Mini-Me Friday #3

So, I'm not very Mini, I'm guessing. I had to skip my meeting last night because of a stomach "issue" which has since resolved itself, but it was a bad week.

I am working on not eating everything in sight, even if it's not such a bad choice food-wise. Having to write it all down and see the number of exchanges I have allowed for the day go clicking off just well, it stinks, pretty much. I like to eat. I'm hungry a lot. So, now I'm trying to figure out if I'm REALLY hungry a lot or if I'm just bored. Or tired. Or worried. Or sad.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what is motivating me to be so hungry. (And before you suggest it, I've allowed plenty of breastfeeding calories.)

So. There ya go. I still like food. I still like a lot of it. Sort of a problem in the mini-me category.

Oh, and I worked out twice last week. We dealt with sick kids but that's a whole different Oprah so I'll just leave it at that.

My verse this week was Proverbs 20:4 "May He give you the desires of your heart and make all of your plans succeed."

I have to laugh...this week, the desires of my heart involved macaroni & cheese, chocolate, pizza, etc. Probably a good thing that they weren't given to me in the literal sense. Ha!

What a weekend...

This is a long one, so you might want to grab a snack and a beverage. Hmmm, well, considering the content, perhaps just a beverage. And a comfy chair.

Miss G hasn't had a great weekend so far. Thursday night, I started my First Place weight loss group meetings again (so watch out for Mini-Me Fridays to start over!) and Chris had the kiddos at home. I didn't realize until I got home that I had actually left my cell phone in the car. It had slid under one of Mason's blankets in the front seat. I walked in the door and his first question was "Where is your phone?"

Uh-oh. That's never a good welcome home question.

"Ummmmm, probably in the car, I'm guessing."
"Well, you should think about actually HAVING it with you more often."
"Yeah, I'll look into that."
"Where is the vinegar?"

Uh-oh. That's not good either. That means something needs to come out of the carpet with my super-duper, fantastic diaper-assisted removal technique.

"Why? What happened?"
"Just where is it?"
"Why???? What do you need it for?"
"She pooped on me, okay? She pooped on me AND the carpet, and I want to get it out! I put both of us in the shower with our clothes on, if that tells you anything."

Ohhhhkay then. Poop. The Cabana Boy has some major poop-related issues, so this was not a good night for dear ol' Daddy in the "quality time with the kids" department. (If you've seen the youtube collage of men changing babies' diapers, they are his kindred spirits. The 2nd man reminds me of him during our Norovirus night earlier this year, and the 3rd guy reminds me of when he changed Mitchell's diapers with a painter's mask on for the first few weeks of his career in Fatherhood. No kidding.) Did I also mention that we *just* had our carpets professionally cleaned last month? Yep, sure did. Oh, and I mean what I say at the top of my blog, by the way. You've been fairly warned. Poop seems to come up a lot around here.

Anyway, I helped Chris expertly extract the yuckiness from the carpet and then we got everyone into bed. It occured to me that in order for the poop scenario to play out the way it did, something was up with our baby girl's digestive world. It also came to mind that my first MOPS meeting of the year was in the morning (of course!) and she would probably not be a good candidate for the childcare situation. I am on the steering team (Alana, since you asked - I do publicity) and really needed to be there to help with the registration process and providing some of the food. Things got even worse when she woke up screaming her head off at about 2 a.m. She has issues with the lights being on - like the ACTUAL light in her room, not a night light. (That is a completely different post in itself that I'll bless you with on another day.) This is what she was screaming about, but while I had her in the bathroom going potty and all of that 2 am fun, I noted that her nose was running, she was all kinds of crazy stuffed up and had a cough.

Basically, she was a complete mess.

Luckily, my father-in-law wasn't working the next day and when I called him in the morning, he willingly agreed to put his own health at risk by watching this little germ factory for us. I went to pick her up after MOPS and he reported that she was as goofy as ever and that she didn't act like she felt bad at all. He also handed me a bag that held some rinsed out pants in it, meaning that the poop situation was not yet resolved. (It was also majorly putting a kink in our Operation Potty Training effort. *sigh*) As I put her into her carseat on their driveway, I asked if she had gotten stung or bit by something. He said he didn't think so, but I was looking at this.



As you can see, she isn't all that bothered by the ginormous welts taking up half of her sweet little face, but I sure was. I am allergic to bee stings and swell up in welts like that when I get bit by spiders, so I was thinking that was probably the case. She helped her Papa pick tomatoes in the garden, so it was a completely plausible theory at the time. I gave her some benadryl before I fed her lunch and thankfully, they disappeared after about 20 minutes. I put her down and she took a great nap. No pictures this time, but when I put her on the potty, I noticed that the rash had done a magical reappearing trick as it was now only on her left thigh.

Hmmmm. There goes the bite/sting theory.

Have you ever noticed that kids tend to get this sort of thing ONLY when there is something great going on that you have been looking forward to? My husband and I had a fun date night planned -- we had tickets to the Montgomery Gentry/Toby Keith concert. Of course.

I think we might have the best parents in the entire world because much like my hubby's father, my parents completely threw caution to the wind and gladly welcomed our little hive-sporting, snot blowing, poop shooting two year old into their home with open arms. (I should mention this would also be their first time babysitting all three of them at the same time!) I agonized about leaving her while she was sick, but again - she was running around like her normal little self, minus being a little sleepy from the Benadryl. We ended up going to the concert and having a wonderful time...I'm really glad everyone convinced me to still go. Miss G did fine - the poop situation improved and my parents said she did great.

We all spent the night at my parents' house since we got back so late and their house was so close to the concert location. When my mom and I got Georgia up in the morning and put her on the potty, the hives were back and in full force. This time they were on her right cheek, all over her stomach, and up and down both legs. It was just so bizarre! Thankfully, she wasn't itchy or in pain, but it was really starting to worry me.

Yeah, about that looking forward to stuff thing? My friend, Erin, got a free parking pass and tickets to sit in a suite at the Women of Faith conference and would be picking me up in about an hour and was taking Mason with me. Mitchell would be going to the CSU football game to watch our cousin play. I told Chris he just had to call the pediatrician and take her in now. It turns out that she has an ear infection. I guess the tube in her left ear isn't working like it should and that it is all tied to and possibly originated from her two year molars coming in.

Poor sweet girl. She never once said anything about her ears, and we asked! In fact, we just went to the pediatrician not too long ago to get her ears checked and they were fine. It was Mitchell who had the ear infection.

I always feel badly when it ends up being an ear infection, it makes me feel like we should have known and gotten her in sooner or something. The thing is, in this case, her ear infection was camouflaged. We saw hives, a runny nose, poop issues, no pain, and an overall happy little girl. Not what typically happens when she gets an ear infection.

I started thinking about how many times I do that in my own life. One issue gets covered up with something else. Something completely seeming unrelated gets piled on and before you know it, like my sweet Miss G, I am a complete mess.

