Beware of the pool noodles...

Well, actually, its probably more accurate to say beware of the support poles in the basement.  They aren't very forgiving. 

So, we had another trip to the hospital.  Benson and I FINALLY got to go out on a date yesterday!  We tend to not be very original when we go out... our typical date is to go out to dinner then walk around and talk.  With my experience the night before, I had to take it easy, so we went out to dinner, then drove around and talked.  :)  We drove to the video store and picked up a movie for later, and drove all around town.  It was an awesome night and it felt so good to reconnect with Benson.  Its amazing to me how hard it can be to have a "deep" conversation with the kids around.  Constant distraction is an enemy to good communication.  Anyway!  It was a good and relaxing night.  When we went to pick up the kids from the babysitter (thanks Deb!!!!)  Goose was sitting on the couch icing his foot.  When I asked what happened, he broke down into hysterical tears!  Deb said he had been fine and icing it since it happened, but the tears were new!  Poor guy!  Anyway, the story is that a bunch of the kids were all having a sword fight with pool noodles in their basement.  Goose was attempting to block away someone's noodle when one of those pesky support poles got in the way of his foot.  Ouch! 

There was no obvious sign of the injury, just a small bit of swelling and the large amount of pain.  He wouldn't walk on it though, and every movement and touch caused some hysterics, so, I figured we better make sure there was no fracture.  Off to the ER we went.  I think the fear of the unknown played a big factor for Goose.  He had a hard time pinpointing the pain and he just seemed to be ultra sensitive everywhere.  After they got the x-rays and told him there was no broken bone, he was finally able to calm down.  They wrapped it up for him and we went home to try to sleep.  

He still won't walk on it today, but the pain is more localized and his foot is a little bruised... so I assume it IS a bad bruise and will heal over the next few days.  Since Benson has work again today and my parents are still out of town, we are spending another day doing lots of nothing.  I'm sad to miss church since I was released from nursery and have missed going to the Relief Society meetings, but I guess it will have to wait another week. 

By the way, the contractions have slowed to a minimum again.  HORRAY!  I don't know what causes them to start up for me, it doesn't seem to be related to dehydration or completely due to a lot of activity either.  I DO wonder if stress plays a part, but that is much harder to control than drinking a glass of water and not walking too much.  I guess I'll just be grateful they have subsided for now.  :)

Here we go again.

I'm still in a bit of a daze today.   I'm absolutely exhausted, but glad to be home.  Last night was a small bit terrifying.  I started having contractions at about 10pm.  They were about 10 minutes apart, but strong enough that I couldn't sleep through them.  I'm 32 weeks along as of today.  Way too early for consistent contractions.  So, I've done this before as you may remember.  So why was it so bad this time?  Well, Benson was at work.  He was closing the restaurant which meant he couldn't leave until he was done, and he wasn't going to be done until about 3am.  Lucky for me, I have my parents near by... right????  Well, my parents are on a weekend trip to see my brother.  So, I was home with my 4 kids with no way to leave unless I woke someone who would've been COMPLETELY unprepared to help me.  I have a few good friends I could've called, but more than anything, I just wanted the contractions to STOP!  With my last pregnancy, they told me I was having contractions because I was dehydrated... so all night long I was drinking water.  It didn't help.  When Benson finally got home, I took off to be evaluated at the hospital.  They gave me an IV and did what's called a fetal fibrinectin test.  It tests for a hormone that appears before labor.  Apparently a positive result is not a good indicator that labor is absolutely coming, but a negative has been shown to mean labor is at least 2 weeks away (in like 98% of cases).  Luckily, mine came back negative.  That was a relief.  However, I was a little irked that they got the test back and I was immediately released to go home.  I guess they don't care that I'm still having contractions if they're not impending labor.  The nurse suggested I take some tylenol and/or benadryl to help me sleep through the contractions at night.  I'm following up with my doctor on Monday.

Anyway, I truly am glad to have this little one still inside.  I've done lots of nothing today, and will continue to do as much nothing as my crazy life permits.  :P 

Our Chore chart

So, we've been through a few editions of chore charts with my kids.  Some have worked better than others.  My last attempt was a huge failure, so I was feeling the need to do something new again.  My kids are very visual learners and the younger kids can't read yet, so I wanted to do
something with pictures. 

I decided to use pictures of the finished chores as the visual reminder.  We have pictures of each of the kids rooms all cleaned up, their laundry baskets in the laundry room, each of the rooms downstairs, the dishwasher all emptied out, and another of it filled up.  We have one of the table all cleared off and one with the table set for dinner.  You get the idea....  I collected pictures for a few days to get them all.   I have pictures of their daily chores as well as chores that are done once a week.  I then printed them out, laminated them, and put velcro on the back of each.  What I'm having the kids do is take down the picture when they have finished that chore, and put it on the kitchen table.  They then also take a silk flower and put it in the container on the table. 

