Birthday Weekend

My birthday is not until the 7th of November but we decided to celebrate it early because that is what worked for us. So this last weekend we went to the beach. My husband, kids and me. We left Saturday morning and took our time driving to the beach. Along the way we would stop and the kids would give me a gift and let me open it. It was such a fun way to spread it out and enjoy each gift. The first that I opened was the movie The Mod Squad. It is the first movie that Levi and I watched together when we first realized that we liked each other. I could not believe that he thought of that and bought it for me. So thoughtful. The next was a book by Real Simple about party planning that I was so excited about. I love getting new ideas for parties and then throwing a party and having everybody enjoy it. Then I opened a present from my son that he picked out and payed for himself. It was some really cute magnents that have Christmas trees on them. He is so thoughtful. Then when we finally reached the beach I opened the last one. It was a card that had a membership card for a local gym in it that I have been wanting to go to for awhile. I was so excited. Not only do I get to go but it is all done for me and all I have to do is walk in and start swimming. That is what I love to do for excersise and they have a great pool. This was a very sweet present. Then we spent a wonderful time at the beach. It was really warm and the kids even went in the water. They built a big sand castle and just played for a long time. Then we went to a hotel and relaxed and just had some nice family time. The next morning had been day light savings time so we were up extra early. So we decided to go into San Fransisco and show the kids around and do a little shopping. Then we headed home and my daughter and I slept almost the whole way home. It was a perfect birthday celebration. I am so thankful for my family but most of all for a husband that cares so much about me and my happiness.

I went to the gym this morning and swam and it was just amazing. I have felt good all day and just having that time to myself is so nice. I am looking forward to going again tomorrow. How did I get so lucky to marry a man like him?

Roller Coaster

Up... We are at the doctor for a routine blood test for the adoption process. We get it done and are on our way. No big deal. I have done it every time I have been pregnant which I thought was interesting that I had to do it again for the adoption.

Down... I get a call while at Costco with the kids. It is the doctor that we had just seen for our physicals. She tells me that my husband needs to be seen tomorrow because his blood tests came back and it looks like he might have diabetes. Not good news. Your blood suger is supposed to be around 75 to 95 or maybe 100. His was 310! So no sleep last night and a very large knot in my stomach all day today. I could hardly concentrate all day. My husband saw the doctor at 10am and they took another blood sample.

Up... My husband comes home from work at almost 4pm and calls the doctor. They call right back and tell us that his new blood test came back at 93. Thank you God!!! He is totally fine and the first test was just a mess up somehow. I am so glad.

I really do feel like I have been on a roller coaster. I felt like we should celebrate but I was so worn out from worrying all day that I just want to go to bed. All I can say is that I have a new found respect for our health and am thankful that the Lord has kept us all well.

Star Light, Star Bright...

I thought that I would share with you the great evening that I just had. My husband has been out of town all week so it has been just me and the kids. We decided to go to Tahoe and stay at the condo that we have here. It has been really nice but I was so tired today. My girl has decided that she does not need naps anymore even though she acts tired and we all know that mama needs a nap. But after I made dinner I decided to take them to the hot tub even though I was exahusted. We got there and it was just getting dark. The clouds were pink and blue and grey and just beautiful. Then it started getting dark enough to see stars so I said the old rhyme "star light, star bright first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight. Then we all took turns making a wish.
My son, wished that we would all stay a family forever ( broke my heart)
My daughter, wished for a pink dancing dress ( that's my girl)


On a side note. My daughter lives in a pink world. She says she wants things pink that you cannot have in pink like a pumpkin, or a lake tahoe. All she can think about is pink. I might say, I want the chocolate one she will reply, I want the pink one. It just goes on and on all day every day. She has also started this imaginary world that does not know when to stop. She can make anything a toy and she just goes into this other world. We put her in her booster seat and strapped her in so that she would have to stay sitting with us at dinner, a few minutes later her spoons are having a converstation and we do not even exist. This morning she woke up at the crack of dawn so I pulled her into bed with me hoping to get a little more sleep. She started an entire world with mamas and daddies and all kinds of stuff going on. At 6 in the morning! I do love to listen to her play and it is like a little peek into her mind. When my husband was sick the people in her little world were sick alot, now with him out of town, they are gone a lot or on an airplane. It can be frustrating when I am trying to get her atention long enough to get dressed or to eat something but I know that this will be gone too fast and so I am going to enjoy being a little fly on the wall in her world and listening in on her imaginary world.

