Fall Festival and more.

Soooo today started out kinda crazy. I think some of it had to do with last night. In the middle of the night (1 a.m.) Mikey woke up with a fever and threatening to throw up. I sat in the bathroom with him for a while and gave him meds. After an hour or so we went back to bed...he was so hot and kinda shaky. Finally both of us went to sleep. The next thing I know it is 6:50 in the morning...on a school morning. Toni gets up at 6...catches the bus at 7:07. grrrrrrrr, the alarm did not wake me up and John just shut it off. I flew out of bed and started getting Toni ready for school as fast as I could. She needed a lunch packed and her hair done. Not to mention it is Halloween and they were having a parade of costumes at 8:30. We don't really celebrate it..but I don't want her left out so I found a kitten mask that she could parade around in. It is also drug awareness week and she needed to wear something green today. I finally got her all ready to go by 7:15. She ate, drank, hair fixed, mask in hand, lunch in the backpack, folder from school signed, Gym shoes on because today is "B" day and that means comfy clothes and running shoes. We missed the bus so I had to drive her to school. Finally she was at school and I was home with my poor sick Mikey. He had a fever from Sunday to Tuesday and then was fine...till Thursday night. I don't get it. I took him into the doc and explained that I don't know what to do with him. He had no symptoms what so ever. No cough, no runny nose, not a sore ear, and no rash. I was out of idea's. What is wrong? They tested him for everything including strep but could find nothing wrong. I took my fevered boy home and I keep giving him meds to keep the fever out.

Well today was fall festival at church so I really wanted to go. I signed up for face painting. But then John got invited to go hunting this weekend and I was not sure what to do. Toni and Mikey go every year and were both really excited to go...so I had to go. Lucky me Lia decided to go. I knew that Mikey would only hang out with me (he has been really clingy for about a week now). So Lia ran around with Toni, Raul, and little 2 year old Marcos. They had fun. I signed up for the second shift of face painting. Before we went to the church I sat down and painted all the kids faces just to make sure I could do it. I could...first time for everything. Two people run the booth at all times so I knew I would be OK. Two lines of kids getting paint on there face. The first hour Mikey and I played games, saw Christian puppet shows, played in large bounce houses, O our church is so much fun. Last year we saw about 200 kids...I am sure there was more than that this year. The second hour came and Mikey was tired so I took him to the booth with me to hang out. I thought it would be great to sit there and chat with the other lady because I am quite fond of her and we are around the same age. People kept asking me if I was a professional....(so sweet). Did I mention that I love to paint faces. I am always looking for ways to make friends. This was such a bad idea. My "friend" abandoned me and her husband took her place...within like 10 minutes I was alone painting a huge line of faces. No one ever came over to even check on me. But I did have fun painting. The kids loved it and to see there face light up when they saw themselves in the mirror was priceless. Mikey sat on the floor next to my chair eating cupcakes and drawing ladybugs with paint. He is such a good boy. After the fest was over I found the lady who left me hanging. She said she just could not paint next to me because hers did not compare to mine. Kinda made me sad..I was just doing the best I could. I think sometimes I try to hard. On the other hand I want to paint faces again next year but I need to find someone that can sit next to me first. Lia and the gang had tons of fun as well. When it was time to go home I could not find my keys. I had to run around and ask if anyone had seen a set of keys. People kept asking me to describe them and I had to say they have a orange rectangle on them that reads "Key's I haven't lost yet". I spent 20 minutes looking for them. Lia was waiting in the car with all four children and was also looking through all there bags and stuff for them. Finally Lia found them in my camera bag (such a good place to put something so it does not get lost). I was happy, driving home to rest. Well..not really. Lia is coming over at 10:15 tonight to babysit while I go pick up Vince. He gets off at 10:30 from work. Anyway...I love everyone. Wish me luck on the fever thing. Oh...and now Mikey is coughing. Finally a symptom. Maybe it is just a cold.

Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed

The family just got back from AWANA's (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed). It is a fun bible club class that meets on Wednesday nights. I am the Cubbies secretary and I keep track of 17 little Cubbers on paper. I am not a teacher in the class, I just figure out who is picking them up, what points they get, who needs patches and stickers, I do the potty breaks because I am in the hall anyway. I do paper work for about an hour every week. Fill out we missed you cards to the cubbers who did not show up, birthday cards to the ones that are coming up and so much more. John is a games leader for the whole AWANA's Ages 3 to 11. He plays games the whole hour and a half we are there. Last year Toni was a Cubbie and Mikey was a Puggle. This year Mikey is a Cubbie and Toni is in a new class called Sparks. Mikey memorizes shortened versions of scripture. Toni has to say the whole thing. It is like a work at your own pace kinda thing for Toni and Mikey does one scripture a week. Toni almost finished the book and I found out that this book was supposed to last all year for her oops...they should have warned her(kinda an overachiever don't you think?). She is amazing and has learned so much. She knows all her New Testament books in order and is now working on the Old Testament. I wish my camera had video on it...it does not. Mikey's fever stopped last night and he is normal as can be today. I love my God he is awesome.


