bad poetry, cute kids

Little B has learned so much,

He knows his ABC's and such.

He's been growing all the year through,

and now there isn't anything he can't do -

HAPPY PRESCHOOL GRADUATION LITTLE MAN!

Cast no more!

rough, awkward, heavy, stiff

helping bones heal

PINK

STINK

two weeks, too long

hurray, now the cast is gone!

See me?

See my nose,

my eyes, my throat?

runny, weepy, sore

my ears, ouchie ears,

doctor checks

now I take antibiotics

who's next?

The sickies -

Baby has another ear infection. Her last round of antibiotics concluded at the end of March. Three weeks later and WHAMO another ear infection. This is her third round of antibiotics in less than 40 days. What is it with my kids and ear infections?!

S is sick too - yucky nose and cough and throwing up. Not fun. Now he is on antibiotics as well.

Little B has the cough and runny nose - hopefully it won't get worse.

G is on antibiotics - he had the same cold and developed an ear infection as well. He also had a major asthma attack. It was in the middle of the night and even though it was scary (he was really struggling to breathe) I felt totally calm and in control. I took him straight to the bathroom and turned on the shower to get some steam and asked my husband to administer a priesthood blessing. Then we got out the nebulizer and started some albuterol. The power of the priesthood never ceases to amaze me. By morning, G had no asthmatic symptoms at all. Nor has he had the constant coughing or drippy nose that my other kids have had.

Boo has a cough and runny nose and stayed home from school on Monday.

A is starting in on a cough and runny nose. I'll probably be next.

I feel like I am living in a germ cess pool. I have company coming tomorrow. I am going to spend the day sanitizing my house!

Misery Update

Despite our runny noses, coughs and headaches, we managed to have a nice weekend.

Thursday night, A received his Duty to God advancement. Great job son!

My DH and A went to see the new Star Trek movie. I think they had a good time male bonding.

On Saturday, the kids put the sprinkler under the trampoline and had a great time enjoying the nice warm weather.

Sunday afternoon, we took a family drive to Iosepa. Once home to over 200 Polynesian members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is now a Ghost Town.The gnats were almost unbearable even with bug spray. Who knew those tiny things could bite like that?!
We located a couple of Geocaches and spent a great deal of time trying to catch tadpoles at Horseshoe Springs. We brought home 5 of the little guys. Anyone know what tadpoles eat?

Misery Loves Company

Here's how this goes - I'll tell you my woes and then you tell me yours. C'mon, it'll be fun. At least writing them down will be somewhat cathartic and then we can move on.

I went to the doctor today. I'm sick. I'm coughing and it hurts every time I cough. It hurts my chest, my throat, and the muscles in my very pregnant belly! My DH is sick (strep throat) and several of my kids are sick too. It's hard to be sympathetic and care for them when I feel so miserable and just want to hide in my bed for the next few days.

Add to this my visit to the OB/GYN on Tuesday. I hate that scale! I don't have a scale at home (because I would obsess about it) and weighing myself every two weeks is just more than I can handle. For those of you sitting there saying "Oh, Julie, you do not need to worry about gaining weight" I say, I feel like a big fat cow! I've already surpassed my weight gain from the last 4 pregnancies! Also, my feet, ankles, and hands have begun swelling. On Tuesday it hurt so bad I couldn't stand up to cook dinner. Luckily it hasn't gotten that bad since.

You'd think that the last few weeks of school would be relaxing and fun, but nooooo! My 13 year old is working hard to finish up home school, my daughter Boo has a project due next week that is worth 50% of her grade, then there's "Author's Night" next week the kids are writing books for, and with all of these colds going around, they've missed some of their state standardized testing which will have to be made up next week as well. Enough already!

Thanks for listening (reading). My kids have a book about a mouse who has a really bad day and is complaining to his mother about it. His mother tells him that "It could have been worse" and the illustrations show that the mouse was in mortal danger from a snake, a fox, and an owl and the bad things that happened that day actually saved him from being eaten. I know that things could be worse, I just needed to vent.

Your turn -

Musings and ramblings of a mom

Yesterday was quite a day. My neighbor's one year old has been sick for a week with strep throat and some viral thing that has caused him to lose weight and become dehydrated and weak. She took him to the hospital yesterday morning. Little did she know that they would keep him (and her) overnight. Meanwhile, I stayed home with her children and my own sick 2 year old. I finally decided to take mine to the doctor and learned that my little S has RSV. Fortunately it hasn't gotten into his lungs and so his blood oxygen levels are fine. He'll be contagious for a week though. I am keeping a low profile anyways because of my thyroid, so staying home with him won't be a problem. I'm just hoping that these little boys (mine and my neighbors) get better quickly. They are so sad and miserable it is heartbreaking.

Last night my kids participated in the Science Fair. It was so much fun to help them with their projects. They learned so much and were so pleased with what they had accomplished. I stayed home with S and DH took pictures.

During the night, little B was coughing pretty badly. Then G woke me up complaining that his ear and neck hurt. Probably an ear infection. We just pass around the germs in our house. I do wipe down all the doorknobs and counter tops. It doesn't seem to matter how much I disinfect, everyone gets sick anyways.

I can't wait until winter (sickness) is over and we can play outdoors and go for walks to the park. My friends in Arizona and California who are reading this - I'm jealous of you.

Suspended

I've been suspended in a time warp of sorts. My life as I knew it has changed dramatically in the last few weeks. For one thing, I can no longer sit up at the computer and enjoy reading blogs and catching up on emails. This little blog post was made possible by a sweet hubby who lent me his laptop for the evening. I hate typing on this thing because the keyboard doesn't have the right feel to it, but it was nice just to be able to log on so I'm not going to complain.

In the past week I asked the primary to find a substitute for me for the next month. I called the school and told them I wouldn't be volunteering for awhile. I didn't make it to church on sunday (my husband took the five kids by himself - yes he is a saint!) I bailed on book club, enrichment, and teaching preschool this week. I canceled piano lessons for the kids and completely forgot about scouts this week.

I have been here before though. This is not a new place for me. It happened about 5 years ago in Colorado when I was pregnant with litte "B". I didn't know then why I couldn't walk across the room without feeling winded and why I had to eat every 90 minutes or I might pass out. I couldn't understand the exhaustion and sickness until an intuitive nurse midwife had my thyroid checked. I had hyperthyroidism (aka-Grave's disease). I was devastated. I didn't know what my future was going to be like with this debilitating disease, but I knew I didn't like it. Fortunately, in my 5th month, it went into remission and never came back, that is until now. I don't know why it didn't crop up with my last pregnancy, but here we are again, sick, pregnant, and with hyperthyroidism.

I don't mean to be pessimistic or anything. There are many great things to look forward to. For one, at the end of all this, I get to have a baby! I'm not worried about the delivery (I'm a pro now) the last delivery lasted all of 16 minutes! I'm pretty sure that my thyroid problems will go into remission again like last time, and I also have a feeling this one is a girl! Also, my husband is motivated now to get the basement finished. So lots of blessings on their way, I am just trying to get through this rough spot.

Thanks to friends and family who have helped us out so far. I feel useless these days. My kids are taking care of themselves or are being taken care of by kind friends and family. Love you guys.