ConJUNKtivitis

I'm pretty sure Ava has pink eye. I gave her drops last night and this morning and she's done better than Elle with them. She has however started associating the eye drop bottle with what's coming next and has begun the fight...oh well....at least she's easier to hold down. This morning her eye didn't look so great...pretty swollen and junk matted in it. I'm just hoping we are all clear by Sunday. We have our monthly pot luck, then a congregational meeting where the elders will present our goals for the next five years and I'm pretty excited with what is to come. Later that afternoon, since we don't have evening services on the first Sunday of the month, we are having a MASH Super Bowl party at one of the couples houses and I really don't want to miss that. So, we'll see as the weekend approaches. Anyway both kids feel fine and we are medicating so life shall go on.

In other news, Ava has begun potty training. It's the very absolute beginning of potty training and we are only pulling out the potty because she keeps going in the bathroom, pulling down her pants, and saying "pee pee." I think that's a pretty clear sign. We are just going to let her play on it for now and get used to it. It will still probably be a few months before we actually try to get her to use the bathroom. She has to be able to get on the potty by herself and not fall off, and her feet should probably touch the ground when she goes, and neither of those things are happening quite yet. It's cute to watch her though.

Daddy has taught her well....never under any circumstances head to the potty without something to read! :)

Maybe I spoke too soon...

Well......I was feeling really confident in my prognosis and my pedi's prog until about dinner time tonite. Elle is still doing better but Ava's left eye began getting a bit pinkish on the lid and looked just a tad swollen. I figured she had hit her eye while playing earlier. Then I noticed that there was that gunky build up in the corner of it. By the time dinner was over the white part of her eye was turning pink and the gunky stuff was pretty sticky. We headed on to church and found out that Sunday 3 kids weren't at church because of pink eye. So here's my theory: Elle did get pink eye but also had busted vessels in her eyes so it was hard to diagnosis her with one or the other. So now Ava and Elle are taking the eye drops and I'm washing my hands until the skin peels. Wish us luck that Shawn and I don't get to share the love.
Oh yeah, and some of you said you didn't think it was pink eye because it didn't look like it, but unfortnately pink eye isn't perfectly consistent in everyone...some have slightly pink while others have blood red and also some have itching while other don't...same with the gunk issue....I looked it all up on the internet the other night and the pictures I might say, will probably haunt me for a while...I can't believe I thought I could be an RN at one point in my life.

Elle Update

***OOPS! Shawn just informed me that the medicine we are giving Elle is Allegra, not Zyrtec.

Well there's good news and bad news. The good news is, she doesn't have pink eye. The bad news is that is costs $125 to figure out it was bad allergies (most likely). The peditrician told Shawn that her eyes were like that because she had broken blood vessels from the coughing. They are mostly yellow now from where the redness was which indicates that it is blood in her eye which is dissipating. The medicine we were giving her wasn't really clearing up the issue which now makes sense. The pedi thinks that she has allergies most likely and gave us a months supply of Zyrtec to try for that. She also wanted Elle to take a 5 day antibiotic in case it was whooping cough, which she's been vaccinated for and we feel is unnecessary. We are going to give the Zyrtec a chance for a few days and if it doesn't start getting better, then we'll do the antibiotic which like I said I don't think is necessary. After looking up signs and symptoms of whooping cough, she just doesn't match that. She doesn't have a severe cough and it's not really persistent. She coughs more at bedtime but usually stops once falling asleep so I just don't think that's what it is, plus she doesn't make the weird noise when coughing that's associated with whooping cough. So, we'll see what happens. Most likely, she has allergies that just need to be gotten under some kind of control....we do live in the allergy capital of the whole freakin USA so this shouldn't really surprise us. Anyway, just keeping you up to date with our wonderful world of phelm.

Faux Pigtails, Scary Eyes, and a Toddler Straight Jacket

Since neither of my girls has hair that is long enough for pigtails, we put on our faux pig tails. Thanks goes to Aunt Lesley and her crafty self for making these hats!

Second, here are a few better images of my poor girls' eyes. They look bad, but thank goodness they aren't bothering her. If they aren't looking a lot better by tomorrow evening, we will set up an appointment with the pedi.(but I think they are slowly getting better) We are doing better with the drops since I offer her a piece of candy for each drop I do that she doesn't cry about....candy solves all problems.

Lastly, this is how Shawn found Ava when we went in to get her from her second nap today. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S! I wonder how long it had been like that? She seemed pretty grateful when we pulled the shirt back over her head.

