Just a Few Things

First thing this morning J comes running in as usual as he thinks our day should start no later than 6:45. As I'm laying there barely awake he says to me, "Momma, I love you...but I REALLY love tractors." I'm not sure if I should be glad he loves me or insulted that he doesn't love me quite as much as tractors. I'll take what I can get I suppose.

We finally got some of M's test results back today and it's good news and bad news. The good news is that they ruled out and really serious problems with her immune system such as Leukemia, but the bad news is that she has a really weak immune system. Apparently my poor child just can't fight any sort of bacterial infection. This explains why she's had pneumonia so many times and why she seems to get sick fairly easily. She's extremely prone to ear infections (which she's never had a single one), sinus infections, colds and pneumonia. As this point it's kind of a wait and see diagnosis. She had the pneumonia shot a few weeks ago and so we're going to wait through this winter and see if it helps her any and if not then we'll have to explore some other options. I'm more than a little worried that this will drastically cut down on our outings once cold and flu season really hits. She's going to have to be really careful to always wash her hands and not be around people we know are sick. That's kind of hard when you're almost 5 years old. For right now Purell will be our best friend and we'll hope the shot helped boost her immune system enough that we won't be back in the hospital this winter. In the past December and January have been her worst months so we have a while before we'll see if it helped or not. It could be a lot worse though and I'm thankful that she's basically a healthy child. It's just allergies, eczema, asthma and no immune system. That's all. :)

Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving is few weeks away but it's my big holiday for the year and I've been putting so much thought into it lately. Every year I go all out for Thanksgiving and I'm not kidding when I say I slave in the kitchen for 3 or 4 days getting everything perfect. Thanksgiving starts on Monday in this house and ends after all the dishes are done on Thursday evening. I'm thinking of adding some new recipes this year but I'm not sure where in the world I can find the time or oven space to do so. I have it down to a science. Here is my list of cooking times that I tape up on the cabinets so that I know how to coordinate my oven space.

Creamed Corn- 4 Hours in slow cooker

Sweet potatoes- 1.5 hours, can prepare in advance, bake 30 minutes at 400

Mashed potatoes-make in advance, bake at 350 for 30 minutes

rolls- make the day before, rise for 3 hours, bake for 20 minutes at 350

ham- Bake 1 hour

Green bean casserole- bake 30 minutes at 350

Apple pie- make ahead and warm up in oven

Stuffing- 20 minutes on stove, 25 minutes to bake at 350

Deviled Eggs- make ahead

Turkey- Brining, Baking, and Carving

Pumpkin Pie- make ahead

Bread pudding- 1.5 hours

Cranberry salad- make ahead

Pumpkin Dip with Ginger Snaps

Now I don't just go to the store and pick up pies or dump cranberries out of a can. I really do go all out and use real pumpkin that I actually baked and scraped out of a pumpkin. I dry my own bread crumbs for the stuffing. The sweet potatoes are real yams that I bake, scrape out the insides and then cover with brown sugar and ground up ginger snaps and everyone always raves about them. The rolls are amazing but they take almost 3 days to make with all the rising and separating steps that are involved. And then after all that we do M's family birthday party so that everyone doesn't have to come back the next week. I then spend about a thousand hours in the gym trying to work off everything I ate in one meal. It's so much to think about and it gets kind of overwhelming with M's birthday and then Christmas right around the corner. It's nice to know that I really can cook a wonderful meal even though I choose not to the rest of the year. Just 5 years ago I couldn't have baked a turkey to save my life and now I know how to brine and bake a turkey perfectly. I thought stuffing came from a box but now I know that using fresh bread cubes makes stuffing perfect and irresistible. I also know that everyone loves whiskey sauce that I use on bread pudding and bread pudding isn't supposed to be a mushy mess. It can look pretty and be delicious! So if I don't post for the entire month of November you can just assume I'm in the kitchen trying out new recipes and trying to make my one perfect meal out of the year.

Another Pumpkin Patch!

We went to the pumpkin patch with the kids's school yesterday and even though it was cold we had a great time! This is us before we went in.

The hayrack ride out to the patch.

J picking his pumpkin. He's not picky at all. It was dirty and he thought it was perfect.

M with her pumpkin. She tried really hard to find a clean one but no such luck.

Snack time! We had animal crackers and juice. J drank all his juice but they wanted to go play instead of having snack.

The airplane ride was a favorite! They are ordering one for the preschool next week.

J really liked the slide but it was sandy at the bottom and he got pretty dirty.

M only rode once and landed in the sand so she was done.

Both kids really liked the zip line they had set up. The people running it were really nice and helpful.

J rode about 15 times because none of the other kids were very interested in it. He rode until his arms got so tired he fell off. Even then I had to drag him away.

I love that both of my kids are old enough that when we do things like this I just have to show up and somewhat supervise them. I no longer have to drag a baby out in the cold or find a babysitter just for field trips. Next year will be interesting since I'm hoping to get J in a school out here and M will be in kindergarten!

The Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday the kids were feeling just barely well enough to go to the pumpkin patch with some friends. We were fever free and on the mend so we figured we'd brave it and head home if they just weren't up for it. I'm so glad we went though because the kids had such a great time with all their friends! J was still looking pretty weak and tired and coughing quite a bit.

M was pretty much back to normal. She's still coughing a little but you wouldn't even believe she's the same kid that was laying in the hospital a few days ago!
They really loved the big bouncy pillow and jumping with all their friends!
M was even nice enough to help her brother down the hay bale slide.
J had fun going down the slide inside the hill a few times but he got tired pretty easily so he only made it down a couple times before he just got too tired to climb back up.
M on the other hand couldn't get enough. She went up and down about a million times and wasn't even coughing at the end of it!
All in all it was a great day. The kids were good and tired and slept until after 8 this morning. We had to wake J up for school and I can't remember a time when that's ever happened. Tomorrow we are going to see M's pediatrician for a follow up from her hospital stay and then on Wednesday we have an appointment with her asthma doctor to see if there's anything we can do to keep her healthy this winter.

A Little Too Much Excitement

My poor baby girl has been stuck in the hospital for a good chunk of the week and it's nice to be home this morning! I'm sick with some weird virus that caused blisters in my mouth (ouch!), J has some sort of upper respiratory thing and M ended up with the flu, pneumonia and strep! Her fever got as high as 106 and she started having some symptoms that got kind of scary. She woke up at one point Monday night and had no idea who we were and she was screaming hysterically that she wanted mommy even though I was right next to her. I called her doctor and we agreed to keep her home as long as she was drinking, peeing and her fever went down to under 104. On Tuesday she quit peeing, her fever was back up and she wasn't waking up to drink. She had pretty much lost all color in her skin and she insisted on being carried everywhere. We went in to the ER where they agreed she was extremely dehydrated and because of her asthma they wanted to do a chest x-ray just in case. It's a good thing they did because her left lung was really bad and her right lung was starting to cloud up. Her oxygen levels were fine and other than some slight wheezing she wasn't having trouble breathing. Because this is her 4th time having pneumonia they are going to be doing some tests to figure out why she keeps getting it.

Having her in the hospital made it very tricky to do things. When I came home to shower and take J to school she screamed at her daddy the entire time I was gone. We decided I wouldn't be leaving the hospital again but that meant daddy was stuck running back and forth between home and the hospital constantly. Then J got sick. Matt called and said J had thrown up and his fever was 104 so he was stuck staying home with a sick baby and I was stuck at the hospital with a sick baby. Grandmas did their share of helping out and running errands thankfully. I'm also extremely thankful to the people in our lives who have gone above and beyond for us this week. Whether it was checking in at 1 AM after work to check on us, bringing us warm meals, or bringing M's favorite movie up to the hospital because of a movie mix-up that was a very big deal to a 4 year old or mowing our yard so that we had one less thing to worry about, I REALLY appreciate those who helped us out during a really rough week. Hopefully next week will go better. I haven't been to the gym for over a week and that's pretty much unheard of for me. I also haven't been able to eat much so I think it will even out. Here's to hoping next week we can return to normal around here!

Bittersweet Ending to Summertime

I have a very sick little girl this morning so I may as well spend my time sitting here doing something useful and update my blog! Our last Kenny concert for this summer was on Saturday and it was fabulous and miserable all at the same time. We left our hotel around 10 AM, got something to eat and then stood in line until the doors opened at 2:30.

Then once we got inside we got to stand until 9 PM waiting for Kenny to come on.

The opening acts started at 4 and they were all pretty good but of course Kenny is the man I was there to see. He came on at about 9:15 looking as good as ever.

He played his normal set plus a couple others but when he got to "Better as a Memory" he started crying. Kenny recently announced that he won't be doing a big tour next year so this was the last time we'd hear 60,000 people singing back to him on stage for a long time. He couldn't finish the song but he just stood there and let us sing it to him as tears rolled down his face. Kenny fans don't just love Kenny because he sings our favorite songs. Touring with Kenny is a way of life for a lot of us. We're all just as lost without him as he is without us. There were less bras thrown on stage and more tears cried at this last show.

We hope you enjoy your break Kenny but we're certainly going to miss you next year! He's announced there will be 10-12 shows next year in small venues and you can bet we'll be there if at all possible.

*I know there are probably a million typos and incorrect use of language but I'm running on very little sleep so you'll have to ignore it.

Summer is Coming to an End

Well, summer is officially over now. M started dance at a local studio and she LOVES it!

She also got a new haircut for a brand new school year. She got a couple inches cut off and it makes a world of difference.

We went to the local air show and watched some airplanes. The kids always love going and the weather was amazing this year!

Then school started! This is the only somewhat descent picture I could find from the first day of school. All the good ones are on Matt's camera so I'll have to post them some other time. So far both kids really like school. I was a bit worried that M would have a hard time with a new teacher and everything but she has some friends in the same class so it hasn't been as bad as I thought it might be.

Yesterday we went to our local arcade/amusement park so the kids could enjoy a full day of all the rides they could stand. We ended up spending all day there with grandma. The kids got wristbands to ride all day and I think we got our money's worth from them. They rode for hours and not once did they fight or complain.

This was the first year they let both kids ride the Go Karts! J technically isn't old enough but they never questioned that he wasn't 4. He's a big boy for his age. He loved the "mower cars" and has talked about them non-stop.

I can't believe how fast this summer flew by! We haven't been able to swim for weeks because the weather has been too cool and today is a rainy day so it's a very appropriate start to a new season for us. I'm excited about this school year with the kids but I'm still sad to see summer come to an end. We do still have one more Kenny Chesney concert to attend in 2 weeks so after that summer will really and truly be over. Here's to a happy and healthy school year!