County fair & suspecious neighbors??

Well if I've ever needed a comment on a blog this is it! I'll start with my suspecious (sp?) neighbor.

The other day I was outside watching my kids play, standing on our deck and saw one of our new neighbors Mid 20 year old male, walk to a car in the driveway. He sat down in the driver seat and got out a 8" long plastic tube (the tube reminded me of what you get at christmas filled with m&m's and is shaped like a candy cane..you know the top comes off and the clear plastic tube is what the candy is in). He sat in the car, lifted the plastic tube to his mouth, then held the tube outside the car and repeated. I know it wasn't something he was drinking, because he didn't tip the plastic tube up and I don't believe he had a straw (confirmed my first thought that he was using the tube as a drinking cup). So what do you think? I seriously almost called the police, but we are the ONLY people who can see into this back yard, no one else could..so if we *did* call, they (the people who live there) would know who reported suspecious activity. What would you do? Call? Look for more activity before calling?

Now to the County fair.. Kids & I had a BLAST!! Before we went to the carnival we went to the fair that morning. The kids were sooo anxious about riding the rides (which were not open yet) that we decided to walk down the midway and take a peek at the rides. Ok..imagine..me, overweight, overstressed, been in the sun all morning, mid 30 year old woman, being pulled by 3 4 year olds. Ok..got that picture. Now imagine a 55+ year old carnival worker (I'd use the term rat, but might get flamed for that) watching us walk past. Can you see where this is going?? You can't? Well neither did I! The damn man hit on me!! OMG I nearly fell over laughing. I won't go into word/word dialect, because this post is big enough already, but let me just say I am still laughing thinking of it.

Also..have you ever wondered how to get a longer ride out of a carnival ride? Well..now I know. Kids & I were in line for the tilt-a-wheel. A man and his wife/girlfriend/sister (whatever) were standing in front of us. We were waiting for our turn. The worker said "Ah shit..Im out of smokes!!" The man in front of me said "Here.." and pulls out a few from his own pack and hands it to the worker. The worker said "Oh god thanks man..I'll pay you back right now." The ride ends, the next group of riders gets on (including kids & I and man & his riding partner). OMG..I shit you not..we were on that ride forever!! Long enough that my throat was sore from screaming!! So bring a pack of cigs with you to a carnival!! Give them to the carnival operators like they are candy!!

Summer is flyin' by!

I can't believe how fast the summer is going and I really can't believe how much I have been neglecting my blog since the kids got out of school. I know Im going to regret that in a few years.

We've had such a great summer and I honestly hate to see it end. In only a month the kids will be back in school, and it just makes me sad to think that! Yes we've had stressful days where I think "I can not wait for them to go back" but honestly those days are pretty far between.

A huge milestone was hit by W today. He learned how to swing by himself! He is sooo proud!! We were outside until 10pm watching him, he loved it and like I said was nearly busting with pride.

We have some new werid neighbors to the south of us. It use to be a man, woman and their 6 month old son. But I have a feeling the woman and child moved out. The man is still there, but there is constant traffic and I think at least 3 other guys are living there. I think it's a drug house. Will post more as I learn more.

Also found out today our neighbor to the north of us had to put their cat to sleep recently. You'll be missed Powder. He was a great cat, that came running to anyone who drove in the neighborhood, but don't even try to pick him up (LOL) he'd scratch the hell out of you. (Seriously..voice of experience here..)

A set of grandparents down the block have their 5 grandsons living with them this summer. All of their names start with the letter "D" and they range from the age of 9 to 4. WOW..what a busy, wild group of boys. My kids LOVE to play with the "big boys" but I cringe everytime they do. They are pretty rough, and Im noticing that B is really starting to pick up some bad habits..maybe it will be good to have them back in school. :(

Temps have finally cooled off, it's been in the 80's the last couple of days. To cold to go swimming (IMHO) so we've only been to the pool 2x in the last week.

Where has the last month gone??

It's hard to believe that I haven't logged in here in over a month! Where has the time gone?? I don't even know where to start..

I guess I should start with our weather. We are now living on the surface of the sun! It is sooo hot and has been for over a week, with temps in the triplet digits! Yesterday I was at my friends house with the kids and her outdoor t-stat said it was 119°. I said to her "That can't be right!" She said "It's never been more then 1-3° off. Today it was 116°. Can you say HOLY SHIT IT IS F-ING HOT?!!??!! Tomorrow it's suppose to be 99° (ROFL), get out the parkas.

The kids & I have been swimming about 12 times the last month. I now don't have *kids* anymore, I have 3 fish! W has suprised me the most this year with swimming. Last year he wouldn't let go of the side of the pool, and hung on to me with a vise grip. Now he's going under the water, swimming, diving down and touching the bottom of the pool (in the 4' section) with his hands. B & A were swimming ok (for 3 year olds) last year, but this year they are the best 4 year old swimmers I have ever seen..ok maybe Im a bit biasis. :) Honestly they are doing soo well.

We (dh & I) have also taken the kids fishing several times in the last month. I have met my match..until fishing I had though I could do anything with the kids I wanted to by myself. But fishing has me beat. I can't do that w/o help. A especially LOVES to fish!! Here I thought in a couple years A & I could go shopping while daddy & his boys go hunting/fishing. But W & B don't have the patience for fishing the way A does. She can be a girly girl when she wants to, but other times she's 100% tomboy. :)

Dh has been on 1 business trip since I last posted, to Boston. Another one scheduled for the end of the month. Other then that he's been busy at work and working at the farm every chance he can. He has surgery scheduled for the 19th of July (OMG..in just a few days!!) for his elbow again. He has a pinched nerve in his elbow that needs to be repaired.

As for me..well I've been sooo darn busy!! The kids keep me going EVERY..SINGLE..DAY!! I don't think a day has gone by since we've been home from vacation that we stayed home. Everyday consists of running the wheels off my car. In my spare time (aka..middle of the night) I've been finding my sanity with reading. I've finished a few great books the last month and I wish I could comment on all of them, but don't have the time now. Check out my bibliophil.org web page if you're interested. I have updated my side bar with my CR and JF.

Tomorrow kiddos & I are going to K to go (can you guess??) swimming and I need to get the oil changed in my car. Then we're meeting dh at the car dealership and picking up our new (to us) truck. Dh's truck is really starting to give us problems, so it's time to trade it off and wash our hands of it. Im super, super excited about the new truck! It's a quad cab and will have plenty of room for the kids in the back seat!

Well..it's 12:10 and believe it or not I *STILL* have 1 child awake. UGH!! The summer has really, really, really screwed with their sleeping. They are usually up until 11pm, and sleep until 9:30am. Im glad next year they'll be in afternoon pre-k again. I won't have to worry about getting them waking up by 6:30am until 2007..ahhhh.

Im hoping in this lifetime to catch up with all my friends blogs!

Back from vacation

We got back on Thursday and in true fashion, we came home sick.

A started to complain about an ear ache Thursday night, and I started coughing earlier that week and it hadn't let up at all. So to the dr. her & I went. I have broncitis (sp?) and Abby has fluid behind her ear. It wasn't infected yet, but thankfully she told me her ear was hurting and I believed her enough to have it looked at before it got to that point.

So Im on 3 different meds, A is on antiboticis.

We had a great vacation, I'll post the whole rundown when Im up to it.

What a week!!

WOW I have been busy!! The kids have really kept me busy this week. We've been out and about everyday in the 90° heat!! Today was by far the best day! We did a little shopping, then went to the water park. Where we stayed for 4 hours. Thankfully I brought my folding chair, my cell phone, my book and some water. :)

Dh is coming home tomorrow (ok technically today) and all of us are sooo anxious to see him. We're leaving for vacation on Saturday and believe it or not I haven't even started packing yet!! YIKES!! I usually have that done a couple days in advance.

Well this is going to be short, W just woke up.

My hat goes off..

to all single parents!! How do you do it??!

I have a friend who has quads, the same age as my kids and she is a single parent. I think of her sooo often when dh is gone on business trips. I don't know how she does it..honestly I have no clue!!

Dh has been gone now for 2 days, and Im beat. No I take that back..Im dead tired. My kids have been keeping me hoppin'!!! I have spent more time in the kitchen today then I ever have trying to keep 3 bellies full. Im starting to think they are just asking for food to see me work, even though they are eating everything they are asking for. They are bottomless pits today!!

I just want 15 minutes to sit down..that's it. Well I can hear the troops hollerin' for more of something. OMG am I exhausted..

B-U-S-Y!!

It's been a busy week here in the triplet household!!

Tuesday we went to a picnic at the kids preschool. It was an end of the year party for all the kids and their families. What a HUGE turnout!! We had to bring meat, I made 30 ham sandwiches and I should of made 30 more! There were sooo many people there! One of the teachers said that every child and family were there. I guess school really is ending.. :( Monday is there last day.

Wednesday while the kids were at preschool, I got new tires put on my car..491.00 later, (UGH!) my car doesn't shake and rattle anymore, so it definately needed to be done.

This past Thursday Jane & I took the kids to the circus. They LOVED it!! W cried his little eyes out when we had to go, it broke my heart. He screamed and clapped the entire time. Today (Saturday) he was STILL begging to go back.

Today the kids & I went to the park and all 3 kids played and ran around the bases at one of the baseball fields. They had such a GREAT time!!

The weather has been super, super hot all week. On Friday the kids played in their pool for the first time. I filled it up, and they jumped right in. The original "plan" (term used lightly around here..lol) was to fill it up and then AFTER lunch they could swim, so the water could warm up. But they didn't seem to mind the cold water, since it was 97° out!! I had to re-fill it 2x because they kept putting mud in it. Im glad dh & I have decided to wait and pull out our "BIG" pool in a few more years. I think at least 2 more years before they are ready for that pool. We also have to put in a cement slab before that pool goes up too.

Tomorrow is our 12 year wedding anniversary!! Dh is NOT working! YEA!! Im not sure what (if anything) we'll do. We're not getting a babysitter so whatever we *do* do it'll be a family thing.

Monday dh leaves for KY for the entire week. UGH!! He leaves early, early (2am early) Monday morning and gets back around 1pm on Friday. I am NOT looking forward to this trip..so be prepared for a few "pity posts" from me next week.

Gotta go update my side bar now, but I'll end this post with a quick prayer request.. WE NEED RAIN!!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all moms, aunts, grandmothers and any other woman who takes care and loves kids!!