The Joys of Conjunctivitis

If you know your medical terms, then you know what I'm talking about....Elle has Pink Eye. Thursday she started a nasty cough, which has become the norm since moving down here. Then by Saturday her eyes were beginning to get bloodshot. We figured it was either from allergies or her usual late night drinking. By Saturday night, it was looking like way more than a little agitated. It was completely red, like blood red, on the whites of her eyes and there was a white bump on the side of the white of her eye.....everyone was starting to get a little freaked out by my child's appearance...think Ebola victim...it really was bad looking. So, this morning her eyes were very swollen and very red, so we stayed home from church. As soon as Shawn got home I took her to a MediStat which is a clinic for the off-hours. By the way, why oh why do kids always get sick on Friday after 5? Is that a universal scientific law or something? Anyway, Elle did great until they needed to take her pulse with the finger thingy....she began freaking out....this isn't totally off for Elle. I think she has a true phobia of all medical things. Then she began the extreme crying. I settled her enough to get to the room where we would be seen and the nurse asked her to sit up on the table. That wasn't good either. She started freaking out again. This time she got herself so worked up that she began puking....a lot. All over her hands, pants, and the table. I ran to get a nurse and began grabbing whatever I could to catch throw up. She continued throwing up and finally the nurse found a throwup bucket and that helped. I kept rushing around getting more and more wet paper towels to clean everything up. Finally when she had nothing else to throw up, she just cried really loud and said in a very loud voice over and over "I don't want to be dirty!" It was quite a fiasco. I felt embarrassed that she gets so distraught over nothing, but feel powerless to change the behavior. We don't make a big deal of drs appts and we act very calm about stuff, but it hasn't helped at all. When the dr. finally came in, she started up the bawling again when he wanted to look at her eyes with the flashlight. I even let him do it to me, but she was freaking out. Then she started yelling "I don't want eyedrops!" as she cried loudly. All I could do was look at the dr. and apologize and try to calm Elle down. He believes that she has pink eye caused by allergies, which I didn't even know could be. You can have viral, bacterial, and allergic and he thinks hers is allergic. That's good if it is because that means it's not contagious. The bad news is that I have to give her some freaking awesome eye drops (I say that because for $35 they must be freaking awesome) 3 times a day plus Visine 3 times a day. I just administered the first dose which took almost 30 minutes and much freaking out(again). So, pray for Elle. For whatever reason she is just super phobic of anything medicinal and no matter how many times we try to get her over the fear it's just as strong when a new something comes up. Hopefully it clears up in the next 24-48 hours, but if not, we have been told me need to take her to an optomologist, which by the way, our insurance doesn't cover. *sigh* As a side note, we had to leave the clinic with her not wearing any pants since she had puked ALL over them. It was cute but a little embarrassing for us both. I carried her out but it was funny to see a little skinny leg girl with a pretty shirt on , panties, socks and shoes--no pants. I'm sure that will leave her with reoccurring dreams of going out in public with no pants on.

She was not happy at all that I wanted to take a picture of her eye....this picture doesn't do it justice....it is truly blood red everywhere but the blue part of her eye...very eerie. The left eye, which is on the right, has gotten worse as the day has gone on but it's not nearly as bad as the other one. :(

I put the nickel next to the medicine to show you exactly how little $35 will buy you...I think I should call the police because I was robbed today.

MASH get together

Yesterday we had our 3rd MASH event here. If you didn't know, MASH stands for Marrieds And Singles Heavenbound. It's pretty much the "young" adult group here. It has grown by leaps and bounds lately and we couldn't be more thrilled. We get together at least once a month to play and have fun. This month was a Chili dinner. It went very well. I made a sweet chili for all the wusses who can't take anything spicy....and it was just about licked clean from the crock pot! I figured everyone would be going for the hot stuff but apparently there are quite a few wusses or at least people who really like sweet chili. The girls loved being around all the other kids and we enjoyed some adult conversation! Here's a few pics from the night. Thank you God for our MASH group!

MUST HAVE SUGAR

Every once in a while I get a really strong craving....can't think of anything else-put me in a bad mood-do whatever it takes to get it-spend as much as needed-type of craving. A few days ago I started lusting after a Walmart cupcake. Then this morning it was a donut-freshly made. I didn't get either thing, but I thought about them incessantly. Finally tonite I realized that the cravings weren't just going to disappear on their own. We made a trip to Walmart and this was what we came home with. I am waiting until the girls go to bed and then I think I'm going to have a bite of each thing except the biscuits....I'm saving those to make homemade donuts tomorrow. Cavity anyone? Bigger pants anyone?

In all fairness the cinnamon rolls are Shawns!(but that doesn't mean I won't nibble a little :)

D-Lish!

