What a week!!

What a crazy week it's been. On Monday, my youngest nephew, Nathan, was born. He weighs in at 7 lbs 15 ounces and is healthy. They're already home and I haven't had a chance to meet him yet. I've had a cold and really don't want to expose the little guy to it. Nathan and my sil, Carol are both doing well.

On Tuesday, my dad was admitted to the hospital. He's been having problems since around Christmas. I'm not sure if they're all related or not, though. This time, he's got a perforation in his large interesting that melded itself to his bladder wall and made a hole in his bladder wall at the site. You can imagine how painful it's been for him lately. He's home now, but will have to undergo surgery in April to repair the problem. They're waiting that long in order to try and clear up some infections.

Wednesday morning, our cat, Miss Cuddles had a seizure. I spent the day taking her to the vet and trying to figure out what's going on. She seems just fine now, but it sure did put a scare into me. The vet is doing a full blood workup, but says that most likely there will be nothing there. If that's the case, we just wait to see if she has another one. If they become a somewhat regular thing, we can start her on anti-seizure meds.

The boys have been home all week for spring break. We had 3 days of constant heavy rain and now we're really paying the price. The area around us is flooding like crazy. The meramec river was at 36 feet a little before 7 pm, it's flood stage is 16 feet. They're talking that it might hit 40 to 45 feet before it crests. This is an amazing flood. I'm putting in some pics - these are all within a mile of my house. If you click on any of the pics, you'll see a larger version. If you look at the larger roadway, they're predicting that the water will probably reach the top of that bridge to the left in the picture.

The pics of the smaller roadway are of the street that leads to our subdivision. They're saying that the intersection of that and our subdivision entrance will flood tonight and there will be no way to drive out at that point. The road out goes past that barn you see in the one picture. I'd say that the water at the barn is about 5 or 6 feet deep by the barn. This was taken at around 6 this evening.

However, don't worry about our safety - we're high up on a ridge and we'd be needing Noah's ark if our house flooded. We'll be dry, but might be stuck in the subdivision for a few days.

The last two pictures are to give you an idea of how fast everything is rising. I took the picture of the boys on the storm sewer lid around noon. The picture showing the same lid sticking out of the water was taken at around 6. It's an amazing sight and sure makes you realize that we have very little control over mother nature.

Insurance companies...

...SUCK!! I've been going round and round with our new insurance company trying to get insurance cards and nothing seems to be working.

First, we found out last week that although our coverage was effective March 1, our information was still sitting in their fax machine on March 6. Now, they're telling me that it will take 7 to 10 business days to get my insurance cards. The problem is that I had to take Adam to the doctor last week and they need his insurance card in order to do the billing. If they don't have it by then, they're going to bill me directly as if I had no insurance coverage. Then, it will take me months to get the bill straightened out because they amount billed will be different because of negotiated contracts and all that wonderful stuff.

I tried to get a temporary card online, but for whatever reason, it's not available. I tried to e-mail them from their site and apparently, my member ID doesn't have enough digits, so it won't even go through. Then I tried to call them, and their offices are closed. I'm ready to scream!!! I swear that they're doing this to postpone benefits to new members. Statistically, a certain percentage of people would just drop the claim and pay it out of pocket, so they benefit from it. I'm so mad, I'm tempted to have an attorney contact them.

Here's what I've noticed this winter...

I've noticed that the birds flock to my bird feeders en masse right before a big storm, or at the beginning of one. We had a beautiful weekend - upper 50s or lower 60's on Saturday and then mid 70s yesterday. We went hiking on Saturday at a state park. It's a really neat park, but the trails were really muddy and treacherous. I'll post a pic tonight if I get back on the computer.

Today, the temps have been falling all day. We started with rain, changed to sleet and about half an hour ago it was snowing. They're forecasting a big snowstorm to come through tomorrow. Last night, they said that it could be 6 to 10 inches of snow! I'm hoping that they at least hold classes in the morning - I've got some things that I'd like to get done without having to referee the boys.

