Multi-tasking

I Heart Faces Week 15: Self Portrait

Go check out the I Heart Faces Blog to see more entries in this week's contest!

Keeping It Real
I am also going to cheat a little and use this photo for a tag I got from Kelly and Shasta!

The Rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now

No primping or preening, just snap the picture

Load the picture on to your blog

Tag some people to play

NO CHEATING {Oh well..at least I followed some of the rules}!

Both of those lovely ladies also tagged me to do

8 is Enough

8 Things I am looking forward to...

1. Feeling back to normal!

2. Jason working less

3. Summer

4. The pool

5. The beach

6. Mini-vacations

7.Eli learning to walk

8. Kindergarten next fall!!

8 Things I did yesterday...

1. Slept late

2. Skipped church {I couldn't get moving yesterday, literally!}

3. Enjoyed Jason being off work, even if it was only half a day

4. Took medicine

5. Watched some reruns of Jon & Kate + 8

6. Baked a cake for Jason's B-day

7. Ate cake and ice cream

8. Fell asleep on the couch while Jason watched Iron Man

8 Things I wish I could do...

1. Not procrastinate so much

2. Be more patient with my children

3. Learn to sew better

4. Sing...other than in the car and the shower!

5. Take great photos

6. Be more productive

7. Cook...good food!

8. Feel back to 100% now!

8 Shows I enjoy...

1. Lost

2. Heroes

3. Chuck

4. Ugly Betty

5. My Name is Earl

6. Scrubs

7. Friends

8. Pushing Daisies....it got cancelled, but it was SO good!!

8 Friends I tag to play along too!

1. Emily

2. Tracy

3. Mandy

4. Karen

5. Jennifer

6. Morgan

7. Konnie

8. Amanda

I tried to tag people I knew hadn't played before...but anyone is welcome to play along too!! Oh, and consider this a tag for Keeping it Real too!

And now for award time!

I receive both of these awards from Aileigh! Thanks Aileigh...sorry it took me so long to post them {check out # 1 on Things I wish I could do}! I'm not really sure how this award thing works....but I am passing these on to all of lovely followers who are so sweet and leave such great comments all the time!!

Trike-A-Thon!

On Friday, Henry's preschool class participated in the St. Jude Trike-A-Thon!

All the kids brought their tricycles and bicycles to school.

They had a great time riding their trikes {and bikes} and raising money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!

After all their hard work, they had an ice pop and got a few SUPER cute stickers!

Random Picture Challenge

April 2008

or

13th folder

42nd picture or 4th {if you don't have that many!}

This is Henry riding his bike on our back patio.
Jason had spent the ENTIRE weekend {and then some}building a new pergola over the patio, and the boys spent most of the weekend helping him or riding their bikes while he worked.

Go check out 4 Little Men and Girly Twins for more Random Picture Challenge!

Time to Lower the Baby Bed!

This is how I found Eli after his nap yesterday morning!

Needless to say, Jason spent about 30 minutes last night lowering the mattress on the baby bed!

SUPER Cute Kid Questions!

Jason and Grant had this conversation in the car a few days ago, and it was just too cute not to share!

Grant: Daddy, I saw a new episode of Wow Wow Wubzy today!

Jason: Really, was it good?

Grant: Yeah! Did you see it?

Jason: No. I was at work.

Grant: Don't you have a t.v. at work?

Jason: No.

Grant: What do you do when you get tired??

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Jason also tried to teach Grant how to tell a knock knock joke during this same car ride!

Grant: Knock Knock

Me: Who's there?

Grant: Banana

Me: Banana who?

Grant: Are you not glad that I did not say banana!

What are some SUPER cute questions that your kids ask?

Wordless Wednesday: Cute Baby Booty!

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Mom!

Quick {SUPER} Update

First, I want to again thank everyone for their kinds words, thoughts, and especially prayers over the last few weeks!!

