allergy

well, it turns out that ashley is allergic to penicillin. she'd been on it 2 days, and had a rash that extended down to her knees. i promptly stopped giving it to her, and made plans to take her in after thanksgiving. when i called in, the office was closed, so i took her into urgent care.
he said it was indeed a rash, but didn't guarantee an allergy. (i disagree with him, but that's not the issue) he did give us a new prescription to give her. she's now on a z-pack, and doing great.

healthy teeth

my two older kids had dental appointments today. around 9a, the office called and said that they'd had some cancellations. (gee, i wonder why? it couldn't have been because of the blizzard we were having, could it?) they wanted to know it i'd be willing to move their appointment from this afternoon to this morning. i was totally okay with that. so, i climbed out of bed, and rushed to get everyone ready to go.

both kids are doing GREAT! not one cavity! elizabeth even let them take images of her teeth. something she hasn't done for a long time.

i made an appointment to take shannon in and have her teeth looked at and cleaned in 2 weeks. 

general update

i've had a hard time remembering to put the labels on these. that's going to take some getting used to.

ashely started running a fever yesterday. i gave her some tylenol and kept an eye on her. as i was heading to bed last night, i checked her fever. it was almost 103! i decided to take her in to the hospital, cause a temp that high at her young age is not safe. at the moment, it looks like it's just an ear infection. didn't get back home and to bed until around 2 in the morning.

i have really enjoyed making these suckers. since my molds aren't complete, i have been putting them in my 1/4 size sheet pan, and breaking them into small pieces. so far i've made raspberry, root beer, pina colada, and butterscotch. the butterscotch isn't as strong as we'd like, and the raspberry is a little burnt. *UPDATE* the cinnamon is TOO hot. even for me!
this morning, i made cinnamon. the cinnamon was really strong, so strong that it made my eyes burn while i was mixing the flavoring in. as the syrup was boiling on the stove, taylor stuck his finger in it to see if it was really hot. (stupid child!) he's got a serious second-degree burn on his finger. i've put some aloe vera and melaleuca oil on it. he keeps complaining that it hurts. (well, DUH! you stuck your finger in 250 degree boiling sugar. it's going to hurt!)

shannon, may need to go on the brat diet for awhile. she's got diarrhea. but it's straight liquid. not sure what's causing it.

we've had so much snow the last few days. it snowed all day saturday. it snowed all day yesterday, and it's still snowing. last night, it started to blow. i'll tell you what, it was a lot of fun to drive into town to the hospital last night in the blowing and drifting snow. there was so much blowing and drifting going on, that they closed school throughout the whole area. since it's a short week anyway, idaho falls closed school until after thanksgiving. still waiting to hear what they will decide to do in our district.

last night, i started addressing envelopes for our christmas cards and newsletters. i need to find paper to print the letter on, and get some nice current pictures to go on it, but other than that, they are all done.

suckers

when shannon had her tonsils out, we were at the end of the budget. so, i thought it would be better to make suckers, than to buy them. not only that, but the only things i needed to be able to make them was the flavoring. unfortunately, the timing was off to be able to purchase the flavorings. they only sell them in the stores around the holidays. as halloween was not past yet, they didn't have any of their holiday stuff out yet.

a few weeks later, i was able to find the flavorings. i decided to go ahead and get some, and make suckers anyhow. then i discovered that my molds were not complete. they are the old metal ones, that you have to put together.

this evening, it occurred to me that i could just pour the syrup in a pan, and break it into smaller pieces. they wouldn't have the sticks, but if they would fit in your mouth, you wouldn't need a stick.

as i was trying to make them, i ran out of corn syrup. so, i called my mother, and learned that i could substitute honey. i don't have a candy thermometer, so i was relying on the cold water method. i started to burn my syrup. it wasn't much, but you can taste the burnt part, and not the flavor.

i'll try again another time.

oh joy

first of all, taylor came home without his sister this afternoon, again. i immediately sent him back to look for her. then when they both got home, they disappeared. elizabeth came in, and then went out to tell taylor to come in. then they were gone. as shaun has been at the office in rexburg, i was alone with the babies. i couldn't leave to go find them, so i called my mother-in-law. my sister-in-law was there, and she and her son went out to canvas the neighborhood.
they checked the neighbor across the street, which i had already done, but that's okay. they checked the school. the first places i would have looked as well. then they started out around the rest of the neighborhood. they found them around the corner. they had tried to go play with some friends, but they didn't ask. i had just started calling around the neighborhood as well, and had just spoken with that particular mom. she said they had shown up, but she told them they were leaving, and sent them on their way home. as i was talking with her, my sister-in-law started up the front porch with my kids in tow.
i tried to get taylor to talk to me about what had happened, but as his aunt was there, he was hesitant to.

i have grounded them both for the rest of the week. they are also not going to be walking to school or home with friends. my wonderful neighbor will take them to school, and walk them home. i am sending notes to school with them for their teachers.

it's going to be a LONG week.

word games

my mind has been playing tricks on me lately.

