Tidbits

• Logan and Grace finally came home from their summer with my family-in-law.  I missed them desperately, but immediately felt tired when they walked in the door.
• Gracie came home with the strongest southern accent ever.  Two weeks later it has finally diminished, but it took going to school to get rid of it completely.
• Miss Gracie started kindergarten.  She is generally a very outoing, confident little girl, so when she started expressing concerns a few days beforehand I was rather surprised.  However, true to form, she overcame it and has loved going to school on the big orange bus.  Waking up in the morning...not so much.
• Joey flew to KY early Sunday morning to visit his family for a few weeks.  Molly seems to be depressed without him there.
• Logan got 8 ant bites on his foot on Saturday.  His poor little foot was so swollen.  The first few days he said it hurt, then it started itching.  The swelling finally went down Monday afternoon and he seems to be on the mend.
• I left the house this morning before the kids got on the bus.  I worried about it the whole way to work and considered calling the school to make sure they arrived safely.  Then figured they'd call me if something went wrong and got on with my day.
• Cub Scouts has officially started back up after the summer break.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
• We are on the lookout for a program for Grace to get involved in. I'm thinking Girl Scouts or gymnastics. She spent yesterday morning doing front rolls on my bed.
  
  
  

I know, I know...

It's been a long time friends. Just about the whole summer. I haven't found/created time to update this lovely blog, so here I go.

• In early June, my sisters came for a visit. We visited Ikea (I was a first timer) which was cool; however, it would have been even cooler if I could afford to buy stuff. We took the kids to have their pictures made at Portrait Innovations courtesy of Jessica's employee discount/free session. They turned out really well - the kids did great. We also took a picture of the three of us, which I wasn't so crazy about. We also went through some of dad's old stuff - pictures and medals and random stuff he saved. It was really neat to do that, but also made me realize how much I didn't know about him. I loved visiting with them - I wish we lived closer together so we could do it more often.
• ON June 22nd Logan visited the dentist for the first time. He did much better than I expected him to since he can be very shy, timid, and scared when doing new things. He did great through the cleaning and the x-rays. The dentist found a small spot that could turn into a cavity, but since it was around $250 to fix it, we've put it off until it becomes a cavity, hoping he'll lose it first anyway.
• The last week of the month June, including the 4th of July, we went to Lake Lure with Joey's family. We had an awesome time. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. I came home when the week was over, but Joey and the kids went to Kentucky for another couple of weeks. They had fun there and I enjoyed a short break from the crazy life I live.
• The first Monday of July I took a work trip to visit a new client in Manhattan. I went with my two bosses, which was mildly akward, and didn't have any sightseeing time, but we had an awesome dinner with the client and drinks at a rooftop bar with a great view of the city. Good times.
• My "baby boy" turned 6 on July 13. My mom came down for the weekend and we had a little party at the house for him. I got him a cake from Target that had a racetrack on it and two racecars which he loved.
• My "baby boy" also lost his first tooth (dang it, I didn't write down the date, of course). It wiggled for a long time before it finally came out and he was scared about losing it. I finally convinced him to eat an apple and in the first few bites it came out. The tooth fairy forgot to get cash out to leave for him so she dumped out Joey's change cup in his closet floor and managed to dig out $1.50 in dimes. He lost his second tooth shortly thereafter, although it involved mommy pulling it out. It took a few different attempts, but I finally got it. His two permanent teeth had already grown in behind the baby teeth, so now they're just moving into their final locations. Because of that, though, he didn't have that cute period where he had the gap in his smile.
• On August 17th Joey and I celebrated 7 years of marital bliss. Yay!
• I celebrated by taking the kids with me on a work outing. Every year our office meets up with our Greenville office for a joint outing. It took place this year in Greenville at the Greenville zoo. The kids had a great time - for each kid there are 2 kids around their age that came too. We were worn out, but had fun.
• On August 25th Logan began 1st grade. He seems to like his teacher and there are a couple of kids from his class last year in his class this year. He also seems to be meeting up with some other kids from last year on the playground. He declared to me on the second day of school that, "Savannah said I could marry her." So that's settled. At least I don't have to pay for the wedding. ;-)
• We have found some great friends in our neighbors, Julie and Chelsea. They watched Logan over the summer and get him off the school bus now. Unfortunately, they are also renting their house and the owner decided to sell. This week they've packed up and moved down the road a bit. It's not too far away, but it was so nice being friendly with a neighbor and having them there.

