San Diego!

We had last week off! Monday was Rick's birthday- we took Abby to school and then had breakfast. I sent him to a surprise massage appt after his volunteer duty at the kid's school. Tuesday we got up at 3:10am to get ready for our flight to San Diego. We took a quick trip to Sea World, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park and the Scripps Aquarium. Abby has wanted to be a dolphin trainer for awhile now and I think this trip just sealed the deal. Loved seeing the animals at the zoo that we don't have at ours- Camels, Koalas and Pandas.

All was well until Aidan got sick with a constant cough- the poor kid coughed his head off for 18 hours straight. We had NO SLEEP for two nights. To top it off, I left his albuterol inhaler at home thinking ohhhh he won't need it. Needless to say I worried myself sick- I was up all night using the bathroom! Thankfully I had packed children's benedryl in our little travel first aid kit and that helped some. I know right??? Benedryl vs. Inhaler. We made it home yesterday evening- got unpacked, the kids fed and I started cleaning house. It's all about utilizing and managing my time right now. I need every minute. Today we took the kids to urgent care- Abby has had plugged ears for awhile now so they flushed out her impacted ear wax. Gross but the girl can hear now. Granted ear wax isn't urgent but she missed last week of school and I didn't want to pull her out this week for a dr appt and since Aidan was being checked over for his breathing...the dr did hear some reatraction on the end of his exhale so he's on predinose for a few days along with his inhaler. I really hope he outgrows this. The rest of day I spent getting fruits and veggies, his invites ready for his birthday party, more laundry, more cleaning, and getting my Turkey Day list ready. The key to getting back from vacation is to have your meals planned and non perishable groceries bought before you leave. TIME SAVER. Rick got out the Christmas decorations. Yep... we decorate over Thanksgiving. Not looking forward to the piles and piles of work that is waiting for me so I'm anxious to just get tomorrow done and over with.

The pictures are out of order and I don't feel like messing with them.

We landed at 9am on Tuesday and dumped our stuff at the hotel and headed straight to Sea World. This whale was so social looked at Abby right in the eye and kept 'touching' the glass where she was. It was an amazing moment.

Hotel Del

Safari Park

Scripps Aquarium



This was one of my top favorite parts of the trip. LOVED mama with her baby








This is the funniest- they wanted to use our photo for their display so they had us sign a model release and we got photos for free. Free is a very good price at these places.

Spinning in Circles...

I feel like everything I am accomplishing lately is completely LAST MINUTE. I've never been one to live like that so it bothers me! I've been going going going so much that I ended up feeling like crud for about 5 days this week... no matter what I wasn't able to ever get myself to bed early :-( I've been getting caffeine headaches lately. I gave up caffeine about 9 years ago and the process was painstakingly brutal, so much that I vowed to never experience that again. I started drinking decaf lattes. Well... when I kicked my latte habit recently I went to green tea, only the green tea I like is this "super green tea" which has caffeine. I get those headaches again!! Combine that with the week-long sinus headache, I felt like I had a "man cold."

Busy week!! Food boxes at church, we carved pumpkins last minute, took the kids to see Dolphin Tale...that same day I decided on a whim to make dinner and bring it to my neighbor who had surgery. Hot lunch duty, month end at work, Wednesday I ditched work for a few hours and had breakfast with my Mom and went shopping- even that was a whirlwind. Had to get Nzembi's Birthday letter and card mailed- her birthday isn't until January but they tell me it takes 2-3 months to get to her and there was a deadline. Friday Abby didn't have school so I took her to work with me, and it was also my evening to bring a meal to the other family I'm helping out. Rick had two days of interviews for a new position at work.

Boy am I ever thankful for an extra hour cause I can sure use it! Abby is memorizing all the books of the Old Testament and if parent(s) do it as well she gets some sort of prize. I'm up to Ezekiel.

Next up is Rick's birthday and a little vacation.

Best news of the week: Jessica and Reilly are having a girl!!!

ER and Other Fun Things...

Yep! Same exact spot Aidan had stitches only they were able to glue her shut!

Sunday night he was playing around in our office and smacked his nose on our treadmill. I thought for sure it was going to be black and blue and swollen but absolutely nothing. Monday night she was playing "puppy" in the office and then she smacks the treadmill. Off to the ER we go. That treadmill has been there for SIX years and just now they both get injured on it.

Abby came down with a horrible cold over the weekend with one those bronchitis sounding coughs. We didn't get much sleep for 2 nights and then the ER visit on top of it made for some pretty wiped out parents this week.
And look what hubby finished after 2+ years!! The playroom!! We painted and did the border in 2009 and he finally got the moudling up, painted and hung the bulletin board for their art and hung up their school photo frames. You know those old school shoe organizer pocket things? That works perfect for barbies. I have it on the back of the door.

I hosted a midweek evening playdate with the kiddos friends from school. We had pizza and decorated Halloween cookies.

Birthday Week

Her party was a blast. Fashion show/photo shoot. All the girls got to 'model' and go home with a CD of the photos. Her teacher called me at 7am on her birthday saying she had to get a sub and that Abby's class party would have to be postponed. I dreaded telling Abby because she was so excited for having her birthday at school that she hardly slept. Thankfully I put a good spin on it indicating she get's AN EXTRA day to celebrate.

Rick and I both took today off and had a date- we went to breakfast and then saw the movie Courageous. I don't know who cried more. Great movie. Great Christian movie and message for Fathers. We took Abby to Red Robin along with Grandma and then just did presents and cake. My baby girl is SEVEN!!

Verse(s)

Romans 8:28

And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Abby's bible verse this week from church. She gets one from Sunday School and one from the school she attends. I don't know know how she keeps them straight. She has somehow turned it into this competition between her and I to see who can memorize it first. I love her spirit. The sad part is she can retain all the prior verses and me in my old age I can't even remember what I did yesterday.

S-L-O-W D-O-W-N

I mean it!! My baby girl turns 7 next week. Ever since school started time is just flying. We're having her birthday party tomorrow at a little photography studio where the girls get dressed up and have a runway fashion show and get their pictures done. All things girly. But more about that tomorrow. The biggest news of all is that we are dealing with one huge mother of a man cold. And in all my sympathy, I'm going to nicely ask that he sleep in the spare room tonight. I know you're thinking mean and cruel- but it will be better for all of us. He's got cooties and he'll want to sleep and I'll want to get up at 5 and run and make noise. It's for the best people. And little guy woke up with little man cold today too.
Rick had ERT training this week so had to go in on 2 of his days off which meant we arranged for an extra day of daycare and I had to leave work early to get him. I started my hot lunch volunteering this week too. We've got 10 hours towards our 30 yayyy for us. Thursday I chaperoned Aidan's pumpkin patch field trip and tonight is date night at the mall with Grandma if Aidan is up for it. I've been cleaning house every night this week after work and bedtime because Rick took Saturday off so we actually get a NORMAL weekend to enjoy except now he's sick :-(

Waiting for nigh-night and me-me



.

Tired.

I don't know where the weeks go. It's October for crying out loud. More soccer this week. Chaperoned Abby's field trip. Her teacher pulled me aside and said "sooooo, when did Abby start reading?" I replied early. Cause I don't know....or remember. It was like 4 she was blending letter sounds I think. Anyway she said, "you probably cringe when you see the homework coming home how easy it is for her." I politely said... well...I don't think I said anything. Just kinda nodded?? Anyway she told me not to worry, that Abby won't be bored and she is putting her in a 2nd grade reading and comprehension group. She also indicated that you typically see kids who either good are reading or math but not both but that Abby was both so she'll be in some other math group too. Always nice to hear about your own kid BUT.... what I am most excited about is this teacher figuring it out all in the first month and having a plan to address the needs of EACH student versus JUST TEACHING.

I just finished 6 weeks of running 16 miles each week. Not much but it's what I can get in. Achilles are still in bad shape but I'm doing what I can.

Grandma date = new outift and huge unicorn

I love all the exercise from this... and then when he turns five I think we can 'officially' get him tested to confirm whether or not he has asthma

Field trip

Went to the library today and this afternoon she holed herself up in this corner and read for about an hour.

Not only was it month end this week but look what I accomplished. HUGE DIFFERENCE