Callie

Callie gave us a real scare this week! We thought she was over the pneumonia but when she woke up Tuesday morning she had stomach pain and throwing up. At first we thought it was a reaction to the Zithromax and then thought maybe she just caught a stomach bug. The vomiting stopped in the morning but the stomach pain continued along with a fever. She spiked a fever quickly that night so I spent the night on the floor beside her bed with Todd and I checking on her all night long. By Thursday we were at our wits end. She was sleeping so much, barely eating anything and the fever would not go away even on Motrin. So back to the doctor we went. Apparently, the pneumonia was still there and it was causing the belly pain. The fever was trying to fight it I guess. Yesterday (Saturday) was the first day she went all day without a fever. Woo Hoo!! So back to school tomorrow and back to the rat race.

As for other news.... The girls both got their report cards and did very well this quarter. Emily improved greatly from last quarter. So good news there. D.I. is going strong and Emily's team is amazing. These kids have so much creativity! Callie has only been able to meet with her team once so far but will be back in it this week. Emily is starting to work on her big Gateway project. She will be doing a report on Cleopatra and then presenting it in front of many people at school on Eminent People night. She will dress like Cleopatra and give her report AS Cleopatra. Invention Convention will be coming up soon and I believe Emily has to participate in that as part of her Gateway class. Callie is thinking of some inventions herself.

So that is about all that is going on here. The weather is still messing things up with school delays and our ski club was canceled Friday night. That is ok though b/c Callie wouldn't have been able to go so we will all go next Friday night to make it up. It will be our last ski club night. This week we will get up into the 40's.....woo hoo a heat wave!

Have a great week!!

Almost February

It is almost February. Sometimes I think, "Finally!" Other times I think, "Where has the time gone." It has been a cold, snowy Winter and I don't think we are halfway done yet. At least I can tell that the daylight is getting longer each day.
I wanted to share some pictures that were taken on New Years Eve. We went to a party and we all had a good time. The blond girl next to Emily is Callie's good friend, Alexia. The other two kids were at the party as well and we had just met them. The other picture is Callie and her friend Rebecca at Brownies last Tuesday. They had a little ceremony. Rebecca lives up the street from us.
Callie has been sick. She is getting over pneumonia and now is home with a stomach bug. I feel so bad for her. We have all been sick a lot this Winter. I am so ready for Spring to come. We have our last ski club night on Friday. Super Bowl on Sunday. How about those Pats!!! Another Boston team makin' it big.

Time to go check on Callie Girl.

Beautiful sight

The phone rang Friday morning at 5:10am. It was the school phone tree calling to let me know there was a 90 minute delay for school. It had snowed a bit and was turning into freezing rain. I got out of bed to go down stairs to call the next person on the calling tree and wondering why I hadn't brought the phone number upstairs so I didn't have to get out of my warm bed. As I was heading back upstairs, to get back into my warm bed, I stopped to look out the window. All was quiet and beautiful. White snow everywhere! The trees were beautiful and with daylight almost here everything looked bluish. Then all of a sudden I saw a deer walking down the street right in front of the house. Then another deer and another deer and yet another deer. After standing there for a couple minutes I counted NINE deer. There was a mommy and two babies that stopped to eat a bit of leaves on a bush sticking out of the snow across the street. It was amazing. Three of the deer had walked into the yard between our house and our neighbors house. I then ran upstairs to wake up Todd so he could see them. We looked out our side bedroom window and three of them were looking right up at us. Makes me wonder what goes on every morning out there before we all wake up. We also saw coyotes in our back yard last week one night. There seems to be a party going on out there once daylight is gone. I wish I could have taken some pictures.

So we had a good week. We started off with a snow day on Monday so we now have three days to make up in June. It was a pretty quiet week. Both girls had D.I. on Thursday. Callie's team has finally started up. Skiing was Friday but the conditions were horrible. I didn't even make it down the hill one time successfully. It didn't seem to stop the girls. They skied until well after 8pm.

So now it is Sunday morning and all is still quiet here. The girls are sick. Emily has a nasty cold she must have caught from Todd and Callie is running a fever with a nasty looking throat. So I guess we will be at the doctors tomorrow. There are all sorts of things going around second grade right now. Luckily we have tomorrow off for MLK day. We plan on having a very low key day in front of the fire watching football. The next few days will be very cold.

Have a good week!!

Yet Another Snow Day

Happy New Year!! I haven't blogged since before Christmas. We have been super busy but a good busy. We had an awesome Christmas with Ann, Bob and Allison. I have included a few pictures from their visit. We spent a day in Boston ice skating on Frog Pond at Boston Common and then had a late lunch at the original Cheers. It was a beautiful sunny New England Winter day. A perfect day to be in Boston ice skating. The picture at the top of the blog is of Ben and the girls being silly. Ben lives in Maine and is a good friend of ours from Ohio. The girls call him Uncle Ben and always look forward to his visits. Ben stops here and stays a night on his way to Ohio for Christmas.

