Visit to the doctor

Macy and I had a doctor's appointment  yesterday; blood pressue med changes for me, and a well-child visit for her. Love that we share a doctor, so we can go together!

We missed the six and seven-year-old well child visits (oops) so we were very overdue for one. She is 53 1/2 inches, which puts her in the 90% percentile for height--big surprise. We knew she was taller than most other girls her age!

She also has a wart on her hand that has be removed. We scheduled the freezing zap-zap for Monday. Of course, she wants me to go instead of Bobby. Good times.

I was on a high dose of an pretty old blood pressure medicine, so we decided to try a newer one that is a lower dosage with a diuretic. The last time we changed my medicine I did not feel good for a week or two; light-headed and woozy. I'm anticipating that again, and with the diuretic, I'll be needing to pee about every twenty minutes too. Good times again.

Bah humbug

I love sending out Christmas cards. I don't hand-sign every card, but rather I usually send out a Christmas picture. I spend hours picking out the best pictures, the coolest layout, the cheapest prices. This year I was super excited to notice that the weekend after Thanksgiving, Sam's Club had their photo greeting cards 100 for $15. That's a steal, folks, in case you haven't priced photo greeting cards recently. I addressed all of ours and happily sent them off in the mail.

I anxiously awaited for others to arrive. I love seeing how big children have gotten, or that someone dyed her hair, and I love reading the Christmas letters to see what people are up to. So I waited. And waited.

And waited.

I mailed out 64 Christmas cards this year, and we received 24. If my math is correct, which if you know me...that's about a 38% return rate.

Dismal.

Some on our list I have never received cards from--older aunts and uncles who live out of state and with who we aren't reletively close. That's fine. But others on our list? Not fine.

Is it the economy? Or do people just not care about Christmas cards like I do? Or maybe 40 people don't like us as friends anymore?

Regardless, I will continue to send out my 64 cards, and will continue to hope our return rate improves.

Christmas morning

Click here to see the video of Christmas morning and discovering the gifts from Santa. I can't figure out how to embed the video, so this is what you get.

You can see the exact minute when she spots the DS.

Night Travels

Kaylin just sleepwalked out of her room, into the hall to pick up a glove, and return to bed. Love her sleepwalking adventures!

Christmas photo blowout!

I have finally gotten the computer away from the girls to upload photos from Christmas. We have 4 new webkinz in our family, so my computer has been in mucho use lately.

Hmmm...I wonder who she looks like? If you click on the photo, it will enlarge. Check out their eyes!

Which of these is not like the others? :)

Such pretty girls...growing up so fast. But they have a long way to go. Tonight Kaylin told me that when she was a teenager, she could ride her scooter to their friend Kaylee's house whenever she wanted.

My parents, the non-pet people, have semi-adopted a cat. They feed it milk (sometimes Mom even warms the milk in the microwave.) and turkey, and sometimes let it come inside. It came to visit on Christmas Eve, and it stayed long enough to get annoyed by the girls carrying it around. Hannah calls it Butterscotch.

At our house on Christmas Eve, in their new matching pj's (they get new pj's every Christmas Eve), leaving milk and cookies for Santa.

The look on Macy's face Christmas morning when she saw her DS from Santa. I think Kaylin was still asleep; it was about 6:30 in the morning.

Macy and her video game loot from Santa. I wish Santa had brought another DS game or two, as they are quickly getting bored with the ones they have. Santa spent way more than he usually does for Christmas, but the look on this little girls face was worth it, I'm sure. You're only 8 once, and this Christmas was very magical for her.

Kaylin asked for a DS too, and got one. But I'm not sure she even knew what one was. She was perfectly content with her new webkinz. She's quickly figured it out, though, and loves her DS.

Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to steal my computer back to put pictures of our sledding adventures (we have been three days in a row--I'm feeling sore tonight) or of the painting job I'm doing in Macy's room.

So this is Christmas?

This was one of the strangest Christmas' I've had. Not bad, just different.

My brother and his family didn't come up this year; we saw them just two weeks ago at the Wedding Event of the Year. Still, it doesn't seem like Christmas if they aren't here.

Then we celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve, which felt odd. We woke the girls up at 6:30 to open presents before Bobby left for work. It was verrrryyyyyyy strange not having him around today! I dozed in the morning under my new ultrasoft, ultrawarm fuzzy blanket while the girls played with their gifts from Santa, Nintendo DS. Good call on Santa's part to bring two.

