The Rest of September

So other than the kids being school, things happened in September... but the time just flew by.  So here... the pics for the month.

Elijah is having a ton of fun playing soccer, both in practice and games.  He is doing really well!  Grace is doing really well putting up with Elijah's games and practices!

We went on our annual trip to Ashton Farms where much fun was had with friends and animals.   Grace's favorite thing was, well, everything.  But I guess if she had to pick on thing it was chasing and catching the completely terrified  chickens.  She is a little farmer at heart... as long as there is no cleaning up involved.

My folks came for a visit at the end of the month.  Elijah got sick the day before they arrived (poor guy) and pretty much stayed sick until the day before they left.  Sigh.  Alas.  He still had fun hanging out with them.  We went to the beach and my folks took care of the kiddos a few days so Jerry and I could have some adult time.  Elijah didn't get to show off his mad soccer skills while they were here, but we did go to his school to be presented as his "share" (show and tell.)  They also got to observe Grace's dance class.  They were VERY impressed with both!

The following Saturday Grace came down with a horrible ear infection that almost ruptured her ear drum.  (poor kid!)  But felt much better by the following day.  Sigh.  I'm already over the cold/flu/gunk/crap/sick season.

I keep thinking that things are going to slow down... ya know soon.  But it's not happening.  The kids are happy in their respective activities, but they keep us busy.  I can't believe that it is now the middle of October.  The Halloween costumes have been made and are loved.  Maybe I'll get pics up before Thanksgiving.... don't count on it!

Sleep… or lack thereof…

So we have been on vacation for a week in Edisto Island.  I LOVE that place.  The kids had a blast.  Even though there isn’t that much to do tourist-y wise, there is plenty of beach and a pool… and it was wonderful.  The kids did great and while they ended up with us in our room each night, it was fine.  It was bitter sweet to leave Jerry at the end of the week.  The plan was to go to the river cabin(my Aunt’s) and put Grace and Elijah is Bible School for a few days and then head to the mountains.  Sigh.  Best laid plans and all.
We got there and my Aunt’s dogs were there.  These dogs are 74 years old in dog years, blind, deaf, asthmatic, arthritic, have tumors, and are about one foot high toy poodles.  But regardless, Elijah is TERRIFIED of dogs.  People don’t get it.  They try to rationalize with him.  But he HAS to figure this one out on his own.  I respect fear.  Everyone has that one thing that scares the crap out of them.  For Elijah, it’s dogs.  So, it was a LONG first day, but still.  We took the kids to the (REALLLLY LOW) river and the kids had fun playing on the floats and jumping in the water.  It felt good to be back there.  We had a good evening, and though it took the kids a bit to fall asleep, they did.  I made their lunches for the next day and read and visited, then turned in.  I had weird dreams.  The AC in the sleeping area is older than I am.  It’s a window unit that blasts freezing air for 5 minutes and then blows air for a bit.  Then you burn up until the freezing air comes back on.  That, combined with the really weird dreams I had about spiders was equaling crappy sleep.  Grace woke up scratching and broken out all over.  I gave her some Benedryl and cuddled up with her for a bit.  I had barely fallen asleep (again) at 1:30 when Grace woke up, gagging.  I grabbed the closest thing I could find (a pillow sham) right as she threw up.  In between heaves, I ran her to the bathroom, as quietly as possible.  My folks were sleeping on the back porch where the bathroom is located. She threw up a little more (she called it burping…) and said she was ready to go back to bed.  SO back to bed we went.  By now it’s about 2:00 in the morning.  We settle down and we doze on and off.  Until about 2:30, when Elijah shifts his weight on his cot and the whole thing falls over… on top of him… and he stays asleep.  I move Elijah over to Grace’s cot (a little more stable) while he’s still sleeping.  As I am grabbing his blanket to cover him up (this happens to be during one of the five minutes of frigidness) I end up stepping on a stray sand spur that is stuck to his blanket.  At this point, I just look up and want to shout many cuss words… alas.  So I climb back into bed.  At 3:15, as another dream spider tries to crawl up my nose, I wake up and see Grace looking right at me.  “Mom, I just can’t sleep.”  Poor thing.  “Are you okay?”  “No, I need to burp.”  I sit up…. WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I GRAB A TOWEL? … and she throws up all over me.  sigh.  Good thing I had a jacket on and now can shed it since the heat has taken over again.  Back to the bathroom.  I strip her out of her nightgown (how she stayed clean the last round, who can say?) and she throws up a little more.  I sit with her curled up on my lap in the bathroom for a bit..well, until 4.  I’m pretty sure she isn’t going to throw up anymore (though grabbed some towels just in case) and I’m pretty much everything from my hip down is asleep…and everything from the hip up, is awake.
I find a shirt for Grace to wear and lie down.
Let’s rewind for just a second here.  The river, which is the Edisto, is a VERY clean river.  A sign of a clean river? leeches.  I had on attach itself to me.  VERY small, but still, kind eww.  Now, fast forward to 4:15, what do I think of?  Not the spiders from the earlier dreams, but the fucking leech.  Sigh.  Eventually, like around 5.  I fall asleep.  The girl child is starfished across the bed, and I don’t dare move her.  She is actually sleeping.  I am sleeping without dreaming of horrid things and I hear the dogs bark.  Then my Aunt and Uncle get up to walk the dogs, then leave to go on a walk, then my dad wake up… screw it.  I stay in bed until 7, but I’m up.  I go out to the porch and quietly wake up my mom.  I tell her that I am going home with the kids and dad. She tells me she’ll leave today too, and goes back to sleep for a bit.  I let the kids sleep until around 8 and then they get up and eat a bit.  Well, Elijah eats, Grace picks.  HOWEVER, and interesting thing happens.  Elijah decides he can pet the dogs.  I was very proud of him.  He was sitting by one before we left.
My mom drove us all the way home, which was SUPER nice since my kids had melt down after melt down all the way home and I would have left them on the side of the road with a sign saying “free to a good home” around their necks had I ended up driving alone with them.
So far, Grace has had no more episodes…though her allergies are acting up.  All in all, I’m glad to be in the mountains.  I’m glad the kids got to see and quasi-swim in the river.  Maybe we can go again some time when things are a little calmer in our lives.  As for now, we are enjoying cooler temps and lower humidity.  31 more days until we see Jerry again!!!

