I can't belive this!

Blogging is going to stink for me for the next 4-6 weeks or more.
I don't have the use of my right thumb.
I am right handed.
I use my right thumb for the space bar.
This stinks.
My typing is more than half as slow as it used to be.
All because I went to the zoo in May.
Now I had to get a shot and wear a splint for 6 weeks.

That is the good news for the day. Samuel is a little guy, always has been. At about 5 months old he hit a little fat stage because he fell in love with table food, but lately he hasn't been gaining weight. He isn't losing it, either, but he is only 18lbs 12oz naked. He went from the 26th percentile to the 4th in weight. So he is sort of "failure to thrive" though he doesn't have the usual things with that, like developmental delays or weight loss. He is being tested for celiac disease, which the doctor does not think he has. The presumed cause is probably low iron, which we knew he had slightly low iron a couple of months ago. When I started hyperventilating over the "failure to thrive" she stopped saying it, lol. Sam is a VERY active guy, and not behind in anything. You would never know he isn't perfect, because he appears happy all the time and is always moving and playing. The doctor said he probably isn't very sick because usually if it is serious they look sick.

Anyway, I am a little freaked, but we'll get through. On top of it all, he has a double ear infection, which could be the middle of the night crying jags we've been going through. He doesn't cry when he is nursing, so we didn't think he was in pain. He sure let us know it hurt when they drew his blood today!

Blah, day

I do not feel well today. I'm sure the kids being sick last weekend has nothing to do with it.... (and NO, I am not pregnant)
If you want to win lots of goodies for Christmas presents you have to enter lots and lots of contests. I have won several great goodies that I plan to give to my family for gifts. I can't mention all of them because my dear Kaytlin reads my blog to make sure I don't tell embarrassing things about her to the internet world. She's sensitive like that. One of the things I won that I plan to give to Samuel, who does not read my blog, is a black Rockstar t-shirt from Zazou. I think they are adorable!
I posted a LOT of give-aways on my contest blog this week, make sure to read several of the posts to hit them all. There are jewelry, toys, baby items, books, and lots of other give aways.
I also have one last copy of Amy Grant's Mosaic and Boo Humbug by Rene Gutteridge. Email me for a copy.
I am still up in the air about getting a new blog address. I know who I would want to design my blog page, but I don't know much else about going about it. But I want the higher paying post jobs. By the way, I hope all my paid posts are not too disruptive, I try to make them relevant to my life or funny. I get annoyed by people's posts that just say the minimum and you know they don't care at all. I tend to not want to read at their blog anymore. Sometimes you just have to do it, but mostly it should be interesting or don't take it. That said, if anyone wants to earn some money for Christmas, it is not too late, it takes 30 days to get paid, though. I would gladly help anyone figure it out if they want to start.
Check out my poll for what I should give away for the Fall Y'all giveaway. I really am leaning towards Quelf, but I want to know what others really want. But, if I did Quelf, I would be the only blog giving it away, I'm sure.

First day of school!

