I hope everyone is well!   It is busy around here as always, but I ended up getting sick on top of it.  So I am home from work today for the second day.  I only stayed home a partial day yesterday.   I was feeling a bit under the weather over the weekend, but by Sunday night my asthma was giving me a hard time.  I was having a difficult time getting my breathing under control and thought I might need to go to the ER.  But I finally managed to get things a bit under control.  I continued to feel terrible through the night and the next morning so I went to the Dr.  As much as I hate going on steroids, I knew this was not going to get better with out some medications.  So I went to see my regular Dr as I didn't have an appointment for the pulmonolgist and felt I needed to be seen soon.   She as I figured put me on a short burst of steroids and antibiotics.  

I finally spoke to the Dr about the redness of my face.  I knew I had rosacea like my brother, but had not treated it.  Well I was starting to get broken red blood vessels on my face, so definitely time to treat it.   So I have started to put a topical antibiotic on it and hopefully that will make it better.  It is actually a little less tender today.

So today I am staying home sick and using my nebulizer every 4 hours to get my breathing and irritation of my lungs under control.  

UPDATES OF THE FAMILY....

JOSH - he is working full time at the college and attending classes.  He had a rude awakening this year at tax time and actually had to pay in.  He was not a happy camper.  He is making good money and we still claim him as a dependent since he lives with us. 

He is actively looking for a new car or truck.  I am glad to see he is doing his research and looking around.  But I support him in his endeavor and will probably have to help out a bit.  He and hubby and I split the cost of a new saw so he can finish the deck and add steps to the tree house this summer.   We are also planning a patio project this summer that Josh will be a huge help with.  See why I LOVE having this boy at home.  

Next month Josh will be turning 20 years old.   YIKES!!  I can hardly believe my baby is 20.   We made it and I am proud of the man he is becoming.    

ERIK - He continues at the therapeutic school, though it looks like that will be changing.  I hate that he needs to change schools again, but this is not working out for him.  And I have more concerns now than I did prior to this.  We have to be soooo careful about who he is with as he emulates the kids, usually the negative things. Seems like our #1 job with him is protecting him and keeping him on the right path. 

He really hasn't been doing too bad considering.  He struggles with getting stuck on things that aren't always that appropriate so we stay on top of that.  He likes the main staff person we have helping us and she will be with us through the summer.  If he doesn't go to a year round school our summer plans will be changing again to accommodate him being home more in the summer. 

He is starting Alpha classes tonight with his mom at church tonight.  The pastor is going to let that count as completion of his confirmation requirements so he can be confirmed.   I really appreciate his mom doing this as I didn't know how I was going to do it and then I am sick today anyways and would not have been able to take him tonight. 

We bought a membership to the YMCA for Erik.  He is going weekly there with staff and hopefully that will increase in the summer since they have an outdoor pool.  We are still looking for a summer volunteer job for him.  I have some ideas, but he doesn't like them.  We just need to keep him busy. 

TOMMY - is a busy little guy.  He is always on the run!!   We bought him a little razor scooter.   He would go up and down the street on that all day if he could.   He is busy outside playing with the neighbor boys.  We call him in for supper and after supper he is off again until bedtime. 

He is enjoying school and as of last night has started his read-a-thon at school.   He is very excited and has the goal of reading 20 books, but if they count the books how they said at the meeting last night.  He will read alot more.   We will see.  Most people sponsored him in a flat fee so it won't matter how many books he reads, just that he hits his goal. 

He is training for the Medtronic Marathon as well.  That might be a fundraiser as well,  I am not sure.  The race is in May at Como Park and he is excited to run in it.  I am really hoping my hubby with run with him as I don't think I can with my asthma the way it is.  He also is trading Pokeman cards with friends at school so we bought him one pack of cards over the weekend.  I am not sure if he knows exactly what he is doing, but he is enjoying trading cards with the big boys at extended day.

