Hearts To You

It's a Valentine's Miracle! We have all survived the last five weeks of croup/colds/pink eye/ear infection/1st round of flu/2nd,3rd,4th rounds of flu/ear infection. I apologize for the crankiness exhibited in my past blogs. Moving on...

Now that everyone is better, this week has just been one big ball of catching up. Since Kellen missed an entire week of school, she had tons of homework to make up. When I was in 2nd grade, I can promise you we did not have homework. Let alone work to make up when we were sick. I remember reading little stories, not full blown chapter books. Much smarter today.

Along with all thirty make-up homework pages to do, the girls had their Valentine's to make. Little artists, they are. I love the detail they put into each and every card they handmade for their classmates and teachers. They are so good. This morning, after our alarms went off and Kyle had hit snooze at least once, I heard Kellen's alarm clock go off. She turned it off and I dozed off once more. Then I hear our bedroom door creak open and Kellen tiptoe in. She put a Valentine that she and Jenna had secretly made next to me and one next to Kyle. Then she tiptoed right back out and got back in her bed. So sweet.

Little Miss Riley, though, is trying her hardest to not be sweet. She wants to be "mean". If you ask her if she's a good girl she says, "NO! I een!" (mean). Last night, I was singing her a made up song about her bop. {Bop is our word for the pacifier} She kept saying, "Top Mommy, top" (stop). Finally she put her hand up to my face and shouted, "Top!". I told her that wasn't very nice and you know what she says, my precious little girl? She says, "I not ice(nice), I Ieee!" (Riley). Then she covered her eyes with her hands and broke into a fit of giggles. Little monster.

Yesterday we had another day of crazy weather. I tell you about our weather to document global warming. It started raining ice (yes, raining ice, not sleet ~ I've never seen anything like it) on Tuesday evening. That turned into snow, a mix of snow and ice, and then sleet. School was canceled on Wednesday. Around 1:00 yesterday it turned to a mix of rain and sleep, then all over to rain. We had lots of flooding here because there was no place for the rain to go, since the ground was covered in snow and a crust of ice. And where were we, home and cozy inside? No. We were out in the middle of it, because our crazy dance teacher did not cancel class! Since it was a snow day Kellen was with us for Jenna's 1:40 class and I didn't want to drive all the way back home, so we did lots of errands until it was time for Kellen's class at 4:50. Brace yourselves, I'm going to brag again. The girls were perfect. I could not be more proud. Even the little monster was on her best behavior. Usually I confine her to a stroller during the dance classes because her favorite activity there is to run away. Over and over and over and over.....
I didn't even attempt to get the stroller out in the freezing monsoon, so I was ready for our up and down marathon. But she just played quietly with Kellen and then Jenna. Even after the million errands that we ran. Perfect.

I feel like we have finally turned a new leaf and that I can crawl out of the deep dark hole of sickness that we have all been living in. We are having Maddie and Beth over tomorrow night for a sleepover and next week is Winter Break. Up here in the frozen north, the kids get a vacation in February. They don't get as long of a break at Christmas, so that people can get away from all the winter weather (or go further into it ~ Skiing!). We aren't going anywhere this year, but are going to do lots of fun day trips. That's the plan anyway.