I did not know 11 year old Child could have shingles

I am flabbergasted. Youngest daughter had what looked like a bug bite just below her tailbone about a week ago. I thought she had gotten bitten or something at the Waterslide and jsut told her to give it a chance to go away. Well as the days progressed the bug bite flattened out and started looking like a bunch of flat blisters. By the time she arrived home from school it had spread in sort of an arc on her left side right down the buttock and down the back of her leg.
I thought it might be staph and we went to the doctor today. She said shingles as soon as she seen it. She gave us a prescription for acyclovir and she has to take 4 pills every 3 hours. ! It is a handful of pills too. It is still spreading and is very painful. School just started yesterday and already she has to miss school. Ugh, She prides herself on getting awards for perfect attendance and now she is already absent!
In case you dont know what shingles is I will link it but in a nutshell it is the chicken pox ( herpes zoster) virus that usually lies dormant in people who have had chicken pox. Doctors are not sure why but in some people it becomes active again and results in shingles. It is on one side of the body following the path of the affected nerve. It is very painful and itches like crazy. They say people who acquired chicken pox before turning one were at higher risk as well as people with low immunities and stress can also bring it on.
Here is hoping that she can feel better and doesnt have it for as long as some I ahev seen. Some have had the rash for over 3 months and the pain in the affected nerve can last years almost debilitating.
From the way she describes it, You feel pain and tingling sensation over and down the nerve days before a rash is noticed. Then it gets painful and itchy and she just feels really crappy. I will post back later on her progress . She is zonked out for the night. Poor kiddo

Not real sure how I feel about this.

Yesterday I was in the town near me doing my final school preparations. One side of the road there is a strip mall and the other side is a super Wal-mart.
I see a bunch of kids right at the entrances with big signs. I thought they were probably advertising a carwash or something. there were probably 6 kids with big signs.
1 read Please Buy Local the other was Keep your money at home, then there were 3 that said "help our mommy keep our home"
Ok, so I feel really really bad for any families that are going through any sort of financial troubles and I do try to buy local when it is possible. What I am not totally comfortable with is
1- these are kids and even though they are having financial troubles I dont think putting it out there like that is doing a service to the,. Why would you want your children to worry about this and add more stress to their already stressful lives.
2- I did not see any adults out there , I mean why embarass your kids by putting them out there with signs like that.
3- a continuance of the above. As much as it pulls at your heart strings ( and I am sure the parents thought of this as well hence the reason they used kids for the deed) I know my kids would be ridiculed and made fun of for this and would never forgive me when one of their school mates brought up the fact that they seen them talking about losing their home in front of Walmart. I really just dont see the reason why you would put a child through this.
4- My thoughts are that this person whomever it may be ( an if it is you , my heart goes out to you but come on..) Needs to go back to business school. Since when did this tactic work. This is not far off from the homeless people that are at every exit asking for just 1 dollar for a meal.
uggh
I am having a hard time with this because I do have a heart and have kids and have been broke, and I mean BROKE. When my husband and I split up he paid not 1 dime of child support . I went back to work , lived in a trailer and my kids were plunged into an entirely new life. The luxuries they had before like FOOD, dental care and all that jazz that we take for granted was gone. Some of the sadder times were when we had to go to the food pantry for food after not doing so for the first 3 months.
My youngest was 7 at the time and she was in HEAVEN, we were down to not much at all in the cupboards and were at a point that I would lie tell family that I ad to work jsut so they would watch the kids sicne I KNEW they would eat while they were there., My youngest came in 1 day wanting a box of cookies ( from the food pantrys day old bakery shelf) I let her and her friends take some ou as I thought they could have a little picnic. They were gone for a while and she came back, Said I have a surprise for you mommy. She pulls out like 6 dollars from her back pocket, I asked where she got it. She had gone through the neighborhood selling cookies for a dollar, the reason,so we could pay our electricity bill :-( I had no idea she knew wnything about our troubles other than we had to move and would have to watch our pennies. This was at Christmas time too and luckily I had Christmas bought so they would have that.
It was a bad time in our live and it was not the best but when I told them all we were moving back with their dad they were mad, They wanted usto stay in that tiny 2 bed 2 bath trailer in a trailer park rather than go back, . I made it on 1000 a month while it wasnt a lot it still paid the bills and I cared for my kids,


More on thie later.

