A random note - eBates

Some of you will already have heard about this site last year from the same friend who referred me to it, but if you haven't checked out eBates, I recommend it. I honestly have no good idea of how it works or why, but if you go through their site to shop online at all your regular online places (Target, Old Navy, and pretty much every other retail site I've ever tried to find), you get rebates or coupons or free shipping. It's not always a lot, maybe 3% or 5%, but if you're making the purchase anyway, why not get some money back! Every quarter or so, they mail you a check if you've accumulated more than something like $5 in rebates. I've gotten a couple checks from them now, so I'm officially a believer.

I generally go to the site I'm looking to purchase from, do all my shopping so my cart is loaded up, then go to eBates and re-enter the site through their link. My cart is always still there, ready to go, and I get the rebate once I check out and the item ships.

Oh, and I mention it now because I just got word that if you tell them I referred you when you set up your account, I get some bonus money for referring friends, and they drop $5 as a starting balance into your account (that's the deal I got when I signed up last year, so I'm fairly confident it'll happen). To get the free money, I just have to send you the official invite, so let me know if you're interested. But no pressure. Check it out at your leisure. Or don't.

The hits just keep on coming

There was Elizabeth's ear infection. Then Marianne's feverish week followed by her ear infection, complete with perforated eardrum. Elizabeth at least was able to take the first antibiotic she was given (despite the foul taste that required she be restrained during administering), but Marianne had a terrible reaction to the same antibiotic and spent the weekend alternating between throwing up and sleeping. Thankfully she chose a path of mostly silent suffering, which is sad, but disturbs the healthy people less.

Yesterday we got Marianne started on a new medicine - still requiring restraint and coaxing, despite the supposed better taste. As icing on the cake, though, last night Ruth developed a fever and has spent this morning throwing up everything she puts in her mouth, including water. She's cheerful in between episodes, but that's only so much consolation.

Did I mention Nathaniel left this morning to work in Colorado for the week?

I'm tired and it's only Tuesday. And I have shopping that needs to be done, but I don't think the folks at Sam's Club would find my two little girls carrying around their big "just in case" bowls to be all that cute or endearing.

I'd love to tell you about all the fun stuff we've been doing around the sickness (a trip to KC for a Royals game and - hello! - Ruth's BIRTHDAY!) but I'm too busy nursing to do any of it justice. Most likely by the time I have real time to document it, it'll seem like such old news I'll skip it.

The good, the bad and the allergic

Sickness has filled our last week. Okay, not for all of us, but for ME, so to me, it feels like it's been to all of us. You know what I'm saying? The main culprit is tree pollen, or so we're guessing, but there's definitely a little more to it than that, as evidenced by the variety of symptoms.

In truth, I'm not complaining. We have remained miraculously free of major disease all through the winter. There have been stuffy noses and sore throats coming and going week by week, but no real flu. No major household bowel-related epidemics. For that, I am immeasurably grateful.

Now though... now there is mucus. And lots of it. And it's not just coming out of noses, but sad little pink eyes. Ugh.

I was just reading my May issue of Wondertime while the girls settled into their naps today, and came across a poignant article. It's by one of their regular columnists who writes like a good mommy-blogger about her mothering experiences, but in paper format. She's talking about her own winter of illness and in particular a recent trip to the doctor for a pink eye, and how different illness is once kids are a few years old than when they're babies and you want so badly to take the pain from them but can do nothing and can get no guidance from them as to what the trouble is. She's talking about trying, with toddlers, to appreciate the sick time's "tender silver lining of quiet time to spend together." That touching thought was followed by this quote, that hit home all too personally this week:

This tenderness is especially welcome since many illnesses are preceded by a day of nagging - "Finish your bratwurst. And quit all the whining!" - before the lightbulb goes off when your child falls feverishly asleep over the Candy Land board or throws up onto her dinner plate.

Too true. Too true. I could regale you with stories along these lines, but I'll spare you the details. Let's just say I'm watching for out of the ordinary whininess these days with a better trained eye to the cause.

There have been bright spots amid the snot. Sara and Jake have both remained healthy, and apart from a stomach bug, Elizabeth is holding out, though she occasionally mimics the complaints of the other girls in what appears to be an attempt to get medicine. Perhaps the stronger allergies are limited to myself and my children.

