Week in the Life: Wednesday

Wednesday was a fun day. It started off with a Free Movie, Dreamworks How to Train Your Dragon, at a local theatre. I seriously love the Summer Movie series the local movie theateres in the area host. It's a great way to entertain the kids for a few hours during what I consider the hot zone, those hours in the morning when nothing is open and the kids are so bored. It also gets us out of the heat which has been just ridiculous this summer. I've been super impressed with how well my kids have handled themselves because let's face it, for a 2 year old and 4 year old to still still and be quiet for close to two hours has got to be agony for them. That time span feels like forever to them. It was a nice way to get out just the three of us and do something special.

Here are a few of my favorite moments from Wednesday.

I have noticed on this little project that I am using my iPhone quite a bit. Since being introduced to the Instagram App, I am hooked. If you haven't noticed, a few instagram photos have made their way into this project. Fred doesn't get it. He doesn't understand the artistic creativity of making your photos looked aged. That has always been a favorite of mine since my first introduction to the darkroom. I must have tried sepia tone on just about every photo I took in Photography 101. One of my favorite classes in college was Alternative Process, using the skills and techniques I learned in there on other photography classes and art projects. I had a love affair with the dark room. Was known for pulling all nighters in college, hanging out in the dark room, creating, tweaking and trying again and again until my photo was perfect. I loved the smell of the chemicals, the waiting and anticipation for my photo to appear, did I get it right? Since taking a few digital photography classes in college and seeing as I don't have access to a dark room, don't think I hadn't thought or even planned out a spot for a dark room in the basement as my creative outlet instead of a craft room, I have embraced digital photography. Though I find my insatiable habit for taking millions of photos lacking when it comes to storage. Still, the technology of late astounds me and I find my hours in the dark room have been traded for hours at the computer experimenting in photoshop. I still find joy in manipulating my photos and well if you haven't discovered Instagram yet, I suggest you give it a try. It's free and oh so addicting.

Week in the Life: Tuesday

This day did not start off good. I felt horrible. Plans were disrupted. It ended up as one of our simple days. Here are a few pictures from Tuesday.

Taking my antibiotic.

Planning out our trip to Wegmans.

Getting dressed.

Mason's Transformer movie arrives in the mail via Netflix.

Sophie goes down for a nap.

Finally make it to Wegmans.

Mason goes out for a romp in the sprinkler while Fred waters the lawn.

Fred fits in a little work before putting the kids to bed.

Bedtime ritual of books before climbing in bed to fall asleep.

What I took from this day is that I must eat a full breakfast, or rather not have an empty stomach when taking my medication. It makes me terribly ill. Only for an hour or two, but enough to ruin any plans for the afternoon. Thankful that Fred is home and was able to fill in and occupy the kids and feed them lunch till I felt better.

What I want to remember from this day is not that I got sick, leaving our day in a bit of a stand still, but to remember the moments that at first seem trivial. Like this morning, laying in bed, head pounding from the knot or two that developed on the back of my head, listening to this patting noise coming from downstairs. Wondering what it is, and worried it might wake up Sophie, and then remembering I put on the t.v., tuned to Little Einsteins, for Mason before hopping back in bed. This realization dawning just as I hear, "Blast off!" wafting up the stairs and into our bedroom before drifting off to sleep.

Week in the Life: Monday

This is the second year in a row that I have documented a week in our lives and absolutely love it. To be able to look back and see what we did and where we were in our lives at that moment.

This year our week began with chocolate chip pancakes, per Mason's request.

Sophie has developed a taste for them as well as syrup.

After the kids have a fun filled bath, Mason and Sophie join forces to pick out her outfit for the day. Mason's old shark t-shirt from our first beach trip and her "Tinkerbell" skirt from her birthday with Lighting McQueen crocs to top off the outfit. To boot she actually let me put her hair in pigtails.

I needed to find a dress for my brother in laws upcoming nuptials, ASAP, so once again it is off to the mall for our third attempt. Toys R Us is running a special right now that if you buy a backpack you get a lunchbox for free. During the week of Mason's sickness, Grandma bought Sophie a new backpack, a rolling one, and of course she picked out a Tinkerbell lunchbox. But Mason couldn't be left out so he got a Transformers one. Seeing as they have been sitting in the cabinet unused, we thought this might be the perfect chance. So we packed our lunches and ourselves in the car. Made it to the food court at the mall just in time for lunch.

