Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!

http://ecard.ashland.edu/index.php?ecardYear=2004adm

Ahhhhhhhhh...two more weeks! Two more weeks and I'm FREEEEEE! Well, for about a month...and then it will be 1,000,000 times worse than this semester...but it's the journey...not the destination....RIGHT? Please...SOMEONE tell me I'm right!!!!! (and not you, Stacy S.! I don't want to hear your answer! lol!) Still...I will enjoy this month off...with the Christmas season and with my kids and family. I'll try to make it better than ever, since they won't see their mother until the summer (and that's only if I get the summer off! lol!) :) This week I will be getting the last round of immunizations (my doctor had NO SHOTS on file AND my records also indicated I'd had rubella before! Really? Would've been nice to know that! Of course...my records also stated that I had my tonsils out in April of 2003....when I was pregnant. Plus...I still have my tonsils! What kind of whack job is running my doctor's office????? They MAY need someone in there to "re-organize" or something! Well, at least I know I DEFINITELY have had all immunizations, no TB and my drug screening came back clean! Whew...that was a close one! lol! Kidding!

So, now I'm just PRAYING that the kids can get through this winter HEALTHY. Is that asking a lot? I mean, I know I have a child with a chronic disease that likes to pick up any and all viruses and bacteria his poor little body can find...but...I'm still praying for it. Truth be told, Kenzie had many more illnesses last year than Ethan. Might have been b/c it was her first year in school all day long. I need to remember that when Ethan goes into first grade (I've heard this theory before, too!). We ended up cancelling our New Year's Disney trip...for several reasons. #1- when I had this GREAT IDEA...I didn't know that it was everyone else's great idea as well. New Year's week is THE busiest week of the year. Had NO IDEA. #2- With school starting on the 12th, I would just like to spend those days relaxing, not waiting in line for a Dumbo ride for 2 hours. Plus, I want to make sure EVERYTHING is ready for school. #3- germs, germs, germs. #4- I have worried obsessively that Ethan would be sick around then (or we would get snowed in), and it would break my heart to have to cancel RIGHT before we leave b/c of that...and have him think it was his fault (same with Kenzie). And I would hate for the one sibling to put blame on the other...which is what siblings do (no matter how much they love eachother). So...as MUCH as I was completely looking forward to spending New Year's Eve in WDW, we will spend it at home. We will hopefully reschedule for the early summer...crossing my fingers.

Prayers going out to some of my friends' kids (w/ CF). They are sick today and that's just never a good thing w/ CF. Just miserable :(

Until next time....

Amanda

Okay...so it's been awhile since I last updated. I've.....been.....busy? No...not really. I'm only busy the day or so before my class when everything is due and I've procrastinated so much that I put the homework until then. lol!

Anyway...I got into the nursing program! I go for our first orientation tomorrow (Wednesday) and I'm soooo nervous....but sooooooooooo excited!

Other than that, the kids are in school and have somehow remained mostly healthy (Kenzie had 2 viruses w/n a week and a half; she also had her knee looked at by a sports med doctor (it's fine, but her knee cap moves to the side instead of up and down; Ethan had his knee x-rayed due to pain/not walking on it...it came back clear; Ethan also had clinic since I've last written...everything was GREAT! Gained 3 lbs. and a few INCHES!!!! Lungs were clear...cultures were clear. He's been having a dry cough the past few days....PLEASE GOD LET IT BE ALLERGIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We went on a field trip with his class yesterday to the post office! It was actually very cool. I learned things!!!!! lol! His class was the most well-behaved group of kids (pre-k nonetheless!) that I've EVER SEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was in shock by the end of the trip! What did they do to them? Nyquil????????????? lol! Kidding....I hope. ;)

Well...now I'm off to get some stuff done...finally. Treadmill, clean, laundry, homework (if I get around to it! lol! j/k!), errands and breathing treatments! Yay!

eta: **My thoughts and prayers are with the bloggers "My Charming Kids" and "Confessions of a CF Husband" as they are going through some testing times. Prayers being said for Stellan (MCK) and Trisha (COCFH)...hang in there...both of you!**

21 Days.

21 days until the acceptance (or non-acceptance) letters go out for the nursing program. 21 days. Ugh. I'm going to slowly go crazy. Waiting...never been very good at it. I'm stressing myself out over the littest things.

Well, I might as well go and study and do homework. Not too creative on the whole blog thing today. I've used all of my creativeness on a paper it took around 10 hours to write (3 3/4 pages)...and it's still probably pretty bad.

21 DAYS....

My 5-year-old

Ethan turned 5 this past week. So bittersweet. I swear I can see and hear him growing as I write! We had a quite eventful week. Monday - I had class but not before Ethan and I were leaving Walmart only to find out my power steering had gone out. Great. I manually steered us to the local dealership...only to find out the warranty had run out on the 2nd of August. Of course it had. Tuesday - Oh...the night of Chuck E. Cheese. Hmmm...I think I would rather manually drive my car to a dealership ;) Wednesday was his actual birthday. We didn't do too much but let him open his presents (that he already knew he was getting because he snooped in my closet!) and I also agreed to let my OCDness go so that he could make a mess with his new toys. He also had soccer practice that night. Thursday - the kids had a dentist appointment. Ethan had everyone cracking up. I think it was when he was watching the dentist work on Kenzie and said "Um, what's up with that hook?" that we knew we were in trouble! He actually did well when it came time for his check-up, though! I was proud of him. Thursday night we went to "Meet the Teacher Night" at his new school (he starts this coming Wednesday). As we walked up to the school I held out my hand so that he would hold it. He didn't do anything. I asked if he wanted to hold hands (we always do). He said no. My heart....crushed. He gave me a quick hug and said "But I still love you". It was his big boy moment...but I wasn't ready for it. I am just not ready to let go of my baby. When we met the teacher, she asked me if this was going to be hard on me (I don't know if she meant in general or with the added CF stuff and worrying...maybe both) I started to choke up. lol! I told her with Kenzie's first day of pre-k I barely made it to the car before having a breakdown and that Ethan's the baby...and he's never been left with anyone but family, so...yeah...it's going to be tough. Ugh....



