And it's freezing outside! It was so cold this morning, in fact, that Ian opted to drive to school instead of riding his bike. Come on! It was only 28. We drove.
Erin and HC were still asleep so we left them home. And yet, when we walked in the school, I still saw kids wearing flip flops and short sleeved shirts around the school yard. I want to buy them all shoes and jackets. After a certain point (like,hm, below freezing?), the "I'm tough" coolness factor has dissolved and now it's "You poor thing!" I wonder if they would dress properly if they got more pity. We had hats and extra layers. We were the only ones wearing hats. But who cares? We were the only ones with warm ears.
As soon as everyone wakes up and gets moving, we're all going to do errands. Bank, post office, library pickup, get gas, GROCERY SHOPPING. This is exciting because it only happens twice a month. It is also exciting because we are completely out of tub butter, and I can't have toast this morning. Or popsicles. Shucks.
At least we have Ian's balloon hat to play with if we get bored. There was a guy at a table in the mall on Saturday (the last time I will EVER go to the city on a Saturday; I really mean it this time), making balloon creations for tips. We scrabbled for some change and Ian picked this out. He's a funny guy, isn't he. I thought for sure he would pick the sword and pirate hat. Not my litle guy. He wanted the silly hat. You gotta love him.

The Two Day Wonder

We've been sick so much, it seems like we'll never get back into our normal routine. Now that Erin is feeling better and Ian is only coughing a little bit, it was Mommy and Daddy's turn to wallow in the tissue box for a while. I've been sick for a couple of weeks anyway, just cold/throat infection type stuff. It eventually goes away if you take some ibuprofen and drink a lot. Chris got sick last Friday and it got worse. He lost his voice for about a day and a half and wheezed some. He used the kids' nebulizer (it's a purple train, I got a laugh out of it) since his gave up the ghost and felt a little better. He took something for his asthma and slept a lot (I wonder what that's like?) and voila! this morning, he feels great. So he had a 2 day wonderbug. And that's it. I, meanwhile, am still coughing, sniffling, sneezing and tripping (that part may be normal) my way through the rest of whatever it is I have still. This is starting to get alarming though, since we are almost completely out of tissues. I even went on an emergency run to the groceryt store and got 2 more boxes last week. This cannot keep up. Something needs to happen!!!
We managed to take down all the Halloween decorations (the spider had moved away for something waterfront) and only had to keep half of them for display in Ian's room. They mysteriously ended up in the trash can after bedtime tonight, so we'll see if he notices them missing.
Erin got rescheduled for her well baby appointment. It's her 15 month and includes more shots. These should be it for a while. She'll also be getting her flu shot; I had planned on the kids getting theirs anyway, but it was stressed that she get one because she is "high risk." Oh well, it doesn't make it any easier to get. My HC and I will be travelling to the health dept sometime in the future to get ours. Last year we were the only ones at his work that didn't get the flu and I don't plan on getting it this year. No way! We missed the free flu clinic here in town because we were in the hospital. Oh well.
Ian got his 3rd reader with 2 new words added on to the rest. Now it's "and" and "Baby". He seems to be having a hard time with And, but he read the whole reader twice with only 2 helps. I don't care how many helps he needs, he's still brilliant to me. Every kid should be brilliant to their parents. That's part of the job, right?? :D
At bedtime last night, Ian was afraid of owls, so I got some old ALL/Febreeze type spray and told him it said All on it because it was Owl Spray for All Owls. I sprayed it around his room where he told me the owls came and he slept just fine. Tonight I had to spray it in more places, but I think it's working. And he can smell the difference. It's a pretty good smell, not overpowering. If nothing else, his room will smell fresh instead of like little boy sweat and other mysterious odors.
Also on my agenda is menu planning for Thanksgiving dinner. My mom and step-dad are coming all the way from FL to get a taste of young family life. Partly because we're so much fun to be around and I think the other part is to appreciate the quiet life and spacious house they go back to when they've had their fill of sharing one bathroom with everyone and listening to constant night trains. As my grampa and I agree, no matter how great your visit or vacation is, there's no place like the home toilet.
But we are all looking forward to their visit. 21 days left, or so Ian's calendar says. My HC's birthday is also coming up. I am hoping to take him to the movies; a grown up movie; with just the two of us. We haven't been to a movie alone since before Erin was born. Another reason to be glad that Gramma and Papaw are coming to visit: babysitters!!! Woo-Ha!
Before I get too excited, I have to remember that it is still 3 weeks away and there are other things to do before then, like getting Ian off to school tomorrow. Erin is still not adjusted to the time change, so she will be wide awake at 6am. Yay.

A Very Happy Halloween

For those of you who are not on my mom's email list/prayer chain, let me fill you in on the past few days. From the last post, you'll know that we took Erin to the ER on Monday. Tuesday, we got up to go to her 15 month checkup and have her shots and she was still just laying there with her head on Chris's shoulder, breathing hard and looking so so sick. When the PA took her pulse and oxygen level, it was way out of whack. Her oxygen level was in the 80s (we want it to be in the high 90s) and her pulse was up to 180, which means she was working way too hard to breathe. He put her on oxygen and it went up a little, but dropped back alarmingly low when he took it away. The skin between her ribs was sucking in with each struggling breath. They called an ambulance to transport her to the hospital. The EMTs strapped her carseat (and her) into the gurney and put the oxygen next to her face. She slept the whole way to the hospital. My HC went home to grab some clothes and stuff and met us at the hospital. All that day, we battled fevers, lethargy, and low oxygen levels. I held Erin in my arms all day with an oxygen mask next to her face. They tried to put some nose prongs with oxygen on her, but she got too upset and her pulse got too high again. So we waited. She got breathing treatments every four hours. That night her O2 levels got too low again so they put the nose prongs on. She sort of left it alone. Every time I checked her, she had pulled it out and put the prongs on top of her nose. We went back and forth like that until they took it out on Thursday.

