Bronchitis and Two Fevers...

After I've been buried alive for weeks on end due to work, I surface to find that my oldest daughter has bronchitis. The same day she gets seen by the dr for that, her younger sister and youngest brother both start running fevers that same night. Bekah was actually a good sick person...she basically just rolled over and went back to sleep after I checked her. Adam, on the other hand, was a different story. He started babbling about midnight and didn't stop until about 4am. At one point his temp was 102.5 so I think he was babbling out of delirium, poor boy. ;) Both are doing fine today although Adam's temp is starting to climb again so not sure what the night will bring. Not sure I can handle another sleepless night, especially with having to go to work in the morning.

Monday Already

And for once, I'm okay with that. Today was Keari's follow up appt with her pediatrician which I was anxious for. We talked about how 60% of lyme cases never see a tick or have a rash. He was pleased with her range of motion in her knees...she has full range so should not have any after affects from the Lyme Arthritis. He emphasized us keeping an eye out for the pain returning, complaints from her regarding other joints or change in fatigue level. If that starts to occur...her meds might need changing. She running a low grade fever which he says is normal. Her knees are still slightly swollen and I'll be interested in what the orthopedic dr has to say when she sees him on Wednesday.

Tomorrow I'll be back in the office for the first time in a week. Of course, I still don't have my computer fixed so not quite sure what I'll be working on there. Guess I'll find out when I get there.

Tonight was a busy night...Ty had karate, Bekah and Tay had dance.

Family Time

The day started with soccer practice for Bekah. More of her teammates showed up for this practice so it was better than last weeks. And what a gorgeous morning for practice...nicet temp and no humidity. Afterwards, we came home to eat lunch although I got distracted by all the mess on the floor which set me off. Ever have one of those days where just the littlest thing can send you over the edge? Mine today was seeing paper on the hallway floor that kids had been stepping over for a week. It drives me nuts and I can't figure out how to get them to understand that if they kept things picked up as they went along, keeping the house clean would not be a big production. After much lecturing...or more aptly ranting, everyone finished lunch and then everyone headed their separate ways...mainly I think to escape having to listen to me complaining at them more. Alex headed outside to cut the grass while most of the others kids headed out to wash the cars. I went down to fold clothes, a nice quiet by myself task...which lead to putting my clothes away...which lead to cleaning out my drawers because I couldn't get everything to fit...which lead to cleaning out our closet to enable the drawer spillover to have a place to reside...which lead to straightening up the entire bedroom. Sheeze, how did one small task of folding laundry mushroom into something bigger?

After dinner, since it was still so nice out, we decided to talk a walk around Ferry Point Park. The kids have been before but this was my first time. It's really pretty there, a nice oyster shell trail along the water with benches and picnic tables scattered along the way. I told Andy we'd have to come back and bring a lunch next time. Below are some pics of our walk...

Connor acting goofy ;)

Trying to decide which path to take, right or left. Kenzie wants to go left because it's shorter...Connor's heading right to the longer path. We ended up going right.

Connor enjoying the view

Andy and the kids going off path around the point

Brotherly love

Watching the sun go down as we wait for the others to return from their off path adventure

Awesome view of the Narrows from a tower that is adjacent to the parking lot where we'd parked the van

Quiet

That's how I thought today was going to be. I didn't think we had anything planned for today so thought it would be a pretty laid back, lazy kind of day which for the most part it was. It turns out that Bekah had her first soccer practice of the year this morning. Since it was a beautiful morning, not sweltering likes it's been most morning, we all decided to go to the field to hang out while she practiced. I can't say it was much of a practice when only one of her teammates showed up but that tends to be how things are at this time of year, especially for the 4-5yr old age group. When they were done practicing, we came home, ate lunch, made some banana bread...yum.

