Sunshine

Tom is feeling better. He was up and out of here before 8 a.m. to work. Soren is slowly on the mend. Jude is getting a fever.

Thanks for all your good rocky thoughts - I have 12 families signed up now. I'm so excited! It is going to be very busy between now and June - maybe a bit overscheduled, but I am thrilled at all the fun stuff we'll be doing, and by then we can cut everything back till fall and just enjoy the outdoors.

Emma still will have gymnastics 4 days a week through July 4. States the first weekend of June, which is also when Soren has her ballet recital. Then ballet will be over till fall.

Soren has cheerleading until May, then starts an Irish stepdancing class, which she is very excited about! I wont' get to see her, as David will be taking her. It runs when I work, but he's excited about it.

Then we have rock climbing on Wednesdays and possibly Camp Arrowhead for 4 weeks - camping and rope course for Emma and weather and history for Soren. I have to call and see if our financial aid application was approved or not.

Then we are taking another dog obedience class for 6 more weeks on Tuesday nights. We bailed last night - Soren was exhausted after her first day back at Lilac Children's Garden and Tom was beat after working. I was exhausted too. I just can't seem to get enough sleep lately. I am out the second my head hits the pillow. Jude is even sleeping a bit better at night so I don't know what it is. Hopefully the warm weather will energize me a bit.

Off to shower and get the veterinarian with Sullivan!

Recovering

Soren is finally starting to feel better. Strep test came back negative, so just a nasty virus. Her throat has really hurt her and she is still coughing.

Turns out that Tom had viral meningitis. The doctor said that if I had brought him in on Friday they would have admitted him to the hospital. I feel so stupid! I *knew* he was really sick, but didn't want to argue with his bull-headedness when he was too sick/stubborn to make a doctor's appointment. Thankfully he is on the mend, but she put him on a short work day, and said to take it easy so he doesn't relapse.

He still has the headache too, poor guy.

Emma and Soren are at Lilac Children's garden. I'm still trying to organize the rock climbing class. I need 2 more families to commit or it won't run :(. Think good thoughts!

Jude is a madman this week. He is crawling, pulling up, sitting and falling. He has first official bruise on his forehead from falling into the bathroom door last night, and fell twice on his back today. I have him safely corraled in the exersaucer for a few minutes so I can blog and get laundry away. He's exhausting me LOL!

Good thing my kids are cute ;).

Sickies

Soren is *still* sick. Her fever goes back up everytime the Motrin wears off. I wouldn't be too worried about it, but her throat really hurts a lot, so I'm mostly giving the ibuprofin for pain relief at this point. Lots of popsicles and stuff to keep her happy. She was very croupy yesterday but it's back to a mostly dry cough now. Poor kid. She is pretty miserable. Her appetite is nil also.

Tom *still* has a headache. He didn't get out of bed till yesterday and then overdid it and ended up back in bed by 8p.m. with another headache from hell. If he is not much improved tomorrow I am going to insist that he go to the doctor as well. This has been going on since Wednesday night.

Jude is fine. He has learned how to crawl, can sit up from hands and knees and sat for 45 minutes today playing! He can also get back on to his hands and knees from sitting, and is starting to try to pull up on things already! He is sooo cute :).

We had Easter dinner here today. Big turnout, which was lovely. Tom's mother provided the food and we cooked it. We made sweet potates in the Nesco cooker, ham and a special mashed potato recipe in our oven, asparagus, corn and crescent rolls. Then she brought a key lime pie and a strawberry pie for dessert. Yummy!

There were the 5 of us, plus my BIL and SIL, Brian and Karen and Catherine and David. The food was good, everyone got along, and the kitchen is clean, no thanks to me. Tom wouldn't let me do a dish, despite his headache. I took the dog for a long walk instead. He's been kind of neglected the last week from me taking care of sick people!

We're going to watch Mean Girls tonight and we watched Chicago last night. I rejoined Netflix and have been having fun perusing their site. Getting lots of educational videos for the girls too. Fun!

serenity

Because, well...I'm trying to find some about today. Soren probably has strep. Fast strep came back negative, but she has pus on her tonsils and uvula and has massive swollen glands and nasty fever. She may also have the flu on top of it; ergo the headache and tummy hurting.

Tom was up all night with the headache of death and destiny. He took Excedrin and 4 a.m., Motrin at 7:30 a.m. and nothing touched it. He apparently started throwing up around 4 p.m. when I was at work.

