viral something

i went to the doctor this afternoon, as i have not been feeling well at all lately. can hardly swallow to eat or drink my throat hurts so badly.

don't have strep, he said he thought it was viral laryngitis. i have my doubts, for one, i can still talk. but, it is viral. which means there's no easy fix for me. i just have to tough it out until it's gone.

goody! (sarcasm)

oh, how i love fall!

i love fall. with all the wonderful smells from canning, the trees that decide they are tired of their green dresses and opt for red and orange and brown and rust and gold and umber and sienna and..........i could go on and on about the different colors of leaves. i am married to an artist you know. i know a ton of color names that you would never even think of.

the one thing i don't love about fall, is everyone seems to get sick. my dear friend and neighbor, gets upset because we keep passing illnesses back and forth. my kids get it, her kids come to play, and they all get it. so, we will just keep a closer eye on everyone this winter, and try to stay on top of things.
right now, i'm the only one who hasn't gotten better. it started with allergies giving me grief (after all, it is harvest time, and i have hay fever). then it turned into a cough that everyone had. finally, it's persisted with a sore throat that won't go away. i can't hardly even swallow. and when i do, i feel the pain from my chest clear up to my forehead. so, i made an appointment with a doctor, and we'll see what the diagnosis is.

YAY!

shannon, just went to the bathroom for the first time! lately, i've started taking her in to the toilet when i change her diaper. letting her sit on it, and "try." she's started asking to sit on it when i change her as well.
today, she came in and took her dress off, cause you can't have clothes on when you go potty. pulled off her diaper, and then went in and sat on the toilet. she didn't come right back, so i went in and checked on her. she was sitting on the toilet, there was a poop in the bottom!

all by herself, she went in and went to the bathroom on the toilet!

crafty

the other night, while i was feeding ashely just before i put her to bed, i played with a spool of white ribbon.
i get frustrated when people ask me if my babies are girls or boys. as my last 2 girls haven't had as much hair as elizabeth did, it really does make it hard.
with this spool of ribbon, i discovered that i could make flowers with it. i just had to figure out how to get them to stick together, and how to get them on the head. i have a white headband that was perfect for the cause. i made 3 last night, and sewed them together. i put a colored button in the center, for different colors.

this morning, i tried to figure out how to attach them to the headband. i took a safety pin, and pinned it on. by the afternoon it was starting to have problems. (of course, if ashley would leave it alone and not pull it over her eyes and try to eat it, it wouldn't be such an issue).

finally, it occurred to me that i could put a snap on them, and just snap them to the headband.

they are quite cute, if i must say so! and so is the baby that's wearing them!

flower bed

i have a flower bed in front of my house, right under the front windows. the bed had black plastic and bark filling it
this year, it was full of weeds, and a VERY nasty bush.
the bush was there when we moved in. it didn't ever have flowers, and even after trimming it, it still grew shoots that were 4 feet tall. what made this bush so nasty was that it had thorns that were about an inch long.
at some point this spring, i discovered, amidst all the weeds, that i had tiger lilies in that bed. but as the weeds were taller than flowers, you couldn't see them.
around the first part of august, i ripped out all the weeds. or what i could get to.

this morning, after i got elizabeth off to school, i set to work on that flower bed. i would really like to plant some flowers in it. since that's hard to do with plastic in the bed, i took it out and the bark. i also removed the bush.

 

i am quite happy with the results!

crazy busy

lately, i've done a lot of stuff. like, a lot of stuff in one day. yesterday i mopped the floor, put more peaches in the dehydrator, cleaned the entire house, made 3 ribbon flowers, and did research about shauns classes.
today, i put MORE peaches in the dehydrator, cleaned out the front flower bed; including ripping out a nasty bush, did 3 scrapbook pages - traditionally, washed dishes twice, and bathed the kids.
all of that is with the normal tasks of feeding an infant, changing diapers, doing homework with the older kids, making meals, cleaning up after tornado shannon, and taking care of myself as well.
tomorrow is laundry day for the kids. i'm done with peaches - actually, i ran out of bottles, and now i'm out of peaches. if i had more bottles and peaches, i would DEFINITELY do more.

toothpaste anyone?

i just caught shannon, who's 2, trying to suck the remaining toothpaste out of the tube! what am i going to do with this child.