Little blog change

I had a few minutes today to play with my blog a bit. I've made one change that I think Im going to just love, now I can click on the title of the book Im either CR or JF and read my review. Of course the link to my bibliophil.org is another way to do this, but I thought this would be easier to navigate. :)

Kids & I will be leaving in about an hour to go to the graduation party. B & A are being really big poops this afternoon, screaming, fighting. I hope their attitudes change in the next hour.

Dh is farming today, they will be done planting today. He will not be working tomorrow. :)

Big milestone for W!!!

W hit a huge milestone yesterday! He got his haircut by a professional!! Kiera at Cost Cutters is the best! It's a good thing that's the ONLY place our entire family goes to get our haircut, so everyone there knows the struggles we've had with W. Until yesterday he wouldn't even SIT in a chair, but Kiera did it!! I could of kissed her!! :) He ended up having to sit on my lap, but that was totally fine with me!! What a big boy!! He loved getting his hair cut and I *hope* he will continue to enjoy it!! :) Did I say Kiera is the best??!! They were soo busy there (graduation this weekend) and I just wanted to see if I could get W to sit on a chair, he wasn't scheduled to get a haircut. He (umm..we) got on the chair and Kiera talked him into letting her just trim it. She started snipping and I said "You can't stop now.." She said "I won't" I said "Im sorry..I know you're busy" and she said "We've worked a looong time to get him to this point, the others will have to wait..this is as big of a deal to us (cost cutters employees) as it is to you & dh." Did I say she was the BEST!!!

Today was a fantastic day here in Nebraska. The temps were in the 70's. The kids & I went to the library and then went to the school park. They had soo much fun, but were exhausted by the time we left. B actually asked to go home after an hour. lol The boys are sound asleep but my little nightowl is still wide awake, watching "Jungle Book 2" which sounds like it's ending now..so I'd better hurry up and finish this up. :)

Tomorrow we have a graduation party for a girl down the street and Sunday (Mother's Day) is graduation for the seniors. We have another graduation party in the afternoon.

Speaking of Mother's Day :)) I got flowers today. Red/white carnations with 3 red roses. :) And a card saying I am a wonderful (underlined 3x) Mom! :)

Im almost done with "More then You Know" and it's a really good book so far, Im having trouble trying to figure out how old the main character is. The year references are hard to follow because the story goes back and forth from the present to the past. I should have it done this weekend.

Ok A is demanding some serious mom/daughter time. :D

Went to the dr. today

Today I went to the dr, just for a chueck up and to have some bloodwork drawn. No problems folks, I'll be blogging for the next 40-50 yrs. :)

Yesterday the kids had their last day of mock preschool at the high school. Then to celebrate their graduation we went out for ice cream and went to the park. Later we went to the YMCA so I could work out and the kids had a BLAST playing upstairs and later playing with balls in the racquetball court. There were lots of kids there, so lots of kids to play with.

Im still fighting this cold, but haven't coughed to the point of throwing up in a couple days..so I think I'll live. :)

The weather has been in the average temps (mid 70's) so we've been outside a lot enjoying the nice weather. Only 3 more days of preschool. :(

4 days and counting!! WWWAHHHHHH!!!

Yep that's right, 4 days left of school for my kids. WAAAHHHHHHH!! I am going to miss my 2x a week afternoon breaks!! Im sure the summer will fly by and before I know it we'll be gearing up for another year of preschool.

Last night I was up until 3:30am tossing/turning about the school issue regarding A. I don't think I want to send her to another school. I know the teachers said "it would benefit all of them" blah, blah, blah. But I just don't want to do it. It's going to be to difficult, yea..I guess I *could* pull it off, but why should I have to? The kids are doing great at their current school, both boys have excelled on all their goals. I just don't want to the hassle, 2 days of school pictures, different schools, different halloween parties, different christmas programs, different days of school, different field trips. And the biggest decision factor..I want my kids to celebrate their b-day together!! I don't want to make 20 cupcakes for 1 class, 20 for another class!! It's just to much. Call me a baby, call me a wuss, call me lazy, I don't care. I ain't doing it. There..that's settled. I feel better already, now I just have to break it to the IEP team.

Today was another beautiful day! The kids painted outside (boy am I glad they can do THAT outside now!!) and played outside, etc.

Dh had to work at the farm tonight. He got home at 9:15pm and was in bed by 10pm. Grr..

Gonna go watch my soap now, and finish "Plain Truth".

Darn cold vs. me..who will win?

Yep that's right..Im STILL sick! This is 1 week straight of coughing to the point of throwing up. UGH!!!

Today (after I realized I had consumed all the cough drops we have in this house) I went to the local store and bought some cough medicine. Im NOT one to take medicine whether it be over the counter or not, Im not one to get sick and I usually don't require any medicine, just ol' fashioned time and taking care of myself does the trick. So today I bought some Robitussin Cough meds. I must say..that crap works! I also bought some more cough drops. None of those yummy tasting kinds for me, if they are going to work, my theory is they must taste like crap. If I something that tastes like candy, I'll buy candy then.

On another note..

The weather outside wasn't too bad today, a little breezy and just a great spring day. Dh & I were talking tonight and we think this is the first *actual* spring we've experienced since we moved to Nebraska. I think I jumped the gun a bit when I did the flip of the kids clothes, I wish I wouldn't of packed all their sweatshirts away yet.

God it is soo late!

But I wanted to blog real quick before I do go to bed. I just got done doing my roll call for my triplet parenting group. Thankfully I only do this 1x a year! It's a lot of work and the really hard work won't start until the end of the month when I start deleting anyone who doesn't respond to my email. Anyway..so that's why Im up late.

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago about a robin building her nest on the back of our basketball hoop. Well..3 little birds fell out of the nest today and fell to their death on our concrete driveway. Poor little things. :( So the kids got a quick lesson about living and dying. Tonight while A & I played barbies the theme was all of her barbies going up to heaven and seeing God. Yea I know..so many people are going to say "animals don't have souls, blah, blah." That *may* be true, but try explaining THAT to a 4 year old.

I have gotten close to 0 reading done the last several days. Today was an awesome day and the kids & I were outside from 3:30pm-7pm. Dh made supper tonight, what a great treat!!

Im still fighting this cold and now dh & A have it also. UGH! Nothing worse then sick hubby AND a sick kid, on top of it all when mommy is sick too!!!

We had the kids IEP meeting today. It went sooo well! Here's a copy/paste of an email I already sent out about it..

_________________________________________________________________________________

Last month we decided to have A evaluated, even though she did not qualify for services last year, we saw some potential problems and Im sooo glad we had her evaluated. She qualifies for services now with language delay. Because she is sooo bossy to her brothers at school, it was again recommended to us that we enroll her in a different preschool (on our dime) to seperate them. Dh & I are seriously considering this now, even though we were dead set against it a few months ago. So now Im going to start calling preschools again and get info and hopefully find a spot for her. If I can't fine one (definate possibility because preschools start filling up by March), she'll remain at the boys school.

B..we were suprised as can be to find out that he is by far the farthest behind now. His language tests came back with low grades (in the 50's). Major, major speech delays. I think 99% of that is because we found out wayyy to late (last fall) that he needed his adenoids removed (removed them in November). He's also appears to be having panic attacks at school. We're not sure what is triggering them, but we're leaning toward him maybe being afraid to fail. So when asked to do something new his first response is screaming "I can't!!" and he starts breathing in short bursts. The panic attacks seem to go away as fast as they come and eventually can be talked into trying something, but needs to have a lot of one on one help until he feels he can succeed in the new task.

W..holy cow. This little boy has done a complete 180 since school started, excelling in almost everything. His language comprenhension (sp?) is still a bit delayed (he has trouble answering simple questions), and his social skills are at an age of a 3 yr old (he still doesn't want to play with anyone at school consistently). But his math results came back with 143%!! Unreal!! We were also told that he's on the verge of reading, he knows all his letters and their sounds and is now starting to sound out words. His teacher said "He is like a sponge that can't get enough water, he constantly wants to learn and wants to know the answer to everything." One of the evaluators also said that when he got an answer wrong during the evaluation, he would not move on to the next project until she explained to him what the right answer was (blocks in a wrong order, etc). Anyway..he's doing an amazing job and we were told that he is acedimacally ready for K, but due to his social skills he isn't ready.

So in a nutshell, another year for preschool for all of us this fall.

___________________________________________________________________________________


Im off to bed, it's riduciously late..

Im so damn sick!!

I HATE spring colds! H-A-T-E them!! I can't breath, I can't sleep. It just sucks!!! If I could, I'd rip off my face and scoop the goop out of my nasal cavity and sinuses.

The early childhood development class at the local highschool is finishing up the school year with a mock preschool, and my kids were invited to attend. It's only 2 days a week for 35 minutes, today was their 2nd time going and they loved it! It's soo hard to believe that the school year is winding down. We've gotten 2 invites to graduation parties, the seniors graduate on May 14th.

Today was a real nice day, a bit windy but nice temps in the upper 70's low 80's. Kids played outside while I fought for air, damn cold..

Saturday

Today I took the kids swimming at the YMCA in a town nearby. We had such a great time! We got there around 2:30 and stayed until the pool closed at 5:30. Then because they were practically eating eachother because of hunger, I took them to good ol' BK. Wyatt didn't want to leave because he was having so much fun w/ another boy there. At least I *think* they were having fun, the other boy was older and seemed a little rough to me, but Wyatt was laughing so I think all was good.

You'd think that my kids would be beyond tired and begging to go to sleep. But hahahaha..not even close. It's 10pm and everyone is still up and going strong.

Tomorrow we (kids & I) have been invited to Jane's house for lunch, Cameron will be there also. So dh is going to bring the kids 4-wheeler and jeep to the farm tomorrow and we'll have fun riding around on those for the afternoon. Should be fun. :)

Im going to go kick my feet up and read for awhile. Im bushed!!!!!

Dh's first day back and...

his next business trip is already on the calendar for May. :( I think this year is going to be a very stressful traveling year for our home.

Today was a rainy, gloomy day. Abby went outside for a little while in her raincoat, but didn't stay out long. Other then that we didn't do a heck of a lot. Played and watched TV about covered our day.

Dh worked at the farm tonight and has to work again all day tomorrow, so I think Im going to take the kids to the YMCA in a nearby town and go swimming. They'll like that and it'll be something different for us to do. That is unless someone get sick, Wyatt complained of a tummy ache all day yesterday and threw up a couple times. Hopefully it was just something he ate and it won't affect the rest of us.

I have to go update my side bar now, I finished "The Ghost Orchid" and "A Child Called It" the last couple of days.

Dh on his way home!!

