Enjoying her bath

Misc. Halloween pics

Marcus in the back of the truck. See his 'wound' all taped up?

Marcus and friends....from L to R, Cody, Marcus, Greg (in back), and Sammy

All 3 plus grandma Ward

At grandpa's and nana's

The rest of the story

Now back to Halloween night with Marcus and Bre.

While at dads Marcus busted a seam in his sumo costume so dad 'fixed' it. He took medical tape and with the help of Shirley's brother they patched him up. I swear it looked like he was recovering from a hernia operation by the location. I will post pictures later and if you look at 'that' area you can see the tape in most of them.
The first time Marcus attempted to get into the back of the truck he flattened out in the bed of it. I decided to follow them so I could watch Marcus get in and out of the truck a few times. It was funnier than I could ever describe. Plus the roads are a complete mess around here, full of holes from all the rain, and every time Terry would hit a bump with the truck Marcus literally bounced like a bouncy ball. When he walked up to the first house there were three adults sitting outside and they were laughing so hard. Then they laughed even harder when they seen him try to run to the next house. He done a fast waddle all the way there.
Bre had a blast. Grandma Ward walked with her up to the houses while I followed in the Jeep. She would say "this is the best Halloween ever" and "I love trick-or-treating". She also sang at the top of her lungs as she walked along. Finally she called it a night by telling us she was done and ready to go home. So went went back and waited on Marcus to come back then we headed home. Of course every one knows how the rest of the night went.
All in all this was one Halloween I will never forget!

A new day

I am up and functioning to a degree after all the excitement last night. I am still shaking my head about what my kid done. He may have very well ruined a good car. He could have floated off into one of the ditches and drowned. At this point all I can do is be grateful that he and his friends are all OK despite a major lapse of judgement.

Guess what is sitting in my yard right now....a ceramic giraffe. Why I don't know.
I assume it came from the kids that decided to stop by last night after midnight. I am probably no longer the cool mom cause I told them no, not tonight in a stern voice and they left.
So what does one do with a ceramic giraffe?

Good Time

A good time was had by all this Halloween.
We started the afternoon off by doing some errands in town. I had to go to K-Mart to pick up some scripts and try to find Bre a crown to go with her costume. She already has a collection of crowns but they are all broken and won't stay on her head for long. Next we went to Hibbett's Sports and JCP looking for basketball shoes for Marcus. We also grabbed our last meal of actual food for the day (sorry I don't count candy as real food).
Bre wore her princess costume during it all. I can not begin to say how many times we heard "ahh she is so cute". Of course she ate all the attention up.
Our first stop for candy was dad and Shirley's house. There Marcus changed into his costume for the night. I can not say it enough...him in this costume is the one of the funniest things if not the funniest, I have ever seen. More on that in a minute.
Many roads are flooded from all the heavy rains this week. I hated it but I didn't feel safe driving down the two gravel roads to get to great grandma's and Uncle Charles's. Sorry Joey, I know you always want them to go but the roads were covered in water. We did make it to MaryLou and Jonathan's though.
Next we stopped at a local convenience store. OMG it was so funny watching Marcus try to fit in through the door. Once inside the lady that owns the place busted out laughing and said "I have to start bringing a camera in here". Marcus then attempted to turn around and knocked over a whole display of chips. He kept saying "mom everyone is laughing at me". I asked him what in the world he expected wearing that, for people to be scared? He just smiled and embraced his size for the night.
We then went to meet Marcus's friends at Sammy's. We wanted the 'gang' to get together this year since it may very well be the last year that they all go trick-or-treating. Next year they will be in Jr. High and not want to be our little boys anymore. So Sammy, Cody, Greg, and Marcus piled in the back of Gary's truck for the night.

This post is interrupted by the Emergency Broadcast System.....Dylan called to say he is OK now but he and his car were floating earlier. There seems to be some contact with the road again at this time.
I repeat I am too young to be the mother of a 16 year old!!!
Long story short my oldest was out cruising the gravels and thought, yes thought, he could make it through the water over the road. Guess what? He couldn't! At this present time Jonathan is in the driver's seat with Dylan riding shotgun while the car is being pulled backwards through the flooded road cause it is too deep to pull it on through the other way.
I am sitting here laughing cause, well what else can I do? It is either laugh or cry and I choose laughter.

