Twice in ONE week?

Ok, it's been quite the weekend here at the Turner house. I know I say that a lot, but, well, we don't usually end up in the ER twice in one week. In fact, we have never been to the ER with any of our 4 kids - that is, until last week. I posted earlier about going with Lucas because of his asthma issues. Well, this weekend we got to hang out at Children's Mercy yet again. On Saturday morning Austin decided Gabriella's ears were dirty and thought he would clean them up. He got ahold of a Q-tip and went to town. Gabriella screamed, but calmed down and got over it as she always does. Didn't think too much about it as she didn't say it hurt or anything. When she wouldn't eat lunch I went and sat by her and noticed there was blood coming out of her ear. At that point I thought we better head to the Urgent Care. Long story short they sent us over to Children's Mercy downtown to see how bad the damage was. Luckily they think she is going to be ok - we do have a ruptured eardrum though. They aren't sure of any more damage until the blood is all cleared out and after it heals up a bit - it's too messy to see much right now. We are suppose to go to the ENT within 5 days to have it checked out again - that would be Thursday - so time will tell. Gab has been quite a trooper - has never complained once that it hurts. She has to take ear drops (yuck) twice a day and she does awesome. Today was the first time she decided they weren't so fun, but still did pretty good. We were in the hospital ALL day Saturday - took hours before we were seen. Got there at 2:30 and got home at 8pm by the time I got the prescriptions filled. Quite a full day. I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time we visit the hospital, but I would at least like to get these 2 visits paid for before we have to go back again. We haven't even gotten the bill from the first visit with Lucas. Good grief. I have to say there is nothing more heart-wrenching than seeing your child in pain. So awful. Luckily, Gab is the toughest kid ever. I think tomorrow we are all going to sit on the couch and just watch TV all day - no one can get injured doing that, right??
Oh wait...Shawn rigged up a huge tire swing from our big tree in the backyard - it is WAY cool. Looks like we should be back in the ER by Friday - ha !!
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

Officially summer!!

Austin graduated from preschool this morning. Seriously? A year has gone by already? Craziness. Time just flies when you have 4 kiddos I guess. Hard to believe. He's changed so much this past year. Learned so much. Always eager to learn more. I think I am excited to have a break from school (I may feel differently Wednesday morning when he stays home all day). It will be nice to have some lazy mornings and lots of time outside and at the pool. Only one more year and he'll be gone all day at school. I don't even want to think about that!! Ashlyn is already excited for school to start in the fall - she can't wait to be there. So many things to look forward to. Right now I'm looking forward to our big camp out with lots of friends in less than 3 weeks. We are going camping with 5 of our close friends and all the kids. There is going to be 25 of us - I will let you know if we all survive!! I'm also looking forward to our first real family trip at the end of June - we are headed to St. Louis for a few days with the Husters - I am so looking forward to it!! Should be tons of fun!! Camping in July with the Settle fam, canoing with Shawn's work buds, Royals games we hope, and much more...
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

TGIF...no seriously...TGIF!!!!

What a lovely (awful) week we have had here. Started out with Shawn being sick on Mother's Day. Grrrr. Then Austin had some "trouble" at school on Monday which required the first sit down with him that night. Both Shawn and I had to sit down and have a talk with him - of which we had to pull the card, "we are so disappointed in you"...I am soooo turning into my parents. (not that they ever ever had to say that to me..well, maybe once or twice). Anyway, we have had no TV since Monday and haven't really decided when it will come back. The problem is that I don't know that Austin has really cared that there is no tv. We physically removed it from the house and he just finds other things to do. He is so laid back which is great until you try and discipline him. Oh well - things have been fine at school since and today is the last day.
Onto other things....I have paid a ridiculous amount in co-pays this week. Monday Lucas went back to the doc to see about his breathing (again) and they put him on a new set of antibiotics and a steroid (after already having been on one antibiotic that didn't work). Yesterday there was still no change in his breathing so we went back and long story short we ended up at Childrens Mercy hospital yesterday afternoon. They had thought he might have pneumonia, but now it is looking like he has asthma. We are having to do breathing treatments every 3-4 hours which is helping some, but I am hoping by this afternoon that he will be doing a lot better. If the wheezing doesn't stop we may have to go to a pulmonary doctor to see if something else is wrong. They did some chest x-rays and didn't find anything specific yet. As for now, they are calling him a "happy wheezer". He is perfectly happy, just can't breathe very well - which makes if very difficult for me to diagnose how serious it is getting. Anyway, it has been very stressful trying to figure out what is wrong with him - I think I have some gray hairs on top of my head.
So, that is why I have neglected to blog in so long. I have also had lots of math work going on (yipee!) so all my spare minutes have gone to that. Speaking of which I better get doing that instead of this...
I hope all is well out there - I will try and post some pics and updates this weekend - I am hopeful that next week will be better!
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

and then there were....teeth.