in my email this morning, i got a message from diapers.com. the title read, "Private Sale: 30-40% off select strollers and diaper bags"
my mind read this, "Private Sale: 30-40% off stolen strollers and diaper bags"
dang! what a difference!

 i frequently have to double check what i'm reading to make sure i've read it correctly.

plans gone awry

this morning, i decided that i would take shaun into work, so that i could have the van to run a few errands. (we must get his car registered!) he packed up the computer, and i packed up the kids. unfortunately, we got a late start. so late in fact, that i had to get food in town to feed elizabeth and then run her straight back home so she could make it to school on time. on the way back into town, shannon fell asleep.

guess i'll wait until after the kids get home from school to run errands.

not only that, but i had a check to cash so we could get a friends car fixed. because the check was so "large" ($450), and the account relatively new (2 months), they had to deposit it, and hold it for 3 days. i can go get it out on friday. hope that's going to be okay with the guys fixing the car. i didn't have a whole lot of say in the matter.

home school

in my brainstorming with a friend yesterday, i was having serious problems figuring out what i need to do to get my home schooling started. lesson plans, what's required by the state, how i'm going to run this "school," you name it. the only thing i had figured out was that i could get basic supplies from the dollar store.

when she had left, and things settled down around the house a little bit, i went searching online. turns out, there are no requirements and no guidelines for homeschooling parents in idaho! that means that i am completely in charge of what i teach my kids. i can teach them anything i so desire. now to figure out a curriculum that i like, and find everything i need to be able to teach it.

and, yes, just so i have finally stated it and not alluded to it: next year, i am home schooling my children.

contemplations

in my last post i mentioned that i was considering homeschooling my kids. right now, i'm trying to figure out if i could handle it.
i used to have the patience of a saint. i no longer do. 4 kids and a frequently crabby husband, have killed that. there are times that i have to fight the kids to even get their homework done. but i suppose with homeschool, we could go at their pace, and they could work ahead on the subjects they are better at. but at the same time, i really enjoy having them gone for part of the day.
i'm torn. i want to be more in control of their education, but i'm also afraid to lose part of my freedom. this is going to take lots of prayer, and research. it's a good thing i have until may to decide what's going to happen next fall.

lots to think about

i've had a lot to think about today.

last night i had a dream that usually means there's another child to add to the fray. in my mullings, i told the lord that he had to convince shaun first. i'm not doing this again without his consent and knowledge. (shaun if you read this, you better start paying attention.) basically, the dream went something like this. i was laying in bed, or on the couch or somewhere similar, and was talking with one of my mother-in-laws (one of two, that's a long story if you don't already know it). for some reason, we were trying to think of a boys' name. all of a sudden in our conversation, i blurted out, "jackson! his name is jackson. and his middle name is boggs." strange!

then, in my blogging, i discovered the blog by rachel, from signing time. her story was quite inspiring.
when i was younger and less experienced, i always said that i was going to home-school my kids. when the time came around for them to be starting school, i completely forgot, and was more interested in getting them out of the house for a time.
finding this blog, renewed my interest. rachel, has 2 girls, both of whom have disabilities. ok, technically, the one is only deaf. the second one has cerebral palsy. in their drive for educations for the girls, they have been told repeatedly that, "I’m sorry to tell you that you can expect your child to graduate from high school with a third grade reading level because she’s deaf.” if you were to replace "deaf" with any other description of a child, there would be riots and picketers. black, gay, hispanic . . . the only public place that these children can get an education, and they are being told that the best they can do is .... not only that, but they are unwilling to do what the parents requested to make sure that they got the same level of education as the other kids there.
i am going to do some research. i think it's time to pull my kids out of public school, and educate them at home. in doing that, there are some things that i can teach them that they would never learn at school. like table manners, and i could make sure that they are not being taught the "popular" opinion versus the truth. we would finish out this school year in the public school if i decided to go this route.

like i said, lots to think about.

cleaning whirlwind

as i spent the last 2-3 weeks sewing like crazy, i had to let other things slide.
the clean laundry piled up. in fact, the last week, the laundry didn't get done until later.
saturday cleaning didn't get done.
beds didn't get remade after children wet them.

now that i am done with the madness of halloween sewing, i've been catching up on the cleaning.
saturday, sunday, and monday, i did laundry. washed and folded and put away everything.
monday, i cleaned the front room.
tuesday, i stole my mother-in-laws vacuum and vacuumed things up. (as i was informed that my vacuum no longer sucked)
wednesday, i shampooed the carpets in the kids rooms, and the front room. hoping to remove the urine in the kids rooms from weeks of peeing the bed while it was the floor. shaun asked me if i was feeling ok. i'm great! how are you?
thursday, i've started laundry again. i was hoping to get the kitchen cleaned, but am lacking the drive at the moment.
tomorrow, i will finish laundry up, hopefully finish the kitchen and get the toy room done.
saturday, i will wash sheets, and try to get bathrooms done.
next week, i will start over, but not have quite as much to do, as it was just done this week!