Finally, she started feeling better and getting more and more active, though she hasn't really eaten much for about a week. Gramma and Papaw sent her some balloons that were batted around a lot and a stuffed bear that she hugged in her little metal crib at night. They also sent some pretty flowers that were a constant reminder of love and hope. It was pretty dodgy for a while, as we thought they might have to hook her up to an IV. To my everlasting relief, it was not necessary. She managed to drink enough to fill a couple of diapers and we were spared. When her oxygen levels were acceptable, it was necessary to "wean" her off of the oxygen. Last night she was monitored and found to be okay. Today we were discharged and came home!! Finally!
It is so good to be home. Don't get me wrong, the cable was nice, but I missed being in the middle of family life. My wonderful HC held down the fort at home (it was spotless when we got home today (!!!))and drove over every day with Ian to see us. Ian and I went for some great walks so I could get some fresh air.
Erin was so thrilled to be outside today.
Since she does still have RSV, she is contagious for as long as she has mucus in her lungs. So until she quits coughing, we have been ordered to stay away from babies, old people and anyone who may have lung trouble. Sheesh. Some coughs linger forever. But it looks like church is out for us on Sunday.
So we got home and it was flight of the bumblebee to get Ian's Halloween costume ready for the Main St Trick or Treat that started at 4. He wanted to be a robot.
I Googled for ideas (yes, Mother) and got some great ones. Then I headed for Dollar General to see what I could find. I got an LED light to attach somewhere, some metallic quick dry spray paint and some duct tape. And I made a robot. Oh. Yeah. Unh!
Today was Ian's field trip to the pumpkin patch and he was so excited when I picked him up from school. Me too. We ran home to see if the spray paint was dry on his costume and proceeded to add the finishing touches. Then we ran/waddled/carried Ian's costume on the bike stroller to Main St. Erin was kept quarantined inside the enclosed bike stroller. We didn't know anyone else who could have taken Ian trick-or-treating, so we just went anyway. He only tripped and fell over twice. Boy was it a good thing that I brought the duct tape and scissors with us. We had a couple of blowouts. Then we got the hookup at the ambulance table and got our pumpkin bucket filled to the top. Ian was over the moon. Then he proceeded to get a sugar high the likes of which the world has never seen. And it was given to him by an EMT. Of course they cleared out before detox. Cowards.
It took a long time to get him calmed down tonight, but he still had fun. I let him give the trick or treaters candy in their bags. He was very meticulous (and stingy!) about it.
So now everyone is in their own bed (with no beeping or interrupting rectal temperature taking), sleeping like little logs. And I am trying to catch up. But my bed is just looking too too good right now. It'll feel good not to have to go to bed fully dressed. It'll feel good to go to bed, period. So I will.
Thanks to everyone with encouraging words and prayers for us. They were felt and much needed. I thank God for all of it and know that my strength came from Him.

ER ---> RSV

Erin didn't have a high fever today, but she was just not herself. It was in the 30s this morning, so we drove Ian to school. Erin fell asleep in the car. She ate about 3 bites of eggs for breakfast, but kept laying her head on my shoulder and dropping off to sleep. Her cough was getting worse. After her 3rd nap, her difficulty breathing was getting worse, even after the nebulizer. She was at around 60 breaths per minute. The ER doc later said that normal is in the 20s. Yikes. We loaded everything up, picked Ian up from school (it was nap time, he wasn't that upset to leave early) and went to Siloam Springs to the ER.
We had thought about going to Stilwell Hospital, where Erin was born and where Ian's croupy ER visit had taken place, but the ER there had failed to catch a case of appendicitis in an acquaintance the day before, resulting in a very scary ride to Siloam Springs for an appendectomy today. Poor woman. So we decided that we would go to Siloam Springs and drive around until we found the hospital.
Chris's uniform and Erin's age got us to the top of the list and moved to a better lobby. The nice volunteer gave the kids little sewn teddy bears, made by a local church. Ian's didn't stay nice looking long; he played pretty hard with it. Erin stopped fussing long enough to say hello to hers.
We got to triage pretty fast, but had to wait for a bed. I got to sit and get Erin admitted (are there any emergency numbers we can call? (they all live in FL) Do you mind if your case is monitored by student doctors? (How else are they going to learn?) Is Erin a male or a female? (incredulous smile).
Finally we got into our room, plopped Ian down with his busy bag (I knew that our things-to-do bag was still unpacked from the camping trip for a reason) and waited. An ER nurse with cool hair gave Ian some coloring papers and a quilty type blanket for Erin, created and donated by a generous and crafty soul from Bella Vista. This was great and very comforting for Erin, who snoozed off and on. Eventually, over the course of a few hours, Erin got a breathing treatment, an RSV test and a chest x-ray. They all agreed that she was one sick little doll. She cried and fussed a lot, especially when they had to hold her down for the x-ray and when the respiratory nurse sucked out her nose with the Blue Beast (though the hospital's bulb syringe was more of a teal color).
Then we waited for the lab to send back the test results. After quite a bit longer, after we had all checked out the main ER bathroom, where ER waiters are sent and those who are retrieving specimens go, I decided to hold it if I had to go again. It was just used a lot and no one felt like sitting on the seat. It reminds me of the kind of bathroom that usually gets assigned to people doing community service. The kind that teaches you very effectively to go and sin no more. Eek. You get the picture.
The results came back. It was RSV pneumonia.

