Moment of Glory

Some people could only dream of this and you will have to imagine this as I have since I was not there either. But Kelsea had one of those dream like moments in her game last night. She couldn't even tell me about it-It was that unbelieveable to her. One of her friends told me what happened on the phone.

It was the end of the game. 3 girls had fouled out of the game. Kelsea was in as they were doing an inbound play in the last SECONDS of the game and they were down by three. One girl was suppose to be somewhere and she wasn't there so Kelsea had the ball and looked for the girl, she wasn't anywhere where she was suppose to be. Kelsea happened to see the clock winding down to the end. She decides to chuck the ball from 3 point land---As the ball is flying through the air the buzzer goes off and the ball GOES THROUGH THE BASKET!!!!! causing the game to go into overtime. The whole team tackles Kelsea on the floor. She starts crying because she can not believe what she just did. The coach asks her after that if she can still play because I guess she was still emotional and shaking. She did and one more girl that is their big point getter fouls out too. So they lost in overtime. Could you imagine????? I probably would have been crying if I had been there too if I could have seen that. What a moment of glory! Everyone complimented her all night and she got to where she couldn't handle all the attention, funny girl. She is only the center of attention when she wants to be.

So what I am thankful for in our house this Thanksgiving is that I live in this country where my girls can have moments like these. My girls have freedom and equality and the ability to be as great as they decide to be. I watched a PBS show about girls in India that are sold into sexual slavery by people they meet that they hardly know and it was absolutely heartbreaking. That the city and the country does almost nothing about it. It is pretty much a death sentence as they die young when freed from AIDS. It was never their choice. Their families don't want them back. I am so glad I live here. In this country where having all girls is as much of a blessing as boys. With all the opportunities they can imagine. I am blessed and ever grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I wanted to add an update to our weekend.
I don't know how many years now we will have a holiday mouse story to share. But we have another. Lee Joe was on his way home Friday night and Kelsea was at her game of glory. I happen to notice the cat was stalking the bookshelf and choose to ignore that fact as I was talking to Lee Joe. Then a few minutes later I heard Autumn squeal and say she saw a tail. I was still on the phone and knew that didn't sound good. There was a mouse just under the blanket on the quilt rack. I told Lee Joe I wished he was here because I had to do the mouse chasing and got off the phone. Amber and I grabbed some plastic tubs from ice cream and began our chase. There is not much to hide in or behind in the dining area if we could keep it there. I caught it by the tail once and it squealed so it alarmed me and I let it go. around we went some more it scampering here and there. I caught it a second time by the tail but I didn't let it go this time and so Amber came over with her bowl and we caught it. No stomping death this time either. So I covered the opening and took it out to the wood pile. I am a huge weinie when it comes to killing something-even an invading mouse so I set the bucket down and then kicked it over so the mouse would leave. I went to the store. When I came back Amber told me the dog and cat were acting funny still. I walked into family room and the dog guiltily jumped off the sofa. I jumped more at the sight of a MOUSE again!!! but this time deceased by maybe Spot trying to lick it like a baby puppy or kitten. It looked like the same one. So the mouse is dead and in the garbage now.

We had our turkey dinner and my mom enjoyed contributing this year. She says that cooking is one of her hobbies now but she doesn't get to it often anymore. My brother came over a little after we started and then he left not long later. We went out to Lee Joe's buddy's house. It is a very nice house. Scattergories seems to be the game of choice on Thanksgiving 2 years in a row. Everyone played it last year when we were in Washington and it was brought out again this year. Amber is driving me nuts with her boyfriend that is not a boyfriend. They are out of town so she is constantly checking the computer for e-mails from him and she has talked to him a couple times on the phone. Otherwise she wanders aimlessly and disinterested in everyone and everything else. Yep-that is missing a boyfriend. She still won't admit the obvious though.

Kelsea is the only one who did black Friday shopping with her friend. She was so afraid she wouldn't wake up at 4am that they just stayed up all night and she was home by 7am and slept all day.

