Random Things

Yesterday was a rough one for Katie...she had been having a fever for a few days so I took her into the doctor to get her checked out. The doc didn't really see any other symptoms, but wanted to get a throat swab done. That was a chore. The poor nurse...it took us like 20 minutes to do the simple swab. We asked her if we could do it, told her it would tickle, bribed her with stickers and balloons. Nothing. So, we had to hold her down...I tickled her and we tried to get her to open her mouth. Another 10 minutes and finally got the swab. Naturally, she gagged. That was lovely. Then she started crying....poor little thing.

I was able to get Katie back to day care in time for lunch and then Kasey and I headed home for lunch ourselves. We were back home for just over an hour and had to pick up Katie to take her to the appointment at the allergy clinic.

OK...I don't know about you, but I find that being in a small room with 2 young children who have not had a nap all day is difficult enough in itself. Add in a doctor to the mix and I was about to rip my hair out.

Anyway...

The doc told us that basically the creams we have been using our basically worthless after 2 weeks. Katie has been using them for 3 months. Yep, 3 months. He also said that Zyrtec is not doing all we need it to do. So he put her back on Elidel cream for the eczema patches and the Minerin cream for all over and also prescribed some Atarax. She has to take 2 tsps 4 times a day of the Atarax. That's a lot of medicine! He also prescribed Nasonex (that's a lot of fun to squirt up Katie's nose...) and an antibiotic. The antibiotic was prescribed to make sure her skin is rid of any Staph that might be present.

The doc also said that her case of eczema is quite severe. Not the worst he has seen, but pretty severe. For once, I am thankful that we do not live close to family because this would be hard for them to see. Her entire body is covered. It's really sad. Her eyelids and under her eyes are getting very dry and it's hard to put lotion or cream there because she wipes it off immediately. She also has dandruff from the dry skin on her scalp. Thank goodness she has blonde hair :)

The doc told us that I needed to keep Katie's nails shorter. SHORTER?!?! Are you kidding? If they get any shorter, they will bleed! AND...he said we should be keeping cotton gloves on her and socks every night at bedtime. Umm...ok. Good one! I remember how she used to get those mittens off as a baby. I don't think she will keep them on. Then he says we should TAPE them on her. I don't think so. I will keep an eye on the nails, sure. But tape cotton gloves and socks on her at night? I don't think so. If she takes them off, she takes them off.

The next step was to decide which sort of allergy test to give her - patch test on her skin or blood test. The doc said her body was too covered in rashes to do the patch test so she had to have the blood test. Well, at that point in the day I knew that Brian was off work so I had him come pick up Kasey so that I would only need to wait at the lab with Katie and not have to worry about entertaining Kasey as well.

Katie hasn't had her blood drawn since she was itty bitty so I didn't know how it would go. She was with us a few weeks ago when Kasey had his blood drawn so she knew that she needed to stick out her arm and that she would get a sticker and a lollipop when she was done. Here comes the needle....SCREAMING! FLAILING! KICKING! SCREAMING! BITING!

They had to get 3 vials.

And here I have to hold her down and can't really comfort her. The poor thing started drooling on me. She was a trooper and they decided that she could have chocolate since she was so brave. Chocolate...we love chocolate. They knew how to speak her language.

It was about 3:30 now and we still had to wait at the pharmacy for her meds.

Katie has been up since 6:30...she didn't sleep well the night before due to severe itching. She has endured an emotional throat swab and 3 vials of blood drawn. She is crabby and itchy and tired and waiting at the pharmacy did NOT sound good at all. The average wait time is 45 minutes. I usually come back and pick it up later, but Katie needed to start the meds immediately. So, we got our #, gave them my ID and got signed in. Then we wait. Katie ended up falling asleep on me which actually was probably the best thing that could have happened. I don't mind the drool spots :)

It ended up being such a long day for Katie...but she made it through and the Atarax has already made an improvement!! WOOOOO!

The clinic called back today and she doesn't have strep. Phew!

So, we go back to the allergy clinic in about 3 weeks to see if the blood tests turned up any positive matches for allergies. I am hoping that cat and dog dander do not turn up positive...BUT I am really looking forward to finding out what she is allergic to!

I took Katie to the doc again yesterday for her skin issues. The doctor took a look at her and said that she was looking worse. DUH! Hence, the appointment...

Anyway, I went on and on about how she is not sleeping well and she is having behavioral issues and WE are not sleeping because she screams for us and comes in to bug us about her itching. Poor little thing. Well, I think it is finally sinking in...he put in a referral for us to see an allergy specialist. And they called today to setup an appointment for tomorrow! WOO! I don't know if they will be doing any testing tomorrow or if it will be more of a consultation...but I can't wait to get to the bottom of the eczema/allergies.

I will keep you posted!

