31 March 2011

Sayings XXXVIII - XXXX which means "Sayings 38-40" but it is keeping the Roman numeral system fresh in my mind.

#38
Luke:  “What do you mean I’m never going to be older than Elijah??!!!” “I have a birthday ever year!!”
Sam: “Yes, but he does too.” 
Luke: “hmm.  But what if he says he doesn’t want a party or anything?”

#39
Titus: “Has the tsunami stopped?”
Mom: “yes”
Titus: “whew.  Sweet.”

#40
Luke: “Mom, your phone says it is 4:19 and it actually is 4:19!  Your phone actually knows what time it is!  That is so cool!”

Also Abbey peed in the potty this morning.  I'm not that optimistic, but in the 1% chance she potty trains at 17 months I am ecstatic. 

30 March 2011

My little academic



nice weather



Abbey pooped in the toilet!!!  She had been playing outside when she laid down on the ground with her bootie in the air.  I asked her what she was doing and she responded, "poopoo."  I pulled off her pants and diaper and nothing was there so I sat her on the toilet and plop! into the toilet it went.  YAY!

I thought she might have more in there, but she didn't want to keep sitting.  I let her go back outside (it was 70 that day!) but I left off her diaper in case we needed to make another quick dash to the restroom.  Well more came out, but I had no warning and ended up scraping poop off the deck and dirt. But it was nice to know she had mostly the right idea.

28 March 2011

the house

Our ceiling is not in good shape. We've been watching it to make sure that is doesn't sag any more than it already is. We told the landlord about it and she asked us to find a contractor. The town mayor, who is also a contractor, came over to give us an estimate. We climbed up into the attic and, after one look, he refused to go any closer to the damaged part of the roof. We asked if it was going to collapse....

Our friend Ben starting sleeping in another part of the house. :)

25 March 2011

Country Friends

One of our friends lost a live snake in her house. They haven't found it yet.

One of our friends has several pet raccoons.

One of our friends has a loom. She has weaved Husky fur into a hat.

One of our friends has a cow that he calls Number One. He calls his wife Number Two.

One of our friends just bought an old farmhouse.  The water pipes needed some repairs, which left them with no hot water for almost a week.  No problem.  The husband, moved a feeding trough into the barn, raised it up, lit a fire underneath it and after dark, when all the kiddos were in bed, he and his wife hopped in.  Indoor hottubbing at its best.  : )

Another small town goodie:  My friend is neighbors with our governor.

24 March 2011

Sayings: XXXVIII

GiddyBug: "Mom, you need to have some more kids"

Mom: "Why?"

GiddyBug: "So we can give them some ice cream."

23 March 2011

22 March 2011

It doesn't belong there

We had guests for dinner last night.  Raquel, our friend from Peru, and Ben, came by for some pasta, homemade bread and green beans.  We were clearing the table and doing dishes and I looked down at the dining room floor behind Titus's chair and there was a backpack on the floor along with a pile of chicken manure.


"Why is there chicken manure on the dining room floor?!"  I asked.


Titus had the answer.  "It was in Gideon's backpack and manure shouldn't be in it.  So I dumped it out."  Ah I see.

21 March 2011

All Dressed up

Abbey's friend Maggie came over and dressed her up and did her hair and took pictures of her. : )  Abbey enjoyed all the girly attention.



20 March 2011

Fun with friends

The boys friends love to read.  Here is one of them reading to the little guys.

19 March 2011

Mr. Fix It


Here Matt is removing his monitor to change the motherboard in it.  

I think Gideon is holding the new motherboard.  That's scary.

Matt did it.  He said it was really difficult but our black screen is now bright perfect!

14 March 2011

Sickness IV and ANSWERS!

Here is our friend Ben.  You have seen pics of him before.  He is Nate and Rylee's brother.  There is something about those Hornoks that enjoy visiting sick people. ; )

Here is Matt he got the fever thing too.


