This was my Spring Break. Here it is the end of it and what I was hoping to do did not get done -- catching up on grading for two classes. However, the activities in lieu of that accomplishment don't give me any regrets. But the Monday back at school will be busy.
J.J. worked on Monday and Wednesday, so I stayed with the girls at home. Understanding how much work it is to take care of three kids at home, I did not have an ambitious to-do list for those days. Basically, I was happy to manage meals and dishes. But while Rachel and Maggie slept, I was able to transplant a couple of plants outside, and gather more piles of small limbs from the lawn because I will be mowing it fairly soon. It was fun to hang out with the girls by myself.
On Tuesday, I went in early and worked on an article that needs to be finished by the end of the month. I worked all day and for awhile felt like I was spinning wheels, but late in the afternoon it started to come together and I was satisfied with the result. It still needs some tweaking, but I think it is pretty much finished. It is for an collection of essays that is being published, and the editors have seen one draft and asked for some additions.
Thursday we left for Florence, AL in the morning, stopping at Shiloh National Battlefield on the way. We drove the back roads because that is the only way to go south from Murray, but it only took about 3 hours to get to Florence. At Shiloh, we walked around the visitor's center and drove around the grounds and had a picnic lunch on the grass. As far as the battlefield, there is not much to see. There are a lot of markers that show where certain divisions are, but there's not much to the story. We didn't really find out much of a story, because the girls were too wound up to sit through the 20-minute movie. But from what I gathered, the Confederates pushed the Union troops to a retreat on one day, but reinforcements for the Union arrived that night and the next day the Union retook their area and pushed the Confederates to retreat to win the battle. That was it, but there were 3500 dead in the 20,000 casualties. The best thing that we saw was a bald eagle perched on a tree. There were a few cars parked, so we pulled over, and found out that one guy had been there for 3 days watching these two eagles near their nest. Their nest, in another tree, was at least 10x10 feet. We could see the head of another eagle in the nest. We had binoculars in the car, and that enabled us to see the eagle close up, and it was amazing. The guy who was there for days said that that morning the eagle captured a turtle to eat. He had a telephoto lens and was taking lots of pictures.
We drove on to Florence, going south into Mississippi and then took a portion of the Natchez Trace just for fun, and then on to town. Mississippi and Alabama were two states I had never been to before, so those can be checked off. The reason we went to Florence was because it was south of us -- so no colder than Murray -- and we figured it had some things to do, and it did. We went to Helen Keller's birthplace for an interesting tour, (It was really pretty interesting and fun. Claire was fascinated by it and we will have to read the book about Helen Keller and maybe watch the movie. Claire keeps asking, "What's that girl's name? You know the one who can't see or hear.") and also toured a home that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and it was really cool (Claire also loved this. She loves to tour through homes. She was upset that we couldn't tour the house across the street when the tour guide pointed it out as the parents house. She thought the people living there should let us come see their house. Claire held onto the tour guide's hand the whole time - about 1/2 hour and asked questions and was very attentive. Rachel on the other hand wanted to climb on everything and had to be chased around. It was still really fun though.) But the real reason I suggested Florence in the first place was because there is a golf course there designed by Robert Trent Jones, and I knew it was the closest one to us -- there is an RTJ golf trail in Alabama with lots of courses throughout the state.
So, on Friday, I tried to go golfing. But I am not callous enough to leave three girls with J.J., so I planned to take Claire with me. However, that meant that the course would have to be uncrowded and accommodating. Well, when we got there, neither seemed to be true. There are two courses, one links course that is 8000 yards from the tips, and another one that is hilly and forested. There were a lot of people there, and the hilly, forested course that I wanted to play wasn't really ready, although people were playing it. The other course's fairways were all fervent green, but the roughs were all brown grass. Anyway, we didn't go and instead I took Claire shopping and swimming while Rachel, Maggie, and J.J. napped in our hotel.
We stayed in a Hampton Inn suite, and they had an indoor pool, which was great. Claire just swam and swam, and Rachel enjoyed it too after getting over her daddy accidentally dragging her in so her mouth got a little water when we first went in. We ate at an Italian restaurant on Thursday night and a Mexican restaurant on Friday night, both of which were close to our hotel. So though we didn't do a lot while we were there, we had a nice little getaway. We left Saturday after seeing the Frank Lloyd Wright house and drove a different way along the Buffalo river, and that made the road curvy with some nice scenery. We stopped at a town for lunch and let the girls play in the city park there, and then drove home.
