"Mommy, can you wake up and take care of me?"

That is what my 4 year old said to me at 3 AM this morning. Now Dallin is not one who complains about not feeling well. Even with a stomach virus he never gave us any warning that he was feeling off (not really a good thing in that case) but this AM he woke me up with his pathetic little voice in between coughs "mommy...cough...cough...can you wake up...cough...and take care of me...cough cough...cough..."
So we got up (yes, we includes Maddie who doesn't sleep through ANY.THING.) and took a warm bath at 3 AM. Then I dosed her with benadryl for her nasty nose and Dallin got Delsym cough syrup and benadryl. When he told me his ear hurt I knew it had to be infected because he just doesn't complain unless it's bad.
I woke at 7 to get ready for the plumber (who never showed up by-the-way...how RUDE!!!) and at 8:30 I got the kids ready for the day and we waited...and waited...for an HOUR and Dallin coughed and coughed...so I took them in to Urgent care. Thankfully we have an awesome Urgent care clinic about 2 minutes from the condo and the wait wasn't bad (about 30 minutes in the front and 10 in the back). While waiting I peeked in Dallin's ears. BLOOD red. SO SOOOO infected. Poor guy!
Dr. came in and told me what I already knew, perscribed antibiotics for both kids (Maddie has a sinus infection) and a cough syrup for Dallin. Hopefully we will see some serious improvement now. It's been too long.

Getting ready...

Christmas is fast approaching and I am struggling to get my head on straight so I we can leave Wednesday or Thursday (depends on the weather).

I have a few sewing projects to complete (shhh don't tell Todd, he thinks I'm done!) I need to finish packing, wipe the bathrooms down again, mop the kitchen floor (which I did tonight, but it will need it again before we leave) change the fish's water and feed it, get several packages in the mail (including one going to Canada, which means I have to go to the Post office and stand in line)...

Dallin has his Preschool Christmas program tomorrow night. He has a cough. Do I send him? I think I'll give him some cough/cold meds and pray he can stay awake for it. I think he'd be really sad if he missed it and besides, I KNOW that's where he picked it up!
I'm praying VERY hard that the kids are better by Friday because I really want to get together with Rachel, but I don't want to subject her children to the crud mine have. PLEEEEEEASE get better kids! Can we be healthy for just 1 week? Please?
I really don't have anything exciting to share. Too tired. Please tell Maddie to go to bed. We took a late nap and I'm sure she'll be up till Midnight again. Problem is, the landlord is coming at 8AM to check on the heater which means I need to be dressed and presentable by then. Heaven help me I need a break please!

Whew!

How long has it been? Uh. Too long.

Lets' see. Thanksgiving we went home to Pinetop and spent some time with Todd's family. We also had the pleasure of spending time with my wonderful Grandma and Grandpa. Papa let me play with his nice camera. Oh how I would LOVE a camera like that (Nikon D80) but it's SO not in the budget this year seeing as Todd already bought me a laptop and an ipod nano. Can you belive this is the first ipod I've ever owned. Yes. I live under a rock.

The kids had a wonderful time swinging on the huge swing outside. If I can figure out this windows vista bologna I'll get those pictures loaded.
And of course Maddie is sick again (what would a post be without an illness???) This time I scheduled her in with the allergist in town who also happens to be the ENT that did her tubes. Her appointment was today and he agreed that SOMETHING is not right with her and ordered a full allergen screen. They took 3 HUGE vials of blood and she was SO angry about being held down. Thankfully she has a rockin' vein in her right arm so they only had to poke her once. And let me tell you, once was enough thankyouverymuch. Oy! So now we wait for the results and HOPEFULLY at that point we'll get some answers. Say a little prayer for answers, I don't know how much testing I can put her through :(

And here are some pictures I took with my new camera (that I bought with my very own sewing money woot!) that will probably be made into Christmas cards if I get busy and get them done...but yeah. I'm not really motivated right now. And yes they are sideways. Sorry. Just turn your head. Like I said...still trying to figure out this windows vista. Blah!

Back from the dead...or something like that

So the kids have been sick, then we went to Phoenix for Josh and Emma's wedding. It was awesome, BTW. We got to see Adam and Tiff's little sweetie. Then this past week I have been trying to get caught up on laundry and housecleaning so we can go back to Arizona next week for Thanksgiving. Oh, and the list of custom orders is getting smaller too. Finally.

