Here We Go Steelers, Here We Go!

They won! They won! I can't believe it. Despite Big Ben, they won the Superbowl. Yay Steelers! 6 Superbowl rings – amazing. We love our boys in Black and Gold. My favorite play – the 100 yard run for a touch down. That was flippin' awesome. I did doubt them there close to the end. Not sure they were going to pull it off. But they did! We had a fun Superbowl party as a family. We ordered pizza and after dinner ate snacks during the start of the game. The kids all enjoyed the snacks (Finley ate her weight in Cheetos) and waving the Terrible Towel. BUT, they had to go to bed at normal time – school night. It was a fun game to watch.

In the afternoon, Sunday, after church, Arlington and I went and did some birthday shopping for Mat. We also did a little other shopping as well! Mat brought the two little ones home for lunch and naps. Arlington did pretty good because we were gone for several hours. I bribed her with cinnamon sticks from Antie @nnes while we were at the mall. She really enjoyed those and made a huge mess of herself! But it was fun. We got home around 3pm to find that both the little ones were awake. They normally aren't up until around 4pm, but Finley decided she was done napping and had gone over to Cainan's room to bother him and woke him up too. Little stinker.

Monday Finley stayed home from school. She was up every hour over night complaining that her “face hurt” her ears hurt, her teeth hurt, her throat hurt. So, that meant we were definitely going to the doctor. The only thing that had disappeared from her illness was the fever. She is still coughing a lot and her nose really running. Found out she had a double ear infection, a sinus infection and bronchitis. So she is on some heavy medications and should be feeling better in no time. I stayed home with her this day. It was my turn. We had a fun day today - played, went to the doctor, roamed around Rite Aid while we waited for the medication, came home an played playdough. When she napped, I did more painting. I got the family room complete, and have just one last section of the stairs left. Yay! Then we will take another break while we decide on the next colors.

After Finley's nap on Monday we went and picked up Arlington and Cainan from school and Cainan was really whiny. He came home and played, but kept whining. We took his temperature and it was 103. Great. So, Mat would be staying home with him on Tuesday. I gave him Motrin and then all of the sudden his neck and feet broke out in hives. It was so bizzare. Just those two spots. Cainan has weird skin as it is – very sensitive (when we first brought him home it was a crazy mess). I put Calamine on it and then after bath when they were worse, I gave him Benadryl. Sigh. We are really having a hard time getting back to work here! I should have known that Finley would pass her fun little germs to her brother. He also has a cough and runny nose. SO....fun times ahead.

Tuesday. We woke to no snow. (by the way, we were expecting some) I thought we were in the clear. I turned on the news and most of the schools in our area were on an “early dismissal”. Arlington's school and my school district – no early dismissal report, but it wasn't snowing. I got to school and at 9am, the call came for Arlington's school. There was early dismissal and no Kindergarten for her. Mat was home with Cainan, so he just had Arlington home too. My school? No – they decided to wait it out. I think that was an okay decision – until about 2pm. It started snowing.....then sticking.....then REALLY sticking. It took me an hour to get home. We had gotten a call from the district saying that the buses were slow but the kids would be home soon. At 5pm (yes 5pm) we got ANOTHER call from the district (we get automated messages here) stating the buses were still in progress of getting kids home and kids would be home soon. Stupid school. They made a bad decision. Again. Tomorrow we are probably going to pay for it, and they will call a delay or cancellation, even though the snow is supposed to stop here overnight. Sigh. And guess what tomorrow is? When I was supposed to talk with the staff about the health office rules. Yeah. Again.

Mat told me that Cainan did something funny during the day. This afternoon he was going around saying "I'm a good girl". Poor guy. Two sisters - he is all messed up.

Today at work was interesting. It was not wise for me to be absent yesterday apparently. I was bombarded with hyper staff, students who came down because they knew I was back, and a parent who was just plain rude (a dad). I had to send his kid home early this morning for having some “bowel troubles” twice at school. Dad was not happy about having to come and get him. Told me, “well I will be there by the end of the day”. Uh, no. This is public school – not a babysitting service. I told him he needed to come within the hour. He was grumpy about it, but did come. This is the SAME family where I had to send the kid home two weeks ago for pink eye and the evil grandma came and when I told her that I needed a note for him to return to school she waved me off and said, “I will tell his dad – that isn't my problem”. Nice, right???? On top of that fun phone call, the janitor came in and told me that yesterday a kid had thrown up twice in my office on the floor. “That's not fun” I told him. He says to me “from now on, can you just set the kids by the garbage can so they can throw up in there?” Are you KIDDING me? Yes, I will make sure of that. I will make sure the kid who can't help it aims for the garbage can to make your job easier. Give me a break. Oh, and by the way – I want you to clean my toilet's counter clockwise because I don't like the way the swirl is going. Seriously. Stick to what you know, man.

Mat took Arlington out tonight to do some sled riding and clean the driveway. Guilt has over taken us because our really nice neighbor keeps cleaning our drive. So Mat did the whole drive. Although, with it continuing to snow, it probably won't matter. We are supposed to get 5 inches or so. Hello? Mother Nature? Yeah, we have a request. No more snow this season. We have enough, okay? It was been really fun, and really pretty, but that is enough now, alright? Would that be okay with you? We will see Mr. Snowmeiser next year.

Oh, my cute story from today, I had a kid come down with a scratch on his hand. He got it from his cat. On Sunday. But, I wasn't there yesterday, he said, so he needed to wait for me to come back so I could see it and put a bandaid on it. Awwwwwww. Go to class.

Before I go, I wanted you to know about this publication I’m a part of called Serious.Life Magazine. They just published the February issue today, and I am in their Featured Blog Directory. It’s a very high quality magazine… you’ll really like it.

The magazine includes a lot of great content from bloggers you’ll appreciate, as well as great features, photos and other content. The magazine is owned and published by a family who have seven kids, three adopted and one who has Leukemia www.riggsfamilyblog.com. The magazine gives away a bunch of ads to charities and ministries. Besides great articles on interesting people, there is a lot about family, adoption, personal finance, spiritual life, humor… all sorts of “life” topics.

Again, the subscription is free, and I know you’ll enjoy the magazine, so take a minute to check it out and sign up to get future issues. Serious Life Magazine


Have a nice week and I will see you Saturday!!! Saturday is Mat's 21st birthday. Ha! Did you believe that? He is actually the big 35. Oh my!! Old man is ½ way to 40.