Healthy, Healthy, Healthy......Sick

Sunday I woke up sick. You don't it suppose it was from comforting my 2 kids and having them cough in my face for the past 2 weeks? At any rate, life goes on because I'm the mom and I don't get sick days in my line of work. Yesterday, Mike came home early to re-do the dog kennel because we discovered the dog has been eating rocks. (Mike built him a little deck) Here is what I remember. I picked the kids up from school, we went outside, we came in and had a snack, I laid down........I woke up to find no kids. I walk outside and the kids are out on the trampoline with Mike. I inform Mike I'm taking the Nyquil and laying down. At some point everyone is back inside and Mike tells me to go lay down in the Mason's bedroom. (Apparently he doesn't like listening to me hack all night). Mike wakes me up, it's 8:30am and I've been sleeping for over 14 hours. To be honest, I could probably go right back to sleep as I'm still sick. I have to admit the sleep was well, GLORIOUS. I love my kids but I do miss sleep.

Beware of the Tiger

Creative kids at work

We went to Deanna's Playhouse because Ms. Arts is now there and they painted pumpkins. Mia has been begging me to let her paint her pumpkin (she was adamant she didn't want to carve this year) and I kept putting her off because I didn't want to deal with the mess. Thank you Ms. Arts! The kids love playing at the playhouse but I don't go all that often because of the cost and their hours (10-3). Ms. Arts kept the playhouse open until 5pm and told me she'll open the playhouse earlier if I want.... just call her. I just may do that for the Moms group sometime. We've talked about going there more but when they open at 10am and most people had to leave by 11-ish to pick up a child at preschool.... well it just wasn't worth the $5 admission for an hour. Yes, they charge the parents too. I digress. We had a great time. This was after a great time at my friend's house for a playdate. The kids had a full day. They still have a cough now and then but I think they're non-contagious and on their way to being healthy.

I couldn't believe the concentration of the creative minds. I will be definitely be going back and taking advantage of creativeness that is not in my own home.

Oh, and just to note Mason was in the car for about 6 hours today and kept his pants dry. I'm so happy I could cry.

Through wheeze and cough..... he stayed dry

When Mason first got sick I went back to putting Pull-ups on him for fear he just won't be able to control himself. He amazingly still kept the Pull-up dry and told me when he had to go potty. He had been dry for over two weeks so I think he is officially "potty-trained". However, due to being sick there was a lot of whining and stubbornness today. There was also a moment of blatant peeing on the floor (literally 4 feet away from the potty) because he was mad at me. Where or where do my kids get that mule-like stubbornness?

ER on Wednesday night

Took Mason to the doctor yesterday and got sent straight to the ER for a breathing treatment and steroids. On the plus side, Mason did sleep all night. Sure there were some coughing fits and a slight wheeze but I got some sleep. Not a lot of sleep but some. I sure hope today plays out better.

Out of curiosity I googled "Christie Phillips". This is #1 on the list that pops up: http://www.christiephilips.com/. I think it's funny that she's Asian too.

Vacation plans: Mike is contemplating Disneyworld. Now to see if we can pull it off.

The start of Day 7

Yesterday Mason's fever disappeared and I thought we were on the road to recovery. I let my guard down and of course I was ambushed. At around dinnertime the fever came back and it was the worst night yet. So today we will be visiting the doctor to make sure it's just croup and hasn't progressed into pneumonia. It's just horrible when your kid seems like he's struggling to breathe and nothing you do helps. Of course, he seems better during the day but just when the doctor's office closes....that's when the bad stuff happens. So you struggle with, "is it bad enough to go to the ER?". I feel like I'm going to lose my mind as I just can't get a break. Even when Mike is home and tries to help me out.....sick kids just want their mama.

I guess the kids are taking care of my "overbooking" our week as I've had to cancel most everything this week. I did drag Mason to school to get his pictures done and he even smiled. I can't wait to see the pictures back. I'm really impressed with Miss Patti the photographer as Mia has always had really good pictures and she took pictures of Mason, Mason & Mia, and Mia in about 10 minutes with smiles.

Day 5: the virus is still controlling our lives

Mia was well enough to go to school today, Mason not.

