Monday

Today we had a fairly decent day. I got up before the alarm went off. The kids got up and ready without a fuss. We got out of the house this morning without any problems and I didn't forget anything or have to make any extra trips back to Gage's school! It would have been a great day, if it weren't for this stinking headache. Day 2 today. I believe it's a sinus headache because I am so stuffed up. I still have a nasty sounding cough, but without the chest pain now.

Scott is in Northern Iowa for some meetings and is due back late tomorrow night. He is looking forward to Friday. Apparently Barrack Obama is going to be in North Dakota on Friday (Grand Forks I believe?) and Scott has tickets to his rally. As far as I know he has never been to anything like this and he is really excited about it. I'd go with him if it were Hillary! :-)

After lunch today Emma and I went to the library. Last night she couldn't go to sleep and on her last trip up to see me she said, "Mom, can we go to that place where they have books and videos?" "You mean the library Emma?" "YEAH!" We went after lunch and she picked out a pile of books, played with the puzzles and picked out a couple of DVD's. I guess Gage had told her to pick him out a video and some books. She picked a video for him, but not a book. I told him he should have asked me, I would have loved to get him some books. We just finished reading Junie B. Jones Jingle Bells Batman smells (and P.S. so does May!). It was a funny book. I wish there were more available. We have gotten all of the Junie B. books read and are anxiously awaiting a new book to come out. Emma loves them just as much as Gage. She isn't much into chapter books yet, unless it's Junie B.

I have been amazed at how well Gage and Emma have gotten along in the last 2 days. (I'm knocking on wood) Today after school they were sitting on the couch watching television and Gage was leaned up against her and she had her arm around him. If I had had my camera, that certainly would have been a Kodak moment! I'm sure it will never happen again!

Excited

The kids are so excited. After talking with my sister Kysa this past week, I think it's decided her kids are going to come and stay with us for a couple of weeks this summer! Gage asked me today, "Mom when is Coly and Dustin going to be here?" I shouldn't have told them yet, as I have a feeling this is a question I am going to be asked frequently in the next few months! When Emma was a baby, my niece Katie came and stayed with us for a week or so (I guess it's been long enough ago I can't even remember how long it was she stayed with us?) and it was a fun time. (I hope Katie felt the same way!) Anyway, we are so excited! There's no backing out now Kysa! :-)

Today we got up and made it to the 9am church service. That was no easy task after my shot of NyQuil last night. I love that stuff! It works better than any other medicine I am aware of in helping me not cough my lungs up during the night! I've had a terrible headache most of the day and am hoping I won't have it when I wake up in the morning! One thing that really stinks is waking up with a headache.

The kids had a good day. We played outside for quite awhile this afternoon. I tried getting Emma to ride her bike a little bit without her training wheels and she isn't quite brave enough, or determined enough to do it. We then went to the backyard to play a little baseball and ended up having to put the zip and hit toy away because Brie couldn't stand the fact that the ball couldn't be retrieved by her since it is stuck on the zip line. She LOVES to play baseball! Unknowingly, we taught her how to retrieve the balls and bring them right back to the pitcher's mound and drop them last year. She then gets back into her defensive position and gets the ball everytime. Makes my job A LOT easier. Scott doesn't necessarily like her playing this game with us, as he thinks it could ruin her on retrieving ducks. I think she's smart enough to separate the two activities. It's the only thing she does that makes me really like her! :-)

We're hoping for a good week this week and that everyone gets to feeling back to normal! I hope none of you have caught this nasty stuff that's going around!

Lost

I had a blog entry typed up, and have been waiting for OVER AN HOUR for a video to upload and I lost it! UGH! I was trying to put a video on that Scott took with his camera last fall of some tumbleweeds. Gage and I went to Walmart this afternoon, while Scott was laid up on the couch sick, and while Emma hung out watching a video, and it was like an invasion of the tumbleweeds at Walmart. They were all over the parking lot and many were lodged underneath people's cars. They were even finding their way into Walmart stuck underneath carts that were left outside. I thought it would be neat to post that little video, and have now wasted over an hour and it's gone! UGH!

When Gage and I got home from Walmart, Emma was sitting outside in front of our house in the rock bed in her pajamas. She did have a coat and shoes on, thank goodness. I wonder how many people drove by wondering why she was outside playing in her pajamas? She was happy to see us when we drove up and I asked her what she was doing outside in her pajamas. She just smiled. I don't know if Scott told her it was okay, or if she just took it upon herself to go on outside?

Sorry for the short entry, but I am going to go take my shot of NyQuil and hit the hay. I've already spent too much time trying to get that darned video on here!

My turn

I guess it is my turn to be sick? I have had an awful cough for a few days now, and today my chest hurts even if I'm not coughing. UGH! The other night I took some NyQuil before going to bed and I woke up in a delirium. When my alarm went off at 7 a.m. I quickly got up to hit the snooze button. When I jumped back in bed, I looked back up at the dresser and had to do a double take. Scott had to leave early yesterday morning, so he wasn't there when the alarm went off. Anyway, when I got back in bed, and did my double take, here is the conversation that was happening in my head.

"Is that a Starbucks coffee cup sitting there on the dresser?" "No way! Scott surely didn't go to Starbucks and get me a coffee to have when I woke up, did he?" I start squinting my eyes to try to get a better look because I didn't have my glasses on and it was still dark in the room. "Well, it looks like it could be a cup of coffee sitting there, but I don't see the little insulated wrap they put around the cup?" "I should get up and get it." "He surely didn't think to do that, did he?" "He does do nice things like that for me, so maybe he did?" "I just don't believe it is?" "I should get up and get it, because by the time I get up, it might be cold." "No, it can't be a Starbucks." "Wow, if it is, that was really thoughtful of him!" "It just can't be!"

Finally, after probably 5 minutes of this, I finally got up to check and it was my lotion bottle. I just knew that wasn't possible. Yesterday when I told him about my delirium and the conversation I had going on in my head, he laughed. It was kind of funny. I could have solved the whole problem by just getting up to look in the first place. But it was nice and warm in my bed and I didn't want to get out. I told him I didn't want to tell him about it because I didn't want him to do it because I had planted the idea in his head.

This morning I had a Starbucks coffee waiting for me when I woke up! :-) Even though I felt like crap this morning, that was a nice surprise, even if I did plant the idea by telling him about my NyQuil delirium!

School work

I was trying to scan one of Gage's school papers to share on my blog, but it won't upload it for some reason. Yesterday he brought a paper home from school. They were working on Adjectives for How Many. They were to "Write about the people in your family. Use adjectives that tell how many". Here's what Gage wrote word for word, with his spellings.

My sisster has twenty one webkinz! Dad has a gazillyon decoys. Mom has a trilyon scrapbook thigs and I have four peple in my famaly.

I thought that was pretty funny. I asked him which number was higher, a gazillyon or a trilyon. He said a gazillyon so I guess Dad has more decoys than I have scrapbook things. I better get some more Cricut cartridges! :-)

So far, knocking on wood, I have not yet had to make a second trip back to school this week with any forgotten items, i.e. library books, shoes, etc. I know there's another day yet in the school week, but I'm doing pretty good so far!

