The World of Sweeney

Woolite® COMPLETE

2012-02-07T15:52:00.000-06:00

Woolite® COMPLETE: Thx Woolite COMPLETE 4 my free sample! Like Woolite on Facebook and watch the Woolite Torturer commercial http://on.fb.me/wsvbYe *Please remember the FTC requires you to mention that you received a free sample courtesy of Smiley360 when sharing.

Children's Advil

2012-02-01T19:15:00.000-06:00

Children's Advil: Thanks Pfizer and #ChildrensAdvil for my free sample. Click here for a $1.00 coupon:http://bit.ly/uLNtqx. Like us on Facebook. *Please remember the FTC requires you to mention that you received a free sample courtesy of Smiley360 when sharing.

Woolite® COMPLETE

2012-02-01T19:14:00.000-06:00

Woolite® COMPLETE: Thx Woolite COMPLETE 4 my coupon! Like Woolite on Facebook and watch the Woolite Torturer commercial http://on.fb.me/wsvbYe *Please remember the FTC requires you to mention that you received a free sample courtesy of Smiley360 when sharing.

Redbox

2011-12-07T16:27:00.001-06:00

Redbox: Thanks Redbox for my free video! Enter for your chance to win daily prizes at http://bit.ly/uqDw4a

We love Redbox! We switched from Netflix to them recently. Go sign up to get free rentals and more. :)

Shauna

Another One

2011-08-21T21:55:00.002-05:00

So, apparently Sam can't go any length of time without a broken bone. Sigh. He broke his wrist on Thursday playing tag. He jumped to miss getting tagged and fell backwards. AJ took him to the doc the next morning. Broken again. Orange cast this time. Good thing I wasn't there or I would have made him get pink! This kid must have extra soft bones. Of course it is his writing hand, but thankfully all of his teachers are working with him. Ok, Sam, really, enough is enough.

School Days

2011-08-09T17:40:00.003-05:00

Avery started 2nd grade! I can't believe it. He will have a great year with his new teacher, although he misses his fabulous 1st grade teacher. :) He was spoiled.

Sam started Middle School! I REALLY can't believe that! I don't have a picture because he had a tough morning, but his day went great and he is loving it now. Whew!

I also started "unofficially" student teaching. Technically, I don't start for a couple weeks, but I went ahead and started on my own so I could meet all the kids and see how to run the classroom the first few weeks of school. I love my 3rd grade class already! Can't wait to meet Kindergarten!

I also got my first apple from one of my third graders today. So cute! She is so sweet. Love her. Awww, little kids rock!

I have a thousand things to do. I forget how I got everything done last year and I had to throw in school on top of that. I will get back in teh groove soon, but for now, I will keep this short and sweet.

Bye bye!

Birthday and Building

2011-07-24T20:33:00.009-05:00

So we have had a crazy, busy last two weeks.

First came Sam's party. That week I was gone almost every night doing something or other so I didn't get to get ready for his party until the day before. If you remember, he was having a Harry Potter party at the theater for the last movie. We could not wait! We (or should I say I) went all out for this party, but it was worth it, and was so much fun. We had 25 people at the party and it was opening day so we were all so excited.

Sam doesn't like cake that much so he requested brownies. I didn't want to do plain, old brownies, so instead I made these.

Wizard Hat brownie cakes. They were cute. Not too hard to make, but it did take a lot of time. Sooo chocolatey. Yum.

Then I wanted to do party favors that related to the movies, so I made these.

They are chocolate frogs. They were cute and really looked like little frogs. Much better in real life than in teh picture. I don't know if they were good though because I never had one. I made hald dark chocolate and half milk chocolate.

And lastly, I made these.

I got 40 flavor Jelly Belly beans, put them in the bag, and made my own label. each bag also had a chocolate surprise, which were the chocolate frogs. They were wrapped in foil, so you couldn't tell what they were. These were my favorite part of the party. They looked so good and real. Loved it!

Anyway, we had a great time, the movie was great (can't believe they are over!), and Sam is 11 years old! Woah!

So since we moved in to this house, 6 years ago, I have been one by one changing the rooms and making them more grown up. :) All of our furniture was cheap Wal-mart stuff from when we first got married 13 years ago. It was crap and I hated it. I finally decided I had to do something about it. I couldn't stand it anymore. I had two rooms left, the music/piano room, and the office. So I searched all month for the perfect furniture. Boy, is that hard to do. I had specific stuff in mind, so finding them for the right price and exactly what I wanted was difficult. We went to several different stores and almost decided to build them ourselves, but then I was lucky and found the best furniture store ever! They carried the exact furniture I wanted, for half the price of the name brand store, and got it here in 4 days! Amazing! So my office is transformed! YEA!!!!!! Also, this week, we built (mostly I built with AJ's help thrown in here and there) a corner storage cabinet. We built it in like 3 days. It would have taken way less, but it is so hot here, we had to wait until 9:00 at night to go to the garage and build it. Anyway, it is FABULOUS. I love everything about it and it fits in the room perfectly. Almost looks like a built in. Yea for building cheap, better quality, perfect furniture yourself!!!!

Here it is before accessories and after. I need more decorations, but haven't gotten that far yet.

Here is the whole room. It isn't quite finished yet, but it's a start and WAY better than what we had.

I am so proud of the room and love every piece in it. Really, I could leave it like it is and be happy, but a few more things here and there will really make the room. We also finished the piano room besides art and decorations, but realized I haven't taken a picture, and the office far surpasses that room, so I am in love with it at the moment. My whole downstairs is exactly what I wanted. It's all cute and nice and all of it is REAL wood, not plywood or MDF and should last a long, long time. :) SOOO happy! Now, on to the upstairs.... We did all this in one week. Craziness, but worth it. :)

I also had a Thirty-one gifts party last night. It was fun, the stuff is so cute, and I get some good stuff, and got to show off my new room. :)

Tomorrow starts the getting ready for school process. I am going to help teachers get their rooms ready this week. Next week is a half day of school to meet the teachers and then the next week they start full time, which means I start full-time as a student teacher! Ahhhhhhh!Two week until real-life sets back in. Sigh....

July Beginnings

2011-07-10T17:08:00.002-05:00

Now onto July. I will get caught up on this blogging thing, just in time to fall back off once school starts again. My poor family journal is suffering.

Our 4th of July was good. We had our cul de sac neighbors over, Lindsay and fam, and our friend Robin and her little boy. We grilled, played a game, ran through the sprinkler, and the guys played a game of basketball. It was a nice day. Yea for cul de sacs!

The 6th was Sam's birthday. He is 11! Unbelievable! He's so big! It's weird. AJ said yesterday that he will be in High School in just 3 years and driving in 5. That is tooooo soon! He is having a big party on Friday for the opening of Harry Potter. Each year we give the boys the option of either having a birthday party where they get 2 presents from us, or no party, and we take the money we would spend on a party and get all the presents. So, Sam chose a party this year. It will be fun and we can't wait to see the movie!

For his birthday he got a basketball goal. isn't it funny that our short little munchkin family has a basketball goal. Well, we do, and we love it! He also got a cell phone. Yes, I know, he's 11! You would be amazed at how many 3rd graders already have a phone though! We did not want to do it and were totally against it for a long time. He has asked for more than a year. We said no way. He is always with me, why does he need his own. Well, then I realized that he will be at a different school, I will be working, he will have extracurriculars, etc. I still was against it, but finally after several months, I decided it was a good thing with RULES. Plus, I needed a new phone. LOL! He has been very good with it, and hopefully it stays that way. It will make my life earlier, since I won't be around him as much, and can always keep track of him. Also, it is a good consequence for when he gets in trouble. We can just take it away and he won't be able to stand it. Muahaha! We're evil.

Avery had his very first throwing up sickness on Sam's birthday. He was perfectly fine the day before. I was sleeping and just after 8:00 he runs in my room with his hand over his mouth saying he was going to throw up. I told him to go in the bathroom and he made it just in time. He threw up every hour until about 4 o'clock that day. No fever, nothing, just constant throwing up. It was very strange. He is rarely sick (the opposite of Sam) so it was very unusual. The most he ever has is a cold. He made it through it though, without even whining. Woohoo! Poor kid. I felt bad for him, especially on a day that should have been fun. Thankfully, Sam got his phone so he was occupied with that and didn't care that we didn't do anything special. Thankfully, we had gone out to dinner the night before since AJ had to go back to work. No one else got sick, and he was fine the next day. Whew!

He also lost his second tooth the other night. He thinks that is just the coolest thing. The tooth fairy brings 5 quarters for each loose tooth. When I asked him if she had left him anything he said, " Just about a doller in quarters". I said, "Cool! That's great! " He said, "I don't really use quarters for anything!" LOL! I told him quarters were just as good as dollars, and he should use them from now on.

I guess that is about it for last week. I will post party pics sometime next week. Who knows, maybe I will post something before that and actually have 3 posts within several days of each other. Weirdness!

June Fun

2011-07-06T14:43:00.005-05:00

Yeah, I've been bad at this blogging thing! Oh well.

Yea for school being out! I love summer! We are non-planning, go with the flow, lazy summer people. Totally opposite of the rest of our lives!

June went by fast. I can't believe there is less than a month until school starts. Geez!

We went to Holiday World a few weeks ago. Yes, we go every year, and yes we LOVE it there! This was our best trip yet!

We went up on a Monday morning. We planned on leaving about 8:30. We got all packed and loaded up. The boys and I went out to get in the car, when all of a sudden, a bird flew straight into the garage and smacked right into our freezer! It fell down and went underneath the garage stairs. Poor thing was hurt and scared to death. Part of his tail was missing when he flew in, so he must have gotten attacked or stuck in something beforehand. Anyway, I was trying to find him, but all I could hear was his little chirping. I called AJ out and I was on one side of the garage, AJ on the other, trying to find the bird. Finally, he came out enough that AJ could see him, but he was far back under the stairs and we couldn't reach him. AJ moved everything and tried to crawl back there, but couldn't get to him. I started stomping on the stairs, hoping to scare him in the right direction, but he kept flying further and further back, the wrong way! Then all of a sudden, 4 other birds came and were circling outside the garage, screeching for their friend! It was craziness. I finally got the broom and tried to gently push the bird out. AJ had a bucket and we were trying to get the bird to go in the bucket. We tried forever and it was not working. Finally AJ said to just leave the dumb bird. I said no way! We were going to be gone for 3 days and he was going to die! I tried one last time with the broom. I got him to come out, but then we couldn't see where he went. AJ looked down and the bird had flown right into the bucket and we didn't know it! HAHA! Anyway, he took him outside and dumped him out with the rest of his bird family. They all tried to fly away, but that poor little bird crash-landed in the neighbors driveway. I felt bad for it, but what could we do. AJ was very annoyed at the bird and it had messed up all our plans. It took over 30 minutes trying to rescue him. WE cleaned up the garage really fast and were finally on our way. Whew!

We got to Nashville and got stuck in terrible traffic. This was like 9:30 in the morning! Why traffic?! Ugh! We finally got past it and managed to make it to Holiday World without any more trouble.

Since it was a Monday, the park wasn't very busy. Yea! We did some rides, camped out in the water park, and then did some more rides. Avery got to do a ton of water slides for the first time. We played in the wave pool a lot and just had lots of fun.

We left and went to the hotel. We immediately went to the swimming pool. I hate hotel swimming pools. THey are usually freezing and yucky, with too much chlorine. Not this one! It was the best hotel pool ever! It was warm, we were all alone, and it was great. We had lots of fun and stayed in forever. There was even a hot tub. Yippee! We have a water proof camera, so Sam loved experimenting with underwater shots. :)

We watched a movie before bed and then finally went to sleep. Boy, those boys were wild and crazy and sure tried to get in big trouble that night. Naughty, naughty. The next morning we woke up and it was raining. :( We checked the weather and it looked like rain the whole day. It took a while to decide what to do, but we had already paid for our next day tickets, so we decided to go ahead and go on to the park. It rained the whole way there and was cold. We got there and it was drizzling. Avery and I were freezing, so we went to the gift shop where we looked for sweatshirts or jackets. Um, $40, I don't think so. We decided to suffer. LOL. We rode several rides and then the boys were dying to go to the water park. CRAZY! It was only 66 degrees, but we went. I was sure, they would do one thing and be done, but nope. They rode water slides, rode the wildebeast (the world's best water roller coaster) and then went in the wave pool! I sat there and watched. I was already freezing enough. The good thing was that there were NO lines for ANYTHING! The wave pool did them in though, so we had lunch and then left the water park. By that point, the sun was peeking through the clouds, and it had warmed up some. Sam was tall enough for every ride this year (it's a miracle!) and AJ convinced him to go on the Pilgrim's Plunge (the highest water ride in the world. I LOVE water rides and they don't scare me like roller coasters, but i won't even go on this thing. It is REALLY HIGH!!! You even have to take a log elevator up to the top.I expected him to freak out, but he LOVED it. They were the only ones on the ride, and when they got back down, no one was waiting in line, so they went again!

We did ALL of rides that day and had a great time with no lines and it was the perfect temperature after the first little bit. Yea!

That night was more hotel swimming and we finished watching out movie. After lots of threats, the boys settled down and went to sleep quickly. Whew! They learned their lesson. :)

The next morning we woke up to rain again! It was our last day, so we went on to the park anyway. There were a few more cars than the day before, but still not busy at all. By the time we got to the park, the sun was out and it was warm. We went straight to the water park where we spent the majority of the day. Yea, my favorite! We had lots of fun and went on tons of slides. We only had to wait a few minutes in the lines and only 20 minutes for the Wildebeast. It was great. When we left the park, we went to the rides and Sam finally decided he would ride the Voyage, which he has been scared of for years. The Voyage is the #1 Wooden Roller Coaster on the planet with one of the steepest drops of any wooden roller coaster. Scary! He went though, and loved it!! So Sam did all the #1 rides on this trip. He was so proud of himself. :) After the coaster, we decided to do our last favorite things and then leave to come home. As we were walking to the rides, I noticed heavy clouds rolling in. I thought to myself, "I hope the rain holds out until we get through with these 2 rides". AJ and Avery went to one ride, while Sam and I went to another. As we were waiting in line, I heard a lady tell another one that her family had told her a bad storm with hail was on the way and quickly. Again, I hoped it would wait until we got off. We finally got loaded on the ride, and the guy was coming around to check everyone's seat belt, when we heard the first clap of thunder. Oh, great! Then over the loud speaker they announced that all the roller coasters would be closing, but the other rides would still operate. Yea! They started the ride and we had fun. The ride was coming to a stop, when the lightning started. They announced over the speaker that ALL rides would then be stopping. We got off the ride just as AJ and Avery walked over. We started walking to the exit and I said, we needed to hurry because hail was coming. Just as I said that it started to rain. We started jogging to the exit, but by the time we got to the ticket booths, it was POURING rain. We stood under the awning for a minute, with everyone else in the park. I then said we should just run because we were already wet and when the rain let up EVERYONE would be leaving at the same time and we would have terrible traffic. So, we started to run and it started to rain harder, and harder, and harder. I couldn't see a thing, we were pretty much running blind. It was CRAZY. We got to the place where the tram picks up people to take them to their car and stopped for a minute. That is when the wind started. It was blowing big barrels over, the wind was going sideways, and it was hard to stay in place. AJ ran on to get the car. As he was running, the wind got even worse and it actually did start moving us! I grabbed on the kids and we were all huddled together holding on tight. AJ pulled the car up as close as he could, but we still had a run to do. We started and so did the hail! OWWWW! All of us were saying, "ow!, Ow!, Ow!" on our run over there. The van has an automatic door so the kids jumped right in and closed the door. Well, I was trying to get my door open, but the wind wouldn't let me! It was blowing so hard it kept slamming shut if I even got it open an inch. I kept wrestling with it and finally got it open enough that I jammed my hip in and slithered in. It then immediately slammed shut. Thankfully, I got my feet in just in time! Yikes! It was WILD. I have never been in a storm like that before! We sat there for a minute, just stunned. We then got out the towels and dried off the best we could, and by the time we finished that, the sun was out and everything had stopped like it never happened! LOL! We got on the road and started the trip back home. Holiday World is in the middle of nowhere. Just a bunch of trees and fields. The storm had caused a TON of debris in the road and trees were down everywhere, so AJ and I were really watching the road ahead. I was sure we would run in to a tree any minute. Suddenly, we came to a break in teh trees and Sam said TORNADO!!!! But we were back in the trees so fast, AJ and I couldn't see anything. I told him it was probably just the clouds, but he said no way, I saw it! Aj and I were trying to convince him it wasn't, when I looked back and saw his face. He had burst in to tears and was terrified!!! At that point, i realized he really might have seen one! I kept looking back trying to see, but the trees were too thick. Darn it! I wanted to see a tornado! LOL! Of course, we couldn't pick up the radio, so we didn't know what was going on. We kept on driving and ran into the same storm 3 times on our trip. We stopped at a gas station about an hour later and changed into dry clothes. We were still soaked! LOL. Craziness! When we got home that night, I checked the weather and 11 tornados were spotted in Indiana that day. of course I don't know the counties, so I don't know if one of them was what Sam saw, but I am willing to bet we were in a tornado and didn't even know it! Anyway, we had a great time, it was the perfect weather, no lines, and we had quite an adventure, so it was fun! We loved this trip. Our favorite yet!

Adventures R Us

2011-04-15T10:24:00.002-05:00

Avery turned 7 years old last week! Wow! He was sooo excited! He was counting down the days a month in advance. He knew it exactly. He even made himself his own calendar on a little notebook he found.

He woke up on his birthday to presents and blowing out candles. I even brought him lunch at school and spent the afternoon with him. He was loving it. Then.... towards the end of the school day we had terrible storms. We ended up having a tornado warning, which means everyone has to go into the hallway and crouch down with their heads against the wall. We did that for a few minutes and then the power flickered on and off over and over and over. Finally it went out completely. Which made it hot in those hallways. Hundreds of kids, curled into a ball, whining and complaining, in the hotness is not too fun. Wellll, we had to stay that way for an HOUR! In the middle of all that Avery said, "This birthday isn't so fun anymore!" It ended up that a tornado formed right above the school (teachers in the 4th grade hallway and parents outside saw it)! It hit some houses down the road and knocked down tons of trees and fences, but we were all good. We had no power the rest of the day and we got out of school very late! That night we took Lindsay's family and went to IHOP to celebrate his birthday. He was DYING for the restaurant people to sing to him. His wish did not come true, however. :( There were only 2 workers there, they were very busy, and they just couldn't do it. They did at least bring him cake.

The next morning Avery woke up asking what fun thing we were going to do for his birthday that way. I had to break it to him gently that birthday festivities do not happen for a whole week. :)

His party was on Friday. He was DYING to have it on a Friday. This kid knows what he wants!! The present he wanted the very most was an Ipod. I didn't want to get him one! Sam has one and it has the exact same music Avery would want, so WHY would I get him one?? Plus, he is only 7! Why does he need an Ipod. BUT he has been wanting one since his last birthday. Do you know how long a year is for a 7 year old?! LONG! He was DYING and POSITIVE he was going to get one. I finally decided we would get him a fake Ipod (mp3 player)as long as it didn't cost over $30. Welllll, I looked for 2 weeks, but he wanted one with a camera so he could take his own vieos, like Sam did. There aren't any cheap music players with cameras! I spent the whole afternoon before his party, going to SEVERAL, different stores and the cheapest I could find was $70. No way! That night AJ went to get his hair cut. Right before bed, Avery got soooo excited. I asked him why and he said, "I can't wait to get my Ipod tomorrow!!!" Ummmmm. I asked him why he thought he was getting one. He was sure someone at the party would be bringing one as a present!!! I then had to gently explain to him how party presents don't cost more than $20 usually and that no one at the party would be bringing him one. He BURST into tears!!! I have never seen him do that before! It was terrible! He said, "But it's the ONLY thing I want. I have wanted it FOREVER! I have been waiting a LONG time!" He cried for like 15 minutes. No matter what I said, it wasn't helping. He really didn't want anything else. I felt bad. :( I told AJ to stop after his hair appointment and see if he could find one at stores I hadn't been to. He finally found one. It was $50, so more than I wanted to spend, but geez, how could I make him suffer any longer?! Let's just say, we have made his YEAR! He has gone everywhere with that thing. He always has it with him and is always listening. It's really cute. He sings right along and knows every word. I don't really think he realizes that he is singing quite loud when it is in his ears. Thankfully, he got my singing genes and not AJ's. He's a good little singer. :) Cute, cute!

Now, on to the party! He wanted a swimming party at the YMCA. We invited all of our good friends and neighbors and only 3 people from his class, two of which happen to be girls. Hmmmm. :) The entire first part of the party he kept asking where his teacher was. She was late. :) That is all he cared about. he kept telling me to call her, or text her, or email her. :) He couldn't wait until she got there. She was obviously going to be the life of the party. :) She finally got there, thank goodness. :) Well, as we were eating pizza, one of the little girls said that she felt like she was going to throw up. Our hostess went to find a bucket. Well, then Syler (Lindsay's baby) actually does throw up. He always does, it's an allergy thing" so we weren't worried. Well, then Avery's teacher's baby starts to throw up too!! What?! What was going on with out party?! We get them all cleaned up. The little girl went home, and everyone is feeling good. Avery opens his presents and then we all go get in the pool. We were in there about 20 minutes. Everyone had just finished their swim tests and had just gotten in to play when guess what. Some random kid, not with out party, threw up in the pool!!!! It just wasn't our day!! What a fun party, huh?! Everyone had to get out and they told us they were not going to open the pool back up since there was only an hour left before it closed anyway. Ugh! We got the party lady to blow up the bounce house that they use for other parties. Whew! Party saved! The kids all loved it, even though it was craziness! Now, parents are telling me that their kids want to have parties at the Y. LOL! Little do they know, their party probably won't be so adventurous!

That little boy had a great birthday and is so proud to be 7! I took pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet, so when I do, I will post them.

Also, the same birthday week, Avery had some exciting stuff happen at school. They take a timed math test every day. The goal is to get a certain number of problems right in a short time frame and then they get to move up to the next test. Well, Avery moved up 5 days in a row. No one in his class had done that, so it was a momentous occasion! His handwriting also improved a TON and he can spell like an expert! Go Avery! Obviously 7 is a great age!

