Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Ashlyn

Well I am sitting here night 3 in the hospital with Ashlyn.
Sunday night Katey wasnt feeling very well and ended up puking on the top of the stairs, we got that cleaned up and Ash started puking. Then Katey ran "to the bathroom" and 2 mins later Ashlyn yells... "I have to poop right NOW". In a matter of 3 hrs Ashlyn was puking every 20 mins, and was up to 14x's. I took her to the ER where she pukes as we arrived and they took us straight back. Then they gave her and IV and she puked again, so they gave her some nausia medication. She was extremly dehydrated and her blood pressure was low, and her heart rate was high. Her blood came back with really low electrolights and they decided to admit her. We are now on our 3rd night here and she is still miserable. Her blood pressure and heart rate have returned to normal, but then she started spiking fevers, and her tummy is hurting her really bad tonight. I am hoping this will start getting better and we can go home tomorro. So far tonight her fever hasnt come back so maybe thats a good sign. She's very crabby, but I think she's entitled to feel crappy.

Well, I am gonna see if she will go to sleep, I am exhausted.
Shel

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Kit Kat

My poor little Katey has had this aweful rash for 2 mths now.
We went into the peds office and the nurse pract. said it was extremly dry skin and to shower less frequently and use a ton of lotion. That didnt help. Then we went back in because she had strep, they gave her antibiotics and hydrocortizone cream for the rash. Then we went back in because the rash wasnt getting better and they gave her prednizone. Then we go back in again and they said it was scabies. We treated her for scabies and it was WORSE the next day. We went to the dermatologist and she said it was NOT scabies, but she wasnt sure what it was. She gave her a steroid shot and said she would be feeling better by the time we got home.... NOPE.... We went back to the ped today for a follow up and he said its even worse than the last time he saw it and immediatly got on the phone with Children's Memorial Hospital downtown Chicago and she has an appt tomorro at 1. This is after he had to beg and pull in all the favors to get her in. The last 3 times we have been there he has waived all charges. I tell you, this is the best pediatrician I have even seen. He is totally concerned about the patient not his wallet.

I will update tomorro what they say at Childrens.
Shel

Monday, March 23, 2009

Kathryn's speech against violence

Kathryn is giving a speech today and tomorrow in all the science classes in 6th grade. She wasnt happy about how boring the bullying assembly's they have at the school and talked to her Principal about it. She told him it was very boring and repetitive, and that the kids dont even pay attention to it anymore. And she told him how important this is to her and about her cousin Adrianne. He was very impressed with her. She wrote a new speech and is giving it today and tomorrow. She's very excited about this.

Here is her speech.

Hi, Most of you know me, but for those of you who don’t my name is Kathryn, those of you who do know me, you know I am a silly, hyper, crazy person. But today I come to you to discuss something very serious.

Raise your hand, if any of you have ever not liked someone.
Raise your hand, if any of you have ever said, or heard someone say “I could just kill her or him”.
Raise your hand if you know anyone who has ever been bullied.

I am going to tell you guys about someone I know who was bullied…..my 16yr old cousin Adrianne Reynolds…. Adrianne lived in Texas and moved to Illinois to live with her dad, my Uncle Tony. Adrianne was pretty, funny, and very quickly became popular at her new school. Unfortunately, there was another girl at her school who was jealous of Adrianne’s new popularity. She started bullying my cousin. She told Adrianne she was going to kill her. She told other people at school that she hated her and was going to kill her. Nobody took her seriously because people say that and don’t mean it………. They were wrong.

Adrianne was killed when I was only 8yrs old….. Adrianne’s murder was very hard on the entire family, but try being a kid when it happens…. I would like to turn my loss into something positive to help other people. Adrianne was killed because of jealousy, and hatred. I can not imagine killing or hurting someone because of jealousy, hate, or any reason at all. I would like to do my part to encourage others to make wise choises and to be responsible for their actions, this is why I am speaking to you today.

I am choosing to stand up against violence, and to speak out to others in hopes that other people will think about what they are doing and feeling, and think about the choices they make. We are the future and we need to stop the violence together, but I can not do it alone. The future depends on you.If you know of someone who is being bullied…. speak up.If you don’t get involved they will keep getting bullied until something bad happens.. It’s easy to think that this wont happen to you, or to someone you know…. But it happened to ME, to MY family.