ME/ JEN - I am just coming off of the busiest season at work.  We had nearly 6 months (Sept - April 1st) of budgets between the two programs the social worker manage for their clients.   Now it is a bit more relaxed and it really is catch up time for me.  So I am still busy getting all the things done that should have been done the last 6 months.  But hopefully that means I only work 40 hours a week.    

I attended the MN Social Services Conference and did hear some good presentations.  I went to one on home visit safety and did learn some things that I should be doing to make myself more safe on home visits.  With the increase use of METH,  you never really know what your are walking into.   I learned about alot of the new drug paraphilia and things. 

I am heading up to the Children's Mental Health Conference in a couple of weeks in Duluth.  I am looking forward to the conference, some time alone and time with my friends eating out and shopping!   There is a total of 7 of us going, I think.  We plan on shopping most of Sunday together.  

I am also planning a long visit to my parents house.  I will take Tommy with me as well.  I don't get to see my family much so it will be good to see my mom and spend time with her.  Plus Tommy can spend some time with his grandparents as he doesn't get to do that much either and I will not send him alone to stay there.  Except of a couple of weekend trips I take to conferences or with friends, I am rarely without Tommy.   I am not ready for any more than that. 

READING - Now that I am needing to sit and neb a number of times a day, I am reading more.  I can't sit patiently enough to neb without reading.  I started a book by Anne Enright an author from Ireland.   I am not sure if I like it or not yet.  It jumps around alot and I have trouble with that.   I am loading up my ZUNE (mp3  player) with books galore.  I found a carrying case of clearance so now I can clip it to my pants and walk with the dogs.  I couldn't listen before when I walked as I had both dogs with me and a leash in each hand. 

Right now I am ripping the book World Without End by Ken Follett onto my Zune.  It is 36 discs long!!  WOW!!  I plan on listening to that when I am out of town.   I am almost done with the book on tape I am currently listening to.  I have one disc left.   I can't think of the author, but the book is titled Black Girl, White Girl.

Discovered a great book site.  Those of you who are readers might enjoy this site and discover some new books to read.  It is free publication that I pick up at the library, but you can read the entire publication for free online as well.  So check out Book Page - America's Book Review.    Let me know if you discover a great new book.

MOVIES - I was excited to finally start my movie review page.  Cherylyn_p asked me if I had watched all the movies or only the ones rated.  To answer your question, I have watched all the movies, but hadn't been able to finish the page as I couldn't publish my site.  I could not figure out what the trouble was until I logged into the tripod site.  I was over my allowed storage for a free site.  So I discussed with my hubby what to do and he said to pay for the site as I use my online cookbook alot, as do many other people.  So my sweet hubby let me pay, so now my movie page is up and running again!  And I have all my ratings and opinions added. 

Our movie watching will greatly decrease as the weather warms up here in MN.  In the summer we spend our evening in our outdoor living room chatting or reading almost every night.  The kids love to have supper out there as well.  We should be putting up the gazebo and things on Mother's Day weekend.  That is the weekend we plant our garden and all work in the yard together.  

HUBBY - He has been so tired.  I worry about him and I try to handle more so he can be out of alot of the stress as it seems to be hard for him.   He is going out of town for a conference next week so I know he will get a much needed break and plenty of free time to be on his computer and watch TV in the evenings.  

He is excited to start on outside projects including the patio.  Hopefully we will be able to get to Patio World soon and look at some brick.  I think he wants to start on that project on Mother's Day weekend as well.   It will be a busy weekend so I hope the weather cooperates.   He has really been great about the new puppy and really seems to like her. 

THE DOGS - Yep, they get their own billing as they seem to be part of the family.  Baby (our new puppy) has captured everyone's heart.  Teddy is 3 and we even had a little party with puppy ice cream for the puppies.  Tommy thought that was great.  Now he wants to have a party for the cats too.   We are pathetic aren't we???

Ok...yes, you have to see pictures of the new baby again. She has grown and is up to 2.5 pounds.  Those who asked previously, she is part Chihuahua and part Papillon. She can be a little yappy, but thanks to discovering the Dog Whisperer Show, she is getting much better.    Love that show...if you have not seen it check it out.  It is sooo interesting and amazing to me.   I think it is on the National Geographic Channel.  

