Quick takes

1.  The boys’ faces are getting better every day.  I did have to take Isaac to the eye doctor today because he was complaining of blurriness in one eye.  We wanted to make sure there was no permanent damage done.  And there wasn’t.  The eye doc said it’s damaged and irritated, similar to a burn that  a welder gets, but time will heal it.  He gave us some antibiotic drops to use four times a day to help speed the healing and prevent infection.  Never a dull moment around here!

And many of you are asking….no, they didn’t catch any fish.  Lots of bites though.  I think if they would have caught fish, that might have made the burn/swollenness a bit more worth it.

2.  Isaac and Eli are obsessed with Monopoly.  They play it constantly, even complaining when I tell them to take a break and come do school.  We have regular Monopoly, NBAopoly and Whitetailopoly.  They keep switching off between the different ones. 

3.  From what I can tell, Camden is all better!   Hooray.   Thank you for all your prayers.  I know they helped to hold me up when I just couldn’t utter another prayer.  And Camden had no awful side effects from the prednisone or antibiotic. 

4.  Josh and I had date night last Friday night.  I think it was one of our funnest dates yet.  No, we didn’t do anything special per se.  Just out to dinner and bowling.  We just enjoyed the time together.   Lots of laughs. 

There’s been a series of unfortunate events that have made us both realize how precious and sacred marriage is.  I did say my goal for 2010 was to pray daily for my marriage and I am seeing the benefits of it.  My husband is my best friend.  I encourage everyone out there to pray for their own marriage.  It’s never hopeless with God.

5.  Spring is here!  The Great Meltdown has  begun and although it’s  a muddy mess, I’m excited because it means warmer weather is coming.  This is just the process we have to go through.

6.  I am on day five of my 30-Day Shred challenge.  My muscles were so sore on day two and three, but they’re getting better.  I am determined to stick with it for the full 30 days!  It’s  a 20-minute per day workout that is equivalent to an hour in the gym.  It’s led by Jillian from the Biggest Loser.  And boy, it really kicks my butt!

7.  I must sign off now.  My boys need a tweezer to get a lightsaber out of the dinosaur’s throat.  You know, normal things for around here.  ;)

Sunburn & swollen faces

So the boys finally got to go ice fishing with Joshua.  And this is the result:

Sunburned faces in March!

Josh has been out two days and looks a bit like a racoon from wearing his sunglasses.  Isaac and Eli did not have sunglasses on and it looks as if their eyeballs are even sunburned.  They both woke up this morning with a swollen face—their eyelids were almost swollen shut!  I hurt every time I look at them.  Seriously. 

This picture was taken a few hours after Eli was up and I think he is looking much better than when he first woke up.

And quite honestly, these pictures do not show the true damage.  It’s worse in person.  Both Josh and I never thought about sunscreen in winter.  And Isaac and Eli have NO desire to go ice fishing any time soon.

Isaac did not want his picture taken.  He told me he does not want to remember this.  He looks the worst.  Do you remember the TV show Beauty and the Beast that was on in the late ‘80s?  Isaac looks a bit like the Beast—no lie.  I cringe every time I look at him.  The shape of their eyes is even different. 

Important lesson here:  ALWAYS apply sunscreen—even when there’s snow on the ground and ice on the lakes.  That sun is wicked! 

Happy Friday

First of all, Happy Golden 5th Birthday to my niece Ellie!  5 on the 5th….what a special day.

It’s cute because she sent out her birthday list and the last thing on the list was “a  cloak for Logan.”  She is into princess things (as every girl at this age is) and when she plays with Logan, he has to be the prince.  When I said something to Logan about this and kind of joked about Princess Ellie and Prince Logan, Logan looked at me very seriously and said, “No, Mom, I’m King Logan.”  Oh, well….excuse me.

Logan and Ellie have such fun together.  It’s usually Ellie “directing” Logan on what to do, but he doesn’t mind one bit.

 

Happy Birthday, Ellie!  We’re looking forward to your birthday breakfast this morning.

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Secondly, Camden is improving.  He’s had two solid nights of sleep now.  No awful side effects of the steroid on his reflux yet.  I almost hate to say that out loud though.  Yesterday was our first day out in well over a week and it was a bit too much for him.  I had numerous errands to run.  The more activity he does, the more he wheezes.  It’s tough to keep a  one year old, who isn’t feeling sick-sick anymore, low key.  I am happy to see him smiling more, but I do notice he gets run down very easily.  Keep praying that the wheezing completely disappears and the reflux does not flare up!  We have three more days to go on the steroid.

See?  Smiles.

oh jeez!

Logan's latest phrase is "Oh jeez." It's too funny hearing this from a three year old and he says it in such a little old man voice. And the best part is he's not saying it to make anyone laugh or to try and be funny. He just picked up on someone else saying it.

