I can’t believe it is almost April already! We have had our taste of spring and winter – as usual for March around here. It was in the 70’s earlier in the month and snowed on Sunday. Two more days and Dane will be 4 1/2!

It was a bit of a crazy week again last week. The worst news was that we found out we owe $4500 for our taxes. GULP! That was not a number I was very excited to hear. So much for our vacation savings account!

I’m trying to even remember what we did last week… I know it was busy! Let’s see… Sunday we had an 85th Birthday Party to attend after church, and then Matt went and preached two services at the nursing home. Monday we did our errands in town and Cub Scouts at night. Tuesday night I had our Women’s Meeting at church (that I am the president of – so I run the meeting). Wednesday was church night as usual in lent.

Thursday we had Christian’s Conference. Conferences are optional this year in the spring, but we needed one with Christian’s teachers, so we went and did that. We decided that it will be a good idea to hold him back this year. (which we knew was probably coming) He is doing good in everything, but reading – he just doesn’t have that down yet. We got the number of a guy from the public school who does testing to get him tested to make sure it isn’t anything major. I think it is more of a maturity thing, but just in case… He is definitely getting better, but still isn’t real strong. Being that he is super emotional, I was worried how he would take the news, but I told him and asked him if he was sad and he said “I’ll probably be fine mom.” What a trooper! He will be in the same graduating class as 3 other boys from church now, so that will actually be really nice for him to go though confirmation and such with them. 1 of them goes to his school, the other 2 don’t but they will all go to the same high school.

Friday the boys had a half day of school. I picked them up, and brought them home and then went out to get my hair colored and cut. It is much shorter than it has ever been. My hair lady is in a spring mood I guess because she said “let’s do something different.” The night before she had done one of the other stylists hair and it was drastically different, and she did another lady at church and her hair was different as well. It might take some getting used to, but I think I like it. Just got to get the styling part of it down. Anyway, after hair, I went straight to school to help with the Fish Fry Fundraiser they have every year. Then I came home and got the family and we all went back to eat.

Saturday we were up bright and early with the kiddo’s. Then men from church came in to install another sump pump in the crawl space under Matt’s office to hopefully help with some of our basement flooding. We took the kids to Pizza Hut for dinner as they had their reading certificates good for free pizza’s.

Sunday was the dart ball tournament after church. Our church has two teams, but the team Matt plays on got first place in the tournament! Unfortunately, it wasn’t due to Matt’s skills – his yearly average (according to the year end print out) was dead last among all the teams in the league. (he won that title last year too! Perhaps dart ball just isn’t his sport..)

I was a bad mommy on Sunday… Christian has those adult teeth on the bottom growing in behind his baby teeth. He had lost one baby tooth a couple weeks ago, and while we were at the tournament, I reached in to check on that other baby tooth to see how loose it was – not very… However, a few seconds (literally) later he says – I got it out! Apparently he just tugged it real hard and out it came (He said it hurt pretty bad). Anyway, so I wrapped it up in a Kleenex and he asked me to keep it safe in my pocket while he played. Well… right before we left, I was throwing way all our garbage from snacks and such and I had put dirty Kleenex in my pocket from Annika, so I emptied my pockets of Kleenex and… (Yup, you guessed it – threw away his tooth!) So we get home and are eating dinner and he asks for his tooth…. It was then that I realized what happened – I felt sooo bad! So we wrote the tooth fairy a note explaining what happened. Then…. I got so lucky this morning…. Everyone was up except him and it was then that I realized the tooth fairy hadn’t come yet. So, I quick ran in there, put his dollar in his pouch and woke him up and that was the first thing he did was check to see if she came. PHEW! That was a bit too close! He usually gets up with his brothers, so I just plain got lucky!

On top of all this Annika got her bottom two teeth in. They are just starting to poke though. She has been a bit crabby, but not real bad. I also had two friends who lost loved ones this week, so I have been sending out sympathy cards and flowers as well. A sad week on that front.

