What you may not know about strep...

So now that Rachel, Kimbo and now I have had strep throat, I thought I might shed some light on some things that you may not know.

In kids (and adults too I guess) Strep Throat can begin with a tummy ache or a headache. Their throat may not even hurt. Rachel had a headache before anything else and Kimbo complained more of her tummy than her throat. When I went in, the doctor said that many times, kids never even say their throat hurts complaining only of the head and tummy. So if you or your children have been exposed AND they complain of a tummy ache or headache, it is best to just get them checked out. If their throat culture comes back positive (which I bet you it will) then you can get them on antibiotics and get ahead of the really sore throat that comes with it. A friend of mine called today and her daughter had an upset tummy and had played with Kimbo last week. I told her to take her in and I would give her $50 if it wasn't strep. Of course it was so thankfully I am not out 50 buckeroos!!!

Here is a little bit more of advice. If they are given amoxicillian (not sure how to spell that one) keep in mind that it can cause upset tummies. Without getting into too much detail...if they say they need to go to the bathroom..no matter where you are or what you are doing...let them go. Trust me on this one!!! Don't learn that lesson the hard way.

Many of you may have already known all of this, but I thought that since a lot of your families have been exposed to mine, it might be helpful information. Hopefully you wont need it. I am going to go lay down now. I feel awful.

I have been blessed

Last Sunday, I found out that even though Buddy was supposed to be home this weekend, he was unable to do so. That was the beginning of a rough week. The next morning, Rachel came down with strep. It just kind of snowballed from there. My Realtor decided to have an open house this weekend so I was feeling pretty down and stressed all at the same time. Some amazing friends of mine really stepped up to the plate and were right there for me.

As I said before, Rachel had strep throat and she got pretty darn sick with it. Rachel wanted a blessing and with Buddy being gone and no home teachers I had to make some calls. Our friend Bruce came and along with a member of the bishopric, gave Rachel a blessing. She was feeling perfect the very next morning. I have a runner right in my entry way that something got spilled on so my dear friend Mia took it to her house to wash it for me because I don't have a front loading washer and that is what the tag said it needed. So Mia had it washed and dried for me in no time.

My sweet friends Camille and Lora came over on Saturday and stayed for over 4 hours helping me get my house spotless and most importantly, staged. They helped me de-clutter even more and helped me re-arrange my furniture. Sweet Camille even brought plants and lamps from her own home to put around my house. I couldn't have done it without them.

My amazing friends Heidi and Daniel came and helped not only on the inside but the outside as well. They added new mulch and trimmed my entire yard including bushes giving my home beautiful curb appeal.

After everyone had left, I ran to Walmart to get a few groceries and Kimbo is saying she is freezing and doesn't feel good. I hurry up and get home and it was then that I realized that my tire was flat. All of my friends were now out on dates with their spouses (which is where I was dying to be) so I didn't know what to do. I called my husband just bawling. I was a mess. While I am making these calls Kimbo is starting to feel worse and worse. My darling friend Tena calls her husband and he comes home from work early and fixes my tire. In the meantime, Tena comes over with her 3 kids, stays with my other 3, and lets me take her car to take Kimbo to urgent care. You guessed it...Strep throat. However, I finally calmed down and realized that things could have been worse.

Here comes the blessings part. Imagine if all of the afore mentioned friends had not been there to help me out??? My daughter would not have had a beautiful lesson in the power of the priesthood and I would have had a sticky carpet to welcome all of my potential home buyers. I would have had a clean yet not nearly as pretty home for the open house and I would have been doing it all by myself. I would have had a front yard that was....less than appealing. I would have had no way to get Kimbo to the doctor or to have my tire fixed. And lets not forget, Buddy would have had to fly home and possibly lose his job because I would have been in the hospital with a nervous breakdown from it all!!!!

I am so grateful for my friends and their presence in my life. I love them dearly and hope that each of them know that I am here for them always. Even though there are days when we all feel like our world is slowly crumbling around us, it is good to just sit back and really realize just how blessed we really are. I know that I am. Thank you dear friends.

Biaggi's commercial

One of my dearest friends in the entire world and her husband are part owners of the restaurant Biaggi's here in Omaha. I got to be in one of their commercial's. If you watch closely, I am in the very first shot holding Natalie in my lap. My friend Tena and her son Ashton (the owners) are there as well. They are also in another part where the little boy in the orange and white shirt kind of snuggles up to her. It was fun to be able to be a part of it.

Autism

As many of you know, I have a son named Garrison who is 9 years old and is Autistic. I received this article via my yahoo Autism group and could not resist sharing it. Even though the likes/dislikes descriptions do not fit Garrison to a "T", everything else does. There is something amazing and quite special about my son. Everybody just falls in love with him. I am the luckiest mom on earth to have been blessed with such a sweet little boy.

A Great Day!!!

Today was a beautiful day. (It would have been a perfect day without the 90 mph wind). Some friends from church got together and we all went to the park. It was so wonderful. I must say, with Buddy being gone, Sundays are especially hard so it was so nice to have friends to sit and visit with and to enjoy each other's company. The kids played wonderfully together (not even one squabble) and the bigger kids even helped watch the smaller kids so that the moms and dads could visit. Thank you dear friends for making our Sunday afternoon so wonderful. You have no idea what it meant to me.

From the mouth of babes

"Daer carter this is from Kimbo's sister Rachel. Now Kimbo is my best sister evre and you harted Kimbo's filenings and you woodint like it if Kimbo was meen to you and she will not want to be you'r friend enymore if you ceep bing meen to her and she will want to be your friend if you be nise to her for evr. By Rachel Hopkins thats Kimbo's sister."

