Saturday, August 23, 2008

What a Weekend So Far!

Yesterday was pretty much non-stop. Whew! We started out the day by taking Sam to school, and then Avery and I had to take AJ to work. His boss went out of town and left his car at the office, so AJ needed to bring it to his house so it wouldn't stay at the office all weekend. The only way to do that and not have to figure out how to get his car home was for me to take him. We don't like doing that because it puts us in the car for over and hour and Avery hates it. I did have a strep test while I was there, and it was negative, so at least it's not strep that I have this time.

Anyway, after doing that we finally got home about 10:30. I ran around making a list of things I needed to get from the store, and getting everything ready for Sam's meet and greet class party. Oh, and I also through the dishes in the dishwasher. Than we went with Lindsay, Kinley, and Autumn to Snappy Tomato for lunch. Yum! I go there for the yummy dessert pizzas. They are so nice and will put in whatever you ask them to, so as soon as I saw that they didn't have the cherry pizza out, I asked them to throw it in for me. I love it! Lindsay hadn't been there before so I had to make sure she tried my favorite thing. They also had a new S'mores Pizza, which was yummy too.

After that Avery and I ran to Publix. I looked all over the car for my list, and couldn't find it anywhere. Then I realized I must have accidentally stuck it in the mailbox when I put the Netflix movie in to send back! DUH! So I had to try and remember everything on my list. I did pretty good, except that I forgot the most important thing, ICE!!! I needed ice for the party that was right after school. I came home, opened the mailbox, and yep, there was my list, and the mailman had already come, so he got to see what I needed from the store. Good thing it wasn't anything weird. :)

We brought the stuff in and then ran to pick Sam up. The pick-up line was stupid and people were rude and wouldn't let anyone go, so it took us longer than usual. We ran home, loaded up the drinks (thankfully AJ got home early and went to get the ice), and all the party stuff, and went to the party.

Every year I host a meet and greet party for Sam's class. It's a nice way to get to know who your child is spending the day with and to meet the other parents. It was a really good turnout, Sam's teacher came, and everyone seemed to have one. It was HOT though, so that was the only complaint I had.

After that we ran to Watson's for a new filter for our pool pump. Ours hadn't been changed for quite a while it looks like, and it was not pumping well at all. Pools are expensive! At least they are fun!

We then went to dinner with Lindsay's family at Chili's, our favorite place. It was pretty slow, so we were there until 8:30. We finally got home, unloaded everything, got the kids to bed, etc. Then I went right to work on my lesson for Sunday.

I teach the women in our church one Sunday a month. This Sunday is my time. The lesson I am teaching is not coming easily to me, and although I have been trying to plan it out ad get it together for weeks, I am having THE HARDEST time. I have not ever had this much trouble before and waiting until the last minute like this is killing me. I finally had some ideas come to me last night and was able to start. The only problem is I am more than halfway through my material and only have about 10 minutes covered. I teach for at least 30 minutes, so that is no good. I know it will all come together and work out though, so I need to stop stressing!

This morning I had to get up early and go to my front row rehearsal for singing. I am on the front row, which means I am a dancer. We have to go every month to learn new choreography and practice, etc. We are having our annual show next month and haven't gotten the new choreo yet, so today was our day to learn it. Thankfully it isn't that hard and I don't think it will be a problem to get it down perfectly in the time we have. We would love to have you come to our show on Sept. 27. It is a fun night, filled with music, plus you get to see me and Lindsay dance, what could be more fun than that! Go to www.tunetownshowchorus.org for more details and for tickets.

I am finally home, did the bills for the week, and now need to go and finish my lesson for tomorrow. Maybe tonight will slow down a little and we can all take a break before Monday when all the craziness starts again.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

First Day



Avery's first phase-in day was today! He was so excited! He got up and got ready immediately and couldn't wait to leave. Yesterday we got everything ready for him, and he wore his backpack, and carried his lunch box around all night.