I am really trying to do my part to prevent this sort of violence from happening again….
But I need help.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Wednesday

Not much going on, just waiting on some lab results for Ashlyn.
We had a great weekend with my sister... aside from Ashlyn barfing all over Trysta while she was sleeping, everything was great. We went downtown to American Girl store and Trysta picked out a new doll and PJ's that match for her and her dolly. Then we caught up to the boys just in time to see them dye the river green. It was really cool. Then on Sunday Brandon sang in the choir and even had a solo. Aunt Cassie was in tears as she has never heard how good the boy could sing and she was totally surprised. Then we went to Bass Pro Shop with Mike and Cassie and found the coolest out door mall, so Chris and I went shopping with the kids. We went to Aero and to Hollister.

Last night was Kathryn's school choir concert. They meet up with the other 6 schools in the district 122, and each school sings 3 songs, then they all combine for 1 song all together at the end and they sing "This is why we sing". Truely a beautiful song.

Now, if only this week would hurry up and get over.
Lots of Love,
Shel

Friday, March 13, 2009

It's finally Friday

Yippie,
Whoop Whoop,
HURRAY!

Its Friday, Friday the 13th even, and my sister is coming for the weekend!
I am soooo excited. They will be here tonight around 7, so the kids can have a little while together before bed. Then we will be on the 8:30 train tomorrow morning headed for downtown Chicago. Tryton LOVES trains, and I cant wait to see his reaction to riding a real train. Cassie and I are taking the girls to the American Girl store, and Mike and Chris are going to watch them die the Chicago river green. We will hopefully meet up with George sometime Sat. Then Sat night we are going to have a poker night with the neighbors. Sunday morning we have to be at church because Brandon has a small solo in the choir. And it sounds like Carol and Jim will be able to come with. So this will be a really fun, busy weekend.

Lots of Love,
Shel

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Last Night

Oh My Word !
Last night was aweful.
It started out really great. Dinner was on the table when Chris walked in the door. We ate dinner and got into Jammies and were all cuddled up and watching Chuch by 6:45. Then we got everyone a ice cream cone and finished our show. We got everyone's teeth brushed and all into bed by 8:15. I went up and watched American Idol, and Chris worked for a while. He finally came to bed at 10.

11:20pm.
I had a really bad dream that Chris died, and never came home from work. I jumped away and went to reach for him, and he was GONE. I went to look for him and all the lights in the house were off. He was updating my computer, checking on our plants, and setting mouse traps in the garage. I went back to bed.

1:00am
Ashlyn came in and woke me up. She wanted to ask if she could go pee. Seriously?! If you have to go pee, just go, there is no need to wake me up at night. But she also wanted to tell me that I am the best and she loves me. Ok thanks honey. Got her tucked back into bed.

2:30am
I wake up to screaming. Ashlyn is screaming her head off. I go in and she is laying in barf. I get her undressed and give her a bath. It was so nasty, in her hair, on her face, on her arm, on her back.. and it was STINKY !! I made her a bed of blankets on the floor and accidently woke up Chris in the process. We got Ashlyn all settled in and he got her a bucket. Chris immediatly falls asleep.

3:15am
Just as I am starting to fall asleep, Ashlyn starts coughing and barfing into the bucket. I am so relieved that she actually used the bucket. I bring her to the bathroom and have her rinse her mouth out, get her back in bed.

4:00am
Ashlyn is spitting into the bucket again. I take her to the bathroom, and get her mouth rinsed out. She goes pee, and put her back to bed.

5:00am
Chris' alarm starts going off. I hear it, but dont move.

6:00am
Chris' alarm goes off again, and he is way to tired and decides to stay home from work.

7:10am
My alarm goes off to wake up Kathryn, and Brandon.
Luckily I already set their clothes out the night before, so I wake them and tell them to get dressed, eat breakfast and get ready for school. Katey sets her alarm to be out to the bus ontime and I go back to bed.

8:30am
My alarm goes off again. Time to get up and get boy out the door to his bus.
Ashlyn now wakes up and is ready for the day. Chris decides to get up and log into work.
I go back to sleep and dont get up again till 10:45.

