Birthday Wishes

Happy birthday to my father-in-law, Ed and my niece, Rachel! Hope it's a good one!!

Another SNL...

Tina Fey has Sarah Palin down!!! This just kills me!

Well, There You Go...

I will love it when I don't have to start a post with an apology for being gone for a while. Anyway...

Friday night, I got to go to the Maroon 5 concert with my friend, Roxanne. We got all dolled up and even rented a limo so that we wouldn't worry about how much we had to drink. The concert was awesome. Counting Crows and Augustana opened the show. After, Roxanne and I headed to Steak 'n' Shake and had a lovely dinner of steakburgers and chili. I still think that's really funny.

Saturday morning, I woke up and thought my leg felt sore. I pulled back the blankets and saw this... I have no idea where they came from. And they hurt so bad!!! So strange! But I'd take them all over again if it meant that I got to go to another Maroon 5 concert!!!

Sarah Palin

Now, you know how much I love Sarah Palin, but this is really funny (in case you missed it on Saturday)...

Well, We Didn't Blow Away...

It's been raining and dreary for the past couple of days now. I picked the kids up from school yesterday and about 10 minutes after we got home, the weather radio went off for a Tornado Watch. Hannah begins her little freak out but calms down a little after I remind her of what a watch means. Mike calls to tell me that he's going to work out and then head home. That's fine. Just before 5pm, Jacob starts screaming that there's a Tornado Warning (we were watching the Weather Channel). A second later, the weather radio goes off again for the Warning. Ugh. We listen and find out that it's for NW Johnson County. Not for us. Okay. I still step outside to get a look...no sirens or anything...we should be okay. Jacob turns on Gary Lezak and he sees a cell heading out of Miami County (just to our south) and into Johnson County that will probably hit us. Great.

The weather radio goes off again. Another Tornado Warning for that cell entering Johnson County. I look at the kids and they've got their valuables (blankets, Nintendo DS games, Jacob's violin) and Jacob's seriously looking for the pets. That's when the sirens start. It really starts raining hard and, after looking at the radar, I'm not convinced it's quite basement time yet.

Mike calls to tell me that they closed the Fitness Center and he's heading home. I told him to hang out until the storm's passed...I'd give him a call. The radar shows that the storm is almost to us so, the kids and I head to the basement.

I'm still not sure about this tornado thing, so I head back upstairs to take another look. Sirens are still going off (they went off about 4-5 times) but everything looks to be east of us. Mike calls to ask if he can come home yet and I tell him that Gary says there's a possible tornado around 143rd and Nall, headed to where Mike works. He says that he'll wait for the all-clear and I tell the kids they can come back up.

Not five minutes later, the weather radio goes off again for another Tornado Warning. Hannah's crying at this point and I have to assure her that this one is also not for us. I call Mike to tell him it's okay for him to leave and we try to go on with our evening.

Ultimately, there were a couple of touchdowns but nothing in our immediate area. I completely forgot about the second tornado season. Hopefully, the rest of fall won't be this active. Now, we get ready for Ike, which won't be fun after the 5 inches we've had in the past couple of days.

What Day Is This?!?

Bobbi and Ed came in last weekend for a visit. It was nice to see them since it's been a while. It was also nice to have a stretch of days where we didn't have to do anything. That's not to say it was light on drama, because there was certainly a ton, but it had nothing to do with Bobbi and Ed. Of course, that drama continued throughout the week but that's neither here nor there. It's just what happens when you have friends you care about a lot. Anyway, we had a very nice visit and, as always, it was too short. They flew back to Chicago on Monday and we went back to reality on Tuesday.

I started feeling sick on Monday evening. I've been dealing with this whole allergy/cold thing that's really beginning to make me mad. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to deal with this again this year. Ugh.

Hannah thinks it's way cool that a tropical storm shares her name. She's been running around saying, "I'm a hurricane!" It's been driving Daniel nuts. He got so jealous that he finally yelled, "well hurricanes aren't the most powerful thing in the world. Tornadoes are worse!" They were totally cracking me up.

