A Good Day

IC's smile says it all.

Today was a pretty good day. We headed to our local high school late this morning to see my nephew wrestle in a round robin tourny. The kids of course, started to get bored after awhile, esp. E-bunny, whose naptime was emminent. But, I enjoyed visiting with my SIL and seeing her husband and both nephews. They got to see my kids and hubby, which was good since they won't be coming to Christmas at the in-laws tomorrow, as her husband's family has some health issues. We got to see my nephew wrestle and win that match. It was also good for IC to see what wrestling is really like.

We got home mid-afternoon and proceeded to go play in the snow after a snack. Apparently, my BIL decided to take his daughter on the snow pile in our yard, and with the extra snow from the last few days, made it possible to run the sled down the length of the snow "hill". The kids LOVED it, esp. E-bunny. It's possible that child will be my daredevil, doing things to scare her mother constantly.

This was a definate betterness to the day compared to yesterday. At the evening time of yesterday, first, E-bunny slipped out of her booster seat lap belt AGAIN. So, I pulled out the chair to put her back in, she lost her balance, fell, hit the edge of the kitchen table with her forehead, then proceeded to hit the floor with her head also, giving herself a big bump on her head, above the table mark.

And the story's not done. After supper, Miss A and E got into a tussle, a little wild and E bunny defended herself by biting Miss A-in the middle of her forehead! Really. She has 2 bite marks on her forehead.

Luckily, there were no bite marks tonite-an attempt or 2, but no permanent or bruising marks.

Tuesday

You know, it'd be a more awesome day if it wasn't for the fact that there's another storm coming our way. I feel like we haven't even had Christmas yet. We still have 3 family Christmas's to go to-one Thursday, one Friday and one Sunday. I don't want to think about the possibility of having to postpone them AGAIN.

The wind isn't blowing today, which is awesome, but it's much colder today.

Since we got power back last night, the kids actually and FINALLY got to sleep in their own beds. This was great for the older 2 who slept well, but E-bunny, well, she decided to fuss most of the night. Mommy's dragging a little today and has only accomplished working on the MOUNTAIN of laundry piled in the basement.

E bunny is now yelling from her crib to be picked up from her nap. I'm still surprised she hasn't just decided to climb out herself. She can climb in when the side is down. I suppose I should let her out, but after all the stuff she got into this morning, I'm reluctant. What a stinker!

Monday Madness

This is in one our pastures, just catty corner from our house. The snow drift is as high as the trees. Under that drift is the pond, where the cattle drink from, which is a lower area. Good thing the cows are at home right now, instead of there.

This is the snow piled high in front of our front yard. We have a deep ditch there and it drifted higher than the ditch, plus the snow from the road is piled on top.

It's madness, for sure. Five long days without electricity, living on limited generator power, kids living exclusively downstairs, no place to go - it all gets to a person.

BUT, we got out today-hooray! We got started out on our road, which had been plowed, but had drifted in in several places. HIGH drifts, like I followed the tracks while the bottom of the van precariously drug through the snow. I got to the 1st intersection south of the house and kept going as that particular road to the highway was worse than the one I was on. I got to a few feet from the end of the next mile, had to accelerate to make it through the snow drift, hit an icy patch, did a 180 in the van and landed in the neighbor's shallow ditch. Oh yea, I'm having fun now. And, lucky me, the kids were along. The girls didn't really notice it, but IC commented he didn't like it. And, we were stuck in the snow. I called JJ and he headed out to dig us out.

In the meantime, I called the back doctor and told her I'd be late, the neighbors came out and checked on us (he couldn't get his tractor started to pull us out, but we were ok waiting) and the BIL passed right by us and didn't stop. Yeah, I'm real thrilled to be related to him.

Anyway, JJ got there after about 20 minutes, dug us out and pulled us out with the pickup. He then made sure I got to the highway safely, as the next road to the highway was much more clear. And then, it was on to my mom's! The highway was pretty good in most spots, as the plows had been diligent about clearing them since Sunday.

We got to mom's and I dropped off the kids, who'd been thrilled to get out of the house also. I then headed to the medium city, got my back adjusted, hair cut and walmart supplies. I went home first, as the drifts had been cleared and unpacked stuff before going to mom's to get the kids. They were in the middle of baths (God bless my mother) so that was finished before we headed home.

As it turns out, the power was restored about noon-HOORAY! Finally, laundry can get done. It was a good day after a rough start. Just what I needed to keep from losing my mind after 5 days stuck at home.

It's Sunday, I think

This is the drift just north of the house, directly over my flower garden. The kids and I decided to make a snow fort on the one side. Of course, E-bunny is in charge and at the top-of trying to demolish it!

I think it's Sunday. It's kinda hard to tell, as one day looks the same as the other past 4 days have. I'm really tired of not having full power, washing dishes by hand, trying to bed the kids down in the living room because it's too cold upstairs, and looking at the mountain of laundry still growing. Sigh. I know, I have it so easy compared to those without power and no generator, but STILL. I kinda lost it today, with the kids fighting over everything and not being able to go anywhere. I feel like we haven't even had Christmas yet. We actually still have 3 Christmases to get through and then it will be Miss A's birthday.

