More doctor visits..and fewer strips.

As usual, I was so busy at Courtney's baby shower, I forgot to take pictures!  I will say it was SO much fun.  We ended up having enough little glass jars with string and ribbon tying on scalloped circles with numbers (since you could pretty simply get your drinks mixed up!).  We had LOTS of cookies (I had TOO many left over!), and plenty of food.  I would totally rather make too much than not enough, haha!

She's so beautiful pregnant! : )

I even wished I'd taken pictures of her cute gifts, so sweet in brown kraft paper, tulle and ribbon.  Ah, next time!  Praying she feels blessed by her friends in memory! : )

I'd bought some cloth diapers to monogram/embroider with the letter C (we know it'll begin with a C!), or the letter S for his last name.  BUT.  As I was sitting down to work on a design (or several!), my hasp/dongle broke!  It is a little USB thingie, and the sofware won't even OPEN without it.  I'm so sad.  The store I bought it from is out of business, so I'm trying to find another dealer that might be able to send it back for repair/replacement.  I am up a creek with an embroidery machine..and no way to use it.  Sadness.  Praying it's ready by the time she has the baby!!

working on their computers.  Carter loves this old white Mac that we can't even find the charger for!

My little Ethan has been home since last Wednesday.  We went to the doctor last week, and he had an ear infection.  He's had a consistent fever since then (like 99.6-102.1), and we're now on day SiX.  Not good.  Not only do I feel for him..he's missing school.  We really studied for his spelling test, just in case the fever dropped..but No.  Mary Claire is also home today..is this a crazy fever virus?!  Her blood sugars are more on the low side (we've seen a 46 and a 56 today!), so I'm baffled.

Sweet girl.  Pictures are tomorrow, and she'd like her hair straightened, please.  After having me hot roll it the last two weekends. ; )

**Update: Ethan rose to 103.2, so I took him back to the doctor..and if he is still feverish in the morning, we go for a chest xray.  His flu test was negative.  (And they are only testing for the enterovirus if the child has to be hospitalized.  The state complained it was too much paperwork to just test for testing's sake.) (Feeling so sorry for them and all their paperwork.)

Towels are my insurance.  So I can walk away once in a while. ; )

But on the upside..we are trying harder actually trying to potty train Carter!  He's a doll in his little underwear.  He's used the potty a few times, but not with any consistency.  We usually (with the other three kids..) let them go bottomless for two or three days, then graduate to underwear.  This is Day One.  (yes, go ahead and laugh!)  I don't know if it's me or him.  I kinda love having a baby to change.  (Ok..maybe it's me.)

Ok..as the day has worn on, my attitude is less than positive.  Do you ever just feel like your day is less than.. oh, I don't know..below average?  I'm wearing down and probably need a decent night's sleep.  I just don't get those anymore. : (

He loves the baby.

I can see why some students commit suicide.  And I'm serious.  My son is in four pre-AP classes are they are tough stuff.  We did math until 10 tonight, and I made him take it with us to pick up his new glasses, work on it in the car, at the doctor's office with Ethan, and all night.  He has multiple assignments to work on at any given time, and it's like playing whack-a-mole.  Whatever is due soonest..whack it!  I worry about him.  (He is not suicidal, I just mean it would be easy to lose sight of a way out, and become incredibly overwhelmed.  Schools push harder and harder to have the highest scores and the "best" students.  He has harder stuff in Algebra 1 than I had in college algebra.  Not kidding.  He's writing quadratic equations for weird graphs.  I can't elaborate.  It hurts my head.)

His religious education class isn't any picnic either.  I know he wants to be confirmed with his classmates, but she's tough.  He's supposed to be reading a book of the Bible every night, memorizing answers to questions, and there are assignments for EVERY night of the week (7 days of homework for a one hour a week class!).  He's just getting more and more behind.  There's no way he can do it all.  And forget a social life.  I hear about things going on at school, but he doesn't have a spare minute.  He did campaign for a friend to be voted into student council (and she did!), but he said he couldn't even consider one more thing.  Makes me sad.

Soo glad we listened to Ethan, and we went to play at a park.  May be just what we needed. : )

And he already has issues with self-discipline.  He's on medication to help him concentrate, but when we increase that to help him make it through the day, he picks at his skin and eyes.  He is covered in scabs right now, and his eyes are infected again.  We have an open prescription for antibiotic eye drops, but I can't even stand to watch him dig his fingernails into his eyelids.  (Like between his eye ball and under his lids.  It is sooo creepy!!)

And..We got letters from our insurance company, UMR, than they will only pay for FiVE strips a day for checking the kids' blood.  Umm, we sometimes use up two just to get one reading.  And five?  So.. which checks should I eliminate?  When do you want to see them go high/low/unchecked?  And is hospitalization so much cheaper than preventative care?  This makes no sense.  It's a battle they hope I won't fight.  And tonight, I'm tired.

And I need to get ready to teach on Wednesday.  (And remember my kids don't need nightly homework!)  Breathe in, breathe out.  Pray.  Pray some more.  God's got this, I'm just sure of it.  I know when I'm teaching religious education, I go though the most pain and emotional trauma.  Drawing the little children closer to God is dangerous work.  And I'm not kidding.  Say some extra prayers for our family.  It's tough stuff.  Prayers for your family too.  Hugs.

But Jesus looked at them and said to them,

“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."  Matthew 19: 26

Need a Repair?

