Human Again

WARNING!!! This is a Long post!

I thought about titling this post 'Sick of Being Sick', but I liked 'Human Again' better! Anyways, This past weekend I've had sick kids and it has been no fun. Friday morning Chloee woke up with a fever of about 101.5. She had a runny nose and a cough also. So I gave her tylenol and just figured that she was getting a cold like my mom had. She was pretty much herself, she just wasn't nearly as spunky. All day her fever came and went, then in the middle of the night she spiked a fever of 104.3. I gave her more meds and prayed that it would come down. She fell back to sleep and in the morning still had a fever of about 103.5. She was really congested and sounded bad. I kind of panicked for a little bit, thinking that I would need to take her to the E.R. I talked to Travis and my mom and decided to wait for the Insta-Care to open at 9. By 9 she sounded a little better but she still had a fever up in the 103-104 range, so I decided to call our pediatrician and get their opinion. They said to just make sure she had plenty of fluids and rotate tylenol and motrin to keep her fever down (which I was already doing). I felt a little better.

Ok, so let me tell you what I was going through up to this point. I was fine Friday, just bummed that she was getting sick. Saturday on the other hand, I was a mess. I felt very conflicted, being so worried, but at the same time wondering whether I was over-reacting. I spent a ton of time searching the internet for help and advice, and a ton of time laying on the couch holding her while she tried to sleep. I probably took her temp every five minutes and tried to keep myself calm.

As the day went on she seemed to be getting worse. She stopped taking her meds, and her fever never went below 102. She just laid on the couch looking miserable. At about 3:30 I took her temp and she was up to 105.3. That's when I decided to take her in to insta-care. My mom went with me and Travis left work to meet us there. They checked her out and tested her for strep, checked her ears for an ear infection and tested her for a urinary tract infection. Everything came back negative , so they sent us home with a prescription for amoxicillin and the instructions to take her to the E.R. if she didn't improve in a couple of days.

She was about the same all the rest of the night, and now Parker was showing signs of sickness and had a fever. Sunday morning she woke up and her temp was down to 99! Yippee! Her temp stayed down all day on Sunday, but she was extremely fussy and only wanted me. Parker on the other hand had a fever off and on all day with it spiking up to 105 also. Seeing Chloee recovering helped us not to panic so much about Parker. Luckily Travis stayed home from work to help me out!

Now back to me again, I didn't even get dressed yesterday, I lounged on the couch holding Chloee and watching movies most of the day. It was our Stake Conference weekend, and we skipped both the evening session on Saturday night, and the Sunday meeting. I skipped out on my presidency meeting and on a practice for New Beginnings this week. I felt so guilty for not going, but knew that I needed to be at home with my kids. We haven't exercised since Wednesday, and I didn't even think about cleaning my house. Needless to say by the end of the day yesterday I was exhausted mentally and was feeling pretty low spiritually and physically. I felt like a zombie.

So this morning when I woke up I decided that I needed to take care of myself a little bit. I got dressed! and started cleaning the house. I also got out of the house for just a few minutes to run to the grocery store for more wipes. I worked on Personal Progress, and have definitely felt more human today! The kids are both doing much better today, thankfully, and I have been able to get back to a somewhat normal schedule. Who knew that I would be so grateful for the opportunity to do the laundry and dishes!! I am definitely grateful that I get to be at home to take care of my kids, but I am also very grateful that they are at a stage where I can get other things done too! (Normally!)

A Long Road to A New Do

Last week I decided that I was ready for a change with my hair. I was bored with it, and wore it in a ponytail WaY too much. My sister Heidi always does my hair, but she is in Cedar City, UT going to massage therapy school, so I had to decided if I wanted to wait for her to visit, drive down there, or just go have someone else do it for me. I decided on the last option(I'm not very patient!) and started to look around for places that have cheap haircuts. I finally decided to go to the beauty school at Salt Lake Community College, they only charge $3! (Not too shabby at all) I knew that a student would be cutting my hair, but I figured it would be ok because they have an instructor to help them, and I would just tell them ExActLy what I wanted.

Tuesday evening my mom and I went over to Salt Lake to get our hair cut. They got my hair shampooed and got the length taken off, but because I have VeRy ThiCk hair it was nearing closing time. They layered it a little, but I wanted it to have more layers so that it would lay flater. I told the lady that I wanted more layers especially in the back, but the instructor wouldn't listen to me and said it would look too choppy(I know my own hair, and know that it NEEDS lots of layers) So I left there that night wanting to cry because I didn't like my hair. The length was good but it was too bulky in the back and didn't have much shape to it. I couldn't sleep that night because I was so upset about my hair and because everyone kept trying to tell me that it was fine(I wanted beautiful NOT 'fine') So yesterday I called a lady in our ward and had her fix it for me. She cut it into a bit of an A-line and thinned the back a ton. Now I am much happier about it! I will probably still have my sister touch it up the next time she visits, but it is a HuGe improvement!

