Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Stephens' Happenings

The thing I like least about this time of year is all of the fundraisers that are going on! We just finished a school PTO fundraiser and tomorrow starts the Cub Scout popcorn fundraiser then the Girl Scouts start their magazines/nuts and chocolate sales on Friday. UGH! And, not to mention Emma's gymnastics does a fundraiser too! I usually don't participate in that one though. When, and if, Emma decides gymnastics is her thing, then we'll take part in their fundraisers. We just have too many of them going on and, have I ever mentioned, I HATE selling things. We do give the Cub Scout and Girl Scout fundraisers our full attention; however.

I seem to have caught a cold. Gage and Emma have been having a stuffed up nose and some sniffles and now I seem to have caught it. I'm hoping it is short-lived. My nose looks like rudolph's right now with all the blowing I've been doing.

We have a birthday coming up pretty soon! I am so excited with Gage's choice about birthday activities. The past 2 years we've have about 10-14 boys come home from school with us to celebrate his big day, but this year he decided that he wanted to go to Legoland in Minneapolis! I'm sure it will end up being more expensive, alot more expensive, but definitely MORE fun and memorable. I will admit that I'm feeling a little guilty about not making a cake. I guess I will end up doing that at a later date. We can't have a birthday without cake! And, I figure if I make a Lego block for a cake, that can't be too awfully difficult, can it? I've been trying to search the web for information about The Mall of America. We've never been, and I must admit that I'm just about as excited as Gage and Emma are! They will be getting to miss an afternoon of school, so I know they are excited about that. We did tell Gage that he could invite a friend to go with us, to help him celebrate his special day, so he chose to take his buddy TJ. I'm sure they'll be wondering what's going on when I sign 3 of them out of school for an afternoon! LOL!

We are finally having some nice and cool fall weather! Our summer temperatures came late this year. If we could only be spared the wind, it would be perfect, in my opinion!

Last night we attended Gage's Taekwondo testing. He is now an orange belt and very proud of it! We were very proud of him and the smile/smirk he had on his face when he was returning to his spot after receiving his orange belt was priceless. I took several pictures that I plan to get posted on Facebook sometime. I'm so excited that he has found something that he really enjoys. Or at least for the time being, anyway. In a year or so I will probably be hearing it from Emma, that she wants to join too. And how will I be able to argue her learning self-defense? Unfortunately they don't provide a second child discount. However, they will provide a discount to the third family member enrolled. But at $89/month/kid, who could even afford the discount on the 3rd?

That's all I have for now! Be sure to let me know if any of you would like to buy some popcorn or nuts or renew any magazines! :-)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Today is the season opener for hunting widows.

As you can see, I have not yet established a blogging routine. Sorry!! I'll surely figure it out sometime soon?

Today is the season opener for hunting widows. Not too excited about that, but what can I do? Scott left last night for a week long hunting trip to Canada. I really don't think I would be quite as resentful about it, as I am, if I had been consulted about it before the trip was set in stone. I seem to be the last one to know about anything that is going on in Scott's life these days. So, if any of you have any insight, feel free to share! I suppose I can stay up-to-date as well as any of you by following him on Facebook.

Today was the first morning of the new Sunday School year. The kids were excited about starting back up. Emma was especially excited to start the rotation in the kitchen. They made chocolate chip pancakes and brought home a big ziploc full of the mix to make at home. She has been interested in making breakfast the past few mornings. This morning she made breakfast for all 3 of us and decided that was ALOT of work! :-)

As we were sitting in church I happened to notice both Gage and Emma had dirty fingernails. YUCK! For some reason, dirty fingernails have become something I despise. I suppose because I feel it is a reflection on me. I will admit that neither one of them had a bath last night, only because it was late when we got home and Scott was in a big hurry to get left for his big week of hunting FUN. When Emma asked me if she could go to the bathroom during church, I told her to be sure and wash her hands well AND her fingernails. I wonder how many people actually notice kids with dirty fingernails? I don't know that I've really ever noticed other kids' fingernails, but that might be because they aren't dirty? It just makes me cringe thinking of them. I'm sure the kids are hoping this isn't my new obsession.

We had a busy week and have another busy week coming up. Mondays are very hectic for us, which is all my fault. I thought I would rather have 1 or 2 busier days than having something going on every night of the week. And, I think I would rather have it that way, at least until Monday rolls around again. :-) It's not quite as bad as a co-parent, but I'm sure tomorrow as a single parent, it won't be as easy to manage. Sometimes though, things go smoother as a single parent, because I just know I have to do it myself and I am on a mission to get it done, rather than assuming I might have help, then not receive as much as I had anticipated.

