Drumroll please.....

We got the news......

in 4 months.......

we will be moving to........

ANCHORAGE ALASKA!!!

Please keep in mind that this can change at any moment. The Airforce is notorious at changing things once they are "set in stone." We are excited. Aaron's report date is July 31st. We look forward to 4 years in Alaska. Now, off to put the kids to bed and then look at houses in Anchorage!!

Maggie's 9 month pictures

I had Maggie's 9 month pictures taken. Let me know what you think!! If you are interested, it's Nicole Barker Photography. She did a GREAT job. There is a link to her blog under the business blog lists. Aaron and I disagree on our favorite, so we are taking a vote. Which is your favorite picture? Leave a comment and vote for your favorite!!

Picture #1

Picture #2

Picture #3

Picture #4

Picture #5

A chapter in my book!

On more than 1 occasion, I have been told that I should write a book. I never thought I would have enough to write a whole book, but have always laughed at the comment. However, after my week this week, I might reconsider. Looking back at my week, I realized that if I had read a chapter in any book like my week, I wouldn't believe it could happen, but I assure you, it did and I have the papers/stories to prove it. You ready for my chapter?

I took Kennie for a follow-up appointment on Tuesday morning at 9:50 because he wasn't a whole lot better, and with the steroids, he should be leaps and bounds better. So, I saw Dr. Blunk (love Dr. Blunk) and he said Kennie sounded terrible. So, he did 4 (yes, that is 4) breathing treatments until Kennie sounded good enough to send him to X-Ray. So, we headed to the Imaging department. (Side Note: it is now 12:00. Thank you to Cynthia for picking Justin up from school!) We wait in the Imaging Department for 35 minutes (I had Kennie, Nate & Maggie) until they call Kennie's name.

The X-Ray technician told me I couldn't go back with Kennie because I couldn't take the other 2 kids. So, my poor brave 5 year old goes back by himself to get his X-Ray. He came out laughing with the technician, so I breathe a sigh of relief. His X-Ray doesn't look great, but it doesn't look awful either. By this time, it's 1:00. We go back to the Pediatric department where Dr. Blunk checked Kennie's Oxygen level. After 4 breathing treatments and over an hour and half, his level is only 88%. Guess what that means? Admission to Children's Hospital. Not only admission, but he had to ride by Ambulance because his oxygen level was so low.

I made a quick (desperate) phone call to Cynthia. Why? Well, I forgot Maggie's formula that morning. I took it out of the diaper bag to fill all the sections with formula in case it's a long day and forgot to put it back in the diaper bag. Good thing I remembered to put a bottle in. I bought some apple juice and gave her some juice, because we were there from 9:15 - 1:30. Cynthia hopped in her car and brought me Maggie's formula and picked up Nate so I didn't have to take him with me to Children's. I hop in the van and follow the ambulance to Children's. Kennie is on Oxygen (which he can't stand) and is doing all sorts of breathing treatments. They take blood for the Walking Pneumonia test and tell him if he will eat and drink, he won't need an IV. Aaron gets off work for a few hours, comes and picks up Maggie, picks up Justin and Nate and takes them all home.

Shelby meets Aaron at our house at 7:00 and is our Angel and stays with the kids that night. Aaron went back to work to complete his 30 hour shift. At 10:00 pm, the doctors at children's aren't pleased with the amount of fluid Kennie is getting, so the decide to start an IV. They get done and I settle him down to sleep at about 11:30. I lay down on a very uncomfortable couch for my good nights sleep. I wake up at 2 am to the respiratory therapist giving Kennie his breathing treatment. I ask, "Why does it take 4 of you to give him the treatment?" His reply, "There is only 1 of me." Okay? I look around the room and everything is spinning. I roll over and close my eyes, and my world is still spinning.

I make it to the bathroom just in time. I spend the next 15 minutes throwing up. When I figured there was nothing left to bring up, I decided to go get a drink of water. I walk out the door, and the world is still spinning. I sit down on the floor. A few minutes passed (felt like forever) and Kennie's nurse walked by and saw me sitting on the floor. He helped me up in a chair and brought me a puke bucket. I continued to throw up (nothing was left in my stomach at this point) and started having cold sweats and the world was still spinning.

