The Diagnosis

After complaining all week long, Big Daddy finally went to the doctor on Friday afternoon. His diagnosis: bronchitis.

I have had bronchitis at least 8 times in the past ten years and once while I was pregnant. Never did I react the way that Big Daddy did. Thank goodness he doesn't have asthma too (like I do) or he would have really thought he was dying.

Maggie and Ellie were both better on Saturday and then both had coughs and runny noses on Sunday morning. Big Daddy kept the girls home from church and I went...and it was glorious for so many reasons.

Now it's Monday, and Maggie is back at school and feeling pretty good. I gave her cough medicine (we usually just use honey) so she may be a little hyped up today.

Should be fun!

It's Here...

I have sort of been waiting for us to get one of the many "bugs" that's going around and it finally happened!

On Sunday afternoon Big Daddy and I took the girls outside to play. It was a little cool and breezy so we were only outside for a few minutes. After we came in, I started getting a sore throat and Big Daddy did too. It wasn't long before he was huffing and puffing and acting "ill and hateful" (as Maggie says) over what appeared to be nothing. I finally got tired of the way that he was acting and asked what in the world was wrong with him. He said, and I quote, " Haven't you noticed? I've been sick for the past hour".

That sort of sums up how my sweetheart is when he's sick. He continued to get worse and had a fever on Monday, but seems to just have a cold. One of my friends calls it a "man-cold". He was raised to think that the common cold is like a debilitating disease. He also states each and every symptom he has and repeats it every few minutes...just like his mom does. (I'm freezing, my head hurts and my throat is sore. 1 hour later, I'm still freezing, my throat is sore and my nose is runny.)

On Tuesday evening I left Big Daddy alone with the kids so that I could go to the store to get NyQuil for him. When I came back Maggie was on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and complaining of all of the same symptoms as her father. I told her to get ready for her bath and she jumped up and acted normal. After bath, she fell asleep on the couch which she does once in a while when she's had a long day with no nap. I was still trying to decide if she was being a copy cat or coming down with something. Around 1am Wednesday morning, she woke me up because she was cold and I could tell she had a fever. When we woke up for the day couldn't really sit up because she felt "so bad" and spent the entire day on the couch wrapped in a blanket...except for when she ventured into the kitchen to vegetate in the floor while I fixed lunch. That's when she threw up everywhere.

Thursday morning around 1:30 am is when Maggie and Ellie started taking turns waking me up. They both had fevers. Ellie would sleep for a few minutes and then start crying. I was able to get around 3 hours of sleep. Ellie spent the day crying for an hour and then playing for two hours and then crying for another hour. Maggie was able to eat a little and talked some so I could tell that she was feeling better. They both went to sleep and I ran to the couch for a nap. Of course, ten minutes later Ellie was awake.

That brings us to Friday. Ellie woke up several times during the night, starting at 10:50. She was up for the day at 5:00 and had been up numerous times before then. Maggie woke up a little before 6:00 with no fever. The girls have played quite a bit today and Ellie has only cried for about an hour and a half. I'm still in my jammies and about to take a nap myself...hopefully.

I have spent most of the day trying to decide if I should take Ellie to the doctor or wait until tomorrow. The office doesn't take appointments on the weekend, but I won't mind waiting if she's still sick. I'm hoping this is a 24 hour thing and will be out of her system by then. If I go to the doctor she may catch something even worse.

Feel free to pray that everyone gets better soon and that I will not catch it. If I do, I'm going to post my symptoms every hour!

Stay Healthy!!

In Recovery

I feel like I have been in recovery for the past couple of weeks. For some reason I have been going in circles with housework and laundry and everything else. Right now, I feel like there is a load of laundry to wash, dry, fold and put away every single time I turn around.

On Saturday, we decided (spur of the moment) to go to Ikea. It had been on my to-do list for nearly 10 years. I first heard about Ikea from a friend who was from the North. I looked at a catalog and HAD to go. I checked and the closest store was in Northern Virginia,, a few hours away. A couple of years ago, a store opened in Charlotte and I was so excited. For the past few weeks I had shopped their site and picked out things that I wanted to look at. After 1.5+ hours in the car, eating lunch out and visiting the big mall close to our destination, the kids were getting tired. They managed to make the best of our shopping experience and were thrilled to roam from "room" to "room" looking at things and trying out every chair, bed and drawer in sight. We didn't need to check out the indoor playground because the store was playground enough for them. We left after going all over the top floor and didn't buy anything. We decided it would work out best if we go back without the kids and buy quite a few things that we have picked out. I'm starting on my list today!

Today was our "stay at home" day. I normally have a little housework list, but today my focus was on getting the girls' spring/summer clothes organized. For Ellie, I had to pack up some of the fall/winter clothes that she's outgrown and get out Maggie's old clothes that she'll be wearing when warm weather comes. I LOVE having two girls for lots of reasons, but one of my favorites is pulling out the sweet dresses. Maggie & Ellie will have four matching dresses for the warm seasons. Maggie had to try on different things to see what would still fit from last year. I really try not to have so many clothes for them, but it's easy to get carried away when shopping. Maggie will need play clothes, but she has quite a few dresses already in her closet.

