Sick Kiddo

Dontcha just love being up at 1:30am with sick children....it's such fun. Rebecca is a bit under the weather and coughing up phlegm like a pro. My two younger children are very talented. It seems that when they are sick, they have the ability to cough so much and so hard, they throw up. Jaquelyn appears to have finally outgrown it but Rebecca is smack dab in the middle of the gagging era. Apparently they both have bad post nasal drip and as all the wonderful phlegm is draining down the backs of their throats, they cough and cough and cough until they gag themselves.
We have found small things to help but there isn't really a whole lot that works. I have yet to see one of my children get miraculously better when put in a room with a humidfier or vaporizer. We have used them in the past and probably will in the future, but I don't see really see the point. When Jaquelyn was little we put a car seat in her crib and had her sleep in that to keep her propped up. Rebecca is sleeping in our papasan chair so she is kept propped and is finally able to get some sleep without coughing continuously. They also seem to get croup a lot. Or maybe it's just that EVERY cold or cough morphs into that hoarse, seal barky cough. I hate hearing it. It makes me feel so bad for them.
Well, wish us some sleep....and that it doesn't work it's way through everyone else.

Rebecca's Halloween Party

Yesterday was the Halloween Party at Rebecca's preshool. It was very fun and so cute to see all the kids in their costumes. They sang some songs, played some games, had some goodies and then went on a parade around the church. It was a big hit with the secretary's up front and a grand time was had by all.

I, of course had my camera with me so I could take lots of pictures, right? Nope, I was in the parking lot when I realized that I had forgotten it. I am exactly on time (for once) so what do I do? Why I drive all the way home and get it. No way am I letting her first school party go by with no picture proof. So here are the pictures for everyone to enjoy.

Wordless Wednesday

Not Me! Monday Take 6

And we are again, starting the week off fresh by getting everything off our chest that we didn't do last week.

I totally did not get up and work on my blog last Monday instead of getting the Jaquelyn and Rebecca ready for school. And I certainly didn't drop Jackie off at school and come home and do it again before taking Rebecca to hers. And I most definitely didn't do it again this week. That would be irresponsible. Getting my kids ready for school always comes first.

I didn't stall all morning on Monday because I didn't want to go work out. And if I had, when I finally did drag myself there in the afternoon I wouldn't have been excited to find out then that the childwatch was closed and that I got to skip working out altogether. I want to stay in shape and always do what I can to exercise.

I did manage to work out at the Y later in the week and on one of the days I used one of the exercise bikes and got really sweaty. But I did not forget to pack a clean bra in my gym bag and I really did not just decide that no one would be able to tell if I just skipped wearing one. I alway remember to bring things like that and would never dream of going out in public without a bra.

I did NOT haunt my blog because I was watching my sitemeter for when I went over 500 visitors. And I didn't get really excited when it finally went over. That's just silly.

On Friday night, when I was working on the computer, I didn't spend an hour catching up on everyone else's blogs that I hadn't gotten to read for 2 whole days. I just did my work and I always save reading blogs for when I have free time. (what is free time again?)

I did pull my Halloween decorations out 3 weeks ago so I could enjoy them all month long. I did not never get around to putting them up so they are still sitting in the bin I store them in. That would be silly. Of course I put them up right away.

I am not totally excited to be #7 on MckMama's list this week and I totally didn't add this to my blog after doing the mr linky thing on her blog. That's just childish and I am way above that.

I am not begging someone to show me how to change the words when you put someone's blog address or any website in a post so it doesn't look like this:
Here is the website that started it all, jump over to read all about Not Me! Monday. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ . (I want it to say MckMama or here or just about anything else) Of course I know how to do things like that all by myself.

More Homecoming Pictures

Well, hmmmm. I said I would post with more pictures and I do have a few more. But first, let me vent so if you don't want to listen, skip to the bottom.

Does anyone else feel that their children have no idea what we do and go through for them? Let's talk about what it takes to get 2 teen aged girls ready to go to a homecoming dance.

First, we live in the middle of nowhere, so of course we had to drive an hour to the closest mall to go dress shopping. Let's spend 4 hours checking out dresses for them and even go to a second mall to find what we need. We find 2 dresses for them that I liked and they didn't hate so there is step one.

Find out every single penny owed to the school for laptop fees, etc because you can't buy a ticket if you owe them anything. Write out 5 separate checks to pay for said fees and tickets and there is step two.

