SERVICE SHOVELING/SNOW OYLMPICS

 It's a snow day today.  We got about a foot of snow up here in the North Pole.  What do you do with 5 teenagers on a day like this?  Go shoveling around the town.  To make it fun, we incorporated the "Snow Olympics".  After each driveway was completely shoveled, we would participate in an event...

The first event of the day was the "Snow Hucking" contest.  It was to see who could throw a shovel full of snow the furthest.

Guess who won?  The Cop.  My hunk 'hucked' it the furthest.

We had the 400 meter dash around this fun friend's house.  You had to be on the look out for dog 'land mines', slippery slopes and bushes.  Good times.  I took a big digger around one of the corners and lost to Kaleb.

 Ever try running through snow in boots and snow clothes?  It makes a dash turn into more of a saunter.  Kaleb took first in his size 14 clod hoppers.  (and we may or may not have broken her fence at the start of the race)

 More shoveling...(I think we shoveled 5 driveways for the day)

 Not really sure what you call THIS event...snow diving?

 This was the long jump...

 Bonus points for those who jumped with a chocolate covered rice crispy in their mouth.

 We ended with an all out snow ball fight.

In the closing ceremonies, we built a GIANT snowman, and went inside to see who could chug a cup of hot chocolate the fastest.

THE END!

LUNCH DATE

Every once in awhile I venture on down to the school where the cop works just so we can eat lunch together.  It's been a really busy week so I haven't seen much of him.  Today I had time and so we met...in the school cafeteria, SO romantic. :)  He even bought me lunch.  After we were done eating he needed to go check an abandoned house situated right next to the high school because rumors were flying that kids were breaking in and hanging out there.  We climbed through an open window, I LOVE dates with the cop.  It's a good thing it was daylight because this house was C.R.E.E.P.Y!  

It had both an upstairs and downstairs.

Here's the kitchen.  We found a drawer full of 'coke'.  Actually it was flour, but for a minute one had to wonder.  Seriously, who fills a drawer with just flour?

This was the upstairs bathroom.  

A lunch tray in the shower.  Seems as if the rumors just might be true...

The walls were covered in graffiti.  This wall was probably the only G rated wall.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

I'm just glad it didn't say Nerak. :)

 Our date was rudely interrupted by a child needing to be physically escorted out of the school.  But it was fun while it lasted.

THE ULTRASAC

I have a problem.

It's called the Ultra-sack.

I get sucked in daily.

This was Ben's sack.

It's still in his corner, under the window 

where the sun shines in.

Everyday at 2pm it calls my name.
So I obey and sit.

The warm rays hit my face and cozy bag engulfs my body.

And I fall asleep.

Then my children come home and peel me out...(by force)

until the next day, when it will happen all over again.

I have a problem.

It's called the ultra-sack.

And I LOVE it!!!

(thanks Benny!)

10 MONTHS DOWN...

My heart is heavy tonight...

wishing we could somehow be together.

IT'S A GIVEAWAY!!!!

*CONTEST ENDS TONIGHT SO VOTE NOW*

It's a giveaway! My cute neice and sister are finalists in a photo contest, and I want to add my support. The contest ends tonight, and the winner will be selected from random.org. What do you win? You can choose either a:

$51.38 TJMax/Marshalls gift card, 

$47.87 Macy's gift card, 

$66.71 Kohl's gift card,  

$49.50 Target card

The catch? (you have to have a facebook) Click on the link below:

"Time Out for Women," 

and "like" their page. Then go to their photos, and in the first "contest" album, go to this picture (#43) (you can click the red link and it'll take you right there) and "like" this picture. After you do this, leave me a message! She's in fourth place, and I want to push her up to the top!!!! (she needs over a 100 votes)  If she wins, she gets a FREE weekend away.  This mother of SIX boys and her FIRST girl deserves it.  Help me help her out!  Good luck, and thanks for voting! 

(If you've already voted, just leave me a message ;-)

ER VISIT NUMBER 3,347 (but who's counting?)

You seriously didn't think we'd escape UNSCATHED this week, did you?  Neither did I.  Actually I did...but a phone call early Friday morning told me otherwise.  It was an abnormal Friday to begin with as Kayla skipped seminary and was planning on staying home from school due to the fact that she wasn't feeling that well.  (She had a bit of the stomach bug)  Kaleb and Stevie ate their breakfast, packed their school stuff and off to school they went.  I was doing laundry, still in my pajamas, when the phone rang.  

Nurse: Hi Becky, it's Roseanne over at the school.

Me: Hey Roseanne, what's up?

Nurse: I have Stevie here in the my office and she's not doing well.

Me: Really?  She seemed fine when I said goodbye to her this morning.

Nurse: Well she came in to see me around 8:30am complaining of lower R abdominal pain.

Me: Do you want me to come get her?

Nurse: I'm suspecting appendicitis and think she needs to be seen.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?

I hurried to go change out of my pajamas...really wanting to take a shower but didn't want her to wait if she was in that much pain.  In my head I was thinking that I'd retrieve her from school, bring her home and watch her for a bit because I really, really didn't want to be in the ER today.  When I walked in the nurses office, poor Stevie was doubled over in pain.  I helped her to the car as she was sobbing and shaking.  I still wanted to run home and shower and let Kayla know what was going on because I never communicated anything to her before leaving the house.  I started towards home, feeling guilty that I was going to make her wait so that I could feel presentable for the public, but made an abrupt u-turn because I knew that Stevie was really hurting.  Off to the ER we went.  I hate that un-showered feeling while sitting in such a dirty atmosphere.  It makes me twitch.  The ER was busy which meant that Stevie waited for help longer than I was comfortable with.  And then the nurse that put her IV in failed at his first attempt so she had to endure another try.  They gave her morphine for the pain which really seemed to help a lot.  She ended up with about 3 doses through out the day.

Because they were worried about possible appendicitis, they made her drink a special liquid used for CAT scans over the period of two hours.  I'm not sure if her pain made her vomit or the drink did, but she lost it at one point.  Thank goodness for Zofran.  After a long day in the ER they were finally able to get her into CAT scan where it was revealed that her appendicitis was intact...but they informed us that she had ruptured a cyst on her right ovary.  That explained the acute pain that she had at school.  Poor girl has barely started puberty and she's already having problems.  I took her home where she slept the rest of the afternoon/evening away.

HAPPY SPRING!

(this is how my girls went off to school this morning...)

DANCING DUO

These two lit up the dance floor with their 'swing' style of dance.  I love that my kids know how to have fun together.  Kaleb had no shortage of dancing partners either as he tallied about 19 different dances with 19 different girls.  That boy knows how to 'smooze' the ladies. :)

(sorry for the blurry, less than ideal cell phone pictures)

DAY THREE...

This isn't a great picture to show the redness because of the lighting, but as you can see, the infection has spread once again.  The ER marked his arm for the third time to outline the red and sent him up to the infusion unit to receive IV antibiotics for his cellulitis.  He'll continue taking his two oral antibiotics and will go back in tomorrow and the next day for IV treatments.  Hopefully THIS will allow his arm to start the healing process AND allow this family a hiatus from any more hospital trips.

(It's not so bad when you get to spend the afternoon watching March Madness)

ENCORE...(from 2008)

St. Patrick's day

I'm hoping this guy will make another debut in our house tonight!

(he's FUNNY!)
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!