Yes, Lucas has 2 teeth that broke thru. Can you believe that? He will be 4 months tomorrow and has 2 teeth. Gabriella decided it was time he try a cheerio, alas he choked like crazy. No, I did not know she was feeding him cheerios, but I was close by so, crisis averted. I am thinking I might give him some cereal soon - the usual rice cereal to start. Then we head on to smashed up bananas and avocados. Yum yum. Just the cereal will be enough craziness to for a few weeks. It's so easy when all they do is drink milk...now I have to fit another kid into the feeding schedule! Anyway, I usually do most all my own food, so easy and better than having a billion baby food jars around. Lucas has also rolled over a couple times - say what?? Time flies I guess!
We have a wonderful garden planted this year thanks to the kids and Shawn. I am so excited to see what comes up. It's already grown a bunch - onions, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers and peppers...we'll see what happens and if we get to eat as much as the rabbits and squirrels do - where's that BB gun again?? ha ha
I have decided to stop "twittering". I gave it a shot, but it seems a bit over the top for me. I think that's why I can't get into Facebook either. I don't have time to read what 150 of my closest friends are doing every minute of the day. Interesting concept, just not for me. Plus, I had people following me on twitter that I didn't even know - little creepy if you ask me. I still love to blog, so that's not going anywhere.
Shawn is out of town for a few days to golf out in Georgia. Should be a fun little getaway for him. I will be so happy to have him back though! We have two weddings this weekend, one Friday night and one Saturday night. Should be an exhausting, fun time. Friday night will just be me and Shawn - yipee! And Saturday night we are going to take 3 out of 4 kids. Mom and dad said they would keep lucas since he goes to bed at 7. The others will be joining us for what I am guessing is going to be ALOT of dancing!! Shawn has taught the kids some great dance moves - can't wait to go public with those!
I better go do a headcount of all the kids -
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

pics as promised

Here's an Easter photo. Personally, I think it turned out pretty amazing considering the 4 kids under the age of 4. And YES, that is Gabriella in her first dress EVER. So fun!
And without further adieux (ado??):
Here is Bolt, the frog: (he is sitting on the rocks, sorry it's the best I could get.)
And there is the four fish: from left to right on top is Jose, Gus, Little Eddy and Nemo is right under Jose. Also hard to really see them, but at least I took the time to upload them!

Time for a little Jack Bauer -
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

4 fish and a frog.

We broke down and bought a family pet. NO, not a dog, definitely absolutely not a cat...we got 4 fish (one for each kid) and a frog (Shawn's frog). We have Austin's fish - Jose (no idea why he wants to call it that), Ashlyn's fish - Nemo, Gabriella's fish - Little Eddy (after Papa Turner), and Lucas's fish - Gus (I decided to name that one) and the frog - Bolt (after the sprinter in the olympics, not the movie). I will get a pic of them tomorrow and post it. They are all crazy little guppies that swim around like mad. The kids love it.
Besides getting the fish and frog, we did a ton of work outside this weekend (we meaning Shawn and the kids). Each of the kids painted a pot and picked out their own flowers to plant in them and they are in charge of their pots all summer. They were super excited about it and they turned out awesome. (thanks for the idea, Jennie!) We'll see how long they can keep them alive...should be interesting...
We also got our garden planted. I have some high hopes - as do they...we planted potatoes, onions, peppers, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. I hope we at least get a little produce out of it and that it doesn't all go to our pet squirrels and rabbits. We still have my herb garden to plant, but we'll get to that later. Shawn built a shelf off our deck to hang the pots from. I am most excited to get the herb garden growing.
As for now, I am absolutely exhausted and have a sore throat so I am off to bed to watch the Apprentice and hopefully get a good nights sleep.
Hope you are having the time of your life!
ST

Get to Work!!

The kitchen is finally taking shape! It's a slow process, but it's moving along nicely. Getting a kitchen renovation done with 4 kids could be a whole season of one of those DIY shows. We have have all the existing cabinets that we are keeping almost done - they need one more coat of varnish. We got all the doors this week - and they are BEAUTIFUL. We gave them their first coat of varnish last night and they look so cool!! Can't wait to get them up. I still have no doors on any of my cabinets - little bit "ghetto" in my kitchen to say the least. We have the counter top ordered and should be in sometime in the next couple weeks. We think we have a new sink picked out but are still debating. We like the black ones and think we will go with it since our counters are going to be really dark.
I got a bunch of work from the textbook company this week so I am super excited about that. That money will go straight into the tuition fund for preschool next year.
Potty training has gone amazingly well. Gabriella just cracks me up. She has changed quite a bit after the potty training - I feel like the tantrums we were having have pretty much stopped altogether - (thank YOU!!!) She hasn't had an accident in days and seems to go all by herself without me asking if she needs to go. SO COOL. And you don't dare help her - she wants her "privacy" and I quote, "I do it myself - get out mom". So there you have it - 3 potty trained kids, 1 to go!
We made a little trip to Manhattan this week - so much fun. We left Monday night to stay with the Payne's - they were so nice to let us crash in their basement. Then spent the day with Callie and the boys (and baby Taylor) on Tuesday. Kids had a blast and snoozed the whole way home on Tuesday afternoon. What a great break to the week. Austin is off school today and Monday for Easter so it's been nice to sleep in and be lazy in the mornings. I hope the rain stops soon and it will be nice for Easter, but it isn't looking like it's going to be so nice. We'll see...
Hope you are havin' the time of your life!
ST
ps - Happy Easter!!