Blessed are the Peacemakers

Since moving into 3rd grade Megan has become eligible for the different activities the school offers. She has been enjoying class money and jobs. Recently she was selected to become a peacemaker. This is 2 females and 2 males from each grade level from 3rd grade and up. They went to a special training for half a day to learn how to solve the problems of their classmates during recess. She got to have a yummy pizza lunch and have fun learning about her new job.

Megan is thrilled for the chance to get to do this and is taking it very seriously. She gets to wear a special yellow vest and carry around a clip board during recess. Fellow students can come up to her and report a problem. Megan gets to write a report and help try to resolve their issues. At the end of recess she turns in her reports to a special counselor. Her very first day on the job will be tomorrow the 16th. She is very excited for the opportunity and can't wait to use her new peacemaker skills.

It's my bday and I can cry if i want to

My little Meg came into this world with an emergency csection and started off her 9th birthday today with a face plant on the steps of the bus.

She was so excited to go to school today on her special day. They had yesterday off for teacher training and she couldn't wait to go back on her birthday. As the bus pulled up she was the first in line to get on and just missed her step. I felt so bad and went on the bus to console her as she sat in tears. I told her not to let it ruin her day and try and have a great birthday. She has a very faint red circle on her chin to remember how the day started.

Megan got to pick lunch yesterday and of course it was papa johns cheesy bread with garlic butter dipping sauce. This is a repeat from last year so no surprises there. Then last night we took her out and she added squinkies to her growing collection. I think she now has over 100 of those little guys.

Today after she got home she said she had an okay day. She can't wait till Thursday when the teacher has set for her to bring in a special treat. Megan has picked gooey butter bars and is excited to help Jeff make them. I also surprised her with a friendship bracelet making kit when she got home. I used to make those little embroidery threat bracelets all the time as a kid and loved it. I thought Megan would love it as well and I was right. She made her first bracelet already and is now making a list of all the people she want to make them for. We enjoyed her pick of dinner which was Red Robin. She is hooked on their chicken strips with ranch sauce. Then we had chocolate cupcakes with chocolate and white frosting. She loves her chocolate and loves the freedom to pick out what we do. All in all it was a good little 9th birthday.

Less is More

As we've all had various degrees of illness around here it has been all quiet on the home front. We are normally finding ourselves out and about but lately we've really just stayed around the house.

With this in mind my kids have frequently come out to say how bored they are. This always amazes me since we just had Christmas and those two made out like bandits. Holy cow they have a variety of different things to play with but still find themselves bored. My favorite was when the hot item for seriously two weeks or more has been the Styrofoam inserts that came with Jeff's new crock pot. Really two little pieces of garbage have entertained my kids for hours. Andrew even wrote his name on one so that he could claim it as his. They've come up with a whole range of games with these things. Note to self less is more. Who knew that something like that would be the hot ticket to play with. Maybe I need to let them just be creative cuz they seem to be very good at it.

Round 2

So as we were getting over the first wave of sickness in this house we didn't know it but round two was about to hit.

Jeff came down with an awful sore throat which lasted about four days for him. If you know anything about Jeff this is extremely unusual as he never gets sick. He was pretty quiet about how he was feeling so I really had no idea how bad it was until I got it. Seriously the worst sore throat I've ever had. Super painful to just swallow it was horrible. As I have slowly started to recover Andrew woke up on Wednesday with another pink eye! This one worse than the last. After a trip to the doctor and more eye drops we are again hoping to see an end to the illness in this house. I've been feeling so unmotivated for this new year and it stinks! Let's hope we can get back to normal soon.

Seeing Pink

You can't really see it very well from the picture but Andrew came home Monday with a beautiful red left eye. It was stinging and the bus driver was very concerned. Of course we had to welcome in 2011 with our first case of pink eye.

Andrew was a trooper and took the eye drops regularly without much fuss and before we knew it we were back to normal. In addition to his pink eye Jeff's had some gallstone flare ups lately which have not been fun and Megan's nose is so stuffy or running I think it is going to fall off. We've had a regular sick house around here. I'm hoping the storm of germs is over and we can start focusing on creating fun memories for this new year.

And the award goes to...

To start off this new year Megan came home with a note that she was getting an award at the next assembly. Megan handed me her note and had 2 very important questions. The first thing she wanted to know was if I was going to come and take pictures. To this I responded "yes I wouldn't miss it." The next very important question was if I would blog about it. To this I also gave her a "yes."

Megan loves to see her moments on the blog and gets excited to read my new postings. She got her award in cooperation and was super excited to sit up on the stage and get recognized. It was another proud mommy moment and I am so glad to be a stay at home mom that allows me the chance to attend these type of things for my kids.

Ho Ho Ho Hoopla

This year Christmas started on Christmas Eve while family was all still here. We had a little cousin gift exchange and a yummy turkey meal. Once we arrived at Ken and MarGene's the kids were so excited Andrew went right to the tree and found one of his presents. I quickly had to stop him from opening it until it was time.

All the kids were eager and lined up for a quick photo op before they took their spots for gift opening. Jeff, Jared, & Ken passed out the presents and the chaos of opening began. This year instead of making each person go one by one we just said once you get a gift open it. This made it a bit tough to keep up and see what everyone got. It seriously was wrapping paper and presents everywhere type of thing. All was fun and smiles were all around. I don't think I saw any of the kids sad. Everyone loved what they got this year.

Among our gifts Jeff was excited to get a medley of classic DVDs movies from his childhood. We've already watched Blackbeard's Ghost and Gus the Mule. We've got several others waiting for their turn in the rotation. We also got a cool statue of Christ that I've got to find a special spot for. We had a great time with family and were sad to see them leave. It is always hard to see everyone go home and wish we could see each other more often.

This was a warm up for our own Christmas on the actual Christmas day. Around this house presents wait until we are all good and ready to get up. I find it funny that Jeff and I are both awake and ready but have to wait for the kids. Andrew came out first at 8:45am and saw that the cookies and milk for Santa were gone. He was very happy and excited to see this. We had to tell him to go ahead and wake up Meg so we could get started.

We wasted no time opening the gifts under the tree. Loved the pillow pets from Grandpa Wilson and the knitted hats from Granny Annie. Our kids were opening machines and wanted to see everything they got before they decided what to open first. They were both very patient and waited for each other. It is cute to see them grow up and get just as excited as the year before. They loved everything they got and didn't complain or feel like they missed out on anything. I guess we did a pretty good job in our purchases.

After the mayhem was over we separated the stuff and Jeff took Andrew to make room for his new stuff while I took Meg in her room to find a spot for her new stuff. During this part of the day Megan started to lay down on her bed and really stopped helping me saying she didn't feel so good. Little did we know at the time that this was just the beginning of the stomach flu for her. She couldn't keep anything down and was in bed pretty much all of Christmas Day. It even carried over to Sunday where she was still tossing her cookies. She didn't get upset she just wished she could feel better. It wasn't until Monday that she actually bounced back and was ready to play.

We had an awesome Christmas and are so thankful for everything and everyone in our lives. It was great to see family. Love seeing the glee on my kids faces. This all made our year worth it. We hope next year will bring us just as much joy and maybe more.