Academic awards

School's out!

We had a school's out party last night. Between our 4 school aged kids they invited over 40 kids. We had a great turn out of 30, not counting any of us Petersons & a few extra adults to help out. Although storms threatened the party it stayed to the north & the weather was perfect. We had a bonfire to roast hotdogs & make smores. Besides the kids hanging out, playing their own pick up games of soccer & football, we had some relay races & a bubblegum chewing/blowing contests. We all had a great time!

Ramble

It's a term used on a bulletin board that I frequent. When one has many things to talk about in a post, but it doesn't all fall into a particular subject. So here I go, my ramble.

John was sick last friday. He came down to my room at 3 a.m. crying that his neck hurt (he always says neck when he means throat). I hooked him up with some Tylenol & he went back to bed. I almost sent him to school the next day cause he woke up & was surprising good as new, not a hurt in sight. I followed my mama instinct & took him to the Dr. He took one look at his throat & said he had a full blown case of strep.

As the day wore on I began to not feel good and went to bed miserable friday night. I woke up just as miserable on saturday, my throat on fire, major sinus back up & massive headache. But in mommyland that still means that I have to get up & care for the house & family. I actually felt better as the day went on. Sunday I felt completely better. We had friends over that night to play games & as it got later & later I felt it all creeping back up on me. I woke up on Monday completely miserable AGAIN! More of just the sinuses buggin' me, along with a doozy of a headach. Larangitis was setting in & I began to sound like an 80 year old man who smoked a pack a day. By evening I felt better & even took Carmen out on a 3 mile jog in the stroller. Yesterday I felt pretty good, my voice just sounded totally crazy. It was a go-go-go type of day. This morning (still with me here?) I bottomed out again. Throat on fire, sinuses all backed up. I've had it...I give up....throwing in the towel....yelling UNCLE! I called the dr. to get ME some meds. I cancelled all my plans & am staying home to nurse myself.

My Mr. wonderful man I call my dear husband FINALLY got me a nice new digital camera! Yea, I'm so excited. He even picked it out all by himself. I was of course bugging....I mean very nicely droping hints to him left & right about wanting a new one. I had been using an "old fashion" 35mm camera for those must have shots. But now we're back to digital.

Today is the last day of school for the kids. They go back on friday to pick up report cards, otherwise today is it. HORRAY! I am ready for them to be home. Ready to have laid back days & not have to bark out "LET'S GO GO GO" every morning to move them out the door. Ready to not have to wake up (baby) Carmen from her nap so I can pick them up at 3 in the afternoon. Now I may be ready to snatch them by the hair & lock them in seperate rooms in a few weeks, but it's the typical cycle of life. I'm still ready to have them done with school for now.

I found a tick on (baby) Carmen's head. Completely freaked me out. The tick did break the skin, but was not burrowed in very deep at all. It was fairly easily to get it off of her. It's the first time any of our kids have had a tick on them. Gives me shivers still thinking about it. I'm not even sure how her of all of them got it. It's not like she's outside playing in the trees or even the grass. She barely even goes out. Just one of those things I guess.

Ok, I'll stop rambling for now. We seem to have much coming up that will be keeping us busy & me posting a lot. Thanks for reading!

14 years ago.....

Jim was out "recruiting for friends" and happened to snag me. Seriously....that was his line, "I'm recruiting for friends, can I list you as a possibility?"

I was still a senior in high school, just finishing out my last few weeks at school. I actually had a boyfriend. And I was ready to ship out to basic training for the Army Reserves in another 6 weeks or so and then head to college (FBBC) when I got back. So I wasn't too sure why I needed this guy to be my friend, but sure, hey why not. Not everything made sense in my 17, almost 18 year old head.

Just for fun & strictly as friends (remember I had a boyfriend) we went out on a "date" that night. Dinner at Pizza Hut (they just tore that place down a few months ago) and then to church. I can still see myself in my white t-shirt, green pleated shirt & black strappy sandals (yes, I have GOOD memory). Afterwards we went down to the river and sat for HOURS talking. It got late....REALLY late. I kept calling home so my mom wouldn't get worried. I kept telling her I would be home soon, but a few more hours would pass & I'd call her again. I finally got home at 2 a.m.

I KNEW, just KNEW that night that I would marry this man. I promptly broke up with my boyfriend. 2 months later Jim proposed to me and 4 1/2 months after that we married.

And the rest, they say, is history. All because he was recruiting for friends.

Hail

We had a nice hail storm on tuesday. The kids were very amused and had some good old midwest fun playing out in the storm. I'm not sure Jim knew that I was taping it for the purpose of putting it on our blog. But those who know Jim well know he's just a big a kid as the rest of them. The storm was quite the source of entertainment for the whole neighborhood. I only caught a few minutes of it, but it lasted much longer.

Gas prices

Ok, so it's no big surprise to anyone out there that gas prices are getting high. I distinctly remember in high school when the Gulf War was raging and we were all shocked when gas went up to $1.35. And yes, I am old enough to say I remember when gas was less than $1.

Anyway, I hit a new milestone today when I had to leave one of my children as payment for gas. I went to the gas station to fill up and realized I didn't have my wallet with me. This was after I had put it in the tank. So I walk into the station and tell the cashier "I left my money at home so I'm gonna leave my daughter (Angel) here as payment!" They chuckled and said "oh, you know it's bad when we start excepting kids as payment". Of course what I meant to say I was leaving her as proof that I really am gonna come back to pay my bill, which I did of course. I do live in a small enough town that they probably would have just taken my word for it, but I wanted to be sure, so I left her there.

We are off now to the school carnival, we're riding our bikes there to help save on gas....and to keep all our children within our care. : )

SNAAAAAAAAAAKES!

A few weeks ago Jim was mowing the lawn & told me about a snake he came across. He mowed over part of it cutting off it's tail, but it had managed to escape alive & into a hole somewhere. Now they seem to have mulitplied, the kids have reported 3 or 4 in the yard today. Jim is at a conference so I called him to tell him. His response went something along the lines of "if they're multiplying, they MUST be a Peterson." (ha-ha, ha-ha). So I snapped some footage of the snakes...I'm sure you'll get a good laugh.