The good stuff...

So my sweet hubby got me a beautiful Tiffany's necklace as a Christmas present to match the Tiffany's bracelet I already got for my birthday three years ago. I love them both so much, ( sorry I don't have any pics at present to show you) - but anyway, it's not everyday that you get something in that little blue box; so being the sentimental sap that I am I have kept them both. While trying to get organized and get things put away the last couple of weeks they happened to be out. Ronan found them and latched onto them immediately. I don't know if it was the blue color, or the way the boxes sounded when you hit them together, or the fact that you could put stuff in the bags-all of which he loves, but he quickly became obsessed!!!! He wanted nothing to do with any other toy for three days straight. I finally took them away, so he wouldn't completely destroy them, but it was quite fun to watch him play. They were ALL he wanted, I guess he knows what the "good stuff" is at a very young age!! Let's hope he keeps up his love of pretty blue boxes to buy his own wife a little trinket or two someday! So here's to you-Ronan's wife, I have taught him young what pretty girls like:)

99 Things Tag

I'm accepting this challenge from Kari. It seems like a fun and easy sort of tag!

(Just copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done.)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band -if you count junior high
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain-well climbed a lot of the way up anyway:)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris- my favorite:)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty-as far as they would let us, they don't let everybody do it anymore
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipseI think it was anyway
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp(wasn't a camp, but a village where they killed EVERY SINGLE person that was there, 650 people, including women and children-it is left exactly the way they found it like jumping into 1944)
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (I've seen the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery.)
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake -been to it, and on a boat, but never do i want to be in it!)
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (I'm going to count a hornet)

I tag anyone who wants to do it:)

Lessons Learned

I decided a while ago that I wanted to start writing down some of the lessons I have learned in life as I go along. Not only to remind me of things that I should do in the future, but to also be able to look back and see if I have really learned anything. This list may consist of funny things or serious things by the end, but I decided now was a great time to start. We had a hectic night to say the least, with the 911 call and paramedics at our house; but don't worry everything is probably fine. Long story short Ronan's ear infection is most likely to blame, or so the doctor tells me-having left most likely a big glob of mucus that did not drain out of his ear or nose, and then dislodged down his throat, gagging him in his sleep from which he woke up with bloodcurdling screams and very pained gasps for air, with no sign of relief, (it's never good when your children can't breathe and you have no idea why!!!) probably still choking on the mucus, causing some symptoms similar to a febrial (sp?) seizure, me calling 911 while Noah tried different methods to get him to breathe better, and 6 uniformed strangers appearing at our door. Finally some better breaths from the babe, some vitals/temp were taken, and told us to go in asap this morning to his pediatrician, where he worked up this mucus theory and thinks not a seizure because he never went fully unconsious-and sidenote-his ear infection isn't improving at all after 6 days on amox so we also left with a new prescription for stronger meds for another 10 days! So anyway, after all that filling in:

my lessons I have learned-#1 I now know that I do PANIC in these situations, I always thought I would probably be the type to be calm and collected, afterall I know that is what you SHOULD do, but wow, I am a panicker! So I hope I am never the one around in a life threatening situation with you, I don't know how much help I will be. I was a mess. It was the most scared I have ever been.#2 Always wear full pajamas to bed. In this situation they were incredibly speedy, and with the panic I was in, they were at our doorstep before I could blink. I would not have had time to put any other clothes on had I decided to sleep in my underwear! This is a new for sure for me!! I do not know what I would have done if I had not been fully clothed! There was no time to think about it! #3 It's ok to be very protective with your babies. That what mommies are for, everyone was extremely nice, and even though he was feeling better fairly quickly they didn't think we were crazy at all. Always go with your instinct, and better safe than sorry is definitely the way to go!!

Exhausted.

