Closeness

They crack me up sometimes.  Kaelin and Chase are pretty close.  Definitely the closest of the siblings.  When we went to one of Cole's tournaments we had an extra seat in the van since Cole went on the bus.  I would have thought Chase would want the empty seat in the middle, all to himself.  No.  He chose to sit in between the girls so they could play and watch a movie the whole time.  1 1/2 hour drive like this and they were all perfectly content.

I think I passed it on?

I was up bright and early at 5 am. I couldn't breath through my nose and my throat was on fire. After Brian and Cole came back from deer hunting I made a quick run to urgent care so I could do someone some good. Not so sure it actually did any good though. The doctor said they're not sure if it's viral or bacterial going around and said I have 7 more days of it, more than likely. I'm hoping all the Vitamin C I've been taking will help cut it shorter. I think, I might feel slightly better than yesterday, but not sure yet. All I know is I'm happy I can at least breath through my mouth, no asthma. YAY!

I will get through.  I'll be fine, but I'm sad thinking I may have given it to Jaemin.  My poor baby has been kind of stuffed up for a couple of weeks off and on, but now he sounds like he's pinching his nose closed.  The same way I've been sounding.  The thought of his nose, ears and throat hurting as much as mine have been is killing me.  I don't want my baby to hurt.  He can barely talk enough to tell us and I do not want him to just have pain.  I sucked his nose after I sprayed some saline to help unstuff him a bit, but all I ended up doing was busting a blood vessel and he had a little bloody nose.  He's been sort of out of sorts all day.  Flapping more than usual, etc.  Of course, since I've been sick, he hasn't exactly been brushed until tonight.  You have to stick with it to help.  Gave my poor guy some decongestant, cough suppressant and tylenol before bed.  Hopefully, he'll sleep comfortably tonight.  He slept with me all night last night and slept pretty sound.  I think it's good for him to have one night of uninterrupted sleep even if it means him in my bed.  A rested Jaemin is definitely a happy Jaemin.

Words can never explain how I feel about Jaemin and his arrival to our family.  He is the cork in my heart that sealed it shut after he filled it up.  He is the little boy that melts my heart everyday just looking him and looking at the way I know he adores me.  Jaemin is a bundle of energy that never relents.  But, his innocence and how he never wants to hurt anyone, only looks for love and fun, makes me love him more everyday.  He's what every child should be like.  Full of love, hope and belief in all good things.  I love Jaemin so much and we have a connection that's so strong.  He's definitely his mommy's sweet, baby boy.

Cold, flu or allergies?

I'd normally not really care, but since I'm really trying to track my reactions and figure out if my honey, cinnamon and vitamin C are working it sure would be nice to know.  Last year I would have just tracked my butt into the doctor to have him run a strep and flu test, but my deductible this year is double last year's and I'm trying to budget out my office visits.  So much is going around at work, so I'm going to assume it's a virus of some sort.  Which I actually hope because it's so depressing to think for a second my natural cures aren't working for my allergy problems and I'm not even in the throws of the seasons yet.  I go to an integrative doctor next week to see if he has other suggestions for natural remedies to take care of my allergies and I'm hoping he has great suggestions....other than accupuncture because insurance does NOT cover that at all. 

While I toughed it out at work, I've been kind of a baby tonight.  I got to work, felt like death and was going to go home after getting a few more things done and low and behold I looked at my calendar.  Dang if I didn't have a meeting that it took 2 weeks to schedule with someone and it was at 2pm.  Pointless to go home at 3, so I just stuck it out all day.  Brian made me chicken noodle soup for supper, the home made kind.  I got myself a HUGE glass of orange juice, took my vitamin's C and D and rented a free pay-per-view we had.  Then, I decided I didn't want to forget my honey, so I made my honey water.  By the way, I tried honey comb and not near the same effect.  Maybe it was my cold or whatever coming on, but my nose was more stuffed than usual. 