The birds have been at my bird feeders all day. At one point in time, I counted 5 pairs, yes pairs, of cardinals. I thing it's really neat that the cardinals tend to come to the feeder in pairs. They're one of the birds I know of that mate for life, so I guess one keeps watch while the other feeds and then they switch. In addition to the cardinals, I've had lots of other types of birds at the feeder at the same time. It was just unusual to see that many cardinals at once - I usually see 2 pairs at most.

Anyway, off to make dinner and then to tae kwon do. Matt got his orange first belt last friday night. Some of the moves he does are quite complicated - I wonder if I'd be able to do them, lol! He's grown so much this year that he's going to need a new uniform before next fall - it's getting too short for him. It was too long when we got it last september...

Also, I know I've been tagged - twice for that matter, lol! I'm going to post something soon, but I'd like to have a bit of uninterrupted time to post. :-)

Head hurts...

My head hurts today. I can't figure out what I can do to make it better. I've tried ibuprofen, water, a workout, quiet time, caffeine... Nothing seems to be helping. :-( Matt came home today and complained of a headache as well. Well, at least I'm not blaming this on Adam, lol!! He's been pretty good all day, no major confrontations, so it's been good. I'm sure it'll go away eventually. I think I'll try some sudafed - maybe it's my sinuses...

More layouts to share

Here are a few more layouts. The first two were pics taken on the same day. We went to Boo at the Zoo and carved pumpkins on the same day. Our October was really busy this year and we were running out of time before Halloween. Both layouts used paper from Heidi Grace.

The first layout shows everyone busy carving. The second is of Adam being very tired at the end of the day. The top pic really touches my heart. He was tired of carving and wanted to move onto something else, but everyone else was still working on their pumpkins. Oh, and I got to use a flower on it, lol! I so seldom feel that I can use flowers on layouts without making them too girlie for the boys, but I think this one worked perfectly for the layout.

Pumpkin patch is our trip to the pumpkin patch this year. It was a gorgeous day out, although a bit windy. I actually managed to get two pictures of the entire family together!! Matt wasn't too cooperative in one and Adam kept wanting his hat to hide his face. You take what you can get when you've got two boys, though. :-)

I'm not sure if I've shared this layout with everyone before. It's

about Matt learning to ride a bike without training wheels. The journaling discusses that things usually come very easily to him, so he doesn't really have to try hard. Learning to ride was a different story. It tried his patience and it took him a long time to get the hang of it. It was a very good lesson for him, since he really doesn't have to try to do well in school. I think this will serve him well in the future - to know that there are things that he will struggle with, but if he perseveres, he can succeed.

Another day off

Matt's got the day off today, again. He went outside for a while, but it's all iced over and you really can't do much with sleet. No snowballs or snowmen and there's not enough to sled on. Poor kid came in after about an hour. Adam went out for a whopping 5 minutes.

Adam is feeling much better. He's eating anything I'll give him, but I'm afraid to overtax his tummy yet. I've been disinfecting everything I see. This is not something we want to share.

We're having a small birthday party for Adam tomorrow, so I need to get the house clean. Sunday, I'm going for some much needed crafty/me time. I'm heading to a Stampin' Up! party that a friend is hosting. Right now, I've got enough on my want list to hold my own party - have to trim that down quite a bit... I'm looking for some good sentiment stamps.

Anyway, life is better today. I'll try to post some more layouts tonight, if I can get on. The evening should be a little more open since Matt's tae kwon do class was cancelled.

Blech...

The stomach flu has come to our house. Adam's got it. Thank goodness Lee came home to work from home. I had him stop at the store and get a little green machine for cleanup and some popsicles...

Bad weather in StL

Imagine my surprise this morning when, after getting Matt up and out of bed, I find out that school is cancelled. Apparently, between 6 and 6:30 this morning, we got hit with sleet and freezing rain. When I looked out the window in back, it just looked like a light dusting of snow. Unfortunately, that's not the case. We've been really cold the last week or so and all the rain that is falling is freezing pretty much instantly. The trees don't seem to be getting coated, at least not at this point, but the roads are really bad.