Step three, run around the day of the dance to pick up last minute items and the ingredients for the special dinner that just HAD to be made, since Mom is a meanie and won't let them go out to dinner. Field a ton of phone calls while out running said errands since teenagers are unable to find anything unless it actually falls in their laps.

Minorly help with the getting ready part since I know nothing about make up (I stopped wearing make up soooo many years ago) .

Try to take a million pictures before they go so I can make sure I got a bunch of good ones. Only get about a dozen because the kids are so annoyed with the camera happy mom and after all, they are getting pictures taken at the dance. That was step four.

Step five, drive them to the dance. Give clear instructions that the check I am giving them is to pay for the pictures, what packages to get and who I want in the packages.

So after all that do you think they could possibly fit it into their three hour dance to go and get the pictures I wanted??? OF COURSE NOT!!!

What was I thinking.... they were much too busy dancing and (apparently) "grinding" to have time to do that one little thing that Mom wanted. A picture of their first Homecoming dance.

Am I upset....no, why should I be upset?

Ok, I feel better. Thank you for listening to me vent. Now here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment.

l-r Micayla, Teresa, Taylor, Jessica, Michelle

The corsage. I felt so bad, we didn't get him a boutonniere. It didn't even occur to me.

Rebecca wanted to get in on the action too.

Taylor after the dance.

Teresa after the dance.

IT'S HOMECOMING

Well today has been mega busy getting Taylor and Teresa ready for the big homecoming dance. We bought dresses last weekend and I picked up the last minute items like pantyhose today. The girls have a really good friend named Micayla that came over today to go with them. They have all been friends since Teresa & Micayla were in 1st grade. Taylor also had a boy that is just a "friend" that she went with named Paul. We met him this past week and he seems like a very nice boy. I took a million pictures of course and hope that they all came out well. Here are some of the ones I took before hand. I will try to post again with some "after" pictures when they get home.

Locks Of Love

Here are the before and after pictures of Teresa after she finally wore us down and was allowed to get her hair cut. We are talking about 2 months of nagging, begging and bargaining. She donated it to Locks Of Love which she has done twice before and Jaquelyn had done once. She totally loves the new "do" and we are trying to get used to it. I really thought her hair was so pretty before it was cut (when it was clean and brushed that is, not something she was know for doing).

Wordless Wednesday

I love Wordless Wednesday. It is so fun to not have to do anything but pick out a cute picture of my kids. I know it defeats the purpose of Wordless Wednesday to add words but it's my blog and I can do anything I want.

Here Is My First Blog Award

Ok, I was given an award for the first time today. It was another Heidi, of course, who else would it be, we're the best. Anyhow, I now have to figure out how to do the whole thing and more importantly, figure out who to chose to pass it along to since I only know a few bloggers. I am not really sure that it fits since it is Kreativ Blogger Award and I don't really think that quite fits my blog (seriously my blog design is just one of the generic ones you pick from when you first start a blog). But here goes nothing....
















I have to list 6 things I love to earn the award. I am sure that I will probably think of something afterwards that I can't believe I forgot. It's hard to think of 6 random things I love....I can think of sooooo many more.
Here they are....in random order....(I am excluding the obvious ones, my whole family....hmmm that would probably cover all of them.)

1. I love to read. I do it all the time even though I have 4 kids I am trying to keep up with. I especially love books that are series. Two of my favorites are the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanavich and the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. And I never get rid of them. We have boxes and boxes of books.

2. Trident sugarless gum - original flavor. It is so yummy and keeps it's flavor for sooooo long. I am horribly addicted to gum chewing. I always feel like my breath is bad so I always have a piece of gum in my mouth.

3. Vanilla Ice Cream. I really, really, really love vanilla. Just plain vanilla, no french vanilla, no vanilla bean. Plain vanilla.

4. Pictures. Especially professional ones. I adore pictures of my kids and they are all over my house. We go to Sears for pictures at least twice a year, more often if I can convince my husband. If you want to see what I mean you can check out this post... http://tayterjaq.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-love-pictures.html. One of these days someone has to show me how I can change the title of the html like everyone else does.

5. Harry Potter. I know it may seem juvenile but I am such a big Harry Potter fan. The books were sooooooo good. I can tolerate the movies, but just barely. I know the books offend some people but everything offends someone. I read the last one in less than 10 hours. When I walked in from the store, I told everyone to leave me alone and read until 4 am.