As of approx. 10 minutes ago dh was leaving the great state of MN and is on his way home! He should be *home* in about 4 hours! I can not wait!!! He said since he's coming in so early this morning he will NOT be going to work tomorrow! Y-E-A!!

Today was another real great day here. The kids had school this afternoon and left and came home in great moods! We played outside pretty much all afternoon until 9pm. We went for a little walk, picked tons of dandelions, etc. The weather was only in the mid 50's but it sure felt warmer then that. No wind, sun just beating down and not a cloud in the sky.

Im hoping to finish "The Ghost Orchid" this weekend. This is an awesome book!! Im completely lost on where the book will be going next and Im loving it! I can't predict it at all (so far)!!!

Real great day!

Today was such a great day! The kids had an awful day yesterday (fighing, arguing) and today has been such a pleasure..I hope Im not speaking to soon! lol

Yesterday it rained all day on/off, (that could of been why the kids were in a sour mood) but today it was just gloomy outside. The temps were a little chilly (probably mid 50's). We played outside and just had a good day.

We are all missing daddy terribly!! :( Hurry home daddy!! We miss you!! He called this afternoon and said he is checking out of his hotel tomorrow at noon and is going right to the airport to get on standby. FINGERS CROSSED he gets and earlier flight!! Otherwise he's not scheduled to fly in until 10:50pm, which means he'll actually get *home* around 1am.

Im finally 1/2 way through "The Ghost Orchid" and Im loving this book! It's so dark and mysterious that I can only read a few chapters at a time, because otherwise I get completely sucked in! I had a dream about the characters in the book last night and it actually freaked me out a bit! So that means it's a GREAT book and Im going to highly recommend it to a lot of people!!

Aaaahhhh!!

OMG do I miss my husband! And I *KNOW* my kids do too!! They are driving me literally up the f***in' wall today!! And they even had school and were gone for 3 hours. SCREAMING!! FIGHTING!!! AAAAAAHHHHHH Calgon take me the f**k away!!

emotional day

Well let me get the emotional stuff out of the way and then we'll talk about the good stuff..

I am in a funk..one heck of a funk..again. Dh left this morning for a business trip to TN. He'll be back on Wednesday. He had to fly into MN to switch planes and called me during his 3 hour lay over. He shouldn't of even called..just knowning he was there, a little over an hour from family, breathing MN air just depressed the hell out of me. I want to move HOME..N-O-W!! When he leaves on trips like this the reality hits me that I am so alone down here. Having no family around really, really sucks.

Yesterday Jane & I took the kids to Kids Explore. They had a BLAST! B&A ate a chocolate covered cricket!! That proved to me that my kids will do anything for a sucker! At least B&A will! lol Wyatt wasn't to keen on the whole thing, there were wayyy to many people there. They did so much while there, ice skated for the first time, saw Spongebob Squarepants, B&A climbed a blow up relic of the Titanic and got to slide down the sides (W wanted nothing to do with that), got lots of balloons, stickers, tattoos, suckers, coloring books and numberous other silly toys. We got there at 12:15 and left at 5:00. Then we took the kids to Burger King for dinner and I *thought* (oh silly me..) they'd be soo tired, but alas they were up until almost 10pm.

Today we stayed home. The kids played outside allll day while I pretty much stayed in the house and got so much done around the house. Laundry done, and the kids toyroom is pretty much done too. Tomorrow a rep from Dish Network is coming to hook us up to dish. Im pretty excited about that. It'll be cheaper, a lot cheaper.

I'd better get my butt to bed. Not having dh around to rely on really sucks and I'll be flying solo for the next few days.

Friday..

Today was a pretty good day. The weather was really perfect (mid 70's, no wind, nice sunshine). The kids & I played outside most of the day. We went to the library to return some videos, got a few different videos and a few books. I bought a book from the library book sale "Manhunt" by Evanovich. i haven't read anything by her, but I've heard nothing but good things about her writing.

Dh is at the farm now and should be calling VERY soon (it's 8pm) saying he's on his way home. Planting started 04/19, so he's going to be very busy out there helping out for awhile. Dh leaves on Sunday for another business trip, this time to TN. He'll be back on Wednesday. So it'll be a long week for me.

Tomorrow the kids & I are going to Kids Expore with Jane. Dh will be working at the farm until 6pm (he promised he'll leave at 6pm, so he can spend some time with us before he leaves on Sunday), we'll see if he really does get out of the farm then..it has yet to happen that he actually comes home when he says he will. Again..I try not to complain..

Not much else happened today, pretty ho-hum..

Windy!!

Well this is going to be a quick post because I just got a notice blogger will be down for maintence in about 20 minutes. Just my lucky..blogs will be down and bookcrossing is STILL down and has been all day because of maintence. grr..

Today was a crazy, crazy windy day! I've always heard the phrase "the wind took my breath away" but wasn't really sure what it meant, today I found out. I was outside and the wind literally did take my breath away, I had to step into the garage to catch my breath. Very werid feeling.

I have a got a killer headache today. I haven't had a headache this bad in a looong time. I hope dh is willing to take care of the kids when he gets home from work, because I am going to bed. He'll be here soon so Im going to go get my pj's on now and let him know that Im serious about laying down.

2 great days!!

Saturday (when dh was going to take the kids turkey hunting) didn't work out as I had hoped. I went to drop off the kids and at the last minute Wyatt decided he didn't want to go. Then I got sweet talked into helping set up the church for Easter breakfast. So I ended up getting home a little after 7. Wyatt fell asleep at church, slept the whole way home, I took him to bed and he remained sleeping. While he was a sleep the laundry did yell to loud and I ended up finishing that. UGH! Wyatt woke up at 10pm, walked downstairs and said "Good morning Mommy.." Oh oh...He finally went back to sleep at 2:30AM!!!

Easter was a fantastic day! We didn't cook a big meal, I made the family favorite, homemade pizza. In the afternoon we all decided to take the 4-wheeler out for a spin. While dh & the kids did that, I sat in the truck and read, and read, and read. Then we went out to the farm, fed 4 little calves (soooo cute!!!) and came home. Dh & I were not hungry, so I made the kids chicken nuggets and corn. Bath and bed.

Today..was another fantastic day! My new DSL equipment came from Qwest and I got that all installed without any problems! WOO-HOO! I went from cable to DSL, DSL was cheaper. Then dh took my car for a business dinner and the kids & I went for our final stroll in the stroller. Im really going to miss the stroller..it means my kids are really growing up, wayyyy to fast. They have definately out grown it :( . We came home from the park, had pizza for dinner, quick bath and now they are watching Legends of the Hidden Temple, on Nick GaS. They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this show.

It was a great couple of days! I'll have to go back and re-read this post on really bad days.

EXCITED!!!

In 45 minutes the kids & I are leaving to go meet dh at the farm. He's going to take them turkey hunting and I am going to come home and be by myself for awhile! I doubt I'll be alone for too long because Im sure the kids will get bored, but Im still excited! lol I don't know what I'll do while they are going. I probably *should* fold the 5 laundry baskets full of clothes and get them put away but I really don't feel like doing that! lol Im hoping to either talk myself into sitting down and reading (which I have gotten practically 0 done in the last couple of days) or chat on yahoo. I just hope the laundry doesn't yell to loud...

This morning the kids & I went to an Easter egg hunt. They had fun!!

Gotta go finish getting them ready..

The hums of summer...

a/c & lawn mowers.

That's all we've heard the last couple of days. Today was really warm again, but Im hesitant to use the word "HOT". The temps were in the high 80's. We haven't turned on our a/c yet, but I really gave it some serious thought yesterday!! It's really cool downstairs in our basement, but the only one who wants to play down here is Wyatt! Blaine & Abby want to be out in the H-E-A-T!!

Dh didn't have to work today (Good Friday) and silly me, I thought he'd stay home today and be with us, but he didn't. He went to the farm instead, he came home for 45 minutes at lunch and it's now 7:50pm and he's still not home. I try not to complain to loud about this, because I know he's working to help support us. But it also makes me angry because he wouldn't have to work at the farm if he would just budget more. He is such a spender!! But like I said..I try not to complain to much to him about it, so you poor folks are going to have to hear me complain.

The kids have been fighting like crazy all day today. Abby is intentionally doing stuff to piss off her brothers and it drives me crazy.

I finished "Balzac..." today and now sneaking in a non-BC book. I got 2 more packages today with BC rings/rays and another ring sitting here on my desk. I'll get to them this month yet, but I need to read a little romance.

Off to go yell at kids again..I don't know what Abby & Blaine are doing upstairs but it's loud..

The heat is on..

WOW was it (and is it) hot outside today!! It's hard to believe that on March 21st we had 17" of snow and today the temps were in the 90's!! Funny how things change in just a few short weeks.

Today the kids & I missed kindergym (again). I've really been debating how I should be dealing with this. I know most of it is my fault because Im not getting out of bed in time to get them out of bed, dressed, fed, etc and still make it to kindergym by 9am. So I emailed some friends of mine and asked what I should do. Should I..

a) forget all morning activities and just let us all sleep in.
b) am I doing more harm then good on letting my kids sleep in. Should I get them on a wake up schedule.

My friend Krista said it best.."ENJOY IT!! because pretty soon you'll be HAVING to get up early". Her boys have to get up by 7:20am (NO LATER) to make the bus on time at 8am. So Im going to let kindergym and any other morning activities slide unless we are wake and ready to go. Im not going to stress about it. Especially this summer because the kids want to be outside until dark and they are so exhausted from the fresh air that getting them up early the next morning really is a struggle.

Well it's 6:30pm, I gotta go find something to make for supper. Will blog more about our busy day today later.

Oh ugh!!

Tonight I was upstairs making supper and B comes up the stairs with his hands covered in red chunks and smelling like a cherry. I knew exactly what had happened. He got a hold of my candle that I keep way up high above my computer desk (obviously moved a chair and climbed on it to get it..with dh sitting not 5' away) and started digging (and I mean DIGGING) into my candle. I came downstairs to see the damage..oh my god..red candle wax all over my computer desk (which was THANKFULLY locked) and all over the wall next to my computer desk. What a fucking mess.

A robin is building a nest behind the backboard on our basketball hoop. Should be a pretty interesting spring/summer watching the little robins. :)

Not much else new today. I had planned on taking the kids to kindergym today and meantime workout on that damn treadmill, but didn't make it there. My sleeping is completely out of wack and has been for the last several months. I need to do something about that, Im sick of laying in bed..wide awake yet at 2am and then trying to function being a parent at 8am. Any sleeping tips are greatly appreciated. I tried Sominex (I think??) for a week, a month ago and it didn't help at all.

