I'm so sick of everyone being sick!

I was trying to think of something to blog about today, but the only thing that's been going on for us lately is that everyone is so stinkin' sick! So, I'm going to blog about that because it has consumed my life for 24 hours a day for the past 2 weeks.

Let's start with a little timeline. It all started with our flu shots.

Wendesday--- Nate and I take the kids and all of us get our flu shots. Jonah and Lilly also get the H1N1 flu mist. Later that night, Nate is starting to get a sore throat.

Thursday through Sunday---Nate just gets worse. He gets sick pretty easily this time of year and he never has time to just rest and get feeling better because for some reason it's okay for everyone else at work to call in sick whenever they want or just because they stayed up too late, but if Nate tries to call in sick(which he only does if he's 'dying-on-the-floor' sick) then they say that it's really 'inconvenient' for them and that they need him to be there no matter what. Sorry for that mini-rant, but it's driving me nuts!

Monday--Jonah wakes up with a fever and is complaining of a headache. I give him Tylenol and rest, but the fever persists until Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday---Everyone seems pretty healthy. Jayne has her 1 year doctor appointment. We're crazy busy getting the ward activity done. Around midnight, Lilly wakes up with a fever of 102. Let the sleep deprivation begin!

Thursday---Lilly's fever comes and goes all day, Jonah is coughing now, Nate has developed a bunch of what we think are canker sores in his mouth and his glands in his throat are mega swollen. By Thursday Night, Jayne has joined the fever club. Nate and I are getting no sleep. Well, that's not fair. I think I got 3 hours and he got 2.

Friday---Both Jayne and Lilly have fevers and Jonah is still coughing. Nate's throat is worse and he's gotten a bunch more of those canker things.
Around 1:00 in the morning, Jayne wakes up with a cough that makes her stop breathing. Scares us to death. We're pretty much up with her and Lilly all night long.

Saturday---Nate tries to call in sick to work. He tells them that he's got 3 sick kids, one of which is having trouble breathing and that he's had no sleep and he needs the day off to get Jayne to the doctor and get some rest. What do they say? Yeah, you guessed it. "Well, we really need you here today Barnum. Can't your wife take care of that?" Can you tell that I'm a bit upset with Nate's boss lately? Thought so.

So, I call our pediatrician and get an appointment for Jayne that morning. I took all the kids in and the doc says they've all got croup which is basically laryngitis. With little kids it can constrict their airway so she gave us some steroids to give Jayne to help with that. Other than that, she said we just have to ride it out.

Nate got off work a little early Saturday afternoon and decided to go to urgent care to get those cankers looked at. He now had around 20 of them in his mouth and throat and his glands were swollen to the size of apples. The doc said they are viral ulcers and basically you just have to wait for them to go away. They can be caused by a million different things. They are extremely painful. He gave Nate a prescription
mouth rinse to help with the pain. Nate says it helps for about 30 seconds. Poor guy!

Saturday Evening---My mom and sister came and watched the kids to give Nate and I a much needed break. We attended a fun dinner at the home of some friends. Thanks Mom and Sarah! I think those couple of hours were the only sanity I've had for 2 weeks!

Sunday---Lilly was up all night the night before-still getting those high fevers off and on, mostly at night. So Nate and I had gotten no sleep again. I got up with the kids and decided to run to the church for primary just long enough to hand off the conducting clipboard that had all the info on it for the day. Yeah, that didn't work out the way I planned it. Our primary president's grandfather had passed away that morning, so she had to leave. We had program stuff to get ready and teacher interviews that had to be finished that day. So I stayed for the rest of the block. Then I came home for just long enough to make Nate some lunch and then head out to our presidency meeting. Also, I have to add in here that while I was gone, Nate cleaned up the house, did laundry, and took great care of the kids. He's so awesome! Love ya babe!

Sunday night was the same as all the other nights. Jayne and Lilly were both up coughing. We took them outside a bit to get some cold air to help the cough. Nate had to go to work on Monday, so I "slept" up on the couch so I could hear the girls and let him stay in bed.

Monday---Nate went to work with those ulcers still hurting and hardly any sleep. Jonah is pretty much better, just a slight cough. Lilly is coughing and crying every time she coughs because it hurts so much. Jayne is still coughing and being so incredibly clingy and fussy.