*For those interested in the intricacies of this, read on. If not, skip to the next paragraph. From www.cdc.gov: "Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, or RSV, is a respiratory virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. In fact, RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia in children under 1 year of age in the United States.
Symptoms of RSV infection are similar to other respiratory infections. A person with an RSV infection might cough, sneeze, and have a runny nose, fever, and decrease in appetite. Wheezing may also occur.
Infants and children infected with RSV usually show symptoms within 4 to 6 days of infection. Most will recover in 1 to 2 weeks. However, even after recovery, infants and children can continue to spread the virus for 1 to 3 weeks."


She had another breathing treatment and her lungs were listened to again. The good news is that we were right to take her to the ER. The bad news is that it's a virus and we're just going to have to get through it. The breathing treatments help a bit, but we were told to keep sucking out her nose, pound her on the back to loosen the mucus in her lungs, keep the fevers down if they come back and keep the fluids going. Her oxygen levels were good and we were free to go. We got a scrip for Prednisolone to help with inflamed airways. So that was that.
We went to Walmart, got our scip, then to McDonald's for Happy Meals (Ian: "Oh, you so proud of me, I get a Happy Meal!") and then we went home so my wonderful HC could work the rest of his shift. It's really neat to see who your friends really are when emergencies happen. We had several calls of "what can I do?" from friends and co-workers. We had offers to watch Ian and pick him up from school and lots of "How are thing?" calls. It was just very reassuring and fuzzy-feeling.
And there's nothing like talking to your Mom when you start to doubt yourself. Just another instance of "you were SO right." Thanks Mom.

Unwanted Guest

This morning, Ian seemed better. He really wanted to go to school, so we bundled everyone up and set out. He coughed a lot, but he made it. But now Erin is coughing up a storm and dragging today. I was too. No fun. We were getting the bike stroller out to take Ian to school and I was passing our Halloween decorations. We hung up our little trashbag ghosts and strung up our fake spiderweb. It didn't come with the little plastic spiders, so I raided my stash of Halloween goodies for a few spider rings for Ian and HC to stick in the fake web. Well, this morning, one of them moved. And got bigger. Waaaay bigger. And it was yellow and white and black. Eeeeeeeew. We all froze, then stared at it, fascinated and disgusted and with creepy crawlies starting to shiver over the backs of our necks. Then we shook it off and took Ian to school.

When we got back, Chris spit on it to see if it was still alive (it was) because that's what boys do. When it doubt, spit on it or in it or over it. If it flinches, it's good and you're really scary. :) Guys are so funny.


It's still there. It has moved into the spider version of a model home, I guess. Furnished and even with a fake family so you won't get lonely. But it's really cold outside, so maybe it really needs a home. I hope it knows that its new home will be condemned and removed next weekend. Shiver, blrrrreagh. Not a big fan of spiders here. Ugh.

Here, this will cheer us up. A nice picture of Ian's pumpkin. It's supposed to be a drippy face. Ian had fun cleaning out all the slimy seeds and urging me to hurry up carving it. Now we have to visit it. I think he forgot about it today or else we would be out there lighting the candle and watching it in the dark until our toes turned blue and fell off.
But back to the no fun part of our evening, Ian coughed so hard he threw up his supper and red KoolAid all over the carpet and down the hallway. He then had to interrupt his vomit moment to pee, so we were laughing a bit. For example: "Bleah, Bleah (that's him throwing up). Cough cough. OH NO! I have to PEEEEE!" "Go then," I said, wondering how much would continue until I could start cleaning up. I was also holding a grossed out Erin on my hip. I wiped a tissue over Ian's nose and mouth as he ripped down his underoos and started whizzing like a champ. He had just peed about 10 minutes before. Wow, was his little bladder full. "Wow," I said. "Where did all that peepee come from?" His little pale face grinned up at me. "I don't know," he said. "But it's coming out." And he only sprinkled a little bit. What a buckeroo.
I got him settled in his room with a movie and draped towels over the messes in the living room. Uh oh. Erin felt hot. The battery in the thermometer is dead! I tried to get a replacement at the town pharmacy today, but they didn't have that one. They ordered it and it will be here Monday. Not that it helps me over the weekend. The only thing left is: DUM Dum dum. The Heini-o-meter! [screaming] Poor Erin was introduced to it and her little temp was 101.9. Oh NO! So she got some meds and some nebulizer for her wheezy cough and conked right out. I really hope she sleeps tonight and the temp doesn't go up like Ian's did.
So she went to sleep and I proceeded to scrub red food coloring out of the carpet. Wheeeee.
Now I need to finish up before someone else needs me.

