This Summer's Challenges

This has not been the summer I'd envisioned! It started out fine, but then the sickies started.



Kathryn started with a little cold. She got over that quickly without any disruption of any summer plans. Then Ryan got a cold, which turned into a cough, which turned into some upper respiratory infection. I held off going to the doctor thinking he would turn the corner any day. It never did, so we finally paid a visit to the dr. After his round of antibiotics, he's well. Thank the Lord. Now Emily has the cough and I have it as well! We've both been up the past two nights hacking away. Hopefully, it won't get worse.

Before the summer started, I bought four swim passes so we could hang out at the pool. Since people are getting sick, we haven't been able to use the passes as much I as thought we would. We haven't been sightseeing as much as I wanted to, but we are still managing to have some fun, even if its just playing around with sidewalk chalk, puttering in the garden, or just making up games.

Ah, such is life. It's what happens when we're busy making other plans.

During this busy time, I've been scarce in the blogosphere, but I hope I can catch up with all of you soon! I'm embarrassed to say my reader has over 500 posts and I may just have to press the dreaded, Mark All As Read!!

Monday

Ryan was sick this weekend with a stomach bug. The school called me Thursday to say that he had thrown up so off I went to go pick him up. Once home, he was queasy for the rest of the day, got a fever, but didn't throw up any more, even though he was close to doing it a couple of times. The rest of the weekend, he slowly started to feel a little more normal, but still had a little stomach crampiness. I kept him home today as I didn't want him to have a relapse and miss his class Thanksgiving party tomorrow.

Our Thanksgiving will be a little nontraditional this year. Every year we go to my brother's house and this year will be the same. However, this year we well forgo the turkey and eat BBQ burgers! My kids were like, "Huh? No turkey?" I actually don't mind that we won't be having the turkey. My brother and sister-in-law are both having a particularly stressful/busy year at school (they both teach) and this will be one less thing to stress over. We don't need the picture perfect Thanksgiving. Just sharing the meal will be what counts.

I probably will still buy a turkey. We love the leftovers!

After Thanksgiving I will begin to think about Christmas. I need to make out my lists of things to do and buy. But first, I need to dig out my Advent wreath. That will probably be tricky as it's not where I thought it was. I have the candles, but not the wreath.

Weather wise, it's finally getting cold around here. We've been having lots of warm weather and I was beginning to wonder if we would ever see the Fall. I guess we'll have a short Fall and head right into Winter. We are expecting rain tonight or tomorrow. I hope it comes and is not a false report. I love being home when it's raining cats and dogs.

That's it for now!

Weekend Update (the previous one - hee hee)

Aside from the usual sporting activities, we (the whole family) made a trip to a nice library in the city next to us. It's a nice, new huge one. The kids had a ball. They have a wonderful children's section with lots of computers and even a few for younger kids that are already loaded with learning programs. Even 3 yr old Emily could play some toddler games and listen to stories. There were a couple of tables with wooden puzzles that little ones like to play with. Plenty of kids DVD's, CD's, and books on tape/CD. And of course, a wonderful section of books! I would have loved this when I was a kid!

I didn't get a chance to take a peek at the adult books, but I'll get around to it when I can get away by myself. Oh yeah, and this library has self-checkout! It's very interesting how I can just lay some books on this square thingie, and through the magic of radio waves (so said the librarian), it can "read" what books I'm checking out and print out all the information on a little receipt! When I return books, I put them in a slot in the wall and a conveyor belt takes them and automatically sorts them into the proper bin for shelving. You can see the whole procedure on a computer screen. I am quite impressed!

My Emily had a tough weekend. On Saturday, she was being pulled in a wagon by Kathryn, in the kitchen no less, and started to get up while it was starting to move and fell out of it, hitting her chin on the floor. I thought she was going to have some broken teeth because all I saw was her face hitting the floor. She made it through with no broken teeth but a badly bruised chin. It got really red, but no skin was cut. Then on Sunday at church, while busily talking with Ryan, she tripped on the steps and hit her forehead on the edge of one of the steps. I could actually hear it making contact. Steve picked her up, she was crying so hard, and right away a big lump appeared right above her eye. Thank God nothing happened to her eye. We kept a real close watch on her to make sure she was acting normal, we asked her questions and she was able to answer them correctly. She was bruised, but again, no major gashes or anything like that. Then, later on that day, she's running (I guess she was feeling good) from the hallway into the living room and falls again, this time right on her tailbone, but thankfully it's only an inconvenience for a minute or two and she's OK. My word, her guardian angel has been working overtime!
I'm just glad I didn't have to make any trips to the emergency room. I would've hated to be placed under a cloud of suspicion because of all her recent injuries!
Now, she's just a little black on her eyelid and mostly has that yellow tinge that comes after some bad bruises.