(I had the scare of my life on our way into Florence. I was driving when I heard a little choking sound from the back seat. It sounded like when Maggie spits up and chokes a little, so I said, "Who's choking?" and when I turned around I saw Rachel in the back with the most panicked look in her eyes. She was choking on a sweet tart duck. I immediately hit the gas and made a right turn into an empty parking lot, not even looking to see if cars were coming. I yelled at Paul to get her out of her seat and her grabbed her and handed her to me. I flipped her over on her belly with her head down and started pounding on her back. She kind of coughed so I brought her up and she was still choking, so I pounded her again and she started to cry a little, so I looked in her mouth and could see the candy in the back of her throat, when she inhaled while crying, she sucked it back down and couldn't breathe again. I flipped her over on her belly again and started pounding on her back. Finally she spit it up and threw up. I just started bawling along with her. I just kept telling Heavenly Father thank you. It was the worst feeling in the world, followed by the best feeling in the world. It wore me out. She was a little freaked out for a while and just wanted to cuddle with me, but soon enough, she was back to her old self and trying to get more sweet tarts. I then threw the rest away. Every year I have to recertify my CPR and you go over choking and this is the first - and hopefully the only- time I have had to use it. I have done the CPR part but only in the hospital setting on people I don't know. I am sure glad I knew what to do and grateful for the training I have and for all Heavenly Father's help from letting me hear the choking to keeping my senses about me to helping Paul get her out and to saving my Rachel. I am grateful!!!)
When we got home, we immediately got ready for a baptism for a man whose wife is a member who recently came back to church. They were the family that came over to our house for dinner and a lesson by the missionaries. It is really great that he decided to get baptized. I gave the talk on baptism at the service. When we came home, the girls went straight for bed and got some needed sleep after a busy weekend.
That's it for this week. We hope everyone is doing well. Spring really arrived for us -- the weather was fairly nice last week, with one or two cooler days, but this weekend it warmed up in the high 60s and should stay that way for awhile. We have been outside most of the afternoon after coming home from church.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Happenings 3/02/09 - 3/08/09
Last week seemed hectic. J.J. started work after taking 4 weeks off, and it definitely didn't seem like it was time for her to go back to work again. Our babysitters came on Monday and Wednesday,(I had them come last 2 weeks for a couple hours 1 day per week so they could get used to Maggie, she could get used to them and I could get used to them with her) and that worked out pretty well, although there was some confusion on Monday with feeding Maggie -- she only drank one bottle and when J.J. came home she felt like a horrible mother for being gone. But we figured out that maggie wouldn't eat anymore because she drank the one bottle too fast and had a tummyache. So we told the Laurens to give it to her slowly and that worked on Wednesday. But meanwhile, Rachel was grumpy on Wednesday and we discovered that she had an ear infection, so she went to the doctor on Thursday for some medicine. (What a fun first week of working. Work was fine, but coming home wasn't. Rachel had a fever last week on and off and ended up with a crazy rash and wasn't acting herself, but I put it off to a little virus and figured she would get over it. Then on Wednesday, when I came home Paul said the babysitter noticed Rachel messing with her ear and there was a little something in it. When I looked in her ear, it was clogged with brown gunk that when I wrestled her down and got some out, was also pus! Yuck! Also, Maggie had goopy eyes that were from clogged tear ducts, but had now turned green and orange. So we made a trip to the doctor. I came home and now have a pharmacy sitting on the counter. Rachel has drops for her ears - which she hates!- medicine to take by mouth - which she loves- Maggie has drops for her eyes, ointment for the skin around her eyes, Tylenol for Rachel's fever, drops for their nose and motrin for fevers. It was crazy!)
Thursday evening we were supposed to have a new part-member family over for dinner, but with all the sickness we didn't want anyone over and it turned out that they were sick as well. The wife decided to come back to church after several years, and told her husband that that's how it's going to be whether he likes it or not. He's fine with it, and has come to church twice and likes how he feels and how it helps the family. So things may work out well. They are about our age.
I went to the Murray State basketball game on Tuesday evening -- it was the first round of the OVC tournament. They won, but then they lost in the semifinals on Friday. I was hoping to burn the pile of limbs and branches from the ice storm on Saturday, but with some rain this week I could not get the pile to start, and that was fine because the wind picked anyway. (Plus he was supposed to be watching the girls while I was gone. And a fire with 3 girls under five to take care of at the same time don't go well together - at least to me.) But the weather was warm even with the wind, and then after a big rainstorm on Sunday afternoon, it calmed down and Monday was a beautiful day of 70+ degrees. The bonfire will have to wait until we have spring break, which is the week after next.