I woke up at 7am to get the kiddos moving. Someone was in the shower already, so I headed upstairs to start waking the rest of them. I see Kaytlin's bed is empty, I wake up Hope-Anne, and then Devon's bed is empty. Hmm, where is he? Drew can get his own butt out of bed, he's almost an adult, 10 days away from it. And Cody is not starting school yet.
Kaytlin gets out of the shower, so where is Devon? She said she saw him get out of the shower and head upstairs. That means the little rascal has already left for school and didn't tell us. Nor did he get lunch money or his new lunch number! Too bad!
OK, I'm not that mean. I sent his new lunch number with Kaytlin to hand to him in the hall, and sent Drew with the check for all of their lunch accounts.
I had to get Kaytlin out of school early to go to the doctor. She is running some tests and did an exam. Kaytlin does not want me even talking to my close friends, so the blogging is off limits with what her symptoms are. It appears to be the minor end of the spectrum, but they are running some e-coli tests and other bacterial tests, though we expect to find nothing. Which would be good. Her symptoms seemed to have resolved themselves today, so if she get through the week symptom free we won't have to do any invasive tests! Thank you to everyone who prayed for her, I really appreciate it.
In other prayer related news: Devon and Cody are both in football and it gets really expensive! They boys both need cleats and I just can't see where I can splurge on those. Cody's coach gave him a pair, I don't know how that came about, because in his league they don't have to have them, but he had a spare, maybe his son is a size bigger. But praise God! So I prayed and asked God to help me out with Devon's cleats, I need them to be free, but cheap would be nice. So today I had to go get cleats because his game is on Thursday and tomorrow I can't go get them, he goes straight from practice to youth group. So I came home from the store and told Devon to grab some shoes, lets go get some cleats. "I already have cleats." "Huh?" "Coach P gave me some." "what??" "He asked me if I had cleats, I said no and he said there is a box of old ones in the basement of the school and to go get some."
That's when the crickets started chirping. God has been answering me lickety split on things lately and it is just amazing!
Donnie's car is pretty much out of commission right now, and we'll have to get it repaired, AND we went from $23 a month water bill to $273 a month water bill, so we're going to be hurting! And I just asked God to provide that car repair. The power/water bill is covered with some overtime Donnie forgot to turn in, but there is no room for the car in there. Well, Donnie's mom offered to lend us the money! Its like a savings plan for her. They are getting a bit of money, and she would just spend it quickly, but this way we'll give her some here and there and they will have money coming in when they need it!
We have a Mom's of preschoolers type of group in our church that we are seeking nursery care for, and we've been searching and praying for workers. I've been desperately seeking someone, several someones, to help me with women's ministry. And today God filled someone in both spots! We are halfway through our childcare dilemma, and I am 1/4 of the way through my women's ministry council!
Now, everyone pray with me: Lord, you know we can't afford to fix our furnace and You know that we need it desperately in Minnesota winters with children. I ask for Your provision to get the furnace running. Help us to find a reset switch, or a small problem or provide the money for a repair. In Jesus name I pray.

God is working!

And I have EXCITING news coming up this month! Oh my goodness, I am about to burst with excitement, but I have to wait on the details. I will say it may have something to do with some give-aways.

We interupt this blog.....

for a special announcement. The Qtpie Family is too sick to do anything. We are hacking up pieces of lung left and right, we are filling trash cans with tissues of snot, and visions of NyQuil are dancing in our heads. (visions FROM the NyQuil is more like it!)

OK so I have to blog, I'm doing the 30 day blogging challenge that Nell at Casual Friday Every Day is having. But we are so drugged up and so sick that we don't want to do anything. Except drink more drugs.

I will still not admit camping would be more fun. Even though it would.

WooHoo!

We're not going camping! We're not going camping! We're not going camping!

Praise God for fevers and headaches and coughing and lots and lots of snot!

Where thoughts get jumbled up and spit out

in no particular order with no rhyme or reason.

Parenting teens is way harder than triplets in the terrible twos.

Pink eye is painful.

I hate not having my camera. Where is it????

I am sick. Sam is sick. Trinity is sick. Drew may be getting pink eye, too.

Hope-Anne has a magic thumb that gets rid of migraines. And it is so awesome that my head felt as though it was part of the pillow and I felt as though I was floating. She's the best! She's my favorite child today.

Devon is not my favorite this week.

I had to cancel my Tupperware party. We are not getting better, and no one wants to come over and get pink eye for the honor of spending tons of money on Tupperware. Even though Tupperware is incredibly cool and awesome.

Sam got his top two teeth in recently and he looks rather dorky right now. But I can't take his picture because my camera is missing.

What is going on?

Our town is a pretty unusual town, as far as I've ever lived in, anyways. When we moved here the population was under 4,000, and there were 21 churches. That's about 190 people for each church. Now that isn't what happens, of course, but we do have a few very large churches and several very small churches. And now our town has had a growth spurt, too. Another unusual thing is how wonderful this community is. I've lived in other small towns in Minnesota, and they are usually all busy-body and snarky and clique-y. Here, I've only seen amazing love, kindness, friendship, and so little gossip and busy-body stuff.
(none of this has much to do with my post, lol, where am I going with this?)
Anyways....
Our town has been hit so hard with our kids being hurt and dying. I think we've lost 8 teens to driving accidents, 1 to drowning, and then all the sickness and injuries that happen.
This week one of my kids' friends was in a dirt bike accident. He ALWAYS wears a helmet, his dad is STRICT. But for some reason when his friend asked him to try out his dirt bike he took it for a quick spin without his helmet, and of course THAT is when he hit a drop off and broke his neck and his jaw. He also has a partially collapsed lung. He's doing good, he's making progress in the right direction. Kelvin just graduated from homeschooling, now he'll be recovering for months.
And at church today two families either got calls or called in to let us know they were heading to the ER. One family's dd has a slipped disc, she lives far away in Duluth, so they have quite a drive to even get to her. The other is covered in hives like Devon was recently, and he happens to be a friend of Devon's, lol.
And two much younger children in our church were recently hospitalized, one with meningitis, the other I think had a really, really bad ear infection???

