Pumpkins

I carved my first pumpkin ever I think and it was harder than I thought especially with a cheap steak knife! LOL But Cody loved it and that's all that matters. He wanted to bring it to Daddy's but I assured him the pumpkin would be just fine staying with Mommy for a day or two. Lloyd made one with them also so they got to carve a couple! We haven't decided where we are going trick-or-treating yet. If Lloyd wants to come, we will all go together in Rogers and if he doesn't the kids and I will just go in Monticello. I recently found out that our new "hometown" is affectionately called Montee ;-) It is a great little town. Has a lot to do but still the small town feel and is very clean and pretty and right on the Mississippi.

We were welcomed to Monticello with some gift cards and one of those was for Pizza Man Pizza (very good!) and the kids loved it. Adrienne learned a new word... PIZZA. LOL

Fall Pictures

We went to a pumpkin patch today and had a friend take some fall pictures of us at the state park near our home. I am considering using one for Christmas cards. I enlarged a family picture to hang on the wall.

Fall is here

Fall is definitely here now. The weather has been back and forth quite drastically... from 40s to 80s and back to 70s BUT the leaves are here! They are just gorgeous and I am hoping to get some pictures of the kiddos with them in the next couple of days here. They are definitely at prime colors so I hope I don't miss it! They are with Lloyd right now and I am finding this is the best time to get cleaning and shopping done and some much needed relaxation.

Halloween is just around the corner and Cody is excited. I haven't decided if we are going to go TOTing in Rogers where we went last year or in our new neighborhood in Monticello. I will see if Lloyd wants to come too so he doesn't miss out on it. I made an appointment to get their Christmas pics done and am excited about that. We got tickets to spend Christmas with my parents and Mickey Mouse in Florida and I have not told the kids yet and probably won't until the day before LOL.

Hopefully my next post will be Fall leaves!!

Adrienne getting her groove on

LOL - she started off holding the top of the sit and spin and just going to down with one hand on it and shaking her little butt... Cody and I were CRACKING UP. By the time I got the camera out, she wasn't doing that part anymore but still got one hand on something (the wall now) LOL

getting ready for Halloween

I decided Adrienne is going to be a witch and bought her the cutest costume last week. We THINK Cody is going to be a knight but it isn't set in stone yet. ;-) We got out last year's costumes to sell on eBay and Adrienne loved Cody's costume and Cody and I laughed and laughed as she tried to get it all on...

Labor Day relaxing

What did we do? just played! It was a nice calm day and we are getting ready to go to bed early tonight to get back in the routine of getting up at 4:45am! YIKES! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day off. My new email is heathery@charter.net in case you didn't get it!

adjustments

Things are starting to "settle down" for lack of a better word. The kids and I are adjusting to our new life in our new home and we are moving on. Moving on can be quite hard but I am trying to be strong. Our untimely separation coupled with Kerry's untimely death have been a lot to deal with. I worry about my family and all the wonderful loving people Kerry left behind. I worry that Adrienne and Cody will not have an awesome relationship with their dad. I worry that I will never have anyone to care about me/love me again and I worry that if I do find someone I will not be able to trust that person because of the infidelity ripping our lives apart now.

I have decided to give all my worrying to God though. I got a call from a woman in the church Monday night that was very encouraging. My cousin Kate sent me a wonderful card. My online friends are very supportive. My mom calls just about every day and my aunts are sure to remind me often how much they love me. All of your prayers and concern have touched my heart and helped me to find my strength again.

I have decided to go back to school to finish my teaching degree although I do not have it all planned out yet. I applied to St. Cloud State University yesterday. I know Kerry would be proud of that decision.

We are still getting unpacked but our really feeling at home in our new townhouse. Cody really likes it and Adrienne does great on the stairs. Here are some pics of our new home

Saying goodbye

Kerry passed away on Sunday, August 17. The kids and I flew down to St. Louis on the 22nd for her funeral. Kerry was such an incredible young wife and mother and it is a very sad time. She was burried next to her daughter Taylor. Please keep my brother Shawn and their boys Trent and Travis in your prayers.

Kerry

In case you haven't heard, my sister-in-law Kerry has been in the hospital in ICU. God has worked a wonderful miracle in her! She will be going home today after being on a respirator for nearly a week! Please check out her caringbridge site

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewHome.do

anyone can sign the guestbook now!

You don't have to sign in at all - anyone can leave comments so feel free to post away!

and there are more bats

at least 3 more and one mad one...

the house is starting to look awesome except for all the nasty bat poop, wasp nests and of course, BATS! Lloyd has to wait awhile to take the shutters off Cody's window because the bat behind that one was very mad when we started! YIKES!

