In no particular order:
(Uncle Ben based on a QP by Anna Aspens, Sunday Baking based on a QP by Misty Cato)
Sunday's naptime was productive!
Ryan loves Thomas the train, so we had to go. It's actually been a few weeks since we went but I'm just now getting to the pictures. And in case you can't click on the scrapbook page for a good view, here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the day. I'll take what I can get since he was being very stubborn about letting me take his picture that day.
Yesterday I turned 26. Jared informed me that now I'm closer to 30 than anything else. To celebrate we got a babysitter and went out to dinner. We tried a cute little place downtown called The Bluebird. The food was decent and we even got free dessert (I chose carrot cake). The Bluebird also makes candy, and I tried a delicious German Chocolate chocolate. It was very yummy with caramel, nuts and coconut inside. Here's a page I made for my father-in-law for Father's Day. I cheated a little, it's based on a quickpage. Last Father's Day I made an 8x8 page of "Pa" with Ryan. Then my mother-in-law bought four 8x8 frames and wanted me to do a page with Emery and my sister-in-law Shaela to do a page with each of her two kids as well. Isn't this picture sweet? It was taken on Emery's blessing day. When I saw him holding her like that I had to snap away. Last summer Ryan and I lived with Jared's parents while Jared was selling pest control in California. Ryan was just starting to talk and started calling his grandpa "Pa." The name stuck and now all the grandkids affectionately call him Pa. So the journaling says, Anyone can be a grandfather, but it takes someone special to be a Pa.
We had an awesome Father's Day here. The kids and I gave Jared a portable 160 GB external hard drive that he can put all his teaching stuff on. He uses a lot of music and video clips when he teaches, so it's nice for him to be able to keep it all on one device instead of always lugging CDs and a stereo and DVDs to his classrooms. It's tiny (can fit in his pocket), but can hold so much! It's very cool. I'm kind of jealous because my external hard drive for scrapbooking is huge and has to plug into an outlet, so it's not super convienent to take it with me when I go to crops. Anyway, so we got him that and we made Oreo Truffles (only I used milk chocolate) and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes. YUM. You all are going to think I'm a liar about us eating low-sugar. But it was a special occassion and Jared took extra insulin :). 
(Cupcake image taken from Bakerella's blog) So here's my update:
On Friday I sent a letter home with the parents asking them to keep their kids home if they had any of the following... then I listed all the "sick" symptoms I wouldn't accept. I also talked for quite a while with one of the parents about the situation. He told me his daughter always has a runny nose (very often yellow and green) and his son always has diarrhea. I admit upfront that I don't know everything about kids and their health, but I told him from my experiences in daycare and as a parent, as far as I know, that is not "normal" and maybe we should be open to making some adjustments (diet, etc.) to see if the symptoms would clear up.
Many of you wrote comments about allergies. Let me be clear that seasonal allergies is not what we are dealing with here. I'm pretty sure the other one I watch has seasonal allergies and that's why her nose is often clear runny.
The kids went to the doctor a few days ago, and we are now testing out the possibility of a lactose intolerance for the diarrhea and the little girl is on an antibiotic for the yellow and green drippage. Today is their first day back, and I have to say that so far they both seem to be feeling much better. I haven't wiped a single runny nose yet! Time will tell of course, but I'm hopeful!
This has been interesting. Thanks for the comments so far. Feel free to keep them coming. Last night after reading what you had to say and talking to my mother-in-law on the phone I thought, wow, I must be blowing this out of proportion. I had no idea most kids usually have runny noses. I think allergies are different though. I get allergies. Whenever we go to the Tri-Cities to visit Jared's family in the spring or summer I'm sneezing and sniffling. So allergies, teething, and runny nose from playing outside when it's cold are definitely different. I don't see that as sick. It's the always dripping, thick yellow and green snot and hacking flemmy coughs that bother me. And gross me out.