Everything was going well until early afternoon when Adam decided to fall head first off Keari's tricycle. He ended up scraping his chin and cut two gashes, inside and out, with his teeth just below his lip line. Poor thing...and he sure didn't want the dr looking inside his mouth to see if he had bit all the way through. I took him to the urgent care center (which btw has terrible hours for being an urgent care center...I got there at 4:45pm which was 15 minutes before they closed) because I couldn't tell whether he had bit all the way through and whether the gash on the outside needed stitches...it's small but it keeps separating whenever he draws his lip into his mouth. The dr said that he'll have a scar there, that it doesn't need stitches and that he doesn't think he bit all the way through. He going to look pretty rough for awhile, though. He handled things pretty well until it was time to go to bed...daddy usually does that job but tonight he wanted mom...funny how kids want their mom when they aren't feeling well. Andy was able to finally take him but Adam sure wasn't happy about it. I think he settled down fairly quickly after he couldn't see me anymore. Let's hope he sleeps all night...we did give him some tylenol for the pain since we could it was swelling and starting to bruise. Poor thing.

A Day at the Park

Alex had to be in Easton early this morning to help work a yard sale for his missions club. I decided to the little ones to Tuckahoe State Park for the couple of hours that he was working instead of going home. Here's some pics of our time there...

Congested

I have been so congested these last few days. My head hurts, my eyes are scratchy and I just don't feel well in general. I think it's weather related...it's finally gotten cold here and every time there is a change in weather it totally screws up my head.

I went to an IEP meeting for Bekah's speak. It was with the school principle, speech teacher and head of the special ed department. They didn't discuss anything in the meeting that I didn't already know. Basically Bekah has articulation problems with certain letters and while she can say the letters by themselves, when they are in words, she substitutes other sounds for them. She's making improvement but it's slow going at the moment so her teacher is recommending that she continue with her twice a week independent sessions. We tried a couple of sessions with her in with a group of kids but it didn't go well. Her teacher thinks it's because the other kids were older than her and that she was intimidated. She's doing much better now that she's back to individual lessons.

They can make some stupid designs for humidifiers. I bought a new one last night because Adam is starting to sound congested. I set it up in our room and didn't think about it again until Andy came home from softball practice with Kenzie at which point they say that water has leaked out all over the floor. Now that's bad news since our room is carpeted and it was soaked. Talk about being pissed...and I was already feeling crappy so the last thing I wanted to do was to clean up a waterlogged carpet. An hour later, I finally get it dried out. I haven't a clue what happened to cause the humidifier to leak all over the place but this particular humidifier has slits all around the base with just a tiny reservoir to hold the water. If any water comes out of the reservoir it will immediately flow out the holes in the base. I didn't notice this design when I bought the humidifier otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. You can't even touch the thing without having water spill out. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Andy tried testing it to see if he could figure out why it leaked and the container that holds the water ended up breaking so needless to say it got returned this morning as a worthless piece of junk.

Happy Birthday, Bekah!

Today is Bekah's 4th birthday. We started out with cake and presents at home in the morning. Then we set out to go to my sister's house for my nephew's birthday party. We didn't make it very far before discovering that there was an accident on the other side of the bridge that had traffic on our side virtually at a standstill. So back home we went go to wait it out. After waiting 1 1/2hrs, we set out again with better results and we are able to make it to my sister's albiet a little late. It was a beautiful day for an outside party. There's was tons of food of which I ate way to much of.



A cute pooh bear cake for Josh...here's a pic of him enjoying his cake.






My sister made sure that Bekah wouldn't be left out on her big day by getting her a little cake all for herself. She was thrilled. Here's a picture of her enjoying her cake.






And a pic of her sporting her brand new b'day outfit that her aunt and uncle gave her...she loves it!

Afterwards, we ran by Andy's parents for a bit...did presents for Bekah and Keari (Keari's b'day is Friday) and then headed home. All in all, it was a good day.

