We have been busy painting, building and decorating the girls rooms this month. Grace got a new purple room and Sarah's is green. Grace's fits her tweenie image and Sarah's is Pixie Hollow. Hopefully I will be including some pictures. I am using Doug's computer and his fancy photo shop. I am still learning what to do and how to do it with this program. So for my first picture here is one of the kids at Easter. Ok so no picture. It didn't want to load. I need to get them smaller. Anyway, I am going to attempt to put more pictures of the rooms up asap.
Not much else is happening here in Britton. The kids are off of school this week and we are just trying to keep them busy. Grace went to a friends yesterday and today and the boys are going to a friends tomorrow. They also had a friend over just before Easter. Daniel and Sarah are staying busy too. They like having the bigger kids to play with too.
Doug spent the last two days in the garage. He built a shelf and stool for Sarah's new room. They are both really good. Sarah's bed is higher than she is used to so he built the stool for her to get up into the bed and the shelf is so she can organize her stuff. Grace has shelves on her head board and she had her stuff on it minutes after it was complete. She likes to be organized. She often re-organizes when she is bored.
OK so I am going to go back and try and learn this photo editor so I can add some pictures to this blog. I hope you all had a great Easter.
No, they aren't all related, but they about sum up what we have been up to in the Adams' Clan for the first month or so of the new year! We have been busy and blessed!!
In January the twins started shooting with the local 4H club. Every Saturday they go to the Lenawee county Shooting Grounds and shoot BB's for an hour and a half. They pooled some of their Christmas money and purchased a BB gun. It just arrived this week and they were very excited. They had been using the club's guns. They will continue to do that as they switch each week with the new gun. I am not real sure how I feel about this whole shooting thing, but the boys seem to really enjoy it and it is very safe and structured. I will send the camera with Doug next week so I can post some pictures. They even get pretty good scores, lots of 7's, 8's, 9's and even 10's. (Think of the center of the bulls eye as 10 and each ring away from that goes down incrementally.) Their scores get higher each week.
Now for the stitches. Daniel, you had any doubts this involved him?, two weeks ago Thursday, got his finger pinched in the hinge side of the outer bathroom door at school. They called my cell phone and it was luckily lunch time so I could answer, since I was at work. They told me he pinched it and it was bleeding quite a bit and they wanted us to come in and take a look at it. So I called Doug who happened to be at home on his day off with Sarah, cause she had no school and Grace who was home with plugged up ears due to an ear infection. Doug left Grace at home and went to check on Daniel. When he got to school Daniel was in the office with a very bloody pinkie and he was throwing up in a trash can. Doug thought a visit to our pediatrician would be a good idea. ;-) So he drove to Dundee and of course, they were closed for lunch. Blessedly, the Urgent Care is literally right next door. They took x-rays, cleaned him up a bit, gave him a local and started stitching him up. He started to cry when he found out the Dr wasn't going to use glue to close the cut, but a needle instead. The Dr said, "Can you feel this?" as he tapped Daniel's hand. Daniel said no and the Dr replied, "Then why are you crying?" Daniel shrugged, stopped crying and settled in to watch. Doug had him turn his head and Daniel proceed to FALL ASLEEP!! He got a total of 6 stitches in an L shape above the top knuckle on his pinkie finger on the palm side. He had lots of gauze and wrappings that first day and was milking it!! He just got the stitches out last Tuesday. It still looks a little ugly, but it is healing nicely. The best part is that I had no idea how bad it was until I called on my way home from school at 3:30. Doug and Daniel were just back from the Urgent Care. Grace did a great job watching Sarah, although I don't think she will be volunteering to do it again anytime soon. I think it stressed her out a bit. Daniel is no worse for the wear. We had him stay inside that first week so he wouldn't tear out the stitches on the playground and now he has a great story to tell. He is even semi famous at school. Everyone wanted to know who all the blood belonged too! ;-)
