christmas chaos

WOW, and that it was!!!! we are still recovering from that and being sick! the girls had an overwhelming amount of presents. i even held back and made them unwrap stuff the day after christmas it was so chaotic! i let them unwrap two Wii games this evening b/c there were gifts under the tree that i hadn't put back for their birthday's yet...secretly i wanted to play the blocks game. so, i let them unwrap one each. i cut the paper on them to see what they were and then let them open them.


guitar hero is pretty neat, but rae LOVES to play tennis!



they are both in AWE of the computer that "POPPY" (David Stafford) helped me fix for them with old computer parts of mine and a newer tower from mom's company. i'm so thankful that he was able to do that for me. they LOVE it now that we are getting settled back into our house again. they have that little thing there in the picture that they can make art with, and they have an etch a sketch game that they are enjoying too.



granddaddy came and spent the night with us on christmas eve. he lost his father a short time ago and i'm sure it was going to be really hard on him to not have his sidekick this year. he got to see the girls flip out over their bikes (sorry, no picture) and go from thing to thing. it was a heck of a mess.

grandma sent them their baby alive dolls and they have been little mommies ever since christmas! so, they are bike riding, Wii playing, Littlest Pet Shop throwing, mommies who like to play on the computer this week!

did i mention this was pretty nuts?

strep throat

fever since sat...doctor visit, confirmed, strep throat. mixed with sneezing, runny nose and coughing. it's been interesting finding out how jamie and i passed germs around all those years.

if it wasn't enough

my favorite fish died today. the one here in the office that we all have bonded with..."nemo" as the girls called it. well, shit.

heartfelt and unsure

it's been a hard week for me. long nights of no sleep, tossing, turning and realizing the outcome of decisions that had to be made were clearly uncertain. i've had to walk away from two very important loves in my life. work, and dance. the details aren't necessary and it's just not something i can articulate anyway. i am attempting to keep strong and believing that both are things that aren't necessarily over. it's very difficult though. i feel like i have been beaten by a sledge hammer.

the play

rae had a little play at the school today. it was really cute and i tried to take some pictures but they didn't turn out so well. but, i am going to introduce you to a couple of people...







here's the little boy that she had(sometimes has) a crush on "Alex"

this is the bully "Leena" who she goes in and out of friendship with...apparently Leena has been mean to her again

and, of course the little "WREATH" herself...you can't see her wreath because it is hanging behind the podium tree. she got a little frightened and looked out...it was the first time that i have ever seen her kind of speechless. i looked at her, nodded and she quietly said her lines. i was really shocked that she was so meek. she did a great job though. and the play was really cute.

santa's helper and the grinch

mrs. ballengee has this thing going on where she sends the kids home with green and red slips of paper every day. if you were good that day, you were considered a "santas helper" and if you were bad, you were considered the "grinch." rae has been coming home with red santa's helper slips up until today. apparently she must have been a little rowdy at school today. :-) she came through the door upset so i knew something was wrong. (a different upset, not the attention upset) she kind of mumbled something under her breath and i just asked her if she was a grinch and she got really upset with me. so, she in fact had been a naughty little booger at school when i found the little green slip in her back pack. i didn't get the whole story before dancing but on the way home she told me that her and "craig" had words. she had her hands on craigs desk and he told her to get them off. she did not do it and it started a fight. so, mrs. ballengee took her away. i might get a different story tomorrow, but this is what i know about her first grinch today!

have a good week

short but sweet

on saturday i was able to see both of my college roommates! it was fabulous. i met up with sarah, who lives in san diego, at the ballgame at the end of half time and we were able to talk for a while when the game was going on. and then, after peeing on myself at the end of the game in excitement, i drove home and freshened up to go see jennifer. she lives in richmond hill, ga, which is outside of savannah. i was able to spend some time with she and her family while they were relaxing after baths. being able to see them was great and a hug to remember was even better. it was short but sweet.

thanksgiving

we are thankful for all of our family and friends!