So, that's it. Hopefully I'll do a better job updating in the future, but I wouldn't count your chickens before they've hatched.

Small Amusements

Last night, I asked Logan what he did in school that day. He tells me he needs a brown shirt. I have trouble connecting those two things, although in the back of my mind I'm thinking this might have to do with the Kindergarten program coming up next week which I've heard nothing about. He goes on to tell me he's going to be a bird and birds wear brown shirts. (Who knew?)He's also going to play the maracas. Aww, how cute. Of course I'll buy him a brown shirt. Just wish I could get confirmation from the teacher that this is necessary.

He also tells me they planted flowers.
Me: Oh really, cool. Where did you plant them? (I'm thinking some kind of child labor work force the school is employing to do some landscaping. )
Logan: In a pot...I'm going to bring it home for Mother's Day.
Me: Hmmm...you think that was supposed to be a surprise?
Logan: No, I just told you.
Me: Oh. My bad.

He cracks me up.

Winget Park Fall Festival

Yesterday was the Fall Festival at Logan's school. It was basically a bunch of inflatable bouncy things and a train you could ride on in a circle. Joey wasn't feeling well enough to go with us, so my sweet friend Jessica went with us. Thanks to the generosity of our family and friends who bought things for Logan's fundraiser, he got a bracelet that allowed him to do all the activities for free. We had a good time, but for all the overpriced fun, I think we enjoyed playing on the playground the most. Enjoy some pictures!

An Interesting Weekend

Every day Logan brings home his "Communication Binder" from school. In it are papers the teacher needs to send home, the snack chart for the month, his homework calendar, and a sheet the teacher uses to record his behavior for the day. If he's good, he gets a sticker. If not, she notes which of the 5 rules he didn't follow. He didn't get a sticker last Wednesday or Thursday. According to Logan (which could alter the accuracy of the story), Wednesday he got in trouble for either not going to the reading rug quick enough, or not sitting still on the reading rug. Who knows? Thursday he was in line to go to lunch, but apparently fell back in line. When he went to get back where he started, the kid wouldn't let him back in, so they pushed each other in some way. I don't know - he's a hooligan. So Thursday night I went over all the rules with him and Joey and I both reiterated how important it is to listen to the teacher and behave. We were certain he would bring a sticker home on Friday. However, that did not happen. Apparently during story time they are supposed to sit "criss cross applesauce," or in normal people's terms - Indian style. Logan did not do this. I don't know why he didn't want to sit like this, but there you are. To be honest, I don't really care if this is what he got in trouble for. I mean, I guess it's bad that he's not doing what the teacher says, but isn't that kind of a dumb thing to punish kids for? I guess I'm going to stay on Logan's side of this. I know I should be able to see Ms. Nero's side, but I don't. It's dumb - end of story.

My family in law arrived around 3:30 Saturday morning to sleep at our house on their way to Myrtle Beach. Logan had a blast playing with his cousins Saturday morning, and it was nice to visit with everyone for a little while. However, as soon as Gracie realized they were leaving, she decided she would be going too. She wouldn't leave "Mimi's" (my sister in law Missy) side and kept waving and telling me bye and giving me kisses. Once she even told me to go pack her clothes. It was really cute, until they were really ready to leave. My mother in law was holding her so I had to take her and try to explain that she would be staying home with me. She kept saying bye to me and trying to go back to Barb so they could get going. Eventually "Mawmaw" gave in and I was told to run and pack her things. While I was packing, they were putting her car seat in Mimi's van and she was in it by the time I got out there. She saw me through the front window and waved again with a big smile on her face. I gave her a kiss and she was gone. She didn't care what I was doing as long as she was going to the beach. Of course, her brother wasn't very amused by all this. He wanted to go too, or as an alternative, wanted Gracie to stay. He cried for a while, but recovered quickly once they were gone. But we are counting down the days until she returns ;-).