Our First Sickie

There's been a nasty stomach bug going around and it seems to have finally caught up with Bekah. She started getting sick when I got home from work last night and hasn't stopped since. Now she's so thirsty but everytime she drinks something, it comes right back up. Poor thing.

I wonder how long it'll take to go through the rest of the house. :(

Relaxing Saturday

What better way to spend a lazy Saturday than making cookies with one of your children?

Happy Happy Birthday Birthday!!

Tay & Ty turn 8 today and they are totally excited about it. Because of schedule changes I actually get to be home today which is unusual. That means I got to see my birthday boys first thing in the morning instead of late in the evening which is how it normally works. One of the perks of being the birthday child is you get to choose that nights dinner...and even those these guys are twins, they have different tastes...so we ended up with macaroni & cheese that Ty chose and beefaroni that Tay chose. Hmm, maybe they aren't so very different in tastes. LOL It ended up being night...dinner, then birthday celebration of cake...no ice cream, we forgot to get any. Oops! Presents that consisted of a rip stick...must be nuts on that one...a mini skateboard and lots of books. They seemed to really like their gifts. Then Andy and I had to leave to go to bible study. When we got back, Keari was totally zonked on the sofa. That's always a bad sign because it was only 8:15 and when she takes a nap that late, she never sleeps through the night. I figured I'd give it a shot, though, and picked her up and put her to bed. Much to our surprise she actually slept the entire night.

In addition to b'day stuff, Bekah had a hearing test today. This was to rule out any fluid in the ear problems that could be attributing to her speech issues...she tends to drop the ending sounds of words during normal talk. Turns out, her hearing is completely normal, in fact she has has pretty sensitive hearing so her speech issue are just development delays which will get worked on during her speech classes. Didn't hurt to rule out any other possible problems.

Speech Class

Bekah had another speech class today...I think this makes her third since she transitioned to the new program and new teacher. I'm very thankful that she likes this teacher much, much better than her previous. She actually talks to this one so that is a huge improvement since she was like a little clam with her other one. She's excited because she has her own book into which the teacher puts her homework. She thinks she's such a big girl....going to school with a backpack and a book. LOL

Today is my first of three days working from home this week. Had to switch Bekah's speech class from her normal day on Friday to today because her teacher is going to a conference tomorrow Friday. Tomorrow Bekah has a hearing test at 12:30 to which Andy can't bring any of the other kids. And Friday, I have a conference with Alex's algebra teacher. He ended up with a 79 for his first marking period grade but I'm concerned that his last several test grades have been declining below the C mark. Interested to see if she has any thoughts on how to correct this.

Glue

Last night we had our first experience with getting a cut glued shut instead of getting stitches. I want to know why kids always seem to hurt themselves after hours. Around 9pm last night, Bekah tripped walking up the steps and somehow got two cuts around her eye. By the time I got to her she had blood pouring down her face. Amazing how two small cuts can bleed so much and it sure it a scary sight. You could tell by looking at them that they would need to be stitched to heal right so that prompted a call to the urgent care center. After playing 20 questions with them about where the cuts were located, how big they were, how deep they were they gave us an appt at an office almost 30 miles away stating that they would evaluate her but if the dr didn't feel comfortable with where the cuts were in relation to her eye that we'd have to take her to ER to get them stitched. Thankfully Andy, along with Kenzie took her to the drs, thank goodness as I was dead tired from being up the night before with Kearsyn who still isn't sleeping well. Of course at that point I couldn't have slept anyways but still felt it safer to not have me on the road. Andy said the drs there were great and that Bekah did amazing. She didn't make a peep while they cleaned out the cuts with soap and water. Ouch! Not sure I could have sat there without making a peep. The only time she cried was when they inadvertently glued her eye together a little but Bekah was able to correct that problem herself...her tears dissolved the glue. LOL Here's a few pics of her...think she's a ham when it comes to picture taking? LOL

Daddy Who?

