Mountain Goat and the Hike

Once upon a post turkey day we took a hike.
it was through the mountains of SB to "Inspiration Point."
Mountain Goat (sonja, who is really sonia but i have special permission to say sonJa) pretended to lead the way followed by her bestie Pam-ella.
brobro ryan was the organizer of the trip and sergeant to us all.
chubs and i were the ones who showed up with starbucks drinks and eating egg muffins.
oh, and baby D decided to tag along. literally.
what a hike.
what a beautiful day.
my back was a teensy bit sore.
we were all sweaty.
the view was sensational.
derek will never remeber since he slept the whole time.
and amaya stayed happily with grandma that afternoon.
the end..moe.

Gobble Gobble!

thanksgiving was a "turkeyrific" day! we drove to my parents the day before so that we could enjoy the morning. not sure if i'd call it "enjoying" though, because i don't know anyone who enjoys screaming children early in the AM. i know i don't. i know bubby doesn't. i know my siblings who are unmarried and have no children don't. i don't think amaya and derek really cared too much how we felt because they just kept on doing their thing, " WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH."

poor bubby was exhausted so literally he slept the whole day. then ate dinner. then went back to sleep.amaya refused to eat anything on the table because she all of a sudden hates food. derek decided to take a nap right as dinner was served. lucky me. my nephew brandon got to experience his first california (warm, t-shirt and shorts) thanksgiving.
the best part about turkey day was the pictures and the great memories. my siblings and i actually took some photos together. no fighting, no whining, swearing or name calling. we actually looked like angels. after the food was served, eaten and refrigerated, we played the afternoon away...



.moe.

I Want to Tell You My Secrets...

...i love my tubbs and lil' d.
...i love my bubby.
...i'm so thrilled to have them all together for thanksgiving.
...i'm a little sad i can't eat them.
...but i can eat with them!!!
...i'm an evil mother since today the kids had to get their flu shots. yucky.
...i'm sorry..
...derek i'm sorry your hair looks like an awful comb over

...i love love love my family

.moe.

A Thanksgiving Divorce

A Thanksgiving Divorce...

A man in Phoenix calls his son in New York the day before Thanksgiving and says,
"I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing; forty-five years of misery is enough."
"Pop, what are you talking about?" the son screams.
The father says. "We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "Like heck they're getting divorced," she shouts, "I'll take care of this."
She calls Phoenix immediately, and screams at her father,"You are NOT getting divorced. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing, DO YOU HEAR ME?" and hangs up.

The old man hangs up his phone and turns to his wife.

"Okay," he says, "they're coming for Thanksgiving and they're paying their own way."

.moe.

A Mouth Full

just my luck.
so yesterday i decided to make my dental appointment for a cleaning and to meet my new dentist. today i wake up and brush my teeth only to have to deal with an excruciating pain in my mouth. i called them and they were nice enough to squeeze me in.

sadly i have 6 cavities, a wisdom tooth that's dead and broken, and perfect hygiene.how might you ask? well, i take very good care of my teeth and supposedly my gums show it. but lucky me i have crappy genes for teeth. umm right so yeah let's get this show on the road and fix me!

.moe.

We Found It!

she has strep!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!! i am so thankful to actually have an answer. now giving her medicine is a whole other story. i can't wait to be done because being kicked in the face is not cool. i almost can't get mad at her for hitting and kicking. she is trying to defend herself from evil.

besides that, amaya doesn't want me to touch her head. hmmm she absolutely will not let me brush her hair... we even went through a bath strike to avoid the whole hair wash and brush process. this is going to be a looong week.

on an even happier note, derek is not sick. he is also babbling tons and really not becoming more independent like i had hoped.
oh well.

.moe.

As The Week Goes On...

