GROUNDED :-(

I have grounded myself from the computer until my basement is organized and my laundry is caught up.  So, my dear friends and family....  fair well, ....  I hope it won't be long, but it doesn't look good.  It will rain all week, so that will help me stay home and focused.

For me, busy = good

I seem to be happiest when I am busy, I enjoy my children more when we are out and about rather then in our home.  I also like to go out and forget the messes and chores that await me at home.  On Thursday the kids had the day off school for a teacher development day, and so I cooked up a plan for the whole day.  We started off with a trip to the gym because I teach on Thursday mornings.  My kids love going to the gym, even though they fight getting pulled away from their snuggley morning cartoons in PJ's, they always have an excellent time.  While there they not only got to do a craft but they also got to get their faces painted.  They loved that.  Then we headed over to the park with our lunch that I had packed before the gym.  I had also called a few friends, and invited some at the gym, so that each of my kids would have a few friends to play with while at the park.  We were so happy as each friend arrived, they had such a good time having lunch and exploring the park, playing tag and hide and go seek together.  It was SO much fun!  After the park, I took the kids to Royal Farms for a slurppie, which they LOVED!!  Then we headed home for Katie's nap, which was cut short by a change in plans.  Liza has piano lessons on Thursdays, and we were planning to go with the Jensens to Lifetime Fitness for open swim after lessons.  We were invited to do piano lessons a little early and then head have dinner with Jensen's and then go swimming.  So we went with that plan and were at the pool by 6pm for a swim.  After swimming I was ready with shampoo and soap and PJ's so they were all ready for bed as we left the gym.  OF COURSE they were all STARVING as we left so I went through the drive through and bought them each a small fry.  They munched all the way home, brushed their teeth and went to bed.  Phew, what a day, but what fun we had!

Today was all scheduled out too.  I had agreed to help with Liza's field trip today to the Howard County Conservatory.  I love doing Field Trips for the older kids, it is so much more relaxing then field trips with little ones.  I always take my camera and talk photography with a Craig (Lindsey's dad, who goes on every field trip).  I get to take a little time on every trip to take some photos.

The kids got to play a game in the field that was basically the circle of life, where 1/2 of them were deer and the other half resources, and they had to turn their backs to each other, and then pic what they needed (deer), or what they were (resources) then they turned around and had to find each other, if a deer was left w/o a resource they had to die, and then turn into a resource, and the resources who did get used got to become deer.  It was interesting to see the surge in populations that caused lack of resources.  What a fun way to teach the concept.  Here they are dying all over the place...
Then they got to go and pull up weeds and talk about soil and planting... here are some pics of the gardening gals...

Then we went on a nature walk, where 3 out of the 6 girls in my group did nothing but complain the whole time and walked looking down at their feet and missed a fox hole, a carcass, a red tail hawk, and I am sure a lot if flowers and other wild life.  It was really too bad that they chose to miss out.  I was just glad that Liza wasn't in on the complaining and she really enjoyed herself.  

I got home from the field trip in time to prep for hosting babysitting Co Op tonight.  I got these great paint your own pots at Christmas Tree Shop  for $.50 each!  They came with their own little pots of paint and a brush.  The kids had a blast with these and spent 30-45 minutes painting them.  They loved it!

Then while the paint dried we had Dirt and worms for snack. The kids loved this and thought that the worms were really cool...I had to post this one of Micah, isn't it SO funny.   



Then after the paint dried the kids got to fill their planter with dirt and poke holes for daisy seeds.  They got to take 3 pinches of daisy seeds each and then they got to water their little seeds.  Everyone loved it, and to my surprise the little girls were rather jealous.  I thought they wouldn't care much and would be easily distracted.  They weren't throwing fits or anything, but you could tell that they knew they got left out :-(  Sorry girls.  Next time I will count you as big kids.

What a fun day.. and tomorrow is the nearly new sale!!! OOoooh so fun!  I have to be up early, so I better go.  :-)

Ambers shower

On tuesday night we had a baby shower for Amber here at our place.  Wow what a turn out, I was surprised by how many wonderful friends came, and was sad to realize that my house isn't quite big enough to have us all sit down together.  It was a fun time anyway.  Scarlett brought this beautiful cake....
This was my favorite decoration, I thought it was so cute.
Christina prepared the games and only got to fit in 2 of the 3 games because everyone was just enjoying visiting.

