Observations From the Couch

Since I have been down with Strep since Tuesday and haven't moved off the couch, I had plenty of time to see things I may have missed if I hadn't had this "opportunity" of a couple days off.

1. My kids are growing up...fast. The house didn't get too out of order this time around. Dishes and laundry even were kept up. And there were even times that I didn't have to ask for them to do it!

2. Another evidence of my kids growing up is that my phone rings more for my kids than it does for me. My guess is that this will only get worse.

3. Video games are mind-numbingly boring. I had plenty of time to try to get past that stupid castle on Zelda (original) and I can't make it. But I can't force myself to play it for hours either. I tried Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and stratagy games. All of them don't entertain enough when you are tired of sitting on the couch.

4. My body can't take lying/sitting around for 2 days. I ache all over. Makes me wonder if those who are wheelchair-bound/bedridden live with aches from inactivity. I think of little Micah and wonder if he deals with this, and if he thinks that everyone is always in pain like he is, that it's normal. Mine may be slight, and very temporary, but it still gives me a new compassion for others.

In other news I sorta got paid for taking some senior pictures. The payment came in the form of a gift card with a nice thank you attached. Exciting for me. Imagine, if I actually keep it up, I may be able to make money at this!

Name that disease...

Since the illness in my house continues, I thought we could have fun with it. I will give you the background information, along with J-Bird's symptoms and we will see who can come up with what he has this time. It will be FUN!

J-Bird finished his amoxicillin on Sunday night(apparently irrelevant). Monday morning he came down with a fever of 102.7 (here starts the clues). He napped, didn't feel very well, but not REAL sick either. Tylenol helped a lot. This morning the first thing I noticed about him is that he had a rash on both sides of his face and I looked at his trunk and had some rash there too. I took his temp and it was down to 101. A couple hours later the rash is worse but the fever is down to 99.6. I took him in and got my answer of what is wrong with him this time. Here are the major clues...

-Starts as high fever. Goes down pretty quickly.

-Rash develops. This rash is known to be on the cheeks.

-A very common childhood illness.

-Normally kids get it between 3-4 years old. I guess home schooled kids may take a little longer to contract it.

It has two common names, and one technical name that I know of.

Ok, who can tell me what J-Bird has??? Come on and play along!

Did you know???

Here is some things I didn't know but I have learned in the last 8 days....





People can still get Scarlet Fever. I didn't realize this. From conversations I've had, most others didn't realize this either.





Scarlet Fever is basically a reaction to a type of Strep Throat.

Scarlet fever is caused by an infection with group A streptococcus bacteria.
The bacteria make a toxin (poison) that can cause the scarlet-colored rash from
which this illness gets its name.
Not all streptococci bacteria make this toxin and not all kids are sensitive to it. Two kids in the same family may both have strep infections, but one child (who is sensitive to the toxin) may develop the rash of scarlet fever while the other may not.

The rash reminds you of sandpaper. Fine little bumps mainly on the trunk of the body.





You also get the slapped cheek look (red cheeks, white around the mouth).





It is treated just like you treat strep.





Once the rash goes away the skin starts peeling, especially around the fingertips and toes. No pain, just peeling. For little boys this can be fun to gross his sisters out with.

At least this is our experience.

What shall I say?

I have nothing.

I want to blog, but with nothing to say the post is going to be pretty short.

I have a sick kid and because of that I have barely seen the outside of my house in days so I have no news. No funny stories. No big adventures. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Aren't you glad you wasted your time coming here to find that out?

Wordless Wednesday

When you are 8 years old, sick, and you have puppies, this is how you want to nap.

I got a phone call today. My mom's husband is in the hospital. They don't know what is wrong. Test results are coming back good and therefore they can't find what is wrong either.

The best and only thing I know to do is to turn to the Great Physician. He knows what is wrong and he also knows the outcome of all of this. Hopefully, next week this will be a distant memory and he will be in perfect health again.

Knight called the kids in to pray with us. We explained a little and said a prayer asking for wisdom for the doctors, peace and healing for Phil.

When it was done J-Bird was crying. It surprised me. I didn't see him cry the times my mom was in the hospital but now he was crying. I love to see my childrens hearts tender. When I asked him if he's sad his reply was, "I just love Grampa Phil so much!" It wasn't until after he prayed with his own words was he better. A reminder that life is precious and we need to let those in our lives know that we love them.

After a week of everyone being sick I have started to see hope of an end to all of this. Right now nobody is sleeping or lying in the living room. This is a BIG improvement. We are still going to stay away from church again tonight to make sure we can't spread it any further but I can almost be sure that we can make it on Sunday. Yeah!!! And just maybe we can get down and see my mom before she heals up completely from her latest surgery and gets back to work.