Life saving technique for kids

Aiden had just finished watching a show off our DVR and when a show is over the TV plays the last channel it was on. In this case, Dr. Phil happened to be on. And I do not watch Dr. Phil. But this caught our attention pretty quick. They had girls on there demonstrating what a child should do if a stranger tried to take them. They were to get on the ground as quick as they could and start screaming "STRANGER STRANGER 911!" over and over again and go "chihuahua crazy" kicking and throwing a tantrum. The idea is if they are on the ground kicking it would be harder for a predator to pick them up and transfer them. Also screaming "HELP" may make other adults think the kid is playing rather than in real trouble, so they are to scream "STRANGER STRANGER 911" instead to get attention.
Aiden liked watching and imitating the girls and we role played as well. I thought this was soooo important since we really hadn't touched on the subject an awful lot yet. He practiced this over and over. We also practiced how you need to bite hard if someone tries to cover your mouth. Please, if you have kids, have them watch this video. Discuss and practice this with them-it could save their lives!

Aiden had been practicing this for awhile by the time I took this video, and had done a better job earlier...but he still did pretty good.

Devin was practicing this too...his way :) He would just kick his legs and yell a little, but I knew he was imitating the kids and Aiden. I had just missed him doing it again, but he did it a little standing up-it was cute!

If you click on the Dr. Phil link I posted in the top paragraph it will take you to the show I was watching. If you have any other tips or tricks please share them in the comments section. You can post as anonymous and not have to worry about signing in, and you can type your name at the end of the comment if you wish. Let's do what we can to keep our kids informed and safe.

Vote for YellowPages ad!

We need your help! Micah's parents are wanting to change their advertisement in the YellowPages from a picture of just Aiden when he was a "little plumber" to a more recent one of the boys. I took a ton of pictures (over 100) and we have narrowed it down to these pictures. If you could vote on your favorite that would look like a good advertisement for their company-it would help us out! We're trying to keep in mind what the picture will look like on the grainy paper of the book, but we want the picture to really jump out at the consumer. Vote on the left of the blog, and I've left it so you can vote for multiple pictures-but understand we are
trying to get a feel of what would really appeal to the general population!

The number of the picture is below the picture. I added one more to the bottom...Picture 1

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Picutre 9

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Picture 16-I can't change the poll and add this as a choice...so if you want to vote for this one please do so in the comments! Thanks :)

Thank you! We only have a few days before a decision needs to be made...so vote now!

(File number order 1, 3, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 30, 38, 40, 41, 12)

We've been sick

So after Halloween, we got the bug that everyone else has been getting. Through the weekend we had chest colds, and I thought we were kicking it pretty good. Then on Tuesday I got hit hard. I called Micah up and told him if there was any day for him to come home early (he's still on research and was just working on his own at the hospital) it was that day. He came home during the boys' nap and I was already in bed with a pretty good fever. He took care of the boys all night while I stayed in bed. Figures that the first week I'm able to get up and be normal again after my surgery I get the flu! I had Micah get some tamiflu for me and started on it the next day. By Thursday I was functioning again and had more energy-and of course the boys were going at full speed the whole time. They both had coughs but it wasn't holding them down at all.

Then Thursday night Micah stated his neck was hurting and felt he was coming down with a cold. That's how I started, so I gave him some of my Tamiflu and he picked up his own the next day. He was down for a bit, but I think we got it quick enough that he won't be as bad as I was. He's still exhausted and sleeping as much as he can, but we're making it. We had been giving the boys some over the counter medicine during the week including Children's Motrin.

