Good night..

The house is quiet…   Kids are all asleep and I am planning on heading that way soon myself.  Not a lot is going on this weekend.  The kids will be in and out..  My oldest son brought his wife and our grandson to visit today..  Tomorrow one of my oldest daughters is coming over with her family to do some laundry.  It is always a houseful when she comes over.  She is mom to our 3 little granddaughters and when all the girlies get together it is quite an experience (  They get along pretty good with Miranda for about an hour and then all heck usually breaks loose.  The girlies are all so close in age that they don’t like to share very well after they have been around each other for any length of time.  Even with all the confusion we still enjoy having them come over..    Son Alex is spending the night with one of his friends.  Tomorrow they are heading to Chicago to see a big car show.  The boys’ dad is taking them and a younger brother so they will have a good time.    Well,  I hear my bed calling so I am going to head out…  Have a great night everyone…

It's Official,,,

Its official… They brought the bus back today… School starts in 4 days… I still have some bus paperwork to get finished, mostly dealing with student information and I also need to have a seating chart filled out… As for the number of kids on my bus, the DOT will have to get that one figured out…. Annalise came home from the hospital this morning :) Her bilirubin level went down a little more during the night so the Dr thinks she will be fine now. We had taken Miranda to the Dr today for her toe check up and he gave her the ok to do anything she would like to do now… he said her toe looks great and her toenail is even starting to grow!! He was so happy about that because he was really worried that it might have been permanently damaged… For a family celebration we met Lily and my granddaughters, Dominique, Anastasia, and little Annalise at McD’s for lunch :) Miranda was so happy to be allowed back on the playland equipment :) We had lunch, played for awhile and headed home so hubby could get to work. He has to close the store down again tonight, but at least he gets off work in an hour… I think tomorrow is a quiet day. Ohhhh until about 4:30pm, then I have to go to school for a bus meeting… More of a welcome back and a chance to meet our new DOT… I wonder what good news she will have????? I better get going, I am babysitting my niece and nephew for awhile cuz their mom and dad had to go into town…. Have a great night everyone :)

Another day...

Little Annalise spent the night in the hospital.  Apparently after they drew her blood levels yesterday for the jaundice they discovered it was at a 19.  Borderline is a 13.  So Lily had to take the baby in at 11pm last night to be put under the bilirubin lights.  I called her this morning to check on them both and the baby’s level had dropped 1 point.  Over the course of the day it has dropped another point so that is good.   I went up to visit them both for a little while after I got back from going with hubby to the VA Hospital for his yearly physical.   What I thought were actual bilirubin lights is now a blanket the baby lies on tucked into a special little outfit that allows the light to reach her body.  No more mask to protect her eyes, because they aren’t exposed to the light and it seems to work great.  The nurses said it is a brand new machine and little Annalise is the 2nd baby to use it.  Just a little while ago Lily called and told me the Dr is very happy with how baby is responding and so she doesn’t need to be on the lights over night.  They will check her in the morning and if her level is the same or has gone down any more they will let her go home… As for the trip to the VA Hospital…   I hate those yearly trips.  We had to be there at 9am for a fasting blood draw and then his actual Dr appt was scheduled for 10:30am.  Finally at 1:30pm we got in to see the Dr, this Dr is always backed up…  So then it is go thru the test results, all good except for the weight again….   (So we really have to work on some weight loss)  and then upstairs for an x ray to see if they can find out why hubby is having pain in his right hip.  Of course we will have to wait for those results, but in the meantime the Dr is getting an appt set up to go and see the Orthopedic Dr’s in the VA Hospital.  Maybe they can get it all figured out. I did find out from my daughter and new son to be that the reason they decided to wait 2 yrs before the wedding is that they want to save up the money to pay for all of it themselves…   I was very pleased to hear that.  Not because I don’t want to give my daughter a wedding, but because I really like to see them take responsibility for themselves…  It just shows me a lot of initiative on their part and I really like that.  So, in a couple of years we will have a wedding and a big honeymoon. I also got some good news from my oldest daughter, the one that moved back home in December 2005.  She has found a nice apartment and will be moving back out on her own in a few weeks…   I am happy for her as I remember at her age I could not have lived with my mom and family…   I told her as long as she could swing her rent, utilities and buy food I was happy.  If she can’t do those things I don’t want her to move.  She has assured me that she has thought this all out and has everything figured out and can make it…    Ok, mom’s happy then…   That just means that we have to move her and her stuff in a few weeks, but on the flip side,  Miranda gets her room back…. Speaking of Miranda….   tomorrow she goes back to the Dr to get her toe checked.  I think he said they would take an x-ray and make sure it is mending properly.  If so then I am guessing she can go back to playing at her favorite place,  McD’s… and swimming, and running, and climbing…   all those things I have a heart attack when I see her try to do right now.   The countdown is on..  5 more days and school starts…   back to driving the bus every day..  I just hope the kid problem gets taken care of…    I just can’t see transporting over 60 kids on my bus ever day…   Well,  time to close..  I have to go in a few minutes to pick hubby up from work…  have a good night everyone

Minutes old..

