Warmer Weather and Higher Spirits

These last couple of days have been SOOOOO nice weather-wise!! At least, compared to the last few weeks that have been so bitterly cold and miserable. The sound of snow melting is music to my ears!! I even walked around for awhile yesterday with no coat on which, for me, is a big thing since I H-A-T-E being cold.

Otherwise not a whole lot new went on this week. Talin stayed healthy all week this week...yay!! We go to the doctor to get his ankle checked tomorrow morning. Our taxes were deposited this week, and so we used most of that to pay off some bills. I can't wait for the day when we can take that sucker and do something fun with ALL of it!! Just once I'd like to be able to do that...just once!!

Bub became certified at work this week in his department, so he'll begin working the shift he was hired for next weekend, as well as working the required overtime every week. Hopefully things go smoothly for him during this transition. He saw his doctor Friday for a check-up on things, and all seems to be going well...YAY!!

We haven't done a whole lot more with the bathroom project this week. Tossed around a few ideas about things, but nothing much else. Hopefully one day this week or next weekend we'll be able to go out and look again and start making some decisions. A friend of mine & her husband gave their bathroom a face lift, and when I saw that it inspired me to keep pressing on, so I'm really looking forward to getting this project off the ground and start turning our crud cave into a relaxing retreat. I'm also hoping to have the dining room's face lift, not complete remodel but at least an updated look, done before this Christmas. Some different paint, flooring, curtains and trim, and some updated lighting and that room should be done, at least temporarily!!

For now though, I should get back to cleaning up what's still here. Happy Sunday to everyone, hope your week is wonderful!!

My Kid Has Triple-A!!

Well, like the title says, as of right now my 6 year old has triple A's...Adderall for ADHD, amoxicillin for strep, and his ankle is broken!! This poor kid has really been through the ringer the last couple of weeks. Tal & I had influenza at the beginning of February. He went to school for one day and started complaining of a headache that night. His temp was back for another two days. At that point they had a 5 day break from school, and he recovered fully, resuming school last Wednesday.

During that break, on Monday, he was walking up the stairs when his ankle "snapped." This snap was loud enough for Trey to hear it across the room. He cried and told me it hurt, and was limping on it the rest of the night. I looked at it Monday night and sure enough, the thing was swollen up and bruised. So we propped it up on a tiger for the night and I gave him some ibuprofen to help with the pain overnight. Tuesday morning he was still limping, it was still swollen and bruised, and I figured he'd probably better stay off it at school during recess and gym for the rest of the week. BUT...I know that my assessment of this situation, and the fact that my kid is limping with a wrapped, swollen, bruised ankle is not enough to convince the folks at school that he really should probably take it easy on it, so I made an appointment with a doctor, so I could send a note with Talin to school from someone who knows about these kinds of things, since it's so obvious that even I, as his mother, could never have figured out that he needs to stay off it for a bit.

At the doctor's office we went in, he showed the nurse his ankle, he showed the doctor his ankle, we had x-rays done of his ankle, and we looked at the x-rays of his ankle. The doctor couldn't quite tell if the tendon had pulled a small piece of bone away from his ankle, or if it was just how his bone was formed. The radiologist couldn't tell either. We got his note though, and was told it was probably a sprain, and just to wrap, ice and elevate. Talin's pediatrician looked at these x-rays four days later and was able to tell that Talin's ankle tendon had indeed pulled a piece of bone away, and thus the ankle was in fact broken, and extended his no recess/gym note until Feb 25. Great money saver there...otherwise I'd have had to take him in every week!!

