I blinked...where'd the weekend go?

How is it possible that the weekend is over already?

Saturday I spent the majority of my day recovering from the hangover left to me by nine 9-year olds spending the night at my home. And may I mention that they were all girls. This is only important because at 9 hormones are starting. As is the cattiness that only girls are good at. This includes making other girls cry and feel like crap. I saw this first hand and stopped it every time, letting the girls know that we would not be doing this or I'd be calling parents.

Yes, I did invite all these girls. And yes I got myself into it. However, the girls all loved it, I'm now the coolest mom at school, AND I didn't think that so many would be able to make it. Besides...I lived and almost enjoyed it. Almost.

I spent 2 hours of Saturday sacked out on my Aunt's couch. I was pretty much oblivious to the world around me and felt drugged when I tried to wake up before the 2 hours were up. After that time I was able to operate for the remainder of the day.

I sat the rummage sale at my aunts' house and when that was done went home and watched a movie and relaxed with Andy.

Sunday morning (this morning) Andy and I woke at 7, got ready to head to our friend, Sue's house, and went out to Happily Ever After. And for anyone that hasn't paid attention to when I've spoken of Happily Ever After (HEA) before, it is a absolute no-kill shelter which holds some of the sweetest animals I've ever met. These animals may have some issues, but are still looking for their fur-ever home. Today I walked 8 dogs: Georget, Charlie, Marilyn, Levi, Emily, Maxine, Dessi, and a new puppy that was so cute that I wanted to take him home. Andy said no. BULLY! (click on the dogs names that are blue and you will be taken to an adoption page where you can see them. Not sure why some of the dogs aren't up on the page, but they aren't. Humph!)

I love going out to HEA. I feel like I'm actually making a difference...even it is small. It makes me wish I could do more, but my time and love seem to be enough for the dogs. I'm hoping that this summer Andy and I can spend a couple more days a month there helping out. We've talked about taking the girls and taking turns watching the girls and helping out with whatever needs to be done. If there is a dog/cat that needs some brushing/petting and it is good with kids, then we'd let the kids help out there. It would teach the kids that volunteering and helping out less fortunate (whether animals or humans) is important. I'm hoping that this...along with some of the other things I'd like to do with the girls will help them be less selfish and more giving.

The rest of Sunday was spent running errands and then coming home and getting the kids ready for bed.

This weekend flew and I feel like it really never happened. Fortunately, this week looks less hectic than this last one. At least so far. I babysit Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday...as normal. I have Kalli's field trip on Wednesday, and Morning with Mom on Thursday with the girls (a morning that moms or whoever can make it goes to school in the morning with their kids to eat a little breakfast and then go to the classroom to visit and maybe do a little activity before school starts. Then, the only other thing going on this week is that Kalli has her first soccer practices this week. One on Monday and one on Wednesday. She is so unbelievably excited. And today we made sure that her soccer shoes fit, got her a ball, some soccer socks, some pocket-less shorts, and made sure that all the other supplies were close by. The season is starting! I figure I will take pictures tomorrow of her practicing with the other kids for you to see.

Cassie starts baseball with the Miracle League in June and this year I have stepped down from being team mom so that I can enjoy the game more and sit on the bleachers with the rest of the family to cheer Cassie on.

I'm very excited about the photo opportunities that this year presents. I'm hoping to get some real nice pictures to share and use on calendars for next year. Yes, I'm already looking at calendars for next year. I already have pictures printed out for the months of January, February, March, and April. I have found where I'm going to order the actual Calendars from and will order them when we have some extra money. I'm actually ahead of where I normally am at this point of the year. Go me!

Alright...it is 2:15 and Andy said that I had to be in bed and asleep before his alarm goes off at 3. Bully!

A mess of completely random things

This past weekend Andy and I came home to watch a movie together, something that we rarely get to do. Andy puts the movie in, I go sit on the couch, and I sat there fidgeting and trying to sit on my hands so that I didn't chew on them. I couldn't concentrate on the movie and I felt very unsettled just sitting there doing one thing. I've become such a multi-tasker that to sit and just do one thing now feels impossible.

