A conference and artwork

Yesterday, I went to Daniel's parent-teacher conference at preschool. This was his final conference of this year, and we went over whether or not he is ready for kindergarten. Needless to say, he's more than ready. His teacher is pleased with the progress that he's made this year and has seen some definite improvements in a few areas.

After we got done talking to her, Daniel showed us his artwork that was on display throughout the school. Alex and The Dude were with us, and the boys loved showing us everything. Alex had fun exploring the school again since he went there last year, and we got to see lots of artwork.

Only a little over a month of school left, and then my baby is going to be a kindergartner. *sniff*

Now that the weather has cleared up again, we've been walking back and forth to school more. I love being able to walk there, and although the boys complain about it occasionally, they seem to enjoy it more often than not. It gives us exercise and fresh air, and makes the gas in the van last just a little bit longer, so I'm definitely not going to complain about it. Of course, it'll be much easier in the fall when they're both going to the same school!

Finally done with Halloween

It's over. Yay! The costumes are all packed away, and will not be seen again until next year. The candy will most likely disappear very quickly - into a safe hiding place (much like the Easter candy, which I just found about a week ago).

Alex had his Halloween parade at school this morning....

Even the teachers got into it and did a dance number....

I spent the afternoon in the glorious weather and finished up cleaning the corner of my yard.

Took all of the stuff to the landfill....

Got Alex from school....

And then Daniel and I hung out and watched movies and folded/put away laundry while Alex went trick-or-treating with his father for a few hours.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of gloating about our glorious weather today, and I think it's already coming back to haunt me - my head is pounding, my stomach is crampy, I'm freezing cold....I've been fighting it for days, but I think it's got me this time. So I think that maybe if I go to bed now, I might be able to sleep off enough of it to at least get up and get Alex to school in the morning.

So, you get nothing fun and witty from me tonight - just a recap of the day. Hopefully I will feel human tomorrow.

Proud mommy

It was a beautiful, although COLD day here today. I finally broke down and turned the heat on in the house once it dropped to 60 degrees in here. But, I did only turn it on to 65 - I just can't stand the idea of turning the heat on this early, but I also can't stand freezing when I'm inside. So, the chill has gone from inside the house, and it's at least comfortable in here tonight.

I had to go to the older three kids' parent/teacher conferences tonight. I guess I shouldn't really say that I "had" to go, but I really hate going to them in the evening. I'd much rather go during the day, but whatever. I go when I'm told to be there. There was some confusion in the scheduling but we got that straightened out, so I got to go and sit through 3 conferences with Ex1 *gritting teeth* and his wife *gritting teeth more* but it could have been worse.

We got their report cards, and as you can see - I have reason to be proud! Out of 19 subjects that were graded, there were 17 A's. 17!!! Only one B and one C!

Their teachers couldn't say enough good things about the kids, which made me feel really good. They had no issues whatsoever, and the one B and one C can easily be improved with a little bit of extra work. The teachers are not concerned at all.

*proud mommy*

By the time we left the conferences, it was just about dark. I tried to get a picture of the amazing sunset, but it was hard to do while on the move. Hopefully you can at least get the idea....

Alex and Daniel and I came home and grabbed something to eat, and then they went straight to bed. Alex really wants to ride his bike to school in the morning, but since the low temperature tonight is supposed to be 35 degrees, I'm not sure that's going to be feasible. But we'll see what happens.

But for now, I'm going to sit back with a little bit of Leno, and maybe try to get some sleep tonight. ;)

Poop rant and a sneak peek (not of poop though)

I have mixed emotions about this day. I slept - a lot, which I'm assuming was a good thing, although it really did make me feel like crap later.

I got a few things done around the house - always good.

And then I got a call from Alex's school informing me that he had pooped in his pants. OK, so I told the nurse that he has a change of clothes in his backpack for this very reason - he tends to "streak" his underwear, but it's usually a bit more substantial than a streak and necessitates a change of drawers, at least. The nurse politely informed me that I needed to come to the school and take care of it.

