Her Name is Zoey...

She was a showgirl...

okay, it's not Lola, but that doesn't mean I can't sing! :)

It took me a week, three mock elections, and finally a secret ballot. She now has a name. Everybody is still in love with her. She's only slept through the night once. I may as well have another baby. Well, I can leave her in her fence for a couple of hours while I go places. A.J. has still not warmed up to her. When Zoey is outside, she wants SO badly to be her best friend but A.J. will have NONE of it! We've been trying to pay her alot of extra attention so she's not jealous, however, she knows Zoey is staying in the house and she's not.

And the big P.S. for the week?

John has Pneumonia AND Bronchitis. And no, I didn't give it to him.

Puppies and Algebra. I'll take puppies.

I sit here with the puppy sleeping around my neck like a scarf, while Charlie and John sit at the kitchen table arguing about John's Algebra homework. Boy what memories that brings back! Charlie was the one who argued with me about MY algebra homework when we were in the ninth grade. I still don't get it. Guess who got my algebra gene? The funny part is that Charlie has been at the table the last hour trying to solve the problems himself, so they're really not getting much accomplished.

Meanwhile I promised Peach that today we would finally decide what name we were gonna give the dog.

(John is commenting about his Science class today...then whistles a part of his clarinet music and breaks out with a story about band...then talks about something they're doing in Spanish...the kid never talks about his day...then you've got Charlie mumbling under his breath "...minus 14, then positive two minus 4....there's your factor... everytime John starts humming his music, Charlie has to tell him to be quiet. "okay, tell me the answer, No that's not part of the answer, it's negative 2, now show me the rest...")

I hate school.

So we have a very large pool of names and six people who disagree. Here are some of the contenders....

John : Skittles

Melee' : Motsey

Peach : Zoey, Chloe, Muffsey, and Panini

Ace: Doesn't really care what we call her

Charlie: Nachos Bell Grande

I like Carrie's Lolita because then we can call her Lola and therefore I could continue singing Copacabana around the house "Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl, with yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there..." To which the crowd starts hissing and throwing things.

Other suggestions in the comments of the previous post, plus Baby, Sasha, M and M, Mighty Mouse, Layla, and every item found on a mexican restaurant menu...

SHE'S SO CUTE!

I have been informed, that boys of a certain age, cannot be seen snuggling a Chihuahua, therefore, Melee' quickly pulled her down from his neck and gave me a "What? I'm not snuggling a Chihuahua!" look.

Lola and Hammy.

I can't take a good picture to save my life, but she's really cute and frisky. The kids are just out of their minds crazy about her. (so far) We took the two Little's with us to Dog Town, with no intention of getting a dog (so why did we take the two Little's to Dog Town?) and gave them the whole "We're just here to look." lecture. On the way from the car Ace started in with a running commentary, "Can we take one home? What if we find one that we like? Could we just adopt one? I don't even care which one. I'll like which ever one you like..." And it didn't take long to figure out Dad was being a soft touch. He ended up saying "I don't care. It's up to you." which means, "Yes, they can have the dog, but I'm gonna blame it on you when it all goes wrong." They asked to hold every puppy, we said yes to hold about four different ones, and then settled on The Taquito, while the lady was filling out the paperwork, Peach had tears in her eyes and said "It's a dream come true!" She totally means it. Ace has been saying "Thank you" non-stop since Sunday. Today he said "Thank you for letting us hold all those puppies." Crap, if he keeps it up, I'll have to go get more. They argue over who gets to hold her first, longest, feed her, walk her, etc. John gets to hold her on the way to the High School, then Melee' gets her, then Peach, then Ace.

Now if I could just get someone to volunteer for the 3:00 a.m. shift.

OH SNAP!

WE HAVE A NEW BABY!
We could use a little help for some possible baby girl Chihuahua names! :)

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLL!!!!Soccer season has officially begun!

Okay, I'm cheating a little. This shot was during the warmup. But he's got style right?

A little stretch before the action begins.

Leader of the Pack.

or

Pack Mentality.

