Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Some things with Honey...

Ok so we came home and she's been awesome. Still a dog but she's been just awesome in just about everything she does. As the weather has warmed up, here in IN, we have started to have the weather fluctuations and of course the spring storms that come with it. Welllll, having come from NC with her puppy walkers, I know now that Honey maybe had to endure 3-4 storms a year there. Hmmm, we have 3-4 storms every few weeks here throughout the spring with the way the temps go up and down so quickly.

So give that, we had our first storm of the season and I'd gone to be sick with a cold/bug that was going through the house. Mike was still up and said that Honey had began to pace, pant, and then dove under the desk beneath his feet when there was a loud crack of thunder and was shaking all over. Shortly after, she had disappeared. She had come to the bedroom, waking me up by nudging me with her cold nose. I rolled over and she was trembling in fear and panting heavily. I stroked her head and had just gotten out the words it's ok, and there was a loud crack of thunder and lightening strike. I swear, I've never seen a dog jump straight up in the air as high as she did, from a straight standing position. She went straight up and landed on top of me, absolutely shaking uncontrollably. So at this point, I knew I was getting up, a 65lb dog on top of me, wasn't exactly easy sleeping you know. I got up and put her on leash and sat with her on the floor and as the storm slowly subsided, she continued to shake and pant for a good 45 minutes, curled up between my outstretched legs on the floor.

With how scared she was, I called the school and was waiting still for a response from someone, when we had our next storm, about 4-5 days after the first one. This time I was awake and coherent and I put her on leash and grabbed her bean bag bed and put her at a down stay. I'd also talked on the GDF list about it, and had received a handful of suggestions, such as doing the down stay, but being lenient with correction, playing a game with her to distract her and so forth. So I got her at a down stay and praised her for staying put. She did a lot better this time around and while she got up a couple of times and wanted to pace, she stayed where she was.

Then I received the call from Mike D. about this and he explained that I'd done the right thing, to keep it up and that with time, she'll probably get to where even though she doesn't like the storm, she'll be calm in it and it won't be a big deal. Which has been the case, as we've had a couple more since, where she'll pant and come lay right on top of my feet, but she's content to lay quietly for me. So thankfully we've worked through most of the things with the T storms.

However, now a new thing has popped up. The night before meeting with Honey's PW's, Mike and I had a date night, and we went to a Linen's N Things to pick up a bridal shower gift. Since the heat wave had hit here Everyone was running their AC units. We were back towards the back of the store at the registry kiosk, and the AC unit kicked in and it was loud and up at the ceiling. Honey immediately started panting, got antsy, wasn't concentrating on her work and while I was able to get her through the store, I corrected her several times as she was bumping me into things and into Mike as well, until I had him follow us. We walked up towards the front and has to pass the doors coming in, which work to go out too. The registers were to the right and she refused to go right to the registers. The AC unit was still going and she took me to the doors, I told her no, I corrected her and tried to get her to do an about, to go back the way she'd brought me. Next thing I know, she drug me out the doors since they were automatic and out to the sidewalk. I stayed out there as Mike paid for the stuff and at that point, I was tired of battling with her, so let it go.

Well, then we went somewhere else, I cannot remember where it was now, where she started in again, though not as bad this time. She didn't drag me around as much, but it AC unit wasn't as loud. I stayed on top of her and she worked for me, but she was still not concentrating well. Then last Saturday, we went to a Pizza King and was sitting in a booth. Again, one of those places that has the drop ceilings and all the duct work up above and a loud AC unit blowing air. She jumped up from laying down and wouldn't settle down under the table. I corrected her and told her down, which she refused to do, Corrected her again, giving a light snap on the leash and then she went down, but did so with her head between my legs, which then I realized she was shaking uncontrollably and what was happening, that the AC unit was running and I now heard it.

It's weird, as she was fine on the plane home, which is pretty much seems to me to be the same sound as what I'm hearing when the AC units run that is giving us issues. We are able to work through it, but I'm fighting her hard on it and she obviously doesn't trust me enough yet , since we are a new team, for me to say it's OK and settle down. I'm not real sure how to work her through this in a store, because it is affecting her work while guiding me and wasn't sure what the best way to work through it would be. I'm really having to stay on top of her and watching her instead of looking forward.