We managed to have a very fun weekend which included hosting a spaghetti dinner for Nathaniel's family the night before he and two of his brothers ran a half-marathon. (That's likely when pink eye transferred from our house to Renee's. She assures me she doesn't hold me fully responsible since she was warned beforehand of the risk, but still, I feel bad). Ellen helped me wrangle the girls out of bed and into the car early enough to cheer the boys on at about mile 10 of the race, then we celebrated afterward with a lunch at my mother-in-law's house. Also this weekend, Jake ran a one mile "Mayor's Run" around the capital, and Sara had her second and final track meet for the spring.

Coming up in the next week is the spring vocal concert, a quick weekend trip to KC for a Royals game with family, and the spring band concert. After that, there are just a few days to wrap up the school year, and summer is here! I can hardly believe it! In fact, I'm a little shell-shocked at the thought of it and not at all prepared. I just comfort myself that with the warmer weather will hopefully come relief from the spring allergies that are wreaking such mucus-y havoc with our family.

Backyard fun

It seems like such a nice, safe idea - letting the kids play in the well fenced in backyard while I make dinner in the evening. Sure, there's the occasional incident of a swing to the forehead, or a kid falling off the baby slide or what have you. Nothing major, though. I feel good about sending them out there when the weather is nice. Then last night, I went out to call them in to wash up for dinner and found this:

Recently the girls, Elizabeth in particular, have struck up a friendship with the neighbor kids behind us. We don't know them, but there are some kids in the yard from time to time and they've taken to chatting through the fence and plotting how to break it down to get through and play together. Apparently this move was the latest in their attempts to reach each other. Only the girls were stuck atop this lattice thing that came in our backyard. It's not exactly rickety, but not exactly sturdy either. My heart did a little flip when I first saw them because I can imagine all the bad things that could have happened. For now it's a stern warning that if they value their time outside in the evening, they'll refrain from pulling this stunt again. I have some qualms, though, since they've also taken to climbing a tiny tree on the side of our yard and I've told them to stop countless times with little result. Argh. The probably is, I value that time to myself in the kitchen, so I don't want to make them stay in.

In my thirties

As of tomorrow I'll no longer be 30, but officially IN my thirties. I don't know why that sounds significantly older, but it does. I guess because the phrase encompasses a whole decade. As with last year, on my 30th birthday, it's not getting me down. I feel like life is extremely full and complete, and it's about time I was getting old enough to actually feel like I deserve this level of activity and tiredness and whatever else I'm feeling. I don't know if that makes sense anywhere but in my head. But with 2 (5) kids and one on the way, 31 sounds about right to me!

We celebrated a night early at my in-laws with a wonderful family dinner and yummy lemon jam cakes that I adore. Tomorrow, on my official birthday, I'll most likely make my own dinner and maybe even a cake (because why not use the excuse to get one more cake?! Sara volunteered to make me one, but I'm not sure how she could get the cake baked and cooled enough after school for frosting before dinner, so I may have to help out), and it'll be more low key. Maybe I'll spend the evening rearranging stuff in my new closet. I could hardly ask for a better gift - "Shelves in the closet? Happy thought, indeed!" (I know I've used that Pride and Prejudice quote before as a quiz question, so I won't ask again). But if I could think of a better gift, it would be what Nathaniel and the kids got for me! It's a kitchen radio/cd player so I can finally listen to a little news while making dinner instead of being bombarded by the Disney Hits cds that are always playing on our living room radio. If I do feel like music instead of NPR, it also has the capability to play my iPod, so that's extra sweet! I'm very excited to get it installed and running.

The irony is...

...I get disappointed when my more frequently blogging friends don't update their sites as often as I'd like.

Yet here I am, barely pulling off once a week.

We're here. We're hopping with activities and spending our usually quiet daytimes outside, soaking up the spring weather (when the spring weather isn't soaking us). We've been to the zoo, to a park for a picnic, and out in the backyard for more hours than I can count.

As of last night, Jake is no longer a cub scout, but an official member of the same boy scout troop Nathaniel grew up in, and in which Nathaniel's father still holds a leadership role. Very exciting. For the girls, the fact that the boy scouts had ice cream to celebrate was the exciting part.

Sara has been in track for the month of April and they have their first meet this Saturday. Wish her luck! She's a mid-distance runner (half mile and quarter mile) as well as a discus tosser (thrower? hurler?). She was complaining for hours yesterday of how inexplicably sore her abs were from track practice before I finally pointed out that it's likely from the twisting motion of throwing the discus. I could actually see the light bulb light up over her head.

