Ready for Halloween!

We're all ready for Halloween! I've got the treat bags made, decorations up, and costumes bought! I painted a big pumpkin, the kids painted their own little pumpkins. We paint pumpkins here. Carving is waay too messy and too much of a hassle for a 1yo and 3yo. I'll wait till they're a little older for that. They colored little Halloween pictures and we taped them up on the door. I downsized a lot from last year though. We've been so busy moving and stuff that I didn't really even think about Halloween until a couple weeks ago. Most of the decorating was done just this past week!

Gavin's going to be a cowboy and Gage is a monkey (which is his nickname so it fits perfectly!)

 We're actually doing our trick or treating tomorrow. I go back to the town where I grew up (the rest of my family still lives there) and all the businesses downtown set up tables and give out candy. The Church, Sheriffs dept, and the courthouse gives the best ;) There's even a shop that gives out dog bones. Every year I tell them I don't have a dog, and every year they throw one in with the kids candy anyway! Kinda gross but a nice thought :)

Usually they do it on Halloween and since it's on Saturday this year I thought it would be perfect so hubby could go help me with the boys but for some strange reason, they're doing it on Friday. He has to work so I guess it's just me, my 2 boys, My sis, her 3 kids, PLUS her 3 foster kids! Whew it's gonna be a handful. My SIL sometimes goes with us, I'm not sure yet if she will this year.


I guess it's kinda good they're doing it on Friday, that means we can dress up again and go back out Saturday. Or stay here and give out candy to all the other kids. I'm sure Gavin would love to see other kids come to his house and say 'Trick or Treat!' They get way too much candy anyway. My mom,sis, and sis-in-law all make treat bags. As does my aunt. Then they get a load from the shops downtown. Usually the bags are overflowing by the time we're done. We take and extra bag to dump it in when the kids gets too full.


Last year they had so much, plus Christmas candy right after that, I just threw the rest away around Easter this year! My kids actually don't like candy all that much. They must get it from me. I don't like sweets too much. It's a good thing but we waste most of the Halloween candy.


I always half my kids candy with my dad! He has a major sweet tooth so it cuts down on how much my kids get and it gives my daddy something to munch on!

Have a very safe and

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Rockin Green Giveaway

I've used Rockin Green detergent and I think it is wonderful for not only cloth diapers but regular laundry as well. Rockin Green is completely safe for cloth diapers and for the environment too which is always a good thing!

I also really love the fact that you can order samples before you buy a big bag of it. I've already tried the Baby Powder & the Monkey Snacks and I really liked them both.

The Monkey Snacks smells like banana Laffy Taffy but it's not a real strong scent. The baby powder is a bit stronger and it smells... well, like baby powder! It smelled like a sweet lil babies bum :)

When they came in the mail, the entire mail box smelled sooo yummy! I was sniffing the mailing bag all the way back to the house!

Here are the scents that you can choose from:

Unscented

Fresh Linen- Blend of Lily and Jasmine. Comparable to Bath & Body Works Fresh Linen.
Baby Powder- smells like freshly powdered baby.
Cherry Almond- yummy cherries mixed with almonds. Best Seller!
Vanilla Lavender- a soft fragrance of yummy vanilla and lavender.
Monkey Snacks- A tropical blend of Banana, Coconut, Lime, Orange, Grapefruit, Bergamot, and Clove. Smells like Banana Laffy Taffy! Best Seller!
Cherry Lemonade- Blend of Cherry, Lemon, and Berry. Reminds me of a Cherry Limeade from Sonic!
Vanilla Buttercream- it’s like a cupcake without the calorie guilt! Best Seller!
Mango Sorbet
Grape Soda- reminds me of summers as a kid

There's also 2 brand new scents to try out:

Peppermint Cocoa- This one sounds so yummy!
Pumpkin Crunch- I can't wait to try this one, I love anything pumpkin!

Another great thing about it is as yummy as the scents are, when the diapers come out of the wash, there's no scent at all. It gets rid of the stink with no lingering detergent smell.

Kim @ Rockin Green has generously offered one lucky reader a 45/90 bag of Rockin Green detergent. Trust me, once you try this stuff, you'll be hooked!