Last years pix


Mikey and I went to Barnes-n-Nobles today for story time...way cool. The guy was like 70 years old and very entertaining. He sang songs with a Ukulele , and he had a puppet frog that spoke Spanish very well. He read two books and had fun with all the kids (there was like 30 kids around him). After that he passed out crayons and coloring pages. We will go back..I hope that guy is still there. I kept thinking..this guy is crazy, at his age with all these germs running around, yep totally nuts. But as long as he is that insane we will be going back.







So between getting up at 6 in the morning to get my daughter ready for school, grocery shopping in the morning with Mikey, Story time at 11, lunch, Two loads of laundry (one still hanging on the line), at the school from 2 to 3 to pick the kids up from school (By kids I mean Toni and the next door neighbor), and eating dinner at the church on wed(did I mention home made), then Awana's till 8....I am tired yet again. What a crazy busy day, I love Wednesdays though. I like that the whole family is involved in writing the word of God on little hearts every Wednesday. I love that God decided to keep me around to do more work for him. I understand that time is a gift and I am happy to spend my time doing Gods work.







Ahhhhh....now to relax a little, blog, watch a recorded TV show, put my feet up and start laundry again in the morning.

A crisp tuesday!

Today was a little colder than I like but it turned out to be a beautiful day. When I hung laundry on the line my fingers froze. Now I get them line ready before I head out. I straiten all of them and make sure they are all turned right side in. I hang up all the hang up shirts on hangers and put them on the line hanger and all...makes it fast. I am learning how to do the hanging with great speed. I might start timing myself just for fun. Also I don't hang up socks it takes too much time. I have a large trampoline out back where the line is and I just lay them (more like toss) out and they dry just fine. When they are dry I send a kid and a basket out to gather all the socks. The trampoline has the netting on it so the wind can blow them all over and they stay on the trampoline. OK...I am rambling.

I was hoping that my Mikey would be fine by today but he is not quite "well" yet. For no reason that I can find he has had a temp sense Sunday morning. Today I thought he would be over it but here I am still dosing him with meds. Once the meds are in him no one in the world would think he was sick, there are no other symptoms. And he runs and plays for about 4 hours until the fever hits again. Then he is whiny, clingy, and looks miserable. Then I dose him and up he goes. grrrrr so frustrating but I know this will pass. I hope he breaks the fever tonight.

Toni is having fun and I think she is making up homework so she can spend more time in study. Today she said they had to find out if things sank or floated and report it back to the teacher. I could not find anything like this in her folder. I know that when the teacher assigns home work it is written out so the parents know. But just to amuse my Dear Daughter (DD) I gave in and let her do her experiment around the house. She made a chart (and wrote all the words, such pretty handwriting) and had tons of fun doing this with about 5 items. Then after we cleaned up she informed me that she needed to do it with 10 items. I told her next time to remember those details BEFORE we start because I really don't think this was homework anyway. She did her real homework in about 2 min. That is about how long her work is everyday. I love her but she drives me crazy....I still don't love school and I know she does. Also I am still reading a few books and kids. The one I read today talked about how every child is different and it is important to learn where your kid can do homework best. The book suggested that we simply ask the kid where they think they would be able to best work on the homework. So I did this. Toni said upstairs away from all the noise. She said she wants her desk moved back up there so she can have a quite place to work and think. OK...so my kid wants a desk, quite, and alone. This is funny to me because I work best in large comfy chair with stuff in my lap. I need music to keep me on task and it helps if people are around because I feel more like I am not missing out on the life around me. I am so glad I asked her. If you give my girl a paper and crayons she goes to the table and colors, if you give the same stuff to Mikey he lays on the floor. They are like night and day. Just thought I would share.

Love to all.

Great wonderful news!

I am fine...God answered many many prayers and is keeping me nice and healthy. I would love to thank all the people who prayed and asked God to keep me and my family safe and with peace. Before I ever went in to do the test I was really at peace with whatever the outcome was going to be. We have an awsome God and I am glad I am one of his children. I am kinda emotional today (kinda on a high from the power of God) and it is hard to gather my thoughts.

