This has been a super busy week for me. I knew that it was going to be like this several weeks ago, when we started planning our May calendar. What I did not know is how sad it was going to be as well. Sunday evening as we were finishing up the celebration of Alex's baptism, my dad got a phone call from Hospice. We had already called in Hospice several weeks ago on my great-aunt Lou. The phone call basically was we don't think she has much longer. We quickly cleaned things up at the house and mom & dad rushed to the nursing home. I went home to prepare for my busy week ahead. Well she pulled through the night, so all the family came in town Monday night. I decided that I needed to go say my goodbye as well, even though she didn't really acknowledge that she knew we were there.
Tuesday was an especially long day. We had our school program that night. I had checked in with mom & dad throughout the day, her vitals were slowing, but she was still hanging on. I went to my school program and then quickly called mom & dad after the show. She had passed away at 6:15 that evening. Apparently about the time, they started talking about the casinos. That makes sense! My Aunt Lou loved the casinos, particularly the Bellagio in Vegas!
Tuesday was not all bad though. The good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away. My friend Christy, from college, had her second baby Tuesday morning. I am excited to share that Blake Antilley is here and doing great. Too bad his big sister has the chicken pox and cannot be around him or mommy! I know that must be super hard on them.
Wednesday we had a field trip at school. We walked to the Summerglen Library and then ate pizza at CiCi's. Wednesday night was Math/Science Night at school, another time Randy had to take care of the kids.
Today we are having a retirement reception for our principal after school. Then tomorrow after school, we meet with our new principal. But there will be no slowing down after work, I have visitation for Aunt Lou Friday night and the funeral is Saturday morning.
While I admit a lot of these activities were fun, I am exhausted and ready for this week to be over!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Alex's Baptism
Since I got home from camp last week, I have not stopped running. It all started with Alexandra's baptism on Sunday. We had about 15 family & friends there on Sunday morning. It is so special to know that you are setting your child up for a lifetime of learning and growing as God's child. I was a little disappointed, though. I did not know until the last minute that we would be sharing our baptism with another family, who was baptising 2 children. I was not very happy with it. My minister asked if we could just have the parents come up since we were baptizing 3 children. I simply told him NO, that my parents would be devastated if I told them they could not come up to the front. When we had Riley baptized, they wouldn't let us bring the whole family because they had all the poinsettias set up for Christmas. So, I purposely scheduled this when there would not be all the flowers. Needless to say, I was a bit irritated, but I stood my ground. The service went wonderfully and she did not cry when Dr. Mike McKee took her from us. Even more amazing was how well both of kids did during the rest of the service. I guess they knew we were at the front of the church and all eyes were on us.
After church we went back to my parent's house to enjoy some Shady Oaks Barbeque. YUM! The weather was beautiful and everything was going perfect, until we gave Alex some homemade ice cream. Now I know that she is not "supposed" to have eggs or milk until she is one. But she was making the funniest faces with each bite of the cold ice cream. About 15 minutes after she finished her ice cream, she broke out in horrible hives all over her face, arms, and back! YIKES! We called the nurse on call and started rubbing hydrocortisone on all the affected areas. Then Teresa raced off to the drug store to buy some children's Benadryl. It turns out that they do NOT recommendend this for any child under 20lbs and 1 year old. My Aunt Jeanne mentioned that they had given Caleb, Alex's cousin that is only 6 weeks older, some Benadryl. So we called my cousin Jamie to check the dosage. My cousin Jamie is SUPER cautious about what she gives Caleb, so I knew that if she had given him the medicine that it would be ok. We gave her a small amount and all the reaction went away. Now I am just left wondering, is she allergic to eggs, milk, or sugar??? I don't think I like where this is headed!
