A moment to Reflect

quiet. very quiet. My three oldest are at grandma's for the weekend. And Winslow and I have had quite a peaceful time at home with just David. Who by the way has his first two teeth. We all took naps this afternoon, to make up for our late night travel taking the big kids to New Mexico. My family is so precious. I am glad the kids are having fun at grandma's cause they'll be stuck all week at work with me. But we should have fun. We are planting seeds this week, making kites, windsocks, and more. I will try to take some pictures. We are getting blown away! My flowers are starting to come up!! I have Hyacinths blooming and my tulips are poking out. I have some Salvia, and another goregous RED flower (I'll have to look at it's tag, it's from last year and it's sooo pretty) I am a big fan of bulb flowers. I bought some Dahlia's this weekend, and I am ordering some Rananculas. Lots of big words, in the end they're all just gorgeous. I have lavender to plant and some basil and snapdragons. OHHHHH! I LOVE SPRING! We are planting our seeds indoors, we won't be able to put them in the ground for another 8 weeks. Saturday, before the exodus to grandma's., Winslow and the kids cleared out some rocks from the back yard and used them to fill a low spot in our drive. Then we raked weeds and stacked wood. I am getting so excited to get our sprinkler system up and have grass in the back yard!! Let's just say that right now our yard has a lot of "potential."
Jacob has finished his basketball season, and I didn't get a single picture! He is amazing on defense. He saved his birthday money and bought his own basketball shoes. He stressed over every game, and can still tell you all the details from each game of the season!
I had fun seeing my parents and sisters, although it was too brief, it always is, last weekend. I am such a momma's girl. I feel so blessed to have such a good relationship with all my family.

Recent happenings

David and the cat

Abby decided 60 degree weather was swimsuit weather and time to turn on the hose. No thanks. too cold for me!

The cat likes David's cheerios, and he also thought this was a good place to hide from Rachel!

The kids all love the new cat. Whose name is Obsidian Soot, or O.B. for short. I call him kitty.

Rachel loves the snow.
Winslow on his birthday

Okay, yes, My Christmas lights are still on my house. Not my deal. I DON"T DO HEIGHTS. But check out the real iscicles on our roof!

David is such a happy guy!

This is a letter I wrote to my youngest brother and is sums up much of what has been going on.

Elder,

Okay so I have been a total slacker. In recent news, David got pnemonia and a double ear infection in february. He got another ear infection this last week and his oxygen levels dipped so he was back on breathing treatments. No fun. David is now 19 and 1/2 lbs. HOLY COW he's a chunker. But he's a pretty happy baby. He is just starting to get up on his hands and knees. He likes to sit and play, and I am grateful he isn't running everywhere yet. Jacob is playing basketball and doing rather well. He usually scores 2 baskets a game. He is crazy on defense. He's a tough player. Winslow got to substitute coach for Jacob's team this last time and it was fun to watch father and son. Jacob was more proud of having his dad coach, than making his shots. He is reading like crazy and we are so glad to have kids who love to read. Abby is one of the smartest in her class. She is reading so well and can sound words so well. We are very impressed. She recently lost 2 teeth for which the tooth fairy gave her $2. Wow big spender huh! Well the tooth fairy took a while to give her the money seeing as how the tooth fairy hasn't been getting a lot of sleep lately. She even wrote the tooth fairy a note to remind her. But then in the morning the tooth had disappeared and there was no money. So Abby wrote a new note. "dear tooth fairy, how come you took my tooth but did not leave me any money. xoxoxo Muh, Abby." So the tooth fairy had to make up for it. Abby is quite the artist and loves to make pictures for her teachers. She loves crafts and would cut and create all day long if it didn't make mom so bonkers. Rachel is a hoot, but boy can she be a pickle sometimes. She is sounding out words and identifying all the letter sounds within them. CRAZY! she just turned 3! She is quite smart and we are so amazed all the time. She is learning to write her name, and loves it. She loves to eat corndogs and have chocolate milk. (eww!) but she thinks it's great. She wants us to read all the books in the house. And she terrorizes the cat constantly. Oh yeah, we got a cat. He is actually quite a good cat. He makes me laugh all the time. He leaves David alone, and puts up with Rachel dragging him all over the house. His purr sounds like a John Dere Tractor. It's so loud. He attacks random cheerios on the kitchen floor, and can totally destroy rolls of toilet paper. I am busy busy with work. I love what I do. I love teaching kids and spending time with them. We have a good time and I really love the girls I work with. What a blessing. (mind you I still miss being at home full time.) I splurged this week and had my hair done. I wasn't so hot on my last hair cut and neither was Winslow, (it's not a style he likes, he has a name for it but I won't share it.) Anyway I got pampered with a great hair cut and the girl who did it introduced me to some awesome stuff that makes my hair look amazing. Hurray for good hair products. Winslow has been busy pumping iron and running everywhere. He is so buff. LOVE IT. He is running 5 miles at a time and doing fabo! He plans to run a half marathon in may, where I will be running a marathon relay (meaning 5 miles total, i',m still working up to the 1/2 marathon thing). So life is good. We are busy and loving it. We love you and are so proud of you. Keep working hard!
love
Melissa

