UpperCase Living

In a previous post about Rachel's cool new room, I mentioned that I got some of the stuff from UpperCase Living. (You can check out her cool surfboard, flip flops, and other stuff by clicking here.) Here are a couple of other pictures of stuff that I got. This first picture is our front door. The "Welcome" I received FREE because of the amount of my order! I think it looks great on the front door! (I was able to choose what color I wanted.)

I'm ashamed to admit this, but my sister-in-law, Wendy, got me this cool photo wall hanging a couple of years ago, and I just finally got it put up last week while Robert was home! Talk about procrastination! Anyway, after I hung it up, I remembered that I had another FREE thing from UpperCase Living that would look perfect with the wall hanging. This one says "Family" and I think it looks pretty good! Here's the picture...

I'm having an UpperCase Living open house on March 27th, and I'll be ordering more things then!! Stay tuned for more photos after the open house!

Parent/Teacher Conference and Technology Fair

Rachel's school has three "fairs" each year: social studies fair, technology fair, and science fair. It is not mandatory that a student enter a project. Rachel decided that she wanted to do a project for the Technology Fair. She chose to do a Kidspiration project. (Kidspiration is a computer program that they use at her school during computer class. You can also get a 30-day free trial download from their website, which is what we did so that Rachel could do it at home.) Anyway, the projects had to be turned in on Tuesday, and the winners were announced Wednesday afternoon right before school was out. Rachel was so excited to hear her name called! She won second place in her division (1st Grade - Kidspiration project). (I'm not positive, but I think there might have only been 2 entrants in her division!!!) Thursday evening was the PTO meeting in which they recognize the winners of the Technology Fair. Here's a picture of all the 1st grade winners...

Here's a picture of Rachel with two of her friends, Catherine and Brady, and they all 3 are on the same soccer team this spring!

Here are some pictures of Rachel and Katelyn, along with their friends Catherine and Virginia, before the PTO meeting started...

This week was also Parent/Teacher conferences at school, and my conference with Rachel's teacher just happened to be last night before the PTO meeting. Rachel got a wonderful report from Mrs. Wilson!! She's doing very well - reading well above her grade level, acing all her spelling tests, and doing super in math! I'm so very proud of her! Here's Rachel and Mrs. Wilson last night...

"Honey Do" List

Last week Robert had a couple of days that he didn't have to work since he didn't start his new job until Monday. He used that time to do some things on his "honey do"list. He knew I'd been talking about wanting to paint the living room, so last Wednesday he suggested that after we took the girls to school that we go to Home Depot and get the paint and start on that. So we did just that. As some of you may know, my favorite color is BROWN, followed by BLUE. Our walls in our house are a very, very light brown/cream color. The actual name is "ancient stone" in case you're curious! Anyway, I've always wanted a darker brown wall color. My dilemma was that we have a new couch and it's brown! So I didn't want a brown couch up against a brown wall. So I came up with a plan - paint the wall that the couch is on BLUE, and then paint the other 3 walls BROWN! I thought it was a grand idea and Robert just went along with whatever I wanted! Robert did the rolling while I did all the trim work - we make a great team! Anyway, I'm so pleased with the results!!! I really like how the colors look on the wall. Here are some pictures - see what you think.

Another project that Robert did was to get the garage in better order, partly because his new van is bigger than his old car, so it takes up a little more room in the garage. Plus, this was something that we had discussed before since our garage is fairly small - if we could get stuff up off the floor then we'd have more room. So instead of bikes, scooters, balls, strollers, etc. surrounding the perimeter of the garage, this is what we have now...

I'm sure Robert was glad to go back to work on Monday so that he didn't have to do anymore from his "honey do" list!

Basketball Update

Basketball season is almost over. Time sure does fly by when you're having fun!! Week before last Rachel didn't play because she was sick. She actually went to the game, but just sat on the bench beside Robert. This past Saturday she played a great game! She plays AWESOME defense! She doesn't just follow her man around - she actually bends her knees, gets down in defensive position, puts her hands out, and slides side to side to guard her man! She really is a good defender! Rachel shot several times and had several near misses, but did end up with 4 points. She actually had a steal and dribbled the length of the court and made the shot!!! This Saturday will be the last basketball game, and then next week we start soccer practice!!!

