ONE HECK OF A MONTH

What a crazy whirlwind month I have had. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Yes, I had to say that 3 times over again to get the full affect, as it really has been that crazy.

Shall we have a little bit of a "month in review" on this here blog? Sure, why not.

I started out the month by coming down with some nasty virus that kicked my butt, literally. Along with the sore throat, stuffy head, cough, I had a stomach thing going on too. I had it all, and let me tell you, it was NOT pleasant. Fortunately, as bad as this was, it did not confine me to my bed. This "yuck" stuck around for a week and then subsided-Over the weekend I was feeling great, getting back to myself.

Then Monday came.

I sent the kids off to school for the day and received a feverish child back at the end of the day. Yes, just as I was feeling better Miss Ava came home from school with a raging fever, sore throat, cough, etc. On Tuesday afternoon I began to get a sore throat and congested. Darn it, my "yuck" was coming back to haunt me.

So Miss Ava and I spent the whole week on the couch, watching movies, eating soup, trying to get over this crud, but it just would not go away. It was so bad, she was home from school all week. I should mention that during this particular week Olivia woke up with a runny nose and a cough - turns out she got sick as well. Also, on Thursday of that week Lucas came home from school running a fever, so he ended up staying home the remainder of the week with Ava and I, miserable, with our butts planted on the couch.

So by the end of this week I had three sick kids, and one sick Mom. I was ready for this all to be over, and now. I decided a trip to the Dr. was in order for both Ava and myself. Turns out it was a good idea that we went - Ava had a horrible virus, along with an ear infection. And me? I had bronchitis, which was days away from turning into walking pneumonia. What luck.

We made our way to the pharmacy and picked up our much needed drugs to make ourselves better, marched on back home and planted our butts back on the couch. We spent the weekend there, slowly getting better, with me unfortunately making numerous bathroom breaks due to this wonderful antibiotic I was put on to rid myself of bronchitis. 2 different viruses, over a 2 week period that blessed me with the extra lovely symptom of "stomach issues". What more could go wrong?

Finally, everyone was healthy - well, everyone but me. Turns out my "stomach issues" decided to stick around. All month I have been dealing with a growly, upset, angry, pissed off, unpredicitable digestive system. So much so that I had to make a trip to the Dr. in desperate need of some answers as to why my digestive system was revolting so.

His answer? "your colon is most likely all out of whack from that virus you had, from the side affects of those antibiotics, and from your change in diet. Start taking Metamucil twice daily for a month to see if that helps. If not, then we will schedule a colonoscopy." Oh, did I mention that I changed my diet drastically? Cut out all fast food, a lot of caffeine, most red meat, etc. Also, did I mention I actually told the Dr. I thought I needed a colonoscopy as I feared I had colon cancer? And again, out comes my hypochondria.

I agreed to try out his Metamucil idea, and if that did not solve my "issues" I would be back for that colonoscopy. So I started on the Metamucil and noticed another not so pleasant change. A change that I decided was worthy of throwing out this whole Metamucil thing and going straight to the colonoscopy.

The colonoscopy was ordered by my Dr. per my request, and I started my low fiber diet on Friday and Saturday, did my liquid diet on Sunday along with my gatorade cleanse solution that evening, and spent the whole night on the toliet, cleansing. As if this was not miserable enough, Olivia woke up in the middle of the night screaming out in pain. She screamed and screamed for over an hour, the Mr. tried to soothe her pain, as did inbetween bathroom breaks. Finally she stopped and fell asleep, only to wake up again screaming in pain. This went on all night, along with my bathroom breaks.

As you can imagine, I was dog tired the morning of my colonoscopy. I finished my cleansing, and made a call into the pediatrician to set up an appointment to see what was wrong with my Olivia Grace.

I went in to the hospital for my procedure, got nice and drugged up to calm my nerves, and had a camera stuck up my rear end. Turns out my colon was as healthy as ever, nothing wrong there. This Dr. seemed to think the same thing as my other Dr. - that my colon is out of whack because of that virus, antibiotic, change in diet, and that it should correct itself on its own over time.

The Mr. and I celebrated my healthy colon by going out to lunch, which was well received by me seeing I had not eaten in almost 2 days. We then made our way home to spend the rest of the day with the kids and relax. We got the kids in bed early, along with ourselves and fell fast asleep.

10:30 rolled around and Olivia woke up again, screaming. I got up and tried to comfort her, nothing. Brian took over and tried to comfort her, nothing. She screamed and screamed, until 11:45 when she finally calmed down. Thankfully tomorrow we will be going to the Dr. to find out what exactly is wrong with my little peanut.

Oh, and did I mention that in the midst of all of this I had a birthday? Yes, on Halloween I turned 33. Happy Birthday to me, right?

So, this has been my month. One very long, very unhealthy month. I am hoping and praying that this is all over with now and that we will all be healthy and happy for the winter. God knows we deserve it.

A BREAK IS IN ORDER

So here I am, not doing what I promised myself I would do, and write something on this blog every day. I know every day is a lot to ask of myself, but I really wanted to stick with writing frequently so I did not let it slip away from me. You know how it goes, you forget, or are too busy for a day, then another, then it turns into a week, a month...

But as I have mentioned in previous posts, we have been riddled with illness in the Shelton House over the past few weeks.

On Friday, I finally gave in to my bodies signs telling my to get my butt into the Dr.'s office, and got my butt into the Dr's office. I brought Ava as well, as she seemed to not be recovering from her cold either. Turns out Ava had a cold that turned into a bacterial infection, and she also had an ear infection in one ear. Poor thing. Turns out I had a bad case of Bronchitis, so bad that if I had let it go another day or two it would have turned into Walking Pneumonia. Never had Bronchitis in my life, or pneumonia for that matter, but this diagnosis seemed to fit right in with how things were going for me over the past few weeks.

Miss Ava is back at school today after being out all last week, which makes me so very happy. I am slowly getting better after being on my antibiotics for the past 3 days, but am still not feeling 100%. I am trying to be patient, really I am, but after, me, Olivia, Ava, and Lucas all being sick over the past 2 weeks, that patience is wearing thin, very thin.

On top of my patience wearing thin, I am also feeling plain old not up for much of anything, which is due to the fact I am feeling a bit gloomy because of all this darn illness running around. I don't want to cook, clean, do laundry, get up in the morning, nothing. I am not really feeling much like blogging. So I think I am going to take a little break, maybe a week or so off from my blog. Hopefully by then I will have a house full of healthy people, and my spirits will be such that I will happier things to blog about.

To my few loyal readers - See you soon!

SICK, SICK, SICK

The Shelton household has been full of sick people now for about 2 weeks. 2 weeks of sniffly, runny noses, sore throats, itchy, watery eyes, coughs, fevers, diarrhea, tummy aches, sleepless nights...

Seriously. It has been that bad.

I have been sick with this crud for about 9 or so days, Miss Ava comes in second having the good fortune of being sick for about 5 days now, Lucas has had it for about a day, and Olivia had the pleasure of coming down with it just this morning, waking up with a raging fever. Anthony and the Mr are the only ones left unscathed. For now. I am sure they will be blessed with the same thing shortly, as how they could not catch this is beyond me. It is a horrible, no good, bad, rotten case of Influenza. Yes, it is.

After talking to the Dr. I found that this is a lovely new strain of influenza that our bodies are not used to fighting so it will take even longer to get over it. How long, you ask? About 2 weeks. Yes, we have to endure 2 weeks of fevers, sore throats, coughs, stuffy heads, sneezing, tummy aches, diarrhea... anything I am forgetting? Add to this list any other miserable cold symptom you can think of, and we at the Shelton household have more than likely experienced it. We have to endure all this x 6, as like I said, it is inevitable that everyone will get it.

Here's to hoping. Praying. Begging. Pleading. For this Godforsaken flu bug to pass through our house by the end of this weekend, and skip yours altogether. 'Cause really, if you have to get sick, this is NOT what you want to get sick with. Believe me.

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Post Edit: Anthony arrived home from preschool about 2 hours ago, and plopped himself on the couch in order to watch some Batman. Nothing new there. But when I went to check on him I found him out cold, and running a fever. So now Anthony is down. Poor little boy.

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were away from home all weekend, camping. I also mentioned how chaotic it was leaving the house Friday afternoon with all the packing, organizing, and general getting out of the house tasks. So I did not notice something as I had left the house that afternoon. What is it that I did not notice?

