The Ickies

I'm not sure "ickies" is even a word, but we have been plagued with them around here lately.  I can't be more thankful that they have all been pretty minor, but for this generally healthy family it has been a rough couple of weeks.  Even mommy got sick, and I never get sick.

I was actually even the first one to get sick.  I started feeling crummy right before school started.  It was a good thing I wasn't starting school or I would have probably had to skip the first day.  I was so run down that I had to even ask Daddy to stay home and help me get the whole crew ready for the day.  Once everyone was dressed and fed he headed to work and I headed out the door to take Noisy Man to school, then to a meeting and then back to pick him up and then I crashed for 2 hours.  After a week of suffering and coughing I finally gave in and went to the doctor.  Diagnosis:  Bronchitis.  Ugh.   I got some powerful antibiotics, steroids and a cough syrup with codeine that would knock me out for hours.  (I wasn't able to take that very often during the day while the kids were depending on me.)   I am just now starting to feel back to normal and even considering running. That wasn't even a dream while I was sick.

On the Wednesday before she started school, Miss Firecracker started running a fever so we headed her into the pediatrician's office to find a lovely little ear infection.  She was fighting off a pretty good cold too, which probably caused the drainage in her ear as well.  Thankful for amoxicillian and she is all better!

Then my healthy boy couldn't kick a little cough he picked up at school.  It just kept getting worse and then he started running a fever off and on so we got him in to see the pediatrician as well.  Sinus infection for him.  Poor thing even stayed home from two days of school.  He would be miserable in the morning and once the cough medicine and Tylenol kicked in he would be back to normal, but with a low grade fever and uncertainty of when the Tylenol would wear off, I kept him home.  He finally headed back today fever and sinus headache free.  He spent all of last night doing homework so that he wouldn't have to miss recess today.  Quite the studious little guy.

Lastly, Miss Thumb Sucker has been battling her allergies.  I feel like a terrible mother to a kid with allergies though.  I do not have the slightest hint of allergies so I have no idea when it is a bad allergy day or not.  Hopefully, I can get into a habit of checking the allergy alert things on the news so that I know when she is going to need her medicine or not (I don't want to be doping her up if she doesn't need it).  So, if you have allergies and want to help me out on this, I'd be open to any advice. 

So, that is our icky report.  Exciting, huh?

Another First Day

Does it mean you love them less if you tear up for leaving one and not another?  Oh, this thought has bothered me all day!  I feel like a terrible mother.  But I can't remember if I cried at all for Noisy Man's 2nd year of preschool either.

All dolled up and ready to go!

Miss Firecracker started her 2nd year of preschool today and I didn't get emotional at all.  She is only gone in the afternoon, which is nap time and quiet time here, so I am not missing out on too much play time with her, and she was so stinkin' excited to go back she has asked when she started every day for the last two weeks. 

She totally thrives in the school environment and absolutely loves it, so I think it is easier for me to send her.  Where, Noisy Man is my more shy and reserved one that I often wonder how he is doing.  Maybe that is it.  Their personalities make it different.

We need to work on her silly faces.  :)

Either way, she was thrilled to head back to school with her awesome teachers and bestest friends!  I wanted to get a pic of her and her bestie, but Miss S's bus was running late and daddy had to get back to work.  Hopefully another day!

Summer's Done

Oh how the beginning of the school year is so bittersweet.  I am so excited for the brand new adventures for my little boy and all the things he will learn, but I have such a hard time giving up all that time with him. 

That, and having an issue with knowing exactly what he is doing all the time.  I hate not knowing what he does all day, and he isn't really one for a descriptive tale once he gets home, so I have to stalk him at school by volunteering there every once in a while to find out!

So, here is my big boy on his first day of first grade.

Gotta do a silly face one!

Big Smile

They are doing a fun movie star theme in their room

His Teacher Mrs. Weichel

He gets his very own desk this year

I did SO much better this year.  Just a few hidden tears and no sobbing.  But, still, how did he get so big?  He is still supposed to be my adorable little toddler.  Now he is a big first grader with two loose teeth that he nearly did cartwheels last night after finding their first wiggle!

