Tired and Sick....

Well whatever is going around has finally made it here. First Adrian came down with it, then Gabe and Caleb and me, and of course Caitlin and James. So, we're all sitting here with stuffy and runny noses and headaches and body aches. Pretty miserable stuff. But Adrian is feeling much better, go figure.

The 23rd was my dad's birthday and his anniversary with Colleen. It would also have been him and mom's anniversary if they were still married. It would have been 32 years for mom and him. That's a LONG time. It's been a year of being married for him and Colleen, and 7 or 8 years of them being together as of this June or July. I can hardly believe that it's already going to be a year that we've been back in touch with dad. We were planning on having them down today, but with all of us being sick, we figured next week would be better for that. Jaime's making a cake, and I'll be making the drive up and back to get them. Here's hoping we're all feeling better by then.

I also have to finish painting the front room and hallway before then. We picked out a fairly bright blue that I had planned on using for the boys' rooms, but decided to touch up a few areas in the front room with it, thinking that it was a close match to what was already in there. Wrong. It's such a bright color that the old blue that was on the walls already looks almost gray in comparison! I painted the bathroom a nice cherry bright yellow, and have the same color picked to use in the hall, since it doesn't have much light to brighten it up. The boy's rooms will be 2-tone blue, with a dark almost navy blue on the top of the walls and the ceiling. And glow-in-the-dark stars and moons on the ceiling.
Caitlin's room will be a color that she picked, called bright citrus. It's a peachy pink color. It'll look great in there, and bring more light in. She has the smallest room in the house for her bedroom, so it can use all the brightening it can get.
Still need to pick a color for our room, because right now it's a deep red color that reminds me of a bordello. Not really my thing. Personally, I favor earth-tone colors. But Mike says he really doesn't care what color, as long as it's something that I like. Makes it easier and at the same time harder, because I really would like his opinion on things.
I'm thinking of light tan-ish or beige, or maybe something similar. Who knows.

As far as school, we're going to take a few days or maybe a week and just cut back to the basics while everyone's feeling under the weather. It'll be a nice break for all of us.

Another Week...

So, now that I'm done being sick, and the kids are (mostly) done being sick, lets try another update. Or something.
Caleb and Caitlin started it off last Thursday with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. They gave it to me, and I passed it along to Gabe and James by Saturday night into Sunday. Then Mike was sick Monday night into Tuesday. Now we're all feeling better...I hope. Except of course for James who has a couple pulled muscles and a case of strep.

I got my new barbells today. One is green and sparkly and the other is white and green with a star in the center. They're shorter, so hopefully I'll stop hitting them on my teeth and having the ball rub on the bottom of my mouth.
And I'm now down 26lbs!!!! Talk about boosting my self esteem. With everyone being sick it's been a really long week. Still feels like Monday, go figure.
And, today is my baby brothers' 21st birthday! Happy Birthday Nick!

Can't Believe It's Only Been A Week!

Wow has it been crazy around here! Lots of stuff going on, school and kids and laundry and all that jazz. Gabe has now been sleeping by himself for 3 weeks! And in that time, he's only come in and tried to sleep in our room twice! Talk about a milestone, and about time too. His disposition has gotten so much better since he started sleeping more. He's calmer and easier to redirect towards another activity. Not that it works all the time, but hey its a start.
The other kids are doing well, and we had a great visit to the Library on Friday. Gabe has been very interested in Harry Potter, as has Caleb, so we checked out a couple of the books and movies.
Things have been running smoothly around here, and going well with Mike and I. Although, right now he has a cold and is home from work. He surprised everyone at home and at work when he shaved his head Friday night. We went to his mom's for dinner, and she was less than enthusiastic about his hair cut. She used his FULL name. And then she looked at me and said, "You helped him didn't you?" I wasn't sticking around for any more of that conversation, so I hightailed it to the living room to hide from her.
We also cut and dyed mine last week, turned out well, a nice burgundy color that looks reddish or purplish depending on the light.
I'm still figuring out the new computer, trying to figure out how I can add a new profile pic, and try out my new webcam. It's easy enough on Facebook and Myspace, but it's set up different on here.