They put me in a wheel chair and took me in to tell Kennie that I was going to go see a doctor and that the nurse would check in on him and make sure he was okay. They took me downstairs to the Children's ER and called for an ambulance. I spent the next 20 minutes throwing up (again, nothing was in my stomach except stomach acid, which tastes GROSS). They started an IV and gave me some Phenergan and within 5 minutes, I wasn't throwing up anymore, but my world was still spinning.

I got to the base where the Doctor diagnosed me with Vertigo and in order to make my world stop spinning, gave me Valium which knocked me out for the next 3 or 4 hours. Meanwhile, Aaron has gotten off work, checked on Kennie, came to check on me. Thankfully, the next drug they gave me, stopped my world from spinning for the most part and they were able to send me home. (They were talking about admitting me again.) They think this cold crap that I have just got so bad that it messed me up enough to cause the Vertigo. Aaron brought me home, put me to bed and went back to Children's to take care of Kennie.

Thankfully, Kennie responded better than expected to the medications they gave him and he was discharged that afternoon. His Walking Pneumonia test was positive, so that's probably what I have as well. Thankfully Aaron was able to get his schedule cleared for Thursday and we were able to spend yesterday re cooping from the previous few days.

A big thanks goes out to Shelby, Tracy, Wendy, Sue and Cynthia for all their help during this crazy time. I don't know what I would have done without my friends and family here in Dayton to help pull me through this!!

So, after reading all that, if I were ever crazy enough to write a book, what would you title this chapter?

Another update

We aren't sure if Kennie has walking pneumonia. He is on a course of steroids now which will take away all inflammation and he does albuterol treatments every 4 hours to help him breathe. If, after the steroids are out of his system, he gets sick again, then he probably has walking pneumonia. Troy said that usually it's older kids that get walking pneumonia, but watch it be my luck.

So, didn't sleep well last night. Between me, Nate and Kennie, I only got about 4 hours. This morning, not only do my symptoms from yesterday feel worse, but I have added a few. Sore throat and my ears kill. I just took some Motrin and something to help numb my chest so it doesn't hurt so bad to cough. Drinking tons of OJ (I know that it doesn't help anything, but it makes my throat not hurt so bad.)

I feel like I do this more than I really should, but please pray for us! I really don't know how I am going to survive today let alone this week. This will be the worst week of the month. Today, he started a 30 hour shift and will come home tomorrow (Sunday) around 2. (Probably get no sleep because the service has been extremely busy.) Sleep Sunday afternoon. Monday he has clinic, notes and catching up at the base. Tuesday, he starts his 30 hour shift and will get off Wednesday afternoon. (Again, tired.) Thursday, he has clinic and notes which will probably take all day to complete. Friday, he starts another 30 hour shift and will get off Saturday afternoon. and will have Sunday off. Grrr. Why do they have the 80 hour work week when they aren't going to follow it? Do they put rules out there just so they can break them?

Anyway, I'm off my soap box now. Thanks for any prayers and thoughts you send our way! I believe in the power of prayer.

Just when..

Just when I thought yesterday couldn't get worse, it did! I was sitting on the couch enjoying Private Practice when in 5 minutes I went from feeling fine to not able to breathe, coughing pretty harsh (it really hurt) and my head throbbing. I got tested for flu today, but it was negative. ARG! Aaron has to work his 30 hour shift tomorrow...how am I going to make it through the day?

My day from Hades!

Let me tell you about today. My day from Hades!! It started last night.

1. Nate came downstairs at 10 ish after being woke up from excessive coughing. He was awake until 2:45 am. Hello! Got him to sleep, laid on my pillow, got all covered up and warm and...

2. Maggie woke up and would not stop crying. Gave her a bottle, she still wasn't happy. I rocked with her from 3:30 until 5:30 when she finally fell asleep.

3. I went back into my room to go to bed and Nate was in my bed. I didn't feel like fighting with him, so I just laid down. He spent the next hour kicking my head (no matter how many times I turned him). Kennie came in at 6:30 to tell me he wasn't feeling good.

4. Called and got a Doctor appointment for Kennie. Can you believe the latest appointment was at 11? At least it was with Troy (our friend from church.) Showered and got everyone ready.