I did not notice that the fan in the bathroom was on. Yes, the fan in the bathroom was on, and it was left on all Friday evening, all day Saturday, and into Sunday afternoon when I finally arrived home and turned it off.

Why the heck was the fan on all weekend?

I then remembered quite vividly, that as we were walking out the door Lucas mentioned he had to go #2. My Lucas always takes his time on the toilet (just like his Father), so I knew I had some time to kill. I told him I would be outside, and that he should come out when he was finished. I made my way outside to check and double check the car in case there was anything I was missing before we finally headed out. I did my checking, ended up running in and out of the house a few times over, and packing even more items into the abyss of a car I had. This took some time. And still Lucas was on the toilet.

I ran back out to the car to screaming kids, yelling the car was too full. Ava could not get to her car seat as the bikes were in the way, Anthony's goldfish fell and he couldn't reach them as the bike wheel was in his way, Olivia dropped her sippy cup on the floor, under the seat which was nearly impossible to fish out. I was getting frustrated. My mind was on other things when Lucas finally emerged from the house, done in the bathroom, ready to go. Because of this, I forgot to tell him to forget about turning the fan on this time around.

I am sure you are dying to know what the deal is with the fan, right? We have a rule in the Shelton house. Well, I have a rule. And it needs to be followed. I posted about it here a while back. Anytime after going # 2 you must, I repeat, must always remember to flush (kids forget sometimes, and with pee, no big deal but with #2, there are no exceptions), wash the hands, and always, always remember to turn on the fan and close the door. Why? Well, because I have a weak stomach, and cannot stand walking into the bathroom and getting hit with a foul smell without being forewarned. It is just gross. Turning on the fan eliminates the smell quite quickly, and also gives me a heads up that someone indeed did go #2 should I make my way to the bathroom . This is a good thing.

Anyway, this rule has been drilled into the kids and the Mr's heads over and over again, and they are always very good about it. But this time my rule backfired on me, as Lucas did do what he was supposed to before we left that fateful Friday afternoon. He did his business, flushed, washed his hands, turned on the fan and closed the door. Problem was that he did not know that leaving that fan running for three days straight would most likely do some damage.

And some damage it sure did.

When I went to the bathroom this morning, flushed, washed my hands, and then went to turn on the fan, it did not work. That is right folks, the fan did not work.

This is a very, very bad thing.

I need my fan.

Simply cannot live without it.

And let's just say projects such as fixing broken bathroom fans are not high on the list of to do's for the Mr. he can't get to mowing the lawn for God sakes. But this, this will be fixed, and soon. If not by the Mr. then by a fix it guy I look up in the local Yellow Pages.

Yes, I am that serious about my bathroom fan.

IT'S A SHELTON HOUSEHOLD RULE

I will start by saying that I have a weak stomach. A very weak stomach. The slightest smell of something foul in nature sends my gag reflex into a tailspin. Ask Mr. Shelton and he will let you know, as whenever he (or any of the kids for that matter) let's a particularly foul smelling "something" slip out I tend to get up a runnin' to the bathroom in fear of vomiting all over the place. And sometimes I do - vomit that is. Really.
It has always been this way, not sure why, but it just has. So when we decided to start our family I was a bit worried as kids are sort of stinky in nature. They toot a lot, poop a lot, and even puke on occasion - this could be bad. Very bad.

Luckily I found through some trial and error, that I was able to plug my nose without actually having to use my fingers. Which was HUGE as it tends to be difficult cleaning up puke, or changing a diaper full o' poo while plugging your nose with one hand.

Potential of an every day crisis was averted - whew.

Now that I have given you some background on my unusually weak stomach, on to the Shelton household rule. This is a rule that, I will admit, is my rule - I came up with it, and I enforce it.

When going to the bathroom (#2, that is), before leaving the bathroom you must, must turn on the fan and after exiting you must, must close the door behind you. Why you ask? So that the smell is able to get out of the bathroom as soon as possible. AND so that Mom is forewarned that someone just went #2, and that I should enter with caution and plug my nose.

I can't tell you how many times (before this rule was in place) that I walked into the bathroom unsuspecting, took a deep breath in, and exhaled vomit. Nothing worse.

