Feb 4-8

Haven't been good about taking pictures or blogging, but at least have still been making notes for each day.

Feb 4

Sadie slept from 9-3 last night! Woohoo! I hope this is a trend to stay. Today Sadie giggled, not just smiles and coos, I mean totally giggled. It was so cute!!

The three older kids had dentist appointments. I was anticipating the worst, especially with Maddie. I figured she'd have a mouth full of cavities with all the candy and sweets she eats. But NO CAVITIES, for anyone! Amazing! So a little treat...dinner at Baker's Square. With pie. Yum. (don't remember the last time we went to dinner as a family...it's been a long time!!)

Feb 5

Sadie is so super sweet. We love how excited she gets--kicking like crazy, cooing, and smiling!!

Cal has a basketball/pizza party banquet. The party began with a parents vs. players game. Some of the rules: Dads could only use one hand, no stealing from the kids, and Moms wore gloves or mittens. Some older brothers and sisters joined in the fun, too. They had such a great time (of course the kids won). His coaches were great (some help from the older boys at the school and a Dad with a son on the team, in addition to the head coach who is Cal's Sunday School teacher as well). Cal is really sad he only had him for this year (next year Cal will be on "B" team with a new coach). They finished 2-4, but the coach gave a great inspirational speech on how their record didn't matter. They played with their hearts and they played for Jesus, and that's all that mattered. The kids cheered!! (This is the "act goofy" picture)

Feb 6

My Dad called late on the 5th to tell me of a death notice in the newspaper. So today I went to a funeral for a grade school teacher of mine. It was nice to see nearly all of my grade school teachers there. I attended Woodlawn for K-8th grade, and Mike & I even got married there and we were members of that church yet up until we moved to our new house. He was the principal early on while I was in school there, but had retired, and just helped out around school by the time I had him as a teacher. He taught our class penmanship. So perhaps I can credit him with my nice handwriting?? He was the nicest old man around and with the 46 years of students he had teaching, I was always amazed he still remembered me. Cal went to school there for PreK, K, and 1st grade; Kaycey went for PreK. Mr. Kolander and his wife always would come up to me after church to say "hello", and after Kaycey got sick, they would always ask about her. They even came to the concert the school and church fundraiser held in her honor. I'm sure Mr. Kolander will be missed, but he lived a long (85 years) rewarding life of teaching and spreading God's Word. I am so grateful my parents sent me to such a great school, and I am proud that we are able to do the same for our kids. Sadly the enrollment at Woodlawn is dwindling (down to 46 in pre K-8th grade from what I hear) as is the church congregation (there are very few families/kids in the church, mostly elderly people).

Then in the afternoon, I met my cousin, Laura, for an afternoon of shopping. She took me to some of her favorite spots for household goods, and I spent way too much $$$. My sister met us later on, as well. We had yummy sandwiches at Potbelly's, and worked on Laura to get a facebook page :)~ While I will have to return a good chunk of what I bought, it just felt good to get out and look around--without any kids in tow!!

Feb 7

Superbowl Sunday!! I was rooting for the Colts simply because of the Saints beating the crud out of Brett. But I like Brees, too, so really, it didn't matter to me who won. The best commercial by far was the Brett one--him in 2020 with an MVP trophy, not sure if he'll retire. Haha! Here are the two older kids doing their own pregame show.

Feb 8

So, the pain isn't any better in my hip. Really it's not incredibly painful, but uncomfortable. It feels like there is someone tugging a string and pulling my insides around. Pleasant, huh? Not really. I'm wondering how they know there isn't a scalpel or something floating around in there. The doctor suggests surgery(!?!?!?)-- a laparoscopy to investigate, and from the sounds of it, there could be scar tissue or adhesions that she could remove (but if that's what it is, it could come back anyways). I opt to start with a less invasive look, an ultrasound.

I watched our little friend from down the way for the day while her Mom was at a meeting (the little gal Maddie's age). Lauren is a really good little girl...too bad Maddie was busy throwing tantrums for a good part of the day, and spent lots of time in her room.

We took Sadie to the doctor in the afternoon. She has a terrible little rash on her face. Turns out to be eczema. And she has awful cradle cap. Nasty winter...can't wait for it to get nice out (that'll help both of her issues). She is still such a sweetheart. She copies when you stick your tongue out, esp. when Mike does it. She smiles every time you say the word cute to her. And the kids insist she is saying, "hi" while gooing and gaaing.

