Where do I begin?

Just when you think life is about to calm down - - - LOOK OUT!! I thought with the kids getting back to school that our lives would get back to some type of routine but I couldn't have been more wrong. So where do I begin? Audrey sprained her ankle a few days before school started but they couldn't tell for a few days whether it was sprained or broken. It took a lot of phone calls and a few visits to figure it out and she had to start the school year on crutches (and we're talking her freshman year of High School). It wasn't broke though and the school worked with her on the whole situation of getting around on crutches so it worked out okay. Less than 2 weeks later Jo wrecked on his bike and injured his spleen so again I had to go through the process of waiting on test results to find out how serious it was. Luckily it wasn't ruptured, only bruised but we are still talking weeks of pain and a week out of school. Then just a few weeks later the boys all got the flu. They tested positive for FluA but their doctor didn't do the further testing to find out if it was swine flu or not because it made no difference in the way it would be treated. (This made me wonder about their statistics on swine flu but Oh Well!) They all got Tamiflu and breathing treatments to keep it from setting into their lungs. Four days later they were all feeling fine but of course I had to keep them home for 10 days to spare the rest of the world. Then there was, of course, more drama with Mike's family and Halloween and Thanksgiving thrown in for a little good measure. Sometimes I honestly don't know how I survive but I am still standing, not counting on any calm but still standing. I'm going to try to make the time to post, hoping that it will help me out some. With this crazy life that I live though I'm not counting on anything. Now I'm going to find out how all of your lives have been while I have been wrapped up in my own. Hope everyone has been a little less crazy than me!!

Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes

I can't imagine having to tell my kids that they could never have a milkshake again, or having to stick their fingers over and over again to test their blood. Some of the things that children with diabetes have to go through will break your heart. There is a young boy at our church that has Juvenile Diabetes and it makes me so thankful for the health of my children.


I'm walking with them on May 17th to support them and the effort to cure Juvenile Diabetes. Here is the link if you want to donate to my account.

More Chaos

Another period of chaos around here. It's funny, I thought as my kids got older that would become less of an issue but that just doesn't seem to be the case. I guess when they were younger I had more control over the germs that they passed back and forth. Now when one of them gets something, it seems that they all do. Although Matt did get pink eye without passing it on to the others, even though they caught his cold. I went 6 days without having a moment to myself and it left me wondering how in the world I survived them all being little.

Matt's sinus infection cleared up but on the morning I had to take him back for the check-up he woke up with pink eye and a cold. So he was home for 5 days because of the pink eye, during that time Jo sprained his ankle and Audrey caught the cold. Then as soon as they got better Drew caught the cold. The week before they all started getting sick was the book fair at the younger kids school and the week after was the beginning of Little League baseball season. Drew had to go to the final day of Major League try-outs sick but he made the team. It seems things are calming down and Spring is trying to take hold, so I have hope.

I have all kinds of updates to give you and lots of things I want to blog about so I'm going to try to start posting more regularly.

All is Good

I took Matt to the doctor Friday and she is pretty sure that it was just a severe sinus infection. She gave him a shot of antibiotics plus a 5 day round of antibiotics and we are giving him Claritin. Everything else was fine and as long as all is good when we go back this Friday the worry is over. He already looks so much better, actually he looked better the next morning after getting the shot. So it seems that I was worried for nothing. It puzzles me that he had a sinus infection that bad and wasn't running a fever but she said that was because it was all impacted in his face.

Now on to other things: I completed my first 30 days to a New Habit. I read my Bible everyday for 30 days and have read it most days since. This week for my For Just One Week I am trying to stick to a morning schedule. I did it today but on the very first day, Monday, it didn't go so well. I didn't get out of bed until 6:30 and that is when my Middle Schoolers should be getting on the bus So...... that was a wash. I am trying to stick to it the rest of the week and I'm thinking I may make it my next 30 days to a New Habit. I put the older kids on the bus at 6:30 and don't have to get the other kids up until 7:40. So I am walking during that time. If I have something to do that day I'm walking 30 minutes and then showering before they get up. If I don't have anywhere to go before that evening I will walk for the full hour(or at least try to-I'm still working up to that again). I did very good this morning - got in a 30 minute walk and shower with 10 minutes to spare before I had to get them up. The kids elementary school is having a Book Fair this week plus I have to take Matt back to the doctor on Friday so the only day I won't have extra walking time is Thursday plus its a tough week to try to do this because I'm already exhausted but that's the point right - to push myself.