Emma

Emma didn't want to go to school this morning. I'm not sure of the exact reason why, but I think it had something to do with Silas not being there? Her excuse to me was, "Well, the Lego boys think they have to play with the legos on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (and she repeated the days of the week about three times)." The "Lego boys" are a group of boys who are always playing together and hogging the legos. They weren't very nice to Silas, and I think sometimes Emma? She had class pictures today, so I didn't want her to miss that, so she went. We had a difficult time this morning agreeing on an outfit, which ended up being a black long-sleeved t-shirt with a denim skirt and leopard spotted tights with hot pink and black stripes. She had vanilla yogurt spilled all over the front of her shirt before we left for school, so I had to take her upstairs for some "spot cleaning" before we left, then had to blow it dry. Emma was high maintenance this morning! Before I left her at school this morning I told the teachers about her not wanting to come today, and her reasoning about the "Lego boys". They informed me that she is right there at the Lego table with the boys playing most of the time. So, I believe that confirmed it was more about Silas being gone, than the "Lego boys". The kids certainly miss the Jennings family, as do I. Yesterday was Silas' real birthday and both Emma and Gage had to talk to him on the phone yesterday 2 separate times to tell him Happy Birthday. Gage told Silas that he was going to come and stay the summer. I'm not sure about that, but we are hoping to maybe take a big trip to see them and plans are hopefully in the making. Emily left us a great message on the answering machine this morning singing us a new song, "Oh, Canada!" Not sure why she picked that one, but we'll have it memorized before the week is out! HA HA! We have explicit orders from Emma to NOT ERASE EMILY'S MESSAGES! You'll have to think up another song Emily, and SOON! HA HA! Grandma Pipi, you're going to have to join in on the sing-a-song message for Emma on the answering machine! She loves them, and you too, are a wonderful singer! :-)

Quiet day

We should be safe sending Emma to school tomorrow. Scott took her to the walk-in clinic this evening to make sure she didn't have pink eye. He didn't think it was, especially since she hasn't had any drainage, but gave us some eye drops just in case she started having some.

Not too much happening here. I had my orthodontist appointment today and he mentioned that he didn't think I would be having surgery til the end of summer, early fall. It seems to keep getting moved back each time I go in. I'm okay with that though, as I'm sure it will be easier to recover from the surgery when both kids are in school all day!

The only exciting thing I can think of that happened today was hearing about the GREAT DEAL my friend Kara got on her new Cricut Expressions machine!! Way to go Kara!!!!!

Last day of Spring break

Today was out last day of spring break. We had a pretty good day. Gage and I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It didn't end the way I was predicting! I intentionally stayed away from all of the media stuff when the new book came out because I didn't want to know what happened. I did hear a few things, but what I heard wasn't correct! Gage and I certainly enjoyed it and the rest of the books! I'll be anxious to start reading them again when Emma is interested. It took Gage and I 1 1/2 years to get all 7 books read, and I'm sure most of you know, these are NOT small books. And to read it all out loud, whew! I recommend these books to all of you who have not yet read them! I'm not sure what we're going to start reading next, but we have a lot of new books to dig into. We have the Chronicles of Narnia series and I've been told those are good as well. Any of you have any suggestions on good books to read?

Gage had a dentist appointment today. He did not have any cavities, so that was a relief. They put sealants on 4 of his molars and the dentist has referred us to the orthodontist. He has a bad crossbite that needs attention. When the hygienist was cleaning Gage's teeth she asked him if his teeth ever hurt, and he said just in the mornings. I have heard him grind his teeth a little in the night at times, but I think there's more clenching going on than anything. The dentist said that could certainly be a cause of some of his headaches. As we were standing at the front reception desk, they were getting ready to call Dr. Warford to refer us there. I asked them if I could just make the appointment myself, as I will be there tomorrow anyway. We will probably have an account with them for the next few years with Gage and then more with Emma. I guess it's good I've gotten to know them quite well over the past year!!

Emma was feeling a bit better today, but still felt a bit warm to me. She has a bloodshot eye, and I'm hoping it's not pink eye. I may end up taking her in to see the doctor tomorrow, because I'm quite sure they won't let us through the doors on Wednesday at school if her eye is still looking like it is. It's not draining anything, so I'm not convinced it's pink eye, but I know the YMCA won't want to take any chances and will probably make me take her in to have it cleared before she can come back to school. Maybe I will luck out and it will be gone tomorrow? Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Happy Easter!

Emma and Gage's Easter baskets

Gage's Easter loot

Emma's Easter loot

Gage finds his Easter basket!

Emma finds her Easter basket!

Gage and Emma - Easter 2008

Our Family - Easter Sunday

Emma finds an Easter egg!

Gage finds an Easter egg!

The Easter bunny left Gage the Tiger Snake Webkinz!

The Easter bunny left Emma the Poodle Webkinz!

The kids woke up very excited to find their Easter baskets this morning. I think there was a little bit of a let down, but Gage tried hiding it as well as he could. He noticed right off this morning that the eggs were still in the refrigerator. I guess we're going to have to get up earlier in the future, as they are getting smarter and will soon figure it all out if we aren't careful. The bunny came while we were at church. Scott left just after communion to take care of business. The kids kept asking where he was, and after so long, the response, "He must be in the bathroom?", didn't work. I then had to tell Gage I wondered if maybe he went home to get his fish bank that he was to put in the offering today for the One-hour of sharing offering. That worked, until he came back to church without it. I then had to tell him that I'll bet he went home to get it, but then forgot what he went home to get? HA HA! That is something I would do, not Scott! Anyway, they were very excited when we pulled into the driveway and there were Easter eggs all over the front yard. The Easter bunny can never hide them in the backyard because there is typically too much dog poop back there this time of year! Just before we left for church, we discovered Emma wasn't feeling well. She wasn't cooperating too well when we were getting ready and didn't want to smile for any pictures. I then noticed in her eyes that she looked like she wasn't feeling well, and when I asked her, she said she wasn't. We went ahead to church anyway and it wasn't long you could see very plainly that she felt horrible. She curled up in Scott's lap for most of the service, and then I took over when Scott had to leave. She was definitely warm. Everyone asked about her and patted her on the back and hoped she would get to feeling better. I assured them she would be okay, as I sometimes like having the "lethargic" Emma to hang out with! :-) She did hunt eggs as soon as we got home, but then changed clothes and laid down on the couch. She woke up a little while ago and decided she didn't want the grilled cheese sandwich she had previously asked for. She is taking a nap. I will let her warm little body fight off the bug she has for awhile, then I will help her out with some Motrin. It always works quite well, which is why I sometimes hold off a little while. (I know that sounds terrible, but it really is good for them to fight the infection themselves!) Or at least that's what I tell myself to justify not giving any medicine immediately after they start running a fever. We have a ham in the oven for supper with no big plans for the afternoon. Scott and Gage ran an errand to fill my car up with gas and get a few things we need at Walmart. Gage reminded me I needed to pay him the $2 I owed him for cleaning his room yesterday, so I'm guessing there's something he wants to buy. Not that that's unusual! I hope this finds you all well and having a great time with family. I wish we could have had a few more days off around the weekend so we would have time to travel to visit family in Iowa. We're there with you in spirit "Grandma Pipi" and "Grandpa Carole"! (Emma has lots of names for Grandpa Alan! :-) Happy Easter!!

