Holiday Weekend Part 2

I made it through Black Friday in one piece and came home exhausted. Of course just because I got an early start to my day didn't necessarily mean I got to go back to bed and catch up on my missed sleep. Matthew was quite excited to see me when I got home and wanted to see what I bought. I tired to explain to him that no, he could not see his gifts that he needed to wait until Christmas Morning to see them and of course he started to cry. The next morning he greeted me by saying that there were no presents for him to open so I have a feeling this is going to be a long long wait for him. He doesn't quite understand the difference between Christmastime and Christmas Day so we are working on that concept. I need to find Advent calenders for the kids. Maybe the daily piece of chocolate will help make the time go by faster. Friday afternoon was also Matthew's first eye doctor appointment. He had been referred a few years ago at his three year check but since his eye contact was so poor I did not trust the eye scanner they were using to give an accurate reading. Even at his next check I was still skeptical since the nurse told me that the instrument was very sensitive and gave a lot of false positive readings and although his eye contact was improving it was (and is) still hard for him to look at something or someone. Hubby had to fill out paperwork for next year's benefits and the company offered vision. We weren't sure if the yearly cost was worth it since none of us have sight problems but I decided that we could make an appointment for Matthew and if he did need glasses then we could take the vision coverage. Well when Jim and Matthew came back I was told that yes, Matthew does need glasses. I don't remember why but it has something to do with an astigmatism of some sort. Our next dilemma was when to get the glasses. Our coverage does not start until the new year and prices range from $89 up to $300 depending on what kind of frames and lenses we get. At this point we decided to wait until January to get them. We have Andrew's ear tubes this week so we already have necessary medical expenses to take care of. I know we are probably bad parents but there are only a few more weeks of classes before the holiday break and I'll have more time to shop around and ask for a good place to buy the glasses. Doctor appointment done it was time to put he lights up. Hubby started the task and managed to get the roof done before it got a little too dark to safely continue. We decided to do Pizza Ranch since we hadn't been there in months and it was early enough in the day that we would avoid the supper crowds. Right next door to Pizza Ranch is an arcade called County Fair Fun. Almost all of the games are a quarter and they have a section of ride-on animals for the 4 and under set that are free to use. Everyone had fun and the kids were ready for bed when we got home. Saturday morning found the loving husband and I working off the food sins of the previous two days. There is a cardio kickboxing class Saturday mornings and we were there. I had gone out shopping Wednesday night and purchased a new pair of workout shoes and a new (I totally love it) sports bra so I was ready to go. Footnote on the bra--Class on the previous Monday plus Tae Kwan Do the next night killed my other one and I need to sew the strap back on before I can wear it again but only for walking and light workouts. Class was brutal, lots of bagwork and punching along with a few killer ab and leg exercises. I'm soo feeling it today. Later that afternoon when we returned home and Andrew went down for a nap hubby went back out and finished up the lights and I started on the tree. The kids this year were actually helpful and it did not take me as long to set it up as in years past. It is nice having two children who know colors and can hand me the correct color coded branch when I need it as opposed to picking up said branches and hitting each other with them. Jim also helped me with the lights since he is a little taller than me and more able to reach the top portions. One of these years I'm going to get a pre-lit tree. After supper the kids helped put the ornaments on. Andrew thought they were balls and kept taking them off the tree and throwing them at us. Thankfully they now make plastic shatterproof ones. Carolyn like the tree so much she brought her stuffed animals out and sat them on the couch so they could look at the lights. This morning Andrew was up early early but hubby was nice enough to let me go back to bed around 7. We decided to go swimming after breakfast. The big pool at the wellness center is closed for repairs but they have a smaller warm water therapy pool that they are letting members use instead. Normally it is only open a few hours each month for open swim and usually during times when we can't be there. After an early morning wake up and a big swim in the pool we figured Andrew would take a huge nap. He didn't. After trying to get him to go back to sleep we opted for fun outing number two, get rid of the hamburger buns. I had bought them a few weeks ago for the birthday party but they weren't used. I hate throwing bread away so instead we went to Arrowhead Park. It is an old quarry that now houses a flock of really fat geese and ducks. The sky was grey and overcast and the wind was brisk but the kids had a blast. Andrew showed no fear as he walked around. Some of the birds were bigger than he was. I took the camera with and got some nice shots of the kids and Daddy feeding the geese. A couple who also happened to be photographers stopped by to take pictures and she offered to take a picture of the family. The photos look OK but of course there isn't one with all of us looking and smiling at the camera so I'm not sure if that will be on this year's Christmas cards or not. All in all we had a great Thanksgiving weekend-- topped off by the Minnesota Vikings beating the Chicago Bears. Yeah!!!!!

Holy Holiday Shoppers Batman!!!

