A MUCH NEEDED UPDATE

Jessie is still sick. I have given her countless gallons of Pedialyte because that is the only thing she is keeping down. I have tried to give her milk, but every time I do, she barfs. Her diarrhea has not cleared up yet and it stinks worse than anything imaginable for something that is 99% water. Her diaper rash is starting to clear up. It was so bad for a while I thought she was going to start bleeding. I was worried about dehydration too because her lips were starting to get extremely dry so my mother called a doctor that she works with and that doctor called in a prescription for Jessie. It was some liquid that stopped vomiting and nausea. It worked really well.

Now it has been a whole week later and Jessie is REALLY fussy, doesn't eat much, and I don't dare give her too much milk yet because she is still throwing that up and she is starting to loose her interest in her Pedialyte/juice/water. We are thinking about taking her into the clinic to have a blood test done because I am starting to think that this is not an ordinary case of the flu and it could be something that needs antibiotic to clear up.

I am going to make a phone call to the clinic today, hopefully we will be able to get little Jessie turned around her soon.

Cassie did get sick a few days after Jessie became ill but she only threw up for about 8 hours. she was mainly sick just through the late afternoon and into the evening. By her bedtime she stopped vomiting and the next day she was fine. Darren also caught the lovely illness, but he is better now too. I am just hoping that I do not get it next.

ANOTHER "OH HUM" POST

Jessie slept most of the day yesterday. She refused solid foods so I am going to try giving her applesauce, toast, and rice today to see if she will take anything. This morning she was up at 8 am but after 8 oz of Pedialyte she was back in her crib sleeping by 8:30 and is still snoozing away.

After Cassie chased the mole down the hallway, I didn't see or hear from it again until they girls were in bed for the night, after which, I caught two of them. I have not heard anything since the second mole was caught at about midnight. My dad is questioning my "mole." He thinks that it may be a shrew instead. So this morning I got online and checked out pictures of mice, shrews, and moles. Shrew are tiny, smaller than mice. What I have are huge mutants, definitely larger than mice. The mutants I have do not have outside ears or the distinctive long tail as a normal mouse either. I will have to take pictures next time I catch another one.I am almost certain that it is a mole.

Last night I went to the online chat room for my Medical Transcription class and met up with a few girls from the class. We went over the first 12 dictations of our assignment this week. They really helped me out a lot. We are going to meet again tonight and go over the remaining assignments. I have to admit that I did not do so well on my first assignment, but after last nights chat I don't feel bad anymore, because a majority of the class did pretty poor. I also found out that I can test out of a majority of the classes if I feel I know the material well enough to do so. One gal right now is trying to test out of Keyboarding II, which I am taking right now, all you need to do is take a typing test to show that you can type 40 WPM and if you pass, you get the credits for the class. I was thinking about trying to do the same for my Medical Law class. The same gal also tested out of that class and she got an A. If I could do that, it would lift some of the work load. I will have to write to the instructors and see what they say about it.

VERMIN

Jessie settled down for a nap at about 11 o'clock today. About an hour into her three and a half hour nap, we had a little visitor. She want not a wanted visitor either.

The visitor was a mole....not a mouse, a mole. I was doing some dictation for my MT class and I could hear this loud noise in the kitchen. Cassie was watching cartoons and the cat was outside so I went to investigate. She was under the highchair and I was very surprised to see her. The poor thing was not very bright either. I reset a humane trap in the same place three different times before she was finally caught on the third attempt to steal the non-salmonella peanut butter in the trap. I put her in a Rubbermaid container and Cassie and I walked down the street to the Yield sign at the corner of the block and released her. Wouldn't you know it, two hours later and she was back in the house!!! This time she was getting brave and trying to attempt entering the living room. Cassie chased her down the hallway and I reset the trap in the same place as before, just in case she was following her old path. As of right now, she has not been heard from or seen. Maybe Cassie scared her pretty good and the mole left the house. My mom is going to Wal-Mart to get sticky traps and some Decon for me when she picks up my things for Jessie.

As for Jessie, she has been up for a little bit. She is fussy as ever and still sick. Because she is still throwing up I am limiting her Pedialyte to just two ounces at a time. She is not very happy about this since she still doesn't feel like eating solid foods but it is a lot better than her throwing up 16 ounces of orange liquid everywhere. She fell asleep around 4:30 pm and is still sleeping. She will probably get up around 7, be up for a couple of hours, and then with luck she will be in bed for the night at 9.

OH, WHAT A NIGHT

Last night Jessie started to throw up around 8 o'clock. I started giving her some Pedialyte but she wasn't holding that down either. I continued to give the Pedialyte to Jessie, because if I didn't, she would dry heave anyway and nobody enjoys that.
After rocking until 1:30 and MANY changes of clothes for both mom and Jessie, I was able to lay her down around 2 o'clock. After I laid down, I heard Jessie cough a couple of times. I went back to check her each time, but she was already sleeping when I reached the girls bedroom and nothing appeared to be wet.