Oops

Today were going to go attend Dakota Hills Baptist Church's egg drop. We didn't make it. I didn't realize today was Saturday (I have that problem when the kids are out of school), and Scott thought it was at 2 p.m. As I walked through the kitchen, and past the calendar, where I had the flyer hanging, I saw it and gasped and said "What day is today?" Scott says, "WHAT?" I pointed at the flyer. He said, "It's at 2." Then I pointed at the time, which was 10 a.m. Darn it! The kids were very excited about going to it and we had every intention to go. Unfortunately we messed up and missed it. I talked to Emily today and she said that Ryan, the new pastor, said there were about 80 kids there, plus parents. So, the odds of us winning any of the big prizes weren't that great. Maybe next year?

We dyed Easter eggs today to get ready for the big hunt tomorrow. It was a messy project, but we managed to keep from ruining anything (I think). Gage had a Star Wars egg coloring kit and Emma had a glitter egg coloring kit. Besides the kits I bought, Grandpa and Grandma Stephens brought a blow pen coloring kit. That was the messiest thing I've ever seen! (Please don't buy those again, even if they are a quarter...................there's a reason they are that cheap!)

Emma brushing some glitter onto her beautiful egg!

Gage and Emma dyeing Easter eggs.

Gage showing off his Yoda egg and Darth Vader egg.

May the Force of Easter be with you!

Emma thoroughly enjoyed our "project" for the day.

" Look Ma!"

Emma's beautiful dozen

Gage and his Star Wars Easter eggs!

I must admit, the Star Wars egg kit was pretty cool. The kit contained plastic sleeves that you put around the egg, then put it into hot water and it shrinks around the egg. Initially Scott had gotten a bowl of water and I was watching Gage try to get this wrap on his egg. I thought to myself, "Yeah, I figured it wasn't going to work!" Then, I heated up the water in the microwave and then put the egg with the sleeve on it into the water and I was amazed at how quickly it shrunk down and fit perfectly onto the egg! I guess the water wasn't hot enough to begin with. With the wrap on it, there wasn't much left to color, but we dipped them in the dye anyway to make them a little more colorful. I'm sure Gage isn't going to let me make egg salad with them tomorrow!

The Easter bunny has baskets ready for the kids, but they don't seem to have a lot in them. The items they want cost a little more now that they are older, so there aren't as many. I guess it only gets worse the older they get. I'm sure they'll be pretty thrilled with what they did get, or at least I hope they will. I'll post more pictures tomorrow of them in their Easter outfits and with their baskets.

Good Friday

Today the kids had no school and Scott did not have work. We slept in a little this morning before Gage and Emma had some friends over for a playdate. They were here a couple of hours and I believe they had a good time.

After lunch we took the kids to see Horton Hears a Who. It was a cute movie. Especially if you know the book as well as we do. It was one of Gage's favorites that we would check out at the library when we were attending story time with Mother Goose. (At one point, I couldn't read a book without trying to make it rhyme, as Gage was heavily into Dr. Seuss!) It was funny to hear Emma giggling during different parts of the movie. There was an older gentleman behind us that was doing alot of giggling as well. :-). We called this one of our "Family Fun" activities that we had drawn from the box and didn't do because there weren't any movies in the theater that we wanted to see at the time we drew it out. And, since it was Friday, Emma insisted on drawing another activity from the family fun box. She drew out "Go shopping and everyone gets an item!" Gage bought part 2 of Pirates of the Caribbean with most of his own money, Emma bought a big ball to annoy me with, I bought a Caramel Frappucino at Starbucks :-) and I don't know that Scott bought anything? I'm sure it's coming! HA HA!

We've heard from Jody a few times. Last we heard he was 300 miles from his destination in S. Carolina. He said he would get there around midnight tonight. We're hoping he makes it there safely. Silas is doing well and is completely entertained with DVD's, Leapster games, etc. Emily made it safe and sound. We already miss them terribly. Gage has talked a lot about them already and wonders if we can visit them. We will be visiting them and hopefully soon.

Yesterday I tore into the guest room and since I had all of my scrapbooking stuff taken down so the room could be occupied, I was able to get to the filing cabinet once again and did some major paper shredding. I believe I have completely cleaned out the filing cabinet and am going to reorganize the room so it isn't so overwhelmingly cluttered. Soon we will be hitting the basement. Gage and Emma, despite being warned not to, invited their friends to the basement this morning and I was mortified when I realized where they were when their Mom went to tell them it was time to go. Our basement is a complete war zone and I have told the kids they aren't to have anyone in the basement until it is presentable. I guess I can look at it on the positive side, and they aren't allowed any playdates for awhile as punishment for disobeying the rules.

Looking forward to another quiet day tomorrow!

The day has arrived

Well, the day I have not been looking forward to for about a month has arrived. The Jennings family is on their trek to South Carolina. They finished packing and loading the moving truck yesterday and closed on their house while I had the pleasure of watching Hattie and Luke. I told Emily I would pick Emma and Silas up at school, so not to worry about that. I loaded up the 2 little ones and headed to the YMCA. One of the mothers of a classmate of Emma walked in at the same time as me and was telling me what a great friend I was to take care of the kids for the day. I enjoyed being able to help. However, when we got inside, all of the other mothers were asking me about what was going on with them and that they were going to miss them, etc, etc. When the kids came out of the classroom all of the mothers were telling the kids that they better tell Silas good-bye and give him a hug because they would never see him again. I totally started crying. I didn't even think about that happening when I told Emily I would pick them up. Had I thought of it, I might have sent her instead! I told the teacher, when she picked Luke up to give him a kiss "This wasn't supposed to happen!" I was a mess. Oh well, just a way to get me primed up and ready for today. Emily and Jody finished up with all of their stuff and were at our house around 4:30 and they stayed the night with us. Survivor was even on (it is always on Thursdays, not Wednesdays) which is a favorite of Jody and Emily and also of mine. Jody wants to be on Survivor, and I hope to see him on there one day. I think they would totally pick him, being a young pastor with no hair! HA HA! Emma wanted Silas to sleep in her room on the floor with her. Hattie slept on the floor in Gage's room with him. Emma WOULD NOT go to sleep. Silas had fallen asleep at one point, then Emma woke him up. We finally put Silas up in the extra bedroom until Emma fell asleep, then Jody put him back in Emma's bed. He was totally relieved to get out of her room to a place where it was QUIET! That was so funny.