Weeks ago I was predicting that this year's Black Friday was going to be a little more crowded than usual due to the really crappy economy. I was not wrong. Four o'clock this morning found me showered and dressed ready to walk out the door. Last night I got out my stack of ads and gift lists and spent the better part of an hour mapping out what it was I needed to get ( specific gift requests) and what I wanted to get ( might be something they would like) along with the opening times of various stores and the most efficient way of shopping both for walking and driving. In previous years I have enjoyed light crowds and speedy wait times for check-out but of course I was under no illusion that this would happen again. My plan was simple, arrive a little past 4 at JC Penny's and do the bulk of my clothing shopping there and then move on to Sears, Toys R Us, Gordmans, Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and end at Menards. I do Penny's first for a lot of reasons. The big ones are that my family wears a lot of their clothing and I save a truckload when I do the early morning doorbuster sale. I also know that the other store that opened at 4 was Kohls and that is usually one of the stores that ends up with terribly long slow-moving lines and fights breaking out among shoppers. Last year I made the mistake of doing Toys R Us first and wasted over an hour standing in line for items that were not on the "gotta have or else" list. When I got to the mall around 4:20 the Penny's parking lot was pretty full. Think Saturday on a non-holiday season. There were people everywhere but everyone was in a good mood and the sales staff was walking around passing out candy. Finding what I wanted and in the correct size was no problem so after 20 or so minutes I was ready to check out. Lines at this point were pretty long and not moving too fast. Mostly because everyone wanted gift receipts and there were multiple groups checking out at the same register. Well-known fact, lots of die-hards go in groups and one stands in line while the others get the items and hand them to her. everyone in that group then pays for her individual purchases. The trick of the check-out is to wander around to the lesser traveled areas of the store and look for the cash registers. I went to the very front of the store and there was no waiting. On my way back to the van I mentioned the light lines to fellow shoppers waiting in the back of some of the longer lines. First stop done and it was back through Penny's and out into the mall. I was not about to give up my relatively good parking spot just to drive to the other side of the mall and take my chances there. On my way out of the store, there was a very nice salesperson passing out donut holes to shoppers. My Sears stop was a totally different story. I had a need to buy gift on my list and I wanted to get a coat for Carolyn and Sears always has the best prices. It took about 10 minutes to get my two things and I went looking for a short line to stand in. Sears opened at 5 and I got there around 5:30 so the lines were pretty crazy. My JC Penny's check-out trick did not even come close to working. I hopped over to the shorter lines in the appliance section--big mistake. Sears was not prepared for this day. The computers were not working right and advertised items on sale were not rung up at correct prices and some of the really good deals like the $14 DVD players sold out and people were trying to have the sales staff order one from the corporate office. One of the ladies waiting in line ahead of me had actually purchased her item but the computer refused to issue the gift card that was supposed to be part of that special so she was told to try and go to another line and see if they could get the sale to ring up correctly . I jumped over to the tool area hoping that those lines would at least move somewhat faster and they too crawled along. At one point the cashier had to leave her post and go find a price for something. A kind soul walked by and said that there was no wait over in the circular saw area. He was right. As I walked past the line after checking out I passed this information along to the other poor souls stuck waiting. All told I wasted an hour. Mall stores now completed I decided to dash across the parking lot and do Gordman's real quick. Hubby saw a wooden toy advertised that he thought Andrew would like. I hit the store at just the right time, it was practically deserted. Ten minutes later I was in the van driving over to Toys R Us. That store is just a little too far to walk to from my parking spot. I get there and it is close to 7 so I'm thinking the mass of early shoppers would be gone but no such luck. I walked in and quickly found the manager who was directing the endless line of carts to the check out line. Upon finding out just where the end of the line was and knowing that I would still be traveling a crazy up and down the aisles through the whole store maze I thanked him and told him I would return later. He said the line was moving pretty fast but I only had one item on my want list and it was not worth the wait. Now of course traffic was increasing both shopping and vehicle so getting from point A to point B was taking a little longer than I would have liked. Target is located across the street from the mall (really busy main road)and a quick glance showed nothing but cars in the lot. It would take more time to get out of the mall lot, cross the street and attempt to find an empty parking spot so I decided to park at the very end of the mall lot and just use the stoplight and cross the street on foot. My first impression of Target was that this would be an easy stop. The store had been open for over an hour so hopefully the masses had left. There were very few people waiting in line at the check-out counters and things were flowing pretty smoothly. As I ventured farther into the store it became quite apparent that there was more people than I had imagined. I needed one item and decided that I would check out toy section real quick to find something on Carolyn's want list. After getting the two items I then realized that about 75% of the shoppers were actually waiting in line to check out. I had in my cart the one "must have or else" item so there was no walking out. After finally finding the end of the line I spent pretty much the next 45 minutes conversing with a very nice lady from Spencer, Iowa and walking through most of the store. I let her share the cart with me so she didn't have her hands full of items. I will give kudos to the Target staff. They had someone stationed at the beginning of the line directing shoppers to various check-out lanes so that was why it did not look too busy when I got there. My next stop was Best Buy for a couple gotta have items and I was hoping that they would still be there. This was really quick stop number two in my shopping day. The large crowds that the store is famous for were gone so I was able to get my items and check out within 10 minutes. I was now done with the South end of Sioux Falls and ready to head towards home. Breakfast was 1 can of Mountain Dew and two donut holes (thanks JCP) so I hit McDonalds on my way to Wal-Mart. A bacon egg and cheese biscuit never tasted so good. I purposefully do Wal-Mart in the later stages of my shopping. Along with Kohls they rank up there with shopping horror stories. The lot was pretty full when I got there but I'm not too choosy in parking spots when I don't have the kids with me so I snabbed the first one I saw. I was pleasantly surprised that they still had a few of their early morning special items. There were a couple of things I wanted but wasn't going to be massively depressed if I could not get them. Sadly, the art set I wanted to get Carolyn was sold out so I'll just get her more crayons and paper after the holidays. Crowd-wise I would say think typical Saturday afternoon. I decided to do the self-check out so my wait was pretty minimal. I also did not have a lot of items. My last stop was Menards. I had heard that it was a zoo in the early hours but there are two Menards in town so it could be that I was getting reports about the one closer to the mall. They were sold out of the kids snow shovels I wanted so I guess I'll wait a few weeks and try again. By the time I finished I was wiped out. I called my friend Jen who was shopping with her family and gave her a few heads up tips about traffic and store sales. I called the loving hubby and told him I was headed home. He was nice enough to take Matthew to his eye doctor appointment later that day so that was one less thing on my to do list. Later on the kids helped him get the lights on the house and afterwards we went to Pizza Ranch. I now think I'll lay down and pass out. Yes, I'll be doing this again next year.