The Blaze won the game 5 to zero, but whose counting? We are Under 6 but one of the boys on Ace's team is in Peaches first grade class. Not sure how that works, but we clearly have a size advantage. And comparitively we only had one kid crying and they had a hard time keeping five kids on the field at a time because of all the weeping. Everytime their coach asked any of the kids on the sidelines if they were ready to go in, they would bust out crying. It was totally fun!

Go Fly a Kite!

Best $10 spent!
Ever.
It was freezing outside and the wind was crazy, I don't know how we got any kites up at all!
We did have several tangle delays and one small meltdown. But the boys stayed out almost the entire day, and they haven't had that much fresh air since the last time we went camping.

Working on the Railroad

This is a picture of my sad, sad flowerbed. This picture is AFTER I spent two days pulling grass out of the flowerbed.

Mom and I went to Lowe's and bought six plants and six bags of mulch and three rolls of weed control.









Saturday Charlie and I got out and started working the weed control. I had saved boxes and boxes of paper from the move. So we planted the three hibiscus, and layered the paper and covered it with the weed control.
















Then we poured on the mulch. We only got this first section done when we realized we were going to need more mulch. So back to Lowe's we went, where Charlie got flower happy. We came back with 8 bags of mulch, 12 lillies, a flat of verbena, 3 one gallon african daisies, 9 small crotons, and three lantana.









John loves to jump in and help. Right as we're finishing things up. :)


















This is as far as we got by the end of the day on Saturday. We broke at 5:00 so we could shower up and take the kids to play putt-putt golf, and laser tag. I can't show you those pictures, because I forgot my camera. The good news is that, it was 3-D golf in blacklight, and laser tag outside in the dark, so you wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway. This morning, we could hardly move. Keep in mind, I've already put in two days, so I've been limping around the house for a few days. Now Charlie feels my pain. Today we finished planting, and mulching, plus Charlie had to dig a trench and put a drain line from the down spout under the sidewalk to drain out in the yard. Then after we went out for dinner, he went out and mowed the front yard and weed eated. Back to school on Monday and the daily grind continues. Tomorrow, I'll show you the finished product.




A.J. thinks she's the Queen of Sheba.

Duece of Cakes

We made our very first scratch cake today for my birthday. It's a Chocolate Mint Cake with Chocolate Mint frosting from the Nestle Toll House recipe book. John helped me make the cake, Melee' greased and floured the pans, Peach helped me make the frosting, and Ace helped me frost the cake. Of course everyone helped me eat it! We declared it DELICIOUS! Not beautiful, but definitely tasty.


This was my best birthday yet! When I got up I found that Charlie and the boys not only stayed up till midnight watching Lord of the Rings, they also decorated the kitchen and hung clovers all around, complete with a princess crown! Went to the Dr. got a clean bill of health! Got a new Tony Romo jersey, some Paula Deen cookware, and a gift card to Old Navy! For dinner Mom came over and we had steaks on the grill, some roasted potatoes, a salad and garlic bread.

I think I could get the hang of this birthday thang! :)

What Cures Pneumonia?

Chocolate covered strawberries!
(Sigh!)

Have I mentioned, lately that I have the best In-laws!

I FEEL GOOD...

I DIDN'T THINK THAT I WOULD....

I FEEL NICE, LIKE SUGAR AND SPICE...

I FEEL GOOD, SO GOOD, I DON'T HAVE FLU! DUM, DUM, DUM!

Happy Breathing!

I almost feel human. Much better today. I went back to the Doc for a recheck, they were kind of worried. I looked so much improved that he gave me a big hug when he walked in the door.
Trinity Mother Frances is just like Cheers, and I'm Norm. Everybody knows my name. I walk in and they all shout "Justine!"

My orders are to keep doing what I'm doing, and I have to do breathing treatments for a MONTH! At this point though, I'll stand on my head if that's what they tell me to do because there is no way I can ever have this again. Talk about grateful. Never has a person been so grateful for being able to take a breath. That whole oxygen thing is NOT overrated! And evidently my body LOVES oxygen. I go back and have another chest x-ray on my birthday. Oxygen, X-ray, cake. I told ya'll this thing would end with cake, didn't I.

Mom went with me and said "No exercise, right?" (As if I'm complaining about not getting my workout in.) And he says, "As tolerated. For instance, if you went home and got on your bike and drove out of the drive-way, you'd probably fall down halfway down the block. I call that a sign from above."