I have a gate to block the stairs to the loft because I don't trust Camden on those stairs. Logan thinks he can climb over this gate. Going up is easy; coming down is not. The other night he was coming down for supper and Eli tried to help him over the gate. "No, no, no, I can do it by myself," he says. (Typical of a three year old.) Eli says, "Okay, okay." And let's him do it himself.
Logan gets one leg over and realizes he can't do it and he's stuck.
"Oh jeez.....oh jeez.....help.....jeez......help.....jeez."

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Fast forward to today:

I'm at Kohl's with Logan and Camden. We're walking up to check out and Logan sees a long line at the check out.
"Oh jeez.."

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Or about two hours ago:

"Logan, it's time for a nap."

"Oh jeez."

You really have to hear it in person to hear how funny it is.

Update on Camden

I took Camden to the doctor yesterday because he was still wheezing.  Overall, he seemed to be getting better.  But I thought I should be safe, than sorry.

It looks like it’s pneumonia, although she’s not doing an X-ray because the treatment is the same regardless.  Either that or his reflux was so bad, it aspirated into his lungs.  Regardless, this virus settled in his lungs. 

We’re doing nebulizer treatments three to four times a day (not fun to do while my little guy screams and looks at me like, what are you doing to me).  He’s also on prednisone.  I so didn’t want to do this because I have very bad memories of a year ago when he was on it and the destruction it did to his reflux.  But it seems to be the thing that he needs to knock this out of his lungs. 

He had his ears and tubes checked yesterday; everything was a-okay.  He awakes at 4 a.m. this morning crying—I noticed right away it was a different type of crying than the usual.  Like something was really hurting him.  I brought him out to our usual spot in the recliner, but I could not comfort him.  He cried and cried.  He’d fall asleep eventually, but it wouldn’t last long.  I massaged his ear at one point and he stopped crying for a while and closed his eyes.  I thought, oh, his ears.  But when the crying started up again, I figured nope, not the ears. 

When daybreak came, I saw the problem.  It was his ears.  There was fluid leaking out of one ear.  Poor guy.  And with the tubes in,  it means the pressure is really build up because he should not have the pain with the tubes.  :(

So he’s also on amoxicillian, which will mean another flaring yeast infection.  The troubles never seem to end for this little guy.

All of this is more than likely so bad because his reflux is so bad with this virus. 

If only that reflux would go away…..

Oy Camden!

Well, the other boys have improved from the virus of last week.  Logan is still struggling, but he didn’t start until later.  Camden has had a little improvement today (fever has gone down some and a bit more energy), but his wheezing is pretty bad.  I’ve done two nebulizer treatments with no luck.

I took him into the chiropractor today.  His reflux has reared its ugly head causing old symptoms that I hadn’t seen for months.  He’s been choking and gagging, struggling to catch his breath.  And I knew this was a huge reason that he wasn’t sleeping at night either. 

Dr. E said he was really off in his reflux area, but that is also the same nerve root for body temperature.  So basically, when he has a fever, it’s going to aggravate the reflux.  They’re connected on the same nerve root.  (errrr)

Also, his lymph nodes on the left side on his neck were very swollen and he cried – no, no, screamed when she adjusted him there.  It was actually painful because of that.  He also has fluid buildup behind his ears.  Are the tubes still in?  We don’t know (until he goes to doctor tomorrow).  If not, he could be suffering from an ear infection too. 

She also noticed he was unbalanced and asked about that.  I had noticed last week when he was feeling miserable that he had a hard time balancing.  There was one day where he literally could barely stand up to walk.  He kept falling over.  He’s also reverted back to more of the “monkey moving.”  She said the fluid can throw off his equilibrium. 

He also had a lot of gas buildup in his stomach.  When she adjusted his sacrum, it all let loose! 

I talked with her some about his symptoms and what was going on.  She shared with me that she’s seen quite a few people with this virus.  It appears to be affecting the little ones and people with breathing problems the worst.  After telling her about Camden’s previous problems with wheezing (mainly due to the reflux flaring up), she suggested we call his doctor.  He seems more tolerable and even happier today at times, but the wheezing is still there.  And he’s definitely far from being himself. 

I called the doctor and she was booked for today, but she called in more albuterol for the nebulizer and told us to do it four times a day.  She scheduled an appointment for us tomorrow morning.

I ask for your prayers.  I’ve been doing a study on healing the past few weeks and I really feel like I’m being challenged here with all my kids sick.  I’ve prayed so hard and not allowed “those” thoughts to enter my head.  I know God is bigger than any virus, bigger than reflux, bigger than all of that!  I just hate how Camden gets the brunt of every virus that hits our house.  And until the reflux is gone,  he always will.  One triggers the other.

But now, am I allowing bad thoughts into my head by saying that?  Maybe.  I’m very tired and getting sick myself, so my attitude isn’t the best right now. 

Prayers,  please. 

Thanks.

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I promised myself I wouldn’t complain so much on this blog this year (mainly with Camden’s issues), but sometimes the best thing is just to put it out there and ask for the prayers of others.

Character trait of the week

Be Polite:

"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Phillipians 2:4

This is especially important in a large family. But something everyone can benefit from.

May God bless your week and show you what HE wants you to accomplish.