It's Getting To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and didn't eat too much! I ate too much, to the point where it hurt! The food was so delicious I couldn't help myself, it was my sister-in-laws sweet potatoes that did me in. I ended up hosting, Sherry called me right after I had posted my last blog, she wasn't feeling well. Thanksgiving morning she came over with all of the food and we cooked here, well, I cooked and she helped when she could. She rested most of the day on my couch, she even slept a little, that shows she was sick if she could sleep through all of this activity! We had a small group this year, my brother John and his family were in Arizona and my Aunt stayed home because she wasn't feeling well. We sent food home with my Uncle so she didn't miss the holiday completely. Speaking of holidays...is everyone getting ready for Santa? We are, "It's getting to look a lot like Christmas"...I have been busy getting decorations up. I'm going to put the tree up today and I'm going to try and get the blow up Santa set up outside. My brother put it up for us last year, it was a difficult time for me a year ago. This year I'm going to give it a try, I took it down so I think I remember how he had it tethered down. The kids are getting so excited! Ted has made a couple of signs for Santa, one is for his cookies and the other tells him where to sit on the couch. I don't quite understand that sign but he was so pleased with himself, who am I to question.

Helen went to the doctor on Friday, she has a sinus infection. The doctor checked her white blood cells while we were there. They usually run on the low side so they wanted to see where they were when she is sick. They run higher, which is good. They are running one more test on them to see if there are enough fighting cells there. I haven't heard anything yet, if I don't here by tomorrow I'm going to call them. The other kids are doing better, the fever and cough made it around to almost everyone, Ted's the only lucky one. Well, maybe not so lucky, he is getting his two teeth pulled today after school. In two weeks he will have his braces, he is very excited about this. I can't wait for the braces to start pulling his front teeth to where they are supposed to be. I'm hoping he will smile again!

I'm getting ready for Grace's birthday party on Sunday, I can't believe she's going to be four! At this time I look back and think about the parties we had and how much Peter loved having them for the kids. He would give the kids kisses according to how old they were. Grace would receive three since that's how old she is, but on Sunday he would have raised it to four. He always made a big deal about them getting one more, and would sometimes give them extra and act surprised when they told him he gave them too many. I am carrying on the tradition, it doesn't seem the same to me, hopefully the kids don't feel the way I do.

Well, I'm off to put up the tree, I have put it off long enough! Sherry will be posting tomorrow, YEAH!!!! I bet you are all curious as to what she has been up to, besides being sick. No pressure here Sherry...

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope all of you are surrounded by family and friends tomorrow, and have a wonderful day. Sherry will be the hostess to our brother Rick and his wife Anne Marie, our Aunt Joan and Uncle Ed, and last, but not least, my kids and I. She said, "It's going to be a small gathering, but then again, anytime Susie and her family are there, it's not so small after all!" HA! Sherry has been extremely busy working on It'll Fit'll business and hasn't had a chance to sit down and blog. She sends her apologies and will be blogging soon to let you know what she has been up to.

Three of my kids have a cough, Helen has a runny nose, and Grace came home today from school with a temp. of 104.2! How scary!! I gave her Tylenol and juice and set her up on the couch so I could keep an eye on her. After a half hour she was ready for some soup so I gave her a little bit, she took about 4 spoonfuls and was done. She just woke up from a nap, she broke her fever, YEAH!! I told her she had to stay on the couch and rest so she would feel better for Thanksgiving, hopefully she will.

I met with Helen's teachers on Monday, it was an okay meeting. She has become disruptive in the classroom. She is saying the word "butt" and laughing and being loud. The other kids can't concentrate because she is non-stop. I know exactly how she is, she does the same when we go to church. I have tried everything and I'm at a loss what to do about it. I have tried to ignore but that only makes it louder. I have tried to discipline, this only helps for a short period of time. We haven't gone to church the past couple of weeks because it stresses me out so bad, the looks I get from the other adults, it's terrible.

This week has been difficult for me, I have had no energy, and don't feel like doing anything. This was my mom's time of year, she just loved the holidays. Thanksgiving was her holiday to host and Christmas Eve was my Aunt's. I remember when I was a little girl waking up to the smell of turkey, ahhhh the aroma was awesome. When your so young you really don't appreciate all that your parent(s) do for you to make your holidays memorable. Now that I'm the adult I realize all the hard work she did for us. So on this Thanksgiving, my first without my mom, I am thankful to have had such a wonderful mother who left me with such wonderful memories of this magical time of year.

I wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

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Tank Too Heden...One More Heden

On Saturday we all went to Robbie's den meeting, he is a Tiger Cub with the Cub Scouts. His achievements are done with the family, they are divided by, family activity, den activity, and go see it. Saturday we met with the other Tiger Cub families at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee to tour the fire department there. It was very interesting, they are unlike other fire departments because they mostly deal with fuel fires, which are very hot. The trucks hold all of the water because there are no underground pipes out on the runways. We saw many planes land and take off while we were there. We were very close to the runways because we were on the back side of the airport. One of the dad's is a Sergeant in the National Guard and set up the tour for us. We were also able to tour a fuel plane while we were there, it is one of those huge military planes that fuel the other planes in the air. That was very cool! We were unable to tour the dad's plane, his is a Mediplane. They had just gotten back from picking up soldiers who had fought in Afghanistan and dropped them off at different airports across the country, so his plane was dirty.

After we were done at the airport we headed to Sherry's to see The Bee Movie. The theatre in her town charges $3.00 per person, kids 3 and under are free. If I took all of the kids to a regular priced theatre, we would never go! They all enjoyed the movie, except Noah, he was too busy checking out the floor, the people behind us, the wall.... At least he didn't get out of hand with the noise level, there were only a couple of times when I had to shush him. Helen did a great job, I was really nervous about her making too much noise. The last movie we went to she was very disruptive. She was happy sitting there as long as she got to hold the popcorn box, all was fine.

Sunday we just hung out at home, I had a lot of catching up to do with the laundry. It is so nice hanging out and not doing much of anything, it was a lazy day. When I was downstairs, Helen and Noah were with me. We were heading back upstairs, Noah had this big firetruck, I think it was bigger than him. He couldn't get it up the stairs, it was too heavy. Helen was following him and was waiting patiently for him to figure out what his next move was. He asked her for help so she lifted the truck on to the next stair. Noah said, "Tank too Heden" (pause) "One more, Heden." Helen lifted the truck again and Noah said, "Tank too Heden" (pause) "One more, Heden." Again Helen lifted the truck up the stair. This went on for 10 stairs until they finally reached the top. Noah had a smile on his face, grabbed the firetruck and ran away. Helen turned to me with a big smile on her face, she was very proud of herself for helping him, and I was too. I told her what a great job she did, we high fived and went on our way. What a great feeling to see your kids helping each other, instead of fighting!!

Ted is getting braces! I knew he needed them, he has two extra front teeth that have caused the other two front teeth to grow in crooked. He will be having the extra teeth pulled in a couple of weeks and then the braces go on two weeks after that. He will have them by Christmas. He is really looking forward to getting them, he hasn't really smiled like he used to since the teeth came in crooked. I already see a difference in him, I can't wait until he feels confident again. It's amazing how that can effect a child's self esteem. I will let you know how everything goes, I'm not looking forward to the visit to the oral surgeon!

I'm off to relax a bit, hopefully sleep will happen quickly, but that's another story!

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

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The Tooth Fairy, Again!

I can't believe it's Wednesday again, where does the time go? Last night at the church my mom was buried from, they had a memorial service for all of the people who passed away this past year. It was very nice, the choir was beautiful, they brought tears to my eyes. They said the name of the person who died and the family went up to the altar and lit a candle for them. My kids were all there and did a very good job, I only had to say, "quiet", a few times. The older woman sitting in front of us told me during the sign of peace, my kids were so well behaved. I told her not usually, it was late and they were tired. It is an hour drive from my house to the church, the girls and Noah had fallen asleep on the way. I think they were still a little sleepy, in fact, Helen was sleeping on Sherry's lap! At the end of the service we were invited to go and light a candle for anyone else we wanted to, so the kids and I lit candles for Peter. They served munchies and juice after, my kids liked this part. Robbie made a plate for the drive home, he even covered it with a napkin! On the drive home, the girls and Noah all went to sleep right away, Ted and Robbie were awake for awhile. Ted was doing his homework, and Robbie was bugging him. It wasn't long after Ted finished his work that he and Robbie were asleep also. When we got home I was getting them in their pj's, Helen told me, "Mommy, I had fun!", I chuckled, she slept the whole time!

Katie had a visit from the tooth fairy last night, she received a dollar for her first tooth. She was so excited this morning, me too, I didn't forget this time!!!! She carried her dollar around all morning and was trying to figure out what she was going to buy with it. I promised her ice cream yesterday because of the ordeal she went through. On Monday when she was leaving school she tripped on her backpack while climbing the stairs, she fell on her mouth. The school didn't realize she had hit her mouth because Katie wouldn't let them take a good look, and, she doesn't talk. They told me she had bit her tongue a little bit and the bleeding had stopped. She wouldn't let me take a look either so I waited until we got home. I didn't see anything either, her tongue looked fine so I gave her a Popsicle and chalked it up to a lesson learned. I was changing Noah's diaper when Katie came into the room excited, "Mommy, look, my tooth is loose!" I was excited for her, until I took a better look. Her gums were bruised, her teeth were loose and bleeding, and the underside of her lip was bruised, bleeding, and swollen. It looked awful and painful! I called the dentist right away and explained what happened, they squeezed us in for the next day. Meanwhile, the excitement has now been replaced with pain, Katie is crying and telling me her mouth really hurts. I gave her some Tylenol and told her to lay on the couch, she fell asleep. She slept through dinner, I don't think she would have eaten anyway. When she did wake up I gave her a couple more Popsicles, that seemed to help. I kept her home from school because she was still in a little pain. The dentist took a look and said it looked a lot worse than it was. She had broken her front top tooth, but there wasn't any other permanent damage. We could either wait and let the tooth fall out by itself, or bond it to the tooth next to it in order to strengthen it a bit. I was trying to make up my mind, I wanted the choice that had the least amount of pain associated with it. I was leaning towards letting it fall out on it's own when Katie said, "Mommy, it really hurts me." Well, that did it, she decided for me, the tooth was going to get pulled. She did some screaming and crying, but she did a good job! She was a changed girl after that tooth came out, she was no longer in pain and she was laughing, so I know I made the right choice. She is one tooth less but one dollar richer!

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

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