would love to post my week...

but I'm going to eat something (I can't have anything after midnight!) and then go to bed instead. It will be a very long day tomorrow; I am having surgery for the side pain I've been having. So I am having a laparoscopy done...I'm freaking out!! My doctor seems to think the problem is possibly scar tissue or something called adhesions, which she can repair with 2-3 tiny incisions. But there is a small chance the sutures from my c-section healed improperly and she'll have to basically cut my entire incision and resuture. Yes, I am totally freaking out. Hoping it's something simple...dreading what tomorrow will bring.

mar8-mar14

March 8
The kids had spring school pictures at school. I thought it was a little strange, school photos twice a year, but whatever... Maddie asked to have her hair curled with the curling iron. Yikes, I thought. What will I need to do to her hair when she's a few years older??? We only leave about 3 minutes in the morning for fixing hair, so Maddie got to school right before the bell today.

Sadie is trying SO hard to roll over from her back to tummy. She doesn't do the belly to back, mostly because she really can't stand being on her belly for very long.

Kaycey was such a big helper today. Well, she is most days. I don't even have to ask her for help. She will walk into the kitchen, empty the dishwasher and fold laundry, wash the bottles, without asking. She has such a big heart, too. I see her joining something like the peace corps or something along those lines!

March 9

Just because she's cute

I went to Archiver's and Hannah's with Katherine, a much needed little day trip to get me in the creative spirit.

Kaycey had a Pioneers meeting at school. They made the cutest little birds and got the kitchen ready at school for the spaghetti dinner they are hosting on March 10.

Emma and Papa got subs for dinner for the kids and they slept over. Mike was at the Bucks game with some guys from work, so it was nice to have the extra sets of hands around. Especially because I had a terrible headache. Pretty sure everyone, including adults, was in bed by 9:30!

Maddie told us that she loves Jack (a boy in her class) and he is her boyfriend and she's really gonna marry him. How cute!

March 10

In the morning I got a phone call from the oncology social worker at Children's Hospital. She put me through to Jennifer, a mom of a newly diagnosed stage 4 NB boy (January). We talked for a while and I am going to meet her next time her little guy is in for chemo, which should be the week of St. Pat's Day. They are from about 2 hours away, and drive down every time he needs treatment or has to be inpatient for chemo, low counts, or fevers. She is also 7 months pregnant with their second baby. Please keep this family in your prayers.

This little one has become the biggest thumb sucker!! It's really nice though that she already puts herself to sleep.

Kaycey and I worked in the kitchen (along with alot of other people) for the spaghetti dinner before church. It was really nice, there was a huge turnout, and we went through almost all the meatballs. There were ALOT of meatballs! I had fun getting to know some of the other moms who I hadn't talked to much before. The girls had a lot of fun, too, helping out in the kitchen. On the way home from church, it was so foggy, we couldn't even see a few feet in front of us. I was so glad to pull in the garage and call it a night! We came home and watched the end of American Idol, which was even enjoyed by the littlest member of the family. I am disappointed Lilly got cut... I thought she'd be around for a while.

March 11

After gymnastics, we met with our neighbor friend and her daughter (Maddie's age). We went to a scrapbook store out close to my house. It was really nice! Stocked full of all sorts of fun stuff, and 3 different rooms for scrapbooking/sitting. I bought a really cool Christmas kit (a tree shaped chipboard book). I rarely buy big book kits, since they are usually pricey, but this one was worth it. Can't wait to do it! I plan on going to some of the late night crops there with Cal's best friend's mom one of these days.

Spring is certainly around the corner, it was pouring rain today!

Grandpa Bo and Grandma Ria brought dinner over, and we ended the night with a game of yahtzee (Cal's latest craze!).

March 12

Poor little baby, had to get shots today. She was very brave, though, and only cried for a little bit. She has nearly doubled her birthweight, and she is very long for her age. Oh, and she is in 90th percentile for her head. Guess she has a big brain.