But yeah. Now I am sick with the crud the kids have had and I feel like poo so it's been forever since I've written. Not like anyone is really reading this or anything but still.
Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Albuquerque. Maddie had a pediatric cardiology appointment (everything is fine). We decided to take advantage of the situation and made it a mini-vacation. We stayed in the Embassy Suites and went to the zoo. And even better, my mom


met us there and the kids had a blast.

Adventures in Parenting

Please forgive my lack of updates. We have had the plague. Well, not REALLY the plague, but a stomach virus which, in my humble opinion, may as well be the plague. This is kind of gross, so if you are easily nauseated please skip it LOL!

It started Sunday night at 11:15 with Dallin. He got sick all over his bed, the carpet, the floor on the way to the bathroom. As I was taking care of the barfy sheets, Todd wiped up the floor outside of Dallin's room. Meanwhile, Maddie was on my bed screaming hysterically because I was nursing her and left to help Todd. She was beyond mad at me. SO I'm rushing to get the barfies in the washer and came tearing out of Dallin's room only to hit the wet floor and went skidding into the wall in front of me, breaking my toe. Oh how fun that was. I almost said a bad word. I certainly thought a bad word. It hurt so much. I fought back tears as I hopped into the other room to get a stack of towels. Things calmed down somewhat after Todd bathed Dallin and I nursed Maddie back to sleep but Dallin was up every 2 hours getting sick. Thankfully, Todd took care of the barf catching, and I just cleaned up the aftermath. By Monday morning he was doing better, but didn't want anything to eat/drink. By that night he was better...or so I thought.

Fast forward to Wednesday. We go to the park in the morning. We had been cooped up in the house for a few days. Kids played. Fun fun. We get home and Dallin says he's cold and tired. I asked him what he wanted for lunch. Mac and cheese. Fine. I make it, we sit down on the floor picnic style. Maddie eats all of hers. Dallin doesn't touch his. I asked him if he was ok. He said he didn't know. He looked at me funny, burped and threw up what I'm pretty sure was a gallon of water. Apparently he drank too much too fast and his sensitive tummy didn't appreciate it. Fun.
So I cleaned up what I could and put both kids down for a nap. I actually managed to finish one order of sewing.
Later that night Maddie was whining at me. I got her ready for bed and was nursing her on the couch when she popped off and said "hurt" pointing to her tummy. Before I knew it, she threw up all over me, the couch, the floor, the rug...it was a MESS. So I ran her to the bathroom, cleaned up again, put her in the bath, washed her up and got the barf bowl back out from under the sink.
After several more rounds of vomiting she seemed to be doing better. She woke at 1:30 begging for water. Thankfully I had some pedialite from my 3 AM trip to Wal-Mart on Monday when Dallin was sick so I gave her a few teaspoons of it. She cried for more. I gave her about a cup of it over the course of an hour, followed by two popcicles and a short nursing session. All of it stayed down and we finally got to sleep around 3 AM.
This morning, everyone seems to be doing MUCH better. Thankfully this was a fast bug. Hopefully Todd and I won't get it. We've been washing our hands to the point that they are bleeding, but hey...we are germaphobic.

Having kids is never boring. That is for sure!

Here's the Daddy warewolf...and my silly girl.

And here are some more of that fun day: Oh, and that little girl behind the wolf...yeah she kept coughing like she was hacking up a lung. We were a little irritated that someone would bring a child w/ such a gunky cough on an enclosed train ride with 100's of other children. Thanks a lot lady.

Isn't Dallin just the cheeziest little guy ever? ---------->

Durango vacation...and a warewolf family.

This weekend was a lot of fun. We met up with Todd's family (Michelle and Aaron and their girls and Mom and Dad Wahlin) for the "Great Pumpkin Patch Express" in Durango. The family flew in Thursday night and Todd went up to meet them. Since Maddie was still looking a little pale, I decided it would be best to keep her out of the wind and stay home. Friday afternoon we all went up (Todd came back later Thursday night and worked Friday AM). We hung out and ate at Serious Texas BBQ for lunch and nearly lost our lives on the way back to the hotel when a Hispanic man in a huge suburban completely ran a stop sign and came FLYING at us at about 45 mph. I screamed (which I never do) and Todd slammed the brakes on just in time. The guy didn't even slow down or ANYTHING. It was SO not fun. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't screamed.

Saturday AM we went to the train station and rode the train up to a farm somewhere. On the way up, there was a family of warewolves (people were encouraged to wear their costumes). Dallin "doesn't like wufs" but Maddie was fascinated by the "bears" as she thought they were. As you can see from the pictures, they weren't friendly looking warewolves, but she liked them so much she wanted to SIT with them. So the daddy warewolf held her on his lap for the entire ride there and back (30 minutes each way!) which is SO unusual for Maddie. She's usually so incredibly shy she won't go to anyone she doesn't know REALLY well. She was SO relaxed she fell asleep on the way back.

