Tuesday, December 21, 2010

First Day of Winter & Keree's Busted Head

It was surprising to wake up to 40 degree weather on the first day of Winter. It's been in the teens and single digits for most of the month, so today felt like Summer, ok not exactly Summer but I went outside without my coat! Today was suppose to be Keree's last day of school before winter break but we decided not to send her, it was more of a personal decision plus they wouldn't of been doing anything anyway. So we spent our morning fighting the crowds and going grocery shopping. It took us almost 4 hours to pick up all the goodies we needed for the rest of the week. Once we headed home, we spent our day cleaning, wrapping and generally taking it easy. In the evening, I called my Tennessee Uncle to see what he's plans were for Christmas since I invited to stay at our house. Needless to say even though he liked the idea of staying here, he wasn't thrilled about how the rest of the family stuff was going. Well, while I was on the phone, Keree fell down into the pit. She hit her head on the rounded edge of her rocking chair. She sat there for a minute and then started crying. As I was trying to pick her up, I noticed the blood. My Mom took Keree into the bathroom to take care of it. Needless to say even though it was only about 1/4 inch cut, it wouldn't stop bleeding. We thought we were going to have to take her to the hospital for stitches but luckily with a butterfly band aid, it finally stopped bleeding. Which, I honestly think having the band aid put on was more traumatic for Keree than actually falling. The girl literally hates and fears band aids. So, Keree spent the rest of her night with a boo-boo monster filled with ice on her head, trying to stave off a large bump.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

O Christmas Tree

Today we got our Christmas tree put up, decorated and marveled in it's lights. Keree was so excited, she was downright giddy. She loved getting to help put the branches on one by one. We will just have to remember that it's easier to start from the bottom, unlike this year, where we built from the top down. After the tree was put up, Keree laid down for a nap and while she was napping, my Mom put the lights and beads on the tree. So when Keree got up, the tree was ready for decorating. Keree was so eager to put the ornaments on the tree, it was hard to make her slow down and take her time. Finally, we convinced her it wasn't a race and that she had to pick each spot carefully for the ornament. We also brought down our angel for the top of the tree but it won't be put on top, until my Brother gets home. It's tradition for Keree and my Brother to put the Angel on top of the tree together and it's also proved to be a great time to snap some really cute photo's of them. Otherwise, between all the tree putting up, we watched quite a few Christmas movies today. I was surprised that there were 2 or 3 older Christmas movies I had never seen. We ended our night, sitting by the fire and watching the lights twinkle on our tree.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Finally Push

Today was our final push in cleaning. I know people can't possible understand how cluttered I had let my house get the last few months but work came first. Because we were working in our living/kitchen/dining room, I lit our first fire of the year. I forgot how nice a warm fire is. While we cleaned, Keree would help but she spent most of her time playing Rapunzel. She used her rocking chair as the tower and then used Lightening Mcqueen and a Bendy Snowman for Rapunzel and her Mom, who really isn't her Mom but a Bad Guy (that's what Keree's kept saying). I can't tell you how many times I stopped to watch her play her rendition of the Tangled movie. By this evening, Keree was super excited because we finally got enough cleaned that tomorrow we are putting up our Christmas tree, nothing like the last minute.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Ice Day

I was up at 330a this morning, not sure why but just couldn't sleep. So since I couldn't sleep, I watched the Ice coverage on the news. I also spent the time reading all the schools that had been called off because of the ice. Both Keree's preschool and homeschool wasn't having school, which was good because there was no way I was venturing out. We spent our day upstairs, we spent our time straightening and packing up some of Keree's old toys. Going through some of her winter clothes because she's outgrown them already, not because her body/height grew but because of her arms length. When we weren't cleaning/straightening/packing, we spent time cuddling together reading some of the Keree's favorite books. I did venture outside for a short time to get the mail and try to clean off the car. I was disappointed that the road crews didn't even come though until after 3p to put ice melt down, which at that point it was pretty pointless because the temperature had dropped again and of course it just refroze.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Blown fuse