Summer Fun Coming to an End

We had a couple of very eventful weeks for our family.  We had the county fair, vacation and our very first day of summer camp!

The fair wasn't quite the same this year without my sister-in-law and her family and my other sis-in-law.  We usually do an entire family evening event out of it and the adults have just as much fun as the kids.  Our kids still had a blast, though and absolutely love all the rides.  I wish I could say the same.  Those things change a lot when it is your children on them instead of yourself!

Petting a cow at the fair

Fun rides!

Can't leave the fair without a snow cone

and a funnel cake!

We also got to go on a great family vacation to Kansas City.  We were hoping to make it up to Wisconsin to see my brother and his family, but schedules would never quite mesh and we ran out of time.  Hopefully, we can get Wisconsin in this fall. 

Science City and Union Station - lots of fun!

Our first hotel had cool, big bolster pillows that we used for fun sword fights!

Story time at Great Wolf Lodge

Weee!

Miss Firecraker and Noisy Man loved this little obstacle thing

Mommy even made it is a picture

The highlight of the trip for Noisy Man - LegoLand!!!

One of the rides at LL

The girls loved the cupcake area!

Last, but not least, I got to take Noisy Man to one of my favorite places on earth!  I was a camper here growing up and then at age 14 I started out as a counselor, then Staff In Training, then full time Summer Staff.  I practically spend 6 straight summers out here and met some of the people who are still my best friends in life.

They have a day camp for the younger kiddos and I was quick to sign him up.  We spent the day playing games, exploring reptiles, looking at fish, canoeing and fishing.  Finished it up with some watersliding and ice cream and it was over way too fast.  I am pretty sure I had more fun than he did as he is more the quiet, reserved type in these settings where I just dive in and go for it.  He may look just like me, but he has his father's personality. 

Petting some kind of snake or something

Canoeing!!

Awesome Waterslide
 (he only did it two times though as the line was pretty long
and he got bored waiting - once again, more like daddy)

A Good Read

It is a good thing they don't put a time limit on how long you can have a book before you have to blog about it.  If they did, I'd have been fired by now.

I received Wildflowers from Winter for free from Waterbrook/Multnomah Publishers for this review about 3 months ago and it sat on my shelf.  Finally, I took it along on vacation and got it read!

It was a good one.  No heavy thinking involved, many great little sub plots and a fairy tale romance, just my kind of book!

It is about a small town girl, Bethany, with a past no one would want.  She was determined to get as far away from it as possible and make a name for herself as a big architect in Chicago.  A series of sad events brought her back to her hometown and somewhat trapped her there. 

While the romance evolving between Bethany and Evan is a bit predictable, the author put enough twists and turns in to keep you just a little bit on edge.  I can't turn down a good romance.

The way she kept the details of Bethany's sad history, with the death of her father and relationship with her mother, a bit vague until close to the end of the book really drew me in as well.  I kept wondering what the big secret was or what had her so worked up about it.  I must admit, the author did not go into as great of detail in describing the past events as I would have liked.  She briefly explained some of it in a flashback section, but some of it remained unanswered.

Overall, the fact that I read this book in just a few days is a testament to the good book it was.  The fact that it ties in faith makes it even better.  There are way too many events occurring in this book to even think about a 'brief' explanation of all that goes on, so you'll just have to read it for yourself and find out what it is all about.

Seeing Spots

It is a polka dot kind of day....

She dressed herself this morning.  Can you tell?  She said she matched because they all had dots!

I am in the process of painting these dots on the girls' new room wall.  I can't decide if I really like them....
They match the back of the quilts they have on their beds.  What do you think?

Only 3 Weeks Left?!?!

Wait!  I haven't had enough time.  How can there only be 3 weeks left?  This is so unfair. (side note:  I started this post when there were still 5 weeks left but never finished it... I was too busy cramming things in and spending time with my kiddos!)

