Swimming with the fishes

We've given up our dance shoes in favor of swim fins. I signed the girls up for swimming lessons because for some reason, my kids are terrified of getting their heads wet. They will happily splash away in water up to say, waist-level, but anything beyond that and they freak out. If we try to take Audrey out in deeper water with us, she keeps a white knuckle grip around your neck so that you can't possibly be separated from her or try to hold her at arm's distance and dunk her. Katie of course, hated it. She was made to sit out and then told to go ahead and get her towel because she absolutely refused to so what the instructors said after about the first 4 minutes. Sound familiar? Maybe she just loathes structure? I don't know. What I do know is that I told her in no uncertain terms that she WAS going to continue with the classes and that she WAS going to participate if I had to throw her in the pool myself. The next lesson, Daddy was with us and we made a big deal out of how well they were doing. Katie was fine. She did everything she was told to do and even-gasp!-had fun doing it. Audrey loved it from the get-go. They both went under water. Audrey says twice, but that's debatable. Katie still fights with everything in her to hang on to the teacher so tightly as she's jumping in that her face never comes close to the water. The teacher, meanwhile is trying everything in her power to dunk her to try and show her that it doesn't hurt to go under. The instructor told me after the first class that the girls had homework. They were to blow bubbles in the bathtub every time they take a bath and try to work up to putting their faces under water. Audrey will do it up to her eyes, but Katie I have to force to blow bubbles. Stubborn little thing. But I still think it's a good thing and will at least get them more comfortable with the water.

Let's get the weather issue out of the way and move on. Yesterday it was 85 degrees. We went to the park after working at the YMCA all morning. It was almost hot except for the wind. We were all wearing shorts and had slathered ourselves in sunscreen. We were told by the weather gurus that some cooler weather and rain was headed for us. This morning we woke up and it was snowing. It hasn't been much above freezing all day and has been alternating between snow and rain. It's really crazy. I'm confused. Is it spring or not?

Sam's first birthday is coming and we are still trying to decide what to do. I think we are leaning toward staying home and having a small celebration with just us and possibly our neighbors. They call the kids their grandkids and just love being with them, so I think they would enjoy being invited. I sent out an e-mail today requesting that everyone start thinking about items to send for his time capsule. Consider yourselves informed.

Lately, I am hooked on Twilight. Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard of these books and movies. It was written for the young adult crowd, but there were several mommy friends of mine that had gotten into them as well and I decided to check out what all the hype was about. OMG! It's like crack. Really. After reading the first book, I could not wait to read the second one. I watched the movie and am now in love with Robert Pattinson who plays the male lead. He's such a hottie! Vince tells me I am pathetic, but who cares what he thinks, huh. ;-) I'm telling you--do not read the first book unless you want to be addicted. I ordered the rest of the books in the series and am very impatiently awaiting their arrival. I check the front door at least 25 times a day just in case the mailman snuck them up there without me seeing or hearing him. I have to stop talking about it now because I'm gonna start twitching any minute. My friend Ruth, who let me borrow the first book, says her plan for world Twilight domination is almost complete. She even inserts an evil little "mwuuahaha" laugh for effect.

Hang on, I gotta go find some wool socks. My feet are freezing...Okay, that's a little better.

What else? I guess that's about it. We haven't been doing much except going to the park to take advantage of the nice weather and getting ready for V to go out of town for a couple weeks. He's on his way to GA for some training. It will suck while he's gone, but it looks good on his resume. I just had to retrieve Sam from the bathroom where he was partaking in his new favorite past-time. Toilet water playtime. Yuck! I try to keep reminding everyone to shut the toilet and shut the bathroom door, but for some reason, this is a very hard thing for anyone to remember. He's such a boy. He loves the remotes, phones, and the toilet. And he will put anything in his mouth. My girls never did these things. Currently he is dismantling the fridge magnets. Anything he can take apart or destroy. The ladies at the Y just love him. He growls at them and they laugh and laugh. A lot of them tell me that he is their favorite baby in there. They could just be blowing smoke, but I choose to think they are telling the truth. He's my favorite baby in there too. He's cutting 5 teeth at the same time so he hasn't been the happiest kid in the world, but overall he's still pretty mellow.

