Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

Hi all! I just wanted to take a few moments to say "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone! While I am listing the things that I am thankful for over the holidays, be sure that I will be listing my online "blogging buddies" as well. May God bless you and your families! (And may you quickly lose those extra pounds that you KNOW you're going to gain!) LOL Sad but probably true. Especially in my case. Alan is off for Thanksgiving this year, so I will be cooking the noon meal and entertaining family at our house. While my mind reels with the amount of work to be done and food to prepare...my mouth is already watering at the thought of making all our favourite holiday dishes! Here's the starting lineup! *recipes available upon request!* LOL ;)

  • Roasted Turkey w/ Gravy
  • Slow-Cooker Stuffing
  • Jellied Cranberry Sauce
  • Green Bean & Corn Casserole
  • Sweet Potato Casserole
  • Veg-all Casserole
  • Asparagus Casserole
  • Mashed Potatos
  • Orange Jello Salad
  • Devilled Eggs
  • Dinner Rolls
  • Blueberry Cobbler

YUMMY! YUMMY! YUMMY!

Friday, November 11, 2005

SO...So....*sigh*...TIRED!

Okay guys, I am EXHAUSTED. I will admit that I actually slept in until 10:00 am this morning and it was devine! It's been a crazy month...well actually it started at the end of September when my third child was born. By the time we got home and I recovered from that experience, my oldest daughter came down with some kind of virus. She ran a low-grade fever and had a nasty cough. So we just administered over-the-counter cold and flu meds with Tylenol and she gradually got better. BUT...by the time she was recovering, the two-year old had come down with it and unfortunatly it seemed to hit her much harder. She ran a high fever. I'm talking 103.4. Had it gone up just 6 more tenths of a degree we would have had to take her to the hospital. It was really scary because she became somewhat lethargic and would barely respond to my talking to her. I scooped her out of her bed and tucked her in with me. Then I set the alarm clock to wake myself up in two-hour intervals at which times I alternately administerd Tylenol and Motrin around the clock until her fever finally broke at 5:30 in the morning. Now, during this time I was also giving the 4 yr old cough medicine every 4 hours and feeding the baby every 3 hours ....so I ended up staying awake all night long. Before I knew it 30 plus hours had passed before I got a chance to shut my eyes for a while. Then, as I'm sure you can guess...when the two year old got over the crud, the baby got sick. Now THAT was really scary. For those of you who may not know...if an infant under 8 weeks of age gets a high fever, they are automatically admitted to the hospital where they draw blood and run blood cultures to see if the fever has spread to their blood. They are also required to perform a spinal tap and draw spinal fluid from the spinal cord to check for meninjitis. If you have never experienced it with your kids..it's a TERRIBLE...HORRIBLE...SCARY...and PAINFUL process to be avoided at all costs! I went through it when Bugga-Bugga was seven weeks old and it was the worst thing I've ever experienced to this date. It's just so scary when a newborn gets sick because they are unable to take any kind of over-the-counter meds until they are at least 3 months old...and they can't blow their own nose..or tell you what hurts. She started with a cough and nasal congestion. I was really afraid it would settle in her lungs and cause pneumonia (which babies her size/age typically don't recover from). She was also having trouble eating. Partially because her nose was stopped up making it difficult to take a bottle, and sometimes if she did manage to get it down...she would throw it up 5-10 minutes later. Thank GOD, she never ran any fever. We ran a cool mist humidifier in our room where Baby Bug sleeps, and she slept upright in her swing at night rather than in her bassinet. We sprayed saline drops in her nose and used that horrible bulb syringe to suction out the congestion as best as we could. Because she is only 5 weeks old, there wasn't a whole lot we could do for her. I sat up around the clock by myself for three nights and days watching her just to make sure that she was breathing. Alan and I debated on whether or not to take her to the doctor for several days. (I wanted to ...he didn't). Finally I won (after breaking down, crying, and pitching a fit!) We took her to her pediatrician (whom I adore) about an hour's drive away. He was reallys surprised to discover that she had developed an ear infection. Usually with those, kids run high fevers. We were really blessed that so far she hadn't presented with one. He prescribed a shot of relatively strong antibiotics to hopefully knock out the infection before the fever came. And she is taking oral antibiotics twice a day in her bottle now. She seems to be feeling some better. At least she is eating and breathing better now. The doctor told us that she was throwing up as a result of the pain in her ear. It has been difficult to tell if she was hurting or not because she is such a good baby that she almost never cries. She has 7 days worth of antibiotics left to take, and then hopefully everyone will be bake to normal. I'm looking forward to getting some much needed/deserved rest. I haven't truly slept in three weeks!

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Dance and Cheer the Sniffles Away!


Well, despite the fact that my kids still had the sniffles, against my better judgement I allowed them to go trick-or-treating anyway. (Honestly, I just didn't want to hear them whine for days about how I didn't let them go when they've been looking forward to it all month! LOL) It turned out fine though. Princess dressed up as a ballerina, and she got to wear her costume to Kindergarten. I went to school with her to help out with her class's party. All the kids had a blast. I got some great pictures! I was one tired Mommy after helping all the 3 and 4 year olds at her school play the "Buried Treasure" game. There was a sandbox filled with sand and hidden prizes. Each child got a turn with a plastic shovel to dig for one buried treasure each. My job was to try and keep everything IN the sandbox, ensure that the kids didn't get greedy and get more than their share, or throw sand on the other kids, etc. Afterwards, we came home, ate lunch, and took a nap! Then it was time to get Princess (the ballerina) and Bugga-Bugga (who was a cheerleader) back into their costumes. (Baby Bug declined to dress-up this year...mainly because she was too little for the newborn costumes!) Alan and I took the girls to my grandmother's house and parked in her driveway so that we could go trick-or-treating around her neighborhood. I know just about everyone in her neighborhood and that is the most popular area for trick-or-treating in our town. We went about 5:00...as soon as it started to get dark because I didn't want the girls to be out long or to get cold. There is a big circle and a smaller circle in that area, and we just went around the smaller one. Probably visited about 10 houses or so, and then went back to my grandmother's where she was waiting on the girls with a bag of pumpkin shaped sugar cookies for each of them. They had a good time, and so far no one is any worse for the exposure to the weather.