At this point I need to take a minute and do a public service announcement and say, for everybody who still has a pack of cigarettes in their possession. Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame on you. Put em down, walk away, take a big ol' breath of air. I'll say it again, I have never felt so horrible in my whole life. I detest guilt as a form of manipulation, but shame, shame, shame.

John's Spring Concert is about to get underway. He was of course disappointed that I wouldn't be coming, but when I had to bow out, that meant none of the kids went either. He was pretty upset. But hopefully Charlie will get some of it on video.

More Thoughts on Pneumonia. Don't Worry, I've Still Got a Million of Them.

I'm cautiously optimistic today. It's been a pretty good breathing day.

Yesterday I went back to the Doc cause it still wasn't good. They were suprised to see me. I got blood work and another x-ray, after he looked at everything, he came in shaking his head and I said, "I'm gonna live, aren't I?" "Yep, but it's gonna be a rough couple of days." He tried to get me a hospital bed but they didn't have any room at the inn. My only option was to go sit in the ER. And those are my standing orders if I get any worse. Straight to the E.R. But I got two more shots and we upped my breathing treatments to five a day. I had another good nights sleep and woke up feeling a little better. The worst part today is just that the breathing treatments upset my stomach, so just overall I still feel crappy. But I'm hungrier today, so I think I'm coming around. I feel like overall I'm coughing less, but that feeling goes away quickly when I start having one of those hacking fits.

Tomorrow is Tyler's Spring Band Concert, and I had resigned myself to not going. But tonight, I'm thinking maybe I could make it. It's just whether or not I had one of those coughing fits in the middle of the concert....

The Z-dog keeps a smile on my face while I'm recouperating. With things like, "If we had bars on the walls right here, and then some bars, over there, I could just swing, swing, swing." That's my boy. He also insulted my number one Nana today, I was still in bed when she got here and when she walked in he said, "Why are you here?" and she said something about helping out to which he replied, "You should be invited before you come over." I'm gonna have to put the smack-down on that boy! If he runs off the lady that makes me toast and scrambled eggs when I don't feel good enough to do it myself, I'm voting him off the island.

One for the Grandkids

Hopefully this blog will be saved for you guys in one form or another and when you get to this entry, I want you to bookmark it for me, because this will be the section to read "When Nini got Pneumonia."

One day your Mom's and Dad's are gonna say, "Come on kids, get in the car, it's time to go see Nini and Pawpaw." and you guys are gonna groan and somebody near the back will say "I don't want to go to Nini and Pawpaw's" and somebody's smart Momma will say, "But Nini always has chocolate cake and ice cream when we come." and somebody will pop-off and say, "Yeah, but Nini will want to talk about the time she got Pneumonia!" and the crowd will do a collective eye roll.

You guys can read all the entries so that when you come over, you can join in and commiserate with me. And when Nini gets teary-eyed at the part where they would have liked to put her in the hospital but there weren't any beds, you can pat me on the back and say, "Take a big deep breath Nini, and let's have some more chocolate cake!" And you'll make a little old lady so happy, because I see this thing ending with cake and ice cream.

Guess What I'm Giving Up For Lent? PNEUMONIA!

EASIEST

LENT

EVER!

CAN I GET A WHAT-WHAT FROM THE SENIOR SECTION??!!

How Do I Feel?

Like I've had it.

I'm at the end of my rope.

How long can a person be sick without going crazy.

About 8 days.

I went for my recheck yesterday and I'm feeling better. I've made it up the scale from "speed of a sloth" to "speed of a turtle".

P.A. Mike said, "You want to see your x-rays?"
"Oh! Can I?"
"Sure! You should, it's a Doozie!" (I like Mike the P.A.)
So I got to see my lung that looks like it's almost filled to the top with smoke.
"Do I have to cough all that out!?"
"Oh no, it just clears up." (thank the lord, cause that would literally be hawking up a lung.)

Mom had spent the day with me, so she helped me put the house to rights. And by help me, I mean she put the house to rights, while I waited for her to sit down so we could watch Celebrity Apprentice on my DVR.

