A Nasty Lip

Tom came back from basketball and told me he'd hurt his lip. I could see the bruising, and it didn't look too bad . . .




. . . until he opened his mouth and showed me this.



I guess it's better than a sprained ankle or hurt elbow or hurt knee (some of his usual basketball injuries). Good ole church basketball.

Sleeping like an Orme

I looked in on Payden during her nap, and she was doing this:





Payden is definitely an Orme. First, all 3 of the girls love sleeping with their arms above their head like that. They don't fall asleep like that, but ALWAYS move to that position in their sleep. When they were younger, about Payden's age and younger, if they were sitting in their carseat and were tired, they would do that, too. We have always loved when our girls get into the Orme sleeping position. It is just too cute.

Second, her legs. It is such a funny position to sleep in, but she's not the only one who does it. I can't remember if Shelby and Taylor do it, but for sure, Tom does it. I remember the first time it happened when we were married. I woke up with NO covers on me because in moving into that position he lifted all the covers up off the bed. I thought it was hilarious (and a little weird). What's even more unbelieveable is that somehow it's genetic; at least, I don't have any other way to explain how Payden does it too. Too funny.

Payden the Colorer

Payden loves to color. Each day she grabs the colors and her coloring book, trots over to the kitchen table, and sits down to color. I love watching her because she's so intense.

Sleepy Taylor

Taylor seems to be phasing out of her naps, and, in true Taylor fashion, it's a hard and bumpy road. When she gets really tired, she gets mean and disobedient and out of control. Plus, if she doesn't get enough sleep during the day she ends up waking up 3-4 times at night. We definitely can't wait until she's finally done with napping and can still be a normal little girl during the day. Until then we'll have many bad days and bad nights with hopefully some good ones in between.

Anyways, on one of those days when she hadn't taken a nap, she'd been up a few times since going to sleep. At almost 11 I went to go to the bathroom and got quite the shock when I walked by the stairs.



I have no idea how long she'd been sleeping there or how she could actually fall asleep there, but I'm just really glad that she didn't fall down the stairs. I did get a good chuckle out of it . . . of course once my heart slowed down to normal from the shock of seeing someone on my stairs when the stairs were supposed to be empty.

The Decorated Cast

Here's the decorated cast.







Josh, this one is for you:



Of course, by the time she got it off on the 24th, there were even more names and almost no space left at all. After getting it off, the doctor said there would be some adjustment. Of course Shelby loves to be a drama queen and so she'd walk around with her arm bent at the elbow and pointing straight up with her palm facing her body (I forgot to get a picture of it). It was hilarious. She ate like that, walked around like that, and basically kept her arm up for the rest of the day.

Her homework that night was to write 3 sentences about Spring Break. It was the hardest homework session ever. At first, she didn't want to write with her right hand. Then she tried to hold the pen in weird positions. It took me at least 20 minutes to get her to start writing correctly. It also took her FOREVER to finish the assignment because she kept being a drama mama. Shelby, Shelby, Shelby!!!

Fortunately, the next day her arm wasn't feeling so weird, and I think she forgot about it through the night, so Tuesday was a much, much better day. I will say this . . . it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to have that thing off her arm. It's so nice to have our big girl back who can do just about everything by herself. Yeah!!!

I had one more memory that I want to share. One day Shelby and Payden were playing around. Payden was trying to run Shelby over with a push toy. She was chasing Shelby and the two were having a lot of fun. Payden started to just attack Shelby playfully - sort of tickling and hitting her. They were giggling and laughing. All of sudden I see Shelby pick up her right arm (she's right-handed, but it's the one with the cast) to tickle/hit Payden back. Poor Payden didn't now what had happened. Poor Shelby - it hadn't even dawned on her that the cast was a weapon and probably not the best thing to hit her sister with. I watched the whole thing in slow motion, knowing what was going to happen, but knowing I wasn't going to be able to stop it. Payden's giggles instantly turned to crying. Shelby felt so bad. She was definitely better after that about not hitting with the arm (except for our friend Joel who got quite the hit from Shelby after he had been teasing her). Anyways, it was pretty funny. It's amazing how much adjusting Shelby had to make for that thing, but she really did a good job and was a pretty good trooper.

