Ouch

Yesterday I noticed Carrie hanging out under the china cabinet-not her normal favorite place-so I was a little curious, but didn't get involved right away. The girls and I went trolling the street for after school playmates and found none at home so we came home. When we got there I saw the a little fuzzy mouse-like thing running around the dining room with the cats on either side of it. So, I went to rescue it just like I did the mice that have come in the house via the cats of course.

This little guy was very fiesty and bit me when I picked him up. So of course I yelped and dropped it on the floor. The cats started going wild but didn't close in right away, maybe they knew how hard it bites?. I grabbed some napkins and grabbed it again and managed to get it to the kitchen door before I dropped it again, this time into the cat kibble. I took the bowl outside and set it free and told it to run away. (I didn't really run at first so I kept encouraging it to run away and avoid the house in the future. I thought about picking it back up and putting it farther away, but it tried to bite me again so I left it alone) The cats were waiting at the door with tails twitching to go outside. As soon as I came inside Carrie shot out, so I removed her from the yard, and shooed the critter away, I think it's a vole.




I called my Doctor, who told me to call Poison Control. They reassured me that there isn't much of a risk of rabies, but tetanus was a concern. After spend a few minutes on the phone with the Records office in Groton, we decided that at best I'd had a second tetanus shot in high school, and would need a shot anyway.

So...this morning Sydney and I went down to the doctors office where I got my shoot. My left arm is a little sore, but it isn't too bad, and my finger seems to be just fine. I'm going to take some good advice and keep some lightweight cotton gloves in the kitchen so I can be safe next time. I really hope there isn't a next time, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

While we were in the waiting room and same a special in the news about how adults are not as careful about staying up to date on their shots and recommended boosters of tetanus, flu, and Hep A & B. I was amused at the timing! Hope everyone is caught up with their shots!!

This week in Review

First off two extremely funny things happened this weekend. The first. We got a "storm" this weekend. All day yesterday there were weather warning alerts about the severe weather. Of course, if we were still living in Connecticut, the weather man would have just said we would be getting some light flurries and left it at that. It was pretty amusing to see the reaction the inch on the grass got.

The other amusing thing happened tonight when Emily came in my bedroom complaining about her nose, and not being able to blow it. I helped by holding up a tissue, but she was still so upset about her nose and kept reaching in with her finger after something. Finally she admitted to shoving a sticker up her nose. And of course, she wanted me to get it out. Operation Sticker Removal began. First I sent Sydney to get her mini flashlight so I could see the thing since I didn't really want to go after it with my finger. I turned on the light, and put Emily on my bed with her head tilted up and fished around with my tweezers and got the little thing out. When I asked her why she did that, she smiled, shrugged, and said "I don't know!" Gross but funny.

The girls finished swimming lessons this week. They did an incredible job, but they will be repeating the same class level again. Emily does incredibly well with her float belt, but doesn't quite have the same confidence to do it on her own. Sydney really look just like a small dog running in the water. It is really funny. She paddles her arms, and jogs instead of kicking. She does much better with a belt! She still does not like putting her face in the water though, but she is getting very good at floating!

Sydney's class had a field trip on Friday to the Aquarium in Virginia Beach, and we had a wonderful trip. The other exciting part of the trip was when we found out that her teacher had been having contractions all morning and we were especially excited for her as she was over a week late. Pictures are coming soon from that trip!

We also lost our minds last weekend and bought a mini van (a 2007 Town & Country, and no it does not have the really cool swivel seats). We went to look at a less expensive mini-van, but ended up getting a different one that was a bit more money. Now that the dreamlike state from the car dealership has worn off, we have to kick ourselves for doing things the wrong way, but it is done now and hopefully we learned our lesson. Aside from that, I really love the mini-van and have started playing a little game as I drive. I sing a little song "1 little 2 little 3 little mini-vans" to the tune of One Little Indian, as I spot mini-vans along the way. I usually can finish the song before I get where I am headed. If I drive past the school at all slowly, the game is over almost immediately.

In other exciting news, my weight loss goals are finally kicking in and all the effort at the YMCA is paying off. I have only lost a little but, but it is just so exciting to see the numbers on the scale budge- and in the right direction too!

10 Birdy Pout

When I was a little girl my parents had a scale for our pout levels. It was anywhere from 1 to 10. The scale judged the number of birds that could land on your lip in pout mode. It appears Sydney has inherited my ability to hit a perfect 10.

Sydney was playing with friends from school here and did not get her way the instant she wanted, hence the pout.

