Behind already?

I have been thinking of blogging all week, so now you get a doozie of a blog.  Last Sunday as I was waiting for Brent to come home from his Home Teaching I took some quick shots with different kinds of light.  It had been a long time since I took special care and effort to use light from the windows.  (I usually do this kind of photography through the winter months)  

This picture was my favorite of the bunch.  I just love that Tori loves to be photographed.  She is so fun to work with.

After taking a few pictures we went to have desert with the Suttons.  We had a wonderful sunday evening with them.  I always leave their house wondering why we don't get together with them more often.  :-)  Thomas let us in on some Army in's and outs that will save us some time and money, so we sure were grateful for that.   That night is when it hit me that Brad (Brents Brother) and his wife Jodilyn and their 3 children were going to be here in 9 days!  Oh dear!!  Wait a minute, I am SO not ready to have company!!!   So this week flew by as I worked on all the little things that need to be done just so that our dear family will have a place to hang their hats and rest their heads.  :-)  We are so excited for their visit, I just hope they don't feel too tight in our home that needs to be dejunked.  :-) 

Monday I taught water aerobics in the morning and then I got to be the Co Op parent at Tori's school.  We had a fun day talking about leaves and playing a fun little game called "Golden Apple".  We even went on a little leaf hunt.  We sure are grateful for East Columbia Preschool and Miss Kelly.  She is a wonderful teacher, both Tori and Alex got to be in her class.

On Tuesday the kids were off school for a jewish holiday, so we spent the morning here at home with Liza teaching a mini class on "how to use up an entire roll of masking tape".

The ENTIRE house was taped off like this.....  These places marked where people should and should not play.  There were tape triangles in front of the TV's, a nice wide circle around my Lazy Boy and Piano.  There were limits on the new furniture too.  (oh yeah, I forgot to blog about the new furniture)  That's another day.  :-)

It was quite a day.  We headed off to Chuck E Cheese's for a birthday party.  It was one of Tori's friends from church,  Selina.  All the kid's were welcome to come and party.  They all had a wonderful time and got to come home with their token penny prizes that are eaten, broken or are lost in 24 hours.  :-)  What fun times!  We jetted out of there to take Liza and Alex to their "well child visits".  I love our pediatrician, she is wonderful, she has a few little ones herself and therefor doesn't work full time.  She is not an easy woman to get an appointment with.  These appointments were scheduled 3 months ago.  We drove there from Chuck E's and I thought I could make a little short cut to the Dr's office.  Yes, you've heard this one before..... my short cut led to me being WAY too far south of my destination, with no map and no GPS.  So I had to use my "christina".  I called her up.  "Christina, help me, I am so lost, I'm trying to get to Dr. Larson's."  "Where are you".... (give her street coordinates) " Are you in Annapolis???"

"Um, Just about.  That's when I realized that I should call you. "

"okay let me get on my computer and find you and help you get back home."

For anyone who knows the area.  I was in Laruel, I was shooting for Odenton I landed in Annapolis.   Oh dear!  At this point i was going to be late for Alex's appointment, but totally fine for Liza's.  Christina kindly led me to the right roads and got me headed back to where I needed to be.  Then I hit traffic!!  Really thick traffic, the kind that hits RIGHT after an accident.  Emergency Vehicles flying up the shoulders and everything.  So I sit and sit and sit in the dead stopped traffic.  Finally I admit to myself, that we are going to miss our "long time coming" dr's appointment's so I call the office to profess my stupidity and see if I should even bother stopping in.  While on hold with the office I see a sign for the road that Christina told me to go on, I'm pretty sure I need to turn right, but the turned over dump truck is right at that intersection.  I see that traffic is flowing very nicely to the left, no one seems to be going to the right, but it's not blocked off, and the going straight people wait on as they all try to file single file slowly past the wreckage.  I decide that the right turn lane looks clear and a go, so about 1 car length short of the right turn lane, I jump onto the shoulder and pull into the right turn lane.  Liza yells out from the back seat "mom, why are you driving on the Elbow!".  "Shoulder Liza, and I'm not now, I am in a turn lane."  

