Okay, I’m a Slacker!

It’s been way too long since I’ve updated my blog. Silly me, I let the holidays and everyday life get in the way of writing about everyday life and the holidays. It’s not that nothing has happened, on the contrary, lots has happened since my last ramblings. Here’s the gist of what we’ve been up to since October.

For Halloween we had a Hannah Montana, Pirate Princess, and JoJo the clown. Trevor was a good sport and dressed up as a pirate as well and I wore my usual witch costume to hand out candy. It was a chilly, drizzly night but the girls had fun.

My birthday was in November and was uneventful. I turned 37 this year. Along with my birthday came the news that the husband’s company was going to shut down at the first of the year. Thus began the mad scramble to figure out finances, etc. My family came to the rescue in more ways than one and while I hated to ask, it felt good knowing they were there for us.

Thanksgiving brought about a nice afternoon and evening with the  in-laws. It was a perfectly laid back holiday and I enjoyed it so much. My sister-in-law decided I needed to read the Twilight series. Yes, I’m behind the times. I’m on the 4th book now and not looking forward to it ending. Of course I still have the movies to look forward to. Go team Edward!

December was a whirlwind of shopping, work and vacation. I got to take the last two weeks of the year off work this year and it was nice to hang with my girls. But I’m happy to be back at work having adult conversations and not yelling at my children to stop fighting.

Christmas was better than we expected because we got the news that the husband’s company was saved and he still had a job! The girls were spoiled yet we felt like we didn’t overspend too much this year thanks to generous friends, good sales and Craigslist. I also became the owner of a new to me 2000 Subaru Outback courtesy of my parents. It is now my commuter car and is quite zippy as well as more economical than our Tahoe. We still have the Tahoe for weekends when all five of us need to go somewhere.

So, that’s what has been up with us. I promise to update more regularly now that the schedule is getting back to normal again.

Busted!

I got home from work Wednesday night and walked in to a very excited husband and daughter telling me I had to watch the news. So they hit rewind to get to the specific story they wanted me to see. Seems there had been a big drug bust across the street from Maddie’s school that day. Now, I’m not naive. I know our town isn’t the greatest and we have gangs and drug dealers in our neck of the woods. But ACROSS the street from an elementary school! At the intersection where children cross to get to the school! A short 4-5 blocks from my house! That’s kind of disturbing.

And this wasn’t just some little old pot house. No, it was a distribution center for a violent Mexican drug cartel! This was a federal bust with arrests made in several states. They found meth, cocaine and of course guns. The good news is that the feds believe they have crippled the cartel’s presence in the US.

I do have to commend the way this was handled with the school. On Tuesday, Maddie told me they had all been instructed on what to do in case of a lockdown. They weren’t told there would be one or that anything usual would be going on the next day. Maddie said they did it just like any other drill. On Wednesday, the children were simply told to stay away from the windows and the bust happened while everyone was kept inside the building. Maddie didn’t even know what had happened until after she had already left school for the day. So obviously the school was given advance warning and the opportunity to ensure the children were kept safe in case anything went wrong.

We took the opportunity to talk to Maddie about drugs Wednesday night. How do you talk to a 7-year old about drugs? We kept it simple. I told her there a good drugs you take when you’re sick and there are bad drugs that people sell to make money and those are illegal. The bad drugs mess up your body. We told her that she should only ever take drugs that the doctor gives her or that we say are okay. We left it at that for now. I imagine one day she’ll ask if Trevor or I have ever done drugs. I’m not sure yet how we’ll answer that one, I guess the truth is really the way to go though.

We’re on our way!

After 7+ years, we are finally on our way to being diaper free! Last night Ainslie, who is 28 months old, used the potty not once but TWICE! There was a lot of celebrating at our house last night. Even the big sisters got in on the act. Apparently daycare has really started pushing the potty training and she is taking to it like a duck to water. Yesterday she had only one wet pull-up all day long. I can’t even tell you how thrilled I am with this. This weekend we’ll be giving the old training pants a try since we’ll be home most of the time. There’s a good chance she could be in big girl panties by Monday. My baby is becoming a big girl. It’s a little bitter-sweet, but I sure won’t miss changing those diapers!

The Flu

The flu hit our house this weekend. It started with Maddie coming home Friday complaining of a headache and low and behold she had a low grade fever starting. She was on the upswing by Sunday but unfortunately, I was on the downswing. After staying home for two days because I could not get my fever down, I finally woke up today with a normal temperature! I can’t remember the last time I was semi-excited to go to work. Daytime television just plain sucks. And not having energy to do anything more than necessary makes for a really boring day at home alone.

