Vacation turned vacination.....

I mean't to keep a daily post while we were in Wisconsin visiting family. Alas my poor boys have kept me to busy to type anything. Cyprian came down with something the very day we flew into Chicago, which was Saturday the 19th. He steadily got worse, with a fever and barky cough. He started to have a hard time breathing. So, Monday I took him into the doctor. He got to see his pediatrician from when we lived here. The doctor was in a hurry and did the poorest job ever of checking Cyprian. He literally only looked in his ears and opened his mouth. Asked a few questions then decided he had a mild double ear infection and prescribed an antibiotic. The very thing I was worried about he did not even check or address, which was Cyprians difficulty breathing. The doctor never even listened to his lungs or heart. Seriously, it was a very poor doctor visit, if you can even call it that. Especially seeing as that night Clement woke me up with the same symptoms and because he is a baby and my parents live 45 minutes from a hospital, we ended up in the ER very early in the morning after speaking with a nurse. After being checked thoroughly physically and with x-rays they determined he had some viral infection and the start of pneumonia. So I am sure Cyprian had pneumonia too, and was not treated properly for it. Clement was put on a strong antibiotic. Cyprian has to continue his antibiotic for his ears and hopefully it also takes care of any infecton due to pneumonia. I have been giving the boys vitamins with extra vitamin C, echinachea drops with goldenseal, we had water bowls over the heater vents. I have a vaporizor with eucalyptus running during the night. Amazingly they both have been recovering quite well. Even with all the crazyiness and chaotic time spent with visiting a lot of family.

At the Korish farm we had a great Thanksgiving dinner. We ate lots of food and drank homemade apple cider. The cousins all ran wild and had to be pulled apart every once in awhile. The next evening we had an awesome bonfire, with a ton of food once again. It is no wonder that I probably have gained ten pounds...Even with all the crazyiness I know most everybody if not everybody cherishes the time with family. 

We are now at the farm again after spending a nice weekend with Franz's family. Cyprian has been learning a lot from his young uncles. One instance that sticks out in my memory is, we were driving back from the boys cousin Tiana's baptism reception. Great Grand Godfather Klein was driving and teasing Cyprian. Well Cyprian got so exsaperated that he yelled at Grandpa, I immediately told him to apologize, he gave me a look that was similiar to one I have seen on uncle Toby's face (uncle Toby is four years old). I again told him to apologize and he looked at me and said, "Mom just relax, just relax." Wow, I was so shocked I snorted with laughter. His expression as he said that to me just cracked me up. He still had to apologize but it took a little while. Cyprian has been getting to wrestle and run and scream to his hearts content with the Klein boys. Now though Cyprian is starting to get real lonesome for Franz. He thinks Daddy has left us, I try and explain that we left Daddy and that Daddy is lonely for us and waiting for us to return home. He sort've understands, but wants to go home to Daddy, or have Daddy come here.

Clement is growing like a weed and has now had his first haircut. Too many people thought he was a cute girl with his red curls and jack'o'lantern smile with his two bottom teeth. He very much looks like a boy and with his shorter hair he also looks more like Franz. Clement is starting to act like and sound like an animal. It is quite entertaining to watch. In fact I have a barricade up so he cannot come by me and the computer cords and he is growling and hooting:') He has learned how to climb a step. Uh oh!! I think he is literally a pound or two heavier because I was nursing him as much as he wanted because of being sick. Problem now is that he wants to nurse every two hours during the night or more. Yikes! Tonight there may be a battle of the wills, tears and wanted sleep.

I have unfortunately only run three times. I am going to try and run everyday of this week before we fly back home to Texas. I had not even gone outside the first few days we were in Wisconsin except for to go to the car and back, because of taking care of sick children. The last couple days have been great getting out in the sunshine and getting fresh air.

Here is to all the little blessing that add up to be great blessings. Thank you God for my Family, both Korish's and Klein's! Sorry I am not really to concerned with how bad my grammer is in this post, I just wanted to put something down.  

Godzilla Birds!

A little after lunch I left the boys inside while I went out to hang a load of laundry on the lines to dry. Five minutes later Cyprian opened the door and came outside, I hollered for him to shut the door so Clement wouldn't come out in the cold and fall off the ledge. As I yelled a huge black bird flew from the rooftop of our house. I was like "wow look at the size of that thing!" I suddenly realized that it was the noise we heard while we were eating lunch. It sounded like someone was up on the roof. Cyprian said we should shoot it, what ever it was. I said only if it is bad we could shoot it. So that was the mysterious noise godzilla bird.

