I Guess Things Aren't Going to Slow Down

I keep thinking things are going to slow down a bit before school starts back up, but it hasn't really happened.  School starts in two weeks and fall activities start soon.  But we are staying busy around here even without school-or maybe it is just me.  I have been meaning to do this blog post for days and it hasn't happened.  So I'll try to make it quick.  Starting the Sunday before last, we noticed Ellie getting a rash on her belly that night.  The next day it looked much worse.  I can't even remember the whole timeline of it now, but we think she had a delayed allergic reaction to the Bactrim she was taking for a staph infection.  She had huge welts all over her including her face.  A couple mornings she woke up with her face all swollen.  Her ankles were also swollen and hurt.  My parents were in Kansas City so I sent my dad a picture and he ended up calling in some prednisone for her.  It took a little bit, but it did start to help with the inflammation and redness.  She was embarrassed for her friends to see her with her swollen, splotchy red face and neck, so we tried to cover it up a bit with some makeup and it would look better in the afternoon when the prednisone kicked in.  Monday night she was just taking Benadryl before we decided to try something stronger and it was not a good night.  I had her sleep with me just in case things got worse and she rolled around and cried most of the time.  So I asked her if she wanted to go watch a movie out on the couch around 2am.  She thought that would be good but then she got sick and threw up.  She was a little better after that and watched the movie for a while.  She got sick one more time and we both finally settled down around 5am.  Long night!  Along with the medicine, Ellie did a couple oatmeal baths which seemed to help.  I would not recommend it for a jetted tub though.  We have an air jet tub and the good thing with them is that about 15 minutes after the water is drained it turns on and blows out any extra water that is left in the jets.  Well, ever since the oatmeal bath, it smells when it does that.  I am still working on trying to get rid of the smell. 

I was hoping Tuesday night would be a good night, but Ellie had a melt down and we didn't head to bed until 11:30.  That was late enough for me after not really getting any sleep the night before.  The mornings were kind of slow, but then Ellie would play all day.  After a few mornings of waking up to the rash and swelling coming back, it finally went away and she was much better.  Now I need to make sure I remember to put down that she is allergic to sulfa drugs.  In the midst of all of this, I had a lot of things I wanted to get done around the house including getting packages out in the mail for Jackson.  Mail is kind of slow getting to kamp, so I wanted to make sure to get them out early.  We started transitioning rooms, which started with me painting the bonus room and selling the bunk beds on swap shop.  I just wasn't getting everything done during the day that I wanted to get done, so I had a few more late nights.  I get much more accomplished then without the kids awake.  One night I stayed up until three to finish painting the room, packing Jackson for camp, and decorating for Lincoln's birthday party.  I felt much better when it was all done.  Side story of not being able to do stuff while the kids are awake-I was putting laundry away in the twins room while they were playing in there.  I then went to my room to put a few things away and I was seriously in there less than a minute and came out to find the twins on the bar stool holding a now empty can of Cherry Coke Zero upside down over the counter right by my computer.  I actually had the bar stools laying down most of the morning, but set that one up to look at something on the computer (funny thing was it was the best way to clean laminate floors as ours have been looking pretty messy lately).  And I had an almost full can of coke sitting out since I had been lacking in the sleep department that week.  Luckily everything ended up okay and my computer is still working fine.  Jackson was such a good help during that time.  Actually he has been pretty helpful and considerate the last couple of weeks.  I do hope that attitude can stay around a little more.

So while I have been busy with the house and kids, Andrew has been busy at the office while also staying dedicated to his new workout routine.  He has been biking longer distances but has also added in some running and swimming a few days a week.  He is doing such an awesome job.  He really enjoys the biking part, maybe a tad bit of the swimming, but still doesn't really like the running.

In the midst of last week, our little red head celebrated his fourth birthday with a cowboy party.  It was the same party he had for his first birthday so I was able to reuse most of the decorations.  I put most of it up the night before and Lincoln was so excited to see it.  Since I did stuff the night before, we were able to go swimming for a bit before the party.  It was a fun party and Lincoln enjoyed all of his presents.  We even had some of the neighborhood friends joined us for cupcakes on the back patio. 

 

Jackson was also excited to wake up Thursday morning and see a packed trunk for kamp.  I went through all of it with him and how I bagged outfits together and where I put different items. 

 

After the party Thursday night, it was another late night because I took down all the decorations and cleaned a bit and then finished putting all the beds together for Lincoln and the twins' room.  And I can't remember at all what we did on Friday.  I do know that Andrew and Jackson went out to the ranch for a little bit that evening.  We were up early Saturday morning to head to Branson.  Andrew went on a bike ride while I got the kids ready and over to my parents house.  It was so nice of them to watch Lincoln and the twins since we were going to Branson and coming back all on Saturday.  Ellie came with us and Molly was excited to be able to come too.  Jackson said he wasn't nervous but didn't eat much because he said he felt like he was going to throw up :-).  I did a little bit of shopping on the way down mainly looking for stuff for the renovated rooms.  Then we ate some Panera at the Lake and headed to Branson.  We got there a little early but waited on Tiffany and Addi to get there so we could all go in together.  They were all so excited and I was excited for them.  Addi and Jackson gave each other a high five when they first saw each other.  We had to wait a bit before they announced their names and barns but kamp just keeps the excitement going.  After their names were called and their counselors took them, we went our separate ways to their barns.  We got to help Jackson unpack and make his bed along with meet his counselors.  Jackson did great with all of it and didn't even seem sad or tear up a bit.  So we left him and headed to the kamp store to get some t-shirts.  Thankfully we got to see him again as we were leaving.  I also stopped by the nurses station to see my college friend and sorority sister, Patty, that was working as a nurse during that term.  Then the craziest thing was as we were heading out, we saw Andrew's old college roommate, Miles.  He was dropping off his two kids. 

