3 Days of Pure Bliss

Tommorrow I will be leaving to Northern Wisconsin for a scrapbooking retreat with my friend Kim. I am so excited!!! I will have no kids, no animals and no house to take care of. I will be able to go to the bathroom without a dog, child or cat following me. I will be able to eat hot food without having to make sure everyone else is served and settled first. I will not have to prepare that hot food. I will be able to sleep without getting woke up repeatedly through the night by children or animals. We are driving to Minneapolis first to pick up our friend Stacy, who is flying in from Texas and to visit our friend Jenny and her husband James at the hospital. Jenny's husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had it removed today. We are all praying for him and their family.

The Darn Dog Finally Listened

Well tonight it finally happened.... Chopper finally listened to me. We returned from our errands and I let the dogs out to potty. I saw her run to the back of the yard and I saw something moving back there. I could tell it was limping and I wasn't sure what it was at first. I called the dog right away because I don't want her to catch it and get bit. She turned around and ran back to the house just as the varment raised it's unmistakable tail. Yup it was a skunk and Chopper just barely missed getting sprayed. I can't believe that when it was the most important time she actually listened. I can't believe the skunk missed her. What a relief... except of course the skunk was still out there. I called animal control because it was hurt and I don't want to worry about it being out there. They were on their way out when they called me back. The neighbor had just killed an injured skunk (I am assuming and praying it is the same one). That is one brave person.

Just Checking In

It has been a while since I posted and I thought I better sneak in and post. Dan's cousins stopped by on the way back from Florida this week and stayed overnight. We had a great visit and enjoyed having visitors. We are headed off to Dan's sisters wedding reception this Saturday in Sheboygan, WI. We will stay overnight. Madison is really looking forward to spending time with her cousin. They came last weekend and visited, Madison and Cheyenne barely left her room. They spent most of the day playing Barbies. We did get Madison's room painted. It looks kind of like an Easter Egg. It is 2 colors pink on the top and lavendar on the bottom. It looks beautiful and will look even better when I get the border put up to seperate the 2 colors. It is a really cute princess border. I just wish her bed would arrive and we could finish up her room. We are still waiting on our bedroom furniture and the formal living room furniture. Madison starts Daisy Scouts next Wed. and she is pretty excited about it. They didn't have a troop where we lived before.

Snow Day

It snowed aout 3 inches today. It was so beautiful. Me and the kids never even got out of our pajamas. We watched it snow through the sliding glass door. It was better than tv. I didn't even complain when I shoveled the walk (in my pajamas).

Why oh why?

Why do grandparents think that it is ok to cut their grandchildren's hair without asking their parents first? Today I took Madison to get her school physical so she can go to school here. Dan was upstairs painting while his mom was watching Danny. She decided to cut Danny's hair, without even asking his father who was right upstairs. Anyone that truly knows me, knows how I feel about Danny's hair. He has the most gorgeous blond surfer hair that I have ever seen and I can't believe that beautiful child came from me. It is long and a little unruly but it is beautiful and looks like he has been playing on the beach. I don't care what other people say I like it that way. I trim his bangs enough to keep them out of his eyes. Now the poor child has a very unstraight nerdy looking bowl cut. When I walked in my house and saw the plastic bag of hair sitting on my counter my heart sank to my knees. I just knew what happened without even seeing it. 2 years ago the same thing happened with Madison's hair. I had to have emergency surgery and my mom was watching Madison. While she was watching her she cut about 6 inches off Madison's beautiful long hair without asking me or Dan. Why do they think this is ok? Tonight I am mourning the loss of my son's beautiful locks and praying that they will grow back just as beautiful as before.

Race Car Bed

Before we moved we sold both of the kids beds. For the first time we are able to buy new furniture. For Danny we wanted to do something with cars and trains in his room because the boy is obssessed with them. We ordered him a race car bed. It is so cute. It is red and blue and twin size. He loves the bed. I found him some Nascar sheets and comforter plus a pillow that looks like a steering wheel. He sits and pretends to drive his bed. The first night that the bed arrived Danny asked to go to bed, after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I took him up to bed. He talks about the race car bed all the time and asks to go to bed in his race car bed every night now. We also bought him a train table for his room to mix in the other interest. The first day we got the train table he never left from it, except to eat. His room has became like heaven for him. He has all his toys, his race car bed and more Thomas trains than any boy could ever need. Now all he needs is for Tracie to come and play with him and his life would be complete. He sure misses her.

Ouch

Today I am in pain!! I was chasing the dog yesterday and slipped on a patch of ice in the backyard. It was cleverly disguised as snow. I fell and landed flat on my backside. It hurts to sit or lie down. I can't see the bruise thanks to a well padded backside but I sure can feel it. I am learning new things everyday: like the fact that snow freezes and is hard as can be when you fall on it. My dogs are bored being inside all the time and Chopper has taken to being a naughty dog and running off as soon as I open the back door. I guess I am going to have to take her out on the leash if she can't listen. The dog run will definetly be going up as soon as the cleverly disguised ice thaws.

Disneyland and California Adventure

Before we left California, I decided that the kids and I would have 1 more big Disney trip. All of our furniture had already left so I decided we would stay in a hotel which was different for us since we usually don't go 2 days in a row and we don't spend the night since we lived so close. We invited our friend Tracie and her kids to go with us. We rented a kids suite at La Quinta Inn -it was really cool because it had 2 rooms and 1 had a big bunk bed and the kids had their own tv. It was like a giant slumber party. On the first day we spent the day at CA Adventure. We had a great time. Madison is a little daredevil and went on the Tower of Terror twice (we did the rider switch since Danny and Talyssa -Tracie's daughter were too little to ride), once with Tracie and her son and then again with me. We went on the new Monsters Inc ride -this is so cute!!! We started the day at Paradise Pier Hotel for the Lilo and Stich Aloha Breakfast. The breakfast was really good-it is a buffet style breakfast with an island flare to it. The food was delicious and because we went on a weekday during the off season it was not very crowded. The characters paid a lot of extra attention to the kids and the kids ran around chasing Stitch and playing games with him. We also went to the Princess Lunch at Ariel's Grotto. The Princesses come around to each table and take photos and sign autographs for the kids. Madison was especially thrilled with this one but I left her with Tracie because Danny picked that time to have a complete melt down. I took him up to first aid and they gave him some baby tylenol and it helped him settle down quite a bit. He is going through another growth spurt and he is having a hard time with growing pains. We met ALOT of characters that day in the park and we were really excited about that. We rode everything the kids were big enough to ride and went to playhouse Disney so Danny could see JoJo (his secret girlfriend). We took the shuttle back to our hotel and ordered pizza for dinner. It was a nice relaxing evening except when I fell getting out of the shuttle bus and landed very hard on my backside. On Friday we went to Disneyland. We love Disneyland!! We had sooo much fun, the kids were daredevils again riding the Matterhorn and Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. Danny was especially thrilled with the train (of course-he is obsessed). We met a lot of characters here too, we even happened upon story time with 8 different characters acting out funny stories. We had really great seats for the parade and the kids loved that. We also took them to Fantasmic-this was the first time we had stayed late enough for the show and they loved it. The fireworks were cancelled due to wind though and that stunk. The best part of the trip was going with our friends though. We had such a great time. It was a perfect way to end our time in CA