Whew

It has been a while. First, the party and parade went well on Saturday. I'm glad it was a short one. The kids enjoyed themselves and I made hubby happy by riding in the fire truck with him instead of marching with the girls. We got out goodie bags from Santa, but did not wait in the long, slow line. Austin was half asleep sitting in his chair, Laiken was running around like she was possessed and Morgan, bless her heart, couldn't stop coughing so we packed up and headed home. Sunday we went shopping in the morning and then I took Logan to his scout party while the other kids and dad stayed home and rested. Well, sort of. The toilet in the downstairs bathroom started leaking so I got called home early and Mike had to run out in a freezing rain storm and get some parts to try to fix it. My parents made it in safe and sound, but the toilet decided the next day to start leaking again?!? Finally think he got that fixed.

School Program:
The school program was wonderful. My kids did such a wonderful job. I was so proud of both of them. Morgan looked so grown up sitting up there singing her song and playing her bells. Logan's class was holding stars on little sticks and the little girl behind him accidentally knocked his out of his hand. Poor grandma thought he fainted when he bent down to pick it up and since it seemed like forever before he stood back up she was ready to head up there to the rescue since none of the teachers were going to help! All was well though. Logan reappeared only slightly ticked off and finished the song. They finished the program with everyone singing Silent Night. Was kind of bittersweet because this was the very last program in the old school. The new school will be finished in June. There is a battle going on in town now over trying to save the old school as it is the oldest one east of the Mississippi River, but it doesn't look like it is going to happen. I think it is going to be too much of a burden on the small town.

We went out to eat and did some Christmas shopping last night. Seemed kind of odd without Austin there. He went home with my parents on Tuesday and seems to be doing okay so far. We will be heading back there for the annual family Christmas party tomorrow. It is kind of crazy, but a lot of fun. My mom's entire family gets together for a huge Christmas party with Santa and everything. At last count I think there is like 30 kids under the age of 10 there, 27 adult grandchildren and eight original kids with spouses. This year is going to be a little rough though because my Uncle Don passed away this year and it will be the first Christmas with just the seven of them. They have always been such a close knit family even though they are spread across two states and they are all taking it pretty hard.

I'll probably not post until after the weekend now as I barely have time to sleep these days, so take care. I'll have lots of pictures when I get back.

Page error

I got up this morning to work, but keep getting the page error message and since it is still dark and I'm cranky, and... and.... I don't feel like getting up to do anything else, except go back to bed, I may as well post. Took Morgan to the doctor yesterday, she just wasn't getting anywhere with the albuterol. They put her back on prednisolone and an antibiotic as she also has a stomach virus and respiratory tract infection. Funny, she took the steroid yesterday and one dose of the antibiotic and last night was the worst night so far. She really coughed and wheezed. I was up again almost all night. She has stopped vomiting though and her fever isn't quite a high now. We'll see how she is when she gets up. The doctor said if she feels like it she can go to school today as long as her fever is down. Now that we know she also has a virus, I'm hoping and praying the other kiddos don't get it. As you know we have a busy, busy weekend coming up... parties. parade. visits from Santa and grandma and pappy bringing early Christmas gifts and then the big Christmas program on Monday that the kids have been practicing and practicing for. They are so excited, especially Morgan since this is her first one.


Well, I just thought of something I can do while waiting for the errors at work to be fixed without getting my lazy but out of my computer chair so I am off to make out my grocery list. Gotta get the stuff to start my baking this week. Enjoy! Before I go here are a few more pictures trying to get our Christmas card ready. Hopefully tonight we'll get it done.


We took this one in front of the tree. If we don't get another one, I'll try to crop out the Pamper Cruiser.



I like this one except for the way they are sitting.




This is the fireplace we finished this summer.



This is Laiken taking an apple break.

Asthma sucks

Morgan was home from school today. She is having trouble with her asthma again. It isn't an all too frequent thing, but when she has an attack, it is usually pretty bad and somewhat lengthy. I'm not too familiar with asthma, but I can remember my brother using his inhaler and usually within minutes he was better. She uses her nebulizer every four hours and sometimes it takes her a couple of days to get fully over it. I truly wonder if it is asthma or something else.