This morning Emily and I got up at 3:45 a.m. to head to the airport. Her flight left at 4:40 a.m. I was amazed at how quickly we left the house. Last night I was trying to figure out what all we had to do in the morning and was asking Emily all sorts of questions. It went so smooth. Luke was not happy about me putting him in his carseat, but once we were all in the car and driving, he was fine. She had 2 big suitcases and 2 carseats to check, then her stroller, 2 bags, Hattie with another bag, and Luke to carry on. I admire her for being brave enough to fly with 2 little ones. That was nothing compared to a trip they made last fall to South Carolina to attend a wedding, I think, and she traveled alone with all 3 kids! YIKES! I know I would NEVER attempt something like that. Emily is an amazing person, and there is nothing she can't do. I held it together a lot better than I thought, but walked away crying. She did too. When I was leaving the airport I couldn't get an attendant to take my parking ticket at the ticket booth. I sat there for about 5 minutes, back up a little, then pulled forward again, trying to get someone's attention. I didn't see anyone, but the lights were on so I knew someone was there. I had honked the horn once, with no results. Then after a few more minutes I honked 2 more times. FINALLY he came and let me through the gate. Scott told me when I got home I was supposed to slide my ticket through some thing. I don't recall anything like that, or seeing instructions to do so. He tells me they were there, and as much as he travels, he probably knows. I'm sure the guy thought I was an idiot! Oh well. Jody and Silas were to have left around the same time as we did for the airport, but when I got home, the truck was still there and the lights were out. I had to wake Jody up to make sure he hadn't overslept, and he said he was working on getting out of bed. I'm sure he was quite tired as Luke didn't sleep the best and woke up crying several times in the night. I got Silas up and got him ready while Jody got ready. I had Scott get Gage and Emma up so they could say good-bye, as I thought they might be really upset to wake up and everyone was gone. Gage was sweet and told Silas he would get an extra egg for him in the egg drop that their church is having on Saturday and would send it to him. It was so sweet when Silas gave Emma a hug. He told her he was really going to miss her and gave her a big long hug and looked at her so caring-like. Of course the tears started flowing again and I told Jody he was supposed to have been gone before I got home because I didn't want to go through it all again! :-) Anyway, I helped him get Silas loaded up in the big truck and off they went. They are driving as far as they can today. I think he's wanting to make it to Chicago at least. Emily and the kids will land in S. Carolina at lunchtime, just in time for naps, so that should be good. We are going to miss them sooooo much. Good Luck guys!!

Movie alert!

I don't know if any of you have seen the Bee Movie or not. Back when it was out in the theaters, Scott, Gage, Emma and I went to see it. We all really enjoyed it. Gage and Emma now own this movie. (A little prematurely actually, as I had bought it for their Easter basket and unfortunately I was one-upped by Grandma S.) Anyway, Gage wanted to watch it when he came home sick from school yesterday. He did watch some of it, and he had watched bits and pieces of it on Sunday as well. Last night, about 1 a.m., Gage came up to our room crying. He said his head hurt. He got into our bed and I had Scott go get him some Motrin as that seemed to help previously. He took the Motrin and stayed in our bed. He was very upset and I asked him what was wrong. He said he had had a bad dream. Gage has a very vivid dreamland. His dreams seem very real to him and can really scare him at night. Actually he's been having some dreams lately where he is going to the bathroom, and he wakes up and has peed the bed. (I remember doing this when I was younger, actually I've also done it as an adult. I remember I was sleeping on the couch and I was probably 6 or 7 years old, and I dreamed I was peeing, and woke up and was actually doing it! I was too embarrassed to tell Mom, so instead, I just flipped the couch cushion over so no one would know! NICE! I would kill my kids if they did that! I'm sure Mom wondered why the couch smelled like pee! It was me Mom!) Anyway, Gage dreamed last night that we were all bees. We were in a hive and Gage was at the bottom of the hive and was working away really hard trying to clean the floor of sticky honey. Then, another bee came into the hive and stung him. Apparently it was a traumatic sting, which caused him to wake up very upset, crying and coming into our bedroom with a headache. I asked him if the headache was from the stress of the dream, and he said it was. Poor little guy! He must have been working extremely hard down there on the bottom of the hive when he got stung! HAHA! He has some good dreams, let me tell you! I was hoping I wouldn't forget what it was about today, and luckily I remembered. So, I just wanted you to "bee" alert to this movie, and the fact that it is rated PG, doesn't mean it's good for all kids! :-)

Grandpa and Grandma left for home today. Emma and I went to McDonald's with them for lunch before they left. When we were standing at the counter ordering, I turned around and saw Silas bolting for the playland area, then saw Emily and her mother-in-law trudging through the door with Hattie and Luke! What a great surprise! I had no idea they were going to be there and was excited to see them. They were meeting another friend and her two kids there for lunch so they all joined us in the back of the playland to eat lunch. It was quite loud in there today and I think Scott's parents were a little surprised at how busy it was. His Dad thought that going at 11:30 would beat the rush. HA! I knew better, but figured I would let them see for themselves. That is a busy place because of the playland area and also being next to the interstate. It turned out to be a good thing for Emma, as she was distracted from the fact that Grandpa and Grandma were leaving and wasn't as upset as she would have been otherwise. Both she and Gage have a hard time saying good-byes. When we leave Iowa Gage is always sooo terribly upset and cries so hard it just breaks my heart, so it always helps to have some distraction at those times to help ease the pain a little.

I was busy today getting the extra bedroom ready for Jody, Emily and the kids. They are closing on their house tomorrow and are leaving North Dakota on Thursday so I told them to stay the night at our house. It will be a crazy night and I'm sure no one is going to sleep well. Hopefully Jody does, as he will have the hardest day driving the moving truck as far as he can on the trek to South Carolina. Silas will be riding with him and will hopefully keep him awake while Emily, Hattie and Luke fly. I get the honors of taking them to the airport and I'm very much like Gage and Emma in respect to saying good-bye. I hate it. It's going to be a tough one. I have a hard time telling my parents good-bye when we leave and I always get choked up. I never tell my sister Kysa good-bye because I hate it so much! She is the same way. I think it's just a mutual understanding and we don't go there. (Or at least I think that's what it is? Maybe she's ready for me to go home? HA HA!) It's just weird. I'm not good at them and Thursday is going to be a tough one!!! I know, however, that this is going to be a friendship that will last, despite the distance between us. I was just thinking about it the other night, and know how sometimes relationships fizzle out when there is so much distance. It wasn't that way with our very dear friends, Jason and Julie, who have both gone to be with the Lord. We always took every chance we got to see them when we had the opportunity and they did the same. I remember traveling to Delaware to see them, and flying to Minnesota to see them when we lived in Memphis. And, they also traveled to visit us when we lived in Mississippi, Tennessee and even Montana! Julie also drove here to Bismarck with Samantha and Matthew from MN when Emma was born. She came to stay with Gage while Scott and I were at the hospital with Emma. That is a true friendship, and I know I have that same kind of relationship with Emily. I got all choked up today at lunch when Silas told Emma, in such a sweet but sad voice, "I hope we're friends forever Emma." Even Judy, Jody's mom, got all choked up. They are such a wonderful family and we are going to miss them dearly.

Okay, okay. I got a little windy tonight. Sorry! I had a lot on my mind!

Playing hookie?

Happy St. Patty's day to all of you! Thanks to Grandma the kids didn't get pinched at school. I would have forgotten to dress them in green.

