The day has come

Today is the BIG day! DI Day! We had our final rehearsal yesterday and I don't think we are going to win but I don't think we will embarrass ourselves either. The kids are excited and I am nervous. We found out yesterday that the principal is coming so that adds come pressure. I am hopeful that the kids will rise to the occasion and knock it out of the park. I should be home by 2:00 with some feedback of how we did. They won't announce the winners until tonight but like I said above, no need to hold your breath on that one.

Will is still sick. He fell asleep by 8:00 last night. He continues to have a slight fever and complained of throat pain yesterday. The kid is going to forget what the outside world looks like. The furthest he has gone this week is to Sonic.

Speaking of the outside world... I didn't get to see much of it this week either. My week was pretty quiet and low key until last night. I was on my way to Game Stop with Nic to return some used games that the boys decided they didn't like or in one case, didn't work. My plan was to stop at Little Caesar's after the stop at Game Stop and pick up a cheese pizza and Crazy Bread for dinner. Well, my phone rang before I had made any of these stops, and it was my friend Sabrina. Last night was her daughter's birthday party and she was taking them to see the Jonas Brothers 3D Concert Movie. Well, she ended up with an extra ticket at the last minute and since she knows what a Jo Bro fan I am she called to see if I wanted to join her. No pause there, YES YES YES!

In reality I am not a HUGE Jo Bro fan but I thought the movie sounded fun and when Sabrina and I are together we laugh so much so I figured why not. Well, that caused a fast forward on the errand running and I still made it to the theater to watch ever single preview. And there were previews for every 3D movie coming out in the next year. By the way there are like 5. The biggest suspense of the night was when the Cinemark manager welcomed us to the show, that doesn't happen at regular movies. Sabrina told me that the Jonas Brothers were going to me showing up at random theaters to surprise some fans. They did not come to ours. The show was far from a sell-out and I absolutely should have brought ear plugs. The girls where screaming in pitches I don't think my ears have EVER been exposed to. It was loud but fun. The girls I went with didn't start dancing at their seats, they were only in 2nd grade, until near the end so I got to sit through it too.

A shout out to Sabrina for thinking of me. I did enjoy the movie and just giggling over the silliness of it. I felt like a real fuddy duddy when I saw some girls dancing in the space between the upper and lower theater seats and my first thought was... That is a fire hazard. Not that I called the Fire Marshall or anything, the thought just crossed my mind, as I looked for alternative exits in the event of something, anything, going wrong. By the way Sabrina I think out next adventure should be to find this house. It is the Jonas Brother's house somewhere near Dallas. I was hoping that if I drove you could bake something that might get us in the door. We can bring the birthday girl... or not.

Well, I should probably get cleaned up to start my day. It's gonna be on the stressful side until after lunch and then I can relax.

Wednesday Up-date

Well, I am still home with Will. He has his highs and lows throughout the day but is complaining less of the aches and chills that he was riddled with Monday and Tuesday. The other good news is that he has gotten his appetite back somewhat. Now if anyone knows Will you know that he is not a big eater in the first place. Very persnickety and not a regular member of the clean plate club. Well yesterday he was was really hungry but could not figure out what might taste good. He finally decided that nothing at home would be acceptable and asked me to go to Sonic and get him Popcorn Chicken. I obliged and even took him with me. Nic was hoping that Will wouldn't eat all of the chicken and that he might get some left-over and asked that I dispense the chicken into a bowl as to not let will contaminate the carton.

Well, we got the food quickly and Will dug right in with lots of sound effects that suggested that the chicken was hittin the spot. YEAH! The bad part, he ate it all and there were no left-overs for Nic. Please understand that I had already fed Nic dinner so it's not like I was starving him.

Today Will wanted Ikea meatballs for lunch. I had meatballs from Sam's and he was pretty adamant that those were different from the Ikea version. They are actually different, Italian vs. Swedish, but not that different. I had the mix packet to make the sauce but had no half and half. I ran to Wal-Mart and picked that up and returned home to serve my kids the lunch of his dreams. He ate a dozen meatballs and is quite satisfied.

I am hopeful that I can make him comfortable enough to stay home alone during DI practice tonight. He was pretty needy by 7 pm last night and I only got to go to practice for about 30 mins. Luckily practice is literally down our block and around the corner so I got home quickly enough for what he needed.