They ate all their lunch, high-fiving Sophie at the end, so I rewarded them with playtime in the play area. Sophie was having such a great time, climbing down stairs by herself, keeping up with the older kids and Mason made a few friends of his own. Even though I had to drag her, screaming at a decibel I have never heard before, she wore herself out and managed to nap in the stroller for short time.

In the meantime I went from store to store, trying on dress after dress.

Nothing really hitting the mark, either it was too expensive or just didn't look right, and me on the edge so frustrated with the whole thing when Fred called. He was in the mall getting his suit for the wedding, how ironic. He so graciously went on the dress run with us, which ended at Dress Barn at the outlets, the kids playing on the playground and me with a dress in hand. Finally. *It looks an awful lot like dress #1 in the photo above, in blue with white flowers. Mission Accomplished.

We decided to take the kids out for ice cream to make up for the dragging around to an ungodly number of stores while I tried on dresses. Though I think Mason rather enjoyed being my helper, rushing into the dressing room and asking if this one had a zipper. I'm sure the highlight though was riding in the Corvette with Daddy. I'm glad I got to witness the joy on his face that I only heard stories about till this point.

Following them as best I could, trying hard to get my tank of a minivan to keep up with the sporty red two seater. Desperate to catch a glimpse of his hair whipping in the wind, or the sound of his exuberant "woohoo's" out the window. Only managing to see his tiny hand appear from the window to grip the side of the car as we came around the turn of the off ramp. It would suffice.

We arrived at the shopping center housing the ice cream shop.

Mason regaling about his ride, making sure I saw every moment of it, as we hurriedly walked to the front doors. Sophie tripped on a drain top and landed sprawled on the concrete. Screaming, I led her to a nearby table till she calmed down, only to find her knee spilling blood. It was worse than I thought. While Daddy calmed her down for a bit with some ice cream, I ran to the car for the first aid kit. The hope was that she would be fine once bandaged up, however, once Daddy was at the AT&T store and I was left with the kids, free to play in the play area, she would not stop crying. She kept pointing to her knee and saying, "hurt. Hurt."

Fred managed to arrive back just as I was deciding I needed to take her home. While we headed off to Target, to find a better bandage for her knee, the boys stayed behind to play. On the way home I couldn't get the DVD player in the car to work so I promised Sophie Tinkerbell once we got home. Mason insisted upon a movie night. This consists of popcorn and m&m's.

Once the movie was over, even though it wasn't bedtime, Sophie was so tired I put her to bed early. Mason followed, after a game of war, with Daddy. Then to the basement for us, to indulge in our guilty pleasure of Gordon Ramsey and Hell's Kitchen.

Just another typical day.

110 degrees in the shade

Yup that about sums up how it feels outside. We have had code red days, with heat and air quality advisories in effect for most of this entire week. The heat index rising upwards of 112 degrees, it's not recommended to go outside. Which works fine for me, since with the doxycycline I am advised against excessive exposure to sunlight anyway. That means no going to the pool, hanging at the park or going for long bike rides around the neighborhood. Much to the kids dismay. It also means our trip to the Zoo has to be postponed once again. But, knowing that just riding in the car while running errands and getting my hair cut I developed sun poisoning on my hands and wrists the other day, a condition of which I used to get a lot but have been free of for the last few years, I will happily suck it up and stick in doors as much as possible till this heat wave and my three weeks on this antibiotics are up.

Healing

....................................

Mason, being on the verge of getting better, needed to be fever free for 24 hours before going anywhere. So Sophie spent the day with Grandma instead. Her first "Grandma Saturday/Sunday." She wasn't sure what to think of her leaving instead of her big brother. Though the smile on her face as she waved saying, "bye-bye mama," from the car told me this was just what she needed.

Understandably he was disappointed to be missing out on his Grandma time.

To help him heal from the past week, I put up a fort in our family room for us to play and sit under.

