Some sickness

None of us have felt that well since we were sick last week. Even K sometimes starts shrieking when eating. I think we all have stomach pain and a little nausea left over. J never actually threw up, but her tummy hurts, too. Since I assume it was a virus, I can't imagine what we can do except just wait it out. So far no one has missed school, but it's been a pain to force N and J to go.

Tomorrow J, K, and I were supposed to go to a friend's house to play. I got a call today on my voice mail from the mother; one of the girls has a fever and has been throwing up. I guess this stuff is just going around right now.

Is it really Wednesday already?

Wednesday is trash day. It seems like it was just trash day. I can't believe how fast time is going. I enjoyed Moon-Spinner's comparison of time to a toilet paper roll on Brilly's blog. I think it's very accurate.

Mr. K and I closed on the rental house yesterday. It will be a long time before we can rent it; it doesn't even have a kitchen yet. We need to get some contractors lined up. Actually, Mr. K does. I do very little but watch the kids while he gets stuff together. I'll try to post a picture, but this place isn't much to look at.

Tummy bug--icky descriptions

We've been taking turns being ill since Thanksgiving. K got a tummy bug that day. I think she puked all over herself about six times that day until it turned to diarrhea. She had a little fever. I was out refilling a prescription while Mr. K was watching the kids, and she exploded out both ends while I was gone. She still sort of has diarrhea, but her behavior is normal. Her diaper rash got a lot worse by Friday. It had blistered, and the blisters had popped. I called the doctor's office to find out if I should use antibiotic ointment on it (I shouldn't), and I spoke to the nurse for a while. Because of my description of K's diarrhea smelling "fishy," the nurse said it sounded like rotavirus.

Friday evening, I got a bad stomach ache. By bedtime I was throwing up. I was throwing up about every 45 minutes all night. I mean that literally. I had a fever. Around 3 a.m., I added diarrhea to the mix. What a joy to sit on the toilet with a barf bucket in my hands and sweat dripping into it off my forehead. Around 7 a.m., I quit barfing. I had no idea I produced so much bile. I've never vomited so much bile after emptying my stomach. I had diarrhea well into the day, but at least it didn't include stomach cramps as the vomiting did. I pretty much rested in bed until 1:30 p.m. before I got up to get a shower. Mr. K had got some Pedialyte for K, so I had some of it, too, and it cleared up the headache I got from dehydration. Fortunately, I slept very well and very deeply last night, so I'm okay now.

Last night I let N sleep on a cot in our livingroom since it's so much closer to the bathroom than his bedroom upstairs. He had stomach cramps and threw up once. That seemed to be the end of it for him.

Mr. K got a fever last night. He put on layers and layers of clothing and still couldn't warm up. I think he slept in until about 10:30 this morning I'm not sure if he had any diarrhea, but I know he didn't throw up. He doesn't feel well enough to go to Kroger's today.

J has been complaining about being cold when I don't think she should be cold so I'll just have to wait and see if she's going to take her turn being ill. Unless someone takes a turn for the worse, I'd say I was the sickest, then K, then N, and finally Mr. K. If he got off with just a fever, he's doing well.

I've been talking to some moms, and I hear strep throat is going around right now. Oh boy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thinking of making some cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. I haven't even decided when dinner is. Mr. K just left for work. I didn't know he had to work today. Probably he'll only be working in the morning.

We have a turkey breast thawed in the refrigerator. I just looked up how long it might take to cook. I have frozen rolls in the freezer, a can of cranberry sauce in the cupboard (in case I don't feel like making my own), fresh green beans in the refrigerator, two pumpkin pies in the refrigerator (made by Mr. K and the kids last night), a can of whipped cream in the refrigerator, and a bag of potatoes in the cupboard. So, even though I put very little thought into this dinner, everything is at hand. No one is coming over and we are going nowhere so it really doesn't matter when we will eat.

Cold, wet, and fever

The weather is cold and wet. The fever is N's. He checked in at 101.3 °F yesterday evening. After application of Tylenol, he's better today. Before breakfast, he was only at 100.5 °F, but I called him in sick since I don't think his school wants him coming with a fever. I checked his temperature in the first place because he was complaining so much about how cold he was.

The ground is already saturated from all of last week's rain. Hopefully this won't end up as much, but I think it's going to produce a lot of rain. Just watching the cold rain fall makes me feel cold, and I don't have a fever.