The other day is a great example. We ran late for school. The carpool kiddo I pick up was runing even later. Mitchell left his lunchbox in the car and I had to take it back to school. A cup of milk got spilled on the floor I had just swept and mopped. I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription to find out they still hadn't gotten the refill authorization from my doctor that was requested a week before. The kids wouldn't nap at the same time. Mason was nursing while Mitchell needed help in the restroom. Miss G woke up from her nap early. I made tacos for dinner and as I went to put a filled up shell onto a plate, I fumbled it and everything dropped on the floor. That I had now already swept and mopped twice.

Ever had a day like that? How do you even begin to untangle that mess and figure out exactly where you started feeling annoyed. Or weary. Or frustrated. When do you physically break down and start crying? (For me, it was the taco that put me over the edge.) By the time my husband got home, I was not in a good way. I was covered in spit up, my hair was in a ponytail and pulled halfway out in little loops from Miss G's makeover attempts with her Dora brush, a trail of taco meat covered my shirt and pants, and my eyes were rimmed from crying. I think he deserves a shout out for not turning on his heel and running a four-hour errand or something.

The thing is, not once during the day did I stop to ask for help. I called my husband to vent and I got a latte, but neither of those made my insides feel any better. The one thing I didn't do is the one thing I should have done, starting with running late for school. I didn't pray. I didn't ask God to help me. To strengthen me. To give me an extra dose of patience. To give me an extra measure of laughter. To give me some p-e-a-c-e.

Seriously, Tara. What a bonehead move. I know that if I ask, He will give it to me. Now, for my friends who are not on the same page with me on this one, I'm not saying "give me a million dollars" and poof - it's there. I'm saying that when I pray for peace and comfort, I get it. Does it mean I'm not worried about things anymore? No. It means that the peace and comfort offsets the worries and anxieties of my life and things are more tolerable and less intense.

Please, learn from my mistake. When you have "that" day, don't wait until you end up being a complete mess before you take a breath and look to Him for some help. There's a good chance your day will turn around, and even if it doesn't, you won't be as weary and beaten down at the end of the day. Diagnose the problem early, and call The Doctor.

The Great Poop Caper...

That's what my hubby decided to name our quick trip to Albuquerque this weekend. I'll spare you the details, just know that it began LITERALLY about 5 minutes after we pulled into town and I thought it was over, but Miss G is determined to not let it end. The good news is that no one is "sick" per se...just ya know...not right. I have spoken to one friend who has a daughter in my son's class at school and they had the same stuff going on this weekend, so I'm guessing it is a little end-of-year gift from the school.

Sub!!!
Sub???
Anyone?!

No?

Okay, then. Off to the laundry I go.

One Eyed Wonder...

That's me! I am somewhat of a cyclops this week. You see, sometime while I was sleeping Monday night, I developed pink eye. I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that my eye was sort of itchy. And watery. And sort of gooey.

Fun, right?

So, in the morning when I got up, I noticed that it was worse, and also very pinkish/red. *sigh* Who doesn't love a good dose of pink eye in the morning? Yeah. So. As the day went on, my eye continued to get worse and worse. I *had* to go to the store with the kids, as we were literally on our last diaper/pull up for Miss G. The cashier literally gasped when I pulled up my sunglasses to see the pinpad to pay. I was like "I know. It's bad. I brought my own pen, don't worry."

I started to get somewhat worried while Georgia was napping in the afternoon as this was quickly turning into something other than your typical run-of-the-mill pink eye. My doctor, my eye doctor and my husband's doctor all had policies that prohibited them from calling in a prescription for medicated eye drops without seeing me first. At this point, I was unable to get an appointment with my doctor until Wednesday morning and I had a feeling that waiting that long would not be a good move. I was reading up on conjunctivitis in my kids' pediatrician's book and started to become concerned that I was having what could be symptoms of cellulitis. My dad said he could come stay with the kids while I went to the urgent care clinic before Mitchell's soccer game.

You know it's probably not good when the DOCTOR gasps upon seeing your eye for the first time.

Apparently, my "allergy" week was more like a sinus infection week. I had green yucky goo in my right sinus cavity and fluid behind my right eardrum. This explains how the pink eye came to be, as they all drain or not drain in the same spot, but she was stumped as to why it was so violently attacking my eye. She said there was a lot of bleeding in there...most likely due to the fact that my eye had so much pressure from the swelling. She put me on an oral antibiotic as well as antibiotic eye drops and told me that if it wasn't improving by the next day, I'd need to go to the ER.

FOR PINK EYE. Seriously??? Only me, I swear.

So. That night was horrible. I couldn't sleep at all. It felt like it wasn't improving at all. The only good thing about no sleep was that I could put my drops in every 2 hours all night long. Thankfully, when I woke up in the morning the swelling and redness in the skin surrounding my eye was better.

So, 3 days later here we are. The discoloration and swelling in the skin around my eye is lots better and I'm not having too many goobers anymore. That said, I 'm still very uncomfortable and still very cyclops/bloody eye looking. Seriously. I went shopping today for a few things and it was the topic of conversation each time I pulled my sunglasses down. Fun, fun. Chris would love it if I wore a t-shirt proclaiming that it's pink eye, not a black eye, by the way.

One funny thing did come of this whole thing last night. I had started to doze off on the couch while we were watching tv last night and my hubby said my name and tossed me something. When I first opened my eye, I couldn't see too clearly. I could swear to you that this man threw me a blackberry. All I know is that it was black and white and rectangular. And cold. I was squinting and trying to figure it out while I sat up and Chris starts laughing at me. He says "It's an ice cream sandwich, you dork." I started laughing, too...I told him I thought he got me a new phone. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty amusing. We decided the only way it would have been funnier is if I had put it up to my ear and said "Hello?"

I have never washed my hands so much in all my life. They are just raw, despite using more lotion on them than I have in all my life. So far, so good in the way of no one else getting it. (Any prayers to keep it that way would be much appreciated, by the way.)

Okay - if you are squeamish -- avert your eyes. I know that some of you are dying to see what it looks like, so here ya go. The first picture is about 1 am Tuesday and the 2nd picture is from last night before bed. Gross. Totally gross, I know. Okay - off to do eyedrops before bed!

Off to a rockin' start...

So.

Last time I posted I told you how we were going on a 4 day mini-vaca as a family and were excited to be leaving the sickies behind as we rang in 2008 as a healthy, relaxed little group.

Welllll...it didn't quite work out that way.

On Saturday we spent the day packing up our stuff (more of a "me" than a "we"), putting Christmas stuff away, shoveling walks (that was more of a "he" than a "we"), and finally loading all of our stuff and ourselves into the van. Seriously - you would have thought we were going for 4 weeks, not 4 days -- that thing was packed to the gills! We had already decided to just avoid the headache of taking the kids out to eat and instead brought enough food and drinks to last us the whole time. Also, the hot item of the week had been the new kitchen, fake food and tea sets that arrived at Christmas, so we decided to bring those along. (The kitchen barely comes up to my waist -- it's tiny. The fake food and tea sets are all in one 3-drawer rolling plastic bin, so it was easy traveling with those.) We also loaded up a bag full of trains and books. We were all set!