Turkey Day

Well the annual food fest has come and soon will be gone. Last night I did a pan of chocolate chocolate chip brownies with chocolate frosting topped with sprinkles. This morning hubby did his deadly sweet potatoes. He likes to drain the juice from the can of sweet potatoes into a pan and add brown sugar and cornstarch and boil down till it is a thick syrup. Then he pours it back into the baking dish with the rest of the potatoes before topping it with the mini marshmallows. Strangely, I'm not a big fan of the candied version of sweet potatoes preferring a plain baked one topped with a little butter. I tossed together my green bean casserole and nuked it for 10 min while the potatoes were baking before transferring to the oven for the final few minutes to brown the onions on top. Even though I use the canned version that is so popular I still like to have them "extra crispy". Food ready and kids dressed we headed out the door and over to the big town of Lesterville, SD (population-I'm sure our family gathering made up at least half of it). For many years my mother in law's side of the family has rented out the community hall and had one heck of a thanksgiving feast. Beings the loving husband came from a good Catholic family, you can imagine the number of relatives he has. In past years there have been over 100 people showing up to celebrate but this year attendance was down so there was only 85 of us. I really don't know who does the turkeys but we have yet to run out. There is also the usual side dishes of dressing and mashed potatoes and at least one or two green bean casseroles. I always look forward to the big pot of sauerkraut they have out. It goes great on the potatoes, who needs the gravy. Jim prefers the dumplings but I'm not as fond of them. Did I mention that this side is of German heritage? If you aren't full after all that food then there is the dessert table with the usual pumpkin pies and other baked goods. Jim's grandma always brings the kolachies (Czech pastry) and they never last too long. Before we eat, everyone gathers around in a big circle and counts off--that's how we know the attendance. After that is finished then one of the aunts sings the "Our Father" She sings the verse and we sing it back to her. Then blessings are mentioned concerning those who were not able to be here and those who are watching from Heaven. We then say the prayer and line up to eat. Over the years we have learned which side of the room is the best place to stand since those at the top end of the circle are closest to the food. After stuffing ourselves then it is time for socializing. In years past hubby and I have joined in on the Trivial Pursuit game but with kids running around it is a little hard to do so. Matthew and Carolyn had a blast. There are several kids in the same age range so lots of running around. We also brought balls to play with and art supplies and card games so there was no shortage of things to occupy their time. Andrew of course played the cute card and spent his time tagging along and finding a spare lap to sit on. Our local paper puts out a special advertisement edition so we brought that down and took it in for people to look at and to get gift ideas. All good things must come to an end so late in the afternoon we packed everything up and headed back to Brandon. The kids were pretty tied and Matthew slept the whole way back. All in all it was a pretty good day. Now I have to go and finish my gift list and shopping strategy. Black Friday is soon here and I like to start early. The trick to shopping on that day is to know where you are going and what you are going to buy before even leaving your house that morning. I also try to avoid the high traffic stores first thing and go to those places where the shopping is not so frantic. Yes, I'm one of the crazy ones but I think it is a ton of fun. Happy Thanksgiving to you all and of course I'm thankful to everyone who takes time out of their busy day to read my blog.

Thankful

Today was a big day in our lives, especially Matthew. Today was his last day of therapy with Children's Care Hospital and School. It's hard to believe that he has come so far in such a short amount of time. When he started this program 9 months ago he had a lot of work ahead of him. Our goal was ambitious, we wanted Matthew to be able to mainstream into a regular Kindergarten classroom with as few behavioral and social problems as possible. The staff at his school knew that this was possible but last year Matthew was having a lot of problems with his classroom behaviors and social interactions with his peers and at home with Carolyn. Even though he was getting ABA therapy at school and the teachers were working with him on changing his behaviors we as his parents felt that he needed more. For those who don't know, ABA stands for applied behavioral analysis and is a proven technique to help children with autism and autism spectrum disorders improve behaviors and learn necessary social and living skills. Thankfully this was something our school district provides for Matthew but he only gets 45 minutes a week. The gold standard of treatment is 40 hours per week. Not every individual needs that much therapy but the more a person gets and the earlier the age has a big impact on how well that person will function later in life. Unfortunately, this is very expensive and it is very hard to find trained therapists in this area. The other bad thing is that this is not a covered expense with our insurance company. Believe me, I tried. I spent hours on the phone with the insurance company, wrote a letter to Senator Tim Johnson, and even filed a complaint against the insurance company with the state. The results were the same...still no insurance coverage. The real kicker is that if we lived and worked in Minnesota (10 miles away) the same insurance company would have covered this. Costs aside, hubby and I decided to foot the bill and got Matthew enrolled in a pilot program through CCHS. We started with 6 hours per week and the therapist would come over to the house and work with Matthew on a variety of skills and techniques. His first goals were pretty basic like dressing himself correctly and brushing his teeth and washing his hands and face. I also had time set aside for Matthew and Carolyn to play games and do activities together. This may sound strange but the two of them had lots of problems getting along and I was constantly breaking up fights. Over time Matthew learned how to play nicely with his sister. There are still fights between them but compared to what it was last year it is so much better. They now take turns and share (mostly) toys and don't bite each other. As Matthew progressed he started doing more complicated tasks such as riding his bike around the neighborhood and recognizing street signs. He even learned how to cross at a stoplight. The therapists also focused on seat work and Matthew did a lot of matching and language recognition skills. Some of the activities were working on lengthening his attention span and others were targeted to his learning how to wait for something whether is was a turn or a favorite activity. He still struggles with always wanting to win a game or trying to turn an activity or task into a competition but that will hopefully come in the future. The real test came this September when Matthew started Kindergarten. He was put in a regular classroom with a shared aid. It was recommended that he have weekly time in a special ed classroom in case he fell behind on his work. A few weeks into the year I received a call from his school caseworker saying she didn't feel the need to pull him out of class because he was having no big problems doing the work and keeping up. The following week I e-mailed his teacher and asked for a progress report due to Matthew having a medication review appointment. She wrote back that Matthew was a delightful little boy who was doing very well in school and she was seeing no real problems with his behavior or social skills. I still get misty-eyed when I think about that e-mail. With our main objective met, hubby and I decided that the costs of this therapy outweighed the benefits of him continuing on so I contacted CCHS and we agreed to a discontinuation date in late November. Transitions are still hard for Matthew so it wasn't fair to just stop everything at once just because we thought he should be done. The extra few months gave the therapists time to finish up on the goals they were working on and do a final evaluation of his progress and skills. On paper, the data looks really impressive. I don't quite understand everything but I do know that he made huge gains in social and academic skills. Last week the two therapists Kat and Kari along with the Psychologist Ryan met with me at home and discussed the final evaluation. Everyone was very impressed at how much progress Matthew had made and agreed that he was ready to be out of the program. Today Kat and Kari came over one last time. We didn't have school today so Carolyn got to be a part of the party. We had pizza and cookies and they gave Matthew the game Hungry Hungry Hippos. We've played it many times today. Part of me was sad to see them leave since they have been such a big part of our lives for most of this last year. I now have to entertain Matthew during those therapy times so I have more work on my hands but when I look back at how much he has grown and changed I don't really mind at all. Tomorrow we give thanks for the blessings in our lives and the people who mean the most to us. I'll always be thankful for my husband and children along with other family members and my friends but tomorrow I'll also be giving thanks to Kari and Kat for all the work and love they have put in this past year.

