Rain,rain, go AWAY!

Well, the old joke goes, as soon as the State Fair of Virginia begins, the rains will come. It certainly has been the case this year. Fair started Thursday...rain started thursday...rained (hard) Friday...rained (off and on) Saturday...and today when it was supposed to be nice...rained again. Even though my house is large, it is NOT large enough for 4 kids and a grumpy mom.

Today we went out a couple times because we have nothing (relatively) in the house to eat and since my kids have started to drink 2 Gallons of milk a week, we had none of that so it was dire circumstances.

First we went to Costco. I neede to get some milk ($3.30 a gallon v $4.25 a gallon at Walmart). I needed some snacks for lunches for school and since Matthew won't eat very much, I need to get the good stuff. We made it about 1/2 way through the trip before Logan and Matthew started chasing each other up and down the aisles. We finally finished and checked out and it was lunchtime so I bought a hot dog for Addison and Riley and a piece of pizza for Matthew and Addison. Matthew was too revved up to eat and Logan kept getting up so it was time to leave and get naps.

I finally unpacked everything by 2 and the girls were asleep so I had some time to fold 4 loads of laundry and sort some of the summer clothes into tupperware to go away till next year.

After naps we went to Walmart...okay, not smart but I needed some weird things (like a bicycle inner tube for Matthew's bike) and so decided to combine it into one trip. What a MISTAKE...the two who were running earlier ...started again. I was so mad. Plus, Addison was scratching me because apparently I'm not allowed to hold onto "my basket" while I am pushing it!!! Geez. We finally left without 1/4 of the things I need for this month but I just will hope to do it when the au pair is here and I can leave the majority of them home.

Dinner is cooking and Logan is upstairs playing with her stuffed animals. A little while ago she brought down this monkey named "Emily" and told me she was sick and could I watch her while she (Logan) went to work...because she (Logan) was her mommy. So when I asked what I was, she said...her "grandma" ...OF COURSE!

Overwhelmed...

I'm feeling overwhelmed with things both at home and work these days so little energy to blog...so, I am adapting from several blogs I read pretty well...have I said I love RSS feeds? It allows me to find and keep blogs that I read close and get notified when there are new posts...

Anyway, one of them put a post to this cool site which makes a word picture of the most frequently used words on your blog. Mine looks like this...



You can make your own here.

Is that really what I was meant to do?

I don't remember going through the "princess" stage as a kid, but Logan definitely has it bad! This morning she was just chattering away during the drive to daycare...it is becoming one of my favorite times because she is just so much more willing to share what she is thinking than the boys.

...so, today it went something like this....

"When I get big I am going to live in a castle."

mmm...

"I will be a princess and live in a big castle"

mmm...who else will be in this castle...can Addison come?

"Yes, she can be a princess too"

mmm...

"And Taylor (her best girlfriend) is going to have big muscles and she will fight and kill the monsters"..."Taylor and Max will have big muscles and fight"

(smiling now...)mmm... what about me, will I be living in the castle?

"Yes, mommy you can be a princess too...no, you will be a queen!"

(smiling again)...thank you...I would like to be a queen

"Yes, you will be a queen and you will keep the castle clean and make sure that everything is put away in it's place"

(now laughing)...you mean I have to clean the castle!!? [for those of you who know me, I don't clean the house very much...can't imaging cleaning the castle!...and certainly don't think I would be doing castle cleaning if I was the QUEEN!!!]

UGH!

(Picture is from http://homepage.eircom.net/~osrai/kilkenny_castle.htm - Kilkenny Castle)

Hurricane Ike

Reading about all of the trouble caused by Hurricane Ike in Galveston TX reminds me of a trip I made there in 1993.

It was February and I was completing my fellowship and trying to decide what to do with my life after my fellowship. So, I applied for a job at UT Galveston and went down there to interview. Meanwhile, my sister used to go to TX for a vacation each February to go to the Houston Rodeo and she decided to join me for a few days while I was there. The second day of the interview, was horrible. It was raining cats and dogs. I remember they had one of the secretaries drive me from interviews and from building to building. At one point, I fell in a puddle with my interview dress on! I spent the next half hour in the ladies room blowing on my dress with the hand dryer!

But, that wasn't the worst part of it. As the night went on, the weather got worse. We were staying in this hotel on the beachfront of Galveston. the hotel was directly across the street from the beach! It had these open stairs on either side of the hotel and the wind was HOWLING up the stairs. Our room was right at the end of the building and there was no heat! We called down to the main desk several times and at one point, I think they brought us a couple of extra blankets but it was freezing in the room. The seal at the bottom of the door was horrible and so the wind was coming in through the door. We tried to block it with towels and the wind was so strong, it would push the towel across the floor into the room! Finally, we hunkered down in the beds trying to get warm and were greeted by the outside door at the top of the stairs opening and slamming closed repeatedly from the wind. We asked the main desk to come and lock the door but they wouldn't because it was a "fire" door - some good that would do in a fire!!! It wouldn't stay shut.

I think we finally had a little sleep but the next day was a nightmare trying to get our flights out of Houston. I think I finally got out of Houston International but my sister had to get a flight out of Hobby.

All this to say, that we endured a "Non-hurricane" on Galveston island. I can not imagine enduring one that was as strong as Hurricane Ike. I pray for those who made the poor decision to stay and see what would happen. I hope that the number of people dead is less than we expect and I hope that Galveston Island (what I remember as a beautiful place) can survive.

Weekend...

...what no big catastrophes? well the weekend isn't over yet! No, really, things have been pretty quiet (well no sicknesses)...
Yesterday was Logan's first dance class and then 15 minutes later the boys first gymnastics class. Everything went pretty well. Logan loved it. Looks like there will only be 3 or 4 other girls in the class and they did pretty simple things. she looked so cute in her leotards and ballet shoes. As for the boys, well they did pretty well too. the hour we had to wait for their class to start was a little rough. this place is pretty big and has a huge play area but the toys are mostly for the 12-18 month set...not exactly entertaining for my boys. Next week I'll need to remember to bring something more for them to do. When they finally got in there, they were in a class of 8 boys with one teacher. I'm not sure that is a good ratio but we'll see. Matthew was pretty distracted by all that was going on (even medicated) but he was pretty good about staying in line and following. And what was the favorite parts of the adventure?

Logan: dancing to itsy bitsy spider
Matthew: doing the (high bar) monkey bars with chalk on my hands
Riley: doing the rings and turning upside down

I think the next 8 weeks our Saturday mornings will be pretty full!

Weekend coming...

Can't wait for the weekend. Today Logan and I went to Walmart and bought some snacks for school and night; some fruit for mom and most importantly...leotards and tights for BALLET. Logan has been asking to take ballet almost on a daily basis for the past 6 months. She is finally going to start those lessons on Saturday. She is so excited...and I am pretty sure that her chicken pox will pretty much be gone by then.

Speaking of chicken pox, we are doing well. The pox are drying up and I am just waiting for next week. I think if the other two kids don't get it by Thursday, we should be okay.

First day of school...

Here is the homework Riley did today at afterschool care (the words in Red are what he wrote in)...

My First Day of School...

...Today, TosDay was my first day of school. When I woke up this morning, I felt neRvis about going to school. The weather was CoLD. I wore shoRTs to school. My teacher's name is Misvon (Ms. Vaughan). The first thing we did in class was Red Books. I made friends with JahDen. At play time I liked Monkey BaR. At lunch time I ate Samwith. The best think I liked doing today was Resess. I did not like Music. At the end of my first day of school, I felt good.

I think he is off to a good start. He was happy when I picked him up from daycare and he got a green mark on his calendar. Tonight as he was falling asleep he asked me to put a note in his lunch box with "I love you" on it so he could look at it during the day (awwww).

The saga continues...

On Saturday night we were outside late and I got a bunch of mosquito bites. So, when Logan came in and showed me her bumps on Sunday I was sure that was what it was. When she complained later in the day and on Monday of more itching I told her she must be " very sweet"!
When we were riding to the pool yesterday and she started scratching her head, I thought for sure that she had the "L" word (since last week there was someone in the other 3 year old class with it!) and groaned inward about how that would be a pain.

When we got to the pool I checked her head but she didn't have lice...what I did see was a "bug bite" in her scalp where she was scratching (phew...dodged that bullet!).
It wasn't until last night after dinner when she was scratching more and I found a few more bug bites on her stomach (which was covered when she was out) that it slowly dawned on me....

...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It can't be, shingles isn't contageous...she got the vaccine...how can I be out of work for a week?!!! Tomorrow is Tuesday (my busy day at work which I have missed for the last 3 weeks because of illness of some sort and my nurse is going to KILL me)...

but it is...it's the POX...ugh! All I can say is the rest of them (the kids) better get them quickly...like soon...not spaced out over the next 2 months...but within the next couple of days!!!!