Happenings

I have lots of happenings to catch you up on since my
last post...so here goes!

I started back to work on July 31st. It was much too
soon, and I miss my babies terribly. They are doing
great at their school, and they are also enjoying their
time with their grandmothers.

Two weeks into the school year, Matthew came down
with strep throat. Surprise, surprise! About 2 weeks
later, Chris, Matthew, and I all had a stomach virus.
That was a hard one to get over.

Matthew still had his cough, so I took him to the doctor
to have them listen to his lungs, and they decided he
needed some pred. He had had it before for croup, so I
did not think anything about it. I gave him the
medication last Friday before school. Within about 20
minutes, I could tell that it was going to affect him. I took
him to school and told his teacher that he was on the
medication, and that if it bothered him too much, to
call me. I really didn't expect a call so soon though. Within
an hour, I had a phone call saying that he was being
aggressive, and that if it got worse that he would have
to be picked up.

I got another phone call from school, at about 11:00.
Logann had a fever! It was about 101. They said they
would watch her and call me if she got worse. Well, at 11:35,
I got my third call of the day. Her temperature was at 103.7.
So I went to pick her up and took her to the doctor. It was a
rough visit. Blood draw from pricked finger, bagged to collect
urine, stuck in both arms to find a vein to draw more blood,
and then finally catheterized to collect more "clean" urine.
There was lots of wailing, red faces, and tears! Not just Logann's!
She was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. She is on
antibiotics. When they are finished, we have to get her urine
rechecked and then go for an ultrasound and another test to
check her bladder and kidneys.

While at the doctor with Logann, we got our fourth call from
their school. We were told that we had to come get Matthew.
They said he had a "meltdown." When I went to pick him up,
he was white...I mean whiter than I have ever seen a person!
His teacher told me that he hadn't eaten all day. He looked so
frail. Chris and I decided to take him to get something to eat.
We had been at the restaurant for about 5 minutes, when we decided it
was time to make an exit. He was in full meltdown mode. By
the time we got him to the car, he had converted from a meltdown
to a violent rage. He literally flipped out! It broke my heart. He
was hitting himself, biting himself, taking off his shoes and trying
to throw them at us, throwing everything he could get his hands
on, screaming, crying...this lasted for almost an hour. I spent part
of the time when we got home, just holding his arms still so he
wouldn't hurt himself. Nothing would calm him. It was horrifying.
He finally calmed down, and went to bed not long after that.
It was the most traumatic thing I have experienced as a parent.
We took him to the doctor the next day, and we made the decision
that pred will ONLY be used for life-saving purposes from now on!

Last week at work, I was there a total of 1 and 1/2 days! I had about
5 million papers to grade. This was not how I planned to spend my
week. My children at school somehow managed to survive without
me. Speaking of my school children, I have a fabulous class this year.
I have 17 of the cutest babes you've ever seen. Some of them have a
mouth to go with them, but I am truly enjoying my year so far.

Time is going by too quickly! Logann is almost 9 months old. She is so
close to crawling. She does an army crawl right now, but gets too
frustrated too quickly. She is eating lots of table food, and now has
4 of the cutest little teeth.

Matthew will be 4 in a few months. He is such a sweet boy and he
continues to amaze me with how smart he is.

Floors...I highly recommend that you never try to install them
on your own. If you do, be prepared for everything that can
go wrong, to go wrong. Take the amount of time that you think
it will take, and double it...no... TRIPLE it! Never in my life, did
I expect that we would still be working on these floors in September.
We are putting the trim and moldings down, and only have a small
section of flooring left to finish. I convinced Chris to take a break
from "working" to let me decorate some. I will post pictures soon.
I love the results so far and can't wait until it is all done.

I am tired. Sometimes you think you are so tired, that it might
not be possible to be any more tired than you are...but you are
wrong! My house needs to be cleaned, my soul needs to be cleaned,
and I am sure my arteries need to be cleaned. Maybe sometime
soon, I can get some of this cleaning done!