Complain

OK I am just going to complain about the weather for a second. We received another round of heaving snow last week. I am tired of the cold weather, not necessarily the snow, but of always being cold. My car is cold, my house is cold, my bed is freezing, and when I get out of the shower it is cold. It is cold when I am walking Mallory into school and Nathan just wants to stay outside and kick the snow. The cold weather exacerbates the ice dams that are clogging my gutters and the mound of snow that I have to drive over everyday to get into my driveway. The mounds of snow prohibit the dogs from pooping in the grass so they poop on the sidewalk, the driveway and in our garage. That means that we are constantly stepping in it. I can deal with the cloudy dreary days, those do not get me down it is the constant below freezing days that get to me. I have to wear three layers of shirts in my house and my husband keeps asking me why I keep wearing my favorite sweatshirt around the house. I tell him that it is because it is too cold to not wear it. What I do love about the cold is that it produces snow, lots and lots of snow. I love that it is banked up around my drive way and along the sidewalk because of shoveling. I love seeing how the snow falls and the interesting creations it makes. I love that when I look at the window I see white snow covered ground. I like when our week gets disturbed because of snow days or that we are told we should not drive on the roads. I love that it is only temporary. I also like the icicles that form because of our clogged ice dammed gutters. So just now talking about what I like about the cold I am feeling better. I actually feel kind of warm sitting in my dining room.

Speaking of snow here are some pictures

Here is our fence in front of the house

And our almost covered mailbox

These are the snow banks that are taller than the kids.


That says 16 inches.



Nathan was sick again this weekend. He was coughing on Friday and on Sunday he was in full blown heaving breathing mode. It was not as bad as the last time but not minor like they were before the last time. He again asked for treatments and did not want one of them to be over. So I guess that is good that at least they are working, even if they are temporary and a band aid for what is really going on.

I have gobs and gobs of girl scout cookies sitting in front of me. Julianne sold 161 this year which was great for her. Her Mimi sold about half of that but she did sell the rest. We went to my work and she asked people and we went around the neighborhood. So now comes the hard task of actually getting them off my dining room table.

I attended an Energy conference on Tuesday and Wednesday which was pretty interesting. It was your typical good ole energy district boys in attendance and a few women. The guest lunch speaker was quiet interesting. He talked the whole time about Climategate, which is a conspiracy theory between scientist who track historical temperature data and who report on global warming. The theory is that the scientists who collected this data and said that the world is warming eliminated more than half of the temperature tracking monitors from the study, did not participate in peer to peer review and are missing other relevant information. Because of these flaws in the study and data scientist on the other side claim that the world is not warming and the ice caps are not melting. I have already heard about Climategate but what I did not know is that Climategate discussions are not occurring within the US. Dampening the validity or even discussing Climategate may be because of political and media pressures. If we learn that the earth is not warming then do we need environmental policy like Cap-n-Trade? Doesn't our entire alternative fuels push collapse if we don't have to worry about global warming? Regardless of this theory and what is true or not true we should still be finding alternative sources of energy, conserving our existing natural resources, and living within our capacity.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-weather seasons (I think it would be boring to only have two seasons)
-Seeing 4 deer while on my morning run (I was actually a little nervous thinking that they could turn on me and attack me and no one would know)
-watching Mallory read a story in school.

Snow pictures

Well I have finally been motivated to post our snow pictures. With two large snowstorms we have plenty of snowy pictures. I think the total was around 10 inches of snow and most if it is still here. So it has been fun. Julianne is in winter wonderland heaven.



It is great because they plow all the cul-de-sac snow in front of our house so we get extra large snow banks.