I guess I should go so that I can come up with something for dinner. I need to wake Katie also. I made her nap today even though she said she wasn't tired. She's been sleeping for a while and will be a bear tonight if she gets too much sleep this afternoon. It goes against everything I stand for to wake a sleeping kid, but I really should.

Good evening to all.

Easter fun

Well, a good time was had by all I think! We left Friday morning early, but not as early as planned, 'cause that's how we roll. We hit Lacrosse, WI around 6:30 to meet up with our friends Mike and Rachel and their kids. Man, was it nice to see them and to have a nice home-cooked meal instead of fast food. The girls played so well together and seemed happy to see one another again. The boys just eyed each other a lot. They are just a month apart and not at the playing-together-nicely stage just yet. They just kinda crawled around each other and petted one another a few times. But they were good. Mike and Vince caught up on the work issues and Rachel and I chatted away about babies, kids, and babies and kids. While we were there one of our dumb dogs got up front and ate most of our snacks. Stuff that you wouldn't think a dog would be interested in like yogurt melts and baby mum-mum rice husks and grasshopper cookies. We landed at my aunt's house around 12:30 am. Everyone was still up waiting so we talked for a few minutes and then headed for bed. Sam didn't sleep at all, which means I didn't sleep at all. Also, from the moment we left our house until the moment we returned, Sam had, on average, 3 explosive diapers a day (I'm not exaggerating-we literally had to change a diaper before we even left our driveway). Yes, he still does that most of the time. I'm so tired of it--really tired! On the way home when we stopped for lunch, he did it twice in one hour. He was on his 3rd outfit of the day by the time we left the restaurant and it was only noon! And the stupid dog got up front again and ate the snacks he missed on the way there and some Easter candy, including a chocolate bunny! He was severely beaten-or at least made to think that he was gonna be. Anyway, back to business...We really did have a nice time. Saturday we hit the Milwaukee County Zoo--very quickly. It was a nice day, but there was a wind blowing and it made it feel really cold! Also, they were having some Easter activities at the zoo, so anytime we tried to go to an indoor exhibit to warm up, we were crammed in with the other 1,000,000 visitors that day. Then we visited my grandparents and a few aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was great to see them and I think that my grandparents enjoyed having us for a while. Grandma got to feed us, which always makes her happy. I will post some pictures on my Kodak Gallery for you guys to see. I don't like to post pictures on here because anyone can see this blog. I'd rather send a link to people I know. Saturday evening my aunt made the family recipe enchiladas and invited some uncles, aunts, and cousins from the other side of the family. I call them "white-trash enchiladas" but my aunt hates that term. Let's just say there's a lot of Velveeta and Hormel chili involved. Soooo good! One of my aunts makes cakes and OMG!! So, to recap--I ate greasy popcorn at the zoo, one dinner and dessert at my Grandma's, another dinner at my aunt's and then had some chocolate cake with cheesecake and cannoli in it (it was a layered thing) and then some banana pudding. It's a good thing I hardly ate breakfast because I don't even want to think about the number of calories I ingested after 4:00 that day. I woke up on Sunday not feeling well (surprise?) but went for a very nice run with my dad and Vince that morning, then helped them play Easter bunny. The kids hunted the eggs and then we proceeded to eat our way through the mountain of candy heaped on them from their parents, grandparents, and all the relatives in between. By Sunday evening I was not feeling well at all and went to bed trying to keep my Easter dinner where it belonged. Alas, I was not successful. We had planned to head to the Milwaukee Public Museum Monday morning. We got around a little late, but I was feeling a little better, so decided to go along. Turns out that the Monday of Spring Break is the busiest day of the year at the MPM because Mondays are free day. Great! It was pretty crowded, but still awesome. If you ever are in Milwaukee, this museum is a must see. It covered everything from natural history to cultures of the world to local history and beyond. It was like the museum in that movie "Night at the Museum". They even had a "dum-dum" head! We got to attend the Titanic exhibit also. That was so neat. At the entrance they give you a card with a name and some information about that person like what class their tickets were, and who they were traveling with and why. At the end, you could look up whether you lived or died that night. I was a third class passenger traveling with my hubs and 9 kids. Sadly, we all perished. My dad was John Astor. We all know how that ends. Anyway, it was neat to see some of the real artifacts and stuff. Then we went back home to eat some more and watch Madagascar 2. That movie is hysterical!! It's WAAY better than the first one. Moto Moto is one of my faves. Vince likes the penguins. They are funny. You gotta see it. My aunt had planned a little birthday party for Sam (and Vince) so that my parents could celebrate with him. We ate our weight in ice-cream cake and watched as Sam smeared it everywhere. Nana gave him his bath that night! So, we took off Tuesday morning, again, later than planned. The trip home was definitely shorter than the drive there, but it did have it's bumps. First, the amazing pooping baby was up to his usual tricks, then Katie threw up in the car. It's not a proper trip unless someone pukes in the car, right? Yeah, that was when we were about 4 hours from home. She tried to tell me, but I wasn't understanding. She kept saying, "My food, my food hurts." I thought she was saying her foot hurts. Sheesh! Next time she says anything hurts while we are in the car, she's getting a plastic bag just in case. Luckily, Vinny had some industrial trash bags in the car. We got her cleaned up and her clothes sealed up and then covered her chair with a bag and cut slits for the straps. It still stunk, but I'm guessing it could have been worse. Finally we made it home and realized we left the girl's Leapster, Sam's birthday gifts and his sippy cup in Wisconsin. Figures. I'm sure there were other things left behind as well.

