Today has probably been Lexi's roughest day yet. Her temperature still jumps up to 103 when the Tylenol & Motrin wear off plus she has spots absolutely everywhere, including the bottoms of her feet and other not-so-fun areas that are making it difficult for her to walk. I was hoping to get some pictures of her today to post, but the camera is still in Travis' truck from vacation and he's been gone all day in the field. Lexi went to some garage sales with me at 8:00 this morning and just hung out in the van while I walked and looked around. I think she just wanted to get out of the house for a bit, but it wore her out. She laid down on the couch as soon as we got home and dozed off. Then my mom stopped by and Lexi decided she wanted to go to Mamaw's house, but it sounds like she slept most of the time she was there too. She tried to take an oatmeal bath tonight, but I think most of the spots are starting to burst open so the bath did nothing but burn her so that didn't help any! Needless to say there have been lots of tears today. :o( I wish there was one more day to the weekend so she could rest before having a house full of noisy kids.
On a Kiegan note - I decided to try to do Travis' job and give Kiegan a hair cut. I knew that Travis just used his beard trimmer and that he put it on setting #5; so I grab a chair and outside we go. I took a first "cut" at his hair and I practically scalped him!! I called Travis in a panic to make sure that setting #5 was what he used and he said it was, but apparently I forgot to put the attachment onto the end of the trimmer. Crap!! So I had to finish the haircut without the attachment and the poor child is pretty much bald now - great haircut with the cold weather that's suppose to be coming this week, huh? He has swimming in PE this week so I told him he'd be the fastest swimmer because of his bald head. That was my attempt at finding the silver lining in the situation. Dumb mom.
In other news, I'm 27 weeks today. Only 13 more weeks left - hard to believe! We go back to the doctor on the 7th. I've been feeling good - the heartburn is definitely kicking in and my back and pelvis are sore most of the time. Flipping from one side to the other during the night is NOT an easy task anymore. It also doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping very well because Travis' snoring is so horrible. It doesn't matter if he sleeps on his back, stomach or either of his sides - the snoring is there. Plus he's so oblivious to the fact that I'm even in the bed with him that he tries to sleep on the entire bed and I'm left with a sliver of an edge to sleep on. So the past two nights I've ended up sleeping on the couch which is not at all comfortable. I know he feels bad. :o( I certainly don't think I've put on as much weight this time around as I did with Lexi & Kiegan which is nice! I gained 40 pounds with Lexi and 60 pounds with Kiegan. I'm sure it makes a difference that I'm doing daycare now which requires me to be on my feet most of the day compared to back then when I was sitting most of my day away at State Farm.
I hope everyone had a great weekend - I need to plan my menu for this week before going to bed!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Beware the pox!
As some of you may have heard, we thought Lexi came home from school with the chicken pox last week. She was feeling yucky and had a few spots on her, but after a warm bath (which is suppose to bring the bumps out faster) the spots were gone! Well, yesterday (Wednesday) morning Lexi woke up saying she wasn't feeling well - I just figured she wanted a day home from school b/c her brother was home sick on Tuesday so I convinced her to go to school anyway. After she got off the bus that afternoon, she looked terrible and was running a low grade fever. She went up to her room to lay down for awhile and eventually the vomiting started. She slept through the night and I kept her home and in her room today. WELL....she came downstairs around 3:00 this afternoon saying that she was starting to feel really yucky again and she showed me this spot on her wrist. It looked kind of like a blister/pimple type of a thing and then I noticed that she had more of the same spots on her neck, cheeks and even in her ear and on the roof of her mouth. I took her temperature and it was 103 so I pretty much knew that she officially had the chicken pox! I called the doctor anyway just because I wasn't 100% sure what chicken pox looked like and she has an appointment tomorrow morning, but the nurse said that if her temperature doesn't go down (we have to alternate Tylenol and Motrin) or if she gets more spots in her mouth then I have to take her to the ER. I guess because she already has some in her ears and mouth then they're already going internal and that can cause problems such as her throat closing up so she can't eat, drink or swallow. Yikes! I told Kiegan to give her a great big hug when he got home from school - I'm hoping he gets them too so that they'll get a natural immunity to them (I'm not one that goes for that chicken pox vaccination stuff). I'm sure the next week or so will not be the funnest! If any of you have kids that you want to get the chicken pox, just bring them on over and Lexi can give them a great big hug. :o) I did have one of my daycare mom's that wanted her kids to be all around Lexi before she took them home b/c she wants them to get it. I also have other daycare families that won't be bringing their little ones until I give them the all clear sign which is fine - I told them all it's however they want to handle it.
