time flies

Sat. we went to Chicago. Just Brent and I. We left the kids home, all six of them.....yes the house was still standing when we got home. They did really well and took care of everything they were supposed to. Brent and I went down to Chicago to attend the Chicago Temple and we had a nice time, but at the end session Brent was really lightheaded. We thought it was because he hadn't eaten since 5am and it was now 11am. So we got him something to eat and headed home.

But it wasn't just that he needed food, it turns out that he has the same virus as the kids. So he had a mostly miserable ride home. He stayed home from church, and he's been home from work the last two days. He's probably going to stay home again tomorrow.

In the meantime, I got to take Amanda to Urgent Care Friday and she has a sinus infection, I got to take Than yesterday, to our regular clinic and he has strep throat, as does Max, and Collin is still on antibiotics from a previous ear infection. So I have four kids on antibiotics, such fun. For the most part I do think people are healing, it's just been a way slow process.....

I have not been home for more than a few hours since last Wed. I am excited for tomorrow, I don't have to go anywhere! Well, except next door, to bottle feed three lambs.....but that really feels like an extension of our normal chores. And how can you consider feeding three 4 day old lambs a chore!! Unfortunately it's because their mom died this morning......they are dang cute and they should be OK, even with the loss of their mom.

I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow. Today Collin did it by himself, because I had my LAST physical therapy apt.!! Yeah, I am a LITTLE excited about that! I messed up my shoulder and now it's doing good enough that I don't have to go back again!

Now I'm off to enjoy the Biggest Loser!

Jayden's bday

Jayden turned 7 this month.....where oh where does the time fly. He asked for cheesecake for his birthday. I was not doing very well, having been dealing with myself feeling sick and several kids being sick, and then the usual day to day stuff that happens around here. So I copped out and we bought one of those no bake kits and he made his own cheesecake and was very proud of it. As he should be! He still loves to cook and he helped me make stuffed shells last night. And would really like to help every meal, if I had the patience to do it.

Did I mention that he was proud?!

Everyone enjoyed it.

And then there was presents......or a present....poor kid, usually the kids go shopping for each other and some how both Jayden and Amanda's bday snuck up on us and so they didn't get presents from their siblings.......I know I am such a baaaadddd Mom! They survived though.

Max is just ITCHING to get his fingers on the bionicle, but he's really controlling himself. At least in this picture he was.....I do seem to remember hearing several times MAX!!!

boys and science

The boys have been on a huge science kick. They discovered a soda pop bottle kit I bought years ago and never got around to doing with them. So now that they are older I turned them loose and boy did they go at it!

Here they are doing baking soda, vinegar and raisins. They thought this was pretty cool, and then I told them a story. A story about using Mt. Dew and raisins to make little kids think you're eating swamp slugs and they thought that was pretty funny.

Then they did the cornstarch and water formula where it's a solid but it's not...... They started in the soda pop bottle and then decided to take it up a notch and made a bigger batch in a plastic container the size of a shoebox.......in my kitchen........five boys..........lots of cornstarch and water.......and a container that fits one foot........oh yes they did.......and added food coloring........and the dogs got curious...........no animals (or kids) were harmed in the making of this experiment...........

And then the fun got to start all over again, when Amanda came home from school!! You know how glitter tracks all over your house when you've done a project with it? Cornstarch can do the same!! Isn't that nice to know? I will give credit to the boys, they did clean it up, and cleaned it up again, and cleaned it up again.

And they got to do another experiment and see how long you can keep that particular formula on the counter before it starts to mold! About 1 week.....

Here is Lee, Collin, and Than with their "lava lamps".....I guess that's what the experiment was titled, as they kept calling them that. They had lots of fun with this one and these are still hanging around. It involved water, oil and food coloring and thankfully only three boys......

Jayden was so inspired by the older kid's experiments that he bought his own kit with his birthday money! And he's been excited about it and doing experiments every day since!

His kit contained "baby" soda pop bottles, which are test tube shaped. They are used to make 2 liter soda pop bottles, using hot air to blow them up to size. Each tube has different experiments in it. He's grown a dinosaur, still growing it actually, made color crystals, snow and color changing beads. And sand that stays dry. That's been my favorite so far. I think he has one or two more to go.

