I Heart Faces Weekly Challenge ... Innocent Wonder

So this week's challenge theme over at I Heart Faces is "Innocent Wonder".  I just love this picture of Ellianna admiring her new baby doll.  She truly loves and cares for her babies as if they are real, she kisses them, talks to them, and wants everyone in the family to do the same.  I love that she is girly and enjoys wearing dresses and playing with her dolls ... I know that one day I will miss these days of innocence.

I Heart Faces Weekly Challenge ... Winter Wonderland

So this week's challenge is "Winter Wonderland" ... but seeing as how we live in Southern California ... and the fact that it's been 80-something degrees this past week, it's hard to get into the spirit of this theme.  So, I am entering an old photo that I took of Ellianna when she was about 10 months old (and now she's almost 3).  Since we don't get snow here, we don't have a need for winter clothing, snow suits, etc.  I don't even think my kids have ever even seen snow!  I love all the snowy pictures of kids bundles up, but this is about as winterized as she's gonna get!

It's a Plan C kind of day ...

Well, like I said in my opening blog description ... I should just start life on Plan C.  Today the plan has changed many times, first plan was to go to first service at church but we weren't up in time, second plan was to go get a dollhouse for a friend at a local antique store but when we went to leave, we couldn't fit it in the car because Brandon didn't believe me when I said it was big and he didn't unload the chairs he had in the back of the car so I had to go back to get it later.  Then I remembered that I had volunteered to take a meal to a friend from my MOPS group because she just had a baby so we rushed home so I could get something together; however, when we got home we discovered that Brady had a super high fever (went from 102.6 to 103.4 in about 20 minutes).  So we had to get a call into his hematologist at Children's Hospital to see if he needed to go to the ER ... he wasn't showing any signs of sickness like a cold/flu but was really lethargic and didn't want to eat or drink.  He normally gets his shots on Mondays and Thursdays but the hematologist said to bump it up one day and go ahead and give him his shot early so he could hopefully start fighting any infection that was present.  She also advised to give him motrin to get the fever down (which we aren't normally supposed to do but since he was getting the shot we would know that his bone marrow should start over-producing soon).  He then fell asleep for a nap and I realized that there was no way I was going to get a meal together to be delivered, so thankfully my friend was very understanding and I ordered her some pizzas to be delivered instead (I'm sure her other two kids will be happy with that choice).  Lastly, the plan was for the kids to spend the night with grandma so we could have a date night, but obviously that plan got scratched, too.

So now it's time to get Brady up from his nap and re-evaluate him for fever and lethargy and call the hematologist back.  If his fever is still up and he's not acting normal then he will most likely have to go down to Children's ER to have labs done and get evaluated by the dr.  Please keep him in your prayers today that his body will start fighting whatever is causing him to spike the fever as there is no obvious reason.

I'll update again later when I get a chance.

What to write about ...

Well, having a blog set up makes me feel the need to write something ... hmmm, but what?

I have been having insomnia again the past few nights, not being able to go to sleep until about 3am (and even then I don't feel tired and have trouble actually falling asleep) ... I sleep best around 6am, right before the kids are due to be waking up.  I should probably do something productive with my sleepless nights but mostly I just sit, and enjoy the quiet, and find mindless things to occupy the time (like facebook) and before I know it, it's the early morning.  I just don't have any energy to do anything once the kids are finally asleep and I'm in quite a bit of pain nearly constantly ... partly from dealing with the kids antics all day and partly from just not feeling well in general from this lupus (or whatever it is) thing along with the medication.  I had to apologize to Brandon today for being so on edge, but the lack of sleep with the combination of medical issues and weaning off the medication are not a good combination for me.  I can't even fully explain how I feel other than I just don't feel right, so I am sure it's hard for him to understand when I can't even fully explain how I am feeling ... I will be really happy when I am fully off the steroids as I really think that is a big part of the problem.

At least we have some activities to keep the kids busy ... yesterday Ellianna had her tap/ballet class in the morning, Brady had preschool and then both kids had a hip hop dance class in the evening.  Plus, Brandon had a doctor appoint and I had a dentist appointment yesterday so we were busy!  Today Brady had preschool and Brandon was able to go to the gym, leaving Ellie and I home to relax (or in Ellie's case, to eat and eat and eat).  Tonight the kids go to Awana's which means Brandon and I get a mini-date night (an hour and a half to eat in peace without cutting up someone else's food)!