We planned on leaving around 1 but didn't get on the road until about 3. Not a big deal until we decided we needed to make two stops once we got into our little mountain town. By the time we got to the condo, checked in and got everything unloaded it was about 6. I think it was around this time that I told Chris I felt like I was getting sick. My throat was starting to hurt, I had a headache and I just felt a little "off". (Remember that Mitchell and I were both already on antibiotics for strep at this point.) I sort of shrugged it off though because I assumed it was just from having a busy day and not staying totally on top of drinking enough water, so I just started drinking a lot of it right then.

We had a fun night and made some pizzas for dinner. There was a great gas fireplace in the living room which really warmed the whole room -- and it was so cozy and relaxing. (The kids did a wonderful job of staying away from it, too!) The kids were so excited to be in the mountains and it was snowing off and on, which was beautiful to watch. Mitchell was already asking to go play outside in the snow, and we promised him that we would the next day.

We are a sports-loving family, so we were all having fun watching football together - especially since Mitchell insisted on bringing his new Broncos outfit and helmet with him. He loves to pretend he's in the game and "helping the team" - it makes us laugh to see him running around in his own little football game. Such a goof! The only problem that we found was that the large, rectangular window above the couch was REALLY drafty...super drafty. That weekend was filled with high wind and very cold temperatures so we had to improvise with some extra pillows and sheets to block the draft. We never got it completely sealed off but it was much better after our little alteration. The kids also had fun "making dinner" and just playing together in the living room.

We got everyone settled into bed that first night -- Georgia didn't really even fight sleeping in her pack n' play, which was fantastic! There was a little cut-out closet with no doors right inside of our bedroom that made the perfect, cozy little spot for her. Mitchell ended up just sleeping with us. We have a queen sized bed at home, so this HUGE king bed had more than enough room for all of us. Chris and I were both exhausted, so we all went to bed at the same time.

The next morning (Sunday) when I woke up - I knew I was about to get hammered. (I should mention here that we had some "people" over for dinner on Friday night and it turns out that one of them had been sick in bed with a bad cough/cold and the chills *read: fever* all day, yet didn't tell us this and still came to dinner at our house so I was hoping against hope that this wouldn't happen. I'm trying VERY hard not to be bitter or angry about this, as I'm sure you can understand.) I felt absolutely HORRIBLE and feverish. I also was starting to cough and every time that I did it felt like my entire throat and chest were literally on fire. (You know how it feels when you run in really cold weather? That burning?) Mitchell was also starting to cough a bit, which worried me as I was sure he'd soon be feeling like I was. We got everyone fed and sort of got our stuff a bit more settled in the kitchen and living room. It really is so very beautiful up there -- and the kids, like us, were amazed by the view out of our window. We all sat taking it in for awhile, watching for birds and squirrels and other wildlife. There were some gorgeous bluejays that kept flying in and out of the trees right off of our deck.

Mitchell was begging all morning to go outside, so we decided that since the wind hadn't kicked up too much yet, that it would be as good a time as any. (Good thing - the 20 minutes we were outside was it for the WHOLE weekend!!) I really can't believe that I'm putting this picture in here -- you can see how great I felt. Oh, and for the record, I didn't even BRING my makeup bag with me on the trip so just know that. (And BethAnne, my friend, I don't even want to HEAR about another horrible hair/no makeup day from you -- I've clearly trumped you but good in the looking glorious department.) Anyway - it was pretty cold out there (but then again, I had a fever) so we didn't stay long but the kids had so much fun just tromping around in the snow outside of our complex. They cleared the whole picnic table off -- I think that's what took the most time -- and Mitchell made a few great snow angels. Oh, and sweet Miss G did her usual face plant in the snow thing, of course. Then we headed back inside for more football and some hot chocolate and snacks.

I'll give you the nutshell version of the rest of the weekend:

*By about 2pm that day, Mitchell and I both were feeling awful. He and I both kept our fevers until Tuesday morning. His got up to 104 but was usually around 102 and mine was around 101 most of the time. Tylenol and motrin (just for him) helped, but only temporarily. *Georgia joined in on the fun for most of Monday by throwing up once and having a low grade fever, but other than that seemed to be feeling like herself most of the time. *Chris ended up escaping the sick bug -- but I wonder if that's because he was already on Tamiflu from his little episode the week before. *We watched a lot of football and cartoons and I was thankful that there was a Law & Order Marathon on tv all night long since I didn't do much sleeping. *Chris ran to the grocery store 3 times for more medicine, drinks, etc. which was the only money we spent, so at least that was a good thing *He got in the private hot tub on our deck exactly one time but was in sheer heaven while he was soaking *I was actually awake at midnight on New Year's -- of course that's because Mitchell's fever wouldn't go down and I was worried sick while he slept on me. *There were super high winds and it was freezing!! all weekend long, so even if we'd wanted to go outside, we couldn't have.

So.

Here we are, back at home a week later. (And it's the middle of the night as I'm still not sleeping very good, thanks to this monster cough.) I'm still sick, though much better. Mitchell is the same way. Georgia drank out of his cup a few days ago and today came down with a 101.6 degree fever and a cough. *ding,ding* Round 2 anyone??

Still.

It's manageable. It stinks like crazy and I truly have not been this sick in years, but it's manageable. And temporary. And as Chris and I kept repeating to each other all last weekend while we were away...at least we're together.

I'll be back more often once we kick this thing for good. Hope everyone else's year is off to a better start!

Echo...echo...echo....

Hellooooo.....
Helllooooo.....
Hellllooooo...

Is that an echo? I need to clear the bloggy cobwebs, huh? Ohhhhh, my friends...what a week it has been around here!

Both of my kids had a short-lived tummy bug at the end of last week. Mitchell's came back in the middle of the night the next day though (meaning more pukey sheets to wash!) and a fever came with it, which was different from Georgia who simply threw up twice and was fine two hours later. I took him to urgent care on Sunday after learning that our neighbor (who is also his classmate at school) had just tested positive for strep the day before and sure enough -- he had it, too. The doctor was nice enough to write me a pregnancy-friendly prescription, too -- that way I could save myself the $50 copay if I started having symptoms.

Anyway - for me the sad part (you know, in addition to having sick kids and having to repeatedly clean up throw up with a delicate pregnant nose and wash sheets 6 - yes I counted- times) was having to miss our annual "cookie day" at my mom's house. We get together and make all kinds of cookies for Christmas: iced sugar cookies that we really get into decorating, russian tea cookies, chocolate chip (a different than usual recipe), peanut butter, raspberry jam filled sugar cookies, Danish dapples, and peanut brittle. It's a big-time tradition for us and a day that I always really enjoy. Even though *I* wasn't sick, if there was a chance that I would be, I didn't want to be preparing food that 35 people would eat on Christmas Eve, as the cookies are our family's dessert every year. I also stayed home from making our yummy meatballs on Sunday which also bummed me out, but again - better safe than sorry. Sooooo, anyway - Sunday was a pretty good day - Mitchell seemed much better and the rest of us felt fine.

