June 30, 2009

This morning I was getting the kids' things together for the beach when I heard Caleb say, "Mommy, how you get pixo out your ear?" I knew that couldn't be good. I looked and sure enough, he had stuck a green pixo deep into his ear. Vic and I both tried and failed at getting it out with various methods, then I called the doctor's office.

I dropped Carson and Jamie off at Grammy and Grampy's house so that they could go to the beach and then took Caleb to the doctors office. Once there, they aggravated me by claiming that I owe them $384 for some bill from May of 2006 that they haven't managed to bring up in the last three years. So, I got to have a lovely discussion with the billing lady about that. I can't believe they really thought I was going to pay that. Then, I got to wait with a three year old for about half an hour in the exam room. We didn't see our regular doctor, but luckily the doctor we saw was very nice and fished the pixo right out of his ear.

After that, I decided to go by the athletic shoe store I have been meaning to go by for a long time. Only I couldn't find it and got lost in the ghetto with the empty light on on my dash. That's always nice.

After the beach crew returned to Grammy and Grampy's house, I dropped Caleb off over there for some fun while I ran errands and worked on laundry.

They all had fun at the beach. It was nice today, in the 90s but with low humidity. I hear they all stayed in the water most of the time, even Jamie! She was excited to have seen some fish, a dolphin and a sting ray.

June 29, 2009

We started out the morning with a whole bunch of kids here. At one time there were eight kids from a couple of different houses on our street. That was more than a little crazy. Luckily, it was time to go pick up Karen and Madilyn for our play date right then, so I sent them all home.

Jamie had a lot of fun playing with Madi today, and I enjoyed talking with Karen and the relative peace of having only 3 kids in the house(Carson was at a friend's house most of the time). We ordered pizza and hung out for a little while.

After that, it was laundry, laundry, and more laundry for me. The kids played quietly and the doorbell didn't ring even once! It was a nice, peaceful afternoon and evening.

The kids are looking forward to going to the beach with Grammy tomorrow, and I am looking forward to some more quiet time!

June 27, 2009

The kids and I started out this morning with a trip to the pool with Grammy. Brent, Karen and Madi were there too, and Grampy even stopped by after golf. It was lots of fun. The kids really enjoyed playing with Madi. Vic missed out because he was helping a friend with some tile work this morning.

We spent the afternoon resting at home, except for Carson who went swimming again at a friend's house. Then we all headed over to a pool party at the apartments that Christy manages. So, Carson spent the day going from pool to pool to pool! All the kids were completely worn out by bedtime. I am worn out, too.

Plus, I managed to get a sunburn on my shoulders, despite using SPF 50 sunscreen. How did I make it through two days at Carowinds water park with no sunburn and can't make it through two and a half hours at the pool without getting cooked? Oh well, hopefully I'm better at applying aloe than I am at applying sunscreen and this will be healed up fast. Time to get some rest now. We have nursery duty at church in the morning!

June 25, 2009

The kids and I ran some errands today. I had forgotten just how much fun it is to run errands with three kids. I decided it's probably a good thing to take them all with me. Surely I spend less money since I am focusing on nothing but buying what we need and getting out of there. We made it through Walmart and Publix and then headed home where I fed them lunch and opened the back door so they could go wild.

I bought them a package of water balloons and a ball that you are supposed to pass around like a hot potato. When the timer goes off, the balloon busts and whoever is holding it gets wet. The kids loved it and the boys played outside for hours with it. I don't suggest getting one, though, unless your kids can tie water balloons themselves or you would enjoy tying a water balloon approximately every 45 seconds. Jamie didn't play outside very long. She really doesn't like the heat.

The kids were thrilled to get a package in the mail from Nana and Poppa today. Carson put on his 4th of July t-shirt right away, and then immediately got it filthy playing outside with the water. Jamie wore her new dress to VBS tonight, and Caleb is sleeping in his new shirt. They were also excited about the mints and gummy bears and Pixos. They waited until I was out of the room and tore into their mints like wild animals. When I returned, there was nothing left but tiny scraps of Mento wrapper all over the den. Thanks, Nana & Poppa! You made the kids' day.