Pneumonia and Valentines Day

Well we have been very blessed to have David fighting the pneumonia so well. I am so glad we caught it early on. He started to get really rowdy Thursday night, but by Friday morning things were over the hump. He still has a nasty wheeze so he is still on antibiotics, breathing treatments, prednesone, & I am constantly sucking out nasty stuff from his nose. He also has an ear infection. I am amazed at how Happy he has been thru all of this. We found a way to get thru the breathing treatments without all the crying. I give him one cheerio at a time. It keeps his mouth open as the mask is on and it keeps him too busy to care for the most part. By his appointment on Friday the pneumonia was clearing up and we've just been left with the wheeze, coughing and snot. It has been quite the relief to not have to go to the hospital like so many others we know. I started getting sick myself on Friday. So I am glad I was well for the nights prior when David needed so much attention. (My baby monitor was on full blast) Thanks for your prayers and Thanks NANCY for DINNER, it was just what I needed!
For Valentines we took it easy. I bought the kids Mylar balloons from Dollar Tree on Monday and they have enjoyed them all week. (not bad for a buck a piece) Winslow bought me homemade Chocolate Truffles. YUM! I made the kids, pb and J in the shape of a heart. We had homemade Chocolate milkshakes, and watched Narnia, Prince Caspian. Tonight the kids and I are going to play games. (Winslow has acupuncture seminars).

Our Turn

So David's Initials are D.R., Winslow loves it. David had fun playing with the Stethescope.

Maybe I will grow up to be like Daddy!

Did you ever know that Real Stethescopes hurt when you put them in your ears. At least ours does.

Okay, so many of you have experienced this lately, and many of my friends have gone thru it in recent weeks. In fact I saw two friends in the pharmacy line for the exact same thing. So I guess it is our turn, but never fun.
David has had a cough since Monday, and last night it got worse, and then when he woke up from his morning nap it was definitely progressing. So I busted out with Winslow's stethoscope and listened to his lungs. I found a wheeze in his lower lungs. So I called to make him an appointment, and called Winslow to see if he would listen when he got home for lunch. So Winslow listened and after I pointed out that what I heard was in the lower part of the lungs, he heard it too. He said it sounded like Bronchiolitis. So we got David a Dr's appointment for this afternoon, and I called in to work. The nurse checked David out, but didn't hear what I heard. (Winslow says that's cause on Pediatric patients, the noises can be subtle until they get really bad.) Then the doctor came in, and sure enough found noises in his Lower Left Lung. I felt affirmed at my Dr. Mom diagnosis. The Dr.'s official Diagnosis is PNEUMONIA. Thankfully David's oxygen stats are still good. (thanks to catching it early on.) So we are doing albueterol treatments at home and Rx. As long as he stays doing well (I say well, he sounds cruddy) but as long as his breathing, cough, wheezing, etc doesn't get worse, we'll be able to treat him at home. Oh, and in the nurse's defense, David sounded the best he had all day at the Dr's office. Of course an hour later you could definitely hear the wheeze. Isn't it always that way though. The kid could be hacking up a lung at home and lethargic, take them to the doctors and they run around and sound fine. I am thankful for the feelings I had today that I should take David in to the dr.'s. I've started sanitizing the house and have already cleaned David's crib, bedding, changing table, etc. Hopefully we will squish the germs early on.