So that's our update for now! Off to bed!!
So that's our update for now! Off to bed!!
Friday, September 19, 2008
I have an assistant!
After receiving 35+ calls from the ad I placed in the Pontiac paper for an assistant, I finally settled on someone. Lori Boatman started working for me on Monday and boy has she been a big help, especially since I'm not suppose to be picking the children up! She comes every day from 9:00-1:00 - quiet time is from 1:00-3:00 and there's just no reason for her to sit here for 2 hours doing nothing. Maybe in the future there will be a need for her to stay longer. She also belongs to St. Mary's Church and has a daughter in 6th grade - the fact that she's older is very reassuring to me because she's much more reliable than most young people these days. She has also volunteered the past six school years at St. Mary's so she has plenty of experience with large groups of children. I'll admit that I didn't interview everyone that called me. I decided that it would have taken me WEEKS to get through everyone and I already had one family in my care that was in desperate need of help transporting to/from preschool. Lori and I clicked right away during her interview and her experience with children and the comforting feeling I got from her made me realize that she would be a perfect fit. Not to mention the fact that she wanted this job as something to fill her time while her daughter was in school AND the fact that she didn't have little ones that she would have to bring with her was a big plus too! (Most of the others I interviewed had babies or toddlers of their own that would have been a part of the daycare which means they would have taken up spots that I could have used for paying families!)
In other family news, school is going ok for Lexi & Kiegan. They both struggle at times - Lexi always has and Kiegan we think is just lazy and doesn't put forth much effort. I think their lack of interest in reading books has something to do with their lack of interest in school. This is VERY frustrating for someone like myself who LOVES to read and who took school very seriously and graduated in the top 10 of my class! How in the world did I end up with two kids that don't like to read and that don't take school seriously?! SO - one idea I came up with was for us to hit the library on Friday nights. I found a book list of recommended books for 3rd and 5th graders that I think they'll both enjoy and this is what we're going to do at bedtime instead of 1 hour of TV. It's a starting point, right? We're also considering enrolling them in The Achieve Center tutoring program again - extra tutoring never hurt anyone.
Lexi has suddenly had a huge interest in science which I think is just awesome (the fact that she shows an interest in anything is awesome!). So I signed her up for an all-day program that ISU puts on at State Farm called Millenium Girls. It's on October 4th and is for girls in grades 5th thru 8th. They do such things as create 3-D models, extract DNA, design new animation and learn how to make good money choices (which Lexi desperately needs - just ask Travis!). They also provide the girls breakfast and lunch. She is really looking forward to it!
Kiegan has been talking about playing basketball this fall at the Boys & Girls Club. We really hope he still wants to when sign-up comes around. The kid's been packing on the pounds due to his lack of movement and his ability to sit on the couch for hours and do absolutely nothing. The exercise would definitely be good for him!
In some sad news, Patrick's grandpa on his mom's side passed away suddenly last weekend from a heart attack. Kids seem to handle tragedy so much better than adults do, but we know he'll miss his grandpa terribly.
Not a whole lot is going on this coming weekend. Travis & I have our make-up Catholic class thingy that we were suppose to take BEFORE we got married and get this - the name of the class is Christian Sexuality. So imagine the looks we'll get when we walk in and everybody notices that I'm obviously pregnant! Oh well, maybe we can give a few pointers or something. :o) On Sunday, Travis is heading up north to go muddin' with the guys. We decided that it probably wasn't a very good idea for me to go this year so instead my mom, Kiegan & I are going to go to Jones' Country Garden so I can get my pumpkins. I love decorating for Fall! Lexi will be at her dad's unless she calls and decides she wants to join the fun!