AND I AM STILL TIRED !
Shel

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I am sooo irritated! SERIOUSLY

Ok, so I went to lunch today with Ashlyn and Kathryn.
We were enjoying a nice lunch when this lady comes in with her older daughter whom had 2 children, and another daughter who appeared to be about 15yrs old. Terry-Ann was her name, and she had some kind of mental disability. She acted more like a 3yr old. Ashlyn waved to her and she ran over to say hello, which started them off yelling at her. They told her to stop it and to sit down. Every time Terry-Ann tried to talk to them, they would yell at her and tell her to stop it, or shut up, or if you dont behave you wont get your drink. Now, Terry-Ann was not even misbehaving, and she kept getting in trouble just for speaking. I SOOO wanted to tell them that Terry-Ann was behaving just fine, however they were being extremly loud and disruptive. I swear the whole place could hear their conversation and it got worse when they yelled at Terry-Ann. Even Kathryn was like, OMG mom what is she doing wrong? Then apparently she didnt eat her food fast enough and she asked if she could take it home and the mother PUNCHED her in the arm, and yelled at her again that she needed to behave and to shut up and eat her food.
At this point I couldnt handle it anymore and asked for the bill.
I should have called the police or something, but by the way they were acting I was not about to confront them, especially in front of my children. I am still disturbed. I cant believe she punched the girl in the arm!!!

Grrrr,
Shel

Monday, March 9, 2009

Visit to my Sisters

Well, after a horrible week, we had a WONDERFUL and much needed weekend.

We went to my sister's new place in Wisconsin. Right now they live on a lake. Its a really nice place. The lake is completly frozen so we got to do a little shoe skating and the kids LOVED it.Mike fried up fish, and hushpuppies for dinner, and I make potato salad, and cole slaw. It was SOOOO good. Apparently when he went on a fishing trip with some buddies, they forgot to bring a marinade for the fish so they soaked it in mustard just for the heck of it, and it ended up being fantastic. So he made us the mustard fried fish and it really was fantastic. It was so good, we didnt even need tarter sauce with it. The kids had a blast playing together, and when we got them all put to bed we started drinkin and playin poker. It was soooo much fun.

Then we went to Perkins for breakfast and I had the worst potato pancakes ever, and from now on, I will just stick to Chris' potato pancakes. We went back to the house to hang out for a little bit before we headed back home. All of a sudden Mike says, ummm guys it's starting to snow. We hurried up and jumped into the van to get the heck out of town, but the blizzard came way to fast. We ended up doing 35 down the interstate and in a 2 miles stretch there were 11 cars on the side of the road or in the ditch. IT WAS CRAZY !! But we made it safely home, and I cant wait to go back up for a visit.

Thanks Mike and Cassie for inviting us to your home, and haveing such a great time.
Lots of Love,
Shel

Friday, March 6, 2009

It's finally Friday

This has been a horrible week for me.
Not only did my friend from school Micah die, and I couldnt go to the funeral, but we also had to put our dog Capone down. It's been a very sad and difficult week for us.

But now, its Friday, and I am looking forward to spending the weekend with my sister Cassie. They are all moved into a house in Milwaukee and I cant wait to go see her. The house they are currently in is on a lake, and Mike cant wait to take the kids fishing. Ashlyn is looking forward to seeing her "friends". Mike now works for Harley and has bought the kids each something Harley. I havent told them yet, so he can surprise them. Cassie is getting eye surgery to correct her vision tonight, and we will be going up first thing in the morning.

Here's to a better weekend.
Shel

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Micah Neff

RIP Micah Neff
1977-2009
It is so very hard to believe that you are gone. I will always remember your smile, your eyes, your silly personalitly. Your ability to make everyone around you laugh. I will always think of biology class with you, and how you would take on any dare, including licking the fish, and putting the eyeball in your mouth. You were up for anything. You grossed me out, but I couldnt wait to see what you would do next. I was just telling my kids about you the other day. My daughter was disecting a frog in class and it reminded me of you. They laughed when I told them about you. All of my memories of you bring a smile to my face. You were smart, funny, kind, and I am really going to miss you. God Bless You Micah
Lots of Love,
Shel

March.. ok already

So its the 3rd day of March already.
I am already ready for spring already. I even got my spring cleaning done. The house is clean, dusted, and oil soaped up the wazoo. Now I need the nicer, warmer weather to hurry up and get here.

This year, unfortunatly, we will not be in the ST. Patty's day parade in the QC. Last year our float started to break on the bridge and we were trying to get about 35 people off the float before the whole bumper fell off and injured someone. Well the one guy on the commitee threw a fit, demanded us to move it, and I wouldnt move it until we got everyone safely off. He got up in my dad's face and was screaming at him and tried to get my dad arrested because we wouldnt move the float. Once everyone was off, we moved it and the parade was able to contine. Because this guy is on the comittee he punished us by not allowing us to participate this year. So since we are not going home, Chris wants to go downtown Chicago and go to the parade there. I think it will be great fun.

Well anyway, I am just wanting spring to get here and fast.
Have a great day.
Shel