And Lee, being the ever helpful big brother offered to help him! Of course Lee's helping so that he can get a piece of the action. Well not just for that, cause he is an awful sweet big brother when he wants to be.....

And Jayden has declared that he's going to be a scientist. He's really enjoyed this set, so I do fore see more sets in the future, at least for the time being.

RIP

One of the dogs that we have dog sitted for over the last several years passed away yesterday. Here is what her "Mom", Carrie wrote to us.

I've got some sad news to share. This afternoon we had to put our 12 yearold lab/Sheppard mix to sleep. Opal had a way of getting into strange mishaps and several times we thought she wouldn't make it through them, but after bypassing her feline counterparts prereq 9 lives, she made a new record for the canine species by going way into the double digits and possibly the triple digits number of lives lived.:) She had a great life andwe will definitely miss her companionship.

Carrie and family

We will miss her greatly.

well would you look at that!

It seems that I have internet access here at the hospital. Of course the last couple of times I've been with Mom in the hospital, I wanted internet access and there was none in the rooms. But today when I was fine with no internet access, it seems they have it! Soooo.....

Collin is in recovery, everything went well. He did end up with tubes in both ears and it looks like there will be no long term issues from the ear infections he's had over the last year. So it's all good news

And now he's back as I write this. He was gone from me for around an hour. And we should be headed home in the next hour or less. So no worries.

lap dog?

Anyone want a 140 lb lapdog?! We've renamed (with her permission) Mom's dog to Briston, it was a morphing of several names over a week or two. And he LOVES to be a lapdog. Can you imagine.

Well you don't have to imagine, we have pictures! Here is Lee, (who by the way was not impressed that I called Briston up on the couch to join us), and Briston enjoying a snuggle.

Lee may look like he's smiling to you, but really he's gritting his teeth and thinking dark thoughts about his mother.

Briston is trying to butter Lee up by rubbing him with his head and staring deep into Lee's eyes. Lee's not buying it. He's still gritting his teeth and telling me to get Briston of off him.

Doesn't that adoring gaze make you jealous, don't you wish you had a 140 lb lapdog to sit on you and give you his unconditional love? Briston loves the attention and has been known to join us, uninvited, we're working on that.

I probably won't be around tomorrow, Collin is having an ear tube put into his right ear and they are doing it under general anesthesia in the morning. So I'm playing the rest of the day by ear.....pun intended.

The weather has been great, we saw 60 today!! The snow is melting and it was nice to see the sun all day!! Tomorrow is supposed to be 60s again, no rain all week, but it is supposed to get cooler by the end of the week. But it's not supposed to stay that way for long. Here's hoping spring is really here!!

spring is springing!

I spent the afternoon in the garage. It was so nice out. I had to do some reorganizing in the garage and it was so pleasant out. I loved it. I heard sandhill cranes and doves. The sun was out and bright. We still have snow on the ground, but it is going away. The forecast is for it to get into the 50s! So the snow should be gone soon!

Of course then there is the mud. We're already dealing with it. The dogs had to be wiped down before they could come in for dinner tonight. They spent the afternoon outside with me. They were so happy to have that much time outside.

It was so nice, the horses even decided to take a walk! Their fence came down for some reason and they just strolled out onto the lawn. They were very happy to eat some grass for a few minutes. I was happy Brent had come out to move some chicken feed! He headed them off as they were going towards the road. And I got their halters and some treats to bribe them with.

Two weeks ago they got out, and it was much more stressful. And it ended with Leo colicing, so I'm much happier with today's adventure. Although I'd be even happier if they just didn't have these adventures. We're working on that.

at last

It does seem to be a bandwidth issue. At night when the world is on their computers, our internet slows down. So we're going to upgrade and see what happens. I don't have as many problems when I'm on during the day. But it's very aggravating at night!

So here's the snow pictures at last. At least the horse ones.

Nebby and Leo stand at the open door and decide whether the snow is worth venturing out into.

Nebby says, "Nah, I just want to eat and then I'm a happy girl!"

Leo comes to say "hi" to me.....

and show me that the snow is over his ankles (pasterns)!!

