Happy St. Patrick's Day?

I can't believe that the last time I posted was Valentine's Day, and here it is St. Patty's time. Where has the time gone? I'll spare you the details, and post some pictures.

Cassidy, showing some "D-Fence"

Taking a much needed break.

Cassidy met Abby on her team. Turns out, they are related.....like 5th or 6th cousins or something. They kind of hit it off.

We've also been really busy with gymnastics. Whitney, warming up:

We attended the "Arnold Fitness EXPO" in Columbus, hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. He was there, but we never saw him. (There were literally tens of thousands of people there.) However, we did manage to spot Lou Ferrigno:

Whitney and her friend Saige had some fans in the stands:

Here they are marching in for their meet in Cincinnati:

I'm even attempting to load a video here. I've never done this before, so I hope it works.

Cassidy hurt her finger really bad at her last basketball game. It called for a trip to the Dr.'s, a splint, and two sets of x-rays. Not broken, but badly jammed.

Jeff is in Cincinnati for work all week. Then, we head back to Columbus this weekend for a dance competition. This time of year is just too nuts.

Until next time...

Happy Valentine's Day

I'm a little late, but better late than never. I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love.

I'm sounding like a broken record, but we've been really busy. I finally got the van back a little over a week ago. So far, so good. I'm glad we have it back. We're heading in to a really busy travel time - gymnastics meets and dance competitions in Toledo, Cincinnati, Columbus, etc. I hope the new transmission holds out! :) I'd hate to be stranded somewhere.

Jeff won't be able to make it to all of these events with us - he'll be working some weekends. Not that I'm complaining! He just dodged a big layoff at his company. He heard the rumor and two days later they got rid of about 30-35 people. He wasn't one of them! I think he was shocked, since he is still fairly new there. We are just used to being the ones to get the short end of that stick, so were surprised when he wasn't called in to the office. Some of them had been there 10-20 years. As happy as we were, I can't help but feel for those people and their families. I pray this economy turns around soon!

Kaylee has had some excitement also. A week ago Friday (on Feb. 6th), I got a call from the school that she had passed out in Health class. (I guess if you are going to faint, Health class is as good a place as any.) It was right at the end of the day, so they did not want to put her on the bus and asked that I come and pick her up. By the time I got there, the teacher, nurse, and guidance counselor were all sitting in a "sick room" with her. She was still a little shaky, but they said her color was much better. The teacher had been talking about bones when she started to feel woozy. She went to put her head down on her desk and that is the last thing she remembers. She actually fell out of her seat and hit her shoulder on the desk next to her. The whole class just got really quiet.

This is actually not new for Kaylee. I've tried to remember all of the times she has fainted, and it averages about once a year since 2nd grade. The first time was on the morning of her First Communion while my niece was trying to curl her hair. We have had her to the Dr. and ran all kinds of tests including blood work and an EKG. The school nurse recommended I call our family Dr. and let him know that it happened again. I did that, and he'd like to see her again since she is getting older now. I'm sure everything is fine. I think she is just a fainter. We're all joking about what her Wedding Day will be like! :)

This past Friday, she received a delivery at the end of the school day. Her boyfriend had these delivered to her:

She then went to his house on Saturday night, and he also gave her perfume...... Ah, young love!

I don't have much else for news. I've been trying to get some house work done. Jeff is in the process of sanding and priming our bedroom walls to prep them for a new coat of paint. I hate drywall dust and have a lot more to clean up. UGH!

On a related note, this is what happens when I ask the kids to help me fold laundry...


Now you see what I have to deal with.

The Week In Review

I haven't had time to do a real post. We've been pretty busy. Here is a quick re-cap of the past week:

Saturday - Cassidy had a basketball game in town and Whitney had a gymnastics meet down by Dayton.

The van broke down on the way home. Our friend Dan came and rescued me and the kids while Jeff had the van towed back to VW. (Thanks again, Dan :) Long night.

Monday Cassidy had a "Winter Program" at school.

Tuesday, Kaylee had a dive meet in Defiance.

(These pictures stink and we really need to figure out how to take action shots on the camera.)

Wednesday we woke up to over 7 inches of snow. School was cancelled. Everything was cancelled. YAY.

Thursday I had lunch with Cassidy at school for Catholic Schools week.

It's Friday. I'm tired and going to bed.

I want my van back.

Tomorrow Cassidy has another ball game and Whitney has a gymnastics meet in Columbus. More updates later.

16 things...

Well, I've been tagged by Chantal to post 16 interesting things about myself that you may not know about me. I'm really not looking forward to this because I don't actually think even I know 16 interesting things about myself, but here it goes:

... I am the youngest of six children.

... Actually, the four oldest are technically "half" siblings, but we never refer to each other as that - it's just "brother" and "sister."

