Our own outbreak

This just in from the CHO (CoolHouse Organization)-we have a level 2 outbreak, with the potential to move into a level 3, 4 and possibly even a level 5. Two cases of strep throat, with one looming in a parental unit's oral perimeter, have been confirmed by Dr. G.

Advice is if the eldest Cool kid starts showing strep like symptoms, we are to call in for a script. No throat swabbing necessary.

More details to follow.

Just in case you were wondering...

God is at a sleepover with Jesus. At least, that is where he is according to Jonah.

Last night, he said to me that God was not at his house.

Me-"He's not at His house?"

Jonah-"No."

Me-"Well, where is He then?"

Jonah-"With Jesus."

Me-"Where are they?"

Jonah-"At a sleepover."

I didn't get into the "He never sleeps nor slumbers" scripture. Another time, another place.

After the happenings around our house the last few days, I have to say that I for one am grateful that He never does sleep nor slumber.

Cara's down now, too

When I picked Cara and Adriana up from Girl Scouts, Cara acted like she wasn't feeling well.

I had gone to see Nanny, Bruce's mom, and came in to get them. I was told by the girls that Cara had been crying for me. Sometimes when something is out of the routine, Cara gets a little upset or anxious. Not too bad, and not very often. She is used to seeing me at Girl Scouts, and I wasn't there today.

I asked her if she felt okay and she said she didn't. They had just come from outside, and she is hot-natured, so I let her cool down a little and then took her temperature. It was up and she kept complaining about how she felt. Before we even got home for me to take her temp., I was on the phone to the ped.'s office to say I was bringing her in the morning. So, we will be there at 9.

I think I will make a standing appointment for Adriana.

Stellan's going home!

Great news!MckMama is reporting that Stellan is out of the hospital and they should be on their way home shortly.

Praise the Lord!

Of raccoons and sickness

We have had an interesting, tiring week.

To start off, we had an interesting visitor in the back yard. Bruce came home from a council meeting to find a raccoon having a field day with all the acorns from our oak tree.

He called the police and they decided to do a drive by.

Rocky the raccoon, as Bruce deemed him, came back the next night. I called the town police department the next morning and asked what we could do. The officer I spoke with said they would set up a cage to catch him/her. Didn't happen that night. I am not sure why.

The next night, Bruce made a fool of himself running out the back door, chasing after the thing and yelling at the top of his lungs.

My conversation with dispatch, "Hi, this is Vonda. We have a raccoon in our back yard." Dispatcher remembered Bruce's call from the other night.

"The officer I spoke with this morning mentioned the cage. Could you ask the officers if they could bring it over because my husband is out there acting like an idiot."

"Yes, ma'am, I will send them right over with the cage."

Two minutes later, they walk over. (The police department is in our back yard. Or, connected to our back yard."

We set it up, but it didn't get him the first night. Even the officers saw him the second night. We never figured out where he was going to when he left his "mother load", as a friend called it, of acorns.

The cage is now gone, so we are assuming he is, too. We haven't seen him since, either.

My only regret is that my new still camera lenses I ordered last week for my birthday had not arrived yet so I could get some good shots of him.

On to other things.

Jonah has strep. As mentioned in the previous post, he was sick last week and ran a fever Friday night. Bruce took him to the doctor on Saturday. (And missed Cara's first T-ball game of the season.) She said it was definitely strep. One round of amoxicillin to go, please.

And, then, Saturday night, (crises around our house always take place on Sat. night/Sun. morning, but that is a whole other post) Bruce's mom went to the ER because she had been sick and her arm was bothering her.

She is now hospitalized with a staph infection and acute renal failure. She has a pretty strict diet and does not drink enough fluids, so the doctor told her to eat all the meals she is served. Hopefully, she will be able to go home, or come to our house, sometime this week.

Please keep both in your prayers. Uhm, that would be Jonah and Bruce's mom, not the raccoon. Hopefully, he has been safely "relocated" and won't be around anytime soon.

Cool kids' cute sayings

Or in this case, cool kid's cute saying because Jonah is the only one to report right now.