It's a good thing he has a blanket, or I'd loose him in all that white!!

network issues still

So yesterday's post didn't get finished due to a very sllllooooowwww network. Tonight I'm still having problems uploading. But earlier I did get this one picture to upload and it did it quickly, so perhaps it's a problem with our bandwidth. We're going to check into that.

In the meantime, here's one very cute horse, if I say so myself! The picture was taken Monday and it's supposed to be a part of a series showing the horses and the snow. Maybe tomorrow they will get posted......

Christmas!

Well, we ended up at home today, due to Collin still being sick, and I was a little under the weather too. I'm find though, I got more done today, than I have in a long time!! Cleaned Jayden and Max's room, the playroom, my room, the office. Picked up the kitchen and living room. Did some finances, fed some animals, hung out with my kids. You know, stuff! I feel like I might be getting back to normal!



Jayden had an ok b-day. It was pretty low key, not what he wanted, but what he got. I have to reschedule the Children's Museum, but that's doable. Jayden did get what he wanted for meals, dry cereal, more dry cereal for snacking, more dry cereal for lunch....fruit snacks for snacking, pizza for dinner and cheese cake for his cake.



I again tried to get the pictures uploaded from yesterdays snow, but either my new toy....ummm tool..... yeah it's a tool...... or my network is not co-operating with me. I'm inclined to blame the network first as my desktop has been giving me issues uploading also. So I'm working on that.



Here are the pictures from Christmas. All the kids got MP3 players and were very, very thrilled with them, as you can see in the pictures.







Here the boys comne in by age. You can tell who had been up for awhile and dressed, just waiting for the time to go down stairs, and who had to be dragged out of bed. Of course anyone with teens can tell you that without looking!!

Max was thrilled with his headset, his and Jayden's came with stickers so they could personalize them.

Collin and Jayden realize just what they've gotten and are very happy! Happy really isn't a demon dog, he just looks like it..maybe he was dragged out of bed too.

New toy....tool.....

It's supposed to be a tool, but it's so cool I play with it like a toy!! It's an HP Vivienne Tam Notebook. It's bright red with a cool peonie design on the lid! I LOVE it.

And yes, it's partly the reason I'm posting again. I can take it anywhere, it fits in my purse, and it's so much fun to use, I can't help but find reasons to use it!! I've been wanting to get back to regular posting and hopefully this will make it easier.

This was supposed to be a post about the snow today, I took pictures and everything. But they are not uploading for me. So instead I get to show off my "cutie", which is what I call it!

Here is the link to the HP site, do NOT go into sticker shock, that is NOT what I paid for it.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/minivt/

The picture on the screen of the notebook, is the notebook too, the lady is holding one in her hand, even though it looks like a clutch. TOO COOL!!!

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the pictures to load. And tomorrow is JAYDEN'S b-day! We're supposed to be headed to a Children's museum, but Collin's been sick, so we'll have to see. This weekend is the first time in two months we've had anyone be sick! Or did I mention that already.....anyway, I'm really happy with how well we've all been doing, health wise.

gingerbread houses

So......how are you........how have you been......yes it's been awhile. Which really is a good thing, it means I'm not sick, stuck on a couch or bed!! We've been healthy for about two months now. A few of the boys picked up some sort of 24 hr virus this weekend, but it's one that makes them really miserable and that's it. So we'll take it, over our previous virus's of the last year.

We're getting slammed with a snow storm today. Spring decided to play with us this weekend. We had about 80% of the snow melted with temps up to 50 degrees and then BAM we're supposed to get up to 8 inches by the morning. Such fun...... Brent's out snow blowing now.

Some of what has kept us busy is a weekly Lego class that the four older boys are taking. It's been really neat and it covers a wide range of things. The teacher also teaches the same class and others to public school kids and the classes cover different state benchmarks. The boys are bringing home what they learn and applying it to their Legos. Once again I'm contending with Legos EVERYWHERE. I finally lost patience with the Legos everywhere this week and started enforcing the rule where Legos stay upstairs, period.

We're also practicing archery every week to head to a tournament the last weekend of March. That's on Thursday and we use that day to also go to the library.

