10 MONTH OLD + CHICKEN POX = NO GOOD

My poor little Olivia Grace has been dealing with a yucky case of the chicken pox ever since this past weekend. I must say, for being just 10 months old, she has been hanging in there pretty well all week. She has seemed pretty happy and not bothered too much by the itchy little bumps covering most of her little body, until yesterday.

Yesterday she cried pretty much every time I sat her down on the floor to play, was not interested in eating much, and was pulling at her hair a lot. I am assuming this was because her poor little scalp is covered in chicken pox and they were itching. Poor baby.

I decided to cave and give her some benadryl. The Dr. mentioned that if she seemed uncomfortable that I could give her 1/4 tsp, but to not give it to her unless she really seemed in need. I decided that she really seemed in need.

After I gave her the medicine she seemed more comfortable, but very sleepy. We spent the afternoon and into the evening on the couch snuggling, which was really so very sweet. [I hate when any of my kids are sick, but the one positive to it all is that they love to be close and snuggle when they are. ]

Once she was pretty much out cold sleeping on my chest,

I carried her up to her crib to sleep for the night hoping she would feel better in the morning.

Turns out a good night sleep helped.

A LOT.

She is not feeling 100% quite yet, and most likely won't until next week, but it sure is nice to see her smiling and laughing.

CATCHY LITTLE SONG ISN'T IT?

I was in the midst of washing my hair this morning when I began singing. This is nothing new, as I do tend to enjoy singing in the shower - who doesn't? The weird thing about my singing was my song choice. Let's just say it was not any top 40 hit off of the radio, or any oldie but goodie either. It was.... Wait for it..... "Make way for Noddy".

Not familiar?

This little ditty is from the every popular Noddy cartoon found on Noggin. The kids enjoy watching it and so it has come to be that I have memorized the theme song.

Catchy, isn't it?

Catchy or not, to find myself singing it over and over (and enjoying it) while showering is sort of ridiculous. More ridiculous is the fact that after I realized I was singing it, I kept on singing it. I sang as I got out of the shower, dried my hair, and put on my clothes. I actually sang it all the way up until Anthony and Lucas entered the bathroom and asked

"Why are you singing Noddy Mom?"

To which I did not have a great response, so I said.

"Oh, I just LOVE the song, it's my favorite!"

Which got the boys laughing, and me singing. Again.

SICK OF EVERYONE BEING SICK

I am beginning to get tired of all the crud that has been passed around this household over the past month. Lucas and Anthony had strep, Olivia had a bad head cold, then I got strep along with a bad head cold (lucky me - I get them both at the same time), then to round it all out, Lucas got strep AGAIN (yes, again).

It has been a long, bacteria, virus, boogery, nose blowing, prescription filled month.

Throughout the craziness of it all, it slipped my mind that we had a weekend getaway to Chicago on the calendar for April 23-26. Yes, Mr. Shelton and I were just on a nice warm sunny vacation in Key West just a few weeks ago, so this vacation was not really necessary. BUT, we had it on the calendar for months, and simply did not want to cancel. We already had Grandma and Grandpa on board to watch the kids, and plans to spend some time with a friend who lives there, so we had to go. Right? Plus, I had been dealing with sick kids for much too long and needed this getaway. (Alright, maybe I did not need it, but I wanted it.)

So, we dropped the kids off at Grandma and Papa's bright and early Thursday morning, (all healthy and in good spirits) and began our road trip to Chicago.
The vacation was nothing short of fabulous - a weekend filled with alone time with Mr. Shelton, shopping, cocktailing and an evening out with friends. Perfection.

We arrived home yesterday evening to 4 very excited kids, and one that was doning some strange red bumps on her back. The "one" I would be referring to is Olivia. Hmmmm.... At first I shrugged them off as bug bites, thinking maybe they were outside playing in the grass or something. I say at first, as when she woke up this morning I found that the bumps [or polka dots as Lucas calls them] had mulitiplied and spread all over her body.

This is when I began one of my conversations. Out loud and to myself (I tend to do this a lot).

"My gosh - she has chicken pox! How could she get chicken pox? I thought she was vaccinated for those already."

Pausing to think....

"Oh - she has not been vacinated for chicken pox yet, I think they do that when she is 12 months - DARN IT! Why wouldn't they vaccinate her? Maybe it is not safe to vaccinate babies? Maybe they assume babies are still carrying Mom's antibodies so it is rare for babies to get it?"

Stopping to undress her and scan her body for little red bumps.

"Ewww - they are on her poor little scalp, face, neck, tummy, back and legs. And they look like blisters! Is that what chicken pox looks like? I don't remember. Maybe it is not chicken pox."

