The good luck continues...

So I mentioned Travis's truck started on fire on Saturday.  Fortunately, they were able to fix it completely and have it done by Monday afternoon.  It cost a fairly pretty penny, but it's done and it was in time for him to go with Sam on the ski day for her school.

Yesterday while I was at work Travis had Brooke and Caleb at home.  I guess he sat both of them up to the counter to have something to eat.  We always put Brooke at the counter because she's fiesty and just about refuses to sit anywhere else.  Generally speaking she does quite well.  We are never too far away from her either.  Apparently Brooke was sitting on her barstool eating her food and minding her own business when she unexplainedly fell off the barstool and landed face first on the wood floor.  She had a bloody nose off and on the entire day.  She also ended up with a nice goose egg in the center of her forehead.  She seemed ok other than that.  A little whiney but she's been sick and I just chalked it up to that.  This morning she was puking everywhere and everything.  She's throwing up to the point of dry heaving.  Poor baby.  I got thinking about it and wondered if it might be from her fall yesterday. Called the pediatrician's office.  They had me check her pupils and they were dilating.  They told me what to watch for and said that she'll probably throw up the rest of the day.  Luckily for me my neighbor is kind enough to come sit with Brooke and Caleb while I go to work for about an hour and a half.  Also fortunately for me, I'm at the school that's having the ski day for their fourth and fifth grade so I don't need to worry about missing them!
UPDATE: As the day wore on B was acting and looking worse.  By the time my mom got her just after one she had called my aunt (who's an EMT) to ask some questions.  My mom and I both felt like she didn't look too fantastic.  My aunt said we should take her to the ER and have her checked out.  So, I loaded her in the car and took her to the ER.  She just pretty much laid there while we were there.  They put a neck brace on her (which she didn't fight at all) and gave her some medicine to help her stop vomiting.  They did a cat scan to make sure she didn't have a skull fracture or swelling/blood on the brain.  Luckily, the scan came back all clear.  They gave me a prescription for Zofran (for the vomiting) and let us go.  They said to keep a close eye on her for another 24 hours.  If she doesn't improve within 24-48 hours then we need to have her checked out again.  He said that the fact that there wasn't anything showing up on the cat scan and we were 24 hours out from the accident was a good sign.  So, we are back home, she still looks and feels awful and she's still throwing up.  I sure hope the little girl feels better soon.  What a scare for mom!

B in her neck brace:

B last night showing off her brother's mask that goes to his flying suit:

Travis and I got new phones yesterday too.  We finally switched from Verizon.  We've been with them since 2002.  It wasn't that we didn't like them, we just figured out that by going through Straight Talk (at Walmart) we could get 2 smart phones and a basic phone (for the kids) and pay what we're paying now for 1 smart phone and 1 basic phone.  I'm so excited to have a smart phone!  The phone I had been using I got in 2009 and it was pretty basic.  I feel like I've joined the new age!  So, now I'm trying to figure out all the new features on my phone, add apps (look out instagram I can finally get an account!), add all my contacts, etc.  The kids are pretty excited to have a cell phone that's designated as kid use (mostly it's to stay at the house so if we run somewhere and need to leave a phone home we can).

Yesterday I got my 2008 blurb book!  I used booksmart (blurb.com) to turn my blog into a book.  I have 2008 and 2009 done and 2008 came in the mail yesterday.  It looks great and I'm so excited!  It was a New Year's resolution last year and I got it done but never ordered.  So, I added it as a New Year's resolution again this year.  When I got a coupon for 30% off I couldn't resist - made it very affordable!  I got another coupon good for part of February so now I need to get 2010 done.  I love that I have a journal with pictures for my kids.  I did paperback because it was cheaper, but I still think it will be just fine and not get destroyed too easily (as long as we keep Brooke from grabbing at it constantly!).

Well, here's to hoping we have no more trauma the rest of February!

In the last 2 weeks...

There has been ONE (healthy) adult at our house
FOUR sick children
SEVEN trips to dr.'s offices
ONE official diagnosis of Influenza
ONE official diagnosis of croup
ONE official diagnosis of a left ear infection
ONE official diagnosis of a sinus infection
ONE unofficial diagnosis of croup
TWO unofficial diagnosises of Influenza
FOUR prescriptions
THIRTEEN missed school days for three kids
ONE missed dance class
TWO missed piano lessons
ONE near trip to the ER with Nash because of his croup
ONE near trip to the ER with Caleb because of his croup
TWO AND A HALF missed school days for mom (doesn't count how many groups of kids I missed, just full days)
TWO restockings of Advil/Motril/Tylenol/Delsym
ONE day at daycare for Caleb & Brooke

I'm seriously looking forward to their dad coming home this weekend!

Update (Saturday - still well within my 2 weeks of when Travis left)
Today I got the news that:
1-My external hard drive is dead.
2-My kindle had to be reset to factory defaults (at least it wasn't dead dead).
3-Travis's truck STARTED ON FIRE.  Seriously.  Not.  Even.  Joking.  At least he made it to USU before he couldn't go any further.

A name change for the blog?

After reading my last post my sister suggested I change the name of the blog to Bown Family Medical History.  Good, but I'm thinking more along the lines of "Chronicles of a homemade M.D."  What do you think?

Will it ever stop?!

Lets look at it this way:

Week before Christmas:
Sam gets flu bug and misses school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Nash gets flu bug and misses school Tuesday.
Caleb gets flu bug & is sick until the following week.

Christmas Eve:
Caleb appears to be on his death bed.