Everyone else seems to be doing fine. We have another busy weekend coming up so I am hoping she will be well by then. We have a Christmas party Saturday, a parade Saturday evening and another Christmas party following the parade. Sunday we have Logan's scout party and Monday we have the Christmas program at school. My parents are coming out for the program. The kids are excited. Then I really have to get busy and start my Christmas shopping. Yes, I did. say. start. This year I feel like such a lousy mom. I just can't find time for anything. Of course I really wouldn't change anything in the world just to give me more time. I love that my children are healthy enough to participate in this stuff and it makes me sad to see Morgan having a hard time, but in reality I think it would be harder on her if she had to miss these activities. I'll be heading to the doctor tomorrow if she is no better. She already feels bad enough about the asthma, I won't have her missing out because of it.

Let is snow, but not too much and no ice and, and

it would be great if it could snow at 75 degrees. We awoke this morning to frigid high winds and our poor Christmas decorations scattered all over. It looked like Santa and the reindeer lost control or something. I was outside at daybreak trying to clean up the carnage. They are calling for a foot of snow from this morning through tomorrow morning. So far we havn't gotten much so I'm crossing every part of my body that it slides right on by. Did I mention I absolutely hate snow with all my being. I know, sort of silly living in Northeast Ohio right near the lake, but this is where DH was at so I followed and after 10 years I'm still here and still hating the snow.



We had two parades and a birthday party this weekend. First, let me say my son's poor friend. This is I think every child and every parent's worst nightmare. Nobody showed up for his party except my son. He is such a sweet boy too, but kind of shy so he doesn't have a lot of close friends. Logan always includes him at recess though so that makes me proud and sort of easier to overlook the other things Logan does to absolutely drive me crazy!



Now the parades: Friday night was so windy and cold it was insane. Thankfully a very short parade though. The girls all had fun and my kids loved seeing the parade and seeing Santa riding the float. DH was waiting at the end of the parade route with the car nice and warm. We piled in and were patiently (all except for Laiken) sitting waiting for the parade to wrap up so we could head for home. All the sudden the car shakes and I turn to look out the windshield and there sits this little old lady in a motorized wheelchair against the hood of the car. Apparently they were in the parade too and as she made the final turn (sounds sort of like a NASCAR race) she lost control and slammed into our car. My husband jumps out to make sure she was okay, which she was. By this time Morgan is in the back of the car crying her poor little eyes out. I asked her what was wrong and she stuttered daddy is going to go to jail becuase he just ran over that little old lady. It took me a long time to convince her that we weren't moving and that she ran into us. By the time she went to bed that night she was pretty convinced and then thought it was kind of comical. She re-worded the song Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer to Grandma got run over by a Buick leaving the Christmas parade last night.



The next night we had another parade and who would be in that one but the Blue Belles again and that same woman in the wheelchair. Needless to say Morgan stayed real clear of her!! We get home from that parade to find Morgan was running a pretty high fever, but once we got the Tylenol in her and all her extra layers off, it went down pretty quickly. One more parade this weekend and then bring on Christmas, no not really. It is too much to ask for another week or month or two?? I'm so not ready for this Christmas. I think this is the worst one yet. Oh well, time to get busy and try to get some things accomplished before I have to hide from the snow and wind. I have a real mature way of dealing with it. First, I close all the blinds on the doors and windows so I can't see it and second, I don't go out from now until April unless someone drags me kicking and screaming. Thankfully Mike is understanding and drives my sorry butt wherever I need to go (or better yet goes for me) when he gets home. Did I mention I don't like snow or cold? Afterall, I wouldn't be here in the godforsaken snow if it wasn't for him anyway!

Laiken

I have been trying to get some pictures trying out my camera on different settings. Here are a few of Laiken as she was the only one home and cooperating yesterday. I'm going to try to get the group one tonight for the cards and then the pressure is off a little to get individual ones as that is only for grandparents and us.