The reason we'd gone back to the doctor four days later is because on Thursday, the day after he'd started going back to school from break after recovering from the flu and being boisterously healthy for the previous two days, he woke up with a fever and a sore throat. Fine...it was probably another virus. So Thursday, Valentine's Day and the day his class was having their party for the holiday, he stayed home. Friday was the same...he had a fever and a sore throat. I felt around in his neck and I think all of his lymph nodes were the size of bowling balls. I thought about this in my head....six years old, sick for four days, healthy for 1-1/2, sick for two more days, healthy for three days at home and one day at school, sick for two days after being exposed to a cesspool of crap at school for one day, breaks ankle walking up stairs without goofing off (for ONCE!), huge-ass lymph nodes...it could only be one thing...LEUKEMIA!! So I have myself convinced that my kid has this awful thing, make an appointment with his pediatrician to have him checked out (I didn't state specifically I thought he had leukemia, just that I was concerned about the previously-mentioned pattern of events), and brought him in. His doctor had looked over all his notes, listened to what I had to say, checked him out and gave me the news....Talin likely has....strep. Yep, strep. So we went and had his tonsils tickled, and lo and behold it comes back positive. Whew!! Amoxicillin for a week twice a day...very doable!!

So Talin is my high-maintenance child at the moment. That's okay, he's been pretty easy so far, so I guess he's entitled to a little extra attention every now and then ;o)

In other news, Bub and I began our latest and greatest endeavor so far...remodeling the bathroom completely. Ceiling, walls, floor, fixtures lighting...everything is getting redone. Neither of us can stand the mold hole that currently exists, and so today we spent a couple of hours at Menard's looking over things and picking out things we liked. We realized we have a lot of the same ideas, and a lot of very different ideas, so this should prove to be interesting!! LOL There were a lot of things we really liked, a lot of things we didn't like, a lot of things we loved that probably wouldn't fit in our bedroom let alone our bathroom, and a few things we couldn't figure out who would even consider looking at them...like vomit-looking counters! In any case, we're both looking at different things too...he's looking at the financial practicality and ease of installation of things. I'm looking at "How do I turn this crap corner into a room I won't mind locking myself into on a regular basis?" LOL But, we have a good start on ideas, and realistic prices to look at, and that helps a TON! Looking forward to getting this bad boy conquered and moving on to the dining room!!! LOL

It Finally Looks Like Christmas!

Yesterday afternoon and last night we FINALLY got the first big snowfall of the season. Normally I'm not a huge snow fan. In fact, I hate driving in the stuff, and worse yet, it's COLD! But, it is pretty to look at from the inside out a window, and nothing says Christmas better than a white blanket of snow. I remember one year being outside in a T-shirt and jeans, with no snow on the ground at Christmastime, and that just didn't feel right. Plus, decorations put up on dead grass and scattered leaves just doesn't have the same ambiance that snow gives off.

I love how everyone is putting out their decorations...everything looks so festive! We, of course, haven't gotten that far yet. Matter of fact, the Halloween bin is still sitting waiting to be put away! Oh well...it'll get there. Probably Monday night I'll haul that bin downstairs and the tree and decorations upstairs, and have the kids help me and Bub decorate the place. Wonder if the cats will climb the tree...hmmm.... It's always interesting to have the kids help decorate though, because there's three of them using both hands to grab things to put up, and two of us using both hands to decorate with the last item one of them had handed us! Six things out, two things used! It's fun though, and they have a good time with it :o)

Now, to get that confounded Christmas shopping done! I'm seriously, SERIOUSLY considering just ordering everything off of LTD Commodities. Anyone else do that? I just don't have the time, money, energy or desire to go out to store after store and look for ideal things for everyone, just to wonder what I'll find at the next place. Forget it. This way I can glance through everything WITHIN OUR BUDGET and have it delivered straight to our door. Presto Cheapo...DONE!

Trey is still just loving being on the swim team, and he does such a good job most of the time. Except last week he lost one of his swim suits. Again. I've done everything I know to do to help that kid remember to put everything in his bag after swim practice, and he still loses things!! He has a list in his bag of the things he needs in there, we've talked about ideas to help him keep his things organized, and he was doing really good for awhile. Ugh.

