Vote!

If you only do one thing today make sure it's VOTE! :) We're heading to the polls soon (hopefully)...we had hoped to get up early and do that, but 3 of the 4 kiddos were up last night (one puking, one fussy and one with a nightmare) so being at the polls when they opened at 6am just didn't happen...

But, Happy Election Day to all Americans!!!

(fyi...the above pic is last Election Day (2004)...Baby Shelby was just 6 mos old...golly, how time flies...in the last 3 presidential elections we've had a new girl in our house...funny, huh?!)

**Update** Voting was a total breeze this morning. Very unexpected. I honestly thought I'd be waiting in line for hours. But, Hailey and I were in and out of the polling place in a matter of minutes. No wait at all! (which is good considering at 6am we heard there was an hour wait out in the 30 degree cold...glad we slept in instead!) Hailey got her first taste of the polls and a small political history lesson from her mama (who is really not the political expert in our home :)). But, yay for Hailey...what a model 8 year old citizen she is! :) Hope you all had short lines and easy voting times too!

Forever sick...

...well that seems to be the wonderful destiny of the Steg house lately....sickos galore!

Thankfully this time it's not Ashley (at least not yet)....but it's poor Shelba this time. I had a feeling it was coming on Saturday after we spent an hour at the park and she felt like throwing up (we blamed it on too much twirly fun on the tire swing...but I should have known better). By last night she was complaining of being cold (on one of our warmest Nov. nights on the charts)....and by this morning she had a terrible fever and the pukes :( Ugh! If it's not one thing it's another around here....no rest for the weary, I suppose.....

So, it's been a sad sittin' around day for Shelby (who we all know is not the "sittin' around" type!). She bawled that she had to miss school and bawled again when she couldn't play outside later with all the neighbor kids. I think she mumbled a few times during the day that being sick was "dumb and stupid". While we don't encourage those words we had to agree....it's NO fun being sick :( And she's somewhat delirious tonight and even had an accident in her bed...something that hasn't happened in forever. She is definitely not herself. My poor girl.

And all this happened on the one day I had my 6 week post-partum appt. So, poor Kev had to work from home so I could spend 3 hours at my doc's appt (yes, you read that right). I won't go into detail, but there were some issues with another patient and I ended up waiting that long to be seen. Well, that and the fact that I had my "procedure" done....wasn't expecting to be non-fertile today...but let's just say I am :( :) Not sure how I feel about that and honestly I just feel crappy from the procedure so that has just added to the joy of the day. Ashley was a dream baby for those 3 hours and then she woke up very grumpy and cried for a few hours straight tonight. She too is not back her to her normal self. Her bronciolitis is mostly better, but I can tell it's still there when she coughs and gets really upset (not to mention she unfortunately inherited the reflux of her siblings and is constantly crying and puking). And now Dylan is coughing again (all over her usually). Oh the joy.

Anyway...so it's been a crazy day. And tomorrow could be just as crazy with election day and all the kids off school and us stuck at home with the sick girly. Fun times! :) Anyway....sorry to be a downer, but maybe if I document this we'll get lucky and not have any more sickness the rest of the "sick season"! I'm praying for that! :)

The Many Faces of Ashley (and other things :))

Well, these are sadly some VERY old pics...but I thought they'd pass the time for people like my mom who might like to see the faces of her grandkids (even if they be month-old pics)....so below is a link to a "few" oldies but goodies (sorry for the boring old link again, but I am just about out of blog space so picture posting can only be done by necessity and I don't see a new blog with more space in our near future). As always there are many pics to paroose :)

And hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll have Halloween pics to post. Trust me...the night of the pumpkin was pure delight for our little ones. Even Ashley hung in there and flitted around the neighborhood in her butterfly costume. She was a trooper! And can I just say how glorious the weather was! Truly awesome for an Oct. night in Indiana! So, yes, the kids had a ball! Pirate Scary (as Dylan called himself) came home with the MOST loot....he would literally go up to people's candy bowls and take huge handfuls...and who could really tell Pirate Cutie/Scary "no!"...and he was NOT willing to share his pirate loot with anyone. I tried to just take a picture of Ashley surrounded by his candy and in his nicest pirate voice Mr. Scary told me "NO, MINE!" and grabbed it all back with his big non-sharing pirate arms! He was the funniest of all to watch. He was in pure glory scouring the neighborhood for candy. I wish my parents could have seen it in person...it was a sight. We sure missed FL Nina and Pops being here for Halloween. They are usually here this time of year, so it was not the same w/o them (though the phonecall helped). But, we had fun making the rounds with our neighbors. And now we have WAY too much candy to eat!

Anyway...so that was a quick lil' note about Halloween. And here's the link to the month-old pics....

http://www.meerasea.com/pics/2008/2008-10-14-ashley/

(as an FYI...here is a run down of the pics....Ashley's first smile, funny Ashley poses (I truly do think I see a future ballerina there!), lots of sibling lovin', our special school "baby announcements"/baby bottles, visits from friends, first tub bath given by the sibs, our visit to our sad Bloomy pumpkin patch (can you see the guys delivering pumpkins to the field? Dylan was baffled by this!), planting bulbs by "the Grandma and Grandpa tree" :), Dylan's potty success, and our gifts to the sibs (we had Big Sis/Bro cookies made for the kids to celebrate the new sister! Thank you Cookies By Design...yumm!)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Pumpkin Day from the 4 Spooky Steg Kids (Pirate Dylan, Flapper Shelby, Renaissance Princess Hailey and Butterfly/Lovebug Ashley) :) Hope you all have a trick-or-treatin' fun day/night!

Today was "the" day :(

Well, today was the day my post-partum-ness came crashing down on me :( I honestly knew the day was coming sooner or later, but was hoping it wouldn't rear it's ugly head this week of all weeks (since it's a crazy week with Halloween activities/parties, etc).

But, today after Shelby's preschool party (and all the chaos that ensued there with Dylan on his "best" behavior)....well....my energy level just plummeted and life came to a halt. I could barely get lunch for the kids before I felt completely drained and honestly the next few hours were a blur. I sat down on the couch...somehow had the smallest amount of energy to get a movie into the DVD player and 2 hours later I woke up with Ashley still sleeping on my chest to thankfully find S&D still watching the same Dora movie I'd put in earlier. Not a shining mommy day, but I did what I had to get through. I haven't felt this exhausted since those final days of pregnancy....and now 5 1/2 weeks post-partum it's all caught up with me. And I'm ok admitting that. I've not been feeling well lately either...also due to "post partum" issues (you new mommies know what I'm talking about :))...I'm still not fully healed from delivery and actually have had some pain issues again this week...so dealing with all that for 6 weeks has been a blow to my energy level as well. Today I've also had tummy issues which led to a semi-despirate call to my sweet hubby who thankfully came home early cuz the Dora-watching kids finally lost interest in TV and were on each others (and my) nerves :) So, wonderful Kev came racing home and took over for the night so I could head to bed and just take care of 1 kid instead of 4.

So, "the" day is almost over and I am hoping tomorrow is better...I knew I had done "too much too soon", but until today I has been able to keep going....it felt good to give into the exhaustion though....

Even in the midst of all this I am thankful. Thankful to have a reason (my kids and busy, full life) to be exhausted. As tired as I am I am grateful to be in this situation....and to have so much support from so many people. Thanks to all of you who always stand by my side and who have offered to help all along the way. Bless you all...and thank you, Lord, for even a day like today...as tired as I am I know I am blessed by my sweet, healthy (yet crazy) family :)

Still on the Mend :)

Don't ya' just love it when you go into a doc's office and find out the receptionist has scheduled your very sick baby for an appt one month from today. Just lovely. I'm sure my face said it all when the lady at the computer broke the news to me...and she could tell by the small baby I was holding and the diagnosis I spurted out that there was no way they could turn me away and make me come back next week.....so they somehow squeezed us in and in a matter of 15 minutes we were in and out of there (the quickest we have EVER been seen...they need to mis-schedule us more often!)

