The Last Hurrah

Birthday season officially closes today. We celebrated my birthday on Thursday since I was too sick on Wednesday. Grammie brought the kids their birthday presents.

Emily got a princess pillow, lots of pretty new clothes, and pajamas. She got several new accessories for her dollhouse including a garden and camping tent.

Both of the girls got these cute ballerina dolls. Danielle also got a cute new walker/ride-on, and a pink truck.

Brian got some great clothes and pajamas, a camo pillow for his bed and two new Star Wars lego sets.

I got my very cool new 90th Anniversary KitchenAid Mixer with a glass bowl, a joint venture from Eddie and mom, and also my own box of See's Candy, which I am not sharing.

Today is Grammie's birthday. I planned a special birthday dinner. Beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, asparagus with hollandaise, and mushrooms. I made birthday cupcakes in my new KitchenAid mixer, with chocolate buttercream frosting.

I was excited about making tenderloin, but a little nervous about potentially ruining an expensive piece of meat. My mom had never made tenderloin either. Armed with our meat thermometer and instructions from Pioneer Woman, we set out on our mission. The twice baked potatoes turned into once baked, but that was OK. The hollandaise was a flop, more practice required, the mushrooms and asparagus were yummy, and aside from a small oven temperature mishap the tenderloin was perfectly cooked.

Brian described the meat as "fluffy" I told him it was very tender, it almost melted in his mouth. He decided that it was so tender you didn't really need that many teeth and perhaps Danielle could have some.

Planting Flowers

When school first started, Mrs. Halter sent home a sign up sheet for volunteer opportunities in Brian's class this year. One of those was helping the kids plant flowers. I immediately volunteered Grammie for that duty. I told Mrs. Halter that if they planned to do that activity when my mom was in town she would love to help. It worked out great.

One of things that my mom loves to do is work in the yard planting flowers, pulling weeds, and making the landscape beautiful. She was able to help plant pansies in the pot near Brian's back door to his classroom as well as get all of the things done around the house. She pulled weeds,cleaned up the flowerbeds and planted Spring bulbs. We also started the next project for Spring. The rock path and the second hill, with a Rocky Mountain theme.

Here are the pictures of Brian's classmates planting flowers with Grammie...

Joylyn

Kennedy

Lauryn S.

Lauryn N.

Townley

Al

Nash

Veronica

Calvin

Charleston

Jamarieo

Nora

Madeline

Meadow

Javion

Brian

Conner

The pots turned out really cute, the kids had a fun time, and I am glad the Grammie got to help at Brian's school.

Our new North side rock planter, it really grew since Spring.

The front of the house

The front with the azaleas, hydrangea, and pansies in the pot.

Another shot of the front, here is the rose bush and the tree that we staked up.

The mailbox, with a little Fall color

The front rock garden

The South side, Eddie trimmed up the monster bush

The hill in the backyard

The start of the new project, the rock path and the Rocky Mountain Hill.

When It Rains It Pours

Bad things happen in threes or fours? This past week has been very challenging.


It started last Wednesday when I found that our help at the office had been stealing and so she was terminated for theft. It was an awful feeling having someone you trust and had known for over a year, violate that relationship. Two qualities that I value and hope to instill in my children is honesty and integrity. Over the years of working with young people those are the things that have always been most important. The bright news...a lady from church was able to step right in and help at the office.


Next up...A phone call from Brian's school at lunchtime on Tuesday. "Mrs. Jones, this is the school nurse, and you are not going to like this phone call." YIKES! "Your son has lice." Crying, crying, crying. Nope, not a good phone call. I am already going crazy at the office, my mom arrives tomorrow, and now I have to wash everything in my house. Crying, crying crying. The bright news...a great friend offered to wash a bunch of stuff at the laundry mat. It has made me think several times over the past week about how our Heavenly Father is mindful of our needs and he meets those needs much of the time through the service of others. What a grateful reminder of the need to give service to others.


I started to get sick on Monday afternoon, but decided I didn't have time to be sick. I needed to be at the office. I had to get ready for my mom's visit, and now I was cleaning like a maniac trying to control the lice outbreak. I thought maybe I had the Swine Flu, but I didn't seem to have the "right" symptoms. By Wednesday morning, I decided I had better go to the doctor to see what was wrong. Turns out I had strep. The bright news...antibiotics would make me feel much better soon.


