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Eddie Update

Eddie threw up again on Saturday when we got home, and was a congested mess on Sunday with a fever of 102. I took him to the doctor first thing Monday morning, and learned that he has Strep. Yep. The dreaded s-word. He threw up again yesterday and is just not feeling well at all. Poor baby! Let's cross our fingers and hope that no one else gets it!

So, that means that I'm not teaching today. It's kind of driving me nuts, especially because I'm not getting paid, AND I have students going to contest on Saturday. I haven't had a solid day of teaching since the last Tuesday of January! I know some of my parents are getting frustrated with me, but what can I do? Sigh...that's the dilemma with working and being a mom. I'm having problems with it and I only work one day a week, so I totally feel for all of you moms who work full-time!

"Vacation" Day 3 - Valentine's Day

Eddie slept well Friday night, and woke up happy, so we decided to head on out to the Alamo. We had passed the Alamo many times on our walks to and from the convention center, but we didn't ever stop and go inside. It was quite chilly Saturday morning, but we were prepared with jackets and sweaters.

The kids thought that the Alamo was very cool and were very quiet and respectful inside.

This tree is absolutely stunning. The entire courtyard was so green, beautiful, and peaceful.
We happened to come on a day when they were doing re-enactments. Tommy was fascinated by the soldiers and wanted his picture taken with them, but when he got closer to them, and they showed him their swords, he was suddenly very shy.

Anna just loved looking at all the ladies with their big, beautiful dresses. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the show.

This is one of the few pictures that I took of the river walk. The kids loved walking along the river, but there was too much talk about kicking each others butts into the river, we decided to keep them away from that temptation.

By 10am, Eddie was asleep.

Tommy LOVED this booth! It was right next to a pizza and cake fundraiser, and it had cool drums that the kids could play on. We spent a lot of time there!

We left at 1pm on Saturday, but we didn't get home until a little after 8pm thanks to a disasterous tip to the Roundrock outlet mall! Yes, Tommy managed to get lost. How did he not get lost in all of San Antonio and the entire convention center, but get lost at Children's Place?! At least we found him, and he was properly scared out of his mind and sobbing.

Overall, it was a good trip. I got to see a lot of old college, high school, and sorority friends and catch up with them. I also got to see some directors that I worked with in Arlington, which was a very interesting experience. Danny learned a lot from his clinics and got to see some great performing ensembles. The kids had a good time, and no one got hurt, but it will most definitely be a while before we attempt this again!

"Vacation" Day 2 - Friday

Day 2: We ate breakfast at the hotel, and headed on out to the best place in the world for kids in San Antonio - the Children's Museum, but first, here's the view from our hotel room. Not pretty.

The children's museum was awesome! The kids LOVED it and did not want to leave! We stayed for 2 hours and left at lunch time when they were getting tired and hungry.



There were 3 floors to the museum, so I abandoned the stroller and followed Eddie around, and up and down!

Anna and Tommy both agreed that the kids' market was the best part of the museum!

You could scan all of the items and the price and name of the item showed up on the computer screen, just like at a real grocery store. Anna loved playing cashier.

Eddie found a computer and went right to work instant messaging gibberish to the person on the other side.

The kids also loved the virtual reality drum game!

No, that's not real milk that Anna's getting out of that cow. It was just water, but it was fun!

We went back to the convention and hung around for a couple of hours on the convention floor checking out some more vendors. The kids got kazoos from one vendor and when we got back to the hotel room, the kids formed a kazoo band.

Eddie thought the kazoo was hilarious and each time he made a sound with it, he would laugh hysterically!

We spent the afternoon in the hotel room resting, playing, and watching cartoons. Around 6pm, though, things went bad. Really bad. Eddie was playing on the bed with Tommy, when he just threw up. All over Anna's blanket. Eddie was not feeling well at all, and it just came on so quickly! I washed Anna's and Eddie's blankets in the sink, and luckily, there was a laundry facility at the hotel, so I put them in the dryer. Around that time Anna realized that she didn't pack any underwear! She had a complete melt-down, and I had to wash the ones that she was wearing. It was a hard evening. Danny got back and we ordered pizza and relaxed. The kids crashed fast and hard, and we all got to sleep early!