Garage Sale Day 2

Day two went much, much better! I felt just well enough to sit outside, but getting up and moving caused light-headedness. I even ate a little bit.
I sold $169.20 worth of stuff! I don't get to keep it all though, I sold Devon's drums and he's going to buy a guitar with it. But, our neighbor bought the drums, so we still get to hear it.
Devon slept all night Thursday night, almost all day Friday, all Friday night, and almost all day today. He broke out all over in itchy hives! I think he's allergic to a stray dog we found yesterday. The dog took off before we could find his owner, though.
Everything is packed up in the garage waiting for next week's sale. It is supposed to rain, though, so it may have to wait another week.
Everyone has gone through the sickies, so hopefully we'll all be better in a couple of days. Sam was throwing up last night, too. Trinity is the only one who hasn't gotten sick at all.
Drew cleaned out the garage in order to have a video game Olympics this weekend. They were still playing at 8am! I don't think they'll be going tonight, lol.
Hmm, have I hit everything and been jumping around enough in this post?

Garage Sale Day 1.

I spent all of day one in bed. I couldn't sleep last night, even though I was BEAT, because I felt so sick. Around 1am I threw up, and other just as unpleasant things, then I could at least sleep. Kaytlin came in around 5am asking for a bucket because she had thrown up, too. 5:30am, get up and change underwear. 6:45am call Jody and tell her I am sick, but she can still have the sale at our house if she wants to run things. She did.
8am start putting out as much as possible while trying not to vomit. Unsuccessful.
I spent the day mostly in bed. Sam slept almost all day with me, after he threw up on my milk maker. I'm not sure if he was sick or not, but it really helped having him sleep the day away. Donnie was home, because he doesn't feel well for the second day in a row. He HAS to be better for work tomorrow, though.
Now our oldest son has a garage full of kids playing video games for the next two nights. Which means we have no tv to curl up with in our misery. But at least they are outside!
Oh, and so far I made about $6 max, lol. I need to get some more of our items out tomorrow, like desks and end tables and my rocking chair.
I'm missing Ladies Night for the first time. I'm so sad! I love getting together with my girlfriends and laughing the night away. Sarah can't make it, either. So, Jody and Jeannie and whoever else shows up, it changes each month.

My wonderful life, and all the junk that comes with it.

So yesterday Devon comes home from track practice and looks a bit worse for wear. He crashes and sleeps the evening away. Its apparent he is not well, but I'm not sure if its a combination of little sleep at Districts last weekend and track meets and track practice, or if he is sick. But as the night went on he became more and more red in the face and meaner and meaner to anyone making noise.
I finally had to send him to bed. But I got to thinking that he must have a fever with that red face, so I broke open my brand new underarm thermometer and head up to his room to take his temp. 104.8 Now way. So I grab him some advil and ice water and take his temp again. 105.5 WHAT??? I decide that the new thermometer MUST be wacko. So I head off to find the oral thermometer. By this time Devon has had the ice water and advil in him close to 10 minutes. His oral temp is 103.8. So I make a call to the nurse line and find that the combination of very high fever and a headache is bad news and they want him to be seen in the ER. Yikes! Devon really did not want to go, so I waited to see if he was going to come down in temp. He did, all the way down to 103.3.
Yep, trip to the ER is in order.
As I'm getting ready to go Hope-Anne points to my wall next to my downstairs bathroom door. There is a HUGE paint bubble full of liquid! The toilette upstairs is not steady, and apparently is leaking! I left Donnie to take care of that stinky job, you betcha I did!

So we head off the the ER and get settled in. They did two blood cultures, which they wanted from two different draw sites at least 1/2 an hour apart. And then an IV, chest x-ray and the kicker: a spinal tap.

Devon was around 3500 teens over the weekend, and his fever wasn't a baby, paired with a headache, they were very concerned.

He is still very high today, 103.1. But all the tests came back looking like he has a virus, but should be fine. If he doesn't break the fever tonight, I'll be taking him in to the doc tomorrow for a throat culture, which they did NOT run.