For some reason or another, I put Logan in time out around 6:00 Saturday night. I made him sit on the couch, which turned into him laying on the couch. I looked over a few minutes later, and he was out. He has been so exhausted from school, and refuses to take a nap, that he just gave in. He slept from 6:00 Sat. night to 7:30 Sun. morning. I enjoyed a quiet night catching up on Project Runway. I think I watched 4 or 5 episodes Sat. night, and the last 3 on Sunday. How lovely.

Sunday Logan and I went to my friend Jessica's house where she was babysitting her 4 year old niece, Zoey (I guess that's how you spell it) and 3 year old nephew, Josh. We had a nice lunch of chicken nuggets and french fries and then took the kids to the pool. After a while, they all became very brave and started jumping in the pool. Zoey could do it on her own since she had a little tube raft on. Logan, however, had to jump into someone's arms. Well, for some reason he decided Zoey could catch him. He jumped just about right on top of her and then used her as his flotation device. Not such a good idea. Jessica and I were right there and moved with surprising speed. We got them both safely above water and decided maybe we should take a break from jumping in the pool. The rest of our visit was pretty uneventful, and by the time we were ready to go home I was exhausted. I made it into the house, took a quick shower, and konked out on the couch.

So today is the big test after our long weekend. Will Logan come home with a sticker? Goodness, I hope so.

A Long Week

Well, this past week has been pretty eventful. It started last Friday when I got up for work 20 minutes late, in addition to the 15 I usually am late. I turned on the shower, put in my contacts, and checked the water temperature so I could get in. Freezing cold. Okay. I usually let it run a little longer than that so I brushed my teeth and checked it again. Freezing cold. Well shit. Freezing cold it is. I told Logan to get Joey and jumped in. It was the coldest, fastest shower ever. I was in there 4 minutes, tops. I had to wash my hair, so that's all I did. Joey went out to check the pilot light on the hot water heater and realized there was no gas going to it. Well we had paid our bill, so who knew what the problem was. We found out about an hour later when Joey called to report it, that the gas company had been doing some routine maintenance that night and someone forgot to turn a switch back on, causing 7,000 people to be without gas Friday morning. Fantastic. They were estimating it could take the whole Labor Day weekend to get it back on.

Saturday night we still didn't have gas and Joey was getting a little ticked off about it. Around 10:30 that night he went on the back patio to smoke and saw the flasing lights on the next street that indicated they were up there turning on gas. He walked to where they were, had a "conversation" about them coming and turning ours on right then, and came home. Once he was back, he realized he had been bitten by some fire ants. Apparently, while he was talking to the gas people he was also standing on an ant hill and the ants didn't appreciate that. So they bit his feet and ankles, a lot. He was laid up in bed until about Wednesday with ice and various anti itch creams on his feet. The problem was, he's allergic to bee stings, and apparently doesn't agree with ant bites either. Oh well, he survived it.