Of course, I knew better than to expect a repeat of yesterday of Keree sleeping in. She was up by 6:02a and ready to start her day. So after fixing her breakfast and getting her dressed, we headed off to school. Even though we left on time, we got there late. My only reasoning why this happened, was I was driving slower because the snow melted and there was ice on the road. When we got to school, the Teacher's acted like I was walking in on some top secret act. I later read they were creating their presents for their parents. Of course, it's the exact same present I received from Keree last year, which I'm thankful for but seriously where is this Teacher's originality. While Keree was in school, I spent time running around doing errands because we are suppose to get freezing rain/sleet and snow this evening. So, not knowing what the weather is going to be like and if we will be able to get out tomorrow, I picked up the essentials and the last of our Christmas shopping. When I picked Keree up from school, the summary said that they worked on their Holiday presents for their parents and played with bean bags. Keree also said that she played in the sensory table that was filled with oatmeal. When we got home, we ate lunch and then Keree fought taking a nap. She did finally fall asleep, only to be woken up about 10 min later. I tried my hardest to get her to go back to sleep but no luck. This evening, we were back upstairs cleaning and organizing. I really can't believe how bad we had let it get with clutter and not putting things up where they belonged. As my Mom was vacuum, she blew the circuit breaker. It scared Keree half to death because it left her in the dark and all we could do was laugh about how screwy our house is. I headed downstairs to flip the breaker back on but none of them was flipped. So I went up and down the breakers, flipping them off and then back on, hoping to remedy the problem. Still no luck, so of course my Mom had to try it because I must have not done it right and again no lights came on. So, after us staring at each other and me going can there possibly be another panel we don't know about, it suddenly hit us. In the back of the garage is this huge panel but we were told it didn't work, so it hadn't even crossed our mind. So, we decided to just try it and amazingly the lights came back on. I love my old converted barn house but it really gets on my nerves sometimes. But the upside, I do now have a more complete list on which breakers turn off what lights or wall sockets.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Frigid Tuesday

This morning, Keree slept in to almost 830a and even though they had school today. I opted to let her sleep because she was so sound. We finally left the house in the late morning because we had to run a few errands. I couldn't believe how bad our roads were still. There was icy patches and snow blown across them, it was ridicoulous. After we ran our errands, we grabbed some lunch and headed home. Keree took a super good nap which was over 2 hours, so I'm not sure why she's slept so good. We spent our evening upstairs wrapping Christmas presents, paying bills and looking at toys on the Internet. Keree's already made up her mind what she wants for Christmas...Baby All Gone and a Tangled toy. I'm so thankful that she's not a child who thinks she can ask for and get the world, not that I wouldn't try giving it to her. But she did say a few things were pretty cool but never once did she say, I want this or that or demand something. Well I gotta finish making some Christmas presents, otherwise they won't get done in time.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Snow Day

Even though we only got about 3" of snow yesterday, the weather was frigid cold. I flipped on the news to see if Keree's school was closed. I was surprised when the weather came on and it said it was -1 at the base and then with the wind, it felt like -36. Since I had just missed their alphabet letter, I pulled on my clothes and went to see what the road looked like outside. Of course, it looked like they hadn't cleared it off at all, so I was really hoping she was called off. I ended up back in the bedroom just in time to see that school was called off. So we spent the day cleaning and trying to straighten up for the Holiday. Were not sure if anyone will be even coming to visit us, but we need to clear some space to put up our Christmas tree and at least have a good holiday for ourselves. As for Keree, she was excited to open up her Advent calendar and inside was a little teddy bear. So she had fun playing with the characters and accessories she had gotten so far.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

