Spell Check!!

Last week Brian and I painted the our bedroom and moved the furniture around. I framed some photos of the kids and thought it would be nice to have some of those new rub on "wall words" to add to the collage I made. I went on eBay and found "I love you Forever" and thought these words were appropriate since I tell my kids all the time that no one will ever love them more than me. So I got the words in the mail this week, and tonight while Caitlin was lying on my bed watching T.V. I thought I would put them up. Does anyone notice anything funny about these words?????
I Love You FORVEVER....FORVEVER??? I believe spell check would have been appropriate here!

P.S. The walls are not yellow they are a soft camel color. I had to take the photo with Caitlin's cell phone since I left my camera at the Wang's.

Thanksgiving Week......

Last Friday night Diana came over and we "crafted". It took Diana a little bit to warm up to it but once we got going it was fun. I find it very relaxing and she found it a bit stressful! She'll get the hang of it when we get to working on our high school scrapbooks for the boys!

Conner had his first high school swim meet Tuesday. I think he may have been a bit nervous but he did a great job. It's the first time since we've lived here that the boys team is larger than the girls team. They used to have to scrimp and scrape to get one relay for each relay race and now they had three teams for each relay race. I'm excited for him and hope that he has a great season and lots of fun.

Caitlin came home on Sunday afternoon. She was able to watch Conner's meet which was nice. And today after practice they have "fun relays" with all the kids. It's always fun for the kids to swim and very fun for the parents to watch. They swim crazy things like freestyle with one foot out of the water or flippers on your hands while swimming feet first.

Later one we will be going to the Wang's for Thanksgiving Dinner. Dining with us will be the Jarrard's and the Freudenthaler's along with Diana's sister and her children. We are thankful that we have such wonderful friends to share the holiday with. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, have a wonderful day!!

Mangy Dog

For the past two weeks we've notice that Waffle's eyes have been changing. We thought because she was a rescue pup, her mom must have mated with a raccoon. That's what her eyes were looking like. This past week we notice that she had a red spot. At first we thought she head-butted Barcleigh (she is a bull in a china shop). Then Wednesday both her eyes looked a little red. I thought maybe she was trying to get out of her kennel when I was at work. By Friday we realized that she was scratching the snot out of her eyes. So today we went to the Vet. Ole' Waffle has Mange! OMG what the heck is that???? Hello....she sleeps on my bed, is it contagious? Will our other dog get it?? Well, the good news is that the type she has is NOT contagious and it is curable. The bad news is that they have to take a skin sample from the area and now she really looks bad. Poor baby, she just breaks my heart. So we now have 8-12 weeks of treatments and bi-weekly trips back to the vet for continued testing to be sure she's getting better.

FYI....The Mange is a mite that lives on all dogs in their hair follicle's. In dogs with low immune systems or dogs that have stress, the mites go wild and their bodies can't control them like a normal dog. They start to lose their hair and scratch around their eyes, mouth and legs. So we figured that since Waffle is a rescue dog that was dropped off with her brothers and sister the day she was born (with the umbilical cord still attached) she didn't get a lot of the antibodies her mom would have given to her. Top that off with the fact that she is a skittish dog and is afraid of noises....we now have a mangy dog!

P.S.....they may say it's not contagious, but I sure am itchy now!

Happy Birthday Elaine!

Here is a little BIRTHDAY shout out to our friend Elaine! Elaine swims with Caitlin, but more importantly she is Caitlin's good friend....therefore, she's one of my "girls". When Elaine is 40 I'll be 61! Happy Birthday Elaine, we hope you had a fantastic day and hope that this year will be full of wonderful adventures and experiences for you.

In a good place

This past Friday I drove to Illinois to watch my girl swim. I stayed the night and spent Saturday with her shopping for a winter coat and a few other things. When I said goodbye to Caitlin I got a little emotional. (this is only the second time I've cried since she's left...the first time was the day after I dropped her off) I was shocked that I got emotional; we had a good weekend and she will be home in two weeks for Thanksgiving. But I realized that my emotions were not of sadness, but of complete happiness and joy. I am so happy and grateful that Caitlin is in a good place. By good place I don't mean the school she attends or her dorm room (though, they are also very good...however, she and April need to clean that joint up!) I mean her attitude, her mental well being. She is happier than I've ever known her to be. She has wonderful encouraging coaches that want to see her succeed, a team that is so positive, encouraging, fun and goofy and friends that share her same values. She said to me "I'm so happy that I GET to spend the next 3.5 years with this team". This positive environment has been long deserved! I love you kid. xoxo














(who put that chin under my face?)

Weekend update

This past weekend was busy for everyone except ME! And I was happy for it. Conner had a Halloween party to go to on Saturday for the swim team. He had a great time and it was fun to see all the kids in their crazy costumes. (Conner is the one in the way back with a mask on, he was Iron Man)

Brian went to Illinois on Saturday for "Dad's day". He and Caitlin tailgated with her swim team and their dads and then went to the Illinois vs. Iowa game. I had to buy the tickets off eBay because I waited too long and they were sold out. Brian thought the seats were pretty darn good. (it would have been even better if he got Caitlin in the photo....just like a man, doesn't think about blogs or scrapbooks!)

Me.....I watched all the shows I DVR'ed and ate cereal for dinner. It was pure heaven to have a quite house all to myself for a few hours.