 

 

 

Buy it:

Head on over to Rockingreensoap.com and get yourself a bag.

Or just give it a try with a couple samples.

Samples cost just $2.50

A 45/90 bag costs $13.95

A 90/180 bag costs $22.95

Win it:

To enter to win a 45/90 bag of Rockin Green, go to Rockingreensoap.com

and tell me what scent you'd choose if you won.

You must do this before you can get extra entries.

If you don't, the other entries will not count.

Extra Entries:

Follow me (@mysillyboys) and @RockinGreenSoap on twitter

and tweet about this giveaway. Leave a comment with the permalink of your tweet.

You can tweet up to 3 times a day.

Feel free to copy and paste this tweet:

RT @MySillyBoys Enter to win a 45/90 bag of @RockinGreenSoap http://bit.ly/2zr21i #clothdiapers #Giveaway

Publicly follow my blog and comment that you do. If you already follow my blog, leave me a comment letting me know that you do.

Subscribe to my blog via email and comment that you do.

Grab my button and leave me the URL of where I can find it.

Leave a comment on another non-giveaway post and tell me which post it was.

Blog about this giveaway (2 entries) and leave the URL where I can find the post.

(Leave 2 comments if you do this. You can say Blog entry #1, and #2)

I will draw a winner on Sunday, November 8th

at around midnight.

I will announce and email the winner on Monday.

I highly recommend leaving your email address in EVERY comment so I can email you if you win.

If you do not do this, you will be responsible for checking back here to see if you won.

If I do not get a response within 48 hrs, I will draw another winner.

Good luck!

GAD Baby Diaper Review/Giveaway

Kim from Green Acre Designs recently sent me a Gad Baby diaper with a hemp insert to try out. I was secretly hoping for a black one so I was thrilled to find a black one with red micro fleece inner layer in the mail box! I've been wanting a black diaper ever since I saw these on Gad Babys website.

I love,love, love this diaper! I love the side snaps so Gage can't take it off (he really enjoys running around stark naked). I love the color selection. I really like that you can get a different colored inner than outer. Most diapers just have white inners or are the same color as the outer. I love how trim they are. They aren't bulky at all. Gage can actually wear pants over it. Usually I have to put a pair of Gavins size 3's to go over my other cloth diapers. I also really love the prices. Gad diapers are very affordable compared to most other brands. Most of the diapers are $15.95.

I was a little bit nervous trying the hemp insert. I had never used hemp before and knew that you have to prep it before you can use it. I got a lot of tips from wonderful mamas that had experience with hemp so I washed it 4 times and put it on Gage. I did actually have a leak the first time I put the diaper on him but thinking back, I think I miscounted and had only washed it 3 times! After that, I washed and dried it again and haven't had a leak since.

Here's some pictures of Gage wearing his GAD Baby diaper...

Buy it:

If you can't wait to win it,

head on over to GADBabys site and pick out a few.

You can choose between an organic bamboo velour inner

or a microfleece inner. They're the same price either way.

Win it:

To enter to win a GadBaby diaper, go to Gadbaby.com, pick out which

color diaper you would choose if you won and leave it in a comment.

You must do this before you can get extra entries.

If you don't, the other entries will not count.

Extra Entries:

Follow me and GadBaby on twitter & tweet about this giveaway.

Leave a comment with the permalink of your tweet.

You can tweet up to 3 times a day.

Publicly follow my blog and comment that you do.

If you already follow my blog, leave me a comment letting me know that you do.

Subscribe to my blog via email and comment that you do.

Grab my button and leave me the URL of where I can find it.

Leave a comment on another non-giveaway post and tell me which post it was.

Blog about this giveaway (2 entries) and leave the URL where I can find the post.

(Leave 2 comments if you do this. You can say Blog entry #1, and  #2)

I will draw a winner on Friday, November 6th

 at around midnight.

I will announce and email the winner on Saturday. 

I highly recommend leaving your email address in

 EVERY comment so I can email you if you win.

If you do not do this, you will be responsible

for checking back here to see if you won.

If I do not get a response within 48 hrs,

 I will draw another winner.

Good luck!

My Uncle

Forgive me if I mistype something or spell words wrong in this post. I'm typing kinda fast because this is hard to write and I figure it I just do it quickly, it'll be easier to get out.

