Sunday, May 15, 2011

Cousins





A year ago, my kids got the best gift ever.  A cousin.  Hopefully they will get a couple more soon, what a blessing to grow up good buds with family.  Happy Birthday Charley, glad you were born May 16th. 

Photo BOMB!

Some of these pictures are not the greatest and a little blury, but they are such a great representative of my kids and what goes on here.
 We were having a dance off, guess who won?
 Sisters
 First teething biscuit, nom, nom.
 Fell asleep in the hall
 Navigating the rope bridge at the zoo, last year she was scared to cross
 Aunt Lynne joined us at the zoo, her first visit in 15 yrs
 The ducks walked us to our van
 why I love my life, 9:00 am still in bed with my boy
 laying next to my girls, all in pjs... trying to cuddle, being lazy
 Mother's Day breakfast, my favorite strawberry toaster strudel and a DC
 reading a book together
 smile, my hat is too small
I let her have a lemon, it was too funny.  She loved it and it was too sour all at the same time

Saturday, May 14, 2011


Rob is off on a boys trip tonight.  We had a mini-party at home.  A trip to the library this morning to find a copy of Cinderella, we had to request one out of the back, they only had Cinderella II and III, which I didn't even know existed!  I picked up sushi for me and a pizza for the kids.  We have three Cinderella books, but Emily has never seen it.  I must read at least one of the books to her a day.  I thought it would also be fun to watch since I just booked our breakfast with Cinderella in the castle at Walt Disney World!!!!
We got in our jamies and started our party.  Dallas wanted some of my sushi.  I wanted to share, since I want him to try new things, but I was worried he would actually like it and then I would HAVE to share my yummy sushi!  He liked it, but I convinced him to finish his slice of pizza, and then quickly gobbled up the rest of my dinner.  We moved into the living room, and I moved the couch to face the tv.  We all curled up with our blankets and watched.  Dallas was pretty mesmerized until the 1/2 point then the three General Lee cars came over to the couch to play.  I think Emily liked the movie, she  kept saying "it is just like the book".  Noelle even joined us for 15 minutes of the show, then became grumpy and went back to bed. 

On another note, everyone should read Bernestain Bears, "Computer Trouble".  I think it is a message everyone could benefit from.  Sister Bear gets hurt feelings from someone airing their stupid feelings on Pawbook, this has happened to me recently.  Mama Bear gets a little two addicted to e-Bear, so much so that the mail bear notices how many packages she is getting, I can also get addicted to sites easily. 

Monday, May 9, 2011

It's 8:35 and we have been playing outside for almost an hour already.  Dallas does still have pj's on, and I am still in my workout clothes from earlier, but Emily is dressed!  I started the grill at 7:20, I wonder what my neighbors were thinking.  I started marinating chicken and steaks Sat. night, they didn't get grilled yesterday, and Rob and I needed some meat for lunch today, so "when in Rome"...

I had a lovely weekend.  Rob and the kids spoiled me a little yesterday.  I did a lot of usual stuff, but made Rob break up all the fights and deal with the tatrums.  We spent nearly the whole day outside, and capped off the evening with a small group meeting.  Love hanging out with my best peeps talking about God's love for us all. 

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Brighter in the morning

Everyone is a little better this morning.  Noelle slept horribly, which resulted in a car ride about 4:15 am, her first, if all else fails I will drive her around.  Dallas slept pretty well, but with Robert in the bed with him.
Everyone seems in good spirits, and it looks like it will be a wonderful day.

Friday, May 6, 2011

about my sick kids.  I love them so.  I need to remember that they are suffering and don't get cold after cold on purpose.  I needed an extra dose of patience, compassion and sympathy this morning.  It is super hard for me when Noelle and Dallas are sick together.  I can make a nice little nest of blankets and pillows on the couch for Emily, turn on a show and she recovers nicely.  Dallas whines and wants to be held, he can't cough in his arm (doesn't get the concept I guess), and still insists on sticking his germy little fingers in his sisters mouth, cause she'll chew on anything! Noelle just wants to be held, and cries when you set her down.  Hard stuff for me to juggle.
 After a night off Dallas coughing in our bed, and Noelle not sleeping, they both got breathing treatments this morning.  They both had little fevers, nothing big.  Dallas heart oftens feels like it is racing and will explode which is worrisome.  After nap I called in to talk to the nurse, I was unsure how far I should keep self diagnosing.  When we went in at 4:30, Dallas had a fever of 103.8, Noelle 101.  And we coughed everyone out of the waiting room, Sorry.  The rundown.

Chest x-ray and blood draw for Dallas
Blood draw for Noelle
Sweet Emily was so good, and read books to use while we waited

Dallas had elevated white blood cell counts, ended up with antibiotic, prednisone, more breathing treatments (no pneumonia, perhaps bronchitis)
Noelle has an ear infection, she gets antibiotic, prednisone if the wheezing doesn't go away with the breathing treatments.  Combine this with a good measure of alternating motrin and tylenol I might need a chart to keep this straight.   Dallas pulse-oxygen was low enough he gets to go for a recheck tomorrow morning too. 
We would like prayer that our little people recover and heal, and that sweet Noelle doesn't follow Dallas health footsteps (he had his first ear infection @ 6 months).
All I want for Mother's Day is healthy kids, and maybe a bubble tent surrounding the house that we could pipe Albuterol into.

Monday, May 2, 2011

will you remember?

The cliche phrase of the news, "your generation will remember where/what you were doing on 9/11 and now when Usama Bin Laden was confirmed dead. 

On 9/11 I had been at work for a couple hours, and first heard on the radio.  I was in the BioSafety Lab Level 3, actually a really great place to be hepa filtered air and complete covered head to toe in water/splash resistant garb.  Certainly a safe place to be.  I remember calling Rob, he had better Internet at his work, didn't listen to the radio, and he also worked for several government projects, in a facility that use to make weapons during WWII.  I remember the day being wasted, work wise.  We did the minimal stuff to keep the cells alive, surfed the net, called people and convinced the higher ups to put the tv in the cafeteria. 

Last night, what a moment.  We had just finished watching Soul Men, not quite a memorable movie to have for this moment.  We could have been watching something award winning like "The King's Speech", but that is not Rob and I.  Rob was doing our accounting, and I was vegging!  Our kids do not have any connection to modern day news at this point, will they know we have been at war their entire lives?