Our New Addition... Introducing Charlotte

Here is our new puppy! We found the perfect little girl! She is a Sheltie/Jack Russell mix about 3 1/2 months old. We drove up to Sanford, NC (which is just outside of Raleigh near where we used to live) to get her today. Nikolas has been begging us for a new dog for over a year but we were just not ready. Over the past few weeks I just started poking around to see what was available then Kerry said, if you find one, let me know... well that was all I needed to begin an all out search. Since Prissy was such a wonderful dog and she was a rescue that we adopted from a client that could not keep her, I had decided I wanted to find a dog to rescue vs. buying another one from a breeder. Especially since the last two we bought from breeders had "issues". So I have spent all week all over the internet searching.

She is so calm, not your typical hyper Jack at all so I think the Sheltie in her calms her down. She is very loving and sweet. She just sat down while we ate dinner tonight and went to sleep. The boys had a ball outside running thru the yard with her this afternoon. Lainie is still a tad nervous about her (in some pictures you might see her up on the playset) but she is warming up to her. I gave her a good bath after we got home to get that kennel smell off and she is even cuter now! I think Nikolas is the most excited about her and will probably be my biggest helper so I think it will help him to have this new "chore" to keep up with. He is so in love with her.

Anyway, hope I am up for this new challenge :) Not like I had all this spare time to devote to a new puppy but I think she will do just fine. Here are some more pictures from today.

The big day arrived...the St. Judes Trike-a-thon!!

Today was the big day, the bike a thon. Lainie was so excited and she it was going to be the best day at preschool ever!! :) I think it lived up to that. The kids had so much fun and most importantly raised a lot of money for St. Judes Children's Hospital. I think we are close to $2000.00 which is just awesome!! It was going to be an outside event but the weather was just too cold and windy today so the wonderful teachers at Lainie's preschool created a track in the fellowship hall for the kids to ride around. They rode their bikes for about 30 minutes and had a great time getting their bikes washed or gas from the gas pump. Then they had snack and got medals. Here are some pictures from our fun!!

All better now

Well Lainie is all better this morning! She last got sick around 7p last night, slept all night! Part of it on the floor in our room then climbed in bed with us around 3am to snuggle. She has ate some toast and goldfish this morning and is back to her ole self!! Yeah, so glad this passed quickly. She would have been so sad if she missed the Bike a Thon tomorrow at preschool.

Running Update: Ran 2 miles today on treadmill but it was a huge struggle to do that. I quit at 2 miles... I was just not in a running mood today I guess. Still bumming about the dog we can't have!! So my quest shall continue.....

And the fun just keeps on keeping on....

 Well I should have known... Now Lainie is sick, been sleeping since 2pm, only waking up to throw up and go back to sleep. Poor girl! Kerry took the boys upstairs to watch a movie so she and I could lay on the floor downstairs and rest and watch the Olympics from last night. It is so hard to watch someone so little get sick like that!! Hopefully this will pass quickly!! No real fever, just the vomiting! Another little girl from her class went home early today like her so something is going thru her classroom. Just hoping she feels well enough to go on Friday for the Trike a Thon!!

On another note.... looking like we may soon adopt another dog!! We (meaning Kerry and I) have discussed it since Prissy died almost 2 yrs ago but we wanted to wait. The boys have been begging for a cute cuddly small dog for many months and I think I found the right one!! Waiting for the paperwork to go thru right now. Kerry really wanted a long hair dachshund that I found (I liked him too but really liked this other one more) and the boys both voted for the cute cuddly puppy! He is about 8 months old (neutered and vaccinated), housebroken already and playful so he sounds perfect. We hope to maybe go see him this weekend. I know I am nuts for adding another animal into this house but I think I want another as much as the kids!!

Editted to add: They just emailed, don't think he is a good match with kids. So mad that they did not put that in his profile!! On all the other dogs they do have warnings... grrrrrrr~!!!

My training is paying off...

I have to say that I am pretty surprised by myself... today I ran for 30 minutes, it was 2.25 miles. This was on the Treadmill, but on Sunday i actually did run outside for 30 minutes and that was about 2.5 miles. Guess thsi program actually does work. I think I just might be ready to run a 5K in April after all!! I felt great for about the first 15 minutes, though to myself... "finally, this is the way you are suppose to feel when you run" well that quickly disappeared and I was back to the "what the heck am I running like this for???" but then I got a second wind and finished up strong! Hoping I can get that "good" feeling back for the entire 3 miles when the time comes in April!!

Alex got his official Bear Badge at his Blue and Gold Dinner

Alex offically got his Bear Badge this weekend along with a Gold Arrow and 2 Silver Arrows. Each arrow represents 10 extra activities that he has completed along with earning his badge. And he got a few more belt loops too. He loves doing all the fun things they get to do, yet we have not gone on one camping trip yet. Maybe this fall it will work out. They always seem to fall on weekends that Kerry just can't take off work. And I am not going with him LOL. He says he wants to keep going and become a boy scout so we will continue to support him on this quest. They had a very nice dinner (catered even this year) and had a Magician come do a nice show and give out balloon animals. It was a fun night for the boys!!

You will notice in the picture that Alex is the only one not wearing his uniform... well we had a laundry mishap that afternoon. It was a busy day with 2 basketball games and that morning I realized his shirt was dirty so before we left for the games I threw it in the washer with Lainie's clothing. We got home and I transferred it all to the dryer but I did notice there was something all in the washer but I think I thought it was a tissue that had been left in a pocket. Well we had about an hour between getting home and needing to get ready. So I pull it all out of the dryer and all the clothing is covered in white and gooey stuff still!! Come to find out as I am pulling stuff out that Lainie and placed one of her pull ups in the dirty clothing and not the trash. Well all that diaper stuff was now all inside my dryer. I had to vaccum it out and rewash everything. Well needless to say I did not have time to rewash his uniform. They understood and were happy that we were there anyway!!

oh and do you think Alex will be taller than me in another couple of years!! Look how tall he is!!

Relay for Life, I have joined a team!

First of all, I need to give myself a WooHoo~!!! I ran 2 miles straight this morning!! So excited!! This is such a huge accomplishment for me!!

Second, because I have started this journey a friend let me know that she was doing the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life 24 hr event in May. I have decided to join her!! Cancer has affected my life and my family's life as well as all my extended family and friends. It touches everyone lives in some fashion every day! Whether it is a close friend, a neighbor down the street or a co worker...everyone knows someone battling this disease, it touches everyone and that is why I am doing this.
Here is a link to my personal page, I plan to update the blog I have there too when I can to keep track of my training and thoughts. http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY10SA?px=14212325&pg=personal&fr_id=24654

Alex's test results.... FINALLY a week later!

Well the test indicated NO MONO! Which by now we pretty much figured out LOL oh well, good thing he was no longer sick!

Saving Money!

I am so happy, I saved $90 in coupons and VIC savings today at Harris Teeter. It was like getting a week's worth of groceries for free!! I normally do the bulk of our shopping at Walmart b/c for the items we use the Walmart brands are considerably cheaper even for the name brand with a coupon but I do try to hit Harris Teeter once a month when I see they are having good sales on things or meats (I don't like Walmart meats). This week it is Super Doubles, meaning they double any coupon with a face value up to $1.98. On normal weeks they will double coupons daily up to $0.98 which even with that, sometimes is not cheaper than the Walmart brand or even the same product at Walmart. So our pantry is over flowing as is both my freezers and fridges... will only have to hit Walmart next week for a few items but the bulk of our shopping is done for several weeks!

I don't play the coupon game like some ladies I know on my local Mom's board (they end up paying next to nothing when they go) but I also bought some other things today that were on VIC savings or an item or two that I did not have coupons for but we needed. So clipping coupons and watching for sales does pay off!!

My new background...

So I need input, what do you all think who read this? I saw this background and picked it for 2 reasons...
1.) It is pretty and I loved the colors and 2.) The butterflies symbolize my missing Thyroid and helps me remember the Thyroid Cancer. Hard to believe it will soon be a year since that/this roller coaster started.

Anyway, please let me know what you think ;) Thanks

Starting a New Week... Week 7...

Well I started this journey to running a 5K 3 weeks ago and so far it is going well. There are no more walking breaks, this week I need to run 25 minutes after a 5 min warm up, 3 times this week! It went pretty well today except I made to bad decisions, I wore some really thick work out pants and I did not turn the ceiling fan up to the highest setting. I was burning up but I kept going!! I ran 1.8 miles. The work out calls for running 25 min or 2.5 miles... obviously I am not running at a very fast pace since I am so far off of that 2.5 miles but that is okay. It does not matter too much right now.

On a separate note, I am proud to say that I have inspired my husband to join me. He started Week 1 Day 1 last night! So maybe one day we can go running together :) Hopefully he will stick to it. I think having a program to follow will help him stay motivated and on track like it has done for me.

It's a New Week

Well Alex is doing great, still don't have the test results back which I am a little irritated about but he is fine so I can't be too upset. He went to school yesterday and today and is doing fine!! And so far the other two are symptom free as well. So hoping it was just some fluke virus that he had and nothing long term will come of it.

We have been busy around here the past 2 days, re arranging the upstairs once again. Lainie always wants to be near her "boys" so we have moved her room over to the other side of the house on the same hallway as the boy's room and moved my office back to where it was before Lainie arrived in this house! Except now I have pink walls and fairy border to look at. We also moved some other furniture around and organzed some things. So it has been a fairy productive couple of days here in our household!

I also sent out an email to most everyone but just incase I missed you... Lainie is participating in a Trike-a-thon at her preschool next week to benefit St. Jude Children's Hospital. Here is the link to her sponsor page if you would like to make a donation or just check on how things are going.
https://waystohelp.stjude.org/sjVPortal/public/displayUserPage.do?programName=trike&eventId=77271&userId=453310

Update on Alex (Sunday Morning)

Well it seems we have finally turned a corner! His fever is gone (it did come back slightly last night but it was only 99.9) and his lymph nodes are significantly less swollen today!! Yeah!! Think he is finally on the road to recovery. I need to call the dr. office today and see if he can still go to school tomorrow if he is fever free or do I need to wait for these test results. I am assuming if he "did" have mono he is not contagious without the fever. I will keep you posted.

edited to add... Dr said he can go to school tomorrow as long as he stays fever free!!  Test still pending hoping to have those back tomorrow afternoon!

Sorry for the layout change...

I have been having technical difficulties for a couple of days, the layout I had, suddenly pushed all my sidebar items to the bottom and I could not figure out how to fix it...so I am starting all over! Deal with the pink for now, I don't have time at the moment to go find another background. Sorry!!

What's for dinner???

Well since Kerry had to go to the grocery store last night after he got home in the snow... I decided to have him pick up the ingredients I needed to make Beef Veggie Stew. What is better to have for dinner on a snowy day than a big pot of soup! So even though our snow has melted, I still made it... now I have dinner for tonight, and several other nights this week as well as one container to freeze for a later cold and rainy maybe day in the future!

As you can see I make a lot when I make it, it lasts all week and then some!!

Here is my recipe if anyone is interested in trying it. Basically I just throw it all together and let it simmer all day!

You will need a bag of 15 bean soup beans

1-2 lbs of cubed stew beef, I usually cut this up into smaller pieces
3-4 good sized potatoe
A bag of mixed vegetables (frozen) Usually I do green beans, carrots, peas and corn
Sometimes I use fresh carrots and dice up into small bites.
Can of tomato paste
3-4 beef bullion cubes

I soak the whole bag of beans over night to soften them up.
Next day I fill a huge pot with water and start boiling the beans, add in tomato paste and bullion cubes.
Cut up the stew beef into small pieces, add to the water
Cut up Potato into small cubes and add.
I let all this simmer for a few hours.

Add in whatever kinds of seasons and spices (I use salt/pepper, italian seasons, bay leaves, oregano, some onion and a tiny bit of garlic salts) You have to play around with this to your families taste.

About 1-2 hours before the soup is to be eaten add in the frozen vegetables, let simmer until dinner.

Good news finally...

Alex woke up this morning fever free! Hard to believe. First time since Monday he has had no fever without medication. Hope it stays this way. His neck still looks the same and he still does not want to eat but he has been up playing this morning. I looked into the Mumps but from what I read on that it seems to have swelling mostly in the face whereas his is below his jaw. I have put a call into his Dr. but they are closed today due to the snow...I just asked for the nurse to mention it to the dr if she talked to her about another patient today.

Oh about that snow... we got 3 inches! But they can't play until we get back from Nik's basketball game!!

Update on Alex (Friday Night)

Took Alex back to the Peds this morning since he woke up with a fever of 101.5, the fourth day of a fever of unknown origin. The Strep test still was not offically back but at 36 hrs still had no growth so the dr felt pretty sure it would be Negative at 48 hrs. So that is not what is wrong. She checked his tonisils and they are red and irriatated but not swollen or infected. She felt his spleen and it was not swollen (this is a symptom of Mono). So she decided to go ahead with some bloodwork. Alex was such a BRAVE boy and allowed the nurse to draw a vial of blood without any whining or crying! This is the same child I had to physically hold down last summer for a finger prick! Anyway.... She did the quick Mono test there in the office and it was Negative (kinda figured it would be since he has not been sick a week yet). The in house CBC showed an elavated WBC count (it was 15.5) normal is 4-10 so she decided to send his blood to the hospital for them to check the leukucyctes (sp?) but they did not indicate Mono infection either. She also sent his blood in to do titers on them to check for the Epstein Barr Virus (that is what causes Mono) and some other titers....

Here are some pictures

 

So I asked the nurse tonight...if it is not Mono then what does she think it is... answer... We don't know and can't go further until we get these tests back on Monday!

How he is doing tonight... Well we had a good day as his fever did decide to stay down all day with the Motrin, it did not start climbing until about 4:00pm (gave him motrin at 8am). He has eaten a few things today and ate a couple of things last night, but he still is not eating anywhere near his normal amounts (my grocery bill will enjoy that but not me). We went by his classroom after school and picked up his Valentines (he was feeling left out since the other two brought home tons of candy). That did brighten his day!

So we are still in "watch and see" mode... it is now snowing and they say we will get a few inches or more. I will feel really bad telling him he can't go out to play in this!

Feeling so helpless for Alex

This is a vent.. I hate it when my kids are sick but this time it is just so much worse for me. I guess not "knowning" what is wrong with him is making me crazy. We are going on 3 days of fever (it started Tuesday morning) and his neck is so swollen. He can't turn his neck he has turn his whole body. He slept for awhile this afternoon but other than that he just lays on the couch. It hurts to swallow so I am having a hard time getting him to eat! Anyway, still no news... plan to have Kerry take him to the dr in the morning and have some blood draw to see if it tells us anything!

Sickness strikes us again!

Ugh, once again Alex is sick but this time we are not sure with what? He has a fever and extremely swollen lymph nodes in his neck and sore throat but tested Negative for Strep! The doctor mentioned that Mono is also going around but she could not test for that until he had been sick for a week! So he is on antibotics just incase it is strep and I am just monitoring the fever. When it starts to rise, he is miserable, but feels great when he has motrin on board! Stayed home today and will again tomorrow. Hope he can go Friday for his party!!

And there will be no running for me today... I am dealing with a huge headache, have had it since yesterday.

Valentine's Preparations for the kids

This week has been prep time for the kids parties on Friday! First over the weekend Nikolas had to make sure he got his box done. It was due until tomorrow but he had to get it done. Kerry offered to make him a wooden one like he and Alex did when Alex was in Kindergarten (he still has this by the way) but no, Nikolas wanted one in a cardboard box covered with paper so he could decorate it. He had so much fun plastering it with stickers and coloring it with crayons! Here are some pictures from that fun

And Lainie and I spent some time today preparing her Valentine's for her class, her teachers and her ballet class friends. She was having a good ole time with stickers today! I decided to make our own this year, I think they turned out pretty good.

One step closer!! (pictures added)

Today was a busy day but I made time to fit in my Day 3 of Week 5... the dreaded 20 minute run. I had been stressing in my head about this so I knew I just had to try hard. Well I actually did it!! I know when it comes time to run outside it will be almost like starting over. For me running outside might be a big challenge, not sure why. My friends tell me it will be easier and I will like it better. We will see I guess!! But for now, I am happy with accomplishing this part of the program.

Today was also the 100th day of school for the boys so they had fun dressing up for it. Alex got to partake in Wacky Tacky Day so he decided to wear his clothing backwards! Even his jeans! It was funny. And Nikolas' class was dressing like 100 yr old people. So we put baby powder in Nik's hair, I dressed him in a button down shirt and tucked it in and then pulled his pants up as high as they would go... that was about all I could do to make him look older. :)

Other than those things, it was a typical Monday around here!!!

So very happy with myself!!

Today I completed Week 5 Day 2 of the Couch to 5K program and I am darn happy with myself. I think part of running is mental, you just have to push yourself and set a goal then set another one and just keep going. You always have an out, just stop but when you are trying to prove something to yourself you just keep putting another stride in front of you. So the program called for me to Walk Warm up for 5 mins, Run 8m, walk 3min, Run 8min... Well I was afraid if I stopped to walk I would not be able to run as well. So I just kept going and told myself, stop if it gets hard BUT it did not get hard! So I ran for 16 minutes. I contemplated going on and running 20 minutes because that is what Day 3 calls for but decided to wait. So I stopped at 16 minutes and started walking well after walking for 5 minutes I still felt pretty good so I figured I go ahead and finish out the mile I was on, so I ran for another 5 minutes completing 2 miles total and running for 21 minutes of a 31 minute work out!! I feel great and I am not longer worried about running that 20 minutes now!! Yay me!

And now at the bottom of my blog you will find a chart that will keep track of my runs (incase you are ever interested!)

Rain Rain Rain

Well now it is raining like mad, tomorrow is suppose to be a half day of school to make up for Tuesday's snow day... at this point I really think it will get cancelled due to flooding in the area and now we will lose a day of Easter Break!! Ugh!!

But I am thinking of my family and friends up in Virginia, they will be getting covered in snow yet again this weekend!! Stay Warm and Safe!!

Finally...

Finally... the kids went back to school yesterday, everyone was well. Nikolas recovered very quickly so I am not sure he had the flu but whatever he had it was gone in 48 hrs!! Lainie is still coughing a bit and Kerry has a sinus infection but they are on the mend. My cough is still here but improving every day so finally... we are getting back to life as we know it.

Finally... I was able to start on Week 5 of my Couch to 5K program. I had tried twice to complete day 1 but twice could not do it because of the cough. I attempted to run outside yesterday and it was just not quite warm enough. I could only do 2 of the 3, 5 minute runs... BUT today I completed the whole set... Walk 5min, Run 5 min, Walk 3, Run 5, Walk 3 Run 5, Walk 3 to cool down!!! Wooooohoooooo!! Next step on Saturday will be to Run for 8 minutes twice... hope I can do it!!!

And the sickness continues, update on us...

Well you knew it would happen didn't you... I thought it would, prayed it would not but knew it would.... Flu has struck another child, this time Nikolas. He started with a fever on Sunday night, still high on Monday morning. I went ahead and started him on the Tamaflu and some Tylenol and he is feeling fine so far. Hoping he can return to school on Wednesday, he will miss tomorrow if they go. Luckily they were out today for the ice!! Now watching Lainie closely too!!

As for me, well I think am pretty much recovered from my bronchitis. I was able to just about complete Week 4 Day 3 on my Couch to 5K program. Could not quite finish the last 5 minute run but I walked it. Will try again tomorrow.

Just another lazy kind of day with the kids home again!! We did a lot done yesterday. It was so nice having Kerry home for the whole weekend. Kerry decided to test out the new Rainbow Vacuum upstairs. Let's just say it was worth the money after what came out of our carpet and off the walls. Nasty does not even begin to describe. And here I thought I was a pretty good housekeeper!! But our upstairs is now looking wonderful and dust free in every room.

Oh and with all this wonderful sickness and no school I had to skip work again today but I did go up and get some things to do at home tomorrow. Gotta keep myself busy. :)