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Early morning doorbells, X-ray boy and a LONG night

Posted on April 15, 2008 1:49 pm by TheAngelForever

Yesterday officially started April break for NHL. He has the entire week off, plus next Monday since it is the start of Passover. The morning began with the doorbell ringing before 8:00. JL looked outside and saw a man with a bright orange helmet on and neon yellow vest. He went to the door. They were a tree service working for the power company taking care of the lines. They wanted permission to go in our yard and possibly use our driveway for their truck with the bucket to reach the trees. I granted them permission to use the yard and told them to let me know if I need to move my car later.

Just after getting JSL down for a nap I hear the truck pull into our neighbors driveway. This sucker was loud and parked right outside my window. I went to the yard to watch and remind them to let me know if they needed me to move my car. A little while later they asked me to move my car so they could haul all of the tree branches up to the front without a problem. I moved the car. Then they told me that they had to come back and climb our trees since they were unable to reach the main problems with the truck. I decided this was a photo opportunity. I went into the attic and took these photos. They are not the best, but were what I was able to get through the window with my zoom.

Just watching made me nervous

Another man in a different tree

At 11:00 we left the house since they were finally up at the other end of the block. They really took a lot off the trees, so hopefully we will not have any problems with the lines as we had feared before this.

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I packed the boys into the car and went to where JL works for NHL to have his adenoid x-ray done. JL met up with us and we told NHL that they were going to take a photo of inside his body. He was very intrigued with this. JSL and I stayed in the hallway while it was done.

Afterward the x-ray technician showed NHL the films (they are all digital now). He was able to see his spinal cord, his skull and most exciting to him – his new big boy teeth. They are underneath his current teeth and ready to come in soon. NHL was beyond thrilled to be shown the films. We then had to wait in the hall to make sure the films were good enough for the radiologist. While we were waiting I took a photo of my three boys.

What you can not see in the photo is that JL is wearing a Sesame Street tie and NHL has on an Elmo sweatshirt. Everyone there thought we had planned it, but we did not. Right after we had the clear we went to visit people in JL’s department and then went to the cafeteria for lunch.

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After we went shopping for a few things the boys and I went home. When we arrived I saw a package on the porch. Inside the package was the malabrigo yarn (Kettle Dyed Pure Merino Wool for those that do not know) from Pony Knit. Oh my goodness this is the most amazing yarn that I have ever felt. Now I just need to figure out a project that is worthy of this fabulous fiber. Thank you so much!

The most amazing yarn I have ever felt

Once inside things started to fall apart some. From this point on JSL was a mess. He would not stop crying, clinging to me and would not eat any solid foods. He only wanted to nurse. Not something you would expect from a baby who was 11 months old yesterday (I can not believe my baby is going to be 1 in less than a month). I chalked it up to major teething pain, being constipated, and possibly an earache. I gave him teething tablets, they did nothing. Finally I decided it was time to do Tylenol per the dentist’s instruction. It hardly helped. JSL nursed a few more times before bed and woke up early on. He was all congested and was a mess. He eventually fell back to sleep in our bed for the night.

The poor little guy was not comfortable. He kept waking up at least every hour and would cry for his binky. There were other times that he wanted to be rocked. Finally at about 4:00 we felt he was overly congested so I used the saline and bulb syringe to clean him out. Let me just say – ICK! That helped him to nurse some and fall back to sleep breathing a lot better.

Today is pretty much the same. He has solved the one problem thanks to drinking lots of milk. At least I know his stomach is better. Now he is just congested, clingy, screaming, crying and all around miserable – please note the sarcasm here. I have a feeling it is teething (3 molars moving in and another tooth about to cut can do that), but worry that it is his ear. If his temperature goes up more and we have another bad night I will have to call the doctor tomorrow. Slight conflict since NHL has his allergy testing tomorrow in the late morning. The mucinex is helping JSL to be less congested and the tylenol seems to be allowing him to nap for the time being in his crib. Hopefully he will be fine and those pesky teeth will move along quickly.

Tonight I have to be to the airport at about midnight to pick up my parents. They were in California for my Cousin M’s wedding. I was so bummed about missing this.

Mazel Tov again M and B on your special day and have a wonderful honeymoon.

