Strep Throat & Type A Influenza

So who knew I would become my sweet little preemie's worst health threat. I found out today I have both strep throat and Type A Influenza. My mother in law asked what symptoms of the Flu are. I told her I did not know how to differentiate them from those of Strep. I have never had either one of these sicknesses. I knew something was very wrong because I want to sleep and not wake up! My whole body hurts, a lot. My head hurts so bad and my eyeballs are swollen half shut. I told the nurse I was worried that maybe brain fluid was leaking and making my eyes swell and hurt. You could tell she thought I was overreacting. I have a fever, sore throat, sore ears, IRRITABILITY, nausea, and a general feeling of malaise. They did the strep test first and then the flu test. The results of the strep came back positive and I have to be honest I was glad because I would be able to take an antibiotic and feel better. I knew there was no way I would have both. I waited another several minutes and the doctor came in and told me the Type A test was positive too. He assured me the reason my eyeballs were swollen was the flu and not my brain fluid leaking out. He sent me home with an antibiotic and told me to wear a mask when the coughing starts. Apparently I have not reached the pinnacle of the Flu experience yet! I hope I don't give either of these to my sweet little beasts or to my mother in law who came over while I went to the doctor and then took care of them while I attempted to rest.

Why Beasts

So you might be wondering why I refer to our children as beasts. Let me tell the tale. Just before we decided to adopt probably because I was having those surges of maternal desire, we acquired a four month old chocolate lab named Coco. Now, we referred to Coco as the brown beast because she was crazy, and brown, and well a beast. Chris did not love the brown beast, Thomas did not love the brown beast although he professed too. I loved Coco the brown beast like she was a child. She had every accessory, toy, the best food, professional training, etc. Unfortunately, during the six weeks that we had her things went from okay, to bad, to worse, to me placing an add in the classified for someone to come and get her. Thomas played with her and helped take care of her, but was scared at the same time. He began having behavioral problems. He started having trouble sleeping, was not obedient, was upset a lot, and then started pooping his pants. Kind of beast like, since he is blond he became the blond beast. Now as for the stinky beast, when she toots it smells terrible, she can clear the room. I have really never smelled anything like this before. When she poops it smells like someone brought a rotting animal into the room. Thus she became the stinky beast.

My Amazing Litttle Brother

This storm that won't leave the US alone is also plaguing the Middle East. This is my amazing little brother in his office in Iraq.

Sweet Land of Liberty

As you can see I am learning a little everyday about blogging. All on my own, no calls to anyone I have given my blog a face lift. As some of you know my amazing little brother is serving in Iraq for a second tour. I found out from my parents recently that he went when he did not have too. His obligation to the Army had been met when the deployment call came in. He did not want to abandon his unit just in time to go to war. I am awed by his desire to change the face of the Middle East. He has said before that the majority of the people in Iraq are grateful for the US presence there and truly desire freedom. Thank you Michael for serving! I love you

Nine Months

Around the first of the year 2007 I was feeling like it was time to do something about the size of our family. We have been working on this that traditional way for 10 years with limited success. In 10 years I had managed to get pregnant twice losing our first sweet daughter Addison at 21 weeks gestation. The second pregnancy resulted in what we refer to as the blond beast. We love the beast a lot. We decided to review our thoughts about adoption. We had twice started the adoption plan with family services, twice found out we were pregnant. I sort if thought this was our magic pill if you will. I attended an orientation at LDS Family Services in February along with my pal Julie. By the end of April we paid our retainer to get our Home Study started. Two weeks later we went to our first adoption class where they told us they only had a 10% placement rate, that only one couple out of the 10 in our paticular class would receive a baby. AAGH!!!!!!!!! What a disappointment. Never the less we persevered and continued the process. Several months later October 2007 we were still not approved at Family Services. I cannot believe the paper work they have required. We decided to apply with a new agency. I had all the paper work filled out in like one hour for the new agency. We sent the application along with a another retainer on October 18, 2007. They began showing our profile immediately. We got the call December 29 to go get our baby girl. On January 2, 2008 we had our little girl home. It was kind of ironic to me that our little girl took 9 months from our initial application for adoption. We feel very blessed. And the blond beast is starting to appreciate the stinky beast. We are still nervous as this adoption is not final yet. We have to wait until July to apply for placement and we have already had some bumps. So far all is well!

duh!

So those that know me know that I am not especially savvy in the technology department. This being said I have logged into this blog twice successfully, both times having to call iwi to have her tell me the name of my blog and password. I talked to my friend Julie a few minutes ago to find out how to add her to my friends list. She talked me through adding her, of course it took two times. Then she added me to her blog list and laughed out loud as she viewed my blog. Now, I love Julie and truly my blog is laughable but I intend to remedy this! I spent the next several minutes reading through her blogs and I kind of understand what this is all about. I am excited to get started!!