Thursday, April 30, 2009

Swine Flu

Since we're always the last ones to hear the news, I'm assuming you've all heard about this. For those of you who watch Lost, I'm sure you saw the news of "confirmed cases" in Spokane flash across the top of the screen. This morning on the radio they were saying that hundreds of schools across the country have closed for the day, and school sports have been postponed due to worry of the swine flu (all this as I was dropping Kelsi off at school). So naturally, I start panicking. After all, Matthias has been sick. Then I remembered Dave's Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope. Completely unrelated subject matter, but one of the main things he talked about was the media causing panic. How the media has only been reporting the doom and gloom and not the facts. Most of the rest was sharing these facts to clarify the state of the recession. Naturally, I started wondering if the media was doing the same thing with the swine flu. So I came home and researched. Here's some of what I found:

"Between 2005 until January 2009, 12 human cases of swine flu were detected in the U.S. with no deaths occurring. However, swine flu infection can be serious. In September 1988, a previously healthy 32-year-old pregnant woman in Wisconsin was hospitalized for pneumonia after being infected with swine flu and died 8 days later. A swine flu outbreak in Fort Dix, New Jersey occurred in 1976 that caused more than 200 cases with serious illness in several people and one death." CDC

"To keep this in perspective, though, every flu outbreak causes deaths, even in the US. The CDC told the media yesterday that 36,000 people die in the US each year from flu-related illnesses...To put it in perspective, the
CDC’s 2001 statistics showed 10,800 deaths from alcohol-related traffic accidents — and almost 6,000 alcohol-related homicides." Hot Air

"In addition to the 160 deaths, the virus is believed to have sickened 2,498 people across Mexico. But only 1,311 suspected swine flu patients remained hospitalized, and a closer look at daily admissions and deaths at Mexico's
public hospitals suggests the outbreak may have peaked during three grim days last week when thousands of people complained of flu symptoms...The deaths were already leveling off by the time Mexico announced the epidemic April 23. At hospitals Wednesday, lines of anxious citizens seeking care for flu symptoms dwindled markedly...Cordova has suggested the virus can be beaten if caught quickly and treated properly. But it was neither caught quickly nor treated properly in the early days in Mexico, which lacked the capacity to identify the virus, and whose health care system has become the target of widespread anger and distrust." Yahoo News

CDC recommends the use of oseltamivir or zanamivir for the treatment and/or prevention of infection with these swine influenza viruses...If you get sick, antiviral drugs can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster. They may also prevent serious flu complications. For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started soon after getting sick (within 2 days of symptoms). CDC


Ok, so to sum it up.... the last death in the US from the swine flu was in 1988, a woman who also had pneumonia. 36,000 people die every year in the US alone from the regular old flu. The people in Mexico who died likely died from lack of proper medical care, and the outbreak as already subsided. Medication is shown to help and prevent complications.
My conlusion...something to keep an eye out for? Probably. Something to panic about? Not likely. It seems as though the country is just in a panic. Granted, the death of a toddler due to the swine flu is tragic, but probably not enough to justify the President telling the country they should shut down schools. But, well, this post is long enough without ranting about what the President says.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Comments

As some of you may have noticed, commenting on the blog is not working. Personally, I was starting to think you all hated my mouse but didn't want to hurt my feelings so you decided not to say anything at all ;) Anyway, the only thing I can think of is that the new template I put on there the other day broke it. Which is quite sad, I really liked the new one. Hopefully I'll get the comments working soon!


Update: Ok, changing the template worked =)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ahh, memories...

Since most of my crafting stuff is either packed up or non-accessible, I have to resort to drooling over pictures online. Which, of course, led me to go through my pictures of stuff that I've done. Since that was apparently not enough of a crafting "fix", I decided to post some of my pictures. So, meet Mouse from the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie":

Mouse has been very busy doing publicity photos for his book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.



So Mouse decided to take a little nap.



What's this...a cookie?! Yum!



Now, back to that nap!



