Challenge Days 5, 6, 7, & 8

I know I haven't updated in awhile. Here's a twitter conversation between Cindy and me:

Cindy: you have been MIA lately...kids kill u?

Me: I've been captured and I'm being tortured. Send a babysitter. Quick.

Cindy: nanny and a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper? Got it! STAT!


And that's how it has been around here lately.

Dealing with the caffiene detox and 2 rowdy boys and a princess on top of that make for one big large headache.

Days 5 & 6 of challenge were not the greatest...6 Dr. Peppers each day. Awful. I know.

Day 7 : 3. Better.

Day 8: 2, but I really deserved 6.

Morning of day 8, we awake to find that things have been stolen from BOTH of our cars. Darling hubby left his one and only key in the ignition of his car and they stole that too. Not the car, just the key.

Filed police report, found a dealership that could make a key by just having his vin number for $10, and got all that taken care of. Hubby left for work.

I put Nathan down for a nap and needed to get ready to take him to the ENT, but instead I fell asleep on the couch watching cartoons with Sean. Turns out, Nathan did NOT take that nap and I woke up to find the house and rolls of wrapping paper unrolled and the tubes being used as swords.

Grandma shows up to watch Sean and Lauren, I get ready in 15 minutes (and looking like it only took 15 minutes), and head out the door.

We arrive at the dr.'s office at 2:45pm and right away we are taken in for a hearing test and then asked to sit back down in the waiting room.

At 4:30pm, I ask the receptionist if they forgot about us. She finds out that we are next. Fifteen minutes later we are taken back to a room where we wait another 15 minutes.

Doc comes in, exams Nathan, looks at his history, sets up a surgery date, answers questions, and we are finally out of there at 5:45pm.

I get lost in downtown. Hubby doesn't answer the 5 phone calls I make to him. I finally find my way back to where I started from to sit still in traffic. Nathan is grouchy and pitches a fit the whole way home. We walk in the door at 7pm and hubby wants to know why I'm so grouchy.

Hubby takes the boys and leaves to go get our Christmas tree. I think hubby is learning.

Challenge Day 4, Recipe, & SNOW!

I thought today would be harder since I messed up so badly yesterday, but I did a lot better with the challenge today and only had 3 1/2 Dr. Peppers!

I was saving this recipe for Sunday, but since it was SNOWING today I wanted a cold weather recipe! I first had Taco Soup at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago and it was sooo good. I found this recipe from Paula Dean and tried that out tonight! (I forgot to take pictures - sorry)

And, yes, I said that it was snowing today! Houston, TX had snowfall for the second year in a row!!! The boys loved it and drove me crazy all day about going outside. We would come in and warm up and then head back out again. This did result in all of us taking a 2 hour nap! The smiles and the nap were worth the cold!

(I did not take Lauren out since she is battling an ear infection; it will have to snow again next year for her.)

Challenge - Day 3

Let's just say...

it has not been a good day for me at staying away from the Dr. Peppers.

And leave it at that.

Challenge & Lauren

Yesterday was Day 1 of my challenge and I did pretty well only having 4 Dr. Peppers. You can not understand how Awesome that is for me even though it is still a lot.

When I woke up this morning, I thought for sure that the challenge would be out the window.

Lauren screamed and cried from midnight until 5am. Non. Stop. She had a small fever and I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I gave her Tylenol, I gave her gas medicine, I rubbed Oral gel on her gums.

We slept about 2 1/2 hours when it was time to get up and get ready for Mother's Day Out. I had my first Dr. Pepper to get jump started for the day. When I picked up Lauren to get her dressed, she was burning. hot. to. the. touch. 101.8 temp. So I called the Dr and made the appointment, took the boys to MDO, told the teacher I work with that I could not stay, and then came back home to feed Lauren before her appointment.

I thought for sure that we would be in and out of the Dr's office maybe with an ear infection, and then we could come home and sleep until time to get the boys.

I was so, so wrong.

10:30 am - arrive at the Dr's office, sign in, pay co-pay

11:00 am - still sitting in waiting room and making small talk with another lady in there with a 3 month old girl that Lauren could have eaten (she was so tiny)

11:10 am - Called back to a room.

11:11 am - Stop at the weigh station - Lauren weighs 14 pounds even!

11:12 am - sit in room, tell the nurse what's going on, Lauren gets her temp taken and it was gone!

11:20 am - Dr. comes in and I tell her what's going on, she checks Lauren out and can't find anything wrong, so she decides she wants to check her white blood cell count and get a urine sample.

11:30 am - in comes the nurse and she does a flu swab, a throat swab to check for RSV, pricks her finger for blood, and then puts a urine bag on Lauren to get the sample. My poor princess screamed the entire time.

11:45 am - Lauren is happy that I am holding her and she is enjoying a bottle.

11:50 am - Dr. comes in and says that white blood count is 3500 and normal is 1500. Urine sample is a little cloudy so they want to insert a catheter to get a cleaner more accurate sample.

noon - Dr. and nurse come in to insert catheter. Lauren screamed. and screamed. and screamed. I may not have ever heard her that mad before.

12:15 pm - Dr. comes back in and says that sample does not look infected but it will go to lab to make sure. Wants to send me to the hospital for a chest x-ray and blood work up.

12:45 pm - Directions and instructions in hand, I am on my way to the hospital.

1:15 pm - Arrive at hospital, have to drive around it 3 times before I figure out how to get in to the C parking lot.

1:30 pm - Register in admissions as outpatient and get directed to the lab and radiology.

1: 35 pm - Drop paperwork off at radiology and walk across hall to lab for blood work. Was very happy that the lady was very easy and only had to stab Lauren once for the blood. Lauren did not agree of even that one poke and was not happy.

1:45 pm - Back across hall to radiology and Lauren is screaming. I felt bad for sitting in the waiting room and not walking back out in the hall but I didn't want to miss her name being called.

1:46 pm - Lauren is called back!

2:05 pm - X-rays are done and we are headed to the car! Lauren did okay during the x-rays.

2:15 pm - I stop for lunch and my second Dr. Pepper, but I only have a few sips of it before getting back to the Dr's office.

2:20 pm - I don't have to sit in the waiting room at all at the Dr's office, but I have to wait for the results to be sent over from the x-ray.

2:45 pm - Dr says x-ray is clear and that we are going to give Lauren a shot of Rocephrin.

3:00 pm - In comes the nurse with the shot and when the nurse gives it to her, poor Lauren just looks at me like "what did I do to deserve all this?" and then screams and cries and screams and cries. We now have to wait to make sure there is no reaction to the shot.

3:15 pm - Shot site checked and we are cleared to go. Dr wants us back in the morning to re-check her white blood cell count. Results from everything won't be in for a few days, but Dr is thinking maybe a UTI.

3:25 pm - Tomorrow's appointment is scheduled and we are on our way home!

4:00 pm - We are home!!!

5 - 9 pm - Lauren and I snuggled in bed and took a very much needed nap.

9:10 pm - I was so thirsty and out of habit grabbed a Dr Pepper so now I am drinking my 3rd one of the day. (Even though my second one shouldn't count since I only had a few sips!)

10:30 pm - it took me forever to write this post and I am going back to bed!