Monthly Archives: January 2014

Everyone is sick

It has been a rough and sickly two weeks in our house.  It started two weeks ago when I got strep throat.  That took about three days to diagnose and begin to heal.  Then Faith had a fever all day Sunday.  Thankfully, she was better by Monday afternoon.

By Sunday afternoon, Tom came home and said that he wasn’t feel very well. He laid down on the couch and didn’t get up for a day and a half.  I finally made him get up, go to the doctor and then quarantined him to our bedroom.  It turns out that he has the flu.  He has been in our bedroom, alone and sleeping for two days now.  I think that he is finally coming out of it.

On Tuesday night, both Miller and Wilson woke up with high fevers.  Wilson’s got up to 104 and I am sure that Miller’s was the same.  I have been giving them Ibuprofen and Tylonol as often as I can.  They both look so pitiful.  I have really been praying that they don’t have the flu.  I hope that it is just a quick fever like Faith had.

I don’t know where all of this illness is coming from.  We don’t get the flu shot each year.  I don’t believe in it.  There are too many chemicals and nasty stuff in the shot.  After all of the years that no one in our family has gotten a flu shot, I guess it is about time that one of us finally got the flu.  I am sure that we are all bringing more germs into the house now that all of us are going to school during the week.  Classrooms are just little germ breeding grounds.  I will definitely be washing my hands more often and I have already tried to sanitize as much of the house as I can.  Hopefully, this will be it for the winter!

Charlotte Weather

You never know what kind of weather to expect in Charlotte.  I guess you can rely on the fact that it can fluctuate more than 30 degrees from one day to the next.  We will have a high of 35 on Sunday, 65 on Monday, and then it will snow on Tuesday.  We used to have a saying in Colorado:  “If you don’t like the weather then just wait ten minutes.”  We should have that saying in Charlotte except change it to: “If you don’t like the weather then just wait twelve hours.”  We were literally playing outside without jackets on Monday afternoon.  By noon on Tuesday, schools were closing early and preparing for it to snow.  It finally did snow around 6:00pm Tuesday night, but it only snowed maybe an inch.  Southerners have no idea what to do in the snow.  Schools were closed on Wednesday and the public schools are closed again on Thursday even though most of the snow is gone.  There are a few icy spots in the neighborhoods, but that is it.  I guess if the buses can’t make it everywhere then the schools have to close.  This only happens once a year so I guess a few snow days can’t hurt.

The amazing thing that has happened this year is that there have been three days when the schools have either closed or had a two hour delay due to extremely cold temperatures. Once again, they are looking out for the kids that have to wait outside for the bus.  It has gotten down to 10 degrees at night and in the early morning.  This is nothing for those up north, but us southerners are not used to it.  I have gotten some unexpected days off from school which has been nice, but now it is time to get on with the regular schedule.

I am just glad that the kids finally got to play in a little bit of snow.  They went out into the yard once today to make snow angels and throw snowballs.  There wasn’t much to work with, but they tried!  (and yes, Miller only has on socks and fleece lined Crocs.  He insisted)

20140129-203854.jpg

20140129-203909.jpg

Bed time songs

I have gotten into such a long and funny bedtime routine with Miller.  First, we go into his room and play with the train table for a few minutes.  Then we read three or more books;  His favorite one being Thomas the Train.  After we read books and talk a little bit it is time to turn out the light and sing songs.  This is the part that makes me laugh and where Miller’s personality really shines through.  I ask him what song he wants me to sing and he either tells me right aways or he says, “Ummmmmm…..”. If he says this then I proceed to go down the list of songs for him to choose from.  It sounds like this:

“Sunshine?’

“No.”

“Jesus Loves Me?”

“No”

“Twinkle, Twinkle?”

“No”

He says “no” to almost everything I ask….”Do Lord?”, “Spider?”, “Away in a manger?”, “Jesus love the Children?”

“Happy and You know it?”

“Yeah!”