Brandon got released to go back to work in 2 weeks so things will be changing a bit as we don't know what his new schedule will be ... income-wise we are hoping he will at least be able to go back 4 days a week, hopefully 5, but it we will have to see if he is physically able to handle that much.  The good news is we won't have to pay Cobra for our health insurance anymore!  Once we know Brandon's work schedule we'll need to figure out what I am going to do as far as a job ... there's not much out there.  I also need to find some time to study for my licensing exam which I have to take before mid-March ... although I am highly anticipating that I will have to re-take it.  If I don't take it before the deadline, then I have to start the whole process of earning 3,000 experience hours again, but if I take the exam and don't pass, then I will automatically be granted a one-year extension to take the exam again ... so my plan is to take it whether I am ready for it or not and if by some miracle I pass, then I will begin studying for the second exam and be closer to being licensed which will give me more job options.  I had just begun regularly studying for the exam last year before Brandon's incident and haven't given much thought or studytime to it since then ... not sure I retained any information!

One thing that I completely love doing is taking pictures ... and anyone who knows me, knows that I most often have a camera in hand and probably have nothing short of about 20,000 photos or so of my kids.  I am exploring starting a photography business to at least be able to earn some income while being able to have some flexibility around Brandon's schedule at Trader Joe's.  I have no idea what, if anything, it might blossom into, but it is something I have tossed around for awhile and can't think of a better time to explore that option.  So working on that plan has kept me somewhat occupied the last few evenings of insomnia (working on a website, blog, etc.) ... stay tuned for more info. on the photography biz!

Well, for starting out saying I didn't know what to write about, I sure found plenty to say to fill up the space!  I am now on the countdown until the kids wake from naps and round 2 begins ... only a few more moments of quietness!

I Heart Faces Weekly Challenge

So, I have been following a photography website for quite awhile now but haven't joined in any of the weekly photo challenges they have because you need a blog to participate ... so now that I have finally created a blog, I might as well enter a photo into the weekly challenge (since I may have just taken a few this week).  The challenge this week is "Smile".  I had no trouble finding a picture of one of the kids smiling, but I'm sure no one wants to see the "cheese" smiles I usually get.  I had the camera out yesterday playing with the new lens and captured this ... it just truly melts my heart ... I didn't even ask for a smile for this picture, I just held up the camera and got this great grin!  She looks so much older in this picture and makes me realize that her baby days are done but she is a pretty darn adorable 2-year-old if I do say so myself!

Welcome ...

So I am a little late in the game of getting into blogging but thought "heck, everyone else is doing it, why not?"  So, here I am spending the kids naptime setting one up (although I probably should have napped along with them today).  For those of you who know me, I am going through the testing to finalize a suspected diagnosis of lupus and have been on prednisone (steroids) for over a month with a lot of unpleasant side-effects.  I am now weaning off the prednisone to hopefully go on another medication that supposedly helps with lupus (but is ironically an anti-malarial drug).  Good news is that I am VERY happy to be going off the prednisone as the side effects are very unpleasant making me feel crazy and on edge, having my heart race for no reason, and being hungry ALL the time.  Bad news is that it will take between 2-3 weeks to get completely off of it and then another week or so to get it out of my system before I can start the new medication.  As I am weaning off the medication, I am having quite a few bad days again and today is one of those days ... I woke up feeling like I was beaten with a baseball bat and could hardly get out of bed.  Plus we have been dealing with the flu around our house for the past 4 days (both kids got it and now Brandon seems to have a mild case of it as well).  So this morning included both kids feeling fine and full of energy after being down with the flu for a few days, but both mom and dad barely able to keep up ... this meant they had full run of the house to make messes and get into things without anyone really caring!

I did manage to get a chicken in the crockpot this morning so we will have dinner and to keep the kids occupied for a short while I had them help chop up a bunch of apples and made homemade applesauce with them ... the house smells wonderful!  As the end of naptime approaches, it's almost time for Round 2 with the kiddos ... maybe we'll find a movie that will keep their interest, although that is a challenge since they are not big tv-watching kids.

I also set up this blog to recommend items on Amazon (and I think if you click on any of the links I have recommended on here, I can earn incentives for the recommendation, but I don't really know how it works for sure) ... so to try it out I am going to link one of Brady's most favorite things he got for his birthday from his grandma Jill ... the Vtech Reader ...  he absolutely LOVES this thing and it keeps him occupied before bed and has made bedtime a breeze since he now can't wait to play with it and listen to stories ... the books to go with it are a bit pricey but the reader itself comes with one book and you can download 6 more on the website with an added SD card.  His favorite stories (purchased separately) are Dora and Toy Story 3!  He is getting so big and can do most everything on the V.Reader by himself ... it reads books to him, lets him touch each word to hear it read and tell him the definition, and has games that help with letter recognition and spelling.

Okay, I am going to end my first blog here and find a way to spread the word that I actually set one up ... or else I will be the only one reading it!