SNOW

We woke up this morning, to blizzard conditions. The snow was coming down so fast, the wind was blowing at 60 + mph and it was below zero. But I had promised Keree she could go outside and play in the snow for awhile. So I bundled her up, bundled myself up, grabbed the camera and headed outside. Needless to say we weren't even outside for 10 minutes, before Keree exclaimed, "let's go in." But she did spend her time outside having some fun, she made a snow angel, tromped through the snow and even threw a few snowballs. When we headed inside,we spent our day upstairs watching movies and working on Christmas gifts. My Mom had to embroider letters on to Robes and Covers that my Grandma is giving to various family members. Keree got to open up her advent calendar and she spent some time playing with all the LPS toys that she has gotten so far. The snow continued to fall the entire day and the roads are pretty much impassable.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Friday

After I picked Keree up from pre-school, we finished our errands. We ran to Sams to pick up some goodies for our Adoption groups Christmas party that is tomorrow. Keree fell asleep on our way home. We spent the rest of the day cleaning and playing upstairs.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Jellyfish & Melted Plastic

Keree woke up way too early this morning, well it wasn't that early but honestly I didn't want to get up, so it was way too early for me. No matter how the morning went, I kept running behind and before I knew it, we were 15 minutes late in leaving for school. At least it's not like the end of the world if she's late. So Keree and I rushed in, washed hands, signed her in and she started on the art project. While she was in school, I finished up an order and get in the mail. Along with the package, I also sent out the first bunch of Christmas cards (102 of them). I can't believe that our Christmas card list has grown to over 100 cards....heck it's almost at 150. When I went to pick Keree up the summary said that they decorated Plastic cups, then put them in the oven and got to watch them shrink and change shape. They also read a book and celebrated Jaeda's birthday with a special treat. Well Keree had pink frosting all over, so I know it was a cupcake. We are finally back to our homeschool meetings. Today was our first meeting with the Homeschool Teacher instead of the Coordinator. It has taken them this long to hire someone for the position. We were to meet at the Library but on my way there, she called and said it was closed. I honestly thought she was crazy until I pulled into the parking lot and there were fire trucks all over. It seems that the Library had a small electrical fire, the closest place I could think of was a fast food restaurant that is usually empty where we could have our meeting. I was surprised but they ended up just giving us the work we had missed because they knew we would make it up. It made me feel so good that they didn't hold Keree back. Our lesson for this week is about Oceans, Water and Ocean Animals. We read quite a few books on Ocean Animals, talked about different types of water and made a few assumptions on whether an item would sink or float. I think Keree's favorite active of the day was making puppets of our favorite sea creatures. Actually, I think why it was her favorite is because she got to use scissors. Keree ended up making a jellyfish and then she decided to make an angry fish who was going to eat another fish. We ended up finishing our session about 15 minutes early. We had finished everything the Teacher had planned plus alot of other activities not on her agenda. Since it was way past lunch time, we grabbed some lunch and headed home. We spent the rest of the day working on wrapping Christmas gifts, finishing up almost the last of the Christmas cards and worked on quite a few of the gifts we are hand making. This evening, we watched some of the Christmas cartoons they had on prime time before heading to bed.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

No School

Today there was no school. We couldn't figure out why the school was closed smack down in the middle of the week on a non-holiday day. So we finally asked yesterday and it's only 2 classrooms with no school. It seems that Keree's teacher has to attend a conference and so instead of hiring a sub for the day, the kids just don't have class. So we spent the morning running errands. We ended up finding a few Christmas gifts for those hard to buy people in our lives, which was a relief to have them off our list finally. So we are done with all the gifts that are going to be bought and only have the hand-made ones to finish, which is about 80% of our list. When we got home, we made some lunch and then Keree got to open day 8 on her Advent calendar. Keree was so excited that it was a little pair of ear muffs. I spent the rest of the day working through our Christmas card list, addressing, checking, filling, stamping and finally licking the envelopes. I'm still not finished but I at least got the bulk done (over 100). While I was working on the Christmas cards, Keree spent her time playing with the fun items she has gotten so far from her Advent Calendar. She had those animals wearing all kinds of costumes and acting out some crazy stuff. I did finally catch Keree singing Santa Claus is coming to town with the hand motions she has made up to go with it. It's hilarious and maybe one of these days I'll actually get it upload for everyone to see.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Headed Home

