Bubbles and Crutches

There is something about October that is not kind to us.  Last year it was bronchitis and swine flu for me and bad bad colds for the rest of the family.  This year it is a sprained ankle with ligaments that are taking forever to heal and pre-cancer on my face.  The pre-cancer earned me a twice yearly visit to the dermatologist.  But the worst thing of the whole month for me was getting the ointment for the pre-cancer on my lips.  I have never had such intense continuous pain in all my life.  Even 2 c-sections did not hurt this badly for this long.  For 2 weeks it was extremely painful to talk, for anything to touch my lips--from water to food.  This picture is the day after I got the ointment on my lips...I just had a little bit of a fat lip at this point, but it continued to swell. I now sport a brace on my foot and a month later still have the crutches.

For the last 6 weeks we have all 4 been passing around this awful cold with hacking cough--the kids and Den seem to be having the worst problem shaking it.  We actually passed it to Cookie--and she never gets sick.

We have tried to still have some fun.  Den was hanging out with the kids while I worked on a recent Saturday.  I love the photo Josie took of Den and Eddie.  Like Eddie, she is getting good with her camera.

Eddie seems to be enjoying kinder and learning a lot.  He comes home with a new tidbit almost daily--from onomatopoeia to really starting to read--he'd been recognizing words, but refusing to really read--'you do it'.  Now, he wants to read the books they send home from shcool each night as homework. 

Josie is settling in at preschool.  I think she likes it, but I don't think she is as excited as she was at the beginning of the year.  Something about having to be quiet when others are talking, and getting repremanded for washing her hands too long (ie playing in the water) does not sit well with her.

In other news, I ordered a print out of the blog in book form from Aug. 2005 (its inception) to Dec. 2006 from blog2print.  It was over 300 pages and I love it.  It includes all the comments, photos, etc.  I'm going to now print out each of the following years, just to have.  The kids really liked paging through all the pictures and I like having something in book form for the shelf.

More camping Photos

Here's the rest of the photos. I wish I could remember what the kids said their favorite part was about making smores. I think Eddie liked just eating all the marshmellows (we polished off 1/2 a package) and Josie I think liked the chocolate. Neither was crazy bowled over by roasting. There is time yet to teach them the fun of campfires...

Camping Part 1

About a month ago we took the kids camping at a great spot around 25 minutes away. It was a rousing sucess and the kids have been begging to go again ever since. We did the whole bit--cooked dinner on the one-match fire (the last picture is of them watching Den light the fire). We made smores and woke up a little cooler than expected. It was perfect weather too.

Potatos!

The main reason I'm not posting to blogger is because I can only upload 4 pictures at a time and that drives me crazy. I'm too lazy to learn new software (typepad, etc.), so here we are. I guess I only upload to facebook directly from my phone...

Anyhoo, Cookie had been telling us to harvest the potatos for some time, and Den said it wouldn't be time until later in SEpt. Well, later in SEpt. was too late and they had started to rot and sprout. Great if you want to have a later fall crop, but not if you wanted to eat right away :(

We did manage to get a bag or so--maybe between 7 and 10 pounds of potatos and the kids had a blast, each taking turns with the shovel and sifting through the dirt.

We had white and red. The white did much better than the red in terms of still being good.

First Days...

I let out a sigh just before I started typing. Conflicting emtions to be sure. With 2 days under his belt, Eddie continues to have a great time in kinder (I can't spell kindergarden). We were so rushed to get out the door on the first day because the bus was so early and it took us 15 minutes to roust Eddie from bed. Not because he didn't want to go, but because he wanted to stay in bed. Then he just slow rolled and chit-chatted his way through the morning. All of a sudden I realize I hear the bus, which unlike k-prep the stop is 10 houses away.

J and I dashed out the door while Den had Eddie slurp down his OJ. We hadn't gotten his teeth brused as Den and Eddie dashed out the door behind us, watching the bus pull up to the stop. Den had moments before commented on how he was not going to enjoy the stress of making the bus each morning. I directed Den to pick up Eddie and run for the bus. Halfway down the street it started to pull away and we yelled for it to stop. Happily some parents down there got him to stop and our sweet neighbor captured some photos of Eddie boarding the bus. These are all after school.

