....

it's been an interesting week and a half. the kids are all great, the problem has been me.

i went in to the doctor on the 15th. i'd been having sharp pains in a knee when ever i knelt down. since i have 3 little kids, i kneel down a lot. so, this was causing some problems. while i was visiting with the doctor, we addressed several issues. my wrist pain is most likely tendinitis  he thought the pain in my knee was also tendinitis  i think it might be a torn muscle. my night sweats are most likely due to being overweight (i don't want to hear anything about how i'm not, because i know that i am. about 20 pounds). the migraines we discussed some possible reasons, but didn't come to any conclusions. my back pain, he wanted to get some xrays of.

the next 5 days, i went through some serious exhaustion. so badly, that only bare basics got done. and i'm so grateful to shaun for picking up the slack. i would get up at the same time, 7:30-7:45 to get the girls off to school. by 11, i was so tired that i would get the kids some lunch, some days, and then have to go take a nap. i would sleep until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. i would go back to bed around 10-11 and sleep the night through. the next day, i would do it again. about the time i was going to go back in to the doctor to get some tests done, i was doing better.

thursday i was able to make it in to get the xrays done. friday, i got a call back from the doctor office with the results. i have arthritis in my lumbar spine, and a bone spur forming, somewhere.

friday, elizabeth and i both got haircuts. i'll try to post pictures soon, after i take them....

saturday, i woke up with a headache. i took an aleve and tried to get going for the day. 20 minutes later, it was a full-blown migraine. i went back to bed and waited for it to ease up. it never did. it got worse. i spent the day in bed, sleeping off the migraine.
a good friend of ours had come over to paint with shaun. he graciously bought us dinner, and continued to help shaun with the kids.

needless to say, it's been an interesting time.

midnight ramblings

there is a teenager in my ward who is pregnant. i don't know the particulars, and it doesn't really matter for this ramble. she attends the alternative high school. the alternative high school is where they send the trouble kids. the ones that can't seem to succeed for whatever reason.
i recently read a story somewhere, where a 16 year old girl was raped and forced to attend the alternate school instead of her normal high school, because she was pregnant, and the administrators were afraid she would be too much of a distraction.of course, she'll be a distraction! but not necessarily in the way they are thinking. the poor girl can't sit in a normal desk, you can't put a pregnant belly in those tiny things. she can't walk normally, her hips hurt, her back hurts, her feet hurt, and once that baby drops, she won't even be able to sit comfortably.
the good distractions will be that people will think a little more about their decisions. leave a pregnant girl in regular school, and those that are active, will get to see the possible consequences of their actions every day.

this is one of the reasons that we have so many unwed teen pregnancies. we hide the consequences by putting the mothers in alternate schools, or pulling them out and home schooling them. girls are made to feel like they are less important and "damned" by their parents, so they hide the pregnancies and then abandon the babies at dances or in  parks etc. and those consequences are far worse than just being an unwed mother.

eyes

we have a family history of bad eyes, on all sides. all but one of my siblings has glasses, and all of shauns (that i can think of) also have them.

taylor got a new prescription 2 weeks ago. 4 days into the new glasses, and they got broken. when we were finally able to get back in to the doctor, they had been lost. 

shannon was due for an exam. i think it was just routine, and to make sure she was ok. she is not getting glasses. she's so excited! she keeps asking me when we can get them, and telling me that she wants them... funny girl!

exhaustion

today is the first day in almost a week that i haven't desperately needed a nap in the afternoon. i should have taken one yesterday, but was able to push my way through, barely. as it was, i went to be at 8:30 when the kids did.

i haven't been able to figure out why i'm so tired. although, i've had lots of suggestions given. one day, maybe i'll find out why i do this.

exhaustion

i am thoroughly exhausted!

i have been doing laundry for 5 days straight, and i'm not even close to being done. i got nearly done with the lice laundry, and was finally able to start the regular laundry. then we discovered even more lice laundry. and then i discovered completed lice laundry that had to be redone! blankets and pillows that had fallen or been put on floors that hadn't been vacuumed yet.

unfortunately, laundry will continue for a few days.

the local head start has a no nit policy when it comes to lice. that means that if the kids even have empty egg sacks still in their hair, they can't go back. both shannon and ashley have been home all week.