So now that I’m back in the office the questions from my co-workers have started. Are you better? Um, yeah I wouldn’t be back at work if I didn’t feel better. What did you have? The flu, I think. Was it swine flu? I don’t know and I don’t really care. Apparently I’m not as worked up about the whole H1N1 thing as others seem to be. I didn’t go to the doctor, I didn’t even call them. Why risk infecting others or making myself worse by going anywhere while I was sick! I had a fever that hit 102. I had a cough, congestion, headache and chills. Whatever it was, it sucked and I’m glad it didn’t last any longer than it did but it certainly wasn’t life threatening for either Maddie or myself. Now, if I can just keep the rest of my family from getting it I’ll be happy.

I’m off to sanitize my desk, phone and keyboard now! Stay well everyone!

Family Traditions

Last Saturday was beautiful here in the PNW so we decided it was a good day for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Every year we go to Bob’s Corn (www.bobscorn.net). And they have yet to disappoint us. Bob and his family and friends run a top notch production. The pumpkin patch was full of a great variety of pumpkins of all sizes and shapes. We had a really hard time choosing the perfect ones because they were all so good looking. Ainslie had a fun time picking up every baseball sized pumpkin she could find and loading them into the wagon. Maddie and I had an equally fun time tossing them back into the patch when Ainslie wasn’t looking. We did let her keep two of her prized specimens since they fell into the $1 category. We came away with 5 pumpkins total that are ready for carving or painting. One of them is the biggest one I think we’ve ever had!

The girls also enjoyed pony rides and a hay ride from the patch up to the barn where we played at the newly installed playground. Trevor even took a turn at Bob’s new toy, the corn cannon. New this year is also the cow train which our girls did not get to ride this time but we did have to promise that they could next time. We also picked up some deliciously juicy corn on the cob which we enjoyed with our dinner that night.

All in all, it was a great afternoon of pumpkin hunting and playing. It’s been really fun to watch Bob’s operation grow from just a pumpkin patch and corn field to what it is today. If you’re ever in our area in the autumn you have to go check it out. And no, Bob didn’t pay me or compensate me in any way to say that.

The Week In Review

What a busy week!

The two younger girls had school pictures on Tuesday, I’m told they did really well. They looked so cute in their new clothes too. Tori loved her sweater dress so much that she cried and refused to change her clothes after the pictures were done! When I picked her up she was still wearing it and it was even pretty clean!

Tori had her field trip to the pumpkin patch on Thursday. It’s all she’s talked about for a week straight. I had to get her her own lunch box and we talked about what she wanted to take for lunch. She requested a jelly sandwich, banana, chocolate milk and water if anyone cares. I threw in a chocolate chip cookie and a fruit roll-up for good measure since she’s been eating a lot lately. She went on a hay ride, played on the swings and had ice cream while there! And she picked out the cutest pumpkin that is just begging for a face to be painted on it or maybe we’ll stick it with Mr. Potato Head parts. Now she’s asking when her next field trip is. I pulled the old, “ask your teacher,” line.

Thursday we also had Maddie’s school curriculum night. We were late getting there because 6:00 pm is a really hard time for us to make it anywhere when we don’t even leave daycare until 5:15 if we’re lucky. And of course we had to go home, feed everyone and wait for the husband to get home to watch the two younger girls. Maddie was so disappointed that she only had 5 minutes to show me her classroom, desk and work before she had to head to the gym with the other children while the parents got to listen to the teacher present the curriculum.

I LOVE Maddie’s teacher this year. She is quite experienced, realistic, and most of all fun. This year’s teacher is much more experienced than the one we had for first grade and it shows.  I think we’re going to have a much better year than last year.

Tonight is family night, but the husband will be late so I don’t have a clue what the girls and I are going to do. Might be a good time to introduce them to “chick flicks”. Tomorrow we are headed to the pumpkin patch for our annual pumpkin hunt and fun at Bob’s Corn (www.bobscorn.net). We’ve been going to Bob’s since before Maddie was born. We love the family atmosphere there and Bob and his family are just plain awesome. When Trevor complains about having three daughters, I always tell him he doesn’t have it as bad as Bob. Bob has five daughters.

It’s sunny here in the PNW, but chilly and the winds are supposed to start blowing this weekend. I just love the cool, crisp autumn days here. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great weekend because we plan to!