I asked Andy if we could set my sewing machine in the room so I could work on my project while we watched the movie and he looked at me like I had two heads. Yes, I agree that it is sad that I had to pull out something else to do while watching a movie, however, it was much easier to watch the movie when I had something for my hands to do.
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The other night I asked Andy to bring down Kalli's chapsticks, lip balms, lip glosses, and any other word you can come up with for stuff that you apply to your lips. I then asked Kalli to go get any other ones that she could find. Mind you, Andy and I had already looked all over the place. Kalli left the room, came back, went to another room, and then back again dropping about another 5 chapsticks on my desk. Seriously, I think the girl is hiding them in case of emergency.

I decided to take a few pictures of all of them just to show how serious her obsession is. And I am not joking in the least when I warn you that the next person that buys her anything that is applied to the lips.....or face for that matter....will regret it.


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I've been slowly making progress on my second sewing. It would be going quicker if I didn't have this problem by the time the kids are all asleep. The problem is called exhaustion. Here is a picture I took a bit ago...I'm a little farther now. I wish I had more time that I could devote to it, but days are so busy and I do need some sleep at night. And sewing while exhausted seems like a recipe for disaster.

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I've been having my niece, Kaitlynn, quite a bit lately. The other day when I had her she was hanging out in her highchair while I got some dishes done and the kitchen straightened. When I turned around this is what I found.

The poor peanut had just passed out. I let her sleep like this while we all ate supper, and fed her when she woke up. Just a note - she loves spaghetti and feeding herself. A 14 month old that loves feeding herself ends up being quite messy.
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The past 8 weeks my friend, Becky, has been off of work since having Brady. I've been able to spend lots of time with the both of them and am not looking forward to Becky having to go back to work. However, I do look very forward to having Brady to myself to spoil when she is working. I foresee a lot of cuddling and cooing at each other in our future.

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We recently attended a meeting for the Happily Ever After Animal shelter in Marion Wisconsin. Everyone was asked to bring a dish to pass and one of the desserts caught my eye. I'm glad I had my camera with me because I found this dessert extremely disturbing. I never checked to see how much of it was eaten, but there was no way I could get past the look of it to try it.


I just can't get past the look..... Agreed?

NaBloPoMo - Day 22

Friday was Cassie's field trip to some caves that are an hour away. Once we were there we learned that it was a half mile walk to the caves and what was all entailed from there. Cassie's physical therapist and I decided that we would do it, one way or another.

To get into the caves there was 2 short flights of regular stairs and then 1 set of steep stairs, on which everyone had to walk down backwards. Everyone except Cassie who scooted down all of the steps on her bottom. We then entered the first room of the caves. The name of this room made me wonder if Cassie would turn on her heels and crawl back up those stairs. This first room was The Bat Cave. (I kept waiting to meet Batman, but he never showed. I so could have gotten his autograph and then shown Becky's husband Brian) Here we were given lots of information about the caves, how they were formed, what kind of things we can expect to find in the caves (cave spiders-which were the size of a quarter including legs, cave crickets-they don't chirp, small snakes-but they weren't in the caves we would be going through, and of course...bats. The bats would only be in this first room and they are actually hibernating already. Shhh....the bats asleep!

(3 flights of stairs going down to Bat Cave - Batman...is that you?)

Cassie looked back at me every time the guide mentioned another thing that would be down here...and I was sure she would cry or bolt, but she just looked at me and then went back to listening. After listening to the informational talk, the kids got to look around some in this room and I found a couple bats that were hibernating in the crevices. Cassie looked at them with me and was actually totally ok with seeing them. I was impressed.

Heading into the next room we went through a nice large opening...we only had to duck a little bit. Cassie, however, was unsure of it. I got her through though and once we were in the next room she found a rock to sit on and we listened to some information about this room. Then there was a crawl that the kids could do. Think small tunnel you crawl through into another room and then have to turn around and crawl back to main room. Cassie was in no way interested in doing this. And this is where the story really begins. The guide, Stephanie, came over and asked Cassie if she would do it if she (the guide) went with her and lead the way. Cassie thought about it for a little and then said ok. And off she went with her physical therapist's help.