Don't get me wrong we have had lots of fun so far, but man, has it flown by.  I can't believe in 3 short weeks the summer will be over and I will go back to having only the evenings and weekends with my little boy.  Guess I don't plan on wasting it sitting here at the computer.  :) 

Here is another photo blast of summer activities since the last one:

Noisy Man shot a rabbit out at G'ma and G'pa V's all by himself.  He was one proud little guy, but he wouldn't hold it for the picture.  He has since built a rabbit trap so that he can trap them (so he can find them) and then shoot them.  Poor bunnies.

Our great friends from Alaska were back in Lincoln, so we got to go with them to the Lincoln Children's Zoo
This is Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker's first camel ride!

We enjoyed a hot day at Prairieland Dairy Day!  I highly recommend it.  A super fun and free day,
including lunch and ice cream!

We have spent LOTS of time at the water park!  The only place to be when it is so stinkin' hot!

We got a new basketball hoop (a late birthday gift for Noisy Man).  When it was still cool enough we spent a lot of time playing with it.  It has now been put in the ground with cement instead of that big base thing, but hasn't been played with much due to the 100 degree weather.

Miss Firecracker took a session of gymnastics at our Y.  She L.O.V.E. loved it and will be signing up for the next session as well.  I can't wait for the Olympics for her to see what the gymnasts do there!  Her teacher was very impressed with how strong and advanced she was as the youngest person in the class.



Noisy Man played some coach pitch baseball.  He did great and only had to use the tee a couple of times.  His biggest struggle was remembering to drop the bat and run after he hit the ball! :)

Miss Thumb Sucker with our Alaskan friends' new baby.  She has the best hair ever!

Noisy Man and his Alaskan buddy.  He has really missed him since they moved back and was so glad to get to spend a couple of days paling around with him again.

We attended 3 or 4 different 4th of July parties and had a blast.  Miss Firecracker and Noisy Man loved it.  Miss Thumb Sucker, not so much.  She did not like the noise and cried through almost all the shows we saw.

Mommy did another crazy run called Color Me Rad.  It was super fun and I got super dirty.  I don't know if I would call it a run though as 80% or more of the people in it just walked.  You go along the course and they have different "color stations" where they either throw colored starch at you or spray it on you.  Then just before the finish line you get your own color bag to throw at everyone.  It was a blast!  I am just bummed my shirt didn't stay looking that cool.  It is just kind of a dirty pink now.

In addition to the fun in these photos we have dealt with a few illnesses this last week.  Miss Thumb Sucker lost her name for 5 whole days when she caught some weird virus (somewhat like hand-foot-mouth disease only hers was just in her mouth and she never ran a fever which is very unusual) so her mouth was in severe pain.  The only thing the poor thing would eat were the squeeze packets of applesauce.  It was hard to even get her to drink anything.  The pain also kept her from sucking her thumb.  I was a little bit hopeful that the good thing to come out of this torturous virus would be for her to kick the habit, but she is on the mend and back to her old ways.

Daddy and I have started doing some workout videos in the evenings.  I needed a change up in the running routine (it is too hot to be running outside) and I wanted to coax him into working out with me, so I really gave him no choice.  I told him he has to get into shape because he can't die before I do.  :)  I'm not sure he appreciates this, but he is going along with it for the time being.  See, I told you I have a keeper!  He'll even do Jillian Michaels workouts with me!

Mommy also got to go see my favorite author again for a fun little girls trip.  Jen Hatmaker was speaking down in Olathe, KS (a suburb of Kansas City) and it was super cheap to attend the event, so some girlfriends and I made an overnighter out of it.  We had a great time shopping and eating and being challenged by this amazing author and speaker.  If you want to know more about what I learned/thought about the event check it out.

Lots more to do before the end of the summer.  The fair is this week and we are doing a small vacation as well as getting to take Noisy Man to a day camp.  Hopefully, I'll post before another full month next time! :)