I do believe Bekah was upset with her daddy for leaving her for a week if her reaction to him this morning is anything to go by. When she woke up, she ran down the hallway to give me a hug and kiss...looked at Andy when he said good morning to her (she didn't know he had arrived home late last night)...and ran back down the hallway to her room. She came back a little bit later but still wouldn't acknowledge him. She's made up with him now but I think it took bribing her with gifts from the Grand Canyon to do it. Nothing like a 2 yr old in a snit. LOL

A Day at the Park

While Andy was off with the older kids in DC touring the White House and the museums, the younger kids and I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous 70 degree day by going to the park.

We started out by walking the trail for a bit.



Then we spent some time playing at the park.






Who would believe that it's January 6th by looking at these pictures?
I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of Kearsyn. She was with us but I had her in a pouch so she was strapped to me which makes it hard for picture taking. =)

Financial Aid

We finally got around to filling out the Parent Financial Statement (PFS) that the Gunston school gave us when Andy and Alex went to the open house last month. The PFS is submitted to the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS) which processes the information and will then send a report to the schools requested and to yourself detailing how much they think you can afford to pay for schooling. We received the results back today (about 2 days after filing the forms). Boy, filing electronically is great. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they calculated what we could afford to pay for school at pretty much what it costs us for the homeschooling supplies for Alex. Of course, this doesn't really mean anything because it's dependant on how much financial aid the actual school can give out but it's nice to know the school won't (or shouldn't) be expecting us to fork out an arm and a leg because we can't. So, since this report says things are still within our means we'll go ahead with the next steps for Gunston which would be submitting an application for the school. Then he has to take a standardized test...like the SAT but I can't think of the acronym for the one he has to take...so he'll do that either in February or March. Then, assuming he got accepted into the school, we'd have to see how much aid they could offer us to see whether it's really doable or not.

We got new insurance cards for all the kids showing their new pcp except for Kearsyn which is the one we really need. They only put 6 cards in an envelope so I'm assuming the one that has her card in it got separated from the other envelope. I wish it would show up as the others got here a few days ago. I figure I'll give it til after the holidays and if we haven't gotten it by then, I'll have them send another. I know her pcp got changed because I can view the info online so worst case scenario, if she gets sick before we get the new card I'll just print that page out. Updating to say that we received Kearsyn's new insurance card today, 12/22, so we are all set for the new doctor. =)

We finally got our refund check from the over payments to the specialist office for Alex & Kenzie's broken collarbones. I called the beginning of November to request it so it took about a month and a half for them to get it to us.

Today we did some house cleaning since we are having a small piano recital here tomorrow. Will be fun to listen to the kids playing.

I've made up all my days for work where I was short on leave so now I'm free until Jan 2. Yay! I was even able to help with a couple of programming modifications that they needed done so my timing was perfect for this make up work.

Bekah is doing so well with her sign language. She walked up to me today and did the sign for drink and then milk to let me know she was thirsty and wanted a glass of milk to drink. How cool!

I unpacked all my regular clothes and boxed up my maternity ones the other day. Anyone want to take bets on how long they'll stay boxed up? And Andy, you stay out of it! ;)

I was able to get most of the presents wrapped today while the kids were over at a friends house practicing for the recital tomorrow. Still have a few more to do but shouldn't take long...finding the time without the kids around will be the problem. And trying to do it at night it's that easy because that's when Kearsyn is at her grumpiest.

New Headboard

Bekah's new headboard arrived today. It should have been here a week ago but it ended up being back ordered. But it's here now and looks really nice in her room.

Not much else happening here today. I worked a full day, Andy & Kenzie went grocery shopping, Alex is at youth group and the rest of the kids are around the house somewhere probably getting into trouble. ;)


Alex got home from youth group a little while ago and made this cute Nativity ornament there. I love nativity scenes! =) He also made a candy cane reindeer but he ate that one before I could take a picture of it. LOL

Busy Day

Andy took Alex to the Gunston Open House. Alex really liked it...they both said the place was beautiful. Too bad it costs $18,000 to go there for a year. Yikes! I don't see that happening but we are going to go ahead and fill out the financial aid form just to see what we might get. Can't hurt any.