More in the next post...

The quest for the perfect jeans...

So I have started the never-ending quest for the perfect jeans. So many women have found "the pair" and I'm beginning to think that there ISN'T one out there for me. This lovely new body that has emerged from bearing children is no longer the body I once hated. It is a totally NEW body that I hate even MORE!! Yipee! Carrying children has forever stretched my stomach out so there is what so many refer to as "muffin topping" over the waistband of the jeans. I NEVER had a problem with my stomach before and this is just depressing. Of course it could be the extra 30 pounds I can't seem to get rid of too. Blah.
So I ordered a pair of "Not your Daughters Jeans" from Zappos.com. They are SO soft, a perfect dark wash and 2 inches too high in the rise for this short waisted mama. I'm keeping them anyway though because as long as I'm wearing a shirt (which I plan to if I'm leaving the house thankyouverymuch) you can't really tell. And did I mention they are SOOOO soft?

Anyway. I'm still on the lookout for a nice pair of jeans that makes my rear perky, takes inches off my waist and slims my thighs.

Maybe I should just get liposuction.

Writing for myself...

You know what I think is funny? All these people who blog and have thousands of visitors every day. Me? Well I don't have that many friends so I blog for myself, and my grandma if she feels like reading.
Today is Sunday October 14th. It marks the 1 year anniversary of my Papa Buzz's death. I still miss him daily. I miss how he would play his banjo and make up the SILLIEST songs. Everyone was "a big ol' drink of water" and dogs were "groggers" as in "good ol' grogger". No matter how busy he was, he'd take the time to play with us. We loved his coin collection, the scrap papers in his desk drawer with the high school math on them. We'd pretend they were secret code or a treasure map. Because after all, being 6 years old, calculus and trig all looked foreign. We loved his big ol' belly, it made the best pillow. And he gave the BEST hugs. I miss him so much, but I know that he's SO happy on the other side. His poor old body fought hard there at the end, with the cancer taking over his organs and sending him into renal failure. I remember talking to him a few days before he died. His throat was scratchy from the tubes but he still managed to tell me he loved me as I did nothing but sob into the phone.
I can't believe it's already been a year.

And on a completely different subject. The kids are STILL sick with this blasted cold. Maddie's nose is nasty and that's all I'm saying about it. Blech. And of course, after a week of fighting it off, my body has decided it was too tired and now I have a sore throat too. Hopefully everyone will be better by Thursday because the Wahlin's are coming for the "Charlie Brown Pumpkin Patch Train" in Durango. Should be fun!!

Down on the Farm

Todd works with some really neat people. One of the guys (Dan) has parents who live in Chimney Rock, CO about 1 1/2 hours from Farmington. They have a HUGE organic farm where they grow tons of fruits and veggies. Today we went out to the farm to pick pumpkins and enjoy the weather. It is just beautiful out there and the kids had a great time.
Maddie only threw a very small fit when we picked her up to go down a hill. She wanted to "wat". And she was MAD.
Anyway, I'm exhausted and not really witty this evening so here are some pictures :)

Just pictures...

I just wanted to post a picture of Maddie from yesterday AM. You can see by her eyes that she DID NOT sleep...and sadly, I looked 10 times worse.

Surgery Day

Maddie must have known something was up because she didn't sleep last night. She fell asleep at 9, got up at midnight and was up until 3 AM. Then again at 4:30 and 5:20. I nursed her for the last time and she was MAD at 6 when she couldn't nurse so we were up for the day. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep.

Since we were up, I went ahead and did her hair, got her dressed and sang some songs since she refused to sleep. We left a little before 7, it took 2 minutes to get there and we were signed in by 10 after 7. About 5 minutes later they called us back.