This morning we had to head home, Keree was miserable because she didn't want to leave Ohio or her Uncle. Before we left, Keree made a note for her Uncle and hide it in his stocking. She was excited because she said it looked like a treasure map. We decided before heading home, we would make a short stop at Jungle Jim's. I was hoping to find a few of our favorite International eats there to enjoy during the Holidays. Luckily, they did not disappoint. I was able to find my favorite Fry sauce from the Netherlands, along with DeReuters (they are basically flavored sprinkles for your toast). I also found lots of Asian ingredients and specifically Vietnamese ingredients, I don't find around here. I'm so excited to cook up a huge Asian meal for my family over the holidays. Even though the last time we were there was in April, Keree didn't remember Jungle Jim's. So everything seemed new with their Singing Elvis monkey, the giant cheese and of course the giant swinging Campbells soup can. I was also surprised that I got out of there with only spending about $30. So after our Jungle Jim stop, we headed home. Before we were even out of Ohio, Keree was fast asleep in the car. We were lucky that our drive home was so much better than our drive out there. We did have some light snow flurries follow us most of the way home, but it was harmless. The one thing that did about kill us was the rising gas costs. As we crossed each state, the prices rose until we got home to $3.10 a gallon. I cringed that when we left Ohio it was only $2.56. About two hours outside of home, Keree finally woke up. As I said before, she was miserable. She kept trying to convince herself that I had turned the car back around and was heading back to Ohio. She didn't want to hear anything else, I felt so bad for her but they will see each other at Christmas so it's not that long of a wait.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Relaxing Day

We spent the day relaxing at my Brother's. We got his new futon set up and rearranged his bonus room. Then my Brother gave Keree a job. He gave her a lint brush, showed her how to use it and let her loose cleaning the black cover on the futon. Keree would not stop until she had cleaned every inch. She was leaning over the back, sides and honestly it was hysterical watching her take her job so serious. We went outside for a short time and Keree helped Uncle crush cans on his deck. She was also excited to watch the snow fall and tried to catch the flurries from the deck. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and cleaning. After we enjoyed a nice dinner together, Keree and Uncle made snickerdoodle cookies. When all was said and done, they had made over 3 dozen cookies. They spent the rest of the evening drawing and coloring snow pictures. Keree then decided she needed to make a list of what everyone wanted for Christmas so she could tell Santa. So she asked Uncle first what he wanted, he said World Peace. Keree then wrote Baby All Gone. She then asked my Mom and she said she wanted her family together, then Keree remembered she wanted a Rapunzel thing (she's not being picky, she just wants one thing). She then asked me and of course I went practical, I really wanted to say a few million dollars but instead I said alligator clips. The best part was when she asked her stuffed Kitty Cat and stuffed Cow what they wanted. Her Kitty Cat wants a fish and the Cow wants hay. She said that she had to bring home the list, so she could add the rest of her families wishes to it.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Driving through the Snow

As always before we start on a trip, I check the weather. I check the weather for not only here but for major cities on our itinerary, so I've got an idea what I'm driving into. Well, I guess they would call it a freak snow storm that we drove into because there was no mention of snow or bad weather. So for almost 3 hours of our trip, we drove in near white out conditions. I was so thankful to get past the half-way mark on our trip and see only light flurries the rest of the way. When we got to my Brother's place, he was still at work. So, we made a quick stop at the grocery store for dinner ingreditents. We decided to make shake n' bake chicken, baked potatoes and a salad. Keree had so much fun shaking the chicken. She would shake so hard sometimes, I was pretty sure the bag was going to break. My Brother ended up having to work late, so we ate before him but I still think he was thankful for not having to worry about dinner. We spent the rest of the evening getting ready for Friday and Saturday. We don't know what to expect but anything that has anything to do with baseball is got to be fun...doesn't it?

