Birthday Girl!

Well, we survived 3 out of 5 kids being sick this past week. And we now have a one year old among us! To view almost 365 pictures of Mary's first year oflife please visit her blog HERE

Sixth Disease, Fifth Disease or Rubella????

Anyone familiar with any of these conditions?




Our poor little 11 1/2 month old has had a fever and cold/cough for three days now. She has moments when she seems almost normal, she start to smile or play, but most of the time she has this winey cry, her thoat sounds sore and horse, her eyes look tired and she is very uninterested in eating or nursing. She will in little bits, but not her normal appetite at all.

Last night when I saw the spots appearing on her arms, legs and face I was hoping for chicken pox, but by this morning I could tell thats not what they were (no blisters). So we called the clinic and they said come in and they would take a look. They put us in the last appointment of the day. We ruled out strep throat rash by doing a throat culture and the Dr. at the clinic said it sould be Sixth Disease, Fifth Disease, a mild case of Rubella, or some other viral infection that has reulted in a rash. In any of these cases there is no "treatment". We are using Tylonal when her fever gets up around 103 or when she seems too uncomfortable (which has been often today).



It just SUCKS to not be able to fix what hurts my baby girl ... I want to cry right along with her. Let me know if your have any tips for home treatment or comfort measures. Its crazy that she is my 5th child and this is the first time I've dealt with anything like this (except that the older three had chicken pox 4 years ago while i was pregnant with our 4th)

I ♥ Faces for May 19th

This week I ♥ Faces is hosting their Blurb Book Photo Contest. It’s going to be a BIG, amazing, fun week at I ♥ Faces… Lots of beautiful faces to come see. Each person can enter one (and only one) photo that will be considered to possibly be an addition to our I ♥ Faces Blurb Book! The idea is to choose your best/favorite face photo to enter, so here is mine:




"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."



Any photographer (Beginner, Amateur and Professional) is welcome to join in the I ♥ Faces weekly photo challenges Photos can be entered on Mon or Tues until they close down the challenges around 9:00 p.m. Winning photos are displayed on Saturday.

Not Me Mondays!

Its NOT Monday again ... it can't be! And didn't I just write a Not Me Monday (oh, I guess that really was a whole week ago)

Want to play along? Want a healthy dose of free, funny, and oh so refreshing therapy? MckMama came up with the hilarious idea to take our not-so-proud moments and spin them around in a delightful therapy session! Come join us!

I did NOT forget (again) that my son was supposed to bring a snack for his kindergarten class today and did NOT stop at a gas station near his school and try to talk him into severl ... um ... unhealthy snacks. Being the concious kid he is he did NOT hold his ground and insist upon the goldfish shaped pretzels. So I did NOT drop him off at school, run to Target and buy three bags of the goldfish shaped pretzels and return to school with them. His class was NOT very very happy about thier snack.

During this past week my family has NOT repeatedly had baked potatoes for most lunches this week. They are free to change up the toppings, but baked potatoes it is. We've been busy and its an easy lunch.

I did NOT try to start boxing up junk we are not using. I am certainly NOT stressing about having to move all our junk ... errr ... I mean stuff to our new house in July. I did NOT joke about just leaving it all here for the family who buys this house and then think to my self, maybe we could.

I did NOT wake up our sleeping 11 month old last night around 7:30 pm to take her outside and set her on a blanket for these adorable picture:




And then did NOT take and our three year old for a wagon ride:



The evening light was too perfect to pass up. I guess it was worth her being crabby for the next few hours. To see more of the adorable picture I would NEVER force her to be part of visit her blog HERE

I have also NOT spent the whole week wondering why our church's pastor suddenly resigned without an explanation. I have NOT heard every possible thought from any number of people, but am choosing to offer up prayers for both my pastor and my church family instead of talking much about it.

