Some Journey

A funny thing. . .

to overhear your 4 year old say:

"Joseph, I need you to help me get Ben Franklin out of the window!"

Setting the record straight

The above is a guernsey cow. Here is the same cow in black and white:

Obviously, the similarities made it easy for the government to launch the "It was a holstein that jumped over the moon" conspiracy campaign. Furthermore, take a look at the size of the udder on that guernsey. Clearly, we have identified the source of propulsion needed to rocket itself over the moon.

I thought it was funny

Okay, so I guess you had to be there, but there has to be someone out there who finds this as funny as I do.

Stephen and I were watching one of our favorite shows, Dirty Jobs, the other night. If you haven't seen this show, the host, Mike Rowe, travels around working the "dirtiest jobs in America". Sewer cleaner, for example. The other night he was with a guy who trims cows hooves. The guy is originally from Israel, and his English was very broken, and it was obvious he was having a difficult time understanding a lot of what Mike said. He is a particularly desirable cow hoof-trimmer because he has invented a mechanical Cow Tipper. The cow tipper is a metal cage/box that the cows walk into. The sides then close tight against them, and the whole mechanism lifts and turns sideways, flipping the cow on it's side, making the hooves easily accessible. As Mike was discussing this, the Israeli guy flipped a cow in the Cow Tipper behind Mike's back. Mike turned around and exclaimed, "Wow! You turn your back for a second and there's a flying cow!"
The Israeli guy said, "No, it's a Holstein."

Powerful Quotation

"It's always the smartest weenie dogs that are the most misunderstood."

--overheard narration on Curious George

The saga continues

Well, this has truly been an epic period of illness. I think we are now battling the third virus in as many weeks. It all started New Year's Day, when Joseph first started showing signs of pink eye. I already blogged about the sickness that we had following that, and on Monday morning Joseph, Noah and Sam awoke with fevers. Noah ran a fever of 101 Monday and Tuesday, but is fine today. Joseph's fever has stayed steadily over 102, is currently sitting at 103, though his came down significantly with tylenol last night. If it remains at 103 much longer, I will dose him again. I generally do not medicate my children for fevers unless they are a)over 102 for an extended period of time b)over 104 or c)causing significant discomfort. It's not that I'm antimedication. To the contrary, I love the pharmaceutical gifts God has supplied us with, and I use them regularly. No, I'm not so much anti meds as I am pro-fever, meaning that I believe that fevers are the tools that God equipped our body with to fight illnesses, and as much as possible I try to work with the fever, not against it. I find fevers do two positive things for my kids: a) fight the illness and b)keep them calm. When I medicate the kids, they feel better, and thus are more active, and tend not to get the rest they need to recover. When they are allowed to run a fever, they tend to sleep and rest more. I also like to medicate sparingly when the kids have fevers, especially when they have been vomiting (like last week), because I get concerned about the effect that the medication can have on their kidneys when they are already struggling to stay properly hydrated.
Enough rambling. All this to say, I did medicate Sam today when his fever reached 104.5. Now, I know that sounds scary high to some of you, but please don't panic. Sam has always been our "high fever king", followed by Joseph. Sam's normal runs higher than the other kids, and he has always run the highest temps when sick. There have been times when his fever reached 106 (yes I did talk to the doctor on those occasions:) ). If Ethan or Sydney's fever goes over 104, I am much more concerned than when Sam or Joseph hit that level. Sydney's temp today, for example, has consistently stayed at 102.3.

It's quite a little bugger, this virus. But I know it could be much worse. After all, no one is puking!! I can tolerate just about anything better than having a bunch of the kids puking all at once. Praise God for the "little things" that make a big difference!

My favorite picture ever

Since I was up anyway, I decided to scan in some photos. I've been trying to scan a bunch of the photos taken before we went digital so that I can get them on DVD, which I find easier to keep up with, and so on and so forth.

Anyway, among them was the photo below, which is my favorite picture of all time. We were visiting my brother-in-law, Dan, and his wife, Courtney, who were at that time living in Tampa, Florida. We decided to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where we had hoped to see Sunset Sam, the famous painting dolphin. Unfortunately, Sunset Sam was off exhibit while they repaired his tank, which led to the quotation which has since become a familiar part of our family's lingo, "I'm just so, so sad about Sunset Sam." The alliteration involved sounded delightful coming out of the mouth of 4 year old Sam.

However, all was not lost, as we came away from the day with the prized photo. I was attempting to photograph Ethan as he petted a stingray in the touch tank. He leaned too far, lost his balance and fell in the tank just as I clicked the photo. Ethan felt appropriately traumatized at the time, but since then has come to appreciate the photo as much as I do.

blech

It's 7:30 on a Saturday morning. I am already drinking my coffee and have done a load of laundry.

NO, I'm not turning over a new leaf. Not changing my stripes. One of my children, who will remain nameless to protect the innocent, came and got into bed with me during the night. At 6:45 am he proceeded to sit up, announce that his tummy hurt, and then barfed all over my bed.

It's pretty much been that kind of a week. We kept three kids home with pink eye Sunday. Sunday night Sydney started puking, and continued to run a fever through Tuesday. Tuesday night, Joseph joined the spewage. He began to feel better on Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, the school nurse called to tell me that Sam now had pink eye. Friday morning, Noah began running a fever of 102.8, which he currently still has.

We have a standing rule that the sick kid gets to pick what's on tv. It's a matter of survival. Keeps them stationary. So Joseph is in my bed (the side that is dry) watching pbs, and Noah got to choose the living room fare. He decided he desperately needed to watch the "States and Capitals" dvd. Repeat "Topeka, Kansas" over and over to yourself in a sing song-y voice. At 7:30 on a Saturday morning.

Oh, and did I mention that on this holiday weekend with the kids home for three days, Stephen's boss decided that he needed to work both today AND Monday in order to install a new system while no one else is there.

Not so much sizing up to be a fun weekend.