J was going to be home anyway today since her preschool is closed. N was supposed to get out three hours early. I had planned on going to the gym with the girls this morning. Now that's out.

N and J are playing up in N's room. N seems to be doing a lot better since his last dose of Tylenol.

K woke up poopy again this morning, but this time the poops weren't eating away at her butt. Perhaps its because I didn't try feeding her any baby food yesterday--just formula and Gerber fruit puffs. She was my fun, happy, cute baby again.


I guess I should go look for Thanksgiving centerpiece ideas that N and J can work on today. We are having Thanksgiving dinner here, but no one is coming over. That's the way we always do it. N and J don't know the joy and torture of getting together with one's family for holiday meals.

Diaper rash :(

Poor K has very bad diaper rash. She didn't have it much at all when she was younger. N and J did from birth; perhaps that's why they cried so much. K is crying right now and I can't fix it. I think holding her was making it worse because she had pressure against her rash. She's been getting me up, crying in the night with a diaper full of poop, and bad diaper rash. I guess it's from adding baby food to her diet of forumula.

I've got her little butt cleaned off (which hurts her the most), and I've put diaper rash stuff on it, and I've re-diapered it. In a few minutes, we have to go to a "feast" at J's preschool. Afterwards, I think I'll soak K in the tub a little, and then I'll try to put a waterproof pad under K and let her diaper area air dry for as long as possible. Sadly, everthing that identifies her as a little girl is all bright red and very sore looking. She's been crying for the past hour. I'd cry too if it were me.

Turkey and rice

That's the flavor baby food K was eating when I took the picture.

Flooding

I took this picture about an hour ago down the road from me at the creek. Now it's stopped raining, but the water is still rising. Now there is a police car on each side of where the creek goes over the road. With the police there, no one is stupid enough to try to cross it.

Hopefully this will work

I just made another test post. It actually showed up, along with about five copies of the previous post. I deleted the test post and all but one copy of the previous post.

We are having a LOT of rain today. The creek is flowing over the road just down the street from our house. I've been seeing lots of cars turning around. Some idiots are still driving through it. Cars have been stuck there before. Once a car got washed away. Luckily the driver had a cell phone, the person she was on the phone with knew what had happened, N and I were watching and called 911, and a she had flashing red LED on her keychain. The fire department, using ropes and things was able to get to her and get her out by busting out her rear window. It was getting dark, and they spotted her because of her flashing red LED.

I've pretty much got a river running through my back yard. What a mess. Fortunately, I don't have to go anywhere again today now that J is home from preschool. N is home sick (stomach ache, nausea) so I don't even have to get wet waiting for the bus. It's too wet for Mr. K to do much work, so he's over at our neighbor's house, probably to avoid the noise and confusion that reigns at our house. When the rain lets up, I'll go look down the road to see if any cars are stuck.

Blogging problems

I've tried to comment upon Brilly's most recent two comments to my two most recent posts, but I don't seem to be able to make my comments appear. Maybe they'll magically turn up later. I was going to post more now, but I'm not even sure if this post will appear. I hate to type a lot for nothing.

Leaves

Here is a picture of N, J, K, and I. It was taken a couple weekends ago. N is waiting for us to finish with the picture so he can run his bike through the leaf pile.

I've tried on a couple days to post this from Flickr, but it hasn't worked. Fortunately, it appears that the blogger upload photo thing worked for once. I'm not sure why I can't post from Flickr.

Another cold

I've got a pretty bad cold again. I lost count this fall; it's either my third or fourth. I've got all the kids in bed. Mr. K is at our neighbor's, talking and helping our neighbor put an icy hot patch on his shoulder. He fell Friday, heard a popping when his shoulder hit the ground, and won't see a doctor because he has no money. He only has a place to live because of the kindness of a friend of his who bought the house from him when he ran out of money to make the mortgage payments. His friend lets him stay there for very little rent. He had a bit of equity in the house, and that's where his rent money comes from.

I'm trying to decide if I should take a bath, consume whiskey, or take some cold medicine. I'm not sure which would make me feel better. Maybe I should try all three. Actually, I'm not sure one should mix the whiskey with the cold medicine, so I'll probably have to pick between the two.

