100 Lessons to Learn

Last Day of Winter Break

2012-01-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

Well tomorrow Keree heads back to school. When I told her tomorrow is school, she screamed at me that she didn't want to go. I really wish I knew what was going on in that mind of her's sometimes. She loves to learn, she loves doing math and she loves reading when she's at home but she doesn't want to go to school and do those things. Honestly, after the class holiday party I could see why, it was pure chaos. But I really hoped that she would look forward to seeing her friends at least. We were also hoping that Keree would start back on full days and with the walker after break but that's not going to happen. We can't control the extreme swelling or bruising just from her walking on it for a short time. I can just hear the battle I will have tomorrow with the school. I honestly wish that they could go through something like this with their own kids so they would understand. They have made our lives so difficult and stressful over the last 5 months and it didn't have to be this way. It took me forever to get Keree to sleep tonight, it didn't help either that our schedule is out of whack. Our bedtime lately has been almost 1030-11p, when it usually is 9p. Guess, I need to head to bed also, so I can be prepared to battle.

Day Two of the New Year

2012-01-02T22:49:00.000-08:00

My entire house woke up late this morning...by late, I mean it was 10 minutes till 9am. We had planned on having breakfast and then taking a few family pictures before my Brother head home to Ohio. But since it was so late, we skipped breakfast and captured a few family pictures since we didn't get any during Christmas. We were all surprised at how well they turned out since we had the camera sat on some boxes and the timer set. After pictures were taken, we helped my Brother load a few more boxes into his car and then said our good-byes. Being that he will be moving to Michigan before late spring, we know our visits with him will become less frequent. Well unless Keree has her way, she told me that she's ready for us to move and live with Uncle. Since we were starving, I decided to throw together a crustless quiche. Literally, I started off with a basic recipe and then started adding other stuff that sounded good. So our crustless quiche had spinach, ham, onions,

roasted red peppers and 3 kinds of cheese in it. I honestly didn't know how it was going to taste but it was so pretty coming out of the oven that I had to take a picture. Thankfully, it tasted as good as it looked. As for the rest of our day, Keree spent her time playing on her new ds that my Step-Mom got her for Christmas. My Mom and I worked on adding photos to the shop website. So not a very eventful day two of the New Year.

Happy New Year 2012!

2012-01-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

4 days to Halloween

2011-10-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe how far behind I am on everything, especially this blog. I had really wanted to document everyday the thoughts and emotions of Keere's surgery and recover at the time it was happening and I do plan on going back and filling in all those days that are missing. But my focus instead turned more towards her and making her comfortable.

So as for today, we spent the day working on Keree's Halloween costume. Of course, it's no surprise that she wanted to be Rapunzel, she's obsessed with her. We finished up her gigantic yellow braid and some signs to put around her wheelchair. I had really prayed that as soon as the cast came off she would miraculously walk with no assistance but in the back of my mind I knew that wasn't going to happen. It has truly been heart wrenching to watch my active girl be reduced to this struggle. We try not to dwell on the struggle but instead look at what she accomplishes everyday. Luckily, I'm not a Mom who tells her she can't do something, it may scare me to death but if she wants to climb the highest mountain, I tell her go do it. So we look forward to the next few days, filled with our annual Trick or Treat jaunts (starting tomorrow night).

A Giant Box

2011-08-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

Of course we are still in a heat advisory. I gotta say I'm sick and tired of this 100+ degree weather and really hoping that heading North this weekend we will get a small break. Heck, anything under 90 degrees sounds cool right now. We spent our day finishing up Keree's County Fair entries. Tomorrow is the first day to turn in your entries and so far Keree is up to 40 something. Also in the mail was a giant box from Keree's Great-Grandparents. For some reason they think because my Mom and I don't have normal 9-5 jobs that we are poor. Ok, money is tight but heck, isn't most of the world's money tight right now. Inside the box was some new clothes (tshirt, skirts, jeans), hair headbands, two new lunch boxes, a Kai-Lan book (which Keree said her YeYe picked out just for her) and finally some glue and a dish rag for me. I swear they spent just as much to ship the package as they did buying all the goodies. But it made them happy and it made Keree happy, so that's all that mattered. After going through Keree's giant box, we sat outside a short while before we headed back in and got back to work. We spent our evening working and watching Wednesday night tv (Keree's favorite show, The Middle)before heading to bed.

1st Cheer Practice

2011-08-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

I was surprised that even with the heat (it was 113 today). The new Cheer Coach, still wanted to hold practice. Of course, I also did do something a little crazy and volunteered to be Assistant Coach since no other parent stepped-up to do it. I asked her ahead of time what she wanted me to do and she said to just run them to the bathroom, that she was a strong coach and didn't need help. Ok, sounds good to me. Practice went well, two of the girls weren't there but hopefully they will be there on Thursday. They learned quite a few new cheers and worked on their Half-time routine, which honestly isn't as exciting or challenging as last year's. I think what bothered me most was during the entire practice the Coach stared at Keree's brace. I mean, it wasn't like I hide anything on her registration paperwork, it clearly states that Keree wears an AFO, so I'm not sure what the problem was. Also, after turning in my paperwork in for Assistant Coach, she never did ask me for my shirt size. Things that make you say hmm. I'm hopeful that this season will be alot better than last years.

Hot Monday

2011-08-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

Today we had another record high day. I'm so sick of this hot weather. I think the news said it was day 32 of 90 degree + weather and of course the heat index makes it over 100 everyday. Keree spent most of her day playing and working on craft projects, while I tried my best to make some head way on everything I have left to get done before this weekend's show. I only took two pictures today and this was the better one, she was talking on the phone to her Great-Great and telling her about her day.

Hot, Hot, Hot

2011-07-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

It never did cool down past 97 last night, so this morning it was just plain hot, muggy and miserable inside and out. Because of this, Keree woke up in a total funk...no, it was more than a funk, she was downright crabby. Since we really didn't have any plans today other than being around the house and me working on crafty stuff, I let her hang out in her pajamas until after 10a. While I was cleaning out a box, I found an old kids meal toy that I had gotten (when I worked outside the home, I ate a kids meal almost every day). So, I let Keree open it up and get to work putting the stickers on it. While she was busy, I realized I was out of quite a few things, so that meant a trip into town was required. Once Keree was dressed, we headed outside to give her new kids meal toy a spin. It took Keree awhile to figure out the proper way to make the helicopters fly but eventually she got the hang of it. By then, she was in a little better mood, so we headed to the store. Of course, all the things I needed were full price and even though I needed them, I couldn't bring myself to pay full price. So I grabbed two things, I couldn't wait on and vowed to return on Monday hoping that everything else I need is on sale. We decided to walk through the super household clearance area while we were there. Everything was 90% off and as much as I was protesting us walking through it, I'm glad we did. I was able to score my Cousin's wedding gift (3 really cool wall hangings), my other Cousin's graduation & birthday gift (embroidered pillow & treasure box) plus a ton of really cool things for Christmas presents. We got out of there with literally 2 carts overflowing with presents for $37. Really wish I had remembered my camera because it was impressive. Once we got home, Keree played and I worked. Keree decided that she didn't need to take a nap today and I was too hot to fight her on it. As the night wore on, I was surprised that she didn't want to go to bed early. Finally she decided she was tired and headed into lay with my Mom until she fell asleep or so I thought. I got caught up doing some work and before I knew it, it was almost 2a. While I was turning off the lights, I was suddenly surprised to see my daughter. She had fallen asleep on the couch in this funky position. So after snapping the picture, I picked her up and tucked her into bed. Still not sure how she indeed up on the couch.

Heat Wave

2011-07-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Like usual, we were up early and even though it was almost 123 degrees yesterday and didn't drop below 101 degrees overnight, this morning when I went outside it felt cool. Ok not cool but tolerable. So we got dressed quickly and headed out. We enjoyed some cinnamon rolls while sitting in the shade for breakfast, it was wonderful. While we sat there, Keree wanted to talk. I was surprised when she brought up death, cemeteries, resurrection and adoption. Needless to say it was a wide range of thoughts and feelings. What cracked me up even more was when my Mom came out to join us and Keree told her to go back inside because we were talking about serious stuff. My Mom looked at me and I told Keree to tell her what we were talking about, my Mom looked at me perplexed but I just shrugged my shoulders and told her that Keree brought it up. By the time my Mom had headed out, we were actually about to start heading in because suddenly it got super hot. Honestly, I'm not sure being inside was any better since we still opt not to have a/c. For the first time in a long time, it was just too hot to do anything once we were inside even with the fans. So we indeed up just sitting in front of the fans with a great big glass of ice water and watched some mindless tv shows. By the time early evening rolled around it was still blistering hot outside and we were super hot & sweaty. So off we went to take a dip in the kiddie pool before bed. We spent almost 3 hours cooling off in the pool and only headed in when we couldn't keep the mosquitoes at bay any more. So after heading inside, we headed to bed.

Inaugural Swim

2011-07-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today was suppose to be a day full of family together time. My Brother had promised Keree that his girlfriend and him would spend the day playing Rapunzel with her. Then his girlfriend had talked on the phone with Keree and also promised her that they would spend the day playing together. This morning, when my Brother arrived, we assumed his girlfriend would be with him but instead she opted to stay with her family. Keree was disappointed that his girlfriend wasn't there but she was excited to play with her Uncle. Keree and Uncle, played outside for a short time this morning with water guns. It was so funny watching them pretend to be attacking each other but instead they attacked my Mom and get her wet. But once we headed inside, it perplexed me when instead of playing with Keree, he spent most of the day upstairs rearranging his former room. So Keree spent her time playing Rapunzel by herself because I was trying to get some work done. I was irritated by the whole situation because I had made a triple batch of Butter Beef, so I would have enough to feed everyone both lunch and dinner. If I knew the girlfriend wasn't going to show up, I honestly would have not fixed it at all and opted for something mexican instead. Of course today also turned out hot, which was great since we finally set-up the kiddie pool yesterday. So late afternoon, we decided to head out for the inaugural swim. We thought that the water would have really heated up over night and during the day but instead it was still chilly. Keree had a blast flying down the slide. My Brother got in for a short time but it was too cold for him. As for me, I enjoyed being in the cold water but I'm also someone who loves cold showers. Needless to say, we had so much fun. After drying off and heading inside, we relaxed and watched the newer Wall Street movie together. Keree and Mom went to bed around 9p but I stayed up with my Brother and finished watching the movie. His girlfriend arrived around 930p and was upset that Keree was already in bed because she wanted to play with Keree. WTH! It's 930 at night and now you want to play with my Daughter. Why didn't you keep your promise to her and spend the day with us or at least show up before bedtime? Needless to say, as soon as the movie was off I headed to bed because I was just aggervated.

Home

2011-07-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today, we spent some time unpacking and doing laundry. As for me, I got back to work on replenishing all that had sold over the past weekend and trying to build up inventory so I don't have to kill myself in between shows. Luckily, today was much cooler than the past days we have had, so I was able to work upstairs also for a bit sewing. As for Keree, she got to play with my Brother for a short time which she was thrilled about. Otherwise, she spent her time drawing and playing Rapunzel. Of course everything she was drawing was related to Rapunzel and the entire story but at least it keeps her happy and busy.

A Long, Hot Day

2011-07-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up early to drive up to Hannibal to set-up for their Tom Sawyer's day craft show. They said you couldn't start setting up until ? but when we arrived, most people had started setting up hours before then. We expected the park to be alot bigger but surprised when it wasn't. We had to park across the park (the complete opposite side of where our spot was) and loaded up quite a few things in the wagon & flat bed and went to find our space. It was blistering hot and nearing 107 degrees. Our first order of business was hooking up our electric and getting our fan going, then we set up the tent. At that point, I was finished. I had all the signs of heat exhaustion but we had to keep going. Keree spent her time sitting on the flat bed in front of the fan, while my Mom and I tried to get the grids up. Once they were up, I was near collapse, my face was beat red, my head was pounding, I was dizzy and I had stopped sweating. Even though I like having everything set-up ahead of time and not having to get up super early....I so wanted to get to the hotel and just cool down. Luckily, my Mom was feeling just as bad and so we headed to our hotel. After checking in, we quickly unloaded and headed to our room. Which honestly being that we got stuck in a smoking king room, it wasn't all that bad. They had done a really great job in scrubbing the smell away. Of course, I was so hot and sick, that I spent the majority of our first 15 minutes in the room getting sick, it wasn't pretty. After I finally had some control, I immediately changed Keree and myself into our bathing suites. My Mom thought I was nuts but I knew it was going to be the quickest way to get our body temperatures down. We spent almost 2 hrs by ourselves in the pool, we were having so much fun. Keree jumped off the side of the pool for the first time with us holding her hand and then she jumped off the side of the pool all by herself for the first time. With the water wings and floatation pad, she was swimming everywhere and it was so nice to know that if she did get further away from me, that she wasn't going to get hurt. We only got out when people started showing up. So we headed back to our room and since we were blessed to have a microwave and fridge, we heated up some frozen dinners I brought from home. Keree crashed shortly after dinner and so did my Mom. I spent my time working on lining clips and finishing up bows. I finally headed to bed around 2a, which wasn't that good since we had to be up by 5a.

Picking Out Clothes

2011-06-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

I was up before Keree this morning, so while I worked on all those last minute things for this weekend, she slept. Which honestly I work everyday for hours a day but I'm never done. I still always have a stack of bows or something to get done. Keree joined me a little after 830a (loving she's sleeping in later but that could be because she's staying up later with me). She played happily before she finally decided, a few hours later (ok it was almost 1p) she needed to get dressed and she needed to get dressed now. Usually, I pick out the clothes she should wear ahead of time and she gets dressed by herself but today she loved that she was going to get to pick out what she was going to wear. She picked the shirt her Godmom Stef and family sent her two Christmas's ago (which is still too big on her at a size 2), some jeans (they are size 3-6 mos, so they are shorts on her), her good red socks (the tragedy of her wearing them on a non-fancy day), her favorite robeez Monkey slippers (they are size 18-24 mos, love that they fit over her brace so easily) and let me not forget her tropical loopy bow. I don't think she looked bad at all....my Mom on the other hand, well she chuckled at the outfit she put together. Looking forward to getting out of dodge for the July 4th weekend and hoping this show is as good as everyone says it will be. Keree's picture are awful but the sun and heat was unbearable even for a short time.

Book Report Winner

2011-06-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last night, we got a call saying that Keree's book report won at the Library and that she had to pick up her prize bag asap. So while I stayed home this morning and tried to fix our tent so we could use it this weekend, my Mom and Keree headed to the Library. Keree was so excited to see her Book Report on the board with the 3 other winners (her report has the fantastic ribbon on it & the arrow pointing to it). The Children's Librarian then gave Keree her prize. It's a canvas bag with the Summer Reading Program's logo and inside was a free movie ticket voucher, a padlock, an eraser computer mouse, some pens, pencils and papers. My Mom and Keree then looked for her dragon that she made the day we signed up. My Mom was surprised that Keree remembered that her dragon was orange. Heck, I'm amazed she remembered that because I didn't since we were so rushed that day. After they took a few pictures, they headed home. Both Keree and my Mom were amazed that I had fixed the tent (replaced two section, part of a leg and did some major rehabbing to it), replaced the top, waterproofed the top and set it up and put it back down all by myself. Actually, I have to say I was quite proud of myself also. Since it was so miserably hot, my Mom and I took it easy, while I worked upstairs on crafty stuff. I was upstairs from 11am till almost 130 am. I got alot done but still have so much more to get done tomorrow.

