Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from our family to yours! More pictures to come tomorrow.

A Little Mismatched

Sometimes, I just have to bite my lip and let things go and this morning was one of those times! Zachary had his clothes- blue jeans with a nice short sleeve shirt- yet he was determined to pick out his own clothing! As my legs were still very numb this morning, I couldn't walk downstairs to help him "make better choices" so I just let things go. However, I couldn't resist the urge to email his teachers explaining that he wasn't the hobo that he did appear to dress himself as this morning. Apparently the colder weather has put him in "the Christmas spirit" and so he decided to wear this polar bear sweatshirt (although it was about 70 degrees today) and a pair of sweatpants (new sweatpants that I did get him to trade for his older ones). His brother also inherited the non-matching trait I guess. Or who knows, maybe it's a boy thing! It drives me nuts, but again, this morning, I had to choose my battles.




Today was much better, although I'm still incredibly shaky and still in a bit of pain in my legs. But, thankfully- I can walk again!!! YEAH! I had a bit of trouble slowing down today at school as I'm used to buzzing around the halls and walking non-stop during my breaks, but today, I tried to stick to my classrooms and when I did walk down the halls, I was aware of the stares of people and was trying to walk as normal as possible, but it's a little hard when from the knees down are completely numb.


We got a call this evening that a dear aunt & uncle as well as two young cousins lost their home to a fire. A lot of details haven't been confirmed yet, but it is just terribly devastating, especially so close to the holiday season. If you could please keep them in your prayers that would be wonderful! I can't imagine going through such devastation. Just thank goodness that they were fine.

A bit of a Scare

The other day (Monday I think) I blogged about the illness my mom suffered after recieving her flu shot a few years ago. It is a rare side effect of the flu shot that spreads paralysis throughout the body until it completely paralyzes the organs and thus causes death. So, after her long ordeal with it, I am always a bit skeptical when I get my flu shot and a bit cautious as well to keep an eye out for the symptoms because if it's caught early, it's much less painful and much faster of a recovery.


So, imagine my surprise, when I awoke at 2am this morning in incredible pain throughout my legs & arms and so I decided to get up to go to the restroom and get some medicine. When I tried to fling my leg out of bed, it wouldn't go! And when I did get them off the side and onto the floor, they held no weight at all! I fell as if I wasn't even trying to stand at all! So, I crawled to the bathroom, with the feeling of my legs being asleep and was frantic and nervous thinking I was sure I had what my mom did awhile ago. I pulled myself up onto the bathtub and sat there for awhile with nausea and dizziness. Finally, I hollered at Shawn and he carried me back to bed. I called my mom (it was 2am I know it was not a nice thing) and asked her what I should do. She told me that her symptoms started out much differently with a terrible headache & spine ache until the pain just overpowered the numbness of her body as it started to be paralyzed.


I felt a bit relieved, but still wondered what was going on. As I laid there, I knew I would not be able to work today and also knew I couldn't help with the boys. I prayed to get my strength back. It turned out that I had gotten a mix-up on my new medicine. I was taking 30mg of the medicine when I should have been taking about 5mg, but when I was asked what amount I took, I thought it was 30mg, so that's what the dr. ordered. (It's been awhile since I took it.) And, it looked fine, so I just took the one pill before bedtime. Man, did it do a number on me! I was in bed, not able to walk or get around until about 3:30pm. And then, my legs still felt a little bit like Jell-O.


We have some things going on right now that I was helping with, trying to be up and around with my boys this evening and as I was walking up the stairs from their bedroom, I fell again! My feet were still very numb, but I was just trying to ignore it or rise above it I guess. So, everyone thought it was funny, but I knew I needed to get back to bed so I can rest before tomorrow. Thursday's are my longest days at school with a 7:45am meeting and then afterschool program. It's like a marathon where you give the sprint at the end- well, Thursday's are my sprints and by Friday, I'm hunched over by the finish line, glad that I've made it through! I'm hoping to have my strength back tomorrow, but we'll see.


On the lighter side of this, while crawling around to get my lunch, I did a little baby-proofing! You know they say that's the best way to do it- just get at your child's level. :) Hmmmm . . . someone trying to tell me something!? :)


Pictures of my family that I love so much! They came to help out this evening:




And, Malachi STILL does this arms behind his head, but this time it's when he's awake! See other posts here, here, here, or here. :) (wink, smile!)

Just Gotta Read!

