Monday, March 30, 2009

I said I'd mention when we heard from any of the colleges Michael applied to... a couple days ago we received a letter from Texas State University... he was turned down. We were disappointed, but have prepared ourselves for any possibility and didn't let it bother us to much... 9 more colleges to go!


Well, today has been one of those days... although it has a happy ending.

Veronica wakes me up at 7:30, I go to use the bathroom and realize the toilet was clogged... move to our 2nd bathroom, it's clogged too! Michael fixed them both before he left for school, thank goodness!

10 minutes later, Veronica starts throwing up and continues to do so about every 15 minutes for the next 2 hours. In between throwing up, I manage to clean up the floors where she threw up, slowly managed to get myself and the kids dressed, and at least poured some cereal for breakfast. Veronica fell asleep, I finally got Josephine started on schoolwork by 10AM, and continued my day as normal...

Josephine had PE at 1:00 today, which meant we had to leave at 12:30 (it's a 30 minute drive). I had to shower before we left... put my glasses on the sink and showered really fast. Just before I'm done, Maureen tells me "Veronica has your glasses!" Veronica so sweetly hands them to me while I'm in the shower... one of the ear pieces was bent two ways - downward and out, each bend about a 45 degree angle!!!! I managed to carefully and slowly bend them back as good as I could (although they feel crooked on my face now), and proceeded to get myself and the kids ready. Of course, I didn't leave on time today, and went to PE late (I hate being late!).

The rest of the day was pretty normal... we went outside to play and Veronica and Maureen poured shovels of sand into each others' hair, and I changed quite a few of Veronica's diarrhea diapers (whatever made her throw up this morning must be still bothering her). I managed to finish up 7 out of 9 subjects with Josephine... Cooked some dinner that Veronica wouldn't touch and Maureen whined about (at least Josephine liked it!).

The highlight of the day: Michael had his "defense"today (where he has to defend his work and answer questions of 4 advisors and the president of the college for an hour)... At this college, if students don't do well in their "defense", they don't allow them to graduate that semester...

Anyway, by 10 PM he found out from one of the advisors that he passed!!! So at least we know he'll be graduating! So, that was a huge relief for both of us - it kind of made today's problems disappear :)

Days like today make our normal days seem much more peaceful, and much more appreciated!

Monday, March 23, 2009

I had my wisdom teeth removed two weeks ago. It wasn't as painful as I anticipated, but it was still painful. My top two teeth were pulled, while the bottom two had to be surgically removed. Today is the first day I've gone without any kind of pain medicine, and I'm not one for taking medicine unless it's absolutely necessary.

Overall, things are going well. The most exciting thing, of course, is that Michael is graduating this semester! His graduation ceremony is on May 9th (for those of you who might be able to come). He's been working very hard, and we're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our biggest worry is that Michael may not get a job for the fall... we hope that is not the case, although we haven't heard from any of the 10 colleges that Michael applied to. I hope we find out soon - it's driving me nuts not knowing what we're going to do once he's graduated.. Every time I check the mail, I get excited, hoping it will be a letter asking Michael for an interview. As soon as I hear from any college, I'll post it.

Josephine is on week 29 (out of 36) of 2nd grade. I'm also very excited that we're almost done with homeschooling for the year... just recently, we got a couple books on Harriet Tubman, and she read one of the books (8 chapters of an easy-reader, 50 pages long) in two days. I was amazed. She was really interested in it, too! We also got an educational DVD on Harriet Tubman, too, which she enjoyed.

Maureen continues to do good with her preschool. There are days when we don't do any kind of structured learning (or unstructured, for that matter!). the preschool program i use recommends three days a week, so that's my weekly goal. She's on lesson 24 of her reading book, and I just recently bought three games from "hooked on phonics," geared towards ages 3-6. They came in the mail today, and all three of them enjoyed the games (of course Veronica was just playing them in her own baby-way).

Finally, below are two pictures of crawfish holes that Michael took last time he was in LA. the last one, which Michael painted, was accepted into the "31st Annual Small Works Exhibition" at Harper College in Palatine, IL (which is near Chicago). Out of the 586 works that were entered, only 26 were picked for this exhibition. We were both thrilled, of course! The opening is on March 30 and is available for viewing afterwards for almost a month.


Friday, March 6, 2009

Here's a few pictures of my parents, sister, Uncle Mike, Veronica and I, and Rooster (Kathleen's horse) of course!









This was from early February, I think, maybe January... it was taken around the time that northern Tenn., Arkansas and other states were having serious ice storms. It was pretty cold at our house, enough to make icicles from our rooftops and these weird looking icicles on our bushes.
Maureen pretending to be pregnant! She stuffed a baby doll underneath her shirt and said she had a baby in her belly :) How cute!
Mardi gras time in New Orleans!!!

I guess you could call this a Mardi gras tree. click on the picture to see it close-up - there are TONS of beads stuck in the tree when people on the floats didn't aim so well at the people on the ground.

This is a BB gun, don't be alarmed! She has pretty good form for a six year old, kind of scary! Michael gave her some small targets at about 10 yards away, and he said she hit the targets pretty accurately.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Well, we're all here, home again! I had a great visit with my family (it was also rather relaxing having only one child to take care of) and it was great to spend time with my parents, my sister and Billy, and my Uncle Mike. I keep hoping and wishing that Michael gets a job further south so it will make it more possible and easier to visit my family in FL. While I was gone, there was a flu outbreak in the Aldana household. Pretty much everyone got sick, except for Michael (and Veronica and I, because we were in FL) High fevers, congestion, body aches, headaches, ect...

We came back from LA to our house in MS on Thursday evening, and spent a lot of time that evening unpacking suitcases and trying to get the house in running order. Friday morning, i woke up with a sore throat, and by that evening had begun getting a low fever and body aches. Saturday, I was pretty much useless and couldn't do anything all day! My fever pretty much hovered around 100 or 101 degrees, and spiked at 102.5, even with Ibprofen and tylenol. Sunday morning (at 4:30 AM!!!) I woke up feeling terrible, and discovered my temperature was up to 103.3, and after taking some Ibprofen and putting a cold rag on my head, it went down some, and I fell back asleep. I woke up again at 8:00 and had no fever. Hooray!!!

Now, poor Veronica is getting it, I'm afraid. She's had a low fever since early this afternoon and has been real whiny and crabby with no appetite.

Anyhow, needless to say, I haven't had the time to go through pictures so I can post them. I hope to get to it during the next day or two. I'm behind on laundry, as always, and need to catch up on folding before it turns into an impossible job!

I hear Veronica waking up. gotta go!