Julianne had her grandparent day at school last week. They did their interviews during Christmas break and Nana was in town then so she interviewed her. However, I did not know that the grandparents actually came into the classroom until a couple weeks before the event. So anyway, she did her one grandparent that lives our of town. Oh well, I figure if the other kids have her same teacher we can rotate grandparents for the event. Additionally, most of the grandparents were not at the event so she was not the only child. Well she prepared a slideshow (three slides) and all the kids stood up and presented their grandparent in front of all the viewers. I took the kids and we watched her presentation. She did a great job and we will send Nana her portrait and the paper that Julianne wrote.




Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-lots of snow (I am getting a little tired of the cold weather, but I guess we need it for the snow)

Weekly post

Well Nathan is feeling better. He came into our bedroom that Thursday night after having a rough breathing day. We knew that he was not feeling well when he came without his lovely or pacy. He just laid in the middle of us, with his hot labored breathing body and went to sleep. It is always hard hearing him breathe so hard when he is sleeping. He is not running, playing or doing any other activity except sleeping and he is still breathing hard. On Friday he was back to normal breathing and just had his usual coughing. So he still has a lot of junk in his lungs but is acting like regular Nathan.

He had his 3 year doctor check up last Monday and weighed 31 pounds and was 36.5 inches tall. I think that puts him in almost to the 50 percentile for weight and almost to the 25 percentile for height. So that is good. I also told her that I thought his asthma episodes were getting better and like I said in my last post I spoke too soon.

Julianne started sign language class last week and has another one today. She loves it and she loves to practice it. I can't get her to do her homework or reading without having a crying/whining episode but she will practice her sign language without any reminders. So I am glad that she really enjoys it and we will see where it takes her.

I finished with my gigantic purse and hopefully soon I will take pictures of it. I actually have two more steps to complete it but those are minor steps. It is really big and I really have no idea what I will use it for. It was not that difficult but it was nice to have someone tell us what to do instead of having to read the directions and figure it out. It has pipping on it so it was nice to work with that again since I have not used pipping for a long time. I really wanted to use the zipper for the bag but she said that the zipper is really difficult so I decided against it even though I felt more pressure not to try it then to try it. So anyway, it is completed and I like the construction of it and the class was fun.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-having the time to sew
-running in freshly fallen show this morning.

Spoke too soon

Well I jinxed myself talking about Nathan and his asthma getting better. Yesterday when he woke up he had a runny nose and sounded a little funny. Yesterday while at work, our sitter said that he was coughing a lot but not enough to be worried. Well this morning he was doing his barky cough and was not feeling well. He actually asked for a treatment at 8:00 am. and I gave him one. All morning he has been coughing and sometimes when he got upset enough or worked up he would not be able to catch is breath and would get a worried look on his face. I have to tell him to relax and to breathe deeply. When I was walking in the kids to school this afternoon he did the same thing and said he wanted a treatment. So we are now home and he is getting a treatment. He is definitely having labored breathing today. He can barely run or when he starts crying or getting upset he has to slow down so that he can catch is breath. This is the usual symptoms that he experiences when I say that his attacks are the worst they have been (which I think is manageable for asthma attack standards). It is hard knowing when it will get better. The good thing is that it is usually a 12 hour time frame that his breathing is labored and he has the dry hacky barky cough. Then it turns into just productive coughs for a few days.

On another note I forgot to mention that D and I are taking beginning swing dancing lessons for 7 weeks. We started last week and it was actually really fun. We learned beginning salsa and another dance, which I don't know the name, and we began another one, that I don't know the name either. The place was packed with couples so that made it fun because everyone else looked like we did so it was fun.

