Just Try and Make Plans

These last two weeks have been a bit overwhelming to me.

Last week was the high school visit, which I am not ready to discuss, so I won't.

And this week Mike has plans to go to an overnight conference from Wed-Fri. I thought this would be a great opportunity to spend some quality time with my Dad, so I invited him to come and spend a couple of days with me and the kids. It was supposed to be a week of fun, maybe even a trip to Disney with Papa!

I was really looking forward to him being here, and then last night Joshi got sick... twice.

I couldn't afford to get my dad sick, so I called him at 5 o'clock this morning and told him he should not come today.

I am sooo sad about this.

I got up and bleached everything that isn't moving.

And since Joshi has been awake, he says he feels fine, has eaten- toast, applesauce, and two glasses of ginger ale. No fever.

Weird.

Hoping he is fine, and no one else gets sick. Hoping I can talk my dad into coming tomorrow, so we can still have a fun week :)

Also Mike and I have tickets to go see Hillsong tonight! Think if everyone is good I will still be able to go.

Why is it that you can go for weeks with nothing going on and everyone is well, but make plans and someone gets sick???

Kristen

Caridee Update

I received an update this morning from my brother-in-law that Baby Caridee is doing much better.

The doctors and nurses are all amazed and can't understand why the kidney issue has apparently cleared up on it's own.

She was moved up to a low level NICU and her parents are right by her side now!

Praise God!

Thanks for your prayers and please continue to pray for her and her parents.

Also, for those who are praying for my mom and dad, mom is in the hospital but came through the procedure well. Hopefully all the infection was cleaned out and she will be able to go home by this weekend.

Kristen

Baby Caridee

I need to ask for your immediate prayer.

My sister-in-law, Brandi's, sister had a gorgeous baby girl Friday morning. Caridee Sage Gill.

When Heather, Brandi's sister, found out she was pregnant, the prenatal test came back that their baby had Turner Syndrome. This was very scary, because this doesn't always have a very good prognosis.

Much prayer and nine months later Caridee is a miracle and here!! But now is in the NICU with some unexplained complications. I don't know if what she is experiencing is something common for Turner's babies, but please just pray for her. Please pray for peace and strength for her new, young, first-time-around-parents. Please pray that little Caridee will start doing what she needs to on her own with out assistance.

For more complete updates go here.

Thanks!

Kristen

Very Sick

I crawled down stairs to check my email.

Going back to bed. Please pray for me.

Kristen

Sadness

My family is filled with sadness right now.

Weird that every day for the last three days i thought to myself,"this is the worst day ever."

Last night we were with Todd when he breathed his last breath.

Scott has a beautiful post here. I can't say it better.

Today we had to tell our kids.

Pray for Paula, her boys, and Todd's family, first.

Then will you please pray for me, Mike, and our kids, because we are filled with sadness right now.

Thanks.

Kristen

Lots of stuff going on. If you don't follow Mike's twitter or his blog go here.

I will write more when I can.

Pray.

Kristen

Second Lesson Learned This Week

This has just been a week full of lessons for mommy!

Last night some friends of ours invited us over for a bbq, swimming, and water volleyball, followed up by some cards.

Mike and I packed up the kids and puppy and drove over to their side of town excited about our evening.

The kids had a blast swimming. They have a great in ground pool that has a deep diving area. The kids learned to dive and had so much fun.

We ate and played and had fun.

The kids got out of the pool and the adults played a little water volley ball, while the kids were ball boys/girls.

I got tired and cold and got out. Seth got out and said he had a headache.

Hmm. Seth isn't a big complainer. I figured he had had too much fun and we got him a motrin for his head. Figuring he probably hadn't drank too much, he was probably a bit dehydrated I offered him a sip of water and he said no.

Uh oh. This is where my instincts said pack up and leave. This kid isn't feeling right. But instead we had him lay down for a few minutes, hoping his headache would ease up. After a little bit I checked on him and he didn't look good. I got him up and started to get him ready to go when I looked at him and realized he was going to hurl. Of course we were by the door, and no where near the bathroom.

We started to run but it was too late. Also the door to the bathroom was open and blocking the currently closed toilet, so really the wall behind the toilet and the closed toilet got the brunt of the damage.

