Thursday, April 21, 2011

Little Catch Up

This is one of those random posts. You have been warned.

We have been making an effort to cut down on the TV time at our house. The boys were on a schedule and had come to expect that they would be able to watch one of their shows about twice a day. I normally would let them watch something in the morning while we were getting ready for the day and then again at night after they had their bath. This is not really excessive, but it was to the point that they were being demanding about it. We now have no TV in the morning and hardly anything that is exclusively for them at night. We will still have the TV on some for things that we are all (or mostly all) interested in watching like the Rangers games or Mythbusters, but I feel like the TV time has been drastically cut down. The coolest part? They don't seem to mind! :-0 I was shocked! I think a major part of this development has been that Owen is getting old enough to play with Collin. They fight imaginary monsters with swords and bombs and fly like super heroes with their blankets tied around their necks like capes. They even play marbles and Candy Land when Owen feels like cooperating. Good times.

Collin is friends with several of the older boys at his day care that go to the elementary school during the day, but they can hang out before and after. Some of these older boys like to fix their hair in the mornings, so naturally Collin wants to do the same. We have hair gel, but someone needs to teach me how to use it properly! He's been asking for mohawks this week. And yes, I actually send my child to school this way:


Now I just need to convince him it would look a bit better if he would let me cut his hair. Check out those mutton chops! Goodness!

Easter is nearly here and I've had loads of fun shopping for little things to put into their baskets. Easter is almost as fun as Christmas for me. :-)  Tonight, the boys put candy in their eggs to take to school tomorrow. They will have an egg hunt and an Easter party. I hope the rain can hold off this weekend. We have a chance of rain every day from now until Tuesday, I think. Our plans include dinner with my mom and Mr. Bob on Saturday evening. Then church on Sunday with my in-laws followed by brunch at their house. I hope to be able to squeeze in time to color eggs and possibly have an egg hunt of our own at some point as well.

Guess that's all I have for now. I hope you are all well. Remember God's gift to us all this Sunday, and I hope you all have a chance to celebrate and enjoy time with your families.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Long Evening

Just when you think everything is going smoothly, suddenly it's not anymore. But that's life for you.

Collin's teacher told me this afternoon that 2 kids from his class had been sent home with Strep Throat today. One of them also has Fifth's Disease, which I'm going to have to google later.  Collin had also been telling his teacher that his ear was broken this afternoon. Great.

We came home and I made dinner, which was really yummy by the way (boiled chicken, wild rice and veggies) and while that was cooking I checked Collin over the only way I know how. Flashlight shining down his throat revealed the nastiness and his temp was 100.4. So after we ate, and by 'we' I mean Timothy and I because the boys would rather go hungry than have something besides chicken nuggets, Collin and I were off to the after-hours clinic.

Normally I'm so grateful for this clinic. It's close by and only charges our regular co-pay of $15 instead of the $50 to go to Care Now and they are never very busy so we are in and out quickly. Not today. I swear if I have to hear about the new computer system that our doctor's office has one more time I'm going to jump over the counter and figure out the thing for myself. It CAN'T be as difficult as they make it out to be. This has been going on for 2 weeks now. So it took the very nice and frustrated lady 20 minutes to check us in, and I don't think she did it right. I'm expecting to get a large bill in the next few weeks because it was not filed correctly with the insurance. It was another 30-45 minutes until we got to see the doctor.

When the doctor came in he asked Collin what was wrong. He responded, "My ear is broken, but my cat has two broken ears. Oh and my mom is 30!" The doctor explained to Collin even if a lady is 30, you should still just say she's 29. (bless him) I explained to the nice puzzled doctor that our cat is deaf and is not in fact walking around with two mangled ears. Then after a bit of poking and prodding we were informed that Collin does indeed have an ear infection and most likely Strep as well. He decided there was no point in gagging him  to get a culture since he was going to give him antibiotics anyway. (bless him again)

Then we rolled on to Wal-Greens to get his Rx. Another 10 minute wait at the counter there and they announced it would be at least a 45 minute wait. By this time it's already 8:00 and Collin is supposed to be in bed by 8:30 so that means I have to go home and get him into bed and come back to get his meds. Great again. He cracked me up again by telling the Pharmacy tech "I have a broken ear, but I get to stay home tomorrow." To which the tech replied, "Well done. That should be fun." Then Collin called over his shoulder as we were leaving, "My dad is CRAZY!" I just can't take that child anywhere.

I got home and brushed little boy teeth and we put Owen and Collin to bed. Collin got some Tylenol for his fever. Then I washed the dishes from dinner and went back out to Wal-Greens for the Rx. Came home again and gave Collin his first dose so hopefully his ear won't hurt so much when he wakes up. Poor kid.  Now it's time to crash. I hope I remember to call in to work tomorrow.

In other news, Owen's new hobby is making himself toot. He's such a gas.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Collin's Stories

Collin likes to make up stories to tell me at bed time. He says he's reading me a chapter from his book. He is so creative and I love his stories. Tonight I asked him to tell me one so I could write it down. It ended up being three instead of one. I think he didn't know what to think about me writing at first because, as you will notice, they get longer as we go. Enjoy!

Chapter 10
First I was sleeping and then I saw a little bitty foot. I saw a tail and I tied it up in a knot and I never untied it. Then the monster was never seen again.
The End.

Chapter 11
First I was going to the market to buy diner for my guest, but my guest saw a ghost and then my other guest had a ray gun and killed the ghost. My guests, when I came back, I had dinner ready and then they played for a little bit. Then my mom came home from work and then my dad came home from work after a few hours.
The End

Chapter 12
The Monster Bed
First I saw a little monster. He was sleeping right next to me, but he didn't hurt me or kick me or slap me. He was just nice to me. He wanted some hair from my mommy. I asked him to come back because I have hair. He wanted a pet so I gave him Mickey, but he didn't know what kind of a mouse he was so I named him Mickey. Then he wanted a bed time story and I read him The Cat in the Hat Comes Back and I didn't have time to read all of it. Then he wanted rainbow gum. He blew a gianormous bubble and that carried our house away! I loved it.
The End