As far as life goes, we are adjusting as a family to having 2 extra people here. Adrian has been a handful, and has been hitting and yelling, but I figure that's because he's getting used to the changes around him. Jane also got her due date, May 15, which is the day before Adrian's 3rd birthday. The question now is will she go early or late?

Not Much Going on Here

We had Mom's birthday party (surprise party!) on Wednesday. I drove up to Milwaukee to get Dad and Colleen, and took them back up after the party(and didn't finally get home until a little after 11pm!). Dad got to meet some of the people from the VFW/American Legion post where mom and Dave go, as that's where we had the party.
They also got to spend some time with the kids and have dinner with us. Gabe wasn't in the best of moods, as he's working on another cold/sinus infection/plague. Seems like every time the weather changes dramatically he gets sick again. But this time I can partially blame it on Adrian. He was over last weekend hacking and coughing with a runny nose and bad attitude, and gave it to Gabe. Problem with Gabe being sick and feeling crappy is that since his nose is running all the time, he's always wiping it on his sleeve, and he's been licking his lips CONSTANTLY! Poor thing looks like he's been rubbing cherry koolaid all over his mouth and chin, that's how red it is. And with the runny nose also comes the drooling.
We've had the drooling under control for the most part, but when stressed or sick he drools more, and chews his shirts more. He's ruined at least a dozen since the beginning of the move.
We started going through our books for school today and even managed to read some. I'm planning on formally starting on Monday, and from there we will be on a 4 day a week school schedule. I'd like to do 3 weeks on and 1 week off, ideally. But we all know how things work out when we want to do something a particular way around here.
I'm hoping that Gabe will be feeling better by next week. For all our sakes! The more icky and out of sorts he feels, the worse he makes every one else feel. Tonight we went to Walmart to pick up some last minute things for dinner, and to pick up some school supplies. That went pretty decent until he decided that it wasn't fair that he wasn't getting a toy. Wow, you'd have thought I said that we were going to amputate his feet and make him walk over hot coals! All hell broke loose - at the checkout of course - and Mike had to take him out to the van to calm down. The cashier was very nice about it, and we talked about autism and mental retardation while she scanned our things. But the "lady" in front of us in line wasn't so nice about it. Kept shaking her head at us and mumbling things about kids these days and needing a good butt-warming.
Of course to top off the wonderful week I've been having, my computer is acting up. Sometimes it just doesn't want to turn back on and takes a few tries to get up and running. I'm actually thinking of buying a new laptop when we get taxes back in February. Maybe.
guess that's all for now, gotta go give the little monster his cough meds so he can hopefully sleep a little better tonight.

C.diff is Negative!

So now we just need the Health Dept, and the Dr's office to both fax a note to work saying that he can go back to work! Unfortunately, the health dept lady is "away from my desk at the moment", and has been all day. The Dr's office is faxing their note, and faxing the health dept as we speak, to get them to fax the note we need.
All it means is that he'll be home tomorrow too, and go back on Wednesday, exactly 2 wks after he got called off work. It also means that he'll get a 3 day paycheck, which will cover his gas back and forth to work and a few groceries. It's great news, and I've been praying that it would hurry up and be done.
Thank you to all who have been praying for us, and have kept us in their thoughts. It's meant a lot to us.
I'm still reloading my computer, and have lost some of my bookmarks forever, but am slowly getting things set back up the way I had them before. The kids are all well, and I'm getting back to normal, just glad things have turned out for him to go back to work. With my stomach in knots the way it's been, I've been living on coffee, and lots of Monster. Hopefully once he is back to work, my stomach will be back to normal.
Gotta go for now, need to finish loading some more things into my bookmarks, and finish loading my music. Got bored yesterday so I took a break from getting it done.