Reading & Chinese Food Day

2011-06-28T11:59:00.000-07:00

Since Keree had finally read 8 books on her own, we headed out, so she could turn in her Barnes & Noble reading list for her free book. She was suppose to pick a book off the list but had her heart really set on this Rapunzel book. So, I decided I would just pay for this book (eek! I hate paying retail for books) and also let her get her free book. When we arrived at the cash register, the Cashier instead let us just use the credit for the Rapunzel book and didn't make her choose one off the list. Hooray! Keree was so excited to get her Rapunzel book for Free. She told me she was keeping her receipt, so she can show everyone that it was free. That the ticket said 0.00 for the price. Honestly, the girl cracks me up sometimes. We then ran to the Library to have her reading list stamped and to pick up her little weekly prize. Which she picked out another Frog Princess, she wanted the Frog Prince but they didn't have anymore. Since I had promised her last week that the day we went to the library, we would eat out. We headed to the local Chinese restaurant thats downtown. It was our first time eating there. I had heard good things about them but we won't be eating there again. We placed our order as soon as we walked in, Keree wanted wonton soup and I decided we would split some Shrimp LoMein. As we were paying, the cashier wanted to know, where Keree was from. Keree told her Vietnam, which weirdly the Cashier was also from Vietnam. She asked Keree what province and Keree told her HCMC, it turns out that the Cashier was from DaNang. The Cashier then turned to me and goes, "you pay lots of money for her?" I looked at her and go "No, there are lots of fees involved in adoption and they go to different entities." She looked at me and goes "You buy her, but that ok, she cute." If I hadn't just paid the women, I would have walked out without our food. I was appalled by the whole conversation, because it didn't just stop with that comment. Most people don't ask, most people don't give Keree and I a second look, they honestly think because I'm a single Mom that I slept around or something. I'm honest with Keree about her adoption and we talk about it alot. Especially with all the stupid things said during this school year by her Teacher but this one just caught me off guard. Needless to say, as we waited for our food, I was steaming the entire time. Then they decided to take over 40 minutes to cook our food. I was plain pissed off by the time we left. As we drove home, Keree asked about what the women said, I told her that some people don't understand adoption and they think you can just buy a baby like buying something in the store. I told Keree that's pretty funny because we can't walk into Wallymart and buy a baby can we. Keree laughed and was ok with it because my explanation made sense. When we got home, we finally sat down to have lunch. I was so disappointed in the food. The wonton soup was the worst I have ever had and the shrimp lomein was beyond bland. Guessing, it will be a long time before we eat Asian out again because honestly it's just better to cook it yourself. As for the rest of our day, we read, re-read and re-read her new Rapunzel book. I worked on bows and trying to catch up for our 4th of July show.

Can't Believe it's Wednesday

2011-06-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's Wednesday, so that means I just have Thursday to finish up a bazillion things for a show that starts on Friday. We decided since we are having to spend almost 5 days away from home at a show over the 4th of July weekend, we will only be spending 1 night, instead of 2 at this show. So we will leave super early Friday morning, set-up, sale stuff until 11p, close-up, head to the hotel and then re-set-up Saturday, sale until 11p, pack up and drive home. So that means we will be home like 4am or 5am Sunday morning. It's going to be rough but saving money, is saving money....well unless we do amazingly well at the show and we may opt for another night in the hotel then. So as for today, Keree spent the majority of time upstairs with me. I finished about 60 bows, which isn't even a dent in what I need to have done. Now, I did get about 7 outfits done, which was huge. So while I sewed, Keree spent her time playing, she did have a few moments of awfulness but I know it's because she misses my Brother so much. I just wish Keree could express her pain of missing her Uncle better than having her moments. I'm just hoping that by Friday she's alot better. We did spend about 20 minutes outside today, Keree rode her scooter up and down the sidewalk, while I worked on pulling weeds before my Mom mowed. After we came in, we ate a late dinner (after 8p) and then watched the season premiere of Toddler & Tiaras. I have to say that everytime I watch it, I'm shocked at the behavior of the kids on it.

Cleaning

2011-06-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well our plan was to head home today but after much discussion, we decided to stay an extra day. We rented a rug doctor machine and spent the entire day scrubbing my Brother's apartment floors. Honestly, we though one or two rounds per room but we started before 7a and was still working on it when he got home at 7p. There were times when I was down on my hands and knees scrubbing with a scrub brush in some spots. The funny thing is, my Brother is a total neat freak, I mean color codes his shirts, etc. But for some reason, even though he vaccumes his floor and works on getting stains up, it still was a mess. So while we cleaned, Keree worked on some sticker mosaics. She loves doing them and most of the time it gives us a solid hour of complete silence and concentration. Since I hadn't originally planned on fixing dinner this evening, when I ran to the store I saw a La Rosa's frozen lasagna. LaRosa's is an Ohio based company (which also has expanded to include Indiana & Kentucky) and we've never tired them before, so I thought why not. My goodness, they have some of the best tomato sauce I have ever had, their lasagna was stuffed with cheese. Because everyone else in the family likes meat lasagna, that's the kind I bought, I was thrilled that the meat was smooth and not chunky like most times. I honestly spent the rest of the evening talking about how good the lasagna was. It was so good, that I was tempted to go to the grocery store before we left and buy a few of them for home. We ended our evening by just being together, talking, playing and just enjoying our time together. I have to say Keree and I are really going to miss Ohio and this will probably be our last time visiting my Brother there because he's looking to be transfered out of state by Halloween.

Lazy, Crafty Day

2011-06-08T11:45:00.001-07:00

After we got up in the morning, we got to hang out with my Brother a short time before he headed off to work. He was suppose to get the code for his apartment complex swimming pool but he had forgot. Our original plan was Keree and I was going to go swimming, while my Mom worked on crafty stuff. So since we couldn't go swimming, we ran to the grocery store and bought our weeks worth of groceries so I could cook every night. We ran to the $1 store there because for some reason they usually have a better assortment and then headed back to the apartment. I spent the rest of the day working on bottlecaps. Keree either played with Rapunzel or played wedding with a plastic wedding ring. As for my Mom, she worked on coloring rice for I-Spy bottles. For dinner, I cooked panko encrusted pork chops, baked potatoes, carrots and garlic bread. After dinner, Keree spent the rest of the evening reading books for the summer reading program. She finished 4 books and then wrote her very 1st book report. The book report portion is a weekly contest to win a bag full of books and goodies. She's very excited that she has the chance to win. We headed to bed when the news came on and are looking forward to tomorrow.

Off to Ohio

2011-06-07T23:07:00.000-07:00

We got up early this morning trying to finish up our errands before heading to Ohio. We were only going to go for a few days but my Brother asked us to stay through the weekend, so I guess we will head home on Monday. After we got our errands done, we finished our last minute packing and then decided to take a few pictures of our Asian lilies because we were pretty sure that they were going to be done blooming by the time we got home. I also remembered and took a picture of Keree with her Summer Reading bag that she got yesterday. Now the plan was to leave early enough to get there and have dinner waiting when my Brother got off work. Well...we should have known that after getting struck in construction traffic not even 50 miles from home, that the trip wasn't going to be easy. I swear between the bad drivers, reckless truckers and endless road construction it was starting to turn into the trip from hell. I can't even count how many times a trucker crossed the line with his load and almost hit us. I can't even count how many times a car driver would just slam on his brakes for no apparent reason. I think I did count that we went through 274+ miles of road construction, sometimes we sat almost an hour for only 1/2 miles of road construction, it was nuts. Amazingly Keree slept through a good majority of it and when she wasn't sleeping she was watching movies. What is usually under a 5 hr trip, was over 8 1/2 hrs. Needless to say we didn't make it to my Brother's in time to fix dinner, in fact we got there almost an hour after he got off work. So instead we ended up having take-out pizza instead of a nice home cooked meal. After dinner, we settled in for the night and headed to bed early.

Library Summer Reading

2011-06-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well for some reason, we decided that since we had a week with no shows to head out to Ohio to visit my brother. Well it's not all for a visit, we also have some business stuff to get done. What we didn't factor in was how much work we needed to get done before the next show. But more than anything Keree is super excited to see her Uncle. We spent the morning unloading two levels of the van. We then headed into town because we had a few packages to send out and then we stopped by the Library to sign Keree up for the summer reading program. I have to say I found it very chaotic and interesting as we filled out all the paperwork. There were Mom's in line already comparing how many books their kids had read that morning. It was so funny to hear them go Oh, Susie read 10 and Johnny read 11 and then when the other Mom said bigger numbers, they would correct themselves. Geesh, it's a summer reading program, it's not the Olympics. So after receiving her bag (which I forgot to take a picture of today, I'll remember tomorrow) and making her Name Dragon, we headed home to pack. While we packed, Keree spent her time learning how to tie flowers together to make necklaces. It was so cute that she made a crown for our plastic goose, GoselynBob. Because it was so hot out, we took it easy the rest of the day. Nothing like another record breaking heat.

Strawberry Festival - Day 1

2011-06-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

Of course our first show that the weatherman predicts with no rain, instead turns out to be one of the hottest June days in 100+ years. We are having normal mid-July heat, so just hope that mid-July won't be hotter because that would mean 200 degree heat or so. So, we got up early and was here by 5a, I'm so thankful for a show that's close to home because that means our own bed everynight. We had a little bit to set-up but thankfully not to much because we were still dragging from yesterday's heat. I'm also thankful we were there early because people started shopping by 7a and the show didn't start till 10a. Keree tolerated the heat well and thankfully we are a diversified booth we also faired better than most vendors who still didn't even break-even. Now Keree did get to do a few fun things - ok most kids wouldn't think it was fun but she did. We wrote a few postcards to family members and one to herself. She then got to buy stamps and ask for the special commerative cancelation of the stamps to celebrate the Strawberry Festival. I'm pretty excited for our postcard to arrive back at home to see it. They were also giving away free strawberries and Keree got one that was almost as big as her hand. The rest of Keree's day was spent either drawing, watching movies and trying to stay cool in front of the fan we brought from home. As for Mom and I, by the end of the show today, the heat had gotten to our brains. I actually had to drag out the caculator to add things up to make sure I was charging the Customers correctly. Now the highlight and lowlight of the day was a guy who called himself a one man circus. Needless to say he was one of the worst jugglers I've ever seen. I can't count how many times he dropped the knives or the flaming baton. If it wasn't so funny, I probably would have been more scared because he was within 10 ft of us. I just kept imagining him catching our tent on fire because of his uncoordination. Then later on in the day, the One Man Circus and the Balloon Clown got into a fight over street placement. I have never laughed so hard as they both shook fingers at each other. Once the festival was over, we closed up our tent for day 2. We headed home, picked up some fast food dinner, took a cold shower and crashed into bed.

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T20:23:00.001-07:00

I feel like I'm so behind on everything. I want Keree to have this awesome summer, full of fun activites but between the work, shows and general life and family drama....I have no time for the fun stuff. We got to see my Brother for a short time today before he headed home to OH. I hate that everytime he comes home he seems so stressed out that he can't enjoy himself. So, I fixed a huge lunch - bratwursts, spatzel casserole and turnip fries. I've eaten spatzel while I lived in Germany, so I was excited to fix it myself. Needless to say, it's so much better in Germany! Otherwise the turnip fries is a twist on traditional fries made with potatoes. They were ok, I will make them again and try adding some seasoning to them instead of just tossing them in light olive oil and parmesan cheese. Before my Brother left, Keree and him played outside. We found this awesome doorway toss on clearance for $1.49. It's perfect to put on our outside flag holder. They spent a good hour seeing how many point they good get, how far they could throw and tossing them from the front and back. For the rest of our day after my Brother left, I worked on business stuff. I know I've said it more than once but there isn't enough hours in the day. When I woke up this morning, I honestly thought about taking Keree and going up to the Memorial Day observance at the family plot (my Dad's side of the family) at the cemetary. It's a little weird to think that it was the first time in 60+ years that our family wasn't represented. I know my Grandpa is looking down on me, shaking his head that I didn't go but right now, I'm just not ready to go up there. Right now, I can't get pass the pain, heartache and disappointment from that entire family. But since it's Memorial Day (aka Decoration Day) , I remember the service members in my life, who I have lost - my Uncle Tootsie who served in the Korean War, my Uncle L'mont (US Army Infantry) who served and was killed in WWII, Uncle Sherman (US Army), Cousin Wayne (US Army) and my love, Dominic (US Navy).

Breakfast & Graduation

2011-05-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

This morning, we got up bright and early to head out for breakfast. My Grandparents were insistent that we join them, even though we had just seen them. My Aunt P joined us and honestly was had a really great time. We sat around talking, joking and laughing. After almost 3 hours, we took a few pictures and said our short goodbyes since we would be seeing each other in about 2 hours for my Cousin's high school graduation. Needless to say, it's amazing that any of us were even going since we just found out we would be able to attend, 2 days ago. So we headed home for a short time before getting on the road to head North (3 counties over). Being that we are the always early type, we got there almost an hour. Which was good because the gymnasium filled up super fast. Between my Mom and I, we saved enough seats for my Grandparents and Aunt. What we didn't know, was my Uncle (aka Grad's Dad) and his wife would be sitting with us too. They all showed up about 10 minutes before the processional started. Thank goodness that the people next to us scooted over to give us more room. While we waited for everything to start, Keree spent her time drawing. Thank goodness she loves to draw and it was so cute that she drew all her Cousins, A was in her cap and gown, C was playing his flute and D was playing his saxophone. Both of the boys are in the school band and played at the graduation. I can't explain how proud I was when I saw A in her cap and gown. Once the ceremony started, it honestly didn't last long, they only had a graduating class of 100. What took the longest was the Special Awards (there was close to 30) and these two girls who gave this painfully long speech and you could hardly understand them because they mumbled. After all that, it was finally time for the Grads to get their diplomas and then it was done. All in all, it lasted a little under an hour. We were able to grab a few pictures (only because we insisted) of Cousin A in her Cap and Gown before heading back to my Uncle E & Aunt L's house. We were going to leave after that because honestly, we weren't made to feel welcomed at all but Keree was getting hungry. I'm actually glad that we stayed, because Keree got to play with her Cousins C & D. They pushed her on the swing, played her video game (leapfrog) and played hide and seek with her. She watched her Cousins climb the tree, play with the kitty cats and examine the baby hawk (luckily wasn't hurt, just stunned) one of the cats caught. Even though there were moments of aggrevation, we were also glad that we went and enjoyed ourselves. And one cool thing, I graduated Pre-school the same year A's Dad, my Uncle E graduated High School. Keree graduated Pre-school this year, the same year that A graduated high school. The picture of Keree wearing A's cap is similar to the picture I have of me wearing Uncle E's cap.

One Year Ago....Losing my Dad

2011-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's been one year since my Dad passed on. I'm pretty sure that there's only a handful that will remember it was today. Honestly, I'm not even sure my Step-Mom will remember. I have to say this past year has been hard without him. As much as we weren't apart of each other lives over the years....I have found that in all honestly are lives were really intertwined. Keree misses her Grandpa, we talk about him often. We talk about how he liked to play monster with her. She says how silly he was. We talk about how Grandpa liked to pretend to be a vampire when Mommy was little and now I carry on the tradition and pretend to be a vampire and chase her. I think what surprises me most, is how much I miss him still, how many times I stop and just want to pick up the phone and call him but I know he's not there. I think it's even harder to get over losing him because he spent so many years pushing us away, not wanting us around and then in the last year of his life, he wanted us there, he wanted a relationship with us, he enjoyed being around us.

So, Dad, our time with you was way to short and I miss you more than I ever thought I would. Love you forever!