I have found a new favorite snack for when I've been a good girl. Now, it's only enjoyable during the winter, but I bet I could make it a summer treat too. Take 3 Tablespoons of Great Value Cocoa mix and add it to a coffee mug of hot water. Next add a ridiculous amount of whip cream. Last sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Next sip and enjoy. If the whip cream melts too much, not to worry! Just add more. It's best to follow this recipe when #1 the kids are taking a nap #2 after their bedtime, or #3 when they are not at home....it makes it taste better.

Weekend Update

We had a fun weekend. Friday we had another game night here at the house for the MASH group. Lots of fun as usual and lots of laughing! Saturday morning Shawn and a friend planted 2 crape myrtles in the back yard. We are so excited because we got them for free and they were quite big! In front of our subdivision they are relandscaping and pulled up a bunch of stuff and were going to throw it away! Shawn saved them..YIPPIE! At a nursery they would have been around $150 each! :) Saturday afternoon Shawn's mom came to hang out for the evening. We took advantage and went on a date WITHOUT kids. We went and saw I Am Legend, which I would highly recommend....but it is quite scary. I loved it! After that we went to Applebee's and sat at a 2 person table...it was weird because it was so quiet and the table was really small (compared to what we're used to). I know you're not suspose to talk about your kids when you go on a date alone, but we did and we laughed a lot! Not much else to talk about in our lives. Then we headed home to see the girls and make sure everything was going well, since Ava has been alittle more afraid of "strangers" lately. Everyone was great. We put the girls to bed and headed back out to ColdStone Creamery (I LOVE THIS PLACE!) and then went to walk around Target. Sunday morn early, Barb headed out to here Chad preach. Then they all headed back to our house on their way back to Tyler. Chad stayed Sunday night with us and tuned up my drumset. He left monday morn and now we're back to our old routine. Everyone is well and we are just waiting for good weather so we can go back out and play.

Grandparents

Back in June, the girls and I headed to Tyler to spend a week with all the grandparents. We have a wonderful week doing special things with each of them. I just finished scrapbooking that week...I am a bit behind, but I've got the ball rolling so hopefully momentum will keep me going. Anyway, here's the two page layout of that page. The quote reads "The simplest toy, one which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent." Enjoy and thanks for the memories, Papaw, Carolyn, Gramme, Nana and Poppy!

Famous Drummers

Lars Ulrich of Metallica

Travis Barker of Blink-182

Tommy Lee from Motley Crue

In the back, Rick Allen, the one armed drummer of Def Leppard

And rockin it out for all the women of the world, Emma Mon.

Now, you make look at this picture and think to yourself...."I didn't think she had a drum set?", and you would be right up until today. So here's the story. It all started in 6th grade.....do I take band or do I go with electives which included my favorite subject, Art? Well, I went with Art, which I totally don't regret, but I do regret not taking band and learning the drums. I wanted to do that so bad, but for whatever reason never pursued it. I loved and still do love art and it is SUCH a huge part of who I am, but I always wonder what would have happened if I'd taken band and learned the drums. In high school the only group I envied were the drummers. I just thought they were the coolest people alive! We did have a pretty amazing drum line so it wasn't too hard to think they rocked. Anyway, I keep a list of things I want to do before I die and on that list was "learn to play the drums." Shawn has known this for a long time. A few years ago for my bday he surprised me with drum lessons. I LOVED them but had to stop taking them because I couldn't find a time to go to the lessons...taking care of Elle and being so involved with the youth left no time. So, bye bye drums...until today. Shawn came home at lunch and brought a cymbal to me saying he had found it on the side of the road...I thought that seemed weird and I felt bad for whoever was missing their cymbal but I really wasn't too impressed with his find, because what can I do with one cymbal? A few minutes later Shawn said he needed to show me something out in the yard. We walked outside and I walked right past our minivan which was open with the whole drumset sitting in the back and I didn't even notice it. It took Elle saying "What's that?" for me to look at the van. I FREAKED OUT! My mind couldn't even register what my eyes were seeing!!! Fast forward a little bit, we have set them up in our front room, which is the toy room and it makes sense..the girls have their toys and I have mine. Also, once again, a Craigslist story....Shawn found this set on Craigslist yesterday and the lady was asking $300.....it would include a 5 piece drum set(Pacific by DW EZ Series Covered 5-Piece Drumset--to be exact) worth $400-$600 brand new, extra drumheads that are brand new in the package ($85) and drum mutes, they muffle the noise so you can practice quietly and I need that! ($85). She had bought all this stuff for her young son about 1-2 years ago....he lost interest pretty quickly and she was just getting rid of it. Shawn asked if she would take $200 and she said yes. When he got there he realized that there was no seat with it and asked if she'd take $180 so we would have money to buy a seat and she said yes! So I have exactly what I wanted!! I can not tell you how excited I was and how wonderful of a job my hubbie did surprising me with something VERY special for me. He rocks, and now I will too.