I was a scrooge today and took down the Christmas tree and the few decorations I had up. With the kids sleeping in the livingroom, we were needing the room, so I took it down. And I just didn't feel like having it out anymore, as we couldn't have the lights on anyway.

I am hoping to get started on E-bunny's baby book, being as I haven't gotten anywhere on it yet. It's terrible.

Tomorrow, I am really hoping to go to the medium city. I need my back adjusted, a hair cut and some regular supplies. I am hoping the snow plows get through the roads so I can go and I hope I can leave the kids at my mom's. We'll see how things go.

If I never see snow again . . . .

This is the snow drift out my north kitchen window (that I couldn't see out of yesterday). It is right on top of my flower garden and is a little taller than me (5'4")!

Miss A trying to get out of the garage door. The drift in front carries all the way to our back door.

Miss A trying to make a snow angel.

If I never see snow again, it will be too soon! Day 3 of generator power, snow is still falling and blowing. It's not as bad as yesterday, but it's still limiting visibility a lot and making dangerous driving conditions-not to mention the deep snow drifts that are present.

The kids had to camp out yesterday in the livingroom and it was 11 pm before they all finally crashed. The older 2 were wild most of the evening-cabin fever being the culprit. There wasn't any way that they were going to go outside yesterday and possibly not much today, either. I'm feeling like it will be another long day. It's too cold to play upstairs and even with new toys, the kids are more apt to get bored with the limited resources. Let's just say they've gotten to watch a month's worth of TV in a few days' time! Sometimes, that's all you can do to save your sanity!

At least, I turned on the computer for a little while. It won't be on for long, though. JJ's out scooping snow as best as he can, as it's still blowing it everywhere. We're supposed to go to my mother's tomorrow for Christmas and I hope we can, as we need to get out-I'm going crazy here!

Christmas

I think this was the only picture I got of IC where his back wasn't to me. For some reason this year he always had his back toward the camera and this one where he's not is blurry!

E-bunny "helping" Daddy unwrap his gift.

Christmas afternoon hanging at home. Playing new leapster games and watching TV.

The view outside of the back door all day.

The view out of the north kitchen windows overlooking the flower garden.

The view outside ALL DAY-this faces the north out the front door and that's as far as we could see.

The hooligans "supposedly" bunked down for the night, ready for bed-yeah, right. They changed positions at least 50 more times before they FINALLY went to sleep.

Christmas day started early when IC got up at 6 am. By 6:30, he was ready to open gifts, and E was fussing herself away anyway, so we roused Miss A and headed downstairs to the warmth and opening of gifts.

I'd say the kids did well from us and Santa and they had fun. Although, Miss A had more fun w/E bunny's gifts, seeming to take over them as well as her own. I think next time, I'll just have to give them the same things so maybe Miss A will let E play with her own toys! I actually had gifts to open this year, which was nice. Often times, JJ waits 'til last minute to get something for me and then I get it after Christmas. He barely made it this time, as the UPS man showed up on Christmas Eve right before the weather started to get really bad.

After the flurry of gifts, JJ headed out IN THE BLZZARD to take care of the animals and was out all day. Yes, it officially was a blizzard today-we could only see out to the driveway and that is not very far. The wind was awful and bitter, blowing snow everywhere. By the afternoon, it got dark in the kitchen because the snow was blowed up and covering the windows. I was feeling claustrophobic by the end of the day. JJ spent the afternoon inside and we just stayed in each other's company. We were supposed to go to my in-laws, but it's postponed for awhile.

Thank God for generators-we'd have frozen without it! Even with it, though, the laundry is piling precariously high, as we can't run the washer, dryer, dishwasher, upstairs heat and haven't had the computer on, either. I miss my modern conveniences.

Brown Day

Christmas eve started out early for us-5 am! We awoke to the lovely hum of low voltage this am and soon JJ was out in the cold and wind to get us hooked up the generator. We run on limited power, so no extras, few lights and no heat upstairs.

The kids stayed in most of the day, but were able to go outside while it was a little decent yet. But by 4 pm, the weather had gotten worse and we made the decision not to go to Christmas Eve service at church, even though the choir was supposed to sing 2 songs. It just didn't seem like Christmas eve at all-it was tough for me not to go.

By 5:30, the power blinked back on and we were off the generator . . . for a few hours. We were able to turn the furnace on upstairs and the kids could comfortably go to bed. Then, it was time to put presents out and for JJ to wrap mine. The power had been blinking since it came back on and we knew it wasn't going to last. By 9 pm, JJ was back to hooking up the generator and I added several extra blankets to the kids' beds.

This Angel

This is the angel that gets into my purse all the time and yesterday pulled out my pack of gum, unwrapped 2 pieces and proceeded to chew them w/a rather peculiar look on her face until I fished them out of her mouth and then she proceeded to get mad.

This is the angel that can push the kitchen chair up to the cupboard, and get into anything on it-including blue frosted cookies and smear the frosting all over her mouth and not eat the actual cookie.

This is the angel that jumps onto the rocking chair (pictured above) and proceeds to jump on the back of the chair until it nearly flips over.