Friday morning Micah took off to go work out (even though I thought it was a bad idea since he was feeling bad the night before). I had brought the Motrin down and set it in the middle of the table to remind myself to give them some later in the morning. The boys were downstairs watching TV and playing like normal and I was upstairs getting ready. Aiden came upstairs to tell me he was hungry-I guess Micah didn't feed him-so I came down with him after I finished blow drying my hair. And to my horror I saw Devin standing there with an empty Motrin bottle! I was panicking because I had no idea how much he had taken, how he had gotten to the bottle let alone opened it! I called the Y to page Micah but he wasn't answering his pages because his spinning class was too loud. I requested that someone go get him and tell him to call me because I was taking our son to the hospital. You hear all those horror stories of kids overdosing on medicine, and I wasn't taking any chances. I got the coats on the kids, grabbed the bottle, and headed out the door. I did notice on the carpet a puddle of the medicine (thank goodness I got the dye free kind) so I knew he didn't down the whole thing. Micah called me in the mean time and let the ER know we were on our way and met us there.
Luckily there wasn't any alcohol in the formula, so that was good. And a full bottle is only 3/4 of the toxic dose-and we know for a fact that he didn't consume a full bottle. It was probably 1/3 at the very most between what was already gone and what I found on the floor. They weren't going to give him anything to make him be sick because that itself has risks and complications. They called Poison Control and we were told to expect him to be drowsy all day and possibly sick. If he vomited repeatedly then we needed to come back. All his labs came back normal-so that was great. We were released after only an hour or so of observation. Thank God! I went to my girlfriend Laura's house because they came to pick Aiden up for us so he wasn't stuck at the hospital the whole time and spend the rest of the afternoon with them. It was great to get out of the house and be with friends after a few weeks of being cooped up...I just could have done without the emergency!
Devin did great all day but woke up after a long nap with a good fever. He never got sick though. We had called our doctor to make a follow up appointment which is this afternoon (Monday). It's good that we were squeezed in because he's still not feeling well-but I think it's from this bug going around. We had called Poison control to see if we could give him some Tylenol to bring his fever down, and they said that would be fine. I think he's run temp on and off all weekend the poor thing. Hopefully the doctor will have something to give him and make him feel better since Micah and I are now. Ugh....sickies go away!

Update: The doctor said Devin would have no adverse affects from the Motrin-it was a good thing it wasn't Tylenol, because that is what is really bad for their livers. He was running a little fever and his ears were getting red, so he prescribed him an antibiotic to help ward off the infection, and he's doing great now! I think we are finally all healthy again in our house ;)

Trick or Treat!

Frakenbaby won the poll! So Devin went as Frakenbaby :) Aiden was a cowboy like Woody in Toy Story. He was actually more like Andy who loves his Woody, but didn't take him with him trick or treating. We were getting Devin to say "ta ta" trying to get him to say "treat" but he didn't quite get there. My parents came into town to go to the hockey game with us that night since Micah was working it. So my dad and Micah took the boys around while my mom and I finished getting ready and passed out candy at our house. We had our cousin come over to babysit and finish trick or treating with the boys while we left for the game. It was a fun night and the boys did great. I'm glad they're still little enough that just an hour of going house to house is enough. We weren't overwhelmed with candy-but still have plenty!

"Trick or Treat!" Or "ta ta" depending on who you ask ;)

He's probably thinking "you really are going to let me take one??"

He wasn't too keen on walking I guess...we had Hannah take them out with the umbrella stroller since our wagon handle broke.

Mom and I in all our Medusa glory! We said mom was my Medusa's alter ego. In Greek Mythology she was actually very beautiful-and mom went the other route ;)

At the hockey game....I made in onto the Jumbo-tron during the National Anthem.

They had everyone who was in costume that wanted to enter the contest walk across the ice after the first period...so mom and I did. There were a ton of people-mostly kids-who dressed up, and I think there were many cuter and scarier costumes than the ones they picked out for the winners. Whatever...but yes-I made it all the way across the ice in those heels without falling down! Thanks Mom for helping to support me ;)

Yeah-that's pretty scary!

I guess Daddy is a ND fan...he said he was the only "sane" one of the group besides Micah. I made Micah wear his scrubs to the game...even though he was the Doc of the Day-I wanted him to be in the spirit a bit! It was a fun Halloween, and we had a great time at the game. Scrubbing all that green off at the end of the night-not so much ;)

Halloween Pancakes

The day before Halloween Micah wanted to make the kids pancakes for breakfast and I thought it would be fun if they cut them into Halloween shapes. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought about this before, since we have a kabillion cookie cutters-so I'll probably be doing this again for all the holidays. Maybe cut their sandwiches and such too! They had a good time with it, and it was tasty too :) Less messy than cookie dough...

Devin needed a little help...

In the end, all he really wanted was to eat it :)

It's supposed to be a ghost, haunted house, witch profile (that Micah thought was a bad bat) and a cat. There was a bat and pumpkin shape too. Micah and I got the scraps to eat, but they were just as good!

Halloween party

My girlfriend Staci had a fun Halloween party for the kids today-so we got to dress up! It was so cute to see all the kiddos dressed up :) She had made mud cupcakes with worms and cookies. The kids did a few crafts, and then they all paraded around the house "trick or treating" to all the moms. It was super fun trying to get them all to stand for a group picture-well, my bee didn't want to cooperate at least. But I got one shot. I'm hoping there will be others floating around that I can copy and have....but this is what I've got for now!

