an '80's' party.

this weekend we celebrated jack's 80th birthday. 

at his church.  not at the hospital. 
that's always nice. :)

his kids were there, grandkids, other relatives, friends from wichita, from canton.  there was a large basket filled with cards, gift bags filled with '80 something' objects.  80 candy bars, mints, etc.  the grandkids were happy to have pop share his goodies with them. :)

as always, pop was the life of the party.
happy birthday, old man.
and many more.

80.

today marks year 80 for jack...and he's spending the first day of year 80 in the hospital.  he was admitted on sunday.  after a stress test and a heart cath, they found an area that had been blocked again after his quadruple bypass almost 2 years ago.  they put in a stint yesterday and should be released today.  physically he's fine.  mentally, however...the meds really mess his mind up.  last night he was insisting that he be given his clothes so he could leave because he had to preach today.  today is thursday.  he already has a type of dimentia(which i found out on sunday..along with him not wanting to be revived if it came to that), which messes with his speech and remembering words that he wants to say.  a bad deal for a minister.  i'm really hoping that he'll be out of the hospital before saturday--he has his 80th birthday party at his church. 
thanks to all of my friends that have been following my updates on facebook for your comments and prayers.

happy 80th, jackeeee!!

grossless.

the kids are finally back to eating normal foods, sleeping/not sleeping at naptime, and their normal wild selves.  perfect timing.  due to the snow, emily only missed one day of school last week and had an inservice yesterday(MLK Jr. day), so she hasn't had to miss out on much.  i'm very ready to get back to a normal school schedule, especially since it means i will stay busy.  the boy will be busy doing his own thing this week, so i like to have things to do during those times.  i even rented season 2 of army wives to watch...but i finished it off 2 days ago. haha.
darn those army wives and their interesting twists and drama. :)  now i'm going to be forced to do housework.  sigh. 


i've been contemplating some new projects.  painting.  drawing.  starting some new books. 
maybe eating some breakfast before 11 am. haha.  i'm starving right now and i have a little girl that wants her mama to hold her.  ttfn. (that's "ta ta for now"..thanks, tigger. :))

an engagement.

i am always quick to share beautiful photos that other people have taken.  it's something that i love to do.  today i want to show off the photographers work for another reason.  the photos are of my niece, allison. 

and ben. 
ben proposed over thanksgiving week and i am so thrilled for her. 
thanks to emma highfill for taking such beautiful shots of the most deserving couple that i know.  love you, al.

fortress of sick: new member.

well, there's two of them now.  3:30, friday morning, emily got sick.  i was really hoping it'd pass by her because she is a terrible patient.  she whines and whines and cries and refuses to take medicine.  it's very annoying.  aiden is so use to taking medicine, both good tasting and bad, due to his borderline asthma.  i never have any problems getting him to swallow it.  emily, however, fights you every step of the way.  she hasn't thrown up as much as aiden, since he was so congested before he even got it.  she still threw up and all, but the diarrhea hit very early on, instead of 20 hours later, like aiden.   she's been running a fever, too.  since emily is older, she is more self sufficient, which is good and bad.  good because she had cleaned up her mess before i even knew that she'd made it or where it was at.  bad, because of the same reason!  she had all of her sheets in her basket, pillow case off, clothes off, hand towel on the floor to clean the spot she'd made a mess at.  i didn't know there was a mess til the next day.  my poor carpets really need to be cleaned now!  justin had a follow-up appt. to check on his blood pressure(which was excellent!), so dr. hop (hoppock, but the kids call him dr. hop) checked her out, too, confirming she had the same thing as aiden.   justin said there were all kinds of families there with their kids...only they were all dressed for the day, while emily was still in her pajamas.  haha.


so now that the 2nd one is sick, the first one is feeling better.  still is gross, but the meds hold it all off and he plays and acts wild like he did before.   he was very sad when we moved him back to his room last night(he'd been on the couch) and emily was sad that she couldn't sleep on the couch like him.   her bedroom is right next to the bathroom, though, so i'm keeping her there.   she's been in a pull-up, too, which she does not like, but hey....i'm not cleaning up that mess!  haha.   i thought for a while that i was starting to get it, as well, but thankfully i haven't!  justin has been sucking down airborne so that he doesn't get sick before going out of town for his drill and navy course.  apparently it doesn't matter if you're throwing up or having the runs to the military. :)


here's to hoping these kids are well before jus leaves!

day 3: another round of gross.

after aiden's 4.5 hour nap yesterday, everything seemed to go down hill.  he's not throwing up, instead it's coming from the opposite end. 


can i just say that i really miss the throw up??   seriously.


i changed a dozen pull-ups yesterday, hosed the kid in the shower just as many times.  i'm running low on desitin.  i went to dillon's to ask the pharmacist about giving him some imodium, but he said he was too young and that i should not do that.  it would be out of his system in 3-5 days.


i wanted to punch that guy.


he obviously hasn't had a sick 3 year old before.