Categories:
allergies house jl jsl knitting nhl photos sleep teething

Great green globs of eye boogers

Posted on February 11, 2008 6:31 pm by TheAngelForever

Ugh, we have another first here on the baby front. Yes, JSL officially has become a member of the family and thanks to his first ever bout of pink eye right before Aunt M and Cousin S come to visit. For those that are new or may not remember, every time my brother and his family come here or we go to visit them someone gets sick. On the way to their wedding, almost two years ago, NHL had pink eye and the next evening had a 103 fever. So here is it Monday before they come on Thursday and JSL is going to start antibiotics later.

I was not sure at first if it was just his eye being irritated from the cold, nasty wind when Mommy took him out this morning. When we went to pick NHL up from school it was oozing stuff, but not pink or swollen. This afternoon he napped again, woke up scared and shivering since he could not open his eye. Sure enough green eye boogers were staring me in the face. UGH! In addition to that his eye was swollen and didn’t open well and getting pretty pink.

The doctor was called and gave him a script for eye drops to kick this in the butt. Aunt M was then called to tell she’s a jink (just kidding) and she agreed we should treat both eyes since he is already rubbing from one eye to the other. You just can not tell an almost 9 month old NOT to do that.

So the poor kid has tooth sever coming in, a small goose egg from yesterday (he went lunging at the table leg an hour after the other incident – forgot to mention that yesterday) and now will be traumatized with pink eye drops. Hopefully he will rest well tonight like this:

A nice quiet evening would be lovely since the wind was horrible last night. We had a mysterious noise all evening that made me think a train was coming through our driveway. This morning I figured out the cause. Our neighbor’s roof vent is hanging on by almost nothing and is blowing in the gusts to make the horrid noise. Here is what it looks like when the wind is not lifting it straight up in the air. Hopefully tomorrow it will be fixed and nobody or anything will be hurt/broken before.

Time to snuggle with the little monster who will likely share his pink eye with Mommy. Hopefully it will not mess up my eye appointment to have that lump checked.

Categories:
doctor house jsl sick kid teething winter

Where O, where O, where is JL?

Posted on December 27, 2007 11:57 am by TheAngelForever

This morning JL left for work and I tried to call him on the cell phone to remind him to take his boots. We are supposed to get 1-3 inches of the white stuff today at about the time he will be leaving to come home.

Anyway, he did not answer his phone. The odd thing is I knew I did not hear his car go. So I went flying out the door and saw JL on the ground with his camera out looking at a tree across the way.

*gasp*

Shocked aren’t you that he had his camera ;)

When he went outside he heard a bird calling from across the way and saw this:

As he stood there he heard something calling back to the bird seen above. JL wanted to get closer shots, so he used the great zoom on his camera and was able to get the following pictures to help us identify what we suppose is a hawk here in the middle of the city.

Check out this BIG/SHARP beak:

And man these eyes are certainly made for hunting:

Sitting and waiting for an answer from it’s bird friend:

Maybe this "little" bird will help to control the squirrel population or even the crow troubles the area is having. I just hope it stays WAY up there when we are outside.

Categories:
animals house interesting jl

Icy nightmare & thank you J & H

Posted on December 20, 2007 9:53 pm by TheAngelForever

The following picture was going to be my Wordless Wednesday. Unfortunately, a stomach bug that has been passed through everyone in our house finally hit me yesterday afternoon/evening. Here is the photo:

This is the side of our house. As you can see it is a HUGE mess thanks to recent storms. Since we bought our house we have had trouble with ice damns forming and at least two times backing up into the house. I now hear water dripping and am paranoid. The mess pictured above was a new spot that we had never had problems with in the past. The cause – leaving the AC unit in the window.Why did we leave said AC unit in? Well, because we have had a really hard time year in and year out getting that sucker back in to cool the room. We never figured it would be an issue.

The issues that caused the horror shown stem from something that occurred when we bought the house. One of JL’s coworkers removed a tile in our ceiling because it was bulging. Much to our dismay we had a leak in that section of the rubber roofing. That part of the roof had to be replaced. $1000 later it was done just in time for the new carpet to be installed. So for over three years we have left the hole in the ceiling with NO insulation. Can you see where this is going?