04/10/06

It was a wonderfully warm, but extremely windy day here! I was going to the YMCA this afternoon and the field dust was blowing sooo bad I could barely see across the street!! Unreal!! The temps were in the 80's.

DH took the kids for a little ride tonight to go look for turkeys. W came home with a woodtick. A WOODTICK?!!??!? Is it just me or do those blood sucking disease infested things coming out earlier and earlier every year? I remember when I was a kid we never worried about woodticks until June/July.

Saturday

Dh got home from Minnesota yesterday at 1:45pm. He had a good trip, everything considering and is happy to be home. Sounds like he had a nice visit with his family and everything.

Today after lunch he went out to the farm to get the planters ready (YEA..that means we'll be able to ride in the tractor (hopefully) soon!!) and the kids & I went to the park for FOUR HOURS!! We walked there and I had 3 very tired kids when we got home. They got baths and put on their pj's at 6:30pm, silly me...I was thinking that they'd be soo tired after so much fresh air but it's 10:50pm and they are just now asleep. I don't know where they get their energy!!

Im reading "Blackberry Wine" by Joanne Harris and I am loving it! Blackberry Wine came to the park with the kids & I. Im enjoying it so much I wanted to bring it with me, just incase I had 30 seconds to read a couple words..which never happened. We saw one of the kids old schoolmates from earlier this year at the park (he's now in the am class) so the kids had fun playing with him. It's funny that we saw him, because not 10 minutes before we saw Eli, Wyatt was asking about him.

Im off to update my side bar then chat on yahoo messenger for awhile (which I haven't done in forever). If you want my yahoo messenger name, shoot me an email. :)

And next a serious post..

Yesterday at 10am dh's grandmother passed away. It wasn't unexpected, we all knew it was coming and she was definately ready to meet her maker. But that doesn't make it any easier. Today dh left at 5:30 to head to MN for the wake and funeral. The kids & I couldn't go, it was just way to short notice. She passed away yesterday, the wake is today (started an hour ago) and the funeral is tomorrow. Dh will be home this weekend, maybe Saturday or Sunday..depending on what help his parents need to finalize all of grandma's things.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Maniac Monday

What a crazy day! The bus was late picking the kids up for school which just threw my whole afternoon. Well maybe I should start by saying dh came home early for lunch saying his elbow was really hurting, he turned his nose up at the lunch I made. GRR!! Typical male I think??

Anyway the bus was late, had I been smart I would of just told dh to get the kids on the bus when I saw him come home and left then. So the bus was late, I had to be at the dr.'s office in Kearney at 1:00. The bus comes at 12:15 (usally) today it was almost 12:25. Jumped in my car and drove the 45 minutes to Kearney, was 10 minutes late for my appt. The dr came in 20 minutes later (now it's 1:30) didn't even look at my elbow (I have psoriasis..fuckin' yea..) gave me a script and said "come back if it doesn't work" and left. Went to the hell-hole Walmart (again had I been thinking I should of gone to Walgreens) got the script filled (took 25 minutes...it's now 2:05 now). Jumped in the car and flew home.

Kids & I played outside when they got home from school in the beautiful 45° weather, though it was a tad windy. Dh left for his Hunders Education Class (he's teaching) and the kids & I went to the grocery store.

Before we left for the store my mom called and told me one of her co-workers daughter died today..at the young age of 40 from a heart attack. Like David Letterman said tonight "Just because you get through today, doesn't mean you have tomorrow too." Everyday is a gift.

Is there life after "mom"?

Well before I get into that thought provoking question I should update what happened on Wednesday at the boys meeting.

It ended up not being an IEP meeting, because my boys therapist couldn't attend. So we'll be having another meeting in May for the actual IEP. We ended up having a sit down meeting and just going over how the boys have changed this last school year. They've made some great progress! It was decided that the boys (and Abby) will be attending another year of preschool next year..and it sounds like they ALL will be going to the same school they are going now! YEA! I was (and am) sooo happy!!! I still have my fingers crossed, but things did sound pretty promising when I left the meeting on wednesday.

And one more positive note-----WYATT IS POTTY TRAINED!! It all of a sudden clicked for him this week! I am offically DONE with diapers and pull-ups!!

Now on to my title question. Is there life after being mom? Last night I had a dream about a very, very dear online friend of mine that I lost touch with about 4 years ago (right about the time my life started going crazy). I woke up this morning with a heavy burden on my heart and just felt like I needed to share this dream with her. I emailed her, having not spoken to her in years I figured the email would come back as undeliverable..thinking maybe she no longer had internet, maybe switched servers, etc. What a suprise I had when several hours later I got a return email from her. She shared what was going on in her life, how much she has missed me, etc. I sent another email to her telling her what was going on here, how much I also missed her, etc. Then I felt like I had nothing to add. Before I had kids her & I would sit online and chat for hours (and I mean HOURS) and since she lives in Australia and the time difference we'd talk most of the night (morning for her) and 1/2 of the day (night for her) while I was at work. We never ran out of things to talk about. Now I feel like I can't contribute to anything beyond how the kids are.

Im in a few email groups, parenting groups, reading groups and a couple friend to friend groups. I can talk in my parenting & reading groups, but I feel so inadequate in my friend to friend groups.

Why is that? Is there life after being "mom"? How can I get back into the living and become a "friend" again?

Tomorrow is the day!

Actually today is the day since it's 12:30am..I gotta get to bed!!

At 1:30 today I (dh can't come with..grr) am meeting with the rest of the IEP team to discuss my boys school and that BS for this coming fall! All prayers are GREATLY appreciated!!! Im also going to have a fight on my hands to get my dd in the school also.

Look for an update tomorrow. Im off to bed now..

The weather outside is frightful..

boy if that isn't the truth!! The last thing we expected was 17" of snow in a 2 day period on March 20th!! So I think it's safe to say this is the last hurrah of winter snow for us here in Nebraska..at least I hope so. The kids had a great time outside yesterday with daddy blowing snow and almost driving me to the nearest looney bin by driving through snow drifts on the 4-wheeler.

Today the kids & I went outside again. Considering there is sooo much snow it really wasn't to bad outside. Unlike yesterday the wind wasn't blowing. So it was a nice winter day. We stayed outside for about an hour. All our winter gear is in the dryer now and we'll go outside again when dh gets home from work and blows snow again.

I did finish a book during the snow, "The Shop on Blossom Street" and it was fantastic!! Im anxious to get to the sequel "A Good Yarn".

Have to go scream at some kids now, they have been fighting like cats/dogs since we came in the house an hour ago.

Geeze!!

I've only been trying to log into my blog for the last 3 hours. Now Im to damn tired to even blog! I should of just given up several hours ago and read my book instead.

03/16/06

Well this morning I decided to forget Kindergym and my work out because I had way to many other things planned for this afternoon and didn't want the kids to hit meltdown while we were out running errands in the middle of the afternoon. So that's my excuse for not working out today..pretty lame one huh? I'll get back on board tomorrow.

So this afternoon after lunch the kids & I loaded up and went to the big city of Kearney.

The first thing on the agenda was haircuts for all the kids. Like usual, B & A were great and sat there like great kids. W on the other hand..screamed and ended up NOT getting a haircut, I sure hope dh's elbow gets better REAL soon so him & I can cut W's hair. It takes 2 of us to cut his hair, me holding W, dh chopping the heck out of his hair. When it's all said and done, it really does continue to amaze me how good dh is at haircutting. lol

So after the haircuts we went to Wal-mart. Im not a huge wal-mart fan at all, no it's not because "Wal-mart is destroying America" or any of the other BS that I've heard about Wal-mart. I hate it because the place is a damn zoo!! Having to park over a block away from the store (with 3 kids) is hell. Why did I go then? Well I hadn't been there in awhile (for the above reason) and just felt like risking all of our lives walking through a parking lot. WOW was I shocked to see the remodeling going on in there! I must admit, it was really great going today because the place feels like it was literally thrown in the air and everything was in a TOTAL different location then the last time I was there (6-8 months ago). So it felt like we were in a different Wal-mart in a different town. It was a mini-adventure trying to find the things we were looking for and not get ran over by carts.

After Wal-mart, dh called me on the cell and said he had to run to out of town for work for a few hours, so knowing he wasn't going to be home for dinner I took the kids to Burger King. They played, and played and played..and surpised me by even eating almost ALL their food!

Then it was 6pm, we went to the library. Got a couple videos for the kids, some books for the kids and went home.

I got 2 bookring books in the mail today which really puts me in a bind. My CR Im going to also throw into the wild world as a bookring and I was really hoping to finish that before I got any new rings. So Im stuck..do I finish my CR (that Im JUST starting) or put it aside. I suppose I should put it aside and read what I *know* other people are waiting for.

Dh finally called the dr. today about his leaking elbow. He has an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:15 with the surgeon. My guess..they're going to put a drain tube in and restitch it.

Real beautiful day!

And if the weather really does what the weatherman says it's going to do this was the last "nice" day we'll be having for about a week. Nothing but snow for the next 7 days. WOW..didn't we just have spring break last week??

Today I was hoping to just stay home while the kids were in school, but alas..no such luck. I went to Kearney and ran around town, and literally got home 5 minutes before the kids bus pulled into our driveway. I had to make a dr. appointment, went to check out the YMCA in Kearney (they have a great swimming pool that Im going to take my kids to maybe this weekend) and went to a USB and of course..picked up 4 new (to me) books. I came home and had another book waiting for me that I got off of ebay. So it was like Christmas while I surrounded myself with my new books! lol I need to get a bookbox or something together for bookcrossings so I can get some of these books I've already read out of the house. My little drawer under my computer desk is overflowing with books I've read.

Tonight the kids & I went to church, every wednesday (starting tonight) we are watching a video about the book of Matthew. It was wonderful. The kids played downstairs with Grandma Jane while I had 1 hour to watch a movie uninterrupted!

Not much else is new..Dh's elbow (that he had surgery on) is seeping some and I've been bugging him for 3 days now to get his ass back to the surgeon and have it looked at..typical male.."it'll be ok..it's just healing."

**Kim**..I know you're reading this..it's seeping clear liquid mixed with very little red blood from the incision..should I be concerned?? He says it itches like crazy on the inside. It's leaking enough to where he needs to wear a band-aid.

Jen

We've all heard the saying..

