Hey, hey I wanna be a Rockstar!

This afternoon I came upstairs from the basement and found the kids playing "Rockstar". It was pretty cute so I had to go after the camera. The other day, a nurse-friend of mine, from Memphis, sent me an email with a link to another version of the song, which I seem to like a little better. If you would like to listen to it, click here. This song was written by the nurses in the ICU at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, TN. I'm betting that this song might disturb many of their patient's and their families. I just hope they weren't doing it when they were on duty! :-) Emma and Gage aren't the only ones with talent; however. Their buddy, Silas, Emily's son, won a talent show at school this weekend! It was amongst the K-4 classes (is that right Emily?) and Silas won the entire contest and won $100!!! Check out his act here. I just linked her blog, instead of just the "Silas Video" post so if you want, you can scroll down a little ways to see the words as well. It's pretty darned cute!

The point of no return

The first thing I have to say is this...............It won't matter to me how sick Gage is the next time, he WILL be going to school! That little boy can be on his death bed and I will take him that way and prop him up on a few pillows. You would not believe the amount of homework he brought home yesterday from school for the 3 days he missed! And, you've heard me complain before about what a nightmare it is to do homework with Gage. We started on it last night and I could see it was going to be an ugly weekend because it was going to take us every minute of it to finish all of those worksheets. They are not at all difficult, but Gage likes to hurry through them without really reading the directions. Every time he brings stuff home, he's usually missed a couple of things and only because he was rushing through it. When I ask him what the right answers are, he always knows them and then rolls his eyes because he missed it. I have tried explaining to him over and over to SLOW DOWN and then double check your work. This child has an excellent report card, and I know if he would slow down and take his time, he would have E's in everything (an E is exceeding level of expectations all of the time). So, after we finished 2 worksheets last night, it was decided that we would wait until today to do anymore. It started out okay, but it quickly went downhill from there. As usual, he's hurrying and making mistakes, so I point it out to have him correct it. He only half erases things and then writes right over the top making it sloppy and illegible. Of course I can't stand that, so I make him erase it again and do it again. Well it is just a vicious cycle that we get into. Thankfully Scott was able to take over. He had more patience than I did and they actually finished all of the homework today. At one point I told Gage that if he could do the rest of his homework without a bad attitude that I would buy him a Bakugan ($5 each) for every sheet of homework he completed. I knew it was a safe bet. He started out pretty strong, but eventually he became overwhelmed and lost control and then lost his shot at earning $100 worth of Bakugans. That ticked him off even more, so again, you see the vicious circle we were in. After finishing his homework, I was reading one of the sheets his teacher sent home. Monday will be their 100th day of school and they are supposed to bring 100 cents and 100 other items to display on their desk for all the 2nd graders to parade through each room to see everyone's displays. I couldn't think of anything that Gage had 100 of. Yes, I know we have over 1,000,000 lego pieces, but I wasn't really wanting to go there. Emma offered him 100 of her Littlest Pet Shop pets. (Please don't be surprised that she has over 100 of these...............you know me...............all or none!) He didn't want to take "GIRL" things! We were looking through his things and he wanted to take his Bakugan cards, but only had 25. He thought about Webkinz cards, but only had 32. Then he thought about Yu-gi-Oh cards and before he even got to counting them, something made him think of Lego guys. I told him I didn't think he had 100 lego guys. We opened his drawer and started digging them out and I was actually starting to be surprised at the number and thought to myself, "Crap, maybe he does?" After we dug them all out, droids and all, and then had to break into some of his new lego sets he has gotten for his birthday and Christmas that haven't been opened yet to get the guys out, we came up with 89. OMG! I can't believe he had 89 Star Wars/Indiana Jones Lego guys. So, now we are at the point of no return. I am completely embarrassed to even say this because it was such a stupid thing to think and especially say out loud, but I said something about maybe they would have a set of Legos that were just guys and we could buy it and have enough. Scott wasn't thinking clearly either, because he didn't OBJECT like he should have! We proceeded to go to Walmart to have lunch at Subway (one of Gage's rewards for doing all of his homework) and then walked back to the Lego aisle. I found one set that was just 4 guys, like a police officer, fireman, etc. Gage thought that was completely lame of course. None of those stupid Star Wars or Indiana Jones Lego sets had more than 4 guys in it (we needed 11) and now after seeing that, and doing the math at how much this stupid idea was going to cost, I had to just leave the aisle. I couldn't even believe we were doing this. And of course, in the meantime, Emma is scanning the toys up and down the aisles trying to find something for herself. I seriously just wanted to leave. But, as cleverly titled, we were at the point of no return. We left Walmart, $69 later, and I told Gage and Emma that I swore I was never going to go to Walmart again unless I was by myself!!!! I'm so embarrassed by this whole stupid ordeal that I told Gage if he tells anyone about this at school, he will be in such BIG TROUBLE it isn't even funny. And here I am, blogging about it. In my defense, not that I am defending this idiotic plan at all, 14 of those dollars were spent on a book for me because I needed to buy the 4th book in the Twilight series.....................oh, and Emma made it out of there with a $5 Play-doh set............................have I ever mentioned how much I HATE Play-doh? Need I say more?

