Alrighty...

So, I redid the entire template and I *think* (hesitantly saying this) that I got it right this time. Those of you who are using Internet Explorer, could you let me know if it looks correct now? Thanks!

Update time, now that I think the template might be correct. ;0)

I had Jacob's homeschooling evaluation this past Monday. It went excellent! We were in and out in 15 minutes. I apparently was organized better than I thought, and she just flipped through everything and looked at a couple of lapbooks we brought. I was a little disappointed that she didn't have him read out loud for her, but she was really doing well to get him to talk. I told my handbell group it was the quietest I think he has ever been his entire life. LOL He must have been nervous, though he claimed he wasn't.

I found out today that I did not make the CT I was trying out for. I'm being a good sport about it, but kind of bummed at the same time. I'm somewhat hesitant to try out for another one right now. We'll see. I would really love to be on a team at some point. Heather was sweet about it and emailed me letting me know what she based the decision on. I wouldn't have wanted to be in her shoes making the decision. I did email her back to show I hold no grudges and that I plan to stay on the forum.

I think I am going to find another gallery as well. I have three...two where I actually participate on the forums and then a third that I mainly just post layouts at. It's so busy at that one that it is rare to get comments, let alone seen. So many of the calls seem to want you to have 3-5 galleries. So, we'll see.

The new template

I am so sorry guys! I had no idea until yesterday that this template is not working in Internet Explorer. It looks fine in Mozilla, and whereas I usually check everything in IE, I totally forgot to do it this time. I have played with the settings and tried tweaking it to no avail. I'm going to have my husband take a peek tonight and see if he can figure out where my code is wrong for IE. Hopefully things will look a bit normal soon!

I was tagged!

Tina from Autism and KC tagged me. :)

5 things in my refrigerator:
1. Salad makings
2. Tea
3. Cheese
4. Jelly
5. salad dressing

5 things in my closet:
1. My clothes
2. shoes
3. presents for elena's b-day in August
4. presents for Josh's b-day in October (yes, I'm a planner LOL)
5. Silas' clothes

5 things in my purse:
1. wallet
2. cell phone
3. brush
4. receipts
5. keys

5 things in my car:
1. seats LOL
2. a CD (not sure which though)
3. 4 car seats
4. double stroller
5. trash bag

5 people I am tagging:
1. Lyndsay - http://cest-la-vie-lynds.blogspot.com/
2. Sarah - http://www.timsellers.net/homeschool/index.html
3. Kim - http://www.dailyrelease.blogspot.com/
4. Captain Tealbird (LOL) - http://tealbeard.blogspot.com/
5. Sunshine - http://letsinger.blogspot.com/

Have fun!

Okies, I think we got it!

So, I have my three column template now, courtesy of the link you can find on the bottom of the page. ;) How does it look on everyone's screens?

We are still waiting for the official kit for our CT call. Until then, we were given another one to play with. It's so pretty! It's Heather Roselli's "It's a Girl Thang" kit. I had so much fun with it, even though I had a little trouble choosing a photo that wouldn't clash with the colors of the kit. Here's what I came up with:



Credits: Heather Roselli's It's a Girl Thang Kit
Fonts: Kayleigh and Milton Burlesque

Possible changes ahead

I am seriously considering merging my scrap blog with this one. I think it would be easier to keep up with that way. I'm going to look for a nice 3 column template so the sidebars won't be too crowded and go on forever and a day. ;) So, if you start to see the blog looking a little funny, you know why.

Baby Madison website and Down Syndrome Awareness kit

I mentioned previously about my board buddy's baby, Madison, and the disease that she is suffering with. Shelli now has a website up that will let you keep up with her progress. I will put the link in my sidebar as well.

http://www.memoriesofmariam.com/madison/

She could really use the prayers right now.

I mentioned previously that I had submitted a small kit to be included in a Down Syndrome Awareness Charity mega kit. Here is the preview to my contribution:



There are 17 very unique kits on all in this mega kit. To find out how you can get them, please click on the blinkie below and it will take you to the page where you can find out all about it!



And I thought I would wrap this up by saying I made the next cut for Heather Roselli's CT team call! I am in complete shock! I never expected my name to show up in Heather's top 9 list. Woah! I am so excited about it though! Can't wait to see what this next round brings. :)

Elena's "bow"

Ugh, I am pretty sick again. It started with allergy symptoms but has now turned into feeling like the beggining of the mess I had for 4 months earlier this year. I took some Mucinex, but it doesn't seem to be having the same effect as it did the last time. Blah.