This is the angel that can spit, pull hair and bite with the best (or worst) of them.

This is the angel that climbs the cubby with toys in it so that she can get at anything that she's not supposed to that's sitting on the piano.

This is the angel that pulls ornaments off the Christmas tree daily, even though they are only on the upper half of the tree out of her reach.

This is the angel that finds a way to either mess w/Mommy's computer or get into her scrapbooking stuff the minute she's not looking.

This is the angel that takes books - IC's, Miss A's, her own, Mommy's cookbooks, etc and proceeds to be possessive of them for an extended period of time and often rips at LEAST one page, or bends the book, etc. daily.

This is the angel that loves to take stuff she isn't supposed to have, run to hide in a corner, and check it out, put it in her mouth, etc until you take it away and then she screams.

This is the angel that screams more often than not when things don't go the way she wants, which is often.

This is the angel that has figured out how to turn on Mommy's cell phone and has tried to call people on it.

This is the angel that I couldn't imagine being without.

Snow Day 1

JJ dragging a huge branch out of the way.

IC on the phone-he did good except for accidently hanging up the phone once.

Miss A already looking like an expert phone talker. We'd better watch out!

E getting comfort from Daddy, as she didn't get to talk on the phone!

It's kinda been a long day today. Last night, it started raining, sleeting, something yucky. This morning we awoke to a couple inches of slush on the ground and ice weighing down the tree branches. THEN it started to snow at 9:30. By 1 pm, it had quit, but JJ informed me we're in the eye of the storm. And set to have another round of snow before too long. Joy. To. The. World. The ice has already claimed 2 big tree branches and I wouldn't be surprised if more fell later on.

The kids were getting bored already this morning, so I called our friends in Texas to say hello. I talked for awhile, then handed the phone to IC to talk to his friend B. Then, Miss A got to talk to Miss A for awhile. Miss A got upset that it was time to hang up the phone at dinner, but it was time. It really boosted their day to talk to their friends-the kids really miss them.

The kids don't seem inclined to go outside to play, but I will have to try to get them out, as it's currently quiet at 3:30 pm and not doing much. Tomorrow, it's supposed to be windy and they definately will not be going out if that's the case. Last time it blew snow it was awful.

Christmas Vacation 1 Day Early

Well, we're starting Christmas vacation 1 day early. The school called at 3:10, which is dismissal time and said that school was cancelled for tomorrow. IC was happy, even though the kids didn't have their Christmas party at school yet and will have to have it in January. Now, I am faced with children trapped in the house most likely the next 2 days-gonna have to come up with some activities in between house cleaning in order to keep from going insane. Or the kids from trying to kill each other. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to put them to work. Well, I can dream, can't I?

Wild Day

It could be wild today. Or at least, start out that way. I took the kids to school with the misty, foggy yucky day starting dismal and just plain ick. I decided to go ahead and get a boat load of groceries because it looks as if we will be getting more serious snowfall in the next couple of days. Possibly up to 14"-I am hoping the weather man is WRONG this time. It looks as if the kids might get out a day early for Christmas. If it gets icy like the forecast says, there won't be school tomorrow. Tomorrow is just half a day anyway, so they wouldn't miss much. Many schools got out on Friday already, but like always, we're supposed to go 'til tomorrow. Today is Miss A's last day, though, bad weather or not.

Back to this day. I swear there's like 5 people in the yard this morning-you'd think this farm was busy, important or something! My BIL is moving pigs, which does look like a production usually, plus his hired help is here today, plus my FIL apparently skipped coffee time this morning and is here, hubby is out there and so is a feed guy. Of course, they are all trying to get the worst of the work done before this forecasted storm hits. JJ is working at getting hay, straw, etc to the cows for extra feed, putting the heifers and some cows close by that will be calving soon, etc. Busyness, makes for a busy yard. Sure beats the days when there's not a soul around to be found. We are supposed to go to my MIL's for Christmas, but if this storm hits, and my SIL can't come, they might put it off. More snow could mean a lot of people spend Christmas at home this year. A white Christmas is nice, but it would be swell if the snow would stay off the roads!

Miss A's Moment to Shine

This morning was Miss A's preschool Christmas program. This was supposed to be last week, but it was postponed due to weather and lack of practice from missing school days due to weather. So, instead of all the children together, they split the morning and afternoon classes and had the morning kids sing this morning and the afternoon kids sing in the afternoon, since this is during school time. This took place in the music room instead of the gym. It was cute and the kids did very well. I was glad she could sing in her program today.

The afternoon will be filled with picking IC up and from school and getting flu boosters for h1n1. Hopefully, the older 2 can have the flu mist, as they are difficult to hold down for shots.

This evening is Miss A's dance class. At least, we'll get to be home a little before having to go back to town to take her. The main drawback is that we'll be driving to town 4 times today-it's a good thing we only live 3 miles out of town!

Sunday fun !?!

Sunday was the day we played the bells during service. It turned out much much much better than the last song. It was nice-sounding and we also sang nicely for our choir song that we hadn't practiced much and was making our choir director nervous beforehand. She was getting grouchy prior to our performance-which just usually means she was worried. But we pulled it off nicely.

