What an adventure!!

Yesterday Mike and I took the kids to the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Mike won tickets from the radio to the Big Game Show they were hosting there. The kids were free so our admission was cost free. The main purpose of the show was for hunters and outdoor people, but our reason for going was the fact that the monster truck, Virginia Giant, was there giving free rides. Ever since taking him to a monster truck show last summer, Ryan has been a HUGE fan of the monster trucks. He was quite excited about it!

After getting our van stuck in the out of control mud, in the grassy, melting snow plowed parking area (there were two tractors there pulling people out of the mess),

Mike and the kids got on the Virginia Giant truck. The ride was pretty quick, but they LOVED it!!!

Once they finished their ride, we went inside to the Game Show. They had some baby bear cubs, a wolf, mountain lion and tiger cubs too. The kids enjoyed watching the bears. They were playing, but the other cubs were just resting.

We went by the new Transformers edition Camaro, that was on display, it looks like Bumblebee from the movie. Ryan was in complete awe! He kept talking about how if Bumblebee transformed he would be so tall and would poke a hole in the roof. He kept asking about it transforming and notified us that he wanted to have this car. :) We think he thinks it WAS Bumblebee. :) After getting balloon animals, we headed home. What a fun day!!

I have Ziplock Power!!

Today, at our center, we served the kids bagged lunches instead of the normal lunch on a plate. They were all so excited with the change!! Many of the older kids were excited to have "chips instead of vegetables!" My two year old class was so excited! In their lunch bags they had a sandwich, chips and apple slices. So much excitement!!

I required the kids in my class to eat their sandwich before they were allowed to eat a lot of their chips. After I had helped one little guy in my class open all his bags 'o lunch, he began munching on the chips. His sandwich was just sitting there and I told him to eat his sandwich. When he didn't I zipped his ziplock bag of chips shut, telling him he could not have anymore until he ate some sandwich (I really am mean!! :)). As a result, he tried and tried to open that bag and could not do it. So, he began to cry. As a last resort, he gave up and ate his sandwich, to which I rewarded him by opening his chip bag again. It was too funny!!!

Enough Already!!!

Snow arrived in Rockingham County again today :(! Really ready for spring!! On the upside,

Mike was finally home during snow for the first time today! He has been working each time and the kids have been wanting him to play outside with them as well as I have been wanting help shoveling the snow! :) We all went out today and made a snowman and had some snowball fights and did some sleigh riding.

Before the snow really started sticking to the roads, we went up to see the skiiers in Massanutten and took some pictures of the snow around the area.

Watching the skiiers

Swimming when there is snow on the ground!?

My friend, Rabia, informed me of a free swim at our local recreation department today at 3:00. I asked the kids if they wanted to go swimming. Once they realized we were not going swimming at Grammy's house and understood that we were swimming inside--where there was heat--they were very excited! We met Rabia and her family there and swam with them for about an hour. (they arrived before us and left before us). After they left we swam for another hour and "closed the place down." The kids had so much fun!!

I stopped by my mother's house (where we keep the kids life jackets because of their pool) to pick up their life jackets. I got Ryan's belt too. None of the three of them use these when they can touch--and Ryan only uses his when he jumps off the diving board--but I did not know what to expect or know how many people would be there and I thought it would just be better to know the three of them were not drowning.

This pool has a dome over it. It is an outdoor pool, but they put this tent thing over it in the winter time.

I love the last picture . . . in the set up of the "Free Polar Bear Swim" they gave you tickets to redeem. These tickets got each person a hot coca and a snow cone. Lydia and Emily wanted a snow cone and hot coca and Ryan and I just had hot coca. Nothing like sitting at the pool, with your hair wet from swimming, and drinking hot coca. Too funny!! Great day!!

Cousin Mix

This weekend, my niece, Adella came to visit. Ryan, Lydia and Emily were so excited about their cousin, Adella coming and had been counting how many sleeps until she comes. We picked her up on Friday and took her back this afternoon. It started snowing on Friday night so Saturday we spent the entire day at home. The kids played out in the snow and when they came in we made "Cousin Mix." This was a recipe for "Friendship Mix" that I used with the kids in my classroom last week. Ryan, Lydia, Emily and Adella not only loved making the "Cousin Mix," but loved eating it even more!! What fun!

We got about 6 inches of snow, which was a lot less than the last big snow . . . . but still snow. Infact, we have seen so much snow this winter that the kids were not real excited about going out and playing in it. And . . . they are calling for more of it this weekend! :(

Where are you Spring!!??

Happy New Year!!!

I was so upset with myself on New Year's Eve when I received a text at 12:15 am, wishing me a Happy New Year, that woke me from a very good sleep. "I missed it all!" I thought to myself. Since Mike and I have had children, we typically invite another couple who has children over to celebrate with us, but this year Mike was scheduled to work New Year's Day and would be getting up quite early so we decided to skip the festivities and look at it as just another day. While I was sad then, I am really glad I got that sleep when I did.

On Friday (New Year's Day) at 9:05 AM, Mike calls from work saying he has a severe, sharp pain in his side and is going to the hospital. The kids and I get dressed and are at the hospital in record time. We find Mike laying in a room waiting to go down for a CAT/SCAN to see if they could officially identify the problem. They were leaning towards thinking it was a kidney stone, but they would not know without looking. 4 hours later the 5 of us were sent home with pain narcotics and told the size of the kidney stone was "moderate" and someone of Mike's stature could pass it naturally. They gave him directions to follow up with the family doctor as soon as he could. Keep in mind, this is a Friday and is New Year's Day--Doctor's offices are only taking emergency situations. No one ever died from a Kidney Stone so we were instructed to take the pain medication and the stone should pass in a few days.

Friday, in the middle of the night, Mike experiences a lot of pain and has waited too long to take the medication. After talking to someone in the ER we double up the dosage and eventually it relieves the pain enough for Mike to fall back to sleep about 2 hours later.

Saturday pain continued, but Mike was able to sleep some. In fact, he ate dinner with us that night and Emily did not feel like eating. We were eating some of her favorites and we thought it was odd that all she wanted to do was drink something. She went back to her room and laid down-another strange thing for her. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later her lunch came back up. Two more times in a 3 hour period and she finally fell asleep. 1:00 AM I am scared awake by Mike who is rolling in pain. We try medicine, doubling up, etc. and it does not touch it. In his decision to go back to the ER we decide not to wake the kids since Emily had been sick so the ambulance came to get him. They arrived about 2:15 AM. At 5:45 AM my phone rings saying my husband is ready to come home and I need to come get him. I put coats on the kids, carry them to the van, and we head to the hospital. Pick him up, carry everyone back inside (Mike was able to walk on his own--with his new pain medication--trying something else), and try to go back to sleep. Ryan and Lydia did not end up going back to sleep so we were up for the day.

Sunday night at 12:30 am (Monday morning) Mike awakes again doubled over in pain. He takes 4 Percocet in a 2 hour period and it does NOTHING for his pain. After checking with the ER to make sure this would not kill him, he decides he needs to go back to the ER. So, again, I put coats on the kids and I carry them all out to the van. I can't stay there with Mike because of the kids (this was hard to just drop him off). The kids and I go back home, carry them all back in the house and they fall back to sleep by 2:00 am or so. With the anticipation that I will be receiving another call to come get Mike, I tossed and turned and never really slept. I contacted the hospital several hours later to see what was happening since I had heard nothing. The Urologist had been contacted in the middle of the night and instructed the ER department to admit him--that he would be in to see him in the morning.

8:00 I put Ryan, Lydia and Emily on the bus and drive to the hospital. The Urologist arrived as I was coming in. He talked to us telling us that the kidney stone is not moving the way they expected and told us our options. He mentioned this "moderate" kidney stone was 4.5 mm. Typically, if a kidney stone is less than 4 mm they say the person can pass it on their own, but bigger than that and they don't send you home--unless it is a holiday of course :(. He told us we could wait it out or get put on the list for surgery later in the day. There is a procedure where they take a scope in to "blast" the kidney stone and "suck out the fragments." There were 8 people signed up in front of Mike so the wait was going to be quite long. I was not at the hospital 15 minutes and I received a call from the school saying Lydia had gotten sick and someone needed to come pick her up. In my panic I am not certain what to do with my sick daughter since I can not take her back to the hospital and I need to be there with Mike. My parents, who live about 40 minutes from my house, are in Florida and are clearly not available. My mom has an amazing friend, Alice, who is also a retired teacher. She cancelled all of her plans on Monday so that I could leave my sick, throwing up daughter with her and head back to the hospital. I left the hospital around 2:15 to go meet Ryan and Emily as they got off the bus. When I left, Mike still had not gone into surgery. I took them to my center where my wonderful friend, Rabia, kept them until she got off work. We exchanged vehicles so she would have access to the van, to take them home, and I headed back to the hospital.

When I arrive at the hospital around 4 he has just left. We were told the procedure would take 45 minutes to 1 hour. After he had been gone almost 2 hours I really began to panic. I contacted my sister-in-law (Destiny), who works in the OR, but her shift was over and she had gone home. I texted a million questions to her on the length of time and what was happening and why was he not finished yet, etc. In my panic I know I drove her nuts, but she made me feel better by telling me what was probably happening and why it was taking so long and that if they were having complications they would DEFINITELY be letting me know!! At 7:05 they wheeled him up from recovery telling us that he would need to stay the night and be discharged tomorrow. I contacted Rabia (at my house now with the kids) to tell her what was happening and when I would be home, etc. and she tells me that on their way home Ryan got sick in the van. "UGGGHHHH!!! What is going on!?" is going through my head. Now I have left two of my throwing up kids with my friends (at least they used to be my friends :))

I get home at 9:00 and to my children being in bed and Ryan having thrown up one more time. I end up getting sick myself prior to the night coming to an end. Whatever this crap was it was VERY contagious and I am just praying Mike does not get it!! Maybe all these trips to the hospital have kept him out of the germs.

I am happy to announce Mike's grandparents brought him home this morning around 9 AM. He is in a little pain due to his stint, but all in all is in good shape--just tired--like the rest of us. Ryan, Lydia and I are home today recovering. Hoping tomorrow will get us back to some normalcy. We want to thank everyone who helped us out, called and prayed with and for us!! You are all wonderful and we love you all!!!

To our family and friends, we hope you all had a wonderful New Year's and here's to a awesome 2010!!

Most snow since 1996!!

Yesterday it started snowing about 5:00 and is still snowing now, 24 hours later. The snow has not been a normal snow for our part of the world. We have not seen this much snow since about 1996. Everyone seems pretty excited about it, but I would really just like it to go away! The kids went out today and TRIED to play in it. Lydia and Emily kept getting stuck and I had to pull them out of the snow. Guess when you are only 3 feet tall, 16 inches of snow is probably pretty overpowering! :)

We went out at about 11:00 this morning so I feel certain there is more snow out there now since it has not stopped snowing!! UGGH!!!

"I am drowning!" Lydia kept saying with a laugh!
Emily . . . Just about waist deep :)Ryan going up the steps of the deck. Amazing he could even find the steps!
Here is Emily stuck in the snow. I made her wait while I got the camera before I helped her up.Sliding is really fun when the sliding board is covered with snow!

Ryan was jumping off the picnic table and landing in the snow. Emily decided to do the same :) Lydia did it once, but I had to hold her hand. She did not care for it.

Made some snow cream when we came in. I did not have any vanilla so we used coca instead. Vanilla is definately better, but chocolate worked in a pinch.
Lydia eating the snow while waiting to put more in the bowl. She and Emily LOVED eating the snow! Emily ate it so much outside that it made her chin hurt from being so cold. :)