My mom arrives despite the warnings that she would be entering a contaminated war zone. I was grateful for another set of hands to help fold mounds of laundry and cook and do dishes for a few days.


Thursday morning our day starts at 6:45am, when our neighbor from across the street knocks on our door to let us know that our truck window had been broken. About 12 cars on our street had the windows broken and the contents stolen. We had a few nice things stolen from the truck including our GPS, both of the kids portable DVD players, and Eddie's hunting garmin. Fortunately (I guess) the van was unlocked so they didn't have to break a window to get in. I think the only thing they stole from it was a bunch of change in the console. The bright news...no one was hurt, the stuff can be replaced, lesson learned about leaving valuables in the car.

Finally on Friday, I decided to take Emily to the pediatrician. She had been sick for two weeks, and just was not getting better. She had been complaining about her throat and her ears off and on for days. I figured that she probably had strep, actually she probably gave it to me. I was right. I decided to just have her get the antibiotic shot. It went fine. Just a few tears, and a little pain for about 5 minutes, a cool My Little Pony gift and it was all over. I could tell she felt so much better that night, and her snotty nose cleared up almost immediately. Plus no having to deal with antibiotics for 10 days, forgetting and also tearing up her gut. The bright news...no one else is sick.

Nothing else bad can happen for a very long time right?

Dressed Up

Here are the girls in their new matching birthday dresses, and all the kids dressed up ready for church.

Danielle is my little ham...she starts smiling as soon as the camera comes out!

It is really had to get everyone smiling and looking at the camera at the same time!

Happy Birthday Emily

Happy Birthday Emily, this is the cute birthday outfit that she picked out at Gymboree that Grammie bought for her.

One of the boys, Logan in Emily's class at Gymboree had his birthday party at The Jump Zone today after lunch. I had Eddie take the kids, while I stayed home and finished Emily's cake, wrapped presents, decorated, and got ready to make dinner. It worked out great. The kids had a great time at The Jump Zone. Even Danielle was going down the slides. I wish I would have thought to send him with the camera. He said she crawled up the slide and went down with one of the kids again and again and again.

I got the cake done and it turned out really great. Nana came over for dinner and the party, we had steak and potatoes.

We had a Hello Kitty Theme.

The cake was very simple

The balloon was bigger than Emily

Mom picked out Pj's and a dress

A Horse and a Rider for the dollhouse from Danielle

A Snow White doll from Nana

A Dollhouse with all the accessories from mom and dad

Pink Legos from Brian

Blowing out the candle

Both the girls dress up in their new outfits

Birthday Lunch

Today I had lunch with Emily at Gymboree. I made cute sprinkle cupcakes for her class and brought her Chick Fil A for lunch. It was fun seeing all the kids in her class and eating lunch together. They patiently waited until everyone had finished lunch so they could get a cupcake. We sang Happy Birthday, and ate yummy cupcakes. I didn't realize how good homemade buttercream frosting is, I will never go back to canned!

Zhu Zhu Pets

Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must have and therefore hard to find Christmas present. The funny thing is Brian has been seeing commercials on TV for these things for months. My standard answer for all such things is...put it on your birthday/Christmas list. Finally one day I googled these silly things, and couldn't really find much about them and didn't see anyone locally that was even selling them. I promptly forgot about them.

Until a couple days ago when I saw an article about them. Immediately I googled them again and found they are sold out at Walmart, ToysRus and Target. These things go from completely unknown to huge huge hit seemingly overnight. I did manage to find a three pack at ToysRus for presale, set to ship 12/11/09. Then I hit the stores: first up Walmart, score, they have the ball and the surfboard right on an endcap, and the lady in the hunting department shows me where the pet home is. I pick up one of each. Next stop ToysRus, they also have the home and it is $2.00 more so I am doing well. They have space available on the shelves for the pets and some additional accessories. I ask one of the sales people if they thought they would be getting more in soon. Yep, Tuesday morning they get a truck, score I will be back in the morning. Next stop Target, no luck there, they don't even carry them yet.

I did get the forth pet (the yellow one) from ToyRus but they didn't have any of the accessories I was really looking for. I will keep searching.

I know I am crazy!