Friday, August 31, 2007

Best prank...Ever!

This is the video the kids made.




This is the news story on the subject.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Sick baby update

Lizzie was up last night throwing up again. She was also lethargic and had gas that would clear a room. She was up from 3 on fussing and whining and telling me her tummy hurt. I took her to the doctor this morning because aside from all that, she hasn't eaten hardly anything for the last 2 days. She is still drinking but only little bits. While we were there, they found out she had an ear infection (her adenenoid surgery was supposed to take care of that problem so we'll see). The doctor gave her some Zithromax (I LOVE Zithro cause I can't remember 2x a day for 10 days) and some anti vomiting medicine in suppository form. She took the Zithro just fine but the other was a real joy She screamed and fought and generally had a cow. She does seem to be feeling better now though. Bed time will be way early tonight though because she took her nap from 9-11 instead from 11-1 like normal.

Cross your fingers that we get a good night's sleep tonight because she starts her wiggles and giggles large motor class tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

First day and sick kids

I sat down to do some scrapping and then decided to check my email and my LJ and then I decided I needed to blog and then I'm heading to bed. So no scrapping tonight.

Monday was C's first day of school. I expected to cry and be upset, but I really wasn't. I knew crying before I dropped him off would be bad so the one time I teared up, I soldiered on and didn't cry. I thought he had a half day so when I got to school and found out that it was actually a full day, I was thrown for a loop. Because I had to run around and get him lunch and stuff, I didn't have time to be upset.

He loved it. He said he can't wait to go back for another AWESOME day. He says his teacher is sort of nice and sort of mean. I asked him how she was mean and he said "she made us sit at the tables and she wouldn't let me sit with J" (J is another boy in his class that we met earlier this summer). I said "so you think she is mean because she has rules and makes you follow them?" "Well, yeah!" Poor sad little boy :) He also told me that there is a kid in his class that "whines and cries like a crybaby all the time" Well, takes one to know one, Christopher!

When I dropped him off, he kept asking "where is J? When is J going to be here? Have you seen J?" I hung aorund in the classroom with all the other moms and when J walked in, he jumped out of his seat and said "hey buddy, let me help you with that" and helped his carry his bag of supplies to the back table. Then he said "hey, I saved you a seat, come on sit down" J was pretty happy about this because he is kind of shy. They sat there for a few seconds and then C looked up at me and said "you can go now mom" I asked if he was kicking me out and he said "yes, leave now" How rude! But at least he wasn't upset that I was leaving him. :)

On to the sick kids part, I'm so tired of sick kids! 2 weeks ago, C got sick with vomiting and diarrhea. It lasted 6 days (although between bouts he felt fine). Then last week (a day after C started feeling better) Lizzie came down with it. She has spent several nights throwing up most of the night. The first night, mom and I sat up with her most of the night. Then she went a night and was fine. Night after she threw up most of the night again. Next night, fine. Night after, she woke up about 3 am and told me she needed to go to the bathroom and threw up. We stayed up for an hour, but that was it. Then last night, she was sitting and snuggling with Evan and she kept making faces and things. He asked her a couple of times if she was ok and she always said yes. A minute later, I looked over at them and I said, "you need to take her to the bathroom, that is the face she makes before she pukes" He sat there and looked at me and I said "go. Now" He stood up to take her and she puked all over the floor. He sat with her while I cleaned that mess up. She was really restless last night and was a GROUCH all day today. She whined and clinged and griped about everything :( I'm fairly sure we'll have another pukey night ahead of us, but I'm hopeful that I'm wrong. She fell asleep on her own and hopefully she will sleep soundly, but I'm not counting on it.

Off to bed so I can be up half the night (if need be) and still get up and take C to school in the morning.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Blogging kharma

It bit me last night after I griped about my mom. Not 2 hours later, Lizzie started throwing up. I couldn't clean her and the bed and everything else and had to call my mom for help. I had intended for her to come down and help me for a few minutes and then go back to bed. At 5 this morning she finally went back to bed.

