smile, it's friday :)
13 years ago
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
School Carnival
Last Friday we attended Emmy's school carnival. There were lots of games/activities for the kids to participate in. The whole gym was filled with bouncy houses. The girls both won a prize during the "treat walk." (like the old cake walks from the band carnival) Emmy picked out her favorite treat...Skittles and Erin picked out a princess treat. They won lots of prizes during the kiddy games and enjoyed getting tattoos & face paintings. They even got to dress up in silly clothing and get a crazy photo taken. I don't have those pictures yet, but when I do, I will post them.
Kitty
So far kitty is still alive. The girls have been giving him lots of attention. However, Erin is a little rough with him. She usually picks him up by his neck or feet and I don't know how many times I have told her to put the kitty down. So far we have found him locked inside her Hello Kitty tin (which is just big enough for him to fit inside) and the other day I asked her where the kitty was. She replied, "He's in my 'tootcase.'" Yep, there she was wheeling him around in her little princess suitcase. He wasn't in these places very long. I'm always keeping an eye on them. Poor kitty. Max & Harley love to wrestle...they are pretty good buddies.
We've had him checked over by the vet and will go back in next week to get him changed to an "it." He's still pretty little. At his first check up he only weighed 1 lb 12 oz. He's growing like a weed though.
We tied a string to Emmy's belt loop and got a good chuckle watching the kitty chase her around the house the other night.
We've had him checked over by the vet and will go back in next week to get him changed to an "it." He's still pretty little. At his first check up he only weighed 1 lb 12 oz. He's growing like a weed though.
We tied a string to Emmy's belt loop and got a good chuckle watching the kitty chase her around the house the other night.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Our Newest Addition
We've been on the hunt for a new kitten. Last week we saw the cutest little kitten on craigslist and decided to go check him out. We didn't tell the girls where we were going until we got there. They got to pick out their new kitty and then on the way home they named him Harley. He's six weeks old and is the most lovable little kitten ever. He loves to cuddle and gets along with our other cat Max. Although it took a day for them to warm up to each other. The little kitty used to arch his back and run sideways at Max. Now Max licks him and they cuddle together sometimes.
I think we lucked out with this kitten. The girls really love him...sometimes a little too much.
I think we lucked out with this kitten. The girls really love him...sometimes a little too much.
Severe Weather Awareness Week
April 15 - April 19 was Severe Weather Awareness Week at Emmy's school. They participated in a statewide tornado drill on Thursday, April 18th. Emmy came home and was so excited to tell us how she got ready for the "Tomato Drill." LOL! Oh Emmy, you crack me up!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Back Troubles...again
So...to give you the Paul Harvey "Rest of the Story" to my previous post about activities/swimming lessons... here goes it.
After we were done swimming at the community center a week ago Sunday, I took the girls to the changing room. As I was putting Erin's pants on, I threw my back out. BIGTIME! I think this is one of the worst flare ups I've ever had. I did all I could to finish getting the girls dressed and walk out the door.
I didn't sleep at all that night as it was extremely uncomfortable to move in any direction. By Monday morning, the pain was really intense. I was feeling some other pain that was not what I had ever felt before with any other flare up. I decided to drive myself to Urgent Care. (BTW...I think our family should start receiving a discount with all these Urgent Care, ER & Hospital visits). LOL!
When I was checked over at Urgent Care, they asked if I had ever had a kidney stone. Huh??!! No, I've never had that, but I might as well check it off the list of things that happen to me. The pain was getting worse and felt like I was in labor. They ran some tests and sure enough, I was giving birth to my first ever (and hopefully last) kidney stone. And yes, folks it's true...It is worse than labor/child birth. They wheeled me over to the ER because they didn't have strong enough meds to give me at urgent care. Brad came to sit with me and then I was given some strong pain meds...which didn't kick in at all. After a 2nd dose, I was in lala land and telling Brad that objects were moving in the room. I had a CT scan but showed no stones which they said I probably already passed the stone.
My back is still a little sore but at least I'm walking upright at this point. I'm doing physical therapy twice a week which is supposed to last 9-12 weeks. I don't know if I can afford that long though. It's pretty expensive, but I am determined to do anything at this point to not have anymore back pain.
After we were done swimming at the community center a week ago Sunday, I took the girls to the changing room. As I was putting Erin's pants on, I threw my back out. BIGTIME! I think this is one of the worst flare ups I've ever had. I did all I could to finish getting the girls dressed and walk out the door.
I didn't sleep at all that night as it was extremely uncomfortable to move in any direction. By Monday morning, the pain was really intense. I was feeling some other pain that was not what I had ever felt before with any other flare up. I decided to drive myself to Urgent Care. (BTW...I think our family should start receiving a discount with all these Urgent Care, ER & Hospital visits). LOL!