Now, this is one smart girl. She knew we were at a doctor's office, and she HATES doctors. She screamed the second they called her name. Oh she was SO mad when I took her clothes off and got her dressed in the scratchy yellow gown they provided. The nurses were all so in love with her pigtails "she looks like Cindy loo-who" they all said, and once she calmed down (thanks to a smart nurse with an annoying singing plush duck) she started talking to them. "what color is the duck?" they'd ask...she would every so brilliantly answer "purple". Because EVERYTHING is purple to Maddie.
When the ENT came back he said "ah yes, Miss Madison, the one with the attitude". Uh yeah. He about nailed it on the head.
The nurse took her out of my arms and I felt my heart leap. I hadn't even thought much about it and I wasn't nervous for more than just that split second. I went back out to the waiting room. No sooner had I sat down, looked at my phone to see what time it was (7:23) and put it back in my bag did the ENT come back out to talk to me. And 2 minutes after that the nurse came back to get me. He said "she's down the hall a bit, you'll hear her." And I think the entire surgery center heard her. She was LIVID coming out of the anesthesia. So mad. Wouldn't even nurse. Wouldn't let anyone touch her, tried to jump out of my arms. That was the worst part. She screamed all the way out to the car after I changed her diaper and got her dressed. She screamed all the way home. I thought for sure it was going to be the.longest.day.ever. but we got home, slept an hour before Todd had to head to work and when she woke up, she was FINE. And a totally different kid already. She must have felt REALLY awful all this time because she was SO good today. When the tylenol would wear off, she'd say "hurt" while sticking her fingers in both ears, but pain relief is quick in liquid form. Bless her heart.

So it's over. We will see if this makes a difference in her sleep. Oh PLEASE let it make a difference in her sleep. I am SO tired.

And Dallin. My special, sweet little boy. He is such a good big brother. He kept asking if she was ok and gave her lots of love today. I LOVE it when they love each other. It makes me see why my parents had so many.

And yes, I took a picture this morning before we left, but the camera software is re-downloading after our computer crash so I'll have to post a picture later :) Adios for now!

A mass of updates...

This week has been the week of "catch up and run". Catch up w/ my orders and run around like a chicken with it's head cut off. (Do they really do that? By the way?)
Anyway. Monday AM BOTH kids and a regular ol' check up. So Dallin. My sweet not-so-little boy is 41 inches tall and 34 pounds. 60% for height and 40% for weight. Healthy as a horse. Smart as a whip. Perfect.

Maddie. My oh-so-incredibly-tiny daughter. 29 inches tall and a whopping 19 pounds. *sigh* No where NEAR the growth curve. Something like negative 10-15%. Boo. BUT he was very impressed that she talked so well. Yes. She's a chatterbox. Kind of like her mother. AND she knows some of her colors, all her body parts (including her elbow, how cute is that!?!) and she is funny as all get out.
He is concerned about 2 things though. #1 her ears. Yes. 10 infections in less than 2 years is too many. Referral to an ENT. And her heart. Yes. You read that right. Her heart. She has a murmur. He's not sure it is anything to be worried about, but just to be on the safe side he also gave us a referral to a pediatric cardiologist in Albuquerque. Hooray Road trip! It's times like this that I wish we lived in a place that had EVERYTHING we need. All the doctors within a 30 minute drive, OB's and midwives aplenty so that you could actually CHOOSE who delivers your children. Not here though. Oh well. At least we have a Target!

So Tuesday 10/2 (can you believe it's October already!?!) We had the appointment w/ the ENT. Super nice guy but was running an HOUR late. Fun with a toddler who's naptime was oh...and HOUR ago. Sheesh. So by the time he actually came in, she was HYSTERICAL and didn't want him to touch her. He looked in her ears and said that the infection she had a few weeks ago isn't cleared up yet and she needs tubes ASAP. Great! Schedule surgery for next Thursday 10/11. And smartie pants me, called Todd's office to have them block off as much of the morning as possible. He already had a 10 AM appointment, but hopefully we'll be done by then.
Anywho. That's the update from the headless chicken.
Off to do laundry so I can pack tomorrow for Dallin's birthday trip to Pinetop! Yipee!

Fun day!!

Todd let me sleep in (bless him!!!) and we got up and went back to Durango. We rode our bikes along the river walk (which we've done a million times) played at the park, ate lunch at Serious Texas BBQ, then decided to go further to Silverton to see if the leaves were changing. They were and it was SO beautiful!! We walked around the little town and stopped in some stores. Everyone is having huge sales because the town shuts down at the end of October. The roads get so bad when it snows no one tries to go there and the railroad doesn't go there in the winter.

We went back to Durango, walked around a couple stores and headed home. It was a long day, but fun and wonderful to get out of the house. And the kids were reasonably behaved. Dallin threw a fit when he figured out we were going home "but I HATE Farmington mom!!!!" and Maddie threw a fit in Silverton for some unknown reason other than she wanted to "wat" which is "walk" and I was carrying her on my back. I took her down and she threw a fit right on her face. Graceful I tell you!