For the first time in probably two months, I almost feel back to normal...and compared to how I had been feeling the last few weeks....I am doing SUPER this morning!! I got out of bed feeling like I was 28 and not 98!! I have never been so happy for the phone to wake me up {thanks Mandy}!!

After being given my first diagnosis, I decided I wasn't quite happy with everything. I decided to see a few more doctors and make sure we had it right before I took the medicine that had been prescribed.

I went back to my internist last week, and he sat down with me for about an hour explain all the tests that had been down. He also gave me two referrals: one to a dermatologist and the other to another rheumatologist for a second opinion.

I had both of those appointments yesterday.

The dermatologist did a biopsy of the rash I have had on and off since November. It was a painless procedure, but I do have three stitches {my first stitches other than c-sections} that I have to go back and get removed next week. It will be few days before we get those results back.

The rhematologist I saw yesterday was SUPER. He basically knew exactly what I had a soon as he looked at my rash and I told him about the joint and muscle pain, high fevers {104 at one point this weekend!}, and sore throats that I have had over the last few weeks.

I now have the official diagnosis of Adult Onset Still's Disease. It is a form of rheumatoid arthritis, but ALL of my symptoms go along with this specific disease. The treatment plan is basically the same, just a little higher dosage of medicine and a little more closely monitoring to make sure all the symptoms are under control. The doctor gave me an initial dose of the methotrexate in shot form yesterday and drained a TON of fluid off of my knee.

I am still a little freaked out about have a lifelong illness and having to take such a strong medication for an indefinite amount of time...

...But I am finally starting to feel better, and that is what matters!

I Heart Faces Week 14 Easter/Spring

Eli checking out his basket of goodies on his 1st Easter!

Go check out the I Heart Faces blog to see all the cute faces in this week's contests!

Happy Easter

Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry is 5 years old today!

We celebrated his birthday last night with a party.

Henry picked out Batman for his party theme.

He was so excited about turning 5...he insisted on having the piece of cake with the 5 on it!

Happy 5th Birthday Henry!

Wordless Wednesday: Toothy Grin!

For more Wordless Wednesday check out 5 Minutes for Mom!

I Heart Faces Week 13 My Friend & I

This is my entry for I Heart Faces Week 13 My Friend & I!
Go check out their blog to see all the SUPER cute faces in this week's contest!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Henry and Grant together.

I took this picture a few years ago, Henry was not quite 2 years old and Grant was probably 8 months old.

D is for...

Diagnosis

I got a call from my rheumatologist yesterday. I had called the office earlier in the day to talk to the nurse and find out what kind of pain medicine I could use at night to help me sleep. I spoke with the nurse, asked a few more questions, and waited for a return call. When the phone rang, I picked it up expecting the nurse, but it was the doctor. Now, I don't know about you, but I have rarely talked to any of my doctors on the phone! The nurses are almost always the ones who do the phone calls, so when it was the doctor on the phone my first thought was "This can't be good!" Based on all of the blood work that I had done last week, he is diagnosing me with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Drugs

He gave me a little bit of information about RA, and then told me about the medicines that he would prescribe for me. The medicine that they use to treat RA is a chemotherapy drug! I was just a little SUPER freaked out! He said because I will be taking such a low dose, that most of the side effects won't happen....but it is still a chemo drug which is kind of scary! Depending on how my body reacts to the drug I could be on it for a short time or I could be on it forever. I will also have to take a folic acid supplement and I have to do blood work every 6 weeks to make sure the medicine isn't effecting my liver function.

I am really hopeful that this medicine will make me feel better and help me stay that way for a long time. It is kind of difficult to deal with the fact that I have a chronic illness, one that will never really go away. I think it may take a while for it to really sink in...and it will definitely take a while for me to fully accept it! We are praying that this is just a flare up of the disease, and that once the medicine gets it under control, I will be able to go back to my normal life.