So I called the school yesterday and got a call back from Mike D. and he had several things to work on and try. Basically he thought that I should go back to the Linen's N Things where it started and start by walking back and forth in front of the store. He said he fully expected her to balk at going into the store and just to work on going back and forth 4-5 times. Then when she seems ok with that to work on going up to the doors and then turning around and walking away.

Once we get though that w/o fear, then to continue to do this into the store and work our way further and further back. He suggested trying to do it on a day that I didn't think the AC would be running to start out with for her to realize that ok, I'm here and nothing bad has happened. He did say too that correcting her when I did in the store probably wasn't the best thing, as I was correcting her for her response to her fear.

He explained that when we encounter a situation like this, if at all possible, realizing during a meal isn't the best time, but if at a store, to let her lead the way out of the store and remove her from the situation that she's afraid of. Then come back and work our way back into it. Allowing her to remove herself from the fear to calm down, instead of working herself more and more into a frenzy because of the fear, and then come back and re-approach the fear and hopefully working through the fear.

Sooooo, that being said, I brought up the trip to Disney too, asking if he thought we'd have issues with it being at a different location, would I probably have to do this with each location that we encountered the overhead AC units like this. He said he thought going back to the place where it started- the Linen's N Things, would probably help immensely, but also said that we needed to work through this and if we haven't worked through it and working smoothly by three weeks before the trip, that he would highly recommend leaving her at home. He said if you guys haven't been able to work through this and you take her down there, you are going to ruin your vacation, and you'll be stressed, she'll be stressed and no one will have any fun. :( Totally NOT what I wanted to hear.

I'll be honest, it really is a scary thought to go anywhere without her now. I didn't think I'd be saying that so soon, but she is such a part of me now, it truly is almost scary to think of going somewhere, especially a crowded and busy place like Disney.

So I'm a little on the worried side with this and trying to figure out how to get down there and work her on this and without interference from kids... and praying we get this worked out by July....

Anything else though, doesn't even phase her.... Kids screaming, gong through all this and so forth,. even our own AC/heater blower kicking on and off... Well see how things turn out for disney...

Ok, Im falling asleep here, so mabye I won't get those other things down to this. So Good NIght All!!!

Sheesh, it's been a week already...

I cannot believe how fast the time goes by these days. It's already been almost a week since I've posted. How did that happen???

I do know that last week and this week was busy as usual. We had soccer practice on Wednesday, Katie had her Art Fair/book sale on Thursday, Friday, Alex and I went to a playdate where I got a nice sunburn that I'm still nursing. Mike kept the kids that night for me and I went to the Senorita Soiree with Anne Marie. :) That was pretty fun, as we had a good mexican dinner, made a cute straw hat magnet, tissue paper mexican flowers and I ran into an talked to a lot of people from Great Banquet, the Disabilities Ministry, bible study groups, and quite a few others too. :) With Honey, there's not much blending into the crowd anymore. LOL!

Then Saturday, we started the day early with Katie's Soccer team pictures at 8am, then her game at 9am. Gosh golly, I couldn't believe I was nursing a sunburn from Friday, and freezing to death on the soccer fields saturday morning. We were all wrapped in blankets, kids playing in hats and gloves and underarmor wear too.

The U10 Red Bulls are all age 8's instead of 8's and 10's together, because Mike had enough people request him as coach or people that requested to be on the same team as people that had requested him. And with the league, there wasn't enough 8's or enough 10's, so they combined the two age groups and tried to put a mix of both 8's and 10's on each of the teams. Well because of the requests, that didn't happen for Mike's team. But on the flip side, all of the kids on his team have played for Mike before and when they were all together before, they really bonded together and were an awesome team. Mike said the first game wasnt so hot, but this Saturday morning, they were on FIRE! They pounded the other team with both 8's and 10's with a score of 6-1.

Check out some pics of the game:
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Then we ate lunch there between the games. Meaghan then had her team pictures and game, which thankfully it was starting to warm up a bit- not so much warm up, but the wind die down and not cut right through you.


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So we all came home and Mike mowed the yard as the rest of us crashed after eating something and warming up.

