Another day off

Okay, I am home again, but this time it isn't because of a snow day. Kristen came home from school last night not feeling well. My kids don't get sick to often, but when they do watch out. We went to the dr. this morning and found out that not only does she have the flu that is going around, but also and ear, nose, and throat infection, and bronchitis. Since she is all grown up at the age of 8 she thought for sure she would be given pills to take, but no, she still gets to have the liquid medicine with a syringe. At least she takes it better than she used to. When she was little it took Kurt, Sarah, and myself to get medicine into her. You know Kristen is not feeling well when all she wants to do is lay around and when the fashion plate doesn't want to get dressed in the morning. She was actually quite happy to go to the Doctors in her P.J.s Must be sick. While there I also had the dr. check out my toe again. Thankfully the infection hasn't spread to the bone, like he thought. I am also on a powerful antibiotic and have to go back again in about 2 1/2 weeks.

Festival

Last night was Sarah's last middle school festival. The 8th grade sang two songs, Dona Nobis Pacem and One Tin Soldier. Listening to her sing Dona Nobis Pacem reminded me of the fact that she is growing up. Next year she will be at the high school and singing many more of the older classical music with Latin words in it. It seems like just yesterday she was my little girl and in preschool now look at her, all grown up. For tonight's concert she was chosen to be one of the MC's. Sarah was so excited to do it. Only a few of the best 8th graders get picked to MC.

Question

Snow Day # 8

We started the day with just a late start, but by 7:45 the high school was calling with the news that school has been cancelled. This is starting to get really old. I called my Hubby to tell him and then the girls begged for rides to school. Today's plan was to straighten up the Living Room and my scrapbooking stuff. I am working on that. I have the LR cleaned up except for my scrapbooking stuff. I have been sorting all of my papers. Looking for a good way to store them, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I have almost all of my papers sorted and have found a few older pictures of the girls to put into a mini-book that I did last year for Mother's day but have never put pictures in, and I also found a few extra pictures of Sarah for a mini book that I am making for her for confirmation. If we get to many more snow days, the entire main part of my house (minus the girls rooms) will be clean and decluttered. Yeah. Of course that means I have to start on the basement.

It's Time for Spring

It's Time for Spring
Bobbi Katz

My sweater's tight and itchy.
My snow pants are too small.
Last week I lost a mitten.
I can't find my scarf at all!

My woolen socks have lost their toes.
My boots have lost their tread.
And I have lost the love I had
For words like "skis" and "sled"!

But . . . my fishing rod still fits.
And . . . my baseball bat still hits.
I have a kite that wants to fly.
So . . . winter, call it quits!

The new Iowa Theme Song

It's winter in Iowa & the gentle breezes blow,
70 miles an hour at 25 below.
Oh, how I love Iowa when the snow's up to your butt,
You take a breath of winter & your nose gets frozen shut.
Yes, the weather here is wonderful, so I guess I'll hang around,
I never could leave Iowa cause I'm frozen to the ground!

How I spent a snow day or two

Yesterday the phone rang at 5:15 to tell me that we were going to have yet another day off from school. At this rate I will be teaching until July. Anyway, once again we couldn't get the phone in the bedroom answered so I decided that I was going to rearrange the room so that I could reach the bedroom phone. To do this meant moving the bed, too heavy for one, purchasing a new longer cord for the phone and of course as long as I was going to move, I might as well give the room a good cleaning. In the corner and behind the bed, I found all kinds of nasty stuff including some chocolate that was at least a year old, and a good 1/2 inch of dust. So needless to say, I spent the day cleaning, going through things and throwing stuff away. I would have liked to have thrown more away, but it is Kurt's and I don't want to touch his stuff. In the process of cleaning the room, I ended up cleaning out a junk drawer looking for a new phone cord. I found the cord, but it was to short so a trip to Office Max was needed. I also found a big box of pictures and things that I wanted to scrap. I must have thrown things into the box when I was trying to do an emergency clean and forgot about it. So I also cleaned out that box. Wow, I totally love our room now and am hoping that we can keep it this way. I also love the bed with all of the different animals, I collect turtles and don't have any other place to put my stuffed turtles,I guess I need to work on that. My favorite animal on the bed however is Sox's. She watched the entire time I was cleaning and as soon as the bed was made, she jumped up and has made herself at home. She even had a discussion with Kurt last night as to who got to sleep on that side of the bed. Since she wasn't there when the alarm went off this morning, I think Kurt won that discussion. She wasted no time getting back on the bed once he got up, and has been there for most of today, so I have a feeling this war hasn't ended yet. I must admit it feels good to clean things out and get some junk decluttered.

