Walking Pneumonia Hits the House

January 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment

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So we’ve been doing pretty well besides Dylan’s nasty case of croup cough and severe stridor a few weeks ago. Add in the long weekend due to the snow and that’s a sure sign that something should hit the fan.

Drew started a dry cough on Sunday, I chaulked it up to his sinuses and the normal back nasal drip he gets on a regular basis. Monday, the cough seems to be coming in on regular “fits” and I can’t help but shake my head and say “poor boo” while I try everything in my head to make him more comfortable but he doesn’t seem to be too bothered.

Today comes and everyone is back to school and I have my To Do list jammed with getting as much done in the short period of time of possible. Luck has it, I get the call from the school nurse just as the baby is asleep and I’m sitting down to start work. The cough hasn’t stopped and the low grade temp has started. This is at 9:40 a.m.

Really, I promise, he didn’t have a temp when I dropped him off at school at 8:35. He was acting ok this morning so I thought it was just the post nasal drip cough. Well, off we go to pick him up and he was grinning sheepishly when I told him he gets the couch and quiet time during the day. This is my total couch pototao boy, who loves doing nothing but playing video games, watching T.V and hanging out in his underwear.

After lunch Tanner had her four month well visit… FOUR MONTHS?? My personal confession… I love labor and delivery.. I know sick…sadistic…but I love it and I could do it again tomorrow so the fact that it’s fading so fast and Tanner is growing out of the newborn phase makes me sad. But anyway, that’s another post. Back to the sick boy….

Hacking, coughing… hacking.. all day… I know it’s not his fault, but UGHH it’s killing me and then I feel guilty that his coughing while not feeling good is annoying me! I think it’s because I can’t fix it.. there is nothing in my power right now that seems to make it better- he refuses the cough syrup and with all the controvesy on the medicine I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing.

Finally, after lunch we head to Tanners check up and I bring him with me hoping the Doctor would hear his cough and say “Oh… while you’re here, let me listen”. My pedi, that have to divert to say, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my pediatrician. I have had the same pedi since my daughter was born, her own family has grown and I believe we have similiar parenting styles.. (you know, where kids are kids, they get bumps and bruises and they go out in the sun in September without an inch of sunblock).

I’m so lucky, that she did- maybe because the nurse kept shaking her head listening to him behind her as she weighed Tanner (tipped the scales at a chubby 17.12lbs might I add.) saying “poor boy”. I have to admit, I wasn’t thinking “poor boy” as he continued to tip the chair onto two legs then let it smash back against the wall then move over to the window and get the blinds tangled as he was playing with them waiting.

Then the Doctor gave Tanner the thumbs up for being happy, healthy and chubby and it was Drew’s turn. First she asked what happened to his face that is all cut up and he shyly admitted to “smashing my face” on the ice while sledding- phew- don’t call child services, he really is just an accident prone boy. Anyway, she listened to his chest and well, gosh darn it, it isn’t his sinuses he has walking pneumonia. It’s only been 2 days since his cough started so I guess we caught it early.

So then of course, on my way home I’m trying to remember exactly what this is so I looked it up and the summery is- just in case you run into it:

The signs normally include the cough, fever, abdominal pain (drew didn’t have) headaches (he said his head hurt when he coughed) and chills (no mention of this).

Walking Pneumonia is caused by an organism, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and can be contagious if contact with the infected person is prolonged. GREAT- just what we need!

My husband was determined that he caught it at the Birthday Party on Saturday. Have I mentioned before that my husband thinks birthday paries are an evil that should be banned?

However, while looking up my information I found that it actually takes 1-3 weeks for the onset and only starting to show as a decrease in energy before cold symptoms show up. You may experience a fever, sore throat, runny nose or other cold-like symptoms. You may also notice that you cough gets worse at night. This is because fluid accumulates in your lungs and moves up higher in the respiratory tract when lying flat. To alleviate your cough, prop up your head slightly so your upper body is at an incline. Your doctor will prescribe antibiotics for your walking pneumonia. Any number of antibiotics may be prescribed, but the most common antibiotics for walking pneumonia are erythromycin, clarithromycin, and tetracyclines. As the antibiotics fight the infection, you will gradually get better over the next week.So there we have it… that was the day… I got the first dose of meds in… let’s see how quick it works.You know when the poor boo isn’t feeling good because he was the first one in bed at 7:00 without having to be asked… that is a RARE

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Snow Day

January 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment

A thick blanket of wet white snow buried us today giving the kids an extended weekend. The morning started with all three putting on their snow gear to head outside at 7 this morning.