Today is Tuesday and I'm so tired I don't know what to do with myself. Keep in mind, that ever since Jayne first started getting sick she's been crying at me for most of the day, not wanting me to put her down, and not eating much. Today Jayne is still coughing. It's more of a phlegm-y cough. She slept better last night. Lilly is coughing and has such a hoarse little voice. She just keeps coming up to me and saying "Mommy, I hurt." Breaks my heart.

It can't last much longer, can it? I guess I should just be grateful that I've stayed well enough to keep up with it all. I have a sore throat, some headaches, and a very slight cough, but I'm pretty sure it will stay nice and mild.
So, there you have it. That's what's going on in my world. Anybody wanna trade?

Random Things that are On My Mind

Thing #1: Jayne and Lilly both have fevers today. Lilly is complaining of a headache too. Sounds like the same thing that Jonah had on Monday. It only lasted about 24 hours. I'm hoping that's the case here as well. I hate when my kids are sick. I feel so helpless.

Thing #2: I REALLY haven't been paying attention to my diet lately, but the strangest thing has happened. I'm losing weight again! Yay for that! I'm not sure how though because I'm eating junk. Yesterday I had a chocolate chip cookie, one scoop of ice cream, baby carrots, taffy, and pizza. Yeah, I need to work on that. Maybe I was just stressing out about it so much before that the stress was preventing me from losing weight.
I still need to get back to my better habits though. I don't think cookies and pizza is a healthy way to lose weight. =) Sure is yummy though.

Thing #3: Nate's Job Dilemma-- Does he stay at the company he's at, which gave him a job when he really needed one and has great benefits and the "promise" of management one day(not for at least 3 years, probably more than that) and keep being dirt poor with ends barely meeting (when they meet at all) or does he actively pursue this other job that he's applied for? He sent in his resume and they invited him to pre-employment testing next week, which he would have to miss work for. This job would pay $4/hour more than he currently makes, be less physically demanding, and have a more predictable schedule with 4 ten hour days. They give yearly merit raises that would put him earning about $60,000 in five or so years.
Gee. I think I answered my own question.

Thing #4: I need a new cell phone. Mine just randomly decided to mute me. I can hear the person on the other end, but they can't hear me. I called AT&T and they said that it must be my phone. They're probably right. I've had the thing for 2 1/2 years. It's been dropped too many times to count and it was a 'cheap' phone to begin with.

Thing#4.5: We're looking for a cheaper cell phone provider. Since we're dirt poor(as mentioned earlier) we need to cut back and we decided that we could live with just one cell phone instead of two. But most of the single plans cost nearly as much as we're paying right now. I've looked into the pre-paid stuff and 'pay as you go' plans and they just confuse me.

Thing #5: My toes are FREEZING! I really should put on some socks. Well, I really should get showered and dressed and THEN put on some socks.

Thing #6: I'm going to have to cancel our primary presidency meeting this afternoon and it's one that we really need to have. We're having to do some overhaul in the primary and it needs to be done ASAP. But my kids are nursing fevers and the meeting is supposed to be at my house and everyone else has to bring their kids when we have meetings and I don't want to get them all sick.

Thing #7: I need to get a babysitter for tomorrow night. I'm such a procrastinator! I've known about this party we're going to for about a month and I'm just now looking for a sitter. Nice.

Thing #8: Some people that live in the 'nicer' part of our neighborhood are renting out their house. I'm tempted to ask how much they want, but I know we can't afford it. It would be so nice to have a bit more space and to not have a musty basement room that we can't even use because it flares up allergies every time we walk into it.

Thing #9: My husband is so great! Lilly's fever started around 11:30 last night and he stayed up with her and laid by her so she could go back to sleep and so that I could get some sleep. He's so considerate that way.

Thing #10: Since the girls aren't feeling well, I'm going to have to do my grocery shopping after Nate gets home. I hate shopping on a Friday night. For some reason it's always crazy busy--probably because it's payday and people are in the same situation as me. No food in the house, just got paid, better pick up those diapers and stuff.

Well, there are more things swimming through my head right now, but I won't bore you any longer. Thanks for letting me get this stuff off my mind. I feel so much lighter now.