"Vacation" Day 1 - Thursday

This is Danny's year for the school to pay for him to go to the TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) Convention in San Antonio. I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids with us and make a little vacation out of it. I honestly don't know what I was thinking.

This is day one:

We woke up at 5am, got showered and ready and hit the road by 6am. We got to my mom's at 7:30 to pick up some snacks and a pack-n-play and left at 8. The kids were fine in the car for a while until about 2 hours in our drive when Eddie was complaining about the sun in his face. We didn't have any window shades so we decided to stop at Wal-Mart in Waco and get some. The people in Waco were SO nice! There was a sweet old lady who parked next to us and she just loved the kids! She told us that they reminded her of her grandkids who moved to Germany. Some people were a bit TOO nice. Me, Anna, and Eddie got stopped by this crazy man at the door who insisted on giving Eddie a 5 dollar bill to put in the collection bin for some church that was pan-handling at the door. He wouldn't leave us alone until Eddie grabbed the money and put it in the bucket. It was so wierd. We left and once again things were fine until we got to Rockwall. Eddie started complaining again, so we figured he needed a diaper change. We saw Ikea and we decided it would be a great place to stop. As we were driving into the parking lot, we saw this cool little park! We let the kids out to play, and they had a lot of fun!

Eddie was just finishing up his business in his diaper here, we think. We changed him, and hit the road once again. We finally got to San Antonio at around 2pm and headed out to the convention center. Our hotel was about a mile from the convention center, so we walked A LOT!

We passed this cool park on the way and stopped to let the kids climb on the cannons.

We registered at the convention and I hit the convention floor with the kids and Danny went off to his first clinic. There were hundreds of vendors so there was tons of stuff to see! At every booth, they had something free. Mostly it was pens, pencils, or candy, but we ran across some fundraiser places that had slices of cake, cheesecake, fresh cookies, chips, candy, pizza, and garlic bread! You could walk around and have a full meal of junk food! Soon, it was time for me to head to my clinic. I gathered up all three kids and prayed that they would behave!

We came across this cool hallway filled with bronze statues! The kids loved climbing on them, but we couldn't stay long. I got to my clinic about 30 minutes late, but it was a good thing, because the kids were not quiet and still for the 20 minutes that I was there. I still got a lot out of it, though. Mr. Murrow scares me a little, but he knows a lot about Tuba playing and I learned a lot from his clinic!

Soon, it was time for dinner and we headed out to Fudruckers, of course! That's kechup on Eddie's face, by the way.

Yes, that's Tommy making silly faces for the camera! We finished up dinner and headed to our hotel room. The kids were SO tired, but they had the hardest time getting to sleep! Our room was on the top floor at the very end of the hotel next to a VERY busy street! The street sounds were loud, and Tommy and Anna didn't like sharing a bed. But, everyone, including myself ,was asleep by 10pm.

Migraines and Mattresses

I woke up with a headache yesterday, but it wasn't bad. It was just a dull ache all day long, but when I couldn't shake it, I knew it would get worse. It's been a while since I've had a migraine, so I was due to get one. Eddie woke up just as I was about to go to bed last night (he had gas, poor kid), so I didn't get to sleep until around midnight. At 4am, I woke up with a pounding headache and nausea that didn't ease until sometime around 6:30, so I got around 4 hours of sleep last night. My head still hurts a little, so I'm taking it easy today.

BUT, on the bright side, our new mattress arrives today! I'm SO excited! Our last mattress was a no-name cheap pillowtop from an outlet store that we bought almost 9 years ago. It should have been replaced 4 years ago, but we never wanted to plunk down the cash for a good mattress. Well, we decided it was time to bite the bullet, and we got a great deal. We walked into Mattress Giant (the new one off of Stacy Rd that gets very little business because of on-going construction) and were greeted by a salesperson who had not had a customer all day! We were just looking, and not intending on buying anything. He desperately wanted to get SOME kind of commission that day, so he gave us his employee discount and all sorts of free stuff (delivery and pick-up) just to get our business. Well, he won us over. It's a great mattress, and I can't wait to sleep on it tonight!