Weekend Insanity

Someone once said that insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results each time. Well, if that is true then I must be well on my way to the happy place with the white padded walls. It's the weekend and once again the loving husband is out of town. Just when I thought the whole go out and work at (insert name of ethanol plant here) was over, he is once again pulling weekend duty. Believe it or not this was supposed to be one of his vacation days he needed to take off before all unused time was to expire. The hunting trip came up and then the weekend duty popped up and the next thing I know I'm doing double weekend single parent duty. I tried to convince hubby to take Thursday off but he already had a plant trip planned so no go on that idea. I was hoping he would be able to see Carolyn's fall program at school. I had to pick Matthew up from his Speech/OT and get there late but we got there in time to see the last three songs. Carolyn looked so cute standing up in front with her little turkey hat on sideways singing so sweetly. Afterwards we got to enjoy punch and snacks. The teachers and aids made some wonderful bars and cookies for us to enjoy. The ECH program only does one concert per year and this year it was fall. It was a little bittersweet sitting there watching Carolyn knowing this will be the last preschool program I will be attending..at least for a while. When we got home Andrew was ready for a nap and Matthew decided to lay down too. I didn't think anything of it until an hour later when Matthew woke up crying and whining that his ear really really hurt. I attempted to make a doctor appointment but at a quarter after four the odds of getting one are slim to none so I had to tell the now crying and in pain child that he needed to wait until 5 to see a doctor. Hubby was still in the great state of Iowa and had not left to come home so I decided that making the poor kid wait until after 7 when he got home was rather cruel so I fed the kids and loaded them up for a trip to our favorite place..Urgent Care. Yes, I really love taking all the kids with me. We have so much fun in that tiny little examination room. The ear was infected but not as bad as last time. There was a bunch of gunk in it so the nurse had to wash it out before the doctor could really get a good look at the eardrum. Matthew did better than I would have. I got the prescription and headed back home. We decided to do Tae Kwan Do class since Matthew had his antibiotics and enough Mortin to make him feel normal. Besides it was pop and chip night and he did not want to miss that. Pop and chip night is something we do on Thursdays. We go to one of the gas stations that has penny per ounce pop and we get the kids some non-caffeinated sugar along with a bag of chips to nibble on while we drive home. Yes, I'm such a good parent, Brittney Spears would be proud of me. My plan this morning was to get Matthew off to school and go to my MOPS meeting. Today was our fundraiser which was a silent auction. There was a lot of good stuff to bid on and because this was open to the public there were going to be former members showing up along with current members so lots of socialization. Unfortunately, Matthew was again up during the wee hours of the morning complaining about his ear. By the time he was supposed to get up and get ready for school he was a sobbing whining mess. I'm not trying to be mean, the poor kid was alternating between sobbing and whining about his ear hurting and wanting to sleep in my bed because that would make him happy. I medicated him and sent him to his own bed and called transportation and the school. I crawled back to bed and attempted to get another hour of sleep in before starting the day. Needless to say there was no MOPS for me. When Matthew woke back up around 10 he started crying again when I told him that he missed school and could not go. He calmed down when I told him that Kari his therapist would be coming over later that afternoon. The extra sleep did help but it was pretty obvious that Matthew did not feel very well today. He kept wanting to lay down for naps. He made it through an hour and a half of his therapy time before wanting to lay down. Of course he sobbed as Kari was leaving because we didn't play the marble game. I decided to do pizza for supper--hey it's Friday what else is there to eat?? I did Papa Murphy's so that meant a car ride. Domino's left town a few months back so unless I want Pizza Ranch or Casey's pizza I gotta go to Sioux Falls. I decided to get a heating pad for Matthew's ear so we picked up our pizza and then stopped by Lewis Drug for the heating pad.. We got home and I set the heating pad up for Matthew. I think it worked because he stopped complaining so much about the pain and was able to go downstairs to watch TV. On the TV note, I think Carolyn has been watching one too many episodes of Law and Order. Earlier in the evening when I was getting the boys ready and loaded into the van for our pizza run Carolyn had gone AWOL. I found her in my room sitting on the bed paper spread out and the box of markers I had put up on top of the dresser cap less and strewn all over the sheets. Picasso would be proud. As I shooed her out of my room I gave her the obligatory swat on the bottom to remind her that markers are not to be used on mommy's bed. She of course starts crying and yelling at me that the police were going to come over and take me away to jail. I bit my lip to keep from laughing and waked away. Please note that no 4 year old girls were harmed in the making of this story. I also made yet another Carolyn observation later in the evening after Matthew had gone to bed. Carolyn will play with Andrew but only after dark and when she is supposed to be in her room sleeping. The two of them played happily together for over an hour. There was no hitting or pushing or shoving. She still took the lead and directed him to where he was supposed to sit and what toys to play with but compared to the usual manner of "play" between them this was good. Maybe they will get along with each other after all. Oh wait, I think I see the guys with the jacket headed my way...