I make my way to my trusty computer where I google chicken pox. It brought me to a question and answer type forum on BabyCenter, where Mom's type questions, and a Dr. from the site answers them. Here is what I found.

My baby has a spotty red rash all over her chest. Could it be chicken pox?

It could be. Because most babies get antibodies against the virus from their mother while in the womb, it's unusual for a baby to come down with chicken pox during the first year. Those who do tend to have a mild case.Chicken pox, also called varicella, typically causes an itchy rash that starts out as small red bumps. These bumps quickly change into clear, fluid-filled blisters on a pink base, which eventually become dry brown crusts. New waves of blisters often spring up as the illness progresses.The rash often appears first on the scalp, face, or trunk. It can then spread over the entire body. Children usually get between 250 and 500 blisters, although it's possible to have just a few.Your baby will probably be tired and slightly feverish. She may have a loss of appetite and, for a couple of days before the rash appears, a mild cough or a runny nose. Chicken pox usually lasts five to ten days.

Small red bumps, check. Some turning into fluid filled blister, check. On the scalp, face and trunk, check. Mild cough and a runny nose, check. DANG-IT. She does have chicken pox.

My poor baby.

This family is officially a mess in the health department this month. Strep throat, head colds, strep throat again, and NOW chicken pox? Will this ever end?

FACEBOOK

When I was first inundated with requests to join Facebook by many different friends and family members I simply ignored them. I was under the assumption that Facebook was the same as MySpace, and what I had heard about MySpace was quite unsavory to say the least - a bunch of teenagers chatting back and forth to eachother about inappropriate topics, posting inappropriate pictures, etc. I was hearing it was even a dating service of sorts, and not a very "clean" one. Just seemed like it was pretty much not for me. So you can imagine why I had no interest in joining Facebook.

That is until an old friend of Mr. Shelton's convinced me otherwise. How did she convince me you ask? She made her case in favor of Facebook by stating that

1.) It is a great place to share pictures of the kiddos with family members you don't see often, or that you don't get a chance to get pictures to. This sparked my interest right away as some members of my lovely family (you know who you are) get upset that I don't get to Target often enough to print pictures off and present them in hand.

2.) It is a great way to reconnect with old friends from gradeschool and College. Now this does not appeal to everyone as some would rather not be reacquainted with such people from their past, but for me it sounded quite fun. What would be better than being able to click on a page, see your old friend, pictures of them and their husband, and kids all without an akward phone call, or weird chance meeting at the local Target.

I was convinced, and so, I joined. And up until today, I have had quite a nice experience with it all. Reading people's status updates, writing my own, checking in to see what "Kate" wrote to "Bob" - which seems sort of snoopy, but I guess that is sort of what the site is all about, right?

Anyway, back to the reason why I have been having a nice experience up until today.

I was scrolling through all of my friends status updates, when I came across this one.

Doug: 10 days until PD Pappy's opens for the season!!!!!

A little background on PD Pappy's for your reading pleasure: PD Pappy's is a local bar here in the lovely city of Stillwater, which is only open in the Summer. It is a very popular place with the local's, and is also known as the biker/boater bar. Why you ask? Because if you happen to come upon this little gem of a bar you will most likely see tons and tons of motorcycles parked out front of it. For some reason the bikers enjoy this watering hole, which is just fine, no big deal. you will find many a boaters as it is located right on the beautiful St. Croix River, so they enjoy docking their boats and walking to the bar for a drink and some grub. They have wonderful bands that play there on Friday and Saturday nights which tends to draw huge amounts of people, on top of all the regulars that go there just because.

What I am saying is it is a loud, rowdy, crowded bar. Which is great if you like having to stand all the time, squished inbetween a few people, and yelling to try and carry on a conversation with whomever you have gone out with that night.

This, my friends is NOT my cup 'o tea. I tend to favor somewhat quieter places. Places where you can get a table, have a drink, an appetizer, chat with friends, and have some music playing quietly in the background. Call me boring, old, whatever, this is what I like.

SO, after reading Doug's comment about PD Pappy's opening, I decided to comment back with this:

ME: PD Pappy's sucks. I know, I will be killed for saying such an awful thing as most everyone in this world (including Brian) LOVES the place. The only time you will see me going there is if it is a Sunday and Kurt Jorgensen is playing - love this band. :)

This is me poking a little fun at PD Pappy's and Doug's comment. No big deal, Doug did not think so otherwise.

