Menu Plan Monday

So we aren't eating Little Ceasar's all week:

I have joined an online menu plan club where I will post my dinners for the week. If you'd like to check it out it is the orgjunkie link. You can get lots of great ideas for your meals from about 200 other people.

Monday- Taco Night - beans and meat for John

Tuesday - I have seminar at Applebees (Bologna and Ham and Cheese for J. & A.)

Wednesday-Breakfast for dinner (belgian waffles with fruit) Eat light there will be goodies at MOPS

Thursday- Frozen Food Night ( I teach at JoAnn's so I need something quick)

Friday-Veggie Soup with rice noodles and vegetables, with Frozen Naan

Saturday-Mashed Potatoes, Chicken and Green Beans with Corn Muffins

Sunday-Spaghetti, Sauce, Corn, Garlic Bread

Little Ceasars...

I lied my child finally crashed hard while sitting up in her rocker, it was quite the feat. We are going to see if we can get her to bed this way tonight, because she was finally able to sleep. We had Little Ceasars that my Mom and Dad brought over to us - it is so nice to have dinner brought to you. The great thing about family is they aren't afraid to get near you when you are sick!!!!!! :-) Soon to come on my blog I will be posting pictures of my latest polymer clay creations - I am working on my display for my next craft sale which is next Saturday. I have a tree with cute little ornaments (if I do say so myself :-) I will take photos so you can see it. Also if you have any suggestions for me on my display I will gladly take your input into consideration. Also to come on my blog I will be posting about what I have received in the mail lately (I may have some identity theft going on.) However I am getting a kick out of what I am recieving in the mail! Don't worry John and I know what to do if it is identity theft. He has been through it before.

Rough Night

Well, last night was our roughest night yet. You would have never guessed that Ashley had a steroid drink and the Robitussin that the Dr. recommended. Nothing gave relief last night, not the steam in the bathroom, not the outside air AND to make matters worse her cough sounded worse and she has a wheezing sound when she breathes in (sounds like gasping for air type sound). John and I took turns sitting up with her because everytime we tried to lay her down it got worse, John did more than half the night and I did the 4am-8:30am shift. Now she is playing and she won't take a nap because this kid doesn't nap anymore, it is a bit crazy, you would think she would crash from lack of sleep. I have been in touch with her Drs. again today and they said if we have the same night tonight that she needs to be seen again tomorrow. It is nice that they have weekend hours. My wonderful mother is coming over later to relieve us. I am so tired.

Official Diagnosis

Hello everyone, We had our Dr's. appointment for Ashley at 1:10pm today. She has (drum roll please) croup - aren't you surprised? Anyway it is viral croup and therefore the antibiotics do not take care of it, however they did give her a nice little steroid drink to help her insides, the pipes swelling to go down. She had this the first time she had croup about six months ago or so. I had a call from an old friend of mine tonight and it was so nice to chat, plus I got to live vicariously through her and find out about all of the good deals she got today. This picture is of my two friends from college one of whom called me today to see how Ashley is doing and the other emailed me. I am in the middle. Don't we all look good? :-)

Black Friday

Well here we are Friday am and I have had some frustration this morning, and no it wasn't because I couldn't go shopping on Black Friday. I am frustrated because my daughter is still very sick. She has a temp of 102.7 this morning. UGH!!! Let's recap, she is on a broad coverage antibiotic, mommy thinks she has croup based on the past two nights (we had another episode last night), she is on the heels of pneumonia and her WBC was high. So what do we do, well we call doc and get her another appointment to be seen today. She will see her doc. again today. If this is viral that's fine, I just need to know that I can move on but with all of the other stuff she has had going on it is hard to say. Ashley informed me that she needed cough medicine this morning, however she really needed motrin to get the fever down. She is in the tub now with John, luke warm water is good to help get the fever down. She also declared that she wanted to go play in the snow and put her snow pants on, hmmmm.... not to sure about this, this goes along with what I said in the other post about having a sick toddler, they are still a toddler. I have to take the time to pat myself on the back, her croup espisodes - I know everything to do

• first take child to bathroom, close door, turn on hot shower and steam up room, sit with child in lap for 1/2 hour (this worked ok but not great last night)
• Next take child to room, put in bed and open window (outside air is great for croup, this worked even better and she was able to get some sleep)
• Lastly crank up the cool mist humidifier and put as close to her bed as possible (this coupled with the outside air seemed to work really well for us last night)
• Go to room next door and sleep on guest matress so you can hear child over the loud humidifier, try to get some sleep

I am getting good at this if I do say so myself. This blog is keeping me sane and hopefully keeping you informed of what is going on with Miss Little Ashley. Did I mention again how off her color is, she is so pale, it is rather bothersome. Did I also mention that my wonderful husband is on vacation, poor thing, this is his vacation and it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. Well I'll try to post later after the dr. appointment.