Then, on Monday - yes, that would be Christmas Eve - I ended up having the other kind of tummy issue allllllllllllllllll day long. Chris had to work and when he left for work it wasn't too terrible yet, but it quickly got to the point where I was pretty much non-functional. (I have hit that pretty much constantly nauseated point of my pregnancy, so that on top of the other stuff = not good.) I knew Chris had a really big, important meeting at 3pm though, so I just decided to suck it up and handle it myself. Both of our parents offered to come help me take care of the kids, but there was no way that I wanted to pass this stuff around so I just managed. The tv was on literally all day long and they ate things that required me to get up no longer than about 2 minutes: cereal, cheese quesadillas that I nuked in the microwave for 30 seconds, fruit, etc. The rest of the time I was either parked on the sofa or in the bathroom. I think Georgia must have sensed just how yucky I felt because all she wanted to do was sit on me all day. Literally. That girl never left my side -- I think it was the most still I've seen her. Ever. Such a sweetie -- and Mitchell was such a big helper to me. So, we made it through the day. By the time my husband fought traffic, stopped at the store for me and finally arrived home, it was later than he had hoped. He got the kids fed and into bed and then came downstairs with me.

He started acting really weird right about then. Now, I don't know if any of you have the type of husbands who will just readily tell you when they don't feel good, but if you do - count your blessings. I have one stubborn man who pretty much tries to hide and/or downplay his illnesses. It is always sooooooooo annoying when he's denying that anything is wrong, but on this day it was particularly feather-ruffling for me. After he tidied up the kitchen, he came and sat on the loveseat directly across from the couch that I was laying on. He had his hands between his knees, his head bent over and he was rocking back and forth slightly. I asked him what was wrong and he said he was just really cold.

Really cold? MY husband? I have never in our almost 6 years of marriage heard him say that he was ever slightly cold unless we are literally outside in frigid weather. Usually I will have on three layers of clothes, two blankets (so not kidding) and still be cold and he'll be talking about how it's hot in the house since I turned the heat up.

Anyway - I knew something was up, so I had him come over and let me take his temperature. It was 101.5 and I just sighed. Here we go again.

I'll spare you the long, drawn out version - -ha! Too late, huh? I ended up being up all night long with him (he slept most of the night though) worrying myself silly because his fever climbed all the way to 104.9 and wouldn't come back down past just under 102. He was in pretty bad shape and it was worrisome for me to see him have such a high fever, as that is COMPLETELY unusual. I did the whole alternating tylenol and ibuprofen thing every 3 hours and let me tell you how fun it was to convince him each time to sit up and take it. Uhhh, yeah.

Luckily, I started actually feeling much better during the night and by the time Tuesday (Christmas morning) rolled around, I actually felt like I was halfway human again. The yuckies had stopped and my stomach was no longer constantly rolling. I was actually hungry and enjoyed drinking some water and gatorade. Funny how little things like that will make you so happy sometimes.

We had cancelled our annual Christmas breakfast with all of the grandparents, but my parents still came over to see the kids open their big surprises. (I ran around - again - with the lysol spray and clorox wipes prior to their arrival.) Poor Chris managed to make it to the landing, where he sat to watch a safe distance away from everyone. After about 2 gifts for each kiddo, we packed them up and shipped them off to grandma and grandpa's for the day and a sleepover. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how sad it was for me to not spend Christmas with my children, but it was important for us to make sure that they still had an enjoyable holiday, and we knew that it was the best thing.

Chris went back to bed for a few hours and then it was back to urgent care again. I should mention that it was snowing hard all day on Tuesday, so we got to do all of this running around in the middle of a very cold, blustery day. The doctor told him that he had influenza, gave him a shot of something and a prescription for tamiflu. Off to the pharmacy! Of course the one that is about a mile from our home was closed, so it was off to the Walgreens about 20 minutes away. It turns out that half of the world was in the same place and we ended up waiting almost two hours for our prescriptions. (I decided to just go the cautious route at this point and take the antibiotics.) As we were sitting there waiting and people watching, we knew that the kids were definitely where they needed to be and we were thankful to just be together. When our name was finally called, we grabbed a frozen pizza and some drinks on the way out, which gave us a good laugh. We never envisioned grabbing our Christmas dinner from Walgreens. I also told him that no one had selected "pizza" on my what will you have for Christmas dinner poll, yet here I was.

As we drove home, a little piece of irony came to my mind. My friend and I write the group's discussion questions for half of the MOPS meetings, and one that I myself had come up with for our most recent meeting was about a holiday where things didn't go as planned. Nice foreshadowing, don't you think? On our slow, snowy drive home, we were talking about people we know that have critically ill children who are in the hospital, friends who have endured major family losses so close to the holidays, and all of our country's soliders who would LOVE to be driving home with a frozen pizza from Walgreens, as long as they were with their sick-as-a-dog spouse on Christmas. We still had a whole load of presents to open with each other and the kids, even if it was a day or two later.

We decided right then and there that we really didn't have too much to complain about after all.

So, the good news is that we *hopefully* got all of the sickies out of the way before we head out of town. We are off to the mountains today to spend three nights at a lovely little condo. Just the four (and a half) of us. We're really looking forward to it and have already decided that instead of killing ourselves to get the house all crazy perfect before we leave, we're going to call the realtor's office and tell them no showings this weekend. That really wasn't a difficult decision at all. At this point, it's all about our family and what we need: some time to get away together, relax and unwind.

Happy New Year, friends. May you all enjoy a year filled with love, peace, happiness, health, and an abundance of God's blessings. Thank you for filling my year with friendship, hope, encouragment and laughter. See you in 2008!

She surprised everyone but us...

Today our baby girl had surgery. Very minor surgery (just got tubes put in both of her ears), but let's face it -- when you're putting your child under general anesthesia, any surgery is major to you.

Originally, I had scheduled the first available date, which was last Wednesday at 10:15. As I wrote it on the calendar, I called back about 5 minutes later and rescheduled for the first date we could get the first appointment of the day. When I thought about not letting Georgia eat or drink ANYTHING until 10:00 in the morning -- let's just say it wasn't a good idea.

We had to be there at 6:15 a.m. today, so we opted to just have Mitchell spend the night at his Nana and Papa's house. He is SUCH a trooper and thank goodness his new "thing" is that he is all about having sleepovers at the grandparents' houses. He had a great time, and it was nice for us to just be able to come home and focus on Miss G last night and this morning. We had to leave here at 5:45 a.m., so that meant we had to wake our little sweet pea up.

I gently rubbed her back and said "Good morning, Georgia. Time to wake up, honey!" She just lifted her head up off of the crib mattress and looked around the room with squinty eyes. After about 30 seconds of that, a big smile spread across her face and she struggled to sit up. At this point, my husband walked in the room and with a head full of crazy hair, she lit up our hearts with the sweetest "Da-DA!" you've ever heard. I scooped her up and was met with her sweet little head on my shoulder for a morning snuggle that was truly a blessing.

I'm sorry, but how many people do you know are that SWEET when being forced awake before 6 a.m.? I really need to take a page out of her book...our baby girl is seriously just happy to be alive and in the room. We changed her diaper, grabbed her beloved Duck Duck and loaded her into the car. I thought maybe she would figure out that she hadn't had her normal bottle or sippy cup as we drove to the surgical center, but instead she just happily babbled to herself and Duck Duck. Her little giggle over who knows what spread to the front seat because we couldn't help but join in as she just laughed at herself in the mirror and her scruffy purple duck with the pink plaid bow.