A Few Payden Moments

Tom got Payden out of her crib after naptime. I went upstairs a little later and found this:



I thought it was soooooo cute, but I can't believe how big my baby's getting.



All I can say is she'd better not drive like this when she's a teenager!!!

Shelby's New Cast

Well, thanks to my friend Krista I was able to take just Shelby to her doctor's appointment today. I could only imagine the chaos that would have ensued with Taylor and Payden in tow (especially as both have been having sleeping difficulties lately). Shelby was sooooo excited to go. She was bouncing and jumping and wiggling all over the place.

I was amazed at the appointment because when we got called back, the doctor actually followed behind us, so we didn't even have to wait for him. Nice. He was fast and efficient yet still personable. He said that she had the nicest break you can have. Usually they require another x-ray to confirm the break has healed properly, but with the type of break Shelby has (a buckle fracture, which looks like a wrinkly or bumpy area in the bone) the x-ray won't be necessary. She has to wear her cast for 4 weeks. Of course when they showed her the colors she could choose from, she picked pink. Now she has a nice BRIGHT pink cast.



She let us be the first to write our names. Of course Tom started first by writing his name all nicely, so I followed suit. Tom helped Taylor do hers and went and did Payden's for her.



In our house, the girls LOVE to "be a family." In other words, if we all sit on the same couch together . . . it's a family couch. When we all sit at the table together . . . it's a family table. The girls look for every opportunity for us to "be a family" and in their heads that is the perfect scenario. Of course, Shelby couldn't be the only family member not on her cast, so she had Tom put her name on it as well. I love it. I hope the desire to "be a family" is something they stick with forever.



We'll have to get one more picture once she returns from school tomorrow. When I picked Shelby up from school, her teacher was already mentioning to Shelby about having everyone sign her cast. Her teacher is a great teacher with an enthusiasm that matches her students. Now I hope we can make it the next 4 weeks without getting her cast wet.

Taylor's Drawings

Taylor loves to color. Occasionally, it's her name and maybe a person here and there, but almost always it's just scribbling. I try and try and try to get her to draw - people, trees, rainbows, . . . anything, but being the strong-willed, independent child that she is, she just won't do it (I'm sure my requests to draw something else only pushes her further to continue scribbling even if I'm asking as nicely as possible).

While Tom was taking pictures of Shelby's new cast, Taylor was playing with the Magna Doodle. She told me she had drawn a picture of a Chick Hot Air Balloon. I looked up and saw this . . .



I thought it was so cute, and I was a bit relieved that she can draw, but just chooses not to. Tom and I praised her over and over, so she got pretty excited and drew another picture.



I just hope her enthusiasm continues because I'm excited to see what she'll draw.

Here's the Next Thing

I know . . . you're thinking, "What?!?!" But, yeah, the next things have already come our way. I think I write because I'm a bit incredulous that things are still continuing, but also so I can realize that I have been blessed to be able to make it through some really, really, really, really tough times. Did I mention how tough they've been? :)

Friday afternoon Tom went to a doctor's appointment. His lung was starting to bother him again; I don't think he ever fully recovered from his bout of bronchitis a few weeks ago. Well, they are concerned about his left lung, again, and that it is something worse. The most bothersome thing is his oxygen level. It's supposed to be 98, and 91 is CRITICAL. He's has been holding steady at 96. It may not seem like much, but any drop below 98 makes a BIG difference. They actually think he might have pulminary fibrosis and want him to see a pulminologist and get a chest xray. Anyways, we'll be off to go get another HUGE round of prescriptions in hopes to get this taken care of.

As for the other something, last night I had been up with Payden for a couple of hours. She had finally fallen asleep and stayed asleep when I put her in her crib. I needed to go to the bathroom and was going downstairs since I hate bothering anyone upstairs. I peeked in the girls room to check on the time . . . 3:30am. I went to step to the edge of the top step with my left foot. For some reason I misjudged where I was, and instead of my toes landing at the edge, my heel landed right on the edge. With all of my weight going into the step, my heel slipped right out from under me and I fell backwards on my back and slid down about 6 steps. My left hip is slightly sore, but I haven't had any pain in my back, which I'm grateful. The problem is when I landed on my back, my right arm landed pointing to the top of the stairs (not in the comfortable way, but in the way you pull it back to stretch it out). Well, the arm is not supposed to be stretched like that. My shoulder HURTS. I think I just pulled the muscles, but any little movement seems to bother it.