I didn't workout on Tuesday because I just didn't feel well enough, but I've been in for the rest of the week. I have yet to lose any weight but I've lost a couple of inches here and there. I guess that's more important anyway. I'm also losing my back rolls which is always a good thing. I just can't believe that I'm up to an hour on the elliptical. That's crazy!!! I also discovered the steam room at the center this week. It's my new favorite thing. A nice steam is so nice and I can actually breathe through my nose for about an hour after! LOL!

Last week we found about 10 monarch caterpillars in the milkweed. We decided to bring them in as well. We got a better container for them and most have turned into a chrysalis. What was really cute was as we were collecting them, a couple of neighbor girls came by to see what we were doing and asked if they could take one home. I talked to their moms and they said it was fine so I sent them home with a caterpillar and a big bunch of milkweed. They've been asking me a lot of questions about how long it takes and whatnot. I was so impressed with Jacob who helped answer some of Beth's questions. She told me today that he told her to look for when the caterpillar turns into a J shape on the top of the container and she said that he was right. He's been paying attention. I'm just loving this!

Jacob's had two weeks of Wednesday Keshet classes. He fought me hard the first week but didn't give me a hard time at all this week. Thankfully, he's looking forward to Sunday School starting up this weekend.

All three are doing really well in school so far. I have yet to hear anything from Daniel's teacher and I've seen her quite a bit. She's not one that holds anything back on that sort of thing either. They all seem to be doing pretty well, which is a huge relief. Poor Hannah's just exhausted but she's still getting used to the whole full day thing. Starting next week I'll be helping for an hour once a week in the school's library. The second graders have never done Accelerated Reader before and they need help learning how to choose the right books. I'll be helping out with that. I'm looking forward to it. The kids love running into me at the school. I'm excited that I can help out more with stuff like this. Full day kindergarten is a wonderful thing.

Jacob starts orchestra next week. Only they don't call it orchestra, they call it strings. Either way, he chose the violin and was sized for one last week. He'll get his violin on Monday and his first class is on Tuesday. He had to sign a contract for the teacher that said he's committed to practice 10 minutes a day. I liked that. Anyway, he's excited. Daniel told me that he'd like to learn the trumpet. He's got a few years until he can start (5th grade) but trumpet's perfectly fine with me. I don't care what you play, just that you play something. Except for drums. I just don't think I could handle the drums.

We start jiu jitsu reflex classes tomorrow. I'm about 6 classes away from my second stripe. Master Dave said that he'd like for me to test for my blue belt before the end of the year. I just don't see how that's going to happen but we'll see. And Daniel has his first football game tomorrow. He just loves football and is so excited about the game. I can't wait to see it all.

So, I guess that's about it from here for now. I'll try to do a better job posting!

Crazy Crazy Crazy

Life's been nuts since school started back up. I've been hitting the gym every morning which has been making me feel pretty good. I've already been able to go 25 minutes on the arc trainer (a cross between a stairmaster and an elliptical) which is up from barely 10 minutes last week. I'm still not able to lift much on my strength training days, but I haven't been doing that as often so that'll take a little more time. I'm just excited that I'm taking this step and Jacob's told me that he's proud of me. That's enough to keep going.

I had signed up to be Daniel's co-room mom this year. I don't really mind being the co-room mom because the responsibilities are very minimal. Anyway, I go to the big Room Mom pow wow last week and came out of it being Hannah's head room mom and Daniel's co-room mom. Luckily, Hannah's teacher is fairly easy going and doesn't need me to do too much but I don't know exactly how I'm going to be in two places at once (their parties). I can't stress out about it.

I'm sad because a note came home about Girl Scouts for Hannah and I just can't do it this year. If we could add a few more hours to the day, we could add it in but I just don't see how we can do it right now. She seems to be okay with the fact that she'll join in first grade. Hopefully.

Jacob is now old enough to join the orchestra at school. He has decided to learn to play the violin. Luckily, it's all during the school day. Mike doesn't understand why I find it so important that all of the kids play an instrument. I just think it makes you such a well rounded individual. Anyway, he'll be starting that in a couple of weeks. He's excited.

