Our little scare today

I told you that Spirit ended up sick. I stayed home from work with both boys and sent Lady Bug on to school (preschool). I headed to work about 1:00 when Mr. Man was able to come home and be with the kids. When I left Spirit was asleep on the couch where he had been most of the day. Lefty was feeling better so when I left he was at the table eating soup - his first meal in about 3 days.

About 3:00 I got a call from Mr. Man at my office saying that Spirit had woken up with a 104.3 fever. I told him to do a cool bath and some Tylenol. He called back a short time later and he was very concerned saying he didn't think the fever was coming down at all. So I called the doctor and they wanted us in immediately. They told me to have Mr. Man give Spirit a cool shower and then put shorts on him and no shirt so he would cool down and get him in there.

At the doctor's office they decided to swab him for strep and for the swine flu. He still had a fever while he was there. No strep. No flu. Thank God!!! It turns out it is just a virus that we need to let run it's course.

This evening his temperature has not been as high, but won't drop below 101, even with the Tylenol or Ibuprofen. So I know he'll be home from school again tomorrow, but I hope he gets well soon. Lefty was sick for 5 days and if Spirit follows that routine we are in for another 3 or 4 days. Great.

Time to bleach the house

Yesterday afternoon Spirit came home from school complaining he didn't feel well, after taking his temperature we realized he too is sick! He has a high fever, coughing, sneezing, runny nose. Woke up this morning the same way.

Lefty is feeling better, not 100% though. He still had fever last night, but this morning he is fever-free but still complaining of a sore throat and he is still coughing.

Both boys are home from school today and I am home from work. I think I will have to go in to the office later this evening. I work for an attorney and we have a huge trial coming up next week so there is lots of prep work I need to do this week.

My guess is that Lady Bug and Mr. Man are next on the list to get this nasty stuff.

Good times!

Not much to report today

Our weekend was fairly uneventful. We stayed close to home. Lady Bug went to grandma and grandpa's overnight Friday, and went camping with them. So Saturday morning while Mr. Man worked, the boys and I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which was super cute, I highly recommend it.

Yesterday our neighbor kid (we'll call him "D") was out front of his house playing. His bike was laying in the driveway and some kid came up to him and asked if he could ride his bike. At first D said no. The kid just kept begging so finally D said ok. The kid hops on and never came back. D went inside and told his parents what happened, they started looking for the kid but didn't find him. So D's dad says to me when he's telling me the story, "I sure hope D learned his lesson." I asked what lesson that is? Because, I mean seriously, is the lesson not to trust anyone? or is the lesson not to be nice to anyone? What is the lesson here? As soon as I said this, D's dad said "hmmm, good point. I don't know what lesson I want him to learn." D said he didn't even know the kid, had never seen him before. Makes me sad that we live in this kind of world.

Lefty is at home sick today. Has a fever, coughing, running nose and an upset stomach. NICE. Spirit woke up this morning saying his throat kinda hurt. I have feeling this is going to run through our house...

Friday Recipe - Apple Cider Cake

I saw this recipe here about a year ago and I bookmarked it. I finally got around to making it a couple weeks ago. It is SUPERB! It is a light, spice cake with a lemony glaze. It is a pretty cake too! I have made it twice now.

You can click over and see her wonderful pictures and find the recipe for it there too, or I have copied it here (but mine doesn't show all the pretty pictures like hers does!)

The thing I liked about this cake is that it is easy and it also looks very pretty!


Apple Cider Cake
INGREDIENTS:

Cake--
18.25 oz plain yellow cake mix
3.5 oz vanilla instant pudding (dry)
4 large eggs
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Glaze--
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp apple cider
1/2 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour in a bundt pan. Place cake mix, pudding, eggs, apple cider, oil, cinnamon & cloves in mixing bowl. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl and beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake 42-48 minutes (or until done). Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes.

Now for the glaze, heat confectioners sugar, cider and lemon zest in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until mixture is smooth.