Now, I need to figure out what in the world I'll be wearing for spring and summer! I have had very little interest in clothes for myself since becoming a stay at home mom nearly five years ago. It's not exactly fun shopping for Mommy's clothes when Maggie and Ellie are in tow.

All Over Again

At least once or twice a week Big Daddy makes a comment about Ellie being just like Maggie was at this age. I realized today that the time around Maggie's second birthday was one of our happiest times. We had just found a church that we loved and we were planning on having a second baby. Maggie was doing Kindermusik and gymnastics and I was hanging out with my mommy friends. We went to the greenhouse, the Library and to visit Gammy Gladys and Paul at least once every week. Maggie and I had picnics for lunch on warm days and we often had picnics after church as a family.

Now I have picnics with two little girls that aren't so little anymore. We are taking full advantage of the Spring-like weather that we've been having the past few days. Maggie and Ellie loved having a picnic for lunch and Maggie's already making plans for a "family picnic" for tomorrow.


Ellie loves her sister and it's really starting to show!

I feel a little like I have twins sometimes because Ellie and Maggie like to do the same things.

Ellie has discovered a love of being naked. All Maggie has to do is say the word and Ellie will take off her pants or shirt on command.

Ellie has started trying to use the toilet before she gets into the bath tub at night. so I brought the potty from my parents' house. This morning before I dressed her Maggie told her to "pee pee on the potty" and she did.
Maybe Maggie will potty-train Ellie for me!

A Happy Heart Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday just because it was a little easier. Big Daddy bought Ellie a train track (with Thomas & Mavis) and we picked out Pre-K/K level reading books for Maggie. Both girls received Cinderella Pez dispensers for their sweet treat. Ellie loves her train track and Maggie really enjoys having books where she can easily read nearly all of the words on a page. Big Daddy and the girls gave me new perfume (!!!) and a sweet card. We didn't get Big Daddy anything, which is just the way he likes it.

Sunday evening was "Spice Up Your Marriage Date Night" at Church. They provided free dinner and childcare for the children (so we were all over that) and the parents had finger foods and educational entertainment. The church Family Life Center was full and I think everyone had a great time. We had fun and found out that we're not as different from other couples as we may have thought.

For Valentine's Day, we went to a local burger place where our family of four had diner for $12. After that we went to Lowe's for hooks to help organize the garage. Maggie and Ellie looked at light fixtures, riding mowers, washer and dryers and the ever popular toilets. Big Daddy bought me a level and we picked up hooks for the garage. After we put the kids to bed, we had homemade angel food cake with fresh strawberries and Big Daddy said it was "the best Valentine's ever".

The Greatest Show On Earth

We left Ellie with Nana and Callie...
(photo by Maggie)

and we took Maggie to the circus!

Turns out, the clowns aren't scary at all and were Maggie's favorite part.


And $22 can by a little bit of happiness.

($22 for a twirly, light up thing.)

I liked the elephants most of all...

and Big Daddy liked the tigers.

Overheard

Maggie: "Mom, come put the library books in the bag".
"Ewwww. There's snot coming out of Ellie's nose."
"There's snot coming out of Ellie's nose and she breathing it back in."

Ellie doesn't even have a runny nose, but I wiped it after all of this.

Ellie has a hard time going to bed on Awana nights and last night was no different. At 1am, she started waking up every hour on the hour.

I think it's time for a nap...for all of us.

What a week

I already feel like this has been such a long, busy week and it's only Wednesday!! I didn't do much of anything yesterday, but even doing "nothing" as a SAHM with two crazy girls is something.

Since finding out about Baby Chase on Monday morning, I have had losing Maggie on my mind a lot. I read a book years ago called "Every Woman Has A Story". I think I bought it off of the clearance table at B@rnes & Noble and it was shortly before my grandmother passed away. After her death I wondered what her story would have been if she had written it. Maybe it would have been having her only son (Michael) be stillborn or losing her husband at a relatively young age and with one young daughter still at home. At the time, I wondered what my story would be and I felt like I should know. Of course, shortly after Maggie was born I knew that was my story.

Sometimes I feel like everyone, even Big Daddy, has forgotten how close we were to losing Maggie. It's easy to push it all aside when there was no long NICU stay to go through or of a little baby with all sorts of tubes and wires hooked up to it's little body. I'm the one who knows what it's like to go into surgery being told that your baby might die. I can remember the exact moment that I opened my eyes and even though the nurse almost immediately told me that my baby "was alive" I had that split second to imagine the worst. I'm also the only one who has read the medical record where it says that the sight where my water was broken was only 1 centimeter from the exposed vessels of the umbilical cord.

