So, crap

My right side has been hurting since last week. I finally decided to go in & get it checked out. I had to take all the babies with me & my car was covered in snow & ice, which I had to scrape off, which caused me more pain. My husband had only shoveled half the driveway & in my state I wasn't going to do the other half, so I backed out at an angle to get out of the driveway.

So the verdict is it's either a broken rib from coughing (!) or a gallbladder thing. The dr is treating it like a broken rib for now. I'm taking a ton of ibuprofin & I have to wear a lidocain patch at night. I'm not supposed to do any heavy lifting, but with 3 toddlers, that's pretty much impossible to avoid.

So on the way back home we stopped at Cost Plus to get English chockies for my husband for V-day & they're closing our local store. :( But the chocolates were on sale. :) And the girls picked out a couple of cool spinning, light up toys on clearance and a couple of bath toys for baby T.

And then when we got home, I couldn't get my van up the driveway because of all the stupid ice & snow, so now I'm parked blocking the driveway. I wasn't about to leave the babies in the car while I scraped the ice off the driveway with a broken rib. Shoot.

I'm so sick of winter

I have 3 sick babies and everyone has cabin fever.

The three tinies have spend every day for the past week clinging to me, crying, and sneezing out the most enormous snot balls I have ever seen. The girls actually think the snot balls are hilarious. Little I has taken to saying "Hehehe, I sneeze..." in a silly voice every time it happens.

Everyone is sick of being in the house, but I don't want to take three clingy, snotty children out and about, infecting every other kid in town. So we're stuck indoors. We've exhausted the play value of every toy we own, so the baby has taken to trying to figure out a way over the baby gate when he's not screaming to be held or following me around trying to pull my pants down and biting me on my belly fat. The girls have been climbing the gate for a while now & I guess he has been watching them do it.

Luckily, this past week the older boys have had 2 snow days and been home sick themselves, so I haven't been on my own with the three little sick ones. Tomorrow they go back to school and my husband goes back to work. Oh, please let the babies wake up feeling better...

Ahem

Okay. I am officially sick and tired of message boards.

So here goes my second attempt at blogging.

Here is the deal. I have a lot of kids. 5 of my own and 2 step kids.

I never expected my life to be like this. I figured I'd have maybe 2 or 3 kids, tops. So I was married, had a couple of kids, got divorced and got remarried. New husband had 2 teens. We decided to have one together. Blah, blah, blah, long story short, it was twins. When they were around 11 months old, I had a flu I couldn't shake & stomach cramps, went in to see the dr, who sent me to the ER to rule out appendicitis.... Surprise! I was 3 months pregnant with #5.

My kids are 13 (boy), 11 (boy) , the twins are 2 1/2 (identical girls) and the baby is 13 months old (boy). So I have 2 middle schoolers and 3 toddlers. I have a 24 year old stepson and a 21 year old stepdaughter. We also have a cat, Mr. Pecksniff. I have an entourage now.

So, here is some more about us: I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but moved to Detroit 6 years ago because I met my husband on Napster and he lived here and it seemed like a good idea to move here, but I really miss home. A lot. My husband is 15 years older than me and originally from England. I used to be an elementary school teacher. Now I am a SAHM, but I am back in school, doing my pre-nursing classes. I can't see myself going back to teaching, as hard a decision as that was to make. I'm hoping Nursing is a good career for me. In my "spare time, " I knit, sew, and do polymer clay sculpting. I also enjoy cooking, reading, and music. But mostly, my days are filled with taking care of my kids... so I guess that's mostly what I want to write about.

It's challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. I love them all fiercely, but some days I feel like it is more work than one person can sanely handle. Two of my sons have special needs - the oldest and the youngest are mild/moderately hearing impaired. I am having a very different experience dealing with the issues the second time around.