Job Change, New Van, and More

In addition to dealing with the girls being sick over the past couple of weeks, Robert has also been in the midst of a job change. Last Monday was actually his last day at his old job and today is his first day at his new job. It's a very similar position to what he had - just with a different company. He'll still work out of the house and have a territory here in our part of the state. His territory is actually a little bit smaller! One of the differences with this job that affected us was their company car policy. In Robert's previous job, the company provided a car for him to drive. Everything was taken care of - cost of gas, maintenance, insurance, tags, etc. This new job is a bit different. Instead of providing a company car, they give you a monthly car allowance and pay for your business mileage. It probably all works out about the same - just a different business policy. Anyway, when Robert decided to accept this new job, we pretty much had to immediately go out and get a new car since he would be turning in his company car when he left his old job. And since the company is paying an allowance, they do have some criteria - like the car cannot be older than 4 years old in whatever calendar year you're in. For example, since it's 2008 he must drive a 2004 or newer car. If he were to get a 2004 car to drive this year, then he'd have to get a newer car for 2009 because of the 4-year or newer requirement. We discussed what to do, but ultimately decided to go with a new car so that he can drive it for 4 years. After 4 years, I'll start driving it and he'll get another new car. Our philosophy is that basically we'll be letting the company buy all of our cars from now on, and I'll just take Robert's leftovers!! Anyway, since our plan is for me to get the new car in 4 years, we wanted something that I would want to drive in 4 years, taking into account the girls and their activities, etc. So guess what? We bought another Nissan Quest van!!! So now we have matching vans!!! Mine is blue and his is gray!!! It brings back memories of earlier in our marriage when we both had Nissan Sentras - mine was blue and his was gray!!!! It's kind of funny, but hey - we like our current van so why not get something that we already know we like!!! I'm thinking that Nissan needs to use us in one of their commercials or something!!! HaHa!!!

Rachel's Cool New Room

Over the past few weeks we've been working on changing Rachel's room into a BIG GIRL room! She previously had the same theme she'd had since she was born! She really liked her Blue Jean Teddy theme, but we all agreed it was probably time to move on to something else. The bottom half of her wall was already painted blue, so I was hoping to find something that had blue in it. Rachel's favorite color is green, so she wanted something with green. I was so excited when I found this comforter set at Target! It has 3 shades of blue and 2 shades of green! How perfect! We decided to paint the top half of Rachel's wall green. I stepped "out of my box" and decided to paint stripes on just one wall. This was a bit alarming to Rachel - she is the daughter of 2 math minds! She wanted it to be a pattern - either stripes on 4 walls or 2 walls, but not just one! That's not symmetrical!!! But we did it anyway! We decided that the blues and greens were kind of "beachy" colors, so we went with a beach theme. We looked for flip flops, surf boards, hawaiian things, etc. I think it has come together pretty nicely! I was really pumped about some of the things I found. First of all, I went to an UpperCase Living Party at my friend Julie's house. For my Smyrna friends, you know that I NEVER go to these kind of things. Not sure what got into me, but I decided that I wanted to go. I found so many things I liked, especially for Rachel's room. I got her the surfboard, her name above her surfboard, the flip flops with "Where's the Beach?", and the "surf, sun, sand." This stuff is really cool! And for those of you who live near me, I'll be having an open house on March 27th! Anyway, back to Rachel's room! We had collected a ton of shells when we went to Navarre Beach last year, so we got a glass container to display some of the shells in. Puddin had made me a couple of frames that she decorated with shells, so those were perfect for Rachel's room. I bought several canvases and painted various things on them to hang in Rachel's room. YES - I painted those! And I ordered a poster of various beach pictures. All in all I think it looks pretty good!

Fun at the Bowling Alley

Yesterday schools were out here for sickness (again), so we decided to do something fun since all 4 of us were here at home. We headed to a local bowling alley for some fun. When we got there, we were the ONLY ones there! We had the entire place to ourselves! After a short time, another family showed up who we happened to know. So they bowled in the lanes right beside us. We had lots of fun! And for the record, Robert beat me the first game, but I beat him the second game!

Cardboard Fun

What do you get when you have Katelyn, cardboard, LOTS of tape, and some Kleenex? You get a cardboard house! Last week Rachel was sick, so Katelyn had to try and stay away from her. Katelyn was so good at occupying herself. She found some cardboard I had saved, got some tape, and went to work. The first day, she just built a square house. She used a ton of tape to hold it together. She then proceeded to make beds, by cutting small pieces of cardboard and covering them with Kleenex. Of course if you have beds, you must also have pillows! So that was the next task. Katelyn said she was making this house for her little stuffed puppy.


After completing the first stage of the house, Katelyn continued by adding a second floor! She now referred to the bottom floor as the bedroom, and the top floor was the playroom. Once the playroom was constructed, she started making bookcases and books! All of this was made out of cardboard, tape, and Kleenex!