Sick of sick--Part 3

This week has been one thing after another, it seems. The kids started to get the coughs and sniffles back, then some breathing trouble and then Ian woke up with the croup. Sigh. On night 2 of the croup, he woke up and couldn't breathe, so the nebulizer has been our friend, especially the little mask that leaves Ian hands-free so he can play on the computer at the same time. :D
Then last night the fever hit us. It climbed up to 103.4 and Ian started babbling and talking to people that weren't there. I was seriously freaked out. We started the ibuprofen and tylenol rotation. It slacked off after a lot of rocking and cold cloths on the face and neck. It went down to 101 and he asked to go to bed (I guess I wasn't that comfortable to sit on). He woke up at 5 telling me there were owls in his room (his version of monsters in his closet). I went in there, cleared them out and he went back to sleep. I got up at 7 and he woke up with a 101 fever still. Then he threw up the ibuprofen all over his room. Sigh. So we decided to stay home from school today.
I made chicken and dumplings for instant wellness. It sort of worked, though Erin picked out all the dumplings and launched them across the kitchen. I may still have one in my hair. But Ian hemmed and hawed and didn't want it until we told him it would make his cough and sickness go away (doesn't chicken have healing properties??). He quit playing in it and ate most of it, but only because he wanted dessert. But it was a change from the same old request I'd been hearing about all night and all day.
All he wanted was chocolate milk. All night. Then all day. Constantly. He was sick enough to not be bouncing off the walls, but he still bounced on the couch, the bed and the chair. Please Lord can we be well enough tomorrow to go back to school??? Pleeeease?

Getting By

Several interesting things have happened this week. It's hard to believe my last post was last Sunday. I guess days just fly by, especially when there's no school on Friday.
Monday, I took both of the kids back to the doctor to try to solve the nasty cough that was still keeping both of them awake at night. They both got some albuterol for the nebulizer, Ian got a z-pack and Erin got a special med for the nebulizer. We have now weaned Ian from the neb (he informed me last night "I don't want to breathe tonight, Okay Mommy?") and Erin is down to her one medicinal session. And the results? drum roll. The cough is still there, but it is not keeping them awake, it just rattles around at random moments.
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My HC and I are doing SO well in our 'new room' and our isolated bed. I used to wonder why split plan houses were such a great idea. Wouldn't you want to be close to your children? Yes. No. Uh, can you repeat the question? Even on the other side of the house, my Mommy superhearing can still detect every snort, sniffle and falling blanket. And the loud noises too, like cranky babies and falling Ians.




While Erin was so sick we kind of reverted to nursing, since it was the Only (and I do mean ONLY) way she would sleep for several long nights). So this week we have been weaning again and everything is almost back to post-nursing shape. Yay. Nursing is great, but not with someone with the bite pressure of a great white. Nuff said.
On Wednesday, my HC and I went to Tahlequah (the 'capital' of the Cherokee nation) to look through the Dawes roll and to put to rest some family myths. No family names on there, no Cherokee benefits (now quit nagging, family members!). We were able to trace the Cherokee ancestors back to Tennessee (by way of Georgia and North Carolina). So if anyone in our family is still interested in proving ancestry to get Cherokee benefits, they will have to go to Tennessee to find out. Our obligation is finished.
But the drive was gorgeous and will be more so when the leaves all change. It should happen in the next few weeks.
We also decided to treat ourselves and eat in a real restaurant! It's been so long since I've been to Chili's. It was great. Looove the chips and salsa. Mmmm.
On Thursday, we just chilled out. My HC saw an exercise machine and a treadmill in an alley behind a beauty salon/gift shop/tanning salon/woman's gym (they have toning beds....right). I went in and inquired about them. I was told I could buy the treadmill for $25 (the belt was about to be severed but I could buy a replacement belt) and the Air Walker for $40 (it worked but I have since discovered that it has a knocking sound and shakes a bit while you're using it).
So the Air Walker came home. Woo hoo!

Friday was no school and a parent/teacher conference. And the Book Fair. Ian is doing great in pre-k and will be starting a reader soon (!!!). He is doing extremely well and is a good student. He works well with positive reinforcement. Of course, we knew all these things. :D
We all had fun at the Book Fair. It's so hard to resist all of those shiny new cheap books. Sigh. We did get a few though. I know. Just paint "Sucker" on my forehead. I love books. Then we went home and bummed around and I made chili from scratch (in other words, from dried beans....MMMM).



Last night, Erin only woke up 1 (ONE!) time. [cue Hallelujah Chorus]


Today was pancakes, video games, and challenging my HC to try out the Air Walker and stop sneering at it (he stopped sneering after 5 minutes. Then he had to do something manly like weight-lifting). Erin never did take her afternoon nap, which made for a long afternoon.
Fall always puts me in a baking mood, so I started a new batch of Sourdough Starter today. This is the stuff you put in your bread mix when you want to make sourdough bread. It has to sit on the counter for 2-5 days. You stir it once a day (it's covered by a towel, don't get grossed out on me) and then put it into a sealed jar in the fridge. As long as you don't forget about it, it will stay nice and not get black and separated and smelly and make people think you have an illegal still in your kitchen. So THIS time, I will remember to stir it every week or two. Yes. Definitely.
I also made Chex Mix, but I have a feeling that no one will eat it this time either. Too bad I have All This Cereal....