As much as I love the kids getting outside and enjoying the weather, boy, it’s alot of work. They can’t seem to find “the right” snow pants as they pass them all back and forth. I know part of this is my fault since I ony buy gender neutral snow pants so we have seven pairs of snow pants that are all black or navy blue.

Why seven?

Well, there are three kids so they go out for a couple hours get soaked, come in for hot chocolate, want to go back out but their pants are wet so they throw on an extra pair while the other ones dry. Plus, they all are different sizes so they are sure to fit someone at some stage of winter.

My biggest gripe so far is that the hook & loop closure on the winter boots that have been handed down to my three year finally gave out and of course, it’s only the beginning of January and NO stores have boots anymore. They have already been replaced by bathing suits… come on, I’m all for marketing…but let’s be a little practical it’s only the beginning of January in New England.. there should be some boots SOMEWHERE!

Hey, notice I said “Hook & Loop closure”?? Wanna know why?? Because the leading maker of “hook & loop closures” you know the stuff that starts with a “V” actually sent me a legal letter once to remove the “V” word from something I wrote or they would sue me. Tell me that’s not a load of malarchy- someone is getting PAID and PAID WELL to do nothing but cruise the internet for the “V” word then threaten people because we don’t have the right to use the “V” word without their written consent. Another example of a sensible use of our judicial system…

Back to the hard work of getting kids dressed and undressed for outside, it’s 12:30 in the afternoon and we’ve already done it twice. This included a 10 minute melt down from Drew because Taylor was wearing the socks that he wanted to wear and an extra 15 minutes after Dylan who refused to use the potty before putting his pants on stepped outside then turned to come back in because “I need to go potty very very badly” uggg do I talk to myself?

It’s quiet time here now…well as quiet as it gets, then we’ll go thru it all again for the afternoon.

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Invitation to another Celebrity Baby Shower

January 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I am so excited! I was invited to another Celebrity Baby Shower!

The Tubby Bundle continues to be a celebrity bath time favorite.

Pinks and Blues, a great blog run by a family of girls is hosting a baby shower for actress Angela Kinsey from “The Office”- a show that my husband and I love and are faithful viewers.

The girls at Pinks and Blues picked their favorite companies and sent us invitations to provide our products that will all be wrapped in one kickin gift basket for the honoree. You may remember that I was invited to the baby shower for Bachorlette, Trista Sutters. Then someone gifted Dancing with the Stars Co-host Samantha Harris with a Tubby Bundle…I still would love to know how gave one to her.

And the best part? If your pregnant and due this summer, YOU ARE INVITED TOO! I included the information below. Take a peak and register yourself or someone you know to get this incredible set of goodies.

Since I just had Tanner in August I guess I miss entering myself….hmm…baby # 5?? Just Kidding!!

Gear up for 2008 with a Pinks & Blues Virtual Baby Shower!

A Virtual what?

A Virtual Baby Shower is a baby shower that we at Pinks & Blues will host online. That means that businesses will send us products that we will then give away as a HUGE Baby Shower Giveaway to one of our lucky mamas-to-be.

How do you enter?

Be expecting. Or know someone who is expecting between May 1st, 2008 and August 1st, 2008.

Send us your/her story (to pinksandblues [at] gmail [dot] com) with why you/she should be the Pinks & Blues Virtual Baby Shower Honoree.

The story can be inspirational, fun, surprising, or a FINALLY(!). The baby can be a first pregnancy, twentieth… or anything in between. The baby could be the first boy of six girls, or perhaps the first girl of six boys. Or maybe we won’t know the gender of the baby.