I stole this idea from a friend...pretty neat!

We shopped and shopped on Saturday. WOO! We made a plan as to what we were going to get and where we were going to go. I grabbed all my coupons and gift cards and we made a day of it. I love coupons! I love sales! And I love gift cards! We bought so much stuff! We only spent like $80 and between coupons and sales saved over $500 :) NOT to mention the gift cards saving us money too. YAY! I saved over $225 alone at Lane Bryant without the coupon or gift card and managed to spend only $30 out of my own pocket. Woo! And then we had to hit Old Navy of course. Hehe. We bought a lot of summer clothes for the kids and a few things for each of us. We hit Target for summer clothes as well. I love that they were already on sale at both stores. But..in a few weeks, the new styles will be out and I will want to buy more...sigh.

There was a foul, mysterious odor in the van this weekend. I hate it when that happens...usually a milk cup or bottle gets left somewhere to get spoiled by the heat and then eventually stink up the van. It was gorgeous on Sunday so I decided to clean it out. I was able to vaccuum and shampoo and now it looks new again. Yay!! AND the odor has disappeared. WOO! I am going to keep a bottle of Febreze handy just in case.

I think the weather down here in the spring is perfect!! It's warm, but not hot. (Unless you have black on and are standing in the sun.) There's a cool breeze. The nights are cool and the days are sunny and beautiful. But a weird thing I noticed both last year and this year is that the leaves fall off the trees in the spring. That is SO weird to me! Growing up in South Dakota, it seemed that the leaves fell off the trees in early autumn when the weather started cooling off. The trees have it backwards here. HA! Maybe I just didn't notice the leaves falling off the trees in the spring out there? I like to think I am observant, but that might have escaped me...

My hydrangeas are starting to grow and should be blooming in a few weeks. They are going to look nice! The other flowers I planted last year were mostly annuals, but I was told that since it doesn't freeze here, they tend to come back. Umm...so far it's not looking so good. I only have a few in the back yard that are coming back to life. I think I might do some yard work this next weekend and get the yard looking nice again. It is full of leaves right now and looks bad. BOO! I might go get some more flowers, although Katie thinks that if there is a flower, that she must pick it. So...I might end up getting some small bushes or something instead. I guess I will wait and see what I find!

I am on day 3 of my new job! Woo! It is going well! My schedule has shifted some so that I can be available during the business hours of the customer. So, I am now working 10:00am - 7:00pm. So far it has been going well. Kasey has been getting up at about 5:00 am or earlier so we get up and I am able to get a ton of things done before I start work. This has been nice!

Today:
Got up about 4:45am...got Kasey some milk and something to eat.
Let the dog out.
Watched the dog and cat play - well, actually...watched the cat kick the dog's butt! So funny! (we got a new cat by the way)
Made some breakfast...Brian said it smelled good and that I should have made him some...ha! I am nice, but not that nice :-)
Watched a bit of Fox & Friends
Did 2 loads of laundry
Washed some dishes and ran the dishwasher
Gave Kasey a bath...he umm...made a mess....
Woke Katie up at about 7:15 so she could get ready for Day care
Dropped Katie off at day care at about 7:30
Went for a 30 minute walk - it was gorgeous out this morning
Came home and put Kasey down for a nap
Attempted to do some Pilates, but couldn't find the DVD...hmmmm
Swapped out some more laundry
Logged on to my computer to check email, etc...
Finally jumped into the shower at about 9:00am

I got a lot done in those 5 hours before I actually started work!

After work...ugh...I had to fight with Katie to get her to bed. This seems to be a nightly ritual, especially if she takes a nap. Sigh...

Tomorrow is the first day of spring! Those of you related to us...be prepared for a phone call from Katie tomorrow. She wants to sing the "Spring Time" song to everybody. :)

My trip to Colorado went by very quickly!

It started on Sunday with Brian and the kids dropping me off at the airport. Katie clung to my leg and was begging me to stay. She didn't want me to go - she was going to miss me so much. Kasey just wanted to go home and take a nap!

We were able to get Katie's attention changed to having to use the bathroom so I could get into the security check without her seeing me. Well, I guess since this was the first time that I had been away from my kids (for more than a quick trip to the store), it hit me like a brick! I was standing there taking my shoes off, getting everything out of my pockets and pulling my laptop out of my bag...I started tearing up. I couldn't stop it. The tears just came out. Man...I guess it was harder than I thought it would be to leave my kids for a few days! I have to admit that I did enjoy the break. It was nice to have some uninterrupted sleep! I missed the kids and Brian, but I was only gone for 3 days. They are glad to have me back at home and I am happy to be home.

I had a great time out there! Jennie made some yummy pork carnitas! Brian's grandma and cousin came over for dinner and we had a good time. I had a good time at work too! It is always great to see my coworkers. We got in some good training and I am feeling very confident to hand off my current responsibilities. I officially start my new position tomorrow. Woo!