We got to school this morning and visited all our teacher friends to show them how big Avery was. We went to his classroom, found his cubby, and he sat down ready to begin. :) He has two teachers, Ms. Jamie and Ms. Shelley. Ms. Jamie is his main teacher. Her Dad just died this week, so she wasn't there today, so he was a little apprehensive about that. He has met her the most, but he likes Ms. Shelley too. Anyway, he was fine, Ms. Shelley got him involved in their first project and I left. I was so busy doing stuff in Sam's class that I never made it back over there to peek at him! After lunch I ran over there and peeked in his door, but it was rest time and I couldn't see where he was.

When it was time to pick him up, I went to his classroom. They were outside being dismissed, but when he saw me, he ran right over. The first thing he said was, "Nap time was LONG!" LOL! He hasn't taken a nap in over a year, so I had been warning him that he would have to have rest time, but he wouldn't have to sleep. He didn't. He said he liked it and had a good day. Ms. Shelley said he was much quieter than she expected and pretty shy. He has been at school his whole life and they have seen him being his normal self, so it surprised her. :)

Afterwards I asked him what his favorite part of the day was, and he said, :Eating snack!" When I asked him what his least favorite part was, he said, " playing on the playground!" Crazy kid! He's a little backwards! There were only 5 kids there today, so I am sure it will be more fun on the playground when they are all there.

He had a good day, and he said he wanted to go all the days. He wasn't happy that he has to skip tomorrow. He starts full-time on Monday. He's so big!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Stupid Tonsils!

I'm sick AGAIN! I am so sick of being sick. This time it started as a cold/allergies. I couldn't tell what it was exactly, and still can't. It's very strange. My throat is hurting a ton, but not like my normal strep, so I don't know if this is just a different strain, or if it's not strep, just a terrible cold. I guess I need to get these stupid tonsils out. Darn it. I don't want to! I am sick of being sick though! I had to cancel playgroup at my house tomorrow. We were going to swim and have a fun day. It is Avery's last day to do playgroup before he starts school, and he was excited. Darn sickness! I am busy this week, don't feel good, and I probably have to fit in a Dr. visit. My head hurts, my throat hurts, my nose keeps running, I keep losing my voice, and I don't feel good. I have to take Mrs. Gunder's kids to her this afternoon, which I don't mind doing at all, but I have to not breath on them. I have an open house at school tonight, and I can't breath there either. I am NOT going to get anyone else sick! Ok, I will be done whining now. :(

Monday, August 18, 2008

Our Turn for the Fair!

The kid's missed the Fair that I sang in last weekend, so I took them to one in another county on Saturday. They loved it! Sam said that was the best thing we could have done, ever! :)

We started out by looking at the animals.



Then we looked around at all the fair stuff.



Then the kids got to pretend to be farmers. They milked the cow, gathered eggs, planted potatoes, picked apples, etc.








Then we went to the rides. Of course that was the best part.









Their favorite ride was the thing that takes them high and then bounces them up and down.






We played a few games and won some prizes.




Then they rode the roller coaster, which they also loved.



They had a ton of fun. We got there at a good time. When we left it was really getting busy, and the line to get in to the fair was LONG! It had even backed up the freeway for 2 miles. Yikes!

This week is pretty busy. Tomorrow we have some things to do in the morning, then Sam's shot after school, then an Open House at school. Wednesday we are having playgroup in my pool, then the boys have to get their haircut. Thursday Avery starts school! Friday I was supposed to sub, but may not have to now, and then we are having a class meet and greet after school. Saturday, AJ and I both have meetings in the morning. Whew! School is definitely back in session!

Friday, August 15, 2008

Big Boy!

Well, Avery has been accepted into the preschool program at Sam's school! Yippee! We are so excited! He can't wait!!!! He goes next Thursday for a phase in day and then will be going full time the next Monday. His teachers came by today to have me fill out some more papers, etc. He was shy at first, even though he has seen them a million times. He doesn't want to wait until next Thursday to go, but he is glad to be starting. He talks about it everyday. I know he will love it.

I had more things to say, but I can't think right now, so maybe I will blog more later.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Crazy Day!!

Well, yesterday started the first day of 3rd grade. I tried to get a picture but we were in such a rush yesterday I wasn't able to get one. Oh well. I stayed at school helping all day. Avery took a break for a while and went with Lindsay until lunchtime.