Well, I'm off to do homework...I'm behind in that and the house is a wreck which is just freaking me out...so I will be catching up this entire weekend :(



Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

Laughing Out Loud!

This cracked me up....first Bigfoot, now this...


For your viewing pleasure: http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/21/abominable-snowman-found/

Family.

Sometimes. I. Can't. Stand. Certain. People. In. My. Family.



They make me want to scream.



But...whatever. I need this----->





I may end up deleting this later...but...what's a blog for if I can't put out my thoughts...so...screw it. They piss me off to no end. As a parent...if you knew why....you'd understand.





Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. *screams*

Nevermind

My friend Stacy and I put our BRILLIANT minds together and figured it out. Okay...it was more her brilliant mind telling my average mind what to do.

It's still under construction...obviously.

Customizing?

Does anyone know how to make a custom layout...I'm not really happy with the choices :( If anyone knows (b/c I'm too lazy to figure it out on my own, I guess! lol!) let me know!

Until then....here's a little bit of Christmas for you.... :)

Curious about Wonder Pets

I was watching the news, and I said "This is probably boring for you" to Ethan and changed it to Curious George. He said, "BORING". I said "you don't like it?" He said "I did when I was one!" EXCUSE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, he's watching Wonder Pets....like that's so much more MATURE!

What has happened?

90210 is starting again. The New Kids On The Block are back together. Cabbage Patch Kids, Carebears, My Little Ponies, Super Mario, TMNT, and Transformers are all back. I know there are more things I'm missing, but frankly, I'm way too tired too remember...please feel free to add if you can come up with any.

I'm still holding out for Friends and Party of Five's return....

Life with a 5-year-old

I am downstairs getting ready to leave when I realize the faucet in Ethan's bathroom has been running for quite awhile...and I hear laughing. Running faucet in Ethan's room + laughing = NO GOOD. I am yelling up there (in a hurry and too lazy to go upstairs), but he obviously can't hear me over the water and laughter, right? Well, he eventually makes his way to my room, but he's standing behind my door, peeking his head into my bathroom. Hmmmm...does someone not want me to see something? I ask him why his faucet was running so long...and to tell me the truth. In a serious tone, he says - "Mom, I need to learn how to spit." What? He goes on to say he needs to learn how to spit so he was putting water in his mouth and spitting in the sink. Then he comes through the door to show me his shirt. "AND, I got water all over my shirt." It was all I could do from spitting my toothpaste out when he's telling me this. He was so serious. It was like...mom...I'm a boy...and it must be done...so live with it. So...he obviously didn't get into trouble. Wow, good thing Kenzie wasn't here to give him her "be good to the earth" speech. Running water just to spit??????????

On the bright side....

Pure loveliness....

(that is, unless you don't like the Colts...but that's just foolishness!)

My lunch with SECOND GRADERS

Wow. That's about all I can say. Here I thought I lived in this utopic world (well, I thought MY KIDS DID for the time being)...that was UNTIL I had lunch with them. If you have kids in elementary (or will), I highly recommend doing this. Or maybe I don't. It sure was a wake up call...one I didn't really want. Not that it was awful...but these kids were being so mean to eachother. I really wasn't listening until I heard one boy say "Was I TALKING to YOU?" And then proceeded to say "You KNOW I can beat you up, right?" WHAT?????????????????????? SECOND GRADE?????????? I don't remember ANY of this happening in second grade. Either times have changed or I was OBLIVIOUS to it...or maybe both. Kenzie goes to a somewhat diverse school. Well, it wasn't so diverse when Nathan and I went there...but it's more diverse now. Anyway, these boys then started arguing about who can beat who up. Then they start arguing with a girl because she asked if they were brothers. They started calling her dumb because one boy was obviously "black" and the other "mixed" (their words, not mine). I wanted to pull this girl aside and just hug her. She asked a simple question and they were calling her all sorts of names (and then it came out that they were both mixed and DID ADMIT THEY DID IN FACT LOOK ALIKE!) So, we are in second grade and starting the bullying, the race issues...oh...and they were calling the teachers names too. Awesome. These are the kids my daughter is around every single day. I mean...I know this is the world...I guess I just didn't know it would start in second grade.

What do I say? What does she think? Should I have said something? This is new for me...

For now, I'll post a picture with this post of us in the more "simple" years....Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Good Morning!

Me: Good morning, Bubby! How are you?

Ethan: FANTASTIC!


He's so funny!

Okay...I'm off to work on this stinkin' blog. I'm torn between trying to keep it secure (ie Keeping the Gina's of the world away) and also letting legit people (ie family, friends, and basically the non-Gina's of the world) in.

Oh, for those of you who don't know...Gina is a "person" (and I use that term LIGHTLY) who has been scamming people for years. I'm not going to use any more words than that b/c, thanks to google, it can lead freaks right back to this site. If you want details of this sicko, email me. (So, for the record, if you google "sicko" and "blog", you'll be directed to this site! lol!)

I'll post more in awhile....

Just a quick hello!

Just wanted to start out with a quick hello to everyone...and to post some pictures of Kenzie's first day of second grade before I head to bed. It's 11pm and Nathan's still at work...so I've been playing on the computer for hours. lol!