Yes, the lack of insulation, along with the heat escaping from the AC unit in the window gave the ice the perfect opportunity to have this occur. The AC unit itself allowed a wonderful spot for the obscene amount of ice to collect.

Tuesday evening JL went up to try to chip away at the ice and put some stuff up there to melt it. That did little or nothing. Here is all he was able to remove next to his hand as a size reference:

Fast forward to me pitching a FIT to dear hubby about this and fearing that the AC unit was going to fall and put a hole in our roof and land in a room below. I blew a gasket (I admit it). Luckily JL talked with our friend J. J had some ideas on what to do and said he would come over. So J and his wife (who I have grown up with) H came over last night. By the time they got here I was not feeling so well. I was in denial and thought I was feeling better. Thank goodness H came – she watched the boys while I tried to keep stomach contents in.

JL and J went upstairs so they could see what was going on. They brought up something to hack at the ice from the tiny crack in the window. Here are two views from the window upstairs:

The guys came downstairs and told us they were going up the ladder to see what else they could do. JL called soon after (via cell phone) to tell me there was good news and bad news. The good news – the ice was gone! The bad news – the AC cover came with it. JL and J came back in and were going to head to Home Depot for insulation and a tarp to put the AC on in the attic. I asked if they could use our old shower curtain instead. I really did not want them going since I was feeling worse again. They said they would. So they went upstairs and removed the AC, took away more ice and then came down.

At this point I was GREEN — I will spare you the details.

The end result is the following was removed from the house (here with some fresh snow on it) and the house as it is now:

So now you can see why I "love" this house so much (long story goes with that) and why I want to move to Florida.

A big thank you to J & H for being so wonderful and helping us with this. I seriously was going insane from worry about this ice formation on the outside of the house. Also sorry that you were exposed to whatever I had – the good news is 24 hours later I feel human again!

Oh and even our rose bush wants the spring to come . . . *sigh*

Categories:
friends house jl losing my mind photos sickness vent weather winter

What a morning – fever & fires!

Posted on November 4, 2007 12:40 pm by TheAngelForever

Last night when we got home from dinner out with family we noticed that JSL was feeling a little warm. We pulled out the thermometer and it was 99 or so. Nothing too alarming, but then again we don’t really know what his "normal" temperature is.

We got him to sleep and at 1:00 new time NHL was up with a nightmare. He would not settle. He came into out bed at about 1:40. There ends most of my sleep.

At 4:30 JSL woke up. JL went to change his diaper and I set up to nurse him. When they came back in he was choking on saliva, his stomach was making awful noises and he started to dry heave. He was miserable. We took his temperature again since he seemed SO hot. It was still under 100. He nursed and fell back asleep and went back to his crib.

NHL woke back up in our bed at 6:30 or so. He would not settle back down, so J took him into the other room. At one point JSL woke up and went into JL’s arms and fell asleep on his tummy. I woke up and went to see everyone at about 8:00. When I went to nurse JSL I felt his head. He was burning up, lethargic, moaning, and had glazed over eyes. This scared the heck out of me with our family history of febrile seizures (I had 3, JL had 2 and NHL had 1). I took his temperature and it was about 101 and going up quickly. I put in a call for our doctor and they called back as I was getting the Tylenol. We pulled him out of the blanket sleep and just at that point I heard a commotion outside the house.

We opened up the shade to see fire trucks galore outside. I mean 4-6 of them, 2-3 police cars and other "official" fire cars (chief and things). There were a dozen or so firemen outside with hoses. We couldn’t tell at first where they were going, then it sunk in. OMG – the house right across the street was on fire. I tossed on a coat and went outside to see if the kids that are often there were out safely. They were being shuttled to the house down the street. At this point they were heading to the back of the house with axes. Thank goodness everyone was safe (the mother is in Colorado). Not sure about the damage. We only know the fire started in the basement, they got out and that’s it.

Thanks to the hydrants being used everyone has brown water now. They said by the evening it should be fine. Dad went out and got us water to have. Now we just hope that this fever leaves as mysteriously as it arrived. We are also going to install the other fire alarms that we have for around the house – nothing like a close tragedy to wake you up on that.

Hopefully the day settles down for us and the poor people across the street.

C’est Moi