Didn't Sleep Well, Too Much On My Mind

Too much stuff on my mind. Hubby takes in his "sample" today to see if he can go back to work. We can't afford for him to be home for another week, so I'm praying that the meds have worked and he's good to go. Stressful, because he throws off the whole schedule by being here, and is driving me nuts. Also because we need to figure out how we're gonna pay bills and get groceries and everything if he's 0ff for more time. I know that he can take his other week of vacation if he needs to, but I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.
What amazes me is that no one else has gotten what he has. I've been obsessively cleaning for the past week and a half, and rearranging and vacuuming like a madwoman. Not to mention mopping and scrubbing everything, and making kids wash their hands a million and one times a day.
I don't do well with this kind of thing. Or pretty much anything to do with the city, the health dept, important ppl that can come and inspect your house, or the ones that can take your kids if you know what I mean. It makes me nervous, it even sometimes makes me physically ill.

For an example, we had a dealing with CPS about 4 yrs ago. We'd had a friend (my best friend) and her boyfriend staying with us. He's not known for his good temper. Caleb is a very difficult child to put to bed some nights. This was before I started putting him and Gabe to bed together. So I'm downstairs with Gabe, and he went up to tell Caleb to quit jumping on the bed and go to sleep. Well, he's yelling, and Caleb's yelling. So I put Gabe down on the couch, and went to see what was going on. I go up, and the boyfriend was coming down. He said that he swatted Caleb on the butt for screaming in his face and spitting at him. I went up and checked on him, and asked him what happened, and he told me a different story.
Caleb told me that he was jumping on the bed, which I already knew, and BF came in and told him to go to bed. He said that he told BF that he wanted mom and wasn't going to bed. BF told him to lay down, and he screamed in BF's face, and then BF backhanded him, twice, hard across the side of his neck. Well, I'd never known BF to EVER hit my kids, because he knew that if there was a problem to come get me. And I didn't see any marks, so I figured that Caleb was being a drama queen and I'd just check it again later.
Yes, BF knew that hitting my child was not appropriate, yes he knew that there would be consequences if there was even 1 mark on him. So I let Caleb sleep in my bed with me, since he was upset, along with Gabe (who at the time ALWAYS slept in my bed). And I went to bed, figuring on checking it in the morning. (BTW BF was asked, and denied hitting him like that.)
So when I looked in the morning, I was totally shocked by what I saw. A hand print shaped red mark, with petechiae (hemmoraging) , his neck looked like it was bloodshot. And he had a finger splint shaped bruise. And guess who was wearing a finger splint because he had hurt his finger at work? That's right, the BF.

So I called hubby, told him the situation, and when he got home, he asked BF if he'd hit him and he still said no. So we took Caleb to the police station, filed a report, and had them come talk to him. He told the cops that he did indeed hit him, and that he'd actually hit him twice. He knew it was wrong, and was willing to leave without a fight. Since BF was on probation, his PO revoked him, and he spent 5 days in jail. What does that have to do with CPS? Well if you report that someone else has hurt your child, YOU are investigated too. Yup, that's right, you are investigated.
So, being the not great housekeeper that I am, and having been called on myself because my house was a mess, I totally freaked the hell out! I cleaned everything, called my mom and mil, and they came over and helped me clean every nook and cranny. The worker came and talked to the kids, at school, and called me to say that she needed to come out to the house.
So, she came, and looked thru the whole house--even the fridge and freezer--and her only concern was that she thought the birds cage needed to be cleaned. Of course I laughed, and said that if I cleaned the cage more than 3x a week, the bird would not stay sitting on her eggs, and that since I was breeding birds, I needed her to sit.
I told her how nervous she made me, and how I felt about spanking and how all it takes is just 1 person getting mad and turning you in for something stupid (ie house was a mess cause everyone was sick) to make you freak whenever something happens to your kids. The whole experience affects me even now, I don't leave my kids with anyone except grandma, and my cell phone is on the whole time. I freak over little bumps and bruises. I get physically ill, and sometimes even to the point that I throw up. During that experience I lost 16 lbs in 2 weeks, because I was so freaked I couldn't eat, or sleep and kept throwing up.
Long story short, the case was closed, BF got 5 days in jail, and a 1yr no contact order on us and the kids. He and my best friend got married, he got counseling, and they had a child. My godson, Adrian. Even though he's had counseling, he will never be left alone with my kids. Even if I'm home, because I can't trust that he won't hurt one of them again.
Well, this got way longer than I intended, and I didn't plan on partially writing my life story, lol, but I just wrote how I felt and what was on my mind. Comment away!

