I brought a souviner home from vacation- an ear infection!
Yesterday I had an ear ache all day, but last night, I couldn't even sleep, my left ear hurt so bad. This morning, Christian accidently hit it and I could've screamed.
I left early this morning and I went over to a Quick Care Clinic at a local Hy-Vee and the PA there determined that I have a mild ear infection. She said there was lots of swelling and it is very tender, but no redness. She gave me a prescription for ear drops, so now I get to deal with those for the next five days.
Lucky me!
Eye drops, ear drops, what's next?
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Egyptian Exhibit
As if going on three tours this week wasn't enough, we're doing another one today!
The Joslyn Art Museum has a display on the ancient Egyptians (which we have also studied in history), so my mom is coming in and we're going to go see it this afternoon!
Yay for field trips and bringing history alive! I love it!
The Joslyn Art Museum has a display on the ancient Egyptians (which we have also studied in history), so my mom is coming in and we're going to go see it this afternoon!
Yay for field trips and bringing history alive! I love it!
Friday, March 9, 2012
G-U-M
Everyday after lunch I get asked by a certain little girl in this house if she can have a piece of candy or gum. It is becoming a habit and I don't really like it. I sometimes let her, I sometimes don't. My little game lately is that I make her spell the words gum or candy in order to get a treat.
Let's just say that now we know that gum is spelled g-u-m.
Let's add that to the list of words she now knows how to spell. Go Courtney!!
Let's just say that now we know that gum is spelled g-u-m.
Let's add that to the list of words she now knows how to spell. Go Courtney!!
Water Park Stories
1. I really wish I would've caught this on camera, but every time Courtney came down the water slide by herself, she would holler (all the way down), "Daddy, catch me. Daddy Catch me, daddy catch me, dadddddyyyyyyy, daddy catch meeeee" until we heard her come around the last curve and her eyes would bug out to make sure daddy was there!
Since there were two slides and we never knew which one she was coming down, Matt would stand in the middle of the two until the last moment when he would go to one or the other, reach out his arms, and catch Courtney so she wouldn't go under. It was a great matter of trust on Courtney's part!
One time he kind of missed her, so that is why she hollered every time down the slides!
He was known for letting two certain children go underwater on this trip. I swear one of them was going to drown! Christian went under about 3 times in one foot water and one time when Matst brought him down the water slides, he got going too fast and had to pull Christian under with him when they got to the bottom. Christian was not too happy about that! I wasn't either! But everybody survived, so it was all good in the end!
2. One night, we didn't get back to the hotel until about 7:45 from supper and we had promised we would take the girls swimming. I mentioned to Matt that maybe I should just stay home and put Christian to bed, he had about a 15 minute nap that day and was looking tired. I think Christian heard about this plan because he went over to his water toys, grabbed a scoop, and brought it over to me saying, "wawa?" which means "water" in Christian language.
I asked him, "Do you want to go swimming?" He replied, "Uh-huh!" with a super-excited look on his face! Ok, fine! We're on vacation! So we all went swimming for about 45 minutes, I'm glad I took him though. I think he is going to have a blast this summer at the swimming pool!
Since there were two slides and we never knew which one she was coming down, Matt would stand in the middle of the two until the last moment when he would go to one or the other, reach out his arms, and catch Courtney so she wouldn't go under. It was a great matter of trust on Courtney's part!
One time he kind of missed her, so that is why she hollered every time down the slides!
He was known for letting two certain children go underwater on this trip. I swear one of them was going to drown! Christian went under about 3 times in one foot water and one time when Matst brought him down the water slides, he got going too fast and had to pull Christian under with him when they got to the bottom. Christian was not too happy about that! I wasn't either! But everybody survived, so it was all good in the end!
2. One night, we didn't get back to the hotel until about 7:45 from supper and we had promised we would take the girls swimming. I mentioned to Matt that maybe I should just stay home and put Christian to bed, he had about a 15 minute nap that day and was looking tired. I think Christian heard about this plan because he went over to his water toys, grabbed a scoop, and brought it over to me saying, "wawa?" which means "water" in Christian language.
I asked him, "Do you want to go swimming?" He replied, "Uh-huh!" with a super-excited look on his face! Ok, fine! We're on vacation! So we all went swimming for about 45 minutes, I'm glad I took him though. I think he is going to have a blast this summer at the swimming pool!
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Home Sweet Home
Isn't the best part about taking a trip coming home? I love seeing the Omaha skyline as we get closer. I love pulling into my driveway and going into the house for the first time after being gone awhile.
I love that my mom taught me to always clean up before going away. :) Then when you come home, it's all clean!!
Ok, the parts I don't like about coming home. Unpacking. Ugh. Laundry. Double ugh.
