Monday.

Well, guess who stayed home from school again, for the 4th day. Here's a hint, it's the same small boy who will stay home again tomorrow. Yep, Quinn. He coughed so hard all day yesterday, and all night, and did not sleep very well. When he woke up this morning, still coughing, we decided that he should visit the doctor. Mostly we were hoping for some pretty powerful cough medicine. Kevin stayed with him and took him in. Diagnosis: walking pneumonia. Great. Just great. First he had the flu (no doubt the H1N1 strain), and the cough turned into pneumonia. Poor guy. He has lost some weight too-weighing in at 36.5 lbs. He's 7 (almost 8) people! This obviously concerned the doctor. She said he needs to stay home one more day, but should be ok to return to school on Wednesday. If he does not improve by Friday they said something about steroids (but don't let any of those big sports heroes hear about that). They'll be jealous.

For now, we are using his nebulizer (he has some trouble with asthma when he's sick, and he's had pneumonia before) for the albuterol the doctor prescribed. The doctor also prescribed some antibiotics which Quinn promptly gagged on and threw it all up earlier today. Nice.

It wasn't all bad though. On the way to get his prescription filled, his tooth came out! It was just hanging there, as is the other one. This is a much improved look. You can see that his permanent tooth is coming right out, actually both permanent front teeth are poking through. We are hoping the other baby tooth comes out soon, and Quinn is hoping for $1,000 from his toothfairy. Wishful thinking. His toothfairy may be able to swing $5.

Word of the Day: Substitute. I will have another one tomorrow, and this one is a crap shoot. I didn't catch the name. It wasn't the name I had requested. It's not anyone I know. We'll see what happens. Subs get paid a lot of money for one day's work. Let's hope she can follow my plans. My para is there to help out, luckily. I really hate to have a stranger sub. You never know how things will go.

Some Great News and My Projects

I got an email this morning from the Smiley Dog Rescue. Princess Leia is ours as soon as we pass the home visit! We are all so excited. When we went out this evening, on some errands for school for the boys, we made a stop at Pet Smart. We purchased some items for the dog, and enrolled her in puppy school! We are hoping to get her this weekend. Pictures soon to follow.

As promised, here are some pictures of the projects from my crafty night. Above, glass ball ornaments filled with rolled paper, tied with ribbon. Really super easy. I bought a package of just cut strips, at Michael's. The strips were meant to be used as paper chain garland, but was perfect for this.

Here are the bookmark, beaded snowflake, star box, yo yo pin, and the snowflake ornament with buttons glued on.

This is the wooden ornament. It is covered (both sides) with scrapbook paper, sanded all around to smooth the edges, and coated in two coats of Modge Podge and one coat of Modge Podge Sparkle, over the top. We adorned those stick on glittery pieces for eyes and other embellishments. There were other shapes as well-houses, trees, gingerbread men, flowers and hearts. I did this same bird ornament for my swap, but I used different paper, and I hung beads from the bottom of the bird.

Some of my guests getting their craft on.

More guests, and I look possessed back there, arms crossed.

Word of the Day: Commercials. I am really loving the Holiday Target commercials, especially the one with the little girl admitting all that she did bad this year, and the dad and mom at the end, shrugging. The best part is the partial playing of "Chestnuts on an open fire..." at the end of the commercial. LOVE those ads! Clever. I do miss the energetic big sale Target lady though.

Crafty Girls Night

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. I was home with Quinn (again), as he was still under the weather. I spent the entire day forcing cough medicine down his throat, cleaning, and making final preparations for my crafty night. I had 8 projects! I didn't even realize until I got all of the stuff out. I set up 8 stations, and once the guests arrived, great crafting began! It was a really fun night!

Here are four projects: Ribbon/button bookmarks, great gift idea if you don't have a Kindle. Snowflake bead ornaments-it was a kit I bought at Michael's. Snowflake/button ornaments. Bling bling rings, made with scrapbook embellishments.

Two big projects here: Little star boxes which we painted, glittered and adorned with buttons. The other project is a wooden ornament, covered with paper, coated in Modge Podge and then a final coat of the Modge Podge Sparkle, and embellished with bling pieces.

The clean projects: Glass ball ornaments filled with rolled paper and tied with a ribbon. Fabric yo yo pins with fabric covered buttons. I'll post pictures of all of the projects tomorrow, when the light is better. We had quite the busy day today, so I wasn't home much in the daylight.

Word of the Day: Dog. Well, we visited the doggie today, Princess Leia, in really miserable weather. We loved her! So sweet! A little energetic, but she's still a puppy. She was happy, loved toys, and licked Quinn's nose. Both boys were quite taken with her-us too. We are trying to adopt her. One of the rescue ladies said they thought someone else was interested. We hope we got our application in before them, as it's a first come first serve system. The lady did say that they hope to adopt Leia out to a family with kids because she's going to make a great pet. We listed her as our first preference, but there was another dog there, a boy, that we were also very interested in. He's 2 years old and seems very mellow. We'll see what happens. Think good dog thoughts for us.

