Zachary is sick AGAIN

Zachary is sick again. Yesterday when he came home I noticed he had very dark circles under his eyes. Then when he and Caleb were running around and when came over to give me a hug I could hear he was wheezing. I had him sit with me for awhile to do his homework, and even after sitting for 20 minutes he was still wheezing. I called the Dr and got him in at 6. I was so happy they have after hours, and we were new patients too. I thought for sure I'd have to take him to the Urgent Care. The Dr is only a 8 min drive away! Zachary didn't understand why he was going to the Dr because he said he felt fine.

She took one look at him and could tell he was a sick little boy. He was only getting 94% oxygen. That was why he had 'black' eyes.She diagnosed him with asthma. My younger brother has it too. She gave us prescriptions. 5 of them I had to have filled. It cost $108 instead of $447. Thank God for insurance. We happened to have a breathing machine because when Zachary was 1 the Dr said he had asthma, but since it immediately turned into pneumonia, we didn't think it was asthma. So at 9:00 last night I pulled it out of the box, and sterilized it. Poor kid was practically asleep. But after one treatment, he stopped wheezing. He went right to sleep, and I checked on him quite a few times during the night, he never started wheezing again! Yeah! I gave him a treatment this morning and his color in his eyes looks almost normal. A tad bit dark but nothing like yesterday. He also has a swollen septum on his right nostril. So we have nose spray for him. He rubs his nose so much that he has a little crease right in the middle. It doesn't drip, so we never really thought much about it. But the Dr thinks he has had that for quite awhile since he had the crease. When I asked Zachary about his nose, he said he just thought he had more boogers on that side.

Poor kid! She gave us a new prescription for eczema. It is a topical oil. You wet the skin then put a drop on your fingers and rub it into the bad areas. It does not have steroids. Its called Derma-Smooth. She also gave us Hydroxyzine for his itchiness at night. It is a prescription strength version of Benadryl. Now as you know, I rarely have ever given my kids meds. (children's med recall anyone?) I don't give them antibiotics unless they absolutely need it. (ear infections clear up on their own, they just need Motrin for the pain) Zachary took antibotics once and developed a rash all over his body. That was the last time. I went ahead and filled that prescription, tho since we are going to AZ and I am afraid he will flair up again. I don't want him to be miserable at night. In AZ he used to scratch all night long in his sleep, and rarely got a true good nights sleep. At least his eczema is better here. He is still dry and itchy, but he doesn't have the red inflammed burning areas. Or the cracked skin. I'm looking at changing his diet to see if it is actually a food allergy that may be causing the asthma and eczema.

My poor little guy! :(

Tree Decorating

We had a great turkey dinner and TONS of leftovers. But they are all gone now. Well, unless you count the casseroles I made up and stuck in the freezer. I will give it a week or two, since I think we've had enough of Turkey! The stuffing turned out great! Even I liked it! So I think that is my from now on recipe! Yummy! Here are some pics of the boys decorating the tree. This is the first year that Christina didn't help. She went to friends instead. :( I'm sure I was that way at her age too. The boys had fun decorating.

Here are some other decorations throughout our house. No Chimney, so stockings get hung in the foyer.

I think Caleb is going to be a chef. lol Here he is how he is 'cooking' his soup. I'm glad the knobs to turn the stove on are up high. Zachary and Caleb love to have me blow bubbles for them. Gymboree bubbles are the best there is! Here Caleb is catching them on his fingers, and Zachary is popping them. Mike is working in Miami again today. To bad there is school, or we'd be there with him. Zachary got his report card. He is having a hard time for some reason in school this year. He doesnt like to go, and is struggling with reading. Math comes pretty easy for him. So he is OK there. But he really has trouble with alot of words, even the easy ones. Its kind of funny to me, because Christina didnt learn to read at his level until she was in 2nd or 3rd grade. (she struggled too) but here they say he is behind in his reading. He has only been in 1st grade for 3 months! I thought he was doing OK. But according to his teacher he is behind where they expect Florida students to be at this time. Makes me wonder exactly how BAD is Arizona schools? I know the Dysart district wasnt the best, but he did so well last year, right where he was supposed to be. What other 5 year old can say the ABC's backwards, and fast too? The reason we chose to live in this area was because all of the schools in the Seminole County District are A+ schools. They must have much higher standards than Az. That will be good in the long run. But is a pain right now.