Then a good friend came and picked us up (couldn't get out of our driveway) and we ate lunch with them and played with their Santa gift--a Wii. Then we hooked their sled up to the four-wheeler and her husband took turns driving the kids through the snow in their yard.

Their daughter came home with us and is spending the night. I think they are still up at 10:40, but they are quiet.

It's just been a strange Christmas--not spending it with my family or my husband. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow, as well as the video of Macy discovering her DS. That's pretty priceless.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you got all you wanted for Christmas this year.

Merry Christmas!

4 Reasons I love my iphone

Reasons I love my iphone:

1. Today I wanted to buy a case for it. I used Safari on my phone to find the nearest AT&T store, hit the link and it dialed the store for me.

2. While the girls were back with the dentist today, I found the case I wanted on ebay and bought it. All from my phone in the dentist office.

3. After purchasing the case, I reserved books from the library. Again, all from my phone at the dentist office.

4. We met some old college friends for dinner tonight on the Plaza, unfortunely for Bobby during the Mu/Illinois basketball game. I kept my phone on the table, and we kept updated on the score while still enjoying our friends company.

Christmas shopping

It's December 22, and Christmas is in 3 days. Time for me to get started shopping! If you know me, you know I wait until the few days before Christmas to get gifts. I do have a few, which is more than normal.

Santa's going all out this year, and bringing a Nintendo DS for each girl. I'm guessing it's the last year for Macy in this year, so we're pulling out all the stops. I did the Portable North Pole video yesterday, and it was priceless. She was completely over the moon thinking Santa had sent her a video with HER name on his map and HER picture in his book. It was worth the 15 minutes of waiting for the picture to upload just to watch her with the video. Kaylin? Not so much.

I took Kaylin shopping for Macy today, and she skipped through the store singing Rudolph at the top of her lungs. She was so cute I didn't have the heart to tell her to be quiet. She must have been cute, because the other customers and employees smiled at her as she went past. Of course, some of her words were wrong, but that's okay.

Big day tomorrow to get presents done (hopefully) and the girls are going to the dentist too. Fun, fun stuff.

By the 8's

This pretty girl

is 8 years old.

She is also 8 inches shorter than me. Only 8 inches.

Wow.

I work with a fanstastic group of kids. Sometimes they annoy the poop out of me, and they get me in trouble for things they shouldn't do. But they are a great kids who are kind, caring, and work hard.

And give fantastic Christmas presents. This was last years's present. Year before? Massage. Year before that? A warm fuzzy coat.

This year?

An iphone.

Seriously.

I've been having iphone envy for a while, and they knew it. A couple of them decided that should be my present this year, and collected money and got Bobby involved to get the phone.

This is what I have now for a cell phone.

I'm loving it and scared to death of it at the same time!

The Wedding in Pictures

We got ready for the wedding Sunday afternoon and took pictures.

Met up at the church with the cousins and took more pictures.

Found a beautiful bride and her groom

Took pictures with them

No pictures during the ceremony, then we went to the first reception at the church. The handsome groom posed with the little blond girl who kept following him around.

We ate cupcakes, shrimp cocktail, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, and oh so much chocolate. And the girls ate sugar cubes, meant for coffee or tea.

We ate the special M&M's in these little tins

We waited outside for them to leave the first reception

We threw paper confetti at them as they got in the limo.

*** my favorite shot of the entire weekend***

They waved goodbye to the masses

We traveled to the second reception, and jammed out to High School Musical 3.

We ate shrimp and grits, a Southern delicacy you can read about here, out of these glasses

We ate herb roasted chicken, steak, salad, potatoes, the whole nine yards on tables decorated with beautiful potted plants

We had fun with family we don't normally see, and Papa had fun wearing grandson's glasses.

We ate wedding cake, oh so yummy.

We toasted the new happy couple

We boogied down with our cousins

We took family pictures outside in the beautiful courtyard in the chilly, foggy night air

We ate even more chocolate from the chocolate fountain

We took pictures of Grandma and Papa with their grandchildren on the front porch of the cottage

We took family pictures of the entire group on the front steps

We made new friends

We danced to Party in the USA with our dad

We got kisses from a radiant bride

We blew bubbles while we waited for the happy couple to leave

And at the end of a very long day, in the early morning hours, we listened to Dad read a book about animal safari's.

It was a beautiful wedding, well planned and executed, and execptional in every sense of the word. My pictures and words do not do justice for it.