Rainy Monday

2011-04-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

This morning we woke up to a dark, dreary and raining morning. Keree was excited to head to school because she knew it is going to be a short week for her. Plus the upside, they are celebrating the Week of the Young Child. I'm not sure if it's just tri-county wide that they celebrate or if it's national? So last week they sent home a list of activities, today's was to make a classroom banner. When I dropped Keree off at school, I then ended up spending my entire morning running errands. I was in search of some lime green zebra ribbon and every place I went was out. So when I came to pick Keree up the summary outside said that they worked on their classroom banner, which they shaped like a kite, they played outside and worked on their songs for the end of the year program. Keree said that they glued feathers and shapes on to a kite shape. She said that then when they went outside, most of her friends were jumping into the gigantic puddle on the playground. But she was so proud of herself that she followed the rules and didn't jump in the puddle. When we got home, I remembered it was Muffin Tin Monday. So while I worked on the tin, Keree and my Mom stayed outside for a short time. My Mom said that Keree decided to check her mailbox and was disappointed that there was nothing inside. I guess she had gotten use to her Great-Great and YeYe sending her something almost everyday last week. Since I hadn't participated the last few weeks, I really wanted to make Keree one. So using what we had around the house, I was able to pull together a loosely themed Easter tin. So first up is a funky chick, I used a slice of bree cheese and broke a sesame seed breadstick cracker in half for the legs. I then used some edible markers for his eyes and beak. But once those were drawn on, it needed something else, so I colored the cheese in yellow. Next up is a strawberry filled jelly marshmallow. I picked them up a few weeks ago and Keree thinks that they are really good. Next was a pink snowball with a chick and bunny pick added to it. Because I knew Keree doesn't really like them, that meant I got to eat it. Plus being pink, it was just a great, springy color. In the next row is some organic peanut butter with a apple on top. I cut the apple in the shape of a kitty cat and then used some color sugar to emphasize the eyes and mouth. Up next is a Bunny shaped sandwich. Since Keree isn't fond of bread, I found some mini pita pockets last week. I stuffed it with slices of turkey meat. I then cut some cheese ears out and drew a bunny face on the pita. And to round out the tin, Keree is an olive lover and request them at almost every meal. So a tin wouldn't be complete without them. Keree was excited to see the tin. Of course, she mistakened my Bunny sandwich for a cat, which was disappointing but she ate it all, except the snowball of course. As for the rest of the day, it's the final push to finish stuff before we head out in the next few days for a show. I'm a little bummed that Easter fell so late this year because we are missing all the Easter egg hunts this weekend. But there's no way around it because business is business but still I'm sad that we will miss all the fun we do have at them.

New Blog Header

2011-03-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

I decided I was tired of my current blog header so I created a new one. Since I plan on printing this blog one day as a book, this was my blog header from around July 2010 to today.

3 days till Opening Day

2011-03-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Since this morning, was my Mom's doctor's appointment, I decided to keep Keree home from school. This way I didn't have to pull her out early. Luckily, that meant I was able to sleep in a little longer. I flipped on cartoons, pulled the cover back over my head and got a extra 1/2 hr to sleep which was great with how sluggish and sore I still feel from last weeks sickness. We got to my Mom's doc appointment almost a 1/2 hr early but she still had to wait over an hour and half after her appointment time to get in. Luckily the appointment went as well as can be expected. While my Mom was waiting to be seen, Keree and I hung out in the car. Honestly, I hate to sit in the waiting room there because every time we do, we end up catching something. So we opt for the car. While we were in the car, Keree worked on some spanish lessons with a cd. What is amazing is each of the spanish lessons are broken down into easy to learn sections. We worked on colors and numbers today. I don't remember where I got the books/cds but they were only $1 a piece and Keree has caught on so quickly with them. After we finished them, we then worked on some 1st grade workbooks, I had also picked up. Keree almost finished the reading workbook and only touched a little bit of the math workbook. Of course, since we still had time to wait, we then drug out the Addition flash cards and worked on them. On our way home, I had to stop and pick up some pictures I had printed from the store. I was so mad because they weren't printed right and even though the Manager was working the counter, she told me to come back tomorrow to have them fixed because she didn't know what to do. Seriously, great customer service. Once home, it was past 1p. Keree ate a quick lunch and went down for a nap without fuss, which was great. So I spent my afternoon, trying to catch up on everything I put off from not feeling well. Of course, my day couldn't go completely well. The AT called this afternoon and basically said everything I didn't want to hear. So since today is Monday and it's only 3 more days till my Hometown Baseball team's opening day, I decided on a baseball themed Muffin Tin for dinner. I honestly say this was one of the most fun I have had since Halloween in creating a Muffin tin. So without further ado, I used baseball themed muffin liners turned inside out so you could see the picture. In my first cup, I took 2 piece of cheese and created my own Cards baseball player, which ball player he is, well that's a toss-up. Keree said it was Wainwright. I free-handed the ballplayer cut out with a knife because I don't own a cookie cutter shaped like that. I then drew all the small details on with edible markers. Next up is an ice cream baseball. I used vanilla ice cream for the ball and then cut little pieces of red licorice for the stitching detail. In the final cup of that row was a cherry flavored cupcake, I got at the grocery store with a Cards hat on it. It was just so cute and totally fit the theme. In the second row, the first cup contains a Home plate. All I did for this is cut the bread with a knife into the shape. It looked so plain but honestly a home plate is boring looking. In the next cup is some ballpark peanuts. Keree isn't a fan of nuts, so they are really only there for show. In the final cup is some chopped tomatoes on red toothpicks. I also placed the other cupcake pick I got in with the tomatoes. The final piece that pulls it all together is the hot dog baseball bat. I just simply cut pieces off the hot dog to make it look like a bat, then I used edible markers to write slugger on it. Of course for some reason my u smeared. The rest of our evening was spent working on crafty stuff, we have a huge show in a little over 2 weeks and I feel so far behind in everything.

Paperwork

2011-03-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

Keree didn't go to school this morning because I had to spend my day running. After making about a hundred copies this morning, right after we woke up. We then loaded into the car for a trip 3 counties over (over a 2hr one-way trip). We made the stop at the million $ courthouse, where they had a hard time locating the paperwork I needed. So what should have been a 1/2 hr stop or so, turned into a couple of hours. While I waited on the paperwork, my Mom and Keree walked around and explored. They also got some reese pieces out of the vending machine. Because there was no place to get copies, we decided to stop by my Uncle E's work. So since we were there, we dropped off his wedding photo discs because he has never picked them up (he got married in June '10). Since he was nice enough to make the copies, it was then onto our next stop. I was dreading this stop because I really didn't want to talk to him. Luckily, he wasn't in and I got to speak with the secretary. So after dropping off a hefty check and paperwork, it was now 445p and we were finally heading home. I was emotionally exhausted, so we decided to treat ourselves to pizza. I talked my Mom and Keree into going inside and waiting for the pizza while I rested outside. Keree thought it was hilarious because I kept snapping pictures of them through the window. What was also nice, was the pizza girl gave Keree a clean pizza box for her play kitchen at home. Once we got home, we enjoyed our pizza, made a few phone calls and then settled in for the night.

Still Sick

2011-03-22T12:16:00.000-07:00

This morning, I woke up thinking I felt ok, but the minute I moved I was pretty sure it was the end of me. I took Keree to school just so I could come home and sleep. When I picked Keree up from school, they had spent the day outside playing. Since it was so nice outside when we got home, I grabbed a chair and let Keree burn some more energy. She rode up and down the sidewalk at break-neck speeds. Thank goodness she only crashed twice, when taking her turn too quickly. She was also excited because she got a postcard from my Brother's recent trip to PA. After we headed inside, I let Keree fix her own lunch (wafer turkey meat, slice of american cheese and chips). As soon as she was finished eating, we both laid down for a nap. Since I felt so awful, I literally did nothing the rest of the day. Keree did join my Mom for some time upstairs and she worked on turning straps inside out. Which Keree thought she was such a big help and didn't realize that both my Mom and I consider it tedious work. Hoping that I feel better tomorrow because this sucks being sick.

Happy Ravioli Day

2011-03-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

This morning when I woke up, I could barely get out of bed. I had gotten sick sometime during last night and I was really hoping that with a good night's sleep that this extreme nausea feeling would be gone. I was wrong, it was a hundred time worse this morning. Finally I drug myself out of bed, got Keree feed and dressed for school and out the door. I had started feeling better so after dropping Keree off, I ran and paid some bills, picked up the money orders to pay for our booth spaces at upcoming shows and picked up a few things at Walle mart. When I got done, I was suddenly feeling awful yet again, so I picked Keree up from school almost 45 minutes early. When I arrived, the whole school was outside on the playground and some of the classes was starting to head in. I passed the Assistant Teacher and she said, I had just missed the pep rally. I then passed one of the Directors G and she goes you just the pep rally, it was so cute. So I finally step outside, Keree was playing with Hyun and I have to say seeing these two play together was just too precious. So after signing Keree out, we walked to get her backpack before heading home. I asked Keree about the pep rally and she said that they were screaming and cheering for the Teachers. Still not sure why they were but Keree was more impressed that she got to eat her snack outside. Once we got home, my Mom and Keree stayed outside and changed our Goose, Gooselyn Bob's clothes to a more springtime outfit, while I wanted to lay down but instead made Keree her Muffin Tin. So since yesterday was the first day of spring, I decided to go with an Easter/Spring theme. Actually I thought about doing something for Ravioli day since I did grow up near the capital of toasted ravioli but just didn't have the energy. I used some Easter muffin liners to add to the spring theme. So first up, we have homemade pimento cheese spread with flip crackers (part of the cracker is pretzel and the rest is cracker), in the next cup is some broccoli grape salad (which Keree likes as much as her beloved slaw) and the final cup for that row is some sliced smoked honey turkey folded onto a bunny and chick pick. In the next row, the first cup contains a jelly filled strawberry marshmallow, they looked so good at the store, I couldn't resist. The middle cup is some key lime yogurt and a milky way shaped bunny (needed this wrapper for a craft project) enjoying a bath and in the final cup is a spring colored rice crispie treat that I shaped into a egg. As for the rest of the day, I tried to put Keree down for an early nap but she wouldn't have any of it, even though she was tired. She finally fell asleep right before 3p and by then I was beyond nauseated and couldn't lay down any more. So instead I tried to catch up on this blog. Even though I needed to get some work done, I spent my evening in bed hoping that this is just some 24 hr bug, watching Dancing with the Stars while Keree played her new-to-her leapster she got on Saturday.

Heidi Hair

2011-03-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today she told my Mom she wanted Heidi hair and that's exactly what she got.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

This morning, Keree donned her St. Patrick's day shirt, which is the same one she's worn the last 3 years. I'm a little sad that this is the last year she will be able to wear it. We took a few pictures outside (which weren't very good) before we headed to school. When I came to pick Keree up from school, the summary said that they had green milk and green butter for their snack today and that they made pictures (Keree said she made a house being attacked by meteroites). I asked Keree if it was butter or soy butter but she swore it was butter. Hmm, not sure how I feel about them feeding my child butter with their crackers. We then headed to meet with our homeschool teacher. While us adults filled out paperwork and talked, Keree spent her time playing with blocks. Then finally it was time for us to get down to business. Actually for the first time, it was a true struggle to get Keree to do anything. All she kept saying was she wanted to go home. We pushed through and I may have even given a little Mommy threat to get her to do the activities. Our first activity after reading a story was for Keree to draw and write the words of things that fly. She first drew a bird, then an airplane and finally a house. Both the Teacher and I, go Keree a house doesn't fly. Keree goes yes it does in that movie with the girl, dog and her house flies in a tornado, I know it's pretend but it did fly. Well you can't argue that. Our next project was to make wings. Which Keree colored two paper plates, she then poked holes through them and then I threaded the yarn through it and whola! Wings. I have to say once they were finished, they were Keree favorite and she loved running around with them on. Next she made what the Teacher called wind dancers. They reminded me of a windsock without a string (which we may add on our own). Keree made them St. Patrick's day themed, she drew a Girl Leprechaun on one and then made a rainbow and clover on the other. Our final project was to make a plastic bag kite. So since Keree was over school at that point and just wanted to go, we decided to spend a little time outside trying to fly our kite. As soon as we got out the door, the wind caught the kite and it was flying really well. Keree was so excited but then there was a huge gust and the plastic bag kite flew straight up. Keree and I just looked at each other and was sort of bewildered on how to get the kite back. Luckily the wind died down enough to bring it back down so I could run after and grab it. We spent probably another 15 minutes flying the kite before heading home. Once home, Keree had to show my Mom all the things she had made. Since Keree was extremely tired and grumpy, we ate a very small lunch and I put her down for a nap. When Keree got up, it was time to start fixing our St. Patrick's day dinner. We opted to have red potato fixed campfire way, cornbeef hash and finally using inspiration from Ludicrous Mama and her pesto croissants. Because it's tradition, Keree and I made the traditional Serpant bread. After putting the pesto on the croissant dough and rolling it, we added a cut green olive for his eyes. Keree kept laughing because she said our snake was winking. I have to say Keree and I loved it, my Mom, well she wasn't too impressed but she can be picky at times. I will be fixing it again for Keree and I but will make a few plain croissants just for my Mom. I didn't get much in the Crafty area done today, other than a few things for an order. So hoping I'll get back to working full swing tomorrow.

Green Clovers

2011-03-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

Since Keree has two St. Patrick's day shirts, she got to wear the bigger of the two today. I also made her a new multi shades of green korker bow to go with her shirt. She also got to wear her new fairy jeans from Great-Great and YeYe. Because it was such a nice day today, Keree's school decided to spend the majority of the day outside playing instead of learning anything. The summary did say that they sang a few songs and practiced writing their names. Which basically meant that Keree did nothing because she knows how to write her complete name, including her two middle names. Once we got home and ate lunch, I laid Keree down for a nap, while I headed upstairs to work. Once Keree got up from her nap, we ended up finding a St. Patrick's day movie on tv. She was excited to watch it and I was excited to find that it contained alot of historical facts in it. Wish, I would have know the name of it because I would defiantly get it on dvd to watch again. Again we had a late night, I lost track of time while working so we ate a super late dinner yet again and then it was time for bed.

Paint

2011-03-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

By this morning when we woke up, the snow had melted and instead we had gotten so much rain that the front yard was flooded. Luckily, it had stopped raining, so after getting dressed it was off to school. I had dressed Keree warmly because I was pretty sure they would go outside. When I went to pick Keree up, she was covered in paint. It was all over her hands, on her sleeves, on her face and then there were her pants. I have no idea, with the gigantic plastic full body aprons how paint got on her but it did. Once we headed home, I fixed a quick lunch before we headed upstairs. I spent the day primarily sewing, it still blows my mind how many projects that I'm needing to get done before our next show. But actually, my big plan is to get a ton of stock done, so that way, I'm not having to work as hard during the summer and in-between shows. So if this works, I'll be able to spend more time doing fun and educational stuff! As for Keree, she spent her day playing. Actually she pretended most of the day that she was the Statue of Liberty. She used her wood cutting board as the tablet and some megablocks from her Ariel set to create the torch. It was so funny to watch her stand on her stool, perfectly still for half-hours at a time. The rest of the time she spent her time being a chef. She cooked pretend creme brulee, filet mignon with a goat cheese puree and some roasted asparagus. Do you think I've been letting her watch the food channel too much? We headed downstairs late (after 7p), so that meant a late dinner, a story and then off to bed.