Update....as if anyone is still up reading at this time of night.
Dylan is home (his car is not) and so are his two hostages, I mean passengers. They are all safe and sound and I am pleased to announce the glow sticks around their necks remained unharmed despite the flood waters (I do have a sick sense of humor I know).
I am too tired and hysterical to go into major details I will just say that the water was deep enough that Jonathan had to dump out his KNEE high rubber boots when he was done with the rescue.
I am going to bed and try to chill out enough to fall asleep. Of course Bre will be up early but that isn't my problem. Oh no, that is Dylan's problem cause he will be the one watching her while I sleep in the morning. Yep the punishment has already started.

Happy Halloween 2009

It's going to be a long day around here. I have a princess who is dying to get into character and go round up some candy. All I keep hearing is "this is gonna take all day". Translation....I don't want to wait for this evening to go trick-or-treating, I want to go NOW!

It should be an interesting night that is for sure. It is 'gonna take all night' for Marcus to get in and out of the Jeep wearing his inflatable Sumo wrestler costume! I can just look at him in it and crack up.

I am also scared, paranoid, something like that. This is Dylan's first Halloween that he can drive. The thought of him being out with friends on this night of tricking makes me break out in a cold sweat. All I can do is say my little prayer to protect him like I do every time he pulls out of the driveway.

The rain store has been located

Our friend Christy found the 'Rain Store' the other day and came back with these cute Hello Kitty rain boots. Yeah Christy!

Ever have one of those days?

You know the type I mean. I wished today was over about an hour after it began.

Let me try to think of some highlights....

The day started off by trying to track down Bre's shot record. Her school did not have a copy of it and they had to have it by Friday. If not then she was not going to be able to return until it was in her file. Sounds like no big deal except for one thing, the lawyer who we hired to take care of her re adoption had it buried in a stack of Chinese paperwork. Once it was located I went by to pick it up. One huge problem though, nothing had been written on her American shot record. Her Chinese record was full of marks but not all had been translated.
When we first brought her back to the States we had blood work done on her to make sure she had been vaccinated and her shots were all up to date. Apparently the nurse had failed to record the results on her new shot record. This left me and the new nurse trying to decipher what she had had and what she hadn't. It did not turn out good for Bre and she had to get a DTP booster.
Now this next part had me laughing and crying at the same time.
When she saw the needle she said, and I quote, "Oh. My. God!" Once the needle went in she screamed "It hurts, it really hurts bad", while huge tears streamed down her face.
At one point this evening she wouldn't even walk cause of the pain but thank goodness for Motrin. She is still complaining some but is up and moving.
Marcus has been having chest pains. My first thought was he has pneumonia again but he said it wasn't his lungs. His chest actually hurt and his heart feels like it is beating too fast.
You got to be kidding me. Surely this kid is not that unlucky to also have heart problems. Anyway the doctor checked him out today and done a couple of tests which came back ok. He said if he keeps complaining then he will refer him to a cardiologist. Sigh.....
My bad 'day' actually started last night when I discovered a nest full of nits on one of the kid's heads. Oh yeah, I'm talking about good old fashioned head lice! I thought well at least I caught it before all 3 got it. While at the doctor's this morning he wrote me a script for medicine to treat it.
I then spent the afternoon de-bugging. I swear I picked nits off for around 2 hours! Anyone who has ever dealt with the little suckers know that it is not easy to get them off. When a lice lays eggs they are actually 'glued' on by some type of super bug glue. It is a very tedious and time consuming task.
Anyway I thought I had it licked when I decided to re check the other 2 kids just to be on the safe side. Of course one of them had it too. Back off to the pharmacy to pick up another
prescription of the stinky concoction to rub all over their head. Not to mention busting my good mommy bubble when I had to call my MIL to ask her to come down and check my head to make sure I was bug free (I am BTW).

