Christmas Time's the Only Time

Well this fall/winter season has been quite a whirlwind. September was starting school, Genni's Birthday, Scrooge auditions, Scrooge rehearsals, football games and drumline rehearsals. October was more football games, Scrooge and drumline rehearsals as well as Parades and Dr. appointments and a trip to the Pumpkin patch. November marked the Fall show Love Rides the Rails as well as a continuation of Scrooge and drumline rehearsals, Area All State and Thanksgiving. So far December has been Scrooge performances, NYSSMA conference, basketball games, concerts and Christmas parties. Not to mention all of the Band Aides and London meetings my husband has been to. Through it all I have been going through my first trimester of pregnancy. Anyone else tired yet!

Recently we did finish all of the Scrooge performances, and it went very well, as well as Eric's and my concert last night - both successful. After these next two days of school the only thing left in December is vacation - oh I am so happy we made it this far!

I'm about 16 weeks pregnant now - almost half way there. None of my normal clothes except long shirts fit me now - I'm wondering how on earth I will find enough maternity black dress clothes for the Spring show?!? I'll certainly be waddling by then and need a stool to sit on! Nasuea is mostly gone, it recurs occasionally at the most inopportune moments, but in general my appetite is back and if I didn't have so much going on I would certainly have more energy at this point too. Daily Genni asks when the baby is coming and if she is a big sister yet. She is SO excited about the baby and I really hope that it lasts after the baby is born too! I am looking forward to not having to go through all of the end of the year stuff in June, though I will have to be diligent so that everything is ready for when I come back in September.

Recently Genni was in the Children's Christmas program at church - we do have pictures that I will post just as soon as I remember to bring the camera with me! She was an angel - the littlest angel to be specific - it was so cute to watch the bigger girls help her and lead her around. I was very surprised when I left her that morning with the kids to practice and then didn't see her till their part in the service that she didn't put up any fight and just went with them. Annie was there of course, and she knows her well, but still - usually she isn't quite that eager to let go of mommy and I have to admit though I was proud of her it stung a little that she didn't need me....they grow up too fast. Anyway, the kids where all waiting in the lobby for their part, which was right after the pastoral prayer, and they had been waiting there for about half an hour so I'm sure the kids where restless. Well Gary gets to the part of the prayer where we are all praying silently and all of a sudden we all hear giggles from the lobby - and then the person next to me leans over with a smile and says "I think that's yours" hehe - yup my daughter was giggling up a storm, but at least she wasn't crying so I was happy. She looked super cute in her costume and stood very well with the rest of the angels during the program. This is the first year that we didn't just push her up there at the last minute with an animal costume on so that she could get her picture taken. Such a big girl!

Well Thursday is Eric's birthday and the family is coming over after church for lasagna dinner and such, which means that I need to clean the house - wouldn't it be nice if I could just keep the house clean every time I did it...why is it that I can't seem to do that? I also have an enormous pile of laundry that I'm going to have to take to a laundry mat to get caught up since our dryer is still broken. At least I'll get all of that stuff out of the way this week so next week we can just RELAX! I really can't wait! Pictures coming soon.....

NYSSMA

I can't believe I haven't written in so long! There is no excuse....

So we went to the NYSSMA conference last week, and it was really a great time. It was good to see other teachers in NY that I haven't seen in awhile, get myself inspired to teach again, and spend some time with my family. Eric and Genni both came too - since both our school's sent us she tagged a long too. This is actually Genni's 3rd NYSSMA conference, we only missed last years. It was funny, some people would just smile and say how cute she was and say how well she was behaveng (sometimes true, sometimes not, believe me!). But I did get a few looks that were like "What were you thinking?" and someone actually said to us "I did that one year and I'll never do it again, you'll never get to sit through anything!" Well, we attended, together, every single workshop we were interested in and Genni sat next to us watching her favorite movie (UP) on the laptop with headphones and everything worked out just fine. She definately had her moments over the course of a few days. Once we were in the exhibit hall and Genni didn't want to have anything to do with walking around and was throwing a fit, but we were all hungry so I'm sure that was part of it.

Two side notes on Genni - one, she has learned to pout. When we reprimand her for something (especially if daddy yells at her!) she will sometimes walk off and pout and sulk for awhile and will not talk to us till she's done (which can take awhile) or we tickle it out of her. two - her skin was doing so well we decided to try some milk with her, and then since we were at the conference and Breakfast and Dinner where a buffet included in the room price (I felt bad asking for special food for her since technically we weren't paying for her meal) she definately had milk and some soy, well between the two things we discovered that she is definately still allergic to both, and her skin is all itchy again :(. Poor girl! Back on the diet we go....