Today we dropped Sam off at school, came home got ready for the day and then went grocery shopping. We came home put the stuff away, ate lunch, and then went to school for Avery's Pre-K screening.

Avery was so excited and was ready to answer all her questions and everything. he has been waiting for weeks to do this. :) We go in and start, she is asking him questions, while I am filling out paperwork. He kept saying, "That's easy!" as he answered them correctly. After just a couple of minutes, Mrs. Tarpley runs in the room and says that I need to go to the office because Taylor had probably just broken his arm. I didn't believe her at first, but then realized something was definitely wrong, so I left Avery and ran to the office. His teacher was in there trying to figure out Lindsay's number. She showed me his arm. His elbow looked WRONG! It was terrible. I knew it had to be broken for sure. I gave her Lindsay's number and she called and told her she needed to come right then. I sat with Taylor until she got there. He did really well and wasn't even crying when I first got there. He did start when we got into the clinic though. It was sad. Poor, poor kid. Lindsay came and I took Autumn and Emilie for her while she took Taylor to the ER. I went back to Avery after it was all over and he was done with his test. They said he did really well. So I had 3 kids tagging around with me for the rest of the day. They were really good though. Lindsay was just about to lay Autumn down for her nap, so she had to miss it and was tired, but she wasn't fussy at all. She wouldn't go to anyone else though, she just wanted me, which was cute.

Lindsay called later and said Taylor was probably going to have surgery (I know she will fill everyone in on her blog when she can, but this was my part of the day, so I am blogging it myself :) and it was definitely broken just above his elbow.

I called her later to see if I needed to come get Kinley, but Denisee was on his way so she told me no. So after school we went to get Sam's shot like normal. When I was almost there she called and said that now she needed me to come get Kinley! Ha ha! Taylor was going to have to go by ambulance to Vanderbilt from our hospital. THey wanted a pediatric orthopedic person to look at it and decide if he for sure needed surgery.

We stopped by the mall again to go to the Disney store. They were still saving their allowance to get those Wall-E toys. We got there and there were still no toys, even though they told us they would be in this week. Sam was SO sad. The girl said I could leave my name and number and they would call if they got some in, but it was still no guarantee that we would get any. So I was up at the counter doing that when another girl came and pulled her to the side. They opened a closet and pulled out the Wall-E toys! Apparently the manager said to go ahead and give them to us. The girls were really surprised and said that never happens so it was out lucky day! The one helping us even said she had been waiting for them so we were really lucky. The boys were SO happy!! Thank goodness, now I can stop going to that darn store every week.

After that we went to get his shot. They didn't call us back for almost 30 minutes. Tat never happens so I don't know what was going on. It was annoying though because I had to hurry back, figure out what to do about dinner, and go to my PTO meeting.

AJ called and said he was on his way home so he picked up dinner, Little Caesar's, so thankfully that was one less thing to do. I had several calls from school asking about Taylor on the way home as well. We came home, ate, and I ran to my meeting. Lindsay called while I was there and said he definitely had to have surgery and they were trying hard to get him in tonight. He has to have pins put in and then in 3 weeks those will come out. So they are staying there tonight, but I don't know much else, she said she would call me back later, but I haven't heard from her again.

It was very tense and crazy today. I feel bad for them, especially Taylor. Poor kid. I talked to his teacher tonight and she feels so bad. She is a brand new teacher, only her second day. Poor teacher. She was shaking so bad right after it happened and she kept crying. She bought him something and is having all the kids make cards for him tomorrow. I will let Lindsay say exactly what happened, etc to cause it all. Anyway, hopefully tomorrow will go easier for all of us and Taylor is doing much better.

Avery is also saying his ear is hurting again, so I hope he isn't getting another infection.

I guess that is it for now. Keep Taylor in your thoughts. :(

Friday, August 8, 2008

Long Week!

Man, I am tired! It just all hit me! Yesterday we were at school until 5:30, today until 7:00! Man, school makes me so busy! I forget!

