Saint Patrick's Day and other crazy things....

So, I can decorate my blog for Saint Patrick's day, but not my kids.  I completely forgot about it and sent them all off to school without green (well, Anna had a little, by accident).  Lucky for them, pinching is against the rules at their school and preschoolers haven't learned that yet. Saint Patrick's day is one of those funny holidays that has no meaning to me other than guilt over forgetting it..  It is actually a religious holiday that celebrates the death of Saint Patrick on March 17th after he helped bring Christianity to Ireland.  The original color associated with St. Patrick was blue, but because he taught about the Godhead by using a shamrock, over the years green and shamrocks have become associated with it.  I know it's become an Irish history thing, but I don't understand it still. Each of my kids gets a party for this Holiday, but do you think they'll have a party for Easter, nope.  

On a different note, Evan has gotten so big in just the past few weeks, it seems.  Last Sunday he was a big helper for making chocolate chip cookies with Brandon.  He was so excited to help pour and stir and scoop.  He pulled a stool up to the oven so that he could watch them bake.  Today, he called down from upstairs that he needed help bringing his laundry downstairs. ??? Okay.  I went upstairs to help and when we got them downstairs he explained that his favorite pants were dirty, so he needed to wash them and put them on later. He loaded them in the washer while I put the detergent in, then he turned it on.  He ran to get a flash light (?) and came back and asked me to turn the light off.  He then sat on the floor in front of the washer to watch it spin for about 10 minutes.  Crazy kids.  He is getting so big.  I have to register him for kindergarten soon, but I'm not sure that I'm ready for that.  All of the kids are growing up so fast.  Riley will be 10 this year! Double digits!  Anna will be 8, which means she'll get baptized (mark your calendar, June 2), and Evan will start school in the fall.  How can I be a stay at home mom, with no kids at home?  I'm bound and determined to find a way!  I'm a stay at home mom.  That's what I do.  I feel an identity crisis coming on... ~Pam

Bad medicine, Good medicine...

Anna was sick a little while ago with a fever and a cough.  I took her to the doc on March 4 and the doctor just wanted to let the fever go a few more days and see how her cough went.  Well, on the 5th day of her fever, the doc gave her some amoxicillian.  By the following Friday, the 11th, her cough was worse, but her fever was gone.  I took her back in to the doc and she got chest x-rays.  She did have pneumonia and they put her on azithromycin.  On Saturday morning she woke up and started breakfast.  By the end of her meal, she said her feet were really hot and itchy.  So were her legs.  One small part of her finger began to swell.  Then it got better and a weird little part of her foot started to swell. Then she got a rash all over her body and her hands started to itch.  Needless to say, I was freaking out!  What ifs kept going through my head.  I called the nurse.  They were able to switch her medicine, told me to give her some Benedryl and she'd be okay.  The next day she got a little residual itchiness, but was much better.  Her cough is remarkably better.  But the new antibiotics needs to be taken on an empty stomach! Four times a day!  Anna generally eats 4-5 times a day, so we've had to work out an exact schedule.  On dose is given in applesauce at 3 a.m. to get this done, but it's working.  (I know "NO! food, but you can put it in applesauce if she can't swallow the pill". I don't get it either)  I'm so thankful that we don't have kids with serious allergies.  I would have a heart attack!  Even through all of this, we were able to get to spend some fun time with family over the weekend. That's always great.

Leisure Rules!

      We had a bit of fun this weekend in what was supposed to be a pretty plain time. With the two extra days off school this week being my first two days with Brandon back at work, I was going a little bonkers. Yesterday, Anna got short notice invited to spend the night with two of her best friends from her old school.  I could describe her excitement, but it wouldn't do it justice because you couldn't hear her screams or see her smile.  Since she was doing something fun, we decided to let Riley pick a friend and take them out to pizza at Dirty Dave's.  (Not my favorite place, but Brandon's been craving it for awhile.)  Ethan, the friend, stayed over late so the we could watch "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"!  It was so exciting to introduce Riley to this most favorite movie of ours. My thanks go out to Ethan for quoting it at dinner "Bueller, Bueller"! It was the perfect pick for a no school, lazy day movie!
       Today turned out to be way more fun than expected, too.   All we had on the schedule today was Riley's last basketball game. When we picked up Anna, we decided to let one her the besties come over for the day.  On our drive out to Tenino for the game (Yes, Tenino, but I'm glad because...) we had to pass by Latin's Cider Mill and I saw the sign that said "Hot Apple Fritters Today". I instantly made a decision about our return trip home.  We did get lost and miss 3 minutes of the game (Note: Brandon is the coach.  My bad. Sorry about the directions, Honey.)  We only lost by one point, which is really good.  Had Riley not made one little shooting foul, they would have tied!  But that did not dampen my mood, because I remembered what was on the way home!  So, a few minutes after we lost the last game of the season, we were eating donuts at the Cider Mill. Well, a couple of my unadventurous children (darn boys) had donuts.  The rest of us had fresh, hot Apple Fritters! They only do this on Friday's and Saturday's and I've NEVER gotten to go before.  I believe this was a little shout out to me from Heavenly Father.  A "thank you for all you do for your children and husband" kind of a thing.  We even bought food for the birds and goat.  Barring some freezing, slimy hands and major tears from Anna when the goat grabbed her whole bag and ATE IT (daddy gave her his to get the smile back), we had a blast, in the freezing snow, no less.  I'm not extremely spontaneous, but now that our kids are getting older, it's really growing on me. Hope you are all having a great weekend. Now for my big day of rest! Have a happy Sunday! ~Pam