Doug: "I know, not everybody likes the place but the biggest thing is that it's opening day signifies that summer is almost upon us etc!!! Plus they do get some good bands in there and I love going there on Sunday's too, to see KJ! And you can't say that you don't love the 'people watching!!' It's always very amusing seeing drunk boaters and bikers mingle !!!"

All in fun, right? Wrong. After a few minutes, this comment popped up underneath mine. A comment from someone by the name of Russell Lalevee. [I should mention that I have no idea who this person is as he is a "friend" of Doug's. ] It's a real doozie if I do say so myself.

RUSSELL: "Hey Maria, sorry this place isn't some top 40 bar with trendy people in Minneapolis or some lame suburb. One thing you have to admit, where else can you go to a bar around here in which, 1) you are on water 2) you are in the beautiful St.Croix river valley 3) cheap drinks, somewhat 4) half price burgers on Tuesday and half price chicken sandwiches on Wednesday 5) always free to see bands play 6) considering on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with all the bikers and the drunk boaters, and lame people like you, I have yet to see a fight there ever in the past 15 years I have been going there, it is amazing, everybody gets along, unlike more of the bars around here 7) you eat poop and drink your own pee8) you fart a lot, so there !!!!"

Ooooh. Them are fightin' words. Things like this really get my blood boiling. Even though I did not want to justify his response with a response of my own, I could not resist. JERK.

ME: Russell - sorry that you feel the need to be so insulting to a person you do not even know. The reasons you gave as to why you believe I do not like Pappy's are VERY wrong. I do not like Pappy's simply because it is extremely crowded most every night of the week and there is not a place to sit, relax and just chat with friends. I live in Stillwater and love and appreciate the beautiful river and other bars in the area. When I do go out for a night, it is in Stillwater and not in Minneapolis at some "trendy top 40 bar". And you do not need to go over the perks of going to Pappy's, as I know about them all. My friends frequent the bar quite a bit and so does my husband. Not to mention, this comment was to Doug, and was not to be taken so seriously by other douche bags who happen to come across it. And as for #7 and 8 - REALLY?? Sorry Doug, but your "friend" is just plain old rude.

Later, Doug posted this.

DOUG: "Hi Maria, one of the worst things about Facebook is what just happend here. Russ is an acquaintance and someone I do not hang out with. I actually forgot he was on here. Ask Bob or Bill about Russ and they will tell you he can be a fun person sometimes but he is a complete idiot most of the time with his inappropriate comments. I am sorry that you had to be subject to his crass comments. Hopefully you won't feel less about me. :-) Oh and yeah, I think it's delete time for him."

So HAH Russell. You just lost a "friend". Juvenile? Yes. Could I help myself? No.

MY DAILY INSPIRATION

Raising kids is a ton of work. Yes, it is rewarding, fulfilling, wonderful, and all those other things, but let's face it - it is not always peaches and cream.

A while back I happened to come across this article on Facebook that was spot on in explaining exactly what us Mom's do. I loved it so very much that I printed it and made a very special place for it on the good old fridge door so that I could see it every day.

Why, you ask? So that I am reminded every day that feeling warn down, frustrated, at my wits end, and all that other good stuff is understandable, and that I should not feel guilty, or feel that I am a bad Mom.

If you have not already, take a moment and read this work of art 'cause
it really is nothing short of fabulous.

Tell Me About It by Carolyn Hax
Tucson, Arizona Published: 06.05.2007

● Carolyn:My best friend has a child. Her: Exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc. Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What’d you do today? Her: Park, play group . . .OK. I’ve done Internet searches; I’ve talked to parents. I don’t get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please, no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners. . . . I do all those things, too, and I don’t do them every day. I guess what I’m asking is: What is a typical day, and why don’t moms have time for a call or e-mail?I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events), and I manage to get it all done. I’m feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy — not a bad thing at all — but if so, why won’t my friend tell me the truth?Is this a contest (”My life is so much harder than yours”)? What’s the deal? I’ve got friends with and without kids, and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.— Tacoma, Wash.

● Tacoma:Relax and enjoy. You’re funny. Or you’re lying about having friends with kids. Or you’re taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven’t personally been in the same room with them. Internet searches? I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand — while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom friends are either lying or competing with you — is disingenuous indeed. So, since it’s validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form.

When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm’s way; to answering their coos, cries and questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head. It’s needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15. It’s constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier. It’s constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family members and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It’s resisting the constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone’s long-term expense. It’s doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything — language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity, empathy. Everything.

It’s also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy — and then when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, you wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend — a good friend wouldn’t judge you, complain about you to mutual friends or marvel at how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand, or keep your snit to yourself.