I love to host parties, cuz then I get to make all my favorite snacky foods that I usually don't get to eat.  I made my 3 favorite dips, so although the food was generally "dippy" It was yummmm.  

I had to post a picture of the cute beaded toothpicks that I used to make these SO yummy fruit kabobs.  (I got them at Christmas tree shop.... oh how I love that place)  

It was such a wonderful time, thank you to all who came and made Amber and Addy's night such a success.  Amber was so happy, and tickled by all the beautifully girly clothes.  We live in such a great ward, there is so much support and kindness!!  It truly is like a family.

Where's Sue Sue?

We play a little game around here with Katie at nap time and bed time, nothing fancy, we just call out for sue sue (in Canada we call a pacifier, a soother, hence the name sue sue).  "Oh sue sue, where are you?"  (it was especially cute when she first started talking, she would put the whole sentence together. )  So last night Brent was putting Katie to bed and they were searching all over for sue sue.  "Oh sue sue....."  they couldn't find one.  Brent put Katie in her bed and said "Katie, what are we going to do?  We can't find sue sue."  She pointed to the corner of her bed and said "'ere it is!" Brent moved a few things and looked around where she was pointing and said "I don't see it Katie, where is it?" and Katie said "I kidding daddy!"  Brent laughed and came down and told me about it, I told him where one was, he went back up stairs to give it to her, and when she saw him she said "I gotchew daddy."  and grinned.  What a ham.  She is such a fun girl.

How in the world did we ever survive ???

Today Liza was practicing piano in the living room and Alex wanted to watch TV,  I told him to go down stairs and watch the big screen.  He moaned and whined "awwww, but then I have to watch what ever is on."  (The TIVO is on the TV in the living room, so he would have had to watch live TV!?!?!?! HEAVEN FOR BID!) 

How on earth did we ever survive not knowing how that "little house on the prairie" ended when we had to go eat dinner and couldn't pause it??  What about our parents?  How did they put us to bed in the middle of the hockey game with out the ability to pause the TV while they did it?  We are so spoiled, it worries me that our children are going to be missing the ability to let things go.  That this will effect how they function in society.   They absolutely die when I ask them to turn off live TV, it is so bad.  

I also wanted to take a moment and clear the air regarding the Ice Cream Man.   I despise the sound of his little song coming up the street just as much as each of you!  There were so many comments on what a nice mom I am for letting them experience this wonderful part of childhood.  I want you all to know that had Grandma not left money with the specific instruction on where to spend it, the visit wouldn't have ever happened.  My kids have been to the ice cream truck before, but never with MY money.  They ALWAYS have to have their own money, that they earned and saved.  I also OH SO GRATEFUL that my mom saw fit to trigger the pavlovian response in my children right at the first signs of summer so that i get to hear about the stupid truck ALL summer.  I also am grateful that Katie (who doesn't seem to understand the word "NO") also knows now that the wonderful man gives out ice cream in the shape of her favorite character in the whole wide world.  SO, as much as I love the fact that you all think I am such a nice mommy, I couldn't live with it any longer, ah, such a weight has been lifted, and now you all know that I am on your side.  I have been known to say to neighbors and friends "no, don't buy ice cream from the ice cream truck, it's like feeding a stray cat, he will just keep coming back to our street, and coming back to our street looking for $!! "  No I have fed the cat, and will pay the price for months to come.  :-(  Oh well, we did get some nice pictures, and the kids really were extremely happy!  It was a very nice night where no one was complaining... kind of like a "disney moment", but much shorter and only in my back yard. 

I better go clean up the mess we've made today.  

The Great Exchange

Today I did what I like to call the Great Clothing Exchange.  

It is quite the chore to switch seasons around when you have 4 very spoiled children.  We are SO blessed to have so

 many choices of things to wear..... I just have to keep thinking that as I wade through piles and piles of clothes for my kids.  It was time to change them as I kept finding Alex in a big heavy sweater every morning, and yesterday Liza was spotted wearing a pair of jeans rolled up as capris and a long sleeved winter themed shirt with the arms pushed up to resemble a short sleeve shirt.  

I had to share a funny story of Katie at Church today.  My normal way of communicating with the kids at church is by snapping.  If they are being loud, one snap in your direction means trouble.  The kids know it an apparently Katie is starting to get it too.  Alex was being extremely animated in his disappointment over not getting a sucker like Katie.  To which he got a "snap" from me to tell him to smarten up.  Katie turned to him and pointed he fingers at him, switched them a bit and made a very distinct clicking sound with her tongue.  It was SO funny that even Alex perked up for a minute.  :-)  So funny.