Jamie and Carson are really enjoying VBS. Jamie told me tonight that she wished it would last a long time, like regular school. Tomorrow is the last night. I am looking forward to watching the kids sing at family night tomorrow.

Caleb fell asleep at 6:15 tonight, so I am heading to bed. He will be up before the sun tomorrow!

June 22, 2009

We're back! Vacation was lots of fun. It was an interesting experience having the five of us in one hotel room. It wasn't bad at all in Charlotte, where we had a suite, but a little bit cramped in Asheville, where we had a regular room.

All the kids had a great time. We ended up going to Carowinds Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and all day Thursday. Caleb rode everything he was tall enough to ride. He was so excited. I think his favorite ride was the jet planes in the nickelodeon area. He liked to make his plane go up as high as it would go. Jamie liked the ride, too, but kept her plane close to the ground. Caleb's favorite part of Carowinds wasn't the rides, though. It was the water park. I have never seen him so happy as when he was playing in the kiddie sprinkler play area. He was dancing and jumping and smiling the whole time.

Jamie's favorite ride was the carousel. By the second day, she even got brave enough to get on a horse that moved!

Carson was into the roller coasters this year. He rode all the coasters he was tall enough for and loved it. He even rode the brand new "Cobra" that goes through loops forwards then backwards. He is braver than I am. He did talk me into riding the Cyclone with him this year, though, and it was fun!

Friday we headed to Asheville and visited the Western North Carolina Nature Center. It was great except that it was so hot that day. It was so hot that the animals weren't out in the petting area. They were inside the barn. The kids had been looking forward to petting the goats and sheep, so that was disappointing, but it was still fun.

Saturday we got to go to Fun Depot with Grandpa and Gran. The kids love that place! They all enjoyed the games, plus Carson rode Go Karts and played Laser Tag, and Jamie and Caleb played in the indoor play area. They got some lovely prizes with their tickets, including one of those fake candy containers that a squeaky snake pops out of when you open it (thankfully this one broke fast), and some really nasty slime that Jamie managed to drop into the garbage disposal at Grandpa and Gran's house. I managed to fish it out, but it was ready for the trash after that experience.

Sunday morning, we met Grandpa and Gran for breakfast and then hit the road towards Savannah. It was such a fun vacation, and for the most part we had great weather. Tuesday and Wednesday especially were overcast and very pleasant, plus cloudy skies meant not much of a crowd at the park. We were able to ride everything with no waiting!

I didn't get too many pictures, but I will post them when I can. The printer with the card slot in it broke, so I can't get the pictures onto the computer right now. Vic has something at his office that I can use, so when we get that here and hooked up, I'll post some pictures!

As for today, we spent the day mostly at home. I did laundry and got everything unpacked except for the big suitcase and the toiletry bag. Aside from that, I broke up fights and tried to keep the kids from destroying things and hurting each other. It's going to be a long 11 weeks.

Tonight Carson and Jamie went to VBS at Grammy and Grampy's church. While they were there, Caleb, Vic and I went out to dinner with Grammy and Grampy and our new sister in law. That was nice. It's so much easier to go out to dinner with just one child!

Carson and Jamie had fun at VBS. Carson has a girl from his Sunday school class in his VBS class, so I was glad that he knew someone there. Jamie has one of our neighbors and her new step-cousin in her class, so she has friends there, too. Jamie and her friend both agreed that it was the best class ever! :)

Heading to North Carolina

We are about to leave for vacation - woohoo! I will update during the week when I can. :)

June 14, 2009

I spent most of the day packing today. Somehow, I managed to make quite a mess around here while packing up! I think the kids contributed some too. Caleb tries to unpack the things I have packed, and Jamie tries to pack 5x more than she needs. She says she'll just "miss her toys soooooooo muuuuuuchh!!!"

Jamie and I went to Target this afternoon to look for a new pair of shoes for her since her princess shoes broke last week. She tried on at least 10 pairs of shoes, and in the end she chose a white pair with rainbows and butterflies on them, and we found the same princess shoe as she had before, but on clearance. So, we got those too.