Love to all.

Toni
Tone
Ton Ton
Tonia
Puppy

I voted today.

Yep...thats right. I went to the Jonestown City Hall and voted against Obama. I really hope he loses. I woke up with a really bad pain in my neck and new it must be time to vote (kidding kinda). I did vote and I am glad I got that out of the way but in all seriousness my neck is killing me. I could not even go to church today bad. I sent John to stand in my place for sundayschool teacher. The kids and John loaded up and left for service. Mikey spiked a fever and they had to come home early. Sickness...grrrr. Mikey still does not feel good and Toni is coughing up a storm.

I have my appointment in the morning and John is going with me. I have done a good job of putting the appointment out of my head. I am really not worried anymore and I believe that the Lord has it all under control. There is a certain peace about me and I know it is because so many folks are praying for me. On a good note I finished cleaning my rug and got the thing in from off the driveway (I am sure the neighbors are happy about that).

Rats!

OK...so my house is a little messy..at least we don't have bugs, rats, or mice in it. Maybe an occasional scorpion or two and every once in a while a little Gecko gets in and dies from poison (thanks Terminex). I hate to find little dead Gecko's. They are so cute and they don't bite. If I find them alive I catch them and put them in my flower beds. I love most critters and some people think that is strange. Well today we cleaned out the garage and found that rats have been in there. I was sorting through boxes and taking anything we really don't need out and putting it in the trash or on freecycle (a place to give crap away). I found a nest of little tiny pink baby rats. They were so cute, eyes closed, ears not developed and just very very helpless. John said "throw them over the fence". Yeah, not going to happen. My heart broke. This is life and God created it. God gave them a mother to care for them and little tiny beating hearts. I tried not to cry. I wanted to put the box back and call it a day but the rats were destroying our boxes and stealing our dog food. They had managed to stuff every little space in every little box and hose and space full of dog food. Like a squirrel burying a nut for the winter. We had a garage full of "pack rats" now for the first time I understand the phrase. Rats really pack EVERYTHING. I gathered up all sevan babies and put them in a small cell phone box. I ran an add in the freecycle saying I hate 7 homeless baby rats who needed homes and lots of care. I prayed someone would love animals as much as me and foster these little guys. My husband thought I was nuts (kinda still does). He kept saying "no body wants rats" , "people feed them to snakes". I get that and all but I don't mind killing something for a reason like food. It is the natural order of things. Snakes eat rats, cats eat snakes. I get it. I want the rats out of the garage too, I just want them relocated. Anyway about 15 min. after I posted the add for free rats a rat lover called me. She breeds rats and has "fancy" rats like Dalmatian rats (the coolest looking rat I have ever seen). I am not really a rat person but I could love one with out a problem...just look into their cute little eyes. I told my husband I was meeting the rat lady at the Cedar Park high school to hand the 7 little babies over. He was mad. He said I was wasting my gas and time. They are just rats. I kept thinking...does he know me at all. SO I left and met the nice lady. I talked to her awhile at the school and then followed her home to see her rats. I met her cute kids and saw her super cool rats. Then she sent me with a rat trap that catches them without hurting them. She says if I can catch the momma she will try and raise them together. She does not sell to snake owners. She sells to people that love rats and they have to be friendly. Her teen daughter came running to see the new babies...so nice. I did my good for the day...RIGHT. Well not quite I came home and continued the cleaning out of the sheds. TWO sheds. Well turns out we had two nests I found another nest with 6 babies in it. I did not want to call the rat lady back...too embarrassed to do that. So I called my crazy neighbors who raise all kinds of things including three children. They were excited and took the rats to try and foster them. They have never raised little rodents before but were looking them up on the Internet. I gave them a cage and 6 little babies that had a little bit of fur and eyes closed. I would have loved to raise them but I knew after how John reacted it was out of the question. I love my husband and he puts up with me as much as I put up with him. When I came back and talked to my hubby he said he felt like a big A-hole after I left. Not because he likes rats or cares if they live or die...he just felt bad because he dismissed my feeling on the subject and should understand by now my love for "all things living". I am tired right now. I have a lot on my mind and cleaned two sheds today plus drug my carpet out of the living room and cleaned it in the driveway today with the rug cleaner...took about an hour and a half. It is still out there drying I am sure our neighbors are thrilled to see my rug on the driveway LOL. I won't mention that I had the rat motel in my back yard to them. O the life of me. I love creatures. I need to go check my trap now.