Here we go again....

Am I a glutton for punishment or what?

Cheerleader sign ups were yesterday.

We all knew Belle was going to cheer next season; she's only been talking about it since...well, since last season.

The unknown was whether or not Hayden was going to cheer. A little recap for those of you who don't remember last season, although frankly it is burned in my memory forever. Hayden wanted to cheer last season and half way through the season decided she no longer wanted to cheer. I'm a big believer in "you made this decision and this commitment to your squad so you have to see it through". I'm guessing you can see where this is going. We spent the last half of the season with a griping, groaning, complaining, bitter cheerleader. And her parents weren't much happier!!! We saw the season through and she said, and I quote "I AM NEVER going to cheer again!" end quote. And we were fine with that believe you me!

Apparently "never" only extends to next season. Because she has decided she wants to cheer, wait she doesn't, wait she does, no she doesn't, yes she does...... you get the picture.

As of 9:00am Saturday morning I wasn't sure what the decision would be.

As I walked out the door at 10:00am I got the final decision: "I want to cheer next year." Of course this lead to the "If you decide to cheer, we don't want to hear what we heard last season" and the "This is your decision, not ours so we don't want to hear it" and the "No you don't get a lizard if you're good all season" discussions.

Yeah, I'm sure this is going to be fun.

On the upside, Belle is super excited and we only have to buy one uniform.

I'm being a cup half full kinda girl today!!! ;-)

Yay!!!!!

Hayden won!

Her story was picked to represent the 3rd grade at the state competition!!!

Not sure what all that entails but she is super excited just to be going! I've got to figure out how to scan and post it so you can all check it out. It's very cute and soooo Hayden! Have a great weekend!

DWTS and TBL

Okay, I don't know if you're a Dancing with the Stars or The Biggest Loser fan but I have to admit that I enjoy both of them. It's a guilty pleasure!!! With that being said and since I was able to watch the episodes last night I just have to say a few things:

1) Seriously? Steve Wozniak is still on the show? He scored a 10 people! Not as in a gymnastic score of 10; a 10 out of 30. As in THE LOWEST SCORE EVER ON THE SHOW!! The guy invented Apple, has he figured out how to rig voting? Cause there is NO WAY he should still be on there!

2) Ty is doing so much better than he did on his first dance. Still looks scared to death when talking to the judges though. It would help if his partner didn't fall once and trip another time. But I digress....

3) SOOOOO glad to see Denise Richards go. Not a fan. Plus she dances like a puppet. I'm just saying.

4) Holly better step it up if she wants to stay out of the bottom two.

5) Everybody else makes ballroom dancing fun and easy! I wonder if I could talk hubby-man into a few classes? Probably not, but who knows. He does do the western dancing classes with me in Arizona. And yes, he would probably kill me if he knew I wrote this!! ;-)

6) On to TBL. How cool to watch that girl pull her car (yes a 2,000lb car) loaded up with all the extra weight that everybody gave her (257lbs) and BEAT the boys pulling their cars with less weight added!!! The boys were actually quite mean laughing and cutting up as they were adding all the weight to her and one other girl's cars. Well, who's laughing now boys? And you weren't laughing so hard when one of you ended up below the yellow line now were you???

7) I'm glad the girl who fell below the yellow line was voted off. Although I wish both of the ones below the yellow line could have gone. She was a wee bit of a snot. And she was all about the boys being mean to the other girl THAT WON THE CHALLENGE!!! Not that I'm picking favorites but I would think you would want to encourage each other. I know its a contest but does that mean you have to be a mean person?

8) How cool to have a girl lose 100lbs on the campus? That's awesome!

9) Gotta say that show inspires me and makes me proud of those people for being there and giving it there all. Also impresses me that they talk about how hard it is to do it at home yet still get it done.

10) Not that I'm on the show but I have barrelled into a new decade with my weight and am really close to the next one! I think watching that show helps me because I think if they can do it..... well you know the rest!

I can't believe it's Tuesday!

After working Saturday night and Sunday night:
- I had to get up early Monday morning (so I could shower and get ready),
- Take the girls to school (like I do everyday but there was no crawling back into bed this morning!!!),
- Go to a meeting (where we picked out some awesome new spirit wear for the school!),
- Go to another meeting (to get said spirit wear approved by the principal),
- Head to work (there was a call in and I was a fill in),
- Pick up the girls from my mom (who picked them up from school),
- And go Workateer (like Volunteering but where working is also involved) at the school's spirit night hosted by yours truly and the rest of the PTO gang (giving refills, busing tables, giving away prizes).
- Got home at 8:45 and put the kids to bed (totally later than normal) and was actually able to watch the entire episode of DWTS before I passed out in mid sentence of a conversation with hubby-man.

Oh yeah I'm good on 3 hours of sleep!!

Oh Well!!

I was supposed to go to Karaoke last night.

I was ready to belt out a few songs.

Plans changed.

No one could go out.

I cleaned my room.

Oh well. I wonder if they'll have karaoke in Arizona? Hmmmmm........

Gotta Brag!

Georgia has a writing contest through out the state.

Buford Academy participates in this contest. Each kid writes a story. They select 2 kids from each class. They then select one of those kids. After that each kid from each class competes for the grade. If they win their grade they go to the Georgia state competition.

Wellllll.....Hayden found out today that she won in her class and is going to be in the 3rd grade competition against 12 other kids! At least I think that's how many classes there are. Anyway....YEAH HAYDEN!!

We find out next Friday how she did so I'll keep you updated!

Today's the day

My house is clean.

I kicked some house butt and took some dust bunnies names!

And now we wait......

Because in less than an hour Hayden will be leaving to go spend the night.....

And in one hour 6 little girls will descend upon my clean house for a pretend pajama party....

And in 4 hours my house will no longer be clean.

C'est la vie!!

Friday

FRIDAY....

4 days after a diagnosis of strep

1 day after Belle was able to go back to school

1 morning after two night shifts in a row

the day that Hayden found out her writing was going into the school competition

1 day before Belle's birthday party

1 day before Hayden spends the night with Hope

2 days before I have to go back to work

3 weeks before we leave for Arizona

Ahhhhh Fridays!

Wordless Wednesday

At least it was this week and not last week

Hubby made it home Sunday night!! AND he took today off so we could spend some time together. That's the good news.

Wanna know how we spent our day? Taking Belle to the doctor to find out that she has strep....AGAIN!

After her fever spiked to 103.5 last night we took her to her pediatrician where we found out that only 2 weeks after she was diagnosed before and after a round of Amoxicillin, she has strep again! Now we're on Augmentin and have an appointment in 2 weeks to make sure she has a negative test.

I found out from her teacher that 4 kids were out today in her class. I'm convinced there is a strep carrier in her class who is not getting treated and is hacking, coughing, snotting and infecting the other kids. That has to be what's going on! Or maybe not, I don't know!

Poor baby!! Fever keeps spiking up into the 102-103 range. She's living on Motrin and Tylenol, Robitussin and Augmentin. Sore throat, coughing, headache, belly ache.

So much for hubby and wifey time together, but it did make Bellie feel better to have us both with her today. And we did get to hang out which I missed last week.

Wonder how long it will be before I find out either Hayden, Andy or I have developed strep. Keep your fingers crossed for me/us.

ARRRRRGGGG!!

Will this week never end?!?!

I learned something about myself this week: I am totally not cut out to be a single mother...even if its just for a week! Hubby will FINALLY get back from his conference tomorrow night. YEAH!! Of course I still won't see him until Monday morning because he'll be asleep when I get home from work. More ARRRRRGGGG! Let's hope he has no issues getting his plane home tomorrow or the girls (by girls I mean ME) might go bonkers. Let me break down my week for you.

Monday: Andy's flight was cancelled so he helped take the girls to school. On pickup the girls asked where he was. There was much crying and wailing. Skip to bedtime: more crying and wailing, "I miss my Daddy, why would he leave us like this, why does he have to work?" Fun questions like that. Thank goodness some of it was on the "goodnight phone call" from Daddy. Let him take some of the flak! And did I mention I can't sleep when he's not there? And did I mention the dog pulled a lovely *growl menacingly* at the window for an hour? Yep, not freaked out at all.