The basement is killing me. It's taking way longer than I ever anticipated. It would have gone faster if I had used latex paint instead of oil based. I will be using latex paint on the main living part of the basement. I'm really looking forward to getting it done. I've been given an unofficial deadline of Saturday and I think I just might pull it off. Fingers seriously crossed. I am excited about how it's turning out, though.

I reunited with a college friend, Melisa, on Facebook a couple of months ago. She's way out in Oregon now, but her parents still live in the Kansas City area and she came to visit this past weekend. We were able to get together for lunch on Friday. It was really awesome to catch up with her. It was like we had been in touch for the last ten years, which we hadn't. Yet another reason to love Facebook.

Photos for Bobbi

Here are a couple of photos from the first day of school yesterday.

The kids before leaving for school
Hannah gets ready to do her first bit of work as a kindergartener.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the kids. This has to be the first time that I've ever seen a school start on Monday. Love it! Anyway, we got to the school a little early so that I could drop the kids off at their classrooms.

Jacob wouldn't let me walk him in...I guess he's too old for that now. Daniel was fine with me walking him to his class until we actually got there. At that point, he pretended that he didn't know me. Oh well. I then walked Hannah to her room. I wasn't prepared for the reading of The Kissing Hand by Hannah's teacher and walked out of the school in tears. She was so excited and looked so happy when I left and I can't wait to hear how her day went.

After dropping the kids off, I headed over to meet Mike at the Fitness Center. I couldn't get an appointment to actually join until Wednesday so I went in on a visitor's pass. One of the trainers took my blood pressure and heart rate (both good!) and showed me how to use some of the machines. She then let me go on my own. I managed 40 minutes on the treadmill and 10 minutes on the elliptical machine before I was done. I'm excited because they'll put a nice plan together for me so that I can work the areas that need help. I'm excited and I hope that I can stick with it.

I Was Heading To Bed...

and I decided to check on the monarchs. I found this...



Can you see the others hanging there just waiting to come out? I can't wait until the kids see in the morning!

Here We Go...

We had lots to do up at the school today. This morning was the PTO registration stuff. Unlike last year, they didn't have the class lists posted which was kind of obnoxious. We picked up our school supplies (our school lets you order them through the school so you always have exactly what you need and it's all wrapped up together so there's no rushing around to pick it up), signed up for a couple committees (of course) and headed home. Jacob had Ambassador training at 3:30 and we picked him up 45 minutes later. They finally posted the class lists at 4 and we got to see who they were going to have this year.

Two years ago, Jacob had Mrs. G for 2nd grade and Daniel had Mrs. T for kindergarten. This year, Daniel has Mrs. G for 2nd grade and Hannah has Mrs. T for kindergarten. I think that's pretty funny because there are 3 kindergarten and 4 2nd grade teachers. I've heard great things about Jacob's teacher, so I'm hoping he has a great year.

This evening, they held the back to school fair. Jacob was working as an Ambassador for the first quarter of it so I took Daniel and Hannah into the gym for a little while (it was raining so they brought some stuff inside). I'd seen some of the Ambassadors lined up in the hallway so I went out to see if I could find Jacob. I found him coming up the cafeteria stairs. I went up to him to say hello and he stopped, looked at me and said, "not now, Mom. I'm giving a tour." It was really cute.

So, I think we're now set for the school year to start on Monday. I still don't know where the summer went.

Last Week of Vacation

This is the last week of vacation for the kids (I can't just say the boys anymore since Hannah starts too!) The only one of the three that is excited is Hannah. The boys desperately want me to homeschool. LOL! They don't realize that actual homeschooling is different than the couple of worksheets I've been having them do this summer.

I have to admit that I'm torn on sending them back to school. As crazy as things are now, they're going to get worse once school opens back up. Cub Scouts and MOPS start back up again...Hannah switches to Tuesday evening gymnastics (you'd think they'd have a Saturday class!), Jacob starts Wednesday evening Hebrew school and we continue football and TKD. You know what, though, I've always liked having a lot of things to do. Aside from a football game for Daniel on Saturdays, our Friday through Sunday is clear (okay, so there's Sunday School).