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

25 days till Christmas

Wow, I can't believe it's December 1st already. I can't believe that it's only 25 days till Christmas and 31 days till 2011. I'm still in disbelief how fast this year has flown by. When I picked Keree up from school, it said that since it was so cold they danced with scarves around the room, watched movies on recycling and read a book on recycling. I have to say I'm thankful that the Main Teacher will be going on maternity leave soon because I'm starting to think that the Recycling Chapter was going to be like the Pizza Chapter from last year. Seriously, 9 months where all they learned about was Pizza, it was beyond ridiculous and it was sad that not only us parents got tired of it but so did the kids. When we got home, I gave Keree her Advent calendar. I had actually bought it 2 years ago and had planned on her using it last year but I lost it. So when I found it in the Spring, I tucked it inside her closest so I could make sure that we would have it for December 1st. Keree was so excited to open Day 1 and inside was a penguin. She was a little concerened that since we are heading out of town tomorrow, what would happen with her calendar. So that's when I explained to her that means she gets to open all the doors we missed while we are away. We spent the rest of the day packing and tying up a few loose ends before we head out tomorrow for my Brothers.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Good-Bye and Christmas Lights

This morning, we all gathered together for a family breakfast before my Brother had to start packing and head home. I was thinking Keree is going through another growth spurt because she ate so much...my luck, her arms will be the only thing to grow, yet again. While my Brother packed his car, we unpacked the van and tried to straighten the house out. Around noon, my Brother finally was ready to hit the road and head home. Luckily, we will be seeing him again this coming weekend, so it wasn't too sad. Since I knew we had a pretty big evening planned, I prayed Keree would take a nap. Even though it took her awhile to fall asleep, she finally did and shortly after she fell asleep, I indeed up joining her. Luckily, I woke up a few minutes before 3p because I had to get both of us ready. My Best Friend from high school was in town visiting his family and us. He only comes to visit over Thanksgiving and so I was excited to get to spend some time with him. Our plan was to have dinner and then surprise Keree by taking her to her 1st big christmas light display. Keree and Uncle D were so excited to see each other, they are so cute together. So our first stop after getting the car seat installed in the rental was dinner. We went to our favorite place to enjoy some snackers and sandwiches. Keree decided that she wanted soup, so instead she enjoyed some cream of broccoli and snackers. After dinner, we spent some time just sitting together and visiting. Keree and Uncle D drew pictures, spelled and wrote words and just enjoyed each other. So we then headed to the Shrine to enjoy the yearly Christmas Light display. I hadn't been there since I was 8 or 9 and of course Uncle D and Keree had never been there. It certainly has changed. First you go through some lights and then they lead you up to what sort of is like tourist traps. The first stop is a petting zoo, camel rides and so on. Luckily, you don't have to stop and you can bypass the area. We did stop at the second stop, there they had Christmas Tree and Wreaths decorated by local businesses or celebrities. They were so amazing to see. Keree said her favorite tree was the one all in red because it matched her dress and hat. We then headed into the Children's village. There they had about 5-6 different free crafts for the children to do. Keree made us all a button with our names on it, created an awesome paperclip angel (didn't take a pic of it and Uncle D decided to keep it), colored lots of pictures and just enjoyed our time. We then all went to see the puppet show that they perform, it was really cute and even the adults got into it. Our last stop before getting back in the car for the rest of the lights was to see the Gigantic Lego Nativity. The sign said it took them 9 months to create and it was shipped from Seattle in special crates. It was amazing and we spent quite awhile just marveling at it. We then headed back to the car to finish seeing all the lights. I was surprised at how fast the traffic was moving through the lights, it was sort of a bummer because I really wanted to read the story that went along with what we were seeing to Keree. Our night ended back at our house, we said our good-byes and tried our best to convince him to come see us more often. To remember our evening, Keree got a collectible Cow (their mascot at the Christmas lights this year and every year they offer a new animal). It totally cracked up me and Uncle D because for some reason Cows have always been our thing, so it was perfect that Keree has one now.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Last Day before Break