Parties and Cakes and Really Big Earaches

Well I made it through the weekend. Friday was so much fun as I spent it hobbling around on a very sore foot and wanting very much to just sit down and relax. Hubby had lots of fun shooting pheasants with the guys from work and I'm glad he did have fun but why is it when he's out of town bad things happen?? After getting all things I needed to do done I decided that we would do pizza and TV and have a nice quiet (early to bed) evening. That took some convincing due to Matthew's ability to tell the difference between 8 o'clock when I wanted to do bedtime and 9 o'clock when I normally do bedtime. Andrew meanwhile decided he wanted to be pick me up and carry me baby all night. All the kids were very tired from the late night before but I did manage to get the older two down by 8:30 and sleeping by 9 or so. That was after the loving husband called and talked to the kids and I told them he would be home the next day. It took a little longer to get Andrew settled down and off to sleep. After blogging and watching stupid late night TV I went upstairs to pass out for the evening and ponder my options for the next day. Sometime around 4 or so in the morning Andrew started screaming and didn't stop for the next hour and a half. This was not whimper whimper I'm cold and while you're up could you get me a sippy cup of milk. No, this was full force top of the lungs writhe around in pain please make it stop screaming. Normally, I would have back-up to help out but of course said back-up was soundly sleeping in a motel room 75 miles away. At this point I was really really wishing for another body to help out. Andrew is incredibly strong and when he is thrashing around it is really hard to hold on to him without dropping him or him slipping out of my arms and falling to the floor. I was hoping to stay upstairs but he was crying so loud that I had to go downstairs. Lots of fun with a injured foot and a 30 pound child. I also couldn't stand and walk for long periods of time so I was forced to rock in the chair and hope that the motion would help. I finally gave up and took Andrew back upstairs with me and propped myself up in bed and laid him on my chest with the hopes he would fall asleep from exhaustion. He finally did but I didn't get much sleep so I was in a really good mood when the other two woke up and started making tons of noise. Knowing that there was a 99.9% chance Andrew had a monster ear infection going on I decided that I would try to wait it out until hubby got home later in the day instead of taking everyone to Urgent Care. Instead we went grocery shopping. We were hosting a November/December birthday party on Sunday so I needed to go and get a few supplies. Shopping was fun, the kids helped me get my things and since it was Saturday there were free samples to eat along the way. Later that day Hubby got home. He was trying to make it before the Urgent Care closed and actually got home earlier than he needed to. As expected, Andrew did have an ear infection, the tube was blocked (surprise surprise) and the eardrum was bulging and there was a very good chance it could rupture. After coming back home and doing supper, I headed out to Wal-Mart to buy a gift for my niece and decided to go to Menard's to get gifts for my Mother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law. Matthew and Carolyn were very good helpers. That night we once again got very little sleep. Andrew was quite restless and spent much of the night propped up on Daddy. I did score some awesome ear drops that numb the pain so those helped quite a bit. My plan was to get up early Sunday and get the cake made and start picking up the house before the kids woke up and made things messier. Didn't quite happen. I was so tired from the previous two nights that I slept like the dead and woke up later than I should have. Thankfully the kids were also tired so they let us sleep and I got a quick shower in. I had for some strange reason decided to make the birthday cake for this party. Jim had said that he didn't want to do a DQ cake this time and had suggested that we do two cakes instead of one since we were going to have 15 or so people over. Maybe it was the pink cake still haunting me or maybe I'm just losing my mind but I had picked up a box of cake flour on one of my recent trips to the grocery store and the carrot cake recipe on the back caught my attention. My in-laws love carrot cake so I decided what the heck I'll do a scratch carrot cake and while I'm at it I'll use a box mix and do cupcakes too. I did the cupcakes the night before and they turned out OK. I think if I go the cupcake route again I'll do less cupcakes but make them bigger. I still don't know how they get 24 cupcakes out of that mix. I got 23 but that was really pushing it. I had mentioned in a previous post that scratch baking and small children did not go to well together but scratch baking and husband watching the kids do go together so I was able to take the 35-40 minutes and make up the cake according to recipe directions. It's been so long since I did a homade carrot cake that I had forgotten just how much work they are. Of course since this was a new to me recipe I had to follow it word for word and not try to substitute ingredients. This particular recipe called for mayonnaise so I got mayonnaise--not low fat or fat free. When you go to all the work making the cake then you have to do the frosting too. What else goes with carrot cake?? Cream cheese frosting. To do frosting right there is no such thing as fat free or low fat in the vocabulary. Cake in the oven it was time to tackle the house. We managed to get all cleaned and organized by noon when the first guests arrived. Lunch was a very tasty Boston Butt Pork Roast--I picked it out-- along with grilled burgers and mashed potatoes, taco salad, frog-eyed salad and vanilla pudding cookie dessert. The nice thing about doing family parties is that everyone brings food so we only had to do the meat and cakes. The kids loved frosting the cupcakes--they were yellow with chocolate frosting. I managed to get my cake out of the pans without breaking it and I got it frosted without too much incident. I love my little food processor, it chopped the pecans in no time flat and if you looked just right and used your imagination the cake resembled the picture on the box. It tasted wonderful. For the blowing out the candle part I took three cupcakes and put impossible to blow out candles in them and handed them to my 8 year niece Ashlynn and to Matthew and Carolyn. I stuck one candle in the cake for my niece Raelynn and two candles in for Andrew. My MIL and SIL decided they didn't want to blow out candles. We lit the cupcakes first and had fun laughing at the kids blowing and re-blowing. We had to do the cake twice since my SIL Julie who was holding Andrew blew a little too hard on the candles when trying to get him to blow. Gift-wise we didn't do too bad. After everyone had left we were able to slow down and enjoy the rest of the weekend. On Monday morning I called the Ear Nose Throat Doctor and they had an opening that afternoon. After months and months of nothing but problems I was ready to ditch the tubes and start again. According to the doctor it is very possible that the left eardrum has already closed and the tube is just sitting on top stuck there so it looks like the tube is blocked. The right side is fine with no problems. He did agree with me that replacing the tubes would be a good option so I called the loving husband and asked him when he was available to do the surgery. Poor guy was a little surprised at my phone call. I didn't him know that I had an appointment scheduled so soon. He looked at his calender and said that the first week in December was open so Andrew is scheduled to get re-tubed on December 4. The next three weeks can't go by fast enough for me.

