A Day to Remember

Hard to believe that it's been another year since our nation experienced the worst act of terrorism on our soil. So many innocent lives were lost that day. I'm sure everyone remembers where they were on this day in 2001. I was working in DC at the time, directly across the river from the Pentagon. You can click here to read my story from that day.

We're Home!

So nice to be out of the hospital although it is a tad bit chaotic around the house. ;)

Was an interesting delivery to say the least but I'll have to write about that at a later time. What's important is that we ended up with another beautiful little boy...who looks exactly like the rest of his siblings. Certainly no denying he's ours. LOL

I know alot of people having been keeping up with things on my hubby's blog. Thanks so much for all the well wishes and congratulations!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I'm posting a belated happy birthday to my mom since I was busy with other things to post one on her actual birthday...namely bringing this little munchkin into the world. Doesn't he just look like the picture of contentment? LOL I think he was a little upset that we forced him out into this great big world. I think my mom was happy with her birthday present. ;)

D-Day...

As in delivery day...is scheduled for Monday, 9/8. That's assuming that this munchkin stays put and doesn't decide to come on his own before that. This date made my mom extremely happy as it happens to be her birthday. Of course, she wasn't too happy when I told her she had to be up at the crack of dawn so she could come watch the kids while we went to the hospital but she was willing to sacrifice. ;)

New Chicks

Here's some pics of our 5 new chickies. According to Kenzie, they did okay overnight...she found them all huddled in one nestbox this morning, guess they were keeping each other company.

These little ones were very thirsty...


This one was roosting on the arm of a chair...


and this one was running around the pen crying...guess he was having trouble finding his friends.

Labor Day

I hope everyone is have a fun and relaxing Labor Day. Not much is going on here other than Andy and Kenzie picking up a few new chickens...as if we need anymore chickens. They are so small compared to the ones we already have but the bigger ones are pretty much ignoring them at this point, so that's good.

Wordle

Thanks to Velda, now I've Wordled too...

Two Weeks and Counting...

I'm officially coming to the end of this pregnancy...only two weeks to go and hopefully it will be sooner than that when I have my appt next week. I had an appt yesterday and things are starting to progress although the baby is still really high. The dr thinks he is head down but that doesn't mean much since my baby's tend to flip around until the very end.

For once, I'm not anxious to have a baby. Usually by this point, I'm ready for them to be out but I'm really hoping this one stays put until at least 9/2. Due to a terrible accident a few weeks ago, they have been doing inspections of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and as of midday Tuesday determined that immediate repairs need to be made to the jersey walls. In order to do these repairs, it's requiring the right lane of the bridge to be shutdown permanently for at least the next 2-3 wks and possibly up to 10 wks once they do a full inspection of the bridge. Needless to say this is wreaking havoc with the traffic (took me 3 hrs to get home today instead of my normal 1hr) and since the holiday weekend is just about upon us, trying to travel across the bridge is going to be a nightmare. I'd just as soon not have to worry about going across the bridge to get to the hospital until after the holiday. So here's hoping the little munchkin decides to stay put until at least Tuesday. The one bright spot to this traffic nightmare is that it will keep me working from home until no need to worry about my 2hr roundtrip commute for awhile.

Summer is Officially Over

at least for our oldest. Alex started back to school today carrying with him about 30 lbs of books. It's amazing how much stuff he needs for his classes. It seems like he had a good day although he did come home with homework in his geometry class...no easing into school there. LOL He's decided not to play soccer so it was nice having him home early in the afternoon.

The rest of the kids won't be starting back to school until after Labor Day although Andy doesn't seem too keen to want to start school at all this year. I think everyone has been enjoying their time off even though we haven't done much this summer.

Award

Thank you, Henny and Bre! You both are such sweethearts! Now I really need to start blogging again so you'll have something to read here.


The rules of the award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her/his blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated.

Here are people I give this award to:
Martha
Leah
Megan
Lisa
Pauline

Adventure Park

Twice a year, the department I work for gets everyone together for an outing. Our summer outing is our "fun" outing, while our winter outing is more work related. Today was our summer outing and this time we went to Adventure Park USA, a little park located outside of Frederick. It was a cute little park although there wasn't much for a pregnant lady to do, unless you like arcades...which I can only handle so much of. We played miniature golf when we first got there, which was a good thing since the game took us 1 1/2hrs and by that point it was starting to get really hot. I think the Go Karts were a big hit as I know many of my coworkers drove them multiple times throughout the day. The rollercoaster also had a number of riders although I'm not sure that I would have ridden that even if I hadn't been pregnant...it was a tad rickety looking. All in all, it was a good day. A nice day to get together with fellow coworkers outside of the normal work environment...and I even made it home before the beach traffic backed the traffic up too badly at the Bay Bridge.