Sick of Sick

This week has been another round of sickness. Monday, Erin had her follow-up appointment from her previous round of cold/cough/yuck. She seemed better, she really did. Everything checked out just fine. While at the doc's office, I found out that they've changed to a 4 day work week. They are closed on Wednesdays and open earlier and later on the remaining days. Tuesday, Erin had a runny nose and a little cough. Ian still has his cough, but only in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning. Tuesday night was horrible.
I noticed Erin breathing harder and harder and crying about every 30 minutes. In the middle of the longest night in the world, I counted her breaths at 55 a minute. I tried everything in my arsenal, since cough medicines, etc have been pooh poohed by the FDA and are no longer even available. It was a long and sleepless night.
The next morning was Wednesday. Uh oh. Our doctor's office was closed. I called the other pediatrician that usually gets our business whenever the office is closed. I explained, begged, pleaded and must've sounded as insane as I felt (all wild-eyed and wild-haired) because she put us in.
We left early. Poor Erin was breathing so hard she couldn't sleep and couldn't cough up whatever was blocking her throat.
After the normal paperwork, we got in and Erin was introduced to the wonderful Nebulizer. The doc thinks she had an asthma attack, though it may not turn out to be chronic.
So we have steroids and a z-pack and the nebulizer every 4 hours until the weekend where we will go to every 6 hours and then off if she is doing better.
So far, 4 hours have not gone by fast enough. But she is sleeping better and feeling a little better. She is still not eating much, but that will improve as soon as I start listening to reason and fixing chocolate and french fries for supper every night, like Ian has been suggesting for years.
Ian is relieved that the crying has stopped and has resigned himself to sharing his toys for peace and quiet.
Things are starting to look normal to me now and not as if I'm looking at them from inside a floating bubble.
Sigh. I'm just sick of being sick!

Sick of September

We've been sick since August. The kids had little allergy-type colds that just haven't gone away. Erin has had her phlegm/cough/congestion/runny nose yuckiness for 2 weeks. It has been 12 days since I have had a decent night's sleep. Since she is so stuffy, it is hard to lie down flat (even though she is using one of our pillows to elevate), so she gets up a lot in the night. So I hold her and walk back and forth in the living room until she 1) coughs up all the yuck that is keeping her from sleeping well, 2)warms up and 3)falls back to sleep. Number 3 isn't always accomplished as fast as I would like. I'm not saying all this as a contest, like some women do. One person complains and the next person says, "oh yeah? Well, I haven't had a decent night's sleep in 6 months!" and then it's some sort of weird, deluded competition. No. First off, I'm saying it in disbelief because I can't believe it's been that long, even though the rings under my eyes could tell their own story. Second, in the middle of the night, it seems so much longer than that. Third, it's only because of how great God is that I am even functioning right now and haven't been late getting Ian to school.
Saturday night, Ian had a really nasty bout of cookie tossing. He had eaten his lunch in his room at his little table so he could watch whatever movie he wanted to watch in there and he had gotten some pizza on the floor. Before bedtime, I asked him to pick up the two little pieces that were under the table and throw them away. I'm not sure if he was just grossed out or bending over made everything in his stomach shift or what, but he proceeded to eject everything that was still in his stomach all over his rug. Then he took a deep breath and did it some more. I just stood there, holding Erin and watching in some kind of suspended animation horror. Then my adrenalin kicked in and I herded him to the toilet, where he stood there and stared (like "Ew! I'm not throwing up in THERE! I pee pee in there!").
I dumped (with a very fast song) the baby in bed and she stood there and protested missing all the fun (one of those times that it's completely gross to be the only grownup) while I cleaned Ian up and made him stay in the bathroom until I had cleaned up his room (nothing like the sight and smell to cause a relapse!).
It took a while.
I can tell you right now that we won't be having chicken divan again for about 15 years, if ever.
We ran out of carpet fresh. sigh.
I found the baking powder.
I was leery about putting Ian in bed because I didn't want round 2 to get the mattress. He didn't want to go to bed, so I made a little nest on the floor and gave him a pot in case he had to upchuck again. He asked for milk. Um, NO! So I got him some juice that he said tasted yucky and popped a movie in for him. An hour or two later, he had round 2 in his sleep and there was no clean floor left for him to sleep on and no clean blankets left (or stuffed animals).
So I covered his bed with towels (that's a trick that a great doctor gave me from when Ian had the stomach flu and I couldn't keep crib sheets clean) and got him a big beach towel to use as a blanket. Thank you Lord that there were no more eruptions.
Except this morning Chris felt queasy and nauseous. Groan! I took Erin to the PA (physician's assistant) and she got some Z-pack and better allergy meds to get rid of her bug (thank you Lord! I need Zzzzs!). I am very optimistic about this treatment. It's been really rough since the FDA or whoever has declared that any kind of cough meds, etc are not to be used on a child under the age of 6. Tell that to a parent who hasn't gotten more than 2 hours of sleep at a time for almost 2 weeks. I dug some old cough meds out of the bottom of my medicine chest and gave the proper dose to Erin anyway. And no, I don't feel bad at all. Or like a bad parent. It's hard to listen to your miserable baby cough and gag and choke. Then you're supposed to suck out their nose with the Blue Beast (nasal aspirator), slap some Vick's on and call it a night? Ha!
Anyway, I hope this z-pack works really really fast. Because tomorrow is grocery day and bill paying day and I won't have time to take a nap then either, even if I had the opportunity.
But that's okay, because I am thankful for medicine and for a little boy who is happy to see me after school and who is not throwing up gallons of supper. And for a little girl who can feel like the inside of a dirty diaper and still give gorgeous smiles and be happy to see me when I come to get her out of her crib.
So we've been through another one of those Parenting Trenches and boy are we happy to see the other side. Now if I can only get rid of the Marianna Trench under my eyes...

