Getting Back To Normal...

Whew! What a week I have had! First the boys got the flu. And then on top of that Miss Precious was very ill all this week. We had to take her to ER twice last week. First she caught the nasty flu bug that was going around. Then it morphed into a horrible mouth/tongue/throat infection. Poor little girl had awful sores all over her mouth and in her throat. She wouldn't eat or drink anything. She really scared me and Mr.Q. We did a lot of praying over her! But praise the Lord she is back to her regular happy, hungry self! :) So we thought once she had recovered that all was back to normal. The very next day (Sunday) I started throwing up. Oh joy. I had caught the flu bug that had made its way through ALL of my children. I spent the night mostly in the bathroom. It was great.

I feel much better today though. Praise the Lord it was only a 24-hour flu!

So I am looking forward to returning to our regular routines.

Because of all of this sickness, I have not been able to respond to questions that some of you have posed. Please check back tomorrow for your answers. I apologize for not responding more quickly, but life got in the way!

Recovering...

Sorry I haven't been posting as of late. My baby girl got really sick. She was in ER twice this week and had to have an IV to rehydrate her. She started off with the typical vomiting flu which morphed into a mouth/tongue/throat infection. It is painful and keeps her from eating or drinking very much. I am sooo grateful that I am still able to nurse her. So far it is the only thing that she consistently wants. They gave us a medicated mouthwash to help the sores heal faster. It is a viral infection, so there aren't any antibiotics she can take.

She isn't sleeping at night because of the pain :(

I am exhausted.

I'll post more later...

Tooth Update

Just thought I would let you loyal readers know that my chin and lips are still numb. I called Dr. G today and he said that depending on the type of surgery I had, the parasthesia (numbness) could last for up to 6 WEEKS! The weird thing is that the numbness is traveling to the right side of my face, all the dental work was done on the left side. I am going to wait until tomorrow to see what my face feels like, then I might have to call the good dentist again.

A Hole In My Head

You ever heard that saying..."I need one of those like I need a hole in the head."? Well, apparently I needed not one, but TWO holes in my head! (Actually, I need to go back for two more when these heal up!)

Getting my wisdom teeth extracted was definitely NOT fun. It isn't really a painful thing (well, not yet anyway...the novacaine hasn't worn off yet..lol) as much as it is a mental thing. When the dentist, we'll call him Dr. G, was leveraging my teeth out of my mouth, it felt like (as he described it) my brain was going to be yanked out with the tooth.

The first tooth, which was on the bottom, came out without much trouble. Dr G. told me that the upper teeth were even easier. Well, either the good doctor lied or I just got one heck of a tenacious tooth! He worked on that tooth for probably forty-five minutes! With the first tooth, all I had was novacaine. Ten minutes into the second extraction, I started feeling REALLY NAUSEOUS. So I had to break down and take the nitrous oxide. After that, it was still a toe-curling experience, but at least my body was somewhat relaxed even if my mind was not.

Finally, I heard those beloved words from the dental hygienest "It's out!" I felt like I had just given birth!

The tooth had a horrendous hook on the end, which made it very difficult to extract. But, it is out and the infection is slowly healing.

I have two more on the other side that need to come out. But I am going to wait a while on those. And definitely when I go in, I am going to have the nitrous oxide! Crank it up Ms. Hygienest!

It's As Easy As Pulling Teeth..

OK, WHO came up with that comparison?

Pulling teeth does not seem like it would be something easy and uncomplicated. Otherwise I could do it myself and save $800! Yes, that is the estimate that my dentist gave me on Wednesday. It gets better...I can't have my wisdom teeth extracted until the INFECTION is dealt with. So I am on a fast-track antibiotic for five days. I go back to the dentist on Monday.

