Uno... you know?

Rang in the New Year quietly at home... doing shots of cold medicine... The big party we were going to was cancelled due to the stomach flu.  Which was actually okay by me (except for I feel badly for the family with the stomach flu) as we're all fighting nasty colds/sinus things.  Andy went out last night and bought blue liquid Tylenol cold medicine.  It's good stuff and has made our heads feel incredibly less balloon-like.

Mass this morning started off the New Year in the best way.  Now we're just hanging around home playing games... Uno... Spot it!... Candy Land.  The game playing keeps the kids' latest hobby...bickering... somewhat at bay.  Thank heavens!

Blessed New Year from our family to yours!

Catch-up

So it's been 3+ weeks since I posted... funny how life happens.  I was stressing about how exactly to update, then I decided I'm just going to jump in and do it without regards to formatting.  I didn't figure you'd mind.

-Ira's school had an adorable Christmas program on 12-12-12.  It was titled "In A Galilee Far, Far Away."  It was so cute and you could tell how VERY hard all the kids had worked on it.  I teared up during the program thinking about how grateful I am that Ira gets to go to a Catholic School where he can learn and sing about the true meaning of Christmas.

-Thursday before Christmas Break, Pope Paul VI Institute called to schedule my surgery date.  I am so ecstatic to finally have a date in my head to look forward to!

-Got an early Christmas present from Andy - a Deluxe Lightscoop for my camera.  Here is a great example of before and after the Lightscoop.  I'm totally thrilled with it.  These pictures were taken seconds apart from each other.  Not the greatest picture (artistically or technically) but a good example of the Lightscoop's capabilities:

-Spent the weekend before Christmas celebrating with 3 different family groups.  It was good to see everyone and we (the kids and us) were spoiled immensely by good food, good company, and thoughtful presents.  Got some AWESOME pictures with the lightscoop!

-Christmas "Break" was scarcely a break (other than from routines) because Ira (& Ruby eventually) was SICK with the Flu.  He looked over at me as 4:00 Christmas Eve Mass was ending and asked "Why is it so ccccccold in here?!"  At which point I knew he had a fever.  We missed Christmas at my parents' the next day which was one of the most difficult things I've ever subjected myself to (and I've had morning sickness and delivered 2 babies.)  Because essentially after the kids opened their presents, Christmas celebrating was "over" for us.  No second Christmas Mass, no presents and meals and games with family... just us. in our jammies. all day.  I'd like to say I was a champ about it, but I moped around a lot of the day and cried a lot too.

-We thought Ira's fever was gone (it was for almost a day) and went ahead with plans to host my friends from High School whom we got re-connected with after my 10 year reunion.  Ira & Ruby went to Andy's parents and we had a wonderful time talking, eating, and playing games with some of my closest friends from High School. I am so happy for these re-kindled friendships!

-Ira was NOT all better.  When we picked him up from Andy's folks' he felt warm and sure enough, had a fever.  We took him to my doctor's Immediate Care clinic (a WONDERFUL resource) where they diagnosed him with the Flu.  At that point, it was past the time that Tamiflu would work, so we were told to push fluids and rest.  His fever got up to 103.6 that night before finally breaking.  He slept that entire day and night and acted like he felt better.  His fever never did come back, although he still seems to be physically drained from the sickness.

-We did get to host my family on Saturday for Christmas.  Everyone came and boy was it nice to see them!  I finally got to give my mom the calendar that I'd spent dozens of hours working that included this little gem at the end (thanks to my sibs for going along with my crazy idea!):

-Ruby came down with a fever Sunday night.  Knowing that the only place she could've gotten it from was Ira, I took her to Immediate Care on Monday morning so that maybe she could get started on Tamiflu.  Her swab came back negative, but they did an RV Panel that had to culture for 48 hours and said if it came back by Wednesday, they would still give her the Tamiflu.  Her fever broke Monday night, but now she has the cruddiest sounding cough and runny nose.  They called today to say that the panel came back positive for "Flu B."  Push the fluids and rest.  Blurgh...

-Andy and I spent a lot of time playing "The Farming Game."  It's part Monopoly, part Stock Market game and a LOT of fun.  In fact, I like it better than Monopoly (this coming from a person with Christmas ornaments and books about Monopoly.)  We played one game with my sister and brother-in-law and then two games by ourselves.  It has yet to get old.