It took us about 50 minutes to get home, due to traffic because of an accident on the highway. Jamie was so busy chatting that we had been sitting at a stand-still for about 20 minutes before she said, "Hey mom, how come we're not moving?"

Tonight Vic got takeout Mexican food for us, and they left out my fajitas! Restaurants are out to get me lately with the takeout food. They didn't charge us for them either, so we shared Vic's chicken fajitas. We discovered that it is the perfect amount of food for us to share, especially since I like the veggies and he likes the chicken. So, now we can save money every time we order Mexican takeout! :)

Off to clean up the kitchen now and get some rest!

June 12, 2009

Well, summer vacation has officially begun! The last day of school was a pretty busy one.

Caleb and Jamie went downstairs before I did this morning and tore into the celebratory box of doughnuts I had bought like wild animals. Carson joined them soon after and the three of them completely polished off the box, except for one doughnut that I ate. So, they were nice and sugared up before school.

Later in the morning, I had a doctor's appointment and took Caleb with me. He did a good job, despite being very tired. I was there yet again because of the vague pain I've been having behind my rib cage. It was hurting more in the back, so I wanted to be sure I didn't have a kidney infection before we leave for Charlotte next week. Nope. She said she thinks it's my reflux, and suggested that I try actually taking the Prilosec that I'm already supposed to be taking on a daily basis. She said it more nicely than that, though. :) So, okay, I'll give it a try.

A little later, we picked up Carson and Jamie from school a bit early. They had both enjoyed their last day of school. Carson had a hat that all the kids in his class had signed, and he also made a water bottle holder that he can wear around his neck. They were watching Nemo when we arrived. Jamie had enjoyed an ice cream sundae party and made tons of art work.

Then, I headed to the pediatrician's office with three very hyper kids to get a rash checked out on the inside of Caleb's elbow. The doctor said it's impetigo that probably started out as eczema and got infected. The poor guy. It looks pretty painful. He's on an oral antibiotic, so hopefully it will clear up fast. It's also highly contagious, so hopefully we won't be passing this around while we're on vacation, or at all for that matter!

On the way home, I stopped and got the kids McDonald's for their dinner. After dinner they frosted and put sprinkles on some sugar cookies that Caleb and I baked earlier in the day. So, it was a day full of junk food and celebrating. Tomorrow they are looking forward to kicking off Summer Vacation with a trip to the beach with Grammy!

June 11, 2009

I dropped Caleb off at Grammy and Grampy's house this morning, picked up Carson, dropped Carson and Jamie off at school and then went to the awards ceremony for 1st and 2nd grade. It was way, way too long. Why on earth would they have the 4th grade chorus sing 3 songs at the 1st and 2nd grade awards banquet? I was secretly kind of hoping Carson wouldn't get an award this year. I thought we could just go out for breakfast and skip the whole thing. But the little card came home on Tuesday saying that he was getting an award, so we both got to attend. I'm glad we went, though, because he got the perfect attendance award and it would have been pretty funny if he were absent on awards day! He also got an award for making honor roll all four marking periods.

I ran out quickly after that and got the teacher gifts for tomorrow and stopped by the grocery store before heading back to the school for Carson's end of year luau. All the kids had a great time, even though it was terribly hot and humid outside. They got to make a lei, decorate a frisbee, eat lots of luau food, have snow cones, play games, get temporary tattoos, and get their face painted. Carson was only interested in the food, snow cones, and a tattoo(a turtle on his cheek). His favorite part was the tiny sword he got from the pineapple pieces. After a while, we had had enough of the heat and I checked him and Jamie out early.

After school, Carson went for a swim at his friend's house and Jamie had a friend over to play. I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of school! I am going to go get some rest now. I'm going to need it!

June 9, 2009

This morning Caleb and I went to Target again. I think Caleb likes Target as much as I do. When we pulled into the parking lot, he called out, "Yay, Target! We're coming for you!"

I spent the afternoon cleaning out and organizing stuff in the kitchen and laundry room. I made good progress in the kitchen, but the laundry room needs way more work, since that's where I stash stuff that I don't know what else to do with.

Jamie got to go to Grammy and Grampy's house this afternoon and Carson played with friends all afternoon. Caleb slept all afternoon and as a result was up late tonight. I hope this means he'll sleep until 7:00 tomorrow!