Mom then came out with Karen to pick up the secretary that had been my grandma's. Such a beautiful piece of furniture, but we really didn't have the room for it. :( So she took it home with her and it's now out of Alex's room, so we can get a dresser in there for him, which he really needs now that he's getting bigger and into 3t/4t clothes at 2 1/2. It was really good to see Mom and Karen again, though I was in quite a daze.

We then went to church and afterwards went to Pizza King, a local pizza chain who have a train set that goes around and brings the drinks to the booth table. Dinner was good, except for Honey responding to the AC again. :( More on that in the next post...

Sunday we got up and cleaned house all day, in preparation for Bible study group that evening. We cleaned from top to bottom! LOL! But it's nice to really have a clean house now. :) We had fun Sunday night, grilled hamburgers, brats, and hotdogs and one other couple came. So there was LOTS of extra food that we are trying to finish up now, but thats ok, grilled stuff is always yummy! :)

Mike had to go in to work for the first implementation at 7pm, so Joe and Julie and I with the kids all played the Wii for the evening and had a lot of fun. The kids were up late, getting to bed about 9 instead of their usual 8pm time.

Yesterday Alex and I had a LAZY day... Serioiusly, we were both in our pj's until almost 2 in the afternoon. Mike came home early from work, from the extra time he had from the night before and he was like sheesh! LOL! He went over to the nursing home and worked out some details for his mom's Medicaid which we've FINALLY got the approval for! :D :D :D. So that's big load off the shoulders now that we know we are good financially for her and being in the nursing home and for meds and all.

So last night after dinner, Mike played the wii with Katie and the little ones and I read books together, taking turns as Alex and Meaghan each got to pick out a book going back and forth. Then it was time for bed before we knew it and I worked on knitting some "I Love You" in ASL dishrags to send off to Donald, our InDBA president for a fundraiser for this weekend's PTCO day at the Indiana School for the Deaf. Won't be able to make that, as Mike has to go in for work for the next implementation, but can at least send the stuff to Donald to try to sell as fundraising for InDBA. Alas, I conked out sitting up on the comfy couch, (which btw seems to happen a LOT now that we have this couch. LOL!) and woke up about 12:30 and meandered my way to bed.

Today was a fairly productive one, busy around the house and worked on several things. Fixed the jammy pants I had that had a seam starting to rip. Did the dishes, had the laundry going, cleaned up the bottle of mustard seed that Alex completely dumped out onto the floor *sigh* and made some contacts to work on Indba stuff that was needed.

I have to admit though, I've been in quite a funk lately though. With Mike being at work and so drained when he gets home, I guess we haven't really had the time for us to re-connect lately. It's been hard since he is so worn out, but then frustrating too at the same time, as all that I tend to hear is I'm tired and get that dull stare and what feels like a clam sitting across from me. I have noticed in the past too that when going through rough patches- be it work, stress, winter blues or what not, when we don't seem to get as much physical interaction, talking to each other and so forth, I tend to go in this funk and turn more to the computer in what I guiltily admit is probably resentment over it. It's not just with Mike though, this funk extends to all areas of home life, just feeling blah, depressed about my weight and the frustration of trying to get somewhere to do something about it and can't because of commitment to having three kids and picking up when Mike can't be here due to work and all that's going on right now. A little worried about things with Honey too- more to come on that in the next post, and just all in all, stressing when I need to just turn things over to Him. Ok, ok, I know, I just answered my own ramblings...

So I'll be back in a few with another post about Honey and then I need to go start planning for the 2009 InDBA retreat, so when I talk to Jill in the morning, I have something to work off of and see if I'm on the right track with it. So we can get things moving to start hammering that DB workshop out. :) Then back to the dishrags so I can get those out tomorrow/thursday to Donald.

Later all!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A long night walk. :) A Honey Brag...

The weather here is GORGEOUS right now, so last night after getting the kids to bed, and because I was starting to get a little concerned about not working Honey so much, I decided to take a walk, though it was at 10pm at night.

Walked over to Dad & Sue's and talked with them for a bit, catching up on the latest, and so forth, then I walked on around the large circle of our neighborhood. Then I decided to cut off and take a walk around the next neighborhood too, as it is about twice the size of ours. It was such a lovely evening and Honey re-assured all of my fears, as she hit the cues and stops and all right on a dime. She slowed for rough spots, kept me on the sidewalk and took me around things laying in the sidewalks. The only scary thing was the big german shepherd that come flying out of his garage and snarling and growling at us. I am just thanking the Lord we were on the OTHER side of the street and I hadnt decided to walk on that side, since the dog ran all the way to the sidewalk.