Sam has also grown up so much in the past month. How did he get so big! He is super responsible (except for leaving his clothes all over the house every day!!!). He is going to be a GREAT babysitter! Boys can be babysitters, right?! Syler LOVES him and whenver he is around, Sam take care of him. He also helps all the little neighborhood kids. Although, now he is "too old" to play with them. They are too young for him. Which is trues, they are all 7 or 8, but it isn't too much fun to sit inside, is it, Sam? ;) He just really has matured lately. Sigh...

Besides all that, AJ broke his foot. I wonder if I already posted about that??? Hmmm. Oh well, here it is again, if I did. He was playing dodge ball at church and tripped over a kid. He thought it was just badly sprained and went on a 20 mile backpacking trip a week later. Well, after 2 weeks he went to the doctor and nope, not a sprain, badly broken! Nice. He is in a boot. Broken bones must run in the family.

School is almost done for me! Yippee! I only have 3 classes left! I will have done 45 credits this semester. Craziness! I just got my scores from my state Praxis exams I took last month. I was 4 points away from having a perfect score on one of them! WOAH! I couldn't believe it! I was so worried too! It happened to be the one, where I messed up the essay questions and had to erase 2 pages of writing and then rewrite it! See my last post for details.

Our house is wild and wacy, but I love it. Well, most of the time. :) :) :)

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

2011-03-22T11:59:00.001-05:00

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

Wanna try country crock? Go get a coupon now!

Tests are Dumb!

2011-03-12T18:35:00.002-06:00

So today I had to take two Praxis exams, which are the state teaching exams. I had to be there by 7:30, which is bad in itself. At least for me. :) A morning person, I am not. Anyway, I had plans on going to bed at a decent time last night so I wouldn't be tired. Well, AJ had other plans for me. I got in bed at 10:00 on the dot. That is EARLY for me. I was actually going to sleep, then AJ came up and said, "I've been thinking...." I knew at that point that it was going to be a long conversation and I should stop it, but I didn't. LOL. Well, I let him talk til 11:00. What a nice wife I am, huh?! Well, of course after that I was wide awake and my brain was running like crazy. Ugh. I finally went to sleep about 12:30. Then, I guess I was nervous, but I woke up several times all night, finally waking up at 5:45 and staying awake. UGH!!! That is NOT good for this 9 hour of sleep girl!

So on to the test. I get there with 20 minutes to spare. Then the testing people were late so we didn't get in the room until almost 8:00. Then they had to get everyone checked in, hand out tests, etc. It is funny seeing all the people trying to be teachers. Let me just say there are a TON wanting to teach middle school! Anyway, the testing didn't start until 8:30, an hour after it was supposed to. This first test was Elementary Education: Content Knowledge, which meant I had to know everything a K-6th grader has to learn. Yeah, I was a little freaked out. First of all, I am only going to be certified to teach up to 3rd grade, so I have no idea what a 6th grader should know. Also, Sam's homework sometimes freaks me out, plus, that is A LOT of stuff. How in the world do you study for all that. The test was made up of 4 parts, Language, Math, Science, Social Studies. I was confident in Language and Science, but the other 2 I was worried about. Math because I am TERRIBLE at math, especially fractions, and Social Studies was worrisome because I might have to know dates, certain people, amendments, etc.

Anyway, before the test started we looked at the clock and it was going WACKY! Apparently, all of the clocks in the school were. They were just spinning and spinning. It was crazy. Bad sign???

The Language part was a breeze. I had no trouble. Then on to Math. Um, yeah, that was trouble. It was bad. I had to circle a lot of the questions to come back to later. Thankfully, I had lots of time left at the end, so I came back and was able to figure out a lot of the problems. It just takes me a lot of time to really think about it and then I can finally do it. I think I did ok. Whew! Then it went on to Social Studies. Um, yeah, FAIL. I don't know if I really even knew one of the questions! It was so random, I don't know how in the world you would study for it. Let me just say, if you have to take that, brush up on the 60's! Obviously I know nothing about that era. I am pretty sure all through school, we always only ever got to World War II before the end of the year. Hopefully my scores on the rest of the test, make up for Social Studies. Thankfully, I usually could narrow down the answers to two so I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right. Maybe? Finally was science. That wasn't bad, I think I did pretty good.

Since we started so late, my hour break in between my two tests, turned in to 5 minutes. I had enough time to go to the bathroom, and that was it. :( We came back in and got everyone situated. This time, I took Education of Young Children. That one was easy peasy. Make sure you brush up on the different philosophers like Piaget, Erikson, etc. This test had 60 multiple choice, but then it had 6 essay questions. I'm not talking about a one or two paragraph essay either. These were like 2 pages long. Man, my hand was dying by the end, actually, it is still tired! Even the essay questions weren't that bad though, but this test is where the craziness started. First, the clocks were still messed up and it was very important that we kept time well because the whole test was only 2 hours long so we had to leave plenty of time for the essays. Thankfully, I have a watch on at all times. Well, halfway through, we heard a loud siren right outside the doors and then a minute later started hearing someone talking loudly through a megaphone or something. We couldn't tell what they were saying, but something was going on! I have no idea what though. Then I got done with essay 4 and started moving on to essay 5, only to realize that I had written almost the whole essay (1 whole page) on the wrong test page!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!! What in the world was I supposed to do?! I only had 30 minutes left so I just went on to the last 2 questions. I finished up just as the lady called that there was 10 minutes left!! YIKES!!!! I QUICKLY rewrote that whole page on the correct page. I write pretty small so that was A LOT of writing. I managed to get it all down and started erasing the page I had messed up on. I was erasing frantically when my pencil flew out of my hand and flew across the room. Oops! I just left it and grabbed my other pencil and kept going. LOL! I was just finishing erasing the last sentence when she called time!!!! WHEW!!! It wasn't erased well at all, but oh well! That was nerve-wracking to say the least! Sort of funny now though. Another issue was that while all this was going on, I hadn't eaten since 6:30 in the morning. Well, I have blood sugar issues and can't even go 4 hours without eating, normally, or I get really sick. Well, it was almost 2 O'clock and I was dealing with the freak out session. So I was sooo weak, shaky, had a terrible, terrible headache and I got so hot, I think I was about to pass out. I was supposed to go eat during my hour break so I didn't plan for not having time! Anyway, when I waslked out of there, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to my car. I was so sick. :( Thankfully, there was a Wendy's right across the street so I got food immediately. It took my like 2 hours, food, a root beer, and 2 cookies to finally get my sugar levels back in check. I still have a terrible headache even now though.

Anyway, it was a wacky, wild day. Hopefully I passed those tests, cuz let me tell you, they are EXPENSIVE. The makers of those tests sure make a lot of money, especially when I am required to take 6 of them.

I don't find out for 4 weeks. Yuck. I have 2 more to take in April and then I will be done with them! WOOHOO!

I really don't have much other news. Pretty much our lives are just school and home. Nothing new and exciting. Except for Avery losing his first tooth a couple weeks ago. He was SOOO excited for that! Oh, and I just got my hair cut and it is super cute and I love it. Can't think of anything else right now. I just had to get this craziness written down so I can remember all the stuff I went through to get this darn degree! LOL!

Winter Stuff

2011-01-26T22:04:00.004-06:00

So Sam got his cast off and got these instead.

Yep, the time finally came. I was hoping my terrible eyesight would bypass the kids, but apparently not. I got glasses when i was in 5th grade too. He looks pretty darn cute in them, wouldn't you say? :) He was dreading getting them, but then when he realized how hard it was to see, he changed his mind. He actually kept begging us to go get them. i was the one dragging my feet. I HATED glasses and got contacts the minute I could. Then of course, had eye surgery as soon as I could after that. :) Anyway, we went to just browse one night while we were out. The first 20 pairs looked horrible! I was soooo worried and had decided his eyes weren't that bad and he would be fine without them. Yes, I was pushing my issues onto him.What can I say, glasses and I didn't get along. :) Anyway, he kept trying and FINALLY we found some that looked pretty good. We decided to wait and go look at a few other places before choosing. That weekend we went and looked some more and found some perfect for him. He just needed a certain style. What was funny was that Avery tried on all the glasses too and he looked good in every single pair!! He is now dying for glasses too. LOL! Avery obviously has the perfect face shape! Anyway, Sam looks great and decided he is going to wear them all the time, even though he technically doesn't have to. He is legal to "drive" without glasses. Hopefully that lasts and he doesn't get as blind as I was!

This winter has been CRAZY! I have never seen so much snow here! We haven't had a full week of school since before Christmas Break! We actually have been loving it, but today I realized I want them back in school and want things to be back to normal! Hopefully, this crazy weather will be done. Tennessee is not prepared for snow so if even an inch falls people are wrecking, the whole city shuts down, and it is a mess. Last year it snowed twice, i think, and Sam didn't get to play because he had a cast on and was sick. This year he was cast-free! Lindsay's kids came over and they played, and built a fort and snowman. Taylor just liked rolling around in the snow! Every picture I have of him, he is laying or rolling in the snow. He was like a puppy dog! LOL!

I have had a crazy school load. I had to get all of my semester's classes done in one month. I wasn't sure I could do it, but I did it in 3 weeks! Craziness! Now I can student teach in the fall like I had planned. I went so quick with all this school stuff, that they weren't expecting me to be ready in time. I surprised them so that is why I had to fit in those classes like that. At least I got it done. I still have a lot to do before the fall, but it will be my typical workload, so I should be fine. Whew! Can't wait til it is over. I haven't read a book in almost 2 years and you know that is VERY weird for me!!

Guess that is about it. I just don't have time to do the extra stuff like blogging, so that is why my posts have slowed down. School and kids and school take all my time, so I have no extra.

Anyway, enjoy some more cute pics of Sam.

Third Times a Charm

2010-12-08T08:42:00.002-06:00

So, yes, I am the worst mom ever (although secretly AJ is more of a worse Dad because he was POSITIVE it wasn't broken and I wasn't. LOL! SHHH!). Sam has another broken bone and this time we made him wait more than a week before taking him to the doctor. Ahhhhh! Really?! How does this happen to the same kid 3 times in one year???? Especially, a nice, quiet, non-rowdy boy! If anyone should be breaking bones, it is AVERY, not Sam! Geez Louise!

So, the Sunday before last Sam was outside and he stepped off the sidewalk right into a hole. He immediately fell down and said he couldn't walk. AJ had happened to just leave to drop something off to a person from church. Sam is too heavy for me, so I tried and tried to get him to walk, but he wouldn't even move his foot in a different position. So I called AJ and made him rush back. He carried him in to the house and we were able to get his shoe off. He told me then that it was broken, but once again, nothing looked wrong with his foot at all. We decided to wait and see what happened with it. He sprains his ankles all the time so we were hoping it was just that again. Later that night, he was actually able to walk and it hurt, but he could stand it.

The next day he got up to go to school and was able to walk and get around fairly well. He went to school. When he got home he said it hurt pretty bad, but he was still walking and he barely had a limp!

That kept happening until about Friday. Friday it got worse and his limp was bad and he was complaining a lot. He was still saying it was broken, we were still saying it wasn't. I mean, he was walking almost normal and it wasn't killing him! He wasn't even crying! LOL. We decided to give it the weekend and hoped that resting it would help. We were sure he had just sprained it. Well, Sunday it started snowing so the boys went outside to feel the snowflakes. Sam was out there for 2 minutes when he pretty much collapsed again and said it hurt terribly. We brought him back in again. Once again, later he was able to walk again with barely a limp. AJ was positive he was being overly dramatic. I had my doubts, cuz he has known every time with the last broken bones, but still, he was able to walk and he wasn't dying. How can you walk on a broken foot bone??!!

So Monday I made him go to school, but I called and made an appointment to see the ortho. He takes one look at the x-rays and says, "Yep, it's fractured!" I couldn't believe it. Then he proceeded to poke and prod and manuever that foot all around. Poor Sam. So once again he is in a cast, this time blue. That darn kid. :) I told the doctor they must think I beat him, but nope, I just throw him in holes. LOL! AJ told Sam he was grounded and wasn't allowed to ride his bike, walk down the stairs, or even go outside anymore. LOL.

Yeah, I am sure you think I am a terrible mom, but really, I am positive you would not have believed it was broken either!!! He could walk! He barely complained til the end, and there was no indication at all. No swelling, nothing!!

The doctor said there is nothing wrong with his bones, kids just do that. If they are going to break something, it just happens to be that growth plate every time. But really, how do you just BREAK A BONE stepping off the side of the sidewalk or walking down the stairs! WEIRD!

I have never had a broken bone (my toes don't count) and I haven't drank milk or had a ton of calcium my whole life. If anyone should be breaking bones, it is me!

This better be the last bone!! I told him that next time I get to pick his cast color and it will be pink! Maybe that will stop those fragile bones from fracturing!

Earlier in teh week when he said he thought it was broken, I said I didn't think so. He said it was the same as his ankle. I said, "Noooo, you cried and cried about it and wouldn't walk at all." He said, "Yeah, well I'm older now!" I died laughing! I said, "Sam, it happened THIS year, it wasn't that long ago!" He said, "Yeah, but I was still 9 then!" Hahahahaha! Funny!

Long Time No See

2010-11-05T15:56:00.003-05:00

Whew! It's been a while!

Craziness around here! How do I ever think i am going to get it all done once I beoce a full-time teacher??!!

Sooo, yeah, I have been doing another maternity leave for a 1st grade teacher at school. It was only 6 weeks, but it seemed like forever. So long, in fact, that I couldn't remember what time I usually leave to go pick the kids up in the car rider line! It went great, but boy, was I busy. I felt like I had no time for anything. The kids were great though, I really like doing it, so I guess that's all that matters. I miss them already though and I only have been gone from them a week. I don't have time to work though! Working is hard. :)

Since I stopped doing that position I have worked every day but one though, so it's not like I am free as a bird. It is less busy though, because I don't have to do lesson plans, prepare for the next day, etc. Being a teacher is hard work, man!

Anyway, our lives have basically been consumed with that, schoolwork, and our normal busy stuff. Nothing new really. We didn't have time for anything new!

I have finally started on the teaching courses for school. Yippee! Still on track for student teaching next September. i hope it stays that way. I have to take an exam next week, finish up some tasks, take 3 Praxis exams, and start teacher observations all this month though, so that will keep me on my toes.

I can't believe my birthday is in 2 weeks. Didn't I just turn 30????

Avery's still as wacky as ever! Maybe even more so. He is still his funny, wacky self, but he is still freaked out when I leave him. He still cries every single time I leave. Weirdness. I don't know what started this all, but I have come to the conclusion that he is just going to have to get over it on his own. We have tried everything. I guess it's like being afraid of the dark, he just has to "grow" out of it on his own. He has said some funny things lately though. Like, he though that before the 1960's there was no color in the world. He kept seeing old pictures and movies in black and white, so he thought color didn't exist back then. LOL! That was quite funny. He said something else too this week that made me die laughing, but ughhh, I can't remember what it is right now. He is LOVING our new neighbor boy. He plays with him every day, and wants to play with him way more than I let him. :) I am SOOO happy we have boy neighbors!

Sam is still sweet Sam. For the most part. 5th grade attitude has crept in also. ;) He is also loving the new neighbor boy that is closer to his age. They are constantly outside riding bikes and playing some sort of hide and seek game. I am glad they have friends right here. A couple weeks ago, Sam and our neighbor were doing homework together. Sam ended up helping him with his homework and even read his reading story to him. It was cute. He is constantly worried about other's feelings. He decided this week that he wanted to quit swim team. He hasn't been liking it for quite a while, so he finally made the decision that he was going to stop for now. He was so worried that the coach would be sad though, so that is one reason he has held on for all this time. Sweet boy. Besides that, he is on his way to his typical fall/winter bout with pneumonia. Lovely. Maybe he will beat it on his won this time. We'll see.

AJ is working like usual. He has also become friends with our new neighbors so they have been having fun playing football on Saturday mornings. This Saturday they are going to work on the floor that still isn't finished in our old house. Yea! It is on the market now and we had a showing the first week. I hope it doesn't take too long to get rid of that house!

I also love our new neighbors. Have I mentioned that??? :) They are perfect for us. except for the having dogs part, but I guess we can let them get by with that. :) I hope they stick around for a while. AJ might run them off though. We all know how annoying his little "jokes' can be. Hahaha! :)

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. As soon as my birthday hits, it means everything else comes like lightning. This year was a whirlwind. The boys have been writing their Christmas lists. Sam's has like 6 things on it. Avery's is the front and back of a whole page. LOL. He probably doesn't even know what half the things on his list are.

Anyway, here are some pics from Halloween. The boys had a good time, although Sam stopped halfway through. he's on his way to being too old, I guess. Ahhh!

Newness

2010-09-02T15:59:00.005-05:00

Well, this school year seems to be bringing with it a lot of new things for our boys!

First, this is what Avery learned to do the other night.

No training wheels!

He is SOOO proud of himself. He asks the minute he wakes up if he can go ride. Um, no, school is in 5 minutes. LOL! Then as soon as he gets home, he hangs his backpack up and is right back outside riding away! It is 95 degrees out there, but that doesn't stop him one bit! He rode last night until after it was dark outside. Crazy kid.

Go Avery!

So excited!

By bye training wheels!

He is dying to lose his first tooth. He keeps telling me all these tooth are loose, even though none of them really are. :) He is reading like a champ! His teacher told me that she is sad because that is her favorite part of teaching 1st grade, teaching the kids to read, and Avery already knows. He amazes us with the words he can read.

Sam is growing up! He told me today that a girl in his class told him that another girl likes him! He was all shy and embarrassed, but he secretly liked it. :) I told him I had my first boyfriends in 5th grade. ;) Then he admitted later that he had 2 girls he liked too. That is a secret though, so don't say a word! He would kill me!

He also has some big news. 5th grade had a contest to see who could design and draw the new logo for their field trip t-shirts. Each class got to vote on their favorite. Sam won from his class! He's a finalist. They haven't voted on the overall winning design yet, but he is very hopeful. Ugh, I am so mad because I didn't get a picture of it before he turned it in. I meant to, but then as Sam was going to bed, he dropped his water cup and it splashed all over his drawing. We were so worried about it that I completely forgot to take a picture. Thankfully, the water didn't mess it up at all. What a good little artist I have. :)

They also are excited because we have new neighbors. New neighbors WITH kids. New neighbors with BOYS! They have 2 boys, ages 5 and 7. They are super nice and fit right in the cul de sac. We felt bad for them because they moved here from Las Vegas and their furniture didn't get here until a week later! They had nothing all that time. YUCK! We are glad they are here though. Yea for good neighbors.

I guess that is about it. The kids have adjusted well to the new school year and everything is going great. Ta ta for now! :)

Big

2010-08-10T21:22:00.001-05:00

5th Grade

1st Grade

Ahhhhh! How can this be?! They are so big! :(

Summer's End

2010-08-07T17:41:00.002-05:00

Summer has come to a close. How sad. How fast! These last few weeks have been a blur. I barely remember what went on.

We tried to make the last couple of weeks great. Linds and fam plus our fam decided to take another trip to Holiday World a couple weeks ago. We each took our kids best friends. It was a great time.

Linds went up the day before we did. Our friend Julie and her kids came up that night and stayed the night with us. The next morning we got up early and got started on our way. The GPS took us a new way and it ended up being a roller coaster ride before we even got there! The road was REALLY hilly and the hills were steep so everytime we got to the top it was like the bottom dropped out and we were falling down the road. We all kept screaming the whole road there. Funny, but at the same time scary. Did I mention I hate roller coasters?! The kids loved it though. We spent most of that first day in the water park, then we let the kids ride on what they most wanted to ride. Julie's oldest, who is Sam's best friend, went on the Voyage 2 or 3 times. That is the TALLEST roller coaster and just looking at it scares me! Yikes! Crazy kid!

When we left the park we went in search of a place to eat. You would think there would be tons of food options around an amusement park, but no. We drove forever and finally found a Taco Bell. Whew! We got to our hotel, after some navigation mess ups at around 11 that night. Craziness.

The next day we got up and did it all again. Then we drove home straight from the park. The kids had a great time and were so excited to get to spend their vacation with their friends.

Vacation ended and all of a sudden school invaded our lives! We spent all of this past week at school helping get classrooms set up. Fun, fun. Ha! The kids went on Wednesday to meet their teachers. They are happy with them and I know they will have a great year.

Sam gets to switch classes with another teacher so he will have 3 subjects with one teacher and 2 with another. I can't believe Middle School is almost here! How did he get so big! 5th grade! WOW!

Avery has Mrs. Tarpley, our favoritest teacher. :) He was worried because she always tries to hug him (we all know about Avery and his hug and kiss phobia), but after spending time there this week, he feels better about it. He is going to have a fantastic year.

Let's see, what else?

Ohhh, so the rest of July has been spent working on a house. No, not our house. Our OLD house! It's a long story, but basically the guy who "bought" it from us went bankrupt and we ended up taking it back. He had a renter living there. We were nice and started a new lease for her, rather than kick her out, since it wasn't her fault. Mistake! She paid rent on time ONE month out of the whole year. In fact, right now, she owes us 2 months rent. Yes, we did end up making her leave. Well, the house was in shambles. So we have been working hard on getting it fixed up and ready to sell. I was so sad when I walked in there the first time. I really loved that cute, little starter home, and to see it so messed up was terrible. It is looking great again though, so I am much happier. You wouldn't think painting an 1100 sq ft house would be hard, but man, it is taking forever and is a ton of work! Of course I can't stay there long with 2 kids, but it seems like I have been working on paint for months (really only 2 weeks) and it still isn't done. We think we already have a buyer so I hope that works out. We have some money to make back, that's for sure!

Well, I guess that is about it. Just wanted to give a little update on us.

Bye Bye Summer! School starts Monday!

Swim!

2010-07-13T19:55:00.003-05:00

So Sam finally had his first Swim Meet this past Saturday. Every meet that we have been able to go to has been canceled. He was so excited. We started on our way there, only to hit a downpour of rain, thunder, and lightning. UGH!!! There was a HUGE possibility we would get there and the meet woudl be canceled again. Since we were on our way, we continued on. I looked at the weather on my phone and 3 different weather sites said it was partly cloudy, with no rain! Um, what?!

We get there and there are a million of us packed in to this tiny hallway. It was a huge meet, with several different teams competing, so there were A LOT of us. They said, at that point it looked like they would cancel, but they would give it a few more minutes and then decide.

