201/365 July 20, 2010

Jonas tries to jump:

200/365 July 19, 2010

We spent an hour in the ER at the children's hospital today. Thankfully it was only an hour.

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed Jonas had a bit of a runny nose and felt warm. I gave him ibuprofen before bed and again when it wore off in the middle of the night (Levi woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and felt a little warm to me too, so I guess he has whatever it is too). He ate breakfast just fine but then he was cranky and just wanted to sit in my lap. After a little while, I checked his temp again and it was 107.2. Yes, you read that right. I didn't think that could even be possible, and sometimes I am a little leery of our temporal artery scanner thermometer, so I checked a bunch more times on both sides of his head and the lowest reading I got was 106.7. I also checked my own temp, and it read normal for me. So I gave him some more ibuprofen and started getting ready to go to the ER. I checked his temp a few more times between packing up to head out, and it went to 103.5 and then not even 15 minutes after the medicine, it was 101.7. I figured there wasn't much point in going to the ER with his temp under control so I decided to wait it out and see what happened, and if it spiked really high again I'd take him in. It was 100.5 before his nap and the same when he woke up. I tried to give him some food and he wasn't eating, and he started getting cranky again, so I started checking his temp and it was going up again, and fast. It got to 105.5 and I decided I was going in. I took the thermometer with me and checked again just before getting out of the car and it was 106.1.

I had posted on Facebook that I needed someone to make a drug store run for me so I could get some more medicine and a thermometer I could use rectally to make sure I was getting an accurate temp, and a really sweet couple from our church called me and said they would bring some over. But then I decided we needed to go to the ER, so I called them and they said they would just meet me there. So that was nice to not be alone there, even though the kids did really well and we were in and out in an hour. They did a rectal temp when we got there and it was 105.something, so they gave him a Tylenol suppository. The doctor looked him over and couldn't find anything wrong with him. She said that I was right to bring him in, because 107 is a big deal, but high fevers in little kids aren't really dangerous (they are in adults, but not kids) as long as they are from an illness and not from being exposed to heat. So basically she said to treat the fever to keep him comfortable and let it run its course. I'll keep alternating ibuprofen and Tylenol and hope it goes away soon. His temp was down to normal at bedtime, and I haven't heard a peep from him yet, but I have the medicine ready to go if he wakes up feverish again.

So, that was my "fun" day.

199/365 July 18, 2010

We'd already gone through 2 shirts, so when Levi wanted watermelon again, I just told him to take his shirt off and he would get a bath after dinner.


I never get to eat the crust of my pizza, thanks to this little guy.

198/365 July 17, 2010

197/365 July 16, 2010

Levi earned a popsicle for helping me bring in/put away groceries and for eating his dinner.


Cheeeeeeeese!

196/365 July 15, 2010

I listed Shane's car for sale a while ago and today someone put down a deposit on it to buy it! Hopefully he'll have the rest of the money shortly and then we can pay off the rest of the loan for my van and start saving for a new (to us) car for Shane when he gets home.

195/365 July 14, 2010

The kids got a little slap-happy before bedtime tonight. I didn't have my flash, so this is the only shot that was in focus:

194/365 July 13, 2010

I love this little guy!

193/365 July 12, 2010

Other than hanging up Levi's name letters and some pictures, his room is DONE!






I love this lamp!




New faux wood blinds and blackout curtains




Levi likes it!

192/365 July 11, 2010

We have blue!



I still have to do all the finish work - put the switchplates back on, hang blinds and curtains, touch up some spots of paint (the tape on the ceiling pulled off some paint, grrrr...), etc. I also need to clean up all the trash from the packaging, put away all the tools, etc. Hopefully I can do it all tomorrow while Jonas naps and get Levi's bed back in the room.

191/365 July 10, 2010

These photos probably don't look much different from yesterday's, but I did do a lot more work.


Painted the trim and doors bright white (will be replacing the hinges and knobs, so I didn't worry about slopping paint on them)


New ceiling fan. The box advertised it as "quick and easy installation." HA! 2 hours later...I finally got it all put together. And then had a near freakout because I thought I had flipped the breaker back on for it and it didn't work, and I was going to have to undo the entire thing and start over. Then I realized I'd flipped the breaker next to it off instead of flipping the correct one back on. I turned them both back on and it worked just fine. Thankfully I'd only gotten as far as removing the glass shade before I checked the breaker. I'm not a fan of getting shocked, personally...


