A Not So Brief Recap of Our Week

Well, a lot has been going on in the past week since I last posted. Let's see if I can remember everything.

First of all, Robert & I both played in a tennis tournament over the Memorial Day week-end. We both played singles. I won my division and Robert came in 2nd in his division. The girls are always excited when we bring home a trophy! Everytime we go to play tennis, they tell us to "win a trophy!" And when we get home from playing, the first question is always "Did you win a trophy?"

This past week we've been cat-sitting for Lloyd & Wendy. So every day we'd go over there and check Rascal's food & water, clean his litter box, and play with him. He was always VERY glad to see us! And the girls loved it! They were sad when we went over yesterday morning as our last day of "taking care of Rascal." Robert told them we can still go see Rascal when we go see Lloyd & Wendy!! It's not like we won't see the cat again. They really like playing with Rascal, and let me tell you, Rascal lives up to his name! He is a rascal!!

Last Saturday as we (me, Rachel, & Katelyn - Robert was playing tennis) were pulling in the driveway from checking on Rascal, Rachel started whining. When I turned to look at her I knew what was coming. I immediately stopped the van, threw open the door, and tried to get her out, but I wasn't fast enough - she threw up in the van. After that, I got her out and into the house. Poor Katelyn was still sitting in the van, all buckled up in her carseat, with all the van doors open and vomit in the van! I went to get her out and told her to go upstairs and stay upstairs. She started crying and said "I don't want to stay upstairs by myself all day!" I explained to her that I needed to get Rachel taken care of and the van cleaned out and then I'd come see her. That calmed her down and she went upstairs and did what I told her to. In the meantime, I discover that Rachel is now running a fever. Throughout the day, her fever continues to rise, even with Tylenol every 4 hours, and by evening, it's up to almost 104! And like I said, that was with Tylenol all day. Rachel felt terrible and just slept or laid around. She didn't want to do anything at all. On Sunday, I stayed home with her since Robert teaches our Bible Study class. She still didn't feel good, but her fever was coming down. She still couldn't eat. By Monday morning, she was starting to feel better and was fever free. By Monday evening, she begged us to go outside and play, so once the playset got in the shade, we let her go outside for a little while and told her she had to be calm. She mainly played in the sandbox or on the swings. By Tuesday, she was still weak from not eating for a couple of days, but she was pretty much back to her normal self. And in case you're wondering - I did get the van cleaned out very well - there's not even a hint of an odor!! Of course, I used every possible cleaning thing I could think of that we had here at home!!!

On Tuesday night, Rachel had track practice! She's doing this 4 week track thing. It's a developmental program to get young kids interested in track and to teach them a little bit about it. The director saw her play soccer last Fall and told us "You need to get her in my track program!" Rachel loves to run. If you ask her what her favorite sport is she says "running the race." So we thought this would be a good little 4-week thing for her. Tuesday night she did good, even though you could tell she was worn out from the stomach bug she had just gotten over. But she was a real trooper and did everything she was supposed to! They even let Katelyn do the stuff! Katelyn was so excited and grinned from ear to ear the entire time!!! Anyway, they did some sprints, jumped over cones (to simulate hurdles), did the long jump, shot put, and then jumped rope.

On Wednesday morning the girls and I had dentist appointments. Puddin & Papa came down Tuesday night to spend the night with us so that Puddin could help me with the girls at the dentist since Robert had a work meeting that he couldn't reschedule. I was glad Puddin could come because while I was having my teeth cleaned in one room, the girls each had their teeth cleaned in another room. Anyway, we all got a good report from the dentist - no cavities!!! The girls did so good getting their teeth cleaned and getting a fluoride treatment!

On Wednesday afternoon, we had to take Katelyn back to the doctor for a recheck. At her 4 year check-up, the doctor was slightly concerned about her liver, and wanted us to come back in about 6 weeks to check it out again. She wanted to make sure that it wasn't enlarged. So that's what we went for. The doctor said everything was perfect!! She explained that if you have a cold and it affects your lungs, your lungs can expand and push your liver down and out of position a bit, or if you're having allergy/asthma problems, the same thing can happen. She's guessing that's what was going on the first time when we went for the 4-year check-up. But this time everything was fine and the liver felt like it's supposed to!! YEAH!!!

Wednesday night was church and the girls had a good time as usual! Robert helped out in Rock Solid, which is for the kids Rachel's age up through 5th grade. Katelyn went to the VeggieTales class and had a blast! I hung out in the resource room working on VBS stuff!! One of the crafts we're making for VBS is a notepad, so I was using the paper cutter to cut my foam and paper down to the right size. What fun!!!

Thursday morning the girls & I went to the gym so I could work out. Between the tennis tournament last week-end, Rachel being sick, and then dentist and doctor appointments, it had been almost a week since I had worked out - NOT GOOD!!! Rachel has been begging to go to Kid City (the childcare at the gym), so she got her chance!

Thursday night, Rachel had a t-ball game and track. We went to t-ball for a while, then left early so that we could get to track late! Rachel did good in her t-ball game. Her first at bat she had to use the tee and got a good hit. But her 2nd at bat she had a GREAT hit off a pitched ball! And she made a couple of good plays in the field and got someone out. She does really well. At track, she felt so much better than she did on Tuesday night and you could tell! They did some of the same things they did Tuesday night, and also worked on handing off the baton for relays!! Katelyn got to do it again too!! At the end of the practice, one of the older girls (she's 8) wanted to run a lap around the track like the big kids. (There are middle schoolers and high schoolers there practicing too.) So that girl went off to run her lap around the track. I could tell Rachel wanted to do it too, but was a little embarrassed about it. I asked her if she wanted to and she just grinned. So I told her to go on. She ran the entire lap - 400 meters!! And when she finished she wasn't even breathing hard! She did so good!!! Katelyn said she wanted to do it too, and we told her she could try, but she might just want to run to the end of the track and then walk back. She started out with the intention of running the entire lap, but I think she quickly realized that wasn't going to happen! She ran to the end of the track and then stopped and walked back to us. That's pretty good for a little girl with little legs!! It was probably close to 100 meters! So she did a good job too!!!

Last night we had plans on going to the gym so Robert & I could hit tennis, then eat a picnic lunch, then take the girls swimming at the outdoor pool there. However, the weather didn't cooperate and it started thundering while we were hitting tennis. So we made a change in plans. We went to eat at Fazoli's instead, and then tried to go see a movie. However, there was not a G rated movie playing at any theater we went to, even though one of the theaters bragged about having several family movies. Let me get on my soap box here. My girls are only allowed to watch G rated movies, and it absolutely blows my mind that parents of children my kids' ages (5 and 4) let their kids watch the movies that they do. Kids in Rachel's kindergarten class were talking about the Spiderman movies and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. What? I couldn't believe it! And then I would hear parents talking about taking their young kids (kindergarten and younger) to the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean. You've got to be kidding! It's PG-13 and you're wanting to take a 5 year old. That's ridiculous! And what about all the cartoon movies? I'm sorry - but most of the cartoon movies are NOT made for kids. Shrek is NOT a kid's movie! My girls do know who Shrek is because of all the advertisements, McDonald's stuff, merchandise, etc. But they do NOT watch it. We wonder why our kids act the way they do, say the things they say, have the attitudes they have, and seem to know more worldly things at 6 than we did at 15. Hmmm - I wonder why?!?!?! Could it be because we as the parents are allowing them, and actually encouraging them, to watch things they have no business of watching? I'm so glad that my girls absolutely love VeggieTales movies! And they think Clifford and Curious George are hilarious! And after striking out at the movie theater last night, guess what movie we rented? The BackYardigans! And the girls cackled during it. They're watching it again right now! Yes - they still even like Sesame Street, and I'm proud of them for admitting it! Rachel told me at one point during the year that she was the only one in her class who liked Sesame Street. And Katelyn came home from preschool one day and said that kids had told her that Elmo was for babies. What? At the time, Katelyn herself was only 3! Kids are having their innocence taken away at such a young age, and much of it is our own fault! Let the kids be innocent while they can! I know they can't live in a bubble and I can't control every word they hear, everything they see, etc., but I AM THE PARENT and I can make sure that what they do when they're with me is appropriate!! Speaking of appropriate - what about the music? We talked about this in class one day at church. Yes - I like country music. BUT, I don't listen to it when the girls are with me. Have you stopped and listened to the words of your favorite songs? Is it about drinking? Cheating? Sex? Is this what you want your kids listening to? One of the moms in our Sunday School class said she used to listen to country music radio on the way to school every morning until she heard her 4 year old singing at the top of her lungs "Save a horse, ride a cowboy!" Now that may initially seem funny and make you laugh, but after the initial smile, you'll find out that it's really sad and not funny at all.

Wow - I didn't start with the intention of going in that direction, but that's where I ended up and I'm not going to delete it. I guess you can tell I feel pretty strongly about that. I'm not trying to be "holier than thou" about the movie/music subject. Just trying to make you step back and think about what you're putting into those minds of our precious kids.

Okay - back to tennis. My team won our week-end league, so now we've got the local playoffs where the top 2 teams from the week-end league play against the top 3 teams from the weekday league. It's a round robin playoff. The top 2 teams from the playoffs advance to the state tournament. We have two matches today and 2 matches tomorrow afternoon. Our matches today will be tough. We play the second place team from our week-end league (we split with them during the regular season) and we play the first place team from the weekday league. Should be an exciting day of tennis!!!

Well, I'd be surprised if anyone's still reading at this point, so I'll just quit. Have a great week-end!