Tuesday morning was Logan's first official day of school. I took him that morning because they were having a lite breakfast for all the newbies and their parents. We went to his room to put down all the supplies we had to bring and he decided he didn't want to go to the breakfast. So, after a kiss and a hug, I was off. How bizarre. This child that I was worried wouldn't want me to leave him at all, doesn't care if I do. Which is great, but sad. My little boy is growing up. He rode the bus home and Joey met him when he got off. He had a great day and has a new friend - Elliot. That's all I've heard about all week. I noticed when I dropped him off on Tuesday that he was sitting next to this boy, and on Friday Logan told me that they'd moved around and he was sitting next to someone different now. I'm going to assume the whole class moved, and the teacher wasn't just separating Logan and Elliot. On Thursday, he brought home his communication binder for the first time. It is the way the teacher and I can communicate. She sends it home with anything I need, and I can send notes back to her in it. This binder also contains his homework calendar for the month. Yes, my kindergartener has homework. Easy things, but homework none the less. So Logan's first week of school went great and he can't wait to go back on Monday.

As for me, I have been a little chef this past week. Last Saturday I made chicken stroganoff in the crockpot, which was delicious. It immediately became one of our favorite meals. I made pumpkin bread with a cream cheese layer in the middle, which was really good once you sprinkled some powdered sugar on it. I made one of my favorite chicken casseroles on Friday, and tonight I made salisbury steak in the crockpot. It was pretty good, but nothing next to the chicken. I also made a blueberry cheesecake with a recipe from the Kraft magazine I get. It's not very good, which is disappointing considering I love cheesecake and Joey loves blueberries. Logan tried a bite and spit it in the trash can, so I went ahead and threw the recipe away. It just tastes like cream cheese - you can barely even taste the blueberries. Bleh. Oh well. I love it when I get in the mood to be a chef. Cooking is one of my least favorite things to do most of the time, but every once in a while I get in a mood where I love doing it.

The First Day

Today was the big day, my baby boy, Logan, started kindergarten. Wow. Although I guess calling him my "baby boy" is a little behind the times. But in my heart that's what he'll always be. How cheesy, I know.

His school starts at 9:15, so about 8:00 I started getting him ready. He had some of a bowl of Frosted Flakes, brushed his teeth, and got dressed. Of course, he couldn't wait to put his cool backpack on - even though the only thing in it was a travel pack of Kleenex since he had a runny nose. I took the obligatory pictures:

And then we were off. We waited forever in the drop off line, parked, and in we walked. We found the check in spot for new kindergarteners, and found out he would be in the green room today. (A side note: our school does staggered entry for kindergarteners. Each child goes one day of the first week of school, then on Friday the "kindergarten team" gets together and places each child in a permanent room. This helps to match them up personality wise with the teachers and skill wise with the other kids.) We went in the room, met his teacher, gave her his lunch money, and she showed him where to put his backpack. They were having free time while everyone finished checking in so I asked him if he wanted to play with the blocks. He said yes and asked me if I would stay to watch him play. I got a tiny bit worried at this point that there was a meltdown coming, so I cheerfully told him that I had to go to work, but would be back in the afternoon to pick him up. He gave me a kiss and a hug, a wave goodbye, and that was that. The next big phase of his life began.

I picked him up in the afternoon and could immediately tell he was exhausted. I asked what he did, and he said he didn't know. I asked what he had for lunch, and he couldn't remember. He did manage to let me know that he was going to need some milk when we got home. After a cup of milk and some peaches, he was finally rejuvenated enough to tell me about his day. They had PE and learned about bike safety. Apparently he should always wear his helmet. They played a lot of games - red light, green light and freeze tag among many. They learned to walk in a line and keep their fingers to their mouths while doing this. They cut out a palm tree and leaves and glued them to a page; then used yellow circle stickers as the coconuts. He had written an "L" on each coconut. They had a hearing test and the teacher read them some books. I'm sure they did more things and I'll continue to hear about them over the next few days.

All in all, it was an exhausting really fun day and he can't wait to go back. I'm so excited for him that he's begun this journey. I hope he can always remember how excited he was in the beginning.