Sleep Thinking

I don't dream, at least not often and when I do it's usually not good. This week has brought some weird sleep for me. I'm not dreaming, at least I don't think it is dreams. It's more like I'm thinking the whole time I'm asleep. It is beyond annoying. Everytime I wake up, and that has been a lot, I have something on my mind and I know that I have been "thinking" about it while I'm sleeping. I am worried about a few things but it's not really anymore than I always have to worry about. I am getting extremely tired, extremely. It is like my mind is never resting and I suppose it probably isn't. I've never experienced this before, it has me wondering if I'm normal (nevermind that, I already know the answer to that HaHa). I'm really hoping it's all about one certain thing that I'm worrying about and that it will all be over soon. Mattman, our youngest, hasn't felt good for awhile and is going to the doctor today. It's nothing specific, he just feels bad in general. Not eating well, not sleeping well, he is really pale and he stays so tired. If he sits down for long, he is asleep. It's not something that would normally have me over worried but he's been like this before. When he was about 3 he got like this and we took him to the doctor. They told us that his levels could only mean one thing - that he had leukemia. When we took him back in a week to do the follow up tests, to try to determine exactly what type he had, everything was clear. That was a hard couple of weeks though that included everyone that we knew praying. I just can't imagine having to go through that again or having to deal with something really being bad wrong with him. I know that we could, I just don't want to have to. Who does! I'm hoping it's something simple and that after we figure it out my sleep can go back to normal. I don't like thinking in my sleep!!

Repenting for Absence!!

I haven't been around much I know. The journey with my daughters health has become a lot more complicated than we counted on. The Costochondritis is doing pretty good, it still bothers her at times but as it started getting better something else started showing up. She has almost completely lost her appetite and this revealed a problem with her sugar. This along with a few other symptoms has the doctor thinking that she may have PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome. We are going through some different tests right now to rule out other things and see if this is what she has. There is no specific test for it so the way to prove it is to rule out the other things it could be. They did fasting bloodwork Friday morning and I have to take her one day this week to do a glucose tolerance test. Then we go from there. The thing that worries me the most about this is that from what I've read it can make it very difficult to have children. Right now she thinks this is a blessing but how will she feel when she's 2o or 30. Not the same I'm sure. I will keep you guys updated and hopefully be able to post more. She has actually made it through a whole day of school today (as I'm writing they have 20 minutes till they get on the bus so I'm counting my chickens before they hatch). I hate that she has missed so much school but there isn't much point in being there if she is about to pass out and unable to concentrate.

Nothing Normal

This family, I swear. We never do anything normal. That especially goes for my oldest, my only daughter. She has never had an illness that was just something normal. When she was 5 she had a bad allergic reaction, when we figured out what she was allergic to it only happened to be the slime that a woolly worm leaves behind on the leaves in the fall. When she was in 5th grade she got an infection in her leg and it couldn't be just any infection it had to be cellulitis (look it up it's rare in kids) that turned out to be Staff and Strep when they finally cut her leg open to drain it. Now in the present, she got a little bug, we all did, nothing bad just some congestion etc. She starts having chest pains and hurting badly in her back and ribs. Even though she hasn't had a cough I'm figuring it has turned into bronchitis or maybe pneumonia. I take her to the doctor and she has Costochondritis. This is an inflammation of the cartilage in the chest. It was probably caused by a virus but jeez couldn't she just have something normal. They said it could take a few weeks to get over but I really don't think she is getting any better at all. Her chest hurts, she is having trouble taking in deep breaths and she is still so tired. I guess time will tell. I don't want to let her go back to school tomorrow but she is begging me to. Again with the weirdness, most kids would love the excuse to stay home from school legitimately. Nothing normal with her, I'm telling you.