Christmas

Hello all...yes, we did survive Christmas. I figured I better get on here soon or you would all think we didn't make it through this year. This will probably be a rather lengthy post and may become 2.
Rachel's party went rather well on Friday night. Everyone had a good time, I think and only 1 minor burn with the glue guns that were being used to make the crafts. Rachel and Jackie were still awake, talking, when Mark & I went up at 11:30. They actually slept with the light on because they fell asleep talking.
Big brother's package did arrive on Friday as was expected and then the second package arrived from Dad on Saturday. Thank you to you both. The kids thoroughly enjoyed them. Nate, you must not have been able to get their lists but you actually hit an item on Rachel's. I couldn't get their list on the internet either. I'll find out more about why next year. I have to tell you though, if you continue to get him science kits dealing with electricity and other forms of energy, you really need to move closer...so he can do them at your house, just in case!
I went out early Christmas eve to finish up the last minute shopping. Mark's bonus didn't even make it out of the first store. Then I made sure we had all we needed for groceries before heading home. My shopping also made it possible for wrapping to be done but then I had to help with other wrapping when I returned home. Mark made a nice turkey potpie for our dinner before we headed to church for our candlelight Christmas eve service. We did our traditional ride around town to look and lights (which wasn't very impressive this year since it started raining on Friday and continued on Saturday). Then it was home for our telling of the nativity and checking NORAD for Santa sightings.
We let the kids open one present each on Christmas eve this year. Gramma had made them all new pj's so that was what they got to open. I sort of figured it would help everyone look a little nicer in our Christmas pictures with the new jammies. Mom did a good job on the sizes for not having the kids around to fit.
It was 10:00 before we got the kids to bed and could finish our preps. I had to finish the sewing projects that we had started which I can now tell what it was. I had bought beanbags for all the kids to use in the living room. I really didn't like the covers on them though and decided to make my own covers to go over the originals. Mom and I had completed 2 before she went home so I just had to put Rachel's together. I finished in about 2 hours without much of any problems. But when we went to put all of them into their covers, we made a discovery! Evidently, Rachel's wasn't as full as the boys' and we used hers as our model! It took both Mark and I working together probably 15 minutes or so to coax each of the boys' into their covers. Rachel's slid in incredibly easy! Of course, Rachel really needs the largest one. What we are probably going to do is to open them up and take some of the boys' beans and put them into hers while they are all sleeping.
After finishing the bags, then we had our other wrapping and Santa duties to take care of. We were up MUCH TOO LATE! Mark even wrote a note to Rachel from Santa expressing disappointment that for 2 years now she hasn't left him some of her birthday cake.
I came downstairs about 7:20 and Rachel and Stephen were already up. I thought they, especially Stephen, might melt down before Joshua and Dad got up but they all survived. We were able to get everything opened without major rushing and eat some branmuffins before we headed to the 10 a.m. service at church.
After church, it was home to make biscuits and gravy. The kids asked if they could have a "pajama party" so they spent the day playing and watching DVD's in their new pj's. We got The Polar Express for the family. Mark also worked on his "3" puzzle that he received. I started charging my new cordless phones that I received (was top of my list).
It was actually rather quiet and relaxing...a very enjoyable holiday! When Mark has to be at work on the 26th, travel just isn't feasible. We do miss not being with family during this time of year but also enjoy the time of just being together without rushing around. (We do enough of that at other times.)
I think that about covers it for now. We are busy today with cleaning and laundry. Tomorrow is newspaper day and Rachel is supposed to go to Jackie's in Newaygo for a sleepover.

Rachel's party

It's almost time for Rachel's birthday party. Even though her birthday was Tuesday and we did a celebration with Gramma here, tonight is her friend party. One guest is here, Jackie from Newaygo. The other friend we have to pick up in about an hour. The cake is done and the kids are quiet....wait a minute, maybe it's too quiet! Actually the girls are watching Rachel's Samantha (the American Girl) DVD that we got her for her birthday and the boys have either joined them or are in the basement playing foosball. I have even partially cleaned up the kitchen.