We picked up a pinewood car kit from a couple who run the derby at school. Kaycey really wanted to do one last minute. Cal wasn't interested, which I was kind of surprised. Maybe next year he'll change his mind.

Maddie had a friend over for a while, and boy she is so bossy. I sure hope that Maddie isn't so bossy when she is at other people's houses. I always hear that she was so sweet, etc...but I wonder sometimes. I kept hearing her friend say, "Well, I'm the guest..." Haha.

Still haven't gotten my hair done, but the gray has become so obvious that I've decided to just dye it myself. On the to do list.

Sadie had cereal for the first time. She rather enjoyed it.

That night we had Olympic Night at school. Apparently every year in March, there is a themed night with games and snacks and fun. Well, it was a huge success. Which I'm guessing it is every year. We are so amazed at how involved the teachers are. They are at every single function, usually running it. And they look happy to be there! 90 kids out of 110 in the school were at Olympic Night. They had games, they were divided into teams (Canada, USA, Norway, and Germany), they had music, snacks, and even a guest--an Olympian from the 1976/1980 winter games, Leah Mueller.

Mike brought home flowers today, too. I generally get them when the flower vendor is at corporate. Mike gets a good deal on them, so they're totally worth it. I have to say these were the best ones...they still smell beautiful a week later!!

And uh oh, major sink leak in the kitchen. Mike only noticed because there was a puddle in the basement by his tools! Argh. Part of the wood floor in the kitchen is warped from standing water. Eek. This house isn't so new anymore.

March 13

I dyed my hair, by myself. It cost approx. $6, as opposed to $100. I do still need a haircut!!

Mike and Kaycey started working on the car. They decided to keep it simple since the weigh in is the next day.

We went to my cousin's daughter's birthday party that afternoon. She made the YUMMIEST cake!!

When we came home we played bible hangman on Maddie's wipe off board. But she was mad we erased her picture to play...

March 14

Planned on going to early church. Except that I was up with Sadie at 4am watching CNN and realized it was 5am already. Totally forgot about the time change! Yeah, needless to say, we had a rough time making it to Sunday School at 9:15. After church, Mike and Kaycey went to weigh in her car, which was a few tenths shy of the limit. Mike was surprised at how "all out" some people went for these cars. He's thinking at least Kaycey did hers by herself. It was rather obvious some were the parents' doing!

We went to our niece and nephew's birthday party in the afternoon. There were 20 kids there, 5 under the age of 6 months. It was craziness to say the least. Kaycey played babysitter for a couple of the little babes and their moms asked if they could take Kaycey home. It was a pizza party theme, and they gave the kids hats and had the kids make their own little pizzas. How cute is this pic of Sadie & Grandpa David (Mike's Dad)???

The kids had a great time, but were really mad when we left just as they were about to play a game of basketball outside. Mike has this thing about not wanting to be the last people at a party. Oh well. We started talking vacations, in general places we'd like to go eventually with the kids. New York City & DC (I said I'd only go to DC if I can go to the Smithsonian though), Grand Canyon, some other spots on the East Coast--Boston, Baltimore, etc (did I ever tell you I love the East Coast??? haha : ) California, FL/Disney (we joke that it's a trip for Maddie--we want to go when the older two will still want to be seen with their parents & Maddie will think it's totally magical. And I suppose we'd take Sadie again in 10 years by herself!) When we got home he was online looking up deals for Disney vacations. He says it was out of curiosity (which was sparked by watching Extreme Home Makeover). So perhaps in a year or two we'll go somewhere. Which brings up another issue, he's thinking of driving. Okay, fine. But with what vehicle? We'd have to rent something big enough to hold all our stuff, the minivan wouldn't hold much. Well, HE has been the one joking about getting a new vehicle. He often talks about trading in his truck so I could get a Suburban or Yukon, and he'd use the minivan as his junker/to haul stuff. But I won't let him do that; he still gives me crap for trading in his Mustang (and crashing it up...) when we had Kaycey (by the way, HE traded in his Mustang for the Silverado, I told him he should've kept the Mustang and got the truck!). Anyhow, he constantly jokes that in eight more years, I can get a new vehicle, which I know he is being sarcastic, because in the same sentence he tells me first I have to crash up all the corners of it so they at least match. I laugh, of course. I say at the very least 6 years, because Cal can drive then and he can have the minivan. Hopefully a new vehicle is in our near future???