A proud Grandma catching her new granddaughter...

I have a new granddaughter!!

I have a new granddaughter! Annalisse Gabrielle was born at 10:35pm last night right into the loving hands of her grandma (me). She is 8#1oz and 19.5” long. We haven’t decided if she is going to have light brown hair or be blonde… She is such a sweetheart :) Hubby got to the hospital just in time to witness the birth of our 5th grandchild.. It is always so amazing to me to watch each new little person enter the world. I can’t describe the joy and love I felt when she slid into my hands and I laid her on the tummy of my daughter, my precious Lily… Hubby and I stayed about 90 minutes more, just to make sure mom and baby were doing fine and then we headed home. Me in the van and hubby on the Goldwing. I would have much rather rode with him, the full moon last night was gorgeous and soooo bright and the air was so warm :) A perfect night for a beautiful little baby girl to be born….. I just called my daughter a little while ago and both her and baby are doing great and will be heading home tomorrow, or rather heading here and then going home later :) Miranda is definitely back to her wild little self. She is still pretty careful about bumping her toe, which is real good since it is still not completely healed… But there is just no keeping her down now. I just wish we could get back to the reliable potty training that she was doing when she first hurt her toe. It seems like we have slid back about 4 steps in the process again. I guess that is to be expected when she had to go back into a diaper for the last 2 weeks. I just couldn’t get her to the potty in time with that big leg… Oh well, she will get the hang of it eventually… There is a big street dance tonight in our little rural community. Once a year in the summer our little town has a street dance on Friday night and then a big parade and activities all day Saturday. Usually this involves a big tractor pull, lots of food and craft booths. The kids are looking forward to going tonight. I am thinking hubby and I and baby will stay home this year and just let the 2 of them go. Their older sister might go over too when she gets home from work tonight. Maybe it will be a quiet night for us… Hubby has to work all weekend and doesn’t get a day off til Monday… It is my daughter Caties’ 20th birthday on Monday. I can’t believe that my oldest 4 kids are all 20 and older… When did all this happen?? I have a son that will be 17 in November, and a daughter that will be 15 in October, and then the baby who will be 3 in October still at home. Ohhhh and I can’t forget their oldest sister who is 26 and moved back home last December… We still have a pretty full house…. And it looks like it is going to be this way for a while…. Well, it is headache city for me so I am going to sign off and take some more Excedrin.. Have a great weekend everyone,,, YEAH! SMILE!! It’s Friday!

The big leg is off!!

The “big leg” is off! Finally Miranda is back to having 2 little legs :) She was very good in the Dr’s office, I am just glad they had the cast on in 2 pieces so we didn’t have to go thru the cutting it off part. I know she wouldn’t have let them do that. We had to go and get her a pair of tennis shoes one size larger than what she wears to protect her toe. The Dr said it is still healing and we need to take her back in 7-9days to have it looked at again but overall he is happy with how it looks. It does look a lot better than it did the day she hurt it. After we got home the first thing we did was get the bath water started. After 2 weeks of nothing but sponge baths baby was ready…. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent watching what she calls the vampire daddy movie, (Van Helsing). She just loves the vampire daddy and vampire mommy, heck, she even likes the vampire babies :) So we watched that and she finally took a nap. Hubby went outside to work a little more on our deck and she followed him outside, so right now she is in having her second bath of the day. I went outside to find her playing barefoot in the sand… That of course means sand all over her feet and her hurt toe in particular. I am hoping to get her in her jammies and down to watch some ‘toons soon. So that’s it for the news right now… Baby just got out of the tub so I need to get her dressed… Have a great night everyone :)

Tomorrow is the big day!!