Then I realize that my turn lane is not the way to go north on the street that I was told to go on, it was just a gas station at the dead end of the road that only runs south from that point.   As I pull into the gas station feeling pretty stupid and frustrated at the same time a Cop throws his hand up at me, I roll down my window and he yells "You can just STAY right there!"  I said (with cell phone on ear, as I am still on hold)  "Sir, I am lost"  To which he replies, "YOU JUST STAY THERE, I SAW YOU DRIVING UP ON THE SHOULDER!"  To which I yelled "I WAS IN THE RIGHT TURN LANE!"  "STAY!".  So I sat there, for what seemed like forever as my children ran a stream of questions at me.. "mommy, why did you lie, you were on the shoulder."  "only for a second, I was in the turn lane!"  "mommy are you going to go to jail?"  "Is that police man mad at you?"  "are you going to get a ticket?"  " Is he going to make us sit here all day?".  And on and on and on.  Keep in mind that I am still on hold with the Dr's office, eating up my cell phone minutes!  Finally the cop comes back over,   "Sir, I have my phone on my ear because I am on hold with my childrens Dr's office.  I am extremely lost and truly thought I was going to turn right on ---- road."  I didn't know it was a gas station."  "Where are you trying to get to?"  (oh all of a sudden we're going to be kind now?) "Odenton".  "oh, well go back out here in the traffic and head this direction another few miles and then......  blah blah blah..."  

So away I went, back out in the traffic.  The Dr's office finally picked up and told me to skip it, go home and schedule for another day.  :-( Darn it.  STUPID SHORT CUTS!!  LOL!  

Truly up until the Cop I thought I handled things really well.  I was waiting in the traffic, that I should have never been anywhere near, and I was grateful that my children and I sat safely in our car, and that the ambulance wasn't for us.    The kids were good, and Katie got her nap in the car.  Not what I had planned, but oh well.  what was going as planned anyway?  :-0

At the end of the day the kids found this lovely thing on the pool:

We put it in a PB jar, and I think it is dead already.  :-(  Darn, I wanted it to grow into a giant butterfly.  Isn't it huge though?  Holy cow!  I went to the gym and worked out a bit on the stair machine and weights and then hung out in the hot tub till almost midnight with Christina (AKA my GPS).  

Wednesday was another day of meetings and such.  I watched little Simone while Jeri Co Op'd for Talia's Bday.  She went to sleep so easy for me, but when she woke up boy, she wanted mama.  So we rocked, and rocked and rocked.  I fell asleep, I think she did too.  Before I knew it the whole crew was home and my snuggle with baby Simone was over.   I did the CORE class at the gym again this week.  MMM, so good, and so sore.   Thursday I taught again, and I was so tired because my silly Dog has been waking me up in the night, like every 2 hours, barking and crying in his crate!  After talking with my sister on the phone, I realize that I have seen him straining to pee outside, also notices much more frequent trips to the door to be let out.  my sister tells me that it could be a UTI.  *light bulb on*  Of course that is what's going on..... well I better get him into the Vet before the week end right?  

..Make an appointment for Friday.  

..Get call from Vet, "please come in tonight, I am worried about a few things and would like to see him tonight rather then wait till morning." 

..Over to Vets office...."Males don't typically get UTI's they do however get Kidney stones."  Vet tells me how if he has a stone in his urethra and he can't pee, he will essentially DIE in the night.  

..Oh dear, this is not a good position to be in.  "Don't feel pressured to do it, but I think we should run X rays to look for stones."  Choking on cost of doggie X ray.  

..Nod to go ahead.  (Oh dear!)

.. Looking at X rays.  "hum, looks pretty clear... this is his microchip, and this is a staple."  IS THAT BAD?

.. Staple should pass w/o incident.  Not the problem.

.. Time for urine sample...  choke again at cost for sample draw and lab work.

.. Nod again.

.. Grudgingly pay the girl at the front desk more money then I am willing to say since Brent SOMETIMES reads my blog and he already hates the stupid dog. 

.."all this $ and there's not a thing wrong with him!"    "oh but now you have peace of mind."  YEAH, not sure that was worth it.  !!

..  drove home thinking of all the ways i could have spent that money!!  GRRRRR.  Sometimes I am so silly, I should have waited it out a bit, it was the whole idea of spending the weekend with a sick dog that scared me into going all of a sudden and jumping into action.  I feel stupid!.

.. quickly drop off Chinook and go to Massage with Greg.  AHHHHHHHH,  money?  what money?  totally awesome massage tonight!

Liza had her first Private Flute lesson.  Her teacher told Brent that she has really good sound for a student her age.  Brent says he already knew that, but it was good to know that he wasn't just thinking that cuz it was his kid.  I hope that she excels at this, I would love to see her find her niche in life.  

Friday, made a grocery list and planned out meals for when family is in town, took papers to school that were due today.  (grrrr) and then went to the Commissary where every senior citizen on base was there!  It was so busy and SLOW!!  uh!  Waited in line for over 30 minutes to check out, but still made it home in time to meet up with kids.   Quick dinner and then babysitting Co Op. Brent was on call, so I pulled it off solo tonight.  It wasn't too too bad.  :-)  I think it went well actually.  :-)  

Phewf, busy week.  Tomorrow is the kids nearly new sale!!!! YIPEE.  I can't wait, i always find a bargain.  Stay tuned