Pumpkins

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch. I love getting pumpkins. I think that I get just as excited as the kids do. There is this really fun place called Bishop's Pumpkin Farm that we have gone to the last two years. There is so much to do there. There is the petting farm, the train, the corn maze, the hay ride to go out and pick your pumpkins right off of the vines, and so much more. We were so tired when we left there and so dirty. That to me is a sign of a good time. To me picking out our pumpkins is like the true start of the fall season and I get so excited. It has been getting colder here kind of grey. I have been able to burn candels now that it gets darker earlier and the house feels really cozy. This is a wonderful time of year and I am going to enjoy every bit of it.

T.V. Shows

I kind of have this love/hate relationship with the telivision. We do not watch a lot of tv but I am sure we watch more than some people, less than others. We have three shows that we watch on a regular basis. Gilmore Girls, The Office, and The Amazing Race.

Gilmore Girls is my show. I have been watching it forever and I have not missed very many episodes. I love the humor, the love, the realationships and the escape from reality.

The Office: What can I say. This is something that my husband and I look forward to. We laugh, and laugh. It is a half hour that we just sit and enjoy ourselves, together.

The Amazing Race: This one is not as popular so maybe you have not seen it but it is a family favorite. It is on Sunday evenings and we all watch it together. There are teams of two that are racing around the world for a million dollars. There are things they have to do to get their next clue and so on. We each pick a team that we think will win. Last season my son picked the winning team on day one. This season my team is already gone, my husbands team has turned on each other and just not really any fun to watch, my son picked the young guys ( who are doing pretty well and are nice) my daughter picked the young, blond girls ( who are also doing very well and are very nice)

I say all that to say that I think that kids are pretty intuitive. I think some kids more than others but I think they all have it in them more than adults. I wonder what makes that happen. Do we lose that as we get older? Do we stop listening to that little voice or feeling that we have inside? My daughter will pick out a girl from a room full of girls as the " one that she likes" and it will turn out to be the nicest girl there.

So, will it be the young girls or the young guys this time?
I will let you know in the end.

A couple of years ago

My son had an infatuation with "mama cows" at this point in his life. He as a very happy cow and my daughter was his farmer.

We are better

I am happy to report that my husband is much better. After spending another day in the emergency room we went home. Sunday was spent resting and being sick because my parents had the kids so we were able to really rest. Then that night we realized that maybe he was having a bad reaction to the antibiotics. So he stopped taking them that night and by the next morning he was feeling much better. We had a doctors appointment scheduled that day so he went to that and she said that he was having a reaction and that he should throw them away and never take those again. It was a such a good feeling to know why he was still sick and to see him actually improving. I do not know why we did not think of it sooner but now we know. My husband is very sensitive to everything. ( caffein, alcohol, medicine) So now we know to be much more careful about what his is taking and how he is reacting to what he is taking.

So now life goes on....
I love this time of the year. It is my favorite. I like the weather, the food, the holidays, everything about it. We are planning on going to a pumpkin patch on Friday and I think I am just as excited as the kids. My husband is going to be able to come with us and that makes me really happy also. We are having a great time homeschooling and we are going to be studying Christopher Columbus tomorrow.
This weekend we go to our second class for the adoption. After this class we can start meeting with a social worker and then things really start moving along. We are getting really excited.
It is so weird to see yourself in one of your kids. My son has started to do things that I remember doing as a kid. He has a book with him where ever he goes, he likes to be in on all of the conversations, and he loves holidays and doing projects.
My daughter is just a light in our house. She makes us laugh and cares so much. Every night when we put her to bed she wants to pray for our grandma ( the one she is named after) but she is very specific about what she wants to pray for. She wants to pray that grandma gets chocolat. It makes me smile every time she says it.