Back to school today

Gage went back to school this morning. He's feeling much better, although his throat is still sore. I am also feeling much better today, and like Gage, still have a sore throat. Maybe I can use these past few days of illness and hardly any nourishment to jumpstart a new weight loss plan? I'm certain I've lost a few pounds over this whole ordeal.


I also went in to work today in the library and was glad to be back! The day went very well.

I got a report from Emma's teacher yesterday when I picked her up from school that she has been behaving kind of silly in class lately. We talked about it on our walk home, and of course she couldn't remember any details about her day that would suggest any silliness. Thankfully, today, when I asked her teacher if there were any problems, she said that there were none. I have never had any reports of anything negative, and this wasn't really that bad to begin with, so I was a little shocked. I'm thinking this little red-haired girl is going to be a challenge, and I'm certain is the reason why I have been noticing more and more gray hairs popping through. By the way, I have stopped pulling them because I'm afraid I may end up going bald. Baldness runs in the family, so I don't want to help it along if I am ever going to experience thinning hair. We have parent-teacher conferences coming up in Feb., so I will be anxious to hear more about how things are going.

Positive throat cultures

The nurse from the doctor's office called yesterday to confirm that Gage and my throat cultures were positive for Strep. Gage had already started his antibiotics so they called in a prescription for me that I got started just after lunch yesterday. She said they consider you contagious until you've been on the antibiotics for 48 hours, so both Gage and I are home sick again today. Feeling pretty rough this morning, I might add. I had a terrible headache most of yesterday and at bedtime I had taken everything I have for headaches in the medicine cabinet. I was up frequently throughout the night and my stomach was hurting, so wasn't sure if it was all the meds, or if it was because I was hungry. Scott brought me some toast in bed after he got back home from Biolife and that seemed to help, so it must have just been hunger pangs. My throat is quite sore this morning, as is Gage's. I'm hoping we can both be well enough tomorrow to go to school and work. I had to call Mrs. Schmidt last night to tell her I wouldn't be at the library again this morning. She's very nice and understanding about it all. I think everyone in the library has had something or other. I suppose those kids must cough all over those books and contaminate them up for us to touch and then catch whatever it is they had. I do remember one kid coughing terribly in the library last week and I told him to cover his mouth. He replied, "I am!" Well, not very good! He was at least partially coughing into the bend of his elbow rather than all over his hands. I don't know if that's where this came from or not, but it certainly could have.
I didn't sleep well last night and spent a lot of time thinking about Emma's birthday coming up. I had some pretty good brainstorms, so hopefully I can remember enough of them to write down and execute. Hopefully she doesn't get sick between now and then.
I don't have much more to report, since it's like the night of the living dead here at our house.

Strep Throat

Yesterday after I posted on my blog, I went upstairs to make an appointment for Gage with the doctor. Unfortunately our doctor was not in yesterday, so they gave me a choice of a couple different doctors who had openings. I picked the one I picked because we have actually seen him before in the Walk-In clinic, and he seemed pretty good. When I made the appointment I didn't think about making one for myself. Isn't that like a Mom? Making sure her child is being cared for, but ignoring herself? As the day progressed, I just felt worse and worse. Our appointment was at 4:10 and Scott came home from work to take us because I wasn't sure I was in good enough condition to drive. When we stopped at the front desk to check in, I asked the lady if it would be possible to have the doctor look at my throat as well. She said I would have to ask a nurse. When we went back to the office area to hand them Gage's ticket, I asked that lady if it might be possible for the doctor to also look at my throat. She said she would have to ask a nurse. They took us right in, and when the nurse was taking Gage's temperature, etc., I asked her before she left the room if it would be possible for the doctor to look at my throat as well. She said she would ask the nurse. LOL! She was a nurse! Anyway, she must have asked the doctor's nurse and she popped in the door and said that he had a very full schedule and he would not be able to look at my throat. WHATEVER! You can't tell me that he didn't have time to take 3 seconds to shine his stupid light in my throat. Anyway, a student doctor came in and checked Gage out. I told him I wasn't sure who was sicker, Gage or myself. Gage was quite pitiful though. Every time they would leave the room, he would just lie right back down on the exam table. It hurt to talk and he didn't want to keep answering their questions. Finally the doctor came in and looked at Gage's throat and suspects that he has strep throat. When he asked me if it was still cold outside, I replied, "Yes, but I'm not a good person to judge that because I am sick too and also have the sore throat." I was sitting in the office with a sweatshirt on, a sweater that my Mom made me over that, my winter parka AND a scarf and I was still freezing. Anyone who knows me knows that I was definitely sick, because I can't usually wear just the sweaters my Mom makes without sweating to death. He did not look at my throat, but he wanted to know if I would like to have a throat culture along with Gage. He said that if it was positive then he would have to treat me with antibiotics as well. I guess that's all I needed anyway. I didn't need his busy self to look at my throat to tell me it was red and inflamed. The lab results should be back today to confirm whether or not we actually have strep throat. The throat cultures were quite unpleasant. I asked Gage if he wanted to go first or if he wanted me to go first. He picked me of course, and I thought that I would be able to show him it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately it was HORRIBLE and I had tears coming down my cheeks. I felt terrible because I knew I wasn't a very good model for Gage. He had his and it was HORRIBLE too. I think he tolerated his better than I did though. Emily and her family are suffering with strep throat as well, as I read on her blog yesterday, and I think somehow they gave it to us. :-) They prescribed Gage an antibiotic that we started him on last night. He is home from school again today. He's still not feeling well and neither am I. I am feeling a bit better; however. Last night I went to bed with all of the same garb I had on at the doctors office (minus the parka) and I was freezing to death, but a little later I woke up and was VERY hot, so had to take it all off. I guess maybe my fever broke? Scott had checked it earlier and it was 102.2. I'm hoping we both get better today and are able to go to school tomorrow. I also work tomorrow, so I'm hoping I don't have to call in again.