Kimbo brought this to me today before she went to school and I thought it was the sweetest thing ever. It was so sweet of Rachel to stand up for her sister. This boy Carter, calls Kimbo a baby quite a bit at school and it makes Kimbo so mad and clearly it makes Rachel so mad too. I loved the way Rachel sounded out her words to spell them and worked so hard on this note. It made me so proud of my daughter that she would do this for her little sister. I did however, sit them both down and explain to them that this was not the appropriate way to handle the situation. I explained that I had already spoken with the teacher. I did however remind them that if they were on the playground at school, they had every obligation to stand up and defend each other. So stinking sweet!!!!

"Tax day" means more to me than most.

April 15th, the day that most Americans dread. This is the last day we have to file our taxes or an extension allowing us more time. However, April 15th means more to me than just taxes. You see, my father was an accountant or as I used to so lovingly call him "a tax man." Not only was he "a tax man" but he was the best tax man ever. He started his own bookkeeping and tax business in the garage belonging to his one and only client and by the end of his life, he had over 800 clients and a very beautiful office all of his own. My dad was brilliant!!! He was so amazing with numbers. I have never been one who was good with numbers in any way shape or form so I always marveled at this amazing talent of his.

Tax season was 3 months full of chaos. Home cooked meals were non-exsistant from January 15-April 15 because any family member who lived anywhere near by were all expected down at the office helping my dad. He did the "hard stuff" while we woman ran errands, mailed letters, answered phones, fed everyone, cleaned the office, greeted customers, kept customers happy and most of all...kept dad happy.

I must say those were 3 VERY LONG months. Months that I never thought I would miss. At about 7:00 or 8:00 on every April 15th we would go out to dinner to celebrate the last day of the official "tax season." Tonight as I am sitting home, I find myself missing that dinner. I never thought I would miss those chaotic filled days. However, I find myself remembering all of the good times we had instead of the chaos.

I remember one of my dad's clients who he had for many, many years was extremely rude to me on the phone. I went into my dad's office and cried telling my dad that I was sorry for upsetting the customer and I didn't want him to lose this client because of something that I had done. Without saying a word, my dad picked up the phone called that client and told him that he was no longer welcome in my dad's office and he would have to find somewhere else to take his business because nobody would speak to his daughter that way. The man not only apologized to my father, but also apologized profusely to me as well. That is the kind of man he was. I also remember that our stake president put a challenge out to our stake that we should be making copies of The Book of Mormon more readily available to non - members. I remember him specifically saying that if you owned a business, copies of this precious book should be right on the front counter where customers could see them right away. The very next day, my dad had several copies on the very front counter. Wouldn't you know, he even had some clients who stopped going to him, but he didn't care because that book meant everything to him.

I am grateful for those tax season memories for they are some of my very favorite. I am grateful for the wonderful father that I had for 21 wonderful years. I miss him terribly but know that I am the luckiest girl in the world for being able to call Douglas Bates Massey my father.

THIS STINKS!!!

So we just got back from dropping Buddy off at the airport and we are all sitting in the kitchen eating ice cream. It finally hit me that he wasn't in the house. I start crying and say, "I don't know about anyone else, but I miss daddy." Then Garrison, Rachel and Kimbo all say that they do too. I told them that this stinks that daddy can only come home for a little bit (less than 48 hours) every two weeks and they again agreed. (Except for Garrison who has no clue what the heck we are talking about.) I then start coming up with funny words to describe how dumb it is that we have to have this situation when Rachel pipes up and says, "This sucks." It was then that I realized, I have said that expression too much in the presence of my children. How embarrassing. I had to laugh to myself and then explain that "sucks" is not a nice word and a beautiful daughter of God such as Rachel should not say that ugly word. However, she is exactly right. So, we all have the mutual feeling that having daddy gone does S..S...STINK. We miss you daddy and love you so very much!!!

P.S. I was not trying to make my children sad in saying those things. I was just trying to help them to know that they were justified in crying and missing daddy.

What do you do on a rainy day?

I was downstairs doing laundry and came up to put some things away when I saw sitting at the kitchen table, are my two beautiful daughters, Rachel and Kimbo, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Piglet, and Lady (from Lady and the Tramp) all enjoying a lovely tea party. I immediately asked if I could join in and so it went. We had tea and crumpets ( water and donuts) and enjoyed a splendid conversation including what we want to be when we grow up and if we could be any animal, which one would we choose and why. I am ashamed to say that Mickey had to be excused from this delightful occasion as he could not refrain from burping. Unfortunately I did not have my camera as i left it in Albuquerque so just paint yourself a picture; however, it would be impossible to know just how wonderful it was unless you were here with us.

3-0!!!!!!!!

Okay so it is the big day. Today is my 30th birthday. I can hardly believe that I am 30 years old. It seems like yesterday that I was running around with no shoes on outside with my older brother playing tag and other fun games. Time really does fly by so fast. I feel so blessed in my life to have such a wonderful husband (who keeps asking me if it is my 30th birthday or my 80th) and the four most beautiful,wonderful children on this planet. The past 30 years have been filled with lots of fun, sadness, excitement, fear, accomplishments, celebrations, heartaches, mistakes, and triumphs. However, I am very grateful that they were MY 30 years. Here's to the next 30.

What's wrong with this picture?

Can you find what is just not exactly right in this picture? Let's just say that we were in a HUGE rush this morning.