So now I have all weekend to imagine all sorts of horrible dental scenarios. Can you tell that I absolutely loathe going to the dentist? Just sitting in the waiting room made me extremely uneasy. Then the dentist came out and was talking with the mother of another patient about EXTRACTING WISDOM TEETH. Only the terminology he used was, "So we're just going to yank those babies out of his head." OK, hyperventilating a little bit more now! And I waited an hour until I oould go back, so I had mentally worked myself up a bit.

"I'm an adult. I can handle this. I've given birth to three children WITHOUT epidurals."

The internal dialogue got louder...

"You know, my teeth don't really hurt today. Maybe I can just get out of here. Maybe I was imagining all of that oral agony the past two weeks! I think I'm going to be fine."

Then the mother in me spoke up...

"You stay put! You need to go see the dentist. You could have an infection and it could be heading toward your brain. You do know that people have DIED from oral infections, don't you??"

(No my mother doesn't sound like that..I guess it was a combination of mother-voice and all those scary ER real life shows I have watched..lol!)

So I stayed put. Endured the x-rays, which normally would be painless but with those plate things poking me in my oh-so-very-inflamed gums, not so much fun. Then I met the dentist, took a deep breath and said "AHHH." He poked around in my mouth a little (again painful!) and proceeded to announce to me that I had an oral infection and that my wisdom teeth needed to come out. I remember hearing that somewhere first, don't you? lol!

I hop out of the chair and skeddadle (what a funny word!)to the appointment desk. As I am writing out the check for services rendered, I am slightly shaking. I could chalk that up to not having enough to eat because it hurts so much to eat, or to dental chair jitters. I think it was a combination of both. What an adrenaline rush! But I am not an adrenaline junkie, so I did not enjoy the experience at all! LOL

Trying not to obsess about my appointment on Monday...ah, but going to the dentist is as easy as pulling teeth, right?

Look What I Did!

This is what I also did over the weekend...
Even though I didn't go to the doctor, I'm pretty sure it's broken. The more fun part was I had to go to Easter Sunday service in jeans and flipflops...classy. Querido decided to wear jeans too, just because I couldn't dress up he didn't either..how sweet!

It's even more fun to try limping around with three children under the age of five! I am so afraid I am going to hit my toe on something again. Cleaning house takes on new challenges.

Oh, also, I have at least two impacted wisdom teeth. I am so thrilled to go to the dentist on Wednesday! No, seriously, I am excited, for the first time in my life, to be seeing a dentist and that is because my mouth hurts soooo badly. I have been on a relatively liquid diet for the last two weeks. On this diet I have lost at least five pounds...so that could be the silver lining, right? I am so looking forward to being able to enjoy and CHEW my food. A girl can only drink so many nutritional supplements! Plus, I am nursing AJ and I am not sure I am getting enough nutrients for the both of us. At any rate, I will be rid of this problem one way or another! Going to have my teeth extracted...YAYYYYY!!! Can't wait until Wednesday..maybe I'll be able to get pictures.

Hope your weekend was less eventful than mine...lol!

Run Over By A Train

Today I woke up and felt like I had been run over by a train ( as if I knew what that should feel like...lol). My head felt like it was going to explode out through my eyeballs, my neck felt like I had fused all my vertebrae together, and every joint in my body aches.
The kiddos are still sick...except for my baby girl (I pray that she stays well)...so I am constantly on Snot Patrol. My boys are a little cranky and I don't blame them, I'm a little cranky too.
So if you, loyal readers, were expecting a deeply spiritual and meaningful post today, you will be disappointed!
It is hard to be sick when you have three kids all under the age of 5. Fortunately, my boys can do alot for themselves...like make peanut butter cereal...so I am just left caring for their almost six-month old sister. Praise the Lord that she is a mostly happy, joyful baby and today she is not teething as much! I am going to go take a shower and see if that makes my muscles loosen up and helps get rid of the body aches.
Maybe later on, I will be back to my witty and wise self...

