The McMillins

Gretchen has made it a New Year's Resolution to save as much money on everything that she can this year. One of those ways is to get better at "couponing" and sales. There is a website that she goes to everyday called, http://www.southernsavers.com/ . This website shows all the sales ads of grocery stores, drugstores, all kinds of different stores (including Internet sites) and then coupons that you can use on top of those sales (both manufacturer and store coupons). There have been several things that she's been able to get for free by doing this. They also have a link to a coupon if it is available to print online. It's been VERY helpful.

It is very time consuming but she has fun doing it. Plus, it gives her something to do late at night when she can't go to sleep and everyone else is in bed. :)

Leah has a personality similar to Zach's. She's so funny and loves to make you laugh. Gretchen was giving her a bath and she kept tilting her head and smiling. It was too cute.

Within the past month, Gretchen has gotten a pretty bad skin rash from scratching so much. She has scratched so much that she has scabs all over her. It started on the back of her neck and the elbow of her left arm along with part of her forearm. It has now spread to her chest and is starting to go to her shoulders. The doctor thinks she's allergic to the new hormones going into her body from the pregnancy. The doctor told her to take benadryl or zyrtec, as long as it isn't a de-congestant, and to put hydrocortizone on the areas 3 times a day.

The benadryl seems to make her drowsy and the zyrtec doesn't seem to work as well as the benadryl. She bought the strongest hydro-cortizone cream possible but it makes the areas sting b/c of the open wounds from scratching and it seems to make her itch even more after it's dried. She bought some Gold Bond medicated anti-itch cream that seems to be giving her some relief so far. She goes back to the doctor next week to see how the rash is doing. If it's not better, the doctor plans on sending her to the dermatologist.

Please pray that this will go away. She is miserable and we don't want to spend more money going to a dermatologist if we don't have to.

Gretchen just found out from a friend who is also homeschooling that she doesn't HAVE to teach for 4.5 hours per day. You only have to do that if you are going through the public school system to homeschool. Since we're apart of a homeschool association, we're apart of the "third option" which means as long as we have 180 days of school and certain subjects (which we're doing all of them) then we don't have any stipulation as to how long or short school has to be. Gretchen was so relieved of that.

So far, she likes homeschooling. We're thinking of putting Zach into school next year since we'll have 2 little ones but Gretchen doesn't want to make that decision until she has to. As of now, she wants to homeschool next year too and already has most of the curriculum anyway. So, it only makes sense.

ANOTHER BABY!!! Yes, we can't believe it either but we're excited!

Gretchen is due February 11, 2010. We don't know yet if she'll have to have a c-section or if she'll be able to have a VBAC. We'll see once she goes to the doctor's. We'll try to post some pics of our trip soon. Sorry for the delay. Gretchen has been really tired lately!!

Last week we had a pretty scary thing happen with Zach. Gretchen was upstairs and Zach called for her to come down to the bathroom where he was at. Zach had just gone pee and right afterward his penis started bleeding. So, Gretchen took him to the doctor immediately.

They had to do a urinalysis and they had to draw blood. The urinalysis showed blood in his urine, but not visibly only by testing it. The drawing blood part was a horrible experience. He watched them put the needle in his arm, which made things so much worse. Then, it obviously hurt and he pulled his arm back which jerked the needle out of his arm. He screamed so loud and then was crying so hard that he couldn't breathe. Leah started crying with him. He told Gretchen that he didn't want to do it but Gretchen told him that he had to and that she was right there with him. So, he ended up sitting on her lap. She kept telling him not to look at the needle but you know how curious kids are. Finally, she got him calmed down after he starred at the wall and didn't look at the needle. He was still shaking when he was getting in the truck to leave. What a little trooper!!

The doctor went ahead and put him on an antibiotic that afternoon b/c he figured it was some kind of infection. When he pressed on Zach's abdomen, Zach felt some pain. So, the doctor's office called on Monday and said that his bloodwork came back positive for strep infection. They said just to continue taking the antibiotics and he should be fine.

We are so thankful that his body showed some sort of sign so that we knew something was wrong. Sometimes, people don't show any signs of strep infection and it can be fatal infection. We're so glad he's on the mend now. Although, he thinks just b/c he's not bleeding anymore that he doesn't have to take the medicine. Boy is he wrong!!! lol