Eveytime she tried to leave, Lizzie would throw up and cry for Nonny. My mom ended up laying down and sleeping with her until 5 when she had to get up and get ready for work.

So while I'm still a little irritated about the whole thing with C, I am less likely to lock to door and avoid them forever.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

mothers

I'm really upset with my mother right now. We share a duplex with my parents so they are always around. Typically, this is a great thing, lending another adult or 2 when needed. However, recently, everything I do is wrong. When C broke his elbow, I didn't race him to the doctor so obviously, I didn't care that he hurt himself (a note, there was little or no swelling and he was using it just fine most of the day).

Yesterday, he asked to play a video game and I told him not right now (I didn't say no, I just simply wasn't ready for him to play because there was stuff I needed to get done). Instead of taking that answer, he came in the house, turned on the computer and proceeded to set up a game. While I appreciate the initive, he willfully disobeyed what I told him (a recurring problem of his) and when I told him to end the game got an attitude problem with me telling me "you let me play this game or else (also a recurring problem). I took away video games for a week because of it. Then tonight, he went up and asked to play at her house. I reminded him he was on restriction and that meant her house as well. Well obviously, that makes me a mean and horrible mother. How dare I set restrictions and expect my child to follow them!

And now, he has picked all the foam padding off on his cast. It has started to rub on his wrist because of it. He was doing it this morning and I told him repeatedly to cut it out, or it would make his wrist sore. Did he listen? No, because mom must be stupid. He told me at 2 minutes till 5 that he had picked it all off so it was too late to go back to the doctor to have something else done (I tried to call, but they had switched over to the answering service already). To protect his wrist, I ended up wrapping it (and the rest of his arm, because otherwise it would have been huge) in an Ace bandage until I can call the doctor in the AM. They open at 8:30 and I intend to call as soon as they open and see what we can do about getting a new splint or something. I said to my mom, "I'm cooking dinner right now, I'll deal with it when I'm done. Leave it until I can deal with it so that it gets back on correctly" She proceeded to start scrounging around looking for the Ace bandage. I told her again to leave it alone until I could handle it. A few minutes later, C walks in the kitchen, completely unbandaged! I yelled at her and told her that she needed to butt out. That splint is only supposed to come off for baths so she asks him if he wants to get in the bath while I finished dinner. Not the point!! Bath means off, wash, dry on. Not 20 minutes of playing and splashing in the tub. Then about 10:30 she comes down and starts griping at me about it again. It is a horrible thing that I wrapped his arm in the Ace bandage. Then she starts yelling at me telling me that I should just have put a sweat band on it or something. Does she have one? No. Neither do I. did she plan to go to the store to find one? No. Neither did I. Had she given me 5 minutes to do soemthing about it on my own, I probably would have come up with something better but instead she did exactly what I told her not to and I had to come up with something RIGHT NOW to make it work.

I'm so tired of this crap. If the kids hadn't been sleeping, I would have told her to mind her own business but I was afraid it would have started a fight and I didn't want to wake them up. As it is, I intend to call her tomorrow and tell her to butt out. If all she has is negative things to say, I don't need her help. I'm honestly about ready to lock the door and cut ourselves off from them completely.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Prince pukes a lot

Last Weds C complained of diarrhea. He seemed fine otherwise will occasionally have unexplained occurances so it wasn't a big deal. Then Thursday, on the way to the library, he started crying and then threw up in the van. We went home and I put him to bed. A couple of hours later, he was STARVING and bouncing around like crazy. Figured it was maybe a fluke or something he ate. Friday he was fine, running around eating everything. Saturday, he had diarrhea again, a little bit but nothing major. Sunday, he woke up and said he felt yucky and then threw up. He threw up a couple of times and then laid down. He ate soup and crackers and grilled chicken and and toast throughout the day with no further problems. About 4 Monday morning, he threw up again a couple times and then went to sleep and was fine. I took him to the doctor Monday morning since this was something that had been going on for several days with no apparent cause. He ate greasy Long John Silver's fish and fries for lunch on Friday and was fine but puked up chicken noodle soup and crackers.

