An errand kind of day

Whew...today was a runaround day. Since I am one of the student council advisors, I have been given a duty period. That means that I have an entire class period to do Student Council business. My biggest job is going to be Homecoming. I am in charge of the Homecoming Parade and the Homecoming Dance. So this week I have really been running around. Homecoming isn't until mid-November, but there is a great deal to do before then. I was able to leave school today to run around town. I went to several different places, and I'm finding that I'm really enjoying it. I have made a lot of contacts and am having fun meeting new people.

I've also discovered another thing to love about our little town. I had to go to the mayor's office to get a parade permit. In a big city, that may require an appointment, and would only happen if I happened to be "somebody." In our little town, I walked right into his secretary's office, completed my business, and gave the mayor a wave as I walked out the door. Small town...and I love it.

Then after work, I came home and more errands to run. This would usually be something that I'd do on my own, but the Big Man volunteered to come with me. Then the kids decided to come with us! It has been a very rare thing lately for the four of us to be in a car at the same time. We ran our errands and then weren't quite ready to go home. So we decided on an early dinner. We had a fun dinner and did a little bit of shopping afterwards. Then we all stopped by the Big Man's parents' house to check on it and collect the newspaper that gets left there each week. Whew...it was quite a night.

Then...here's the big news of the day. T. Willy went back to school today. The Big Man had the day off and received a call from T. Willy's doctor. T. Willy tested positive for H1N1! True Story! But he's not running a fever, and his symptoms are gone. We're guessing MK may have had it too, but she wasn't tested for it, probably because she hadn't been running a fever. We're hoping that will help him/them build their immunities and not get it again.

Now...tonight's picture is of MK and the Big Man trying out a chair called the "Cuddler." It is a recliner large enough for two, and MK happily volunteered to cozy up to her dad for the picture.

Would you believe...

She missed the school bus home? Oh, I was not a happy mom. (The
original idea for this post was "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry"
with a picture of the Hulk...old school Lou Ferrigno. I've since
calmed down.)

Good morning.

Since I am staying home with T. Willy today, MK had to ride the bus to
school. She was not very happy about it, but she did it. I walked
her outside, and it could actually be described as cool!!! I love
this time of year!

The Big Man went to work, T. Willy is still in bed, and we're the only
ones home. This is highly unusual. I'm watching Alfred Hitchcock and
thinking there may be a nap in my future. I hope you have a great day
ahead!

Feeling better

Well, MK is. She went back to school today with only a slight hesitation. I was able to see her at lunchtime, and she seemed very close to normal.

T. Willy, however, stayed home today with the Big Man, and I will stay home with him tomorrow. When the Motrin is working, he seems fine, but he wears down quickly when the fever creeps up.

So, let's hope that it's almost behind us. The Big Man has a very raspy voice. He's been on 6 day weeks and there's no end in sight until his vacation in October. He mostly needs rest.

I started a class for ESOL certification tonight. It's part of my job requirement as a Reading/English teacher. It is nearly every Monday until the end of January, but they originally said it would be later, so that's not too bad. The class wasn't bad. The teacher is great and very laidback, so it is much better than I was expecting. We are also going to have a couple of evenings where we will have international potluck dinners. That should be pretty fun. So, if you have any international recipes, please let me know!

And here's a picture of MK and me while I'm blogging. It's fuzzy, but I just really needed something quick. Have a great night!

MK is feeling better!

She sent this pic to me...it's titled "My Paris House." It's actually a new picture in my room. But it shows that she's back!

T. Willy's napping...

A sure sign that he isn't feeling well. This kid is not a napper.

Running its course

We were given a tv for our media room. It's very nice, 55" I think, and
we appreciate it very much. It does, however, have a quirk. If there
is a power outage, the tv will come on by itself when the power
returns at about triple the regular volume. We have no idea what to
do about it. It is on the kids' side of the house and wakes them up
nearly every time.

That was the case this morning. T. Willy opened my door at 7:15, and
I could hear the tv from across the house. It was just as well,
though, because he was burning up. Not to be outdone by his big
sister, his fever is 103.6. I checked on MK though...98.5!!! Happy
day for her! So we will continue to keep an eye on T. and hope that
MK's fever stays away.

And we'll hope the power stays on...we all need rest!

Update

Since this afternoon, MK's temp has been around 99.4. What an
improvement! After I took her temp, T. Willy and I checked ours for
fun. His was 100.4!!! He's now lying on the sofa coughing...here we
go again, I'm afraid.

T. Willy says...

"Go, Gators!"

Fever...in the morning...fever all through the night

102 again! Ugh.

Know what's missing?

MK! She's home sick, and I'm at the field. Get well soon, sweet girl!

Sleep? Ha.