This rule is so engrained in the kids heads, they do it without a second thought. It is just part of the bathroom ritual for them. Enter bathroom, turn on light, close door, do your business, flush, wash hands, turn on fan (if # 2), turn off light, exit bathroom and close door.

However, my Anthony Thomas is still in training with our bathroom household rule (so is Mr. Shelton, but that is a whole other story). He is just newly potty trained, so I am cutting him some slack. But Lucas sure isn't. This morning Anthony had gone to the bathroom (#2) without me knowing and left some of our bathroom rules undone.

How do I know this you ask? Lucas told me.

Lucas: Running out of the bathroom. "Mom! I just went potty and there was a big poop in the toilet. I flushed it and it did not go down. Then I flushed it again and it did go down."

Mom: "Oh, Anthony must have forgotten to flush. Thanks for doing it for him."

Lucas: "But Mom. He even didn't turn on the fan! He must have just wanted to smell the stink."

So I have some work to do in regard to Anthony and the bathroom rule, but otherwise I think I have my kids pretty well trained in this area - especially Lucas.

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.

Yuck

It was a long weekend, and I think it is safe to say that this week is turning out to be the same. Long and needing to be over. Now.

Monday was busy as Mondays usually are - catching up on laundry, housework, and the added task of cleaning out the garage (which was MUCH needed). It was busier still as the kiddos are on spring break and are of course wanting to be entertained by yours truly all day long. [sigh]

So yesterday I was pleasently surprised with tickets to a Wild hockey game. Mr. Shelton, myself and our dear friends Bill and Sarah headed out for a fun evening - dinner, drinks and hockey. Even better, the kids were staying with Grandma and Grandpa for the evening so we were able to come home to a childless house which is always heaven sent. We had a rousing time at the game, chatting, drinking some alcholic beverages, cheering on the Wild, drinking some more alcoholic beverages.... Needless to say, by the end of the evening I was wiped out and ready for bed.

I believe once my head hit the pillow I was out cold. Until I woke up at 2am not feeling so swell. Sweaty, heart beating fast, nauseous, you know, all the feelings of being "overserved" aka hungover. I managed to toss and turn all night long until I finally dragged my butt out of bed, into the car,and through the Starbucks drive through for my morning coffee. My stomach was still not feeling well, so I was wondering if it was the best idea to be consuming a grande mocha full of caffeine, chocolate, and whipped cream. This was very likely a recipe for disaster, but I ignored the little voice inside of me that said "don't drink that" and drank every last bit of that Mocha.

Turns out that was a bad idea.

I came home after picking up the kiddos, took a shower, ran into my bathroom and, ahem, got sick. I still did not feel better after I got the Mocha out of my system, and then realized that I may just have the stomach flu. Just my luck. I just got over a head cold that really,truly never seemed to end. Really. It was 14 days of coughing, stuffy head, goobery nose crap. Yuck. Finally I was on the mend - at least I thought. I was not going to give into this stomach flu thing so fast, I was going to be positive and stick with the "it's just a hangover" scenario. Until I went to drink a glass of water. 5 minutes after drinking said glass I once again, found myself in the bathroom getting rid of that water.

Dang. It is the stomach flu.

Let's just say Mom vomiting and having to take care of 4 kids all day long just does not mix. But have no fear, Mr. Shelton is coming to the rescue, he will be here at 3pm to relieve me of my parental duties so I can climb in bed, nap, and wake up occasionally to vomit. Fun.

Time to end this post, and get to the bathroom to get rid of this second glass of water I just consumed while writing this post.

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(Hours after my original post......)

So it is now nearing the end of the day, and although I am not feeling fabulous, I do have to say I am feeling a bit better. I also wanted to add that this past weekend and the week thus far has not been that bad. I guess I just have some negative vibes about me lately... So I felt the need to come back and post about something good. That being the weather we have been having in the great Midwest lately. It truly makes me, and more importantly, the kids happy as can be. We have been playing outside, riding bikes, scooters, 4 wheelers, and having a grand old time. There is nothing better than the warm sun and fresh air....

Daddy riding Anthony's four wheeler and looking a bit silly

Anthony's first four wheeler ride of the season....

The three amigos riding scooters together...

My Liv Grace, who seems to be pretty happy about this weather we are having....

So see? Things aren't really all that bad.