Please do not buy this book

About 7 months ago a friend's niece died while in the care of Jeanette Lawrence. The child was only 2. She was left unattended for a period of more than a few minutes and the results were fatal. I believe the DA is still trying to make his case in court so I do not know the details except that the child died and it could have been prevented. The little girl was only one of several that was in her care that day. After the incident, it was determined that the woman should not have had as many children in her care as was that day. Now it turns out that Jeanette Lawrence has published a book... Your Child's Daycare: Everything You Need to Know From Start to Finish. It is even being sold by amazon.com. Please do NOT buy this book... encourage others to NOT buy this book. Amazon.com will not remove the book from their list because it would be considered censorship.

Halloween 2009

The kids did some neighborhood trick or treating and then we went to the church for "Trunk or Treat"... then more neighborhood trick or treating. Kodi had her first Halloween overnighter at a friend's house. Of course I did take her and a friend trick or treating with the little ones before the party... she can't grow up too fast! Anyway, here's costumes for this year. We didn't have the money to buy new costumes so we worked with what we already had in the house.

Deklan is a Ninja. I actually bought the Ninja costume for a dime after last Halloween. It should have been big enough (it's a 7), but he had a big growth spurt over the summer so it was a little short and snug... he didn't care, he wanted to be a Red Ninja. When he got cold I gave him my sweatshirt to wear, which he swam in... he said he was the "Ghost of the Red Ninja" and thought it was great. Funny.


Hayleigh was a cheerleader... with a little tweak of the makeup, hair, and gloves. Surpisingly, this was actually Kodi's cheer outfit from when she took cheer in kindergarten.



Kodi was Abby Sciuto from NCIS, complete with spider web tattoo. (Actually, I drew it on with a makeup pencil.) My favorite show is NCIS with the CSI branch closely following (except Miami... I can live without that one, but still watch it). Abby is our favorite character on the show. She looked great and everyone recognized her right away.

We also had a special guest for Halloween... He lives on my porch.


Since I'm terrified of spiders, he doesn't get messed with.

Great Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend. We took our Girl Scout troop to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. It was Bythia (the leader), her husband Roger, my husband Chuck, myself, and then there were eight girls from our troop plus both our younger girls and Deklan. The total was 15. We all rode in one large van, but it really wasn't too bad.

The lodge has a large indoor water park. There is a "magi quest" for the kids. Basically you get a wand and a map and wander around the four floors of the lodge looking for different interactive items. When you point the wand at the item it talks to you... "you've found 50 gold pieces" from a trunk, "don't point that thing at me" from a fairy in a bird cage, etc. They even had trick or treating for the kids.

It was fun for the girls. Of course there was also an arcade, a couple of stores, and a candy shop (great fudge!). On the way home we stopped at Palmer's candy store. The girls really enjoyed themselves and it was a mini vacation for my family since my husband got to go.


Chuck poses for the camera.Kodi's turn. Next is Hayleigh. Don't forget little D!
Deklan poses in front of the big clock.
Here's the inside of the water park. It was really big - 3 water slides, a lazy river, a swimming pool; a kid's area with a shallow pool, two baby water slides; a large play area that had lots of water sprayers and two more small water slides.

There is a bucket at the top of this that dumps 1,000 gallons of water every 5 minutes.
I think Roger was about ready to go at this point.
This is my hubby - sweet swim trunks huh? LOL
Deklan... the life jackets were free and easily accessible to anyone who wanted to use them.
Kodi is about to do something - look at that evil face.




Of course Kodi couldn't keep from texting for very long. Here we're done with swimming for the moment, but she can't even change clothes before checking her text messages.


There was a tree house in the middle of the lodge restaurant. Don't touch the bears.



They were having a creative pumpkin contest. Here are my three favorites.



The elk were on the wall above the doors. The wolves were above the fireplace.
The clock and little house-looking thing was the back side of the elevators.
The bear sits outside of the candy shop / Starbuck's in the lodge.
Of course there has to be the McDonald's stop for lunch before leaving KC to come home. Palmer's candy shop was our last stop. We got to hype them up on sugar all the way home (approx 3 hours) and then give them to their parents! :)

I'm smarter than you...

Tonight Deklan was eating a candy bar. He had eaten the top half and asked if I could get the rest out of the Hershey's packet. I opened the bar down the seam while he watched.