While I can only imagine what pain my friend must be going through I do feel like I can relate in some small way. As I pray for her, most of all I don't want her to feel like she should have known that something was wrong. She has tremendous faith and I know that she'll seek comfort in that. I'll be seeing her tomorrow and then the funeral will be on Friday. Please keep this family in your prayers.

Maggie is begging to go to the family visitation tomorrow. She is so curious about all of this. Of course, I have told her that I don't think it would be appropriate for her to go, because I know that she will get upset. Her little friend is devastated at the loss of her brother and I can only imagine how hard it is to help her understand.

A List...or something

I don't know where to begin, but there's lots of things that I don't want to forget and since this is the scrapbook of our lives I decided to just make a random list.

• Last week, I had what I like to call a "Great Week in Parenting". I'm not sure what was happening, but it was good and I liked it!
  
• On Thursday I dropped the large, expensive bottle of perfume that Big Daddy gave me for Christmas. I wasn't crazy about the smell, but loved that he picked it out and I wore a little every single day. The bottle broke into lots of pieces and perfume went all over the bathroom. I had to clean the tile several times so that it wouldn't be slick and I swear the smell is still in the grout. The smell is also in the towel that I used to clean up the perfume and it's been washed several times.
• Maggie is reading more and more words as she goes about her daily activities. I picked out three Pre-K/Kindergarten reading books for her Valentine's gift and I think she's going to enjoy reading them.
• Ellie is trying to say lots of things now. She understands everything, but is still sort of quiet. She communicates pretty well without talking. She says truck all the time and unfortunately says it with an "f" at the beginning.
  
• Maggie and Ellie are really into Play-Doh now. It provides entertainment at the table when Big Daddy's not at home and I'm cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.
  
• Plans to homeschool Maggie in the fall are in full swing. (Eeeek!!) I should be getting one of the books that I ordered (for me) today or tomorrow and I am pretty sure I've found a curriculum that I want to use.
• Maggie and Ellie love the new minivan! We drove it on Saturday and Sunday, and they were all giggles. I was pleasantly surprised that it doesn't feel that much larger than my SUV when I'm driving, but it looks like a bus in the garage! I lovingly refer to it as "The Tank".
  
• After I picked Maggie up at school yesterday I told her about Baby Chase. She said, "OH NO" and then started to cry. Of course, then I started to cry too. She wanted to know if something happened to his "invisible cord" and said in her sweet little voice, "You know I could've died when I was born". She prayed for her friend Sara and her parents last night and is very curious about what happened to Chase.
• On Saturday, Big Daddy and I are taking Maggie to the circus!! I think I was about Maggie's age the last time that I went. Maggie and I are very excited and I think Big Daddy will be after he takes his test tomorrow. We are leaving Ellie with Nana & Pawpaw and will probably take her next year.
• On Sunday morning we are having a special program at all three morning worship services. The morning theme will be about families. There's also a "Spice Up Your Marriage Date Night" on Sunday evening and Big Daddy and I are going to it too. They are serving dinner for the kids and snacks for the adults, so it really will be like a little date night. Maggie's excited about going to a different class at church and getting to eat dinner there. We really love our Church.
  
• Maggie spent an hour yesterday fixing Valentine cards for friends and teachers at preschool and all of the teachers that she and Ellie have on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. She decided to fill bags with candy, give them Princess cards and "Happy Valentine's Day" pencils. We are also fixing red velvet cake balls this weekend.

And I think that catches us up to today!!
Happy Tuesday!

Baby Chase

A friend of mine was due to have a baby boy on February 19 and he passed away over the weekend. She is scheduled to deliver him later today.
I'll be telling Maggie about it after preschool today. She is friends with his Big Sister.

Please pray for this family as the grieve the loss of Baby Chase.

Help! There's a minivan in my garage!

As Big Daddy and I were sitting in the third row (Oh My Goodness we have a vehicle that has a third row!) of the minivan last night, he looked over at me and said, "We are adults." We spent a few minutes getting acquainted with the new vehicle after the girls were asleep. It will probably stay parked in the garage most of the time until the 12 year old car (my first ever new car) that Big Daddy drives to work each day bites the dust. I haven't driven it or even taken a ride in it yet, but I'll have plenty of time to do that later.

It's hard to believe that we sold a fast car with t-tops not that long ago when I was newly pregnant with Ellie. And that Big Daddy often talks of selling his other fast car just because he doesn't drive it that much.


After talking about Valentine's Day with Maggie, she's pretty adamant about making her teachers something...a card to be exact. I bought the ingredients to make some neat looking cookies and I'll share it later if they work out. I have had horrible luck with new recipes lately! Maggie loves helping in the kitchen, so we'll be baking tomorrow while Ellie naps.

I have to call and check on my friend April today. She made it through the surgery, but lost her whole bottom lip. She was feeling pretty good when we last spoke, but having a very difficult time with her new appearance. After her wound has healed, she may be able to have some reconstructive surgery. I'd love for you to continue to pray for her.