Another one bites the dust

Yup....Ashlyn is sick. Poor girl. She's the one that started this whole mess of sickness in our house. She got a cold almost two weeks ago. It turned into a nasty sore throat and then a cough. In the meantime, Leah got a cough and stomach bug and then a viral rash all over her face. That's the time Carter went down, so my life was consumed with taking care of the little one. Carter's finally feeling better and Ashlyn started saying her ears were hurting her. It was even keeping her up at night. So yesterday morning, while she was laying on my bed, I asked her if she wanted to go to the doctor. She said yes, so that was my answer. I hauled all four kids (not a fun thing) to the doctor to have her ears checked before going into the long weekend. Paid off (in a weird sort of way) because we found out she has a double ear infection. I guess her cold/cough/sore throat made it's way to her ears and settled there. After a grueling fight with the pharmacy (man I'm grateful for them, but they can be SO DANG SLOW), we got Ashlyn her antibiotics just in time to head out to go boothing for Girl Scout cookies. I must admit I'm pretty much hating Girl Scouts right now. Cookie season is too much work! 

I will say though, that it's way easier to have a sick 9 year old than it is to have a sick 2 year old.

And the irony in all of this mess of sickness is......that the ONE child that hasn't gotten sick (knock on wood) is the one who INSISTS on wearing swim shorts, t-shirts and flip flops year round. Go figure!

One REALLY sick boy

Seems like all I've done lately is post about my poor sick little Carter. Well, for good reason I guess because he has been REALLY sick. It started on Friday. Got worse on Saturday and by Sunday it was just down right miserable for him (and me). His fever kept spiking. He had no appetite. He would only drink tiny sips of water and that was only after coughing and I could tell his poor little throat was just burning. He couldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time (even at night). And he basically spent three solid days on the couch laying around (mostly on top of me). 

Monday morning I called his doctors office as soon as they opened. I got an appointment for 11am and asked them if they thought I'd be done by 11:45 so I could pick up my son from preschool at 12. They said, yes. I took him in and they did their normal routine of asking me a ton of questions and checking him out. First his doctor thought it might be RSV. They tested him for that, strep and the flu. They all came back negative. They gave him a breathing treatment. It didn't do anything. His doctor listened to him again and said she wanted him to get a chest xray. She thought, based off of how his breathing pattern was and the fact that the breathing treatment didn't help, that he might have pneumonia. I scrambled to find someone to pick up the THREE kids I had for preschool carpool (thanks again Brooke. You were a lifesaver), and headed over to the imaging center in Valencia. The office was nice and they got him in pretty quickly, but the whole process still took over an hour. Most of which was spent waiting of course. The receptionist handed me his xrays and kind of motioned to me that she didn't think he had it, and sent me home telling me my doctor would call me soon.

So at first I thought it was all for nothing. About 20 minutes after I got home my doctor called me. She said her and one of the other doctors in the office both looked at his xrays and felt, while it wasn't severe yet, that he definitely had pneumonia and she was going to fax a prescription to my pharmacy. In the meantime, his fever spiked again and I gave him more tylenol. I got him his prescription (which he DEFINITELY does not like) and he fell asleep on the couch. A few more hours later, he got up and walked to the kitchen asking for something to eat. THAT was huge at that point and confirmed to me that the antibiotics were definitely necessary. He ate two jars of baby food (yes he STILL eats baby food) and went back to the couch. That night he slept the whole night. Only waking up once. Then the next day (yesterday) he started acting more and more like himself. Still not up at full speed, but wanting to play and allowing me to get up and do some things I needed to do. His fever has stayed down and he again slept through the night only waking up once. 

This morning I took him back to the doctor for a follow up. She said he's still pretty rattly, but she can tell it's starting to break up and that's a good sign. She gave him another breathing treatment, which didn't really help, but I requested it, so I think she was humoring me. LOL. I thanked her for listening to her gut instead of to the technician at the imaging center who told her he felt Carter was fine. I sure am grateful for good doctor's and I'm lucky my kids have one. 

I have another follow up next Wednesday when he's just about done with his prescription. Just to make sure he's all healed up. I guess pneumonia is nothing to mess around with. Even when it's not full blown.

This is one sad little guy. Oh, but doesn't he look so sweet. In a way, it was fun to just sit and snuggle with him so much....even if it meant, I got NOTHING done. Well, except I did read a 525 page book. Haha!

He was a brave boy getting his x-rays. That was a pretty intimidating room.

I don't know why this picture is side ways. It wasn't when I loaded it. Anyway, it's hard to tell, but if you look at the bottom of the left picture, you can see it's slightly more fussy. That's the pneumonia. 