find me a bridge to jump off. please. ok so not really, but that's the feeling i have. it's day 8 of amaya being sick. today though is something different. she won't wake up. she is curled up on the bed and has been asleep for hours. almost 10 hours to be exact.
yesterday i called UCLA in the morning to give the on call physician a run down of how she had been feeling. she still was on motrin but i thought she was getting better. she was crabby but no fever. i thought she had sweat everything out. no wait, SHE DID sweat everything out. because i mentioned her being better they said i could keep her home for the weekend. if she needed anything i could bring her in on monday. i honestly had thought she was ok.
literally once we got to SB (1.5 hours later) poor boo was a wreck. crying, sweating, fevering. she absolutely would not let you touch her face, throat, head, anything. i gave her motrin again and the fever went down. that night even before the medicine wore off she started mellowing out and falling asleep, then she'd wake up all delusional and start crying and throwing herself everywhere. you couldn't touch her and she wouldn't drink anything. she was grabbing her throat and pulling her hair.
i at the same time had just gotten off the phone with the physician for the evening. she told me that the urine culture came back negative. i told her my concern about the fevers and the weird behavior. everyday of the week they were asking for rashes and swelling. nope no rashes or swelling, but fevers, gunky eyes, chapped lips, headaches and just about everything else you could think of. the physician then suggested i take her to ER asap to get rechecked for ear infections and Kawasaki Disease.
when i had heard the word disease my heart sank. i felt literally like the worst parent of the world. how could i let things get so bad. what did i do wrong?
nothing. i did nothing wrong.
8:30pm we get amaya to the ER. just me, my mom and my sister. they gave her a teaspoon of motrin and then another of vicodin and tylenol. i had never felt so bad for her in my life. she was so upset and scared and i was too for her. i felt every ounce of pain she did.
as the doctor rechecked her ears and eyes she screamed bloody murder. she did not want to be touched. what relief though once they got to her throat. oh my god i could not believe what i saw. her throat was bloodshot red. it looked like it was screaming fire inside and no wonder she felt the way she did. they did a culture swab and tested her for strep throat. i really hope it's strep. it has to be. once i heard the doctor say he was going to treat her for strep i felt so much better. no disease, no elongated hospital stays.
we did have to stay for blood work. ugh that was a pain in the butt. while we had great nurses and even some friends we went to high school with it just was torture watching this. nobody could find her vein to draw blood from. 3 times she was pricked and finally i said enough is enough. i told them to just draw her blood instead of trying an IV. obviously after one try on each side it should have been enough. amaya hated this and and being the strong willed child she is, they had to wrap her in a burrito (swaddle) with me and 2 adult men holding her down. by the time the blood draw lady came in amaya was over it. she didn't even cry when they still couldn't find her vein. she just laid there completely numb from the medicine. eventually they had to draw from her write. ugh so uncomfortable to watch.
after a few more hours the blood came back normal so they gave her a shot of amoxicillin in her thigh.
we finally got home around 2am and OMG I DON'T EVER WANT TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm tired, my head is aching form the crying, from the lack of sleep all week, i feel guilty, sorry, and just want her to be the normal 2 year old she used to be. she's on amoxicillin for 10 days. this is gonna suck.
again, sorry for writing this in a state of exhaustion

.moe.

My Poor Boo...

so literally amaya has had a fever for 5 days. today being day 5.
uncool.
she is crying, screaming, clinging, miserable, out of it and it's breaking my heart.

we took her to the Urgent Care this morning to get checked out. they said get there as soon as possible but since it's 30 minutes away we got there around 11:30am. they took her weight, had me fill out papers and asked why she was there. poor boo was SCREAMING her head off. the nurses then had the nerve to say please come back at 1:40pm to be seen.
SERIOUSLY?
ummm where are we supposed to go with a screaming traumatized toddler? how can we eat lunch knowing she could be really sick? they then decided to get smart and keep her. they took her temp. 104. when we left the house it was 102. all week it was 102. i was really upset, because yes 104 is considered a moderate fever, but to me it's still high.
so anyways, they decided to keep us and look at her right away. she was checked for ear infections, strep and then they had to use a catheter to check for a urine infection. she couldn't stop crying and screaming. she hated the doctor, she hated me for being the one to hold her down, and to make it even harder derek wouldn't stop crying unless she did. it broke our hearts to hear her cry daddy daddy in between the sobbing and tears.
everything so far has come back negative. the urine culture will take 2 days to come back and i hope hope hope it comes back positive. i know it sounds bad, but then we know what's going on instead of just guessing and waiting.
i'm just so tired and i don't even know if everything i wrote makes sense. she can't sleep on her own, she is dehydrated. i can't wait for her to get better and i hope it's soon.

.moe.

SLAVE to my Crock Pot

yes the title says it all. i am a true crock pot groupie. i never knew of the phenomenom or addiction behind this little silver and black slow cooker, but it's the best. let me tell you if it wasn't for the crock pot my monday and wednesday nights would be spent hanging around hungry,impatient crybabies eating crap or nothing at all. my list in order of importance
1. the children
2. my bubby
3. crockpot

here are 2 recipes we've been stuck on that last few weeks. super simple because i've been in a rush everytime i make them.

Italian Cream Cheese Chicken

• 1 packet dry italian dressing mix
• 1 can Cream of Chicken
• chicken breasts (i used 4)
• 1 8oz block of cream cheese (diced)

throw it all together.
cook on low for 8 hours.
stir occassionally
serve over pasta or white rice.


Roast

• 1 round roast (i cut him in half)
• 1 packet onion soup
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom
• 1 can of milk (fill the mushroom can)
• diced carrots
• diced onion.

mix them all together
stir occassionally
cook for 8 hours on low
serve over mashed potatoes


.moe.

Showin' Off

REMEMBER: the time changes. so makes sure you are prepared to suffer being up an hour earlier with the children than usual.

here are some photos of true friendship.
i hope this remains forever.

.moe.