Stressful Week, Awesome Weekend

So last week was tough for me.  The company I work for went through a Reduction in Force last week that was focused mainly on the US.  We knew it was coming and had known for almost 2 weeks, but we didn't know who exactly would be affected, of course.  We all finally found out on Thursday and my team was affected pretty strongly.  I won't go into details, but it was very sad.  I am fortunate to still have my job and this week we will learn more about how thing are changing for those of us still around.

So I really needed a good weekend to take my mind off things, and I got it.  We took the kids up to my parents' cabin Friday night.  The weather wasn't great yesterday.  It was cloudy and windy most of the day, but the kids really wanted to get in the water.  So we let them.  They stayed really shallow and pretty much ran around in the water a bit.  They both agreed it was freezing though.  Then at the end of the day I got the chance to get in the very cold lake.  The kids has been playing with some blow up toys.  They had all been on the shore when Mackenzie and I headed to Cadwell's to see when Emma was going to be up north.  When we got back to my parents they were about 5 cabins down and in the middle of the lake.  Grandma suggested we just let them go, but Isaac was not pleased with that.  I figured if the kids could play in the water I could swim out and get the toys.  Wow, it was very cold.  My toes were numb by the time I got back to shore, but I am pretty sure Isaac will be asking me, "Remember the time you swimmed out and saved the toys?" for a while.  He was very appreciative.

I also got a chance to go to what is becoming my favorite quilt shop, Heritage Quilt Shop (http://www.heritagequiltshoppe.com/) in Gladwin.  Brian helped me pick out a possible backing fabric for my newest quilt, which will hopefully be on our bed soon and indulged me and let me buy two fabrics for my next project, which I only know will involve a lot of navy blue.  After two weeks stressing about whether I was going to have an income a tiny shopping spree felt pretty good.  We also bought some plants for Mom's planters at the cabin.  Of course we bought too much, so we got to take matching plants home to plant here.  The kids had a great time planting the flowers in Grandma's hanging planters after dinner and Mackenzie continued planting with Grandma yesterday evening and this morning.  She also helped Grandma prune some of her existing plants.  My kids love to prune!

Today it was much warmer.  The sun was out and it was beautiful.  The kids got in the water again before lunch.  They said that it was still freezing, but they were much braver and went out deeper and even jumped off the dock.  They spent the whole morning outside.  Isaac liked playing with the badminton rackets and birdies and the wiffle ball and bat.  He connected quite a few times with both of them.  Mackenzie was super excited when Grandma brought out the hammock.  Not to lay in and relax, but to swing in and flip over.

We headed home after lunch and when we got home we spent the rest of the afternoon outside.  We planted blueberry bushes, strawberry and rhubarb plants in our front yard where we took out some overgrown bushes last year.  Here it is very warm, so we were worn out after than and we had peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches and apples for dinner before heading to bath and bed time. 

Uncomfortable Conversation

I took Mackenzie to a doctor's appointment this afternoon to get her ear checked out.  The good news is that the infection is gone and the eardrum seems to have reconnected properly.  The doctor couldn't see the eardrum because there is still some "stuff" in her ear hiding the ear drum.  They did a hearing test and she is doing fine with the higher pitches, but isn't hearing the lower pitches as well as she was when she took her hearing test for school.  So we are going to let it continue to heal and she will do another hearing test in the fall to see if she has regained all of her hearing.  So all-in-all the doctor's appointment was pretty good.

When we got in the car after the appointment NPR was on the radio.  I had given Mackenzie my iPhone at the doctor's office and when we got in the car she wanted it back to finish her "Where's Perry" game.  So I didn't think that she was paying attention to the radio.  I wasn't really paying attention to it either, as I was thinking about something else, but I did notice that they were talking about Kermit Gosnell being found guilty of murder.  From the backseat I hear "Mom, I just heard them talking about killing babies."  Of course I immediately turned the radio off and I explained that yes, they were talking about a man that was going to jail for killing babies.  In my head I am trying to figure out how to talk about murder with my 6 year old, or how to talk about abortion with my 6 year old and wondering which I would prefer to have to talk about with my 6 year old.  Luckily she didn't want to talk to much about it.  The word abortion was mentioned and I tried to explain it as shortly as possible and without much to do.  It seemed to work as she went back to playing "Where's Perry".  However, knowing Mackenzie, this is not the end of the discussion and she is still thinking about it.

