Visit to Children's Hospital

Today I had to honor of going to Children's Hospital in Seattle with my niece Patience (and my sister). 1 1/2 years ago she was diagnosed with Nephrotic Syndrome. She has the kind that she will hopefully grow out of but today was the first time we got to see "professionals" who know how to treat. Patience did a great job it was a long appointment with lots of components. It was fun to hang out with just Patience. Children's is so colorful and we were in the Whale section so we had lots to explore while mom checked us in.

Friday Night Pizza Night!

The Hills love being in their Pj's (we have pajama day frequently). We love pizza and the opportunity to make our own creations.

Throw in a few games on the Wii and a movie and you have yourself one fun night.

Madison's School Carnival

Friday night we went to Madison's school carnival. There were many people there. The prizes were McDonald's toys. Imagine my joy as I discovered that I was going to bring home all those little toys. Those toys that I have worked so hard at ridding my world of, that I hope never get into my home, that I step on. Ok so now you know I don't like McDonald'ss toys, but the kids were thrilled.

Madison is Dorothy and Emma is Sleeping Beauty (pink). Here are some fun pics from the night.

Grandma Debi for a Visit (10/11-12)

So I am back blogging here. My birth mom, Debi, came to visit the girls and I for a weekend. We went out to Chinese food and watched movies. We also had fun making cookies.

It made an impact on Madison because she wrote her first full Journal entry at school. Her teacher was so excited.

Company.....

For some reason I tend to entertain family members at out house a lot. I love grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins. The funny thing is that we really don't have a good set up for when people spend the night. Grandma Debi spent this last weekend with us (we had a wonderful time see future blog). She is just one person so she slept in Madison's room and Madison slept with Gregg and I (Madison tried to kick him out to the couch - lol). Last night Gregg's mom and her husband spent the night. They were leaving today to Arizona for the Winter. Gregg and I gave up our bed and did not really plan further ahead. When it came to going to bed Gregg decided to sleep on the couch and I was gonna sleep with Emma (She has a full bed). I started out my night with Madison (in a twin bed). Side story - when Gregg and I were getting married we had to buy a queen bed. Gregg was sad because he wanted us to have a single bed so we could snuggle for the rest of our married life-----we are trying to financially figure out how we can get a california king bed eight years later---guess the snuggle dream is long lost. Ok so back to my sleepless night.....Madison LOVES to snuggle and will latch on to any warm breathing thing.....by 1:30am I was hanging on to the bed trying to sleep....I decided to climb into bed with Emma. Emma promptly kicked me outta bed yelling at me she needed the whole thing and it was not time for a "mommy snuggle". I collected my blanket and pillow and tried to go sleep downstairs on our short couch...... nope ...... Emma was calling me. Finally I found "sleep" on the floor of Emma's bedroom. As I was feeling sorry for myself I was suddenly reminded of the Blog I had read of a friend who is adopting again from Ghana and she was talking about the Orphanages. So being totally convicted I began thanking God that I was warm, had a blanket, was safe, had a full tummy, was not sick, have a job, have money, well it just went on. So even though I am sore and really tired......I really can't complain can I.

Pet Peeves

I feel I need to blog about some of my Pet Peeves.
1) At my job we all log into windows live messanger. Many of us work from different sites and from home and this makes it nice to be able to know where everyone is and communicate. The problem is the advertisements on the bottom of messanger. It is some phone/internet advertisement with this girl laying on the couch laughing and shaking her hair at the camera. This has been there for WEEKS! It annoys me. I do not want to see this lady pretending to meet someone and flirting. Please make it stop!
2) Love and Logic. Its a theory for child rearing. It is actually very good and has some great logic (sorry). However, it is all around me. "Bummer I guess your gonna miss recess"(is the bigger punishment for the child to miss recess or for you to be stuck with them because they missed recess), "It your choice"(if the kid was smart enough they would realize it wasn't really a choice-ah the beauty of love and logic). Madison even said to me...."mom quite giving me choices and just tell me what to do, I'm tired", I don't blame her. Madison has to wear uniforms to school (by the way I am a total advocate for this it has been wonderful!) however, she has misplaced coats (which we have found later-on) I can't say "bummer guess your gonna freeze" or buy her a less desirable coat......Its a uniform (and they are not cheap and special order). How do you make a 1st grader responsible for their things? Are they old enough? Grandparents would say "yes". Their parents did not have money to buy them extra coats you got one....you knew where it was.....loosing it was not an option. My kid.....just has no idea.....no fear.....no clue....so what do we do Gregg and I scour the school, lost and found, sitter's car, ect till we find it. Were our parents as children that responsible? I don't remember loosing important things as a kid.
3) POOP....When will this potty training thing end????
4) Phone. Sometimes I just don't wanna be reached, or I'm putting my kids to bed and if I answer I got to start the process all over again. Its not cause I don't love you, or am depressed. I wanna watch my show or read or take a bath and not answer the phone. People are offended when they find out you just didn't answer. Its ok I love you, sometimes I just need some peace.
Well for now this blog has made me feel a little better so I will attempt to go to bed. Happy dreams blogging world.

FYI Three yr olds are independent!

Three year olds do not really need their moms anymore. Three year olds are "medium kids" as Emma says. Emma can put her seat belt on "all by herself" - this may take 15 minutes to do but if mommy does it then we endure a 20 minute fit; Emma can take her seat belt off "all by herself" - and we have learned that the car just doesn't drive when that happens; Emma knows all about "red light", "green light", "yellow light"- which she announces while I'm driving (guess the preschool is doing a great job); Emma can push a cart better, drive better, get dressed better....well you get the picture. She wants to be so independent. This is cute but can at times be trying to a mommy's heart. It appears that I have quite a year ahead of me with my "medium sized" three year old.

Quotes...

So some of you may know that I have been working in a Kindergarten classroom two hours a day. I am an aid for a friends daughter. In the little time that I have been in the classroom I have acquired a few funny quotes. And by popular demand I have now put up a Kinder Quote box which I will update. I however will not be using names or stories that could be figured out so as to keep everyone's identity safe.