Wow, that was one long paragraph! Nothing like a play-by-play, huh?

So, we're home now and trying to settle back in. Sam's sleeping better and the candy is almost gone so life is almost back to normal. I took the kids to the Youth and Family Services Kid's Fest this morning. It's a kid's dream. It's $3 per person and then they have free range to play all day if they want. There is everything you can imagine for them to do--train rides, bouncy castles, games, prizes, entertainment, a giant sand box--any kind of activity you can think of! It's all indoors at the civic center and it's a blast. Audrey just runs to every different thing. Katie would play all day in the sandbox or the area that has little sandboxes filled with things like lentils or tiny colored pasta. Sam liked those too. Amazingly he didn't put any of it in his mouth. Even if he did, it was all edible and not big enough to choke on. The girls got their faces painted. Audrey got a heart and Katie got Spiderman. Funny!

Well, I guess that's all for now. Hope everyone had a great Easter and is scarfing as much candy as I am. I don't wanna get fatter all alone!

Hanging up our tutus

Well, it's official. Katie's dance days are over for now. They were going to let Audrey take her place, but since we missed this week and will miss next week too, she said that just won't be enough time to get the routine before the recital, so we are through. I'm sad. I was really excited and thought Katie was too. She has just been very difficult lately. Throwing tantrums and being super dramatic all the time. She's really emotional. Today at the YMCA, she threw an all-out fit because they were giving an Easter egg to each kid as they left the day care and she wanted one. But we had a couple more hours to go before we were leaving. She was sooo mad. Screaming, throwing herself on the floor, kicking. I was pretty embarrassed. I had to go move my car and took her with me, just to calm her down a little, but it didn't help. I think part of it was that she was tired. She fell asleep on the way home and it's only a 10 minute drive. But, still. I hate it that she's acting this way. She used to be sooo sweet and easy-going. Maybe it's the age. Audrey, on the other hand, has changed places with her sister and is now my helper and good girl. I don't know what happened. She still has her moments, but for the most part our days have been much smoother as far as Audrey is concerned. She is kinda excited because there is a dance camp this summer and she was invited by Katie's dance studio. She really wants to go but we will have to wait and see when it is to make sure that we will be in town.