Of course, plans have changed several times in planning this. We were going to make gingerbread houses. I have 2 kits here plus a Longenberger mold to make more. I thought the boys should make one and the girls each have their own but that would have entailed making 2 from scratch. Mark thought the boys could do one another time and just let each girl make their own so that meant making one from scratch. Then I realized I hadn't bought the real butter required to make the recipe (and I'm avoiding taking all 4 kids into Meijers myself just for butter)...well, we'll just go with 2 houses. Then a light went on...I had some craft kits stored away from previous years that I had used for our preschool dept. at church. 1 of them had never been opened because they are "Shrinky Dinks" and could only be baked in electric ovens and I had gas at the time. There are also kits to make bell doorhangers, angel and tree bells. Rachel said that these would make a fun activity for her and the girls tonight! Whew! The gingerbread houses will be something for next week of vacation.

So in the middle of all the rush to get everything ready for Christmas, we take a break and focus on birthdays! Like we need more to fit into our schedules.

We received our first package of 2 we knew were coming from Dad on Wednesday. Thanks for the ornaments. Pretty soon we are going to need 2 trees and 1 will be strictly dedicated to NASCAR. Big brother's box is supposed to arrive today but when I was tracking it on Wed. it didn't indicate that it had left Utah yet. Now the email with the tracking number is not in our inbox so I can't see if it is coming or not. It hasn't made it yet. The package coming from JCPenney's from Mom arrived yesterday and was promptly stashed away. I haven't even started any wrapping yet.

Well, I better run. I need to get out some glue guns and a few other last minute preps for the party before we officially get under way at 5:30.

Time

Dad says it's time to blog again but I just haven't had the time. I actually only have a minute or 2 right now. I have my own 3 kids home plus 2 of a friends because she had a medical appointment. After they are picked up, we will have lunch and go do our paper route.

Mom has been here since last Wednesday and we have been busy all the time. She left this morning to head back to Alpena. I probably have her rather worn out...going all day with kids and errands and sewing into the night on a project I'm working on for Christmas. I didn't plan on having her do so much of the sewing but I'm glad she was here or I probably wouldn't have finished the projects. We were working our own design and ran into some kinks I might not have been able to work through without us talking through them together.

We went to the Festival of Lights at Calvary Church on Friday night. It was as beautiful as ever. We have gone more over the last 15 years that we have known about it then not going. I didn't think it would be going on last weekend because it is usually the first and second weekend of Dec. but found out it had been moved this year.

The kids did great in all their programs this year. Both had one for school and then the church one which was Sunday evening. Mom was going to watch the school ones on video but we were so busy we never got the camera hooked up to the VCR.

My shopping isn't done, my sewing isn't done, holiday baking is unheard of in this house, and I have AVON customers that need their orders. Guess I better get busy. Oh yeah, there is also a birthday cake to get baked and decorated for Rachel when her friends come over on Friday night. More about her birthday later.

Wish Lists

Just a quick note to let you know that we have taken the kids to Toys 'R Us and had them do their wish lists for this year. Joshua has been done for a couple of weeks but we just got Rachel and Stephen there today. They are starting to have a lot of fun doing them each year and ask when they are going to get to. Their lists, do not include a couple of items they would really like though, because we couldn't find them at that store. No one would be disappointed if they unwrapped The Dukes of Hazzard seasons 4 or 5. We have 1, 2, & 3 and they absolutely love it. Mom & Dad don't mind the memories from our teens either.

I'll have to get on later and give you my wish list. Actually the top item is already covered. I kept telling Mark that a dumpster was on the top of my list for Christmas. But now that we spent 2 weekends working on the basement, I don't need that because we already made our trip to the dump.

SNOW DAY...

We are experiencing the first snow day of this school year. It's hard to believe it isn't even Christmas yet and the kids have a snow day! This could be a lllooooonnnnggggggg winter!

You are really not going to believe the timing of this snow day--Mark and I have been in charge of a Toys for Tots drive at the school. Each day for the last 3 weeks I have picked up the toys, brought them home, counted them, and reported the total to a local TV station having a school challenge. Well, today was the day to deliver the toys to the TV station during their MORNING NEWS! Of course, Rachel & Stephen wanted to go with Mark to make the drop off. They even went to bed an hour early last night so that they could get up at 5:00 AM to go. So on a day when there was no school and they could sleep in, they were up at 5! I have given a very strong warning already that if there are problems getting along, etc., there will be more than just Joshua taking a nap today. By the way, they were all on TV and Stephen even got to answer a question about our collecting.

