Happy Halloween!

The boys are out trick or treating as I write this down. Keira is on the floor in her little ducky costume. So cute. The boys are Cameron, a pirate, and Garrett, Robin Hood. I will have to post pictures later. Last night we went out at Memaw and Pops house and got some candy. The boys love it and when we go out there I can go with them since I don't have to man the door. It is fun for all.

Yesterday during the day was spent at the Magic house with the family. Cameron was off school on Thursday and Friday because of Teacher conferences. We had our first parent/teacher conference on Thursday and Cameron got a glowing report. We sometime thought is this the same kid? We were not surprised as far as his grades. I am going to brag a little, he got E's on everything except things that you expect boys not to get E's on. If you are the Mother of a boy you know what I mean. Like sitting still in class and listening all the time. He does pretty well, but not excellent. Anyway, back to the Magic house. We had a great time. It was the first time that we had been there since they expanded. It is now so big and we didn't even get around to everything. However, it was a great family time which we have had two days of in the last week. We are trying to make up for the crazy busy times in the past and to come.

Last Saturday we reserved for a day trip. It did not turn out exactly as we planned, but we ended up having such a good time together. Our plan was to go on a trip down through Defiance, Mo and on through Washington and come back the highway. On the way over Mike and I had a big disagreement and ended up driving the first hour in silence. That was not what I would have chosen. However, by the time we reached my old High School we were starting to talk again. Mainly because Mike didn't know where we were going, but we opened up from there. When we reached Defiance we got out and took a walk on the Katy Trail. It was beautiful weather, but the trees were not quite as pretty in MO as they were here. The leaves had already started to fall over there. Mike and I had a nice walk and talk on the trail and completely made up. The boys were entertained while they were walking because they each found a caterpiller that they carried with them along the way. Cameron's caterpiller kept pooping all over him so he generously gave it to Garrett when Garrett lost his somewhere. Then we hopped back in the car to continue on our way. We decided to take a little detour to Daniel Boone's house because neither of us had been there in so long. The detour ended up changing the whole course of the day (I'm sure God had this in mind) because on the way there Mike and I were both distracted by Garrett in the back seat and Mike went off the very narrow road. He got back on but we had a flat tire. The blessing was that God had made sure we had this mishap right by an intersection so that we could pull off. It's just a flat no biggie. We had a spare so Mike and the boys changed the tire. I even helped a little and it was a good lesson for everyone. The flat was on and now we were ready to go right? Wrong, the spare was flat also. No problem we'll call AAA. Mike looks at his phone and he is almost out of batteries and my phone is completely dead. Better talk fast. Mike calls and finds a place to be towed to but they will only haul 1 person in the tow truck. At last count we have 5 people in our family. Luckily, being out in the middle of nowhere lends itself to people stopping and asking if you need help. A nice couple stopped to let us use their phone to call Mike's parents to come pick us up, mind you they are an hour away. They weren't home anyway. Well, beforementioned nice couple says they can give us a ride once they drop of a ladder. Ok. They leave us one of their phones to call them when the tow truck comes. Meanwhile, we break out the snacks that we brought for the trip. Let me just mention that through all of this none of us were upset or angry or anything except enjoying our time together. I guess we got all of that out earlier in the day. Plus, we had already spent several hours as a family which is when we all get filled. The tow truck comes and so does the other couple. Unfortunately, they didn't notice the baby before. They didn't have enough seats for everyone because they were in their work van. No problem, Cameron was able to ride in the very fast tow truck. The couple that I was riding with did not know their way to highway K and N because they were from Heritage Landing and everything had changed to much that I didn't know the way either. It certainly was not a small two lane road anymore. The tow truck driver was going so fast that he lost us. Eventually we found our way through calling someone to give us directions. What an adventure! In the meantime Mike's parents were frantically on their way to get us. Mike called and told them that we were at Dobb's getting a new tire which cost us a small fortune between that and the tow. Dobb's was our only option and they were getting ready to close in half an hour so beggers can't be choosers. After our great adventure we were very hungry so we ate at Bandana's Barbeque and began our journey home. All in all, it was a great family day even though it didn't end up the way we had planned.

