Almost There

Driving for 24 hours is a long time. I think I preferred driving 24 hours straight because it goes by much faster. We left after Mike got off work on Friday instead of waiting until Saturday…just because we were ready and the girls were SO excited to get going.

We stayed the first night in Salem, Oregon at a Comfort Inn. We asked specifically for a King Suite so that we could have a separate room from the girls. Usually those suites have a king closed off from the rest of the room by a door. Then a fold out couch in the outer area. So, we were so disappointed at 1:30 am to find our “King Suite” was only a couch separated from a bed by a half wall! This was a major bummer since the girls were squirmy and sniffley so they kept Michael from falling asleep and then woke him with potty trips.

In the morning we did at least get a nice free breakfast at the hotel and a quick dip in the pool for the girls. Then we were off again.

We drove and drove and drove and stopped only a couple times. We stopped for an Olive tasting at a place called the “Olive Pit”! And then we stopped for a tasty dinner at Denny’s in Stockton. As an added bonus, on Saturdays, kids eat free there! We drove a couple more hours and stayed in Kettlemen City. We had stayed there on our way home two years ago. With more specific questions we made reservations there because it actually had a King Suite! We slept nicely last night. No swimming in the morning though because the pool was closed.

While driving, the girls watch a lot of movies on the portable dvd player. As long as a movie is playing there isn’t much complaining. We also listened to Artemis Fowl, an audio book. I made the girls a travel journal before we left so they could do activities and record what we did.

We are almost ready to head south of Phoenix, south to Maricopa. It will be nice to be done driving!!

Going to Arizona

We are so excited because we get to go visit my family in Arizona! We’ll get to see my mom and dad, my sister and her family and my grandparents. The girls are really looking forward to the trip (though I don’t think they remember how long we have to drive.) I have been looking forward to another road trip.

I spent this week trying to make sure we were ready. I hope we have everything we need. We had to pull out the summer clothes…and buy some new summer stuff. At least we’ll be ahead for our summer!

I can’t believe that there is just two and a half months left before summer. The years are flying by so fast now. Life has just been passing me by lately and I can’t quite get my bearings.

While I was sick I was having feverish nightmares about an event we had planned at church. It was going to be a great luncheon and fashion show, but I realized I had bitten off more than I could chew. We were missing a “coordinator” for the event and I thought I could carry the weight, but realized I couldn’t! I had to let the other ladies on our ministry team know that we could not go through with it unless we found that person. We never found a coordinator, so we had to cancel it. In the end, I think everyone was relieved, but it was still sad to give up on a neat special event.

Right now I need to focus on the position I am doing for ladies’ ministries and quit trying to do a little bit of everything. Since I am planning to transition out of this position this summer, I have to work on simplifying this it so it is easier for the next person. I have a lot of loose strings to tie up before I am done, but I am also looking forward to a new season.

Anika starts kindergarten starting this fall, so that will change things for me. I am reading up on writing and I really want to try to write some freelance articles. I have some ideas,  but no time to work on them.

The other thing that I want to spend my time on is a few house projects. I am enjoying the results of the painted white trim. The office is done and the kitchen and hallway are primed. When we get back home I’ll get that project finished.

While Mike was gone I had a few friends over and that reminded me of another part of my life that I miss. I haven’t made any efforts to have friends over and it used to be a priority for me to have people over about once a week.

Nothing too exciting happened this week as we prepared for spring break, so I don’t have any pictures this time. I’ll take lots while we are in Arizona to make up for it!

He’s Home!

Michael made it home today and within a few hours he had our computers up and running again. He is a wiz. So far we haven’t seen any missing or corrupt files, but it is still possible. He’s got more problems at work he has to deal with…poor guy. I guess those stupid computers give him job security at least.

While we missed Michael while he was gone, we had a busy week. On Monday night we went to a math night put on by the school district. They gave out free pizza and pop and had childcare for Tegan and Anika. Kelby and I went to the “class” and learned some neat math games to play to practice math.