Awesome Spring Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend.  We started it off at 5 o'clock Friday afternoon.  Mackenzie's elementary school had its carnival.  I can remember my elementary school's carnival and I loved going every year.  So I volunteered for the first shift of the carnival and was assigned to the beverage station.  It was a beautiful evening.  I was originally staffed inside, but luckily they needed a couple of people to go outside and the woman that happened to be next to me asked if I wanted to go outside.  I jumped at the chance and we got to be outside for an hour and a half and I could see
Brian and the kids as they enjoyed the carnival.  After my shift was done I got to go with the kids as they played the games and as Mackenzie found some of her friends from her class.  It was a lot of fun, and we stayed until the end at 8 o'clock. 

 

We had a very busy Saturday.  I took Isaac to the grocery store and Brian took Mackenzie to the tractor store.  We originally thought that the kids would be swapped, but they both enjoyed their outing with Mom and Dad.  Brian and I took Lauren to lunch and horseback riding while the kids hung out with Grandma and Grandpa at their cousins baseball games.

 

I think that Lauren had a great time at the horse farm on her horseback riding lesson (I also think she liked lunch at the Chinese buffet). 

 

She got to learn how to groom the horse:

then got to lead it out for her ride:

My camera ran out of battery after this shot, so Brian took pictures of her actually on the horse with his phone.  She did really well and I think she really enjoyed the afternoon.

 

We picked up the kids and then went over to their cousin's house for Lauren and Carson's birthday party.  Our kids were definitely tired when we left them with Grandma and Grandpa after the party as we headed to Northern for a concert.  Grandpa said they went to bed very easily that night.

 

Today we spent the morning outside.  I did a lot of weeding, planted some bulbs, and the kids and I started some seeds for the garden.  Brian went to another Tractor Supply store and finally got the lawn mower working, at least enough to mow the lawn.  By the way, I have a great husband, I would never have thought that it was possible to replace a transmission in a riding lawn mower on our own.  Then when things still weren't working properly that we could fix that as well.

 

Anyway, after all that we had lunch and headed to a Mud Hens game.  They had a Star Wars themed weekend, and Isaac was super excited because his cousins let him borrow a Storm Trooper costume.  Brian's coworkers and some UK students that travelled to Ohio for the concert last night were supposed to join us at the game, but unfortunately they were in a car accident in Ada.  Everyone was okay, but one student had to go to the hospital and was suffering from whiplash (they were rear ended). 

 

The game went really quickly, so the kids made it through the whole game.  The Mud Hens lost, but the kids didn't care.  They had a great time, ate a lot of ballpark food, and enjoyed the warm sunny day.

 

 

I tried to get a shot of the Mud Hens uniform, which was supposed to look like Chewbacca.  This was the best shot I got:

So we had a wonderful spring weekend.  The weather was fantastic, we had lots of fun activities, we got a lot accomplished.  We couldn't ask for any more.

Feeling Better, Finally

So, I thought the late illnesses were behind us and the kids had a blast at Great Wolf Lodge Friday night and Saturday.  Sunday we had all of the Rogers cousins over to play and for a taco dinner.  I had a craving for American tacos with the crispy shells and seasoned ground beef and honestly, they were really good.  However, as the cousins were heading out Mackenzie informed me that her ear hurt.  At first I thought she must have gotten hit (it was a bit crazy with six kids in here building blockades and knocking down castles).  But as I looked at her ear it looked fine even though she was obviously in pain.  We have not had an ear infection yet (except Brian last year) but I assumed that was what it was.  What I didn't realize is how quickly we needed to act.