"If you don't like the weather in ___________ (insert your state here) then wait a minute." Well today was JUST that! The kids & I went to "Imagine & Learn" at the Y (them to "imagine & learn", me to punish myself with another 30 minutes on the dreaded treadmill). When we left the house it was 9am, and 45°, we got out of the Y at 10am and it was cold and raining. The kids left for school at 12:15 and it was pea size hailing, they got out of school at 3:30 and it was snowing, with snow actually on the ground! At 4:30 it was raining again and the snow was melted. Now it's probably in the upper 30's and calm with a very cloudy sky.

While the kids were at school I ran around town like a mad woman (what else is new?). While gone Mardell (if you don't know who she is yet, you'd better read the last 10 or so posts!!) called and the IEP meeting for the boys is set up for Wedenday the 22nd at 1:30-2:30. Good..another week to get my ducks in a row.

I gotta get my butt to bed now, the kids & I are going to Kindergym tomorrow (well them to Kindergym..me another 30 minutes on that damn treadmill). Im going to TX in July to meet some of my triplet friends, I need to get in shape or at least die trying! I'm down about 5 lbs now since beginning of Feb. WOO HOO!!

Nothing to do with school!

I thought it would be fun to blog one entry that didn't have anything to do with school issues! :)

The last several days have been sooo nice here! Unbelieveable nice with temps in the 60'70's and the kids & I have been taking full advantage of this nice weather! The last several days we've gone to the park, played outside and even went for ice cream and ate it outside (in March!!). Tomorrow the forcast is rain, which will be nice because we need it soo bad.

Dh had surgery on both his arms last week (did I mention that?). He had golfers elbow in his right elbow, and tennis elbow in his left elbow. And he doesn't even play these sports?! Anyone who knows my husband is probably dieing from laughing reading this, just thinking of him..in shorts! And on either a golf green, or the tennis court! My hubby is much more comfortable in camo hiding in the woods. :) So he's still mending. His right elbow is pretty much back to normal, but his left one he still wears in a sling. He goes for his post-op appointment on Thursday. And hopefully starts therapy for his left elbow.

Wyatt was suppose to have his post-op appointment today for his adenoid/tube surgery, but it was cancelled, so I have to re-schedule that sometime in the future. Oh great another thing to TRY to remember to do.

I finished an AWESOME book! "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke. I highly recommend this book to ANY book lover! It was bigger then books I normal tend to gravitate to, but I didn't give the size of the book another thought once I read the first page. AWESOME and probably will be the best book for me this year!!

Im starting "SAHM I Am" by Meredith Efken tonight. I think this is going to be a quick read for me, it's all in email format with a subject matter I can totally relate to. :)

03/06

And today Mardell called me to set up the IEP meeting and she's STILL saying that the boys won't beable to attend preschool. She said "We want to have this IEP meeting soon so we can decide what school you'll be sending the boys too so they can continue to receive service."

THIS WOMAN IS PISSING ME OFF!! She obviously thinks Im stupid and seems to think that she can pull this shit!! I still have a strong feeling that this will work in OUR favor, not HERS! Im still clueless on what is going to happen to Abby. I went to the preschool today and talked to 1 of the teachers there and asked her if she thought the boys would backslide if Abby was removed from their classroom next year. She said "I think it would benefit the boys." I said "That's not what I wanted to hear." She said "I understand your concern, and I totally see your point, but Abby does mother the boys quite a bit and that may hinder them from achieving more." {{SIGH}}

So the IEP meeting is next week, either Wednesday or Thursday. That gives me 1 week to get all my concerns regarding removing Abby from the classroom together. And it gives me 1 week to get in touch with all the other IEP members and get a feel of what they think regarding both the boys and Abby..I don't want there to be any suprises. Im doing my homework and miss my "bookmates" terribly!! I hope all of you are doing good!!

03/02

Again this should of been posted last week.

On Thursday (?) I got another call from Jan Thelen (NE Dept. of Ed
for special services) and she told me after 10 phone calls she
finally got Mardell on the phone! She said to me "I don't know if
Mardell mis-understood the regulations or what, but I have gone over
everything with her again and Im sending you the information that I
went over with Mardell. So both of you will have the same paperwork
and hopefully there will be no more questions regarding this." Jan
told me that the school district CAN NOT dictate where a child who
has an IEP goes, it's the IEP team to decide if kids with an IEP go
on to kindergarten, or if another year of preschool would benefit
the children. Jan told me that she told Mardell that the IEP team
COULD NOT wait until May to meet and Jan told me that Mardell
said "You can call Jennifer and tell her I'll be calling her early
next week and setting up an IEP meeting then." Jan said if there is
anymore problems or questions I can call her. I told her
how "thankful I was for her and how happy I was that I contacted
her". She said "you're welcome and yes I am VERY happy you
contacted me also, I don't know where Mardell got that
information." I *think* Troy & I might have a bad name with Mardell
now, since we went over her head, but personally I don't give a
crap.

It makes me totally angry that someone who is on an IEP team
(Mardell) doesn't know the regulations!! Troy & I are left
wondering how many other kids she pushed like this, when she
shouldn't of!!

So I really think that the boys situation is behind us. Everyone on
the IEP team (minus Mardell) agrees that the boys would benefit from
another year of preschool. Now we just have Abby to deal with. I
don't want to enroll her in another school, but I don't know how
much of a chance we have to get her in the boys school. Keep your
fingers crossed for us!!

02/28/06

WOW it's been a crazy last couple of days. My kids all got a nasty cold last week, last weekend the kids & I met my mom in Omaha, NE for a fun filled kid weekend. We had soo much fun! Despite the kids still feeling kinda icky they had a blast, we went to the Omaha zoo, went to Chuck E. Cheese 3x and went swimming everyday at the
hotel. Yesterday (Monday) Troy had surgery on both his elbows. So he's been pretty out of it regarding parenting help. It was only an in/out surgery and he should be back to normal soon.

Now on to the school update. Last week I emailed Nebraska Department of Education Special Services and I got a very interesting phone call yesterday afternoon from a woman named Jan Thelen. She said that she had also gotten an email from Staci (boys
therapist and teacher) and she (Jan) called Mardell (the woman who Im starting to really hate) and left her a message to call her and also emailed Staci and she was waiting for a phone call from her also. Staci has really started to become not only my boys therapist but our advocate. She is really pulling for my kids to attend another year of preschool. On to the interesting news..Mardell has been telling me this whole time that it was the "state law" that kids who are 5 before 10/15
can not attend public preschool. I found out from Jan that it's NOT a state law..it's a state regulation. Jan said that unless our school district made their own law saying this (which Staci told me today is NOT the case). Jan also said unless there is a waiting list to join the school (which Staci told me today is also NOT the case) there is no reason why the boys can't attend another year of
preschool. Jan said the as long as the IEP team agrees that another year of preschool would benefit the boys then they can go (Mardell is the ONLY one on our team who does not agree with this). Why is Mardell doing this??? Because IF my boys attend preschool next year the state may/may not provide funding for the boys. Jan said there are ways to get around this, especially if the IEP team agrees the
boys need another year, but it's not a guarantee that the state will provide funding to the school. Jan said she was going to talk to her colleagues about funding after talking to Mardell & Staci and get back to me. Mardell also told me that the IEP team is scheduled to meet in May and Troy & I had until then to make up my mind
regarding which private preschool all 3 of my kids will be attending (she told me this last Wednesday). Jan asked when the IEP team was meeting to discuss this, I told her "May". She said "Oh NOOOO..that's wayyy to long. I will be talking to Mardell about that."

Abby on the other hand is pretty much SOL. Since she did not qualify for services, she will be 5 by 10/15, Jan pretty much told me that she didn't see how Abby could qualify to attend a public preschool. So it's a definate possibility that we will be enrolling her in another school next fall. Unless we can find a way to prove
that the boys need Abby at their school to strive.

So we continue to wait and pray. I have a good feeling though that this will work out in our favor.

02/20-More school crap

Thanks so much everyone for your support regarding our school problem. Things just keep getting worse. I *thought* I had our preschool situation straighted out. I talked to the ESU (Educational Service Unit) here in town, they have a preschool that is NOT connected to the school district and their prices were reasonable ($50.00 per month, per child for 4 days per week, 3 hours a day). BUT..this afternoon I got a call from Staci (thearapist & teacher now) and she told me some pretty bad things about that school (I don't know how she heard I had contacted them). So now Im clueless again. Staci wasn't just saying that because it's another school, she is 100% behind me and agrees that our kids should not be going to kindergarden, she told it to me friend to friend. Mardell (the woman who broke the news to me about the kids having to go to kindergarden..and she is 100% FOR this idea..so her & I are not seeing eye to eye) is suppose to call me any minute. I don't know what she's going to tell me, but Stacie told me to expect her phone call around 3pm, it's 3:05 now. I asked Stacie how many kids this BS is affecting and she said only your kids. GRR!! Troy & I are seriously considering NO school this coming year. Heaven help me if that happens, I've enjoyed my 2 day a week little break. I've been going out to the YMCA and working out and running errands..it's been nice, but if I need to give that up so be it.

02/19

This weekend was pretty low key, considering what we have been dealing with I welcomed it! On friday night Blaine started coughing and complaining of a headache. I didn't really give it much thought, but it seems to have gotten worse, especially the coughing and kept me up almost all night last night. So tonight I took him the ER..I know, I know..it definately didn't require an ER visit, but with our upcoming trip this week to see my mom the LAST thing I wanted was having to cancel because of sick kids, so I thought I'd better take Blaine in, get him on some meds if needed and keep an eye on the other 2 kids if it was indeed something that would make us cancel our trip.

So Blaine & I bundled up at 7pm (when dh got home from work) and headed to the ER. This is our 2nd trip there within the last year. It turned out to be pretty much nothing. The dr. said it *could* be the beginning of something, so he put him on antibotics just incase and gave him some cough meds with codine..ahh..he's been cough free since 8pm. He was literally coughing from the moment we walked into the ER until we left..non-stop!!

02/17/06

Got some figures from private preschools in the area..holy shit it is preschool robbery!!

Option 1-$15.00 registration + $75.00 per child, per month for 2 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day.
Option 2-$15.00 registration + $70.00 per child, per month for 2 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day.

Still waiting for 2 other options.

Right now we pay $37.50 (for only Abby, boys are free) a month, 2 days a week, 3 hours a day and that includes busing! The other schools don't provide that.

02/16/06

My kids preschool teacher (also my boys therapist) called me this am and told me to NOT put my kids in kindergarden, even 1/2 days this fall. She said it's to stressful for the kids. She said she's trying to set up a meeting with the teachers in our district to talk about this situation. She told me the kindergarden teachers are in an uproar because of this, having little 4 year olds coming to kindergarden who are obviously not ready.

