All About Angie

Posting Desert

February 26, 2005 on 1:44 pm | In Miscellaneous | 5 Comments

(That’s not “dessert”, either, though that would sound yummy!)

Do you see the giant tumbleweeds rolling through here? Yikes! Who is responsible for this blatant lack of upkeep?! Oh, wait, I think it’s me….

Well, once again, I claim illnesses. And all 5 of us at once. Flu, ear infections, and even a mild case of pneumonia have flown through our quiet little nest these last 3 weeks. Susanna is the worst off, but you would never know it. She is the quintessential cheery child who is not prone to complaints (I may have blogged about this earlier, for some reason, it seems familiar, but the ick in my head is pretty clogged up with more ick, so that could also explain it). She had not complained at all about feeling well, so on Friday morning when she had had a high temperature for 2 days, we decided we should take her in to see the doc. The diagnosis, which I errantly thought would be a return of her ear infection from last week, ended up being a mild case of pneumonia! Since she had walking pneumonia just last May, the doc thought that seemed suspicious, so he ran a few tests on her. He also gave her a breathing treatment. This is where you put a bronchodialator into a nebulizer, which turns the drug into a vapor and you (or in this case, Susanna) breathe in the vapor and it opens up the lungs for easier breathing. Well, giving steroids to my kid is a little overwhelming, but he is the doctor and he has never been hasty in decision making unless he thought it necessary, so I went along with this. After the breathing treatment, her lungs were a lot clearer, so he thinks she might have…..Reactive Airway Disease. (Sort of like asthma) What happened next was a flurry of activity. A few steroid prescriptions, one antibiotic for Luke, and a strong antibiotic for Susanna. Lydia, amazingly enough, checked out free and clear (PTL!). In addition, we left the doc’s office with a nebulizer (conveniently billed to our insurance company, thank you, Mark’s employer!) and oodles of instructions that I couldn’t possibly remember even if I didn’t have the flu, which I did have, did I mention that?

So the amazing thing is that Susanna NEVER ever said anything like, “I’m having trouble breathing” or “It hurts to breathe” or even “OUCH!” She had a cough that came on only at night with lots of icky sneezing, but that’s it.

Last night, as we were putting the girls to bed, we asked them their favorite bible verses. Lydia’s was John 3:16, probably the favorite because she just learned it. Susanna didn’t even need time to think about it. She calmly quoted Psalm 4:8, “I will lie down and sleep in peace. For You alone, Oh Lord, make me to dwell in safety.”

Well put, sweetie!

Silent Planet speaks (and how!)

February 20, 2005 on 5:07 pm | In Miscellaneous | 6 Comments

I have a ton of stuff to blog about, but first, many thanks to Peter who sent me the URL I needed in order to post this and any other blog I might think about posting (I’m sure David would have sent it to me, but he might be off flying or something. Peter just beat him to it.). Mark has installed and uninstalled and reinstalled a zillion different operating systems on my laptop and in the process, my precious bookmarks have also been compromised. Ah, well.

Time for a vent, don’t you think so? Look out! Here comes one now…

The last 2 weeks have been filled with icky sicknesses. First, Susanna had the throw-ups, then Luke caught some kind of yuck, mostly like a cold to the nth power complete with a 105 degree fever. Then back to Susanna for the same kind of thing Luke had PLUS an ear infection and then finally, it hit Lydia (who is usually the most illness-prone, but not this time), who ended up with an ear infection yesterday without the fever part. So antibiotics aplenty! It’s funny, I’m not one to rush over to the doctor’s office very quickly, if at all, so I was sort of biding my time. Susanna, who is NOT at all a complainer (how can she be my child?!), long about mid-week last week said, “My ear hurts!”, so I was pretty sure what the prognosis would be. Five (5) doctor visits later, only the girls are on antibiotics, but man, what a wild two weeks! Last night was our first full night of sleep in those two weeks. It felt great!

Well, how has everyone been? February has not been kind to me, as you might have deduced from the last vent. The other things that have happened are (in chronological order):

1) Luke was diagnosed as “developmentally delayed” by 2-3 months. That means that he has demonstrated that he has reached the developmental milestones of an average (!) 6 month old. At first, all sorts of things ran through my head. “What kind of mother am I?” “What did I do wrong?” But Mark and I have come to the conclusion that this is just another thing we need to trust the Lord for. Still, I have a tendency to blame myself. But I guess that’s something mothers do well. Anyway, because of his delays, a motor therapist will be coming to our house once a month to teach us some exercises to help him. I’m sad that we have this issue, but I’m really glad there is help out there.

2) I went to the dentist and I have (get this) nine (9) cavities. Apparently, I am one of those people who get cavities primarily BETWEEN their teeth, according to the dentist. So it’s really 4 “areas” of trouble, but 9 teeth are affected and, of course, have to be drilled and filled. Ugh. In the midst of all this, my dentist is going to have a baby next week, so I will have even more time to look forward to being in that chair with those burning, teeth-grinding smells. Ick.

3) My computer is still without life. I’m typing this on Mark’s desktop, which is actually kind of nice, because it has a REAL mouse and mine only has a touchpad. It’s not so bad being without a computer unless you want to pay some bills or something. And I haven’t even turned to television as a substitute yet. And I love JEOPARDY! Hooray for being non-slovenly!!

Well, I guess that’s all I can think of now. If I can think of anything else, I’ll be back. Well, that’s probably more of promise than a threat, but we’ll see what Monday brings! Thanks for checking back in. I hope you were not too disappointed!

PS- SOMETHING (read: “Something disasterous”) happened to our digital camera, so we are in need of a new one. It is with great sadness that I must declare that there will be no more pictures-kids or otherwise-until we find a suitable replacement. I can almost hear my mother crying……