Childrens' Rocks!

So last night we went to a scheduled tour of the Mason outpatient surgery unit of Childrens' Hospital. Lillie's surgery is tomorrow already. They told us to have her come a few days beforehand to get the full experience of the place before the big day. Anyhoo, we get there and there were a total of 5 families, siblings and all. Each child got to try out EVERYTHING that a surgical patient would, short of the surgery itself, oh and I guess the "sleepy air". The tour guide was AWESOME and learned all the kids' names within two minutes of us being there. She really geared it to all the ages, as Lillie was the youngest at four, and there was a boy there that was eleven. Zac had the best time...heck, I think he even wants to go tomorrow, but unbeknownst to him, he's going to school! They let the kids go at their own pace but showed them everything they needed to know. Lillie was cool until the actual operating room. They let the kids peek in at the room, and Lillie was real quiet after that and wanted Daddy to hold her. Talking about it today makes her cry. We did get her to laugh though by asking her to save us some of that watermelon flavored "sleeping" air....boy, wouldn't that be nice to have at bedtime?!

Nothing to see here.....

Hey! Been a few days and while nothing has really happened that is "blog" worthy...here I am! The kids spent all weekend (and no, I'm NOT exaggerating) in their pajamas. Zac got a haircut last night from my friend who came bearing free dinner (nice!) and he now has spiked hair! He's really into it...REALLY! I am using more product to get his poker straight, ultra thick hair to stand up than I am to get mine to unfrizz and stay down! LOL! We had family over tonite for a family dinner and he was very concerned about his hair and getting it "done" before everyone got here. Lillie on the other hand hasn't put a brush through hers at all and could care less that her bangs, which are in process of growing out, were in her face the whole night. It was a great time though.

I'm now listening to Terry yell at the kids while they are playing creatively. He's grouchy....ya know, tomorrow is a work day and his shoulder hurts. (insert pity party here) He hurt this shoulder over a week ago and has been whining and moaning sooooo much, but felt magically better yesterday and went fishing in the freezing cold...and now it feels worse than ever. Can we say "DUH!" Since I gave up being the caring wife about 3 days ago, I'm ingoring it and he's kinda ticked that my sympathy meter is broken. Maybe I'll send him to one of YOU!

Do you realize?

OMG, as a new bus driver I am being "trained" on all kinds of "weird" things in this certification class I'm in all week. WOW!



Eye-opener!



Did you realize that the #1 hazard at a bus stop is a PARENT?

And that 4500 cars PER DAY run the red flashing school bus lights (in Ohio only!) as kids are getting onto or exiting the bus?

Or that of the 53 school bus fatalities in Ohio over the last 41 years, all but 3 have happened OUTSIDE of the bus?

True story...little boy excited about the upcoming holiday and a sucker he got from his teacher is getting off the bus. The driver, knowing is he excited and young gives him exact instructions on how to cross the road in front of the bus to get to his house (like he does every other day). The instructions go like this--- he's to go 10 steps in front of the bus, wait for the drivers' hand signal, cross half way, check traffic both ways and continue crossing. If at anytime the driver sees danger, he/she will honk the horn and the child is to stop or go back in front of the bus, check traffic again and look to the driver for further instruction. So he is waiting for the ok from the bus driver that it's safe to cross, but then sees his Mom come out of the house and BOLTS across the street without the drivers' ok...right in front of a car doing 55MPH, talking on her cell phone, TOTALLY MISSING the red flashing lights. That little 5 year old is dead. And although the driver of the car is at fault, the school district will also be sued and will owe millions to the parents because the exact directions that the bus driver gave the boy was missing ONE SMALL piece of info...the driver forgot to tell the little boy to recheck traffic if she blows her horn! When the boy bolted, she honked her horn and then that boy stopped without checking traffic...and looked at the bus driver just as he was run over in that other lane. Had he checked traffic he would have seen that car coming and hopefully could have gotten out of the way. Because of this, the defense will use that to win.

I am not paid real well to do this job (unless you consider summers, holidays, weekends etc off!) but I have this intense responsibility aside from just carting kids back and forth. Everything inside and out of that bus is MY responsibility and it's FRIGHTENING how many people don't realize that. Do you?

Snow Day!

Almost at the top!



The snow slide!



Zac making the snow angel!



Zac and Lillie heading up the hill!



Lillie dragging her sled!



Lillie making a snow angel!



Before heading outside...Mom HAS to have pics!






At LAST, we have SNOW!!! And the kids were outside making snow angels and sled riding down the hill out back in a flash! Pics of the fun!

Zac, the reader and Lillie, the hair stylist

Small brag! The other night, Zacary read our two bedtime stories to us (me and Lillie)--he even sounded out the word "peppermint" and was right on the money! GO ZAC!!!!! He got an outstanding report card yesterday too! It's gonna be so nice to be read to at night, rather than doing all the reading!

