Keeping Calm and Carrying On

If you know me well, then you know this has been my motto for about two years now. This was truly a week for me to KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. James got into a minor fender bender on Monday. Fortunately he wasn't hurt. Unfortunately it wasn't minor enough, because the insurance company has decided to total it out. :/

I hate dealing with car issues. It's just SUCH A PAIN. It causes me a lot of anxiety and stress, simply because we depend on our vehicles so much. But short of moving somewhere where I can rely strictly on public transportation, there's really nothing I can do about it.

So I'm keeping calm and carrying on. Yay, me!

In other news, Lulu finally got all her lady bits removed this week. This makes me very happy. I may not do a lot of things right, but I spay and neuter my pets, by golly! Bob Barker would be so proud. She's recovering nicely from the surgery. She's been a bit mellow (but wouldn't you if you just had your belly cut open?).

After I picked her up from the vet I dropped her off at the groomer's for her first haircut. She looks so naked now! I had to laugh when the groomer brought her out, though, because she had bows on her ears and a bandana around her neck. Her BFF Lexi was waiting for her when she got home. (Lexi's mom is at Girls Camp with Madeline, and her dad was out of town for work.) These two pups play so good together! Lexi had to immediatly investigate Lulu's scar, and they even tried to share Lexi's crate last night. Awww....

Madeline comes home from camp tomorrow. I hope she had a great experience. I personally didn't "do" Girls Camp except as an adult, and only then because I had to. ;) Bella can hardly wait to go next year. I'm glad she's excited!

Monday Ain't So Bad

As I was driving home from school today, I realized that unlike most of the industrialized world, I really don't hate Mondays. Sure, I wasn't too keen on getting out of bed this morning, but I pretty much feel that way every morning. I realized that Monday is pretty much the only day of the week guranteed NOT to have any plans other than work and school. Once we all get home, we don't have to leave again unless we want to. And usually we don't want to! So YAY Monday.

I'd also been looking forward to this Monday for awhile now. Once this Monday arrived I knew I would be:

*** past the hardest weeks of preschool

*** done with Madeline's birthday celebrations

*** happy to have received my first paycheck since May

*** looking for cooler weather sooner rather than later

So when I woke up this morning it really was like a breath of fresh air (figuratively speaking, because someone somewhere near our neighborhood had done some major burning yesterday and the air was still smoky this morning).

Speaking of Madeline. Bless her heart. She really is closer to being a teenager than she is to being a kid. She came home from school today, and as she got out her homework she told me all the things that went wrong. Her brand new makeup compact broke, the button on her new Vera Bradley tote fell off, her hair kept coming undone, etc. I gave her a hug and a pep talk and went on about my business in the kitchen. A few minutes later I walked through the living room and found her fast asleep in the chair.



Poor baby! Middle School is HARD!!

Shoes

When I was in Sixth Grade, my mom bought me a pair of electic blue high tops that were AWESOME in every way imaginable.



See? Awesome. They looked like Coverse All Stars (I wouldn't discover those lovelies until high school), but they were actually Keds. I loved those shoes. They were obnoxiously bright. This was a shade of blue not seen in nature. I was always being asked, "WHERE did you get those SHOES??!!??" (Sometimes with with shock, sometimes with awe. ;D I'm pretty sure my grandmother hated them.)

I remember they were only $5 or $10- some ridiculously cheap clearance price- which is probably the main reason why Mom bought them. I know it wasn't because I needed them. I know for a fact that I had other tennis shoes because I was *heavily* Tretorns at the time, and those babies weren't cheap! Anyway- I wore the heck out those shoes until I sadly outgrew them in 7th grade.

It's because of this that I didn't hesitate *too much* when Madeline told me a few weeks ago that she wanted a pair of these:


BRIGHT doesn't begin to describe these babies. The picture doesn't do them justice. Again, not a color found in nature. And my baby girl wears them with bright pink shoelaces. She knows the power of brightly colored shoes.

(And the fact that she needed a pair of green, brown or black tennis shoes for her OZ costume only helped justify the purchase. Why buy black or brown when you can have shocking electric lime?)

Oh, yes. Isabella will be sporting pink combat boots before, during and after her OZ performances. She wants some real Doc Martens, but she has to save her pennies for those.

What can I say?? These girlies know the power of awesome shoes.