Honey tugged me to the right away from the dog as much as she could and we kept on moving. It was great to take a nice 1/2 hour long walk and there was just enough light that I could see pretty well. Though I know I need to make it a point to have something on me in the future- a phone or something where I can call for help. I realized I didnt have anything about half way around and said some quick prayers for my guardian angel to look over us. :)

But when we got home, I loved on Honey HUGE and she's just such a doll. What an exhilarating feeling, as I wouldnt have even considered doing that before having her to guide me. :)

So that's my Honey Brag! :D

Proud Mama Moment!!! :)

We've always known that Katie has been exceptionally smart, she's reading well beyond her grade level and has been doing exceptionally well in school. We just weren't sure how well her math skills were for her to be in the advanced multi grade classes. She's always been in the advanced tracked classes for her grade, since she's been so far ahead in reading, and we were a little surprised to see she was placed in a regular class this year, though it was advanced. We figured it was because of the math stuff, since it doesn't seem to come easy to her, she has to work at it a bit.

However that was all blown out of the water with the letter we received from the school corporation today, as they did the testing earlier this month on the kids abilities and here is what we found out. :)

Dear Parents/Guardians:Greetings from your child's school district.
High ability placement identification Community School Corporation Elementary Schools has been completed.


The charts below summarize both your child's assessment results and the scheduling decisions based on that information.


Katherine
Student's Score Required Score

NWEA Winter Reading Test 208 195
NWEA Winter Mathematics Test 200 192
Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test 137 122

Based upon this and other assessment data and upon a survey of the professional recommendations of your child's teachers, your child's classroom placement for next year is stated below.

Classroom Placement: MG


R = regular classroom • MG= high ability multi-grade classroom

High ability classrooms are designed for students who have advanced cognitive skills and advanced academic needs that are 1>2 to 2 years above grade level and demonstrate their need for higher academic expectations and a more independent classroom format. Children whose scores are near required scores for placement receive the appropriate academic challenge through the instructional differentiation efforts of their classroom teacher.


She has just done soooooo awesome and we are sooo proud of her! :)

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

HMMMMMM Looks good!!!!

Ok, so I'm not really one to do cooking, but a friend posted this on a mom's group I'm on and GOSH this looks GOOD!

Apple Dumplings:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/02/apple_dumplings/

Gonna have to try this some time, as I absolutely love Granny Smith Apples, as does my Mom. :)

Alright, I gotta go and quit procrastinating on the chores around the house. ;)

A fun Day at the Park. :)

It was BEAUTIFUL here yesterday, so Mike made the suggestion of running the few pkgs I had to the post office and then taking the kids to the park to eat dinner and to play. What an awesome idea! We had loads of fun and the kids were thrilled! :)

Here's some links to some pics:



Then we came home and got everyone to bed and Mike called in and we were able to get ALL of our reservations we wanted for the restaurants! :D SOOOOO happy about that! :) I'm really getting exctied about Disney now. :)

Ok off to get lunch!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Urgh, the slideshows arent working, lets try these...

Ok, I spent 3 hrs last night trying to get these stupid slideshows to work and the end result was putting it up as is and a whole lot of tears of frustration and giving up.

They are there, but take forever to load up, so lets try these instead:

At the church


At the house- Inside


At the house- Outside with everyone


Hope everyone is able to see these! :)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

We met Honey Puppy Walker Family!!!!

The Thomas family came up from North Carolina to see Honey and meet our family. It was nervous and exciting all at the same time, not knowing how Honey was going to do. They came and picked me up from the church, after my Disabilities Support Group meeting and as I came out, they saw us and came up to greet us. Honey didn't seem to recognize them at first, and then Mom asked if she could let Honey smell her. Honey's tail just went wild, as she remembered who she was. I then took her Harness off so she could love on her family that had raised her and boy was everyone happy! :D It was so cool to see. :) It was also so cool to see her be able to turn her excitement on and off like a switch, with the removal of the harness. Pretty amazing. :)

Here is a video of some pictures of the reunion. :)



At the house- Inside.