Snowy Monday

2011-03-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

We all had a rough night, so when I startled myself out of a dead sleep at 730a. I laid there and debated if I was going to get Keree up and take her to school. When my eyes finally focused, I noticed that the ground outside was white. I had to do a double take since they weren't predicting snow, we were suppose to get a little bit of rain and thats it. I sat up and pulled back the curtain and it was coming down so heavy that I couldn't see the tree line. I flipped on the news and they were advising people not to drive unless they had to, so that meant a self-appointed snow day for Keree. Keree actually ended up sleeping in till almost 8a, so it was nice to have a little quiet time just watching the snow fall. So after some breakfast and getting dressed, the snowflakes that were falling were huge and some puffy looking. So we decided to put on our winter coats and head outside. It was such a slushy mess that we didn't move off of the sidewalk but it was so pretty. Keree spent part of her time trying to catch the huge snowflakes on her tongue. It was pretty funny watching her, with her eyes closed and her tongue out. Once we headed inside, I checked my email before heading upstairs. I was excited to open an email entitled "singles allowed to adopt from Chin@." How exciting that the country is open again to Singles who choose to adopt from the special focus program. I have to admit that I did take a peek at a few of the kiddos on the list and some totally melted my heart. I'm just so happy that it's an option again for so many singles out there. After the mail was checked, we headed upstairs to work. Well in Keree's case play, she spent her morning playing in her play kitchen. I don't know how many times she served me poison soup, sandwich or drink. We headed downstairs for lunch and since it's Monday that meant Muffin Tin. I decided that since this week is St. Patrick's day that would be a perfect theme. So in my first cup is half of an whole wheat english muffin, I used edible markers to draw a rainbow on it. Our next cup is Key Lime flavored fluffy yogurt, I then used some green apple licorice to make a clover on top. Then I added a raspberry milano cookie and again used the edible markers to write Happy St. Pat's day on it. The last cup of the top row has two marshmallows, again I used edible markers and drew clovers on them. The next row, the first cup has some cucumbers coins, I really wanted to make them gold for the money at the end of the rainbow but couldn't come up with a way. Next is some cornbeef hash, I used canned because I haven't had time to make homemade. Finally, the last cup is some green olives which Keree loves any type of olives. As for the rest of our day, I did get Keree to lay down for a short nap. It was less than an hour, so I'm hoping that she's exhausted tonight and will go to sleep early. Otherwise, we checked on my Grandparents because my Grandpa had doc appts today. Luckily, they made it safely to and from even in the snow. My Aunt V sent us a package, inside was both Keree and I's birthday presents. I got a gorgeous 2.75 ct garnet ring (which is my birthstone) and Keree got a Rapunzel pillowcase and some Rapunzel hair ties. So we called my Aunt and thanked her for our gifts. We also got to talk to my Brother for a short time while he was driving home from Pennsylvania. He had been there for a wedding and then took a few more days off to see a few sites with his girlfriend. Keree was suppose to have our final cheer practice this evening but when she woke up from her nap, she had a low grade fever again. Since there has been all kinds of stuff going around, I choose to keep her home and not chance anything. Keree spent the rest of the evening working in some workbooks and drawing.

Time Change

2011-03-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

None of us were feeling that hot when we woke up this morning. Keree was running a low grade fever still but had a little more spunk. Since none of us wanted to fix breakfast, we decided to hit the local breakfast buffet. When we got there, both my Mom and I was starving but pretty much as soon as the breakfast hit our stomachs, we were sick. Keree on the other hand, didn't want to eat anything, instead all she wanted to do was drink chocolate milk. So since breakfast was a bust, we had to stop at the fabric store for my Mom before heading home. Once home, my Mom laid down, while Keree and I headed upstairs. I needed to finish up the Christmas presents for Kerees' Godmother's family. I'm so happy, that with some help from my Mom, they are finished. Now I just have to get them packed and shipped. Keree and I ended up taking almost a 2hr nap in the big green chair upstairs. We both ended up falling asleep while watching Snow White and woke up shortly after Aladdin started. I did a little work before we headed downstairs for the evening. Keree had a hard time falling alseep for bed. I just can't figure out why her sleep schedule is so out of whack. I know part of it, is the time change but these problems were happening before this. Hoping we get back to something normal because the last 4 days, her falling asleep at almost 11p, waking up almost everyday before 6am, and taking less than a 1/2 hr to 1hr nap, just isn't right.

Enchanted

2011-03-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

Last night we watched Enchanted. The first time, we watched it, I wasn't that happy with the stereotype it portrayed, the whole helpless damsel in distress who was clueless. Since then we have watched it, heck I'm not sure how many times because it's been showing almost every weekend on prime time tv. So it's now grown on me and the more I watched it the more I realized at the end, Giselle finally decides on her own that she doesn't have to marry some prince, that she can do what she wants. Of course it's to marry a common person but still it's much better than the clueless, helpless girl she starts out as. Of course, Keree's favorite part is when she calls the animals. She cups her hands around her mouth and will try and call our animals outside. Of course, most of the time she scares them away but a few times they have gotten close to her and she swears it's because of her calling them.

2011-03-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

Speed

2011-03-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Fat Tuesday

2011-03-08T21:14:00.000-08:00

Today is Fat Tuesday, which means the day before Lent starts. As I was getting Keree dressed this morning, we were talking about what Mardi Gras is and means. Keree's response was it's about beads and masks. I had to laugh because I could see why she thought that. Keree of course had to have a special outfit for the last day of Mardi Gras. I had created this skirt almost 2 years ago and we just got around to finishing it. My Mom then whipped up the sweatshirt because it's hard to find a Mardi Gras-ish shirt. Now, when I came to pick Keree up from school, she was super excited to show me the picture she had drawn. What was funny is the story she told with it. The first two people are Keree and I, we are catching beads and then further back is my Mom holding a mask. She told my Mom that she's behind us because she's slow. Now Keree didn't wear her pettiskirt underneath her skirt at school but as soon as we got home, she had to put it on. She wanted her skirt to poof. We spent a little time outside taking pictures but we didn't stay outside for long because it was super cold. Once we headed inside, we ate a quick lunch before heading upstairs. Since I had a very ripe avocado, I decided to try my hand at making guacamole for the first time. Honestly, I couldn't believe how easy it was. I chopped up some tomatoes, onions and of course smashed up my avocado. Added a splash of lime juice and whola, it was so good. Keree even ate a little bit of it, which was progress since she's not a avocado fan yet. Our plan for the rest of the day was to spend a little time working and then get ready to head to the big city for the Mardi Gras parade. We were really hoping the storm would hold out to late but instead it showed up almost 3 hrs early. So with the rain being so heavy, plus it was super cold, there was no way we were heading out in it. Keree was disappointed but she was understanding. We had originally planned on having some authentic creole food but since we didn't head to the big city and I didn't have everything on hand for gumbo. We ended up having a boring dinner before heading to bed.

2011-03-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

Today in the mail, Keree got a St.Patrick's day card from her Great-Great Aunt F. It amazes me how she remember Keree in such small ways, just like she always remembered my Brother and I growing up. Inside the card was a pair of St. Patrick's day socks that looked like little mary jane slippers. Keree just ohh'd and ahh'd over them. Then since it's Monday, I decided to fix Keree a Muffin Tin dinner. We had picked out some yan yan sticks while at the store today, so that was my inspiration. So in the first container we have some chicken wontons. Next some dipping sauce, followed by some shrimp chips. The next row starts out with some ramen noodles, next a veggie egg roll and finished with some more ramen noodles because Keree loves them. Of course, when I asked what her favorite part was, she answered the yan yan sticks.

Sunday

2011-03-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

Nothing really exciting happened today. Keree of course woke up early and I fixed some sausage pancakes for breakfast. I spent the majority of my day upstairs working. I finally had a break through on a few business craft things, so I'm throwing myself into them. Keree spent most of the day upstairs playing but did lay down for a nap with my Mom. After naptime, my Mom let Keree play outside for a very short time before they both joined me upstairs. We spent alot of our time moving and organizing to make more room for Keree to play in the main room. She's excited because that means more toys to play with out there. We ended our night with pasta for dinner and then trying to have an early bedtime.

No Go

2011-03-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Well this morning, we took our time. Keree's squad wasn't cheering today, so it worked out perfect for us to head back up to the Farm. As we were getting ready to head up there, my Aunt called and said that my Uncle didn't want us to head up there today. She said that they weren't heading up there either because it was just too cold and rainy. So since our day was now wide open, we decided to head over to a craft show. We actually were suppose to be doing this show but with how bad my Mom has been feeling, there was no way I could handle setup, the show and tear down completely by myself, while also having Keree along. Which honestly, I'm glad we didn't do the show, the Producer had actually allowed people with flea market type stuff in and I was really disappointed. I did find it interesting because I dressed Keree as plain as I could today because I was comparing prices and such. I was shocked at how many people recognized her. It was also nice because we did run into a few Crafty friends and we had a nice visit with them. It's also a little sad because we won't see most of them until Fall now. As we were driving home, we always pass a grain elevator. Keree loves this elevator because it looks like Rapunzel's tower. So since we didn't have anything planned for the day, we stopped and grabbed a few pictures of her and the tower. What's cool about this grain tower, is unlike most of them in the area, it's still being used for it's intended use. When we got home, we spent the day upstairs. Of course, I worked and Keree played.

"Cleaning" the Farm

2011-03-04T20:03:00.000-08:00

After dropping Keree off at school, we ran a few errands before picking her up. Right as I was heading in to pick her up, the phone rang. I let it go to voicemail because you can't talk on the phone while in the school. So after I collected Keree and read the summary, which said that they worked in their journals (yet again), sang the ABC song (seriously...such a basic song) and worked on writing their names (which didn't apply to Keree since she already knows how to write it). I listened to my voicemail after hooking Keree in her carseat and it was from my Uncle T. He wanted me to come up to my Grandparents farm, since he is cleaning it out. Which I hate the whole "cleaning" word because these are my Families memories and traditions that will be donated. He offered for me to come up on either today or Saturday, so I thought, we better go today because he's know for changing his mind. I was heading up there, when I called him back. When we got there, I told Keree she had to be on her very best behavior and not talk. See this is the same Uncle who's ignored Keree completely and literally hasn't spoken to her at all. I'm mean, honestly, he's seen her at my Great-Aunt's birthday party and no acknowledgement and then at my Grandma's visitation and funeral, he didn't say anything then to her either. As we walked in, he was very welcoming and I've got to say it was weird to be there. It looked like the Farm house, just the closest were bare and all the paperwork they always had laid out wasn't there. What shocked me the most, is when he engaged Keree in conversation. He asked her how school was, how old she was, he treated her like she mattered, like she really is a member of our family. It was weird. While my Uncle walked me around, my Mom and Keree waited downstairs. I was surprised at how open my Uncle was, he gave me my Grandma's wedding dress and the Maid of Honor dress she wore for my Great-Aunt's wedding (which I didn't know that existed). Now there were a few things when I was growing up, I really, really wanted and had asked that when they died, if I could have them. My Grandma always told me "No" they were to be passed down to her daughter or her sons. See my Grandma didn't consider me, her granddaughter because I didn't come from her daughter's womb. Yep, my Grandma was nuts. But after my Grandpa died, the family basically blew up and we were basically the only ones who came to visit her, other than my Uncle. So when my Uncle offered up the Engagement present my Grandpa bought for my Grandma, I about burst into tears. I had thought about those lamps, dreamed about the lamps and knew the story behind them. My Grandpa paid $35 for the set, which was amazing because that was a ton of money back in the day. I claimed quite a few pieces of furniture, even though I don't have room for them but some of the pieces date back to the late 1800's and early 1900's and belonged to my Great-Great and Great-Grandparents. I didn't have alot of room in the van, because I was still loaded from our last show but I was able to take a few things. My Uncle let me take my Grandma's mixer, most of her pots, pans, cups and plates. Because he had to leave by a certain time, we cut our visit short. He said I could come back up the next day, so I'm looking forward to being able to go through some more stuff. When we were driving home, I was still amazed that he gave me my Grandma's wedding dress and the Engagement gift. Since it was cold and late, we decided to pick up pizza for dinner. When we got home, we unloaded the car, so we could pack easier tomorrow. We spent the rest of the evening resting because we were all exhausted. I especially was exhausted both mentally and physically.

Wind

2011-03-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Keree woke up super early this morning, like 445a early. I tried everything to get her to go back to sleep but it was no use. So after breakfast, getting dressed, we headed off to school. When I came to pick Keree up the summary said that they worked in their journals, played outside and sang songs. Since today was Thursday, it was also homeschool day. Our teacher was running almost 15 min late, so I really thought she had canceled and not called us. So right as I was about to leave, she showed up. This month, our lessons are about wind, weather and seasons. Keree was actually really bored in the beginning. She let her play sight word bingo, which was not a challenge at all. She let her play on a vtech spelling computer but again, Keree aced through the two levels. The Teacher was a little at a loss but eventually, she let her draw and cut out some pictures. We were originally going to make a kite but when that didn't work out, we drew some animals we see in the spring time. Keree cut them out and glued them on the paper. Then at the very end of our lesson, they did a science experiment. Keree had four objects, a cotton ball, rock, golf ball and tissue. She then had to predict if she could move the object by blowing through a straw. Both the Teacher and I were surprised when she made all the objects move a little bit. Even though the rock only wobbled back and forth, it still moved. Keree spent almost 20 minutes continuing blowing the different objects to see if she could keep producing the same result. After our time was up, we headed home. I would love to say we did something exciting when we got home, but we spent the rest of the day upstairs. Because of how badly I've felt the entire winter season, I'm super behind on building my stock. So since I've got some big shows coming up, it's work, work, work.

Dr. Suess Birthday

2011-03-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

This morning we all woke up late, so Keree got to stay home from school today. Because we knew it was Dr. Suess's birthday we planned on reading Go Dog Go. I swore I have a copy of it but to no avail, I couldn't find it. We headed out to get a few business supplies and stopped by Michaels. They were having their make and take craft which was a Dr. Suess bookmark. We got there right before the stopping time and I'm pretty sure Keree was close to being one of the only ones who stopped by. Keree got full reign over the stickers, paper and markers. She created bookmarks for not only herself but her Great-Grandparents and Uncle. After our short trip shopping, we headed home. We ate a quick lunch and then curled up and read "I can read with my eyes shut." Keree would read the pages with less words and Mom had to read the pages with more words. After nap, we headed upstairs where I spent my time working and Keree spent her time digging through my scraps and creating. Because I was punching out bottlecap images, Keree imagined that the paper scraps could be made into crowns. So she made a crown for all of us to wear. Before heading to bed for the evening, we read "The Cat in the Hat". Again Keree read the less word pages and I read the more word pages.

Belated Birthday Fun

2011-03-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

Keree really wanted to go to Chuckee's for her birthday. She really wanted to have her birthday party there and everything. My Mom and I...well we didn't think that was a good idea at all. But after doing some errands, we decided to reward Keree with some time at the pizza place for a sort of belated birthday fun. After ordering our pizza, we played Deal or No deal. Then Keree and I split our time between, whack-a-alien, riding the horse and skee-ball. After eating some pretty greasy pizza, we rode the electronic roller coaster. Keree has never been into riding rides, so this was a first for her. She was going to be brave and sit next to me but after the first jerk. She begged to lay on top of me, while we were tossed this way and that. Honestly, by the time it stopped, I was ready to puke. I couldn't believe how motion sick I got. Since my Mom wasn't feeling well, we decided to leave before spending all our coins. We cashed in our tickets and let Keree pick out a prize. Of course, in true Keree fashion, she picked the baseball bat and ball. After we got home, she talked non-stop about all the fun things we did. She asked if we could go more often. My standard response was it costs lots of money but honestly, I would rather kept the place as a once/twice a year place to visit because all the electronic lights & sounds can be annoying, even though my daughter does so enjoy it.