A Cake and a Comedian

Elle has gone 2 weeks now with no peeing in the bed/pull ups at night! This Saturday to celebrate being done with pull ups and being dry, I made her a cake. She was SO excited to get her cake. She also got some new panties that she got to sleep in all night long. This is a big deal!!! Yeah Elle!!! Ava didn't stay dry but she wasn't about to let me give Elle some sweets without getting some herself! She had a nervous breakdown when her cupcake was gone!
When it's cold outside, you just bring the toys inside...why didn't I think of this sooner? And might I add, my kids are stylin' when they drive around.My sweet little Ava....she is a hoot!

She loves to wear anything on her head!

Camera OCD

Before

I think it is well established with those that know me, that I am a freak about taking pictures. I thought I'd let you in on how I keep it all organized...make this the year that you resolve to capture ALL those moments that aren't your typical picture taking times because you know a week from now you won't remember them! My process is :

1. after taking pictures I head to the computer and download them into one of three files: Ava, Elle or Family/Grown-Up Fun. In each of those folders it's sorted by year and then by month.

2. After a few months, I go through all of the folders and pick out all pictures I'd like to have printed and burn them all to CD's. This is the time consuming part, but in the scheme of things, it's a few nights of not watching TV after the girls go to bed and working on burning CD's instead.

3. Next head to Walmart and be prepared to sell off a body organ to pay for prints, even at 12 cents a digital print, it adds up fast! (don't wait too long in between getting photos printed and it won't seem like such a heavy burden on the wallet....maybe I should follow my own advice.)

4. Next I bring them all home and begin sorting them into stacks by event, leaving a misc. stack for pics I can't figure out. Then I label the stacks I know of, with the date it occured.

5. Here comes another less time consuming but tedious part. For the misc. stack, I go through each folder on the computer looking for the pics in the misc stack, pulling out pics that match each month and label those misc. stacks by month.

6. Last I line them all up in calendar order and grab a few photo albums and start sliding them in. As I go, I stick the label that was on the top pic of each stack in the photo album so I know what date to write when I go back.



Are you thoroughly confused and exhausted yet? I am. I just finished doing the above steps to 732 pictures.

After

Someone's feeling crafty, someone's feeling dry, and someone's feeling better

Let's see...things are looking better here at our house. First, Ava's fever finally broke after a record 7 days! She is doing much better. Elle and Ava are still dealing with runny noses, but feel MUCH better. We actually went to church this morning which was quite interesting. Ava was a perfect angel until 3.2 seconds before Shawn stood up to preach....then all you-know-what broke loose (and in the auditorium for that matter...seems oxymoronic?). So Ava has a total freak out for no apparent reason and no matter what I tried she was gone. So I stood up to take her out and she pulled the ol' rigid body freak out gesture. It was amusing to pretty much everyone else, oh and by the way did I mention that we were sitting 2 rows from the front? So, I spend most of the sermon outside watching cars drive by and holding a flailing baby that took a good 15 minutes to chill out....about 2 minutes before the sermon was over. Shawn's beginning to get a complex about his preaching with his kid acting that way right before he heads up there. So, that was today.

We took a walk in the field near our house...it was very peaceful and beautiful and would have been quiet had Ava not been throwing a tantrum almost the whole time....but we just ignored and breathed in the fresh air!

Elle contemplating the afterlife, or ignoring me as I said about 500 times, "look at me and smile!"

Our love is like a cactus....we found these all over the place out there....heart shaped cactus.

As far as the dry part of the title, my precious first born, I believe has decided that she no longer wants to pee in a pull up at night!!!! YIPPIE! I have tried unsuccessfully to night time potty train her, but I had just decided that she was going to be one of those 10 year olds that can't sleep at other people's house because she sleeps too heavy and pees in the bed...but alas she proves me wrong. She has gone a total of 5 days in a row without peeing in her pull up all night! I am more excited than you can even know! Pull ups are kind of expensive and gross in my mind so it was high time. She is very proud of herself and we're proud too.

Elle showing off what she picked out at Target for going 3 days in a row without peeing in her pull up! It was 5 Disney rings and 5 nail polishes!