However, I do get to start Mike's gym on Monday (right honey?) and I'll have more time to really bang out the basement (I'm about 1/4 of the way through the playroom). And maybe, just maybe, I'll actually get this house clean. Here's a picture of the playroom with one coat on...

Anyway, Daniel's loving football. We'll see just how much he loves it once they switch to practice with pads on. They've been doing conditioning practices up until Friday. That still makes me laugh.

Hannah had TKD testing on Saturday. She's going for her high green belt. It was strange that the boys didn't test, but they can't go until October. Once they get their mid brown, they can't test again until February. If they get their high brown at that point, it'll be at least another six months (so next August at the earliest) before they can go for their recommended black belts. My guess is that Daniel will sit at high brown for a long time while Mike and Jacob get theirs fairly quickly. Who knows, though.

We had our block party on Saturday, too. It was fun but it kind of bothered me that there were so many people that aren't on our street that came. Instead of neighbors hanging out with neighbors, our neighbors hung out with the people they brought. We had also been invited to Stephen and Roxanne's for the UFC fight, so we left the block party early and headed over there.

It seems that we never leave their house before 1AM and Saturday was no exception. Mike had TKD friends there, I had Jiu Jitsu friends there and the kids had Quinn and Jett to play with. I love hanging out with them. Good wine, good food, great friends.

Almost a Week

Since the big flood of '08. We're all dried out and now we have to figure out how to put everything back together. I'm not interested in putting carpet back down there. I've seen how much work carpet is when it floods and I don't want to have to go through that again. Actually, I don't want to have to worry about the carpet every time it rains. So, I've sort of convinced Mike to paint the concrete floor instead.

I've been talking to my friends about it and many of them have done similar things themselves. I have one friend that stained her concrete to look like terra cotta tiles. She put grout lines in and everything. Anyway, they say that it's pretty easy to do and the results are great. Plus, we wouldn't have to worry about carpet. If it floods again, we just suck up all of the water and put down some fans. I like that.

I've been given the playroom as my way of showing Mike how good it can look. The first step is an etcher (which sounds scary but you just paint it on), then you primer it and then paint. The last step is putting on a top coat that makes it all shiny. The kids and I have decided to paint the playroom floor white and put down circles and "swirlies" (Jacob's word) in primary colors. We'd then put down some Flor carpet tiles to give the kids a soft spot to play. In my head, it looks awesome. I just hope Mike likes it.

I got my first Jiu Jitsu stripe last night. I'm now a little over 1/4 of the way to my blue belt!! It's amazing what a little black piece of tape will do for your confidence level. I can't believe how much I'm enjoying it.

For My Crafty Sisters...

Okay. Jacob brought home a tie-dyed shirt that he made at camp. I haven't done a thing with it because it's freaking me out a little. Jacob swears that they said to run it in apple juice and vinegar before washing. A lot of what I've read says you should just use vinegar. Some sites say just wash the thing in cold water, then in hot water.

HELP!!!! I have no idea what to do and he'd like to wear the thing before he grows out of it!!! Any suggestions?

Surprise, Surprise!

Daniel's football practice was cancelled tonight because of the heat. They won't practice if the temps are over 95 degrees or if the heat index is over 105. I think it's saying something when the practice was called at 12:30 and practice wasn't even scheduled until 5:30. It was crazy hot today. Fortunately (or not), TKD never gets cancelled for heat, even though Dave never seems to run the air.

Tonight, before Mike went into his class, he comes out with a nice flower arrangement for me and a card with Maroon 5 tickets inside!!! I love Maroon 5 and he'd heard from someone at work about how to get tickets. It's funny that Mike felt that he had to give them to me in front of everyone at TKD. Stephen was proud and impressed. He even said, "you hang out with us long enough and it's bound to rub off!" Roxanne offered to watch the kids for us that night, too. That made little Quinn so happy. He immediately began making plans for where everyone was going to sleep and what they were going to do. Now, I don't know if it'll be an overnight but it's good to know they'll probably have fun.

