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Monday, May 28, 2007

The Yard Sale

My parents are out visiting for a week and a half, so I expect that I won't blog much, but I had to put this in here.
Saturday, close to noon, we all decided we'd like to go garage saling. We started with one down our block where I found kids hangers for 50 cents. Then we walked to one a couple blocks over where we found a weed eater for Colin and a Mexican train set to go with dominoes, boy is that fun! Ian loves that it has a button you push and then it sounds like a train. Then we went to a couple more yard sales. At the last yard sale we found some books, binoculars for Ian, some kitchen stuff, toys for Ian and a nutcracker. I paid 13 dollars for all of it. I came home and looked up the nutcracker on the internet. It's worth around 200 dollars. There had been another one, too. So Colin went back and bought the other one. We still haven't found the second nutcracker online yet, but both of them were made in West Germany.
You never know what you'll find at a yard sale!

Saturday, May 19, 2007

T-ball Opening Ceremony

Well, Ian has his first t-ball game today at 1:00. This morning we had the opening ceremony at 10:30. We got there a little early. Good thing we did, they started a few minutes early! They sang the National anthem and the boys got to learn that they take their hats off when that is sung. Then they introduced the teams. They introduced the kids just a little bit older than Ian's group first and then they got to the t-ball teams.
Each player was introduced individually by their coach and they ran either to home plate or first base (depending on what their coach had told them) and stopped and waited for the whole team and then they would leave as a team. Well, Ian was the first player introduced on his team. He ran from the field to home plate. He paused just a second and as the next player is being introduced, he ran to first base, paused a second and ran to second base and third and home again. I think there were two or three other players on home plate by this time. He definitely made us chuckle and I heard a few other chuckles from the crowd. It was pretty cute. Leave it to my son to do something not quite right, but totally adorable!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Squeeze

Have you ever planned your week, had it mapped out, down to the finest detail? I'm talking about one of those weeks where every day has several activities for multiple members of your family. You know the kind of week I'm talking about. Busy and no room for flexing. Kind of like this week for me. I had each day planned. Especially Thursday. That's the day I'm doing a craft workshop at 7 pm in a town 40 miles away. Before I do that, Ian has tumbling from 3:30-5pm. I had it planned, childcare figured out, my ducks in a row. Then it happened. The squeeze. The phone call that set creative juggling into motion.
Ian and I were reading together when the phone ran. I wanted to finish what I was doing and judging by the time of day, I assumed it was Colin and I could call him back. I assumed wrong.
It was Ian's T-ball coach calling to let us know that Thursday night at 6:15 pm they were going to have team pictures and get their uniforms for Saturdays game. Panic set in. Anger,(I never take classes, why does this have to be on the same night?) I called Colin. We tried to think creatively. Colin thought 'maybe our neighbors could take him and watch him for a few minutes until he got home'. Nope, not a good choice, they're in their eighties and we don't know them THAT well. Next idea: I could buy a jet. I'd be able to make it to both things, no sweat. Nope, I don't know how to fly a jet and with gas prices, I'd have to sell the house to fuel up the tank.
Then Colin said "I'd have to leave work really early to be home in time to take Ian to that."
Then I thought, 'I wonder just how early, he'd really have to leave?' Oh , I said it out loud, too! So I checked and it wasn't too bad. He'd have to leave around 3:15 and he'd be home by 5 pm. I could drop them off and they could ride their bikes home, unless it's raining and then, hopefully they can beg a ride home from the coach or some other sympathetic soul.
So I think we've managed to squeeze it in as long as Colin's work approves the early leave. Hopefully, no one else will call and try to add another event to this week. If they do, we'll wow them with our creative thinking!

The Last MOPS

One of my friends wanted to know why this was going to be my last MOPS meeting, so I thought I'd explain here, just in case anyone else was wondering. I know, I know, some of you know exactly why this is my last MOPS meeting. So you can skip reading this, or just read it because you have nothing better to do at the moment, your choice. On with the answer.
To start: MOPS stands for Mother Of PreSchoolers. It is an international organization whose goal is to help moms and to spread the gospel. There are MOPS groups all over the US and abroad as well. You can look up a MOPS group in your neighborhood at www.mops.org. MOPS is run entire by mothers of preschoolers. It's sponsored usually by a church,but run exclusively by mommies.
I said I had been attending for 5 1/2 yrs.,but I think it's closer to six. My first year, I went just as a mommy to attend the meetings. My 2ND, 3rd and 4Th years I was a table leader and my 5Th year I was the table leader coordinator on the steering committee. This year, I attended just as a mommy again, kind of a full circle thing, I guess.
Alas, as it is with most good things, at some point they must come to an end. As of this year I will no longer be considered a mother of a preschool aged child. Ian will be in 1st grade next year and the age limit is birth-kindergarten. So I am "graduating" I guess you might say. It's been a great experience, I've learned a lot, made new friends, grew.
I could always help out with the Moppets program or return in a few years (read 10 or more) as a mentor mom. So there you have a very long explanation for a very simple question. Check out MOPS...it's really cool!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The Bug Spanker

