Rude Awakening.... Again!

Well, seems like it was only about 12 days ago, But Ryan did it again, Poor little guy threw up from about 1 am until 6:45am, Not too much sleep went on. Doug seemed to be able to fall asleep in between, but with only 20-45 min in between, it doesn't add up real quick. I staqyed awake, to listen for Ryan. Doug stayed home from work with the kids, since we had a snow day also. I had to work today. When I got home from work, I was able to get about a 45 min. nap, but I am SO ready for bed!
I'm thinking of making a career change, I'm looking into Real Estate, more on that as I investigate!

When I grow up...

I was reading the classified section of the newspaper on Sunday, always on the lookout for a great job ( although I do have one) . I came across a Real Estate ad with a website to check out if your intrested in a career in Real Estate. So I thought, hmmmm, that's always sort of intrested me, So I got on the website last night. They had a Real Estate Simulator, it consisted of 3 parts. The first part they showed a video situation, you then had to choose which answer they give you would be the best, then after the whole series per situation ( there were 2) You had to answer questions re: what happened , to see if you remembered important facts, because keeping up to date notes is very important. ( Those were very easy) . Then there was an Apptitude test, where you had to answer questions to comman sense type things within 12 minutes. ( Not too sure how that went some were easy, some were impossible) Then there was a personality test, where you had to rate yourself on certain things. The whole thing took right around an hour. Within a short time, I recieved an email from the Real Estate office the website was from. They said "Thank you for taking the Real Estate Simulator.
Based on your results we would like to speak with you." So I'm thinking maybe I didn't do too bad. So I think I will call thier office today. I really need to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. My boss will probably only work another 3 years, and I really need a career, rather than just a job.... We'll see what happens.
Temp this morning -2, 3-6 inches of snow is on it's way and we're under a blowing snow advisory.

Snowy and Cold

It sure feel's like January! Hard to belive just a couple of weeks ago, I was taking down Christmas lights outside and it was 60. As of now, it's 12 with a wind chill of 1 and lake effect snow is falling. Bradley shoveled the driveway yesturday, now it's filled back up, He wanted to stay home from school and re-shovel it, although, then he'd mess up his perfect attendance. Bradley had basketball on Saturday, Ryan got to go with this time, he was pretty excited when his friend Zachary was there too. Zachary is the little brother of Bradley's friend Ryan. Both sets of boys are the same in thier age difference. Ryan and Zach will be in Kindergarten together next year and Ryan and Brad will be in 4th grade (if Brad makes it) Ryan and Zach's Mom and Dad graduated from FHS in 87 as did I . It's always nice to know your kids friends, parents. Bradley has gone camping with them and I know I never need to worry about him when he's with them. Anyway, we'll be spending a lot of time at sporting events together over the next many years!
Back to work and back to school today, better get supper started in the crockpot so we'll have dinner when we all get home tonight!

Wow....

Wow, where have I been ?? Must be busy not doing much of anything! Last Saturday Bradley started Blackhawks Junior hoops basketball. It was amazing how many kids were there. Seems everyone has cabin fever, or kids are driving thier parents crazy so they need to get out of the house! Anyway, it's 1-1/2 hrs long on a Saturday morning. Brad LOVES it! We tried the Pee-wee football thing a year ago, and he's not into that. He wanted to play hockey, but that's just WAY too expensive and just for practices it's about a 40 minute drive. He loves baseball and lives for Spring, so now his enthusiasm for basketball is about same as baseball. Now, if only I could get him intrested on being on a swim team. He's a fish in the water. I guess I should take him to a swim meet. Ryan, just wants to be old enough to do his own sports, he's tired of just watching his brother, he'll get to start T-ball this summer. ( t-ball is painful for the parents, you have about 25 kids per team and they all get a chance to bat, and they get many tries to hit and then all get to run around the bases at least 3 times per game, it takes FOREVER!!) Bradley came home on Saturday and then said " I can't belive I'm saying this , but, I can't WAIT for next Saturday"

I've been checking into this Once a month cooking thing my friend Amy http://www.pintglass.org/amy told me about. I've been feeding the idea into some of my friends heads to start a cooking group of our own. It sure would make dinner time a lot less confusing. I only work part time, but those 3 days are tough when it comes to getting hungry kids fed quickly!!

Yesturday the temp got up to almost 60 degrees. We even had a couple Thunder storms. Ryan was NOT thrilled to be going to school in a storm. He wanted to stay home with me. He said if he stayed home with me, I wouldn't be scared... I was sort of excited about having an afternoon all to myself since I had the day off, But when I took Ryan to school, I got busy at the school and ended up bringing them home after school, since I never left! Tonight I have a PTO meeting, unless the roads get really bad. It's pouring rain and the temps are supposed to drop dramatically and then everything will freeze.... yuck!!

Rude Awakining

Well, there is nothing like being woken up at 2:30 am by the sound of a little boy puking. Ryan didn't feel so good today. He missed school, and didn't get to help me pop popcorn at school this morning! He said he had a tummy ache when he went to bed, but I didn't belive him, since his brother says the same thing every night, I figured he was trying to copy him. Guess I should of belived him. He seems to be feeling better. He's got some color back in his face and his eyes aren't as droopy. He's also loving the finger jello!! I'm REALLY hoping, he doesn't share this little "bug" with his brother!! I have a couch screaming out my name, I think it's about time for a nappy, it's almost 3 pm and I've already been up for 12-1/2 hours!!

Snow Day

Seems like Christmas Break is back in session. Snow has moved into our area and caused a snow day. Bradley was NOT happy when he woke up and it was daylight, he assumed I hadn't gotton him up to go to school. (He refuses to be late or absent) I told him to look out the front window. Then he climbed back in his nice cozy bed. Ryan on the other hand said, that Daddy told him he had school today, so he HAD to go... Didn't quite get the concept of the snow day. Ryan just came in from playing out in the snow, he's now having Hot Chocolate. Bradley decided to shovel the driveway. Works for me! I was actually looking forward to having a day off with the kids in school, so I could get the house all nice and clean and laundry done, without stopping every 2 minutes, Needless to say, Didn't work out that way. There's always tomorrow to finish what doens't get done today.

Yesturday, I decided to try the Playstation 2 games the kids ( including Doug) got for Christmas. Needless to say, Ryan thought he should watch and tell me what to do on Ape Escape. Eventually I wasn't doing good enough, so he grabbed the controller out of my hand and proceeded to show me how it was done. I gave up and let him play and started supper. Then later after supper, the kids were playing in thier rooms, so I again decided to try Ace Combat 4, eventually Bradley decided to come down to watch, it came time to land the plane, I asked what I was supposed to do, so he just grabbed the controller out of my hand and proceeded to take over, so I got up to do laundry... Then Doug came home and after that, there was no chance of my getting a chance to play. Oh well...

Christmas break is over...

Well, it's back to school. Bradley wasn't too thrilled with getting up early this morning. Once he got out of bed and into the shower, he was moving a little quicker. It'll be good to get the boys back into thier routines. Ryan is still sleeping, which is nice, I get a little "me" time after Bradley got on the bus, That's rare for me. Ryan doens't start school until after 11:30am. As soon as I drop him off, I go to work. The kids will go to the afterschool daycare until Doug gets home from work. He gets off before I do on Tuesdays. I pick them up on Mondays. Works out well, not sure what I'll do with them all Summer... Quit my job?? Don't see that happening, I like it too much!

We have snow in the forcast , Starting tomorrow afternoon we could get 6+ inches. Last Friday it was near 60 and all Christmas snow went away. It was the perfect day to take down the Christmas lights though. Later in the week, 40 and rain is again forcasted, what a rollercoaster....

My boys on our Trip to Mackinac Island Aug 2004 

My first post....(yikes)

It's January 3, 2005, Hard to belive another year has passed. I wonder where the years have gone. Bradley will be ten this year, That's really hard to belive. I thought I would start this blog, no matter how dull my life, to keep up with friends far away and so I can look back on things that will/have happened . Our Christmas was good, We started getting a minor snow storm on Thursday the 23rd. I drove to Zeeland to take my friend Pam, her Christmas present and the cookies I'd been working on for the last 4 days ( Had to get them done in time to give the teachers thier cookies). Her son had tubes put in his ears that day, so I thought I would drive up there, so #1 she didn't have to leave him and #2 to see how he was doing, which was really well. I took him and his sister beanie babies. The weather to drive in was horrible, I wondered what I was thinking. I got about a mile from the Zeeland exit and could not see the road , I was SO happy to finally see the exit sign. But then, I knew I still had to come home in it. The weather pretty much kept up though the middle of the night of Christmas Eve. Friday morning, Christmas Eve had a little excitement. Ryan woke up Crouping . I sat with him in the bathroom with the hot water on full blast so he could breath the steam, well, I ran it until the hot water ran out and he wasn't doing any better. So we got bundled up and went to sit out on the patio. If all else fails, try the cold air. And it WAS cold air!! I have to admit, no matter how cold I was, it was a gorgous night! The snow coming down, was beautiful, just as you imgine Christmas should be with new fallen snow... Anyway, I sat there with Ryan struggling to breath in my arms for over 1/2 an hour. The cold seemed to help him a little, so we went in. He seemed to be breathing a little better and was able to go back to sleep... At least temporarily, When he woke up around 5am, he was worse then the first time. He couldn't cry, couldn't talk, it was the worst I had seen him in about a year. He had striders breathing in and out, and couldn't really catch his breath when he started to cough. So I called the nurse on call ( With the health insurance we "had" you had to have it approved before going to the ER ) By the time I got a nurse after being on hold for 20 minute, Ryan was doing a little better, he could at least get some oxygen in his body!!! The nurse asked questions and I answered and she said that when he first started all this I should of called an ambulance... But I don't usually over react which isn't always a good thing I guess. But she approved the trip to the ER and off Ryan and I were to Holland at 6:00am. We got there and got right in, The triage nurse seemed a little irratated because I interuppted the book she was reading. We then got to our little exam room and within a minute the nurse was in. Ryan was doing better thanks to the cold air on the way there, but we know it will come back with a vengance!! He was all smiles as he usually is no matter how sick he is. So then the Dr. came in and listened, then he said he was going to put him on oral steriods, I sort of cringed and asked if he could just get the shot instead, The oral steriods upset his tummy, and who wants that for Christmas!! So he ordered the shot and the nurse came in... Oh the funny part, We had the same Dr. and nurse in the ER as we did when Ryan broke his arm about 5 months ago... As soon as she came in with the shot, he freaked, THEN she remembered him and started asking him questions, like, did you break your arm at the park?? And Is your dad a fireman?? I held him down while she gave him the shot (not as bad as the four nurses it took to get an IV in him for his broken arm). Then that was it, we were all done and free to go. Ryan was crying and asked me to pick him up, so I did, then I sat him on the chair to get his coat back on him and he slid off the chair onto the floor, I said, Ryan get off the floor, it's icky, Then he's face down on the floor, I kept trying to get him off the floor, but he kept laying on it, face down, talk about nasty ( have I mentioned I'm a germaphobe?) Then he finally sat up and proceeded to try to throw up, which thankfully was unsuccessful, and he again, started to cry and so I picked him up and then realized, with the pale face and the cold sweat, he had just passed out..... Then I felt like a bad mommy telling him to get off the floor... But we cuddled all the way to the car and then he fell asleep on the way home after asking me 20 times if the shot was to make his bad cough better... Then it was okay. We were back home by just after 7 am , the ride to and from the hospital ( Or Hos i bul as Ryan pronounces it) took longer than the actual time in the ER. When I got home I started on my food preparations for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I got the house all clean and actually for the first time in years, had time to just relax in the afternoon. Doug had gotton a fire call for an accident right around noon, he was still gone till after 3pm. Right around the time he got home Ryan had climbed up on my and laid down. it took him a matter of minutes to fall asleep. Then Doug proceeded to tell me why he'd been gone for so long. There was an accident on M-89 by 55th Street ( east of town) and a 6 year old girl had been killed. She and her mother were in a pick up truck and got hit head on by a Bread truck during a snow squall with no visibility, unfortunatly, the girl didn't have her seat belt on.... So they had to go through a debriefing and counciling thing... He still hasn't mentioned it much, but it really bothered him.. Anyway, On Christmas Eve we went to my Uncle Jerry's ( My dad's brother) The boys of course get too much stuff, but they love it, And I'm greatful for the love the recieve from the Arnett side. Been a tough many years, Losing my Dad to cancer, then my Mom to cancer, than just over a year ago, losing my Uncle Jim to cancer ( Dad's brother) This year my Uncle Jerry's wife of 5 years is fighting Breast cancer, luckly she only needs to recieve radiation for it, so they caught it quickly!! We got home from there around 9:30/10:00 and the kids put out cookies for Santa and Ryan decided he needed Chocolate milk, so we set that out too. And off the kids went to bed, out like lights!! Ryan was quiet all night, no coughing ( gotta love that shot!!) Laura ( my older sister) got to our house at 8:30am on Christmas morning, I was already showered and had breakfast cooking, Brad was up and very excited, but Doug and Ryan were still sleeping. Doug got up shortly after and Ryan didn't get up until around 9 ish. He now had the icky nose part of croup and had a bit of a fever.... We ate breakfast and then it was present time. The kids were SO exicted. They got everything they asked Santa for ( which was 4 things each) and then they got too much from us ( as usual, I over do it) and cool stuff from Aunt Laura.. Around noon we left for Brighton, where Doug's neice Andrea and her husband Ryan live. We got there around 2:30, same as Doug's older brother Ed and his family. We ate and then hung out for a few hours. Ryan looked terrible, and really didn't feel so good, he was worn out!! We left around 6/6:30 got home just before 9pm. The kids played for a little bit to unwind from the trip and off to bed we all went, what a busy day!! Next Christmas the Bales all come here. I guess I've rambled enough, but wanted to catch up on the Holidays. I really miss my parents this time of year!!