On the other days we've been doing good with keeping to our school routine and getting lots done there. The boys are old enough to be turned loose with science experiments and they've had a ball with that this past week. I'm hoping to get those pics up this week.

These are the pictures from this past Christmas's gingerbread houses. As has become a tradition we went to our friend's Carrie and Andrew's home and made houses with many friends and family of theirs. We have been doing it long enough that they are also our friends and family too!


Jayden test tasting to make sure that the frosting was good enough for his house.

Lee and Jayden working on their houses.

Max supervising Brent while he works on Max's house.

The candy for the decorating of the houses.

As usually happens somebody has to wait to do their house due to space limitations. Here Than and Collin play/sing some Christmas music. They've really come to have a passion for playing and really enjoy it. Than has excelled in teaching himself several songs. Aunt Becky recently sent him several songs and he's now working on them.

I'll be sure to let you know when we've dug out from this latest storm!!

chilling

But not the kinda chilling that my family has been doing! They have survived -40 temps this week. And they've done it so well, they don't need me back!!! Kidding, well not about the well done part, just about not needing me back.

I however am chilling under a fan in Kathy's family room about to watch a movie. We just went for a 45 min. walk with her puppy Duchess. I took my coat, as it's been a little on the chilly side in the evening. But I had to tie it at my waist, it was so warm! And now I'm sitting here trying to cool down!

Good News!! Kathy has decided it's not safe to go to Mexico!! So I'm doing the happy dance!! I was willing to go, but I won't deny I was nervous!!

We are scheduled to go to Tonto National Monument, where they have cave dwellings that you can actually go into. We're scheduled for the Upper Dwelling Tour, which is 3 miles long and takes 3-4 hours, so I guess Kathy IS trying to kill me off! We're scheduled to go on Friday and I'm supposed to be healthy by then, so maybe she doesn't have evil intent.

I am feeling healthier, so the cure seems to be working. I layed out in the sun the last three days, it was pretty nice. I was supposed to be reading today, but I confess, I dozed instead. It felt so good.

Next week is my birthday, Kathy was so thoughtful and enrolled me in the birthday club for the Black Angus restaurant and so I get a free birthday dinner! We'll be doing that at some point next week. And if I'm really lucky I'm getting a new car for my birthday!! Our burb left Mom on the side of the road in -11 weather this past week, so we've been shopping around and have narrowed it down to two. One in GB and one here. The one here is everything I want in a burb, except heated seats. The one in GB does not have nine seats or a dvd player, but it does have heated seats....... I don't have to drive 2020 miles to get it home either. Doesn't sound like much of a dilemma, but it is..... stay tuned and we'll keep you posted!

ahhhhh warmth

Today I took a walk in 72 degree weather. That's +72 degrees NOT -72 degrees. It was very nice. Obviously I did make it to sunny Arizona. We had an excellent flight, we arrived 40 mins early!! And I didn't need a jacket walking off the plane!

I've been taking it easy and following orders to get healthy. I got to see a bit of the countryside yesterday when Kathy went out to run some errands. It was neat to see some cactus, I don't remember seeing those before in my travels. But the scenery is similar to what Brent's home town looks like and that was unexpected, I thought I'd see more bare sand. But there was lots and lots of brush. And we can see mountains and that's a nice change to break up the horizon.

Today we've stuck close to home and we took the dogs for a walk. Kathy's puppy is curing me of all my puppitis. I asked Brent if I could have a puppy a month ago and he said no. And now I remember why he said no! They take a lot of ENERGY!!!! She's really sweet and very bright and a lot of fun, and the best part is that she takes naps every few hours in her crate!!!

It looks like we're going to Mexico next week, I'm still on the fence about that one! Does that follow my orders to get healthy? The real problem is that I'm just nervous doing it, it seems risky because all you ever hear is negative news about border crossings!! So if I survive, I'll report back on that experience! It's a day trip, Mexico is about two hours from here. Kathy tells me it's safe...........

In the meantime I'll enjoy sunny (safe) Arizona and let you know how that goes.

controlled chaos

That's my life, controlled chaos, and sometimes a lot of uncontrolled chaos! Monday afternoon I took our suburban in to get the door handles on it fixed!!! FINALLY!!!!! That only took a year!!