A Button Wreath

Quinn stayed home from school today, and will stay home again tomorrow. When I came home at lunch, he was running a low fever, which means he couldn't go back tomorrow, even if he's fever free-kids have to be fever free for 24 hours. I am staying with him tomorrow. It's ok, I still have things to do for my craft night tomorrow night. Quinn hasn't had a fever since lunch time. He's been coughing a lot though. It's horrible. He went to bed at 7 PM, completely wiped out, I think largely due to the nonstop coughing. We have given him Robitusin, but it hasn't worked. Poor guy. I hate when my kids are sick. It's the worst feeling in the world. Riley's a little concerned that he may get sick. I told him we would cross that bridge when/if we got to it.

I forgot to show this to you. I made a button wreath yesterday. I followed this tutorial.

Word of the Day: Visit. We are going to visit the dog from yesterday's post. We have arranged to meet her on Saturday. We have to drive to Lafayette to do it, but it's ok. It will be an adventure. We haven't ever been to Lafayette. We are excited to meet her, and hoping it will work out.

A Home Day

Quinn stayed home from school today, because he had a fever yesterday. I stayed with him. He was fine all day, until the late afternoon, when his fever came back. It was 104.3! Freaked me out. I called the advice nurse. He said that was normal for this strain of flu, as well as headache, body aches and coughing. Quinn has had all of those symptoms, and he's coughing really hard. Poor guy. I gave him Tylenol for the fever, and once it kicked in, he was better. He ate chicken for dinner, and even played the Wii. He's sleeping now. He'll stay home tomorrow too, and hopefully he can go back to school on Friday. He's anxious to get back to finish his reindeer.

I filled out the adoption application for this dog today. Isn't she cute? We want to at least meet her. The adoption application was scary though. Lots of questions, and I'm nervous we won't be chosen because we have kids. Some of these rescue places are leery of kids. We'll see what happens. She's super cute though, a chihuahua mix.

I got my snowflake tree up.

Word of the Day: Home. I got a lot of stuff done today, while I was home with Quinn.

Tuesday

It's not real exciting around here today. It's cold. All three cats (even the one that pees on things) slept in the house last night as it was way too cold for them to be outside. I went to work-ice on the car. Taught some stuff, taught some more stuff, then around one, the boys' school secretary called. Quinn had a fever 101.6, so he had to go home. Scurry around trying to figure out how to get him home quickly. Kevin was about 1/2 hour away, so I made arrangements to place my students with two other teachers so that I could go, pick Quinn up, and then meet Kevin at home. I didn't want the poor guy to have to wait in the office until Kevin got there-he didn't feel well. Kevin got home and I headed back to school to finish out the day, and make sub plans. He's had a headache off and on, but he's been playing the Wii, and screaming his head off (in fun, not in fit). He's felt a little warm, but not that warm. Because of the fever, he's home tomorrow, which means I am also home tomorrow. That's ok. It's not like I can't find a million things to do around here tomorrow.

Remember this? I think I posted about it this summer. I picked it up in an antique store on our big RV trip this summer. It's a brooch. I made it into a pendant though, and hung it on a matching chain. I'm happy with it.

Here's the back. I cut the pointy part off of the pin back, so it wouldn't catch on my clothes, or me. Can you see the stitches back there? The beads are all stitched onto the background fillagree. That's so cool. I wonder how old this piece is? I absolutely love it.

This dog is so freakin' CUTE! I think we must be crazy, but we feel it's time the boys have a dog, and I actually really want one as well. This little girl is a mix of Boston Terrier and Chihuahua. I would adopt her in a heartbeat, except that she's blind and requires another dog as a companion, to be "her eyes." We really can't devote the kind of time to her, that she needs, as well as another dog. We have to have a portable dog, kind of small, that likes to travel, and loves to cuddle. I want a lap dog.

Word of the Day: Prep & Landing. ( I know that's not one word) We watched that tonight. It's a Disney 1/2 hour Christmas show. I guess it was supposed to air last week, but was cancelled

due to the President's speech. Cute little story line, and computer animated. Enjoyed by all four of us.

Snow!

It snowed in Fremont this morning! Up in the hills, too high to touch, but still. I can see it on the hilltops. We don't get snow here, generally. It's supposed to be in the mid-high 20's tonight. If it rains, it's going to snow! It's so exciting. Take a look...

That highest peak is Mission Peak. You can actually hike up that one, but it's a long, long walk, uphill, all the way. I took this picture this morning, before I left for work. I zoomed in on it a whole bunch, because we don't live that close to those hills. Pretty cool-literally and figuratively.

Word of the Day: COLD. It goes hand in hand with snow. I know to many of you, it's not that big a deal, but this is CA, and we don't get snow in these here parts of CA. We have to drive about three hours to get to anything significant, snow wise, so this is a real treat.