Terribly Trying Tuesday and Other Thoughts

Did I mention that my hubby is going to night school to acquire his GED? This is a tremendous sacrifice as he goes to work at 6:30 am and doesn't come through the door until 9:30 pm, two days a week. He came home tonight and told me that they studied writing today. Now for those of you who know him, Querido hates to write even the smallest of notes. So imagine my surprise when he said that he had to write an entire essay! He asked me if I wanted to see it...OF COURSE! :) So here I post my Querido's first essay... (the topic was: If I could have any job I wanted, what would it be and why?)

If I could have any job in the world I would want to be a preacher. I want this job for the following reasons:
First, I would be a spiritual leader to others. Secondly, I would help them solve their problems. Thirdly, I would like a large congregation.

As a leader my goal would be to learn how to pray, in order to lead a congregation. Also, I would like to learn how to communicate.
In order to help people in the congregation I would need to know what kind of problems they have. Also, I would need to have the time and money at my disposal.
A large congregation is always better, because you will meet people from different cultures that speak different languages.
In conclusion, this is the job that I wish to have some day. As a leader I would really enjoy leading people. (Here I snickered..couldn't help myself...when he asked me why, I told him that he was kind of repetitive and obvious with that sentence. I showed him how he could have written it and he said that the teacher never said anything about that sentence!) Also, I would have the satisfaction of helping other people with their problems. When I have a large congregation, I will be fulfilled in life.

Can I just state for the record that this is the first time he has EVER written anything longer than two sentences! He did so great! And he thought that he would never learn to write well... He even had a nice enveloping close at the end. Wow, he still amazes me after almost six years of marriage! :) I am so proud of my Querido!
This brought up the discussion of him wanting to be a pastor. He either wants to be a professional musician (get paid to play) or a pastor. Since he is still learning the bass guitar, I am guessing that he is striving toward becoming a pastor. Not so sure I want to be a pastor's wife, but it's a little late to change husbands...lol! Just kidding! If that is what God has called him to do, then He will give me the grace to be a pastor's wife. For now, I will be Querido's wife and JM, IE and AJ's mom.
It is amazing what you can discover about your spouse when they are given the chance to express themselves. I wonder if he feels safe discussing his dreams with me? How interesting that the eHarmony marriage exercise was about dreaming today... You have something You are trying to tell me, Lord? I have known that we don't tend to discuss really deep things at all, for quite a while. It is a part of my marriage I long to improve. Perhaps this night school will nudge him into thinking about his feelings more!

My oldest son, JM, is sick today. I had him and his brother, IE, cleaning their room and JM started to complain about not feeling good. Being the compassionate and caring mother that I am, I told him that he was faking to get out of cleaning and that he had better move it or else. Imagine my chagrin when I see him a little later and he is BURNING UP with fever. *here is the sound of me trying to crawl through a hole in the floor from utter SHAME* I pray with him and by now it is bedtime, so I read to the boys and send them off to sleep. JM is still awake at that point because I can hear him coughing quietly from his room. My poor baby! I hope it is not contagious...we already went through the flu a couple of weeks back.
Now he is finally sleeping peacefully. Thank God. His daddy prayed with him and that always makes you feel better :) No really, after Querido prayed, JM's fever broke within half an hour! Wish my prayers had that kind of instantaneous effect!
Another fun thing I had to deal with today was my teething AJ, almost six months. Poor girl! She (and I) was miserable today. I love those homeopathic teething tablets, but today they didn't seem to be doing much good. Praise the Lord for Orajel! Numbed up my baby's gums and all with the delightful berry taste! :) She was still SUPER FUSSY and I had to carry her everywhere. My arms are going to be toned come summer...LOL! I do an excessive amount of reps with a 20-lb weight that is my daughter...DAILY! LOL...who needs the gym!!
The pottytraining took a back seat and a step back today. My three year old IE seemed to lose all recollection of peeing in the toilet rather than his pants. We went through FOUR pairs of pants today! AAAGGGHHH! So much for smooth sailing, I am hoping tomorrow will be better.
These are the days that TRY my patience (was I even born with that?) and sanity...lol! At least I still have my sense of humor!