Wow, it's Thursday already.

Things have gone well this week, Honey's been good. :) We've only had a couple of things we've had to work with, but they've been simple. :) I'm having to watch her close and keep her on the tie down for meals, as she did swipe Alex's lunch on Monday, but caught her red handed and while she's sniffing/looking and wanting to go for the kids table, she's hesitant, knowing she shouldn't. LOL! So that is definately improving. :)

Monday I'd tried to take a walk with Alex and Honey, but it just really didnt' go well. Not on Honey's part, but moreso with Alex. He either lagged way behind me or when in front, Honey was getting upset feeling she was supposed to guide him too. So I've talked with the trainer and have a few ideas we are going to try out for that. The first one I really want to try is putting Alex in the wagon, though I need to work with Honey and make sure she'll be ok with the wagon "following" us. Another option is getting one of the harness/leashes for Alex, which on my guide dog chat lists, I'm hearing a lot of good things for that. :) So will have to keep that in mind. Another option I've heard is as stroller with a reversible handle, where he can be facing forward, though I'm pulling the stroller behind me. Only thing is, took a look online last night at these and YIKES, they are like top end strollers, upwards of $300. So that's going to have to be a last resort, unless we can find something MUCH cheaper...

So Tuesday we got up and putzed around the house and we had our Great Banquet meetings that evening. The kids were going to the sitter and we had a late evening ahead of us. When Alex went down for his nap, I took a quick walk around the small block, for some work with Honey, since I really hadn't been able to with her. Then I took her out to the back yard to let her run and stretch her legs. She loves that! :) So the rest of the afternoon was getting stuff and dinner ready to be out for the evening. We ate dinner, and then take off and drop the kids at the sitter and head on to the church. Mind you it was 50 degrees when we got there at 7pm.

We arrive and the tornado sirens are going off. So I hurry up and put Honey's harness on and we hustle it inside. We get into the chapel and make our way up to the front, and land for a seat. Then the director comes up front and says that because of the warnings going off, that everyone needs to move over into the B building- where the nursery is and no windows. So we all move over and everyone kind of circles up and the music guy pulls out his guitar and gets ready to start playing. Several people asked about petting Honey, and I told them to let me take her harness off and so I did and she got some loving, and was all over it. :) By then everyone started singing a song, and since I had her in a sit, she just went ahead and laid down, not moving and quiet. I sat down on the floor next to her, as most people went ahead and sat down on the floor as we all sang a couple of songs.

Then someone checked the radar and the storm had pretty much passed, so we all moved back to the Chapel, and I put Honey down and under my seat. She was perfect, laying down and snoozing. Then the speaker came up and gave her speech. Then we had communion, which she took me up and on down around tothe end of the my row and back to my seat. Instead of talking a lot to have her go back under my seat, I just had her do a down and stay beside my chair, since everyone was praying and she was awesome, laying still even though there was all these people walking right next to and past her in line to go up and get thier communion.

After communion, the director made announcements, and then she had the sack of invitations that were going out to invite all the people to attend the March 2008 Great Banquets. Everyone moved up to the table and placed thier hands on each other and we prayed over the invitations. Honey again, amazed all by taking me up and then just dropping down to the floor and laid quietly as everyone was standing around her and praying. Several people came up after the prayer and was just like WOW, she's soooooo calm and were amazed at how well behaved she was.

We headed upstairs quickly, which was it was sooooooo nice having Honey, because usually this is not an easy task for me. The stairs are carpeted and dark in color, so it's really hard for me to make out the edges of the steps and finding the steps/landings. Honey works like a dream, taking me to the steps and stopping, to let me know right where they are! It was really cool to be able to get up there on my own and so forth. So we get upstairs and listen to the first speaker and do a critique on her speech.