The doctor we saw said that she thought it was a flu bug and it could last a week to 10 days but to keep him off dairy for the time being. Yesterday, it was kind of a pain, because everything he asked to eat had milk in it (can I have toast and butter, what about a milkshake, how about a cheese stick, etc). Today hasn't been bad. He figured out pretty fast what he can and can't have and is making the accomodations himself. Like tonight he asked for a Kid Cuisine cheeseburger meal without the cheese. He has started asking if he can have things if he isn't sure (does that corn have milk in it?) and taking no for an answer pretty easy. Hopefully, that was the root cause of it and his stomach will heal shortly. He doesn't need to start K with a cast and stomach problems. We are only doing obvious milk, like milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, not the hidden stuff that is in nearly everything else.

Girls like pink

I think not! It says in the article that they have found no exceptions. They obviously haven't studied me. I don't like pink or red or yellow and only tolorate orange because it is the color of the Illini. I dislike "warm" colors as a general rule, prefering blues and greens instead.

As for the picking red fruit against a green background, I don't think that is a fair test. Green fruits, are more likely to be underripe, thus not something you would pick. Besides, I may not like the color red, but there are plenty of red fruits that I love.

http://health.msn.com/womenshealth/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100168210>1=10316

Sunday, August 19, 2007

New blog for scrapping

New scrapping blog

I decided to seperate my scrapping from my life so created a new blog for it. There isn't anything there yet because I have had time to get things moved but all the pages will move there and all future pages will be posted there as well.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Odds and Ends

This is what the post the other night was supposed to be about.

Thursday, I registered C for K. It took almost an hour, between filling out all the papers, talking to the bus people, talking to the public health people, and joining the PTA. I don't know whether I'll be the teachers dream parent or worst nightmare. Either way, it should be a fun year. :) The way schools work here is that if you live within 1.5 miles of the school you are considered proximity A and have an 85% chance of going to that school. You list your top 3 choices and are entered into a lottery to see what school you will go to. We got our first choice school (good thing because our second 2 choices fill on the first round and if I hadn't gotten one of those 3, I would have homeschooled for K and tried again to get our first choice for 1st). The concern is that you don't get bus service if you are prox A unless "hazardous walking conditions exsist between home and school" We live on the other side of a major road and I would consider that hazardous walking conditions but I needed to see what the school said. They said that yes, they think that is hazardous and gave me his bus pick up and drop off point. Problem? Yes. the pick up point is further away from our house than the school and it crosses not one, but two major roads. I have to call tomorrow and see if that is possibly right and if not get a new location. C will unlikely be riding the bus ever but if I need him to, I need to know where to go.

I had to talk to public health because we don't have an actual dentist. We go to Parkland, which is great. Unfortunately, their exams don't count for school. Since the kids have Kidcare (state insurance), not all dentists will take us. I called the hotline and was given a list of the 6 closest dentist, all of which were in Peoria or Galesburg. Not exactly close :( Fortuantely, public health does exams at school for all the kids needing them in December so we are set! :)

I joined the PTA as well. I had planned to do it but I was a little put off because it cost $5. Seems odd to charge for a volunteer organization. Whatever, I paid it and got my little card. I also signed up for a couple of things to do. I said I would help with Teacher Appreciation stuff (probably buying gift certificates and things like that) and I said I would help take pictures for the year book. I figure,I'm going to be there taking pictures of the events anyway, why not take a few extra burn them to a disk and give them to the yearbook people. I signed up to help in C's classroom sometimes too (I plan to do this a few times a month, while Evan can be home with Lizzie)

Also, Lizzie is working really hard on potty training. She has been pooping in the potty pretty much full time (once in awhile she won't but anything is better than nothing) for the last couple of weeks. Since Weds, she has been dry all day, except naptime, while wearing a diaper. A couple of times she has had an accident in the evening but she tells us right away that she went. Mostly, it is about the time she is getting ready for bed and I think she is just tired and not thinking about it. I'm so excited. I'm ready to be DONE with diapers forever more.