I finally finished watching Gone With the Wind. I really enjoyed it. I loved the Scarlett character, even though she was so spoiled and selfish. I have the book somewhere in my bookshelf. I'll have to dust it off and read it sometime.
Now it's back to watching The Waltons. I never saw it when it was originally on TV so I've started with Season One. I haven't made up my mind yet about whether I really like it enough to rent the other seasons, but I guess I like it enough to finish this first one.

Regarding my trees, my plan is to first talk with my gardener. Maybe he has some suggestions. Maybe they need more water or some pruning. If he doesn't know, I'll ask at the nursery. Then as my last resort, I'll call the city again. Since the trees are on the parkway and that's considered city property or something like that, they're the ones that would have to do any pruning or tree care taking.

I think you are now all caught up with things going on in my household! Thanks for visiting!

Around the House

Sick germs are around this house today. The flu is making its way.

Ryan started it with a fever in the middle of the night on Tuesday. He was feverish most of the day on Wednesday but by Thursday was feeling better. Now he just has the cold symptoms and feels well enough to torment his sisters!

Then last night, Emily started with the fever and a sore throat. I was mentally prepared to be up most of the night with her, but surprisingly, she slept pretty well. She had a slight fever throughout the day but it got higher by the evening. She does not like her grape flavored acetaminophen so this morning I had to crush it all up and put it in her oatmeal. She ate a little of it but not enough to get the full amount of medicine. So tonight I went and bought some bubblegum flavored medicine and by the time I got back from the drugstore, she had fallen asleep. When she awakened briefly, she refused the medicine again. So, I don't know how she's going to sleep tonight. Hopefully, the fever will break.

So, with all that, I'm just trying to keep up with the laundry and dishes! Hopefully, no one else will get sick.

We have no plans for this weekend other that puttering around the house and tending to the sick ones. We'll see what comes up!

Blessings to you all!

Christmas Program

Ryan's Christmas program at school went well. Everyone in his class played angels and they sang a few original Christmas songs as well as Silent Night. If I must say so myself, he looked so handsome up there and he had the biggest smile on his face the whole time. I think he loves performing. I didn't get to take many pictures because we were so far back from the stage and it was a little dark at times during the performances.

This is how far we were. Actually, if I zoom into this picture, I can find Ryan. He's about the sixth child from the right, next to the girl with the dress with the dark sleeves. Can you find him? You can just make out a speck of dark hair! Sorry, I don't know how to make the picture zoom in when you click on it.

Emily was very well behaved. She made it until about three minutes until the end of the program. Then she'd had enough and wanted to wander away. I think she did quite well.

Here she is being occupied with my pocket calendar.

I've been kind of tired lately. I'm still coughing at night and Ryan has had a cough as well. If it's not me coughing, it's his coughing waking me up. His is getting better, but I'm still at it. Hopefully, it will be on it's way out soon.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, or just doing this and that. I actually wasted a little time when I went for my hair appointment and realized as I was sitting in the waiting area that my appointment was the following week! That was a little embarrassing, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's done that!

During the next few days, I hope to shop a little bit more for some of the things left for the kids before they start their Christmas vacation on Wednesday. Steve also starts a much needed vacation on Thursday, then we can do some fun things with the kids. I pray no one else gets sick!

Goings On

I've been dealing with sick kids, again. But, isn't that the way it is when you're a mom. Ryan is over his ear infection. Emily seems to be over her cold. Kathryn looks like she's getting over her case of the hives.

Sunday night, she was complaining that she was itchy. I put some anti-itch cream and sent her to bed. She awakened me in the middle of the night and said she was itchy all over. Upon turning the light on, I saw that she was covered in hives! Luckily I had some over the counter allergy medication. She's been taking it for the past 2 days as the hives keep reappearing. Today was the first day without it and they seem to have stopped. Thank the Lord. Poor thing, she's been miserable with all the itching. If she can stay hive free today, I'll send her back to school tomorrow. I don't have any idea about what may have caused it. Perhaps a yogurt drink that she started drinking for the first time? Ryan had the same thing happen about two years ago. When I took him to the doctor about it, he said that sometimes we just don't know how they get it. It eventually clears up. It took Ryan about a week for them to finally clear up.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Ryan had a little accident at the park last Friday. He ran into the park apparatus and required 4 staples to his little head! He was so brave in the emergency room. Thank God that it wasn't as bad as it could have been! His guardian angel must have taken the brunt of it!