I’ve been busy lately, but for good reason this time! We’ve been finishing up a few things around the house in terms of the renovating stuff. Our kitchen is nearly done except for a few filler pieces in between some cabinets, the dishwasher, etc. We finished up our fall garden, extended our patio with some nice rocks. Our new carpet was installed last Thursday and looks excellent.

I’ve also been doing well at the gym. I went to Body Pump yesterday and today I am so sore I can hardly walk. Still, I went and did 40 minutes on the treadmill, alternating fast walking with running. I am going to try to do the Couch to 5k. They are actually running a C25k at the gym for $50, but it takes the same 9:30 spot on Tuesdays and Thursdays as Body Pump, and I’m not really willing to give that up, especially since I’d be giving up something I love, and paying for it. I can do it as best as I can on my own, and still do Body Pump.

This weekend, weather permitted, we may be doing a yard sale to get rid of some stuff, then the next weekend we’ll be heading to San Antonio for 3 days. I’m pretty excited, though I don’t like the gym by my sister’s house down there. Hopefully the next week and a half I can do better in the running department and be able to run a bit by the time I get there. There’s some incredible scenery there, and she lives out in the Hill Country where there’s deer and other cute critters.

So Monday night was going to be mine and Jeremiah’s first night to sit down and relax and actually spend a little bit of time with each other since we started doing upgrades in our house. We put Matthew to bed around 8pm and he was fine, and we sat on the couch and started to watch “Little Rascals”. About 9:30pm Matthew woke up screaming. It was a sad and scary scream. We ran in there and he was inconsolable. He was clutching his lower abdomen and crying uncontrollably. It took about 20 minutes to calm him down enough to tell us that his belly was hurting. He would whimper for about 5 minutes, then have a bout of pain and start screaming again. I got dressed and prepared to take him to the hospital. Jeremiah was concerned about transporting him if he was in so much pain, so he called for an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived somewhere around 10pm, they checked him out and loaded him up. On the way to the hospital he would be okay for a few minutes, then start crying, then he threw up. After throwing up he fell asleep for much of the ride until he woke up whimpering right before we arrived.

They wheeled him into the hospital. At this point, like many kids do, he started acting like nothing was wrong. He became bright eyed and bushy tailed and I started feeling dumb for bringing him in. They got him in a room, took his vitals and got him snuggled in the hospital bed in front of the TV. He was okay for a while until he started crying again and curling up, then threw up again. He would have these waves and in between he’d be fine. The doctor came in and explained it could either be something small, or intussusception (telescoping intestine). The way she explained the latter seemed like exactly what he was going through. A medical website says this:

Infants and children with intussusception have intense abdominal pain, which often begins very suddenly and causes loud, anguished crying causing the child to draw the knees up. The pain is usually intermittent, but recurs and may become stronger. As the pain eases, the child may stop crying for a while and seem to be feeling better.

The doctors had an xray done, then we had to wait a while for a radiologist to come in since it was after midnight by that time, and they only have them on-call. During this time he had 3 or 4 more episodes of pain & vomiting. A while later, we had the sonogram done and waited to hear back. At around 3am, the doctor came back and said it didn’t look like intussusception. The sonogram showed nothing wrong with his intestines, but the xrays showed lots of poo. She said that by itself didn’t explain the vomiting, but it could be a virus on top of the bowel issues. She sent us home with a prescription for zofran (anti-vomiting medication) which they’d given him earlier to stop the throwing up. She told us to buy some Miralax (though I decided to buy Pedialax since it’s just saline laxative rather than the medication. I figured if it didn’t help I could go buy the Miralax), some sort of juice and some gatorade to help “loosen” things up and give him electrolytes.

We got home around 4am, hoping Matthew would sleep in. No such luck, he was up just after 8 in the morning. Tired and dragging, we made our way to Walmart and bought the things on the list, and headed home.

Since then, he’s been feeling much better. Not that everyone wants to hear about bowel movements, but in the last 2 days he’s had a few, the latest one being pretty … decent. ;P I’ll continue the fiber and laxative filled diet so that this doesn’t happen again. He’s still telling me his belly hurts a few times a day, but I think in another day or two he’ll feel just fine.

I appreciate any messages, texts and calls I’ve gotten asking about his well-being and sending luck and prayers. I am glad it seems to be only that he’s backed up and doesn’t recur. Even though it turned out to be a small deal, there’s nothing worse than to see your child suffer like he was that night.