For the first time in almost eight years of parenting, we had one child become suddenly sick in a restaurant after church last week. We were just sitting down when Jonah "lost his cookies" so to speak.

I felt really bad for him, but I think I felt worse for the people around the restaurant who saw the whole thing.

I took him to the bathroom to clean him up. While we were in there, he said, "I'm not in a very good mood." I told him that I certainly didn't blame him on that one

And, Bruce's line from that time-right after Jonah threw up all over himself and me, Bruce said, "Well, I didn't know he was sick." Uhm, here's your sign as they say.

By the way, turns out Jonah had strep throat. First time for that, too.

He also recently told me that I was the meanest mommy he ever had. I had to agree with him on that one. No denying it.

A few pictures from my time away

As I said in a previous post, the girls had spring break recently and I thought I would be able to maintain the blog without a problem. Well, one thing led to another and before I knew it, lots of time had passed by.

Now, here I am again. Have you missed all the ramblings about our life? I hope so. We are doing well right now. Well, except for that pesky strep throat bug that has descended upon Jonah. More about that in another post.

In the meantime, I wanted to show some pictures of one of the things we did during spring break. The children and I had gone to a neighboring town to pick up Jonah's immunization form from the pediatrician's office (for school), and to go to a children's clothing sale.

We stopped by the small mall there before heading home and some people were there setting up for a literacy fair that was going to take place later. They were really nice and encouraged us to come back for the fair. I saw a sign about getting some free books from an author. and I asked how you get the books. The ladies said the author was going to be there later, and the children who stayed through her presentation would be given a coupon to claim a book.

Adriana loved the idea of seeing the author and begged to stay, but the event wasn't scheduled to start for almost another two and a half hours. I also couldn't think of many things to do with the children in that town except go to Wally World or a park. The problem with the park was the wind that day.

I tried to convince her that we needed to go home, but she kept looking at me with those pleading eyes. Plus, she had Cara and Jonah agree to be on their best behavior so they could stay. I finally agreed.

The children enjoyed some ice cream in the van. We then attempted the park for a few minutes before the time came to go back to the mall.

We arrived at the beginning and waited for the author. When she was ready to speak some of the children, including mine, sat down on the floor while she read some books. The children also received their coupons and were able to get a nice autographed hardbound book for free.

All of the children there were also invited to stop at stations all around for more books and crafts. We didn't hit every station, but we did stop at several of them.

After all was said and done, the children ended up with 12 brand new books. And, they had their picture made with a famous cat. One of them keeps saying the cat was Dr. Seuss, which is quite funny because I think I used to do the same thing when I was young.

Adriana kept thanking me for staying. She said she enjoyed it and Jonah keeps talking about "meeting the author".

Coming back

I am coming back. I promise. The girls had spring break a couple of weeks ago, and I think I am just now getting caught up.

In the meantime, Stellan is having a very, very heart surgery today, so please pray as Cara has said that he will be "well better."

I can't tell you all the ins and outs of what he is having done, but if you click on the button beside this post with his sweet self on it, you can read all about if from his mama.

Brag post

Since Bruce was disappointed that I did not update the blog on Tuesday, I think he must have been looking for a brag post about the girls. So, here goes. You have been warned.

Tuesday was the Awards Day at school. The girls came home with two recognitions each. Cara received a certificate for perfect attendance (Ma is proud, I am sure) and the science award. I am not surprised about the science award since she loves to tell me that her science teacher said that coffee will turn your teeth dark. When her name was announced for the science award, Bruce said that was for the atomic bomb that she is building in our basement. One of our local officers who was also there said it was for the chemicals she has been mixing in our sink. Still, we are proud.

Adriana was recognized for being on the A/B honor roll and the 25 point Accelerated Reader club. She also had perfect attendance, but for some reason the upper grades do not get recognized for that.

Worshipful moment

Okay, I am not going to quit posting about Stellan. Nope, not me. And, I am not even going to apologize for it. My blog, my rules.

Now, go to MckMama's blog and you will find a video that one of her readers has put together about Stellan. I truly felt my heart worshiping as I watched that video. I end up in tears each time. How God is using that little boy.

She also posted a link to a news story that has been done about them. It is good and worth your time. I promise.