So now I don't know what we're going to do. For my own benefit I started contacting the private preschools in town today to get some $$ figures.

She also told me today that she can't legally tell me (from a teachers point of view) if my kids are ready to go to kindergarden or not. She said it's out of her control and since their b-day is before the cut off date there is nothing she can do to say if they are ready or not. I guess they just HAVE to be ready. They are not allowing any school age kids (turn 5 before 10/15) to attend the preschool. She told me friend to friend, not to send them to K this fall. So I got the impression that was her suttle way of telling me from a teachers point of view not to send them.

We do still have an IEP and I asked early childhood today about them funding preschool for the boys, and I was told "We will not fund private preschool, but will provide the necessary aids for your boys if needed." I was also told if we (Troy & I) were not happy with this, then we may have to get an adovate involved, but she quickly said "no one has ever done that before." and I said "and I hope we're not the first, because I don't feel what Im requesting is unreasonable." The more I think about putting them in K this fall (even for 1/2 days) the more I don't like it. My kids will constantly be behind the class and suffering to keep up because they will only be there for 1/2 days.

I will try to contact the school district tomorrow and ask them if they'll pay for the boys preschool, but Im sure that'll be a no since they are offering school, even though it's kindergarden.

Troy & I are now wondering if we should just say screw it to school completely next fall??

School districts suck!! 02/15/06

This should of been posted on 02/15

The school called today with very upsetting news. They have changed the requirements for school and the new cut off date for kindergarden is Oct. 15th (it was Oct. 1st), so we no longer qualify for public preschool, and we made the cut off..by 6 days. GRR!! Now it looks like we're going to have a little battle on our hands with the school. There is no way my kids are ready for all day, everyday kindergarden. And it just cringes my stomach to think if they do go to all day everyday kindergarden this fall that they'll be going to 1st grade in 2007 at the age of...5!!! Rather then retype everything Im going to copy/paste an email I just sent to another online friend of mine who is in the same situation with her school. Her triplets are also 4 and the school wants to send them to all day everyday kindergarden too..with 1st grade in 2007. Here's the email I typed to her..

____________________________________________________________________

The woman who called me today to tell me this *wonderful* news (hahaha..she actually thought I'd be pleased!!) told me "I think you're underestimating your kids." I said "You know what..you could be right..but there is still no way Im going to send my 5 year olds to first grade in 2007 if they go all day everyday kindergarden this fall." She then recommended to me that I go to the kindergarden class and observe the class then decide (if we should go all day) next school year. Regardless my kids WILL be going 1/2 day this fall, all day everyday next fall. They're only in school 2 days a week now, (3 hours per day). Wyatt especially will never, ever, ever in a million years no matter what happens in the next 6 months beable to handle going from 2 days a week (3 hours a day) to 5 days a week (7 hours a day). She said "I think you'll be suprised with how close acedmically (sp?) your kids are from the kindergardners". Then she said something that really raised my eyebrows..."We only have 238 kids between k-12, so it isn't like your son (Wyatt) wouldn't have the extra attention to help him." Sooo..to me that statement said "We need to get as many kids as we can in kindergarden to meet a quota." Im not pushing my kids just so the school district can get the funding they need if that is indeed the case.

The woman today also told me that I could move my kids from 1/2 day kindergarden to full day anytime next school year. There is no way, even if my kids do show readiness, that Im doing that. I don't want the school to have any leverage of being able to say my kids are ready for 1st grade in 2007. We had this same option this school year for preschool, we were told (by the same woman) that we could move our kids from 2 days to 4 days (1/2 days) anytime during the school year, but both Troy & I decided to just keep them at 2 days and next year we'd move them to 4 days. I am sooooooooo glad we decided to do that, because if we would have moved them to 4, I don't think we'd have an option for this coming school year. They'd go in all day everyday kindergarden.

She also said we could put them in all day everyday kindergarden next school year, and just repeat kindergarden next year. Nope, we're not going to do that either, 1/2 day next school year, all day everyday in 2007. I've got my feet dug in and Im not movin'.

Nebraska the cut off is Oct. 15, and they start school middle of August. Crazy..simply crazy IMHO.

I sleep at Red Lights

I have been searching online for a decent price for this book and finally got it FOR FREE from paperbackswap.com. I picked it up today waiting for the kids to get home from school and started laughing immediately! I can't wait to get done with my CR and my upcoming book (that's a ring) and read it!! I know it's going to be a very quick read for me!!

Kids had their preschool Valentines day party today. They came home full of sugar and wound up tighter then a drum!!

W surgery day

A quick post then Im off to take a shower and get my butt to bed!!

Today Wyatt has tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed. The
surgery went really well, no suprises. But him waking up was a
different story. He went in at 7:30am, and I didn't see him again
until almost 11:30, surgery was only 30 minutes. Even after I saw
him he was still sleeping and still on oxygen. Then after he
finally started waking up enough to comprend what was going on, he
couldn't keep anything down. We tried everything, and everything
kept coming right back up. What a extremely tiring day. He finally
went 20 minutes w/o throwing up and I literally signed the release
papers and ran out of there with him, he did throw up 2x when he got
home, but was obviously more comfortable (both of us were) with
dealing it at home. He's fine now, hasn't thrown up in over 4 hours
and is sleeping.

Originally I figured I'd be home no later then noon, instead it was
almost 4:30pm. Sitting in a hospital from 6am-4pm was horrible!!
For what was suppose to be a simple in/out procedure.

While at the hospital I did finish "When Joy Came to Stay". Im going to start "The First Mistake" by Merline Lovelace in bed.

Snow/upcoming vacation/blah, blah, blah

Yesterday late afternoon it started to snow, big pretty flakes coming down. The kids went crazy and demanded to go outside at 5pm, so out they went. This morning they saw all the snow (less then 1", it'll be gone this afternoon and leave behind a muddy mess)and once again they all 3 demanded to go outside, so all 3 kids were outside by 8am this morning and played until 9:30ish. Nice little morning break, I got my grocery list done, made the beds, put away the clothes.

Last night I was up wayyy to late getting driving directions for our upcoming vacation. The kids & I are going to meet my mom in Omaha end of the month for a fun-filled kids weekend. Im kinda sick of always going to the same places, so I got some directions to some new places, the Children's Museum, Aquarium and another museum. Who knows if we'll actually go there, but at least it'll be a couple more options. Weather permitting I really want to go to the zoo this time, this is the last year the kids will get in for free.

I did get a couple more chapters of "When Joy Came to Stay" read last night. Im well over 1/2 way now. Im still enjoying it, but the plot is starting to drag some.

Let's see..what else. The kids have school today, so I'll be going to the Y to work out. I'm sure I'll just walk on the treadmill again. Jane might be there so hopefully the time will go by fast while we chat. I wish I could think of a way to beable to read while I walk (lol..kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone..lol), but when I was there last week I couldn't think of how I could do it. They do have a TV there, but don't get a lot of channels, most of them are FOX news, CNN, MSNBC, etc.

Gotta go take a shower and give the kids a bath before preschool, Im cutting it close it's almost 10:30 already! And I gotta get lunch going. YIKES! Where did the morning go??!!??!!

I hate dr's!!

W has his adenoids & tubes surgery on Tuesday. I was on the phone non-stop from 9:30am-noon on friday with the hospital, dr.'s, insurance, hospital, dr., insurance, dr. insurance. In that order. He had his pre-op on friday, got a clean bill of health, and we toured the surgery center.

T also had a dr. appointment on friday for his elbow, he has tennis elbow in one elbow, golfers elbow in the other one. And he doesn't even play these sports!!

Yesterday Jane, Visa (foreign exchange student from Germany), kids & I went to K. Got the adaptor for the kids v-smile (Walmart), picked up swimming trunks for the boys (Old Navy), went to Goodwill and bought 4 new (to me) books.

Today is the Superbowl. T is working at the farm now, and going to come home probably soon. I'll make homemade pizza burgers tonight.

Im still reading "When Joy Came to Stay". I finally got over 1/2 way last night. It's a good book. I was hoping to get it done by this weekend, but that isn't going to happen..unless I have about 3-4 hours of uninterrupted reading time today (haha).

Kindergym

Today I took the kids to kindergym. It started at 9am which is very early for us to be up and about. Had A up at 7:30am (the boys were already up at 6am like usual). They LOVED it! No I take that back they LOOOOOOOOVED IT!! They had soo much fun. The instructor Jeff was wonderful with the kids and considering there were 12 kids in the class and only 1 minor fall with a crying spell (and it wasn't one of my kids) that was fantastic IMHO! lol I didn't bring the kids up to the play area, Im not sure if I ever will. I know once they see all the toys and videos up there I'll never get them out. :)

Now that I know they love it, I'll beable to work out Mon-Thurs. Today I didn't bring any work out clothes with me, because I wasn't sure how W would do. He had sooo much fun and was laughing and playing the whole time. That put a BIG grin on this momma's face!! :))

I don't know what we're going to do with the rest of our day, it's kinda chilly outside now but hopefully it'll warm up and we can go outside or something.

I started my CR read yesterday "When Joy Came to Stay" and I know Im going to really enjoy this book. Im on chapter 3 and it's really good so far.

Today's the first day of the rest of my life.

Today our YMCA membership went into affect. I went there today after the kids left for school and got my card, and walked the treadmill for 20 minutes (1 mile). I feel fantastic!! I remember now how good this felt last year when I was working out at home! The guy behind me (late 50's) was practically running on his treadmill..I could hear that ol' flywheel just a spinning. I didn't let it bother me, I just kept the speed at 3.5 (not sure if that's mph or what) and did a mile in just under 20 minutes. Good for a first day. Tomorrow the kids & I are going again, they have kindergym at 9am..heaven help us that I can get them all up, fed & dressed by then. I know B & A will love it.

The worst way to wake up..

Dh wakes me up Monday morning and says "Abby peed our bed." Shocked and disoriented I said "Huh?" He said "Abby just peed all over me." I don't even want to try to explain our sleeping arrangements, so just know that I wasn't in the bed.

Sure enough..4:30am, I walk into our bedroom (well dh's bedroom lately) and there is pee..all over! Now what to do? Do you wake up a sleeping child at 4:30am, change sheets, etc and risk her not going back to sleep? It's 4:30 for crying out loud!! NOOO..you don't.

She's been day/night trained since August, I don't know why this backsliding happened, but it happened again this morning.

Thunderstorm in January??