Quick Thinking

So it was a rambunctious bedtime tonight which ended with a dramatic cry from Emily after lights were out complaining that she needed the current critter of choice's shoe rescued from the floor where it had just fallen.  Karl thought quickly, it was after all 30 minutes past lights out, and said, "Well the cheetah shouldn't be wearing shoes in bed anyway!"  Emily promptly took the shoe off the other foot and agreed with her dad's perfect logic.

Emily at dinner finally got around to tasting her carrot & savoy cabbage slaw and replied "Wow this is yummy, not yucky Mom."  Oh ye of little faith.

Sneaky Sydney

Over the past two weeks we have really been concerned about Sydney's hearing because she has been asking us to turn up music, repeat things, and in general lot listening to us. Now in fairness to her, she has been suffering for a cold and been rather stuffy, but I have my suspicions that it is all an act by my devious little darling. This morning she was saying a prayer for breakfast and I was helping her. I was standing about 4 feet away. I said a phrase, and she said what? I repeated it once a little louder. She said what again, I shot her a bit of a dirty/knock it off look and she said the phrase without a hitch. Emily would also whisper phrase to her and she heard those perfectly clearly. Sneaky Sydney strikes again!

But... I still plan to get her ears checked to be sure because of the troubles Emily has had.

Happy New Year

So other than the traditional get in better shape, (I joined a special 6 week workout class at the Y to really kick it off ) and the Get the house & myself organized resolutions, I have not really sat down to write my big long list yet. (Those three will probably keep me busy all year though.) Things seem to be going so fast that it has been hard to find a moment of quiet. On the other hand I spent about two hours on Friday cleaning my office area. It had gone beyond bad and cluttered! Now it is just a little cluttered but a work in progress. So that is a step closer to the get organized goal, oh and then there is also the go to be at a decent hour, and watch less tv this year. hmm, I forgot about those.

I am really enjoying my work right now-I am working on a new website for a local business, and one of my favorite things has been going down to the place-it is a children's entertainment area-aka bounce house and taking pictures of the kids at play. I just love my camera! I have also signed up for another photograph class online. My mom and I will be taking it together this session. Fun Fun Fun! We will be working with my favorite adobe program, Photoshop, to make our images better in a "digital darkroom"




The girls are back in school and loving life. Sydney is going to be going on another field trip with her class and the two special ed classes on Friday, so fun pictures will be coming up. This trip, unlike the others, is a "Real field trip" We are going to a marine science museum. Emily absolutely adores her teacher and makes a card for her teacher almost everyday. She is working hard on reading now and we are doing sight words with her. I expected phonics, but they use memorization instead. I think it is a good things. She is proud of the words she knows and can spell & write them, but I have not been successful at teaching phonics yet.

They are continuing with their swim lessons at the YMCA. I am so impressed by Emily's strength in the pool. They did a little race in their last class-the teacher carefully chose the race pairs so they were at matching levels, and Emily won her little race. She hasn't mastered swimming without the belt, she can do a few strokes, but starts to sink after that, but with a belt lifting her waist and hips, she does so well. This week we tried goggles for both girls to help get them over the wet face fear. Sydney likes to quickly bob her face in and out. Goggles seem to work with Emily, but she dislikes the fact that they fog up. When she has her belt on she is not afraid to stick her face in the water and plow through it. Sydney is still so tiny that without a belt she sinks after the first stroke. Both girls are also doing well with the back T stroke tough. I bought some float belts just like the ones they use in class so we can go during the week and practice.

Karl is still trying to get over his sinus infection/cold and get healthy. In the past few months he has not had to travel much, but will be taking more trips this month and next. On a positive side, he has been earning lots of air miles, and even got a bumped ticket on one flight so we hope to be able to go out to our nieces wedding this spring. Work has been keeping him busy, as has my list of projects. Now that the holiday season is over, I want to push through the last few big projects to get the house looking lovely. I have some painting projects, and more organizing ones. I will of course post pictures as I take them.

Karl is going to build a desk for the girls so I can have my drafting table back, and that will give me some room to paint again as well as work off the floor on my other hobbies of stamping & scrapbooking-oh another goal for this year is to make a greater effort to get family pictures arranged attractively either simply in those slide in photo albums, or scrapbooked more formally. One of my favorite projects I made this year was a year in review album for 2007. I used an online photo center that had templates ready to go and I just uploaded my images, arranged them into the book, added text, although I would have liked to add more, and printed it out and picked it up at the store. I felt like such a hero for at least having that 24 page book to show for the year!