Anyway, we did have a nice, relaxing, informative trip, but it's good to be home! Now we prepare for two weeks of musical chaos!

Pregnant!

Well for those of you who haven't heard yet, we are indeed expecting a baby about June 9th, 2010! It's too early to tell if it's a boy or girl (everyone's first question) at this point I'll be 10 weeks tomorrow and we have to wait till 20 to tell that, and yes I will find out. We have a girls name we like (Isabelle) but don't have a clue for boys names so suggestions are welcome! Just don't be mad if we don't take your suggestion:).

Genni has two questions about the baby - "when is the baby coming out of your belly?" and "How is the baby going to get out of your belly?" I'm sure there is a book for that one! Since her understanding of the passage of time is not good yet I've already gotten the when question a lot. I figure she will stop asking eventually....

People are always asking me how I feel....I remember getting that a lot last time too. I was pretty sick the first few weeks but I'm starting to feel better now and most of the bad times are at the end of the day when I can just sit and do nothing. My 8th graders think I have been cranky....I want to tell them how whiney and moody they are this year and their only excuse is hormones:).

This past Friday was the first ultrasound and when we saw and heard the heartbeat we both breathed a huge sigh of relief and felt safe making the pregnancy known. So we have two little pictures and a DVD of the ultrasound...at this point the baby has a huge head but at least has no tail anymore:). Last week he/she was olive sized and this week we are supposed to reach an inch and a half I think. Crazy to think of something so tiny that actually has a beating heart inside me while I just go about my day. I think the fact that it took so long was so frustrating this time around makes us really think about everything in a different light. Even though I'm tired and feel sick a lot I'm much less stressed now that I know that I'm pregnant and that everything is going swimmingly (well at least one of us is swimming all the time right! haha)

November Days

Hello! Yes I am still alive, and we are all healthy - lately my schedule has not been conducive to writing but I hope to catch you up! October was full of football games, musical and play rehearsals and drumline practice, parades, homecoming at both schools, going to the pumpkin patch and meeting up with some long lost cousins, London Meetings, Band Aide meetings and Dr appointments. Suffice it to say, we have hoarded our at home time and with Festivals and trips to plan and advisor duties and I don't find much time at school to write notes. So anyway, back to November. This months big activities are the Fall Show, the Campbell Show Eric is helping with, Area All State, Thanksgiving, Tip off tournaments and the Festival of Lights Parade.

Now on to stories of my daughter, who says the cutest things...I am so thankful that she sleeps through the night most nights and that she hasn't been up at 5:30 AM since the time change. I love when she wakes up in a good mood, but every once in awhile she wakes up a huge crank and just wants mommy to hold her and do all manner of things for her....I want to go downstairs, get milk, cereal, etc. etc. etc.....when mommy really needs to get ready for school. It's so hard not being able to just stay there and cuddle with her when she needs it....on the other hand I'm not sure if she would be happy even if I did, on days like that everything makes her cry till she wakes up a little more. Anyway, lately she has also been in a "but I don't want to......" mood...seriously sometimes it's ridiculous, "I don't want it to get dark!" "I don't want the sun to come up!" "I don't want it to be cold!" "I don't want...." Geesh child I can't control the elements!

On a good note Genni had tumbling at the YMCA on Tuesday and Laurelyn told me the teacher said Genni has a lot of natural ability and that if she is still interested in a few years she wants to pull her up to the pre-team group! Especially with her being petite she thinks she might have a future in gymnastics. I'm certainly not going to push her if she loses interest, but I'm so proud that she is doing well at it and that she has talent in something even at 3! I don't think I can quite explain to anyone that does not have a child how it feels to be proud of your child when they are good at something. It's totally different from getting compliments on their behaviour or their looks....and it's just wonderful. It totally made my day when I heard that. No matter what she decides to do later on, I will always remember that at 3 she excelled in tumbling class:). Someday my daughter will roll her eyes at me when I say that.

Cute Girl

Although there is plenty to catch you up on, I'm going to focus on some super cute things my daughter has been doing lately...here are some snapshots.....

Eric and Genni were carving pumpkins and Eric took the top off, Eric told her "now we have to scoop out the inside" my daughter looks at the pumpkin and says to her father "Daddy, little girls do not scoop out pumpkins with their hands, my hands will get dirty" "do you want to use a spoon?" "yeah...(disgusted look on her face)"....hahahaha can you you believe it!

We were at dinner with Eric's parents the other night and Genni was trying unsucessfully to get grandma's attention...."Grandma keep your eyes on me!"

She loves driving her little tractor around - but as soon as we get her turning the wheel one way she just leaves it there instead of going back to the middle so she usually ends of driving in a circle.

