Fun in the first snow of winter 2009/2010

I thought I'd share some fun in the snow pictures. I like the one where Cassidy is telling on Brenden and pointing to where he hit her at. And the first picture was just too good not to share. I took it on the day we were doing our family picture for the Christmas card.

Christmas with pneumonia, croup and an ear infection

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We certainly did. Even though each kid was sick with something different, they still were able to enjoy Christmas morning. Spencer has pneumonia, Brenden has croup and Cassidy has an ear infection. I had Bren and Cass at the Dr on Christmas Eve to get medicine. Cassidy was really feeling awful for a few days and luckily the meds were making her feel much better by the next morning. And now I have pink eye. I'll upload some pics later this week to share from Christmas morning. Brenden said this was the best Christmas he ever had. (Which given the last 6 months we've had, feels great to hear) The boys are big into WWE wrestling so they both got 4 action figures, 2 shirts each of their favorite wrestler, a hat, a pendant, a book, a DS game and Wii game about wrestling (my brother got them each the DS game), a wrestling ring to fight their action figures in, and to top it all off we got them tickets to go see Monday Night Raw when they come to Columbus on Janauary 25. That was the kicker that got the big reaction. They were screaming and jumping, it was great. Brenden got a new phone since I washed the other one by accident and Spencer got a kid digital camera because he's been wanting one for like 2 years now. (Gee wonder where he gets his love of taking pictures from?) As for Cassidy, she got a life size doll she has named Renna. She is 36" tall and comes up to her chin. She also got 4 different barbies, a small doll house, a horse and carriage for barbies, a stroller and swing and hight chair set for her baby dolls, tinkerbell dress up, tinkerbell dolls (brother sent one for her too) and my little pony toy set. Everything she opened she had something nice to say about it. It was either oh how cute, or how pretty and she hugged a lot of it too. She was also so good and patient. She would sit and watch the boys open theirs and when it was her turn again we'd say go ahead Cassidy and she'd make sure and say my turn now or I can open now. Close to the end of opening everything she was feeling kinda miserable and wanted to sit on my lap to finish up. Christmas really was wonderful, sickness and all. I hope you all enjoyed yours as well.

My sick boy

Thursday after school Spencer just wasn't himself. He had a sore throat so we gave him tylenol and took his temp. It was at 99.0 so not much higher than normal. He's been coughing all week and we figured the sore throat was because of that. I was giving him Robitussin since Tuesday and his throat was only hurting after he'd been coughing a lot he said. I gave him Robitussin before school, checked temp and he said he didn't have a sore throat. So when he came home from school he said he felt awful all day at school and we're not sure why he didn't tell his teacher he needed to go to the nurse. We assured him he can always tell the teacher when he feels bad and she'll let him go to the nurse. I was working and Richard came in at 6;42 and said Spencer's fever was now at 104.6 and that he'd gone up and went to bed soon after getting home from school. So I immediately asked my supervisor if I could leave and we got him in a cool bath. In the tub his fever went down to 102.2 and as soon as he was out and dried off it was going back up and was now at 102.7. He looked like he was about to pass out. I called his Dr and she has late hours on Thursdays so she got him right in. When we got to the Dr for his appt at 7:30 his fever was already back up to 104.2. The nurse left the room and came right back in with Motrin for him to get the fever down. The Dr came in and listened to him and heard wheezing in his chest and crackling in his lungs so she had him to a breathing treatment with a machine for about 10 minutes. She also had blood drawn to test his white blood cell count. He was freaking out and crying because he was so scared with all this stuff happening to him. He's getting a breathing treatment and getting blood taken from his finger all at the same time. I was sitting there with him trying to help him calm down but of course nothing worked until he was off that machine. Well, when the Dr came back in she took him off the machine and listened to his lungs again and the crackling was still there and that with the fact that his white blood cell count was high told her he had pneumonia. He is taking medicine for 10 days and he was given an inhaler to do at least 3 times a day and can be used every 4 hours if needed. She told us what to watch out for as the signs of worsening and needing to go to hospital. So he's doing ok now but when he coughs it freaks us out. The cough is just so bad. I have to take him back in 2-3 weeks to be seen again to make sure it all cleared out of his lungs. I'll probably take him before they head back to school from Christmas break. Well, that's it for now. Have a good week everyone!

It's Santa Time!

We did pictures with Santa on Monday night. No line at all. Santa was waving at the kids when he saw us coming from several stores down. Spencer was waving back in awe. He was so cute. He's never done that before. He talked about Santa the rest of the night. It was so sweeet. As you can see, Cassidy still is not so fond of the big guy. She wouldn't sit on his lap, stand beside him, sit in the big teddy bear on the floor in front of him or sit on the rocking horse. The only comfortable place for her was on Brenden's lap. This is the second time Brenden has held her for pictures with Santa. Last year she sat on Santa's lap but not the year before that when she was 1 1/2. Last year though Santa kept talking to her and asking her lots of questions and made her comfortable with him. He was a good Santa. And Brenden is great for going along with everything, you know holding Cassidy and everything. Wink, Wink! Really though, Cassidy feels safe with her bubby and that's such a wonderful feeling for us to have. Ok, starting work in a few minutes so I've gotta go.

Work and Life

Work is going well. Last week was my first week on the phones not in training and the first days were scary because I felt like I didn't remember a stinking thing I learned in training. But the supervisors are always available (when they want to be it seems) to help you through a call if you are having trouble getting through the screens. It's a lot to remember with refunding, replacing, tracking, changing orders, ordering, etc. But yesterday went well and it was the first day that I felt like I actually know what to do now. And of course by the time I have mastered it the job will end. Being seasonal it is scheduled to last up to Jan 9, could end sooner, hopefully not. Maybe I'll get asked to stay on, keeping fingers crossed. That would be nice. Kinda nice having a real work at home job. I'm off today. I got scheduled for Saturday and had to trade because Brenden has basketball games on Saturdays. Speaking of that, Brenden rocks on the basketball court. One of his teammates called him a "beast" on the court this past Saturday after the game. He is quick on the court and fights for the ball. The coach even commented on how well he is doing. I'll have to try to figure out how to post a video clip of one of his games on my blog. Spencer doesn't have his first game until January.

We put our Christmas tree up on Saturday night and when we got up on Sunday morning Cassidy was disappointed because she thought that Santa was supposed to have come that night since we put up the tree. She wanted to put her ornaments on the side of the tree that is right beside the fireplace so that Santa would see her ornaments right when he got here. It was so precious. She set up a porcelain Santa doll that we have right on the fireplace and she sits and plays with it, very cute. She'll be really adorable at Christmas this year. She is into saying how adoralbe, or pretty or cute things are all the time. She's a super sweet little girl. Even with the last 6 months we've had, I'm still very much looking forward to Christmas. I went out on Black Friday and got some great deals. We started buying things in September little by little so that we didn't have to buy it all at one time. Works out great that way. I'll have to do this every year. I always say I'm going to but I never seem to actually do it. TaTa for now!