So here we are: Shelby has her broken arm, Taylor and Payden are suffering from colds or allergies (that seem to be progressing to something more), Tom's lung is weak and causing lots of concerns, and I have completely hurt my right shoulder. I guess I know now what's next on our list of things to send our way. So here we go . . . off on another adventure with illnesses and such. Until the next time . . .

And On and On and On and On . . .

I'm just curious what's next in life. There seems to be some checklist of things to send the Ormes way this winter. RSV. Check. Pregnancy. Check. Severe Allergies. Check. Bronchitis. Check. Asthma. Check. Well I could go on with all the stuff that we've dealt with this winter, but that will take more time. It never fails . . . when we finally seem to have some calm, something else happens.

Well, the next something else to happen is that Shelby has pulled a first . . . the first Orme child to break a bone. Yep that's right. It's funny because with how our lives have been this winter it was easy to just go with the flow. Take her to the ER. Okay it's broken, so now we need to set up an appointment with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. It's just another load dumped on our plate that we have to deal with, but we're so used to "dealing with" stuff that it feels like normal.

Anyway, she was in PE and they were jump roping. She fell down and caught herself with her right arm. She ended up with a buckle fracture on her radius. It looks like a bump on the bone. Fortunately she isn't one to carry on, so it was pretty easy to make the decision to go to the ER.

This morning she was asking why she had to break her arm. It was a good moment to teach her that we just have to deal with what comes our way, and it doesn't do much good complaining or wishing it had never happened. Just keep a good attitude and do what you need to get through the situation. Hmmmm . . . sounds like my life lately.

So here she is in her temporary cast from the ER (Taylor and Payden of course wanted their pictures taken as well). We'll get more pictures once we visit the next doctor. I'll be sure to post the next something else to happen in our family as well, so until then . . .

Funny Tuesday

First, Tom was leaving school on Tuesday with his motorcycle jacket on holding his helmet and wearing his backpack. He had on a pair of navy scrubs . . . the usual dental student attire. He's walking down the hallway when 2 University police officers come walking up and block him, making him stop. Both start eyeballing him with these huge grins. Tom looked at them, totally confused. Finally they said, "Hey, do you have any ID?" Tom had to actually show them his ID. Apparently he's a pretty scary looking guy. We got a good chuckle out of this.

Second, Tom was on the way to pick up a friend because they were taking Shelby, Taylor, and the friend's daughter to the Spurs game (with the Spurs tickets Shelby got for the award she won). On his way there, Tom pulls up to a light and sees this . . .



FYI the sign reads "I am a thief. I stole $80 from Grandma." I like his parents creativity. I will have to keep this in mind for future reference (hopefully I'll never have to go there.)

Update on Rachel

So let me take you back to December 4. It was on that day that I took a pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant. Yeah!!! Our last baby (due the beginning of August). Well, with all of my pregnancies I get SICK at exactly 6 weeks along, so I quickly did my math and figured out that I had about 5 days of feeling good. Sure enough Monday the 10th rolled around and I started feeling nasty with the usual - exhaustion, nausea, hatred of food, just overall sickness. Usually after a few weeks I can get to a somewhat functional state. Generally I am sick a few days and will have a good day (where I try to get a lot done) and then more sick days of doing just about nothing. Then on December 20 (while I was still getting used to the pregnancy sickness) I got sinus headaches, sinus congestion, nasal congestion, a runny nose and all that sort of fun stuff. I was sick for a bit, but things seemed to get a bit better over the holidays. I returned from Christmas in Houston only to have my symptoms worsen again. I figured I'd just caught the bug that everyone else in my family caught. Then the symptoms weren't going away. They weren't lessening, but rather holding steady. Then the few medicines I can take as a pregnant woman stopped working, so I was left with these horrible symptoms and no medicine.