We got to the surgical center to get checked in. (Can I just say here that it was COMPLETELY unnecessary for us to be there over an hour early?? Really. It was just dumb.) The woman at the front desk immediately got caught up in Georgia's early morning goofiness. She couldn't stop telling her how cute she was, and she couldn't stop telling Chris and I how amazed she was by Georgia being so awake and lively so early in the morning.

Chris and I just looked at each other and smiled -- we weren't surprised. She's always been like this.

When the nurse came in to get us for all of the pre-op stuff, the woman at the front desk told her "This is Georgia and I guarantee you, she'll be your favorite patient of the day." What a nice thing to hear, even if she does say that about everyone. Georgia began to charm ol' Jude's socks off as well -- holding her foot up and saying her favorite word, "shoes" about a million times as she put the pulse ox thingie on her big toe. When we were done in the first little room, Jude took us back to the rows of beds that you wait for the doctors in.

That's where the baton was handed to the next nurse as far as being smitten with Miss G goes. Georgia began doing her "talking" thing for this nurse...if you haven't seen it in person, it's hard to describe. Basically she gets very animated and jabbers for about 30 seconds in a very conversational tone -- it's evident that she is telling you something very important. The problem is, you can't understand a single word.

It comes out something like this:
"Dabajanabadeedodi." (One hand up in the air.)
"Shambaloomabadadadama." (Pointing across the room.)
"Shumtanastabodido." (Annnnd, she's finished.)

Yep, one of those and that lady was reeled on in. She just went on and on about how much Georiga had to say for such a little person.

Chris and I just looked at each other and smiled -- we weren't surprised. She's always been like this.

We then went back out to the waiting room where we caught some Clifford on the flat screen, played with the bead maze, and played walk around the room like a 2 foot, 4 inch drunk with an empty paper cup. Good times.

After about 30 minutes, the nurse came to get us and said that the doctors were ready for us. As we got back to the row of beds, we found the ENT and anesthesiologist waiting for us, along with two other nurses. We filled out all of the last minute consent forms (you know, the ones where we say we understand that things for this run-of-the-mill procedure could go very, very wrong...the ones that put a lump in your throat while you sign as the doctors tell you it's a really simple, uncomplicated surgery) and I got the pleasure of getting into a white paper Elvis (the fat years) suit and a lovely blue paper hat.

As all of this was going on, Georgia took this opportunity to start working the doctors over. Well, doctor. Our ENT (as our pediatrician explained when we first were referred to him for our son about 3 years ago) is one of the best in town, but his bedside manner is not his strong suit. He is a nice enough person, but we have yet to see his sense of humor over the years and he is pretty much all business. Fine with us -- he's cutting holes in our kids' ears, we're happy to know he's got it under control. In any case, he was not prone to fall under Georgia's "I'm so cute" spell, he was there to work.

The anesthesiologist, on the other hand, was more of a softie. I had spoken with him when he called our home the night before. (By the way, how impressive is that? He called us at home to make sure we didn't have any questions, to let us know how everything would go in the morning and to just make sure we were comfortable with the whole procedure. I was blown away that such a caring customer service step would take place in this nasty medical environment.) During our conversation on the phone, he told me I was welcome to go back with Georgia as he put her under. He said "Well, she's 14 months old so she probably won't just go off with me." I told him that she just might, actually. While we were filling out the paperwork and getting me in my paper suit, he said "You were right -- I bet she would go with me if I wanted her to!"

Chris and I just looked at each other and smiled -- we weren't surprised. She's always been like this.

Finally it was time for the surgery so Daddy gave her some squeezes and kisses and then I carried Georgia and Duck Duck down the hall, following the doctors and nurses to the OR. I don't care if it is a simple little five minute surgery -- it all hits home when you walk into the big, sterile operating room, complete with a team of doctors, nurses, tubes, wires and machines. I sat on the little chair with her as the anesthesiologist got her mask ready.

This part sucked. Really bad. I'd been through it before with Mitchell when he got tubes and I knew exactly what to expect, but it still sucked.

I held Georgia while he put the mask over her face. Her cute side faded away and her feisty spirit emerged as she fought both of us. Holding her still for the mask to stay in place, was a bit like trying to change her diaper these days -- she definitely got her wiggle on and made it known that she did not approve of this next move of ours. *Patting myself on the back* I managed not to cry, instead just sang Georgia her name song and told her it was okay to go night night, that Daddy and I would be there when she woke up.

Like I said, I *know* how it goes, I know what it looks like, I know what it sounds like, but still. She stiffened up, her breathing became labored and squeaky and it really did look like she was slipping away. The broken record in my head was "She's just going to sleep, she's just going to sleep, she's just going to sleep" as I helped lay her on the table. They assured me she'd be fine and that they'd take good care of her as I turned to go find my husband.

I really didn't think I would, but I did cry on the walk back. The nurse was comforting me and I assured her that I knew it was fine. And I was. It's just -- ugh. I don't know how to put that feeling into words, walking away from that O.R.

We got our stuff, and headed to the waiting room. We weren't there very long - -just a few minutes, I think. The ENT came out and said that everything went great. She had a lot of thick fluid in her ears that they were able to remove and they put in the first set of antibiotic drops for us. He explained the post-op instructions, when to call for a follow up visit, yadda yadda. A few minutes later, the anesthesiologist came out to talk to us as well. He told us that he gave her some pain medicine in her nose during the surgery to help and that he thought she did great. He said she was still sleeping and that he was a fan of letting them wake up as slowly as possible so that it wasn't such a shock to them. Still, he warned us that most of the time, kids would be upset, usually some crying and even times screaming for up to 45 minutes because they were jsut so confused and disoriented. He wanted us to be prepared for that so that we knew it was normal, and assured us that by this afternoon, she'd be back to her normal self. We thanked him and waited for the nurses to come get us.

A few minutes later, in came the recovery nurse. She had a big grin on her face and said that Georgia was awake and that we could come see her, but that we might not be able to take her home because they might want to steal her because she was so cute. As we walked down the hall to the recovery area, she told us that she couldn't believe what a great mood Georgia was in, and that she actually woke up giggling and chattering away.

Chris and I just looked at each other and smiled -- we weren't surprised. She's always been like this.

As we walked in, we saw Miss Georgia cuddled up in a blanket in the arms of a Grandma-ish looking nurse, clutching Duck Duck in one hand, the other hand animatedly pointing around the room as she busily educated the nurses on the finer features of the recovery room. A huge smile lit up her face when she saw us and she immediately reached out and lunged toward me with both arms in that "Mommy, hold me!" posture that I'm so familiar with these days. I gladly took her from the nurse and planted lots of kisses on her sweet forehead as she snuggled into the recliner with me. Chris got the bottle we'd brought out of the diaper bag, which got her very excited. We spent the next 20 minutes or so, cuddled up in the recliner laughing with the nurses about what a sweet baby girl we have. It then launched into talking about each of their older children and what they were like as kids. Funny how that happens -- parents are just physically unable to help themselves from sharing about their own kids, aren't they? After a few goldfish and lots of flirting, we were ready to go. We waved bye-bye, blew kisses and thanked everyone for taking such good care of our precious baby girl.

