A Really Big Family!

As I sit here watching the 7th game of the World Series, it definitely makes me think of my family.  And for totally obvious reasons, they all live in St. Louis!  It's also where I was born!  Lots and lots of good times have been had in St. Louis.  (And yes, my immediate family, mom+dad+3 sisters+nephew live in Orlando...but the rest of the Stretch family is in St. Louis.)

Being from a big family is really neat!  There is really no other way to explain my family other than, we're a really big, ass family!!!  (And this post is actually talking about my mom's side of the family.  My dad has a pretty big family too...he's one of eight and I have lots of cousins on his side too.)  And like my dad, my mom is one of eight.  So I have 5 aunts and 2 uncles on my mom's side...all of which are married.  The grand total of us grandkids is 16!  And so far, there are 6 great grandchildren...although that number will grow exponentially with time.  So there is no such thing as a small family function....just our family alone is 44 people!

It was never more apparent that I had the most amazing family as when my grandfather died.  Although it was a very sad time, it was also an amazing experience of all of us coming together to keep watch over him until he passed away.  We totally took over the family room at the hospital, had food delivered, brought in blow-up mattresses or snuck into empty hospital rooms to sneak some sleep while we were camped out for the weekend, even brought in some wine!  When my grandpa finally passed, the priest who led us in prayer after he died said he had never seen a family come together as we did.  That's just what we do!

And we are fun...really, really fun!  As I have gotten older I come to appreciate my family even more.  I guess that's normal.  Right now I have cousins who are in their teenage years who probably don't appreciate our family just yet.  It took until I was older to really appreciate what it means to be from a big loving, accepting, caring, fun, happy family!  I can literally count on them for anything!

I guess there are some downsides to having such a close family.  My mom has 5 sisters...so they talk...A LOT!!!  So that means there are virtually no secrets.  I am pretty sure when I told my mom I was pregnant for the first time and asked her not to tell anyone yet since I was really only like one minute pregnant, I think it took about an hour before my first aunt called to congratulate me!  I sometimes feel sorry for the girls who are marrying into this family.  I don't think they know what this really means for them...but they'll find out soon enough.  And they'll get used to it just like the rest of us!  I think when I call to tell my mom I am pregnant again, I might just set up a conference call so they can all hear at once!

I know my grandparents are extremely proud of the legacy they have left behind.  I mean, they would definitely be happier if we all went to church and probably prayed a little more, but overall, I think they'd be pretty damn proud of us!  They taught us the meaning and the importance of family.  We are continuing what they started and I know they are both looking down from heaven with big smiles when we all get together.

Here's a picture from my cousin Meghan's wedding last month.  I think this includes everyone except my uncle Garry and all the great grandkids.  There is no denying that we are one big, ass family!

And here is a picture of me and my cousins...I love them all!  We are all so unique, smart, talented, crazy, loving and fun!  And as my Aunt Michelle says, we're all good looking!  My sister Laurie is the oldest and Sarah is the youngest...and she's not even that young anymore!  We recently all partied together at Meghan's wedding...and it was a blast!  And a large chunk of us even hit the after-party together and it was awesome!!!

So to my family, I love you all...a lot!  I wish we weren't so far away. Thanks for all the happiness, laughter and love you bring to my life!  I look forward to our family continuing to grow in the years to come.

Go Cards!

Sick of being sick!

I want to start this post by saying in the grand scheme of things, I have VERY healthy children and I thank God everyday, a few times a day, for blessing me with two healthy kids!!!  That being said....I am completely over the constant wave of illness that has seemed to follow little Kahn for the past 7 weeks!!  The kid can't catch a break!

At the beginning of September, on his first day of school actually, he got hand, food and mouth disease...yep, gross!!  That night he came down with a fever, and two days later he had sores in his mouth and his face, hands, legs, feet, bottom of feet, and torso were covered with the most disgusting blisters ever!  Apparently, hand, foot and mouth is pretty common in kids, however, my pediatrician said Kahn had the worst case he had ever seen.  Even worse than pictures of bad cases they show in text books.  Nice, huh?  I basically had to keep him out of school for a week because he looked so bad.  He wasn't contagious, but how could I send a kid with disgusting blisters on his face to school?!? So, we quarantined him to the house for a week and waited for him to start looking presentable.

Right as his blisters were beginning to clear and I was so excited about sending him to school, Olivia brought home the stomach flu from school.  She had it VERY mildly, but me, little Kahn and big Kahn were completely wiped out by it.  Just miserable!!!  And of course, we were hit by the flu on the first home Falcons game of the season.  I stayed home as I was vomiting like crazy, but big Kahn, of course, felt he couldn't miss the first game and tried to suck it up.  He wasn't successful...after getting sick numerous times in the porta-potty outside the Georgia Dome (disgusting!!!), he called a friend to come pick him up. Needless to say, we both missed the first home game of the season!  But little Kahn definitely had it the worst out of all of us.  He literally threw up every 30 minutes for about 8 hours straight.  It was very scary.  Why didn't we take him to the Emergency Room?  Good question and the same thing my pediatrician asked, but me and Kahn were also vomiting all night and neither of us was able to actually get in the car and drive!  Little Kahn on and off puked the next day so I eventually took him to the doctor.  They gave him some medicine to stop the vomiting, but it took him another few days to get his energy back.  By this time, he has missed the first 2 weeks of school.  So glad I pay that expensive tuition to have a kid home with me!