When I got home from my appt. she brought the kids home from school and we lined everybody out and I took Melee' with me to go to Ace's first soccer practice. He was my legs and lungs on the field. It was slightly amusing watching them herd chickens for a while. The best part was that we're practicing by a lake, the field is fenced off with chain-link and just when she had gotten every one of the five year olds into position, one kid yell's "I SEE A GATOR!" and they all go tearing over to the chainlink fence. Priceless.

Then when we got home Mom was gone and Charlie was finshing grilling the chicken I had left for him. And with the help of two tums and a prilosec (Dr. approved) I was able to eat a small piece of chicken and some green beans. All in all sounds like a two-thumbs up kind of day right?

There's just something about going to bed that's just killing it for me. I was exhausted when I got home. I haven't driven a car in a week! A WEEK YA'LL! I could hardly hold my head up at eight. After I kissed the Little's goodnight, I hung in till around 8:30 and then finally just had to give in and go to bed. My body is tired, but I'm not tired. I want to go to bed and sleep, but I can't. I've had my breathing treatment, I just want to lay down. And then the coughing starts. It's not gut wrenching or anything, just a nusance. And I cough and I turn and I cough some more and I roll over again and then I blow my nose and then I cough some more and then I get a drink of water and wai t - I got it - I got it - no. More coughing. cough. cough. roll. shift. cough. cough. 20 minutes later. potty break. We start over again. By nine thirty my mind is racing like I'm running a marathon.

What is WRONG WITH YOU!
I'M NOT TIRED!
YES YOU ARE, YOUR EXHAUSTED GO TO SLEEP!
I CAN'T, YOU WON'T QUIT COUGHING!
YES I CAN just give me a sec.
IT BEEN AN HOUR!
It's all got to settle to the horizontal plane.
YOUR LUNG'S NOT THAT BIG!
YOU HEARD HIM SAY IT'S A DOOZIE!
IF YOU'RE NOT ASLEEP IN FIVE MINUTES, I'M GETTING BACK UP.
OKAY THEN SHUT-UP!

So when I got up at three-thirty to go to the potty and started coughing as soon as I layed down, I should of just gotten right back up. But I rolled around for an hour before I decided to get up and have a banana and make a glass of ice tea. If I drink another glass of water I'm gonna hurl. So I decided to take my crazy talk and write it down because I don't think I should be eating banana's, drinking tea and and talking crazy to myself at four-thirty in the morning. I'm not sure the Dr. would think I'm getting well.

Flu, Shmoo

I went back to the Doc at 1:00 today and he says I have "Big Honkin' Pneumonia". A breathing treatment, two shots and new anti-biotics. I'm so relieved. I felt so bad this morning, that I thought I was a little bit crazy. I've been waiting for the clinic to open since I got up sometime around seven this morning. We got there 15 minutes early and were fifth in line and by the time they opened the door at one, there were thirteen people in line. Wow!

Help!! We've Got the Flu and We Can't Get Up!

I must preface this by saying, we never get sick. That being said we've been sick more since we moved here just over a year ago. Evidently the country bugs are a little hardier than the city bugs.

