With Daddy

I took this picture last week when the kids got to spend a few moments with Daddy. Despite the winter months, Daddy's been pretty busy lately. The kids haven't even been able to chore with him-something they like to do.

There's just something about having Daddy time.

A Different Turn than Expected

Today was going to be a quiet Saturday. The Plan: take IC (and the girls) to basketball camp at the school gym, which lasts about an hour, get groceries, then go home.

IC, by the way, did pretty good at camp, the teacher is really good and explained things well to Kindergarteners, who for the most part, have no idea about anything about basketball.

We were walking out of the gym, headed to the van, when, I believe IC said something about his shoe. I then noticed that his shoe was falling apart.

The WHOLE sole was coming loose from the bottom of the shoe. AND it had started going on the other shoe.

When asked when this happened, the reply was something in the form of I don't know, it's been that way a little while.

Really.

I just went to the big city on Thursday, was it that way then?

Yes.

You've got to be kidding me, why didn't you tell me?

I forgot.

Seriously.

We got back to the van and I called JJ and told him I needed to go to the medium city to get IC a new pair of shoes.

These shoes, btw, are only about 6-7 months old.

Seriously. (I've been a Grey's Anatomy fan since the begining, and yes, I've picked up a little terminology.)

So, we took an unexpected trip to the medium city and went to Wal-Mart. Since this is a not a super Wal-Mart there's not always a great selection of shoes - unless your a girl. THEN they have a great choice of velcro shoes, like 6-8 pairs JUST velcro shoes. IC shoes? 1 pair that went up to his size.

I'm not kidding. There were 3 total pairs of velcro shoes and only 1 went up to his size 3.

By the way, SIZE 3. He didn't get his big feet from me, that's for sure.

To top it off, that only pair of shoes has WWF on it. Not kidding. Not making it up.

I can't stand WWF.

IC has never seen it. BUT it was the ONLY pair available and he said it was fine. He was VERY determined NOT to have tie shoes.

Mainly because he still can't tie his shoes.

That's a whole other aggrevation, by the way.

It took a whole lot longer for us to get a "few" things at Wal-mart. The girls were NOT good during our jaunt in the store. IC on the other hand, was helpful.

He was so helpful, I about fell over today. Not to mention, I think he's saving up to be REALLY naughty soon, because he's not a sweetheart all day on a good day, like he was today.

He went up to the counter more than once at McDonald's to fetch a couple of things while we were eating today.

He carried ALL of the sacks into the house without being told to after we got home.

Wow. I know, it's scary.

Of course, when we got home, who should be in the yard, but my niece. Notoriously being with her dad so that she can play with my kids in the yard. She was definately hanging around while the van was being unloaded.

I got Miss A dressed and outside, since she loves my niece to an obscession.

IC followed in a little while.

When he came in later for a potty break, he elected not to go back out. And, decided to play the Wii for a 1/2 hour (limit set by mom).

After that, we played a couple of games of Uno and Go Fish and he volunteered to go out and get the mail.

I know, it's scary!

Then, he elected to go downstairs in the basement to work on his wood project.

That didn't last long before he went back outside to play with my MIL, who had come to pick up my niece, who must have raised a fit about going because my MIL left after awhile without her.

Miss A came inside and I insisted she stay in. After 2 1/2 hours of playing outside in weather under 30 degrees, it was time. She headed to the bath with E bunny.

IC stayed out with my niece for awhile before I insisted that darkness was a reason to come in.

And here we sit, winding down the day of crazies with a super heroes cartoon. Batman, anyone?

Long Day

It's been a long day today. Miss A was home from preschool per the norm and it looks like that was good-it appears she's getting a cold.

I caught her many, many times swiping her sleeve across her nose-ick!

Miss A opened the door for the Fed Ex guy while I was upstairs putting E bunny down for a nap. I told her not to open the door for strangers and it went right over her head. She didn't get it.

We went outside for awhile this afternoon and it smelled like burned trash out there-yuck.

This evening, after supper, we played the Wii and then JJ and I did a bunch of Wii playing after the older 2 went to bed. And E bunny continued to drag every toy out possible, sing to whatever book she found available to pick up and yell "Eat!" on a regular basis.

That was the highlights of our day today.

Tax Day

Today, JJ and I headed to the big city to work on taxes with the accountant. We did some shopping beforehand, since JJ needed some supplies for the combine and I needed to get IC a set of sheets that actually fit his bed. (There was much frustration yesterday when I changed his bed.)

We got to our appointment at 2 pm, only to discover that the email JJ sent yesterday with the needed info didn't go through. So, JJ went through a few other things with her, but basically, we couldn't get the bulk of things done.

Hopefully, he can re-send it and she can do most or all of it without us needing to be there.

On the upside, I got to get away for a few hours today from the farm.

But then, I had to come home-to screaming children, fighting, and some name calling. Yea.

A New Arrival

A couple of weeks ago, I chronicled that the old combine was heading out after being traded in. Today, our new (used) combine drove into the yard. It's the first Massey-Ferguson we've ever owned.

Why not a John Deere? After all, we have all green tractors. Well, the JD combines don't have the better combine at this time, according to our research. And the Masseys are made by the same outfit that makes Gleaners (the silver combine).

It's a guy thing, by the way, but I thought I could show off our combine, just for JJ.

Cancelled

Yesterday, I picked IC up from school so that we could be home for awhile before going to wrestling practice. Except I found out that there wasn't any practice this week. Apparently some high school wrestlers had gotten staph infection from someone at their last wrestling meet.