I sit here, typing because I'm tired, yet awake.  Maybe from the sugars of honey?  I don't know.  Hoping I'm better enough by Monday to not need to go to the doctor and be on my way, again, testing my honey allergy theories.  I SO need this to work for my body and my small pocket book and dwindling insurance benefits.

o

Fun times...really fun times

I kid....sorta.

Poor Jaemin got about a week break in his nasty reactive airway cough and nasty nose.  It's back.  Poor boy coughs and coughs in the middle of the night and constantly swears his nose is running.  The feeling that his nose is running just drives him nuts so he cries until I wipe it.  Jaemin's back on the nebulizer, but he's just like Chase was when he was little....more accepting of it everyday.  He's so cute and I just buzzed his hair, so here's the picture.  By the way, I wouldn't normally buzz it, but I was losing daylight and had to hurry.

The girls were sent home this note tonight.  Basically the school is trying to do more household projects so more parents get involved and they work on character.  So, this month's was about chores.  They wanted the kids to pick a job they're responsible for daily and see if they can do it 3 days in a row without being reminded.  Then, we get to fill out the questions regarding the experience.  Chelsi doesn't really have a daily job that she needs reminded to do because her ONLY daily job is making her bed.  So I decided she should vacuum the two small rugs in the living room every night.  You guessed, she already forgot.  But, she was fine and happy doing it.  :)

Boy talk

Boys are....well....boys are so weird compared to girls.  They don't dance around and try to be kind they make fun of each other and that IS being kind.  Since Chase got his braces on Cole's been calling him braceface every day.  Chase doesn't really care, which is good, but it's gets old.  And, a couple of weeks ago we found out Cole had ringworm he contracted during wrestling.  It's not a worm for those of you that don't know.  It's basically a fungus and his was barely noticeable, but luckily his coach is so versed in these fungi, that he sent him to the doctor right away.  From that point, Chase was calling Cole worm boy.

So last night I was doing dishes and for some unknown reason they both ended up in there, to aggravate me I'm sure.  It was the good 'ole cough/sneeze name call.  So all I heard for 15 minutes was acchhhhwormboy.  Then, I'd hear giggling from both boys, like little girls and Cole would pipe in hhhccchhhbraceface.  So mature I know.  Glad they find humor in each other at least sometimes.  Such a proud mom I am.  :)

Vacation? Let the planning begin

So, we had planned to use my mom's timeshare for a little localish vacation.  Just something to get away.  With the crazy schedule of 2 full time working parents and 5 crazy kids ages 3-14 I thought we'd need it.  But, then mom said I could look into an exchange.  Hmmm....sounds interesting.  Well, we have a limit.  Brian can only take being in a car for so long.  He was kinda always that way, but even moreso after his injury.  His muscles get bound up, so-to-speak, and it can cause his neuropathy and spasms to get worse just sitting in a tight, confined area for so long...even with short breaks.  So, I looked to get over the first hurdle of distance since we can't afford to fly all 7 of us anywhere.  Then, after I narrowed it down to a day drive (long day, but only 1) I needed to narrow it down to places with a room big enough to hold all 7 of us.  There aren't as many as you'd like to think.  Not all 2 bedrooms are made equally according to their rules.  I thought San Antonio TX sounded interesting.  I've never been there and my last stay in TX was very short and I was only 17.  Looked like there was lots of free things we could do.  Mom didn't think she'd get this place, but she got an email the very next day that we could go.  So, YAY!  We get to vacation again this year and it looks awesome!  Without mom, I'm not sure we would have ever had a family vacation.  Even when there were only 3 or 4 of us, we had no money to take any cool, fun vacations and taking the whole night stay cost out of it makes an enormous difference.  We're still hoping she can get a suite for her and Joe, 'cause it's kinda fun all vacationing together.  But, we're still thankful for the chance for anything.