To avoid bus mishaps, they put a big green K sticker on the kinders. They sit in the very front of the bus and the driver is instructed to ensure each one is met by an adult. Despite this the system has still had some mishaps with kinders (and other students) being let off at the wrong place, etc.

Eddie knows his bus number and everything. However, we will be morning walkers (uphill both ways) as it is just about (just under) a mile and we are hopefully going to walk with several other families who seem to enjoy the morning stroll.

I asked Eddie who he sat next to in school and he couldn't tell me. When a neighbor kid asked the name of his teacher he didn't know. However, he was able to tell me he got to (was instructed to)play on the computer. That they lay on towels we send in on top of a soft rug for nap and that it's a fun place. Nuggests emerge here and there.

Josie had her first day of preschool today. She has the same teachers Eddie does and they all inquired about him (ones from both years). It's such a warm and friendly place. Apparently a couple preschoolers were crying at drop off but Josie did great. Can't believe she picked this green outfit to wear, but she was happy.

I asked her who she sat next to and she replied 'Jack' and who sits across? 'Jake'. She was pretty forthcoming about the events of the day in the way a 3 year old can be. Out of 11 kids in her class, 3 are named Jack, one Jake, one Joseph, then Josie, someone named Quinn, Rory and then a couple regular names.

Both were exhausted this evening and went to bed at 7:30. Time for me to shuffle off as well...

The Basement Stairs

I've been wanting to remove the carpet on the basement stairs for some time. Cookie, Den and Josie have all cut their heels on the carpet tacks sticking out from the worn out carpet (we guesstimate it's 30+ years old). Den hasn't been interested in doing anything because we hadn't decided exactly what to do after we removed the carpet.

I didn't let that deter me, and one Sunday a couple weeks ago I just got it in my head and got Den to agree to help score the carpet and with a couple brute force areas. It's so much better now, but I think we'll put carpet down this fall...

I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS!!!

I don't normally post to the blog while we are out of town, but will make an exception.  Bear with me here, becuase I need to vent.  Last Wed. J had a playdate with a buddy down the street she sees at least a couple times/week.  That afternoon J came down with a 102.7 degree fever.  By Thurs. afternoon she was pretty lethargic and not eating, but by Friday mroning the fever had broke and she was fine.  Nevertheless we steered clear of others all day Thurs. and Fri. 

Sat. we had a birthday party where said buddy and both sets of older siblings were there.  Sometime on Sat. J's buddy puked, we know not when.  Fast forward to Tues.  Buddy's mom and I decide to drive 5 hours round trip to a 'local' amusement park that everyone raves is great for the age range of our kids.  Everyone had a great time...but J's buddy had some odd rash all around his mouth all day and we couldn't figure out what it was.  This is also when I learned about his illness on Sat. and apparently he also had a fever at some point in the last week just like J's.

Today is Wed.  J was kind of cranky today, didn't eat anything all day and would barely drink.  We had Cookie over all morning while I packed the car and as we are driving down the street to head out on a long trip to Wisconsin, I realize I have a voicemail from J's buddy's mom saying that both boys have strep and also J's buddy has a staph infection.  The peds got us the next apointment and we barely got to the office in time.  Both my kids present with all the classic symptoms, red throats, swollen glands, J with a slight fever, Ed none and all and of course J not eating.  Yet the rapid strep came back negative.  ugh.  Almost would have been easier if it came back positive because anti-biotics could be started and away we'd go. 

Doctor suspects it's a virus, but was surprised they both came back negative, saying that if one was positive and one was negative, then both would have been put on anti-biotics.  He said they should be over the virus by Friday, but that he would call us Friday morning with the grown culture results that take 2 days to show results.  If it is strep, 24 hours of anti-biotics and they should be no longer contagious.