-Finished my hormone series for Dr. Hilgers.  Eleven blood draws later, I'm still alive and curious about what all that blood work is going to say about me.

-Andy and I "partied hard" New Years Eve playing The Farming Game, writing birthdays on the calendar for 2013, doing double shots of Tequila at Midnight, and staying up until 2:30 in the morning talking and writing up goals for the year.  Neither of us are really "resolution" type people, but it was a good opportunity to re-align our priorities with our values and make sure we're working towards them.

-Spent New Years day cleaning out closets and cabinets, getting rid of junk and rearranging the remaining items.  It was a nice start to the New Year.

-Pulled Ira's other top front tooth out.  It was like "pulling teeth" replete with Andy holding him and me pulling.  It had to come out, that's all I have to say.

-Spent the last day of Christmas Vacation going to lunch and eating sushi, then going to the mall and letting the kids do the "Bungee Bungee" and play Glo-Golf.  It was enjoyable to actually spend some time together doing something fun.

I am filled with hope for 2013.  Blessings to you and yours this year!

What I Loved About Last Week 14th Ed.

Here's what I loved about June 18-24:

1. Swimming Lessons: Ira is taking swimming lessons for 2 weeks.  I don't love the time, as it's kinda smack in the middle of the morning, but I do love the skills he's learning.  It's so amazing to see him grow and develop as a swimmer.  (He's going to pass his mama before long!  Although I'm plenty comfortable in the water, I never took lessons past level 2 or 3 - so I never learned any strokes or anything.  I can tread water and do a mean dog paddle though!)  Ruby has lots of fun playing in the baby pool while Ira has "blessins" each day too.

Wearing the swimsuit that I wore when I was her age.

Ira jumping in at 5 foot.

2. You probably didn't notice in that photo of Ruby in the baby pool that she didn't have a swim diaper on.  That is because little Miss Ruby potty trained herself last week.  I can take absolutely no credit because it wasn't even really on my radar for her.  On Saturday the 16th, while at our nephew's swimming party, she said she needed to go potty (which she's said before, but never does.)  Regardless, I took her inside and sure enough, she went potty on the toilet.  On Sunday, during dinner, she again said she needed to go potty.  So I took her and again she went.  So Monday morning, I asked her if she wanted to wear underpants.  She answered with an enthusiastic YES! and has been wearing them ever since (except for naps and night time.)  I didn't want to "jinx" it last week, but since it's been over a week now, I think we really are done with diapers!  She's stayed dry at naps since last Monday and has even woken up a couple times during the night to go potty.  Absolutely blows my mind!  I am so thrilled!

Riding the Plasma car with her cousin on a nice evening last week.

3. Weeded the garden.  It looks so nice now and I am so impressed with how easy it is to pull weeds.  We are also very impressed with the results.  We have about half of the potatoes dug and have been pulling beets as well.  The lettuce is on it's way out with the heat, but we picked 2 cucumbers on Saturday, so I'm sure they'll be in full swing soon.  We also started picking jalapenos and green peppers this week - hooray!!  There are lots of green tomatoes on the vines right now, I'm sure they'll be ripening up over the couple weeks.  Let's see, what else?  The green beans are tiny, but coming soon I'm sure, as are the watermelons.  I LOVE the garden, that's for sure!

4. Beds.  With the addition of bunk beds, we needed to do the "bed shuffle" at our house.  So last week, here's how it went down: queen bed moved downstairs and set up in the "spare bedroom", crib moved downstairs and set up in the "spare bedroom", twin bed taken down in spare room and moved box spring to the storage room.  Mind you, I did all this while Andy was at work.  He never seems that surprised though when he gets home and the furniture isn't where it used to be.  Does anyone else hate bed frames as much as I do?  Good lord I can't stand those dumb metal things.  They are such a pain to get set up just right and then they fall apart after you get the bed on them, and then you pinch your finger trying to get them back together... maybe it's just me?

5. Pictures framed and up.  I had prints made of the Old Time photos we had taken in Galveston and hung them up in a collage in our living room.  I also had updated photos printed for our dining room wall photo collage.  It was a project that was long overdue and I'm thrilled to be done with it.