The Pinks & Blues Girls will pick ten mamas-to-be and then our readers (you guys!) will vote on your favorite story.

We will follow your/her pregnancy right through the baby shower to the birth!

Important Dates:

* Send your story to pinksandblues [at] gmail [dot] com by Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2008.

* We will reveal the 10 finalists (chosen by a panel) on February 21, 2008.

* Pinks & Blues readers will cast their votes for one lucky mama-to-be from February 21, 2008 to March 6, 2008.

* We will announce the Pinks & Blues Virtual Baby Shower Winner on Monday, March 7, 2008.

* We will deliver the Baby Shower Gifts on Thursday, May 1, 2008.

We are also showering mama-to-be actress Angela Kinsey from “The Office “on NBC with the same gifts!

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

From the Mouths of Babes

January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment

So innocent that I want to always remember when my kids said:

My statement “Everyone up to bed now or the hammer is coming down”

Well, all three kids stopped and looked at me and said “What hammer??” My three year old continued to follow me for the next half hour asking “Mommy where is your hammer? In your tool box? Your hammer with the red handle or blue one? When are you getting your hammer?” all questions were asked at least three times each.

My Statement: “You can’t drink soda with caffenine because it will make you stop growing”- a bit of exaggeration, but they haven’t figured that out yet.

so one day I did let my son take a few sips of my soda that has caffeine in it and my son replied after every sip “Did I stop growing yet? How about now? Am I shrinking?”

My statement: “Put on the red turtleneck right there”

Response “NOOOO that’s not a turtle, why you call my shirt a turtle?” Then he continued to ask where the turtle was as he turned it over and over looking for the turtle on the shirt.

In the craziness of a school morning I handed my six year old his clothes to get dressed and went back to the kitchen suddenly I hear “What the heck??” “Hey mom you’re right, I ate my veggies and look at how much I grew” He came around the corner and we all busted into laughter. His pants were now fitting him like shorts.

I realized I handed him his brothers pants so they were a six 3T instead of a 6. Maybe he’ll keep eating his veggies if he thinks he grows that much!

My Statement: “I learned that lesson at the school of hard knocks”

The boys ” who’s knocking? I don’t see anyone here”

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Bed Time Woes

January 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Bed time has become a daunting task in this house lately. I’m not sure if it’s all the changes in the kids “regular” routines due to the holiday, but bed time is killing me every night.

Ok, my husband often doesn’t get home until about half hour before bed so this doesn’t help matters much. They are soon flying off the handle since they are excited to see him.

However, the entire process is taking us an hour and half until there are no more “peeps” and generally leads to loud voices and lots of crying and lots of “But I…” excuses that just leave us at the brink of frustration. By the time I re-enter the kitchen for the final clean up it’s 8:30.

So you say, start earlier? I swear that makes it worse and realistically, do you think I can get home from their activities, fed, bathed, homework finalized, reading time done earlier then 6:30/7:00?

I have always been good about the regular kids bedtime routine and they know what they are supposed to be doing it just seems like they want to torture me lately. Then it makes me feel guilty when they actually start playing something together and nicely… so nicely you hate to interupt them because them playing nicely together is so rare in itself, but you know they are only doing it to buy them more time.

So here I am, 8:45 and I’m just getting ready to gear up for a few hours of work when it would have been nice to start an hour earlier. I’ll get a couple hours in before calling it a night, however, then we have the bed changes to contend with.

We have the “I had a bad dream” from at least one of them every night as they crawl in next to me and I try to adjust the baby into a safe position (yes, she sleeps with me). Another pang of guilt will hit me if I try to send them back to their room, I don’t want them to be scared and alone. But then again, they are most likely just feeding me the line since they know I won’t kick them out with it.

I’m such a sucker at night that I’ll actually end up getting up and going into their bed if they kick me and steal the covers. I think I generally average about 3 hours of sleep a night between work time, changing beds, middle of the night bathroom runs(kids…not me), husband snoring, nursing the baby..ahh I know I bring some of it on myself.

Back to work so I can go to bed.

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Is your New Year Resolution to work at home?

