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My first nasal obstruction extraction

Today, after Anna got home from school, I turned on cartoons, and gave the kids their snack of Yo-Gos. For those of you who don't know what Yo-Gos are they are small, round fruit snacks covered in a yogurt shell that my kids LOVE. I have never had any problems with my kids eating them until today. Tommy started crying and was pointing at his nose, so I assumed he needed it wiped. I got closer and saw that the nose was REALLY red and said jokingly to Tommy, "you didn't stick a Yo-Go in your nose, did you?" He looked at me and whimpered, "uh-huh." So, I proceeded to try to extract that yucky thing out of his nose. I am SO glad that it was food that comes apart easily, and not something like a rock or penny that he stuck up in there. He was not happy with the whole process, and hopefully we will never go through this again! Or, this could be a glimpse into the future, sigh....boys!

I am grateful for Warranties and HOAs!

As you know, we had some roof damage from the wind storm a while back. Noel gave us a number of a trusted roofer, but for some reason, we never got around to calling him! Noel even called us twice to see if we had followed through, but it just never happened. Well, one day, I was bored and got online and went to our HOA website. I rarely ever visit it, but I was glad I did! On the home page there was an announcement about the wind storm and the damage caused to our roofs, with a link to the warranty division of Lennar (our homebuilder) to get our roof fixed. Apparently, our roof has a 10-year Warranty and will be fixed for free! Danny and I had no clue. We thought that there were no more warranties on the house when we moved in. I am SO GLAD that we won't have to pay to fix our roof, and that we were lazy and never called Noel's roofing guy! I'm also glad that my HOA is good for something! The roofers were supposed to come this weekend, but that didn't happen, so we're just playing the waiting game. I'm not going to complain because it's free!

Not Again!!!

Last night, after her bath, Anna was complaining that she was cold, so she put on her footie pajamas. I thought she was crazy because it was quite comfortable, and almost too warm, but I made sure that I took off her blankets before I went to bed. Well, when I went to wake her up this morning, she had 2 blankets on top of her, and she was burning up! She took the blankets off, and went straight to the bathroom (nothing unusual). But, she didn't come out for about 5 minutes, and then I heard her calling. She was on the bathroom floor, clutching her stomach and saying that she had to throw up. I moved her to the toilet, and she did, indeed, throw up. She got all cleaned up, and went straight to the living room to lay down, with a thick blanket. I called my baby-sitter and Danny and told them that I would not be teaching today, and as soon as the Dr.'s office opened, I called them, too. Red flags were going up everywhere when Anna said her throat hurt, as well as her stomach. I wasn't going to miss another possible Strep episode this time, and the vomiting made sure of that! Well, the doctor confirmed that Anna has Strep, AGAIN. It's the second time this year! The doctor said that if she has it 1-2 more times this season, we will be referred to an ENT to take a look at her tonsils, and possibly have them removed. Yuck, but at this point, I'm tired to having to disinfect the house each time she has Strep, and deal with the 10 days of antibiotics. So, this is not the day I had planned, but at least Anna will be on the road to recovery quickly, and possibly go to school tomorrow.

Our Trip to the zoo

Today Tommy, Anna, and I went to the zoo with Grandma, Missy & Ben, Randi & Mary, Suzy, and Damaris. It was VERY busy today with Spring Break, but despite the crowds, we had a pretty good time. Suzy, mom, me, Damaris, and I think Missy all brought cameras so there should be tons of pictures. Here are a couple of cute ones of mine. Anna was the navigator today, so her and Suzy took the lead and lead us through the zoo. I don't know what I would have done if Suzy and Damaris weren't there to help me with my kids! Thanks! In the last picture (but actually the first animal we visited), the ape actually charged the window scaring everyone except Tommy. You should have seen Anna and grandma running for their lives! It was kind of funny, but Anna didn't think so. She didn't want to see any more primates and was ready for something a little more low key, like flamingos.

March Madness

Here's a picture of Tommy helping Danny remove the old baseboards and quarter rounds from our kitchen. As you can see, that linoleum isn't super ugly, but it's still not something I was willing to look at any longer! It was just too dirty, and very hard to keep clean, especially with Tommy around. If he would splatter any tomato-based sauce on the floor, it would stain it pink! Yuck. So, we decided to put in some laminate flooring. This week is Danny's Spring Break, so we thought it was the perfect time to get a big job like this done!



What do you think? We're still not completely finished with it, though. We lack some baseboards in the pantry, and a couple of quarter rounds, oh, and the final moulding piece that connects the laminate with the carpet. It has taken us 3 long days to do less than 150 square feet of floor, but just looking at it now, I think it was totally worth it! Danny and I are both super tired, and I know those Home Depot people are really enjoying our 1-2 trips out there a day!

Technically, the wind storm happened at the end of February, but it's close enough. This is some of the damage to our roof from that storm. We still haven't been able to get it fixed, though. All it requires is some tar to hold down those shingles, but we're not sure if anything else was damaged, so we're waiting for a pro to come out and take a look at it!

Lighting Deals

I went shopping today and found this super-cute Hello Kitty rice lamp for only $3.49 at Target! It's normally $12.99! Anna was telling me just the other day that she wished that she could everything that is Hello Kitty. Well, now she's one lamp closer!
This is our new entry way light. I got this at Ikea for only $17.50! It was half price because the box was dented! I think it's WAY better than our old light, and the price was just a fraction of what we would have paid at any other store!
Yes, this is our old light. Danny and I didn't like it at all, but Anna just LOVED it! She tried her hardest to keep us from taking it down, but of course, we prevailed. If anyone wants it, it's yours!

Movie Reviews (I'm copying Missy)

So, Danny and I decided to subscribe to Blockbuster Total Access. It's so great! We don't go to the movies very often, so there are always A LOT of movies that we have to catch up on! Also, Anna loves Hello Kitty, and she can rent all the Hello Kitty movies out there, which is somewhere around 30! Well, we've rented a lot of movies recently, and we would like to recommend a few.

RV: This movie is hilarious! If you love slapstick comedy and Kristen Chenowith (sp?) then you'll love this movie!

Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time: Anna and Tommy give this one 2 thumbs up! Tommy learned to say "rewwa" (short for Cinderella) from watching this one. The plot is pretty thin, but if you love true love prevailing in the end, then this one is for you!

Shaolin Soccer: Kenny recommended this one to us a long time ago, and we just got around to watching it. It's so funny! It's action-packed with soccer and martial arts, and plenty of Chinese wit.

Others worth seeing are: Invincible, Goal!, Nacho Libre, Click, Curious George, and Open Season.

Those NOT worth seeing are: Mission Impossible 3, and Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World (so boring that even Anna didn't sit through this one!).

Anna Knows Best

Yesterday, Anna came into my room and announced that she couldn't go to school because she had Strep Throat. I looked at her like she was crazy, and then checked her temperature. It was normal, and she had no symptoms other than a sore throat. I sent her to school, but when she came home, she said her throat hurt worse and her eyes were all itchy. I thought that it must be allergies, and gave her some allergy medicine and sent her to dance class. At around 10pm we heard Anna crying in her room, so we went and checked on her. She said her throat was hurting so bad that she couldn't sleep. That sent up some major red flags, so we grabbed the thermometer to check her temp, but the darn thing decided that after almost 6 years of service that it was time to quit! I told Anna that we would go to the doctor first thing this morning, and she agreed quickly (which is quite unusual because she HATES going to the doctor!). Well, lo and behold, we went to the doctor this morning and Anna has a bad case of Strep as well as Pink Eye! I should have listened to her on Thursday morning when she told me that she had Strep. Goodness knows she's had it enough to know what it feels like!

Remarkable Flowers

Missy asked me how my plants were doing, and I thought

I would show you. I can't believe this bulb actually bloomed! I thought for sure it would die, but apparently, it's quite resilient! So far, none of my flowers have died. My big bush bounced back into shape after all the ice melted, but a smaller bush that was planted in front of it was flattened, and I'm hoping it will begin to grow back in the Spring. Hopefully, my plants will not suffer any lasting damage from all this ice and snow, and I'll have beautiful Spring pictures to share with you!

Once There Was A Snowman...

I can't remember the last time I built a snowman, so I decided to go outside today and give it a try. It ended up only being about a foot tall, but don't you think it's cute?
Tommy had never seen a snowman, or in this case, a snowgirl, so he was quite intrigued by it.
As you can see Tommy is wearing only a fleece shirt and pants, sandals, and my gloves! Believe me, it was a struggle to get that much clothing on him! Right now, he's asleep on the couch in only a diaper! Needless to say, he didn't last long outside today!

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

Ahh...the beauties of snow! It started snowing yesterday a little before 3pm, and didn't stop until 7pm. We didn't expect much more snow, but when Tommy woke up at 3am, I looked outside to see thick, falling snow! The picture above is a picture I took before I took Anna to school this morning. I was glad I did, because as soon as I stepped on the street, I discovered that it was not snow, like it looked, but ice! So, I prepared myself for a slippery drive to Anna's school! To begin with, our alley was an icy mess, so just getting to the street was trecherous! We got to the street and inched our way along. Our 3 minute drive turned into an almost 10 minute drive! We saw lots of interesting things along the way, such as a Hummer, who thought he was above it all and could drive quickly, slipping to a stop at a stop sign. Serves him right. And 3 kids, who were walking to school, fall on their little behinds as they tried to walk on the icy side walks! Poor kids. What an interesting morning! The picture above is one I took this morning, and the picture below is one I took yesterday at 5pm.
And last, but certainly not least, Anna and Tommy outside this morning. They wanted to be outside and LOOK at the snow, but they refused to touch it, and certainly didn't want to play in it! Two minutes outside for a picture was enough for them!

Pictures from Wednesday

Anna spent most of the day playing her Hello Kitty video game. Tommy erased all of her game data, so she had to start all over from the beginning! She wasn't too happy about that, but at least she didn't have to go to school! She also spent the entire day in her Dora nightgown!
















Tommy spent the day being VERY silly and getting in loads of trouble. But, that's just like every day!












My crazy bulbs started coming up shortly after Christmas, and now I'm sure they regret it! They are already turing brown and wilting!

More Ice!?!

After a long night of kids waking up for various reasons, and Tommy climbing into bed with us at 6am, Danny got up to get ready for school. We were both very tired, and quite suprised when the phone rang a little before 7am. It was an automated phone call from McKinney ISD telling us that school had been cancelled! We had missed the weather report the night before, and during the night we thought we heard rain, but we were suprised when we looked outside and saw a solid layer of sleet! Danny and I are both a little upset about the school closings, even though we're tired. Today is one of my teaching days, and Danny has a concert next week that his students aren't quite prepared for, and they desperately needed today's rehearsal! The only one happy about today is Anna, of course. So, we'll sit out this icey day, and hope for better weather tomorrow!

ICE!

This morning, we woke up to a land of ice. Everything in sight was covered in about an inch of it!

Everything looked very pretty until I saw our nearly 12 foot shrub reduced to a bent-over mass of branches only 4 feet high, as you can see below!
You can see our formerly tall bush at the very edge of our house. I hope it bounces back when the ice melts!

December

Now that we have a much faster internet connection, I can post more pictures! It used to take me, I kid you not, almost 3 minutes to post ONE picture! Now I can do three in less than a minute! Here are some pictures from this past December.

Here's Anna at her very first dance recital on December 9. She danced to the Chinese dance from "The Nutcracker." We have about a minute of the dance on video, and I'll try to post that soon.
Anna and Tommy on Christmas Eve.

Anna's fabulous gingerbread house she made at school. Didn't she do a great job?

More pictures of Tommy's room

Bittersweet Sunday

Well, it has happened. I am officially released from Nursery. This was a difficult calling for me, and I'm glad it's over, but I'm also a little sad. Another worker and I worked out a great new schedule for Nursery and it worked really well on Sunday! We actually had fun! I don't think I had fun in Nursery at all since I was called. We didn't really have structure to the Nursery until now and it made a huge difference for the workers as well as the kids! We used to have 1 and 1/2 hours of toy time, which was SO boring, but now we have reading time, and singing time, and actual structured play time! It's great! Time goes by so much more quickly! I'm glad that the changes were made, but a little sad that it took 10 months to make changes! I just sat back and let the Nursery Leader do all the work, and I didn't really voice my opinion until I had another worker back me up and give me support. I have learned so much in this calling in just the last couple of weeks! I'm grateful for this experience, but now I can have a much more relaxing Sunday!

Tommy's new bed!

It's taking us a while to finish up Tommy's room, but I finally bought his comforter today, so I decided to take pictures. Of course, no room is ever "finished" so this is a picture of Tommy's bed.

Well, I thought I had the cutest kids....

So, when I looked at everyone's blogs, I kept thinking that "man, my kids are cuter than yours!" But, as I scanned through baby pictures of Tommy, I realized that even the cutest of kids can take some REALLY bad photos!