Last night I certainly was NOT craving a hot fudge sunday from a certain fast food restaurant. And since I had a very crabby baby and very crabby 3 year old I could not leave to go get myself said sunday. So I would never whisper certain "dessert-ish" promises into my sweet hubby's ear about what I'd like to do if he would oh so kindly go get me a hot fudge sunday. And to make matters worse I did NOT fall asleep while nursing our crabby baby and not get to follow thru on my "dessert-ish" promises. That would be mean. Ooops! But thanks honey for going out to get me my sunday.

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Alphabitty Moments

Please come join us for Alphabitty Moments over at MamaBear's blog, she has a great talent for this photo stuff. And we are having a blast making our way through the alphabet with moments captured on film.

This week we are on letter L.
Want to see my post for ?
Check HERE

Crazy Busy Night Turned Into Blessed Time Alone

What does a tired often forgetful and confused mother of five kiddos do when her hubby offers to drop her off at the local coffee house for an hour while he runs the 10 year old to baseball, stops at the bank, feeds the 7 year old and listens to the 3 year old and baby complain from their car seats????? I jump at the chance for an hour of alone time, thats what I do!!! So, yes, here I sit with my book, my phone, my laptop and an iced mocha ... I get one hour to my self. Ahhhhh....

Would it seem odd if I asked one of the employees here to take my picture ... so I can post it on my blog? So I can look back and savor the moment? Probably a little odd ... probably won't do that.

I'm really quite blessed. Quite a few moments to savor in my life lately, like the other morning when I was laying in bed next to our Baby Girl as she woke up. She stretched and cooed, and yawned and stretched again. Then she opened her eyes and when she saw me looking at her she smiled and reached her hand out with her chubby little pointer outstretched and touched the tip of my nose, then giggled at her self. So sweet and so adorable.

And earlier today as I sat at an indoor park with a dear friend and her kids, we watched our three year old boys becoming great friends as they practiced their farm animal noises and spiderman moves. How sweet to still be close with a friend I've known since third grade and see our kids enjoying each other.

Also earlier today I received an email from my teenage daughter with this link to a bible study she would love to do. She has always had such a sweet sensitive heart and I've seen her passion grow for the persecuted church this past year. How wonderful to see her passions growing in the Lord.

I've struggled lately with the hurt and unfairness of this world: Friends losing their jobs, no longer able to afford their houses, other friends losing their battle with cancer, still others watching as their child suffers with cancer or other health complications. I can't make any sense of it all ... but then I was not made to understand it all. I was made -created- to glorify HIM, to worship my Lord, Creator, Savior. I have notes on bible verses supporting this at home, but of corse I'm not at home I'm in a coffee shop thinking, typing and enjoying my iced mocha. So please be patient with me, I'll add those verses later tonight or tomorrow morning. But back to my point ... I can't ... simply can not and never will be able to really understand many of the things that happen to me or to others in this life here on earth. But I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that one day I will stand in Heaven at the feet of the One who created not just me, but this entire world and He does understand, he does see the big picture and He loves us with a love we can not possibly understand the depths of. So I continue to talk with my God, my Savior, my Creator through prayer and I continue to listen to Him through His Word. I trust and I continue ... And at times I'm blessed with moments like these to savor

I ♥ Faces for May 12th ~ Laughter

I have to add before my I ♥ Faces post that Laughter is a really hard topic to post on today because I feel nothing like laughing. We learned this morning that sweet little Kayleigh has gone home to be with The Lord. My heart aches and breaks for her family, please visit their blog today, offer words of condolences if you feel so led, but also please please just lift them up in prayers.





Any photographer (Beginner, Amateur and Professional) is welcome to join in the I ♥ Faces weekly photo challenges (you can enter one photo for each category.) Photos can be entered on Mon or Tues until they close down the challenges around 9:00 p.m. Winning photos are displayed on Saturday.

This week’s theme is Laughter. The picture above was taken at a playground last week with my Cannon PowerShot SD750. It was a pretty windy day and the feeling of the wind on her face kept making our littlest laugh. We love to hear that laugh and today it is certainly helping us cope with the sad news.

Not Me Mondays!

I have followed MckMama's blog for quite some time

I'm thrilled that MckMama and all her MckKids are home, healthy and settling back in to their 'new normal'. Also thrilled she is back to hosting Not Me! Mondays.