Take cake out of pan and place it on your serving plate and immediately pour glaze over the cake. Be sure that the cake and glaze is still warm so that it soaks down into the cake.

The signs of Autumn

I enjoy spring with all the newness of life popping up.

I enjoy summer for the long nights and all the outdoor activities you can do.

I enjoy winter for the times we get to sit by the fire in our sweats and fuzzy slippers watching snow fall outside.

But my favorite time of year is Autumn. It always has been, even when I was a kid.

As summer officially ended (on Monday) and the start of fall was officially here (on Tuesday) this is what kind of weather we are having (see picture to the right). We have had cold, rainy and a little bit of snow the last few days. That isn't fall. That's winter! We jumped right from summer into winter. Booooo. Some of the pretty trees even lost all of their leaves too soon due to the snow. Maybe next week will be more fall-like and I can get some pictures of the changing leaves.

This isn't stopping me from being a little bit excited about the change in the weather! I have so many recipes to try, craft projects I can work on (for some reason working in the 100 degree weather, sweating profusely makes me hate to do crafty things too much in the summer months), I even have some home improvement things planned for this Fall. Autumn also brings Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday and it brings us closer to Christmas, another favorite holiday.

I am already working on Christmas gifts, some I am making, others I am buying and then some are a combo of both handmade and purchase. I have some great simple teacher gift ideas too. Not sure exactly what the kids will be getting yet, but I have some ideas to look into!

I love this time of year, even if it did get colder sooner than I had hoped.

**Picture courtesy of Denver Channel News 7**

Ya'll....she has a problem

My sweet little 4 year old daughter has a problem, wouldn't you agree?

This is a picture of the pile of shoes she had by the front door.

See, I have this basket by the front door for the kids to put their shoes in when they come in for the night. Mr. Man and I rarely keep our shoes in there, but once in a while we will put ours in there too. The dog has a tendency to chew shoes if they are left in the middle of the floor, but if they are in the basket she leaves them alone (go figure!). About once every 2 or 3 weeks I clean out the basket and have everyone take their pile to their bedroom closet.

When I did the clean-out this time, I had one pair of flip flops in the basket. Mr. Man had no shoes in the basket. Spirit had 2 pairs. Lefty had 2 pairs and Lady Bug had 11 pairs. THAT is a problem!

There are 11 pairs of shoes in her pile (pictured above). She had such a big pile I had to help her carry it to her closet. What is worse is that she also had plenty of shoes still in the closet! Why does a 4 year old need so many shoes? I don't know, but she wears each and every pair of shoes she owns so evidently it is a necessity! (she takes after her aunts! *wink wink*)

Take a tour of my house - Master Bedroom

I was somewhat holding off on showing this room because we are planning a tiny remodel of this room, but since we aren't financially ready to complete it I think I will showcase the room today and then do a before/after post later.

This is, of course, the room Mr. Man and I share. I love this room because it has 2 closets, one is bigger than the other. I have the smaller one, plus a dresser. Mr. Man has his larger closet (that has built in shelves), plus his bedside table.

The bed we have was Mr. Man's before we got married. The dresser I use was once Lady Bug's. The bench you see was made by Mr. Man for our wedding. The bedside table was mine before we got married. So nothing in here is a set and nothing matches.

This room does not have a "master bathroom", but we have a door off our room that leads to the main bathroom which is ok. Mr. Man and Spirit use the downstairs bathroom and the other two kids and I use the upstairs bathroom. It works out nicely for us.

When we moved in there were mint green curtains over the windows....ick. So we took those down and are adding some valances. Here is a picture of the curtains.

Here is what the room looks like today (messes and laundry piled up and all....I guess I could have cleaned up a little before I took the pictures. Oops.):


Other rooms in the house tour:
Living Room
Kitchen
Sunroom
Family Room
Laundry room/Bathroom
Spirit's Room
Lefty's Room
Lady Bug's Room