We're supposed to get another wave later today, so it's not finished with us. This storm system is moving across the state and into Illinois. I wish the roads weren't so bad - the boys aren't getting along well today. Matt's getting over a combination of strep and a cold and Adam's just started antibiotics for the strep and he's got the cold as well. Adam is really short tempered today. I wish I could take them out of the house to work off some of this energy. I might venture out to get some movies.

I wish this were snow - at least then we could go outside and sled. I've thought about sending the boys outside anyway - they could slide around on the driveway, but I'm afraid that they'll fall and break something...

I'll have to dig out the scavenger hunt game. http://www.amazon.com/University-Games-01427-Scavenger-Hunt/dp/B00065AQ12 It's a great game - gets the kids running through the house collecting items, so it burns off some energy. The best part of the game, though, is that one of the rounds requires all players to return all the things collected to where they got them from, so it's all cleaned up as well. Must have been designed by a mom, lol.

Enough whining. I'm going to go make the best of today. Maybe the boys will want to do something crafty...

sharing some layouts

I've finally taken some pics of the layouts I've recently done (with my new camera!!). The "adam" layout is one of my very few one picture layouts. I had to do this page, though. That picture is just so precious that it screamed to be enlarged and scrapped by itself.

"Overcoming Adversity" is another layout that is one page and one pic. The journaling is about how things in nature can overcome adversity (as this tree obviously did) and flourish. It's a reminder to myself that no matter what happens, life goes on, life is good and I should live it and not worry about how things "should" be or "could" be.

Artiste is about Adam's food sculpture that he brought home from school one day. It's a fun layout and I really like the colors. I think that I might need to add some brads or color on the photo mat that has the close-up of the sculpture.

The last layout, Christmas Kitty, talks about what a wonderful gift

our cat, Miss Cuddles, is to our family. She showed up in our neighborhood as a stray and has been an incredible gift - she loves us all and we love her. She was a gift we didn't know we needed or wanted.

I'll post more layouts soon. I've got more pics ready,but I don't want to overwhelm, lol.

Happy belated Valentine's day

Yesterday was a crazy day! Both Lee and I tried to keep our spending down over Christmas on each other, so yesterday we gave big gifts. The funny thing is that we both decided to do this without talking to each other about it... We've never done big things for Valentine's Day before - let's face it, it's mostly a marketing ploy by card and candy companies and flower growers. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a romantic streak, but Valentine's has always seemed somewhat forced.

So, Lee bought me a Nikon D40 camera!! I'm so excited about it. :-) I looked at them before Christmas, after Christmas, as well as many times last year, but never did buy one. I have trouble spending large amounts of money on myself when I don't need to. Anyway, he bought it at a camera shop, so I get photography classes to go with the camera, too!! I'm really looking forward to this.

I got Lee a BluRay disk player. He's been wanting one since we got the big HD tv last year. I kept wanting to wait to see which format would win out - HD DVD or BluRay. It's looking like BluRay is going to win out the format wars, so I got him the player and Pirates of the Carribean to watch. Let me tell you - that movie looked fantastic on that big tv with the high resolution!! It was really cool - all the detail showed so well.

I also got the boys small gifts - Matt wanted a wallet with one of those photo holders (it was harder finding that than I thought it would be). I also got him a book - Diary of a Wimpy Kid. One of his friends really liked that book, so I thought I would get it for him. Adam got a set of Morphs. They're interchangeable animal parts - heads, bodies, legs, arms, wings, tails, etc... He really liked it and it'll help with fine motor skills, since they need to be snapped together. Yesterday, we made real animals. I think today, I'm going to start combining different things and come up with my own animals. Should be fun!!

New vehicle...

... for Lee. He's been itching for something new for about a year now. He finally decided that he'll forgo the good mileage in place of being able to tow and haul stuff. He traded the Mustang in for Honda Ridgeline last weekend. Personally, I think it's an ugly vehicle, but it has lots of redeeming qualities if you don't look at it, lol! I like the big "trunk" under the truck bed, the back seat is roomy and pretty comfy, all the bells and whistles that come with Hondas (dual heating/cooling zones, heated seats, etc)... It's going to be a really useful vehicle for us (he gets to haul my compost for all my garden beds this spring!!).