5th Birthday Day

2011-02-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

Our morning started off pretty eventful, actually it was just a little after 12am when the sirens started going off. I had actually been watching the storms move across the two states and listening to all the warnings the Weather people kept giving us as Keree slept next to me. I decided since it was so dark outside to watch the storm through the bedroom window. Right as the storm was moving in, I saw the sky turn colors I had never seen before. First the sky turned a bright aqua-marine, then a bright red, that is when I scooped up my daughter and went to wake up my Mom. At first my Mom thought I was nuts but I pulled back the curtain and the sky was flashing bright red and it sounded like there was rocks being thrown at the windows. As we were running to the bathroom we heard the freight train sound. As we huddled in the bathroom, the house started to breathe, literally the ceiling tiles and walls lifted up, it did it several times. This honestly is the first storm that has ever scared me. I'm the type who usually loves to be in the thick of the storm, but this time I was just fine huddling in the bathroom. When the storm finally passed and we emerged, I honestly expected to see massive damage, trees down, damage to the roof, etc. There was nothing, no tree limbs down, no damage to the house, it was a miracle because all around us was damage of various degrees. Needless to say, Keree was restless the rest of the night. When we woke her up this morning with a wonderful rendition of Happy Birthday, she pulled the cover back over her head and begged for more sleep. Keree enjoyed some Crunch Berry cereal for breakfast. Then Keree put on her Birthday Girl shirt, which she has worn on her Birthday for her last 4 birthdays. The shirt started out being down past her knees and then this year it fits her perfectly. I'm a little sad that this is the last year she will be wearing this shirt but I guess I should be happy since it's a size 18mos. Before we left for school, I decided to take a few pictures. I also wanted to document the treats she brought to school, Blue and Yellow mini cupcakes, which Keree was so excited about because they are her favorite colors. Needless to say, there are more than 12 kids in Keree's class but she couldn't hold all of the containers. When we arrived at school, I was surprised when the Main Teacher actually wished Keree a Happy Birthday. I had taken the camera in because I wanted to take a picture of Keree making her Birthday crown but they were dragging their feet in getting it ready, so I ended up leaving without a picture. When I came to pick Keree up, she was so excited because they had lantern stickers and she put them on her crown. We headed home and while I worked on lunch, Keree got to open up her Birthday presents that she got in the mail and the few my Mom and I had tucked away. Keree's Great Grandma and YeYe sent her a new outfit, a lollipop shirt, some flowered tights and a white shrug. Next she opened up a card from her Great-Great Aunt F, inside was $10 and a bag of candy. Her next present was from her Godmother, I really wish I would have video taped her opening the present because she shrilled with excitement when she discovered that she got a "real camera" with Kai Lan on it. The last gift she got to open was from my Mom (aka Grandma) it was a clock of her very own. But the neatest thing we found was a Birthday card and what happens to be on front? Not only Rapunzel but also the number 5. How awesome is that. But what was even better, when you opened up the card it played a song. The lyrics are this "suddenly I see, standing here, it's all so clear, where I'm meant to be." Finally I had lunch finished, since it's Monday, I did a Birthday Muffin Tin. So I turned some cupcake liners inside out, I thought I had birthday themed ones but I couldn't find them, so I settled on the stripes. In the first cup, was a slice of cheese folded in half, I then cut out a salami cupcake and for the candle, I used a piece of licorice tie. The next cup is some cherry yogurt with small candy princess crowns. Keree was so excited about those princess crowns. The next cup is another piece of folded cheese and I cut out a 5 also out of salami. In the next row, the first cup is some pasta salad leftover from the weekend. The middle cup was two stonewheat crackers and then the final cup was the rest of the kiwi that didn't fit on the kabob. In the middle of the tin was a kiwi and marshmallow kabob. Keree didn't have a lot of time to eat but she did finish all of her kiwi, the kabob, and salami. She ate a good majority of the rest but honestly we ran out of time. We then headed out to my Mom's doctor's appointment. Luckily Keree fell asleep on the way there and took about a 1 1/2 hr nap plus the upside also was my Mom was only in the doctor's office for about 2 1/2 hrs. While my Mom was in the doctor's office and after Keree woke up, she was excited to play her new vtech game she got for her Birthday. It's rated for a 4yr-6yr old so I thought she would be challenged on the easy level but it was way to simple, so once I flipped it over to the difficult level it was a little better but honestly, she was breezing through it also. I'm thinking for next Christmas we are going to be looking for a more challenging learning game system. After my Mom was finished, I had to stop at HL for some supplies and then we had to head to Wallymart to get my Mom's prescription filled. Since my Mom wasn't feeling too hot, I told her and Keree to wait in the car and I would take care of it. While I waited the 15 minutes (ha, it turned out to be almost an hour) for the prescriptions, Keree and my Mom witnessed a lady hit the concrete pole the stop sign was on. When I finally got back to the car, that was the first thing Keree told me, she said it was scary and the lady kept going back and forth, back and forth and there was yellow paint up and down her car. Because Keree had cheerleading picture tonight, we had about 40 minutes before we had to be there. Since we didn't have enough time to really do anything, I let Keree pick a fast food restaurant for her birthday dinner. Not exactly what I had planned but it was that or nothing. So Keree picked McD's and got chicken nuggets and fries. Once we were at cheerleading, we changed Keree into her uniform. Tonight they were having team pics taken. It was a little disappointing that 2 girls didn't show up but for some reason that always seems to happen. Now my plan was to quickly have pictures taken and then leave, instead the Coach decided we should wait for the 2 girls who didn't show up, so we were there waiting for our entire practice. I was not happy but there was nothing we could do. When we were finally done and headed home, my Brother called to wish Keree a Happy Birthday and talk to her. They talked the entire way home (20 min) plus a good 10 minutes after we got home. This evening, we surprised Keree with a carrot cupcake, we sang Happy Birthday to her and then she got to blow out her candles. I asked her later if she remembered to make a wish, she said she did but couldn't tell me her wish. We also surprised her with some knock off dippin dots. She had seen them several times and wanted to try them, so what better time then a special occasion. Keree almost finished off the entire cup of cotton candy flavored dots. She ended her 5th Birthday by calling her Birthday Twin and wishing her a Happy Birthday and then talking with her Great-Grandma and YeYe. Right before bed, I asked Keree if she had a good Birthday, she just smiled. Happy 5th Birthday Baby Girl!

Happy 5th Birthday

2011-02-28T01:16:00.000-08:00

5 years ago at 1:15am you were born into this world.
As I have done every year since your 1st Birthday,

this picture was taken at 1:15am.
Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Tuesday

2011-02-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

This morning, Keree was wide awake by 530a. So in an attempt to get a little more sleep, I flipped on cartoons. It lasted for a short time before she decided she was starving and needed food right now. Unfortunately Keree has been picking up some bad habits at school...especially demanding something or screeching when she doesn't get her way. She knows that I don't like the behavior and she has had time outs and lost privileges but it has only stopped when she's away from school for a period of time. It doesn't help that she sees these children acting that way at school and the school does nothing to correct or modify the situation. Now when the Substitute Teacher was there, we weren't having these problems because she didn't let the offending children get away with it but as soon as Main Teacher came back, those children are getting away with it and in some cases getting worse. What I am thankful for is I'm not the only parent who has noticed this with their child. Otherwise when I came to pick Keree up from school, there was no summary. Keree said that they ate crackers and played outside. More than likely that is probably all they did do. Since coming back from maternity leave, the Main Teacher doesn't want to do anything. As we were leaving, one of the boys who got sick and wasn't able to come, brought Keree her Birthday present. The Mom was super excited and couldn't wait for Keree to open it. Inside her present was a Barbie convertible. Keree thanked them and then asked me if she could open it right now. I told her, she had to wait till we got home. Once we got home, I took a few pictures outside of Keree in her new Rapunzel outfit that her Uncle got her for her birthday. We then headed inside and I let Keree fix her own lunch. She choose salami, square cheese and some applesauce. I then promised Keree that after her nap, she could open her new car. Once she got up, she had a blast putting all the stickers on her car. Because it only fits Barbies and we don't have any, but luckily she got her new Monster High dolls. So right now, Frankiestein is riding in style to the beach. I didn't feel like cooking tonight, so I ordered some pizza. We then spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

President's Day

2011-02-21T19:07:00.001-08:00

This morning, we had to wake Keree up at 730a. From what we knew, they were suppose to have school today to make up a snow day but when we arrived, school was closed. The sad thing, I wasn't the only parent there with their child. So our next stop was suppose to be the bank, there was a huge fiasco over the weekend, they had to cancel our cards because they had been hacked. We were concentrating so much on the fact of everything that happened, that it didn't hit us until we were almost at the bank that it was also closed because of the holiday. We then ran to the store because we really needed a few groceries and Keree wanted to look around to see if she was going to spend anymore of her Birthday gift cards. I was surprised when Keree suddenly spotted a pair of fuzzy jaguar spotted blue pants, blue top and stuffed jaguar. She feel in love with the gift set plus it was on clearance, so that is what Keree decided to spend some of her money on. She looked for a new pair of shoes but didn't find any that she liked. Once we got home from the store, she wanted to change into her new clothes. All day, she kept coming up to us going feel my pants, they are so soft. Keree ended up taking a long nap and even though I had no intention of falling asleep, next think I knew Keree was waking me up. Before we knew it, it was time to leave for cheerleading. I honestly am over this league. Keree is not enjoying it as much as she did with OLPL which makes me sad. The girls on the squad are super cliquey and Keree is treated as the odd girl out even though they preach the whole togetherness and inclusion of the league. When we got home, I fixed Keree a Muffin tin dinner. Since it was Presidents day, I decided to try and go with a Americana theme. So I used baseball themed liners, which I turned inside out so you could see the pictures. I then decided on a Mickey Mouse theme because honestly when I lived overseas everyone equated the USA with Mickey Mouse, Hollywood & New York. So in the first cup is some cheddar Mickey Mouse shaped cheese. The second cup, I cut some hard salami into Mickey Mouse shaped heads. The third cup also contained some mozzarella shaped Mickey Mouse shaped heads. The next row starts with some cherry tomatoes, just because I had them in the fridge. The middle cup then was some cherry yogurt...I was thinking along the line of apple and cherry pie because that's pretty darn American. I needed something for the final cup, so I decided on one of Keree's favorites, green olives. We spent the rest of the evening watching documentaries on tv before finally heading to bed.

The Birthday Party

2011-02-19T23:43:00.000-08:00

This morning, Keree woke up super excited at 4:30am, yep you read that right, 4:30am because number one, her Uncle was home for the weekend and secondly, it was her Birthday party. We didn't know exactly what to expect because we had won her party over the Summer from a Martial Arts dojo. Basically the only thing we had to provide was the drinks and cake but of course we always go a little overboard. Because of the Dojo's schedule, we couldn't have it on her birthday weekend (her birthday is the 28th) because they had a competition. After loading the cars, our first stop was Cheerleading. I had really hoped Keree would nap for a short time on the way there since she had been up so early. She feel asleep for about 10 min but that was it. When we arrived, Keree was ready to cheer. Her Uncle enjoyed watching her and she really loved that he was there just for her. After the game was over, they passed out their stars. Keree was awarded her effort star today. We stopped for a quick lunch before heading over to the Dojo. We got there early but there was no use in heading home before we were allowed to set up. We started setting up at 230p, the Instructors were super helpful and very accommodating. They only had one table, so I was thankful that we had brought ours. After moving the tables to the nicer wall, we placed the table clothes on the tables. The table clothes were white with little pink and red hearts which we got on 90% valentine clearance. We then set up the Rapunzel tower we made with Keree as Rapunzel. On each side of it was the Cupcake cakes. In front of the cakes were 3 little bowls that housed the decorated kisses and a single bowl of spring colored tootsie rolls. On the left end of the table was some Vietnamese coconut cookies (in the bear jar), they are sort of like meringue. On the right end of the table was the basket of decorated water bottles, there was additional decorated water bottles in a box below the table and as it got depleted in the basket, we added more. In the front of the basket was two cupcake boxes, in the boxes were single servings of crystal light and Hawaiian punch to be mixed into the water. On the second table we set out all the gift bags for the guests and the Thank you candy bars. We were so pleased with ourselves when we finished with time to spare. We had planned on taking pictures of Keree by the table, with us, etc. But that plan was spoiled when guests started to arrive almost 25 minutes early. As guests arrived, the Instructors played games with the kids until we gave them the go ahead to begin the Instruction in Karate and Ju-Jitsu (which was about 15 minutes after the party start time). It was amazing to watch the focus and excitement on all the kids faces. They learned 6 key words (please, thank you, your welcome, yes sir, excuse me and I can't remember the last one). They then taught them the ready stance, which was to stand with their hands in a fist by their sides. They then showed them how to place their feet and hands to do a front punch. Finally, they taught them how to correctly high kick. It was so adorable watching all the kids try and to perform the tasks. A few of the kids that are high strung, we were amazed at their complete focus and concentration. After the instruction, we gathered almost all the kids over for a group photo. We were only missing one because he is super shy and the other little girl who is super shy is actually starting to run off in the picture. Otherwise I don't think it's too bad of a picture, most of the kids are looking and some are actually smiling. After the group picture, they gathered the kids around and sang Happy Birthday to Keree. Then as in tradition of their dojo, the Head Instructor walked into a back room and returned with a Samurai sword. He explained that Keree was going to get to cut her cake with the sword. Keree's eyes got super big because this sword was a good foot taller than her. The Head Instructor helped her hold the sword and they slowly made a cut into the cake. I love the pictures of her cutting because she has such determination and concentration. After cake cutting, luckily I had some extra help (thank you G) as we passed out the cupcakes, drinks and drink flavors. I was a little surprised by the parents lack of helping their children carry their cupcakes or mix up their drinks, so again the Instructors stepped in to help. While the children were finishing up their cupcakes, we let Keree start opening her presents. Usually the kids spend at least a 1/2 hr or more eating but they worked up quite an appetite because I swear they all inhaled their cupcakes in less than 5 minutes. Keree actually opened up her presents quite quickly also. She got a wide range of presents mostly Disney Princess related, I was a little shocked that she got nothing Tangled/Rapunzel related. She also got Monster High dolls, Squinkies and Zoobles. Once the presents were open, it was time to play games. The first game to play was spoon balls, basically you place a ball on a spoon and hope it doesn't fall off. Anytime their ball fell off the spoon, they had to start back at the beginning of the race. Keree did so well and she made it completely around the room at a pretty fast pace never once losing her ball off her spoon. After everyone made it around the room and claimed their prize (a piece of candy). It was time for Simon Says. They played 4 rounds of Simons Says and Keree never made it past the 4th or 5th Simon Says command. The final game they played was Duck, Duck, Goose. Some of the younger players weren't sure how to play so anytime they saw someone start running, they started running too. It was hilarious to say the least. After they were done playing, it was time for Keree to say Thank You and then we passed out the treat bags and candy bars. Keree gave most of her friends good-bye hugs, which are always sweet. After we packed up everything, it was then time to head out to eat with my Step-Mom P and her Mom S. We decided to go to O'Charley's because we knew their menu was reasonable and of course they have good bread. I know my Step-Mom wasn't too thrilled because we had my Mom join us but I really don't care. We ordered our food and then just enjoyed visiting together. Keree spent the majority of her time drawing in the menu activity book but after awhile she got hungry. She looked at us and goes "where's are food?". Usually she gets shrimp because she loves it but she surprised me this time by wanting chicken strips. Then after we were finished with dinner, they brought out a slice of turtle pie for Keree's birthday. We sang Happy Birthday to her and then she took a huge bite. She then passed it around and let everyone take one bite but she wasn't going to share any more than a bite. Once we were finished, we headed to our cars. My Step-Mom P didn't bring in Keree's presents, so we stood out in the windy cold and she opened them in the parking lot. Keree was excited because she got a Rapunzel lantern that lights up and plays music, which is fitting since all Rapunzel wants to do is see the mysterious lights on her birthday. My Step-Mom also gave Keree money to buy tickets to a baseball game. The sad thing, is she thought we could buy 3 or 4 tickets and instead, it will barely cover a child's ticket. We finally headed home and even though Keree was tired she didn't go to bed until almost 930p.