It all started three weeks ago. Yep, three weeks ago. In my last post I outlined the start of it and ended the post with Ace having a fever on Sunday. I sent Peach to school on Monday as she had been fever free most of Saturday and all of Sunday. At one o'clock the school called and said she had a fever of 103. We ran over and picked her up, went to CVS to restock medicines and bought a vaporizer. Back home medicined up, then Momma started feeling bad. I had to call in the Nanna troops again and she picked up the boys and we started to prepare for them to stay the night with her because I wouldn't be sending anyone little to school the next day. By Tuesday I had developed the cough. On Wednesday about 30 minutes after I got up the fever rolled in and I spent most of the day immobile and on the verge of tears. I spent the entire day unsuccessfully trying to control my fever. I have never felt so miserable in my whole life. I can say without a shadow of a doubt I have never had the flu before. On Thursday I sent Peach back to school because I'm basically going to be homeschooling her for the next week in addition to her regular school work. As the day wound down on Thursday I knew I was going to have to go to the Doctor my cough came back and I felt like I couldn't breath. I was only able to sleep 40 minutes total that night, four different sessions of ten minutes. I could not lean back without having a coughing attack the only time I was not coughing was when I was leaning forward. Friday after Nan took the boys to school, she came by and picked me up and took me to the Direct Care Clinic I signed in seven minutes after they opened and the place was already packed. After an hour and fifteen minutes I was in and minutes later having a breathing treatment. Evidently there are medicines for the flu but they have to be taken in the first 48 hours. And either I've developed asthma or my body decided to react like I had asthma and I was having bronchial spasms. They sent me home with an anti-biotic and some Prednisone. After the breathing treatment I felt much better and he said after I took my medicine I would be feeling better in about 6 to 8 hours. I was still sort of in a daze and so I didn't ask alot of questions like, "What if I don't feel better in 6 to 8 hours?" or "What if the crackling noise comes back when I breath?". So Mom picked me up and deposited me back home and I took a shower and tried to stand up every once in a while. Mostly because my ass hurt from sitting in a recliner for the last 300 hours and I thought I was going to be able to sleep because I hadn't had but about 2 and a half hours of sleep out of the last forty eight, but could I sleep. NOOOOOOOO. At four o'clock the crackle started to come back. NOOOOOOOO! I changed the flu infested sheets (first time in a week) I put some towels in the wash. Because evidently when you start to feel a little better, your able to smell your own stench. I called Charlie and said "You're coming home straight up at 5:00, right?" Because evidently the second thing that happens when you start to feel better is that you realize you haven't eaten anything solid in over 36 hours. And the crackle started to get a little better as I got closer to the 8 hour mark. So Charlie hit the door with the little's, my dinner, and two movies. I devoured most of my food, and then decided I was going to see if I could sleep as my temperature was on it's way up. I intended to take some NyQuil to put the final kibosh on the coughing and to put me down for the count, but the Prednisone came with a healthy list of don'ts so I lowered the ante to two Tylenol P.M.s. And although I still coughed some through the night and woke up twice and found myself sweating like an ape, I can say for the most part, I had a nights rest. At about 1:00 today, Ace climbed up in my lap and had a fever. Charlie is now on his way to the Direct Care clinic with him.

I haven't been at the helm of my ship for a week. And what under normal circumstances should have been a week's HOLIDAY, was actually one of the Worst Weeks Ever. Charlie is ready for me to be better, he says he sucks at being a Mom. Mom had to bring John over for some books Wednesday afternoon and when they were on their way back to her house and he let out a big sigh and said "I feel better now." "What?" Nan said, "I feel better now that I've seen Mom." That old toughie. I still have the will to live. Just barely.

Post in Pictures

This is how God speaks to me at the end of every day. Most days he says. "See, you made it through another one. I bet you can do it one more time." That's because lately, everyday has been someone else getting sick. Remember a couple of weeks ago when everyone took turns with the stomach virus? This week it was the flu. Monday and Tuesday was Melee' , he went back to school on Wednesday, when I took John for his root canal and Peach who had a six year molar taken out because it had a large hole in it and another cavity that had to be filled (and one more cavity to be filled on March the fourth) because I am the worst mother on the face of the earth. Then on Thursday Peach got the flu which has kept her down until today, followed quickly by Ace who came in at 6:00 a.m. with a fever of his own.

This is Melee', whose team went undefeated and won first place in his age group. He got called out for his hair being too long last week, so I had to cut his hair in between handing out doses of Advil.

This was Peach on the one hundredth day of school. All of first grade dressed up like little old people. Benjamin Button's got nothin on us.

How much does your husband love you when he sends you flowers like this when you don't even have any co-workers to eww and ahh over them so that he gets extra-extra credit? He got extra-extra credit by bringing home Peach a peach rose of her own.

This was Ace at his "Art Show" at his Parents Day Out. Where I bought his Jackson Pollock inspired painting. Charlie and I had a really big giggle when we saw it. We're going down the line of artwork, looking at each puppy, fish, splatter art, mermaid, then glancing down to the card that names the artist. Until we come to the one that looks like a square napkin where someone harked up their spinach. After the giggle, we came to the conclusion that he got his art gene from Charlie. I look forward to posting his art for you all to enjoy!

No one has seen John since he's learned that I upgraded our phones to unlimited text.

Who Says Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend?

For those of you who "warmed our house" (if you know what I mean), I wanted to show you what a hundred and fifty dollars of your warmth bought me. I mean us.