so i got some imodium anyway and cut them in half (that idea was recommended by two nurses.  my kid is about 40 lbs and the pill is for kids 48lbs) and it's seemed to help for a short amount of time.  that to me is better than nothing.  however, his pill didn't take effect til after he'd gone to bed last night...and had gone in his pull-up.  he was already asleep though, so none of us knew til he got up this morning.  his poor little red bottom!!  he's been able to eat a couple of bananas, which are suppose to help stop him up, but unfortunately he has his dad's system and everything just goes right through it.   he also finished off his bottle of pedialyte.  by 11 am, his pill wore off and he was exploding in the toilet for an HOUR.  when you have to ask your kid if he went pee or poop in the potty(since everything SOUNDS like pee), it's bad.  as was the sound of that gurgling in his tummy from the junk making it's way out of his body.  ugh.


and then came the crying.


painful tears and screaming when i tried to clean his sore, red bottom.  oh, it made me hurt so bad to see him in that much pain.  so, i did what any mom would do...asked mom's on facebook for their home remedies!! :)  i love those moms.  i got some amazingly great ideas from people who have been there with their own kids.  very helpful!!


so after taking another half imodium at 11 am, he was able to sleep(he didn't want lunch) for 4 hours.  the pills have held him for several hours and i (as well as his bottom) have been very thankful for that!  we had another short battle with it at 8pm, leaving him with a very small spot on his bottom that was bleeding.  his pill has kicked in and he is now happily sleeping again.  i gooped stuff on him, but tomorrow we will go shopping for some major bottom saving drugs!! :) 
i don't think i can handle the crying anymore.  it breaks my heart!!  

si-ick.

for the last 37 hours, i've had a sick little boy.   this area has seen a lot of stomach bugs going around.  he started out congested and doing breathing treatments.  yesterday morning at 2:30, he started throwing up and did so every hour, 1-3 times an hour, for 19 straight hours.  Emily had gone through the same thing recently where she was had the congestion and had thrown up because of all that stuff in her body, but not like this.  i had called the oncall doctor at 5am and i never received a call back.  we called our doctor and he said to use small doses of fluids, ice chips, etc, because he would not be able to keep large ones in his body.  i even tried suppositories on the boy.  that is not a fun one to put in a 3 yr old, btw.
last night, justin had to take him to the minor emergency.  he was starting to get the chills and the poor boy was so thirsty and hungry something had to be done asap.  they ended up giving him a pill to settle his tummy and help him sleep, which was great since he'd had 3 hours of sleep during that day.  last night, he slept through the night, has kept down pedialyte today and went back to sleep at 11am(he's still out and it's 3pm now).  he's a little dehydrated still, so as soon as he gets up, he'll be knocking back some more drink and maybe finally get some food in his tummy.  since i can't post photos on here, i've been trying to make sure i load some on facebook.  there are photos visible to the public on there of the little sick boy and the prettier side of being sick(sleeping). :)  

fun and games.

well, like most people,

this was our last weekend for all

of us to be home together.

we played.

a lot.

emily is hooked on the wii.

she loves the swordplay and bowling games.

justin could not believe that she got a strike!!

she ended up with a 118.

not bad for a 5 yr old! :)

we had a great lunch on sunday with my old pal, adrian.  i've really been enjoying his more frequent trips to kansas!  he even got to be the guinea pig for my homemade lasagna.
it totally passed the adrian taste test, btw. :)

emily wanted to play shy while adrian was over, but happily snacked on our fruit salad when he left.

emily's favorite movie, enchanted came on last night

and she was so impatient for it to start!

we decided to break out our new 'chutes and ladders'

game (from ja and heidi) and teach the kids how to play.

em wasn't completely into it since she was so stoked about her movie coming on.  haha.  aiden, however, loved it!

i ended up winning.  there's just something exhilirating about beating a 3 & 5 yr old at 'chutes and ladders'. :)

emily's been taking more photos by herself.  this one tells me that the holiday weight has come to my face. :) haha.

we've been trying to teach the kids about sportsmanship and congratulating the winner and tell everyone "good game/ good job".   of course, when you say "good job" at our house, you get a thumbs up with it. :)

"good game, kids!"

adios.

the last day of 2010 was all about food.

the kids made little pizzas from the buns we used for

our marlboro man sandwiches.

i spent the afternoon making lasagnas for the next few weeks meals.
they're all in brownie pans, so they're miniatures.  not super layers,
but enough to fill jus and i up without getting out of control with big portions.

i made little pudding pies for the kids for dessert.  chocolate pudding, cool whip and snickers bar.

i think they passed the taste test. :)

jus and i rang in the new year by gaining the last 5 lbs of holiday weight for the year.  pioneer woman's marlboro man sandwiches.  my favorite part is the cooking-onions-in-butter part.  yum. :)  justin and i also had a wii bowling match.  i always win.  oh, and i conquered 5 levels of swordplay...my arm is killing me today.  it was so worth it, though.  i wish i had video for everyone to hear my awesome sound effects while i was playing.  very star wars lightsaber'ish.  haha.

happy 2011!!