The DI team is down to three days until our event. The pressure is on people. I can not wait to share the outcome. Good or bad, the kids are winners in my book.

The good part about being home is that I have plenty of time to deal with phone calls and such. I have been working over the last three days on finding the futon mattress that I ordered 20 days ago. I ordered it on-line after not finding a local vendors. It seems futon sales are not what they used to be. The good news is that the latest report shows it potentially arriving next Monday or Tuesday. Considering that our houseguests, who need a bed, are showing up on Wednesday, I am hopeful that the info I received today is accurate.

OK, off to vacuum and sweep the dead grass that Pete keeps bringing in. The good thing about snow was that it was a protective layer between the dog and the grass. No protection here, we get a good dose daily.

Houseguest

So we have a house guest this week. That would be Influenza B! I took Will to the Dr. yesterday and she swabbed his nose and he came up positive. I think it may have actually started last week when he was home for a day but no matter, he's got it now and hopefully did not share it with his whole class. Nic will be taking Tamiflu to ward it off of himself but because Fred nor I have established ourselves with a Dr. locally we could not get prescriptions. I am keeping my fingers crossed that neither of us get it and that we can get it out of here before the real house guests show up next week.

My mom and dad are coming down next Wednesday and I am so excited. I am only a little nervous because the futon mattress I ordered three weeks ago isn't here yet but I am HOPING that it shows up by next Monday. Pray with me people!

So, We are hanging close to home, me and Will. I did go get the meds for Nic today and some root beer for Will. He is hardly eating anything and I have to totally nag to get him to eat. I am willing to let him have ANYTHING and he wants NOTHING. It's Fat Tuesday does he not know this? I am quite aware of this holiday. Let the fasting commence, tomorrow.

Well, I need to go switch the laundry over and strip my bed. The fun never ends here.

Monday so Monday

Well, I had a great time scrappin this weekend and completed about 20 pages. I felt really good about my progress. Works of art? Probably not but that is not my goal.

Yesterday I came home around 1 to a boy with a fever. I ran out and picked up dinner around 5 then we all ate and got ready to say goodbye to daddy. The boys got showered, I put my scrap stuff away and Fred finished packing. He had a last minute freak-out when his boss wrote him a note at just about the time he was ready to put his suitcase in the truck, that said "Coat and tie required for evening event." YIKES!

Of course I had not taken his white shirts to the cleaners yet and his only suit wasn't clean either. We found some clean dress pants, a clean shirt that he can iron in Mexico and a tie. No jacket but he'll be fine. It was a stressful little scramble though.

After daddy left we chilled and putzed until bed-time. Will was still fevering and woke up this AM with 101.5. Nic was VERY ticked that Will got to stay home AGAIN and we got into it a little this morning. Not the best way to start the week but what can I say. We were both not rational. We kissed and made up before I took him to school so hopefully this afternoon will go smoothly. I drove to school this morning so I could take Will's Arctic Fox Diorama that was due today. I certainly didn't want anyone to think that he didn't come to school because his project wasn't done so I took the project without the boy.

When I got home I called the Dr. and snagged the last available appt. 3:45 we go right in the middle of DI rehearsal. Thankfully the other team-manage/super-mom should be able to take up the slack of me not being there. I fell badly because I missed the rehearsal on Saturday because I was scrappin and now today for Will. I'm sure I'll make it up somehow.

OK, off to get myself together enough to pick up Nic, go to DI for 20 mins then take Will to the Dr. Kinda hoping he really does have strep or something, I feel bad saying that but you know strep would be better than an undiagnosed fever. I know I'm not alone in that line of thinking. Well, I hope I am not alone.

Ta ta!

TGIF!

It has been a busy day but a good one. I made some brownies, did some laundry, packed for my scrapbooking weekend across the street and generally worked on the house. I also hosted DI after school and now the kids are out riding their bikes. The weather is quite mild here today with a touch of wind to keep it cool.

I am headed now to make some chocolate covered strawberries to take to my crop tonight and to move my goodies across the street. My neighbor has invited me and some of her other scrapbooking friends to her house for a weekend of creating. I am so excited to join in the fun and to work on my albums. My primary goal is getting my 2004 complete. I was browsing through it the other day and found a bunch of pages that I had left blank and left notes on so I knew what layout belonged there. I have no idea if I ever printed pics but since I went digital in 2004 I was able to locate the pics on a disk and upload them to Sam's. Love it when a plan works out!

