Third quarter grades

Today we had parent teacher conferences. My teacher said that I am a realy good student. She said very blessed to have me as her student, and that she wished more students were like me. she gave me a certificate for free crazy bread. Yum!

I am very good at multiplicaition and division. I realy like reading because you can read different stories. I am currently reading the second book of the Boxcar Children and Jedi Qwest #1.

I just finished playing basketball this year. We made it to the semifinal game. I was very sad we didn't win the whole thing, but that's okay because I start soccer Saturday.

I am really excited because I am going to California over Easter break.

Girl Time

I have spent so much time talking about the boys, it's time I gave my princess a little air time.
We have spent the last two weekends selling girl scout cookies. Nothing personal against the girl scouts, but I hate selling cookies. Having six five year olds hang out in small corner of a freezing cold store for three hours is a little nerve racking, then to have parents who still owe $300 dollars and one of them doesn't think she owes me anything and the money deadline is looming, but hey when you talk to Hailey about she thought it was the best time ever. She just keeps begging to have a sleep over or play date with any girl she talks to.
In fact, we have this 9 year old neighbor girl who has never really liked our family, (Her mom sold us her trike at a garage sale, but she thought we stole it.) has finally started playing with Hailey - mostly because they are the only two girls in the entire neighborhood, but it is extremely weird having my six year old hanging out with a 9 year old. Truly they are in different worlds. After selling cookies last Saturday, I took them both to the West High color guard competition. There was a color guard there with really young girls from the Nephi area that did really well. UEX had a great show as always and surprisingly UVU almost brought me to tears, but the general state of guard in Utah is pretty sad. Oh, well. I told the girls all the had to do was find me a few more friends and I would teach them (and they would win!)
The other big Hailey news is the huge gap in the front of her mouth since she has lost both of her teeth. For how small those teeth were it is amazing the gap is so huge. Poor girl.
The other general family news is our acqusition of chickens. It is our foray into the farm world. HA!The choice to get chickens stems from a few things. One, my kids constantly bugging me about pets (and these live outside year round) Two, they can actually provide eggs for my family that seems to have in their tummies. Three, with what I beleive is the world economy falling apart, it may just prove to self sustaining a little ways down the road -- who knows.
Today and tomorrow the kids are out of school due to parent/teacher conferences, so I just wish the weather man knew it was spring and all the snow would melt so I could boot them all outside. Hailey finally just got off of her training wheels and we were starting to enjoy real family bike rides -- until the snow fell again. Oh, well!

48 Hour Nightmare

It all started Monday. I went down to look at my cookie stacks because something didn't seem right. It turned out I was missing 9 cases of thin mints -- More than $300 worth of cookies. I wigged out. I started emailing everyone I knew. I thought I had mistakenly given them out to my troop. I was personally responsible for that money and I don't have that kind of money lying around for that kind of mistake.
I had a Dr's. appointment to discuss the MRI I had done on my ankle last week. When the Dr. came in he looked at me with such concern, I was worried. Then he sat done and said, "what can I do for you?" He didn't even know why I was there! So when I told him about the MRI report, he went stupidly running back to his office to get it. Yep, my foot was a mess. There were four different obvious injuries. They could be corrected through surgery, a steroid shot, or wearing a boot and taking aleve for a month. I chose option three because it seems the least invasive, but I am not really hopeful it will work, since I have pretty much tried all that already. In fact, I can't seem to find my boot from the last time I wore it.
The next morning, we had to take Andrew to Radiology for a VCUG. Earlier he had a UTI and since Hailey has kidney problems, they wanted to check Andrew's too. During a VCUG on this young a child they sedate them and then put in a catheter. They run an iodine solution into them and take pictures to see where it goes. Andrew seems to have thicker skin than the average person, so getting an IV is always a big ordeal with him. They use all the tricks like turning out the lights and using a flashlight and even then they missed a few times. It isn't fun to watch your child go through that, but it is even worse to watch your child get knocked out with Ketamine. Their eyes start to shake and their mouths hang open and you can just tell they aren't really there. It is disturbing.
The procedure went really well and we came home. He came stumbling up to me to ask if he could go outside to go scooter. "Yeah, right!" He could barely walk let alone scooter. He seemed quite flush and warm. That made me nervous, but it is apparently normal. He did really well until 7 at night. Then he started creaming that his "pee pee hurt" and he was refusing to go, so his belly seemed really distended. He was obviously uncomfortable squirming and wiggling and crying for the next two hours. When I called the Dr, his only advice was to try to get him to sleep. Eventually we did and as soon as he relaxed he went pee.
Then the daddy's boy who never wants anything do to with me as long as dad is home, come to the side of my bed at 2:30 in the morning asking for a hug and a kiss, again complaining that his pee pee hurt. After some lovin' I got him back to bed and I laid down again. Only to have him return to the side of the bed a half hour later. This time, he didn't go back to sleep. So, I took him to his room. As I was going downstairs to get a blanket for me to take to his room I fell down the stairs in the dark and hurt my ankle again! I miserable took him to his room and laid the blanket out for myself. He played around me for the next few hours while I tried to rest, but it really wasn't much use.
When dad woke up to get ready for work at 5 am I begged him off on him and went back to sleep, until he had to leave for work. This was one of the few mornings this year, that I actually had to get up and work the next day myself. I was going to be the substitute for my first graders. What would they do if the substitute needed a sub?
The one thing I hate the most about working is having sick children. It is always so difficult to decide if you should leave them and who you should leave them with. My mother-in-law fell and hurt her leg over Christmas, so I couldn't really ask her to watch him. My neighbors, who often watch him, were taking their kid to the doctor and I didn't want my RSV prone kid to go to another Dr's office, so then I was going to take him to the school daycare, but then they called to tell me they had a case of RSV the day before, so then that was out too. I eventually took him to another neighbor's house, but it was hard worrying about how he was going to be for her all day.
Then of course, I had to go off to work and face a room full of unrelenting first graders. All I have to say about that is that they are a very tiring bunch.
When my daughter walked in the door from school the first words out of her mouth was, "What's for dinner?" Not even a "Hi Mom." first. I hate figuring out what is for dinner ever night - even more now that I have do deal with her celiac. It is like creating two different meals every time we eat and I have a hard enough time just planning one.
Eventually I figured out that I had made an error when entering my cookie order online, so I actually had what I ordered, but unfortunately that isn't what I needed, so now I have to deal with the headache of getting that all sorted out and getting more cookies so I do have what I need.
The result of Andrew's test proved that he has a Grade 2 Vesicoureteral Reflux problem. Essentially a grade two is not terrible worrisome, but yet something we need to keep an eye so that damage to his kidneys doesn't occur. Then since two of my four kids now have this problem, they also was to check the other two now too. Apparently, it can be very asymptomatic.
Also on this day, I had to take the boys to Scouts (what would a blog entry be without a scouting reference.) While we were there Ethan had to wear safety glasses to work with a saw. He took off his glasses and put them in his pocket -- which proceeded to break the nose guards completely off. Then when we got home, he went to the back of the car and was pushing on the trunk with all his might to try and open it. He proceeded to push the center break light off the car. He pushed it in and broke the plastic piece that held it in place and now it won't even light up.
Granted things could be a lot worse, but really how much more could go wrong in two days?
Did I mention how sick of the medical world I am? I have already blown through my entire medical flexible spending account and it's only March!
Did I also mention how much I love my kids? Okay, truth is I really do love my kids, but being a parent is really tough!