10.30.2014

A little bit of drama about Hand, Foot, & Mouth

What a nightmare!
Oh my goodness, you guys, I don’t like to be a whiner. I really wish I was one of those people, you know, that doesn’t say a word about their pain until they are practically dead. Although, lets be honest, that’s silly. The thing is, I am the opposite of this. I am a wuss & I have Hand, Foot, & Mouth disease.
So, not only is it painful, but it’s just gross. I feel like a walking germ. I have ULCERS in my mouth. Ulcers feel like the word sounds. It’s the perfect word. Open, painful, raw wounds in my mouth.Think, atomic cold sores on your tonsils and under your tongue.
Also, I love to eat & eating hurts.
This all started Monday night when Ellie had a fever face. The cutest little fever face in the world, but she clearly had a fever during bath time Monday night.
Fever Face
The next morning I tried to leave for work and Ellie clung to me like a spider monkey, arms & legs rapped tight, refusing to cease the wailing unless I clung back. Clearly something was wrong. I called into work.
Does anyone else feel guilty calling into work even if you have a COMPLETELY legitimate excuse? I still feel like I’m doing something sneaky. It’s not sneaky! My kid is sick! Why do I feel like a terrible human!?
Anyway, I snuggled in, turned on Gilmore Girls, & Ellie slept on my chest most of the morning. Now… I HATED that she was sick. Capitalized letters HATED it. See, I need you to grasp that before I tell you how wonderful it felt to have my busy little girl snuggled into my arms all day. I need you to know that so that I don’t sound like a crazy. I really really loved it though. We cuddled & watched Netflix & life was strangely wonderful.
Mommy & Sick
That’s about where that ended.
The next day Ellie had a doctor’s appointment where my mom & I learned that she had Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease. Is there anything worse than going to the doctor to hear your kid has a virus and, “Sorry but there’s nothing we can do. Just keep her comfortable.”? Ooooooh, keep her comfortable! Got it. I was poking her with a hot iron all day! SO glad you told me!
Full disclosure, the doctor was actually really wonderful. Useless beyond diagnosis, but very very wonderful.
When we stripped her down so that the doctor could have a look at her we realized that she was covered in this red rash all over her body. Apparently this version of Hand, Foot, & Mouth was really Entire Body, mostly butt & mouth. Poor child.
The next day, after no sleep, I realized I might have a touch of something bad. I was cold, couldn’t get warm, & didn’t have the energy to go downstairs for a bagel. Bagels are what make the world go round, so you can do the math on that one. I was sick. Ellie was sick. I had a fever. Ellie had a fever. Poor Adam.
Well. Ellie seems better now. My mom was a God send during the whole ordeal. She took my rambling calls about the plight of my existence & cleaned my house & watched my contagious baby while I slept. Adam was awesome too; working, grocery shopping, and feeding us as much as we were willing to eat. He made lots of soft mac n cheese. Sore throats do well with mac n cheese.
Now, over a week into all of this nonsense and I still have ulcers in my throat. I went to my mom’s office to get them checked out and she confirmed the obvious, I have Hand, Foot, & Mouth too.
I talk about this like its the plague, but when you’re a busy, working mom, (is there any other kind) things like Hand, Foot, & Mouth can throw you into a tailspin. Especially if your a little dramatic & a major wuss. ;)
Luckily, I have SO many exciting things to look forward to this coming week & an iron clad excuse for not having Elliana’s Halloween costume picked out/ made.
Things are looking up!
Family

1.05.2014

Snowmageddon is Delicious

We are in the midst of a HUGE snowstorm and a HUGE change in our diet.

Therefore, after church, we hunkered down and made a HUGE pot of chili! It was really yummy. Adam did a great job making it. I then had a big craving for some hot cocoa. (Can you blame me?!) It's very snowy and we have this wonderful fire going and I just HAD to have hot cocoa. I didn't want to use a packet or make the traditional homemade cocoa because of the high amount of refined sugar. I looked up "homemade hod cocoa without sugar" and found this lovely recipe.

http://girlmeetsnourishment.com/homemade-real-food-hot-chocolate-sweeted-with-honey-merry-christmas/

It's not nearly as sweet, but it hit the spot just the same!

I hope you're all staying warm and safe! We are supposed to get upwards of 16 inches of snow. I am pretty positive there is at least that much out there already!!!

Keep cozy, world!



1.03.2014

Strides & Motherhood

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My daughter, Elliana Jean Chambers, was born on February 27th, 2013. She is lovely. Her eyes are blue and I can't help but smile when someone mentions them in connection to mine. Her skin is light like mine as well. Otherwise, she is her father through and through. She has his adorable button chin and his smiling eyes. They might look like mine, but they twinkle like his when she's up to no good.

Elle bell, as I like to call her, has been crawling for a while now. She can really move! Lately she has been attempting to take steps on her own. Mostly, though, she will realize as soon as my fingers have left her hands and plop right down on her tush. She knows she's not quite balanced enough yet.

Adam is now working at Yoder Financial Services for Dale Yoder. I can't even explain what a blessing that has been. Dale is one of the most respectable and honest people I know, plus he is funny and light-hearted and can banter with Adam. Adam needs banter and someone that he can respect to teach him about financial services.

I am still here at Grace Hospice. I really enjoy it for the most part. Often, I feel that my job is too fun to be a job. I would say the major downfall of this job is that it is far from my Elle bell and it makes it hard to keep up with all the things I would like to do with her and around our home.