I think he may have been healthy for about a week, when he got his most recent cold.  The cold turned into a sinus infection and ear infection and non-stop coughing (of course, all this starts while I was on a girl's weekend at the beach)!  So, again, we were back at the doctor, trying to figure out what was wrong.  Well, after 12 days of straight coughing (which included being sent home from school for coughing so much he threw up all over his classroom), today we found out that he has asthma!  Poor kid!  I mean, I know asthma is totally manageable and there are a lot worse things that he could have, but it just sucks!  So now we are on steroids every day and an inhaler as needed.  I am really looking forward to the relief these meds should give him though.  It's really hard to see your extremely active 2-year old, coughing and gasping for breath anytime he plays with his friends.

And on top of everything else, today we found out that he has a hernia and has to have surgery.  What?!?!  After noticing his scrotum/testicles/something-down-there just not right last night, we took him to the doctor today to have it checked out.  It was kind of a dual visit..."Yes, your son has asthma.  And he has a hernia".  We have been referred to a pediatric surgeon and will most likely have surgery in the next few weeks.  I am fairly certain this is a really simple surgery, but as a parent, you never want to put your child under anesthesia...at least I don't.  I mean, my son had 12 ear infections in his first year and a half of life and the only reason I didn't get him tubes is because of the anesthesia (and they only put them under for like 7 minutes for that procedure).  So needless to say, I am terrified!

So, it has just been one thing after another with him.  I'm seriously thinking about asking for a standing Monday morning appointment at the pediatrician!

I guess this is life with kids!  My life now.

So, here are two pics of the kids.  Beware...the one of Kahn is pretty graphic (although he's super happy in the pic)!  It's a picture of him with the blisters on his face from when he had hand, foot and mouth.  I'll do you a favor and spare you the pictures of his enlarged scrotum!  And then there's a really sad picture of Olivia.  I can't be certain she was actually sick in this picture, but she doesn't look happy so it qualified as an eligible picture for this post.  And by the way, she has a cold now too...

Guess who's having a few cocktails this weekend???  I am!

A festive fall weekend!

This weekend was definitely a family, festive, fun fall weekend...a really good weekend all around with just the most perfect weather!  And the kids were good--really good, actually!  As all parents know, your children's behavior can make or break a weekend.  And with us having a 2 year old, in the height of his terrible two's, and a very independent 1 year old, we just never know what we are going to get when we venture out and about.  I think we had a tantrum free weekend...which is rare!

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch in North Georgia on Saturday.  It was really fun!  We went on a hay ride, fed cows and goats and picked out a few pumpkins.  We actually got some really cute pictures of the kids.  Unfortunately, in almost every picture my kids seem to have a phallic shaped gourd in their hands!  (Although now that I am thinking about it, aren't all gourds shaped like a penis?)  We didn't notice it at the time, but when we looked back at the pics, we just had to laugh at about every picture.    But even with their firm grips on the gourds, they still looked as cute as ever!  And yes, we had to buy a few gourds so now we have phallic centerpieces on our tables at home for the holiday season!

On Sunday, we took the kids to Goblins in the Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  It was a cute event with lots of crafts, face painting and treats.  My kids loved the train ride and Kahn loved the pony ride.  It was his first time on a pony and it was definitely a hit!  We didn't stay too long as we had to get home for nap time and it was a million degrees and I was sweating bullets, but a fun day, nonetheless!

I definitely think the kids are ready for Halloween and mom and dad are really excited about eating all of their Halloween candy!  (So if any of the Vinery Lane crew are reading this, we like Snickers, plain M&Ms and KitKat...none of that cheap crappy candy, like orange and black jelly beans, candy corn or tootsie rolls, please!)

So here are a few gourd free pictures of the kids!

Enjoy!

Meet Me!

So, this is my first attempt at a blog...about my life!  How boring, huh?  But I've been wanting to do this for a while now and finally got around to making my first post.  I follow a few friend's blogs and thought, 'hell, if they can blog about their lives, then I might also have something interesting to tell the world about mine'.  And so here it is--my blog!

My blog will really just be about my life--my kids, my family, our travels, my everyday experiences.  Probably little to nothing about work, nothing political, nothing really educational for that matter...just my life (with lots of pictures)...lots of pictures, probably mainly of my kids so get ready!!!

And, my life isn't really even that interesting so this might be a big flop!  I'm married (as you will read below), have two children and live in Atlanta. I work part-time at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (and when I say part-time, I really mean 32 hours/week so that's really 80% time, but I'll take the one day off per week!).  I am from Orlando and that is where my family lives.  I am very close to my family and hate that they are so far away.  What else?  What else?  I am a huge Gator fan (graduated from UF in 2000) and have recently become an Atlanta Falcons fan too.  We have season tickets and spend most of our Sundays during football season in a parking lot down by the Georgia Dome drinking lots of cocktails and then cheering the Falcons on.  I think I like the cocktails more than the Falcons, but I go to keep my husband company.  I love to travel as I am sure you will see in my posts.  We travel all the time!!!  I have the most amazing friends many of which live within a 8 house radius.

In sum, I'm pretty normal, but I love my life!

So it is really only fitting to start my first blog post with a picture of me, right?  Well, here's one of Kahn and I.  I don't even think I have any individual pictures of me.  And for those of you who don't know...Kahn is my husband.  This November, 11/11/11, we will be married 5 years.  Although, 5 years is kind of misleading.  We've been dating (or as he likes to say 'sleeping together'....oops, can I say that?) for 12 years.  He's wonderful, although I don't need to tell all of you that.  You already know it.  He is an amazing father, a loving husband, and my best friend!  And he puts up with me!

So 'Cheers' to my first blog post!