This afternoon Christian comes in and says the fridge in the garage stinks! Oh oh! So I ran out there and yup, all the meat that was in the freezer was of course warm and rotten. BLECH! Who knows how many days it had been sitting there… So we lost all our hamburger patties and some of Matt’s deer pepperoni’s. A big bummer, but not much we can do about it now. Matt thinks it just got turned off on the dial, but I have a sneaky suspician it is dead. We’ll see in a few hours here!

I guess I better go make some dinner. Talk to you later!
C-

I have had the blog posting page open on my computer screen all day – I guess I better actually type something.

It was a lazy day around here – I actually stayed in my jammies all day, hung out with the kids, and worked on my business. Matt was busy – he had a funeral this morning (two funerals in two weeks) and then had to go to Champaign (an hour away) to visit a member in the hospital. Then he came home and took a long nap. The kids played outside quite a bit, and seemed to have a pretty fun day – they even requested “lunch out of cans” so they could have the cans to build one of those “telephones” where you connect the cans with the string and talk into them to hear each other.

We seemed to keep busy this week. Monday was eat at Monical’s night as they donated 20% to the boys baseball team – we went with our friends and had a good time. Tuesday was talent fest night at school. Dane decorated some wood butterflies, Christian turned in his Pinewood Derby Car, and Ryan entered a chess board he made, his Pinewood Derby Car and played the Flutophone with his clas. Every project earned a blue ribbon. Tuesday night was also the night that was a bit tragic. One of our members had her mother living in a seperate house right next to theirs, and the mother’s house caught on fire and they were not able to get the mother out in time. So as soon as I got home from Talent Fest with the boys (Matt had the younger 2 at home) he rushed to the scene and was there quite late. (that was the funeral he did today) Wednesday was church with a guest pastor. Thursday we entertained the guest pastor for the morning and part of the afternoon. Then, Matt went to a Dr. Appt. for his neck that has been hurting since January. He gave him some muscle relaxers and sent him for an x-ray. The x-ray tech. said it looks like early stages of arthritis. So he has a follow-up appointment in a couple weeks. Friday morning I had Mom’s Bible study and then Friday night was the boy scout / girl scout sock hop – what excitement that was! LOL You just had to be there to experience that one. So see, I deserved a day in jammies today.

I guess I better go climb into bed. Matt is already there.

C-

Well, it’s all about teeth around here. Ryan and Christian both lost teeth today! It was Christian’s first – I tell you I have had that pirate tooth fairy doll for an eternity! He’s 3 months away from being 7 and finally lost a tooth! It was Ryan’s who knows what number. So the tooth fairy has already been here and they are all tucked into bed.

Annika has been nice and crabby the last couple days – I think she is teething as well. Who knows – she goes through spurts where she is crabby for a few days, then she’s fine again. Maybe it’s just typical girl behavior. I can’t believe she is going to be 5 months old this week!

I was hoping to watch American Idol and Biggest Loser tonight, but my recordings got all messed up from the thunderstorm we had. So… I guess it is just off to bed. You’ll have to let me know if I missed anything good.

Matt is having a busy week. He helped butcher Saturday and Monday, so our freezer is full again. He has Lenten Service on Wednesday and a funural on Friday. And of course Sunday.

I have overheard ourselves saying “No” too much this week. Daddy, can you put a new game in the XBOX? “No, I’m too busy right now?” Mommy, can we play Scrabble? “No, I have to hold Annika, she is crabby and somehow make dinner.” But when the day is over, I look back and wish we had said “Yes” more. The afterschool hours are so hard. Christian requires a lot of attention and help with his homework, everyone is hungry,and often times we have meetings to get ready for and attend in the evening. But I think sometimes we forget the kids had long busy days of work as well. I’m ready for summer!

It has been so dark in the mornings with the time change – it’s so hard to get up now! I have had to wake Ryan and Christian up the last two days, since the change. I never used to have to wake them up for school. I’m guessing they will get back on their normal schedule eventually, but it also proves to me that if it is dark they will sleep. HMMMM, maybe I do still need to look into getting their room a darkening curtain.

Guess I’m off to bed!
C-