December 29, 2010

I can't believe that I only have four days left of my winter break. It always goes by way too fast. I enjoy being home with my kids. We went to see Tangled today. It was cute. I would have preferred to see Yogi Bear, but Tangled was fun.

They showed previews for another movie that really looked funny. It's called Gnomeo and Juliet. It's a Romeo and Juliet story about garden gnomes. The kids and I all want to see it.

Busy Day

Today was a really busy day.  After we picked up Zoe and brought her back here I left to go to the grocery store.  The kids stayed home with Zoe.  I managed to go to the store, do the shopping and be home in just a little over an hour. 

We had lunch and then it was off to the dentist.  Neither child had any cavities!  Yeah!

After that we went to Wal-mart and did shopping there.  We brought it home and headed out to the park next to the city hall in St. Peters.  All three of us played around in the water and with our cameras.  I got some pretty good shots and the kids were really good about letting me take their pictures today.

When we left there we stopped by Zoe's house and got her again.  After we got home I relaxed for a while and then made home made pizza for supper.  Now, I'm relaxing some more.  I need to go by the Y tomorrow and see about paying for Michaela to go back there for swim because she is very unhappy at the park and neither of us feels comfortable there.

Here are a couple shots from this afternoon:

I'm Back

It has been a really long time since I blogged.  I have not seem to remember to do this or have the motivation to do it.  It was a really rough year at work.  I was really glad when it was over.  It was my last year in the building that I have worked in for 9 years.  They are closing that building.  I will be moving to the brand new building in our district.  This will be the first year for this building.  I have seen it and it is SO GORGEOUS!  I love it.  Our colors are purple and gold, which I'm very happy with.  We are tigers and there is a giant purple tiger head on the wall in the gym. 

I have been to a three day PD for the character program we are integrated with the character program we have been doing at the old building.  It really got me excited for the prospects of our new year and new school.  I hope others can get excited about it, too.  It could really make our school an incredible place.

It has been three weeks since we got out of school and we've not done anything big.  But, it's still been a good summer so far.  We've had some good family times, including going fishing last evening as part of our Father's Day.  We also went to the Gypsy Caravan together on Memorial Day.  And, we all worked together to plant our flower garden this year. 

Yesterday was June 19, 2011.  It marked the 25th anniversary of the day Michael gave me his class ring.  I cannot believe it's been that long ago.  I am still so much in love with him I cannot find words to describe it.  He is really my best friend and my heart and soul.

Two weeks from today we will be celebrating 4th of July by bringing home a new family member.  We will be going to southern Missouri to get a new Scottie puppy girl.  We are all very excited about this.  We will always love and miss Abby, but our house is just too empty without a Scottie living here.  About a week and a half after that we'll travel up to the middle of Wisconsin to get another little Scottie girl, so we'll be a two dog family by the time we mark the first anniversary of losing Abby.

I've been really working on my photography lately.  I'm trying to get back into the picture a day thing.  I have joined the 365 project where you are only allowed to post one picture a day.  I am also participating in the 30 Day Photography Challenge at White Peach Photography.  I get to post my entry via my photography blog, so I can post as many pictures as I want there.  But, there is a "theme" to each day.  I am enjoying it all so much.  I spent several hours on Thursday and Friday of last week exploring local parks and playing with my camera.  It was great to get out and just be by myself and exercise my creativity.

This is one of my pictures from last week.  I had a lot of fun with this little guy.  I got several shots of him.  I am going to be using another one of him as my close up picture for the 30 day challenge. 

This week we are dog sitting.  We are taking care of Michael's parents' poodle, Zoe.  She is a riot.  She came into the room where I am and saw the chord to my laptop moving (I had it between my toes and was wiggling it) and she started barking at it.  She kept this up until we shut her out of the room.  It was hilarious.

March 9, 2011

The minute I got home from work today, I put on my pj's. I am so happy to not have to go anywhere tonight, I cannot even being to express it. No swim practice, no basket ball or baseball, no girl scouts, no school functions, I just get to be at home.

March 8, 2011

I feel better today than I have since last Tuesday. I woke up feeling like I actually got some rest last night. The mucus in my nose and throat are starting to break up. My cough is not as bad. Hopefully, this means I am getting better. I hate getting sick.

Tonight was swim practice. I had planned on working out, but I started talking to another mom at swim practice and ended up talking to her the whole time. It was a nice conversation. I am glad I got to talk to her just one on one.