 

So I assumed we would make it through the night and call the doctor in the morning.  So we gave her some ibuprofen and got our heating pad out because the internet said that heat would help the pain.  I slept with her through the night and in the morning she actually said it felt a little better.  So Brian stayed home with her and booked a doctor's appointment in the afternoon.  Well, evidently about 15 minutes before her appointment her eardrum ruptured.  So she headed to the doctor's with a bloody ear :(  She has been on 2 antibiotics since Monday and today she said she was feeling much better and that she could hear out of that ear.  The blood is all gone and we go back to the doctor's on the 13th to make sure her eardrum has healed properly.

 

One of her antibiotics is an ear drop and she has to lay down and let the drops settle in.  So we have been letting her watch a Rugrats episode while this is going on.  Rugrats had been banned from our Netflix account for a while, but the poor thing was so miserable it seemed okay.  Well, evidently Isaac thought this was a pretty good deal.  Plus, he likes taking flavored medicine, like Mackenzie's other antibiotic. So last night he told me his ear hurt and was somewhat convincing.  He probably knew my Mom Guilt over not taking Mackenzie to Urgent Care immediately was pretty strong as well. So today I took him to the doctor.  Good news is he is perfectly healthly although suffering from allergies a bit.  However that didn't stop him from going "Ow, ow, ow, my ear hurts" tonight and continuing to claim that he has an ear infection and needs ear drops.  However, his acting seems to be getting worse :)

 

In the meantime, one of Mackenzie's favorite cups.  A cup with a lid and straw with owls on it (I can't remember who gave this too her, I think it was Aunt Bonnie, but it may have been Aunt Tina), anyway, it cracked in the dishwasher.  So I informed her it was time to recycle it.  This distressed her greatly, but she seemed to feel better when we told her that she could take a picture of it first.  So, rest in piece owl cup:

 

Now for some good news.  I finished my quilt top tonight.  Forty rows each with 39 squares:

I am really happy with it and can't wait to finish it.  It was supposed to be our spring quilt, but given that it was 80 degrees today, I guess it is going to be our summer quilt.  In the meantime, I still have a wool duvet on my bed. 

 

Feeling Crummy

It has been a really long week.  Tuesday I got a call from Isaac's school that he had a fever of 101 degrees.  So I headed to school to pick him up.  He seemed fine all night.  He and Mackenzie both were suffering from a cold and I really hoped that the fever was the end of it for Isaac.  Later that night he got sick, and then he got sick again.  Wednesday afternoon and evening he seemed fine again so I hoped it was over.  He slept most of the night, yay.  Then while I was showering Thursday morning he came into the bathroom to say "Hi" and announce that he had "puked".  He loves the word puke.  So he stayed home with me on Thursday.  He was full of energy all day, thank goodness, and went back to school Friday, the same day I started sneezing and coughing . . . Needless to say I am still feeling unwell.  I am hoping to miss the puking though.  Mackenzie seems to have gotten over the cold without moving into any flu symptons, so I am hoping to feel better by the middle of the week.

Isaac missed his swim lesson this week, but when I was downloading my pictures from my phone I found a picture from his previous lesson and it is so cute I felt like I should post it:

It makes me really happy that my kids like the water so much.

The kids are doing well and we actually had a really busy weekend.  Yesterday we got haircuts, well everyone but me and went to Imagination Station in the morning.  Then we all took a nap in the afternoon.  We went grocery shopping before dinner because the kids wanted homemade lemonade.  So today we made lemonade, along with green waffles.  We also planted some seeds, pruned some bushes, cleaned bathrooms, vaccuumed and mowed the lawn (well Brian mostly did that but Isaac rode along for a while).  So we got a lot done and had a lot of fun despite Mom not feeling well.