The next phase of construction consisted of adding a second building/room that was the living room. After that was the kitchen. Let me tell you that the kitchen was complete with an oven and microwave! The microwave was an over the stove mounted microwave! And here's what's even more hilarious. Rachel had made something that resulted in a scrap piece of paper in the shape of a circle. Katelyn got that piece of round paper and put it in the microwave. She said "Look Mommy, we have a circle thing in our microwave and I have a circle thing in my microwave!!!" She was referring to the glass turntable in the microwave!!


Since then, Katelyn has added several other features, including making a potty and a bathroom! There's even a stone walkway leading out the front door! Katelyn has had so much fun cutting and taping the past 2 weeks! She has literally worked on this masterpiece for hours! Rachel helped a little bit after she got over being sick, but for the most part, it was all Katelyn's ideas. Maybe Katelyn has a future as an architect!

Update

I just wanted to update you on my friend Michelle. She got to go home from the hospital on Sunday! It is pretty much a miracle! Here's a part of what her mom had to say in a recent email:

"The physicians said that Michelle was truly in a life threatening situation when they took her to ICU on Monday morning. After several blood transfusions, she looked better, but was really fearful of having to go back into surgery if the bleeding didn't stop. All the reports that we got on Monday evening looked good only to be called early Tuesday morning to say that they were taking her to surgery within the hour. Ed and I had the baby and called for someone to come take care of him. Ed went on to the hospital while I waited for baby back-up. Neither one of us got there before she went to surgery. I had been very upset all week, but the Lord just gave me a peace about the surgery. She did beautifully and they were able to stop the bleeding after cleaning five to six units of blood out of her abdomen. Things have gotten progressively better since then.

The staff at the hospital has been wonderful with many little miracles worked into it. For example, the night she was passing out, someone from her BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) small group took her case. The other nurses assumed extra cases so she could work solely with Michelle. She did the best nursing job I've ever witnessed firsthand. One of Michelle's closest friends was assigned to her surgery as the surg tech when she was so afraid. He met with her prior to the 2nd surgery and told her that it was the first time he'd seen her without her "game face" on. He prayed with her and for her during the surgery. There are many other such stories, but I won't keep going on."

Thanks to everyone who read my previous post and prayed for Michelle. Take a look at these pictures of Michelle and her little baby boy. Aren't these pictures precious? These were taken when she was being moved from ICU into a regular room and she hadn't seen him in 4 days.

So glad that you're home with your family Michelle!!!

Antibiotic Sisters

Guess who woke up with a fever this morning? Katelyn! So now Rachel has been running a fever since Monday and Katelyn has started running a fever today. Does that mean that we're in store for at least 5 days of fever with Katelyn? I hope not!!!

Anyway, I had already scheduled doctor's appointments for both girls this morning, so that was a good thing! Good news is the flu test was negative for both girls! Yeah! However, they definitely have something going on in their little bodies - bronchitis, sinus infection, some kind of respiratory crud! So, it's 10 days of antibiotics for both girls. Hopefully, this will take care of the crud that they've both picked up.

In case you're curious what Katelyn weighed, she's a whopping 31 pounds, 11 ounces! And that is fully clothed with jeans and a sweatshirt on!!! Oh yeah - and did I mention she'll be turning 5 years old in April?!?!?!

Sick Days

I got a call from the school nurse around 8:30 Monday morning telling me Rachel wasn't feeling well and had a slight fever. Rachel's normal temp is around 97.9, so when the nurse told me her temp was 99.7, I knew that was about two degrees higher than normal. And Rachel absolutely LOVES school, so I knew if she had gone to the clinic, she must be feeling pretty bad. I quickly dropped Katelyn off at her Mother's Day Out and headed over to get Rachel. As soon as we turned to leave the school building, she started crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said "But Mommy, I don't want to miss school!" We came home and got her PJs back on, and she laid around the rest of the day. Her temp climbed to over 102. Yesterday was pretty much the same - she laid around and her temp stayed between 102 and 103. At midnight last night it got up to 104. We celebrated a little when she woke up with a temp of under 100! That lasted until around 2:30 this afternoon, and then it shot back up to 102. BUT, she has felt a lot better today. I had a friend pick up Rachel's schoolwork yesterday, and Rachel actually did all of her work this morning. Then she worked on getting all of her valentines ready for her classmates. Rachel has taken a nap everyday this week, so I know she's sick because Rachel doesn't nap!!! Rachel was supposed to be in the 1st grade musical at her school last night, but obviously she was too sick. She hated to miss it, and I hated for her to have to miss it, but I guess these things happen sometimes. The next thing Rachel was really looking forward to was her valentine's party tomorrow. I wasn't so sure she would be able to go back to school tomorrow or not. But now I don't have to worry about that because the principal made my decision for me. Rachel's elementary school is closed until next Tuesday!!! They were already out on Monday because of President's Day. So I guess they're really just closed for sickness Thursday and Friday. But I'm glad - Rachel should be all well by Tuesday!!! And I don't have to worry about sending her back to school too soon. Evidently, just Rachel's school is closed. The rest of the schools in the county system are still open. But Rachel's school had like 20% of the kids out today and quite a few teachers as well.