At 4:00 this morning, I was woken up by the sound of something
falling. Our cat has been demonstrating some odd behaviors, so I
didn't check on it immediately. When I finally did, I heard, "Mommy,
Mommy."

I hurried to MK's room, and she was sobbing...and burning up. She
said that she had been texting me and calling for me. She didn't seem
to realize that it was 4:00 am. I checked her temp....102.8. That's
up from yesterday, and she's been on antibiotics since Thursday.

So she'll miss another day of school. The Big Man works late today,
so he can spend most of the day with her. I hope she'll be able to
get some rest and fight this thing off.

Report from the infirmary.

MK went back to school today and came home feeling worse than she has
all week. She's running a temperature and feels all around
miserable. She started an antiobiotic yesterday, so I'm hoping it
takes effect soon. There's a football game tomorrow, but I doubt
she's going to be able to perform. She is also supposed to go to a
band competition in Alabama on Saturday. We'll just have to play it
by ear.

I caught a picture of T. Willy tonight eating noodles while watching
videos on his iPod Touch.

Thanks, MK!

T. Willy was supposed to be in bed last night when MK sent this
picture to me. He had crawled in bed with her. They seemed to be
having so much fun that I didn't put a stop to it. I'm just glad she
documented it.

The patient

They tested her for strep, but she's on antibiotics, so she should be
back to school tomorrow. I've missed having her there.

Pic of the day

I didn't take any pictures today, so I asked the Big Man and MK to
contribute. So here is what the Big Man chose. This is a picture
taken at his parents' house around the corner from us when they were
visiting a couple of weeks ago.

Poor MK

MK is home sick from school today. I miss having her here, but she
was miserable. It's sinus stuff that seems to be making its way
around. We've had an unusually high number of absences for so early
in the year. I was able to get her a doctor's appointment tomorrow,
so I hope she'll be up and going again soon.

This is not a joke.

Although I may dream of living in the country, I am a suburban
girl...one might even say city girl. So, I'm getting quite an
education in one of my classes. It's filled with self-proclaimed
country boys.

We were doing a unit on "life skills." There was a segment about
budgets, and we talked about ways to save money when money is tight.
One of the guys said that's when a girl is glad to be with a country
boy, because he could run out and shoot something for dinner.

The conversation then turned to a recent hunting excursion that he'd
had. He was hunting RACCOON...to eat!!! The skin on this city girl
was crawling. But it isn't over! Because he then informed us that,
and I quote, "Coon tastes a lot like CAT!"

By then I couldn't have been more disturbed, so I had to ask the
question, "How do you know what cat tastes like?" And he said that
he'd tried it...and so had another student!!! Oh my. He also said
that it's a white meat!

So I'm really hoping that the economy takes a serious upturn, because
I do not want to have to ask my students to do my grocery shopping for
me.

Good weekend....now good night!

Fun day!

On weekends I am usually really happy to stay home. However, today we had a mission. We had some shopping to do, and we found everything we wanted and more! So, I'll try to show you some of the things we did.

First, MK and I took a picture.


















Then we shopped. We found some things easily. MK needed some books for school, and we found them very quickly. Then we found a pair of shoes MK has been wanting, but I wanted to shop around for the best price. (We ended up getting them at the first place we saw them.) The next thing on our list was a purse for me. I walked into the store and knew it as soon as I saw it. It was the first one that caught my eye, and it's mine! Here it is.













We shopped some more and then we were really hungry. When we fly through Atlanta, MK loves to stop at Nathan's, because she loves their fries. We were driving past Bruster's ice cream, and she realized that it's now Bruster's/Nathan's. So that is what we had for dinner. The seating is all outdoor, and it had just rained, so I suggested taking our food to the beach to sit under one of the covered pavilions. It was perfectly dry under there, and we had a great time.

















Then we realized that a wedding was about to take place. I've seen pictures of weddings on the beach, but this was the first one I've seen. Several people gathered to watch, so it's not like we were the only "crashers." It was fairly casual...they pretty much showed up, walked to the beach, and the ceremony took all of 8 minutes. I embarrassed MK by talking to the bride for a minute, but she gave me permission to post pictures here. So here they are.
















We had a really fun time, and I'll leave you with two funny things that I heard today.

I was looking at clothes, and I asked MK if an outfit worked for me. Her reply was, "Sure...if you had grandchildren."

Then, T. Willy has been dealing with a runny nose. MK noticed that he was using his shirt to wipe it, so she told him to stop getting it all over shirt. He said, "It's just my nose water."

And with that, I think I'll close and go to bed. Good night!