Maybe I'll post pics of my layouts Sunday. Until then ta ta.

Wordless Wednesday... not here.

A common occurrence on many blogs is a wordless Wednesday when a photo is all that is shared. Well, I just can be wordless. It's not in me, ya know?

I am thrilled to hear from a dear friend in MI, whose daughter had a major operation today, that her daughter's surgery was successful and her daughter is now on her road to recovery with a small detour to ICU but hopefully just for the night. I was sweeping today and saying Hail Marys all the way through the house. I am so thankful for her Caringbridge site that allowed me to get some updates without nagging her to call little ol me. She obviously had much bigger things on her mind and rightly so.

So my plan today was adjusted, just like yesterday, when Will woke up feeling yucky. A little like throwing up, a lot tired and apparently the nurse at school had told him that he was fighting off a virus and he felt that he had succumbed. I weighed the evidence, knowing that plenty of yucky stuff is going around school, and opted to keep him home. He fell back asleep once his brother left and started his day again closer to 9:30. He watched TV, read and even worked on homework today. He did NOT throw up or have any other "issues" beyond a slight temp around noon. I am hopeful that he will be good to go tomorrow because after school time is just ruined when you stay home from school sick. Will learned that the hard way. Tomorrow is bingo night at school so I have a sneaking suspicion that he'll be on his way in the AM in a timely fashion. My kids LOVE BINGO! Wonder where they got that?!?!? (me!)

So we worked on an Arctic Fox Habitat diorama this afternoon and ate a suitable dinner.

We had DI practice tonight and the kids are slowly pulling their stuff together. We have just 10 days. It's crunch time. We will rehearse again on Friday, Saturday and hopefully EVERY day next week. Not sure if I really mean hopefully. I think I should mean that, for the kids' sake.

OK, off to kiss and tuck my rugrats. Will has a little fever again. 101.5. Guess that means that we "should" be home tomorrow.

Darn! No BINGO!

Ist Day!

I thought my day was going to be filled with cleaning. That was what was on my list that I made out last night. Guess what, nothing got cleaned. I got a call just after the boys left for school to Sub for a teacher who had decided at the last minute that she was not going to get through her day. I jumped in and took the quickest shower I have taken in YEARS and got to school in about 20 minutes. She gave me the quick and dirty and ran out the door. So I faced 18 2nd graders.... and smiled.

The kids were really good. They made me laugh and I made them smile as well as cringe. All's fair in second grade. We played Simon Says to break up the monotony and I got to be Simon both times. Lucky me!

I had lunch duty so I can now say that I have seen Tony's Stuffed Sticks and have no desire to eat them for lunch. I also got to teach a little of this and a little of that and even got to color. All good.

So, my list is still here staring at me and the only thing I want to do is order pizza and veg. I shall overcome some of that urge. Pizza sounds good and quick but I will make my own. I will try to get 4 things done on my list and be satisfied with that for now. Thankfully there is always tomorrow... unless someone else needs a sub.

Guess it's been a while.

Fred commented to me last night that I was slacking on the Blog posts. I hadn't up-dated since Tuesday. Sorry honey.



So Friday was the Valentine's Day party day at school. I am a room mom for Will's room and a certified helper in Nic's. His room mom rocks it so I usually don't have to worry about much. Thankfully this party was filled with passing out the cards and then taking some time at the end to open them. We did play two rounds of Valentine Bingo and decorated cookies and that was it. I love a simple party. Both of the boys came home with LOTS of candy so Friday afternoon was a bit hectic as they were on a sugar high.
This is a little present I made for Will's teacher. Each kid wrote something that they liked about their teacher on a heart. I then attached the hearts to crafts sticks that I had painted green. I mounted them in green craft foam and added a few Gerbera Daisies (?) to fill it out. After a run to my friend Sabrina's house for a sprinkle of moss I was set to go. I was pretty pleased with the end result and I think Will's teacher was too.