So.... I had to take Jude to my MIL's so I could coach. He was in the BEST mood all day. Apparently as soon as I left him he started screaming bloody murder. She tried everything apparently, but he kept on for over an hour and she ended up calling me at work and I had to give my class to someone and run over and get him. As soon as I got there he was fine.

Everyone's asleep now except me. I did all the dishes, took out the trash, got coffee ready for tomorrow, because heaven knows, I'm going to need it first thing.

Thank goodness David IS around now. He's kept Soren the past 2 days while I worked. I think I'll sleep all weekend if Tom ever feels better. I don't know if he has the flu or a migraine.

I spiked the beginning of a migraine myself at work tonight but caught it in time thank god.

So, despite all the running and stress, I"m feeling pretty calm. Maybe it's the crocheting I made time to do for 15 minutes this afternoon before we went to the doctor?

Not Friday

Well, it's still not Friday, and I don't even want it to be Friday, because I have to meet w/ the problem co-worker and hopefully resolve things. I mean, that *should* be positive, but I dread it.

And Soren is sick. I am taking her to the doctor later. She has a fever, headache, sore throat and threw up this morning. I'm headed out to get popsicles and ginger ale. Wish me luck. Tom is sick too.

Is it Friday yet?

So I *finally* got my period yesterday, but am still having some lower abdominal pain, and that weird pain that I had through my last 2 pregnancies. How annoying!

Soren woke up sick yesterday and is still running a fever of 101 today. Her main complaint is a headache, although her tummy hurts too. Tonight is a LONG work night and Tom has an appointment to do our taxes, so I am going to see if she can go to David's. I don't want to take her to the gym, and there is literally nobody to substitute on Wednesdays. Everyone is already there pretty much.

I had weird dreams all night. The last one was that I bought all of these disposable archery bows for Emma.

Today I am sure I also get to talk to my boss about the psycho co-worker. I just don't feel like dealing with it. Too stressful.

Gawd

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but there is a woman I work with that I can't stand. I have tried to be nice to her, but she is so rude to me and to the kids (all kids, not just mine). Tonight I finally had it with her. I told the gym that Emma can't work with her (she helps with team 2 nights a week). I don't care what feathers fly. Anyone who has made both my kids cry and has been consistently a bitch to me and just about everyone else - guess what? Don't want them around my kids, period.

On top of it, what a night! There is a 24 yo (black) man who is taking a cheerleading class to get his back tumbling so he can try out for the cheer team at college. Some of the (teen) girls' parents are complaining and accusing him of being a pedophile (!) and want the gym to ask him to leave! We are sure it's racism and not ageism and it's just horrifying. I believe/ hope he is still oblivious to what is going on out front during class, but it's so sad. The girl of the parent who was acting like such an ass was crying and very upset AT her dad, poor kid!

Anyway, still no period. Still have evening metallic nausea today, still occasional sharp pains in my lower left abdomen. Weirdness. I wish my body would just cooperate and do what it's supposed to do.

Gotta go eat. I made chicken noodle soup. Isn't that supposed to cure everything?

Weekend antics

We survived the weekend. Most especially, we survived the sleepover ;). It ended up being a lot of fun. We had one girl who has a gluten-free diet, so I made a homemade pizza w/ gluten free dough, and partially df for Soren. Then I made a bunch of popcorn and passed out gf carob cookies and they watched A Wrinkle In Time.

They got all their sleeping bags together themselves and hung out talking till about 11:30pm when they finally fell asleep. It was Emma and 4 of her friends, and then Soren and one of the little sisters up in her room. I made a huge bkfast of gf raspberry waffles and bacon and sausage and they hung out till parents came.

Emma got a great outfit; a really cool thing that lights up (I can't really describe it) and a really pretty glass bird and a cool clock.

They all got up at 7 a.m. which is WAY early for us. Saturday we went to our friend's house about an hour south of here. I went to bed early while everyone else watched The King and I, and then the kids went to bed and Tom and our friend watched Dances with Wolves...or Tom did. She fell asleep!

Jude was up at 7 a.m. because of the skylight above us. Tom and I were up at 2 b/c the smoke detector in our room decided to have its battery die at that time of night and we had to find a ladder and disconnect it.

I felt pretty sleep deprived all morning and have another cold coming on so I laid down with Tom for about 1/2 hour while our friend hung out with the kids; then all the kids and adults went out for a long walk while Jude and I napped in the afternoon.

I actually took a pregancy test today. My period is 6 days late (not too weird I guess, but it's been pretty regular since I got it back). I did have a weird ovulation cycle this month, so I'm very confused. The test was negative, but I'm so tired and have a metallic tate in my mouth and feel somewhat queasy. I also have a weird pain in my left side. Maybe I'm sick and it's throwing off my cycle.