I wanted to post about this yesterday, but didn't get a chance.

Friday night we had the most bizarre thunderstorm I have ever heard!! The thunder was so loud, and so close to the ground that our house was literally shaking. And you could actually feel the thunder start at one end of our house and move through the house as it was rattling above us. The lightening was also soo close. When we woke up Saturday morning it was soo foggy, it was like we were living in the clouds.

The kids slept right through the storm. I woke up a couple times and ended up having to move to the boys room with Buck, because he was freaking out.

Yesterday we didn't do much, Troy had to work at the farm so the kids & I stayed home. It was damp and icky with threat of rain all day. The kids went outside to play later in the afternoon and got full of mud. They loved it.

Im reading "A Million Little Pieces". Im almost 1/2 way through. I will finish this book, it is really good. I've been speed reading the stuff that I know is false (what Frey has already admitted is false) and reading the rest of the book as it's a fiction.

Today the kids & I might go to K, maybe go to BK for lunch and go play at the library or something. Maybe head up to GW, see what they have there. I don't know..I need to get groceries today, but I'll do that after they go to bed tonight so I don't have to do it tomorrow while they are at school.

Booooring day!!

The kids & I didn't do much of anything today. It was a really good day for me, PMS must be letting up! The kids & I played lots of games and played.

Really isn't much else to update on. I haven't heard yet from the other review places, but I have my fingers crossed. If they don't accept me..oh well..it's not like I don't have craploads of other books to read. :)

Im starting "A Million Little Pieces" tonight. Im going to read it as a fiction book. Im hoping I can get through it though, there is no paragraph margins and no puncuation marks and the typing is super small. Im kinda an orgainzied freak and catch misspellings in books and it drives me crazy. I hope I can get through it, I've heard it's a great book, regardless of the fact that it's a bunch of lies.

Hoping to do some more book reviews!

I've been reviewing books for Harper Collins, first look program for almost a year and to an extent I have enjoyed it. I enjoy it when I actually get choosen to review for them. But it frustrates me to no end when I spend over 20 minutes every month going through the 10-15 books they have to offer to review, decide which ones I really want to review, submit my request to review those books and then I wait..and wait..and low and behold I don't get choosen, and I hear people in reading groups Im in say "I got 3 books from first look this month to review"! That only makes me say "WTF??". Like I said I've been reviewing for them for almost a year and I've been choosen for 3 books..one of them I KNOW I didn't sign up for. What I dislike about Harper Collins is they've taken reviewing books and turned it into a lottery. Like it should be an *honor* to review a book for them, when *THEY* should be honored to have people offering to do just that..and not pay them mind you. So I've decided to try a couple new review companies. I hope I get choosen for one (or both) of them. bookloons.com and curledup.com. I know there are so many more review companies out there and if you know of any good ones, let me know. :) It's not like I want a free book..I review books because I think my opinion matters, and I think I do a darn good job reviewing. I don't like/not like a book because the majority of the population likes/doesn't like it. I form my own opinions and don't really give a crap what the majority says. Just ask me about "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. Lord knows Im probably 1 out of 100 that didn't like that book..no I take that back..it was HORRIBLE and I honestly can't even think about that book w/o my heart rate going up and that horrible taste of stomach bile creeping up my throat. So on to another subject. In closing this subject I'll say..I hope I get picked. These 2 review companies (from what I understand) don't run like first look, you can pick which books you want to review, or they pick for you. Which Im ok with. As long as every once inawhile I get picked and I feel like they WANT my opinion. Ok on to something else.

Today it was sooo windy outside, but the temps were in the 50's so the kids & I attempted to be outside as much as we could. We would go out for 30 minutes, come in and get the feeling back in our hands for 15 minutes, then head back outside. They had so much fun, even considering at any moment their little feet might leave the ground! lol Me on the other hand..man was I a B*tch today. I don't know what my problem is. Maybe it's PMS. I was literally hanging by a thread all day today and was sooo jumpy and unreasonable. I really think 99% of my problem is my body is all out of wack regarding sleeping. I called the YMCA (we sent our check and paperwork in earlier this week) today and asked when our membership takes affect, they said Feb. 1st, I hope working out will get me back on track. I have started taking vitamins in hopes that that helps. It's just not right that a very, very busy SAHM stays up until 1-2am, and then tries to function all day with 3 active 4 year olds. It's not that I don't try to sleep, it really isn't. Almost every night I lay in bed and toss, and turn, read, then toss, and turn, read some more and finally just say "Screw it..I'll get up then."

Ok this is a long enough post. Wish me luck on my potential review thingies..

WOW it's been awhile again!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted. Doesn't seem like it's been almost a month, but the blog doesn't lie!!

Today Abby came home from school, promptly pulled out 2 pieces of artwork she made at school. She said "Look mom..this is for dad." Black piece of construction paper, with white tissue paper glued to it and not 1, not 2, but 10 stickers on it! And "Daddy" (not written by her) on top. Then she said "Look mom..this one is yours." Black construction paper with purple tissue paper glued to it. With "Jennifer" written on it and not a single sticker. Now why is T "Daddy" and Im "Jennifer"? ROFL! Can you tell she's a "daddy's girl"??

Yesterday the kids rode their bikes to the library, while I literally ran behind. They had so much fun, the weather was great, even though it was a bit breezy.

My memory doesn't go back any farther then the last 2 days. But Im sure we've been busy playing and doing as much as we can while the weather holds out. I do remember one day it was 65+° and we went to the park, about 20 other kids there. The kids had a blast. We rode our bikes that day too.

I have hopes that Wyatt will catch on to potty-training before I die. One can dream right?? We got a progress report from school for him last week, and Im happy to say that he's accomplished all the goals we had for him this year! YEA WYATT!!!

Yesterday the family signed up to join the YMCA. Im sooo excited about this! I plan on working out while the kids are at school, getting them enrolled in some activites and taking advantage of the child care there..giving me time to work out again. God help me..Im either going to loose weight this year, or die trying. No more excuses!!!

While I've been away from my little blog I have been reading up a storm. I have 9 books done so far this year! WOO HOO! Im crossing everything that I'll actually hit my 52 goal for b-a-w. Here's what I finished:

"Three Weeks with My Brother" by Nicholas & Micah Sparks (non-fiction)
"Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas" by James Patterson (fiction)
"The Father Factor" by Lilian Darcy (romance)
"The Bachelor" by Carly Philips (romance..book 1 of series)
"The Perfect Husband" by Lisa Gardner (thriller/suspense)
"Mom to Mom" by Elisa Morgan (self-help/parenting)
"Patty Jane's House of Curl" by Lorna Landvik (fiction)
"The Woman Next Door" by Barbara Delinsky (fiction)
"Goodnight Nobody" by Jennifer Weiner (Mystery)

Great reading month so far!!

Low-down on our trip

I don't know how much time I have before the kids notice Im sitting here so I'll try to get down as much of our trip as I can. I guess it would be easiest (so I can go back and re-read it later) if I just break out trip down day by day.

12/22-We left our house around 10:30am. We stopped in Omaha at Chuck E. Cheese at 1:30 and stayed until 4pm. We ended up spending the night in LeMars, IA ending our drive around 6pm.

12/23-We arrived at my in-laws around noon. Unloaded our crap and went to my moms house around 5pm for her b-day. Mike & the kids were there. I have no clue what time we left my moms house, must of been around 9pm. The kids fell asleep on the way to the in-laws.

12/24-We had nothing planned for this day. Next year we're going to celebrate OUR (dh, me & kids) christmas this day. In-laws bought some toys for the kids to open on Christmas eve day. Dh's brother & his girlfriend came out for awhile. The kids & I played in the snow and made a snowman. MIL & I were up wayyyyyyy to late preparing for the Christmas feast.

12/25-Christmas at the in-laws. Everyone was there but one BIL and his wife and 1 nephew. Had a GREAT time! I laughed soooo hard while doing dishes with 2 of my SILs. Bobbi & Becky..I love ya!! Again up wayy to late cleaning up from Christmas feast.

12/26-Christmas at my moms. Mike & Brandi came w/o the kids (they had something going on with Julie). My aunt Lynette, aunt Sharon and Jodi (Sharon's friend) were there. My grandmother didn't come because she said "we just have to much to do tomorrow, we have to go to the bank and post office." I got a nice bag of apples from my grandmother (how inconsiderate!!!!). My brother said everyone else got nice gifts (they celebrated with my grandmother on the 24th, and Troy & I were not invited because my grandmother does not like kids).

12/27-Went to my moms in the afternoon. Dh stayed w/ his parents for the afternoon. Mom & I went to McD with Breezy & Devin and met Julie there. It was great to see her. Bobbi Jo came out later with Steph & Jessie to the in-laws. Kids had a blast.

12/28-Went to playworks with my mom, Brianna & Devin (and my kids of course). Stayed there from 11:00-7pm. Kids & I were bushed!!! Dh went to Cabelas with one of his brothers and his dad.

12/29-Went to McD again to meet my dad and my grandparents. Devin, Mike & Brandi came also. Brianna had something else going on. It was great to see my dad & grandparents.

12/30-Snowed all night. Kids & I went outside to play in the snow. Didn't go anywhere.

12/31-Spent the day running around like crazy. Went to Rick & Joy's to drop off their x-mas card. They were both sick so we didn't bring the kids in. Went to Shawn & Becky's. Stayed for a few hours, the kids had BLAST together. Becky & I laughed together. Went to my moms house, but she wasn't home. Bobbi & the girls came out to in-laws and stayed to watch the ball drop.

01/01-Started coming home. We left my moms at 10:30am and called it at day in Lincoln at 5pm. We went to Chuck E. Cheese in Lincoln (won't go there again..the pizza was horrible). Stayed at the "Settle Inn" (won't go there again either, they wouldn't let us have a suite because apparently they don't allow kids in the suite rooms..bastards!!).

01/02-Got home at noon.

Today Troy went to the dr. for his sinus cold, got a shot in the butt and some penecillion (sp?). He went to get our mail (OMG..needed a dump truck!!) and went to pick up the dogs. Buck got a scratch on his eye somehow and is now on eye drops..oh yea. Troy is out hunting now, he goes back to work tomorrow am.

Today the kids & I didn't do anything. It's back to our boring ol' life. :(

Back from vacation!

We got home at noon today. We had a wonderful time!! I have lots of laundry to do and I want to sit and relax before going to bed so I'll post more about our trip later.

Bottom line is..we had a great time! Kids got spoiled rotton and didn't want to leave, neither did I.. :(

Off to MN we go..