I thought I was going to have lots of kids today. In talking with the mom of the daycare kids that come every morning till school, we had made arrangements that they would stay the whole day on snow days. A neighbor is in Mexico this week and she had asked if there was a snow day, her third grade son could stay here while the gramma that is watching him is at work. Plus, of course, I knew Sarah would be coming since both her folks work. Turns out that Sarah is the only extra one coming. The day of the morning kids called and he decided to take a sick day today and stay home with the kids. I don't know what happened to the boy next door but he never showed up either. When I talked to Sarah's dad, he said that she was sleeping in and would get herself here by noon.

You think that means I might get some work out of mine this morning...that has yet to be seen. I have barely been able to get them out from under all the blankets we use to wrap up in in our livingroom. Well, I guess I better start leading by example.

Here we go again...

Joshua is sick again. He is sniffly and congested and starting to cough. I'm starting to think that those 2 parades might not have been the best idea for him but he was fine then.

The other item that could keep our holidays "interesting" is that I have found out that a little boy that was at church on Sunday, in program practice, was sent home from school on Monday with the chicken pox. Of course, all my kids have been vacinated but that isn't a comfort since so had this child and all 8 of the other kids in his classroom that all have it now. If you know the statistics that means the first of mine that might show up with it would probably do so around 12/18 which is the day of the program at church as well as being just 2 days before Rachel's birthday and a week before Christmas.

The other thought that this brings up is "How many others from the Christmas program might end up with it just before the actual program?" If very many do, we may have our program in January this year.

The only thing good about the timing that I can think of is that my kids wouldn't miss any school if they came down with it at the 18th. I can't believe it but they have the entire week before Christmas off! That sure doesn't help a mom get any last minute items taken care of. I know when I was a kid we would have had school at least through the 22nd. From what I understand there are some schools in the area going till at least Wed. or Thurs. but not ours. The principal mentioned that the teachers like it because it gives them a chance to do personal stuff before the holiday.

Well, I have papers waiting to be bagged. Rachel and Stephen are going to have to do the delivery again after school since Joshua's sick but I'll have them bagged and ready. I also drive around to supervise and have more papers ready when they need them. Joshua stays in the van with me to stay warm instead of walking in this cold.

Last Weekend

This last weekend was filled with parades! Mark's work, Camp & Cruise, had entries in 2 different parades in the area and they needed people to pass out candy to the kids. Mark volunteered as long as all the kids could come. So Friday night, we were in the Coopersville parade which was really rather short and then Saturday night, we were in the Grand Haven parade. The weather was cold for both but Saturday we also had quite a bit of snow coming down. It wasn't bad when we left GR but part way there, it started snowing hard. We actually called friends to have them check about cancellations.

The kids did great and had a ball! The worst was just waiting around for the parade to get started and for our turn to move came. Besides several normal layers, they all had on their snowpants, hats, gloves, etc. and then I topped them off with 1 of Daddy's work shirts. It not only helped keep them warmer, it also made them easier to see and keep track of. I kept Joshua right close to me and we worked out of one container of candy. It was really funny watching him try to hand out candy with the kind of big mittens he had on. Sometimes he thought he had a piece of candy in his hand but he didn't. Other times, he had the candy but couldn't get it dropped in the other kids mittens and it fell in the snow at their feet.

There was hot cocoa after both parades. Coopersville had cocoa and cookies for everyone at their jr. high gym and then Sat., Mark's bosses invited all of us to a restaurant for cocoa and dessert. It was a nice visit only because of the snow it ended up being 11 p.m. before we got home. I ended up sleeping on the way home because there was the smell of gas/diesel on a lot of the crews boots because of the generator they were using to run the lights on the float. The smell really got to me. I don't know whether you would consider it my allergies or not but it made me rather miserable.

The float was rather cute. They took a pontoon boat and put a box around the middle of it so both ends stuck out and they had lights strung on them. They had the box wrapped with a BIG bow on top and a sign that read "NO PEEKING". I thought it looked rather neat.

Stephen had hoped that we would have a new tradition to replace our trapsing through the snow to pick out and cut down the tree together as a family since we had to go to an artificial tree now. Who knows, maybe this will be it.

Basement

Boy, have we been busy! I can't wait for someone to come visit and see our basement! We have spent a good part of the last 2 Saturdays working down there. It isn't completely cleaned out because there was some boxes we are going to have to go through item by item but it is definitely improved.