I will never trust an ATM at the Mall again (Shudder)

So, today I run in the mall to catch up with the kids and thrown them their money so we can get the hookie out of the place and get onto some good stuff... Like thrift store shopping.
This atm has a slider thing that you slide the card through instead of sticking the card in and then machine sucks it in. This one you slide the card and you still ahve it. All went well, I head my 200 dollars shuffle into the tray looked at screen , it says PLEASE REMOVE YOUR CARD.. Uhh,, I removed it already it is already in my purse. Keeps sayign that and not giving me my money that I HEARD shuffle into the little drawer.Over and over again Please remove your card, I take my card out thinking Maybe I need to unfreeze it so I slide again. Nothing. Now I am pissed cuz I know someone is going to get my money. Grab my phone to call the number on the machine. Phone is DEAD, so I have to leave my machine and RUN about a block to my son to get his phone but I dont want to leave the ATM in case someone else comes along , you know and gets my money that it wont give to me. So I get back to the machine and another guy is using it, I run up and ask him if it is working , he says no, it keeps saying please remove your card. UGHHH , now mine and his is trapped in that damn little drawer. I call the number tell her the sitch. SHe says All I can do is dispute it on you account ( the money did come out of my account , just not into my hands). Uggh. may take 10 days to 2 weeks. UGH. the poor guy behind me had done a transaction that only left him with 4.00 in his account. He is startgin to cuss now and it is like we are a team, We are both mad and saying not so nice things about this stupid ATM she is blabbering off on the phone about all of the stuff and reading me off numbers and I am telling her how stupid it is and couldnt someone come down her and just get us our money being held captive in this blasted machine. Then just liek that she says , Oh, I see it jsut credited it back to your account. Oh,thank you . goodbye and GOOD RIDDANCE you thieving ATM machine.

Will be posting soon about back to school! Whoopee!!!

Only 2 more days and I have my days back! Somewhat. I lose 2 and still have 1 home so we are going to work on some preschool stuff while the others are out getting all smart.:-) Stay tuned for our fashion show with a SPECIAL Guest.

Itsy Post for today..

Today this Boy..




Was a super duper TURKEY. He spends a lot of time with grandma and pa and the things he comes home with.this week it was about "toots" Or farts of which granny tries to dissuade that. So He has been saying it every time and is very happy when he "toots"
We went to Provo to finish the kids school clothes shopping and brought him along. While we are eating I walked over to get him some fruit from the buffet.before I got back to the table I could hear him yelling something to me. But didnt understand.My 2 older kids were scrunched down under the table practically and I was Like"Whats going on lets eat guys we've got a lot to do." The 2 older said didnt you hear him screaming to you? I said yes but I was sure it was some useless nonsense like he usually hollers at me like "Hey mom, I want a gerbil someday"But Noooo What he WAS Screaming was My full name for the whole restaurant to hear and make note of ,"Bonnie Murphy, I tooted, did you hear it, I tooted in the eating place,"uugghhhh Gotta love em'

Farewell my friend:-(

Today was a sad day:-( Our love-bug Laci Slipped out and was hit by a car. This is such an odd occurance I still cannot grasp it. We live in a VERY rural are and MAYBE have a total of about oh 10 cars in a 24 hour period pass our house.She was outside this morning and we have jsut put up a bigger yard fence in the back and she ahs figured out how to escape it. I am not sure hwere she wanted to go but it was obviously into the road. We live on 40 acres and dont have any really close neighbors and the road is a good 200 feet or more from our house.
What is even sadder was I was just onto the kids about feeding and watering them .I was mad that instead of giving her fresh water every time they walked past the water bowl outside that they just left the old warm water plus they would both say they fed when they didnt. It wasnt a probelm inside but she has been spending a lot of time outside lately because my son adopted an older Min Pin and she didnt much like her.
Anyway. I had jsut been getting onto them and had sent one of them out to make her come in and we couldnt find her.
Fast forwar like 2 hours and we found her run over on the road quite a ways from our house. My son picked her up and we wrapped her in her favorite blanket and buried her out in the pasture under an apple tree.
A little while later my 11 year old ( whom just got in trouble for their lack of responsibility when it came to the dogs) gave me a letter she wrote Laci
" Dear Laci,
I Love you so much I'm Sorry I couldnt Feed or water you sometimes . I am going to miss you so much. I hope you are better off with God. He will treat you better than I treated you. So, to pay it off I'm Not going to eat ofr a day or drink anything for a day and I am going to lay out in the Sun for a day. I'm so sorry . I love youSo Much Laci."

we had a talk and I told her it was as much my fault as it was hers and we can learn from this. She was very much a part of our family and getting a little older. Even though she has lived here for years and years and has never even shown an interest in going anywhere I guess she just decided to go adventuring. Our heart are a little emptier and we are much sadder. The others are keeping a closer eye on their babies and it just goes to show you just never know.
And sjut to clarify. Laci was never out of water or food, If she didnt have it outside she had it inside. I just liked them to be in easy access to clean fresh water at all times and the thought of warm water outside would set me off. She could always walk 10 steps to the house and find cold water and a full bowl of food. This was "her" dog and she will be greatly missed .She was a gentle would and would not hurt a fly. She thrived on attention and Loved every person alive.