We did make it to the beach on Sunday

and I forgot to post about it! They both loved the water. Adrienne was VERY adventurous at first but after she fell under once, she was much more cautious and clung to me pretty tightly. She still enjoyed the water sitting on my lap (except for big waves caused by boats). Cody went pretty deep until I suggested he get his water wings on and come farther in with me. When Adrienne was done playing in the water, she actually said "all done" and took off out of the water. :-) We had a picnic and played on the playground too. It was nice but a lot of work so next time we will make sure Lloyd comes with! LOL

new color

We got quite a bit of hail damage with our last big storm and used the money from the insurance company to replace parts of the wood siding and repaint. We had a hard time picking out a color because our choices were limited because of the roof and brick colors. Lloyd is priming the wood and started painting and I think it is going to look nice. Unfortunately, he has discovered "creatures" love to live behing our window shutters. We have always had a problem with wasps and now we now why. He has uncovered MANY wasp nests, a hornet nest and BATS!!!! And still has several sets of shutters to go!

Corn on the cob

Had a very nice relaxing day today... beautiful weather (about 75 and sunny). Lloyd has been working on re-siding parts of the house and is now priming that new wood siding. We are trying to decide on a shade of light brown. We would really like grey but it won't go well with our dark brown roof and beige/brown and white bricks.

We had slow-cooked ribs and corn on the cob for dinner and we gave Adrienne her first ear of corn and she loved it! I am trying to find the picture I took of Cody eating his first ear of corn... it was super cute!

I am hoping to go to the beach tomorrow. It was mid 90s yesterday so that should have warmed the lakes up pretty good. Tomorrow it is supposed to be low 80s and Cody has been asking me daily when we can go.

Fourth of July

Lloyd got off work late tonight and has to be back in at 5am tomorrow so he is passing on the fireworks tonight for the first time. Since he will be going to sleep and Adrienne's normal bed time is 7pm - 8pm, we decided to leave Adrienne home with Lloyd and let her sleep. We did a few at home and sparklers and Adrienne couldn't care less - all she wanted to do was swing. :-)

Cody and I loved the fireworks - he didn't love the noise - it seemed louder than normal? LOL The fireworks were beautiful though and he loved them too and was sad when it was over! He fell asleep on the way home asking me to watch Curious George when we got home :-)

Rockin Rogers Days

The small town I work in has a festival every year like most towns. They do a very good job. The kids I work with wanted me to come last year but I didn't.

This time I bought tickets ahead of time for the discount and committed myself to going. It was supposed to rain all day - even thunderstorm... it didn't rain once while we were there!

The parade was awesome and the kids got more candy than at any previous parade we had been to. I ran into several of "my kids" and we had a very nice time.

Cody and I discovered the "fun slide" and it was indeed very fun! We went on it twice!

the potty

Adrienne was introduced to the potty at school last week and although I feel it is really too early, I don't want to stand in her way if SHE is ready ;-) SOOOOO I bought her a potty and although she loves to sit on it, she hasn't went potty yet (not at school either) so we will see. It is there when she is ready. On a side note, her eczema is getting worse and I am not quite sure what to do about it - it is probably time for something stronger than what we have been using.

My little helper

When I picked Adrienne up from school yesterday, her teacher told me that she thought Adrienne was a very smart and caring girl. :-) She moved to the toddler room 2 weeks ago and there are up to 21 kids in her class on any given day. She has figured out whose blanket is whose and whose shoes are whose. If someone is sad or crying, she will go get their blanket and give it to them! If someone is missing a shoe, she will help them find it. My sweet girl! Just had to share!

Garage Sale

bombed... go figure ;-) My last 2 did as well but this one I placed an ad for and did not make my money back for the ad. It did help to sell Lloyd's 4 wheeler though and he has been working on his newest toy - a dune buggy. Both kids are napping now and I am finally relaxing. I sold almost all of my baby stuff on cragislist immediately after the sale! Go figure! Next time, that is definitely the answer and way easier!

A Crazy Week!

We got back from St. Louis on Monday (after spending all day at the airport on Sunday and not being able to get out). Monday started my "Summer job"... meaning I work all day and have LOTS of planning to do to keep 34 school age kids (or varying ages) busy and happy all day. I relaxed a bit today finally. ;-)

I made a slideshow of our St. Louis pictures because there were SO MANY! We had a great visit!