At the same time, we also managed to clean out the garage enough for 1 vehicle to go in it--the van! This is especially good since we are now under a Winter Snow Advisory and are expecting 8+ inches tonight and tomorrow. The van is rather difficult to get cleaned off well and is usually home first and out second in the mornings so that is why it is getting the privileged position in the garage.

All this cleaning and reorganizing took 3 trips to Goodwill and a dump trip to do. For Goodwill we just used the van but for the dump we had a friend bring over his full size pickup. We had the bed of that truck packed full and piled up as high as the cab of the truck. We were even able to move the game table and stairstepper machine into the basement. Of course, the basement will be even cleaner on Friday morning when the school's Toys for Tots drive is done and we can deliver the 130+ toys that they have collected to a local TV station.

I have been spending my days breathing through a filter to keep the allergies under control while we worked. I really don't like those things but they do help. I probably should buy a few more to keep them closer at hand and not have to search for them any time I need to do a bit of dusty work.

I'll have to fill you in on our other cold yet fun activities later. Now that Dad has a blog, I've sort of been challenged to blog more often and keep you all better informed. I'll have to figure out a way to put a link to his blog over on the side later too.

First things first...

Sorry Dad. A Belated Happy Birthday to you! I didn't forget, I just didn't get around to making that phone call that I planned on. I know you're in GA but thought I'd call your cell phone anyway. I just never thought about it when it was actually convenient to pick up the phone and call. Hope it was a good one any way.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! We had a rather quiet holiday here. Usually at least part of Mark's family from Detroit comes to visit. On Tuesday we found out that they couldn't come this way and with Mark working today, we couldn't make it over there. Weatherwise, we had a white Thanksgiving and were under a winter weather warning for subzero wind chills the entire day.

We had the usual huge meal with all the favorites. It is my husband's favorite day to do all the cooking. He does most everything and it is all from scratch. I just contribute the applesauce cinnamon jello and the bran muffins for breakfast.

We watched the Macy's parade and then part of the Lion's getting walked all over. We checked out the ads and played Nascar Monopoly. We finished the evening with "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving" Special. I probably should have turned in with the kids after that but didn't.

I was never one to think shopping the day after Thanksgiving sounded much like fun but it has become tradition over the past 4 or 5 years. Usually it is my mother-in-law and me but I went solo today. We had found just a couple of bargains today that we wanted to get so I ventured out at 5 a.m. to get them and get home before Mark went to work for 9 a.m. I only had 2 stores to hit and I just barely made it back in time. This was my first year to do Menards on Black Friday and it is the last unless I have someone to hold a place in line while I go around the store getting what I want. The line of cars to get into the parking lot was over 1/2 mile long. The 5-6 lines to check out all stretched at least to the back of the store.

The children weren't exactly thrilled when I walked in the door since I was carrying 2 snow shovels with me. They didn't think they were worth venturing out for. That now gives us 3 shovels and 3 kids...sounds about right to me. They have even went out to "break them in" already today.

We have plenty to keep us busy around here. Since we already have our new artifical tree, we may even try to get it up this weekend but there is lots of cleaning to do before then. Hope all of you had a nice holiday too!

Change

This weekend has been the most frustrating in quite some time. We finally decided to change to DSL since we could get a deal where it was actually cheaper than our current dial up. SBC assured my husband that running our church prayer chain through it would not be a problem. WRONG! Seems you can only send email to 100 people in an hours time. We have 125 addresses on our list. Do you see a problem here? It has taken 3 phone calls and TOO MANY hours to count to try to get all the adjustments made. I still don't know if we are completely functional!

Browsing the internet is wonderful! The speed is great! It is also a nice little marvel everytime the phone rings while we are browsing. But this transfer is about to get the better of me. I really had a lot more planned to spend my time on than having to reenter all 125 addresses a second time into MS Outlook. Supposedly, this is a way to send as many emails as I want without SBC realizing it is more than 100 at a time. The problem now is that I have requested Outlook to send out a test email twice and it still shows up in the outbox as not mailed. But I think I'm getting error messages from having sent it.

The transfer of email addresses didn't go right. The notifications, well, I had someone tell me they got 8 of them! Now I know why we waited so long to switch. It is frustrations like this that really emphasize why people hate change so much. I was looking forward to this upgrade but now I'm just too tired to care.

