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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.