I love it. and it will have a place on my fridge for years and years to come so that I am reminded of how much work goes into raising my 4 kids. [whom I cannot for the life of me get to look at the camera for a picture. Ever.] It inspires me to keep on keeping on, and to realize that it is not always easy, and both the kids and I will have our bad days, and that all of this is par for the course.

And most importantly, it reminds me of how VERY lucky I am to not have a friend like Tacoma.

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AN ADDITION TO BE MADE TO TODAY'S POST

I watch a friends little boy every Monday, which is great, as Anthony and Sammy, get along swimmingly, even thought they are a year apart. Sure, a year does not seem like that much of an age gap, but when you are talking about the difference between an almost 2 year old and a just turned 3 year old, the difference is big.

Anyway, they are two little peas in a pod - playing Star Wars guys, Star Wars on the Playstation, lightsabers, coloring in Star Wars color books. You get the idea, lots of Star Wars stuff, which makes Anthony very happy....Now that I think about it, the reason they probably get along so well as Sammy is the only one who will go along with his everything Star Wars theme he has going on every day all day. Anthony tells Sammy what they are going to play/do, and Sammy follows - true bliss for my Anthony Thomas. You see, he has two older sibling who tend to always tell him what to do. Now it is his turn.

So, I was busy on my computer, checking out my facebook friends status updates (guilty as charged) when I heard the water running in the bathroom and the two boys giggling to their hearts content. This went on for a good 5 minutes before I stopped my facebook perusing and went to check it out. [The last I had seen of them they were sitting at the table coloring, what else, but Star Wars coloring pages.] Here is what I found when I entered the bathroom.

Apparently they thought it would be fun to color on their foreheads instead of the paper.

Wonder whose idea that was?

GIVING IN TO THE CLUTTER

I hate clutter. Actually, I loathe it. It makes me feel uncentered, crazed, cranky, you know, all those unpleasant feelings.

I have been this way ever since I was a little girl. I am thinking this is because my Mom was the same way. Everything had a place in our house, Toys were in the toy box, clothes were in the hamper or folded and put in drawers, mail was gone through the day it arrived, bills payed, junk thrown away. You get the idea. And if it so happened there was something that was found that did not have a place, it was thrown away, given to a friend, or given to the Goodwill.

This worked well as it kept our house from getting out of control with random "things", clutter, junk, etc. I am proud to say that growing up, our house was clutter free, and for the most part, always picked up and looking nice. There were no clutterbugs (people who enjoy creating clutter) in our house.

Since I grew up in this type of environment, I sort of was inclinded to create the same type of environment in my own home. To date, this had proved to be VERY difficult.


First of all, the wonderful Mr. Shelton (whom I love dearly) is the perfect definition of a clutterbug. One that looks at mail, then throws it on the counter to sit, one that takes off his dirty clothes and throws them next to the laundry basket - not in it, and one who makes a sandwich for lunch and leaves the mess thinking he will just clean it up later. But the craziest thing of all, is that he never wants to part with anything. If you can believe this, we have two closets in our master bedroom and HE takes up 80% of both of them!! Why, you may ask? He cannot seem to find a way to part with any of his flannels from the '90's, old jeans that have holes in them and simply can never be worn again, and his old work suits from back in the day when he was a 9-5'er. (all of which he has not worn in YEARS.)


So, as you can see, my husband is not the greatest in keeping the house clutter free. He is a clutterbug at heart. But what is worse is that I have 4 clutterbug kids to deal with too. I am not faulting the kids at all, as kids in general are just clutterbugs - All of the art projects, homework assignments, toys, clothes, pets, stuffed animals, dolls, etc. are littered all over our house. I have a playroom that was supposed to house all of said "stuff", but it is simply overflowing. I am finding it more and more difficult to find places to store it all. Here is a gander at what I am dealing with.



Mr. Shelton's Fax machine, which he decided to place right in the kitchen (much to my excitement), and you will notice next to the phone the stacks of mail, paperwork, etc that I attempted to organize a bit in the handy organization thingys from Target.







That is not the worst of it - here is a gander of what is in the cupboards and on top of the cupboards in that same area. This is my attempt at hiding all of the mounds and mounds of paperwork that Mr. Shelton has not gotten around to going through quite yet. I cannot throw any of it away, and when I bring up the possibilty of going though it I get the I-am-up-to-my-ears-in-work-and-don't-have-the-time look. So I have decided to just stop asking, so here it all sits. Waiting to be read, paid, thrown away, whatever needs to be done with it all.