I have been working at the school quite a bit these past few weeks. I have enjoyed it up until a couple of days ago when I was given the task of finding my own sub when I told them I wouldn't be able to sub (there's the keyword in this story) on Monday because I am going on Emma's class field trip to Papa's Pumpkin Patch. I wasn't aware, that as a sub, it was my job to find a sub. After stewing about it all day on Friday, I decided to send an email to the PIC (person in charge) and let her know how I felt about the situation. Apparently I did a fairly good job at getting my words out, as I received a voice mail within 10 minutes of hitting send, with an apology for being so "presumptuous". I am still going to try and find my own sub for tomorrow, since I said I would. However, I am not liking it. That was one of the reasons I didn't take the job when it was offered to me before school started, because I didn't want to have to worry about that stuff when the kids have activities going on at school that I want to be a part of. I am not very good at asking other people to do things for me. While I'm thinking about that, I should probably get to work on it!! However, I only have names and numbers for 2 different people, so if I strike out, I guess I will turn the job back over to the PIC, who should be the one doing it in the first place.

I am being summoned upstairs for a big game of Star Wars Monopoly. I should be going for now and may the force be with you! :-)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

September is here!

I knew it had been awhile since my last post, but I didn't realize that it was way back in August! I just need to get into a routine and then STICK TO IT!

We have been quite busy here with all of our fall activities starting up. Gage is in Tae Kwon Do on Mon and Thurs evenings and is also in Cub Scouts again this year. Emma is in gymnastics on Mondays and dance on Wednesdays and also in Girl Scouts. I am playing volleyball on Monday nights in an adult women's park and rec team that starts up next Monday. Let me just say that we are going to be BUSY on Mondays! I guess I'd rather have it that way than have something going on every night of the week.

We had a good Labor Day weekend. We spent Friday and Saturday night in Tuttle and came back on Sunday so the kids could do a double sleepover at some friends' house. It was very strange not having either one of them around Sunday evening. We decided to go to the movie and saw The Time Traveler's Wife. It was a good movie and it is SO MUCH CHEAPER going with just 2 of us, versus all 4 of us! We came home and then watched another movie I had from Netflix.

Monday was spent trying to get things organized in the basement and garage. I have everything moved up to the garage and we are going to try and have a garage sale sometime soon. We decided that we would put all of the money we make in our Disney World savings jar. It has been a lot of fun having the jar, knowing what the money that goes into it is going to be used for. The kids have been willingly putting money into the jar and shockingly, so has Scott! I hardly ever have cash on me, and now I never will because I will just stick it into the jug. I have no idea how much we have stuck in it already, but I know it has to be nearing $300!! We're on our way. The kids are totally excited about it and I think this is what we are going to do for any big thing we decide we want to do. It will give all of us a sense of pride knowing that each one of us contributed to this to make it happen. Now, whether it will take one or two years to get the money saved, I don't know. At the rate we're going right now, I'd guess 1, but we'll see it the excitement fizzles out.

Gage woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat. He didn't have any other symptoms and his tonsils weren't really very red, so I thought maybe he just slept with his mouth open and dried his tonsils out and made them sore. He wanted to go to school so he could see the President give his address to the kids, but come 10a, I had a call from his teacher telling me he wasn't feeling well and that his stomach was bothering him. I went to pick him up at the school and I could tell he wasn't feeling well. He came home and put on his pj's and laid down on the couch all afternoon. He threw up several times, so I know his stomach was really bothering him. He seemed to feel better around supper time and this morning said he was feeling great, so I sent him to school. I haven't had any calls yet, so I'm assuming he's doing fine. Must have been a 24 hour bug or something? I'm praying that none of us contract the swine flu that is going around. Gage is scheduled to see the ENT doctor next week to schedule a time to get his tonsils out. I'm hoping we can do that the 22nd or so of October during the 4 day weekend of Teacher's Conventions here in ND. That way he won't miss as much school. We'll have to wait until after his birthday for sure, which is sneaking right up on us! This year Gage has opted out of having a birthday party and instead wants to go to Minneapolis to the Mall of America and go to Lego Land. I have no idea what that will be like as I have never been there before. I'm sure it will be hard to do that over just the weekend, but we'll give it a try. He gets to invite one friend to go along with us. I guess I'll have to make his birthday cake before we go. Maybe he'll just want a big lego block cake this year? That shouldn't be too hard to make!? Or should it?

This past weekend we banded ducks near Tuttle and had a fun time. I posted tons of pictures on Facebook as you have probably already seen. We had some really good ones turn out. If you haven't checked them out yet, you'll have to do that.

We have our first Daisy Scout meeting scheduled for tomorrow after school. I'm hoping for a great Scouting year with both the Cub Scouts and Daisies. It's going to be a busy one, I do know that!