Yesterday I started off the day by going to the Teacher Center to cut out lots of things, etc. It was terrible and I am never doing that again! There were a thousand people in that tiny little building, plus my 2 kids. I thought I would just be in there for like 30 minutes, um, no, 2 hours later and I was finally leaving, frazzled, with 2 whiny kids trailing behind. Whew! We obviously love you Mrs. Tarpley! :)- Anyway, we grabbed lunch on the way to school. I handed out PTO papers to all the teachers (after I had spent 4 hours stapleing half of them the night before) and finished the rest with help from 2 other PTO moms. Then I helped Mrs. Tarpley get all ready for today's 2 hour day. I came home, made dinner, and then started working on a project for Sam's teacher. It was hard work and I messed it up and had to start over. I much prefer paperwork, computer stuff, and organizing things than making things! I gave up on that and went to bed.

I had to set the alarm this morning, YUCK!, and we got all up and ready and went to school about 8:30 this morning. We stayed all day long. Avery ended up going with Lindsay around lunch time and Sam and I stayed the rest of the time. We did a million things and I spent lots of time running around the school. Man, it is far to walk from one side to the other! :) I need to get paid for this! I think they should have a job in the schools for a teacher helper that just goes around and does whatever the teacher needs. I would totally do that job and they need it! They have to do so much for our kids!Anyway, I worked with one of my friends that I hadn't gotten to really do stuff with since Kindergarten so that was nice. Her son is in Sam's class this year so we will get to see them a lot. Yippee! Sam has a GREAT class, with lots of good helper moms so I am very happy. He has a great teacher too, and he already loves her. :)

Anyway, since it was so late and Lindsay came back to drop Avery off, then we decided to go eat at a Mexican restaurant! Yea! The service wasn't very good at all and it took forever (they even forgot to bring out Kinley's food)but it was good and at least I didn't have to cook. We came home, the kids went straight to bed, and I am about to go there now myself! That's early for me! I don't know how I am going to get back in to school mode with alarms, early mornings, etc. Anyway, I am going to bed! Nite Nite!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

So far this week we have been pretty busy, and it's only going to get busier.

Monday we went to the Y for Zumba (where they announced more classes in the afternoon, yippee!)and then came home to swim. I cleaned up the house and then Lindsay brought her kids over to swim. One of my friends from singing, Robin, brought her little boy over to play while we were at rehearsal. They had a good time and AJ said it was really easy. We got home really late that night, and Robin got her little boy out of bed and took him home. He is welcome anytime! :)

Yesterday we ran around all day. I started out by making phone calls to printers in Smyrna. I have been busy revamping our PTO volunteer forms and newsletter. Our copy machine at school has not been running and we were running out of time to make all those copies. We also wanted our volunteer form to be in color to help it stand out and get used this year. So I found a printer and ran to their office to drop off the paper we wanted used. We then went to get gas (thankfully it has gone down quite a bit this week), and we went to Publix. For some reason we ran out of things early this month, so I had to get a few odds and ends. From there we went to school to pick up a check for the printing, and of course went to talk to our favorite teachers. :) After that we went to Cool Springs to the Mall. The boys have been dying to spend their allowance on some Wall-E toys that the disney store there has. Wellll, we went there and they were out. Uh oh! Bad news! I needed more moisturizer so I went to Clinique and got some, which included the bonus gift. Yippee! I then took them to Toys R Us hoping they would have some Wall-E toys there, they did, but not what they wanted or would play with. Oh well, they are saving their money for something else now. We then went to get Sam's shot. We finally got home just in time to make dinner. The kids fought all day, I was tired from being out so late the night before, and so we just laid around for the night.

Today we went to playgroup. It was at the Town Centre pool. It was fun at first, we love it there, but then this big group of teenagers came in and took over. They drowned Avery, so of course, he was done after that. Then Sam was bored. So after just an hour they were both ready to go. Argh! We went and picked up the PTO stuff at the printer and then we came home, the kids played Star Wars on the Wii, I practiced my quartet music, and stapled some PTO papers. After I had stapled about 100 of the forms, I realized that there was a problem on the membership form. Ahhhhhh! I have seen the forms so much I didn't really notice it at first. Anyway, something happened and instead of the punctuation, like the periods, at the top of the form, there were little boxes instead! I checked my form again, printed it out again, everything looked good on my end. I emailed the printer and they said apparently there was a problem when they converted it to their printing system. Ummm, ok, but we paid a lot of money to not have them be right! They didn't even offer to reprint. They don't look that bad, but I worked hard on that page, we spent a lot of money, and it should be right. I called our PTO president, she wasn't happy either, because almost all of the money we paid, were specifically for these copies. I called back and had to leave a message. I emailed again. No response. I need them by tomorrow morning so obviously we are just going to have to use what we have. Argh! Anyway, we went to the Y, came home made dinner, and the boys played some more.