Sunny Friday

2011-02-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

This morning Keree was up by 6a, which didn't surprise me. Between her getting within a few inches of my face trying to see if I would wake up and bouncing on the bed....I didn't get any extra sleep time. I've been trying to break the bouncing on the bed habit but it's hard since when she was little we actually encouraged her to jump to her hearts delight because it was good therapy. Thank goodness I did score the mini trampoline last year because Keree loves to jump! So after getting her some breakfast and getting dressed, we headed out to school. After dropping Keree off, we went and picked up the birthday cupcake cakes from Wallymart. I have to say I wasn't too impressed by their work, actually I was downright disappointed. I have always either made my own or only bought last years from Sam$. I've decided that next year we will probably be going back to Sam$ because I know their quality and work. And honestly, the reason why I've bought the last 2 years is because I'm not going to make cupcakes for 50-70 kids and adults. It's a personal preference because it's one less thing I have to worry about. After picking up the cakes, I headed home for a short time and ended up having to handle some business. Since I was stuck on the phone, my Mom ended up picking Keree up from school. When Keree and my Mom got home, I was still stuck on my call. Keree was antsy, so while I talked on the phone, we went outside and she rode her bike up and down the sidewalk. Once I was finally finished, we headed inside, where my Mom told me that she was bombarded with questions on what to get Keree for her birthday. I thought adding helpful hints on the back of the invitation on what Keree liked would help to head off the 100 questions that happened last year. My Mom said that actually quite a few Mom's also go, didn't you read the invitation she's likes anything Disney, games, workbooks, etc. I'm glad that most of the Mom's liked my idea of adding her likes onto the invitation. We spent the rest of the day making sure everything was done, packed and ready for the birthday party tomorrow. It's going to be a crazy day with Cheerleading, Party and then dinner out with my Step-Mom.

More Birthday Prep

2011-02-17T19:45:00.000-08:00

I thought we had been doing so well with Keree sleeping in till 7a or later. I mean it's been almost 2 weeks of all that extra sleep. I was in denial the last 3 days thinking that it was just a fluke because her allergies are hay-wire because of the weather change. But this morning, I faced the fact that we are back to super early morning wake-ups. I don't think I would have been so upset over the sleep but in the last week, I've gotten use to working in to the wee hours and I really appreciate even that extra half-hour of sleep. This morning, I was lucky enough that my Mom made Keree breakfast because unlike most every night, I didn't have Keree's clothes laid out. So as I searched her closet for something to wear in this cold (it's was 30 this morning)/warm (it reached 67 this afternoon) snap, Keree happily crunched on cereal. We headed to school and as now has become usual, only the Asst Teacher acknowledges Keree. I mean, I keep trying to figure out why the Main Teacher is being such a witch. Keree says she won't speak to her at all during class. It's one thing to be mad at my Mom and I because of the comment my Mom made at parent-teacher conference but you don't take it out on the kid. And then I was thinking maybe she's not talking to Keree because we didn't buy her a present for her baby. But hey, we did give her a Christmas ornament and we never did get a Thank you card from her for that either. Sorry, it's just really bugging me. Otherwise, while Keree was in school, I did a little running. I picked up a few more things for the boy treat bags because they seemed to be getting jipped a little compared to the girls bags. After I got home, I worked on printing up the last of the birthday stuff before heading to pick Keree up. We usually meet with the Homeschool teacher today but she never did call. In my experience so far, if they don't call, they don't show up. Because of this, we headed home instead of to the library. A little after 11a, my phone rings and it's the Homeschool teacher. She goes "I'm at the library, where are you?" Umm, you didn't call, so I assumed you won't show up and I'm not going to waste gas with gas prices reaching almost $3.25 a gallon. She was miffed but I really don't care. Keree is way above their current curriculum and though they promised me that they would advance the curriculum, they haven't. The only reason we are still participating is because Keree does enjoy it. Keree did get to play outside for a short time, she enjoyed riding her bike up and down the sidewalk before we headed inside. Our afternoon and into the evening was filled with Birthday preparations. I figured out that this party is costing me around $157 but you also have to consider that so far we have over 52 confirmed people being there. So that's about $3 a person. Which in the ground scheme, that's pretty cheap. I was hoping for around $1.50 a person but I did splurge on a couple of things that I thought was cool like Tangled candy and all of the girls are getting a handful of bows made by me. Which I guess if I did my calculations on how much they actually cost me to make instead of the price I charge, I would probably be close to $2 a person. We ended our evening by calling my Brother. He's coming in this weekend for Keree's birthday. The main reason I called was to remind him to bring his camera (also good to have another person taking pics) and my Dad's will (since I can't find my copy anywhere). Of course, Keree had to get on the phone and talk also. She was telling him all about the crown she made for KittyKitty. Which cracked me up because up until now, Keree says Kitty Kitty is her son but since he was wearing a princess crown, he is now a girl. I know a few people who wish it was that easy to change your gender. I'm off to bed, hoping she'll sleep in but knowing more than likely I'll be up hours before the sun.

RSVP deadline

2011-02-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

This morning Keree was up before 5a. I hate waking up before the sun, I tried to convince her to sleep a little longer but no luck. Then when it was time to get dressed and go to school, she grabs her cover and goes "I'm tired." Of course in my infinite Mom wisdom, I go, "too bad, get up now, you know you should have went back to sleep when I told you too." Yep, I was grumpy and tired. I dropped Keree off at school and then did some birthday running. I decided to peruse the Valentine's day clearance to see what I could find for the treat bags. I was surprised that I did find a few things but then I decided to venture into the Birthday aisle. I was shocked to find, they actually had Tangled plates, cups and plates (I went with plain white and pink/yellow/green napkins because it was cheaper). There was nothing else Tangled except on the bottom shelf was a bag of candy. It was to be used to fill a pinata but everything was branded with Tangled, Rapunzel, Flynn, Pascal and Maximus. I was so excited and then I spotted the price. WOW! Now so far, I've been super frugal with the whole party. Everything I have bought besides the cakes and drinks were on super clearance. The rest of the stuff, I've been handmaking to put the personalized touches on everything. So I did it, I bought a bag of Tangled candy for $6. In the grand scheme, it's not that bad, each piece of candy is worth 14 cents and seeing Keree's face when she saw the bag of Tangled candy. Well, it was way worth the 600 pennies. After picking Keree up from school, we headed home. Since it was so gorgeous, I decided to open up the garage and get Keree's bike out. She was giddy with excitement, I'm not sure how many times she went up and down the sidewalk but eventually she stopped because she said her foot hurt. I'm know this cold weather has been rough on her polio because she's just not using her leg as much as she does when it's warm. During the winter, I can stretch her foot and we can exercise but it's just not as good as being outside and playing all day. Once we headed inside, of course we worked on Birthday stuff. I really wasn't in the mood, so I wasn't being that productive. Today was also the RSVP deadline. So far we have 23 kids and 26 adults, for a grand total of 49. We also have 16 kids we haven't heard from so don't know if they will show up or not. Now, I did decide to make up a few extra bags of treats. The extra bags don't have hardly anything in them but hey at least they are getting something. Now those who RSVP'd there bags are packed with tons and tons of fun goodies and treats. Otherwise, we ended our evening with Wednesday night tv. Keree was so excited to see baby Lily's birthday on Modern family tonight because "that means we were both born in February and we were both born in Vietnam." Oh and I almost forgot today Keree got her Valentine's day card from her YeYe and Great-Great. Inside the card was a red balloon, which she enjoyed so much blowing it up and then letting the air out.

Happy Friend Day

2011-02-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

Oh, I mean Happy Valentine's day. Keree's school is a little crazy and they don't believe in Valentine's day, so they call it Friend day. Yet, they exchange a single Valentine with another child in the school. I have to say I'm a little sad that there is no making valentine day cards, making treats or even a school party. I have to say I'm looking forward to her trying at least Kindergarten in a public school just for the parties. Anyway, it was the first day back for the Main Teacher from maternity leave. When we walked in, Keree looked at me and whispered "there's the main teacher" and she grabbed onto my leg. I told her that it was ok, how fun that the main teacher was back but she was still apprehensive about me leaving. I know she would be ok because Asst Teacher was there and of course I knew they had their Valentine, I mean Friend day cards to find. Each child gets to hide their Friend card they make (Keree hid hers in the puzzle rack). Then they go into a different classroom and search for a Friend card. Which ever one you find, that is your card. Keree's card was from a little girl in the red room. Since I got my errands done early, I decided to pick Keree up early from school just because I could. When we got home, we took a few pictures outside (can't believe it's in the 50's, it's so warm). My Mom and I then gave Keree her Valentine's day presents from us and she gave us the heart shaped cards she made at school. We headed inside for a short time and I got to work on Keree's Valentine's Muffin tin. In the first cup, I tried to make some cherry tomato hearts, needless to say they didn't work out. Then next cup is cherry yogurt, again I tried to make a heart shape with the sprinkles but when it didn't work, I just added more sprinkles. By the way, I love these sprinkles. When I was in the Netherlands, anytime breakfast was served, so were the sprinkles. You place them on buttered toast. They are so flavorful and I was so thankful to have found them at Jungle Jims, the last time I was visiting my Brother. In the next cup is some Star fruit. This is the first time we had tried it and it was so good. We will be buying it again. In the start of the second row, the first cup holds some venison beef sticks. My plan was to make them into hearts but when that didn't happen, I just tossed them in there. The second cup is a hunk of muenster cheese, that I shaped into a heart. I thought for sure I had a heart shaped cutter but no such luck, so free hand it was. The final cup is some cherries. Keree loves cherries and they are red, so they were perfect for Valentine's day. After Keree devoured her entire tin, she laid down for a nap. While she was napping, I worked on stuff for her Birthday. Which is a whole 'nother post of why I feel I need to over-achieve when it comes to Keree's Birthday parties but I am do some awesome things. After she got up, we made a few calls and wished family Happy Valentine's day. Then it was off to cheerleading practice. I have to say I've had some really mixed feelings with this league. Because of that, I'm seriously considering letting her start in Competition Cheerleading next year. The only reason I've held off before now is because of the financial aspects of it. But I also know how incredible happy it would make her....Decisions, Decisions.

Ruined Head

2011-02-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

Our day was pretty plain and lazy. It was super cold yet again, so we spent the majority of our day in our pajamas. Heck, I didn't even get the camera out the entire time. I spent my afternoon and evening working on stuff for Keree's birthday party which is next Saturday (her actual birthday is on the 28th). So while I was working on some of the stuff on the computer, Keree was standing in her chair right next to me. She asked me when was her party and I say "It's on Sunday." I stop and pause and go "that's not right, I mean Saturday. Your party is on Saturday." Keree looks at me with pity, starts patting my head and goes "that's ok Momma, I know you ruined your brain a long time ago." Oh, my dear, sweet daughter.

Start of a new week

2011-02-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

Keree didn't want to get up this morning and neither did I but since it's been over a week since she was at school, I decided we really needed to get up and go. When we got there, everyone was happy to see her back. Which I found funny because they had been out for 3 days because of the weather and we only missed one day because of her Doctor's appointments. After stuffing her coat in her backpack (a new drop-off rule), I helped her climb up the steps to the sink and wash her hands. While she was at school, I headed home to work on a few things. I also had to get an order sent. When I picked Keree up, the summary said that the Assistant Teacher weighed the children and the kids tried to guess how much they weighed before they stepped on the scale. The Asst. Teacher told me that when Keree stepped on the scale, she was too light and it refused to register her weight. So after the teacher checking to see if it was working. They devised a plan to weigh Keree. The Asst Teacher picked up Keree and then they both stepped on the scale. They then subtracted the Asst Teacher weight and came up with Keree's. She weighed 25 lbs and she weighs less than everyone in her class. Which actually surprised the Teacher's because there is another little girl who is Asian in her class and she was 5lbs heavier than Keree and that little girl has been sick for almost a month. Once we had lunch, Keree took a short nap and then it was time for Cheer practice. Of course, right before we headed out it started to snow. I was so thankful they didn't cancel it because they have only had 2 practice (we missed one during my Grandma's death) and this was practice #3. They learned 4 new cheers and 2 new chants. They decided that at this weeks game all the little ones will stand in the back. Seriously, I mean you can see from the picture that Keree's a good foot or more shorter than the rest of the girls. How am I even going to see my daughter during the game on Saturday? After practice was finished, Keree then handed out birthday invitation to all the girls on her squad. It was so adorable seeing her pass them out and I really wish I would have thought about snapping a picture of it. Once we got home, Keree was ready for bed and I worked on the computer till it was later than I expected. I'm really starting to think that having a computer in the bedroom isn't a good thing because I want to stay up.

Super Bowl Sunday

2011-02-06T21:36:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning, super excited. Of course in my house, I'm the only one who was thrilled that today was the Super Bowl. Yes, I wish my hometown team would have been one of the teams playing but instead I was just as excited to watch the Packers and Steelers. I have to say I was torn, I have loved the Packers for as long as I can remember (I even own a cheese wedge hat and yes I do sometime wear it) but the Steelers had also over the years grabbed a piece of my heart. And as long as they weren't playing my Team, I rooted for them. So I decided I would be happy with whoever won. Now my Mom, there was no way she was going to watch the game and so she went upstairs to work. But Keree, she was old enough to watch the game this year with me and she did. Now I did occasionally flip up to animal planet and let her watch a few seconds of the Puppy bowl and because of her love of kittys, we did watch the Kitty Half-time show. But all in all, she watched the game, she asked questions and I'm thinking next year, she'll be just as excited as me for the Super Bowl. Now every year, we usually have a host of dips and chips to eat for lunch and dinner but this year I decided I wanted pizza. So Keree and I made a pizza and then decided to make a dessert pizza to enjoy during the game. I gotta say our s'mores pizza was awesome. We made a basic pizza crust, I then mixed a half-stick of butter, graham crackers and a little brown sugar together and spread it on the crust. I then added chocolate chips, which since I didn't have enough added a few cherry chips too. Then topped it all off with mini-marshmallows. Baked at 425 and presto! It was so good, a little sweeter than I really wanted but it was nice and ooeey and gooey. After we watched the Packers win the Super bowl and the presentation of the Vince Lombardi Trophy. We finished our evening by watching Cars before heading to bed.