I have to admit, I'm about to go stir crazy!!! Since 8:30 Monday morning the only time I've stepped outside of the house was to go to the mailbox! I'm used to going to the gym to work out everyday and it seems like there are always errands to run - bank, post office, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. But not this week! I've been homebound! Oh well, it's nice that I'm able to be here when we have a sick kid.

GOOD JOB JESSICA!!!

I just wanted to brag a minute on our niece, Jessica! She participated in the state swimming/diving meet last week and she came in 11th in the state in diving! Way to go Jessica!!!

Jessica is the one on the left with the red sweater holding Rachel.

Sport Girls

This past Saturday was Rachel's 5th game of the season. She just continually gets better with each passing week! Once again, she scored 6 points! That's 3 weeks in a row that she's scored 6!!! She is just doing so well! She had a couple of steals and some assists as well! She had one steal where she stole the ball, dribbled down the court, and made the shot! Way to go Rachel!!! You can tell that she enjoys playing because she smiles pretty much the entire time she's out there! When she does something really good, she has this really super sweet smile! It's almost like she's a little embarrassed she did something so good! It's cute!

Before the game, some of the girls on Rachel's team and Katelyn were playing around a little bit. Not sure how, but somehow it ended up Rachel (1st grade) and Katelyn (4 years old) against Anna (2nd grade) and Talor (2nd grade). When Katelyn would get the ball she'd just dribble all around. She would never try to get in close to the goal because she knows she can't shoot the ball up to the goal. But she can dribble, so she would just dribble everywhere. One of the referees said to Robert, "That little one out there is good! Maybe a future Lady Vol point guard!" Robert responded with "I'm not so sure - she's almost 5!" The referee's jaw dropped open - he was so surprised she was almost 5 years old! I'm not saying Katelyn wasn't doing a good job - she does probably dribble the basketball better than most kids her age. BUT, she's SO SMALL and most people think she's only like 2 or 3 years old. So when people see her do something like jump rope, hula hoop, dribble a basketball, sign Rachel out of school, etc. they are so impressed because they think she's just a toddler! It's still impressive she can do those things and she's not quite 5 yet, but it's not quite the same as thinking it's a 2 or 3 year old doing those things!!! But hey - Shannon Bobbit is small and she's managed to become a Lady Vol point guard, so there is hope!!!! But starting kindergarten at a whopping 30 pounds is probably not a good start to a college basketball scholarship! Katelyn's just small and petite - maybe tennis is a better option!

Speaking of sports, both girls have signed up to play soccer this spring. Last spring, Rachel played t-ball. She liked it okay, but when we gave her the option to play soccer or play t-ball, she chose soccer. Rachel does well in t-ball, but I think it was just a little boring for her. She likes to be moving and there was just too much standing around in t-ball. We have Katelyn the option of playing either sport too, and we were hoping she'd choose t-ball because size matters less in t-ball! But Katelyn chose soccer too! We kept asking her if she was sure and we kept bragging on how well she can hit the ball off the tee and how well she can hit the pitched ball, but she said she wanted to play soccer. So I guess we'll be at the soccer field this spring.

Last spring/summer Rachel participated in a little track program here, and the guy in charge actually let Katelyn do it too, even though she wasn't really old enough. Both girls have been asking when track starts! They are soooo excited about that starting up. Rachel was concerned if she played soccer she couldn't do track, so she was willing to not do soccer at all! I told her that soccer would pretty much be over before track started, so she could do both!

I'll be playing in a tennis tournament this week-end! It's the kick-off tournament to our adult spring season. I'll be playing women's singles. The girl I play first round is like 19-20 years old and plays tennis for a local college. That should be interesting!