 
Here is a picture of all the boys sick.  Abbey doesn't have it yet here.  This is the first time ever that they have all been sick at the same time.  So we took a picture.   Practically, once any 3 of them are on tylenol, I have to make a chart of who had what and when.  Several times Titus or Gideon have found my chart cut it up and thrown it away and then I have to dig in the trash and puzzle piece my chart back together so I don't overdose anyone. 


So the Answer!  

The Problem: We seem to have had 3 illnesses this month.  A fever that lasted 2 days which all 10 of us got, a stomach flu which Robin and the boys went through, and then the mystery.  We seemed mostly better but every few nights some random child would barf in the night and feel fine in the morning.  No fever, no nausea, healthy appetite, but we kept passing it around.

Preventative measures:  I cleaned doorknobs, lightswitches, surfaces, and bathroom (singular b/c we only have one), daily.  I spray bleach solutions on their bunkbeds, carpets, walls, and mattresses.  I used only paper plates plastic cups to try to stop the germ sharing.  No luck.

The last straw:  Samuel.  He had avoided the stomach flu up until the end.  Then he threw up about 5 days in a row.  The last day I said Enough!  We will go to the doctor!

The doctor is a process:  I make an appointment.  They had two openings during the entire day, slim pickins.  Neither are convenient.  All my babysitters are gone to a youth group retreat.  However in Lagrange we have the never ending supply of babysitters.  I show up at the Bible School during the break, introduce myself to a random female and ask if they will babysit 7 children for several hours this afternoon.  Ahh sweet bliss she needs cash!  Success!

Next Sam and I gather our "sit in the waiting room" activities and make the drive to town.  15 bucks (in the van) in gas and 45 min later we are at the doc.  It was a Lagrange reunion in there. 11 Lagrangers were there.  9 from 2 familys with illness and 2 of them worked there.  

Sam and I played pokemon, killer bunnies, and read the readers digest together - he may be a faster reader than me- until it was our turn.  The doc asked Sam the usual questions about his stool and barf.  Hahahaha.  He was so uncomfortable.  Then she poked on his tummy more embarrassment.  And then she cultured his throat.

The results:  He had STREP!  In children, strep presents as a tummy issue, sometimes with no fever or sore throat!  Matt had strep several weeks ago, at the same time as several other people in town, but the kids didn't have a sore throat so I never had them checked for it.  We think now that several of the children had strep and got over it on their own.  Next time I will know better and have them cultured.

At home:  The babysitter did fine, although the power went out and stayed out till 7 pm.  We got home about 4 hours and another 15 bucks in gas later.  She had thoughtfully called me and told me about the outage and I picked up fastfood in town so we would have dinner.  All in all a 200 dollar day if you count the appointment, prescription, gas, fast food, and babysitting.  But well worth it!

Sam is on antibiotics for the first time in his life which is awesome that we have avoided them so far.  Today I am buying yogurt at Sam's Club to help out those good bacteria we are destroying.  My good friend Angie recommended flax seed for better health and I'll need to find some of that too.

The End:  No fever no barfing since Thursday.  I am cautiously optimistic.  

Today the weather is good, the house is a disaster with a capital D, I have some gardening, cleaning, laundry, worshipping,  playing and reading to do.  Here we go!  Have a great day everybody.  The Boyds love you!




12 March 2011

Sayings: XXXVI tsunami

Titus: "Dad, did the Japanese Salami have more water than the LaGrange water tower?"

Samuel: "Titus, it was a Swami"

11 March 2011

New Song

Matt made up a new song tonight.  I heard him singing it in the bathroom.   Here are the lyrics, sung to the tune of "He has made me glad."

The aspirin container is coated with goo,
The aspirin container is coated with goo,
I've stopped asking questions like why is it coated with goo-oo-oo
The aspirin container is coated with goo,
The aspirin container is coated with goo, 
When you have 8 children you just stop caring.