We watched Kung Fu Panda till Grandma and Sophie returned home. Who would have thought a few blankets, chairs and couches could be so much fun? We decided to keep it up the next few days, that is at least till Daddy gets home. In the meantime we get to enjoy our little haven of childhood.

Linking up at

Running on Empty

The last 48 hours have been a little trying. This morning my husband left for a 6 day trip to California to help catch and tag birds with his brother for study. The big event of this trip is to test out the GPS tracking units he designed, programmed and built himself from scratch on the birds they catch. This trip just may make or break us, especially since my husband has been out of work since around March when he and his partner decided to close the doors of their telecom business. It was a hard decision but one that was necessary, cutting losses rather than losing it all. We are hoping that he can build a new business from these GPS units.

This morning around 6am, shortly after my husband left for the airport, I was awoken by a sound and rushed out of my bedroom to find my son, head over the toilet again. Yesterday he awoke and climbed into our bed like usual. However, after a few moments of rest he complained that his head hurt. This continued for a while until he began to puke, and continued to do so the whole rest of the day. His was scalding hot, extremely tired and running a fever of 101 degrees. I tried to get Tylenol in him but he couldn't keep anything down. So we were battling this sickness on top of getting my husband ready to leave for his trip. I did some last minute grocery shopping, knowing I might not be able to get another chance once it was just me and the kids, with Mason being sick and all. It's not like I can just leave him at home and say, "hey sweetie, you stay here for a bit while I go run some errands." By the time I got home he was feeling better. Fever was down and he was playing Mario Kart with daddy, laughing and smiling and seeming like his old self. I thought we had it beat and it was a 24 hour thing. Not the case. He's been struggling to keep anything down all day and his fever keeps spiking to a 101 degrees. I dug deep and tried to remember all the things my mom and would do when I was sick with the flu so many times.

I've been wetting paper towels with cold water and placing them on his forehead and neck. Letting him sleep on the couch and watch all the movie, t.v. shows he wants. Having him sip ginger ale, this always helps with my upset stomachs when I'm sick, and water. Letting him have a few Saltine crackers and remembering the BRAT diet. Continue to monitor his temperature and dose fever reducing medicine accordingly. Hold his hand, rub his back, and be there when he is head down in the toilet.

After two days of no relief from his fever I am left at a loss as to how to get this fever in check. Desperate I called the doctor for advice. They said to continue what I have been doing and to alternate between ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

I only had liquid ibuprofen in the house and even though Walgreens is only up the street I knew I couldn't leave Mason alone in the house. My neighbor, and college sorority big sister, came to my rescue. She picked up the medicine along with some cookies and a Family Fun magazine for me. All of this while her son too was running a fever. I swear it is these moments that I truly realize how blessed I am to have such wonderful people, friends, in my life and in my neighborhood. I owe you one Susie, thanks.

UPDATE: So I hadn't finished this post when I put the kids to bed last night. Exhausted, I left it sitting on my computer to finish in the morning, ready to just have some time to relax. However, that did not last long and here is the story of what happened next.

The kids are in bed asleep. I figured it would be nice to pop some popcorn and watch a movie Fred had no interest in. You know, try and relax from the hectic day and rejuvenate my spirit or something along those lines. In hind sight, Shutter Island, was probably not the best choice but I like horror films, even though they scare me and Fred doesn't. So the perfect time to watch is when he is not here. However I got interrupted numerous times from the phone ringing and doing laundry. But it wasn't until after I noticed the peculiar rash that appeared out of nowhere on my leg that I lost total interest in the movie.

In case you are curious, this is the best picture out of the few I took of the rash. It's not very clear but in the center is a red/purplish dot. This is how I react to mosquito bites. I have a few of them on my legs. I get at least 20 each summer. What can I say? I must have sweet blood. Around that dot is a large red circle.

At first I thought it was an impression of something I was laying on, but when it didn't go away after a significant amount of time...

I tried not to panic, really I did. I swear. But with the recent incident with Mason and the tick and being on high alert for rashes and what not, this was the first thought that came to my mind; Oh crap, I have Lyme disease. I started pacing the room, trying to occupy myself with anything other than the rash and of course that didn't work at all.

