Belated Birthday Dinner

Grandma and Grandpa Faust took us to Hacienda to celebrate Brian's birthday. We didn't take many pictures, but we still had fun. Lucas' new favorite thing to do is "ip", that's "dip." He loves tortilla chips and dipping them into chili con queso. He also loves dipping his waffles & fingers into syrup and had a blast dipping his fries in bbq sauce and honey mustard the other night. He loved his green balloon and pointing out the moon and geese to Grandpa after dinner. I can't wait for warmer weather. Lucas just loves being outside. Spring?! Where are you?!

Nice Hair!

This is what happens when Mommy puts you down for a nap right after a bath. Pretty sweet, huh?

How unfortunate

We finally got Lucas to start saying Pacey's name instead of just calling him "doggie." Unfortunately, he calls him "Pee-Pee."

In a funk?

I think we are in a funk! I am trying to get out of it, but it has just been one thing after another! First, it was a week in the hospital, bleh! I'm still trying to recover from it, although now I think I am feeling the side effects of the medication. My symptoms are being well controlled, but I feel awful. I am extremely tired, I don't sleep well at night, my legs ache and I am nauseated and achy when I wake up every morning. What do you do when the treatment is almost worse then the disease? One positive is that we have finally sold our house and if everything goes as planned we will close on March 20th. Yea! We were very excited to start looking for our own place. Brian called our bank to get the process of pre-approval for a home loan started. He was practically hung up on when he told them he was self-employed. Apparently no one will provide you a loan until you have 2 years worth of W2's to verify income. Why is everyone poopin' in our pool?! This is such a downer! After getting over this disappointment and coming to the conclusion that we have to rent, I started looking for rental homes in the area. I hopped onto Craigslist and stumbled across an ad for an awesome 4 bedroom home in the exact neighborhood we were wanting to buy in! The price was right and I was excited. I immediately emailed the owners and received an email back. The owners stated they were missionaries currently residing in Africa. A little weird, but I filled out the application and emailed them back requesting more details regarding an in town contact and how exactly we would pay rent to a person living in another country. We received an email back stating they wanted us to rent their home and please call them to start the process of getting the keys and paperwork. Brian actually phoned the guy, yes, we called Africa and I don't even want to know how much that cost us! Anyway, the man spoke with a heavy accent and asked us to send the deposit, which was refundable and they would send us the keys to look at the house. If we liked it, all we would have to do is send the first month rent and we could move in. The man also said that they left about 6 months ago and no one was currently living in the house. What this man didn't know is I am friends with the family who live right next door to the house in question. My friend told me there was a family currently living in the home, but they were renters. Another funny twist is the current renters are coworkers of another friend of mine. This was getting weird. Brian and I actually drove to the home today to find out the scoop from the current renters. Yes, we should be private investigators! Unfortunately, the renters were not at home. When we got back home Brian tried to call Africa again, but the phone call was not going through or the man was not answering. We sent him an email explaining what we found out and gave him a chance to explain. We are still awaiting his response. For some reason I don't think we are going to get one back. Brian did some more online research and actually found the legitimate rental site for the home. We viewed the pictures of the house and they were different from the ones listed on the Craiglist website. Brian called the owner of the property and she confirmed that it was a scam and stated something similar happened last year with Craigslist and the people actually lost money. Moral of the story, if sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Dang! More poop in our pool! This afternoon we contacted our realtor in Bloomington and he set us up with a local agent here in town. We are now looking into the possibility of a lease to own home. Our new realtor is going to do some research for us and hopefully find us some properties to look at. I guess nothing worthwhile is easy, but c'mon!! Can we catch a break? Anyone?!
After such a weird morning/afternoon we decided to get out of the house. Lucas took an early nap and woke up right about the time I was about to fall asleep. I didn't feel well this morning, but just sitting around the house was driving me nuts. I think Lucas is getting bored at home, too. Our schedule has been so wacky these past couple weeks. We decided to head to the mall to walk around and let Lucas play in the play area. I only took a few pictures. Lately he refuses to look at the camera or moves before I get the good smiley picture.
I guess I will wrap things up. Thanks for listening/reading my rant. I think I am done and I feel better. Blogging, its the new kind of therapy!