Finally, on to the Substitute Teaching. It has made my life a bit more interesting, but I love it. I have to be a little more organized and Doug is doing a little more of the "Mommy Jobs", but it is all working out for the best. It is not a teacher's salary, but it is helping to pay bills and give us some fun money. I had intended to do the bulk of my work in the kids school, Britton, in the lower Elementary. I have in fact only worked there 5 days this whole year. I have been doing most of my work at Clinton Elementary, a nearby district, about 15 minutes from our house. I got my first job there through the Internet sub finder AESOP. I filled a young 5's spot that had the class in the am and then visited various other classed in the afternoon as well as playground duty. One of the teachers I visited that afternoon noticed me and asked me to work a day the following week. That night another of the teachers I worked with posted a job on AESOP and I picked it up. From that day on I haven't walked out of the building without another job for either later that week or the next. I have taken a few jobs in Madison and at the ISD preschool, but Clinton has been keeping me busy. I have been mostly in 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms, which is wonderful since that is what I am most familiar with anyway. I have also subbed for the Resource Room teacher several times. I am currently filling in for a second grade teacher who is on a medical leave for about two weeks. She has a great class and I am enjoying my time in her room. I am praying that I continue to be blessed with work after she comes back. Maybe I will have a few more opportunities to work in Britton. I will be sure to keep you all posted.
We have been up to other things here in Southeastern Michigan, but I will save the Line Dancing, Lock-in and Lent for another post...
New this year for the Adams Clan is dressing up and getting to do all the Halloween stuff. Halloween has never been our favorite holiday, for obvious reasons, but here at Emmanuel we had the opportunity to take the parts that we do like and fellowship with other members. We even got to carve pumpkins together as a family for the first time. The girls made a carriage, Daniel made a USA, Jacob made a cross and Nathan made a Jack -O - Lantern face.
Each year Emmanuel hosts Trunk and Treat on or near Halloween. It is a great night for kids and adults alike. It begins with a kid friendly potluck. No mystery dishes allowed. We had McDonald's chicken nuggets, pizza, mac and cheese, jello, cupcakes, cookies, and lots of other great stuff. Then we were each asked to bring a carved pumpkin and when we were done with dinner and a craft we took our pumpkins out to the front of the church, lined them up, lit them, sang "This Little Gospel Light of Mine" and pastor led a prayer.
From there the adults went and got the trunks ready and then the kids all came out and went trick or treating at our trunks in the parking lot instead of all over town. We had tons of fun!! There were lots of great costumes and trunks too.
Doug really got into it a few days before prepping the "boy trunk" ~ command central. My "girl trunk" ~ Pixie Hollow turned out pretty well too. As for costumes, this year we used what we had and the boys were all army guys and the girls were all fairies.
I think the kids really enjoyed their first Halloween. Hopefully we will have many more!!
Yes, the Adams Clan has H1N1. It arrived on Sunday, maybe Saturday, and hit Nathan first. His fever got as high as 103.9. Grace was next to go late Sunday. Same deal, high fever and body aches. We took Nathan to the doctor Monday afternoon. She tested for strep and when that came back negative, she tested for influenza. It came back positive for Influenza A. She then sent the swabs off to be further tested for H1N1. We made the decision to keep all the kids home from school. We were glad we did. Jacob went on Tuesday, Doug started on Wednesday, and Daniel went today. He will go to the doctor tomorrow to confirm. Doug is without a high fever, but he has a nasty cough, body aches and other symptoms as well. He has made arrangements for church on Sunday and will be staying home with us. I have been tired, but have no other real symptoms and neither does Sarah. We will see how that changes over the next few days.
So what does a family of 7 do while they are all stuck indoors for over a week? Well... I have taken on the role of RN. This is my white board. As you can see I have been keeping regular track of fevers and medicines. It is very easy to forget who had what temp last and when you gave them medicine. It is much easier to let the white board do the remembering!! Each night I transfer this information to a note book, clear off the board and start again. So about every hour or so, I take temps, distribute meds and give fluids as necessary. The kids have gotten used to me coming up, pulling their ear and sticking the thermometer in!