One funny: Conversation I overheard:

Woman I didn't know: "Is that mink?"

Macy: "No, it's pink!" (with a look of , are you an idiot? don't you know the color pink?)

Macy's birthday and travel

My sweet Macy was 8 yesterday! I was remiss in posting anything, because I had a busy, busy day! School was chaotic, and I left early to take snacks to her class. I then took her and Kaylin home, and we loaded up in the car to start driving to Atlanta.

Her birthday dinner? McDonalds in Higginsville. And we let her celebrate big time with chocolate chip cookies. Oh yeah, we are high class!

We drove until 1 am, and stopped for a couple hours to sleep at a cheap hotel. Loaded back up this morning and arrived at my brothers about 1 pm.

I feel bad we were in the car so much on her birthday, but really couldn't be helped!

The post in which I appear negligent and a drug addict

Three straight nights of sniffling, coughing, up all night by the little ones.

Three straight nights of Bobby working at the fire station, leaving me to handle the 3 am wake up cries. And the 4 am ones. And the 4:30 ones.

There was not going to be a fourth.

I raided the medicine cabinet, and found only Benedryl. IThat'll work. I checked the dosage-- For kids ages 6-12, 1-2 teaspoons. Well, Kaylin is almost 6. I grabbed a tablespoon, forced them to drink the stuff, and sent them off to bed. 15 minutes later they were conked out. Hard.

Then I washed off the spoon. Hmmm, this is a tablespoon. I think the dosage was for a teaspoon. I wonder what the conversion is. I googled it, of course, and found that 1 tablespoon=3 teaspoons. Oops. So I overdosed my kids on Benedryl. No wonder they were so sleepy!

I shook Kaylin a little, and she rolled over and sighed. Good, she's alive. Macy was whimpering in her sleep, so I knew she was okay.

And now I'm off to take a muscle relaxer to help me sleep. Nothing like a drug-induced sleep at our house tonight.

Santa, Dance and Snow Day!

Saturday night, after the cheer clinic and Macy's birthday party, Macy had to dance outside at a lighting ceremony. It was supposed to be a couple weeks ago, when the weather was great, but was rescheduled for Saturday night when it was 25 degrees. She was on the other side of the stage the entire time, so my pictures aren't great, but she is on the far right, on the end, standing up.

 

Macy with two of her besties, Paige and Kaylee. She (and we) is so fortunate to have such good friends.

 

After the dancing, Santa arrived! We were first in line, which was cool. Macy asked for a DS.

 

Admiring Santa...

 

Little sister asked for a DS too. Big surprise.

 

I just love, love, LOVE this picture.

 

Today is the reason I'm a teacher (okay, maybe not the only reason): SNOW DAY!

It's 11:45, and we have:

• slept until 8:30
• had snow ice cream for breakfast
• made beaded bracelets and necklaces
• played a Little Pet Shop board game
• raided the fridge for strange concoctions for lunch
• asked 852 times if it's warm enough to play outside.

 And now I'm off to do some packing for the Wedding Event of the Year.

Macy's 8th birthday party

Macy wanted another pool party for her birthday. I love how easy they are to plan, so I was all for that. She wanted a Wizards of Waverly Place theme, which is oh-so-difficult to find a cake for. I ended up having a picture put on the cake for an extra $5. Not happy with how it turned out, but hey, it was all gone in about 10 minutes, so it didn't really matter.

The birthday girl...she is getting so big, so mature, so grown-up.

Macy and her Nama and Papa

The group...forgot to get a group picture before they started swiming, so I herded them all over by the stairs. I think we had 20 kids in the pool, plus a couple sibling tag-a-longs.

The following pictures are a record of me trying to get all the kids to jump into the pool at one time. First, not all of them wanted to jump. A few of them were still pretty gun-shy at jumping. Second, it was so loud in there (you have no idea how loud) they couldn't hear me counting. You can see what happened.

Watch Macy's arm in the last three--everyone is jumping in around her, and her arm is still out there. She was like, "Hey! We're all supposed to go at the same time!"

We gave CD's with "magical" music--did you know Magic Carpet Ride, Every little thing she does is Magic, Do you believe in Magic, and Magic have all been re-done by someone from Disney Channel?

Next year her birthday is on a Saturday, and she's planning a sleepover. I welcome a change from a pool party, and, strange as it might sound, I like when they have sleepovers.