Thankfully, it cleared some, and we were able to start the meet. It was an hour late, but at least they got to swim!

With all that craziness, Sam got super nervous! He said it was worse than being in teh school play! LOL!

It was very disorganized, which made it worse. I totally wanted to get out there and get things in order! LOL!

His first race was a relay with 3 other boys from his team. Sam was the last to go in. One of the boys, stopped in the middle of his race and messed with his goggles, so their team was in last place. Sam jumped in and passed the girl in front of them, pulling them out of last. Woohoo! It was really different for him because they had to start on a starting block, which he had never done before and he had to jump OVER the boy coming in from his team, which freaked him out some, but he did great.

Too bad he just had his birthday because that moved him p in to the next age bracket. He had to compete with much bigger and older boys, but he still did great.

His next race he placed 2nd. He was in first almost the whole race and then the boy from our team that won every race pulled ahead at the last second and got 1st.

His other races went well. It was hard to tell who won most of the time, they were all right there at the finish together, so I am not sure his placement on the other races yet.

He did have a few problems, which I thought would devastate him. He is a perfectionist, just like his mommy, so he lets things get to him that he does wrong and beats himself up about it. On one of his races, he was only supposed to swim down the lane and stop at the end. Well, he forgot with all the craziness, and turned around and started back across the pool. He realized halfway down. Oops. He was super embarrassed, but it was totally fine.

One race, he did come in last, but he was right up there with the whole rest of the pack, so it wasn't like he was way behind. That upset him, but thankfully he didn't let it ruin his whole night. He actually loved the meet and can't wait to do it again! He has another meet in 2 weeks. Hopefully, it won't get canceled!

Great job, Sam!!!

Dreams Come True

2010-07-06T10:47:00.007-05:00

So yeah, it's summer. Give me a break on the posting. Summer is for laying back and letting things go, right? Oops, it has definitely been a while since my last post. I should keep up better.

July already! Wow! Summer is half over. Sigh...

June flew by. I don't even know what we did. Craziness.

A lifelong dream came true for me this weekend! I got this.

I have wanted a piano for as long as I can remember. Not that I can play, but I have always wanted to. I took lessons for a few short months before I got pregnant with Avery and my life became one of throwing up, not moving from the couch, and all things baby. I didn't learn very much, but that's ok. I now have my piano. Yippee! I am so excited. So are the kids. I brought out my piano learning book, and really just fell right back into it. I can still play some of the things, even if they are only Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells, and When the Saints Go Marching In. Oh, there is something from Mozart too, I believe. :) So obviously, I can still learn it. I hope to teach my self. We will see how far that goes. Avery is very excited, although he says he is not taking lessons, he will just play it by himself. Sam wants to take lessons, but only from my friend, Jen, who doesn't live close and is expensive. We'll see. I don't care. I have my piano!

Guess what else July brings? Fireworks! Oh, you knew that, didn't you. I really wasn't too excited and didn't feel like doing them or taking pictures. Bad Mom.

The boys ahhhing at the first few fireworks

Avery sparklering

Sam sparklering

This is what Avery liked to do with his sparkler

Ahhh, Sam's arm is on fire! No, not really. Cool effect.

Oh, and the most important thing to happen this July.... Sam's 10th Birthday! How in the world did that happen?! 10 years old!

We pretty much celebrated this whole weekend. he didn't want a party again this year, so we made sure to make this birthday special. We started on Friday by going to Nashville Shores. It is a Water Park here in Nashville. It wasn't nearly as much fun as we wanted it to be. It was really crowded and people didn't care about anyone around them. I don't know how many times Sam got hurt. Nice. Holiday World is definitely better. Oh well, tons of money down the drain. We also went ahead and took him to Target to pick out some of his presents. This kid is expensive. All electronics and he is only 10! Greeaaattt.

Saturday we went swimming and he got his most favorite present of all. An Ipod! He LOVES it! I put a ton of songs on there, it has a video camera, he got new headphones, and an alarm clock docking station. Fun, fun!

Sunday was a typical day, besides the fireworks.

Yesterday, AJ was still off. They got haircuts. What fun! ;)Linds and fam came over for Brownies (Sam's version of birthday cake).

Today is his actual birthday, but AJ had to go back to work, and we have our normal stuff to do, so this weekend was his special time. Although I will get him his favorite tonight for dinner, Mexican! Yum, my favorite too. :)

Happy, Happy Birthday, Sam! I hope it is an awesome year!

Don't mind Avery's nakedness. He would be totally naked if he could. Weirdo.

And of course, Avery couldn't let Sam have all the picture taking fun.

Project

2010-06-09T19:40:00.006-05:00

What do you get when you put this

with this

You get THIS!

and this

Yep, we built this this weekend.

I have been wanting to build something from Ana's blog at Knock-Off Wood for a while, but didn't feel like I had the time. I am DYING to build customized computer desks, etc. In fact, I have a whole room cleared out to make into our office, but it is sitting there empty. Well, last week Sam's bed fell apart. I mean, literally, fell apart. I looked on craigslist, looked at the stores, but did NOT want to pay so much for a bed that was probably going to fall apart in 5 years again. Soo, I decided to take the plunge. I looked all over Ana's site trying to decide what to do. Finally, I chose a couple, and then asked Sam what he thought. He actually saw a drawing for a daybed. Nooo, not your typical, girly daybed. He called it a couch bed and was DYING for it. He also wanted a trundle underneath so he could have a "bunk" bed like Avery's. Well, I didn't love the daybed, so I wasn't convinced. I printed off all the plans and shopping supplies for the bed I liked and decided he would like it too. :)

The next day, I decided to go get the wood. We went to Home Depot. Wood was so expensive. It was more than double what people were saying it cost to buy on Knock-off wood. Then we went to Lowe's. It was cheaper, but still so much. We just went on vacation and I didn't have that much extra money lying around. Plus, I wanted wood as cheap as people were saying! So we gave up and came home. The next morning, I searched Craigslist again. Still nothing good. AJ started looking at the Furniture stores and said to just go buy what I wanted. Then he happened across this bed.
Rooms to Go Daybed

I really liked it, except for the headboard, it was a "couch" bed and had a trundle. The only problem. $700 just for the bed. Um, no. So then I thought, "Hey, I think I could use Ana's plans and modify them to build this bed. So that is just what I did. I figured out the new measurements myself. What, you ask! Shauna figure out MATH. No way! But, yes, I did. Dad, you would be proud of me. Then I told AJ to call some lumber yards and see how much wood cost there. Woah! What a difference! The prices were 3 times smaller than Lowe's. Now that's more like it! The problem: they didn't cut it for you and they closed in 30 minutes. Oh well, nothing like spur of the moment! I sent him running! LOL! He went and got all the wood we needed for $100!! That's right, I made this bed for $130 total which included lumber, screws, nails, paint, and poly-urethane. $130 for a more than $700 bed! Plus we made it all by ourselves, know it is quality work, and made it with extra support so it lasts forever! Go us!

We went and borrowed a miter saw and table saw from some friends and got to work. It took 2 days, with lots of interruptions and stopping times, but we did it! It looks great and we are ALL happy. Yes, AJ helped this time. I didn't know how to use most of the stuff, but next time I should be able to do it by myself. Yes, there will be a next time! Go me! I loved it! I hated sanding though. Yuck and it took forever! Ugh, sanding. I made Sam take over a few times. He did a good job, and now he can say he helped build his own bed and he isn't even 10 years old. :)

Here is our building process in steps.

I showed you the first pictures above of the wood and sanding. Then the next pictures are of the building process, then painting. Isn't it cute! I love it! It was all so pretty, I almost didn't want to paint it, but Sam wanted a black bed. Did I mention I hate black furniture? I decided to go with it though since it would be in his room. I do like it though. It looks good. I sort of liked it better before I put the poly-urethane on because now it is shiny, but at least it is protected and in a kid's room, it needs protection. We are so proud of ourselves. Go us!

Summer Beginnings

2010-05-31T10:16:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe school is out! I am sure I say that every May, but this year went by so quickly, it feels like it should still be January! How is it June?!

The kids were so excited for the end. The last few weeks were busy spent doing fun things. Parties, Water Days, extra playtime, field day, etc. Every day was spent at the school doing something fun. Now it is all over. I am sad, but happy at the same time. I can't believe Sam is now a 5th grader. Weird! This is his last year at our school. Then he moves on to Middle School. Now that is huge! Avery is in first grade. He graduated from Kindergarten. I still haven't got the pics off my camera, so whenever I do that then I will post some. We will SOOO miss his teacher. We LOVED her and she was perfect for him. He even said he will miss her, which is a HUGE deal for Avery. He is totally boy and doesn't show love or sappy stuff EVER.

Usually on the last day of school we go to the drive-in. Welll, this year we went all out. I told the boys we weren't able to go to the Drive-in this year because they weren't playing any good movies. They were sad. I told them we were on our way to AJ's work to pick him up and we would figure out something fun to do. Well, we sure did. We drove 4 hours to Indiana and pulled up at this hotel with a water park attached. They couldn't believe it! They were so excited! So we went in, got all situated and went to the park. They loved it. They had a lazy river, water slides, and outdoor pool, basketball pool, and a water playground in the middle. It was a little bit annoying though that even though Avery can totally swim, since he was short, they made him wear a life jacket everywhere except the playground. Yeah, that didn't go over well. They had no swim test or anything to show that he could swim, so he had to wear it. needless to say, Avery spent all of his time at the playground. He was NOT going to wear that little baby life jacket! He still had fun though. He was sad that first night about the life jacket, so we told him we would find something fun for him the next day.

The next day we ate our free breakfast and started driving. We drove for 45 minutes and then Avery saw a Roller Coaster. he was like, "Wow! Look! A roller coaster!" We said that it was a grain carrier thing, not a roller coaster. A few minutes later Sam said, "No! Look, it is a roller coaster! It's Holiday World!" I said, "What?! Wow! I had no idea we were by Holiday World!" We totally passed the park and then turned into the parking lot across the street. Not until then did they realize that we were actually going to Holiday World! It was FUNNY! We got out of the car and then Avery started crying!!! He wanted to go back to the fun hotel! Crazy kid! Anyway, it was the perfect day. it was warm, but not too hot to walk in the park. It wasn't too cool to swim in the water park. The water was perfect. Everything was. We had a great time. So yeah, I am a bad mom. i didn't feel like lugging my big camera around, so we really didn't get any pictures. Oh well. The blog will stir our memories.

They had tons of fun, were VERY surprised, and everything went great. We loved it! What's weird is that you all know I am a BIG planner. I plan everything way in advance. When it comes to vacations though, I don't! We planned this all on Thursday night! Our vacations are always mini vacations that are planned at the last minute, and it doesn't bother me a bit. I don't even understand it! It's fun though!

Avery woke up yesterday with his eyes stuck shut! Our allergies have been SOOO bad, so we assumed it was just allergies. As the day went on though, they got worse and worse. His eyes were oozing constantly. YUCK! Sooo, it may be pink eye instead. Thankfully, AJ works for an eye surgeon, so he is already on drops, and should be doing much better soon. It may still be allergies, it is hard to tell the difference without special equipment, but either way we are safe. he looks TERRIBLE. his eyes are HUGE, bruised looking, oozy, and red. They were stuck shut this morning and it took me 10 minutes to finally get them open. He came down out of his bunk bed, walked across the whole house to my room, blind. he couldn't see at all. They were completely shut and stuck. Funny if it wasn't so sad. Poor kiddo!

We were going to have people over for Memorial Day today, but that is out now. Oh well.

Oh, I forgot. We also had our anniversary this weekend! Yesterday we were married for 12 years! Craziness! I can't believe it has been that long. I am old!

Okey doke, I suppose that is it for now. Summer, here we come!

Bad Timing

2010-05-17T10:17:00.003-05:00

So the last few weeks have all been about bad timing.

I talked about the flood in my last post, which started out the bad timing of May.

The next week went ok, although it was all messed up because of schools being closed, etc.

The next week was going to be full of fun stuff for the kiddos.

Sunday night Sam started throwing up, got a fever, and felt terrible.

He was up ALL night long, which, of course, kept me up. We all know how I do with no sleep, um, not good! Anyway,Sam is in a club at school called the RAK Club (Random Acts of Kindness). Monday was their field trip to the Ronald McDonald house. They were going to get to skip school, go and tour the Ronald McDonald House, help wherever needed, and then go eat at McDonald's. Wellll, needless to say, Sam was still throwing up so he had to miss it. He was SOOO looking forward to it, too. :(

Tuesday, was Sam's last day of RAK Club after school and they were having an end of year party. Then right after that was swim team practice, where they were having a party to celebrate their great pizza sale success. The pizza sale that Sam won, and was getting a prize for. Well, he wasn't throwing up anymore, but was still sick, and still had a fever. No parties that day. He said" Why do I have bad luck! This is all bad timing!"

Wednesday came and went with no improvement and I started feeling yucky too.

Thursday, he woke up, no fever! He was getting ready for school, ate breakfast, then started feeling horrible again. Checked temp 15 minutes later, and the fever was back! I had an exam that morning, so I took that, passed it with flying colors (Woohoo!), then took Sam to the doctor. He had strep! What?! His throat didn't hurt! Weirdness. I never would have guessed.

Friday, went to school, only to have them call me by 9:00 to come get him. Ugh.

He missed the entire week of school. He missed all of his fun stuff, it made me have to reschedule stuff, and get on antibiotics for myself. Whew! When this kid is sick, he is SICK!

Saturday we had a yard sale. We did GOOD!!! We made over $500 on just stuff laying around our house not getting used. Yippee! Sam and I made some treats the night before, and Sam had his own little stand where he sold brownies, different kinds of cookies, and soda. He made over $50! Boy, was he happy! Avery lasted about an hour selling with Sam, so he made $7. LOL.

Now on to another bad timing episode.

we now have sugar glider babies!!! OOPS! Ben and Gwen are brother and sister. We went and had Ben neutered as soon as he was old enough. Well, obviously we missed by a day or two! He got neutered, everything went fine, then a few weeks later, we noticed that Gwen's stomach was big, and it looked like she had 2 little balls in it. We talked about pregnancy a bit, but dismissed it, because Ben was fixed. Well, the balls got bigger and bigger and then started MOVING! So yeah, we knew it was definitely pregnancy. We were worried because you shouldn't breed brother and sister, obviously. It usually will cause bad things to happen, and alot of times the mother will reject the babies or even eat them. YUCK! We prepared the kids for the fact that the babies may not last.

Well, finally on 5-5-10, they came out of the pouch. Sam heard a weird noise coming from the glider room and went in to check on them. He peeked in their sleeping pouch, and saw a tiny little baby! He was sooo excited. We worried about them for a few days, but they are doing great. No problems at all. They are so tiny and so cute. Their eyes just opened a few days ago. They are still staying in the pouch or riding around on mom and dad, but we can tell they are getting ready to start doing some exploring of their own. Our cage is big enough to keep all 4 of them, but sometimes it is not good to keep parents and babies together, so we may have to sell the babies later, but for right now everyone is doing good. I am putting on a slideshow of baby glider pictures (no, we haven't named them yet. We have no way of telling them apart!)as you can see, they are smaller than Avery's hand. These were taken Weds or Thurs, the 12th or 13th.

Create your own scrapbooking design

Like Lightning

2010-05-05T19:47:00.004-05:00

Wow! Where did April go??? It seriously only felt like it was one week long. Wow!

I don't know what we did all month, maybe because the month disappeared.

Sam got his cast off. His arm is doing good. Much better than his ankle. In fact, his ankle still hurts him quite often.

The end of school is almost here, you can tell by how busy we have gotten. may is always so out of control. Craziness!

The biggest news around here is... Nashville is a flooded, drowned mess.

Saturday, the 1st, it poured rain. All day long. Lots and lots of rain. Hours later, more and more and more rain. Lindsay tried to leave our neighborhood, only to find the road outside of it flooded. She turned around and went right back home. If you know us at all, you know that we aren't scared of weather and we do what we need to do. For her to go back home was a big deal. It continued pouring rain. Our little town was overrun with water. Flooding was happening all over. We turned on teh news. As we we were watching we saw cars on the major interstate that runs right behind our house completely submerged in water. Cars were just floating around. One whole side was completely covered up to the median. In fact, the water was pouring over the median o n to the other side. People kept trying to drive through. Crazy. Then, on live tv, we watched a building float right down the middle of the interstate! A building!! As we watched, it got pushed up against some of the floating cars. Within seconds it started collapsing in on itself, the roof ripped of, and the whole building dissolved and disappeared in to the water. It was amazing. It was scary. I don't think i will forget that for a long, long time. We started worrying about what was going to happen. Thankfully, we are on a bit of a hill so we were pretty safe, but it was supposed to keep raining the whole next day as well. We already couldn't get out of our subdivision. Where was all that water going to go???

We watched the news all night. I hate the news. I never watch it. This day, this terrible wet day, I watched. Til midnight. I watched all the stories of water pouring over roads and into houses. People who were told to stay home, were suddenly trapped with water surrounding all sides. Terrible.

Finally, we went to bed, hoping to wake up and the weather predictions would be wrong like always.

Sunday, church was canceled. We woke up to no rain. It looked like rain any minute, but it wasn't actively raining. Whew! I then turned on the news. We were tricked. It wasn't raining at our house, but it was raining all around us. Things were looking worse and worse. Homes were being evacuated. People were stuck in rising water. Every interstate in the area had parts of it that were closed because they were covered in water. People were stuck on the freeway with a flood behind them and a flood ahead. They had been stuck all night, with no way to get to them. Rivers were rising quickly and no end was in sight. Then the rain started at our house again.

It rained and rained and rained. The stories kept getting worse. All the stations were covering the downpour. People were having to drive in boats to rescue people. Boats in places that should have been dry land. It didn't seem too bad here, and we were all stir crazy so we went for a drive. The roads were pretty clear, except for here and there. We watched one car drive through a big puddle of standing water in one lane of the road and kill there car. AJ got out in the pouring rain to help them push the car. After that, things got worse quickly. Suddenly a place that we had just driven through had water rushing across the road. Police were rushing everywhere, trying to block off roadways. We almost didn't get across one section of the road leading to our neighborhood. The water was over the bridges alongside us. Water was up to people's doorways. I took pictures. They are on facebook if you want to look. My pictures don't even come close to the devastation that happened just miles down the road.

We got home and continued to watch the news. Continued to watch as whole subdivisions were flooded, trapping people inside. Watched as the water inched closer and closer to the cars who had been sitting for hours and hours on the closed section of interstate. Watched as the death toll went up.

Finally, the end was in sight. They told us the rain would stop. We went to bed.

School was canceled the next day. We woke up to bright sunshine, with not a cloud in the sky. Everything seemed normal. The road in our cul de sac was almost dry. Then I turned on the news.

The Cumberland river that runs through Nashville was beyond flood capacity. It had flooded dramatically. Downtown was underwater. Opryland hotel was under water. The Titans stadium was under water. Streets that our main tourist spots were under water. The river was still rising.

We still had not received help from the government. No one but our citizens were helping. In fact, we barely made the national news. Nothing. But we watched as volunteers, regular people that lived right here, brought out their boats and started rescuing people. Hotels full of people were evacuated 4 at a time. Pregnant ladies in labor were airlifted from their rooftops. Countless homes were lost, either swept away or completely under water. The aerial views of the area were astonishing. Whole sections of cities were under water to the rooftops. The water continued to rise. Barricades kept moving up and up and up as the water inched its way through the streets.

Flooding in Nashville. Who would have thought. Yes, we have rivers everywhere. We also had flood plans in place. Flooding might occur, but never even close to this capacity. Decades have passed since seeing a flood even close to this magnitude. Sadness. Most of these people didn't even have flood insurance. In fact, they couldn't even get it because they weren't in a flood plain. They lost EVERYTHING and have NO WAY to replace it. Many are even out of jobs because the business they worked at is now under water. They have nothing. Nothing. No one could plan for this. No one could forsee this. Sadness.

Finally, a few of our counties will receive assistance from the government. A few. Almost every county in the middle Tennessee area were affected by this, and only a few were deemed bad enough to warrant government aid. Opryland alone, has over $75000 in damage. I can only imagine the other historic landmarks that are ruined forever. Many businesses won't even be able to open for months. MONTHS. We, thankfully, did not get hit as hard the 2nd day, and our baseball fields are still completely under water up to the rooftop of the consession stands. Yes, that isn't as important as Vanderbilt Hospital who's first floor flooded, or the news station that still can't broadcast in their building, but when does or community get to fix all that went wrong and with what? As of yesterday, 15 roads were still closed in our county. Parts of the road we travel down everyday have chunks missing. I haven't even seen the hardest hit areas of our city.

We finally went back to school today. Most counties still are not able to have school because the roads to get to them are under water.

I feel so sad. I am awestruck by the severity of this, that happened right in front of me, right in the place I live. I am thankful that we Tennesseans did not just sit by and wait for help from the outside. We jumped in, drove our own boats, carried out unbelievable rescues, waded through stinky, contaminated water, all to help our fellow citizens. We didn't wait, we took action. I am proud of this place we call home.

What we can't do is provide the financial assistance needed to help all of the people affected. What we can't do is give back the lives that were lost. many lost so much themselves and are still giving in any way we can. Thankfully, we were personally affected, and actually aren't particularly close to any of them that were (at least that we know of), but whether you know someone devastated by this or not, do what you can to help out. Take food to a shelter. Help someone tear up their stinky, wet carpet. Send money. Whether you are in this area or not, help is needed. These lives need to be rebuilt. Find a way to give.

I will even help you by giving you a way to make a donation so that it helps right here in the Middle Tennessee Area.

Flood Relief- The Tennessee Emergency Response Flood

To mail a donation by check, send to:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
PO Box 440225
Nashville, TN 37244

Help, however you can. It's important.

Six!

2010-04-08T15:21:00.005-05:00

For weeks, we heard the countdown to a very important date. The day Avery turned 6! The first thing he would do in the morning would be to tell us how many days were left. When he went to school, he gave his teacher a countdown every day as well. In fact, his whole class knew that Avery's birthday was in however many days. They all remembered too! I had several parents tell me when Avery's birthday was and that they heard about it every day. Funny!

We usually throw a big party for the kids on their birthday, instead of buying them presents. Well, this year, Avery decided he didn't want to have a party. He wanted to go camping instead! Sooo, luckily his birthday fell during Spring break. AJ took them camping for 2 nights. I don't camp, so I stayed home all by myself. It was strange.

He loved the camping of course. It did rain one night and their tent ended up flooding, but they had fun anyway.

Avery's birthday fell on Easter this year, so he had a double good day. He made up a new name for that day, "Eastday" since it was a combination of Easter and Birthday.

They hunted for eggs, checked out their Easter Baskets, and opened Birthday presents, all at the same time. Fun stuff.

Lindsay and her crew came over for a little while later in the day and we had ice cream cake from Maggie Moos. Yum, yum!

He had a great day and is so excited to be 6! I love when they turn a new age because I can say things like "Six year olds don't do ...." or "When you are six you now do..." As of right now he believes me that things suddenly change when you turn a new age. Hope that keeps up. It's a great way to get them to stop behavior that I don't like! LOL!

Happy Birthday, Avery!!! I can't wait to see how much you grow this year!

Derby

2010-04-06T12:45:00.007-05:00

The Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts is a huge event that the boys love! Ours was this past week. Sam and AJ worked hard to build a cool car. Sam picked the design and the color scheme. He picked a red car, blue wheels, and white stars. It looked great. Much more snazzy than last year's plain jane car. :)AJ was still finishing it up the night before the race and accidentally broke off a piece of wood while he was trying to put the wheels in. I was sure it would do horrible in the race. So on our way to the race, I talked to Sam about how each year is different, each car is different, and you never know what was going to happen. He won the derby last year, so I didn't want him to automatically think he would win this year. He didn't think that at all. In fact, Avery said, "Yeah, it's not about winning, it's about having fun!" Um, yeah, where did I get such smart kids. :) I am glad they listen. :)

So we get to the race, weigh-in, etc.

The boys were all so hyper and so excited. They couldn't wait!

We brought Sam's car from last year and even Avery got to race a little bit. Last year's car was not a winner this year though! ;)

So Sam had his first turn. He was so nervous. It was funny!

He won! He could NOT believe it!!!

Next race, winner, next race, winner, next race, winner....

He kept winning every race. Each time he was getting more and more nervous. In fact, every single race, he looked like this. Notice his fingers.

Anyway, he was such a good sport. I kept hearing him be so nice to the other boys. One little boy, heard he was racing Sam, and the boy said, "Aw, man. Guess I am going to lose." Sam was like, "Hey, don't think that! You never know, we haven't raced yet. You could totally win." He kept saying super nice things like that all night. I was proud of him. He didn't want anyone else to feel bad. Sweet boy.

Avery was sad because he wasn't winning at all. i think at the end he finally won one or two, so that helped, but he was not very happy. Then at the end, he got an award, and that made all the difference. He was great after that!

So back to Sam. It was getting down to the end, Sam was up again. He was racing another boy that he had already won against. They ran and the other car won! At that point we didn't know what was going to happen. That was the only race he had lost. So the derby ended and the judge went back to figure out the final stats. We waited and waited and waited. He finally came back and said there was a 4 way tie for 2nd place!! So they had to do double elimination rounds to determine who was in each spot.

They called the first two, then the next two, then a few more, but never did call Sam.

Finally, they were ready to call the race. Here was the outcome.

Sam was 1st place again! He couldn't believe it and was so ecstatic. None of us could believe it, actually! Since he won, that means he gets to go to the District Pinewood Derby and race against the other champions from other packs. What's funny is that AJ did not want to go to District this year. HAHA! He said it is terrible. There are these dads there that bring their huge, rolling tool chests, and are so serious and wacko over these cars. Oh well, Sam deserves to go. After everyone had pretty much left and we were cleaning up, Sam said, "Woah, this is crazy! I don't even know how I feel! I just feel weird!" Ha ha. His cheeks were all red and he had this huge smile on his face the whole rest of the night. He was beyond excited, is what he was!

That night, the boys had two friends come over and stay the night. Boy, that was interesting! Coming from such an exciting activity, a late night, and lots of treats, made for some very excited, wound up boys. AJ had to work the next day, so trying to get those boys to go to sleep was quite an ordeal. Whew!

The next day I took all 4 of them to see "How to Train a Dragon" to celebrate. Cute, good movie!

Anyway, congratulations to our 1st place Pinewood Derby Champion! Go, Sam! :)

Everybody Loves Babies!

2010-03-26T09:09:00.003-05:00

So, as you know, I am a member of several different groups that let you try things out for free. This time I get to promote a new movie coming to theaters. It is called, "Everybody Loves Babies" and will open in theaters on Mother's Day. Perfect timing! I am a BzzAgent and that is why I get to offer this preview. I LOVE being a BzzAgent! Great stuff, all the time!

Anyway, basically the movie follows 4 different babies all over the world from the time they are born until they can walk. If you liked March of the Penguins, then this movie is for you.

Click on the link to watch the Trailer and go see it on Mother's Day! Who could resist cute little babies!

Fragile Bones

2010-03-23T21:19:00.004-05:00

So yeah, apparently Sam has really fragile bones. I took him to the ortho today because it still wasn't doing any better since Saturday. Broken elbow and possibly a broken forearm!!! Geez! He has a cast from hand to shoulder. It will only be on for 3 weeks, and I think it will be much easier on him than his ankle was. Thank Goodness! It really isn't bothering him in his cast at all, so yea for that!

When we got to the ortho, the guy that did his ankle cast said, "Wasn't he JUST here?!" Um, yeah, a month ago! For real, people are going to think we beat him up!

What in the world is going on with people that can read x-rays. Really?! It's their job!!! Why do we keep having to wait for days to finally have someone figure out it has been broken all that time. Ugh!

This time at least he can deal with it and it is going much better than his ankle did. I guess not having to walk on a broken bone is a lot easier! :)

Too bad he had to do it on the first day of Spring Break though. Poor kiddo! He's sad about not being able to ride his bike, and especially about not being able to do the swim team.

Surely, this will be our last broken bone for a while. When we left the ortho today, I said "How about after the next visit, we don't come back here again!" Sam just laughed! Niiiccceeee. :)

Avery thinking Sam is cool.

Sam thinking he is cool.

Weekend Words

2010-03-21T15:53:00.003-05:00

Well, let's just say it has been an interesting weekend.

This weekend was my chorus competition in Chattanooga. It was for our region so, all of the choruses in the southeast United States competed. I am excited to report that we WON 1st place AND we beat our previous score by quite a bit. Plus we beat the 2nd place chorus by even more. Yippee!! I was a bit worried because everyone seemed disconnected and complacent before this contest. Thankfully, our last rehearsal went much better, and we were able to bring it to the stage on Saturday!! 1st place, baby!!! WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!

After the contest was over we ate dinner then had a little time to go to our room and freshen up for our show of champions later that night. I forgot my phone charger so I had been leaving my phone off as much as possible. I had just turned on my phone when I got a call from AJ. He said he was on the way to the ER with Sam. He had fallen off his bike and landed on his arm. He was screaming, couldn't move his arm, and it hurt from his shoulder to his fingers. Lindsay and I packed up super quick and were on our way home. We got here just as Sam and AJ got home. They did x-rays and it didn't look broken, but they said in a few days if it was still hurting then to go get more x-rays from an ortho. We all know our experience with his last broken bone. When they said it wasn't broken at first, then 5 days later, it was. Ugh! I hope that isn't the case this time. He came home with a splint, his arm all wrapped, and a sling. I had him take a shower this morning, but he was hurting a lot afterwards, and couldn't use his arm, so we put all of his paraphernalia back on. His fingers are really swollen and his arm looks a bit funny, so who knows. Hopefully it is just bruised really bad or something and gets better quick! This is Spring Break for him, so it won't be any fun with a hurt arm the whole time. He just got his last cast off less than a month ago! Boy this kid has fragile bones!

The other thing that happened this weekend, happened today at church. This is the mystery thing I was talking about in my last blog. :) In our church, the church members are responsible for the different positions within their congregation. We don't have a paid ministry, so we all pitch in and do different jobs. I was called to be the 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency. That means I am responsible for all the children in our building who are under age 12!!!! I have never even been a teacher in Primary so this will be interesting. My kids are excited, that's for sure! I have taught a lot of these kids at school, so it won't be a big change in that respect. As a presidency we are responsible for all the children, the teachers, cub scouts, etc. I have never done anything like this before so I am a little worried, but I am sure it will be great. At least good practice for teaching full-time soon. :) Next week will be a bit interesting I am sure!!

Well, that's the news for this weekend. Hopefully, nothing else "exciting" will happen this week. :)

New Stuff

2010-03-16T08:19:00.002-05:00

Hi! It's been a while!

Things are good here. Let's see, what have we been up to....

Sam joined the swim team at the Y. He practices every Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30-6. Then they have meets once a month. We haven't done a meet yet though, so we will see how that goes! He loves it! It is a lot of work, but he is doing great. This will be his third week and there is already a ton of improvement. He has learned so much and gets better and better each practice. I love watching him. He has such an amazing work ethic. I already knew that, but it is really pronounced in this sport. He is always the first one ready to listen to the coach. He immediately does what she says, and works HARD to do it exactly how she said. The other kids will be playing around, and there he is practicing and doing exactly what he should. It is amazing to watch. He is such a good boy, and I am glad we found something he can do without all that running. His ankle still is not better. Yeah, he can walk on it, but he still has a limp, and it still hurts him, especially when we have to walk longer distances like at Target and stuff. I don't know what to do about it. We also just got his report card last week. He was one of only 5 in his class to get all A's. Go Sam!

Avery started the swim team too! That wasn't our intention, in fact, he was DYING to play soccer! Sam's first practice, Avery went and got in the other pool to play. After like 20 minutes he was bored and came to sit with me, watching Sam. He then asked if he could try. I told him he had to ask the coach, so he did. He went in and kept right up with the other kids! He swam like a 600 that night! The coach said he had a natural stroke and that he did great. She said he was ready to join if he wanted to!!!! He's 5! I couldn't believe it! Anyway, he changed his mind and decided to do swim team. That works for me. Less trying to juggle where they are going. Last week he didn't like it as much. It is hard. I can imagine! That is a long way for him to swim. We are going to cut his practices back to just an hour. I think he will do great though. What else? Hmmm. Oh, he gets to ride Sam's old BIG bike now, so that is exciting. The kids go outside and ride their scooters or their bikes EVERY day! Even the cold days. Plus, doing all that swimming. They are definitely going to be fit little boys! He also is reading a lot harder books, that he calls BIG books. He is the only one in the class able to do those big books, so he LOVES it!

Spring Break is next week, so the boys are happy. I like it too. :)

AJ is getting ready to go on a 3 day backpacking trip with the Boy Scouts. They are crazy. They are hiking like 20 miles in 3 days. YUCK! He can't wait though. Weirdo. ;)

I finished 3 classes this past week for school. Yippee! I am way beyond where I should be right now so I am cruising along. I get to add some more classes for this semester, so that will push up my graduation date even more. My counselor also said that next semester we will move me to a newer version of the Teaching program, so like 6 more classes will be dropped. Yippee! This weekend is also my Regional singing contest. I am not competing in a quartet this year. Sad! I miss quarteting, but at least the chorus gets to compete. I hope we do well!

Some other things are happening soon, but I can't share yet, so I will be blogging again sometime soon.

Overall, we are doing great. We are busy, but in a good way. Everyone is loving what they are doing. I can't believe this school year is almost over. It's crazy how fast it goes.

2010-02-15T13:29:00.002-06:00

Awww, I love this picture. :)This was taken at Sam's class Valentine's party on Friday. So let's talk about Sam! My sweet Valentine.

He got his cast off on Thursday!! Yea! He came right home and took a shower! LOL! It is doing better, but is still hurting him, especially when he is on it a lot. By the end of school on Friday is was killing him.

Friday was his class party. The class made the parents chili, rolls, and fruit salad. I helped out and it went great, well, not the rolls, but everything else. :) The rolls were pretty much small, little hockey pucks, but hey some people ate them! We had 5 different crock pots of chili, all different. We originally were going to make 2 batches of fruit salad, but the kids were SOOOO excited to eat it, that at the last minute, we decided to double it and I had to run to the store to get more ingredients. This was less than an hour before the other parents were schedule to be there! We made it though and got it made JUST in time! We wondered how the stuff would really taste since the kids made all of it, but everything was delicious!!! Whew! Almost every bit of the chili was gone, and there was A LOT of chili! We had 3 taste testers come in and grade the chili. My white chicken chili recipe won. Most people had never even seen white chili before so that was surprising. :) The kids were so excited and so proud of themselves. It was cute.

About an hour after we got home from school, Sam said he didn't feel good. he had been fine all day, but it suddenly hit him. We took his temp and it was 100.3! Less than 2 hours later and it was 102.8!!! Crazy! He had a fever off and on for 3 days, sometimes feeling fine, sometimes feeling terrible. Very strange. Today, he is doing better though.

Avery started complaining Saturday night about his stomach, and he had a temp all weekend of 99.3. Different symptoms though!

Then I started getting sick the middle of last week, and felt like a sinus infection was brewing all weekend.

Nice, 3 sick people, with all different things, on the 3 day weekend.

Anyway, it snowed last night, AGAIN, and is still snowing off and on today. This is VERY weird for Tennessee. Last week was the first full week of school we have had since December because it has snowed so much.

In other news, my trial Publix shopping, went well and I saved $50-100 this month only buying the publix deals. I have to go weekly, not my normal once a month, but it might be worth it if I keep saving this much. I had already cut our bill by $100 just by going to CVS and getting all those deals, so now I have cut our grocery bill in half by doing these things, and our grocery bill was already a ton cheaper than most people's bills! Woohoo!

I guess that is about it for now. Oh, I am so loving the Olympics. I used to watch them all the time when I was younger, but haven't really watched since a couple years after we got married. I have watched all of the events so far. Loving it! Good thing I have a tv in the computer room so I can still get stuff done, while I am absorbed in all that Olympics stuff! :)

Snowy, Icy, Wintry

2010-01-31T18:12:00.008-06:00

I posted the pics on Facebook, but I've still got to blog about it. Apparently, we had been forecasted to get a big, winter event here in Tennessee several days before it actually happened. I didn't know anything about it, until like the day before! Tennessee is strange, and almost always the weather skips right around our little area, going both below and over us, but usually doesn't hit us. So whenever they call for some big, dramatic event, it never happens or only slightly happens. We also rarely get snow and if we do it is like 1/2 an inch. So a few weeks ago they called for some big winter storm, canceled school for 2 days and pretty much nothing happened. I expected the same this time. Thursday night they decided to close school for Friday. We woke up Friday to nothing, of course. About noon though, it actually started snowing. It was real snow, not little flurries. About 2:00 we had like 2 inches! It kept snowing all night and we woke up Saturday morning to this.

We had probably 4 inches of snow, covered in a sheet of ice.

Literally, when you picked up the snow, you picked up a sheet of ice. It was no good to play in. When you walked, you didn't even sink it was so hard! The kids liked going out in it though, although Sam couldn't do much because of his broken ankle. We wrapped it up in 3 Target grocery bags and a big trash bag, but it was hard for him to walk. Here they are having a little winter fun.

We really wanted to take them sledding at the school with everyone else, but figured it wouldn't be a good idea with a broken ankle. So hopefully we will have another good sledding snow next year.

We ventured out that afternoon, with hardly any body else out on the road. Tennesseans panic and can't really drive in snowy conditions. We made it just fine. We went to Target, Walmart, AJ and Avery went to see Tooth Fairy, and we went to dinner at O'Charleys.

Today, they canceled church pretty much everywhere. We stayed home and made a snowman.

It was Avery's very first snowman!! Sam has made one once before when he was 2, but this has been the only good snow in 7 years.

The kids are out of school tomorrow, maybe a couple more days. I have my final exam in one of my classes on Tuesday, so tomorrow will be spent studying. Yippee.

Here are a few more fun pics.

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.- Free Book

2010-01-29T11:27:00.000-06:00

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

I received the book "Cherries in Winter" by Suzan Colon from Random House to read and try out. It was a great book, full of true life stories of Suzan's grandmother during the Great Depression. It was a great, short read. I love trying out things for free. Check out Smile.ly to join in on great, free offers!

This Week at CVS

2010-01-25T15:43:00.002-06:00

I've slacked off on my CVS posts lately. Who knows if you even want to hear about all the money I save, but I like it, so I am blogging it today. :)-

I spent $6.62 out of pocket, which includes are outrageous 10% sales tax.

I got 3 Stacy's chips
3 True North Nuts
2 Gatorades
1 Prilosec
1 Almay Mascara that came with a free eye liner. Yea!
1 8 pack paper towels
1 Crest Toothpaste
1 Huge Listerine Total Care which came with a Reach Dental Flosser Freebie with extra flosser heads. Yea!

I would have spent $6 just on the Listerine, so I did fabulous. I messed up a little bit and have to go back and spend $2, (but I will spend less because I will use coupons) and then I will get 10 CVS Bucks plus the 2 I already have.

I also tried out Publix today. I keep hearing that I can save so much if I go each week to Publix and get their on sale stuff. I haven't been convinced that I will save more doing that, then my once a month shopping trip, but I thought I would give it a try. I spend under $300 a month shopping once a month at SuperTarget, so that will be hard to beat. Based on my shopping trip today, I don't see that, but I imagine there is a learning curve, just like there was at CVS. We will see.

Broken

2010-01-14T19:50:00.003-06:00

As I suspected...broken ankle.

Yesterday I made poor Sam hobble around on a broken ankle because the radiologist didn't see the obvious wrongly positioned ankle bone. Grrr.

I told him he was going to school today no matter what. This morning came and he did not go to school. Why? Because he cried and cried and said his ankle hurt even worse. Well, yeah, walking on a broken ankle is no good. Too bad we didn't know it was broken. Wait, we should have since we had x-rays 2 days before. Grrr.

We sort of thought he was being dramatic so I took Avery to school and then came home to convince Sam to go to school. He said he would rather go to the doctor and have them do x-rays again. I told him that his class was going on a field trip to Chuck E Cheese and he was going to miss it. He cried. No, they weren't going on a field trip, I had to make sure he wasn't exaggerating. Yes, I am mean. I honestly didn't know though, and that's all I could think of to say that would convince me. I didn't want to go back and pay more money for x-rays to have them tell me it was nothing. It's January, we have to meet all of our deductibles again. That is a lot of money. So, I was a little mean, but I was convinced. He forgave me.

Called the doctor back. She wasn't in yet, so they just made an appointment for us to see her in the afternoon. She looked at it, touched around and said something is definitely wrong, but someone who knows more than me needs to look at it. She called in a favor to a local ortho doc and got us in an hour later. We stopped and picked up the x-rays we had done earlier in the week to take with us.

The doctor came in, looked at his ankle. Pushed on it. OWWW! He then looked at the x-rays and immediately called me over to show me. The radiologist didn't see a crack so he said no break. What he missed was that Sam's ankle bone was scooted over quite a bit. It wasn't even close to lined up with his leg bone. Ow. It's on his growth plate, but the doctor said he should be just fine and no surgery s needed. He has a read cast for 4 weeks. He thinks that's pretty cool, although it is heavy, and at the moment it still hurts to walk.

Poor kiddo. That's a lot of days to have a broken anything. Too bad we couldn't get it taken care of when the x-rays were first done.

Weak Ankles

2010-01-12T15:28:00.002-06:00

So, my lower extremities (i.e. Ankles, feet, toes, etc) are not my friend. I am forever having some sort of problem with them, like broken toes, hurt ankles, etc. I have to be careful when I buy shoes. For example, I can't buy any of those cute, strappy sandal things with higher heels because inevitably my ankles will collapse for no good reason and I will fall on my face, of course hurting my ankle in the process. I can't even tell you how many bruise or broken toes I have had. Walls just seem to jump out in front of me(pretty frequently, I might add)and make my foot run into it, which really hurts my tiny little toes. Oh, I suppose it is not only the parts of me below my knees that get hurt, but from my waist down. AJ is convinced I will need a hip replacement when I am 40. LOL! Having kids really got my body all out of whack. My hips pop pout of place at the drop of a hat. I had to have physical therapy for months after having Avery, etc. My lower body does not get along with my upper quadrants.

Apparently my oldest child has this same issue. Whenever he goes outside or to a bounce house place I know that he will come back with a hurt something. He has hurt his ankles or feet numerous times in his short life. Most recently, his knees have been the problem. He has hurt his knee 3 times, I believe, in this past year. In fact, the last time was just a few weeks ago. He went outside to play football with the neighbor. Before he went out, I told him to put on his jeans with the hole in the knee because I KNEW he was going to fall down, and I did not want another pair of pants ruined. Of course he did not listen and went out in one of his good pairs. Argh. Within 15 minutes he was back in. He stepped in a hole and his knee bent backwards, which resulted in a week of hobbling and whiny-ness.

The favorite game in this house is Hide-n-seek. We play almost every night. Sunday night we were playing our toned down version, without running to a base, just plain old hiding and someone seeking. Nice, quiet game. :) We ended the game because it was bedtime. I was helping Avery find AJ's hiding spot, and Sam went downstairs. All of a sudden we heard this thump and a cry. Then this whimpering. Apparently, Sam had missed a stair and slipped, landing sideways on his foot. Then, that wasn't enough, and he went the rest of the way to the floor, again, landing sideways. He heard a loud pop and instant pain. He was crying, whimpering, and he sounded very strange, like a tiny newborn baby. Not like his normal "I am hurt" cry. We got down stairs and he couldn't move it at all. His teeth were also chattering. Um, not a good sign. Since he does this often, we just decided to wait it out and see what happened in the morning. I was a bit worried because he was acting way different than normal when he hurts his foot.

The next morning, he got up and crawled down the stairs. Bad sign, again. I tried to have him put his weight on it and limp. He couldn't He really tried, but it was really killing him. He stayed home from school. We kept it elevated and iced it all day. No better that night. Today, same thing. He can't put any weight on it at all. In his typical ankle episodes, after the first few hours he is able to at least hobble around a little bit. I could not decide whether to take him to the doctor. everyone kept telling me that I should. I knew that as soon as I did, it would not be broken and there would be nothing they could do. I called the doctor and after talking to them 3 different time, they decided they wanted to do x-rays. We drove all the way to Cool Springs for 8 x-rays. We weren't positive if it was his ankle or foot and since both are swollen, they wanted to check both. They couldn't see a break on the x-rays. The doctor said that a lot of times with these kind of injuries, you can't see the break until it starts healing, so she said if he is not doing better by Friday then come back and we will go from there. Ugh. He can't stand missing all of this school, and I have things to do. :)

Weak ankles=Stupid.