So as I said, last night I thought maybe I was blowing this out of proportion. But then there was Emery up several times during the night, stuffy, struggling to breathe, fussy, not wanting to nurse, not wanting her binkie, and not wanting to go back to sleep. Then there was Ryan, waking up extra early this morning because he was couging so hard he couldn't sleep. THEY WERE FINE YESTERDAY, before the sick kids came. And so today I'm back to thinking maybe this isn't me blowing it out of proportion.
So this morning when they brought the kids I told the parents--whose daughter was standing in the doorway with a huge blob of yellow coming out her nose--that I would take them today (I have a hard time saying no to people, can you tell?), but that if they bring them sick again I may have to ask them to find someone else to watch their kids for the health of my own kids. I also mentioned that it cuts out my profit if they bring their kids sick and then I have to take my kids to the doctor. It didn't quite go as well as I rehearsed (they were running late and in a hurry to get to work), but hopefully I got the message across.
Last night my MIL made a good point. She said, if you are feeling resentful, then something needs to change. You will look like the bad guy because you are the one that does the confronting, but they should know not to bring sick kids.
This is what I'm wondering about: snot. But I'll get to my question in a minute.
I hate germs and sickness. I have always Lysoled/bleached everything (from my classroom to our home). I always have hand sanitizer and am washing my hands. I think since I'm so careful (or maybe paranoid?) about spreading germs, my kids have been very healthy. Ryan has only been sick a couple of times and it's been when he has played with other children who have spread sickness. I have to admit that I have not been very patient or tolerant with this.
I have a hard time believing constant mucus drippage can be normal. Since we eat a fairly low carb/low sugar diet (because Jared is diabetic) we have also noticed that we all have less mucus. When we eat a high carb meal (pasta, pizza) or a lot of sugar (dessert) we feel stuffier. Jared refers to it as the "sugar booger." Yes it's gross, but I know you all know what I mean!
So I've been babysitting, and it's going fine overall. I watch an 11 month old five days a week, and a 12 month and 3 year old three days a week. It's very busy, but I'm very strict about routines, so things run fairly smooth. But the past couple of weeks the kids I watch have been sick. All three of them. Runny noses and coughs. One of the parents has told me they just always have runny noses. The other one told me it's allergies, but since it's been raining almost everyday for the past couple of weeks now he's saying it's teething. Maybe they are right. I don't know. Do colds really last this long? Is it normal to ALWAYS have a runny nose and hacking cough? And now today the snot is bordering on green. Every daycare/school I've ever worked at, plus the church nursery have said not to bring kids if the snot is green. I'm not sure if I should tell the parents not to bring their kids unless they are WELL, or if this is too much to ask. I googled green snot and I can't seem to find a clear answer. Some people say the color doesn't matter, some say it's an infection. My kids have never had green snot so I don't really know. Since the day they were born Jared or I have suctioned them out with the bulb whenever they seem stuffy or have a runny nose. Maybe we are the abnormal ones!
I need the income right now (especially because our new renter's check just bounced and we are having to eat the cost--new vent there), so I hesitate to send the kids home, but I REALLY don't want my kids to be sick. Help please?
P.S. I know there are some lurkers that read my blog but don't leave comments. Please feel free to comment! I'd love all the opinions I can get right now.
On Monday my brother Ben flew down from Oak Harbor, Washington to spend a couple of days with us before entering the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on Wednesday. He will serve a full-time, two-year mission for our church in Charleston, West Virgina. We had tons of fun hanging out, suit shopping, and eating! We introduced Ben to Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Tried Peach Cobbler for the first time. YUM!
Then on Wednesday we took Ben to Provo to the MTC. Ben's the first sibling in our family to go on a mission, so it's a pretty big deal to our family. Chelsea and I were teary, but they were happy tears. We're so proud of him. He's been saving for his mission since he was 11 and the past year since high school graduation he's worked full-time and has earned enough to pay for his entire mission. I think it's amazing that he's stayed so motivated.