The idea is that everyone can see what has been accomplished that day and it makes our home beautiful!  In addition, if they do all their chores, they can have dessert after dinner.  So far the chart is working great, and I'm so glad to have the kids help around the house.  Its getting harder to pick things up off the floor with this baby in my way.  :)  Oh, one last note, I used to try and mix up the chores so that no one had a "bad" chore for more than a week.  That was part of my great failure with the last system.  So for this round, I've told the kids they have the same list of daily chores everyday for the next year.  Goose HATES touching dirty dishes, so I gave him the chore of emptying the dishwasher when its clean.   Tank is easily distracted, so I have her doing 2 small areas in the house instead of one of the bigger ones.   Like I said, so far so good, they are learning how to keep their specific zones clean and I don't have to worry about teaching them a new zone for a good long time.  :)  

One last picture of a to-do list that has been helpful... I don't know about your house, but my house can turn quickly into a chaos zone in the mornings as we get the kids ready for school.  I decided I needed another list of what the kids need to have ready before they go out to the bus.  I put the list in one of those frameless glass frames...  It has a back, and glass, and just little clips to hold it together.  Anyway, it works great as a dry erase board! 

 

The kids like to use the dry erase markers and they can see their progress as they get ready for school.  No more walking out the door without a snack or without the hair being combed.  :)

Anyway, I hope you don't mind my bragging/sharing.  :)  I've been happy with the improvement in our system and wanted to share.   Maybe it will help some of you in some way. 

Whew...

What a CRAZY week! It is now Monday, but a week ago on Saturday life threw us a sickness curveball. Twister came down with a fever and just felt miserable. On Sunday, Benson joined him in misery. Different symptoms, but they both were NOT feeling good AT ALL. On Monday, I took Benson to the convenient care here to see if he had strep... but the test came back negative. They gave him an antibiotic, but told him to wait and see if he got better before starting. Being the good nurse that I am, I had him start about 12 hours before the doc called to check on him and told him to start. LOL. Whatever that bug was really wiped him out though. He compared it to the horrendous fatigue he had when he had pneumonia. We're still waiting for some test results on him for a different issue, but he finally went back to work yesterday after taking an entire week off. I'm SO glad he is feeling better.

Anyway... on to Twister. He was feeling cruddy, but his symptoms were not severe. He had a cough, but not too bad... he had a fever, but not too high... he lost some appetite, but was still drinking... The only really "serious" symptom was his complete lack of energy. Anyway, I finally decided I needed a doctors opinion on Wednesday. What pushed me over the edge was that Tank was complaining of it hurting when she used the bathroom. Since I had to take her to the doc for that anyway, I brought Twister too. The conclusion from that visit was that Twister had pneumonia, and Tank was just fine! SERIOUSLY? ACK! Anyway, we started Twister on his antibiotic and he seemed to be acting much better the next day. Tank on the other hand, still had pain, so I took her back to the doc on Thursday. They started her on antibiotic and gave us a referral to see a urologist. Joy... more doctors. At some point on Thursday, I noticed that Twister's lips seemed to be more purplish/blue than they should be. I mentioned this when the doctor called on Friday to check up on him, and guess what? They wanted to see him again. SO! BACK TO THE DOC on friday for Twister. Are you feeling tired yet? I sure was. The doc determined that his o2 levels were not back up where they should be yet and that I needed to start a nebulizer for him. That was fun. By the end of the weekend, he finally was allowing us to give him the treatment without a massive fit. For us the trick was a Little People video and his binky. Whatever works!! Anyway, I had a follow up for him at the doctor again today and he is in the clear. I have to give him a nebulizer treatment just once a day for the rest of the week.

So, now we wait for Benson's results, and Tank's urologist appt. Oh, and of course I'm at the point in pregnancy where I get to go see my OB every 2 weeks. And I have an appt for Sweetie to finally get her allergies evaluated. I sure hope this is JUST a cluster of doctors visits and not a trend getting started. I had nearly forgotten how exhausting it is to have someone get so sick! I'm just really (REALLY) glad that I somehow avoided that nasty bug. I had just 1 or 2 days where I felt a little run down, but who can complain about that with what Benson and Twister were dealing with?

So, on to calm, quiet, not so rushed days ahead. Here's hopin' anyway. And if you feel like throwing a few extra prayers our direction, we'll gladly accept them. We've had some good leads for jobs recently, so we are praying for something to materialize out of those! I'm also about 31 weeks along now, and with Twister, I started having some contractions and other issues beginning at 32 weeks. Its makes me nervous! I really don't want this baby to have to spend time in the NICU. Its just SO stressful, I'd love to have a healthy full term baby to take home, pamper and love. :) 6 more weeks, that's all I'm asking for!