Getting back into the routine. Ok, not so ugh.
We didn't do any school this week, but we did see historical sites and school came up a lot, so that counts in my book. Megan says the best part of her trip was going to the Salisbury House. Courtney said her favorite part was watching "Animal Planet."
Tomorrow we were supposed to have a playdate, but that got cancelled, so who knows what we will be doing now. I'm not going to start school again until Monday, so it's kind of a free day.
Unpack, laundry, catch up around here, that sounds like a good plan.
I love that my mom taught me to always clean up before going away. :) Then when you come home, it's all clean!!
Ok, the parts I don't like about coming home. Unpacking. Ugh. Laundry. Double ugh.
Getting back into the routine. Ok, not so ugh.
We didn't do any school this week, but we did see historical sites and school came up a lot, so that counts in my book. Megan says the best part of her trip was going to the Salisbury House. Courtney said her favorite part was watching "Animal Planet."
Tomorrow we were supposed to have a playdate, but that got cancelled, so who knows what we will be doing now. I'm not going to start school again until Monday, so it's kind of a free day.
Unpack, laundry, catch up around here, that sounds like a good plan.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Things I have learned while on vacation..
1. Water slides are still super fun!!
We got Courtney to go down by herself and matt even took Christian down a few times. It was a family affair! The only problem was that Matt had to go first because he had to catch Courtney (she can't swim yet and the water was a little too deep). Then Courtney, then myself. Megan could go anywhere, she is a little fish!
2. A hotel with cable is great! The girls may be spending too much time watching "Animal Planet."
3. I don't like it that our hotel does not have breakfast, but the muffins I made at home and brought along seem to do the trick. We might actually have to go out tomorrow morning, we only have 2 left after today. :) Capri Sun apple juice also works great!
4. How much stuff do we need for 3 days??
5. The later to bed, the earlier to rise (Christian!!)
6. Why can't the fan on the room heating unit just work constantly instead of the kicking on and off all night.
7. The girls each have a queen bed to themselves. I am so glad they are old enough where I don't have to worry about them falling out of bed at night.
8. If we go swimming every night, do we really need to shower every morning? Do you know hard it is to rinse off a 20 month with a shower head that does not come off the wall. I got soaked yesterday!
9. I decided not to bring school along because once I thought about it, I determined we wouldn't have much time. (I did bring some workbooks along though that are not part of our curriculum.)
Doesn't visiting historical sites such as the state capitol and Salisbury House (modeled after a castle in England from the 15th century) count as field trips and therefore school??
We went on a tour yesterday of Salisbury House and the lady complimented me on the way out because the kids were very well behaved and they asked very interesting questions. If you are ever in Des Moines, I would highly recommend this historical site. We learned so much and since we had studied the middle ages, we had talked about many items that we in the house, so it was fun to put it all together!
10. Today we are going to Terrace Hill (the governors mansion) and maybe the zoo- depending on the weather. If this doesn't work, then we are going to to the Iowa Historical Society. I think both will be great!
11. I love not having any chores to do- not dishes, no letting the dog out, no cleaning up, no fighting the children to clean up, no laundry, no homework! We have close quarters here at the hotel and if you don't pick up, you are going to be stepping on things. Luckily the kids have a room and Matt and I have a room.
I love housekeeping, they make my bed and pick up my dirty towels everyday! Did I mentioned endless hot water for showers??
12. Megan is loving the ice machine down the hall.
13. Thank heavens for the GPS- I would be completely lost here in Des Moines without that! Of course, it doesn't always take you on the best route and through neighborhoods sometimes, but we usually get where we are going in the end.
14. I have to admit, it is sometimes hard to watch the GPS and figure out what lane you are supposed to be in. It's hard driving in a new city!
15. I can't believe we go home tomorrow. Matt is going to take us to Pioineer tonight and show us where he works. We have to have his rental car back to the airport by noon tomorrow, so we should be home in the afternoon. We really need to get Megan back by 4:15 for dance rehearsal. Ugh, can't we stay longer??
We got Courtney to go down by herself and matt even took Christian down a few times. It was a family affair! The only problem was that Matt had to go first because he had to catch Courtney (she can't swim yet and the water was a little too deep). Then Courtney, then myself. Megan could go anywhere, she is a little fish!
2. A hotel with cable is great! The girls may be spending too much time watching "Animal Planet."
3. I don't like it that our hotel does not have breakfast, but the muffins I made at home and brought along seem to do the trick. We might actually have to go out tomorrow morning, we only have 2 left after today. :) Capri Sun apple juice also works great!