Dad and Dave got back from Sturgis yesterday. They had a really good time, although they were ready to be home. They brought stuff for everyone. The kids got a couple of T-shirts a piece. C got a bobble head buffalo and "wild west weapon set" with bow and arrow, dart gun, bowie knife, etc. Lizzie got a stuffed Buffalo and a cow. She brought the buffalo to Evan and said "see my kitty?" He told her it was a buffalo and she said "oh. Meow?" LOL Evan and I got t-shirts as well. Evan's came from a place that turned into a strip club at night and all the dancer wait tables during the day. Dad got mine from some vendor. It has a white scowling skull and crossbones surrounded by flames and says, in red, "Sturgis, Live to Ride" on a black shirt. Dad told the guy "I'm looking for a shirt for my daughter" and the guy showed him some junk with butterflies on it. Dad said "You don't understand, my daughter is mean. Really mean. And rotten" The guy held up this shirt and Dad and David both proclaimed "that is perfect"! Do they know me or what :)

Evan started full time today. He was extra number 5 of 12. Basically he spent the day sitting on his butt. That is going to be the story of his life for the next week, until his regular run starts. Glad to finally have 40 a week no matter what.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Friday night at the ER

This post was supposed to be about registering C for K and how Lizzie has been dry for 3 days.

Instead it is about spending 3 hours in the ER, Xrays and an occult elbow fracture. We went to FCC to play today because it was too hot to go to the park. C just this week decided that the monkey bars were ok to cross on his own. Previously, he wanted to be carried all the way across. He was playing on them and he fell. He landed on his elbow and started crying. He said it hurt too bad to keep playing so we came home. Put some ice on it, let him rest awhile and he seemed fine. He played and moved it and I didn't think a lot of it. There was very little swelling. As the day wore on, he complained more and more about it and moved it less and less. By 8, he wouldn't even move it to eat so we went to the ER to have it checked. After 3 hours, they finally told us they were pretty sure it was fractured, but the swelling was holding the bones in place so they can't be totally sure. They put a splint on it and gave him a sling and told us to follow up with the orthepedist (sp) on Monday to see what he says. So now we are home, he has been given Tylenol and a pillow to prop up his arm and he is happily watching cartoons.

Now I'm going to bed :)

Bored

I'm bored and I have no motivation to do anything about it. I'm supposed to be taking the kids to the playground today but that requires getting off my butt and getting them dressed. I hate going by myself but since I'm leaving as soon as I get dressed, I doubt anyone will want to go with me on such short notice. I'll call a couple of people though just so they have the chance to say no.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

New hair

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My centers

The promised picture post :)

This is the train/block center. We set up the track and nailed it all down so they always have a nice set up to play with. In addition, we took out all the other pieces of track and but them in a bucket to the side so they can set up whatever they want on the floor. Additionally, all of our Mega Blocks are stored over there

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This is just to the left and across the doorway from the train table. It has all the blocks, magnetix and extra train pieces, as well as the dinosaurs and the army men.

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This is left again from the buckets. Two baskets of cars, the big dinosaurs and the bead thing.

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This is the library with the 2 chairs. It is sort of a mess right now. Eventually, I will get it all sorted by topic but that is a project for another day.

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This is the art center. We have old plastic table clothes on the floor and the walls to keep paint and playdoh from getting everywhere. In the wire rack, we have paint, extra paper, scissors, crayons, markers, colored pencils, playdoh and stamps. At some point, when we have some extra money, I'm going to get some more stamps (stamping sticks which are easier for the kids to hold with out getting their hands in the ink pad) and a set of stencils. Of course, I want the most expensive stencil set I found, but it is a big set.

