How Can You Stay Mad?

This evening Jake demonstrated once again how absolutely adorable & mischievous he can be all at once. As I was making dinner in the kitchen I watched, practically in slow motion, as he picked up the dish of cat food and proceeded to dump it all over the floor. Simultaneously, I could see Mike grasping for the dish and hear him yelling, "Noooooooooo!" as he tried to stop the inevitable from happening. As Mike got down on the floor and began to pick up the tidbits he looked at Jake to scold him. Jake leaned over and gave Mike a huge open mouth kiss on the cheek before he could finish reprimanding him. It was so sweet. He didn't want Daddy to be mad at him! And after that, how could anyone be?

Hanging Out At Home

Last Sunday was a beautiful day. Mom and Dad D came over for lunch, and then we walked around the neighborhood, pushing Jake in his new "buggy".

Later we just hung out in the front yard. Jake practiced walking outside:



It actually felt a little, um, white-trashy, too. I was wearing a somewhat thin white T-shirt that I had under my good shirt for church, Annika was mismatched, and the girls ate a snack, using the box from Jake's buggy as a table:

Later the girls and a friend rolled the box back and forth across the yard with one of the three inside (where's Annika?):
This past week was Lisa and the girls' spring break, too. Later that week Jake and Abby ran laps while I helped Annika practice the piano:



Yeah, I had a white T-shirt on then too (it was under the sweater I wore to work!). We've reverted to some cold and rain again, but more 60 degree temps are in the future. We started thinking about what to do with our yard, too. More of that stuff might happen once I'm done with school: just over 3 weeks!

Praise the Lord

It's spring break --the sun is shining, Jen is recovering well, we are all relatively healthy (I have a minor lingering cough), Jake is taking a nice long nap, and the girls are having fun playing with the neighborhood girls. Life is good. Praise the Lord!

Health Report

How sad is it that the most blogable material in our lives right now is the current health condition of everyone in our family? Pathetic! Anyway, Abby, Annika, and Mike are all on the upswing. Annika continues to have a nasty morning cough but after being up a bit and drinking some juice it's much improved. Abby's nose has stopped running and now it's just her legs doing the running (all over the place!). Still in need of more repair are Lisa and Jake. Jake's rash is much improved and the doctor declared his ear infection all better. He still has a really runny nose which we are attributing to teething though and now he is also suffering from a bad reaction to some shots he got at the doctor Monday. His right leg is swollen, hard, red, and warm. Poor kid! I am still struggling with breathing issues. I tried not taking my inhaler and cough medicine today to see what would happen. Unfortunately, all the old symptoms came rushing back. Apparently I'm still not over whatever it is I have! It hurts to breath and I'm worn out - bummer!

In other health news... this week we have added another member of the family to care for. My sister, Jennifer, was involved in a head-on collision on Monday afternoon. She totaled the car she was driving when some woman turned left in front of her causing Jen to hit her. Jen broke her right knee and severely bruised her left knee when she hit the dashboard. She also hit her head on the steering wheel (no airbag) and has a nice black eye. It's been two days now since the crash and all of her body is aching from the trauma of the accident. She is slowly developing more and more bruises and looks like she's been through a war zone. She needs lots of prayer as she works hard to recover physically and emotionally. We're so thankful that she was not hurt more and that we all live nearby to help her as she mends.

Home Sick

So, after a weekend of being sick it seems we are not quite all put back together again yet. I am still struggling with my breathing and being tired. I had planned to tough it out today and go to school but Annika woke up with a wicked cough and a sore throat. There's no way she should be spreading all those germs around school! So, we're home today. Jake stayed with us and Abby went on to preschool for the morning. Hopefully she'll be OK since she's not been at the top of her game either recently.

On a side note, Jake has switched to walking at least 50% of the time now! It's so much fun to see him toddle around! He's getting so big!

Attack of the Germs

In a matter of one week we have gone from being a healthy family to being one rather sick group of people! I think it was the snow again last week -- it brought back the germs!
It all started last week Sat. morning when I experienced some really intense chest pain accompanied by several other fun symptoms like shortness of breath and sweating. I assumed it was heartburn (the joys of getting older!) but was still rather shaken up by the incident. I ended up sleeping for several hours after the pain finally subsided and have remained rather tired and short of breath ever since. Since my family has a history of heart disease I thought it best to contact my doctor on Monday morning just to get her take on things. What I got was a stern lecture and directions to get myself to the emergency room immediately! I was teaching and had Abby and Jake to worry about so after climbing a snow hill (and falling in up to my waist!) and physically bringing a wayward student down from the top of the hill (all the while thinking that my doctor would kill me if she could see me now) I arranged to get my kids taken care of and left for the ER. My mother was kind enough to accompany me. I could not believe how busy they were there! Still, our wait was quite short. Heart concerns get things moving. They hooked me up to several machines and then did an EKG and promptly informed me (as if this was astonishing news) that I was not currently having a heart attack. Considering that I felt mostly fine except being a little tired and short of breath I was not real surprised. They took chest x-rays and did blood work and finally concluded that I appeared to be fine. Their best guess was that I had some sort of heartburn issue on Sat. and that I would be fine. They did order a stress test though just to be safe. So, four hours later (not bad for an ER visit) I was back home and anxious to have the whole incident behind me.
On Tuesday morning, Annika woke up with a croupy cough. Five kids had been out sick on Monday from her class and she was sure she needed to stay home. We pushed her to go to school and promised to come get her if she couldn't make it. She made it, which was good, since now we needed to deal with Jake. Jake had developed a diaper rash on Monday which seemed to be getting worse and worse despite our generous use of diaper rash cream. We attributed his rash and rather crabby nature to teething and assumed it would improve. By lunch time on Tuesday his little bottom was actually bleeding and he screamed bloody murder anytime we tried to touch it (poor guy!). I called the doctor and they had us take his temp. Since he had one we had to bring him in. It turns out his rash was infected and on top of that he has a bad ear infection too! That explains why he's been so crabby! So now Jake is on multiple meds.
In the meantime, Abby's cold is back. It looks like it may be another sinus infection (she had one a few weeks ago) as it is not clearing up. The child oozes green snot! We're just a real mess here.
On the bright side, I had my stress test today and everything looked great. My heart is healthy and doing everything is should. Unfortunately, I am still having breathing problems which seem to be getting progressively worse. My doctor has ordered a visit to the pulminologist and I am scheduled to go see her tomorrow morning in hopes that we can discover something before I go see a specialist. Let's all pray for warmer weather, more sunshine, and open windows to air out the germs! Our family needs the respite!

That's it,...we're moving!

When I look out my computer window all I can see right now is white. The snow started around 10:30 this morning and hasn't stopped since. The Husky's who walk the track behind our house look like they're in heaven. Everyone else thinks we're somewhere else! All the local Good Friday services have been canceled as have sporting events. Boo for Michigan weather! We're ready for spring!