After school we had the DI team over for practice. We made some models of ideas we had for the set and yesterday we spent many many hours putting our ideas into action. I would love to show you what the kids accomplished yesterday, it is really good stuff, but it is also quite TOP SECRET until the main event in just two weeks. I will say that kids have to be taught to paint. We had both painting with brushes and with spray paint and there were lots of things about that process that i just take for granted. Little things like standing with the wind when you spray paint so you don't wear more than your sun cut-out. Little things like the fact that the paintbrush does not get completely immersed in the paint and it should get wiped off on the edge of the can so you have more control over you quantity and you are not dripping it all over you and my garage as you move toward what needs painted.

A funny thing that happened yesterday was a phenomena, that is yet unnamed, wherein each member of our team at some point was so interested in the activities of another member that they would start their own task, see that someone else was doing something way cooler and abandoned their original task in order to join another, more interested task.

So people would start painting a background and see a couple of kids making boulders and just walk away from the backdrop and want to make boulders right along with the kids that had it well under control. Strange. I am sure there is some well documented and studied term for this phenomena. If you know it please share.

After we kicked the DI kids out I was beat but I had bought steaks and planned to make them for our at home Valentine's Dinner. I took a quick hot shower to get my chilly bones warmed up and emerged to make the meal. It was mostly good as usual. I have a REALLY hard time timing my meals and I did it again. My noodles were done early and Fred's steak was never done to his satisfaction. He like a medium well steak and the boys and I like medium rare. I should really work on that technique and try to do better for Fred. He is always the one who suffers.

After dinner Fred helped me clean up the dinner dishes and kitchen and then I sat. I sat for the rest of the evening and read, She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I was anxious to get through it and I absolutely ignored all else until I wrapped it up at about 11:00. I had taken a bit of a hiatus from reading last fall and through the winter and transition back to this house. I love to read and we have a really great library here in Frisco so I am excited about getting through a few good books at a phenomenal price!



OK, my to do list is long today. We are going to church tonight as a family. I need to put money in Nic's lunch account, need to talk about GT testing with Will, finish up the laundry I started yesterday, find some details for a costume for Nic's DI character and get to the library to return some books. I know that there is more but I can't remember it. I think I wrote most of it down so I will need to check my list.


Hope you are having a great day and that you have a great week. Take care!

D*** Dog!

So after a short night, a long day and lots of frustration tonight Fred thought we should lay the newly repaired rug under the dining room table. Fine, like not important to me but we'll get it done. So we have all the furniture out the rug spread out and I am carrying a chair back into the room and the D*** Dog get underfoot and I totally fall right after I slam the chair into the buffet. I landed on my elbow and somehow bonked the side of my knee but thankfully there was no blood on the rug. That would have REALLY ticked me off!

So Fred felt sorry for me... He gave me my Valentine Day present tonight. He got me a three month membership to Massage Envy. It is a chain of reputable massage parlors. I get a massage each month for the next three months and if I get addicted I can beg for more. He thought that since I may be sore tomorrow from my splat that I may want to make an appointment. How timely dear mutt. Thanks for making the big reveal come early.

Weather fun.

So my sister says this is my new normal. Weather fun in the plains. We are waiting for some fun weather tonight. Rain, fierce wind, possible hail and potential flooding, that last little bit I'm not worried about because we are supposedly really dry. The boys are a little nervous but we'll muddle through.

Today was slightly productive. I ran some errands, did some laundry, talked to my mama, and went to the library. I got a book from hold, a book on migraines and a book for the DI team. I am excited to read She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. It was a Oprah Book Club book a couple of years back. I have his newer book on hold and am a little further down on the list. I thought I'd try the older one while I wait.

I did finish The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan last week. It was very compelling, sad, lighthearted, and absolutely funny in spots. I think I will watch for more by this author in the future. Her first novel was good, inspirational. Here are some more deep thoughts from Kelly. Pause my music so you can hear her words.

My first party in the not so crispy house!

This morning my pal Sabrina and I hosted a Ziploc House Party. We had each won the party from House Party and decided to share the wealth and the work and combine our parties.

Ziploc had sent us each a ton of product to share with our guests. We made goody bags and no one left empty handed. During the party we played the "Mystery Powder Game". Guest had to guess what mysterious white powders were in labeled Ziploc Snack Bags. There were lots of great guesses but many couldn't tell the difference between Baking Powder and Baking Soda (me included).

