Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 82)

Jeff has been growing a beard for the start of the school year since 2008.  Every year he starts growing it a little earlier and earlier; usually right around my birthday in August and then shaves it between Halloween and Thanksgiving.  I hate the beard.  I really do.  I dread him growing it.  One year, I expressed my extreme displeasure of the beard only to be “informed” that he was growing it and it was his face and he knew I didn’t like it and he didn’t need to keep hearing me express my displeasure.  So I stopped saying anything…mostly.  This year he had indicated he was a little tired of it himself (unlike in other years where he kept it neatly groomed he just let it grow mountain man style this year) and maybe he would shave it before Halloween.  I shared how wonderful it would be to have a family pumpkin patch picture without the beard!  I went on to explain how every year when I’m picking Christmas card photo’s I think “if only Jeff didn’t have that beard….”  So this year, NO BEARD for our pumpkin patch picture!  YAHOO!!!

2008



2009



2010

2011

2012!!!!!!

Last Sunday, we spent 5 hours in the Emergency Room at Children’s Hospital with Scarlett.  Eariler that week, she complained her neck hurt but she would continue to play as usual and we would take her temperature frequently.  Becuase if you google neck stiffness and pain in children the first thing that pops up is Meningitis.  We watched her and she seemed fine.  I took the kids to the YMCA and Scarlett and Lavender played in the toddler childwatch area.  When I picked them up as soon as Scarlett looked at me she started holding her head and bawling.  She’d scream in pain if I touched her head or neck and had me carry her to the car.  The baby childwatch room has very little that she could fall off of…really…there is a small crawling tube and baby slide that Scarlett is taller than the slide is long.  She tearfully retold a story about a boy not letting her down the slide and she was on her butt and then slid back and hurt her head.  The description and the actual slide really didn’t match with the amount of pain she was in.  She cried on the drive home everytime I hit a bump or turned the car.  I had to carry her upstairs becuase she said her head hurt too much to walk.  We put ice on it at home and she laid on the couch.  We debated taking her in urgent care but, truthfully, we don’t much care for or trust the nearest urgent care facility and it certainly didn’t seem to deem a trip to the emergency room.  Meanwhile, we got ready for the family to attend Disney on Ice and gave her some ibuprofren.  We carried her to our seats, she sat stiff necked with a pained look on her face as she only moved her eyes to watch the Disney on Ice show.  She cried when we had to pick her up and put her in her carseat.  She cried that her neck hurt when she ate chicken nuggets.  She sat hunched over and chin tilted down.  She couldn’t lift her chin even up to a 45 degree angle.  By the time we arrived home, we decided to take her to urgent care…it was only then that I remembered that there was a Children’s Hospital Urgent Care near us but when I looked it up it was already closed so off we went to the local urgent care facility.  I thought Urgent Care.  Jeff thought ER.  We were in Urgent Care for 15 minutes when they said we really should go to Seattle Children’s Hospital as they weren’t equiped to perform the further tests that she would need.  So off we went….

The whole way Scarlett was crying in pain until she just fell asleep only to awoken when I hit a speedbump at the wrong angle.  She said her beck hurt, her head hurt and she couldn’t lift her chin upwards at all.  We wait.  We see the registration specialist.  We see the medication specialist.  Then the physician’s assistant comes in.  She checks Scarlett out.  Feels her neck, feels her head.  Scarlett is joking with the lady.  They rule out Meningitis but don’t know what’s causing her pain.  She gets a neck xray.  She gets an IV placed and they run bloodwork to test for infections.  She gets ibuprofen and Valum.  She gets another xray.  She gets a stuffed animal and about a dozen stickers. We’ve been there for 5 hours at this point and it’s 3am.  She doesn’t seem to be in as much pain but still no answers and Jeff & I are tired and irritable. We’re discharged and take her back to the van where she SCREAMS  in pain when we try to put her in a carseat.  I’m surprised that security doesn’t come around as it’s 3am in a dark parking lot with two adults and a child SCREAMING!  We manage to get her in only for her to say she has to pee.  I seriously contemplate just putting a diaper near her and dealing with the mess another day.  But we got the bucket in the back of the van out but there was no we were getting her back into a carseat so Jeff held her in the backseat all the way home.  She slept through the night and next morning.  Jeff took the day off of work, I took her to her doctor and still no real diagnosis except that it was likely muscular and to give her tylenol and ibuprofen for the pain but also reassured us that we were right to go to ER because if they didn’t have the reports from the ER they would have wanted to run them as well.  I’ve been trying to massage it for her and I can actually feel the heat from the inflamation in her muscles.  It’s been 4 days now and she is still very guarded with her movements.  I can’t brush her hair unless it is just washed as her head is too sensitive.  I haven;t taken her to dance class or to the Y as someone bumping into her sends her into pain.  In the mornings, she can’t get out of bed without rolling to her side and getting help.  I took her to the chiropractor and sure enough her spine was out of whack (technical terms) and she did regain some range of motion after one visit but we’ll be back for more treatments.  We don’t really know what caused her to become so out of align and in so much pain….hopefully she’s back to normal soon!

