Well my dear Connor has been at it again this week.  On Tuesday, he stripped himself naked when he was supposed to be taking a nap peed in my bed (fortunately for me it wasn't on my side..HA) and also had some "presents" in his diaper that were spread across the bedroom floor. 

On Wednesday he filled the toilet with catfood and toys including pop beads, a toy motorcycle and other toys and began to flush and flush.  The plumber came today.  Found a pop bead in there.  I have never seen a warning on a public toilet saying "don't flush pop beads"  Who knew?  HA HA.  Anyway, Connor needs to be reminded that a toilet isn't a toy-let despite how it sounds.

I had a dream last night that it was Christmas day.  Do you ever wake up in the morning slightly disoriented and unable to figure out what day it is?  I am pretty sure that I had the Christmas dream because it has been on my mind.  For Mother's Day my kids gave me a magazine called Paper made Easy.  It has some very cute gift ideas and I started thinking about Christmas.  Typically I give all of my kids Sunday school teachers, Word of Life Club leaders and a few others at church a food gift.  Well since I will have a newborn I really have been thinking about what I can do to get a head start on that.  What can I make this year that I can do in the summer and have all ready for that time of the year.  With 7 children they have a lot of teachers!  Thankfully we homeschool or I would be VERY overwhelmed with school teachers too!
The last several years I have given a White Chocolate Chex mix. Everyone raves about it and it is so easy...however, this year I just don't think I am going to feel like making batch after batch of it.  So, I am on a quest for new (long storing) and inexpensive gift ideas.  I may end up making dip mixes which I have done for some of my friends.  I could make them ahead...I just need to figure out a great packaging idea.

As of right now there are 228 days until Christmas.  Check this out

I don't have anything profound to write today.  I am just incredibly blessed to have my husband and children.  The Lord has been so good to me.  Rob and the kids cooked breakfast this morning (which actually isn't all that unusual.)  Since I am still not feeling that great from my UTI and this pregnancy I really didn't feel like going out for lunch after church so we came home and ate and then I took a nice long nap.  Rob cooked a great supper and we went to church.....pretty boring yet spectacular day.  I really am blessed. 

The doctors office FINALLY called me after 4:00 today to tell me that I do in fact have a UTI.  Of course they coudn't have called an hour earlier when Rob was in town and could have picked up my medicine.  I had to drive to the store to get it myself. 

Since I had to be out I stopped at JCPenney because I had a $10 off a $10 or more purchase coupon that was going to expire tomorrow.  I found an adorable sundress for Emma that was originally $19.99 marked down to $11.99...so I got it for $1.99!  I love a great deal....especially one that only takes me about 2 minutes to find.

I think my next post might be about yeast infections.  HA!

This week I have been suffering from an excrutiating pain in my left side (under my rib cage down to my lower back).  I am fairly sure I have a UTI.  After suffering for nearly all day on Wednesday I finally broke down and put 1 T. of apple cider vinegar in a glass and drank.  Within an hour I felt better.  (Why did I suffer all day?  Well, for one thing the ACV beverage tastes pretty nasty.)  Yesterday, I had the pain back at 5:30 in the morning.  I had my "beverage" and asked Rob to stay home from work so I could call the Dr.  I went back to bed and slept until 9:30....called the Dr and went in to the lab for a culture.  I had my pain back again last night and thought for sure I'd wake up with it this morning but so far I am OK.  I hope to hear from the Dr sometime today about my culture.  It isn't much fun being an incapacitated pregnant mother of 7.

So, if you feel a UTI coming on....have yourself some apple cider vinegar.  It really does help.

How about earplugs?  You'd think that they would be safe. YES?  NO!

My 12 year old daughter woke me up this morning by saying that she had used earplugs to sleep (I guess she has been doing this for a while to drown out her sister's snoring) and a piece of the earplug had broken off and fallen into her ear canal.  It was too far down for me to see.  So I got out my trusty medical book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor. I was informed to call my doctor as foreign objects do not come out on their own. 

Well, today is Tuesday. which of course means that our pediatrician is off and I had to call the covering physician.  They said to bring her right in.  So, with a bit of hurrying to get everyone completely dressed and hair all fixed we headed to the office.  The doctor examined her ear and seemed as though he couldn't see anything but then picked out a few pieces of the plug (with my assistance I might add...wonder if he deducts that from the charges??).  After several minutes of picking and pulling he determines that it is too deep and won't come out in one piece so we head off to the ENT.  He is able to get it out easily and in one piece. 

So, that was our morning....so much for all the great lessons and reading I had planned for this morning.  We did manage to get schoolwork done this afternoon but it wasn't the same.

The one "good" thing was that I finally made an appointment for Connor to see the ENT.  He's about a year overdue for an appointment.  He goes for a hearing test and exam next Thursday.  I am very curious to see what they think.

When I was a child, I loved May Day.  My grandmother would always come to our house and knock on the door then she would go and hide somewhere in the yard.  My sister and I would then have to go find her and we'd get a basket of homemade goodies.  She would take a milk carton and cut it about half way down...she made a handle from the left over carton and decorated each one with rows of crepe paper.  Always pretty...and always filled with yummy cookies and homemade candies.  It's a special childhood memory that my kids won't have....no one I know does anything for May Day anymore.  I have often thought about making a basket and bringing it to my grandmother but every year for one reason or another I haven't done it.  I wonder how many more chances I'll get. She'll be 83 this summer.  Maybe I don't need a special reason to bring my grandmother a basket of goodies....it makes me tired just thinking about it right now though.

This is my third attempt at creating a blog.  The first two were just practice runs with only a few entries each.  I really couldn't figure out how to post anything in the sidebar or add anything to header or do anything but just create entries.  I finally happened on blogdrive and I am glad I did. I think I am here to stay.  When I created my first blog (only 2 weeks ago) I couldn't think of a clever name...so I just called it Karen's Place (real clever).  Later in the day, I created a new one at another location and called it Karen's Cast of Characters.  I even tried that here but after two days of trying I realized that my blog name was too long so it wouldn't let me register...I thought I was making the blog address too long.......but, I digress........

Yesterday I came up with a new "clever" idea.  How about "Karen's Kastle"?  Yes, I realize castle is spelled wth a c.  However, it starts with the "ck" sound and that was what I was aiming for.  In my "pretend" kastle I am allowed my opinion at all times.  It can be quiet when I want it to be and I can be the only one allowed talk if I prefer it that way too.  This is so unlike my real world...where I am married (very happily) and homeschool our 7 children...Becca (12), Erin (almost 11), Rachel (9), Katie (7), Ryan (5), Connor (3) and Emma (2)  {Connor and Katie have birthdays coming up in the next two months}  oh....and of course the silent babe that is growing in my uterus just now.

I am not so sure that I will keep my title of Karen's Kastle...because I did a search for it and it seems that lots of other people had the same "clever" idea and it doesn't really evoke a warm friendly feeling which is what I am going for.  I guess it will all just develop over time.......

I have been trying out different free blog sites hoping to find just the right one.  I really need one that will be easy to learn and pretty idiot proof.  I don't have time to figure out too much.  Between trying to keep up with the messes that kids make and being exhausted as I come to nearing the middle of this pregnancy I don't have time for learning how to make a fancy blog. 

Writing the first entry is always the hardest and I'm glad to have it out of the way.........

More later...........