Updates since it's been awhile...

So it's been awhile since I last posted.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did. We spent it with family. The weather over the weekend was great. Now it's cold!! It's only getting colder today too.

Sam started not feeling well on Friday. She said her throat hurt. But since she tells me this every day of her life, I don't think much of it. You know, the boy who cried wolf! Then later she says her stomach hurts. She did finally start acting like she didn't feel well. She got a mild fever and slept some. Joe also got a fever and acted like he didn't feel well. He popped out of it though. Sam was still sick Monday morning. She started throwing up Monday morning as well. I took her to the doctor who thought it sounded like strep. Me too. The quick strep test said negative though. But that test only catches roughly 80% of the cases. So the doctor said she would not be surprised if the culture came back positive. That happened last time when Sam had strep and H1N1. The doctor gave us some antibiotics saying that she really thinks it's strep and the fact Sam looks like death (not her words but Sam did look pretty pathetic). I kept her home from school Tuesday as well so she could be on meds for 24 hours. On Tuesday though Sam acted perfectly healthy. She is at school today. And Holy cow- her teacher sends home a lot of homework!! (she sent it home with Max)

Last week we went to a pet store to kill some time while I got my oil changed and tires balanced/rotated. The kids love going to pet stores. However Ike is scared to death of parrots. I think this comes from the last time we went to a pet store that had a parrot hanging out. The bird stays by the entrance and sits on top of his cage. Joe was afriad to pass him on the way out. I was holding Ike and standing pretty close to the bird. I told Joe come on, the bird won't hurt you. Joe comes and right as Joe gets by him, the parrot squawks as loud as a parrot can squawk. Scared him and Ike to death!!

So the other day at the pet Ike would not go by the birds. He saw them, froze, cried and ran another way. He found a little cubby hole to hide in, which was in the middle of display of some boxes. I only found him because I could hear him whimper. The other kids were fine. They even got to hold a few parrots on their fingers. They thought that was pretty cool. We then petted some cats/kitties. Max was petting a little kitty and then called my name. (I was right by him). He pointed to the cat. I said yeah, the kitty is playing with you. The kitty was biting his finger. Well the kitty was biting HARD! Max was trying to tell me the cat was apparently trying to eat his finger. Max pulls his finger out and it's already bleeding pretty good. He starts crying. I try to let him see his finger because if he sees all the blood coming from his finger then the rest of his body will not be able to function. You know, because a cut finger or even a band-aid on your finger will make you limp and not able to walk right! So I ask an employee for a towel. I start cleaning up Max's finger and the employee comes back with a little cute puppy (Chihuahua). Within a few minutes Max had already forgotten about the kitty bite. His finger did look a little red and had some puss-looking spots on it the next day but it has healed nicely.

Ike is in love with Dora! All he ever wants to do is watch Dora. If you even try to watch something else on the TV, you will not be able to even hear it over Ike saying, "I want Dora!!" He also likes Diego. We have a Diego playset that he plays with. He will be getting more Diego stuff for Christmas. He will love it!

Joe is obsessed with the Wii. Basically Wario Land Shake it. He still likes Mario (from Super Mario Galaxy). I think my kids would all love the new Super Mario Bros game made for the Wii. However, they will not be getting it from me unless I find a great deal on it. I'm sure it will be in a used store within a few months.

I'm still in love with the 2 little boys on Reece's Rainbow and my husband still thinks I'm crazy. There have been a few amazing stories about different people adopting. Like THIS one. An eleven year old has raised over $30,000 in 2 weeks!! Her family will now be adopting a sweet little girl that is in need of a family. They are giving everything over $20,000 to another family trying to adopt. Their goal was to raise $20,000 in 8 (or was it 7?) days. Isn't that amazing!? Also, HERE is a site having an online auction right now trying to raise money to adopt another sweet little girl they 'committed' to just days before she was to be sent to a mental institution and never be able to be adopted. Her country has a rule about once a child is place in the institution they can never be adopted.

My computer that has given me SO many problems is being replaced. It was only about 2 months old and had already had 4 motherboard replacements, 2 hinge cover replacements and one new keyboard. The last time the motherboard was replaced it crashed again! The guy fixing it didn't know what to do. He is a hardware guy after-all, not software. I called Dell and they decided to just send me a new one. Apparently 4 motherboards in 2 months is excessive! It has been 10 'business days' since then and they are still in the process of building it. They try to find a refurbished one that matches or better than the original one. The one I have is a refurbished one and is a really good one. So if Dell can't find one that would meet that criteria within so many days they just build a new one. At least the way I understood it from Dell. So Hopefully soon I'll have my computer again. Although, once it gets here Pete will be swiping it. He wants to switch. He has decided he now wants 64 bit instead of 32. I really don't think he will like it but whatever. He had a 64 bit and returned it b/c he hated it so much. I really don't care either way. I will have to set up a new computer anyway. It stinks! It takes forever to get it the way you want it. But if I do take Petes I guess a lot of the software I want will already be on there. Thank God for Dell warranties!!

OK, so that was a long and general update. My 'old' computer just seems so slow now that i am used to my new one. We may head to the mall and play today... I need to drag Ike away from Dora and there is some stuff I want to buy there. Have a good rest of the week.