My body has been taken hostage...

by strep.
Here are the demands:

1. juice.  in the orange form.
2. a live in nanny.
3. sleep.  lots of it. uninterrupted.
4. antibiotics
5. IB
6. someone to come pack the various boxes/suitcases for this long vacation.
7. someone to pick and the make jam out of some blackberries... and maybe raspberries.  is there such thing as raspberry jam?
8. my children to stay in bed.  please.
9. for the fever to go away... and stay away.
10. for someone to feel very sorry for me.  throw me a pity party and then let me sleep.
11. for someone to tell me it's okay that my kids ate some chicken, crackers, and frozen blackberries.  of which they ate... the chicken.
12. food.  but none that is a) in this house and b) that i don't have to make.
13. someone to come move my legs in the running motion so that i don't completely fail at the c25k only 4 weeks in.
14. hell, while we are making demands.  2 million dollars.  
15. to be well by the time we leave on sunday for our trip.  the ped was joking today that we might have to cancel the vacation.  thought i was going to hit him.  alas, i didn't have the energy.

oh yeah.  the kids are both afflicted with this hostage takeover.  however, they don't seem to notice it like i do.  my throat feels like it is lined with glass...the tiny shards that you can't find and hurt like hell.  i'm alternately freezing cold and burning hot as the IB takes effect and then wears off.  they are a little lethargic, but that's it. they both have had one dose of antibiotics...i'm waiting fro jerry to come home with the juice and meds... which he will pick up after class.... that ends at 9.  sigh.   i took a boiling lava, turns your skin bright red, shower tonight.  thought that the steam would help the pain... and that if i stood in there long enough my kids would simply put themselves to sleep.  neither happened.  alas. i told the kids they were on their own tonight.  heh.  yeah right.

here's to a better tomorrow and hopes that i can get everything done on my list and feel ready and not rushed to leave on sunday.