Then we sing the chosen song over and over again together.  He has the same favorite for a few weeks and then changes it to something else.  The other night he said, “Hark, angels sing.”  I was shocked because this is a Christmas song that he has only heard from Faith.  She sang it at her Christmas pageant and then over and over again around the house for a week or so.  I started to sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and during the song he kept interrupting me by saying, “Faith sing it.  Faith sing it with the kids at school.  Faith sing it.”  The things that kids remember amazes me!  How does he know that she sang that song at her school.  Yes, he was at the performance, but he actually remembers her singing that particular song.  It blows me away!  So, now his favorite song (this week) is “Hark the Angels sing”.  Who know what it will be next week.

I thoroughly enjoy my 30-45 minute bedtime routine with Miller.  It gives us some quiet, quality time together and l look forward to it everyday.

 

Triple Date

 

20140126-203549.jpg

 

Tom and I were able to go out on a triple date on Saturday night.  We went out with Bobby and Sidney Youngs and my brother Doug. (Jacqueline couldn’t make it).  We went to Cru Wine Bar.  It is a small wine bar in the Ballentyne area of town.  It had live music, which was the perfect volume, and a very warm atmosphere.  Tom met the bartender at Starbucks that week.  She was a diver on the National Dive Team in the US.  They struck up a conversation and she told us to come in one night…..so we did.  We ordered a few bottles of wine and she came around every so often with a sample of red wine for all of us to try.  Luckily, we are all good friends because we passed around the same glass and all took a sip.  Our favorite was the Burley Cabernet.  It was delicious and cost about $90 a bottle.  That was probably a once in a lifetime taste right there.  :)

It feels so refreshing and rejuvenating to go out with friends and have a good time.  It isn’t often that we all get together and go somewhere without the kids.  It was a late night and I definitely felt the effects the next day, but it was totally worth it.

Mouse Trap

For Christmas Wilson was given the game Mouse Trap. He has been asking to play it, but quite frankly, we didn’t know how and it looked rather complicated. As a child of the eighties, I had been exposed to the game numerous times but I had never actually played the game as it was intended to be played. We always just set it up, let the ball run the course a few times and then put it away. I am amazed that they still make the game at all. Tonight we actually played the game and it was really fun!

The object of the game is to set up the pieces of the game as you move along the board. The kids enjoyed setting it up on their various turns. After the pieces have all been set up, it is a free for all. Everyone except the winner gets caught in the trap. It was actually quite exciting. We were all cheering for a certain number on the dice and laughing when someone got caught in the mouse trap. Faith won and Wilson was an amazingly good loser. He just had fun playing.

We haven’t had a game night like that together….ever. Maybe we are entering a new phase of life. Even Miller sat there with us at the table and rolled the dice when it was his turn. However, He did think that the cheese playing pieces were real and tried to eat them. I had to get him some real cheese instead. The funniest part was when wilson announced mid game ,”I farted”. We all laughed and then Told him that he “cut the cheese”. The kids thought that was hilarious. They were surprisingly able to muster up lots of opportunities to use the phrase appropriately. Lol.

It turns out that after all of these years, Mouse Trap is actually a fun game. I am sure that we will be playing it again soon. It was big hit tonight.

20140124-223001.jpg

Faith’s Play Date

Faith had her first playdate with a friend from school at our house yesterday.  Her friend, Anna Carmen, came home from school with us.  The girls were gitty in the car on the way home and were very excited to be together outside of school.  It was very cute to see Faith so excited to be with her friend.  She hasn’t had many playdates with friends whose mom’s aren’t my friends. I realized that I need to do it more often.   The girls played wonderfully together, of course, but it was difficult for Wilson.  I had to keep him entertained so that he wouldn’t go downstairs to play with them.  I realized that Faith is his playmate and when she has a friend over it is hard on him.  He kept wanting to go downstairs to play with them.  Eventually the three of them did play together.  Wilson went and asked the girls if they wanted to take the cushions off the couch and make a castle.  They said “yes” and I was proud of Wilson for taking the initiative and asking them politely to play with him.