Anyway, we're home and I'm tired again. Emma is mother-helping first thing in the morning again, so I need to be up, since Tom is taking his mom to buy a used car.

I wish it were Friday, but then of course, I'd have 5 extra kids ;). Today we went to see James & the Giant Peach with other homeschoolers at one of the local colleges. Then we picked Tom up and had lunch together, came home and played, did some math and writing and are now getting ready to go to the gym.

Jude's having a power nap that started around 12:30 or so. He hadn't slept since about 8 or so!

Tomorrow Emma is having her bday sleepover, with 2 hsing friends and 2 gymnastics friends. A sibling of a hsing friend is staying too (Soren's best friend). Should be chaotic and fun, especially with the gluten/dairy issues running amok w/ this group!

I am going to make gf/df pizza and then gf/df waffles for bkfast and they'll have popcorn and we'll rent a movie.

Work has been busy. Tom took Jude for about 4 hours last night! He had some food and water and made it w/o nursing OK. He even napped for about 45 minutes. I missed him dreadfully but he had a blast with his dad and nana. Soren missed him too. she said she is used to playing with him when I'm done teaching.

My boss is gone on a cheerleading competition until Monday. That always makes things a little calmer ;). I do like him though!

Tom worked yesterday and today, so that is good for the pocketbook. I was getting a bit worried. We have an appt. to do our taxes next week. I"m proud of not waiting until *entirely* the last minute!

Otherwise, humdrum, same old same old. Ready for spring and more outdoor activities at the park. We're going to the conservatory tomorrow afternoon.

Buffalo

We went to Buffalo yesterday to the University for our last gymnastics meet for a couple of months. We got our highest team score so far this season and won first place again! Emma didn't have a stellar meet, but she was consistent on bars and won 5th place in the junior division.

She fell on her dismount from beam, which was a bummer. Other than that, she would have had a pretty consistent score.

David drove there with me, which was good. We then went out to dinner, and the food was good, kids ate free, but it took longer to get our check than to eat and one of the kids was getting sicker by the minute and eventually lost her cookies, literally, as we were finally ganging up at the cash register to demand that they figure out our checks already. Poor kid. Nothing like puking in front of all your friends :-/. Emma doesn't deal well with that sort of thing either, so I had to quickly shove her outside before she lost HER cookies next!

Tom is feeling very sick today and is quite cranky. He just got out of bed. I was hoping he'd work today, because we're getting quite broke, but his mom's washing machine broke :(.

still sick

I still feel like crap and Tom is now sick too.

Emma's bday was low key and fun. We went out to dinner at Plum Garden, which the kids loved! The food was excellent as usual, although I was too sick to eat much.

Emma loved her presents - archery stuff, pj's, outfit from my mom, #11 of Lemony Snicket's series. Good stuff :).

We're going to Buffalo for a meet today. The girls are with David until then.

my head is stuffed with fluff.

Sick

Now, after all that, I am sick as a dog. My head is stuffed with fluff, my chest hurts and I think I am having some weird ovulatory cycle this month. I am convinced I have just ovulated for the second time in a week.

The puppy is bugging me, Jude won't nap, i need to go to the store to get snacks for E's team for her birthday tonight and all I want to do is go back to sleep!

I can't believe I have to work tonight and then go out for dinner. Goddess help me ;)

Happy Birthday Emma!

It's Emma's birthday! She is 9 today, my big, beautiful girl :). I remember going into labor with her when Brian and Karen were over painting her bedroom purple. I hid it until about 1 a.m. and then had David shoo them out so I could stop pretending to be sleeping ;).

I labored with her for 25.5 hours and finally had her at 12:25a.m. 3/11/96. She was 5 lb 8 oz and 18 inches long. Now she's 48 inches tall and 43 lbs!

I remember her impish grin when she was a new toddler, emptying the magazine rack and bookshelves. I remember her playing the same toddler computer game over and over again on "her" computer on the floor of my office when I worked from home.

I remember nursing her hour after hour as I volunteered for Moms Online as a chat host. And the countless La Leche League meetings we attended and the volunteering I did for them.

I remember when her Grammy died, and how hard that was.

I remember David pretending to nurse her so he could get her to take a bottle when I was at work.

I remember telling her that her dad and I were going to divorce when she was 5, and how sad she was. I remember how she held her sister and kept her safe when her dad was sick and out of control the night we separated.