Den and I with the car loaded, told the kids we weren't going to be able to leave town.  To say they freaked out would be an understatement, and Den and I were plenty disappointed.  So, we decided to leave town and instead of staying with g'parents Ohio, head to another part of the state, we only got about 3 hours out of town, but the kids are excited to be in a hotel.  Tomorrow, we will head to Indy and then depending on the results of the tests and how the kids are doing, we will either finally bunk with relatives, or continue the hotel for one more night.  Eddie's rash is back, which is stressing me out and now this. 

Why is it that EVERY SINGLE TIME we have gone on vacation in the last year, someone in our family has either been sick, or become sick.  I even commented to my friend yesterday that I really can't handle having the kids sick on another trip and I really hope they can just stay healthy...

at least the Doctor seemed calm and assured me that even if we gave them another rapid strep test on Friday it wouldn't be any different because the kids were already showing signs that if they had step, it would show up in the test. 

On the drive, we passed through a couple mountain passes where the road had cut right through the mountain.  Eddie got to asking questions about if the earth was hurt and Den explained that only if they aren't careful would the earth be damaged.  That word opened up a whole line of questioning that J couldn't resist and she just cracked herself up saying DAMage, DAMage.  Den and I desparate for a laugh apparently, couldn't stop laughing either, reminding the kids to emphasize the letter 'g' in their pronounciation.

Here we are in West Virginia, a new state for the kids and crossing our fingers that no major fevers erupt and that their throats calm down in the next day or so. 

I really want to take a vacation where no one is sick prior, during or immediately after.  We take enough trips, statistically, isn't that possible?

This Weekend

I had been trying to get Den to take an overnight trip somewhere sometime in August, but our 16 hour driving trip looms and we decided to hang out at home.

The top photo is not from this weekend, but it might as well be. The kids love the hammock and I love this shot. They are reading Eddie's current favorite book, Oceans. Actually everyone in the family likes it. It's a couple hundred pages broken in to 2 page spreads with bullet points about every possible thing related to the ocean. He is forever asking how long it would take to read the whole book and we assure him it would consume an entire day. Den and I feel like we are learning something too.

Eddie loves gymnastics, but the current gym we belong to does not have many classes to choose from and because we are not County residents, we get last dibs, so I'm on the hunt for a new place for him. We tested out another gym, twice as far away and it was okay. I liked the class, but the facility was pretty wretched. We then went straight to an ice skating birthday party. To her credit, Josie did one loop around the ice rink before she decided she'd had enough. Eddie and Den stayed long after we left.

Eddie rash came back this weekend, pretty bad too, to the point we were talking about another doctor's apointment tomorrow, but we think we can keep it under control as it seemed to respond to the medicene we tried. Ugh.

The kids swing as high as they can in the hammock and play all sorts of cute games, like synchronized swimmers, they hide in the hammock and stick up an arm or a leg or a finger at the same time. This was one of the least blurry ones, and I laid on the ground, so I could get Josie in the shot too.

Saturday afternoon, we broke out the slip n slide! The box does say it's for ages 5 and up. True to that, Eddie has it down pat, but Josie is still trying to figure out how to make it work. Eddie agreed to pull her down the slip n slide, and they thought that was the funniest thing ever.

Today was a bit less family focused, as Den watched the kids, whilst I spent 3 hours pulling up the carpet, carpet tacks, and nails from the basement steps. After what we guess is at least 35 years, the carpet is wearing thin and the tacks were starting to poke through. I'm proud to say I did 95% of the job myself (needed Den for a couple brute force parts). Now I'll prime it, paint it and then put in some stair treads until we figure out what to do. Somehow I got 5 loads of laundry done today. Getting all the laundry done by the end of the weekend is only second to having all the ironing finished before it's time to start the next round of laundry. I was also reminded why I do not grocery shop on the weekends. Holy cow!

The State of our Household

Den is visiting the area of Florida where I grew up (sort of).  He is there for work and if Eddie didn't have kprep, we would be too.  Thus begins the rule of the school calendar over our lives. 

Eddie seems to be enjoying himself.  I don't get a lot out of him, it's more in the relation of a shared experience that he tells me about something at school.  I've got to learn how to ask questions...I know I'm not supposed to ask questions that elicit one-word answers, but aside from straping a recording device to him, I can't figure out how to get even a single line report.

