The "C" Word

I don't know what you thought of when you saw the title but what comes to mind when I see that is the ugliest "C" word I know....cancer. Tonight was my Back to School Night and as all the teachers were waiting for it to start I looked at one of the Kindergarten teachers that stood there with a bandana on her head. She had her arm around her young son, probably the one that she said is taking this the hardest because he knows she won't be around until he's grown up. The teacher next to me asked if the K teacher had lost her hair already and I told her she had started losing it about a month ago. When the teacher asked me what kind of cancer she has now I told her that it had gone into her bones and either her liver or kidney. I couldn't remember which one because I know so many people that are battling cancer that it all starts to run together. I have 2 friends that have 5th graders battling cancer. I can empathize with two of my close friends that are watching their grandma die of cancer because I watched my Nana take her last breath after losing her cancer battle. One of Rob's uncles was just diagnosed with it. I start to pray for the people that I know that are battling cancer and the list seems to go on forever. There's days when I clump them into a group instead of praying individually because I feel like I'd be praying all day for cancer patients. You know, people say, "What are you going to ask God when you get to heaven?" and I never really think about it. But, when I get to heaven the question I'm going to ask is, "Why does cancer exist?". It's such an ugly disease that affects so many. I just don't understand why the "C" word even has to be part of this world!

A Perfect Combo

Last week Rob called and said he had this past weekend off and wondered if I wanted to go camping or on a small trip. I quickly answered with a resounding "NO!" I love traveling and being on the go but after being gone the past 3 weekends I was ready to just relax at home. Friday night we helped a friend move her furniture so she could get ready for a large garage sale. When we got home we BBQ'd hamburgers and just relaxed as a family. Saturday I woke up-way earlier than planned-and was determined to have a lazy day. For the most part, I made it one. I got a pedi and did a little shopping. Then I came home and took a nap. We started watching the race and then headed to our annual community Spaghetti Feed. It was nice to get together with neighbors and friends to catch up on life. An added bonus was that I won a gift certificate to a small store in VC! Rob had injured his back earlier in the day while working on his truck so between him hurting and P being a little pistol we didn't stay too late. Once P was in bed I went over to the neighbor's house and hung out with our friends for awhile. When I got home Rob was on the deck, waiting for me. He told me that the bear was on our property and he wanted to make sure I got in the house safe. Sunday P woke me up before 5:30 (after I had gone to bed around 12:30) and was rearing to go. We enjoyed a great church service, one where I felt Pastor Joe was talking directly to me. Then we came home and took a much needed nap. After we got rested up we headed out to a birthday party for one of P's little friends. He had a blast driving a pink car and playing with the train set while Rob enjoyed holding one of our friend's babies. As for me, I enjoyed watching my boys and taking pics. Rob and I ended the weekend by watching a movie and laughing over different things from the weekend. I can't think of a better way to have spent this weekend! I am blessed!!!

Meet Thomas and RosieJames

Every time we go to Walmart, P wants to see the fish and crabs. He loves to look at the crabs and put his finger by the glass, pretending they're pinching his finger. So, last week Rob and I decided that we'd get P a couple crabs of his own. I laughed when the Walmart employee put the crabs in the bag because then P didn't want anything to do with them. But he had fun picking out the rocks he wanted for the aquarium and was happy when the crabs were at home in their new home.
I asked him what he wanted to name them and proceeded to list off different appropriate crab names (ie "Pincher"). But, I know you'll be surprised to find out that he wanted to name them Thomas and Rosie. The next day he changed their names to Thomas and James. Now he calls them Thomas and RosieJames. It's a good thing they don't need to know their names because they change daily. Well one of the crabs is consistently called Thomas but P likes to switch up the other one to keep everyone guessing. Although he can't play with them he likes to look at them and pray for them during his nightly prayers. I think it's a great match with Thomas and RosieJames!