Ok, so really, isn't he just too cute? I thought so too ;) Mouse has been one of my most popular patterns, although sadly I can't actually make money off of the pattern (stinkin' licensed characters). Even sadder, I don't think that this post has averted my urge to make stuff. If anything, it's made me remember that I still need to finish my pattern for Moose from "If You Give a Moose a Muffin"! Oh, well...maybe I'll try again tomorrow ;)

Sunday, April 26, 2009

GlFyBzRg1MzjFBEws9mLisEOfeF7Njz_

I am going out an limb here and assuming that none of you who are my family or friends used the name "GlFyBzRg1MzjFBEws9mLisEOfeF7Njz_" to follow my blog. Crazy, I know. Since I don't want weird stalkers who leave spam comments, I went ahead and blocked that person =) I mean, really, who on earth would be able to remember that is their username? Ok, Daniel might be able to...but that's another story ;) So, on the off chance that it is actually one of you, I apologize, but that's what you get for choosing such a crazy username!

Hurry!

Time appears to be dragging. I think it's a conspiracy against me. We were able to make an arrangement with our new landlord to get into the place early in exchange for cleaning it. So, that means we should have the key as early as this weekend. In the meantime, however, we're packing up all we can so our place is filled with boxes, there's not much to do and there's nowhere to walk. Oh, fun. I wish time would just move faster so that we can start clearing out some of this stuff! Ok, enough complaining ;) Speaking of cleaning...anyone want to help? It will be lots of fun!

On another note, since most of our stuff is packed up, we had nothing to do for "Family Night" this week (which just so happened to be on Saturday since the Dave Ramsey thing was on Thursday), So we decided to take the kiddos to McDonald's and then to Hastings to let them pick out a new book. We've decided that there is an unspoken rule at McDonald's. If you kids are well behaved, they are allowed to sit in the dining area, if they are brats, you must take them to the play area where they will not disturb the other patrons. Now, this does not mean that all kids that go into the play area are brats of course. There was this one family where it was quite obvious who was in charge. It was the 5 year old girl climbing on all the tables yelling at her mom that she wants ice cream. What was her mom doing? Standing in line yelling right back, asking if she wanted chocolate or strawberry. I think just about every person in there was glaring at her lol.
At Hastings, Kelsi picked out a couple of Warriors books...shocking...while Matthias spent the time playing at the train table. We found a couple of educational type books for him, the kind where he can practice his writing and counting and such and then it just wipes off. So, that's about all the excitement going on around here...oddly, I have not pictures to share!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lots and lots of pictures!

So, after reading Melissa's "Wordless Wednesday" post, I remembered that I had taken a couple of pictures of Matthias a while ago that I had thought would be fun to use for one of those. Then, as I as pulling the pictures off my camera, I realized there were a lot of pictures on there I hadn't done anything with yet! So, here they all are in one post:
First, we have Matthias drinking his green juice...the first thing he asks for in the mornings!



Next, is Jordyn's birthday tea:



A whole lot of pictures from a park visit a few weeks ago...if you click on the arrow really fast it's almost like seeing it in real time ;)




And, finally...more pictures from the park. Matthias riding his new bike, and Kelsi playing her new recorder:

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Goodbye, Beldin...

Sadly, Beldin died yesterday. We have no idea why. He was his normal self all morning, chirping and flopping around, then we went upstairs for a couple of hours to work on packing, when we came back down he as dead. He hadn't been acting sick, he had plenty of food and water, and we weren't cooking with teflon. Matthias doesn't seem to understand what happened. He was napping when we discovered Beldin, but when he woke up and came downstairs he kept asking, "Where's Beldin?". He's been asking that continually since. Kelsi comes home today, so hopefully she's not too upset, but she's not quite as attatched as Matthias. We miss little Beldin so we're definately going to have to get another bird after we move. Although, I don't know if we'd find another one that thinks he's Spiderman and hangs from the top of the cage!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Flashback Friday

Yep, I said "flashback friday", here are some pictures of Easter 2007. Enjoy!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

We're moving!

Yay! Finally! As most of you know, I've been wanting to move for quite some time, but it's never happened. The last few weeks we had actually been talking about checking into a home loan to see what we could get. Sadly, Dave Ramsey convinced us (well, me at least...I don't think Daniel really needed any convincing) that we should wait until we're in a better financial position...basically no debt, 3-6 months income in savings, have a down payment, blah, blah, blah. So we settled on continuing to rent and sat down and figured out our game plan. Then within a few days, Daniel's friend (Derek) told him that his boss owns a house which will be available at the end of the month and was looking to rent it out. Derek and his wife used to rent this same house until they bought their own, and we have been over there many times so we know what it's like. Of course we were interested =) Daniel talked to the owner (who he actually had met since he owns the company the curch orders computers from on occasion) and let him know we were intersted and we just heard back from him today that the place is ours! Now, for the pros and cons:
Pros
It's a house not a triplex
Same amount in rent (did I mention this is a house...not a tripelex?)
We don't have to pay all of the deposit up front
Somewhere between 3-5 bedrooms depending on your definintion of a bedroom
New school for Kelsi...yay, no more Borah!
A yard of our own
2 parks in within a 1 mile radius
Close to the freeway and bus route
Quiet neihborhood
Lots of recent renovations/remodeling
I'm sure there's more but I cant think of them at this moment ;)