No Turkeys

I hope everyone had a great Turkey day and dinner! Today we went grocery shopping, and there were NO turkeys. Yep. None. All they had was frozen turkey breast. Not exactly the meal I was planning on. Soooo... Sent Mikey and the boys to a different grocery across the street to see if they had fresh turkeys. Or frozen. But at least a whole turkey. They had 2. 2 at 20 pounds. We have 4. 4 people to eat a 20 pound turkey. HMMmmmm. Ok, so "how much" I asked. $15. for 20 pounds. The store I was at was $15 for one turkey BREAST. Might as well get the big one. So now I am in the process of getting a 20 pound turkey ready instead of an 8 pound one, for tomorrow. I guess the biggest difference is in the cooking time. Instead of 3 hours now its closer to 5. I do not stuff. In fact, I wasn't going to do stuffing at all, but Mikey said he LOVES stuffing. Sooo, homemade stuffing it is. I cant stand box stuffing, so I got several whole wheat french bread loafs (bread maker anyone?), chicken apple sausage, sage, apples and parsnips, and I will make my own. Especially since I will have a ton of turkey stock thanks to that 20 pounder. I should like my own stuffing. hmm. we'll see. Christina comes home tonight! Yeah! I know she loves being home (*Phx that is) but we really miss her not being around here. Caleb keeps asking "when is Nene going to be home?" Sorry Christina, I know you want to stay in Phx, but we NEED you here. Its just not the same without you. Sorry there are no pics today. Tomorrow while we hang Christmas decos and cook, I will take some pics. I even bought stuff to make cookies tomorrow. I miss being at Grammas today. It just isn't the same...... Only 3 1/2 weeks till we get to go home and see everyone. We can not wait!

Happy Birthday to Me! Heehee. Look what the boys did for me for my birthday breakfast! Cookies!! These are the flowers Leonard and Michelle and Elektra got me! Are they ME or what? Thank you guys!! I love them! My birthday cake that I made for me. Carrot cake. Yum. Homemade too, with carrots, pineapples and raisins. With a cream cheese frosting. The boys decorated it with sprinkles for me. On Sunday we took Christina to the airport so she could fly home to see everyone. The happy look on her face when we surprised her with air tickets was absolutely priceless! After that we went to Palm Beach. I had thought we were going to Miami, but Palm Beach was closer to Mikeys work. We got a nice hotel right on Indian River and the Ocean. One side the view was the river, the other was the ocean. But what sold us on the hotel was that it had a 3 hole putt putt course. Of course Caleb had his clubs with him. The view from our room Mike had to work on Wed so I took the boys to the mall. They played video games, then we saw the movie Enchanted. It is very cuteUnfortunately on our way home, Zachary got sick and threw up in his carseat and all over himself. Of course we were on the freeway in holiday traffic. Oh, the joy of having kids. :) He is completely better today, so maybe it was food poisoning or something. Here we are at Universal. I am sure you all are starting to get bored with those pictures! Zachary is making a face. I don't know why.... This was today.. Thanksgiving. We thought the park wouldn't be busy, but we were WRONG. It was packed! Well, not summer packed, but packed more than what we are used to. So we did a few rides, ate a turkey leg, and called it a day. With it so close, it doesn't seem a big deal to go for only 2 or 3 hours, then leave. Well I am going to go cook our dinner.... Pizza! Frozen Pizza. (mikes choice) We will do a bigger dinner on Sat. night. Once Christina is home. Hope everyone has a great turkey day, and that you all realize how many wonderful blessings that you have.

Date Night at IOA

Mike got done at work early, so he got home right when Zachary did. We left Christina in charge of the boys and we went on date night to Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios. Or IOA. We got there at 3:00. The park closes at 6. It was so empty that we got to ride 11 rides! 5 of which were the Hulk! http://www.universalorlando.com/parks_overview.html This is the web site to look at the rides in action. When we got there we bought our Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts. I am going to get black fabric paint and paint Daddy and Mommy above Thing. We've tried to talk Christina into getting one, but of course she is too cool to wear that. Some one might see her!

Here are some of the rides we went on.

Dueling Dragons. Very Cool! But over too quickly.