We also played a guessing game and guests were able to win the container of goodies that they were guessing a quantity for. Who wouldn't love to win a container full of 68 Hershey Kisses or 256 M&M's? Too bad I wasn't eligible!

After we played some games we got our guests involved and invited them to make their own personal omelets in Ziploc Bags. For this recipe we used Quart sizes Ziploc Freezer Bags. Guest put two eggs in their baggie and added whatever omelet fixins they wanted. We had mushrooms, onion, ham, sausage, salsa and cheese. Once all of the mix ins were added the guests kneaded the bag just a bit to mix it all up. The next step was patience as the baggies were placed in a boiling pot of water for about 15 minutes. It was fun that everyone got exactly what they wanted in their omelets and there was no egg covered pan for me to wash up. All good.

Another game that we played was asking everyone to share as many ideas for using Ziploc products as they could. We had some VERY long lists full of good ideas and useful hints. I am the luckiest because I get to look through all of the lists and borrow these great ideas from my new friends and neighbors. Here are a few of the ideas...

1. Popcorn to sneak into the movies.

2. Gifting food, no worries if this container comes home.

3. Returning clothes or borrow items to a friend when you are just leaving them on the porch.

4. Camping food and equipment.

5. Place accessories in a bag then put the bag over a hanger to have a complete outfit or to keep dance recital stuff together.

6. Traveling with TSA rules of course.

7. Keeping tiny board game pieces together.

8. Store playing cards in the car or diaper bag.

9. Keeping a washrag moist to use to clean up the kids after a trip to the park.

10. Sandwiches, what else?

Sabrina and I had lots of fun hosting the party and sharing in the goodies too. It was a good time had by all. The other BIG hit of the party were the famous Iowa Pumpkin Muffins. I had made a dozen for the party and asked Sabrina if she thought I should make more. She said nah, we'd be fine. Well about 45 minutes into the party everyone was raving on the muffins so I made a second batch. They disappeared quickly. I think we may see these muffins around the hood for a bit.

Thanks to all my friends who made it to the party. It was mellow fun, even the kids had a great time running wild through the house while the moms visted. Now, off to put the extras away and enjoy my Ziploc success.

Wow! 4 days

What have I done with myself for four days? Honestly, not too much.

I cleaned house.
Got some more stuff from storage.
I read.
I volunteered.
I had lunch with a friend!
I made phone calls.
I did some homework for an on-line seminar I am taking on Simplify 101.
I ordered a mattress so my parents have a place to sleep next month.
I spent a million dollars on ink (actually only $91 but it felt like a lot!)
I cooked a little.
I thought a lot!
I moved piles around.
I shopped at Kohl's for the boys and for the guest bath!
I helped with homework.
I played around on Facebook.
I talked to my Cuz....
I filled my goody bags for my House Party Ziploc party on Saturday!
And probably some other stuff.

Tonight I am going to the kids' school to learn about the Texas required standardized test; TAKS. Can't tell you what that stands for but I bet I'll know in about an hour. Ta ta!

So...

I ended the week a little overwhelmed. The house looked like it had been hit by a hurricane and now it looks like it was hit by a tropical storm. Everyone has clean clothes to start out their week so that is progress. The weather was gorgeous this weekend and both boys spent lots of time on their bikes and with their pals. The bad news about this is that it requires that these pre-teen figures need daily showers to not cause me to faint when they walk in the room. They are not keen on the daily shower thing so that was a topic of controversy that kinda caused our Sunday plans to be adjusted.

We had planned to go to church then over to a neighbor's for a Super Bowl Party. Linda and Patrick are so gracious and the boys were excited to just be invited. The grief they gave us over getting clean though pretty much forced us to cancel the party plans and ultimately kept us home from church. Instead we regrouped. Will and I snuggled and talked it through. He then helped me make dinner and we spent some time watching King Fu Panda just the two of us. Nic processed the adjustments while building with Legos and came to the dinner table are more gracious child. He and Fred went for an action flick and watched Iron Man together. All good really.

Tomorrow we start a new week, new month at school and the countdown to the Destination Imagination Competition in just 26 days. YIKES! February will be a full month with a visitor from Indy, DI, Scrap Weekend for me, DI Appraiser training for Fred, a Ziploc House Party and a few other exciting things interspersed. I guess I'll just say, stay tuned.