Let's fix those teeth!

Megan is counting down until Friday. She gets her braces and she is excited! I don't think she's so excited for braces, but rather to get her teeth straightened. They are quite crooked at this point. :( So much, that they are starting to bother her when she puts them together.

Tomorrow we start the process. It is her first appointment for x-rays and impressions. They are also going to put spacers between her teeth because she has to have ANOTHER pallet expander. We go back on Friday and they will put her full set of braces on. Then in another 1 1/2 weeks, we will go back again and they will put in her palette expander. Lastly, we go in about a week later to make sure everything is working and where it is supposed to be. Making four appointments is hard work!

I am really hoping she doesn't have any reactions to the palette expander. We are pretty sure that the palette expander she had in 2015 caused her eczema and triggered her water hives (which she still gets).  We are going to try to keep away from as much metal as we can because she tested positive for a gold allergy back in December. The allergist said that if you are allergic to gold, you are usually allergic to all the other metals too. We are going to do ceramic brackets and titanium wires.  I will talk to the orthodontist more about it tomorrow.

A Clean Room- how amazing!

As we were all recovering from our virus this weekend, I put Christian on a mission. He HAD to clean his room. We were supposed to hold small group here Sunday night, so it was on the agenda anyway, but once that got cancelled (due to everyone being sick), I told him he still had to get it clean.

I don't remember the last time it was cleaned!! And lately, I just make a path to his bed at night, but the last week or so, enough was enough!!

I also wanted it cleaned for a different reason. Back in the fall when we were having so much trouble with his behavior, we found it very effective to take a laundry basket and start picking up things off of his floor. The deal was that he could have them back when his behavior improved. This included any toys, clothes (clean or dirty), books, or whatever we grabbed at the moment. We had quite a stash of his stuff for quite awhile!! Now that his behavior has improved, he has been earning his stuff back. But once he gets it back, he just dumps the basket on top of the already big mess!

He also has this little habit of not picking up his dirty clothes at night, so along with his toys, he has dirty underwear, socks, shirts, and jeans throughout his room. And then he would blame ME when he doesn't have any clean clothes!!! PICK UP YOUR DIRTY CLOTHES!!! Along with not picking up his dirty clothes, he would not put his clean clothes away. After I have done laundry, I will set his clean clothes in an pile right inside his doorway and expect him to put them away. HA! That doesn't usually happen either.  He didn't know what was clean or dirty half the time! Yesterday when he was getting ready for church, he didn't have any clean jeans. HMMMM!!! I ended up finding a pair in his sister's room. I am not sure how they got in there!

Because of the toys being scattered everywhere and his clothes one big clean/ dirty mess, I told him he had to get it cleaned up!!

He spent all afternoon up there and once he got going, I went up and helped him a little. He got all his KNEX put in his boxes and his other toys sorted and put away. He even got all his dirty clothes picked up and clean clothes put away.  He was pretty excited when he found some clothes that we had taken away! He came downstairs last night in a pair of pajamas that he has been without for awhile! It was nice seeing him in some different clothes again!

I loved walking in there last night to tuck him into bed and not having to kick toys to the side for a path! It was so nice!

Now the real test is to see how long he can keep it clean!

Get out of my house, yucky germs!

As of this point, three of my families members have had norovirus round 2! Christian, Megan, and myself. I am pretty sure Micah is coming down with it this afternoon. He crashed on me about a half an hour ago and I was able to lay him on the floor. That means something is wrong!!!

I want these viruses gone. We had one week where we all had colds to the next week have GI problems again! I have had enough puke this winter to last me a long time! Our mantra around here is "Get it in the bucket!" Matt is tired of cleaning it up! (I can't clean puke up or I will gag! sorry Matt!)

Last night and lack of sleep...again!

Someday these children will figure out that their parents need sleep!!

Last night after I got the kids to bed, I stayed up and read ahead for science and history. Of course, I couldn't get to sleep when I was done. I think I finally got to sleep about midnight.

Around 2:30 am, I hear, "Mom" coming from Christian's room. I sat up and tried to see if he would say it again. When I didn't hear anything else, I went to investigate. Christian was sitting up in bed and he said, "I don't feel so good." I asked him back, "Do you feel like throwing up?" He said, "No....well....maybe." UGH!! I found a bucket in his room full of musical instruments and I dumped it out on his floor. I did not want a repeat of a month ago! Of course, he said to me, "I don't want that bucket, it has Easter eggs on it." (It was an Easter egg bucket.) I told him I didn't care what was on it. If he needs to throw up, he needs to throw up in the bucket.  I gave it to him and within a minute or so, he threw up! Wow! He got everything in the bucket!  Right in the middle of it, Matt came flying from our room and wanted to know what was going on. I told him that he would not need to clean up a mess because Christian had a bucket! He was very relieved!!