Behold....JEWELRY .....

Dropping Like Flies

I went to pick up Ace Friday afternoon and they were handing out notes. Notes warning that the stomach flu was going around.

I should have known better. Should have just brought him home and started the chicken soup I.V. But I didn't. I brought him home, loaded him up on chocolate ice cream and then took him to soccer sign ups.

You see he's been talking about soccer sign ups non-stop since the signs went up in front of the elementary school. Countdown to soccer season had begun. "When is sign up?" "Do we go get my soccer shirt yet?" "When does practice start?" "How many days till sign-ups, now?" "Do I get soccer shoes?" "Can we get me a new soccer ball? I need a new one to practice with." How could I NOT be the first one in line for sign ups? And I was. And so I had created the perfect storm when I dropped him back off with his Dad so that I could run over to the neighbors and pick up my Mary Kay order.

In the four minutes that I was gone, he went straight upstairs to the playroom and hurled everywhere. Charlie was two minutes into cleaning up the aftermath when I got home.

The rest of the weekend....just fine and dandy. Not another bit of trouble.

Until this morning when I went to wake Peach up for school, found Melee' had sleepwalked into her room and climbed in bed with her. I got him up and sent him back to his room to get started getting ready for school. She got up, went to the bathroom and blew chunks. (The writing is now on the wall for Melee'.) So she was home from school today and since I had moved John's dentist appointment up to today at 10:00 I had to scramble the troops and bring in Nana-forcements. By the time Nan arrived to hold down the fort she was up and around and Nan was convinced she was faking it. Off to the High School to take John, an hour and a half later he had a root canal scheduled for Tuesday. (A ROOT CANAL! HE'S FIFTEEN!) Back home, Nana was still convinced Peach was shining on, but after she left, poor Peach never got off the couch. When her Daddy got home, he came in groaning of stomach pain and joined her on the coach. John went to bed complaining his stomach didn't feel good, but he's convinced it was from the fluoride he ingested today.

I've already pulled out the trundle in Peach's room. Everyone that is not me, is now in quarantine.

News of Extended Silence

I know, I haven't written in almost a month. I looked on my camera and I haven't taken a picture since Christmas.

Help, I've fallen on my couch and I can't get up!

You see it all started at Thanksgiving. When we passed around one of the gag gifts and took our blood pressure, I suddenly realized why I was having a lot of headaches. Woops! So off I went to the Dr. and started on my Toporol prescription. The Dr. said, "Now I hesitate to say this, because sometimes, when a person hears about a side-effect, they'll think they have it. But that being said, Toporol sometimes makes people feel tired or fatigued." So sure enough, as soon as I started taking it, I felt tired. But really not so much tired as sleepy. But I thought "Well, maybe I'm making it up, or maybe I just need to get used to it." By the end of the month it had not gotten any better. No matter how much sleep I got, I still felt like I needed to go back to bed as soon as I got back from dropping off the kids.

I called the Dr.'s office and told them the deal and they called in a new medicine for me. I felt IMMEDIATELY better! I even started back to the gym. And then two weeks later I broke out in a rash.

Yeah.

So then I went back to the Dr. got a steroid for the rash, and a new blood pressure medicine. The next day...back on the couch. Rash free...but on the couch nevertheless. But I don't usually put two and two together right away. I spend a few days to a week thinking I'm crazy before I realize, "Oh, maybe it's this medicine I'm taking!" Another week on the couch and I'm back in the Dr.'s office having my blood drawn, and learning about Beta Blockers, Calcium channel blockers, and something else I can't remember. We decide I need to go back on the second medication to make sure without a shadow of a doubt that I'm allergic to it. So after two weeks of struggling to do ANYTHING, I take the medication, take the kids to school, come home and do three loads of laundry, make every bed, pick up every room, do two loads of dishes, vacuumed the living room including under the couches and chairs, and I never broke a sweat.

That night, you guessed it, I started itching. Technically, I don't have a rash yet, but it's not looking good for the Calcium Channel Blockers.

In the meantime, life has gone on. I hope to catch you up with some pictures of my new curtains, an exciting tale that includes cops, and more stomach flu - because I know you love a good vomit story.