As Chris and I walked with her to the car, we laughed at how she'd spent the morning entertaining and charming the staff. We also talked about how as usual, she had surprised everyone but us with her sunny disposition during an experience that is usually expected to be anything but happy.

That's our Georgia.

Tired...

Okay, I must have already called a post tired, because when I put in the "ti", the whole word popped up. Well, I guess that's not surprising.

I'm friggin' tired, people.

My kids were sick last week and now my husband is sick. This all means that I try desperately not to *get* sick while caring for them while they are sick. I'm sick of all of this flippin' (different than friggin') sickness!!!!

I do have to say, I'm sort of an idiot though. I mean, here I am, devoting an entire post to being tired and it's 11:21 pm. Am I in bed? Ummmm, not so much.

See, the problem is that when I get tired, really tired, I get wound up.

Off to unwind...

Yuck. And Beyond...

So, I spent 18 hours between Saturday night (midnight) and Sunday evening (6pm) being REALLY sick. Both ends sick.

Nasty. Disgusting. And STINKY.

I am SOOOO thankful that this joyous little adventure was all mine -- the only thing worse is when you have to take care of others who are doing the both ends thing while doing it yourself, so I'd like to stop and say another round of thanks to The Big Guy for not unleashing that upon the house. My angel of a hubby stayed home and took care of the kids, both of whom decided to be complete saints all day long.

I just drank a cup of chicken and rice soup -- it's noon and it was the first thing I could bring myself to eat. Half a piece of bread for breakfast -- does that count? Thankfully it seems to be fine, I'm just a little gunshy because of yesterday.

Oh well, I feel pretty much back to normal, I just don't want to push things. Nothing like a day of complete misery to make you realize just how thankful you should be for your daily health.

I'm thankful, believe me, I'm thankful.

Helpless...

Ya ever feel helpless?

Like when your hubby has 90 bijillion things going on at work and you can't help him do them?

Or when someone you know is in the crappiest relationship and you just have to sit back and watch them get pooed on and be there for them?

Or when someone you care about is in physical pain and there's now way around it?

Or when people make other people feel like crap and then buddy up again when they need something? And you want to say something but the crapee doesn't want you to?

Or when both of your kids have double ear infections and fevers?

Stuff like that makes me feel helpless.

Colds. Suck.

Both of my kids have one.

We were in the car for 18 hours this weekend.

Need I say more?

Ugh.

I hate having a sick kid. Know what's worse?

Two of them.

This is a new thing for me. They've never been sick at the same time. I'm sure it's a bug that M was kind enough to bring home from school. It's just a cold, but still -- you know how that goes. Poor little Georgia. I fed her at 5:30 and then she slept again until about 8:30. Went in to get her and she had snot ALL OVER her little face. :( I did the whole saline/suction thing and man -- I didn't know she had room for all of that in there!! Poor thing -- even after my extraction session, she still had to take breathers to eat. Sweet girl.

I don't feel all that lovely myself today either, so today should be interesting. I just feel so bad because there's not a TON of stuff you can do for colds. I think we'll do rest, some soup, turn on the humidifier, spray the saline, and veg out.

*cough*sniffle*hack*wheeze*snort*

Anyone wanna come over and play?

Ick.

Ick for Mitchell. Ick for me.

He threw up 2 nights ago in his sleep. The scary part is he didn't wake up. That really freaks me out because I know that is a VERY dangerous thing to do. I remember a story about the same thing happening to me when I was little.

He came downstairs to say hi to me in the morning and I noticed he smelled pretty funky so I said "Did you poop?" He said "No." Then I saw his sleeve and it had puke on it. Uh-oh. I said "Honey, did you throw up last night?" He said "Ummmm...yeah. It's in my bed. I'm sorry, Mommy! I didn't mean to." :( Poor guy -- he thought he'd be in trouble. I can just picture him waking up and looking around going "Uhhhhooohhhh." I made sure he knew I wasn't mad, he wasn't in trouble, nothing at ALL in that direction but that I needed to get those sheets washed up and clean his room real good to get rid of the germs.

I go upstairs and OH MY WORD. It was EVERYWHERE!!! He has a twin bed with a sheet and a blanket, plus bed rails, about 8 stuffed animals, 3 pillows and a folded blanket at the foot of his bed. It was over ALL of it. I think that he mainly did two little piles and then basically rolled around in it all night. Yucko. The first thing I did was put him right in the tub - - I discovered that it was in his hair once I knew what was up. The funny thing is that it's caked in his hair but he was really worried about this one spot about the size of a thumbtack on his big toe and wanted to make sure I got that off first. LOL.

It took me 4 loads to get it all done -- plus about half an hour in the bathtub rinsing it all down the drain first. I kept having to take breathers to come out for some clean air. Not good. I made sure that I opened all of the windows, turned on the fan and Lysoled every square INCH of that room. Then I did the same thing to the bathtub and bathroom. Then I ran around the entire house and Lysoled the whole place.

The bad part was that Chris was golfing. The good thing was that Georgia had JUST fallen asleep so I didn't have to try and entertain her while I was doing everything and by the time I needed to switch out laundry and stuff, Chris was home. He also was able to stop at the store to get some pedialyte freezer pops -- the only thing Mitchell will ingest when he's like this.

Anyway -- he was acting completely normal, didn't feel warm, etc. I was letting him play his Arthur game on the computer and I was talking to my mom on the phone about my grandmother, who was in the hospital and not doing well. He came over and said "Mommy, I want to have you. I need you." (This is Mitchell code for something's up and I need a hug.) He had a very weird look on his face so I said to my mom that I needed to go right then and hung up. I said "Do you need to throw up again?" He said "No" and just hugged me. About 2 seconds (literally) later he coughs and I thought, Oh crap. So I put my hand over his mouth and sure enough he starts to vomit. I ran like the wind as much as someone with a bad knee carrying a 35 pound three year old with one hand can and made it to the bathroom before it started to come out of my hand. We got 95 percent of it in the toilet, thank goodness. He was freaked out, poor guy. Throwing up is SOOO awful. What a horrible feeling it is!!!

SO -- I got him cleaned up and changed again, and parked his bootie on the couch for the rest of the day. He got to watch more tv yesterday than he usually does all week. He ate that up, too!! He put himself down for a nap in the afternoon and when he woke up -- he was burning up. That next 1 1/2 hours was not fun -- he was a bear, wouldn't drink ANYTHING and fought me really hard on taking his motrin. About half an hour after we got it down him, things started to get better.

Of course, this is the 4th of July -- Chris' favorite holiday and we were really looking forward to a fun family day. Bummer. We WERE gonna go to the park, eat lunch at Chili's, watch the Space Shuttle take off, watch the World Cup game, bbq and go to the ampitheater in our neighborhood for a picnic and fireworks over the lake. We managed to do the Space Shuttle, soccer game and bbq. We discovered that we had a clear, unobstructed view of the fireworks show from our bedroom so we watched them all together on our bed. Well, everyone but Georgia who was sound asleep in her crib.

