Snow Day!!

Today is the first snow day of the school year. David & Nathaniel slept in till about 7:45 am, much to my delight. They wanted to go outside right away, but I've been making them wait a little while. They do need to eat breakfast, and they have a few chores to do before heading outside to play.

In the meantime, here are some pictures just to show how much snow we've gotten since yesterday afternoon.

This is Stormy, up to her chest in snow, but she loves it.

Our poor grill is covered.

Stormy again.

And somewhere, under all that snow is our red car. Oh, right. There it is.

We've gotten over a foot of snow so far, and it just keeps coming. The wind is starting to pick up too. I'm guessing when the kids finally go outside, it won't be for very long.

In other, non-snowy news, Richard has bronchitis. He went and saw a Dr on post yesterday. So he's on drugs for the next 10 days. Poor guy. I'm still not feeling great, but I am feeling much better compared to a week ago. I still don't have my appetite back, which is good for the waistline.

Monday evening was our last FPU lesson for this class session. I'm going to take a break until the end of February, and then start another one.

Have a great Snow Day!

I Have a VERY Good Reason....

for not posting anything for an entire week. In my previous post, I mentioned that David was sick. Well, he was running a fever all last weekend, and then Monday afternoon, while Nathaniel was out with Richard, he got sick as well. But not just throwing up sick. Out the other end as well. So I made a Drs' appt for David on Tuesday, and of course had to bring Nathaniel along. Turns out it was H1N1. Yep. Both at the same time, just a couple days apart symptom-wise. So we didn't go to Iowa for Thanksgiving. So up until yesterday (Saturday) we were all doing fairly well. Until about 2:30 am, when it was my turn. So I spent all day yesterday in bed, while Richard held down the fort. He called the Dr for me and a Rx for Tamiflu was called in for me, so he and the boys went and picked that up. The highest my fever was all day was 101.9, and its down around 99 now. I'm feeling much better now that I'm not throwing up every 30 minutes or so like I was early yesterday morning. Richard is such a good hubby, he even ran a bath for me yesterday since my back was hurting from laying in bed all day.

I did get some Christmas shopping done on Friday, the craziest store I went to was Old Navy. There was a line to check out almost all the way back to the back of the store. I was out of there quick. Not wanting to fight crowds.

See? I did have a good excuse for going so long without a post.

Only 25 shopping days left til Christmas! :)

Oh My Goodness!

Has it really been over a week since I last posted anything? I am slacking. In defense of my lack of posts, I, well, I don't really have any. Wait, wait, yes I do! We were gone from Oct 28th to Nov 1st visiting my parents in Iowa. Ok, that does nothing for anything prior to the 28th or after the 1st, but still!

We did have a good, long weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa. The boys love seeing them, and I know the feeling is mutual. We got to take the boys trick or treating on Friday (in the rain) and although there was only 1 in 3 or 4 houses giving out candy, they still ended up with lots of treats.

One of the highlights for Nathaniel when we visit Grandma & Grandpa are Grandpa's trains. Dad has been working on a setup for a while, and although not yet finished, it thrills Nathaniel to no end. He would spend hours watching the trains go round and round if we let him. I think when he gets to be a little older, he'd help Grandpa with the construction of the train display.

David & Nathaniel also got to go outside with Dad and Grandpa and shoot the little .22 rifle we bought David a while back. David is getting pretty good at hitting the spinner target without the use of a scope. Nathaniel just had fun pulling the trigger.

And what was I doing during all this? Playing Scrabble with Mom, of course.

Finally!

David is fever-free! His temp was normal when I took it yesterday morning! Yippee! He would have gone to school today except that there wasn't school due to parent/teacher conferences. So he and Nathaniel got to go play at a friend's house while I got my hair cut & colored. I had the appt originally for last Friday, but had to change it since David was sick, and when I rescheduled it, I'd forgotten that the kids didn't have school. My friend Lisa, who has 4 kids, a boy who is David's age & her youngest daughter is Nathaniel's age, agreed to watch them for me. The boys had a great time with Daniel and Isabella.