After church we went back to my parent's house to enjoy some Shady Oaks Barbeque. YUM! The weather was beautiful and everything was going perfect, until we gave Alex some homemade ice cream. Now I know that she is not "supposed" to have eggs or milk until she is one. But she was making the funniest faces with each bite of the cold ice cream. About 15 minutes after she finished her ice cream, she broke out in horrible hives all over her face, arms, and back! YIKES! We called the nurse on call and started rubbing hydrocortisone on all the affected areas. Then Teresa raced off to the drug store to buy some children's Benadryl. It turns out that they do NOT recommendend this for any child under 20lbs and 1 year old. My Aunt Jeanne mentioned that they had given Caleb, Alex's cousin that is only 6 weeks older, some Benadryl. So we called my cousin Jamie to check the dosage. My cousin Jamie is SUPER cautious about what she gives Caleb, so I knew that if she had given him the medicine that it would be ok. We gave her a small amount and all the reaction went away. Now I am just left wondering, is she allergic to eggs, milk, or sugar??? I don't think I like where this is headed!
Soccer pics
Here is Riley's soccer picture. I was pleasantly surprised with how well they came out. I have to say now that is all over, I absolutely LOVED soccer season. Yes, it was cold and we had several early morning Saturdays, but I love watching my son play sports! Let's just hope he prefers the indoor sports like basketball! 
Friday, May 15, 2009
Camp!
We spent 3 days in Van, TX at Sky Ranch Camp with 107 4th graders, 7 teachers, 1 nurse, and 35 chaperones! Each year we take our 4th graders. This year was really questionable because of the UIL ban due to swine flu. Luckily at the last minute, they let us go. Thank goodness, we would have lost $26,000 if they had said no!
Here is our teacher cabin group. The teachers's cabin always rocks. We all sleep in one room together, eat, play games, talk (A LOT), and eat some more!
This year while the students were in one of their classes, they offered a "cattle drive" for any chaperones that wanted to go. Here we are all suited up with our helmets, ready to get on a horse. We think we looked pretty silly. Most of us have not spent much time on a horse, so this was pretty comical. We failed miserably at rounding up the cows. They got away from us twice and ran for the woods. I don't think we are giving up our day jobs any time soon.
Here I am holding a 4 year old baby turtle. This was part of the Luminology (pond life) class.
Here are several of the kids getting ready to look for pond life. They dig in the mud and see how many live creatures they can find. This proves whether or not the pond is a healthy environment. They love it! But we always have several that fall in the pond! :)
Normally we go to camp in December, but after a particularly cold and wet December 07 we decided to change our trip to May. This opened up the pools, to let the kids swim. This picture is actually me going down this AWESOME slide at the pools. I am the only teacher who got in the water, but it was totally worth it. That slide was fun!
Here is our teacher cabin group. The teachers's cabin always rocks. We all sleep in one room together, eat, play games, talk (A LOT), and eat some more!
This year while the students were in one of their classes, they offered a "cattle drive" for any chaperones that wanted to go. Here we are all suited up with our helmets, ready to get on a horse. We think we looked pretty silly. Most of us have not spent much time on a horse, so this was pretty comical. We failed miserably at rounding up the cows. They got away from us twice and ran for the woods. I don't think we are giving up our day jobs any time soon. 
Here I am holding a 4 year old baby turtle. This was part of the Luminology (pond life) class.
Here are several of the kids getting ready to look for pond life. They dig in the mud and see how many live creatures they can find. This proves whether or not the pond is a healthy environment. They love it! But we always have several that fall in the pond! :)
Normally we go to camp in December, but after a particularly cold and wet December 07 we decided to change our trip to May. This opened up the pools, to let the kids swim. This picture is actually me going down this AWESOME slide at the pools. I am the only teacher who got in the water, but it was totally worth it. That slide was fun! We returned from camp Wednesday really tired. That is the only bad part is that we actually had to go back to school Thursday & Friday after all the traveling and lack of sleep.
Update on Alex
OK, sorry to just now be posting an update on my baby girl. But I was gone to camp from Monday- Wednesday. Which by the way was tons of fun!
