Chicken Pox?

This is going to be real fast tonight since it is already past 11pm.

This week, we had a shocking discovery when we found red dots all over Emma's Stomach. I was SURE it was Chicken Pox since she had not had her vaccine yet. I noticed them Monday morning. And here it is Wednesday. So I took her into the doctor's this morning to confirm or deny my suspicions. The things was, she only had these red dots on her stomach. Although, last night a few popped up on her legs. And today, I found some on her diaper area.

Anyway, I took her to the doctor. And the doctor said it did indeed look like Chicken Pox. But upon further investigation, she felt like it was NOT chicken pox after all. Just a virus. She says Chicken Pox comes so fast and Emma's are taking days for new ones to appear. Plus they are not blistered up either. I am actually relieved she does not have this. And to celebrate, she is returning to the doctors office tomorrow to get her shot!

I am also taking Ian in for his First Doctor's Appointment. Yes, he did see a doctor at 2 weeks of age. But none since then. He is 9 1/2 months old. I got a lecture today at the doctors office while making my appointment for tomorrow. I roll my eyes because the doctor was really nice about it. It was the receptionist who was giving me a hard time.

Tonight, I worked on a 2 page scrapbooking layout. I was making pages for The Wheeler Family Reunion we had in Utah last year. I have page one completely finished, but page two still needs my journaling. I know the Wheeler Family would be excited to see it, so I am adding it here!

Recent Pictures

On this scrapbooking website (scrapfreak) I frequent, there are always challenges. One type of challenge is a photo challenge. This past week, it was to Fill Up the camera. Meaning, to take a real close up picture. So I have had a lot of fun playing with that style and technique. So I thought I would share some of them here. There is also one picture of all 5 kids together, so I just took it like I normally do.

Friday's Grocery Store Trip

So Friday, I was coming home from a grocery store I had never gone to before. It is called Real, pronounced RAY-AL. Anyway, I was driving on the autobahn, going my usual 95 miles an hour. Totally EXCITED that I found bags of crushed ice while shopping. They were small bags and cost 2 euros each. I picked up two of them. Most of you know how much I like to chomp ice and ice is not something you find here in Germany too often.

My mind traveled to things I saw at the store. It is a store kind of like Super Wal-mart where there is food and toys, automotive, ect. So I had looked at bike Helmets because Shantal needed one. So I was thinking I need to take her back because she is so darn picky on what she gets.

Then my mind traveled to when Gardner would be coming home from work.

I was just enjoying the car ride home. It was quiet even though Emma and Ian were in the back. The windows were rolled down because it was a hot day and our air conditioner still is not fixed.

I got off the autobahn and was coming to the signal and looked in my rear view mirror. There I saw Emma, kneeling in her carseat, looking out the back window. I shouted her name so loud. Emma turned around and sat down. I told her she had to be buckled. She said No. I asked her, did mommy forget to buckle you? She said yes. Oh my gosh, I felt so terrible.

This is the same child I dropped face first on a cement floor when she was less than three months old. What am I thinking?

I guess I won't be winning the mommy of the year award again this year.

Underwear and Poop!

What a title, huh!

Yesterday, there was someone from my church who came over to my house to help me out since I had been so sick. I am definately getting better, but it is nice to still have help since I don't have family around. She could see that I was a little more than stressed out with the kids. So she decided to take the kids for a walk/bike ride to see a river that is not too far from our house. I stayed back and made dinner, did laundry and a few other odds and ends. After about 1 1/2 hours, Sister Becker (who was with the kids and is old enough to be their grandma) came back with just Ian and asked for dry clothes for each kid and also a towel. Said they were soaking wet and thought it was best if the kids changed into something dry. So off she went with dry clothes and told me they would probably stay a while longer. Oh and one more thing....they never made it to the river because they found this fountain down the street that the kids were playing in. Not a water fountain to drink, but like a statue.

OK, so I stopped writing this so I could go out and get a picture of that fountain for you to really understand. Here it is. This is where they were playing yesterday.

Anyway, I decided to run to the grocery store really fast since the next day would be a holiday and everything would be closed. I had to drive past them to get to the grocery store because this fountain is on one of the main roads. As I drove by, I saw my five kids. Most of them in their underwear! I was mortified. I was embarrassed. My 9 year old daughter in her turquise underwear. My 6 year old daughter in her bright white underwear. My 2 year old, I was not so embarrassed by. She is 2 and was in her 10 pound diaper. You know how they grow when they are wet! Ian was in his clothes and Spencer who is 8 was in his Jeans. (although he assures me he was also in his underwear at one point!)