David isn't liking the Breathing Treatments so much.

Update 2/12/09 David's lungs now sound worse, but he still seems to be breathing okay. We will see the doctor on Friday for another checkup. I am also very grateful for my husband and his education. It's nice to be able to have him check out the kids.

Discovery

okay so I have been crazy frustrated with my dishwasher. But trying to be nice to it, so it wouldn't quit working all together. It is a portable dishwasher. Meaning not built in, it's on wheels and hooks up to the faucet. I am very grateful for it, as it is a life saver, even if it does take up HALF THE KITCHEN> so back to the grief with the dishwasher. Have you ever had a day when you go to take out the dishes, you know you turned the dishwasher on and it just doesn't seem to be getting things CLEAN. So I've used CLR and have been trying to Wash the dishes before Washing the Dishes. SUCH A PAIN. I noticed that my drain at the bottom of the dishwasher wasn't draining all the way. So I pulled it up YUCK!!! Ever have a clogged sink drain. There is all that nasty goop and it looks like someone lost a whole head of hair down the drain. Okay so it wasn't that bad but it was Nasty. Then I noticed that I had clogged holes where the water spurts out. So I pulled the whole water thing out and that was DISGUSTING TOO! Yuck. No wonder the dishes weren't getting clean. So anyhow, I spent over a half an hour cleaning the dishwasher out. Then I filled up the dishwasher with all the dishes cause I KNEW they needed to get CLEAN.

David has discovered how to say DADADADA. It is so cute. Last night he babbled on for a good hour. We sat and listened to him. And Laughed. Then he realized he could pull a shirt over his head and play peek a boo. It was hilarious. Too bad Rachel played with the camera and ran all the batteries out. We will see if we can get it again tonight!

Random Acts Of Kindness

This is a challenge. Try doing an act of service each day. It can be simple...make the grouchy checker at the grocery store, smile, okay maybe not smile, maybe just help her feel good. Drop off a bag of chocolate at your girlfriend's house, a card at the neighbor's to let them know you're glad to live next to them. Wave at the trashman who always seems to go the extra mile. Get creative.
Get going!

Things I've been doing instead of Blogging

Okay. I know I haven't blogged in a while. I've been a little busy. So Why am I blogging at 4am? Because I've been awake for an hour now and thought I might as well catch up. So what have I been doing instead of blogging for the last 2 weeks?
Ear infections- a first for us, and of course it was while Winslow was out of town.
4 doctors visits
1 ER visit-that was today-Rachel dislocated her shoulder OUCH
Worked two Saturdays, we're moving our childcare center to the building next door
Babysat for my Boss
Rearranged my front room
Worked overtime
Library hour
Curriculum for Mommy Preschool
Curriculum for my work
Refinancing our Home
Visiting Teaching
2 Trips to Phoenix-one with the whole family, one where I stayed home with all the kids and Winslow went...that was when Rachel got double ear infections, I babysat for my boss, I worked on a Saturday morning, and I substituted for Winslow's sunday school class and for singing time in Sr. Primary
3 Trips to the bank
1 Trip to Showlow and to see my sister Tami
Released from RS presidency-I miss it a lot, but I am very at peace with the change. Oh how I love the sisters I have served with, more than I can express.
And going to bed at 9:30
This is the main reason I haven't been blogging. I've been trying to get some sleep. David has been stuffy and coughing and not sleeping well, and I have been totally exhausted from wacky sleep patterns, so I have been going to bed instead of staying up to blog or whatever. Lots has been going on, so I am sorry to just give a synopsis.