4. How much stuff do we need for 3 days??
5. The later to bed, the earlier to rise (Christian!!)
6. Why can't the fan on the room heating unit just work constantly instead of the kicking on and off all night.
7. The girls each have a queen bed to themselves. I am so glad they are old enough where I don't have to worry about them falling out of bed at night.
8. If we go swimming every night, do we really need to shower every morning? Do you know hard it is to rinse off a 20 month with a shower head that does not come off the wall. I got soaked yesterday!
9. I decided not to bring school along because once I thought about it, I determined we wouldn't have much time. (I did bring some workbooks along though that are not part of our curriculum.)
Doesn't visiting historical sites such as the state capitol and Salisbury House (modeled after a castle in England from the 15th century) count as field trips and therefore school??
We went on a tour yesterday of Salisbury House and the lady complimented me on the way out because the kids were very well behaved and they asked very interesting questions. If you are ever in Des Moines, I would highly recommend this historical site. We learned so much and since we had studied the middle ages, we had talked about many items that we in the house, so it was fun to put it all together!
10. Today we are going to Terrace Hill (the governors mansion) and maybe the zoo- depending on the weather. If this doesn't work, then we are going to to the Iowa Historical Society. I think both will be great!
11. I love not having any chores to do- not dishes, no letting the dog out, no cleaning up, no fighting the children to clean up, no laundry, no homework! We have close quarters here at the hotel and if you don't pick up, you are going to be stepping on things. Luckily the kids have a room and Matt and I have a room.
I love housekeeping, they make my bed and pick up my dirty towels everyday! Did I mentioned endless hot water for showers??
12. Megan is loving the ice machine down the hall.
13. Thank heavens for the GPS- I would be completely lost here in Des Moines without that! Of course, it doesn't always take you on the best route and through neighborhoods sometimes, but we usually get where we are going in the end.
14. I have to admit, it is sometimes hard to watch the GPS and figure out what lane you are supposed to be in. It's hard driving in a new city!
15. I can't believe we go home tomorrow. Matt is going to take us to Pioineer tonight and show us where he works. We have to have his rental car back to the airport by noon tomorrow, so we should be home in the afternoon. We really need to get Megan back by 4:15 for dance rehearsal. Ugh, can't we stay longer??
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Blogger Slacker
I can't believe I haven't blogged for over 4 days. You think I fell off the face of the earth or something. nope. just busy.
here's what has been going on:
1. Nothing much more than usual. Matt was gone from Tuesday to Thursday, so I held down the fort.
2. We are getting into a grove with homeschooling. I know I keep saying things are getting better, but they really are. EVERY day we have school in the morning. I either take Courtney to preschool and come home and teach Megan (MWF) or we get up and get school going right away. (T TH)
We usually start with our read-alouds too (wouldn't you want to be read to first thing in the morning?). We are currently reading "White Stallions of Lipizza" and I would highly recommend it to anyone! I can't wait until Monday when we get to read the next two chapters. Megan is enjoying it too because it is all about horses and her favorite animal right now is horses!
Math is also interesting lately. There are things presented in her math book that we did not learn until pre-algebra in 8th grade. Such as 8+n=11. This is algebra! But she's doing it in 2nd grade math!! I looked ahead into the 3rd grade book and some of those problems are (3+7)+ n= 15, rounding to hundreds and thousandths place, 519 X 4 = n, 7 x n=56, and 2/3 is less than or equal to 8/24. I know the answers to these problems, but was I taught this stuff in 3rd grade? No way!
We usually get a couple of hours done before lunch and then finish after lunch. Right away- I don't let the girls play an hour anymore. We clean off lunch and get right back to it.
This has worked much better- My theory is "Let's get school done so we can be done for the day, then you have the rest of the day to play and I don't have to worry about it!"
3. I always save our Bible lesson to do with Courtney. We are going through the book of Joshua now and we have had a GREAT time! The girls draw a picture to illustrate the passage, so we have had some great pictures from Joshua 1,2,3, and 4!
4. Courtney has wanted to join us for math too, so I always give her something to do. Oh, and handwriting. She doesn't want to do her reading lesson anymore, but she wants to do everything else. I figure as long as we are doing something one-on-one with her, I don't really care what it is (well, as long as we are close to reading by the fall, so I can start her in 1st grade readers!)
I really think Courtney is going to be my hands-on learning. She brought me an art book yesterday and said, "Let's find a project mommy." So we did. We found what we needed and made her project. It was cute! A little out of the box for me because I am just used to reading to Megan all the time, but this is the nice thing about homeschooling, I can cater to their learning styles. I have also had to come up with creative/hands-on ways to teach her reading and math.
5. Christian has been a busy boy lately. For the first time today, I heard "ape" which stands for "grape." He has added some new words lately, "O" means "no" but you have to imagine him saying "OOO" with his arms crossed (gee, I wonder who he learned this from!) and of course "mine" is very popular these days.
