Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A Few Mountain Facts

We went to the NC Mountains with some friends this past weekend. We love the mountains and were so looking forward to some R&R and beautiful foliage.


Wednesday I had to pick up Addy from preschool. Her teacher called and said she just is so sad today and doesn't want to play.


Thursday - Whoo Hoo, Happy Birthday to me. Ugh! Can't believe I'm 37. Every year since we've been in NC we go to the Mountains the weekend closest to my birthday. Kind of my b-day present.

Addy's sick, somethings not right. Doctor can't see her until 2 and we are leaving at 1pm. I'm sure she'll be fine.

Big mistake. Addy is miserable. We are miserable. Sleepless night.

Friday - Rain, rain and more rain. Weather is miserable, Addy is miserable and we are miserable. Off to Urgent Care. Addy has a wicked ear infection, ruptured eardrum, fever and cold symptoms. Ahhh, vacation.


Saturday - A break in the clouds, Yippee! Off fishing we will go! Addy still miserable but has moments of happiness, albeit short. Just get to Grandfather Trout Farm and get the pole in the water and our neighbor who went with us gets a call that her daughter little Ri-Ri and her Grandma were in a car accident. Chaos and confusion and off they go to pack up everything from the cabin and drive back home. Awful. Fortunately, everyone is fine, just shook up, but mountain trip is cut short.


When all this was happening, Evelyn caught a fish. She screams, and screams. Fish are very scary you know. Addy thinks it's funny. Those two are so different.
The place filets the fish for us and after a view photo opps with a fish statue and the garbage bag with the deceased fish and Ice in it, we are off to lunch.

Addy throws 2 amazing tantrums and we decide to bail on more fun. On the way home Addy falls asleep and then after a 1/2 hour sleep we decide to see how she will be at the Halloween festival in Blowing Rock via way of Boone.

Catch a shot of the ASU game via the hilltop in Boone and pull over for a moment to see them score.

It's freezing but Addy does well at the festival and mommy finds a nice birthday gift for herself in one of the shops. Thank you Brian!

Back to the cabin for some R & R if that is possible with Addy. Evelyn has had a ball playing with Jack and Maddy, two of her friends came with us.

Sunday, The medicine seems to be kicking in for Addy. She actually is pleasant and enjoys playing in the cabin.
Not sure what to do next, we head down the road to check out and return the keys. Addy starts whining and holding her other ear. We decide to head straight home with only a quick stop to a roadside apple stand. Before we get there we hear, among the whimpers, "Gargle, blat, gargle, splat". Ah, the sound of a toddler getting sick in the car. As we look for a place to get off the road, she does it again. A lot!

We stop at that cute mountain roadside stand but spend the whole time cleaning her, the car, luggage, my computer, and ........Bunny. I kept hearing that song in my head, "OOh OOh, that smell! Can't you smell that smell?

We get home, exhausted, stinky and more stressed than when we left, but it is great to be home. Maybe next year will be relaxing.

I will get some pictures and the video of Evelyn and the fish soon.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A couple old pics that made me laugh

No story here, just came across a few old photos that put a smile on my face and thought I would share.
Addy & Evelyn March 2007
Addy



Evelyn 10/2003

Bunny just can't get a break

I have a long story to tell but only have a minute. I promise to bring you up to speed soon. Long story short bunny hasn't had it easy these past few days. Addy has been sick, very sick and she refuses to eat. Bunny on the otherhand is very hungry. Addy pretends to feed bunny. After her lunch (bunny's that is) Addy got down and played while I cleaned up bunny's mess. Next thing I know, Addy hands me Bunny and says "Uh oh". She decided to give bunny a dirt bath in the plant. The dirt stuck nicely to the grease she got on it from lunch. Rewind to Sunday. We were on our way home from the mountains and Addy threw up all over Bunny, and many other things. Poor Bunny, just got a bath from the projectile vomit, now will be back in the wash when she gets up from her nap. Lucky for you I didn't get a picture of Bunny with Pomegrante/Blueberry and Banana all over her. Note to Self: Never bring a child with an Ear Infection to the Mountains. Bad Idea.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Halloween Package


The girls got a package today from Uncle Dave. They had so much fun ripping into it and playing in the box, I had to take some pictures. They seemed perfectly content with the box of packaging peanuts but were even happier when they opened up their Halloween baskets. Thank you Dave!

Addy kissing a baby in her lamb costume.

Addy hugging it. Can you tell she really likes it!

