Wet Kids and Kisses

Hi all (all 3 of you that is). Today is dawning bright and sunny after a weekend of rain and clouds. But the rain did it's job on this dry April and everything is really starting to green up! The kids and I were outside enjoying the 55 degree cloudy weather yesterday. I was dutifully raking leaves and pulling off the old foliage from last year so that my newbie plants would be able to find the sunshine today and hopefully take off! The girls, who have already declared it summer and will wear nothing with long sleeves and must be severely coaxed into long pants and socks, were running around practically naked, having a ball. Coopy was exploring our entire back yard - all 1.1 acres of it. That boy is so curious! Rocks on the steps? Nah, doesn't hurt my knees one bit (he's still crawling folks but the walking is one step closer every day). Mulch? Yum! Leaves? I'd better have a few hundred in each hand. Wet mud? Forgetaboutit! Too fun! And don't get me started on the rainwater in the birdbath. Thankfully, mommy remembered to make everyone wash their hands before we came in for a snack (I'm usually painfully unaware of dirty hands).

Remember on my last post about everyone being healthy? Yeah. That very night I came down with a humdinger of a cold that I'm just now getting over. I assume I caught what Cooper had since we're still in the wide-open-mouth-kisses stage (him, not me). I can't complain. Soon Coop will learn to keep that wet drooling mouth closed and do the 'proper' kisses and I'll be done with those enthusiastic, all-loving, drooly wet expressions of his sweet love for me.

Well, I've been promising the girls since yesterday morning that we'd make cookies and the time of reckoning has come. I'm off to do some super-mom baking with my kids. I hope you all enjoy the sun today!

Good to Go

Since the croup incident, we've had a relatively normal week. Cooper continued to have cold symptoms and developed an ear infection which was very predictable. So at his 15 month well child visit we didn't get the shots but got a prescription for antibiotics. He's recovering from that nicely (antibiotics are my friend). And he's growing like a weed. Big head, just like all the other little one's. None of the other kids or adults came down with any severe cold so that's good. Healthwise - we're all good to go.

This weekend I celebrated my 41st birthday. Whoo hoo. Friday evening found me with my girlfriends having a scrumptious dinner at Redstone. mmmmmm. On Saturday morning (my birthday) my mom came up and we spent the day shopping. Ikea, General Store for lunch, S.R. Harris fabric outlet (LOVE that place!), DSW and Marshall's. We had a great time together and got some fun stuff.

Yesterday was cold, rainy and blustery. We had been cooped up in the house all day and the city bill needed to be paid. So I had this FABULOUS notion to throw the two older kids in the Burlie and Coop in the babyseat and bike into town (about 2 miles) to pay the bill. But I first had to get down the bike and the Burlie, both of which my husband chose to store on the ceiling of our garage!! So I had to get up on the ladder and retrieve them and may I just say that my bike is stinkin' heavy!!! That was a workout in itself and it left a few bruises to proove it. Then I found helmets for all the little one's and myself. Got pants, shoes, coats on all and strapped them all in. I was a bit nervous about Coopy in the babyseat since the last time he was in it the bike tipped over and knocked the wind out of him! Thankfully, my extra nervousness paid off and he was safely on board (along with the other 2 in the back) with me riding. Normally a 4 mile bike ride would be nothing for me but let me just tell you about the cards that were stacked against me. 1) We live in a very hilly area -getting into town was a breeze, coming home...not so much. 2) And by breeze, I mean very brisk breeze (see the beginning of this paragraph) which was helpful on the way there, and on the way back, again not so much. 3) This was my first time on a bike this year and not only did I have to haul my own body around but 3 little children who together added 110 extra pounds as well as the burly which was probably an additional 10 to 15 pounds. Let me just say that by the time I got home, I thought I was about to expire! I had coughing fits the rest of the day from opening up the farthest reaches of my bronchial tubes in my efforts to get air into my body up that last agonizing hill. But it was all good. I figure if I do that enough times, I'll have thighs of steel!