So, now I am hoping to get our live back to normal. I want to meal plan, and actually cook dinner for my family. I want to go out and do things together. I want to just get back to being us.

I am a pro at the ER

I spent all of yesterday sitting in the emergency room once again with my very sick husband. He has been sick for a week and not seeming to be improving. Then yesterday he seemed worse, very weak, light headed. So, we took him back in. My mom and dad were so nice to take off of work so that they could take the kids. It was such a relief that I did not have to worry about them also. I was kind of freaking out. It just was hitting me that he might be really sick and what if it was something really serious. Anyway, he went in, they did a ton of tests, they said that he was sick but they do not know the exact cause of it, to go home and rest and see a doctor on Monday. Skip to today and he is resting, reading, watching movies, and trying to eat. At first it sounds kind of nice but for my husband he is about to jump out of his skin ( except that he does not have the energy to do that) He is eating wierd things like jello, chicken broth, and rice. I am trying to make sure that he is getting enough to drink and eat and keep him company. All of this is a lot easier to do without two little kids running around. We are enjoying the peace and quiet. I do not know what I would do without my parents. They have been so good to me and caring and generous and the kids are so happy. My son caught a 20in fish that broke his fishing pole and my daughter gave it a great big kiss. Today they are going to some farms that are having a kind of open house. I am sure they are having a blast. Me, I am trying to take advantage of not having them here and getting ready for the week. I am going to clean, get ready for school next week, and get some paper work done. This whole thing has made me appreciate my husband so much more and realize that we are really blessed to have each other. I do not know how long it will take for him to get better but I am praying that I do not forget all that I have learned through this.

How we are getting along

Things here have not changed much. My husband is still sick and having a hard time accepting the fact that he really is sick. He tries to do something but then ends up on the couch in a lot of pain. Me on the other hand, I am tired. Very, very tired. It is hard to do everything all day and not get frustrated that he cannot help. I know that he can't and should not but it is still hard. I just wish I knew what was going on. We have not been able to get any more information from the doctors and so we do not know what is exactly wrong. He is supposed to go to a doctor for a follow up appointment so hopefully we will know something after that.

On a different note I got my hair cut today. It is a lot shorter but I think that I like it. It is going to be much easier to take care of and maybe I will be able to make it look good more often instead of always having it in a pony tail.

We have spent a lot of time at the park lately. The weather has been beautiful and the kids have been loving it.

Home schooling is going good. We just got done trying the five in a row book. I highly recomend it. We got to study all about Jewish things and being a good neighbor, and found out where Poland is and we went to a Jewish deli today. It was a really fun study. I am looking forward to our next one.

We are planning a trip to visit some friends on Sunday until Wednesday. We are all looking forward to it. The kids have been counting down the days. I am hoping that my husband is feeling up to the trip, but if not we will go ahead without him.

It is Friday night and I really like Friday nights. I like the feeling that the weekend is just starting and that I get to look forward to Saturday mornings. I like how slow we can take it on the weekends and that the kids seem to just be happy to hang out. I like making a big breakfast or going out to breakfast. I like getting the house cleaned up and ready for another week. I would have to say that Friday nights and Saturday mornings are my favorite times of the week.

I am going to go to bed now. I have a very full day ahead of me.

P.S. check out my adoption link to find out more details about our adoption process.