While I was on the phone this afternoon with my mom, Ian came into the room and asked if he could have the bug spanker. My mom thought he wanted some bug spray(she could only hear him a little bit), but I was pretty sure I knew what he wanted. I decided to ask him anyway "a bug spanker?".
"Yes," he told me," you know that thing you get bugs with. I'm going to get it and hit the bug and SMASH it up!"
As you might have guessed, what he was really looking for was a fly swatter, but I think bug spanker is a creative name for it!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Feeling Better, sort of

Well the antibiotics are working. I'm feeling so much better than last Monday. I still have a yucky throat, but not all the time. I think this might be the first cold I've had in at least three years that won't take two weeks or more to get over. Hooray!
This is going to be a busy week. Tomorrow is the only day I'll be staying home. Wednesday I'll be out the door early to get my allergy shots(if I'm well enough by then), go to work, meet up with Colin after work and take Ian to the last Awana meeting this school year. Thursday we have tumbling (early to make up what we missed when Ian was sick) and then we head into town so I can take a fun craft class. Friday is my last official MOPS meeting, I've gone since Ian was 5 months old, that's 5 1/2 years. Doesn't seem that long. Saturday is Ian's first t-ball game and then he's spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa so we can try date night: take 2 (Ian got sick the last time we tried). Sunday is church, Ian's last swimming lesson, the fun fair and the Awana awards ceremony at five. I'm tired just thinking about this week. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun, hopefully, I'll stay healthy through all this.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Not Allergies, Strep

Well, yesterday I found out that one of the little boys that I nanny has strep throat. Which means that I was exposed to strep last Wednesday(he was home from school). When I heard that I had a sneaking suspicion that my "allergy problem" might be strep. This same little boy gave me strep in November and I ended up missing Thanksgiving. The last time I thought I had a sinus infection and waited too long to check with the Dr. It took me almost a month to get over that.
So based on my previous experience and the fact that my throat had been hurting off and on (and it really felt crummy this morning), I made an appointment to see my family doctor to get tested for strep.
The nurse took down all my information about what symptoms I had been having and of course the fact that I had been exposed to strep.
The doctor came in took a look at my info, my throat, my nose and said "We don't need to bother with the test, I'll get you started on an antibiotic right away."
So I am supposed to rest, rest, rest and drink plenty of fluids. Hopefully, I will be well, well, well very soon.
We also took Ian to see the doctor about his lingering cough, but he said that Ian just has a cold and should be getting better soon. I hope he's right. My parents are coming to visit in less than two weeks and I don't want to be sick when they're here!

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Allergy Shot Blues

Well, the allergy shots got me. I went in Monday morning feeling pretty good. I had my shot and waited my half and hour. Still feeling good. I went outside and saw that they had just mowed the grass in front of my van (grass pollens are one of my allergies). 2 1/2- 3 hours later I started feeling achy and really hot. It was a warm day, so I thought that might be it, but it didn't go away. By the time I got home I was feeling very crummy and had a temperature over 101. I also have some serious sinus stuff going on.
I'm hoping that everyone will pray for me, that I'll get over this quickly. It's really zapping me. I've already decided that I don't feel well enough to go to my Bible study tomorrow and Ian isn't going to Awana (he's still barking and dripping, too). Boy was he cranky tonight, everything sent him into tears, which generally means, he's not feeling well. Please pray for us to feel better.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Mean Mommy and The Past Week