When I was checked over at Urgent Care, they asked if I had ever had a kidney stone. Huh??!! No, I've never had that, but I might as well check it off the list of things that happen to me. The pain was getting worse and felt like I was in labor. They ran some tests and sure enough, I was giving birth to my first ever (and hopefully last) kidney stone. And yes, folks it's true...It is worse than labor/child birth. They wheeled me over to the ER because they didn't have strong enough meds to give me at urgent care. Brad came to sit with me and then I was given some strong pain meds...which didn't kick in at all. After a 2nd dose, I was in lala land and telling Brad that objects were moving in the room. I had a CT scan but showed no stones which they said I probably already passed the stone.
My back is still a little sore but at least I'm walking upright at this point. I'm doing physical therapy twice a week which is supposed to last 9-12 weeks. I don't know if I can afford that long though. It's pretty expensive, but I am determined to do anything at this point to not have anymore back pain.
Pneumonia/Asthma Troubles
A couple of weeks ago I signed the girls up for "Parent Night Out" at my gym. While the girls were having fun at the gym, Brad and I tried our luck at the slot machines down at Mystic Lake. We ended up winning some money for once. I think I ended up winning $120 overall. WINNING! That's the good news!
The Bad News...
When we went to pick up the girls from the gym, Erin saw us and came running/crying to us. At first I thought she was just tired and missed us. But when I bent down to give her a hug & kiss, I noticed that she had a fever. I felt terrible that she wasn't feeling good & exposing her to other kids, but she wasn't sick when we dropped her off earlier that night.
I took her temperature when we got home & gave her some meds. She spiked a fever of 104 and it went up & down through Sunday. She had a little runny nose but nothing else. I figured we should start giving her the nebulizer treatments again just to be safe. She was working harder to breathe all through Sunday. I took her into the clinic first thing Monday morning and found out she had pneumonia. They gave us more meds and told us to come back in two days for a follow up. As in the past, we NEVER make it to day two.
Brad stayed home with her on Tuesday and by the afternoon she was really working hard to breathe & was pretty uncomfortable. Brad brought her back to the clinic but they said she was getting good oxygen, gave her a neb treatment, etc & said "come back tomorrow."
She never really responded too well to the neb treatments that afternoon and by 8:00 pm I decided to bring her to Children's Hospital ER.
The Triage area nurse made me second guess why I was there. He kept asking me questions... "Who sent you here?" Um...that would be me. I'm her mother. Then he said, "Well, what's wrong with her? What's changed? When was her last neb treatment?" She still had good O2 levels so he looked at me strange. I replied, "We've been here three times before for this same thing. I know what to look for!" We then kindly took a seat and our name was called shortly after.
The doctor checked Erin over, gave her an IV, neb treatments, and an x-ray. They thought she may have had a collapsed lung. After all the tests, they decided she needed to be admitted for Pneumonia/Asthma. We camped out at Children's for 2 1/2 days. Erin even made me order her Mac-n-Cheese for breakfast one morning. I figured if I could at least get her to eat, I'll order whatever she wants.
She's feeling much better now. We are now seeing a Pulmonologist for follow ups. They gave us all the necessary meds to have on hand in case this happens again. This was Erin's 4th hospital stay in three years.
She has neb treatments & an inhaler until June. Keeping our fingers crossed this doesn't happen again.
The Bad News...
When we went to pick up the girls from the gym, Erin saw us and came running/crying to us. At first I thought she was just tired and missed us. But when I bent down to give her a hug & kiss, I noticed that she had a fever. I felt terrible that she wasn't feeling good & exposing her to other kids, but she wasn't sick when we dropped her off earlier that night.
I took her temperature when we got home & gave her some meds. She spiked a fever of 104 and it went up & down through Sunday. She had a little runny nose but nothing else. I figured we should start giving her the nebulizer treatments again just to be safe. She was working harder to breathe all through Sunday. I took her into the clinic first thing Monday morning and found out she had pneumonia. They gave us more meds and told us to come back in two days for a follow up. As in the past, we NEVER make it to day two.
Brad stayed home with her on Tuesday and by the afternoon she was really working hard to breathe & was pretty uncomfortable. Brad brought her back to the clinic but they said she was getting good oxygen, gave her a neb treatment, etc & said "come back tomorrow."
She never really responded too well to the neb treatments that afternoon and by 8:00 pm I decided to bring her to Children's Hospital ER.
