Virus Confirmed!

So after a trip to the Dr. on Wednesday afternoon, it has been confirmed. Amanda has a nasty virus. Her strep throat culture was negative, but her fever remained all day. I gave Amanda a dose of Motrin at midnight last night and what do you know....... This morning she didn't have a fever. That is a miracle. Maybe she is turning the corner on the 4th day. The Dr. seemed to think she should be better by Friday. Let's keep our fingers crossed................

Besides going to the Dr. Wed. I spent the greater part of the day making Halloween cookies with a girlfriend. It was time consuming, but a lot of fun. I usually don't have anyone to talk to while baking, rolling out dough, and icing. I'll have to do that more often. I think we made 3 recipes, about 75 ghosts. Now, hopefully Amanda will be able to take them to her school party tomorrow.
Interlude

I'm back. I wrote the start of this blog this morning. As of 1:30, Amanda's fever is back. I gave her Motrin and she seems to be better. She slept on the couch, did some homework, made a pumpkin for school. etc. As of 8:00 she did not have a fever, but the Motrin is still working. I have no idea what tomorrow holds in store. I hope she can go to school to enjoy her Halloween party.

In the meantime, I have scraped out 4 pumpkins and carved 3 with the help of the kids. Actually, they designed the faces and participated for 5 minutes. I got stuck with the majority of the work. I'll post pictures later. My fingers are numb and my nails are orange. Is this really fun? I must say they do look cool when they are lit up. As we speak Steve is carving his pumpkin. He is working on some cool ghosts. Well I'm off to check on the kids and take Amanda's temp. I want to relax and watch the Office. Talk to you soon.

UGH!!! It's a Virus!

Yes.... It is 12:30 in the afternoon and I am blogging. Shouldn't I be doing something more productive like working or something...................... Well, this is what I do when I am held captive in my house. And guess why.................... Amanda Grace has been home, sick from school, the past 2 days. She has had a consistent fever of 101.4-101.7. She has had no other complaints but a stuffed up nose and a little cough. She has been resting, drinking fluids, and alternating the Motrin and Tylenol. I hope this fever breaks soon. I hope she can get back to feeling normal before the end of the week. The kids are sooooooo looking forward to Halloween. If Nicholas catches this.... UGH! We have a huge Friday planned for all of us. Nic has a school party, followed by Amanda's school party and community service, followed by a small Halloween shindig at our house. I'm disinfecting everything and sending Nic to school. I'm glad he has been gone the last couple of days. I don't need this virus passed around to anyone else.

Tomorrow I am suppose to be making Halloween cookies with a girlfriend. She is not a baker and wants to learn how to make cut-out cookies from scratch. We have 60 ghosts or pumpkins or witches to cut out for the 1st grade class. I hope Amanda is better tomorrow, or I might be rolling out a lot of dough by myself!

It is so crazy that this virus came out of nowhere. We had a busy and fun weekend. The kids and I went to see High School Musical 3 on Friday night. It was very cute. I always wonder who comes up with those elaborate dance numbers. The audience was clapping and cheering and full of pre-teen girls. Amanda seemed fine. (As a side note, we went to the show with my girlfriend and Amanda's good friend Maddie. Guess who had a fever on Monday morning? You guessed it. Maddie. But hers was 104. Maybe the girls both picked up a similar virus.)

Sat. Steve and I finally got to go out. It has been the first time since Hawaii. I am feeling so much better that I wasn't in bed by 8:00. Our friends Amy and Ben had us over for dinner with our poker pals Robert and Debbie. It was a lot of fun. They also informed us they would be moving back to Michigan from Minneapolis. Whoo Hoo! How fun! Now our core poker group is back for our monthly games. The Herdoiza's will be hosting the first on New Year's Eve.

Sunday was filled with the pumpkins, raking leaves, and a birthday celebration. Amanda appeared healthy. Here are some pictures..........

I know this looks like child labor, but they were really having fun. They spent an hour outside raking this HUGE leaf pile in hopes of jumping into it. They might need a few more leaves to soften the blow.