I love how she has become a witty and fun loving young woman. I love that we get inside each other's heads and finish each other's sentences. I love that she is a big sister. I love that she is a gymnast and is passionate about it. I love how she treats other people.

She is such a special girl and I am so blessed to have her in my life.

Happy Birthday Emma. You are so loved by so many people.

Family Day

Tuesdays are our family day, where I don't have to work and the girls don't have to go to the gym or any other activities in the evening. We scheduled our puppy classes for this night since we're all together.

Tonight we had our first one. It went pretty well, although I kind of had forgotten a lot that I thought I had remembered! Sully did great, although he does a lot of leash tugging and wants to visit with the other dogs to play soooo badly. The instructor does give them 10 minutes at the end of class to do that. There is the most adorable golden retriever puppy in the class. The instructor isn't really all that bad looking either ;).

Emma had her bday celebration at LCG today. It was nice. She took banana tofu muffins and her baby book so she could share some baby pictures. Then I hung out with some moms in the lounge until it was time to go. We usually play outside for awhile, but holy cow it was cold. Yesterday it hit 60, and it was about 14F when we left at 4 p.m. today. Now it's snowing and blowing like crazy. It's disgusting!

David and I started a dialogue about visitation today. It went well I think. He is going to dinner with us on Friday night for E's bday. I still haven't seen his apartment but he gave us an invite to come and check it out whenever we have a chance.

We all went to Dick's Sporting Goods the other day because one of their stores is going out of business. We picked up a chin up bar for Emma as one of her presents and I got the rest of the archery stuff I wanted to buy her. Then we got rock climbing harnesses and chalk and chalk bags for both girls. They really want to take a class, so I am going to check out the local climbing place and try to find a time to sign us up. I think it's probably cheaper to rent climbing shoes at this point, since their feet grow so fast and they are about $70/pair from what I saw. Ouch!

I've been doing a better job cooking this week. I had been getting slack with the menu thing, and I did one this week and I feel much more organized, although I'm still hellishly behind on laundry. Oh, well. Can't win 'em all, I guess.

I'm thinking about having Soren visit the next older class at LCG. I feel like the one she's in is too young for her, but she's not complaining, so I wouldn't move her until next year, assuming that we do the program again. Both girls seem to really want to, so we probably will.

Jude is really rocking on his hands and knees and making small stabs at moving forward. He is eating like "where the heck were ya'll hiding the bananas, anyway?" He is loving food. Again, kind of mixed emotions about that.

I've been feeling very ... icky all week. I hate ovulating and my cycles aren't really regular yet. I ovulated last Wednesday and am still feeling really hormonal and my body feels yucky. I hate it. Jude is still waking just about every hour between midnight/1 a.m. and morning. Tom usually takes him around 5 or 6 so I can get a couple hours in a row, but the last 2 or 3 nights I've been having really bad/ crazy dreams. Yesterday I just got up around 7 a.m., because I couldn't bear the thought of having any more bad dreams. I woke up crying from one and that was it for me.

I'm starting to fray around the edges a bit with the sleep deprivation. I'm having a hard time staying organized and remembering things. Work is really hard to get motivated about, especially at that time of day (evenings).

Enough blathering...

Catching Up

I don't know what happens to the days.

David moved up on Thursday. I haven't seen the apartment yet, but the girls went shopping with him yesterday for a desk and some beds for them. Friday, Emma had a meet in Fulton, NY and David and his dad followed me up.

David has a breathlizer thing in his car that he has to use before it will start, because of his DUI, and it randomly will shut the car off (after a warning) to make you blow in it again. The whole time he was following me to Fulton, I was obsessively checking my rear view mirror to make sure that he hadn't had to pull over.

Emma did well. She got a 9.05 on vault and placed 12th with a medal, 8.05 on bars, 7.65 on beam and 8.4 (!) on floor, which was a very good score.

Her team took first place again by 3 whole points :). We didn't get home until 1:15 a.m. because we all took the kids to Ruby Tuesdays in Oswego for dinner. It was 5 p.m. meet and they hadn't eaten since 1, so they were tired and starving. What a day!

I'm feeling hormonal and weepy today. Ugh.

We went to my BILs for dinner last night, which was fun.

I've been having the *craziest* dreams the last few nights. I dreamed (because of David's car breathilizer thing I'm sure) that I had to shower in this shower that was attached to the end of my bed before I could get in bed.

Last night, I dreamed that Tom was short and stocky and we were dancing! I also dreamt that his mom found his truck keys, which turned out to be true this morning. There were a bunch of other weird dreams, but they've escaped my memory now.

