what happened to you!!!

Ben came home with another missing tooth today.  I didn't even know this one was loose!  He also has a bruised eye, not sure how that happened!  A black eye and a missing tooth....It looks like he has had a rough week and it is only Monday!!!

***update***

Tonight while eating pasta for dinner, Ben says, "hey mom!  I don't even have to open my mouth to eat.  I can just suck it through my hole."

Katy and God

Katy talks about God often.  And as usual, some of what she has to say cracks me up!!!  So here are a few a little stories.

• Today while looking through some pictures that I needed to scan into the computer for my Uncle Ron's memory book I found this picture from Katy's baptism.  On the back of the picture I found a note that I had written about a comment that Katy made in 2009 after looking at it.

Katy's quote:  "Why is Jesus holding Abby?"

• The other day, we were filling her perscription at Wal-mart when the greeter came over to talk to us.  She mentioned the snow that was coming, and Katy was not happy about the prospect of more snow and responded, "Is God crazy?"

• Katy got in trouble the other day (don't remember why now.)  Anyway, when I asked her why she did what she did, she responded, "That's just the way God made me!"



today's happiness 2/26/11

*Getting to Ben's basketball game just in time to see him score!
*Finding a new hair stylist that I like after 4 years of searching!

*Watching my sweet little girl nap on the couch!

*Watching the original Karate Kid with our kids!
*Eating an entire pan of the best brownies ever before dinner (~not by myself!!!)
*Listening to the boys play Star Wars upstair while the girls played games downstairs!
*Not having anyone cry while playing games despite being knocked back to start or losing!
*Having ice cream for dessert (even though we already ate all of the brownies!)

It was a nice lazy Saturday...

punctuation humor

While Chris was getting dressed to take Ben to Basketball practice, Ben was trying to convince his dad to skip practice and let him go to Culver's early.  He wanted to see a friend there who was going earlier than we were for the Lincoln Culver's Fundraiser Night.  After much bickering, Chris finally said, " We are going to practice and then Culver's, PERIOD!"  Ben then asks, "Why did you say 'period?'"  Chris just laughed and said, "good question!"  Then Ben says, "What are you going to wear to practice, question mark?"

Katy's ears

Katy had her ear check up today.  The bad news is she has another ear infection. She also, continues to have negative pressure in her left ear caused partly because of the infection and partly because her ear drum did not heal properly after having her tumor removed.  This negative pressure continues to cause her to hear like we would if our ears were "popped" from flying.  Until recently, this hasn't bothered her.  However, a week or two ago, was the first time she could verbalize this feeling.  After a big yawn, she said something to me and startled herself by how loud her voice was to her after the yawn equalized the pressure in her ear.  She also says she feels like, "little black dots get in her ears and stay there for a while."

At today's visit, they also did a hearing test and found that she does have some hearing loss in her left ear : ( 

The good news is that he decided not to put more tubes in unless she struggles over the summer with ear infections!!!  We will continue to go to the ENT every 3 months to have them checked!!!  Hopefully, at some point we outgrow this!

spoiled

So as mentioned earlier, our garage door broke.  Broke as in beginning to split down the middle, don't put it up because it could crack all the way and fall from the ceiling kind of broke. : (  So, since last Thursday, I have had to park outside.  Normally this wouldn't set well with me.  My van and I are spoiled, and both need to be safe and warm in house at night (and more importantly, warm in the morning when I have to take the kids to school!!!)  However, Friday was a beautiful day, so Katy and I enjoyed being outside washing the van and cleaning out the inside.  And, I was dealing better with the fact that I had to park outside than I was with having to pay over $1000 for a new one.  I really hate replacing things I already have.  Especially, when I am dying to have a new kitchen floor!  So I was a little bitter about the situation, until this morning. 

The beautiful, warm, sunny weather has gone, leaving it snowy and cold once again.  UGH!!!   So, with the van still parked outside, I had to haul all of my kiddos outside to go to school.  As if that wasn't bad enough, the doors were frozen shut...and in that instant my bitter "I don't want to buy a new garage door" attitude changed into "I will pay you whatever you need. Just bring me a new garage door TODAY, please!" And so, after returning home from shuffling all of the kids out of the van's front door in the drop off line at school, I was very pleased to see the garage door repairman coming down the street with my new door! 

This is our new door!  It looks exactly like the old one, but it is made of steel and guaranteed for life!!!

  And, since I won't be sharing my new kitchen floor with eveyone anytime soon now, I will share my new garage door with you!

principal's kids

While dropping Abby and Ben off at school, Katy noticed that the principal was not outside greeting them.  I then noticed that her car was not there either, so I commented that maybe she was at home with a sick kid.  Katy then says, "How can a principal even have kids?"  This totally cracked me up coming from a principal's kid!

picture from Katy's 1st day of 4 year old preschool

a whirlwind week

Yikes, this week was by far one of the craziest in a long time!  I started this month knowing it would be busy, but had it all under control until a few unexpected things happened.