And, I know some people are thinking if you're trying to save for Korea so bad, etc. why are you going?  Well, here's my answer, in case anyone thinks it's there business.  We don't know if we'll ever really get to go to Korea.  It's getting to be more of a dream than a goal.  The plane tickets are getting out of range for a family of 7 on our income.  I mean, you have to admit that almost $2,000 a ticket x 7 is a lot.  Do I still want to try to go?  Absolutely.  But my point is that I also know how short life is after Brian's accident.  In case we don't get to go anyways, and the little we'll have to spend without hotel costs is minimal, we want to make as many memories as we can with the kids.  Soon enough Cole will be grown and gone.  There's a decent possibility Brian will continue to lose muscle function.  I know I am not the only one that notices his walking is getting harder for him and way more noticable that he is having trouble.  There is a reality that a lot of spinal cord injury patients that recover their function after their accident will actually end up losing it again.  Some people manage to make it 20 years before stenosis, etc. and some don't.  We're enjoying life and doing everything we can before what life did to him 4 years ago decides our borrowed time is up.  We do NOT want to regret a second and just wishing and dreaming our lives and our memories away and having no time left.  It's not like we have to take a loan out to do this, and we wouldn't if we did.  That would be irresponsible.  We're going to grab every chance we have to have fun together and are fortunate mom is giving us yet another chance to do something as a family on a limited budget.

So, I'm cautiously excited to plan our sight-seeing vacation and just chillaxin' by a beautiful pool for a week!

Hello 2012

Welcome.  I have great plans for you.  I have plans for me to be a better, more patient mother.  I have plans to get a little more exercise and am hopefully on my way to being more natural with my allergies.  I'm excited for a new start and am thinking there are good things in store for us.

We did a little New Years Eve, but it wasn't totally intentional, just circumstantial.  'Cole, Tommy, Alex and Will came over to give Chelsi her Christmas presents.  They weren't doing anything, so Nicole suggested a taco bar for dinner.  So we invited Jay, Shannon and Sawyer, but only Jay and Sawyer could come.  Of course, all were in bed before midnight, but we still had a nice time to catch up and it was so nice to see Jaemin and Sawyer playing with tattling or fighting.  Apparently, Sawyer just told her dad that Jaemin is her best friend.  Where do 3 year olds get this stuff?

Jaemin shared his Thomas with Sawyer.

Today, Chase started off the year with his braces.  He only got 4 of his top brackets on and, of course, chose green and grey for his school colors.  He will get the bottom 4 next week and then 4 more on top after a couple more permanent teeth come in.  Very luckily, he lost a tooth on New Year's Eve and it turned out to be the one all of the orthodontists we saw and our dentist thought was fused to his jaw bone.  So, that was one less tooth to pull later and best of all I could quit worrying about how much it was going to hurt Chase getting pulled!  3 more baby teeth need to come out, but he said they might come out in the next couple of months so we're giving them time.  He also got spacers put in and bumps.  Next week he'll get the rings put on his back teeth to hold them back.  Chase said this afternoon he can already feel the pull on the one tooth on top that has crossed his bottom teeth.  The bumps are put on his back teeth so that he cannot close his mouth all the way.  That way when his cross-bite begins to fix they will clear each other as one goes back and the other one gets pulled forward.  He said he's pretty sure this will completely fix him with no future treatment needed and in about 12 months.  He will definitely be out of braces by 8th grade.  I'm so glad we held off long enough to get in with this new guy.  He found a different plan of treatment for us that was about 1/3 the cost of the original guy I went to (there have been 4!).  He's fresh out of school and graduated pretty high in his class and Chase feels really comfortable with him.

Here's one of my baby boys in his green and grey!

And, knock on wood, using local bee honey has been really helping me.  I'm off all allergy meds including my nose spray.  It was the last I was willing to give up, but needed to try.  1 week of honey and cinnamon and I haven't had an asthma attack since I started.  I don't know how or why, but I had actually been having them more frequently after getting off Advair (after it caused pneumonia and dysphonia) and I've been doing really well.  Now the place that sells the honey is leaving me some beeswax to try.  She said the pollen's more potent in it, so I'm going to take it easy at first because I get itchy after eating the honey, like all over my body.  But it goes away and I'm hoping to build up immunity to it all and hopefully by the time the season really sets in I'll be ready to go and drug free!  YAY!