Beach, days 2 and 3

Our week at the beach is almost half over.

Yesterday, we spent a few hours out on the beach, came inside to clean up and eat and relax for a little while, then went back out on the beach for another few hours.

Today, we went out for a little shopping this morning. I bought each of the kids a TopSail Island t-shirt, found them for 2/$5!!! We also picked up a garden hose and a tiny kiddie pool to keep on the deck to help rinse off when we come inside. The outdoor shower is right at the edge of the sand dune, it's full of 4 inches of sand, it's a terrible place for the shower!!

We had sandwiches for lunch, and then Aunt Lori arrived.

We spent a few hours out on the beach.

Dragged the kids around on the boogie board.

Looked for seashells and then had to fight with the kids to leave them alone.

Picture me telling the kids "NO, those are MY shells, find your own!".

I was laughing at myself.

At one point the sky turned really dark and it started thundering, so we packed up and headed inside.

Must be the animals can sense a storm approaching... the dragonflies went nuts.

Dozens of them.

Everywhere.

I have never wished so badly that I had a video camera.

It was AMAZING!!!

Mom roasted a chicken and made some salt potatoes for dinner and Aunt Lori made a spinach salad with olives, feta, and grape tomatoes, and a fruit salad with watermelon, canteloupe, and mango, and baked up a tray of 'baked fudge', aka YUMMO.

Tonight, the kids are crazed, it's after 10:30 and they're still up, fighting, crying, yelling.

The air conditioner in our unit isn't working, and it's 84 degrees in here.

I'm sunburned.

There is sand in places sand shouldn't be.

And I am still loving every freaking minute and I wish we could stay forever.

Seriously.

This is the absolute best vacation we could have possibly taken with the kids.

Kids love nothing more than sand/dirt and water.

Here we have both, and the water even moves!!

Anyway, here are some (ok, a lot!!!) of the latest pics :o)

The little smears on the following pics are dragonflies... later in the evening... I sooo wish I had had my camera out when there were four times as many!!

Schedule

8:57pm  we finally hit the highway

9:04pm  Holden "When are we gonne be at the beach?"

1:30am stop for pee break, gas, and to switch drivers

4:33am stop for another pee break, drinks, and the kids all wake up

6:30am we're getting desperate, the kids are still awake, and we start looking for a hotel

6:54am we pay $50 for a hotel room that we have to check out of by 11am

9:18am we check out, because the kids are soooo hyper and loud that no one can manage any sleep anyway

9:19am we realize we just paid $50 for a nap that didn't even happen. Ouch.

10:32am we stop at a McDonald's with an outdoor playground for brunch and let the kids run around as long as possible

1:21pm we are almost there, and we can't check in till 3pm, so we use the GPS to find a WalMart and drive there, 40 miles away

2:03pm we make a U-turn because the WalMart is closed and abandoned.

2:47pm we make it to the realty office, and Mom spends over half an hour in line to get our keys and info packet

3:50pm we make it to the beach house

3:54pm I cry because I'm so relieved that we're finally here and so excited for the week in front of us.

Rest of the day: carrying things inside, hours on the beach, playing in the surf, finding seashells, digging in the sand, and realizing this is the most perfect vacation, and it was already worth the ridiculous drive!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Raycer, hope your very first view of the beach was the best present ever!!

Are we there yet?

We leave tomorrow.

I finally got some good sleep last night, and today I feel ready to take on my mile long to-do list.

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

Are we there yet???

Nothing in particular

We're still recovering.

Liliya is eating normally as of this afternoon.

Girls are still coughing. I tell ya, must be allergies.

We have Charlize's health interview on Friday for pre-k. She's on the waiting list.

I've been getting lots done around the house, in spurts.

As of right now, I am officially caught up on washing laundry.

There are no piles of dirty laundry in corners. No hampers stacked up in the hallway.

It's all clean. That has, like, NEVER happened.

Tomorrow's task is to get my van cleaned out and the carseats adjusted. And to wash the kids bedding and pillows. And pack clothes, sandals, road trip bag, and towels. And hopefully squeeze an oil change in there somewhere

Then Thursday hopefully it works out that the kids will go with TeTe and Jada for an overnight, so I can get the house clean from top to bottom, get the van loaded, do our last minute shopping, then sleep as much as possible during the day Friday so I can drive Friday nightttt.

I've found several different ideas of things to do in NC, I've got all the sites favorited.

I'm soooo excited, I can't wait.

Jason, if you're reading, my phone just died and I can't find my charger. You called right as it shut down.