Since they use the same mats as the midgets for practice, the coaches thought it would be best to be preventative and avoid contact with the mats and other kids for this week. They said that they clean the mats daily, but they wanted to be cautious.

I'm glad that they are being careful, although missing this week kinda makes it hard for the kids, especially IC, to know what to do at next Thursday's midget wrestling meet.

The jury's still out on whether we'll go to that one or not.

Toy Wars & Small Clothes

The tornado, aka E-bunny, has been on a streak in the past 5 minutes to drag out everything possible. The very small, limited space livingroom has puzzle pieces, (larger) Barbie pieces, blankets, and My little Pony pieces scattered all over it. Sigh.

In a couple of months is the spring cosignment sale for kids' clothes in the big city and I've been determined to sell some of the baby toys that the kids rarely play with anymore, but everytime I get them put into boxes/bags to sell, someone is dragging them out to play with them. It's aggrevating. 9 times out of 10 they aren't played with and need to go, as they are taking up space, but the minute I price them, the kids are trying to play with them. I may have to hide them until the minute I'm ready to go to take stuff to the sale. They don't notice that they are gone when I've got them hid, either.

Speaking of the sale, I went through IC's closet this am, as I noticed some of his jeans are getting to be "high waters" on him. It's amazing how there's always one child who choses to grow at the end of the season, so that if they need something, it's nowhere to be found because the stores have already gotten out NEXT season's stuff. You know, because we might need tank tops in February!

I try not to buy a lot of the kids' stuff new, unless it's at Walmart or Target. I tend to get stuff on ebay or at a child's used clothing store. Of course, I know that I definately won't be able to do that forever, which is why I am trying to save now.

I also scour the clearance rack at Walmart often, knowing that the older 2 will wear either season of the next size clothing at least for one season. So, I have clothes scurried away in each of their closets. This morning for IC, I was able to find a few pairs of jeans, shorts and t-shirts for him in the next size. E bunny doesn't really get a choice, as she gets to wear Miss A's clothing. Though it turns out she's taller than Miss A was at her age, so she sometimes gets some new/different clothing to wear.

I've gone through IC and E-bunny's clothes, and just have Miss A's to go through. She's in that difficult size-too big for 4t/5t and some girls' 4, too little for size 6 and there just isn't always size 5 around. It's often 4/5 and some of that fits and some doesn't, making finding clothes that fit sometimes a challenge.

As if we don't have enough challenges to deal with on a daily basis.

Missing

I am missing my hobby, my sometimes obsession, my outlet for creativity: my scrapbooking. It's been FOREVER since I last did a layout and I'm just itching to get back to it.

My latest project was starting E-bunny's book-yes, I'm being serious. IC's book is at his third birthday, Miss A's is at her first birthday and E, well, up until about a month ago, she didn't even have a book started yet.

Yes, I'm slacking or too busy or something. She'll be 2 in March, so I decided I HAD to start something in her book. And I did-some simple beginning pages, along with a few that I had done at the local scrap store at past classes.

Now, where in the world do I start? It's the million dollar question.

Maybe I should finish the memory book page that I volunteered to do for IC's Kindergarten class-it's not due for a couple more weeks yet and it's 3/4 done.

Sigh-decisions, decisions.

P.S. I am SO excited! I used my new photo scanner to scan this 12 X 12 layout into the computer, then stitched it together in photoshop elements 7 and now have uploaded it to the blog. SO COOL! You can tell, I'm not one of the "elite" scrappers that do stuff like that all the time. This is my first-and it actually worked!

Type A

I've been thinking some today about what I could blog about. I'm doing a blog dare to blog everyday this year.

I'm drawing a blank.

I have so many things I should be working on-
1) TONS of scrapbooking layouts (I'm like, so far behind on the kids' scrapbooks it's embarrassing)
2) house cleaning (yes, it's getting dirty, I didn't get it cleaned last week)
3) laundry (there's always that, especially since I always put off folding or putting it away until I happen to need the laundry basket for MORE laundry)
4) Catching up on computer this-n-that
5) I could go on and on, but why?

I am finding myself NOT getting things done-actually at almost a worse pace than when E was a baby. Actually, things fell apart for this Type A person when Miss A was born, but didn't fall completely off the map until E was born.

Being Type A is difficult anyway. JJ is my opposite, so he thinks I'm a clean freak (well, he may not think that ALL the time now, since the house gets fairly yucky at times). I rearrange stuff often, (but you kinda have to in this house, space is at a premium). I can only stand clutter marginally, otherwise I feel like I'm going to drown in it-a common feeling when E bunny is on a roll and dumping every toy in sight.

I really try to get things done in the morning, usually while the older 2 are at school. This isn't easy with E bunny constantly on my heels or yanking on my shirt to be picked up.

I sometimes get things done after dinner while E is asleep, but often Miss A begs me the whole time to play with her, making things difficult, to say the least.

Late afternoon, I'M ready for a nap! I'm dragging from about 3-5 pm. Often, this is our outside time, unless it's like today-cold, blustery and awful outside.

Evenings after supper, baths, and the older 2 are in bed, E bunny makes life difficult, to say the least. She doesn't let you get much done at night and is still on her sleep strike, staying up 'til 10:30-11pm. I am a early bird, so that's always late for me to get to bed. I have to get up at 6 to get a few things done before getting the kids up. It's a vicious cycle, that just doesn't get any easier.

JJ told me that, that's what happens when you have kids-you forfeit your time for them.

There are times when that just sucks. I like to get things done. Must be that Type A personality again.

I guess I can count on maybe some "me" time, a clean house and some caught up scrapbooks in about 20 years, huh? Kinda of a long wait, but it's still worth it.