We had our FPU class last night instead of Monday night because of the Monday night football game, Packers vs. Vikings. Its a big game since the teams are huge rivals & it was made even bigger this year since Brett Farve is playing for the Vikings. We usually root for the Packers, but wanted to see Brett Farve beat his old team. And beat them he did! Anyway, class was good. We watched the "Dumping Debt" DVD, which is my favorite out of all 13 of the lessons.

Tonight is the 2nd episode of Stargate: Universe. Well, technically, its the 3rd episode, since the premiere last week was 2 hours. But the 2nd week. I'm looking forward to it. Its also the season premiere of season 2 for Sanctuary. Both are on SyFy, back to back, starting at 8pm CST.

Fevers and Coughs and Sniffles....

Oh my! I took David to the Dr today, along with Nathaniel. Without making Nathaniel sleepy, there isn't a lot we can do for his motion sickness, except try things like crackers, or peppermint candy. Oh well, it was worth a shot. The Dr can't do anything for David, either. Although he did say that if David is still running a fever on Wednesday that I should bring him in for some tests. Tests, I'm guessing, that include checking for the H1N1 virus. We'll just wait and see, I guess.

Richard is going bow hunting after work tonight. Again trying for a deer. Every time he's gone, his buddy has either seen one or more deer, or has shot one, and Richard has seen none. Hopefully tonight will be the night.

Almost Not Sickly

David's fever broke last night, and he was normal this morning. But this evening his temperature is back up to 99.2. Which isn't high, but isn't normal, so he's spending one more day home from school. And since I have to take Nathaniel to the Dr to see about his motion sickness, I'm going to see if I can get David in at the same time to have him checked out & get both of them flu shots if possible.

I have a re-check on Tuesday at the Drs for my migraines. The anti-depressant seems to be working better than the beta-blocker, but I'm still getting migraines, although much less, probably by about half. That's still 1-2 migraines a week though, instead of 3-4. I haven't been doing as good a job of keeping track of them like I was before, so that number isn't quite as accurate, but its pretty close. So we'll see what he decides.

I do have to say this though, before I close.....

GO BRONCOS!

Those of you who are Cowboys fans will understand.....

A Sickly One

David came home today not feeling well. He said he didn't feel that bad, but was cold and couldn't get warm. After I finally got him talked into putting on a long sleeve shirt & he still couldn't get warm, I took his temperature. It was 102.5 degrees. He's not going to school tomorrow. School policy is that the ill student has to been symptom free for 24 hrs before going back to school. And if he's still running a fever tomorrow, he won't be going to his soccer game on Saturday.

Nathaniel threw up on the bus again today. But it wasn't as bad as it sounds, since he threw up in the garbage can & didn't get any on himself. Since he hadn't had anything to eat, it was just stomach fluids, but still. Sometimes that's worse. I'm taking him to the Dr on Monday to see if we can get him something for motion sickness.

Its Definetly Fall.....

I had to get up at 3:00 am this morning to turn on the heat! I kept waking up freezing, and finally got up and turned on the heat. That, and I had to put the cat outside. It was 61 degrees in the house at 3:00 am. It was 66 when I got up at 6:00 to get the boys up for school. I turned off the heat & its only cooled down to 64 over the course of the day. I did put fleece sheets & our blanket on the bed today. At Richard's request. :)

Tomorrow we get to sleep in! School is starting 2 hours late, so the bus won't come until about 8:30 am. And since school isn't starting until 10:00, Nathaniel doesn't have school at all, since he is only in school for 2 hr & 45 minutes.

Nathaniel's First Field Trip

Nathaniel had his first school field trip today. They went to a pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. He was so excited to come home and show me his pumpkin! Its not very big, about 5 lbs or so, but its an almost perfect pumpkin. He is so proud of that pumpkin! But he was playing with it this afternoon. Rolling it around on the floor. I kept telling him that if it broke open we would have to throw it away. So he'd leave it alone for a little while, then I'd hear more thump-thump-thumps as it rolled across the hardwood floor. If it makes it till the end of October, we're going to make it into a jack-o-lantern.

He Shoots! He Scores!

Twice! David made 2 goals today during his first ever soccer game. His team won, 6-2. They dominated (can 1st, 2nd & 3rd graders dominate?) the first 2 quarters, then the other team scored 2 goals in the 3rd quarter and both teams didn't score at all during the 4th quarter. Both teams played really well for only having 3 practices.

