It's Raining, It's Pouring

Okay- so is there any way that life could get more difficult around here? I guess I need to be careful asking that question, but really- it has been a rough couple of weeks (which partly explains why I haven't found the time to write in here). About two weeks ago all of us were hit by the rush of allergens in the air. Not only did Katie have an ear infection, but she had a really bad head cold to go with it. We finally got Katie over that ear infection about 1 1/2 weeks ago. Then at the beginning of this week my head started to really hurt. I'm talking about pressure behind my eyes, my cheeks... even my teeth were throbbing. I was in so much pain and nothing was taking the edge off. To make matters worse Katie started her blood-curdling screaming again and that is not very compatible with a severe headache. Finally on Thursday I called my ob/gyn and told her how miserable I was and she prescribed an antibiotic to get rid of the sinus infection I had (wish I had done that days before!). I'm still waiting for it to heal me. The pain has subsided, but isn't completely gone. Then Friday we decided that Katie just wasn't doing very well and we took her to a doctor in town (ours was out of the office) and found out she still had an ear infection. She got her yummy pink medicine again to try to combat it for good. Yesterday everyone was miserable. I don't get sleep at night because Sarah's up every 2 hours. Katie was feeling miserable and Ellie was feeling downright ornery. Katie has a big lump on her forehead as proof that Ellie wasn't being very nice to her. We thought maybe a trip to Target to find a swimsuit for Ellie (she's already grown out of the one I bought her for this year) would give them a distraction. Nope- all three girls yelled and screamed the whole time we were there. Mom and I were ready to give the girls away yesterday, it was that rough. But then last night happened. About 2 hours after we put Katie to bed we heard her scream. I went upstairs to find that she had thrown up all over her bed. So, we stripped her bed, got her cleaned up and back to bed. About 15 minutes later, another scream and she had thrown up again. Yet again we stripped her bed, cleaned her up and Mom held her for awhile to calm her down. Every time we thought she was calm and ready to go to bed she'd throw up again. I think we went through that about 5 more times. I was running out of clean pajamas for the girl! Mom decided to keep her in the room with her and I guess they were up most of the night with her getting sick and rolling around all over the bed (she's not a calm sleeper). Then today at church Ellie fell asleep (which NEVER happens) and I'm afraid she might be coming down with something as well. The bigger problem with that is if she sleeps during the day she wants to party all night. She's still awake and it's way past her bedtime. This is getting more miserable by the moment! Then to top things off Sarah had a bad reaction to my milk the other night. She was up all night fussing and screaming with gas in her tummy. I was ready to quit nursing and put her on a bottle and call it quits. I had hit a breaking point, for sure. Since then she has calmed down and we'll stick with the nursing for now. But I told myself after our ordeal with Katie that if I had another fussy baby from my milk I'd not hesitate to stick him/her on a bottle.

Needless to say, it's been a rough couple of weeks. I have no idea how I'd do this if I didn't have Mom here to help out. I'm sure I'd figure it out, but it has been a huge help to have her around. Now we just need Dad to come back and give us one more person to tag-team with! It's a good thing I love my girls, because there are days...

We were able to get some great finds at garage sales this weekend. We found all sorts of things we never knew we couldn't live without! :-) We got Katie a little bike, which she thinks is great. We also found a play table like the one the Tolmans have with the blocks (which Katie loves), a wooden cradle for dolls, some water shoes for Ellie, a table and chairs set for the girls, a push toy for Katie and a couple other little things. I don't think we spent more than $40 for it all. I'm not a huge garage sale person (I feel weird going through other peoples' things) but we did well this weekend. We can't get the car in the garage anymore, but we have lots to play with :)

On a more positive note, the girls are getting so big. Ellie and I went on a walk this morning (she rode her bike) for almost 40 minutes. I am so impressed she was able to go that long! She does great on that bike. We probably went too long (I'm feeling pretty sore tonight) but it felt great to finally get some real exercise. We also tried out her new umbrella and boots. It was pouring rain, so we got her all put together just in time for the rain to end. So instead she and Katie splashed in puddles. Oh well! Katie still feels miserable, but she's such a sweet little girl. And Sarah just keeps growing. Plus, I'm thinking she'll inherit those beautiful blue eyes from the Elgans just like the other two girls. I took a bunch of pictures today to send to Steve to show them off.

I was also able (with Mom's help) to finally finish our picture boards. We started this months ago, but we put together boards where we have pictures of each of the girls with Steve displayed. The girls LOVE them. They love to see pictures of themselves with their daddy. I'm glad we did that.

I've added quite a few pictures lately, adding them to the same folder every few days, so just head to the main site and you can check them out.