Finally Friday

It's been a long week. A very long week.

Not even an hour after we got back from the surgery center, the water guys came to dry out the basement. There were a couple of boxes in the safe room that they wanted me to go through (otherwise, they just pitch it because of the water) so I did. I was able to rescue a good deal of my old teaching stuff and some random other stuff when I stumbled upon a box of Mike's comic books (the majority were safely in a bookcase in the playroom). They box was still sealed from the move and was completely soaked. Dripping soaked. I didn't hold much hope for saving anything in that box. So, I sighed hard and grabbed my scissors to cut through the tape. I was pleased to see that the first few comics were unharmed. Okay. I pulled them out of the box and put them in another, partially filled, box. As I continued through the box, I realized that I would be able to save about 95% of the comics after all. I called Jacob down to help me bring them up to the dining room as a safe place. He spent a good deal of the afternoon going through the comics. I put the destroyed ones on the kitchen counter so that Mike could see the ones he'd need to replace if he wanted. What's really interesting is that there were no in-between comics. They were all either soaking wet or completely dry. Strange.

At some point, I realized that they were trashing the carpet. I really freaked out and called Mike who talked to one of the guys. They did take me downstairs to show me exactly why they made that decision. It was clear that the backing was peeling away from the actual carpet. Okay.

Even though the carpet was disappointing, there were a few good things that happened. We didn't have insulation in the walls so they didn't have to cut into drywall. When they popped off the baseboards, there was enough space between the floor and the drywall so they didn't have to poke ventilation holes in it. They didn't have to remove any of the doors or door casings. Aside from the carpet, the damage was light.

They had told me about a house they'd been to yesterday morning that had 8 inches of water in the entire basement. They said they'd never seen anything like it. 8 inches is catastrophic. They said the cleanup on that house would take forever. Our dry out should take several days.

Without the carpet and with so many fans and dehumidifiers, the basement looks very industrial. It's funny to see the notes contractors left on the floor. It's also clear that they painted the baseboards down there because there are white stripes all over the floor. It is very sad, though, to see our once beautiful basement looking so unfinished now.

Two of our neighbors also had their basements flood. Amy's house is a split level and her basement is her living room. They had a lot of damage. She said that she's not going to recarpet but is going to put in those spongy block things so that she never has to worry about it again. That's what our floor at TKD is made out of. I'm curious to see if she actually does that.

On another note, Hannah's doing well. Around 4 yesterday afternoon, she was in a lot of pain and was in tears. I called the ENT and he called some Tylenol with codeine in for her. One dose was enough to knock the pain back enough for her to rest. She fell asleep rather early and today she seems to be, pretty much, back to her normal self.

Daniel starts football tonight. This should be interesting.

Hannah's Surgery

Hannah had her surgery this morning and came through with flying colors. I knew they said it would be quick but I had no idea it would be that quick. Like 10 minutes.

They told me to let her stay in pj's and bring her comfort things (blanket, stuffed animals) so she packed up the blanket Deb made for her years ago, the blanket Sue gave her years ago (she still sleeps with both blankets!) and a teddy bear. She was thrilled when they gave her bear a hospital bracelet and a hair thing. They even let her take all of it into the OR with her. That was nice.

Like I said, it was 10 minutes after we waved goodbye that they came out and told us that she was done. The doctor came in to talk to us and said that her adenoids, were indeed, huge. He said that everything went really well and he expected her to have a quick recovery.

Mike and I went back to see her and she seemed so groggy but was still her spirited little self. They gave her some apple juice, a popsicle (because she had one of those throat tubes, her throat would be pretty sore today. It was hard to see her with the IV and machines and all, but they unhooked her pretty quickly and we were able to go home.

Now, she's hanging out on the couch with a milkshake, just taking it easy for the rest of the day.


Here's Hannah and her bear before they wheeled her back for her surgery.
The nurse wheels Hannah out to the van when we were ready to go.

Water World

It started raining at about midnight last night. It finally stopped around 9 this morning. When all was said and done, we had almost 9 inches.