On Tuesday, my uncle (my moms brother) had a massive heart attack. It took the paramedics 30 minutes to get there. His wife tried to do CPR on him until they got there. One paramedic came out and told her that he was gone for her to call his doctor. Then the other paramedic came out and said they she brought him back. They were saying he was without oxygen for about an hour.

They got to the hospital and did surgery to fix his heart which went fine and then he went to ICU. They cooled his body way down, I'm not exactly sure why, and kept him in a coma. The Dr.s run tests on his brain to see what kind of brain damage he had from being w/o oxygen for so long but that it would be 48 hours before they would know anything.

They kept running tests on him and said it didn't look good at all. That if he lived, he wouldn't be the same. The Dr said part of his brain was severly altered. He'd also somehow gotten a staph infection in his nose from one of the tubes in the hospital.

On Friday my niece turned 8 years old so we were having a little party for her when my sister got a call from another Uncle. Everyone had been trying to reach us. My Aunt and my Grandma both called him and tried to tell him but he couldn't make out what they were trying to say because they were so upset they couldn't talk. They said something about he's brain dead and at 1%.

We didn't really know what that meant until later that night when he called back and said that he was definately brain dead and only 1% of his brain is functioning. They were going to pull the plug the next morning.

He was an organ donor so the Dr.s run some tests to make sure all his organs were well enough to take. There's actually a man at Church who only has a few months to live unless he gets a liver transplant so my family called him to make sure he was on the list so he could have my Uncles liver.

It turned out that none of his organs could be used because of both the staph infection and the lack of oxygen for so long. They said that it wasn't worth taking his organs because there was only a 45% chance that they wouldn't be rejected by the recipients body. I hope that makes sense because it was really hard to put it into words.

Anyway, they unplugged him yesterday morning, everybody was there to say goodbye. Well, just the closest family, Mother, Father, wife, sisters, brother, children. My sister went the night before. I didn't go because 1. I didn't want to see him like that, 2. I wasn't that close to him, I only saw him maybe once a year, and 3. No one under the age of 18 is allowed in the hospital right now because of the swine flu thing and there wasn't anyone to watch the kids for me. Hubby had to go to work that night.

They knew he wouldn't die immediately because the 1% of his brain that was working was his brain stem which caused him to be able to breath and made his heart beat. The Dr.s fixed his heart so it was working good. It was just his brain that wasn't working.

I didn't know any of this BTW until last night about 8:30. I assumed he was already gone. My sister called me and said they unplugged him at 8am and he was still alive 12 hours later. And that it could be another 12 hours or 3 days, they didn't know since he was able to breathe.

I hadn't cried at all up until then. It sucked thats for sure but I hadn't cried. After my sister told me that I waited until everyone went to bed last night and I cried. They had him unhooked from everything. No oxygen, no medicine, nothing. I know that's what "unplugged" means but since he was able to breathe, I thought What if that 1% of him thats still here can feel something. What if he's paralyzed and he cant speak or move but he's in pain? That upset me a lot. My mom had assured my sister that his mind was gone and he couldn't feel anything because she had the same concerns as I did. But it still didn't keep me from worrying about it. Who knows what that feels like. I mean, when someone gets unplugged, how can they know that the patient doesn't feel anything. They can't speak, or move, they die. They can't tell you they're in pain. Nobody can know. I can just pray that God was with him and comforted him the whole time. Maybe he was already gone and was watching everyone else that was around him. That's all I can hope for.

I didn't hear anything else until this morning. I went all night wondering if he had died yet. My mom called this morning and said that her, his wife, his 2 stepchildren (his 2 real kids didn't want to see him when he died so they left) my grandparents, and my aunt were all there when he died. The nurse had come in and said that it could be anytime and my mom looked at him while everyone else was looking at the nurse or each other. She saw him take his last breath and she said that was it. He took his last breath and everyone looked at him, and my mom walked out and the nurse asked her "is he gone?"and my mom said yes. I don't think anyone else saw it but my mom. The Drs knew it was coming because they were already suited up outside the door but she was the only one to see him breathe for the last time. It was 10:02 pm EST on October 24th.