I hope I sleep well tonight, too. It would be nice to wake up feeling rested again.

March 7, 2011

I feel worse tonight than I've felt since I started getting sick. I am MISERABLE. I really think that I should not use Dayquil or Nyquil when I'm getting or have a sinus infection. I think it makes it worse. I tried to use my sinus rinse bottle tonight and my one nostril is so clogged that the saline solution ran to the back of my throat and out my mouth instead of just through my nasal passages.

I really hope I can make it through work tomorrow. I may beg out of the staff meeting and go to the urgent care facility before taking Michaela to swim practice tomorrow night. I really do not want to take any more sick days at this point and having a day off is the only way I really can get in to my doctor.

I think I may have a fever again, but there's no way to tell for sure because NONE of our thermometers work at home. I cannot wait til the kids go to bed so I can get in the shower. I think that is the only way I'm going to get my nose unclogged. I am going to take Mucinex tonight instead of Nyquil.

March 6, 2011

Today was a VERY LONG DAY. Michaela only had one event to swim in and it was her relay. It was event 85. We had to be at the pool by 8:00 a.m. but she did not swim until after 4:00 p.m. I'm glad we stayed and waited so she would get this one last chance to swim and be a part of her relay team, but boy was the wait painful.

It wasn't all bad. We did go over to the university book store during the day. Caleb and Michael both got new Mizzou hats. I wanted to get Caleb something because Michaela has gotten a Mizzou water bottle, a districts swim meet sweat shirt and a t-shirt that says "If swimming were easy, it'd be football." Michaela doesn't realize this yet, but I'm going to find a shirt for Caleb that says the opposite.

After the meet was finally over we ended up going back to our hotel to eat at the restaurant attached to it. It was pretty good, but way too much food for one plate. We got on the road around 6:00 to come home. We made it home by 7:30. The drive was not bad at all. It really feels good to be home. I have already gotten everything unpacked and put away. I did not want to have to do that tomorrow. I am still not feeling well and Michaela has girl scouts tomorrow night.

March 5, 2011

Today was the first day of districts. We were at the pool by 7:45 a.m. Michaela had warm ups at 8:00 a.m. Districts are held at Mizzou in Columbia. The recreation complex that the pool is in is very nice. It is a mixture of old and new architecture. There are two lap pools and a diving well. They used both pools for the events. Girls swam in one pool and boys swam in the other.

Michaela swam four events. Her first event was the 50 M Freestyle. She bettered her time by 3.5 seconds. Her second event was the 100 M Freestyle. She bettered her time in that by 30 seconds!!!! Her third event was 50 M Backstroke. She bettered her time in that by 5.5 seconds. Her fourth event was 200 M Freestyle. I am not sure about the times for it.

She really had a great time. It was fun experiencing this with her and all four of us being there together. I bought a CD with professional pictures taken of her during her events. I will get it tomorrow when we go back for finals. Michaela will only be swimming her relay tomorrow because she did not make the top 16 in her individual events, but that's ok, she did great anyway.

Tonight we met up with three other families at Shakespeare's pizza. It has a very good reputation as THE pizza place in Columbia. I have to say it was really good pizza. I was impressed. We really enjoyed the time with the other families. Michaela got to spend time with her three favorite people on the swim team. I'm glad we went out with them.

March 4, 2011

I went back to work today. I still do not feel good, but I needed to be at work. It was a long day. I had six students absent. There are so many kids out sick, it is scary.

Tonight when I got home, the kids and I had to get things packed up. This is the weekend we are in Columbia for Michaela's district swim meet. If she doesn't make state, then we are finished with swim meets for the school year.

When Michael got home he brought suit cases with him. We had the car packed up and headed out of town around 6:30 or so. At least is was something like that. It was storming pretty bad when we left, but by the time we got to Wentzville is was pretty much over, although parts of the trip there were very strong winds.

By the time we got to the hotel, got checked in and found an Applebee's we were eating supper around 9:00 p.m. I wish I felt better because I think tomorrow morning is going to come way too fast and may be painful.

March 3, 2011

I stayed home from work again today. I really did not have time for this this week. I had a fever again in the middle of the night and I still feel really bad. I did manage to get the rest of the laundry done, though. I will be glad when we have a weekend where we don't have to do anything, but I'm not sure that's ever going to happen again.

I did take Caleb to basketball practice and Michaela to swim practice. I did not work out, though. I just still feel like to crap.