So obviously the synthroid is kicking in already.  Feeling a whole lot better.  Not 100%, but wow, what a difference.  For the first time in 3 or more months, I woke up this morning feeling as though I had slept.  :-)  So wonderful!  

As of 12:30am the exchange for the kiddos is almost complete.  My clothes are in my room, but Brent has been in there sleeping, so I haven't gotten mine done yet.  Next on the list is Ambers shower, I am actually glad that the forecast for the next few days is for rain.... I will be forced to stay home and pick up my house and get ready for guests on Tuesday night.  Ah, what fun!

Another of My life's songs.

I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC.  This song is a good reason why.  I heard this song while driving in my van with Tori yelling stuff at me and Katie crying.  If you can believe it, I heard enough of it to know that I wanted to look it up when I got home, and sure enough, I love it.  I have posted before how I struggle with living for today instead of living for tomorrow.  I have always wanted to be one step ahead of where I am.  I am getting better at it, but this song says it all.  Well not quite all.  I do wish it had like 4 more verses that tells me where I will be in 50 years, instead of ending where I am today, but maybe that is the point, maybe this living for tomorrow ends today.  :-)  I'll try

YOU'RE GONNA MISS THIS

(Trace Adkins)

She was starin' out the window of that SUV

Complainin' sayin' I can't wait to turn 18

She said I'll make my own money and I'll make my own roots

Mama put the car in park out there in front of the school

and she kissed her head and said I was just like you

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

Before she  knows it she's a brand new bride

In her one bedroom apartment and her daddy stops by

He tells her it's a nice place, she says,  it'll do for now

Starts talkin' about babies and buyin' a house

Daddy shakes his face and says Baby just slow down

Cuz you're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times so take a good look around

You may not know it now but you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plummer workin' on the water heater,

Dog's barkin' phones ringin' one kid's cryin' the other kid's screamin',

And she keeps apologizing, he says they don't bother me I got 2 babies of my own 

one's 36 one's 23 it's hard to believe

But you're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times so take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

You're gonna miss this

Yeah, you're gonna miss this.

A day at the park

Although I complain of being too tired all the time.  I have no trouble finding the energy to pack up some kids and my camera and take some pictures!  I was however a VERY lazy photographer and sat on my bum under a tree and snapped pictures only of who ever came by.  Above: Maryelle picking blossoms off the trees.

 Taylor, what a sweet baby.

Blossoms from some tree, I have no idea what.
The girls said that she looks like a bride in this picture.  I thought that was funny. 
Two sweet new subjects for me.  Aww, so pretty
I can't believe I even got sweet Sadie to smile. :-)
When I got home and loaded the photos Tori was completely jealous!  "Why did you take a picture of her and not me???? "  Oh the horror!  She was so offended that the camera was out and completely missed her.  I too am a little sad that I didn't get pictures of my girls cuz I even put bows in their hair today. (that is not normal around here, but I was wrapping a gift last night using all that ribbon from the outlet and so it was left out this morning).  Maybe later.

Hooray!

Yesterday I went to the Dr for a follow up visit about my blood work.  7 weeks ago when I was having all the CT scans etc done I had blood work come back showing trouble with my Thyroid.  Dr wanted me to wait 6-8 weeks and draw blood again to check and see if it was still off.  Last week I went in and had the blood drawn, and the results came back that I have Hypothyroidism.  This is why I've been so draggy, tired and have had NO energy!  It also explains the extra 10 lbs, among other things.  Today I went to the pharmacy and picked up my prescription and I get to start taking the medication tonight.  Apparently it takes some time to get the levels worked out, but I am so happy to be headed down the road to more energy.  I am such a "goer" that it drives me nuts to not have the energy to even keep my house clean. 

The weather has been so beautiful around here that it has been a real boost, we went to the park yesterday and took Natalia with us, we also met Eli there, so it was much fun for Tori!  I however could hardly stay awake enough to watch the girls.  I just wanted to crawl in my bed.  It was very frustrating as I wanted to enjoy the day.   I am eager for my clean house and hope that I become just a little bit less grumpy.  :-) 

Ice Scream

One of the things that my mom is known for amongst my children is her love for ice cream.  They talk about the time that she game them ice cream for breakfast, and how she always gives them ice cream after meals all the time.  They even go so far as to imitate her voice when ever they say ICE CREAM while talking about Grandma Tiffany.  While my mom was here Alex was determined that the ice cream truck would come, and he had his $2 in his sweaty little palm while he sat by the door for hours watching for the truck. It never came, grandma even sent me out to buy some novelty ice cream to appease the poor boy, which he ate, but remained pretty determined that he would have ice cream from the truck.  When grandma left, she left a wad of cash that was designated as "Ice Cream Truck Money", and it stayed where grandma left it until last Saturday...........