Snow Again

2011-02-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

This morning, we woke to it snowing, yet again. The weather people last night said it would be maybe nothing to a dusting. Well when I opened my eyes and checked outside, we already had 7" and it was still snowing heavily. Keree spent her morning watching Saturday morning cartoons and I watched the snow fall outside the window. I was pretty sure that they would be calling off the games today and it took till almost 945am for the Coach to call and say it was canceled. I told her that I had already assumed it was because how much snow we had and how it hadn't stopped. What I didn't say was and you guys cancel even at the mention of bad weather, when it's still perfectly nice outside. Needless to say, it continued to snow all day. We pretty much stayed in our pajamas all day long. We watched movies, worked in some workbooks, read a few books and just relaxed. Heck, I didn't even take any pictures today. Even though I enjoyed today getting to cuddle with my Keree, I really am looking forward to some warmer weather.

Hospital Visits

2011-02-04T16:34:00.000-08:00

After being iced and snowed in this entire week, today we had to make these appointments. Our day was consumed with visits to the specialists at two hospitals. We got up and out of the house at 6a and still ended up being almost 15 minutes late for our 8a appointment at Children's. Luckily, there was tons of cancellations so it wasn't held against us. I expected that they would take new x-rays and pictures but they decided since it had been only 6 mos, that those would do. We were seen again by a different intern but at least our Main Doc stays the same. When he came in, he said that there was no explanation why Keree's good knee keeps locking and since she's not in tremendous pain, he wasn't ordering an MRI just yet. Not exactly what I was wanting to hear but I know he doesn't want to put her thru needless testing when she's already been thru enough. He did mention that we are looking at surgery probably sometime this year but he's going to try waiting until he really has to do the surgery. He said that Keree's heel cord is way to tight and has to be cut, thus requiring surgery. Basically the surgery would allow the heel cord to lengthen. I'm not too sure yet if we will go through with it but honestly I trust this Doctor, his opinion and really feel he has Keree's best interest at heart. So after all the fun there, we then headed over to Shriner's. We weren't seeing her doctor but she was needing some major adjustments on her brace straps. The day we picked up her new brace in December, I knew we were going to have to come back because the Tech just wouldn't listen when I said that the straps she put on wouldn't work. Now the Tech we worked with today is one of the Head Big Wigs. I was excited that he was working with us but at first he treated me like I was stupid and didn't know how to put on her brace. So I humored him and then started to point out everything that was wrong. That's when he realized it wasn't our first brace and that I was right about the straps not holding her right. After some talking and suggestions, he went back to make the corrections. Once he was done, he came back and it fit alot better. He wanted us to walk around for 10-15 minutes to see if she had any complaints but we knew if there was no complaints in the first 5 minutes we were good. So once we were done, we headed home. Keree was exhausted so she spent the rest of the day resting.

More Ice, Snow and more Snow

2011-02-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

Well this morning, we woke up to find 3 more inches of ice and almost 8" of snow on the ground. I couldn't believe it. I was also thankful that when I woke up this morning at 4am, that Keree pre-school was listed as being canceled. So after we all got up, I sat out to find some super warm clothes for all of us. I headed outside to try and scrap off some of the ice on our sidewalk and to try and start the car. Even though I told Keree to stay inside the warmer rooms, she decided to watch from the door. So before heading back in, I grabbed Keree and snapped this quick photo outside. Of course because of the weather, we spent the entire day inside. Keree spent her day either playing with Rapunzel, doing work books or drawing in her notebook. Right when it hit noon, it suddenly started snowing again. What was ironic about it all, was the Weather guy goes "all the snow and ice has moved out of our region and we are all clear." It was so funny because the snow that started at noon, added an additional 7" to our totals. Once it finally stopped snowing, I headed outside to walk our entire property. I wanted to make sure there was no damage and of course I wanted to take a few more pictures. I couldn't believe how cold it was outside. By the time I reached the half-way mark around the acreage, I was frozen. I couldn't believe how cold my feet was. Once I was back inside, I spent my evening working on bows. I can't believe how many bows types I sold last weekend and I really need to build up my inventory again. Also since it was Wednesday, we finished our evening with tv.

Icepocalypse & Butter Steak

2011-02-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

For the past 3 days all they have talked about was the incoming Blizzard. The news had people convinced that they were going to lose power, wouldn't be able to get out of their houses for days and of course starve to death. There was bare store shelf's because people seemed to be preparing for the end of the world. Now, I did head out in the craziness but we truly needed groceries. When the storm finally arrived today, 80% of the area saw little to nothing. Then there was people like us that got almost 5" of sleet, along with almost 2" of ice. I am thankful for once that Keree's school did close, so she had her 2nd snowday of the year. We are lucky to have never lost power, so far. We did lose our tv for about 9 hrs and internet for about 4 hrs. Because I wasn't sure if we were going to lose our power and I'm still not so sure, I decided not to waste our wood and start a fire, since we could stay warm with space heaters. We ended up spending the majority of our day in the bedroom. I dragged Keree's Rapunzel table in here, along with her Rapunzel mini tower and all the Rapunzel guys she got at Christmas. So, she spent almost her entire day playing with her toys. When she finally did get bored, which was after her nap and dinner, she drew pictures and wrote stories. Since, I didn't really feel like cooking, I had decided while shopping yesterday that I was going to fix a couple crock-pot recipes over the next couple of days. You see, the night I found out my Grandma had passed away, I couldn't sleep. So, I spent my entire night and into the next morning, reading and researching recipes. I saved the ones that sounded tasty and I was extremely excited to try Butter Steak. So, since I've also been in a funk, I decided to try the Tried-it Tuesday. So here is the recipe for Butter Steak. You take 3 lbs of stew meat, I used a lean trimmed stew meat, 4 sticks of butter and 2 envelopes of dry onion soup mix. I combined that all in my crock pot and set it to high. I decided to cook at high (4hrs) instead of low for 8 hrs because of the thought we may lose power and this way it would be done by lunchtime. So, when lunch rolled around and we still had power, I dropped the crock pot setting to low and just let it keep slowly cooking until 4p. Before serving, I cooked up a package of medium egg noodles. Drained them and then added them to the crock pot. Stirred it all up and served. It was amazing. Now, I did add some weber chicago steak seasoning because I thought it need a little kick. Keree ate a huge bowl of it, with no extras and so did my Mom. It was such a hit that this is now going to be a regular meal in our house. Plus there was plenty of leftovers for lunch and dinner tomorrow. As for me, I spent my day working on korker bows. I had made up a ton of korked ribbon almost a year ago and I lost the box it was in. A few weeks ago, I re-found the box, so I'm trying to get a whole bunch made up for upcoming shows. And as soon as I post this, I'm headed to bed. I'm so exhausted. I was trying to stay up to see if Keree's school was called off tomorrow. They are advising us to stay off the roads because we will have bad weather till 1p or later tomorrow. All the other schools are closed already in the two counties but not Keree's. I bet 10 to 1, that they will go against common sense and still have school instead of thinking about safety.

Belated Birthday

2011-01-31T20:39:00.000-08:00

Since we didn't get to celebrate my Birthday on Saturday, we decided to have a belated Birthday celebration. After dropping Keree off at school, we braved the droves of people, who were also out trying to stock up for the incoming "Blizzard". We actually try to do our grocery shopping on Monday morning because there is no crowd and usually there are some great manager specials. Needless to say, my Mom and I tried to grab what we needed quickly, so we could get out of the craziness. Now, I was disappointed (ok, I really was crushed) because when I went to pick my Birthday cake out of the freezer, they didn't have my traditional Carvel Snicker Football cake. We decided after standing in the check-out line for almost an hour, that we would try one more store (actually it's where I have bought it every year since it became a tradition). I was so excited, they had 2 left in their freezer section. So, I grabbed it and again had to stand in a super long check-out line. Right as I was heading out, it started raining, freezing rain. Luckily, it was almost time to pick Keree up from school, so at least I wasn't having to pull her out early to beat the weather home. The summary at school said that they talked about families, how we are the same and different, read a book on snow and told us to check the tv for school closures. When we got home, we decided to move the computer into the bedroom, that way we could hunker down into two rooms, if the storm gets really bad. Keree spent her afternoon and evening writing, drawing and doing workbooks. For dinner tonight, I fixed broccoli cheddar soup. I wanted the ease of cooking, so it was from a powdered mix and honestly, I wasn't a fan of it. I guess, I'm starting to become a from-scratch snob. After dinner, it was onto dessert. I was so excited for my Snicker football ice cream cake. It started as a tradition 4 yrs ago, when I spotted it in a grocery store ad. We were really tight on money that year and I decided that all I wanted was that cake. I didn't think I was going to get it but at the last moment, my Mom surprised me with it. Since then, I look forward to my Birthday and Super Bowl. Because of course my cake is made in honor of the Super Bowl. Until you eat it, you just can't describe how amazing it is. It's funny because it's not only me who looks forward to it, so does my Mom and Keree. So, I savored every bite I took tonight of my Football Birthday cake.

Another Heartbreaking Loss....

2011-01-22T19:38:00.000-08:00

Our day started out well, we took our time getting up out of bed and then slowly got dressed. We got there in plenty of time to gather outside in the hallway since the other teams were still playing. Once it was over, I accompanied my girl over to the sideline with the rest of her squad, I felt like some kind of over protective Mom. But seriously, she couldn't carry both her megaphone and pompoms by herself, so of course Momma is gonna help. So once I got her settled, I headed over to my seat. We scored prime seats directly across from the girls, too bad the lighting was shotty and I was shooting across a gym, so my pictures are funky looking. After the basketball players played 4 - 6 minute quarters, all the while the girls either cheering or chanting on the sidelines. It was then time for the girls. They announced each of the girls names over the intercom and they got to run out to center court. Then they performed one cheer and ran back to the sidelines so the basketball game to continue. After that, their was 2 more 6 minute quarters before the game was over and all the children gather in the other room to awarded with one of 5 colored stars. Keree earned her Spirit star this week (which is gold) because she did such a great job leading the girls in cheers. After the game was finished, we headed off for a few errands (needed to make the car payment) and since it was almost 2p, we picked up some lunch. Once we got home, both Keree and I laid down for a nap. She was exhausted and was starting to get really grouchy. I didn't think I was tired but before I knew it, I was asleep too. In my drowsiness, I heard the phone ring but decided it could wait till after I woke up because nobody wants to talk to me in a half-sleep stoper. When I woke up, I had totally forgotten the phone had rang, so I didn't check it right away. We had been up for about a 1/2 hr at that point, when suddenly I remembered the phone rang. I checked the id and it was a call from my Grandma's house. I was a little perplexed because she never calls me, I mean once in a blue moon (4 times in the last 6 yrs) she would call but usually I am always the one who initiated the call first. So I decided to check messages and it was from my Uncle T. I knew then that something horrible had happened. My Uncle T has not spoken to me since July 9, 2003, the day of my Grandpa's funeral. Before then, we had been close, we spent various holidays together, he was the first to reach out to us when my parents divorced, so losing him and his wife was hard. I paced back and forth not wanting to make the call, I thought I knew what he was going to say but I was in denial about it. I finally got up the courage and when the call started, he was being so formal, like I was a client or something. I just let him talk because of course I was crying on the opposite end of the phone. I think when I finally did speak and he heard the crack in my voice, suddenly I wasn't the enemy, I was just his niece, the oldest and only granddaughter who was just told her Grandma had died. He told me, she had passed on peacefully in her sleep. I was thankful because she had always told me that she wanted to die in her house, in her bed and in her sleep. He asked me if I wanted to call my Brother or did I want him too. Of course, there was no way in h*ll I was letting him break the news to my Brother. He gave me a quick run down on what he was planning and we said our good-byes. I sat there staring at my Mom with Keree sitting on her lap and then, I just broke down again. I told my Mom that there was no way I could call my Brother and begged her to call. My Mom knew my Brother was already having a bad day, so she didn't want to call either. So while she called, Keree crawled up on my lap. I was waiting to tell Keree the day of the funeral that Grandma had passed but she over heard my Mom. She looked at me and bluntly asked "Grandma passed on, so that means she's dead (said with some urgency in her voice), did they put her in the ground and put dirt on her?" So, I told her that yes, Grandma passed away and she's in heaven now. I told her that we would go to the church for a funeral, her body would be in a box called a casket and then they would bury her, but she's in heaven. She looked at me and just goes, ok. The rest of the night, I had a wide range of emotions. I can't sleep and my stomach is in knots over how this funeral will play out because this side of my family is so splintered.

Parent School Visit

2011-01-21T20:51:00.000-08:00

This morning, even though our roads were horrific because they weren't clear yet, we still had to head out. We had to meet Keree's cheer coach to pick up her skort for tomorrow's game. Of course, they weren't able to get her the size we ordered, so it's still way too big. So, we slowly made our way to the gas station where we were meeting her and since we were already that far out, we decided to go ahead and head into school for the Parent's visit. Honestly, we wouldn't have ventured out and tempted fate on sliding off the road and crashing, but we had to pick up Keree's skort. Once we arrived at school, they were all amazed we actually made it in. I agreed with them that the roads were awful but we had to be out anyway, so that's the only reason we made it in. When there was about 4 sets of parents there, they explained that we were suppose to move around to each station and perform whatever the activity was. Since we were nearest the reading table, that is where we started. I had just started reading Keree the first page of the book Let it snow and there was a swarm a kiddos around us. So, I ended up reading to not only Keree but about 4 other kids. Once we finished our book, we headed over to the drawing table. There Keree was to draw a picture with chalk of a winter scene. Her first picture was of herself ice skating and a snowman. To set the chalk, you then spray it with hairspray (which was just messy). We were then headed to our next station but it was packed, so we decided to draw another winter picture. Finally, a space opened up at the next and final station. So we read the instructions and got to work. We were to make a snowman out of a rice cake, cream cheese, raisins, cheerios and carrot. The cream cheese was still hard, so the kids had a rough time spreading it out but eventually Keree got the hang of it. When she was finished, I couldn't believe how cute the snowman had turned out. Of course the best part was when she got to eat it. She was about half way through eating it, when the Teacher called them all over to the carpet to recite a snowman poem called My Snowman. It went "I make a snowman when it snows. I use a carrot for his nose. I put a hat upon his head. I give him mittens, blue and red. I give him raisins for his smile. Then I leave and play a while. When I come back, his face looks funny. His nose was eaten by a bunny." After they recited their poems, they sang the snowman song. It was really cute and I'm so glad I flipped the camera over to video. After they were finished, they were released back to the last station they were at. Keree decided she was finished eating, so I told her I would take the rest of her snowman home. She saw that the computer was free, so she quickly raced over there before someone else got on. Before I left, I did drag her away for one last picture, which was with the snowman that the class made together out of paper mache. Keree has been giving us updates about it every time she's at school. We left for a short time and ran a few errands. We ended up picking her up early, which was ok because all they were doing was watching video books. When we got home, Keree spent her afternoon drawing before it was finally time for a nap. I was planning on working during Keree's nap, got all my work out and the next thing I know, Keree was waking me up and almost 2 hrs had passed. Once we were up, it was a little before dinner time, so I made cheese stuffed shells. It really hit the spot and I really wish I had made more than I did, because it really hit the spot. We ended our night with making another batch of snow ice cream. It was good but not as good as last night. We discovered that you can't use a cheap brand of sweetened condensed milk because there is a big taste difference than name brand. Otherwise, its suppose to be another super cold night (below zero) mixed with a few inches of snow. Sorry the pictures aren't that great but for some reason the camera was acting up and I didn't realize it until I was downloading them at home.