This one's for you, Karen.  You asked to see a picture of this grouping like a bajillion years ago.

6. Rubyisms: "I need a dam-baid" (bandaid).  And in response to one of the lines in the Litany for Liberty (join us in prayer!!)- "Give us your flowers."

7. Family Reunion.  We hosted my dad's side of the family who live nearby, but who we never manage to see throughout the year, at our house on Saturday for a reunion.  It was wonderful to see everyone and amazing to see how much the kids had grown/matured/changed since last year.  We had to play our traditional game of "Annie, Annie Over" which was lots of fun.  It seems as though there is always a twist in the game (like the year a plastic yard duck got thrown over my Grandma's house.)  This year, our team sent two balls around the block in a car to get "points."  Never a dull moment 'round here.

Waiting for another ball to come over the roof.

Look here comes another one!

8. Devil pepper.  Picked this pepper Sunday night and just thought it was too funny not to share.

Look at the horns on that thing!

What I Loved About Last Week 10th Edition

Here's what I loved about last week (May 21-27)

1. Monopoly.  I have mentioned before that Monopoly is like my very most favorite game to play.  Ira must have inherited my affinity because we've played it 4 times since school got out.  I am impressed with his math skillz while we play.  He does a great job adding up the dice, paying for properties/paying rent (took him a couple games to learn that one - he loves to get change - so he would pay $18 rent with a 500 dollar bill if I let him), and giving change.   He's still not the greatest at bidding in an auction (like, the bid is at $50 and he bids $200, but that's a pretty advanced concept I guess...)

2. Piano Lessons.  Back in the day, I taught piano to a handful of students.  I haven't taught for 3 years, but Ira mentioned something before school was over about learning to play the piano.  I told him that I would teach him if he really wanted to learn, which he said he did.  I ordered this set through Amazon.  It is what I taught with previously and really liked a lot.  It starts very simply and builds piano knowledge in a very methodical manner.  I also liked how it tied other subjects (math, history, reading,) into learning the piano.  We had our first lesson on Wednesday and I'm not sure who is more excited about him learning piano, me or him!

3. Old MacDonald.  That silly Old MacDonald.  Or at least according to Ruby.  These are the things that Old Mac' has had on his farm this week: a goosy pig, a stinky diaper, and a "gerk."  Who knew?

Now, we will proceed with things that I did NOT love about last week.

1. Hand. Foot. and Mouth. Disease.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.  Ruby came down with it on Tuesday after her nap (started with a 101 Fever.)  Wednesday morning, I noticed the sores in her mouth and by Wednesday night we had determined that it was Hand, Foot, and Mouth.  Let me tell you, it. was. horrible!  Thursday was probably one of the worst days I have EVER had as a mother.  Grumpy does not even come CLOSE to describing Ruby that day.  Miserable would have been a cakewalk compared to what she was.  ALL DAY she screamed (yes, truly, angrily, screamed) at Ira and I.  She wanted Gatorade, so I gave her Gatorade.  She took a drink, spit it out (because it burned her mouth) and screamed that she wanted milk.  So I gave her milk.  She took a drink, spit it out (burned her mouth as well.) And screamed that she wanted Gatorade... rinse... repeat...  It was like that the WHOLE day.  Every time Ira said anything, she yelled at him.  Every time I tried to help her, she yelled at me. It was awful.  And truly, I really do understand where she was coming from.  She had about 5 huge red canker sores on her tongue and probably a dozen or more sores on the roof of her mouth/back of her throat.  I cannot imagine how badly they hurt.  However, just because I understood where she was coming from did not make it easy to deal with.  Andy had to work late, so by the time he got home (after the kids were in bed) I collapsed into a puddle of nervous breakdown.  I was seriously fearful of waking up the next morning because I couldn't imagine living another day like that.  Words truly cannot describe it.

Thank heavens Friday was a lot better.  She never did get sores on her feet.  Had a few red spots on her hands and quite a few on her bottom, but none of them ever turned into gaping sores like the ones in her mouth.

Since HFMD is highly contagious, we quarantined ourselves in our house for the entire week.  Definitely hard.  Definitely not an ideal first week of summer vacation for Ira, but we survived and I did LOVE that fact!

So what did you love about last week?