Cal finished "The Lightning Theif" today...in record time! Boy, this kid can read. It's 376 pages, and he had it done in less than 12 days. He can't wait to read the rest of them, but geez, I can't keep up! Someone better keep writing good books...he reads them faster than the authors can keep up with.

Little Sadie likes her exersaucer (and the TV!), too. And she grabbed her toes today, all by herself!!

feb 28-mar 7

yikes, I got some catching up to do. well, it's pretty simple once I have the time. My pictures from my new camera are saved by date, so I can easily look them up to go with whichever date I'd like. And I've been pretty good about keeping my notes daily, too.

Feb 28

So I thought I had appendicitis. Didn't want to mess around with that, so decided the best thing to do was to go to Urgent Care, being a Sunday, I couldn't just call the doc. So away we went, all 6 of us, to the Urgent Care. Mike and the kids waited a while with me, then he took them to McD's for lunch and I waited some more. Only to find out once they took me back that they don't have a CT tech on weekends, so I'd have to go to the ER anyhow. Argh. Two hours, wasted. So then Mike took me to the ER with the kids in tow. They were really good. While waiting at the ER we decided we better do something with the kids in case I needed to have my appendix out. Our closest option was Mike's brother, who was 10-15 minutes away. He took the older 3 there (being that they have three of their own, one being only 5 months older than Sadie, and his brother's wife wasn't home...was not about to leave his brother with 7 kids...) So Mike came back by me with Sadie. She of course was a perfect angel. Four hours, a urine test, and a CT later they decided it was a UTI ( which oddly I had no normal symptoms of a UTI). Anyhow, what a long and torturous day. Glad when we finally got home, and ALL went to bed.

Mar 1

Still didn't feel very good. In fact, I didn't write much of anything down for the majority of this week, because I wasn't feeling great. Mike took the kids to their first 4H meeting (several kids from school are part of it, too, and I thought it sounded fun and interesting for the kids). Apparently the meeting was terribly boring. $55 down the tube?? I hope not. I hope it gets better than the boring meeting. Anyone else in 4H? I'm very new to it, know only what I am reading on the 4H website.

Mar 2

My grandparents came over with dinner and slept over. Mike met a friend out after work, so it was nice to have an extra hand around since I was feeling kinda blah yet. But I was determined to start cleaning the upstairs. So my Grandma, sister, and I moved most of the toys to the bonus room, and most of Kaycey's stuff from the girls' room to Kaycey's new room.

This little lady LOVES her fingers.

Mar 3

Believe it or not, for the very first time we saw a deer in our back yard. I barely caught a glimpse of it, so I couldn't get a picture. We've seen footprints plenty of times, but never actually saw one until today!

Mar 4

Spelling bee day!! The kids were nervous about the spelling bee, being that they actually had to sit in the gym facing a crowd, and using a microphone. Kaycey took first place! Cal took third place (on an unfortunate and tricky word--a homophone, accept. He spelled except, even after hearing the sentence. He was really disappointed, but I let him know that I was in many spelling bees growing up and I messed up on words that didn't seem all that tricky(two words I recall losing the first place spot to--pity and roommate in first and second grade).

in the hot seat

We went to eat by my Dad's, too, which seems to be a regular Thursday night occurrence. My sister came over and we all grilled her about a boy she went on a couple dates with : )

Kaycey and Maddie slept over at my Grandparents' house, since the kids were off school Friday the 5th. Cal and I stayed at my Dad's with Auntie till 9:30 or so...Auntie and Cal were trying to beat worlds in Mario Wii. Auntie was a champion gamer in her day. Haha!

