Ending the week on a happy note!

Today was certainly a better day than yesterday. It really couldn't have been worse! I wanted to share this video I took of Emma listening to my iPod. I have downloaded all of the kids' Christmas CD's onto my iPod for the season. We now have an adaptor that we can listen to it in the car over the radio, so I'm anxious for our next outing with Christmas tunes to listen to! Emma would not be very happy if she knew I was putting this video on my blog. She wanted me to delete it off of the camera, and I told her I did. Oops!

We have a busy weekend ahead. Our first and most important task is to get a Christmas tree, and get it up and decorated. I typically am not this late getting it done, but we have had a busy past few months. I also need to make a couple more types of Christmas goodies for Emma's Giving Tree gift at church.

I turned in my two weeks' notice today for my transcription job. I decided I can't do it all. I'm not doing the things with the kids that I believe are important, and they are my first priority. I'm not sure how my supervisor is going to react to the email, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough. I don't want to have any regrets about not spending time with my kids. This is Emma's last year at home full time, and I want to enjoy it. I'm sure she'll be thrilled when I tell her.

Today after lunch Emma and I volunteered at Gage's school to help take down the book fair that was going on this week. Mrs. Schmidt was very happy to have our help. She put Emma right to work and was impressed with how well she did. (I was too!) I wish she would help like that when I ask her to clean her room! Anyway, she got to pick out a book for free, for helping. She picked out Pippi Goes on Board. (She might be a bit disappointed when she finds out the book isn't about Grandma Pippi!) Emma nicknamed my Mom Pippi after my Mom called her Pippi. Emma says, "I'm not Pippi, you're Pippi!" It stuck. She has been Grandma Pippi for a couple of years now.

I hope you enjoyed the video. This new camera wasn't as easy getting the pictures/videos onto the camera as my other one that I just got back in the mail. My other one just automatically downloads the pictures onto the computer. This one had to be told to do it. Regardless, the video is posted for you all to enjoy. I have some of Gage at hockey on Wednesday too, and I will try to post it another time. It takes forever to get them uploaded onto my blog.