We went back to the house after a wonderful lunch at Applebee's, and there the Thomas family gave me this awesome cute picture of Honey when she was 10 wks old. I just LOVE it and put it up on my desk where I can easily see it. :)

The kids all loved on her and she was in heaven:


Honey outside with everyone!!!

We then went outside and Honey ran and played and the kids all played together. :) Meaghan hit it off with the Thomas girl real well, so they hung out together. :) Only thing was, Alex was out cold for his afternoon nap. So he missed out on all the pics!




Here are some pics of all of Honey with her PW family, Mom and I together, and The whole group together. :)





Friday, April 18, 2008

Disney plans for July. :D

Now this is all still MUM to the girls yet, as they don't know anything but that we ARE going on vacation this summer. He he he. We are waiting until Katie is done with school to tell them that we are flying and contemplating not telling them until we head to the airport as to where we are going, though the tags for the suitcases that they send us may give that away. ;)

So here's the game plan. :) (Click the names of the restaurants to see the info page about the restaurant. )

Tuesday: Arrive, Check in, and then do Minigolf

Lunch: Airport
Dinner: Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney

Wednesday:
Extra hours:AM: Animal Kingdom
PM: Hollywood Studios

Park: Animal Kingdom
Breakfast: Hotel
Lunch: Tusker House Restaurant
Dinner:Tony's Town Square
Events:4:00 Jungle parade

Restrictions we have because of having Honey with us...
Due to the nature of the experience, service animals are not permitted on the following attractions:

Affection Section at Rafiki's Planet Watch
DINOSAUR
Kali River Rapids
Expedition Everest™
Primeval Whirl

Due to the nature of the experience, Guests with service animals should check with a host/hostess for attraction and boarding information at the following attractions:
"It's Tough To Be A Bug!"
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Aviary area of Pangani Forest
Exploration Trail
Aviary area of Maharajah Jungle Trek


Thursday:

Extra hours:
AM: Magic Kingdom
PM: Epcot

Park: Magic Kingdom
Breakfast: Cinderella's Royal Table
Lunch: Crystal Palace
Dinner:Disney's Spirit of Aloha Show

Due to the nature of the experience, service animals are not permitted on the following attractions:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Peter Pan's Flight
Space Mountain®
Splash Mountain®
The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm

Due to the nature of the experience, Guests with service animals should check with a host/hostess for attraction and boarding information at the following attractions:
Cinderella's Golden Carrousel
Stitch's Great Escape!™

Friday:
Extra hours:
AM: Hollywood Studios
PM: Magic Kingdom

Park: Epcot
Breakfast: Hotel
Lunch: La Cantina De San Angel
Relax in the pleasant warmth and hospitality of this lagoon-front Mexican cantina.
Muy delicioso specialties include nachos, tacos, tortillas, burritos and refried beans.
And don't forget the churros and flan.
Dinner:Coral Reef Restaurant

Due to the nature of the experience, service animals are not permitted on the following attractions:
Epcot®Mission: SPACE
Test Track
The Land: Soarin'™

Due to the nature of the experience, Guests with service animals should check with a host/hostess for attraction and boarding information at the following attractions:
Imagination
"Honey, I Shrunk the Audience"
Innoventions East & West
Spaceship Earth

Saturday:
Breakfast: Hotel
Fly home


I am really excited now that we've talked about it and all and have realized it's less than 90 days away! YAY!!! :) It's hard not to bust it all to the girls though! LOL!

Something else that I think would be super cool to do for the girls, but we aren't really willing to spend the money for, with all that we are spending for the trip, is the princess makeovers. Sounds super cool, but for the price, it's a little steep for what we can swing for the time being...

Here's the link to it: Princess makeover

With as much as the girls are into Disney princesses, this whole trip is just going to floor them. :) This would be over the top for them, but maybe next time...

Ok, it's time for bed, I'm falling asleep here on my comfy new couch. ;)

It's the weekend!!!! :D

Morning all!

It's been a super busy week around here and the weekend is going to continue on with that...