Not Me! Mondays can be very theraputic. You basically 'fess up about a few things you've done that week (funny, embarrassing, sentimental)...and pretend that you totally did NOT actually do them! We've all done something we'd like to pretend we certainly did NOT do, so come on over and visit Not Me! Monday and see what we've all NOT been up to

As for me, I did NOT spend my Mother's Day with a horrific headache and a child who has 103 fever, that would not really be much fun for Mother Day.

I've also NOT been looking over my summer calendar and have NOT been increasingly frustrated to find that almost every weekend of June and July and August are already booked up with places we need to be and events we need to attend. When are we going to find time to move into our new house?

Which brings me to how I am NOT stressed about the whole moving process. Our current home is NOT so cluttered I can't think straight and I am NOT unsure where to start as far as sorting and boxing up all that either needs to be trashed, donated, or moved. I have NOT considered calling the Clean Sweep people from TLC, but then decided I could not handel the embarrassment of letting other people clean out my clutter on a TV show. So I will NOT press on with trying to declutter our current mess once I have healthy kids again.

And right now I am NOT headed to take several advil and a nap, while the kiddos watch Space Buddies

Happy Monday Everyone!

I am learning to digital scrapbook!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

This is NOT my very first Not Me! Monday post, but yes it is

I have followed MckMama's blog since about the time their sweet little MckMuffin was miraculously born, and just as many many many of you out there in cyber/blogger land I've followed her blog and tweets quite closely these last weeks as MckMuffin was hospitalized. I'm thrilled that MckMama and all her MckKids are home, healthy and getting back to a 'new normal'. She is once again hosting her Not Me! Mondays. I have loved reading many of these, but just never got around to participating ... so heres to my very first Not Me! Monday

Nope I have not stalked MckMama's blog and Twitter page, watching for all the updates on Stellan these past 7 weeks. Wow, has it really been 7 weeks? I guess it has. And no I did not send her countless comments, tweets and emails letting her know I was praying and wished I could do more. No, I did not lift countless prayers for MckMama and her family. But YES, yes I really did and what an honor to lift up our brothers and sisters in Christ. What a great God we serve!


No indeed this has not been an incredibly loooong week at our home. No my dear dear hubby did not sign up for overtime both Sat and Sun, thereby completely eliminating our weekend. No I am not completely exhausted and about 100 hours behind on sleep. No I did not let the boys call him at work when the fighting over someones toy just would not stop. No I did not say "I don't know what to do ... here I'll dial, you call and ask your dad"

We have a teething 11 month old in this house and nope, no way do I allow her to chew on anything and everything just to keep her from chewing on me. Just a few of the things that I have NOT allowed her to hold and chew on do not include: her brother's socks, her daddy's empty beer bottle, my bottle of Coke, my wrist watch, the kitchen chairs, any number of bracelets, the egg timer, an unpeeled banana, lots of tupperware, and hair barrettes. And even before the teething began she really was the MOST oral child I have ever had (and I do have 5). I certainly have not ever fished newspaper, or LEGOS, or gum wrappers, or beads, or her brother's pet rocks out of her mouth. I would Never.Not.Ever. need to pull a chewed up ladybug out of her mouth oh no not me! ....oh no, not here! And then I did not shutter while yelling "ick ick ick!!!"

This same 11 month old had an ear infection that would not end (December-March), and we tried everything, so she finally ended up with tubes being placed in her ears almost a month ago. Praise the Lord she is ear infection free! But we have noticed a real lack of balance in her this past month. Related? Possible, but who really knows. As a result of this lack of balance she has her own Not Me! Monday woes to share. To read her Not Me! Monday post please visit her blog here:

www.myfirstdaysoflife.blogspot.com

Well, there you go, my first Not Me Monday. And I certainly did not enjoy writing that, it was not thereaputic at all and I will not be back next monday (But really, oh yes I did, oh yes it was and oh yes I will)

To enjoy some free therapy and hear what others have not been up to please visit MckMama's blog

Happy May Day!