Several people have pointed out that I have not blogged much lately. Sad, but true. I have been busy. I recently started allergy shots so that means that I am not home in the mornings on Monday and Wednesday like I was before (that's when I did some of my blogging). The allergy shots are going okay, no big reactions yet.
Tuesday night I did something that I thought was mean, but necessary. With Colin's help we boxed up all the toys in Ian's room and put them in the garage. His room was an absolute pit, I wish I had taken pictures of it so you could appreciate how truly horrid it was. We did leave Ian's train table in his room (no trains or track, though). We also left his stuffed animals, but we put them in the cubbies we had put in his closet for toys and we left the books that he had in the cubbies. We put a few of Ian's big toys up high on the shelves in his closet, but for the most part, all of it is in the garage. We told Ian he has to ask to have toys brought in and he may have one group of toys at a time (trains, hot wheels, pirate ship, etc).
Since we cleaned his room, we were able to vacuum the carpet in his room, make his bed, rearrange a little furniture and add a comfy chair to read bedtime stories in. When we finished Ian's room looked wonderful. It only took two adults two hours to get it all clean. I felt like a mean mommy, but when we showed the bedroom to Ian he didn't throw a fit about not having his toys in his room, he thanked us for making his room so nice and told us he loved it. So much for being mean, sounds like somebody wanted a boundary put in place.
Now if you think that was drastic keep in mind we had tried everything else, we had bought nice bins to put all his toys in and set up cubbies for the bins. I threw one of the bins away when we were cleaning Ian's room, because he had thrown it on the floor with all his toys and it was broken. We had tried threatening a punishment if he didn't clean his room, we had tried rewards for cleaning his room, but he was overwhelmed by the massiveness of his mess and nothing got done. This is working much better. Ian still has toys to play with and he now cleans them up and has a nice clean room.
Well, I guess this is going to be a very long blog to get you caught up. So let's see the rest of the week. Wednesday was Awana and Bible Study. Only two more weeks of that to go. Ian finished his workbooks the week before, but I had him say a verse anyway.
Thursday our dryer decided that it should sound more like a small aircraft in action than a nice quiet dryer and then it smelled like it was overheating and since not too long ago it had left dark marks on some of our sheets, I declared it out of action until it could be repaired or replaced. We ended up replacing it yesterday with a used Kenmore Super Capacity dryer that we bought from a listing on Craig's list. It's great!
Thursday was also a big cooking day for me. I made hash brown casserole to take to MOPS Friday morning, I made a batch of chili for Colin to take to his office for a Cinco De Mayo chili cook off (I won). I made cookies (chocolate chip with peanuts in them...pretty good) and I made BBQ Brisket for dinner.
Friday morning I rode in to work with Colin, went to church where MOPS meets, put my casserole in the oven to bake and headed over to Firestone to drop off our van to see why the horn and the cruise control weren't working, went back to MOPS and put out my casserole when it had finished baking (it lasted only about 15 min. and when I saw that it was empty and took it off the table, the pan was still very warm!)
We made really cool safety pin watches at MOPS (see picture at the side) and I liked them so much that I'm going to make some for gifts. Colin thinks I should make some to sell.
Yesterday we cleaned house had our friend Hayley and her boys over for lunch and for the boys to play. Ian also had T-ball and still has a nasty cough.
He woke up this morning with a loud barking cough so we stayed home and he isn't going outside today. Hopefully, this will clear up soon.
Well I think you're pretty well caught up now. Talk to you later! Check out the new pictures I posted.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Plans and Changes

Well, this past weekend we had big plans. Friday we would have homemade pizza and family movie night (which we did) and Saturday, Ian would go to Grandma and Grandpa's to spend the night while Mommy and Daddy got to have a date night(which didn't happen). The first part of our plan went well we had beef and onion pizza (yum!) and watched A Night At The Museum (very funny) and had a great time. I did notice that Ian had started having a very runny nose and a little cough.
Saturday morning rolled around and it was obvious that Ian was not going to be able to go to t-ball practice or spend the night anywhere but at home with Mommy and Daddy. Colin was very disappointed (I was disappointed ,too, but it comes with being a mommy).
Saturday turned out beautiful, warm and sunny, so we visited a local farm where they make cheese from their cows' and goats' milk. We didn't stay too long and then we went on a crazy driving adventure.
The driving adventure started innocently enough...Colin looking at maps of the area online. He spotted a road that he believed would lead him from the road the farm was on (on the west side of our town)to the Lake on the east side of our town.
Good intentions, but they didn't quite work out. First we took the road that Colin thought might get us to the lake. It was out in the country and it was so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes, but, alas, it ended up turning into a very little traveled dirt road that looked muddy and posed a potential for getting stuck.
So we turned around and went back to the road where we had started, stopped at a yard sale and Colin got some advice on a different road. Back to the adventure, again. We were now traveling on a local lumber company's access roads. Lots of gravel, one lane, no shoulder up and up into the hills. It felt like the mountains, we could see forever. It was very beautiful, but it led nowhere. We ended up at another dead end and turned around and discovered we were in an area where they were dropping trees (on Saturday). We couldn't get out of that area fast enough for me. We discovered that although the map had shown that you could get to the lake taking these back roads, the did not show the gates that the timber company had that were closed so we couldn't get to where we wanted to go. We headed out the way we came in enjoying the beauty God had created and getting the van muddy.
We came home and Colin washed the van before all the mud could dry. What an adventure!