Hot, Hot, Hot

It is only the beginning of June, right? The temps the last 3 days have been incredibly hot for this time of year...95 degrees with a heat index over 100. Was a good weekend to stay inside in the air conditioning. Unfortunately, that was not be the case on Saturday. The day started off with Andy and Kenzie leaving to go to Laurel for a tournament that was to last all day. They ended up playing 6 games...well 5 and the start of a 6th which ended up getting called due to a nasty storm that came through. Kenzie's team was ahead 1 - 0 so they ended up as Champions. Yay Lightning!

My day started with having to get Connor to a Wade-In where he was volunteering. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication on where the Wade-In was being held but I managed to finally get him there, albeit a tad later than we'd said. This is an annual event that is held at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center. The objective of the wade in is to see how far you can walk into the water before you can't see your shoes anymore and then to measure the depth. The hope is that each year you can walk in a little further which would mean that the bay is getting cleaner. Connor ended up being the kid from his youth group that showed up to volunteer which was disappointing but they were very thankful that he came.

The twins had a baseball game at 3 and boy was it hot and there wasn't a hint of a breeze. It took over 1 1/2 hrs to play 2 innings at which point the other coach asked his team if they wanted to play another inning or quit then (games have a 2 hr time limit) and I was very thankful that they all voted to stop them. Of course, the twins coach wasn't happy about the decision...he wanted to keep playing...but I could have cared less at that point. Everyone else wanted to go home. Taylor got to pitch in the first inning for the first time and he did a great job...got two strike outs, walked a couple, and had a few hit off of him. Tyler ended up making the third out of the inning which I thought was pretty cool. Then in the second inning, Tyler made an awesome throw from third base all the way to first base and ended up hitting the running on the helmet as he stepped on the bag. It was pretty funny! and just goes to show you why you wear helmets during the game.

Ending the game early worked out well since I had to get Tay, Ty and Connor to the high school for select soccer tryouts. We were able to go home and get changed without having to rush around like chickens with out heads cut off.

After I dropped the boys off, I decided to walk across the field to where my parents were participating in the Relay for Life. I chatted with them for about an hour before it got too hot for me and I had to leave...ended up back there an hour later when I came back to pick the boys up from tryouts. They enjoyed having a short chat with their grandparents. The relay ended up getting cut short at about 11pm due to some pretty nasty storms that came through the area.

The good news from the soccer tryouts is that Connor got picked up by one of the teams. It's a team that he had actually practiced with a little last fall and the coach has decided to officially pick him up for the coming season. That's great news except it means we have to travel to Centreville for practices every Wednesday night. Maybe my parents will feed me dinner since they only live a few miles down the road from where they will be practicing.

We finally made it back home and jumped in the pool just in time for it to start lightening. Grr! That's the only sure way to get the kids out of the pool fast...usually you have to forceably drag them out. I did have a little time with Keari in the pool before the lightening started and she loved it. I think she's going to be another little fish.

Today, most everyone except me, Alex and Keari, went kayaking on the river....even some neighbor kids came along. From what I hear, everyone had a great time kayaking and swimming. They all came back and jumped in the pool for awhile.

I felt kind of bad for Alex...he spent the entire weekend studying for his finals which start tomorrow. He had to write two essays and a timeline for history which took him forever to do, the it was on to Biology. Those will be over with tomorrow, then it will be gym (which is a paper that he's already done) and Religion on Tuesday, Spanish and English on Wednesday and Math on Thursday. Hopefully Thursday will be a nice day because his class is getting together for an end of year party after the last exam.

Retirement

Tonight was mom's surprise retirement party and she was very surprised. Everyone did a great job of keeping it a secret. It was held at The Narrows which has a lovely waterview that you can enjoy while eating. There were about 30 people there that she works closely with everyday and everyone was commenting on how strange it was going to be not to have there at the start of the school year in the fall. She's been there for 30 yrs and I know it's going to be strange for her not to be there for the start of school. On the other hand, I know she's really looking forward to not having an agenda to follow everyday. She'll have the time to put into her flower beds, crafts, bike riding, etc...things that she has to try and fit in now...she'll be able to enjoy at her leisure soon. She got some lovely gifts...one of which was a hand crafted bracelet that was designed by a guy she's work with at Josten's for years. She doesn't officially retire until June 30 so while she held up very well at the party today, I know the 30th will be hard for her. And I'm totally jealous as I'd love to be able to retire but that is nowhere in my near future. ;-)

A Good Day to be a Duck

So far we've had almost 2 inches of rain since last evening. Everything was already saturated from the rain we had the other day so the water is having a hard time finding places to go. Our corner was completely flooded out earlier this evening...brought back memories of Hurricane Isabelle. Here's a picture of the latest approaching storm...nice dark clouds heading our way...which have reached us at the time I'm typing this and are dumping tons more rain on us. I'm just very glad I'm not driving in it...did that on the way home but at least it was light out then. It took me an extra 45 minutes to get home.

