Hello Summer!

Well, SO much has happened since my last post. The week after my last post Eli got sick and then Gary got sick. Gary had pneumonia. A couple of weeks later, Gary ended up in the hospital with a blood clot in his lung and another in his leg. He is home and doing fine as far as we know. He goes to the doctor for blood work a couple of times a week. That is the summary of sickness in a nutshell.

Now for some randomness.

My last official day of school was May 28. It was great! I was all signed out and out of there by 12:30. I went back last week for 3 days of optional curriculum planning. I wasn't as productive as I would have liked to have been, but started some important planning and conversations with colleagues. Next year I will be teaching one section of Social Studies. If you know much about me, that is hilarious! 7th grade SS is all about world history. Yeah, I am doing good to be able to match the correct continent with a given country. After last week, I am not quite as unsure about that. I am actually pretty excited that I will be learning lots of new things next year.

I have said it before, but the end of the school year always reaffirms that I truly LOVE teaching. I love every aspect of teaching: planning, instruction, assessment, reflecting, students, other teachers, all of it! Even though the year has ended, I am already excited about next school year.

So, what plans do I have for summer? I get this question all the time recently. Well, Gary has exhausted all of his leave time since he has stayed home with sick kids, and then got pneumonia and spent 5 nights in the hospital. SO, we are NOT taking a vacation. I am really sad about that, but thankful to have so many fun things to do around home!

Caedyn was moved up to the 4 year old class in Feb or March and that class takes field trips during the summer. The kids have to be 4 years old to ride the bus, so I will be taking Caedyn on her field trips this summer. They have SO much scheduled, so we will be busy bees this summer just keeping up with the daycare schedule. I am taking the kids to daycare 3 days a week like I did last summer. That way I get some me time and some time with the kiddos. At least once a week we will be going on a field trip with the school and then I will take the kids to the library like I did last year too. I can't wait!

As for that me time, I plan to catch up on posting pics on this here blog, putting pics on Snapfish, organizing my pics on the external hard drive and on the regular hard drive.

I want to re-organize my kitchen drawers and cabinets. We need more storage, but won't be getting it. So it is time for a kitchen overhaul.

I hope to clean my house top to bottom.

I would like to get the garage organized. We still have boxes out there from when we moved in. We kept thinking we would have a yard sale, but it is time to just haul it to Goodwill!

I am going to go through all the baby gear, toys, and clothes and consign for the first time.

We will see how productive my summer really is. On top of all of those projects, I would like to get the household finances reigned in and do some better meal planning and preparing. I might actually experiment in the kitchen and learn to cook. If you have any easy suggestions, PLEASE advise!

A New Week...Oh So Good!

Well, I fogot to add into my last post that Caedyn threw up on the way to the doctor on Wednesday morning. We think it was just the congestion that she choked on, but not fun for Daddy!

On Thursday as I am observing my student teacher for the final time, the phone in the classroom rings. Eli has thrown up at daycare. So much for working a half day! Gary is home with Caedyn and doesn't have the car seat to get Eli - it is in the van!

Eli went back to school on Friday, he never puked again and played well the rest of the day Thursday. We were going to send Caedyn back on Friday too, but her fever was back to 101 at bedtime. So she stayed at CiCi's house (my mom and dad's).

Saturday morning Caedyn's temp was at 100. We went to pick strawberries with CiCi, Popsey, Taylor, Kendall, and Amy. Caedyn and Eli had each picked a bucket of strawberries and Caedyn used the porta-potty successfully by the time the rest of the crew got there, but we helped CiCi and Popsey fill up their buckets. We got some great pics that I plan to post later.

After strawberry picking we headed to Shealy's for lunch. All 4 kids did really well, but we left quite the mess. Eli's favorites were the tomatoes and pickles. Caedyn liked the corn and green beans. Taylor loved the ice cream, and Kendall ate ham and green beans.

We left Shealy's and I took the kids up to Gary's parents house. They fell asleep on the way and then slept until like 4:30! We tired those young 'ns out! When they woke up we took a nice boat ride. Eli LOVED it. He walked all over the boat and kept calling it E-I's boat. He and Caedyn likes waving to the other boaters too. Eli would get offended if they didn't wave back - too funny! Caedyn used to be like that when people in public wouldn't speak to her. Caedyn was acting like she didn't feel good. She laid on the boat seat for a lot of the ride. When we got back to the house, we had Grandma's spaghetti - yum! Caedyn was literally sweating, so Gary turned on the air. However, we think that Caedyn's fever was breaking. She hasn't had a temp since. Gary ended up going home while the kids and I spent the night at Grandma and P-Pops. (I just couldn't drive back last night - I was tired, and we had driven up separately.)

Well, the sick story continues. The kids went to church with Grandma and P-Pop for Children's Choir and Sunday School and I went home to shower and get ready. Eli threw up on the way to church. Yep! He was eating grapes on the way to church. I guess he gagged. He doesn't like to chew no matter how big or small the pieces are he is eating. He acts fine, so we are assuming he is well. After church we ate lunch and played at Aunt Brenda and Uncle Tony's. The kids always have a blast there. We all woke up from our nap at about 6:00, and are gearing up for a week of wellness!

What a Week!

Well, the week isn't over yet, but my goodness it has been tiring for us already!

1. Daycare called me at school at 3:50 Monday afternoon to tell me that Caedyn had been laying in the sand outside on the playground and was running a fever.

2. I decided that Eli wasn't going to get his paci back after school on Monday. He cried on the way home from school, and he whined some while during the evening and when I was putting him to bed. Otherwise, we have been successful, and he has barely even asked for it.

3. Caedyn didn't seem too hot when I picked her up, so I got the kids in and settled in for the night. About 45 minutes after we got home I took her temp - 104.5!

4. Eli pee-peed and poopied in the potty on Monday afternoon and wore his big boy pants for the first time. He LOVES them!

5. On Tuesday Gary took Caedyn to the doctor. They tested her for mono, flu, strep, and a UTI. All results were negative. Her white blood cell count was up which could indicate virus or bacterial infection.

6. Tuesday afternoon Gary calls me at 4:15. Caedyn's temp was 104.9. At 5:15 the thermometer read 105.8. He put her in a lukewarm bath and it came down to 103.5. The doctor told us to monitor her temp frequently with more than one thermometer. We had been using a temporal one we got for Christmas that I love. Gary always thought it ran high - let's hope so.

7. Eli stayed with my mom and dad on Tuesday night because I really thought that we would be heading to the hospital.

8. Gary took Caedyn back to the doctor Wednesday morning. FINALLY! An ear infection shows up! We are ecstatic to have a reason for the fever! Gary's mom stayed with Caedyn the rest of the day.

9. Eli was back home with us Wednesday night! He asked to use the potty again and went successfully. Then 30 minutes later he peed on the floor. Oh well! He does love his big boy pants though! (And no mention of the paci!)

10. So last night, Wednesday, we thought Caedyn was feeling much better. However by bedtime her temp was back up to 103.5. So I am home this morning. I have to do the final observation of my student teacher, so Gary is coming home to stay with Caedybug this afternoon.

11. This morning Eli asked for his paci and whined a little, but I was able to distract him pretty well!

Tomorrow is Friday! Whew! It has been a LONG week! Hopefully when it is done we will have conquered the paci and fever and be well on our way to a potty training plan! (Still not sure if I am ready for that!)

Praise Ye the Lord!

Easter Sunday at church, the kids sang one of Eli's favorites! Excuse my laughing. The whole congregation was laughing at these cute kids. Pastor Tommy gave the kids chocolate candy at the children's sermon, and Eli had his in his mouth before I could get to him. By the end of the song Eli had chocolate dripping down his chin.

The Reason for the Season

I am responsible for doing the devotion for tomorrow's Easter Egg Hunt at church. I have been researching online, and ended up putting together my own message with sparks of inspiration from the various sources I came across.

I stumbled across this article. It has some great ideas for bringing the Reason back into our holiday seasons as well as continuing to celebrate Jesus and witness to others all year long.

Check it out. It is a pretty quick read. And Happy Easter! I hope the bunny is good to you if he is visiting your house (read the article)!

Eli's News

Well, Eli turned two last Wednesday! I spent the evening at my favorite consignment sale and racked up! We had cupcakes Thursday night and he blew out the candles with help from Daddy on one of them.

Friday night momma and I went to the church and set up for the party while it rained buckets outside. I am glad we could go the night before because it took FOREVER to set up. Elizabeth even helped out when she dropped off the cake. I was feeling pretty puny due to a sinus infection, but we got everything just how I wanted it. Thanks to mom, my far-fetched ideas came to life. She made Eli Excursion tickets and signs at each station just as I imagined them - even better actually! She also did the invitations and made bags and tags. I will have much more on the party later. I have already promised some people that I would post pictures of each station with instructions, so I haven't forgotton - PROMISE!

So the real news was Saturday morning. Caedyn and Eli were finishing their breakfast when Eli grabbed his diaper and said, "I pee pee in potty!" I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said, "Yes, hum - on Momma." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the bathroom. Sure enough he had a dry diaper and he pee pee-ed in the potty! I was SHOCKED! The director at his daycare asked me if I wanted him to start going to the potty with the other 4-5 that were starting to potty train. I was like, "Sure, why not!" He has been going every day at bathtime, but that is it. He doesn't even really like it, but we turn him around so he can hold on to the back and he does much better. The little potty doesn't get much action, but that is the one he used Saturday morning because Caedyn had the big potty occupied. We haven't jumped on the potty train or anything, but I am pretty excited that it was all E's idea! (The teacher part of me knows that student-guided learning is the quickest way to mastery!)

Along the same lines, Eli has a new word. Sunday we were eating dinner and Eli pooted. We usually just ignore that, but E looked up at Gary and said, "I pot." It was so funny! I keep asking Eli, "Did you pot?" Eli answers, "I no pot, Daydee (or Daddy or Mommy) pot." (Daydee = Caedyn) Gary doesn't like this conversation, and I know it isn't nice either - but it is so funny to hear him say "pot!"

Beach Pics

Here are the pics from my birthday trip to the beach. I worked for 40 minutes posting pics and arranging them within the text of the original post. Then when I was done, it said there was an error and I had to reload all the pics. So for more details about the trip read the post below the pics!

Sunday, January 17

#1: Hit the beach and the pools.

#2: Get baths, lunch, and naps.

#3: Redeem our coupon for free bowling at the on-site bowling alley.

Monday, January 18:

Throwing shells, showing shells, and posing for the cam. What a perfect birthday!