The Mystry Sickness

In order to tell this story I have to give a little background. For as long as I can remember every time I get sick a couple of days later my husband gets sick and then he has a new found sympathy for me because now he knows what it really feels like. So I had been sick for a couple of days. Not really a big deal, just a cold or something but I felt pretty bad. Then Sunday morning he wakes up, is totally fine for about an hour and then suddenly he is sick. So, I did what I usually do and complain that he always gets sick after me and that it is not fair that he is sick on the weekend when he can rest blah, blah , blah... So he stays in bed most of the day. I take the kids to this thing at the park ( a children's fair) and then we head home about 3pm. When we get home he tells me that he does not think that he is ok and that he needs to go to the doctor. Now a little more background. My husbad does not go to the doctor unless it is really bad so I knew that something was not right. So we drop the kids off at my friend, Vanessa's, house and go to the urgent care. They find out what is wrong with him and tell us that we have to go to the emergency because they cannot treat him there. At this point I am getting a bit freaked out but trying to keep it together. So, off to the ER we go.

Once we get there it is more paperwork and waiting. I hate emergency rooms. They have always freaked me out. It seems like the most fitlthy, contaminated place. Besides the fact that there is always something really gross that happens while I am there everytime. One time I was waiting in the ER and this guy came in with a nail through his finger. This time it was a coung guy that had a bike accident and his face was all cut up and he was crying and I was just so sad for him. It was an absolute zoo in there. It seemed like everyone there waiting to be seen had brought about 15 extra people with them, kids running all over the place, it was just crazy. Then they call our name.

We go in, they ask a couple of questions and start an I.V. The first thing is that they say he is very dehydrated. So they start some fluids, take some blood for tests, and try to make him comfortable. At this point they are saying that it is probably a virus or food born illness.

I leave after he is comfortable and get the kids, take them home, feed them, and put them to bed. Then my great friend, Vanessa, comes over to stay with the kids while I go back to the hospital. So, I find out that while I was gone they gave him some morphine for the pain and as soon as they gave it to him, he had a horrible reaction to it. His head started hurting even worse and his oxogyn went way down. So, they stopped that and gave him something else. I guess we should have told them that he is very sensitive to everything.

Anyway, when I got there they were talking about giving him a cats scan to rule out the possibility of Crohns Disease. So I started really getting worried. They made him drink this gigantic cup of fluid and then wait an hour and then took him to the cats scan. After that was done I figured I better go home and get some sleep so that I would be able to take care of the kids in the morning. I got to bed about 1am. My daughter woke me up at 7am which was actually an answer to prayer because shw has been known to wake much earlier.

So, about 9am the kids and I walked over to the hospital ( it is only four blocks away) to see (daddy). He was looking a bit better, they still had him hooked up to everything and we still had not heard anything from a doctor about the cats scan or any of the blood tests. So after a visit I take the kids home. It is not really fun to try to hang out at the hospital with little kids. We hung out at home, did some school, cleaned the house, did some laundry, ate lunch, took naps, all while waiting for the doctor to come and tell us what was going on. I would call every hour or so and try to find something out and my husband would say the same thing each time, " I still have not seen a doctor". I was about to go crazy. What if my husband had this horrible disease? What if he was not going to get better? What in the world would I do without him? It was getting pretty bad and all this with the kids and trying to stay positive for them. Finally at about 3pm the doctor came and said that it was not the worst case thing with the disease and that they were now sure that it is a virus that is making his colon really unhappy. They will not know what exactly it is for a couple of days but that the antibiotics that they had him on would take care of it, with time.

I got to finally go and pick him up at 5pm. When we got there, he had taken his IV out himself! For those of you that know him, you are probably not that surprised. He did get in trouble with the nurse when she came in and found out he had done that. He was really ready to come home.

So, now back at home I am very relieved. He is not better but he will be able to get better. I am so thankful. He had a bunch of visitors today and that was really great to see how many people really care about us. He is on a pretty strict diet and he actually asked me to make him some chicken broth tonight. He said that mine was much better then the one at the hospital. What a compliment, I must me an amazing cook. I do not know how long it will take for him to get better but we will just take it one day at a time and I know that I will be very thankful for each and every one of those days.