Roseola?

My best guess is Roseola - he has had cold symptoms for over 2 weeks now and a med-high fever for the past 5 days (103 for 2-3 days). His fever hasn't broken completely though, it was 100 today. He's been on antibiotics for an ear infection since last Monday. The rash showed up suddenly yesterday afternoon but has gotten worse today. It's a raised rash, but it doesn't seem to bother him (like chicken pox or hives would...although he's scratched at it a bit when he doesn't have a shirt on). Any other details you need? Help me out here, moms, what do you think?

Finance Poll

So today was pretty much awesome. It was exhausting (my son woke up at 7 this morning crying, both kids are still sick AND teething, and Kirk woke up from his afternoon nap absolutely miserable) but it had enough good parts to make it a wonderful day. My mother-in-law (love her!) graciously agreed to bring my 9-year-old sister-in-law over and hang out with the munchkins for a little while so I could finally tackle some chores around the house. Once she got here, she insisted on doing my dishes, so I was free to get laundry and other stuff done. It was sooooo nice!!

Anyhoo, the reason for my post was to do a quick poll on something my husband and I are trying to decide on. In short, we have about $3K of credit card debt that we've been slowly chipping away at for about a year. (It was accrued mostly from Kirk's birth and when Avery was in the Academy and took a huge pay cut for 7 months.) I had hoped to have it all paid off in a year's time, but that hasn't happened at all. (In fact, we've really only brought it down by about $1K in a whole year.) We got a nice big tax refund this year, but stuck it all in savings to put towards the bigger vehicle we will need when Baby #3 comes in June/July. So right now we have $3K in debt and $5K in savings. My question is, should we keep splitting our extra money between the credit card debt and savings or just bite the bullet and pay off all the debt right now? My gut instinct is to wipe the debt clear and then work towards rebuilding the savings account...it really irks me to be paying about $40 a month in interest fees. BUT we may not have much car money to work with by the time July rolls around if we did that.

So what do YOU think? If this was your financial situation how would you handle it?

Barely Surviving

I've never been one of those super-energetic, go-get-'em kind of women. Little things tend to overwhelm me and I like my life to fit in nice, neat categories. Obviously, motherhood has been a stretching experience for me. I get exhausted easily, I tend to get stressed over the silliest things, and if things don't go my way I get discouraged and depressed very quickly. Add to all of that the fact that I have chronic daily headaches (worsened during pregnancy) and a body that doesn't handle pregnancy changes very well.

This week has been a doozy.

Actually, the past month has been extra-challenging but it all peaked this past week. Let me put it in bullets:
(Okay, nevermind, my bullets aren't working.)
- About a month ago, Shiphrah caught a cold. Not bad, but annoying.
- A week later, Kirk had his weird rash thingy, which resulted in a doctor's appointment that told us nothing.
- Because of the doctor's visit, Kirk came down with a cold. He was miserable.
- A week later, Kirk was better but Shiphrah started getting the sniffles.
- All of that translates to this week: both kids with a horrible, nasty cold.
- (Oh and in between all that Kirk got a couple more teeth. Yay.)

Okay, so that covers the sickness aspect, right? Add to that the personalities of my two munchkins. Let's just say they are not laid-back, in the least. (Not surprising considering their mother isn't exactly chill.) Shiphrah is my stubborn 2-year-old. She can be such a sweetheart when she wants to be. She can be pleasant, polite, helpful, and well-behaved....sometimes. But when she is sick, tired, or just grumpy in general, she is a TERROR. Because of her cold, she has been very emotional and stubborn the past week or so. Thursday through Saturday I swear I could have spanked her every five minutes and still would have needed to spank her some more. Kirk, on the other hand, is very clingy. He's not very independent and prefers to be held or played with all day long. I kept expecting him to grow out of this, but he's a year old and still a Mama's boy. Normally I wouldn't mind this (and it really is endearing) but I am almost 6 months pregnant and carrying around a 20-lb baby is getting increasingly difficult. Plus with his teething and cold, for the past week the only time he is not crying/whining is when I am holding him. With Shiphrah, I can pop in a movie and that will entertain her for however long the movie is. Unfortunately Kirk has no interest in the TV whatsoever, so I can't even use that to get a short break.