Other than that, it was a pretty leisurely Saturday. I baked chocolate chip cookies while Nathaniel napped & David & Richard did their own things. Which included looking at 1980's Transformer toys on the internet. David's idea, of course. He is obsessed with Transformers. That's almost all he can talk about. Its almost annoying.

The boys (all 3 of them) just came in from shooting their bows. Time for snacks and then bedtime.

Soccer Practice!

David had soccer practice tonight. He was really excited to go, and Nathaniel was too, but mainly because he got to play on the playground equipment. I spent the hour chatting with a mom whose daughter is in Nathaniel's pre-k class. She is a 4-5th grade teacher. She gets the kids in 4th grade and has them through the end of 5th grade. Anyway, before we started chatting, I was watching Nathaniel play, and all of a sudden he says, "I pee, Mom!" and heads away from the play equipment and starts to drop his pants. I was like, "No, not there!" so he moves. "I pee on grass, Mom!" and drops his pants. So I kinda blocked him so he wasn't totally exposed, but there wasn't anywhere for him to pee, and not any trees close enough for him to hide behind. Oh well. He's 4.

Nathaniel threw up on the bus again today. He's not sick. Just motion sickness. They got him cleaned up at school, and I picked him up when class was over so he wouldn't have to carry the dirty clothes & backpack home. I was able to wash everything, including his backpack, so that's good. No more milk before school!

More Fresh Salsa!

Ok, so my friend Lynna posted a comment that I should roast the peppers before I add them to any fresh salsa that I make. So I searched the internet & found directions, and gave it a try this morning. I did it on our gas grill, as I didn't want to turn our oven on, since it was pretty warm today. Anyway, the peppers roasted fine, but even after leaving them in a plastic bag to sweat, rinsing them in cold water & cutting off the stems, I still had trouble peeling them. I ended up leaving a good portion of the skins on, since they wouldn't come off anyway, and chopped them up and added them to the tomatoes, cilantro & red onion. In total, it was 6 roasted garden salsa peppers. I did not sample it, as I wanted Richard to taste it first & see how hot it was. So he tried it when he got home, and said that it had a kick, but not too bad. So I tried it. Too much of a kick for me, but I don't like hot stuff.

Richard & the boys spent a little while outside this afternoon shooting their bows. David and Nathaniel are doing pretty well. Not very accurate, but they're having fun. Richard shot an arrow. With another arrow. Seriously. It doesn't happen often, but when it does..... he split the shaft of the arrow about half way down, and was not happy. Arrows aren't cheap.

I got a call this morning......

from the bus barn. Nathaniel threw up on the bus, somewhere between David's school & Nathaniel's school. Its only about a 5 minute drive, even in a school bus. I think he just got motion sick because he's not running a fever, he hasn't gotten sick again and he's acting totally normal. But because some other kids in his class have been sick, I took him home just to be on the safe side. He took a bubble bath (cause he really smelled) and then laid down on the couch to watch Tom & Jerry. He fell asleep around 10:00 & slept till about noon.

While he slept, I took the opportunity to continue cleaning up my computer/scrapbooking room. As I type this, I'm sitting at a totally clean computer desk. Yippee! I filed papers that needed filing & sorted through a bunch of papers & threw a bunch away. I had a bunch of stuff to burn, and Nathaniel helped with that after his nap.

Richard is in Chicago right now, awaiting his 8:00 pm flight to La Crosse. He's thinking he'll be home about 11:00 pm. I'll be out cold. The nice part is he has Thursday & Friday off.

David starts soccer tomorrow. He's really excited.

It Was A Good Day....

Church service was good. I played piano for the worship team, which went well. We had a guest speaker today because our senior pastor is out with his family since their 8 year old son, Benjamin, had open heart surgery on Tuesday. I believe he had a hole in his heart, but the surgery was successful. Praise God! Benjamin is a great kid. After service we had the annual Hot Roast potluck, which was yummy. Always lots of good food, most of which my kids won't eat, of course. After the potluck, we had what was dubbed the Psalm 150 service. (you should read it) We had some people sing, play piano & the worship team did a couple of songs. It was fun. Nathaniel fell asleep during it, which was suprising since the music was pretty loud.