Movie Day

Today, JJ and I took the 2 older kids to the Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakle movie in town. During the month of January and February, they are having afternoon matinees at 2pm on Sunday, which is really nice for the kid movies.

IC seemed to enjoy the movie, Miss A said she liked it afterward, but complained she didn't want to watch anymore about 1/2 of the way through it. She has a tendency to do that with movies at this point. She likes the shorter shows for a shorter attention span that she seems to have at this time.

It was a cute movie, by the way.

E bunny was at home. I asked my parents to watch her and she was napping when we left. The easiest way for Mommy to leave her at this time is when she is sleeping, by the way. She's still got a hefty seperation anxiety thing going.

We elected to get pizza for supper with my parents. That ended the day pretty nicely. We also had 2 more calves today.

The weather started nice, but turned very windy in the afternoon and we lost the sun that we'd started out with. All in all, though, it was a pretty good day today.

Now, if we can just keep the night that nice.

IC's Warfare

IC and his obsession with Transformers and shooting things is slowly driving me out of my mind. Seriously. We own rifles, used only in hunting, skeet shooting, and euthanizing a suffering pig once in a while. And we hardly hunt or skeet shoot anymore-mostly just get rid of awful vermin (like the muskrat that was in our yard once) and euthanizing a suffering animal when needed only.

So, why does he have this obsession with shooting guns? I don't know. I don't let him watch violent movies or shows, but he's starting to get into the computer games that shoot and wants to watch some of the more-violent cartoons (which I don't let him much). He's starting to drive me crazy, though. He thinks he likes Star Wars (he's never seen it). JJ is a fan of Star Wars, but also doesn't think IC needs to watch it yet. He wants to watch some of the Disney movies I have, but I haven't let him watch them much yet because I don't want to scare Miss A. She got scared during the movie "Up" and for that matter, so did IC during one part, although he claims he didn't. Dude, I remember you sniffling on Daddy's lap.

He doesn't have any play guns,except a Nerf ball shooter that's only half of a gun-type, according to JJ. I was raised to not have guns in the house, go into the miliary or have much of anything to do with any of that. So, I have a hard time even letting IC pretend he has a gun. Which, by the way, he does ALL the time. It drives me nuts.

JJ. said when IC is old enough, he will teach him how to handle a gun for hunting purposes. I have a feeling we will conflict, though, when he wants to give IC his first BB gun.

I've been told it's a boy thing. I think I'm glad at this point I only have one. 'Cause dealing with one gun-obsessed child is enough.

Run Around The Town

It's another grey day. Sigh. We actually did see the sun for like, a minute, but that was a very short minute.

I miss the sun.

Today, we didn't go anywhere. We spent the whole past week running to various kid activities. KFC and dance on Mondays, wrestling Tues and Thurs nights.

Mommy could use an activity to go to on her own that was enjoyable. I did go to choir practice this week, but that doesn't really count because that's a lot of work.

The coaches made the decision not to have wrestling practice twice a week. There's too many kids-22 preK and K kids plus 10 1st & 2nd graders between 3 coaches and a few high school helpers was just not going to work. They want to be able to spend time working with all the kids-I think that that's great, that they are worried about having enough time to spend with each child. So, they are splitting the pre-k and K from the others and they have practice on Tuesday nites and the other classes have practice Thursday nites. Mom's relieved to not have to run twice a week to practice.

I honestly didn't think that I'd have to do the run-from-one activity to the next for a few years yet. Boy, was I wrong about that one.

Gray Day Fun

Yesterday after E-bunny's nap, the girls were starting to get bored. We elected not to go outside, as it was a yucky day-cold, wet and windy.

So, what do you do to chase the trapped-in-the-house blues away? You get out your never-worn-before sandals that Mom got from Dollar General when they had their 70% off clearance sale, turn on the Hannah Montana movie soundtrack and dance!

When they got tired, then they got out the play camera and Miss A took pictures of E (and everything else).

They had a good time. We temporarily forgot that we were on the 10th day in a row of no sunshine.

It's a HO-HUM Friday

Well, today it's Friday-the day that it's just me and the girls for several hours. They've already played dress-up, watched Dora the Explorer, and fought over sitting on the rocking chair and toys.

The day could be so much more enjoyable if it wasn't so foggy I can't see the neighbors, ridiculously windy enough that it will feel really cold outside and I was able to do more than just LOOK at my scrapbooks instead of getting to actually make some layouts.

The power blinked several times this morning-that's not a good sign. We could be in for another power outage if the wind gets any worse.

I wish I could say that my life's exciting, but it's not. I spent the majority of this week running kids to and from home for various activities-and they really aren't in that much!

I like our small hometown, but I wish it wasn't so far to the big city that we couldn't just take off and go to the Children's Museum or something and have a day of fun. I think we need to do something-this yucky, foggy weather is dragging even the best of the best down.

We need some sunshine! Please, if there's any to spare-send it our way!

Bad Behavior

You know, yesterday started out pretty well and, as the afternoon wore on, it was doing fine.

Then came the evening. Actually, it started around 4:30. I forced Miss A outside, since E wanted to go out and I thought it'd be good to get some fresh air. After 10 minutes, Miss A decided she had to go to the bathroom-of course, after putting all of that snow stuff on. So, I got her in, then went back out to E, who by that time, had taken off her gloves AGAIN, so I took her inside w/her frigid hands (because, of course, she'd fallen in the snow with0ut gloves on).

By the time I got her and I undressed, Miss A was nearly finished in the bathroom, but had decided to do something that Mommy absolutely does not tolerate. It involved cleaning the outside of the toilet-yuck! I was upset, to say the least.