I have another book lover on my hands! So, I'm guessing it's going to be non-stop chaos trying to keep books neat and orderly on the shelves for a few more years! Malachi LOVES books & unlike Logan, he actually does not try tearing them or chewing all over them. Logan loved books, don't get me wrong- he loved throwing them, gnawing on them, slapping them, and definitely clearing the bookshelf so he had room for his tractors & trains.


Zachary loved books from the time he was a wee little one, so when Logan came along I wasn't really prepared for a baby that didn't enjoy a good book. But, Logan's coming around gradually. He's actually mocking us quite well now asking before he turns a page, "What do you predict will happen next?" Talk about comical- hearing a 3 year old asking with the word "predict". Hmmm . . .just my way of helping his future teacher- Lord knows with this one that they'll need it! :)


Malachi is very good at problem solving- just use the leg/foot combination with the outstretched hand!


And, maybe pick a magazine for later!


And, for babies, I absolutely recommend the Margeret Miller "Baby Faces" books! As you can sorta see they are different board books with the main picture as the child's face. Perfect for what babies enjoy looking at. And Malachi has his few favorites.












Mama bear mode has kicked in again this evening as I worry and fret about issues that are not my problem nor should I really get involved, but when it's dealing with people that I care about, I tend to be a little over-active with wanting to step in and solve the problem. So, I'm trying to step back and "Grrrr" a little quieter. After all the Grrrr is much worse than the SCRATCH- trust me!



Another late evening with a meeting after school tomorrow and then after-school program on Thursday evening. I'm really looking forward to Friday and especially this weekend with the time change.

In a Funk!

I've been trying out a new posting method, so give me a bit of a break for a few days to get it figured out. Pictures still aren't working, so I'm back to the Photobucket method. :)

Wow! I don't know how many times I post on a Monday thinking- Wow is it definitely a Monday! I woke up in a weird sort of funk today and it just has not gone away. First of all, I was a little absorbed in some of the political analysis last night on television, so I had a weird dream about having an affair with one of the presidential candidates, one which I really wasn't sure I would be voting for to begin with, but some of his views are starting to interest me a little more. The dream was SOOOO freaky because it seemed real and so much unlike anything I would ever do. I was so worried about what his wife would think and how we would manage 2 house payments- one in his home town and one here in Riley. It was completely unreal and I was happy to awaken to a cold house!

Man was it cold this morning! I'm not enjoying the change of weather right now. I enjoy the 75 degree days which are nice for thin layers and seasonable wear. Sweater weather is fun for awhile, but it gets old. I rushed around since I woke up late (bad dream!!!!) and my boys were surprisingly well behaved for a Monday morning- not too fussy or defiant.

Finally, a bit of a drag today was my computer clock at school that read one hour behind the time it truly was! So, when I heard the bell at 8:30am and the announcements, my computer told me it was 7:30am! Hmmmm . . . after asking a coworker if their clock said the same thing, I was reminded how we are always told to "go with the computer time" when in doubt because they will never be wrong! J So, I wondered, should I take a nap for ½ hour or just voucher that time!? No, it was just fun today as I kept wondering why my day was so long! At 2:30pm, my clock still read 1:30pm, so I felt like I had 2 hours left rather than just one! Ahhh . . . so it was a Monday!

On a more serious note:

Yesterday at church our substitute pastor announced a prayer concern for a local young woman that has come down with Guillain-Barre syndrome, something that profoundly affected my life only 5 short years ago. It was just at the time that the CDC was starting to stress the importance of getting a flu shot as a preventative measure for healthy people. My mother got hers that year as she works at a Head Start so sometimes does have contact with the young children and especially with the adults that come in contact with the germs from those children. It all goes around. A few weeks after receiving the shot, my mom developed flu like symptoms, just plain not feeling well and feeling icky. She started to notice pain and tingling in her fingers & toes, but kinda brushed it off as something that would go away. When it didn't go away and she started to lose feeling in the extremities, she noticed that her legs were also becoming hard to use and difficult to walk. Finally when she could not get out of bed or move her legs, my dad rushed her into the ER and the doctors did many tests, not sure what was going on. FINALLY, after she was starting to have trouble breathing and the paralysis was moving up her body, the doctors figured out that she had Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is a rare and sometimes fatal side effect of the flu shot (yeah, it's usually in the small print at the bottom of those sheets they give out). And, I'm starting to learn of more and more people that are getting Guillain-Barre syndrome, which makes me wonder how safe is the flu shot. A few days of sickness or a few months in the hospital or even death? Hmmmm . . . well we all got our flu shots on Friday. Thankfully, my mom is MUCH better today and will always have some side effects from the Guillain-Barre syndrome, but thankfully the doctors caught it in time before it moved much further up her body, paralyzing the lungs, heart and internal organs, which does cause death. She was in the hospital for about 2 months I think and since I lived in Manhattan at the time, we went to visit her almost every night, watching the illness effect her in many ways. So, I've had that on my mind a little as it was a bit of a look back at times that we really put things in perspective.