When I took it in, I found out that after the handles were fixed, I would need to take it to a separate body shop of theirs and get the hinges fixed. So I took it over there, got the estimate and made arrangements to drop it of Tues night, the next night, and they would fix it Wed. I was at the garage from 2ish to about 5pm.

In the meantime, I had made arrangements to take the Geo in to have it's door looked at, so they could order the right parts to fix it, the next afternoon (Tuesday). So I got in it to take it and quickly realized I probably would not be driving it back home! The check engine light was going off and on and it was running really, really rough. When I got to the garage my fears were confirmed. Our little four cylinder car was only running on TWO!! So I asked for a rental because we were down to the truck for vehicles and that wasn't going to work! They really had to search for one, as the regular ones were all out. In the meantime Mom was coming from her errands in GB to the garage in TR to drop it off for me and ride home with me.....except I had no car!

They did find me one and we were able to make it home. So once again I was at the garage from 2ish to 5ish. Do you know what's on TV at that time of day? Nothing worth watching!!!

Tuesday night we looked at Collin's nose again and it was not straight anymore. So we thought we better get it checked after all. So four phone calls later, I had an appt. for him at 1:50pm. Mom wanted Than to do some ice chipping and box moving at her house, so I told her she'd have to take the whole gang, as I couldn't leave Lee, Jayden and Max home alone! So after dropping them off, we went to the dr.

They took x-rays and in the end decided a CAT scan would be a good idea. But they couldn't get us in until 4:15pm. Collin and I decided to hang out at the library, as I didn't have the energy to drive home and drive back into town. On the way to the CAT scan I got the call that the burb could be picked up. So I made arrangements to get it dropped off at the first garage, because I couldn't get to the body shop by 5pm.

The CAT scan indicates that Collin has no broken nose, and no deviated septum. Thank goodness.

Then we got to drive over to the dealership and once again I was there at 5pm! (I was wrong, the appt went so fast we could have been there at 5pm, but there was no way to know that and we were there at like 5:01) We traded the rental for our burb and were very excited to find that the doors worked like new!! So nice, no more rolling down the window and then ramming our shoulder into the door like a football player to get it open! It's the little things in life.

Today I got a call at 9:30am that the Geo was ready!! I had to take Max into the clinic to get his ear rechecked and then Mom, Max and I went off to retrieve the Geo. Max's ear looks perfect by the way, the ear drum had burst over Christmas break. While I was there my Nurse Practitioner (NP) heartily endorsed my plan to go spend two weeks in AZ and told me that I really should take along a NP to make sure I was ok if I had any health issues while I was gone!!!

When I picked up the Geo, the lady at the desk asked me if I was coming back tomorrow! I told her no, it had been nice meeting all of them, but hopefully we'd be done with car repairs for a bit now! We both laughed.

So we have all our cars back and they work just great!! So nice.

Yes, I am going to AZ for two weeks. Kathy, the same Kathy who went to DC with us, has generously opened her home to me and I'm going to spend two weeks in the DRY and mostly WARM climate that is sunny Arizona!! I'm really looking forward to it! I leave this Sunday, and yes I just finalized all this today and bought the tickets today! I can't wait to get there. Did I mention I'm not taking any kids?! I'm going there to get HEALTHY! Kathy said it was cheaper than a hospital bill. I'm just crossing my fingers that it does the trick and I'll finally get rid of this junk.

I just checked the forecast for AZ..............seventy degrees!!!!! Can we say EXCITED!!! Really, really, EXCITED!!!! It's supposed to be -6 in actual temps next week here in WI, as in NO windchill is factored into that, and there is almost always a windchill, so really it's probably going to be -15 or lower!!! AND I WON'T BE HERE!!!! Ok, ok, maybe a I'm gloating just a teeny bit.....but I'm going to be WARM and gloating!!

the verdict

Collin's nose does not appear broken, as the swelling goes down. He's says it's still tender if bumped, but that's it. Thank goodness.