"Tractor" and "choo-choo" still seem to be the favorites.
6. Matt is busy working on the basement- he has almost all the framing done, so hopefully we can be done by...perhaps Christian's birthday in June.
7. My house is a COMPLETE disaster! You can tell the girls have had more time to play together because the house is destroyed...oh and maybe I am no so strict and am not so good at encouraging them to clean it up at night. :)
8. I do manage to keep up on the kitchen and laundry. Those are my two goals and now that we are done with school by early afternoon, I have some time to get some housework done. Yay for me!
9. Matt is done at the end of March with going to Iowa. It will be nice having him home full time again, but he won't be able to work from home anymore. But his new job isn't far away, which means a short communte, which means he will be home more in the evenings and even some in the mornings.
10. We are taking a little vacation this week with Iowa to Matt, it will be a lot of work, but will be fun. Courtney does not have preschool Wednesday or Friday and since Megan is homeschooled, we have the freedom to take off. We are going to stay at a water park by where Matt works. It will be a nice break for all of us!
here's what has been going on:
1. Nothing much more than usual. Matt was gone from Tuesday to Thursday, so I held down the fort.
2. We are getting into a grove with homeschooling. I know I keep saying things are getting better, but they really are. EVERY day we have school in the morning. I either take Courtney to preschool and come home and teach Megan (MWF) or we get up and get school going right away. (T TH)
We usually start with our read-alouds too (wouldn't you want to be read to first thing in the morning?). We are currently reading "White Stallions of Lipizza" and I would highly recommend it to anyone! I can't wait until Monday when we get to read the next two chapters. Megan is enjoying it too because it is all about horses and her favorite animal right now is horses!
Math is also interesting lately. There are things presented in her math book that we did not learn until pre-algebra in 8th grade. Such as 8+n=11. This is algebra! But she's doing it in 2nd grade math!! I looked ahead into the 3rd grade book and some of those problems are (3+7)+ n= 15, rounding to hundreds and thousandths place, 519 X 4 = n, 7 x n=56, and 2/3 is less than or equal to 8/24. I know the answers to these problems, but was I taught this stuff in 3rd grade? No way!
We usually get a couple of hours done before lunch and then finish after lunch. Right away- I don't let the girls play an hour anymore. We clean off lunch and get right back to it.
This has worked much better- My theory is "Let's get school done so we can be done for the day, then you have the rest of the day to play and I don't have to worry about it!"
3. I always save our Bible lesson to do with Courtney. We are going through the book of Joshua now and we have had a GREAT time! The girls draw a picture to illustrate the passage, so we have had some great pictures from Joshua 1,2,3, and 4!
4. Courtney has wanted to join us for math too, so I always give her something to do. Oh, and handwriting. She doesn't want to do her reading lesson anymore, but she wants to do everything else. I figure as long as we are doing something one-on-one with her, I don't really care what it is (well, as long as we are close to reading by the fall, so I can start her in 1st grade readers!)
I really think Courtney is going to be my hands-on learning. She brought me an art book yesterday and said, "Let's find a project mommy." So we did. We found what we needed and made her project. It was cute! A little out of the box for me because I am just used to reading to Megan all the time, but this is the nice thing about homeschooling, I can cater to their learning styles. I have also had to come up with creative/hands-on ways to teach her reading and math.
5. Christian has been a busy boy lately. For the first time today, I heard "ape" which stands for "grape." He has added some new words lately, "O" means "no" but you have to imagine him saying "OOO" with his arms crossed (gee, I wonder who he learned this from!) and of course "mine" is very popular these days.
"Tractor" and "choo-choo" still seem to be the favorites.
6. Matt is busy working on the basement- he has almost all the framing done, so hopefully we can be done by...perhaps Christian's birthday in June.
7. My house is a COMPLETE disaster! You can tell the girls have had more time to play together because the house is destroyed...oh and maybe I am no so strict and am not so good at encouraging them to clean it up at night. :)
8. I do manage to keep up on the kitchen and laundry. Those are my two goals and now that we are done with school by early afternoon, I have some time to get some housework done. Yay for me!
9. Matt is done at the end of March with going to Iowa. It will be nice having him home full time again, but he won't be able to work from home anymore. But his new job isn't far away, which means a short communte, which means he will be home more in the evenings and even some in the mornings.
10. We are taking a little vacation this week with Iowa to Matt, it will be a lot of work, but will be fun. Courtney does not have preschool Wednesday or Friday and since Megan is homeschooled, we have the freedom to take off. We are going to stay at a water park by where Matt works. It will be a nice break for all of us!
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