Really?

Yes that is my baby in a hospital gown in the hospital. A week and a half ago he came down with a cold. The first day he got it he started having labored breathing enough that I called my mom to get her educated doctor/mom opinion and to find out what I needed to watch for through the night because as we all know it always, ALWAYS, gets worse at night.

And it did. By 2 am he was having a hard time breathing. He would have given Darth Vader a run for his money. Well we consulted more parents and by 3 am we headed to the ER. He didn't respond to the first breathing treatment, which led to x-rays, which showed that he only had 1-2 mm of space to breath. By 4 he was admitted to the hospital.

He responded to treatment throughout the day but that night it got worse again and we found ourselves back were we started at 5 am the next morning. But from there he got better was able to come home that afternoon.

So all is now well in our neck of the woods.

Is it February?

Shoot. I'm so far behind. Let me get caught up here. Christmas came and went. Presents were opened. Children were happy. OK. Done there.

January...I'm not sure where it went? Madilyn's science fair project was due, at least the experiment part and I have to tell you I really wonder what kids do that don't have parents who'll help them. Because it was a lot of work and I'm all about making sure they do their own projects. Glad that's done.

Jeremy had a birthday. I decided to take some pictures for his office. He has lots of pictures of the girls but only one of Garrett and none of Grant. Here's the collages I put together and then framed. (I'm not a photographer, and I only have a point and shoot, so you know, they turned out OK, considering. Wow I used a lot of commas in that sentence.)

 These didn't make the cut but they were still cute.

Lastly in January I participated in a vocal...I guess you could call it a competition, sort of. Anyway, I was in the category for people who've taken lessons forever but were not music majors in college. I had to prepare one art song in English, one in a foreign language, and then one more that was either another art song or an opera aria. I did a piece from a Mozart opera first and then the judges choose from the other two songs. Good news. I won my category/division/whatever its called. I'm glad I did it. I won some money that was kind of nice...however not enough to cover the cost of my accompanist :) Still a good experience.

That was January in a nutshell. I really am going to get back on track for my blog.

Halloween, what?

My cute little Tigger. Poor kid kept getting too hot.

 It occurred to me that I never did a Halloween post. What? No Halloween!Woops.

 In all honesty, Halloween was not that awesome at our house. Madilyn had the flu which circulated through two more family members before it was done. Luckily we attended a Halloween before everyone was sick.

Ladybug bubble fairy. She left her bubble wand in the car.

My disgruntled pirate. She hates pictures even though when we sit down to look at them she asks why there aren't any of her.

Christopher Robin toting around his stuffed Tigger.

Grant didn't dress up because, well, he was six months old and didn't care.

November Beat Me to the Ground

NaNoWriMo, I am so sorry. It just didn't happen. I started out...mediocre. Madilyn came down with the flu the last week of October, which of course meant that I came down with it the first week of November, followed by Grant, which meant that the first two weeks of November not only did I not get much sleep but I also didn't get much writing done. Then we decided to go to my parents for a week at Thanksgiving. And I had some other things come up that have taken precedence over my creative energy. Add all that up and what do you get?

No finished first draft.

Sad. But true.

I made good progress. Yes. But still no where near being done. It'll happen one day.

Maybe next November?

Doh - I just noticed this is my 200th post. It should have been something better!

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal - write a 50,000 word novel in one month.

Crazy? Yes.

Am I starting mine from word 1? Nope.

I am slightly ashamed to admit that I started to write a novel a few months before I had Garrett. (Not ashamed that I'm writing, but ashamed that I'm still not done with it!) Three years later...I have over 50,000 words but have not completed my first draft. Embarrassing.

So...now that I have 4 kids and unlimited time (please note sarcasm), I have decided to take the challenge. Not to start a novel from word 1, but to finish my first draft in one month. Since technically over 50,000 words should put me near the end it doesn't sound so bad except I'm pretty sure I'm not even half way done. And did I mention it took me three years to write the first half?

As anyone who writes knows, sometimes the first draft can be the most difficult part. At the same time once its done, its only a tiny part of the writing process.

I might look half crazed through the month of November but its time to finish.

Six or a Ladybug Bubble Fairy

Mini cupcakes for Emma's class.

A ladybug cake, no fairies or princess but she still liked it.

We've had a birthday at our house. Our little Emma (Emmalou, Emmybug, Emmy, etc) turned six this month. She wanted a lady princess fairy cake...thats the best I could do. She wants to be a ladybug bubble fairy for Halloween, hence the title of the post.

 Emma is my shadow.

But she is a sweet little shadow. She started kindergarten this year and she's doing great. I'm going to totally and shamelessly brag about her.

Emma could write her name when she was 2. She started sounding out words when she was 3. And now that she's been in kindergarten all of a few weeks she's reading the scriptures out loud with the family. She loves all things girly - pink, ruffles, sparkles, barbies, and dolls - while at the same time she is my scientist.

She is still fascinated with the human body. She got a model of the brain for her birthday and she shouted, "This is perfect for me!" I tried to help her put it together but we had trouble with the bones of the skull once we got all the parts of the brain together. (I'm going to admit that I don't get the appeal but she thought it was great.) The same kit came with a model of the human body that you could take all the parts out and practice putting them back in again. I couldn't figure out why we were having trouble until I realized that we'd put the rib cage in upside down. Thank goodness she's added the solar system to her areas of interest. At least I'm competent in that area.

Love this crazy, quirky girl.

They're sick and I'm tired

Haven't posted for awhile because 3 kids are sick and I'm tired because...well I'm taking care of three sick kids.

In the mean time, I figured out what kind of bird hit the front window. Its the same kind that hit the back window. Apparently it didn't learn its lesson. You can't tell from the picture but its quite large. I've seen little brown woodpeckers before but this is the first time I've seen this kind and they are big. Like the size of a crow.

 There were two flying around the house and this guy hit the window and stayed down long enough that I went out to check on it, at which point it flew away.

Before anyone thinks, 'wow she must have clean windows for all these birds to keep hitting them', no, the windows are dirty but we have a giant picture window in the living room and the kitchen. Consequently, you can see all the way through the house and out the other window. Thus, lots of birds hitting the windows.