Playing catch up

I'm behind but there hasn't been anything too exciting going on so no big deal. Corey blogged while Morgan & I were out of town for the weekend so that takes care of the boys & their weekend. LOL! Friday morning Morgan & I headed over to GC's house at 6:30am. We wanted to leave town at 7am but we didn't get on the road until 7:55am. The trip to Jacksonville went smoothly. We made great time... 9 hours 15 minutes and got to see my grandmother when we arrived. Then the 3 of us went to dinner, went shopping (GC needed work clothes) and checked into the hotel. We got to bed about midnight and around 1:30am the room next to us went nuts with noise (they had just checked in). My mom ended up calling the front desk 4 times & finally when threatened with getting kicked out of the hotel they shut up. Mom finally got to sleep and by that time I was awake (previously had been sleeping through the neighbor noise). Saturday we visited with my grandmother and took her out for a ride around town & a nice lunch. Unfortunately her balance & equilibrium are GONE and she got carsick within a few minutes and we had to scratch those plans & get her back to the nursing home. We get her back and they tell us "Well, she's either carsick or she has this stomach epidemic that is going around...sooo many of them have it. Oh, make sure to wash your hands good." Oh gee thaaaaaaanks. So now we are paranoid about getting said bug and having to travel with it. Egads! We leave so grandma can nap and we go shopping and hang out in the hotel room. Morgan and I do pedicures and then we go to dinner and back to the nursing home to visit grandma again. She's feeling good, keeping stuff down & doesn't appear to have the bug, just plain ole carsick. Saturday night Morgan gives GC a pedicure and then we play cards,etc. The 3 of us have a meltdown from stress, frustration, and being so very tired. We moved past it and managed to get some good sleep. Sunday morning we pack up, get breakfast, head to the nursing home for final visit with grandma. We finally head out of Jacksonville at 1:45pm...with a minimum of 9 hours of driving ahead of us. There was a huge band of storms moving east covering from Alabama to north of TN...so we were expecting to be travelling in all of this. Thankfully the storms were moving east and we were heading northwest and we went through a small section and just had minimal rain to deal with. The trip back home still took longer and we finally got home about 11pm on Sunday night....exhausted!! There was much more to the trip but ugh...just can't go into all of it. Suffice it to say that none of us want to do it again, the trip is just difficult all around. My mom's back health, dealing with kids and a nursing home, hotels, and all the running around we have to do while there (getting diapers, and other items, labelling everything, delivering stuff to the nursing home or others that will take them up as needed,etc). You have to stay at the nursing home and visit for long periods of time to make the whole trip worth it and that is very difficult, especially with kids....even when we bring stuff for them to do. Anyway, I should stop complaining about it and move on.

So far this week things are going well. I'm needing a root canal (yuck) and am working on getting that scheduled. I talked to our counselor today about our "game plan". Morgan has some things to work on to help her with Alex. They were really good today, almost NO fighting (very minor) and we went to the library. Morgan is going to listen to Hoot on CD. Tomorrow we are going to homeschool park day. Morgan is dying to see her friends, Tayler and Autumn.

Ooh...I've lost 4 pounds without trying! I think it is my new medicine. One of the side effects is that it can decrease the appetite and both Corey and I have noticed that I'm eating less. I've noticed that I'm not hungry and I'm definitely feeling full sooner. So now I need to get on the ball and help it out. LOL!

Time to head to bed. I'm trying to get up earlier in the mornings.

Beautiful Day!

Today was just gorgeous! Temps in the 60's, slight breeze, nice and sunny...just lovely. The kids and I got school work done this morning and then headed up to Nashville for park day with our homeschooling friends. It was so wonderful to get out of the house, be out of Columbia and with friends. We've all missed it. I have to say that I like having 4 seasons and that is part of the reason we moved out of Florida....but the weather we had today is as close to perfect as you can get and would be wonderful year-round weather. If you had to have 1 season it would be whatever we would classify today as...a gorgeous fall/spring day. LOL! Open windows, breezy, not cold/not hot...just perfect.

Okay, okay, enough about the weather Kelly. Sorry but that was the extent of our day. We are watching American Idol and tonight was the top 12 ladies...and they brought it tonight. The guys were not spectacular last night and it was pretty sad. But tonight the ladies were kicking butt. I hope the guys do better next week. I think some of them are pretty good...they just didn't show up with it last night.

Tomorrow I go to the dentist...whee. I have some work that I need to finish getting done that I started in Tampa. And then Morgan and I will be getting ready for the Jacksonville trip. Since we are leaving very early on Friday morning I want to be ready tomorrow evening so we can basically "get up and go". We will be heading to my mom's house and going from there. I know my grandmother is looking forward to the visit. And hopefully the trip will go smoothly.