As soon as we were done singing, JJ and I grabbed the kids and headed to the big city. Of course, it took almost 15 minutes to get them pottied, dressed and settled in the car! We stopped at medium town to eat KFC before heading on. We got to big city just in time to meet with our land ladies at one of their homes (wow-I wish our home was that big and nice!). After 2 hours, the kids were getting wild and after prying JJ off the chair, we headed to the mall to get my engagement ring checked at Zales. It's a thing we do every 6 months-free deal they have for buying your ring there. After leaving the very busy mall, we headed to Office Depot for JJ to get my Christmas present. Of course, they were out and sent us clear across town to the other store for it. We got there and THEY WERE CLOSED. This was inconvenient, to say the least. We headed back to medium town then and ate at McDonald's, which overall, wasn't the happiest meal time, either. Then, of course, to Wal-Mart. We prefer not to go to Wal-mart in the big city-it's SO incredibly busy NO MATTER what time of year-I can imagine yesterday was twice as worse. We ran through the store, as I needed a few things to get by until next week when I go for the regular trip. IC had been planning to go and get me a gift from the kids in Wal-mart, but changed his mind last minute. I don't know if he's cooking something up with JJ and they are getting something somewhere else, which would probably mean something in our town, which, there isn't a lot to choose from. Christmas MIGHT have a surprise for me this year, I guess we'll see.

We got home around 7:45 and ramroded the older 2 to bed. Since E had 2 naps, it was harder to get her to bed, but I think she was asleep by 11. It was a long, sometimes good, sometimes not day. Typical for us.

A Christmas visit & a playdate

We had a nice visit with JJ's aunt and uncle after dinner today. They brought the kids each a fleece blanket for a present. JJ's aunt makes her living by sewing, so we often get something sewn from them. They are very nice. A blue one w/fish & frogs on it for IC, one with pink, yellow, blue & green bears on it for Miss A, and a cute one with tan bunnies & bears on it for E-bunny.

After they left, I put E down for a long overdue nap and tried to work on packing stuff for tomorrow's jaunt inbetween loads of laundry and playing Barbie's with Miss A. Miss A is rather bossy and I distinctly do not like to play Barbies with her-it drives me crazy. IC went out to play in the snow BY HIMSELF. This, in itself, is remarkable. He always wants someone to go out with him. Anyway, after awhile, he was back and ready to play Barbies, which drove Miss A to play Littlest Pet Shop instead. Of course, then HE wanted ME to play Barbies. So, I tried, between loads of laundry, and having a snack and getting ready for tomorrow. Also known as Peat & Repeat.

By a blessing of God, the pastor's wife just called, wanting to know if my 2 oldest want to play with her 2 youngest-the kids are the same age as each other. Her timing was divine, as the kids were getting to the point of fighting again. IC always seems to provoke Miss A (or vise versa) the minute I walk out of the room. I accepted and they just left for 1 hour. It will still be a good quiet hour, even if I do have to get E up momentarily. oh well.

Did I mention what the 2 older hooligans did this am? Let me tell you, I was steamed by the time JJ came home for dinner and of course, he didn't think it was worth getting steamed over. First, they all 3 climbed into E's crib at the same time! We were lucky the bed didn't break, especially since it's not our crib! It's my SIL's. I would be mortified if we broke it. Next, they messed up the beds I'd just made up there-ALL of them. And if you know how hard it is to make a top bunk bed, you know that tearing it up was NOT appreciated. Lastly, (that I know of), they popped one of the support boards that hold up the top bunk mattress up out of the bed! Apparently, IC pushed his feet against it and popped it out. They did ALL of this while I was in the kitchen for 20 minutes making dinner! It's amazing how much damage can be done in such a short amount of time!

Let's just say, it's good they got away for an hour this afternoon!

Weekend plans

We actually have weekend plans-can you believe it? Very scary for us. Today, Saturday, is a morning of running to town to take the recycling in and get stamps for my Christmas cards, as I ran out-of Christmas cards and stamps, but the rest of the cards will hopefully get here by Christmas Eve. This afternoon is a visit w/JJ's aunt and uncle and exchange gifts. JJ wanted to wait until after Christmas, but they wanted to come before. They don't come to the in-laws for Christmas since the passing of JJ's grandma 8 yrs ago-family fallout thing. Although the feud isn't horrible, it's one of those riduculous ones by both sides and we're kinda caught in the middle. They get together w/us and each of JJ's siblings at a seperate time, rather than during the family gatherings. It's a pain, to say the least, but what can you do? It's their problem.

Tomorrow, I have choir during church and also play in the bell choir for service. After that, we are headed to the big city, hopefully, with all three kids. We need to visit our land landladies and hopefully, JJ will get me a Christmas gift. It would really be nice to open something on Christmas Day. He already knows what he's supposed to get, so hopefully, he can get it tomorrow. With any gift time for me, I have to specifically tell JJ what I want. Otherwise, he really doesn't have a clue.