Saturday

wow, what a busy day doing a whole bunch of nothing. Kristen and I had a Mommy and Me Scrapbooking class from 12-2 today. Originally that was all that was planned. Well Sarah is selling fruit for band so we decided to stop at my Mom's house to see if she wanted to buy any fruit. Of course with the next winter storm supposed to start around midnight I needed to get some more salt for the ice. I had just bought a bag 2 weeks ago, but Sarah used the entire bag to "help" her shovel the driveway with the last snow. So we ended up leaving around 9:00 this morning and ran to the post office so I could mail my composition swap book, then to Clinton Feed and Grain to see my SIL and purchase a 40 pound bag of salt. This had better last for a long time Sarah. I then let Sarah drive from the North end of Clinton all the way to my Mom's house in Bettendorf. This is the farthest she has ever driven. It was nice to see my Mom and talk with both her and my brother for a bit. Dan has finally bought a house and will be moving in about 2 weeks. Not bad, it only took him about 10 months to find a house since he retired last May from the Air Force. He showed us pictures of the house, boy is it big. Not sure what a single guy is going to do in a house that big. After talking to Mom for a bit we left for our scrapbooking class. We then got a bit to eat at Mongolian Grill, a very good place to eat, but one we will never go to with Daddy. Then of course we ran to the mall. Needed to pick up a gift for Kurt's sisters birthday and of course no trip to the mall would be complete without a stop at the Disney Store and Barnes and Nobles. The Disney store was having a 60% off of clearance. I was able to get Kristen a pair of pants and then a capri and top outfit all with Tink on them for only 15. I love deals like this. At Barnes and Nobles, I bought Kristen the book The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I already own 2 copies of the book, but of course Sarah packed them away when she (in her mind) outgrew the books and now I can't find them. I wanted Kristen to read this book, so that she would know that are winter could be MUCH worse. Finally we are on our way home, but need to make a quick stop at Walmart for more milk (I wish I owned a dairy cow), some dressing that Sarah needs to take to Church for a fundraiser and some fried chicken for a quick supper. We ended up running into a few different friends and took forever to leave. When we get home there is a phone call from one of Sarah's friends. Sarah returns the call and the next thing I know is that the girl is coming over to spend the night. So much for my nice quiet day almost. Of course if the storm that is predicted hits, the next couple of days could be really quiet.

Snow Day Part 4

Okay this is the earliest I have gotten the phone call. 3:50 pm for the next day. We have already been cancelled for tomorrow. May 30th will now be my last day. Anymore snow days and we will go into June. We were supposed to be done before Memorial Day. That is now just a dream.
By the way the pictures above were taken at 3:30 pm. We have gotten over 7 inches in 6 1/2 hours. Not good.

More Snow day pictures

The first picture was taken at 9:00 this morning, the second at 10:30 and the third at 2:00 this afternoon, and yes it is still coming down.

Snow Day part 2

Okay it has gotten so bad that the school district came to the rescue. Our neighbor works for Plant Services for the district and Kurt of course is located at the administration building. Well our neighbor got stuck and the maintenance guys came to help her out. They came back later with a snow blower and dropped it off. Now everyone is out trying to remove the first several inches. What a crazy weather day.

Finally its a Snow Day

After having an ice day, a fog day and for my school system, another ice day, we finally have a snow day. The phone call came at 5:05 this morning. That is the earliest I have ever been called. We are getting more snow than we have seen for ever. At 9:00 I went out and measured, we had 7 1/2 inches, at 10:30 we had 9 inches. Kurt just called and they are sending him home at 12:00. What are rare treat, all of us home from noon on. Church has even been cancelled for tonight and that is very rare. More pictures later of what a productive day I have had.