I know I am in Europe. I know this *might* be a common thing that is done around here. But I am not used to such a thing from MY kids.

OK, like that wasn't enough for me.

This morning, I woke up to needing to feed and change Ian. What is new? Ian is 9 months old and I am still breastfeeding. Well, a few days ago, Emma who is 2 got some raisins out and spilled them on the floor. I think Ian found every single raisin. Because he has been pooping whole plumped raisins for 3 days now. I keep thinking where were these raisins for so long in his tiny little tummy.

Well, this morning, I was more than surprised when I opened his diaper. Not only had he been eating raisins, he apparently has been eating candy wrappers. You know the saying what goes in must come out. Well, it is ALL coming out. I am a mom of 5 kids. I deal with poop on a regular basis. But I have to say, I have never seen such odd things come out of my kids like I am finding with Ian. I must not be watching him as well or making sure the floors are sparkling clean like I did with the others. OR (and I like this excuse the best!), I didn't have the older kids before to make such a mess for a little baby to get into everything.

Being a mom sure is not a glamourous Job!

Spencer, Spencer, Spencer!

The kids need some bikes. All of our bikes never did make it on the boat to come over here. And they are extremely expensive here in Germany compared to in America. I have been trying real hard to buy the kids some bikes on Ebay. It was getting real frustrating for awhile because at the last minute, we would get beat out and lose the auction. I should not even say at the last minute. It is more like the last second. There are HUGE bidding wars here during the last 30 seconds. It is crazy. But we finally won a bike for Shantal. It costs 44 Euros. And we got to pick it up on Saturday. She loves it and is so happy to have a bike again.

Hannah got her bike over a week ago. So that just leaves Spencer who has needed a bike. He feels left out as everytime he wants to ride Shantal's or Hannah's, they get mad and say No. Somehow, what I say does not matter because I said he could ride them anyway. Well, I found a few good bikes and the auctions ended yesterday. I actually won one of the auctions at 1:30 in the afternoon and only paid 17 Euros for it. I was totally excited. But I had another auction out there that ended at 10:30pm. This is the bike that Spencer REALLY wanted. I put a maximum bid of 30 Euros on there thinking I would never win it. Guess what, we won that auction as well. So now, we have 2 bikes for Spencer. He is so happy. More happy that he got the bike he wanted, not that he has two bikes. He keeps saying to me today that it is not fair that he has 2 bikes and the girls only have one. So only one will be for him and the other one for that family. That is my boy thinking about everyone else!

Well, this same boy is having problems in Church. He goes to a kids class at church called Primary. He is in an English speaking class (I don't know why they have it because all the kids in there can speak German). And Shantal is also in this class. There are a lot of kids. Well, I've heard from his teacher on many occasions that he has a little too much energy. Can I please talk to him to get him to settle down. He won't sit on his seat. He is constantly up and down. And then he consistantly talks out of turn. Those are the things she says to me. Well, she gives the class candy bars when they pass off what is called Articles of Faith. She told me that she would not be giving anymore to Spencer if he does not settle down. So she came up with a plan. She was going to give him 3 chances. She would make a mark on the chalkboard so only he knew what it meant without embarrasing him in class. And if he got 3 marks on any given sunday, then he would miss out on the next candy bar he earns. Spencer did not like this plan at all, but he knew about it. I had not been to church in a few weeks since I was so sick. But every week, I asked him if he got any marks on the chalkboard. The answer was always no.

Well, Yesterday, I went to church again. He came into Sacrament Meeting all angry. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he passed off his Article of Faith but she would not be giving him a candy bar because he was so bad in class. But then he told me there was never any marks on the chalkboard. And she also threatened to put one on the chalkboard in front of the whole class and they all started laughing at him.

I was not happy. So when the teacher approached me JUST AS THE MEETING WAS ABOUT TO START, I simply said, You did not follow the plan. You never put the marks on the chalkboard. She then told me she gave him more than 10 warnings. That was enough. And then she asked me to start coming into the class with him. I said I could not because I already am busy during that time. Between Hannah, Emma and Ian, I don't have time. She then asked me to talk to Spencer again. I told her I don't know what good that will do. We've done that before. And to me, the biggest problem is, she deviated from the plan SHE made.

I know Spencer can be a handful. And I know he has a lot of energy. I am all for discipline. I am all for trying to get him to help the rest of the class be able to learn without so many disruptions. But when the teacher can not do her part in keeping to the plan of how to handle the situations, what am I supposed to do?