Hope my Big Brother who hates AOL is happy! Just wish you were closer to help with all the frustrations of putting in the ethernet port, hooking up the DSL, and all the other little glitches that keep coming up.

Another quick update

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are back from the doctor. She said that this is just the croup lingering on. They did do a strep test to rule that out and it was negative. She said that it can take about 2 weeks for the cough to go completely away. As long as he doesn't spike another fever or have trouble breathing, we just wait it out.

He also got a flu shot while we were there so he didn't enjoy the trip. Between the swap for strep and the shot, he wasn't a happy camper but he did fine. We'll just keep up with lots of fluids and lots of rest. (I wish he would rest his voice a little more since the inflamation appears to be right on his voice box. This kid loves to sing and talk though and is only quiet when he is asleep.)

Speaking of talking...he starts speech therapy next Thursday. It will only be 20-25 minutes a week. We finally connected with his therapist and scheduled it for every Thursday at 2:00. I guess the only nap he will have on Thursdays will be in the van.

Well, lots to do. Hope to post again soon.

Quick update

I just wanted to post a quick update. I'm heading to the doctor with Joshua in a few minutes. He is still complaining of a sore throat as well as coughing a lot. There isn't any fever for the last day or so but he really doesn't sound too good.

I've got to spend a lot of today getting ready for a craft show. I'm setting up an Avon booth at the craft show at the kids' school. Fortunately, I have 3 other of the reps that I have signed up doing it with me. That has spread out the responibility a lot so it hasn't really overwhelmed me. It has been hard to do a lot of running around this week with Joshua sick. I have to get some flyers ready and labelling done. If I get them printed during the day, the kids can help me get them put together after they get home.

Well, I have to finish getting ready to go.

What a weekend part 2!

This is part 2...seems I ran out of space on the first post. You may want to go down and read part one before reading this one.

We arrived in the Triage to be taken directly back because of how bad his breathing sounded. I could barely keep up with the nurse pushing his wheelchair. Before I know it there are about 3 nurses and a doctor surrounding his bed. They ordered an immediate breathing treatment and then a set of throat x-rays. His temp was at 103.7 at that time. After the first treatment, his breathing improved but was still rather raspy. The doctor determined that what he has is actually croup. It took a second treatment and a steroid shot but he really perked up rather quickly after that.

The doctors decided to keep him for observation Saturday night which was fine by me! I didn't want to have to make that trip again. If we were at home it would have been different. I was much more comfortable with him staying there too. It was 11:00 p.m. before we got to a room. Our dinners were out in the van and it was the middle of a thunderstorm. The nurses got us a little snack and we called it a night.

His fever stayed almost down for the night and his breathing did fine too so we got released Sunday. Fortunately the doctor came in around 8:30 a.m. and we were out of the hospital by 9:00. Remember, we had the church van and there were 2 families waiting for us back at camp to come home. As soon as we got there, we loaded up the trailer and headed home.

Yesterday, he seemed pretty good most of the time. But now today, he is very congested and coughing more. This cough now sounds like what I'm used to croup sounding like. His fever is back too. I may give the doctor's office here a call before the day is over. We're thinking that he may have been coming down with it before we left but playing in all the leaves, with their dust and molds, may have exasperated it. They say that the croup has caused an inflamation right on his voice box.

SO that was our exciting weekend! It really wasn't a complete lost and we did enjoy spending time with friends and at the camp. Now it is back to real life.

What a Weekend!

Rachel was well enough to go to school for the 1/2 day on Wednesday and full day on Thursday. However, anytime you touched her lower back, she grimmaced pretty bad. She was very tender right around the kidney area. I put a call into the doctor but she didn't come into the office till 4 p.m. The nurse confirmed that the infection Rachel had should be wiped out by the antibiotic that she was on but left a note for the doctor. As soon as the doctor came in, she scheduled Rachel for a renal ultrasound. We were supposed to leave for Lake Ann Baptist Camp that evening but instead spent it at Spectrum Butterworth having this done. We were given the all clear for Rachel to travel though.

Instead of leaving Thursday evening, we left the house around 8 a.m. Friday and arrived at camp around 11 a.m. We travelled with another family from church and used the church van and trailor since we were there for the men to go to the Camp Captain's Retreat. As soon as we unloaded the trailer, the men and kids started on the leaves while the other mom and I organized our cabins. After lunch, we all worked on leaves for a while. They had these great leaf blowers! Besides several hand-held or backpack blowers they had these 3 lawn mower size blowers! They really worked neat and even I, with all my allergy problems, was able to use one without aggrevating my allergies. We were able to make these huge piles. I took Joshua back to the cabin for a nap for a while but every one else worked till dinner time.

Joshua had complained of a sore throat a little on Friday morning but he says that quite often and I didn't think too much of it. I did look in to see that there were no white spots or anything. By Saturday morning, Joshua was definitely worse. He sounded funny and was coughing as well as not eating much because of a sore throat. I wouldn't let him work on the leaves instead we stayed at the cabin most of the day. By nap time, he was obviously feverish even with having ibuprofen at lunch time. By 4, he was still napping but the sound of his breathing was getting bad. I called GR Peds and located a thermometer to check his temp. He was at 102.3 with only being 5 hours since his dose of ibuprofen. Our friends have a child with asthma and they had a nepulizer with them. We gave him a treatment of that and his breathing improved some. After talking to the nurse in GR, I loaded him into the church van and took him into TC to Munson Medical Center's Emergency room probably 20 miles away. (Mark stayed with the other kids at the camp.) TO BE CONTINUED...

Rachel's still home

We kept Rachel home again today. It seems that we were into the doctor just before other symptoms started showing themselves. She spent a lot of time yesterday sleeping. She did a little reading but everytime she started reading she would end up just falling to sleep. She complained about a headache and backache too. She didn't want anything to eat which didn't bother me as long as she was drinking. Her temp never got above 99.8. She is eating some today but mainly just crackers and dry cereal. This afternoon she is a bit more active and moving around a bit. But then when I suggested a nap she laid down and actually slept. Hopefully, the antibiotics are starting to kick in and help fight this infection. Also, this morning I just barely touched her lower back (near her left kidney) and she jumped. I haven't heard any more from the doctor but will keep you informed.

Rachel's sick

Just thought I should let everyone know that Rachel is sick at home today. She came to me yesterday and told me she had burning when she went to the bathroom. She didn't have any other signs or symptoms but with our last encounter with a urinary tract infection resulting in a hospital stay, I wasn't taking any chances. I called the doctor this morning and we got in at 10 a.m. In her urine sample they found some blood and a high white blood cell count which means the UTI that I suspected was probably right. However, she also has tenderness in her abdomen and back off to the left side so the doctor is suspecting a kidney infection as well. The doctor started her on an antibiotic but said that depending on what further testing shows at the lab they may have to change which one it is. I thought about taking her to school for the afternoon but the doctor suggested just letting her stay home and rest. The doctor did give her the ok to go to the Meet & Treat at church tonight but I'm seeing that she is really dragging. She kept looking for places to sit down while we were waiting for her Rx to get filled. I'm going to hold off judgment till closer to time to go. I'd rather miss tonight and her be able to go to school tomorrow than have her push it too hard too soon and not give the antibiotics time to get a handle on the infection.

We also have a rather big weekend planned that we want her well for. Thursday evening we were scheduled to leave for Lake Ann Baptist Camp. The kids have Friday off of school and Mark and another friend from church are supposed to be there for a Camp Captain meeting Friday evening and Saturday morning. We decided to turn it into a work weekend for both families. We will be raking leaves or whatever else they need doing during the day on Friday and Saturday. While Mark and Bruce are in their meetings, Bev and I will keep the kids busy with work or play. Of course, this now is all contingent on Rachel's health. Home is always the best place to be when you're sick so I won't push for her to go at all if the antibiotics haven't kicked in by then.

Sorry

It's been a while since I had a chance to sit and post anything. Just been very busy!

I'm trying to get winter clothes situated for all 5 of us. Turns out I have enough for probably 3 boys size 4T while I don't have enough shirts for a full week for Stephen for the winter. Rachel is pretty well covered I think. I haven't even hardly started on Mark's and mine yet. This has entailed a couple of days of working through our attic. It has been a long job but I can definitely see progress being made. I have made one trip to Goodwill with a full van and will make another one soon. I also have bags set aside for a friend of mine that can make use of the hand-me-downs.