Tuesday: Second verse same as the first a little bit louder and a little bit worse. Minus the growling, still no sleeping. Celebrated Belle's birthday with Hayden reminding Belle that Daddy was missing her birthday (Thanks for that kid!) which brought on some wailing.

Wednesday: The how many more days question came out. Also more night time crying.

Thursday: Still upset going to school but no crying. Field trip which will require a ranting blog post. I didn't have to deal with the night time wailing because I was having a hellish night at the ER (almost would have rather had the crying....hmmmm; maybe not) and my mom got to deal with it. She says it wasn't that bad. Lucky her.

Friday: No crying but much rejoicing that it was only 2 more days. The girls got to go with their grandparents to a hockey game. Once again Mom says it wasn't bad. Was I being played this week? Are they used to it and now they're over it? Do they realize that its almost over? Oh well, at least they're having fun and being good.

Saturday: I'm working and the kids are at the Science Museum with my parents and could barely be bothered to talk to me on the phone this morning because they were ready to go. Thank goodness for my parents!

I can't wait until tomorrow and things are back to normal. There will be no crying, there will be no "how many more days", there will be sleeping and there better be no more growling. YEAH!!!

The Power of 3's

I had someone comment to me yesterday "Hey did you realize Belle was born on 3-3-03?"

First off: Duh!

Second off: Totally planned it that way!

Let me illuminate.

My due date for Belle was 3/14/03. Since I had ended up having a C-section with Hayden, we decided for a scheduled C-section for our 2nd baby. The best OB on the entire planet, Dr. Gumer (I know you'll feel me here Shalina!) said we should schedule it 1-2 weeks earlier, possibly on the 4th or 5th. I said I liked the idea of having the baby on 3-3-03. He jokingly asked if I wanted the baby born at 3:33? After some consideration, yes I admit I did consider it, I decided that I wanted to deliver first thing in the morning. And since 3:33 am wasn't an option (I don't know why since I'm a night owl and that TOTALLY would have worked for me!) we went with first on the surgery schedule.

So here I am on my 3-3-03 day, laying on the OR table cut open from stem to stern; or somewhere in between and my doctor pauses.

Nurse: We're ready to take the baby out.

Dr. G: Wait.

Nurse: What?

Dr. G: Wait a minute

Nurse: What are we waiting for?

Dr. G: NOW!!! (And said baby was removed from my body)

Dr. G: Time of birth 8:53 because 8-5=3 and then the three to round out the 3 theme.

I appreciated his efforts to stick with the 3's but I did have to tell him that at that point all I really wanted was him to get the baby out!!!! So there you have it. The power of the 3's. Apparently it sucks everyone in!!

Wow! Time flys...

At this time 6 years ago to the day, I was looking down at my sleeping newborn baby wondering what her life would bring her, what kind of personality she would have and who she would most resemble. This morning I looked down at my sleeping 6 year old and got misty-eyed thinking how quickly these 6 years have passed by and how she is no longer my little baby.

She'll occasionally tell me "I'm still your baby Mommy, I'm just NOT A baby".

I want to wrap her up in hugs and put a brick on her head so she will stop getting so old so quick!! Does that work?

She's six. She's a big girl. She's too cool for school. She's having a blast today.

Mommy's home from the birthday party at school. Mommy's looking through photo albums. Mommy's crying.

Happy Birthday Belly!!!

3/03/2003

3/03/2009

A Slight Reprieve

I'm not a big fan of my hubby traveling for work and since he doesn't travel too often it's usually okay. This week is conference week. Which means he was supposed to leave yesterday to fly to LA and won't be back until next Sunday. Since I work Saturdays and Sundays, I wasn't going to see him from this past Saturday morning until next Monday evening after work. Big EEEKKK there! Enter: Snow Storm 2009!! Although he spent the entire day yesterday in the airport with his flight being delayed, it was finally cancelled and he got to come home last night!! He was able to take the girls to school with me this morning which made them extremely happy. Of course he is now on his way back to the airport to see if he can get a flight out today. Wonder what the odds are of him being back here tonight? ;-)