This morning she doesn't have any appetite for food. She has been drinking Pedialyte by the gallon. She did throw up a couple of times but not as often as last night and seems to be holding some of it down okay. We have been going now for about an hour without any of the Pedialyte coming back up (knock on wood) so I hope the worst of it is over. If my mom calls today, I am going to see if she will run by the Wal-Mart and pick up some more Resolve, Pedialyte, and Biz for me because I have run out of everything but the Pedialyte and I am sure that will be gone shortly.

Cassidy has been a huge help while Jessie has been sick. Cassie likes to get the Pedialyte out of the fridge for me, she fetches spit rags, and she knows where all of Jessie's clothes are in Jessie's dresser. While I am taking Jessie out of dirty clothes, Cassie will bring me clean ones. She has even been throwing stuff in the washing machine for me. Thank goodness for her help.

Darren picked up a Commercial Drivers License book. He has been reading it and studying it pretty intently the last couple of days. He has some offers to drive truck and one person even offered Darren to use one of his trucks to take the driving test as long as he had his permit. I think his plan is to go to Minot next Monday to have our 32" TV fixed and he will take the written test while he is in Minot. Darren really wants to get away from Schwan's really bad. He misses us and the way his paycheck has been, he figured out that his is basically busting his butt for $3 per hour. When I am working, which hopefully will be this fall, things should pull together. At least we have all of our interest gathering bills paid off.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!!

Today the girls and I went to Devils Lake. I needed dog food from Wal-Mart and we all were scheduled for flu shots and Jessie needed her 1 year immunizations. Turns out the girls were ready for their Hep A shots too. Jessie ended up with 4 shots (one in each limb), Cassie got two, and I received only one. After that, we went up to the hospital to eat with my mom and to wish her a happy Valentine's Day.

Darren finally got things worked out with his boss and is now able to drive home at night. There is only going to be one to two days a week that he will have to stay in a hotel in Harvey, but the rest of the week he will be home in the late evenings. I don't expect him to be in before 11 o'clock. Since he is coming home, I am working on cleaning up the kitchen and folding all the clothes that have stacked up in the bathroom.

All the people have been chosen for next week's American Idol which starts on Tuesday. I can't wait!! This year I really like the over-weight, curly haired, funny guy that looks a little like Jack Osborne. As my woman choice, I like the small, quiet, shy african american woman that sings background vocals for other singers. Who is your favorite, America (I don't mean Ferrera?)

THE MOUNTAIN LION...FOR KSOFM

The Mountain Lion, also known as the Cougar, Panther or Puma, is the most widely distributed cat in the Americas. It is unspotted - tawny-colored above overlaid with buff below. It has a small head and small, rounded, black-tipped ears. Its long tail is also black-tipped.

Adult males may be more than 8 feet long from nose to end of tail and generally weigh between 130 and 150 pounds. Adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between 65 and 90 pounds.Mountain Lions are solitary, strongly territorial hunters who, unlike most cat species, may be active during the day. Normally, lions are very elusive, and people rarely get more than a brief glimpse of a Mountain Lion in the wild. They are, however, unpredictable and have been known to attack people.

The predatory behavior of a Mountain Lion is very similar to the domestic cat. The lion will attempt to conceal itself for a surprise attack while stalking its prey. A crouched position is assumed with the tail twitching and the ears upright. An agitated lion may snarl and lay its ears back.

I have only seen one mountain lion in the wild the whole 28 years I have been alive. That was about a year ago coming home from my parents house at night. The mountain lion was getting ready to cross the highway. When I got home I immediately called the farmers in the area so they could check their livestock, I called my father to contact the Fish and Wildlife office so they knew one was in the area, and then I checked on my horses and the dog. I know we have them here in North Dakota, but you never see them.

MOUNTAIN LION

Darren's uncle in Rugby showed me these pictures when I went to their house last week. These picutures are from a guy in Martin, South Dakota. He took these pictures from his kitchen looking out his patio window. The mountain lion was stalking his two small children playing on the floor!!!!

MONEY

I received the new keyboard for the laptop today so now I can blog without stars!! YEAH!!

Darren and I went out to eat last night in honor of my birthday on Thursday. We went to the Spirit Lake Casino to eat at The View and then put a few bucks in the machines, but when we got there, we found out that The View was not open on Sunday's or Monday's. We decided to go back into Devils Lake and eat at The Ranch after we gambled a bit. The only downside to the evening was Darren had to call in to work for a telephone conference. We sat in the car for an hour and fifteen minutes in The Ranch parking lot waiting for the stupid conference call to be finished. We didn't get into the restaurant until 9:30 p.m., we finished supper around 10:30, and made a quick stop at Wal-Mart before heading home. My mom was watching the girls for us and I feel just terrible getting home after 11 since she had to work early in the morning the next day. If it wasn't for that damn phone call we would have been home around 10.

