What a good patient

Last week was a little tough for Samantha. Last Tuesday, she came home from school with a headache. It was warm last week and so I told her to drink some water and rest. She said she felt a little better. She was supposed to have a play date the next day and so I think she was trying really hard to feel good. Wednesday morning she woke up and looked sick. I took her temp and it was 99 degrees which is not super high but it meant that she had to stay home. Needless to say, she was so upset that her friend couldn't come and play. As the day progressed, she looked sicker and sicker. Samantha is such a good sick kid. She just deals with it. Her fever began to rise on Motrin and was up to 102.7. I thought I would watch it for the day and see how she was the next morning. Her fever was still high and so I called the doctor. They said to watch her through the day to see how she would do. I did schedule and appointment for the next day just in case. Boy am I glad I did that. That night and morning her breathing became really labored. I knew that she had more that just a fever. My thought was pneumonia. So Friday I took her into the doctor. He listened to her lungs and could hear the crackling. He tested her O2 stats and they were a little low. I looked at him and said "were off to the hospital for an x-ray, aren't we?" He said "you sure are." The doctors office is right next to the hospital so Sam and I walked over. We were in and out so quickly! Sam did a great job and was excited to see her lungs from the x-ray. Sure enough she had walking pneumonia. The doctor gave us a prescription for antibiotics and off to the pharmacy we went.

Here is the first day of her breathing treatments. She had to this every 6 hours.

Take notice of her patient stickers from the hospital. She is doing so much better now and is happy to have her play date today. She takes an art class and so her friend gets to go with her today. We are so happy she is feeling better. I am grateful she is such a good patient. The poor kid still had to be dragged around town trying to pick up the other kids.

The Ants Go Marching One By One

Every other Friday the kids school has a flag ceremony and classes get a chance to perform. This past Friday was all of the 2nd graders. Emily and Elizabeth have been practicing for the last two weeks at home and in class. They sang the song "The Ants Go Marching." It was even complete with actions. Here you can see Em and Liz singing along.

Here are most of the kids from their class.

I had a few teachers and parents come up and tell me how animated the girls were. As most of the kids just stood there, Em and Liz were singing and dancing away. I wonder where their animation comes from.....

Big Day

Next month Hanna will be turning 10 years old. For the last few years, she has been asking if she could get her ears pierced. Dan wasn't really thrilled with that idea so he told her when she was 10 that she could get it done. My sister was in town and she mentioned that she thought it would be fun to have all her sisters and some of her cousins there. I told my sister that Dan was adamant about waiting until she was 10. I called him anyway and to my surprise he said that should be ok since it was almost her birthday. Hanna was shocked and thrilled. Not one minute later Dan called back and said that he really wanted her to wait. With my persuasive skills, he said fine just do it but I don't want to be there. We were going to the Monterey that day for the Aquarium so we went to Claire's in the mall after. We had lunch first and Hanna was so nervous that she couldn't even eat.


Here she sits in the chair thinking if she should really go through with it. She kept asking the lady, "Will it hurt? What does it feel like?"

This is moments before she had it down. I was feeling the same way!

Her thoughts, " Oh no, she is marking my ear. Do I really want this?"

Hanna was lucky that a second person was working so she could have them both done at the same time. She knew now that she was committed. I was so nervous for her. I did get my ears pierced when I was little but I don't ever wear earrings.

And, she did it! Don't they look cute? I am mostly responsible for cleaning them because I want to make sure that it is done right. Hanna was so brave. She is happy that she did and even said that it didn't hurt (even though I thought she was being tough). Hanna, we are excited for you. Remember this will be your only piercings. I think your father would have a heart attack if you got any more piercings!

Family Fun

Fun day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Here are the cousins in front of some huge jellyfish.

We had a great time this weekend with family. My mom, sister and her kids came to visit us. The girls were so excited to have their cousins come to visit. It is the first time my sister has visited this area since we've moved. We went the Monterey Bay Aquarium with everyone on Monday. The picture above is the girls and I outside by the bay. It was a really beautiful day.

From the left: Whitney, Hanna, Emily, Elizabeth, Tatum (on Elizabeth's lap), Abby, Samantha and Grammie. They were sitting in the wave crasher. Spencer, the only boy, didn't want to be in the picture. The water crashing scarred him to much.

Grammie and Tatum enjoying some quiet time in the morning.

My sister and I had to run an errand and when we got this is what we saw. Dan was being attacked by all the kids. He was such a good sport. Sam and Whitney said they were going to pull out his hair and I quickly told them to leave it as it seems to be falling out on its own (Love you honey!).

We decided Saturday to wash our extremely dirty car. There is a lot of dirt in King City and the rain had made our car look even dirtier. The day was not to warm but the kids always like to get their bathing suits on so we can spay them. Sam is trying to get away before Elizabeth attacks.

Crazy Hair Day

YEAH!!!!! The gray is gone. I love being able to get my hair done. She added bangs and a carmel color. I can now celebrate my birthday and not think that I am getting old.

The girls had crazy hair day at school today. In our family, we love the show Pippo Longstocking. We have always joked that Sam should be Pippi for Halloween. Well, today was our experiment day for her Pippi hair. All the kids were looking at her as if she was crazy but she sure looked cute.

Here are all three girls before school. Em and Liz looked like Whoville from "Horton Hears A Who."

The girls must have been excited because I didn't even have to wake them up this morning. Hanna was planning on having crazy hair today but when she woke up she didn't want to. I think it was a case of "not being cool." Other than that, report cards came out today. All the girls did really well. We are proud of their great accomplishments at school. We look forward to a fun weekend. My sisters and her family and well as my mom will be here on Sunday. We are going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium on Monday. We get free tickets through our public library. It is a wonderful place to visit. Dan is not big about taking kids out of school but they at least will check in so the school will get their money. We are considering it a nice field trip.

