Summer... Vacation???

Apparently I never posted this... So it is nearly 5 months old, but here it is nonetheless!
Shortly after my last post, I packed myself and the kids up and Eric drove us to my parents' for the weekend before he returned home and my mom and I ventured on a road trip with the kids, sans husbands to her family reunion in Rose Bud, AR. Haven't heard of it? That's a shame! It is a thriving metropolis that has quadrupled in size in my lifetime  from 100+ to 400+ (I'm not sure if they started counting cows or what...) and to officially solidify its place on the map it now has a Dollar General! (still no traffic light or fast food chain, but they take what they can get). I jest. Rose Bud is where my mom grew up, most of her family is still in the vicinity, and is the place of my happiest childhood memories. This trip did not disappoint.

We got there Monday evening after the 8 hour drive that only required 2 stops, one for lunch/gas/potty and the last one was just 20 miles from our destination and Betsy had to potty again. I was thoroughly impressed with my kids! I dropped my mom off at my grandparents and the kids and I went to my cousin Valerie's house where we would stay.
She's awesome, so she took off work Tuesday and hung out with us. Tuesday night she had over some of my other favorite long lost cousins Janeen, Mandy (and her mom), and Emily and we stayed up late playing games and having a gay ole time! Wednesday, my sister, Becky, had arrived at my grandma's so we spent the day over there with Betsy's cousins. All this time, Jetson is not too sure of his constantly changing surroundings and was pretty clingy/whiny. Thursday, Becky and I (with our kids) drove into Searcy for lunch and some sister time, then back in time for a pool/snow cone party at Uncle Gary's for all the kids. Betsy had a blast with all  her cousins! (After our visit to Arkansas in Nov, when I told her all the new kids she met were her cousins, she tends to think ALL kids her age are her cousins. So I've been working with her on the difference between "friends" and "cousins" so she spent the whole trip checking, "Mom, is she/he a friend or a cousin?" Poor little kid may never figure it out... ) Friday, I had scheduled a haircut for my mom, Amberly, and myself with the girl who cut my hair when I lived in Conway. She is my favorite EVER and is half the cost of a place in Laredo AND I don't have to worry about things getting lost in translation. So I got a MUCH OVERDO haircut and absolutely LOVE it! I'm sad I can't have access to April all the time!

After haircuts, the official reunion started and I got to see most of my mom's family. Out of 14 siblings, 10 were there, plus a lot of their offspring. We did do a count and as of present my grandparents have 70 grandchildren and 80 great grandchildren (of course there are a lot in the oven already, so that number increases pretty frequently!). I LOVE having such a big family! We have to hold it at the local high school cafeteria to accommodate us all. It was so good to see so many that it had been too long. The reunion lasted from Friday evening to Saturday evening and each night after everyone went their ways, a group would gather at Val's house and stay up WAY TOO LATE, WAY TOO many nights in a row. It was nonstop fun. We are a game playing family and Eric tends not to like to play games with me too often [he says he gets tired of losing ;)] so I got caught up on my game playing quota. Oh how I miss my family! We talked about it one night and really, we feel more like sisters than cousins. (After all they are all WAY closer in age to me than my actual sister.) We are extremely close.

Monday, the close cousins and I continued our little party up until I had to leave on Tuesday. I was ready to get back to some normalcy (more for Jetson than for me), but I did not want to leave all the fun.

I spent the rest of the week in Waco with my parents until Eric came up Friday night to spend the weekend up there. During the week there, Jetson finally became comfortable with his surroundings and took off walking EVERYWHERE. Sunday we drove home and it was so good to be back in my bed and have the kids back in theirs and have our whole family under one roof again! Time out of Laredo is nice, but I sure missed Eric! and single parenting is for the birds if you ask me!

Jetson is 1!!!! and sick...

Wednesday evening of last week, I noticed Jetson felt a little warm. I am a cold-natured person, so people are often warmer than me and I tend to think my kids may have a low-grade fever when others touch them and disagree, so I brushed it off as one of those times. When Eric got home that night, he was putting Jetson to bed and made the remark that he felt a little warm. I told him I had thought so to, but didn't know for sure.

Thursday morning when he woke up, he still felt warm and I couldn't find a thermometer, so I walked down to my brother's house to check his temperature. Using their borrowed thermometer, I found out he had a 101 point something. Not being terribly alarmed and just blaming it on teething, I went back home and put him down for a nap. Throughout the day I kept a check on his temperature and that night it reached 103.4. When Eric got home from work, we gave him a bath and some tylenol to help bring it down and then gave Jet a blessing, but were still basically blaming it on teething since there were no other symptoms of anything else (the thought of Roseola crossed my mind, since Betsy had it shortly after she turned 1, but the only way to diagnose it is to wait for the tell-tale rash to appear).

Poor sick little guy.

Friday morning he woke up with no fever, but by afternoon it was back up to 101. By evening, it was back up to 102.7 and I handed him off to Eric with instructions to watch it and keep giving him tylenol/motrin since I had a Girls Night Out planned. During the Girls Night Out, one mom shared a story of her son, who was sick, but she kept brushing it off thinking let it run it's course and he will get better, until the son asked to go the dr and the doctor had to admit him to the hospital.