I am also happy because my big work presentation is over. I made a presentation to around 70 co-workers on sustainability and business and our new waste reduction and recycling program. It went pretty well and I had a lot of good comments and feedback from the presentation. So that was nice. In order for the program to work we need most of the employees buy in and I hope the positive effort will continue. So time will tell.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Finishing my presentation
-being at home with Nathan when he is not feeling well
-Having lunch with Julianne

January wrap-up

Well we just celebrated D's b-day this past weekend and now we are officially finished with our January birthday bazaar. It was a little crazy and fun but we are glad it is over. D and I had a relaxing dinner and saw Avatar in 3D. It was really cool to see a movie in 3D but it sure did make me sick. I had to take off the glasses 1/4 of the way into the movie. We tried to sit pretty far back in the theater but we should have sat in the very back row. For some reason with my older age I cannot see movies in movie theaters. The screens are too large and the last time we watched a movie at this same theater we got to the movie late and had to sit really close to the screen. It also did not help my motion sickness with an action movie and things moving all the time. I had to leave that movie and sit in the lobby for about half of the movie. So that kind of stinks. But overall it was a good movie and it would be nice to watch it again and not feel like I was going to throw up.

I am currently going through a sewing spree. I am taking a Amy Butler Field Tote bag sewing class and so I am working on that as well as two quilts. So my dining room table is a mess and I also have two pants to hem, girl scout badges to sew on as well as some other smaller projects that I would love to get done. I have a running list of things that I would like to work on and it seems like it takes months for the projects to move to the top of my list. Once I complete this purse, which the last class is this Thursday, then I will be able to go back to the quilts. I am not in love with the purse design but I really wanted to take a sewing class and this was the only class on a Thursday and my hubby at the time was not busy on Thursday nights so it worked out well. Well as things change he ended up switching basketball from Tuesdays to Thursdays in January so we were stuck getting a babysitter and it did not seem as freeing and relaxing of an experience as I wanted it to be. Anyway it worked out and I am half way done with my purse. I have lots of extra fabric so I just used that for the bag. The bag is just way too big for me but I am sure that I can use it for something. Also the class began last Thursday and it was nice to talk to other crafty people and to complete a project with someone else.

I had a funny story to tell about Nathan that I have been meaning to write down and share. We were at my office selling girl scout cookies for Julianne and Mallory had sticky fingers from sucking on a candy cane. Well we went into the lobby bathroom where believe it or not there was a urinal. Nathan saw it and went right over to it and touched it like it was the Holy Grail. He immediately pulled down his pants and said "Mommy let me stand on your feet." He was just a little too short for it. So I let him stand on my feet and he peed in it without being asked, told, or persuaded. I thought to myself, I need to get one of these in our house. He loved it and all that time I have to tell him to listen to his body when he needs to pee so that he does not dribble in his pants. It was just really funny and a memory that I hope I will never forget.

We got the kids report cards, oh I mean progress cards, yesterday and the good news is that none of the teachers want to have conferences with us. I was a little worried after the last quarters report card that they would both want to have conferences. They only have winter conferences if the teacher requests it. Anyway, the girls are doing well. Julianne is reading at grade level so she has progressed. At her last conference, the teacher was a little worried that she if she did not progress this past quarter that she would fall below grade level. So that is great news. We have seen some improvement but she still does not like to read and it is usually a battle ever night to get her to read. The past week has been a little better so hopefully she will be begin to enjoy it. She also needs a little extra practice on her subtraction but other than those two things she is a great student and is a joy to have in class. So that is very important. We know she will be fine but it is always hard to see your child have some difficulties but in the long run it will hopefully build skills and resilience.

Mallory is also doing alright. She is also a great student, has great manners, and is respectful. She is doing better with her sounds and knowing the letters. The teacher still said that she needs extra help her numbers but yesterday she counted to one hundred so I don't know if that is written numbers or verbally speaking. So we will see. We have to get something that has one hundred pieces counted out for the 100th day of school. She counted pretty well when she was counting it out. She is still meeting with the reading resource teacher so hopefully that has been helping. I know she likes seeing her and meeting with her. It also helps that she gives them candy and special treats.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-celebrating all the January birthdays.
-Being at home with my kids
-fleshly fallen snow

Nathan's family birthday party

Well we finally had Nathan's family birthday party. He had a great time and loved hanging out with everyone. I am glad that it is over since he thought the entire week was his birthday. I told him on Saturday that it was my birthday and he said that it was not. He refused to say Happy Birthday to me which was funny and not that funny at times. So he never did recognize that it was my birthday so I am just hoping that next year he will understand. He received lots of fun boy toys and is enjoying having additional "shooters" and "guys" in his collection.