So Close

In my last post I mentioned that I was studying for an upcoming Tae Kwan Do test. Thursday was that test day. Recently our instructor took over the main gym in Brookings and her assistant was promoted to head instructor of the Sioux Falls classes. Because of the change up, the fourth degree instructor who was in charge of the Brookings and Sioux Falls programs (and instructor of the two now running the classes)had made arrangements to do all the testing for both programs in one three day period. It was decided that we would do testing during class time on Thursday night for both the adult and children's classes. Class starts at 7 for the kids, 8 for the adults, the nursery closes at 9:15 and the whole fitness center closes at 10. Tight schedule so I was a little nervous about getting my testing done before the nursery closed and I'd have to split my time between watching the kids and doing my required techniques. Hubby and I drove separately so he could get there a little early and help set things up and help out with target holding and board holding in the kids testing. The more holders the faster the test. I had kid duty so I made sure I was there a little after 7 so we had two full hours of nursery time. After dropping the kids off I decided to warm up by hitting the hot tub. It sounds weird but by sitting in a nice hot tub of water and slowly stretching out my hip and leg muscles I was able to loosen up enough in a shorter amount of time than if I had done the traditional warm up exercises and then stretches. Of course the kids test went a half hour over so all my nice warm muscles cooled off and I still worried about pulling something. I had to feel for the poor husband, he was doing the board holding for the kid's breaks and his fingers took quite a beating. Nothing broken or bleeding but some of the kicks he took were pretty hard. Once we got to testing it went pretty fast. When we line up it is by belt rank. Jim and I are the highest ranking in the class so we would stand first in line and go down to the end to those testing for the first time. In cases where belts of the same color are in line the oldest person goes first so usually in class Jim is on my left since he's older than me. For some weird reason our master instructor decided to go alphabetically in the line up so I got the first spot. There are three main components of a test. The first is usually the pattern, the second is required techniques, and third is board breaking. A pattern is a series of moves similar to a dance routine. Do your pattern right and you impress the master and he is pleased. When a person first starts out, testing is pretty easy. A simple pattern, a few required techniques, an easy board break. Mistakes are easily forgiven and more leniency is granted for lapses in memory or extra tries for the breaking. Once you get up in rank the test is not so easy and do overs are not looked upon too favorably. There is also A LOT more stuff to remember and some techniques are very similar to others so it is really really easy to get mixed up and do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Hubby and I have devoted much of our free time these past few weeks to reviewing and practicing and more practicing all that we needed to know plus things that he might want us to know that we would have known in previous tests. Last test he had us preform something that was not on our "need to know" sheet that we had done previously and I had a major brain fart and had to do that particular technique four times before I finally remembered how to do it right--not fun. The other thing that gets harder as you move up is the amount of time you get to complete your required techniques. The lower ranking belts are usually given a slower pace to do things and if they forget or mess up then they get re-trys. At our level, it is fast and furious with no time to think. I think we were up there for about 15 minutes straight doing all that was required of us. I was very glad we did practice more than we needed to know because he did test us on material that we had in our previous test. Our techniques are numbered so he yells a number and we do it. To give you an idea of the pace of things think about watching a martial arts fight on TV or in the movies. That is how fast we are supposed to act and react when doing our stuff. Most things start off with us getting kicked or punched at and we are blocking and attacking back. One of the things we have to do is as close to a choreographed fight as you can get. In reality I don't think anyone would be that stupid because there is seven sections to this that we have to know and each section involves us (the defender) breaking body parts or knocking the opponent out but who am I to question. We actually did pretty well and only made a few big mistakes. We got to have a little rest while the others did their stuff and then we were called back to re-do what we had missed. We didn't quite get everything finished by the time the nursery closed but the only thing left was breaking so the kids got to watch us break boards. Now I have to admit that when it comes to breaking, this is my nemesis. In our previous training (Michigan), patterns were emphasized and we spent hours learning and practicing them. Breaking was something done during testing but didn't count against you if you didn't make the break. I like patterns and I do them very well. I'm OK on the numbered techniques and with practice I don't make a total fool out of myself. Breaking is another matter. My brain and my body disagree when it comes time to actually break the board. My body is going full force and my brain is going "wait, you're not supposed to break that, it will hurt". Unfortunately, I have to break the board to get the belt. Each test gets a more difficult break and the belt we were testing for--brown--had two required breaks. One of them was a hand break and one was a kicking break. Jim had to hold a board and break it with a punch. I had to hold the board and break it with outside edge of my hand. Jim broke on his second try---I tried three times with the same result...THUNK. Yes, it hurt. I was expecting to have to kick two separate boards for my second kick and he surprised us with a power break instead of a technical break. Jim's break was front kick through three boards and my break was front kick through two boards. Once again the loving hubby delivered and firewood was created. I have kicked double boards before but it was years ago so I lined things up and with all the confidence and strength I could gather went for it... THUNK Actually you could hear it echo in the room. I'm still surprised that those boards did not break because I hit them hard enough to. I tried twice again with my right foot and once with my left but to no avail. The good news is all I have to do is break those boards and I get my belt. The bad news is it might take me awhile. Normally it hurts worse when you don't break the board so I left that night with a sore hand and a sore foot. Hubby had a very very sore foot. I didn't think too much of the pain until my foot started to hurt so bad that I could not fall asleep and getting out of bed and walking was almost impossible. I'm pretty sure the adrenaline rush from the test allowed me to walk out of the building and get home. I decided that since this pain was different than what I normally feel after breaking things and the fact my foot was not three different colors I might have actually hurt myself. Hubby delighted in calling me a wuss for making the doctor appointment but did agree that I had kicked the boards hard enough to possibly do damage to bones. I really love taking three kids to the doctor's office and getting X-rays done. Matthew and Carolyn stayed behind and one of the nurses amused them while Andrew decided that he could not possibly leave my side and came with and watched. The X-rays came back normal so the doctor decided it was just a really bad sprain. I'm supposed to stay off it as much as possible, not walk barefoot for two weeks minimum and keep it iced and elevated. Great idea, too bad the loving husband is in Mitchell pheasant hunting and not due back until Saturday evening. I went to Lewis Drug and bought a very nice ankle brace to wear at night and when I'm not wearing my shoes. I guess it's going to be awhile before I get that brown belt.