Since Christmas we have started the ski program. Todd and I are chaperones again and I am actually skiing this year. I have a group of level 3 and 4 skiers. I have trouble keeping up with them but we are having a blast. Poor Todd has a group of beginner snow boarders. The first week he never got on his board. But last Friday he got a chance to do a couple runs on his own while the kids were at their lessons. It is nice that we are all doing it together. After the bus leaves with all the other kids we stay as a family and ski later. There are a couple other families that stay too.

Another exciting thing was being a part of the New Hampshire Primary. Todd got to meet a couple of the candidates at work and we went to see John McCain speak. We got to meet McCain and shake his hand. He chatted with the girls and had one of his camera guys take our picture. I keep checking his website in hopes to see our picture posted there but no such luck yet. The day of the primary the girls and I went to vote. They were very interested in how this whole thing worked. They had a lot of questions this past month. When we were leaving the polls I was interviewed by a Boston radio station. Never heard the interview though.

The other thing that has consumed our lives lately is Destination Imagination. I am one of three team managers of Emily's team and we are having a blast. Such a great group of kids with great ideas. Saturday we went to a day of workshops at UNH. I had so much fun watching these kids create and do some improve skits. Amazing! They are creative and so funny!! If you go to the NH DI website you can see some pictures that were taken on Saturday. http://www.nh-di.org/ The home page has a photo of some of the kids at the workshop. Emily is to the right of the troll. If you click on the photo album underneath the pic you can see the rest of the pics from the day. Page 4 has most of the pictures from our team.

We are home today due to yet another Nor'easter snow storm. Maybe we can rebuild Jingle, our snowman. We had some Spring like days last week and poor Jingle shrunk to about two feet. One day we were leaving for school and Callie yelled out, "Oh no. Jingle's head fell off!" I started laughing but apparently this was not a laughing matter for Emily and Callie. They were horrified at my laughter. Oops.

So that is all for now. I will try and post more often now that the Holidays are behind us.

Happy Snow Day!!

Let it Snow........Again!!!

We have a Winter Wonderland here!! What a shock for us to wake up this morning to about four inches of new snow. It snowed ALL day and into tonight. It was still snowing at 8:30 tonight. Now at 10:25 pm the snow has stopped. I don't think they (meaning the weather forecasters) thought we would get this much snow. I haven't heard the totals for today yet but I think we at least got 6 inches or more. So we had another snow day. The girls and I spent most of the morning cuddled by the fire. They took some time to go outside and play. I have included a picture of Jingle who didn't even resemble a snowman this morning. The girls cleaned him up a bit and then played on the snow hill that Todd made for them. We are hoping there will be school tomorrow as the girls have their parties. Callie's class is having a pancake breakfast and Emily's class is having a Harry Potter party. I will be finishing up my shopping.

Let it Snow!!

It has been a couple weeks since I have blogged. Things have been crazy busy here as usual. Today we woke up to a blizzard outside. Our snowman, whose name is Jingle, has gained a few extra pounds and isn't so round anymore. He is more cone shaped now. Every time it snows the girls go out and dust him off to make him look a bit better. But this snow storm today really did a number on him. The snow is supposed to taper off late this afternoon but then turn to a wintry mix with a possible quarter of an inch of ice on top of the snow. We are all anticipating what will happen in the morning. Will we have another delay start to school or another snow day. Time will tell.

Todd is outside now with the snow blower making a sledding hill for the girls in the front yard. The snow in the yard is up to his knees.

We spent this past week and yesterday trying to get our shopping done. Still have a few things to get. The tree is up with lights but is yet to have ornaments on it. The stockings are hung and the Christmas cards are sent. Still have to bake and more wrapping.

As some of you know, we will have some family here for Christmas this year. Ann (Todd's mom), Bob (step-dad)and Allison(sister) will be spending Christmas with us here in New Hampshire. We are all very excited!! In addition to them we will be able to spend some time with my grandparents who will be staying with my Aunt in Mass. So we will also spend time with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. We are very blessed!!

That is all for now! Love you all!

Happy Snow Day

Today was our first snow day of the season. Some people here will say it is the first of many as we are supposed to have a bad Winter. Some here will say according to the woolly bears this Fall, that Winter will be bad the first half. Who really knows! All I know is that the girls and I had a fun snow day today filled with playing in the snow, making a snowman, hot cocoa and watching movies. We even put up Christmas decorations. Things are looking quite festive around here.

Not much new here. Callie and I were in the Merrimack Holiday Parade yesterday and we were very cold. I think we all had fun though. We were right behind the Merrimack High School band so we had some fun music to listen to. Emily and Todd watched the parade. I think the best part for Callie is throwing the candy. We marched with her Brownie troop. Emily's troop did not participate this year.

So that is all for now. I included a picture I took today of the girls and our snowman. We haven't quite decided on a name for him yet. Callie wants to name him Larry but Emily didn't like that name. So he remains nameless for now. As for Bugsy at the top of the page....Doesn't he look cute?! He was not very happy but I do love him. I feel very lucky that we still have him with us. He is old and grumpy.