I did spend most of Sunday in bed, but I'm still feeling crummy. So we're taking it easy today. Getting back into the groove of school and such. But the boys will be doing the work.

I do have to go feed animals, which entails carrying water buckets, but I'll just take it slow and easy.

Our ground is covered in one massive sheet of ice, everywhere. It's really treacherous. Brent tried to get out of the drive this morning and he got stuck, took him over an hour and a half to dig out. YUCK! The Sahara desert is looking pretty good right now. We're supposed to have windchill temps of -25, I think 125+ temps sound really good!

I do enjoy the winters here and I keep reminding myself that I'd be much happier if I could just get healthy. I did take some oregano yesterday and am off to take it again today. It's supposed to be really good for combating respiratory stuff, so we'll see. But getting it down is a whole nother story!

Have a good day, and if you're temps are positive today, ENJOY them!

Don't Faint!

Yes, I'm actually posting two days in a row! Because I'm in bed and it's not even 6pm. I thought I was getting better and then today I was just dragging and my lungs feel worse, but I'm five days into a round of antibiotics, so how can I be getting worse?

I'm also not sitting in a hot tub right now, which is where I was supposed to be! I did pass on it yesterday, but today decided it would really be worth it. So I took the boys sledding and we were supposed to go swimming afterwards. But Collin's nose hit Jayden's head pretty hard and we had to go home instead.

It's really swollen and there is a slight possibility that it's broken. It's looks a little off center to Brent and I, but it's really swollen, did I mention that? So we're going to let the swelling go down and see what it looks like. When he and Brent feel it and move it, it doesn't seem broken, so we're crossing our fingers that it's just swelling. Lots and lots of swelling. And blood, but you probably already figured that out.

So no hot tub for me.....I got sent to my room, bad mommy. Really I sent myself to my room and Brent agreed, and offered room service! I'm having flashbacks to August. I'd really rather not relive those memories! And honest, I've been good. No snow blowing for me, no shoveling, no unloading pellets, no cleaning house, no running here and there and everywhere....honest I've been good, really, really good. So dangit, this crud needs to GO AWAY!!

And even though my wonderful, awesome hubby delivered dinner, he some how couldn't whip up a bathroom on the second floor in one night, so I'm off to take care of that before I flood the bed, and maybe sneak a peek at Collin's nose. (and if hubby could have whipped up a second floor bathroom in any amount of time, he'd have done it already, believe me!! we both hate the trek down to the bathroom in the middle of the night.)

Hmmmm, not liking this pattern

We are still here, under all the snow. We broke a 121 yr record in December for snowfall, aren't we excited. Maybe a little. And I think I'll just ignore that whole 30 days again, thing.

With all that snow you would think we were having the time of our life. However, the third time out with our snow mobiles we broke one, we actually got it so stuck that it had frozen mud and snow in it and it took us over two weeks to get it back to the house from the cabin, because of Brent and I being sick off and on. So no more playing in the snow with the mobiles. The good news is that our great friend that gave us the snowmobiles came over for New Years and helped us get the one running and get them both home. So after we get a little more ice chunks out of the one and get the key hole to deice on the other, we'll be riding again!

Shortly into Dec., the night before we received over a foot of snow, one of our snow blowers broke. So that entails taking our one remaining blower back and forth between the cabin and the farm. We don't have the funds this month to fix/replace it. And it takes several hours to blow each place, so when it snowed,( and it snowed, and it snowed, and then it snowed again, and then it drifted everywhere, and then it snowed again, ALL MONTH) we were busy blowing it everywhere, so we could get in and out of our driveways and to our animals.

Then Brent and I both got a virus that took us out of commission for about 5 days. So now we're behind and who knows when we'll ever see the gravel of our driveway again!! Maybe in April. The basic premise behind blowing is that not only will you not get your car stuck, (which by the way Brent managed to do this week,) but when the weather does "warm up", you know to like 25 degrees or even a whopping 32, the thin layer of ice/snow that you have on the drive, will melt and you will once again be walking/driving on gravel/concrete. And yes we had a major thaw, but it was the weekend Brent and I were sick, so did we get anything cleared? NO!