Bekah had her speech evaluation appt today. I was very impressed with how the ladies did the evaluation. They even taught Bekah how to sign "more" which she still remembers. That's so amazing to me that she can be shown the sign a couple of times and she is still retaining it. Makes me want to learn more signs that can be taught to her. They were totally impressed with her motor skills...she's actually doing a number of things above age level. She is delayed in her speech area so she does qualify for the program. The next steps are for them to write up their report to figure out exactly where she falls, then we'll get together to discuss the findings. During that meeting, we'll decide on how best to proceed with getting her additional speech help. The good news is...actually there are two...1) it's free and 2) they'll come to the house to everything so that will make things easier on us.

Kenzie's softball practices have started back up again. They are only optional at this point but do you think my girl would miss any kind of practice?? No way! LOL So Andy and she made the trek to Trappe to the indoor facility for the practice tonight.

Connor is impatiently waiting for the Ravens game to start. This child loves football!

I've seen so many beautiful pictures of sunrises and sunsets lately...Velda's and Andy's...I thought I would post one that I took tonight as I went out to turn on our outside Christmas lights. I realize now after looking at the picture that I should have walked out farther on the deck so our rain spout and satellite wires weren't in it. Oops! LOL

Too Good to be True

I knew it was too good to be true. Kearsyn was back to her normal nonsleeping pattern last night. At least I know she can sleep when she wants to. ;)

What beautiful weather we have been having here the past couple of days. You sure wouldn't know that it's the last week in November by being outside. Now if we could just get our yard to dry out after all that rain we had last week. It's still extremely soggy out there.

I did some Christmas shopping yesterday and actually went to a store to do it. That's a rarity for me. LOL I usually do most shopping online cause I hate having to hunt for things in the store and they rarely have want I want anyway. I was pleasantly surprised because I actually found most of what I wanted to get for my sister and her DH so they are pretty much done at this point. Yay! The kids presents have all been ordered and are starting to arrive. The only ones left to buy for now are our parents. I also still need to get a birthday present for my dad whose b'day is 12/20. We're going to try and get the family together on the 17th to celebrate. It's always hard with Dad's b'day being so close to Christmas especially now that my sister alternates the holidays with her inlaws.

Thusday is going to be a busy day. We're going to look at a private school that is having an open house in the morning. Not sure that we can actually avoid it, even though they do offer some financial aid to go there, but it can't hurt to check it out. In the afternoon, there is a Homeschoolers Open House at the college. Alex is going to be taking a Composition class there which will be good for him plus it will help lighted the load a little for Andy in the spring since he won't have to cover that subject. Also Thursday afternoon, Bekah has her speech evaluation appointment so we'll see how that goes. She's been in a terrible two's mood here lately. Hope she gets out of it soon cause she's driving me crazy. She thinks she can make up for it by flashing me her cute grin and giving me a kiss...which of course works. LOL

Haven't done any stitching lately although I really need to get a move on finishing up my Christmas ornament. I've had it stitched up for weeks...just can't figure out how to finish it. I wanted to do something different but I can't figure out what so I haven't done anything. :(

Big Girl Bed

Bekah got her big girl bed today and she was so excited about it. She had the biggest grin on her face that you could imagine when we finally got it put all together. She's having a hard time staying put in it now that it's time for bed...funny how she had no problem being in it earlier when Taylor and her spent the afternoon playing in it. LOL



This means that I was able to get the crib moved over into Kearsyn's room so now her room is complete other than putting some additional items on the walls. I still need to get frames for my Noah's Ark stitching to hang in there but eventually that will get done.