Dealing

Other than dealing with the idea of a forever illness, we are also dealing with the fact that we may not be able to have any more kids. Jason and I had just recently started talking about having one more baby...but that is completely out of the question for right now. I CAN NOT get pregnant will I am taking this medicine, or for at least three months after I have stopped taking it {assuming that I will be able to stop at some point}. I have always felt like four kids was the right number for us, so we are trusting God with that fourth child! Adoption has been tossed around a little in the past, mainly because I really want a little girl...and Jason's genes obviously produce lots of little boys! We never thought adoption would be a necessity, just that it was an option. No matter how this turns out, we are trusting that God has a plan for family...three kids or four!


Determination


Eli is determined to keep my on my toes through all of this! He has grown up so much in the past two weeks. He sat up by himself for the first time. He can {and will} hold his own bottle now. He is getting another cute little tooth. And he is CRAWLING!! I know he is 7 months old, and it is about time he started crawling, he is just changing so fast! He just decided to take off one day last week. He has seriously gone from a sweet, happy lump of a baby to a fully mobile baby in less than a week! He is already getting into my laundry piles and the big boys' toys! Other than being SUPER determined....he is definitely a great DISTRACTION from all the stuff that is going in my life right now.

Thank you to everyone for their kind words, thoughts, and prayers. I am hoping to be back to {normal, no talk of sickness} blogging soon. I may ever post a picture for the I Heart Faces contest today!

Still feeling like crap sick

I don't have any more news....just that I am still not feeling good. But I think 'good' is probably an understatement....I haven't felt good in over a week, maybe longer.

We are back at our house after spending almost a full week at my mom's. Except for Henry who is on Spring Break this week and will probably stay with her for a few more days. For some reason two kids seem to be much easier to handle than three right now!

I haven't heard back from the doctor about all the blood work, but the longer this continues the more I know that there is something seriously wrong.

I have been on a new kind of steroid {my third round in the last three months} since April 2nd and I am only doing a little better than when I started out!

I honestly wish I could go back in time about a week and a half to when we thought it was just carpal tunnel! A simple surgery and all would be better.

Instead, I sit here day after day waiting for the news that I have some incurable autoimmune disease that I will have to live with forever.

I know that people can live normal lives with these kinds of diseases, but no one wants to be sick for the rest of their life!

Not knowing when I will feel good and when I will feel bad.

How do you make plans, when at any moment you could feel like crap be sick again?

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I think the worst part right now is that I can't sleep well. I am in pain....a pain that moves from place to place.

Saturday night it was my left knee and my left elbow

Sunday it was both knees and my left pointer finger {you would be surprised how much one little finger can hurt!!}

Last night it was my right knee and my left wrist

And really, it is the not knowing {and the waiting} that is sort of driving me crazy!

I really think if I knew what was wrong, I would start feeling a little better. Maybe if I knew for sure what it was, then I could try to do something about it!

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I feel like I have missed so much in blog land over the last week and a half!! And I have few fun things to post about when I am back to feeling better....hopefully soon!

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Sorry for such a depressing post!

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In the meantime, if you could say a prayer for me and my family I would really appreciate it!

Sick

I have been missing from blog land for a few days.

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I got a major rash starting on Friday.

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I started running a fever on Saturday.

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Then got really sore and achy.

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I've been to the doctor twice....Monday and Tuesday.

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They still aren't sure what is wrong.

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We are waiting for blood work to come back.

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But we won't know anything definite for about 10 days.

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They are thinking it is could possibly be Rheumatoid Arthritis.

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For now, I am taking steroids and pain medicine....and we have been staying at my mom's house so she and my sister can help me with the boys.

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I am starting to feel a little better now that I have some meds in my system.

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Hopefully I will be back to blogging by next week!

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Henry's First T-ball Game

The umpire had to talk to Henry.

Henry kept hitting the ball before the umpire said "Play Ball"!

Henry running for home plate!

Henry's coach helping him get ready to hit the ball.

His team played really well today!
And after all the yucky weather we have had the last few days, it was a beautiful day to be at the ballpark!