Crownless

I had my dentist appt this after

.noon to fix my broken tooth...which didn't end up getting fixed. He took a look at my tooth...checked out the edges to make sure they were sealed, checked to make sure my filling still looked intact. That all being good, he said he would prefer to wait until after I have the baby before doing the crown. Even though the numbing agents haven't been shown to have any ill effects on an unborn baby, he'd prefer to error on the side of caution. He did say to let him know if I started having any pain with tooth, at which point he would go ahead and do the crown regardless of whether we'd had the baby or not, but he's not expecting to have any issues. Let's hope he's right. So my visit took all of about 10 minutes during which we talked and filed my broken tooth a little so that it wasn't quite so rough...it feels much better. And now I'm off the hook for a few hundred dollars until hopefully the end of November. ;-)

And an unexpected bonus was the extra of working at home...and with gas prices the way they are now, I sure won't complain about the.

Piano Recital

Today was the last piano recital for this school year. It always ends with a recital that their teacher hosts where all his students play a song and then he does a summary of all the activities done over the past year. Students either get recognition or awards for performances done throughout the year. Kenzie was unable to attend this years recital but Taylor and Connor participated. It was a good thing too, since Connor received a number of awards this year. I didn't realize how many things he had participated in until his teacher kept calling his name.

Below is a picture of the awards he received. He received one for getting 3rd place (Honorable Mention) in the Solo Festival & Competition, one for have the highest score on the National Guild Auditions, one for highest average amongst his teachers students, one for playing in the Young Musician's Solo Festival, one for participating in the Chamber Music Festival and I can't remember what the others are for.
And here is a picture of Taylor's awards...he was nervous about performing this year so didn't participate in too many performances. His award was for particpating in the Young Musician's Solo Festival.
And these are Kenzie's awards. She also didn't participate in too many this year due to conflicts with softball games. I can't remember what her two awards were for.

Broken

This is starting to become routine...I just broke another molar...my third one in two years. I know I'm getting older but good grief...this is starting to get ridiculous. Luckily I'm not having any pain due to missing 1/4 of my tooth so I think I'll be safe until I can call the dentist Monday but then I get to look forward to the two lovely appts it will take to get a crown put on...not to mention the expense associated with it...something we don't need at this time.

Memorial Day 2008

Another First

another First Communion...this time for Tay and Ty. There were 10 kids in this group to receive their First Communion and they were the last of their second grade class to go through the ceremony. It was nice to have such a small group. And even though it is Memorial Day weekend, I didn't hear any complaints from the family members on the traffic being awful to get to us so that was good.

Kenzie has a softball tournament in Hagerstown this weekend, Saturday thru Monday, and because it is the twins special day, they got to accompany Kenzie and Andy for the outing. Should be a good time for them as it's not often that they are able to something without their older siblings around.

Of course, that leaves me with the two oldest and two youngest...will have to find something to do that will be fun for everyone...Terrapin Beach, maybe.

Awards Banquet

Tonight was the Academic & Services Awards Banquet at SSPP. Alex wasn't sure that he was going to go until a teacher called a couple of nights prior to tonight and personally invited him to come. It was held in the gym of the school and the place was packed. I wasn't expecting there to be that many people there. They gave out all kinds of awards thoughout the night, from perfect attendance to participating in the debate team...but I didn't realize they were going to pick one student from each subject (Math, Science, History, Theology, etc) to honor. The very first subject award was for Theology and Alex got the award for Excellence in Freshman Theology. How exciting! And it was such a surprise for him...he had no idea. He got a certificate and The Prayer of Jabez book. In addition the awards, they also served us dinner which was okay but the desserts were delicious and very, very plentiful. LOL

It's Official!

Had my 20 wk ultrasound today and the baby is most definitely a boy. I guess this means we really do need to move the crib from the pink room back into the yellow nursery. LOL He looks great...they checked out his heart really closely and it looks wonderful...no problems that they could detect. His measurements were right where he should be...although some were a little hard to get since he was being uncooperative and was moving all over the place. Poor tech followed him all around my belly trying to get one of the measurements. LOL Now to come up a name for the little tyke.

Honorable Mention

Connor played in a piano competition this weekend. It was for middle school students so this was Connor's first year competing in this particular competition. When I asked how he thought he did (I wasn't able to hear him play since I had Keari, Bekah, Tay & Ty with me) he commented that he had messed up on one note in one of his songs. He thought he did okay with the second song. As it turns out, he did great! Out of 7 kids competing, all of which were older than him, he came in third, getting an Honorable Mention. 1st & 2nd place got money but you can't complain about a third place finish his first time out. Way to go!