Last day of swim class

Cody went down the slide with his teacher again and LOVED it... Adrienne... not so much! ;-)

so it IS Roseola

I took Adrienne into urgent care on Monday because she still had a high fever and her mouth was really bothering her... I really thought she might have thrush now but UC didn't really agree. She said it was NOT roseola and that she had petechia (broken blood vessels) that also appear white but ntypical with thrush. The Dr said to keep her on the antibiotics so I started them back up. :-(

BUT, today it becamse apparent that the urgent care Dr was quite wrong... Adrienne broke out in a miserable rash this morning indicating she does indeed have Roseola and her poor little mouth, inner cheeks, and the inside of her lips are white so the antibiotics she didn't need gave her thrush. She is no on thrush medicine and hopefully, she will be all better in a couple of days...

Lloyd took Adrienne on the tractor today for the first time and she seemed to really like it and didn't squirm like he feared she would.

Memorial Day Get together

Ken and Christy came to visit from North Dakota. They came this morning with Bud and Nickie also and we all had a really nice visit. The kids are getting so big and Cole and Cody really played well together! Everyone went for a tractor ride and the adults went on Harley rides too! We all had a great time until the storm came! LOTS of HUGE hail, tornados all around us... we spent quite a bit of tiem down in the basement and the vehicles got some hail damage and we believe our house did. We will try to get a closer look tomorrow.

Adrienne woke up with a 103 fever again and still has one now although she is asleep. She seems pretty happy despite the fever and I have been able to keep it pretty low with tylenol. Her mouth seems to be bothering her a lot so I might take her into UC if the fever has still not broke by tomorrow.

So what is it?

I have been trying to decide what exactly is going on with Adrienne... if it is, in fact, a sinus infection or something else. She has clear snot so I am not too confident with the sinus infection diagnosis. It occurred to me this afternoon that it could be Roseola and I was worried we may be exposing Christy's kids to it. So, I googled it and I am pretty sure that is exactly what she has but we will know for sure in a few days. Good news is that Adrienne is not contagious at this point! Now, we just need to decide if we should continue the antibiotic or not...

Roseola is a viral infection that typically begins with a mild upper respiratory illness, followed by a high fever (often over 103° Fahrenheit) lasting 2-7 days followed by a distinctive rash just as the fever breaks. Roseola most commonly affects children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. The virus that causes roseola do not appear to be spread by kids while they are exhibiting symptoms of the illness. Instead, someone who has not yet developed symptoms often spreads the infection.

still on the go

Even with fevers pushing 104, Miss Adrienne is still on the move...

I am beginning to wonder if she has Roseola because other than the fever, she really has no other symptoms. I am not taking her off the antibiotic though. Time will tell! It is very nice here today - supposed to get to 73 and very bright and sunny!

sick again

yes, Adrienne :-(

She has been healthy for awhile now (2-3 months!) and I thought maybe she wasn't aspirating anymore so decided to try and stop her thickening. Her runny nose was back pretty soon after stopping so I started it back up again but the runny nose continues and I got a call this morning saying she had a fever (low grade though at 100.2). We went home and I made her an apt just in case for this afternoon and her fever got up to 102.4 so I took her in. Her ped was on vacation but the other ped in the office saw her and said her ears looked OK, throat looked OK, lungs sounded good, etc, etc. The only thing we could guess was that she had a sinus infection now so I agreed to put her on an antibiotic. I asked about her tubes and he said he couldn't see one because wax was in the way but that her ear was definitely not infected. That particular ear though is sore so I am wondering if the tube is somewhere it shouldn't be??? I know that won't cause a fever but it would make her ear hurt, I'm sure. Her fever got up to 103.5 after a nap and it take a long time, tylenol, motrin and a bath to get it down to 101.5... she is asleep now and I am heading there myself. I am hoping and praying she is much better tomorrow and all better by Sunday. We are very excited because Lloyd's sister Christy and her family are all coming to visit from ND on Sunday and they have never even seen Adrienne...

Nice Weekend

We had a nice but kind of boring weekend. It was chilly and rainy most of the time and I find myself looking for warmer weather again! The flowers are still doing OK... one died. Cody and I went to see Nim's Island on Saturday evening and it was great although Cody did not like it as much as cartoon movies... he said he really liked it but kept asking when we could go home LOL. Lloyd's sister Christy and her family are coming to visit on Sunday and they have never met Adrienne so that will be fun. It should finally be warm this weekend too (upper 70s)!

St. Jude's Trike-a-thon

Cody's Trike-a-thon today went very well and it is the wamest day this Spring! Sunny and 79! Gorgeous day for it although he wished I would have brought his sunglasses! They watched a video about bike safety and they all did LOTS of laps! Cody was not tired when it was time to go and wanted to keep on riding! He raised $35 this year and earned a new Tshirt!

Adrienne played outside at school during the Trike-a-thon (first time outside at school) and had lots of fun too. She even let her teacher Rose put a hat on her and left it on!!!