Since then my symptoms have stayed (we're going on almost 2 months now), and as you can imagine my sleep has been HORRIBLE. I don't get much sleep, unless my nose decides to unclog for the night, which is rare. Even when it is unclogged, it generally doesn't last more than 5 hours and I wake up every few hours to pee anyways. A good night for me is 5 hours of sleep in 2 parts. I feel blessed when I get that sleep. When my nose is clogged . . . well I don't even know if you can really call it sleep. I end up waking up every hour to a mouth completely dry of moisture, which causes me to drink a lot, which causes my overly-sensitive-pregnant bladder to pee a lot, which causes me to wake up more to empty my bladder. A nasty little cycle.

So my extreme exhaustion from my nose problems has led to me not functioning hardly at all. My house is in a state that it's never been in for this long of a period. My parents helped clean my house last month and already have offered to come again for February. (Amen for good parents who love me!!!) Laundry gets done on an as-needed basis as do the dishes. My family does get fed; it's not always home cooked meals, but they're not going starving.

I found out recently that since Dec. 17 (remember I started all this sickness on Dec. 20) a nasty little pollen called Cedar has been here in San Antonio. I'm assuming that's what's causing my problems. I normally have bad allergies and pregnancy only amplifies them. I'm hoping that when the Cedar leaves (which might not be until March) that my symptoms go away and I can lead a more normal life. (I have learned there's something called pregnancy rhinitis that causes these same symptoms and lasts the ENTIRE pregnancy, but I'm not going to think about that.)

I tell you this not to make you feel pity for me (my life is quite pitiful as it is lately), but rather so you understand why I don't blog, write e-mails, answer phone calls, go to functions, and have basically dropped off the face of the earth. I must say I definitely know how to do survival mode, but it's getting rather old. At this point I figure once this all goes away it can only get better. Right? Anyways, I apologize for the silence, but for now don't expect much from me. One of these days I'll be a normal person again. I promise.

For all of you who are interested in finding out about Orme Baby #4, we will be finding out the sex in March and will post something immediately upon finding out. I must say I am hoping for a boy, but I must take the advice of Shelby's teacher . . . You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit. Wise words that are appropriate for more than just Kindergartners. Hopefully I'll blog more than I have been, but if not I promise definitely to spread the news about our next baby once we find out.

Thanks to all of you who have showed concern. I really appreciate it!!! It means A LOT to me. Thanks!! Here's to a healthier future!!!

What is This?

The girls were playing outside enjoying the nice weather. Taylor came in to tell us about a bug on the chair. Tom and I kept telling her it was no big deal and to just go back outside and play, but she just wouldn't go outside. Finally I turned up the blinds and saw this bug crawling on the chair. No wonder she didn't want to go back outside. That is a NASTY bug. I have no idea what it is. I'm definitely curious though. It eventually crawled on the window. The girls all ended up inside checking it out. I checked this morning to see if it was still there and it must really enjoy our window becuase there it was. I tried to get Tom to move it to someone else's yard yesterday, but he wouldn't. I hope it goes away soon because even I don't like being out with it for too long. UCK!!!!

Tom and His Girls

Our girls love to cuddle. If either Tom or I sit down on the couch, it's a guarantee that at least one will come up and sit right next to us or even on top. Sometimes it ends up being all 3.

Tom came home from school and was exhausted. The girls were watching their 2 shows on PBS - Cyber Chase and Fetch. I was cooking dinner. I went to check on them and saw this. It was too cute. I just hope this never stops because Tom and I LOVE the cuddling.

Way to Go Shelby

Shelby's school has 6 Pillars of Character that they focus on developing. Each Friday they mix up everyone in the school and the kids go to Flight School. They are with a different teacher and with kids from all grade levels. The kindergartens do get to have a buddy from their class with them in their Flight School class.

In Flight School, they focus on these Pillars of Character. They dedicate a month to each of the Pillars. December's quality was fairness. At the end of the month, the teacher of each Flight School class picked a child whom she felt best represented this pillar of character. Shelby got picked.



She got an award at the end of the quarter Awards Ceremony.



She also got a free Spurs ticket and the option to buy as many tickets as we'd like for $20. What a good deal.

Anyways, we are proud of our Shelby. It's nice to see that the things we value and try to teach her at home have taken effect, and she's able to make good choices when we are not around. Congratulations Shelby!