New Car!

Before you get too excited, it's a mommy (or daddy, or brother)-powered car and it's for Erin. It was on clearance and it was just too good to pass up. You'll see why.





The wheels are plastic, so I'm not sure if it will make it to school and back on those rocky roads, but it definitely did some laps around the driveway yesterday afternoon chasing Ian on his bike. ;)

On the cold front, we are still battling it. Erin still gets stopped up several times in the middle of the night. Ian coughs a lot too, but can sleep through it better...Last night was night 7 of being up with the baby and there's not enough makeup in the world (even if I knew how to apply it) to cover up the bags under my eyes!

Trusting

Right now, everyone in our family would rather be doing these things (together, of course).




And I'll tell you why.
Ever get one of them days where darn near everything is going wrong???
Well, my poor HC is having one of those weeks. I am too, indirectly, but I just feel so BAD for him. Right now he is at his workplace working on our only vehicle, who decided to give up its will to live this morning when we were ready to go home. But let's back up. Last night was night #5 of Erin's Phlegm, a Lifetime original. So she gets coughing fits and needs to be held upright to hack it up. This requires walking on my part and interrupts my HC's sleep (Erin is very noisy about phlegm hacking). He has been sleeping on the couch. At 3am, he got bad news about work and couldn't seem to get back to sleep after that. At 7:45, I got up. Late. School starts at 7:55, ya'll! So we did a flight of the bumblebee and got everyone dressed and out. Chris had managed to fall back asleep and stumbled around drearily. He had an important meeting at work at 8 about a complaint being made on him (which was groundless, as usual). Gustav, now a tropical storm, has hit us and we are getting massive rainfall, flood warnings, etc, so we drove to school today. I got reamed by the crossing guard/school security about the Jeep sticking out in the road (he was trying to drive over to get me and I guess he was blocking traffic? uh....). I told Chris and he stopped and had it out with the security guard (in a small town, everyone knows everyone and I think the guy was having a bad day too), then drove us to the 'office' for this meeting. We were late. We waited and waited for the chief to get done talking to this complaining person with the law-breaking 17 year old. Turns out my HC wasn't even needed; the chief handled it and sent the complainer on his way. My HC had 2 fillings fall out and has had trouble eating. One filling on each side, top plate. And then we got in our car and it wouldn't start. Everybody groan.
Great, it's the corroded battery cables. We had this problem last time we went to Fayetteville, when we went to Golden Corral. But just a tweak and a ping on the cables and we made it out of the parking lot and back home. Today was not the case. After new battery cables, it still wasn't starting. To make a 5 hour fix-it job short, we had to get a new starter. An expensive starter! I am thankful that it wasn't anything major, but it was a whole lot more expensive than we are comfortable with!
It's just rough to have all this added to near-sleepless nights with sick kids and problems at work for my HC. Everything just builds up and feels like one big throbbing...something. So I stopped and had a talk with God and felt better and now I'm waiting to see how we're going to get through this. And I'm trying to convince my HC not to cancel his dentist appointment.

Eggs, Kleenex and DTV

Well, we successfully navigated the Westville Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning. It was cold (45!) and cloudy, but we went anyway. Erin did not get out of the carseat, but stayed in her blanket. Ian got Pu-lenty of eggs, enough to have our own condensed version of Egg Hunt at home, if we can put all the halves together and make them stay. He had lots of fun with his friends and we had lots of fun with their parents. Then we came home to inspect the loot. :)

We are still feeling much better, but boy are we tired of coughing up phlegm! Erin has her little runny nose and cough back, so we are yodelling back and forth to each other pretty constantly. At least nobody is having problems sleeping.

I finally went out and got our digital converter box for our tv antenna. We were all excited to put it together. I read all the instructions (a few times...) and figured out how to do the channel configuration. We waited excitedly. What? This can't be right. 2 channels? We flicked the channels. A mass of frozen pixels was all that came up. Uh.... Chris fiddled with the antenna some. Ok, that was better, but the sound was all hiccupy and every other second a blob of pixels would freeze like a Picasso painting. The second channel was no better. Actually it was worse.

We moved the antenna to the other side of the TV stand and covered the little ends with an 18-inch long wad of aluminum foil. I tried the channel scan again. 3 channels this time. Two of them were actually kind of clear. One of them was ABC (woo hoo! local weather! uh. scratch that. We don't live in Rogers, AR). Biiiiiig problem. The only channel we got without the DTV box was channel 13, PBS. Ian's little shows are all on PBS. And how will I live without Hyacinth and "Keeping up Appearances"? Or Judy Dench in "As Time Goes By"? Sigh. I made do with Cold Case instead. That wasn't too bad, but what would I do in the mornings without Curious George and Word World to keep him busy while I showered?? Oh well, we would live.

Chris had other ideas. Since his 7-day work stretch on the new schedule was over, he has 2 glorious days of weekend. His solution was to get some type of booster for our rabbit ears and try to get PBS back.