Now this is where the story gets interesting…..The kids took the cushions off the couch, jumped around and then sat of them to watch one TV show and eat popcorn.  After that they went off to Wilson’s room to play.  I knew that Anna Carmen’s dad was going to be arriving to pick her up around 3:15 so I began to clean up the living room.  That morning I had cleaned up the house so that when a fellow parent from CDS came into my house for the first time he would not think that it was the dirty and clutter filled house that I feel it typically is.  I couldn’t do anything about the size or style of the house, but I could remedy the messy part.  Well, 3:15 crept up on me and as I was about to put the cushions back on the couch when I realized how much popcorn and other crumbs were in the couch so I got out the vacuum cleaner.  Wouldn’t you know it!  As soon as I started to vacuum out the crumbs Anna Carmen’s dad arrived.  I then thought, “Oh well!  I guess he will see the couch without the cushions put back on properly.”  He came in and was very nice.  We then had to walk down the hall to get Anna Carmen to come out of Wilson’s room because she didn’t want to leave.  We opened Wilson’s door to find that he had taken all of the clothes out of his drawers and they were scattered all over his room!  After the kids jumped off the bunk bed a couple of times, Anna Carmen wanted him to see Faith’s room.  Now he was going downstairs to see the rest of the house – which I had not planned on!  The downstairs is definitely not the neatest : it is the place where we put things we don’t know what to do with. The Christmas tree was still in a box in the hallway! Faiths room wasn’t too bad, but the floor in her room is pretty ghetto because it is concrete with a throw rug on it.  The kids then jumped on her bed. It looked like complete lawlessness!  I had to assure him that the kids were not this hyper the entire time, they only got this way when he arrived.  I seriously felt like a babysitter that was caught having no control of the kids and leaving the house a mess when the parents came home.  Anna Carmen’s dad gave no indication that this was how he felt, but I felt that way. I was totally embarrassed and irritated because I had actually tried to make a good impression.

I don’t know why I feel that I have to impress anyone, but with the parents at the private school I feel a bit insecure.  I assume that they all have a lot more money than we do, and therefore, all have bigger and better houses.  They may, but it shouldn’t matter.  I know that each year we will be scraping together every last penny we have in order to send Faith to this school, and it is worth the sacrifice.  I have to accept that we are who we are and not compare myself with the Jones’, or the Gunns in this case.

In the end, I got over it and met Erin and her kids at the playground. She assured me that my kids are well balanced and have fun in our house. That is all that matters….and it is.

We played at the park for an hour, even though it was only 39 degrees out. The only reason we left was because poor Miller was freezing. It was a good way for me to clear my head and put things into perspective. I am still a bit embarrassed about how the play date ended but it is nothing to dwell on. Live and learn!

Long Day

Tom is on the church board and he had a meeting all day today.  Last night I told him that I did not feel like single parenting all day Saturday.  When you go to bed dreading the next day, the next day does not typically start off well.  It didn’t.  Miller woke up at 4:45am, cried for a minute and then fell back to sleep until 5:45.  I finally got up and got him back to sleep while rocking him in the chair in his room.  I was afraid to put him back in his bed so I laid there and tried to get some sleep myself.  We finally both woke up, but I was very tired.  So now I am tired AND not looking forward to the day.  A very bad combination.  The kids were fine, for now.  I was just cranky.

I made breakfast while the kids played. Eventually Wilson did something wrong, as usual.  He does so many things without thinking.  Well, today he will remember the consequence.  He threw puzzle pieces around the downstairs.  I told him numerous times to pick them up but he didn’t.  It was time for the kids to go across the street to have pancakes with a friend as planned.  I didn’t let Wilson go over there until he found all of the pieces.  Needless to say, this took a while.  I told him to “just keep looking”. He missed out on pancakes across the street.  I stuck to my guns which was necessary and I think it he learned something from this long trial.

Today was definitely a rollercoaster ride: up, down, up down, up….I took the boys to Walmart (up), yelled at them when they didn’t get ready for the pool (down), the indoor pool was fun (up), they all cried when we left due to various reasons (down), when we got home Miller fell asleep and the others went to their rooms while I slept (up).

Finally, Tom got home to help with the kids and my mental stability.  We took the kids to Super Salad which is a buffet place that the kids love.  They eat more desserts than they do real food.  I didn’t care.  I just didn’t want to cook or clean up.  Dinner was great.  The kids were well behaved and we got to spend a little bit of family time together.  A good ending to a crazy day.  Attitude is everything and mine was as unpredictable as the kids’ behavior.  Alas, this is life with three young kids….