Now here is the saddest photo of all. This represents my giving up on controlling the clutter. This is my china cabinet, which is in what is supposed to be my formal dining room, which has turned into a make shift storage unit. Above (from left to right) my breast pump which I have long since been done using, a box full of color crayons/markers, Olivia's baby bath that she stopped using months ago, my Mom's sterling silver utensils that were passed down to me as a wedding gift, A bag filled with Ava's dance recital costumes, and last but not least, the kids hermit crabs that they had to have and have not played with in weeks. Oh, and on the left hand side smooshed between the china cabinet and wall - (bottom to top) Huge jug of canola oil Mr. Shelton purchased last year for his industrial sized deep fryer, photo albums from when I was a child, toaster oven Mr. Shelton bought me for Christmas that never did get mounted underneath the cupboards in the kitchen, and an empty camera box.

Wowza. OUT.OF.CONTROL. Right?

Clutter, clutter, clutter, and MORE clutter! It is everywhere. I am surprised I don't have reacurring nightmares about it all. I think it may be that I am simply becoming accustomed to it all. [sigh] I guess I have battled with Mr. Shelton, and the kids over this for long enough, and have finally come to the conclusion that I am simply outnumbered, and I need to just give in to the clutter.

At least for the time being. Maybe over the next few years I can work on Mr. Shelton, and slowly convert him over to a clutter free lifestyle. And once the kids get older, things should become more manageable.

A girl can hope, right?

MR. INDEPENDENT

Anthony decided he wanted to dress himself this morning with absolutely no help from yours truly. Who was I to object? Whenever one of the kids exhibits a bit of independence I am thrilled, for obvious reasons.

So I handed him his clothes, and he made his way into the playroom where he had decided to get his clothes on.

Anthony: "Momma, you don't come with me, you stay there."

Mom: "Alright, don't worry honey, I will stay right here."

I waited patiently for him to make his grand entrance. Nothing. So I waited, and waited, and waited some more.

It was unusually quiet in the playroom, so I decided to go take a quick peek - this is what I found.

I decided to just go with it. Afterall, what harm would it do for him to spend the day with his clothes on backwards?

None whatsoever.

He was very proud of his accomplishment, and so was I. Mr. Independent indeed.

I'M TOO DARN SICK, SO I JUST DON'T CARE

[WARNING: THIS IS A LONG POST WHERE I FELT THE NEED TO RAMBLE ON AND ON AND ON... I TEND TO DO THIS SOMETIMES.]

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I came home from my lovely vacation in Key West to 2 kids with strep throat, and one with a bad head cold. Fun stuff. I have spent the past week taking care of my sick kids, snuggling them, taking temps, wiping runny noses, administering the yucky pink amoixicillan to the ones with strep, tylenol to the one with the head cold, you get the idea.

Most often when I have sick kids, I do not think much about getting sick myself, as I am too busy taking care of them for it to cross my mind. So when I began to get a bit of a sore throat along with a case of the sneezies (intermittent periods during the day where all I do is sneeze) on Sunday I thought nothing of it, passing it off as springtime allergies rearing their ugly head. But Sunday evening things seemed to change a bit. I was sitting on the couch watching some T.V. with Mr. Shelton when my head started to fill up. I was feeling a bad headache coming on, and I all of a sudden could not breathe out of my nose. I was coming down with something, most likely strep throat. Darn.

The next morning I woke up feeling extra horrible - unable to eat breakfast or drink my much needed cup of coffee due to my throat being so horribly sore. I watched Brian head out the door to work and almost wanted to weep as I knew I was in store for a looooong day at home with 4 kids. (they did not have school, perfect timing, right?)

I decided this was not going to go away on it's own, and that I needed to make a trip to the Dr. I hated to go to the Dr. with 4 kids in tow, but it had to be done - I was miserable and in desperate need of some drugs. I made it to the Dr. got my throat culture, found out I indeed had strep - all the while Anthony was running around the office with his Darth Vader mask on yelling "I'm Dak Vada! I'm Dak Vada!!" Lucas and Anthony kept pushing eachother off of the chair they both wanted to sit on, all the while yelling back and forth at eachother. To top it off, Olivia fell over, hit her head on the hard floor and began screaming. Fun right? I simply gave a long drawn out sigh and went on my way. I was just too darn sick and really did not care.

Now I had another stop I had to make, WalMart pharmacy for my prescription. I knew this would not be a good one as pretty much everytime we enter a WalMart or Target I immediately here the "I want that! Oh - I want that! Please, Please!!!" I hate this, so I tend to never bring the kids to either of these stores unless I absolutely have to.

And today I absolutely had to.

