Quick Update

Thank goodness Daddy took some of his poker money with him to work today and bought some more Golden Quarter Dollar Coins as Peyton calls them. Because she lost another tooth today. During supper, she could not stop fooling with it and was even bleeding. I left to go to Weight Watchers and hadn't even made it a mile when Brian called me and told me she had pulled it. I didn't get home until she was in bed. I checked on her so I could see it but didn't take my camera with me so sorry no pictures today.

• Speaking of Weight Watchers, I actually lost this week. I realized that I didn't have my weight on the ticker quite right so that is why you see a .6 this week.
• Yeah- Landree made it through the entire day of Mother's Day Out today without getting a fever- the first time in over two weeks.
• Brian and I went to Peyton's Parent-Teacher Conference today. I'm working on the PTA newsletter so I don't have time to tell you about it but her first words were how highly verbal Peyton was- so you know it was good. I'll fill you in tomorrow.
• I got an email today that we had an upgrade on our cruise and we are now in an Owner's Suite which is a lot bigger than we were in- so yeah for us.

I got a New Job Today

So I got a new job today. No don't get all excited that I'm leaving the house. I can do this new job from the comfort of my home. I'm the newest Tooth Fairy!!!! Peyton lost her first tooth today. This child has been working on this tooth for almost two months now. I've got Gold Sacagawea coins ready and waiting. This morning it was very loose and I tried to pull it but she said it hurt too much. She wanted to call Grandma and Papa so she told them all about it. I was on the phone with them when she started hollering that she had pulled it. It was very exciting and they got to hear it as it happened. She then called Brian and Nana and I had to hurry her out of the door. However, not before I got these shots.

Landree kept trying to pull her teeth all day. Brian came home all excited to see the new tooth which I found in the trashcan. Peyton and I didn't throw it away so that leaves Landree. I don't know if she threw it because she was jealous or because we were cleaning today.

Last time my mom was here she made a tooth pillow for Peyton. Needless to say Peyton was excited to get to finally use it today. (ignore all the flash photography- I hate using a flash)

She kept the hairbow in because it matched the pillow- so girly. Brian got Landree ready for bed and she literally darted in for a picture and darted right back out. She is not to be ignored.

I love this picture. You can see that Nana used the same fabric from the blanket she made for Peyton's bed almost 3 years ago when I was pregnant with Landree.

This is the picture that finally made me cry.
I realized that the smile I have been looking at for over 4 years (she had 16 teeth on her first birthday) is gone. I know she is growing up and I will accept that but today I get to mourn a little for my baby. Once you start loosing your baby teeth you are a big kid. On the way home we heard a Shania Twain song that came out when she was a newborn. It is a romantic song but I remember it coming on almost every morning after Brian would leave for work and I would sing it to her just for these lyrics,

"And there ain't no way--I'm lettin' you go now,
And there ain't no way--and there ain't not how
I'll never see that day
'Cause I'm keeping you forever and for always
We will be together all of our day
Wanna wake up everymorning to your sweet face--always"

When Peyton heard it, she asked me if this was the song that I used to sing to her. I told her yes and then she said that when she had children that she was going to sing it to her daughter. Ugh- I wasn't ready for that.

So forget all this sappiness- here is the picture of a girl who has had enough. This is when I need the scrapbooking shirt that says, "My Kids Think I'm the Papparazi."Ignore the blue fingernails. Instead of doing art every week, Peyton's school instead takes the last two days of the month and only does art. She came in covered in blue today. I asked her what she did for art. She told me they painted Vincent Van Gogh's Star painting.

Yep thats it- Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night- Kindergarten. Whatever happened to noodle necklaces and picture frames?

October Background

So my husband will stop belly aching, here is a background for October. He has been complaining that I haven't had one for the last two months. If you want a copy, just let me know and I'll email it to you.

Heather, Haley and I have spent the day at the Scrapbook store at an all day Scrap Pink Crop. Here are the two layouts I did today

Furry Kids

So our furry child is not doing so well. His heart is enlarged and he has a stage 4 out of 6 heart murmor. He is on a heart medication and lasix. We have had my boy for over 9 years and it is hard to think of life without him. However we're not thinking about ourselves, Brian and I are more worried about Landree at this point. She tells us she is Buddy's Girl and he is her best friend and when she gets upset and mad at Brian and I she goes and curls up with him and cries. I discussed it with our vet and he believes in getting a transition dog so that they have bonded to another pet before the other one goes. However, he also warned that if we got one that kept Buddy riled up then that would shorten his life span. So basically Brian and I don't know what to do. He didn't recommend we get another bulldog like we were thinking but instead recommended a pug. Brian wants a boxer- I don't. They're cute in a goofy kind of way but I am not ready for that big of a dog inside. Sophie has taught me that I leave too much food on the counters for a tall dog. Landree has become obsessed with wanting, "her own animal." She keeps seeing a the commercial for the movie, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and begs, "Momma, I want a WahWa, I neeeeeeed a Wahwa." She tried to convince me that Aunt Melanie needed to buy her one. She's already convinced Aunt Melanie to buy her a pink fish. So I looked online at pugs today. Peyton came behind me and spied this one and has fallen in love.

