Birthday Bashes

My children like to celebrate the birthdays of certain items they own. This is Wadie, Thurston's blanket. I know his birthday because he was given to me the day before Joseph was born. This is us singing to him. ;) For Joseph's birthday we surprised him at school. While the kids were at recess, we set up their tables and got the goods out. The reaction of Joseph (as well as all the other kids) was great. They sang to him and did a cool little thing for him during their rug time. I have a video of it that I will have post at another time. I had to bring a "healthy" snack and some how pudding qualified for that, so they got pudding, graham crackers and milk. quick pic of the Birthday boy and his table. Blowing out the candles Here's this years Optimus Prime cake. I totally cheated this year and just picked up an OP cake pan and bought the tubes of frosting. Not super impressive, but I still think it looks pretty sweet, and he loved it. Aleah the stinker being flippin cute Instead of a party, Joseph had a sleep over, which was WAAAYYY easier for us! It was impossible to get a pic of him opening his gifts staying still! This is what they left behind after they ate. Gotta love boys! One of the boys gave JoJo a finger painting set and they all got in on the action. gotta lick the candles... They watched The Karate Kid with popcorn. I impressed them with my jump kicks, but my poor body didn't like that. They boys were all very well behaved and I think they had a lot of fun, and I think sleep overs are the way to go now.

Aleah Meowing

Here's a fun video of baby girl doing her animal noises. I love how wide she opens her mouth when she meows. She has her entourage of stuffed animals (2 cats, a dog and a mouse)that she keeps in her crib at nap time and its so fun to listen to her through the door meowing and "ruffing" at them. I so love her!

Happy Birthday to Joseph!!

I can't believe that it is that time of year again, the only thing I like about the month of January- It's Joseph's Birthday! Ok, so it technically it's tomorrow, but I imagine who ever reads this won't read it until tomorrow (19th). The little stinker definitely has a strong personality and likes to do his own thing. This is good and bad, but in the end he really is a sweetheart. He's got the quick wit of his father and a firey temper like his Mama. So that's fun. But he's the life of the party and loves to bring an extra quarter to popcorn day at school so he can buy his friend a bag of popcorn. :) We got out of doing a party this year and offered him cash instead. He called it his "money party" and got to pick out toys online and has been patiently waiting for his package to arrive in the mail. We will celebrate tomorrow by going ice skating as a family, and he is allowed a couple friends over on Friday for a sleep over. This should be fun! We love you JoJo and all the fun times you bring us! You mean more to us than you could ever know.

Random Days of Happiness

I received a free calendar in the mail that has all the random Holidays listed. I decided it would be fun to celebrate some of these (all would be a little too exausting for my taste.) We started with last Friday, which was dress up your pet day. So we did. Don't know what I am doing here... This is for his dignity We are looking forward to these little things. Sunday was national do nothing day, so thats pretty much what we did. I am really looking forward to next Sunday, which is national eat a pie day and future ones such: national Eclair day, National donut day (I'm seeing a trend here). I'm sure I'll blog about some of our experiences, it's the little joys that keep us going, right? On another thought, I have neglected my childrens hair and it has gotten way out of control. They have apts tonight to get their hair cut, but I had to share this! I send a text of his hair this morning to some people because JoJo's hair looked just like my sister Julies Senior portrait hair from 1989. This one is more like the 1984 family picture version where she was wearing some kind of denim- corderoy dress thingy. Sorry to keep pointing you out Julie, but you have to admit that you had some fabulous 80's hair!

Dino dig and more cat drug problems

The boys excavating. Joseph was digging for Dino bones, which ended up being a Brontosaurus, and Thurston dug out "castle" artifacts. Super messy, but they had fun and it kept them busy. I was going out (my last excursion prior to getting sick) and had given some of Jazz's Christmas catnip to him. He was already in the "laying on the floor and staring into space" stage and warned Pres that he had had some catnip. Well, silly me didn't put it up and left the bad on the counter. Crazy cat got into it and went crazy. He was running around the house in spurts and then would stop and roll around. I think at one point he was passed out in the sink. I laugh at his misfortunes. Apparently it can be a hallucinogen, poor guy. When I got home Preston said that he had just shut the pantry door because jazz had spilt it everywhere (he had baby girl at the time.). So yeah, I opened the door to see this, he's got problems. Just a pic of baby girl being adorable in her pigtails.

I am feeling much better today both physically and emotionally, and wanted to tell the world about my new love. Bissy: She was my gift from Preston this year and I fell in love right away. I HATE sweeping and mopping my floor. Its sad really, how little I involved myself in this task. That is, until now. My little bissy is a vacuum and steam mop all in one. That's right, I run the thing over my floor and is sucks up all the crap and steams and wipes up behind it. Those pesky dried things on the floor I used to scrape off with a pampered chef scraper get zapped by the steam and melt away. There are no cleaners involved to buy so woohoo! So now ALL my hard floors are clean because it takes less time to do all of them with this baby than it did the old way. With a combination of watching Kohls sales with online 30% and free shipping it ended up being a really good deal. That is all.