N and J were fighting so much this evening, they were sent to bed an hour early. I like how nice and quiet the house has become. I should go take the bath and then decide between cold medicine and whiskey.

The trouble with crawling

We are so excited to have K crawling around. She's much happier now that she can go where she wants to. However, she puked up a little piece of thin plastic she found on the floor, and while I fed her a bottle, she started to choke so I did a finger sweep of her mouth (I have to do it a lot), and I found a leaf in her mouth. I've found leaves, dirt, dust bunnies, paper, and many other things in her mouth. I just can't keep the floors clean enough, especiall with N and J around. I can't even remeber how N and J managed to survive.

Katie Crawl About also likes to chew on cords. Fortunately she has no teeth. She climbs up onto the ledge under our table (connecting the two legs) and then crashes down on her forehead. It is very hard to train her about cause and effect since she is so young.

Mr. K put up a baby gate yesterday. K immediately figured out that it meant baby jail and she hates it. N knows how to work the latch, but J doesn't so he kept locking J up, and she kept crying.

It's a madhouse around here, but a lot of fun.

No changes

I called the plant manager this morning and declined the chance to go back to my old job. I think N was about K's age when I started to think about leaving my job before. It would be very exhausting to run around trying to get everyone to school and daycare, I wouldn't have much time to cook dinner any more so we'd have to eat fast food more often, I wouldn't have time to do much of anything with the kids, someone else would see K's first steps, and we'd be all around miserable to get a second paycheck which would be eaten up by the daycare and fast food.

The plant manager did mention that I should let him know in the future if I am interested in returning to work. It doesn't mean he'll have an opening, but he might. That's nice to know. I still think I'd like to go back to school when K does so I can become a nurse.

A Little Bit Stunned

I just got a phone call from the plant manager at the company I worked at until N was ten months old. The person covering my old job recently left the company, and the plant manager has been working at covering the environmental engineering I used to do with the help of the corporate environmental engineer. He wants to know if I have any interest in having my old job back. Also, it is possible I might be able to do it about three-quarters time instead of full time.

Wow. I've been thinking of going back to college to become a nurse when K goes to school. I want the great flexibilty, bizarre hours, and the knowledge that what I do makes a difference in people's lives. I hadn't planned to work as an engineer again. I figured my knowledge of environmental regulations would be out-of-date. The advangage I have with this company is that I know the details of what they do and how they do it, and I could easily catch up on the pertinent regulations.


I told him I'd get back with him tomorrow for sure if I'm not interested, but that I'll need to talk it over with my husband this evening. I told him that if his call came six years from now, it would be a much harder temptation to resist. Plus, I told him I am flattered that he's contacted me about this, which I am.

Hmm. I don't expect to accept. N was sick all the time with ear infections and such from the time I put him in daycare at two months old until the time I took him out at ten months old. I'm having such a good time as a stay-at-home mom. Still, I can't walk past a drum of any chemical without trying to read the label. I'm fascinated by the chemical-related and environmental-related articles in the newspaper.

I guess I probably already know what I'm going to decide. Still it's very nice to be thought of. I did enjoy a lot of aspects of the job before. I guess I'm at another one of those turning points in the road where my decision could have a big impact on my life, or I could just walk away and leave things as they are.

I voted!

I dragged all three kids to the polls. This year it was done on a scantron-type sheet. I prefer the old punch-card method. It's much more private. They really can't be read in a glance. The scantron-type sheets sure can. Now I have an, "I voted" sticker on my hand, and the kids have several all over.

First we went to conferences. That went fine. N and J played with Legos out in the hallway while K and I saw N's teacher. He's doing fine. There are some things he needs to work on, but he can't get into speech therapy until next year if his problems persist.

Finally because the kids were good at the conferences and the voting place, I took them to the dollar store and let them get a couple dollars of junk apiece.

Mr. K's birthday is tomorrow (36). Yes, I'm a year older than he is. I've got him something, but I'll probably be looking for a couple more things at Target tomorrow after I drop J off at preschool. I ordered a cake for him from the local supermarket already.

Election day tomorrow

Tomorrow I go vote. If I have the desire to get up really early, I can go without the kids before Mr. K goes to work. I don't think I'll have that kind of ambition. Also, I don't know what time the polls open. Probably I'll take all three kids to the polls and create quite a disturbance.