Tonight we have been packing up a storm and getting ready to head across to Wisconsin. I'm really dreading being in the car for 14 hours, but it will be nice to see my family. I'm sure that Vince and I will fight, just like we always do when we're around my family, but we will get through it. We were raised differently. Our families are very different. Sometimes, it's hard for him to accept that he cannot be in charge of everything. The girls are excited to see Nana and Papa and all the cousins. We are stopping on the way to see our friends Mike and Rachel and their kiddos. They live in northern MN now, but his mom lives in Lacrosse, WI pretty close to the interstate. How convenient! So, we are going to stop for supper there and get to spend a little time with some friends and stretch our legs too.

Hope everyone has a good Easter. God Bless you all. Love ya.

Dance drama and the most ridiculous words

Katie's dance class has been out for a couple of weeks due to this crazy South Dakota weather. We have had 3 snowstorms in 2 weeks that can be classified as blizzards. I don't even know how much snow that is, but let me assure you that it's plenty. And of course, we are expecting more this week. She was supposed to have class tonight, but she was very stern when she told me that she DID NOT want to go anymore. My heart just sank. I really want it to be something she wants to do and not something she's forced to do, so I called the owner of the studio and explained what was going on. I know that I told you guys that Katie has not been actively participating when we take her there, so I guess it should be no surprise that she has decided she doesn't want to do it. The owner was nice about it, but said that another girl had dropped out and the class was really dwindling and wanted to try to find a way for Katie to stay in. I dropped the suggestion about Audrey taking Katie's place and she was open to that. She thought that maybe Katie would want to do it if Audrey was doing it and maybe we could get the recital outfit from that other girl and they could both take the class. I asked Katie if she would dance if Audrey did and she said no. Stubborn little thing. But, Miss Andrea said that she would talk to the teacher about Audrey taking over Katie's spot and to not bring her tonight because she wouldn't have a chance to talk to Brooke before tonight's class. But that means that if Audrey does get to go, she will miss this week and next because we are heading to WI for Easter. Maybe they won't have class next week, I don't know. ARRRGH! Why can't life be easy? However, if this is all I have to complain about I must be doing alright, huh?

We are leaving this Friday for my Aunt's house in Hartland, WI, just outside Milwaukee. She has agreed to host us all for the weekend so that we can spend some time with my ailing grandparents. My parents are flying up also so it should be interesting. There are 2 adults and 5 kids that live at my Aunt's and then to have the 5 of us (and our stupid dogs) and my parents too will be quite an undertaking! Luckily my Aunt Kris loves to entertain. Oh, the dogs. Those silly little furballs that cause more angst and headaches in my house than anything else. I do love animals and I love my beagles, but I'm about to the point of willing them to go away. Anywhere. Since it's been so cold and snowy we have ALL been trapped in the house together for many days. That doesn't make for a happy mama. Or daddy. Sheesh. Yesterday we decided we had to get out of the house so we took the kids to Burger King for lunch. They have a play area. It's not my favorite place to eat, but whatever. So, Vince and I took our books and let the kids run for a while. Vince ended up playing with the kids and even taking Sam with him. In the middle of playing, Vince called me over to tell me that Sam had an explosive diaper. Yes, he still does that--often. I took him to the ladies' room to change him only to find out there is no changing table. What is up with that? They have a play area, but no changing table? Dumb. So, I laid out the diaper station on top of the sink. He had poop everywhere. I got him changed, made Vince come and get him and then commenced to cleaning up. After, I went to the assistant manager and told her I wanted a comment card. Of course, no one has those anymore. You have to call the 1-800 number or go online. Dumb, dumb. So, I just told her that I thought it was weird that there was no table in there and she proceeded to utter the most ridiculous words ever. "We had one and 'they' made us take it out because it was unsanitary." Excuse me? Dumb, dumb, dumb!! I said, "So, you're telling me that it's more sanitary for me to change a very poopy diaper on top of the sink than a changing table? Are they any harder to clean than the toilets?" She made a face when I told her that I changed him on the sink and said that it wasn't her decision, but was one made by 'them'. Whoever they are. I mean, come on people!! You have a play area! And that's so sanitary? Have 'they' seen the play area? I'm willing to bet the bathroom gets cleaned more often than those tubes and slides! Is that not one of the silliest things you've heard in a while? When I get off of here, I plan on going to the website or wherever and tell them what I think of that.

