Poor sick Zoe

Ok, ok, ok! I realize it's been over a year since my last blog and I am a major failure. I've accepted that, and you should too :-)

But here I am sitting at the computer with my baby girl in my lap and she is not struggling or trying to grab everything or push all the buttons or poke the screen so I can actually sit here and type! It's a miracle in and of itself!

Of course the only reason she is so calm is because she is a major sicko right now :-( Poor little pumpkin has pneumonia and has been miserable since last night. We were so incredibly blessed with good health for her since birth, I guess I really shouldn't be upset about it. Poor kid's gotta catch a sickness one of these times. Her brother of course has been sick, and sick, and deathly sick, more times than I ever want to count.

With Elijah, his asthma is part of life, it is something we deal with, something we are constantly watching for. The last thing I want is for Zoe to fall into that category as well. And last night when I listened to her much too rapid breathing and saw her chest retracting and knew all too well those signs of not getting enough oxygen, I was afraid.

Chris and I both struggled with whether we should bring her in to the emergency room or wait it out until morning. We stayed up late pondering our options and finally decided to stay home and pray that we could make it till morning. Chris slept on the couch and I took Zoe into bed with me so I could be there if she started getting worse. I'll bet you can guess how much sleep I got... Zero.

We made it through the night and saw the doctor in the morning. So bizarre going through this all too familiar doctor appointment with Zoe and not Elijah. Poor baby had to get her first x-ray too, and if you haven't seen the frightening contraption they put children in to get a decent x-ray... well, you don't wanna see it. Turns out she has pneumonia in one lung, nothing major, doctor gave her an antibiotics prescription and said she should be better in a couple days.

The best part is that he didn't prescribe any nebulizer treatments. He said there was no wheezing, it's simply congestion in the lungs and must have nothing to do with the airways. Which is wonderful! That's what got Elijah in trouble in the first place, what gives him so much trouble breathing, reactive airways.

So even though the poor baby is sick, I am so beyond thankful that so far she is not following in her brother's asthmatic footsteps. And regarding Elijah, he hasn't had a breathing episode in months! I actually can't remember the last time he did, praise the Lord!

Common Decency

I have a lot of trouble with people who don't have common decency. These people fall into many different categories, but here are a few examples:

- People who don't hold open doors for those behind them
- People who leave their shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot
- People who ignore you when you politely smile and nod
- People who throw trash on the ground

Come on!!! How hard is it to walk 10 feet to a garbage can??? I don't know if it is just plain laziness or if people just don't care anymore, but I really don't understand. I mean, doesn't your conscience just EAT at you if you even THINK about throwing your trash on the ground? I know mine does. I feel like I'm going to have a panic attack if I don't find a trash can. And if someone smiles at me or opens a door and I am too distracted to smile back or say thank you until it's too late, I will regret it for the rest of the day.

And don't even get me started on crabby customer service people! It's your JOB to serve the customer. You are getting PAID. If you hate your job so much, please do us all a favor and just quit instead of trying to bring everyone else down with you.

That's another thing. I don't understand crabby people in general. I mean once in a while when you're having a bad day, sure, but there are some people out there who are seriously just permanently crabby. I wanna just hit them with a happy stick or something!

That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to invent a happy stick and start hitting people with it.

First stop, Walmart.

November 22nd

Today I am thankful for pajama pants.

I don't know what my life would be like without pajama pants. I would hate to wear jeans all the time. Or khakis, or dress pants. And I'm not a huge fan of shorts, so I would hate to wear them all the time too. Especially in winter.

I think if pajama pants didn't exist I wouldn't wear any pants at all. But then I'd definitely be cold in the winter. I guess I would have to move to a warmer climate as well.

I used to wear pajama pants constantly, at home, at the store, at school, I even wore them to a job I had once (I was gently told I was never to wear them again). I even remember a place I would go where the employees called me PJ for a little while.

Now that I'm a grown woman and I'm married and have kids and all that I try to make myself a little more presentable when I go out in public. That's no guarantee though. Some days are just pajama pant days and there's really nothing anybody can do about it. They should just be grateful I am wearing pants at all.

November 21st

Today I am thankful for puzzles.

I LOVE doing puzzles. And I haven't done any since Elijah has been able to grab the pieces. I miss them pretty bad.

I want to start doing another one, but my coffee table is too easily accessible to Elijah and our dining room table is small enough that if I do a puzzle on it we won't have room to eat.

I do have tv trays though, we can eat on those. Hmmm...

Maybe I will start another one. I'll let you know if it survives Hurricane Elijah.

November 20th

Today I am thankful for venison.

Now, I am not a huge fan of venison. I would rather have beef any day. However, when my hubby goes out and kills his own dear and takes it to the butcher and we pick up nearly 50 pounds of meat at a significantly lower price than beef, I am happy :-)

Plus since venison really isn't that tasty, it's more of a challenge to figure out ways to cook it. Oh and it's leaner than beef which is nice because I'd really like to fit back into my old jeans someday.

Mostly I just love having a freezer full of meat. Meat is expensive and now we have enough to tide us over for quite a while. We are incredibly blessed.

November 19th

Today I am thankful for my crockpot.

Here is my ode to my crockpot.

Oh crockpot, how I love you
You cook things oh so slow
When I don't have the energy
I can just throw and go

You make my home smell nice
For all who come to call
You do not make a mess
That's what I love most of all

Oh crockpot, how I love thee
You make me such good food
You make my life so easy
You're a pretty cool dude

The End

November 18th

Today I am thankful for carpet cleaner.

Although having children has lessened my concerned about how tidy my home is, particularly how stain-free my carpet is, there are certainly some instances in which I cannot let it slide.

This morning, for example. I was in the bedroom and Elijah was playing in the living room when I realized that he was really quiet... So I called out, "Elijah, what are you doing?" and he responded, "Just making a mess!"

I rushed out to the living room only to discover that he was in the process of squeezing out a tube of sunscreen onto his hands, his pajamas, and the carpet. Wonderful.

The sad thing about this entire ordeal is that he's done it before. And I thought I had moved the sunscreen out of his reach, but Chris and I were picking up around the house yesterday and it got moved again. Fabulous.

Needless to say, the sunscreen is now stashed away, Elijah's butt is sore and my carpet cleaner saved the day.