On Tuesday night we had our friends, the Hollopeters, over for dinner. Their daddy is in Iraq right now. They have girls all the same ages as ours, so we have matching families. Us girls all ate dinner and played a little Wii and other games. It was great fun! Dinner was yummy except for the part where I burned the bread and all the fire alarms went off! It was a good laugh.

On Wednesday I got to have my book club over. It has been awhile since I’ve had any groups over. I just LOVE it. We read the book “Fireproof” for this month…Great book. It’s a pretty good movie too.

We were busy to make the time go by fast.The girls really missed Mike this time. Now that we got our guy home we are all happy.

Computers and the Touch of Death

Well, for some reason, I have developed the "touch of death" when it comes to computers. This is not good for someone that is married to a "computer guy". It started last weekend when I could not get my computer to hook to the projector at church. The screen went blank and wouldn't function...which caused me a lot of grief since I was supposed to teach a "Getting the Most Out of Your Computer" workshop!

Then, when I got home, found that same computer would not get power through it's cord and the battery went dead. We were down that computer until the new power cord was ordered and delivered.

Then, said "computer guy" leaves town and I try to do a great project and make his office "pretty". (Only he doesn't care about the pretty...so it was more for me than him.) I moved all the computers to the middle of the room so I could paint all the trim white. This particular room has had half white trim, half wood trim for over a year and a half. Upon moving Mike's computer, it got restarted because the power strip button was tripped. Now, these things happen all the time and computer s restart just fine...but this one decided to get all messed up and I had to admit it to Michael and now he has a GIANT headache on his hands when he gets home.

When the painting project was finished I decided to put everything back and this involved moving the server computer back to where it belonged. I VERY carefully pushed it back. I didn't hit the power button or anything and it decided to restart itself and not come back alive!

This is even worse because it has all our pictures and files on it! I prayed as it tried to restart itself...please God let this one work fine...but it didn't. It got all messed up and now the only computer that has internet access is this laptop and that is probably only for awhile. I can't get to any files on the server, so there's no computer for me until Mike gets home.

So, I've given him another headache upon headache. I'm so thankful he is forgiving. I feel so bad. I sure don't want to touch anymore computers because I have the touch of death. PS. Don't move computers when they are powered on.

It is all very humbling to know how little I actually know about computers and how easy it is to make a mistake and how hard it is to have no solutions or control over the matter. I'm sure there's a lesson I'm supposed to learn in there. It certainly makes me more empathetic for people in this economy who've lost their homes or jobs. They feel like there is nothing they can do...no way out of this trouble...some feel like they didn't do anything to deserve this heartache. Luckily I have my Michael to turn to in my situation. I can trust that he knows what to do and can make it right...even if there are financial consequences or lost data, it will be okay in the end and I just have to WAIT. Those that have lost jobs/homes do have someone to turn to too. Their Father God knows the situation and how to fix it. He loves them and will help them through, but they may also have to WAIT. That is hard!

But hey, at least the office looks good! I've made my way back into house projects. There are a few things around that house that need to be finished that have been bothering me for years. I've been too busy to work on them, but I'm excited to make a little headway. I'm going to paint all the trim and doors in the house white. I LOVE that look. Now I know it isn't too hard either (except for the breaking computers part). I haven't started painting doors yet though, so I don't know how hard that will be. I'd rather put in new white 6-panel doors. Maybe I'll give it a try some day.

As for what has been going on around here. We are all better from fever, but I believe there is still some lingering affects to the flu. Everyone is a little more tired and cranky than they were before the sickness. Anika has developed the bad habit of saying "no" to me and not doing what she's been asked to do. Kelby started crying for no reason last night and didn't want to go to school today. She said it's because of a particular rude boy, but I know he has always been a problem and she is more emotional because she'd tired.

The weekend was fine. We went roller skating on Saturday morning and I treated the girls to Krispy Kreme donuts afterward. We went to Target and everyone got a new headband. It is fun to do small special things like that.