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This is the kitchen, which backs up the art center. On the top shelf is just counter space with the mixer and stuff and the bottom shelf has a container that has all the food and dishes in it.

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Next step is to set up a math/science center with discovery bottles, magnifing glasses, file folder games, sorting bears, and unifix cubes. I think I'm going to have to do away with one of my toy boxes though to fit that in.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Oscar the Grouch

Or possibly grumpy from either the 7 Dwarfs or the Carebears is me tonight. I made a pissy comment about allergies on my playgroup list and got a bunch of flack over it. I've felt less and less like I belong in this group recently and I think this was the final straw. I don't regret what I said, I just regret that it was the tipping point and will likely cause me to leave the group. It is a great local resource, full of what I used to think were like minded moms. There are still plenty of people that I like and get along with, I just don't feel like my practices are in line with the group ideals any longer. It is for "natural families" and I don't do any of that stuff anymore. Lizzie didn't nurse past 6 months, I gave up on cloth diapers, I don't buy organic, I'm not veggie (and have no interest in being), I don't homeschool, I vax to some degree, C is circed etc, etc, etc. I've always been kind of the odd mad out. Another mom and I are about the soggiest of the bunch, but since she WOH and has 4 kids she is crazy busy and we never get to hang out. We have a playgroup tomorrow but it is going to be too hot so I doubt I will go. The group has a website and I might monitor that once in awhile to see what is happening.

Now, I'm left finding people to hang out with again. I've searched yahoo groups and came up with squat. I tried goggling as well and came up with meetup.com which charges $2 a month or moms and more that charges like $45 a year. I don't really want to pay to go to a playgroup but I need friends. I'm hoping that once C starts school, I'll meet some other parents and then it won't matter. If not, I might just have to suck it up and pay for one of the other groups.

Apparently, I'm a bad person. What - the hell - ever. I don't need that crap.

Anyway, next post should be less gripy and more fun because it will have pictures of my cool new centers that are set up and ready to use! I'm going to do a "math" center as well, if I can figure out where to put it. I'm going to put sorting bears, unifix cubes and file folder games in it. It will be fun :)

Monday, August 6, 2007

The one where Carrie whines

Some of you know that I broke my big toe about a year ago. The front bone and the joint were crushed and as a result, I can't bend the big toe on my right foot all the way. Even a year later, it still hurts on and off. The last 3 days, I've spent a lot of time standing and walking and cleaning and now my toe is just throbbing.

Besides that, I was cleaning and combining paint bottles that I got at the school sale (I got probably 20 bottles but paint but a bunch were only half full so I combined colors that were the same) on Saturday and when I opened one of the bottles, I cut the webbing between my thumb and first finger. It looks like a paper cut, only deeper and pulls back apart everytime I open my hand (which is like every 5 seconds since I'm right handed). I've been taping my thumb down at night and it helps but I can't do that during the day or I would be useless.

I'm going to go get taped, take some Tylenol and go to bed.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Home improvement

I recently heard about a local private school that was going out of business. Today, they had a HUGE sale to get rid of most of there stuff. I told my mom I wanted to go, but didn't expect to come home with much, because I expected everything to be too high priced. Boy was I wrong! I bought all kinds of stuff and could have bought a lot more if I could have figured out a place to put it. I got an easel, some blocks, a huge box of tempra paint, a big box of paper, a paper rack, two rolls fof easel paper, 2 whole bags of small things (headsets, extension cords, etc), a large pop up play house, a sand table and a large water table, several packages of markers, a jar of sorting bears, 4 preschool sized chairs, some tumbling mats, a big wire rack, a nice book shelf and several other things for less than $50. I got so much I couldn't fit it all in my van. I had to drive home and drop a bunch off and go back and pick the rest up! Other than large furniture (tables and one desk) I didn't see anything priced over $5 and most of it was $1 or $2. They had chalk boards and white boards and desks and tons of other things that I just couldn't figure out where to put so I didn't get.

