wow!

Our small school (100 kids or so in pre-K thru grade 8) raised money to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Monday started with penny day, Tuesday with nickel day, and so on, and ended today with dollar day. Kaycey brought a $5 bill from her very own piggy bank. Nearly $800 was raised by the school!! We are so proud to be part of such a generous & loving school.

I know, I know...I've been terrible with updates. I've been trying very hard to get all my photos uploaded so I can print them for my 365 abbr. & for family members who are becoming disgruntled because they have no photo of Sadie : ) I promise to make Mike entertain all the kids tonight so that I may update my blog. Haha!

must haves (must wants)

Maya Road has insanely cute new stuff coming out. Must get a job to allow me to purchase almost everything in their newest CHA release!!! The chipboard, the canvas, the felt, the flowers, the ribbons, I want it all. http://mayaroad.typepad.com/mayaroad/

Thinking I need photoshop and this: http://www.gettotallyrad.com/

it is totally rad. Now if I can just figure out my camera : ) (In February, I am taking a class offered by Art's and given by a Canon rep.)

I want to put alot of the ideas to use that I found on this blog http://theidearoom.blogspot.com/

How anyone in the real world has that much time to make all that stuff just boggles my mind, though.

365

I have a feeling my blog will be a long weekly post instead of a daily or multiple days in a week. It's just easier that way. Especially since I have at least been trying to keep daily notes.

I am taking part in a new class, "365 Abbreviated", at the Scrapbook Store, with my very good friend, Katherine, doing the instructing (check it out here). The point of the class is similar to the 365 Becky Higgins did that many of you know about (check out Becky's blog here) . But the abbr. version will not necessarily be based on a POTD (picture of the day) but whatever you want to make of it. Daily photo? Or perhaps weekly? Maybe snapshots throughout each month? Focus on Summer? I am doing mine centered around little Sadie's first year. How I wish I would've done something like this for the other kids. I am considering attempting an Abbreviated abbreviated version for the 3 older kids, since I don't necessarily have the journaling or details that I will keep for Sadie. Using the fun page protectors with the varied sized spaces (lots of 4x6 spaces to simply tuck in photos) in them will make this project oh-so-fun! I am thinking of sticking her little NKOTB onesie in a 5x7 slot : )

More on my recap of the past week or so soon.

go vikings??

I can't believe the Packers lost yesterday after such a comeback. Cal was so mad he stuck his head in a snowbank after the game.

Before you freak out, we really are NOT Minnesota fans. But as y'all know, I like Brett, so who to root for now that our beloved Pack is out?? I guess I'll cheer for Minnesota, or Indianapolis. Arizona doesn't stand a chance against New Orleans anyhow.

playing catch up

December 27-Mike & Elizabeth's anniversary & Sadie smiles for real for the first time : )

December 30-Maddie has a fever of 103.7, urgent care is closed and we really don't want to go to Childrens' Hospital. We avoid that place when and if we can. We kept checking her & her temp. through the night and decided that we'd go to urgent care first thing in the morning.

But look at those cheeks!!! So cute.

December 31-Maddie goes to urgent care, has pneumonia. Kaycey and Maddie had been coughing all week...Cal slept over by my grandparents, a tradition on New Years, something he has done for 4 years (maybe 5??)

January 1-Happy New Year!! Kaycey wipes out on the kitchen floor and cracks her chin open. Off to Children's Hospital for stitches (couldn't avoid Children's...since it was on Kaycey's face we wanted to make sure if she needed to see a specialist we were in the right place.) Of course, as to be expected, Kaycey makes nothing of getting stitches. Doesn't make a peep at the hospital.

Four teeny tiny stitches on her little chin.

Maddie is feeling MUCH better. Amazing what a dose or two of an antibiotic can do.

January 2-my grandpa's birthday. He's 11. Yep, you read that right. (He counts backwards, something he started when he was 40 I think.) Cal and Papa will both be 11 in 2010. Poor Sadie has developed a cough now.

Time to take the tree down...I usually leave it up thru Maddie's birthday, but we decided it's time to take a tree down when it sounds like it is raining (needles) when you walk by it. Thankfully, my Grandma came over to help pack stuff away, or it might still be sitting here. Check out all those needles. It's beginning to look alot like a Charlie Brown tree once we took the lights off.

Here's whats left of the tree after Mike cut off the top and all the branches and threw them out the back door.

January 3-take Sadie to Children's because she is coughing so hard she is throwing up and not keeping anything down. (Now we are not the type to go to the E.R. for just anything. ARGH!! Children's again...have I told you how I can't stand that place?? Trust me, I don't go there unless I absolutely NEED to!!) Her breathing seemed labored, as well. Dx, clear lungs, no fevers, so it's "just" an upper resp. infection. She sounds awful, and must feel so miserable!! But holy cow, she is already 11lbs, 6oz!!!!

January 4-girls stay home from school. get in to see the doctor for Kaycey--turns out she has a double ear infx. And Sadie, too, so the doc could listen to her again to make sure she hasn't gotten worse. Dr. is concerned about RSV but says Sadie is looking and sounding great all things considered--still clear lungs, no fevers. I also have a doc appt. this day (my post-partum appt). Doctor doesn't know what to tell me about my pain near my hip and above my incision. She thinks it could be a hematoma (bad bruise) or neuroma (ball of nerves). I have a feeling I'll be back in a couple weeks to get it checked out again. It hasn't gotten any better in 6 weeks, in fact, it's becoming more tender.

January 5-Maddie has a check up to make sure her lungs are clearing up. Have to come back in 2 weeks for another chest xray.

January 7-Kaycey gets her stitches out at the doctor. Maddie's 5th birthday,

& it snowed quite a bit. Funny, on this day 2 years ago it was 60 degrees.

January 8-Packer Day at school! Wow, no doc appointments. Poor Sadie is not sounding much better, though.

So that is how 2010 is starting out. Sigh. Here's to a better weekend & better rest of the year!