Keeping life in order has been a bit difficult for us since Elliana was born. Adam and I are what we like to call "closet perfectionists". If you were to look from the outside, you wouldn't think we were. The house can be messy, the cars for sure, and I am certainly not well dressed most of the time. The thing is, we are all too aware of our downfalls and shortcomings and are so very determined to fix them all. Today.

So far we have made major strides in our financial life, organization of the house, and are currently on a crusade to clean up our diets.

For the month of January we are attempting to eat less/no refined flour and sugar. I say less because Saturdays are our big fat cheat days and we intent to full indulge! So yes, less/no.

Financially, we took a class. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. It was really great and has taught us a lot. Now, I do a budget for us every two weeks. It takes about 15 minutes, but it keeps us on track and makes sure we are paying everything and saving lots. 15 minutes might be wrong... it probably takes me an hour. BUT it's worth it.

Here's the thing, though. We are going to be teaching the class now. This brings me to our next downfall. Time management.

We are doing better... I will say that. AND we are cooking at home more and keeping up with the housework. It just often feels like we are chasing our proverbial tails.

I will say, however, that we watched a movie last night that was quite lovely and made me thing deeply on the subject of time. It is call "About Time" and and is very literally about time. It was, honestly, inspiring.

Watch it sometime :)

Well, I think this is long enough. If you have read all of that, "Well done, you!" (but I think you might have some time management issues on your hands!;)

Be here now,

Korey Anna

Oh my! Also, it is Mary's birthday today! (Mary is my 23 (?) year old little sister.) I could (and probably will) write an entire blog post on this woman.



A couple-a old posts

These two posts were originally posted in 2012. Just wanted them on this blog so everything is in one place...


Soooo,... I've got a lot of things on my mind. So, I spent about an hour creating this blog and realizing how incredibly behind I am with technology, or maybe this is just really that complicated. Anyway, I am now too tired to type everything out. Here are some basic details.

I am married to a really wonderful man.

I am pregnant.

I work at a hospice.

They just FINALLY fixed this HUGE pothole that has literally broken my car multiple times.

Hmmm, what else?

There's been a lot of changes in my life as of late. Graduated college, moved to a city, started my first "real job", moved again, started a better job, married a stud, bought a house, moved again, got pregnant, found another job, and here I am.

Did I mention, I'm not good with change? Hence the title of this blog. Lately, I feel like the sky is falling and yet I realize how absurd some of my reactions are. Most of them are in my head. My husband and I are pretty well stressed out of our minds.  He has been working like crazy to find a job. I have been working like crazy to form a baby and keep us financially afloat. Luckily, we are best friends, so we are still happy and in love, but it is taking it's toll.

Sometimes, when I come home from work and he is relaxing for a second, I want to strangle him. But, I so badly need a hug by that time that I'd rather just snuggle. He is quite a sweet man. Darn him.

We have a puppy named Oliver. He is a chihuahua. I feel like I need to clarify that he is a "cute" chihuahua. His momma was a pregnant rescue. We got him last October and we love him a lot. He's a snuggler too. :)


Well, I guess that's all for now. I will blog more soon. Nonsense into the abyss.























Saturday morning, in bed, wondering why I can't sleep in any later than 8 am. Hmmm... I suppose that could change once the bundle of joy arrives. What with being up at all hours of the night.

In related news, I told my boss that I was Pregnant yesterday. I felt immensely guilty about it, then quickly came the anger that follows my irrational feelings. Later, as the reality of how things were going to have to be sunk in, anger was replaced by a nagging sadness that logic and reason could not touch. So unnecessary.

The sadness came when I realizes how much time I would be missing with my baby. I will be off of work long enough to give birth (ahhhh!!!!) and recover. Then "hi ho hi ho" it's off to work I go. I guess this just wasn't my idealist's dream of motherhood. Not that staying home would live up either. I don't know who or what to blame for my idealist mind or whether I even want it to go away. It just comes with consequences. And guilt.

There are plenty of woman around the world that don't get to stay at home with their children for as long as they would like! Why should I think that I should be entitled to such a rare experience? That's my little friend guilt. Really talented at twisting any desire I have into some selfish, spoiled, insensitive ideal that I have no right to aspire to.

In other news, I have the most bizarre dreams right now. Dreams about old friends and boyfriends and crushes and random people that I may have gone to a party with once in college. In any case, the dreams are vivid and often simply odd. Parts of houses of childhood friends mesh with immaculate and structurally impossible houses from my imagination to create the backdrop to my space cadet dreams. I haven't had any scary ones though. Sleep is mostly entertainment broken up by urgent wakings to pee.

Pregnancy is so incredibly weird. My mom says she enjoyed it after the first trimester. Here's to hoping! There's no doubt in my mind I am going to love my kid to a fault. I am more concerned about making it through the next 6 months with some poise. Constantly running to the bathroom and violent emotional outbursts, along with bizarre sleeping and waking, can make a girl tired, overwhelmed, and craving her old self.

That is another frustrating thing. It's not like I was a marathon runner before I got pregnant, but I do not like being told that I can't do something. Now, obviously, I would stand on my head for nine months singing the song that never ends if it guaranteed my baby would be healthy and happy. I just get overwhelmed by the list of things I cannot do or eat. I can't carry heavy stuff, so Adam carries all the laundry upstairs (this is not the worst thing ever). I just don't like losing independence. And I can't have feta cheese and that sucks.

Well, I have probably complained enough for one morning. I am now going to try to rouse the sleeping bear man so we can go get out traditional Saturday morning breakfast. Life really is pretty good on Saturday mornings.

Enjoy your weekends lovely world!

P.S. The Olympic opening ceremony was something else, eh?