We have been decorating for Christmas the past 2 days. We got our tree and annual ornaments last night. Today the 2 trees were decorated. We have a fake one in our family room with all the kids handmade stuff and my handmade stuff. The real tree in the living room has all the annual kids ornaments and ceramics ones I have painted from the early years of our marriage. We tried to make sure we don't have a tree fiasco like last year-the tree was so heavy it fell twice. Kelsea has been so funny and excited. She wrapped the presents she bought on friday so their are already presents under the tree. Then she drug Lee Joe outside who has been trying to toy with us with his scrooginess. She told him no more faces and to get outside and start hanging lights and she went out with him and they have been hanging lights for 2 hours or so now.

Lee Joe is leaving for Utah tomorrow again. We aren't sure how long he will be down there again. Most of the week I am sure.

Hooray for cheap gas!

I bought an almost completely full tank of gas for $30!!!!!!! It has been a long time since I have seen that happen.

Tomorrow we will be at home most of the morning and have an early dinner with my mom and maybe my brother will show up and then we will go visit Lee Joe's friend that Lee Joe is working for right now. He just built this fantastic house that we haven't seen yet. The poor guys business is suffering as bad as Lee Joe's is. And worse since he has to maintain so much equipment. Lee Joe will be home sometime tonight and looks like he may be heading back next week.

After today I will only have 2 days left of freedom at home without kids. That is kind of sad for me. I was looking forward to this school year so I could do this. The last two days I was really happy I wasn't the one at the school doing the early morning crosswalk. It was so cold, the rabbit's water was frozen. I had a hard time not freezing or overheating yesterday.

Last night we spent about 5 hours watching basketball games. Kelsea's was at 4:30-then the JV played so we watched Kelsea's best friend and other teammates from AAU play. Then we watched the varsity team and saw Amber do her pep band thing. We left after half time and man bleacher seating is hard on the back. Kelsea's team lost by 7. She played alot and did pretty well. There was a ref that was horribly biased and he did the same ridiculous calls in the JV game so he pretty much lost the game for those 2 teams. He ousted the JV coach and it was ridiculous. I was so glad when that ref didn't ref the varsity game and they won. A mom was saying that the ref has always been like that towards our school. Go figure. You win some you lose some-and not due to lack of effort.

I need to quit procrastinating like I do so well when I blog and get on the ball. I have much to do.

Lee Joe really left

He left for reals this morning. I love it when kids say that. But he left early and worked all afternoon. I got busy and cleaned my house-again. I went to my benefits meeting today. Oh my gosh!!! So great are my benefits gonna be!! So what if I am working at a school, I am not a teacher, I don't have to teach english.

We were invited to FHE at our doctor's and Amber's boyfriend that is not a boyfriend's house. Their 5 boys and us-minus Kelsea and Lee Joe, was such a fun combination. I told my girls before they left to be on their best behavior and with Kelsea gone they were impressive how they all sat in a row beside me on their sofa tallest to smallest-but Hannah was on my lap and their boys acted the way my girls would act if we were at home having FHE. So our doctor-who is bishop in his ward-gave us a lesson on faith. Then we turned the kids loose. Hannah played ping pong with their 9 year old boy and our doctor. Their 5 year old fell asleep. Their twin 13 year olds played Wii with Kylee and Autumn. Then their mom, Amber, the boyfriend-not a boyfriend and I all talked in the kitchen and ate great cookies. I guess they are famous for their cookies and they were yummy. So now I guess we will have to return the favor. We came home and I COULD NOT get my little girls to bed at a decent hour. So they were making up for their good behavior elsewhere I guess. They all have to get up a little earlier tomorrow for choir. That stinks for them doesn't it?

I guess I should be in bed.

Dreary

It is so dreary. But it has been snowing. Poor Devanie. Lee Joe has been telling her she is coming. Lee Joe is going down there to work and his departure day keeps getting moved. He was leaving Sunday, then later Monday, then Thursday, he was leaving later today and now he is leaving Monday afternoon and will be back for Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving weekend he may go back but we should not hold our breathe on any of this. It is good thing he is not leaving today because I am sure Snowville(or whatever that snowy place is called between here and Salt Lake) is a mess on the way there. He hasn't worked much the past two weeks.

