Winter Wonderland

Friday the snow started falling around 9:30 in the morning and fell all day until around 8:30. It must have rained and frozen during the night because when we woke up there was a layer of ice on everything. It was beautiful.

Saturday morning we bundled the kids up and went outside. The kids would barely break the surface of the ice unless they stomped or jumped.

They played around in the front yard while my abominable snowman (aka John) shoveled the steps and front walk.

Since we don't own a sled I found a storage container lid in the garage to use as a makeshift sled. We had a great time sledding down the hill in our backyard.

When sickness invades, sets up camp and refuses to leave

Since Thanksgiving someone in my house has been sick each week.  I don't know if there's been one week when someone hasn't missed at least one day of school.  We've had stomach bugs with and without puking (the new word Karena learned at school this week), the flu, 2 cases of strep, bronchitis, colds and various other illnesses that I couldn't quite figure out.  We've also been to the doctor on 3 different other occasions.  I'm almost embarrassed to call or go to the pediatricians office anymore.

Today Hannah's home from school with strep and I have to say I'm weary of it all.  I've started questioning my mothering.  What if I'm doing something wrong?  Are they eating the wrong things?  Am I not cleaning enough?  I've been trying to remind myself that this is a phase and it will pass but it seems never ending.  This blog post has helped and I find myself chanting in my head, "Be not weary, be not weary, be not weary."  Mornings are better than night times.  I find I have a fresh outlook after some sleep.  Not usually good or a lot of it but at least I'm getting some.

I'm trying to remember to count my blessings.  My kids get a long well with each other.  They even pray for each other to get better.  We don't have any life threatening medical problems.  They are generally happy sick kids.

Just to entertain my stressed out mind I've come up with three unreasonable solutions to all the sickness and germs:
1- Burn the whole place down - germs and all
2-Lysol bomb my home.  They have bug bombs why not germ bombs.
3-Lysol my kids.

Actually I think someone should invent #2.  I think they could make a lot of money. 

So in the meantime I will wait, pray and Lysol the heck out of my home.  Anyone know a good way to disinfect a computer and piano?

What do you do when your Mom won't sign you up for sports?

Tyler has been complaining about his leg hurting off and on for about 2 weeks.  I attributed it to growing pains, until Sunday night when he and I were up a lot of the night because his leg hurt so bad.  I took him into the doctor Monday morning.  After examining him she was worried he either had a hip issue (I guess those usually present themselves in the leg) or a hair line fracture.  They sent us downstairs to get some x-rays.  He had about 12 or 13 pictures taken.  He was extremely good and didn't move at all once he was told to be still.  I was amazed to say the least.  Then we rushed back upstairs to the pediatrician's office.  (It was their lunch time.)  There were no skeletal issues.  So she determined he has inflamed the muscle band that runs from his hip to his knee.  Apparently its most commonly found in runners that frequently practice.

 So to answer my title - You run your little heart out through the house and then go ahead and get a sports injury anyway. 

It clicked!

Hannah finally mastered tying her shoes.  She didn't even know she'd done it until she was finished.

I'll never learn.

A week or so ago Hannah came running into the kitchen screaming, "There's something poking me in my mouth!"  We looked inside and she had two teeth growing behind her two bottom baby teeth.  I called the dentist the next day and they had us come in to get the baby teeth pulled.  I guess if the baby teeth stay there too long the permanent teeth don't develop a good root structure. 

Well Wednesday after school I picked up the kids and we headed to the dentist.  Hannah threw up in the car just as we were about to get out to go inside.  I cleaned her up the best I could and in we went.  On a side note: I thought she was just nervous but after several more "incidents" at home I realized she had a stomach virus.  She acted just fine the rest of the visit.  They hooked her up to the snoopy nose/laughing gas.  She promptly got very giggly.  It was pretty funny.  They got the two teeth out without any problems. 

The following Saturday Karena came into the kitchen complaining something was poking her mouth, too.  Inwardly I groaned because sure enough she had a tooth coming in behind her baby tooth.  After 6 years, you think I would have thought to look in Karena's mouth before taking Hannah to the dentist, but no, no I didn't.  So Monday morning I called the dentist and made yet another appointment.  Thankfully hers came out with just some numbing gel.  I am quite grateful because it was a free visit, unlike Hannah's.  Although, Karena was disappointed because she didn't get a snoopy nose.

Both girls were excited to receive visits from the Tooth Fairy.  Karena had to remind Hannah to look for her Tooth Fairy money and Hannah had to remind Karena.  Sometimes they are so completely different and other times I think they share a brain.  Maybe one day I'll remember that.

From the back seat

Recently we were headed back from another doctor's appointment when the kids began talking about God. Tyler informed all of us that we were driving over God's hands because they were so big. They were invisible so we couldn't see them. I realized he was referring to the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." I tried to explain the meaning behind the song and that it didn't really mean he was literally holding the world. I told him that God looked like a grown-up. That He was our Heavenly Father and He looked like a daddy.

