A Day Off

Since it was such a beautiful day today, Andy decided to let the kids have a day off of school. This picture shows how Connor spent some of his morning. LOL Actually, he was helping me out while I did a little work. After lunch, we all headed to Terrapin Beach and spent some time playing in the sand. What a gorgeous day to be outside! Hard to believe it's November and the temps are near 70 degrees.

We received Alex's first quarter report today. He did great...made 2nd Honors with 4 A's & 3 B's. It was touch and go for a while there with his Chemistry grade but he was able to squeak out a B. ;) Way to go Alex!

Last Lesson

Alex is off with his driving instructor getting his last lesson which, among other things, is teaching him parallel parking. That should be fun as most people don't enjoy parallel parking. I haven't done real parallel parking since I took my driving test umpteen years ago with a spot that was big enough to parallel park a limo in. LOL If I can't pull into a parallel parking spot, I don't park there. ;)

Alex had a pretty easy day schoolwise today. His class had a field trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. On display there now is Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered. I'm sure he had a good time although I haven't heard about it yet since is instructor picked him almost as soon as he got home from school.

Election Day

I hope everyone that is able to vote did vote. I went in the afternoon and the polling place was pretty empty which was nice because then I could just run in, vote and still be home in time for Andy to leave to get Alex from school. This is definitely going to be a history making election, regardless of which party wins. Will be interesting to see the outcome.

Trick or Treat

The weather was beautiful for this years trick or treating. The kids had a wonderful time. We certainly had no need to worried about Keari going up to the doors to get her treats...she pushed people out of the way to get there. LOL Everyone thought she was the cutest thing in her bat costume. Of course there were a few times that we had to call the older ones back because the baby bat was trying to fly solo but for the most part we were able to keep track of all 11 kids (had 3 neighbor kids with us) without too much trouble. Here's a few pics of them...



And this is the mountain of candy that the kids came home with. What in the world are we supposed to do with it all??

Happy Halloween!

Birthday Gifts

I received a number of my b'day gifts early this. Since everyone was together for Adam's baptism, my parents and my in laws gave me my gifts then along with a small cake. I had to wait to get my gift from my family until my actual b'day, though...they weren't into the early gift giving. ;-) Besides money from my in laws and a pretty silver chain from my family, I also received these gifts...

Happy Birthday to me! =)

Kenzie and Bekah made this picture for me and taped it to my bedroom door.

Snow Clouds?

or just normal rain clouds? Either way, it looks pretty ominous outside. I think it's going to be one chilly night to be playing soccer. Connor has a makeup game tonight for the game that got rained out on Saturday. Glad it's Andy taking him and not me. I really hate cold weather.

Brr

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we were outside in shorts enjoying a gorgeous day and today it's 42 degrees, cloudy, gray & drizzly. Glad we took advantage of the nice weather yesterday while we could.

Beautiful Day

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. After oversleeping and missing getting the kids to Sunday school, I decided that there was no way I was letting them stay inside all day in front of the tv playing games. Alex, Connor, Bekah, Keari, Adam and I all headed to Terrapin Beach for a nice walk...the rest of the kids went with Andy to Virginia for Kenzie's softball tournament (her team ended up losing the first game 3-1 so they were done for the day but decided to stay to watch her old team play). Here's a few pics from our walk today. Pictures aren't the best because they are from my cell phone. I had my camera with me but the batteries decided to die just as I took the first picture.