Today was...

You be the judge...  (warning: this post is not for those that cannot handle people talking about kid poop... seriously.  Stop reading if you can't handle it.)

We were supposed to go to the zoo today, but there was a 50% chance of rain and that's about 40% more of a chance than I want to take with two kids in a place with little shelter.  So we opted out.  We THOUGHT about the aquarium, but there were some looming errands and the kids woke up in good moods, so errands it was.  We needed gas, so our trip started at Costco.  3.74.  Not as bad as it is next to the house.  After filling up we went into Costco to purchase a pop up sun tent for the beach.  After having to walk through the toy section, we checked out, got the kiddos a snack and left.  Next stop, Target.  The kids needed summer shoes that could get sandy, wet, and something they could also hike and play in.  Target had some that fit Grace, but none that fit Elijah.  Fine.  We'll look at the next stop, which was Dick's Sporting Goods.  We bought a DIFFERENT not-so-much pop up from them, that with one gust of wind was on the ground.  Also it was impossible to refit into the bag in which it came.  Once I DID cram back into the bag, the box popped open.  Secured with duck tape, they still took it back, gave us a refund, only asked why we returned it and we went to look at the shoes.  Found some in Elijah's size, $50...not so much.  So across the street to Kmart.  Kmart had shoes, but not in Elijah's size.  They also had a golf thing that Jerry has been wanting, so we got that instead.  Poor Elijah was super sad that he didn't have summer shoes, so off to the mall to search Payless.  Arriving at the mall means a trip on the carousel.  Great.  Done.  Down to Payless.  Found a pair. On sale.  They were broken.  They called another store in town.  They had the shoes, in his size.  They had them pulled AND gave us a coupon for $3 off!  Great.  On to lunch.  Chic-Fil-A.  mmm.  eh.  Out of the mall without too much trouble, into the car, drive to the other Payless.  They can't find the shoes.  Sigh.  They look.  Get the manager.  HE finds them in the back. Okay.  Great.  Walk out with $22 shoes for 7.56.  Great.  Drive home. Kids happy with their new shoes.  Decide to try out the pop up sun shade cause MAYBE we'll go to the beach this afternoon.  BAM, almost poke out an eye as one of the poles is broken. So, I go back to Costco (which has 76023847098 people in the parking lot) to exchange the pop up sunshade for one that will NOT blind me whilst at the beach.  MEANWHILE, Elijah is "resting" on floor in our bedroom (thank goodness he's in a pull up) and tries to toot.  When he tries to do this, he has diarrhea in his diaper.  Jerry puts him on the toilet and for some ungodly reason the child bends over at the waist and is looking in between the toilet seat and toilet when he has more diarrhea and some toilet water comes up and splashes him in the face.  (I pause here to say that I was not in the house at this point, but in my head the scene went something like the following: and play...) Elijah starts screaming his head off as if some snake has crawled up the actual toilet and is trying to kill him slowly.  Grace, already refusing to sleep, is out of her bed asking 870238470 questions about what is going on.  Jerry grabs a syringe (that we haven't used in 2 years and probably haven't cleaned in as long) and started flushing Elijah's eyes out with water.  To which Elijah screams even louder, causing Grace to ask questions at a louder decibel, not to be drowned out.  Jerry turns on the water in the shower and throws Elijah, at a speed which has not been recoded by man, into the shower to clean up.  Tells Grace to shut it, which prompts tears and a melt down that would put Scarlett herself to shame.  To add insult to injury, Elijah gets to take a hot shower and she does not.  Her world has officially ended.  Until Jerry tells her that she can watch Dora in our bedroom.  And then all is right again in her world.  This is about the time that I arrive home.  I find out what has happened, and we decide to try the NEW new pop up sun shade.  It works perfectly.  great.  Elijah gets out of the shower.  He goes and watches TV with Grace and then comes back out needing to poop again.  You guessed it diarrhea... again.  Sigh.  We aren't going ANYWHERE this evening. Fine.  Our DVD player has bitten the dust.  Jerry finds a Blue Ray player with internet capability at HH Gregg and decides to go out and get it and a movie for the kiddos, along with Gatorade and bananas for the kiddo.  