Things began unraveling for me last week while in the midst of the tedious and messy task of working on our taxes. In a conversation with a friend, I found out that there was a job opening posted at Abby and Ben's school.  While, Chris and I had discussed my interest in going back to teaching next year if anything came open, I was not prepared.  So, the millions of tax papers that were scattered about got piled and out came the old resumes. transcripts and certification papers.  This was a super stressful task as it has been almost 12 years since I last looked for a job.  In addition to that, the schools tend to hire quickly and if you don't get in the pool right away, you can miss the boat!  Anyway, after conquering some writer's block and getting the chance to reconnect with former co-workers, I submitted my application and am anxiously waiting.
 
In the middle of this, I received a coupon from Shutterfly for 50% off my photobook, which is equal to about $100, but it was only good until Wednesday and in the several years I've been making photobooks, I've never gotten this big of a coupon!!! Unfortunately, I was a little behind on my 2010 photobook.  (I just finished 2009 over Christmas break!!!)  Anyway, I couldn't pass up this deal, so I spent endless hours downloading pictures and staying up late to create my book.  I did get it done and with all my coupons my $208 book cost me $75, so I was quite pleased (especially since the garage door broke and a new one will cost over $1000) : ( 

Along with my teaching application, my Shutterfly photobook and our taxes, I am also the chairperson for the Carnival Committee at Abby and Ben's school.  This week began all the craziness of getting that organized.  We had Open House Thursday which is our big volunteer sign up day and also one of the days Miss Katy was sick : (

Once Thursday night was over, I was able to breath again.  Then Friday was a my day to regroup!  Katy and I ran to Peoria in the morning to run a few errands, we washed the car and cleaned the house, none of which sound fabulous, but along with the sunshine, it made surprisingly for a very happy, relaxing day!  Friday night I was able to get away for the evening to play Bunco with a fun bunch of girls.  I guess now that I have recovered from the craziness, I need to get back to my taxes and volunteer sign up sheets!!!
 

2010 Photo book

Click here to view this photo book larger

happy valentine's day

Valentine's kisses from Katy

the shirt says it all

Hope you had a love-filled day!



Remembering Uncle Ron

In celebration of Valentine's Day, the daycare kids and I made these fun yarn hearts.  It was the craft on the front of this month's Family Fun magazine (my favorite idea magazine!!!)

After Katy's was dry, I asked her who she wanted to give it to and she responded, "Can we give it to Uncle Ron?"  I am always touched when she remembers him on her own!!!  She then asked if we could hang it in her room next to the windchime that Aunt Jo gave her to always remember him.  So, that is what we did...



Uncle Ron's windchime hangs from Katy's curtain rod.  Whenever she hears it chime, she knows that Ron is thinking about her!

not quite as planned

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays!  Not sure why.  My husband is certainly not the romantic type.  But still I love heart candies (especially the little cinnamon hearts!), picking out valentines cards, getting my kiddos something special that just says "I Love You,"and didn't come off their wish list, and mostly just the thought of everyone being nice and doing something special for the ones they love.  Anyway, this year's Valentine's Day is on a Monday, which means school and work, and a PTO meeting : (, so I decided we would celebrate it early, on Sunday!  Here was my game plan!

• a nice breakfast with egg casserole and big, yummy cinnamon rolls!
• exchanging family valentines
• some arts and crafts
• making Abby's zebra valentines
• manicures/pedicures for the girls
• playtime in the melting snow while enjoying the sunshine
• picking up our babysitter at 5:00 and heading out for a Valentine's dinner date night!

But this is the day that I got....

As I served our delicious breakfast, Ben hunched over his chair in excruciating pain.  It continued for a long time, so I took him to the walk in clinic to be checked out.  I had to carry him in because he was in too much pain to walk or even stand.  Of course, by the time we saw the doctor, the pain had subsided and I felt silly for being there.  She did find he had an ear infection, so at least I felt it wasn't a total waste.  Then as Ben was leaving the bathroom, he fell to the floor again crying in pain.  The doctor decided that he need to be seen in the ER, so off we went. 

While every parent dreads the ER, I was especially dreading it because of the horrible experience we had when I took Katy in for stitches in her chin.  Luckily, this time the doctor had called ahead and we only had to wait a few minutes (not hours like poor Katy and her split open chin).  They put in an IV and gave him some morphine for the pain.  When I told him how an IV works, he asked, "So does that mean I won't be thirsty for a long time?"  He was then able to take a little nap which was good because the rest of our visit was anything but quick!  After doing a sonogram and NOT finding his appendix, they decided it was bowel spasms caused by a virus.   

It was then approaching 3:00, Ben was very hungry because he hadn't been able to eat anything since the night before.  They did bring him a turkey sandwich, lemon pudding, a little tub of peanut butter and a couple crackers right before he was discharged, but he wasn't too interested in that.  He wanted McDonalds!!! So, Dad took him on the way home.

Once home, he felt fine!  It was beautiful outside and I was really in need of some fresh air after being in the hospital all day!  So, we went out to enjoy one of the last days with all of our snow!  We made a snowman, built a snow fort, and had a snowball fight. 