Happy 12th Birthday!

Today is Connor's 12th birthday. It's amazing how much he has grown during those years. His abilities continually astound me. To think he's gone from someone who could barely get through playing one piano song at his first piano recital to someone who actually competes in piano competitions. I'm very proud of all the accomplishments you've made so far and I know there are many more to come in the future. Happy Birthday, sweetie!

7 Things Meme

I was tagged by Meari to share seven random facts about myself.

Here are the rules: Each player tells 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they have been tagged and to read your blog!

The Rules:
1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the Rules on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged

Seven Random Facts About Me:
1. I had my dad as my 7th grade math teacher.
2. When I was little, we used to live in a big farm house that had two big rooms on the first floor divided in the middle by the staircase. When my parents weren't home I used to ride my bike around in a big circle through those two rooms. As far as I know, my parents never found out.
3. I'm currently pregnant with our 8th child
4. I hate, hate, hate to be cold
5. I used to run cross country in Middle School
6. I love doing math at work but hate to do it at home
7. I used to live on a pig farm when I was little

I tag Sara, Tammy, Velda, Martha, Michelle, Jen and Patty.

Drs Appt and Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound for the nuchal fold test which is a check for down's syndrome this morning. Everything looks great there and baby is measuring right on target...he's measuring about a week before my due date so he's growing well. And yes, I did say HE as they are thinking that this one is going to be a boy. Things are still pretty tiny so it's hard to say for sure but it definitely looked like there was something there. We should be able to find out for sure at my April 11 u/s assuming that he is as cooperative as he was today. They were done the test in less than 5 minutes whereas last time it took almost 1/2hr to get Kearsyn into the right position to the measurement. They said he was laying in the perfect position today. Also had my 12 wk drs appt this afternoon although he laughed and said there really was no need for it since all he was doing today was listening for the heartbeat and since I'd already seen this morning, it didn't really matter.

Here's a couple pics of him. He looks like such a tiny little thing in the 3D pic.

I sure hope this boy likes a pink room and pink carpet as that's currently what color the baby's room is. Guessing we'll be painting at some point before he gets here. LOL

Another Repair Bill

There are times when I really hate my car and this would be one of them. Seems like everytime I turn around we are having to make more repairs on it. We just did a big repair on it 3 months ago and now it needs another one. Grr! This latest trouble started Tuesday afternoon as I was leaving work. I'm pulling out of the garage and notice that my check engine light has just come on. Not knowing what exactly this means I pull over to try and decide if this is a warning light that can survive 60 mile drive home or if it's something more serious. After reading in the manual that it has something to do with the emissions control system and that the car is safe to continue driving but should be taken in to be looked at as soon as possible, I continue my drive home. I make an appt to drop my car off the next night so it can be looked at on Thursday. Of course this would be the evening of our snow dusting that turns into a 4.5 inch downfall but we make it to drop my care off without incident. They must have had a lot of cancellations due to the weather because they called with the news about my car early Thursday morning. So $1000 later and two new 02 sensors later (whatever the heck they are), I have my car back in running order.

A Dusting

That's what the weathermen were forecasting for us today in the way of snowfall. An Alberta clipper was supposed to zip through our area around midafternoon - evening and drop a dusting to an inch of snow. If this is a dusting, I'd hate to see what a significant snowfall looks like. We are currently at 4 inches and counting.

Fracture

That's what Alex ended up with after a game of soccer with his dad last night. And no, Andy didn't cause the break. LOL Alex couldn't put any weight on his foot last night and when we took him in to the orthopedics office today, they said the injury is located in his growth plate area...what else is new, that's where all his injuries have been. He's now in a very attractive looking black shoe which gives his foot great support...he wasn't able to walk into the office but he was able to walk out with this shoe on. Dr says no sports for a month which is a bummer because baseball is just about to start. Hopefully his coach will be understanding and still let him be part of the team.
I had to make a stop on the way home because one of my headlights burned out. I'd just gotten it installed when this happened. What timing.

I also discovered today that the drs office made a mistake in scheduling my appt to have the nuchal translucency u/s down. They scheduled it for 3/27 instead of 2/27 and needless to say the March date doesn't work at as it's way too late for the test. This meant that I needed to reschedule the appt for an inconvenient time for me which defeats the purpose of why I made it a month in advance in the first place. Ugh!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I came home to this cute little guy sitting on our counter singing and dancing away. He's a lobster, in case you can't tell. Keari loves these animated animals. I had a dancing gorilla that Andy had gotten me for a Valentine's Day many years ago and she's basically worn it out because she plays with it to much. She loves to dance to the music and she gets the biggest grin on her face watching these things dance around.

and Finally. Sickie #9

Andy put up a valiant fight but the bug finally got him. Hopefully it will be as short lived in him as it has been in most of the others.