Off he goes.  The kids are calm and quiet for a bit, and I am thinking about starting some rice for dinner.  Elijah comes out of the bedroom.  He needs to poop.  Here we go again.  Except this time as he is telling me he is done, he burps and throws up... not a little bit either.  And it doesn't stop.  I'm frozen.  Help the kid?  Get a trash bag for the overflowing trash can and a bag for him?  I run to the kitchen and grab a bag of bags.  I get back in time for round two of vomit.  I manage to get a bag under his mouth.  Though the whole floor, toilet, kid, step stool are already covered.  I think he is done, so I grab a towel to throw over the vomit on the floor and he throws up again.  (Again, I pause briefly to say that I do NOT handle throw up well.  If I know it's coming, I can sometimes prepare and be okay.  But this had no warning, "Mom, I'm going to throw up."  And I had to fight... HARD... to not throw up all over my child.  end pause.)  I grab a cloth and run cold water on it and put it on his neck.  I try to think of happy rose filled gardens with butterflies.  He tells me he is finished.  I wipe him off as best I can and back in the shower he goes.  I somehow clean up the rose petals puke and throw the towel outside.  It's all I can do.  I grab the bleach water and spray the toilet, bathroom floor, and step stool down.  As I am getting ready to scour my hands with the hottest water imaginable, I hear, "Mom I gotta poop."  WHAT THE HELL???  There cannot be a THING left in this kid. I literally just cleaned up his lunch and dinner from yesterday and his breakfast and lunch from today.  There cannot be anymore poop in his little body.  But there is.  He makes it to the toilet for which I am extraordinarily glad... cause I would maybe move to Australia tomorrow if I had to clean poop out of a shower.  As he is sitting on the toilet.  I hear, "Mommy, I need to go poop.  Will you hold my hand?"  REALLLLLY???  (back story... Grace gets constipated on a weekly basis.  We help her out with daily doses of prunes, but even that doesn't solve everything.  Lately she has been having blood with even her normal, non constipated poops.  We are calling the doctor on Monday as it has gotten worse and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can.  okay...)  So Grace has been eating a TON today.  She is a good eater, but today she has really packed it away.  She has already pooped once at Kmart (ah, remember Kmart, when everyone was well?  sigh.) And now here she is again, pooping.  All I could think of was DAMNIT.  Not her too. But her poop was fine.  I held her hand.  She said it hurt a little bit, and there was a little blood.  Poor kiddo.  Granted after she has these "hurting" poops, it doesn't seem to bother her at all.  Still.  So she is cleaned up.  Elijah finishes.  He wants back in the shower.  Great.  I bring him ice water to sip in the shower and put the trash can (the I finally got cleaned out and bagged) by the shower in case he needed to throw up. and finally...FINALLY I get the rice on for dinner.  Jerry comes home without the movie as there was a line and he thought I may need to get out of the house.  But we take our time and put the new player together and get the kids plates served (rice, chicken, apples, and a greek yogurt/banana/honey/dab of juice smoothie) and I take off.  Jerry texts me that we need ham and more yogurt.   I call my folks and tell them about my day.  And in retrospect.  It really wasn't that bad.  Just allot of bad in a short amount of time.  There are MANY at leasts: we weren't at the zoo, we weren't at the aquarium, we weren't at the beach, we weren't still at the mall, we weren't (Cause Oh.MY.God.) in the car, we have the where with all tho handle the sickies, it wasn't in the middle of Elijah's last week of school, we know our limits and when we each need a break.  And, of course, at least it wasn't worse.  Elijah seems fine now.  He doesn't have a fever, and while tied, he is not lethargic.  He has been playing, while quieter than normal, with Gracie.  He is alert.  He downed the smoothie and ate chicken for dinner.  He is finally sleeping.  I am hoping for a peaceful night, but fully expecting to be up several times with him.  Tomorrow is Sunday.  We will stay home and Jerry and I will take turns taking the recycling (yes there is enough to take turns... several turns... *blush*) and do some stuff around the house that NEEDS to be done.  Hopefully, this is a thing that is done with tonight.  I would be sad for my son to miss any of his last week of preschool.