Today dawned sunny and beautiful. I hope we can be outside a bit today. If any of you have followed the link on this page to Stellan's blog then you know that sweet Stellan is in a very risky surgery right now to try to fix his little heart. I just saw a twitter from Mckmama that said it's been 3 hours with no news whatsoever. Please be in prayer for her and Stellan today.

We are all so very blessed. I hope you have a blessed day as well!

What a weekend

I'd like to say that I had a great weekend. Alas, I cannot. Saturday dawned with the promise of a beautiful sunny warm day. I know, because I saw the dawn at 6:00 am from my car window in an attempt to get my son to sleep by driving him around after being awake much of the night. My poor baby developed a bad case of croup on Friday morning which worsened during the night. We put him to bed and just as I was finishing my last post, he woke up crying. It took about 3 hours to get him settled enough to sleep. Then it was fitful for a couple of hours and more awakeness until dawn. Every time he started crying, his throat would close up until he was just squeeking trying to get some air in. We spent a good amount of time outside in the cold air that night. So the next day after lunch (and some sleep on my end), I decided to take him to urgent care to see if they could prescribe some steroids so that our next night would be better.

Once in urgent care he again started crying and the doctor, who two minutes earlier was treating me as though I was an idiot mom who was over reacting, suddenly decided Coop's breathing (or lack thereof) warrented an ambulance trip to Children's. A few minutes later, Cooper stopped crying and his breathing returned to normal...well, not normal but back to the slightly constricted/raspy breathing he'd been doing before. We did, however, go by ambulance to Children's where they advised us to stay overnight for observation should he have another rough night. They gave him the steroids I was hoping to get for him and that night in the hospital he slept very well with no constricted breathing at all. It wasn't all bad. I did learn a fabulous brownie pudding recipe on the Barefoot Contessa on the TV in the ward.


Croupy Coopy in his hospital gown (from my cell phone).

So Scott had to rush around on Saturday with the girls to bring us some stuff in the hospital, and grab our car which was still at Urgent Care. And he had to make up the Easter baskets all by himself (I LOVE doing that kind of stuff). The girls looked for their baskets in the morning without mommy or Coopy there. Coop and I got home shortly before 11:00 on Sunday morning. I showered quick while Coop took a nap then we headed on over to my brother's for Sunday dinner of yummy ham and cheesy potatoes. Then, thankfully, our church had a 5:00 pm Easter service which we were able to attend. It's just not Easter without going to church!

And last night, Coopy, after a very crabby (which I hear is a side effect of the steroids) and tired day, slept very peacefully in his own bed surrounded by his own stuffed animals and blankies and woke up, still with croup but happy and on the mend. It will be an Easter to remember, that's for sure!

It's a Good Friday

One problem with having a birthday in April is that sometimes your special day lands on a somber day...Good Friday. It's hard to know what to do when your birthday is on Good Friday. It's the day Jesus died on the cross. All the suffering he went through...I mean brutal suffering... for us. So that we could one day be called children of God. And that's just the documented suffering. What happened those 3 days he was dead? I'm thinking there wasn't anything Good about it. So it is definitely a day to reflect, be respectful of the sacrifice made on our behalf. Doesn't really seem appropriate to be gorging on birthday cake and tearing open presents.

But on the other hand, there is a reason it is called Good Friday. The hope we have, the grace we've been granted, the love that is ours, all are the result of what took place that dark day. It is Good! God is Good! So in the spirit of the Goodness that is ours, I choose to respectfully say Happy Birthday to my ever-giving, sweet, "wonderful", loving mom, Terry. I will celebrate with you on the day where it is entirely appropriate to celebrate...Easter! Happy birthday Mom. I love you!