Poor Corey had another rough day at work. I hope this weekend isn't bad for him.

Just another day...

in the Larabie house. On Sunday we took our movies back to Blockbuster and got some more. Little Miss Sunshine for the grown ups and Barnyard for the kids. Morgan watched X-Men 1 while Corey and I started dinner. We had my brother, his girlfriend and my mom over for dinner. We got to visit with 2 of the dogs, Bailey & Remy. We taught my brother a new card game, Set, and then played another card game, Frustration. Set is great and makes you use your brain. Our friends, Christian & Deena in Tampa, got us addicted to it when we stayed with them when we evacuated during Hurricane Charley. You can go here to check it out (play the daily game) http://www.setgame.com

On Monday I got to sleep late....yea! Thanks honey. We got a bunch of stuff done around the house and just enjoyed the relaxing day. I made a big batch of whole wheat muffins..some with chocolate chips and some with pecans. They came out great and yummy!

Corey went back to work today and we got back down to business. Well, we were supposed to. I woke up with a very sore right shoulder and it stayed that way all day. I guess I slept on it funny but it just bothered me all day. Morgan did school work on her own this morning while I was doing some other stuff. She didn't want to wait for me. LOL! The temperature was so nice that we all went out and played for a while....frisbee, soccer, and catch. Morgan ended up taking off her shoes and running around in the grass. Corey had a really tough day at work and that took a toll on him today. Hope tomorrow will be better.

Alex quote from the weekend: (he was playing a computer game) Hey Mom, 1 plus 2 equals the square root of 9.
WHAT?!? Where did this come from? I swear I'm not teaching him square roots yet. He doesn't know what he's saying but he knows that the square root of 9 is 3. LOL! I just never know what they are going to come up with next.

We have the van back. Yea! I just can't tell you how happy that makes me. LOL! To have music while driving, knowing how fast you are really going, and all that good stuff. It is the little things that make me smile. ;-) Hopefully it will be good for a while. After picking up the van on Friday afternoon we ran to Wal-mart (not my favorite place but the only option around here), Blockbuster to get a couple of free movies (trade in your Netflix labels for free rentals this weekend), and then met up with my mom for dinner. We decided to try a chinese restaurant near us. Well, it was better than the last place we all tried but kind of bland. What a bummer. I think part of the problem is lack of competition in our town...no need to kick it up a notch. At Blockbuster the kids got Sky High and we got Marie Antoinette. After dinner, Corey and Alex headed home while Mom, Morgan and I went to Hobby Lobby to look for a couple of things my mom wanted. Then we took Morgan to the library for her movie night.

This morning it snowed a little bit and we were all excited. They were calling for snow off & on all day with accummulation of an inch or so. We headed out for some errands...recycle center, grocery store,etc...and the snow was coming down and the wind was really blowing....but nothing was sticking. As we went into the grocery store I overheard someone coming out say "Oh my gosh, it is like a blizzard or something!" I tell ya, I almost pee'd in my pants hearing that. Honey this isn't even SNOW snow...nothing sticking....not even remotely close to a blizzard! Heck even growing up in FL I wouldn't think what we had was near "blizzard" category. Anyway, had to share that funny comment. We had hopes that eventually some of the snow would stick. We had invited my mom, brother & his girlfriend over for dinner at our house. Unfortunately my brother lives at a higher altitude and a little further north than us and the snow was sticking at his house and the slush that had come down earlier was now frozen making his already treacherous driveway too risky. Since we didn't want them risking life, limb or vehicle just to come to dinner we all figured it was best for them to stay put. So mom came over and we had a delicious french toast casserole (if you want the recipe just holler & I'll share) and played some card games. It slushed, rained & then snowed some more but nothing was sticking. Oh well....can't have everything. We watched Marie Antoinette this afternoon - good movie. Tonight Corey and I watched Contact after putting the kids to bed. We thought that was pretty good too. I know it is an older movie but I have never seen it and was curious.

Tomorrow we are going to try to have my brother & his girlfriend over if the weather and their driveway will cooperate. As much as we would like more snow, it isn't in the forecast and I want to see them. Otherwise we will be gearing up for our week. At the end of it Morgan and I will be heading to Jacksonville with my mom so we can all visit my grandmother. I wish we could "swing by" Tampa to say HI to our friends but just not in the cards.

I hate car problems. We finally got the van to the shop. After much deliberation we decided that a new vehicle just is not in the budget for us right now and we needed to get the van fixed. We found a mechanic and got it in today. They called back this afternoon with the estimate...$450. Ouch! Could be worse, I know, but still OUCH! Hopefully this will take care of it for a while and we can keep it plugging along for a while longer. It should be ready tomorrow. Have I mentioned that I hate car problems?