she likes to pull things out of the garbage. especially food, or anything that she thinks looks like food.

peaches!

so, it's fall, and with it brings canning season. last time i canned peaches, i went down to utah and bought them in brigham city. this time, i don't have the money to go to utah, let alone buy peaches down there. but, broulims, one of our local grocery stores, had some from boise. to buy them there was about the same as driving to utah and buying them there.
i got 3 bushels, and so far, have canned half of that. since i'm almost out of bottles, i'm going to have to dry the rest. but, i'm okay with that. i wish i had more quart jars, cause i'd like to do spaghetti sauce. maybe next year we'll have more money, and i can buy some more jars.

i got 31 quarts. would have had 35, but 4 of them broke. oh, well. i'm glad i got something!

crib or toddler bed? which one it is?!

Our crib converts into a toddler bed. It's been very nice. We've had shannon in the toddler bed/crib, and ashley's been in the cradle. Yesterday, i traded the toddler bed/crib for the toddler bed, and the cradle for the crib.

In order to do such, i had to reorganize my bedroom, & clean it. Since i have such a great friend, i did not have to do this on my own. She helped me move things around in my room, take apart the crib & put it back together.

Now when i walk into my room, i think i've walked into someone elses!

ice cream man

So, my kids bought the whole neighborhood ice cream tonight. We have an ice cream man that comes around once a week. The kids have been begging to get something from him all summer. As he only takes cash, it's not something i've been able to do.

Tonight, he drove by just like always, & all of the sudden, everyone is running through the house & out the door. Then someone comes back in, down the hall, & back out again. That happens twice more. Then i hear dominick asking taylor where the change is. When he can't find it, he starts throwing a fit (which is normal). That's when i realized that they were buying ice cream.

I wasn't happy. I guess i shouldn't be too upset, as it is their money, and they should be able to use it how they want to. But, it was just about dinnertime, & no one had eaten yet. When they did eat, though, they actually ate. And some of them had more than one plate.

labor story

i just realized, after reading thru past entries on here, that i never did tell the story about ashley's birth. so, here goes.

i went to my doctor's appointment that morning, where the doctor informed me that he was going to induce me that day. came home and got things prepared.
on the way in, we needed to stop and make a payment on the van, get shaun's license renewed (it was going to expire in 2 days), shaun needed to stop in at the shop and talk to someone, and i think there was one other thing we did.
got up to the hospital, i had shaun park in the family spots for maternity, since we weren't in labor, and didn't need the close spots. walked in and ran into a couple of people shaun knew. talked to them for a few minutes. got up to maternity and checked in.
they got me back in the room around 2. got me changed and on the monitors, and said they were going to call the doctor to come and break my water. i told them i wanted an epidural before the doctor broke my water. he had told me we could do that, and as painless as shannon's labor was, i wanted that again. (especially since i hyperventilate from the pain)
2:30, the anesthesiologist came up and got my epidural in. since they won't let you out of bed after you get one, i stayed put. they put a pillow under my left side, and my blood pressure dropped and i started feeling sick. the nurse gave me a shot of ephedrine to help with it, and i had that nasty metallic taste in my mouth for a few minutes. my blood pressure dropped again, and i got dizzy and nauseous, she had to give me another shot.
3:30, the doctor came in to break my water. we talked a little bit about the dizziness and the dropping blood pressure. he said it was because i was flat on my back. we raised my head a little, and moved the pillow to my right side because it was cold and more numb than the left. then he broke my water.had another drop in blood pressure and another shot to counteract it. then i discovered that if i was almost completely on my left side, i wasn't dizzy, and i was able to think and talk. spent the rest of the time on my side.
4:30, they started me on pitocin to help the labor along. i wasn't progressing on my own.
5:30, they upped the dose of pitocin.
part of the time, shaun and i talked about his story from his bfa. there were some parts that i was very confused about. we talked about those, and did some thinking on some others.the rest, i actually tried to sleep.
6:45, the nurse came in to check me, cause they had seen my contractions get to the point that it was time. she told me she was going to call the nurse, and to not push. apparently, the baby was VERY ready. not quite crowned, but close. i thought she must be crazy. i hadn't felt any of the contractions, or the need to push. i could feel some tightening right under my ribs sometimes, but that was it.
the doctor showed up, and while he was getting his gown on, i finally felt the urge to push. he got in position, and i pushed. she crowned, and got her head out. half a push later, and she was here. i actually felt her move down the birth canal, it was so cool! easiest labor i've ever had.