Frosty the Snowman

Yesterday, I once again, drug the girls outside to play in the snow after IC got home from school (it happens to coincide w/the end of E's naptime). IC decided he didn't want to go out. Apparently 3 recesses at school in the slushy snow was enough. Yes, it's actually warm enough for the snow to really start melting. Yeah! I might get to see the front of the barn before the end of winter after all. Since Miss A has been BEGGING to make a snow man since the first dusting of snow-I was finally able to today. With the melting, the snow was sticky finally enough to put one together. She was thrilled. Not that she looks it on the photo-don't go by that. She probably didn't like that IC was taking it w/my good camera. IC's been into wanting to take photos w/my camera for awhile now. Often, when I am taking it to places, he wants to take a picture of the family. I haven't always let him do it-but he wanted to take it yesterday, so I let him. He does a pretty good job, really. One of these years, I might have to get him a nicer one than the Fisher Price one that he has.

Cute snow fun

Yesterday, I took the kids out to play in the snow after IC got home from school. Of course, the huge snow pile at the end of the yard is still there, as it hasn't been warm enough to melt much. It apparently has melted a little because now E-bunny can climb up it. She has to work a little, but was very proud of herself to be playing where the big kids were and everytime she got up on top of the pile she said "ah-da!" (aka Tada!). Then, when she'd slide, she go "Whee!" It was a hoot!

IEPs, choir caroling, and life in general

Tuesday this week was my IEP meetings for both IC and Miss A. They took place after school and so my MIL babysat while I went to the meetings. Both are doing well and continue to improve in speech, which is why they have IEPs to begin with.

Wednesday evening was bell choir practice, and we will be playing during service this Sunday. It's a very pretty piece, but I don't get to play a lot, so I get a little bored. I like to have several bells to play to keep me busy. After practice, we had Christmas caroling instead of choir practice. We split our group and each went to the nursing homes-one in town and one in the town 8 miles away. Both have members of our church there, so we went to sing. It was very nice and we were appreciated. Afterward, we met back at the church and had ham sandwiches, cookies and apple cider. I enjoyed myself.

Then, I came home. To dirty dishes stacked in the sink, clean dishes still in the dishwasher, and a dark house, except the Christmas lights and the TV on. The mess and lack of a greeting of ANY kind pretty much didn't hit a high note with me and coupled with the frustrations I've had w/JJ lately. I got upset. But, of course, I can't to talk to him about it-it's a long story, but suffice to say, it's a problem we have. He, of course, thinks everything is fine and I have a horrible time telling how I feel. It's been rough the past 2 weeks as he blows off things that I think are important and then later expects me to read his mind and know how he feels. I think I know what's on his mind-it has to do with a combine-but that's just not an excuse to be used all the time.

To add insult to injury, Miss A got home from school today and announced at dinner that she didn't want to sit by me anymore at the table because I bug her. While I shouldn't take that personally, I kinda did anyway. I didn't even DO anything-except ask her to wash her hands before dinner.

I can just about imagine what IC is going to bring home from school today.

We are supposed to go to the big city on Sunday, without the kids, to visit the landlords of the one piece of land we have. I really don't feel like going. I don't know if JJ is going to actually buy me a gift that day or not. I'm the only one who doesn't have any gifts. He's supposed to take the kids shopping for a gift for me, but I don't know if he'll "get" around to it or not. Everyone else has gifts-we are waiting for the gifts cards for the nephews to come in the mail. Unless we have another blizzard, they should be here on time. I got worried about another storm so I ordered them online instead of taking a chance Sunday. After the last storm, I tend to get a little worried when "snow" is mentioned-which there's a chance on Friday again. Maybe it won't do much, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Baking w/Betty Crocker

Miss A helping Mommy make chex mix.

Double batch of ginger snaps.

1 batch of puppy chow

1 batch of ranch chex mix

It's Thursday and the 2nd day I've done some actual baking. Yesterday, Miss A and I started with baking gingersnaps (courtesy of Ms. Crocker), 1 batch of puppy chow and 1 batch of a ranch-flavored chex mix (courtesy of General Mills Chex cereal). :) In the past, I make several kinds of cookies FROM SCRATCH. For real. I really do. I usually peruse the newest Christmas issue of a cooking magazine to find some new cookie recipie to try. I didn't have time to do that last year at all. I depended on my mom to help me make cookies and hard candy. This year, I didn't ask her to do any, nor did I make anything new or by scratch, either. I didn't make much, either. Basically, I am making enough for the teacher's gifts.

Today, we made 2 more batches of chex mix and that's it. I will see if I have enough tonight for all the tins. I am giving a tin w/chex mix to IC's bus driver, Miss A's bus driver, IC's Kindergarten teacher and para, Miss A's teacher & para, IC's Sunday School teacher and 2 S.S. teachers for Miss A (they rotate weeks). That's 9 right there, and earlier, I sent some to our friends in Texas. You know, that's a lot of people to make food for. It really didn't take that long to make things, it's just taking the effort and time out of your crazy day to do it.

Midget Wrestling, here we come

Today, I signed IC up for midget wrestling, at his request, by the way. I am waiting to find out what I need to buy THIS time for THIS sport for him. The secretary at the activities office thought I'd need to find shoes for sure and maybe the head gear, she was going to check. Being as I am a new-to-this-sport mom, I will be contacting my SIL who's 2 boys have wrestled and the one is still wrestling (he's a 9th grader). As a matter of fact, he is coming to our little town on Dec. 30 for a wrestling match at the high school. So, we are going to take a family trip over to the school when my SIL calls with his meet time and go show IC and the other 2 what this wrestling thing is all about.