Just behind one of the fan blades is a new air register. That should have been a piece of cake to replace, but I fought with the stupid thing for 20 minutes before the screw would catch on the right spot on one side. It's never as easy as it should be!


More trim and door paint. Four coats, to be exact.

That's all for today. Tomorrow: blue walls!

190/365 July 9, 2010

The de-girlification process has begun! Tonight: painted the ceiling and removed the flowery window sheers and butterfly curtain rod. Tomorrow: new ceiling fan (sans giant hanging butterfly), paint trim/doors. Sunday: paint walls. Monday: hang new blinds and blackout curtains, and move Levi's bed back in the room. Hopefully getting Levi to bed in the bonus room will be easier after tonight... As much work as it is, it's nice to finally be doing something to really make the house ours.

189/365 July 8, 2010

Bliss in a bag:


It is very bad news for my waistline that I found a party size bag of these. Very bad.

188/365 July 7, 2010

This is how all the cool kids eat their cheese:


(It's not 100% in focus, and it's noisy, but his face cracks me up)

And here's the big brother with pizza all over his face:

187/365 July 6, 2010

We got the TV back today! And it was even covered under warranty! Phew! I had to ask my next door neighbor to help me get it from my van into the house, but it's not heavy, just big. I'm so glad to have this off my shoulders.



Today also marks 10 years since my mom died. It seems like just yesterday in some ways, and like forever ago in others. I still miss my mom every day, and it makes me sad that my boys don't have the chance to get to know her. I hope she would be proud of me. This is a project I did my senior year of high school. The assignment was to take a picture of your eye and come up with a graphic that represented the phrase "the eye is a window to the soul." I obviously played with the colors, and I also put a picture of my mom holding me as a baby in the middle. The hands/heart (claddagh) ring were a gift from my sister after my mom died. She got one for herself too. The top stone is my mom's birth stone, and in the center (I cropped them out for this project) are the birthstones for me and my sister. I'm not sure what the claddagh actually stands for, but for us, the rings were symbolic of our mom holding us in her heart and her in ours forever. I thought framing the picture of me with my mom with the heart of the ring was a pretty good representation of the theme. I only wish I had access to the full resolution file so I could make a print of it. I suppose I could redo the project from scratch, though.

186/365 July 5, 2010

It was HOT today, but with very low humidity, so once the sun got low enough in the afternoon that our yard was in the shade, it was nice to be outside. The boys ate dinner at their little table outside and watched the dragonflies do laps around the yard (I've never seen so many dragonflies before!). They weren't that cooperative for pictures, but I took some anyway. You can see their new hair cuts. Levi's is pretty subtle since I didn't do anything to the top (we had several people tell us that they liked it longer, so I thought I'd let it grow a little instead of buzzing it all off this time) and just trimmed the sides and back. Jonas' is a little more obvious. It's not as much of a hack job as last time, but it will definitely look better when it grows a little bit.











We get our TV back tomorrow!

185/365 July 4, 2010

Since the fireworks at the park were last night, we had a really low-key 4th of July this year. We didn't even leave the house, but I put the boys in their cute matching outfits so I could take some photos of them together. Ha. That didn't work out so well, but I guess I got some decent ones of them separately.














Naughty boy... At least it comes off with water.







The boys got hair cuts before bed tonight. Pics of that tomorrow...

184/365 July 3, 2010

I guess a lot of people were busy or out of town this weekend, but I attempted to have a get together for the 4th ok July fireworks at the park by our house today. Only a few people ended up making it, and only one could stay for the fireworks, but we still had a good time.


Mmmmmm...banana pudding. I wanted to use blueberries, but Walmart didn't have a single package of them. And, actually, that was the last package of blackberries.


Fun with the splash mat (or "birthday water," as Levi calls it)


Hannah had fun too


Jonas is not a fan of the splash mat, so I didn't even bother putting him in his swim trunks, but then he went and dumped water from the water table all down his shirt. Oh well.


Cutie Kady (Ethan was here too, but somehow I didn't get a single photo of him!)


Levi never plays with this climber thing, but when other kids come over it's always a hit. Go figure.


Daniel and Daddy (Robert)


I was lazy and didn't set up my tripod, so my fireworks shots are not that exciting, but I took a few anyway



The fireworks weren't as good as they were at the Chesapeake Jubilee in May, but it was a decent show. They had a live orchestra, which was neat. Grant was the only one to stay for the fireworks and he actually cleaned up most of the stuff in the kitchen while I got Jonas to bed, so that was really nice! We also ended up having exactly the right amount of food, so I guess it's not so bad that hardly anybody could make it.