Kinda Spooky

Does anyone else have "rogue" toys. You know they ones that start going off when no one is around? Lucas has this Melissa and Doug alphabet puzzle. When you put the letters in, it says the letter and a word. The darn thing only works about 10% of the time, but will go off randomly when no one is near it. The voice kinda freaks me out. Today it was repeating "S is for Star" over and over. I swear it sounded more and more angry every time it said it. Freaky!

Brian's Birthday

Recap of the day:
~Daddy got a french toast breakfast
~Lucas and Mommy headed out to the grocery store for a cake mix
~Lucas decorated Daddy's Birthday card
~Lucas and Mommy baked Daddy's traditional birthday Lemon Cake
~Grammy and Papa took us out for dinner
~Lucas helped Daddy open his gift
~Lucas and Daddy played until bed

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

Today is my Daddy's birthday. I love my Daddy so much and I hope he has a great day! I love you Daddy!

Love,
Lucas

*Stay tuned for more pictures from Daddy's birthday later today.

Lets Do Work!

Here is Lucas catching up on some emails and other work yesterday. And yes, that is a vacuum attachment in his hand. He was pulling double duty. Apparently we believe in child labor in our house. :)

My New Coat

I was at Kohls about a month ago and they had all their winter coats on sale. I found a really heavy coat for Lucas to wear next winter. It was originally $70 and I got it for $21. I debated over it, hoping to get the right size for next year, but thought for sure I would kick myself if I didn't buy it and was faced with paying full price next winter. This mama would NEVER spend $70 on a toddler coat. That is crazy talk! I ended up buying a size 3T. I had not tried it on him until this morning when he noticed it hanging on the back of the door. I put it on him and he refused to let me take it off. So he spent the morning playing in his pj's and over sized winter coat. What a character.

Finding our new "normal"

A week in the hospital can really take a toll. I came home yesterday afternoon. Today was great. Lucas was able to have Mommy and Daddy home with him. He woke up to both of us here ready to love on him. He was so sweet and came up to each of us and laid his head in our lap and said our name. I don't feel close to 100%. About 75%. When you spend a week in a hospital bed being pumped full of antibiotics, fluids, steroids and pain meds on top of the condition that landed you in the hospital in the first place it takes awhile to recover. My body feels like someone elses. The steroids make me feel restless, like my skin is crawling from head to toe. I am weak. I want to get back to being a wife and mommy. This morning we did some laundry and cleaning. Lucas was awesome and took a great nap so I could rest, then for the first time in a week I put a little makeup on and did my hair and we headed to the grocery store for a few things. Its nice to feel human again. Here are some pictures of us this evening. This mama missed her baby so much!

(((Hugs!)))

Tickle fight! Mommy always wins :)

Just being silly!

Mmmm, fruit strips

This looks kind weird, but I am kissing Lucas all over his face

and neck and he thinks it is hilarious

Pampered Pup

My parents adopted their German Shepard from a local breeder. She was a former show dog and her previous owner is a groomer. She wanted to continue to groom the dog even after my parents adopted her. The only grooming Pacey has ever had is a bath and nail trim. I love how hairy he is and don't really see the point to grooming him. He needed his nails trimmed and my mom was taking her dog to the groomer so I gave her permission to take Pacey along and have the groomer clean him up. My only rule was to not cut off all his tail hair. (It is longer then my hair and I love it.) Here are the before and afters...

Before...look at those feet!

After:

Bows!! How humiliating! I know he is pretty, but HE is a BOY!

Bye-Bye hairy feet!

Exhausted after his day of beauty!

Lots of Park Pictures

It was simply gorgeous today. We met Jenny & Noah and Amy & Austin at the park to get a healthy dose of sunshine. I tried to get a picture with the other boys, but they were all so excited to be out and playing that they wouldn't stay still for it. Us moms tried to socialize, but most the time we were running in opposite directions of each other after our boys. It was fun anyway!

