Rash identified!

We've been to the doctor again today. The doctor mentioned it had been an entire month since he'd seen me...woo hoo! Actually, it hasn't quite been that long but close enough. He assures me that families with children are in his office just as often as we are. Anyway, I digress. The rash around HT's nose & mouth is impetigo. Yippee! A highly contagious infection. He's on oral antibiotics and antibiotic ointment, and we can all hug and kiss him again after 24 hours. Poor little guy...he's my little hugger and he hates that he can't hug his brother & sister especially. Just grateful that it's nothing more serious though!

Turn off the lights!

I am CONSTANTLY reminding my kids to turn off the lights. HT used to try to tell me that he couldn't reach the switch, but I pointed out to him that he managed to turn the lights on so he can turn them off. The older two have gotten better about this, but there is still a long way to go...and I know it won't get better until they live on their own and pay their own bills! Last evening the boys both had ball practice. HT's was only 1/2 as long as JR's, so I brought him home and informed my husband to feed him and JC dinner. I drove back to the ball field, and sat in the van during the remaining of JR's practice, about another 50 minutes. I found it odd that the radio turned off after about 25 minutes. When I finally noticed practice was ending, I got out of the van, but couldn't figure out why the van was beeping at me. Suddenly I realized that I had been sitting there the entire time with the headlights on. Not good! Sure enough I tried to turn the van back on and there was nothing but lots of clicking. My wonderful husband gathered the two little ones and came to jump the van. We finally made it home around 8:30 last night, still needing to eat dinner and take showers. I definitely need to start taking my own advice and make sure I turn off the lights!

Mid week

Well, we've reached the half way point of spring break, and things are moving along. We've been able to get lots of errands completed, and went through the process of trying on some summer clothes yesterday to get an idea of what will be needed this year. We are all enjoying break, but the youngest has developed a very strange rash around his face and nose. It looks like chicken pox. Not only has this child been vaccinated, but he actually got a full blown case about 17 months ago so I can't believe he'd have them AGAIN! I hate it when the kids have weird things happen to them...I'm neurotic enough without these things!

Opening Day

Yesterday was opening day for Major League Baseball! In my family, we basically consider it a holiday. My sister had tickets and went down to deal with the crowds (and snow, if you can believe it!), but I always prefer to stay home and watch it on TV. This year, I didn't realize the date and instead we were coming back from my in-laws. We were able to pick up Marty & Jeff about an hour before the first pitch, so we really didn't miss much. Although my beloved Cincinnati Reds weren't able to pull out a victory, I still enjoyed opening day, and I'm looking forward to the season. We still have 161 games left to be optimistic about!

Spring break!

The kids are on spring break! I'm not sure who is happier, them or me! I am enjoying the less hectic and frenetic schedule. At the same time, in order to accomplish that, it meant that some fun things I had hoped to do aren't going to happen. We are all okay with that though, because we need some down time. Hopefully I'll be a better blogger this week, and with the kids home I'm sure they'll provide material!  Our trip to my in-laws was wonderful, and we are really glad that we took the extra day to stay.  The kids are confused about the weather today, as it is spring break, and yet there are white flakes falling from the sky.  Yep, it happens that way in April at times. Today we are trying on summer clothes and working on scouting achievements...enough to keep us busy, but not to much that we can't relax!

We've almost made it!

We have almost made it through the week! It was a crazy one, but I'm really glad that we all made it through with patience. For me that can be particularly challenging. In addition to everything else we've had going on, the youngest was sick yesterday. Seems to feel better today, but now JC has started hacking. We are supposed to leave for the in-laws this evening, and so far that is still the plan. Last night at conferences we were able to get our kids' report cards, and we were very proud that they are doing well academically. It's been a pretty good week, all-in-all. And next week is Spring Break! Yeh!

Those aren't kids!

Yesterday my husband's school offered a free health screening to employees and spouses. We both decided to take advantage of the program. My appointment was in the middle of the morning. I had originally asked my aunt to watch our youngest since she lives near my husband's school. She had a prior commitment, so we had to find plan B. I hated to ask my mom to come down because she would have to drive 40 minutes here, then I'd drive 45 minutes each way, so my 15 minute blood prick would turn into a 3 hour + time commitment for her. It just wasn't necessary. Finally, we decided that since it was so short and the little guy is pretty well behaved, he could just hang out in my husband's classroom for a few minutes. It worked out perfectly because he was showing a movie so it wouldn't be a terribly big disruption. HT was very excited, and I even had him dressed in the school's football jersey with his name on the back from when my husband was coaching. He had his coloring kit and couldn't wait to go to Daddy's classroom....right up until the time came to walk in the door. No amount of cajoling or prodding was going to get him to walk into that classroom. I even tried pushing him through the door, but he was grabbing the door frame. Finally my husband walked over and picked him up and carried him into the room. I returned only 10 or 15 minutes later and HT was happily sitting there playing with blocks and marbles. However, my husband picked him up and asked if he would say goodbye to the students, and the tears began to show. Later I talked to HT and discussed why he had been so excited and then got so scared. I realized that we always refer to my husband's students as "kids". To those of us in our 30's, that is exactly what teenagers are! But to a little preschooler, those teenagers are big people! He told me that he wasn't expecting big people and it scared him. Apparently he thought his dad taught people his size, or at least the size of his older siblings. As soon as we were in the van though, he wanted to go back, and has already asked if he can play football with them!