its almost time

its almost time for christmas - my absolute favorite holiday in the whole wide world. i love everthing about it, the snow, homeade bread, candy, presents, jesus, angels, good cheer, family, friends, parties, santa claus... all of it. what i don't like is how fast it goes by. once we hit "black friday", things really start moving along. before you know it poof - its all over and you are stuck taking down the lights and the tree, shoving them into bins and carting them to the basement.

so, this year i am going to make sure i enjoy the whole month of december, take time to do things with the kids and really get into the meaning and the fun things surrounding christmas.
some goals -

-the crown center crayolaland
-make homeade bread and actually let the kids help this time, like really let eight little hands get in and knead the dough and mess flour all over the floor without cursing or complaining about it.
-make sugar cookies and gingerbread men from scratch, again letting them decorate and mess.
-drive the family around looking at lights and listening to christmas music
-take each child out and let them pick out presents for their siblings, not directing or influencing their decisions in any way
-watch "its a wonderful life" i have never seen it.
-go to see the christmas production my friend jen's husband composes, creates and directs at woods chapel church
-read the christmas story to the children, in the living room in front the tree and the fireplace

so, does anyone have other ideas i must do? i know these are lofty aspirations and there will be always be stress, but i plan on absorbing the moments more and stressing less. good advice for anyone.

more rambling

so i have still been running/walking every single day since last may. i am up to running eight songs in a row, which is around two miles i guess. guess how much weight i have lost in the last seven months -- drum roll please --- two whole pounds!!! woo hoo --- seven months of dedicated sweating every day for two pounds. ridiculous. anyhow, i figure it must be doing something good for my heart maybe, so i will continue my life long quest to be of "average" weight.

so here is what happened the other night at my house. my boys and i were wrestling around on my bed, just being silly while molly, maggie and jeff observed. my son tackled me like the sissy i really am and after landing on my back, my tee shirt came up enough to show my oh so attractive recently stretched out by four children stomach. (has anyone seen jon and kate where she shows her belly button prior to surgery? really closely resembles that. there is a mental picture for you.) so carson immediately grabs my flabby belly and pushes it together around my belly button and starts the whole "hi, my name is chubby. my mommy is chubby, my daddy is chubby, even my baby sister is chubby."

oh my gosh carson - that is sooooo mean. you do not make your mother's fat belly button start talking!!! my sweet husband was laughing, molly was laughing, which only encouraged more.

thanks, that was soooooo good for my ego.

mama knows best

when you are a nurse it is hard to judge when to take your child in to be seen by a doctor. you think to yourself, well it could be this, it could be that... or i could be over reacting. you sit and stew, ask your friends, sit and stew and try to make the best decision for your child.

this was me. carson had been coughing and running temps of around 103. could it be a virus? yes, so i sat and waited until day six to take him in. i had recently dealt with strep throat myself, so i was wondering if that could be his problem also. i worked saturday night, got home sunday and went to bed until about 1 pm. when i woke up he was laying on the couch, coughing and chilling, sitting right at 103.5 degrees. ok, so we are going in. shouldn't be to busy on a sunday early in the day.

wrong!! three and a half hour wait, at least. wow. so i utilize my sources and check to see if our other locations are busy. downtown is not so busy and much closer to where im at, so i load carson back in the car and head there. lets just say downtown is not the same as my lovely little hospital. the place stinks of urine and is filthy. gross. i wanted to load him back up and run, but we had already been triaged.

i waited patiently in the dirty little room with car who was flushed and holding his chest, wincing every time he coughed. the RESIDENT came in to see him (another difference between the downtown location and mine) and did a quick history. he felt it wasn't strep, but even if it was, we didn't need to treat it. "strep will go away on it's own eventually." that is something i had not thought of. maybe we could we treat it just for fun? that is my opinion.
his lungs sound really good, so no need for an xray. ok, i thought he sounded a little coarse and diminished, but who am i to question this fine resident.

then an attending comes in. i recognize him as the brother to a doctor i work with. oh good, he will have some sense. and yes he does, he asks all the right questions, states that he will go talk with another doctor and get right back with me. great!! thank you so much i gush.
45 quick minutes later in comes the nurse with discharge paperwork. but you haven't done anything yet i squeak. she says, the doctor wants you to know that if the fever continues for another 7-10 days you should follow up with your primary. so after 14 days of fever i should get checked?
yep. ok then. its now 5:30pm, i left my house around one and drove all over, waited all day for nothing.

today car woke up 103 again, so i called my primary and nobody was there. not sure why the office would be closed, but this is how my luck is running. well, at noon on a monday my little urgent care should be wide open. i load a crying carson up again and head out.

its packed. on a monday. nobody knows why, just a weird thing. great. so we wait again for two hours. carson hates me now. i begin bribing him with all i know - ice cream, toys, money, you name it. we are friends again.

we are seen, the clever little doctor at my nice sweet hospital takes his history and says "well you should always be seen for a fever after five days." thank you sir, i tried. "based on his history im certain its pneumonia, lets get an xray." i love you, finally.
when he got it back, it was a nice large left sided pneumonia with some patches on the right.

antibiotics. thank you. was that so hard? what if i didn't know any better and listened to the folks at the other location? how many people do that? scary. anyhow, all's well that ends well. we have a diagnosis, we have drugs, so hopefully my little rugged boy will be back in no time.

heartache

so my heart is heavy and very sad tonight. i see that the inevitable has come to pass and barack hussein obama will be the leader of this great nation. along with him, congress will have a commanding majority of democrats. you know the last time that happened? lets see... well i can tell you what happened - the great depression.
that is what i am feeling. im not hiding my head in the sand, or feeling shamed. i feel strongly that if you know what you believe in is right, than that is all that matters. truth prevails.

i will work to find positive things about liberals. i know there is something they believe in that is in line with my beliefs. help me. i can't wake up every morning with this feeling in my heart.
so give me positives.

my husband made a great observation. you can't control what happens in the country, but you can control what happens in your home. focus on your family, love your children, go to church, instill values in your family. teach your children that there are definitely absolutes. there are rights and wrongs. this country is headed in such a direction where nothing is absolute anymore, its just a little bit wrong, or only wrong in certain cases. i don't agree. i will teach my children that is not the right way to think. i will keep morals in my home, even if they are sliding away in the rest of the country.

for tonight, i will allow myself sadness. i will grieve the loss of what could have been...
but tomorrow i will wake up and put on a happy face. i will find positives in what can still be.
it is just four short years, right? i mean, how much harm can one liberal president, congress and supreme court do in four years? don't answer that. every problem has a solution.

halloween

it sure seems like there is a lot of preparation for something that goes by in a blink. after shopping for four costumes, buying four pumpkins, carving four pumpkins, roasting seeds, buying treats, snacks and goodies for three parties, attending three school parties and two trunk or treats we did manage to save up enough energy to dress four children in costumes and go trick or treating in the neighborhood for a little bit.



here we are.


some scary



some tough




some mean




and some just stinkin cute.