In the distance Alex heard the faintest sound,  "OH COULD IT BE???"  Indeed, it was HE!!!  Excitement surged through the house as children raced up and down stairs grabbing money and shoes.  You would think that it was a movie star, or Santa Clause that was on their way!!!! As the music got louder and clearer, the excitement rose.  Emotions flaring as one shoe was missing...... oh no, would we miss him????  We all know that the ice cream truck travels at MACH speeds, and will not stop if he sees children running behind him waving cash!  (LOL!!! the stress was hilarious!) 

We caught him though as he made his stop right across the street from the house.  Oh, but then there was a very important decision to be made....  Which novelty ice cream bar would they choose.  The excitement speeded the process, and choices were made rather quickly.  A Dora Ice Cream bar for Katie, a Sponge Bob one for Tori and Alex, and Liza (being old enough to out smart the situation) took her $2 and purchased 2 $1 ice cream bars, one for now and one for later (THAT'S MY GIRL!!!).

 Ahhhhh, the Day had finally come.

Daddy held open the door as 4 absolutely giddy children marched into the house, and through to the back door.  Out on the deck they opened their treasures, wrappers flying about as the talk of the wonderful experience flooded the yard!  

Katie was absolutely beside herself with excitement, as she repeated over and over "Dora Ice Cream, Dora Ice Cream."  She could hardly conceive that such a wonderful thing could exist!  How could life be so Grand?!? 

Unlocked

So after much debate with in myself, I have decided to go public.  Thats right folks, put us on your "Google reader" or what ever you use.  I never used a service like this until recently and realized just how convenient it is.  I apologize to each of you for being such a pain in the bum, and taking so long to come around.  :-)  I hope no creepy people read, and more then that.....  that some CRAZY ex girlfriend of Brent's doesn't come pokin around.  :-)  LOL!!!!!!!  

Bitter Sweet

So lately I've been sulking around as my sweet husband is on SICU(surgical Intensive Care Unit), which means essentially he works all the time, and is on call (which means staying overnight at the hospital, not sleeping at all and pulling 30 plus hours) every 4 days.  He is typically working 80 hours or more a week, and lots of weekends and evenings alone.  This time hasn't been as bad as last October, but it still stinks.   Through our 13 years together we have had a lot of missed events and holidays due to concerts (Brent put himself through undergrad playing the French Horn for the Universities Symphony's) Concerts are usually held on holidays for the listening pleasures of Valentines etc.  Then missed events and holidays due to testing, military training (taking him out of town for 6 weeks at a time) and now call schedules.  I have let a lot of this roll off my back as I know that "our day will come".  But most recently we missed (yet another) ward activity that I really didn't want to miss.  I love my ward out here and I am so close with ALOT of the sisters.  The activities committee planed a high school reunion dance.  Everyone dance all night to U2, Journey and Erasure, and dressed up in garb and hair styles of their generation.  :-(  Oh I SO wanted to go, and SO feel ripped off for missing it.  Then just to sour the pot a bit more I was informed just hours after Brent put in his schedule request for may that the Stake annual dance  The Rose Ball,  is the weekend that I told him to go ahead and take call.  GRRRRRRR!  The first year we were here, we were in the hospital having Katie, the second year our baby sitter copped out on us, and now, stupid work.

So I've been hating this silly life we have chosen, so now for the sweet.

MY SWEET HUSBAND WAS NAMED CHEIF THIS WEEK.  Yup, that is good.  He is one of 3 cheif"s of residents.  Mostly for us, this means that he has a bit more pull on the schedule.  He will get to work a bit more and have to cover flaky peoples shifts, but once again........ SOMEDAY, it will look really good on a resume.  It seems that our whole life is about SOMEDAY.  I really try to enjoy where we are at, but it is sometimes hard to do when most of the positives are in the pay offs after you suffer through medical school and residency.   But as my sister (my wise wise sister) who is 2 years ahead of me in  pretty much everything that I do (including kids and husbands career choice) has pointed out, this is our year of lasts here in Maryland...... Our last year to go to all those annual things that you take advantage of while you live somewhere.  Our last chance to visit those sites, and see all that we need to take in, cuz who knows where we will be next year at this time.  Anyway, I am done rambling, I have a kid with a dirty diaper, 6:06pm and no dinner and I think I am going to recipe swap in 45 min, and I am blogging????  PRIORITIES???  LOL!!!