Those two factors alone are enough to put me at the end of my rope, right? Well, I'm also 25 weeks pregnant. I don't want you to misunderstand...I love that God has chosen to bless us with so many little ones. I am so grateful that I don't struggle with serious pregnancy complications like some women; I know that's a huge blessing. But my 95-pound, 5-foot frame doesn't carry an extra human very well. My mother insists that pregnancy would be easier if I was in tip-top shape and maybe she's right. Either way, I have started feeling the serious aches and pains of pregnancy earlier and earlier with each one. With Shiphrah I wasn't uncomfortable (other than the morning sickness) until about 35 weeks (granted, she was a lot tinier). With Kirk, I was miserable by 32 weeks. With this little boy, I have been increasingly uncomfortable since 22 weeks. My stomach muscles are pretty much gone (I can't even close a door with my foot without experiencing sharp pains in my abdomen) and bending over is already very painful. Poor Avery has to vacuum the living room now because I can't push the vacuum through our thick-pile carpet without giving myself a bout of painful BH contractions. The baby is pushing on my intestines in a way that gives me bad cramps several times throughout the day (a strange experience I didn't have with the past two). Also, and probably the most frustrating of all the symptoms (and this will be TMI), sex is horribly uncomfortable. Last pregnancy I just dealt with it for the sake of my husband, but this time it's getting so painful we've been making love much less often and it's taking a toll on our relationship. I don't want to go into detail for the sake of privacy, but we could really use some prayer in this area.

Wow, I really didn't intend to spend that much time complaining, but there it is. I have half a mind to delete this whole post, but it really made me feel better to type it out, so I won't. I will end this post with some positive things:

- My husband is back to working afternoons! No more night shift!!! This week he's at in-service, so he's working 7-4, but next week he will return to his normal 2:30 to 10:30 shift. This is such a huge answer to prayer!!!

- Avery has been taking on a few extra off-duty jobs for extra money, and despite my fears, it wasn't that much harder to have him gone an extra day. And we're getting closer to paying off our credit card debt and saving for our minivan!

- We had a wonderful anniversary date on the 10th and I so enjoyed spending one-on-one time with my amazing husband!

- God is gracious and He will continue to show me mercy even when I don't deserve it. Despite my bad attitude and overall grumpiness, He still loves me. (And so does my husband, which is a miracle in and of itself.)

Kirk Turns One!

Kirk Micah's big day! (We had about 40 friends and family gather at the park around the corner from our house for some pizza, fried chicken, and cupcakes.)

The rainbow cupcakes, before icing.

Swinging at the park with Grandad.

The rainbow cupcakes!

My baby boy is all grown up!

Another Tuesday!

Thankfully, this one Avery is not working, although he worked at overnight security shift last night so he's still in bed right now. But I'll be waking him up in an hour or two and forcing him to spend time with me. After all, our anniversary is tomorrow, so I need some hubby-time.

I know most people talk about how they can't believe they've been married for so many years and how the time flies and all that jazz, but for me it's slightly different. You see, I have two kids and one on the way...and this is only our third anniversary. (That's what happens when you have a honeymoon pregnancy and then another one 15 months later and then another one 15 months after that!) So Avery and I are technically still newlyweds, although because we started our family so quickly, it feels like we've been married FOREVER. But yes, Saturday, March 10th, 2007 we started our lives as husband and wife...and it's been one of the best things that has ever happened to me!

(And I'm trying really hard not to be too excited about tomorrow, but Avery informed me that he had a few things up his sleeve and y'all, my husband never plans anything!! So I can't help but be excited! I couldn't really think of anything I wanted for an anniversary present, so I told Avery I just wanted a pedicure. Can you believe I've never ever had a professional pedicure before? Manicures, yes, but never my feet! I'm excited. )

Ugh, right now my son is fighting his nap and is SCREAMING bloody murder. I hate that he does this every other day or so!

Speaking of Kirk, he will be turning ONE on Sunday! I cannot believe how fast the past year has gone by. I still think of him as my baby and am constantly surprised when he starts acting like a little boy. With you first baby, you're always looking forward to the next milestone, so you kind of miss the excitement of it all. But with your second (and consecutive) you forget exactly what comes next and every new thing is a surprise. I love it. I really didn't want a big ordeal for Kirk's birthday, but I felt like I was slighting him (second child syndrome) if we didn't at least celebrate. So we're praying that the weather is nice and we've invited friends and family to the park around the corner from our house and we'll order pizza and fried chicken. (Our house isn't conducive to having more than a few people over and unfortunately the backyard doesn't have grass in it yet.) I really didn't want the stress of decorating a cake this year, so I'm just going to make a bunch of rainbow cupcakes and put sprinkles on them. They look fun and festive, don't you think?

And they're relatively easy, which I'm excited about. I just need to make sure to remember to make them on Saturday so I don't have to worry about getting a bunch of stuff done before church on Sunday.

Well, my son is still screaming, so I'd better go check on him one more time. Kid just can't understand that he's tired and needs to sleep!