ashley nicole was born at 7:16 pm; weighed 6 pounds, 13 ounces; was 19 inches long; and had a 13 inch head.

crazy mama day

so, friday, the kids get out early. which also means that the afternoon kindergarten has different times as well. it occurred to me today, that i'm not exactly sure what time elizabeth needs to be to school on fridays. i tried finding the schedule on the school website, but didn't have any luck. i tried calling the school to talk to the secretary, no luck. i called my friend, who's daughter had afternoon kindergarten last year. she said she thought it was 11:30 vs the normal 11:50. by then, i'd already sent her to make sure she wasn't too late.

then shannon refused to take a nap today. i put her down around 12, and by 12:30 she was back out of her room playing. i tried again around 1, but had the same results.
while i was sewing quilt blocks (more on this later), i had her lay in my bed. it was only after she pulled the loaf of bread off the dresser that i realized, I HADN'T FED HER LUNCH! (don't ask why the bread was on the dresser.)

we got her something to eat, and i kept sewing. then the kids got home from school, and the screaming and playing in my bedroom started. oh, my word! if i could have muzzled my kids, i would have! some of you may have noticed that i did offer them on facebook for sale or lease. that was a total joke.

screaming kids all day long. that's what i've had. enough that by the time shannon got into my sewing stuff and pulled out my rotary blade, and elizabeth sliced her hand with it, i was ready to explode. i went out to the office, and informed shaun that i was past done. he went in and cleaned the kitchen floor, and got the kids to clean the front room. i calmed down enough to come in and get dinner on the table and we ate.

(i think i left something out, but i don't know what it is.)

anxieties

ok, for those of you who dont' know, i have some mild social anxieties. that may not surprise some of you, and it might really shock the rest. anyhow, it becomes a real pain sometimes.

for instance, our first sunday in this ward, shaun had to push me down the hall to relief society or i would have say in the foyer the whole time. and we had lived in this ward previously, i knew about half of the ladies there.

last night, was a relief society meeting. they've come up with an adult version of personal progress. i think it's great. my friend and i went together, and just before we left, my mother-in-law called to say she was planning on going as well. so, i had plenty of support there, and should have been ok. i only made it through about halfway. by then, my eyes were glazed, and i could barely talk when spoken to. i'm even having trouble talking about it. needless to say, i was not kind of miserable.

busy

ok. shaun has wondered if i'm pregnant, because of all the things i've gotten done in the last few days. let me say right now, that NO, i am not pregnant. i have energy, and there are things that need to be done. some of them have been left undone for too long.

monday, i folded and put away all the laundry. i switched out ashleys clothes for the next size up and all winter. i made rolls. i ran and got some much needed things - diapers, toilet paper, things like that. i took care of my mother-in-law who was ill.

yesterday, i changed and washed sheets. i made cupcakes for an after school snack. i cleaned my shower from top to bottom.

the plan for today is to change out shannons summer clothes for winter ones. fold and put away towels and sheets. clean the girls bedroom and the toy room. maybe something more or less, depending on what happens.

yard sale

so, we decided to have a yard sale today. my neighbor and i spent 2 days going thru my garage to find things to sell. put things out this morning. set out signs, and got ready to meet the hoards.

i forgot to put sunscreen on, and turned into a lobster. i DID keep the baby out of the sun.
i might be a lobster, but this lobster is $100 richer than she was this morning.

impetigo

elizabeth has a rash-like thing around her nose and lips. it occurred to me the other day that i should find out what it is. there was the possibility that it was related to the abuse from last year. so, i made an appointment for her to see the doctor. hindsight being 20/20, i had taken the babies in the day before for sinus infections. as we saw the dr that was going to see elizabeth and he's very familiar with everything that's happened, i was able to talk to him about it then, and let him know what my concerns were. that way, when she saw him this morning, there was no need to talk about them, he already knew.
good news is the dr doesn't think it's related to the abuse at all. he says it looks like impetigo. he gave us prescription for some cream to apply to it, and said to let him know if it doesn't start looking better in a few weeks.