Winter Break

2010-01-04T13:07:00.002-06:00

Oh, how we love the winter break. Of course our schedules are all out of whack, but it's so nice, relaxing, and fun to have this break. We really haven't done anything exciting, but it has been a good time anyway.

We got the New Super Mario Brothers game and so we all played that a TON the first part of the break. It is a great family game. We love it! We beat the game, but now are trying to get everything we missed the first time around. The boys got some other games for Christmas so there has been a lot of Wii action. It is calming down now though.

We have gone to the Y several times and have been swimming in the indoor pool. The boys LOVE it. I don't like it so much, I freeze, but they could stay in there all day. Avery was worried he forgot how to swim, but nope, he is better than ever. Our first trip this winter he passed the swim test! He had to jump in the lap pool, come up, and swim a front stroke the entire way across. He did it perfectly and was so proud of himself. The first thing he said when he got back in was, "That was easy!" He got to go down the water slides, and he got to wear a bracelet, when other kids way older than him, still had to wear a life vest. The 2 lifeguards said that he was the youngest, and definitely the smallest they had had pass the test. Yea Avery!

Avery is also reading like a maniac. He reads to me every night and is getting much better and faster. He sounded out the words "armadillo" and "stubborn" in a split second. He is so excited about that as well. I brought home like 30 books from the library, 10 of which were books he could read, and he told me that wasn't enough. LOL!

We also went to see a couple of movies, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Avatar. We LOVED Alvin. It was super cute and I liked it better than the first one. Avatar disappointed me with all of the language! Yikes! I had asked around before we went to see if the boys could go. Everyone told me it wasn't too bad and they would be fine going. Um, no. Way, way too much language. The story was really good and I liked the movie, but I don't understand why they don't leave the language out, at least most of it. It doesn't take away from teh movie at all to not include those words. Ugh. The first thing Sam said when we got out was "That movie was violent and it had TONS of bad words!" I felt terrible. He is just like his mommy and very sensitive to that language. It actually physically hurts us to hear it. Darn those movie makers! We love going to the movies, it is sad that we have to sensor all the movies so much, especially when they are movies they KNOW kids are going to want to see. :(

I guess that's about it. We went to a few Christmas parties, which were fun. We had a good Christmas, and we have had a relaxing 2 weeks. The boys start school again tomorrow. No more sleeping in. Yuck! It's weird that it starts on a Tuesday. I guess I didn't make that clear enough to Sam because this morning at 7:00 he came running in telling me to hurry and get up because I needed to take them to school. Then Avery starts screaming across the house that I didn't get his clothes out. Not a fun thing to wake up to on your last day of being able to sleep in! We all got back in bed, and thankfully I went back to sleep. I have had to worst time sleeping the last week or so. No matter how tired I am, it takes me until like 2am to go to sleep and then I wake up off and on throughout the rest of the night. That better remedy itself quickly or I will never survive waking up for school again.

Welcome to the New Year! I hope you all reflect on 2009 and remember the good times, the things you learned, and the struggles you had to go through to be at this place in your life. I hope 2010 is full of happiness and family!

Christmas, Christmas!

2009-12-28T17:36:00.006-06:00

I am sure most people don't want to see another person's Christmas morning photos, but there may be a few out there who want to see. So here are a few. :)

The boys were VERY surprised this year. Most of the stuff they got they thought was only in their dreams. LOL! Imagine their surprise when they opened their DS's, which they knew cost way too much and they would not be getting them. They had a great Christmas. AJ and I got ourselves some new furniture and a new tv a couple months ago, so we didn't exchange gifts. The boys were very happy with everything though, even though it didn't look like much. It was all little stuff so there was hardly a mess to clean up. Yea!

We spent Christmas Eve at AJ's grandmother's house, like we do every year. The boys always love that.

Christmas day, we opened presents, ate cinnamon rolls, Lindsay and Fam came over. We played games, ate yummy food, and just hung out.

I will post another blog later with he stuff we are doing this week.

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

2009-12-28T16:31:00.000-06:00

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

I love trying out free products and do several tests each month for various companies. Best of all, it's free! :) Here is a new place I am trying out. They send you free products and stuff, so go try them out. It's fun and free!

New Stuff

2009-12-10T12:18:00.002-06:00

Let me first scream and shout from the rooftops that I finished this semester and I passed that terrible, terrible exam that I have been dreading! Yea me!!!! Whew! I am glad that stupid class is over. The rest of it went well, but after starting with a huge burst of speed, I had to slow down some because of life. I hope to get more classes in this next semester. I am taking this weekend off and then I will start working on the stuff for next semester. Whew!

Avery has some news! Yesterday he finally tied his shoes by himself. We have been working on it, and he would get it some of the time, but he finally did it at school, all by himself yesterday. Yea! On to even bigger news... he read a whole book, perfectly, last night. He can read any old word, anytime, but when they are put together in a sentence he just wasn't getting it. I KNEW he could read, he just didn't know it! He finally figured it out last night and read the whole book perfectly and pretty easily. Yea Avery! It was exciting for him last night. We surprised his teacher this morning, which he couldn't wait to do. She was so proud of him! She also gave him the biggest part in his Christmas play. He's so smart. :)

Santa also called him last night, which was fun. I love that our town takes the time to do that each year.

Sam is doing ok. His lungs aren't doing so well at the moment, but I hope we can take care of it before his normal December pneumonia sets in. He came home yesterday, so proud, because his teacher always compliments him in front of the class, and she says over and over how he is the best reader she has ever had. He loves that!

They are both excited for school to be out after next week, and they are really excited for Christmas. They will be sooo surprised by their gifts this year. I can't wait!

That's about it. AJ has just been working. I have been studying non stop and the boys have been doing their thing. Just a typical busy month in this house.

Whirlwind!

2009-11-17T12:35:00.008-06:00

Sheesh! What a crazy week.

It started off nice and normal, and then quickly turned into a mass of craziness by the end of the week.

I worked every day last week. On Thursday, Linds calls and tells me she is being monitored at the hospital (again). So I am in the middle of subbing and at lunch I call her, and find out she is having to be induced because her blood pressure is high and her platelets are way too low. Yea for a baby coming, but it was too early and it was on the worst day! I had her kids come to me after school and I took them all to my house. Sam's play performance was that night, I had all the kids, we had to be there an hour early for the play, and I wanted to be at the hospital! So I went and got them dinner. We sat in the gym waiting for the play to start for over an hour, then we watched the play. It was cute and even the kids liked it. Sam did a great job. He was the King's scribe, and he fit the part perfectly. Cute, cute.

Sam as the King's Scribe

Sam and the King being captured

Being Held Hostage (See how tiny he is! Most of those kids are younger or in the same grade as he is. Cute little runt, though. :)

After the play, I went to Lindsay's house to get the kids sleeping stuff. Then we went to my house and I put them to bed. When I got done, Denisee called and said Lindsay was 7 cm dilated. I immediately got my stuff and left for the hospital. I got there, Lindsay said two (funny and weird) sentences to me, and then sudenly said, "Something's happening!" The nurse was in there and she checked, and yep, here comes the baby! She pushed 2 and a half times and he was here! Happy Birthday, Syler!

I can't believe I made it JUST in time!! Yea! He looks just like Taylor. He is so cute. They wisked him away and we didn't get to see him again for 24 hours!! Poor Lindsay. Had a baby and didn't even get to see him. He was having some breathing issues, wouldn't eat well, and couldn't keep his body temp up. So he was stuck in the nursery, and Lindsay was on magnesium, so she couldn't leave her bed either.

The next day, I was supposed to sub in Avery's class, but when I called to check on them in the morning Lindsay told me all the baby difficulties, so I scrambled around trying to find someone to replace me, and then spent the day at the hospital. Good thing Lindsay and I can talk for hours and hours no matter how long we are together. :) it was pretty funny watching her though. That medicine really messes her up. We finally got to see him that night almost 24 hours later.

The next day, I took the kids to the zoo. AJ's work was sponsoring Cortland Finnegan's (a Tennesse Titan) charity event, and we got to go for free, walk the zoo, play games, bounce, see the Titans, etc. Avery didn't want pictures witht hem, but Sam was excited.

He is so proud of the footballs that all the players signed.

I took the opportunity to get some cute pictures of the boys in the fall leaves, also.

After the zoo we went to the hospital and Syler was in there with Lindsay for the first time! yippee! The boys were so excited!

Lindsay got to come home on Sunday. At that point, they were saying Syler might have to stay until Wednesday. Linds called me on Monday and told me he was a whole different kid. He looked and acted so much better. They ended up letting him come home Monday afternoon. Yea! I spent all morning over there this morning, and I even got to give him his first bath. I'm such a good Aunt. :)

I get to watch Autumn all this week while Lindsay is recuperating. She is so good and I like having her around. :)

My birthday just happens to be tomorrow. Maybe Lindsay will let me babysit as my special present. Hint, hint. ;)

Cuteness

2009-11-05T18:32:00.004-06:00

We have gone to the park every afternoon this week. I decided to take my camera today and catch some pictures.

Here is Avery showing us his new trick- crossing the monkey bars!

Stuff

2009-11-03T14:49:00.002-06:00

So, it isn't the weekend anymore, but at least I posted CLOSE to the weekend. ;)

Let's see. What's been going on??

Lindsay and I had out International competition 2 weeks ago. It was here in Nashville, so we didn't get to travel any where cool, but it was still fun. We actually went down 2 spots in placement, but our score was higher so it's all good. It was a super hard contest, and a few choruses that have been in the Top 10 for years, didn't make it this year. We are fine with it. Let's see what we can do in 2 years. :)

Last week, Lindsay and I spent a few hours in the hospital getting her blood pressure and contractions to stop. That was fun. She posted pictures of her humungous pregnant feet. You should go look. :)

It was also fall parties, birthday parties, and Halloween time. Fun, fun.

Avery and Sam decided to be Mario and Luigi. They were cute. The whole neighborhood loved them and we kept hearing people call out, "Look! It's Mario and Luigi!" They were popular.

Sam's school play is coming up. He has tons of lines this year and is doing great. Next week are his performances and he can't wait. They have been practicing 2 nights a week, then he has another after school club, and cub scouts, so he is sort of ready for his life to calm down.

Avery is an emotional mess at this point in his little life. He is afraid of EVERYTHING. Thanks to AJ who showed him the scary Thriller Video after my show a few weeks ago. Not only is he a scaredy cat, but he also cries and whines about everything. 5 is not a good age for him. He has always been our happy, smiling boy, but something has changed for him in the last few months. I wish we could figure it out! Anyway, he did learn to cross the monkey bars yesterday, the whole way, all by himself, when we were at the park. he was so proud of himself. It surprised me. He seems so little to be doing that!

Today I went with Sam on a field trip. It was pretty boring, but at least it was something different for them.

I guess that is all for now. Nothing pressing is coming up soon, unless you count a new baby being born in Lindsay's family sometime soon. Happy Fall!

CVS/Target

2009-10-29T22:03:00.002-05:00

Here's what I got this week. All for $3.50!! Plus I have $10 in CVS Bucks for next time.

6 Packages of Keebler Cookies
2 boxes of popcorn
4 bags of M&M's
1 Dove Shampoo
1 Dove Conditioner
2 Dove Deodorants
1 Dove Lotion
1 Glucose Tester
1 Airwick Freshmatic

This would have cost $80.

Last week, I think i forgot to post with all of my singing activities, but I got a ton of stuff. Candle, razors, 6 bags of candy, etc and hardly spent anything too. Yippee!

I will post a real blog this weekend sometime. :)

Competition!

2009-10-19T20:45:00.003-05:00

Whew! it's been a busy few weeks.

Saturday was out annual show. It was lots of fun, and our best show yet. We did a zombie set, so I got to dress up as a zombie. Fun, fun. :) I also learned the Thriller dance and had to perform it in one week. That was interesting, but it went well. You wouldn't believe it, but we had actually planned the Thriller thing BEFORE Michael Jackson died. Anyway, it was great. The boys and AJ came. It was their first time coming to watch me, and they loved it. Yea!

Me, Linds, and our friend, Lynn

This week is International!! I will be gone all week to.....Nashville! Yeah, not as exciting as Canada, but still fun. Avery is sad that I am leaving, but I know they will be fine. Silly kid. Watch us compete on Thursday. We perform at 5:27 central time. It could possibly be later, if they are runnign behind, but that is our schedule time. The site for the webcast is www.sweetadelinesintl.org/webcast.cfm

Last time we competed, we got 13th. We are really hoping to be in the Top 10 this year. There are some super good choruses competing though, so there is a chance it won't happen, but think good thoughts for us!! If we make it to the Top 10 then we will be performing again on Saturday, so watch us then too. :)

Wish us luck! We can't wait to take the stage!

Meet Our New Pets!

2009-09-30T16:05:00.006-05:00

This is Gwen. She is a Sugar Glider. We also have her brother, Ben.

They were born July 31, 2009 and we got them last Saturday, when they were 8 weeks old. Here is what they looked like when they were born.

Sugar Gliders are marsupials, so a cousin of the kangaroo, but much smaller, of course. They live in the tops of trees. The females have a pouch. They are great family pets because once they get to know you, you become part of their family. They love you unconditionally. Not like hamsters or gerbils who would run away the first chance they got. These are more like tiny dogs. :) They are called sugar gliders because they can "fly" by gliding. I read that they can glide the length of a football field.

Anyway, we just got them and they are still babies so they are trying to get used to us. Gwen, the girl, is so sweet. She will already climb all over us and isn't scared at all. Ben is still skittish and doesn't like us too much. He yells at us when we come close, but he is getting better. Last night he climbed on me twice. I had to be perfectly still though. :)

The only bad thing is, is that they are nocturnal, and right now they aren't waking up until after 11 at night. This is not making the boys happy. We were able to wake them up last night, so they got to see them a little bit before bed time, but Gwen was not happy. She was a bit freaked out about being woken up. We are trying to change their schedule so they wake up after dinner. We'll see.

We built them a huge cage and they are in our extra room upstairs. They love exploring it. :) We have been up until after midnight playing with them. The other night they were playing hide and seek with each other in the curtains. It was cute. I also made all of the toys and accessories for their cage. I am pretty crafty! Who would've thought?!

They are incredibly hard to take pictures of because 1) they are quick and move constantly and 2) it has to stay dark because light hurts their eyes. So the room is dark and I can't use a flash. I finally got a few pictures last night, but they aren't great.

Anyway, we love our new pets, and it is helping Sam get over losing Angel a little bit. :)

Gwen eating in her "kitchen".

Gwen coming out of her pouch. (They sleep and feel much more comfortable in pouches.)

Gwen

Weekly CVS Trip

2009-09-30T13:03:00.003-05:00

All of this would have cost me $90. I got it at CVS this week for $5!

Here is what I got this week.
1 Tide Detergent
1 Package of Charmin Toilet Paper
1 Gillete Fusion Razor
1 Dawn Dish Soap
1 Listerine Total Care Mouthwash
1 container Clorox Wipes
1 Vaseline Body Lotion
3 Wrigley's Spearmint gum
1 Scope Outlast Mouthwash
1 Diabetes Testing Kit
1 package of q-tips
2 Tide Stain Remover Tabs

I did spend $15 out of pocket for all of this stuff, but i get $10 in CVS Bucks to use for next time, making this $5 this week. Yippee!

Sweet Angel

2009-09-29T14:23:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of our cute, little hamster that Sam misses so much. This was a couple of weeks before she died.

Sad Night at Our House

2009-09-27T14:06:00.002-05:00

Wednesday night was a terrible night at our house.

Sam's hamster, Angel, died that night. It was devastating to the boys.

Sam loved her like you wouldn't believe. He got her out every night to play with her before bed, no matter what. He also got her out during the day time, but always, always at night. He loved her so much and she was a GREAT hamster. He got her when she was just a few weeks old, and from that day on they were best friends. She never bit, she played with him, when she would escape from her cage, he could always find her and she would come back to him. She was perfect for him.

That night he went like normal to get her out. Then he called downstairs and said something was wrong with her. She was 2 years old, so I had been preparing him that she was getting old and she would probably die sometime in the short future. We immediately ran up there, and she was walking funny. He said, "I think her leg is broken." He was sad. We watched her and she was dragging the back half of her body and then she would tip over. She also started gasping for air. She never made a sound, but you could tell she was in pain and really having trouble. It took about 10 minutes of doing that before she died. It was terrible to watch. Poor little thing. She finally laid down, just gasping for air. Sam sat down right next to her and started crying. Then she stopped breathing. The kids were sobbing uncontrollably and Sam kept saying that she couldn't be dead. Then all of a sudden, like 2 minutes later she took a big breath again, and then died all over gain. Sam kept watching, hoping she would start breathing again. They were crying like crazy. It was TERRIBLE. I have nver seen them cry like that before. It was real, fullblown grief. It took 2 hours to finally calm them down and get them in bed. I was sad for her, but mostly sad for the boys. It was awful. Sam talked to her several times telling her she was the best pet and he loved her. He held her again. They put a picture of themselves in the box with her, drew her a card, put in a stuffed animal friend, and made her a nice, cozy bed. Poor kids. Sam wanted he rto sleep in his room with him, but we had to say no to that.

The next day was sad too. You could tell from the moment he got up that Sam would lose it at any minute. Thankfully I was at school all day and explained to their teachers what had happened so they were prepared. I ate lunch with Sam and he talked about it. I checked on him several times and you could tell that he was trying so hard to keep it together. Finally at the end of the day, he got to hold his class pet hamster. They had just gotten him that week. That was it for him and he started crying then. He walked all the way down the hall to me, crying. Poor, poor Sam.

He has talked about her frequently and gets better and better each day, but he really misses her. She was a great pet and a perfect hamster.

Goodbye Angel. Thanks for being the perfect pet for us.

Whew!

2009-09-20T16:40:00.003-05:00

Well that was a long, but quick 6 weeks! I finished up my long stint subbing for 1st grade. I loved it, but boy was I busy!!!! I had way too much going on and not enough time to do it. That's why there hasn't been many blog posts.

My class was great. It was a lot of work, but they learned a lot, and it was a great time. I will miss them. They were all sad when I left, and told me they didn't want me to go, but they will LOVE their real teacher, so i am not worried about them at all. I also plan on visiting a lot. :) I was ready to be done though, so I could get busy on other stuff. My own school work kinda fell to the way side, so I am not as far as I want to be. Thankfully, I can make up that time now.

The kids loved me being at school every day, and Avery is sort of freaking out that I won't be there anymore.

Not only was I working every day, doing my normal every day stuff, doing college work, and more, but it is also my busiest time of year for the PTO. I am the volunteer coordinator for the school. The beginning of the year, I have to input everyone's information, find classroom representatives, etc. I have literally been sending hundreds of emails the past few weeks, not to mention all the data I have been typing. Whew!

Sam has also been busy. He joined a club at school called the RAK (random acts of kindness) club. He will be perfect for it. He is so compassionate and loving. He stays one day after school for that. Then tryouts for the school play are tomorrow. He will then be staying after school an additional 2 days a week for that. He also has cub scouts. we were going to add swim lessons, but with everything else, I think we will wait. He is doing great in school, although he says 4th grade is pretty hard. He also will be doing lots of projects this year, which I am NOT excited about. Yuck!

Avery loves Kindergarten, and especially loves his teacher. He comes home every day saying, "She hasn't taught me to read yet!" He can't wait to read like Sam. He can already read words, but he expects to be able to read Harry Potter by now. :) He also wants to learn to tie his shoes, and tons of other things. He is definitely a learner!

AJ has been working a ton. He is the only one doing his job and now that business has picked back up, it is making for longer days. He went camping this weekend though, which he loves, so he should be happy for a while.

Next month is our International singing competition. We also have our annual show. We have been working like crazy for that. We have tons of choreography to learn, and since I am on the front row, I am a dancing machine. ;) I also will be singing in a small ensemble group for the show. It is going to be our best show yet. It will be great to watch. Come see us! You will get to see me dance like crazy, I am right up front almost the whole time on all the songs, and you will hear me sing with a small group, plus it is a Halloween show, so you can imagine what else you might see me do. Come see me to find out! :)

Anyway, things should slow down a little bit now, so I will be back around. :)

Football!

2009-09-20T16:32:00.002-05:00

A couple weekends ago AJ took the boys to their first ever Tennessee Vols game in Knoxville. That is a BIG deal here in Tennessee. I was busy here at home working on a paper for school. They took their friend Justin, and AJ took some huge fans from church. They had a great time. They drove the 4 hours there and back in the same day so they were tired, but they loved it. Avery said it was a little boring, but Sam loved every moment. They left at 5:30 in the morning! Anyway, I am sure that will be the first of many more games. They are definitely boys!

2009-09-20T16:26:00.000-05:00

$12 for all of this, this week at Target and CVS.

Ahhh! I love saving money!

2009-09-05T19:07:00.004-05:00

Yes, I know my blog has pretty much turned in to a see how much I saved blog, but I can't help it! Look at how good I did the last 2 weeks!

This is a combination of last week and this week at CVS and Target.

I spent $17 total for all of this.

4 boxes of Special K cereal- Sam eats this every morning. $.64 each after coupons and sale.
1 bag of 22ct. chips- this wasn't the best deal, but it was on sale and I did have a coupon. Avery will take these to his class on his snack day.
5 things of Edy's Ice cream- $.30 each
1 Tide Stain Release Gel Tabs- about $1
1 huge thing of cocoa butter lotion- $2
2 jars of Planter peanuts- $3
1 Fiber One 4 pk of yogurt- FREE
2 big jars of Welch's Jelly- about $1
1 glade candle- FREE
1 glade reed smelly stuff- Earned $1

That's pretty good if I do say so myself. I could be doing better, but working so much is cramping my style. :) I also have brought our monthly grocery bill down almost $100. WOOHOO!