This discussion of daddy's led to them discussing how many kids they wanted to have when they were married.

Hannah: "After you're married you get pregnant."

Tyler: "I'm going to wait a while after I get married to be pregnant."

Karena: "After you're married you have to go on a honeymoon. But I don't know why?"

Mommy: "Well, the two people getting married just want to take a special trip together."

Hannah: "To make new friends?"

Mommy: "No. They don't usually make new friends. They just want to spend time with each other."

Karena: "I want to get married in the summer so then I can go on a honeymoon to a carnival."

New Look

Check out my new blog look. I designed it myself. I got the instructions from here. Very simple and easy to follow.

Nutcracker

For Karena and Hannah's birthday their Great-Grandparents got them tickets to see the Nutcracker Ballet. A local dance studio was using it as their winter recital. The girls and I got dressed up and headed out to TPAC in downtown Nashville. We found our seats and waited about 10 minutes for the curtains to go up. During that time I got to answer the "When will it start question?" at least 2 dozen times. They were so anxious to see the play. I wish I could have taken pictures or video of the ballet. The younger kids were hilar-i-ous! Some had no clue what to do on stage. The russian dancers were probably the youngest group. There were at least 15 of them on stage. Each one of them had a little taped X on the floor they needed to find. At least half spent the first quarter of the dance wandering around the stage looking for their X. Some waved. Some twirled around in the typical little girl ballerina style. Once their dance was over they were supposed to back up about 5 feet and sit in a nice long row. They remembered in little groups of 2 or 3 to go sit down. My favorite though was the little girl that remembered to sit down just not where. She plopped herself right down on her X - content to stay there the rest of the show. An older dancer had to run out, scoop her up and plop her down at the end of the row. Just then a very experienced dancer came running out doing flips and cartwheels and all sorts of fantastic acrobatics. The little russian girl surely would have been squashed if she had remained in her previous position.

The dancing was okay but I enjoyed it. The girls were in awe the entire show. With each new dancer coming out they would ask, "Is that the Sugar Plum Fairy?"


Karena's favorite part were the Gumdrop dancers because their costume's made their bums wiggle. Hannah's favorite part were the Russian girls as well.

Because Karena and Hannah are girl scouts we got to go backstage and meet some of the dancers. The girls wanted to get autographs. They each had their own book and pen. They were sort of brave enough to ask for autographs. It did help that most of the dancers we met were in their early teens and loved giving out their autograph.


After we went to dinner and enjoyed talking about our favorite parts.

Thank you Great-Grandma and Grandpa for a spectacular evening!

Mouse Cooties

We have this cat, Rock Star. He's mostly an outdoor cat. His food and cat condo are in the garage, but we leave the door cracked a few inches for him to squeeze through and enjoy the outdoors. Since we live next door to acres of open field he has quite the playground. He's always out prowling and scouting for his next victim. He is an exceptional mouse hunter. I've even had occasion to watch him "play with his food." Watching a half dead mouse try to run away from its predator is like watching a car wreck and not being able to turn away. It was strangely fascinating yet gruesome at the same time since I knew the ultimate fate of that poor mouse.

Thursday was no different. We'd had him locked in the garage for a while since it had been so cold. The weather warmed up and we let him loose. A friend of mine brought Tyler home from preschool since Hannah was home sick - again. We were standing outside talking on the front porch when Rock Star appeared carrying a dead mouse in his mouth. This was not a new occurrence and it didn't bother me. As we talked I had to block him from bringing his "gift" into the house. There are some things that should never be in one's home. Mice, especially dead mice, are in that category.

As we continued talking Rock Star must have gotten bored trying to bring it in the house so he started playing with it. He would grab it in his mouth and toss it into the air. Not just a little toss but at times several feet into the air. For a while I worried if it would land in one of John's boots sitting on the front porch. Imagine putting your foot into that one morning. Bllleech!! He continued doing this all around the porch. He would toss it in the air, wait for it to land, push it around with his nose and then repeat the process all over again. It was kind of interesting to watch. Until....until out of the corner of my eye I watched the mouse fly several feet in the air, over Rock Star's head, and towards me. It brushed my backside and landed right inside my front door. My immediate thought was, "EEEEWWWW!!!! A mouse just touched me!!!!!" I was shuddering and dancing around in hopes of shaking the mouse cooties off of me.

But not only did I have mouse cooties, I had a mouse, a dead mouse, sitting inside my living room. Nothing in heaven or this green earth would have convinced me to use any part of me to get it outside. So I did the next best thing. I grabbed the cat. At first I held him over top of the mouse. "Get the mouse, Rock Star. Get the mouse." Nothing. Next I tried to use his feet to sweep out the mouse. Cat's are not good brooms. His feet didn't touch the dead rodent once. Finally I stuck his nose in front of the mouse and used it to push the mouse towards the door. I guess after a few times of the nose pushing he realized I did not appreciate the gift and grabbed it. I tossed him outside and then continued my dancing and shuddering.

So along with my germ infested home I now have mouse cooties.