The boys were in bed about 7:20, but I had to go up about 8:00 to take Nathaniel to the bathroom. Twice in about 5 minutes. David was out cold. I wish I could sleep like that.

Tomorrow night is our first FPU class of our 2nd session. We had a last minute sign-up this morning at church, which brings out count to 19 people. I'm excited!

Tomorrow morning is my first morning to help with David's class. Its only for an hour, but I had a lot of fun last year, and thought I'd continue to help until he thinks its uncool for his mom to help in his class. :)

It was a lazy day....

and a no nap day for everyone. I was conducting a test of sorts, to see how Nathaniel would do on an ordinary day without a nap. About the only time he doesn't take naps is if we're out and about. He did ok. The boys didn't have any more tiffs than usual. We played outside, blew bubbles, kicked the soccer ball around (David wanted to practice before his first soccer practice on Thursday) and played hide and seek. Although Nathaniel's version of hide and seek is "Here I am!" after you count to 10.

The kids went to bed at 7:30 this evening. And I haven't heard anything from either of them since. Ah, silence. Blessed silence.

Oh, and you'll never believe what time David got up this morning. 6:30!!! He gets more sleep during the week! I told him he could never complain about having to get up early for school since he only slept a half hour past when I wake him up for school.

Its Finally Friday!

And I get to sleep in tomorrow! At least until the boys get up. 6:00 am is early to get up to get ready for school, but I bet that they're up by 7:00 am. 7:30 at the latest for Nathaniel. David has been known to sleep to 8:30-9:00 am, so we'll see.

I did a little more cleaning today, besides my daily chores. I took on the daunting task of cleaning off the top of the entertainment center, as well as sorting DVDs & putting DVDs in their respective cases. We're really bad about putting the discs back in the cases, especially the kids' DVDs. But now the top of the entertainment center is clean as well as the top of the TV. My next task is my computer/scrapbooking room.

Why Is It....

...so dang hard to get the kids up at 6:00 am to get ready for school, but they're up and out of bed at 6:00 am on Saturday & Sunday???? Both David & Nathaniel are just like their dad. Hard to wake up & it takes forever to get them going in the morning.

Nathaniel didn't want to go to school this morning. I put his jacket on him & he took it off. Its wasn't until I had picked him up and was walking out the door that he wanted his jacket back on. Then he didn't want to get on the bus. Until it stopped in front of our driveway. But he won't give me a hug and kiss until he's on the bus. Its a good thing we're the first stop.

I put the kids to bed at 7:00 tonight. Well, it was actually 7:15 when I finally closed the door. But I had to go back up twice because Nathaniel was calling for me. He had to go potty. You can't argue with that. I think he's finally asleep now. It took David all of 5 minutes to go to sleep. Must be nice.

I think I'll take some pictures of my nice, clean (for now) living room tomorrow and give you all a look-see at our main living area.

If Its Not One Thing....

Its another. This morning, immediately after I put the kids on the bus, I got out my Rainbow vacuum. Now I've been having problems with the switch on the vacuum, not the canister, but the switch you have to squeeze to send power to the vacuum for it to actually work. Its been sticking for a while, and it was stuck this morning as well. But when I turned on the canister, the dang thing wouldn't work. I fiddled with it. And fiddled with it some more. After about 10 minutes, I determined that there wasn't anything I could do and that I'd have to buy a new vacuum if I ever wanted to vacuum the living room.

So I started researching the best place to buy a vacuum. But not just any vacuum. This vacuum: http://www.dyson.com/store/product.asp?product=DC25-ALLFLOORS. I've been wanting a Dyson for a while, and I just said on Saturday while I was talking to my sister-in-law, Elizabeth, that when my Rainbow died that I wanted to get a Dyson. I found this vacuum at bestbuy.com, and it was on sale for about $425. With tax, it was $450. I was able to do the in-store pick-up, but the store didn't open until 10 am. Here's where it got tricky....