Mike woke me up around 6AM to tell me that the basement had about 2 inches of water in it. At some point last night, the sump pump stopped working and water came pouring in.

We've had the plumber come in and replace the sump pump with one with a lifetime warranty. After 20 minutes, the water was out of the tiled places, although the carpet was still pretty soaked. The water removal guys were scheduled to come out and get the rest of the water out. I was feeling okay about the whole thing...it could have been so much worse but the things that are damaged are things that are of little value anyway.

Then, the insurance company called.

Because we don't have the sump pump rider on our policy, nothing is covered. Now, if it was called a "sump pump rider," we would have had the insurance. However, it's called something like a "sewer drain backup rider" and we didn't have it. Now, I wait for the water removal guys to come and tell me the damage. This is making me sick.

To top it off, Hannah's having her ear tubes put in tomorrow and I'm worried about that too. Where the heck are the water guys???!!!???

More Snippets

I couldn't believe how well Daniel and Hannah got along with each other on Sunday after Jacob left for camp. I didn't have to raise my voice once all day Sunday. Even now, they're playing so nicely together and have been getting along so well. They really miss their brother, though.

Mike's been calling a couple of times a day to let me know what's been going on at camp. Sunday, he called to tell me that Jacob passed his swim test and was considered a Level 3 swimmer and had full run of the pool. Awesome considering he's never had a single lesson.

Apparently, the tents sleep two. The adults are in their own tents and the kids are in theirs. Jacob is sharing a tent with his friend Alex and Mike is with George, Alex's dad. Monday morning, Mike goes to wake Jacob and Alex up and when he peeks into the tent, he sees Andrew and thinks he has the wrong tent. He then sees Jacob's blanket and realizes that Andrew and another boy have slept in Jacob and Alex's tent. When asked why, they said that they heard a raccoon outside and got scared. Too cute.

Last night, they were making hamburger bundles over the fire for dinner. Each scout got to make their own and could put whatever they wanted to in it. There was hamburger, carrots, onions, seasonings, potatoes, etc. After they made their thing, they'd bring it to Mike to wrap up and put on the fire. When Jacob brought his to Mike, Mike was not expecting to see the meat and a whole pile of onions. Mike says something like, "Jacob that's awesome! You like onions?" Jacob looks at Mike and says, "No. I hate them. I'm just using them for flavor, like Mom does." I've taught him well.

I had to take Daniel and Hannah with me to jiu jitsu last night, which I hate doing but Stephen and Roxanne's boys are usually there too, so they have playmates. In the middle of class, I look over to the waiting area where the kids are and I see Daniel and Jett playing Daniel's DS and I see Hannah calmly brushing Quinn's hair. She must have brushed that boy's hair for 15 minutes. A little later, Roxanne nudges me and points to the kids. Now Hannah's sitting while Quinn's brushing her hair. Too stinking cute.

We Made It!!!

Well, we made it through the big sleepover and everyone seemed to have a good time. I was pleased that most of the boys were asleep by 11:30 and the final three (Jacob included) were down by 11:45. The boys all seemed to get along pretty well, which was nice.

By the time everyone left Saturday morning, I was completely exhausted. Hannah and I both napped in the afternoon.

Last night, we went out to get our final supplies for Webelos Camp. Jacob kept saying that he wasn't looking forward to camp and didn't want to go. I told him that that was the same way he felt about day camp and he ended up loving it. Over and over again we heard that he just didn't want to go. I then told him that going to overnight camp this year and next year will pretty much guarantee he'll get his Arrow of Light Award (think Eagle Scout for Cub Scouts...the only Cub Scout award that transfers to Boy Scouts) when he's a Webelos II...he still didn't care.

This morning, he was so excited that he couldn't eat. He was dressed, complete with hat and shoes, about 1 1/2 hours before it was actually time to go. Mike ended up leaving about 10 minutes before it was time to actually go because of the excitement. I know that the first thing they are going to do after getting settled into camp is swim, so that should be a lot of fun for him.

It's going to be strange to be missing both Mike and Jacob until Tuesday night. I can't wait to hear about the fun they had.