Longest Commute

Okay, I'm sure someone out there has had a longer commute but 5 hrs is a record for me all caused by the weather system that went through our area this afternoon that produced a mix of snow/sleet/freezing rain/rain. The area I was traveling through basically had freezing rain. I was doing okay until I got about 20 miles from home even though I had passed numerous accidents along the way...so many that I eventually lost count. And they weren't just one or two car accidents...they were 6 and 7 car accidents, accidents with cars flipped over. It was amazing. Thankfully, it didn't look like anyone was hurt in the accidents I passed. It took me about an hour to get within 20 miles from home...normally takes me an hour to get home so I didn't think that was too bad considering the weather...but that's when it all changed. I got on the main road to come home and came to a stand still. Move .1 mile in an hour, then another .1 mile in the next hour and finally another .1 mile in the next hour...so in 3 hours, I went .3 miles. Not very good progress. This was all due to extreme icing conditions on a bridge up in front of me. Finally about 3 hrs 45 minutes into the ordeal, they reopened my side of the road to allow traffic over the bridge...they kept the other side of the road closed. When I finally made it to the bridge, I could see why they had closed it as it was still extremely icy even after all the salting/sanding they done in the 3+ hrs that we had been waiting. This is certainly something I hope I don't need to repeat anytime soon. And I was being tortured the entire time I was in the car because a coworker had given me some eggrolls that she had made...problem was they weren't cooked so I couldn't even eat them while I was stuck in traffic. How cruel is that??

There was one humerous part the entire ordeal. After talking with my mom, I found out that a close family friend was also stuck in the same traffic that I was. Turns out she was right beside me in the next lane. Out of all the thousands of cars that were on the road what are the odds that we would have ended up right beside each other. Not sure why, but it made us each feel a little better to know that we weren't stuck in that traffic nightmare alone.

Sickies #7 & 8

Today it's on to Tyler and Connor. Andy is the only one left that hasn't gotten it. Think it'll bypass him?

and 6

Kenzie. Ugh!

Sickies #3, 4 & 5

Today it got Taylor, Alex and me. I didn't think the mom's were supposed to get sick. =(

Our Second Sickie

Now Kearie has it. She started getting sick in the wee hours of the morning. She's so little, she doesn't have a clue what is going...just looks at me with big questioning eyes. Poor thing.

Our First Sickie

There's been a nasty stomach bug going around and it seems to have finally caught up with Bekah. She started getting sick when I got home from work last night and hasn't stopped since. Now she's so thirsty but everytime she drinks something, it comes right back up. Poor thing.

I wonder how long it'll take to go through the rest of the house. :(

Crazy Weather

From pea soup yesterday to a sauna today...well maybe not quite that warm but it's supposed to get to 70 today. It is the beginning of February, right? Just checking to make sure I haven't gotten into some kind of time warm and it's suddenly become May without me knowing it. And Sunday they are calling for the temps to be in the 20's. Like I said, crazy weather, and it's just another typical day in Maryland where you never know what the temps are going to be like from one day to the next.

Pea Soup

It's not something that I like to eat and it's certainly not something I like to drive in. What a terrible morning to be out driving. It was so foggy I could barely see to get of our neighborhood. And I really hate driving in the foggy...it's kind of creepy, the way wisps of fog reach out to your car as you drive by...and you lose all your landmarks so it feels like you are driving in unknown territory even though it's a road you've traveled hundreds of times, like you could fall into an abyss around the next corner. Times seems to expand while driving in the fog...not sure why although I'm sure it has to do with not being able to track your driving progress through the normal landmarks so it feels like you aren't going anywhere. Thankfully I made it to work without any problems but I sure don't want to make a drive like that every morning.

Recital

Connor and Kenzie had their Winter Recital at St. Johns College in Annapolis today. It's a cool old college that was founded in 1649 and the building they play in is ancient...doesn't look anything like you would picture a college classroom looking like. There's big fireplaces in each classroom (although they have them blocked at this point). The piano sits in the entrance hall to the building...which extends from the front of the building all the way to back...and the room has a balcony that goes all the way around and portraits of past college presidents on the walls. Today I was sitting beside the guy that was president in the 1860's with the cool dress attire from that era.

Okay, so all that has absolutely nothing to do with the recital but I think it's pretty cool and there's alot of history on this campus and the kids enjoy playing here. Both Connor and Kenzie played really well although each made a mistake but they worked through it without any problems. After Connor was done and got his music back, this was a judged event, he started flipping pages so he could show me the exact note that he'd made the mistake on...as if I'd really know. He claimed that his pinky finger knew which note to play but his brain kept saying "No, no" and wouldn't let his pinky play it. LOL The kid cracks me up!