Claire was very excited on Saturday because it was her birthday. J.J. had a leadership meeting in Paducah in the morning and while she was gone with Maggie, we cleaned the house. When she came home, it was nearly time for Claire's party, which was fun. It was a Hello Kitty theme, with a HK cake (which I made and was pretty proud of - I'll post the pictures) and J.J. made a cardboard picture of HK holding a flower that the kids took pictures with. The kids played outside a little, busting a pinada, but it was too windy to hold the party out there. She received phone calls from her grandparents and had a good day, even after she had a meltdown the night before for 2 hours. (She is 5!! I can't believe it! My baby is growing up!! I love to see how happy she on her birthday!)
Saturday evening there was supposed to be a baptism, but it was cancelled, so we went out to eat at a mexican restaurant. The server brought Claire some fried ice cream because Claire told her it was her birthday, but Claire didn't even try it because she didn't like how it looked. Sunday was kind of a crazy day -- it turned out the cancelled baptism was only part of a whole string of events involving the young single adults. The person who was going to be baptized is a college student, and she is friends with all the other singles, but something happened to cause some drama. So after choir practice and then at home evening there was some tension. Oh the drama. Things should work out, we hope, because there's such a small group of YSAs that it is not good for them to not get along.
The one disappointing thing that happened this week was that we received one of J.J.'s W-2 forms way late. I didn't realize she was going to get another one and did our taxes at the beginning of February, though I thought that it seemed like her total income was a little lower it should be. Because her company joined the hospital, the hospital sent one W-2 and her company had another one. So I used our online tax site to do an amended form and the difference was very surprising. We should have paid some federal taxes instead of receiving a refund, and received a little more from the state. So now we have to pay back our federal refund plus more, which is not easy to swallow. But we'll wait to the deadline so at least we'll earn some interest on the temporary loan. I guess I can't be considered for a presidential cabinet position now because I underreported our taxable income.
Thursday evening we were supposed to have a new part-member family over for dinner, but with all the sickness we didn't want anyone over and it turned out that they were sick as well. The wife decided to come back to church after several years, and told her husband that that's how it's going to be whether he likes it or not. He's fine with it, and has come to church twice and likes how he feels and how it helps the family. So things may work out well. They are about our age.
I went to the Murray State basketball game on Tuesday evening -- it was the first round of the OVC tournament. They won, but then they lost in the semifinals on Friday. I was hoping to burn the pile of limbs and branches from the ice storm on Saturday, but with some rain this week I could not get the pile to start, and that was fine because the wind picked anyway. (Plus he was supposed to be watching the girls while I was gone. And a fire with 3 girls under five to take care of at the same time don't go well together - at least to me.) But the weather was warm even with the wind, and then after a big rainstorm on Sunday afternoon, it calmed down and Monday was a beautiful day of 70+ degrees. The bonfire will have to wait until we have spring break, which is the week after next.
Claire was very excited on Saturday because it was her birthday. J.J. had a leadership meeting in Paducah in the morning and while she was gone with Maggie, we cleaned the house. When she came home, it was nearly time for Claire's party, which was fun. It was a Hello Kitty theme, with a HK cake (which I made and was pretty proud of - I'll post the pictures) and J.J. made a cardboard picture of HK holding a flower that the kids took pictures with. The kids played outside a little, busting a pinada, but it was too windy to hold the party out there. She received phone calls from her grandparents and had a good day, even after she had a meltdown the night before for 2 hours. (She is 5!! I can't believe it! My baby is growing up!! I love to see how happy she on her birthday!)
Saturday evening there was supposed to be a baptism, but it was cancelled, so we went out to eat at a mexican restaurant. The server brought Claire some fried ice cream because Claire told her it was her birthday, but Claire didn't even try it because she didn't like how it looked. Sunday was kind of a crazy day -- it turned out the cancelled baptism was only part of a whole string of events involving the young single adults. The person who was going to be baptized is a college student, and she is friends with all the other singles, but something happened to cause some drama. So after choir practice and then at home evening there was some tension. Oh the drama. Things should work out, we hope, because there's such a small group of YSAs that it is not good for them to not get along.