Nathaniel gets out of school at 10:30, and it usually home (last week, anyway) around 11:15 am. I had to wait to get an email from the store that the vacuum was in stock, and I was out the door and on my way at 10:10 am. Its about a 25 minute drive to Onalaska, and I spent about 5 minutes in the store, and another 25 minute drive home. I got home about 11:10, and had time to go in, use the bathroom and go back outside before the bus pulled in the driveway. Never again will I cut it that close. If I hadn't been home, they would have taken Nathaniel back to the school and I would have had to go pick him up there.

Nathaniel helped me put the Dyson together, and then I set to work. Now its been a couple of weeks since the living room was vacuumed, and with 2 dogs that shed, plus 2 kids, it was in dire need of it. I had to dump the canister 4 times while I vacuumed the living room. Now before you are completely disgusted, let me say that the room is about 24' x 24'. So its not a small room. And it'll be way better after this. Now that the kids are in school, I have a schedule of chores to do for each weekday, and the living room will get vacuumed 3 times a week, not including the weekend. Yes, I am a nerd. :)

I Labored on Labor Day

I did changed the linens on the boys' beds, did 3 loads of laundry & made bread. Twice. I had a little guy helping me the first time & we forgot to put yeast in the bread, so I had to make it again. In a bread machine that is starting to die. I have to stay and watch it for the first couple of minutes to make sure it doesn't start overheating. If it does, I have to unplug it, wait a few minutes & then try again. So I've been researching bread machines on the internet. The only thing I use mine for is to mix dough, so it doesn't have to be fancy, but it does need to work well, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Since today was a holiday, the boys didn't have school today. Nevertheless, Nathaniel was up about 6:30 am & David was up shortly after. We had about 20 minutes of cuddle time in my bed & then we headed downstairs. You know, I just realized the boys never ate breakfast. David was busy playing with his Transformers (he got some new ones on Saturday) and Nathaniel was playing with his Thomas trains while they sort of watched a Ben 10: Alien Force marathon on Cartoon Network. The day was pleasantly without much conflict even though Nathaniel only napped on the couch about an hour.

The worst thing that happened today was Nathaniel's total meltdown. We found a new show on PBS Kids this morning (before Ben 10) called Dinosaur Train. It looks cute and Nathaniel LOVED it. So this afternoon after his power nap, he starts asking to watch Dinosaur Train again. Of course its not on until tomorrow morning after they leave for school. That's all he wanted to do was watch Dinosaur Train. He threw himself down on the floor, kicking & wailing like it was the end of the world. I finally thought to look at the pbskids.org website to see if they had anything on it. Sure enough they had 2 little shows that make up an episode, so he watched those and was a happy boy after that. I didn't hear another word about Dinosaur Train the rest of the night.

Oh, did I mention that the boys went to bed at 7:30 pm? Yep. 7:30! I only had to yell at Nathaniel 1 time to go to sleep. Yippee for me! So I've spent the last hour picking up the remnants of the toys in the living room in preparation to vacuum tomorrow morning while the boys are both at school. Now its my turn to go to bed.

Home Again & Bows & Arrows & Soccer

We home again. Finally. Well, I really shouldn't say finally, as we've been home since about 12:30 this afternoon. However, I feel like I've done nothing but be gone for the weekend for 3 out of the last 4 weeks. Oh, wait. I have. :)

Within 20 minutes of us getting home, Richard & David left to go to a bow shop in a little town about 30 miles away so Richard could pick up the new bow he bought on Friday. And to let David shoot a youth bow to see how he liked it. David liked it so much that Richard bought it for him. Its a left-handed bow, since David is a lefty, and David is very, very proud of it.

Richard & David spent a good part of the afternoon shooting their respective bows, while I went and picked the dogs up from the kennel, fixed dinner & cleaned the kitchen up after dinner. We just got the kids into bed about 15 minutes ago (Nathaniel took a long nap so I wasn't in a hurry to put him in bed), and now Richard is packing to leave on a trip for work. David is devastated that Richard is leaving although it'll only be for a few days. The one bright spot is that we're signing up David to play soccer this fall. Practices start next Thursday, and games will be on Saturday mornings. I'll have to get some pictures of the practices & games. He's really excited.