So, guess who's dogs decided to walk over the snow drifts into our yard the other day? I heard our dogs going crazy in the kitchen and when I looked out, one of her dogs was on the porch. Two of them had decided to come play for a while. She really has no legs to stand on if she ever complains about my dogs again. I have pictures. Her hubs came over and put them back over into her yard while she waited so that she could swat them. Funny.

Well, I suppose that's all for now. All of our creatures are growing restless waiting for supper. And I rented Twilight. I can't wait. I'm sure it's not as good as the book, but I don't care. He'll still be nice to look at. I just recently read the first book in the series and now know what all the craze is about. It was good. I can't wait to get my hands on the next 3.

Later--NicXOXO

Home show

There is a huge home show coming up in Rapid City this weekend, which got me to thinking about our house and the adorable upgrades that we have made *wink, wink*. So, I decided to take my peeps on a little tour of our house. Here we go...

Come in, my friends, through the laundry room door since the front screen door was a victim to the wind several months ago and refuses to open. Try not to fall vicitim yourself to the booby trap of shoes that we have set in front of the door and enter the dining room/kitchen. Pick your way through the minefield of Cheerios super-glued to the floor by chocolate milk on my floor that was just swept and mopped and be sure to check out the mountain of to-be-filed (someday) paperwork and miscellaneous magazines and newsletters that have yet to be read. Don't be alarmed by the smell. It's just the trash that needs to go out, or it could be the dishes in the sink from yesterday that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, or maybe it's the dirty diaper pail, or it could be the dogs. Whatever, we can't smell it anyway since we live in it. On your right is the living room where no one lives but the laundry. Need a clean pair of undies? Go no further than the chair, folks. It's the perfect place for all your laundry needs. At times it is known to eat children, but they usually find their way out eventually. Darn. There might be a remote control somewhere in this room, but it hasn't been seen in ages. The thing that I always see in this room is the mysterious smear that has recently appeared on my curtains. It's origin and DNA have not been proven as of yet. It looks a lot like dried snot, but there's no telling. A lot of things look like dried snot. Now, let's venture further toward the back of the house. Through the hall of horrors, aka the portrait gallery, filled with a dizzying array of dollar store frames sporting photos of Vince's family. Note the absence of pictures of my side of the family tree. We take pictures, we just never have them printed or framed. Then we will look to our left and see the bathroom, which was once a source of much frustration and is now...a source of much frustration. I call it the bathroom of wonder because I wonder when I will ever be able to use it by myself. Maybe when the kids go off to college? We can only guess. Now, it gets really scary. Sam's room/guest room/Vince's man room/storage is directly across from the bathroom where at any time of the night while Sam is asleep, you can turn on the bathroom light (the loudest light switch in the world) "CLICK" and wake him up. It's best to just pee in the dark, but try not to stub your toe on the bathroom stool that sneaks out from it's hidey hole in the middle of the night to find a place directly in your path. When you bounce it off of the cabinet "BANG" then jump up and down cursing "%*%$$@#&^$" and holding your foot in your hand only to fall against the glass shower door "PING", please try not to wake the baby. Then it's on to the other bedrooms. Take a right and wander in to the girl's bedroom which looks more and more like a toy store every day. Except messier. If you can see the floor, you may enter, but don't look too closely at the marker stains in the carpet. Turn around and enter into the Master's domain. You can tell it's his room because he has taken special care to mark his territory, as evidenced by the men's clothing, shoes, camo this and that, the SWAT and Counter-Terrorist magazines and the legions of patches, hats, shirts, bags, pins, challenge coins, etc. that are collected by my husband laying all around. Also, a laundry bomb has apparently gone off in our room. So, for clean clothes, hit the LR chair, but for dirty ones, check out our room. I can't tell if there's a hamper in there or not. I know we have one somewhere. But if you're looking for dirty underwear, don't look anywhere near where the hamper should be because somehow it never makes it that far. That's what you had to step over to get into the room. Don't mind the dust in here. When people come over, we just shove everything in here and close the door. It hasn't been cleaned since, well I don't know when. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our tour. I hope you have enjoyed your foray into the Sidders's house. Come back any time. We enjoy having people over. It gives us the excuse and motivation to clean our house and hide all the stuff I have just described. If you come over unexpectedly, at least now you know what you're up against.