The fun ended when Abby got hit in the face with a snowball!!!

While I thought our day couldn't get more exciting, it did!!!  Just as I was getting ready to make dinner (cancelled the sitter and dinner reservations), we discovered water dripping from Abby's ceiling.  Our attic was full of snow and sopping wet insulation.  Evidently, when we had our blizzard, the snow blew into the ridge vent on the roof.  So, the next 2 hours were spent cleaning a nasty wet mess out the attic.

We then ended our night with a very late dinner courtesy of Domino's (the kids choice)  and valentine's presents, including a special package from Nana and Papa!  Hopefully, everyone went to bed feeling loved!  I went to bed feeling exhausted, but thankful that Ben was okay and we didn't need a new roof! 

a change of pace!

Today we decided to trade in our snowpants for swimsuits! 

Katy was invited to a birthday party at the Riverplex, so we decided to make it a family affair!  The kids had a great time splashing around, going down the big slide and relaxing in the lazy river.  However, at the end we had a little case of "the grass being greener on the other side!"  Abby and Ben were jealous that Katy got to go in to the party room for cake and ice cream with her friends, while they were "stuck" swimming!  And, Katy was upset that Abby and Ben got to swim longer!!!  Sometimes we just can't win!

Trees

Despite having tucked Katy and Ben in their beds at least 100 times, they kept getting out to come to our room where Chris was watching tv.  In an effort to get them to go back to bed, Chris said, "Make like a tree and leave." Katy then stood in her spot with her arms out and said, "Trees just stay.  They can't walk." 

They continued to argue with their dad for at least 5 minutes claiming that they couldn't go because he said they were trees!   Then I hear Katy coming down the stairs singing, "I'm a very special log, I'm a very special log!"  Evidently, Abby rescued her dad by coming in to cut down the trees and help get them to go to bed!

my very special log/comedian

Snow FUN!!!

Now that we are shoveled out and the wind chill is not -20, it is time to enjoy what mother nature brought us!

In our backyard there is a steep hill that is great for sledding, but only if the creek at the bottom is completely frozen! Some years, the creek doesn't freeze and we don't get to go, but today we discovered we were in luck, so we headed out with our one sled!! (not sure why we have 3 kids and only 1 sled!) 

Yes, this is our sweet Abby dumping her little sister out of the sled...

Mom and Katy's turn!  It was fun, but really we are laughing so hard because dad fell flat on his back side while trying to take our picture! 

 dad's turn...superman style

imprint dad left in the snow!

The ice is very slippery!  The kids had a hard time staying on their feet!

 Abby didn't get to stay outside very long!  She was standing on the ice when Ben came sledding down the hill and crashed into her making her fall face first on the ice...ouch...Luckily, she is okay!

 As the kids would come down the hill they would slide across the ice and up the other side into the snow! 

 Katy thought she would be brave and go head first, but she got scared and turned herself around!



Katy loved riding down with her tongue out in hopes of catching a few snowflakes!

When everyone was tired of climbing back up the hill, we headed in for a yummy dinner of crockpot lasagna, and then headed to the roller rink for some rollerskating.  Needless to say, we went to bed tired (and sore!)

Me and My Guy Dance

Last night was the annual Girl Scout's Me and My Guy Dance.  This year's theme was sports, which made Chris a little bit happier about dressing up!  Chris and Abby had a dinner date at Steak and Shake before the dance.  Then danced the night away in Jefferson's gym.

Every year, this night makes Katy very sad because she does not get to go dance with daddy too.  So, this year the rest of us rented movies, made pizza and cuddled on the couch, which made everyone happy!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris's birthday presents...
* 3 snow days!!!  He still went to work, but had 3 days without teachers and students!
*his driveway shoveled for him
*a yummy chocolate cake (with only 6 candles on it b/c Katy was concerned if we put 36 on it, we wouldn't have enough for her birthday!)
*a blue ray player
*a new coffee maker because his died a couple days earlier!
*a new blender for his frappe maker
*a relaxing night watching a Duke game
*a groundhog predicting an early Spring...(hoping he's right this year!)

The snow has arrived!

Yesterday, we waited for our huge snow storm to arrive.  All day the snow blew like crazy, but it didn't start accumulating until dark.  The snow plows in our county stopped plowing at dusk due to white out conditions and evidently our town plows weren't out much either as a car got stuck in the middle of our street.  They tried to dig out but it was hopeless, so they abandoned it.  When I got up this morning, they were being plowed/pulled out.

Today is also Chris's birthday!!!  So I offered to snow blow the driveway for him.  When I went outside, I was pleasantly surprised to see that someone had partially plowed our driveway!!!  Huge thanks to whoever that awesome person was!  Unfortunately, the snowblower ran out of gas soon after I started, so I had to shovel = (  While, I was finishing up a family came walking down the street carrying shovels and pulling along their snowblower to help people dig out!  It is so nice to know we are surrounded by generous, thoughtful people!!!

 This is what the driveway looked like when I went out!

a future snow fort

Happy Birthday Chris!!! 

 

 You can go really fast down an ice covered slide!