Kearsyn did excellent while I went to my two appts today. She slept the entire time I was gone both times...approx 1 1/2 - 2 hrs each time...that might have had something to do with me stuffing her full of milk before I left. LOL I got a clean bill of health from my OB with instructions to come back in a few months for my annual. Ugh! Everything checked out at the eye doctor as well and I made it out of there without needing a new prescription. Whew!

Andy and the kids decided it was time to put the Christmas tree up...we're trying to having all the decorations done by the time my family comes over for Thanksgiving. Because we don't have much room this year, Andy decided that we should only put up half a tree. Now when I first heard this, I thought he meant the top half of the tree and couldn't figure out how that was going to help us (just blame that on sleep deprivation) but in reality he meant the front half of tree, leaving the back half off so that it could sit flush against the wall. I have to say it was a good idea and works really well. They were able to get all the branches assembled but I have to say that their grooming ability leaves alot to be desired. But as I was told, their job is to make the tree functional while by job is to make it pretty. LOL Tomorrow I'll work on fluffing up the tree so it doesn't have any holes although Andy claims those holes would be good to put ornaments in. Hmmm...LOL I'll take a picture of it once it's completely decorated.

That's about it for the day...was a long one for me as I'm not used to doing all this running around so I'm going to be tired tonight. Let's hope Kearsyn's goes back to sleep after she's gets her middle of the night feedings...she has a habit of eating and then staying awake for another hour looking around before she drifts back off to sleep.

I'm sure most have read about this already on Andy's blog but just thought I mention it here that we have a hawk making breakfasts out of our chickens. Hopefully the netting that Andy and Kenzie put over the run this morning will keep him, and any of his friends, at bay.

I just went to check on how Bekah was doing in her bed and found what the pic shows. Now that's true sisterly love.

It's Halloween

The kids have been looking forward to today for days. They've been looking forward to dressing up as soccer zombies...I'll see if I can snag a pic that Andy took of them (I stole this pic from Andy's blog as it seems to be the only one we have)...and going to a friends house for a Halloween party. There's always lots of good food to eat and tons of kids. They do a hayride through the neighborhood making periodic stops to hop off and swarm the houses for treats. I wasn't going to go because of Kearsyn but Andy talked me into going which I'm glad he did as I had a good time. Once the kids left to go trick or treating, it was me, Andy and Mary (whose house the party was at). We sat outside chatting while waiting for trick or treaters to come by. It was a beautiful evening although it did start to get a little bit chilly although Mary had built a nice fire in their fire pit. I was a little nervous about Bekah going trick or treating...one of the other moms kept an eye on her while on the hayride as their wasn't room for Andy to go since the trailer was so packed with kids...as Andy scared her half to death when he put on his scary mask at home. He came walking out of the hallway with it on and she about fell over herself trying to climb behind me to get away him all the while screaming her head off...poor thing. There was no need to worry, though, as she was apparantly really into trick or treating and didn't mind going up to the houses to get the candy.

I made another attempt at making the peanut butter chocolate chip cake today...at the request of Andy to take to the Halloween party. I guess the last one wasn't too bad but I did remember to add the butter this time. LOL It was definitely better than the first time although it was still a little dry. I think I add too much flour...will have to try less next time.

Stitchingwise, I've been working on the mini rr I have. I only have one more color to stitch and then it will be done. Hopefully I'll get it finished up by the weekend although I'm not pushing myself. Then I'm going to stitch on the next release of the Halloween Gameboard Mystery Sampler.

I finally finished reading the Visitation which prompted another trip to the library for more books. That's always a frustrating adventure since our library never has what I want to read. I was able to find a couple of books which will hopefully be pretty good and am about halfway through the first one, Stitches in Time.

We met with the lady from the Infants and Toddlers program today. She just does the paperwork and went over general information for Bekah. She said that two other people from their staff should be getting in contact with us in the next week or so to do a more thorough evaluation...one will just focus on Bekah's speak and the other will look at all areas of Bekah's development.