That's all for now - all of my daycare kids will be waking up shortly so I better get ready!
In other family news, school is going ok for Lexi & Kiegan. They both struggle at times - Lexi always has and Kiegan we think is just lazy and doesn't put forth much effort. I think their lack of interest in reading books has something to do with their lack of interest in school. This is VERY frustrating for someone like myself who LOVES to read and who took school very seriously and graduated in the top 10 of my class! How in the world did I end up with two kids that don't like to read and that don't take school seriously?! SO - one idea I came up with was for us to hit the library on Friday nights. I found a book list of recommended books for 3rd and 5th graders that I think they'll both enjoy and this is what we're going to do at bedtime instead of 1 hour of TV. It's a starting point, right? We're also considering enrolling them in The Achieve Center tutoring program again - extra tutoring never hurt anyone.
Lexi has suddenly had a huge interest in science which I think is just awesome (the fact that she shows an interest in anything is awesome!). So I signed her up for an all-day program that ISU puts on at State Farm called Millenium Girls. It's on October 4th and is for girls in grades 5th thru 8th. They do such things as create 3-D models, extract DNA, design new animation and learn how to make good money choices (which Lexi desperately needs - just ask Travis!). They also provide the girls breakfast and lunch. She is really looking forward to it!
Kiegan has been talking about playing basketball this fall at the Boys & Girls Club. We really hope he still wants to when sign-up comes around. The kid's been packing on the pounds due to his lack of movement and his ability to sit on the couch for hours and do absolutely nothing. The exercise would definitely be good for him!
In some sad news, Patrick's grandpa on his mom's side passed away suddenly last weekend from a heart attack. Kids seem to handle tragedy so much better than adults do, but we know he'll miss his grandpa terribly.
Not a whole lot is going on this coming weekend. Travis & I have our make-up Catholic class thingy that we were suppose to take BEFORE we got married and get this - the name of the class is Christian Sexuality. So imagine the looks we'll get when we walk in and everybody notices that I'm obviously pregnant! Oh well, maybe we can give a few pointers or something. :o) On Sunday, Travis is heading up north to go muddin' with the guys. We decided that it probably wasn't a very good idea for me to go this year so instead my mom, Kiegan & I are going to go to Jones' Country Garden so I can get my pumpkins. I love decorating for Fall! Lexi will be at her dad's unless she calls and decides she wants to join the fun!
That's all for now - all of my daycare kids will be waking up shortly so I better get ready!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Doctor's Appointment
We had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I had to arrive 15-20 minutes early for the glucose test which I've never done before. I had to drink this really sweet orange drink within 5 minutes (the lab chick said it's basically liquid sucrose with orange flavoring to make it somewhat tolerable to drink) and then come back an hour later for them to draw my blood. I guess this tells them if I'm at risk for gestational diabetes. During my hour wait I had my regular appointment with Dr. Ingram. I've only gained four pounds since my last appointment and this still only puts me about 7 pounds more than what I weighed before I became pregnant. Everything was fine and I asked Dr. about the pressure I was feeling and about my pubic bone being so sore. She said that that baby must be putting a lot of pressure on my pubic bone and that we'll have to keep an eye on that because we don't want my pubic bone to spread (?) too early. In the meantime, I'm suppose to try to relax with my feet up (she said simply sitting down won't cut it) and I'm to no longer carry my daycare children which could make things interesting. It seems like I've always got one on my hip! So back we go in 4 weeks.....
Monday, September 8, 2008
Back from vacation!