She said it was peaceful though. She said if I could have seen him, I'd know that he wasn't in any pain. It just looked like he was sleeping. I guess they had all done their crying all week long because they were peaceful when it happened. I guess we knew it was coming and it's just good it's over. I would've hated to see him stay alive but not be able to live, ya know? I'd rather know he's in a better place than to think of him laying in a bed the rest of his life being hooked up to tubes. It's still hard though. Even though I wasn't real close to him, I still love him. He's my family and I'll miss him. I'll always remember him picking on me when I was little. He's in Heaven with his son, Ryan that died when he was 4 months old. He'd be over 20 years old now.

Here's a picture of the last time I saw my Uncle. It was last year at my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. I don't even remember if I spoke to him that day. If I did, I can't remember what it was. He was 50 years old when he died by the way.

Wordless Wednesday

Our new home! There's still a lot of work to do but we love it.

The library

More un-packing to do :(

Gage in his big boy bed

our 1st night. We had 3 beds in my bedroom!

Cuddle time w/ daddy

2nd night, Gavin was worn out

3rd night, everyone in bed with mommy, sideways.

The pond:

There is still a lot of un-packing to do. We still havent gotten the other house all the way empty yet! And the big orange thing in the lake is a huge Koi. I swear that thing is bigger than the ducks! I made fun of hubby when he told me that he saw a 2 foot goldfish in the pond. He was wrong... It's a lot bigger than 2 feet and its not a goldfish ;) There's also some ginormous catfish in there too.

Our first night in the new house

I don't have time to write much, I just ran by this house to get a couple things. (Acutally I used that as a reason to go to Starbucks and to write a blog post!

We spent our first night in the new house last night. It went smoothly. Well both boys were in our room, I have a cute pic of all 3 beds in 1 room, I'll show it to yall later.

We still have a lot of stuff in this house to move over but most our stuff is in the new one now so it makes more sense to stay over there.

We don't have phone, TV, or Internet over there yet which is why I had to sneak off to blog. We have to call the phone company tomorrow to switch everything over.

I wish I could tell you more but I'm in a hurry so I'll post more later. Wish us luck!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I know I said I couldn't post anymore for a little while until I had finished moving but I came across this picture yesterday and I have to share it with you.

My Aunts house burned down a little over 2 years ago. Her son, my cousin, was walking through the ashes trying to salvage something. To find something left. He found this pot and was crying with his head bowed, carrying it with the sleeves of his shirt because it was still hot.

Let me know if you can see it. It's not as clear as the original picture.

Look behind my cousins right shoulder.

If you can't see it, I'll try to make it a little clearer.

There is another picture of a Bible that had burned. All of it burned, in a perfect cirlce around the words 'Holy Bible'.

And I know this goes against the whole 'Wordless Wednesday" thing but I thought it was appropriate.

Il Divo singing Amazing Grace

Ok I know it's hard to see. I tried to darken it a little bit so we'll try it now and see if it's any better. I'll leave both of them up to compare.

I think it helped a litte. It's still not as good as the original.

I'll see if my cousin that took the pic can email it to me.

I'll get back to you on it!

A real quick post:

This is going to be short and sweet. I'm in the middle of packing (and I may or may not be watching Dancing w/ the stars) and I've started running yet another fever. I can't wait to get over this swine flu crap so I can get some serious work done.

We moved 3 SUV loads of stuff moved into the new house today. We've still got a lot left to do though. Hubby borrowed my dads truck and is going to move a couple truckloads of stuff everyday. I'm going to be so busy this week, I wont have time to post or tweet any so I'll be MIA the rest of the week.

Also, we're not sure if we can get the TV and Internet as soon as we get in so if you don't hear from me for a couple weeks, that's why. Don't be alarmed! I'll be back, I really hope I don't have to wait a couple weeks without internet. I'll post when I can :)

I'm supposed to be doing a review/giveaway when I get the cloth diaper in the mail. If I have to, I'll go to my brothers house to use his computer so don't worry, I'm still going to do it! Maybe we'll get it all hooked up next week. Fingers crossed!

Bye for now!

Jamie

OH NOOO...