The United States Air Force has been going through a sort of workforce reduction the past few years. Essentially, there are too many people and they need to lower the numbers. This has not affected us. Until now.

Brian has been informed that due to this "reshaping", he may possibly be affected. We are supposed to find out in the coming months...

So.

We have to make a plan. Should his name appear on the list of those individuals being affected, he will have basically 2 options. 1) Try to fight to stay in by getting recommendations from those in his chain of command or 2) Take it and go civilian.

We continue to go back and forth on this. There are many pros and cons. But, we have to have a plan in place for the civilian world because even if he fights to stay in, there is no guarantee that his fight will be a success.

We continue to pray that God will point us in the right direction. We know that this is in His hands and we have to accept the path He has laid out for us.

I know I haven't told many of you about this, but I just didn't have much to report. There is a chance we will be near friends and family again in the near future!

I booked my flight and rental car for my quick trip to Colorado next week. It took MANY MANY phone calls to line up day care for the kids for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but it was somewhat short notice so I can understand. I was able to get care for them together each day which will be best for all :)

It is going to be WEIRD to spend 3 nights away from my kids!!! I wonder if I will get a full night's sleep AND if I do, will I feel weird? I mean, it's been probably 4 years since I have been able to sleep through the night. 4 years! That's a long time, but I think I have adapted. I think if I do get full night's rest those nights I will probably either be extra hyper OR super sleepy from getting too much sleep. Is there such a thing? I just hope the kids behave for Brian and the care providers...I am going to miss them next week!!!

We had a bit of a rough weekend at our house. I will spare the details, but let me just say that the entire family got hit with a stomach virus. It hit us fast and hit us hard. Within an hour of Kasey getting sick, Katie got sick. Less than 2 hours later I got sick. A few hours later, Brian got sick. It was not good. But, it left quickly and we are back in business :-)

It's amazing to me how quickly the kids bounced back. By 7am Sunday (a mere 4 hours after the last time they both got sick) they were up running around and acting crazy! But soon after were asleep in their beds. It took a toll on them. Thankfully I was able to keep them hydrated. Brian and I both took Monday off of work to recooperate. I slept a lot and felt like I was playing hookie from work. Brian assures me that I needed the rest.

Today was a day of con calls. I was on the phone from 8am - 4pm. I was able to take a 17 minute lunch break to feed Kasey some Cheerios and a banana. I had a piece of toast. I was slammed with projects this afternoon and was finally able to log off work at 7pm. LONG day!

It will get less hectic as I give up my responsibilities on the web team and focus on my new position.

I am possibly going to be traveling to Colorado Springs next week! Woo! Tentative plan is Sunday through Wednesday. It should be a good time. I will get to meet some new folks on the team and sit down with those taking on my responsbilities for some hard core training. I just hope it is able to work out with Brian's new schedule. He is supposed to be starting a 2pm - 11pm shift next week and I have called numerous care providers to see if they can watch the kids during that shift. No such luck. I will miss the kids terribly! It will be my first time away from them EVER! The only time I have been away from Katie at night was when I was in the hospital after having Kasey. And that was only for 2 nights. And she came to visit me. I am sure that since she will have pre-school and day care, she should be all set!

Today was Katie's first day of pre-school! Yay! So I asked her this morning if she would like to wear something nice...something special on her first day of pre-school. She got all excited and said "yes, mama!" So I told her to go pick something out.

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......I want to wear my Broncos jersey!
Really?
Yep!
You don't want to wear a dress or a pretty shirt?
No...I wanna wear the Broncos today. AND....I want 2 hairbows in. One orange and one blue.

And that was that! Hehe...she is too funny! I didn't have a chance to take her picture because we didn't want to be late, but she was very cute! :-) I can't wait to see what she wants to wear on her first day of Kindergarten...

So, I broke down and bought Kasey his first pair of Crocs yesterday. YES, they actually make them that small! SO CUTE! They are much like the ones pictured here. I chose the bright yellow ones because they are so fun! :) He wasn't real sure what he thought of them and preferred to put them in his mouth. Nice. Katie's crocs are wearing out...sigh. She wants a new pair of purple ones. I think I might try to get her a pair like Kasey's only a different color. She likes Mickey Mouse!

We had Kasey's 12 month well baby appointment yesterday. He weighed 21lbs, 12 oz and was 29 7/8 inches. He is still in the 50th percentile so he is growing well. :)

I pulled out Katie's stats from her 12 month well baby appointment and she weighed 20lbs, 9oz and was 30 3/4 inches. She was in the 95th percentile.

If they continue to grow at this rate, it appears that Katie will most likely be taller than Kasey when they are adults.

I love watching them grow! They are so fun!