Tomorrow is the big day! The cast comes off :) I cant wait to see how baby’s little toe is doing, and she cant wait to get her “big leg” off. She is getting around really good in the cast now. I even caught her running in it… That about scared the life out of me. I keep thinking “oh yeah, run and fall down and break your leg now that the cast is about to come off” Oh well… At least she isn’t moping around and is back to her happy little self. Well, I went to my annual schoolbus meeting to get any new students I might have this year added to my bus route. Last year I had 62 students on my bus route. This year 2 of them graduated so I lost them and I GAINED 8 more! That is wayyyyy too many kids on my bus. Needless to say the OTHER driver said she would take 3 of my students onto her bus. Oh happy day! (Said with A LOT of sarcasm!) I have been fighting with this other driver for a few years now about students. She has maybe a total of 20 kids that ride her bus; she gets by with having less because she says her route is too long. My route might be a few minutes shorter than hers, but I haul all the kids. A lot of the kids on my bus are from her bus route originally. Over the years she has managed to get more and more of them moved to my route for one reason or the other. I told the bus secretary this morning that something has to give. She said she will call me and we will go over my students along with the Director of Transportation. Now both she and the DOT are both new this school year so it should be a fun year. Neither of them have any idea what they are doing. I just hope some changes get made and hopefully they will be changes that benefit me rather than make things harder. I tell you, you haven’t done anything til you drive a 65 passenger schoolbus full of screaming fighting kids!!! I am NOT looking forward to it! Not a lot of news…. We have the spindles up on the deck now. We still need to get the top railing done and get the stair railings up. Then it will be time to start on the other deck… Baby keeps calling the deck her castle :) I guess she is the Princess of the house…. Ok, baby and I are off to town. I need to pick some bread up and meet with hubby for lunch. No McD’s for a few more days, even though that is where she wants to go. I am just sure baby couldn’t handle sitting in there and not be able to play in the play area. Have a great day everyone and don’t forget to leave a smile :)

Baby..

Changing my name...

I sit here during my first quiet moment of the last few days, silently contemplating changing my name…   No,  I don’t mean my given name,  I mean the name MOM, or rather Mama as baby calls me.   The name given to me by my wonderful children…   And at this point I don’t even mean ALL of my children, and there happens to be 7 of them, no, I mean the baby, Miranda…   Now normally I wouldn’t think of such a thing, but after 3 days I am tired….   Tired of lifting her in that 1 ton cast of hers to take her to the potty only to have her say,  “I don’t have to go now, Mama”   (said in that sweet and innocent little voice of hers)  and then struggling to lift her up and get her back to bed because she cant walk on that foot. Tired of watching Scooby Doo, or Richie Rich ALL day long cuz she wants Mama to sit with her….   Tired of forcing Motrin and Tylenol into her because she cries that her big leg, (which is what she calls her cast) hurts so bad, but she doesn’t want to take the medicine to make it feel better.  Tired of fighting to wash her hair and get the tangles combed out because it gets so terribly ratted up when all she does is lay around and rub her head back and forth over the pillows and sheets…  Just tired….   Not that I would give my job of mom up for anything in the world…  But gee whiz!!!   Enough is enough already!   And I still have 9 more days before the cast can come off….     Will I make it???  Stay tuned…. On another note…  it is HOT here!  Not just a little hot!  It is real hot!  Heat index of 108*  Our central air has been out all season as we wait on my brother, the heating/ac technician, to get us a quote on a new furnace /ac unit.  At least we have a room ac unit in our bedroom, the computer room and baby’s room…  Alex and Sara have bedrooms in the basement so they spend a lot of time down there in their rooms where it is cool too.   I keep refilling Baron’s, (our almost 2 yr old German Shepherd male) water bowl.  He seems to prefer it outside under our big evergreen bush laying in the dirt.  I am thinking I will go outside pretty soon and turn the hose on for him so he can play in the water for awhile.  I have never seen a GS that likes the water as much as he does.  Whenever I turn the hose on it is a fight between him and baby to see who gets to soak up the water…   Generally he wins… Hubby is back at work, but he does get tomorrow off so maybe a little more will get done on the deck…   So there….   I feel a little better….  Baby is napping right now so I think maybe I will take some quiet time and go lay in my bed and maybe watch a big people movie rather than the ‘toons    And just in case there is any doubt..  I love baby with all my heart, her smile makes me melt, her little arms hugging me close is worth any amount of tiredness on my part, and will I continue to jump when she calls me???    You bet!   Sometimes, ya just gotta  let it all out though….     thanks for dropping by and don’t forget to share a smile