Overall, it was a fun day. I took a shower, fed the kids and checked my emails and I will be going to bed early because I'm still completely wiped out!

Tired...SO tired.

I don't think anyone can TRULY understand exhaustion until they have been up countless nights in a row with a sick child. I don't even know how many times Maddie woke last night, but it was enough that again, in the morning when Dallin came in my room to ask for his usual "chocolate milk and a waffle" I honestly couldn't even open my eyes.

But I knew I had a massive amount of stuff on my "to do" list including the enormous pile of laundry in the room and a sink half full of dirty dishes. The only reason it wasn't completely full was because Todd did some last night.

The sleep deprivation is killing me. I'm not a good mom when I'm this tired. The kids watch entirely too much TV, my house falls apart and we eat pizza and chicken nuggets more times than I'd like to count.

*sigh* I can only hope that tonight's sleep is better than last.

My poor little Maddie girl...

I feel so terrible for her. She was up several times last night with a fever and rapid breathing. I couldn't sleep knowing she felt so terrible. Today she's just been laying on the floor with all her animals. She's hysterical trying to carry them ALL at the same time and only having 2 arms. She gets SO mad when she drops one.

Here's my poor sick princess laying on the floor.

Grocery day...fun fun fun...and Maddie's sick AGAIN!

Todd and I have really re-done (or FINALLY figured out) a grocery budget. He gives me cash twice a month and I spend it. I HATE grocery shopping. I truly do. I hate trying to figure out what my family will eat, making a detailed list of what I need, cutting coupons, dragging both kids to the store (and I go to 2 stores because I refuse to buy wal-mart milk/produce/meat). And knowing that I get to actually COOK it. Yeah. Not my idea of fun.

But today was different. Our AM trip to Wal-Mart resulted in only a very small tantrum by Dallin "but I waaaant a DONUT!!!" and a short screaming fit by Maddie who was on my back in a Beco Baby carrier. I handed her a slice of wheat bread and she stopped. Apparently she was hungry. Go figure.

So I get the Wal-Mart part of the shopping over with. $122 later I have just about everything on my list. We go home, I fix sandwiches (Dallin's "cold cheese" which I suppose is the opposite of grilled cheese) and I take Dallin to preschool. Usually he LOVES preschool. His teachers actually come to the car to get them out and put them in (which is wonderful when Maddie falls asleep) but today, he came RUNNING back to the car in TEARS before I drove off saying that he missed me and wanted more hugs. I felt awful leaving him but his teachers assured me he'd be fine. And of course he was.

After dropping him off, Maddie and I ran to Safeway to get produce, chicken, milk, cottage cheese etc. and some random stuff that was on sale. I was SO excited after I handed the cashier my pile of coupons, my total went from $142 to $77. Yeah me! And this will last 2 weeks PLUS I've been buying extra for our food storage.
We also have 15 gallons of water under Maddie's toddler bed. Woohoo!

Maddie woke from her nap with a low grade fever (99.8) and her nose was still running from the last ear infection she had just been treated for (10 days ago). I knew that this was not a good sign and after Todd came home from work and I fed everyone dinner (salmon, alfredo w/ veggies and cookies for dessert) I took her to Urgent care where sure enough, we find that her right ear is STILL infected. Yipee. So the doctor put her on a stronger antibiotic, which no doubt will give her the runs, but hopefully it will kick it quickly.
I'm hoping to get some sleep tonight and find out if our insurance will cover tubes for Maddie tomorrow. I can't imagine going through another winter like last one. Ugh.

Take 2...

I don't have anything really interesting to say today. Nope. I've been cleaning and sewing all day. Shame on me. On a Sunday. But it HAS to be done or I get behind. I swear, if I leave dishes in the sink overnight, they mate and the next morning I have twice as many. Dishes are like rabbits I tell you!

So Maddie was up ALL night. Why? I have NO clue. She had a double ear infection about 10 days ago, but was on antibiotics and SHOULD be better. Her nose is still running green so I may have to take her back in, BUT NO ONE is taking new patients right now. There is a serious shortage of doctors here in Farmington. Boo. I took her to the Urgent Care clinic last time because it was my ONLY option. *sigh* I want to get her in to an ENT and get tubes in because seriously, this is her 10th ear infection in 20 months.

First Blog Entry

So I have been meaning to get a blog going for, oh, a LONG time. I had a xanga account many moons ago, but forgot the password and well...yeah. Life kind of got in the way of things.

So, I don't have much to blog about today, I just wanted to get it started. So there ya go. First blog entry. Ta da!