Cons
It's not in Post Falls

So, there's definately lots to be excited about! We still have to give our 30 days notice for our current location, but it's looking like we'll be moving an about a month!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

"My Dream House" - by Kelsi

Hello! My house is done! I'd like to show you my house. Come on up the ladder! We are standing on the main bridged, there is a side table with an ipod charger and the blue ipod charging. Now follow me we are going to the into the den. Now there is a tv, a couch, a few chairs, and closet full of games. Opps, I forgot the coffie table that's where we play some games. You figured? Well, you're right! Now, let's got to the playroom! This is for the kids, hi Jonny! He loves the playroom! Now as you notice there is another tv! But, that's for the kids, as you see there is lots of toys in here. Now let's get food! Hee! Hee! Let's go to the kitchen! Hey are you hungry? Your're not? Oke doke! Now hereis the pink refrigerator, and the pink counter. Let's go to the dining room! What!? (Bluue) Are you sick? No? You look like it. Come on! Addmet it! Yes? Don't worry we are almost across! (Snap) Uh oh! Hurry! Run! You're still pucking? (Bluue! Bluue! Bluue! Blech!) Yikes that's my naibor Mrs. Trogstad! Let's hurry before she finds us! Whew! Here is the dinging room. Yah, I know. There is only a table and chairs. Let's move on to the bedrooms. Now the kids rooms are kiddish. I don't want to talk about it, but you can take a peek. Do you like them? I thought so! Well, here is my room. Isn't it lovely? Relly? Cool! Here is the bathroom. Smells bad? (Sniff, sniff) Yuck! I think someone went to the bathroom. Well, let's move to the acttic! You don't want to? Why? Because it will be dusty? Ok, let's go to the backyard! I know there is just playground equipment for the kids but, there is bikes and a grill in the garage! Let's go to the garden! Look! I'm growing tomatos an look how big their getting! All thanks to my compost! Well, the pool is covered in the backyard. Well, that's my house.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Pizza Night

We made some gluten-free pizza! The best part was, it actually tasted like pizza...imagine that! If any of you are interested in the recipe we used (which was really good), you can find it here. Of course, I had plenty of help from the kiddos:


They had a blast making pizza, although I think a little too much got "tested" while they helped ;) Matthias kept "checking" on it while it was cooking...he was rather impatient! As you can see, the pizza was enjoyed by all.

Our New Blog

So, I decided that I don't like Wordpress anymore...so now we're on Blogger =)

We're moving...

our blog to here:

http://ourfamilybloggoodness.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Spring Break

I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon and share some pictures of our spring break fun:








From Spring Cleanin









From Spring Cleaning









From Spring Cleaning









From Spring Cleaning









From Spring Cleaning









From Spring Cleaning









From Spring Cleaning

No, really...that's what they were doing for fun.  I went into the kitchen this morning to do some cleaning, and Matthias followed me in and asked to clean too.  What mom is going to say no to that?  So I gave him a washcloth and a spray bottle I filled with water and set him loose.  Then I jokingly asked Kelsi if she wanted to clean too.  She did.  So they both set to work washing the table.  Then I pulled out the swiffer and the broom and told it's much more fun to clean the floors.  Oddly, the did have fun!  They both sprayed water everywhere (Kelsi's bottle actually had a bit of cleaner in it), scrubbed everywhere and sang a lot.  Now we have a nice, clean kitchen and Kelsi has admitted that chores might actually be fun...but not her room.

On another note, we changed some stuff on our blog a while ago, including the URL.  If you've subscribed before, the RSS has changed so you will need to subscribe again.

*edit*  ok, so the slideshow isn't showing up.  To see the rest of the pictures, click here.)