Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a sweet Valentine's Day weekend!  The boys and I day full of parties and school festivities on Friday.  We hosted the kid's friends for a Valentine's Day dinner.  We felt the love all weekend long!

Olive made the valentine's for my class.

The boys loved picking out and making their valentines.

I got a desk full of sweet valentines from my class!

I survived a long week at school + a day full of Valentine's Day fun!  I loved this darling candy heart headband from Walmart.  I don't like paying boutique prices for items I will only wear a few times a year so finding it at Walmart was perfect.

The boys in matching Cupid's Pizza shirts.

The kids LOVED going through all of their valentines from classmates.  They also got really sweet mail and packages from family.  Their great grandma sends them $2 bills for holidays.  They each have a nice little money collection growing. 

This cute valentine treat is giving me inspiration to make some treats of our own.

Love monster valentine bags.

Goodmorning, valentines!

The way to Olive's heart is with Jellycats.  This trend makes me smile because Jellycats were so popular when she was a baby and now they are making a comeback.

Chicken nuggest and his favorite candy.

Fugglers.  I'll never quite understand their appeal, but my boys LOVE them.

These individual Nutellas were one of my very favorite finds!  I bought each kid one with a bag of stick pretzels.  I hope these come out for all the holidays.

Kevin taught the boys the art of picking out beautiful grocery store flowers for the lady they love.  They worked together to find the perfect bouqet for me.

New valentine coffee cup from oneof my students.

Pumpkin's first valentine's day.  He wasn't sure what to think about all of the festivities.

Holiday treats just taste better.

I set a pretty table.  Remind me next year to iron everything the day before my party.  Good thing the kids didn't care.

Olive is a great party planner!  She did the invitation for her friends and helped me map out the whole event.

Kevin picked up heart pizzas for dinner.

Valentine's Day with a house full of extra kids!  We loved it!

We tried a new Jonny Pop - chocolate dipped strawberry!  They were delicious.

Pumpkin preferred to be out and about when the kids were quiet.

I love the messages on Jonny Pops!  I hope everyone felt extra loved this weekend!

Happy Friday!

 Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you've had a nice week.  It's been warm enough to finally melt almost all of our snow.  The sun was shining most days and it was a great week.  The best parts of the week were:

1. Nursery Rhyme Character Parade Day!  The kindergarten had the best time parading around the school as different nursery rhyme characters.  The families were so creative.  I was London Bridge and Leo was a gingerbread man.  It was so sweet to see the big kids lining the halls to cheer for the littlest kids in the building.  Thanks to my friend Sara C for this photo from the parade!

2. Peppa Pig.  I'm not quite sure who introduced Leo to Peppa Pig, but he's a big fan.  He watches the show and he's been collecting the play set pieces.  He speaks in a British accent or uses British phrases now.  A lamp got broken at our house this week and Leo say - Oh no, Mom!  Do you think we can mend it???"  Precious!

3. The kids have been on a reading kick!  I've been checking out books regularly for them at the library and we did some book shopping with Kevin's mom.  I walked in to see some late night reading happening in Olive's room.

4. I love when cats squeeze themselves into tiny containers.  Mr. Mittens was annoyed when I said he was too big for this basket.

5. If you like chewy candies that are a little bit sour, these are for you!  I found them at Dollar Tree.  They are dangerously delicious.  I will definitely be repurchasing both.

6. The kids put the cats in Purr-itos when it gets cold out.

7. Sundogs!  I love spotting a sun dog (stripe of rainbow) in the sky!

8. Olive used her crafting skills to make lots of blankets this month.  She delivered one to a friend on her birthday and made one for each of her great grandma's for Valentine's Day.  They both LOVED their new cozy blankets.  It was sweet to see Olive share her talents with others.

Olive + Grandma

Olive + Nana

9. Sundog #2 on the way home from work!

10. Always nosey.  That pink little nose doesn't miss anything.

11. Leo wants to be playing games 24/7.  This week was Guess Who and Blokus.  He says forget about the dishes and the laundry, let's just play.

12. Galentine's Day!  I met up with my besties for a litttle road trip dinner and dessert.  We each came with our favorite treats to gift to the group.  I brought two of my favorite candies and a variety box of my favorite homemade cookies.  They were a hit!

We got festive treats, lip gloss, hand sewn items and the yummiest snacks!

13. I baked for friends and teachers this week.  All of my favorite cookies in one spot.

14. We have Valentine's Day parties galore today!  I'm giving out these to my class.  I hope they love the little bears.

15. I am not a morning person at all.  So when my alarm goes off at 5:30, the only thing keeping me going is knowing that I'll get to hang out with these two for a bit while I get ready.  They hear my alarm and head to my bathroom.  Sweet brothers!

I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day weekend!  See you back here next week!