Anyway so Mom & Dad took Alex to the doctor on Monday for a follow-up. Alex now weighs 15 lbs 11 oz. She is getting so big! Dr. Leffel said that everything looks wonderful. She said the hole was just a tiny white spot and that everything was healing wonderfully! :) So we returned her to baby food and she is doing wonderfully.
She has also become quite mobile this week! When I left she could crawl for short distances, now she is taking off anywhere & everywhere. I first experienced this when I came home. I sat her down on her play mat and walked to the bathroom. While in there I noticed a shadow. I thought it was Riley, so I called to him to come here. But no answer. So I finished up and walked out of the bathroom. There was my little girl sitting there sweetly chewing on a CD case. I couldn't believe how fast she had gotten across the room.
She has also started pulling up, or more like pushing up, on everything. Sunday night she discovered how to pull up on my mom's crib. She then proceeded to pull up repeatedly just to show off her new skill. She is mostly pushing herself up on things like a step stool, but getting better and stronger at pulling herself up. Unfortunately what comes up, must come down. She is still having trouble with this part. She pulled herself up on the bar stool legs but then fussed because she couldn't figure out how to get down. Let's just hope that we survive, with as few bruises as possible.
Anyway so Mom & Dad took Alex to the doctor on Monday for a follow-up. Alex now weighs 15 lbs 11 oz. She is getting so big! Dr. Leffel said that everything looks wonderful. She said the hole was just a tiny white spot and that everything was healing wonderfully! :) So we returned her to baby food and she is doing wonderfully.
She has also become quite mobile this week! When I left she could crawl for short distances, now she is taking off anywhere & everywhere. I first experienced this when I came home. I sat her down on her play mat and walked to the bathroom. While in there I noticed a shadow. I thought it was Riley, so I called to him to come here. But no answer. So I finished up and walked out of the bathroom. There was my little girl sitting there sweetly chewing on a CD case. I couldn't believe how fast she had gotten across the room.
She has also started pulling up, or more like pushing up, on everything. Sunday night she discovered how to pull up on my mom's crib. She then proceeded to pull up repeatedly just to show off her new skill. She is mostly pushing herself up on things like a step stool, but getting better and stronger at pulling herself up. Unfortunately what comes up, must come down. She is still having trouble with this part. She pulled herself up on the bar stool legs but then fussed because she couldn't figure out how to get down. Let's just hope that we survive, with as few bruises as possible.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Scariest Mommy Moment!
Friday night I had my scariest mommy moment! I will start with a side story. As I was picking up my son from his babysitter's, she received a call from another mom to tell her that she was running late. Normally this would not be a problem for Tracey. But on this particular night, Tracey's son had a soccer game in SW Fort Worth and they had to be there in 35 minutes. I told her I would take Jacob to meet his mommy. It truly was not a problem. So we did a quick switch and got the extra car seat in my car. Now I am only telling this story, because as I was telling my mom about it later, I made the comment, "you know sometimes you just do something out of the way for someone because you never know when you will need the help yourself." Little did I know that I would need the help in about an hour!