All I can say, is THANK GOODNESS for modern medicine. I can't imagine not having the necessary antibiotics ready and available when needed. It was hard enough watching him be so sad. To think I couldn't do anything to help him, would be awful!

Sick boy

Carter's sick again. Leah was yesterday and this morning (she's actually acting better just recently). Ashlyn was sick on Thursday. So except for a brief (crazy) outing Friday morning, I've pretty much been in the house since Wednesday. When Ashlyn is sick she keeps to herself and lays around. When Leah is sick she cries and moans most of the day(poor girl doesn't handle pain well). And when Carter is sick he demands I sit with him nonstop. I feel so bad for my little guy. Last night was probably one of the worst nights sleeps he's had in a VERY long time and just now when I took his temp, it was almost 103. Here's hoping he gets over this little bug soon.

My poor sweet little boy. Doesn't he look so sad? So even if I am missing my friends baby shower and another dear friends oldest boys baptism(which i am VERY sad about) I'm glad I can be here for him. And snuggle with him. Even if my bum is sore from sitting in the same spot so long. And even if I now hate the show "My big, big friend". He's totally worth it.

Just Chugging along

Days move on quite quickly around here, as I'm sure they do for most people. 

Carter got sick a week ago. Pink eye. So sad. He was a trooper, but he caused us to miss our date to the temple. Hoping to get there soon. It's been a while.

So we had a date night in after the kids were in bed. I'm not too fancy, I know... but oh well. The food made up for it.

Ashlyn's girl scout activity got canceled last week and I had a sitter already arranged since it was my turn to volunteer. So I took advantage and took the girls out to Chilis. It was win/win since I had a coupon for buy one meal, get two kids meals free. 

Ashlyn started back up with her Ballet class she does through the city Park and Rec program. Leah started Jazz class with her good friend Ashlynn. These are two little sassy peas in a pod. They LOVE class though and I'm excited for them to have a little recital in June. Leah will eat it up.

Ashlyn finished reading the first Anne of Green Gables, so we watched the movie together. Such good memories. I think I was just as excited to see it as the girls were. I'm a lucky mom to have two little girls to do girly things with.

Leah had a school project where she had to create an office building for the "community" they were building. Daddy helped her since it was a "family project". So of course a little "Dunder Mifflin" had to show up on the building. Can't go without representing "The Office". One of Paul's favorite shows.

Carter's practicing his driving skills and doing pretty well. I love that we live on a pretty quiet street and can let the kids drive around out front (supervised of course, but still).

My wonderful friend Becky finished sewing my curtains for my windows as a Birthday gift and I've gotten half of them up so far. It's hard to find enough rods for all those little windows. I'm on the hunt. Just bought out Target's supply and need just 4 more rods. I love how they turned out and we are really hoping they will help with the heat in the summer.

Family night usually involves some airplane flying activity. Paul builds pretty awesome planes. I watched from the bottom and tried to avoid getting hit.

Well, off to change a dirty diaper and put my little one down for a nap before the girls get home from school. Just another regular day! But I'm grateful for them.

Oh and I finished the book "Divergent" by Veronica Roth in two days. Not sure how I did that except that I lost sleep to do it, have a pile of laundry to catch up on, and kind of ignored my family every chance I got. So I guess I know how I finished it. It was a REALLY good book (thanks to my cousin Brittany for the recommendation) and I'm excited to start the next one, "Insurgent". Just going to wait a week or two before getting sucked into another book. 

Changing Classes

I decided I have to write about the biggest news this past week, even though I have no pictures to go with it. It's no secret I haven't been happy with Ashlyn's class this year. Being in a split class, with none of her good friends when she's one of the youngest wasn't my idea of a good year for her. And while I grew to like her teacher (well enough), I still wasn't thrilled with it all. On top of all of that, Ashlyn was starting to struggle. She's always been a good student and has always worked hard, even though school is just not her favorite thing. Like I've said before, she's a pleaser, so she does her best despite her circumstances. But sometimes a mom's gotta stick up for her sweetie. Because honestly, who else is going to. So when Ashlyn started really showing signs of stress in class (working on homework all afternoon, telling me how the other kids in her class were finishing their work way faster than her, having to stay in during morning recess to finish her work and then having to go to the 5/6th grade lunch and never seeing her friends, crying herself to sleep because she couldn't get her homework finished but was so tired), I decided enough was enough. So even though her Principal had denied me my request to place her in another class at the beginning of the year, I thought I'd try again. I was getting desperate. Even to the point of contemplating pulling her out for the remainder of the year and homeschooling her if I needed to. So I wrote up an email explaining her situation. How we have given it a good try, but that I honestly didn't feel like a split level class was a good match for her. I talked to Ashlyn of course before doing all of this to see what she thought, and if she was okay with me trying to get her moved. She said yes. So I sent the email and waited, prepared to fight the fight if need be....in the nicest way possible. I definitely wasn't trying to burn any bridges. I do understand schools are struggling and split level classes are sometimes necessary. And I do understand that it is, in some ways, a compliment to have your child placed in a split level class. But for us, it just wasn't working. Well, miracle of miracles occurred and her principal emailed me back within a few hours telling me he understood my situation and that he would be moving her the next day in to a straight 4th grade class. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! I was so happy that when I called Paul to tell him about it, I had to repeat myself three times before he understood what I was saying. I guess I was talking fast. 