Another thing that's really been on my mind these last few days is my dear friend and colleague lost her father this past weekend. It was a unexpected loss & I can only imagine how insurmountable it must feel for such to happen, so my thoughts are with that family right now and I'm once again reminded how very precious life truly is.

Cooking Lessons with a 5 year old

Zachary was on a roll with writing. During naptime he can take a nap or write letters or stories (I LOVE kids' phonetic writing). The other day, he wrote this letter to his aunt Laurie whom he spent about 2 weeks with this past summer (and still threatens to run away there when he's mad at me!). :) Funny how when he started kindergarten he was writing just like this, maybe a little more phonetic, but when it came time for a writing sample he simply drew a picture, much to the disappointment of all of us that know how wonderfully he writes. Thankfully, he's had that creativity nurtured in his classroom and is again writing and I'm copying and saving!

The letter says: "Dear Laurie, I miss you. You've been busy. Will you drive your new car to come see us? I would like to go to your house. I love you. Love, Zach"

Now, onto the cooking lesson:

In the rush of getting 3 small children out the door by 7am each morning, I've taught Zachary & Logan how to make their own oatmeal (since they refuse to eat anything else right now). And instead of spending tons of money on the individual packets of which they both could easily eat 2-3 of them each morning, I have them add some quick oats to it to spread it out a bit longer so they use 1 (maybe 2 packets) each morning rather than multiple ones each! One morning Zachary wanted me to take his pictures making it so he could write it down for a story. I finally got it printed off today and he was actually still in the mood to write. So here it is, straight from the mouth of a 5 year old that thinks he's the greatest cook in the world! :) And the only word I wrote for him on a post-it was the word oatmeal.

Page 1: "This is the first thing I did. I put the oatmeal in the bowl."

Page 2: "Then I put different oatmeal."

Page 3: "I needed to put the water in the bowl."

Page 4: "The water maes the oatmeal good."

Page 5: "And then I put the water in the bowl."

Page 6: "The microwave went it came out it was a different oatmeal." (meaning that now it was cooked rather than raw)

Page 7: "And I pushed the button."

Page 8: "Then I put the milk in the bowl."

Page 9: "And then I ate the oatmeal."

A Lot to Say Today

Ah! It was REALLY nice to have today and 1/2 of yesterday off! Of course, I made up the time on the late evenings, so don't get me wrong, I did have a full work week, but it was a little relaxing to sleep in (until 7:30am) and enjoy a "stay-at-home-mom" day! Of course, we didn't stay at home. We ran errands (shopping) and also got our flu shots. Lord help us if it should strike us now! I had a terrible headache this evening, but I'm hoping that was just from being up with Malachi last night from 2-3am.

Tarin:
I got to snuggle with Tarin the other evening. He's growing so fast and still loves his aunt Shauna! :) I got a few smiles from him. Enjoy the pictures! :)





Texting & Driving:
First of all, I had a major "eye-opening" this week. One morning as I was driving, I was checking my text message and thought about how Zachary really is a terrible back-seat driver! He constantly is reading the speed limit signs and asks me how fast I'm going. He also makes sure to tell me if I pass when he doesn't think I should (if there is a car in the distance coming at us- no matter how much IN THE DISTANCE that car is!!!!), and finally the other morning, he said that it really isn't smart to use my phone when I'm driving. Okay, I got the message. Then. . . . what do you know! I get back into the groove of watching my daytime shows that I watched almost daily on maternity leave and over the summer and Dr. Phil was a whole episode about how dangerous it is to text message and drive. WOW! Talk about really sticking it to me. I'm getting the message, and I was even annoyed at the teen that they had on there thinking, "my goodness! put down the phone & drive!" However, on the way in town today, I reached for my phone and started flipping through my list of "to-do" before I even realized what I was doing. I made a very conscious effort to keep my phone down and keep my focus on the road and the dangerous drivers out there that might be texting! :)

Shopping:
I found some WONDERFUL savings today on much-needed items! I just LOVE it when things are on sale, even if they are cheap enough at regular price. I just felt like it was meant to be that I had these items! First of all, chapstick. In case you missed the story, click here.