But, the most important news of the day is that lil' Miss Ashley girl's lungs seem to be healing well...praise the Lord for that bit of good news! In all honesty I was not so sure we would get that bit of positiveness today. I won't bore you with our night's adventure, but let's just say that Ashley was up from about 2-5am screaming at the top of her lungs...ya' know...that unconsolable, hysterical crying...the kind that just breaks your heart. And this was after the same hysterics yesterday for half the day. I was worried about my poor girl...sad by the pain she was/is experiencing at such a young age. I'm still concerned about that, but the doc assured me that this was probably due to drainage and all the mucus loosening up and making it hard for her to eat/get comfortable. Not a fun thing for our poor girl to have to struggle through every day. She's been puking up a storm lately due to all the mucus and I think it's not only painful, but then she's hungry again and mama just can't keep up with that milk supply need. It's just one nasty cycle now. I really do hope that in a week or so she will be back to her normal, calm, happy self. I miss that Ashley and I'm sure she misses that in herself also.

Anyway...so I was relieved to hear good news from the doc and also happy that we can cut back on the meds only giving the steroid nebulizer once a day. (yay! no more middle-of-the-night treatments!)...and hopefully in a week she can stop all together. The doc did warn us that with any cold she gets in the next year she might need her nebulizer treatments...and to not be alarmed by that...that she will hopefully outgrow it after that. So, I am definitely praying our girl stays well for the next year...and I've already decided to keep her closer to home during this cold/flu season.....

So, there ya' go. Our girl is on still on the mend and I'm so grateful for that...so thankful this never turned to RSV cuz I do believe she was right on the verge of that (since what she has was caused by a virus). The doc today even said that sometimes these resp. treatments don't work on infants, but Ashley was one of the lucky few (yay!)...in other words she would have needed some inpatient hospital treatment if the nebs hadn't worked. So, I'm thankful our girl has some nice, strong lungs that could fight this off.

Anyway...that's all I've got for today. It's a yucky, cold, rainy day here and makes me wish even more that I was back in that nice, FL sunshine! But, life goes on. The weekend will be filled with much of the same ol' stuff for us....lots of ballet and Nutcracker practice and our church's Harvest Festival...and maybe some basement work?! Hopefully I'll have some pics to post this weekend or next week if Kev can find the time to put them in an album (I'm almost out of room on the blog to post them individually...can we say "new blog needed!"). And don't be alarmed if I start to slack off on blogging. I'll try to give the occasional update, but honestly I am just "blogged out" right now. Not really into being on the computer and kinda just burned out in general and I don't want to fully burn out before the holidays get here! I just don't want anyone to worry if a week or more goes by and you don't hear from me. I'll try to post a pic here and there, but there might not be much "meat" to my posts....but, try not to fret....most likely I'm (we're) still ok.... :) :)

Home Again, Home Again...

jiggety, jig :)

Well, in some ways I feel like doing a jiggety dance now that we're back in the chilly midwest...but in other ways the reality of it all has hit hard......I miss the lovely FL weather...I miss only caring for one kid (whether she's sick on not...she's easier to take care of than a sick kid and 3 other crazy ones...ok, 2 other...Hailey is really not all that crazy and VERY easy)......but you get the idea....

It's good to be home and it was definitely time to be home...if not for me, for my family. I love being home with my hubby (well, he's not home now, but it was great to see him last night and even have a dinner date since my flight came in early!)....and it was great to have the kids race to my side right away and give me hugs and shower me with cards and even some (fake, but beautiful) flowers :) I love my sweeties. Dylan even did his happy jig/hopping/galloping dance around the room when he saw me. I love that kid! But, that happy night of "mama's home!" is gone today...and replaced with the normal stuff: lots of fighting between D&S and fussiness from lil' A and just pure exhaustion from me. I am just having one of those "let's feel bad for the tired mommy who never gets a break" day. And I'm not seeing an end in sight to this with the holidays coming up. And now that my so-called "relaxing" FL vacation is over, I am struggling a bit to find the energy to keep going.....sigh....but honestly I didnt get on the ol' blog today to complain so I'll refrain.....