Little Miss Averie who likes to "Roar" right now was the most adorable lion!

There's my bee and Lauren is a fairy princess in the back

My cowboy doing some crafts

Christina and her little lioness :)

My one group shot...

Aiden and Lauren, they're so cute together ;)

The bee got his "honey" and he was much happier after that.

It was a fun time and it felt good to get out of the house for a bit! Thanks for a great party Staci!

Group Picture courtesy of Staci's camera :)

3rd time's a charm....we hope!

Well, here we are again, for the last time I'm praying! I just had my ablation procedure done again yesterday, and I know that Micah posted a little yesterday. We dropped the kids off to our parents on Saturday, and so we had Sunday to prepare and spend some time together. Micah and I took advantage of the time and got massages, went out for sushi, and saw a movie :) I stayed up late so I could eat at midnight, and then we took off first thing in the morning. We arrived at our scheduled time, but had to wait an hour or so for a bed to open up. I guess they were pretty booked, but by the time I got called back and prepped they were able to take me straight away which was great. So I think I ended up going in for surgery about the same time as last time, maybe a bit earlier...so it all evened out!
The nurse originally tried to get my IV in through my burn scar-and that hurt! Micah thinks she got my nerve that runs right through there. I know now to request they avoid that area, and she had to put it in my other arm instead. I had a different fellow than last time (as you may remember I thought he was pretty rude and had no beside manner). This one was perfectly nice and everyone else remembered me from last time. The anesthesiologist I think tried to give me more drugs to get me to knock out, so I was more drowsy than last time, but still didn't fall asleep. Both the fellow and my doctor worked on me, and it seemed to go a little more smoothly. I remember them really talking about how careful they needed to be, and how they wanted to approach it another way to be sure to get it. I also remember them looking at another spot and saying it looked suspicious so they wanted to ablate that as well. Again, they weren't talking to me, so I was trying to pick up a little of what they were doing. I was in for a couple of hours and then they took me back to recovery.
The doctors had the nurses take out all the catheters they used, which was about 5-and had to apply a lot of pressure on them to prevent any bleeding (like what happened last time). That hurt a lot too, but they did a better job than the fellow last time because I didn't bleed! Because they had to up an artery, I had a longer bed rest time-6 hours instead of the original 4. I am experiencing a lot more pain/ache in my leg this time than I have before, and I'm thinking because they used an artery. The nurses gave me some morphine to help with the pain, but I had an adverse reaction to it, and it never took away the discomfort-so it kinda made things a little worse. I was so anxious to get out and lay in a normal bed so I could turn on my side and prop my leg a different way. Thankfully when I was finally allowed to get up around 10:30 I didn't bleed and was allowed to be discharged around 11:30.
Since it was so late we decided to stay the night in the area and leave for home in the morning. It was comforting to be close to the hospital in case anything happened, but good to be in a regular bed! I slept great, and my leg was feeling so much better. But as soon as I got up to go to the bathroom, it began to ache again. It's just a circulation issue, and we're keeping an eye on it. I've had good pulses all throughout and the nurses were aware of how I was feeling and they think I'll be fine, so we'll just watch it. I'm just going to really take it easy these next few days and get up when I need to. Micah's been incredible and very attentive. He's picking the boys up this afternoon, and thankfully he's on research this month so he can be home to help with them. I can't lift Devin for a week, so it's nice he can be home to help out. Our families have been so wonderful, and we're very grateful for all the help they have given us. We're thankful for all the prayers and kind words everyone has shared with us. We're praying that this time the surgery will be successful, and I'll be following up with my doctor here soon to check things out.
I know posts can be boring without any pictures, so we snapped a few :) Not to mention we were a little bored and antsy laying/sitting around all day.

Recovering-I wasn't even allowed to raise my head.

Just a few more hours...

Good and patient Micah :) He's been so wonderful through everything.

I love you baby!

Liz's ablation

Hey this is Micah. We are sitting here in the hospital room as Liz recovers from her heart ablation. The doctor feels confident he got it all. He did have to do a venous and an arterial stick. He ablated a pathway along the AV node and then went arterial and ablated at the cusp of the aorta and its transition into the heart. He said he has had success with that. With that said, there is a longer recovery time, slightly, but everything should be ok. We will probably stay in the city tonight and head home tomorrow. Liz will post more tomorrow....

Micah