The one disappointing thing that happened this week was that we received one of J.J.'s W-2 forms way late. I didn't realize she was going to get another one and did our taxes at the beginning of February, though I thought that it seemed like her total income was a little lower it should be. Because her company joined the hospital, the hospital sent one W-2 and her company had another one. So I used our online tax site to do an amended form and the difference was very surprising. We should have paid some federal taxes instead of receiving a refund, and received a little more from the state. So now we have to pay back our federal refund plus more, which is not easy to swallow. But we'll wait to the deadline so at least we'll earn some interest on the temporary loan. I guess I can't be considered for a presidential cabinet position now because I underreported our taxable income.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Happenings 2/23/09-03/01/09
The past two weeks have been as busy as they can get. Everything was happening at the same time. We had to complete our annual review packets, which require gathering of material and creating material to make it all make sense. Not very fun to do. I am also beginning classroom observations of all of our non-faculty composition teachers, which is something I hadn't done before. Plus, I have a conference presentation in two weeks and an article that has been accepted by a book collection provided I make some significant revisions by the end of March. I have also had several committee meetings to organize some projects that need to be done by this summer. Oh, and plus there was all the teaching stuff, prepping for classes and grading papers. I am still not caught up on grading some of the informal writing, but am nearly caught up with graded assignments. Going to the conference will be a nice break, and the next week is Spring Break, so there is some solace ahead.
I've worked for the past two Saturdays to make up extra time, since I can't really stay late or go in really early in order to be of help around the house, since JJ is not really able to get the sleep that she needs, and getting the kids up in the morning and getting them to bed seem to be the hardest times. After they go to bed, I'm able to do my reading, and JJ is able to do things that she needs to do as well.
We went as a family to the MSU women's game on Thursday, and that was fun. We did Claire's favorite things -- rode the shuttle bus to and from, got popcorn, and she played on the inflatable obstacle course and trampoline. The women won. We left before the men's game started because it is just too late for Rachel, but the men won also, which put them in third place of the conference, I think. So they will host a tournament game on Tuesday.
It was a cold week, with some rain and then a little snow on Saturday. The cold wind and wet ground is not very fun to play in, so the kids have had some cabin fever for Claire and Rachel, and they have had their bad moments. In the middle of one night the wind, rain and lightning kept JJ and I up for two hours. It was crazy. (I was up much more than that because the power going out caused me to have crazy dreams and thoughts. Also, middle of the night thoughts make my mind do some funny things. I had all kinds of ideas about people purposely causing the power to go out just on our side of the street - which it did- in order to break into houses, etc. And that late at night, it doesn't sound so ridiculous. So anyway, I was up watching the neighborhood and listening for any hooligans around our house.) We've really had some stormy weather and heavy winds following the ice storm. Claire was able to go to storytime with me on Wednesday, and to her art and dance classes on Friday, but Rachel's storytime on Tuesday was cancelled. As for Maggie, she just keeps growing and is doing well. (She is a good eater and is lots of fun! Almost one month old. And I go back to work tomorrow. I just wish I could put her in a pack and take her with me. Working only 2 days per week makes it okay though)
That's about it for this week. Not a lot of excitement over the past two weeks, but quite a bit of stress, I guess. But the girls are adjusting to Maggie better than before and sleeping better at night. (Claire and Rachel and Paul - not Maggie or I) We love you.
I've worked for the past two Saturdays to make up extra time, since I can't really stay late or go in really early in order to be of help around the house, since JJ is not really able to get the sleep that she needs, and getting the kids up in the morning and getting them to bed seem to be the hardest times. After they go to bed, I'm able to do my reading, and JJ is able to do things that she needs to do as well.
We went as a family to the MSU women's game on Thursday, and that was fun. We did Claire's favorite things -- rode the shuttle bus to and from, got popcorn, and she played on the inflatable obstacle course and trampoline. The women won. We left before the men's game started because it is just too late for Rachel, but the men won also, which put them in third place of the conference, I think. So they will host a tournament game on Tuesday.
It was a cold week, with some rain and then a little snow on Saturday. The cold wind and wet ground is not very fun to play in, so the kids have had some cabin fever for Claire and Rachel, and they have had their bad moments. In the middle of one night the wind, rain and lightning kept JJ and I up for two hours. It was crazy. (I was up much more than that because the power going out caused me to have crazy dreams and thoughts. Also, middle of the night thoughts make my mind do some funny things. I had all kinds of ideas about people purposely causing the power to go out just on our side of the street - which it did- in order to break into houses, etc. And that late at night, it doesn't sound so ridiculous. So anyway, I was up watching the neighborhood and listening for any hooligans around our house.) We've really had some stormy weather and heavy winds following the ice storm. Claire was able to go to storytime with me on Wednesday, and to her art and dance classes on Friday, but Rachel's storytime on Tuesday was cancelled. As for Maggie, she just keeps growing and is doing well. (She is a good eater and is lots of fun! Almost one month old. And I go back to work tomorrow. I just wish I could put her in a pack and take her with me. Working only 2 days per week makes it okay though)
That's about it for this week. Not a lot of excitement over the past two weeks, but quite a bit of stress, I guess. But the girls are adjusting to Maggie better than before and sleeping better at night. (Claire and Rachel and Paul - not Maggie or I) We love you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