... There are 20 years difference between me and my oldest sibling - my sister Suzy. So, since I turned 40 last year, that makes her the big 6 - 0. You'd never guess it if you met her though.

... My parents are both deceased. My mom passed away when I was 28, and my dad when I was 30.

... My mom was one of 13 children.

... She was also a twin. Maybe this is why I always wanted to have twins. I can remember being young (somewhere around 10 or so) and telling my mom I was going to keep having babies until I had twins. Heh!

... I DO have a cousin who was born on the exact same day and year as I was. We always referred to each other as "twin cousins." Is there really any such thing?

... I met my husband in college. We were both dating other people at the time, and the four of us used to play cards together in the lounge of our dorm.

... I actually had no intention of attending college until my senior year in high school, when I decided to take the ACT on a whim. My guidance counselor encouraged me when my scores came back, so I applied to only one school - Bowling Green.

... I wasn't going to go to college due to lack of money. I was only able to finish after earning an Army ROTC scholarship during my sophomore year. However, the military was definitely not my style, so I had to have a "hearing" to get out of my contract with them. Lucky for me, it was during the late 80's, when the military was experiencing serious cuts, and I was able to get out of it by paying them back. It turned out to be a very low interest student loan!

... My only claim to fame is that I was once interviewed on Channel 7 news out of Dayton. We lived in Kettering at the time and I worked in downtown Dayton. There was a murder at a small grocery store that we always used to walk to for lunch, because they also had a food court (weird, I know). The day after the murder the news team was downtown interviewing people, asking them if they were scared, etc. I made the news!

... I recently joined Facebook at the urging of my college roommate, only to realize that I have very few friends. Everyone I try to search for is not out there, so I'm looking like a big loser. I'm contemplating adding fake accounts on Facebook, just so I can "friend" them.

... I had two miscarriages - one before Kaylee and one between Kaylee and Whitney.

... After the second one, I went to a Dr. who told me I have "Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome" or something like that. My body sees the phospholipids that are formed during pregnancy as an infection, and produces anti-bodies to fight it. As a result, I had to give myself shots in the stomach twice a day, starting when we started trying to conceive, all the way through delivery. The shots were of a bloodthinner, so I bruised instantly after each shot. OUCH!

... I am a wimp and have an extremely low threshold for pain. You can imagine what fun I was during the above pregnancies!

... I fainted once when I was pregnant with Whitney. I worked at a temp service in town, and we had to go to a local factory when they would hire one of our employees. We had to walk them out on the factory floor and introduce them to their supervisor. I fainted there and had to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Low blood sugar or something - no big deal, but I did have a bump on the head afterward!

Wow, reading back through this list, I can see how far from exciting my life is, and is actually border-line depressing. As a little pick-me-up, I think I'll go add those fake friends in Facebook...

I'm now tagging my friend Amber @ http://scottandamberdavisfamily.blogspot.com/. Yes, she is the only one, since I have no more friends!

It's That Time of Year...

Holidays are over, and we settle into the gray days of winter. As much as I try to enjoy it, I have an intense dislike for this time of year. Now is when the weather gets bad and school delays, which wreaks havoc on my schedule. For exmaple -

School delayed 2 hours last Tuesday. I quickly reviewed my schedule in my head, and thought that we should be okay. Kaylee and Whitney catch a ride with a friend, so I usually take Cassidy. On a normal day, K & W get picked up about 7:15 and C and I leave about 7:30. This still gets her to school WAY early. (Like, so early she is usually the first student there and a teacher's aid has to play UNO with her for awhile until other kids start to arrive!)

Let me back up - she could catch a bus at the only bus stop in town, which is about 2 blocks away from our house. She could walk over, or I could drop her off there WAY early. But, it's about 16 degrees out most mornings, without the wind chill factor, so I have a really hard time sending my 9-year old out in that. Yes, I spoil her. And yes, I realize that many kids do this and I walked further than that in the winter as a kid. (No, not 10 miles up hill both ways.)

Anyway...

I called home on Tuesday to remind K & W that their ride would be there about 9:15. Whitney said that Cassidy was asking how she would get to shool, and I said "I'm taking her." End of conversation. We've done this many times before, so I figured she knew the drill. I had a quick meeting from 9-9:15, so figured the timing would be perfect for me to get home about 9:30...two hours later than we usually leave. Well, my meeting ran over and I didn't get out of it until 9:30. I knew Cassidy would be waiting for me so I grab my purse and look at my work phone - only to see my voice mail light blinking. Do I check it now or wait until I get back? I check it quickly and find two messages from Cassidy. The first one was pretty normal: "Hey mom, it's Cassidy. I'm just wondering when you are going to pick me up. Maybe you are on your way now. Thanks, bye." or something like that. The second one was much more panicky. "Mom, it's Cassidy, and you're not here yet." Soft crying. "I'm not sure how I'm getting to school." More crying. "Please come and get me."

