Catching up.....again....

I hate when I let myself get so behind it's hard to remember what all I have to catch up on! It's been a busy couple of weeks, but we're in the home stretch of the craziness. This weekend Arnie and I both have to oversee graduations, his at the high school and mine at the Community College, then we have Maggie's Birthday, the last day of school, the closing on our building in Omaha (YIPPPY!!!) and camping for Memorial day....then it will be summer and we get to relax, right???

I'm hoping the pictures will trigger my memory....

Last Wednesday was the Bike-A-Thon at Gracie's school. She's really gotten good
at riding her bike, she had no problem keeping up with the big kids.

For Mother's day both of the girls brought me flowers from school and they got me a jig! Now I have to clean out a corner of the shed and set up a saw, so I can use it! Friday night I went to see Wicked in Omaha with some girl friends, then Saturday I met everyone at camp for our first camping weekend of the year!

The girls were really excited to get to start gymnastics again this week :)

 

Tuesday Maggie was 10 minutes late for school because she wanted to go vote with her dad. When they got to school, she said to Arnie, "this is going to be on my report card, because I'm late. But it's okay because I was being a good American." She took her sample ballot for show-n-tell. She's voted more in the last 6 years then most Americans.

 

Nothing like playing tug-of-war with a fat horse!

Oh Chevy!

Reagan HATES when the kids play catch or basketball. She barks and barks.

Every night this week we had to run around and tuck in all the plants and cover the garden. Hopefully last
night was FINALLY our last frost.

This week we hatched our second set of butterflies. I don't think it's very appetizing, but the girls really enjoy watching them while they eat breakfast. Now we need it to warm up so we can let them go.

Maggie helping Brandon do laundry. They sure do love when he's around.

Stubborn....

Gracie: "Mom, this baby doll won't hold my hand, she's being very stubborn."
Me: "what does stubborn mean?"
Gracie: "that I'm being very good."

I think there might be a communication breakdown in my discipline plan :)

Tough cookie!

Gracie and I were scheduled to report to Children's Hospital at 7:40 this morning.....pretty much immediately after we got there they told us they were running behind....it just kept getting farther behind. About 10:45, after we watched Frozen one and a half times, played in the playroom for awhile, took baby for her 10th walk around the halls and tried to explain to Gracie for the 100th time why she couldn't have anything to eat.....it was FINALLY her turn.

I asked them not to give her the sedative they usually use before anesthesia, because when she had her original tubes put in they gave it to her and it made her crazy and very hard to calm down. They agreed and she handled it like a champ. She gave me a hug and then laid down on her bed and let the nurse roll her away (while she watched Frozen (AGAIN) on her ipad). I think it was harder on me then her.

The surgery only took about 30 minutes. They have changed things since the last time we were there (Maggie's tonsils), now they take the parents back to recovery so you are there when they wake the kids up. So they let me pick her up and rock her while the anesthesia wore off. She was pretty groggy at first, but I think it would have been worse if she had strangers all around. The doctor came in to tell me she did great and that he was confident we had made the right decision. She bled pretty bad during her surgery. They ended up cauterizing 4 spots in her nose and since she was under, he checked her ears and decided to replace her tubes. Once she was awake I asked her if she hurt anyplace and she quickly pointed to the blood pressure cuff and said that's what hurt.

Once she had a drink and a couple of crackers she very loudly and sternly asked the nurse if she could put her panties back on (don't ask why she had to take them off in the first place????). They said she could, so they unhooked all her machines, let her get dressed and pretty quickly sent us on our way. By the time we got to my dad, she was acting pretty much like her old self, a little tired, but not at all bothered by what she'd just been through.

Is it our turn yet???? please!

All done!

Poor baby had a rough day :(

Gracie slept all the way home and was ready to play when we got here. She got to spend a few minutes with Grandma before she headed back to Omaha.  Then she begged to go ride her bike, so after a few minutes of watching her play like normal I asked if she wanted to go to her last soccer game. I had no intention of her going, but the weather was beautiful and she seemed to be feeling great.

Tonight was the last game, in ALL of the previous games there has never been any contact. Nobody has gotten hurt, they can't kick the ball hard enough for it to come off the ground and hit anyone in the face (or more specifically the nose)....mostly it's just six little girls running back and forth bunched around a ball giggling. Of course tonight would be the night one little girl had to be taken out for punching an opposing player and Gracie got hit in the face by another little girls head. Thankfully her nose didn't start to bleed (in my defense I specifically asked if we needed to protect her nose and the doctor said "no, we should just try to keep her finger out of it".) She cried for a little while, but then decided to go back in and play, I felt pretty bad.

Their favorite part of soccer is putting their hands in and yelling "PANDAS" and snacks, I'm not sure they actually know there is a game.

Surgery, what surgery?

Gracie and her friend Hannah played a decent percentage of the season holding hands :)

Too bad coach Arnie had to miss the last game!