On to the last part of my title that hasn't been discussed. I had a crafty itch the other day and since they don't make ointment for that, I went to the one place that could cure me....Hobby Lobby! Actually it all started at Walmart but I have found that all roads lead to Hob Lob...kind of scary if you ask my checkbook. Anyway, I needed a new jewelry box that could hold a lot of earrings......hated all the ones I saw, plus they didn't have lots of little compartments, and they were all about $30...way to expensive for being so ugly and useless. So, I decided to make my own and for $1.57 for the container and 28 cents for the velvet, I had a jewelry box! I just cut velvet squares to fit in the container and then double side taped them on the bottom! Rock on! The itch wasn't over though....while in the fabric section of Walmart I saw one of the books that you can sew together and it was Mary Englebreit nursery rhymes. Very cute and was only $3.50 for the fabric. So I bought that and then headed to Hob Lob for embellishments. I had so much fun decorating the pages with buttons, glitter glue, beads, and all that kind of stuff and after sewing it together it looked so cute! The pics don't do it justice but both girls really like it. It has something on every page to touch but I can't say it was completely my idea. My mom found something like that a while back and is working on one for Elle and it's amazing how she has embellished it and made it look so good! Thanks mom for the idea. Anyway that's life today.

The pigs' noses have a little pink button on them and the cherry tree has little metallic red balls sewed where the apples are.

I ironed on the letters for Ava's name.

My cheap jewelry box...so much easier now and all earrings are accounted for now and not hard to find! I love to make things and I love to organize so I was in heaven!

What happened last year

No, I'm not going to run down everything that happened in our lives in 2007. I'm going to tell you about what happened yesterday...last year. (As corny as that is I love talking about last year and next year on new years eve and day) A week ago we made plans with our young marrieds group to go over to one of their house for New Years Eve, bring appetizers, take plane rides (!) (the guy owns a 2 seater and was going to take us up in the afternoon), play games and shoot off loads of fireworks. I was so excited because I love New Year's Eve and never get to do anything fun. So we got Shawn's dad and his wife to do some babysitting and we were set to go. So, on Saturday the 29th, the couple that was going to host it called and canceled...wife was sick, runny nose, fever like my kids. I was so bummed but at least we still had a babysitter and we'd be able to go do something together without kids.....except that the babysitters had to cancel also....my kids were sick and Paul's wife, Carolyn, can't be around sick people because she takes a medication that lowers her immune system. So, we go from big plans, fun times, to what are we going to do now......I was pretty bummed since I only had 2 days to figure something out and 2 sick kids to take care of. With some encouragement from my mother in law :), I decided to make the best of what I had. So here is our night in pictures.Start off right...caffeine to keep us awake hopefully till midnight.

Enough with the pics....let's eat!

The menu includes: smokies wrapped in bacon (again!), assortment of fruit with a delicious fruit dip, eclairs, granny smith apples, cheese, french loaf bread with butter and honey!, chips and homemade Salsa (thanks for the recipe Kimberely!), and stuffed jalapenos. It was truly DELICIOUS!

Time to do sparklers...we had a burn ban in effect so this was as fireworked up as we got.

Then, after we put the girls to bed, we did our new favorite hobby, it's wild and daring and not for the faint of heart...worked a crossword together...we finished it but it took longer than usual because America's Funniest Home Videos was on and we kept watching that instead of concentrating. One day we might actually be pretty smart from all this word power.

We watched a movie called Scoop...sort of like a car wreck, so bad and don't want to watch but can't stop? It was okay. We also watched a DVD of UFC fights....first few were okay but sort of boring. We watched the NYC ball drop at 11 our time (they should work that to Central time) so we can see it our time. Then waited and waited and watched more UFC and then counted down to midnight! We made it!!! First time in years to make it to midnight!!! We toasted to 2008 with our annual Welch's grape juice in the same cups we've had since we got married. Then Shawn wanted to keep watching a few more fights but I was tired. I headed up the stairs, very happy about how the night went, but just a wee bit bummed that I hadn't gotten to see or do any fireworks. I walked into the scrapbook room which has 2 windows that overlook a field and then you can just see miles out towards the horizon....and guess what....I was treated to a 15 minute fireworks display from all along the horizon, near and far. I could see people all over Williamson County popping fireworks and I was SO excited! I had the biggest goofiest smile on my face the whole time. So, after all this, as I laid in bed getting ready to doze, I realized that for 2008 my resolution is to make the best of every situation....I don't always do that. I tend to mope and complain and get more upset the more I think about it....so I'm going to be my families cheerleader (not the snot kind) and work on making the best of a situation! Enjoy this first day of 2008 and I hope this is your best year yet!