This week we have been moving stuff around for the living room, then on Tuesday night Katie woke up at 3:30 throwing up all over the place. :( Kept her home from school on Wednesday and she had the runs and got sick once more in the afternoon. But she was good for the rest of the afternoon, evening, and through the night so she went back to school yesterday. The other night Mike and I sat down and tried to plan out meals for when we go to Disney, so need to call and make our reservations for that.

Sue and I had a baby shower for one of the ladies on my Great Banquet kitchen team. We had went to Maytown, KY on the mission trip with Amanda and her hubby, and as they have tried having kids, have been unable to do so and are adopting. Amanda came home from Great Banquet to find that God had not just blessed her with one bundle of joy, but with twins! :) I'm sooo happy for them, and so Sue and I went to the shower and Honey was just fabulous with all the people around and the little Schnauzer that that was there too. :)

I've also been super busy in the last week, as I've been selling off a bunch of the fabrics and such that I've bought over time and not using. Shipping all this stuff out is a lot of work and following up. Even have a package going to Saudi Arabia! LOL!

This morning we were all awakened to the 5.4 earthquake that rocked the Midwest this morning. Didn't wake me so much, but it did the kids and Mike. Katie was hilarious, she was yelling at Mike to quit shaking her bed since she thought he was shaking it to tell her it was time to get up. LOL! She's on the top bunk in the girls room.

Here's the info on that:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_re_us/midwest_earthquake


I'm hoping to swap out the kids clothes for summer clothes today and get a few more things picked up. :)

This weekend- Lots going on.

Tonight- Whoooo HOOOO Mike and I are going on a date! We hired a sitter and can't wait for dinner in peace! :D Not sure where we are going yet, but we'll see. :)

Tomorrow- Depending on the storms that are supposed to roll in tonight and stick around all weekend, we are supposed to have soccer games for Meaghan at 9 and Katie at 10:30. I have my disabilities support group meeting at church from 10-noon and the highlight of my day is Honey's Puppy Walker family are coming up from North Carolina to see us!!! :D I cannot wait!

They are going to pick up Honey and I from the church after my meeting and then we'll go to Applebee's for lunch. After which, we'll come back to the house and they can love on Honey and we can hang out. :) I'm really excited. :) Also we'll have church in the evening too.

Sunday will prove busy as well, as we have a bridal shower for our good friend Amy- I'll go to that from 2-4 and Mike will probably hang out with Marland with their kids while us girls have fun at the shower. :) Then we have bible study at 6:30 too, so going to be run, run, run for most of the weekend...

Alrighty, Alex is asking me to read to him, so will bbl with a post about our Disney plans. :)


P.S. Sue brought me a vase for the kids table! YAY!!! It looks so cute! :)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Slowly getting there... Yeah it'll be warm by the time Im done with it...

I started this sweater at GDF. Hoping to have it done in time to give to Mike for his birthday. Yeah right.

Anyway, I'm still plugging away on it, and I'm just about done with the torso. Just trying to decide if I want to put a few more rows of knitting in before I start the ribbing or not, as it seems a little short yet, though the pattern calls for 19 inches for the length of the torso and then 2 inches of ribbing. I know that mike is longer bodied than I am as well.

Here's the pattern, an awesome and easy one that is top down. You knit in the round for so many rows in one size needle and then go to a needle two sizes up and keep knitting until you get big enough and then split off the sleeves and just keep going around and around until you get to the bottom. Then go back up and pick up the stitches and knit in the round down the sleeves. I pick my patterns easy. ;)

http://www.knittingfool.com/pages/topdown.cfm



Let's see how long it takes to finish it. ;)

The new couch and living room! Yay!!!

Here it is, oh man sooo comfy! :D












We are going to hold off on getting the fabric to do the curtains. As our long term goal is to make this room a "movie" room, with a curtain over the tv like the old time theaters and eventually a popcorn machine. But we are really liking the look of the room at the moment, plus all extra funding was just spent for the couch, so it'll probably be another year before we do that stuff, though Mike is looking at going ahead and getting a new sound system with some e-awards he got through work. :)
Then we can use the other stuff we don't use anymore for the playroom so I can play use the dvd player as a cd player and play the records we have for the kids with speakers and actually be able to hear it.

The playroom mostly cleaned up. :)

Here's the pics of the playroom, the desk is still a pit, but getting there amongst the other 50 things going on at once too. LOL!