Sam was supposed to go to cub scouts for the first time tonight. He was SOOOO excited and has been talking about it for several days, and ALL day today. Well, right before dinner they called and said it was canceled tonihgt. We had a very sad boy. I also was supposed to have quartet practice tonight, but our tenor got sick so we had to cancel. We have been asked to sing at a Christmas Dinner function, so this will give us time to find music for that.

Since then I have been stapling more forms and that's about it.

Tomorrow we will be at school all day helping get everything ready.

Friday is a 2 hour day for the kids and then we plan on staying to help get things organized for Sam's teacher.

Saturday we will go pick up Sam's scout shirt and then Lindsay and I are performing at the Williamson County Fair. Our families may or may not come with us, depending on how hot it is outside.

I also have my first subbing request and school hasn't even started. :)

Sunday, August 3, 2008

1%

There was a 1 % chance I would be allergic to this medicine, well, guess what, I'm in the 1%. This is the medicine I am taking for my stupid strep that I have had a hundred times. I am allergic to several different antibiotics and he said it was very unlikely that I would be allergic to this one, only a 1% chance. The pharmacist was worried about giving it to me, but also said it was probably fine and it was unlikely. Well, yesterday I started itching. It got worse and worse throughout the day and by bedtime even the inside of my ears and throat were itchy. It was terrible. No swelling yet though, which is usually what happens next. I took benadryl and an hour later was finally able to go to sleep. I didn't even wake up last night. Still itchy this morning though. Why oh why, do I have to be allergic to everything?! This is stupid. Hopefully I don't have to go to the ER or have to get a steroid shot. Yuck! I hate those. Benadryl please work!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Pool Life

Ahhhh, how I have missed our pool lately! We haven't been able to swim in it since before Sam has his surgery. It's been tooooo long! First, we felt bad swimming when Sam couldn't. Then when we were finally ready to swim, the pool wasn't working properly. The pump had clogged up and it wasn't pumping, which meant lots of dead bugs and gross water. Yuck! AJ figured it out and we were all ready to go when it started raining! Argh! It rained two days in a row, so we were out of luck. Finally, yesterday, we were able to swam and stayed in the pool all afternoon! We even missed dinner! Lindsay and the fam ended up walking over yesterday after we had been in it for a little while. They were just going to jump in without us, but there we were, already in it! LOL!

Today we lounged around the house. I paid bills, got my lesson ready to teach Sam's church class tomorrow, and that's about it. The boys started their new chore chart, which I love. If anyone is looking for chore ideas and a fun way to get the kids motivated go to Handipoints . It is an online world where they get points for doing chores and they can play with their little characters, similar to Webkinz World, and it is free. Yippee!

Sam picked out some chores he would like to do, so besides the typical things like picking up his clothes, brushing his teeth, etc., he also dusts (which I HATE doing- I am glad he picked it) and vacuuming the downstairs. He loves doing both of thos things, so I am happy with them.

Avery is emptying all the little trash cans into the big one and straightening up the upstairs bathroom (it doesn't get used that much so he just has to clean off the counters, wipe them off, and make sure their bath toys are off the floor).

So far so good! They each get an allowance if they complete their chores, which they are very happy about Of course, they do still have things they have to do without being paid, just because they are part of the family, but now they have better ways of earning money and it helps me as well! Woohoo!

Anyway, this afternoon we went out to swim and once again spent the whole afternoon out there. We did stop to eat this time though. :) Lindsay and them came over again and then AJ grilled while we finished swimming. WE all ate and then the adults paid Mario Party 8, while the kids had fun playing upstairs. They even all cleaned up the playroom with little fuss. Whew!

I love having a pool and having my tan back is making me happy. :)