Gross Pt 2

So he went back to the Dr today, expecting to get cleared to go back to work, or at least get a general idea of when he could go back. Yeah right! Work's pissed at him, because the state (Health Dept) is up their butt. HR at work is pissed at him too, and actually TOOK his name badge from him today when he went to drop off his Dr's note and get his check. He was told in no uncertain terms that it MUST be his fault that he is sick, and don't come back until they tell him to.
Doc has him off for another week at least, maybe more depending on what the results of his next "sample" are. He's to go back next Friday and leave a sample, and they'll call him with the results. Then, they'll fax the results to work, and he is to call them and find out if/when he can go back.
I told him to watch his back, since work is so t'd off about the Health Dept. being involved, and I'm sure that they're going to try and find a way to fire him. So, he took vacation pay for the next week, hopefully he goes back to work then. Or we're sunk, no work = no $$. He said he's going to start looking for a new job while he's off, and the Dr said that as long as it's not dealing with food he can work. Here's hoping that next week is better than this week has been.

On the plus side, we got cable installed today, but now I'm left trying to figure out if we'll be able to afford it in another month. If you're the praying type, I could use some prayers right now.

Totally Gross (Warning if you have a weak stomach!)

Hubby hasn't been feeling well for the last few days. He's also had diarrhea and an upset stomach. We figured it was just the flu, or a stomach bug, but he was running to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so.
So this morning, he goes, and goes and goes. And is sh*tting BLACK, as in high probability of a GI bleed, or old blood at the very least. So he calls in to work, and goes to Urgent Care this morning. As soon as the Dr. hears the words "black stool" he ordered a complete workup: blood work, stool sample etc. He gets a script for antibiotics, and goes to fill it. Less than an hour later, we get 2 calls about 15 minutes apart. Call #1 says: "You tested positive for Giardia, come back up and get an additional script." Call #2 says: "You also tested positive for Cryptosporidium, and will need a script that will take care of that." So now he's on 3 scripts, 1 for 7 days, 1 for 10 days, and 1 for 3 days.
We went to fill the other 2, and when we get back home, we have a call on the caller ID from the city Health Dept! So he calls her back, and is asked all these questions about how long he's been sick, where has he eaten recently, what has he eaten, has he been around this or that. WTH? There was also ANOTHER call from the Dr's office, but they were out of the office, so he'll have to call them back for the bad news (i hope not really) in the morning.
Our day SUCKED! And the kicker is, he's off work until they say he's all clear of both! So no work = no pay! Wish me luck I'm going to need it.
Of course this also means that Adrian went home, as I need to baby him instead. And Sky's not going to be coming either. It'll be a quiet weekend with just the 6 of us.

Sick Kids

Ick! Started this morning, with Gabe saying that he wasnt feeling good, and sleeping in till 10 this morning. He NEVER sleeps that late. He was warm, red ears and cheeks, and just wanted to cuddle. Then later this morning, Caleb says he's not feeling well. Red ears, warm to the touch, sick to his stomach, and headache. And Mike comes home from work, also not feeling well. Whatever it is, it'll probably go thru the hole lot of them by this weekend.
Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.