But that is not the end. I needed to run some errands and so after hanging the clothes out to dry, I got myself and the boys ready to go. We were bundled and trundled out the door. I locked the door and turned around. I was shocked by a flock of the monster birds sitting in our yard. I quickly fumbled with the keys and unlocked the door. I ran and got the camera, as I did I thought I probably shouldn't leave the boys out there with those monster birds. I started snapping pictures and instead of flying away the godzilla birds started showing off their impressive wing spans. I am not sure what they were, but they weren't as ugly as turkey vultures. I am going to look them up and correctly identify them. Till then they are godzilla birds. I called Franz to tell him about godzilla birds and he said I should shoot them with his new pellet gun. Apparently that is the solution for all my boys, just shoot the darn things!



























These are pictures of my busy boys enjoying the outdoors and being creative!

Shopping....

Every once in awhile I love to shop. Not at department stores but thrift and second hand. I don't care if its brand new, just so long as it is something I really like. Lately I have noticed that thrift stores are not so cheap, unless you get the sales or discounts, and a lot of times there really isn't much on sale. The price of everything is going up. I mean seriously I thought the point of a thrift store is so that people can get great deals.

I have had to look hard to find great steals. I guess it may be a blessing it is hard to find stuff for cheap because now I don't buy too much. I recently went through my clothes and got rid of two boxes. I have been downsizing and I love how I now wear everything I have. I have been slowly going through the entire house and  getting rid of anything that we don't use or need. I use to be a sorta pack rat, but I don't think I am any more. I know just about where everything is in the house and garage. Call it OCD, I call it knowing what you got! It is really easy to get cluttered, but it helps to every month or so go through the house and weed out.

Now I have to figure out what to do for gifts this year. I do not want to get a bunch of stuff. Yet I do want to get some fun things especially for the boys. If any one reads this what is a practical fun gift for an almost three year old and under one year old?    

Boys!!

Man the days just get away from me. Franz celebrated his 30th birthday on the 8th of November. He had to work and go to classes, but skipped the last one so that he could come home to a supper of homemade pizza, fancy lettuce salad, with homemade dressing, and homemade angel food with fresh whipped cream and raspberries! The boys and I even managed to clean the whole house so it sparkled:')

Now it is Sunday and since Franz was so busy on his birthday, we are attending The Twelfth Night, at UD this afternoon, while the boys are watched by friends. The weather has been lovely, sweaters and boots, playing outdoors in the sunshine, making up games to play.

Speaking of making up games. Cyprian is the mastermind behind a lot of our play. We have been playing a lot of house. He wanted to play at sword fighting, so he had his cute little wooden sword that Daddy made for him, and for me he gave me his crayon tube squirt gun which pulls out to make it really long. He had me pull the handle out so that when I stabbed him I could really pretend that the sword was going in. He then grabbed the round pillows off the couch and we each had a shield. I have been noting I need to make him a a sword belt, because he has been using his diaper (he wears cloth) to holster his sword. He scratched his belly and got a cut. Last weekend we were at a sport store because Franz had a gift card from coaching cross country. We were picking out stuff when Cyprian took off and Franz went after him to correct him for constantly grabbing things. Instead they come back with a football tee, so much for correcting him:') Now Cyprian can kick his football without using Daddy's glass. Cyprian wanted to play football and he kept talking about my bike helmet. I realized he wanted me to wear my bike helmet and he would wear his and we would be ready to play football, like real players. The things he thinks of! Cyprian is an excellent chef. When I made the Angel food cake for Franz Cyprian made one of his own using his little laundry basket for the pan and filling it with blocks and baking it under his bed. Both Cyprian and Clement are pianist, they love to practice everyday, sometimes even together....

Clement is so cute, he knows how to wave. He started it on Franz's birthday. He will wave his hand by sticking it out in front of him looking like the hail Hitler gesture. He does this to get my attention and also if you wave at him. So cute! Clement has been busy exploring and destroying the house. He is quite proficient at getting around in record time and into things. My poor books, CDs, plants, and onions! Yeah, I have a bucket of onions and one day I noticed Clement's eyes were all puffy and the skin on his face was splotchy. I thought oh my gosh what is he allergic to. Later his skin seemed to clear up and then all of sudden he looked bad again, that is when I discovered him playing in my onion bucket. He has a great love of taking baths and playing in water. If I forget to shut the bathroom door, I will find him trying to climb into the tub. Thankfully he has not discovered the toilet, yet.