Did I ever tell you what was wrong with my garage door opener (that the guy checked for four days in a row)?  I figured it out-myself!  It didn't work in the morning (kept going back up!), but it worked in the afternoon and night.  Hmm. we have an east-facing garage, so it's in the sun.  I finally figured out it was the beam (I know, obvious, right?), but that's not all!  I got down to clean the one that was in the sun, and I could see this tiny stick (maybe just stiff piece of grass) that was only about a quarter of an inch long.  When the breeze blew it, it moved in it's spider web, and made the door go back up!  I cleaned the lens, moved the teensy piece of grass that's caused me stress since..oh..April? and Voila! It works great now!
Do you have a problem?  I'm quite the fix-it person! : )
I'm off to Bunko-I need a night out! : )  Danielle and I spent all day (10:30 till after 3!) working on tickets.  And I had Mary Claire home again-fever, again!  It's so strange-she's absolutely fine.  I took her to the doctor, and he says he's had four other strange fevers-flu-like symptoms, but test negative.  And, she's already had her flu mist over two weeks ago. She just has to stay home till she's fever-free.  We may get crafty this week!
So..I'm not pregnant-it can be assured now. ; )  I'll keep working on it, I talked to my LR doctor's office this week, and they offered more help, but I think I may try another month.  I can't decided whether to stay on the meds again this month (since they obviously didn't help last month!), or just go natural again.  I read that Clomid makes hostile mucus, so maybe that's my problem? (I know, TMI), just quit reading now! : )  On to another month-SO frustrating.  Pray for us, God's will for our family, and if it's His will, a healthy pregnancy with a healthy baby at the end. : )

Magic Kitchen

Hey there!  How was your day? : )  We had the usual...Sissy came home early due to a fever-100 degrees, but I had stuff to do!  I don't know if it's her ear infection (from Friday) or something new.  She was totally fine and happy, so I don't know.

Her with her new orange and black rubber bands

I had to go get her sans shower (my least favorite!), but I got ready, and we went Out!  I had to first find tickets somewhere for the Hoedown-and my friend Danielle found some at Party City, but they were kinda expensive.  I went to Wal-Mart, and they were almost half price, so we got a deal!

Then we shopped for Play-Doh (emergency-hahaha!).  I did learn that they only have good colors when school starts, but not now!  I needed some for Ethan, but they had pink and purple (not his favorite!)..I'll stock up next fall!

Then we came home and started on her project to go along with her book club: There's a Boy In the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar.  She had a few choices, but hers was to make a diorama of Bradley's room!  Boy, could we get into that! : )  We had a box of clothes at our door when we got home (yay!), so we cut off the top of the box, made a door and windows, then worked on decorating.  She picked out some fabric for his room, and got some doll house furniture-so cute!  We cut out pictures from PB Teen for his wall art (and fake shelves, trash can, etc.) then made him curtains and a poster thing with his monogram.  He had no middle name in the book, but she made one up!  She said she thought it should be Seth.  Good, Mary Claire, very creative! : )

So, then we got Ethan, she worked on her school work, and I started dinner: chicken chili. and we made a PiE! : )  Ok, not a totally homemade pie, but still!
We started with a premade pie shell, baked at 400 for about 13 minutes, isn't it pretty?:

While it cooled, we made the filling.  We aren't fancy and insist on homemade, so we used boxes!  We used little boxes of pudding-both coconut cream and cheesecake.  We followed the pie filling directions, and reduced the milk.  Mary Claire mixed them:

(and it started getting all over, so we had to move it to the sink!)

(Yes, he's wearing his batting helmet all the time now.)

Next, we made meringue!  This was a new experience for me..but we called mom, and got some advice! : )
We used five egg whites, 6 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.  We mixed it for four minutes on HIGH and it was sooo thick!

I always thought it'd be more like Cool Whip, all whoopy, but no-THICK!  I had to smear and spread it, then make it kinda level so I could get the coconut to stay on.

Then into the oven at 350 for 14 minutes (long enough to brown the coconut!).  We enjoyed the extra filling, the beaters... and some spatulas...

And, voila-a beautiful pie came out!

We couldn't wait to eat it!  This picture isn't the best, but it was yummy! : ) We did wait till after dinner with our new friends:

Yes, grasshoppers.  Clay and his friends collected them after school today, working on a boy scout project.  He's journaling about his time with them. (haha!)  They soon went out to the deck-it was freaky-they were all three down by the holes in the lid begging for freedom.  The holes were awful big; I just knew they were going to crawl out!  He eventually let them out, yay!  He can't wait till tomorrow to catch more to write about.


Then the boys headed out to play ball.  Clay is wanting to try catching, so Ches had me get a *cup* today-I had no idea what he meant!  I figured it out, and I guess he'll try it.  He's getting better at catching and pitching-they are working on it every day.  Now, Ethan joins them-he's got Clay's old baseball cleats, and Ches got him a batting helmet last week.  He's worn it nonstop!  He has a bucket of balls, and he uses the tee to bat the balls around.

I've gotten him new jeans, but they are too big!  He really wanted to wear them, so what do you do?

What a day!  I'm so thankful for my sweet kids and husband to spend it with!  We didn't have anything to go to this evening-yay!-so we got to stay home and have pie.  Precious time with them.  We read books (Ethan is choosing Calvin and Hobbes and Street Rodder magazine every night..should I be worried?), said prayers, and gave hugs and kisses.  A practically perfect day!