*grumble* *grumble*

OK, I was already out and about, so it took me about 1 minute to get to the school (literally) and then about 30 seconds to get from the van to the nurse's office. He was sitting there on a chair, waiting for me. The nurse was kind enough to go get his spare clothes from his backpack and I took him into the bathroom to start cleaning up the mess.

Oh boy. This was more than a streak. Yeah. Poor kid had made a royal mess. This was a full-blown diarrhea disaster. By the time I got him cleaned up, his bottom was red and sore and I took one look at his face and told him that I was taking him home. He said that his stomach started to hurt during lunch, so I'm guessing that he picked up some kind of a bug somewhere along the way. We came home and he just hung out on the couch and watched movies and relaxed.

I'm not extremely happy that the school let him just sit in the mess, causing him to get a rash from it. I would think that they could have at least removed the nasty clothes and let him sit bare-butt on the toilet to keep it from getting any worse. But instead, they let him sit in it - and I'm not sure how long it was from the time that it was discovered until the time that they called me either. Hopefully it wasn't too long.

Hopefully whatever it was, it was just a quick bug and he'll be better by tomorrow. =/

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Since I have my quilt blocks done for the Christmas quilt block swap, I don't have any really pressing crafty projects going on right now. So I decided to work on one that's been laying on the rocking chair in my living room for oh, a few months now. Yep, it's one of those ones that I started and then never finished, and kept getting distracted, and well, you know how it goes!

So here are a few shots of it, but I'm not showing you much because I don't have any pictures of what it's going to look like when it's done, and I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

What will it be when it's done?

Your guess is as good as mine, at this point.

Holy wow what a day!

When I woke up this morning, these were my plans for the day:

1. Take Alex to school.
2. Get gas.
3. Take Daniel to school and have his parent/teacher conference.
4. Go to Wichita to get Daniel's new Social Security card.
5. Pick Alex up from school.
6. Pick Daniel up from school.
7. Go home and be a vegetable.

Easy day, right?

*insert maniacal laughing here*

It started off according to plan. I took Alex to school and then got gas in the van. Then Daniel and I came home and got ready for the day.

First 2 plans done.

Then on the way to school, as I pulled out of the side street by my house, we got sidetracked.

OK, so he's not my favorite driver (duh), but it's NASCAR dammit, and it was around the corner from my house. Literally. We had to stop. Really.

Then off to Daniel's conference, which went well. He's on the verge of reading sight words, and his general smarts have his teacher completely and totally floored. He's way ahead of where he "should" be - surprise, surprise, surprise. I am so stinkin' proud of my kids.

Then a marathon run to Wichita to sit and wait at the Social Security office for what seemed like forever, but I got everything taken care of and should get his new card in the mail in the next couple of weeks.

OK, so cross the conference and the Social Security thing off of the list.

I picked Alex up from school, and then thought that I could buzz into the bank to get Daniel's name changed on his bank account. Turned out that it would take too long to do that right then, so we left to go get Daniel....and we had to run back so that Alex could see the car too.

....and then made a spur-of-the-moment run to Sonic for beverages and then to the dealership to order the part for the van door.

On my way back through town, I noticed a whole bunch of radio station and news vans parked around the train station. Having no clue what was going on, I posted something on facebook and found out that Martina McBride was going to be in town for something-or-other.

Oooooooohhhh really?

Then back to the bank. Name change completed.

Wait, how many things just got added to the list of not-much-to-do-today?

Then to the house. Boys into the stroller for an almost-sprint for the almost-mile to the train station to see Martina.

Hey, that wasn't on the list either.

Local radio personalities

Some of our finest

Here she comes!

Um, yeah.

Man, I wish I was taller....

Some *ahem* nice lady gave the boys train whistles. Gee, thanks lady.

So after Martina spoke for about 2 minutes (literally) and then disappeared, we walked back home.

So we got home. Ate supper....well, the boys had banana bread and then crashed. Hard. I realized that I had kinda' sorta' forgotten to eat anything all day, so I made some supper for me, then did some sewing while I watched Biggest Loser and Parenthood and cleaned the house at the same time.

Scary thing is that I feel like I forgot to do something today. Besides eat, I mean.

I hate that.

But it was a good day.