Biscotti anyone?

Italian Double Chocolate Biscotti to be exact. Alex had to make an international dish for school and he chose this one. Having never eaten biscotti before, let alone make it, I'm not entirely sure that it turned out the way it's supposed to but Alex says it tastes good, he nibbled on the crumbs that fell off after slicing the loaves into pieces was done, so I guess that's all that counts. Guess we'll find out on Tuesday once the other kids get a chance to sample it. I think it's really cool that everyone taking a foreign language class at Alex's school has to prepare a dish. I can remember doing this within our own foreign language class...but never something for all the foreign language classes that all the students of the school then get to share in. Will be interesting to hear what other dishes are brought in.

Quack, Quack

Today would have been the perfect day if you were a duck...nothing but rain all day long...and lots of it!


I love the way the clouds look after an all day rain storm...thick, heavy, rolling, with just a hint of sun peaking through...

My poor nephew

I got a call from my sister this morning saying that Josh has been throwing up after each feeding since last night. He has no fever, no runny nose, isn't acting fussy...he just continues to throw up after each feeding. She called this afternoon to say that she was finally able to get him in to see his pediatrician and that the poor little guy has the stomache bug that is going around here. Dr said he is still well hydrated, which is great new, so that even though he is continually getting sick, he is able to keep enough down to keep him hydrated. They're going to give him small amounts of pedialyte throughout the night and small amounts of milk with the hopes that he will be able to keep the small amounts down. Of course he probably isn't going to like that cause he tends to be a little piggy when he eats. LOL Hopefully he'll get over this bug quickly and that my sister and her husband don't end up with it.

First OB appt

I had my first OB appt for this pregnancy and it went very well despite the fact that they called me on Friday having to reschedule it. The dr is a hoot...he comes walking into the exam room holding my chart saying that he is confused. You see, he uses green charts for pregnancy patients and yellow charts for annual visits...he had both a green and a yellow chart for me. He finally asked if I was pregnant to which I laughed and said yes. He thought I was just there for my annual, which of course I didn't even realize I was due for, so we were both confused. LOL He pulled out his u/s machine and we got our very first pic of this little munchkin. My dr took one look at the baby and proclaimed that it looked like a girl to him...as if he can tell at this point. LOL Guess we'll see in a couple of months how good his intuition is. Baby is measuring right where she should be so all is well so far. He then congratulated me, said that he didn't need to tell me anything since I've done this so many times and said that he'd see me in about a month. It was only later that I realized he didn't even give me a due date for this little one. Guess he figures I'm smart enough to figure it out for myself. LOL

Finally!

Yes, Alex and Sara finally got together to go skating this afternoon. No problems getting into the rink this time. Andy did think that they were mad at each other, though, when Alex called an hour after being dropped off to say that they were done. Turns out they were both just tired. Guess they don't understand the value of getting the most for your money yet...they lost out on an hours worth of skating that they'd paid for. Oh to be young and so carefree. LOL They then went to Dairy Queen to have ice cream before heading home.

In addition to that going on, Kenzie had softball practice in the morning, Connor had select baseball tryouts in the afternoon, Kenzie and I went to 5pm mass where she abandoned me to go help a friend serve, then Alex got dropped off to youth group while the rest of us went to watch Connor play indoor soccer, then afterwards Connor got dropped off at youth group. Then Andy picked them both up and headed over to Alex and his indoor soccer game...Connor went along to watch. Whew, we did alot of driving around and crossing over each other but it was a good day.

Results Are In

We just received Alex's grades in the mail and here are the results:

Honors Algebra II: 80
English I: 85
Spanish I: 85
Catholic Christianity: 94
Computer Science: 93
Honors World History: 86
Honors Biology: 90

3 A's and 4 B's which enables him to make the 2nd Honors list this quarter.

Way to go, Alex! You worked really hard this marking period and the results show.

Relaxing Saturday

What better way to spend a lazy Saturday than making cookies with one of your children?

Tournament

Kenzie has her first softball tournament of the year today. Will be interesting to see how well the girls play together. They did great at the Halloween tournament last year and they've been practicing a ton since then so hopefully everything still clicks together. They play 3 games this morning...should be done around 2. Andy took her, Tay, Ty and Connor so I'm left with a fairly easy day here at home. ;-) Have nothing planned...don't feel like cleaning so I might actually pull out my stitching once I get the baby down for a nap. We'll see how that goes.

Update: They won their first game 2 - 1 and were winning their second game 1 - 0. I haven't heard how it end yet and I'm going to have to have a talk with Andy about that...he's been terrible with updates today!

