Rain, Rain Go Away...

It's raining...again. As of 10 minutes ago, we've had 1.5 inches today. It's so wet out here that many of the farmers are becoming concerned that they won't get planting done. I hope we get a break soon. The good news is that usually the rain comes with thunderstorms...which is really awesome.

Hannah's teacher, Mrs. M, asked if Ruby could come and visit her class this afternoon. I said that it was no problem. So, Ruby was demoted from first grader to preschooler. We have a little cage that we used to take her to Daniel's class and she's grown so much that she barely fits in it anymore. We knew that she had been growing but had no idea just how much. She didn't seem to mind all of the kids and was just as happy after coming home as she was before we left, so I guess that's a good thing.

Oriana's feeling better now. She's back to only occasionally needing to go out and back to hiding out under the kitchen table during meals. I didn't really miss that part. At least she's stopped pooping on the floor.

Hannah and I got a little planting done today. We cleaned up some of the beds and put in some double marigolds. I think they look really nice. What's shocking to me is that my zinnias from last year seem to have re-seeded themselves for this year. I have a ton of zinnias coming up. I'm going to have to go through and thin them out. I'm just so excited to have so many things coming up in the garden beds. I'm not going to have to plant much in the way of annuals at all. Still trying to figure out what to put in my hanging baskets this year. I wonder how impatiens would do in them. Hmmm. I've still got some time, though.

An Overdue Post

After meeting Gary on Saturday, Mike hired a sitter and took me to Amor de Brasil.
Who knew that Brazil even had it's own cuisine? LOL! Anyway, it was very cool...there are a bunch of guys walking around with meat on swords. They give you a card...one side's red and the other's green. When you want more meat, put your card on green and the meat guys line up at your table to give you more. They had 15 different kinds of meat...all of it was awesome. You would think that they would be stingy with the meat, but they weren't. As soon as one person flipped their card to green, it became a meat mad-house. It just wouldn't stop! We walked out of there so full, it was hard to walk! Mike and I were saying that we wouldn't be surprised if the meat guys chased us into the parking lot with Mike screaming, "flip the card to red!!!!" LOL! So tasty...we can't wait to go back.

Oriana hasn't really been eating her food lately, so Mike thought we'd try a new bag of food. We gave it to her on Saturday and, ever since, she's been pretty sick because her stomach's not used to eating as much as she has been. Loose doggie poo is not something that's fun to clean off of the carpet. She's also been begging to go out many, many times per night, which really, really sucks. It's like we have a newborn all over again. Last night seemed really bad and it didn't help that the weather radio went off at 12:30am for a thunderstorm warning. I took her out, after turning off the alarm, and checked the radar to see what was coming (yes, I'm that much of a dork) and headed back to bed. I was disappointed because it seemed like all we got was lightning, so I fell asleep. Not long after, Oriana had to go out again. So I took her out again. Somewhere around 3:30am, I heard Mike say something about her needing to go out again and that he'd already taken her out 5 times. Fortunately, she seems to have gotten better because she's only needed to go out a couple of times today and she seems to be feeling better. I literally picked up a case of carpet cleaner from the Oreck store (along with some pet pre-treater) and have been going to town on the carpet all afternoon. It's just so gross. Ugh.

On a side note, I guess the big storm came while I was sleeping...everyone at my MOPS table this morning said that they had been up most of the night with scared kids. Thank goodness our kids sleep like rocks. I hear that it had the whole thing...lightning, thunder, hail, wind. Dang! I missed it!

Today is the last day of my prep program and I go to nutritional counseling tonight. It's been hard these last three days. Although, today is much easier than yesterday. I'm forcing myself to eat because I'm just not hungry. I don't know if that's a side effect or what but if I see any more meat, I think I'm going to be sick (doesn't help that we had that meat-fest on Saturday!). I really don't even crave the carbs anymore...it's just more inconvenient than anything else. I don't miss the soda either, which is nice and I do get to have coffee (so no caffeine headaches!) They wanted me to go in yesterday and I was already down 3 pounds. I just can't wait to go tonight so that I can get some regular food back!

A Blog for a Nice Day

It's really pretty outside today. It's a little chilly, but the sun is shining and there's not a cloud in the sky. I need to start thinking about getting out the lawn mower and giving the yard it's first cut of the season, but I'm putting it off as long as possible. I also don't want to mow while there's still a big puddle in the backyard from yesterday's rain. Once that dries up, maybe I'll think about mowing. Of course, we're supposed to get some big storms tomorrow (thunderstorms, wind, hail, tornadoes), so that'll put it off even longer.

The kids tested for their new belts (high blue for the boys and orange for Hannah...next step for the boys is brown! Then we go to every other testing cycle for them) on Saturday. The three boys had to break boards this time. Mike sailed through his but the boys had some problems. They did successfully break the 1/2 inch board, so that satisfied the requirement. We don't find out the results until next week, but they're all very anxious. I'm sure they did just fine. (Click photos to enlarge)

Mike sets up to break the board.

A photo of Hannah after she sparred.
Mike got to hold the board for Daniel while Daniel's teacher, Master Johnson (in the white shirt and sportcoat), watches on the sidelines.
Jacob sets up for board breaking.

Oriana is seriously pissing me off lately. Hannah and I went to the store for about 1/2 hour this morning and I forgot to put her in the bedroom. Usually it isn't a problem for that short amount of time. However, when we got home, I found cereal bowls scattered around the kitchen and milky cereal all over the floor. I'm getting really tired of her getting into everything she's not supposed to. She's been refusing to eat her normal food lately, in favor of scavenging. She even ate a bunch of Hershey Kisses (including the foil wrappers) from one of the kids' Easter baskets the other day. I expected her to get really sick from it, but she didn't. We just can't leave her out alone at all anymore.

We signed both boys up for Cub Scout Day Camp for a week this summer. They are excited to be going. It's the only place where they can earn their BB Gun and Archery certifications. I don't know if they let Daniel's age do it, but I know they do Jacob's age. I know I loved Girl Scout camp, so this should be fun for them. Later in the summer, Mike and Jacob are going to an overnight Bear Scout camp for 3 days. That should be a lot of fun for them. Our Pack Leader is the head of the camp, so he's been giving me a lot of info about what they'll do. It's also good to know the leadership should something happen.

I set up Hannah's speech screening yesterday. Actually, they don't just test for speech anymore, so she gets the full-on special ed screening. I find it a little annoying, but if that's what it takes to get her in, then I guess that's what I have to do. She goes in to the district office for it on the 25th. I guess it takes about 1 1/2 hours to complete. We shall see what happens.