Just days ago I wrote of decluttering and selling our outgrown and unused kid stuff. How apt that today, I read a wonderful blog article about how Less is More over at Simple Mom. Over the lsat year on our financial diet I have often said to myself that I am choosing to spend less so we can have more…more freedom to take an unpaid day off work, more money to take a vacation, more money to pay off debt. Now I need to get into the mindset that having less in my house (and in storage) is choosing more. Let’s see how we can do that with the holidays coming up!

As part of the alternative learning experience (aka Homeschooling) agreement with the public school system that October participates in, I have to provide documentation for what she is learning at home in each of the core subjects.  At my last meeting, the teacher asked what we were doing for social studies.  We did all the first grade state requirements for social studies last year as the kindergarten standards were sparse and boring.  This year we’ve been studying Ancient Civilizations as our Social Studies curriculum.  Nonetheless, I looked up the 1st and 2nd grade state standards for social studies and I realized something.  Kids that are not confined to a classroom all day and who are out in their communities visiting libraries, museums, parks and participating in various activities are already learning most of what the state sets as standards.  For example here are some of the 1st grade standards:

Well duh….what parent hasn’t explained that if we spend all our money on toys we don’t have money for groceries.

Kids get and have been figuring out for awhile who was born first then next then next.

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?  Doesn’t the Why stage start about 3 years old and if you actually answer their questions they don’t ever stop asking why.

Here are some of the 2nd grade standards:

• Understands the physical  characteristics of places in the community.

• Understands and applies basic mapping elements such as symbols, compass rose, labels, and a key to read and construct maps that display information about neighborhoods or local communities.

Yes, if kids are out walking paths in their community they get where and what rivers are, lakes, marshes, etc and sometimes we even do follow maps to get places that have these characteristics as well.  And when we visit the zoo, October wants to read the map herself and guide us around which means learning how to read the map as we are also exploring the zoo.

• Knows and follows school rules.  Participates in creating and upholding rules for the
  classroom community.  Demonstrate ways to be a good citizen at home and  at school.

Don’t the kids learn this every time we talk about how to behave at the library, at the fish hatchery, at the park, that we pick up our garbage, we respect others and property?

I’ll continue teaching about Ancient Civilizations and continue comparing and contrasting to our life now.  And maybe I’ll even learn about geochaching and take the kids out to further work on map reading skills.  Now that would be fun!

Here a few pictures from our disappointing trip to the King Tut Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.

King Tut Muumy REPLICA – the actual mummy

The two toddler beds in the living room.  All of their toys are stacked in the far right corner.  October slept on a mattress on the floor and Jeff & I on the couches.

Dressers on the porch. 

It took one Monday morning for the carpet to be installed.  The day before we took the old carpet, the old bathroom vanity and our mattress to the dump.  That evening I went and picked us out a new bed.  I’ve never had a new bed before but tossing it to the dump necessitates a speedy decision on getting a new one.  (So far I think I’m getting used to the new bed – its MUCH MUCH firmer).  The carpet is nice and soft on the tootsies.  We went the next day to get October a loft bed at IKEA.  I wasn’t even sure it would fit in the room due to the ceiling height but it’s worked out quite nicely with the toddler bunk beds underneath.

Master bedroom emptied.

Kids room emptied.  We bought the kids princess wall stickers to make up for the neutral colors.

New carpet!

New carpet in the master bedroom.



October’s new twin sized loft bed and the toddler beds below.  The loft bed is tall enough for me to walk under.



View of the other side of the room.