It worked out okay -- wicked storms that I know I wouldn't have sat in for 2 hours and we watched the different fireworks shows on TV. Mitchell was psyched because Elmo was on the PBS show, so it worked out okay.

Now we just hope that it was a short lived deal just for him. I think G was a touch warm and she's pooped more today than normal, but overall she seems fine. *knock on wood*

I just hate the sickies.

Not a fan...

of being sick. Seriously -- it just sucks. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm keeping my perspective. I don't have a serious illness, it's not life threatening...it's just a cold. But it sucks.

It's the kind of cold where your throat is raw, you have back of the throat drainage, a cough that uses your entire chest and body/head aches. Doesn't that sound FANTASTIC???

I think the hardest part is to not lose my patience at home. I find myself being snippy faster -- I've apologized my fair share of times to Mitchell today. I think I'm just so ready to be laid out on the couch instead of chasing him around and everything that comes with a 3 month old girl. (How did THAT happen, by the way???)

Anyway - -I'm off to couch land. Just had to whine first. I hate being sick. I wished it hated me enough to leave me alone!!

The kids are sick...

Yep, even Georgia. It's so heartbreaking to have a person that teeny tiny be sick. It started out that she was congested last week. I remember expressing a bit of concern to a couple of people about it, but always got the "all newborns are stuffed up" thing. Then she had her 2 week appt on Wednesday -- he didn't seem concerned, but she wasn't too bad at that time. Well, Thursday rolled around and I felt like complete poop.

Wake up Friday morning, Georgia's miserable and so am I. Fight through Friday and looks like everything's fine -- I'm in the bathroom around the corner and hear "cough/splash, cough/splash". I thought "Oh no!!" Sure enough, Mitchell had thrown up twice all over the living room. (After eating his red fruit snacks, btw. We have light grey carpet. Yes -- it was as pretty as it sounds.) There was quite a bit of mucous in it, even though he didn't sound stuffy and hadn't been coughing, I had a feeling it was the same thing as G and I were dealing with.

He woke up Saturday morning -- yep, he's got the crud too. (Personally, I'm suspicious that he had it first and showed up sick the latest, but we'll never know.) This weekend basically just SUCKED because the three of us were just sick. Poor Chris -- hope he doesn't get it. We whipped out the lysol and clorox all weekend and both of our hands are dry as bones from washing them over and over.

Throw the illness on top of a huge temperature drop and a snowstorm and boy howdy! Does it GET more fun than this??? Only when your kids don't sleep - like last night. Mitchell was up from 1 - 3:45. So fun!! NOT. Ugh. We even gave him tylenol which usually makes him conk out, but that didn't help. He was just awake and looking miserable. Oh well. He's up and at 'em this morning and doesn't seem to be feeling too badly, so hopefully that's a good thing. The encouraging thing about him is that his snotties are still clear. Georgia's got all of this green and yellow goo that makes me a bit nervous. Oh well, we called the ped and they said it sounded like we were doing all of the right things -- I'm just ready for her to feel better and breathe easily. Poor thing -- she's too little to be sick. Makes me so sad. :(

Okay -- he's done eating breakfast now. Gotta run -- should be a LOOONNNNGGG day. Oh, and Chris has to stay late tonight -- I don't know who's more upset about that -- him or me. Both, I guess. Oh well, wish me luck with today!!

Random thoughts on a Sunday morning...

Well, if you'd like to know, the title for each new blog post is usually the stumper for me. Since I don't have a specific topic in mind this morning, thought I'd just call it what it is and be done with it.

I felt AWFUL yesterday -- bathroom issues. My dad and mom were sweet enough to take Mitchell to a friend's birthday party for me, which ended up being a good thing. I didn't feel okay again until I woke up this morning. The issues resolved like mid-afternoon, but I still didn't feel really great. I found out that not only did they go, but that my sister in law, brother, 2 nephews and my sil's sister all went too. I really couldn't believe it when I heard that -- who would ever think to do that? (My family, obviously.) I was of course concerned about how my friend received them. I mean, it was in a restaurant that has tons of kids anyway, but I just felt bad that the focus was supposed to be on Mitchell's little friend and here comes my herd of a family. Apparently they got their own table, but I feel bad about that. I think that Mitchell should have sat at the table with his buddy, not with my family. Anyway, nothing I can do about it now -- I just feel bad about it. My sister in law called last night and said she'd like to send my friend's little boy a book or something with a thank you note for being so nice, which is a nice gesture. Ugh. Oh well...can't worry about it now. I just left my friend a message apologizing for the crashing of his party. I really hope she's not mad. I had no idea that would happen or in all honesty, I would never have had them take him. I just know Mitchell loves that place (it's the same place we had his party), he was excited to see his buddy and we already had the gift.

Anyway...today we're going to Sam's Club. I'm already cringing thinking about how much the total will be at the checkout stand. We have a hard time getting out of there for under 2 or 3oo on our normal trips, and we really want to stock up today. Plus, we've really run down our freezer and pantry supplies lately, so I think it would be more than usual anyway. Oh well...we've got it figured out, just those big numbers are hard to hear! It sure will be nice to bring baby home to a well stocked freezer and pantry though. At least for those first couple of weeks, or hopefully the first month or so.

Chris is excited because NASCAR starts again today. I'm happy for him, but my goodness, they just finished like 2 weeks ago, I swear!!! It's like the neverending sport season. This also means that we were in Daytona for the big race a year ago...strange. I was at my thinnest, having some beer, eating blue cheese, staying up late, etc. I think that's one of the things about having a baby...for the rest of the family, it really kicks in when baby comes home. For the woman carrying the baby...you pretty much start giving up things from day one. I want to try and breastfeed again for at least 6 months, so by the time it's all said and done, that's a good year and half or so of my body not being my own. I know it sounds selfish but I'm ready to have it back to myself.

Last night Georgia was a maniac when I was trying to go to bed. She was REALLY on the move, kicks and punches in my sides, in my ribs, out my hoo-haa (I swear!). Chris was downstairs doing some work, so I was all alone and silly as it sounds, I sat up after about 10 minutes and had a chat with my little girl. It was after 10 pm, I was wiped out and all those movements really HURT. I sat up and said "Look, Georgia. Either screw your head way down in there and break my water or settle down and go to sleep." 5 minutes later she decided to go to sleep. I actually only got up once to go to the bathroom last night and Mitchell slept till 7. I feel much better today...amazing what some rest can do for the body. I actually woke up because I heard her mobile playing music...he LOVES it. He was standing in there watching and listening to it. He said "Hi, Mommy. I like her mobile-wheel." :) He's such a cutie. It's just bizarre because the last time he was so in love with it, he was a little infant boy laying in his crib giggling every time the yellow guy went around. Sigh. How'd he get to be so big??

Okay, before I get mushy I'm gonna go. Let me just say that I wouldn't be opposed to a little help from the full moon tomorrow night. A Valentine baby would be fine by me at this point. I'm ready to have her here.