Update2: Just got a call from Kenzie saying that they won all 3 of their games today. Way to go Lakeshore Lightning U10 Girls!!

Foiled again

Poor Alex...his plans to get together with Sara aren't working out very well. He was supposed to go ice skating with her tonight but she ended up having to back out. They did make tentative plans to go on Sunday. Then they were going to a dance Saturday night but not enough kids signed up so the dance got cancelled. Guess one of these days they'll finally get together.

So instead, he ended up hanging out at a friends house and then went to shoot some baskets later that evening. He ended up having a nice evening even if it wasn't the one he originally planned.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

My oldest turns 15 today. Where has the time gone? He's a year away from driving now. Ack! And only a few years left before he leaves home to go off to college. How sad that will be...I don't want my babies flying the coop. But I guess we can't keep them young forever. Have a wonderful day, sweetie, and don't grow up too fast.

Snow?

According to the forecast today, at home they are calling for us to get up to 2 inches of snow this afternoon...but where I work, we aren't supposed to get anything. Now I know there are 60 miles between where I live and where I work but that's crazy. Guess this gives me something to look forward to this afternoon...traffic should be just lovely going home. People around here just don't know how to drive in the snow.

Good Samaritan

It's nice to know that there are still good people in the world. Alex let his cell phone on the bus last night (which is a public bus) and didn't even realize it until we got a call from his cell phone that night. A nice lady talked to him and said that she had found his cell phone and wanted to make arrangements to get it back to him. They made plans to meet at the bus stop on his way home from school. She ended up not being able to keep those plans but did call today to say that she'd be at one of our local churches and that we could meet her there. Sure enough, Andy and Alex go to the church and she's sitting there waiting for them. So nice to know that there are people out there that care enough to go out of their way to help out someone else.

The results are in...Alex has all of his midterm grades back. He ended up with 1 A, 4 B's, 1 C and 1 D. I'm a little disappointed in the D as that was in History where he'd had an A average going into the midterm. Needless to say, he lost the A but at least he'll still come out with a B. I can't complain about the C as that was in Algebra 2 where he's been struggling lately. He should end up with 2 A's and 5 B's on his report card this marking period. Way to go Alex!!

Dizzy

I'm guessing I can't take my medicine prior to driving into work. I got so dizzy about halfway to work that I thought I was going to have to stop. I was okay as long as I didn't have to turn my head any which is nearly impossible when driving. I'm at work now and still feeling dizzy whenever I move so I guess I'm going to try and stay as still as possible until this pass. I checked my blood pressure when I got to work and it's fine so I'm guessing it's my blood sugar? I ate before leaving home this morning but maybe I need something else. I can honestly say that I'm really not liking this...makes me feel like I'm not in control of things and I so don't like that.

My Family is Nuts

This is what I see when I looked outside tonight...(the rest of the kids other than Alex eventually joined them)
Never mind that our temperature is this...
Needless to say, Keari and I stayed in the house and had them bring us the roasted hotdogs. LOL I love sitting next to a nice warm fire but I think even the fire might have been a little chilly tonight. The kids had fun though...and the fire pit was one of Andy's Christmas gifts so he got to use it again which he enjoys.

What's in a Name

Here's what's in mine (thanks V, since I stole this after seeing it on your blog)...

What Vicki Means

You are very hyper. You never slow down, even when it's killing you. You're the type of person who can be a workaholic during the day... and still have the energy to party all night. Your energy is definitely a magnet for those around you. People are addicted to your vibe. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Hmm, tightly wound, huh? My hubby might just agree with that. LOL

No Work Today

Yay! I could get used to staying at home...I've been home from work since Thursday. We had to reschedule Bekah's speech appt from Friday to Thursday so I got to work from that day which as it turned out was a blessing since we had snow and it would have taken me forever to get home from work if I'd been there. Friday is my normal day to work from home...and today is for the Martin Luther King holiday. I'm glad for the extra day as I'm feeling kind of weird...very dizzy and lightheaded. I'm guessing it's the progesterone I'm taking but I don't remember it having this dramatic an effect in the past.

Andy and the boys are at my parents house helping to clear out a blocked dryer vent and install some attic fans. The girls and I are just hanging out here at home...I'm actually trying to get my blog somewhat updated...have had a bunch of posts that I've wanted to make just never organized them. I've knocked out quite a few so far this morning. =)

Party Time

We had a birthday party today with family to celebrate both Alex's and Kenzie's birthday. It's really tough nowadays to find a day and time that is good for everyone to get together...especially with our crazy schedule. We had to fit the party in between Kenzie's softball practice, Connor's indoor soccer game and youth group. All in all, it was a nice day...kids got some nice gifts, Alex got a speaker for his ipod, a book, Hyperdash, some playstation games and a really nice sweat jacket (he better keep an eye on this one cause I really like it. LOL) Kenzie got a playstation game, a dance game, pj's, Eye Clops (which she really, really wanted), a watch and some hair stuff.