Hump Day

2011-01-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

This morning, I think it took every ounce of energy I had to get out of bed and then get Keree to school. Keree, well she could have stayed home but she when I picked her up, she was happy that she went. The summary said that they decorated their snowman, read a few books about snow and talked about the activities they are doing for the parents morning on Friday. After we picked up Keree, we ran to the grocery store since we are suppose to be getting a huge snow storm starting this evening, into tomorrow. I'm glad we did stop because we really didn't have anything in the house to eat other than canned soup and honestly you can only eat so much of it. When we got home, I did some work and Keree played with her toys. We ate a quick lunch and then laid down. Yep, I'm still fighting this cough and though it's not getting worse, it's not getting better. When we got up, Keree and I fixed dinner. Before settling in for the night, Keree was drawing pictures and writing stories to go with it. I was amazed when I looked to see what Keree had wrote and drew. She wrote "Once upon a time there was a girl she let down her hair it was Rupunzel." I don't think that's too bad for only being 4 that she only mispelled Rapunzel. So for the rest of the evening, we cuddled in for a night of wednesday shows on tv. Before heading to bed, we checked outside to see how much snow had already fallen. We were surprised that there was already at least an inch on the ground.

Errands

2011-01-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Well today, Keree didn't have school, they were off for something called school improvement day? Since the roads were finally clear, we ventured out and took my Mom to her appointment. Because the place was so crowded, Keree and I opted to sitting in the car, while she was inside. We drew, watched the traffic and talked about how much snow is still on the ground. When we got home, we took an early nap because this evening my Brother is heading into town for the weekend. We are all excited because this weekend we get to use our Christmas present, which was passes to the Cards Winter Warm-up. More than anything, I think we are excited just to spend time together as a family of 4. Keree misses her Uncle so much that it almost makes me want to sell everything and move closer to him. Once my Brother got home, we spent our evening helping pack everything we are taking this weekend, making a plan on who's autographs we were getting and just spending time together.

Unofficial Snow Day

2011-01-11T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well this morning, we woke up to about 6" of snow on the ground. So, before waking Keree up, I sat there and watched the school closings on the bottom of the tv screen. I watched it go completely thru 3 times because I couldn't believe that Keree's school wasn't closed. The elementary and high schools were closed in the area but not the pre-school. Seriously, my road hadn't even been touched by the plows yet and I was pretty sure that most other country road hadn't been either. I wasn't willing to risk crashing or sliding off the road into the ravine with a creek at the bottom, so Keree stayed home. So with every snow, all Keree has been wanting to do was go sledding. And honestly it hasn't worked out for us to go sledding, so today was the day. We have a small inclined hill behind our pine trees, so I dug Keree's sled out of the garage and we walked the 1/2 acre or so to arrive at our small hill. I told Keree that I would give her a push from the top of the hill but she was in charge of dragging the sled back up the hill once she came to a stop. After, about her 20th time sledding down the hill, my Mom finally joined us. So that meant I got to stand at the bottom of the hill and try to catch some cute pictures. I lost count after awhile how many times Keree drug her sled up the hill and then sledded down. Finally, it was getting colder and Keree's hands were getting super cold, so we headed closer to the house. Of course, she had to throw a few handful of snows before heading inside. Once we were inside, we spent the rest of the day staying warm. We worked on a few workbooks, drew a few pictures and played. We kept a look-out also for the snowplows but even at 10p at night, they still haven't cleaned off our roads. I'm thinking there's a good chance I will be keeping Keree home tomorrow from school also.

Snowman

2011-01-10T22:21:00.000-08:00

This morning after dropping Keere off at school, I ran to the store to pick up a few food items since we are suppose to have a snow storm moving in super late tonight. When I came to pick Keree up, the summary said that they worked on making a paper mache snowman and talked about how to make a snowman. When Keree came out, she said that the Teacher called her up front of class and they read what her shirt said. Who would have thought I would pick out the perfect shirt for today. Keree was also excited because she drew a baseball snowman for Uncle. After a low-key afternoon, Keree put herself down for a nap and actually fell asleep by herself. While she was sleeping, her Cheer coach called around 4p and they canceled practice this evening because of the weather. WTH, the bad weather isn't even suppose to move in till after 10p tonight. I couldn't believe it, when Keree woke up, I told her practice was canceled and she was beyond disappointed. This evening, I made do is yourself pizzas. I used harvest wheat thin bread for the crust and we weren't disappointed. I love the taste of their bread and I love that it's so freakin' skinny, Keree will eat it. We ended our night by going outside because the Weatherpeople said it was beginning to snow, so Keree and I was going to catch a few snowflakes on our tongues before bed. When we got outside it was sleeting instead of snowing and frigid cold, so we didn't stay out long, because we didn't have our coats on. With 5+" of snow coming, I'm thinking snow day for tomorrow.

Pancake Sunday

2011-01-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

We all woke up feeling awful. Between Keree and I's cough and whatever bug my Mom caught, we were miserable. By the time we drug ourselves out of bed, we decided to fix pancakes. That way it would fill us up enough and we wouldn't have to fix lunch. So after eating brunch, we lounged around and watched a few movies, before it was time for a nap. Since I was working on a few things, my Mom and Keree laid down. They slept almost 3hrs before finally getting up. After Keree woke up, she spent almost the entire rest of the night playing dress-up with her kitty cats. She was having so much fun and she thought it was so funny how she put Big Kitty-Kitty in the red dress. We headed to bed early since none of us was feeling too our hottest.

New Squad

2011-01-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

We slept in a little this morning, well if you can call 745a, sleeping in. We took our time getting going and before we knew it, it was time to head to Cheer practice. We had never been to this school before, so I looked up the directions ahead of time. Well, what the Coach failed to tell me is that there are 2 schools with the same name on the same road. How screwed up is that? After some drama, we finally got there. I have to say, I was a little disappointed because she was suppose to be on a Kindergarten team, instead her team is mixed with K-2nd graders. The practice went well, the spent the majority of the time learning each other names, they then learned a few simple moves (which Keree already knew) and then they learned one very simple cheer. Honestly, they could have learned quite a few of them but I guess the Coach wanted to take it slow. At the end of practice, they handed out there box, which was filled with their uniform, pompoms, etc. At the last minute, I decided to check Keree's box. They gave her the correctly sized top but not the right size skirt. I couldn't believe it because there's no way she can wear the YS that they gave her. The skirt goes down to her ankles. So, the Coach took the skirt and said she was going to get us the YXS she needs. We also ordered the turtleneck, which we ordered the smallest one they offered and we couldn't believe how big it was on her. Were not sure what we can do to shrink it. When we got home, I spent the evening working on fluffing her pompoms. Never in my life would I have thought it would take almost 2 hours to fluff one side. Needless to say, I didn't finish them before heading to bed.

Friday

2011-01-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

It was quite a feat getting out of the house this morning, Keree didn't want to go to school. But finally we were out the door and gone. When I dropped her off, she wasn't too thrilled to go in but I could see why because it was total chaos. I mean I'm thrilled that we aren't having to deal with the daily drama of the Main Teacher but the Substitute Teacher seems to be being steamed rolled. When I picked Keree up, the summary said that they read a few books and played with puzzles. Keree now, she was hilarious. As we walked out to the car,she closed her eyes and tried to catch snowflakes. Then when we got home, she was walking around the yard trying to do the same thing. Since it was snowing so hard, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening inside. The ground was so warm that they snow never did stick. Which was a bummer because they estimated if it had stuck, it would have been about 8". So since we were stuck inside, we spent our time working on workbooks, puzzles and coloring. For dinner, I fixed roast beef and mashed potatoes. It tasted so good, even though I'm still battling this cough.

Three Kings Day

2011-01-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

This morning, we woke up to the morning news telling us that our local gas station (a few miles from our house) was robbed last night. I honestly have to say it was very unsettling to hear but with the economy the way it is around here, it doesn't surprise me. Thank goodness no one was hurt. After getting Keree up and going, we headed off to school. After dropping her off and heading home, it was time to work on getting the tree, holiday decorations and cards taken down. Today is Three Kings day which means the official end to Christmas, today is the day that the 3 Kings reached the Manger to bestow their gifts on the holy child. We don't mark they day with festivities or presents like other cultures, but we do follow the tradition of taking down the decorations. Before I knew it, it was time to pick Keree up. I ended up running almost 8 min late to pick her up. But luckily, they were running late yet again in releasing them. Keree and I, peacefully walked out to the car because we were meeting with our Homeschool teacher today and needed to hurry because we didn't want to be late. Of course, I'll just add this side note in, when class releases and the kids walk out the front door, most of them go nuts. They run away from their parents, run out into the parking lot with no cares, up/down this hill and some even bolt into the street. And when their parents finally pick them up, there is usually tons of kicking, screaming and tantrums involved. It's just chaos and they always comment how good Keree is because she holds me hand and we walk peacefully away from that place. Well right as we get to the van, I open the door to let Keree climb in and into her seat and she yells bye to "that one girl". I left Keree's door open, as I opened my front door and I turn around to find "that one girl" climbing into my car. I tell her nicely that we need to go and she needs to get out. Needless to say, she keeps climbing. Her Grandma (who has custody of her) comes over and goes, "That one girl, come on, you have to get out of Keree's car". That one girl, is stomping back and forth the length of my van chanting "I'm going home with Keree." Her Grandma was like, "look you gotta come on, I've got stuff to do." And she's reaching over Keree, who was nicely sitting in her car seat, trying to grab her. I was like look "That one Girl, we gotta go, we have an appointment and I'm gonna be late." I was getting pissed and I was about to push the Grandma out of the way and grab that little girl out of my car. Seriously, WTH! Just as that was all going to happen, That One Girl, gets site of my face and I mouth "get out now." I don't know if she understood that or she could see the fury on my face but she got out. Her Grandma apologized again and I couldn't say anything back. I can't believe you can't teach this child manners, you don't climb into someones car, crawl all over and act a fool. So after strapping Keree in, I hurried off to our appointment. Luckily, she was running late, so she had no idea, we weren't there on time. Our session today was on tools and jobs done with tools. Keree did build this amazing tower with foam alphabet letters and pegs. Some of our time was spent counting, sorting and patterns. Of course, Keree flew threw everything she had planned and so we had over 40 minutes left to waste. We read some books, wrote words and talked. I'm hoping she realizes, she will need to add a few more activities into our sessions, because so far our sessions always end with lots of extra time. When we got home, it was after 1p. We took a few more decorations down, before it was nap time. Keree amazingly fell asleep but of course, my cough wouldn't let me rest, so I just sat there watching tv. Once she woke up and she ate dinner, we spent the rest of the evening working on workbooks before finally heading to bed.

Back to school

2011-01-05T18:38:00.000-08:00

Keree didn't want to get up this morning at all. But finally after we were up, dressed, slice of cheese for breakfast (hey, I know I'm not gonna win Mom of the year), we were headed to the car. Luckily, once we were at school, she was kind of excited, especially when the computer wasn't being used. Of course, as soon as she got over there to play on it, she was told it was broke. I swear that computer is always broke whenever my daughter wants to get on it but seriously that's probably a post for another day. So, when I came to pick Keree up, there was no summary and they weren't in the classroom. They ended up going outside and actually released the kids to us almost 15 minutes late. Seriously, if we were 15 minutes late, they would have called the police to come pick up our kids but sure, they can release them late without a blink of an eye. So during that 15 minute wait, a Mom who has never talked to me, has avoided me like the plague and actually treated both me and my daughter quite awful, started to talk to me. Acting like she had never done anything, acting like I was her long lost friend, it was just plain weird. Since there was no summary, I asked Keree what they did at school today. She said that their new Teacher (the Main Teacher is on maternity leave) pretended to be a weather girl because the new pattern on their calendar was going to be about Weather. Keree said it was hilarious, otherwise, they played outside and she drew a picture. When we got home, we ate lunch, we drew pictures and I helped my Mom navigate some blog stuff. Which still cracks me up she's asking me for help, when you consider how boring my blog looks. I also hung up the rest of the Holiday cards we had gotten, because I wanted one picture with all of them hanging up. When it was time for Keree to take a nap, I was ready to too. I took some medicine and feel asleep before Keree did and she actually woke up before me also. Sick of this cough! We spent our evening putting together puzzles, drawing and finally ended our night with Wednesday night television.

Last day of Winter Break

2011-01-04T18:02:00.000-08:00

This morning I got up bright and early, drug Keree out of bed, got her dressed, fed her breakfast and we jumped into the car. Keree was excited to be heading back to school today. We arrived at her school, to an almost empty parking lot (there was 3 cars there to be exact). I sat there for a few seconds and Keree asked me if we were getting out. And so I sat there a little longer, why wasn't there other parents dropping off their kids? Where was all the hustle and bustle. So I told Keree to stay put and I jumped out. And there on the door was No School from Dec 22 - Jan 4. Do you think I felt stupid at that moment? I kept thinking they went back to school on the 4th, nope she was still on vacation. I explained to Keree that I had the dates wrong and tomorrow she gets to go back to school. I was surprised because she was thrilled, she was excited to spend another day at home with me. So, I ran quickly to pay some bills and then we headed home. We changed the flags outside, along with putting a new outfit on our goose. Once we headed inside, we ate lunch and I helped my Mom on her new blog venture. I was feeling awful from this cough so, I laid down with Keree for a nap. But as she slept soundly next to me, I sat there staring at the television miserably. The new medicine seems to be working (or that's what everyone is telling me) but it's just not quick enough for me. In the evening, Keree and I sat in bed and just chilled. Of course, my night didn't end well, I got super sick (thanks alot mucus) and ended up pulling some weird stomach muscle. So after getting Keree ready for bed, I wrapped myself up in two blankets and pulled them up over my head in hopes of feeling better.

First Monday of the Year

2011-01-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

This constant cough I have is making life miserable. Its so loud that I'm keeping everyone in the house up at night. Once we drug ourselves out of bed and were dressed, we drug our self out of the house and to the store. We were in hopes of finding some more deals to almost finish off all our birthday shopping for the year. I just love end of the year clearance. Unfortunately, the store didn't have really anything but I did find a few cute things to use for Keree's birthday party. Once we were home, Keree spent her day playing and I spent my day laying on the couch feeling miserable. In the evening, I freed some more of Keree's Christmas presents from their packaging and we played with them.

Day 2 of 2011

2011-01-02T22:56:00.000-08:00

When I woke up this morning, I had a plan. I needed medicine, so we were headed to the store. Of course, once your in the store, you get sucked in and a short visit, lasted 3 hours. But honestly, that's ok, they ended up marking down all their clearance stuff again to the lowest it will go. I was able to get almost everyone's birthday presents for the year, along with a few goodies for ourselves. We were excited to find a child-size snuggie for Keree, since she loves the one I got for Christmas. She wanted my Grandma to revamp my snuggie and add an extra set of arm holes for her. The snuggie we got her, solves the problem. Of course, when you get caught up in clearance savings, you forget why you came into the store. I was in the check-out line when I realized I had forgotten my medicine. When we got home, I was exhausted. I feed Keree a quick lunch, I took some medicine and we laid down for a nap. Unfortunately, Keree didn't want to take a nap, she was wide awake and driving me nuts. Finally after almost 2 hours, she succumbed to sleep and I was able to finally fall asleep myself. When we got up, we ate dinner and played for awhile. We spent our evening watching Sunday night football hoping our home team would make the playoff's. Needless to say, I should have watched something else because the game was disappointing.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

First Day of Winter & Keree's Busted Head

2010-12-21T20:40:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-19T21:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-14T17:51:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-13T18:10:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-01T21:56:00.000-08:00

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.

Good-Bye and Christmas Lights

2010-11-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

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.

Last Day before Break

2010-11-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

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.

Rotary Show - Day 2

2010-11-21T21:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Hump Day

2010-11-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Parent-Teacher Conference

2010-11-12T23:57:00.000-08:00

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.

Happy Veteran's Day

2010-11-11T17:38:00.000-08:00

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!