Sickness III

Here she is feverish, and waking up with a snotty nose.


And here she is feeling better.  She climbed into the laundry basket with my cell phone.  I guess its comfortable and out of the way?

10 March 2011

Sickness II

Here is Abbey with a respiratory sickness.  She had 104 degree temp on and off for 3 days.  She loved sitting on daddy's lap while she was sick and mommy loved that someone else was holding her.   I was trying to get them both in the picture and it was hard to get Matt's head and Abbey and everybody looking the right way.  I kept making fun of Matt for being as difficult as Abbey to photograph.  Abbey started smiling at the end so that was nice.

09 March 2011

Sickness I

I'm starting a sickness list.  Seems as though we get the flu at least once a year and a stomach flu about 3 times a year.  Then we pass it around for a while until the virus looses interest.

There was a respiratory flu going around Lagrange and a stomach thing.  This was the beginning.  Luke and Sam have high fevers here, but were fairly comfortable.



They are watching a movie and it looks like Luke things its funny and Sam is mad at me for taking his picture.

06 March 2011

Emergency

This morning Samuel and Abigail both threw up in their beds. Ben Hornok said that it is now four weeks in a row that someone has puked while he was visiting  for the weekend. Has this sickness really lasted that long? sheesh.

So we left Sam at home to baby sit Abbie while we walked 4 blocks away for church. In case of emergency, Samuel had mom's cell phone and dad had his cell phone. Sam's chore list while he was at home included doing the dishes and peeling the potatoes for lunch.

Later we are sitting in church and the phone vibrates. Wondering what sort of emergency would make Sam call, Robin gets up and walks out of church to answer the phone.

When mom answers, Sam urgently says, "Mom, the potato peeler broke. What do I do?"

05 March 2011

Giddybug and Bacon

I had planned chicken, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner last night.  I had cooked up some bacon to sprinkle on the salad, along with boiled eggs, cheese, etc.

Gideon got up from his nap in the middle of my meal prep and wanted to be held.  "I looooove you momma."  He said sweetly to me melting my heart.  "I love you too Gideon."  "and I like bacon momma."  He had spied the bacon on the counter.

I finished cooking and was setting it on the table when I realized I couldn't find the bacon.  Not on the counter, not in the fridge (Fezzik the dog no longer lives with us so that wasn't an option).  I asked the boys, "Where's the bacon?"  nobody knew.  Then I remembered Gideon's comment.  "Gideon, Where's the bacon?"  "oh its in the closet."  He had squirrelled a pound of bacon away to snack on in his closet. : )

04 March 2011

Overheard

Sam "Elijah, I'll pay you five bucks to punch me in the face."

Elijah, "ok."

Sam, "No, not like that.  Hard.  A real one."

Elijah, "um. no."

Also,

Elijah, "I think having a girl around could be handy - if she is trained like Maggie."

(Maggie is 8 and comes over to play sometimes.  She is very good at cleaning up, changing diapers, and feeding babies.)  : )  Perhaps there is hope.

02 March 2011

The way he phrases things

Sam's uses unique phrases. Here's one from this morning. 

"Oh no!  I forgot to clean out my backpack. Its heavier than a camel's hump."

Also Gideon calls a backpack a "packpack."

01 March 2011

Art Day



Stomach flu prevention

We keep sharing the stomach flu with each other and I got online this morning to see if I could learn any additional prevention actions.  We are already using paper plates, not sharing food/drinks, washing hands, cleaning surfaces, like counters, lightswitches, doorknobs and still, lately, at least one kid per night barfs.

I was reading through prevention lists on several sites when the latest barfer got out of bed.

I read, "Keep your distance. Avoid close contact with anyone who has the virus, if possible."

And then Titus, the latest barfer, was standing next to me with sad eyes and flushed cheeks.  I thought about it for just a moment, and then gave him a big hug and held him close.  Maybe the "keep your distance" is just for siblings. : )