The kids have been keeping busy in lots of ways. The first few days they watched a lot of TV and movies. They also played the Wii, pool, air hockey and anything else they could since they were home. Especially Daniel, Jacob and Sarah who weren't sick the first few days. Today we got creative. They had watched almost all the movies they wanted to, TV is for preschoolers or adults during the day and even the Wii was feeling a little old and it is tiring when you are sick.
So this morning Doug helped them get started building a "city" on the basement. Grace ran the General Store. Nate and Jake were mailmen and handy men. They ran "Handy Jacks." (Doug misspelled Jake and it stuck) Sarah was the official shopper. She loved buying stuff at Grace's store. Daniel was a police officer/EMT and then a zoo keeper. Doug and I ran the upstairs restaurant "Adams Bar and Grill" We used poker chips for currency and eventually Grace even made credit cards for everyone to use. She got into it the most. The rowing machine was the conveyor belt at the check out counter and she even had an aisle to shop down. The twins were in the process of building a zoo for Daniel. They had string and stuffed animals. They cleaned that part up before I could take pictures, but maybe I can get them tomorrow. I had planned on running the movie theater up stairs, but we didn't have time for that today.
They had fun at lunch, ordering and leaving their payment. We made them all take naps, but when they woke up play resumed. They played until about 5:30pm. Daniel's fever was going up and so was Jakes. Nate still isn't 100% yet either so they put on a GI Joe video (1st season of the original cartoon. You know Yo! Joe! GI Joe is there! Now you know, and knowing is half the battle) They love it!! I have even heard Sarah yell "Yo Joe!!"
Anyway, that is how we spent our sick day today. The kids had fun, they didn't fight half as much as usual and Doug and I were able to relax too. Doug's mom and sister even stopped by for a drive by drop off of supplies. We were running low on some things. We are now stocked and ready to go. We could be stuck here for another week and be set.
So we will see what tomorrow brings. Daniel will go to the doctor and maybe Doug too. I am hoping to get some homework for the kids to work on. I would love for them to not be too far behind when they finally return to school. I will try and post regularly and let you know how we are doing.
I hope you all stay healthy. Keep an eye out for influenza like symptoms and stay home if you have them. Check with your doctor about what to do. Some aren't treating it at all and will tell you to just stay home. Others will have you come in and test you to be sure. My kids are taking Relenza which is the new Tamiflu. This is supposed to lesson the symptoms and speed recovery. We will see how it works. The key is 24 hours fever free with out the help of Motrin or Tylenol. But even then, there may be lingering symptoms, like body aches, sore throats and respiratory issues. It has hit Southern Michigan pretty hard. Several schools in Hillsdale County have closed. Only time will tell how it will effect schools here in Lenawee. We will keep you posted.
Welcome to Fall and my return to blogging. I know it has been quite a while since you last heard from me, but I must say it has been a very busy summer. I had big plans for blogging about the vacation to St. Augustine and all our summer fun. Needless to say they never happened. I have bunches and bunches of pictures and they may end up on here in a few days.
Today I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Daniel who turned 6 today. My dad's blog inspired me to at least write here today and maybe put together a slide show of pictures from our summer. I have a blog to write about a bunny too, but that will come. And maybe one about pears... Anyway, here are a few pictures of my sweet baby boy Daniel. He lost his first tooth this year. We took the family for ice cream and of course Daniel wanted to know if he lost the other loose one the next night if we would get ice cream again. No, Daniel that was just for the first lost tooth, not all lost teeth.
Thanks to Jenn Jackson of Capture the Moment Photography for this picture and lots of others!! We had a great day!! Nathan, Grace, Daniel, Sarah & Jacob