Spirit Week

This past week was Spirit Week at Alex's school. They had a different dressup days planned for each day. What's nice about Alex going to such a small school is that just about everyone participates when they have events like this. Monday was Las Vegas Day and Alex dressed up as a Black Jack dealer. Tuesday was Color Day. Sophomores are yellow so the class all bought yellow sweatpants that have 2011 down the side. Alex also wore a yellow sweatshirt so he was very yellow that day. LOL Wednesday was Cowboy Day. Can you believe that not a single store around here had a cowboy hat as part of a halloween costume? I finally was able to find a kids foam cowboy hat that looked like the one in Toy Story. Alex was a good sport and wore it anyway.
Thursday was 70's Day. I dug out a green and yellow paisley shirt for him to wear with his jeans and bandana. I had a pink paisley shirt but he wouldn't go for that one. His spanish teacher really like the one that he wore which is the one I remembered to take a picture of. Friday was Blue & White Day which are the school colors. In addition to dressing up the also had events like tug of war, pep rally etc.
Friday night ended with a huge bonfire and Saturday was the Homecoming Dance. Alex didn't take anyone this year and it turns out he didn't even dance...he sat around and played black jack all night with a bunch of other kids. Too bad they were only playing with play money as it sounds like he was doing pretty well. ;)

A New Driver

Uh oh, Alex got his Learner's Permit today so he's the first of many new drivers in our family. I sure hope my nerves can take it. I think he looks entirely too happy about that little card he's holding. ;-)

Congested

I have been so congested these last few days. My head hurts, my eyes are scratchy and I just don't feel well in general. I think it's weather related...it's finally gotten cold here and every time there is a change in weather it totally screws up my head.

I went to an IEP meeting for Bekah's speak. It was with the school principle, speech teacher and head of the special ed department. They didn't discuss anything in the meeting that I didn't already know. Basically Bekah has articulation problems with certain letters and while she can say the letters by themselves, when they are in words, she substitutes other sounds for them. She's making improvement but it's slow going at the moment so her teacher is recommending that she continue with her twice a week independent sessions. We tried a couple of sessions with her in with a group of kids but it didn't go well. Her teacher thinks it's because the other kids were older than her and that she was intimidated. She's doing much better now that she's back to individual lessons.

They can make some stupid designs for humidifiers. I bought a new one last night because Adam is starting to sound congested. I set it up in our room and didn't think about it again until Andy came home from softball practice with Kenzie at which point they say that water has leaked out all over the floor. Now that's bad news since our room is carpeted and it was soaked. Talk about being pissed...and I was already feeling crappy so the last thing I wanted to do was to clean up a waterlogged carpet. An hour later, I finally get it dried out. I haven't a clue what happened to cause the humidifier to leak all over the place but this particular humidifier has slits all around the base with just a tiny reservoir to hold the water. If any water comes out of the reservoir it will immediately flow out the holes in the base. I didn't notice this design when I bought the humidifier otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. You can't even touch the thing without having water spill out. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Andy tried testing it to see if he could figure out why it leaked and the container that holds the water ended up breaking so needless to say it got returned this morning as a worthless piece of junk.

Interesting

I've seen many different types of alerts come through weatherbug for our area but I can't say that I've ever seen this alert before...

Baptism

Today was a beautiful day for Adam to be baptized. Weather was gorgeous even if it was a bit on the nippy side. Our whole family came over to witness his special day. He was so good during the ceremony...slept through most of it although he did open his eyes to check things out when the water was poured over his head. He decided that was okay and promptly went back to sleep. LOL
Alex and Kenzie are Adam's godparents and they were so excited. This is a picture of them laying their hands on his white garment. Click here to see more pics of the entire family on Andy's blog.

Cold

We have a service contract on our furnace that enables us to get it inspected each year and have any problems with the furnace itself fixed for just the cost of the contract...of course how many times is the problem with just the furnace?? We always schedule the service prior to it getting cold so that we know the furnace is in working order when we need it. We started this process last week when during that inspection it was discovered that the exhaust vent motor had burned out and needed to be replaced (one of those instances where the problem isn't with the furnace unit therefore not covered by the contract). This also meant that the inspection couldn't be totally completed because of the burned out motor. The part was ordered and they came on Tuesday to install it. As the guy was leaving after doing the repair, he commented on us being ready for the cold weather that was supposed to hit the end of this week. So I'm thinking everything is good but I should have known better. Andy turns on the furnace, or I should say, tries to turn on the furnace last night but nothing happens other than the vent coming on. So needless to say it was a chilly night with no heat here. Andy calls this morning for an emergency appt to get things fixed and after the furnace perplexes the workman for awhile, he is finally able to figure out that the problem is due to some broken wires in the furnace. So, I'm concluding that the last workman never actually tested the furnace after he installed the vent motor 3 days ago because there no way it would have worked with those broken wires. We always, always have problems with this furnace...no matter what we do, it just seems to want to work correctly and always takes multiple phone calls to the servicing company, almost always on an emergency basis, to get them to come out and fix it. The good news is that, for now at least, the furnance is working and we should all set for the 35 degree night we are expecting tonight.