It looks as if the wrestling practice will be on Tues nites at 7 and the "meets" between the teammates will be on Thurs nites at 7. This will run January through February with the very last Friday being a midget wrestling meet between schools and it will take place at the high school. (Practices and Thurs meets will be at the elementary school). It will definately be interesting.

More new words

E's been adding words again. She just came up with "oh man!" yesterday and it's clear enough to understand! Apparently, she's been paying attention when Miss A watches Dora the Explorer, since that's Swiper's common phrase.

She's also picked up the word,"Mine!" Yeah, I knew it was bound to happen one day, but it still doesn't thrill me.

Disappointing Day

It's shaping up to be a rather disappointing day today. First, the weather didn't start out great-blowing snow, a little snow falling and bitter temps. Well, the temps won't get much better for a few days anyway, although the snow quit falling, it's still blowing. With the weather starting as it did, school was delayed 2 hours. This meant that once again, no school for Miss A.

I had a feeling that was going to be detrimental to the day, as I just got a call from TYKE that Miss A's Christmas program tonight was cancelled and they aren't sure if they will reschedule or not. I am hoping so-it's so not fair that her program was cancelled and she had to sit through IC's and they were both in the Christmas program yesterday. I was hoping she'd get to be in her own thing tonight.

Since school started late, that messed up bible study for me and I chose to skip it today. Having to leave in the middle or not come until it was nearly over seemed riduculous, so I chose not to go, plus I didn't want to drag the girls all that bad, as Miss A will just fight w/E anyway. It's easier for her to do that at home.

So, we are down to 2 activities today-KFC after school and dance class this evening. I don't anticipate KFC cancelling, but not sure about dance.

I understand cancelling the TYKE program, as Miss A's morning group (there's 3 classes of kids) haven't gotten to practice for a week on their songs and don't have a clue what they would have been doing tonight for the program, since they haven't been to school for 4 days. The afternoon classes went to school on Thursday and will today, so they'd have been fine, but not Miss A's groups.

I'm hoping they decide to reschedule it or at least have one later- even January would be fine.

The Christmas Program and a baby calf

This emotionally, physically taxing day is over. Why emotionally? I think I just was stressing subconciously about the costumes, what if something fell apart (which it did), etc. Well, it didn't go bad. It was hard to try to get costumes on people an hour before the program while they were trying to practice. I had kinderchoir kids who were pulling apart their halos, just because they were messing with them. Constantly. On. Off. On. Off. And on and on. The angel Gabriel costume didn't fit, so I had to run to the stinky closet upstairs to find another (which I did). It really wasn't bad-it went off well, but the whole thing just made me tired. My kids did well, though IC didn't seem to sing very many of the songs and Miss A was either moving around a lot or during one song had her back to the audience, watching herself on the screen. Sigh. After the program,we had a nice ham dinner served by the jr. high. That was an excellent dinner. It took us almost an hour to put away costumes and microphones/cords after dinner. When we headed home, it had warmed up enough outside that the fog was freezing to the trees, making a pretty frost. It's been that cold the last week-so cold that the fog didn't freeze to the trees-until today. It was somewhere in the 20's today-WOW-it's a heat wave!

Today, we officially calved. The first heifer dropped her baby in the barn this morning. Momma and baby are doing well.

To digress, last evening, JJ and I headed to medium town (1/2 hr away) for our anniversary dinner and a movie. We were a little late to the restaurant and of course, it was extremely busy, but we got out of there and to the movie with 5 minutes to spare. We saw "The Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock. Not normally a movie we'd necessarily pick to go to, but it was that or a cartoon. We went with a non-animated movie and it was good. We got out at 9:15 (it was kind of a long movie, but that's ok) and of course, made a stop in Wal-mart. By the time we got home, it was almost 11 pm and E bunny decided she didn't want to go to bed (yes, unfortunately, she was still up). I finally took her up after 11:30, deciding that it was more than late enough and actually, she did go to sleep. Since I had to wake her this am at 8, she ended up crashing during half of church, which, kept her quiet for her grandparents and messed up her nap. She then later crashed on the rocking chair while we were all snuggled together watching a Transformer cartoon, of all things. I guess, it was important, though, that we were all together, not that we were watching a couple of cartoon shows that weren't the most interesting for Mommy. It did hold my attention for awhile, by the way, but I did eventually get bored and felt the need to start working on my Christmas cards, which I still haven't sent out yet. And they might be late, as I realized I didn't order enough the first time and had to reorder some more tonight. I don't know if they'll make it in time for Christmas or not.

Slower Saturday (for now, at least)

We are starting slow today. It's nice not to have to go anywhere at the moment, especially since the sun forgot to come out today. It was so awesome having it out for 3 days this week. We, by the way, haven't seen the sun much for quite awhile. All the rain during harvest kinda left us bleak, but the sun was out for a little this week after all that snow and it was wonderful.

The kids and I are hanging out this morning, before mom comes this afternoon while I get 2 hours of scrapping at the scrap store, which is only 3 miles from my house-bonus!! This evening, JJ and I are headed to the medium town, about 1/2 hr away for supper at the Chances "R" restaurant (the nicest and most expensive restuarant around this area) for supper at 5:15. It's really early, but then we can catch the movie in medium town (there's only 1 theater, although it has 3 movies showing). Of course, there will be a stop at Walmart afterward. I have to get a few things to last us until after Christmas and we also need a $3 boy gift for IC's class for their Christmas party. Chances "R" has become our once-a-year tradition to go to on our anniversary. JJ took me there on our first date. (And after that, it was all down hill from there!) I like our tradition of a huge supper and a movie. It's still enjoyable after 9 years.
I'm not normally one to do the same thing over and over again-that bores me, but this never has.

Until then, I've got a few loads of laundry and I did manage to vacuum the floor this am-E bunny leaves a food trail everywhere daily.

Oh Goodness, It's Friday Again!

Well, we're here at the weekend, didn't we just have one? With the kids' having 2 snow days this week, this feels like Monday instead of Friday. But, it is what it is. It's Friday. The day when Miss A is home all day-I just realized today that she had 1 day of school this week. Yikes! So, the girls and I took IC to school, got some groceries and headed home. They "helped" me wrap gifts for Daddy, my parents, my MIL and JJ's aunt. Miss A promptly told JJ what he was getting from her for Christmas, by the way. Luckily, he's a good sport and pretty much knew it already. I can only hope she doesn't tell Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow when they come to babysit what they're getting, too! Anyway, there was the normal fights over toys soon after that project was finished.

E-bunny's temp didn't come back, but she's been throwing more nasty temper tandrums lately and I don't know if that's related to being sick a day or not. She kinda has a runny nose, kinda not. It's a little wierd. She's also drooling and a little stuffy I think at night. It's kinda hard to tell.

Today, IC was telling us all about one of his friend's at school who got a "intendo we" for her half birthday today. Obviously, that was Nintendo Wii and he didn't know anything about that until today. By the way, he also thinks he wants a Nintendo DS, but I'm not sure if he even knows what it is, either. It's almost funny. He's not even sure what they are talking about, but he'd like to have them.

All of the kids had major moments of unhappiness today-I hope that's not an ominous sign of Christmas vacation to come! Mommy got pretty cranky, too. It tends to be by 8 pm, I am ready to be left alone for awhile. But, alas, E bunny just keeps going and going and going . . . . She has actually been worse lately, staying up 'til 11 pm. This is way too late for me-I am so not a night person and am ready for bed at 10!

I pushed the kids outside after IC got home. After they played a little on the snow pile while I filled my bird feeders, I took E-bunny out on the driveway to pull her in the sled. Yes, I said the driveway. Our driveway has a slight decline to the road and if you pull a sled over the snow on it, you go sliding a little. Don't worry, you stop long before you get to the road. I pulled her, then her and Miss A and then her and IC. E was lucky to get so many rides and I ran down that driveway several times tonight. I will be suffering leg and back pain by tomorrow. But the kids loved it and had a good time. E bunny got very upset when I said it was time to go in. Cheeks were really red and it was dark, so it was time. I promised to try to get out tomorrow morning with them since I plan to be gone for a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon to go to the local scrap store to scrap (yea!) and the evening w/JJ on our belated anniversary.

At least, we had fun part of the day.

Back to School and Flowers

It was back to school for IC today, although it started 2 hours late. I had a lot of things to do before taking him to school, so I was glad for the delay. Miss A didn't have school, because a late start meant only an hour of school, so TYKE doesn't have morning classes on late start days and since tomorrow is Friday-she's done with school until Monday. Which, I hope things are settled down by then, as Miss A's preschool Christmas program is that night. Not to mention, the church Christmas program on Sunday. I'm hoping no one is sick until AFTER next Monday!

E-bunny did not have a fever this morning, and I hope it's completely gone. Especially, since I took her along to the book fair today with Miss A at school when I dropped IC off. I found each of the kids a book and a couple of chapter books for IC to read when he's ready. I also found Miss A a new leapster video game-for $5, you can't go wrong, esp. since they are usually $25 or more. I also stopped at the grocery store for milk and duckwalls for some bobby pins for Sunday, just in case. I got stuck in front of duckwalls and had to ask them for a shovel and then one of the people from the church choir happened to walk by and helped me out. TYL. The girls were in the car, warm, so they weren't worried.

This is E's 3rd time of being sick in a row. I don't know if the kids are bringing stuff home that they've already had and passing it to her or what. She's had 2 colds within the past month and has run a little fever with both for a couple of days. Today, her nose is running AGAIN, and I thought she sounded kinda stuffy last night. We will just have to see if it's another cold.

Since yesterday was our anniversary and we were snowed in, I didn't think anything of an anniversary gift and figured going out later on was the plan. JJ went to town this afternoon, which I don't think I even realized he went and came home with a surprise - a very pretty arrangment of 3 red carnations in a vase from the flower shop. That was very nice of him, I might add!

Snow Day #2

Believe it or not, we had a 2nd snow day on Wednesday-no school for the whole day. This also meant no Christmas program practice. At least, it would have been something to do by the evening time. The kids got a little more bored and fought more yesterday. E-bunny also started running a temp. She started with a 100.2 and moved up to 103.5 in the afternoon. Luckily, Tylenol dropped it both times and as soon as that took effect, she was running around with the other 2. They all went to play outside on the snow pile a little yesterday. Even E, who insisted and I figured a few minutes wouldn't hurt her too much. I thought that was better than letting her scream because she couldn't go out. She loves to be outside, especially with the older 2 kids. I just let her out a few minutes, long enough to take a picture on the snow pile. JJ spent all day pushing snow by shovel and tractor. My BIL came for awhile with the tractor snow plow and my FIL came with his personal snowblower. It was dark before things were dug out enough to be under control and it was VERY cold yesterday. The temps didn't make it above 9 degrees and with the wind it was WAY below zero. At this point, it will be MONTHS before we can see the barn again from the house, unless it decides to be warm for several weeks. Unfortunately, that's not in the forecast for awhile. IC was estatic to have a snow pile to climb on-we haven't had much of one for a good 2 years. Me, I could live without the big snow pile and cold temps!

Today was our 9th wedding anniversary. What a way to spend the day-scooping snow! I ended up scooping the front walk, back porch and a little path from the sidewalk to the van's driveway.

School Snow Day - Day 1

Miss A and E-bunny. Miss A wanted something to cover her cheeks, so she wore one of IC's facemasks. She ended up fiddling with it a lot-it's a little big. She wanted a scarf, but I couldn't find it, so I'll have to do more searching in the winter stuff. I know I have one somewhere.

E-bunny begging to be picked up (kinda hard to tell in the actual photo). She did well outside until her gloves had come off for the 10th time and the snow was over the top of her boots where she was walking.

IC in his transformer mask. He wanted to wear his insulated coveralls instead of his snow pants in case he got to go help Daddy, which by the way, he didn't today. Daddy wasn't able to let him come along.

It was a snow day today-and I mean SNOW! I think it snowed pretty close to a foot. Not terribly my idea of a great time. We started with a storm warning Monday evening, causing our normally not conservative school to call school off for Tuesday. REALLY? Wow. And WOW, again. It snowed last night and all through the day. Since we'd been warned of snow, I had thought to get groceries Monday, but I still may run out of milk if I'm not careful, because guess what? Yep, they actually cancelled school TOMORROW too! There's a pretty hefty wind that has started up, which we also got a warning for also, making it pretty dangerous to be out and about after a near foot of fresh, LOOSE snow starts blowing around.

I hung in there today with all three kids. And why, do you ask, would a snow day be that much different than the normal weekend? The key word here is TRAPPED. Trapped in the house most of the day, unable to go outside to play much or run to town or anything. The older 2 kids were a tad wild today, excited for a day off from school. I forget how much IC can talk-like, ALL DAY. I was getting tired of listening to him by dinner. Of course, there were numerous tiffs with Miss A, who doesn't like to share ANYTHING. Sigh. The afternoon was not starting great when IC wanted to play Barbie w/Miss A, who of course, didn't want to share. After a meltdown and a time-out, she decided to play My Little Pony. Of course, they wanted mom to play with BOTH of them at the SAME time. That did NOT work well. After a little while of torture Mommy, Mommy came up with craft time. I worked on a layout for a scrapbook I am starting for my mom and am giving it to her for Christmas. I helped IC do a page of his own for his own scrapbook, which was great, and Miss A, not to be outdone, wanted to draw and decorate a piece of paper. This was just fine, except for the constant whining she did. I swear, I didn't really realize how whiny she is and have NO idea how to turn that around. It REALLY got on my nerves and I think IC's also. We went outside today, probably for about 1/2 hour. It was snowing and boy, it was deep in areas. I took the girls down the bunny hill north of our house, but it just didn't work. The deep snow was too fluffy. E-bunny had a pretty good time in the snow for a little bit, but had difficulty getting around the deeper stuff.

Since school is also cancelled for tomorrow, that cancelled our dress rehearsal for the Christmas program on Sunday. This meant I had to call my shepards, angel Gabriel, 3 wiseman, and Joseph and Mary to recommend the proper attire to wear under the costumes. I actually talked to the mom's-figuring they would keep on top of it a little better. We'll just have rehearsal the hour before the program-I am thinking positively that it will go just fine. Since I only have to deal with costumes, hopefully, they'll stay together thru the play!

Today, I didn't see JJ except at dinner. He worked on the tractor and the generator all day in order to have them at ready in case the wind/snow/weather causes a power outtage. He said he wasn't able to get the generator running, but says he can rig up a connection to the generator that runs the pig barns during outages (it's so big, it has it's own building-if the nursery ventilation quits due to loss of power, there's a major loss of pigs soon to follow, therefore, it's VERY important to not lose power.) I hope he's right, and I hope we don't lose power-that makes life difficult, expecially with 3 stir crazy, cooped up kids, piles of laundry and a dirty house!