Prayer Request

I know that this blog is usually just a light-hearted peak into our everyday life, but today's post is serious. I have a childhood friend, Michelle, who needs our prayers. Michelle has had medical problems since birth. The doctors actually told her parents that she would never walk, but she proved them all wrong and went on to play middle school and high school basketball with me! All through middle school and high school there were four of us that were best friends - me, Michelle, Lisa, and Amy. We have kept in touch over the years, although we don't get to see Michelle much. Michelle is a youth minister in Florida. We were able to all get together last year. Click here to see pictures and click here to read about that visit. Anyway, Michelle has a lot of medical problems. Doctors had warned her against ever getting pregnant, but Michelle and her husband Jimmy decided to put this is God's hands. Last year, they found out they were expecting their first child! They were very excited, but also very anxious as they knew this would be difficult on Michelle's body. Their baby boy was delivered on Friday and is doing well. Michelle, however, is not doing well at all. A CAT scan has revealed that her intestines are basically paralyzed, so they've had to stop giving her food & water and just use IV's. She is also bleeding internally and is now in ICU. The baby has been released from the hospital to Michelle's mom so that Jimmy can stay with Michelle. Please pray for Michelle, her family, and the doctors.

Happy Birthday Becca!

Just wanted to wish my friend Becca a very Happy Birthday today! Since I forgot to get a card in the mail, I just thought I'd use our blog to send her birthday wishes!! Hope you have a great day Becca!!!

Saturday Fun

Today was a good day! We started out the day with Rachel's basketball game. Robert & I agreed - it was her best game yet! She played so great on both ends of the court. She's doing great on defense! She stays right with her man. And Rachel's a great passer! She's always looking for one of her teammates - sometimes she passes too much! She'll pass up an open shot to pass it to a teammate. Today Rachel scored 6 points again! She did SUPER!!!

After lunch, we headed over to a local middle school to watch one of our friends, KoKo, play in the middle school district tournament. They were playing for 3rd place. If they won, then they advance to the regional tournament; if they lost, then the season was over. KoKo and her team played awesome and blew out the other team, so now they'll get to play in the regional tournament!

Later this afternoon, Robert & Rachel went outside to play while Katelyn napped. Rachel wanted to invite some of our new neighbors to come over and play, so she walked up to their door and asked them to come out and play. The mother and 2 girls came over to play. After Katelyn woke up, we went out to play with them too. We had fun and enjoyed a sunny afternoon outside. I think the girls enjoyed meeting their new neighbors! The 2 girls are in 2nd grade and kindergarten, so that's very close to Rachel & Katelyn's age. They played pretty well together.

Now we're getting ready for bed. The girls are relaxing to a movie - Buzby. It's a new movie they got for Christmas. It's one of Max Lucado's creations and it's pretty cute.

Hope you got to enjoy some sunshine today!

Just Some Pictures

These are just a few pictures I took of the girls one day this week. I think instead of buying valentines this year, I'm going to get photo cards. It's not that much expensive, and much more personal. The girls thought it would be fun to give their friends picture valentines! So I may use one of these pictures. We'll see. But I thought the picture of the girls hugging each other was really cute! The lighting on the picture of Katelyn by herself didn't turn out too well. Even when I tried to edit it, it still didn't look right. Katelyn came to look at it and said "But Mommy, I don't have dark skin!" So no, Katelyn hasn't been in the tanning bed and no, she hasn't been using self-tanner!

In case you happened to notice, yes, these pictures were taken before Rachel lost her tooth yesterday! I think these may have been taken on Wed. and she lost her tooth on Thursday. I just didn't get these posted in chronological order. Oh well!

The Tooth Fairy Strikes Again!

Yes - Rachel has pulled yet another one of her teeth! This makes #7! When I picked her up from school yesterday she had this sheepish, close mouthed grin on her face. Then I noticed a pink plastic string around her neck. It was her "tooth necklace." When kids lose a tooth a school, the school nurse puts it in a tooth shaped container, tapes it shut, and puts it on a plastic string as a tooth necklace. The kids love it! Anyway, Rachel had put her tooth necklace inside her shirt, trying to trick me. But I caught on pretty quick! She was quite excited to tell me all about it. Turns out, she bit into a cookie that almost took the tooth out, and then she pulled it. I was actually surprised that tooth had lasted this long. It had been pretty loose for a while, and she thought about pulling it last Saturday. But I think it was still hanging on a bit too much, so she decided to wait. Normally she wiggles the tooth constantly until she gets it out. I was expecting it to be out earlier this week. I was surprised it stayed in til Thursday! But the tooth fairy made a visit last night and left $2 for Rachel.

Anyone thinking we have braces in Rachel's future?!?!?!