This is where it got a bit hairy.... I was waiting patiently in line to drop off my prescription which was beginning to take a long time (that's WalMart for you), when the kids started to get impatient and began climbing on the cart, running around it, trying to get under it. Doing pretty much anything they could on the cart for entertainment. I decided to let them have at it as they were not causing much of a rucus and honestly I did not want to fight with them, I was too darn sick and I just did not care. When it was finally my turn, the young girl (with NO personality) took my prescription from me and proceeded to take a long moment to glance at me and each of my four kids with a look of "Are you crazy to have that many kids woman??" on her face. I ignored it and went about my business giving her my insurance card and other info. She then informed me it would be a 30 minute wait and to stop back then to pick up my prescription.

Great. I had 30 minutes to kill in Wal Mart with 4 kids - this was going to be interesting.

I decided to not fight the "I want that! I want that" thing, (I was too darn sick) and made my way back to the toy isle for them to pick something out. After killing some time and letting them each pick something to buy, I made my way back to the prescription counter, sat down on a bench and waited patiently for my prescription to be ready. This would have all been fine if Anthony were not sitting in the cart yelling/crying "I want a Sta Was guy! I want a Sta Was guy!" (Star Wars guy) over, and over and over again. I gave him the you already picked something out and you better quit or you are in trouble look, which did not work, I told him he would be in a time out when we got home and that did not work either. He was digging his heals in on this one, and so was I. Of course I was getting the control your darn kid looks from a few old farts waiting for their prescriptions, but I did not care as, like I said, I was too darn sick.

FINALLY, my name was called. I walked up to the counter to find the lovely girl who took my prescription in the first place staring back at me. Boy did she ever not have a personality, no smiles, not "pep" in her voice, nothing.

She simply said "Mam"

(I hate it when people call me Mam.)

No personality girl: "The pharmacist wants to talk to you about this prescription."

Hmmm... I thought this was weird. It was penicillin, nothing fancy, no instructions needed on my part. Simply take two a day, don't miss a dose, don't stop taking it because you feel better... I know the drill. Girl with all the personality walked over the pharmacist, whispered something and pointed to me. The pharmicist walked over...

Pharmacist: "Hello Mam"

(again, the whole Mam thing, I hate it!) He pulls out the medicine from the bag and starts going over the label, mumbling to himself. REALLY?

Pharmacist: "What do we have here...."

I am beginnning to lose my patience, the kids are all behind me running circles around the cart while Anthony is crying (Still) for his Sta Was guy.

Pharmacist: "We just want to make sure we cover all our bases here. Make sure to finish all this medicine even if you feel better, alright? You may take it with or without food, your choice. Make sure to take two tablets a day."

Me: "Sounds good, I know all of this. Anything else?"

Good Lord, he was reading the information right off of the darn bottle, like I can't read myself? Annoyance factor was reaching an all time high here.

Pharmacist: Peering at the bottle as if he were really trying to find something on there. "Oh, yes, one more thing." Long Pause. "You may want to read this here VERY carefully. "

I stopped, wondering why he was unable to read this particular little piece of information out loud as he did with the rest of it.

I moved in closer to him to see what it was he wanted me to read "VERY carefully." Here it was...

WOW. Clearly he and the checkout girl with no personality thought that it was VERY important that I see this. As, you know, I would have been unable to read this little bit o' info on my own. After I read what he was pointing at, I looked up to find him wide eyed and nodding his head up and down dramatically.

Hmmm... Wondering if maybe they thought I had my hands full with the four kids I have and did not want to see me getting pregnant again?? Whatever the case, I am assuming it is not standard protocol to go over prescription labels with all customers. Weird? Rude? NONE of their business? Yes, yes, and yes.

I decided to blow this weird exchange off, grabbed my prescription, and my kids and made my way out of the store. I had my drugs in hand and at that point that was all that mattered.

Plus, I was too darn sick, and I just did not care.

NEW DO

Here is Livi all dressed up with her very first hair do in celebration of Easter!

Pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Now off to Nona and Papa's for some Easter fun....

Happy Easter!!!

LATEST AND GREATEST

The kids love to watch T.V., and lately it seems like they enjoy the commercials more than the cartoons. Pretty much every commercial that comes on advertising some great toy that us parents HAVE to buy, the kids yell "I want that Mom, I want that!!" Believe it or not, there are times I happen to not be in the room with them when they see one of these commercials that graces the television pretty much every other minute. When this happens, the kids tend to get very upset and plead with me to rewind (they are spoiled with this TIVO thing) so that I am able to see it and purchase it for them. This whole process never seems to get old with them, even though I have never purchased one single item that they have pleaded for. (Mean Mom, right?)