I feel like I'm writing this blog as some kind of war journal. I'm in front of my computer typing and a few feet over in my bed is Mason. I hear the steady wheeze in the background that's interrupted now and then with coughing, barking and crying. I feel like I'm hunkered down in a bunker listening to outside artillery coming from the enemy. I'm exhausted but yet still think of all the stuff I "have to do" ie. laundry, housecleaning, etc. Thinking about makes me more tired yet every time I cave in and lie down to go to sleep.....the enemy strikes.

This is one of those weeks that I have overplanned myself. Lots of places to go, people to see.......and I don't know if I'll get to do any of it. So to you on the outside with no kids or healthy kids, Live your life! Live it for me and then tell me all about it so that I might live vicariously through others.

Boo!

We've been boo'ed twice. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about....

It starts the first week of October and there is a knock at the door, no one is there, and boo! You've got candy. A bag/box/plate of Halloween treats from an anonymous neighbor rests on the stoop. The kids are excited, the parents... um not so much but we still eat the treats, and then Mom starts to stress because that basket means one thing:You've been boo'ed. Now, you have to boo two of your neighbors, too. Next comes the work of passing on the boo. There is the ghost to trace onto poster-board, the basket to buy and fill with treats - and this cannot be candy corn. It requires a trip to the store for some "good" treats and heaven help you if the person who boo'ed you upped the ante and actually used the oven.

Up to $45 later (slight overstatement), it seems being boo'ed has become a bit of a bother but you can't blow off the boo for fear of being un-neighborly. Did I mention the part where since the kids are little it requires us to ring the doorbell and run away. That's the part I hate the most. I would gladly walk over a treat to a neighbors house but now you want me creeping around the neighborhood like a juvenile delinquent pulling pranks. I swear from now on, I'm targeting the neighbors that don't have kids to spread the fun around (insert evil laugh).

Today, Mia getting better.... Mason just getting full swing into being sick.

So falls the other shoe

As predicted the other child started "barking" earlier this evening. Mia has been running a fever for the past two days so I'm guessing Mason will not be going to school Monday. I was supposed to co-host a craft night at the church tonight but stayed home so Mike wasn't overwhelmed with sick kids.

I did try another new recipe from the Kraft magazine today. We didn't like it too much. Every recipe I have tried from the various Kraft magazines.... we haven't liked. Is it just us? Has anyone tried their recipes and liked them?

The bark of the seal

After a really long day, Mike and I were awakened last night by the "bark of the seal". Yes, that's right Mia has croup. For the first time ever she stayed in bed until noon. Usually when the kids get sick they are up and at 'em as soon as the medicine kicks in. It was a little odd to actually see her staying in bed. Mason, however, shows no signs of being sick yet so he's terribly bored. Should make for a fun weekend.

Supermodel

I had decided earlier that this would be the last year that I have the kid's with the modeling agency. It's just not worth it for the amount of work they get, the finding a babysitter for the other child and taking them out of school to do it. Mason had a job yesterday again so I was a little excited that he gets one last chance of making an ad. (In the past they've always gone with the other children or pulled the merchandise that was supposed to appear in the ad). Well, as always there was another child as a "backup". I would be really surprised if they use him in the ad. At first he wouldn't smile. Then he kept scratching the back of his neck (he does have a bug bite there). Followed by the hand in the mouth and some weird tongue thing. He was with a "fake family" with red Christmas presents. The ad will be Dec 19th. for Meijer I'm pretty sure though it won't be him. Other than the actual pictures he was really well behaved.

When I came home Mia was super clingy and whiny. It was as if she was mad about Mason and I "doing" something without her. I keep telling her when her hair gets long enough we'll go do some girl stuff just the two of us. She has about another inch to go and then her hair will be long enough to donate to "locks of love". I figure will make a girl day out of it. Now what constitutes a "girl" day with a 4 year old?

Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007 with Subtitles

Unbelievable Good, Unbelievable Bad

The Good- It has been over a week now since Mason has had an accident. He has been wearing underwear during the day and a pull-up at night. Even his pull-up has been dry in the morning. Dare I get excited now? Too late, I'm there already. Of course, I now spend my days in the bathroom while he "finishes up" and I'm still wiping his butt but my days of diapers may be gone.

The Bad- the Miss Teen South Carolina clip. I also saw a clip of her on Good Morning America and she is planning on going to Appalachian State University. My opinion of that school just went down if that's possible.

