The Plague is gone… I think…

SO after Hailey having a fever for 9 days and numerous doctors appointments, x-rays, and blood work for the munchkin I’m pretty sure we have crossed the bridge and are heading towards greener pastures!  Life is good in the Holtz house today!  Steve and I are feeling better, though I’m still a little run down.  Hailey has been fever free for 18+ hours now without any medication.  We disinfected the house top to bottom and inside out… twice… today to get rid of all the nasty germs!  Whatever this nightmare was that we had I’m so glad it seems to be leaving.. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy! 

Here are some pics of how we spent the last 9 days.

Jersey is seriously the best little snuggler in the whole world!  She seems to know just when she needs to be clam and when it’s okay to play.  She was Hailey’s buddy on the couch this week!

Finally… They ARE buddies! 

This is poor Hailey after having blood drawn at the hospital… Poor this was absolutely miserable and they had to stick her twice!  She also had a fever of 103.9 here so she’s not a happy camper.

Lastly.. this was my bribery to get her to keep drinking fluids and keep taking her medicine.. The poor kid has been on meds around the clock for 9 days and was beyond tired of taking them..

So… We are keeping fingers and toes crossed and giving it another day or so before I officially declare our battle over, but things are definitely looking up!  Here’s hoping we’ve kicked this to the curb!  Thanks for everyone’s well wishes while we were sick

Doom & Gloom… and 1 lovable pup :)

So it’s been a rough day here today… Poor Hailey has had a super high fever and the pukes.  It sucks when your baby is feeling so horrible and as a Mom you can’t do anything to make it better.  For those of you who know my kid, she even ASKED to take 2 naps today!  She NEVER naps!!! 

So, even though she felt miserable and spent the entire day on the couch and Mommy couldn’t make it better… there was one furry little lovable pup who made all right in her world today!!! 

So obviously I love animals and my dogs mean the world to me, but at times like this it really shows what a blessing they are.  It’s so sweet to see my Jersey girl show so much love to Hailey!  They are buddies for life!

Seriously though… how could you not love her?

“Go Lay Down”

The dogs idea of “go lay down" Jersey”!  Not many words to describe this… Apparently she feels that a cage is beneath her!!  HAHA  (pun intended).

Hailey's Videos

Here are some videos of Hailey's dance class.  They are starting to practive their dances for their recital in June :)

Practicing the "Dolly Dance" with her tap shoes. She is wearing black tights, a light pink tutu, and a black hoodie in this one.  (next to the girl in the hot pink)

 

This one is of her doing the "Bunny Dance" with her ballet slippers.  She took her hoodie off so she is wearing black tights and a light pink tutu and leotard (next to the girl in the hot pink)

And a totally unrelated video from her swimming lessons.  (Sorry it's sideways... I took it with my cell phone and can't get it to change).

A Smaller Belt Loop!

Yep… that’s what today brought me… something so small and so simple, yet something that made my day!  Some of you may or may not know I’ve been competing in a “Biggest Loser” competition with my mom’s group.  Well as of last week I was in 1st place and one of my two teammates is in 2nd place!  While this is a huge accomplishment and something I’m proud of, I’m also in “unchartered territory” because I’ve never been in 1st place before… So while I’ve been “dieting” and exercising I’ve seen the lbs. coming off on the scale but hadn’t really noticed it elsewhere yet…

That is, until today… When I put a pair of my favorite jeans on this morning and said to Steve “my jeans are almost too big”.  It didn’t really hit me then.  I went to the closet to get a belt and put it on still not really paying attention… Well, it’s now on the 4th belt loop instead of the third!!  Such a small little thing but a great feeling that makes all that hard work worth it!  And that was after I had already gotten up super early and gotten my Kettlebell workout done for the day! 

So instead of slacking a little bit  my new belt loop gave me even more motivation…   Tomorrow morning is weigh day after all!   It is the little things after all that mean the most!

The Blizzard Hit… hard…

 

This is a picture of Hailey next to our patio door… This is after I already had shoveled the deck twice last night, probably about 3” each time!  This measured about 22”!

Looking out to the street first thing this morning… We didn’t have road access until lunch time. 

Hailey standing on the snow… it’s as tall as the mailboxes and she thinks it’s fabulous!

Hailey and Steve working on the slide in her winter fort we made!

This is what came to plow our subdivision… NOT something you see everyday!  Should give you an idea of exactly how much snow we had and how bad it was out there!

Crazy!!  Schools are cancelled today… Government buildings… and most roads are still impassible!!  Here’s hoping to another snow day tomorrow!!!

The Blizzard of 2011…

So… The blizzard is officially here… It’s crazy out there.. HOLY SNOW & WIND BATMAN!!!  Steve is on shift and I’m home with my sickie and the pup.  I just went out and braved the elements to snow blow what was there… Some of the drifts were huge!! 

Poor Jersey girl can’t even go to the bathroom without her “parts” all under the snow… Sheesh… for that matter her whole little body is under snow!!  Good thing she LOVES it!  She burrows her nose down to the ground and runs around like a crazy lady.  It’s pretty funny!