Mini Vacation

2009-08-25T18:23:00.002-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We had a great time! With all of this global warming stuff (roll eyes)we had a pretty chilly weekend. I froze the whole time we were at Holiday World. It was still fun though. The kids even got in the pools and water slides at the water park. Not me! It was a little bit of a disappointment because it was cold so we didn't get to play as much as normal and also Avery was 1/2 an inch to short for most of the rides. Poor, short kiddo! Our hotel was super nice and they had so much free stuff. I recommend staying at Drury Inns for sure!! They have free sodas, snacks, even alcohol (although we didn't partake of that ;) It was nice. We also went to a cool zoo. Te kids loved it.

It was a quick little vacation, but it was a great time away and we all had fun.

Kindergarten

2009-08-21T18:04:00.004-05:00

Regardless of how happy these photos look, it has been a bit rough for our new Kindergartener.

Avery's first full day was today. He went 2 other times this week for 3 hours for phase-in. I knew he was getting anxious because the week before school started he stopped saying he wanted to go, he got whiny, cried more, etc. then he spent the past week with a good friend and her little boy and had a GREAT time there. So great that he never wanted to start Kindergarten. in fact, he really didn't want to come home with me. I am thankful for that, but it did make coming to school harder for him.

The first day he seemed fine. I had told him that I was going to walk him to class before the other kids got there (since I had to be in my own classroom) and he could help his teacher since he knows the lay of the land. :) He said "No! I know how to get there myself!" I told him there were too many supplies to carry in so I would walk with him that day and then he could do it by himself after that. Halfway to school traffic suddenly stopped. We sat there and sat there. Finally, I was able to turn around and we went to school a different way. By that time we were about to be late. I called the school and let them know. Finally we were on our way again. Then when we were almost to the road the school is on traffic stopped again! Ugh! The other way was completely blocked and this way was all backed up because of the other wreck. We finally managed to get to the school, 10 minutes late. It was pouring rain! I rushed the kids towards the door and then who should pull up behind us, Avery's teacher! She got stuck too AND she had gotten rear-ended in the process! Poor Ms. Blackburn. Her first day with students and she was late! We were all frazzled by this point. We ran in her room. I dropped his stuff and told him I would see him later. I had to get to my classroom since school was supposed to already be started. I looked at his face and he had a terrible look. I asked him what was wrong and he burst in to tears!! It was terrible! He said, "I don't want to be here!" I couldn't believe it! This was Avery who has pretty much grown up in the school! He went to school there all year last year, we had been helping Ms. Blackburn all summer, he LOVES here, and he had been to the classroom a million times. I called Ms. Blackburn and pointed at Avery. You should have seen the look on her face! I am sure it mirrored mine! We were both completely shocked. She came over and started talking to him and I went ahead and left. It makes it worse when the parent stays, although it killed me to leave at the same time. I sent a note down to her a little bit later and she said he only cried for a minute and he had already made a friend. I think all the craziness is what did it for him. I bet he would have been fine, otherwise. Darn rain and wrecks!

I talked to him after school and he started crying again! He said he didn't want to go even though he did like Ms. Blackburn! He said it wasn't bad and he had TWO friends, but he still didn't want to go. I told him he had to, of course.

He didn't go the next day because it was the girls turn to go. Thursday morning came and he came downstairs, after getting dressed, and he was crying his eyes out! He cried for the whole 20 minutes until we left for school! We got there and he stopped. He was trying to be brave. As we walked down the hall I could tell he was really trying to compose himself. He was taking deep breaths, closing his eyes for a minute, etc. We went to my classroom first and right outside my door was a HUGE spider. Even Sam wouldn't kill it and he is my spider killer! Finally another girl came over and killed it and we walked into my room, only to find a centipede hanging out in there! Geez! What is with my room?! I told Avery if I could be brave and walk in there with all of those scary bugs, then he could be brave and go to Kindergarten. We walked to his room. his footsteps got slower and slower, and I knew he wanted to cry, but he didn't. I walked in and went to his cubby to drop off a few more things. I turned around and he wasn't with me! He had stopped right inside the door and was sort of hiding there. We laughed at him and he finally came in and found his name on his table. I left and he didn't cry. He said he had a good day and liked it.

This morning he cried a little bit, but stopped pretty quick before school. He told me he wanted me to walk him down so I did. this time when I tried to leave he held on to my leg. I walked him over to his table and he sat down and cried a little bit. No one else was in there yet, so ms. Blackburn talked to him and I left. He stopped after 30 seconds. He really liked his teacher. I don't know why he is doing this. He doesn't adapt to change very well, I just didn't think this was a big change! Guess it is. He said he didn't like it as much today, and they had to already do work, which he didn't like, but he seems better with it now. He said there wouldn't be any crying on Monday. we'll see. He also said he still wanted me to walk him down. I told him I would on Monday, but he needed to go by himself on Tuesday.

So that is the start of Kindergarten for our little boy. I hope next week goes better for him.

Tomorrow we are taking a mini vacation to Holiday World! Yippee!

4th Grade

2009-08-12T21:20:00.004-05:00

I am a bad mom this week! Working is hard work!

I took these pictures so quickly this morning that they turned out terrible and I didn't even know. Darn it! Sorry Sam!

Sam is in 4th grade! Geez, it goes by so fast! He loves his teacher and loves his class. He is so excited about their rewards system. It is cute. He is so big now. He went to his class on his own, of course he did, but it was so weird not walking him down there and helping in his class. I ALWAYS help, every year. I hate missing this. He didn't care at all, but i do. I can't do any of my normal stuff, and it is pretty much killing me. I told his teacher today to let me know if she needs anything. She said, "No, you are a 1st grade teacher, you are going to school, and you still have to be a mom." I guess that is right, but I hate not being able to do everything. I am sure I will find some way to fit it in. ;)

Happy 4th grade, Sam! I know you will do great and love it! 4th grade was my favorite year! I hope it is yours too. Stop growing up!

I told one of my students today that he was my little boy, and when we walked away he said, "LITTLE boy!" Oops! Won't he always be my little boy???

I do love how grown up he is, but it is sad at the same time.

I am glad to have him as my BIG boy!

I Know, I know

2009-08-08T14:31:00.004-05:00

Yes, this is going to be another CVS post. I really don't have much else to say because we have pretty much been at school every day for the last 2 weeks getting everything set up. It's been pretty boring around here. I am already tired of school though, and it hasn't even started yet! lol. We start Monday. I will be doing the 1st grade teacher's maternity leave and am a little scared about that because I have never started the year off before, but I will make it. The boys are excited and sad at the same time. Summer went to fast. Anyway, here is my weekly CVS run today.

CVS changed their policy a bit and we now cannot use our extra bucks on tax, so I have to pay that out of pocket from now on. Oh well, I guess I can pay tax on free stuff. :)

I got something extra today, because Sam needed it for school and I couldn't find it anywhere else. At least it was on sale for a good price.

Here is what I got today:
3 packs of highlighters- all free after coupons
1 Nutrashield Coppertone Sunscreen- $1.99 after coupon and extra bucks
1 Revlon Colorstay Mineral Foundation- free after extra bucks
1 Nexxus hairspray
1 nexxus Conditioner- $7 for both after coupons and extra bucks
1 Expo Dry Erase Set- this is what Sam needed so I spent more for this
1 bottle of mouthwash- free

The Nexxus stuff alone would have been $25 so I did great this time. I used my extra bucks from last time and I got $10 more for next time. So I spent $8.15 out of pocket, but I would have spent $65.52.

I forgot. i also got my hair cut a couple days ago. I am still not sure about it. It doesn't look cute any way except curly, and I don't always have time to do that. I need to work with it some more, but at the moment I don't like it that much. My hair usually does anything so it's a bit weird for me, but I am sure I will figure it out soon. I just hope it's quick since I have to work Monday and already have to get up too early.
Anyway, here it is.

I Heart CVS

2009-07-27T13:22:00.002-05:00

CVS, oh, how I love thee. :)

Look at all the stuff I got this week. Woohoo! I messed up and spent a bit more than I should have because I bought the wrong item, but oh well, I still did great!

I got all of this stuff for $6.73 TOTAL!!! Plus I have 15 in CVS Bucks to use for next time. Yippee! I had a bit of a problem checking out because the guy dropped some of my bucks, 5 of the bucks didn't print out, etc. So I was a bit frazzled. Then when I got home and looked at it all, I realized that I bought the wrong item so I paid more and didn't receive any extra bucks for it. THe good thing is, is that it is an item Avery needed for school anyway, so I am just going to keep it and take the loss. I guess I should pay CVS something. :)

Here is what I got today:
2 boxes of Kashi Cereal
1 box of Kashi granola bars (My family LOVES Kashi and I buy this stuff every month on my regular grocery trip. I got all 3 items for $.50 after coupons and ECB!
1 Index card holder (Sam needs for school)Free after ECB
1 Box of Push pins (needed for home) Free after ECB
1 Colgate Toothbrush (I needed this since AJ stole my extra one!) $.48 after coupon and ECB
1 Nexxus Shampoo ( I have been dying to try this, but it is always so expensive!) $3.99 after coupon and ECB. I know, still a lot, but now I brought it down to the price I normally spend for shampoo.
1 Pencil pocket (this is the item I messed up, but Avery needed for school)
2 bottles of Arm and Hammer Detergent (we use this regularly)$1.50 each after coupons and ECB
2 bottles of Herbal Essence Mousse (I use this every day)$.49 each after coupons
1 Package of sticky notes (school need)Free after ECB
2 packages of pencils (school need) Free after ECB

I should have only spent like $2 out of pocket this time, but with my mistake I spent $6 something. Oh well! I would have spent $60 on all of this stuff!

80% Savings Today

2009-07-20T13:23:00.002-05:00

Today at CVS I spent $7.37 out of pocket and got $20 in CVS Bucks to use for next time. Yea! I have most of the school supplies for this year, and best of all it has mostly been perfectly FREE!

Science and Art

2009-07-17T20:08:00.006-05:00

I took the kids to the cool Science Museum in Nashville yesterday. They loved it. They had a lot of fun and we stayed for 3 hours, probably could have stayed more, but I was bored, plus we were hungry. :)Here are some fun pics.

Sam's masterpiece

I'm holding the world in my hands! ;)It's pretty hard to get the right angle to make these kind of pictures work.

Avery was so scared to go down this pole. I think he got my fear of heights. Grreeeaaat. Anyway, Kinley was doing it, and he really wanted to, but he would get freaked out. He FINALLY did it, and went over and over and over and over...

Sam got to be an astronaut. It was hard work pulling himself up, but he got almost all the way. He loved this part!

Today I had to go to the yearly subbing orientation. Ugh! It's so boring in the first place because we have to watch these dumb videos and fill out paperwork, but today topped the cake. We would have been done way early, but then she asked if anyone had questions. Well, seriously, these people have no brain! They asked the MOST COMMON SENSE questions. Anyway, it took them so long that we were LATE getting out. ARGH. I was meeting someone right after, and had to get home because the kids had a babysitter. We finally just stood up in the middle of someone's lame question, so they would get the hint. The good news is that the kids had a new babysitter and they loved her, so yea!

AJ has been gone all week at camp with the scouts. He come's home tomorrow. The kids and I were bored and were trying to figure out something to do, so we did an art project for him. This should be a nice surprise. :)

In another news, pneumonia and sinus infection still here. I am doing some better and the medicine isn't kicking my butt anymore, but I still can't breathe and I think I should be doing better than this. Pneumonia=stupid

Sam's "Party" + Pneumonia

2009-07-11T20:01:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we had Sam's party. Like I said in the last post he decided he didn't want a real party, that he just wanted his best friend and best cousin (and siblings, of course) to come. We went bowling, went to Walmart to pick our birthday presents, went to eat pizza, and then came home and played until late. He had a great day.

In other news, I have 3 infections right now. Really?! 3! How many does a girl need. Argh! I ended up spending all afternoon at the doctor's office and at the hospital on Thursday. I have pneumonia, a sinus infection, and a bladder infection. For real, it's summer! WHY???? I pretty much have to take a small pharmacy of medicines. I have an antibiotic, a STRONG dose of steroids, for a LONG time, an inhaler that shoots powder into my lungs, a nasal spray, singulair to help my lungs, and I think something else. We spent an hour at the office and then spent more than an hour at the hospital getting a chest x-ray and stuff. This was after taking Sam for a follow up visit earlier in the day for all his rash stuff. The kids were good though. Thank Goodness. What makes it worse if that Sam just happened to be out of all his medicines at the same time as I needed all these new ones. Over $500 worth of medicine we needed. YIKES!!! Our insurance makes us pay out of pocket and then they reimburse us, but it is several weeks later. I sort of freaked out, and we ended up looking online and I found 2 coupons. One for the inhaler, which made it FREE, a $280 savings! Then I found one for Sam's Singulair, which was a $110 savings! WHEW!! Have I mentioned I LOVE coupons! We still had to spend a lot but we saved so much, so it helped a ton. I was doing okay with the pneumonia. I didn't even really feel sick, I just had a terrible cough and couldn't breath. It's the medicines that are killing me now. I would rather be sick than take all of these medicines. The inhaler gives me an instant headache. The heavy dose of steroids make my stomach hurt terribly and today I started shaking so bad and my muscles all tensed up really tight. I pretty much feel like dying right now, all because of the stuff that is supposed to make me better. It's kicking my butt. Sigh.

Anyway, here are some pics of our fun party day.

Silly Kids

Best Friends

Sam excited after a Spare.

Little Kids watching the ball go down teh lane. Cute!

Happy Birthday, Sam!

2009-07-08T14:16:00.003-05:00

9 Years old! I can't believe it! Geez! That's big. Sam's birthday was Monday. This was the first year he decided not to have a party. Instead, he wanted his best friend and his best cousin to spend the day with him just doing something fun. :) So to make it a bit more fun, we surprised him by having a little family party. The boys were upstairs playing. I had wrapped all of his presents from us and made him brownies ( he likes that better than cake). We called Avery downstairs, lit his candles, and then called Sam down. As soon as he got down we started singing "Happy Birthday!" He was so surprised and excited. It was funny. I couldn't get any good pictures because he was jumping around so much. LOL! Anyway, he blew out his candles, opened his presents (mostly all Transformers) and then we ate his "cake". He loved it! The next day Julie and her kids came up for a short, surprise visit, and Taylor had come over to play before that. He has had a good week. Today we went to a fun kids place that we have only been to one other time. Later this week will be his "party" with his 2 best friends. Here are some "party" pics.

Sam is such a sweet boy. I love seeing him get older and more responsible, but at the same time it makes me sad. How can my little boy be this big already? He is calm and quiet, and just has a sweet disposition. He loves using his imagination and acting things out. So far he is still a little boy. He wants to play with toys still, isn't in to all the techno gadgets, and is happy just being a kid. Whew! He is super smart. He loves to read and always has a book. He loves the magical, mystery books. He especially loves series and is always looking for a new group of books to read. He is ready for 4th grade, but is enjoying having this break. He is learning that things take practice and he won't just automatically be able to do something and get it perfect the first time. This is a harder concept for him to handle. He likes being right the first time. I wonder where he gets that from. ;) He loves Avery and can't imagine not having a brother. They play together well, although the fighting was getting a wee bit bad a few weeks ago. I fixed that quickly though. :) He loves Transformers and pretty much any action figure. He loves the computer and plays on it pretty often.

He learned to write in cursive this year. He learned multiplication (one of the things he has to practice) and he is swimming really well. He wishes he was better at sports, but is it hard for him with all of his breathing problems. Swimming is definitely his thing though! He is just really maturing and growing. He is one of the most responsible kids I know.

He is very compassionate, especially when it comes to animals and bugs. He loves going outside and catching bugs or finding hurt bugs and helping them. At recess he was always the one exploring, finding hurt creatures and rescuing them. He rarely gets in trouble and asks me frequently why people choose to do bad things. He doesn't get it. Good! We have been talking a lot lately about more grown up things like drugs, smoking, driving, etc. Being a teenager is one of our favorite subjects, and he swears he is still going to use his manners and not be rude. I hope so! He is a good listener and usually fixes himself after the first warning.

He is our quiet, caring, steady boy. We never have to worry about him, and always know he is doing the right thing. He loves his family and watches out for our well-being all the time. He is the peacemaker and wants everyone to be happy, although he does have a bit of a temper at times. We are working on that. We are always having people comment on how good and polite he is. Everyone knows his name and he is the popular kid that everyone knows. He is our calm and cool kiddo.

Happy Birthday, Sam Sweeney! We Love you Lots!!!

CVS Savings- Made Money Today!

2009-07-06T15:09:00.004-05:00

Woohoo! I did great this week at CVS! They ended up paying me for shopping there this week. :)

Here is how much I would have spent this week. $45.65

This is what I got:
3 packages of Sunflower Seeds (we go through these like crazy)
2 bottles Dawn Antibacterial Dish Detergent (we were completely out)
2 bottles Head and Shoulders 2 in 1 shampoo
2 bottles Listerine
2 packages of tape- FREE after Extra bucks
2 packages of mechanical pencils
1 pencil sharpener- FREE after Extra Bucks
2 tubes of Colgate Total Toothpaste- $.16 after coupon and extra bucks
1 gallon of milk (we were out)

Here is what happened. I bought all of this stuff and ended up paying $2.92 out of pocket after using my CVS Extra Bucks ($23) (remember this is like cash in CVS).

When I got home I realized they charged me wrong for the toothpaste and didn't give me my Extra Bucks for next time.

I went back to the store. They refunded me $3.83 plus gave me my extra bucks. This means I made $.91 in cash today! PLUS I have $11 in Extra bucks to use my next trip.

Woohoo! This is all stuff we use regularly and I won't have to buy it on my monthly grocery trip. Yippee!

July Fun

2009-07-03T22:54:00.003-05:00

Party Time! We went to a friend's house tonight to play and do fireworks. It was fun! I have lots of pics and I am really excited about my fireworks pictures. I probably won't post them all here, but look at the rest on facebook. I sort of like the pictures better than seeing the actual, real fireworks in the sky! LOL! By the way, I started school on Wednesday, and I already passed my first class! Yippee! The rest probably won't go as quick, especially math, but at least one is out of the way, and I hope to test out of several more. OK, so on to the pics!

CVS Savings

2009-06-25T15:33:00.002-05:00

So everyone knows how I can't stand to spend money. I seriously hate it. Also, I do lots of things to save money like grocery shop once a month, use coupons, etc. Well, I have been reading abot all the great deals you can get at CVS. I finally decided to try it. I was leary because I hate going o lots of different stores, etc, and it sort of seemed complicated, but today was my day to learn the ropes.

I got the above items all for $13! Well, really I spent $23 out of pocket, but I got $10 back in CVS bucks to use on my next trip. Without the sale and coupons I would have spent $41.26. I got the 3 sunscreens (expensive Aveeno too!) for $7, the mustard for $.50, and the Lifewaters for free. The milk was regular price, but we needed it and since I was already there I went ahead and got it.

I had 3 more items I wanted to get; deodorant, Thermacare heat wraps, and 5 SoyJoy granola bars, but they were out of those items. I would have gotten all of those for $.99. Next time I know to go earlier in teh week.

I already know some of the things I am going to get next week and I get to use my $10 CVS bucks, so I am hoping to get more sunscreen andstuff for under $5. If I can do this right then we will not be paying for things like shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc, which will save us a lot on our already cheap grocery bill. Now if I can find te time to go to 3 different stores to get groceries then we would be saving even less. I doubt that will happen though, so at leatthis helps out some. I think I did pretty good for my first time, and after this I should be spending less than $5 a trip. Yea!

School's Out for the Summer

2009-06-19T10:01:00.005-05:00

Ahhhh, how I love summer. Not so much the terrible heat and humidity, but I love the laid back relaxig part, for sure!

What have we done this summer? Swim. That's about it. What have we not done? Rushed around, doing a thousand things a day. Sigh... Love it!

This week we got to see Julie ad her kids. Yippee! We went to the jumping place where we had Avery's birthday party. Fun, fun. Then we ate lunch at a yummy new place in town. After that was the splash pad, but it got rained out, well more like lightninged out.

I took the kids to Barnes and Noble in Murfreesboro. Sam gets a free book each summer for participating in a reading program at school. After that we had appointments to get the boys'hair cut. We picked books and then I looked outside. it was super, super dark and I knew we needed to hurry before it started pouring rain. We ran up to the front to pay, and a lady stopped us and said, "We aren't checking out right now." I was like, "What?" She said we needed to go tothe back of the store. I told her we needed to go. She said we were in a tornado warning and everyone had to go to the back of the store. We went back and waited. No tornado came. We finally got to leave and we made t to the appointment just in time.

We went grocery shopping, and the kids were actually good. Thank goodness. going once a month is great, and saves a lot of money, but it takes a long time, and bringing kids is not ideal. Sam said, "Mommy, I don't know how you do this by yourself!" Sam helped a lot. It was nice. :)

Yesterday we went ot our favorite place in the summer. It's a wading pool that has sprayers and stuff. it's about 30 minutes away. AJ asked why we were going there when we have a pool in our backyard, and don't have to drive anywhere. I told him it didn't have cool sprayers and mushrooms. ;) We got there at 10:00 and stayed until 3:00. The kids loved every minute of it and never asked to go. Avery was splashing around like a frog. he is so comfortable in the water now. Yippee. We had some trouble with some of the other kids, who's parents were not watching them at all, but it was lots of fun. I probably had to yell at 3 kids, none of which were my own. Sometimes I really just don't understand some parents.

While we were there, Lindsay watched my kids while I went to the car for a phone call. It was my final interview for school. Yes, I finally decided to go back to school so I can become a real teacher with my own classroom. I am excited, but nervous. I researched a ton, and found a school that I think will be a great fit. It's more based on experience and competency than it is on classwork and stuff. I learn the things I need to, and then take a test, and I am done with that class. I can go as fast as I want, and don't have to wait for the semester to be over. I can just take the test and go on to the next course. All of my subbing experience goes in to play, so I am hoping I can test out of a lot of things quickly. In fact I am hoping to be all done in 18 months to 2 years. I like to just go in and get things done, so I won't be wasting my time, which is nice. So unless something happens with financial aid, I am a student, and start July 1st!

I also have a new job at church. I teach the girls ages 14 and 15. This week will be my first week teaching. I have never worked with the teenagers before, so this will be different. I hope they are nice to me. ;)

Oh, did I mention that Avery learned how to swim by himself a few days ago. He is doing great. No floats needed. He can swim both above and below water, float, and swim on his back. It's pretty cool. He looks so tiny in there swimming around like a fish. Thank goodness for shots! That was all the help he needed. He couldn't wear his water wings for several days after his shots, so he finally just learned to swim. Yippee!

Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.

The boys in the mushroom

Cute Avery

Avery in his goofy goggles

Swimming Sam

Shark Sam chasing the 3 litle kids

The Kids

2009-06-09T21:21:00.003-05:00

So, I thought I would make an all about kids post.

Today we had to get up EARLY (in the summer!) and take both boys to the doctor. Sam to see a dermatology specialist and Avery for his Kindergarten check up.

Let's start with Avery.

He's a tiny little boy, only 10th percentile for his age group. Everything is normal and he is right on track. He is doing everything he should and is doing great. He is sooooo ready for Kindergarten. We have been playing word games and he can totally spell and sound out most words. Now to put them all together and read. He LOVES learning and wants to really read soooo bad. He ASKS to practice everyday. it's cute. The other day I asked him to tell me some nursery rhymes. He probably told me 15 of them!!! I had no idea he knew and could remember perfectly that many. Wow! He was excited to go for his check up this morning because he knows that's one step closer to Kindergarten. He was even excited to get his shots! He didn't stay excited though! He had to get 5 shots in his arms today. The first one he was fine, didn't even flinch. The 2nd one he cried a little and wanted to be done. Then we turned him around to do the next 3. Those were the bad ones. He was really crying for them and the last one was apparently the most painful (she said that's why they save it for last) and he was yelling at that point. It was sad. Poor kid. He didn't move his arms after that for more than an hour. He did really good and was brave, but it really hurt him. She said the last one would probably cause swelling, be painful, and cause a fever for a couple days. Lovely. We promised him donuts afterwards if he was brave for his shot. So we went to Krispy kreme where the boys actually got donut sundes! Disgusting. It grossed me out. I couldn't believe they could eat that. YUCK! You should have seen Avery trying to eat it. He wouldn't move his arms so he was pretty much licking the ice cream like a dog. Finally by the end he managed to figure out how to use only his lower arm to get the spoon to his mouth. Pretty funny. This was a cool Krisy Kreme where it's all glass so you can see them making the donuts. They sat there and watched them make a whole batch. Anyway, by the time we got home he was moving his arms again and semed fine until the Motrin wore off. Hopefully tomorrow won't be bad. He is a cute, wild child. He is sooo smart and i love how willing he is to learn. Oh, here is a weird thing about him though. I go to the Y several times a week to do Zumba. He can't STAND the nursery there. He really hates going. He hasn't gone very much this year because I usually went while they were in school. Getting out of the habit was not a good thing for him. He has hated the last couple of weeks, and complains and complains. He cant even really tell me why he hates it so much. I think it is just too overwhelming for him. There are a MILLION kids in there, really, way too many, and the teachers aren't very nice at all, and one in particular has a really gruff voice, is loud, and seems mean, even though she isn't. He is not good with that type of person. I guess he is used to his quiet, soft-spoken mommy. Awww. Anyway, I tried taking him in there yesterday. He started crying before we even left the house!!! He's not done that since he was 3! We were walking in and he actually stopped dead in the doorway and would not enter the building. I don't understand why he hates it so much, but I felt bad for him. They were playing outside, Kinley was in there waiting for him, but he just did not want to go. I wasn't going to miss my class either. I ended up just taking him in my class with me. He sat in the corner with nothing to do, and just watched the whole time. I was SURE that would make him see that going to his class was a better idea. it didn't work! He MUCH prefered sitting there bored than going in his class. So I guess until he can move up to the next class that will be our plan for now, since neither of us are budging on our Y terms. :) I really don't mind. He didn't bother anyone at all, and if he wants to be bored than fine. I would rather him choose to be bored than force him to go somewhere he really can't stand, especially when it isn't hurting anything. It's weird though! he's quirky!

On to Sam. Sam's rash, including the butt part that I previusly mentioed came back last week. It went from bad to worse really quickly, and within 2 days he had the rash over his entire body, even his face again. I took him back to the ped. She just said it was his eczema and that maybe that would be how it manifested itself from now on. Ummmm, no. He can't go around every month with a butt he can barely sit on that bleeds and pusses! They had scheduled a dermatologist appt for him, but they couldn't get him in until July. Ummm, no. AJ pulled some strings, he has connections ya know :), and got him into another specialty dermatologist. We took him this morning. Apparenlty he still has staph, and it IS eczema, but it is infected eczema. So she gave him more antibiotics, another prescription cream, special bath soap, and some special lotion. We go back in a month and she will figure out a good course of treatment, I guess for the rest of his life. Sigh... I am still not quite sure about that diagnosis. I don't understand the rash all over his body thing, or the butt rash being eczema, but we will see, I suppose. He has had eczema his whole life and it is just now manifesting like THIS? Hmmm. ANyway, he also had to get a steroid shot. Those things HURT so I was worried, but he did just fine. Didn't even flinch. I guess getting allergy shots every week for the last 6 years really numbs you to shot pain.

Let's see, what else. Sam has so gotten an attitude lately. Argh! He is the biggest arguer. i wonder where he got that from? **roll yes here** Me, of course. I guess I deserve it. He also has really been antagonizing Avery, which anooys both Avery AND me. What's funny is that I always was amazed at how good their relationship was. They rarely fought at all. I thought it was the age difference, and the sweetness of my boys, but that has apparently ended. Sigh... I knew it would happen eventually, but why in the summer?!! I did talk to him about it today and hopefully we have worked out an arrangement to get this fixed and fast. he's always been so sweet and nice, so this is sort of surprising. i guess it had to happen at some point, that's what siblings do. Darn it. Anyway, he is loving summer. We swim just about every day which is his very favorite thing to do. He also tries hard to do nice things for me, and is constantly trying to help me out or do things to make my life easier. Sweet boy. I hope he stays that way. ;)

We really have great kids, and we are lucky to have them. Even though they bring us our challenges, especially with Sam's medical mysteries, we couldn't ask for better kids. Even Avery, who we consider our wild child, is calm and sweet compared to most other kids. We are just used to laid back, go with the flow Sam, so Avery is crazy compared to that! LOL. At church the other day Avery's teacher came in to the room we were in and she said, "Avery's not here today!" I was like, "Um, yeah, he should be!" Then she said, "He's just so GOOD and quiet, we never have to worry about him at all. I guess I just missed him." Which is srt of good and sort of bad. :) He is also the helpful one and is the one doing the right hing when asked, etc. Good, good boys. I love them.

Anyway, enough gushing about their sweetness. I am sure we all feel that way about our own kids, I just think mine are particularly sweet, for the most part, well except for Sam's attitude lately. ;)-

Here are some pics of them enjoying Krisy Kreme. Disclaimer*** Taken with my camera phone***.

P.S. Sorry for any typos. Something weird is happening and when I try and backspace and type soething else, it erases the letters in front of it, causing letters to be missing, etc. I am sure there are a lot of mistakes. Sorry!

Summer Beginnings

2009-06-04T17:15:00.003-05:00

So the summer so far has been pretty lazy. Yea for lazy! It's so nice to just get to relax and go with the flow after the busiest month of May.

Basically we have been swimming every day, with a few things thrown in here and there. We totally love having a pool in our backyard. I have gone to the Y to do Zumba a few times, but I hurt my knee with all that twisting my first morning, so I have had to take it easy. Darn it. yesterday I felt dumb because I had to do everything low impact. I even had to stop early because it hurt so much. Darn knee!

Tuesday we were supposed to go see one of the cheap summer movies (our theater has kids movies for $2 and some other theaters in teh area have free movies). Anyway, we got all up and ready to go , and then I just happened to check which theater it was at, and I had it wrong! I thought it was the one here in town, which is 2 minutes away, but it was the one 35 minutes away. At that point we wouldn't have made it in time, so we went store hopping instead. I really need a new swimsuit, but I can't find a cute one, cheap enough anywhere. We spent the rest of the day in the pool.

Yesterday we went and played in the fountains at our Hospital. The kids loved it. After we left there, we had lunch, and then came home and jumped in our pool for 3 hours, until it started raining. We are definitely water dogs around here.

Today I had to take Sam to the doctor again. His rashy problem, yes the same one from a month ago, is back and hurting him. We are going to see a specialist on Tuesday. Thankfully it is cooler and rainy today, so they aren't missing the pool.

I have also been working hard trying to get Corporate sponsors for our Annual Golf Tournament. It is international this year, which is expensive, so we are trying to raise as much money as we can. I am definitely doing my part to help. I have contacted over 20 businesses this week.

A little while ago, I told the kids that I didn't feel like making dinner, and one of them needed to. :) Avery said, "I will!" he ran right into the kitchen and started pulling things out of the fridge! I said, "Avery, we are having chicken burritos". He said, "No we're not! We are having what I am making!" I asked him what we were having and he said pancakes and curly chips (Sun Chips). He had gotten the forzen pancakes out and was totally going to make dinner! It was too cute. i told him that I needed to make it tonight since I already had the chicken out, but maybe next time I will let him make what he wants. :) He doesn't really like the burrito so I will let him make himself a pancake to go along with the rice and beans. Weird, I know, but he will like it. Cute kid!

Ok, back to my dinner making, and back to my sponsorship forms to fill out. Happy summer!

The End Has Come

2009-05-27T20:34:00.006-05:00

Another year gone by. Can you believe it? Avery graduated Pre-K today and Sam is going in to 4th grade! Geez! This year sped by, even more so than normal. It seems like school was just starting and I was helping Sam's teacher get her classroom set up. Now I am there taking everything down and packing her up. Crazy!

Avery is SOOOO excited to be a Kindergartener. He doesn't even care that preschool is over. He has already moved ahead to Kindergarten. He has visited his new Kindergarten teacher that past few weeks and talks to her like she is his best friend! It is WEIRD! :) He pretends to be shy around people, but he is not the least bit shy with her. He tells her all kinds of stories. It's funny. This morning he said, now I am in Kindergarten. Can I go tomorrow? He's not to happy about waiting all summer. She has been teasing him, telling him that he is going to know so much about the class and where everything is, that he will be the one showing everyone when school starts. I will be subbing for our favorite teacher while she has a baby at the beginning of the year, so Avery gets to go stay at our friend's house for a week before Kindergarten actually starts (they go later than the rest of the grades). He can't wait for that either.

For graduation today they "took a trip to Kindergarten Island". They sang lots of songs about getting to the island, etc. Singing, especially with actions, is not his thing. He looked so bored up there, in fact, he yawned several times. What's funny is that besides me, he is the biggest singer in the house. Here are some graduation pics for ya.

Sam is so gonna miss 3rd grade and will especially miss his teacher. He LOVED her. She is so nice and a great teacher. We will all definitely miss her. Avery will definitely be getting her in 3rd grade. :) None of us can believe he is already to 4th grade. How did he get so big? I remember well my time in 4th grade. I guess I better be a really good mom now cuz he will remember it! ;) I am already stressing bout him going to middle school in two years. He's gonna go from a great school where he has had the best teachers and his mom working there all the time, to middle school where everything changes, his teachers aren't hand-picked, and parents aren't really invited in. Big shock I am sure. i am going to start easing out the next couple of years. I can't believe I will have 2 boys in real school. I already still go back and hlp all of Sam's old teachers, and now I will be adding two more. Not sure how that's going to work! Here are some pics of Sam with some of his best friends.

Pretty much we have been super busy at school teh last few weeks. Today we didn't get home until 5ish. Tomorrow we are going back, even though there is no school for students, just teachers. Friday they go back to get their report cards and then they are done.

For Memorial Day we cleaned and did yard work most of the day, and then Linds and Fam came over and we swam and ate, etc. Here are some pics of that.

We really don't have anything planned for the summer. Mostly just relaxing and lounging around. We will probably just stay around here, swim, and do the fun stuff in the area. Ta Ta for Now!

Spring Fling

2009-05-11T16:02:00.005-05:00

This past week was pretty laid back. I didn't work at all, and just caught up on things around here, and did some things to get ready for the end of school. I missed my class though, so I ended up going to see them on Thursday for their Mother's Day Program.

Friday was Spring Fling. It's our yearly carnival type thing that is always on a Friday night. The kids love it! I have a few pictures and that's about all I have to offer to Blogland this week. The next few weeks will just be busy doing all of the end of the school year stuff, and that's about it. It takes all my energy! So enjoy the pictures! :)

Nevermind, for some reason it won't let me add pics right now. I will try again later. Argh!

OK, I got it.

Avery's Favorite thing to do at the Spring Fling.

In the firetruck

Sam loves to go to the "emergency" tent and get all hurt. Avery made up this whole big story on what happened to Sam. LOL!

This was Mother's Day at AJ's grandmother's house. Sam made a sign (the thing he is holding) that says "The Best!" and it had an arrow pointing to me. Awwww! We couldn't get it in the picture though. :(

By the way, I had to take all of these with my camera phone, so that's why they don't look very good.

Pictures of my Quartet

2009-04-25T16:07:00.002-05:00

If you want to see pictures of my quartet at our competition, I now have a link.

Go Here if you want to see! :)

Rashy

2009-04-22T16:14:00.003-05:00

My poor kid can never catch a break. Sighhhhh.

This is sensitive, TMI info, so you may want to not read.

A little over a week ago, Sam told me that his butt has been hurting, and it had been for a long time. He didn't tell me because it is embarrassing. Well, I looked at it, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing!!! I had never seen anything look that bad. It was like terrible, terrible diaper rash, except he is 8 years old. We started out by putting Desitin on it. A little weird, but what else could we do??? Anyway, after a few days, that wasn't helping. I went and got Preparation H stuff to see if that would help. It didn't. In fact, it was getting worse and worse, and was hurting him terribly. So we decided to take him to the doctor. Our pediatrician couldn't get him in that day, so we took him to a good walk-in clinic.

The doctor thought it looked like Strep! Can you believe that?! Apparently you can get that type of infection in other areas. She had to do a culture, and prescribed a cream to put on it. That was a Thursday.

By Saturday, he had a faint rash all over his body. His butt hurt so bad it was bleeding, and he couldn't go to the bathroom or sit down very well. We called the pediatrician and explained what had been going on, but we still didn't have the culture results. He said to check in with him the next day.

Sunday comes and the rash is a lot worse. He was screaming (real, terrible screams) when he tried to go to the bathroom. It was awful. We called the doctor back, and he came to the office on a Sunday just to see Sam. He couldn't believe how terrible his butt looked. It was the worst he had ever seen. He took another culture. It was so bad, he didn't think it was Strep because he had never seen it look like that before. Also, the rash confused him. He wasn't sure if it was because of the other rash, if it was something new, or what. He was pretty confident it wasn't contagious though. He knew it had to be some sort of bacterial infection, so he prescribed and antibiotic that works well on skin infections.

The antibiotic did help his butt some, but not the rash. Yesterday, I checked on him at lunch time and the rash was even worse. It was everywhere, even under his hair. At dinner time, I checked him again and the rash was terrible. This time it was bright red and itchy. Before it was itchy, but it was mostly clearish. We called the doctor again. This time we got our regular pediatrician. She said with strep like that it is very common to get a rash, and even for it to get worse. The antibiotic just hadn't gotten to the rash part yet, but was working on the worst spot first.

Today, the rash is terrible. It is starting to hurt him, and it looks awful. They finally called and left a message with the results of the culture. It is strep. I am fairly positive he has Scarlet Fever, which is the result of Strep not being treated properly. That's what happens when a kid doesn't tell you something is going on for too long. Thankfully he isn't contagious, and apparently never was, but I feel so bad for him. He is embarrassed about the butt part, embarrassed about the rash everywhere, and it is pretty scary for him. He thinks something terrible is happening to him. Imagine how embarrassed he would be to know I blogged about it. Muahaha. I am a mean Mommy. ;)

Anyway, remind your kids to tell you if there is a problem, even if it is embarrassing!

Here are some pictures. They don't even do the rash justice. Also, there is a picture Avery has been dying for me to take. They just planted a new garden in front of our school and Avery thinks it is the perfect picture spot. He asks me every day if I have my camera, so I brought it today. :)

Tornados, Birthdays, and More

2009-04-17T17:18:00.007-05:00

Yes, I know I am slow. I have been trying to blog all week, but it hasn't happened. Sheesh, this week has been a whirlwind!

Last Friday we just happened to be out of school for Good Friday. That was a very good thing! We had had bad storms all night the night before and all throughout the morning. About noon, it started getting really bad. A friend texted me and asked if we were all ok, because it looked like the storm was right over us. I turned on my tv to the news, to hear them say, "Let's turn over to the traffic camera on I-24 in Murfreesboro." I watched as they did that. At the same time, a man had called in and was frantic, sounded scared to death, and said he had just seen a tornado. As I watched the traffic camera, all of a sudden, you saw a tornado form, then get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. The news people were freaking out. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! It just so happens that my back yard is pretty much I-24 and we live less than 10 minutes from Murfreesboro. Then the news people said it was coming right towards us. I told the kids to get in the bathroom, I threw in some blankets and pillows then I ran to my back door to see if I could see the tornado. I was sure I would be able to, that thing was huge! I also tried calling Lindsay to tell her, since she also lives right here. She didn't answer of course. I kept watching, and calling. The kids stayed in the bathroom for quite a while. I kept watching outside and watching the news. It ended up that the tornado went to the right of us, and took a lot of Murfreesboro with it. Over 150 homes were destroyed, and a mother and baby were killed. :( I never get freaked out by storms, and don't worry about tornadoes at all, but seeing it form right in front of your eyes, and to have it be right down the street from you, is a little different. We saw some of the damage the next day. It is bad. Poor, poor people. That was a crazy day.

The next day was Avery's Birthday party. The kids were so excited. They drove me crazy all day. AJ went in the morning to pick up Avery's new bunk bed. Then after that we went mattress shopping. It was hard for them to wait all day for the party, but they were so excited about the new bed. Avery loves it, but at the same time is having trouble sleeping, and tells us it is because he is too high up. We keep offering to take it back and get him a normal bed, but he doesn't want to do that either. I told him that he would get used to it quickly and to keep giving it a try. He went from not going to sleep until 9:30 or later to 8:30 on Wednesday, and finally last night was normal. I praised him a lot today, so hopefully it goes better from now on. Here are pictures of his "new" room.

After all that, it was finally party time! We had his party at a new bouncy place in our city. It was very nice and lots of fun. The kids loved it. We call Avery our little monkey boy, and he definitely showed it. He won a little monkey head from one of those, put in a quarter and drop the claw to pick out a toy games, and he ran around holding that in front of his face the whole afternoon. Thankfully it still looks like him. ;)

During the opening presents part, Avery got all weird and un-Averylike. He seemed to get all shy and quiet. He wouldn't even smile. WEIRD! I think he was overwhelmed with sitting in the big chair and having everyone watch him. I don't know. It was kinda funny though! Oh, guess what his favorite present was?! Pajamas and underwear! Weirdo! Here are some pics from the festivities.

The next day was Easter. The Easter Bunny just happened to bring the Lego Batman Video Game. Now that is an extravagant Easter Bunny! He does NOT normally bring things like that, but he must have taken pity on our "deprived" children. Or maybe it was just a long story, consisting of two kids that have been dying for that game since before Christmas, and the 5 year old Birthday boy trying to spend all of his bday money on that one thing. Like I said, long story. They did get that game as a together gift and only candy to go along with it, so he must not be as nice as I originally thought. ;)

Busy Weekend!

The week was even busier!

Tis week was crazy at school. We had standardized testing this week. My class had testing for 2 days. Sam's class and the upper grades had testing for 4 days. Our schedules were all messed up, the days were crazy, and the kids were insane. All the teachers were ready for this week to be over! It was also report card week to top it all off. I never knew filling out report cards could be such hard work! Not only were our days busy, but we have had something going on every night this week, so I haven't even gotten home until 9:00ish or later each night. It's weird not seeing my house for that many hours! Good news though, I sold my old kitchen table. Now I can buy chairs for my new kitchen table, and I won't have a table sitting in the middle of my photography room. :)

Well, I know this was an incredibly long post with lots of pictures, so you can be done reading now. If you want to continue on, I have a few more birthday pictures to show you. :) See ya next week!

I Now Have a 5 Year Old!

2009-04-05T15:31:00.004-05:00

Geez, time sure flew by! How can Avery be 5 already?!

Yesterday was Avery's birthday. When he woke up, he came to me and whispered, "Mommy, am I 5 now?!" It was so cute. As soon as I told him that he was, his whole face lit up with the hugest smile. Such a cute boy!

AJ is in California this week for some conference or something, so we are having his birthday party next weekend. Avery was a little confused by that, but we made yesterday extra special to make up for it.

Every year for his birthday we go to the zoo. Lindsay and her crew came along, and we enjoyed several hours there. It was the PERFECT day for it. It was about 70 degrees, the sun was bright and shiny. It was great.

After the zoo, we went to eat dinner at Red Robin. Avery got a free birthday meal. They sang to him, gave him his own sundae, and a balloon. He loved it.

We then went to a couple stores to get some supplements for their spring wardrobe. I let Avery get a shirt that I hate (I can't stand character shirts)so he was very happy. It was a long day, but fun. He loved it, he told me.

His party will be next Saturday at a new inflatable place here in Smyrna. Should be fun. He is excited for that. He is not, however, excited for the shots he has to get this year for Kindergarten. He did tell me last night that he didn't feel any bigger. I told him that even though his body wasn't bigger yet, his brain was. Now he is going around telling me all these "smart" things. :)

Avery is such a cute boy. He is totally his own little person. He is wild and wacky, which we love. He makes all of us laugh constantly. He makes up the funniest things and even entertains himself. He prefers playing by himself and making up things with his imagination. I have had several people ask me what he wants for his birthday and I have a hard time even telling them anything, because he doesn't play with much, he just makes things up. He is super smart. He is trying sooo hard to teach himself to read, and he doesn't want help. He is doing a pretty good job, too. He can't wait for Kindergarten. Sam is his very best friend and they play well most of the time. He wants a puppy so bad, and talks about it frequently. Too bad Sam is so allergic, and too bad Mommy definitely doesn't want a dog anyway. He loves Ben 10, if he plays with anything, it is usually those action figures. He also is fascinated with Smurfs all of a sudden. :) He is big on doing everything himself and learning new things all the time. He does whatever he can to figure something out. He has been watchcing the Leapfrog videos frequently, just so he can read. He sounds out all the letters and is able to spell or almost spell most easy things. He still has a really hard time reading something and sounding it out. He can't quite figure out how to make all the sounds go together. He loves the computer and can pretty much do anything on it.

