Ladies Quartet
Naiza, Mellie, Christa, and me
(I can't remember the name of the song ;) and if you listen at the end you can hear Almanzo making some noise unto the Lord - ha!)
"O To Be Like Thee"
Duet with Amy
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Thank you so much for all your prayers for the illness going through our home. We are finally seeing an end to it. Valerie started getting better on Tuesday and Almanzo started sounding much better last night. I really think the nebulizer was a huge factor in preventing Almanzo from getting anything worse and ending up in the hospital. It just seems like this is a horrible year for sickness. Just at our church alone, there are cases of bronchiolitis, bronchitis, and RSV in the past week and before that there was a nasty 24 hour stomach virus going around. Ted even stayed home from work on Tuesday and came home early yesterday.
I ended up taking myself to the doctor yesterday, because my asthma was really aggravated by the cold. I started taking Advair before Christmas as a preventative thing and that has made a huge difference. I think I would have been in the ER this time if it weren't for the Advair. I called my doctor yesterday morning because I'd been relying on my nebulizer quite a bit the day before and through the night. Her nurse told me I definitely needed to come in, because they were seeing a lot of pneumonia and my asthma obviously needed to be checked out. The doctor put me on Prednisone (for the second time in four months) and I already feel better. It really got me thinking though about how much I need to take care of myself. My asthma was really bad when I was a kid, but got better after my heart surgery. Then, within the last two years, it has gotten worse again. It's a scary thing, not being able to breathe, and it makes me worry about getting another cold and how my body will continue to handle it.
I decided last night that I HAVE to start exercising, except my husband told me not to call it that because I hate exercising. The one reality show I love to watch is The Biggest Loser, so I went online this morning and purchased three of their DVDs - 30 Day Shred, Boot Camp, and 30 Day Jump Start. I think I will start with the 30 Day Jump Start, then move on to the Boot Camp, and finish with the 30 Day Shred. I've been told Jillian really makes you work hard in the 30 Day Shred, so I'm going to work myself up to it. Since I'm a morning person and Almanzo likes to wake up between 6 and 7, I'm going to go downstairs and do one of the 20-30 minute workouts after feeding him and getting him back to sleep. If he's still awake, I can always put him in a bouncy seat while I do my workout. I will try to blog about it every so often and would love your encouragement and support...because I know it's going to be hard and I need some accountability. I'll try to give an update each week on my progress once I start.
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I'm also really excited about three opportunities I have to do review/giveaways on my blog. Two of them are related to cold season and I'd love your input on other products/companies I could contact that offer natural cold remedies or relief. I would especially love to work with mommy businesses, because I love to support stay at home moms.
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This weekend I'm going to try posting some pictures and videos from the past few weeks once I get caught up on all my photo editing. Stay tuned next week for some exciting posts related to Valentine's Day. I'm working on putting together a series of posts about Real Life Love Stories to share here. I have been blessed with a long heritage of long lasting marriages and am hoping to share some of their stories here as well as their advice for how to make a marriage that lasts a lifetime.