I knew it was just a matter of time. I just didn't think it would be so soon.  I've tried to do all I could to protect my kids from getting the swine flu. I sanitize shopping carts before I put the kids in. I wash their hands,use sanitizer. I had the kids get the regular flu shot a couple weeks ago. I know it doesn't cover the H1N1 Virus but at least they wouldn't get the seasonal flu, which I think kills more people than the swine flu has anyway.

I knew the boys were getting sick yesterday. They both got up with a cough. So did I. I was thinking it was just a cold. Gavin started to run a low grade fever but I still didn't think a lot of it. Yesterday evening, they both didn't feel well at all. Gavin had a fever of 100.7 degrees. (still no cause for too much worry) I remember thinking oh please Lord, don't let it be the Swine flu. Gage still didn't have a fever and his cough was nowhere near as bad as Gavins, whos isnt terrible anyway. They were both just sick looking. They had bloodshot, droopy eyes, and were laying in a chair watching TV. Which is unusual in itself because they weren't fighting.

Gavin actually moved when he saw the camera, he did have his head on top of Gages looking pitiful!

I gave Gavin some Motrin at 8:30 and put both boys down at 9pm. They both went right to sleep and I thought Ok, they'll be better in the morning.

I was just about to turn everything off and go to bed at 12:30, when Gavin gets up. I thought he was just coming to get in bed with me like he usually does. Then I noticed he was wet. I said 'Oh man!' I changed the sheets and was putting him back to bed when I felt of his head. He was burning up.

He can't put a thermometer in his mouth because he gags on it. It cant even touch his toungue w/o him almost throwing up. He is too ticklish to put it under his arm. He always wriggles and wont sit still long enough to take his temperature. So I have to go in the butt. I haven't had to do it in a long time, he was so hot, and was crying because he didn't want me to do it. I had to fight the poor little guy for 5 minutes to take his temerature. It was 103.1 degrees. It had only been 4 hours since I had given him the Motrin. I wet him down, waited a bit and gave him some Tylenol.

This was him at 1am last night. I was trying to

get him to eat a popsicle. He ate maybe half of it.

We stayed up til 2am and I just put him in bed with me. I didn't sleep well, I kept waking up to check on him and getting up to feel Gage to make sure he didn't have a fever either.

Gavin made it till 7 and got hot again. I gave him more motrin and he went back to sleep. I had to wait until 8:30 to call the doctor but when I did they wanted to see him to check for the flu. I had to wake him up and get him dressed and get him to the dr. office.

It was full so I took him in through the back door that they make you use if you think your kid has the flu or chickenpox. Usually they tell people to use it but today the nurse I spoke to didn't tell me to. I did just in case. The nurse that came back and got him asked if I was told to go in the back way, I just said no I did it just to be safe. The front is always full of little newborns.

When the doctor came in, she didn't seem to think he had the flu. She said it's usually school kids and he had no other symptoms other than the fever and cough and a little bit of a runny nose. She did a test anyway and it came back positive for the flu. :(

Since he had just had the flu shot and they don't run the test for the swine flu, the doctor said she was pretty sure it was the swine flu and perscribed him some Tamaflu. I asked her about Gage and since he still doesnt have a fever she couldn't give him anything. She said if he gets it to just call them back and they'll call in a perscription for some.

The pharmacies around here have a limited supply of the medicine so when I went to my CVS to have it filled she went to check if she had enough. Thankfully she did but she said she barely had enough to give him. He doesn't seem too sick right now. He's been playing all morning like normal. He's a little cranky and tired but he wont take a nap. I've given him the first dose of the medicinebut I think after his nightly dose tonight I may wait and give it to Gage when he gets it. If the pharmacy doesn't have anymore, I think I should wait. The doctor said Gavin is in great health and even told me that if I couldn't get any or didnt want to fill it, he'd be fine. She did say it would be a lot harder on Gage since he's only 16 months and it was a little more dangerous to him if he gets it. I'd hate it if he got it and I couldn't get any medicine for him.

I'm expecting Gage to come down with it very soon. I think I might actually be getting it myself. My eyes have been burning all day, I have a headache and am coughing a bit. Sigh, it's gonna be a long couple of days I think! Wish us luck and pray for the boys that they don't get too bad sick with this. I guess it doesn't matter how careful you are, anyone can get this thing.