So this morning, we hied off to Radio Shack to see what we could see. We got there. The only boosters made are for outdoor antennas. We would have to come to the realization that the rabbit ears I kept from college were just not made for serious rural channel pickups. It was time to upgrade. We looked at the choices. Why get one that looks like a 14 foot bird sanctuary when we're just going to move? So we got a little plastic box that bolts to the side of the roof and then you run a wire inside. It has its own amplifier. So guess what? Now we get 11 channels. 11 beautiful clear channels with only slight pixel congestion. 4 of those channels (13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4) are PBS. Ha! Woo hoo! No more lines on Clifford's face! This is great! And we are excited about all the other channels we'll get after we move too. That is, of course, if we even remember to watch the TV. Hm.

Feeling Better

Well, after logging everyone else's sicknesses so faithfully, I have been very lax in cataloguing my own. Oh well. It's been quite some time since I've had a 102 fever, painful cough and enough phlegm (don't you love the way that's spelled?) to....well, I'll spare you the gross word pictures. I am very happy to report that the fever only lasted for one night and the next day. Yesterday and today has been simply the aftereffects of a yucky cold. Just in time for Erin to be fever (again!) and start hacking, poor widdle munchie. But she slept pretty good last night, so that's good. Chris has been great, letting me get extra rest and running herd on our herd (Ian is active enough to be plural). His shift from 3-11 is starting to show some deja vu because he either gets home hours late or gets called out to assist. The guy who has the night shift is uncertified and uncertain.
But I forgot to mention before that I finally got some guts and shot Chris's handgun (.45 Glock) at Jeremy's house last weekend. I only shot 4 bullets, but it was definitely an experience. Can we say recoil? There's a lot of power in that little thing and definitely not something to mess around with. I managed to hit the target too and I have to admit, it's a whole lot harder to aim with a stubby gun than it is for a .22, which is just way too much fun to shoot for target practice. I am not a great fan of handguns, but we still have one in the house (and chill out everyone, it's not like we let the kids play with it!) and I feel better knowing as much about it as possible. The hardest part about it though, was the fact that I'm left-handed and everyone else is right-handed, so I felt unbalanced and a little awkward, but that also could have been the newness factor. Anyway, it was exciting to me and Chris, so there. :)

Ian actually asked for homemade pizza. He was upset that Chris and his Explorer ate all the leftovers and asked for some the next day. So one day this week I get to make another one. :)
This time I think I'll mix in some garlic or seasoning in the crust. Cooking is so much fun, except for those times when things just flop and everyone has to eat sandwhiches. But we won't mention those much.

Ian has just joyfully announced that he pottied in his potty chair. I went in there to look and along with a whole lot of splattered pee (Why won't he sit to pee on that thing?!) there is the tiniest little splat of poop I have seen in ages sitting in there. But a bargain's a bargain, so Ian is now kicking up his heels because he gets to play video games for the first time in weeks. Fingers are tightly crossed in hopes that when he decides to finish the rest of his potty time, it will be sitting on the chair (it has been cleaned and rinsed and is now dismantled and drying in the tub).

Another interesting thing that happened while I was sick. We got our coupons in the mail for those TV converter boxes. I signed up a few months ago for 2 coupons because we have 2 tvs in the house and then kind of forgot all about it. It would be a travesty if our one channel (PBS) went out, even if it is fundraising month and they interrupt the shows every 10 minutes with a fumbling plea for pledges. So I have two $40 gift card look-alikes for our converter boxes. Now the only thing left to discover is how expensive the boxes are. We'll see.

Ian is asking for toast. I'd better get on it before Erin wakes up.

4:03 in the wee smas

For those of you who don't know what that is, think of that song from "Sleepless in Seattle": In the wee small hours of the morning, when the whole wide world is fast asleep..."

Tonight's saga is poor Erin with a horrid cold, chest congestion and colic (again!), crying to break everyone's hearts, sweaty, coughing, and falling asleep midcry in weird positions only to jerk with another pain and cry some more. Really, we need some help here!

Don't worry, it's coming. I often, Very Often wonder, how parents can function at all without a belief in the saving, reassuring and comforting presence of God. There's no way I could do this alone, it's just too heartwrenching. When Chris and I are sitting there in the middle of the night and Erin won't stop crying (thank you that Ian has grown out of it), staring at each other in desperation, ready and willing to do ANYthing to get it to stop, sheeeesh. But it's just one of those things you have to get through.

And might I reiterate, we LOVE our hot water bottle, and aside from the swing, it is the most wonderful purchase we have ever made. Ian would protest this point, but he is flailing away in his own little bed, since even in sleep he finds it impossible to be still. I'm just really hoping that he won't act out his dreams and pee on the floor, thinking of an imaginary drain.

My Dad used to do that. Once he was dreaming that he was fishing and hocked a loogie onto the floor somewhere. Then another time, he was dreaming of something else and hocked another one into the empty fireplace. But this time, my friends and I were sitting around the living room and poor Josh almost got nailed in the side of the head with Wild Flying Loogie because he chose to sit by the fireplace. Josh has still not recovered from this incident. Especially when Dad woke up, laughed and went back to sleep. And they wondered why none of my friends wanted to visit? That story made it around campus fast! :)

Between Chris's childhood history of sleepwalking and genetic dream theater, we're hoping that Ian stays put. But from the banging in his room of his knees against the wall and bedrails, that's not happening precisely. Plans are in the works for a twin bed for Ian some time after we move. Ian already has his big boy sheets picked out.

Poor Chris had a rough day today, the kind of day where you're so worn out, but your mind just needs to do something. So in between crying jags, he got to play his funny little computer games (he likes the ones where you run a restaurant and have to do all the jobs or the ones where you're the farmer and you have to plant, water, fertilize, bug spray, etc, harvest and sell the crops and then buy more seed to plant and hopefully save enough money to buy chickens. Like I said, funny games).