I run out of work dialing my cell to tell her I'm on my way and reassuring her that it's okay. When I get home her face is red and her eyes are swollen from crying. I feel like the worst mother in the world. Only one week in to the new year, and my nomination for "Mother of the Year" is in the toilet. Of course, we have several discussions about what to do in the future if she can't reach me, telling her I'd never forget her, and reminding her that she is still getting there way early, etc.

Later in the day I check my cell phone and see she had also left two messages there. Again, the first one is kind of relaxed, but by the second one you can't even understand her, she is sobbing so hard and out of control. She ends the call with "pleeeaaase, pleeeeaaase, pleeeeeaaaase, call me back!" Horrible. Absolutely horrible.

To top it off, on Thursday of last week, I'm in the middle of hosting a web conference at work, and another line in my department starts to ring. A co-worker answers it and takes the message that Whitney has gotten sick at school. It happened right at the end of the day, and they didn't want to put her on the bus and risk her getting sick on there, so she is in the office and they need someone to come and get her. Perfect. I wrap up as quick as I can and run to school to pick her up. She must have had a touch of the flu or something.

These things were somewhat easier when Jeff worked in town because between the two of us, one of us could usually slip away from work. Now it is all on me. Being a working mom is the hardest thing in the world. I know that being a stay at home mom is no walk in the park, but being torn between work and home stinks. Those are the days you feel like you are not doing your kids justice. I tell my girls all the time that if at all possible, they should try to stay home when they have a family. Or at least have a flexible job, or be their own boss, or work from home...I'm not sure what the answer is.

I realize that I'm fortunate to have a job, but it's just really stinky that society has become so money-centric that I have to work just to provide some nice things for my family - like food. Of course, it's somewhat easier now that they are older. Plucking a sleeping infant out of their crib to put them in a cold car seat and drag them to a sitter was gut-wrenching most days.

Okay, enough boo-hooing. Sorry - but I feel better now.

On a completely different topic: remember the jigsaw puzzle we were working on after Christmas? We finished it this past weekend:

This puzzle kicked our behinds! I'm not kidding. There were several times we had to stop and take a whole section apart to re-do it because the same pieces would fit in multiple locations. I was getting tired of seeing it half-done in the middle of the living room, so threatened to take it apart. Jeff decided it was time to just get it done, so we spent almost all Saturday afternoon bent over the card table and finally knocked it out. NOW, I get to take it apart!

Holiday Update

One last post for 2008, just to keep updated.

Christmas went well. I worked a half day Christmas Eve. My company has a "Christmas drawing" where they randomly pull a few names of people who win small prizes. I actually won this year. I got to choose my gift, so I picked a Gingerbread House Kit. I thought it would be something the kids could do that afternoon to keep them occupied. The house comes pre-assembled, so you just have to decorate it. Although the thought of eating something that has sat on a shelf for a month at Wal-Mart was a little intimidating, it was in the spirit of the season, so what the heck? The kids actually did pretty well with it, and have decided we should do one every year.

The final product:

I think it turned out pretty cute, considering that the icing was not very easy to work with. However, it wasn't exactly edible once it dried. We picked some of the candy off of it, but then threw the rest out...yuck!

As soon as we wrapped up that project, it was time to get ready for the children's Christmas Eve Mass. Whitney and Cassidy both had speaking parts, but like bad parents, we didn't take our camera. :( They both did a good job. Plus - Santa came to our house while we were gone! He has done this most years. When the kids were younger, it was great because then they could open their gifts and have time to play. We used to always have to get up on Christmas morning and drive to my family's for our Christmas, and it was hard to tear the kids away. Now, my family holds it a different day so the kids can enjoy their Christmas at home a little; but I've let Santa know that we're still fine with him coming to our house while we are at church. So Christmas day was pretty relaxing. Just us hanging out, and trying out Guitar Hero World Tour.

Here they are unwrapping:

(For some reason Whitney was cold so kept her coat on to open presents.)

So, here we sit on New Year's Eve. We tend to be home-bodies, so it's going to be pretty quiet for us. Kaylee is at a party (I wonder what it's like to have a social life?) and the rest of us are baking brownies and putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Jealous? We'll try to keep it under control...

Here is hoping that you and yours have a very happy and blessed 2009!!

Where Do I Begin?

I've been a bad blogger lately. December has been so busy. Kaylee has had a couple of dive meets. Here is a picture. We really have to figure out appropriate settings on the camera for the conditions:

Central had their Children's Christmas Party. My kids are probably getting too old to go; but I figured this might be the last year for Cassidy. Whitney insisted on going also, even though it meant missing gymnastics. Then, Kaylee didn't want to stay at home, so opted to come along, "to eat some cookies." Really, my 15 year-old at a kids party? The younger two played games, which earned them tickets that they could then turn in for prizes - much in the spirit of "Chuck E. Cheese." Kaylee kept trying to talk them in to one particular princess crown - made out of sparkly pipe cleaners. Whitney finally got tired of hearing her whine, so went and purchased it for her. I then insisted Kaylee wear it for the remainder of the party. She was only too happy to oblige:

I just thought this was kind of a cool shot, even though it's blurry:

I finally got Christmas cards out. We usually take a family photo, but we haven't been able to find the time. We opted for a quick picture session of just the girls in front of our little tree. This was a late decision, so some people received just cards, while others got the photo. Here are a few out-takes:

The final result:

On to more recent news. As all of the locals are well aware, we had a major ice storm last Thursday night/Friday morning. School was cancelled (for the second day), and Jeff left for work early. I got ready as usual, and just as I was finishing up, we lost power. I woke up Kaylee so she'd know that they may be without lights, etc. once they got up. She wanted to get up then and the other two ended up waking up amid the commotion. I had heard the sump pump running all morning, so decided on a whim to call Jeff at work and let him know the situation. (I never call him at work.)

As I'm on the phone, I hear Kaylee say the words, "I'm standing in water!" so I quickly hang up with Jeff. She was in the toy room, looking for the Nintendo DS. I go in with a flashlight (it was pitch-black) to find a growing puddle on the floor, coming from the window sill. Ice had dammed up the spouting and water was running down the window in a wide river, coming in and filling up the inside of the sill, and leaking through the molding. Jeff calls back, saying he is on his way and tells me to check the sump hole and if it is filling up, to start bailing.

I quickly deal with the mess in the toy room (the kids had tons of stuff on the floor, which was now soaking up the water). I then take a flashlight to check the sump hole - which is located UNDER our basement stairs, with an opening between the stairs and cinder block of about 18 inches to squeeze through. I shine my flashlight down and see a stream creeping toward the front of the stairs. I utter something inappropriate and yell at Kaylee to get a bucket. She holds the flashlight while I start to bail - hauling the water out the back door and to the yard about 10-12 times before Jeff pulls in the garage. Oh - it is still raining and large branches weighted down with ice are snapping and tumbling to earth.

Once Jeff arrives, he yells for larger buckets from the garage and he takes over bailing, filling the 5-gallon buckets to the top while Kaylee and I take turns hauling them to the yard - sometimes one at a time, and sometimes doubling up. They are kind of heavy for us, so we end up slopping a lot of the water over the top, which pours down our legs, into our shoes, and over the stairs to shower Jeff with stinky water. (We have additional septic line issues which are scheduled to be fixed next week, but result in a very foul odor that periodically escapes from our sump hole. It is not pleasant.)

I'm not sure how long we do this before Jeff's dad shows up with a battery operated pump from Ace. Only then did I really start to feel the cold. I'm sure we were at it an hour at least, and I'm guessing we hauled over 150 gallons of water. But, we managed to keep up and nothing was ruined...not that there is much in our basement that could be ruined. Whitney and Cassidy went with my father-in-law to his house since they had a generator and heat. Kaylee and I changed clothes and huddled on the couch to take a nap. We woke up hungry and made a run to McDonald's to get lunch for everyone. Big mistake when everyone else in town is also without power.

To make a long story short (I know - too late), the kids and I ended up staying at my in-laws Friday and Saturday nights. Jeff had to stay here and mind the pump. He had to turn it on to drain the hole, and then turn it off so the motor wouldn't burn up. He was up every 20 minutes the first night, and then it finally slowed down so he could sleep for 2-hour stretches the second night. He had no heat until Saturday afternoon when his dad insisted on bringing kerosene heaters in. It helped, but still was not my idea of comfortable.

As if this weren't enough, we had Christmas with my family on Saturday, in Russells Point. The kids and I went, but we all felt bad leaving Daddy at home. Christmas was fun, and my sister invited us to spend the night there, but I felt we should get back. Christmas with Jeff's family was on Sunday. We still had no power Sunday morning, so it was hard to get in the spirit. Jeff came to his parents to shower and get ready, and brought laundry since we were running out of clean clothes.

The kids opened presents, and it was almost time for Jeff to run home to drain the sump hole once again, when he got a call from a neighbor that our power was back on! We really felt like it was a Christmas miracle!! He ran home to turn everything on, return the pump, and make sure the furnace fired up. We ate dinner, visited awhile longer, and then started the process of loading the vehicles with all of our possessions - laundry, coolers of food that we had moved there, Christmas gifts, and the dog.

The clean up at home was no small task - and is still not complete - but it is good to be home! A big thanks to my in-laws for putting up with us for three days....again, no small task!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!