Boing....Boing.....Boing....

Last weekend we had both the Montessori school carnival and the church year-end fiesta.....that means lots of bounce houses!!! The weather was finally beautiful, so besides carnivals and fiestas we planted our flowers, got the garden started, hauled the camper out of storage.....and spent almost every waking moment outside.

Between the 2 days, I bet Gracie went down this slide 100 times. She was asleep before we pulled out
of the church parking lot Sunday afternoon.

Gracie always wants to hold Chelsea, Chelsea's not so sure.

We ordered another set of caterpillars. They are busy building chrysalis on my
kitchen counter as I type. Both girls enjoy watching them, but Gracie is totally captivated by
the process. She always wants to put them right by her placemat when she has breakfast (grosses me out, but I'm glad she
likes it.)

Saturday we worked on getting the yard ready for summer. I hope it stays warm, I really don't want all our plants to freeze. Gracie really wanted to plant bologna.....she was pretty sad when we couldn't find any seeds at Menards.

Planting is a pretty dangerous activity! Safety first.

Sunday morning Arnie headed out for a conference in Arizona. After the party the girls and I had dinner in West Point with Mom and Dad. Then Mom and I switched places, she brought Maggie home for school today and Gracie and I went to Omaha with Dad for her surgery this morning.

Hopefully the weather will stay this beautiful and we can start using the camper this weekend!

Spring?????

Last week I was really questioning if spring would ever come!!!!
Thursday the elementary schools had their annual Loyalty day parade.....when it's 38 degrees, really windy, and ALL of the elementary school kids walk in a parade, there aren't many people left to watch the parade :) Gracie and I had a whole block to ourselves, but she did enough waving for lots of people.....

Maggie and her friends didn't seem to notice they were waving at no one :)

 

We quick walked over a street and caught the whole parade twice.

If that wasn't enough FREEZING, then both girls had soccer games. IT WAS MAY 1st and we were bundled up and still cold :(

 

Thankfully that seems to be the end of the cold and now I think spring has finally, officially come. I put the coats and hats away for the 3rd time tonight.....hopefully the 3rd time really is the charm!

No(se) Go!!!

Gracie has been having lots of nose bleeds. Some of them just sort of drip on and off all day and some are like a faucet turned on inside her little head. They scare both of us and are getting a little old. Yesterday the ENT made an attempt at cauterizing her nose in his office....but it was a no go. Gracie was not interested in being held down by 3 people while he tried to stretch her nose with giant tweezers.....who can blame her, it was pretty awful! Unfortunately that means the only way to take care of it is in the operating room. So we'll spend Monday morning at Children's Hospital and hopefully that will be the end of the bloody noses. Would it be wrong to ask them to clean her teeth while she's out.....they're usually willing to do that when Reagan has a procedure :)

You can't really see it, but she has a cotton ball up her nose, with medicine to numb it. At this point I still thought
we had a chance.

They told us the medicine would taste bad so we grabbed a chocolate malt on our way, hoping it
would make it more bearable. If Grandma, a movie and a chocolate malt can't get the job done, nothing
else was going to work!

Gracie actually had a day of doctors yesterday. Her morning appointment went great. It was her 3 year checkup and a check-in on her Iron problem. They retested her iron and told me that there was nothing to worry about, she still low but not dangerously low. So we can stop forcing the awful iron vitamins on her. YAH!!!!!  She's growing like a weed and exceeding all her milestones. The nurse asked her several questions, which she reluctantly answered....BUT when the nurse asked if she knew whether she was a boy or a girl Gracie's tone made clear she thought the nurse was an idiot :) Her height and weight are exactly the same....how often does that happen?? She's 40lbs and 40", both put her well over 95th percentile for size.

She was pretty pumped that her "doctor dress" had purple pandas on it....her soccer
team is the purple pandas :)

Maggie didn't have school yesterday so she got to come to Omaha with us. Maggie and Grandpa worked on the nursery at church while we were at the doctor. When I asked what they did she said, "Grandpa made me hold up a board that was too heavy. Then I got wet paper-towels to clean up the blood." Grandpa had a little run in with the drill....Maggie must be better about blood then I am, because she got the paper towels and returned without fainting along the way.

Apparently Grandpa's lap is the only fitting place to eat an ice cream come!

Monday the VFW invited the girls to come help hang the new flags downtown, that we donated as a Hanukkah gift for Dick & Betti. They needed them hung ASAP and a picture for some publication...so even though it was storming a bit, we braved it. Maggie got to help hang the last flag, once we got back in the car she said, "I didn't think you were supposed to touch metal when there's lightning?" Yah, probably not the best idea.....I guess I should be glad she's listening to safety warnings :) The flags look great and it's been so windy this week they are getting a good workout!

 On a side note, if you need a babysitter.....don't call Gracie!