Thankfully one of our farmer neighbors is helping us out with his tractor that has not only a front loader, but a gigantic and I do mean gigantic snow blower on the rear. But his idea of when we actually need digging out is a bit different than ours, so we're still dealing with drifts and minor snowfalls, which still takes a lot of time.

So maybe you can see why I've not had time/energy/motivation to post. Because you have to remember that in between the blowing,( which at times has been every day or every other day,) we still have to feed 6 kids, 4 dogs(we've been dog sitting all month), 4 cats, 2 snakes, 2 horses, 2 rabbits and 1 turtle. Oh yeah and 60+ chickens. Then the kids have this thing called school that we're supposed to do everyday, and there's laundry and cleaning and don't forget the things that take us out of the house, such as archery, church, shopping for food (for some reason people in this house insist on eating three+ times a DAY!) and so on and so forth. And I've been sick all of December with one thing or another.

The first week of Dec. we all ended up with a respiratory virus that was miserable. Collin ended up with another ear infection, Max got an ear infection to the point that his ear drum burst, and Amanda had to go to the Dr. to prove to her that she wasn't coming down with bronchitis again and that she really could go back to school. I got to go visit the Dr this week because the stuff in my head had decided that it was bored being there and moved into my lungs. So now I'm on antibiotics. But the x-rays show no pneumonia, we checked just in case.

I'm now turning my kids into germaphobics and I and the two youngest are not going to church until we're 100% better. The house is becoming a sterile place to live, you know as in bleach, anitbacterial sprays, and anything else I can think of to keep germs at bay.

We've explored a lot of angles on why it's been such a really bad 6 mths of respiratory issues(I actually haven't been 100% healthy since June 12th) and we're still not finding any clear cut answers. We moved out of the house for 5 days in August and it didn't help, we've had the house examined for mold and other issues. Than was seen by an allergist and given a battery of allergy tests. We've all taken rounds of allergy meds, and used essential oils and we're currently on high doses of vit C. We just do not know. Even with six kids we've never passed stuff around before, and I've never had kids with ear issues, till now. So we'll keeping working at getting healthy and hopefully we'll find something that works. I'm thinking garlic is going to be added soon.

And now I'm tired remembering all that!! We did have a good Christmas, Brent and I were still recovering, but able to do all the usual stuff. We've had a good two weeks off with the kids. Today we're off to sled with a friend and then go swimming, I'm thinking I'm going to sit in the hot tub, maybe....it's awful cold when you get out!!

NOT AGAIN??!!!

Man, I can not believe I've done another 30 days with out blogging. There's probably no one reading it anymore! But if there is, here's a day in my life courtesy of the stacks on my counter. This was the Wednesday before Tday. Which by the way, we had a lovely Thanksgiving Day.

So I'm starting from left to right and going around the kitchen. This is right after we'd unloaded the car.

On the left we have the silver bowl, from having collected eggs the night before. Somehow my counter has this magical force field that keeps items on it unmovable. It is resting on a package of envelopes, purchased to mail the Thanksgiving Cards that the boys made for their Grandparents. They got mailed the day before. The weird blue square is a video game, not sure why it landed there, but again that force field has come into force.

I'm sure you recognize the Kleenex box and flashlight, that is their home, along with the wooden bowl, which holds who knows what at any given time! Between the flashlight and Kleenex is a CO2 monitor, that is supposed to be hung up in the house, but has fallen victim to that dang force field!

The paper bag is Amanda's lunch, well it was her lunch, and she forgot it. Then for some reason, she took her sandwich out, but left the bag!!! The acorn squash is from our garden and for dinner the next day. The wicker things are paper plate holders and I can not remember why they were out, but obviously the poor things are victims to the FF.

The cans and cheese are from unloading the car. The jars on the back wall also live their, along with the toaster. I really can't tell you why the glasses or scissors are there, but I'm telling ya, the Force is strong in this counter!

Moving on we have a cool whip container, also from having just shopped and two bottles of sparkling cider. The bag holds food for the two dogs we're dog sitting for the holiday weekend.

Again we have another victim of the FF, an OJ can, poor lost soul. Then we have homemade bread, made by Brent!! NOT ME!! He took Monday off and thoughtfully made up a batch of bread, as we were low and he knew I wasn't going to get to it anytime soon. It's home is in the iron basket behind it, but given the FF in action, this is pretty dang close!!