So an hour later, Riley, Alex, and I are shopping at Kohl's. I was looking for a swimsuit to wear when I take my 4th graders to camp. Riley just kept aggravating Alex, so I picked her up and was carrying her around while looking through the racks. The next thing I know I hear Alex cry out. I look at her and she has a hanger in her mouth, so I start to pull it. But it won't come out. Then I realize that the hanger is jammed down into the soft tissue underneath her tongue. I start screaming "Oh my god!" Now I'm crying, Alex is crying, and Riley is starting to cry. Quickly I had several ladies coming to help me. This one lady very calmly tries to remove the hanger while the rest of us attempt to keep Alex's head still and her hands away from the hanger. All the while this sickening feeling is becoming worse in my stomach. She quickly decides that she cannot do this, and 911 is called. Very quickly, the Keller paramedics arrive. So now they are suggesting that I call Randy, who is of course on his way home but still 2 hours from home. So I tried to call my mom & dad. 5 dropped calls and a now frantic mom later, I am able to tell her what happened and tell them to head to the hospital. Eventually one of the paramedics is able to remove the stuck hanger from her precious little mouth. Amazingly it is hardly bleeding. So they ask if I want to take the ambulance to the hospital. My loving friends have all told me that unless you are dying, you do not take an ambulance. So I declined the offer and drove the 3 of us to the Cook's Children Urgent Care Clinic. This was suggested that it would probably be faster than the hospital downtown. Back to Alex, as soon as the hanger was removed, she amazingly quit crying. She is one tough little girl. On the way to the clinic, she actually fell asleep. So after we arrived at the clinic, triage determined that we were an emergency and quickly got us to the back. They looked at the nice round hole in her mouth and decided that it would heal best on its own. So they flushed it out with saline and gave us an antibiotic. Then came the fun part. They instructed us to not give her any baby food for the next 3-4 days. Are you kidding??? No, they were not.
So, by now it is about 8:30pm and Alex is starving. I fixed her a bottle, then came the next set back. She took one suck and let a wail. The sucking hurt. So no baby food, and sucking a bottle hurts! Lovely! The nurse quickly brought in some motrin and gave Alex her first popsicle. She loved it. Surprise, surprise!
Now it is Sunday night and Alex is doing much better, although still real clingy. But being the bad mommy that I feel like right now, I have to leave for camp tomorrow. Yes, I will be 2 hours away in Van, TX at Sky Ranch Camp with my fourth graders for 3 whole days! This is going to be a really long trip for this mommy!
So an hour later, Riley, Alex, and I are shopping at Kohl's. I was looking for a swimsuit to wear when I take my 4th graders to camp. Riley just kept aggravating Alex, so I picked her up and was carrying her around while looking through the racks. The next thing I know I hear Alex cry out. I look at her and she has a hanger in her mouth, so I start to pull it. But it won't come out. Then I realize that the hanger is jammed down into the soft tissue underneath her tongue. I start screaming "Oh my god!" Now I'm crying, Alex is crying, and Riley is starting to cry. Quickly I had several ladies coming to help me. This one lady very calmly tries to remove the hanger while the rest of us attempt to keep Alex's head still and her hands away from the hanger. All the while this sickening feeling is becoming worse in my stomach. She quickly decides that she cannot do this, and 911 is called. Very quickly, the Keller paramedics arrive. So now they are suggesting that I call Randy, who is of course on his way home but still 2 hours from home. So I tried to call my mom & dad. 5 dropped calls and a now frantic mom later, I am able to tell her what happened and tell them to head to the hospital. Eventually one of the paramedics is able to remove the stuck hanger from her precious little mouth. Amazingly it is hardly bleeding. So they ask if I want to take the ambulance to the hospital. My loving friends have all told me that unless you are dying, you do not take an ambulance. So I declined the offer and drove the 3 of us to the Cook's Children Urgent Care Clinic. This was suggested that it would probably be faster than the hospital downtown. Back to Alex, as soon as the hanger was removed, she amazingly quit crying. She is one tough little girl. On the way to the clinic, she actually fell asleep. So after we arrived at the clinic, triage determined that we were an emergency and quickly got us to the back. They looked at the nice round hole in her mouth and decided that it would heal best on its own. So they flushed it out with saline and gave us an antibiotic. Then came the fun part. They instructed us to not give her any baby food for the next 3-4 days. Are you kidding??? No, they were not.
So, by now it is about 8:30pm and Alex is starving. I fixed her a bottle, then came the next set back. She took one suck and let a wail. The sucking hurt. So no baby food, and sucking a bottle hurts! Lovely! The nurse quickly brought in some motrin and gave Alex her first popsicle. She loved it. Surprise, surprise!
