School Partay!

Today is the kids' Halloween parties at school because tomorrow they have a day off. Something about a teacher work day...they haven't been since early October, nor will be, at a full week of school until after Thanksgiving. Grr. Anyways, I watch Steve in the morning, so here are all three of them, ready to head out the door.


Steven is an army guy, Jackson is Peyton Manning, and can anyone guess who Delaney is??? I'm doubting anyone will know her costume, but she's pretty thrilled with it, so that's all that matters!


Also, I made these cute Oreo pops for Jackson's class party. They are FAR from perfect, but I'm pretty happy with them nonetheless.


Poor Addie. She had to dress up for school today, too, but I'm the room parent in Jackson's room and I had a lot of errands to run this morning, so I didn't get a picture of her before school. I will do better when I pick her up!

Windy City

Chicago has been living up to it's name today. This morning at 6:45 I was lying in bed watching TV. We are having all sorts of crazy wind advisories and the house was shaking like a train was passing through the backyard. All of the sudden, something went whizzing by my bedroom window. I jumped out of bed to see what it was, shocked something was up that high, since we are on the second floor. I got to the window just in time to see the trampoline do this to the fence:


Jeff had just walked in the door from seminary, so I yelled to him to run out to get it. I was sure the next stop for our trampoline was our backyard neighbor's family room windows.

Here's our trampoline after it's trip through the fence, into the neighbor's yard. It's taking a time-out in the garage.


What a bummer all around. Thankfully we have an extra section of fencing. I knew we were supposed to have all this crazy wind today, so at 11 last night, Jeff went out to pull the tramp close to the house. I guess that didn't make a bit of difference.

We have a wind advisory until 7 pm tomorrow night. It's so windy, it knocks Addison down if she's walking without holding my hand. One of our neighbors lost their glass patio table. The wind just picked it up and it shattered everywhere. Gotta love our windy city!!

Booed

There's a tradition in the suburbs. One I hadn't encountered until the first year we lived in our current home. It's called "booing" and magically one day a cute Halloween bucket/bag shows up on our darkened doorstep, filled with fun Halloween treats. Candy, toys and trinkets. It also contains instructions to "pay it forward" and do the same to two other homes. We also have to hang the provided sign in our front window, so we won't get booed again. Pretty soon, every house on the block has a ghost in the front window.

This year was no different. About a week ago, the doorbell rang after dark, the kids ran to answer it, and there on the porch was a bag full of goodies, instructions, and our ghost. We dutifully hung it in the front window:


Tonight we got home from dinner to find this on the front stoop:


This has to be my favorite "booing" of all time.

First of all, I love a homemade gift. I love the homemade, non commercial feel to this whole presentation.

Secondly, I'm loving the treats. A container of pretzels and cheese, a box of raisins, and a wrinkly pack of fruit snacks that have clearly been at the bottom of mom's purse for at least a month. I agree - who needs sugar when you can have a more sensible snack?

Third, the smiley faces at the top of the paper seem to be happy that we've been booed. However, the faces at the bottom of the paper seem torn about the situation. One face seems rather "meh" about it, another is frowning, and I'm pretty sure the face at the bottom is mocking us.

Fourth, I love the total disregard for the little ghost in our front window. Actually, come to think of it, I'm guessing that's why the bottom half of our note is so disappointed...

This has had me giggling all night. It's often the less perfect, less polished things that are the most fun.

Skeletons

One of my Laurels brought me a plate of these tonight:

I asked her where she'd gotten the idea, and she said she'd come up with it on her own. They're so darling...I've been tickled all night by them. I told her I was taking a picture and sending it in to Family Fun magazine. And, they're a really yummy, soft gingerbread recipe.

I suppose there are perks to spending so much time with the youth!

Friday Night

Eighteen pairs of shoes...

plus 7 pizzas...
plus 143 "Fun Size" pieces of candy...
plus 24 water bottles...
plus 12 bags of microwave popcorn...
plus "The Karate Kid"...


equals one successful Friday night.

Homecoming Week, part 3

there are 4 more prescriptions and 2 more hospital bands, not pictured

Last Sunday I woke up at 5:30 am feeling not quite right. I went to the bathroom, but it didn't help matters, so I got back in bed, feeling yucky until 6:45 when Addie woke up. At that point Jeff woke up too. Anyone who knows Jeff well, knows he thinks Pepto Bismol solves everything. I, however, can't stand the stuff and will do anything not to have to take it. However, because I was feeling crummy enough, I relented and Jeff brought me some. Right about that time, my back started killing me. And once that started, the nausea was overwhelming, so about 15 minutes after I took the Pepto, I threw it all back up. (Ask me how much I like Pepto now - going down is terrible, but coming back up is about 10 times worse!)

By 8:00 am the neighbor was on her way over and Jeff and I were on our way to the ER. After googling everything from kidney infections, to gallbladder attacks, to appendicitis, we were pretty confident I had a kidney stone. Thankfully the ER was a ghost town and got us right in. Once I had an IV of pain meds and anti-nausea medicine running through my veins, I was good to go. A CAT scan confirmed I had two kidney stones and one was well on it's way out of my kidney and the other was just hanging out in my kidney. The one making it's exit was the biggest one and the one causing me problems. By noon I was feeling great (with my pain level at a zero) and we left with about 4 prescriptions and hit the Target Pharmacy on the way home.