~ the kids don't know it yet, but the workbench behind the door is going out in the trash tomorrow! ;)


This is a yard of PUL that I'd bought and I really like how it looks on the kids table. :) Meaghan picked it out and I hemmed it up to keep it from ravelling. It's plastic laminated on the back, so water resistant. :) I wish I could find a cute but non glass vase and some fake flowers to put on it for that extra touch it needs! LOL!

Promised Pictures

Ok I promised various pictures so here they are:


Katie with her hair to mail off:




U4's practice (Meaghan in the yellow shirt/purple pants):










U10 practice (Katie in the black shorts/purple shirt)- Practicing goalies, since this is new this season/age group.







Alex being a booger. LOL!






Monday, April 14, 2008

Link to the first post, for those who want to read about the training

I've had a couple of mentions of putting up a link directly to the first post of training so people don't have to wade through all my posts, so let me do that now. :)

Here you go:

The Very Beginning: About Me

Training

We're Home!!!

In Home Training

It's also over on the right hand side in my links section. If you want to go to the next post, click "Newer Post" at the bottom of that post and it'll take you to the next one. :)

Ok, ok, I know It's been a week and a half since I posted, it's been BUSY!!!

Phew, what a busy weekend/day. We were super busy all weekend doing a bunch of stuff, re-arranging, and WOOT WOOT, we bought a new couch! I'm happy. Mike and Dad are picking it up after work tonight and someone is to be here in about an hour and a half to take the old one & chairs that I'd put up on freecyle. I really like how the living room is coming out.

Dad and Sue gave us two tall bookcases, so we were able to bring those in and they look so much nicer than how we had it before. I freecycled the behemouth of a bookcase that Mike had built for over the table the dog cage was on. So that was gone Friday. I tried cleaning the sectional we got off of freecycle, but 1. the smell just wouldn't go, and 2. we didnt have the middle/corner pc. so it wasn't working for us. So Mike took it to goodwill. Our new couch is a corner sectional, made of microsuede and is super soft and super comfy!!! It's big enough both Mike and I can lay full out on each half. YAY! The only thing I'm not sure about, is it's white but it was the only color they had in the price range we could afford and that we liked. We had the protection stuff put on it and the sales guy kept saying it was practically indestructable and good for kids and pets, as well as easy to clean. We'll see. We figured at worst, we slipcover it later on, which will be fairly easy to do, since it's pretty squarish.

Today I've been quite the busy bee, I've been seriously cleaning- putting stuff away and finding places for the stuff we've moved around, though thankfully it wasnt much displaced with moving the living room around. Mike painted the corner last night where the bookcase and dog cage table had been. so that's all done. The room is all set up and ready for them to bring it in tonight and push one bookcase in place and the coffee table too. I'll take some pics when all done.

Then I've also swept throughout the rest of the house, as in moving furniture out and sweeping behind/under real good. I also brought the small bookcase out of the living room, and put in the playroom and got all the kids books on the two bookcases, instead of on top of desk, on top of the cubby unit, etc. Plus, now the books are comfortably in them, not like you are struggling to pull out a book/put a book away anymore. This also cleared off almost the entire top of the hutch on my desk here and was trying to move the one printer over, but don't think my cables are long enough. Will have to come back to this one. Cleaned up the dining room and have a table to eat off of again! YAY! As well as have laundry going.

Need to get my shower and get dressed before the people show for the old couch and work on the kitchen. I have a couple of ideas for some stuff that's in there where I can put them now that I didn't have before. So all in all, really happy about getting some things out of the house, some things moved around to better, more functional places and the sun is shining outside! YAY! Although it is supposed to be a high of 20 on Thursday. Not cool there.

As for the last week and a half, we've had second soccer practices, games were cancelled on Saturday because it's just rained and was COLD. It's Indiana, what can you say... But it turned out for the good for us, because Mike and I got a LOT done around the house, such as wiring, laundry, and going through things and re-arranging things to better locations. Before we started the day though, we made a trip to the dr, since I hadn't shaken this nasty cough I've had since the cold, and turns out I have bronchitus. So I'm on AB's 3 x's a day now for a while. I'm already starting to feel better. :)

Then we went to church Saturday evening and Honey was excited to go. She's itching to get outside, I can just tell. She's bored around here and I'm ready to get out too. Ready for it to warm up a bit and be nice!