The girls have been busy - some homeschooling stuff; playdates, and Emma's mother's helper gig.

It's snowing. Fancy that!

Cute babies

Thanks Dawn! Yes, i think I must have taken a class at some point ;). Either that, or it's the sheer force of my personality telling these babies that they better come out cute, or else!

Speaking of babies, my boss' wife told me tonight that she talked to Tom about that very thing - that we make cute babies and we should make more, and he said....

"That would be OK with me!" quite cheerfully.

What IS it with this baby thing? I mean, really. This is getting ridiculous.

First of all, you have to have, well, you know...s-e-x to get pregnant, which doesn't happen a lot around here, what with already existing young babies, and just general I don't know what - apathy? on Tom's part. Second of all, after the last experience with feeling so unattractive and unsexy during my last pregnancy, I'm really anxious about the idea of getting pregnant if it means that it freaks my husband out and he doesn't want to have sex.

Is that petty?

Well, in existing baby news, Jude is now walking his feet forward in order to try to move forward, rather than his knees. He hasn't figured out how to move his hands yet though, so instead of going backwards, he's now not going anyplace, which is kind of preferable, IMO ;). He is also wanting to sit very badly, but wants to lift his chest up to do it, which doesn't really work so far. He can get from sitting to his hands and knees though.

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Take the here

stuff

Laura, nope, I'm pretty sure I got my cold from Tom! So don't worry :) And the kids haven't gotten anything!

Jennifer, I'm SO sad we didn't get to see you too! Maybe the next trip :). I would definitely go back there again; it was a real deal for everything included and the kids had a blast.

Rachel, I'm glad your girls are enjoying gymnastics! We have a lot of fun :).

My friend Keith's dog, Hendrix, died yesterday :(. I've known him since he was a puppy and our dogs grew up together, so think good thoughts for Keith. H. had to be 11 or 12.

Took our pup to the vet today. He was a brat ;). He's been wound up ever since! He's doing great. He gained 13 lbs in a month - the dr. said he may be as big as 75 lbs. when he's full grown. We went to our first puppy class last night, sans dog. I think it will be OK. I'm not sure I'll go to this guy for obedience. He uses food training, which I abhor. Yuck. But he seems to have other good training philosophies that I really like, so we'll see how the puppy class goes. The kids were all great during it and even got a round of applause for being so attentive and well behaved. :::beam:::

and another 

new pictures are up at my website 

Vacation is officially over

I went back to work last night after having a week off. Class itself was good and I got a lot done, but I think my time having Jude there is limited. He is just getting so mobile, it's hard to keep track of him and get anything done. The bad part of work was finding out that I am not going to get to coach pre-team. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm extremely bummed about it. I was really looking forward to it. I will get to coach a Level 3 class but...well, it's just not the same level of coolness.

Jude started bananas and loves them. Like he ate half a container. holy cow. He also loves teething biscuits - the organic kind, but he doesn't understand how to swallow anything that's beyond pureed at this point, so he bears strict observation when he has one of these suckers.

It's the end of an era I guess. I am sad but know that Tom and the girls are enjoying the opportunity to be more involved. I really wanted to wait until 6 months, but he was showing all the signs of readiness and is loving it and doesn't seem to be suffering any ill effects. We are taking it slow though. I definitely don't want him to wean, especially after both girls nursed to almost 5 yo.

Speaking of which, I have gotten some hints from Tom lately that he would like to have another baby. I am torn between, "Hah, so YOU have the kid, OK?" and "well, I would consider it in another 2 years." WTF am I thinking to even consider this? 4 kids? being pg again? omg. I'm so freaking warped. I did tell him that I would totally have to not be under any obligation to WOH if we had another child. It's almost too difficult now.

Moving on from *that* subject, the girls are in a talent show at LCG today. Emma made up a modified routine and Soren is doing a short version of her ballet recital piece. I need to charge the video camera battery so I can tape them!

They are both very excited that their dad is moving up here on Thursday. Emma says it's her best bday present.

Emma has a meet Friday night, and her bday is NEXT Friday. How can it be possible that she will be 9? I just can't fathom it. Damn. She doesn't really even know what she wants, and has been unable to commit to planning a party, although we know she's having an overnight with 4 girls, with movie and popcorn. Should be fun!

I'd like to find one of those sleepover kits - anyone see them anywhere? that would be cool.

OK, enough procrastinating. I've got a ton to do in the next hour!

What else? Not too much I guess.