Lillie, although not reading, has become quite the hair dresser. Every baby doll, animal, heck, even Dora, has had a hair cut of some kind. She puts a coffee filter behind her dolls' back to catch the falling hair and cuts to her hearts' content. Last night, our ride-on rocking horse got it. I should have seen it coming...the past week that horse has had more barrettes in it and clips and hair brushings than it ever deserved. When you ask Lillie what she'll be when she grows up, expecting to hear "hair dresser" she says a race car driver! LOL! Ooooo-kayyyyy!

Only me!

Only could this happen to me...or only WOULD this happen to me. I am vacuuming...with a hurt back. I couldn't take it any longer upstairs so I picked up all that I wanted to and dragged my demon vacuum out of the downstairs closet and somehow we made it up the stairs. I get our room done and rounded the top of the stairs to do Lillie's room and hear this loud thumping sound. It wasn't the vacuum....but what the cord of the vacuum had hit. Terry had gotten a late night urge for popcorn last night and brought up our big Cars tin with 3 popcorns in it....you see where this is headed? I put that tin at the top of the stairs to take down on my next descent (cause everyone knows MEN can't put things away), but alas, it landed at the bottom of the stairs after a nudge from the vacuum cord. It burst open at the third stair near the bottom and spilled all over my newly vacuumed great room and into the kitchen. And that's what I get for trying to clean! HMMMPFFFF!

What a deal!

I visit the parents, I get a gift! That's a deal, right? Saturday I took the kids over to see my parents...Grandma and Grandpa were going through withdrawal, not having seen the kids for almost two weeks and all(gasp!) My Mom suggested we hit the new Super Walmart over by them so I could get some Bissell solution for my handheld (sick animals...you can imagine our carpet). So, sneaky Mom dragged me over there and once I had what I needed she sauntered over to the Housewares aisle. And there she showed me the most adorable dishes....and once I said that I liked them, she threw them in the cart and said they were an early Valentine gift to me...for my newly painted kitchen! GO MOM! I guess my old cobalt blue dishes (from the early-mid 90s) don't truly go with a terra cotta colored kitchen, right? My new dishes incorporate the color of our dining room (soft yellow) and the kitchen and even the curtains I have up in the dining room and kitchen! I'm so excited!!!!!! While the old dishes are being boxed up to go to Goodwill, and the new dishes have been washed, I'm sure we'll be eating off of paper for awhile...I wouldn't want to chip a new dish! LOL!

Ewwwwwwwwwww

My last 36 hours have consisted of cleaning up puke after puke after puke. Not from the kids...not from myself....from a cat! Which one? Who knows! It only happens when we're out of the house or sleeping. And the litter boxes have been so bad that they can clear a room and I am constantly scooping--I can't even use my own bathroom at times it's so bad...so I called the vet. I collected some UGLY looking "samples" and took them in to find out we have a heavy content of ROUNDWORMS! YUCK! Who is it? Who knows....but they are all getting treated for them.

Not only do I have to watch their boxes and immediately scoop them all weekend, I have to figure out a way to get a syringe of meds down each of them tonight and again in ten days. Aside from that, I have to keep a VERY clean house, wash the bedding, disinfect what I can, AND make sure that the kids are washing their hands even more frequently then they already are. Does anyone want to trade lives with me for this weekend? Anyone? Hello?

A view of the future

Today while Zac and Lillie were running all over the house screaming and playing, Zac continually ticked off Lillie in one manner or another. When I finally got sick of hearing it, I asked him to stop...over and over again. At one point, Lillie walked over to me and said, under her breath, "He's being ANNOYING"! A four your old...calling her big bro annoying....boy, the fun has just begun!

Karate!

Zac is starting a 6 week session of Karate today after school. He's very excited to say the least. He told me yesterday that today he was going to learn how to break a wooden block in half! How's that for a fast learner? White belt to black belt, all in one day! LOL!

Food for thought....

You know there's a problem when the only "worn" spot on the carpet of your bedroom is at the foot of the bed....you know, the spot your son and husband sit in to play XBox and Playstation! Hmmmmmm..........

Request from a bus driver....

If you have a young child that rides the bus, for the love, be at the bus stop waiting for them after school! Heads up, we check our busses for left items, sleeping children, etc, but only once we've pulled back into the bus garage.

Today, I had a sleeping 6 year old on the bus that didn't wake up until I was long done with my route and about 100 yards from the garage. Do you know what time her Mom called in? Right about the time I realized she was still on the bus...about 15 minutes after her stop! Had Mom been waiting for her at the stop, this would not have happened. I guess I don't understand why the parent of a kindergartener would allow their child to walk home alone from the bus stop...but I digress.

Off my soap box....onto dinner!

Change?

Yesterday, I visited a church down the street from us. I have been attending Crossroads for 3 years now, but suddenly, it seems too big. I guess it started when they started changing Kids Club. I had a paid position there and liked being in my one year old room with the sames kids and parents showing up week after week, and the cool gang of volunteers I was lucky to have...we had an awesome time! Then they moved to the new building, changed the structure and I was offered another paid position of "coordinator". Great, fine. Now, we aren't holding weekly meetings and we aren't really a cohesive group any longer and I find myself not wanting to go work at all on Saturdays (strike one!) I have since stepped down for the time being, in search of my "niche".