And now I'm off to bed...it's been a long day of cleaning the house to get ready for Adam's baptism tomorrow and the houseful of people we will have. Still have a few odds and ends to do in the morning but the majority of stuff is done. Thank goodness.

Last Day

Today is my last day of paid maternity leave that my company offers. It's hard to believe that on Monday Adam will be 6 weeks old. This time went by so fast. Thankfully, I have leave of my own so I won't have to go back into the office until December 1 so I still have some time at home. It's sad to think that it's half over already though. Adam's doing great. He sleeps about 5-6 hrs at night now and he's starting to coo...that's always fun. I think he scares himself when he starts cooing because he'll jump sometimes. LOL

We might get lucky with Adam's baptism pictures...his acne is going away so maybe, just maybe, he won't be completely spotty come Sunday. He'll still have his nice lump on his head, though, but that will be hidden under his hat. ;) And let's hope that he'll fit into the baptism outfit...he'll be wearing one of the twins outfits but they were a few pounds lighter at their baptism than he is. I'm sure he'll be fine (she says with fingers crossed LOL).

Looks like the weather has finally decided to get with the right season here. The last few days have been absolutely gorgeous here with temps in the upper 70's/low 80's but that's definitely not fall weather. Today it's in the upper 50's so much more in line with what it should be. Still a beautiful day though.

Wave of Light

Light a candle at 7 pm and please join in. We are all in this together. Whether your loss was early in pregnancy or you lost a newborn, we all grieve for our lost babies. My thoughts and prayers are with all of you today and always.

Lighting in memory of my two losses.

Long Night

Sheeze, we went from one extreme to the other. Last night Adam was up every 1 1/2 hrs. I'm glad I didn't go to bed last night with the expectation of him sleeping the entire night because I would have been sorely disappointed. The one bright spot was that I wasn't in pain last night. LOL

Adam had his one month check up today and he weighed in at 11 lbs 14 oz and 21 7/8 inches. He's just growing up a storm. Still have his hemotoma which the dr is still claiming will go away...we'll see...and he still has his acne but that's starting to improve. Won't be gone by this weekend though but nothing can be done about that.

Keari also had a drs appt for here two year check up. She weighs 25 lbs 6 oz and is 31 1/2 inches tall. I made this appt for her today because she was supposed to get a second shot but the drs office counted wrong and she wasn't able to get it...the two shots need to be done 6 months apart and it's only been 5 months. If I'd known that, I would have waited another month to take her in. And combined with having to argue with the office about the filing of one of Adam's claims totally put me in the wrong mood for the visit today. I totally love the pediatrician but the lady that handles the claims submissions leaves a lot to be desired. I get so sick of hear "you need to get me someone to talk to" or "you need to call and get it straightened out". Just because I work at the company where I have my insurance doesn't mean that I have anything to do with the way claims are paid and it shouldn't be my responsibility to have to straighten things out. I'd already made a call to company to find out why the claim paid incorrectly but there drs office didn't think that was good enough. Grr!

All Nighter

Adam slept from 9pm to 5am last night. That's wonderful for him but terrible for me since I'm nursing him. I woke up about 1am in a severe amount of pain and finally had to get up at 1:30am to pump out some of the excess milk as I couldn't stand it anymore. Boy did I feel much better once I'd done that...could actually go back to sleep after that. The night before he slept 6 hrs...wonder if he's starting a new pattern. We'll see how he does tonight.