End of Days Jeopardy!

Nate is our ward activities committee chairman. He's had the calling for about a year now. A couple months ago, the bishopric asked him to do a ward activity that was centered around emergency preparedness. Nate really found this a challenge because most people find emergency preparedness stuff a bit boring. But, as many of you know, Nate is anything but boring!

He came up with the idea of doing what he called 'End of Days Jeopardy!'. We basically did the game show using emergency preparedness info for the categories and questions. We gave each contestant something to use as their "buzzer". We used a pan and wooden spoon, a baby rattle, a whistle, and a bike/clown horn.

Contestants were chosen at random from the audience using cards taped to the bottom of the chairs. Our scorekeeper and 'Vanna'(who took the cards from the board when they were chosen--and also turned out to be our bishop and he even wore the name tag that said Vanna and he did such a great job) were also chosen that way.

Everyone who came to the activity got an emergency preparedness themed prize. They ranged from wet wipes to matches to light sticks. And one lucky winner got the grand prize--the 'Honey Pot' which was one of those emergency potties made from a big bucket.

Everyone had a great time! We got pretty good attendance, not as much as our last activity-the 'No Talent' night, but we filled most of the chairs and had a lot of fun.

Now we need to recover. We spent most of yesterday setting things up and running around trying to find plastic spider rings, which I was shocked to find that three grocery stores with lots of Halloween stuff had absolutely NO spider rings! What's up with that?!

Anyway, it was a fun night. You did a great job Nate! And a great big THANK YOU to everyone who came out and supported us!

One Year of Jayne

Today, October 19th, is Jayne's 1st birthday! So prepare yourselves for a Jayne overload!

We had a fun little celebration last night with some family members. Jayne loved all her presents. She got lots of cute clothes and a fun new toy, but her favorite was the cupcake gift bag that Uncle Jake and Uncle Chad brought their present in. She carried it around all night and went straight for it again this morning.

All About Jayne:

• Jayne has been walking for about a month now. She's getting better at her balance and she's getting faster too.
  
• Jayne has three teeth, two on the bottom and one on the top, with another top one currently in the works.
• Jayne likes graham crackers, cheerios, and now chocolate cake.
• Jayne loves to chase Jonah and Lilly around. She always wants to see where they are and what they're doing.
  
• Jayne is all girl! She loves to put on necklaces, comb her own hair, carry purses(or any sort of bag), she loves Lilly's dolls and will drag them all over the house, she loves clothes.
  
• Jayne is now in her forward facing car seat and loves to stare out the window.
  
• Jayne is a chatterbox! She will go on and on about who knows what. It's so cute!
• Jayne is such a beautiful addition to our family and has blessed us so much in just one short year. We love you baby girl!

Here she is showing off her new clothes. She carried them all around the room and it took a little coaxing to get her to put them down and look at the next present.

The Cupcake Bag

She wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake.

So Daddy helped her get started

Happy Birthday to my Sweet Baby Jayne!

FIRE!

Today I went with Jonah's class on their field trip to the fire station. I got a sitter for Jayne and Lilly(thanks Stacey!) so it was just me and Jonah. The fire station isn't very far from the elementary school, so we walked.
It was a little breezy and chilly, but nice. This was Jonah's 3rd time going to the fire station, but it was my first. I've never been inside a fire station. The one here is just tiny. They have their kitchen, a room with all their beds, a bathroom, and a small living room with recliners and a TV.
The firefighters took the kids on a tour and then talked to them about fire safety.
They showed them the ambulance and the fire truck and even let them crawl inside!
On the way back to the school, we got to stop at the Grub Box and all the kids got a free ice cream cone.

Here are some pictures of our fun outing.

Jonah hates loud noises. He plugged his ears as soon as he saw them turn on the lights to the ambulance.

Checking out the inside of the ambulance

Climbing into the fire truck.

Jonah and his class in front of the fire truck

Yeah, that's my kid in the front with his tongue sticking out. You see why we don't do family pictures very often? =)

Getting ice cream on the way home

Partyin' with the Neighbors!

