Sickness in the house...

Last week I got really sick with a fever, headache, backache and sideache. I figured I had picked up a bug of some sort. I was really bad Tuesday (couldn't even get off the couch!) but was better Wednesday and Thursday so I figured I was in the clear. Then, Friday morning I woke up with such a high fever, bad backache and sideache that I literally could not move. I called my midwife and she said it sounded like a kidney infection and that I should go to the doctor as soon as possible. Fortunately for me I had taken the kids to my mom's house to spend the weekend on Thursday so I didn't have to worry about what to do with them. And Mark is off on Friday's so he was able to drive me to the doctor's office, which is good because I never would have gotten there by myself. When I got to the doctor's they took my temperature and it was almost 103! It only took them about 2 minutes to determine that I did indeed have a kidney infection. They prescribed some antibiotics which I have been taking faithfully and am finally starting to feel better, except for one thing...the kids and I are all sick with some sort of cold or flu bug! We all have runny noses, dry coughs and gunky eyes (and I lost my voice completely)! Yuck! The only one in our house who is well is Mark. So, he is doing everything around here for now. He has a good attitude and is a great help, I'm so glad he is able to take care of things for me. I have been living on the couch for a week now and probably will continue to be there for a few more days!

Kids Day/ Halloween

Here at our house we don't celebrate halloween but rather celebrate what we call "kid's day". We take the day of halloween and spend it doing things that the kids love, eating foods that they love, etc. This is a tradition that was started by my family when I was a little girl. I think I was about 7 when my parents decided that we would no longer celebrate and they wanted to make it easier for their kids to adjust so they instituted the concept of kid's day. I always loved it when I was growing up, and most of the kids that I knew were jealous of the fact that we spent the day doing things as a family and having a great time together. :-)

So, for our kid's day on Saturday, we started the day by sleeping in a bit, then having a big breakfast of bacon, cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs and juice. The kids loved it, it is one of their all time favorites, and such a special treat because I bought canned cinnamon rolls which we almost never have. After breakfast the kids picked a movie to watch, bug's life, while I got everything ready for the day. Then we carved pumpkins, got our donut batter started and made apple cider. We played a few games, Elijah is finally old enough to be able to play and enjoy more games so that makes it more fun for us! :-) The kids had a short quiet time while I cooked the donuts. Then we had lunch/dinner of mac n' cheese, apples and donuts (again, stuff we don'thardly ever have and therefore very special) and then went to the airport to watch the planes landing and taking off. (This is one of Mark's favorite things to do and he managed to talk the kids into it for their special day :-) ) We came home and lit our pumpkins and sat in the living room enjoying them and reading books. Then it was bedtime for all the kids. It was a really fun day and the kids had a blast!

Jeremiah's 1rst Birthday!!!

On Sunday we celebrated Jeremiah's first birthday! We had a party here at home and most of our family was able to come. We did a Winnie the Pooh theme. My sister-in-law had given me a bunch of leftover decorations from one of her birthday parties so it was really easy. :-) Mark and I made the cake together on Saturday. It was the first time we had done that, it was really fun to make the cake together! Jeremiah had a great time, he was so wound up that he skipped all his naps for the day!

My Dad's Birthday

Last week we celebrated my Dad's birthday at my brother's house. It was a really nice time, especially because the whole family could be together one last time before my sister moved to new station (Navy) in San Diego. It was also special because my sister's fiancee' was able to come as well as my brother's girlfriend from South Dakota.

Stitches!

Yesterday I had just gotten the kids up from their nap time and was helping Emmaline clean up her room when I heard a loud scream from the boys room. Josiah came running into Emmaline's room with blood covering the left side of his face and eye. I scooped him up and laid him on the bed then went running to get a washcloth to wash him off and sent Elijah to get the phone for me, while Emmaline watched to make sure Josiah stayed in place. After washing Josiah's face off I could see that all the blood was coming from a large gash just below his left eyebrow. I called Mark and asked him to meet me at the closest Emergicare, then loaded all the kids into the van and headed out. When we got to the clinic I walked in and they sent me right back without even filling out the paperwork! The nurse came and looked and said she thought maybe one stitch would be needed. Then the doctor came and said probably 2 and when it came right down to it, he needed 3 stitches! Mark stayed with him while the doctor sewed the gash closed, I had already almost thrown up several times, I don't handle the sight of blood well! Praise the Lord the cut was where it was and not any closer to Josiah's eye! We are still not sure what happened, we think he might have tripped and hit his head on the metal frame of the boys bunkbed. We really don't have anything else sharp around that he could have cut himself on. Never a dull moment around here!

My Annual Fall Friendship Tea

Yesterday I hosted my Annual Fall Friendship Tea. The kids and I spent most of the week getting ready for it (cleaning and cooking). We served scones with lemon curd and clotted cream, pumpkin bread, grapes, deviled eggs, spice cake with cream cheese frosting and soft spice cookies. It went really well, and was so much fun! A lot of the people that come every year are ones that I don't see very often so its great to be able to catch up on all the news! This year I had the ladies in the kitchen/dining area and I asked Mark to "serve" the kids table which was in the family room downstairs. (In the picture of the kids table the little girl on the far right is my daughter Emmaline). We ended up having 7 ladies, 2 men (Mark and his brother) and 11 children! So, the men had their hands full! I don't like to ask any mother to leave her children at home so I have for the past several years had a tea for the kids at the same time. (In our house the policy is, if the kids aren't welcome then I don't come either). It worked SO much better to have someone else to take care of the kids table though, so I could enjoy the tea with the ladies! Mark is off on Friday's anyway so it was a perfect setup and he did a great job! Mark even needed me to brew up a second pot for the kids! :-)

Big Weekend Project

Our big project this past weekend was switching the location of our computer with two bookcases, moving all the kids toys onto the bookcases and packing up all of my books (no room left after putting out the toys). These are the "before" and "after" pictures. Mark did all the moving of furniture, setting up the computer, etc. and I put all the stuff on the shelves, sorted it all out and packed up the books. It was a lot bigger project than we expected but we are finally almost done. I packed up the books today and Mark will move them into our crawlspace tonight when he gets home from work. It looks sooo much better!

Out to Grandma's!

This week the kids and I went out to my mom's house in Hanover, CO to spend the day with her. It is about a 40 minute drive from our house. My parents live on a dirt road so we always say that "when we get to the bumpy road we are almost there!" We had a great time! It was so nice to see my mom and catch up on all the news. :-) My mom made us tea, pumpkin bread, and spice cookies when we first got there, then later on we had potato soup for lunch. Yum! It was the perfect day for tea, cold (about mid 40's) and windy. The kids are so comfortable at my folks house, they know exactly what they can do, where their toys are, etc. And they LOVE to have tea anytime they can! We stayed all day and got home just in time to make dinner for Mark. It was a really fun day!