It looks like he is in timeout, but he actually ventured over to

this bench all by himself, climbed up and took a few minutes to

rest.

sickness begone(!), 17 months & funny pics

Long time, no blog! I think it is safe to say that Brian and Lucas are over their tummy bugs, but this Mama is having trouble kicking it. I was better and feeling good by Friday. Lucas and I went to Kindermusik in the morning, but after lunch I was feeling "not so hot." I barely slept that night and "round two" started early Saturday morning. I spent all day Saturday in a drug induced coma thanks to good 'ol Phenergan. Great drug for nausea, not so great if you need to function. Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa were happy to babysit while I slept. Today I am feeling somewhat better. Hopefully the trend will continue the rest of the week.

Lucas turned 17 months old today. Gosh, how time flies! He is doing great and his two new phrases are "bigh bive!" (high five) and "Big Cheese!" You will also hear him chanting "oh-we-oh," like the monkeys in The Wizard of Oz, at various times during the day. What a nut! He also enjoyed a visit today from Grandma and Grandpa Faust. Grandma brought him a cool new book full of pictures of puppies and kittens. It was perfect.

Now for the funny pics...

Abby needs some BIG prayers!

Little Abby needs some big prayers today. She was admitted to the hospital a couple/few days ago. She has developed mucositis sores. They are sores of the soft tissues and she can get them anywhere there is soft tissues inside and outside of the body. They are very painful and a result of the chemo treatments. She is on constant morphine. Her lungs are "junky" and she is having difficulty breathing. She has no immune system right now. Pray for her healing and for her parents to have guidance in how to best care for her. Her Dad will post another update this afternoon. My heart breaks for this little girl. Please pray for her.

Click on Abby's button on the sidebar to learn her whole story.

One of Lucas' new Fav's

click on the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fciD_II7NI

Tummy Trouble!

2nd Update: Well it has been a mess here, to say the least! Monday night Brian started vomiting. Early Tuesday morning I started vomiting. Lucas continued to have diarrhea all through the night. Once I realized Brian and I were both ill I went upstairs to ask my Mom if it would be possible for her to stay home to help with Lucas and take him to the peds. I went upstairs to find out that she had been vomiting since 1am! What a disaster! I went back to bed, but not for long. I will spare you the details! By late morning I was driving myself to the ER, again! I was dehydrated and my potassium was low. I got some fluids, Zofran for the vomiting and potassium replacement. I felt a little better, but still really weak. Brian called the peds office and they didn't want to see Lucas because he didn't have any other symptoms and was keeping fluids down. Brian returned to work today. We are both still very weak and fatigued but the vomiting has stopped. Hopefully we will be better by the weekend. This week has been terrible!!

*Update: Add Brian to the list of "ones with tummy trouble." He is experiencing symptoms similar to mine. Perhaps I have a viral/bacterial thing...boy, we are having fun tonight!

Original Post:For the past week I have been dealing with some major tummy trouble. I have been experiencing sharp pains in my upper abdomen that radiate around to my back. Weird. They come and go and since I don't have a family doctor here I have been doing my best to ignore them. Saturday night I was so uncomfortable I couldn't sleep. By 9am on Sunday morning Brian and I were on our way to the ER. After many hours there my blood work and xrays came back normal. The doctor really couldn't give an explanation for the pain other than the possibility of spasms somewhere in the GI tract or maybe gallstones. Both of which would require further testing that could not take place on a Sunday. I received two shots for pain which was a little too much. I definitely think they over medicated me. I had to stay a little longer in the ER because my BP dropped and I became extremely nauseous. What fun!

When Brian called home to give my parents and update, we found out that Lucas was having blowout after blowout in his diaper and had already been given two baths. Geesh! Today the diarrhea continues with him, yet he is acting fairly normal. Poor kid. I don't think our belly troubles are related since my symptoms seem to be upper GI and Lucas' are lower. Hopefully, he will start feeling better tomorrow. Say a little prayer for him if you think of it. His little bootie is miserable!

Hope you all are doing better than us!