Matthew spent a ton of time on my phone today, and I realized how much better my battery has gotten since I uninstalled a bunch of crap. Jeremiah still wants to buy one of those extended cell batteries because he is on his phone pretty much every waking moment of the day. How long does your phone last? I know that with the new smartphones coming out with their huge touchscreens and so many features, there’s been a lot of complaints about people having to charge EVERY. NIGHT. I don’t know anyone else’s experience, but I’ve had to charge my phone every night for years. It’s become a habit. My phone now, with average use, will last me a day and a half. I don’t want to charge it halfway through the day though, so I’ll try to use it a little bit more so that it is at least low by the end of the night.

The other day I went to Sonic and got a drink, and they put a sticker on my cup that had a barcode and didn’t explain what it was. You use one of those barcode scanners on your phone to send a text message, and it sends you a coupon via SMS for a free ice cream cone.

Then there’s things I’m too nervous to try, like coupons for the grocery store on your phone. Has anyone tried that? I know that usually a store needs a hard copy of the coupon, so I’m scared to say, here’s my coupons, let’s scroll through them.

It’s incredible how most people can’t live without their phones, mainly smart phones. Someone who has an “ancient” flip phone is automatically told they should upgrade from their dinosaur. I remember when I first met Cole she had a pretty “out of date” phone, meaning she probably owned it more than a year, lol. I laughed at her, and her response was something along the lines of “I like my phone, it works for me”. Even though I laugh, I honestly admire people who don’t rely on the latest android or iphone. I say that, and someone like my husband might say “So stop relying on it”, but I’m already hooked! I love keeping tabs on things, being able to receive texts and e-mails on the go.. I’m stuck in the technology trend, and I’m pretty comfortable here.

Texas is in the midst of a major drought right now. They’re saying the last time it was this bad was in the 50′s. The worst part, besides the death toll due to heat (I think they’ve said 9 or 10 in Dallas so far) is the way people don’t even consider their pet’s welfare. I can hear so many dogs barking mid-day in the heat. It will be 110 degrees outside and a few houses down there will be a dog barking for quite a while. I highly doubt that dog that’s outside for that long has some sort of air conditioned dog house, but maybe I’m wrong. It’s just devastating.. there is so much technology and availability of ways to care for you animals, from places like mange.net to pet stores, vets, etc, and if none of them can help you, take your poor pets to a no-kill shelter or rescue where someone else who CAN provide for them can adopt them. What’s the point of having a dog or cat who is simply outside all the time? They want your love and attention.. how much less can they ask for??

I really need to get back to the dentist soon. I hate the dentist, but somewhere around 2 months ago I went for a cleaning and was told I had 2 cavities. I am so tired of cavities.. I have better dental hygiene than my husband and he’s always had perfect teeth. I really hope Matthew gets his daddy’s teeth. Thank God for dental insurance. Without it we’d be pretty deep in the hole by now. I’ve had a few procedures done since we got married and dental insurance in the military only does partial coverage. :/

I came across this earlier, and wanted to share.

1. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

2. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

3. Lol has gone from meaning, “laugh out loud” to “I have nothing else to say”.

4. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear what they said?

5. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a d*ck from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

6. There is a great need for sarcasm font.

7. I don’t understand the purpose of the line, “I don’t need to drink to have fun.” Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they’ve invented the lighter?

8. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is..

9. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it’s on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

10. It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

11. Bad decisions make good stories.

12. More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

13. That’s enough, Nickelback.

14. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

15. Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f*ck was going on when I first saw it.

16. I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I’ll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone’s laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I’m still the only one who really, really gets it.

17. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

18. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

19. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

20. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

21. A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

22. Was learning cursive really necessary?

23. Whenever I’m Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don’t mind if I do!

24. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I’m from, this shouldn’t be a problem….

25. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you’ve made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

26. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don’t want to have to restart my collection.

27. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

28. “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this ever.

29. I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There’s so much pressure. ‘I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren’t watching this. It’s only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?’

30. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What’d you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

31. When I meet a new guy, I’m terrified of mentioning something he hasn’t already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

32. Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles…

33. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

34. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

35. I would like to officially coin the phrase ‘catching the swine flu’ to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: “Dave caught the swine flu last night.”

36. I think that if, years down the road when I’m trying to have a kid, I find out that I’m sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

37. Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn’t know what do to with it.

38. It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

39. I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

40. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

41. The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There’s nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.