Anyway, gotta get the munchkins to bed and I will be following soon thereafter, I'm ex-haus-ted.

Recovery

~*written last night and forgotten about, published today*~

Besides being ridiculously tired, I am feeling significantly better today.

My ears is still hurting, but that's nothing new, it bothers me a lot of the time.

Liliya has managed to eat a tiny bit today. About 1/4 cup of cereal at lunchtime, and she picked the cheese off a piece of pizza.

She has been drinking normally today, which is the really important thing.

Charlize has been fine. A little crankier than usual, but her lack of appetite last night didn't lead to anything today, thank goodness.

I got the downstairs picked up and swept (it was trashed... it's been a loooong few days) and the kids rooms cleaned up and vacuumed.

I got rid of a bag full of babydolls. All of the dolls with pen on their faces, the Water Babies, and a few others that were pretty beat up.

Tomorrow I've gotta work on laundry and my room and the upstairs bathroom and hallway.

Then the house will be clean and I just have to keep up during this week.

I'm feeling really good about the way the hosue is coming along.

I've gotten rid of soooo much stuff.

Dozens of bags full over the course of a few months.

It feels good to be rid of the stuff we don't use/need anymore.

I don't know why I had such a hard time letting go of it.

But now it's gone and the house is looking better and better all the time, and it's much easier to clean up.

I also have to get the backyard and deck picked up before we leave.

But yeah, things are coming along around here and it feels good.


~*ETA*~

Liliya is drinking plenty today. She hasn't eaten yet. She slept all night last night.

Charlize and Liliya still have those wet gross sounding coughs. It must be allergies. Must be.

I feel 90% better today. My ear is still sore but other than that I'm good to go.

I can't waittttt for vacation.

I really can't.

Just a few more days, we leave Friday night.

I can't waittttttttt.

:o)

Coughs, canker sores, fevers, oh my

Ended up taking Liliya to the walk-in.

She had a piece of toast yesterday for breakfast and hasn't eaten since.

She only had 2 wet diapers today.

Dr gave her a prescription for an anti-viral to help her get over this thing quicker.

He didn't say it *was* hand/foot/mouth disease.

He said it didn't matter what exactly it was, because it's obviously a virus and all there is to do, really, is do our best to treat the symptoms and keep her comfortable and taking in fluids.

We spent two hours at the walk-in.

Then I went to get her prescription, and the pharmacy told me I would have to go find a 24 hour pharmacy if I wanted to pick it up today, because they closed in 20 minutes.

Really? You can't print out a label and dump the crap into the med bottle in 20 minutes?

If you won't take any new orders after 5:40, then maybe you should make THAT your closing time.

Hmm?

So I had to drive to Front Street.

They asked when I wanted to pick it up, I told them as soon as possible, so she told me it wouldn't be more than 20 minutes.

We drove around for half an hour.

Came back.

And they tell me it isn't ready yet, "it looks like we're still working on it".

Me: "Well, do you have any idea of how much longer it will be then?"

Her: "A good ten or fifteen minutes, probably".

So fifteen minutes later I pull around AGAIN and she doesn't even ask for the name, just basically chucks the sign sheet at me.

Then on the paperwork, it said that the time they promised it to me was 7:50, when actually they promised it to me less than 20 minutes from 6:45. So they put that there just to make it LOOK like they got it to me on time. Nice.

I was feeling really aggitated by then, obviously.

Here it was 7:30 and I had been trying to get Liliya seen by a doctor and then get her prescription, since 3pm.

Tonight, Charlize only ate a couple bites of dinner.

She barely drank anything, either.

I don't *see* anything in her mouth.

And now I'm running a low grade fever on top of a splitting headache.

I guess we will see what tomorrow brings.

And tonight... hopefully Liliya isn't up screaming for a large percentage of the wee hours like she was last night.

But right about now, the thought of a week long nap sounds wonderful.

Ughhh :o(

I just can't catch a break this week.

The girls have had colds. Bad coughs.

Then, I think it was Tuesday night, Rayce and Liliya took turns puking all night.

For the last several days my ears and glands have been bothering me and I'm getting a bit of a cough too.

Today, Liliya barely ate a thing all day.

I went to wipe her face, she screamed like it hurt her, look in her throat, and find a dozen or so canker sores in her mouth.

Apparently hand/foot/mouth disease is going around.

I'm praying it's not that, because I just don't have it in me to deal with that going around to all 3 or even 5 kiddos.

Liliya just spent half an hour screaming.

Woke up from her sleep screaming and crying, and was inconsolable for half an hour.

She finally just passed back out.