After I dropped the kids off at school today I had a few errands to run. I got home around 10:30 and had a message on my answering machine from Gage's teacher, Mrs. Vetter. (The one day I forget to take my TracPhone with me!) She said that Gage wasn't feeling well. I called her back and she said he said his head hurt and stomach felt queasy. She sent him to the nurse's office and his temp was normal. I told her I would be there in a few minutes to pick him up. I took some Motrin with me to see if he wanted to take that and try to stick it out, but he already had his coat on and his backpack packed and ready to go home. On our way out the door Mrs. Vetter said that Gage said he hoped he would get to watch the Bee Movie. Uh huh, that's just what I thought. I told him that Grandpa and Grandma weren't at home, that they went with Dad to Tuttle. He wanted to know if Emma was home, and I told him no, she was at school. He wanted to come home. Mrs. Vetter said she did know he wasn't feeling well because when they were doing their in class assignments they get free period afterwards, and typically he hurries through his papers to get to play (what kid wouldn't?) and today he did not do that. And he had been laying his head down on his desk. She told Gage that if he got to feeling better, he could always come back.
We got home and he immediately put in the Bee Movie and sat down on the couch. I gave him some Motrin then had to pick Emma up from school. Scott and his parents got back home just about the same time. I also picked Silas up to take him home, so we were gone a little while and when we got back, Gage was sitting up playing a video game. He was doing a little hollering and sounded to me as if he was ready to go back to school. I told him that when I was growing up, and if I stayed home from school we couldn't go anywhere or do anything outside of the house. It was not good to be seen outside by anyone if you were home sick from school. (That was a good rule Mom!) Anyway, I told him if he was feeling better, that he should go back to school. He decided that he would, because he really wanted to eat at Red Lobster tonight for supper, and he knew that was out of the question if he didn't go back to school. Scott took him back around 12:30 and he lasted the rest of the school day. I don't know if he will get counted 1/2 day of absence or not? If he does, that will ruin his perfect attendance for the year. He only missed lunch and recess I think, so really he should be okay. Not a big deal anyway, but I would sure hate to mess it up if he wasn't really sick. I do think he had a headache, and I know he wasn't feeling the best Saturday afternoon and some of Sunday because all he did was lay around. However, the Motrin he had when he got home must have done the trick. We did get to eat at Red Lobster and Gage was extremely excited to get crab legs. (He can't wait to get a chance to eat those with you one day Grandma Pipi!) (Actually, it's me who can't wait for him to get to eat them with you one day, because I'm not very good at cracking those darned things open and I don't get to enjoy my own meal very much because it's so much work!) :-) After supper Gage, Scott and I attended Gage's Cub Scout pack meeting, and once again, he was running low on fuel and had his head down on the table. So, I know he's not feeling the absolute best, but I'm also not sure if he really wanted to just come home from school today because he felt like he might be missing out on something since we have company? We'll see how he feels tomorrow. I'll be sure to send him to school with some Motrin already in his system so hopefully he will make it through the day. Plus, Grandpa and Grandma will be leaving around noon tomorrow, so there won't be anything fun to want to come home early for!!!

Like no other

We have been planning for several weeks now to attend church today at Jody and Emily's church, Dakota Hills Baptist Church. This was our last chance at getting to hear a sermon of his. Jody guaranteed me that this would be a church service like no other I've been to before. He was right. First of all, I've never seen the lead pastor also be the lead singer during the service. (Which by the way, he was VERY good at!). Second of all, I've never been to a church service in which the pastor gave a sermon about bad sex. (Which by the way, was also very good!) Thirdly, I've never been to a church service in which party horns were given out to each member of the congregation to blow during the service. (Gage and Emma liked the fact that we had 2 horns for them to blow on the way home). We enjoyed our adventure and, I think we're probably at the right place, with a bunch of other reserved Presbyterians! Ha ha! Thanks Jody and Emily for the invitation. We enjoyed it and are sad that we won't be able to have another experience like the one we had today. Their church will be sponsoring an egg drop next Saturday afternoon in celebration of Easter Sunday. Unfortunately I made the mistake of noticing a small typographical error on the flyer, because we could have been the only people attending since the wrong date would have brought most people out a month from now and could have been the lucky winners of an X-box 360, Nintendo DS and an iPod nano! Darn! Oh well, we'll have a chance to win the items just like everyone else in Bismarck! The kids are excited to go. They will be dropping 2000 eggs from a crane suspended in the air, and the lucky eggs will contain all sorts of prizes, included the 3 I mentioned above!

I hope you all had a wonderful Palm Sunday. The kids were also excited to bring home a couple of palm leaf branches to celebrate the day. I was feeling a bit guilty after receiving a notice in the mail from our church about needing kids to participate in the procession of palm leaf branches during the church service. The kids didn't miss out on a thing, and also enjoyed their time visiting another church service today.

Thank you Jody and Emily!

Second place

Gage's hockey team got 2nd place in the tournament. They did a great job this season. In the beginning they were barely a match to place against. They certainly improved throughout the season. I am very glad the hockey season is over. A lot of the Mom's talked of being sad that hockey was over. Not this Mom! I've never been more happy! :-)

We've had quite a busy day with dance, hockey and Grandpa and Grandma Stephens arriving for a visit over the weekend. The kids are thrilled.

The weather has cooled off just a bit, but it is drying up outside and that is a good thing. Brie can track more dirt in than any dog I know. That might be because she wants outside every 10 minutes. I think she wants to stay outside all day, but she thinks she might be able to fool me when she comes in each time to think it's time to fill her food dish, which doesn't happen until 5 pm when Scott gets home from work. So, she barks to get let in, then as soon as she realized I'm not falling for her little trick, she wants right back inside. This continues ALL DAY long! UGH!

On a mission

This morning I was on a mission. I was desperately needing cat food, as my cats thought they were going to starve to death this morning! Grus was really making me feel guilty as he howled and howled about his empty food dish! He was very happy, and already on top of the refrigerator waiting, when I filled his dish! Not many stores are open in the morning after I drop the kids off at school. Kohls actually opens at 8 am, so that was my first stop. I was looking for an Easter dress for Emma. They had nothing there that I cared much about. I did, however, find a few things on the sale rack. :-) Next stop, Petsmart, for cat food. They open at 9 am. I then went to Sears, who opens at 9:30. They did not have any dresses that struck my fancy either. They did have a few boy shirts on the sale rack, however. (Scott probably won't be too impressed when he looks in the checkbook!) After Sears, I headed to JCPenneys. The stores in the mall open at 10 am, so I timed it all perfectly. JCPenneys had several cute dresses, so now my dilemma was which one should I pick? It always happens to me. When I am on a mission looking for something specific I can never find it, at least not easily. It doesn't matter where I go first, they never have what I'm looking for, and typically the last place I go doesn't have much either, but I was finally happy with what I found for Emma there, and I got Gage a shirt there as well. Not matching, but as close as you can get, colorwise. I then was headed to Limited Too. Emily's mother-in-law is here visiting before they move, and brought a coupon with her. Limited Too is having a Webkinz sale with select ones. Buy one, get one free! That is a good deal, and I should have stocked up on some birthday presents for future parties the kids will be asked to, however, since I had already spent some money, I had to refrain. I did buy one, and got one free. I was searching for the new tiger snake Webkinz that appears on the website now. Gage wants it badly. Limited Too did not have it, but they put my name on a list to call when it comes in. From there I went into Lee's Hallmark. The gal was stocking the Webkinz shelf when I went in, and I asked her if they had any snakes. She said she hadn't come across any yet, but she had another box to unload. She said to come back in about half and hour and she thought she would have them out. I went to browse in Target and while I was there, I took my phone out to call Emily and just about crapped when I saw the time! It was 10:45 and Emma would be getting out of school in 45 minutes. The time certainly got away from me. I headed back to Hallmark and she was SLOWLY but surely getting more and more Webkinz on the shelf. I think she was doing this on purpose! I felt really stupid has I hung around waiting for her to hopefully bring out a snake, and was also really worrying about the time issue. I was almost ready to leave and she came out and brought a snake right to me! I was so excited! I went to the register to pay for it, and decided I best get 2, in case Emily wanted one for Silas. As I was leaving the store there was a mother and her son in the entryway to Hallmark and I heard the boy say, "THEY HAVE IT MOM! THEY HAVE THE SNAKE, THEY HAVE THE SNAKE! MOM, THEY HAVE THE SNAKE!" I knew right then I didn't make a mistake buying the 2 of them, because if Emily didn't need it, my plan was to sell the extra one on ebay. The Easter bunny will be bringing Gage the snake Webkinz and I can just see his face now. Now I just need to find out which one Emma is wanting desperately. Actually, I know which one that is, the Sherbert bunny. It is newly retired and selling for $60 or more on ebay! NO KIDDING! She won't be getting the Sherbert bunny, needless to say. Anyway, that ended my shopping mission for the morning. I felt like I accomplished a lot. I definitely accomplished getting rid of some of Scott's paycheck! :-) And, I made it to school on time to pick up Emma!