I don't even know what to title this blog because my brain is mush and I can't think of anything creative that I haven't already used. I don't know if it's due to lack of sleep or P being sick (AGAIN!) or feeling overwhelmed with work and life in general but today has been a crappy day. Yesterday I went to get P from my parents' and we had a blast. He played in the water fountains at a local mall then we ate at a great hamburger place that none of us had tried before. After P went to bed I ended the night by meeting a friend for ice cream and catching up on life.
I knew, however, that today would not be as fun when P woke me up at 5am. Then he proceeded to cling to me all morning. (He wouldn't even let me have 15 minutes to take a shower in peace) We got back to town and I took him to the doctor's. Turns out the poor monster, er kid, has yet another sinus infection. I've had my share so I know they are not any fun. I can only imagine how he feels since he doesn't understand the concept of blowing his nose (My dad tried to teach him, imitating a bull, but it was not successful). Once we got home I was so looking forward to naptime. I can only recall getting 2 good nights of sleep- more than 5 hours- in the past 3 weeks. But, lo and behold, my little angel didn't want to nap. We battled it out for over 2 hours and he finally won.
We had to go pick up his prescription and go to Kohls. At Kohls he was doing fine until it was time to go. He flat out refused to leave the store. When I picked him up he threw Daddybull and screamed. I carried him outside and put him down, thinking he'd walk with me to the car. WRONG! Once I got him in the car we went to get his prescription, which I thought would be fast. Wrong again! There were glitches with insurance and the man next to me kept asking about his prescriptions, taking more time away from me. By the time the pharmacist consulted with me about P's meds and asked, "Is he old enough to eat yogurt?" my patience was shot. I wanted to reply, "No, he's delayed in the teething department. HERE'S YOUR SIGN!" Needless to say, it took over 1/2 hour to get out of there.
When we got home I discovered that P has diarrhea, which is fabulous since his new antibiotics are already supposed to cause an upset stomach. Then we went outside to water my garden and clean the dog kennel. That took longer than planned because P, like his mama, is clumsy when he's overly tired. So he fell on a rock and scraped himself up pretty good. Then Ruby brought me a decomposed rat that I had to dispose of.
Rob gets on me for being overly dramatic about little things and I know I can be. But, today was one of those days that, whether I am being dramatic or not, just let me be. It's not even 8 and I have tons of schoolwork to do yet I think I'm going to call it a day and go to bed. I am beyond being one pooped puppy tonight!

Full Speed Ahead!

I like keeping busy. I have a hard time sitting still. I always have projects going and people to see. But life has been so crazy busy lately that I'm looking forward to some down time....that will happen in October! This past weekend was by far the busiest we've had as far as packing a lot in. Friday night Rob and I left P with my parents and headed to Lake Tahoe for the Miranda Lambert. I don't know if it was due to lack of sleep or because we're getting old (HA!) but we weren't overly impressed.
We liked the opening act and the first half of Miranda's concert. But by the end we were ready to head home and crawl into bed. Saturday P woke us up bright and early because he didn't want to miss a minute with Gee and BobBob. We enjoyed a big breakfast then my parents went West with P and Rob and I headed back to Ely for my last hunt.
The first weekend of the hunt was a blast! Although I never had a chance to shoot at anything I thoroughly enjoyed it. Last weekend was ok, but nothing to really write home about. This weekend was a mixture of fun and misery. We went back to the blind we had hunted last weekend but someone was using it. Luckily, Rob had come prepared and set up our ground blind in an area close by that had fresh elk sign. Within an hour of getting in our blind, a bull walked about 100 yrds away.
Then, close to sun down, cows started making their way to us. We had elk within 20 yards of us. I had 2 shots and messed up both of them, letting the elk get away. If you know me well, you know I'm a perfectionist so missing for a 2nd year in a row did not set well with me. I know what I did wrong both times, easy mistakes to fix. But I wasn't given another opportunity to fix those mistakes and I walked away from another elk season without elk meat. Rob and I did have fun after the hunt though. He had found an area to camp out in as all the hotels were booked. We BBQd shish kabobs, ate off Thomas the Train plates on his tailgate and enjoyed looking at all the stars. He also had brought a blow up mattress to sleep on, which is a whole new funny blog for a later date.
Yesterday we hunted for about an hour then packed up camp and headed home. After being gone from P for 3 weekends in a row and driving over 2000 miles, I was ready to put the season behind us. Once we got back to town, unloaded the truck and cleaned up we decided to enjoy a date night. We grabbed a bite to eat then went to see "The Help". Whether you've read the book or not, you'd really like the movie as we both did. We came home exhausted but Rob still had to pack for his trip. So it ended up being another late night.
Although the past month has been fun, we're both sleep deprived and I'm off my schedule. I'm looking forward to life slowing down a bit, getting back into our routine and enjoying the down time with my boys!

Baxter the Bear

At 1:30 Friday morning I was sound asleep when I heard, "Hi!". I got the first glimpse of what my parents went through when my brother and I were little, waking them up in the middle of the night. P was standing there with all his stuffed animals. I put him back to bed, told him it was time to still sleep and crawled back into bed again. A few minutes later he was back in our room so we put him in bed with us. An hour later Rob, P and I were still awake and I knew we had a busy Friday ahead of us. I asked Rob to put him back to bed and started falling back to sleep within minutes. When all of a sudden I heard a loud crash. Then Rob came in the room and asked if I wanted to see the biggest bear he'd ever seen. At that point sleep was much more important so I declined. If I hadn't heard the garbage can crash I wouldn't have known that there was a bear right outside our garage. But Rob, armed with my camera and his pistol, scared the bear away and cleaned up the mess at 3am. Fast forward to Friday night. We went to a concert in Tahoe and when we got home around midnight both of my parents were awake. They informed us that the bear had come back for another visit. This time Baxter (what I nicknamed him) came into our garage to get the garbage can, which Rob had put in there that morning. When my parents heard the loud crash in the garage my dad went to assess the situation with....his camera. He opened the garage door to discover Baxter feasting on old spaghetti. Luckily Baxter is scared of people and has been scared away very easily. I hope that Baxter finds another home to visit because his nightly visits are a little much around here. Until next time Baxter..........