Soon after the girls' bath, IC came home with a note from the teacher. He'd gotten in trouble twice that day and had his yellow warning stick pulled. Swell. It was his first time. Sigh.

I was disappointed in him, to say the least. Both kids lost video/computer/Wii privileges for the day.

JJ barely made it in so I could go to choir practice at church. After that, I tried to get on the computer at home, but that wasn't working, either.

Joy. Complete and utterly wonderful way to end the day. (That's sarcastic, by the way.)

Pots and Spots

I kept E bunny awake while I made dinner today-I don't like to let her play in the pots and pans (too loud and often I'm chasing lids and pans into the livingroom)

Why is it that when you WANT your child to sleep in they don't, but when you want them to get up early, THEN they decide sleep in?

Such was the case this am, w/E bunny, but basically, all three kids were hard to get moving this morning. I took the kids to school so that I could get Miss A's Barbie cupcakes to her class in one piece. (I just didn't think they'd make it if I'd have sent the kids on the bus.)

After E and I got home, I spent half of the morning playing pet shop (minus the small pieces) with her and laying down as much as possible. I had awoke this morning to a migraine, which is painful, to say the least.

Running the kids to town messed up my morning routine, which includes exercising with the Wii-so I will try to do it while E is down for her nap-which will be hopefully soon.

We were supposed to have ice overnight, but thankfully, it was just barely warm enough that it didn't ice much, instead just misting enough to make the slush more slushy. The fog, though not as heavy as the past couple of days, is still hanging on-I am so ready for sunshine!

The Big Four

Happy Birthday Miss A! 4 years old today

Drowning in Fog

It's been 2 days of suffocating fog. FOG! As if the snow, cold, blizzards, etc isn't enough. Now, we have visibility limited to 1/4 mile! Oh, and it's supposed to ice tonight and tomorrow. Lovely.

I sure hope that spring comes soon.

A Silver Goodbye

Saying goodbye to the old gleaner was harder for the men than you'd think. According to JJ, the silver combine was nearly family!

Miss A's Birthday Party

Miss A did VERY well at her family birthday party yesterday. She should have enough toys for at LEAST a year.'

This time, E bunny refused a nap for awhile and got in on the party. She actually wanted to help open gifts this time-and was upset when she wasn't allowed to!

And yes, Miss A got a remote control truck amongst a bunch of girly toys. And yes, she likes it, too.

This Morning

This morning I made a new start-to start exercising regularly and eating better. Thereby in the process, I hope to lose weight. This is going to be hard-there's not a lot of time in the day for any of it, but the pictures at Christmas were awful and I've GOT TO DO SOMETHING. I have obese family members and I don't want to be as heavy as them, nor do I want to buy any more bigger clothes.

So, I started with the Wii this morning. I feel better already.

Exhaustion R Us

We here at Exhaustion R Us are relieved that the day is coming to a close. After church this morning, getting ready for Miss A's family birthday party, dealing w/E who wouldn't take a nap, loud bossy children, guests and cleanup before making supper and clean up for that completely on my own-I'm ready for bed. Unfortunately, it's only 7:30 pm!

Miss A's cake made it through the party-that's a plus. Miss A got a good stock of gifts this year w/only one dud-also a plus. E bunny did finally get a nap later in the day-kinda a plus. All in all, it was a good day.

At the end of the party, I took pictures of the old silver combine, which has officially been traded off. The thing's nearly as old as me! I was requested to take pictures with the farm "men", so that was done.

JJ then headed to do chores and discovered - - - TWINS! One momma cow had a fraternal set of twins-one black girl and one red boy. Babies and Momma are doing just fine. Luckily, it's been NICE for DAYS, like upper 30-lower 40 degree weather-awesome!

We had actually had a lull of about 3 weeks where we didn't have any calves. There's always a space between first time calvers and the cows who've been through it before. So, now, we're officially back to calving and it will be pretty busy for awhile.

Now, if I could just get E bunny to go to bed before 11 pm . . . . . . . .

Why I should NOT be decorating/making bday cake

I got the things done I needed to today- the floors cleaned, laundry folded AND put away, and Miss A's cake decorated. Miss A's cake has been doomed from the start and it will be a near-miracle if it survives to be actually eaten tomorrow.

First, I realized too late that I don't have a box to put it in.

Second, it nearly fell completely apart when I got it out of the cake pan. So I had to cut off a good top portion and push it together well and use icing to cover the spots where there's no cake.

Third, I was short on icing ingredients SOMEHOW and barely squeaked by making it.

Fourth, I didn't have the correct color of pink on hand (oh, the horror!) for it and had to make do with a light amount of red, making the icing somewhat pink.

Fifth, I put sprinkles, per Miss A's request on it, then got some accidently in the spot where the cake art was going, so now Barbie looks a little like she has a touch of the chicken pox.

Sixth, my icing ALWAYS has problems, is uneven, etc.

If this cake makes it safely into people's mouths tomorrow, I will be amazed.

Time To Get Clean

Today I take the kids to mom's so I can finish cleaning the house and decorating Miss A's cake for tomorrow's birthday party with family. I'm thinking, why do I always try to make the house beautiful for them? Most of them have seen it at it's near-worst, but I always spend the whole week before a child's birthday party re-organizing the office and kitchen, heavy-duty cleaning, and washing the laundry so it's all caught up. Then, I'm pooped out for days afterward.

Of course, I kinda use the party as a reason to really work on cleaning, so maybe it's not bad that I do this three times a year. Not to mention, my house looks pretty good for a week, except where the kids have ground food into the floor, put sticky hands on the windows, and left toothpaste on the bathroom counter. Come to think of it, it really doesn't stay as clean as long as it should.

Ah well. Having a clean house is overrated, right?

Flopping cakes and wrestling takes

It's me and the girls today, until I go pick up IC from school. He's been getting home at 5:00 on the bus and has been unhappy the past couple days when he's gotten home and it's nearly dark-too late practically to go outside to play.

Yesterday was his first wrestling practice and he said he liked it. It looked like chaos to me. 30 + kids between Kindergarten and 2nd grade trying to learn how to wrestle. It was wild and noisy. Man, the parents were worse than the kids-seriously.

Then, there's today. I made Miss A's birthday cake this morning and nearly broke it in half getting it out of the pan. How I selvaged it, I don't know. Then to top it off, I realize NOW that I don't have a cake box for it. I'll have to cover it with saran wrap and hope I don't mess anything up.

Unbelievable today is starting to be-it might be easier to go snuggle in bed, as the sun that we'd finally enjoyed for 2 whole days went away today. Bummer.

The Sound of Silence

It's been a fairly laid-back morning. E-bunny got up with the other 2 kids and watched them get on the bus this morning. After doing a little of this and that, I basically sat down at the computer for awhile. After dumping a box of legos out and a few other things, E fell asleep on the rocking chair. This means she'll probably be up by noon and there will be no down time for the 2nd day in a row for Mommy. Ah well, what can you do?

Tomorrow starts the big work-cleaning the bathroom and baking Miss A's birthday cake. Saturday the kids will go to mom's so I can decorate the cake and clean the floors.

It isn't often that the house is as quiet as it is right this minute. It's nice just to sit in the silence once in a while. Around here, it definately doesn't last long, which is ok. My noisy, busy days are a dream come true, even if that dream tends to have a few ruts along the way!

Motivation is the Key

Today was the first day in quite awhile that I had to make a special trip into town for groceries. Not a big deal, but I've been used to getting what I need when I drop the kids off for school. Now that I don't have to take them, I've been enjoying the time that I would have spent on the road and in town on other projects.

I'm finding I am not missing taking the kids into town every morning.

Don't get me wrong, I still have to take them in for dance, wrestling and KFC, but now I've cut the number of trips down by 5. It's nice. E-bunny gets to sleep in and I get to do a few things before she wakes up.

My big project this week is cleaning the house. Seriously. I haven't cleaned in 2, maybe 3 weeks. Miss A's birthday party with the family is Sunday, so I'd like to have the house decent by then and it's going to take me all week to get it done. Monday I was able to organize the office and it's been awhile since I've seen the actual top of the desk. It's actually a nice wood color!

Today I've GOT to vacuum and dust upstairs. Although, I'm sure E-bunny will do everything in her power to make even than mundane job difficult. (She's into dumping things and emptying every container possible.)

I'm also supposed to be getting motivated to get into shape. After the 2 nasty blizzards and being trapped in the house for days-I needed to get something to get me moving. We fit a Wii with Wii Fit into the budget. This purchase covers last year and this year's birthdays for me, since JJ didn't get me anything.

Of course, the 2 older kids are loving it-I haven't even gotten to try to the workout parts yet and barely got it set up yesterday. Typical-everyone else gets to enjoy it except for the person to whom it was actually for!

I might get to use it next week because yep! there's another storm coming. Imagine that.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

This was the scene this morning waiting for the bus. Frozen fog makes for such a pretty scene, despite the cold.

Little Dancer

Last night was the return of Miss A's dance class. It felt like forever since we'd gone, although it'd only been a couple of weeks. It's usually FREEZING in there because the 2 dance classrooms are located in the old high school and the heat doesn't get turned on until the teachers get there. This building also has a classroom across the hall that has a jazzercise class going on at the same time. A. VERY. LOUD. JAZZERCISE. CLASS. Honestly, you'd think those people were hard of hearing, or at least, they should be after being in that class.

Anyway, since it was cold, the teacher left the door open for the first part of the class, so I was able to sneak a picture of Miss A dancing. She loves the class and she has a nice teacher, always a bonus.

She did inform me, however, that she wants to take tap class. She has to be in Kindergarten to do that, but it looks as if she's found something she enjoys. Yea!

Fun in the Fort

The original tunnel.

Coming out of the tunnel at the north end, head toward the camera and . . .

Slide down the snow slide to the junction of tunnel #2 and the new tunnel that leads to the lookout spot.

Sledding down the driveway. Who needs a real hill to sled, anyway?

E having a blast as IC gives her a sled ride up the driveway.

Miss A on the short hill getting ready to go down.

Yesterday, IC and Daddy put the finishing digging on a project that they had re-started on Saturday. Remember when I showed a tunnel a few days ago that they had started digging in the snow drift? Well, they took it much farther over the weekend. They dug completely through the tunnel, dug another tunnel going off in another direction off of that tunnel, dug out an area to play in, with a snow slide and then dug a short tunnel from there to make a lookout point. It's very cool and I would have loved having something like that to play in when I was a kid.

After all that, the girls were getting bored because they couldn't do much and E didn't really like the tunnel stuff, so I took them over to sled down the snow pile. IC and Daddy soon joined us. Then E got bored with that, so we went sledding down the driveway. At dark, Daddy got the idea to sled down a steeper and shorter snow pile. The kids had a blast and it was really good family time for all of us.

A New Day

Today, I finally got to send my children to school. Normally, this is not a big deal, but this year it seems to be.