She asked me if we could go get it this afternoon. I told her we weren't going anywhere. She then responded with, "Well, can Daddy go by and get her one his way home from work?" So as a joke, I sent him an email that said, "Peyton wants you to go by and pick this up for her on the way home" and attached the picture. That Daughter doting man responded with, "Where do I need to go?" He was serious- I called him and he asked if he had enough in his account to go get it. Uh- no. Later in the night he asked whenever we did this were we going to get two dogs- one for each girl. Good heavens if I left it up to them I would have Buddy the Boston, two barking rats (Peyton wants to carry hers in her purse) and a big boxer. But you all know who would be in charge of all the critters- so no.

Typhoid Mary may have to go back to the doctor tomorrow- You know our insurance is loving the Craft girls. She is needing her Rescue Inhaler every 4 hours and actually isn't really making it the 4 hours. She had to have it twice at school today. Her school is AWESOME. They have a nurse's office that is larger than Peyton's classroom with two exam rooms and they have a full time nurse and nurse's aide there at all times. They called me at the end of the day because Peyton's teacher had sent her to them because she was so bad off. When Peyton crawled into the car at the end of the day, she asked me if we had to go anywhere and when I said no, she told me, "Good because my chest is tired and I want to just lay on the couch." My poor baby-I can hear her right now coughing in her sleep. She has a recheck appointment Monday with our pediatrician but I don't know that she's going to make it that long.

Here is Peyton at Ms. Abbydabbys lucky #7 birthday party http://haleywillard.typepad.com/willardfamily/2008/09/abbys-7th-birth.html
(In one of the pictures I thought she was shoving food in her mouth- she loves going to the Willards because they have all the forbidden food she can't have at home. I then realized that she was just like normal for these days- just her covering her mouth to cough)

Grandparents, I realize there have not been pictures of the girls recently but they don't really care to have their picture taken when they don't feel well- I'll work on it this weekend.

Typhoid Mary and Tuberculosis Annie

Those are the new names of my children. I dropped Peyton off at school this morning, came back, got Landree ready, dropped her off at Mother's Day Out (she was so excited because she didn't go all last week because she was sick), ran by Target, and went back to Peyton's school to volunteer. I left there a little after noon and then Landree's school called to say she had a 101 degree fever. I pick her up, take her home, eat lunch, called the pediatrician's office when they reopened after lunch, and then loaded her up to go in. Her pediatrician laughed when she walked in- Landree was there last Wednesday and Peyton was there two weeks ago today. She thought she might have a bladder infection because every time she pressed on it, Landree would try to move her hand. An hour later and me triumphantly getting a clean-catch urine sample out of a two year old- no infection. So then we were sent to Pedi-Q at the hospital next door to get blood work done. Still don't know what's wrong but no nap and a 103 degree temperature does not make Tuberculosis Annie a pleasant child.

Brian took the afternoon off and picked up Peyton and then took her to swimming lessons. She started coughing again after lessons and still at 10 o'clock tonight she has not stopped- I mean every 20-30 seconds type of cough. It got bad enough that Brian called me twice during my Weight Watchers meeting. He doped her up with several medicines and I picked her up an ice cream cup on the way home. At 8:30 I couldn't handle it anymore and took her to Good Night Pediatrics and our fear was confirmed. Her asthma is back. Well technically the pediatrician told me that asthma never goes away it can just be dormant for a few years. So back to Flo-Vent twice a day and Xopenex for a rescue inhaler. I'm trying to not be sad about it and just look at as we just had a year and a half break. What does scare me some is that it NEVER was this bad in Little Rock.

So now you know why I refer to them as Typhoid Mary and Tuberculosis Annie. Peyton heard me say the names earlier and informed me that my friends sure had some odd names. If anyone knows of disinfecting company, send me their number. I think at this point the house needs to be tented and disinfected.

Okay so you see my ticker up there is unchanged- yep it has been updated. No change. However, I decided to open my big trap tonight at my meeting and mention my weight ticker post. Well the address got posted so welcome Ladies and Gentleman from my meeting. Hopefully the extra people will kick my butt into gear so the more the merrier.

Dear Butterflies

Dear American Snout Butterflies,
I know you have to migrate, trust me I've been up north during the winter- I know it's cold. However, was it such a good idea to do it across one of the top ten largest cities in the US. I was excited to hear you were coming through and the girls really wanted to catch butterflies. We have some flowers in bloom right now and I thought it would be a great learning experience for the girls. However reality is that 2 and 5 year old girls get traumatized when they see one of your friends dead on my windshield. They don't recover well and then accuse their mother of killing "God's Butterflies" (they don't seem to mind when I'm killing God's Spiders). They also then inspect the grill of my Suburban and find even more evidence of Mom's brutality. So I know you need to migrate and only come through San Antonio every few years but maybe next time you should go through a more sparse area and not where even people don't want to drive around the other crazies. Something was mentioned about burying the dead butterflies but luckily the dog went berserk about something else and I didn't have to dig through the limestone to bury your friends. Texas is a big place- go bother the longhorns next time.