The kids have been getting along either really well, or really not well lately.  Today was no exception.  It is amazing how quickly they can move from playing together nicely to attacking each other.  So my latest Mom tactic has been to try and get to them before they get to the attacking stage and convince them that they want to separate.  I am successful maybe 30% of the time, but I am working on it.  This afternoon I was successful once.  Mackenzie went upstairs to play and then decided to carry all of her dollhouse furniture downstairs.  She setup a house for her Strawberry Shortcake doll at the computer desk:

She actually had three areas set up, upstairs, downstairs and outside.  She was really into it and really proud of her house.  Meanwhile Isaac was upstairs for about ten minutes and then carried the furniture from his firehouse downstairs, to literally play right next to his sister.  I truly don't understand them.  They drive each other crazy but they want to be right next to each other.  Needless to say, it only lasted a few minutes after this picture was taken before I heard a loud "Mom!" from Mackenzie.  It was a bit frustrating, but it was better for her to call me than for her to start attacking her brother.

So that was our not so fun week and our full, mostly fun weekend.

The End of Spring Break and Birthday Week

We had a very successful second half of spring break, including Isaac and Brian's birthdays.  We had a great time at Castaway Bay with my siblings and nieces and nephews.  Michael, Misty and Lexie joined us there on Thursday and my sister, Tina, ended up being able to come up with her twin boys, Thomas and Nicholas, on Friday.  Grandpa Butch actually drove over with us on Thursday and stayed with the kids and I all day.  Brian wasn't able to get off work until Friday afternoon, so he joined us then.  So there was a lot going on. 

Here is a shot of all of the kids with Snoopy:

Mackenzie went to the breakfast buffet with Aunt Tina, Thomas and Nicholas and they got to get their picture taken with Linus and his blue blanket:

We headed back to Perrysburg on Saturday.  Tina and the boys headed this way as well, but via a different route.  They unfortunately got a flat tire on the way.  The AAA guy couldn't get the spare of her Suburban so it ended up being towed to our house.  Brian managed to get the spare off before the tow truck pulled out of our driveway; pretty sad.  Luckily she had gotten her tires at Costco so on Sunday she and Brian went on a shopping spree at Costco while they fixed her tire.


Isaac's birthday party was also Sunday. It was a castle themed party and it was extremely successful, if I do say so myself.  Here is a shot of Isaac and me (and his friend Lyla) with his sword and shield cakes before he blew out his candle:

My parents made it down for the party and also stayed the night.  At one point most everyone was outside because we had awesome weather on Sunday and once when I came inside my mom was in the living room with 4 of her 5 grandchildren plus a couple of the Rogers cousins.  It was great to see her hanging out with her grandkids. 

Mom and Tina took the three boys to the zoo on Monday (Mackenzie had to go back to school).  It was great that Mom got a chance to hang out with her 3 grandsons for the day.  I left for work this morning before Brian took the kids to school and Tina and the boys left.  I have been told that when Brian and the kids were getting ready to leave Isaac refused to say goodbye to Aunt Tina because he didn't want them to go, which is a very Isaac thing to do. I am sure he is missing his godmother, but it was great that they got to spend some quality time together.

The kids loved hanging out with their cousins and they all played really well together, most of the time. The kids were sad to see their cousins go yesterday morning, but I think they all will have fond memories of this long weekend, which is exactly what we were all going for. 

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

The cake is supposed to look like a shield.  I am not sure how well I did, but it looks like a shield to me.  For the birthday party when there will be more people around to eat cake there will also be a sword, so hopefully that will help.

Isaac is very excited to be 4.  I got to take him to his swim class today and the woman sitting next to me had a baby boy on her lap.  He was probably about 5 months old.  I can't believe that my baby is 4 years old and that I will be registering him for kindergarten next year.  Part of me is very excited and part of me is a little sad.  Right now he has a blue face from eating the portion of cake I cut off and frosted for him and he is looking super cute.

Update:
We had a special birthday dinner (corned beef, rice pilaf, beans and strawberries) and then had cake and sorbet/ice cream.  Isaac opened up his presents from Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch and Mom and Dad.  Isaac's castle birthday has begun: