3-13-2011 Week in Review….

This week started with tears…lots of them.  I started crying Sunday night and cried a good bit all through Monday.  It was the last day to sign up to transfer your kids to different schools based on calendar.  Corben’s choices were tough.  We know what we want as his first choice but only a 3rd of the applicants get in so we had to pick a 2nd and 3rd choice.  That was tough.  Choosing between yucky and yucky isn’t very easy.  The part I was torn up about was the fact that the school we want for Ella (her base school) is year round and it had fully been my intention before going there to switch her to a traditional calendar school so she’d be on the same schedule as Dade and (hopefully, if he gets in) Corben.  But after I went to the school to register her (only because you have to register at the base school before transferring them) I knew it was where she needed to go.  Never have I had a principal meet me during registration because he planned to and never have I EVER had a principal tell me that the most important thing at their school is that the kids all feel LOVED!!  Ryan was with me and he was hooked immediately.  So, I cried and cried.  It’s a great school but she’ll be in that great school all summer while her 3 siblings are home.  She’ll be there while we’re at the pool and at the museum.  She’ll be there on the days I wanted to go to the beach or the mountains.  She’ll be there on the days her brothers are staring at me cross eyed because their summer turned out to be a wash because we couldn’t go anywhere because Ella had school.  I know I can pull her out because she’s in Kindergarten for the fun stuff but I won’t be able to do that next year or the next…  I’m just having a pity party.  Oh, and did I mention that I LOVE the break from the school routine all summer?  I LOVE not having to drive for 3 months out of the year and getting to potentially sleep in.  No more break for me!  To top off my sadness I discovered that Sylvie missed the deadline for school the next year by 9 days.  That puts her 2 grades behind Ella!  I can’t even put her in preschool this year!  She’s so smart.  I can have her test in but I hear it’s a dreadful process.  Probably one we’ll go through though.  I’d like for them to be in school together.  They need each other.  Okay, enough sadness…  (Just Pray Corben gets into the school he wants…he’ll be crushed if he doesn’t.)

So, it’s Monday and I cleaned all day.  The girls spent the entire day outside catching lizards and snakes.  Seriously.  Ryan had off so he was kind enough to run all the errands and take the kids to and from school.  At one point Ryan was chatting with a neighbor and mentioned he may need to borrow his 40 ft ladder so we could clean out our gutters (something we’ve been putting off for years because they’re so high!).  He mentioned that he almost was ready to pay someone…suddenly two teens next door piped up that they’d do them all for $15!!  And they did!  Ryan paid them $20 cause he’s nice like that.  LOL  Wonder how much they’d charge to paint the house?

Tuesday started out just splendidly…with a sinus infection.  Well, I guess not a full blown infection but the kind of thing where your whole head hurts and you sinuses are killing you and you have to take the good meds from behind the pharmacy counter to feel any kind of relief.  I knew it was coming though.  I always get one when I have a long cry.  It’s so dumb.  1 good cry usually equals 3 days of pain…sigh.  I’m trying not to be TOO grumpy…

Be prepared…the week doesn’t get much more exciting than it’s already been… lol

Wednesday I took Dade to the Dr because his breathing is only getting worse.  They referred him to a pulmonologist who can see him in 2 months…  Seriously??  Did I mention he has BREATHING issues??  Whatever.  My mom was helping my sister this week with her new little one so I got to man the Scout Night on my own.  It didn’t go well.  Corben spent the entire night in the van with me after a rough time in class.  Not all his fault but as I was the only parent on the scene I chose to remove my kid before he got even angrier.  I’m thankful for a good friend who took the girls for me and played with them until Dade was done.  Thanks, T.  I love you!

Thursday it rained.

Friday was much better!  I headed out for the day to spend time with my sister and get some pics of her new little man!

   

While I was gone, Dade was at home with instructions to NOT get on the computer…What’s a boy to do with so much time on his hands and no computer??  Might he clean? Might he read a book?  Not my kid….

{Okay, admittedly this is not my picture but one I borrowed from the internet.  But this is basically what I found accept one of the books was a very large dictionary.  The boys pulled it apart before I could snag a pic…sigh.}

Saturday my mom brought my niece and nephew over to play for a bit.  We love having them so close!  After that we headed to a church bbq…well, the END of the bbq but it was still nice to get to talk to some friends for a bit and the weather was gorgeous!

Dade got to work on a science experiment for school where he soaked eggs in different liquids.  And I grumbled over daylight savings…love it in the evenings, loathe it in the mornings.  Dade had a big church activity and dance…that I forgot about until it was too late to take him.  Way to go me!  Luckily he was very forgiving.

Corben also decided that it was time for his to earn some money to get some items he’s been dreaming about (Nintendo DS) so some of his favorite things are going up on Craigslist…let me know if you want anything! Everything’s $5 or less. Though he’s asking $50 for the entire Beyblade lot.

Saturday night I got to go run an errand with Just Ella!  She was so excited.  As she hugged and lamented leaving Sylvie she promised her sister that she’d bring her a surprise.  Well, that hadn’t been in the plan but we modified our route accordingly.  First we headed to Hallmark so I could shop for cards without being blinded by the pornographic ones they sell at all the other stores.  Ella was very excited and wanting to buy things for everyone.  She found a beautiful Snow White statue for Sylvie she wanted to get (only $100 or so) and so much more.  Then, suddenly she had to go to the bathroom…BAD.  So bad, I was sure we wouldn’t make it to the bathroom in the back of the store.  But they wouldn’t let us use it.  We were the only patrons and she was going to wet the floor and they told us no.  Hallmark is trying very hard to lose my business for good!  So we RAN RAN RAN to Target nearby.  The family bathroom was locked and there was a janitor in the women’s room.  I pushed passed him as he tried to stop me.  Another janitor came to tell me to leave until they were done & to use the family bathroom but one good look at my bouncing girl and they let us in to a stall and stepped out.  When she was done Ella started laughing because the bubbles in the toilet (from the cleaner) were in the shape of a happy face.  -- So we then shopped the $1 section of Target for gifts.  Sylvie got new headbands, Ella picked out a journal for herself (which has a little lock & key that she’s so excited about) and the boys each got trophies.  I walked down to look at the cards (where Ella picked out a few for friends) and all along the way Ella spotted things her siblings would LOVE.  Can we get that for Corben? I want to get that for Sylvie for her firstday (birthday).  Over and over.  She never asked for a thing for herself, even at the register where she wanted to get candy for Dade.  We then headed to the pet store to purchase crickets.  We laughed and skipped on the way in.  The floor is made to look like water so we moved slowly to the back as she pretended to be a fish the entire way.  After gathering our crickets, Ella saw the snakes.  We asked an employee if she could hold one and he quickly referred us to a different employee who gladly helped us out.  Ella was so excited and was laughing and giggling the entire time she held the baby boa.  Some kids want to pet puppies, mine wants to hold snakes!  As we were leaving she kept telling me how much fun she was having and insisted on carrying the bag of crickets because she’s so strong.  I decided to take her for ice cream and she insisted that she wanted to go to Happy ‘Donalds (McDonald’s).  I gave her a piggy back ride in and I let her pick our seats.  It’s one of those “fancy” McDonald’s with tile and fancy seating.  She had us sit a few different places before she settled in and told me that we needed seating like this at our house.  We talked and ate ice cream.  She’d jump up every few moments to look at something and tell me all about it.  When we left she was telling me about what a wonderful time she was having.  As we started driving home she informed me she had to go to the bathroom again so we raced home.  When we pulled in the driveway we had to pull out the trophies for the boys to put their names on them.  She tried to sit patiently but had to go so badly.  She finally had to jump out of the car and run for the house, which was locked, and bang on the door until Corben came and by that time she was screaming HURRY!!  She made it but barely.  Then she carefully, and very excitedly passed out her presents.  It was so much fun spending some one on one time with her.  I sure love that girl!

Sunday started out GREAT…NOT.  Didn’t get to sleep until VERY late due to Ryan’s scary choice of movies Saturday night…  Had to get up an hour early…  Ryan had an early morning church meeting so I was on my own… AND Dade needed to be to church over 30 minutes early.  Dade made it on time but I had to sit in the car for a while and put a happy makeup face on and do the girl’s hair.  We all survived and church was great.

When we got home we spent the day outside.  I began my search for 4 leaf clovers (found a ton but our patches are teeny tiny this year) and the girls just played and played.  I love this time of year.  Dade pulled his eggs out of soaking.  The one he soaked in Vinegar was SO COOL!

{Okay, again, not my pic but while I’m saying Let Me Go Get My Camera, they’re throwing it in the yard to watch it explode….sigh…but it did look like this…}

So there ya go.  Not the most exciting week but oh well.  I’ve noted that my posts seem to be picture heavy at the end and sparse at the beginning.  Maybe I’ll do better next week.  Maybe.  Probably not.  I’m off to bed! YEAH!