Friday, October 17, 2008

When I Grow Up

Thursday I took Addy to Sesame Street Live with two friends from the neighborhood and their 2 year old. I had been talking it up. Saying, "were going to see Elmo. Do you want to see Elmo?" She of course would say, "ELMO!, YES!" Two words she knows well. Our seats were great, 3 rows back. The venue wasn't all that big so I'm sure all the seats would have been fine but I wanted to make sure she got a great view. She really enjoyed it. It took a little warming up. She was on my lap and holding my arm tight. Every time I tried to make her let go, she would grab it again and put it back where she wanted it. By intermission, she was all good and didn't even need to be on my lap. I'm sure there were a lot of tense children there that day. A six foot monster in your face with the sound blaring tends of get that kind of reaction. Sorry about the poor quality photos, all I had was my camera phone.

The show was titled "When Elmo Grows Up" and coincidentally, on the way to school this morning, Evelyn said she wanted to be a Teacher, Artist and a Bus Driver.

Zoe





Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Just the Two of Us

I know I should be paying more attention to the debate but I lost interest an hour into it. So I thought this was a perfect time to write a quick blog then go to bed. I had my first parent/teacher conference on Monday morning. Evelyn is doing well academically but needs work on her self-esteem. This is holding her back from trying new things at school. She reminds me a lot of myself. Or at least I think. I just keep hearing my Mother saying "you're making yourself have a mental block, you can figure this out if you just stop thinking that you can't". Evelyn continually works herself up the littlest things and doesn't think she can do anything new. She is a smart kid and just needs to get past this (I hope) stage. I hope she breaks out of her shell sooner than I did. One funny thing her teacher said: I came in the other day to have lunch with Evelyn and she was talking up a storm. Mrs. Jenkins (her kindergarten teacher) said, "it is so nice to hear her voice, she never talks." Evelyn?? Really? The same girl that can't stop talking at home? The same girl that says her favorite thing to do in the morning is lay in bed and talk? Say it isn't so.

Addy has preschool on Mondays so Evelyn and I had a day just the two of us. After hearing how she was doing in school we headed out to breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (her choice). Had a quick bite to eat then went to the skating rink. We had taken her once before and she loved it. We had a great time. She was determined but didn't do as well as last time. I think she was too busy looking around and trying to see who was there that she knew. The rink was open to the public but since there was no school, they had special pricing and 50% of the profits went back to the school.

After two hours of skating, we had a quick bite to eat at McDonalds (again, her choice) then had to go pick up Addy. It seems like forever since Evelyn and I got to spend one on one time together like that. She had so much one on one time for four years, then Bubba came and time alone became difficult.

Sorry no pictures of us skating. I was too afraid we would fall and break the camera. Evelyn does have a bunch of bruises on her legs. Next time I think she'll wear knee pads. Now if I could just convince her to take lessons. She's too afraid to try them.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

More Fall Fun


We love the Fall. Our absolute favorite time of the year. This weekend was a little warmer than a usual Fall day. In the 80's. Brian and I took the girls to a pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins, some mum's and corn stalks for the front porch and a few fresh veggies. Addy has mastered the word pumpkin now and has been saying it as much as her famous AIRPLANE. When we are outside or even in the car, I swear that is every other word out of her mouth. Airplane, snack, airplane, eat, airplane, sissy, airplane, stop, airplane. Ok, you get the idea.

After the pumpkin patch we took the girls to the park and then to lunch. Quick stop to the grocery store where the girls ran with the shopping carts. What a beautiful day.

Okay, enough fun for the girls. Time for some fun for Mommy and Daddy. Our good friend Melissa came over and babysat the girls while we went with some of our neighbors whitewater rafting. Charlotte has a one-of-a-kind man made rafting center. http://www.usnwc.org/. 12 of us went and we split into 2 boats of six. After some instructions, we were off. We had a great time. Already looking forward to going back. Can't say I'm ready to hit the Gauley or anything. I think the Class 4's are enough for me. Soaked from head to toe, we all dryed off, changed and went to the restaraunt for some drinks, dinner and talk about our adventures of the day. The Whitewater center takes photos of us while we are on the water and you can view them if you go to the website, click on photos for sale, water gallery and look for October 4, 5-6 and 6-7pm. Image 453, 454, 455, 490, 491, 515, 516, 517, 520-523.

Corn Maze

Well, this blog is one week late. Last Saturday we took the girls to a corn maze with friend of ours. They both seemed excited but after a little way through the maze, Addy had a melt down. She didn't want to be carried, she didn't want to walk, she didn't want to move. She just dropped to the muddy ground. Nice. Well, kicking and screaming we yanked her up and slowly started going. At that point, Evelyn was out of sight with the rest of the gang. In hind sight, we think this is why Addy had her "moment". After kicking off her boots, we put her up on Brian's neck and she was fine. We finally got through and then took a hayride (I say that loosely). We had a great day. We even got Addy to call the pumpkins "pumpkins" instead of "apples". Here are a few pics.
The Gang