At Home

The last two weeks have not been a normal schedule for me because Cameron has been off of school for so long. On Monday the twelfth he was off for Columbus day. That was fun. Memaw took us out to the fabric store (to buy slip cover material for her wing back chair) and the toy store for the boys. They each got to pick out a toy because they were so good in the fabric store. Then last Tuesday and Wednesday Pop took Cameron to school and picked him up so I didn't have that part of my routine to do. Then starts the sickness cycle. On Wednesday Cameron came home from school and that night he had a fever, no other symptoms except the fever. Well, the policy at school is that they don't come to school for twenty-four hours after the fever. Okay, he stayed home Thursday. He doesn't have the flu he just has a bad cough. No fever again until that night. Great, I have to keep him home again. I call the doctor on Friday but since he has a low grade fever they don't want me to bring him in because he might get something worse there. He still acts just fine, still bouncing off the walls. All through the weekend he seems good just the cough and sniffles I suspect has more to do with allergies and less with anything else. Monday morning we get up and he goes to school. Yeah, he's better, I can get on with my normal routine. No! At noon the school office calls and Cameron has a headache. I bring him home and give him some tylenol and he goes straight to bed, naps for an hour and a half and wakes up just fine. No fever, just a headache. Tuesday he goes back to school and he is just fine in the morning. I asked him about 5 times if his head hurt or anything like that. The answer is no. At 10:30 I get a call from the office, Cameron is crying because his head hurts. He has another headache, by the time I pick him up his head is fine and he is bouncing off the walls and playing like a normal boy. Okay, what is wrong with him? I call the doctors office again and insist that I bring him in. That was yesterday at 1:45. He has a sinus infection so he is not contagious. He is on antibiotics and will be on some allergy meds as soon as the insurance company approves them. At least let's hope they approve them. They are the same ones that he was on last year at this time and they worked in getting rid of his congestion. The doctor says he is okay to go back to school. That brings us to today. I take him to school and the princepal says he has to go back home because he hasn't been symptom free for 24 hours, even though he no longer has a headache and he his sinus infection is not contagious. The media hype about H1N1 has everyone on edge so even though Cameron is just fine, in fact he is outside playing on his big wheeel right now, he can't go to school. He has missed 3 whole days and 2 half days of school due to a sinus infection. None of those days has he been really sick. He has just been playing and doing his normal things. It's a little frustrating.

What's Up?

Hello everyone in cyber world! Let's see what is new in our neck of the woods. It has been raining for two whole days. That is a bummer, but on Wednesday I took Garrett and Keira to the park for an afternoon of fun. Cameron had chapel earlier that day and his class was on stage performing a song called "Adam and Eve" set to the tune of the Adams family. It was very cute. He is learning so much and having great fun at it. Garrett is adjusting to life without his brother. He has discovered pbskids.org on the computer and he loves playing all of the learning games.
He is also my lap buddy while I am sewing which has been quite a bit lately. I've been busy with embroidery, hemming pants, making quilt blocks and so forth. I have learned to divide my day into three phases and I am very productive this way. The house chores are the thing that falls off the plate most often. If I do one or two little things in a day it's good. Speaking of which, I guess that I had better go make dinner soon. What to make, what to make...

Just a few things to let you all know about if you live in the area. Next week at First Baptist church of Maryville we will be hosting Team Impact. They are a group made up of several very, very strong men who will be demonstrating their feats of strength as well as sharing the gospel. It looks like it will be really cool. I think that the boys are really going to like it. If you think you would be interested I can give you more details. Another thing is that my MOPS group is having a fund raiser by selling some homemade mixes for a donation of $5.00 each. We have Oatmeal spice cookie mix, Leftover soup mix, rich and creamy hot cocoa mix (this is so delicious, nothing like the mixes in the store) and whole grain pancake mix. These would make great Christmas gifts for teachers, bosses, work gift exchanges or whoever. If you would be interested in these items I need to know by November 5th that is when we are making the mixes.