Madeline's Birthday

Being the lazy mother that I am, I don't do big birthday parties for the girls every year. We do big parties (i.e. lots of friends and mucho dinero spent) on what we consider THE BIGGIES- 8, 12 and 16. So birthdays around here consist of their choice of dinner and cake and then presents with the family (and which ever extended family happens to be around at the time!).

This year Madeline asked if some friends could come over for dinner and then spend the night. She caught me at a weak moment and I said yes. We ended up with two friends for dinner and one friend who stayed the night on the 11th (the day before her actual birthday).

Madeline requested homemade pizza for dinner and then ice cream sundaes for dessert. On her actual birthday she wanted nachoes and chocolate chip cheesecake. The girl has pretty good taste. ;)

Her big present was a guitar. The music teacher at her school teaches a free guitar class to Fifth graders after school once a week. She actually got the guitar as an early gift because the class started before her birthday. But she also got an American Girl Hair Care Center, which she had been wanting. She told James and I later that her birthday was perfect, and I guess as a parent you can't ask for more than that, can you??

Happy Birthday, Madeline!!

As far as I'm concerned-

Summer officially begins today! The girls have a half day today and then *they* are done! I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Sneaky Madeline surprised me yesterday at her Honors Day. Turns out she *knew* she was getting the award for being the TOP AR reader in her grade, and she kept it a secret! Her teacher pulled me aside afterward and said how excited she and the rest of the team teachers were when they found out she would be getting the award. Suffice it to say, we are VERY proud of her! Bella didn't get any awards, but we are proud of her too. Her spelling grade kept her from making Honor Roll, and I know she was disappointed. But I told her it just gave her a goal to work on for next year.

I've been busy rearranging the house, and so far I haven't spent any money. :P I'm trying to be more frugal. I'd like to make it through the summer with most of my last paycheck left. We'll see, I guess. At any rate, moving things around always makes me feel like I have new stuff, and I'm pretty happy with the changes. For now. ;)

Our big summer fun is a trip to U.S. Space and Rocket Musuem in Huntsville, AL. We're going to be staying with a family friend and I'm looking forward to seeing her. She works at the center and is going to give us a "Behind the Scenes" tour! I'd be lying if I said I was *very* excited for this. :P

The girlies should be home momentarily. When they get here we'll clean out the backpacks and lunchboxes and then hide them away until AUGUST!!! Woo-Hoo!!

An Unexpected Holiday

About 3:45 yesterday, the bus driver called the house (actually, it was the bus driver's helper) to make sure someone would be home when the bus came by because Madeline was throwing up. (As Bella told us later, "They had to use the Body Clean Up kit!") We're unsure whether it's a reaction to her antibiotic or a stomach virus, so she and I are home today.

My excitement for the day includes paying bills and figuring out what that gross smell is in the refrigerator.

Today....Did Not Go As Planned

I had plans for today. Oh, did I have plans.

I planned on waking up early so as not to be rushed today. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I do "Early Birds" at school- it's basically an early drop-off time. The preschool is affliated with a church that is also a voting precinct. I needed extra time to make sure I got a parking spot and had enough time to get all my stuff inside before the kiddos arrived.

I had also planned to teach my preschool kids all about the election process by reading books like Duck for President and If I Ran For President and Arthur Meets the President. Then we were going to vote on our snack today, complete with a ballot box and hand drawn ballots. I even had official, state of Georgia "I Voted" stickers to give to each child.

After school, I planned on picking Madeline up for a doctor's appointment, maybe picking up a prescription, then heading home to wait for Isabella to get off the bus. Then I planned to spend a quiet evening at home watching the election returns while James took the girls to their team party.

I still have hopes for this evening, but my morning plans were disrupted pretty much from the get-go.

I did wake up early, so that was good. (Too bad it was 5:30 early as opposed to the alarm set 6:15 early.) Unfortunately the girls' bus driver must have *also* woken up early, because I didn't hear the bus until it was already pulling away from our house, a good 5-10 minutes BEFORE its scheduled arrival. Luckily, the same bus also picks up children in the next neighborhood over, and the girls have friends over there. So I hustled the girls into the car, drove them to a friend's house and begged the mama to let them catch the bus from there.

In all of the hustle and bustle I went off and forgot the special snacks I had purchased for preschool today, so I had to make an extra stop at Publix. When I arrived at the school, the voting line was out the door, which meant I had to park around back and haul my 87 bags the long way around. I made it in time, though just barely.

