Garage Saleing

One of my favorite things about spring and summer is garage sales. I know my mom is laughing as she reads this because I used to groan when my mom would drag me to them. I now love the chance to find cheap clothes and toys for the kids (and sometimes for me!). This last weekend was one of my favorite sales... a church kids sale down the road. Since finding it I try to make it a yearly event. This year I scored some pretty good deals. My favorites were the Radio flier trike with bell and streamers for $10! It's in mint condition and provides another option to fighting over our existing trike.

I really bought it for Samuel, but he can't quite pedal it yet so Amelia likes to show him the ropes.

My other great find was several costumes. Amelia loves dress up and especially the princess characters. She has been begging for some new costumes. The ones we got her at Christmas have lost their luster. At the Disney store some cost as much as $40-50. I refuse to pay this!! I spotted this snow white costume from across the room and dashed to it! I briefly debated the $10 price thinking it was a bit high and then realized that was better than the store and it was a church sale. :) I also got a Arial costume for $5.

We have been playing a lot of dress up at our house. Today Amelia was snow white and Samuel was a lion. Amelia has also been asking for a prince so I dress Samuel up in a tie and they march around together. They both love this game. It is so cute!! Amelia will then fall down and go to sleep (like snow white) and wait for her "prince brother" to kiss her and wake her up. Samuel willingly goes along with this game playing and will now sometimes even initiate it.

Oh Boy! Here we go again....

Some of you may get tired of reading these posts and boy am I tired of writing them. Samuel ended up in the hospital again last weekend. He got a runny nose starting on Thurs, went to daycare on Friday still with just a little more runny nose. Saturday I worked a dayshift and my parents had been in town so David and the kids went to breakfast with everyone. Samuel ate 3 adult pancakes at Perkins and just seemed to have a "cold." When I called in the afternoon from work, David said he was starting to "breathe heavy" again. When I got home he was again looking like he had the other times. I really did not want to bring him again, and wanted to try to ride it out till we could go to our clinic on Monday. We tried just keeping him comfortable, giving benadryl, and hoped by morning he would turn around. At 9pm (after he had been asleep awhile) he cried out and it seemed like he could not cry. I realized we had to go in. I quickly put together a bag and headed down to the University.
As a nurse, you think one thing... I can drive this, ride it out, watch and observe.
As a mother you panic!

I struggle each time he gets sick, because my mom judgment tells me one thing and my nurse self tells me another.

Anyways, we got the ER and they immediately brought us back to a room and his oxygen levels were 88% (normal is 95-100%). This mom/nurse knew she had pushed the line too close.
A doctor, 3 nurses and a respiratory therapist worked on him. He got blood work, IV, continuous nebulizer/oxygen. This time he "won " a trip to the ICU according to the ER doctor.
We got up their by 1:30am. David was again able to come down as my brother came and stayed with Amelia (thank goodness for family). We had a long night with trying to get him to settle down. He quickly rallies and then fights the nebulizers and treatment.

Since this is his 3rd admission in 3 months they have now finally heard my pleas and are further working him up. We saw a pulmonologist (lung doctor) on Sunday morning. His first comment is... I don't think this is asthma. I think he has a Wheezing associated respiratory illness (WARI).
"What you need is a plan." THANK YOU.... I have only been asking for this since he was first admitted. We now have a 3 step plan with nebulizers, inhalers, medications to use as Samuel gets a cold, symptoms. I almost thought we were going to go home from the ICU. He then came back in and said he would like us to be oxygen free for 24 hours. Samuel had taken off the nebulizers but did require some blow by oxygen. We stayed and went home Monday.
The pulmonologist on the general medical unit on Monday wanted to do a few other tests to rule out other things. These will be done in the next couple of weeks.

A Barium study... to look at his swallowing for aspiration risk
A sweat test.... this looks at Cystic fibrosis (I don't really think he could have this, but they just want to rule it out.)
Lab work... to check his immune levels, allergins, etc.
I'm thankful we now have some things lined up. Samuel is doing great and looking mostly back to himself. I"ll keep you posted as we find out more.

Learning to use the nebulizer at HOME!!

Close ups

I have been trying to take better pictures since attending a photography workshop at our church. I love pictures and scrapbooking them... so I want to have the best pictures possible. I realized repetition is the key. Maybe someday I'll get a better camera too.

We had professional family pictures taken Sunday night by a friend of ours from church.
They were of my entire family for my parents anniversary this summer..... I can't wait to see how they turn out. It was quite an experience, but I'm so glad it is done. The kids did pretty great. Watch for more pictures later.

Fun Misc. Pictures

These are some more fun pictures from our weekend in Rochester. The weather was great so we enjoyed playing outside. We went to a large park near silver lake.

We also went for a walk around the lake for a bit.

I don't know how this picture got turned funny. Amelia loves playing with Aunt Kim's barbies and clothes. When we returned from the park Aunt Stacy had been "organizing" the barbie things and had them so cutely arranged. I laughed so hard at her little set up. You're never too old to play with Barbies!! Thanks Aunt Stacy for playing with us.

Trying to get some fun pictures on my camera.

After church.... Samuel is always so good at saying "cheeeese."

Rochester

This last weekend we headed to Rochester to help Grandpa install his water heater and celebrate David's birthday. Grandma planned a fun egg hunt for the kids.

Samuel looks hard for some eggs

Daddy got into blowing out his candles

Hard at work

Easter

I worked evenings again this Easter, so we just had a small dinner at our house. David stayed home from church with Samuel and Amelia and I went to Easter breakfast and church.

The ladies all ready to go.

Finally getting to wear the purple dress. I was greeted in bed by Amelia at 7:30 wearing this dress saying, "get up, it's Easter."

Samuel did not get to wear his new outfit, but wanted to stand and say cheese as I took pictures of Amelia. We are thankful he was looking and feeling better on Sunday.
Happy Easter everyone! He is risen!

Easter Bunny

We got the kids Easter bags with a chocolate bunny and some small toys. Samuel again had a cold, so was not as into it.

Amelia was excited to get the mermaid barbie.

Amelia got over her fear of the Easter bunny and went to see him at the mall. She also wanted to see the petting zoo again. She was excited to get a carrot sucker. We have now conquered our fear of Santa and the Easter bunny... Oh no, that means she might not be scarred of other dressed up characters and ready for Disneyworld!!

Samuel preferred to watch from a distance. He again came down with a cold (allergies/asthma?!). We were at the doctor Friday for a follow up and he sounded/looked great and then woke up Saturday looking sick again.... aaah!

Funny Farm (aka Petting Zoo)

Many days I think I live in a funny farm. I love the antics of our children. This week we got the chance to go to a small petting zoo down the street at a local strip mall. Amelia was all excited to see the animals, but then got a bit reserved and wanted to just watch them from outside the pen. Samuel didn't even want to go near the pen. After watching the animals for awhile, we went to sonic and ate icecream outside. We are loving this warm weather.

Amelia finally got brave enough to get on David's shoulder's to go in the pen.

David was not scarred and fed the animals. Other years the animals have been outside under a tent... this year it was inside the mall in an old store. Kinda funny.

Samuel watched nervously by the door, in case one charged and he needed to make a quick escape.