June 8, 2009

This morning I pulled the circus van up to the school for the last time this year! Only two kids to drop off from here on out.

Caleb and I went home for a while and then stopped by Publix and Walmart. We did some shopping to get ready for our upcoming trip to Carowinds. Caleb was very good and helpful, except that he tried to get me to buy every toy and piece of candy in Walmart.

This afternoon Jamie had a friend come over and play. They mostly did artwork. Then there was much drama after she left because I let her take home the card she made for her dad in a small gift bag, and Jamie declared right after she left that the gift bag was her favorite thing ever! Oh, the drama. There was much crying and wailing. Eventually, she settled down and watched Madagascar with her brothers.

Vic played pizza delivery man tonight and brought home Mellow Mushroom pizza for us and Papa Johns for the kids. That was such a nice treat!

Jamie enjoyed "Barbie Day" in her class. The girls brought Barbies and the boys brought action figures to play with at center time. Her only complaint was that they didn't get to play Barbies all day.

Carson also had a fun day at school. His class had "camping" day. They each brought in a flashlight, a book, and a blanket and camped out and read by flashlight. Carson is thrilled that he doesn't have any homework this week. I'm pretty happy about it, too!

June 7, 2009

Vic had sound at church this morning, so I took the kids to Sunday school. After Sunday school, we went home and Caleb took a nice long nap, so I got stuff done around the house. I cleaned out my side of the closet, which I haven't done since we moved in here almost four years ago. So, that took a while. I can't believe how much stuff I had in there that I never wear. I still didn't go through my shoes. I was tired of being in the closet after going through all my old clothes and purses.

Later I had a VBS teachers meeting. We are doing Paul and the Underground Church, and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. We are doing something different this year and dividing the kids into "families" of mixed ages. It will be interesting to see how it works. The theory is that the older kids will behave better because they will be helping out with the younger kids and not competing with each other for attention. I hope it works! Last year was kind of rough!

The kids spent most of the day playing inside because it was raining off and on. The doorbell has been strangely silent all weekend. I think it rang twice yesterday and not at all today. It has been nice. I talked to one of the neighbors who is moving today and got two bits of good news for Jamie. The first one is that they are giving Jamie their Barbie jeep. I haven't told her yet; I'm not going to tell her until we actually get the jeep, but she will be so excited! The other good news is that the people who are renting their house have a daughter Jamie's age and another child(don't know if it's a boy or girl) who will be at Caleb's preschool. :)

Time to get some rest now. I can't believe this is the last week of school! I know it will be a busy one!

June 6, 2009

Carson had his last soccer game of the season today, and they won again! It was good to end up the season on a high note. After the game, all the kids went over to the coach's house for a cookout. Shortly after we got there, it started pouring rain. The poor coach tried to go out and start the grill in the pouring rain using his daughter's tiny princess umbrella, but soon gave up and decided to boil the hot dogs instead. The kids all had a lot of fun and they each got a medal.

Tonight we dropped all the kids off at Grammy and Grampy's house and Vic and I went out to dinner at the new Asian Fusion restaurant near our house. It was so good! It is owned by the same people who own our favorite restaurant, Tangerine, but it's only 5 minutes away instead of half an hour! :)

When stopped by to pick up the kids after dinner, we stayed for a while and watched some old home movies of Vic and Brent when they were very little. It was neat to see how much our boys look like Vic did when he was little. Jamie saw a portrait on the wall of Vic with his family when he was about 9 years old and said, "Hey, look! There's Grammy and Grampy when they had kids!" I asked her if she knew who those kids were, and she said, "I don't know. It's just Grammy and Grampy and some kids!" She knows that Grammy and Grampy are Vic's parents, but I guess she hasn't quite figured out that Vic used to be little. :)

I'll close with another Jamie story that I forgot to share from last weekend. We were eating take out Japanese food. Jamie's chicken had sesame seeds on it. I put her food down in front of her and she got very excited, "Hey Mom! I found a seed on my chicken! Can I go plant this outside and grow a chicken tree?" I guess we need to go visit a farm soon.