Secondly, I think we all have those favorite comfort clothes. Of course, its so much different for everyone just how grungy those comfort clothese are. Well, Zachary has a pair of sweatpants that are VERY worn. I've tried placing them in a box for Goodwill before they got real holey. And, boy I got a lecture for that. Then he wore them ALL the time over the summer and outside through the mud & in the sand box. So, they got grass stains and holes galore, yet he STILL will not let me through them out (this time for dust rags). So, I'm hoping his love for new clothes will override his love for the more than grungy sweats!



A VERY Unwelcome Visitor:
Lastly and most disgustingly is the "visitor" we had today. As Logan & Malachi were napping, Zachary asked to go play outside. I was working on homework at my computer, so was checking on him through the backroom window. I kept hearing a scraching noise, and really didn't think much of it, thinking it was just Zachary by the side of the house. Then I checked on him again and he was clear across the yard in his sand box!!!! At this point, I knew what our visitor was, but didn't want to see the darn thing, but also knew that I was the adult here so needed to take control. As much as I just wanted to scream and run off, I found my flashlight and sure enough- a mouse! If any of you are scared of mice, let me tell you, I am probably the most scared person of mice that you could ever know! I cringe just typing this!

Well, I called Zachary in because I know he loves this sort of adventure and what do you know, he was estatic about having a mouse. He's always wanted a pet since we got rid of our dog & cats & rabbits & fish . . . . (you see where this is going). I told him this was NOT a pet mouse and that daddy would more than likely let it go in the garden when he got home from work. That's when Zachary told me all about Ratitoule (the movie) and how the mouse there was just trying to find a friend and Zachary could be a friend to this mouse. WOW! And an even funnier thing was that Zachary was cracking up the whole time I was freaking out trying to catch the mouse! He was rhyming and joking- There's a mouse in our house! What do you do? Go get a shoe! It's so tiny but the flashlight makes it shiny. (He had a few more which were hard to keep my focus when he was reciting this stuff! Seriously!)

Shawn did end up letting it go, and I stayed in the house and watched from the window as I can't stand to be close to them. The most hilarious thing happened. It jumped like crazy when the let it go and Zachary jumped up on the ladder to his slide, Shawn backed up from it, but Logan stood there watching and all of a sudden, it jumped on Logan's shirt & ran up until Logan freaked out and shooed it off of him! :) It was funny! So that was a definite adventure today. I've NEVER had mice in my house, so this is really grossing me out and I'm wondering what in the world to do.

Well, I have homework to do this weekend. Only 3 assignments left!!! YEAH!!! :) So, I'm going to maybe take a break from blogging to enjoy my family a little more and focus on getting my paper typed up. It really takes a LOT of focus to get it done as it's a little bit of boring material! :)

Matching Outfits

So, I thought I was bad! Shawn got dressed after I had picked out Malachi's outfit for the day! Funny, huh! :) They are actually way different colors of blue, and if I had a nice camera, you would be able to tell that, but for now, just pretend they have matching shirts. Cute, huh!?



And, in case I hadn't mentioned yet, Malachi is sitting up all by himself now and really starting to scoot all over. He gets around quite good now! :)



And, he's still very wide-eyed & inquisitive about everything!

Family Times

My family lives so close and a few Sundays ago, my little sister & her fiancee came to visit. She pretends to "adopt" my kids until the diaper changes or bratty moments. Otherwise, during their cute times, they are said to "take after her". Uhmmm . . . sure.

And, I think on her facebook page, she mentioned possibly adopting these 3 boys from Guatemala or somewhere foreign. Funny, we told her the same thing when she was little and SHE BELIEVED US!!! Until they sent back her 4-H enrollment form asking our parents if she really should have chosen the "Hispanic" bubble! :)

Logan & Taige are so close in age and maturity! Taige is over a year younger, but man they have a ton of fun together and really look forward to getting together to play!

Zachary & Logan- Not so much! :)

A Good Report

First parent-teacher conferences went well, and even better than expected. No big issues were really brought up and it sounds like Zachary is doing okay in his kindergarten (and first grade) classrooms. It's nice to hear as we were just a tad bit concerned going into the school year with him being so young.

Last week, I got the privilege of attending one of Zachary's learning celebrations. It was a really neat thing to attend as I guess they have them each quarter and the kids decorated the gym/cafeteria all nice and in a circus theme. Zachary's class made the balloons with the clowns that hung up by the tables. When we got home, he wanted me to tie it around his wrist so it could fly.

Interestingly enough, he wasn't too disappointed when it really didn't lift off. :)

We have another long night of parent teacher conferences tomorrow evening and then a half day on Thursday. I can hardly wait. Thursday afternoon will be family nap time, whether the boys think they need it or not! :)