rae and the bully

it seems that we have found ourselves in a little predicament. the little girl that rae affectionately pushed her desk back at has been secretly eating away at her. i noticed about a week ago that rae was drawing "lee" everywhere. so, i just thought that she just found herself a little boyfriend or something. well, conversations have been popping up out of the blue about "leena" the little girl that she had the desk fight with. they sit across from one another in school. about leena not liking her. or that leena was mean to her. or, that leena said this or that to her. well, then it got a little deeper. that her and "kaitlin" whispered and wouldn't tell her what they were talking about. that they laughed at her. that she didn't have any friends. of course, that stuff will break a mothers heart when she hears that her child thinks that she doesn't have any friends. that was just tough. but, that wasn't anything up to what happened while i was gone with mom shopping the other night. the girls were up at dad and diane's and rae was sitting playing. all of a sudden, she bursted out in tears, crying, saying that she didn't have any friends, that she didn't want to go to school and that leena was mean to her. well, the tears lasted for over 20 mins and it broke dad and diane's heart. diane spared my time out and waited to call me until the next morning. little did she know, that i was going to have a similar conversation but with no tears the next morning AS SOON AS rae opened her eyes. at any rate, i compared her feelings to a little cartoon that we have seen a few times and told her to tell leena "so" when she starts calling her names and laughing at her. she asked doug to come and eat with her at school right after we were discussing all of this and i found that really odd. i didn't know what it was all about until i got the phone call from diane a few minutes after she was gone to school. it all made sense to me when i heard the story from the night before. so, i remembered seeing some "art" in her folder from school. i was really saddened when i opened up the folder and saw that she had in fact started writing "leena" and marking it out with a "X" over top of her name. there were hearts and flowers like she always does and then the name leena over and over with x's on it. it was really upsetting to see and then i understood why it was so important that day for her to have someone eat with her at lunch. she didn't want to go to school. she's been so excited about school and for her not to want to be there is disheartening. so, after discussing this for a short while, i decided it was best to go ahead and talk to mrs. ballengee that morning before i came to school for lunch. i didn't want to bother her in her free time. so, i went down there immediately and rae never saw me talking to mrs. ballengee. she was grateful that i came and brought it to her attention before it got really ugly and she told me that rae had actually said something to her that morning as well. so, the story will end with me going to the school and rae being excited to see me at lunch. the first thing that she said to me was "leena apologized to me, mommy!" i'm not so sure how this mommy thing is going to work out. it's tough.

the recital

no pictures or video. but we had a nice time. the recital was great and it seemed like we all did a relatively good job. i saw the video yesterday and that was a real treat. i was scared half to death but i made it through. back stage was a nightmare with all of the little class. it might have been better if they pulled each others hair out and just got it over with. we are already looking forward to the one in may and searching for new costumes! the old dance instructor and her mother will be certain to have fun at the next one. i hope that they didn't miss their wave.

thankful

well, i guess we are lucky that we've had two kids going on six and four and we've never had to take them to the emergency room. i suppose there are many mothers that i know who have stood beside their child's bed and pretended that they had it all together. last night was scary as shit. the family has been sick, so when i was awakened by the girls, my immediate thought was that ryane had started vomiting. and, that the reason that both of them were upset was that it was on the other or something. the sound was loud, that is all that i knew. i shot up and it woke doug up from my quick movement. the girls ran in the room and turned on the light this time. rae was choking. it seemed like she had something lodged in her throat. i was scared to death. she was drooling everywhere. it was all over her. down her legs and body and she couldn't breathe. she was gasping for each breath and i was trying to keep it calm. doug was losing it and ryane was pacing around in her pj's. i will never forget the look on that babies face in my entire life. i thought she was choking to death. i started doing the heimlich maneuver and i couldn't get anything out. she was coughing and coughing. and it was so deep. i grabbed her throat and tried to move it around to see if i could get something out. nothing was working and it just was getting worse and worse by the minute. we tried to get her to take a drink and that didn't help either. so, we got clothes on both of them and started out of the door. rae had a meltdown when doug said the word "hospital." i could have killed him. she was a nervous wreck and i was trying to keep it together for everybody. doug went to the hospital in his pj's and tennis shoes. on a side note, hopefully they weren't paying attention that they were scrubs...so we got there and rae was terrified. doug rushed her straight in and i did the paperwork. i couldn't answer the questions appropriately. i was quite numb. ryane was saying how tired she was. by the time i was finished and got in there, the doctor told me that she had the croup and that he needed to give her steriods. i proclaimed "it's just croup." and he didn't like that very much. i thought she was dying and had something in her throat. i guess it just didn't come across the right way. but, there wasn't another way at that time. he put her on a breathing machine for about 45 minutes and that helped so much and the steriods seem to have done the trick. i kept reminding her how ryane had to do the same thing when she was a baby and that it wasn't going to hurt her. i finally got her to relax and when that happened she was fine with being there and the nurse helping her out. they were super nice and she just can't wait to tell the bus driver and her teacher!