After taking care of Christian, Matt and I headed back to bed. It was a little before 3 am. About 15 minutes later, Matt got out of bed because he was wide awake. Unfortunately, he was up for the day.

Around 4:15 am, I heard Micah start to cry. Double ugh because Micah rarely cries himself back to sleep! I let him cry for awhile. Around 4:30 am, Matt came upstairs to take a shower. When he was done getting ready for work around 5, Micah was still fussing. I asked him if he would go get him and he did.  I ended up getting up too at this time, and taking Micah downstairs to feed him. Matt was eating breakfast, so we watched the morning news together at 5:30 am.

Matt left around 5:45 am for work and Micah continued to nurse. By about 6:15, he was sound asleep again. I felt like I had two options. I could either continue to sit on the recliner and hold him until I get the big kids up at 7:30, or I could take my chance and try to lay him back in his bed. Then I could go back to bed for an hour! I took my chance and around 6:30, I laid him back in his bed. I was able to go back to bed myself.  I did get back to sleep!

As 7:15 rolled around, Micah was back awake and fussing again. I let him cry a little bit and around 7:30, I went in and got him. Now both of us were up for good!

The girls got up and I told them about our night. They were unaware of any of it! Christian eventually got up, and he still had a stomach ache. He wasn't doing so well in the morning and spent some time actually laying on the bathroom floor because he was so weak. I found a recipe for homemade pedialyte, so I got that made and that seemed to help. I finally got to school about 11:15 am for the girls and we just did Language Arts this morning. Christian got a sick day.

We had PE this afternoon, which I was supposed to lead, so I had my girls lead it instead. We had a scavenger hunt at  local mall. I stayed home with the boys.  Christian was also supposed to have basketball practice tonight, but we kept him home from that too.

Hopefully everybody will sleep tonight and we can get back into that habit! W have had a rough couple of weeks with all these viruses working through our family.

Results of Basketball Games

We were up bright and early on Saturday morning. We needed to be up at the church by 8:45 am for Christian's first basketball game of the season! We were very excited for him! Last year, he was the youngest boy on the team and could not even dribble the basketball. This year, he has improved so much. He got his hands on the ball a couple of times during the game and was able to dribble for a little bit. He didn't seem as lost as he did last year! Unfortunately, he still wasn't feeling the best and at one point, he asked his coach if he could sit out a quarter because he was coughing. He ended up coming over to us and Matt gave him some albuterol. When he as feeling better, he went back in, but got paired up with a boy on the other team who as about six inches taller than him! This other boy was kind of rough and was pushing Christian around a bit. Again, the coach noticed Christian was in tears and had him sit down the rest of the quarter. I think he did a great job, despite all of this. Next week he will be at 100% and will strive to do even better!

Courtney, on the other hand, came out feisty as ever for her game!! She got to start and was thrilled. She is one of the shorter girls on her team, so like Matt said, "Whenever the ball was on the floor, Courtney was likely to get to it first." And she did! She was constantly on the floor of the gym fighting for the basketball! Sometimes she would be on the floor and then she would stand up and go for a shot! Wow! She would often just grab the basketball from an opponent and not let go; she would force a jump ball. She tried to shoot many times, but only made one or two.

During the last two minutes, she tried to shoot and the ref called a foul. During the whole game, the ref would call a foul and just take the ball out. Nobody would get free throws, but during this foul, I heard the ref say, "Give the red team two points." Courtney was the red team. In the end, Courtney's' team won 16-14. They only won because of those two points from the foul! At the end of the game, I heard another mom say that during the last two minutes of play, they are just giving points in a foul instead of taking the ball out. Great job Courtney by forcing that foul!

Courtney ended up  playing five of the six quarters on Saturday because they were missing some teammates. She was completely red and blotchy when she was done! Even though she was completely exhausted, she loved every minute of it!

We are on the mend. Hopefully!

This has been a long week. All of us, except Courtney, had colds. They are just hanging on too. I talked to my chiropractor on Thursday and she said they are staying around for 2- 3 weeks. I believe it!  We all have been sneezing, blowing our noses, losing our voices, and Micah's chest was crackly the other day. It has not been fun! Unfortunately, every time Christian gets a cold, it always turns into bronchitis. Yesterday, he coughed all day long and sure enough, I took his temperature when he went to bed last night and it was 101 degrees. (This is when he pushed the thermometer out of his mouth, I am sure it was higher.) Today I let him play Legos all day and take a "sick day" from school. He barely coughed all day! I am still run down too, so we did what we had to get done and will get back to it next week.