Eddie has started testing his boundaries.  He does/doesn't do things just to see what will happen.  This phase (I hope) is why they say parenting is not for the faint of heart.

I keep repeating the words 'positive intent' and 'do not let your anger show'.  Some days are more sucessful than others.  For me, it involves kind words when examples of those words are the farthest from my mind.

Eddie is also at this magical age where things are starting to click.  I can talk to him about things and he probes further to learn more.  We played a game called Labyrinyth when I was home on Monday and I could watch him form his strategy even while I had to help him figure out how to implement.  Part of me can't wait for Josie to be at the age where she can enjoy these games too, but then that will mean they are older....

Josie is a hoot.  Eddie is talkative once he gets to know you, but Josie will talk to people more openly and willingly than Eddie.  I sincerely hope they are as close as adults as they are now.  It's so fun to watch.  Not so much fun when they've had enough of each other.

My kids are so gender stereotypical it kind of bugs me a bit, yet I try and indulge and embrace because who knows how long before they move onto other things. 

Josie is also pretty sly and a bit of a ham.  She always has been, but she is getting more creative in hiding the lid to the vitimin jar and delights in saying ordinary words and then laughing hysterically as she has uttered them. 

She is also going through a 'I don't want to walk' phase, which I dearly hope is a phase, because our family likes to walk/hike. 

She just got her class list for preschool and has the same teachers Eddie did when he was in the 3s class.  There are only 4 girls in her class and in each of the other 3s classes, there are only 3 girls.  She will know the other 3 in her class.  I was kind of looking forward to her meeting new kids in class, so am a bit disappointed. 

I am exhausted after a 1am wake up to a slightly damp bed in Ed's room, 3am roll call to J's room because she wanted someone to lay with her, and a 6:30 call to Eddie because he wanted me to get him dressed (despite the fact that he has gotten himself dressed the previous 6 days of kprep prior to coming downstairs).  Off to bed....

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday was beautiful. For any time of year, but especially for an August day after a June and July that saw more days above 90 than not. It was in the mid 80s with low humidity. Today was cool, humid and rainy. So happy we were able to work about 7 hours on our back yard. We hired one of the guys who helped build out addition to come work for 5 hours and it was because of his help we were able to get almost 40% done.

We really like how it turned out under the steps. In front of the steps, the landing turned out about the way we expected. In an ideal world, we'd rip out the handy-man special steps the previous owner installed and put in a nice retaining wall and steps, but there are other things I'd like to do, so we deal with the goofy layout and if the landing looks a little askew, it's because of those handyman special steps.

I have lusted after these edging stones ever since I saw them in a neighbors yard several years ago. Just as they were selling their home, I tried to inquire where they had purchased them, but they had already moved out. I've seem similar in other places, but never the exact thing, so I was thrilled to have found them when we went to select our materials. You can't see them well, but they are these small rectangle shaped things in the very edges of the pictures. I'd better like them because they cost 1/3 of all the materials, which included 3 1/4 tons of 2" washed gravel, 37 stepping stones, 1 ton of stone dust and 110 of these pavers/edges weighing in at just over a ton.

Den was itching to do some more work today (and for all you sarcastic types, and you know who you are), I brought all but 4 of the 37 stepping stones to the back, brought 1/2 of the edging stones, moved 2 wheelbarrows of stone dust, 4-5 of dirt, laid almost half the stones and also managed the 7 tree guys who descended on our house the same day to remove 11 trees. All of 2 of the 11 were either dead, on their way out, or damaged so badly from the snowstorms this past winter that they weren't going to make it. If you had never been to our house, you'd never really know, but it's a pretty dramatic change. We figure we'll replant this fall when we are more likely to have cooler than 90 degree weather.

Today it rained, or threatened to rain all day. We had the kids out in it much of the day. Eddie is starting to hang out with the 'older' kids in the hood, which is nice, they are 6, 7, and 8 and for the most part a good group of kids.