About 9:30, my cell phone rang. It was Madeline's doctor's office. The nurse had talked to the doctor about Madeline's "bump" (a bump which is on her lower left abdomen, about the size of a nickel, and also hurting quite badly). She said they didn't want me to wait and bring her in at 2:15, they wanted me to bring her in NOW. They felt the bump might be a Staph Infection and they wanted to ummmm, excise it, and they were calling in a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine right then that I should give her before she arrived at the office.

*blinks*

Okay. So no teaching young minds about democracy for me today! I explained the situation to my preschool director, grabbed my purse and headed up to the school to get Madeline. I called James on the way, and he decided he should meet me at the office.

After waiting for a bit, we finally see the doctor, who decides NOT to try and excise it right then, but instead decides to start her on a major antibiotic and send us home with a swabbing kit in case it heads up or starts to ooze. The kit is complete with swab, specimen container, gauze and gloves! YAY for medical fun!

By this time Madeline is about ready to pass out from the Tylenol with Codeine that we gave her, but at least she's not in any pain, right??

*sighs*

So now we're home. Madeline took a nap and is now in a vegetative state on the couch. I'm thinking about joining her.

It never goes away, but it all works out

I just uploaded some pictures from my camera only to find out that I haven't done that since before Madeline's birthday! Oops. I was wondering where the pictures from Madeline's birthday had ended up!

Speaking of Madeline, this was her yesterday about this time:



Poor kid. She has croup AND strep! Whoever heard of a ten year old having croup? She never had it as a baby. She sounds terrible- barky cough and no voice, not to mention a sore throat and wonky stomach from the strep. Hooray for antibiotics! Hopefully she'll be able to go back to school tomorrow.

We've also had to cancel our trip to Disney World. :( You want to be at 100% for Disney, and there's just no way Madeline will be there in time for us to leave on Saturday. We're disappointed, really disappointed, but we're trying to make the best of it.

In other exciting news, Bella got her top braces on yesterday!



She still has to wear her retainer/spreader for another two months. We have a good time trying to figure what she's trying to say, because she really does sound like she has a bunch of marbles in her mouth.

And with that thought, I'll leave you with a preview of Madeline's birthday pictures.

Shout Hooray

Today my darling girl turns 10, or as she keeps telling me, "Double digits, Mama! DOUBLE DIGITS!!"

Even though I have earlier memories, the age of ten is where my consciousness really began. I can easily remember that age, and things that happened to me, and I can only assume that it might be the same for Madeline. These first ten years have gone by so fast, and I know that a the end of the next ten years she will really and truly be her own person.

8 months old, with my brother Frodo


2 1/2 years old


3 1/2 years old


5 1/2 years old


6 years old


August 2008

Out of the mouth of babes

Overheard at the dinner table this evening

Jennifer: "You know, I didn't meet Daddy's family before I married him."

Madeline: "Whoa. That's messed up."

Madeline's Turn

For a Faith in God project I am writeing a letter to my nana about how much I appreciate her. This how I feel and respect about you I love you, I care for you are very kind too me. I love you because you take care of me when I got some scratches by rose bushes or when scraped myself on the ladder in the pool. You took very good care of me at those times. I love you very much!!! xoxoxo

It's Friday! YAY!!

It's been a busy, busy week! So glad it's almost over.

1. I'm very proud of Madeline. The Top Ten AR readers from each grade at her school get to go to Wild Adventures, which is a theme park about two hours away from us. She brought home a note the other day saying she was one of the Top Ten readers in the 3rd grade! She's really excited to go, especially since she has to be at the school by 7:30 in the morning and won't get back until 5:30. :P

2. It's May already? How did that happen? I'm still stuck in February.

3. I read an excellent book last night called Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought). It features 20 famous (and not so famous) women who helped shape the world and changed the perception of what women could be and do. As I was reading it last night, the girls would ask occasionally who I was reading about. I plan on turning the book over to them tonight.

4. Speaking of reading to the girls, we finished The Penderwicks last week and are six chapters in to The Pendewicks on Gardam Street. Love those books!

5. 5. Funny story- the girls and I are strangley addicted to Nanny 911. It comes on CMT in the evenings. It's like a train wreck we can't look away from.

6. And lastly, may I direct your attention to the Pop Candy Reader of the Day? ;D

Madeline's First Post

This is me and Evainne the giant turtle at Turtle park. On 3/22/08 AKA the day before Bella's baptism.