This is the Hulk. It is a long coaster, and alot of fun! There is no bad seat on this one! Dr Doom was OK. It only went up once. I cant imagine waiting an hour in line for this ride. We walked right onto every ride. When we bought our new shirts I put our other ones into the bag and tied it around my fannypack. When we got to Dr Doom I discovered that it was missing. :( The worker at the entrance walked back to look for it while we went on the ride. After we got off the ride we walked back thru the walk way to the entrance. The worker hadn't found it, so we walked back over to the Hulk which we had rode before Dr Doom. On the way there I saw a bag next to a couple sitting on a bench that looked like mine. Since they had a stroller, and I know when I have the stroller ALL my stuff goes into the bottom of it. So I asked them if that was their bag. They said "No, theres 2 t-shirts in it" Yeah!! I found my bag with our clothes!! Both of which were favorite T-shirts! After that we put it in a locker. We had appetizers at a Latino restaurant. Man, its alot cheaper without 3 or 4 kids!! It was a great night, and really spoiled us by not having any waits. On Sunday Christina is flying home to Phx. She is sooo excited. Monday till Wed we are going to be in Miami. I need to start looking for Condos to stay at. Thanksgiving we are taking the boys to Universal Studios. I am not going to cook the turkey until Christina is home. So probably the next Saturday night I will make Thanksgiving Dinner. We'll put up our Christmas lights then too. Our neighbors have already put up their Christmas Lights. They put them up Nov. 9th. sheesh!

Zachary is sick :(

Sunday was nice outside so we spent most of the day playing in the backyard. The kids were hitting around a big balloon, and hit it over the fence. Christina being the agile one that she is, climbed up and over and got the balloon. Of course that was when I went inside and missed getting a pic of it. We watched the race outside, and had bbq hamburgers. Then after we went to bed, Zachary woke up sick. Poor guy. He threw up till 3 am. Yuck. My poor little guy. He is home from school today, and seems to be better. At least he is keeping his breakfast down. Which by the way, was a healthy (!) lemon and strawberry cupcake he snuck out of the fridge. Right now Zachary is on the other computer. I IM'd him and he is IMing me back! He is doing great in typing and spelling, and sounding things out on his own. Here is a copy of our IM. MsScorpi2: HI Zachary MsScorpi2: ZACHARY!!!!!!! MsScorpi2: HOW ARE YOU? MsScorpi2: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Piekels2: Hi mommy!!!!!!! MsScorpi2: VERY GOOD!! Piekels2: I LOVU mommy MsScorpi2: I LOVE YOU TOO ZACHARY Piekels2: mommy MsScorpi2: ZACHARY!! HOW ARE YOU? Piekels2: How or you mommy MsScorpi2: I AM GOOD. Isnt that great?! Way to go Zachary! Well he must be feeling better because now he is chasing Caleb with that balloon!

Universal Studios Day!

Christina at the Jurassic Discovery Center at Islands of Adventure. Here is Caleb in front of Kurt Bushes car and Jrs car. We had a fun day Saturday at Universal. We went to Universal Studios and rode ET again. That is one of Calebs favorite rides. While on it, Zachary started looking around and discovered that everything was FAKE because he saw the track overhead that holds the 'bikes' we ride. He was disappointed that we weren't REALLY flying over the city. Christina brought a friend and they went to Islands of Adventure or as the locals call it. IOA. We didn't meet up with them until Dinner. We ate at Bubbas Shrimp Co. You know, from Forrest Gump. It put us in the mood to watch it, so we are getting that and ET movie. Today we are hanging out a home, playing in the backyard. Then watching the NASCAR race that I should be at. :( Barbeque hamburgers are for dinner! Yum! Mike finally got a propane tank, since we had to leave ours in Phx. And now that weather is so great, we plan on utilizing it alot!!

Wonderful Weather

Its good to have my other half home. Its so much nicer having someone else for the boys to bounce off of! The kids are doing good. Zachary has had a playdate every day after school. We've been taking them to the nearby park. The weather has been so perfect this week. Mid 70's, dry. Well, as dry as it can be! Today the humidity is 37%. Caleb and I had a fun play date ourselves with my friend JoAnna and her 2 year old son Christian. It is so nice to be able to play outside. Caleb did this back and forth about 20 times! What energy! I'm so glad my child knows how to use the slide correctly.... Mikey mowing listening to his IPOD. I got a haircut yesterday. First time since I was 15 that someone I didn't know has cut my hair. I was nervous. But I think it looks OK. Although I think she should of gone a little shorter in the back, but I'd rather this than feeling bald! So what do you think? Boy, do I need a color or what??? Andria, fly out and visit me and my hair!! While Mike was gone he bought us all presents. Caleb likes his box better than his present. Tomorrow we are heading to Universal again. They took out the Back to the Future ride and are changing it to the Simpsons Ride. They are also taking out Earthquake and putting in Disaster. And Harry Potter park opens in 2009! Have a great weekend everyone!