Travis & I have safely returned from Ohio. We left last Friday evening (8/29 - my mutha's birthday) and headed to the Fairbury race track with the camper. We camped there Friday night, watched the Prairie Dirt Classic Saturday night and then pulled out Sunday morning for Ohio. Billy Moyer, #21 late model driver, had himself quite a money-making weekend! He won $5,000 Friday night at Farmer City, $10,000 Saturday night in Fairbury and another $3,000 at Eldora Speedway in Ohio by winning the Baltes Classic. Can you imagine winning $18,000 in just 3 days by driving really fast in a circle?! Maybe I should let Travis buy himself a race car.....YEAH RIGHT!
We arrived at Eldora Speedway early Sunday afternoon. Travis & I had every intention of taking pictures while we were out there, but for those of you that don't know this yet - we are AWFUL at remembering to take pictures of anything! We decided to find a camping spot at the usual site that we camp at, but apparently we were one of very few people that didn't reserve a spot this year because the closest we could get was 17 rows back which put us about a mile and a half away from the track. Now that is a long, long way for my pregnant self to walk, but we set up camp anyway because we were told that we could drive up to the track and walk from the parking lot. Ok - I can handle that! We relaxed that first afternoon and watched the Baltes Classic that evening or at least I tried to relax - my allergies were awful the entire time we were there. I either carried a handful of Kleenex or the whole box everywhere I went. By the time we headed home yesterday, I was on my 5th box of Kleenex!
On Monday we decided to try to find Walmart to buy our meat and other cold stuff that we needed for the week. That was quite an adventure! I certainly had no clue where we were going and Travis was trying to remember from the one and only time he had been there a handful of years ago. Travis finally asked one of our buddies where it was and wouldn't you know it was probably the only turn in this nearby town that we didn't take. Once we found it, I noticed a Bob Evan's Restaurant right next to it and convinced Travis to take me out to breakfast just this one time while we were out there. Yum-O! (That's my Rachael Ray reference for Travis who just LOVES her - ask him about it!) While we were at Walmart, we decided that Bruiser needed a bigger kennel in the camper (yes, he came on vacation with us). At home he's use to a kennel that's about 100 times bigger than he is and in the camper he can't even turn around in the one we've been using and he hates it - not to mention that he's learned how to break out of it. So Daddy got the spoiled dog a new kennel a size smaller than what we have at home and then decided that he also needed a cozier pillow to sleep on. Bruiser seemed much happier with his new home, but I think he still ended up sleeping with us about 1/2 the time which was fine with me. He was such a great dog the whole time we were out there - we very rarely had to put him on his leash. He would always stay right next to us - particularly Daddy who he is so attached to and it was quite a sight to everyone out there to see big ol' Travis babying this little 5 pound dog - kissing him, carrying him, talking baby talk to him - they were quite the pair! Bruiser did get quite a bit of attention from our friends out there and even strangers who couldn't resist coming over to pet him. He was also very protective of us and would growl and bark at anyone he didn't recognize. Daddy was very proud of him!
Eventually, we ended up packing the camper back up and heading over to another area where the rest of our friends were camping. We were getting lonely all by ourselves in the other spot and there's only so much the two of us can talk to each other about. So our new spot was within walking distance of the track and we were surrounded by all sorts of people we knew. We also ended up hitting Walmart a couple more times and the laundromat. With me sneezing 500 times a day, I was pretty much pee'ing through all of the shorts that I had brought! The baby is sitting really, really low so a cough or a sneeze usually sends me straight to the bathroom or leaves me with a trail running down my leg (cute, huh?). At first we bought a couple more pairs of shorts at Walmart, but I was going through those quickly too and finally we hit the laundromat to wash a load of clothes (definitely all of my shorts) and Travis won Bruiser 3 new "girlfriends" from one of the video games they had there with the crane that you had to use to try to pick up stuffed animals. Let's just say that Bruiser is not shy about showing his love for his girlfriends in front of other people! He was quite entertaining and is really not very nice to his girlfriends - one of them even lost an ear during one of the escapades. Oh and we also found this awesome soft-serve ice cream shop at a little town just a few miles away - I think we went there 3 times or so? They had 24+ flavors of ice cream to pick from! Travis, being the wild man he is, got himself a chocolate/vanilla twist (oh boy!) and a Andes Mint blizzard type thing. I tried the Black Cherry ice cream, Bubble Gum ice cream and had a warm apple dumpling with caramel sauce and vanilla spice ice cream on it. SO GOOD!!!
