Today has been a normal day, and it has been too long since we have had one of those. I have done laundry and cleaned bathrooms. There was even an old-fashioned Burger King Day. For those of you that don't know, we used to go to Burger King every week for about 2 years. Since most of our kids now go to school 3 days a week, we can't go much anymore. Today was nice to get to just sit and talk. Betsy brought me Pei Wei. I couldn't do a burger and fries!
Soccer has started, but this time 3 of the Pattersons are involved. Emily is FINALLY getting to play and is loving it. 3 out of 7 days of our week are spent at the soccer field. That's not counting when Brent is with his high school girls. I just have to go with the flow and remind myself that it will be over before school is out!
Only 7 more days until Brent and I go on our trip! I can't wait!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Ahhh..normalcy
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
WARNING
I am having some problems with creepy people leaving comments on my blog that lead to viruses. If you see a comment that looks odd, don't click on it...
Monday, March 24, 2008
Spring Break 2008...WOOHOO!!!
We were on Spring Break last week and spent Friday-Tuesday in St. Louis. We had a great time and have lots of tales to tell.
We left Friday afternoon and had a rather uneventful trip. I love that DVD player! We ate supper at Steak and Shake and decided there that we would make a trip rule that we could not eat at the same place more than once. (Also known as the "only one meal at McDonald's" plan to parents) We arrived at our hotel after 9:00. We stayed at the Doubletree and really thought from the internet that it seemed like a good choice. It was gorgeous, and we were very out of place! The lobby was essentially one giant singles bar. It was party central the first night we were there. Emily and I went to get ice and I had to pass up several elevators of drunken joy before I got a G-rated one! It took the kids forever to settle down. They would not stop jumping on the beds. We finally had to split them up...Emily slept with me and the boys were together. I was so tired and beginning to feel a little sick, so I was sure I would sleep well. WRONG. The only pillows they had were feather pillows, which I am allergic to, so all night long I fought swollen eyes and difficult breathing, plus loud college kids in the hall, PLUS Miss Emily griding her teeth all night. Everyone else slept like angels...but not me!
The kids woke up WAY TOO EARLY Saturday morning and we went to Hardee's. We don't have Hardee's in Memphis, so this was a treat. Tyler devoured his butter biscuit and said, "They should call this Softee's, not Hardee's!" We left there and headed to the Magic House. This is the best children's museum we have ever been to. We spent a few hours there until we were famished. Tyler loved the Lewis and Clark Village and didn't want to leave. We left for a while and ate lunch (Burger King) and did a little shopping before heading back to the Magic House. We did a few more things for a second go-around and picked up our art work that had been drying.
We went back to the hotel and the kids and Brent swam while I read. Everyone got cleaned up and we went and ate at Chipotles. We don't have that, either. It was great. The chicken soft tacos were a little hot for Tyler's taste, but Emily loved the quesadillas.
THEN, if we weren't worn out enough, we went to a mall until they closed. You would think the kids would be ready for bed, but NO WAY. They did sleep together again, but still were too silly. They are at the age that everything they do and say to each other is hilarious and potty humor reigns supreme!!! I slept better with some Tylenol Cold and my own pillow from the car!
Sunday morning was fabulous, as the kids slept until 9:00ish. We ate in the room and headed to the Zoo. St. Louis has a wonderful zoo. It is free, except for a few extra things, like the Children's Zoo. It was cold, but most of the animals were out and about. That afternoon, we left in tears. Webkinz.com said that the gift shop at the zoo carried Webkinz, but they did not. Tyler was heartbroken. We went back to the Galleria so he could look for Webkinz there. He bought one at Limited Too, which I think is hilarious. We went to a place called Noodles for dinner that was really good then to Dairy Queen. I am telling you, we ate the whole time!
Monday was supposed to be our do-little day. Historically, the Patterson kids have emotional break-downs on the 3rd day of all trips, so we plan very little on those days. Little did we know, it would be me that fell apart. We went to the outlet mall, which was not good. So many closed stores and just looked like it was ready to shut down. I felt horrible with this cold and aches I've had forever, and I just started crying on a bench. The kids thought I had lost it! We left there and surrendered to the meal at Mickey D's. After that, we went back to the hotel and I slept a couple of hours. It was wonderful. I felt MUCH better after that and we went to eat dinner at Incredible Pizza. It was so much fun. Emily is HORRIBLE at skee-ball...almost took the lights out several times. She and Brent won the go-kart race and I won Putt-putt. The kids were literally dancing in the parking lot as we left!