Half Full?

I just read a great post on THIS blog about attitude. So, I will NOT take up time complaining about how extremely tired I am, how my head feels like it's going to explode, how I SHOULD be getting the oil changed in my car right now, but I'm sitting at my computer instead, how I ate a brownie for breakfast instead of my usual healthy stuff, how my kitchen is a complete and total disaster, how I have a ton of laundry that needs to be done today, or how Manuel (Danny's dad) has his surgery today at 12:30 and we're not sure how well he'll do (please say a prayer for him!).

Instead, I will only focus on the good stuff today. Like the fact that Eddie slept through the night without a teething episode or gas, or that the sun is shining and it should be a great day for the kids to play outside, or my husband has an extra-curricular activity that he enjoys that takes up ONLY two nights a month, or Anna didn't whine or complain AT ALL this morning, or my meds should kick in ANY minute and I should be feelin' good, or I get to do my taxes today and hopefully have a big fat refund in a couple of weeks (I actually really enjoy doing my taxes. I know, I'm a nerd.)!

Today will be a half full day. I will NOT be a "negative nellie". I will try to change my attitude and make it a great day. Will you?

Backseat driver

This is what I heard from the backseat today on my way to Ikea.

"Mommy! Mommy! Turn! Turn NOW! We're going to CRASH!"

"Oh, good! You turned, we didn't crash!"

"WOW! Look at that cool car! Mommy! Go faster! The cool car is going away!"

"Mommy! Go faster! You're going too slow!"

"Faster! Go faster!"

"Ooh...look at that mommy! Do you see that thing over there? Mommy! Look! Why aren't you looking?!"

"Darn it. A red light."

"Green! Green! It's green mommy! Go! Go! GO!"

"Which way mommy? That way? That way? That way? That way, or that way?"

"Why are we going that way mommy?"

"Are we going to the old Kee-ah, or the new Kee-ah?"

"Wow, this is a new path, mommy!"

"Look! Look! There's Kee-ah! I see Kee-ah! Look mommy! We made it!"

And I was concerned that this kid wasn't going to talk.

ECI

Okay, so I've been through this before with Tommy, and now I'm doing it again with Eddie. I was really hoping that Eddie wouldn't have to go through all of this, but sadly, he is. He had his evaluation done this morning and this is how he scored. Just so you know, he's 16 months old (almost 17 months).

Cognitive - 16 months -right on track
Communication - 10 months - delayed
Social Emotional - 29 months - advanced
Physical - 16 months - right on track
Adaptive - 15 months - not considered delayed because he's only one month behind

Because he scored 6 months or lower on his commication skills, he qualifies for services. He will begin when he's 18 months, in March, and most likely have speech therapy. Tommy scored about the same on his communication, and scored much higher on his physical than Eddie did, but lower on his social emotional. It's interesting to see their differences.

Before and After

The picture above is what we had for our entertainment center. It was cute, but it's all Target furniture and not very sturdy. It was time for some grown-up furniture. This is our new fabulous entertainment center. Please excue the horrible mess and the lack of organization. Oh, and the red at the bottom is Eddie's feet and legs! We LOVE our new entertainment center and we can't wait to buy a bigger TV to fill it up! We got this off of Craigslist by the way. It was a really good deal, but the seller lived in Keller! Danny borrowed the Law's truck (my visiting teacher, who is SO wonderful!) and drove down on Thursday night. This thing is huge, and it barely fit in the truck! It took Danny forever getting home, and we finally got it all unloaded after 11:30pm! It's so worth it, though!

Free Books!