Most exciting of all for me is this:
"But that's just a closet... and not a particularly well organized one!" you're thinking. It's true. But it's MY closet. And it has SHELVES! I have not had a closet of my own in nearly a year. I wish I could get a photo of all three walls of shelves and drawers because I love them so. The sheer joy of moving all those clothes from the temporary rack and boxes in the middle of my bedroom to a room of their own kept me up into the wee hours of the night after Nathaniel installed the fixtures. Now I'm itching to get my furniture moved into its right places and hang art and really make my master bedroom my own. Hopefully this weekend can include some rearranging time.

Baby photo

Today was the big day. We went in for our ultrasound. I've only ever had a single ultrasound with each baby, mainly because my pregnancies have been so uneventful (for which I'm eternally grateful), and that means I cherish my one little opportunity to see my new baby before he/she comes into the world and into my arms.

We opted not to discover the gender until the baby is born. We like the surprise. Plus, I think it keeps some people from bugging us about telling them our name choice. We can't have an official winner picked out until the kid is born, so it's easier to get away without telling anyone what we're considering.

I was nervous before the appointment. I always get nervous before each appointment... waiting to see if the doctor will find the strong, speedy heartbeat immediately. And this one is even more nerve-wracking, because they check so many things. The size of every little baby feature, some of which can be indicators of potential birth defects... We won't know all the official readings till our appointment with my OB next week, but the ultrasound tech said that everything she saw looked wonderful and healthy.

The kid was squirming like mad, which was a huge a relief to me. I feel like I should be feeling more movement by now. It's ego, I think. The idea that I've done this before, so I should be better at it by now and notice the movements sooner. There've been a handful of times I'm confident I've felt the baby move (once when Ruth was on my lap and the baby kicked me repeatedly in the lower abdomen, I told Ruth that the baby was kicking her in the back, and now she loves to tell people that the baby kicked her - it ties in a little too nicely with our overly-aggressive kids, I suppose). But the feelings are few and far between, and as most any mom will tell you, you rely on those baby movements for comfort that all is well, for all that they may eventually keep you awake at night. The first image that popped up on the ultrasound today showed us the babies face with the little fists swinging in front of it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief instantly.

Here's the first photo we have our newest little one. I think he/she bears a strong resemblance to Marianne and Ruth at that age. Can't you see it?

The birds

In a rather Hitchcockian experience last weekend, we discovered that a bird was trapped in our chimney. We'd heard the bird on Tuesday morning flapping around in the chimney, and I noticed a cluster of black birds huddled on top of our chimney most of the day. "Great", we're thinking, "the birds are building a nest on or in our chimney." We discussed calling chimney sweeps because it likely needed to be cleaned anyway... all week, from time to time, we'd hear the loud flapping noise of wings. I guess I thought it must be the echoing quality of the chimney that made it sound so near.

Then, on Saturday, Nathaniel decided to investigate further. Upon opening the flue, he was greeted by the beak of a black bird who apparently FELL into our chimney and had been trapped there for days, unable to fly back up the narrow passage to freedom. Even better. After some attempts to try and coerce him into flying up if there was any chance of that being a possibility (burning a little paper in the fireplace to smoke him out, yelling at him to scare him, etc) Nathaniel put on some heavy gloves and reached up into the flue after the little guy. The bird put up a good fight and lost a few tail feathers in the process, but Nathaniel managed to get a hold of him and pull him out the narrow flue. I'm very happy to say the bird was fit enough to fly away when Nathaniel let him go in the yard, which is amazing given the length of time he'd been trapped in the chimney!

As an added bonus, in his attempts to catch the bird and some further exploration once the bird was freed, Nathaniel found three bird carcasses in varying stages of decay in our chimney. It seems this is not the first bird to fall into the chimney and meet his untimely demise. It has a bit of an Indiana Jones feel to it - you fall into a pit and find yourself surrounded by human skulls... that sort of thing. Sad. Now when we call that chimney sweep for our annual cleaning, we'll have to see if he can put a screen on top of our chimney to save future generations of black bird from meeting the same fate.

Speaking of art and imagination

Marianne: Mom! Come see my picture. It's God crying.

Me: Is that why it's been raining all day?

Marianne: Uh huh. See the big raindrop tears? Know why he's crying?

Me: Why?

Marianne: Because Mary spanked him for jumping on the beds.