Meals on Wheels

All joking aside, I think I just had the most awful, stressful 2 hours of my life? I thought you were supposed to feel "good" about doing volunteer work? I'm sure that's typically the case. Unfortunately, that's not the feeling I had today. Last night, as you may recall, I mentioned that Emma and I would be delivering Meals on Wheels today. I went onto mapquest and printed out all of the maps and directions I would need to deliver the meals on my route. We left plenty early to be sure to allow ample time for terrible road conditions, since it was snowing. I was too early for meal pick-up, so we circled the hospital a few times in hopes of getting a good parking spot when it was time to get the meals. Well, unfortunately, we didn't get the good parking place, but I found one nonetheless. I parked and told Emma I would be right back. On my way in to the hospital, I saw a lady from church (it's our church delivering meals all this month)come out with some coolers with #3 on them. I thought that was a bit strange, because I was delivering route 3. When I got inside the door, my coolers were not there. I quickly ran back outside to stop the gal and tell her she had my coolers. Well, she too, had route 3. I saw her sheet, and it was identical to mine. I was a bit confused and told her I would go in to check. She said she would wait and see, and to let her know. So, I went in to find out what the problem was. Well, the ancient, shriveled man that was sitting at the desk, shouldn't be sitting at that desk unless of course he wants to "help" people. I wandered through the hallways of the hospital until I found someone who I thought could help me. I stumbled upon an office of two RNs. I told them my problem and they looked up a number to call the man in charge. They had him on the phone and handed it off to me. I told the man who I was and what the problem was. He said he would call me right back. Before he hung up, I said, "Well, do you know this number?" He replies "Yes". I'm assuming he must have caller id. Anyway, it was taking forever, and I'm getting nervous because I still have Emma sitting outside in the car, which I know I shouldn't have, but I left running. I told the ladies I needed to run outside to get my daughter and they said they would take a message if he called back while I was gone. When I got outside I told the gal from church that they had mixed up the coolers and to go ahead and take that one and I would figure out what I should do. I then went to get Emma and we went back inside and wandered back through the halls to the office of the 2 nurses. They said he hadn't called back. I think Emma and I waited there for at least 5 minutes, maybe close to 10? Now, I know that doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're delivering meals that need to be warm, 10 minutes could be the end of that. One of the nurses came out asked me how many coolers were still there, and when I had come back in, there were still 2 sets of coolers. Well, by this time, one of those two sets were gone. So, it would make sense that I need to take the last set of coolers. Then, as we're looking at the list, I'm noticing addresses that are very unfamiliar to me. Then, the shriveled, ancient man at the desk said I had a phone call. Well, it was Mr. Meals on Wheels calling me back. He might have been a bit irritated that I wasn't there, but I'm not sure, it could have been my perception. He said he had been trying to call several times. Well, I guess that's why I asked him if he knew the number I was at. I guess it was just a little mixup, because as I'm standing there on the phone, I see a sign turned sideways (that you wouldn't see unless you are standing there on the phone) of a number to call if there were any problems. I suppose if I had seen the sign, I would have called from that phone. Anyway, I told him I was unfamiliar with the addresses. He asked if I was going to deliver them. I said I would, and asked if there was a time limit. He basically said, I guess they'll get them when they get them. So, I take the coolers and off we go. The first two addresses were a nightmare. They were apartments that weren't easy to find. We finally found the first one and luckily followed some people with keys to the building inside. (We apparently weren't at the front entrance). As we walk up the hall, I am not finding the number at all. I was looking for 101C, and I was seeing 101A. Well, we keep walking, finally to find a front desk, of which no one was sitting at. I then notice different hallways labeled A, B, and C. I find the correct hallway and start heading down it. We were slowed down a bit by a lady in a motorized wheelchair. Well, finally, when we get to the door, she stops. I asked if her name was So and so. Yes, that's me. Well, I'm sure she had just been to the front desk wondering where her lunch was. I apologized up and down about being late and explained why we were. She was very kind and we were off. I couldn't find the next address. I was starting to get all worked up, wanting to just quit. However, I knew I couldn't do that, or there would be several people not getting lunch today. I FINALLY found the apartment and delivered the meals. They were also very kind. Onto my next stop, I realized that I did recognize a few of the addresses. Well, earlier this year, when we delivered, this must have been the same route, there have just been many changes. THANK GOD for that. I NEVER would have found the next house. I remember the last time driving around and around this area and having people out walking watching me pass by them again and again. So, I thankfully didn't have this problem again. Well, we continue on, and I'm still panicked as I have several people on my list. Not to mention I have a little girl in the backseat now making dying noises because she's STARVING TO DEATH! She wants to know if she can eat the meals because they smell sooooooo good. I told her many times I needed her to be very quiet and good because I was completely stressed out because I couldn't find the houses. I drove ALL over south Bismarck, literally. Finally, I'm getting close to done, and I'm stopped at a house and am going through the coolers to find the right name. As I'm looking, I say outloud "Oh my God!" I thought I had delivered the wrong meal to the wrong house. Emma quickly says, "YOU SAID A BAD WORD, YOU SAID A BAD WORD!" "YES, I KNOW EMMA, I SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT!" (I'm lucky that's what came out of my mouth, instead of what I was really thinking!) I discovered that I did NOT make a mistake, and I had delivered the meals to the correct addresses. Anyway, we stop at the second to last place, of which I had difficulty finding, and the lady was not very happy. I apologized up and down and side to side. She didn't care, as she gave me an evil look. I put her meal on her television tray as she asked me to do, noticing she has her medicine laying out, which I'm sure she was waiting to take with her meal. I told her again, I was sorry. She said it wouldn't be so bad, except now it was going to be cold. I would have offered to heat it up for her, except I had one more stop to make. I got outside the door and busted out bawling. I know Emma had to be confused. The last stop was one that I actually had made the last time we delivered, thank GOD! (I do want you to know I prayed and prayed this entire time for God to help me get these meals to these people who had nothing better to do than sit and watch the clock). Anyway, we made it to our last stop, and I remembered this couple from the last time. THEY WERE SO NICE! THANK YOU GOD! They were THRILLED to death to see Emma. I apologized over and over and they were SO NICE. That was definitely the only plus on this adventure. As we're headed back to the hospital to deliver the empty coolers, I was only INCHES away from causing a major crash at a very busy intersection as I am trying to stop at the stop sign as I continue to go foward, sliding on the ice. THANK YOU AGAIN GOD! Finally, we got the coolers delivered back to the hospital. It is now 1:20 pm, and all of the other coolers had already been picked up. I wasn't sure what to do with them, and went in the door only to notice the ancient, shriveled up man still sitting at the desk, who did not once look up to ask if he could help me. I decided to be done with the whole thing and I left the coolers in the entryway, where I found them. I proceeded to take Emma to McDonald's to feed her lunch nearly 2 hours late. She wasn't worried too much about lunch at this point, because the older couple at our last stop gave her a Reese's candy bar.

THANK GOD THIS DAY IS NEARLY OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy schedule

This morning a delivery man stopped by my house to deliver a package. I was in the basement working, and trying not to be disturbed, but I had to go see who it was. As I was peeking up the stairway and trying to see out the window to see who was standing at the front door, I could only see the top of a bald head. I wasn't going to answer the door, but decided I better see who it was. Well, it was a nice surprise. Kodak mailed my camera back to me! I hadn't even gotten a call from them yet to know what was wrong with it. They fixed the broken piece and included a note saying the batteries I had in the camera were causing the problem with the flash and they recommended I use lithium batteries. Anyway, they did all of this for FREE! I guess the little sob story note I wrote in the note about Emma breaking the camera worked!!! I haven't tried the camera out yet, as I haven't had time today, but after I get some new batteries for it I'll be so excited if it works! I guess I shouldn't have any excuses for not having pictures/videos since I have 2 cameras now! :-)

I spent the afternoon at my friend Emily's house. We were baking Christmas cookies. I had a lot of fun. It sure makes the task more fun when you do it with a friend. It didn't seem so much like "work" that way. Plus, she was making some of her favorites too, so we could share. I have a few more kinds to make, and by the time I will need them, I'm sure I'll have to make more because we'll have eaten them all. It will be fine for Sunday though, since I need an assortment for the giving tree gift at church. Whew!

After we ate supper with Emily, Jody, et al, we zoomed to hockey practice. (By the way, thanks for feeding us Emily as we never would have made it to hockey practice otherwise!) It was very snowy and a little slick on the roads so I was trying to be extra cautious, even though we were running late. My kids never like to leave when they are having so much fun. Gage had an extra hard hockey practice. I was glad it was him and not me, as I think it would have killed me.

We zoomed home in the snowy conditions. I got the kids bathed, read to, teeth brushed, etc, etc. (Single parenting is for the birds!) During all of this business, it popped into my head that I am scheduled to deliver Meals on Wheels tomorrow at lunch time. UGH! I forgot about it and had intended to do a "dry run" when Scott was here so we could figure out the most efficient route. So, Emma and I will be out on an adventure tomorrow. I did print out a bunch of maps on mapquest (what the heck did people do before computers were invented?) and hopefully we'll get everyone's meals to them before they turn into a block of ice! Hopefully the roads won't be too treacherous!

I'm not sure why I continue to keep adding more and more things to our already crazy schedules. We also have to get up early in the morning to go to "Pastries with Parents" tomorrow morning at Gage's school. We get to eat donuts in the cafeteria and then buy some books at the book fair that is going on in the lobby. I will be able to take a deep breath tomorrow afternoon when all of this is done! (Except then I can start worrying about not having my required number of hours put in for work!)

No wonder my hair is turning gray!

Boring

I intended to make my blog entry today a little more exciting by taking my new camera to hockey and get some video of Emma skating. Well, I forgot to take the camera. Then, I decided I would take the camera with me on my way to school and take some video of Gage and Emma jumping off of the huge snowpiles in the Corpus Christi Church parking lot. I remembered to take the camera, but then I forgot to take the video. I think I have the same problem my Mom is having! :-) Anyway, I didn't get any exciting videos taken today to spice up my blog. Sorry. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow? Or maybe not?

Gage said he was a celebrity today at school. Many people saw him on the news last night.

Emma is a pain in the rump to take into the stores these days. I swear if I hear her say "Can I have this Mom?" again, the threat I keep making to her that Santa is not going to come to her, is going to have to come true. Or at least I'll make her sweat bullets for a few minutes. I remember my Mom doing that to my sister Jari Jo one year at Christmas and boy was she mad! Do you remember that Jari? I'm sure that's just something a kid never forgets. I'll have to remember to ask Mom if it helped. Emma is headed in that direction that is for sure. We can't go into any store that has Webkinz. It turns into a huge fight and she ends up stomping out of the store with her arms crossed tightly against her chest and her bottom lip stuck out ready for any bird to fly by and poop right on it!

We went to the grocery store after school to pick up the items we need to start making some Christmas goodies. This is a little earlier than I would like, but because of the ornament Emma picked off of the giving tree at church for a family to get Homemade goodies, we need to have some done by Sunday, as that's the last day to have the items delivered to the church. I don't know how they do that, if they give the gifts to the people on Christmas or what? If so, the cookies might get a little hard? Some of them won't be a problem, but a few of the others I make are sooooooo good when they are moist. Maybe they'll deliver them a little early since they are edibles?

The weather outside is turning cold and nasty. Winter storm advisories are out for many areas in North Dakota. Scott is in Colorado for work, so I hope none of this weather causes his flight to be changed on Thursday. Not that it matters much on Thursday, as he doesn't get in until after 10:30p.

I hear fighting upstairs, so I best wrap this up for now. I'll try to make my entry more fun tomorrow by remembering my camera. :-)

Link

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=13690 This link is for you Mom, in case you can't figure out how to copy and paste! :-)

Hollywood, here I come....................NOT!

What a way to start the day. First of all I wanted to get up at 5:30 this morning to work before the kids had to get up and get ready for school. (Scott is out of town). After hitting the snooze 2 times, I shut the alarm off and decided I would just work after I took Emma to school. When that alarm went off at 7:00 am, I hit snooze again 2 more times. Finally, we get up, get breakfast, get ready for school. Last night I got all of Emma's paperwork ready because they are having early Kindergarten registration at Northridge, Centennial and Murphy due to the overcrowded problem these 3 elementary schools are having. Anyway, I decided we would go first thing to register Emma so I can be sure to have her on the list, and at the top of the list in case they don't do all day, every day Kindergarten, then I will have first choice for her to go mornings or afternoons. Apparently I was the first parent there to register (or it appeared that way). When we walked into the room, the news camera was there waiting for their first victim. UGH! I HATE cameras, especially ones that put you on television!!!!!!! So, the kids and I were at the table filling out the papers. Gage engaged in small talk with the teacher's assistant that was manning the registration table. I didn't look up from my paper one time because I didn't want to see if the camera was on me or not. Then, the camera man was right next to me zoomed onto my paper while I was filling in information. At one point someone asked Gage about his little sister coming to Kindergarten and he said something about her being a handful. I have no idea if that was being filmed, as I said, I didn't take my eyes off the paper. After I was done, they asked if they could interview me. (If I had known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have hit the snooze multiple times this morning and I would have at least combed my hair and not worn my trusty old stocking hat. Although it was probably better that I had the stocking hat on, combed hair or not!) I didn't want to interview and when they asked, I was like "Oh, I'm sure you could find someone better than me!" They didn't seem to want to pass me up for some reason. I asked them if I had any snot dripping from my nose or anything. They said I looked beautiful. YEAH RIGHT! I know better than that. Then I thought about these stupid braces and how wonderful it all looks with my three front teeth. They certainly got a winner with me. I can't remember exactly the questions they asked, but I know I sounded retarded and didn't really elaborate on any of her questions. I hope they edit me completely out of it. I'm sure if you all want to see the interview, you can log onto the website sometime later today or tomorrow to see my debut to fame. http://www.kfyrtv.com/

Snow

We're sure getting the snow today! It hasn't stopped all day. I love the clean look snow gives. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

What is it about Dad's and girls? Do they not realize that girls need to have their hair combed? I went to my Circle group this morning and met up with Scott and the kids at dance. I was so embarrassed. I asked Scott, "Did you comb Emma's hair?" "No." It certainly looked that way. There could have been rats living in it, it was that bad. Then, Scott and Emma drove to Tuttle this afternoon to winterize the house. They met up with Gage and I at hockey. Emma comes waltzing in with tights on and a sweatshirt that has something spilled all down the front (and still without having had her hair combed all day). Yes, amazingly enough she did have a coat on. It might be cute at 4, but I don't think it's going to cut it in a couple of years. UGH! She looked homeless. Poor Emma. At least she didn't really care.