Genius Husband

Allan has been doing some home improvement projects for me lately. I showed the new duck "pen" before and now I'll so the new lights. For the last year, in several of our rooms we've had generic ceramic fixtures with a bare bulb hanging. We went to Home Depot with the determination that we would fix this place up more. Seems we're always in a state of half-fixed, but we're on our way!
In the library we picked this Tiffany style semi-flush.

Which matches the Tiffany style chandelier we picked for the dining room. Super bonus, we've had our eyes on these for more than a year now, and they were both clearanced about 50% off. YIPEE!

He seriously never ceases to amaze me...he got both of those installed in a matter of about 45 minutes. It's amazing how much it improves the look of the rooms to have actual light fixtures!

We have several other things to install as we get time, so I'll keep posting pictures as we go. I told Allan last week, it was totally by accident we picked a 4-square home, but I swear it's the only style house/decorating we'd have ever agreed upon. Perfect for us!


In other news, Violet contracted RSV at school. Last week I took her to the Dr with a 103.3 degree fever and having a hard time breathing. They gave her some tylenol and a double dose of albuterol, (in a nebulizer) and her heart-rate sky-rocketed to nearly 200. I was terrified, to say the least! We monitered her until it went down a hair and the Dr decided to prescribe her Xopenex instead. (it doesn't have the side-effect of making your heart rate go nuts) Since then we've been giving her breathing treatments and listening to her cough her little lungs out. I tried to take her to school yesterday as she's doing lots better, but they sent her home again. Poor girl.

Then she gave it to her brother. *sigh*

I watched him closely for the first few days and just made sure to constantly keep him upright and to suction his nose frequently. He stopped nursing as much as usual 2 days ago and started having serious difficulty breathing yesterday. We took him to the Dr and they gave him a dose of albuterol, (he did fine on it) and monitored him. We nearly admitted him because of his "belly breathing." In the end she sent him home with strict instructions to do breathing treatments every 3 hours for 24 and to come back this afternoon. He seems better to me, but we'll see what his O2 saturation and heart-rate are when we get there. She said he'd probably get worse.

So last night I had the express pleasure of getting up every 3 hours and squirting, suctioning and doping the baby up. We were up for about 20 minutes every time and then, randomly, his big sister decided she'd like to be awake and just chat/scream in her crib for an hour in the middle of the night. I got up to see what she needed--at first it was "fresh" water and then it was another blanket. Then I decided I didn't care what she wanted, I was going to sleep. After ignoring her for a few minutes she chatted with herself some more and went back to bed. I think it was probably the steroid/coke combination that was making her wakeful. After I gave her the evening dose of Xopenex, I was giving Corbin his and she ran to the table and stole my Coke. The grin on her face when she saw I caught her was priceless, but I'm sure her little heart was running laps around her chest at record speed after that!

So today has been difficult on very little sleep; getting everyone ready to take GraceAnne to school this morning, running to the store with 2 sick babies, (I do not make this a practice, but I was in desperate need of a nipple shield because I cannot kick this stupid thrush...), baking 90 cookies for the kids tonight, finishing up soup for the kids tonight and trying to at least do damage control on a mess that's been a week in the making...sick kids does not make for a house-keeping momma! I should be napping right about now, but instead I decided to get a little social interaction on the internet for a few minutes.

All that to say that I am grateful to God for:

1. A husband who does so much around here, is such a great father and is willing to stay home from work to help me with the sick babies, (I sent him, even though I really wanted to keep him!)

2. That we are able to slowly improve our home

3. That we live in a country where I can take my babies to the Dr and get prescriptions that help them breathe so I don't have to worry about them stopping in the middle of the night.

4. That I have been given a ministry that means so much to me and that I'm good at.

5. That I have my friends so I don't feel absolutely insane on the days I'm alone at home with a bunch of sick kids and no sleep!

There's so much more, but I might make the most of this last hour of naptime. Love and miss you all! Hope you're counting Blessings through the annoyances ;)