The Triage area nurse made me second guess why I was there. He kept asking me questions... "Who sent you here?" Um...that would be me. I'm her mother. Then he said, "Well, what's wrong with her? What's changed? When was her last neb treatment?" She still had good O2 levels so he looked at me strange. I replied, "We've been here three times before for this same thing. I know what to look for!" We then kindly took a seat and our name was called shortly after.
The doctor checked Erin over, gave her an IV, neb treatments, and an x-ray. They thought she may have had a collapsed lung. After all the tests, they decided she needed to be admitted for Pneumonia/Asthma. We camped out at Children's for 2 1/2 days. Erin even made me order her Mac-n-Cheese for breakfast one morning. I figured if I could at least get her to eat, I'll order whatever she wants.
She's feeling much better now. We are now seeing a Pulmonologist for follow ups. They gave us all the necessary meds to have on hand in case this happens again. This was Erin's 4th hospital stay in three years.
She has neb treatments & an inhaler until June. Keeping our fingers crossed this doesn't happen again.
Activities Update - Swimming, Gymnastics, Dance...
Once again, we've overloaded ourselves with activities. We've been such busy bees, I don't know if I'm coming or going lately. The girls absolutely love being in activities though and it's good for them to socialize as well as learn new things.
Since we're going to be spending a lot of time on the boat this summer, we started up with swimming lessons this spring. This was Erin's first time at swimming lessons and she's doing so well. She loves the water. We started her out in the Littles 1 class. I didn't want to put her in the Baby Beginner class because let's face it...it's expensive and she can sing & pat the water at home for free. Emmy loves to sit nearby and cheer her little sister on during her lessons. She's such a good big sister.
Last night we had evaluations. Emmy finally mastered her flips from front to back and is able to advance to the Littles 4 class. She's really doing so amazing for a four year old. Last weekend we took the girls to the community center pool and stayed in the deep end without life jackets so that we could work on their skills. Emmy was jumping in the 5' water and swimming back to the edge all by herself! I don't think I knew how to swim at that age. I do know that when I was little, my brothers threw me in the pool and said "kick" and that's pretty much how I learned. Nice Brothers. :)
Both girls are loving gymnastics. They really love their instructor, Charles. He does such a great job with the girls. The girls' lessons are on different nights so Brad usually takes Erin to her class while I'm at dance lessons with Emmy. Did I mention we're busy?
Emmy's ready to be done with dance. She doesn't enjoy it very much, so this will probably be our last year. Recital/Rehearsals are coming up soon - we are looking forward to being done.
This summer we are just going to focus on having FUN! We're going to spend a lot of time on the boat & enjoy LIFE!
Since we're going to be spending a lot of time on the boat this summer, we started up with swimming lessons this spring. This was Erin's first time at swimming lessons and she's doing so well. She loves the water. We started her out in the Littles 1 class. I didn't want to put her in the Baby Beginner class because let's face it...it's expensive and she can sing & pat the water at home for free. Emmy loves to sit nearby and cheer her little sister on during her lessons. She's such a good big sister.
Last night we had evaluations. Emmy finally mastered her flips from front to back and is able to advance to the Littles 4 class. She's really doing so amazing for a four year old. Last weekend we took the girls to the community center pool and stayed in the deep end without life jackets so that we could work on their skills. Emmy was jumping in the 5' water and swimming back to the edge all by herself! I don't think I knew how to swim at that age. I do know that when I was little, my brothers threw me in the pool and said "kick" and that's pretty much how I learned. Nice Brothers. :)
Both girls are loving gymnastics. They really love their instructor, Charles. He does such a great job with the girls. The girls' lessons are on different nights so Brad usually takes Erin to her class while I'm at dance lessons with Emmy. Did I mention we're busy?
Emmy's ready to be done with dance. She doesn't enjoy it very much, so this will probably be our last year. Recital/Rehearsals are coming up soon - we are looking forward to being done.
This summer we are just going to focus on having FUN! We're going to spend a lot of time on the boat & enjoy LIFE!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Record-Breaking Breaststroke
This past weekend was the State Swimming & Diving competitions at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center. My nephew, Tyler, qualified to swim during three events at State - The 200 Yard Medley Relay Team, the 200 Individual Medley & the 100 Yard Breaststroke.
On Friday, the medley team did awesome and actually broke the previous Monte High School record, but they unfortunately got disqualified at the very end due to one of the swimmers diving into the pool too early. That was a real bummer. They didn't get to advance to the final round during that event.
Next was the 200 Individual Medley. Tyler gave it his all - it's not one of his favorite events. He finished 21st out of 26. They only take the top 16 to qualify for the final event. He still did very well.