Finally, This is what 60 looks like! I absolutely love this picture of Dad leading everyone in his birthday song. I hope we are all this happy when we turn 60 and our family is all around us. What a great SMILE!

Well, I'm off to check on Amanda. I have been dusting and vacuuming while the pictures upload during this post. I have to say I love those Swiffer 360 degree dusters. I think it makes dusting FUN? I actually go out of my way to find things to dust. (Mom... this might change your mind about dusting.)

Hopefully, I'll post sooner so it is not so long next time. I know I have been rambling a lot....Until later......

Halloween, Photos, and Ellmmnoopee

Sooooo... do you know that there are only 17 days until Halloween? The countdown has officially begun. It seems as if we have spent a lot of time decorating and making projects for the upcoming holiday. I am actually excited about fall. The trees look beautiful, the weather has been phenomenal, and Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all approaching. I love the excitement that comes with these events. I have been trying to capture some photos of our craftiness here at the Herdoiza household:

Here is the official countdown calendar Amanda made in school. The other guy is Mr. Bones that kids constructed one afternoon. He is made of foam, brads, glitter, glue, and of course, plastic spiders.

Here is our spooky Halloween shack. (It was a lot of trouble, more time consuming than you think, and calls for more patience than this mom with 2 anxious kids has!) I made the icing and did the oh so beautiful frosting details. The kids helped put some candy on the shack and a lot of it in their mouths.

Since the weather has been AWESOME, the kids had a chance to play at the park over the weekend.

I think we are now down to 18 lbs. of apples.

The kids are unwrapping caramels and singing. "We're making caramel apples, we're making apples!"

VOILA!

And finally..... Friday, Nicholas and I were working on some homework. He loves to write his name and practices over and over. Here he was trying to write all the letters of the alphabet.

He was doing really well until he came to the letter ellmmooopee. It comes after H, I, J, K..... Anyone...... It was very cute. I had to explain to him that it is in fact 5 separate letters, L, M, N, O, P. He was surprised and questioning my logic. It sure doesn't sound that way when you sing the alphabet song. It sounds like ellmmnnopee.

Have a good week!

JUST ASK....................

Well...... so much for documenting Wednesday, Day in the Life. First, I didn't think to start taking pictures until too late and my battery was dead. Second, Nic and I were stuck in the house all day waiting for the plumber. Third, when Amanda got home from school there was no chance she was running errands (my typical Wed. with Nick). Instead, she wanted to hurry through homework and play with her friend Hailey. I guess I'll try to continue the Day in the Life series tomorrow. (Sometimes you just have to go with the flow, and that my friends is REAL LIFE.) As we speak the camera battery is charging, the kids are watching Shrek, and I'm blogging before the bedtime routine. Steve is going to be late tonight. Yuck! The only good news is the ending of the boys tennis season. Friday is Regionals all day long, then comes State meet, and then he is DONE!

Anyway.... I did something today that I normally don't do. I asked for something. Well, actually, I bargained for something. My brother-in-law Mohamed would be proud. Also, in Randy Pausch book the Last Lecture he makes a point to say, you never know what will happen, what people will do for you, if you don't ask. So that is what I did.

Today the plumber was back at my house for the 3rd time in 6 months. I finally purchased a new kitchen faucet and wanted it installed. At the same time I wanted the leak fixed under the sink. It has been an ongoing problem and ENOUGH is ENOUGH already. I had to wait around all day. Then...... he fixed the leak and had to replace more pipes and parts than he first thought. He also fixed the water backing up into my dishwasher. He was there approx. 2 1/2 hours. The faucet is absolutely FABULOUS, nothing leaks, and there is no excess water in the dishwasher. Woo Hoo!