6. I am going to copy one of Heidi's for my last one. I love big families. I was an only child while I was growing up and I used to want a brother or sister so much. I did finally get one at 18 but it wasn't quite the same as growing up together. I always wanted a big family and felt the Brady Bunch was just the right number but I am happy with our four.

hmmmmm.....now I have to pick 6 people to give this award to. I seriously don't know 6 people in the blog world well enough to do this. And Heidi @ http://heidisacredandprofane.blogspot.com/ took the Heidi's that I have exchanged comments with. I guess I will start with these two for now but I will try to come up with some more soon.

1. Jennisa at http://mysweetlittlefamily.blogspot.com/

2. Jennifer at http://mylifewithfourkids.blogspot.com/

Just Another (Manic) Not Me! Monday

Ok, here we go. Let's all join MckMama in her weekly mission to find out all the things no one out there is doing. Here is her blog so you can go read what other people are NOT doing.
http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

I did not get really excited last monday when I saw that I had received 6 comments. Even though that was the most I had ever gotten for one post, that would be silly and superficial. I do this for fun and for people to read and enjoy, no one has to comment to make me happy.

I didn't stay up until after 1am two nights in a row blogging. That would be irresponsible of me. I always go to bed at a reasonable hour so I get a good nights sleep.

My personal favorite was I absolutely did NOT drive up to Pennsylvania on Saturday with Dan, Rebecca and Teresa to buy our new car at a dealership over 4 hours away and realize over halfway that we had not brought any shoes for Rebecca since she was sleeping when we left. If something like that had happened, I certainly would not have laughed and giggled about it for a really long time.

I guess this was a slow week for me. I actually probably didn't do more, I just forgot to write them down so they didn't fall out of my head.
See you next week.

New Car Shopping

Well, I should start by saying, it is new for us. I am really not into buying brand new cars. Just a big waste of money if you ask me. I am much happier buying used. Anyhow, I am getting off track.

We finally had to break down and trade in Dan's Explorer. He was very unhappy about it but the gas mileage was really killing us. And also the fact that it is a 5 passenger and we have 6 in the family so it was very inconvenient if our minivan happened to break down. So after Dan researched different SUVs and vans for about 6 months, we finally took the leap.

Here is Dan's Explorer that he misses and loves.















And here is what I WANTED to get. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Dodge Caravans/Chrysler Town & Country and I especially love them in this midnight blue. Unfortunately, this didn't have all the features we were looking for, but isn't it pretty.
















Here is what we ended up buying. A 2006 Buick Terraza. I suppose I will get used to it but for the most part it is Dan's to drive. It has the built in DVD player which the kids love; Captain's Chairs in the middle, also kid loving; the towing capacity that we need although no tow hitch yet; and fairly decent miles per gallon (which is very hard to find when it has to be at least 6 passenger).

Multiple Heidi's

I know this is probably so weird but as I am cruising around the blog world, I get such a kick out of finding other Heidi's. So much so that I even have the other blogs I found who are my namesakes listed on my sidebar. And I check them all the time. I know it isn't that unusual of a name but I have only met a few in my life. Oddly enough one was even a Heidi Lyn, which totally astounded me.

One of the Heidi's is holding a Freebie Friday today so be sure to stop over at her blog and give her a shout out to enter the contest. Her blog is http://heidisacredandprofane.blogspot.com/

Wendy Woo Woo

Yesterday at Rebecca's preschool they had a visitor. Her name was Wendy Woo Woo. A bit of an odd person if you ask me but the kids seemed to really enjoy her. She came equipped with lots of stories and even some farm animals. When she was finished, each child got to pick out a pumpkin from her little "patch". Rebecca had a blast.

Wordless Wednesday

Our Trip To The Pumpkin Farm

On Saturday, Dan and I took Rebecca to a local farm that had a nice little area set up for kids to play around with Fall/Halloween type decor. She had a blast trying out all the different activites they had there.
Here is the hay maze.















The bouncing pillow, kinda like a moon bounce but just a big bouncy thing on the ground with no walls.















The go-karts that she couldn't reach the pedals for.















Part of the obstacle course.




















The end of the obstacle course.









How tall this fall?




Swinging on the green machine. (no idea what type of farm equipment)




Instead of a sand table they had a corn table. She really enjoyed that one.

Not Me! Monday (just a tad early)

Here we go again. It's that time of the week. Time to bear our souls about things that we would never dream of doing. If you are enjoying these atrocious items that no one would possibly do, there are many more to read about at MckMama's blog. http://www.mycharmingkids.net/

I did not set alarms all over the house this week to try to win the ongoing contest my favorite radio station is having. That would just be silly. Just because they are going to pay someones bills doesn't mean I have to be that anal about listening at exactly the right time all four times during the day. And...even if this had occurred, I certainly wouldn't have yelled at one of my kids for turning the radio down so that I missed the name they called out once. After all, my kids are much more important that a radio contest.