The party did mess up Alex's skating plans for the day, though. We didn't realize when he made them that Sunday skate hours were during the afternoon, not the evening, so he would have been skating at the time of the party. He had to tell poor Sara that he couldn't make it today but they did make plans to go either next Friday or Sunday...let's hope things work out better next weekend for them.

Stitching

You sure haven't heard that word much around here lately. I can't even remember the last time I stitched on something but I decided to pull out Mother's Bliss and work on it while I was waiting for Kenzie at her softball practice. 2 hours worth of stitching resulted in the top ribbon being finished.

No Skating

Alex invited Sara to go ice skating with him tonight as a way to celebrate making it through their midterms. Unfortunately we didn't realize that in order to go skating, you needed to be at the rink early because they fill up fast. They were dropped off at the rink about 5 minutes after the start time of public skate and were told that the rink was already full. Bummer! It's odd because Alex has gone skating there a couple of times before and never had a problem getting in. Maybe there was a party or something going on that filled it up quicker than normal. They ended up going to Dairy Queen instead and made plans to go skating on Sunday.

Brr!

And I'm not talking about the weather outside. Our furnace is on the blink again. Darn thing seems to only sporadically work when it gets really cold outside. Was working fine this morning but now it's 66 degrees in the house and that's just too cold. Repairman is here and he's seems to have gotten it working again as I can feel heat coming out of the vents. Yay! Wonder what the problem was.

Another Blessing

Stole this image from hubby's post. Newest blessing is due on or around 9/11/08.

2008

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve, so it's time for our annual Gingerbread House decorating...okay so this is only the second year we've done this but you have to start somewhere, right? LOL

The kids had a great time, here's there house from start to finish...I assembled it and they took over from there...

Vacation Work

How exactly is a vacation work you ask? It's when you spend your entire time off from work revamping your house. It all started because Kenzie convinced us to let her and Bekah share a room. So that entailed moving the twins out of their room and into Kenzie's room (bunk beds got put up in that room) and moving Kenzie and Bekah into the twins old room (they kept the boys captains beds that were in there). And of course, we couldn't just move stuff around...there had to be painting involved...mainly because Kenzie's old room was pink and the boys weren't too keen on that. LOL Here's the result of all our work over the Christmas holiday...

Kenzie and Bekah's new room, a lovely light lavendar shade.


Tay and Ty's new room, a lovely blue green shade...perfect for a fish bowl look. LOL


This will eventually be Keari's new room


And we couldn't just stop at those rooms...had to make sure that every room got in on the act so here's a pic of our spotless playroom. Did some major purging in here and now you can actually see the floor.


And here's a pic of Alex and Connor's room...again notice the floor (it's not often that you can actually see it. LOL)

And after all this work, I need a vacation from my vacation. LOL

Medieval Times Projects

Alex's homework for their current chapter in World History is a huge list of projects. He has to pick from the list the amount of points that he wants to get for his homework grade (if he wants to get an 80%, he picks enough projects to add up to 80 pts) and had 2 weeks to complete them all. He ended up doing 95 pts worth...

The first is a poster and essay on being Lord of a Manor


Second is a map showing the Vikings travels


Third & Fourth on journals on being a Knight and a Peasant


Fifth is a poster on Aristocratic Women


And last but not least a Medieval Castle

Busy Weekend

Between piano recitals, softball and not sleeping well, I'm exhausted right now. And I didn't even do the piano recital running around. Connor, Kenzie and Taylor had a winter themed piano recital in Bowie yesterday. Unfortunately Tay's teacher forgot to give him a piece to play for the recital so he didn't get to play. Talk about being bummed...and to make matters worse, he had to sit through all the other performances. Poor guy! Kenzie played well and made one mistake...he played his scale up one too many times and was going to run out of keys so had to restart that section. LOL

Kenzie had a 3 hr softball practice yesterday afternoon and a 4 hr practice this morning. Both times, I dropped her off and then went Christmas shopping. I don't know what was going on at Best Buy today but that place was packed. There is no way I would have stood in a line to check out that wrapped around the inside of the building. Crazy! I was able to get most of our Christmas shopping done this weekend...not that there was a lot to do since we bought our big family gift of the kayaks back in the summer. Hopefully the kids won't be disappointed come Christmas morning when there is only 1-2 gifts for each of them under the tree.

Starfish

Tyler was being creative yesterday. He loves making these stars and I thought it was very creative of him to turn it into a starfish. =)