A friend of ours said that I don't like it because of the "El Camino" effect and he really nailed it. To me, the transition from the cab to the bed of the truck is the ugly part - very similar to the El Camino... Guys tend to like those cars, but I have met very few women who do. Go figure. Well, I don't have to drive it, so if Lee's happy, so am I. :-)

Toasty Feet

Who knew the right pair of socks could make such a big difference? It seems like I have cold feet all winter long no matter what I do. So, shortly after Christmas, I went to LL Bean and ordered a bunch of wool socks for myself. I hadn't done so in the past because I just hated spending the money on socks, kwim? No one really sees them and they're not exactly glamorous. Anyway, I have had toasty warm feet ever since I got those socks. It's amazing! I mean, I used to get cold feet even while wearing shoes inside at home. Now, my feet are toasty warm as long as I'm wearing those socks. They're a bit on the bulky side, though. I'm going to have to look for some that are a bit lighter. I'm really liking the wool socks theses days. :-)

Adam wants to marry me

My almost 4 year old son wants to marry me. He's been telling me this for the last few weeks. When I tell him that I'm already married to Daddy, he says that Daddy can marry Matt, lol! He's so funny! I need to get a cute pic of him and scrap this. He can be so sweet sometimes - it makes up for the times he's not so sweet. ;-)

Retreat fun!

I went to a scrapbook retreat with my friends Laurie and Lori last weekend. I got a lot of visiting done as well as some scrapbook pages and cards. I really enjoyed myself. It almost didn't happen, though. Whenever I leave town without the boys, I have to leave my car with Lee, so he can drive them around when necessary. I end up with his Mustang. Last winter, I got stuck in Chicago because of a snow storm. The car wouldn't move well at all. We've gotten new tires for it since, but it still doesn't handle well in the snow. Of course, Thursday night, we got 7 or 8 inches of snow and I was supposed to be leaving Friday around noon. Needless to say, that didn't happen. The babysitter that I had lined up to watch the boys couldn't get out of her driveway, so she never got here. Lee couldn't take the day off work, since it was his first day at the new job. I was ok with all that, though. I couldn't leave because there was snow on all the highways I was going to have to drive down. I got to play in the snow and sled down the hill with the boys instead for a few hours. I ended up leaving at about 5 and arriving just before 8. The roads were cleared and I didn't make the acquaintance of any ditches.

It was really nice to get away and get some crafting done. I'll take pictures later of my favorites and post them. I actually did some one-page layouts - this is really unusual for me. I also had two layouts that only had one picture - a first for me.

Lee's doing ok at the new job. He's still settling in and figuring things out. Found out today that his blackberry is forwarded to someone else's phone - accidentally. Really strange, but it should be easy enough to fix.

I haven't talked to the teacher again about Matt's make-up work, but she hasn't sent any home since our little discussion. I think I still need to talk to the principal about her resentment of kids leaving her class one day a week. I don't want to push her away and cause problems for Matt, so I'm waiting a while to see how things go. I talked to another mother about this (she's been having issues with this teacher's lack of willingness to challenge her child, too) and we both decided that we should take things carefully and not antagonize anyone. We've still got a bunch of the school year left and we don't want to ruin it for the kids. After all, school should be all about them. They should like going to school (within reason) and enjoy learning. If the relationship sours with the teacher, then any hope of liking school and enjoying the process is out the window. I'm going to request that Matt be assigned to a really strong teacher who is willing to do some extra work to keep him challenged. He's just bored silly this year.