I was not watching a really graphic (unbeknownst to me) movie this week and actually call my husband in and make him watch the scene too. And I certainly didn't giggle when I saw the look of horror on his face while watching it. Of course I would never do that. That's just weird.

I did pull all my Halloween decorations and old costumes out this week. I did not however get excited when my 3 year old wanted to wear the same costume as last year because it would save money. Even though I loved her costume from last year, I encouraged her to get something new.

When my daughter's girl scout leader called to say Teresa was dizzy and not feeling well and need to get picked up, I totally didn't think, even for a second, how this would ruin our plans for going out to dinner. That would be a horrible thing for a mother to think and I would never even let it cross my mind. My daughter's health was the only thing on my mind.

A Trip To The Emergency Room

OK, here is a big surprise. Yesterday did not work out the way we planned. Late afternoon, we received a call from Teresa's Girl Scout leader Debbie. Teresa was feeling dizzy, weak kneed, numbness in hands and feet. She had had a previous episode like this on Friday night at the football game and been checked out by the EMT. They said her blood pressure was slightly elevated but other than that they could find nothing wrong with her. Told us to keep an eye on her and follow up with her doctor this week, unless it happens again. So being such good, caring parents we of course sent her off to the girl scout camping trip anyhow. We did inform her troop leader so she was aware of the situation. So back to the call....we canceled all of our plans and went to pick her up. We got a neighbor to watch Rebecca and headed off to the emergency room.

Several hours and many needles later we have found that she has hyperventilation syndrome. Still not completely sure what that means but at least we know what she needs to do if it happens again. Sit down and take slow, deep breaths. We will still be taking her to see her regular doctor this week to see if we can figure out why it is happening. She says she isn't nervous, stressed, panicked or anything else of that sort.

Girl Scout Camping Trip

This weekend is the annual camping trip for our local girl scouts. Since all three of our older girls are scouts, they are all there. What does that equal??? Mommy & Daddy time. Yippee!! True we still have Rebecca but she is so little still she is easy to take care of. We are thinking dinner out and some car shopping. Life in the fast lane, huh?

We also got a chance to take Rebecca to a local pumpkin patch and there will be pictures hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the pictures I took of the girls before they left for camp.

Glasses

Well, I suppose it was inevitable. One of my girls finally needed glasses. And it's no big surprise, it's the one who takes after her father. I have been told many times how my husband and his brother would read by the hall light/night light after bedtime. Teresa is an avid reader and I have found her many times reading in some unhealthy manner, once she even used Taylor's cell phone as a light.

Last week, she was told by the person who was checking vision at school that she needed her eyes checked. So this past weekend we went to the eye dr's and lo and behold, she needed glasses. They came in yesterday and I think they are soooo cute(don't tell her that though, then she would hate them).

Anyhow, she doesn't have to wear them all the time, just during school and reading. So of course I sent out an email to each of her teachers so that they can help her remember to wear them. Not that I think my perfect, well behaved, rule following child would ever try to get away with not wearing them. Of course not.

Here are the before and after pictures.

I Am NOT Fond Of Government Agencies

I am just a wee bit frustrated with a certain government agency that shall remain nameless. I went there today with the intention of fixing something that was supposed to be fixed eons ago. I wasn't 100% sure what paperwork I needed to bring so I just gathered what I figured would do the job and headed down there. The closest office is almost 20 miles away.
Of course I didn't have the right paperwork. No big deal, I had kind of expected that. So I drive home, get the document I didn't have and drove back. Different person this time. She looks over my paperwork and....I still don't have what I need. Of course why should I be surprised. So with a little attitude (OK a lot) I storm out of there muttering not very nice things under my breath. I drive home and rummage around for awhile and finally find the info they needed. Again, I drive there, still a bit annoyed. Wait in line, AGAIN, get a new person, AGAIN.
Do you think I had the right paperwork???
OF COURSE NOT!!!!
By now I am more than a little irritated. How can they not tell me THE FIRST TIME every document they need to complete the task?? Do they know what gas prices are these days??? I just about blew up at the woman but managed to say, only slightly sarcastically, thanks for all your help. Which I didn't mean at all but she totally didn't even get.
I think I will wait until tomorrow to try again. Maybe by then I will not be ready to throttle the person that tells me I still don't have all the right paperwork.

Wordless Wednesday