Just a side note: That outfit she is wearing was her big sister's first. Thought it would be cute to have pictures of both in it. Can't find one right now, but Morgan was 11 months old when she wore that outfit..... Laiken is `18 months old!!

Christmas pictures

Another thing to stress over, that is all I need now. I still haven't done my pictures for the Christmas cards. My mom's family has a party on the 15th so I kind of need to have them done by then. See, we hand deliver the cards there instead of mailing all 30 something of them. See... I don't even have my list done yet. Anyway, my mom is getting me this cool printer for Christmas that will print right from my camera card, but I'm out of ink for my current printer and hate to buy ink for it when I'll be getting a new one. Of course, if I have to print that many pictures it will probably use almost an entire cartridge. Hey! I just solved my problem while typing it out, (patting myself on the shoulder). I sent an e-mail to my husband venting yesterday about how I couldn't finish my Christmas shopping until after the 17th and between work and everything else, we would have to finish up on the 22nd and then how was I going to get everything wrapped and my baking done, etc. He sent me an e-mail back full of blah, blah, blah's. I sent him a blank e-mail back. Of course he e-mailed me asking about the blank and I told him that was me not speaking to him. Needless to say when he came home he was very attentive. Now he keeps asking me what he can do to help. I told him if he would have done that in the first place instead of being the a** he was, he would have scored extra points for doing the same thing he is doing now trying to dig himself out of the hole.

I told him a mom with four kids at Christmas is oh so much worse than any woman with PMS so he better buckle in for a long ride. The smiling faces Christmas morning are oh so worth it, mine is the biggest of all, but each year I realize just how strong women are since spousal abuse is higher on Super Bowl Sunday that Christmas Eve!!

Thanksgiving down Christmas to go

Well, the feast is over and now the hustle begins. Why does it seem like Thanksgiving is gone in the blink of an eye? Maybe because mere hours after you finish eating the Christmas hustle begins. For the past few years my SIL and two of my cousins have been hitting the Black Friday sales, sadly usually not even looking for anything. I guess we just enjoy punishing ourselves or maybe it is that the crowded malls and frigid temperatures are easier to handle than our crabby kids after a day without enough sleep! I'm guessing that is it since my two cousins, neither of which have kids, chickened out this year. My SIL and I still had a good time. We met up with one of her friends and shopped for a few hours. We got some good deals at Old Navy and Bath and Body Works. Penny's also had some great buys if you needed coats, which all four munchkins did, but my aunt grabbed those up for Christmas gifts. You know the saying the early bird gets the worm? Same is true for Christmas gifts. My list is seriously shrinking for the kids and I haven't gotten a thing yet. Everyone else is grabbing up things on my list. Guess I better start hitting the ads again. Course it doesn't help when the kids can't come up with even one thing they want!! Morgan asked me if Santa will still get her gifts if she can't think of anything she wants. I told her that I was sure she would get something and that she could just write him a letter telling him what types of things she likes to play with and he could handle the rest. She told me she felt much better now that she didn't have to worry about Christmas! Wonder if Santa will handle all my Christmas worries. The kids are planning Jesus' birthday party already too. Every Christmas Eve we have a party "in the living room" (that is the most important part) and that is Jesus' birthday. Then we go outside and sprinkle magic reindeer dust, head in to check the computer to track Santa's progress, surefire way to get them in bed early (hopefully the kids will stop believing in Santa before they realize Paris France is not next to Ohio!!). Then Mike and I settle in with a glass of wine until we are sure the kids are sleeping. Mike refuses to help arrange the gifts because he can't quite grasp my "method" or madness as he calls it. Anyway, I think I am more excited than the kids. I love seeing the excitement and joy this time of year brings and we remind our kids daily as we hustle getting everything ready what this whole season is about. Austin told me the other day in his four-year-old way that he knows Jesus is very important because he has a great big party but gives us the gifts. I love this time of year the most and not becuase of the gifts or parties, but because we spend so much time together as a family, as a couple, as an extended family. This is the busiest time of the year because of all this, but also the happiest. This coming year I hope to be as busy with family as I am at Christmas instead of putting these things off because we are too busy.