parent teacher conference

does this really mean that we are grown up now? we had our first parent teacher conference today. i got there early in hopes that we could spend extra time with mrs. ballengee. she knew i was out there b/c she just said "rikki?" i had to wait on the other couple to come out so i didn't end up getting in there early. however, as soon as i walked in...she just started laughing. and told me that i was going to have my hands full. i politely told her that i already did. i guess she knows where i stand b/c i warned her very early about rae. and, of course, she's probably picked up on all of her "rae" things in the short time she's had her. she's back on her underwear kick now...they have to be tight again. anyway, doug got there just about the time i sat down and we talked and talked. we got off task a lot so i guess she felt comfortable with us. basically, she's a good kid, she does well, but in mrs. ballengee's words, "she stands up for herself." apparently there was a little situation this week where a little girl pushed her desk at rae, then rae pushed back, the other one pushed back, mrs. ballengee said no, rae pushed back, and then the little girl did it again. apparently rae looked at mrs. ballengee really cross and RAMED the little girl hard as hell. she said that she just wanted to just say "YES." but obviously she couldn't.

Long Time No See

we have pictures of halloween on the camera but we don't have a computer that is working to upload them onto. i'll let you see them as soon as i am able to. :)

we are still just busy bees. dance is keeping us super busy. three days a week is nearly nuts and mrs. rhonda has increased the times since next weekend (the 15th) is the first recital. i am already a nervous wreck and i got even more so when she gave me another costume this week. she told me it would be ok if i got good hose. ahhhhhhhh. i guess it's not so much the attire really, it's just about getting up on a stage and dancing for god's sake. i can't believe i am doing this. i'll just pretend it's like the other 4 times i've done it this summer/fall and convince myself it's not giles high school and mrs. rose isn't pushing me on the stage. however, someone might have to push me on the stage or sedate me.

pumpkin guts

we love you nicole

happy baby time!

fi fi the poodle

well, the poodle came in the mail yesterday. ryane and i were here to get it but rae didn't find it until this morning when she was leaving for school. we had a busy day as usual but came home tonight and took the tags off for rae to try it on. i think she likes it.

and a little love....

Cinderella's Pumpkin Farm

We traveled to Red Sulfur Springs, WV, just right outside of Peterstown to the pumpkin farm. It was very low key but the girls had a lot of fun jumping in a blow up castle and painting their own pumpkins. There were lots of pretty things to see, flowers and stuff for sale, hay rides and a maze. The people were really nice and I think we will definately go back there again next year! I got two big pumpkins, two little pumpkins that the girls painted and two red/purple cabbage plants that are supposed to live during the winter for 17 dollars! Now that is a steal and a great day!

you couldn't beat the pick your own pumpkin and paint it for a dollar!

happy fall ya'll

more halloween

so, the other night, rae decided that she wanted to try on ryane's monkey costume...and ryane agreed.

and it is ironic that one of their dance songs or numbers as we used to say, is five little monkeys. so these two pictures are of rae showing a couple of clips of the dance.

she had a ball, and the costume fit, so i went onto ebay and found another old navy costume for 10 dollars last night. she will be a poodle if she so desires. but, her school costume came in the mail today.