Suddenly, I felt really alone. Alone and scared and desperate to talk to someone. Look up at the clock, 11:30pm. Well that rules out calling any of my friends. I really needed some to calm me down and reassure me that I would be fine. I realize that it is only 8:30pm in California and Fred would still be up so I call him. No answer. Leave a tear filled, panicked voicemail and hang up. Pace the room some more. Go check on Mason, he is still asleep. Good. Try to watch the movie again, but at this point I am not following the story line and my mind is on something else anyway. Phone rings. It's Fred. We talk, he calms me a bit. I agree to send him the pictures I took of the rash so he can better give his opinion. Next I talk to my soon to be sister-in-law in Reno. We decide to find a way for me to go to the doctor tomorrow if the rash is still there in the morning and get tested for Lyme. After I hang up I look at the clock, it is around midnight at this point. I decide I should go to bed as Mason might need me in the middle of the night and I will need to get some sleep before then.

Just as I am crawling into bed, around 12:30am, I hear Mason rush into the bathroom. I quickly join him. Check his forehead, but he is not hot like before so I send him back to bed. 1:30am, he's back in the bathroom and again at 2:30am, and 4:30am, and 5:30am, and 6:30am and finally again at 7:30am. Each time, I groggily but hurriedly join him to make sure he is not alone, scared or running a fever again. Ready to dose if he is. Each time I look down at my leg and no, I didn't imagine the rash, it is still there. By around 5am I stopped checking, so tired and just wanting to crawl back in bed once Mason was back in his. During the trip to the bathroom at 7:30am he started to feel warm again and despite the fact that his fever was down I gave him some acetaminophen anyway, as it seemed his fever was on the rise and Mason was so desperate for sleep. It worked. He fell right asleep and slept till around 11am. I was not so lucky.

The phone rang at around 8:30am, it was Fred checking in. I recalled the nights festivities and how at one point Mason looked up at me, pale and upset from his millionth horrendous vomit session and heart breakingly said, "I wish Daddy was here." At that point, I did too. Fred had looked at the rash photos I sent and told me they all agreed that I should go to the doctor and get put on antibiotics right away. That was not reassuring, but I was too tired at this point to think too much about it, besides, I had forgotten to check it recently. I tried to go back to sleep but that was moment Sophie decided she couldn't amuse herself in her crib anymore and wanted out, NOW.

I managed to drag myself out of bed and start a pot of coffee while giving Sophie a banana for breakfast. I checked my leg for the first time in hours and ironically the rash had faded, to the point that I could barely see it. Very weird, I thought. But, I figured better to be safe than sorry. Mason still asleep and unsure of his current state I knew I couldn't make a doctors appointment to be seen. Instead I sent the photos I took to our pediatrician and family doctor in an email. He has today off so I thought I'd get his opinion first. He is also a family friend and I try not to take advantage of that fact, so I was hesitant about it at first but decided it was ultimately the best thing to do. His wife and I are good friends, as mentioned before our sons are best friends, so I called her later that morning just to chat and get things off my mind. She said she'd make sure her husband checked his email and would give me a call. At this point Mason had awoken and was feeling better, asking for something to eat and some water. He was acting a little more like himself.

A few hours later our doctor called. Checked on Mason. Said a bug was going around, probably what Mason has, but glad to hear he was feeling better. He also said that Mason could eat yogurt as well. Of course Mason jumped at hearing this and proceeded to have two servings of yogurt. Then the inevitable was discussed, my rash. He told me I didn't need to come in to be seen, based on the photos it looked like classic Lyme. In this area, where Lyme is prevalent, you don't take chances. So he is putting me on a 3 week course of antibiotics, Doxycycline, or something like that. Even if it turns out not to be Lyme it's better to take the treatment as a precaution. I agree, though it wasn't what I wanted to hear. I wanted him to say that it was nothing to worry about and I would be fine. I should be grateful that it sounds hopeful we caught it in the earliest stages and I should develop no complications. However, these antibiotics are rough on the stomach and make your skin extra photosensitive. I suppose though, it is a small price to pay compared to the many horrible symptoms of Lyme disease I could experience if not treated right away. I do, however, worry that for the rest of my life I will second guess every cramp, pain, fatigued feeling, headache, or nausea experience as a possible Lyme flair up. As if I wasn't paranoid enough already.