So you tell me.  Today was....

From sick day to sick week…

Sigh.  Last week sucked.  It blew.  I demand that week of my life back.  Elijah was sick on and off.  That was annoying, but THAT I could handle.  On Tuesday, Jerry came home for lunch and sounded horrid.  I asked him not to go back into work… like asking gravity to stop working.  heh. He was going to try to get home early, but because of one thing or another he didn’t get home until almost 8.  And when he DID get home, he said good night to the kids and went to bed.  He took Wednesday off.  Elijah was FINALLY feeling better, but we were working on our 24 hours without fever, so while fever free, we still had to keep him home.  So we GOT OUT of the house.  Jerry needed rest and I needed OUT!  So out we went.  We ran errands, we got lunch, we got OUT! And then it was nap time.  Ahhhhh.  I love naptime in our house.  No one is required to sleep, but they are required to be still and quiet on beds.  At 4 I went into check on Jerry.  Got him some meds and put him back to sleep.  The kids were up and I set them up with a movie.  At 4:45, I went in again to check on Jerry.  I had plans with a friend that evening and I really needed to know if I needed to cancel.  He was sitting on the edge of the bed.  Could I go get him some Primatine Mist?  Sure…but maybe Urgent Care for a stronger inhaler would be better.  He agreed.  I got the kids dressed and threw some things in a backpack to keep them entertained.  I was worried, but really thought he just needed a different inhaler.  I started to worry a little more, when he couldn’t really talk in the car.  And even more when he gasped that he needed a wheel chair in the parking lot.  Still…
2.5 hours later, with me running out of ways to entertain the kiddos… The doctor came out and told me Jerry was on 92% oxygen, had had three breathing treatments, and had a positive Flu A test.  They were sending him to the hospital.  WHAT?!??!?!  Crap.  I REALLY REALLY tried to keep it together.  I failed…but only broke down for a few minutes in the parking lot.  I called my mom.  I called my friends.  I recalled my mom and asked her to please come first thing in the morning.  I went home, fed the kids, and cleaned.  I threw all the sheets into the wash and cleaned the kitchen and folded clothes and got the guest room habitable and waited for news from my husband.  Apparently after waiting for an hour and a half in the ER at one hospital, the ER doc saw him and admitted him…except there was no room there.  So, ANOTHER, ambulance ride to the OTHER hospital and he got a room.  The next morning, a good friend watched the kids while I went to see Jerry.  He looked horrid.  He had called for a breathing treatment, which APPARENTLY only the respiratory therapist can administer, and APPARENTLY telling one that he cannot breathe is not a sign of distress….so one and half hours after he requested said treatment, he got one.  *eye roll*  This sort of “care” continued the rest of the stay.  Alas.  Anyway, he stayed in the hospital until Saturday morning.  I must say that Saturday was one of the better days in life!   I was still worried about him, but on Sunday:


I want to send a shout out to our friends who checked on us and helped us out.  AND A HUGE HUGE HUGE thank you to my mom.  I was very comforted to know that the kids were in good hands and there was no rush while she was here.  My friends never would have made me feel that way by any means, but it is still nice to have your mom when you need her!!!  THANK YOU MOM!!!
Oh yeah, and Elijah…. sigh.  He developed a horrid cough and I was freaked out with the fever at the beginning of the week that maybe he had the flu…even with the flu shot… So we went to the doctor on Friday.  Flu free and doc said that whatever he had he was just coughing the last of it out.  Phew!  Back to school with him on Monday and Jerry went back to work on Monday as well.  I’m glad that week is behind us and that I made it through with a little help from friends and family.  I am freaking exhausted, but it’s a small price to pay for healthy family!