I kept asking her what was wrong, asking if something hurt, all she would do was shake her head no.

My poor baby girl :o(

She doesn't seem to have a fever, although she does have Motrin in her system already.

She doesn't have any spots on her hands or feet, but from what I've read, that doesn't *always* go along with coxsackie virus. It is not uncommon for kids just to feel sick and have mouth sores.

Ughhhhh.

All I can do is hope against hope that all these germs will be out of our systems by Friday when we leave for vacationnnnn.

Blahhhh

The girls are still sick with coughs and snotty noses.

My ears and glands are still hurting, but not neccessarily worse than they were.

It's probably just a cold, but it stinks anyway.

I haven't been sleeping well.

Weird dreams.

Most of them I don't even remember, just wake up with my heart pounding out of my chest, with barely any sense of what the dream was about, then lay awake for a while trying to calm myself down. It's hard to make yourself feel calm when your heart is pounding so hard that you're sure it's going to wake the kids up.

I've barely seen Jason in the last week, because we don't want to expose him to our germs.

I miss him.

It's been rainy and the kids haven't been able to play outside much.

Yesterday's pre-enrollment screening went well, we basically just finished paperwork.

I called to schedule the health interview and they never called back.

She said to get this stuff done as soon as possible since they're finishing placements, that Charlize probably won't get in right in September but that since she was 4 and eligible for JC UPK, she had a better chance.

How am I supposed to get this stuff done ASAP if the people don't answer their phones and return calls??

This is exactly why she wasn't enrolled already.

I left messages with our info three times or more on the main FEN voicemail.

I emailed it twice.

And no one ever got back to me, they never sent me the application or anything.

HELLO?!

I want Charlize to get in.

She needs it.

I need it.

We all need it.

I'm going to be babysitting my niece Melissa regularly now. They found daycare for the boys but she didn't have room for 2 more babies (Jeremiah still counts as a baby).

So, this helps me out a tiny bit financially and I'm not overwhelmed with *three* extra kids.

Speaking of finances, I think when I start getting paid for the babysitting, I'm going to put it all into the Christmas fund.

If I put the babysitting money aside for Christmas, I will still have all of our social security to pay the stuff we normally have to pay (diapers, pull ups, wipes, car insurance...), and we will have a good Christmas.

That's the plan anyway.

I've really gotta get some laundry done, I've been neglecting it for days.

I've got a few loads to wash and a few loads that are already clean that need to be put away.

*Sigh*

I need a nap.

Blahhhh.

August 12, 2010

Charlize's pre-enrollment screening is today.

I'm not exactly sure what that entails.

I know they need my financial info to make sure I'm eligible.

I assume they'll evaluate her development also, but I'm not positive, maybe that comes at another point.

I'm getting sick :o(

My ear was bothering me yesterday, and now my glands and throat are a little sore.

My sinuses have been a little swollen for a week or so but nothing had come with it so far.

I don't wanna be sick.

Especially not now.

A week before vacation.

And I'm scared it will develop into strep, which, after the case I had several months ago, is not something I EVER want to go through again, it was terrrrrrrrible.

Thinking about trying Zicam.

Yesterday I spent a little over an hour in the basement bagging up crap to put in the trash.

I got about 10 contractor bags full, and Jason came over to drag it all out to the curb.

The basement has a loooong way to go, but I made a noticable dent and it feels great.

Anyway, nuff for now, gotta pick up the house, sweep, mop, get the kids and myself bathed and dressed, and work on some laundry.

Long night

Charlize was up coughing for most of the night.

Well, not actually UP coughing.

She was asleep for most of it.

How someone can hack to the point of almost puking, withough waking up, is beyond me.

But the kids do.

Then Liliya walked out into the hallway at about 3am and puked.

Then Rayce told me he felt sick.

He got up a few times and stood over the toilet, but nothing happened.

Then Liliya puked again.

Then Rayce finally actually puked.

Then for the next couple hours, they took turns, about every ten minutes, puking.

Finally at about 6 am, everything settled down.

And the kids slept in till after 10, which helped, a little.

But I'm freaking tired.

Megan said Holden puked this morning as well, but just once.

I don't know what in the world that was all about.

It must have been something they ate, since 3 of them were sick at the same time and not passing it around after a few days like normal.

But they didn't eat anything different from the rest of us.

So I have no idea.

I've got tons of laundry to do today, and I'm going to attempt to get my room back in order again.

I've gotta wash bedding, and now pillows too.

I'm hoping I can actually get some stuff done!

Anyway, that's all I got for now.

I'll leave you with a few of the pictures I had been neglecting for the past week or so.