A weekend in Manistee

We left Holland Friday evening and headed north to see the in-laws. Mike wanted to Duck hunt (no ducks shot), the kids wanted to swim and it's our last chance to see Mike's parents before they migrate to Florida for the winter. It's always interesting to be here to see the genes that have been passed down. Mike's Dad will say something or give a look and I think, "AHA, that's where he got it."
Good weekend for football with both LSU and Cal loosing. Here in the Ohio State household they have mixed feelings. They're excited that things have been shaken up but don't like the #1 rating that is sure to come. Michigan and OSU both tend to choke when given that pressure of a #1 rating. It's been Michigan's MO to lose a game to a "non-ranked" team and then win the rest of the season, even the OSU game just to mess up the Big Ten standings even more. Of course, usually not to a "nobody's heard of you school" and not lose twice in a row. I don't have those hopes this year.
Anyway, back to the grind later tonight.

SNL - United Way

Peyton Manning is funny

Lots of daily stuff to write about but it doesn't really strike me as noteworthy. Mike and I saw this on SNL a few months ago and just cracked up. We watch SNL about half the time and there is a handful of clips that are great.

Hope this gives you a laugh today.

My Store

I looked around for a little bit and was debating doing an on-line store. I've had a couple people ask..... So I found a free one and have begun setting it up http://miasmamma.flyingcart.com/. I didn't tell anyone so I was taking my time. Some things are a little screwed up but I figured I'll take my time setting it up and then telling people. Well, I actually got an order last night. That's CRAZY! How did they find me. This site is free for 10 products and 3 transactions a month. If I actually get more I may actually have to upgrade to pay for the site. Didn't really see that coming.The other thing I don't like about the site is that I don't have a way to set the quantity of my stock. So if everybody tries to order the same thing, I'm screwed. If anyone has a better site, let me know. Yes, I do know about Etsy shop but you have to pay fees just like Ebay.
So today, I actually have an order to fill. I'm big business now baby.

High Flying Soccer Action

Lauren in action, Mason the engrossed spectator, Grandpa the professional photographer, and Mo the team manager doing official soccer business with binder in hand.

Lauren's team won 2-1 with Lauren scoring both goals showing us all why she made the Varsity team as a freshman. (she's a sophomore now and this is a league team not the school's). It was almost 90 degrees for the past week and today is forecasted at 88. This is Michigan in October, CRAZY!

Saturday

Saturday started out with the Fire Truck parade. Which was really nice. I thought it was going to be loud but it was not in the least. Definitely family friendly.

After the parade we walked down to the Farmer's Market.

This is Mia walking back from the Farmer's Market. As you can see she decided to wear her fairy dress (from her dress-up trunk). People would say, "Oh, look at the cute butterfly!". She would give the evil eye as she says she is "Fairy Princess Barbie". Duh!

I have not been fighting her on her outfit changes for the most part. Last Friday she went to the library as Jasmine. I figure she doesn't have that much longer before it's socially unacceptable to parade around in costume everyday might as well live it up now. She was a little grumpy and asked us why people kept looking at her so I guess it's a relief that she's not dressing up for the attention.

Mike and I went to Perredies restaurant last night and had a great night out. We ordered our first BOTTLE of wine since we've had the kids and had no problem finishing it. I had to go to the bathroom at the restaurant and got in line behind some guy to wait. It seemed to take forever and I almost said to the guy, "If it takes this long, I probably don't want to go in" to be funny. A girl comes out of the bathroom and the guy turns to me and says, "you can go in, I was just waiting for her". I saw them later holding hands at the bar. I wonder what he would have said back to me.

He's cool. He's clean. He's a love machine.

When you shop the clearance rack at Target this is the kind of stylin' outfit you get. T-shirt and shorts together=less than $5. If he grows up to say stuff like, " Listen, I was wandering. Can I ask you a question? Uh... was your father a meat burgler? Here's why I ask: because it looks like somebody stole two fine hams and shoved them down the back of your dress. " you know his mother was a huge influence in his toddlerhood.