Feeling blue...

I don't exactly know what's wrong with me, but I've been down in the dumps all week. Literally. Some really tragic news (someone I've grown to just adore gave birth to her little girl this week, and she was stillborn) hit me especially hard and just compounded the whole emotional side of life. I really, honestly don't know what the deal is. I have a WONDERFUL husband who has really tried very hard to be there for me and even brought me flowers one night. Bless him for that...if I don't understand what the heck is up with me, how in the world could he possibly do that? We were talking about things this morning and I just lost it. Again. Bawling my head off, can't get under control. Nice. I ended up calling my friend to tell her I won't make it to her little guy's birthday party...no way in the world could I have pulled that off. I of course start crying when I tell her I'm not coming...she asks if I'm in labor. Ha! That would mean I have a reason...no, just looney. Ugh. My friend is in town from California as well, so I missed a chance to see her which I hate as well. This better be a little hormonal dip that is followed by some sunshine soon.

In addition to my hormonal bluesy week, Mitchell has been a pill...not sleeping, pretty sassy, in general...being an expert 3 year old. Well, yesterday he had 6 poops and they were the kind that just BURN the skin. I mean it was on fire!! Poor guy. He just cannot figure out that telling us he's gone will be okay...especially when it hurts like that. He was screaming at the top of his lungs "OWIE, OWIE, STOP TOUCHING MOMMY, IT HURTS MOMMY" etc. while I'm trying to clean him off. It's one thing to tag team that with Chris but by myself at 37 (almost) weeks preggo is just NOT a good thing. I ended up soaking his little bottom in the tub for 10 minutes a couple of times and have gone through a ton of little washcloths with warm water because the wipes just kill him. It's much better today...I cut out the dairy, and all he's had are plain noodles, some toast, dry cereal and some applesauce. He hasn't gone yet today so hopefully it was a one day thing, but I have no idea what triggered it. Just praying we're on the upturn.

Some good news is that everything is plugging along with the pregnancy. Georgia is fine, I'm fine, nothing to report. She's measuring almost a week ahead, but does that really even mean anything? I don't think so, other than she's bigger than her brother was at this point.

Well, I'm exhausted. Chris and I had a pretty big tiff today and I don't think either of us feel good about it at all. There were plenty of tears on my end which I'm sure he was hoping he'd already seen the last of. How do you explain to someone that you have no idea why you're crying, that you have no idea why you're being unreasonable, that you have no idea why everything is putting you on edge and making you upset? Men need reasons and logic and there's NONE to be had in this body. I'm hoping that he just cuts me some slack...again. Ugh. See, crying again just thinking about it. Mitchell was still sleeping, so he went to church on his own. Hopefully just being away from me for awhile will do him some good. Who'd have thought with the long hours he works that he'd want MORE time away from home? Wow. Not the kind of motivation I was hoping to dish out, but there I am. I made an effort to get outside and get some fresh air and sunshine...hope it sunk in. (Still feels like a rain cloud to me, but I'm working on it.)

Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Back in the land of the living...

Okay, so I highly recommend keeping your bowels in good working condition if you can at all help it. I was barely functioning last week, let alone even considering writing in this blog that I haven't shared anywhere yet. My digestive nightmare has come to a close for now, and I'm happy to report that I believe I am actually human again. I knew I was back in the ballgame when we were watching TV on Sunday and every single commercial prompted a "Doesn't that look SOOO yummy?" My hubby wants to know what kind of whacked out star I fell under to have diarrhea be my little "blessing" in the form of morning sickness with this pregnancy. I'll tell you what kind of star...the same one that, while performing my maid of honor duties during wedding pictures, had a golf ball fly from behind me, land on the cart path in front of me, bounce up my dress and smack me square on the kneecap! That same star was also in charge of me tearing my patellar tendon in my knee simply by standing still. I'm thinking it may have actually all started with my feet that are a half-size different in length. (Are you sensing a pattern yet?) All I know is that I take my health way too much for granted, and little episodes like the last week and a half reminded me of how lucky I am! Wouldn't you know it though...the DAY my diarrhea starts to clear up, I caught Mitchell's cold. Grrrrrr. Oh well, I can handle a cold...it just wipes me out.

Yes, that's right, I said it wipes me out and here I sit at 2 am typing. I think it might be a disease or something...I have always had sleep issues. My mom said I was a horrible napper, I never went to bed when I was supposed to, and I can still remember having really scary dreams while growing up. (I still have nightmares pretty regularly.) Grad school just sucked in the way of sleep...I actually spent many, many nights sleeping on the couch in front of the TV because that was the only way I could get to sleep. I'm a very light sleeper most of the time, and once I'm up, I'm up for awhile. Mitchell seems to have gotten Chris' ability to sleep through pretty much anything. Unfortunately, Chris and I both fell asleep on the couch tonight and I woke up at 12:45 and got us both upstairs. I didn't even turn the light on in the bedroom in hopes that I could just drift right back off, but half an hour and many, many random thoughts later, I was in the office with the computer fired up. I was just laying there thinking about things that really have no business swimming around my head at 1:00 in the morning...a couple of tasks I didn't get done today, phone calls I need to make, gifts I need to buy, the shirts waiting to be picked up at the dry cleaners, how dumb it is that I'm completely excited for our milk to be delivered in the morning, and what I'm going to make for dinner tomorrow so that I can defrost meat if I need to. Will someone please point me in the direction of the "off" switch in the brain so I can get some much needed sleep? I mean, seriously...do I really need to be thinking about frozen hamburger at 1 am? I think not. I am really tired...exhausted, actually...yet, I'm unable to just shut my eyes and go to sleep. Sigh. Off to get a snack and some ice water and then try again to go to sleep...I think I'll dig out my lavendar pillow spray and see if it helps. There's always Conan and Jay Leno...they usually help me out around this time of night. Wish me luck!!

That stupid alarm clock!!!

Okay, so it's really nice and all not having to wake up at or before the crack of dawn in order to get ready and go to work every day...but it really stinks when Chris' alarm wakes ME up, but not HIM like 10 times every morning. He woke up and went to work really early yesterday and actually got up like on the second alarm sounding. Well, we both fell asleep watching tv last night so when we went upstairs he just set his alarm and went to sleep. I didn't think anything about it until it started going off at 4:30!! Of course, then I couldn't go back to sleep. When it went off the third time I said "Are you needing to get up early?" He said "No, I forgot that it was set so early yesterday. Sorry." Grrrrrrrr!!! Totally not his fault and I understand, but here it is 5:45 and I'm about to head back in the bedroom and make sure he gets up on time. I just wish I could sleep like he and Mitchell do...they could sleep through anything and me, I hear one noise and I'm up for good.

Here's the other bad news about today...I have had diarrhea three times already this morning. Ugh. Ick. Gross. It is one of my least favorite things on the planet. I made myself an egg salad sandwich yesterday which was really yummy, but I'm guessing that it is the culprit. I can't think of anything else, and hope that this is a short-lived thing. Guess we won't be going anywhere today! I'll just try to drink even more water than normal and stick with toast and soup. Yuck.