I hope Christian feels even better tomorrow morning because it is his first basketball game! For the last three years, we have played basketball with the Upward Program at a local church. We love this program because they play in January and February, which are the months when you are cooped up at home due to the weather. Basketball gives us something to do! It also gets the kids exercising during the long winter months. It is for ages kindergarten through 5th grade, so Christian and Courtney are both playing this year. Christian's games are always at 8 or 9 am and Courtney's are always at 3 or 4 pm. It kind of takes our whole Saturdays! Tonight when I tucked Courtney and Christian into bed, I told them I would be cheering for them tomorrow. Megan said, "Hey, what about me?" I said, "I will cheer you on to because you will probably be chasing Micah all over the place!" She laughed! I don't know how we are going to handle him during these games!!!

Little guy is sick!

Micah has been pretty healthy in the disease department for most of his life. He has his first big cold right now and he is pretty sad! He cries whenever he coughs and you can hear the mucus in his lungs rattling. It is pretty miserable.  I called the doctor yesterday morning because I didn't want it to be pneumonia. She said if he spikes a fever and gets very lethargic, then we should be concerned. I told her we weren't there yet, and I was ok treating his symptoms at home. We have been through bronchitis enough with Christian that we know the routine! Advil and Albuteral are my friends right now. He is also sleeping in the pack n play in my room, so I can keep an eye on him.

Since Micah is sick, we knew he would probably pass it around. I currently have a sore throat along with Megan and Christian. Matt is just blowing his nose a lot, but he says he is more achy than anything. The only one who feels great is Courtney! This is so typical- she has a rock start immune system!

We have had a pretty slow week around here. Last night, I was up with Micah from 2:30-4 am, so I turned my alarm off and didn't end up waking up until 9 am! Luckily everybody else was still sleeping too. I don't even remember Matt getting up and going to work!

We got through what we could today with school. I had to take many breaks to take care of Micah and comfort him. He did not want to play on his own very much, but he just wanted to be held. When he was tired, he slept in the ergo front carrier. His naps have been about an hour lately, so I am kind of restricted on what I can do during that time because I am carrying him.  Tomorrow might be much of the same. Hopefully he will start improving here shortly or I might have to take him into the doctor. Now that the ice storm is over, I can make it there without a problem.

New Truck!

Ever since we found out we were expecting Micah, we knew we were going to have to get a new truck to pull the camper. Our old truck only fit five and there was no way we were going to fit a 6th person in there.

For almost the last two years, we have thrown around many ideas and did a lot of research on what would work and what would not work. We have talked with many people and everybody always said,
"Just buy a SUV, those fit six." You are right, they do, BUT they do not pull the weight that we need. We have researched this upside down and backwards, and the only SUVs that will pull our camper are about 15 years old and have over 200,000 miles on them (Ford Expedition.) There are SUVs that are newer, but they do not have the tow rating that we need.

This all kind of came to a head about a month ago when Matt figured out that he has about eight weeks of vacation this year. And what is the best thing to do when you have so much vacation? Go on a vacation of course!! And not just a short one, Matt is thinking that he wants to go on another 4-5 week trip. I am in favor of a big trip, but then the problem of the vehicle came up again. This last year, we drove two cars wherever we went. Our longest trip was to Illinois to see some friends and we took the truck with the camper and the mini van. That was nice because we stayed in one place the whole time. Our other trip was to Niobrara State Park in northern Nebraska and to Ledges State Park in Iowa. Again, these weren't too far away and it wasn't a big deal to drive two cars. If we got on a 4-5 week trip, we are going to a coast, so we really don't want to drive two cars.

Again, Matt got busy researching all our options and looking at local dealerships to see what they had. We knew the situation with the SUVs, so matt started looking at trucks. He really likes his Chevrolet, so we started there. He has always wanted a diesel too, so he was looking for those in particular. We also knew we had to fit six people, so we had to have a few stipulations. The truck had to be a diesel, 3/4 ton frame, fit six people (which required a bench seat in the front), and be able to pull 10,000 pounds.

Matt found a truck at a local dealership and we went and looked at it one night. Right away we noticed that there was not a shoulder belt or a headrest in the front middle seat. BUMMER!!! There was no way I was going to put a kid there without those two options.  Our next idea was to put Christian up front in his five point carseat. Matt took his carseat one morning and headed back to the car dealership to try to see if it would fit. Unfortunately, the carseat was way too big for the front seat! What about a narrower carseat? We went to local baby store and checked them out. Again, we ran into trouble. Christian was too big for most of the smaller carseats! Or if he did fit, he would outgrow it within a year.