In the "Interesting Things Kids Say" category, Talin took the cake this week. I was talking to Bub about how the car is making a funny noise when it's idling. As I was describing it, Talin pipes up from the back seat, "It's probably my foot." Completely serious, as if his foot seriously had something to do with the strange noise the car was making while he was nowhere near it! I had to laugh...it was too funny!

Derrick started going to his new daycare full time on November 26, and he LOVES it!! I'm so happy things turned out the way they did, but I knew they would! I'm a firm believer that the Lord has helped us along that path. He misses his former daycare provider, who moved to a different town, but is always happy to go to his new daycare. What a relief and huge pressure off of us! He's also starting to see and recognize more things around him, and with his ever-expanding vocabulary, it's adorable to hear him say "Look! Pretties!" when he sees lit-up decorations, or "Pretty House!" when a home is really decked out. It's worth the "scenic route" home just to hear him!!

Otherwise things have been pretty normal. Bub is doing a good job adjusting back and forth between working his night shifts and then coming back to daytime during the week. Soon he'll be able to work daytime weekends, and that'll be nicer still. I just can't believe it's December already. Somehow it doesn't seem like an entire year has almost gone by already. Wow...amazing!

Finally Friday...Weekend's Here!

TGIF never sounded SOOO good! And what a Friday it was! It started at 6:07 AM, when Trey came into our room, woke me up and announced that he was all ready for school. He was dressed, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, took his pill, even fed the fish! Just as some inside info, I set my kids' alarms for 6 AM, and I'm usually am happy if they are ready to go out to the bus stop by 7. So for Trey to be completely ready by 6:07 AM, it brought on the question, "What time did you get up?" He told me he'd been up since 5 AM! As happy as I am to have a morning kid, considering Talin and Derrick are NOT, I told him to please not do that again unless he's going to go to bed earlier because his body needs sleep to keep him awake in school, and healthy and strong to fight off colds and stuff (tis the season!). I don't think he liked the idea, but he agreed. Talin actually got ready for school pretty well too, which helped since Derrick was NOT at all willing to have a happy morning. I woke up exhausted from having brought Bubba in to the ER Thursday night (he was really, really sick, I thought maybe it had something to do with his diabetes, but it turns out it was just a really wicked virus that's making its way around from home to home, and decided to bite Bubba HARD), so I was grateful for only one crabby baby.

I worked my usual shift, Talin came home and asked to go to a neighbor's house, which was fine with me since he lives across the road and down the hill. He likes riding his scooter down the hill because he A: Goes fast, and B: Winds up almost at the other end of the block by the time he slows down enough to stop. I had asked him to please be home at 5, so when 5:30 came around I figured I'd better go get him. I walked, figuring he'd brought his scooter. Silly me...he used his roller blades instead! Luckily he remembered to carry them so he didn't run around barefoot outside the whole time he was playing! Though he did manage to leave his blades and his jacket at another friend's house. So we went to that home, collected his belongings, and he wanted to blade home. Fine with me. He put his blades on and then scootched on his butt down the grassy incline to the sidewalk! All I could think about was "How am I gonna get those stains out!?" Then I asked him if he'd brought anything else with, which he had...his football. Okay, where's that? At the first friend's house, down the aforementioned hill. Remembering seeing the kids break downhill skiing time records going down that hill on scooters and bikes, I realized that I would have probably needed to get stains out of the back of Talin's pants regardless of whether he'd gotten grass stains or scared himself rollerblading down the hill.

Saturday we did nothing. Trey & Talin went to a birthday party for a few hours. I went out with a friend of mine Saturday night, which was fun! We played pool & darts at one place, we checked out another that usually has a band, but no luck that night. Then we found a little place that had a LOT of cars at it, so we decided to check it out! Turns out there was a DJ there, who played pretty good music, so we danced some. Then there was a wet T-shirt contest, something my friend and I had never seen before, so we stuck around for that! One girl one, and all of the T-shirts were lost by the end of the night! We called it a night after that.