Grandma B. (my Great-Grandma) and Aunt Lorie came over for dinner. They came with a box of 30 or so bears that Cal has been talking about for years (they are baseball bears, and they've been in their attic forever. Cal saw a picture of them once and never stopped talking about them!) We had pizzas and played a great game of yahtzee. The kids make Grandma B. so happy!!

confusion

Took a class at Arts Camera today. Two actually. Specific to the Rebel. I feel so lost. Which makes me feel bummed. $1000 worth of camera, and a person behind the camera who keeps it on the "no flash" setting. Maybe I just don't know how to take a great picture. I think I'm just getting lucky. Argh. Maybe I'll take a real photography class, once I'm working somewhere.

from drab to fab...

at least that's what I'm hoping!! I'm looking for a new do. Haven't gotten a hair cut since October of 2008, believe it or not.

one extreme or the other.

or perhaps just keeping it the way it is : /

But also working on getting my house from drab to fab. Thanks to my cousin for "making" me go shopping and coming over to help (okay, so I mostly watched) hang some things. I guess I just needed motivation and cute stuff (photos to come--lots more work to do). Now I need a job to pay for all the furniture I have planned for the empty spaces in the house...

Hoping Mike has happier times at his job, too. He's been SO stressed out and working way too many hours. He's heard of good prospects, but the number one prospect involves driving to IL (outskirts of Chicago) for work and that would get tiring really fast. We know, he did it for quite some time right after I had Kaycey. It was not fun; sometimes he stayed at work for 72 hours straight instead of driving home. I said we could move another 20 or so minutes south (still not terribly far so the kids could stay at their current school), but that's still not close enough to where he'd need to go. And we could not sell our house, even if we wanted to...it's too unfinished. And it wouldn't matter where we'd go; he'd probably still have 2+ hour commutes sometimes. Sigh.

And P.S.--Don't worry...NO snakes will be entering my house : ) The older 2 have given up asking about a dog, and now want a lizard and turtle. Maddie, well, she thinks she is a dog, so I guess we don't need one, right?? : ) Uh, we've watched "Bolt" probably 10 times in the past 2 weeks. I realized that she began acting like a dog when we saw it in the theater and she does the superbark. Hilarious! Definitely a good Disney flick...a close second place to "Cars" for me.

Feb 2 + 3

My picture taking skills have taken a bit of a slide...meaning, I haven't been keeping up on the photo everyday. Oh well, I've been pretty good at keeping little notes about almost every day. On Tuesday, Emma and Papa (my Grandparents) came over in the afternoon. They brought dinner and slept over so they could babysit the little 2 so that I could go on a field trip early the next day with the 2 big kids.

Sadie slept 12-5:30am...woohoo!! Wednesday morning, I went on the field trip with the 1st-4th graders at school. We went to see "Junie B. Jones Top Secret Personal Beeswax" (a musical /play based off the book series). It was so cute! I don't know if it's only offered to schools, or what...but I think it's totally worth going to see! The kids all enjoyed it very much. The teachers and parents did, too! We were all singing the song and doing the moves..."top secret personal beeswax!!!"

Then we had lunch (which left everyone hungry...everyone got one hot dog and an ice cream sandwich--Kaycey and I brought a jelly sandwich). Lastly the kids got a tour of the college (I guess they want them to start young?? I thought the tour of the college was a little strange for 6-10 year olds). But when we were in the science building, a group of students brought in a boa constrictor!! I was part of Kaycey's group, and she had no problem going near it. I remained just close enough to get a couple pictures!!

jan 30+31

On the 30th, we drove our niece home, and it was also our nephew's (niece's little brother) birthday party. The three older kids and I left the party early, because they had another party to go to. A friend of Cal's from the old school invited him to her birthday party. Conveniently enough, two of her little sisters are Maddie and Kaycey's age. They just moved and their new house has an indoor pool!! Apparently this house listed for $1.1 million a few years back. Now it was in foreclosure and they paid $350,000!! The pool area/room seriously looks like it is straight out of some Wisconsin Dells hotel. Upstairs is this huge game room with arcade/video games and an air hockey and pool table! The kids were so amazed at this place! It was very cool.

So of course, it was a pool party theme. Cal has been invited to her party 3 years in a row now, but this time he was the only boy. Usually all her cousins are there (several boys Cal's age). I thought it was a little strange, but no one else seemed to care. Cal was happy to see friends from his old school. Kaycey was frustrated because she had to wear a life jacket. Maddie loved the pool! She was one of the last kids out of the pool. She was in there (with life jacket on!) with a couple of gals Cal's age and they were playing Marco Polo. Except when the big girls would yell, "Marco!" Maddie would yell, "Hoho!" It was HILARIOUS. She is so funny. We came home and everyone was pooped, even though we got home before 8:30.

On the 31st the 3 girls and I went to our neighbor friend's house (her 2 girls are Kaycey and Maddie's age). Mike has been working his tail off, putting in well over 70 hours a week sometimes. Too bad he doesn't get overtime. Argh. Anyhow, Sadie slept the ENTIRE time we were at our friend's house. She didn't wake up until right before we were going to go home. We're talking four hours or so of sleep. Cal went downtown with his friend and his friend's parents to the Brewers On Deck. He got Jeff Suppan's autograph. The mom hasn't emailed the pictures yet, but Cal said she took a bunch.