Hi guys! I just cleaned out one of my bookshelves, and I have a small stack of books to give away. If you're interested, just let me know, and it's yours. Nothing too exciting, but here they are:

Grimm's Fairy Tales
A student sized Webster's Thesaurus and Dictionary
Sphere - Michael Crichton
Chicken Soup for the Expectant Mother's Soul
How to Clean Practically Anthing (this book's publishing date is 1992, so it's more than 15 years old)
365 TV-Free Activities you can do with your child
What We Wish We'd Known When We Were Newlyweds - John and Kimberly Bytheway
Back to the Future Part III - a book based on the movie

True Confessions

1. So, this morning, I turned on Diego for Eddie, and Diego said, "Can you talk like a llama?" and I thought he said, "Can you talk like Obama?" and I nearly had a heart attack! I was thinking, "Not you too, Diego!"

2. Speaking of Obama, the crowds at every event and ball that he attended yesterday creeped me out when they started chanting "O-Bam-A! O-Bam-A!" Blind hero worship is what makes dictators, not American Presidents. Scary.

3. I didn't like Kelly Clarkson from the very beginning simply because she was from Burleson, Texas. Yeah, I know, it was petty, but now I really enjoy her music. Have you heard her new single, "My Life Would Suck Without You"? It's pretty good.

4. I HATE litterless lunch day! I BEGGED Anna to buy her lunch today, but she refused. For those of you who don't know, litterless lunch is where the kids bring their lunch in reusable containers, so there is no trash to throw away. It's hard to pack a lunch for a kid who doesn't like sandwiches a lunch with containers. She always has a bag of pretzels, or chips, some peaches, applesauce, fruit snacks, juice box, and a granola bar. All of which I had to take out of the original packaging and put in a container that will have to be washed later! Her lunchbox was bulging because of those stupid containers!

5. Eddie slept in my bed last night. He's been waking up around 4am, and has trouble going back to sleep, so I stuck him in bed with me with his sippy cup full of milk. This is something I should NOT be doing, but I was SO tired, and Danny wouldn't get up with him because he has a concert tonight. (Oh, and by the way, Danny's getting a new permanent sub tomorrow. We'll see how this new one works out. This is the one that Danny wanted to hire from the very beginning, but they wanted the other guy! Cross your fingers that she's a hard worker!)

FINALLY!

Anna finally got a 4 (the highest grade, I know, I'm not a fan of this scale either) in music AND art class! I don't know why she always got 3's in the past, but I'm glad they finally gave her a 4! She totally deserves it!

I'm Addicted

Dr. Mario has always been one of my faves, but now that I can play it on the Wii against people all over the world, I'm hooked. I didn't get the kids to bed on time the other night because I was busy playing a girl from Japan.

I'm addicted, and I don't care.

Eddie's new girlfriend

Aren't they so cute? This is Eddie and Tegan playing in the hallway at church. They're both too young to go in the nursery, so they hang out outside and play with some of the toys. Tegan was on the snail first when Eddie just came and nearly squashed her trying to get on it! Tegan's mom was so great to get a picture of them together! She joked that we would be showing this picture at their wedding reception!

My Favorite Songs of 2008

I'm totally copying Mandie, but I saw her list and it got me thinking. I have a ton of favorites, and some may not be from '08, but here are some:

Gotta Be Somebody - Nickelback

Rockstar - Nickelback

Leave Out All the Rest - Linkin Park

What I've Done - Linkin Park

Shake It - Metro Station

Fall For You - Second Hand Serenade

Viva la Vida - Coldplay

That's What you Get - Paramore

The Pretender - Foo Fighters

I Don't Wanna Be in Love - Good Charlotte

Check Yes Juliet - We The Kings

Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolf

Nine in the Afternoon - Panic at the Disco

Love Remains the Same - Gavin Rossdale

Addicted - Saving Abel

The Diary of Jane - Breaking Benjamin

How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty

A Little Freaky....

I was flipping through the channels last night, and I found one of my favorite shows, Clean House, so, I checked the info on it to see if I'd already seen it. This is what it said:

"The Najera Family" - Niecy Nash brings her team to growing family that is struggling to live in a small home with little storage space.

