Sick Tommy (the replapse) =(

Years ago people used to put quarantine symbols/ banners on their door to alert people of any illness in the home that was contagious. That was a good idea in my opinion. I don't know what symbol (banner) would be used for reoccurring barfing, but I think I need one... and fast. We were doing great yesterday until the afternoon. We were up again all night but thankfully everyone else is "fine". I'm on edge though and any little cough or noise that sounds remotely like any sort of heave can jolt me from a deep sleep. The "funny" part was that Tom knew exactly what to do. As soon as he had thrown up yesterday, he plopped himself down on the couch, demanded to watch Care Bears, and asked for some ginger ale. He has this sick thing down. Tommy seems to be doing better this time around than last time and so far is holding down his food this morning.... here's hoping it lasts.


ps- I've been meaning to review our May book club read but that will have to wait one more day. I did just finish a book called "The Twentieth Wife" by Indu Sundaresan which was enjoyable and interesting, I'd recommend it.

Sleeping Beauties

Things here have stabilized a bit and, for the first time in four days, everyone slept well last night. Tommy still has a fever and is weak but is on the upswing. Allie is doing great but gets tired easily. I was walking by her the other day musing how peculiar she looked. When I came back through and she was standing in the same position, I decided to investigate.......




She was completely asleep. I'm not quite sure how she could sleep standing up, but she did it. I couldn't help but snap a few pictures. These photos also reminded me of perhaps one of my favorite pictures of Sammy after a long, tiring day of toilet training.....these never get old!




Ah, good times.

Sick Tommy =(

It's been a rough week over here. Tommy woke me up tonight with some more laundry to clean. Ugh. Matt was sent home from school yesterday for what turned out to be one of his migraine headaches (although I feared it was what Allie and now Tommy had). Hopefully there will be no more sick posts. Poor Tommy!

Sick Allie

It's been a long night at our house (for me anyway). Allie was up all night sick; I'll spare you the gory details. I've been meaning to post some pictures of the kids, but this will have to do for now. Poor baby, she has a slight fever too. Here she is with her barf towel watching "The Wonder Pets".

Belief-O-Matic

My friend occasionally checks her beliefs on this belief-o-matic web site for fun (she's 100% Buddhist) and I thought it would be fun to see where I ranked. I was wondering if perhaps I was a closet Muslim or an Orthodox Jew. I was even a little nervous that I was at the wrong place as I feel I lean quite to the left in my sect. If I were actually a Neo-Pagan in my beliefs, have I been missing out on all their parties? Do they have potlucks? Here were my results....

1.	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (100%)
2.	Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (95%)
3.	Jehovah's Witness (88%)
4.	Bahá'í Faith (86%)
5.	Liberal Quakers (84%)
6.	Orthodox Judaism (72%)
7.	Orthodox Quaker (72%)
8.	Unitarian Universalism (70%)
9.	Reform Judaism (69%)
10.	Sikhism (69%)
11.	Islam (67%)
12.	Jainism (66%)
13.	Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (66%)
14.	Theravada Buddhism (57%)
15.	Mahayana Buddhism (56%)
16.	Seventh Day Adventist (48%)
17.	Taoism (45%)
18.	Hinduism (45%)
19.	Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (44%)
20.	Secular Humanism (43%)
21.	New Age (40%)
22.	Neo-Pagan (38%)
23.	Eastern Orthodox (37%)
24.	Roman Catholic (37%)
25.	New Thought (31%)
26.	Nontheist (29%)
27.	Scientology (19%)

Oh well. I'm boring and predictable. It's Relief Society Homemaking meetings for me. I guess Tom Cruise and I aren't destined to be together! Here's the link if you want to try. http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

April Book Club Selection - Nickel and Dimed

I had been meaning to write about our book club selection for April and am just getting around to it. We read "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich where she travels around the country, works minimum wage jobs and tries make a decent living on her income. It is an interesting book, but not completely compelling. Some books I am unable to put down, this was not one of them. It did make me think though. One aspect I didn't like was she only worked the job for one month. It is tough to see how much money you really need to live on when you are settling in and that question was never answered. Another aspect that didn't sit well with me was housing. She always opted for the least expensive apartment even if that meant she didn't have a complete kitchen (if any). That meant she would have to eat out a bit more thus adding to her expenses. If she had a kitchen, even if it cost $45 more a month, I would think she would realize the savings by cooking large batches of food and then freezing individual meals. I suppose her experience is representative of how some people choose to live, but I would hope if she is honestly trying to see if she can live on her income she would have been willing to explore these options.

What I liked about the book was the analysis at the end of the book. It was very interesting. I also think it's important to be reminded (again) that there is a whole population struggling to keep food on the table. We sometimes struggle about our bills and how to pay what when, but we never wonder if our children will be fed dinner. It makes me grateful that I was born into a family that valued education and gave me the opportunity to go to college. I have worked every job that Ehrenreich performed, but always had an end game. Those jobs were stepping stones in college or used to supplement my income in the post college/ early marriage years afterward and never the only way to pay my bills for years on end. It's good to look outside of my realm and to walk in someone else's shoes for a while (even if only for a month at a time). While not on the top of my list, I would recommend it.

From the mouth of babes...

I like to listen to NPR news in the morning and I sometimes forget that little ears understand more than they used to. There was mention of a suicide bomber in the Middle East. Matt heard the news headline and started asking questions. I went into the political reasons suicide bombers exist and after my long rant Matt said "Why can't they just do rock, paper, scissors?". Good question.