His third & strongest event was one of the last events of the day - The 100 Yard Breaststroke. To say we were excited, anxious and nervous would be an understatement. After all, this would be one of Tyler's last events of his high school career. We've watched him grow and work to achieve his goals since middle school.
His goal was to break the school record of 100.81 (which has been held since 2005) and he was very determined to get there. We all had faith in him that he could do it. As the buzzer went off to start the race, we were all cheering, "Go Tyler, Push Tyler, You Can Do It Tyler, Come On Tyler!"
He stayed with the group during the whole race and then on the last lap he just broke away from the pack and took off. As soon as he touched the edge of the pool, we looked up at the scoreboard to see his time...OMG, OMG, OMG it said, 59.66!! For a split second I thought "That can't be right?" And then it hit me...HE BROKE THE SCHOOL RECORD!!!!!!! My mom was video taping the whole thing with my camera! It was such an emotional experience witnessing him achieve his goal! All his hard work and determination paid off.
He advanced to the final rounds on Saturday for the 100 Yard Breaststroke. We were all watching with pure excitement and holding our breaths as this was his final swim of the season. He dove into the pool and on his second pull, his goggles broke in half. He had to give it his all and push through it. Even with broken goggles he finished in 6th place and still beat the old Monte record with a 100.21.
We are all so very proud of you Tyler! His plan is to swim at the college level, but he hasn't made his final decision on where he will be going to school just yet. I think he has narrowed it down to SDSU or Gustavus. Wherever it will be, we will be there to cheer you on! His next goal is to make it to the national level and I have no doubt that he can & WILL do this.
Their awards banquet was held on Monday night at the high school. Tyler received a plaque for his record-breaking time, earned All-State Honors, as well as half of the "Coaches" award. It's an award that is voted on by all of the coaches to the best member of the team. He tied with his teammate Andrew.
Here is a link to the record-breaking video from this weekend. He is in lane 5 with the yellow cap...stretching his arms and jumping up & down before the race. At the end you can hear one very CRAZY, excited, proud aunt!!!!
On Friday, the medley team did awesome and actually broke the previous Monte High School record, but they unfortunately got disqualified at the very end due to one of the swimmers diving into the pool too early. That was a real bummer. They didn't get to advance to the final round during that event.
Next was the 200 Individual Medley. Tyler gave it his all - it's not one of his favorite events. He finished 21st out of 26. They only take the top 16 to qualify for the final event. He still did very well.
His third & strongest event was one of the last events of the day - The 100 Yard Breaststroke. To say we were excited, anxious and nervous would be an understatement. After all, this would be one of Tyler's last events of his high school career. We've watched him grow and work to achieve his goals since middle school.
His goal was to break the school record of 100.81 (which has been held since 2005) and he was very determined to get there. We all had faith in him that he could do it. As the buzzer went off to start the race, we were all cheering, "Go Tyler, Push Tyler, You Can Do It Tyler, Come On Tyler!"
He stayed with the group during the whole race and then on the last lap he just broke away from the pack and took off. As soon as he touched the edge of the pool, we looked up at the scoreboard to see his time...OMG, OMG, OMG it said, 59.66!! For a split second I thought "That can't be right?" And then it hit me...HE BROKE THE SCHOOL RECORD!!!!!!! My mom was video taping the whole thing with my camera! It was such an emotional experience witnessing him achieve his goal! All his hard work and determination paid off.
He advanced to the final rounds on Saturday for the 100 Yard Breaststroke. We were all watching with pure excitement and holding our breaths as this was his final swim of the season. He dove into the pool and on his second pull, his goggles broke in half. He had to give it his all and push through it. Even with broken goggles he finished in 6th place and still beat the old Monte record with a 100.21.
We are all so very proud of you Tyler! His plan is to swim at the college level, but he hasn't made his final decision on where he will be going to school just yet. I think he has narrowed it down to SDSU or Gustavus. Wherever it will be, we will be there to cheer you on! His next goal is to make it to the national level and I have no doubt that he can & WILL do this.
Their awards banquet was held on Monday night at the high school. Tyler received a plaque for his record-breaking time, earned All-State Honors, as well as half of the "Coaches" award. It's an award that is voted on by all of the coaches to the best member of the team. He tied with his teammate Andrew.
Here is a link to the record-breaking video from this weekend. He is in lane 5 with the yellow cap...stretching his arms and jumping up & down before the race. At the end you can hear one very CRAZY, excited, proud aunt!!!!
Broken Goggles
Just found out he broke the school record. His teammate Jack Spaeth gave him a congratulatory pat on the head! AWE!
Tyler's Fan Club
6th Place Medal
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