Sooo..... I get out my checkbook. (The worst part.) I proceed to ask how much? He tells me that if he had given me an estimate for the job, it would have been $350. However, since I have used him 3 times now, it will only cost me a whopping $250. My eyes might have bugged out. Then he asks me if the price is okay. I'm thinking, "Are you kidding, no way that is okay, it seems steep to me, maybe I should have bothered my engineering brothers, do you think he bargains, there is no way Mohamed would pay this price, and so on and so on................" Of course this is taking place in my mind in milliseconds. Then I brazenly open my mouth and say, "I was thinking $200." To my amazement, the plumber says, if that makes you comfortable, he will take $200 dollars. It doesn't matter to him. It won't make him poor. I think I was in shock. I asked for something and I received. I would have never gotten the $50 off if I had not opened my mouth. Thank You Mohamed for whispering in my ear. I must say, I did feel a little guilty and cheap. But........ Not that guilty..............

So the lesson to be learned is YOU DON'T KNOW, UNLESS YOU ASK! The worst they can say is NO!

Until tomorrow...........

A Day in the Life.....

I have a couple of things to share today... First the superstar of the week and his

amazing posterboard.

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In the middle of the poster the teacher printed a list of questions that Nicholas answered. Here are some of the responses:

What do you want to be when you grow up? A tennis pro (DUH!)

What is something nice you have done for someone? I made my bed, cleaned my room, and got dressed. (Just think... you are all doing something nice for someone everyday! Just get dressed)

What do you like to do? Watch T.V. (Please....he doesn't even have any favorites. I'm not sure where that came from.)

What do you wish you could do? Run really fast or be a superhero. (I'll take being a superhero over eating cupcakes for breakfast any day!)

There really is nothing else exciting to report. I still want to work on my "Week in the Life" scrapbook, but I haven't been real motivated. Here are a few pictures and words to start....

Tuesday: Wake up at 6:05 a.m. Run on the treadmill and quickly shower. Wake the kids, pack lunches, get everyone dressed. Make breakfast- Nicholas and Steve always have cereal, Amanda a chocolate chip waffle. The kids are off to school and everyone else is off to work. Stop at Kroger for dinner supplies. Next, Steve and I have a doctor's apt (12 weeks YEAH!). We grab a quick lunch and see our friend Robert in downtown Birmingham. Pick up Nic from school. Run to the library. Pick up Amanda from the bus stop. Do homework. Play on the computer. Have friend over while Mom prepares dinner. Finish cleaning the house. Dinner dishes. Fill out field trip info. Give the kids showers. Eat the rest of the apple pie. Steve brushes the kid's teeth and reads bed time stories. I blog and get ready for the debate. I'll probably start my new book club book tonight The Book Thief. Tomorrow we start all over again........

Hopefully I'll take more photos tomorrow.

The Preschool Project.....

So, it is October 1st and boy is fall in the air today. I'm not liking this sudden drop in temperature. I wore a sweatshirt and a jacket while running errands. Nick and I went to the library this morning and then we were off to Target, Kroger, and Michael's this afternoon. We were in search of poster board for his preschool project. He was so excited on Monday because he was the special person of the week. As an added bonus you get to make a poster board full of pictures of you and your family. Well............ I had big plans for Nick. I punched out letters with my die-cut machine, and was hoping he would glue all the letters and pictures. Unfortunately after spending an hour this afternoon cutting and gluing, I finished his preschool project. What is wrong with this picture? He was no help what-so-ever. Oh..... he was opinionated about the photos, but that was about it. For example, he would say. "Awww... this is a cute picture." It would be a dark photo of the back of Amanda's head, opening a Christmas gift, with half of his body in the picture and someone's unidentifiable legs sitting on the couch. I would politely try to say no and divert his attention to other photos. He would get upset and hyper because his SISTER was in the picture and you had to find pictures of family. I know the reasoning is logical. I should have just gone along with it. For the next child's preschool project, I will not deny photo choices!

Anyway, here are some photos I took with my phone during our shopping trip. I had to pull it out when Nicholas put on that crazy witch hat. I was

laughing out loud at the store.

The kids are sooooo excited about Halloween. Amanda has been begging me to put out the decorations, so I might tackle that project tomorrow. She has also requested that we make caramel apples. Oh... I like that suggestion, and I think we have a few apples to use up. I can hardly wait to make them with her. Well, I'm pretty much exhausted. Until next time....