So that is the way I feel this morning, or afternoon I guess. I slept in. So for anyone who wants the details, and also to journal this new "first" last night was the first time one of my children had a fever of 105 degrees. I have never actually seen one that high, and he was HOT! Poor little baby! It made me so freaked out. So Ronan has had a fever since Thursday morning, ranging from 100.3-104.3 We were at the doc on Thursday and they said he had an ear infection, but to wait it out, saying that they find it does better to try and let them heal on their own. But- to do the medicine if he still had a low fever in 48 hours. So giving him Tylenol for the next day or so, it really never went down-only UP! What is that about, I thought it was supposed to get better with Tylenol! So at this point, he is like between 102-103, and we called the doctor. They said even though it hadn't been 48 hours yet to go ahead and do the amoxicilan (sp?) and use Motrin as well to control the fever. This all occured right as we were about to head out for our date night, we had been assuming that he would probably be ok, because we knew why he had a fever and he was just sleeping through it. So in the car we stop at Walgreens to pick up the meds, and I got him out and held him in the front seat while we tried to give it to him. Well-that didn't go well, and he immediately threw up ALL OVER me, dad, and the car. Poor little guy, he looked so miserable. Well, that did it for my cute date outfit, and we called karin to cancel. We got him home, and snuggled him up, re-gave him medicine and put him to bed. So that night wasn't great, he was up about every two hours, and we checked his temp, and gave him more motrin when we could. We thought though that it would all be getting better by the morning though hopefully so we were ok. So all day yesterday, he's now on his amoxicilin, and his fever was still high- not sure what is going on here. We kept giving him motrin, etc. and just kept taking care of him. I'm getting concerned at this point, his fever seemed to be lasting forever! Is this normal? I've never had to deal with it taking so long... so we put him to bed, and then the fun began. Newborn all over again, he only slept for between 20 and 45 minutes the whole night. We tried everything we could think of, and kept checking his temp. It was staying at around 102 till about 2:30am, then it jumped to 103, I gave him Motrin, and tried to put him back down. He wasn't having any of that, so at 3:00 I picked him up again, he was BOILING!!! I freaked out checked his temp, and it said 105.2!!! We immediately called the on call pediatrician, and they told us to give him a lukewarm shower for 10 minutes, and it needed to be back down to under 102 or go to the ER. We did this immediately, and it finally seemed to work. He was back down to around 100, but couldn't really sleep still, and I kept checking just to make sure it didn't get too high again. It is still around 100, but didn't jump much more so far. He finally fell asleep at about 8:30am until 11 or so. He seems happier today, and I'm hoping the worst is over. He has seemed miserable.:( I'm curious though-should he still have a fever? It has been over three days straight. I'm going to call the pediatrician here soon to see if they think something else is wrong...so that's the story, we'll let you know how it goes..

Any Advice?

So I'm really liking this blog thing for lots of reasons, but especially because I now have kind of kept a journal for a whole year! Now I'm feeling that I want this in a tactile format, and I've heard that people do books for around $30. The only trouble is, I can't seem to find the right place i guess. I only seem to find them for like $50, which I think is a bit steep. Does anyone have any suggestions, or can anyone tell me how they have taken care of this in the past? Do you just print it out? What do YOU do, let me know! I would love to find the best way to make this happen so the more great suggestions that I get the better!

Goals

So I'm not making a New Year's resolution list, just a list of Goals. I like that word better. I hope to do well at them all in 2009, but they are things that I want to be doing even longer than just this year, so however long it takes me to get everything going, so be it! At least if I write them down I will be more accountable to myself. So anyway, you don't have to keep reading if you don't want. This is mostly for me, but I'm really feeling productive...and I want to document my enthusiasm for myself.
Goals:
1. Make better routines for my kids, and stick to them. Have those routines include, French lessons, more reading of books, at least one craft or baking time with mommy per week, and less tv for Porter.
2. Get both boys to sleep consistently through the night in the same bedroom without us moving Porter in there after he falls asleep!! (This will be a MAJOR accomplishment)
3. Eat more vegetables, and less sugar.
4. Go to the gym consistently.
5. Say my morning prayers more consistently.
6. Keep my dishes done. Do them after every meal. (Noah and I have been working together on this one lately, and it has been going MUCH better:) Love those sweet husbands!
7. Make my budget (have done this every year in the past). Actually record and track my budget every week-to make sure we stay within it-Now that hasn't always gone well. But this year is the year!! I feel it!
8. Help Porter learn to do more chores. I spoil him too much. Work will be good for him.
9. Deep clean my house every week, and make sure it is straightened every night before I go to bed. I figure always waking up to a clean house will make life much happier!
10. Actually get my baby boutique going, I've had it kind of set up for a while. And now I need to dive in for real. This will be the big push for me this year.
11. Get caught up on my scrapbooks. I'm actually not too far behind, thank goodness. But it will feel great to be totally up to date.
12. Take more video of my kids. They are growing up so fast, and I always forget to get out the video camera.
13. Clean out my "bucket of junk". this pink bin has been getting fuller and fuller for three years, all stuff that can probably get thrown away, but I just need to go through it-yuck. I will go through it and clear it out this year. That is a promise!!
Anyway, those are some big ones, I'm sure I will come up with more as I go along, but that is a pretty good list for now. thanks for listening if you made it to the end!!

Snow Fun

So we finally did get a bunch of snow around Christmas time, and since Noah got to have multiple days off around the holidays the boys all got to enjoy themselves!! These pics are from last week, and the snow is starting to melt a little, but the memory still remains:) They all had a blast, and looked so cute doing it!