That is SO my house, except mine isn't near as messy and cluttered as their's was! What are the odds?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone has a great year! Last night, Danny and I were too tired, so we rang in the new year while we were sleeping. I know, lame, but we did have some friends over last night. My friend, Beverly, and her family, were in town, so they came over for dinner and games. Anna and Miranda spent the night playing in Anna's room, but William and Tommy didn't get along that well. William was scared of Tommy, and opted to play with Eddie instead. Smart kid. We were really sad to see them go, but hopefully we'll get to see them again during the summer!

PICTURES!!

These are the ONLY 2 good pictures of Eddie! Poor baby! He was shivering and shaking so bad! I didn't think there would be any good ones!

Tommy had a lot of cute pics. This is the only one where he is smiling and looking directly at the camera.

Anna had a TON of great pictures. This is one of many.

The family pics didn't turn out 100% great, but they're good enough. It was a REALLY cold day, and Anna had a melt-down. You can see it in her face that she's about to break-down. All photos are courtesy of Photos by Missy.

Not so good....

Here are the not-so-good pictures. Enjoy!

A Christmas Wrap-Up

Well, Christmas wasn't exactly what I had planned, but it was fine. Tommy is STILL sick today, poor kid! He actually fell asleep at 5 last night, woke up at 8 to vomit, and went back to sleep. He threw up again this morning. He's been a little lethargic, but he's had fun playing with his and Eddie's toys. I had to wake him up yesterday to see his Santa presents, and he just looked at his fabulous new bike, went promptly to the matchbox sized Dirt Track Lightning, tore it open, and carried it around with him ALL DAY. He ignored his bike for the rest of the day! Eddie didn't, though. He loved it! We gave him rides on it around the house, and he cried when we put it in the garage! Anna was hilarious when she saw her Santa presents! She came into our room saying "oh my gosh! I think I'm going to faint! I am going to faint!" She got an American girl doll and bed. It was Samantha who is being retired this year. She loves that doll, but unfortunately, Tommy grabbed her leg and yanked, and now it's dangling. She will have to go to the doll hospital soon to get fixed. Anna won't part with her just yet, so it may be a while. Danny and I were both thinking alike when we bought one of our gifts for each other! I gave him an FC Dallas jersey, and he got me a Kenny Cooper t-shirt! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Unfortunately, I am lame and didn't take any pictures yesterday.

You're Un-Invited!

Okay, you know how I invited you all to my house today? Well, Tommy just threw up his breakfast, so y'all are now un-invited for the sake of your families! Have a Merry Christmas!

Anyone want some dessert?

Hello everyone! For all of those who read my blog, you are invited to my house on Christmas day for some dessert! We have nowhere to go, no families to see, and we'll be home all day, so we'd like to see you! Come by around 6:30-7pm, and share some yummy treats with us! If no one comes, then we'll just have to eat it all ourselves! Yum!

Hallelujah!

I had to speak in church yesterday,and I'm SO GLAD that it's over! I've been worrying about it for the past 10 days! I feel so free and relaxed, even though I have five loads of laundry to do, a house to clean, gifts to wrap AND buy, cookies to make, gingerbread houses to build, and grocery shopping to do! I don't mind all of that stuff. I DO mind standing in front of hundreds of people and speaking, especially at Christmas, even if it was for only 10 minutes! I was a nervous wreck, my voice trembled the entire time, and I spoke too fast, but I think I did okay. Sigh...it's over and I'm happy!

BRRRR!!

Yeah! Snow! Oh, wait..... is that ice? Yep. It's ice, and it caused MISD to be shut down today! Yuck! Plano wasn't shut down, or even delayed. What's up with that?! The kids loved staying home, but I was not prepared to have them home today! I was supposed to teach, but with the roads being so bad, there was no way that my baby-sitter would make it here in time, and no way I could get to school in time! It took Danny almost an hour to get to school, and 20 minutes was spent just trying to get to 121! (It usually takes less than 5 min.) So, we stayed inside all day with Tommy BEGGING to go out and play in the "snow". I finally took him out and made him realize that it was NOT fun stuff to play with! Our alley is still iced over, but our street isn't too bad. Oh, there's a smudge on my camera lens that I forgot to clean off before I took the pictures. Kind of annoying, but the batteries died, so this is the best you'll get!

