Final Nano Update

Well, here it is, December 2nd. I'm sure you're all on pins and needles wondering how I did on my novel. I'll have you know that I reached 50,000 words on November 29th. A whole day to spare. However, the novel wasn't done. So I spent a lot of Sunday writing a conclusion to it. My final word count was 53,698 (or something like that.) After a ton of editing, rewriting and hair pulling, I will be sending it on to Julie for her opinion. Hopefully she can sweetly tell me what a load of crap I wrote! :D

After all the angst and sore bottoms I went through, would I do it again? In a heartbeat. There were moments when I beat my fists against my head and cursed my impulsivity in signing up, but those were few and far between. I hope to have this edited and revised in time for a 2010 publishing date. HA!

Thanks to all for the encouragement. And kid watching. And weird discussions on the best way to kill a man and not get caught.... I'm amazed at how many of you want to read hastily written, badly worded prose, but to each his own! :D

Another Nano Update

Hey all. Been working hard on the book the past two weeks. Fell behind a little last week when most of us caught a stomach bug. Everyone's fine now, thanks for asking.

So, we're a little past the halfway point. Which means I should have more than 25,000 words written. And how many do I have? Pause for suspense.... 31,000! The story is the same premise I started out with, but it's not going the way I thought it would. A secondary character has jumped out and demanded attention. A beloved character came to a shocking end. And my murderer is not who I thought it was!

Thirteen more days to write 19,000 more words. Yep, pretty sure I'll get there and I may have even wrapped the story up by then! They group that sponsors this every year announced that another sponsor will print and bind any novel written this November, so I might actually see my book in print!

NaNoWriMo Update

For those following, November first was the first day of NaNoWriMo. (For those not following: Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically, I signed up to write a fifty thousand word novel between November 1st and November 30th. All for nothing but the knowledge that I can do it.) Did it start off with a bang? More like a fizzle. The girls bowl on Saturday mornings, so I wasn't around to work on it. Then Jason came home. Then my parents came back with the little kids, who wanted to go outside and play while Daddy and Grandpa worked on getting the rest of the fence up. Then after dinner, Jason used the laptop to play games all night.

I have a calendar that has it all worked out how many words per day you need to get to reach fifty thousand. It's basically one thousand six hundred and sixty-seven. My grand total at the end of day one? Thirty. Yep, I'm smokin' up the keyboard!

After venting to my mentor, I got a fresh start on Sunday. On and off through the day, I would sit down at the computer and type out something. The expected total at the end of day two? Three thousand three hundred and thirty-three. My total? About thirty-one hundred. Not so bad. I might catch up.

This morning dawned early (could have to do with daylight savings) and in between getting kids fed and on buses, my story was coming along. I'm trying to work in the names of family and friends, although :disclaimer: any similarities between characters and real people either living or dead is purely coincidental. I was IMing my sister in law Julie about just having added a character with her name. I don't know if she ever got the other IM that said I think my Julie character is going to come to a bad end. :D Nothing personal, Jules!!

So, NaNoWriMo calendar total for the end of day three? C'mon math majors! Okay, it's five thousand. I know, daunting, right? My total at the end of day three? About eighty-two hundred. Woohoo! I'm ahead of the game! And I haven't even killed anyone yet!

Okay, well, I'm going to let my fingers and wrists have a break. I'll keep y'all updated on how it's going.

A New Look

Sorry about the picture quality. You know how hard it is to keep a two year old still enough to get a picture that's not blurry? Especially this two year old! Anyway, Larkin's had a runny nose for like a month and her hair is forever getting stuck to her face. So here was our solution:





Okay, so if I had an uploadable picture of Caelyn at age 2, you would see how close the haircuts are. I always said that Caelyn and Wyatt look alike and Piper and Larkin look alike, but man, with this haircut, Larkin's like a mini-Caelyn! She is just too darn cute. And it was her first haircut and all the curls in the back are now gone. :( She'll probably get the curls back in ten years. I did.

NaNoWriMo

In the past couple of years, I have several people say to me that I should be a writer. And not just family members either. So, when someone mentioned NaNoWriMo to me, I thought it was a great idea. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Basically, I signed up to write a 50,000 word novel during November. That's only 175 pages. Or 1667 words a day. I don't win anything but the satisfaction of completing a book. I don't have anything to lose but my sanity and lots of sleep. But who needs those?

So, in the next 26 days, I'll be busy with ideas, characters, plotlines...And if anyone has any ideas for a title, feel free to send it to me. I know many songwriters think of the title first and then write the song around the title. I figure if someone sends me a title I like, I could do that, too.

And in November, I plan on sitting in front of this laptop for hours on end. Okay, that's not really any different than what I'm doing now, but I'll be doing something productive!!

Where's the Tambourine?

If you follow the blog at all, you'll have read the post about Larkin's birthday earlier this month. She got a tambourine from us. Except, I haven't seen it since the party. I'm thinking Daddy hid it away, but he swears he doesn't know where it is! I didn't realize there was a black market for tambourines and now have decided one of my kids sold it for lunch money.....

Wyatt's been Tested

This morning, we got Wyatt up at 6:30 to travel to downtown Indy to the Riley Children's Hospital's Autism Clinic. They told us to arrive an hour early to fill out paperwork. Which only took 1/2 an hour to do and we just had to sit around for the other 1/2 hour. Then the doctor and her med student shadow took us to a room to interview us for an hour. I am assuming she also watched how Wyatt interacted with everyone. Then the doctors left to consult with another doctor about all she talked about and all the reports I had brought with us. After another half hour wait, they came back in and told us their diagnosis. They said that of 100 kids with autism spectrum disorders, 20% will have autism, 30% will have Asperger's and 50% will have PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified.) And Wyatt falls into that last category. And since he's on the autism spectrum, we can apply for Medicaid which will pay for medications, schooling, therapies... Only catch is that there's a six YEAR waiting list for it!!! So, we'll be applying for that here soon. So, now we have a "real" diagnosis. If we can get more services for Wyatt, it was worth it.

Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere!

THE MONKEY HAS TURNED TWO!! Hard to believe that Larkin's birthday was Saturday. Even harder to believe that it was her second one! We actually celebrated her birthday over Labor Day weekend as Jason's parents weren't able to make it the 6th/7th and I was also working out at church all weekend. So it was just a small party with the family and both sets of grandparents.

We had a Curious George theme. I was going to go with Elmo, but then decided that Larkin and George look a like, so we went with him. I've decided to give her a monkey for every birthday and Christmas. Should have a good collection soon. Here she is with her first present:



She loves her monkeys! In case you're wondering, she also treats the cats like that -- hold 'em by the head and squeeze....Larkin got the monkey, a tambourine and a nubbie ball from us. She got two puzzles and some stacking boxes from Grand Os. She got a Mr. Potato Head Spud Buddies from Grand Bs. Grandma also got her a magnetic letter book where she sticks the magnet letters to the book. She's gotten pretty good at matching them up, considering they're lower case and the b,d,p & q all kind of look the same.

After presents came cake. She was very excited about it. It had a monkey, a Curious George figurine and then we left it in front of her so she started to stick her fingers in and eat the frosting. Very cute! Wasn't so cute the following morning when she realized she could reach the cake on the counter and had all of the frosting off one side before we realized it! Made me think of Bill Cosby's story about chocolate cake for breakfast.



Not too much going on here, but I'll try to post just a little more often than every three months! Starting to look like D. Turner's blog...... :D

She's Here!!!

Almost twenty-four hours ago, little Miss Lauren Rachel Benson made her debut into the world. Kristi was induced yesterday morning and had Lauren at 3:44pm CT. My brother David called my parents (home with David's three boys) that she was here and they named her Elizabeth Claire. So they could call her E. Claire. See, I'm not the only one with a strange sense of humor in my family! :D But I got all the info after my parents took the boys to see their new sister. She is 18 inches long and weighed almost seven pounds. Both mom and baby are doing fine. I can't wait to meet her, but we'll have to wait until her baptism in two weeks. I'll have to get my baby fix then. I'll post pics when I have them.

CaepipewyLARKIN!

Whenever I introduce my kids to people, I always get compliments on their names. Especially Piper and Larkin. I'm just glad I got a choice. I heard recently that in France, there's a list of approved names that you can choose your baby name from. But back to my reason for posting: even with awesome names such as they are, I can never keep them straight. I inevitably have to go through all four names before I can get the name that I want. Now, we have figured out a way around this:






So much easier, don't you think? :D
A very much deserved "Thank you" is going out to my cousin Trish who got the shirts at Universal Studios in FL.

Kickin' Family Fun

We've been trying to get Caelyn involved in anything for years now. She just doesn't want to join any clubs or sports. I finally told her she had to do something, so she chose karate. I thought that might be a good thing to enroll Wyatt in also as a structured setting.

Last weekend, we all went to see what it was like. On the way there, Piper said she wanted to do it. She also does dance and really wanted to do gymnastics. I told her she had to pick between gymnastics and karate because I want her to continue with dance. She's really good! She chose karate.

When we got there, the two instructors took Caelyn, Piper and Wyatt onto the mat and began some basic moves with them. Turns out Wyatt's not ready for structured lessons. He's still a free spirit. So we watched as Caelyn and Piper did punches, kicked a bag and broke boards with their feet. Okay, so it wasn't a two by four, but they thought it was pretty cool.

We decided to sign them up. Hey, they get points for listening to their parents, using manners, helping out. Of course I'm gonna sign them up. Even better, under the family plan, because we signed the two of them up, the rest of us are free!! We have our first family private lesson on Saturday. Thank goodness there aren't any cameras in there! :D While we were filling the paperwork out, we were in this little room that had one of the bags for kicking. I looked over and Larkin's kicking it with her foot. So not only is she going to dance, she's going to take karate when she's old enough, too!

I'll let y'all know how Saturday went. Oh, and we can go up to four times a week, no extra cost. So on days the kids are saying they're bored, I'll pop em in the car and make em kick out their boredom!

Who Does He Think He Is?

Jason really wanted to go to King's Island in Cincinnati over the weekend, but I convinced him the Indy Zoo would be just as much fun. And he believed me! Sunday morning we got the kids up and in the car and headed downtown. Caelyn thought maybe we were headed to the race (Indy 500). These kids don't like spending five minutes in the car and she thinks we're taking them to watch cars go around a track for five HOURS? We got to the zoo early enough that we could catch the first dolphin show. I don't think we've seen the show since before Wyatt was born, so the kids really enjoyed it. Larkin was just dancing along with the music.

The Indianapolis Zoo is a very nice zoo. They've done a ton of upgrades and new exhibits. This summer they have a couple of koalas visiting. One of the new things that opened last year is a shark petting pool. We hadn't seen that yet, so we headed over to the Oceans exhibit. After finally pushing (not really, we're patient people) our way to the edge of the pool, we watched the sharks swimming by and occasionally ran fingers down their backs. Jason and Piper were at the other end of the pool and Jason mentioned we needed to see a particular shark. We walked over to the other side of the pool to the shark resting area, where you're not allowed to pet them. Several sharks over there visited with us, but it was obvious which shark Jason wanted me to see.

Maybe he thinks the dolphins get too much attention. Or maybe he's confused on his species. Either way, he's an attention getter. The video is not too long, but all the good stuff is at the end. And just so Jason didn't have a terrible time, I let him take the older kids on the roller coaster.

An Early Celebration

Next weekend, we are headed up to IL for the joint birthday party of Grant, Wyatt and Ryan. We're gonna do that on Saturday and on Sunday, we're doing the Autism Walk at Soldier Field in Chicago. Wyatt, Larkin, Kristi, Drew and I did it last year, but this year, I think I'm getting the whole family involved.

So, because we're going to be gone that weekend (Saturday is Wyatt's birthday) we decided to open the presents Grandpa O brought up this week today. Wouldn't want them to get lost in the barrage of gifts next weekend. Or for the Benson boys to get jealous of what he might get. Wyatt had fun opening all the presents. He got a Thomas book with sounds (thanks, Mom!), he got a coloring book with crayons and markers, a tin with "Cars" magnets and his favorite, a Lightning McQueen remote controlled car.

Hopefully this works:

Be Careful What You Wish For

I decided that over the summer, I was going to start Wyatt on potty training. Except he beat me to it. Last Wednesday, as soon as he got to school, he took off his diaper and threw it in the garbage. His teacher called to tell me about it and suggested that I just send him in underpants from now on and we'll see how it goes. So far, so good. He loves to go! Unfortunately, it's every two minutes! I think his favorite thing is the Thomas and McQueen underwear. We've had it since last summer and it's just been waiting for him to be ready. I guess he's ready. He's only had one accident since we started the undies on Monday. I still have him in diapers overnight, but as soon as he wakes up, he yanks em off and sits on the toilet. Not bad for a kid who was afraid of the toilet a couple of months ago. Of course, that's because he lost his grip and his bottom fell into the water.....

I was going to get a picture of him on the potty and post it, but don't want to embarrass the poor kid. Hopefully we'll be done with diapers soon, but I've heard boys take a long time to train. The only experience I've had is with Jason and it's taken 12 years to get where we are. :D

The Joys of Parenting

Birth is just the beginning. It's the easy part, even without the epidural. I should be grateful that we've not had anything major happen to the kids. No broken arms, no hospital stays. We just get the annoying things. Like this morning, when Piper came downstairs before school complaining of an itchy head. And during the brushing of her hair, when little bugs fell out. And at the doctor's office where she confirmed that Piper has headlice. Yippee!!!

After buying the shampoo, we came home and I went through her hair with a comb, trying to get out as many lice as I could. Then I put the shampoo on. Directions say to keep eyes closed until the shampoo is rinsed out. It was funny watching Piper bump her way around the house for ten minutes. Then we rinsed out the shampoo and I began the tedious task of combing through it again. But half the little buggers were still alive! So I took a hairdryer to her head because heat kills. And according to one website, I also found out (later) that you shouldn't use a hairdryer because some of the shampoos have flammable ingredients. Oops!

It appears that no one else in the household have acquired the little suckers (pun intended) though I did make my mom check mine. It doesn't shock me that Piper was the one to get it. Let's just hope this is the last we see of them!

Once bitten, Twice shy?

Today I bring you some news that could have been very serious. Yesterday, Caelyn was down playing in the cul-de-sac with her friends and her friend's mom let out her dogs. There is an electric fence around the yard. But that doesn't keep the dogs from barking at the kids. So, I guess Caelyn asked the mom if she could come into the yard and meet the dogs (two pitbulls - I think- and a terrier). Kelli said okay and Caelyn stepped into the yard. The terrier came over and unfortunately, Caelyn happened to be standing right on the electric fence line. So, when the terrier came over, she got a shock and lunged at Caelyn and bit her inner thigh. We cleaned it out and put neosporin on it and I called the dr to see if we needed to come in. It was more of a scrape than a puncture. He wanted to see her in 48 hours, but we're leaving tonight for Florida, so he prescribed antibiotics as a precaution. It looked much better this morning, not as bloody but more black and blue.

The neighbor of the dog owner went down to animal control to ask some questions (they have a problem with the dogs and their girls are very scared of them) and I guess they were told that the terrier bit Caelyn. So, the doorbell rings and there's an animal control officer on our step. Because the bite happened within city limits, I was legally bound to file a report. Part of me was like, it was an accident, it wasn't a bad wound, but the other part was what if it happens again and they don't know about this incident? So, I filed the report.

The dog owner came right down after the incident and made sure Caelyn was alright, made sure I knew her dogs had all their shots, was very apologetic. She's already called her fence company to relocate it to the backyard. I'd post a grotesque picture of the wound, but it's in a very private area.

So, we're off to Florida after school. I'll be thinking about y'all as we're playing in the sand and surf!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

After what seemed like ages, today was the day we have been waiting for, counting down to, wishing would come faster. Today was the day that Caelyn got all of her hair chopped off to donate to Locks of Love. This is how she left the house this morning:



They started right after school and I tried to make it to see it get cut off, but by the time I got the kids picked up, we didn't make it there til 3:45 and she was walking out to meet me. This is how I first saw her:



They put the hair into a ponytail and chop it off. Whoever cut hers off left a strand of hair 2 inches longer in the front on each side. They had stylists there, but I guess Caelyn was trying to get a hold of me to come get her and she didn't go to get it styled. So we went over to Supercuts just to even it out. And this is how it looked after that:



It's taking her a little bit to get used to it. She keeps saying how weird it feels, how easy it is to get a comb through it. I can't wait til tomorrow when she takes a shower and I comb her hair after. No more half hour fights with combs and rats' nests. I think she looks totally adorable!



We did have an unexpected occurence today. When we got into Supercuts, Piper jumped into the chair:



Although I won't be braiding hair or putting hair into buns for ballet anytime soon, I think the girls have very cute haircuts. And I'm happy to put the time I save on haircare to better use... like fighting with Piper to do her homework!

Monkey see Monkey Do

For those that don't know, we call Larkin "Monkey" cause she looks like a baby monkey holding onto it's parent sometimes. So what I've found is that whatever Wyatt does, Larkin wants to do and vice versa. Let me tell you, the jealousy can be cut with a knife (plastic of course) sometimes. But other times it is cuter than heck. Wyatt has a habit of lying on the floor to color his pages. 'Monkey' see, 'Monkey' do:




She's thinking hard about what the differences are in those pictures. Or maybe she just likes the taste of the eraser. I'm leaning more towards the second one myself.

What a Party!

Well, I think I've finally recuperated. On Saturday, we had a joint birthday party for Caelyn and Piper. We decided to postpone Piper's a little as many may not be able to come so soon after the holidays. All together, we had 20 kids. Of course, that doesn't include Jason or my brother David.

We went to a rather new place called Bounce Planet, because honestly, I'm not up to having 20 kids in my house! So, Bounce Planet is an indoor place with two rooms filled with those giant inflatable bouncy toys. We had our own "director" who moved us from room to room. It was pretty cool, because we had the rooms to ourselves, so we didn't have to deal with kids from other parties. Also very cool was the fact that we had kids from aged 3 to 13 and they all had a blast!

Here's the whole group (well, what I could get in the frame) on the giant slide:


And here they are after the hour was up, hot, sweaty and ready to go eat pizza!


What? You thought I was kidding about Jason and David?


After pizza, the girls opened their presents. I think Caelyn's favorite present was her Webkinz and Piper's was the box of Fruit by the Foot. After the presents, all the kids got tokens and got to run around the mini arcade that was there. Wyatt had a ball on the roller coaster simulator. I won an alligator for Ryan with a dinosaur crane. Go me! When the party was over, Caelyn had two friends spend the night and Piper had one. And I had a meeting to get to, so I missed any drama that might have happened! Go me again! Next year, we'll probably do the joint birthday party again. And we might even go back to Bounce Planet. Hey, why wait til next year, they have open bounce every Friday night...


Okay, this picture has nothing to do with the party, I just thought it was supercute!

What in the world?

What's next?? Last Wednesday, Piper complained of an earache. I took her to the doctor and she confirmed that Piper has an ear infection. So, she's on amoxicillin now. Saturday, Caelyn woke up with a backache. Finally took her to the doctor on Tuesday when it wasn't any better. He thinks she just pulled a muscle somehow and we're to wait it out to see where it goes -- gets better or worse. She hasn't complained too much about it since Thursday though, when I took her back to the doctor and it was confirmed that she has strep throat. So, now Caelyn's on amoxicillin, too. At least if Piper gets it, it'll be killed by the antibiotic she's on! Worried about the two little ones getting sick, keeping everyone away from them. And Jason came home from work tonight with the right side of his face all red and swollen. Maybe I'll move out til they're all better!


But, nothing's stopping them and 20 of their friends from having fun at their co-party tomorrow night. More on that when I recuperate.....

Since you are all on pins and needles waiting for my Chicago Jovi review, I'll finally tell you about it. I have this habit of not being able to sleep the night before I have to go somewhere. I'll end up sitting downstairs with my suitcase, watching infommercials for Ginsu knives. That didn't happen this time. I didn't even set the alarm, thinking I would be too wound to sleep or the kids would wake me up early (I was supposed to leave at 7.) So of course, it ended up being the time I slept like a baby and the kids decided not to get up before the cock crows. I didn't end up leaving til almost 7:30, which concerned me, as I had to drive to Elkhart and be there by ten, and it had been snowing all week. Well, I ended up in Elkhart at 10:30, but Jenni wasn't there yet, so all was good.

We got into Chicago around noon local time. Only 8 more hours til the first show! Not being able to check into the hotel until 3, we went to the hotel bar and had a couple of beers. Also hoping to catch a glimpse of any band member that might be in the area. No such luck. Got into our room, got ready and took the cab ride from hell to the United Center. Jenni had her eyes closed the whole way. I know that Chicago cab drivers are aggressive, but ours was tops in his field. I thought he was going to run people over, rear end the cars in front of us and go interstate speeds down Rush Street. After looking at the merchandise (and deciding not to spend $50 on a t-shirt) we went to our seats, which were 14th row center. Not the best seats I've had, but the stage was raised and I had a perfect view of everyone up there. Not to mention, the girl in front of me was not able to stand long and kept sitting down.

Saturday's concert was very predictable. I've only been to like 15 concerts, but over 15 years, that's really not a lot. I knew what songs were coming, how they were going to be introduced. Jenni and I were even talking along with Jon. That man needs some new schtick! It was a good concert, but nothing special. I realize they want to appeal to the masses and play some of their big hits, but I wish they would shake it up a bit! After the concert, we headed back to the hotel, where the bar was packed with Jovi crazies and the only sighting of a "band" member was when we were in the restroom and Bobby Bandiera walked into the restaurant off the bar. So I didn't even get to see him.

We all decided we were hungry and were going to walk down the block to Johnny Rockets. Passed a guy hugging the wall, relieving himself. Gotta love Chicago at 2am! Got down to JRs and found out they closed on New Years. The hotel doorman sent us to the Tempo Cafe a couple of blocks over. A lot of good food at reasonable prices. Got hit up for money from a homeless guy. The girls decided they didn't want to walk back to the hotel (5 blocks away!) so we grabbed a cab outside the cafe. I was holding the door open for my friend Jenny who was 9 months pregnant. I was helping her off the curb as it was icy. This guy walks out of the cafe and tries to get in the cab. Do I look like a concierge, waiting for you to come get your cab?? Sent him on his way and he stumbled his way to a cab around the corner. Went back to the hotel and crashed, looking forward to sleeping in -- no kids! Yeah, woke up at 7, which was actually 8 my time, so I guess I did get to sleep in.

The Jennies, Laura and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Hoped for a Tico sighting as we heard he likes to eat there. Didn't see him but had a great lunch and yummy Godiva chocolate cheesecake. Then Jenny and Laura headed home and Jenni and I walked over to the WaterTower Place for some shopping. I hadn't been there in almost twenty years, but back then it seemed magical. Now it's just another shopping mall. Then it was back to the hotel for a power nap!

Sunday night, our seats were in the 19th row on stageleft. But, we were in seats 1 and 2, so we were pretty close to center. Plus, there was a platform in the crowd that Jon (and Richie) used in the middle of the concert that was at about row 16, so we were very close. That's where these pics were taken. Don't let the camera fool you, we were only about 10 people away.










The energy Sunday night was so much higher than Saturday. And it was hotter. I was sweating by the end of the first song. The first four songs were the same as the night before. I turned to Jenni and wondered if it was all going to be the same when Jon said they were going to change it up. And they did. They added a couple of songs I love. And Richie's solo song was one of the songs off his solo album, which was much more appreciated (by me, at least) than his version of "I'll Be There For You." Jenni and I went back to the hotel bar and we were the only people in there. Last call was 11:30 and they didn't let anyone in after us. We were the only people in there when the crew that's filming a documentary on Bon Jovi went into the semi private room behind us. Around 12:15, we were wondering how long we could nurse our drinks when Chris Daughtry (American Idol alum and Jovi opener) arrived. While the staff never asked us to leave, the long, knowing glances were enough to tell us it was time to go. But not before Richie came in. We would have said hi, but I think it would have been awkward. As we were leaving, we saw David back in the room. He must have come in through the kitchen door cause he didn't come by us.

Out in the lobby, we saw some other fans hanging out and talked to one we knew. One who has been to fifteen concerts, too.... just since January. Oh to have the time and the money to do that!!! Jason and the kids are lucky we're not rich or they'd never see me during tour time. LOL We went back to the room and crashed, again, I had trouble sleeping in. Checkout wasn't til noon, but I was ready by 8:30. Jenni suggested hanging out in the hotel lobby but I've given it up to fate. If I'm to meet them, it'll happen without me (s)talking them! :D

So, that was my weekend of smoking, drinking and debauchery. And Jenny had her baby 5 days later. Trevor Joseph -- should be pretty easy for me to remember that!

The Time Has Come -- Almost

I can't believe it, but the time is almost here. I'm leaving at sunrise on Saturday to meet my friend from Kalamazoo (that's such a fun word to say) and then it's on to Chicago for TWO Bon Jovi concerts. One Saturday night and one Sunday. If I could've swung it, I'd be going to the one on Tuesday night, but I'll just have to suffer only going to two. I haven't read any good reviews on how well the camera I have works in the concert setting, but I'm hopeful. It has to be better than my film camera where you could be two feet away from somebody and it looks like you were twenty. I'm sure I'll have more to post on Monday, when I finally get home. Poor Jason, here by himself with all four kids!

On the Job Front

I realized I haven't updated anyone on what's going on with the jobs. Jason has decided to stay at TOFG and take night school to get certified in Oracle. Don't ask me what that is, I just know it has something to do with computers. The only thing I know about computers is how to get to the web, which really, is all I need. His classes are a "work at your own pace" kind of thing, but he should be done by next April. I must say, I haven't seen him this excited about anything in a long time.


I applied for a job at Caelyn's school as a Media Tech, which is just a glorified librarian. I got a call from the high school that they wanted to interview me. Then Caelyn's school called and also wanted to set up an interview. I thought both interviews went well and was worried about having the high school call me before the intermediate school, which was the one I really wanted. Guess I didn't have to. I got a letter in the mail from the high school. Well, they're not going to send me a letter to tell me I have the job. Not ten minutes after reading that letter, the phone rings and it's the principal from Caelyn's school. Okay, I know my oldest isn't the one who's going to get in trouble, so I know it's about the job and can barely contain my joy. Until he starts to speak and explain they were looking for more of an IT person at their site. Well, crud. So I go from being the most popular girl at the prom to being the wallflower nobody wants to dance with.... Oh well, leaves more time to goof off! :D

Stay away!

I don't think you can catch human viruses over the computer, but you can't say I didn't warn you. About two weeks ago, Wyatt came home from school coughing. I let him go the next day, but by the time he got home he was wheezing. So I kept him home the rest of the weekend, giving him time to get over it. Well, he didn't get over it and instead decided to share it with the rest of us! Larkin has had the cough and runny nose for about the same length of time. I've decided there are too many places they could have picked it up. So this week, Wyatt's cough wasn't bad enough to keep him home, and he wasn't acting sick anyway, so I sent him. Then yesterday, we went with my parents to pick up their new trailer. Wyatt fell asleep on the way home. We stopped at McDonalds for lunch and he hardly woke up for that and didn't even touch the fries. Now I know he's really sick, if he won't touch fries! We got home and he fell asleep on the floor for a little bit, but then decided the couch would be a more comfortable place. He was burning up when he woke. One hundred and two temp. Then this morning, I looked in his mouth and he has white blisters on his tongue. Great, strep?? And fever is still here. Unfortunately, if you try to give him medicine, he throws it back up (and Larkin wants to investigate -- ewwww!) So, getting him to drink all his juice with the medicine in it is a challenge. Going to take him to immediate care tomorrow to get tested for strep. Caelyn is the only one who doesn't seem to be sick at all. I think we're all just passing it back and forth. Maybe we should just spray Lysol on EVERYTHING!

And on top of this, I had a tooth pulled on Wednesday, and now it's infected. (Gross, I know) The doctor can't get me in till Monday and won't call a prescription in without seeing me. The only dentist I know who won't do this. It's not like I'm asking for Vicodin. Actually, I have plenty of that, thank goodness, as this "tooth" is bothering me somethin fierce and now I have a fever, sore throat and cough. So, anyone want to miss work for a week, come visit.....

We're on the hunt

Jason came home last Thursday and told me that he was quitting his job. Umm, what?? He does realize he is the bread winner for this family, right? His boss was out of town and Jason hadn't told him yet, so I spent the whole weekend trying to convince him to stick it out just a little longer. That didn't work. He read through all the classified ads over the past week. Searched on the internet. Even applied somewhere. I have applied at the library and for a position out at Caelyn's school. They are both part time jobs, but I don't know if I'm ready for a full time job after being at home so much. Grandma has graciously agreed to watch the kids, saving childcare expenses, which would negate any money I might make anyway. And here I thought I was just going to wait until my modeling career took off. :D

Anyone know of employment opportunities? I'll take anything. No, not really. Although, the free coffee for Starbucks employees sounds really good......

PBA take notice!

For those that don't know, Jason can bowl a pretty mean game. Me? I could bowl a 300 if you added five of my games together. Around here, it seems as if everyone is on a league. Caelyn's friend's mom asked me if I thought Caelyn might like to join her daughter on a bowling team for a short season. It only runs from Jan through April. Caelyn seemed pretty excited about it, so I decided to sign her up. And then I thought about Piper, who seems to be feeling left out of a lot of things lately, so I asked her if she would like to do. She was also very enthused. I was hoping to get Piper onto a team with other eight or nine year olds, give her someone her age to play with. When we got to the bowling alley Saturday morning, we had to fill out some forms to register, took fifteen minutes to get the right bowling shoes (apparently Piper has weirdly sized feet that don't fit in bowling shoes), and got sent down to a lane. Caelyn, Piper, Caelyn's friend Lexus and a friend from school Ty were all on one team.

Around the third frame of the first game (they play three every Saturday), something became very apparent -- Piper has never bowled without bumpers before. That poor girl hit the gutter for 20 straight balls. There were a couple of times I thought she might have the strength and roll to knock at least one down, but she got a big ol' goose egg for her total. Off course, it's hard to throw straight when you're crying. Plus, the ball is a quarter of her weight. I will give her points for bowling the whole first game. One of the alley employees was trying to give her pointers, but it didn't help much. Piper decided to sit out the last two games and instead used that time to beg me for money to use in the arcade. Finally gave in and gave her two quarters, one of which she spent on candy. Next time I'll remember to take snacks. So, the nice alley lady said there was no reason that Piper couldn't get "bumped" down to the bumper bowler league. The age limit is six, but at least she'll knock some pins down!

Caelyn did pretty good. Now, I should've qualified this by saying that really, this is only the second time these girls have bowled. Around here it seems as if these kids are born with a bowling ball on their tiny hands. (Probably felt like it to their moms, too!) Caelyn even got a couple of strikes, or at least they would have been if she hadn't sunk the first one into the gutter. For some reason they call that a spare. Whatever. :) I could tell she was losing steam in the third game, because it started to look like Piper bowling up there with all those zeroes. I think her last game she bowled a fifteen. The first game was a forty-eight and the second game was a fifty-six. I thought she did pretty darn good. Of course, add all three of her scores together and it still doesn't add up to what Ty bowled his last game.

Caelyn was having fun and that's all I can ask for. I think Piper will have more fun next week when her ball stays on the lane. The girls are already visiting the pro shop and picking out which balls they want.