Sicko...

I feel so bad for Seth. This poor guy has had a rough year already...let me give you the run down. He started the year on January 1st like the rest of us...and after going back to school on Jan 7th, woke up on the 8th with a fever of 102.3 and a sore throat. After 2 days and some communication with the school nurse I found out that there had been strep throat reported in his classroom. So on Thursday I took him into the Dr. and sure enough, strep. As we left the Dr's office I called the nurse at school to report the strep (so she can notify the other parents) and she had just sent home 2 more kids from Seth's CLASS, not from the school, from his Class. On Friday, there were 9 out of 19 kids out sick, with 3 or 4 confirmed strep cases. So we went through 10 days of amoxicilan, and he was doing much better...date now, Jan 16th. January 30, Seth wakes up with a fever and complaining of a sore throat. I figured it must be a virus since he just barely finished having strep and going through a course of meds. So Thursday, Jan 31st back to the Dr. his symptoms were not really going away. Sure enough, tests positive AGAIN for strep. We started a 10 day course of Keflex, a stronger med. This time Dr. Glowinsky scheduled a follow up after 2 weeks to make sure we kicked it out of his system. So February 9th, we finished the medicine, Seth seemed to be feeling better. Wednesday, February 13th, early morning, Seth wakes up 4 times during the night with "wet poops" as we call them, and pretty severe stomach cramps. We just let that run it's course, chalking it up to too many anti-biotics in a such a short time, or so we thought. So, back to the Dr. on Friday the 15th for his follow up for the strep, the rapid comes back negative, his tummy seems to be doing better, and we're off with a clean bill of health. This morning, February 18th, woo hoo, first day of vacation with lots of fun stuff planned...Seth woke up at 1am with a sore throat and feeling a little warm. I gave him a hug, sent him back to bed and went back to sleep. (Sometimes he wakes up with bad dreams, but isn't awake enough to know if he's feeling ok, or if it was the dream that woke him up.) 5am-ish, Seth comes back into my room. I can definately feel that he's warm now, he wanted to lay with me in bed, so I had him lay down next to me, and we both fell asleep. At 7am we woke up and he was burning up this time, 102.4 and coughing and complaining of a sore throat. So we went downstairs, gave him some ibuprofin and some juice, and called the Dr. So, we have an appointment at 10:45am to do another culture, and see what's going on. Over all, Seth is a really healthy boy, with a high tolerance for pain. This for some reason has been a really rough month and 1/2. I hope they can figure out what to do with him. I've been told that if you get strep too much, this close together they may take out your tonsils...surgery on one of my kids is too scarey for me to imagine.

UPDATE-We're back from the Dr. Seth does still have strep throat. They are saying that the germ isn't getting killed completely. So we're on another round of anti-biotics, I can't remember the name, c-something, anyway, she said that should kill it completely. The good news is that he's not contagious, which explains why none of us have had it. So he's home and resting on the couch. When Mike gets home from work later I'll go and get some gatorade and his medcine, and by tomorrow he'll be feeling good as new.

Boonshoft Museum

I'm really excited because someone told me about this museum in Ohio that has a great rate for families. An "Adventurer" membership is $100.00, and they offer reciprocity. That means that they are a members of a network of science museums, children's museums, and zoos, around the country, and when you are a member there, you gain access to so many more cool places. I just signed our family up. Here in Rochester we have the Rochester Science Center, Strong National Museum of Play, and the Seneca Park Zoo, all of which are on that network. I figured out the cost one day to become members of all 3 and it would be over $200.00. This week the kids have off from school so I plan on making the rounds. Check them out, they have reciprocity all over the US. http://www.boonshoftmuseum.com

Valentine's Day

We kept valentine's day pretty low key around here. The kids had their parties at school. Brooke was so excited for her first at school party with valentines. They had so much candy and they ate it all pretty much that afternoon. I figured it was out of the way that way and I won't have to keep telling them no for the rest of the week. They like being spoiled every once in a while. We took the kids out for a nice yummy Taco Bell dinner. They really enjoyed that too.