She has become afraid of bugs! It has been warm out so when the outside light is on at night and we let the dogs in or out bugs fly around the kitchen till they get caught in the lights - she freaked out the other night! I finally convinced her that the bug was not going to hurt her and that it would eventually just sit somewhere. But it reminded me of the day we were on her tractor and she made us come inside because she didn't like the bugs flying around her. What a girly girl!

Another time recently Eric took the sweeper around and got a whole bunch of leaves raked into a pile in the backyard. It was about as tall as me when we were done and we threw Genni into the pile over and over - she would giggle and roll down the mound, we'd rake it back up and do it again. It was a great day, and she never got tired of being thrown into that leaf pile. She was however very upset with daddy when he burnt the leaves. (Which I just discovered is now illegal in NY?!?! Jeesh!)

Yesterday morning I mentioned something to Eric about remembering to take the oboes out of the car for Ken when he got to school....when Eric picked Genni up she says "Daddy, did you take mommies elbows out of the car for Ken or did you forget?" hahaha - now he can never escape!

Every night before we go to bed we say prayers, Genni has a whole list of stuff that I've tried to cut down to "just people hunny" "Oh ok, how about my fan?" "no, people" "my door? my humidifier? my curtains?" The funny thing is she knows exactly what I mean, she's just saying it to be difficult. She also says every single night, "and two mommies and two daddies" "you only have one mommy and daddy hunny" "I have a mommy and Graham has a mommy and I have a daddy and Graham has a daddy and that's two mommies and two daddies" Well I guess I can't argue with her math.

When I go downstairs at church to get her from Sunday School after the service she is sooooo excited to show me all of the crafts and coloring and glueing she has done, literally jumping up and down, it's so cute.

She is aways saying "when I get bigger and bigger I will....."

I was so impressed last night, after doing her little wooden puzzles together a few times she told me to close my eyes and not look so she could do it herself (the only danger was that I would fall asleep) and she did all four of them without any help from anyone....she is getting so big!

Eric got her this little leap frog thing that is a screen with a magnetic drawing pad on top so it will tell her how to make a letter and she can trace it with the pen and then erase it and do another. I'm so impressed that she can hold the pen correctly without having ever been told and is really doing well at tracing the letters....how can she have grown this much!

She can basically get dressed on her own now if I lay the clothes out the right way...bedtime is lots easier. Now if she could just do her own lotion....:)

At her dr. appointment the other week she had an eye test where she had to say the shapes and she did each one perfectly (I was so proud) and then she did the hearing test and followed the nurses directions so well that the nurse was impressed and said "she is a very smart three year old, I always have to repeat those directions, noone ever gets it on the first try!" (proud mama) the Dr. also didn't bat an eye about her food allergies other than to ask if the rice milk is fortified and to say she'll probably grow out of them eventually. He also sggested she take a vitamin but he says that to everyone when they get this age. She has been taking some the last few days but I'm not convinced she isn't having a reaction to them (they have Vitamin E which is generally derived from soy, but we said we would try them and see) but what vitamin doesn't have E?


Well I guess that is enough for now.....more cute things to come

Emergency Room....

Well, for some of you whom I haven't talked to this past week, I don't want you to get nervous in the middle of the post so I will say up front that Eric is doing fine at the moment:)

Tuesday night 10:30-11:30

I went upstairs about 10:30 or so, tired and ready for bed, however I ended up reading for awhile - kind of waiting for Eric to come to bed too- and didn't actually fall asleep till about 11:30 (normal for me, I can't seem to get to bed any earlier most of the time!).

Wednesday morning 12:40 AM

I hear Eric screaming for me downstairs and jump out of bed and run downstairs wondering what on earth he's waking me up for this late. He's doubled over in pain from his stomach and seriously scared because he doesn't know what is going on. He's saying "what do I do! what's going on! and I'm like....uhhhhh...did you try going to the bathroom?" It's the first thing I could think of for stomach cramps. Well that didn't work obviously and he's now on the bathroom floor doubled over yelling "call an ambulance!" "to which I reply - "really? an ambulance? get in the car I can have you to the hospital in 15 minutes, let's go!" he is adamant about the ambulance and to his credit he's not really able to straighten up enough to get into the car, so I don't know if I would have gotten him into a seat let alone the hospital. Besides we had no idea what it could be and didn't know if he needed immediate attention. So anyway, for the first time in my life I called 911, talked to the operator and got an ambulance on the way to the house. I always though they stayed on the line with you till the ambulance was there, not true, she said to call back if we had any other trouble....