Ladies and Gentleman....

I believe my daughter has croup. From the pictures she doesn't really look sick, now does she? She made it through the day fine and it is now 12:47 am and we have been up twice and in the hot steamy bathroom. She is still coughing. It is such a horrible sounding cough, my heart goes out to her. It is looking like another call to the drs. in the am and we will see if her dr. wants to see her again, which I am guessing most likely since that is what she mentioned two days ago, and on the heels of pnemonia and an abnormal WBC (white blood count) it seams the smartest thing to do is get this kid seen again. She does good during the day, we made it to my Mom's house for Turkey day and so did the rest of the family which was also questionable. Luckily we all made it and it was a nice time. Thanks MOM! Ashley's color is still off, that bothers me, I look at her and I just know that that is not my kid (normal and healthy). She is very pale. Oh and it also doesn't help that she now has a big huge bruise on her cheek from falling and hitting the edge of the bathtub the other day. She looks like a big bruiser :-). Here is a picture of John's meal,
I know that was random, but I am thankful for the nice meal, and there is something to be said for tradition and routine, I am glad we didn't miss Thanksgiving with the whole famn damily as John and I like to joke.

Oh and also people wonder where I get it from, meaning my crafty/decorative side, ya know I just thought that was normal and everyone did this until I got a bit older and realized that some are craftier than others. Anyway these are in my mothers house and two out of the three arrangements she made! Go Garden Club. Plus the one with the pilgrims cracked me up because when we sat down to eat dinner I noticed that the Pilgrims were facing a different way, watching us all eat. I started laughing and asked my Mom who did that and she said she did it with Ashley, how cute and adorable and what a great Grandma :-).

Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving....

I am GRATEFUL for:
sleep, good health, modern medicine, good Drs. for my daughter, her pediatric practice that I take her to, my husband who "gets it", my husband whom is a team player, knowing I can get my daughter help at 2am if needed, Ashley's playfulness even when she is sick, it is true there is no stopping a toddler, even the dr. commented "Boy she is sure acting like a toddler." Children's Motrin :-) That I wasn't hosting Thanksgiving today - funny how that worked out. God's grace. And of course my family and friends.

I am NOT GRATEFUL for (yes I am going to go there):
pneumonia in a two year old, croup, rough nights, having to cancel plans

Dr. Ashley

Well, I worked all day today and John is on vacation so he took care of Ashley all day today, however she wasn't feeling well, which is interesting since she is on day 10 of her antibiotics, right, well, we took her to a very late appointment at her docs office tonight and well, lets just say for now that she was still running a temp and they took a WBC count and it was on the high end of normal, kinda baffling the doctor, since she has been on a very good antibiotic. Anyway I guess she has some sort of bacterial infection. Our doc. is even having another doc. call us tomorow on Thanksgiving Day to check in with us on how Ashley is doing. She may see her on Friday depending on how she is doing, we are to stretch out her antibiotics three more days. This is besides the point but I organzed with my book club to go shopping on black friday, I organized this whole thing, with lunch at my house afterwards and it isn't looking good at this point. Well I am now sitting here and listening to her coughing in bed constantly at 10:12pm - the poor kid! It sounds like whooping cough, croup to me. And I am just waiting for her to throw up, this is kinda like dejavu from two weeks ago - with the exception that now I know what to look for and hope not to see the high fever again and have to call 911 and go in an ambulance to Strong, however the rate we are going it wouldn't surprised me if we ended up back at Strong. I did inform the doc. that we need to get her better by Christmas since we are flying to Nanas!!!! We are all looking forward to getting out of dodge so to speak. I can't believe there is a winter storm warning tomorrow all day - Turkey Day, gobble, gobble, Happy Thanksgiving, we are hoping to still go to my Mom's house but we will see, my mom is so sweet to offer to bring it to us. I was really looking forward to seeing my nieces and nephew, however I don't want Ashley to get them sick either. We'll see how she is tomorrow, we'll keep pumping her full of motrin and mucinex as doc. suggested.

Our Land

September 2006

Catching a ride with Daddy.
Having snack with friends in Sept. of 2006