Friday, February 29, 2008

There must be something in our H2O!!!!!

Is there something in the water, I ask? Is anyone else experiencing this phenomenon?I was trying to be so good, blogging the weeks events on my day off when we get another dreaded call from school stating, "Your son, Jacob, threw up during lunch." Oh the sweet sound of that phrase. We thought we were out of the woods with this whole sickness. We were planning on taking the kids to Parents night out at Noah's preschool tonight. His preschool puts on a fundraiser for the youth where they come up with dates where you can drop your kids off for 4 hours on certain Friday's. All of the money goes to the youth program for camps etc. The few times we have been able to take advantage of this the past month, we have really enjoyed it. It has turned into date night for us. Boy these sicknesses really get in the way of our plans. We haven't been able to make it to church the last three weekends due to 1-2 sick kids. The scary thing is that anytime the kids have gotten sick, they know the drill. Go back and lay in mom and dad's bed, sip on water, and eat some crackers. Jacob looks almost happy with himself. Being paranoid, I my think that all of the children of the world and trying to drive their parents crazy as they organize a "sick out" nationwide. Thank God I am not paranoid.
So now that plans have changed from a nice dinner out with coffee and conversation to end the evening, renting movies and hanging out at home. I guess it could be worse. I say to you again,"maybe there is something in the water?" Hope all is well with you and your family. Until we meet again, over and out.

The infirmary

Jonah's 1st Grade reading debut

Every year, Brownsville Elementary has a first grade reading debut. All of the kids pick a book and practice reading leading up to the debut. The goal is to celebrate reading and show how the kids have been working so hard. So 8 of the kids in Jonah's reading class had theirs last Tuesday night. He had a large amount of family there cheering and encouraging him on. It was great to see him get up in front of the small crowd and read a book to us that he was excited about. prior to the debut, they aren't supposed to tell their family what they are reading. They don't want them practicing at home, so they do it all at school. They want the book to be a surprise.


The other great part of this experience is that Jonah's grandmother, or "Marna", as the kids call her, is the librarian who helps put this on. They have pictures of all the pages in the book, up on a screen so all of us can see them. As you can see, they have a microphone, which makes the whole experience that much more intense. Jonah did a great job and we were all so proud of him, especially with his reading. He really enjoys reading now. After everyone gets done reading, they all get a balloon and a rose, donated from flowers to go, and then we have a dessert social. We had a great time watching Jonah and all of his friends. They also take a picture of the whole family afterwards and give that to us showing all of the people who support Jonah in his reading and education






J

Jonah was very proud of the job he did. It is great to watch his confidence grow. Truth be told, one of his favorite parts was eating the treats afterwards. All of the kids liked that. Noah is the next in line for his reading debut, but he still has a little time to prepare.


What have we been up to?


What have we been up to anyway? I know, I have been slacking, without any apparent reason other than normal family activities. We did celebrate Aunt Hannah's 30th birthday on February 13th. The kids always love a good birthday celebration. We went out to dinner at Red Robin and then came back to our house to do birthday cake and gifts. We had a great time. This month, we also had my sister, Stacy, Tom, and their family over for dinner one night and the grandparents brought over this great punch bag, which the kids loved. Even Sophia got some action, occasionally hitting Jonah when he wasn't looking. Getting together for dinner with the cousins are always a lot of fun, but wow is it loud. I am almost positive that we were the same way with our cousins growing up. The parents would stay downstairs while all of the cousins were upstairs knocking things over and playing great games. We didn't think we were ever loud, but we would get calls from downstairs to "keep it down up there." It is all part of the experience.








The other major project that has been keeping us busy throughout the past two months has been the master bath project 2007/2008. It started out as the 2007 project, but we slowly realized it was going to take a little longer than that. We tore everything down to the studs and started fresh. It is a lot of work, but we needed to do this to put in a new shower. The other one had been leaking and needed to be re-done. We put a new shower pan in and Rebecca tiled, since this is her area of expertise. She then tiles the floor (which I will have to get a picture of also). Tiling the floor was a bigger monster than she realized due to the type of tile we used. With those two things done, we were able to put a new toilet in, put up some bead board, molding, and put in the bathroom vanity. Last weekend, we painted and put up molding with nail gun which is always both invigorating and scary, all at the same time. I am happy to say that there was never an incident while using the nail gun. Now, all that is left is putting in the shower head and hooking up the sink. Once that is done, than our bathroom will be complete. Then, it will be on to the next project I am sure. Not sure what they will be yet, but I am sure we can find something. Oh, that's right, we do need to finish painting our room which seems like a piece of cake compared the rest of the projects. Once finished with all of this stuff, it will be spring, and our muscles and stamina will move outside. it feels good to be moving towards completion. Some may wonder how we have learned all of these tasks putting in a bathroom and it has mostly been on the job training. Glad we didn't blow up the house.