Lee Joe found a 1930's a Lionel and American flyer train parts with tons of track and other stuff at an estate sale a couple houses down this weekend. He was so excited about it. Mainly because he can make some money off it- he thinks. I have old trains and new trains all over my living room. Who knows what he thinks he is doing. We have lots of neighbors in our neighborhood that bought their houses when they were new in the 50s. One of them is a former military pilot for the Korean war I think. But now they are all passing away or going to homes so this estate sale sounds like an antique treasure trove. But I am not really into antiques so I have no problems. Lee Joe on the other hand. Well---he is into stuff. Very random and sometimes impulsive.

Kelsea had a follow up on her ankle. It is not broken-YAY but they are treating it like a sprain and she has more physical therapy to do in it. I am not too sure about her diagnoses on her rib. We may be going back on that. She can't lay on her stomach without pain. That is not good.

This has been a really long and drawn out day. It is 4 and feels like it should be much later. I have been doing laundry and some cleaning. Hannah called 4 friends to come over and none of them could. Kylee has a friend over and all the little girls are playing together and Amber is spending a little time right now with the boyfriend that is not her boyfriend and some other friends. Kelsea is back at the estate sale with Lee Joe. Hopefully she won't let him spend any more money.

News

I got the job at the school. My hours will be 7:30-4 and the little girls will be in tow. That is an hour earlier than they are use to going to school. Needless to say I am far from use to that myself. I am a night owl and not a morning person. So my days are numbered to time without children. I start officially on the 8th of Dec but I sub 3 days the week before. I work for 2 weeks and get 2 weeks of vacation with the girls. I could have subbed tomorrow too but Kelsea has her appt-see below. I will have some great benefits though. I can get fixed all over!! But my consistent blogging days are numbered possibly. It will be a fight for the computer in the evenings.

I took Kelsea and Amber brought herself to the doctor today. Kelsea's appt was at 9:45 and Amber's was at 11:30. Kelsea's took so long that we went back into the waiting room at 11:26 to wait with Amber for her's. Kelsea is going to see an orthopedist on Friday. Her x-rays looked OK but they aren't the bone doctors. She is in a lot of pain. And the swelling on her rib could be a hematoma but it doesn't hurt anymore and it is not something they are concerned about so she got an all clear for ab work in PE now. Then Amber went in for some weird ear pain. She has TMJ and we have to get with the orthodontist on getting a mouthguard for her and he showed her how to relieve pain in her neck before she gets a migraine. She had one yesterday. He said to get some new raquetballs and put them in a sock. Tennis balls are too big. And then told her to lay down on it and put the sock with balls in it behind her neck where the neck muscles and skull meet. Should help the tension she gets in her neck and help the tension induced migraines without meds. I want to try it too.

Things that get to Lee Joe about being in a house with all girls---He can't stand Josh Groban. We all love him. He doesn't enjoy the Jane Austen movies. But I am finding most guys with all daughters are tortured that way. Hormones are getting more out of hand and Autumn is another Kelsea when it comes to stubborn, hormonal, and tempermental. You put those two together anymore and fireworks and flames start shooting. Ok just screams and tears and on and on and on. Can somebody stifle my scream? The past two days have had some unbearable moments.

ACK-

I interviewed for the job today. I know I am on the top of the list and they will tell me Wednesday or Thursday. They asked me if I was interested in the 3 hour job if I didn't get this one and I said no. I can make the same money subbing 2 days in a week than I would make in one week in that postion. If I don't get it I will keep subbing and look into a medical transcribing school. But I am going to look into that anyway even if I get this job. There is enough time off to do that too. I am subbing 3 days the first week of December and if I get the job I will start the 8th. I am on a rollercoaster ride of emotion over it all.

I went back to the sinus man. He put me on prednisoneagain(one a day) and a low dose (high cost) antibiotic for the next month and gave me hydrocodeine for my headaches. I have had one for 3 days now. Then if I get the job and get benefits he wants to do a CT scan if this course of medicine doesn't work. We could be looking at surgery. I am so tired of these headaches.

Kelsea has had two games. They won the first and lost the 2nd. Lee Joe was able to watch her. He said she made 4 points today and one was an awesome reverse lay-up. I wish I saw that. We were having piano lessons and I was making dinner. OHHHH dinner. Kelsea goes to the doctor tomorrow over her ankle that she broke over a year ago. It is hurting all the time that it isn't in a brace. I hope it isn't rebroken or anything. I hope she doesn't have to stop playing. She drives us nuts when she isn't properly worn out. She REALLY went nuts when she was in her boot.