We're leaving in about 7 hours for Minnesota. I just got done licking over 60 Christmas cards. Can you see my tongue hanging out dryer then a desert??

I got the checkbook balanced, the kids & I are packed (dh isn't packed yet..he can do that tomorrow morning himself..he went to bed at 8:30pm tonight complaining of a new body ache (lol) ). No ER visit this time, unlike our previous trip to Minnesota last May. Hard to believe that's the last time we were there was in May. This year seemed to have flown by and Im left wondering what has happened. So since this will be my last post of 2005 let me do some reflecting..

There's been a lot of changes this year. The kids moved to big kid beds. They turned 4 and started preschool. We had a lot of fun this summer going to the swimming pool and parks. They rode their bikes alot. They figured out how to run their battery operated cars. They moved out of "carseats" and into booster seats making our life soo much easier. I can comfortable take them anywhere and for the most part they are fairly well behaved.

Wyatt-finally started coming out of his shell (preschool has helped sooo much). He stopped peeing on my floor and is starting to get the hang of peeing in the potty! THANK GOD!! He's starting to talk to adults instead of shying away and running.

Blaine-had surgery to remove his adenoids and is breathing out of his nose for the first time in his life! NO MORE SNORING!! YEA!! He's getting the hang of potty training. Talking sooo much more and turning into a regular PITA tattle-tale, more times then not making up stuff to tattle about.

Abby-completely potty trained. Talks up a total storm. Is a huge mothers helper. Still doesn't like sleeping alone (we'll work on that next year..maybe..personally I love laying with her, she's quiet when she sleeps! lol)

Dh-got a job in Minnesota and lost it within 2 weeks. UGH! Still working at the farm and at BD. Went hunting a lot this year. Spent lots of quality time with the kids in the tractor this years harvest. Enjoyed 4 days of just the kids & him while I was in NYC.

Me-Went on my first vacation ALONE to NYC and had a fantastic time. I've enjoyed the past year with the kids at this age. They are such a joy to spend time with, but still require more work then humanly possible sometimes. Read a lot of great books. Enjoying my 2 day afternoon breaks while the kids are at preschool.

Best books I read in 2005-"Autobiography of a Face", "Gentlemen & Players", "Aprons on a Clothesline"

Worst book I read in 2005-"Truth & Beauty"

Kids school program

So tonight was the kids preschool program. Stacie told me right before the program how good all the kids had done on practice today and she was really hoping that they'd do even half as good as they did today. HA!!

I started tearing up when I saw Blaine come out, put a sticker on the snowman and walk to his spot, then came Abby (more tears) and a few kids later out walks Wyatt. The first song went so well. The kids had little snowflakes on their hands and heads and were singing. After the song I saw Blaine's bottom lip come out and I knew trouble was brewin' in his little mind. He started crying "Mommy..where are you?" I waved, but that didn't help. Then he started saying "Mommay..I want to go to bed." Please keep in mind Blaine asks to go to bed around 6:30, if we're lucky we can hold him off until 7:30, it was now 7:10pm. Then he started crying "I want to go to daddy's bed." Well..needless to say Stacie took Blaine off the stage and he came running to me, which in turn brought Wyatt & Abby down. Im not sure what happened after that (because Blaine was crying pretty hard so I left the gym), but I was told that Abby did go back on stage to finish the program and Wyatt spent the rest of the program on Troy's lap, while he (Troy) continued to *try* (key word here folks) to video tape the rest of the program. Apparently Troy gave Wyatt my camera to occupy him, I got back to my chair after the program and I had no film left in my camera. :) It should be another interesting roll of film when I get it developed. lol

The kids opened up their christmas presents tonight from Troy & I. Santa's presents will be coming after we get home from Minnesota (I THINK). Troy mentioned that Santa may come tomorrow night instead..we'll see. They seem to love the presents they got. Abby's fav is the doll and stroller (of course). Wyatt loves his fireman that crawls on the ground. And Blaine loves his navy guy that crawls on the ground.

Well it's time to *try* (again key word here) to carry Wyatt upstairs and put him to bed. That kid is seriously getting wayyy to heavy to lug up stairs. He has to be pushing 50 lbs pretty hard. Then Im going to read some.

Oh what to do!!

Today I took the kids to church. Im trying to get Wyatt use to church (this is a 4 year battle so far). He really has problems sitting in church with so many other people around him. Thankfully we go to a small country church so me having to get up 50x during the service isn't a big deal, everyone there knows what we're dealing with regarding Wyatt.

There is 1 little girl there named Allie. I'd guess she's around 10 years old. Today Wyatt was having a real difficult day in church so him & I spent 99% of the service sitting on the steps. Allie kept following me & Wyatt out and saying "What's wrong with him??" I should add that Allie was at church alone today (very very very common because her family lives directly across the street from church..her family just sends her out the door about 5 minutes before church starts and Allie walks home when it's over. She sits with whoever she chooses and whoever wants to keep an eye on her. Today she sat directly behind us with no one really watching her. Again it's really no big deal because our church only has about 10 families..tops).

I came home from church and called my friend whos son has Autism and get some ideas from her on how to deal with Allie and her endless questions. I feel armed to deal with her tonight at the church Christmas program. If her mom is there also, Im planning on approaching her and hopefully she'll be able to help me (if she even cares) answer Allie's endless questions regarding Wyatt's behavior. Wyatt was soo good in church all things considered. Blaine & Abby were good as gold. They both sat great with my friend Jane and listened. :)

Felt like a bloggin'

Im waiting for DH to come home from deer hunting and have a couple minutes before the timer for supper goes off.

Yesterday I took the kids to the library, I made a HUGE mistake by going wayy to late for Blaine. Lately he's been asking to go to bed around 6:30 and at 7pm last night we were at the local library. He ran away from the children's section and was kindly brought back by one of the librarians. I put him in timeout for running away, he was laying on the floor whining he jumped up to quickly and hit his head on an electrical box (the boxes at the library stick out about 3-4". Next thing I heard him SCREAMING and I went running to him and blood was pouring out of his head. The librarian literally FREAKED OUT asking if she needed to call the unit. I was completely calm (totally my nature) and said "No..just get me the key to the bathroom." She was totally freaked out, shaking, got the key and opened up the door while I held Blaine's head with blood running down my arm. I got him cleaned up and found a little microscopic cut (about 1/16" of an inch). It quit bleeding after 2 minutes and Blaine quit screaming after 3 minutes. I had to sign paperwork with the library regarding the accident. The librarian called this morning to find out how Blaine was and I assured her he was totally fine.

You never know what will happen with my kids.

Quick, Quick, Quick!!!!

This does not happen often!! Dh took all 3 kids for a car ride and said he'd be back in about 2 hours! 3 things I want to get done, laundry, dishes and take a shower...that is after I update my blog with the new book Im reading..and of course check emails for just 1 minute (ROFL).

Sick as a dog

I've got such a bad head cold. I am literally plugged up from the neck up. YUCK!

Saturday

Today the kids & I are going to a b-day party for the Becker triplets. Blaine is still not 100%, but he did eat today so he's getting better. I just hope Im not making a huge mistake taking him to this party. He really wants to go, and I really want him to go. Worse case..he pukes all over the party, and gets all the guests sick. I called Erin yesterday and told her we were not coming because Blaine was sick and she told me (no practically begged me) to come even if Blaine felt a tiny bit better, because I was the 3rd person who had called saying they were not coming because of sick kids. Erin said her kids have already had the flu, and actually are just getting over it also. Like I said Blaine ate today, and now he's upstairs resting. FINGERS CROSSED IM NOT MAKING A MISTAKE!!!

After the party we have a couple errands to run around Kearney. So I hope Blaine is up to all that too.

Troy just walked in the door..holy shit..gotta go..I didn't think he'd be home.

Jen

December already??

WOW I can't believe it's already the 2nd week in December! I have my christmas shopping done! YEA! This is probably the first time in quite awhile that I've actually had it done this early!! lol

It definately feels like winter around here. We've got about 10" of snow on the ground, which is very unreal for this area! Usually we get snow and within a week it's all gone, but not this year so far! I just hope the weather really starts warming up the next couple of weeks when we are traveling to/from Minnesota.

Not to much new. Blaine is sick and has been for 2 days now. I finally got him to eat a small scoop of ice cream tonight, other then that he hasn't eaten anything since Thursday. Tomorrow we're suppose to go to a b-day party for the Becker triplets. Im hoping Blaine feels well enough to go, because Wyatt & Abby really want to go. Im going to wrap their present tonight just incase we do go. FINGERS CROSSED!!

I've finished a couple books since I posted. The last one being "The Horse Whisperer" by Nicholas Evans. Good book, but I didn't care for the character Annie or her storyline..which IMHO was more then 1/2 of the book. I didn't like the ending either. I also saw the movie "The Notebook" (based on the book by Nicholas Sparks) the other night and cried like a baby. I'll definately be buying that movie next time I see it and have a few $$ to spend.

That's it for now..

Can someone please explain to me...

Why people go practically crazy when bad weather comes?? We are expecting quite a doozie of a storm tonight through tomorrow. Last night I sat down and made my grocery list, figuring I'd better get to the store today rather then tomorrow. Dh started saying "Get 10 cans of tomato soup, 5 cans of Cream of Mushroom, 5 gallons of milk..etc". I said "Why?" He said "There's a storm coming!". He is always like this, if he had his way our house would quickly turn into my MIL's house with food stashed in all the rooms (you know..just incase..). I don't know why dh gets like this, we only live 3 blocks from the store.

To update from my previous post, dh was put in a new position at work. So all is good (for now). He's pretty excited about the new challenges that are facing him. Im ok with the idea of us not moving home (for now) and hope that in a year we'll have the opportunity to try again.

Im reading "Gentlmen & Players" by Joanne Harris for the First Look Program. I NEED to finish it by the 1st and get my review submitted to First Look. It's a great book so far and Im really enjoying it! I have less then 100 pages so it shouldn't be a problem finishing it.

Feel like shit..

I feel like total shit today. My stomach is just killing me and the slighest movements make me feel like puking. I think it's stress. We find out *HOPEFULLY* tomorrow if dh keeps his current job. He's interviewing someone tomorrow to replace him. I really don't know how I feel about this, him staying means that we'll be in Nebrsaka for awhile, and I really don't want to be. But if he looses his job, we won't have health insurance and all the perks that having a job has. He'll beable to collect unemployment, but everyone knows that doesn't pay enough.

I pray every minute, of everyday that this is all just a dream and I'll wake up.