Does this mean I am old?

This month is my birthday. When you get to be my age it seems to be just another day. I will be 34 years old. A couple of weeks ago, Emily said to me "mom, you have a gray hair." I said that was just not possible and I went on with what I was doing. Then one day last week I was looking at something in the mirror and what did I see....... A GRAY HAIR! I wanted to cry right then and there. I couldn't believe that I had a gray hair. It must be all the stress from all the things going on in King City. Needless to say I am off to the hairdresser tomorrow to take care of the other 5 I found.

Emily, Elizabeth and Samantha were able to attend a fun assembly today at school. Em and Elizabeth's teacher at school had a son in law who is a police officer in Salinas. He brought his police dog to show them what he does. I did bring my camera to take pictures but it was out of battery! The girls teacher said she would email me a picture so when I get it I'll post it.

Dan had a rough week at work. He had to help pass pink slips to the teachers that are being laid off. Things are really rough with the school districts here right now. They are having to cut so many positions just to stay a float. The elementary district gave out 47 pink slips. These are tough times for so many. We feel very grateful Dan has a job and we have our needs met.

Fun Weekend

Every Sunday the kids make a treat to ding dong ditch to people that we know. It is a fun way to keep the kids busy on the Sabbath as well as an opportunity to serve other people. We will usually leave a note with a message from the "mystery givers". Many times the girls are caught but they have a good time. This past Sunday, they decided to ding dong ditch a house in the country. They have a very steep driveway and are in the middle of nowhere (as you can see from the picture). Here is Liz trying to run as fast as she can to get away from the door.

This picture is of the girls running to get to the door. If any of you are "Little House on the Prairie" fans, you would have got a kick out of watching them run. Emily even fell like Grace in the opening part of the show. It was just hilarious. You can tell that Hanna is trying to be all sneaky. They were caught on the way back. They were saying after that they should have just dropped into the big grass to hide. They had a great time.

Hanna is currently involved in 4-H. For those that don't know, 4-H is a club that offers different activities for kids. It is based around the fairs here in Monterey. Many of the kids raise animals to show and sell at the fair. We opted out of doing that knowing full well who would be taking care of the pig---that's right good old mommy. I told Hanna that I didn't want pig poo all over my shoes. Am I a city girl or what! Anyway, she has been taking a dance class through 4-H and they had a performance this past Friday. They did a line dance. Considering they only had been practicing for 2 days they did quite well. In fact, they received a gold medal and a chance to move onto to the next level of competition. It is a good organization for the kids.

Here is Hanna doing her dance.

Last, we had a fun hail storm this past week. Emily was reading to me after school one day and I heard a great deal of noise. We looked out and it was hailing! I haven't seen hail in a really long time. Of course the kids ran out to see if it hurt to stand in the hail. The bummer part of this was that one of the kids had left one side of the car open. The inside of the car was so wet. Thank goodness for leather seats! Did you notice that our grass if finally starting to grow back. When we bought the house, it was brown and ugly. Little by little things come along on the yard. We all had a fun weekend.

Other Events

Yesterday was "Read Across America Day" at the girls school. We were able to go into the girls classes to read. Dan has always gone into Hanna's class and I tend to read in the other girls classes. It is a fun day to promote reading. There are many parents who are unable to come to read during the day because they work. PTO decided to provide and opportunity for families to come back to the school at night for an "Green Eggs and Ham" event. The kids were able to make a hat, eat green eggs and ham and be read to by different people. Being on the PTO board, I was in charge of the event. I am not one that really like eggs and to have to make 10 dozen green scrambled eggs was almost to much for me to handle. I will be happy if I never see a green egg again(of course until next year). The kids actually ate them. I had to tell them that it was only food coloring. I did have a girl come up to me and want to know how to make them. We had a great turn out and everyone seem to have fun.

Emily and Elizabeth started piano about a month ago and already had their first receital. They did such a great job. There teacher is actually a high school student. She seems to a great job with them. Hanna take piano from the music teacher at the high school. Emily was really nervous but was able to overcome that as soon as she sat down at the piano.

Elizabeth tells me that she wasn't nervous a bit. We are proud of both the girls. We hope Hanna will be able to join the receital next year.

Emily and Elizabeth were student of the month for February. They are both in the same class at school. I wonder if the teacher picked both of them in one month to make it easy on mom and dad. Hanna also received student of the month for February but her teacher didn't let me know so I don't have a picture of her. I was super sad that I wasn't there for her. It was out of my control. Hanna's teacher has been preparing them for the state writing test. Hanna is actually taking the test now. She is well prepared.

Crazy few weeks!

I am still not doing very good at this blogging thing. I have had strep throat the past week. I am sure grateful for antibiotics. We have had some fun times these past couple of weeks. I was able to attend Emily and Elizabeth's field trip last Tuesday. We went to the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum. It is such a beautiful area. The picture above is Elizabeth and Emily at Lovers Point Beach after the museum. We were able to talk a walk along a trail by the beach.
The girls were amazed by this eyeball of a whale. Elizabeth mentioned that it was almost as big as her head.

Here we are in front of the museum. Do you see the sick look on my face? That is the day I really started to feel horrible. Thank goodness Hanna was able to care for the girls later that day. It really was a fun day with the girls. We feel blessed to live in such a beautiful area. We may have to drive 45 minutes to get anywhere but it is well worth it.