It would be nice if I could get prayer concerns into the blog during the actual crisis....but, crisis tends to eliminate my blogging time.  Since my readers are mostly family (and family is generally updated through e-mail), I will just summarize the last couple weeks. 

Nearly 3 weeks ago, Leah came down with some kind of cough/fever thing.  Anna got sick too, I figured it was just a virus, but Leah kept getting worse.  I took her in Monday morning and she had pneumonia.  She was almost admitted pronto, but the doctor allowed me to take her home and try to reduce her breathing rate through breathing treatments and they gave her two good shots of antibiotic.  But, it wasn't enough and we ended up in the hospital that night.   That was loads of fun.  I'm afraid Leah will never again be the sweet, cooperative patient!  By the end, she greeted every nurse/Dr. who entered and looked at her with a "NO!  Go WAY!  I don't YIKE it!" even if they only had a harmless stethoscope.  It must be very unsettling to a little one to know that it doesn't matter what you say or do (they may ask you, but they don't mean it),  they're going to do whatever unpleasant thing that they have planned!   Poor thing.  She didn't rest well there, so I was relieved when they told me we could go home Tuesday afternoon.  But, she was still SO sick.  Finally by Friday she was slowly starting to improve.  Now today, even better.  David got sick a few days ago and has been running a monster fever for about three days, plus coughing and tons of mucus.  Johnny came down with it yesterday and again...the nasty fever, the coughing that hurts, and much snot.  Miserable stuff.  I'm home from church today for the third week in a row.  Can you say cabin fever?

As if pneumonia and coughing isn't enough, Leah also started having a diarrhea and yeast rash problem the minute she started the strong antibiotic.  I knew what to do though!  I ran and got a high grade probiotic at the pharmacy, and sprinkled a whole capsule into her applesauce.  Amazing how well that works.  If there are any moms reading....TAKE NOTE!  She had nasty, green skin-irritating poo that was just coming constantly.  She spent the first night complaining and itching (probably yeast too), but within 24 hours of the probiotic....diarrhea was GONE!  And the yeasty redness was much improved.  Gave her another capsule the next day.  No more complaining about itching.  She's still got antibiotic smelling stool, but it's normal and not painful and green...and only once a day rather than every other hour!  I will continue giving her a capsule every day as long as she's on the antibiotic.  What I'm doing is replacing the good intestinal bacteria that the antibiotic is killing.  The bacteria that usually keeps yeast under control.  Tips for probiotics:  higher quality stuff needs to be refrigerated...don't buy it off the shelves.  You can't overdose on it, it's perfectly safe.  Anything the body doesn't need will just come out.  I just plan to buy some everytime we are on antibiotics. 

For me, I've been taking high dose vit C and fresh garlic to strengthen my immune system.  Each and every time I start to feel run down and like I might be coming down with it....I pop at least 5-6000 mg of C and swallow an entire clove of fresh garlic.  (either chop it into manageable chunks or mince it in applesauce)  Works like a charm.  I find fresh garlic seems to be more potent than capsules.  I'd take even more C if I could get it down....hard to swallow so many pills! 

So, here we are.  I do have to write down two very funny Anna stories before I forget them!  So enjoy!

1.  Yesterday Matt was on his way out for the weekend.  He was squatted down hugging Anna.  She gave him a big kiss on the top of his head, and said "Dad, other kids aren't as lucky....they can't kiss their dads on the head.  There's too much hair!"    So sweet.  She's happy HER dad is bald.  That made him feel all mushy.

2.  So yesterday afternoon, Anna comes into the kitchen and asks me where the glue is.  No big deal....I figured it was another one of her bazillion little crafts that she loves to do.  She's always cutting and gluing something or other!  So I told her where it was.  A few minutes later, she comes hopping into the kitchen with a slightly nervous look on her face.  She's anxious to get all this out quickly before I have a chance to object.  "Mom, I glued my feet together so I can be a mermaid.....but if it doesn't work, I'll wash it ALL off!"  And she turns and hops out, while I'm picking myself up off the floor!    Later on, I heard her wail, "DAVID....you made my feet come apart!" and I had to break the news to her that school glue wasn't going to be sufficient to fuse her feet.  [note to self: hide the super glue] BUT, I showed her the fun of peeling oodles of elmers glue off her skin!