If our Christmas was like heaven then our New Years was like hell. Seriously. Here is a festive New Years Hat: Now here is my New Years Hat... That, my friends is a stool sample kit hat. Woohoo!! This is where I may as well warn you that **contents may be graphic, proceed at your own risk, want, desire, curiosity etc** Lets rewind the time to the beginning of December when Nursing started to suck (ha). Aleahs teeth, milk blisters etc = not fun. The day of the ward adult Christmas dinner I had spent all day decorating and helping Pres cook, whilst I hurt. The next day I started feeling nasty (this was the day of the North Pole express). On the way home I felt aweful and had 2 plugged milk ducts. I awoke the next morning to mastitis. After 4 hours of waiting for the nurse to call back and then the DR, I was chewed out by the DR for missing her phone call after waiting for 4 hours...she perscribed me antibiotics. Next day I was worse, body shakes, fever and now both breasts infected and went on a different antibiotic. Now, this is the point where I could go back in time and jump through the air in slow motion yelling "Noooooooooo!" in a freakishly low slow voice knocking the new antibiotic out of my hand. Clindamycin is now my mortal enemy. Did it clear up my raging case of mastitis? Yes. Was it worth it? No. I am seriously angry that no one warned me of just how aweful this drug is. Luckily I read the 2 page warning and was aware of what I should look out for. I had minor stomach issues but managed the treatment well. I went off the meds on wed before Christmas and Thurs broke out in a rash on my chest, breasts and neck and slightly on my face. Luckily this cleared up so Christmas was bearable. Fast forward one week. Wednesday I felt crappy... we had dinner at a friends house so I took some IBuprofrin and headed over. By the end of dinner and movie I was shaking and achy. By the time we got home I was shaking uncontrollably again and as I tried to carry my water upstairs my shaky hands was spilling water everywhere. I laughed and then cried. This is when the dreaded diarrhea started. I spent the night curled in a ball shivering and sh.... ing. Fun. In my medical history, it seems the worst is suspected, but in the end I am sent home packing told to take some pills and call them if I have any questions. So when Pres kept pushing me to go in I was annoyed, but gave in. I was upfront about my taking Clindamycin and they immediately sent me home with the above kit. I was told not to take anything to stop my symptoms because if it was C. Difficile it could make it worse and to pretty much stick with chicken broth and bananas. Nothing like catching your crap and then scooping it in tubes with little spoons (don't say I didn't warn you...). This time is different from the typical montezuma's revenge cases, thats what had me worried. They say that nurses can often diagnose someone with C Diff by the look and smell because it is so different. To my great happiness I tested positive and am now on another antibiotic (ironic enough) for the next 2 weeks. I was told to eat as normal a diet as possible but that was about it. No warning of how this may be a reoccuring thing in my life, that some people never get cured, that this is the most serious case of bacterial infection in your large intestine, that in some cases is fatal to you or your intestines, that the spores can only be killed by cleaner with bleach, and how certain foods can hurt or help you. ugh. So this is where I am at. I am feeling better in terms of the flu symptoms have passed and I can eat a little bit. Its more like every hour or 2 instead of every 20 minutes, so thats "good". The meds take 3-4 days to kick in and ave healing time is 10-14 days. With that being said I would like to list the good things about this experience: I have lost 4 pounds in 2 days, I will not be able to consume sugar/ soda for a long time, I will eat more healthy foods. I went in w/ in 24 hours while the ave person gets hospitalized after a week of suffering. There are people who get this so bad that they loose their large intestine and galbladder or die!! I've found some support groups that freak me out, but other who have successfully battle this thing and have 'won'. My diet will change dramatically and will have to keep it for a while. No dairy, no sugar and no happiness!! Although almond chocolate silk is ok. Greek yogurt is my new friend and together we will battle these little buggars residing in the long dark places. I may or may not say "take that you little @$%^@*&^$%&*!!!" when I take my meds. It makes me feel a little better inside. Its not that contageous and to take precausions I have my own bathroom right now. So don't think my house is a sespool of evil bacteria, that's just my butt. ;) So our New Years wasn't the fun snack/ game fest I imagined so I thought it went horrible, but at the end of the night, Joseph (Thurston passed out at 11:30) was snuggled on the couch with us and said it was the best night ever. Pres said he almost teared up because we were so stressed about what we didn't do, we failed to focus on what we did do : watch Despicable Me, the boys got to stay up late and build Bionicles. To them, that was awesome. :) To here's to the new year! And if you are curious, and so you know I'm not over reacting, I dare you to google C. Difficile. And please read the info on all meds before you take them!