Today was also the first time I got to see what time IC would get home off the bus. 5:00. Seriously, 1700 hours. That's late, in my opinion, and I figure I'm going to have to pick him up sometimes. IC got home today and said, "Mom, I don't want to go outside today." Well, I could understand that. My goodness. Right when he got home, I had to make supper so that Miss A could eat before dance class, and it was only a 1/2 hour before it got dark. Yuck.

E and her mysterious ways

I love my little E-bunny. But this child is my most difficult one. While she does cute things like sing the "keen up" (clean up) song that she learned from the older 2 kids while picking up things, she also does aggrevating things.

Like refuse to go to nursery during church and I end up carrying her up with me to sing in the choir in front of the congregation. JJ wasn't with us today at church and I'm pretty sure he isn't going to be happy I did that, but there's no reason for her to scream at the high school girl babysitting, is there?

She's a stubborn one and very opinionated. And she's not even 2 yet. She's on a "I don't want to go to sleep" thing. Struggling with naps and bedtime just isn't very fun.

I'm wondering what stage she'll move into next. I'm betting it will be a doosey. And I'm not a betting person, by the way.

A Trip Through the Snow

Normally when I take just the girls on a trip to the medium city for the day, they act pretty good.

That was not the case today.

IC got to go to mom's while I took the girls with me through our local town for a couple of errands before going to med. town for the girls' haircuts. They were good while they had their hair trimmed and eating in MacDonald's.

Then, the fun stopped. Actually, the fun was hampered this morning before we even left for the day because E-bunny spent the morning bawling and I sure didn't have a clue why. She fell asleep on the trip to town and was much happier afterwards, but that didn't stop her from fighting with Miss A the WHOLE time we were in WalMart. Sigh.

It was a bitterly cold day today, so by the time I picked up IC and got home, I was cold and having a hard time warming up. Since my niece showed up again with her dad in the yard, like she did yesterday, the older 2 kids wanted to go out to play with her. Great, but I refused to take E out. She wasn't happy, but I also didn't have the energy to push her up the hill to go sledding several times and I just thought for some reason today, it was really cold.

By the way, it actually WAS really cold today, as it was yesterday. It got only up to 5 degrees yesterday and around the same today. The difference? The wind quit blowing yesterday, but restarted again today.

As of today, we still only have one lane driving for most of our road. It's amazing. from our neighbors, who live 1 mile south, all the way to the highway north, which is like, 4 miles, there's only one lane open for most of it. There's that much snow piled/drifted/etc on the road way. If you go south of our neighbors, the road is mostly clear. Yesterday the mailman was 2 hours early to our house. The reason? He couldn't get to 1/2 of his route because the roads were so drifted and hadn't been opened by the snow plow yet. The one road that my dad takes to work (he works on a farm) is closed. The county can't get it open at this time due to the amount of snow over the one hill-I guess it's really bad.

Apparently, this is the worst storm and the most amount of snow seen in this area in like, 60 years. That tells me something. We don't need anymore snow for the rest of the winter, I'm thinkin'

Vermin

We have a mouse.

I can hear the rodent scratching in the attic.

Did I mention that I don't like vermin, especially in my house?

I actually had to work with them, rats and guinea pigs in Vet. Tech. school, but yuck, I can't stand them running free anywhere near me.

Just ask JJ. I usually get him to dump any that get caught in the trap.

We've been fortunate not to have a lot considering how old our house is. Ick just about sums it all up.

I Can See Clearly Now, the Snow is gone . . . .

The wind is down-yea! Oh, don't get me wrong, it's still breezy out, but today, I can see the neighbor's house, a 1/2 mile away. This is a good sign. It's still supposed to be horribly cold and I don't anticipate taking the kids out unless I have to. With the wind, the temps will be below zero and until the snowplow comes through again, we won't be able to travel, either.

I'm guessing that's why school was cancelled again-the whole extreme cold and impassible roads makes for starting a new routine to wait until Monday.

Monday is the start of regular things again, too. Miss A's dance class resumes Monday, IC's wrestling practice is supposed to start Tuesday, but since the storm yesterday, the parent's meeting was postponed. So, the meeting is Tuesday and the kids will start practice Thursday. IC's KFC is also supposed to start Monday, so it will be back to our crazy Monday, and busy Tues & Thurs schedule for awhile. I am hoping JJ will be able to either watch the girls some or take IC to practice on some Tues and Thurs so I don't have to drag the girls along for the hour during Jan and Feb. IC is excited to start wrestling and Miss A is excited for dance, so that's good.

Now, if God will let the weather simmer down for awhile, we could get into a good routine again and hopefully, everyone could get to Miss A's birthday party in a week.

A Reminder

God's reminding me today that I need to be thankful for my currently healthy family and myself, despite not being very good at taking care of it lately. I've been following some blogs of some people with very ill children. It breaks my heart and I feel terribly guilty for struggling w/this annoying weather when I should be thankful for my family. I struggle w/depression at times, so I need to get out of myself and focus on others.

It's not always the easiest thing in the world. In fact, it's extremely difficult and one of the hardest things in my life right now.

More snow

It's been another LONG day. Yes, the wind came up and blew snow from here to Timbuktu, making it impossible to see AGAIN. Yes, school was cancelled and that was good. Apparently, at the low of the day, it was 0 degrees w/a windchill of -30. Um, that's NOT a typo, unfortunately.

Suffice to say, it was another yucky day of staying in the house w/3 children who are tired of each other and who'd like to get out and see people, but couldn't, so they took their frustration upon each other instead. Sigh.

If I'd have known that I would spend nearly 2 weeks' time of the past three weeks trapped in the house w/no way out, I'd have asked for a Nintendo Wii for Christmas instead of a photo scanner. At least, then, I could have had some workouts while trying to deal with 3 disgruntled children.