Now taking suggestions

As some of you know, Matt is in the school district's gifted program. This program pulls kids out of their regular classroom for an entire day during the week, Matt's day is Friday. They are bused to a different school and spend the day working on higher level stuff. For example, last semester, they learned all about the moon (phases, types of soil, atmosphere, etc) and what would be required in order to have people living on the moon. He came home one day and had learned Newton's laws of motion. For his electives, he studied the mathematics, science and art involved in making a kaleidoscope and then built one (everything from the mirrors to the outside). In his second elective, they read Beowulf and discussed the hero and villain, tried the villain in a court of law. This is what they're doing in second grade. I'm not posting this to brag, although I am very proud of Matt. I'm posting this to show that these kids work very hard when they go to this other campus.

The school district's official policy is that no new material can be covered, no tests given and no make-up work can be required for work done on the days the kids are not in their regular classrooms. Matt's class has six kids who go to this other program every week. His teacher has been sending make-up work home since before Christmas and it's becoming a problem. Matt is resenting that he has to do work at home that his classmates get to do in school. He says it's not fair and I agree with him. I brought this to the principal's attention and he suggested that I talk to his teacher.

I did that today, after my regular classroom volunteer time. I just mentioned that it was becoming a problem and asked her to take a look at the work she's requiring Matt to do. She was extremely defensive about this and actually seemed to resent the fact that she had 6 kids leave her classroom every week. Personally, I think she should use that day to help the kids who need the extra help and repetition. I did not say this to her. I understand that they have a lot of material to cover and it's not easy to keep up with all the requirements. However, if every other teacher in the school district can do it, I don't see why she can't. I just suggested to her that she look at what she's sending home and really think about whether Matt needs to do it. If it's review and he knows the material, is there any reason to require the work? Gifted kids tend to learn things the first time they see something and really don't need much repetition. She also sends home projects that involve drawing, coloring, cutting, pasting, etc that get put out in the hall. She said that if I didn't care if Matt's work was out in the hallway, then I should just not require him to do the work.

I'm not sure what to do at this point. Any suggestions are welcome. I don't want to alienate this teacher, since we've still got half a year of school left. Matt loves her and I don't want this to sour his relationship with her. I guess I'm more upset about this than I realized. It really shouldn't be a big deal, but I'm afraid that this will balloon out of proportion.

I'm really still alive...

It seems like ages since I've posted... I've had a cold for more than two weeks, but I feel human again. This thing just keeps going like the Energizer Bunny. I've had one of those annoying tickles at the back of my throat for a week. I hope it goes away soon.

We'll be going through some changes here. Lee's accepted another job, so he'll be changing jobs in the next few weeks. The company he's going to really needs his help, but I think it will be lower stress than where he's at now. Technically, it's a lateral move for him, but he'll be the top IT guy at the company, so it's kind of a promotion. He's excited, sad, nervous all at the same time. He put together the team that works for him where he's at now and it will be hard to say goodbye to them. Luckily, he'll only be a few miles down the road, so he'll be able to see the people he wants to...

I'm in the process of getting back on track workout-wise. It's still hard to work out because I'm congested, but I really miss my workouts. I've also gotten the itch to change things in the house. I really want to put tile into our bathroom (it's mostly carpeted now - blech!). I also want to tear out the carpet in the family room, which is trashed after 10 years of wear and tear. I want to extend the hardwood floors from the entryway into the family room. The couch and love seat in the family room also need to be replaced. Then there's the washer. My washer is too small (it's only a large capacity) and it regularly gets out of balance, makes a bunch of noise and "walks" around the laundry room. It's also started to not fully shut off the water to the tub when it's done. It's time for a new one. None of these are low ticket items, either. With the job change coming, I'm hesitant to drop such a large chunk of change as well.

So, instead of spending large amounts of money, I've been going through the house and cleaning up, decluttering, reorganizing... There's still a ton more to do - I have to do it while Adam doesn't want my attention. I've tried to get him to help, but he just gets things out and makes a bigger mess at this point. I have gotten Matt to go through his room and find 10 things to give away and 10 things to throw away several times. The boy is a pack rat! I think I'm going to start painting, too. Adam's room needs to be painted. Poor kid is in a plain off-white room...