Good For At Least a Smile.....

Like every parent I know, some days your kid(s) frustrates you (like yesterday) or makes you laugh uncontrollably (like today). P has had me in stitches since I picked him up from school and I thought I'd share the few things I can remember to share the fun with you.....

The place I get sushi is next to the place Preston gets his haircut. When I pulled into the parking lot P asked, "Preston haircut?" I told him not today and he responded, "Thank you Mommy!". Apparently he's not into getting his hair cut.
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He told me he had an "owie" and I told him we'd get one of his new doggy bandaids when we get home. He sat there for a second, pulled a string out of his stuffed horse and said, "Horse owie hand". I asked if his horse needed a bandaid also and he said yes.
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Every day he asks to drive by the llamas and go on the bumpy road. Today he asked several times, using different voices every time he asked. He'd ask in a growl then would ask again in a high pitched voice. When we did go on the bumpy road he tossed his stuffed horse around saying, "Woah! Bumpy road horsey!"
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He loves to roll the window down in the back and then when he wants it UP he says, "Mommy close window down please."
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At dinner I used chopsticks to eat my sushi. P held his spoon in one hand and a fork in the other, trying to use them like chopsticks to eat his Jello.
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Last but not least......He asked if we could watch "Mommy's cheep cheep movie" (Rio). He holds it so much that he's scratched it pretty bad so it doesn't always load. When I put it in and it looked like it wouldn't load he leaned forward in the chair and pleaded with the TV, "Come on cheep cheeps!". When the preview for "Marley and Me" came on he shook his head and said, "Crazy Marley!" (I don't know where he learned that it was Marley). When the "Rio" theme music started, he started making his stuffed horse dance around the room saying, "Yay cheep cheeps!".
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He has made my afternoon/evening so much fun. His laughs make me laugh and I'm thoroughly enjoying my time with him today!

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Hunt...Take 2

When my parents graciously offered to take P for a second weekend in a row, Rob and I decided to head back to Cave Lake to try our luck at another elk. We (i.e. Rob) spent hours scouting out different water holes he found using his GPS. We decided to hunt the same one for all the hunts because it had the freshest "sign". Saturday night I had a good feeling about the hunt but after being in the blind for about an hour I started getting horrible stomach cramps. I couldn't sit still because I was in so much pain. We decided to end the hunt a few minutes early because I was near tears due to my stomach hurting. After a good night sleep Saturday we headed out again Sunday. During last night's hunt I was ready to pack up at dark but Rob asked to stay a few minutes longer. Within seconds we heard a thunderous sound of elk trampling down the hillside. Rob started a commentary, telling me everything he could see from his viewpoint. All of a sudden I heard elk running back up the hill, the other way. The elk sensed us there and hightailed it out of the area. Rob was able to call them back in again with his elk call but they never got close enough to us again. I was really bummed because I didn't even have an opportunity to see the elk through my sight. A huge tree trunk stood between us and the elk. Last year I was able to shoot at 3 elk and missed. This year I had the utmost confidence in my bow ability, knowing that if given the opportunity I'd be able to bring home the meat. When we left the blind there was a lightning storm taking place and a herd of elk ran across our path. It was the most excitement we had had all weekend. I'm hoping that next year I can draw a tag so I'll have a chance to bring home the most delicious meat I've ever eaten!

Hunt

I don't consider myself a hunter. I don't want the latest and greatest hunting stuff. I don't get excited about Opening Day. I don't feel a burning desire to shoot my bow every day. But, after our friends brought us some elk meat a couple years ago I've been obsessed with getting an elk. The meat is by far the best I've ever had and I want a freezer full of it! Last year I got 4 shots at elk....and missed every one. This year when I drew my tag I was determined to get an elk. I practiced shooting my bow for hours and was so excited for our hunt that I literally did not get more than 1 1/2 hours of sleep in 36 hours.
The first day, rather the first HOUR, we were in my hunting area Rob and I saw close to a hundred elk I'm sure. At one point I went up a mountain, in hopes of cutting off a herd as they went to bed down for the day. Unfortunately the only elk I got close to got wind of me and ran off. Later that day we decided to try our blind from last year. We had checked it out and there was some elk sign there. We got there early so someone else wouldn't claim it. Rob and I were laying there talking when we heard, "BAAAAAAA!" About 500 sheep came, at a fast speed mind you, up the canyon and toward our blind. We grabbed our stuff as fast as possible and got out of there before we got their smell on us and before the sheep dogs attacked us. We decided we were better off going close to where we had seen the elk earlier in the day.
Although we didn't see a cow during that evening hunt, Rob called in a cute little bull elk. He came within 10 feet of us, grazing all around us. I would've been happy just to see that bull but the next morning we saw 3 HUGE bulls walking along a stream. I couldn't do anything except stare in awe at these majestic beasts. On top of seeing the elk we saw a lot of deer. At one point we had a mama and her 2 fawns close to us. Because they're mule deer, their ears are enormous! The fawns looked so cute with their scrawny bodies and big ears.