Since I got all of that stuff, I've decided to move stuff around in my house and set things up better. I've always wanted to set my house up with stations like a preschool but never had all the stuff before. Now I do. I've begun an art center where I put the easel and paper and paints. I'm going to get a small table and put out crayons, stencils, stamps, etc. I'm also moving all my books around to create a library (previously all the books were crammed on the shelves with our books and they were hard to get to, with chairs. With the new wooden blocks I bought, I'm going to create a block center where I'm going to put all the wooden blocks, as well as all the Legos and other misc blocks we have. I'm also planning to clean off the train table (which we've had forever and no one plays with) and I'm going to layout a track (no on plays with it because they have to set the track themselves) and nail it down. That way, they can play and have bridges and things but not have to be setting stuff up all the time.

I'm going to make us a schedule and do "preschool at home" with Lizzie. dh keeps telling me that if I don't want to go back to work, I don't have to. The choice there is to get my stuff together and teach her myself at home or go back to work when she is 3 so she can go to preschool. It isn't like I'm not qualified to teach her. I mean, her age group is where I started out. Plus, I already have a pre-,ade list of topics with the week to study them (they made up a curriculum at PoP and I took a copy when I left) and I have over half a year of lesson plans. Should be easy enough to modify things to her interests. We'll still see what happens with going back to work, but at least now I have the beginning of a set up that should be easy enough to maintain.

The problem is going to be fitting this all in and actually leaving the house most days. Dh is going to be working late nights so our plan is to get up, take C to school, come home, feed Liz, go do something for a couple of hours (Rugrats, Library, etc) come home, eat lunch, take a nap and then pick C up from school by 2. I guess, he'll have some homework stuff and we could do stuff then or we could start 2 days a weeks and then move to 3 later on. Right now, I think I'm just going to have stuff for her to do and work on actual preschool later.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Conversations with Lizzie

Lizzie: I POOPED! GIVE ME PIECE OF CHEESE!
Evan: I'm not even going to touch that set of statements
Me: welcome to my life

Evan: Alright, I have to go to work
Lizzie: You go drive bus?
E: yeah, I'm gonna drive the bus
L: I go wits you. Hold on a min-et
E: well you'll have to talk to mommy about riding the the bus
L: Mommy no drive da bus. daddy drive da bus. I go wits you now
E: I have to go
L Wait for me, daddy wait for me I go drive da bus

We were at Santa's Lodge in IN and our card keys were deactivated for some odd reason. My mom was grouchy about it and went to the desk to complain. While we were standing up there Lizzie proclaims "This is a bunch of shit" *dies*

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Who says that

C will occasionly "adopt" a tv character to come and live with us for awhile. The most recent one has been some cartoon cats (I called them Thundercats but he says that isn't right). When he was telling me about them, I was asking him questions like if they were litter trained (no, they use the potty), where they were going to sleep (in my bed, of course) and what kinds of things they eat. His response to that was "food, like rational humans" Tehe Then when dh was quizzing him about it, he told us all about they were taking him on a rocket ride tomorrow and they brought their own tooth brushes, so they won't have to borrow. They did forget their pillows so they are sharing with C.

He just peeked over the rail of his bed and asked us to turn down the TV so that he could get his beauty sleep. If he doesn't get that, he can't go on the rocket ride tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Family resemblence much?

First this is a layout I did with Lizzie's and my Dad's baby pictures.

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Any guesses who this is?

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Now one you all know.

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Pay no attention to the road rash. I don't even remember what he did, just that he asked me to take a picture of it.

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Back

We are back from Santa Claus and I will have more on that once I get it done. We were only gone for 3 dyas but we did a lot of stuff and I have a lot of reviewy things to say :)