And now Mason's fever is starting to creep up again as he starts to complain, once again, about his head hurting and not feeling well. Another dose of Ibuprofen as he curls up on the couch to watch Max and Ruby. Sophie is down for a nap, and I, I am finally finishing this post and getting some lunch while I wait for my prescription of antibiotics to be faxed and filled. It is only 3pm on day two of being single mom for a week, and my tank is seriously empty.

I've decided, if Fred tells me he is headed on another week long trip, cross country or not, I will duct tape him to his suitcase and lock him in the closet.

Celebrating Independence Day: July 3rd-4th

This year our annual 4th of July party was held on the 3rd. It was put to a vote and most people wanted to have a party in which they could stay up late and not have to worry about going to work the next day. It didn't really matter to me either way, my day is the same whether it's a Tuesday or a Saturday, but the feeling was understandable.

The party, hosted at the home of our good friends parents, has the same set up each year. Everyone brings a dish, or drink to share. Last year I made patriotic cake pops (this was after everyone loved the cake pops I made for Sophie's 1st birthday) and liked baking desserts so much, I decided to bring dessert again this year. However, my cake pop making hasn't been perfected and I wanted to make this easy and simple. After perusing Pinterest, my new internet time suck for ideas, I once again decided upon a recipe from Bakerella. Mini cupcake hot fudge sundaes. I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but they ended up being so cute. Here is a look at me putting these cuties together.

It took me all morning but only because I made like 100 of them. I varied my cupcakes a little bit. I used red velvet cake, cream cheese icing, chocolate candy melts and jellybeans on top. The straws also didn't look that good so I left them off. Super simple, super easy. Here is the recipe and a list of supplies I used.

1 box red velvet Cake

2 cans of cream cheese icing

1 bag of red jelly belly cherry flavored jellybeans

1 bag of chocolate candy melts

Patriotic sprinkles

Mini cupcake tin

Mini cupcake liners

Candy Maker mini squeeze bottle

Decorator bottle set from Pampered Chef

Mix cake mix per box (be careful, the red mix does stain your fingers, mouth, etc. but comes off with a few washes). Place cupcake liners in mini cupcake tin, filling only halfway and bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool.

In the meantime, place chocolate wafers into your mini squeeze bottle, place in the microwave and cook on 50% power for 30 minutes. You will need to do this a few times, squeezing the bottle for 15 seconds in between each interval until completely melted.

Once the cupcakes are cool to the touch, squeeze the chocolate onto the cupcake and spread into a thin layer. Let chocolate harden before putting on icing. For the icing I used my absolute favorite, cream cheese icing. I just spooned the icing into the Pampered Chef decorator bottle with the rosette tip and squeezed the icing onto the cupcake like I would whip cream on a sundae. While the frosting is still wet sprinkle with patriotic sprinkles, I used the dots.

To top the sundae cupcakes I used cherry flavored jelly beans. Voila. They are ready to eat.

And don't they look tasty? They were. My cupcakes were the talk of the party. You could see adults walking around with 5 or more in their hand at a time. I had a lot of fun baking and putting these together, so it was satisfying to see everyone enjoying a few, or 6 or 10.

Anyway, the party started off as usual, the kids playing in the inflatable pools or running around, while the grown ups drink and catch up on what has been happening in our lives. Then comes the food; burgers, hot dogs and bratwurst accompanied by potato salad, chips, fruit and beans along with an assortment of other foods. Then back to more drinking and kids running around. The big fun was the power wheels jeep. Two kids would sit in and drive while the rest would run behind or beside it. That was until one of the boys got run over. It was bound to happen, at least with our group of friends in the mix. You what they say, it's not a party until someone gets run over. The boy was fine and the kids went back to playing and the adults back to drinking and chatting while sampling the many desserts. Homemade ice cream and chocolate covered cherries were a few of the other desserts floating around. Somehow I missed out on the s'mores once it got dark. I had a feeling with all the sweets our kids were ingesting there one of two things would happen, they'd get sick or be so hyper they wouldn't want to leave. It ended up being the later.