Really been getting the itch to go back to school. Of course when I do, if it's soon, it would be part time. The problem is where should I go, and what should I do. 31 years old, and clueless. I thought we'd move out here and there'd be stay at home moms everywhere to hang out with. I am seriously one of the only ones. The one mom I've really become friends with is a Nurse Pracitioner by weekend, and a college professor during the week. Most of the moms at our school are nurses or teachers. Not that I want to do either of those jobs, I'm just saying. I need to do something. I know I'm a mom, and lucky to be able to stay home, BUT all of sudden all the kids will be in school and then what do I do? I've always joked that someday Mike could be the stay at home mom and I'd work.

Mar 5

Kids are off school, but I'm home with just Cal and Sadie.

We went by my Grandparents right after lunch, and Cal got to sleepover there by himself. I worked at the store for the first time in about 6 months or so. I really missed it, and I will enjoy having that little bit of spending money. But, I also felt like, what a hassle, for the 4 hours I worked, to have all 4 kids at my Grandparents and Mike have to pick up the girls on his way home from work. Oh well. It'll do for now.

My mom met me at Cousins after I closed the store. Yum, I hadn't had a sub from there since???

Mar 6

I shopped all day with Sadie. Literally all day. We went to 8 different stores. It was pretty nice out, so I walked along a strip mall and went in several stores, mostly just for something to do. I am still struggling with decorating ideas and curtain ideas, a year and a half after moving into the house. Pathetic really, that most of our first floor has nothing on the windows or walls yet. Bought lots of stuff that I'll probably just return anyways. By the way, Sadie was perfect all day!! As a reward (haha) we set up her "jenny jump up" and let her give it a whirl. She's a bit too small, I think, yet...but she lasted several minutes.

I think really it was just another thing to attempt to put in her mouth.

Mar 7

We went to early church because I worked at the store again today. Mike took the kids to his parents' house for the day. He went rummaging through their basement because there was some random things we've been missing since packing up our old house. He found our high chair (yay! will need that soon!) and our clocks that I had searched high and low for. The kids got to ride on the ATVs (something I am NOT comfortable with one bit) but at least Mike respects that for the most part, and we won't let Kaycey drive it (when we were out there for Christmas, we looked outside and there she was, DRIVING one. I ran outside in the snow with no shoes to yell at those who let her drive it...NOT cool. Especially since everyone knows how I feel about ATV's. Cal is a super cautious driver and goes slow...doesn't mean I like the fact he rides on one!! I don't think anyone under 16 should be on them, but apparently I am overprotective and extreme. Better than the opposite!!

going to Hollywood

Feb 25

I forgot to put the 25th in the last post. The kids came home from school and were holding a gold colored piece of paper. "We're going to Hollywood!!", they squealed with excitement. Or maybe a spelling bee. So both older kids made it to the spelling bee. The top 5 spellers in each class made it to the finals, to be held March 5th. This picture doesn't do justice to the excitement when they walked in the door to tell me the news. Cal refused to pose at all for a picture, and this is as excited as Kaycey would be for the camera. Oh well!

Feb 21-27...falling behind!

Feb 21

We went to early church (something we don't do very often!!) because Maddie's class was singing. She still didn't feel great, but she really wanted to sing. The song is so adorable, too!!

After the service, the kids went to Sunday School, and I stayed for a meeting about a group called Tomorrow's Choice. It is a group that helps pregnant teens/women in less than desirable circumstances--jobless, homeless,etc. They offer supplies and counseling services in a Christian atmosphere. I found it very interesting, and would like to find the time to volunteer at the place.