So beyond these annoying toy commercials are the ever popular food ones that the kids are now yelling "I want those Mom!!" to. You know the stuff I am talking about - sugary crap cereal, fruit rolls ups, fruit snacks that ooze some nasty juices when bitten into.... and the ever popular crush cups. I almost always say "No" to all of this garbage as well, but these were actually a healthy snack, so I decided to purchase some the last time I was at the grocery store. Don't know what these dandy's are? Here is a look.

The idea behind these things is that you squeeze the container of yogurt while putting your mouth up to it and slurping it on in, and down the hatch. Not the best idea in my opinion as it is very messy. But as you can probably figure out, the kids love 'em. Ava and Lucas do pretty well with them, but Anthony... not so much. I gave them each a crush cup earlier this morning, went to put away some laundry and when I returned, this is what I found.

He was sitting on my couch properly eating the yogurt by squeezing, slurping in and swallowing.

Clearly he got tired of this method and decided to start dipping a finger in a licking the yogurt off.

Then it turned into him squeezing his whole hand into the small container of yogurt and shoving his entire hand in his mouth.

It was beginning to get a bit messy, as you can see.

Anthony clearly did not mind, as he was having a gay old time. I guess it probably did not help that I was sitting right next to him taking pictures of the whole mess unfolding, but I just could not resist.

After he announced he was "Aw Done", I told him to hold on so Mom could get a rag to clean him up. As I made my way back from the sink, rag in hand, this is what I found.

He decided he did not want to wait for the rag, and wiped his cherry yogurt covered hands on my throw pillow. NICE....

So there you have it, our lovely experience with purchasing one of the many items they kids see on the T.V. - Crush Cups. I would have to say they are great for older kids, but for three year olds -- not so much.

SPRINGTIME FUN

It was beautiful out today - a nice, warm, sunny 55 degree day, which is very nice for April in the Midwest. So I decided to take the kids to the park after school to play and burn off some much needed energy.

Ava, Lucas and Anthony were having such a great time swinging, jumping off the rock, and going down slides, I forgot about Liv. I turned around to find her sitting quietly in her stroller taking it all in. I thought it would be nice to take her out and let her sit and feel the sand, you know, check the whole playground thing out. Turns out that was not a good idea.... She hated it, or else was just scared to death of the feeling of the sand as a few seconds after putting her down she began screaming, crying and attempting to crawl to me.







[I will have to keep working on her this spring with this whole aversion to sand thing, as it is sort of important that she likes it. We tend to spend a lot of time on the river in the summers boating and stopping at beaches.]

So much to the kids dismay, I broke up the playground fun in order to get home and get them all fed, wound down, and into their jammies for bed time.
When we got home I told everyone to march themselves into the bathroom to wash up before dinner. I fixed them all plates full of chicken, carrots and potatoes (courtesy of my favorite thing ever - the Crockpot) and got everyone seated. I was at the sink cleaning some things up, and when I turned around, this is what I found. (look very closely at what is sitting next to Lucas's plate on the right hand side next to his cup of chocolate milk...)

Yep, you are not mistaken. That is one of my (ahem) tampons.

Mom: "Lucas, what are you doing with that?"

He decided to crawl underneath the table to hide (see half of his head and arm under there?)

Lucas: "I found it in the bathroom. I opened it and thought it was cool and wanted to play with it."


Interesting.....


So we had a nice afternoon at the playground, followed by some fun playing with tampons at home.


Never a dull moment.

IT'S A CHAIN REACTION TYPE OF THING

Olivia was playing nicely on the family room carpet floor when she started whining to be held. I was busy trying to get some things done before starting dinner, so I put a few goldfish crackers on the carpet in front of her to snack on and keep her busy. This seemed to do the trick, until I heard the tell tale noise of a child chocking. I turned to find Olivia sitting on the carpet red faced, and gagging over and over again in an attempt to dislodge the goldfish cracker from her little throat.

[Side note: choking freaks me out more than anything else - and drowning. My two biggest fears ever when it comes to my kids.]

As I was running over to her in a state of sheer panic, she began projectile vomiting out a mix of goldfish and formula all over the carpet. I did not care, as this ever so messy act was successful in getting her to stop choking.

The kids on the other hand, did not like it very much.

Anthony ran up and yelled "what happened Mama" and within seconds of seeing the mess Olivia made began gagging and yelling "yucky, Mama, yucky!" I yelled for him to go in the other room before he got sick as well. He did not have a problem listening to me and began running into the living room. As I was picking Olivia up to get her cleaned up I listened to the rapid pitter patter of Anthony's feet followed by a distinct SPLAT. He did not make it and unfortunately puked on the kitchen floor en route to a location that did not smell like vomit.