Our fan-ta-bulous neighbors are really into Halloween. Every year they have a big shindig at their house and this year we were invited! Yay! It took a while for them to invite us because we're not very social and yes, it does take us 2 1/2 years to get to know our next door neighbors. We should really work on that.

Anyhoo, a costume for this party is mandatory. I seriously procrastinated figuring out something to dress up as until the day of the party and then I spent the entire day trying to decide. I had some blue fabric and decided to make a little tunic/smock thingy and tack on some cotton batting to look like clouds. I carried around a water bottle and I was "cloudy with a chance of showers." So when anyone asked what I was I would give a little spray from the bottle. Cheesy, I know, but that's just who I am. I tried to get Nate to dress up as a weather man, but he wanted to be a cowboy, I think mostly because then he could take his two black powder pistols to show off.
We had a great time. They had their whole house decked out to the max for Halloween! We're talking spider webs, fog, severed heads, the works. They had tons of yummy food! They had posted quotes from scary movies all over the house and you had to guess what they were from. I think Nate and I did pretty good for not having seen more than half of them. We did get a couple clues from Roni (our neighbor).

We didn't stay too late. My mom was watching the kids for us and we had church early the next morning. But we had so much fun getting to visit with Roni and Dan and meeting some of their friends and family. So THANK YOU guys for letting us come! It was awesome!

Here we are all ready to go! Jonah and Lilly had to jump in the picture too.

Here's my cowboy and his pistols.

Nate made me try on the hat. I'm not a hat person, but I think it goes well with the blue eyeshadow, yes? =)

Kindergarten Drama is Resolved

Remember Jonah's new class? Well, it hasn't been working out so well. He complains of being bored and his teacher doesn't do snack time or show and tell, two kindergarten staples if you ask me. His teacher was always calling him by the wrong name and giving him super easy worksheets to do. I talked to his teacher about it last week and she informed me that Jonah tells her that he's bored, but there's really nothing she can do about it. Jonah was telling us that he didn't want to go to school anymore, he was grumpy and today he even cried when I asked him how his class was.
Being the concerned parents that we are, we contacted the school administration. I talked to the assistant principal, who was very kind, and explained the situation and our concerns. She said she would do an observation of Jonah's class and then call me back. She did her observation today and called me this afternoon. She said that after her observations and talking to some other people at the school, she agreed that Jonah should be moved back to Mrs. Anderson's class effective tomorrow. Hooray! Jonah was so excited when I told him the news. He's been asking to go back to Mrs. Anderson's class everyday since the change and he can't wait to go to school tomorrow.
And so the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I'm so glad that we spoke up about our concerns and that the administration was so quick and helpful in getting it resolved in the best interest of our child. Happy Day!

Jayne's Mad Walking Skills!

Jayne has been walking for a few weeks now. Yeah, she's an early starter. She doesn't turn 1 until the 19th. Anyway, I finally got a blip of it on video. Please ignore the messy coif. I don't usually bother with the bows and things unless we're going out, because they just get pulled out anyway. Enjoy!

Decision Making 101

The majority of the time, I really like being a grownup. I like being able to eat a candy bar and diet coke for breakfast once in a while, or not making my bed if I don't feel like it, or staying in my pajamas all day just because. But the one thing I don't like about being a grownup, not one little itty bitty bit, is making the big decisions. You know the kind, the ones that will affect the future of yourself, your spouse, your kids, your sanity....those kinds of decisions.
During the course of our 7 year marriage, Nate and I have become quite talented at making the wrong decisions, turning down the wrong road, finding all the dead ends, etc. So, lately we've been thinking we may be at another one of those dead ends, but we're not sure. It's so hard to decide whether to stay on this road and hope that it's really not a dead end, just one of those sharp 'T' turns that sometimes looks like a dead end, or to go down another road that could be better, but might not.
We're doing everything we know how to make the right choice. Prayer, temple, studying out all the possibilities. I think the change could be a very good thing, but it could also be a very hard thing and it's so much easier to stay with what you know. Change can be so scary when you're facing the unknown and you're not sure if there will be anything there to catch you when you jump off the cliff of the comfortable. Will you land on a soft bed of clouds and sunshine, or will you just keep falling?
If you happen to have found the foolproof method for making the right decisions, please enlighten me. I will be forever in your debt.