Growing Up

Well, we had a big night in our house tonight. I took Logan to an open house at his school so he could see it for the first time. He starts kindegarten next Wednesday. I haven't felt so sad that I thought I would cry at any moment...until we were walking down the hallway in his school. Here is this little boy holding my hand walking for the first time through a hall that he will soon know like the back of his hand. It's all beginning. I felt my chest start to tighten and became seriously concerned I was going to make a fool of myself. But once we started down the kindergarten hallway, I relaxed. We met all 9 of the kindergarten teachers and explored all of the rooms. We visited the cafeteria and the gym. The truly sad part was that once we got through the first room, Logan no longer needed me. He ran ahead to each room checking out all the things they had to offer. He wasn't scared and holding my hand, he was a big boy exploring his future. I was so proud of him. When people say time flies, they fail to mention how quickly it goes. It seems like just yesterday that I gave birth to him.

Seven weeks before he was due my doctor put me on bedrest. One week after that, on Sunday afternoon, as I lay on my bed watching TV, my water broke. Let me tell you - that is some messy stuff. Anyway, having 6 weeks to go until I was due, we ran around like crazy packing what we thought I would need and a few things for Joey, certain the unpleasant part would start anytime. I didn't have my first contraction until we were in the car on the way to the hospital in Mt. Sterling, about 30 minutes away. No too bad, I thought. I can do this. We got checked in and they checked to see how far along I was. 2 centimeters. My confidence increased. 2 centimeters and the contractions weren't too bad. Maybe I'll survive. Then my doctor informed me they were going to send me by ambulance to UK Hospital in Lexington since I was 6 weeks early. They assured us that it would be fine for Joey to follow the ambulance in the car since I had plenty of time before I'd deliver. They loaded me up and off we went. My contractions kept coming, but I was okay. Then, I'd guess about 10 minutes away from the hospital, something felt very strange. LOTS of pressure. The nurse riding with me said she'd check me, but my contractions were probably just getting stronger. Umm, no. I was fully dilated and ready to deliver. WHAT?! I started crying, afraid of giving birth in an ambulance. They told me not to push and the male nurse let me squeeze his hand through the contractions. Looking back on it, he probably had to have some kind of reconstructive surgery after I was done with him. However, I managed to resist the urge to push.

Now as luck would have it, my mom had been at our house that Sunday morning. When she left, she stopped in Lexington to do some shopping. So when we called her, she said she'd just wait for us at the hospital. This turned out to be a huge blessing. When we realized I was fully dilated, the ambulance turned on the siren and sped through the lights. Joey, of course, could not do this. We lost him. When we got to the hospital, mom was waiting right at the emergency room doors, found out the situation, and immediately started helping me. Thank God. Alone was not how I wanted to be. They took me to a delivery room and the nurses were just putting around getting things ready. Finally, the ambulance people told them I was ready, they checked, and things got hopping. Without any time for drugs, after two pushes, out came Logan. Hooray! They took him away to clean him up and started trying to clean me up. I was in labor for less than four hours. Joey finally got there, and was immediately bummed out. He'd completely missed the birth of his first born. Except, of course, for the yucky water breaking part.

He quickly realized, however, that they were having some kind of trouble with Logan. They brought him to me, let me see him for a second, and after a quick stop in the nursery, took him to the NICU. This is terrifying - to see the child you'd created and given life to whisked away because he was having trouble breathing.

He was in the NICU for 11 days. Aside from not breathing very well, he was a very healthy little boy. We got to hold him for a little while after a couple of days, but he had to wear an oxygen mask and had IV's everywhere from his arm, to his feet, to his head.

But he was precious, and we loved him. He eventually gave up the oxygen and we were able to bring him home. Another terrifying experience. I leaned over his carseat for almost the entire hour long ride home, listening and watching to make sure he was still breathing. We made it home, and we've made it through 5 years of his life. And next week he starts school. The beginning of the end - leading to the point where he leaves us to go to college and start life on his own. It's hard to believe it wasn't yesterday I was sure he was going to stop breathing during his first car ride. I love him and I'm so excited for my little boy as he begins this big adventure.