Going strong, with help

http://somdnews.com/stories/09182009/entetop180444_32180.shtml

Soon

Now that football has started, I am ready for fall! Fall is my
absolute favorite season. The weather changes later here than I'd
like, but once it does, it's beautiful. And once it get cooler, it's
fireplace weather! Football and the fireplace go hand in hand, so I
pulled out an old picture to remind myself that it's coming!

Pretty kitty

Our cat went a little crazy last night. She sat at the living room
window and hissed and slapped the window. She was not a happy girl.
When we got up to see what was going on, we found this cat. Callie
wanted to get at her, but she's an indoor cat, so she just sat at the
window protecting us. (Just got a text fom MK. She said that Callie's
friend is back.)

I love this girl

The vet's office

We took Callie to the vet today in hopes of solving her "issue." That
issue is using the office carpet as a litter box. Ugh. Anyway, we
had a bit of a wait at the office, so we occupied ourselves taking
pictures.

Good morning, Sunshine (take 2)

Good morning, Sunshine!

Oh sure

She looks cute and innocent, but I know better.

I'll take more of these.

It was a very good sports weekend for us. Every one of our teams won! LSU, Steelers and Saints for the Big Man...and Eagles, Phillies and WVU for me! I parked next to this car in the Walmart parking lot tonight, so I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. (Of course, when you look at it, I could barely take the picture.) But football season is in full swing, and it's like Christmas! I took this pic for the Penguins fans in my life...hockey will be starting before you know it!

I'm usually good at this

T. Willy has a neat toy that we've had a lot of fun with. You pump it
up and then press a button to launch a foam rocket, and if you pump it
enough, it really flies.

He brought it out tonight, and it was starting out well. Then he
started having trouble, so MK gave it a try. She really pumped it,
and it went high! We watched for it to land, but we didn't see it. So
we looked around the backyard, then we looked around the front yard,
but we still couldn't find it. Finally we sent T. up to the
clubhouse, and we found the rocket in a tree.

It was pretty high up, but I wasn't concerned. I'm usually the "go to"
person when it comes to getting things out of trees.

Not today.

After getting two things stuck and not recovering the rocket, I
decided to get the biggest ball that we had. I gave it a mighty kick
(great visual, I'm sure) and it went high enough...unfortunately it
went in the wrong tree and is now stuck. So, the rocket is still up
there, albeit in another tree, as well as two other toys and the big
ball. Better luck next time!

Poor T

T. Willy came in my room this morning flushed and his head soaked with sweat. "Mommy, I'm crying," he said. He had been dreaming about a fly in his room, and I'm guessing it was very scary. He said he was crying and screaming for me and Daddy and MK. His bedroom is on the opposite side of the house, so I didn't hear him, and the Big Man is at work.

Poor little guy. He snuggled with me for awhile, but he seems to be fine now.

He's out

T. Willy said that he was just going to take a nap, but he's
definitely out for the night. Now both guys are in bed, and MK is at
a birthday party for another hour. These quiet times are few but
enjoyable!

Saturday

As much as I love my job, I'm thankful for Saturdays. It's good to sleep in (7:25 is sleeping in compared to 5:10.)

We had a great time at the game last night. MK had a fun time, but they've changed the work so much in their routines that she isn't too confident in the halftime show. But she still had a good time. The team won 42-6, and next week we will be off, so we can rest a bit.

The Big Man continues his long stretch at work. He's in desperate need of rest, and going in at 5:00 a.m. isn't helping. He is feeling like he may be getting sick, so I'm sure he's looking forward to Thursday.

Other than that, we have a work day planned around the house. ..so much to catch up. I hope you'll have a wonderful day!

Thanks...I think

I was in a really good mood this afternoon. Driving home from school with MK and her friend, C., I was singing and joking and having fun with the girls. C. and I share a love of the Beatles, and we were listening to them. I kind of joked with C. that I hoped she didn't think I was too strange.

She laughed and said, "No, you're cool." I then laughed and said something about "cool" being a stretch. Then, before I started to believe that it was possible that I was cool, she brought me down to earth.

"I like nerdy things!"

Game Day!

There's another game tonight, and I can't wait! They are a lot of
fun. We have learned to pack activities for T. Willy, and that helps
him make it through the whole game without begging to go home
repeatedly. The Big Man will be able to go, but he may just stay
until the halftime show. He's on a ridiculous stretch working 11
days in a row, and he only gets one day off at the end of it. They
are short-staffed right now, and I'm hoping that changes soon!

Have a wonderful day!

Random picture day

We have a lot going on. MK has to be early for practice, so I'm not
sure if I'll get a picture of anything tonight. I'm going to scroll
through the 1300+ pictures I have on my phone and see what comes up.

And it is completely random. This is a picture of the golf ball that
MK used when my mom took her and the cousins mini-golfing this
summer. And because it was MK's....it's pink.