That said, along comes Christmas. Until my new computer arrived, I had no way of printing things. So when the tickets for the Christmas services were to be downloaded and printed from home, I emailed them to reserve tix for my family, parents and sister. I was told to print them from home, this after I explained that I had no way of printing from my home. Strike two! When I finally called to reserve tickets, I was told they were all gone. REALLY? All those services and not one seat left? Of course, my entire party could go an hour early and stand in line in hopes of getting into service...but I wasn't going to do that, and neither were my kids. I was told by numerous friends after the holiday that there were lots of empty seats in the crowd. Pretty welcoming though, eh?

After said holiday incident, I thought a lot about the church I had come to call home and realized that it felt no more homey to me than Sakes Fifth Avenue would...had I ever ventured in there. I walk into the sea of people and realize that it's sometimes like walking into high school or a fashion show...yes, there are some friendly faces, but it's beginning to feel pretentious, and that's one thing I don't do.

The church I went to yesterday was a Vineyard church, in Milford, and it's TINY! The kids' area was VERY small, but they weren't overrun with kids and no one looked as though they felt left out. When I walked into the building I noticed the coffee station and all the friendly people around it saying hi and such. When I walked into the auditorium, it was so incredibly small...I grew up in a large Catholic church and have been at Crossroads, so anything with less than 500 people is going to be small! The music was wonderful, and message was talking directly to me and the people seemed nice. I am going back this weekend to see what I think and maybe search around the area for a few more to check out, but I think my mind is made up...change, even though I dislike it, looks like it's happening!

Bossy Beans!

Today we have a friend over to play and Lillie has turned into ZAC! Dylan is Lillie's best friend from school, and his "Nana" aka Lillie's bus driver, has watched Lillie on several occasions for me in the mornings, so I told her we would have Dylan over (her grandson who she watches Mon-Fri am) to compensate. Everytime poor Dylan comes over, Bossy Lillie appears. She tells him where he can sit, what he can do, what he CAN'T do, etc etc. I can't believe how bossy she is with him. Zac is like that with her sometimes, and she DESPISES it...so today, after telling Dylan he couldn't sit by her and color like her, I told her this is exactly what she does to her brother, DAILY, and she doesn't like being on the other end of it, so BE NICE!

I can't believe my quiet, shy girlie turns into this monster....I hear her downstairs as I type---"Dylan, get down there and pick that up!"---"Don't"---"No, I don't want you to do that...DYLAN!!!"--WHOA! If only you could hear her...you probably don't believe me, I don't believe it either except I'm seeing and hearing it firsthand. Only 45 minutes until the bus comes....45 minutes til peace and quiet...I can get through it, right?!?!

Sibling love!

Here's a pic taken today of my kiddos! They picked out their own clothes and posed for a picture that we have since framed and decorated for Great Grandma out in Oregon. Her birthday is this weekend and rather than flowers or a gift card, Zac decided he wanted to take his picture and frame it. We picked out adorable stickers and sparkly stones and dressed up the frame a bit with the words, "Hugs to you"---too cute! P.S. Behind the staircase in the picture you can see a bit of orange color....that's my newly painted kitchen--well, it's been two months, but no one except family has seen it! LOL!

Could I be kidding?

As if I could forget the last stupid thing that happened to me in 2006...my $1500 vacuum...my Kirby, DIED! Yes, as Terry took the Christmas tree out and pine needles fell all over my carpet, my Kirby decided it couldn't take it anymore. I plugged it in, started to vacuum, and then, silence. A yank of the cord, a puzzled look and a kick at the on/off button later, it seemed that my Kirby had died. I did the only logical thing I could do...call my Mom and ask sweetly to borrow her, much less expensive, but MUCH better vacuum cleaner...the Dyson. I have found my newest "need". This thing ROCKS!

After pondering how I could "adopt" the Dyson permanently from my parents, my Dad discovered the problem with my own vacuum...a bad cord. Guess I'll be vacuuming with that beast again soon....but oh well, at least I have a new computer to play with! Right?!?

New Year, new computer!

Hey all! Welcome to 2007! And welcome to the Casey household a NEW, totally functional COMPUTER!!!! YAY ME! I went shopping today and refused to come home without a new computer and printer, and by God was it worth it. For now. I have no saved pictures of the kids from the last several years or email addresses off the old onon-functional computer, and am not frantic YET about the pics, but I figure everyone I really talk to via email will eventually email ME, and then I can save their addresses to file.

Last night was a blur of prescrition meds (I'm on a Z pack...nothing bad like what you're thinking!) and Corona, and of course, E!TV. Terry and I put the kids to bed, drank a few Coronas and watched E! which had the worst 100 celebrity goofs (or something like that!)--then we regretfully watched Dick Clark countdown to midnight, lacking a few seconds behind real life....it was awful, sad. Terry and I were in shock over how much he had lost to his stroke...realizing we would never again have Rockin' New Years Eve as we had in the past with ol' Dick Clark.

That said, I'm off to get BACK into my pajamas with the rest of my family and hog the new computer! HAPPY 2007!!!!!!!!!11