New Blog

Just letting you know that I am no longer posting to this site. My new blog is at www.pdswy.com

See you there!

It's Rosceola!

Thank goodness it's not chickenpox! Bad thing is that Tristan and Brinley could get it also :( Time will tell.

WILL IT EVER END???

Here we go again. Cohen has been sick lately. It started with a cold that everyone passed around, followed by a new tooth, 2 days of a low-grade temp, and now.....CHICKENPOX! We are not sure that is what it is (we see the doctor tomorrow afternoon), but he has the rash on his head, face, neck, torso, and groin. He has all the symptoms of it plus Steve just had the shingles! I think I am going to go insane!

Steve is on week 6 of his shingles and is STILL having lots of pain. He is able to do more but gets wiped out quickly.

Next thurs.(sept 30) is my birthday and Brinley's is the next monday (oct. 4). My side of the family is coming for the weekend and the house is a wreck! Who can get anything done with a 7 1/2 month old (that isn't feeling well), an almost 2 yr old with 16 yr old attitude, an almost 4 yr old that is hyper, and a 12 yr old that thinks he rules the world! Calgon take me away...for a month!

Need to go referee! Will write more after the doctor tomorrow.

My coffee cost me $2600.00 today!

Just when you think things can't get much worse...they do! Not only is Steve still dealing with terrible pain from shingles, now all 4 kids have a cold. Snot everywhere!

To top it all off, this morning I spilled my entire cup of coffee on our laptop. Cohen was crawling back towards the power strip and I grabbed him just before he licked it. Some how during this process my coffee ended up in the keyboard. I should mention that the laptop was on the table next to my coffee and I was surfing the net with Brinley (Boobahs to be exact. A new PBS show similar to Teletubbies.)

I can't believe this. Apple Care doesn't cover the damage. Our homeowner's insurance doesn't even cover it! I guess Brinley is getting an Apple G4 Laptop for her birthday instead of a Barbie laptop!

If we had a dog house I would be taking up residence right about now. Steve is not happy at all and I don't blame him. It was primarily his toy.

More later if I am still allowed to touch electronics.

Cooking! Baking! Creating!

While I am waiting for some bread dough to rise, I might as well blog!!!

Tonight I made a really good recipe for shrimp that involved bacon wrapped barbeque shrimp. I found it on allrecipes.com. I did not follow it 100% but here is what I did.

I thawed out some frozen shrimp (31 size, 3 lb. bag) and then coated it with a spicy southwest rub (they called for dry bbq rub). While I did this, I pre-cooked a package of bacon for 3 minutes in the microwave so that, once in the oven, the shrimp and bacon would cook in the same amount of time. Once the shrimp sat for a few minutes, I cut the bacon slices in half and wrapped each shrimp with it and secured the bacon with a toothpick. I placed the shrimp on a baking rack on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil (made clean-up super easy) and baked them for 10-15 minutes at 450 degrees.

I have to confess that I did not wrap the entire bag of shrimp. It took way too long for a week night meal. If I was making them for a party, no problem, wrap them all! What I did instead was throw the bacon in a skillet and cook it for a few minutes and then added the shrimp and sauted it until the bacon was done. Then I added 1/4 cup of water and put a lid on the pan and let the shrimp finish cooking (until totally pink about 2 minutes). I served the shrimp with risotto (flavored with garlic salt and dry dill) and corn. The kids all loved the shrimp!

I would make this again but I would do it in the skillet and forget the wrapping!

Cohen

Cohen will be 7 months on the 9th. It is so hard to believe he is that old already! He weighs 22 pounds, is cutting his 1st tooth, is starting to crawl, and is almost able to get himself from his tummy into a sitting position! Where does time go!

Update on Steve

Steve is still feeling terrible. He goes to the doctor again tomorrow. His doctor has really impressed me, this is the second time Steve will see him on his day off! For all we know, he may be charging us (insurance) more for these visits. Steve's rash is still growing and spreading up and down his arm. Steve describes it as tapioca pudding made with grape juice (the way his mom made it when he was growing up). Hopefully tomorrow we will find out if this is just the normal course of shingles or if we are dealing with something more.

Steve's condition

Just wanted to update about Steve. He does have shingles. The doctor feels that they diagnosed it in the early stages so Steve has a good prognosis. (That sentence sounds so clinical! Yuck.) The pain is tolerable thanks to Vicadin. The doctor thinks he should be feeling much better by Monday. Let's hope and pray he does.

Sleep tight! Don't let the bed stickers bite!

Tonight Tristan and Brinley were having fun with stickers. They were sticking them all over their legs. I said to Tristan, "Don't forget, you are going to have to take them all off before bed or they will end up in your hair." To this he replied (with the attitude of DUH!), "Nope, they don't crawl. Stickers don't have legs." After we stopped laughing we realized he was thinking we meant they would crawl into his hair while he slept!

Need Prayer!

Just wanted to ask for prayer for Steve. He just got back from the doctor and may have shingles or a pinched nerve. If it is shingles there is the chance that Cohen (who has not been immunized) could get chickenpox. Shingles and chickenpox are from the same viral strain. If it is a pinched nerve, Steve will have to see a neuro-surgeon.

He goes back to his doctor tomorrow afternoon in hopes of determining what is causing the tremendous pain in his upper back and right arm (it just happens to be the same arm that he had the cellulitus and thrombo-pheblitis in last year after he had the meningitis!).

Steve's mom is here visiting and is willing to stay at least until friday (hopefully we will know what is going on by then!) and longer if need be.

In other news- Keegan has started the 7th grade! They start really early here for some reason (Aug. 17). He is loving it so far! He has told us a bit about his teachers, for instance, he says that if you ask his science teacher if she is an alien, she will say yes and that she is over 100 million years old. She also promised to show the kids her home planet on the astrological maps when they study astrology! I think we need to keep an eye on her!!!!

Cohen is almost crawling. He has figured out the military crawl and can reach/get to anything he wants! Brinley is getting more verbal everyday. Yesterday in the car she took her shoes and socks off (which she had been told not to do) and said giggling "Mommy, socks shoes off! Me naughty girl!" Tristan was also very proud of himself for praying all by himself last night. He thought he could only do "the food prayer"!

More later as we get info.