Our rapid refund from H&R Block went in the checking account on Friday so today we paid off two bills. I can't be happier that Darren told me to pay TWO of them off since I was having a hard time talking him into paying off one. I totally understand where he is coming from though. When you have that much money in the bank you would like to hold on to it for a while before spending all of it. Hopefully next year we will be able to keep what we get back and can spend some of it on fun things. The taxes for the house are due too so I am putting a check for that in the mail today as well. It is really nice to know that we do not having any except for the car payment and monthly bills.

#@!%* COMPUTER!!

Sorry about the delay in my posts. You need to bare with me, because then h and g keys are not working on my laptop so I have to copy and paste them onto the words. I will use * to replace h and g from now on until my new laptop keyboard arrives in t*e mail.

My birt*day was yesterday. I did not *et out to do anyt*in*. Billy and I were t*inkin* about meetin* at t*e bar but I didn't *ave a babysitter for t*e kids. Darren said we will *ave dinner somew*ere on Sunday. I also *ave Darren talked into payin* off t*e two ot*er bills we *ave. Darren wanted to buy an ice *ouse for fis*in*, but I told *im if *e wanted t*e ice *ouse, we *ad to pay off bills. We will see w*at *appends w*en it comes time to write out c*ecks.

I *ave been totally en*rossed wit* t*e deat* of Anna Ni*ole Smit*. My *uess is s*e overdosed. Still depressed over loss of son and maybe sufferin* postpartum depression after birt* of *er little dau**ter, and lets not for*et t*e Trimspa lawsuit t*at started last week, I am sure *er world was an awful place
at t*is time. Ri**t now, I am watc*in* Fox News for t*e autotopsy report. If s*e did OD, it may be a few days before anyone as answers to w*at s*e took and w*at exactly *append.

Okay, all of t*e stars are tickin* me off so I need to stop and c*eck my mail for t*at new keyboard. I may post more later.

A FEW BIG RELIEFS

A nurse from the doctor's office called this afternoon. The mass is now 3 times smaller than what it was it had been originally. Since the mass is definitely shrinking, the appointment to see my OB/GYN has been cancelled because the mass will probably be nonexistent by next week. Talk about a huge relief.

Darren and I are trying to decide how to spend out tax refund. I want to pay a couple of things off to just get them out of the way, but he just wants to make big payments on all the bills. That is a good idea, but with his small income right now, it would be smarter to pay something off so that we have that much extra to actually put on other bills. I have a bad feeling that if we just make big payments but do not pay anything off, the bills will just get out of control again because of his income right now. So we are still deciding. I am just glad that I paid off the house and the hospital. That alone makes me feel good.

We are on a hunt for the title to our home. The banker that set up the loan is no longer employed at the bank. The banker that took over for him doesn't know what the other guy did with the title and he could not find it at the bank. I am going to have to call the DOT and see if I can get a copy of the title. What a freakin' hassle. It really makes me upset that the BANK lost the original title for the house. I no longer feel safe handing something like that over to the bank. Last thing we need is for them to loose the title for the car or truck too.

HOMEWORK, ANOTHER APPOINTMENT, & MONEY

I have been able to catch up on some of my homework. I am finished with everything in my Applied Medical Transcription I class, I am doing good in Medical Law & Ethics, and Keyboarding II is like taking a high school computer class over again so that's not a big deal. The one right now that I am fearing is my Laboratory Procedures class. There is no homework to do in the class, it's all just tests. I was supposed to take my first test Monday, but I wasn't near ready to take it. I am still no closer to being ready for it. I may cram really had when Darren comes home this weekend and maybe take the test at my mother's house on Sunday.

I go in for my ultrasound today. I am not at all excited about it. I am hoping that the doctor will call with good news regarding the size of the mass within a few days.

We did our taxes yesterday and we are getting quiet a bit back. We have 4 bills to pay off and we will be able to pay 2 of those bills off in full and catch the payments up on the other 2. When I get my next financial aid check in the summer, it should be enough to pay off the remaining 2 bills and we are caught up!! Oh, and I did get my spring financial aid check in the other day so I paid off our house and paid our bill at the hospital. No more house payments...YEAH!!!!!! It feels really good to know that by the fall we should be debt free (except for the car payment.) I am starting to believe that God's reason for my miscarriage was that we could get our financial situation taken care of. At this rate, there will be no debt when baby #3 is here. I did qualify for Medicaid in February, I don't know if they will cover anything from January or not, but at least some of this doctoring will be covered too.