Another Round of Illnesses

It was bound to happen. You can't cram 25 people into a house without germs being spread. I think just about all of my family got sick from Christmas. Of course my girls will catch any germs that are around, so we got sick too. It was another 2 week + illness that lead to ear infections and Taylor's asthma acting up.



I picked Shelby up from school around 11:15ish. She had already had lunch, so she laid down on the couch while I made Taylor and Payden's lunch. She was already asleep before they even started eating. She got at least a 2 hour nap. In fact I think she slept even longer than Taylor and Payden (they go down for a nap immediately after lunch). She was definitely NOT feeling well. It was nice because all 3 girls were down for a nap at the same time.





This time Tom, who usually doesn't get sick, was not immune to the illness. He got sick and ended up with bronchitis. They were really concerned that he was going to end up with pneumonia. He had pneumonia in his left lung the winter of 2005 and his lung has never been the same; it is very weak. Fortunately all of the meds they gave him worked, and they gave him a LOT of meds. He was so sick though that it took a few weeks for him to feel mostly better.

As for me, I'll give you an update soon because my story is enough for it's own post. Let's just say it's been a LONG 2008. Hopefully the end is in sight, but I'm definitely not getting my hopes up.

The Medicine Fight

January's round of illness led to Taylor's asthma acting up. It was so bad that the normal breathing treatments weren't helping and we had to go get a prescription steriod (I think it's a steriod, but not the body builder type) to help her lungs strengthen and recover. Normally, she has to take 2 tsp (which is A LOT for a kid) of this stuff and it's pretty nasty tasting, but I know how to get her to take the medicine.



I just pin her and use a medicine syringe to get the meds down her. The hold is so effective that she rarely fights me any more because she knows I'll win (which says a lot because Taylor is a fighter!!!). Well I noticed on the prescription it said pills. The pharmicist told me it's a quick dissolving pill that tastes good. I thought this would be a nice change. No more pinning to take her meds. Boy was I wrong.



The pill does not dissolve quickly enough and apparently is not as tasty as the pharmicist said. The bad thing is it's a lot easier to push a pill out of your mouth, so the fights to get the meds down were a lot bigger this time around. I think next time I'll take the nasty liquid medicine over the pills.

Camping in the Orme Wilderness

Well we promised the girls we'd go camping over Martin Luther King weekend. Well it got REALLY cold and rainy, so we decided we just camp in our backyard. Fortunately for little girls, camping is camping as long as there's a tent involved.



Here's our new tent. Tom can actually stand up inside (which is quite a feat). Our first tent was 6x6. I still can't believe Tom and I actually fit into it.



Making smores. The girls loved it and enjoyed eating them.









Payden just enjoyed stilling the crackers and marshmallows and chocolate before making them into smores.



Tom enjoying the fun.



Shelby's first roasted (or is toasted . . . I can't think right now) marshmallow.



Taylor's first.



Payden checking out the action.



My turn with the smores.



Going to sleep. As you can see, only Shelby gets down to business. If it's time to sleep, then she's going to go to sleep. As for Taylor and Payden . . . well after a few ultimatums and "snuggling" (okay she was slightly pinned) with Payden they FINALLY went to sleep.

Of course with my SEVERE allergies (I'll explain more in a later post) and Payden being so little, she and I both ended up in our beds about 2 am. The others enjoyed it. Although it was cold, there's nothing better than snuggling up under nice warm blankets. They had a good night and really enjoyed camping. It's nice to know that we don't have to be too fancy to make them happy. It was a good family outing . . . even if it was just in our backyard.

A Few Random Moments

She plays like this, draws like this, watches TV like this, and I could go on. You'd think it wouldn't be the most comfortable, but apparently it is. I just think it's too cute.



Our nighttime routine had to change a bit when Taylor's asthma was triggered, so here we are . . . nebulizer and scriptures and all.



Taylor playing the computer. She's getting quite good. I love the tongue.



Payden, who ALWAYS has to be involved in what her sisters are doing, has to take a look too.



The shoe fetish is still going. She even has to put her own shoes on as well as others' shoes when she can't find any of hers or if they look fun enough to wear.