Sick

I was feeling pretty guilty last night that I didn't post on my blog. I was having computer problems yesterday and when I got Scott to fix it for me, it was time to go to my volleyball game last night, at 9:30. When I got home I just went straight to bed. I didn't realize the reason I was so tired was because I was coming down with something.

Yesterday afternoon I had an appointment to get my hair highlighted and cut. I'm not sure about the highlights. I'm hoping it will grow on me. It kind of looks like I have stripes in my hair on the left side of my head. I couldn't get an appointment for any other time but 3pm, which poses a problem when it comes to picking the kids up at school at 3:05. Thankfully Scott was able to pick them up for me and when I got home it was time for us to go to gymnastics. Scott had given Gage some Motrin after school because he was complaining of a headache and sore throat. I asked Gage if he wanted to stay home or go to gymnastics and he said he would like to try going and if he started to feel bad, could he just come and sit with me. I told him that sounded like a good idea. He made it through the entire gymnastics class without any problems. We got home and had supper that Scott had ready for us and Gage started complaining again of his throat. I had him get his p.j.'s on and get ready for bed. At this point I was having a bit of a sore throat myself, just on my left side, but it wasn't really too bad.

I went to play at volleyball and other than just being tired, I didn't feel too bad. I figured it was more because of having been to a cycling class with Kara at 8:30a. Kara asked me if I would like to go to the cycling class with her and I've given her excuses as to why I couldn't every time she's asked, and I decided it was time I better go. This was not the "Silver Riders" group that I had been to before. Click the link if you would like to refresh your memory on that cycling class. It actually ended up not being THAT bad. I suppose because I was smart enough this time to go at my own pace, versus trying to keep up with the instructor. It was still quite a workout, and my butt is very sore. I didn't realize until last night at volleyball that my knees were bothering me quite a bit. I suppose having my knee pads on, which are tight around my knees, exaggerated it a little bit, but it felt like my kneecaps were just floating around in my knees, unattached to anything. There was alot of standing up while riding the bicycle and I suppose that's where it came from. Thankfully they feel a little better today.

Last night around midnight, I heard Gage up and crying. I went to see what was wrong and he said he felt really bad and his throat hurt. I gave him some Motrin and had him sleep on the couch. I figured he would be more comfortable there than in his bedroom where it is 52 degrees! We are having problems keeping his bedroom warm because we have to keep the door shut to keep the cats out, off of his new carpet, and I decided a couple of weeks ago that I needed to know how cold it actually was in his room, so I put a thermometer in there and 52 was the reading. Scott thought he fixed the problem by turning a lever in the basement from summer to winter, but I don't think it helped. I feel horrible that his room is THAT cold!

Anyway, I could see that his not feeling well was going to continue into the morning, but I was hoping he would miraculously get better because I was scheduled to work in the library today. No such luck. He was warm to touch and still had a terribly bad sore throat. I was hoping it's not strep, but after I read that Emily and her family are all coming down with it, I'm wondering if I need to take him to the doctor. My throat was really feeling horrible this morning too and is quite painful to swallow, so I know if Gage's is feeling like this, I feel bad for the little guy. He needs to get his tonsils out, but we've been waiting for a break from school to do that. Gage stayed home from school today, breaking his perfect attendance record. I was happy to keep him home because he really is feeling terrible. I had to call Jan this morning to let her know Gage and I are sick and that I wouldn't be able to come into the library today. I just hated doing that, but I had no other choice. Scott got Emma ready and took her to school for me, so I could go back to bed. I told her to be sure to have her teacher call me if she starts feeling bad.