Weight Watchers

So last fall and early spring, I had lost 24.8 pounds. Well I lost my mind on my cruise the first week of June and didn't regain it until today. I have gained all but 8 pounds back. I wanted to cry but at least I am 8 pounds down over last year and not 8 pounds up. So I have a goal. I want to re-lose the weight by the first weekend in December. So I have placed a ticker on the top of my blog. Maybe public accountability might help.
I weigh-in every Tuesday so it will be changing every Tuesday night. If I don't change it every Tuesday night- find me. If I go up in weight- Find me. Obviously the last year doing it on my own hasn't worked. So I need your assistance. Many of you are a part of my family or a friend. However, when I look at my Count Tracker I know that some of you are strangers. Feel free to jump on in, I need all the help I can get.

Two Weekend Wrap Up

Last weekend, Mom came to be with Peyton for Grandparents day. She drove 7 hours for a half hour deal- Yeah Nana. However she went up to that school 4 times. First to drop Peyton off with me and Landree, 2nd- for Grandparent's Day, 3rd- to eat lunch with her, 4th- to pick her up- I wasn't invited. Thats the most walking she has done since her foot surgery. On Saturday, she made a tooth pillow for Peyton for the tooth we are still waiting for her to lose. Saturday night we went to a crop with Haley and Heather and had such a good time. I got this layout done

On Sunday we had to say good-bye to Nana and took a hacking Peyton with us to church. She had a friend sit with her for the first time during service- so it begins. We had rally Sunday so Peyton started her new Sunday School Class. I was a loser for Grandparent's Day this year and only emailed this to Grandma and Papa and basically Mom just got to see us.

I took Peyton in on Wednesday but they basically told me she just had the crud but she did get Flu-Mist so all was not lost. Brian tried to be a kid again and slid into 3rd base and came home covered in blood and dirt. For his birthday, I made molten lava chocolate cakes- holy cow they are to easy and that is dangerous. Brian said they can replace all chocolate cakes from now on. We did get to go to Pappasitos with a friend of his from work and his wife- with NO kids!

Peyton was supposed to have 3 birthday parties this weekend but she still has the crud and it got worse and she ended up only going to 1 party. Landree now has the crud and I didn't go to sleep until 4 o'clock this morning. Bless her heart she is miserable and her head was so stuffed up that she can't suck her thumb. She then proceeded to take only a 45 minute nap- how in the world she is still going I have no idea. Brian didn't walk in until almost 7:30 tonight and if wouldn't have had have supper with him- I wouldn't have stayed. I have wiped more snot and listened to more coughing then I could stand. And of course when a two year old thinks she has to be laying on you to sleep when she's sick, face to face- you then get sick. My throat is sore and I don't feel well and Landree doesn't get to go to Mother's Day Out tomorrow so I can go potty in peace. But of course it's her snack day so I need to take snacks up there. My matra now is- In 3 weeks you'll be sailing to the Bahamas, in three weeks, you'll be sailing to the Bahamas- yeah

Landree's First Day

So Landree started Mother's Day Out yesterday. She was very excited she was getting to finally go to school. However, she was the most excited that her dress had a belt. She even wanted to call her Daddy to tell him she had a belt. We got Peyton off to school, came home and packed her lunch, backpack, and nap roll and off we went. I got her stopped long enough to take pictures. She wanted to stand exactly where Peyton had stood for her first picture and of course she has adopted the same head tilt that Peyton currently is doing.

I finally got her to look at the camera.

And then of course she gave me her standard Landree face. She used to drive me nuts with this face. I then realized that one day she will no longer want me to take her picture and I will miss this face.

We got her to school and she was happy as a lark and could have cared less when I left.

We have got her double covered with Epi-Pens and Benadryl. They are keeping a set in the office locked up like normal and then I leave the case that we carry with us everywhere up on a high shelf. They're happy and I'm happy so we'll just pray it never has to be used.

I was excited to pick her up and when I got in her room, the first thing she told me was, "Momma, I pet mouse." Her teacher has a few pet mice and a pet rat and Landree was thrilled. I then asked her what she did today and she told me, "I Eat." She ate and she got to play with critters- a perfect day for Landree and I got to take a shower without worry if someone was going to wake up or if the house was being torn down around me.

Labor Day Weekend

Even the dogs are taking advantage of the lazy 3 day weekend. The brown one is the Willard's dog, Sophie who is visiting while they are out of town.

Hope you are enjoying yours.