While all this was going on Lucas and Ava ran from the playroom to see what was going. Once they saw the mess they both gave a long drawn out "EWWWWW!" and started backing away. I told them to go to the other room while I cleaned up. On the way out I saw Lucas gagging a bit and told them to move their buns faster. They both got out of the room successfully without puking. So now I just had two messes to clean up. Whew.

As you can see, they have weak stomachs just like their Mom. I have seemed to grow out of it a bit over the past 6 years -having the pleasure of cleaning up all the poo, diarrhea, puke and other bodily functions that children seem to produce. I am sure they will one day be lucky enough to grow out of it as well....

Until then, whenever one person pukes around the Shelton household, it seems that at least one other does the same, which sets in motion a chain reaction of large and messy proportions.

I LEAVE FOR A WEEK AND EVERYTHING FALLS APART

Brian and I just returned from a fabulous vacation in Key West yesterday at 3pm. While relaxing on the plane on the way home, I spent a lot of time mentally preparing myself to jump back into the "daily grind".

After getting off the plane, we made our way to baggage claim, gathered our luggage and headed out to the street where my mom and the kids were waiting anxiously for our arrival. When I entered the car, I found Anthony looking terribly sick, complaining of a sore throat and running a very high fever, Olivia looking at me as if she did not know who the heck I was, and Ava and Lucas simply shouting "what did you get us?!?"

I had a feeling it was going to be a long rest of the day. Unpacking, dealing with a sick child, one who did not know who I was anymore, and 2 that could not stop asking to see their gifts.

I called urgent care en route to our house and was lucky enough to get Anthony an appointment that evening. I managed to get home (where it looked like a tornado hit) unpack, throw 1 load of laundry in (out of 10 that I had), give the kids their gifts, and feed them all before I had to run to the Doctor to get Anthony a throat culture. There was no time to get to the messy house.

Did I mention I had not had a shower all day? Ugh.

After waiting for a surprisingly short period of time at the Dr's office, we found out that Anthony had strep throat. To make matters worse, the Dr. mentioned that he most likely got it from one of his siblings. Wonderful. I arrived home and immediately checked everyone's throats. Ava looked good, Livi looked good (from what I could see), Lucas looked -- not so good. He had it too, and of course I had to bring him into the Dr. after I was just there so he could get a prescription as well.

Whew. Talk about diving right in after getting home - looks like there was not going to be any down time at the Shelton house.

Finally we were all home. Everyone got their medicine, a much needed bath, teeth brushed, and tucked into bed at 7:30pm. I even managed to get a bit of quality time with Olivia Grace where she actually looked at me as if she knew I was her Mom.

I then managed to take a shower myself, got into bed, and pretty much fell asleep once my head hit the pillow. Seriously.

So two sick kids, 10 loads of laundry, a house in serious need of a deep clean, and one missing hermit crab later(not sure what happened there) - we are home, settling in, trying to get back into the groove of things...

7 YEARS AGO TODAY

Mr. Shelton and I got ourselves hitched.

I remember the day as if it were yesterday. April 6th, 2002 - when we chose the day we thought it would be perfect, nice spring weather, not too hot, not too cold. Boy were we wrong, it was very chilly and there was still snow on the ground! This did not matter though... I was more occupied with the anticipation of finally marrying the man of my dreams.

I was filled with so many different emotions that day, a sense of sadness for leaving behind my last name which was a big part of who I was, nervousness at that the thought of having to walk down the isle in front of 300 plus people hoping not to trip (I tend to be a very clumsy person), and happiness that can't even be explained at the thought of being able to call myself Mrs. Maria Shelton.

I did make it down that isle, both smiling and crying all the while (like I said, so many different emotions were swirling around in that head of mine.) I may have smudged my make up a bit, but at least there was no tripping involved. I stood in front of all my family, closest friends, and God and pleadged my love to Mr. Shelton for the rest of my life. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, we were in this together. This was one of the greatest moments of my life (the others being the births of our four beautiful children.)

I was finally married to the man of my dreams. The man who was going to take care of me, the man I was going to take care of, the man I was going to have babies with, the man that I was going to spend the rest of my life with loving, and the man I was going to grow old and wrinkly with.

There was no better feeling in this whole entire world.

Honey - I cannot imagine my life without you and our four beautiful children.

It has been a busy seven years we have had - we purchased our very first home, and created four beautiful babies. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

You are my best friend, you are the love of my life. I cannot wait to see what the next 7 years will hold for us.

I love you Mr. Shelton.