One last before I forget!

As we were tramping through Colorado, the blind leading the blind.. we came across this little town .....And we felt compelled to pull over.. do a U turn ( the road construction guys had no clue what we could possibly want to do... I mean how often is my dad with me?. NEVAHHHH. SO I jumped at the chance and here we are. a couple of rebels ignoring the rules of the road and taking a chance ( and I did find a pair of needle nose pliers right out my door.. ta dah I mean where else can we both stand under our names.. that we call each other. LOL

DOnt we look GREAT! My dad looks like he is ready for the insane asylum and we havent even driven in the mt. yet and I look like a person who was rode hard adn put up wet... . The Glamour life baybay.''The second one is even better instead of knowing where or when he jsut pointed whichever way he wanted, and I look as if I grew another person to the front and side of my left arm. Ha. Thats my Eaaassy ridin clothes, non binding and comfy but not cute AT ALL>

Onward Men ( and women)

We trudged out of Durango and felt like we could have put down roots in silverton . It looked like our kind of town and there were kids rafting and tubing just looked like they were having fun. Probably should have done the fun thing because for the next few hours we would be having anything but fun.
The first part of the ride was beautiful and easy just slow and not many vehicles enjoying the mountain scenery.A little over an hour outside of Silverton Oh My... Beautiful but Ooo so steep and switchbacks galore where you are to go only 15 (fine with me) but people behind me thought I should be going down a mountain on switchbacks one after another at 40 mph. Ahh No. Not here not me . I follow posted speed limits. This is just a 2 lane road with no rails as I turn the corner I can reach out and shake my daughters hand in the back seat it is that tight of a curve. This went on for HOURRRRSSSS. UGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH it was so pretty but oh my . LONG and so many big campers and trucks bumper to bumper and there were just a lot of vehicles period.



This is as we are traveling through the very upper reaches of the mountains at one peak we were 13,343 feet up. We would then have to go down then lo and behold, another one to go up, and waddya know another to take us down only to repeat this bad dream fro hour upon hour with an older man in one seat ( he is scared of heights, and 2 teenagers who cant seem to stop arguing about ANYTHING! They argued about the color of a bush, the wayone breathed hard at the other, they were just rotten.


It was so very beautiful but Wow!We were very glad to be done weaving in and out of all of those campers, busses and cars, motorcycles etc.
I could breathe a little easier. I ran out of daylight bu there is a quaint little town down as we were jsut going out of the really mountainous area called OURAY How CUTE!. I totally could have stayed there. They call it little Switzerland


The Sign before you come in on the East side


Looking down their Mainstreet


Ouray is a historic district. There are no billboards in Ouray, Ridgway, or unincorporated Ouray County. National forest area begins south of town of Ouray.
They do have a hot springs and water park on the north end of town as you are passing through. I will have to go back sometime but I will be going from the north to the south the next time and it definitely wont be in the winter .


Well Folks, I need to get these all up here in the order that we did em' this was our July trip and I dont think I took the camera to the Aug trip but I do have some coming up from the kiddos and some things I have been working on here, so stay tuned. I am also coming close to my first GIVE-AWAY! SO excited!

Ding Dong The witch is dead..

Well. I thought she was,,,, she has been reincarnated in my oldest 18 year old. daughter.I swear , every thing from her mouth today was a complaint or how we did something wrong .BLAH BLAH.We dont listen to her anyway but OH my you are seriously going to hvae a miserable life if all you ever do is complain.
Lets get back to my long overdue post about our trip from New Mexico. The little darling is back and back to work , I on the other hand had to recuperate from that dadblasted mountain we had to cross from silverton on over the mountain range and then down into ouray,and all of the other really cute old mining towns.
The ride starting out was not bad at all we wandered up to mancos to let my son see the Elk at a the elk ranch they have there, He is 15 and he lives and breathes hunting so we went back out of our way to go see them

We wandered into their small but quaint gift shop and bought a few things I thought I could not live without , Bought some bpinion salve, and it does smell like it , Love the smell. We also got some jalapeno elk bratwursts to take home to dad.


But they were more interested in these things BEAUTIFUL animals too. Beautiful area I would so live here in a minute.Next pics are our drive from durango to silverton and over those LONG TALL mountains