Seasons Change

Well once again I have managed to loose blogs in the vast world of cyberspace. Last night I tried twice to get this done only to hit a "magic" button and have the whole thing zapped off the face of the Earth. Today I thought I'd go back to the main computer downstairs where I can freely type away without fear of hitting something and resetting the cursor or having my post disappear without me knowing what button I accidentally hit while typing on the laptop. Of course when I tried to log on I was told that I didn't exist and my password did not match my log in name. I finally realized when I was typing and retyping my information that I was entering my e-mail address wrong. It's a common mistake I tend to make but have not made it in a while so once I pulled my head out from under the chair I was sitting on (if you get my drift) I got logged in and here I am typing away. Last week was a wonderful, beautiful week. The air was warm, the sky was blue, the lawns were still green and fields and grasses were warm shades of brown and yellow. We were running around outside in short sleeves and light jackets and I was walking barefoot to the mailbox. The last remaining days of autumn have now been replaced by the first peek at winter to come. Yes, by Friday the warm breezes had been replaced by icy blasts that cut through the warmest coats and the endless blue skis full of bright happy sunshine had been turned sullen grey and dark. Yesterday we had our first snow day. Actually it was more of an icy don't travel the back country roads day but school was called off leaving me to entertain three cooped up kids. It had already been a three day weekend due to the Veteran's Day holiday so I was more than ready to send the kids off and get back to my weekday routine. The forecast was for freezing rain with a chance of light snow so it was no surprise when I watched the TV there were a lot of school closings. As far as snow, we got a few inches but most had melted by the late afternoon. I did bundle the kids up and send them outside for a while to burn off some energy. I now remember why I don't encourage outside play in the winter. No, it's not the cold or the snow...it's the clothing. Remember when we were little and going outside meant putting on an extra pair of pants and having an extra set of mittens handy to switch out when the first set was soaking wet? Today's kids don't do extra clothing, they have snow pants. I do the overall type instead of the pant type so I don't have to worry about picking snow out of a waistband or having a shirt come untucked and risking frostbitten ribs. I will say that the waterproof pants help eliminate the big big wet mess but getting them on and off is a pain in the you know what. Matthew is able to get his snow clothes on and off with a little help but there is still Carolyn and Andrew to contend with. Poor Andrew didn't quite understand he was going to get to go out and play with his siblings so he broke down and had a fit when he saw the other two get into the outdoor gear. He'd quiet down as soon as I put an article of clothing on him but would start back up as soon as I stopped and went over to another kid. I finally got everyone bundled up and out into the backyard and they had fun tramping though the soft snow sticking to the grass. I had to call the loving husband and ask where the shovels were so I could clear off the deck and steps before the kids packed the snow down into ice. After we had our fun, it was time to come in and take everything off without leaving wet tracks all over the floor. I need to get another mat for boots but it still takes forever to take off and unzip boots, hats, coats, mittens and snow pants and get wet stuff to an area where it can dry out without making Lake Superior all over the floor. Later after we had hot cocoa and Andrew had gone down for afternoon nap Matthew and Carolyn drew pictures and colored while I studied for my upcoming Tae Kwan Do test. As part of our test we are required to know phrases and terms in Korean so I was making flash cards to help me remember body parts and numbers and various other words. Matthew was selected to be student of the week this week (everyone gets a turn) so he was able to bring in pictures and drawings to be put up on a special bulletin board. This morning I put in the picture he drew yesterday along with two notes he had written me and Jim while working with his therapist at home and some photos that were taken last year. Monday night the bus driver called me and informed me that he would be stopping by a few minutes earlier as they had added two new kids to the route. This morning he showed up at 7:30 instead of 7:45. I had in my head that the new leave time would be 7:40 so I was a little behind in my morning preparations. Thankfully Matthew had his clothes on and I had the backpack loaded and ready to go but I was a little rushed in getting his boots and coat on. I'll do better tomorrow. Actually I'm hoping the sun decides to come back and shine again. I'm getting tired of these grey skies and cloudy days. It is supposed to warm up this weekend and there is a chance of sunny weather.

Special Day

Today is Andrew's second birthday. It's hard to believe two years have passed and my little baby is now a toddler walking and talking and doing things for himself. Next stop...potty training. I started out this morning by baking his birthday cake. I do consider myself a pretty good baker and I could have just pulled out a cookbook and done something out of there but in reality, scratch baking and three small children don't go together very well. Yesterday I let Matthew and Carolyn pick out the flavor of the cake and they chose a Funfetti cake (white with sprinkles in it). I got out my stuff and started getting down to business. Andrew and Carolyn were downstairs watching TV so I had a very limited window of time to get this thing put together and in the oven. This particular mix had two sets of directions on it. The top was the regular version and the bottom was the colesterol free version. The big difference was one called for three eggs and the other called for four egg whites. My intention was to do the top one but of course this is me we are taking about. After I got the water and oil added I realized that I had been looking at the wrong directions and added the wrong amount of water. Thankfully, I had not added the eggs so all I had to do was get out my egg separator and add the egg whites. Because it was Monday, I had to take Matthew and Carolyn over to the school for their therapy. I didn't realize I had forgotten Carolyn's backpack until we got there and she got upset when I couldn't hand it to her. Thankfully we only live a few minutes from school so I took Andrew and went back home while Matthew and Carolyn were working. When we finished up there I dropped Carolyn off with her teacher and the rest of us headed home. Matthew's other therapist comes over Monday and Wednesday afternoons so it is always a rush to get back home and clean things up a bit before she arrives. There is only about 15 minutes between when Matthew gets off the bus and we have to head out the door so I usually do a quick lunch and then pick up the mess when we get back home. I will only have to do this a few more weeks since we will be ending Matthew's home therapy. Andrew was pretty tired so he went down for nap fairly quickly so I decided to use my free time and frost and decorate the cake. I had read on the back of the cake mix box that a fun idea was to add a packet of flavored drink mix to your frosting and it would add a nice flavor and color. Great idea!!! I looked in our pantry and found our container of fruit punch mix. The stuff turns red when you add water so I figured what the heck, I'll do red frosting. I happily dumped my drink mix into my bowl of frosting and stirred away. At this point I was reminded of a basic art principle that I should have remembered from my grade school days. Red plus clear water equals red. Red plus white frosting equals...not red. Yes, I found out that no matter how much red mix you put in the frosting does not turn the same color as a glass of fruit punch. I wouldn't exactally call the frosting color pink; I would say more of a light red. Ok, hot pink but it did have little red dots from the drink red mix. Yes, the frosting went on the cake. I had a tube of blue icing and some candy diaosaurs so I went crazy and wrote "Happy Birthday Andrew" and did a nice blue border around the cake and put some of the dinosaurs on there and it looked pretty cute. I don't think Jim was too thrilled about his son having a bright pink cake but it wasn't like I was serving it to all his little friends or anything. After getting the cake done and put away, it was time to pick Carolyn up and go to the doctor for Matthew's ear. It still was icky looking and I was concerned that it was not healing. I just love taking all three kids to a doctor's appointment. Nothing better that small children forced to wait in a tiny little room with nowhere to sit and nothing to occupy them. Thankfully our doctor is a mom so she is quite understanding as to the chaos. The good news is that Matt's ear is healing up but the bad news is that he is done with swimming lessons or even swimming for the next month. He took the news pretty well and I promised him that he could still go to his fitness class. Jim came home and we decided to all go over to the Wellness Center for the evening. Jim talked me into taking the cardio kickboxing class he has been doing on Monday nights. Lots of fun if you are into pain. I just love torture stations. Lots of punching and ducking along with squats and more squats and then throw in a few painful ab exercises and you have a class. We had two different rotations of various "exercises" and by the end I was pretty wiped out. Tomorrow my body will offically let me know just how stupid I was tonight. I do need the extra exercise, the holiday season is upon us and I want to fit into my clothing. We finally got around to cutting the cake and blowing out the candles when we got home. I snapped a few shots of the cake and of Andrew eating it. In a few weeks we will have the family birthday party (with the in-laws) so there will be more fun and excitement. I plan on buying a Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake for that event.