Speaking of getting dark. We usually have a friend who hops the border and buys a few of the illegal fireworks ahead of time and we set those off in our own private, but small, fireworks display in the cul-de-sac. Sitting in lawn chairs or on our butts on the sidewalk we would all sit and enjoy the show. However, since we held the party on the third this year, it would have been hard to mask our illegal show amongst the many professional shows happening locally. So, no big fireworks this time.

Mason was devastated to learn that we were not doing fireworks, even though he has freaked out each previous year. However, bringing Mason to his car to show him the loot, our friend Trevor saved the day with a whole bunch of the small legal ones. Unfortunately this was about the time the first storm rolled it and it began to rain. Hard. I then had to hear, "Mom can we do fireworks now?" "Mom, where is Mr. Trevor?" "Mom." "Mom." "MOM!" For the next 30 minutes or so this drove me crazy as I started to sound like a broken record, "when the rain stops, Mason. I will let you know." "I don't know, maybe he's outside under the carport with the other adults. Now go play with your friends and leave me alone."

Eventually the rain stopped and the boys could have their fun. Mason was a completely different boy, super excited to help set off the fireworks. He stood up there the whole time with Mr. Trevor helping set up the tanks and barrels and other fireworks, backing away as they were lit and helping to clean up once it was all done. It was drilled into the kids the rules of fireworks. The first rule of fireworks, Be Safe. The second rule of fireworks, Clean Up. We had them repeat these over and over, especially once the sparklers came out.

We never had sparklers growing up, it was something I missed out on as a child, except that one time my BFF Shelly's family had some and we lit one or two. It felt so dangerous and sneaky at the time, especially since my parents didn't know. Shh, don't tell them. Anyway, we never really tried to get the kids sparklers because they always shy away from fire and didn't show an interest in participating in that part.

Mason was excited to play with it at first but once the flame started to get closer to his hand he got apprehensive and would drop it on the ground.

Sophie didn't want to be left out.

She patiently waited and watched as daddy lit the sparkler and guided her in holding it. She got a little crazy with it when attempting to go solo, almost poking daddy in the eye, so that was the end of the sparkler fun for her. Luckily it was also the last of the bunch so her tantrum was stopped short.

Around this time, the sun had finally gone to bed allowing the bigger stuff to be set off. Mason, of course stayed by Trevor's side helping with the show as the rest of us sat and watched with awe, wonder and laughter.

I would have thought Sophie would be freaked, but she enjoyed it. For the few moments she actually did sit and watch. Mostly though, she could have cared less that loud noises and flashing lights were being set off near by as she played with her glow stick necklace, drank some water and exuded cuteness by clapping, and swapping laps with daddy, mommy and her friend Theresa. Who in turn, was more than happy to pose for a super sweet, super cute photo with Sophie in matching Uncle Sam hats.

It was a great night with friends, and even though we didn't have the big ones shot into the air it was an amazingly great show and a lot of fun for all.

I wanted to note that our plan for the 4th was to watch the local professional fireworks show that goes on at the Sports Pavilion near our house, from our yard. However, that plan did not work out. We stood outside in the middle of the cul-de-sac with our neighbors waiting for the show to begin as we got a glimpse of a few fireworks here and there from different directions. Nothing like we thought it would have been for a professional show. We speculated on whether they were rogue shows by neighboring community streets or left overs from far off shows in neighboring towns. The highlight of the night was the bunny rabbit that kept making rounds from yard to yard awfully close to where we were standing. By 10pm we gave up, figuring it was a low flying show and we were too close to the area to see them above the houses. Bummed and disappointed we bid everyone a good night. As it turns out, we found out that a few days later from another neighbor that the show was in a different location than we thought and had actually started around 9:10pm un-like the 9:30pm time that was advertised in all the newspapers and online newsletters. So by the time we had congregated outside shortly after 9:30pm the show was already over. What a bust.

At least we had the fun show the previous day. Lets face it, nothing compares to good food, lots of laughs with friends, and staying up way past bedtime. And who knows, maybe next year we will get our simple, private firework show again. Or at least better inform ourselves of when and where the local show is being held so not to miss out for a second year in a row.