A 4-year old’s perspective

Last Friday I signed my 4-year old up for a field trip to the pumpkin patch this week. I made the mistake of telling her about it. So yesterday when the hubby dropped the girls at daycare Tori was very upset when he reminded her that the field trip was not until Thursday. Apparently she thought it would be on Monday. So when I picked her up Monday evening I made sure to tell her that her field trip was in three days. She is so excited about this field trip that last night when the husband got home the first thing she said was, “Daddy, my field trip is in three days!” Then this morning, the first words out of her mouth were, “two more days until my field trip!” At least she’s getting the count-down right. That’s big for her. Now I just have to locate a lunch box for her to take. Not just any lunch box either, she wants a purple one. Sigh.

Why everyone needs a spare key.

The husband and I had another child-free night this past weekend. We dropped the girls off at the in-laws so that we could head to my Aunt’s retirement party on the other side of Puget Sound. When we dropped the girls off the in-laws suggested we just trade vehicles so they could take the girls to McDonald’s and since we were just planning to park the car and walk across the ferry, this worked great for us.

We attended the party and had a great time hanging out with the family. We caught the 11:10 ferry back home, picked up the in-laws minivan and headed home. About 40 minutes later we were home and looking forward to our bed when the hubby opened the front gate, turned and looked at me and said, “Do you have a house key in your purse?” CRAP! We left all the keys with the in-laws and the spare was locked snugly inside our house along with the dog and cats.

So, while I worked on the locks with a credit card and a hair clip (it works in the movies), the hubby got the ladder out and checked to see if our daughter’s window was unlocked as it often is. Not this time. We checked a few other windows that are known to have loose locks but nothing would budge. We tried the backdoor, nope that lock wouldn’t pop either. All the while the dog and cats are looking at us like we’re weird wondering why we’re not coming in.

Finally we decide we could break into the motorhome and just sleep there for the night. Then it dawns on me that I think I took out all the bedding when we returned from our camping trip so it could be washed. So finally we decide to call the in-laws and drive the 40 minutes back to get the key.

Finally around 2:30 am we were back home and in the house. Oh, and we had to pick up the girls by 9:00 am. Thankfully, hubby let me sleep while he went to pick up the girls.

Later in the day, the husband was putting some things away in the motorhome when he discovered there was bedding in there and we could have spent the night in there. Oh well. My bed was much more comfortable anyway.

This week, I will be going to have a few spare keys made. One of which will be kept in my purse for situations just like this. At least we learned our house is practically impossible to break into unless you actually break a window. Either that or we’d make really bad crooks.

Not So Healthy Eating

I recently came across a blog written by a woman whose teen was diagnosed with diabetes. Since I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to get my kids to eat healthy, I thought it was worth a look to see what she was doing about the special diet needs of her child. I was shocked to see that this woman was packing lunches for her teen that included Yoohoos, sodas, apples, carrots and candy bars. Talk about a lot of sugar! I cannot imagine there is a health professional or nutritionist out there who would think these are good things for a diabetic! The only green vegetable I saw in any of this child’s meals was celery. Yet this woman claims to have researched diets endlessly and she still thinks what she puts in the kid’s lunches is healthy. Who is she kidding except herself? I would hate to know what the kid was eating prior to the diabetes diagnosis.

All or Nothing

That title describes my middle daughter, Tori. Last night we treated the girls to dinner at McDonald’s. We haven’t taken them there in quite a while and they haven’t even been asking for it. Tori didn’t eat much of her happy meal and when I asked if she was full she told me her tummy hurt. I didn’t think much of it because she had been her usual bouncy and rambunctious self prior to eating.

After the girls ate we gave them 15-20 minutes to play in the play zone and they were all running around crazy with the place to themselves. When we went to leave Tori seemed just fine. When we got home a few minutes later she said her tummy hurt again. A palm to her head revealed that the kid had a fever. Out came the thermometer which confirmed a fever of 101! At that point she announced all she wanted to do was watch a movie in her room. PJs on and a movie on her TV and she was somewhat settled.

When I went to bed a few hours later she was still awake and still hot. I took her to our bed so that I could monitor her during the night. At about 1:30 am, she tossed, turned and mumbled something. I reached over and felt her forehead for the umpteenth time that night and it was nice and cool. We both drifted off into sound sleep after that. When she woke around 6:00 am I asked if she felt better. Her response was, “almost.” The poor kid was hungry! A big bowl of Cheerios and some toast and she was back to normal.

We sent her off to daycare and so far I’ve not had a phone call about a recurrence of the fever. I’m crossing my fingers that we’re over this short lived bug. Tori is never sick for long. I think her body realizes she has better things to do and just burns it out of her as quickly as possible.