An uneventful life...

Things have been pretty boring around my house lately. Not much blog material, and not much exciting for us at all really, just our day to day insanity. So, a few updates on our family.
Tank has the month off from preschool, so I've enjoyed having her home with all her crazy comments and silliness. Today she told me that she really missed her blue eyes. Have you seen this girls eyes? She was never blue eyed. LOL. She also got really upset at Benson for not taking her to the store "to buy mom some Smooth Away, so she doesn't have to shave anymore". Maybe she's on the right track on that one; shaving is getting more difficult with the baby belly getting in my way. In case you missed it in the previous picture, here she is with her baby in her belly. :)

On the flip side, Twister is also home with me all day, and he hasn't been quite so cute. :P Well, of course he is still adorable, but his latest joy in life is helping himself to whatever he wants in the fridge. Today he spilled a pitcher of juice, helped himself to a handful of cheese sticks which he chewed on the wrapper, but didn't actually want to eat, and opened 2 yogurts which he also refused to eat. Time for a fridge lock!!! But, despite his antics, he is so darn cute. He is talking up a storm and LOVES to sing. My favorite thing to do with him is to sing nursery songs with him and listen to him attempt all the words. He also does all the actions. SO FUN! He also loves to play with balls and is quite entertaining to watch with them. Yesterday he entertained himself for an hour with a bat which he was using like a golf club, and a ball which he hit all around the room... then giggled uncontrollably. He's a ham, and we love him. :)Goose is back in the swing of things at school. He's actually been doing really well lately. Homework is not as difficult a battle as it has been sometimes, and he has really been a big help at home. He has chores that he has been fairly responsible with and he is ALWAYS a great help with Twister. Don't know where I would be without him.

Benson has been really really busy lately. He is trying shift up a gear in his job search. He's really feeling the need to find something with a regular schedule and in his field. Keep up the prayers on his behalf please! :) We still need them.


Sweetie is also back into the swing of things at school. One of her favorite things to do when she is home is to be the owner of her own restaurant. :) She will take everyone's lunch orders and actually make them for us! She is still very into her art and craft projects as well, and is very talented.

As for me, I'm hangin' in there. Most days that's about all I can do. I recently failed my 1 hour glucose tolerance test and had to go for the 3 hour. The same thing happened last pregnancy and I was a lot more bitter about it. LOL. This time I just decided to get it over with quickly. I did the test on Monday and they didn't call with results, so I can only assume I passed. I hate doctors offices that only call with bad results, but that is the way it goes with the office I'm at. Overall, I'm actually feeling better this month than last, even though I'm now in the 3rd trimester and according to the books, the 2nd trimester should be the "best". I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts, because its only a matter of time before I get really uncomfortable. My doctors have decided to watch me very closely for preterm labor with this pregnancy. When I was watched closely when I was pregnant with Tank, I delivered at 38 weeks. With Twister they didn't watch me closely at all because I'd gone "full term" the previous pregnancy. Go figure, I delivered at 34 weeks. So hopefully, I will go to at least 37 weeks with this one. Actually I don't really care how far along I go, as long as I don't have to leave the baby in the NICU. That is my goal.

Well, that's all for today!

A little miracle

We've had a LOT of snow lately here. Last fall, we didn't get our trampoline taken down, so it was being weighed down by the snow. Yesterday Benson decided to take the net down in hopes that we don't ruin it by leaving it in this weather. Tank joined him outside and enjoyed playing in the snow.

Later in the day, Benson needed to leave for work, but couldn't find his keys. He looked all over the house, in his coat pocket, in his pants pocket.... they were not to be found. He finally asked Tank if she knew where they were.

"Yes Dad, they are under the trampoline."

Apparently they fell out of his pocket while working on the tramp. They surely would have been lost until Spring if our little Tank hadn't kept her eyes open. It may be a little miracle, but I'm sure glad for it!!!

Quick Tank-ism

Benson and I got the kids to bed on time last night for the first time in at least 2 weeks. LOL. I guess that is part of Christmas vacation, right? Anyway, all the kids know that they should not come downstairs after Mom & Dad have given hugs and kisses and said prayers with them...

However, last night Tank came down anyway. She quickly began to explain herself:

"Mom, I know I need to go to bed, but we had a little candy situation."

Where does she come up with these sayings? a candy situation? Sure enough, she had found some candy in her bed, and *needed* to put it away immediately.

Funny girl.