Then there was a second speaker, but the kitchen team ducked out and went to work on planning kitchen stuff. We went over to the storage room to find it was locked and we didnt have the right key, so we headed back to work on meal planning. But while I had everyone there and away from everyone else, I asked the team if anyone had any problems with Honey being there, that I just wanted to know up front. Everyone said they were fine with her and didn't have any issues. We then headed back to an empty room an sat down and started planning. Honey just plopped down under the table and didnt hear another peep out of her until they came in and said that the meeting was being cut short because in the next town over that there were houses being severely damaged and that it was now super icy and the roads were pretty dangerous outside, so they were dismissing to get people home asap. So all in all, things went well, I'm feeling good about things and Honey was on her best behaviour. So I was a happy camper. :D

Wednesday, was a long day for me. the kids were in rare form, I was getting really frustrated at the trashed house staring me in the face, and I think I'm still feeling it from being gone for 2 wks. I wound up taking a three hour nap with Alex in my bed and Grandma brought Meaghan home, we got Honey's baseline appointment set up with the vet for next week. :) I did take Honey outside and played with the Kong with her that Mike had went and got for her a couple of days. Boy she really, really liked that! :) I love seeing her tearing across the yard, tongue lolling out, and bouncing around in pure joy. :) Then as we were playing with the kong, I'd call her to come and she'd come right to my hands and hand it to me to roll across the yard again for her. :) Did I say I LOVE my dog! :D

Mike was working last night, so it was just the kids and I. Sigh, my kids sure know how to keep me hopping. Not any one of them has been the same. Granted I realize they aren't the same and you wouldn't want them to be the same. But Golly, after you've had three kids, you think you've seen most of it and would be able to handle just about anything. Well, that's where the Man upstairs tells you otherwise. LOL!

The kids were actually pretty good last night though Mike wasnt home. I did get the dishes caught up and was working on putting away all the laundry last night. the kids were up later than usual as I had the girls helping me put stuff away. Things then got hairy, it was almost 9pm and we were just about done with the clothes. I'd asked Meaghan to go get Alex's toothbrush ready so I could go ahead and get him down to bed as the girls and I were finishing things up. She did, and instead of staying in her room and putting the clothes away like she was asked to, Katie decided she had to go get her medicine out and got the 2 pills out and laid it on the counter. You all see where this is heading....Yep, I'm in Alex's room across from the bathroom putting his clothes away, he's in the bathroom with Meaghan and I as I finish up and head to the girls room and they are both there, messing around. I start to get after them, especially Katie and she's like Mommy I have to tell you something, it's really important!!! She tells me that Alex took her medicine. So I immediately tell the girls I'll take care of the laundry, for them to go brush thier teeth and get ready for bed, so I could minimize and only have 1 kid to contend with.

I call the ped and he calls back and was like oooooooooh. Hmmm. He was pretty certain that he would be fine, but told me to call poison control just to make sure. So I called poison control (thank you for the easy look at magnet on the fridge!) and they said they thought he'd be ok, but took keep him up and watch him for the next couple of hours. Give him something to drink and to keep a close eye on him for anything out of the ordinary, fever, vomiting, anything, and they took my phone number and would call back in about an hour to see how he was doing. I called Mike and gave him the heads up of what was going on, and he was about done so he took off to come on home in case anything did come up. The girls were good and got them to bed, took Honey out for her break since I hadn't done that yet either, and switched the laundry around too, since Alex was content and not acting any out of the ordinary.

We sat down and put the On the Farm einstien movie in and after a few minutes he went and got a book for me to read to him. So we sat and read for a while and after about an hour had passed, the guy from poison control called back and Alex was still running around like the 2 yr old boy he is. The guy was like good, he should be fine then. Said I could go ahead and put him to bed and just check on him every couple of hours to make sure there wasn't a change in anything. Just a few minutes after I hung up with him, Mike walked in the door, so we put Alex to bed and then Mike worked on a set of bags as I took care of folding diapers and a few more things. Alex is fine this morning, though a little grumpy from being up so late. Man my kids... !

Gosh, I can't believe tomorrow is February 1st!

Shout out to Amy- Happy Birthday!!!!!

Ok I need to get my butt in gear and continue to work on stuff here around the house. :)