He was sick at the beginning of the week with a cold and some coughing. Not really too severe like in the past. Tuesday was his worse day with lots of dry coughing and he ended up getting one treatment because he said he wanted one. He has been fine since then and has seemed to rebound quite quickly. So it seems, knock on wood, that the severe labored breathing is lessening and now he just gets a cough with his episodes. Which coughing and wheezing are the most prevalent symptoms of asthma. As I have learned from this adventure, asthma is not all about the labored breathing, which one would assume that it is, as I did. It is more about the coughing, the type of cough and the associated wheezing and mucus that presents itself as the result of the closing and increased amount of mucus. So as I am learning, just because he does not have the labored breathing does not mean he is cured or grew out of it. It just means that his asthma does not present itself in that manner. The airways are not closing in that much to create the labored breathing. He still has labored breathing, it is more like out of breath like when one would exercise, but it is not the severe kind where you see his sternum move up and down and he belly breathes. So I think that is a good sign that that symptom is not as prevalent. Hopefully as he grows larger his airways will expand which will not constrict as much and cause the scary labored breathing.

I had a great birthday. D planned a night away with dinner, meeting with friends and family and a comedy show. It was a lot of fun and I am glad that people came out to join us.

Here are some pictures from Nathan's party.


Here is Nathan's real basketball cake. I did not really get a shot of the cake but actually looked pretty good. Nathan was excited about it so that is what really matters.
He loved when everyone sang to him. He was smiling the entire time while he watched everyone. It was really cute.

His new marshmallow shooter. He loves it.

This was his favorite toy, and the girls. It is a blown up football player that you could hit and it would stand back up. Kind of like a blown up weeble wobble.

He liked to tackle it and make funny noises at it.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-having friends and family close to celebrate special events with.
-my hubby for planning a great night
-seeing Nathan excited for his birthday, singing, and his new blow up toy.

Happy Birthday to my Nathan

Well it is Nathan's 3rd birthday today!!! Yeah. I cannot believe that he is 3 years old. Some days it seems like he was just born and other days it feels like we have never lived our life without him. I guess that is how I feel about all the kids but he is my youngest so I guess it is a little different since he has not been with us that long.

Well we celebrated his birthday yesterday since D will be at work all day today. We had a great day yesterday. We went sledding with all the kids and we all had a blast. I need to get new sleds since we only have two working ones and they are not the fastest. I went to the stores yesterday but of course they were all sold out. So I need to pick a non-snowy weekend to go out and purchase some. Nathan had a blast. This is the first time I have taken him this year and last year he liked it but did not love it. This year he loved it and even carried the sleds up the hill after he went down the hill. The girls, especially Julianne, also had fun. Julianne could live in the snow. She loves it so much. I talked to my neighbor the other day and she said that Julianne is a trip. She said that she was watching her outside and she said that Julianne was laying face down in the snow. So she said she gave her 10 seconds before she was going to go outside to see if she was alright. Julianne got up but that is what she does. She sometimes just lays in the snow and always wants to go outside in it.

"I can even turn a shovels (I mean rake) into shooters."

We got about 5 inches last week. It is still all here with the freezing weather so that is nice that it is sticking around.

Nathan basically received a dollhouse for boys. It is from Imaginext and it is toys for 3-8 year olds. They are like younger version action heroes. So I knew that he would love it. He is sleeping with in his bed right now for nap.

Big hug for sissy.

Here is is cupcake with a toothpick as a candle. We did not have any candles and his family birthday party is not until next weekend so we will make sure that he has candles for that cake.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Celebrating Nathan's 3rd birthday
-Having fun with the kids this weekend
-Having a nice warm house it live in during these cold cold days.