Last weekend, Mark's mom came for a visit. We actually asked her to come watch the kids. I spent Saturday at a Certified Beauty Advisor class for AVON. It was in Battle Creek from 8-5. Mark had to work so we needed someone to watch the kids so I could go. It was good to see her and the kids really enjoyed it. She also cleaned my house and did my laundry while I was gone! What a bonus! She then had to go home on Sunday.

The class was great! I am now certified to do makeovers. The real plus was all the product knowledge that I received that day! Now I just need my supplies so that I can line up some "guinea pigs" to practice on.

On Monday, my mom arrived. It had been quite a while since she came for a visit. The reason for the timing of this visit was for Grandfriends/VIP day at the kids' school which was Thursday. The kids had wanted her to come other years but it hasn't worked out so she came this year. (Other years, friends from church stepped up to visit with the kids at school so they did have someone there that day.) Her and I spent a lot of time this week with all sorts of projects especially the attic.

God also answered a big prayer for us this week. I think most of my readers know that last year I had a severe allergic reaction to our real Christmas tree. This has already been on our mind this year because buying a fake one was going to make Christmas expenses even greater than most years. We also wanted to make sure that we had one that was nice and we could really enjoy it. While Mom and I were at Goodwill with a full van to donate, we went inside to look around. They had 4 Christmas trees available. One was a 7 foot Manhattan pine that was originally from Frank's Nursery and Craft for a cost of $139.99. All the other trees were around $60-$70. This one was marked just $24.99! I asked a little about it and when I found out that I could return it (just like at a regular store) if we didn't like it, I bought it! I put it up just as soon as I got home and it met everyone's approval! This is a big relief for us! As I started with, we really feel that this is an answer to our prayers.

Today, Mom left for Mark's house in Wooster, OH. There's still lots going on and I really have to keep going. This ended up being a lot longer post than I planned on but I think that pretty much brings everyone up to speed on things at our place. It's time to get the kids from school!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Has everyone made their annual phone calls to Mom today? It is her birthday! Her and I have actually been playing phone tag this week already. I'll try again tonight either before or after my meeting in Hudsonville. If I don't get through though I'll just figure that I wasn't the only one to not make it to the store for a card in time to mail it. I should probably go send one electronically just in case I don't get to call.

New chair

Well, not new, new but at least a different one. Our Moms should be very happy. My husband finally got rid of "his chair". On the way home from church yesterday, we passed a recliner on the curb marked "free". We turned around and checked it out. It is a dark brown plaid. It is a bit worn with just a few little holes worn through. But it really isn't in too bad of shape. The recline and footrest mechinism seem to work just fine. Best of all, it sits a lot higher than the old chair.

It was actually just at the end of the block so Mark just carried it up the hill. We brought it home and Mark vaccuumed it out. I Febreezed it and it is a real hit in here. It isn't anything great but the price was right and it is an improvement on what we had.

I have a ton to get done and am trying to figure out which order will get everything done so I guess I better get at it.

Not much going on

At least not much noteworthy. We are pretty much in a routine now. We're plenty busy but it is just the usual, school, homework, AVON, Advance papers, shopping, cleaning, and cooking.

What is unusual around here is the weather. We have been in the 80's the last 2 days and will be again today and tomorrow. It has only been getting down into the upper 60's during the night. We are in for a change though. October weather should arrive again on Thursday with highs cooler than what it has been getting at nice recently. We haven't even gotten a frost here yet. Of course, they are talking about temps back into the 70's again early next week.

I know we need to get storms on and prep for winter but that is a little tough when we still need to get some air to keep it from being too stuffy to sleep. I've actually been tempting to turn on our air conditioning yesterday and today because of the humidity being so high too but have resisted since we just got an electric bill last week.

Oh, I know the big news here. Rachel ended up with a black eye...and her brothers didn't even help her get it. We put her to bed Saturday night and she was fine. Sunday morning she got up with quite a shiner. She says that she hit it on one of the side bars of her bed as she laid down. She didn't think it would get too bad so she didn't bother coming down for ice.

Mid-term progress reports came home last week. The kids are doing fine. There are a couple of weak areas for each to work on but overall they looked good. Rachel is working on an Inca ABC project due tomorrow as well as her band. Stephen has a field trip to the zoo coming up at the middle of the month. They are also looking forward to Grandfriends/VIP day at the end of the month. MEAP tests started this week and will be for the next week or so.

That's about it for now.