Linking up with Momfessionals

Leo Says

Leo makes us laugh and says things that are clever and funny all the time.  I keep a running list on my phone so I don't forget them.  He's really into Peppa Pig lately so he's speaking like a little British boy.  Asking for a lovely snack, asking when we are going on holiday, calling zebras zeh-bras, can we mend this? when something breaks and more.

Retending = pretending

Honey bears = Teddy Grahams

Sweet Fish = Swedish Fish

Re-raser = eraser

We were on a nightly neighborhood walk just me and Leo.

We walked past some older boys playing basketball in a driveway.

Leo yells Whud up, Noah!?! like he was a junior high boy.

My butt is a volcano.  It keeps erupting.

I'm obsessed with BINGO.

I am a puzzle master.

I'm a little bit of an expert at eating.

I'm not berry sure about this.

Mom, does God have a playlist in heaven?

I can write the whole alphabet and number-bet.

So good and so testy (tasty)!

He found his school papers in the trash can and said - Hey!  I worked berry hard on those!

I gave Leo a hug and a kiss in the hall one day at school.

He replied - No kisses in the hall, Mrs. Jordan.

I'm going to be a home man when I grow up.

What's that?

A guy who stays home.

If you're not listening to Leo, he'll grab your face an say listen to my rules!

Hey Mom!  God hasn't spoken to me in a while.

I guess I need to read my Bible.

Are you tired after a long day of school?

I'm tired of school.

He loves to ask Alexa questions-

Alexa, what's inside of a pickle?

Alexa, can you eat a tarantula?

Alexa, how many feathers are on a turkey?

Alexa, is God ever sad?

Alexa, how far away is heaven?

Alexa, why do we burp?

The baby of the family is a born entertainer.

Bell's Palsy

Remember back in December when I said I had some weird health stuff going on?

It was wild and I'm finally ready to talk about it.

December 9 - I woke up with a really stiff neck. I thought I slept on it funny.  It was very painfu for days.

December 11 - ugly sweater day at work!  I sent a friend this picture and thanked her for the pretty bow earrings in the morning.

Half way through the day, here's where things got weird.

My lips and tongue went all tingly.

My left side of my whole face was tingling.

My left eye nearly swelled shut.

My heart was racing.

All while I was teaching.  

My students were totally unaware that I wasn't feeling well and I was really thankful to have an assistant who could take over for me.

I tried not to panic, but I was panicking.  

I replayed everything I ate and everything I encountered to see if I was allergic to anything new.  I googled symptoms and tried hard to convince myself that I wasn't having a stroke.  I left the classroom and called Kevin.  My heart was racing and I felt awful.  I couldn't figure out if I was having an allergic reaction or what.  I visited the school nurse where she gave me allergy meds.  Then I decided I had to go home after chatting with my principal.  I zoomed home and went to bed.

Leaving school after making arrangements for the boys to get home.  I texted my team and asked them to pray for me.

Things didn't get worse for the next couple of days.  My eye stayed swollen and then my face was so tingly.  My neck and arms also went tingly.  I would wake up with my arms being numb.  It was just alarming.  My sister has had Bell's Palsy so I kept sending her goofy pictures like this one to check on my face movement.  The only thing that got droopy was my left eye lid and left under eye.  

I kept going to work, swollen eye and taking allergy meds to help.  I kept waking up in a panic expecting my left side of my face to droop.

December 13 - I headed to urgent care on the weekend because my tingling arms were getting worse and my eye was still droopy.  I saw a very kind doctor who consulted a few people there and confirmed she thought I had early onset Bell's Palsy.  She started me on some anti-viral medication and strong steroids for a few weeks.  She said every case of Bell's Palsy is different so she couldn't tell me if I'd get worse, if my symptoms would last 2 weeks or 2 months.  Some people require physical therapy to get better, acupunture for some and then others just have a mild case.  We'd just have to wait and see for me.  She said I made the right call to come in and not ignore my symptoms.  I might have teared up because it had been a stressful few days of googling my symptoms.

Side note: I have a complicated history with Shingles (I've had them 3 or 4 times on the back of my neck on the left side) and I had a fever blister on the left side a couple weeks prior to this tingling started.  She urged me to visit the doctor ASAP in the future should I have any Shingles/Bell's Palsy type symptoms so I can get on an anti viral medication and steroids ASAP.

A week later I followed up with my primary care doctor to do a full panel of blood work, medication check and general well check as a second opinion.  All of my test results came back with great news and she confirmed that I had a mild case of Bell's Palsy - where I just have tingling and very little drooping.  I didn't even know that was possible, but now I do.

My symptoms ended up lasting for about a month.  I had numbness and tingling in my face and arms for about the whole time.  My neck was stiff and sore for most of that time.  My eye swelling and drooping got better.  I never ended up with major face drooping and was able to work and carry on with life pretty normally.  I'm so thankful I had a mild case.

So all this to say, if you ever have similar symptoms, head to the doctor ASAP to figure out what's going on and get on the right meds for you.  Catching it early will ease the symptoms and shorten the life of your symptoms.