Really?

It's almost May.....Really? Seriously? Where did April go? I had so many plans for April and I got to about half of them. The time just seems to fly by much too quickly. May brings in the summer which ends up being booked every weekend. I look forward to the warm weather and all that it brings. Time to break open the camper and stock it for the summer. Hopefully it means that soon I will be packing away the kiddos winter gear and pulling out the dresses (for Kaitlyn) and shorts (for them both).

Of course I want to lose 20 pounds (ok not 20) so I look amazing in a swimming suit, but let's be honest, that won't happen just as it didn't happen last year. I want to get the boy potty trained, but let's be honest, it will probably happen in the fall. So many things that would be so wonderful but in all honesty, we will just be too darn busy and I CANNOT WAIT! We are definitely an OUTSIDE type of family. Bike rides, trampolines, gardening, camping trips, walks, baby pools, etc. Any reason to be out on a nice day. SO BRING IT ON!

On a wonderful coupon side note, I made a trip to walmart yesterday

2 full sized bottles of Old Spice Body Wash
1 full sized bottle of Nivea Body Wash
2 packages of panty liners (18 )
3 rolls of dental floss

subtotal before coupons $15.06
After coupons $3.09

8 items for $3...that is less than 50 cents each. Yep, I'll take it. If most of them didn't expire yesterday I would have described the coupons more.

I am definitely jumping back on the coupon bandwagon. I jumped off about 2-3 weeks ago ..things were just getting crazy and I wasn't getting around to checking them out. I was price matching and hitting up CVS but not so much the coupon match ups. So here I go, back into the game.

My little princess also turned 4 this week...a topic for the next post. But let me tell you, it stirs up all sorts of emotions and I will get into next time around. CHEERS!

I cut myself off

This weekend was set up to be a hectic one. Hubby was working until Friday night (we recently agreed to changing his schedule) something that was not happening when we made plans to go back to our parents' homes for Easter/the kids birthdays. This meant that we would be leaving town early Saturday morning and returning Sunday late afternoon....a very busy weekend made busier by the shortness of the trip.

The alarm went off at 5 AM on Saturday morning. We packed up the car and off we went. Three or so hours later we were pulling up in front of my parents' house. Know what I did? I DID NOT BRING MY PHONE. Nope. I made the decision to cut myself off. If someone needed to get a hold of me, there are several other avenues. I wasn't anticipating any major news so I just didn't bring it. To further that thought, I did not open facebook. I admit, I opened my email once on Sunday morning to make sure nothing crazy was happening (it wasn't).

I took that short trip to just focus on MY FAMILY, on being together, on living in the moment and just sucking up all the goodness I could. It was nice. I watched my kids open presents, hunt Easter eggs, pig out, eat cake, love on all of their family, and I didn't think twice about if there was a text sitting on my phone. There wasn't updating anyone but the present family members on my life and how things were going. And you know what? Nothing crazy happened.

Of course there are a million pictures that I took.....on my mom's camera. Hopefully those will get back to me soon. But it was a nice weekend. A nice week of connection in the midst of being disconnected.

Birthday, vomitting, ER visits

Well, the titles really gives details as to why it has been silent here. Two Friday's ago, LJ started vomiting. He wasn't keeping anything but water down. Of course, this is two days before his 2nd birthday so I was hoping it was a fast acting bug. All day Saturday he pretty much was on the couch and vomiting. We celebrated his birthday Saturday and he was able to muster a smile for the cake and pictures but shortly after, there was blue vomit on my floor (from the icing). Saturday night it visited me taking me out of commission all day Sunday. Kaitlyn caught it Sunday night. The hubby skipped it all together...not fair. Kaitlyn was fine by Monday morning, as was I. LJ, on the other hand, was still vomiting. After a trip to the Dr and his inability to keep down pedialyte, we headed to the ER. No tests later, they gave him Zofran and sent us home. The zofran kept him calm so he could sleep but he was vomiting by the next morning. All week, he would eat something solid and it would come up. Needless to say, I was a wreck. For those who are not privy to the life with a heart baby, any signs of not feeling well and your mind jumps to heart failure. It's programmed in, not sure how to remove it. If LJ's potassium goes crazy, then so could his heart. Dropping weight is a nightmare for a heart kiddo and just seeing him not keep things down, it's hard. After 5 days I was worried that it wasn't a virus anymore and that maybe he has a blockage or early signs of failure. Yes, I was in tears with the nurse. I was a mess. Frustrated was putting it lightly. Day 7 came, he vomited. I told the nurse that he did it again that I was packing him up and going to Children's Hospital in St Louis (a three hour drive) since his cardiologist is there and they are more equipped to handle this. Over reacting? Maybe. But I was set to do it. Hearing that they couldn't do anything for LJ here since he was moderately hydrated was making me angry. LJ took pity on his mom and didn't vomit again. We have our happy little boy back and a week after his birthday, we were finally able to give him his present, a water table :) Here's too a healthier spring! BRING ON THE WARM WEATHER!