(Here’s what we were looking like when it first started)

And here’s all the fun weather warnings we are getting around here…

The McHenry County Sheriff’s Office is urging the community to not travel if it is not extremely necessary.  Sheriff Deputies through out the evening have been responding to many motorists that have needed assistance on the roadways.  Roadway conditions are quickly deteriorating and becoming impassable.  Some townships plan to not be plowing roadways through the night. Please notify your local police or Sheriff’s Office if you need assistance.  Call 911 for emergency assistance.

And the BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM CST /4 PM EST/WEDNESDAY.
A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 3 PM CST /4 PM EST/WEDNESDAY.  ACCUMULATING SNOW HAS OVERSPREAD N. IL AND NW IN.SPREADING NO. TO THE WI STATE LINE.  THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP BETWEEN 7 PM & 3AM WED MORNING ACROSS ALL OF N. IL AND NW IN. STRONG WINDS COMBINED WITH CONSIDERABLE BLOWING & OCCASIONALLY HEAVY FALLING SNOW WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO AT TIMES.

ISOLATED SNOW-PRODUCING THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP TONIGHT RESULTING IN LOCALIZED INTENSE SNOWFALL RATES. IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR SNOWFALL RATES TO EXCEED 4 INCHES PER HOUR IN THUNDER SNOW MAKING TRAVEL NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE. 

Isn’t that just awesome… NOT… I like snow, don’t get me wrong, I just like it a lot better when we are out playing in it or out riding the snowmobiles… Blizzards… not so much!

This is looking out the back door just a few minutes ago… You can’t even see the street behind me!! And you wouldn’t even know I’ve shoveled the deck 3 times already today!

More updates to come tomorrow… Everything is cancelled… The County is basically shut down.  Lucky us we have NOTHING going on and no reason to leave the house until Thursday!  Yippee!!  Love Family Snow Days!  Let’s hope the firehouse isn’t too busy!

SHANNON

Down time…

Things in this Holtz household are not so fun right now.  Poor Hailey girl is sick with a fever and nasty cold.  I should have known it was coming since last Thursday more than 60% of her pre-school class was out sick.  Yet it still sucks!  I hate when your baby is sick and you can’t do anything to make it better.  When she is on the liquid crack (aka: Motrin) she seems fine, just looks a little pale and a little run down.  However, when the crack wears off she is one miserable little peanut.  And best of all… now I think this Momma is starting to get it…   Boo!

 

On a separate note:  Jersey girl is fitting in well and adjusting to our schedules and we are getting on a routine.  She’s been a very good pup and is pretty mellow 90% of the time.  She has been going to sleep with Hailey the last 3 nights and Hailey LOVES this… Although she says Jersey HAS to sleep with her because she matches her bed… She has a point!

And even better news Jersey and Magic are slowing getting adjusted and becoming buddies… see for yourself…

Aren’t they just adorable!  She really is an easy pup.  I’m so happy that Steve decided to let me get her!   She’s even slept through the night the last two nights!  Woo hoo… You forget how much like a newborn they are!  It’s the little victories!

 

And in breaking WEATHER NEWS… we are supposed to get hammered with snow between this afternoon and Wednesday!  They are saying a total accumulation of between 12-18” of snow!!  We haven’t had anything close to that significant in years!! I’m a snow girl so the thought of that much snow doesn’t bother me at all… It does however bother me that of course Steve is on shift tomorrow which means I’m going to be stuck dealing with it on my own… with a sick baby girl… probably a sick me… and my baby pup!  Awesome!!  I was at least smart and ran to the store and got anything we might need for the next few days… I’m thinking it’s going to be a long few days inside for us.  Hailey is missing swimming tonight (might be cancelled from the weather but she still has a fever so no go), missing school tomorrow (not fever free for 24 hours), and more than likely dance will be cancelled on Wednesday morning since we are under blizzard like conditions for then!  Here’s how I’m planning our next few days (Minus the Xmas decorations)…

So… that’s our plan… and I’m sticking to it!

 S H A N N O N 

Our newest addition…

So you maybe noticed I haven’t been around in a while huh… SORRY!!   We brought home a new addition to our house and she’s tons of fun but requires a lot of attention too!

Introducing…..  JERSEY…..

10 1/2 week old chocolate lab female…

Magic even “loves” her new little sister!

So as you can see we have our hands full around here. She is sweet as pie and a very good girl.  She’s only had 2 accidents in the house and is almost all the way potty trained.  She already is learning to “come” and “sit”.  Now if we can just get her to sleep through the night this Mommy would be great!!! 

 

SHANNON

Excited…

So if you know me well, you know how much I LOVE purses… Well I had gotten a cute purse for Christmas and decided to return it because it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.  I was even a super nice wife and gave Steve my store credit to go towards his new Pulsar watch he bought:

So anyway… Since then I’ve been debating between a new Juicy Purse or a new Coach purse.  Well today I decided on the Juicy and got the matching wallet and a cute new pair of Chanel sunglasses!!  I can’t wait to get them!!  Here’s the pics of them..

   

So… this Momma is a happy girl tonight!!!  Life is good!

 Shannon

And so it begins…

Well, its official… I’m a blogger!