I think I have figured out how to post a video. Photobucket has a nifty video feature that I could never get to work...until now. :) So, if you promise to ignore the mess in the background and my horrible voice, I'll let you see. ;) I didn't get the entire spin, and it really doesn't show the drama she usually has, BUT it does indeed have her bowing.



I am really enjoying this audition process for Heather's CT call. We are all getting to know each other through the questions she has been asking and it is very relaxed and enjoyable. I think I will stick around at The Digichick now that the ice is broken. :)

Anyway, Heather decided to gift us a second kit and sent us her Father Knows Best kit. Her stuff is so easy to make pages with. It amazes me! She has some of the cutest elements in that one. I had a great idea, but I couldn't find a template for the main idea and am horrible at trying to draw with a mouse, so I had to file that one away for a while. LOL One day I WILL do it though. I think it will work best as a card.

So, here is the layout I made with the second kit:


Credits: Heather Roselli's Father Knows Best Kit available at thedigichick
Fonts: Chinacat and CongressT

The pic was taken last year. Doesn't Silas look thrilled to be in it? LOL

Also, after posting my Ladybug, Ladybug mini kit (found below), I was sent a request for a bee kit. So, I finally sat down a few days ago and worked a little on it..took a break and finished it up last night. The person requesting it really loves it, so I was happy! I decided to share it with everyone. :)

Here's the preview:


And here are the download links:

Papers 1

Papers 2

Elements

Enjoy!

Elena is a ham

I've mentioned before that Elena loves to dance. The music barely comes on and she is dancing all over the place. Lately it is dramatic spinning she is doing (think ice skater with no skates), which I could do without. LOL She is really cracking me up lately though because she bows when she gets to the end of her routine. I haven't a clue where she learned that one, but it is soooo funny. I need to figure out how the heck to post a video and let you be entertained.

She also will go to the tile floor and try what appears to be tap dancing and at the end yells "ta da" with her arms in the air. She will only do it when she has shoes on her feet, so I am guessing she enjoys the sound. I always pictured Cassidy as our little ballerina, but it looks like Elena is going to be our little performer in the family.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow, wow, wow! I had so mcuh fun using Heather's kit. She seems like such an awesome designer to work for. She said she never wants us to feel pressure and to just have fun with it. She sent us one of her kits and it is beee-u-teeee-ful! The one requirement she had was that we had to use a black and white photo. This isn't something I commonly do, but I knew exactly what photos I wanted to choose from for this particular kit. So, I went to work. Before I knew it, I had made 2 layouts and it was 2:30am. Yikes!

So, I spent all morning trying to decide which of the two layouts I wanted to submit. Decisions, decisions. There were things I liked about both of them, and things I wasn't too sure about on both of them as well, but overall I was extremely happy with them both.

Here they are:
LAYOUT A:


LAYOUT B:


I finally decided on layout B. It was so hard choosing though! I went ahead and uploaded A to my member gallery though.

There are so many great layouts already from the other ladies that made the cut. I don't think I would be able to narrow it down if it were me having to choose!

Chatter, chatter

Well, I think I am having some computer issues lately. I haven't been able to get blogger to allow me to post comments consistently, nor have I been able to make a post in a while. And I had a ton of stuff I had been wanting to write about too. LOL

Let's see...last Thusday I went in to get started with my study meds for the research group. They did all the initial checks and an EKG. Everything came back great. Dr. D is actually able to do my checkups when I go in since he is right across the hall. He is so nice. He looked at my numbers from the bloodwork and very sincerely told me how proud of me he is. It has been a rare occurance in my life that a doctor tells me they are proud of me, no matter how hard I have worked. So, that was a great way to start the study. :)

One of the side effects noted about this medication is headaches. I have had horrible migraines for as long as I can rememebr, and all I have been able to take is Tylenol. Yep, lucky me developed an allergic reaction to Advil and those great drugs called NSAIDs, so I basically wind up suffering for a few days until the pain subsides. Lately, they had been improving. I would catch them early enough that the Tylenol actually seemed to work. Boy, did that ever fool me. I started with one on Saturday and it lasted through yesterday. I had to call my mother to come over and watch the kids because I was so severely ill with the pain. I haven't had one like that in a while. She came over, and I headed to bed and stayed there until 2:30pm. It still wasn't completely gone, but I took the generic version of Excedrin Migraine and it seemed to knock it completely out the rest of the way. I really hate migraines.

Speaking of Saturday, Elena was invited over to her buddy Elizabeth's house for a playdate. We went and had a nice time. I tell ya, everytime we get together it is during Elena's naptime and she takes forever and a day to wake up and adjust. By the end of our time there she was fine and actually talking a bit to the other kids, playing, and having a nice time.

I was the first to arrive, and not too long after a woman walked in with her little girl. After we were introduced we realized that we knew each other from elementary school. We were always in the same class from k-5 and the two of us along with one other girl were always the teacher's pets. (Everyone found that funny for some reason, though I have no idea why. lol) So that was just wild running into her. She also graduated from the same high school and in the same class as my husband. Even crazier! It was a neat little surprise. :)

My other bit of news is something I am really excited about. I applied for Heather Roselli's (a scrapbooking designer) creative team on the 9th. She had 37 applicants and narrowed it down to 18. I actually made the first cut! I am so excited! So, now she is going to be sending us an assignment and will then narrow the group even more to 9. From that 9 she will narrow it again and end up with 3 or 4 new members to her team. I really love her designs. She has the cutest stuff for both boys and girls. Honestly though, I am just thrilled to have even made it this far! So, wish me luck!

And now for my scrapping updates (moved from my scrap blog ;) )Ok, I played some more, and I am still thinking there is something missing. I can't figure out what it is though. I think it is getting there, but there is just something else it needs. Hmmm. Anyone? I'm always open to suggestions. :)



Credits: Morning Glory kit from d2D - dedicated2digital.com

This is a scraplift of Patricia/patara's "Capture The Moment" layout found here: http://www.rakscraps.com/photopost/s...00&ppuser=2325

I loved it so much, I had to do a lift!

The quote is by Ashleigh Brilliant and says, "Keep some souvenirs of your past, or how will you ever prove it wasn't all a dream?"



Credits:
Pencil element and to do list: by me
Kit used: Mrs. Schmuck's SchweetSchtuff


I love this photo of Cassidy. I think she has the most beautiful eyes and the longest lashes to frame them.



Credits: The journaling is from the song by the same title as sung by Martina McBride. Papers - AnneLangpap from the Nov{peas} Freebie, stickpin by Melanie Greene from the Gingham & Flowers Mini Kit, recolored by me and overlay by Lisa West (Zephanee) from the Bloomin' Country Kit

I did manage to get my newbie challenge kit and scraplift made for RAKScraps. Blogger has been being difficult this week for me. I haven't been able to really comment on anyone's posts nor make any new ones of my own in the past two days. Hmmm. Anyway, I had fun making this once I got past my little mental block. LOL I may even do a little add-on to this one day. Who knows? :)

Here is the preview of my newest mini kit:


And you can download it here:
http://www.savefile.com/files/4210642

If you do download it, please leave me a comment. Thanks!

Summer break!

I totally forgot to tell you - we are officially taking our summer break! Woohoo! Jacob's evaluation has been scheduled for June 26th, and I am anxious to get it over and done with. The lady we are going to is so nice. She said the only things she is greatly concerned about is math and reading so we need samples of that and anything else he is excited about from this year. No problems there! We have a bunch of photos showing him working on math, some worksheet samples, some handwriting samples, our reading list for the year, resource list, a book for him to read for her. I asked him if there is anything else he would like to add and he wants to add some of our lapbooks. We have to decide exactly which ones he wants to add. He loves those things! Anything else I need? The evaluator will give us the papers that very day for us to fax into the school board office. Woohoo!

I am already starting to plan out next year for Jacob. I want to "plan" out through December for him this month, and then spend next month planning things for Joshua. I already know of some of the things I want to try and do differently this coming year. Instead of our wall timeline which was destroyed by a certain little girl's hands, I think we are going to try some notebooking. Jacob enjoys the lapbooking so much, and actually remembers things he learns with them, that I think notebooking will allow him to retain the info just as much. We also will do more lapbooks of course. I plan to continue with the Magic Treehouse Series. They have such a great range of topics that I think work well for history lessons. We went to the library today and I had him look at the upcoming books. He was really excited about them. :)

I also plan to get Joshua to do some lapbooks this year. He's improved so much with his willingness to touch the "yucky stuff" like glue and playdough and such, that I think he will be able to handle doing them. Of course, this could all very well have to change by that point, and planning is kind of hard to do in regards to Joshua, yet at the same time, everything has to be planned meticulously. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me. LOL

I have been busy, busy, busy lately with my scrapping. I am trying to get pages for my grandfather and other family members put together. I tell ya, it takes me ages to get one page done sometimes. Mostly because I take forever to find what papers and elements I am going to use with what pictures. It doesn't help that I am sooo disorganized with my downloaded kits. There has to be a better system, but I haven't found what will work for me yet.

I attended another newbie chat at RAKScraps. They are great there. I really enjoy posting with a friendly and helpful bunch. 90% of the time my questions have already been answered so I don't have to show them how little I know. heehee Anyway, we have the same assignment, just with a new scraplift. Should be fun.

I also have submitted a kit to be used as a part of a huge kit for Down Syndrome Awareness. Anyone who makes a donation to one of three charity groups will get the kit for free. It is set to be released mid-June, and when it is, I will be sure to add the link and info for you.

Other than that, I don't get as much time as I would like to scrap. I did do the latest RAK sketch challenge though. Here is my page:



Credits: Muted Blue Kit Created by AllS. Font: Arial



Credits: April 06 RAK Mega Kit contributions by Mrs. Schmuck, Jane Atwell, and Ginger Thibodeau




I love this photo of Jacob holding Elena. He was so proud of his baby sister and I feel his love for her really comes out in this photo.

Credits: April 06 RAK Mega Kit contributions by Mrs. Schmuck, CWyckoff, and kmcdonald

Oh! I totally forgot to mention that I actually won something! I did the June Treaure hunt and Gallery Mixer at RAKScraps last night and my name was drawn for a 25% off coupon at d2D. Was I ever surprised by that! I was so excited and after much debating I decided to buy the Morning Glory kit. It is so pretty, and I can not wait to use it! December is so sweet and helpful and I will definitely buy from her again. :)

Here is my first attempt at using this kit...I'm going to play around with the layout a bit more. I'm not totally happy with what I did. Don't you just love those bright colors though?!



Credits: Morning Glory kit by d2D - dedicated2digital.com


Well, to end this, I wanted to post a link to a summer reading program through Build-A-Bear Workshop. The kids need to read 6 books between now and July 31 in order to receive a $5 gift card to their store. Not a bad deal, and very achievable!

Build-A-Bear Workshop Summer Reading Program

Enjoy!

Update on my health issues

Today was my appointment with the clinical research group my doctor works with. He had requested that I be considered as part of a cholesterol or blood pressure study. I was told what the studies were for and then they took a quick blood sample to test and see what my levels were. At first she was going to go on the labs from the end of April, but I told her I had a complete diet change, so she went ahead and did an initial draw.

When she got the results and compared them to the April bloodwork, she looked puzzled and said "This is very interesting...VERY interesting" and left to look something up. When she came back she said again how interesting the labs came back and said she was going to have the machine checked to be sure it was correct. So I asked her if it was a good or bad interesting. LOL I was getting kind of concerned with her saying that over and over. She said it was really good news for me and wanted to know what I had been doing differently. LOL

Anyway, let me tell you about my levels and what has been going on. I don't think I gave numbers earlier this month, but I am going to tell you now. I was scared out of my mind when I posted about my last appointment. I felt like a ticking time bomb...seriously!

My BP was good today. 130/84. It was apparently 148/100 when I went in a few weeks back. Still not great, but not as high as it has been.

My LDL (the bad cholesterol) was 173 (normal is 0-99 and my doctor said he'd be perfectly happy with it at 100, but he'd like to aim at getting it to 90). Today it was 121!

My Triglycerides were 115 (normal is 0-149) so those were good. Today it was 191, so not good. From what she said, this is because of the sugars and being pre-diabetic I tend to have problems with sugars anyhow. Plus just about everyone in my family has triglyceride problems.

My total cholesterol levels: These were 252 last time (normal is 100-199). Yikes! Today it is 204!

She said whatever I am doing is great and keep doing it, and I DO NOT qualify for the 3 studies my doctor was wanting me to get into. Yay! They went ahead and offered me another to test meds for triglycerides, and I am going to go ahead and try it. It is short - only 16-18 weeks and everything is covered. I'm going to try it out. I think the endo I will eventually see will wind up putting me on meds to get it down anyway, so why not? I could end up with a placebo, but you just never know!

I was looking forward to seeing exactly how much I have lost according to their scales, but they didn't weigh me yet. That'll be next week along with all the other tests, providing my bloodwork doesn't disqualify me. LOL According to my scale, I have lost 12 pounds since my appointment 3 weeks ago. Yay!

So, I am feeling much better about the direction my health is going now. Had to give a good update. :)

In scrapping news, since I am working on Jacob's portfolio, I decided that instead of just printing off a bunch of pics and throwing them in there to show what he has done, I'll scrap them. So, this is the first page I did. Nothing spectacular, but it shows the pic in a nicer form.



Credits: backgrounds by - V. Kim Smith from her "Cool Dude Kit" contribution to the RAK May 06 Mega Kit. Also Jane A's RAK May06 Mega Kit contributon. element by - V. Kim Smith from "Cool Dude"

And another Josh layout:


Credits: Patterned background papers by Jeannie Papai and Kelley Elizabeth McDonald from the RAK May 06 Mega Kit Font: Agent Orange

Happy Birthday, Cassidy!

I can't believe my sweet Cassie is 3 now. Wow! She woke up this morning and we told her "Happy Birthday!" She got the biggest grin and informed us "Yes, it's MY day" in her soft little voice. LOL

Happy Birthday, Cassie!

Party report and pics

Well, the party was a success. Everyone appeared to have had a nice time. We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, had chips, broiled potatoes, and cake and animal cookies. There was no real set theme since it is increasingly difficult to have Jacob and Cassie have the same theme. So we had green napkins and plates and pink napkins and plates...each of their favorite colors. :)

After lunch, the kids opened their gifts. I may have mentioned this before, but in case I didn't, let me explain - every birthday is like Christmas around here. Nobody wants the other kids to feel left out, so all of the kids get gift bags packed with little gifts and the birthday kid(s) get extra. They love it! {they aren't spoiled or anything!} So, the fun began. I missed a lot of what they got since I was being called every 5 seconds to look at what someone had opened. It was so cute seeing them all so excited about their new treasures.

Jacob got a couple of Transformers, including "Starscream" that I have been hearing about for months. Little did Jacob know, I bought it for him back in January and it had been sitting in my closet ever since. LOL We also bought him a Pixter, which he had a blast with. There were also coloring books, a Doodle Monster, stickers, clothes, legos, and some other things that are not coming to this tired mind.

Cassidy made out like a bandit as well. Lots of princess and My Little Pony toys. She got the cutest book - Picture Me Sparkle Princess - which has her photo in it and each page has "Cassie" wearing a different dress. Oh boy, did she ever love that tonight! And she also got clothes, books, a princess game, Barbie Rapunzel movie, a couple of necklaces, hair items, and the list goes on.

Here are some pics:

The cakes:




Blowing out the candles: (check out Elena trying to help LOL)




Opening gifts:
















Josh and Elena partying:

Seven Years

I can't believe seven years have passed since my sweet Jacob took his first breath. In some ways it seems to have flown by and in other ways it is as if it happened yesterday. He and Cassie will be having their birthday party later today. He requested a chocolate blue Lego cake, but when we headed to the store to get the decorations for Cassie's, he decided that he really liked the Spiderman Candy cake decorations, and he really wanted chocolate icing. LOL So we are compromising a little. We are having a chocolate Spiderman Lego cake with chocolate icing. He also requested a number 7 candle. I think he is really excited about this turning seven years old thing. :)

Here is a scrap layout I made for Jacob this year:


Happy Birthday, my handsome boy!

Digital Scrapbooking

I have been posting some on RAK Scraps (link in the right sidebar). It is such a wonderful and helpful group there, and I love it! I decided I would join the newbie chat on 5/13 to hopefully get a few tutorials and get to know a few of the people in there. I had no idea we would get a HUGE assignment for a newbie. LOL Kim/vkimmycat gave us several tutorials and then the assignment - make a kit with 4 papers (2 plain and 2 patterned) and 4 elements. We then had to make a layout using our newly created kit. We could either do a scraplift or use a sketch that she created for us. I chose the sketch, and this is how it turned out:



Kit by me. Sketch by vkimmycat at RAK Scraps.

Here is the kit. If you would like to download it, the link is below the pic. Feel free to share, but please do not give the link to the download. Instead, send them to my blog to click on the link themselves. Thanks!



Download Summer Picnic Kit: http://www.sendspace.com/file/786zpd

Everyone loved it, especially the ribbons. I had no idea if I did it right or what, but from the feedback I received, I am guessing I did good. :) Anyway, I was so excited when I received a private message from someone saying how good the kit turned out. She wanted to know if I am a designer anywhere and if not I should consider it. Wow! Did that ever make me feel good! She also said she has a site and is currently looking for new a fresh designers and wanted to know if I would like to apply. I told her I would really love to do that in the future, but this was my first kit and I still have so much to learn. I was so excited about it though. So, who knows, maybe one day in the future my kits will be out there for everyone to see. :D
If you do download, please be nice and leave a comment. Just a hello would be nice. :)

In addition to that, Katrina at RAK Scraps decided to post an impromptu challenge for us. She gave us a color swatch and her part of a kit and asked that we do our own add-on kits. So I went to work and got mine done. Here it is:



Papers and elements by me. Font: Scriptina.

Everyone that participates in the challenge will get all of the add-ons and original kit. Fun stuff!

Hopefully on the mend

Cassidy is so much better today! I am relieved. No fever at all so far...her temp was 97. Yay! So far so good. She even ate 3 crackers and drank without having us ask her to do so. And she has been off of the couch and playing for the majority of the morning.

Medical update (on me and Cassidy)

Ok, this will be long and I hope it makes sense. I am tired.

Cassidy was not running a fever by the time we got to the peds, which is great, but her lips were dry and she looks horribly ill. The ped said her ear doesn't look near as bad as the chart indicated it was on Tuesday, so she thinks the antibiotic is starting to work. They tested her blood sugar because of how bad she is shaking and it is fine. The urine looked fine and did not seem to indicate that she was dehydrated as of yesterday. She is starting to not urinate as much though so we have to now start watching for the dehydration.

If she has a fever tomorrow then we have lab orders for blood work and a chest x-ray and then we will go in on Saturday to the peds. She will likely have her antibiotic changed if that is the case, but we may have to hydrate her with IVs if she is getting worse...so she is still ok hydration wise for right now. Whew!

We had my appointment to go over all of my results from bloodwork I had drawn and my thyroid ultrasound since my appointment last month. I will tell you about those results in a minute. Once we got home (well after 5pm), Cassie's fever went up. It reached 103.7, so I have a feeling we will definitely be heading out tomorrow morning for those labs. :(

My appointment wasn't too great, but we have a plan somewhat in place. I am pre-diabetic, my cholesterol is really high (total and LDL) and my blood pressure was up, so I am on a strict diet for now. Fresh and frozen only still and then in a month I will go back to be retested and have an even stricter diet given to me. If my cholesterol isn't improved a bit they will likely put me on meds for it.

My thyroid tests all came back fine, but my thyroid ultrasound came back showing that I have 2 nodules and a goiter (knew about the goiter but not the nodules). He thinks I likely have Hashimoto's Disease, which my mother has. They recommend I have the ultrasound repeated in 6 months. Yikes! I'm still a little confused about how you have a goiter with nodules and yet have your multiple thyroid tests come back ok. Unless his theory is correct (see below).

He ordered another test, but my lovely lab decided to do some totally different test. It came back with abnormal results and he has no idea what the test even looks for. That kind of scares me. He was thinking I have a thyroid autoimmune problem, but he isn't real sure. I don't like the fact that something came back in an abnormal range and we don't know what it is. I mentioned about being tested for scleroderma as a kid and that the results came back as inconclusive and he said it may very well have something to do with that but again he isn't sure.

If anyone knows what a weak positive for the "Actin (smooth muscle) Antibody" test might mean, please feel free to let me know so I don't have to sit here pondering what the heck is going on. ;)

Anyway, it all boils down to the fact that I have multiple problems so he is sending me to see my mother's endocrinologist. She said he used to do internal medicine as well as endocrinology, so I think he is bound to get me fixed up.

It seems like there was something else, but I am blanking now. Hopefully Cassie will wake up fever free tomorrow. She is feeling pretty warm right now, so I guess we will see. Thanks for thinking of us. I'll keep you posted. I have a feeling it will be another long day of testing tomorrow. I hate that she is sick like this. :(

Cassidy update

Well, she is still running a fever (101), so I have an appointment for her this afternoon with my regular ped (thank goodness!). I'm not sure what they will do. She vomitted the meds this morning and had a (TMI) very large bowel movement. That could very well be what she meant when she said "the down" was hurting. Maybe she was constipated? I don't know. I know when we lift her up to change her pull-up she is VERY shaky, so I am wondering if they will just put her in overnight for some IVs.

Then at 3:45 I have my doctor's appointment to go over all of my lab results. I know my pressure will be sky high because of the rushing around I will be doing, the worrying about Cassie, lack of sleep and not staying on my diet at all this week. I am hoping he won't jump to meds as the answer after only seeing me twice, especially since my pressure was fine at the GYN office. Maybe my pressure will actually cooperate for me and be surprisingly low.

Wish us luck! Hopefully we will get to come home and I can update. :)

Cassie is sick

I brought her to the peds and spent 4 hours there. The last time I saw this particular doctor, she treated Jacob. He was so sick she felt he needed to be hospitalized, but yet she had us sit in her office for 5 hours before she did a darn thing. So, I knew we were going in to a long appointment.

She apparently hasn't changed any. I was ticked. Cassie has been running a 102-103 fever since Sunday WITH Motrin round the clock. She also keeps saying "the down" hurts. I asked her where she is hurting, could she show me, etc, and she points to just above her belly button. I pushed a little all over her belly and she never winced or anything and when I asked her again if that was "the down", she pointed to her privates. So, I thought maybe she has a UTI and I brought her in....the ped thought it was a good possibility as well.

The initial check-up went quickly. We were first after lunch, had a throat culture that came back negative, and her left ear is severely infected. I mean, the ped hardly even had to look before she said it looked really bad. :( Poor baby. She never said a word about her ear hurting until we were pulling into the parking lot, so I had no idea.

Anyway, since the throat culture came back negative and Cassie had mentioned that she hurt a little, the ped decided we should do a urine sample. I brought Cassie to the bathroom and she didn't want to go in the cup. She wasn't feeling like sitting up at all for the past two days, so she certainly wasn't going to be cooperative on something like this. So I told the ped we should probably try the bag method. We sat there for 3 hours and Cassie would not go. They put us in a tiny room with no magazines or anything and one chair. So for three hours I stood there waiting for her to pee in the bag. This doctor also has a habit of jumping to conclusions a good bit. After two hours she assumed Cassie is dehydrated. She's not, she just never potties when we leave the house. She didn't have any signs of dehydration, and she also had been pottying with no trouble until this point. Plus she had been drinking quite a bit, so there was no reason to believe that we needed to give her an IV at the hospital.

So, when the 4th hour came, the ped just happened to come out of one of the other rooms, so I went out and told her Cassie was feeling pretty hot again and I needed to know if I could give her some more Motrin or not. She felt her head and told someone to come and take her temp. It was only 101.6, but she felt like she was on fire and was looking pretty bad again. I told the ped again that Cassie hasn't been having an odd or strong smell to her urine. Suddenly the ped decided that she would just go ahead and treat the ear infection and let us go. Nice, huh? Except that she was going to give her the Rocephin shots and I had to remind her about Jacob's severe allergy in the hospital when she treated him several years ago. According to her, none of my other kids should chance that particular medication. So, we now have Augmentin and I have to bring in a urine sample tomorrow morning.

So, that was my fun day. I am beat.

All Tuckered Out

Poor Elena. She put on Josh's old tennis shoes which are about 4 sizes too big for her feet. She walked around the house for a while, then stopped at the couch, put her head down, and didn't budge for a good 15 minutes. She was apparently tuckered out and needed an extra nap. A couple of minutes after I took these pics, she fell flat on her tush and woke up. LOL Little nut.

Yes, she is sleeping standing up. LOL