Appointments

Today was Emma's appointment with the ENT doctor and audiologist. The audiologist reports that she can hear just fine. Her tympanogram looked good. He said the antibiotics that she was on could have cleared up that fluid in her ears. We then visited with the ENT doctor. Emma liked him. He came in joking around with her and he actually had her warmed up and talking to him before he left the room! I don't think she said 2 words to the audiologist? He said, "Is she always this quiet?" I told him I only could wish she would be that quiet at home! Anyway, the ENT guy put his headlamp on and told Emma to open wide and say ahhhh. She opened her mouth as big as she could and he only had a glimpse of them and took his head gear back off. He looked in her ears and said she had a big chunk of wax in one of her ears, but he would just take that out when she was alseep. (His personality hasn't changed much, huh Juanita?) He basically was telling me that we are going to take out her tonsils and adenoids. I know they need to come out, so I was fine with that. She snores very loud at night (almost as bad as Grandpa Alan!) and could start having obstructive sleep apnea. She also has a lot of the other signs, such as very thirsty in the night, and very restless sleeping. Emma was really listening and trying to understand everything. They sent us to another room with a gal to set up the surgery and she was telling Emma she could have popsicles every morning for breakfast for a WHOLE WEEK! Emma said, "I don't want popsicles for breakfast." WHATEVER! When we do have popsicles, she's begging for them at breakfast time, and it doesn't end until they are gone. She had just figured out what we were talking about and she decided she wanted nothing to do with popsicles if that means getting her tonsils out! The gal was trying to explain things to her. I said, "That's probably not a good idea, the less she knows the better." She was telling me that kids do so much better when they are informed and know what's going on. I told her, "I'm sure that's true with your typical kid, but trust me, she doesn't need to know this stuff right now!" I think they lady was thinking I'm a bad mom. If she had been with us that day at the Public Health office getting 4 shots, she would understand what I was talking about. I am not going to let Emma go in clueless, it just isn't necessary to get her to start worrying already! I can tell her what she needs to know. I never tell the doctors or nurses that I am a nurse, because I don't think it's any of their business, and I want to hear what they would tell a normal person. Sometimes they figure me out when I get to asking too detailed of questions. Anyway, Emma is scheduled for her T&A on April 8!

We finally had the plumber come to see why our washing machine has been draining out onto the basement floor for months (our last appointment for the day). He had to snake the pipes, which took him awhile to do. The hand held one wasn't powerful enough, so he had to go for the big dog. The problem is fixed, and now that we have that fixed Scott says we can get a new washer and dryer. The dryer sounds as if it's going off into orbit at any second, and Gage can't sleep if it's on at night. So, we'll be shopping around for new appliances when he gets back into town. YEAH! I hate having to spend the money on them, but it will be nice having my laundry time cut in half with a huge capacity washer and dryer! Also, I really liked the plumber. He's a great guy. If any of you are needing a plumber here in Bismarck, call Gregg's Plumbing. He's a one-man show and his cell phone was ringing off his belt loop. He was really a nice guy. He said he has 6 kids, ranging from 14 months to 19 years, and 2 of them with red hair! I feel his pain!

Hockey tournament

Tonight Gage had game 2 of his end-of-the-season hockey tournament. Sunday was game 1, and Gage's team won. I didn't realize it was a tournament game on Sunday and I missed it as Emma and I were at Silas and Hattie's birthday party. Tonight Gage's team played the red team. Scott is out of town until Friday, so he asked me to text message him each time there was a goal made. I'm not sure how many minutes I burned doing that, but it was several. I could hardly watch the game because of it. However, I was able to watch close enough to actually get excited! This is the first time (actually the first time was Sunday, tonight was the second) they actually kept score, had a goalie and played full ice, rather than across the ice. It was exciting! Well, it was actually quite nerve-racking when Gage was positioned as the goalie! YIKES! He gave up 2 goals and I felt horrible for him. I'm not even sure if he felt bad, but I certainly did for him! You never want your kid to be a goalie, that was confirmed to me tonight! I had texted Scott that Gage gave up 2 goals and he replied, "YIKES! Get a new goalie!" They switched fairly frequently, which was good as we wouldn't have wanted him to give up anymore goals. A little later the game was at 7 to 7 I believe, and Gage was back in as goalie. I was a mess. Here comes the red team, coming full force at the net. I'm panicked, and was hollering, keep your eye on the puck Gage! Get ready Gage! Go Gage! They shot it fairly hard and he DEFLECTED the puck! It was awesome! I was up hollering for him. I was so proud. (Just so you know, this is the first time I've really cheered at any of the hockey games!) I had to text Scott to tell him that. Then the score is 8-8 in the other teams' favor. The lone girl on our team, who is quite an amazingly good hockey player, gave up a goal in her goalie position. They take a time out, and a new goalie is in place. Another really good player on our team, the coach's son, scored another goal for us, then another goal for the red team. The score is tied 9-9 and we go into overtime! Not even a minute into the 5 minutes of overtime, Katelyn scored the winning goal for our team! It was awesome. The green team was celebrating on the ice. It was almost like being at a Bismarck Bobcats hockey game! We got into the locker room and called Dad on the cell phone. Gage was very excited to tell him that we won! Our next game will be on Saturday, and I believe we will be playing for 1st or 2nd place? This will be the end of the hockey season for us. We've had so much trouble with him not wanting to go to the practices and games, we've decided this will be his last season. So, I hope we go out with a big bang! :-)

Near death

Gage had a near-death experience today. He had a splinter. If you didn't know any better, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. This morning before we left for school, Gage ran his hand across his Harry Potter wand that he made and got a splinter. He commented on it before we left for school and I told him I could get it out and grabbed for the fingernail clippers and tweezers. He said "NO WAY" so I just left it alone not wanting to get him all upset before school. After school on our walk home, I asked him if he got his splinter out, and he said no. Once we got home I talked him into letting me try to get it out. He was almost as bad as Emma was getting her shots a couple months ago, and if you read that post, you would understand my frustration! I almost had it out and he decided he had had enough. "IT HURTS!" he says. I tried explaining to him that it was going to hurt until we got it out. Our neighbor kids came over to play and Gage was so preoccupied with this splinter that he couldn't even settle down enough to play. He started getting very angry and was getting me angry and I finally had to send the neighbors home. They asked if Emma could go too, so she went to play over there. I finally had had enough and made him go to his room. Later, when Scott got home, the same thing happened. FINALLY, after several hours of me trying to remove the splinter, and an hour or so of Scott attempting, he got it out. Gage was soooo happy about that. Then Scott took us all out for ice cream at DQ, so the near-death experience was over. UGH! It totally irritates me when I can't rationalize with him and he gets so paranoid and angry. He has a cousin that does the same thing, and I think it's in their genes? I'm glad it's over!