Fast forward 4 hours and I was once again writhing in pain. None of the prescriptions were working and I'd taken all of them. I was determined to wait it out though, because the CAT scan tech had told me the ER is crazy on a Sunday from 11-7. No way did I want to go wait in a waiting room, writhing in pain. However, about 5:30 the nausea came back. This made things more complicated because there's only one way for those stones to come out, and if I couldn't keep down any liquids, those stones were going to make a permanent home in my Ureter.

So, by 6 we make the walk of shame, back into the ER. Luckily the nurse from that morning was at the front desk, and she got us right back. More IV meds brought relief from the pain, but the nausea would not go away. And, if there's another thing you need to know about Jeff, he is worthless when anyone throws up. Every time I said I was going to throw up, he would dart out of the room, with his tail on fire, looking for a nurse. Somewhere around 8:30 they took pity on me and decided to admit me to the hospital.

By the next morning, I was really in no better shape than the night before. My nausea and pain was only controlled by IV meds. My mom called that morning, mad at us both that we hadn't called the night before. She was insistent that she come to help, but I knew it was only a matter of hours before it was all over. Once she realized that helping would be combined with seeing Delaney in all her princess glory, she was firm in her decision and was on a flight that afternoon. I spent most of the day in misery. At one point, the pain was so white-hot, it was agony! However, shortly thereafter, it all magically disappeared! Suddenly I felt like eating (when I hadn't eaten in 2 days) and the worst was passed. I checked out of the hospital by 7:30 pm, armed with a whole bunch more prescriptions, and was thrilled to see Mom by 10pm.

Tuesday was a very laid back day and Wednesday I had to pull it together enough to get Delaney to the parade. By Thursday I thought I should be feeling great, but all day long my kidney was bugging me. Again, no pain meds were working and by that night, I was in serious pain again. So, what's a girl to do? That's right...go right back to the hospital. At this point I was so embarrassed. I was doing my best to convince them I'm not some pill pusher out for a high with any meds I can sucker a doctor into giving me. Although every nurse, doctor, PA and tech felt the need to ask, "You've been here HOW MANY times this week???"

However, after another round of IV meds and anti-nausea drugs, an x-ray to determine this was stone #2 exiting my kidney, we were good to go. However, I had serious reservations about leaving again. I knew, for sure, in the middle of the night, I was going to be back. The doctor had to explain to me, twice, that he was giving me a new prescription that he was sure would work. I left very skeptical, sure I would see them in 4 hours time. So, we run by Walgreen's Pharmacy (the only one open at midnight), get home and fall into bed.

The next thing I know...it's 6:30am. I'd made it the whole way through the night! The new meds actually worked! They worked well enough that I was able to make it to the football game that night. I will post about the football game soon.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my first drug-free day since the Sunday before. And I finally feel normal. No pain, no drug-induced fog or lightheadedness.

It's good to be back.

Homecoming Week, part 2

This past week was Spirit Week at the kid's school, in celebration of Homecoming week. Jackson and D had to dress up differently every day, and though we didn't get pictures every day, I thought I'd recap the week:

Monday was "Grizzly Day". Their school mascot is a Grizzly bear and their school colors are blue and yellow. So they had to dress in school colors. A few years back, Jackson won a Grizzly basket at the school fun fair so we have plenty of Grizzly Gear to go around.

Tuesday was "Twisted Tuesday". They were supposed to dress as wacky as they wanted. For Jackson, this meant spray painting his hair and wearing his shirt backwards and inside out.


Delaney took it to a whole other level.




Wednesday was "Wild Wild West Wednesday". Thanks to Halloween 2009, we had that one in the bag. Unfortunately, Jackson's cowboy boots don't fit anymore, but other than that, they were dressed the part!


Thursday was "Tuck Me In Thursday" and they were able to wear their favorite pjs to school. Jackson had a pair of NFL pj pants he wore with a Bears t-shirt and Delaney wore a pair of Valentines pjs. I had bought them last year when she was supposed to wear pjs on Valentines Day. Coincidentally, another little girl in her class had the same ones on, and this year they are in the same class again, so they matched again. It's funny to me how much Delaney is growing up - in order to make sure she and Madelyn matched again this year, she passed Madelyn a note at school about it, and then made sure I'd call Madelyn's mom on Wednesday night, as a reminder. This reminds me so much of something I'd do when I was younger. I absolutely remember wanting to match clothes with my friends!

Friday was "Bulldog Day" when they were supposed to dress in red and yellow - the High School colors. Jackson plays football in our town league, and their jerseys match the high school jersey's. So, on Friday he wore his one from this year, and Delaney wore his from last year. It was cute to see her in his jersey.

All in all it was a fun spirit week. However, I'm sure it's more work for the parents than it actually ends up being fun for the kids!