We went back home and thought about this some more. Matt did some looking online and found these carseat vests that Christian could wear, which would work great, but they needed to be tethered into the truck. Since there was only a lapbelt, Matt was convinced that he could install a tether through the frame of the truck! I was not on board with this idea, but we were really running out of options! I was hoping to talk him out of this option really fast!

We thought some more and decided to look at the Ford side of things. I had a friend tell me that we could put a carseat in the front seat of a Ford truck. We had looked online at Ford's, but we couldn't find any with a bench seat. As a last ditch effort, we decided to head to a local Ford dealership last Saturday and see what they had. After looking online for awhile with a salesman, we couldn't really find a truck with a bench seat, so Matt just asked if he could go to the lot and look at them. Most of them did not have any pictures, so we couldn't tell exactly what the truck had in the front.

Matt and the salesman headed outside to look at some trucks and soon Matt came back in with a big grin on his face. He had his phone in his hand and kept saying, "Look what I found." I looked at the picture, but didn't really understand it at first. After I looked closely, it was a picture of a bench seat in a truck WITH a shoulder belt and headrest in the middle seat!!! WOW!!!!

Now that we knew they existed, Matt and the salesman went back and looked closer at the trucks online. They found ONE truck that fit our criteria and within an hour, they had it brought from another dealership.  We all got in and we fit! Megan was able to be properly buckled in the front seat!!!

In the end, we spent all day at the dealership and brought the truck home that night. We did trade in our Chevrolet and I shed a few tears when we left. That truck took us a LOT of miles!!!

We were concerned that the new truck would not fit in the garage when we got home, but we had 1-2 inches to spare on the top. It is about six inches taller than our old truck. It really does look like a monster truck. Hopefully this one will do a great job like our Chevy did! Even if it is a FORD!

Everybody is cooperating!!

Before Christmas break, I was having a hard time managing school. Between Christian's misbehavior, Micah's lack of naps and being able to play by himself, and just everything else, we were not getting much school done.

I don't know what happened over break, but things have turned 180 degrees!! For the last week, I have covered a whole day's worth of work in one day!!! I don't think that has EVER happened! I feel like we are finally moving forward on some things!

I have trapped Micah in the kitchen and amazingly, he is occupying himself. My floor may be covered with pots, pans, food containers, toys, shoes, food from my pantry, etc. by the end of the day, but he has played by himself and I have been able to get school done!! We are still nursing, so I have tried to do that during reading time and that has worked out well too!

Christian is another story. We had some MAJOR behavior issues with him last fall/ winter. Matt and I were not quite sure what was going on with him, but he was in time out 5-7 times a day. By Christmas, we had confiscated most of his toys and even some of his clothes. We were dealing with discipline issues that we had never dealt with before. And on top of the misbehavior, he was not very cooperative in school! It would often take him 20 minutes to do one worksheet. I actually set the timer and if he wasn't done at the end of 20 minutes, I made him do the rest in the evening. I felt like it was a waste of my time and he was just not doing well!

Now, he has totally flipped. He still says, "No" when I tell him it is time for school, but he still comes over and sits down. I no longer have to set the timer because he keeps working on his schoolwork. His reading has improved by leaps and bounds and his latest favorite book to read is I Can Read with My Eyes Shut. He has read this to me at least a couple times and I know Courtney has also read it to him. I have also seen him by himself trying to read it! I am sooo proud of him!

He is also doing great in math. We have now learned all his numbers, so we are moving onto math concepts. Today we were doing less than or greater than and he got them all right! I barely had to teach him anything! I told him that these were concepts that Megan and Courtney still use and he was impressed!

As for the girls, they are still cooperating too. :)  Megan has ended up having blocks of time to study and she has been using that time very wisely. She is becoming more independent in her school work. She actually told me about a week ago that she wants to be challenged more in history. She doesn't feel like it is hard enough for her and I tend to agree. When I picked the curriculum out for this year, I didn't want to get in over my head, so I picked something on the light side. Well, apparently she wants more!! I don't quite know how I am going to get her "more." I thought maybe she could just pick a topic we talk about and research it on her own everyday.

She is halfway through her math book and we are aiming to finish her 7th grade book as soon as I can. I have ordered the 8th grade book, so we will be doing the pre-algebra chapters in there and hopefully starting her in Algebra I next fall. She also told me that she wants to do five years of high school math. She is also trying to keep up on science and English. She is doing a great job!