The weather was pretty nice today and we had Emily and the kids over for lunch. The days are quickly flying by and I'm not looking forward to their departure next week. I have been in denial and now I'm going to have to start accepting the fact that they are moving. Gage asked tonight on our way home from getting ice cream. Why do all of our friends move? First Jessica (the kids still remember you and Leah, Jessica!!) moves, then Ben and now Silas. Scott had to point out to him that we have MANY MORE friends that haven't moved, and we need to be thankful for that. It's still hard losing people you care about.

Yes, I'm still alive!

Man, I have been slacking in the blogging world! I have no excuses, except that I was being lazy!
Today was such a beautiful day outside! After Gage got home from school we spent the rest of the afternoon outside. Gage and Emma were trying to have toothpick races along the curb as the water runs down the side of the street from the melting snow, but their toothpicks kept getting hung up under the little glaciers. I tried breaking them all up to clear the way, but the ice was too think in many places. Emma made an attempt at riding her new bike from Santa Claus today, without training wheels. She's terrified if I let go, and I couldn't let go for more than a nanosecond because I didn't want her wrecking and coming up a muddy mess.
We did have a scary thing happen this evening before supper. Gage and I were outside and I was fiddling with something in the garage while he was trying to get his bicycle out of the side garage door. He wasn't able to get it through the obstacle course of sleds, shovels, etc., so he decided to open the garage door. I'm not sure what he did but the garage door only opened up a little ways, maybe like 2 feet, and stopped. I told him that we needed to keep the garage door down, because I didn't want our trusted, loyal, canine companion to make a break for it AGAIN! Emma had come out the front door and said, "Hey, why is the garage door open only a little?" I told her because Gage was trying to get his bicycle out and it didn't open all of the way. I went over to push the button to close it and as I walked away from the button I saw Emma under the door and the door was closing on her as she was trying to crawl under to get into the garage. I've seen and read stories about kids getting killed by being crushed by garage doors and I panicked. I ran over to her and hollered out her name and the door then went up. THANK GOD for the little garage door sensors at the base of the garage door. That is a safety feature EVERYONE should have. So, all of you out there reading this, if you don't have one, get one and install it TODAY! Emma freaked out because she thought I was yelling at her and she took off into the house crying like crazy. I followed her in and was trying to find out if she was okay and she wouldn't answer me or come to me. When I told her why I was so worried, she finally told me that she was just scared, not hurt. I only looked away for a second and that second could have been the worst second of my life had we not had those garage door sensors. Our garage door is the original to this house and is wooden and heavy and would have completely crushed her if it weren't for that sensor. I've read all of these stories about kids being run over by their parents backing out of the garage, and about kids being crushed by the garage door and I've always thought, "How could that even happen? Those parents must have been careless." Well, I'm here to tell you that it can happen to ANYONE and THANK YOU GOD for saving my little Emma today! Go buy your garage door sensors.

CRS

I seem to have a bad case of CRS. This morning I dropped Gage off at school, then dropped Emma off at the Y. I drove up Washington street, then got onto Century and was driving east on my way to Emily's house to help her do some packing. My TracPhone rang and nearly scared me to death. It was Gage. He was calling from school. He said, "Mom, you forgot my show-and-tell today." UGH! I asked him if he thought he could go without show-and-tell today. He said he really wanted to show his Harry Potter wand that he made at a Harry Potter party last summer. Thankfully I hadn't passed 4th Street, and turned there to head back home to get his wand. I took it to school and dropped it off. Then, I headed back for Emily's. I got on the interstate and exited off at the Oasis to go to her house. At that point it just dawned on me that Emma had show-and-tell today too! I called Emily to see if she had remembered Silas'. I was thinking that if she hadn't remembered, then I could continue on to get something for him, then head back home to get Emma's. She remembered. So, I got right back on the interstate and drove home to get something at the house for Emma's show-and-tell. I was sure to tell her teachers to let her know I brought something (she was at gym class when I got to her classroom) so all of that effort wasn't worthless. So, I headed back to Emily's praying there wasn't something else I had forgotten. Yesterday I forgot Gage's library books and had to make a second trip to the school so he could check out new books during his library time. And, twice in the past couple of weeks, I had forgotten to put his shoes in his backpack so he could remove his snow boots at school, and have made extra trips for that as well. I feel like I am losing my mind. I hope this isn't early onset Alzheimer's! My Mom talks a lot about forgetting things, and I'm thinking this must be hereditary? LOL! It certainly can't be my fault? HA HA! Actually, I'm going to blame the kids on this, because if they would just do what I say when I say it, we wouldn't have a problem at all! :-)

At Emily's we got several boxes packed. All of her glassware and some toys and clothes of the kids. I plan to help some more next week. She only has 2 weeks left here. I'm so sad. I don't really want to help them pack, because it means they're leaving. However, they will be leaving whether I help them pack or not, so I'm doing all I can to help. That is going to be one terrible day when I take them to the airport.

After school I took the kids to a friends' birthday party at the Mandan Community Center. Alan turned 10, which is hardly believable. I remember when he was born when we all lived in Memphis. I have always been annoyed by boys in the age range of 9-11, and the party just confirmed it again, that boys in that age range are terribly obnoxious! I was glad to get in the quiet car to drive home. However, it wasn't really very quiet with Emma talking a mile a minute, but it was definitely more quiet than at the party!

We have a busy day ahead tomorrow. Tomorrow night we are hosting our monthly card group. We have a lot of picking up and cleaning to do, along with dance, hockey, another birthday party, etc. etc. I'll be glad when this busy weekend is over!

The sky is falling

You would think, coming to our house, that the sky must be falling! This morning Emma logged onto Webkinz to play. I left her in the basement to play a little while and I did a few things upstairs. She comes running up the stairs hollering hysterically for me. I'm like, "WHAT HAPPENED EMMA?" She was crying and could hardly get out what was wrong. Well, apparently the Sherbert Bunny Webkinz is retired. Yes, you heard it correctly, the Sherbert Bunny is retired. She cried for at least a half an hour, and it wasn't a fake little cry. I told her that I'm sure they would come out with another bunny, since Easter is right around the corner. "No they won't Mom! They have new ones listed and NONE of them are BUNNIES!" She wanted to go to the store right then and there. I knew better. We do need to go to the store, however, as she was invited, yet again, to another birthday party. Actually, she and Gage have a party to go to Friday after school, Emma has one Saturday afternoon, and they both have Silas and Hattie's party to go to on Sunday. I think the word got out that we buy Webkinz for birthday gifts?? I'm going to have to start giving rocks, because we can't afford to keep being invited to parties. Gage told me the other day he told a girl in his class that he would get her a Webkinz for her birthday if she invited him to her party. UGH! Gage, we don't ask to be invited!!!!! I'm hoping we don't get an invitation. I don't even know who the little girl is? After I went to get Gage from school the first thing Emma had to tell Gage when we came in the door was about the newly retired bunny. He scrunched his face all up and was like, "Mom, is that really true?" When I said it was, I thought he was going to break down just like Emma did! Seriously, you would think the sky was falling around here!