Christmas Day:
Travis & Brooke get flu bug.  Travis STILL has a nasty hacking cough.

Friday January 19:
Sam get sicks.  On Sunday we go to Instacare to be told she has Influenza.  She misses the entire week of school.  Has fever of 103 entire time - that's being on ibuprofen all day every day for the entire week.

Thursday January 24:
Caleb wakes up with temp of 101.4.

Friday January 25:
Rather than go to SLC to the conference I'm registered for for work I stay home and take all FOUR kids to the pediatrician's office.  Get told Caleb just has croup.  Get three days of Dexamethasone for Caleb.  Get Brooke a flu shot.  Caleb's temperature hits 104 this night.

Sunday January 27:
Caleb finishes the last of his Dexamethasone.

Monday January 28:
Really shouldn't send Caleb to daycare but have students doing presentations (that were suppose to be done the week before Christmas but I had to cancel classes).  Send Caleb to daycare double dosed on ibuprofen and acetominaphen.
Take Caleb back to Instacare after work.  Spend three hours there to learn that he doesn't have RSV, it's "just the junk in the air that's viral that's going around" and I'm "doing everything that can be done". Find out the "best recommendation" the dr. can give me is to get some saline nasal spray for Caleb.  Come home very irritated.
Get kids ready for bed and send them off.  Caleb is fevering again and is struggling for air (again/still).  Nash starts coughing....Nash starts croup coughing....Nash has fever.
Brooke wakes up after being asleep for about an hour.  Brooke has fever.

BAH!  I'm digging a very deep hole, climbing in and not coming out until June 1st!  What I don't understand is that I have 95 students in four different schools.  How the heck have I managed to be the ONLY person in this house that hasn't gotten deathly ill?  Seriously!  I hope God knows I consider this to be a VERY cruel joke on his part.

Relay for Life 2013

This year is my FIFTH year doing Relay for Life and my FOURTH year as being a committee member.  This year I am the chairperson for sponsorship again.  I'm hoping that we can raise more money through sponsorship this year than last year.  Last year we raised about $7,000 (which I'm told was twice what they did the year before, hence the reason I'm chairperson again - actually, I was told as long as I want to chair sponsorship, it's all mine).  We raised about $85,000 for the entire event last year.  That was about $10,000 less than the year before - in all honesty, I'm fairly certain that the torrential rain storm we had during Relay was the culprit because it killed a lot of the fundraisers people had planned to do up on site.

Our kickoff event is this Wednesday.  It is our second annual Dancing with the Relay Stars.  It's just like Dancing with the Stars, but the dancers are raising money for Relay.  I have volunteered to help at the event again this year.  It will be held at the Logan Rec Center again this year.  We have quite a few stars dancing this year too.  The USU ballroom dance team acts as choreographers for the dancers - which I think is pretty awesome.  They have also arranged to have several different dance companies bring teams in to dance while money is being counted (nope, Sam's not dancing - lucky for me).  We also use this event as a charity event for the food pantry.  People who come and bring a canned food donation get the price of their admission reduced.  Last year we were able to collect quite a few cans for the food pantry so I'm hoping we can do that again this year as well.

As for the plans I've made for my own Relay team...well, not all plans have been figured out but I'm kinda use to flying solo on this one.  I know I will have team members but most of them don't sign up until about April!  

**Travis had suggested two years ago that we appeal to the men.  I had promised him we would do so through our raffle & our shirts last year....and then I forgot.  So, to honor that promise, this year we will be "Huntin' for a Cure."  We will also be raffling off something that will appeal to the men as well as the women...perhaps a fishing pole?  Travis wants to raffle a gun but I'm pretty sure we won't be able to get one donated and I'm not assuming that liability!

**I'm planning to do a silent auction on the blog again this year.  I would like to do that about the first week of March so keep an eye out.

**I know I will be doing a yard sale again this year.  I've been collecting items in my basement since the end of the last one last May.  The pile is growing out of control!  If you have any items you want to get rid of and would like to donate them to the yard sale let me know.  I'm more than happy to come pick items up.  I'm planning to do the yard sale in early May.  I know we have a dance competition one of the first Saturdays & I believe the second weekend is Mother's Day.  So, I'll keep you posted on a for sure date.

**If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to my team (or register to be a part of my team), you can do so here:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=50483&pg=personal&px=2086508  I set my fundraising goal for $100 but I'd really like to beat what I did last year.  Last year my team did about $1,700 & I raised about $1,400 of that.  I really wanted to earn my red "Grand Club" shirt last year.  I'm hoping to earn another one this year as well.  That means I have to raise at least $1,000.  

**If you'd like to donate but can't afford to donate money I'd love donations for the silent auction.  Anything you can do helps us find a cure for this rotten disease.  If you know any business owners that would like to participate by being a sponsor let me know!

**And in case you don't know, here's why I Relay:

I started to Relay in memory of my Grandma Lea.  Now I have the honor of Relaying for so many others.  But, to be honest, this right here is why I keep Relaying:

I Relay for my family

I Relay for my Grandpa who kicked Cancer's Butt more times than any one person ought to have to

I Relay for my Littles because Heaven forbid I ever lose one of them to this horrific disease

I Relay for my "Other Mother" who kicked Cancer's Butt

And I Relay for my friends who have kicked Cancer's Butt

Basically, I Relay because it's a way that I CAN make a difference in this very large world.  It's a way for me to be involved in my community and help others who are in need.  It's a way for me to honor my Grandma and the fight she made.  It's a way for me to show my children the importance of caring about those around us -  because in the end, we're all human.