Maria the chicken has now become Mario. I realized awhile ago that Mario did not look like the other hens anymore:') We may keep Mario even though we planned on butchering all the rooster except for Larry. The chickens are starting to plump up nicely. We will be butchering next month probably before Christmas.

Last night we went on a nice family run. I only went a couple of miles then Franz took off and I pushed the boys in the jogging stroller toward home. Cyprian even got out and did some running himself. I love when we do something active as family. We went bike riding a while back and I had Cyprian in the bike seat on my bike, while Franz had Clement in the backpack. Every time I looked at Clement and caught his eye, he was smiling from ear to ear. He loved the wind in his face and flying.

These days!

Clement the Pumpkin! Very fitting, literally:')

Cyprian the baseball player! See how excited he is to go trick or treating!

The whole entourage!

Cyprian loved Mommy's homemade cat ears.

Halloween was fun! Cyprian got to go trick or treating for the first time. He was dressed as a baseball player and Clement made a perfect pumpkin. Cyprian loved getting candy and only got really scared at a house that had a huge scary display in the yard and were playing eerie music. I think the most scary was that there was a person dressed as a gorilla. Cyprian refused to get out of the stroller. They were so nice they came out and gave him a treat anyway. We did not go to many houses because I did not want Cyprian to have to much candy. He gets three pieces maximum throughout the day. It is a great incentive with encouraging him to go potty.

All souls day my great uncle died. I think that it is a good day to die. We are keeping him and the family in our intentions when we pray the family rosary at night.

Yesterday was one of those days where I didn't know if it could possible get worse, and yes it can get worse! Starting out in the morning, Cyprian had several bathroom accidents. Clement was being really clinging, so I was holding him while I was transferring a pork roast and trimmings from a pan into a pyrex bowl to freeze. I had just got the last little bit into the bowl when Clement grabbed the bowl and it went flying, shattering in to a million pieces and spilling pork roast everywhere. Man, I was really annoyed Franz was still here but about to leave for school and work. I handed off Clement to him and started the long process of cleaning up glass, sweeping, moping, vacuuming the floor. Franz had to leave so he put Clement in the playpen. So I had to listening to a very unhappy baby while cleaning up a mess. Thankfully Cyprian was out back in the yard picking me flowers. When he came in I was about done with super cleaning everything. He presented me a bouquet of weeds, which were beautiful. I didn't hold it against him that he wasn't dry. Then shortly after that I discovered Cyprian decide his bed sheets are great for drawing on with crayon. I found chalk on the bottom of the piano seat, I happened to see this while rescuing a toy from Clement. There was also crayon on the tile floor and door windows. There were several good points in the day, I just seemed to be really irritable. I think it has something to do with the weather change. Cyprian and Clement were pretty good while I did grocery shopping at two stores. After lunch Cyprian said he did not want to take a nap but I said he had to have quiet time anyway. I was in our room nursing Clement and I could hear Cyprian kicking the wall and talking. About ten minutes later it was silent, I went and checked and he was out. Clement and I went out and I hung laundry while swinging the little guy in the swing on the clothes line. Then we fed and watered the chickens and sat in the grass watching them for awhile. Clement was sleepy so I brought him and laid him down, he fell asleep. It was kinda of dreary yesterday afternoon. They took nice naps and when they work up I had Cyprian help me make supper. Franz was home at this time and working in our room. After a nice supper the boys decided to act crazy, like monkeys. Cyprian was a climbing monkey, who kept climbing on the back of the couch sliding or jumping precariously to edge, Clement was a clingy monkey  who attached himself to me. I was the jumping screaming monkey who was at my wits end, trying to clean up the house. Thankfully like I said there were good points. Daddy (Franz) finished working and came out and took Cyprian outside to go lock up the chickens and Augustine. I had Clement while daddy got Cyprian ready for bed. We then had our family rosary in Cyprian's room, and I could literally feel the stress of the day draining away. All is well that ends well. To top off the end Clement slept the whole night! Yes, thank you God! It felt like a reward for persevering

Now today is cold we will see what it holds for the Klein household........