Mike and I went out to dinner and dancing for our big date for v-day. We had some of my favorite people go with us...Meg and Harvey Antczak, and my best friend Rachel. The Antczak's and Mike and I went to Yumbo's restaurant. The food was pretty good, the environment was interesting. You walk in and look at the big menu's on the wall, and then order and pay at the counter. After a little bit they bring your food out to you on a styrofoam plate and plastic forks. The food was really good. I had the beef brisket and pulled pork platter with awesome sweet potato mash and Mike had a "filly" sandwich. The atmosphere reminded me of an outdoor festival kind of place. It was great food and not very expensive...I'd go back. From there Mike and I headed out to Hilton to pick up Rachel to go dancing with us. The Antczak's went ahead of us downtown to High Fidelity to save us a spot so we could listen to my favorite band ever (besides NKOTB) Uncle Plum. I had not been to High Fidelity since they changed owners. It was nice in there, for a bar/night club. There were 4 or so leather couches, and Meg and Harvey were sitting on one of them. Uncle Plum was supposed to hop on stage at 10:30pm, but they ended up starting almost and hour late, but it was worth the wait. Rachel and I danced non-stop until 2am when they closed down. Mike shook it a little bit too. Meg and Harvey danced a little bit with us, but I think they were mostly laughing at Rachel and I for being goofy! All in all, I think everyone had a great time! I can't wait for the weather to warm up so Uncle Plum will have more show dates. I had the best workout in a while dancing all night!


Dinner at Yumbo's

The Boys at High Fidelity

The Girls

Bar Fight! I can't take these two anywhere...

Tyler's Birthday

I never did blog about Tyler's first b-day, and now that it's Feb 11th and he's 13 months old, I'm finally remembering to do it. We had a great day. It started with us going in and waking him up so I could get the sleeping and then sleepy pictures on the big day. I know you're thinking I'm mean, but I waited until the time when he would normally wake up anyway. We spent the day getting ready to have some family over to eat some cake, and then we had the party. (I apologize for the very detailed description of the day! :) It's almost midnight, and for some reason I can't sleep, but I can't seem to remember details either.) After a yummy dinner of specialy selected foods, because of his allergies and restrictions, we had cake. I managed to find him a vegan chocolate cake recipe online. It actually came out pretty good. I was only able to taste a little bit because he sneezed on it while we were trying to convince him to eat it and get messy. I did however make a normal cake also for everyone else to eat, so we all still enjoyed some cake. He wasn't going for the whole messy thing. It took a lot of convincing to get him to really eat any. He wasn't too excited about the presents either. I thought he would love ripping off the paper, but that took some convincing too! He's a funny boy. His favorite gift of the night seemed to be the .93 ball that mommy and daddy got him. It was big hit! We also got him one of those toys that you walk behind to learn to walk, or it morphs into a sit on rider toy. He loves that now, but at first he just kind of looked at us like ok, now what! Enjoy the slides of my big boy!

My Sweetest Man

So sometimes I look at Mike and think about how lucky I am. He's so gentle and kind, and handsome, and loving, and a great dad. He's very good at giving of himself, even if it's not the most convenient for him. A couple days ago we got some snow, it wasn't too much, but the next day it was blowing around. So when Mike got home he went out and shoveled, and was patient enough to let Brooke come out and shovel with him. After a little bit I looked out the front window and didn't spot these two in the driveway. I looked over next door and caught them shoveling the next door neighbors driveway also. A little bit later, when I thought they should have been done and back inside, I looked outside again. What did I find? Brooke and Mike one house further down doing their driveway also. After finishing the first one, Brooke said to Mike "I want to do one more." I'm so grateful for his example of service to others. It really does follow you, and of course the children are picking up on it, even at 3 years old. I love you, Mike. I'm a lucky woman.

Hinckley Challenge

For anyone who hasn't heard about this, here it is. Go to www.hinckleychallenge.com and you can register to be part of the challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to honor President Hinckley and read the Book of Mormon in 97 days, because he was 97 years old. It sounds like a great way to get motivated to read our scriptures. When you sign up you can log how much you've read and it keeps track for you. (Hence the goofy chart on the side of my blog, which i'm still trying to resize...stay tuned) It tells you how many pages you need to read each day and tells you how many "warriors" are taking part in the challenge. What a great way to honor such a great man!

Happy February

Good morning. Well, it's 5:20am. For some reason my eyes popped open at 4am to the sound of the furnace ticking (it always does that but I usually don't notice) and haven't been able to go back to sleep. Then Tyler just woke up and I fed him and rocked him for about 20 minutes before I finally put him back to bed. I miss rocking him in the chair. I don't miss waking up way to early though. So I thought since I'm wide awake now, I might as well get caught up on some blogging. Here are some fun pics from the last couple months of the kids since I forgot to post some! If you click on the slideshow and then hover over the pictures you can see the captions I typed in.