Later that afternoon, Cal went to a birthday party for a boy in his class to a hockey game. I am excited to see that he is forming friendships at the new school. Okay, the school isn't that new anymore, but while he is friends with every one, he doesn't really talk about anyone as a close friend (his real best friend is from is old school). The boys in his class at his current school aren't really interested in sports--at least not to the degree he is!--but they are really into legos. I'm glad Cal took a few steps back so to say, because it seemed like he was growing up too fast. He had been thinking legos and star wars were getting babyish. But now he is into all that again. Thank goodness!! Anyhow, he had a great time at the hockey game; it has been years since he's been to one (my Dad used to have season tix) and years since Cal took hockey/skating lessons.

Kaycey went to a soccer game with my sister (the Wave). My sister's friend is dating someone on the team, so I'm not sure if the team does this for just anyone, but they made a special point to talk to and take photos with Kaycey after the game. She thought it was so incredibly cool. She brought a soccer ball and almost the entire team signed it for her!

While the two big kids were gone all day, the little girls and I went to my Mom's for the day. We had dinner and watched the Olympics (Maddie loves it!!) Mike was at home working on Kaycey's new room--he's building a loft bed and also putting the shelving in the closet.

Feb 22

The kids made up their own version of American Idol. They took turns being the judges and made up contestant's names, and even Mike participated as a contestant, Cheesehead Bob. It was hilarious! Maddie thought everyone who performed was "great!"

Feb 23

Sadie can't get enough of her thumb...taking after a certain big sister, I guess! During the day the little girls and I went to my Grandma's for a few hours. I ran to a couple stores, and then she made pancakes and lingonberries for lunch. YUM.

Feb 24

WHen I picked Maddie up from school, "All the single ladies" was on the radio. She told me it's her favorite song. We went to the mall and met Ria (my stepmom) for lunch and shopping. We were looking for Easter dresses for the girls (well, also they will wear the same dress to Mike's sister's wedding in May). Maddie found lots of dresses she wanted, of course. She wanted them all. She decided on a white one with pastel colored embroidery, with a price tag of $80. Um, no. But, with my Stepmom's discount, some coupons, and a sale in a few days the dress came to $23.50. You read that right. Can't beat that!! And I got a cute pink one for Sadie with a little white sweater. I really wanted to shop for myself for some things, but ran out of time.

It snowed a bit and when we were leaving to go to the pre-church pizza dinner, Maddie said, "If our car gets stuck in the snow, we'll just have to call a mater to get it out." We had watched "Cars" recently...funny girl!

Feb 26

Did not sleep well last night. Root canal today. I was so nervous, it was insane. Mike stayed home from work to take me. The anticipation of course was terrible, and I don't think the nitrous oxide really worked to relax me. But once my mouth was numb, I really didn't feel anything. I was surprised how long it took, and I won't say I enjoyed the experience but I really didn't feel much pain at all...maybe because the tooth is dead?? I don't know, but hope I don't have to go through it again.

Maddie went to her friend's house to play for the day, so that was nice to come home and take a long nap, while Mike hung out with Sadie. Late in the afternoon, once the kids came home from school, I took the 2 older kids shopping (Cal doesn't have a pair of jeans without holes) & to dinner. Later that night, I met my old BFF, Fran, out for a couple hours. It was so nice to see her again & talk about all our crazy old times.

Feb 27

Mike worked all day on building Kaycey's bed. That night, I went out with my sister, and two cousins, Laura & Sara (the other crazy NKOTB fans, haha). We went to dinner and to see "Valentine's Day". It was cute, kinda predictable, but fun nonetheless. Still disappointed on the whole McDreamy/McSteamy deal---gotta see it to see what I mean : ) I really wasn't feeling great through the night, but I thought maybe it was from the root canal or just being tired. During the night, I got really sick and thought I might need Mike to take me to the Emergency room. I wasn't quite sure how we'd do this, with four kids in the middle of the night. So I decided to try to wait it out, at least till morning. And after getting sick, I thought I felt a little better, at least enough to make it till morning.