He learned to ride a regular bike this year (with training wheels). He started trying to swim on his own (he will take swim lessons soon to help with that). He learned how to take a shower and wash his own hair. He stopped being afraid of the dark and sleeps with his door closed now. He wants to play baseball really bad. I just need to find a program that doesn't require 5 year olds to be there 3 or more days a week! He loves to sing, and knows words to songs better than me or Sam. He loves pouring his own drinks and opening his own packages. He is finally doing better about eating and at least trying things. I hope he keeps that up.

He is very compassionate and worries about things. He loves using his manners (after a fun Family Home Evening Lesson). He hates to get in trouble, it makes him so sad. He has started to get a little temper, but its not too bad. Mostly just funny. He is pretty good at listening to what you tell him and following directions, and usually does it the first time. He hates making mistakes and always wants to try again.

He is the bright, happy spot in our lives. No one can resist his laugh, and everyone loves how he talks and loves his little voice. People I don't even know, come up and tell me they know Avery and love him. He pretends to be shy, but really isn't. He hates hugs and kisses and does what he can to get away from them. I told him that hurt my feelings so he is better about taking it, but he makes sure to immediately wipe off any kisses. :) He is our silly, monkey boy.

Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We Love you Lots!!!

Medal Pics

2009-03-30T19:39:00.003-05:00

OK, here is what I have so far.

Happy Me with my medal

One More

Me with Linds

Me with my friend, Mandy

Top 5

2009-03-29T17:07:00.002-05:00

Boy, am I tired!

These singing weekends are long, hard, and exhausting, but such fun!

This weekend was our Regional Competition. It was also my first time competing in a quartet. I was trying not to be nervous, I did pretty well. :)

We competed first which is never a good place to be, but I was happy because I got to watch the rest of the competition.

I didn't want to get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping we would come in the Top 5. Welllllll, we did!! We got 5th place. 5th place means a medal! Yeah, Baby!

In the Sweet Adeline world the Top 5 competing quartets or choruses get medals, get to sing on the Afterglow (the big party at the end of the contest, etc). Top 5 is the place to be. :)

Our performance went well. I wasn't nervous at all, well, I guess I was because my hands were sweaty, but I felt good. We sang well and were happy with our performance. This was my first time so I didn't know what to expect really, but it went well and it was a great first competition. Thanks, quartet. ;)

After we sang, we came down and everyone told us we were definitely in 1st place. :) Pretty funny since no other quartets had gone yet. Watching the contest was fun, but scary. Of course, you never really know how you did, so I didn't know what place we would be at all. This was the toughest year, competition-wise. We had several GREAT quartets all competing for the Top 5 spots. They could have gone to anybody.

At the end all the competitors got up on stage. I was expecting them to make announcements, give awards to the quartets, like Most Improved, Novice quartet, etc, but they went right in to announcing 5th place and then called our name. I think we were all pretty stunned and it caught us all off guard. I think we stood there for a second before we figured out that they had called us. Michelle pushed me to the front to get my medal first, since I was the only one that had never competed before. It was pretty fun. :)

4th and 3rd place also had members of our chorus, so we had a good day. All of our quartets did very well. Good job, guys!

Saturday, we were the hostess chorus. Since we won the competition last year and are going to International in October, we were the ones to make sure everything ran smoothly for this years competitors. We had to be up, fully make-upped and dressed by 8:00 in the morning. After going to bed at 2:00 and having a LONG day before that, it was not very fun to be up that early. Oh well. The day went great. The chorus competition was great and there were several good choruses. We got to perform our outgoing package for them, and we made it a fun, exciting time.

We got to sing at the Afterglow party. I was a little more nervous this time. I think because I could see everyone well since we didn't have lights shining on us, so the audience was right there. I also had just eaten dinner and I ate too much cuz I was starving so I was extremely full and didn't feel very well.

After the Afterglow (which ended at 11:45 p.m.) there are all kinds of little parties, we call Glimmers. We love that part. We sang, and then everyone in the room sings. We have lots of fun. I didn't get to bed until just about 5:00 this morning.

I am dead tired and plan to go to bed SOON. My first quartet contest experience was great. i couldn't ask for anything to be better. My first time and I come home with a medal. It was fun. No stress. It was great. Yea Takin' a Chance. Thanks for a great experience. You guys are great. :)

Tomorrow is back to the same old, same old. Spring Break is over, school starts again. None of us are looking forward to it. I am sure it will be fine. I just hope I can get over my tiredness.

Good Luck, Jen and Michelle, this weekend at your other quartet contest. I know you will be awesome.

Ohhhh, I had way too much stuff to bring so I didn't bring my camera. I think Lindsay has a few pictures, maybe. I don't even know if we have a picture of my quartet with out medals. :( I will try and post one of me with mine tomorrow and I will see what Lindsay has. There were some professional pictures taken, but I am sure I won't have those for a while.

Wish Me Luck!

2009-03-26T09:49:00.003-05:00

I am about to be on my way to Chattanooga for our Regional Singing Competition. It's my first time competing in a quartet, so wish me luck! See ya next week!

P.S. I took the boys to the dentist this morning. Still no cavities! Yea boys!

From Bed, to Table, to Car...

2009-03-22T20:11:00.008-05:00

Two weeks pass with no blog, but this one is full of stuff, you won't be disappointed. :)

Things have been a little bit crazy around here.

I started working full time teaching a 2nd grade class while the teacher is on maternity leave. We all fell into the schedule pretty well. It sure does eat up your time to work full time! I feel like the days go by at light speed and I never have enough time to do everything. It's all going well though. The class is pretty good, and we have all adjusted well. This week is Spring Break, so we will all get a little break.

So let's get on to the good stuff!

Last weekend we went to look for a new bed for Avery. Yes, he is still in a toddler bed. What can I say, he's a little runt. He is finally growing though, plus he is about to be 5 years old, so it's time for a big bed. We spent all day Saturday looking for a bed, but instead, came home with a new table. LOL! I just couldn't find anything I really liked at a decent price. Craigslist has some good deals so we are trying to hold out for something on there. While we were at one store though, AJ found the table I have been looking for and it just happened to be on major clearance. So home went the table. No bed yet. Sam is sad that he doesn't get a new bed, so we are giving him a new bedroom. His bedroom is really the den. It has double doors, no closet, etc. He has an armoire, but it isn't holding his clothes very well, and I was trying to figure out how to get him a better closet. Well, we have a bedroom that is never used, basically it is just storage, so we are going to move him in there this week. The den will just be the storage room for a while. We really need all new furniture. We still have the cheap furniture we bought when we first got married. It is falling apart and just no good. So that is our goal, to replace what we have now, too bad, it's pretty much all the furniture in the house. That will take a while.

This past week I have been busy getting ready for my singing competition. On Tuesday night, we had a quartet runthrough night, where all the competing quartets got to come and run there sets in front of an audience. So AJ was going to take the kids to the church with him, while I went to that. When he got home from work we switched cars, he took mine with the car seat, and I took his. On my way the car started making a loud, terrible noise. I was about to get off the exit, so I kept going, trying to make it. All of a sudden, it felt like something fell off the car, smoke started flowing out the back, and I had to pull over. We knew this would be happening soon, it has been having problems for a couple months, we were just trying to hold out until summer to get a new car. Anyway, I called AJ, he told me that the car probably threw a rod, which means dead engine. Thankfully, I was pretty close to my friend's house so she came and got me and we went on to the quartet thing. AJ called a tow truck, borrowed a car from someone at church, and we went from there. It's funny how it happened when I was driving, since I rarely drive his car. Geez. Thankfully, it happened when it did. It was the best situation it could have been, for being a yucky situation. At least it didn't happen as I was driving home that night after 11pm. There is now a 4 inch hole in the engine block, and the car is definitely dead. A little sooner than we wanted, but oh well. At least we were almost there money wise, since we knew it was going to happen, and have been saving.

So we went from looking for a bed, to buying a table, and now onto cars. I wonder what next weekend will bring? A new house? LOL! I don't think so.

Saturday we spent most of the day car shopping. We drove several cars and went several places. We didn't think we were going to get one this weekend, because we couldn't find anything with low miles at a good price for us. We decided to go to one more place and that's where we found it. We bought a 2005 Chevy Trailblazer. It's nice, runs great, and we won't have to worry about it for quite a while. Since AJ drives 70 miles to and from work each day, we needed something reliable, and we got it. Let's hope gas isn't too bad. He wanted something bigger because of all the camping and scouting stuff he does, so we tried to go with what he liked, that worked out in all the other ways we needed it to.

Sam had his first Pinewood Derby for scouts yesterday. He loved it. AJ and him made a very simple car. Sam picked out the design, they painted it green, and that's about it. Well, he won every single race!! He is his troops champion! Sam and his friend, Adam (the 2nd place winner) get to go on to the District Championship races. He was so excited! He also made us very proud, but telling each person he raced with, that they did a good job and that it was a good race. He had very good sportmanship, with no coaching from us. What a good boy we have. Go Sam! Troop Pinewood Derby winner! Yippee!

Putting his car on the track

Winning a race

Racing

Cute Avery

Silly Avery

Excited Sam

The big Winner!

This week we have a lot going on. My singing competition is this weekend. I will be competing for the first time in the quartet competition. Yikes! AJ has a backpacking trip this weekend too. We both leave Thursday and are gone all weekend. The kids are going to be having fun at various sleepovers and friend's houses.

Oh yeah, and I was in the newspaper again this year for Singing Valentines. I rock! LOL!

Anyway, that's what's been going on with us. Pretty crazy! Hopefully next week will be calm with no big purchases looming!

Quick Update

2009-03-09T16:21:00.002-05:00

It's been too long. This still has to be quick. I have no time.

Last week I ended up with the flu. Terrible, terrible flu. I even went to the doctor, which I try hard not to do. I was so sick. He told me it was the worst strain of the flu you could have and all medicines were resistant to it. It started with a cough on Tuesday, and even today, Monday, I am still weak, my legs feel like jello, I want to sleep like you wouldn't believe, and I feel gross. Having the flu made me miss my very first day of subbing full-time for that teacher on maternity leave. I went to work today though. It wasn't too bad. The kids didn't feel good either, so we all went and suffered today.

Sam went to a fun sleepover at a hotel this weekend. He got to swim, play games, and spend the night. He loved it. Then he got to go to the zoo with Lindsay. We were trying to keep him out of the sick house. Avery and I both were sick, Avery had croup. Sam's allergies are really bothering him though, so in his own way, he is sick too.

Anyway, things will be fast-paced and busy from now on. I am working full-time so I have to figure out how to put all my normal duties in much fewer hours. Anyway, I have to go make dinner. See ya next time!

Owwww!

2009-02-21T14:09:00.002-06:00

So yeah, I am so sore today, I want to scream every time I move. I will fill you in on that in a minute.

This week was pretty slow. I actually only worked one half day and that's it! What a miracle! Monday there was no school. We went to the library and played at the park and that's it. The rest of the week went ok. Thursday I subbed for Sam's class. That night I had quartet practice. We had a good night and really cleaned things up. Competition is in one month! Yikes! I came home after that and just as I was drifting to sleep at 11:30, Sam came in and told me he had thrown up everywhere. Yeah, not what you want to be woken up to. He had thrown up a TON (yes, gross I know. Throw up always is.) all over his bed. Thank goodness we have an extra bedroom. We got that all cleaned up and he was feeling perfectly normal. He had been fine before that as well. He had complained one time that he didn't feel good, but that was after eating a cookie decorated with tons of junk, so I figured his tummy just didn't like all that junk. Well, he woke up Friday not feeling good at all and had a fever of 100.3. Darn it, no school. He hates missing school, so it is a big deal. Geez, he was just sick last week. He was fine all day though, no more throwing up, and didn't feel sick anymore before lunchtime. Weird.

I went ahead and took Avery to school. About 9:00, I get a call from school. I figured they either needed me to come in and sub or Avery had started throwing up. Nope, him and another kid had ran into each other and bonked their heads. Avery's head apparently was pretty bad so they called me. He actually let them put ice on it for 5 minutes and I think it helped because you can barely see anything today. He hurts his head all the time, so it didn't surprise me at all.

Since I was home and not able to go anywhere yesterday, I decided to paint my kitchen and dining room. I was with Lindsay the other day, picking out paint for her house. Just as we were leaving we walked by the Oops paint and they had 2 gallons of the color I want to paint my house in, and it was half off. Woohoo! I got it and have been ready to paint ever since. So I started painting at 8:30 in the morning and got done at 8:30 last night. Yes, that was a long time, but really those 2 rooms are huge, plus I like it to look good so I don't just hurry up and get it done. :) I knew I would be sore today, so I really stretched out my neck, shoulders, and arms last night. Well, that helped. They are only moderately sore. My legs and butt on the other hand are so not ok! Obviously I use my butt to paint. Who would've thought! So I did no stretching of that area and I am seriously dying today.

I had to go to Choreography rehearsal this morning, which actually wasn't too bad. After that I went shopping with some of my quartet to complete our competition costume. Even then it wasn't so bad. After that I made the mistake of going with the boys to a restaurant for lunch. Sitting there for an hour was definitely not a smart idea. When I got up from the table, tears filled my eyes. Man, it REALLY hurts!! Moving even the slightest bit is seriously killing me. I was going to do a deep cleaning of the house today, but that is so not going to happen. Owwwwww.

So I will be sitting here in agony all day. Feel sorry for me. :) I hope tomorrow is better. I have to give a lesson in church. Hopefully I will be able to stand.

Vday

2009-02-15T14:40:00.002-06:00

So, wanna see what I got for Valentine's day???

Just kidding, I didn't really get that FOR Valentine's Day, we just got it ON Valentine's day.

You might remember this, but several months ago, Avery and his friend, Trey, decided it was fun to throw toys down the toilet upstairs. They really broke the toilet, and although we tried to fix it, etc. the toilet has been unusable all this time. It really hasn't been that big a deal, because we do have 3 other toilets in the house, and it is one less for me to clean, but we found one on sale yesterday, so we went ahead and got it. It still cost us over $200, but at least that is one thing I can mark off the list. $200 for a toilet! That is something I don't want to spend money on! Anyway, now the fun part of installing it. I wonder if that will be done soon or if it will take months to do that. ;)

Anyway, yesterday was pretty low key. We just hung out at home. I really didn't want anything for Valentine's day, I never do (which drives AJ crazy), but why waste money on flowers that die, chocolate I don't need, or jewelry that I don't wear? Might as well buy a toilet that we will definitely use, right?! LOL! So AJ bought me chocolate and that's it. I am glad. Doesn't bother me at all. I stayed home all day, AJ went to Lowe's and some car places (his car is falling apart and he needed more parts), and that's about it. After the kids were in bed, I pulled out the fondue pot and we had yummy fruit and chocolate, while we watched the movie, Fireproof. We loved it. It is a great movie, that you should definitely see if you are married. This is one movie we will actually buy, only when it goes on sale, of course. :) Did I mention I hate spending money??? Anyway, I thought it was the perfect Valentine's Day.

Nothing really new going on, so I guess that's the end of this post.

Oh wait, I forgot. I have been sick all week with a terrible cold. I could barely talk, I definitely couldn't breath, and it was just terrible. One night I dreamed that I was drowning, which woke me up, only to have me find that I really was drowning, in snot. Gross, I know, but I couldn't breath AT ALL. It was terrible. Anyway, Friday I was supposed to go out with my quartet and deliver Singing Valentines. I kept getting worse and worse all week, and thought that I surely would not be able to, but every day I practiced and I could still sing just fine. I could barely talk, and sounded terrible, but singing was a piece of cake. Weird how that works. I guess I should have just sung everything all week so people didn't have to listen to me. Anyway, the day went great, except I had some of my most stupid moments. Everyone loved their Valentines, and it was fun. So other than losing my phone and freaking out, AND losing my drivers license and freaking everyone else out ( I NEVER lose things, this was very unShauna-like)we made lots of people happy, so that is all that mattered.

OK, now this should be the end of this post. Bye!

Where I've Been

2009-02-09T11:38:00.005-06:00

The past 2 weeks we have been busy doing this

this

this

and now we are dealing with this

Sam had to do a salt map project on a state. He picked Florida. It took a lot of work, but it's done and looks good. Have I mentioned that I hate school projects? I do, I really do. Really, what's the point of them?? A fun way for the kids to learn something so they remember? Hmmm, they aren't much fun, and really do you remember any projects you did in Elementary School? I don't. Yeah, I really dislike projects. :)

We have our big Regional Competition coming up for singing. Yeah, the one where I am competing in a quartet. Me, up there with just 3 other girls, being judged. Yikes! So I have been working hard to make sure I at least get judged well. I hope!

I also did a photo shoot where I get a little carried away with the pictures, and ended up taking a TON. It took many hours to process all the pictures and do all my cool stuff to them. It was fun though. I love making cool things happen with the camera. It was just time consuming and a lot of work. I hope they love them though. :)

Finally, Sam is sick once again. Saturday he went to a friend's house. After he came home he complained of a headache, about an hour later his throat started hurting. Then he got a temp of 101.4. The two of us stayed home from church, where he continued to get worse. Finally, last night his temp got up to 103.9. We figured he had strep, and AJ went to work to get a Strep test. I did the test, and yep, positive. He is on antibiotics now, and should be doing much better tomorrow. Geez, we are a family of strepaholics.

Of course, his project was due today, I was supposed to sub, there was a yummy chocolate bar at school for the teachers today, which I am missing, and Sam feels terrible. Let's hope it skips Avery and I. AJ caught it as well, but he caught it early, so he won't be feeling as bad as Sam.

Hopefully, it won't be 2 weeks until my next post.

Oh, I agreed to do the maternity leave of a teacher March-May. It is 8 weeks long, so I will be working every day. Whew! Don't know how to do that really, I haven't been a working mom for a LONG time. How do I go grocery shopping, do laundry, clean the house??? We'll see how that turns out. I might be very grumpy by the end. LOL!

Party Day

2009-01-25T18:30:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was a day of partying.

The morning started out with me going to Zumba (which is a party by itself ;) and AJ taking the boys to a swimming party for a boy at church. They hadn't swam in quite a while so that was fun for them. As soon as they got home we went to Kinley's party. We went skating. Yea, I love skating. Really!

The kids had a great time and skated a ton, more than they ever had before. They both did really good, and ended up doing better and better as the night went on. Sam ended up falling a few times and he hurt is wrist pretty bad. It is still really hurting him today, and he can't put any pressure on it. Should be fun for school tomorrow... Avery said, " I fell a hundred times, I'm really bad. Can we do it again tomorrow?" They both want to go back next Saturday. We'll see.

After that we went to dinner with Kinley and family. It wasn't very good at all, but oh well. It was eating out, which we hadn't done in quite a while.

Then we went to their house, had cake, and watched Kinley open presents. We just hung out there for a while and then came home and went to bed. Fun day!

I worked some this week and did a lot of errands and stuff the other days. I got asked to be the substitute for a teacher going on maternity leave. It is for 2 months. I haven't decided yet if I am going to take it. That's a long time. I like being able to be off when I want to be. ;) We'll see.

Anyway, here are the pictures I took. There aren't many because I was mostly out there skating right along with the kids. :)

Sam waiting for the races to be done.

Lindsay taking 5 minutes to send one text. LOL! ;)-

Birthday Girl and her Mommy

Birthday Girl

Sam on the Go

Kinley Skating

Autumn Wiping her Snotty Nose

Avery Going

Go Avery!

Valentine's Day Idea

2009-01-22T10:38:00.002-06:00

If you need an idea for Valentine's Day I have one for you. :)

My chorus, www.tunetownshowchorus.org, is doing Singing Valentines again this year. I am singing in one of the quartets on that Friday and would love to come sing for you.

So here are the details.

On Friday and Saturday, February 13-14, TuneTown quartets will fan out across Nashville and surrounding areas to deliver Singing Valentines to special loved ones. Songs of devotion will ring out in offices, homes, restaurants, schools, factories, bowling alleys and nursing homes and romantics will get one of the most unique experiences possible.

Choose from four musical packages to be delivered either Friday (2/13) or Saturday (2/14):

“The Sweetheart” - $50.00…delivery between 8am-8pm
“On the Wings of Love” - $60.00…delivery within a 4-hour window
“Straight to the Heart” - $70.00…delivery within a 30-minute window
“Across the Miles” - $20.00 …A singing quartet will call your long distance Valentine and deliver your valentine over the phone.

A TuneTown Singing Valentine starts at $50 and includes a love song in close four-part harmony, plus a gift of Valentine’s candy with a card. Men and women alike are on the receiving end -- with often surprising results.

To place your order for a valentine gift your Sweetheart will never forget, visit our website at www.tunetownshowchorus.org or call (615) 360-6375.

Injury

2009-01-16T15:14:00.003-06:00

Guess I'm in a blogging mood now! LOL! 3 posts in one day! Wow!

Yesterday I was subbing for 3rd grade. Avery gets out earlier than the rest of the school so his teachers bring him to me at the end of the day. It was dismissal time so things were a little bit crazy. All of a sudden, I heard a crash, turned around, and kids were surrounding Avery and he was getting up off the floor. Next to him was one of the chairs that had been put up on top of the desk. He was crawling under the desk, his head hit the chair, and made it fall, right on to his finger! It landed right on the tip of his middle finger. He was hurt bad. It instantly swelled and turned purple and I wondered if it was broken. It was time for me to take the kids to the buses so I had to leave him (Sam was with him and he had calmed down some)so I ran the kids out and ran back to class, where he was still crying. It was sad, and I felt bad for him. I had him wiggle his fingers and move his hand around and he could move everything fine. After a couple more minutes he had stopped crying. I finished up at school and then we came home. He said it wasn't even hurting anymore and he could move them fine. 5 minutes later he was climbing on the shelves in the pantry trying to get a snack (yes, he is all boy), so obviously it was feeling better. He cried about it a few more times that night, we put some frozen corn on it, gave him so motrin, etc. He is perfectly fine today, although it looks terrible, and looks like it should really hurt.

Here are some pictures of his injured finger. Yuck! They don't really do it justice, his finger is really swollen compared to the others, but you get the picture. Ouch!