And that was that. From there Cassie did every crawl that there was to do. Cassie had her spot each time, right behind Stephanie and followed by her therapist. Stephanie gave Cassie her flashlight to allow Cassie to see more and therefore feel more comfortable. Some of the crawls were extremely tight and you ended up army crawling or wiggling through them. Most connected one room to the next and there were a couple that you had to go through feet first. I, however, didn't go through any of the crawls. At one point I went a separate way and just met up with them a little later in an area where they came in through a crawl. There was no way I was going to go in those little holes and have to wiggle myself through them. (Hello coffin)

(Cassie coming out of a small crawl...feet first, with Stephanie's help)

The most surprising part was there were a handful of girls that didn't want to go any further at that point and took a ladder out of the caves completely with another adult. A couple of the girls were even crying they were so panicked/scared. And none of them was Cassie.

(Warrior Paint - Cassie was less then thrilled about the badge of making it through the caves...it included putting mud on your face. And no...I didn't do it.)

Once we were out of the caves (had to crawl up 3 ladders - a 7 step one, 10 step one, and 25 rung one) Cassie sat on a bench to cool off and her therapist and I took the snow pants that I had brought along and put on her. Side note: I'm so glad I put snow pants on her. She was FILTHY!

I was so unbelievably proud of Cassie though. She went past her comfort zone and experienced things that normally she wouldn't have. She also was inspirational for some of the other kids and adults there. She showed that she really can do anything and go anywhere if she wants to and works at it. That is MY girl!

Also...pretty proud of myself. I didn't lose it at all, and I didn't get lost or die. Yeah! Hey...I know you would have missed me. Fun Fact: As long as you are moving you are fine, but if you are dead down in the caves, the cave crickets will actually eat you. Just keep moving... moving... moving.
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This morning Andy and I went to help walk dogs out at Happily Ever After animal shelter. I absolutely love going there. The normal walk for most of the dogs is about a half mile. By the time we left today I had walked about 3 miles and didn't even realize just how far I'd walked. Then there are the times that you take 2 dogs at a time and you even get a good stretch in. Dogs don't get the fact that they can't pull you in opposite directions or that crossing over each other and pulling isn't good for the human body. Arms just move like that normally. But you can't blame them. They are so excited to be going for a walk and be getting more loving.
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After walking dogs, we headed to my niece, Kaitlynn's, birthday party. Her birthday isn't until Wednesday, but today we celebrated. She had a blast and did a wonderful job of opening gifts and eating her cake. Sure, she got dirty, but there wasn't any cake left when she was done.

(Such a pretty little one)

( What else is in there???)


(fork? Who needs that?)

NaBloPoMo - Day 21

So I know that I said tonight I would tell you about Cassie's field trip and share pictures, however I'm very tired today and I have to be up sorta early tomorrow morning. Andy and I are going walking dogs tomorrow morning at the Happily Ever After Shelter. I love going out to the shelter and seeing the dogs. And even though it is hard, I love when they get adopted. Though I have to admit is harder on the girls.

I can say this now because the other morning they were talking about Rosie, the dog that we took care of at the Hiss and Howl event in October. The girls were saying that they want Rosie again next year and I said that Rosie isn't at the shelter anymore. Cassie and Kalli looked at me completely confused. I told them that she was adopted and now has a forever home. This is when the tears starting flowing. I explained that this is a good thing. The reason she found a forever home is because we did such a good job of caring for her that day and showing everyone how nice of a dog she was. And though we can't have a dog right now, we should feel good about being able to help out the dogs that we can. They agreed and then started talking about how they wonder what dog we will be able to have next year. What am I going to do about those girlies?

Anyway, we're headed to bed, but tomorrow I will really work on posting the story and pics. Maybe I'll have pics of dogs at the shelter too. And I most definitely have pictures of a certain little girl's birthday party because this next week, my little niece Kaitlynn (Miss Bella Bean) will be one year old. It is crazy to think she will already be one.

More tomorrow. Night