So to recap.....
-Had to locate a shot record in a pile of Chinese paperwork
-tried to translate the names of shots that were written in Chinese language characters
-got to hold down a screaming 4 year old so she can get a vaccine
-Oh I just remembered I also had to hold her down so the lab tech could swab her nose to test for the flu since she has been running a fever-she is flu free.
-rub stinky lice medicine into a child's head
-hand pick nits off of said child's head for 2 straight hours
-check other kid's heads again
-back to pharmacy for another bottle of stinky lice medicine
-repeat the application process
-wash and dry all and any items that I can fit in the washer or dryer
-get MIL to pick through my own hair looking for bugs

I am off to ignore the phone and all three kids long enough for a bubble bath.

maybe part 3

Maybe she isn't sick?? Maybe she is and just chooses to run circles around the house with nothing on but a shirt wrapped around her waist.

Is she sick or is she not? I give up trying to figure it out.

maybe part 2

Maybe I was wrong and she really is sick.

I got a call from preschool about an hour or two after it started. She had a fever of 100 and was feeling bad again.

maybe ...

Maybe Bre just didn't want to go to school.
She finally got up around 9:30 bouncing. No signs of illness.

Will it ever end?

Dylan came home at 9 PM Saturday night sick. I knew he didn't feel good when he cut his running around time short. He is still feeling bad despite taking antibiotics.
Now the child who hardly ever gets sick, is sick.
I went in to wake her up this morning which should have been my first clue something was wrong cause this girl has always been an early riser. As I was rubbing her head telling her it was time to get up and get ready for school she told me something I have never heard come out of her mouth before...."Mommy I don't want to go to school, I want to stay home".
Oh no! She has never wanted to stay home instead of going to school before.
I couldn't get much information out of her, just she didn't feel good. So I tucked the covers around her neck and turned on her music and she rolled over and went back to sleep. It is now almost a quarter to nine and she is still asleep. This is definitely a record for her.
Once she gets up I will check her over and decide if a visit to the doctor is on the agenda for today.

Over the rainbow

Bre-Mommy have you got me any rain boots yet?
me-no I haven't found any
Bre-You have to go to the Rain Store. Do you know where it is at?
me-no I don't
Bre-Well you go over the rainbow, up the mountain and across the troll bridge. That is how you get to the Rain Store.
me-Oh, OK.
Bre-They also have rain clothes there. You know a slicker (where did she hear that word?)
me-I'll keep looking.

This girl is so entertaining!

Right now she is enjoying all her wonderful treasures from the Dollar Store. After we went out for breakfast this morning I took her shopping there. She loved it and I had to really watch what all she was throwing in the cart. Hopefully it will keep her busy this weekend.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Rain, rain go away. That is what Bre was singing once again this morning. She hates to wake up to rain cause she knows it means a whole day stuck inside and she is definitely an outside girl.

Panda Girl

Bre wanted me to take a picture of her panda clothes, so here they are.

And the mystery disease is......maybe

http://stephdpenn.livejournal.com/63679.html

http://stephdpenn.livejournal.com/63906.html

Sick again

Marcus is sick, again. So is Dylan.....ahhhhh!

I took Marcus to the doctor yesterday cause he was coughing so bad he was throwing up. His doc couldn't really find anything wrong with him. He prescribed a cough syrup and anti-nausea medicine. The kid goes right from one illness to another. I swear there was not even a day in between his stomach virus and this new sickness. I don't know what to do with him.

Open Your Mouth

Yesterday after dad left Bre and headed home she came up to me and demanded that I open my mouth. I looked at her like she was crazy so she repeated it "open your mouth". So I done as I was told. She shook her head and said "no, they don't come out". I am sitting there thinking what the ??? so I asked her what she meant. Her response made me chuckle...."Papa's come out, mine and yours don't. His doctor made his to where they come out". She was talking about dad's new set of teeth! Thankfully he found it as funny as I did when I told him about it later.