MORE sickness at our house...

 We dealt with some more sickness last week.  "BOO HOO HOO" as Ryder would say!!  He wasn't even finished taking his ABs for Strep yet and I could tell by touching him Wednesday night he was running fever.

I called in a sub at 2 AM (again) and went back to bed.  I planned on taking him in first thing in the morning, but he slept until 1 PM when I finally woke him up so we could go to the Dr.

The sweet nurses looked at us and said, "Y'all were just here..." "Yes, we were."  Luckily R's favorite nurse was there and took care of him like he always does!  Strep and flu tests with NO hassle!  Flu was positive of course...but we had caught it early!

So thankful for my parents and taking care of us in a million different ways while we were stuck at home disinfecting and trying to stay far away from each other!  Poor R missed snugglin' his Mama! ;)  But I just couldn't take the risk...

 Thankfully mom kept him for me on Friday...this is poor baby getting in the car to go to her house.  I'll say this:  Tamiflu worked GREAT for us.  He got the meds Thursday night at 6 PM, took them again Friday morning...He was a little crazy Thursday night after the meds, but I thought he was just exhausted and tired from being sick, but I'm pretty sure the craziness was the meds.  

The Dr. said they could make him "feel weird" and that's definitely what I was seeing!  Poor mom thought she was gonna have a relaxing day at home with a sick little boy, but she got the complete opposite!  He was on a ROLL, running around the house, asking a million questions and hardly every stopped.  Once again...it was the meds!

& Allie was so sweet to bring me a Blue Sail Coffee Friday night.  R had stopped running fever, but we were staying in to make sure we were 100% well!

I finally told him Sunday night he could sleep with me...but I drew a line with a scarf so he wouldn't get too close!  I got out of the shower to find this!  As close to the line as he could get without touching it!!

Saturday was my half birthday...and KeeKee delivered these to our house!  If you're gonna be stuck at home all weekend, it's good to have people that love and care about you to make special deliveries!  

....& just because today is Thursday!!! 

sickies...

We dealt with some sickness at our house this past week, but I think I can say we are over the hump and trying to hold out from getting anything else!

Sunday Ryder got to hang out with his friend Oakley and shoot guns at his dad's house...he even killed a opossum on the first shot!  We gotta get this boy a deer kill!

Monday he had a busy day of playing with his cousin Caleb--while I was at work on MLK day.  Don't they look like little farmer boys here!  Ha!

Ryder woke up about 2:30 am Tuesday morning unable to sleep and complaining about his stomach hurting...I knew something wasn't right because he sleeps like a baby!!

So we both made out way to the living room to watch TV--that's just what we do when he is sick!  Sure enough around 3 am he was throwing up....but luckily made it in the trash can.

Luckily we can log on online at any time of the day or night to say we need a sub, so that's what I did, while I quickly came up with lesson plans for my kiddos!  That's no fun at 4 am!!

We both slept until about 11 am...because he was up a few more times and it just wasn't a great night's sleep!  Even thought it was 11 in the morning...I still needed my cup of coffee! ;)  Even though I hate missing school, it's always a good day to spent at home with my baby (even though he wasn't feeling so hott!)

I just thought he had a little stomach bug and it would pass in 24 hours.  Until about 7 pm he started running a small fever, and I knew it was something more.  Well, after hours clinic closes at 8 so we rushed around to try and get there in time before they stopped taking patients for the night.

We made it...and they asked R to wear a mask, in case he had the flu.  He actually loved it.

New nurse comes in and starts to tell R she is going to swab his nose and throat and is like "I'll explain it to you..." I was like, "He doesn't need an explanation...we've done this 4 times since February of last year."  You could tell she just wasn't a go-getter...and that's the type of nurse that we need to deal with my child!  So I asked if our favorite nurse was there (happens to be a male...not that that matters) and HE WAS!!  He is the only and I MEAN THE ONLY person that has successfully swabbed R's throat the FIRST time...without there having to be 5 different people holding him down while he kicks and hits and screams at the top of his lungs.

We are SO thankful for Mr. Nurse and him being there that night!

Positive for Strep...which I will take any day over the Flu...so no complaints, but 4 times in a year.  I asked for a referrel to an ENT and you have to have it SIX times in a year for that.  Poo.  So we will wait a lil while longer and see what happens, or I'm gonna have to call my ENT myself.

I had severe problems with my throat for YEARS--and at one point, was taking shots daily to try and clear it up and it wouldn't...so I eventually had my tonsils out at 21--and it was the best thing I ever did...and I'm hoping it will end helping R as well--if we can get to that point!

So thankful for his Mimi keeping him for me on Wednesday and my mom keeping him on Thursday!  It's hard missing that much school when you teach MATH--cause you actually have to be there to TEACH them stuff...you can't just rely on them "reading" the material and doing worksheets!

R went back to school on Friday--and we were all SO happy!

ELF, strep and Bethlehem

Mom and I went to one of the first showing of ELF at The Rep and I'm so glad we got to go!  We went on a Sunday afternoon and really enjoyed ourselves.  I'm not a HUGE fan of the movie, but I really enjoyed the show!  I'm not sure how R would have handled it though!

While we were doing that, Ryder was off at his Great Grandma Jones' making sugar cookies!  I'm glad he gets to do this with other people and I don't have to be the one that does it with him.  [Yes, I just admitted that.]

Ryder spent Sunday night at Mimi's and I had a bad feeling he was getting sick.  And I was right.  I could tell by looking at his checks in this picture she sent me while I was at school.  

I'm so glad I went straight to the Dr. after picking him up from Mimi's because he had a 103 degree temp when we got there.  We had a sweet guy nurse we have had before.  I really was afraid it was the flu because two girls at his school had just been diagnosed with it (and they had both gotten their flu shots).  They did a flu and strep test.  This was the first time R just let them swab him, without 4 nurses and me having to hold him down to get it done.  PHEW.  Such a relief.  Signs he truly is growing up.  

Luckily it was Strep and not the flu!!!  We loaded up and headed off to the pharmacy to get some meds from Mr. Chuck!  

As much as I hate to miss school, I was looking forward to spending the next day at home with this little guy!

Mom made some ham and beans and dad brought it to my back door.  So thankful for them!  I read up on some Social Studies books I had ordered for my classroom off of Amazon and let Ryder do whatever he felt up to doing. 

He missed school on Tuesday, but Wednesday we were back at school and went to Bethlehem at church that night.  R has been 2-3 times before, but we missed it last year because of the rain, so he was super exciting to get to go back this year.  

We visited all the shops R wanted to visit, and then made our way to the Inn 

So thankful for these precious memories with my little guy during this wonderful season (even if it involves a lil strep throat!)

pink eye and ants on a log

Yesterday wasn't just any other Monday around here....R had stayed the night with Mimi and while she usually keeps him home with her on Mondays, she took him into school because she had a doctor's appointment.  We had gotten an e mail from school earlier in the morning saying several kids were out with Pink Eye.  Womp Womp.  Sure enough, after Ryder got to school I heard from Mr. Jerry saying he was for sure R had it.  So I hustled around trying to get a sub so I could leave to go get him.

He was happy to see me at school "before nap" and had no idea he even had anything wrong!  Sweet, innocent children I tell ya! ;)  It seemed like an empty house at school with lots of kids out!  It was kinda of sad!

R and I came home to rest up and get some meds in those eyeballs!

He had recently requested I buy some specific things at the store--and luckily I had just gotten all of them the following day!  So it was time for us to make one of Ryder's new favorite creations--"ants on a log"!  I couldn't believe he had ASKED me to buy celery....I don't even eat that stuff!!  But he was gonna "teach" me how to make these things that they had made at school.

I put the PB in the crevasses and R told me I needed to put it on the humps to make it look like a log...he's right, but I was totally thinking logically!   So we did half his way and half my way!

Once you get the PB on all the logs, you have to let a set of little hands count out 5 raisins for each log!

TA-DAH!  

Before you let anyone eat them...make sure and take their pic with the finished product after they ask you to!   ;)

...then, let them ENJOY!  I will say he ate every single one yesterday!  Who knew right?!  I will keep buying celery if he is gonna eat it the way he did yesterday!  I have NO problem with that!

He wasn't all for his eye drops at first, but I told him I'd get him a cupcake from the new cupcake shop if he would let me put the drops in his eyes!  Poor guy...it doesn't "hurt" he says, it just "feels weird" which who can blame him!?

We decided to try out a new part of our walking trail tonight...R loved it!  It was such a pretty night!  There was a playground at the end R wanted to play on, but I wouldn't let him while he was sick...so that means we'll just have to go back soon!

Hope you have a FANTASTIC Tuesday!

"What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it's supposed to be."

just a lil ER visit

Just to document...two weeks ago Wednesday I had a little ER visit.  I had gone to bed REALLY early and would wake up to pain in my chest that would happen about every 20 seconds.  It would go away for a while, and then be right back,  I have severe heartburn that I have had for YEARS but this was different.  A stabbing, or someone squeezing my heart like they wanted to make it pop.  My dad's mom passed away from a heart attack at 52...so heart problems are not something my family can mess around with.  

This was only my second visit to the ER which I am very thankful for...and lemme just tell ya, when they ask what's wrong and you say "chest pains" they getcha right on in there!  Which I am VERY thankful for!

I had an EKG and they set me up in a room where they monitored my heart.  Everyone was very nice and sweet...which was a little unexpected considering the horror stories you hear about the ER.  I guess we got lucky! ;)

I was told my heart rhythm was "beautiful"---even when I was experiencing the pain, it didn't affect my rhythm so that was a good sign!  They took my blood which is something I don't do well with, but I survived!  They sent me in for a chest x-ray and poor me...I don't know if it's because I have a little bit of "blonde" in me or if it's the fact that I'm a teacher and teachers spend almost, but not quite 100% of their day GIVING other people instructions...we aren't quite used to TAKING instruction! :P  But the x-ray tech told me to put my chest against the board and I put my back against it and just stood there.  He said it again with a little more emphasis on the word chest, "CHEST against the board."  All I could do was laugh...just like I'm doing now as I share this story with all of my readers! ;)

They basically told me it was my heartburn and all that stuff is "up there together" but I just knew they were wrong.  HEARTBURN DOESN'T HURT RIGHT ABOVE MY HEART (where you put your hand over your heart).  But oh well...at least whatever it was wasn't affecting my heart rhythm.  

Two days later I got this sweet letter in the mail!  It made me laugh, but I was thankful for it at the same time!

A little update since I have gone to see my PCP for a post ER visit.  He determined it was a {druuuuummmm rollll please!!!!} strained pectoral muscle.  WOMP WOMP.  But I am VERY thankful for this news...it's the best outcome I could receive!  Again, as someone with family heart issues, I do not regret responding to the signs and taking a trip to the ER.  Even if it was just a muscle strain, heart disease is the NUMBER ONE killer in woman and it is SILENT.  So when you have even the SLIGHTEST sign---TAKE NOTICE!