Lee Joe may be going to visit Devanie to work on a job down there. He was suppose to leave Sunday night and then it was Monday night and now it could be Thursday. We will see if it happens. Who knows. These past few days have been nuts and full of stuff. AND I was without my car all that time and my blinker still doesn't work right. Stupid thing. I think everything is getting to me right now and I get to take the prednisone for a month to be more aggravated. Yee Haw.

But we are both legal licensed drivers again. Woo Hoo.

No boys for me

So I had a funny experience today on the playground. A little girl comes up to me and tells me a sometimes troublesome boy(he has a behavioral specialist with him now) has a worm he is playing with on the playground. It sounded like he might have been chasing her with it. He was playing in a sand pit with another sometimes troublesome boy(last year I told this boy to stop licking the bars when they were covered in water from rain or something and then the next recess he was doing it again, all over the bars he licked them back and forth-so gross). I go over there and they tell me they are finding worms, slugs and rollie pollies. The boy has one worm. He says it is his friend. Then he says he is trying to feed it and take care of it and I tell him it needs to be in the ground over by the grass because that is what he eats. So he goes to the grass gabs a handful and puts a pile of it in the sand. I am really just trying to get him to part with the worm. So I tell him the worm really needs to be out of the sand. He can't live there, there are too many kids that play in the sand and they might hurt it. So he says OK. "Can I throw it?" What! No, I tell him go put it in the grass nicely. So he does. The other little boy I now notice has a HANDFUL of slugs. " Go put the slugs away in the grass, and then go wash your hands with soap and water." Oh my goodness. I watch him to make sure he follows my instructions to go to the bathroom. Thank goodness gracious for my little girls. Oh wait. I recall Amber collecting hand fulls of worms from under the tetherball and then showing me a wriggling mountain of worms. Ok, girls can be gross too.

I am so indecisive!!

I wish I was not so indecisive. It takes me so long to make decisions. I am probably going to apply for a full-time position at the school tonight. I have to do it online. There is tons of interest in it but I do that job all the time and had the job once before for a month then school got out. The principal and the gal I work with in the office like me. I have a pretty high chance of getting it. But nothing for sure yet. I subbed for it yesterday and today. SOOOOO----What sucks- I will be outside early in the morning at the crosswalk. I got rained on yesterday. Some nice lady stopped and offered me an umbrella. How nice was that? This morning my butt and nose were frozen. I am outside for 45 minutes at around 10 and then again at lunch--it is about an hour and a half. Then I am in the office for the rest of the day until 3:15 and then I get to fight high school kids and old people so I can get the kids across the street safely at the stoplight. People run the thing all the time. I hate the crosswalk the most. The rest is fine. I would start the beginning of December. Just in time for the yucky weather. Right now my sinus issues are OK but I am still on antibiotics and feel like the pillsbury dough boy with all the swelling I am dealing with the last 2 days. But my head doesn't hurt and I have not sneezed in days. I would get benefits--that is cool--and some cool benefits teachers are offered at the school. I would only get paid once a month though and on full days of school I would only make 5 dollars more than a day of subbing. But I would be home when my kids are home and my hours are just a little longer than their school day. I really like all the people there. The pros and cons almost weigh evenly. Another bad thing would be I have no resource on days when the kids are sick. Lee Joe is pursuing a job that is crazy good money but we have no answers yet if that is possible. Lee Joe is still looking at leaving town for the winter. That depends on a bunch of things. So I would be working full-time as an almost single parent scenario with 5 kids. Last time I did that job I was sick every weekend from the stress. My mouth was horribly sore and I couldn't eat and needed a ridiculous amount of sleep the worse my mouth was in order to recover. Is it just me or is there a lot to consider for this job? Health over money-but for good health you need the job to have the insurance and the money to pay the doctor so you can get better. But will the job make me sicker to require more doctor visits than I would have needed if I just stayed home? So here I sit. Do I or don't I?.................I applied Sat morning.

