What a deal

Tonight when I came home from school there was a surprise waiting for me. My mom (who is the best mother in the world!!) had taken Abby to the mall today to run off some excess energy in the play area. On the way back to the car, she went through Younkers and saw some great deals on winter coats for Abby! The coats are for next year when she's four. She couldn't decide which one was the best, so she bought three of them and brought them home for me to choose from.

We had Abby try on each one and do a little fashion show. There was a purple one, a pink one and this brown and pink one. They were all adorable, but Abby chose this one as her favorite. She looked so cute!

And what a deal mom got!! The coats were all over $60, but with our 20% off coupon, we only paid $12! What a deal. :) Thanks mom for thinking of us!

SEVEN!!

Today we moved to number seven. Maybe I'll receive my referral in February. My personal prayer is that my daughter is forever home by July. Would you please join me in this specific prayer. I know our God is faithful!

A night of giggles and laughs

Tonight we had a great time just laughing with family and friends. Abby and I got home around 6:30. Shortly after that Jessica came over, followed by Emily. They're regular visitors on Tuesday nights. A few minutes after that Olivia and Marcy came over to play. Abby loves playing with Liv and Marcy. They were only here for about 45 minutes, but there was lots of giggling and laughing. Right after Liv and Marcy went home, the door bell rang again and in walked my neighbor, Christina. What a revolving door of friends!! Liv and Emily eating all the pretend food prepared by Marcy and Abby. It was delicious!
Marcy and Abby played with the princess phone, colored pictures, played with the kitchen and jumped on the bed.

Marcy, Liv and Abby!!

And here's Christina!

Pictures from our weekend

We ventured down to visit my sister and her family for Lauren's 8th birthday. It was a full house and we had a great time. Enjoy our pictures! Abby and Sophie are six months apart in age and they got along great this weekend. It was so cute to watch them play together. What a blessing!!
Here they are trying to play the Wii. They were trying to do the teamwork game that required jumping rope. It was hilarious!

The family around the table for spaghetti dinner and birthday cake!

What a superstar!! She turned 8 years old! It was a funfetti cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. It was exactly what she ordered.

Abby and Sophie just hanging around waiting for the cake.

Mom and Abby (what's up with her smile?)

She made a wish and it came true!! Way to go Lauren!

High School Musical 3...can it get any better?

Julia loved sitting on Papa's lap.

Sophie loved it too!

Nana, Papa and their brood on Sunday morning at breakfast.

Look at these lovely ladies just waiting patiently for church.

Cough, Cough, Sneeze, Sneeze...Give me a movie please.

We're not all back to normal yet. With Abby's weakened condition from the stomach flu, she caught my nasty cold. We're both fighting an intense gut-cough and our noses are running. We did venture out for church this morning, but the rest of the day was spent inside our warm home. We went straight from our Sunday dresses to our sweats. Nap time was from 1-2:30 this afternoon and while we did rest, there was no sleep for either one of us. I think it was our cough that kept us awake. This only helped to sour Abby's mood even more. As you can see from the picture, there aren't many smiles around here lately.
But...we do have movies!! Currently we have Boz the Bear running for Abby while she lays on the couch. She did try some toys this afternoon but it just took too much energy. I did write a grad paper today so I feel like I accomplished a little. Now it's off to make some tacos for dinner. I tend to have a VERY high level of curiosity and I just had to know how many inches of snow we have on my back deck. Currently the yardstick is measuring just over 24 inches of snow! Can you believe it! And the weather people say that we're supposed to get a few more inches by the lake shore. I just hope it stops over night so the roads are good for the drive in the morning.

I hope you all had a relaxing Sunday afternoon!

A Lousy 2 Points!!

This is how our morning started...with one cranky girl. Even her doll had given up! Then...it was off to the best college rivalry game ever! Hope played Calvin and I got a ticket!! My day could only get better from here....right?

My uncle (in the plaid blue shirt) was the official scorekeeper and they needed someone to cover his normal job, which is working on the jumbo-tron. So, he called my mom! She was thrilled and did a great job! Doesn't she just look so professional?
Here a picture of the jumbo-tron. My mom was in charge of the team players, the number of fouls and the number of points each player scored. In other words, the two outside sections.

