I am a coupon QUEEN!!

I LOVE COUPONS, as many of you know! KMart was doubling $2 coupons this week, and even though I never shop at KMart I thought I'd go check it out. Here's what I got:

9 Loreal eyeshadows
48-piece Crayola sidewalk chalk
10 Gillette bodywashes for Brent
3 Betty Crocker cookie mixes
2 Betty Crocker frostings
1 box Huggies disposable washcloths
1 bottle Huggies lotion
1 bottle Dove conditioner
1 can Glade air freshener
1 package Hershey Kisses (dark chocolate...ooooh soooo good)
2 Hershey dark chocolate bars
1 package Tic Tac Chill
$$$ TOTAL BEFORE COUPONS: $94.49 $$$
$$$ TOTAL AFTER COUPONS: $7.60 $$$
TOTAL SAVINGS...OVER 92% SCORE!!!!

I had to share! Pretty cool, eh?!

Riddle answer!

The riddle from yesterday: "A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, then left on Friday. How did he do it?"

Answer: His horse's name was Friday.

My brain just couldn't come up with that answer--I was trying to make it FAR more complicated. My answer involved Leap Year and an international time zone. HA!! Sydney looked at me with a blank expression when I gave her my answer.

Kudos to my cousin LeAnn--she guessed it right!

Happy December!

Happy Cyber Monday! We haven't even started Christmas shopping, so I might have to participate in cyber Monday shopping tonight. Brent said that one of the most fun shopping years he ever had was when he waited and did ALL of his shopping on Christmas Eve. This is also the guy that has a lifelong goal to be one of the crazies in line somewhere on Black Friday when the stores open. He loves a good challenge and the thrill of a crowd. Boy, are we opposites! Give me a hot cup of coffee and some warm PJs...I'll do all of my shopping online, thank you very much! :-)

Blake is SO MUCH BETTER--hallelujah!! We had Devin and Sydney over last night (our pre-teen neighbors from our old neighborhood), and the kids LOVED it. It was nice to have some company, too. I love our new neighborhood, but would give anything to have them as neighbors again!

Here's a riddle that Sydney had for me last night: A cowboy rode into town on Friday, stayed three days, then left on Friday. How did he do it?

Thanksgiving in the hospital

Happy Black Friday! Did you brave the crowds and find any great bargains?? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Our pediatrician admitted Blake into the hospital Wednesday night, and we spent two nights there. The virus that they've been battling left him really dehydrated, and he wouldn't eat or drink anything--he just wanted to sleep. They pumped him full of fluids and he finally perked up a little, but it took a lot longer than I expected it to. Now the challenge is to keep him hydrated, but he doesn't have much interest in drinking now that we're home. Brent stayed home with Sophie and Graham while I stayed with Blake. Dad and Louise came last night to help out, and brought leftover Thanksgiving dinner for us to heat up today. My friend Barbara Jean sent some of their leftovers, too, so we had dinner today after Blake and I got home. We'll try to have a "traditional" Thanksgiving celebration another time!

Here are some pics of our hospital stay:


These are some from today--he finally got his color back and was feeling a little more like himself!

The green frog is from a staff member who works at the hospital. She came around to visit all of the patients on the pediatric floor, and he got to pick out a brand new toy from her basket. Isn't that a great gesture by the hospital?! I hadn't brought any toys with us, and Blake was instantly attached to his new toy. Doesn't the first picture look like it's watching over him as he slept? The woman who gave it to him said she was particularly fond of frogs because they stand for "Fully Rely On God." Amen!

CT results

I got the results of the CT scan--everything checked out normal! I breathed a huge sigh of relief when they called. I was worried sick about it. That still doesn't solve the mystery of what's causing my pain, but we'll wait until after the first of the year to look into it further (and hopefully it will be gone by then?!).