I just wanted ya'll to know that I'm home safe and sound and that sweet Ashley girl is hanging in there. She didn't have a stellar first night back at home (fussed at 1am for quite awhile) and this morning has been equally as rough/fussy. I'm praying she's not getting worse cuz she's struggling to eat again and her cry has been very high-pitched and not her normal one. I'm not a worrier though so I just pray tomorrow at her doc's appt we get good news that she's still on the mend. Our poor girl has really been through the ringer in her first month of life :(

But, truly...as rough as her illness was in FL our time down there was many great aspects to it. Maybe not all that relaxing, but I think I expected way too much when it came to napping and sleep. And we all know how over-rated those two things are anyway...especially with 4 kids...and a sick newborn :) But, it was great to see my family and friends down there. We had some great quality time with my Aunt Mary and Grandma (I can still picture my grandma holding sweet Ashley for the longest time and how much she and Nina laughed at the hand gestures Ashley made in her sleep) and there was so many good times with Nina and Pops....and that time was the most treasured. We also had a great time seeing Sis Candy and her mom and celebrating our new niece-to-come (Brooke)...my mom and I threw her a baby shower and it was a great time seeing old friends and celebrating the impending Jan. birth of the newest Gritz girl. We also got lots of shopping in and ate lots of yummy food...all normal procedures on our FL visits, but fun none-the-less :) So, it was good times even amidst the sickness (and can I just say what an awesome traveler Ashley is...she slept on both the flight there and back...I have never had such a super baby aviator on my hands!). I don't think I officially took a nap, but I did go "back to bed" the one morning that Ashley was so sick. Not great timing, but by that point in our trip I was simply to the point where I could not function w/o getting some extra zzzz's....so I guess that counts as my "nap" :) I did dose off a couple times on the couch too, but that was with baby on my chest, so I'm not sure that counts as an official nap either....but maybe I shouldn't be so picky about my nap specifics :) I need to take when I can get when I can get it! :)

So, that was that...a week in FL is done and it's back to reality. Nina Stegs took awesome care of her son and her grandkids and I think they lived in the lap of luxury with her here. She organized all their clothes and cleaned up and cooked. I think she spoiled them a bit...so I'm sure they will miss all that! But, we can't thank her enough for all she did and the time she took out of her busy schedule so I could take time to see my family down south. And I can't thank my parents enough for flying me down to FLL and for all the hospitality. If I haven't said so lately we have the best parents around! There is no arguing that!!!! And we all know I have the best hubby around (and don't try and convince me that yours is better even if you think so :))....Kev is always so wonderful to let me go on these get-away vacations and to have some "me time", all while trying to tackle the life of a single dad. He's a super dad/hubby is all I can say and I'm glad he survived w/o me and kept the kids alive! :)

Sorry I don't have any FL pics to share today, but as you can imagine I took a "few" and will share them soon! I do, however, have our most recent Penney's pics taken right before our trip to FL. They are not all that great, but some of them are cute, so just focus on those and ignore the bad ones (where Ashley looks like a worried little old man...at least that's my opinion of the "awake pics"...the old-manish look is not her normal look, by the way :)) Ashley was not in a great mood that evening and the timing of the pics turned out to be "dinner time" so between her crying and me feeding her (and the strange heat rash she got on her face that day) the pics of her are not superb. And Dylan was having a "stubborn" day so he only posed for a couple pics before he decided he was DONE...all in all we were just lucky to get any good pics. I know I need to start expecting that with 4 kids.....but still...when you drive an hour to Indy to get pics taken you want them to be semi-perfect. So....here is the link to that below....just put in my first and last name and you should be able to view them....hopefully this weekend I can post some FL/other pics....hope you all are well and enjoying this lovely fall weather!

https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0194118419JCP