We made it to church on Sunday because I don't believe we are contagious anymore. Then Tegan invited her cousin over and Kelby's friend Taylor came over. It was so nice for them to have friends because otherwise they would have been so bored. The neighbor girl came over eventually for Anika to play with, so everyone was happy. Later that afternoon, Kelby was taken by Taylor's family to a "donkey basketball" game. That family is so kind to Kelby. It is good to see her with such a great friend. They made "bow and arrows" out of sticks together yesterday too...very creative!

Anika and Tegan are signed up for day camp at church this summer. I found out that it is the same week as the Girl Scout camp again, so I won't be able to be the craft person for it this year. I'm so disappointed, but this is Anika's first year and Tegan's last year for church day camp , so we can't miss it! (PS. Fundraising will start in May...wink, wink). I didn't sign Kelby up for the overnight camp they have for her age because it is SO expensive...$335 for the week. I'm on the look out for a cheaper Bible camp, so we'll see...I've got leads. I loved camp when I was a kid...I believe it made a huge difference in my faith growing up. (Thank you Mom and Dad and Gigi & Papa for helping me get there!)

Okay, so this is a longer message for today. Hope you are at least entertained!

Turns out that my internet connection did die before I posted this, so now when you are reading this my husband has already returned and fixed all my problems for me! I know I’m lucky to be married to a man with skillz!

Back at School

I just thought you all might want to know that everyone is finally on the mend. The fevers broke. Tegan went to school yesterday and Kelby went back at lunchtime today! Anika didn’t make it to preschool, but she is also getting better. Everyone is still pretty tired out, but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Still Sick!

Well, we have been hoping each day that “maybe tomorrow the girls will feel better.” It has now been six days of fever for all three. Poor babies. I only had the fever for three days and then started feeling better.

I took them to the doctor today and, as always, there isn’t anything they can do. The doctor thinks its the flu that has hit the valley. It’s going around, though  I think it is unusual for the fever to last this long. I thought it might have turned into pneumonia or something. Doctor says they are okay and just need to focus on getting plenty of liquids.

They are a sad story…just laying around all day watching cartoons or napping. They all have a horrible cough. I’ve got the cough still, so we are quite the bunch. Also, I’m about to loose my mind from being home-bound. 

It snowed today! It was lovely and yet the kids were so sick they didn’t even want to go out and play in it! That’s when you know it is serious.

I hope they get better soon, because I don’t want them to get behind in class. Maybe we’ll go get some school work tomorrow. They weren’t showing any improvement today, so I’m just assuming they’ll miss tomorrow too.

Very Lazy Day Today

The girls are all still out of commission. We didn’t do anything except sleep and watch cartoons. 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelby wouldn’t show herself for the camera, but it would have scared you anyway. They all look so miserable!

Sick Sick Sick and more Sick

Well, some of you have missed my posting. To be honest, I'm glad to be missed.

On Sunday night I started feeling yucky and woke up with a fever and chest congestion to beat all. I was wiped out and had to cancel all my plans for the next three days. I could not even function. Mike even had to take the day off work to take Kelby down to her periodontist appointment for me  on Wednesday morning. Then on Wednesday afternoon when I took Kelby back to school, I had to pick Tegan up because she was not feeling good. Picked Anika up from preschool and found she had a 101.0 fever. By the time Kelby got home from Studio A last night, she was about that too.

No school for the sickies today. They moped around pretty miserable all day. There is no school tomorrow, so that is kind of a bummer way to spend a 3-day weekend.

Last weekend Mike ran a race in LaConner. Anika and Tegan got to run in the kids dash.

 

  I was a little nervous for this race because Mike’s race number was 666 this time!

Sold some Girl Scout cookies this weekend too.

On another note, Kelby has to have her tooth (the deformed root part) ground down to help the gum grow back up over the root and heal. That is  a big bummer. I guess that will be happening in a couple weeks.

Hopefully the girls get better quicker than I do, or it might be a pretty lame weekend.