There really is no way to explain in words what the scene looked like. It was absolutely horrible. For just an instant I thought of taking a picture because I knew no one would ever believe just how bad it was. But then realized I was covered in vomit as was my kid and my friends bathroom and I skipped the picture idea.

I need to note here that i understand that i have a tendency to exaggerate, but I am in NO way exaggerating here. There was so much vomit covering the bathroom, I didn't know what to do.

Mike cleaned up the living room, floor, walls, door etc (thank God for wood floors), and I started on the bathroom.

Poor Seth. He had to be stripped down to his underwear, I wrapped a towel around him and Mr. Dave gave him his shirt. Thanks Dave!

After quite a while I got it to the point, where I could let Mike in to help me start on cleaning the walls. Then I completely lysoled their entire bathroom.

Seth by this time was feeling much better. We got him in the car and headed home. Jess, a dr. in training, told us to stop and get him some gatoraid because he was probably dehydrated.

We stopped at the Walgreens down the street from our house. It was 10:01, the lady literally locked he door on Mike's face. Nice. We won't be doing any "Gee, isn't Walgreens the most helpful store!" commercials.

I showered Seth (had to be done) and got him in bed with his vomit-bowl while mike ran out for gatoraide.

He of course felt fine by this time. Headache gone, no stomach ache. Slept like a rock all night.

I, on the other hand, dreamed of cleaning vomit covered bathrooms all night.

Lesson here? Trust your instincts mom! You may not always be right and seem a little kooky but it will save you from situations like this.

I need to send some kind of card, gift, paint, new bathroom to give these friends of ours, any suggestions?

Oh, and Seth, he is great this morning and calling me right now from his bed because he is starving.

Kristen

Well Checks

Busy morning today.

Took the girls to their well check appointments this morning.

Kylee has a possible UTI again. We had no idea.

I didn't expect it and was leaving the office when the nurse came out and said there was blah blah and blah blah in Kylee's urine. Whatever that means. She said they were sending it to the lab and would call. Usually they put her right on an antibiotic, so I don't know if it was the same as usual. She said it could have just been a contaminated sample. I am praying for that.

I've about had it with this. Although, it has been almost a year since her last. I think maybe we need to revisit the tests they took when she was little. Maybe have a different doctor look at the tests and see if they see anything different.

Faith has to have a back x-ray for curvature of her spine. They have been watching it and aren't too worried but want to have the x-ray for watching purposes, I think. She didn't seem to think it was bad enough to result in a brace.

Other than that they were healthy. Faith was 5 foot 1 1/2 inches tall. She was delighted to hear that. Only an inch and a half shorter than me. And then the doctor told Kylee that she thought her top height would be about one inch taller than me. Another happy customer.

It's funny, I remember thinking when they were babies that things like going to the dr. would be so much easier when they got older.

It's not.

Kristen

Six Down

Everyone in the house has been sick again. It seems like the last few years we have been so fortunate not to come down with every illness, so this must be our year.

Unfortunately Mike got it this time and almost lost his voice this last weekend. He was a trooper though and with some vocal help made it through the three services. I thought I was going to escape it completely seeing that i had been around it for over a week and it hadn't caught me. But at last, Tuesday I started feeling bad and here I am with the nasty cough and yuck. But at least I can get up and move unlike the last illness.

I think we have had our fair share this winter and should get a little break.

I also think this is the time my kids miss being school kids. Tuesday when Faith also woke up with a fever and feeling bad I gave her some meds., made her some hot tea, and handed her, her assignment sheet with her books. Man, I remember when I was in school just hoping for that fever so you could get a day off, all it does for my kids is change the location the work gets done.

Back to work!

Kristen

Visiting The Doctor Wellness Phenomena

I first discovered this phenomena with my first child. We were typical first parents and when she got a cold or virus, we would rush our little sweetheart to the dr. for them to tell us that she had a virus, take her home and let her rest.

This is where the phenomena kicks in. After leaving the dr. office the baby, toddler, child who could barely walk and hadn't smiled in days would immediately begin feeling better. Never again would we see the high fever, lethargic behavior, green snot. Romping and playing would ensue and a normal healthy child we would have again.

I don't know if some kind of chemical is released in the body when you enter the office but for some reason it just works.

Well, I think I tricked my body yesterday. Because today I feel sooooooooo much better!! My throat looks incredible. Still got the weird bruise, but it looks to be fading. But I can swallow and eat!! So maybe it is the stress of going to the doctor. Because I definitely felt that yesterday, even though I didn't go. Hmmmm. Stress related cures, I don't think it will take off.

Kristen

More On Being Sick

Okay, so I am coming out of a little two hour freak out. I have been sick for going on 6 days now. And to this point really just thought I had the flu. The kids had it. They were miserable. They had it for about 7 days, all the same symptoms, so when I got sick I just sort of settled in for the long haul.

Well, then today I decided to have a little look at my nasty throat and noticed a pretty ugly spot on the back amongst all the other ugly spots and right then flashed my flash light up and noticed on the roof of my mouth a huge blotch. Kind of like a giant bruise on the roof of my mouth.

Okay so I freaked a little. I have four kids and one husband and have seen my fair share of stuff. Trust me. But never, never, never, seen this. So, I called my trusty friend who would give me the best council and she told me to find out who my dr. is and go.

See, I don't go to the dr. Ever. Yes, I know. But this isn't time for a lecture. I am sick remember.

So, I called my trusty (ha) HMO and asked for my dr. name. called the number and they didn't answer. Not even a machine. Hhhhmmmm. Not a good sign. I called the insurance back and waited on line for-ev-er and then finally got through.

They gave me another dr. name. Called them. They are out of town. Told her my symptoms she told me she would page the dr. They called me back and told me to go to the emergency room.

Okay, now that freaked me out a bit. Now, I know they are telling me that so they can cover their back sides but when you are sick you aren't all that rational. After I cried for a couple of minutes convinced that I had some rare monkey flu, I decided to try the insurance company yet again and see if I can get a different doctor.

15 minutes later the insurance lady gave me the name of another doctor. Actually three doctors at one office but said I could only see them. Okay.

I call that office and select the option to speak with a nurse. This is a great solution I am sure of it. I tell the nurse my symptoms, don't water it down one bit and she says that I need to be seen to swab for strep.

Okay folks this is what I have been waiting for. I am about 99% sure I don't have strep. Kylee had the same EXACT illness and we did take her and they did swab her and she didn't have strep. But okay, I will be swabbed.

So I ask to make an appt. Guess what?

No appointments.

Seriously.

How about tomorrow?

Nope.

But she did tell me that if I call back tomorrow at 7 I may be able to get in....

That is perfect for me. I found out I don't have some strange other-worldly disease brought here by some inter planetary creature (I know this because the nurse would have been worried about more than just strep, right?) and if I am still miserable tomorrow I will call tomorrow.

Oh, and by the way did I mention that I can't take basically any over the counter medication for colds because it gives me some very, very, strange side effects. No Sudafed, No NyQuil. Oh nothing prescribed with Codeine in it either.

So, I will continue my Tylenol, Motrin regiment and pray for the best.

Kristen

Vapor Feet

I just found a cure for night coughing that has changed my life. I got an email a couple of weeks ago from an old friend and it told of this night time cough cure.

Here it is: Rub Vicks Vapor rub on the bottom of your feet and put on socks.

Ok, I read this and I thought RIGHT!!!! My first instinct is if this is so easy why doesn't every one know about it? My second reaction was I kind of wished someone would get a cough so I could try it....

I got my wish. Joshi got a cold. Not a big deal. No fever just a little summer cold. But along with it is the most annoying cough. Every couple of minutes a dry, non productive cough followed by me telling him to cover his mouth every time he does it.

So the first night after his cough started I broke out the Vicks and rubbed it on his feet. I put a pretty good layer on them and covered them with socks. No other meds. Put him to bed and not a sound!!! Second night same thing, no coughing. Last night was our third night and I heard him cough a couple of times but no big deal.

I am sold!!! The article said that the person had tried it on an adult and that it worked so I now have the cold and I will be rubbing some vicks on my feet soon. I'll let you know.

I just really wish someone had told me this 10 years ago when Faith was little. Think of all the sleepless nights we could have avoided!!

Kristen