Date Night

Wow, another Saturday night out!! Actually I wanted to see one of the new movies that came out this week so I arrainged for our usual sitter to babysit tonight. The plan was for hubby and me to see "Zack and Miri Make A Porno" and laugh ourselves silly. We both have a love of Kevin Smith movies and have seen just about all of the ones he has made so far. However, we then decided to wait and see the movie when it came to the $3.00 theatre and spend the $20.00 on a video instead. Of course that still meant that we were going out, just not to a movie. Our first stop...the grocery store. One of the Hy-Vee grocery stores in town opened up a new gas station and they were running a 16 cent per gallon gas discount. The price of gas was $2.15 so with discount we would be getting $1.99 gas. Really sad when I'm excited to pay less than $2.00 per gallon of gas. Anyway, the only way to get the discount was with purchase from the grocery store. Thankfully there was no minimum amount so Jim and I ran in and grabbed a few no-perishable items like squash and baked beans for tomorrow's supper. The station was new enough that they actually read the store reciept and marked it with an X to prevent future use. The store we usually go to doesn't bother to look and Jim has on more than one occasion used an old reciept he keeps for such a purpose. After walking through the store we decided to go eat. It's no secret that Jim bleeds barbeque so off we went to Famous Dave's to satisfy that craving. the place was busy and our server was a little scattered but the food was great. We had fun people watching and reading the paper. Hey, we don't get to do that very often. Of particlular note were the individuals from two different motorcycle clubs. When we were walking in, Jim commented to me that he would want to be a part of the "X Winos" club but he would have to ask if he could still drink wine. I rolled my eyes. Later, a much larger group of Banditos sat down. As we were walking out Jim commented on the facial hair of the bikers and said he could do the biker thing too. I agreed with him that if it came to facial hair, he'd be ok but it might be a little bit more difficult to fit in when it came time to actually ride a motorcyle. For as many bikers inside there were suprisingly few bikes outside. We both had fun trying to figure out how they all got to the restaraunt. Somehow I don't see these big burly guys climbing out of a 4-door sedan. One of the Banditos bikes had a sticker on the windshield that said 1%ter. I'm not sure what that meant but again we had fun guessing what it could be. After eating, I wanted to go over to the Earnie November's store. Earnie November's is a place that sells used CD's and records and other odds and ends. It's been forever since I have gone browsing for cheap music. Sadly, with the age of digital downloads the used CD shop will soon be a favorite memory. There is something fun about flipping though CD after CD looking for something special that lights you on fire or brings back memories. One of our inside jokes is about Earnie November's selling more than just incense--if you know what I mean. Of course while we were there some 20-something was wandering around with his pal going on a spending spree and I swear the guy was looking for his next score. He did say he was looking to spend all of his paycheck. I was trying not to laugh as he was asking what he could buy for $7.00. I'm sure when the munchies hit he is going to regret buying the incense and t-shirts and wish he would have gone to the Qdoba restaraunt next door. Jim spent his time looking at the various records and DVD's while I went through the bargin bin--$5.00 each or three for $12.00. I was looking for something I could add to my ipod collection and also to pop in the CD player in the kitchen while I was cooking or doing dishes. I managed to find a CD by the group Asia that I had the cassette of a long long time ago so I was pretty excited. I wanted Alan Parsons Project since the kids actually like the band but no luck. I had to laugh because there was a section marked Metal A-Z and upon going through it found exactally 0 CD's by a metal or even close to a metal band. I was amazed by the huge number of Celine Deion and John Tesh CD's that were avaible. I'm sure there was a reason they were in the bargin bin but that is besides the point. I finally decided to get a greatist hits album by Don Henly (formally of the Eagles) and at that point the loving husband decided to disown me. He had already frowned upon my wanting the CD from the Family Values tour which was a collection of Metal and Alternative artists from the late 90's. I had my three CD's and I was ready to purchase. Good thing I had my purse with me because Jim had already told me he wasn't going to buy the CD's. We left the music store and headed over to the Best Buy where we picked up the movie "Iron Man" . Jim also wanted to go over to Scheels (sporting goods store) and look for a certain type of shotgun ammo for a hunting trip he is going on in a few weeks. While he went upstairs and looked at bullets, I wandered over to the shoe department and fell in love with a beautiful pair of brown shoes. I have been looking all over the place for a replacement to the shoes that I now have. They are getting quite worn out and it doesn't help that last year our dog tried to eat them (another reason why the dog went back to the breeder). I excitedly showed the pair of shoes to my loving husband telling him that if he loved me then this is what I wanted for Christmas. He looked quite confused and told me that if I wanted the shoes he'd get me a $75 gift card from the store and I could buy them myself. Our last stop before heading home was Dairy Queen for a yummy Blizzard. A sweet end to a sweet date.