Well today was the last day before Holiday break, of course it's only 3 days of no school but I honestly think Keree will be happy to have a few days at home. When I dropped Keree off at school, I actually was stopped by the Director and since I hadn't unpacked the car from the weekend show, I still had my inventory. So, I was able to make a fairly large sale to her, WhooHoo! When I came back to pick Keree up, the summary said that they made a book today about what they were Thankful for, they read the book Thanksgiving Mice and sang songs. After yesterday of Keree not doing the project, Keree was excited to show me her art project she made today. She had traced her own hands and made two turkeys. She was excited to tell me that they were getting married. The rest of the Mom's there all laughed about it, I honestly wasn't surprised when she told me that since she is obsessed with marriage (thanks to Monsters vs Aliens). When we got home, it was sort of a day of rest. We have a one day show this weekend but our inventory is pretty stocked up, so we won't be killing ourselves with late, late nights. Plus my Brother is headed in for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving and then we are looking forward to some Black Friday deals.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Rotary Show - Day 2

It was amazing to wake up to weather in the 60's. The downside was the wind, it was blowing around 20+mph and then there were gusts in the 40+mph range. We have been through some bad winds before in our tents but this time, we ended up taking bungee cords and securing it to the building. Thankfully that worked but it was a little spooky at times. Now the girl next to us, the nicest thing I can say was she was an idiot. She didn't have her tent weighted or even tied to the building. The first time, her tent went flying, it almost hit Keree and I. We were just happily sitting on the benches across from our tent eating breakfast. I saw it flying towards us, so I grabbed Keree so fast and went running. We offered her some bungee's, we offered her some twine and she refused all of it. The other people with tents around her also offered help, she refused that also. Of course, the next two times her tent slammed into ours. We are so lucky there wasn't any major damage done to our tent or our inventory but I was ready to sue her if something had happened because it was just plain stupidity and for the fact she refused anything to prevent it, even made it worse. Otherwise, we had a pretty good day considering it was a Sunday. Keree enjoyed helping take money and give the customers back their change. She's getting really good at it. She spent some time watching movies and walking around. When it was time to pack up, the wind really hampered our quick pack. Instead of taking around 2hrs, it took almost 3 1/2. It was rough and we got home alot later than we had expected. Keree fell asleep on the way home around 730p and I'm hoping she sleep all night.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Hump Day

We are still adjusting to this time change. No matter what we have tried, Keree is up by 530a and since it's light outside, won't go back to sleep. Because of this, we are always arriving at school earlier than drop-off time. After dropping Keree off at school, I had to run to Sams. I was in need of some allergy medicine and they have the best deal on it. So, since we were there, we walked slowly around looking at all the Holiday decorations, baskets and toys they have out. Spent some time in the book/magazine aisle and finally checked out and headed home. Once at home, I got back to work but before I knew it, it was time to pick Keree up from school. When I picked Keree up from school, the summary said that today was Game day. So they spent the day playing games and read another book about Trash trucks. When Keree came out of class, she was excited to show me the Turkey she made by tracing her hand. As we were driving home, I was asking her what games she played today. She said that they didn't play any games, that the Main Teacher just let them do whatever they wanted to do. I have to say, I don't doubt my daughter because the Main Teacher seems not to want to teach anymore (even her attitude during our parent/teacher conference). It's such a disservice to the students in her classroom. When we got home, Keree had to show off her Turkey to my Mom and then she decided tomorrow at school, she is going to make our whole family a Turkey Hand(we'll see if that really happens). Otherwise, the rest of the day/afternoon/evening was spent working. This weekend is one of our biggest shows and the last two weekends have really left our inventory depleted of some items. Keree was content to play, practice reading and math and helping us. I also figured out what the one item Keree said she was asking Santa for. She kept saying Baby OwGow, I knew she wasn't hearing right, whatever it was because Keree speaks very clearly. So before lunch, I went to the Mega store's website and looked up dolls. There was 48 pages but luckily within the first 3 rows on page 1, there it was Baby All Gone. I was so thankful to have it finally figured it out.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Parent-Teacher Conference

