Now, where is . . .

Anyone who has been to my house has to know that decorating is not my forte. Heck, I have a hard time keeping the house tidy. But the other day when I was at Target I made a purchase that I'm pretty proud of (and the family likes as well) . . .

Now we have a new (functioning) shower curtain and Annalise can complete her geography homework at the the same time. I just love multi - purpose items. :)

Fancy Nancy

Last Saturday we went to a Fancy Nancy party at the local bookstore. In order to attend Robyn had to dress up special for the occasion.

There was coloring,

storytelling,

and general crafty fun.

Next week there will be a Polar Express party and I've been told we have to attend. I guess I have a party girl in my house.

One more to go

Well, Saturday was supposed to be the last game but because the league cancelled all soccer games a couple of weeks ago, they added one more game. So next week, for sure, will be the last game of the season. Yea!

For this game the girls wore a different color jersey. The other team's colors were really close to ours, so the our coach gave the girls a different color to wear. I happen to like the green plaid, but then green is my favorite color. My oldest daughter did not agree with me. She thought they should be called the Nerds because "only nerds wear plaid." So we disagreed, and I'm thinking that this will be the start of a long line of differences of opinions . . .

October 31

Happy Halloween!

From our house

to your house!

Family Games

Well, it's been a long weekend. Our local elementary school was closed on Friday and Monday due to the tragic death of a first-grade girl who contracted H1N1. The district wanted to stop the spread of the virus. With the two extra days off we were at a loss of what to do -- thank goodness for games! The girls played the Wii, their Nintendo DS, and they discovered a new game -- it's become our new favorite family game --Mancala. We've actually had the game in the house for years but it was lying forgotten in the bottom of our cabinet. Annalise discovered the game at school when she had rainy day recess. She was happy to find out we had the game here. It's such an easy game that she taught Robyn how to play and over the weekend they played many games.

Games can certainly pass the time away. Growing up I remember playing many rounds of Uno and Chinese checkers with my brothers and sisters. When I was younger the game Life was my favorite game. Now I really enjoy playing Scrabble. What is your favorite game?

NICU Reunion

On Saturday Robyn and I went to her hospital's ICN's (Intensive Care Nursery) Reunion. Every couple of years they have this party for all babies who "graduate" from the NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit). This is our second time going. The first time we went was just a few months after Robyn was born.

When Robyn was born she was one sick little girl. She had a condition called hydrothorax which was the result of lymphatic fluid leaking and surrounding one of her lungs. Because so much fluid had been found in her chest cavity her left lung was significantly smaller than the right one. The doctors found out this condition at my 20 week ultrasound and as a result I was heavily monitored during the last half of my pregnancy.

Because of the severity of the problem I had to be induced early and in a controlled setting with a high level nursery nearby. Poor Robyn, when she was born, I heard her cry only once and they immediately went to work on her. The first couple of days were touch and go because her lung(s) didn't want to work. To add to the stress of it all I ended up in emergency surgery an hour after she was born. I did not get to see her until later the next day. Poor Jeff was spending his time either in the nursery or with me in my hospital room.

Thank goodness for those great nurses and doctors who took care of her, especially when I was so out of it. The first couple days for Robyn was touch and go. But fortunately for us, due to new drugs she gradually got better. So much better that we were able to bring her home after only three weeks instead of the possible six weeks we were initially told. I was scared to death about bringing home a baby who had been so sick but the nurses assured me that everything will be all right. And you know what -- everything was all right!

Before

She was the biggest baby in the nursery, but one of the sickest. We couldn't hold her until she was two weeks old because of her chest tubes.

After
She's my big girl now. Her rocky start hasn't stopped her yet. The only reminder we have are the scars on her chest from her tubes.

Our first big rain of the season

Yesterday was our first big rain of the season. Much like the first snowfall, people around here were going nuts though as far as I know there was still plenty of milk and bread on the grocery store shelf. LOL So for our first major rainfall we ended up with over 4 inches of rain that included gusty winds, broken tree branches and some power outages. Compare to others, we were lucky. I heard of places further south who got over 10 inches of rain. I was mostly inside yesterday due to my sick little girl. It was cool to watch the storm from inside the house.

This is from the downspout from the side of the house. The water is bubbling up because Jeff was clearing out some of the debris out of the gutter from our redwood tree. It had backed up the gutter so we had a waterfall in front our side window. Not a good thing as water starting to come inside the house. So, Jeff was outside working in the rain.


Our side yard.
There is a drain but the water was coming down so fast we had the beginnings of a pond. Once it stopped raining so hard it did drain, but it had us worried there for a while.