Now it is Sunday night and Alex is doing much better, although still real clingy. But being the bad mommy that I feel like right now, I have to leave for camp tomorrow. Yes, I will be 2 hours away in Van, TX at Sky Ranch Camp with my fourth graders for 3 whole days! This is going to be a really long trip for this mommy!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Happy 8 months Birthday Alex!
- My baby girl is 8 months old today. So in honor of that, I thought I would do a little catch -up on where she is in her development.
- She is sitting by herself, and can go from crawling to sitting with ease.
- She is army crawling all over, but not crawling on all fours yet. (actually she tried it a little yesterday, but Mommy has not seen it)
- She still has no teeth, but Riley did not get his until he was 10 months old either.
- She has the cutest little chunky legs.
- She is wearing 6-9 months in clothing size.
- Her hair is becoming a lighter brown in color. In the sun, it looks as if there may even be highlights of red. (But it is definitely not red all over).
- She seems close to pulling up on things, but that would require her to get her fingers out of her mouth to hold onto things!
- She is one of the most easygoing and happy babies. She can be a bit of a drama queen, but aren't all girls???
- Most of the time she sleeps through the night. The funny thing is she ALWAYS sleeps through the night when she stays with Nana & Gampa.
- My favorite thing about her is the way her blue eyes light up when you come into the room. It makes you feel like the most special person in the world. Somehow I do fear that those blue eyes will get her anything she wants from daddy or any other boy in the future.
Scarborough Family Day
Thanks to the lovely swine flu, all of our usual activities were canceled this weekend. So we decided that Sunday would be the perfect day for a family day at Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie. We met up with our friends, Chuck & Jenn and their two boys, Brandon & Matthew.
As we entered the gates, we let Riley know what would happen if he misbehaved today! :) Just kidding!
Then we decided that if he is going to be a true "rennie" like his parents, that Riley needs to go to Violence class and learn how to use a sword properly for a sword fight. Well I am pretty sure that even after the fight, Riley would be in trouble, but they had fun!
Matthew is really getting into the fun! He is ready to take on any competitor.
Alex just wanted to steal daddy's drink. You should have seen her going after it with a vengence!
After all the combat, we decided it was time for a little dragon ride!
After swinging, he needed to practice his jousting skills. Ok it took him 3 times, but that just means extra riding!
Then we headed over to the elephant ride. Riley really enjoyed this although he thought the elephant needed a bath.
After all the practice with swords and jousting, it was time for him to become a real knight. Here he is getting sworn in as "Sir Riley."
After all the serious stuff, it was time for a real battle. Here is Riley & Brandon having a sword fight.
And of course, we had to buy a sword. He picked out the pirate one. Good boy!
All three boys with their swords, Matthew, Riley, & Brandon.
One last family picture from our day at Faire.
As we entered the gates, we let Riley know what would happen if he misbehaved today! :) Just kidding!
Then we decided that if he is going to be a true "rennie" like his parents, that Riley needs to go to Violence class and learn how to use a sword properly for a sword fight. Well I am pretty sure that even after the fight, Riley would be in trouble, but they had fun!
Matthew is really getting into the fun! He is ready to take on any competitor.
Alex just wanted to steal daddy's drink. You should have seen her going after it with a vengence!
After all the combat, we decided it was time for a little dragon ride!
After swinging, he needed to practice his jousting skills. Ok it took him 3 times, but that just means extra riding!
Then we headed over to the elephant ride. Riley really enjoyed this although he thought the elephant needed a bath.
After all the practice with swords and jousting, it was time for him to become a real knight. Here he is getting sworn in as "Sir Riley."
After all the serious stuff, it was time for a real battle. Here is Riley & Brandon having a sword fight.
And of course, we had to buy a sword. He picked out the pirate one. Good boy!
All three boys with their swords, Matthew, Riley, & Brandon.
One last family picture from our day at Faire.
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