The rest of our time there was nice and relaxing. I hung out in the camper quite a bit of the time while Travis was at the track - it must be an only-child thing with me b/c I thoroughly enjoy being by myself. I read some cookbooks, watched movies, played on the laptop, finished a book - it was nice! I did go with everybody to watch the big race Saturday night and I have to admit that the heat races were more exciting than the actual 100-lap race itself, but it was fun.
We had plans of getting each of the kids a t-shirt while we there, but instead they received an even bigger gift! We drove by this one corner many, many times while we were out there and the go-kart sitting there with the For Sale sign always got our attention. Finally, we decided to call the number listed and the guy that was selling it said that he bought it brand new about 2 years ago and only drove it maybe a dozen times so it was in pretty much perfect condition! It even had a roll cage on it and a seat belt (safety first!) and his asking price was a steal compared to what a new one would cost us. So, because our kids are not spoiled at all, we decided that the go-kart would be a nice addition to the collection of toys the kids have in the shed (so far it's just bicycles and a 4-wheeler) and we bought it up and slapped it in the bed of the truck. They were all excited about it when we got home and of course about 3 laps around the yard and it ran out of gas and our gas cans were all empty. :o( Travis has to figure something out so Patrick can drive it - the poor kid's so small that he has at least a foot to grow before he can reach the pedals! But he has no problem with the 4-wheeler so at least he has something he can drive around.
Although vacation was nice and we enjoyed our time away, I was happy to come back home. Travis felt like he could cry as we were pulling away from the track - he's in Heaven when he's there, but there will be next year!
In other news - I have my next doctor's appt. on Wednesday afternoon. I have to arrive early to drink this really sweet drink and then an hour later they check me for gestational diabetes. I never had to do this test with Lexi & Kiegan so it'll be something new for me. It's hard to believe that I'm already 6 months along - the time is really flying by!
Maybe some day I'll get some more pictures on this thing.....but don't hold your breath for them. :o)
We arrived at Eldora Speedway early Sunday afternoon. Travis & I had every intention of taking pictures while we were out there, but for those of you that don't know this yet - we are AWFUL at remembering to take pictures of anything! We decided to find a camping spot at the usual site that we camp at, but apparently we were one of very few people that didn't reserve a spot this year because the closest we could get was 17 rows back which put us about a mile and a half away from the track. Now that is a long, long way for my pregnant self to walk, but we set up camp anyway because we were told that we could drive up to the track and walk from the parking lot. Ok - I can handle that! We relaxed that first afternoon and watched the Baltes Classic that evening or at least I tried to relax - my allergies were awful the entire time we were there. I either carried a handful of Kleenex or the whole box everywhere I went. By the time we headed home yesterday, I was on my 5th box of Kleenex!
On Monday we decided to try to find Walmart to buy our meat and other cold stuff that we needed for the week. That was quite an adventure! I certainly had no clue where we were going and Travis was trying to remember from the one and only time he had been there a handful of years ago. Travis finally asked one of our buddies where it was and wouldn't you know it was probably the only turn in this nearby town that we didn't take. Once we found it, I noticed a Bob Evan's Restaurant right next to it and convinced Travis to take me out to breakfast just this one time while we were out there. Yum-O! (That's my Rachael Ray reference for Travis who just LOVES her - ask him about it!) While we were at Walmart, we decided that Bruiser needed a bigger kennel in the camper (yes, he came on vacation with us). At home he's use to a kennel that's about 100 times bigger than he is and in the camper he can't even turn around in the one we've been using and he hates it - not to mention that he's learned how to break out of it. So Daddy got the spoiled dog a new kennel a size smaller than what we have at home and then decided that he also needed a cozier pillow to sleep on. Bruiser seemed much happier with his new home, but I think he still ended up sleeping with us about 1/2 the time which was fine with me. He was such a great dog the whole time we were out there - we very rarely had to put him on his leash. He would always stay right next to us - particularly Daddy who he is so attached to and it was quite a sight to everyone out there to see big ol' Travis babying this little 5 pound dog - kissing him, carrying him, talking baby talk to him - they were quite the pair! Bruiser did get quite a bit of attention from our friends out there and even strangers who couldn't resist coming over to pet him. He was also very protective of us and would growl and bark at anyone he didn't recognize. Daddy was very proud of him!