30 seconds pass and my husband wants to know why they aren't there yet, I'm pacing, and then he says - "I was on the computer with Mike before this happened, get on and tell him what's going on, and there was something on the desktop I need to send him for tomorrow (they were working on the London meeting at 12:40 in the morning)" my reply is "I think that can wait at the moment, but I'll tell Mike what's going on." Poor Mike didn't get much more sleep than us after that, imagine talking to your friend online and all of a sudden his wife is telling you an ambulance is coming to the house.

Wednesday morning @12:55 AM - EMT's arrive at the house and find Eric still on the bathroom floor, the first attack has passed enough so that he can explain to them what is going on, they take vitals and such but can't offer much more till the ambulance arrives. A few minutes after they arrive he has another attack so at least we know we were right to call them, but I don't think they really knew what was going on either. The ambulance arrives soon after and I have to rearrange the kitchen furniture so that they can get the bed rolled in to the house. They told me to take my time getting to the hospital (I still hadn't gotten Genni up, figuring she didn't need to see all that, can't believe she slept through it though)

Wednesday morning 1:30 AM - I got to Corning hospital - strangely there is no one at the desk in the ER so I wait a few minutes before casting some significant looks through the "no admittance" doors to the nurses station. After I find Eric I learn he had another attack in the ambulance on the way but has been fine since they got to the hospital. Both of us are hoping for good answers to all this and after blood tests they discover an elevated enzyme in his pancreas leading to what the doctor called "pancreatitis". Well since he already had bronchitis after being at the doctors on Monday - this is just great. So they talk about the possibility of gall stones, say he should have an ultrasound (unfortunately they can't do that till the morning), and we wait a little longer to see if the pain comes back before leaving the ER.

Wednesday morning 4 AM - We arrive back home knowing we need to be back at the hospital at 6:45AM for his ultrasound. I call in sick for Wednesday and we catch a few hours of sleep before the alarm goes off at 6AM. (By the way Genni was awake the entire time we were at the hospital, but was in a very good mood, so it wasn't bad)

Wednesday morning 6:45 AM - back at the hospital for the ultrasound and listening to the technicians gripe about having to do it before 8AM because "well we don't usually have anything scheduled before 8AM" Well, I pulled my daughter back out of bed with only 2 hours sleep so do the ultrasound! By about 8AM we were on our way out and told to call Eric's regular doctor because he would read the results. Luckily Laurelyn took Genni for the day (who despite lack of sleep was reportedly in a very good mood!) and Eric and I slept for much of the day. After two calls to the doctor we still had no answers because they hadn't even read the tests yet. But the next day they called to say that it wasn't gall stones (according to the ultrasound) but he should see a GI specialist. When they called back with the appointment they said "there was something funny about his ultrasound and blood work, but it's not a big deal so the doctor will tell him about it when he sees him." Now why did he have to go and say that? Was that really necessary? I know something you don't know and I won't tell you.....

Anyway, Eric's appointment is next Friday at 10:30 and we are hoping for answer then. He is relatively fine, although he does get some twinges there sometimes. They said if he has an attack of the magnitude again they'll admit him - and I'll know that the ambulance isn't going to be able to do much for him either than drive fast and I'll just take him there myself.

On a side note, I wouldn't let Eric drive home from the hospital or to the hospital in the morning, for obvious reasons, but he is the WORST backseat driver! He drives my nuts when he can't drive! haha

So all is well that ends well, we are all back to the routine, hoping to enjoy a lazy day tomorrow after church. Other stuff happened this week but I'll have to write about them in another post because I am going to bed!

London here we come!

Yesterday my husband's band was extended their official invitation to go to London in 2011 for the New Year's Day Parade, the Lord Lt. to Her Majesty the Honorable Lord Bramble flew to Corning for the ceremony and a performance by the band. Woohoo!
http://www.the-leader.com/news/x1073706944/Parade-organizers-visit-West-High


http://www.wetmtv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx click on West High School Receives Royal Visit to see my husband on TV!

Super excited about going to London - must update my passport!

In other news, Open House for Eric tonight, drumline and choir for me on Thursday, Performance at the stadium Saturday night....isn't life interesting. I was in bed by 9 last night and sleeping by 10 and I still didn't want to get up this morning at 6:15. I'm usually a night owl but I was so exhausted last night!

Genni news - how can I get my previously potty trained now 3 year old daughter to stop having accidents every day? every single day - we have hit a new low. I thought it was the apple juice but she hasn't had any in weeks. Last night she almost made it but it's always a rush to get her pants down and half the time it's just not in time....what now? I've been angry, I've been disappointed, I've threatened, I've time-outted, I'm really not sure what to do next other than hope this is just another phase I have to wait out. They never tell you there are so many phases a child goes though...I thought I had till the teenage years for that....hmmmm.

Life just keeps getting more interesting! :)