That afternoon when Ashlyn got home, I told her the news. She seemed excited, but nervous at the same time. I knew she would initially miss her "comfort zone", but hoped she would get in a good class. And she did. She got placed in Mrs. Smith's class with her two best school friends. And honestly the look on her face after the first couple of days told me I had made the right choice. She has much more attention from the teacher. Ashlyn even told me Mrs. Smith got on the smart board and showed them how to do a few of the math problems before leaving them to work on them. I guess her last teacher was so pinched for time she often just went over one or two problems and then gave out the assignment and moved on to the 5th graders. She said they got to play games during inside recess time and that she had science and social studies in the same day! She gets to have lunch with her friends again and even gets to be a "buddy" for a student in Leah's class (something her old teacher opted out of, again, for lack of time). Her homework load is much more manageable and age appropriate. And while she tells me Mrs. Harris's class was way ahead of Mrs. Smith's class, I don't even mind. It wouldn't hurt Ashlyn to have some review. I feel confident she will still learn everything she needs to for her state testing this Spring. 

I just tear up every time I think of it. I really feel like we were being watched over and that Heavenly Father heard my pleas. And I know it may seem kind of silly to some, but it was important to me. It's like, you know your children have to grow and learn and that we don't always get our way in life, but when you can help them out a little, it definitely makes one feel good.

 I just love that little girl. She's just about as sweet as they come. 

A little Randomness

Brandon's view of me while waiting in the valet line to pick up the girls. 

Speaking of the valet line, here's a nice story to show how pleasant of a person I can be (insert sarcasm). So I pull up to the valet line about a week ago at the same time as the lady in front of me. She proceeded to get out and put her purse in her trunk and lock her car. I looked at her and motioned to her that she can't "PARK" there. She came over to me and I rolled down my window. I told her that she was in the valet line and she couldn't park and leave her car. She said she did it all the time and that there were lots of cars in front of her. I said, the cars in front of you have PEOPLE in them (see...I'm so nice). Then I directed her attention to the NO PARKING sign and told her that was because it was reserved for people picking up their kids in valet. She looked at me like she never considered the fact that the NO PARKING sign actually applied to her. Then she again told me she did this all the time, as if doing it all the time made it right. So I just said, well you've been doing it wrong for a long time then. I wonder if she'll continue to park there everyday. Probably, because clearly the rules don't apply to her....ugh.....

My latest card club creation. Birthday theme. Our group has dwindled to 8 people, but I think us 8 are committed. I hope so because even though it's stressful to me sometimes, I like doing it. Forces to me use what few creative brain cells I have, with the hope that using them will keep me from losing them.

I must admit my "one treat a day" resolution isn't going so well so far. Oops. I have all year to perfect it right? Let's just say it's a work in progress because darn it if cookies aren't delicious to eat and fun to make. And look, it's quality time with Brandon. I can't deny him that right? Haha....

The boy LOVES Pumpkin bread.

Grammy and PopPop mailed legos to us that Paul and his brother's played with growing up. I guess his brother's didn't care about having them. Lucky us, because our kids were in HEAVEN. Paul too for that fact. They played for over an hour. I think there are more to come. 

A hike and the beach

The weather was beautiful today for MLK day, so we headed out to Malibu with some friends and went for a hike. We weren't quite sure where to go at first, but we found a nice trail to take and hiked to the top. On the way out, we found lots more trails, so I'm sure we will be back. 

Hyrum decided he need to carry around a small tree for a while. And then throw it off the cliff. 

After the hike, we were so close to the beach so we decided we just couldn't pass up on the opportunity. The kids kicked off their shoes and rolled up their pants and had a blast running from the waves.

I am quite sure this little boy is going to have a VERY fun summer at the beach. He can't get enough of the sand and the water. I scored an awesome picture of him jumping in the air throwing sand into the waves. 

And this little cutie decided she needed to bury herself, even if she was in jeans.

We ended the night at The Habit for some yummy burgers and fries. Well, Paul and I had a burger and fries. Our two skinny friends had salads. LOL!

 I think it was a successful day.