Eventually, we ended up packing the camper back up and heading over to another area where the rest of our friends were camping. We were getting lonely all by ourselves in the other spot and there's only so much the two of us can talk to each other about. So our new spot was within walking distance of the track and we were surrounded by all sorts of people we knew. We also ended up hitting Walmart a couple more times and the laundromat. With me sneezing 500 times a day, I was pretty much pee'ing through all of the shorts that I had brought! The baby is sitting really, really low so a cough or a sneeze usually sends me straight to the bathroom or leaves me with a trail running down my leg (cute, huh?). At first we bought a couple more pairs of shorts at Walmart, but I was going through those quickly too and finally we hit the laundromat to wash a load of clothes (definitely all of my shorts) and Travis won Bruiser 3 new "girlfriends" from one of the video games they had there with the crane that you had to use to try to pick up stuffed animals. Let's just say that Bruiser is not shy about showing his love for his girlfriends in front of other people! He was quite entertaining and is really not very nice to his girlfriends - one of them even lost an ear during one of the escapades. Oh and we also found this awesome soft-serve ice cream shop at a little town just a few miles away - I think we went there 3 times or so? They had 24+ flavors of ice cream to pick from! Travis, being the wild man he is, got himself a chocolate/vanilla twist (oh boy!) and a Andes Mint blizzard type thing. I tried the Black Cherry ice cream, Bubble Gum ice cream and had a warm apple dumpling with caramel sauce and vanilla spice ice cream on it. SO GOOD!!!
The rest of our time there was nice and relaxing. I hung out in the camper quite a bit of the time while Travis was at the track - it must be an only-child thing with me b/c I thoroughly enjoy being by myself. I read some cookbooks, watched movies, played on the laptop, finished a book - it was nice! I did go with everybody to watch the big race Saturday night and I have to admit that the heat races were more exciting than the actual 100-lap race itself, but it was fun.
We had plans of getting each of the kids a t-shirt while we there, but instead they received an even bigger gift! We drove by this one corner many, many times while we were out there and the go-kart sitting there with the For Sale sign always got our attention. Finally, we decided to call the number listed and the guy that was selling it said that he bought it brand new about 2 years ago and only drove it maybe a dozen times so it was in pretty much perfect condition! It even had a roll cage on it and a seat belt (safety first!) and his asking price was a steal compared to what a new one would cost us. So, because our kids are not spoiled at all, we decided that the go-kart would be a nice addition to the collection of toys the kids have in the shed (so far it's just bicycles and a 4-wheeler) and we bought it up and slapped it in the bed of the truck. They were all excited about it when we got home and of course about 3 laps around the yard and it ran out of gas and our gas cans were all empty. :o( Travis has to figure something out so Patrick can drive it - the poor kid's so small that he has at least a foot to grow before he can reach the pedals! But he has no problem with the 4-wheeler so at least he has something he can drive around.
Although vacation was nice and we enjoyed our time away, I was happy to come back home. Travis felt like he could cry as we were pulling away from the track - he's in Heaven when he's there, but there will be next year!
In other news - I have my next doctor's appt. on Wednesday afternoon. I have to arrive early to drink this really sweet drink and then an hour later they check me for gestational diabetes. I never had to do this test with Lexi & Kiegan so it'll be something new for me. It's hard to believe that I'm already 6 months along - the time is really flying by!
Maybe some day I'll get some more pictures on this thing.....but don't hold your breath for them. :o)
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