What's in a name Meme

1. Your rock star name: (first pet, current car)

Licorice Van (licorice van what?  sounds like it's missing something)

2. Your Gangsta name: (Fave icecream, fav type of shoe)

Brownie Boots (ooooh, look out!)

3. Your Native American name: (fav color, fav animal)

Pink Dog (humm?)

4. Your Soap Opera name: (Middle name, city where you were born)

Kay Calgary (that sounds like a Soap name)

5. Your Star Wars Name: (The first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name)

Walch (sure)

6. Your Super Hero name: (2nd Fav color, fav drink)

Purple Water (doesn't sound very super)

7.NASCAR name: (the first names of your grandfathers)

Jack Charles  (sounds like Nascar dude)

8. Stripper name: (first pet, home town)

Licorice Sundance (I used the little community that I grew up in rather then the city name)

9. TV weather anchor name: (5th grade teachers last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)

(I don't remember my 5th grade teachers name.)

10. Spy Name (your fav season/holiday, flower)

Spring Lilly

11.  Cartoon Name (fav fruit, article of clothing you're wearing right now)

Strawberry Socks

GREAT SONG

Check out this song on U tube.  "they" say these boys are highschool seniors.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD_ibxy270Q

SO good

Another one bites the dust!

And another ones gone........  Katie is out now.  It is 10:30 am  and my baby is still in bed.  She woke about 6:45am fussy and disoriented, brought her in my bed where she slept until 8, when she woke up and rocked with me and slept until 9, then I put her back in her bed and she's been there for another 90 minutes.  Poor baby!  Oh dear, when will it ever end????

A bit more from DC

 "Monument In Spring."

"Look Where?"

I have the hardest time Photographing Eli.  I don't know why, the boy just has absolutely no interest in me or my camera.

"Best Buds!"

At the end of our little trip both kids thanked us for taking them on the "MET ER ROW" forget DC, and those silly trees, how much fun was that train ride eh?

"Windy and Restless"

ah, dreams of beautiful shots with the wee ones, but kiddos wouldn't have it, nor would the wind. 

"Linclon Blossoms"

MMM, doesn't that water look so clean and beautiful.  Gee, I wish i knew how to photoshop pukey gray green into blue.  :-)  Oh well.  America the Beautiful.  :-)

Longest Down

One Cup of soup, that is all I have eaten in over 80 hours.  I got the flu, boy did I get the flu.  I don't go down very easily, but this one knocked me on my butt!  Thank heavens it happened on a weekend where Brent was post call Friday, home Sat and Sunday!  I got a sub for water aerobics today, but Brent is on call today, so we'll see how I do.  I hope that as I begin to eat a bit more, I will stop feeling like I am going to pass out.  ARG, I hate not being able to do what I always do!  Just thought I would put out there where the heck I've been for the past 5 days!

Cherry blossoms

Christina and I went into DC yesterday to see the blossoms. Here are some (I have more) of the pictures. It was so pretty, just wish that everyone else would go home and let me have them all to myself. :-) It was a quick trip, but fun.

Up Close

This tree perched up there against that perfect blue sky, begging for me to photograph it.

Love this one, will love it more when I figure out how to PS the sign and the people out of the bottom right side.

Kind of a silly face.  But So pretty

"No One Else In The World"

I have no idea who these people are... but the picture was too nice to resists.  They look so peaceful on their lunch break.

Sickies for Grandma.

Well, my mom arrived on Monday night, and was greeted by Tori in the outfit of the previous post.  She was also greeted by strep exposure.  We have since had a sick kid nearly every day!  Why now I ask?  Why now?  I guess, on the positive side, my house is looking pretty good today because we have all been home watching TONS of TV.  

On Tuesday Liza came home from school with a fever and a bad cough.   The school nurse called me on my cell phone just as my mom and I were about to walk into Arundel Mills Mall.  Luckily Brent was Post Call and still up, so he went and got her and they both went to bed.  My mom and I were able to get in some shoe shopping before Tori's illness set in.  My mom calls the Arundel Mills Mall the shoe mall, and she looks forward to shopping this mall every time she comes, so we did as much shoe shopping as we could.  I picked up this cute pair at Skechers. 

I love a new pair of shoes, but I am quite particular when it comes to shoes, so it is not an easy thing for me to find them.  I usually only buy things on sale, and the ones that I get on sale have to jump out at me and shout "Aren't I cute!"  Rarely do sale shoes do that.  These little shoes were not on sale, but I couldn't resist.  
Wednesday during the day I took my mom up to Lancaster, we went to some of the little shop, looked at a few quilts, bought some woopie pies and fudge and had a little lunch.

It was a nice day, I wish we could have had more time up there, but we had to hurry home to pick up the school aged kids.  We went for a walk to Lake Elkhorn after school, I got to snap a few shots along the way

It was fun to have someone with me so that I could really think about what I was shooting, instead of who my kids were bugging.  I took a few flower shots too, but I will save those for another time.   We stopped at the park to play for a while.  I had fun taking pictures till my battery died just as my light got good!  GRRRR 

This is where Tori got sick, she was having a great time on the swing, then got off and threw up, and then started her fever... and by Thursday afternoon she looked like this....

Her face was all swollen, it was so sad :-( We took her to Night time Pediatrics and they said it was an ear infection ( I asked if this was common, to have a face swell up when they have an ear infection... she said yes, but later my pediatrician said that she has never seen that.)  her strep test came back clear so we dodged that one, but she was put on Amoxicillin anyway for the ear, so between the two girls I was dosing out 5 1/2 Tsp of the stuff a day! I was kind of crazy.  So on Thursday my mom was going to come to my Water Aerobics Class, (she has never seen me teach), but instead she stayed home with sick Tori.  Thursday and Friday were pretty slow, but I did get a lot of picking up done, and my mom helped with a whole lot of laundry.   It is always nice to have another woman around who can see with out being told exactly what needs to be done.  She was so helpful and made this bout of illness not so terrible.   I also got to take some time and go over to Jeri's and have a little photo shoot with her tiny tiny Simone.  It was so fun, even though that little stinker wouldn't curl for us.  I don't think we got the room warm enough for her, so she was a little fussy and she is such a stretchy baby, she sure likes those legs straight!  Here are a couple of my favorites from the shoot.  I hope that my sweet friend will share her adorable subject with me again sometime.

On Saturday my mom and I took the kids to the Science Center in Baltimore.  My kids adore this place every time we go.  I always worry as we are leaving that they will be tired of what is there, but we always leave wishing that we could stay longer.   When we got home we ditched the dirty, hungry kids on my sweet hubby, and headed for the mall.  Although we were hungry, we knew that eating establishments would be open long after the mall closed, so we shopped on.  I was in hot pursuit of a new purse, as I have been for quite sometime.  I was ready for my FINAL graduation from diaper bag to purse!!!  I wanted a cute purse that was fun, but not tacky, that was big enough for a diaper and wipes and my wallet, and maybe some dum dum's and fruit snacks.  You know, just the essentials.  After a lot of shopping, and just as I began to wonder if purses jump out at you like shoes do, I found this little number.....

Isn't she cute?  Ah, yes, the search is over, the diaper bag is unloaded, and the purse is now active.  How wonderful.  I can't even explain the high I get off of this!   It makes me so happy, it truly felt like a graduation day!  

On Sunday we did church and had a nice relaxing Sunday.  I planned on taking some pictures of my mom with the kids.  When Shirley passed away I regretted not taking more pictures of my kids with her.  I always take pictures with Great Grandmas and Grandpas, because you know the clock is ticking, but I have never been very good with pictures of the kids with Grandparents.  And I dropped the ball again.  DANG!  I wanted pictures, but forgot.  After a wonderful (LONG) game of YATZIE  where Katie rolled a Yatzie for Grandma, the kids hugged and kissed Grandma good bye, and everyone was off to bed.   As Brent drove my mom the the airport early Monday morning, she was coughing all the way, and said that she coughed the whole way home on the plane.  (I wonder where she could have gotten sick????)  

Monday afternoon Liza came home with a wicked Rash all over her body.  Dr said that it could have been a reaction to the Amoxicillin and told us to take her off of it since it had already been 7 days.  We did so, and 24 hours later the rash is worse and she is starting to get worried that she is going to turn into a tomato.  (those are her words).

 Poor Girl :-(.
Update..... This morning 4/2. it is looking better.