Thank you for not turning us into the blogging police. We know it has been a long time, but it is all Rebecca's fault. Boy that is good to get off my chest. Have a great day.
Robb and Rebecca





Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Germs and Power Tools

I tried. I tried to get Robb to sit down and blog. I told him that we were disappointing avid readers everywhere. I told him everyone has been waiting with baited breath for our next post, and that we may be losing our readership by the day. He attempted to accuse me of not blogging either, but I reminded him that at blog's origin, I had given fair warning that neither was I in favor of, nor did I plan to participate much in blogging. So, when you read this, place your comment below to show Robb how long you have been waiting for a new post.

For now, I will update on his likely excuses for not having given any recent material. First, we have been smote by God. The plague has descended upon our house. I kid you not. We have facial sores, more vomit than I'd have predicted from all 3 boys in any given years' time, snot both in and projected out of noses, all 3 kids with fevers, the least of which was 102.4 (last night), coughing, hacking, laying around watching ungodly amounts of TV, no recent memories of our own full nights' sleep, skipping school, swimming lessons, 2 Urgent Care visits in as many Sundays, and many, many other unhappy parents wondering whose children have infected theirs with such heinous germs (sorry, it was ours). It all started with a little tummy ache a little over 3 weeks ago. Jacob was not feeling great. So, I picked him up from school early, with which he rewarded me by vomiting out the van door on the way home. We nursed him back to what we assumed was health. Little did we know... We have had the influenza virus. The doctor at Urgent Care unsympathetically told me that his 103.7 fever was due to a virus, so no meds would be dispensed. Then, he got the cold, which has lasted what I think could be accurately described as 'forever.'

Then, it was Jonah's turn. He went to bed one night just dog tired, but this is not terribly unusual for him. After sleeping through the whole night, he came into my room in the morning, got in my bed to snuggle, but got out a minute later saying his tummy hurt. I'm wise to this one. So, I sympathetically scream, "Run! To the bathroom! RUN!" When he finally figures out what I'm shrieking about, it's too late, he unleashes onto the floor of our room, and the hall. Not to get too graphic (I'm pretty sure I've passed that point anyway), but the smell was unearthly. He did run, but still didn't make it to the toilet before some sort of inhuman explosion took place because I was practically hanging from the ceiling trying to clean up the vomit that was in the weirdest places in the bathroom. His was the shortest-lived, not much more after that.

Then, came the vomit from Noah. He was such a trooper. On the way home from school one day (please don't tell the other preschool moms it was on the way home from school, lest I be shunned from all mom-coffees, play dates, and other inclusive activities for the remainder of the year), he barfed right into the bag I had thrust at him from the front seat. I mean, perfect aim. He looked AWFUL. I jumped out of the car once I stopped in the nearest parking lot. He was still barfing. I was telling him what a good job he had done getting it all in the bag, just as the bottom of the PAPER bag fell out. Yes, vomit all down his legs, through each and every crevice in the car seat. Much vomit followed for the rest of the day. It's terribly pathetic when your 4 year-old cries while squatting in front of the toilet, "Mommy, I don't want to throw up!"

Just to give perspective on how long all of this has been lasting, the most recent barf was 2 weeks ago this Monday--16 days ago. And, we are still sick. The fevers followed the barf, which were followed by colds. It's all part of the worst, most relentless virus we've ever had. And, of course, I got it, too. I had almost no voice for the majority of this past weekend, and felt even worse than I sounded. I have giant sinuses, and tend to harbor all kinds of beautiful things in them, whenever possible.

Robb's second likely excuse for blog-slacking is our master bathroom. When we moved into this house, we remodeled without stopping for months. The master bathroom was going to be something we did later, within a few months, but needed a breather. The breather lasted a year. So, we tore the bathroom apart in October, thinking it would be a quick project. It has become the bain of our existence. In the past few months, we replaced the shower pan, then tiled the walls of the shower (with help from my mom one weekend). Then, I tiled the floor, which I like now, but knowing what I know now, would have done it totally differently. That took eons. We also replaced the vanity. More recently (here's where the excuse comes in), we have been trying to hit it hard to finish it. So, Robb and his Dad replaced the toilet about 2 weeks ago (we have a brand new, very clean, but more importantly working toilet!). Then, they installed beadboard and trim, which looks great! I tiled the countertop and bought a new sink. Then this past weekend, we painted, caulked, installed joint compound, sanded, texturized, and painted some more. I also replaced the light fixture. It is almost done. The only things we have left to do are to hook up the sink and install the faucet in the shower. Then, it's fully usable! Of course, it could end up being the most expensive part of the remodel, since we're pretty sure we have to hire a plumber, but if it means it's done, Hallelujah!

So, that's it. Beyond that, I'm not sure there's even anything else to say. Jonah stayed home sick from school today, which was to have been my FINALLY day, when all the kids were back in school at last. I mean, of course it was.

We wish all of you less need for home improvement, and more health that we have had recently.