God has quite a sense of humor...now the CATS are throwing up. Ha! Is He testing me?! Sophie is pretty much back to normal, but is really sleepy. I'm sure her body is recuperating. Graham stopped throwing up and hasn't run a fever today. Blake is another story--his fever was 103 today, and he hasn't eaten much at all today. The doctor sent us to the urgent care office tonight to have some blood drawn. She wanted to check his electrolyte levels, which were pretty out of whack. They told us to force as many fluids into him as we could tonight, and let them know how he's doing tomorrow. Poor guy, he just curls up into a ball and sleeps wherever he is. You know, as I write this I'm wondering...do kids this small get mono? Maybe I need to ask the doctor about it tomorrow. They're all unusually sleepy.

More tomorrow--hopefully I'll be telling you "the kids are all better"!!

Weekend with the sick kids

Sophie continued to run a high fever through the weekend, then started throwing up. Blake started running a high fever on Saturday, and also started throwing up. Graham hasn't ever run much of a fever, but not to be outdone by brother and sister...joined in and started throwing up. Our carpet shampooer has gotten quite a workout this weekend! Ick, ick, ick. I'm going to call the doctor this morning to see if there's anything we can do. I'm staying home from work today so our sitter Leslie doesn't take some nasty virus home to her family for Thanksgiving. I think Brent is silently thanking God that he's worked all weekend! We have a big quilt that we use for picnics spread out on the living room carpet, and here's a picture of Blake and Sophie napping together yesterday afternoon.

Let me backtrack and give an update on Friday night--Brent and I went to the hoe-down and had a BLAST! It was at a barn owned by a church member. We had a BBQ dinner (from Hog Wild--so good!) then got into groups to learn square dancing. It was so much fun! The only downside to the evening was that I wasn't dressed warmly enough--they had kerosene patio heaters set up, so I had to "defrost" every now and then. A former MAPS mom was there taking pictures, so I'll post some when I get them from her. We also won the grand door prize--a night's stay at a bed & breakfast in Yoder! I couldn't believe it! Now...who wants to volunteer to stay with the kids so we can redeem it?? Anyone??...(crickets chirping)...Hello??....(chirp, chirp, chirp)...Is this thing on??...

Then to add to my good fortune, Saturday morning my friend Melissa snuck me away for breakfast. She knew I had a long weekend of "sick baby" duty ahead of me, and wanted me to have a little break and a good breakfast. We went to the Copper Oven, which was fantastic. I had a philly steak scramble (honestly, can anything be paired with scrambled eggs and considered a breakfast dish?) with a cranberry muffin, and great cup of "Angel Lace Cookie" coffee. I'm going to attempt to recreate the philly steak dish at home--it was soooo good. My mouth is watering as I write this!

Now, back to reality and the sick kiddos. Graham is the only one awake so far, and feels awfully warm. He's sitting here drinking his bottle and staring off into space. Blake and Sophie are still sleeping (this is over an hour past their normal wake-up time), and I'm going to let them sleep until they wake up on their own. Please pray for healing around this place!

Sophie's fever

Sophie ran a temperature of 104.9 last night, and we were able to get it down to 102 with ibuprofen and a bath. The doctor wanted a strep test done this morning, and we were all surprised that it came back negative. The lab technician said her tonsils are so swollen that they're almost touching. She had a bad night and ended up sleeping with us. I think she was having nightmares--she kept waking up screaming. Our cat, Edge, is the "watchdog (watchcat?)" over the kids, and is especially close by when one of them is sick. He usually doesn't sleep near the head of the bed, but last night he was practically attached to Sophie. It was a sweet sight! So far the boys haven't shown signs of getting sick, but I expect that might change as the weekend progresses.

My CT scan yesterday was a little more involved than I expected. I thought I'd be in and out in less than an hour, but it was closer to three hours. I had to drink two big bottles of chalky liquid, then they gave me an IV for the contrast dye. Holy cow--surely if there's something in there they'll be able to see it with all of that?? Keeping my fingers crossed that they figure it out, and that it's NOTHING to worry about. In the meantime, I'm worrying myself crazy over it...

Kelly is going to brave the germs and come watch the kids for us tonight so we can go to the MAPS "hoe-down". They'll have a BBQ dinner and square dancing, and we'd been really looking forward to it before Sophie got sick. Hopefully she's feeling ok by the time we leave, and even if we can just go long enough to have dinner it will be fun to get out of the house on a pseudo-date!