Wooohooo!

Well, I did it! Actually, we did it. Vince helped so much when he decided to run with me today. It was my first 5K and it was a doozy! One of the first things we did was run up this gigantic hill. I'm not exaggerating here. A lot of people walked the hill and then started running. I am so very proud to report that we ran the entire thing! Of course, at the pace we were going, there were people walking who were keeping up with us, but that's okay. I ran. We started off very slowly just to be sure not to hurt ourselves in all the excitement. There was a small group of women, one of whom was very pregnant that passed us at first. I was a little embarrassed. But we ended up passing them on the hill and staying in front of them the rest of the way, so I feel better. We ended downtown at the Dublin Square Pub and had our celebratory beer, then left to go pick up the kids. We picked up a pizza on the way home too. We decided to walk from the pub to our car to cool down and stretch our legs a little. That was a pretty long walk! Anyway, we made it and could not have been happier. Poor Vince had to slow his pace WAY down to stay with me, but he didn't seem to mind. He was so awesome during the whole thing. There was another girl that ran most of the way with us. I met her in sewing class and we noticed each other at the starting line. She thought our pace was good and that Vince was a great motivator, so she stayed with us while her mom walked ahead of us. Yes, her mother walked faster than we ran. We finished in about 38 minutes, which is a good time for me, especially with that hill. When we got home, after I got the kids from next door--thanks Jim and Sherri!-and ate some lunch, we crashed hard. I could feel myself getting droopier and droopier by the minute. I guess when the adrenaline wore off, it was curtains for me! Vince, you are the wind beneath my wings-love you!! (Cue the music)

Also, I have to give a shout out to a lovely lady named Pam for being such a sweetheart! My little Scottish friend, you don't even know how much seeing your smiling face this morning before and after the race meant to me. She was there with a high-five and a big hug at the finish line. I love the encouraging advice given in that fabulous brogue!

Of course, there were tears. Since you all know that I'm a big bawl-baby I don't mind telling you that. And I did make a fool of myself at the end. At the finish line, they wanted us to make a single-file line and give them the bottom portion of our bib. Well, I was a little confused which way to go and the guy stuck his hand out to show me. I thought he was just giving me a high-five! I was like, "Yeah" and smacked his hand! Then he shouted (to be heard over the masses) for me to keep going to the right. Oh! Duh. I felt like a dork. Oh, well. I am a dork. Probably no one noticed but me. I hope.

So, on to the next one!

Nervous

I am so excited and nervous!! I signed up yesterday for my first 5K! That's 3.2 miles for us Americans. After I got all signed up, the lady said she hadn't seen the course, but heard that it was hilly. Great! Could you have maybe mentioned that before I made out my check? Well, I'm stuck now. I think it will be fine. I run some hills anyway when I get to run outside because we live on the west side of town (which always makes me want to throw gang signs and say, "West siiiide!) which is pretty hilly. Now, the east side of town where the race will be is not hilly. I guess they found the only hill over there and decided to make us run it. Thanks. Appreciate ya. I called my friend Sheri for running advice since she has been running for years and has done several races, including marathons and half-marathons. She calmed me a bit. Gave me a pep talk. "Just take it slow, keep your pace and try not to get caught up in the whole race atmosphere and run too fast at the beginning." Thanks, Sheri! I hope I can remember that on Saturday. I don't need to win the thing, just finish it without walking and get my t-shirt! Vince says that if I can find someone to watch the kids on Saturday, he will run it with me. That would be nice to have someone to run it with. Whew! I have butterflies just blogging about it.