I can't wait until Wednesday when all the calls, ads, and junk mail stop.

I also have a school conference with N's teacher tomorrow morning. That will be interesting. I barely remember last year's with his kindergarten teacher--I was so ill from the pregnancy. This year I need to discuss N's chances of getting into the speech therapy program. Last year a friend of mine watched N and J while I went to the conference. This year she's got a job so she's not around to swap kids with. I'll be bringing all three to the conference.

N is complaining of tummy pain, and he's got spit running down his face. I got him a hot water bottle earlier, but he's still fussing. It's his bed time, and I hope he'll feel better once he's asleep. I'd be rather unhappy if he was too ill for me to meet with his teacher tomorrow.


I need to move N in the direction of bed.

Sunday

We made it to church today. I think we've missed the past couple Sundays due to illness. I'm not sure we should have gone today with how much N was coughing. K has dirty snot all over her nose all the time, no matter how much I try to keep it clean.

Mr. K mowed the rental house lawn this afternoon. Now he's taken N and J to the park to ride their bicycles. K is home with me and just finished a bottle. She was happily eating a scrap of paper she found on the floor until I caught her at it. I don't know why she eats paper; she won't eat baby food.

The frost killed my elephant ears. They grew back after last winter so I'm hoping they'll do it again. I'm not planning on removing the bulbs from the ground for the winter.

Election Day is Tuesday. I'm pretty much upset with all polititians right now; they keep calling me with recorded calls, filling my mailbox with junk mail, and most of the TV and radio commercials are political so I have to keep changing channels. I'm looking forward to the election being over. I don't know if Mr. K will be around at all to watch the kids or if I'll have to bring them all to the polls.

Katie begins crawling!

Crawling
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

Katie began crawling today! We are all very excited, but now nothing is safe from her. Soon she'll pull up on things and get into everything. Kate is almost seven months old (next Friday she'll be seven months old).

J was almost eight months old before she began to crawl, and N was a little over nine months old. I guess Katie gets so much help and encouragement from her brother and sister that she's moving along a lot faster. Perhaps it's just who she is.

TGIF?

I guess. It really doesn't matter much what day it is.

Today I went to the gym. At the gym, I rode an excercise bike next to a woman using another and reading Body Clutter. I asked her if the book was any good because I have thought about purchasing it. Anyway, it is co-written by Marla Cilley, The Flylady. This lady and I got talking, and we discovered we were both Flybabies who had never met another Flybaby before. If you've no idea what I'm talking about, see www.flylady.net. It's a system for organizing/keeping organized and clean one's home and life. She told me she'd lend me the book after she's done. I'm glad because I'm not sure I actually want to own it. I own the Flylady's book Sink Reflections, and I've only read it once and it's sat on my shelf for about three years.

J and I made chocolate chip-oatmeal cookies this afternoon. I ate most of them.

This afternoon I got the insurance arranged for the house Mr. K and I are trying to purchase. We finally found one. It's a definite fixer-upper. Unfortunately, it lacks a kitchen right now, but the price was very good. The kitchen thing presents quite a problem, though. We can't get a mortgage on it with out its having a kitchen. So, we have to pay cash, which uses up nearly all our savings. Then we have to use the line of credit on our home to get the kitchen put in. Finally, once it has a kitchen, we can get the mortgage and pay off the line of credit and replenish our savings. This property should rent for perhaps two or three hundred dollars more than the monthly mortgage, tax, and insurance payments we hope, once we have it fixed up and ready for a tenant. Nothing else we had looked at even came close to having positive cash flow. We are supposed to have closing in a couple weeks. Once I'm sure we own it, I'll upload some pictures.

I saw K crawl about four "steps" today. I'm going to make sure she's doing it more consistantly before I announce she can actually crawl. I expect to declare her really crawling very soon.

Fall colors

Autumn
Originally uploaded by greycharleigh.

Moon-Spinner,

A recent post of yours got me thinking of the fall colors here, and I decided to take a photo of them for anyone interested. This is a shot of the fence to the side of my back yard taken from my front yard. I took seven picutures, and uploaded this one for being the most colorful.

I drove across the James River this morning for a podiatrist appointment, and the trees on the road there and along the river bank were spectacular. It inspired me to take the time to get this picture posted.