And what's in store for the forecast tomorrow? Yes, that's right, the same thing. Although the wind is supposed to not be as bad, I think it will take all day for the snow plows to get the roads cleared. And yes, school is closed for the whole day AGAIN.

Here's hoping that Monday we can start anew and maybe have school the WHOLE week!

A New Start

It's a new start this morning. Today, I put my 2 oldest babies on the big yellow school bus. Miss A was excited to start this new adventure. It was a little dark yet, and chilly, but not snowing when the bus got there at 7:45 am.

And then, it started to snow. Soon after the kids left actually. Since E-bunny had had a rough night and slept in 'till 9, I was able to work on some tax stuff, scoop the front walk so the kids didn't have to come home in mid-shin deep snow, and put some straggling Christmas stuff away. Of course, once E was awake, then I didn't get as much done, but still managed to clean up the empty Christmas boxes and rearrange the store room a little.

Our store room is the size of a postage stamp, plus we have the kids' bigger toys in there right now. So, organization is extremely important in maximizing limited space.

By mid-morning the snow had picked up, as well as the wind. Apparently, the blizzard chance we have today wasn't all hot air. Actually, it's not a blizzard, but close enough. By noon, the school had called, saying they'd be letting school out 2 hours early. Well, at least Miss A got a full morning and IC got 3/4 of a day.

The choir director already called, cancelling tonight's practice, we'll have to see what the weather does in case for the parents' meeting for midget wrestling tomorrow night.

Blog Dare

All Set

We are finally all set for school tomorrow. Miss A will ride with IC on the big yellow school bus in the morning. Since the bus route has switched, IC doesn't have to get on the bus so early, actually being the last one on and off now, so I decided to have him ride in the morning for sure and I will probably have to pick him up more from school in the afternoon. Miss A is supposed to ride the van to school, but since the bus will be coming anyway, it's apparently easier for the bus drivers to have her ride along. After they get to school, she will then go with IC to the art room, as that is where the Kindergartener's go. Then she will be taken to her class at the right time by the para in charge of the Kindergarteners. She'll come home on the school van that she normally rides home

Miss A has actually been ready to go to school today, even crying when I told her for the 3rd time that school doesn't start until tomorrow. This is a switch, as she usually doesn't want to go, but we'll see after a couple of days of the new schedule if she'll be back to her old ways. Everything will go smoothly, right? I can only hope.

Rough Start to a New Year

It's not been a stellar start to the new year. First, the whole blizzard messing up things in general and several Christmas's. Then, E gets sick for the first 3 days of the year. Now, I've come to the realization that I've misplaced my checkbook. I'll admit, I got REALLY crabby this morning when I first realized it was gone. I'm a careful person, but recently, have misplaced several things. Usually though, I find them. Either the checkbook got ferried away by E-bunny or I actually left it in the big city yesterday. I can only hope it's the work of E or my mind-boggling misplacement of things recently and not the other.

To add to the fun of this was the fact that the older 2 kids got pretty wild today. Mommy's ready for school to start again. They were rather difficult to deal with all day, even when we went to town for errands and stocking up on milk. Because guess what? Yep, it' supposed to blizzard. AGAIN. Like, by Wednesday, the day the kids are supposed to go back to school. Sigh.

JJ made the comment the other day, we either need to go to Colorado where it's worthwhile to have snow (he loves to ski, me-not so much) or have mountains here in our state. Then at least, this snow would be somewhat useful.

We've actually been fortunate for several years not to have much in the blizzard, major snow accumulation department. Apparently, our time of fortune was up.

The Last Christmas

The grandkids with their spouses (except for one not married).

The great-grandkids minus E-bunny.

Sunday was the final day of Christmas' for the year 2009 and boy, I was so glad to see it. It has been a LONG Christmas season, especially for someone who could never quite get in the Christmas spirit this year.

I was REALLY hoping E-bunny was finally done with her fever, but Sunday morning, she was at 101. I was disappointed. I really wanted her to go to the big city with us. My mom offered to babysit, even though she was supposed to go, too. She doesn't like the big city and this family has never made her feel wanted, so she jumped at the chance to babysit and stay home. I felt guilty for leaving E, but we couldn't take her and JJ made me decide if I was going to stay home or let mom stay home.

When I took E to mom's it was snowing! Of all things, it just had to snow. It was light and fluffy, but there was still about 2 inches on the ground. I was worried about the roads, but except for the country roads, they were good. By the time we got to the big city, the sun was shining.

Apparently, when I left, E had a huge fit. I heard her cry, but left anyway, and cried myself all the way home to pick up everyone else. Mom said she got really MAD and at 10:30, took a nap for 4 hours! Apparently, that's what she needed, because her temp stayed at 99 after that!

We headed to the big city and met the extended family to eat at Grisanti's, an Italian restaurant. JJ wasn't thrilled, but when he saw there was steak on the menu, he was in a MUCH better mood!

After dinner, each of the great grand kids (and also 2 grandkids, who are the same ages as the great-grands) opened one gift from the gift exchange. It was then time to head to see Grandma at the care home.

We all met with her in a conference room and then some of us went to see her room afterwards when it was time to take her back. Grandma doesn't remember most of us anymore, so it's a little hard to visit, but we came to see her and that's what counted.

Afterward, we went to run a few errands, picking up birthday party supplies for Miss A's party in 3 weeks and E-bunny's party in 3 months. Then, we had to stop at Wally World for a couple of things before heading home, stopping in the medium city for supper.