It's been interesting around here lately. Katie has been going to dance and giving her teacher trouble. I don't know what to do. At home, she does great. If I ask her to show me first position or an arabesque (I'm sure I butchered the spelling on that one!) she does it just fine. She tells us that she wants to go to class and learn to dance. But, get her in the dance studio and she completely ignores what the others are doing and ends up sitting against the wall. I talked to the owner and her teacher and they aren't sure what to do with her. The teacher gives out stickers to the girls who participate during class, but Katie could care less. Andrea, the owner, thinks maybe it's because it's her first structured class. I think the mirrors and stuff distract her. I told her that I was disappointed in her and made her go to her room when we got home, but I don't think that's the right thing to do because this is supposed to be a fun thing and I don't want to turn it into a stuggle. If it were Audrey, I would tell her that she has to finish this session and then if she doesn't want to do it again, fine. Katie's a little too young to understand that and I also don't want to be a burden to the dance teacher who has other kids in there to deal with. If we're paying by the month, why would I pay for her to go and sit against the wall? I've already paid for the recital costume (so adorable!) and hate to quit after the struggle we had getting her in the class to begin with. Not to mention the fact that the grandparents paid for this class and outfits for her birthday. Vince and I are thinking to give her another couple of weeks and then..?? Audrey has been wanting to take the class and she's the right age for this class. The outfit fits her, the leotard fits her, she knows the positions because she does it along with Katie. Should we ask if she can take Katie's place if her sister doesn't shape up? I welcome any comments, questions, and/or suggestions!! Maybe she's just still too young and we should try again next year. She's so emotional and dramatic (don't know where she gets that!) and it breaks my heart to see her upset when the teacher tells her to sit down because she's not following along. She's been so excited for this class for so long so I'm really perplexed as to why she does this.

We are making headway on the Yellowstone trip. We have decided to rent a tent camper. It's not that expensive and we will still get the experience of tent camping, just with a (kinda) real mattress and heat! Yay for common sense! We have also decided to take a short jaunt to Wisconsin over Easter to visit my family. My grandparents are not in the best health and we don't get to see them very often. I just got to thinking that they have never met Sam and haven't seen Katie since she was about 4 months old. I told Vince that I really should get over there to see them while they are still around. He agreed so we called my Aunt Kris and asked if we could stay with her. She said yes, so we are off somewhere around the 9th of April. Of course, as with anything involving my family, it can't be a simple, quick trip. My aunt wants to host an open-house kinda thing where any relatives that want to come visit with us can and that way we won't have to drive all over town trying to visit a million people in 2 days. My parents are planning to come too which means that they will not be visiting us in SD for Sam's 1st birthday, which means that they all want to do an early birthday party for him while we're there. My husband just rolls his eyes, grits his teeth and says, "Sure, honey." through his tight-lipped smile. Also, it was mentioned that my brother and his girlfriend and their new baby come too. I don't know if they are planning on it though. Vince is planning to make a trip to the public museum and zoo while we are there. And Audrey is VERY concerned that the Easter Bunny will not be able to find us if we are not at home, so we have to plan an egg hunt as well. We'll see how much of this actually gets done during the 2 or 3 days that we are there. And, once again we'll be trailing 3 beagles with us. Don't you envy me?

Well, I need to go fold come clothes and get some fabric ironed. I saw the cute little dresses that Cora's mom and granny were making for their Etsy website and decided that I could make those too! They look so darling and comfy. I was going to buy a couple for my girls from them, but they keep selling out their stock in a matter of minutes and I kept missing out. I have already made a couple and they just turned out so cute that I wanted to do some more. I know several people with new baby girls and thought I could make some for gifts too. I feel kinda bad ripping off their idea, but it's not a new thing. They are simple t-shirt dresses and I'm not competing with them by trying to sell them to anyone. Am I bad? Meanwhile, between sewing and running my house work has really suffered. HA! As if it weren't suffering before! Wish me luck and I'll be sure to let you all know how my race goes.