Rob teases me that he wants to make a video of me hunting. He can't believe some of the stuff I come up with. I consider myself to be a smart lady but, with most things, I will learn until the day I die. At one point I asked Rob if it was ok to shoot an elk standing in front of a tree. He said yes and asked why. I told him I didn't want to take a chance on the arrow going through the elk and pinning it to the tree. I was being serious but he laughed so hard I thought he'd wet his pants. Another story that is contrary to what Rob is telling is that I had a face mask on and couldn't hear. I asked what a noise was that I kept hearing because I thought it was a quad full of hunters coming back to hunt by us. He informed me, however, that it was simply a plane going over head. I played games with ants that Rob found humorous. But I'm told I can't move, talk or make any noise for that matter. If you know me you know that's about impossible. So I created a game with ants that kept me-and Rob for that matter-entertained.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to even get close enough to any elk this year. I was going to call it good and just hope Rob got one on his hunt next month. But my parents graciously offered to watch P again this upcoming weekend so Rob and I will make one more attempt at bringing home some elk meat. If I don't get one, that's ok. I got to spend time with my husband and got to see animals I had only seen on TV up until last weekend. So I'd say it was a memorable experience regardless of the outcome!

Prison Guard

I started up on my soapbox tonight, ranting about school changes that I don't like. But, after re-reading my entry several times, it was too offensive. So, I'm taking a different approach, one that I'm hoping is less aggressive.

I pulled up to school with mixed emotions about starting this school year. So many changes that I don't agree with and am not happy about. When I saw the chain linked fence that surrounds the campus and thought of the new mandated school uniforms a mental picture of prison popped in my mind. But when I walked through the gate it was a completely different story. The principal surprised me by immediately stopping me and asking about P's health. Several other teachers asked as well. One teacher took time out of her day to seek me out and ask if our house was okay after the fire. Those personal touches made my day.
Another thing that made my day was the beautiful roses Rob sent me. In fact, to be honest, that was the highlight of my day. The kids were....well, they were acting like it was the first day of school. When I covered my head at 1:30 and asked the Lord to give me the patience and strength to finish the day I remembered last year's class. I remembered doing the same thing my first day with them and by the end of the year they ended up being one of my favorite classes (Yes, I am one of "those" teachers that have favorites...gasp!). So, who knows? That may be the same with this rowdy bunch.
I know the year won't be the same with a couple friends of mine gone and the other changes that took place. But, the staff that's there is going above and beyond, making the prison facade just that....a facade!

3 P's with P

P goes in spurts with getting sick. He'll go a few months without getting sick and then will get one virus after another for awhile. We're dealing with the multiple viruses at the moment. As you already read, I got puked on Saturday. His cough is so bad that it makes him gag and sometimes throw up. I was the lucky one holding him when that happened Saturday. Last night we decided to take him to the ER because we couldn't get his fever down and he hadn't had a wet diaper since his nap. While we were explaining this to the RN (or whoever it was that acted bothered to check him out) he pee'd through his diaper....and onto my shirt. I guess he wanted to prove me wrong and make us realize we didn't need to be seeing a doctor when it was bedtime. This morning, much to my dismay, I realized I wasn't going to be able to go to school to greet my students on their first day (Luckily my teaching partner was there). P's fever has come and gone all day. He has drank a liter of Pedialyte but it doesn't stay him in for long. This afternoon he came running out of our room yelling, "I pooopy!". Unfortunately it didn't stay in his diaper. Needless to say I didn't just have a messy bum to clean up. :( I wish I could say that, as I write this, he's on the road to recovery. But his fever is back and he's not wanting to drink anything anymore. He did eat some Cars Cheese (mac n cheese) which was the first solid thing he's eaten since Saturday morning...other than a cookie this morning. He just looks sick and it breaks my heart. I'll be glad to see his doctor in the morning so we can get some answers and SOLUTIONS! The Three P's is more than I want to deal with within a 48 hour period of time!!