Courtney is also excelling. She thinks it is funny that she is in 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade. She is still in her 3rd grade spelling book (2 weeks left), in 4th grade English, and 5th grade math. Oh the joys of being homeschooled!!! She is doing science with Christian and we just started a unit on physics. I am tempted to give her the book and let her do it independently. I think she gets frustrated when I go slower to explain things to Christian. She's always saying, "I got it mom, you can go on now."  Math is super easy for her. We just did a chapter on fractions in about 3 days. She had a "four for one" special one day. We reviewed four lessons in one day! We started a new chapter today on long division and she's already telling me it is too easy. I told her to wait until 6th grade math becuase that is a very challenging year!!

As of now, things are going great! I wish my house was able to stay a little bit cleaner and I had a laundry fairy, but other than that, things are off on the right foot this semester!

Much better!

I feel today is a brand new start for many in my household. Matt eventually got a touch of our disease last night, but never did throw up! Lucky for him! He is still not feeling the best today, so he had to take another day off of work.

As for the rest of us, we are about 95% better! I am still a little weak and so are the kids. I felt better after I ate something, so I think everybody else will too. I think showers are in order for everybody and I am going to put clean sheets on all the beds!

As for school, we will see how we feel this afternoon. As for now, I think we are going to push it off until tomorrow. Megan was the one feeling the best yesterday, but she slept until 10 am, so I bet she is still recovering a little bit.  It will just take time to get everybody back to 100%!!

All of us are down!

As of about an hour ago, everybody in this house has gotten sick, except for Matt!!

I have no idea how he has pulled through, but he did.

Megan, Christian, and I were throwing up early this morning.

It finally succumbed to Courtney this afternoon.

YUK!!

Christian definitely needs some help getting to the bathroom! Before he went to bed, we asked him if he was feeling alright and he said yes. He also said that if he felt like throwing up, he would go the speed of light to the bathroom.

Well, about 1 pm, the speed of light did not happen. Instead, we had a trail of puke all the way to the bathroom. He said he forgot to spin in a circle for acceleration!!

Poor Matt had to clean it all up because I was puking myself. :(

While Christian was waiting for Matt, he laid down on the floor in the hallway and went to sleep. This was around 1-2 am. He finally got up about 1 pm! He slept on the floor the whole time! Around this same time, matt emailed work and told them that he was not going in! With me down, he had to stay home!

I hope we all bounce back soon! And get these yucky germs out of this house!!!

Bad Mom moment??

Last night was New Year's Eve and we all stayed up until midnight! Everybody except Micah! He was asleep and in his bed about 9:30. This was perfect! I was able to stay up and he could still get a full night's sleep.

Wrong!! About 4:15 am, I heard him crying, so I let him fuss a little bit. I was hoping he would go back to sleep. I knew if I got up, I would be up a couple hours with him.

He fussed a little bit, and then he would be quiet for about 5-10 minutes, then he would fuss some more, then he would be quiet some more. He never got super mad nor did he go completely back to sleep.

About 5:30, I was kind of tired of him trying to make up his mind, so I went in there. I walked into his room and the first thing I smelled was puke! I could hardly believe it! I didn't see any in his bed, but once I looked at him, he had snot all over his face and there was some puke on his bed. Poor thing!! I picked him up and he definitely smelled like puke! I cleaned his face off and picked his blanket up. There was more puke! Poor kid! I didn't even hear him throw up!!

I sat down in the chair for a little bit to calm him down and he immediately fell asleep on my chest. About 5 minutes later, he kind of opened his eyes and looked at me. I also saw that he had some puke in his hair, so at 5:45 this morning, I gave him a bath!!

After his bath, I put some fresh clothes on him and went downstairs. I sat down in front of the computer to check things out and after a few minutes, I moved to the recliner to watch TV while he slept. At one point, he looked at me and threw up again. It wasn't forceful or anything, he just kind of spit it out of his mouth. I took the blanket I had and cleaned his face off again and he went right back to sleep. I didn't want to move him to change blankets, so I just folded the dirty one over. I know. bad, huh? I just know that when you puke, you don't want to move at all! I also figured that Matt would be up soon and could help me out!

ABout 7:30, matt came downstairs and Micah was sleeping on my lap. I informed him that he had thrown up and he had a disgruntled look on his face. We have been super blessed the last few years by having nobody puke in our house! I didn't want to start anything! He helped me get his blankets in the wash and get him another fresh blanket.

He continued to sleep until about 10 am. Matt brought me breakfast, but eventually I had to got to the bathroom, so I put the sleepy boy on the floor and he stayed asleep!!

Around 10, he sat up and smiled. It was as if nothing even happened! We nursed and that stayed down, so hopefully we will continue to do well.

I honestly think he may have just been choking on some phlegm. He gets very stuffed up at night and I have heard him choking before, I am hoping this is all it was!