I am amazed at how well Tommy is doing with Baby.  He has really attached to her and is taking good care of her.  If she has an accident in the house he wants to clean it up.  He loves to snuggle with her and she is pretty good with him.  If she is sleeping with me, she will nip at Tommy if he tries to take her.  I just pick her up and give her to him as I will not tolerate that level of protection behaviors within the family with a dog.  So I try hard to have everyone hold her as I don't want her too overly attached to me. 

 Ok, Ok....I know Pictures.....here they are!

Baby saying "You woke me up from my nap for this??"

Baby prefers to sleep in Teddy's Kennel with him.    They really do get along pretty good. 

Now, it you made it to the end of this really long, rambling post,  I am impressed and grateful.  I promise pictures of the human kids soon! 

How often are you asked if you have read a good book or seen a good movie lately??  I am always asked and I can never remember what I last saw or read.   This is why I have my book site.  I list the books I read.  I have been recording the books I read each month for years.  

I just started the same type of site for the movies I watch!!   I am going to record and rate each movie I watch.  Check out Jen's Movie Gallery to see what I have been watching lately!  I am watching more movies now as I simply love the Redbox.   I can even reserve the movie I want online and will be sure it is there when I go to pick it up.  Great way to rent movies!!   Movies are only $1.07 a night when rented at the Redbox sites!

The rebbox has new movies every Tuesday when the DVD's are released!  

Hey everyone - Sorry I have once again been missing in action.  I have just finished writing budgets at work so things will go back to my normal level of busy.   Spring break was hard on me.  I worked evenings so I could be home with the boys during the day.   I am glad to be back to a somewhat normal schedule.  I am am still working later on Mondays but am going in later.

THE WEEKEND

We had a nice weekeend.  For the first time in months, I did not work this weekend.  It was a nice break!  I will probably return to working every other weekend again until I get caught up.   It was so nice on Saturday.  We were up early and ran errands in the morning.  We went to fleet farm for jackets and rain boots.   We then all went out to eat at the Great Moon Buffet.   That was a nice treat.  We called Josh and he joined us as well. 

We bought Tommy a razor scooter so he was on that going up and down the street all day!  I sat outside in the front yard with the dogs and read.  I have not been reading so it was goog to finally finish  book.  I read Fool's Puzzle by Earlene Fowler.  I really enjoyed it.  Thanks fo the recommendation, Immax3.  I started another book on Sunday, The Gathering by Anne Enright. 

Hubby and Josh bought a new saw at Sears so they are excited to finish up the deck and treehouse.  We are also going to add a stone patio in the backyard this year.   Mother's Day is always our big day to plant the garden and get things done around the yard.   I am looking forward to it!

LAST WEEK

Last week we attended the funeral of our neighbor, Jerome.  He had been struggling with me health for the last few years.  He was such a sweet man.  He was 78 and had known my hubby since he day hubby's parents brought him home from the hospital. 

Our neighborhood seems to be chaning and not in a good way.  Saturday while I was sitting out front I watched two boys go up to a neightbors house and steal a bike.  At the time I didn't know they were stealing it.  ARGH!!  Hubby and I had two couples we would hang out with on the block.  Both families have children the same age as us.  Well both mothers have moved out and the Dads have remained living on the block with the kids.  If this weekend was how this is going to be...it is not a good thing.  The one neighbor let his son have a party and I think they had alcohol at the party.  Those kids are underage and I so don't agree with that. 

Friday, hubby took the day off as Tommy and Erik had a day off of school.  I worked for the day and came home in time for Family Movie Night.  It is getting to be about the time of the year when we will need to end Family movie Night until the summer is over.  The children rather be outside playing as it is so nice outside. 

TODAY

I am home for a couple of hours this morning to get the house cleaned up from the weekend.  I need to finish up dishes, clean cat litter and do some more laundry before I head to work.  Hope you all have a great day!  It isn't that nice out today...it was snowing again this morning, but it didn't stay on the ground thankfully.  

Blessings to you.....