Saturday morning (Jetson's Birthday) when Jet woke up with 102.5, I started thinking about the mom's story and wondering if I was being too nonchalant about this. So I called Eric at work and discussed it and he told me to call an urgent care clinic and see what they said/if we should bring him in. I called and the clinic told me I needed to take him to the E.R. This sent my emotions into a tailspin and I called Eric to come get us (we only have one car). I didn't think a trip to the E.R. was necessary (especially for our bank account), but still afraid after hearing the story the night before, we decided better safe than sorry. The E.R. looked at him and couldn't find anything wrong (since I had given him tylenol that morning, he didn't even have a temperature), except that one of his ears was a little red, so they wrote a prescription for an antibiotic and sent us home with instructions to keep him on the tylenol/motrin. Eric had to go back to work and I spent the afternoon trying to console Jet. When Eric got home at 5pm we tried to celebrate a little, but Jetson was just too sick and not up to it, so we decided to put it off a day.

entertainment while waiting in the E.R.

Poor guy tuckered out.

attempted celebration.

Sunday we went to church and his fever seemed to be gone. After church the kids napped and we got everything ready for a little party for Jet. My brother's family came down for cake and presents and Jetson tolerated it ok, but was still under the weather. After making a MESS with the cake, we gave him a quick bath and then had my brother give him his first haircut. Jetson's hair had been driving my brother crazy for weeks, but I insisted we wait for his birthday to cut it. So I finally let Josh have the clippers and hoped for the best! Even sick, Jetson was awesome and held completely still while Josh cut his hair! After the haircut we opened presents and everyone went home.

not really in the mood to party, but we did anyway.

messy boy. We couldn't get him to eat much that day, but cake he ate!

haircut

finished product.

Shortly after everyone was gone, I noticed a rash breaking out on Jetson's face... So we debated whether this was the Roseola manifesting itself or an allergic reaction to the antibiotic the hospital had put him on. I had already scheduled Jetson a doctor's appointment for Monday morning for his 1 year check up and immunizations, so we decided we would just wait and have the doctor look at it the next day.

This morning I called the doctor's office to let them know we wouldn't be getting immunizations, but needed to have a rash looked at. We get to the doctor and tell him the story of our weekend. He looked at the rash on Jetson's head and said it looked more like an allergic reaction than Roseola. He checked his ears and said they looked fine, but that his throat looked a little red and said he was going to switch the antibiotic to be safe. Then he checked his stomach and saw the rash there and said that did look like Roseola, so maybe that is what he has, so to keep giving him tylenol/motrin for pain and discomfort and give him benedryl for any itching (Jetson keeps rubbing his head like crazy). So after all this, ALL I know is I have a sick, irritable little baby, A LOT of medical bills coming my way, and a lot of medicine to give a little boy for "just in case" and I am exhausted! :(  BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY JETSON!

taking steps

Memorial Day Weekend '12

A lot of people may not know, but I am a hugely patriotic person. Memorial Day, to some, is the kick off of Summer, a day to head out to the lake, grill some food, and party it up. Nothing wrong with these things, as long as they aren't THE FOCUS of this day. So before I tell you about the fun we had that weekend, I would like to thank all the servicemen and women for the sacrifice they make for the freedoms my family and I enjoy. Since it is MEMORIAL day and it more specifically focuses on remembering those who died fighting for these freedoms and they aren't here to thank anymore, I would also like to thank the families left behind for their sacrifice of a loved one. I am truly, deeply grateful for you and sorry for the loss and sorrow you must feel.

In honor of our country and the servicemen and women who defend it, all weekend my family wears red, white, and blue as a silent reminder to ourselves (and others if they happen to notice) of why we have the holiday. Here in Laredo, the holiday seems to be glazed over. The schools don't even recognize it and let the kids out. This really rubs me the wrong way, because let's face it, if you need to eliminate a holiday to get the right number of days, there are others that could go before this particular one that honors the ultimate sacrifice.
(steps off soapbox)


But now on to the fun stuff that we got to do as a family.

Saturday, Eric had to work, but after he got home we took the kids swimming for the first real time. (We took them once before, but the water was too cold, so I didn't get in and Eric just took turns putting the kids in.) The weather was beautiful and the water was bearable. Jetson floated in his little floaty pretty content and Betsy got to where she would swim in her floaty swimsuit from Eric to me without anyone touching her! I really think if we took the time this summer we could have her swimming by the end of it, but finding the time to go to the pool consistently with both of us there is a little tricky... we'll see.

Sunday after church, we grilled out with my brother's family and ate delicious food then took a family walk to the park. We hung out there until it was dark, letting the kids play and climb trees, then fed the ducks, then went back to Josh's house and watched a movie all together and ate some yummy snacks. It was a nice relaxing day!

Monday, Eric and I woke up earlier than would normally be desired on a holiday and drove up to San Antonio (really to a town just north) and met my parents and grandparents at a condo they had rented for the week. We went out to eat lunch with them and then just relaxed at the condo and let the kids rest. That evening we grilled out again and then took some pictures of the four generations that were there, before heading home. It was a short trip up, but was very low key and extremely enjoyable! That weekend was perfect in my book!

These are my Mom's parents and the only living grandparents of either Eric or I.