He said, "Genius!"
I said, "Imagine that."
Then he said, "Yeah imagine that... you were smarter than me for once."

I guess even the dumbest get lucky once in a while right?

Concerts and Soccer

That's what today is... concerts for the girls and soccer for my son. Both of the girls went to a "Boys Like Girls" concert. Both were invited at different times and with different friends, so they both ended up going. This is Hayleigh's first concert. My first concert was when I was 16 and it was Garth Brooks. Funny how different it is than when I was their age.

My son had soccer practice. Not so good. When he got on the field he just stood there. His regular coach wasn't there so the assistant coach was doing the practice. So when he was just standing there a couple of the boys kept getting in his face - literally. Finally after the third time of getting in his face he acted like he was going to bite them. So SNAP! His coach didn't like that. She came off the field to get me because, God Forbid!, he snapped at one of the boys who got in his face. She even said it - the boy got in Deklan's face. Anyway, I took him off the field and we went to Sonic. He and I got to sit outside and have some ice cream and just chill. So I'm irritated with the coach - she never did get on to the other boys either. Whatever! I'll get over it.

Then to top it off I'm having phone problems. Actually, I didn't get my bill paid so they suspended my service. My mom paid the bill for me because she has a credit card - I don't. And she worries when I don't have phone service (no land lines in my house). Only phone service says they never received the payment and Capital One says the card was charged with 4 payments!! So, I still don't have phone service and my mother is being charged four times the amount we owe. And.. it's going to take at least 24 hours for phone service to figure out where our payment is with them. Hopefully we have phone service tomorrow. I use the text messaging to keep in contact with my girls after school since they ride their bikes. I also normally call my mom like three or four times in a day. I'm having phone withdrawals!! That's why I'm cranky. :)

Finally Back!

Wow - it's been awhile since I was on here. A LOT has happened in the past month. Hubby started 2nd shift, we got a house, the kids started school, we got a house, the kids started soccer, we got a house, Kodi started tennis, and did I mention we got a house?! It's not a house that everyone will love - the floor plan is a little different. I posted pictures on August 8 - that's the house. Some will think it's too small, but it's JUST RIGHT for us. We love it. You know the best thing? All the kids can walk/ride bikes to school. 2 minutes walking to Deklan's school. 15 minutes to Hayleigh's school and 15-20 minutes to Kodi's school - walking. Riding bikes... not as long. Of course in bad weather I'll still drive them. 5 minutes there and back isn't so bad either. I'm loving it! (I sound like the McDonald's commercial.)

I have three kids in three different schools. Not bad since two of the three can walk to school. All three of my kids are playing soccer - some during the same times and different locations. Tomorrow is when games start. Kodi's team will not play because of volleyball tournament that was already scheduled and half her team is on the volleyball team too. Hayleigh's team will play in one region across town and Deklan's team in another on the other side of town - neither in our region. This should be fun. :) Good thing Daddy doesn't work weekends anymore - too bad he doesn't get home until 2:30 a.m. and will have to get up and go early.

Kodi is playing tennis now (and doing very well). She's had three sets of matches so far - won the first two 6-0, lost the last matches 6-2/6-0. But she loves it and that's great.

You know what else is great? The kids have friends in the neighborhood that they can actually hang out with. Last week the girls walked to the football game at the school. They walk to school with their friends. There is a family across the street with two older girls and one boy - just like us. The boys are outside playing right now. Hayleigh has a friend over right now. Kodi... is at tennis practice and then straight to soccer practice. Well, they can't all have friends over at the same time! :)

Me? I'm beginning to think I have my plate full. I'm involved with two of the PTO's - president of one. I'm helping with concessions at the middle school (part of my PTO responsibilities) - not as much as I was last year though. I'm still involved with Girl Scouts - we're starting our candy and nut sale later this month. And now I'm also on the AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) board in our region and helping them with concessions during the games. There are benefits though. I get to spend time with my kids, watching them have fun. Earlier this week I helped at Hayleigh's school with pictures. I even got free pictures out of it - nice benefit for a few hours of my time.

I love having my own house and my own computer back!! I'm in heaven - except for cleaning and organizing, that's my personal bad place. :)

2 teeth

That's what I had to have pulled today. Couldn't afford the root canal and was in a LOT of pain so that was my option. don't feel good now but will in a couple days so it's all good.