4. Took all 4 kids to the doctor appointment. Kennie is wheezing pretty bad, so we spent 30 minutes in the treatment room. How did we survive this? Pocahontas!

5. Waited for the prescription for 45 minutes. Found out during this 45 minutes that Walking Pneumonia is running like crazy at Kennie school.

6. Darted from the doctor to Justin's school since today was the only day to pick up his class picture. Picked up lunch at Wendy's (I didn't feel like fighting with everyone!)

7. Came home to get all the kids settled and eating lunch and realized Nate wasn't anywhere to be found. "Where's Nate?" I asked the kids. Justin replied, "He went outside, mom." Are you kidding me? The garage door is up. Arg! Run outside, he is no where to be found. Search in back of the house. Search in front of the house. No where. I was going to check behind Cynthia's house then I was going to call 911. 2 little girls at the park came over (my frantic screaming works I guess) and told me he was hiding in a toy house in someones back yard right next to the park. Oh, so could have ....grr!!

That is my fabulous day so far. It's only 2:23 in the afternoon, so I still have about 6 hours left until the kids are in bed. Isn't it awful that I cam counting down the hours?!?

Nate's so funny!

The other day, Nate took a nap (a big no-no at our house!) He wouldn't go to bed when we put the others to bed. So, at 10 pm when Aaron and I went upstairs to watch Law & Order and get ready for bed, we made him go to his room. He cried and cried and ended up laying in the hall. Aaron told him he had to lay in a certain spot on the floor. This is what we found after about 15 minutes. (During some of the time, he sang, talked to the ceiling, made funny noises. It was so funny!!) Isn't he cute?

New blog of interest

I found this blog and will be trying some of the recipes. Maybe you would like to look too!

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Sassy

Big Love - Voice your concern as well!

Please consider adding your voice of protest against this violation of our sacred space --
Take a look at the attached pdf and consider writing to HBO. I just did. This is pretty appalling:On Sunday March 15th, the HBO show Big Love is showing anepisode containing an excommunication as well as temple ceremonies.They hired an ex-member to help re-create the ceremony, rooms, andclothing.HBO is owned by Time Warner. Send your emails, snail mails,phone calls, to both companies to show HBO that we won't stand forthe use of things we consider sacred on their show Big Love, which is using areplica of an endowment room and celestial room to show what happensin the ceremonies there! Just keep it within Church standards please!

HBO is owned by Time Warner:
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner
Center New York, NY10019-8016
212.484.8000

http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do?title=GeneralInformation&questiontype=generalInformation&questiontype=general

I just went and sumbitted a comment. I hope you will join me in this fight!

Maggie at 9 months

Hooray! We made it to 9 months! She is 9 months old today. We had her 9 month check up yesterday. She weighs 16 pounds 9 ounces which is in the 25%. YEA!!! She jumped from the 4% to the 25% in 6 weeks. She is 27 inches (that's 2 inches more than 6 weeks ago). The doctor was quite impressed by some of the things she is doing. She was doing some of the things from the 12 month list!

At 9 months Maggie is:

• Pulling up on EVERYTHING
• Cruising along the furniture when she stands up on it
• Eating everything she can get her hands on
• is in size 3 diapers (She should wear 2, but I bought a huge box of size 3 and they work!)
• Still wears size 3-6 month pants but can wear a 6-12 month shirt/dress.
• Is sleeping better at night
• Takes 2 good naps a day
• Still has 0 teeth
• Is a speed crawler everywhere (and has been for about 2 months)
• Acts like a dog! She always has her tongue hanging out of her mouth
• Loves taking her baths (with her brothers)
• Won't eat sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables or peas
• Still has very little hair
• Is starting to warm up to people other than mom
• Is so happy when she wakes up! It's crazy!
• Holds her bottle (She's only been a bottle baby for 2 weeks now and is doing super good!)
• Loves to stand up on the laundry baskets and bounce around (with her tongue hanging out, it's totally funny!)
  

I am sure there is more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. I need more sleep. I don't sleep well when Aaron has to stay at the hospital all night. You would think I would be used to it by now!! Not so!

Another New E-mail

I am having technical difficulty. Please change the changed e-mail address to:

askjnm@gmail.com

It's the same as before, only take off the lewis.

Thanks,
Sassy