We have a medicine bottle behind the bread that is ANOTHER victim of the FF. It's owner was trying to figure out dosing as the pharmacy thoughtfully gave us a mg dropper with ml directions and it took our resident chemist, Brent to figure out an accurate dose. That only took three days!

The package in the iron basket is a package of yogurt covered pretzels that I ate for lunch that day, as I got behind and didn't get lunch. I think the kids made me a sandwich, but then someone ate it, thinking I'd eaten or didn't want it......
Then we have an XS can, that is a decaff energy drink, that's what kept me going while I unloaded the car. The Wal-mart bag is more dog food/meds for the visiting dogs. The other bag is groceries from the car. The crock pot is sitting in it's corner home.

We have a cookie sheet with scissors on it because I went down to put something in the freezer and discovered the door had not been closed completely and the top door shelves were defrosted. The veggies sat on the counter for two days, before I acknowledged I wasn't going to get to them and Collin took them out on the cookie sheet and cut them open, that morning. The real miracle here is that the cookie sheet AND scissors made it back out of the chicken house! It has it's own peculiar FF.

We have misc. dishes that hadn't been washed yet that evening. The bottles with weird caps are rabbit water bottles that get to come visit every day to thaw out while their counterparts are out in the rabbit cages, slowly freezing in preparation for their indoor visit.

The wire basket is sitting there because Collin uses it to put his eggs into while he's getting ready to clean them. He was in the act of cleaning them while I was taking the pictures. The giant blue bottle in the back is a gallon container of commercial dish soap. I'm tired of replacing bottles all the time. We wash dishes three times a day and it uses up those regular bottles fast.
Here we have the dishes that did get washed, although if I was to really think about it, they're probably victims also, as they were probably washed the day before! The stack of pizza's in the front are for dinner, as I'd been gone for three days straight at this point and needed a quick dinner! Then on the stove, we have eggs cooking.....no wait that's not right.....oh yeah they're DRYING on the stove, of course.
And finally we have the turkey I bought for a great deal. He just hadn't made it into the fridge yet. Behind him we have a butternut squash, whom I'm sad to say is another victim, he's been there a couple of weeks. Under them is my shopping list, that of course didn't make it into town with me......
So now you know that this week I was so busy, Brent had to make bread, and that I was gone every day until Tday.

I was in town to shop and to pick up dogs, which is really simplifying, because while in town I went to the dentist for Collin, to Fleet Farm for rubber boots for Collin and water heaters for the chickens, to two grocery stores for food and to my friend's house to pick up the dogs. I was running behind because that morning we were at the Dr.'s office for Lee to get a few warts frozen and a 1/2 hr appt. turned into 1 1/2 hrs, because the office had an emergency come in right after we got into the room and so we sat in there for an hour while they dealt with that.

So, yes life's been a little over the top busy, but now it should settle down again. Earlier in the month I focused on staying home every single morning and doing bookwork with Than every single morning, as he's moved onto actual formal book work and we weren't getting it done, due to appts and such going on. So I've been focused on not scheduling anything for before 12pm and that's working great.

I've also finally gotten the large parts of the house straightened out and organized, so that streamlines much and after I tweak three closets, I'll be golden.

We've mostly gotten the outside animals lined out for the winter too. The horses still need stalls, but they do have a very large area to come into the barn and get out of the weather, so we may give up on individual stalls and just leave it that way this year.

So maybe you'll see me more than once, this coming month!!

new member of the family

I'm amazed or ashamed, your choice, that it's been 30 days since my last post! Holy Cow.

So one of the reasons is the newest member of our family. If you read Mom's blog you already know about him. If you don't, here he is.

His name is Leo, he's 23 and gray with freckles. If you ask Max, his name IS Freckles.....
He came to us for free, we are his retirement home and we're thrilled to have him! He's fitting right in. It's been wonderful rediscovering this side of myself again. The kids are all thrilled to have me on a horse next to them. We're covering more ground and riding more regularly and they love that. We have to have assigned days for them to ride!