I sat with my brother, Dave, my cousin, Matt, and my dad. They were fun and full of energy.

Well....the game was quite exciting...it was nip-and-tuck for a while. But...by 2 lousy points...Hope lost.

My heart is sad.

We'll get them next time!

Down for the Count

It's been almost a week since we've posted and what a week it's been! I came down with a terrible cold. My voice sounds awful, my throat aches and now my sinuses are running. However, being the devoted teacher I am, I ventured off to school each morning only to come home pretty tired. At school several kids asked me what happened to my voice. I told them I was sick of my old voice and thought I would try a different one. Then I asked if they liked this new voice, they just stared at me...too funny! They thought I was serious. :)
When you're sick with one type of virus it's easy to pick up another one. Together with the fact that I work in a germ infested environment where kids are sneezing and coughing on me all day, it shouldn't really surprise me that I brought a new strand of germs home. This time it didn't affect me...it grabbed a hold of Abby.
It started the attack on Wednesday night at 12:30am with the first round of vomit and pain in her legs (which I'm thinking were her sore joints). Needless to say, I wasn't about to venture to school on Thursday morning. So what's a good mom to do? Yep, I stayed up and began to write my substitute plans at 1:00 in the morning! The germs really did a number on Abby's little body. She proceeded to get sick 4 to 5 different times throughout the night. I didn't know that you could change pajamas that often in one night! In fact we did run out of pajamas and were soon just putting on soft t-shirts. She had quite a fever too. My thermometer broke (don't worry it's on the grocery list to pick up when we venture to the store) so I didn't know what her temperature was, but she was boiling hot and sweating. After the 4:30am trip to the bathroom, I decided it was just time to get up. I put her on the couch all bundled up and went over my lesson plans again to finalize things.
On Wednesday night I had taken home some of the teacher manuals that my sub would need for the day, so at 5:45am I bundled Abby up and away we went to school. The weather here is awful and very very cold. It was below zero so I really bundled her up and then prayed that she wouldn't get sick at school or in the car. But, as a single mom, what's a girl to do? I didn't have someone to leave her at home with while I went to school and I didn't want to infest anyone else with our germ collection.
We were back home by 7:00am and Abby got tucked back into the couch. Thank goodness for both Disney and Nick Jr. I think we watched every show they produce. Abby continued to get sick throughout the day, cried from a hurt tummy, and didn't sleep at all. The only safe place for her was laying right on my chest. Despite all the sickness, it was a great feeling to just hold my baby. I'm sure the attachment circle has been completed.
We tried a cracker around lunch time. I thought she would keep it down, nope. It came up and this time there was a little blood in the vomit. After a call and visit to the doctor, a little Gatorade and more rest on mommy's lap, Abby finally fell asleep at 7:00.
My mom came over to watch her while my dad drove me to school so that I could get a few things done for the substitute on Friday. For those of you who know me, you know I DON"T take sick days, so for me to take 2 days in a row is almost unheard of....but my baby needed me and at this point I was exhausted.
We finished things up at school and headed to bed. Abby laid with me in bed while I read and then I moved her back to her bed. I took some NyQuil and crashed. We were up a few times during the night because her tummy hurt and she was so hungry. The doctor didn't want me to give her any solids until later today so we filled her tummy with Gatorade. When I woke up this morning I found her with me in my bed. I'm not sure how she got there. Did I bring her back to my bed, did she just crawl in, did she wake me up and ask if she could sleep with me? Who knows...NyQuil can do a number on your mind!

We woke up this morning and had more Gatorade. She immediately laid down on the couch and bundled up in her blanket. She hasn't gotten sick, but apparently is still tired. She's watching Nick Jr. and not moving. I wouldn't be surprised if she falls back asleep. She says her tummy still hurts a little. We'll see what the day brings. I'm planning on doing LOTS of laundry, doing some school work and sleeping whenever she does. My cold has come back full force so we're quite a sight today, but at least we're together! I sure hope your week has been better than ours!