Sunday we went to church and Sunday School. Our Sunday School food drive is off to a great start! Hopefully I don't bomb for the kids! Then we came home and cleaned up the house. Mostly. I wound up passed out on the couch for a few hours, as did Derrick! I guess we were both really tired! Talin realized he'd lost another book from school, so we spent about half an hour looking for this thing, no luck. What I did find, though, was how Talin managed to keep his room so clean most of the time. The underside of his bed was CRAMMED full of clothes, toys, cards, puzzle pieces, stuffed animals, and goodness only knows what else! I figured he might as well clean that out and see if his book managed to find any friends under there! Unfortunately the book is still MIA. UGH! I think I'm gonna have to teach that kid that books are like money...keep them WAY out of reach of anyone who might just walk off with it and leave it somewhere strange! LOL

Dentist Days

I finally did something that I've been a little nervous about doing, but now I'm SOOO glad I did. I changed dentists. The last office we were at, everything was super expensive, and just not affordable for us. And I'd heard that from other people about that place too. I also think that maybe they didn't do as good of a job on some of the work they had done as maybe they should have, which is frustrating and disappointing. And expensive. So today marked the day when Trey & Talin were due to see a dentist, especially since Talin had been complaining about two teeth that were hurting him for the last couple of weeks.

After picking up the kids early from school to bring them to see this new, and gratefully better (in my opinion) person whom I would trust my kids' smile with, Trey was selected to go first. Trying to be a bit efficient, I went through Talin's backpack with him while we were waiting for it to be his turn, got his homework done (can you believe they have homework in first grade?!?), practiced his spelling words, and then tried to put together this puzzle that was nine cubes, each with a piece of a different puzzle on them...a 6-in-1 puzzle! Why aren't there MORE of these?? But, after about 20 minutes of Trey being in back, the hygienist came and asked me to come talk to the dentist. This was it...the moment of truth...the deciding factor in whether we'd be back or not. I was greeted by a lady, the dentist, with a smile, introduction, handshake, and "Have we met before?" I don't think we have, but who knows? Then she informed me that Trey's teeth had somehow "lost" their sealants (remember the shoddy work I mentioned earlier?), and one filling was fractured, which seemed to cause him some discomfort when it was moved. Needless to say, I was thoroughly irritated about having paid a mint for this work to be done, only to have it be undone in such a short amount of time. She recommended a few fillings on each side, and new sealants, which I was happy to agree to, and silently prayed for God to have a vault full of money land on my car outside. I'd pay for a cab home then, no problem!

Then it was Talin's turn to go back, and Trey's turn to succumb to my efficiency kick and get his homework done while his younger brother was being inspected. Talin I knew was going to have issues. He grinds his teeth in his sleep, or at least he used to, I don't know if he still does or not since he hasn't lost any teeth lately. But that, I found out, was about to change. Talin will be losing one tooth for sure on November 7. I knew the blackening of his teeth wasn't a good sign, but I thought a filling or something would take care of it. Nope...it's decayed down to the root, which means it gets yanked so it doesn't cause him any more pain. Incidentally, the same tooth on the opposite side has the same problem, and will meet the same fate sometime shortly after the first one is pulled. Talin will also need some fillings, but just on one side. Whew!

I was then ushered out into the waiting area, where one of the two receptionists was going to have me sign my life, and probably body parts, away to her employer. I braced myself as she started going over the figures. I felt myself beginning to think of reasons why we couldn't possibly pay what they were asking. But then I was shown how much we'd actually owe, and told that if we pay in advance we are given a 5% discount. A discount? At the dentist? And a nice, helpful, friendly and understanding dentist at that?? I nearly fainted when the total amount for the fillings, sealants and extractions all came out to cost about the same as just one of those would have at our now former dentist's office. And I was thankful that the good Lord didn't drop a vault of money on my car, so we could get home. Okay, the vault of money wouldn't have been so bad LOL