school has been difficult to manage. when we discovered the lice, i scheduled the next day as a vacation day. both taylor and elizabeth tried to get school done. we are still at the point that school requires a lot of mom help, especially for elizabeth. trying to do school and delousing was not working. that was why i planned to take the day off.

baby prayers

today, michael gave the prayer at dinner. it went like this:

mom, "time for prayer. everyone fold your arms."
michael, "heavenly father."
mom, "...thankful for this food."
michael, "food"
mom, "please bless it."
michael, "bless it"
mom, "help it to nourish."
michael, giggle, giggle, giggle
mom, "and strengthen"
michael, "strengthen"
mom, "our bodies."
michael, giggle, giggle, giggle
mom, "in the name,"
michael, "AMEN!"
mom, "of jesus christ"
michael, "AMEN!"

amen

pumpkins 2013

 here is smurfette. it's what elizabeth wanted on hers. she went to bed before i got pictures taken.

 ashley chose the kitty. and then insisted on a picture with her pumpkin.

shannon wanted a horse. and of course she had to have a picture with it as well.

 and since they do nearly everything together, one of the both of them.

  taylors, the star wars "sign." the first attempt didn't work too well, so shaun turned it into a creepy face.

 and the pictures with.

and shaun putting a superman symbol on his!

i normally end up doing pumpkins by myself with the kids. this year, shaun wanted to save me some stress and frustration by helping out. after the first 2 cutouts didn't work well, we decided to just cut the peel off. some of the designs had very tiny places to "cutout." it wasn't worth it!

halloween 2013

 this was the extent of my costume this year. sparkly eyeshadow. i don't do a lot for me. the kids are more important.

 michael. the smurf decided to eat the paper bag.

 taylor. i thought we did pretty good for a jack frost.

 elizabeth. pocahontas. these were so FUN to make!!!

 ashley. my poor attempt (and by poor i mean $.) at a ballerina.

shannon. once she saw elizabeth's costume, she HAD to have the same one!

frustrations

i got everyone treated yesterday, except for me. in the middle of ashley's, the comb starts to break. i was able to get her finished, but because the comb broke, wasn't able to get me done. so, i sent shaun to the one place in town that i knew had them. they were all out! (apparently, this is a wide-spread issue.) on his way home, he stopped at our little corner pharmacy. they could order us one, and have it to us first thing in the morning. since there wasn't another option, we went ahead and got one.

this morning, shaun took the girls to school. the van was clean, and i was not... . they checked the girls, and still found nits. (what frustrates me, is they check twice a week, monday and wednesday. monday when they checked, they didn't find anything. but i know that shannon had it. so, they don't find them when they are there, but find them when they are not?!)

so, shannon and ashley had another vacation day from school. and both were greatly upset that they couldn't go.

oocoos no more

 so, here's my little man, hairless. when i tried to use the guard on the clippers, they didn't work. i then tried just scissors, but didn't like the look. i then went to bare clippers, and he now looks like a cancer patient. i miss is blond hair!

and this is what my laundry room looks like, after i've already done 4 loads! unfortunately, most of what needed to be de-loused, also needed to be washed. i've just been put it off. this is going to take all week to get cleaned up!

oocoos, again

as if life wasn't crazy enough!!

last night, elizabeth complains that her head itches. so, i sit her down and start looking her over.
sure enough, she has lice.
and so begins the process of de-lousing the house.

i treated elizabeth last night. shaun stripped her bed down, and vacuumed it. we started washing things and throwing other things in the dryer.
today, we treat the rest of the family, and hopefully get the rest of the house taken care of.

the kids are all staying home for a vacation day (some vacation, huh?). we'll all be working our tails off though.

success!

i have had troubles getting elizabeth to read. anything. which has been making school difficult.
she doesn't even like to read things to me.

yesterday, i found a "solution," at least temporarily. i had seen an image somewhere, they had to convince themselves to study (must have been a dry subject). they placed skittles at the end of each paragraph in their textbook. when they reached the skittle, they could eat it. i was in the process of making individual bags of snacks, while i was trying to get elizabeth to do her literature. so, i placed a mini marshmallow at the end of paragraphs. when she reached the marshmallow, she could eat it. she read her story without any problems!

now, granted, this is not a permanent solution. but, for now, it will work.