Today, there was no school because it was Parent-Teacher conference. I was dreading going for the fact I feel like nothing will change and I'm wasting my time when I try to bring up a valid point. Of course, during our conference the Teacher tells me what a dream Keree is. She then tried to take credit for Keree knowing how to read and how she is spelling words. Umm, no I don't think so, she's learned this stuff because I taught her, not you. We brought up the subject of certain kids picking on Keree and trying to take her brace off. She played like she was totally stupid to the whole thing. Her actual comments was, "Really are you sure this is happening?" So I go, my daughter wouldn't lie about something like this. My daughter actually wanted to quit coming here because of it. And then I brought up how the don't see alot of things and I brought up the pushing incident on the playground. She then spent the rest of her time trying to stumble through the conference. It probably didn't help when later on, my Mom told her that Keree wasn't learning anything in class anyway and we only send here there for socialization. After that, there was no communication and she told us to leave. I'm just wondering how the rest of the year is going to play out after this. In the evening, we headed into town. My Brother had a 3 1/2 day weekend, so he came in from Ohio to help. Gotta love the guy so much! Since we couldn't set up till 8p, we hung around talking and playing in the parking lot waiting for the time to tick by. We also visited with some our fellow Show friends and they were all so happy to see Keree. Once the doors opened up, we actually got set up fairly quickly, which was good because tomorrow it will only be my Brother and I running the booth.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Veteran's Day

Since today was Veteran's Day the schools here are closed in observance of the day. So that meant, Keree didn't have any school. I had also called her Homeschool coordinator because I had heard nothing from her and I was just assuming that it was canceled today also. We spent the morning, running a few errands, I needed a certain color ribbon for an order and we also had to pick up a few balloons for the parade. When we got home, the Homeschool coordinator called me back, she apologized for not calling and then explained to me, that they hired a new Homeschool Teacher who would be visiting us. But she won't start for 4 weeks and so in the mean time, we won't be meeting with anyone. Not to happy about it but it is, what it is. We have a field trip next week with the group, so we are looking forward to it. In the afternoon, we then headed up to the car dealership who was driving Keree in the parade today. We were super excited that they had agreed to drive her as Princess Tomato. So after a few snafu's, we headed to the park for line-up. We decorated the car, well actually, all we did was add a few balloons and of course the magnets that said who she was and what her title was. While my Mom, Keree and the driver waited for the parade to start, I went and parked the van at the ending of the parade. I then hiked back to the park (16+ blocks) to take a few pictures before the parade started. I'm not in the best of shape, I'll admit it but it didn't help that it was in the low 90's today. I then walked to about the 1/4 mark so I could take a few pictures there while the parade was going. I was so excited when Keree's car finally reached where I was. She was smiling, waving and having a blast. As soon as I snapped my pictures there, I took off running to try getting to the 1/2 way mark. So off I go, through a back alley and as I was running across a parking lot, I realized my sandals were just not cutting it today for running. So I slide them off and ran almost 2 blocks in just my feet on the pavement (as I think now how stupid a move that was but hey, my baby in a parade is a big deal!). It was also quite interesting all the people staring as me running in bare feet. I made it there just in time to snap some more pictures. Of course after I got them, I ran to 3 other places just to get pictures before the parade was over. The Driver, my Mom and Keree had such a nice time. Keree loved waving to the crowd that had came out to watch. As for me, my feet are killing me, I have two huge blisters on the bottom of them. Of course, you know our day couldn't be without drama. When I got home, I had a few frantic messages about cheerleading. It seems even though yesterday's practice was do or die and the Coach strictly said "if you don't show up your not in the competition." There are 2 girls, who's parents are begging for them to be involved. My thought is too bad. The girls worked almost 3 hrs last night re-learning their entire routine because only Keree and 2 other girls showed up. Plus they want to hold another practice tomorrow night, which is impossible for us to make because we have show set-up. Of course, the decision to hold the practice was already made before we even got the call. So they are adding in these two other girls in the back row and we can only hope it's not a total disaster come the competition on Saturday! And to add to all the fun, tomorrow is Keree's parent/teacher conference. I'm heading to bed, it's just been way to much fun today...NOT!