Otherwise things are going okay. Corey has 4 days off...no crazy work this weekend. Yea! Morgan will be going to movie night at the library with the HP Club tomorrow night. She just loves that. We will have my brother, his girlfriend and my mom over for dinner and games on Saturday evening. And they are calling for snow. Keep your fingers crossed...we would really like some more before the season is gone.

On a sad note, a local homeschooling mother died tonight after almost 2 year battle with ovarian cancer. She was just 30 and had 4 little ones...the youngest just turned 1. She was diagnosed during her pregnancy with him. Please keep Jenny Carlisle's family in your thoughts.

Just stuff

The weekend was a little crazy because of Corey's work schedule. Poor guy was wiped out. On Saturday I took Morgan up to the library for a meet & greet with the cast of the local production of Beauty & The Beast. She enjoyed it and would like to go see the production. We will see if we can get her there. On Sunday I took the kids to have lunch with my mom and 2 of her friends from FL that were visiting her. We all enjoyed it and it gave Corey some much needed quiet time.

On Monday we got school done early because the kids and I had an appointment with the counselor. It went well, she talked to the 3 of us and then just Morgan. Alex wasn't ready to talk to her by himself yet. Morgan said they covered some tips for helping her & Alex not fight. Afterwards I took them to the park. We wanted to make sure we got it in before it started raining later in the afternoon. A couple little boys came while we were there and Alex really enjoyed playing with them. Morgan had me spin her on the "merry-go-round" until she was so dizzy she thought she was going to throw up. LOL! I told her no throwing up at the park. Then Monday afternoon Morgan had her dance classes. When I was dropping her off I got to see pictures of her costumes...so cute! I can't wait to see it all come together in June.

This morning I spent quite a bit of time playing with the kids. We had a fun time, lots of laughter which is always nice. Then we got some school done. Morgan and I spent some time on the Mystery Class project that we are participating in. She's getting really good at figuring out photoperiods (day length) and graphing. We went out to dinner and then to the library. Morgan had her HP Club meeting tonight so the rest of us enjoyed some library time. Corey and Alex spent some time on the computer and I helped with some of the meeting...they are working on house games. And picked up a couple books for Morgan. She reads so much on her own during the day and we are always looking for new books. We've almost finished reading Heidi at bedtime.

Fun Signs of Winter in TN

We've had our cold weather lately, which we have actually enjoyed. It is nice having a variety of weather throughout the year instead of one season. Anyway, we've had some decent weather days as well. Still, we've found some fun affects of the winter weather. Here is a picture of a fountain in our town. We see it on the way to the library. It has been frozen for a couple weeks now. I don't think you can tell in the picture but there is still a very small spray of water coming out of the very top of the fountain. The area around the base is frozen but I'm not sure how solid.




Here is a picture of some icicles on the rocks we pass on the way to my mom's house. We see this all the time but we still think it is neat.

Spa Day?

After school this morning Morgan decided she needed a spa day. She went upstairs and changed clothes, packed some American Girl lotion and lip gloss. She came downstairs, got a towel and some nail polish out of our bathroom and proceeded to set up her spa on the dining room floor right in front of the french doors in a little patch of sunlight tht was streaming through the windows. She gave herself a foot massage with the lotion and then polished her toenails and fingernails. Then she decided that she needed a smoothie made with a recipe from one of her American Girl books. She made it herself and then took it over to her towel. She lay down for a few minutes and then asked me if we had any cucumber slices for her eyes. When I told her that we didn't she asked if carrots would do the same thing. She thought they were for blocking the sun out of your eyes. I had to chuckle. She continued enjoying her smoothie and relaxing in the sunlight. Meanwhile, I enjoyed a wonderful Mom moment, watching her daughter have such fun and took such delight in creating a nice day for herself.

Just one of those days that I'm glad we homeschool and we were all home so we could experience this.

We had a good day. The kids had a little bit of a rough morning but settled down quickly. We got to make our library visit. They were very well behaved and had a nice time. Our favorite librarian wasn't there today but both kids found some books. When we got home we were able to have lunch with Corey. We don't often get to do that because his work hours are east coast hours and he usually gets stuck with meetings all around lunch time. The kids played very well together today, no fighting at all after the morning episode, and then watched a movie together.

We had pretty mild weather today but the high was 54 at 12:01am. LOL! The temperature didn't really start to drop until after the sun went down but we are down to 28 right now. Tomorrow should be in the mid-upper 30's.

I slept great last night. After I posted last night I shut the computer down and headed off to bed. I was so tired and figured I better get while the getting was good. I was asleep within seconds.

A quiet, uneventful day at the Larabie house. Hope your day was a good one.

Oh so tired! That is how I've felt all darn day. I haven't been sleeping good (for me) the past couple of nights and I'm thinking it might be my new medicine. Corey thought maybe it was the bump up to the "normal" dose but the sleeping issues started before I bumped up the dosage so it isn't that. I'm going to try taking it at night to see if that helps any. Since I've already taken it this morning, I'll have to wait until tomorrow night to take it.

The kids had a rough day of it today. I'm not sure what was up but they were both a handful and a half. We did manage to get some school done today which made me feel good. I hope tomorrow is better. We have a library trip planned. Morgan still has a book or two but Alex has read his. I still have books that I'm working on too. But they love going and the Children's librarian always has some interesting tidbits for us. She's the advisor for the HP Club and Morgan just loves her.

Corey and I have been trying to figure out how we can trim some of the outgoing expenses. The phone & DSL bill seems to be crazy high in our opinion so we are checking on all of that. There was some kind of phone, DSL, dish bundle when we moved but we are thinking that the bundle is costing us more than just the basics for each of the services. We have decided to get the van checked out since we have received our tax refund. Hopefully it won't be a big expense & we can get it back on the road. Right now a new vehicle is not in the budget so think good thoughts for us with the van.

I must sign off for the night before I fall asleep at the computer. That just wouldn't be fun or pretty. ;-)

So far so good on my new medication. I'm up to a normal dose and no side effects that I can tell. I am feeling good and have felt more under control. The buttons definitely don't feel like they are being continually pressed...which is a good thing.

It is still cold here but no more snow. Today Morgan and I went to our organic co-op delivery and it was freezing...literally below freezing. The place the deliveries are made is sheltered but the heat isn't on so we were bundled up. Thankfully the truck was on time and it wasn't too bad.

Morgan's 3 dance classes are going very well and they are really getting into learning their recital routines. They got to see pictures of their costumes today and now she is even MORE excited about the whole thing.

We are participating in a neat project from Journey North. We are recording our sunrise & sunset times and receiving information and clues about 10 mystery locations. At the end of the project we will have to use the clues to figure out where these 10 places are. It is fun so far. We are looking forward to solving the mysteries.

We got more snow today and it was a little more than what we got on Thursday so the kids were even happier. I went out with them and helped scoop up snow, make snowballs and even a little snowman that is currently sitting in a chair on our front porch. Morgan later made another snow person and then a snow baby. So we have a whole snow family out there. It was fun, cold and damp.

I started my new medication today and I was very productive. Probably a coincedence but it doesn't hurt. It was a nice calm Friday. We had my mom over for dinner and had yummy Mojo pork, black beans and corn pudding. Just delish and we all love it. Mom brought over a cake for the kids to make, a heart shaped pan and some red, pink & white sprinkles.

Here is a video of the kids playing in yesterday's snow.






And here is more just a couple minutes later.

We finally got snow. Not what they were forecasting but enough to satisfy the children this morning. Morgan was awake & letting everyone know about the snow by 7AM. Both kids were dressed & outside playing in the snow by 7:30AM. It was crazy. And of course I was out there taking pictures of them...in my pajamas. Shhh...don't tell the neighbors. I put some pictures up (link on the right) for your enjoyment. By afternoon the snow had melted and the kids were complaining about not getting enough and it not lasting long enough. Hopefully we will get more before the winter is over. I was happy that there was enough for them to play in.

I also put up some pictures from the day we made Phoenician bread as an activity for our history chapter. We had a great time and the kids did most of it.

I've taken some steps to help with some issues I was having. I was given some medication today to start and we shall see how much it helps. I'm hopeful. I am looking forward to better, more controlled reactions and a happier outlook. We have also taken the first step in seeing if Alex has ADHD. We talked with a counselor a couple days ago and were pleased that she doesn't recommend jumping at medication. She said he was still on the young end of the scale and with homeschooling she would recommend working with him and us learning some things to help instead of just medicating him. YEA!! We were pleased to hear that as we don't like the idea of jumping straight to meds. She gave us a couple things to work on and will be talking to the kids next week. We have also been told about a natural way to help with a high protein diet and a small amount of caffeine. I'm looking into it more and we will see what we do.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....PLEASE!! We are expecting 1-3 inches of the fluffy, white stuff tonight and tomorrow. I really hope we get it because the kids are sooo wanting some. Heck, I'm looking forward to seeing a nice, pretty, white landscape outside myself. I must say that the winter look without snow is very drab...gray, brown, blaaaah. The snow is due to start any moment but it hasn't yet. I'm sure because I'm still up and "waiting" for it. You know the whole "a watched pot never boils" theory. So I'll be heading to bed in just a few minutes so it can snow.

I'll post more tomorrow and hopefully will have pictures!