I dropped JJ off at home to chore while we went to get E-bunny. I realized how I'd missed her-I'm so used to taking her everywhere. She seemed to be feeling better, though she didn't eat much all day or evening.

She didn't go to bed 'til late and then she fussed in the wee hours of the morning, causing me to spend a rather uncomfortable time on the floor by the crib. Hopefully, she will continue to improve and none of the rest of us will get it.

Saturday's Mixed Bag

Saturday was a mixed bag of sorts. I was hoping E-bunny would wake up fever free. She didn't. Her temp was lower than the day before, but still there.

Then the day got even better. Miss A took a cup of milk into the livingroom. It had a lid on it, but apparently, the lid wasn't tight. She then proceeded to spill the milk all over herself and the rocking chair.

At the same time, E-bunny, who'd been up only for a little bit and had drank some milk from her cup, proceeded to vomit all over my shoulder, pants, herself and the kitchen floor. Luckily, we have vinyl in there.

So, I had to clean her and myself up, clean up the rocking chair and the kitchen floor. Luckily, she didn't throw up again and Miss A didn't spill her milk, either.

While E took a long nap in the afternoon, the older 2 and I went out into the cold. Today was one of those single digit temperature days, so we were only out about 30-40 minutes. Apparently, JJ and IC had started digging a tunnel in one of the big snow drifts from one side to the other the evening before. They haven't quite met in the middle, yet, but are pretty close. Of course, IC wanted me to help dig. I am fairly claustrophobic, so I didn't want to, but I did help some, just making sure I wasn't completely in the tunnel. It's not quite done yet.

After E's nap, her temp was down and since she hadn't had anything medicine wise, I thought maybe the fever was gone. Wrong. By supper it was back to where it started that morning-100.3. This, actually, isn't near as bad at 103.5, but I think this fever is also causing hefty headaches, which may account for the occasional nausea and lack of appetite. She actually hardly ate supper, but had eaten a decent snack less than 2 hours before.

My main worry with this whole seemingly unending fever was the fact that Sunday were are supposed to be going to the big city for the last of the postponed Christmas'. Since the big city is over 1 hour away, I don't want to drag her along if she's still sick. My mom volunteered to watch her if we don't think she should go, but I don't know how aggrevated that will make E to be left behind and I don't want to leave her behind if I don't have to.

I guess we'll just have to play it by ear.

New Years Day

With E-bunny feeling yucky, I wasn't sure if she was going to go to my mom's for Christmas.

She'd woke up at midnight, so I guess technically, I did see the new year in, but no celebration because I was in bed by 11pm and had awakened me out of a deep sleep. I did get her back to sleep right away and went back to bed. I thought I heard her cry out once later on, but she didn't continue, so I went back to sleep. Turns out, probably when she cried is when she threw up. She got up by 8 am on New Years Day with dried vomit covering her and the sheets. ICK. Not the way I'd picture starting the new year.

I cleaned her and the bed up and she was really warm again. I was going to try Tylenol on her, but then she went back to sleep and slept until 10. Still warm, I gave her Tylenol and she proceeded to down about a cup and a half of milk. By 11, she was perkier and her temp was lower, so I called mom, who said I could bring her if she was feeling up to it. She seemed to be, so we packed up everyone and headed to mom's for Christmas dinner. Of course, it was snowing, AGAIN, but it was one of those nice pretty snows, the kind you see in the movies. It didn't last too long and the sun did even come out for awhile.

After dinner, was gifts again, and then we put IC's new movie, Bolt, in, as he had been wanting that since it came out. E-bunny slept part of the afternoon and I thought she wasn't as warm.

After the movie, we headed home, and IC went outside w/Daddy. Miss A, my inside girl, didn't want to go out, as she had a new pet shop toy and a Tinkerbell movie she wanted to watch. If E would have been healthy, I'd have made her go out, but since not, I didn't push Miss A out. So, we watched her movie and by then, E-bunny's temp was back up.

After motrin, she felt great and was in to everything all evening. She also ate like a horse, which is her normal and I hope her temp will be gone by tomorrow. Saturday is supposed to be art club and I really, REALLY wanted to go, but w/E sick, I figured I'd better stay home and get ready for Sunday-our last Christmas celebration (FINALLY) in the big city w/my extended family on dad's side.

We've been letting the kids stay up a little later, but since school starts next week, we'll have to go back to the regular bedtime again. It's hard to believe that it's almost school time again. Christmas vacation has been different this year with this snow and blizzard mess.

IC's birdhouse

IC got a bird house from Grandma J for Christmas and was determined to put it together immediately after we got home New Year's Eve. So, after chores and such, Daddy sat down with him and they got out IC's new tools to put it together. They only needed a screwdriver, since the holes were predrilled, etc, but you know, you got to bring out all the tools anyway.

Daddy helped IC put it together and then on New Years Day morning, he painted it. The kit came with brown, yellow, green and red paint, but IC thought it needed blue also, so I got out the blue tempera paint for him to finish.

He thinks he wants to hang it outside for the birds, but not until spring.

New Years' Eve

We headed to my in-laws for Christmas on New Years' Eve day to have dinner. My BIL, his wife, and daughter were the only other ones there besides us.

After dinner, the kids got to open presents. The kids did pretty well. IC was thrilled with his own tool box and real tools he got from his cousin, Miss A was thrilled with her magnetic Tinkerbell doll from Grandma and her Princess and the Frog purse from her cousin, and E-bunny slept through gift opening.

She did, however, wake up afterward and get to open her gifts as well.

By the end of the day, E-bunny was feeling rather yucky and it turns out she awoke from her nap with a fever.

The kids elected not to go outside after they got home, they just wanted to play with their new toys.