Against the Law

It should be against the law for kids to be sick when it's nice outside! Poor Coopy woke up with a fever this morning and isn't feeling very good. You know they feel crappy when they won't even eat a pancake. He doesn't have any other symptoms either so I don't know what's up. I'm hoping it's not mono like Clare had a couple of weeks ago. She had high fevers for 8 days and no other syptoms until day 5 at which point she developed a very sore throat and her lymph nodes swelled up. I'm hoping we don't have the same with the Coopster.

And Clare developed a cold sore yesterday...her first. Scott gets them and we were hoping the kids wouldn't get them. But alas, it was not to be. We're all going to the doctor today to make sure everyone is okay. Not a fun way to spend a beautiful sunny spring afternoon. But it can't be helped.

We're all looking forward to Easter this weekend. The girls are going gaga over all the candy they are going to get. But I keep reminding them that the candy and the Easter bunny are just extra stuff to the real reason for the holiday. Jesus died and rose from the grave 3 days later! It is the pivotal moment of all of christianity - the reason we believe. I hope we never forget the amazing and awesome sacrifice done on our unworthy behalf.

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!!

A Few Pictures

Mr. Cooper at 14.5 months. Almost walking.


Sweet Clare at the park. She had mono in this picture but was without a fever at the time.



Like the hat? Grandma and Grandpa Schwake got it for him....in Ireland, as you can see.

Catie eating cereal. It's hard to get a real smile like this these days...most pictures it's that forced smile.

Brownie batter rocks!!! And I'm the queen!! I'm cool like that.

Sisters. They stopped fighting long enough to capture this photo.

Notice anything?

No, you aren't at the wrong blog. I was getting a bit bored with the old look. Thought I'd change things up a bit.

Welcome to the new and maybe improved MommaMissy blog!

I'm discovering there are a lot of cool things you can do with blogs that I've never even tried before. So I thought I'd wing it. I'm flirting with the idea of learning how to customize my blog and do lots more neato stuff with it. Like fancy-schmancy slideshows. And Buttons! But then I'd probably have to get a little better at maintaining my posts. Hmmm. Dilemma. My little one's are already fed up with the amount of time I spend on the computer. I'm afraid there'd be mutiny on this bounty if I lingered longer online (how's that for alliteration!). We'll see how it goes. For now, I'm trying to do more but smaller posts with fewer pictures.

And to that end...

Hubby returned from his ice-fishing extravaganza in Canada. He was gone for six days. I was praying daily for patience and strength and thankful that he timed it well with my...ahem...female cycle. Let's just say, had he taken the trip two weeks later, my kids would have had ringing ears and VERY early bedtimes. As it was, I held it all together pretty well. But we were all extremely happy to see Daddy again. And once again am ever so grateful for the wonderful man God put in my life.

Kids are doing great. Cooper is thiiiiiiiiis close to walking. He's taken to crawling on hands and FEET in hopes of getting to his destination a bit faster. Cate is bored with everything and has suddenly developed an aversion to all food. Clare had a nasty bout of mono a few weeks back but is fully recovered and back to her hijinks. However, she has this very mature and wise nature about her. It's a strange but beguiling mix. Attley is all shaved up and ready for the warm weather.

Me? I'm doing good but I am frustrated with my overall health (which is code word for my weight). I am trying to do all things pertaining to my health better. Relaxing more. Exercising more. Eating less and better. Cutting out sugar (the biggy). And....it get's me nowhere. Which is to say I haven't lost any weight. Somehow, we have in our minds that if we do all things better then SOMEHOW we will lose weight. But it's not happening. So I'm going to see a hormone doctor. I'm quite convinced my body is starting to want to close up shop in the fertility department soon. While I do not want to actually produce anything (i.e. anyone), I do not want cobwebs growing on all my equipment, either! So we'll see what they say and see if there's anything I can do that I haven't thought of yet. I'll keep you posted.

I'd love to hear what you think of the new layout. Or anything else you'd like to say. And if anyone has any tips on cool things to add to a blog, let me know that too.

Until next time....