Oh, by the way, I took some of my prescription muscle relaxer and anti-inflammatory medicine (migraine rescue medicine) before going to bed, and I was so excited that I woke up headache free this morning! Whew! Those headaches I get just really stink, and I hate when they linger on for days!

Day 2

I'm working on day 2 of a headache. It's not debilitating at this point, but it could be heading in that direction. I'm praying my second dose of Excedrin Migraine for the day will take care of it and I'll wake up pain free in the morning.

I'm heading to bed, but had to blog first. I feel awfully guilty if I don't get that done every day!

Back to school

Gage seemed to feel well enough this morning to go back to school today. Initially he said he was a bit dizzy when he got up, but I told him I thought that might be because he hadn't eaten much of anything in awhile. He had oatmeal for breakfast and said he felt better. I told him to be sure and call me if he needed to come home. He made it through the entire day, but said his stomach was doing "flip-flops" most of the day.

I have had a headache most of the day today. After lunch I decided it would feel good to lay down awhile, so I asked Emma to watch a movie with me. She picked out The Wizard of Oz. She got this DVD for her birthday and she really enjoys it, all except for the "green witch". Emma talked and talked during most of the movie. At one point, I apparently started to doze off and Emma got up off the couch (which must have woke me up) to see if I was awake. I had just opened my eyes and she said, "Oh, I thought you were sleeping because I thought I heard you snoring." HA! I probably was, but thankfully I opened my eyes just in time to satisfy her, then I drifted off again. I had to make sure to stay awake after awhile so I wouldn't sleep through going to get Gage from school. It was a bit of a nasty walk as it was blowing wet snow in my face. It certainly woke me up, however. Gage reported that he got an A+ on his spelling and dictation test on Friday, which is a grade that first graders don't get! YEAH!

Day off

Today was our "day off". Gage was not feeling well this morning and told me his tummy hurt, and asked me to take his temperature. Of course my thermometer wouldn't work, so the trusted ol lips to the forehead told me he was just slightly warm. He pretty much stayed on the couch all day. I gave him some Motrin before noon and he did feel a little better for awhile, but then was back on the couch. We had his Cub Scout den meeting here tonight at our house, and he participated in a few of the activities and hung out on the couch a little in between. He went to sleep right away after I finished reading that last little bit of the 3 chapters of Harry Potter that we read today. Emma went to Jadyn's house for a playdate, so that was good for Gage, to be able to rest undisturbed most of the day. Thanks Kara!! Hopefully he'll be feeling well enough to go to school in the morning. He hasn't missed a day of school yet this year, and I was hoping for a perfect attendance, but if he isn't feeling well, then he will stay home. Later on I decided that my stomach wasn't feeling the best either, so just Scott and Emma ate supper tonight. Hopefully it will pass.

Sunday

We spent most of this afternoon spring cleaning. Scott probably did a little more than I did as I ran Gage and Emma to a play date and stayed and chatted awhile. We have a lot more to do, but just the stuff we did get done felt good.

No school tomorrow. Staff development day. Whatever!!!!

The weather was cold and very windy today. Not sure what tomorrow will be like for our day off, but hopefully it won't be so windy!

Scouts Winter Fun Day

I'm not sure what state the weather forecasters were calling for warm weather and no wind for, but it certainly wasn't North Dakota! Gage had a Winter Fun Day scheduled today for Cub Scouts. It was all of the Cub Scouts packs in Bismarck, I believe? Anyway, we went dressed for nice weather with jackets only. I ended up having to leave to go get all of our winter gear! It was COLD and WINDY out there! I went home and got everyone's winter coats, hats, gloves and I also picked up Gage and Emma's boots and snowpants. I'm sure they were much appreciated, even though they didn't say it. Our group's first activity was Dodgeball. I wasn't sure if Gage had ever played dodgeball, but after watching them, I do believe they have played, but just haven't mastered it yet. Dodgeball was my FAVORITE game to play in gym class. I was always one of the last ones left and I'm sure the boys hated me! It was fun to see Gage play. However, I must say I was VERY disappointed in his sportsmanship! He was very ticked off when he got thrown out and was yelling at Scott and I to stop telling him he was out! I was helping out the station leaders by standing along the sidelines keeping everyone honest and making them come out when they were out, whether they were on my team or not. I also helped them to get back in the game when it was their turn when someone would catch a ball on our team. Gage just couldn't be happy if he was OUT, and he let Scott and I know it! That is something we are going to have to work on. If there's one thing I don't like, it's a sore loser. Now don't get me wrong, I like to win and hate to lose, but I'm a pretty good sport about it regardless. Emma got to play too, and it was funny watching her. She was clueless as to what they were doing and she just stuck around Gage and did what he did. At the next station they had balloons tied to a string which was then tied to their ankles and they were to run around trying to stomp on the other kids' balloons and pop them. Emma did understand this game and it was funny watching her run from all of those boys, especially Gage when he was determined to pop her balloon. She did very well and kept her balloon from being popped, but she decided to quit before the game was over because she wanted to keep her balloon. Gage's balloon was blown up just to the point that it wouldn't pop. There were kids standing on his balloon trying to pop it and when he was trying to get it away, his string broke off of his ankle. His balloon never did pop. There were several more stations that they enjoyed despite the cold and windy weather. I nearly had another wipeout when I slipped in the mud. I did remain standing this time, and I was glad of that! I would have been a muddy mess had I hit the deck! Gage and Emma both earned patches for their efforts today. Emma did have to leave early so that she could attend a birthday party with her friend Silas. Emily came to pick them up to take them to the party. I decided at that point I had had enough and jumped in to ride with them and left Scott and Gage to fend for themselves. It was a busy, tiring day and the kids were worn out tonight.

Gage got his candy bars today to sell for his Cub Scout pack, so watch out! At $3 a bar, they are a little pricey, but very tastey (they are plenty big as well)! We bought one this morning and shared it amongst the 4 of us. Gage decided that would be good for his sales pitch, that he could tell them that the candy bars are really good, because he tried one for himself! :-) We've sold 1/2 a box so far. Emma is quite ticked that she doesn't have anything to sell. She decided that she was going to sell one to our neighbors Dave and Maggie. She didn't even give Gage a chance to get over there before her. Dave asked her what she was selling them for and Emma replies, "For money!" HA HA! I told her to be patient because starting next year, with Kindergarten and Daisy Scouts (or whatever they call them at that age), she'll have plenty of selling to do! That is one thing I hate doing, selling things for fundraisers! UGH!