Guard girl

MK is really enjoying color guard. Band was a good fit for her and
gave her a good foundation for counting time, but she loves color
guard. This is a picture of her before Friday night's game. They
wear warmups most of the time, but they wear this uniform during the
halftime show.

T. Willy pics

We call the first one "See my brains," because that is what he was
saying while he did it. The second is of him at the football game the
other night. He may not have been watching the game, but he stayed
occupied and made it through the entire game.

So much for that...

MK overslept so I'm taking her to school after all. Oh well. I had
to be up anyway. At least I'm not rushing around.

Great day!

Today was a really good day! Tomorrow I don't go to school. I'm going
to a new employee orientation. It will be all day, so I'm hoping it
goes quickly. MK isn't too happy because she will have to ride the
bus for the first time to high school. She'll have friends on the
bus, so she should do fine.

Tonight's picture is T. Willy at bedtime. He is so hard to capture
these days, but he cooperated for a few moments tonight.

Art

Here is a picture that T. Willy drew. It's his favorite thing!

Pic of the day

Not much to tell today. Even the picture is from yesterday. T. Willy
says that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. Yesterday when
we were shopping we found this outfit for him. It will make a great
Halloween costume, and he just loves it.

Things I heard today

We took the kids shopping and out to lunch today. So much for my quiet day at home: maybe tomorrow. Here are a few things that were said today.

"Hey, Pretty!" (T.Willy trying to get MK's attention across a store.)

"The 80s called. They want their hair back." (The Big Man to me...it was humid and my hair just kept growing and growing. It was some big hair, no 80s bangs though.)

"Call the 80s. They want my hair back." (Me trying to repeat what the Big Man said.)

"But I didn't want daddy to stand there." (T. Willy after he bumped his head when he didn't realize the Big Man had moved.)

"Well, that wasn't supposed to happen." (T. Willy when he sat down and knocked some things over.)


Here is an example of my big hair...before the humidity really got to it.

That guy's

The only downside to my job is that I don't get to watch T. Willy get
on the bus in the morning. However, the Big Man gets to do it
frequently. They stand with two other moms and their kids and chat.
T. has even started mimicking the older boys. They walk to the stop
sign and throw their backpacks down, so he has started doing that too.

Yesterday one of the dads was there instead of the mom. This family
lives just across the street from us. We know them to talk but not
well enough for T. to know the dad up close. They started talking and
T. decided the dad needed introductions. He then pointed to this
man's son and said, "That's J. He lives in that house right there."
The dad said that he knew J. Then T. asked how, and the dad kind of
laughed and said that J. was his son.

T. Willy turned and pointed at the Big Man and said, "I'm that guy's
over there."

Game night!

We had a great time at the game. It was definitely THE place to be!
MK came home so excited and said that it was the most fun she's had in
guard yet. The Bulldogs won 35-0. We saw tons of friends. It was
everything a smalltown football game should be.

On top of that, I slept through the night! That is also a big deal.

I will have a day off of school on Wednesday. As a new employee, I
have to attend an orientation. Then on Thursday, my principal may come
in to "unofficially" observe me teaching a unit that he and I have
been talking about. The last observation I had to do was at the
college. I was shaking due to nerves...hoping I'll be able to keep
them under control.

The Big Man is off today. We have nothing planned except for watching
football!!! I cannot wait. I'm sure I'll have to make a trip to the
store for some "football food" at some point. Other than that, I'm
hoping for a quiet day and REST!

MK's out there somewhere.

Go Red, Go White!

We had a great time at the pep rally today. MK was on the field with the rest of the color guard, and I had a good view of her. I know it was very hot, but she seemed to have a good time.

I did not grow up knowing much about the country lifestyle, i.e. rednecks. That has all changed. Camo is just another color around here. I was amused at the pep rally when they chose to make fun of the rival team by deeming them rednecks. It was all in good fun, and it just made me look more forward to tonight.

So here are some pictures of the pep rally...one looking at the field and the other looking at the crowd of students.

You must be kidding me:

Up at 2:32 a.m. I am so ready for the weekend.

But we have a busy day ahead of us! There's a football game
tonight with our really big rivals. We have a pep rally which MK will
be in, and I get to be there! I love my job!!! The Big Man and T.
Willy will be with me at the game....should be a fun night!

Picture day

Today was picture day at the high school. I snapped a picture of
myself in my classroom before I had to have it taken for real. The
photographer asked if I wanted to take off my sunglasses before he
took the picture. They are the way I keep my hair out of my eyes, but
my hair molds to them through the course of the day. So I opted to
keep them on. I'm curious how much they'll show in the yearbook.

The cake

MK baked the cake. I frosted it. Any guess who decorated it?