I didn't really get sad about leaving Jackson until I a little later.  I was just so happy for him during all of it that I never thought to be sad about him being gone for a week.  Luckily we have been able to see some pictures of him and he looks like he is having a good time.  Actually, I got a facebook message from Patty and she said he was having a great time but he did have to visit the nurses station because he belly flopped in the pool and got a bloody nose.  She said he was fine and quickly headed back to the pool. 

 

We sent him several packages and emails everyday but we are still waiting to hear from him.  I'm not sure if we will get a letter before we have to head out to pick him up.  The first day he was gone, Ellie kept saying she missed him and would tear up.  I do think everyone will be very excited to see him again.  We have kept busy while he was gone though.  We got back Saturday night after a stop at Sam's in Columbia.  Then we had to go to the early church service the next morning and I did some grocery shopping afterwards.  My cousin, Jimmy, and his family came into town on Sunday and we spent some time with them over the next few days.  It was actually kind of chilly and overcast, but it didn't keep the kids from swimming.  Their kids are super sweet and were so good with all of our kids.  Our church had their VBS (which they call CKL-Crossing Kids Live) Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night and I volunteered with it.  Monday night we took quite a crew.  We had Ellie, Lincoln, Aidan, Carson, Colton, and Carolina.  The twins got to stay home with Andrew.  I think they all had a lot of fun and I got to bond with Colton and Carolina a little more since they were in my group.  Carson came over for a bit on Tuesday, ate dinner with us, and then we all went to CKL again.  Ellie wanted Carson to stay the night, but he wasn't up for it.  So Ellie and Lincoln stayed at my parents again even though they were all exhausted and they had just stayed there Sunday night when our cousins were in town.  We thought the sun may actually come out on Wednesday and the kids could go swimming.  But it didn't look like it was going to happen so I loaded up all of my kids and Amanda's three oldest and came to our house to play.  They all did so well and just went from one thing to the next.  They were here for over four hours and didn't get sad once. We had some pizza for dinner and headed to our last night of CKL.  I wish I had gotten some pictures because they did enjoy it.  Colton and Carolina were excited to see the robots that were in the skit every night.  It was definitely a good distraction at the end of their stay here. 

 

 

I have spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks working on the new rooms but I am now almost all done with them.  Last Thursday I sold the bunk beds on our swap shop and they were picking them up on Friday.  Lissy and I took the kids and went to Comptons in Macon on Friday to see if I could get some mattresses.  I would say it was a successfull trip as I got 3 twin mattress sets, 1 queen mattress set, a bed frame and a couch.  Lissy got a mattress set for Molly and a media cabinet for my parents.  They were scheduled to deliver them on Monday.  We picked up some AJ's to take to everyone for lunch and headed home.  As we were finishing up lunch, Comptons called to say they could deliver my stuff in an hour and a half.  I was all for it, but there was a lot of switching to be done before then.  So I took the twins home, put them down for a nap, and Lissy and I started working on dissassembling the bunk beds so we could move the queen bed in there.  Andrew was luckily home so he started taking down the hand rail in the basement so that we could get the couch out of there (it was going to Molly's apartment).  Before we know it Comptons were at our house.  The movers were so nice though and helped Andrew get the couch out of the basement which is a hard task.  It is a large couch and we ended up with a few more dents in the wall trying to get it up the stairs.  They also helped move the bunk beds out to the garage and then brought in all of our furniture.  Then the family who bought the bunk beds came around an hour later to pick those up.  It was a whirlwind, but I loved that it all ended up getting done so quickly.  As I started setting stuff up, I decided to move a little cabinet we had in the hallway upstairs into Jackson's room as his nightstand.  I thought it would be great if I could go back to Comptons to get a big white buffet cabinet they had their to put in the hallway for extra storage.  It was a scratch and dent piece for a good price but I wasn't sure if Andrew would go for it.  Well I found out on Sunday that my mom and Lissy went to Comptons while we were dropping off Jackson and picked it up for me :-).  So Sunday was another moving day-moving the white cabinet in, moving the couch and mattress to Molly's apartment, and moving the media cabinets to my parents house.  Actually my dad and Andrew along with Lissy did most of the moving. Lissy was so awesome with all of her help.   And my dad helped me get Jackson's headboard onto the bed frame.  I had tried a couple days before, but the holes weren't lining up and I needed some different hardware.  So by the end of this week I have finally finished my work on the rooms and was even able to clean out and organize the closets and bookcases in Jackson and Ellie's room.  Well, almost.  I need to change out pictures in Jackson's room, put together the night stands for the big room when they get in, and figure out what pictures to put up in there even though there isn't much space to hang stuff.  We are also waiting to get the closets built in there.  And Amanda is going to pick up some simple dressers from Ikea for me to put in the closets. I did end up changing out Jackson's bed skirt for a red one.

 

Now I need to get moving.  I want to clean the bathrooms and such, start packing for our trip to Branson tomorrow, and then take the kids swimming.