Anywho, we had a wierd day it seemed at church. She pulled me to someone wanting petted, so corrected her for that, and then we went on to the sanctuary and for some reason she took me around the community group kiosk and to the windows, that looked out over the courtyard. Not sure what was up with that, unless she was wanting to go outside, which she has been a lot lately. So we go to the service and Dad and Sue were there and as soon as she saw them she practically drug me to them. Which I wasn't super thrilled about. I'm thinking we need to do some obedience work and get out and walking more as she's seeming to get lazy about some things. Not bad, just lazy. But then after the service, I go and pick up the two little ones downstairs and we head over to the library. I command her to go right and she refused. Since she'd drug me to the person earlier and as a golden, she can sometimes be hard headed about which way we are going- especially if it's not the way we normally go. So I command her again, RIGHT!. She again refused and now was practically at a 90 degree angle from me, pointing straight away from where I was trying to get her to go, so I take one step forward and BAM! The wet floor sign hits the floor. OOPS. Dog was right, human wasn't listening. I tell her I'm sorry and everyone around me is looking at us, as the sign made quite a ring through the whole hallway as it hit the tile foor. I say ok, You were right, I wasn't listening! Sorry! Everyone was chuckling at me talking to her. LOL! Someone grabs the sign, we head on around it, me thanking the person that picked it up, and head into the library and Mike then gives me a hard time for not listening to her. :P

So all in all we are doing pretty good now. The kids are well finally, I'm starting to get over my thing and things are good. :)

Well I gotta run, will try to post pictures later. :)

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

First Soccer Practices:

Tonight was also the first practice for both of Mike's teams. We spent the evening, from 5-7 at the park, as both teams had thier practices- the U4's first, then the U10's. Alex had a lot of fun with his new friends, who were all within a few months of his age too!

Unfortunately, I had used ALL of the camera battery by the end of Meaghan's practice. ;) So next week, I'll be bringing BOTH camera batteries!


















Ok I'm off to hang with Mike for a bit, until we got to bed!

Night all!

Yay! We are on the mend! :)

We are all feeling a LOT better now. :) Though there's still some residual coughs and sinus issues, but everyone is in much better spirits and not just feeling cruddy. Meaghan went back to school this morning and Katie got up to my surprise, a completely different kid from yesterday. She was at her worst yesterday, and today you wouldn't hardly have known she was sick. She was moving around, helpful and wanting to do things.

Sooooo, since Katie made us sooooo proud of her last August, right around her birthday, by saying that she wanted to grow her hair out to donate to this organization:

http://www.childrenwithhairloss.us/index.php

It is an organization that will fit a child up to the age of 21 with a free wig, once a year. We had looked at Locks for Love, which is what everyone knows of when you mention hair donation, but LFL charges it's recipients for the wigs. Granted it is on a sliding scale, but they do still charge for thier services. This organization does not and I found out about this when I went up to MI this past year and a good friend and SHIM treasurer (see my links for DB orgs down to the right), Jill, she told me about doing this and donating her hair. So I came home from that weekend and I kid you not, it wasn't a few days later that Katie stood up in the tub during a bath and announced she was going to grow her hair out to give to a child who didn't have hair.

I was proud and shocked at the same time, as we hadn't discussed this or anything, so I asked her where she heard about this and what gave her the idea for it. Apparently one of the videos we'd checkt out from the church library had a small segment on hair donation as it was a video about treating others kind, even if they are different. So we told her we loved her and was very proud of her for this. So then the growing started. She let her hair grow and grow and grow and for the last few months, Katie has be REALLY tired of having long hair. We just had a little bit more to go, as we had to have at least 8 inches for donation, and you have to really have 9 inches to pull it up in ponytails and band it then cut it off.

Well that day has finally come! YAY!!!! So we walked to the hair dresser today and cut off her hair! She has a short bob now, which is really cute on her! :) She is just estactic and elated that it's short. We also got Alex's hair cut since it was well overdue for a cut as well. LOL!

Here are a couple of pics from before:








And the after:











Then the kids with Honey: