Saturday, February 28, 2009

Happy Birthday Katie!

Well, it's official. She's 3 as of yesterday. Today is her party. We are meeting some friends at the YMCA pool to swim for a while and then will be coming back to our house for a spaghetti supper and then some strawberry cake and ice cream. She was really funny yesterday when she woke up. I had wrapped one gift and left it on the kitchen table for her to open when she noticed it. She looked at it and then just kept walking. Audrey was twitching from the anticipation! I asked Katie if she was going to open her present and she said, "No, I'll just wait until we go to the YMCA." I have never had to prod a kid to open a gift before. Audrey piped up with an offer to open it for Katie. She was shot down. Finally she relented and opened it. It was so funny. Then Vince was wanting to tell her goodnight and was calling her name so she would come to him. She finally came in the room and said, "What is it, Dad?" in this huffy voice. Like she's got important business and can't be interrupted or something! Also at the Y nursery the other day she wanted me to play with her in the toy kitchen area. She told me she needed a honey. I thought she meant to put on the food, so I was pretending to pour honey on something when she looked at me and goes, "No, Mommy. I want YOU to be my honey." So I sat down where I was told and she served me the pretend meal. "Here you go, Honey." It was really cute. She's getting so grown up.

We almost had a disaster on our hands yesterday. I called the dance place where Katie is going to attend to see when the class starts and what she needed. I had called about a month ago and the owner had told me that we would start in March and to call back at the end of Feb. When I called yesterday morning, she paused for a moment and sheepishly told me that the classes had already started and that it was too late to join. She said she felt bad and didn't remember talking to me and didn't know why she would have told me to call back in Feb. because the class started in Feb. and they had already ordered the costumes for the recital and it was not possible to get another one. She told me to have a nice day and hung up. I was stunned at first, then mad. So, I called some of the other dance studios in town but none of them could take her this late either. I just bawled wondering how I was going to tell my little girl, on her birthday no less, that she wasn't going to get to dance until next fall. She has been so looking forward to it and it would have broken her heart. I thought about calling the studio back and asking again, but I was crying and so upset that I was afraid I would say something I didn't mean. When I calmed down just a bit, I did call her back, because all she could say is no, right? I just told her that I was very upset (which she could probably tell from the hitching, wavering voice, and high pitch sobs) and that I had written down the information that she had given me over the phone the first time we talked and didn't feel it was fair for me to have to tell my daughter she can't dance because of something that was not my fault. I asked if there was anything we could do. She told me that there was absolutely something we could do and that she was horrified that she had let me get off the phone earlier knowing that she was wrong. She said that Katie could definitely come to the class and that she would try everything she could to get her a matching recital outfit. She told me that she didn't want to be responsible for breaking any kid's heart, and then gave me the list of things that Katie would need for class. So, we braved the snow and single digit temps yesterday and got her some tights, a leotard, and the tiniest ballet slippers you have ever seen. She is a vision in pink! Oh, was she excited! I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, you just can't even imgaine! I know it's silly to be that upset about a dance class, but you don't even know how much she is looking forward to this. Now, if Katie gets into this class, which she will start Monday night, and decides that she is too "shy" or doesn't want to participate, I will be really mad! I've already been telling her that she has to listen to the teacher and do what she and the other kids are doing and she agrees that she will, but sometimes saying and doing are 2 different things. And, by the way, the owner called back and said she was able to order another outfit for Katie. YAY!

So, Hallelujah! I guess that's all I have to report for now since I still have dishes to, laundry to fold and put away and a cake to decorate before we can get ready for the pool. More on Katie's birthday later!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hug your kids

Well, I got on here all prepared to make light of my life and to complain about everything like usual, except I just got through reading about a little girl named Cora. There was a link to Cora's blog on a friend of a friend's blog (follow?) so I started reading about this amazing family and their little baby's fight with cancer. It just brings me back to reality and to the harsh truth that sometimes kids get sick and it's hard to understand why that has to happen and why God would allow it to happen. I guarantee that you all will hug your kids a little tighter after reading this. http://themcclenahans.blogspot.com/ Good night. I love you all. Nic XOXO

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Bad drivers

I know I'm the queen of "this is the worst/best" whatever, but seriously, the drivers here in Rapid City have got to be setting some kind of record for the worst driving ever! I don't know why the city even bothers to put up Yield signs because no one bothers to look at them. Or maybe they do and just have no idea what it means. I can't tell you the number of times that I have been almost run over by someone whipping into my lane right past the yield sign. A couple months ago I got cussed and flipped off by an irate man in a truck who was in the wrong! I had already stopped at my stop sign and was turning left when he decided that he wanted to go before I was done turning. Apparently, he thought I should stop again to let him through. I couldn't hear what he was saying because my windows were up, but I can read lips. I'm sure glad that my girls can't though. I'm sure the look on my face was hilarious because I was in shock that he would act that way when it was his fault in the first place! I'm not the only one who complains about the drivers here. When we had some family visiting, they commented too on the horrible manners of the residents. And when you do stop at a yield sign to let someone (who has the right-of-way) through, you get honked at like you've been blocking traffic for a week instead of the 4 seconds that you actually had to wait. It also amazes me at the number of people who have little kids be-bopping around in the car not even wearing seat belts, much less sitting in safety seats. That makes me so mad! I get paranoid when I know that Vince is taking the kids somewhere by himself because sometimes he is less than vigilant about making sure the straps are not twisted or buckled tightly enough. When I see kids without car seats I just want to shake the parents! I have been really frustrated by a lot of things lately. I think part of it is this long, cold winter. It just makes me cranky. I don't like to drag the kids out in it very often so that means we are trapped in the house a lot. That makes Mama very irritable. To top that all off, the stomach bug is making another round through our house. I had it yesterday and then last night, Audrey started with it. She didn't go to school today. I'm still feeling tired and weak and of course didn't get a lot of sleep last night due to Audrey being up and down. I'm hoping that no one else gets it. There should be a rule about only being able to get this crap once a year.



I have been trying to get to the YMCA more in the past couple weeks. I really slacked off on working out while V was gone for that week. The issue that I'm running into at the Y is the parking and the nursery. So many people joined at the New Year that the nursery is always full when you get there. I have been trying to go early enough so that I can catch people leaving from the class before mine, but that means leaving AT LEAST 30-45 minutes before the class starts. And even then, there's no guarantee that there's not someone else waiting for the nursery in front of you. The parking downtown is horrible. Usually I drive around and around within a 3 block radius of the YMCA cruising for a place to park. Most times it takes me about 10-15 minutes to find a spot. Then, of course it takes me another 5 (at least) to get the kids out of the car and all our gear loaded on my back and walk to the YMCA in the cold. Most days I don't want to take the chance of going through all that just to get there and be told they have no room in the nursery. I shouldn't complain. At least they have a nursery, right? It's so funny. The day that we volunteer, we are there for 5 hours. So, in the morning we get there before 8 and it's early enough that there is still some parking within a block of the facility. Around 10 o'clock, we start the shuffle. The parking around the Y is mostly 2 hour, so we take turns moving our cars every 2 hours to avoid getting tickets. Of course, the later it gets, the less parking there is closest to the Y. Usually I am parked about 4 blocks away at the end of my shift. So, at 1 I go get my car and park it in the loading zone with my flashers on and then go retrieve my children from the nursery. It's too much to carry all our stuff and 2 small kids with one trailing behind for 4 blocks in the cold or snow. The days I get really irritated are the ones where I have gone through all these rituals and then as I leave I spot an able-bodied 20-something who finds a spot right by the door and bounds up the steps ready for their workout in less than 1 minute! UGH! Whatever. I do have the treadmill here at home, but it is really a chore to make myself get on it some days. I did run 3.5 miles at 5 MPH the other day. That's the most I have ever run going that fast. That's fast for me. So, I haven't lost any more weight lately, but at least I don't think I have gained much either.



Okay, I'm gonna close the complaint department for a little bit.



Sam is 9 months old now! Wow. Vince had to take him for his well-baby checkup since I was in the bathroom all day. He hasn't gained any weight since his last visit. He's still 21 lbs. 6 oz. But he had gained inches. 29 1/2 inches tall. That puts him in the 95%-ile. I guess all the army-crawling is keeping his weight down because he still eats like he's starving all the time. He will down at least 2 big jars of food at one sitting and have some of what I'm having too and then have some animal crackers for dessert. He really likes to stand up. He always has, but now he's finding that he can do it himself. He's been pulling up on everything. Like the recycling can-yuck! It always tips over on him and makes him mad and he makes a huge mess. Last week he could only pull himself part of the way up and then needed me to straighten him all the way up, but this week, he just pops right up there. When I try to set him down, he refuses to bend at the waist. He wants you to hold him upright. When we do hold him up, he just smiles. He loves it.



Katie is gearing up for her dance class. She talks about it a lot. I told you all that the dance is what potty-trained her. Well, I am happy to report that she has had NO accidents. Not one! She does walk around pant-less most of the time at home. I put them on her in the morning, but when she goes potty, she disrobes and just doesn't put them back on. What's new for our house, though? We are naked a lot. She has been busy lately thinking about her 3rd birthday. She wants to go swimming at the Y and have strawberry cake. Sounds easy enough.



Audrey really wanted to go to school today, but I made her stay home. She hasn't puked since somewhere around 4 this morning, and she says she feels much better today, but it's better to keep her home. I'm sure her teacher appreciates this. She is about to have her Kindergarten screening in a couple weeks. Scary.



Vince and I went on date night last Friday. We had to take Sam because he had a cold and couldn't stay at the church, but that's okay. He's the quiet one. We ate lots of sushi and then went to the mall. Exciting! The timing just doesn't work out for us to see a movie or play since the church keeps them from 5-9. All the movies here start at 7 or later. So, we thought about bowling or go-karts or something, but Sam made that a little difficult. We even thought it might be nice to just come home and watch a movie here all the way through in one sitting with no rewinding, pausing, or background noise. Or maybe just take a nap! Oh, wouldn't that be glorious! But, the mall won out. I didn't get dressed up for nothing, you know. It was nice anyway just to be together. You forget what it's like sometimes! Then on Saturday Vince had to go out of town again. My uncle and cousin came up from Colorado to visit. They only got to stay one night, but that's okay. We still had a nice time catching up. They had never met Katie or Sam. My uncle is a really good guy. It's weird to be a fellow adult. Growing up and being around all the adults for so long makes it kinda surreal when you grow up and become one of the adults with kids. The girls enjoyed having their teenage cousin to play with. I'm not sure if said teenage cousin enjoyed it as much, but I think she liked being with us for a night. V was very disappointed that he missed their visit, but it was a spur-of-the-moment thing and Vince couldn't cancel his snowmobiling trip for work. They are only about 6 hours from us, so maybe we can get down to Ft. Collins sometime and visit them. It is so beautiful down there. V has never been there I don't think and it's been a long time since I have visited. Gosh, I think I was about 14 when I was there last. That's 19 years! It's amazing to me that I have been around long enough to say that. Wow.



Well, Sammy is screaming because he doesn't want to take a nap-yeah, right!-and Audrey is hollering at me about something too. 'Til next time, XOXO

Friday, February 6, 2009

a couple of funnies

This post won't make much sense until you read the previous post from last night.

This morning Audrey came out of her room dressed. Head to toe brown. She announced that she was ready to go get our new Betta. She told me that she wanted to wear brown today. I asked if she was in mourning for her fish and that's why she was wearing brown. She said yes. Not that she knows what the heck mourning means, but it was definitely like she was trying to dress solemnly.

Also, last night Katie had a banana in her hand carrying it around because I told her she could not eat it because supper was almost ready. She put the banana up to her ear and said, "Hello?" like she was talking on the phone. I about died laughing!

P.S. Man, does that goose egg on my noggin ache! I still have a headace too. My kids are already trying to kill me!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Sick of being sick!

Geez, I swear it feels like we are constantly sick. I attribute part of it to the weird weather. It gets warm, then cold, then warm, then cold...It's been in the 60's for the past few days. That was after several days of freezing temps and constant snow. All of a sudden the sun came out and melted the snow and bam!, it's like spring again. I think that keeps our noses running. Then the stomach bug hit us again. Katie woke up one night telling me her belly hurt. I didn't take it too seriously because she is one of those kids that has pretty chronic constipation so we deal with belly issues a lot. I gave her the usual suppository and that seemed to work. VERY WELL! After that she was up every 15 minutes going to the bathroom. She kept waking up Sam too so between the 2 of them I didn't get a bunch of sleep. Then about 4:30 she threw up. So, after getting her taken care of and back in a bed, I got to scrub vomit out of my carpet at dawn. Nothing like getting straight to work in the morning! The best part is that Vince had just gone out of town that afternoon. I think he's psychic or something. The next day she slept it off and felt better by that evening. Then Audrey started of course. She's feeling better now too. So far, Sam and I have not gotten it. *KNOCK ON WOOD* The other part has to be going to the YMCA daycare. We usually do not have this much sickness. Katie has always caught whatever was going around. It seems like she is the one who gets the colds. But this winter has been harder than normal. I definitely think that the Y has something to do with that. My friend Heidi's kids have had the stomach bug too, only worse. I just hope this is the end of it for this winter. I can't take much more. I guess I should just be thankful that it's nothing more serious.

Today after we finished our shift at the YMCA, we decided to go up to Dinosaur Park. The kids love it, but I don't really understand why they like to go there over and over. After you've seen it once it's boring. Anyway, it's up on Skyline Drive which is the hill that kinda divides Rapid City in half. Skyline Drive winds up this hill on the north side and then goes back down to the south side of town. We live on the West Side, which is the place to be! It's the older side of town and where all the nice parks and such are. Dinosaur Park is at the top of Skyline Drive and was built in the 1930's. All it is is about 5 giant stone dinosaurs. They are huge. They are painted and have little explanations about the name of the dino and where and when it lived. The kids climb on them and that's about it. No slides, swings, sandboxes. Just these statues. You can see the Brontosaurus sitting up on the hill from our house. The girls love it. They always want to go. It's been too cold, so today we went because it was warmer. We hiked up, up, up all the stairs to get there, spent about 15 minutes checking it all out when Audrey decided to throw a rock at one of the statues. Not a little pebble. A rock. Like the size of my fist. She chunked it. It bounced off the dinosaur, cracked me in the skull and narrowly missed Sam's head. It really rung my bell. I have a huge sore knot and a headache. Oh, she knew she was in for it. I know that she didn't mean to hit me, but I was still mad. It really hurt! And I was peeved that it could have clunked Sam in the noggin too. It would have injured him pretty badly I think. I told her we were leaving. Oh, the wailing! She stood there and screamed that she wasn't going. I just walked away and left her standing there. I was shaking I was so mad. She finally started following me when she realized I was serious about leaving. She screamed all the way back down the hill. People were just staring at us. It's so embarrassing when your kid acts that way. I didn't care though. I was hot. She's lucky I didn't beat her right there and then! Once I cooled off I talked to her about it. I think she knows better than to throw rocks anyway, even if she was only throwing at the dinosaur. She's duly repentant now.

Our neighbors Jim and Sherri came over for supper tonight. We ate and they played with the kids and then we showed them the Wii. They had a good time I think. I know we did. We enjoy having them around. The girls just love them, except it seems like my kids always act the fools whenever they are around them. For some reason, they start acting crazy. Not listening, jumping around, being loud. I don't know what it is, but it's irritating. Then after they left, I noticed that one of our fish had died. Now I know why my hubby always takes the deceased ones out under the cover of darkness. The girls went insane. They are probably still in their beds crying, "But I want Betta to come back." I gave them the old "he's in a better place in Fishy-Heaven with God" talk, but I think it fell on deaf ears. They couldn't hear me over the moaning. We said a prayer for him and hope to replace our beloved Betta with another beloved Betta very soon. Maybe tomorrow. Children (insert eye-roll here).

Tomorrow is my first parent-teacher conference. Wish me luck that Miss Holli doesn't have the authorities waiting to haul me away to the institution for horrible mommies.

Well, I think there is a cold Bud Light calling my name from the friggie. In the background, I think I hear my bed calling me too. It's nice to feel wanted! Goodnight.