June 4, 2009

Caleb got to spend a fun day with Grammy and Grampy today, and I went to have my hair cut and highlighted. I went to yet another new person. Well, she's not totally new because she did cut my hair at the MOPS spa day. But, I'm always nervous about someone new putting color on my hair.

She did a good job, and she seems normal, too. In my experience, it's hard to find a hairdresser who is good and not crazy. I will stick with this lady, if she doesn't disappear before my next appointment. I have that effect on hairdressers lately.

This afternoon I met with Jamie's teacher for our last parent/teacher conference of the year. She had nothing but good things to say about Jamie. She was especially impressed with Jamie's acting abilities and said that she did a great job playing the mother cat in the story of the Three Little Kittens when they acted it out in their classroom. She said Jamie needed no direction and scolded those kittens like a pro, complete with a pointing finger. Hmmm, I wonder where she learned that from? She also said she was very impressed with Jamie's reading skills. I am, too. I can't believe how fast she is picking it up!

We had a rainy afternoon this afternoon and stayed inside. Caleb and Jamie played and Carson worked on his homework. I am so ready for a break from homework! I hope this was our last night of it and they won't have any next week!

June 2, 2009

Caleb and I had a pretty quiet day today. I planned on taking him to an indoor play area with a bunch of inflatables to climb and slide on, but he insisted he did not want to go. So we stayed home and played with bubbles and read books and watched the fuzzy caterpillars that were all over the driveway this morning.

This afternoon, he decided he did want to go to the play place after all. Of course by then it was almost time for Carson and Jamie to come home, so we couldn't go. So then I got to listen to him throw a big fit because he wanted to go to the place that I tried to get him to go to earlier. Such is life with a three year old, I guess.

Jamie got to go to Grammy and Grampy's house today. She made a sand art peacock this time. It is on her dresser with the elephant now. She is very excited about her new creation. She was also over tired tonight and cried for about 30 minutes straight after she got home. She was crying because I told her I couldn't understand her whining and asked her to speak normally. So, she cried instead. For half an hour. She must be the loudest child on the planet. Good thing she's sweet most of the time, and cute too! :)

Vic went fishing all day today and caught some Mahi. He just got home, so I'm going to go find out how his trip was now. Looks like we'll be eating fresh fish tomorrow!

June 1, 2009

My keyboard mysteriously quit working last night, so no blog. This morning it mysteriously started working again. Who knows. Maybe one of the kids spilled something on it.

Yesterday, we went to church and were *this* close to being on time! Later, the boys all went to the beach and Jamie and I went to Publix. Jamie would have gone to the beach, but she was upset with Vic for putting her in time out for hurling a hard plastic toy over the railing on the top of the stairs, narrowly missing hitting him in the head. That big meanie. So, I got to have some company at the grocery store. It was probably better that Vic didn't have all three kids at the beach by himself anyway, especially since the boys want to be in the water and Jamie likes the sand.

Today, Caleb and I took Carson and Jamie and the neighbor girls to school and then drove straight to Target! I think Caleb loves Target as much as I do. He had a great time. He wanted a "Bonzai 3-d Shark Bite slide" as his potty training success prize, so we picked that up and he was happy with it for about half an hour while we shopped. Then he decided the shark head was too scary. He traded it for a much less scary, and much cheaper, Elmo bubble blower. So, I also got him a bubble refill bottle and a small toy boat. I am so happy to be done with diapers that I would have bought him almost anything. :)

This afternoon Carson played Toontown with Grammy online while Jamie and Caleb played with friends outside. My friend who lives two doors down told me they are moving to Wisconsin in August. I am sad that they are leaving. I will miss chatting with her in the afternoons while the kids play. I feel bad for Jamie, too. She loves playing with her three daughters. Plus, two other friends of Jamie's on our street will be moving. One in July, and I'm not sure when the other one will be leaving. Poor Jamie. At least she'll still have one friend left on our street.

I signed up for WW online today. I think I need to get back to counting my points again, since I tend to eat a lot without thinking. I was up .4 at today's weigh in, so I decided I have to do something different. Here's hoping I get good news at next Monday's weigh in!