Real quick-

Today is my last day on Prednisone. Hooray! I am so shaky still and only had to take one pill total today. But the benefits of no transportation and some nervous energy finally got invested in my house as the water guy put in our new water softener and reverse osmosis water system. I cleaned like crazy. So awesome. Today I feel not so great for other reasons. But it is nice to walk around and see the house is still clean today. I have some running around to do but it is more like a turtles pace. I need to go see several doctors right now. I haven't had my annual in almost 7 years now. I know I need to go in.

Amber had an awful nightmare last night. I don't recall her ever having one in forever. It bothered her so badly she wound up in bed with us. That has not happened in FOREVER. She never ever comes to us like that anymore. Poor girl.

We have YW in Excellence tonight and I need to get pick up pictures from Wal-mart for their displays. 3 of them! Someday I will get over that.

We almost have a really big rabbit hutch for our poor bunny. Lee Joe has been home a lot this week.

yes I am whining

I am going to whine a little about Prednisone. I am shaking and very edgy-I think PMS and some major stress is contributing. I am very swollen. I felt bad all over my head last night and Lee Joe said my eye lids were even swollen. I barely feel like I sleep after much longer than usual trying to get to sleep. I worked today. I could barely type anything right and multitasking was like EEKK. I am home now. Lee Joe has had to play taxi all day. he took the car to the shop. I about freaked out when the car place wanted to keep my car over night over a STUPID LEFT BLINKER PROBLEM!! Yes, it's back. They want it over night because it started working again and they don't know why it stopped, so they want to keep it to see if it stops again. It has worked for awhile before going out again. So what's that gonna do. Let the car sleep on it and see if it feels better in the morning? Whatever. But I am getting a free 30 day trial on a water softener tomorrow, a $200 gas giftcard and 2 years of laundry detergent for the 30 day trial, so I had to hang out around the house anyway in the morning. Hopefully they figure out the stupid blinker and it doesn't cost me hundreds of dollars for a glitch when what I needed to spend it on was making the van pass it's emissions test. I could whine a little longer but I won't. There is not much else worth writing about. Wait, Lee Joe is building a rabbit hutch. Yay, for Pepper! We put an extra shelf in a closet this weekend-it was a much bigger project than it sounds and I cleaned up my office a bunch and my desk is quite clean. And Amber has a boyfriend that she says isn't her boyfriend but there has been some hand holding and kissing goodnight going on. I told Amber she is in denial if she keeps saying he is not her boyfriend. I won't divulge much else for the sake of my daughter. That is about all that I can think of. I leave on a happier note.

Nov pics

Amber Facebooking

Fun with Kelsea

Hannah's front tooth was sticking straight out for the longest time. It was driving us all nuts. I tried to get her to pull it out, I bumped her elbow "on accident" (I am so mean)while she was wiggling it. It was looser but still there. So I finally had her, grabbed a hold of the barely hanging in there tooth and pulled it out. She almost swallowed it in her fight but didn't. Now she looks like a jack o lantern herself with all the missing teeth. Poor thing. At least she is smiling in these pictures. She cried for about 15 minutes after it came out.

Last marching event. The Veterans parade we went to today. What Kelsea wears to the parade. It was chilly. Lee Joe and the girls across the street. We were at the end of the parade so there were less people than at the beginning.

Our Girl and her friends! I just love downtown Boise.

Amber in comparision to the large pile of leaves.. OK these only filled 5 bags but the main tree in our backyard is not even close to done.

I think....

I think... I think....I THINK!!! I think I may have FINALLY conquered the nasty mess on my computer. 3 days later--it is behaving itself right now. It has been so frustrating and such a waste of my time.

I am on Prednisone for 8 days. I am glad it is not for long. I am having a little bit of the body aches but not like yesterday. I am on day 2 and the hyper is kicking in a little but I cleaned some things and am motiviated. That is actually a bonus considering how long I have been exhausted and unable to catch up around here. The top of my washer and dryer are cleaned off. I am glad none of you were able to see it before. Amber is having friends over tonight I think so I need to get busy and make her get busy too. I will be so excited if I can accomplish some things in the next couple of days that I have been needing to do. I have worked on my office this week and cleaned the back of the garage again so the momentum is starting to get going. I always feel better when things are clean anyway. It is not often enough so I have not been so happy.