It's not ALL bad....

So, besides me having an awful cough, AND pink eye, (yeesh! can't I get a break with the sicknesses?!) there has been some good news over here. Danny, as most of you know, has been having some drama at this school where he teaches. He has not been permanently promoted to the head band director position, but he will hold the position until the end of the school year. They will interview for it at the begininng of the summer, and if he does a great job this year, then he's basically guaranteed the job. Since he is the head band director right now he will get the extra stipend! Yeah! This was decided just a couple of days ago and Danny will be compensated from the day that Mr. Colodney retired, which was way back in October! It's not a ton of extra money, but anything extra is great!

A Teaching First

I had NO students make an All-Region Band! I'm a little frustrated, and disappointed, but I did all that I could with my kids. I can't remember the last time I didn't have any student make it!

I'm also very worried about one of my students. She is my only HS senior, and I've been teaching her for 5 years. She was on track to make State, but fell WAY short in her audition. She's been acting really weird lately, and missed our lesson yesterday with no phone call! I found out from her mom today that she skipped school yesterday, and without my phone call asking where she was, she would have NEVER known. Sigh... She's not my child, but I've known her for so long, and have taught her almost every week (even during the summer), I've grown attached, and I worry about her.

Also, my favorite student from Hendrick MS is moving to Arlington! I know, I shouldn't have favorites, but she's is just so happy all the time, and is such a joy to work with! I was so sad when she told me yesterday that it would be our last lesson! I will really miss her. She gave me a huge hug as she left, and I almost cried!

Man, it seems like I only have bad news today! Next semester will be better....I hope.

Sick, sick, sick.

Yep. That's my house lately. It all started last Wednesday with Eddie vomiting and other yuck, and continued for 3 very long days, one of which was my birthday!. On my birthday, I got thrown up on, then had to take the poor kid to the doctor because he's so little, 3 days of vomiting is not good, and ended up not feeling that great the next morning. Surprise, surprise. I judged All-Region band auditions for NINE HOURS that day (Saturday) all the while I was feeling cold, then hot, then cold, and my stomach was aching! It didn't hit until Sunday, and I'm still not 100% today (I'm so tired!), and I've got to judge AGAIN tonight! Now, I don't want to complain about judging because they do pay me, unlike all the band directors who have to do it for FREE! Tommy was sick, but he was over it so fast, Danny, too! Lucky. Anna, knock on wood, has not gotten sick, and I hope it stays that way! She's a great hand-washer and has stayed as far away from us sickies as possible. The only upside to all of this is that I've lost 5 pounds in the last 2 days!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Even though today was not the greatest, I do have a wonderful husband who loves me and takes very good care of me!

My Review

So, during the last couple of weeks of November, I decided to read the Twilight series. At first, I had no interest in it, but everyone around me had read it, or was in the process, so I decided to give it a try. I borrowed some books from various friends, and read the entire series in about 5 days. I loved books 1-3! There was a lot of background and character development in the first 2/3 of the book, and the last 1/3 had a lot of action! It was great. I didn't like the repetition throughout the books, though. I swear, Stephanie Meyer said the same thing a billion different times, and it drove me nuts! Each book could have been at least 50 pages shorter had she have gotten to the point!

The last book....hmmm...where do I start? I liked it, but it could have been SO much better! I didn't like the whole Jacob section, and I think the book would have been better without it. She could have written a completely separate book, and elaborated more with that Jacob portion of the book! There was a lot of character development and storyline introduction that went on during that section, that was never really resolved! I felt like she had a lot of story left to write, but she tried to shove it into one last book. I think she should have made the last book into 2 much better written books, instead of one hastily written one. It was a great story, but so much went on that it would have been better if she developed the plot a little more.

Overall, the story was great. I loved the dynamics of the characters and the idea behind it was really good. I just wish it were a little better written. I guess I'm a snob when it comes to that. I can blame it on my newspaper journalist/editor mother, my college writing classes, and my publishing editor sister-in-law! Besides the writing flaws, I am looking forward to Midnight Sun when it comes out!