When I was thinking about my post yesterday, which never happened, I wanted to be sure to tell my niece, Katie, happy birthday! She turned 13 yesterday. Just kidding Katie, I know you're 16 and it's hard to believe you can be that old already. My sister, Jari Jo, emailed me a couple of disturbing pictures that I hope she doesn't mind my sharing with you all. Hopefully this wasn't a secret they were keeping from Grandma Pipi and I have blown it. If it was, just know Katie, she was going to find out sooner or later anyway. I don't know how long you could be around her covering up your nose before she asked you what you were doing. These pictures, right here, are why I am DEATHLY AFRAID of the dreaded teenage years!

OMG! If I had agreed to a nose piercing, we would have had to walk right back out the door after I saw the person that would be doing it! I hate to be prejudiced, but that guy would NOT be touching Emma's nose, or any other part of her body for that matter!!! It will make an interesting scrapbooking page, that's for sure!

Looks like a great way to be celebrating turning 16, with a needle stuck through your nose!! OUCH! I'm hoping the area was deadened. On second thought, it HAS to be deadened or I don't think you would be sitting there with a smile on your face!!!!!!!

While I was getting my hair cut, the beautician's son had come into the shop. One of the other gals in the shop was really giving him a hard time about having had his ear pierced. Apparently he had been wanting it done for sometime and his mom finally said it was okay. While I was there, I asked her if she can do green hair. I'm totally going to let Gage get his hair turned green, so that when he comes to ask me if he can get his ear pierced, or his nose, I will be able to tell him NO! "Remember back when you were 8 years old and you wanted green hair............?"

I also want to comment on the guy's ear that is piercing Katie's nose. Why would anyone do that to their ears? They were talking a bit about these yesterday when I was at the beauty shop too. My hairdresser said that her son would NOT be doing that with his piercing. I want to know what these people are going to look like in another 40 years when they are all shriveled up and old and in the nursing home?

Happy Birthday Katie!

Cookie Rally

We didn't have too much going on this weekend, but the one thing we had on our schedule was the Girl Scout Cookie Rally. I'm sure you are all just thrilled to death to hear our next fundraising event is upon us! However, Girl Scout Cookies pretty much sell themselves, so I'm hoping this isn't going to be too terribly awful on me. As you know, I hate selling things!!! Emma and 2 of her sister Girl Scouts from our troop attended the Rally. I know Emma had alot of fun, so I hope Jadyn and IsaBelle felt the same way. Because this is our first cookie sale, I had no idea what to expect. Of course the entire event felt like mass chaos to me. My friend, and co-leader (a.k.a. "Cookie Mom"), Kara and I attended a cookie training session while the girls went through the different stations. Thankfully IsaBelle and her Mom showed up for the rally and was able to take the girls through the stations while we attended the training session. They described this event as a "Come and Go Open House" so we had planned for the girls to be picked up by Scott and Guy so we could attend the training session. Well, it was more like a "Come and stay" Open House, so I was very grateful that IsaBelle's Mom was able, and willing, to take the girls through the different stations until the back up reinforments arrived.


Jadyn, IsaBelle and Emma are filling out Cookie questionnaires. They were to fill out who in their home, school and Sports team like Girl Scout cookies and then in the box below they were to draw a picture of what they thought a million boxes of Girl Scout cookies would look like. That was interesting to see how their minds were working and I was impressed with Emma's idea. She drew several straight lines across the box, then several lines up and down, making a grid with lots of little rectangles! I guess she had a bit of an advantage since she knew what $11,000 worth of Cub Scout popcorn looked like in our garage this fall!


The girls went through several different stations, getting their passports stamped, which later earned them a new Cookie Rally patch. At this station, they are visiting Idaho and learning about potatoes.



They then used "potato sacks" for some sack races. I wasn't sure it was such a great idea to be having sack races on this slick floor, but as far as I saw, there weren't any girls that were knocked out cold from wiping out and bonking their head on the concrete floor!


Jadyn's race against the older, Junior Girl Scout didn't seem too fair, but she blew her away. She must have some of those super jumping abilities like her Dad!

I wasn't too impressed with the cookie training, but thankfully Kara, (a.k.a. Cookie Mom) volunteered to head up the cookie fundraiser since I took care of the nuts and magazines. I guess if Kara is the "Cookie Mom", I would be known as the "Nutty Mom". Yes, there is an inside joke here, but it would take too long to explain it.