We bagged 10 large leaf bags full of leaves last weekend. With the storms I think we are going to fill 10 more. My back yard is covered again.

I hurt

One benefit of the antibiotics I am taking is my adult acne is clearing up. It has been horrible and it much better right now. I am not sure if it's a side effect of the medicine I am taking or if Amber and Kelsea and I have something but my lower back all the way down my legs hurt with muscle pain and pain relievers don't help. And that is listed as a side effect of the prednisone. But I am not excessively hungry-yet or hyper. But I am still up but that is because my computer is so slammed with a nasty virus that I am still trying to fix it. I was up until 2:30 last night and started working on it at 7 or 8 this morning, went shopping for some new software this afternoon and have been running new virus scans all afternoon and internet explorer keeps throwing crap up over and over and have to exit all the dumb screens when the computer isn't supervised right now. I wish I knew more about computers to know more what to do. It's awful. But the little girls are home tomorrow so I don't have to get up real early Thursday or Friday. I love days off for that reason.

I visited with 14 teachers from 4:45 till after 8 tonight. I had some good reports. Hannah is grasping everything put in front of her. Kylee and Autumn have great grades-all A's and one B but both need to work on their math facts, their reading fluency-they are both just below grade level on that. And they need to get things in on time better. But Kylee is quiet and Autumn perfectionistic to ridiculous and they are starting to see her sparky sassy side. We are seeing a lot of the sassy that is not so much fun at home. When teachers have Kylee and then Autumn they find it interesting how opposite they are in personality but their problems are the same. Amber had 2 Bs and they were in AP classes and they are weighted. Amber's teachers had nice things to say. She is so funny. Everytime I come home from teacher visits she wants to know everything her teachers said about her. Kelsea doesn't care as much. Her grades are all over the place but the lowest grades were C's not D's which were on her progress report so she is getting them up slowly. She has great teachers with genuine concern for her so that is great for her. Her C's are in hard classes so I know she is trying hard and she will get there. We have never been hard on the kids for low grades. We work hard at finding out how they can do better.

It's late, I am bored, frustrated and full of blabbiness.

Stupid computer

My computer is really screwed up. I hope I can fix it this time.

I worked yesterday. It got colder as the day went on. I could try for a full-time position at the school that starts in December. I was doing that job yesterday and it is the same one I had there for a month a few years ago. I would be outside a lot in the middle of winter. I don't like that so much especially with my sinus problems that gets so much worse the more I am outside. But the hours and days would be perfect for managing the kids. I don't know. Today was down right nasty cold and windy. I am glad I didn't work today. Yuck.

I went back to the Sinus man today. He is keeping me on antibiotics and also put me on prednisone-a steroid. I have never been on that before. I might get a little weird and have problems sleeping for a few days. Get this. I am on the same antibiotic as I was 2 weeks ago. I bought the generic at Wal-greens the first time for $98 for 28 pills. Today I bought the generic at Wal-mart-for 28 pills FOR $38. So I guess it really would have paid to shop around the first time. And the prednisone was only $6. That is nuts.

More basketball is in the works. Kelsea just made the Sophomore team! Hooray for her! No sad depressed days to come. Just more practices and almost 4 months of it, maybe 5 because of the holidays. Did I say Holidays? I can't believe we are headed in that direction already. Make it stop!! It went too fast.

Whoops

I went to the bread store today and wrote a check. She asked for my drivers license and I happily handed it to her. I watched her write the expiration date down and thought it was strange-2008? It is 2008. I have not looked at the date on my license and took any mental notes that it would expire this year. I have been driving for a month without-- umm, you know. I called Lee Joe and told him what I just noticed. He looked at his since I brought it up. Umm-him too but several months longer than me. What is worse is while Lee Joe was gone in California the nasty emission noticed arrived and before he got back they revoked the registration. We passed the emission test, Lee Joe tried to tell me that it automatically gets reinstated, I reread the notice-no it doesn't. And our van wouldn't pass emissions because a sensor is telling it to not pass and it is just a faulty sensor not a real car problem. We can't pay to fix it right now. I won't even go into the work truck's issues. So by the time we get done here nobody and no car is legal except for Amber. Pretty sorry. I think I will be spending a very long morning at the DMV this week.