January 14th

The high today was a cold 38F.  It was 'warm' enough to melt the snow/ice that was on buildings and sidewalks, but the grass is still pretty white.

Emily had her monthly student council meeting this morning, so she (we all) had to be there at 8am.  So, she headed to the door, then we went and hung out in the corner of the parking lot.

When it was time for William to go, he had protested being the only one at first, until he learned that Alice, Grace and Juliet were going to the doctor to get their flu shots.  Normally, I just have them vaccinated as we go in for visits, but we've been pretty healthy so far this sick season. Hope it stays that way!

We were in and out before the appointment time.  Everyone left with a squishy ball toy that they had to leave in the car when we arrived at school.

Once they were all checked in and off to class, I honored a commitment I made to build a marble run for Friday.  It only took me a couple of hours. I like the instructions, even with the few mishaps I had.  I did have to hunt down a screwdriver for the battery compartment of the marble elevator.

Once I left there, I came home to work on chores and projects.  I was almost finished sewing a finishing piece for my cape when Sarah came over with Emily's blanket.  She brought Seven and we went to pick up the kids.

He refused to get out of Emily's seat, and once we finally coaxed him out, she sat down and he sat in her lap. lol.

He laid down when we started to move, so you can actually see her back there.

Alice had finished all of her homework this morning, so she was a big help in getting everyone ready for bed while I made dinner.

I'm still trying to use some white wine, so we had a creamy spinach and white wine chicken over noodles.  It was okay.

I did finish hand sewing on the buttons and connectors for my cover, so next up will be Emily's while I wait for the medicine to come tomorrow.

later days

Emily went to the ER

 As these things do, this happened days before my mom was scheduled to return from her trip.

On Tuesday night, Emily went to bed early, feeling run down.  At 12:30 the next morning, she woke me up with a bloody nose.  She was losing a lot of blood, but we were attempting to get it to clot.  Then, she started complaining of acute stomach pain, radiating from her belly button.

So, I had to wake Billy, and he helped her with the nose bleed while I gathered things for our trip to the ER.

Luckily, before we loaded up, she was able to stop the nose bleed, so now we were only dealing with the tummy pain.  At the hospital, she was running a fever, so they gave her some Tylenol in triage to help bring down.

By the time we got a room, she was feeling better.

Feeling not good:

Feeling good*:

So, at this point she had no more pain, and no more nosebleed.  They tested her for Flu, and guess what... she had flu A!

They ran a few other tests to rule out appendicitis, but since the acute pain had subsided, they didn't order an image.

Checking the time, so see what show would be on next.

Finding out that cable is nothing like Netflix.

At around 5:30 she was finally discharged.  We stopped by Walgreens to pick up some Tylenol & Advil.

We got home sometime after 6, and I had to check out for at least a little while before taking the big kids in to school. Since she was not cleared to return to school until Monday, the two of us came home to sleep.  The twins were soooooooo good.  They had a second breakfast, then came up with us and quietly watched their tablets while I tried to recover some of my night's lost sleep.

Emily kept her fever under control with lots of medication the first few days, but we slowly tapered it off.  We had a low key weekend, and she was good to go Monday morning.

I'm so glad it wasn't anything more than the flu.  At least the flu went away.

later days

*yes, these were taken second apart.

What an April!

Aside from celebrating our girls, April has brought some warmer temperatures.  So we've been outside a little more.

This was after pajama day at school, so they did not wear these to bed, for those concerned. = )

Emily and I spent a very cold Thursday, during spring break, cleaning out leaves & sticks and burning all the things!

The weekend following was so lovely that Billy grilled out Sunday afternoon, and I was actually able to read barefoot on the deck!  A sure sign of spring right?

Billy and I went to a fundraising Gala.  We sat at the best table!  It was a fun evening with very good food. = )

For April Fool's day, I flipped the kids' monitor displays.  It didn't seem to phase William.  He's a problem solver!  For dinner we had BBQ sandwiches, and I grated up some apple and doused it with BBQ sauce.  Billy thought it was just 'cold' so he heated it up, and it was still grated apple.  Poor Billy.

My mom found me a replacement 4 top waffle maker!  Going from a 4 count to a 2 count when my old one broke made the process painfully long.  So, I'm happy to be back in the homemade waffle making business again. ; )

The Red Raider basketball team had an amazing season!  They went all the way to the final championship (we lost in overtime = ( ) and beat both Michigan teams along the way!  The MSU Spartans are the local team and we faced off with them in the final 4.  It was a very scary (lol) time to be a Tech fan in Michigan, but William and I ere determined to support our raiders no matter what!

At the beginning of spring break, my mom convinced me to go to the "kids go free" movie day.  We saw "Little Foot" on the very front row.  It was a fun time, the kids did really well, but I was still recovering from my bought of flu (an entire week later!) and it tuckered me out.

Speaking of the flu, Billy was the one who brought me and Emily in.  When he came home from work he took my temperature and it read high (as the thermometer always does.)  I was surprised when the urgent care doctor's office corroborated the temperature closing in on 104F and diagnosed me with Flu A, despite having received the flu vaccine in October. = (  Emily was not diagnosed, but we were both given a regimen of Tamiflu.  Billy went in the next day to get a prescription as well, so that he didn't have to endure what we did.

Emily missed 3/4 days of school the week before break, and my mom stepped in as me for the week, getting them ready for school, taking them and picking them up so that I could rest.  I can't remember the last time I was that ill.

A couple of days before the twins turned 5, Emily lost another tooth!  She wanted to hide her smile for some reason.  Juliet cannot wait to start loosing her teeth.  I'm okay with it taking a while longer.

The twins received a Doc Mcstuffins' dress up outfit and fancy medical kit from the Stepp family for their birthday, and we have all been getting frequent checkups!

Their birthday celebration continued all the way through yesterday afternoon, when they opened their new fancy headphones from the Helterbrands!

After our trip to the zoo, we went up to the school to watch William in his debut Musical performance. He was so excited to have Avia and the twins in attendance (as well as me, I think.) = )

And this morning, April 11th, it snowed again.  Ew.

I am so ready for summer & consistently warm temperatures. I'm tired of coats and snow and layers and the cold!!!!!!!!!!

later days