Hand, Foot, Mouth

Yep, I'm talking about the DISEASE! What, never heard of it? Consider yourself LUCKY! HFM disease is really just a virus - causes a fever and congestion and a lovely rash on the hands and feet and sores in the mouth.... and apparently also in the diaper area. Seriously, it should be "hand, foot, mouth, bum disease," but I guess that sounds too yucky, even for a disease lol =). That's what we're in the process of recovering from over here. We think Eli picked it up from nursery (of course) only he never really seemed sick. I noticed the rash in his diaper area, but took it for heat rash - afterall it's pretty steamy out here! A few days later I noticed some bumps on his feet and knees and thought he'd gotten chiggers. Then I noticed one or two on his fingers, then a giant sore on the tip of his tongue. We still don't have a doctor, so Brad checked him out and said, "It's a virus!" I was like, what? Oh no, we'd been at a playgroup all day (I hate when people knowingly spread disease - I didn't realize he was sick but still felt bad - hopefully no one else gets it)! He never got a fever or anything, but that night woke up screaming in pain 3x because his tongue/mouth hurt. Brad went to the store at 3am to get anbesol... that same night Owen got a fever, and that's where the drama really begins. The next day was Friday so I just accepted that the boys were both sick and we laid around and watched a lot of TV. Owen suffered the most from this nastiness - he had a fever for 4 days straight. Sunday was the scariest - the mouth sores appeared and his fever wouldn't respond to tylenol anymore. He refused to nurse and we were getting ready to take him to the hospital! But, I was able to pump some milk and get him to take it from a dropper... and we switched to baby Motrin which helped with the fever and pain. That night his fever got to nearly 103 so I was up rocking him and giving more motrin at 2am. So scary and awful to have a sick baby! And strangely enough he only ever got a few spots on his feet - his diaper/thigh area was another story though. Brad stayed home Monday because we were thinking again that we might have to take Owen in if his fever persisted, and I was starting to feel pretty sick myself - not to mention exhausted from several sleepless nights in a row (but he took some flack the next day at work - grrr!).

Thankfully both boys are doing better. Unfortunately when you have been the caregiver for two sick kids, you tend to get it! I only ended up with two little bumps on my toe, but I feel like I've been hit by a bus! It's just congestion/sinus pain/runny nose but I must say it's the worst of it's kind that I've had in a long time! So, we're still laying around in our PJ's watching a lot of TV, lol. I'm going to have to put Eli though TV Detox when all is said and done - thankfully we have two PBS channels here.

Spring FEVER!

I am SICK TO DEATH of this winter business! Seriously, really, and truly sick of it. The snow is mostly melted at least (thanks to a *brief* warm-up) but it is still so cold the ground is frozen solid, every little puddle is frozen, and I still can't stand to be outside for very long. Really, being from Arizona I think I have tried darn hard to have a good attitude about winter. But COME ON, enough already! I was starting to feel hopeful that at least March is here, just a few more weeks... when I was informed that blossoms do not even start around here until the END of April, and that it does not get *warm* until the end of May. Of course to me, I might settle for even 50 degree weather as *warm* right now.

GRRRRR.... can you tell I'm feeling cooped up in this little two bedroom place? I just feel like I want to GET OUT of here! Yes, we get out to the library and to our friend's house usually once a week, but I've had it with bundling and un-bundling kids, trying to fit them in carseats with coats and blankets, getting them out of the car to be blasted with an icy wind, trying to carry them to and from the car across a sheet of ice without breaking our necks etc. Last summer seems like *forever* ago. It is depressing and is making me eat cookies, which is sabotaging my baby-weight loss plan!

To top it off, Eli has been sick about every two weeks since September. He just started with another cough and runny nose yesterday - he's had fluid in his ears for months and his adenoids are swollen up, so now we've been referred to an ENT for a consultation on tubes and adenoid removal. And I blame Winter! I just KNOW he'd be getting better if it would JUST. WARM. UP. ALREADY!Plus with the heater on (esp on those nights when it's single digits out) I've got to pump saline in the kids' noses and run noisy humidifiers just to keep their sinuses from stuffing up from the dry air... which doesn't really work and I get extra night waking from each of them.

Is anyone with me on this???? Thanks for reading, I needed to vent today.

Dead Computer

There's a good reason I haven't been blogging lately - our computer is totalled! Yes, sadly the thing has met its death. We started having problems when we moved here and got hooked up to the internet, so we figured it was some kind of nasty spyware or virus. We've been trying our own fixes to no avail. I finally took it in to the Geek Squad today and was prepared to pay the $200 to get it fixed, but alas, the sucker wouldn't even turn on! Apparently they think it got fried in the lightning storms this weekend (eventhough we have surge protection). Anyway, I brought it home to check and make sure we really can't power up, but in the meantime we don't have a functioning personal computer. I'm using Brad's work laptop to get online so at least I have the internet, but I won't be able to upload pics to the blog or anything until we get this all sorted out. RATS RATS RATS! And I have like 3 adventures documented in pics that I've been wanting to put up! I am so frustrated! If you see this post, please email me because I'm feeling all alone and lonely out here, lol =).