Tuesday, we really had our act together and were all ready and packed up before 9:00. We checked out of our hotel and headed to the City Museum. I cannnot even begin to describe this place if you've never been there. Think 3 stories of pure artistic craziness, plus a circus, a shoelace factory, a skateless skate park, caves, tunnels, an art city, you name it, they had it. It was amazing. I think we could have spent a week there. I fell and sprained my ankle like a big dork in one of the caves and spend the latter part of the day sitting on a bench. We left after many hours of running and playing and exploring and were sure the kids would sleep the whole trip home. We were wrong...Oh well.
It was a wonderful trip full of great memories. I am so proud of my marriage and my family and I cherish these times so much.
Sick girl...
Emily just wasn't herself yesterday. She was quiet and reserved most of the day, HA!, and last night at bedtime I decided to take her temp. It was 102! She went right to sleep, but woke up at some point in the night and came downstairs to me. We "slept" on the couch for a few hours. I am one of those weird moms that lets their child run fevers. I figure that God gave that to us to take care of things, so let it do its job. Just my opinion. So, she jerked and shook and carried on while I held her and then I could feel her fever drop a little. She perked up and asked to go get back in the bed. She woke up this morning still at 102 and complaining of "burning tee-tee." GREAT...so off we go to Dr. Z. After a lovely adventure of going potty in a cup, she has a UTI, but something else undetermined. Her labs are being sent off to see what is hurting her. The way she is shaking, I think it is her kidneys. We've got something to cover the UTI and then just wait and see what comes back in a couple of days.
Happy Easter!
We had a wonderful Easter...church, lunch, and nap. What else does a family need? The bruise on Em's head is from falling out of the bed in St. Louis. I hoped it would be gone by Easter, but it wasn't. She just moves from injury to the next...wonder where she gets that???
Friday, March 21, 2008
We went to St. Louis for Spring Break this week and I am still working on my post with all of our pictures. I will post them soon. Brent has gone to Virginia. His dear friend Bob died this week and the funeral is tomorrow. I need his help with some of the pictures!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Aunt Sissy was right
When I was around 16, I put sun-in on my hair. My great aunt Sissy pulled me aside one day and gave me some advise. I'll paraphrase, since it was so many, many years ago...she said, "You shouldn't start coloring your hair. You have Williamson hair. As you get older, it will turn on you. You will put color on it and when you are an old lady, someone will stop by to see you and you will have gone gray "Overnight" because no one will believe what your hair looked like underneath. You don't want to do that." She was so right. I am so gray. I have tried to hide it...but, alas, I cannot keep this secret anymore. I am trying to think when my dad started to gray. Was it in his early 30's? Am I getting slammed from both sides of my genetic pool??? I am not going to stop covering it up, but if you come by to call on me and I have 2 inches of gray (ugly gray, not pretty snowy white) hair from my roots to the rest of my hair, will you be a dear and go get me a bottle of Clairol 107A?
Monday, March 10, 2008
Tyler's program
Tyler's first grade class had a music program yesterday morning. They performed about 10 songs. He did great. He had a speaking part and he was very nervous, but he did a great job. We have video of the whole show, but I have no idea how to post something like that. Maybe that will be my next blog venture.
My life back
Now that the clothing sale is over, I can resume my normal life!!!! YAHOO! My mom is on spring break this week and she took Emily for the day and I have cleaned and bought groceries and taken care of Easter Bunny things all day. I was so tempted to sneak in a nap, but I just couldn't do it with all that has to be done! I really hoped to fit in some sewing today, but it's not going to happen. Maybe I can sew again in June...maybe.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Light at the end of the tunnel
I have to admit, today I woke up feeling better than I have in 2-3 weeks. Maybe this is finally over. We had a good weekend, but every time we got out to do anything, it immediately drained us and we had to rest. We should have known better, but it was so pretty outside and there was so much to do!
I spent the day at church yesterday getting ready for the clothing sale. Our church is in the middle of major construction and it took us all day to get the gym clean enough for the hundreds of shoppers this week! Emily and I are headed up there this morning to begin receiving clothes. She is so excited to be "babysitted." She just wants to be where the action is.
Pray for a healthy week!