January 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I am an honest person and would not promote a system that I did not believe in. As a work at home mom myself, I believe in spreading the word that making money at home without working for a direct sales company or min wage part time job is possible. Very possible.

I was referred to the SiteBuild It system from a friend who had great success and thought it would be of interest. This was the greatest resource I have found in my three years of working on the internet. I’m not going to try to persuade anyone that it’s easy, there is no “easy button”, it is still work, but the step by step process and common sense approach along with more tools and resources then the average person could ever use makes it well worth it.

The best part is you don’t need to worry about hosting companies and knowing html even how to buy and install a template, it is all included in easy drag and drop formats that allow you to focus on making a quality website.

Don't believe only me, there are other moms that feel the same way- check this out.

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life

Improve your Alexa Ranking

January 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

As a work at home mom with a business that depends on internet traffic, I’m always trying to learn something new to improve my rank among the millions of websites in cyber world. I found the below article on simple, easy steps that help improve your Alexa ranking and gosh darn it they really work! Give them a try, they only take a few minutes each to implement and the results will astound you.

7 Proven Strategies for Improving Your Alexa Ranking

By Michael Fleischner | Marketing Expert | Internet Marketing Secrets*

After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa ranking was still higher than one million. Alexa ranks each website based on the number of visitors it receives. The top ranked website, Yahoo! has an Alexa rating of 1 or 2. Less popular sites could be ranked up to 5,000,000.

In order to improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks combing the web to find tips, secrets, and proven strategies for increasing my Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didn’t even have a high ranking themselves. Finally I discovered a number of sites ranked within the top 100,000 that were all applying the same “Alexa techniques” to improve their ranking. I’ve begun implementing a number of these techniques and have improved my Alexa ranking by 250,000 spots in just one week.

Here’s what you need to know. The basis for many of these techniques is the fact that your Alexa ranking is based reach and page views. However it only counts those who visit your site and have already downloaded the Alexa toolbar. Anyone can download the toolbar for free which is automatically added to your browser and tracks the sites you’re visiting. Increasing visits from those who do not have the Alexa toolbar installed will not help your Alexa ranking.

I’ve summarized the 7 strategies that I’ve discovered and applied to my own website to increase my Alexa ranking. Apply these strategies to your own website and see your ranking climb towards the top.

1. Download the Alexa toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away. You can download the toolbar here: http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html

2. Use Alexa redirection whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when providing a link to my website, I use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours.

3. Encourage your website visitors to add their positive testimonials on Alexa’s detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to “Click here to rate this website”. You can find your detailed Alexa page here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=marketingscoop.com. Again, just replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours. By clicking on the URL, visitors will be able to reach your detailed rating page and write a review using the review link located on the left hand side of the page.

4. Write your own site reviews on the top 100 rated Alexa sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa can be found at http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 When you write a review, be sure to use the redirection URL we discussed in number 2 above specifically for your website [http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com].

5. Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my home page http://www.marketingscoop.com, I’ve added the Alexa ranking box. You can do the same for your own site by visiting http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup You’ll notice that I haven’t added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldn’t look appropriate on my home page and because Alexa is only providing detailed history on the top 100,000 sites. So if you’re not in the top 100,000, site stats would not be available.

6. Take an inexpensive advertisement out on the ExactSeek search directory for only a few dollars per month at ExactSeek.com Search engine results are directly correlated with Alexa rankings. You’ll notice that if a website is highly ranked on ExactSeek, chances are that it will be highly ranked on Alexa.

7. Get listed on as many search engines as possible by placing a free listing in DMOZ. This is the largest human edited directory on the web and is co-branded among hundreds of thousands of sites. Be patient though, it often takes up to 5 months before you see your website listed after submission. Even though it takes longer than it should, you have little say in the matter because it’s so widely used across the Internet.

These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a huge difference in your Alexa ranking. Ultimately you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your home page for SEO purposes, ease of use, and interaction. Creating a positive user experience will get visitors to return again and again.

*Michael Fleischner is a marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com. Visit today for free marketing information and marketing blog directory. Michael has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit his marketing blog for further details.

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Alexa Ranking