My dad was released from the hospital a few days after being admitted right after Christmas. He was back in the ER last Sunday. It looks like he's got a prostate infection, so he'll be on antibiotics for the next month. I hope this takes care of it.

Lee went in for a physical this week. He's been exercising in the mornings now. I'm so glad that he's doing something. It doesn't have to be much to get the benefits, just something regular. I have to admit that the treadmill isn't the most exciting form of exercise, but it's here. I hope he keeps it up.

Anyway, I'm good. Life is good.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year, everyone! Anyone setting resolutions this year? I usually don't but I've been thinking that I've got several things I should to do help improve my life. Stuff like, take steps to minimize yelling at the boys, making it easier for them to listen and not get in trouble, spend quality time with the hubby, spend time doing what I like and want without feeling guilty... I need to spend some time reflecting on this stuff and try to come up with a plan to get things going.

What are your resolutions? I think someone once told me that it takes 6 weeks to create a habit, good or bad. I guess I should revisit how things are going in the middle of February once I figure out what I'll be doing.

Update on Dad

My dad was released from the hospital yesterday and is glad to be home. He sounded good and said that he had an infection or inflamation of his stomach. He's still on several different meds and has promised me he'll complete the entire round. He's got a bad habit of not finishing antibiotics and "saving them for later". I think many seniors tend to do this, but it drives me crazy!

My mom has an ear infection and will be going to see her doctor soon. She'd been running a fever and wasn't able to visit my Dad in the hospital. My older brother was able to visit with him and bring him home. My other brother in the area was busy taking care of his family, who caught a stomach bug shortly after we left. They're also all recovered.

Been busy...

It seems like I've been running at top speed ever since it snowed. We did get out and sled and had a great time. We ended up with a total of about 7 inches, which is really a lot of snow for December around here. The news said that it was the 3rd heaviest December snow on record. We tried to build a snowman, but the snow wasn't sticky enough - I couldn't even get a decent snowball...

We went to Chicago for Christmas and had a pretty good time. It was a very short trip, but we left at a good time. My brother and family all came down with a stomach bug last night and we're all still healthy (knock on wood).

We're still celebrating Christmas. A good source tells me that Santa will finally make his visit to our house. He left the boys a couple of gifts when we were in Chicago, but said that he'd make a late run to our house later. Of course, Matt realized that he hadn't left the special Santa Key out for Santa (we don't have a fireplace) and we never left cookies either. We rectified that situation tonight, so we'll have to see what the morning brings.

I've spent a lot of time on the phone with family today. My dad was admitted to the hospital last night. It turns out that he has some sort of inflammation of the stomach lining which has been causing him some problems. It's serious enough that he's still in the hospital tonight, but my dad thinks he'll be released tomorrow. I'm glad that it's not life threatening. I think they wanted his fever to break before they release him and maybe run a few more tests. Thank goodness that he's at a good hospital. It's the same place that he transferred to when he had a heart attack and bypass surgery back in 2003.

I'll post pics of the snow and others when I get the chance. It's just been a bit too crazy around here for me to spend more than a few minutes at the computer.

SNOW!!!

Yahoo!!! We're finally getting a significant amount of snow!! As you know, I'm a big fan of the white stuff. This storm is perfect, since it's over the weekend and we can all just play. Or we could if we were all willing to put on our snow gear. For some reason, Matt decided that he didn't like his snow pants or his boots this year. He's really been out of sorts lately and won't listen, so he ended up staying in most of the day. We did all go out this evening and it was really coming down quickly. I'm glad that we can all just play around tomorrow and not worry about having to go anywhere.

We'll be sledding down the big hill in the back yard tomorrow. I hope we really have a nice deep base of snow - makes it more fun. I'm wondering if Matt would like snow skiing... He really took well to ice skating, so I'm wondering if he'd do well with skiing. Maybe we'll stick to skating for now. Well, sledding, too.

I'll get the camera out tomorrow and take some pics. Everything is so gorgeous with the white stuff on it. I'll make up some nice soups for meals - hot and easy, too. That way, I get to have fun outside as well.