Am I There, Yet?

Titus came to me Sunday morning and told me his tummy didn’t want him to eat because he would throw up.  I felt his forehead and could tell he had a slight fever.  I took his temp and it was low grade (101.2) so I kept him home from church.  He spent the day throwing up and sleeping.  He did eat half a bagel on Sunday.  I thought for sure he’d be better by Monday because something similar happened to him a couple weeks ago.  (A mysterious 24-hour mild fever and nausea invaded his body for a short time and then went away.)  Well, Monday morning he still wasn’t better.  He had a low-grade fever, nausea and was lethargic with no appetite.  Tuesday was the same.  His highest fever was 102.4, but he mostly stayed in the 101 range.  I would give him Motrin and it would lower his fever and he’d have a bit of an appetite.  But, then the Motrin would wear off, he’d vomit whatever he’d eaten and his fever would return.  The good news is that he is drinking water.  He falls asleep anywhere and everywhere.  The picture is of him crashed out on our living room floor. 

I took him to the doctor on Tuesday and she gave him three meds…eye drops for an eye infection, saline solution for a stuffy nose and an antibiotic for a virus.  I had high hopes that he’d feel better today.  After all…this is the fourth day.  He slept in this morning, woke up with a slight fever, vomited twice and is refusing to eat.

I’m so done with this.  I don’t know what to do.  Did the doctor miss something?  Are we just treating him for symptoms when there may be something else bothering him?  I hate seeing my children sick or in pain…there’s really nothing worse.

He could use some prayers.

I was not ready for yesterday at all.  I’m never ready for real life after a vacation…even a short mini-break.  We spent the three day weekend in the Adirondacks with 60+ teens.  Josh was the guest speaker at a youth winter retreat, so the kids and I tagged along.  That may not sound like a mini-break or vacation to very many people…but we had a lot of fun.  It’s been awhile since Josh was involved in youth ministry, so it was fun to hang out with a bunch of teens again.  Lilly and Titus had a blast.  The teens were very accepting of them hanging around and included them in many activities.  They went tubing, played in the gym, played board games, built a snow fort and got involved in a snowball fight.  This was better than Disneyland for my two cuties. 

I was a wimp and stayed inside most of the weekend.  The negative temperatures weren’t very inviting for me.

At one point we were playing a game with some of the teens in the lobby.  I think it was Catch Phrase.  Anyways, the point was to get your team to guess what phrase you were describing and Josh got “Motley Crew.”  He was stumped how to describe this and one of the clues he gave was, “It was a band in the 80’s.”  Of course, nobody got it and I teased him after his turn letting him know that most of the people in the room were born in the 80s and wouldn’t know who Motley Crew was.  I was immediately corrected by a senior who let me know she was born in ‘91.  Another girl piped up and let us know she was born in ‘93.  Oh my goodness…I think both Josh and I had to pick our mouths off the floor when we realized how old we were…LOL!!!

Other things have changed since we were in youth ministry.  Texting is out of control.  I told Josh that I think a lot more flirting and possibly harassment was happening that we’ll never know about because it was all done through cell phones.  We were sitting at dinner one night and a girl next to us was texting between bites.  Josh asked her who she was texting and she pointed to a guy two tables behind us.  Josh asked, “Why don’t you just go sit with him.”  She gave him a look like he was weird and said, “Because I don’t want to.”  I understand texting and use it myself, but it was a bit much.  It was weird to sit with people who wouldn’t have a conversation with you because they were too busy having a conversation with somebody across the room…possibly saying things they wouldn’t say to this person to their face.

This was my first visit to the Adirondacks.  I’m not going to get snobbish about the size of the mountains…but, they weren’t as big as I expected.  Lilly asked us if we could move there.  Of course the day before we were driving past New York City and could see the Manhattan skyline and she asked why we couldn’t live there, too.  So, I didn’t take her request too seriously.  She did cry herself to sleep the night before we left the Adirondacks because she didn’t want to leave.  She wanted us to promise we would go back.

Anyways…back to real life.  Back to taking kids to and from school, karate and church.  Back to preparing meals, laundry, dishes and grocery shopping. 

We got back to a strange smell in our house.  The smell of something similar to garlic toast is coming through our heating vents.  Any ideas of what that could be and how to get rid of it??? 

Here it is:

Weather:  Crazy weather.  We had a thunderstorm today…complete with lightening.  I can’t ever remember seeing lightening in January.  Weird.

Family:  Here’s the picture I promised of Lilly in her kickboxing gear.  It’s a bit fuzzy.  I’ll try to get a better one later.

Politics:  A friend of mine sent me a link to an interesting quiz.  I thought I’d share it.  It’s short and simple and matches you with the candidate you supposedly most “gel” with.  Match-O-Matic.  (Thanks, Chris!)  I have another favorite political website that I refer to often.  It’s a list of every candidate and where they stand on certain issues:  OnTheIssues.org.

That’s all.  Happy weekend!

We’re doing well.  Nothing exciting is going on.

My sweet son is invited to a birthday party this weekend for a friend of his from school.  He’s been asking me all week about what he should get her for her birthday.  I told him to ask her what she likes, so today at school he found out that she likes Barbie.  We got some sales papers in the mail today and Titus took them and started looking through them.  He found a Barbie on sale in one of the papers and got so excited.  He’s now nagging me about going to this store to pick up the Barbie for his friend.

Lilly started kickboxing this week.  Her gear is a little bit too big for her, but she’s so cute all decked out in her kickboxing gear.  I’ll try to post a picture tomorrow.  She was chosen as student of the month at her martial arts school and she’s very excited about this.  This is on the tail of her being student of the month at her elementary school.  Her head is getting a little bit big…if you know what I mean.  But, she’s handling it well.  I haven’t heard her brag about it once.

I had another doctor’s appointment today.  Baby and I are doing well.  I’m starting to feel big and uncomfortable.  I’m 22 weeks along.  That just means 18 more weeks (give or take) of more discomfort until we get to meet her.

I don’t have much else to say today.  I just wanted to pop by and let everybody know we’re still alive.

Crazy caucuses, eh?  I have to pace myself on all the political analysis or I’m going to experience major burnout before this election year is over with.  Yikes!  (Of course CNN is on as I type this.)

Titus:  Mom, God is everywhere, right?
Me:  That’s right.
Titus:  So when I’m at karate and I practice my punches and kicks, does that mean I’m punching and kicking God?

Now it’s time to pick out a girlie name and stock up on pink accessories.