Oh - I didn't mean to make you feel bad! I was agreeing with your anger about the medical system that didn't diagnose my friend!!!! This was during baseball season and she spread it to a lot of the moms and her son spread it to most of the team. You shouldn't feel at all guilty about spreading it - you didn't know! If you had, you would have isolated yourself. This is ALL on the doctors. I'm so sorry about your nephew. How old is he? And, it's ascorbic acid. I don't know how it works or if it works. I didn't read about it until afterward. But, I read people who swore by it.

I have recently gone from running to race walking only because the person willing to do the Detroit half marathon with me is a walker. I am loving it! I'm not sure if it's the company or the easier exercise, but it's fun! I didn't look in any book or anything, I just walk fast! I average about 12:30 min/mile when I'm alone. When I walk with my partner, we average about 14 min/mile. Now that I re-read your message I wonder if you meant that you want to do that type of walking you see in the Olympics? If so, scratch what I said. I know there is a form to that and that is not what I do.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: We've been there, done that. The family we caught it from went through the exact same thing you did - including all the medications and diagnoses. I was SOOOO mad when our family came down with it. If they had been properly diagnosed, they could have taken steps to keep it from spreading. I feel SO bad for you and your son. My son, who has asthma, had the worst case, by far, of anyone else in the family. He was on a lot of steroids, breathing treatments, etc. I'd get your son tested and on a round of antibiotics NOW!!! It could make his case less severe and it will make him not contagious. The good news is that at his age, it isn't life-threatening. I know that is little consolation now. But, you both WILL pull through. Oh - and do some research on all the alternative treatments, if you are open to it. I read AFTER my family had it about citric acid (I think) and wish I'd known.

Allow those women to be a blessing to you. It will bless them in the process. People want to help - let them! And, really. I don't mind. If you need anything, please let me know.

Oh Bethany. My heart aches with every update. I'm so sorry. Does the hospital (or another hospital closer to you) have a support group for caregivers? I bet you would find that extremely helpful - meeting others in your same situation. Is there anything I can do? I know we live pretty close to each other. Can I bring over some frozen dinners?

:iagree: Every since my oldest had that fever, I have not had a thermometer in the house. I've decided to go on my kids' other symptoms. My dd ran a fever a couple weeks ago. I KNOW it was very, very high. She does that when sick. Still very, very scary. But, she was acting quite normal during the day. So, I tried very hard not to be worried. She recovered quickly. But, if I'd seen her actual temps, I'd have been very scared. (We were visiting my sister at the time. She took her temp. After dd recovered, my sis told me her fever was at 105.5. I'm glad I didn't know at the time . . . )

Burgers, homemade french fries, fresh green beans, strawberries, salad. Yum!!!

As much as I hate to say it, I am that child. I am terribly afraid of doctors. It's awful. But, I understand your son's wondering about dying on the operating table. It's an awful thing to deal with. That said, I'd still want my mom there!!! With the girlfriend. If he's like me, he's scared out of his mind. He wants the familiar with him. Right now, that's the girlfriend, and you. Go. Get to know the girl. Support your son. I'm sure he's not trying to hurt you. He's scared.

I took my son at 7 months when his fever hit 106.3 after seven days of a fever and it would NOT go down. It ended up being a virus, and to this day, this ds (now 16) runs high fevers (105 - 106!) when sick. Since then, I've had two children have fever seizures with high fevers. SCARY!!! If I hadn't had this history with fevers, I don't think I would take a child in with just a fever. But, I do understand the fear of a high fever.

We have had wonderful experiences both at Anna Maria Island on the Gulf Coast of FL and Sand Key in Sarasota, FL. Both beaches were beautiful! We rented houses on Anna Maria Island and stayed in a resort in Sarasota. Both were amazing! Have a great time!

We recently got rid of THREE bookshelves worth of books. THREE!!! I am left with ONE. (The kids all have their own bookshelves too - we left those alone!) I love books. Love them. I don't love the clutter. Dh and I were ruthless. If it was a book that was easy to get on a Kindle, we got rid of it. That was the majority of our books. I kept only the VERY favorite kid books. We gave away most of them. I looked at Amazon and their resale prices and did sell a few there. But, mostly I needed them out of my house!!!! I'm so glad we did it! It's very freeing!

WOW!!!!! That really is a magical experience. I love it! We were once given access to that viewing area for the fireworks. We were walking by the "guard" and she saw that we were from Michigan. She grew up in the town we are from and she let us in! It really was an amazing place to watch the fireworks!!! About laundry - we opt to bring less and do laundry once. I just prefer to have fewer things around the room. Works for us.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: I was SOOOO looking forward to disagreeing with you, OP!!! :001_smile:

Aw. Thanks!!! I "bragged" again today! Seriously, you made me happy!!! LOL!!! And yes. I never assume that everyone who posts is trying to out-do me. They are really excited about what they post and I try to share that excitement. I think it's rare that someone (at least in my group of friends) is trying to rub anyone's nose in anything! Those would be amazing!!! We had friends go to Hawaii for spring break last year. Incredible!!! It has me pricing out Hawaii vacations!!!

:iagree: Well, I posted when my son made a local select baseball team. I was proud. I wanted to shout it out to the world. He worked SOOOO hard. I guess I don't see the difference between these posts. Both made by proud parents and both should be applauded.

:iagree: Posts like this here make me hesitant to post anything on Facebook! I really don't mind the posts about people getting excited about their new phones (or Amazon order, or whatever). I don't mind the "my kid scored three goals today" posts. I rejoice with them! I posted one today about my kids who did really well in their first regatta. But, I thought LONG and hard about it before I posted because I didn't want anyone to be offended. ETA: I opted not to post anything from our last vacation because I didn't want people to think I was bragging. But, geez. There were a TON of really great pictures that I would have loved to share!!! And, not because I'm bragging that I'm on vacation. Am I the last person alive who loves to hear about other peoples' vacations? I guess I assume there are other people out there that might like hearing about the things I post about.

YEAH!!!!! When those come out I stock up!!!!

:grouphug: I've been following this all day, but didn't post because I didn't have anything to add. I'll be praying for you guys.

NO!!!! I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE NOISE OF THE TEEN BOYS IN MY OWN HOUSE!!!!!! (I'm yelling so you can hear me over all the noise!!)

I think they are fun!

Open it. And report back.

Same here, same area.

We held my dd off when we started gymnastics too. She had figured out all those things too and we just knew we were going to be in for a LONG road when she did get started. We were right. She is currently on the team competing at a level 4. Our gym wanted her 12 − 16 hours/week!! We held her back and she is currently attending 9 − 12 hours instead. And, she'll be competing at fun meets only this year. (Well, there is one "real" meet we may attend, but that's up in the air right now too - it's in Orlando!) You may find that you like watching her practices. I ended up loving it! It's relatively quiet time for me. I bring things to do - paying the bills, make Christmas lists, catch up on emails and texts, etc. I feel like my dd is too young to leave yet. Twice she's gotten hurt and really needed me right away. We live 30 minutes away and I'd have felt awful if she had to wait for me! Enjoy the ride! Your dd sounds very talented!!!

I watched one episode and it felt "off" to me. Why did they keep wearing the Amish/Mennonite clothing even though they were in NYC? There seemed to be WAY too much "teasing" of the younger, blonde girl - behind her back. It just seemed SO backward for the way they had been raised. I'm off to read the linked article!

We are booked on Freedom of the Seas in January. We will love it - right? We are coming off of a few years of cruising with Disney, but we needed something cheaper this time! We were spoiled with Disney and I just don't want to be disappointed!!! Any hints? I haven't even started looking at that ship or at the excursions or anything!