Pedicure

Today was the first "kid swap" day. Me and two of my friends started a kid swap. We each take a turn watching all the kids while the other two moms get some alone time. This was Mike's idea to help keep my sanity. He does have good ideas now and then. So between 3 moms (and 6 kids) you have 1 turn of watching kids and 2 turns of free time. Love it! So today, I went and got that pedicure that I've been talking about FOREVER. I also decided to step out of my normal conservative color choice and had the toes painted bright pink. Well a little darker tone so that it wouldn't look tacky but brighter than I've ever done. I figure it's so rarely done, why not go with a "notice my feet" color. Mia noticed. Now she's bugging me to do her nails too.
Last night my niece called and volunteered her babysitting services Saturday night:) She said the catch is that I have to take her to her soccer game (also in Holland) Sunday. Some catch since we like to go see her play when she's in our area anyway. The big test will be to see how much Mike and I can actually converse about that's not centered around our children. It's hard to believe we were ever individual people since I can't seem to talk for 5 minutes now without bringing up something about the kids. I'm looking forward to a dinner for two.

Bed Drama

So after looking around for the "perfect bed" for Mia's room. Mike and I found one at a local store we liked but it came with this additional chair mattress that we didn't like. They wouldn't sell them separately so we decided to get the loft bed at Ikea. So to sum up I looked for months, went to the furniture store 2 weekends (2nd visit) ago and finally went to Ikea last Saturday. Monday I see the bed we wanted on Craigslist. I called her up and she said someone else was coming to take it. Last night she called me up and said the other person backed out so we went and got it. It was the same price as what we bought the new bed at Ikea for but it included the mattress and desk. I have to go back to Ikea anyway so taking the bed back shouldn't be a huge deal. It's just funny how the timing on things work. Last night was the first night in weeks that we didn't have children in our bed at 3am. I hope the novelty of the new bed buys me some good sleep for awhile.

The return of Bela

Mia has had this cat purse for at least a year now. It was something she wanted at the store at the time that she didn't get but had to have. After bugging us every waking moment for it we eventually went back to the store to get it. She named it Isabela (calls it Bela for short) which was such a coincidence since our neighbors adopted a daughter that they named Isabela (also called Bela for short). The last time I had seen Bela she was sitting on Mia's lap in the car on the way back from the airport in May (Florida trip). She has been lost since.

Two weeks ago I noticed Mia playing with a little stuffed cat that I had never seen before. I started questioning her about it and even though she insisted she bought it from the store we eventually got the truth out of her. She stole it and ripped the tags off because she knew I wouldn't let her have it. We've had discussion about the stolen cat, it will not be staying with us. When Mike was talking to her about "why" and "how bad" it is to steal, she broke down sobbing. "I just miss my Bela cat sooo much". So being the saps that we are we found the same cat on Ebay and when we returned Sunday night had our neighbor put Bela in front of the door, ring the doorbell and run away. (The picture is a re-enactment) So when Mia ran down to see who was at the door she found Bela there. (Thanks Niki, Mia was sooo happy). She keeps talking about how God brought Bela back home and even wanted to thank him during grace at dinner. She said she's going to make God a card:)

We're waiting to hear if Bela has had any good stories about where she's been all this time.

My weekend away

Well to add to all the good times I had last week, the fun never stopped. Friday I woke up and could swear I was about to have a heart attack. I rarely get heart burn so I called Mike at work and told him I'll take some medicine but to call me every so often in case I do have a heart attack. I didn't want the kids to be alone the whole day should I keel over. A little later I decided to do our weekly library run, buckled the kids in the car and realized I forgot a book that was due and ran back in the house. As I'm running around I run my knee right into the corner of the coffee table. It hurt so bad it dropped me to the floor and I almost blacked out. (My knee seemed fine the rest of the weekend, Thanks for the concern). We come back from the library and I decide that since we'll be gone all weekend I better mow the grass now. You can imagine how Mike was when he called multiple times with no answer and comes home to find me mowing the grass. Yeah, I see his point. I tell him to call because I think I may have a heart attack and then am no where near the phone. To my credit he should be happy that I think I may have heart attack and still go out and mow the lawn.

I pack up my and the kids clothes and put the bag on the bed so Mike can add stuff. Didn't realize he was packing his own bag so you can imagine how happy I was when we arrived in Sis-in-law 3's (yes that's her given name) to find my bag was never put in the truck. So me and the kids have nothing and have a fun Target clearance shopping spree Sat. morning.

I did make it to Ikea though Sat afternoon and bought Mia's loft bed. Of course everything else I wanted was out of stock so I'll have to make another trip over sometime.

Ikea

Today in Kindermusik with Mason I hear a click sound from my knee and the pain has returned. I'm having a really hard time getting up and down the stairs and with walking in general. I am due for some great luck.