He got called out around 11 ish but came back to crying Erin, where the computer time started up. He took her for a couple of car rides but brought her back to nurse. This is where I am now thinking that it's not colic. Not like last time. Because she ate just fine, she just had a really upset stomach. Hm.

Now I will make a confession and admit another stupid mistake. I tried the Yobaby organic yogurt for her today, hoping to get her little system on track. It's supposed to be safe for babies 6 months and older (and toddlers) so I gave her a couple of spoonfuls. She doesn't usually like cold foods or drinks or anything, so she didn't like it. Then I tasted it and it was NASTY! I gave some to Chris to try (to spread the nasty around some. he he) and he spewed it out and then had to have something to cover up the taste (some Real yogurt: Yoplait peach). Erin had her supper and things were fine. Well, Fie upon you, yobaby! Because really, that's all I can think of that would cause this....and there's no better time for self-recrimination than in the wee smas.

Hm. Just think, Ian will most likely be up in 2 1/2 hours. Doodle doo de doo.

I was wondering earlier, after the initial fuzzy exhaustion passed, what weird things I would think about, because it is a universally known fact that people who stay up too long think weird things. Like how they shoved a girl in the lunch line in 4th grade and never apologized, things like that. Or I am alone in this assumption and now look like an idiot. Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time.

Or the last. Because I am going to have to leave this post to get Ian a drink because he is coughing his Croupy cough and that usually requires liquid to go back to sleep. So happy morning to you and remember me when I'm grumpy later. :)

Nose juice and bulb syringes

Sounds yummy, doesn't it? At least it sounds a little more refined than what we usually call it. Brace yourselves, snot suckers. Ian and Erin both absolutely hate it when the Blue Beast comes out. Ian has learned how to blow his nose with a tissue, finally, though he will get air on it and then need a new one. Erin just starts crying and thrashing, hoping that if she squirms enough, I'll quit trying to stick the end in her tiny nostril and give up. Sometimes I do, because it seems like I am just sucking all the breath from her nose and missing the goo completely, which is kind of ridiculous when her entire nose is blocked. Anyway we have another round of winter colds, the last being in November. We went to a birthday party last Saturday at Fun City (a chuck e cheese type place), so it's pretty logical as to where we picked said colds up. So the humidifiers get turned up, the Vick's BabyRub comes out, as does the saline nose gel, tissues and the Blue Beast. Ian is still delirious with his good fortune with the tissues. See? There are some very positive things about growing up. Number one in this category being "too big for rectal thermometers." There's a real shuckster now. eek.

The highlight of my weekend, besides torturing my offspring with the Blue Beast, was Guys Night. Of course it was on Monday, which isn't the weekend, but who's counting? There were an assortment of guys, all but one from the police department (he's the mayor), 2 Xbox 360s, 2 tv's, an army game and Guitar Hero. This is where the sadness begins. Having heard about and seen the pictures from Rachel's foray into RockStar-ness, I was excited about seeing this. This is also the only game that Brian (the mayor) is good at, since he is hopeless (and I mean it) with video games in general, but for the sake of testosterone will suffer through it. Out it comes, the little plastic guitar with the multicolored tabs. I watch, fascinated as the teenage boy (he is a police Explorer and his dad is the asst. chief) starts a song (Of course I didn't recognize any of them, I am not a rock star) and amazes the room as he does not one but two songs on Hard. Once you get the rhythm down and the key placement, you can see how to figure it out. One problem, the cutting edge graphics on this new game system are so advanced that my poor beleaguered system cannot handle it. I have grown up on the water and have spent countless hours on boats. I have survived quite a few storms in the British Virgin Islands and the Gulf on sailboats and a catamaran. I have NEVER gotten sick or seasick or even queasy. Watching the video game graphics made me positively green. I haven't felt like such a wuss since...uh, I'm not going there. So ends my career as a video game player, at least if it's not the original Nintendo with Mario Brothers (cue theme music: duh dut dup, de doot DUP doop). I couldn't handle it and I apologize to the world. I have heard that it takes time to get used to. I almost feel like that guy on Survivor that couldn't keep down the seal guts or whatever that was they had to eat in that competition.

And the 360 is on loan until Brad remembers that it's here and picks it up. The Guitar Hero went home with Brandon, the expert teenager. And that was guy's night. I just kept my contribution with keeping Ian from standing right in front of the screen and I made cookies and Rice Krispy treats (which must have been good).

After that, the colds just multiplied. I made some hot tea this morning, spearmint. Ian was curious and wanted a taste, so I got him a straw and he tried it (if you're wondering about the straw, just let him take a drink our of your cup without one...ew). He said it tasted like gum and didn't want anymore. Finally! A drink of my very own! That and the cappucino I drink sometimes that Ian says needs chocolate. He is just hinting for his own hot chocolate with marshmallows. I sometimes think that is the only reason he plays outside on cold days. Since I don't have any pictures of people playing xbox or sneezing, I will post a picture that Chris took while he was feeding Erin some cereal (he did not get sneezed on during a mouthful; truly the world is not fair). At least with this cold, her appetite is not affected. Kind of like me. It kind of has to be the plague for my appetite to be affected.

I would write more on our exciting weekend, but someone just sneezed and it's tissue time again!