I definitely learned my lesson, and will be a lot more patient next time I want to do something with my hair! Moral of the story: Heidi is the BEsT and is the only one I should trust to do my hair!! Also Thick hair is a PaiN, but there's not much to be done about that!!

P.S. Pay attention to the hair and NOT the face with no makeup!

Our Valentine's Festivities

On the morning of Valentines Day we had absolutely NO plans for the evening. With a limited budget we decided to skip gifts and were just going to stay home for dinner. As I thought about what to fix for dinner, I decided that I wanted to make it as special as I could. Travis had to work that day, so I had all day to plan and get everything ready! I decided to make spaghetti and breadsticks(heart shaped!) because it was easy and yummy, and also red punch(of cOuRse)!

Then I thought about decorating the table and area to make it very festive! So I went shopping at our next door neighbor's house (a.k.a. my PaReNtS house!) and looked through my stuff. I came up with a cute center piece using candles, flowers from Chloee's room and a mirror from our room, and also found some pink and white crepe paper and a couple of inflatable hearts. I finished it off with some paper hearts, and think it turned out pretty nice! I had a ton of fun getting everything planned and ready for our evening.

I also left Travis a little message on our bed!

After dinner we rented a movie from redbox(with a free code!) Overall it was a successful Valentine's Day (I thought!) and we spent a big fat $0!!!

My Valentine!

I LoVe this hansom man!!

I know that I have said it before, but he is incredible! He is my best friend and is an amazing father! He is goofy and has a wonderful sense of humor! He makes me smile and lets me cry on his shoulder. He is SO selfless and is willing to sacrifice for our family. He is the man of my dreams, my knight in shining armor, and I am so grateful to have him in my life and for eternity!

I Love You Baby Love!!

Dress Up

Last night when Travis got home from his drill for the National Guard he presented me with this little ticket.

As I looked at it, I realized that it was a ticket to the National Guard Military Ball!! Yay! I am SO excited!! When Travis decided to join the military that was one thing that I thought about that would happen because of his decision......I would be able to get all dressed up for a formal dance with the most wonderful man in the world! I had heard about military balls from friends of ours who were in the military, and always thought it would be a blast, and now I get to go!! Woohoo!

It is coming up in a couple of months, on April 30! I can't wait! Now I just have to figure out what to wear! Hehe! I feel like a silly high school girl again, but it's kind of fun!

Aren't these dresses GoRgEoUs? I love them, too bad they are only $300+. :( Sad. Definitely won't be able to spend that kind of cash, but I have a couple months to look around and find/make something absolutely fabulous!

Victory!!

We had a little success with Parker's potty training tonight! Are you ready for it?

He POOPED in the toilet for the first time!!! Woohoo!!

Hooray for little stepping stones! Parker's potty training has been pretty non-existant so far, because of the fact that he Freaks Out every time you would even mention the idea of going potty on the toilet! But today we got him to sit on the toilet for awhile, and then tonight while I was at Young Women's he called me to tell me that he went potty on the toilet! Way to go Parker!! I guess he just took of his diaper and said that he had to go potty, so Travis took him in and he sat down and went! Sorry about my enthusiasm, but this is like a small miracle to me! He may be potty trained before he is 12 after all!!!! Who knew that I would be so excited about a bowel movement!! Haha! I guess it is part of being a parent!

Finished!

Last week I finished the Harry Potter series!! I loved reading them, they were fabulous, and were sooo much better than the movies! I figured they would be, books usually are much better in my opinion! So it took me 2 months to finish them instead of one (like I thought!) but I was still kind of an addict! There were days where the only thing I could tell Travis that I did that day was read! Oops!! (Don't worry I did feed my children and changed their diapers, etc! The house just suffered a bit!) It's funny because during the past couple of months I found myself having many dreams involving Harry Potter!! And usually I don't ever remember my dreams, it's been crazy to remember some of them! Anyways, I kind of feel free now that I don't have anything pulling at me like an addict! We'll see how long I can hold off before starting another addictive book!!

Sledding Fun!

Sometime during December we took the kiddos sledding. It was Chloee's first experience with it, of course, and she loved it! Parker loved it as well, and even walked back up the hill himself, which made it much more enjoyable for Travis and I!

Chloee all bundled up and ready to go.

Travis pulled Parker around our yard for a little bit before we went and found a hill to sled down!

Parker climbing back up the hill.

Travis and Chloee reached the bottom!

Parker went with his aunt Eliza quite a bit!

Chloee and I...... don't I look cute! Haha!

The snow apparently looked appetizing, so Chloee decided to try it out! Mmmmmm!!

Cute kids!