Scooby-Doo

Olivia and Micah teaching Taylor the Scoobie Doo song. All the kids had a great time having "Scooby-Doo parties." Every night before bed they had a little camp out in front of the TV. There were treats and of course a Scooby movie.

One of those days....

Today Greg left for Bulgaria. For some reason the first day is the hardest. I guess I am a whimp, or maybe just knowing that I am on my own for a while makes the task seem daunting.

Sadie woke up moaning....wimpering....complaining that she was sick. With her it is tricky. She gives us a play by play of every bodily function, so it is difficult to know when to believe her. Yesterday she complained of not being well and she stayed home from church. As soon as I was out the door, she looked at Dad and said, "I like being sick, because I get to watch movies and stay home from church." Yup, nothing was wrong with her....

Today I didn't believe her. I forced her out of the house and we proceeded with errands. After a lot of whining and nearly dragging her from the post office and to the bank, I gave up and we headed home. One the way, she started a temper tantrum that continued the entire drive, up the stair case and into her bedroom. It carried on for about nearly 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I am thinking that something was seriously wrong with my child and started looking up numbers for the behavioral pediatrician and parenting classes. After the screaming, I came upstairs to talk things over. I found her glassey eyed and red in the face, with a 102 degree fever. Great.....

Add some guilt on top of the frustration.

I had also signed up to take a meal for a sister at church who just had a baby. Now things got complicated. I couldn't face taking three kids to the grocery store for some decent ingredients, especially with sick Sadie on the brink of imploding. So...what to do........? Top Ramon? Scoobie Doo Mac and Cheese? Instant Oatmeal packets? Ah....call the pizza place my sister and her husband discovered while they were visiting. Nice.....they have a website. I ordered two pizzas and a salad and scheduled the delivery for 4pm. Phew....

We drove the food over, I left the kids in the car (Sadie was asleep by now), and felt pretty good about trying to do some service. On the way home, we did a drive-by at McDonalds. Sadie woke up to the smell of french fries and a huge desire to pee. Sheesh can 't you give us some warning girl? We pulled over and did the deed on the side of the road....(when in Rome do as the Romans....). We made it home at 5:30.....what now....two hours to kill.

Baths, lego batman, call grandma, throw in a couple of fights and a couple of consequences to go with them, a time out or too for mommy, and we slide into home plate at 8pm.....phew.....

Can't wait to do it again tomorrow.....

Treadmill

I just bought a treadmill on eBay. I did some research and found a cute little fold up treadmill called a Reebok i-run. I think they are only available in Europe. I found a seller on eBay.de, who was selling them starting at 299.00 Euro (regularly priced at 555 euro). I put in a bid last night on a blue one and didn't get it. I put in another bid this morning and won the bid for a cute little pink one. I am so excited. It might not be as sturdy as a treadmill in a gym, but I think it will suit me fine.

To join or not to join

So, I found a gym that was close by, with childcare. Here are the stats:

• Entrance fee $182.80
• $83.55 per month
• yearly charges of $170.04
• monthly charge increases 1 Euro per month every quarter
• two year contract
• if contract is not cancelled 3 months before end, another 12 months are added

This includes:

• use of cardio and weight machines
• aerobics class 2 a week (one of those classes doesn't fall into childcare hours)
• free unlimited drinks
• insurance (I guess we pay for it not the gym)
• childcare (unlimited as long as it falls into the child care hours) They get mothers after the kids cry for 30 minutes (I could finish a workout in that time) and change diapers on their own.
• The gym is only 10 minutes from my house.

So.....the grand total for two years is.......$2528.08. This doesn't include all the available courses, the sauna or all the specialized machines. Classses and extra services are added piece by piece. Plus there is no pool.

Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to buy a new pair of running shoes and hit the pavement? The problem is the childcare.....

I think I will buy a really nice treadmill. Then I could exercise in my undies if I wanted too. I am off the the BX to price them. The only problem is the voltage. 120v or 220v.......

Pyramid

Julie, Eric and Olivia left yesterday. The kids mourned the loss of their in house playmate. Both cried and Sadie repeated over and over, "everything is boring without Olivia." Before they left they gave us this cool pyramid. Since Olivia didn't get a chance to see it in action, we made a video for her.

It is spinning backwards which means we need to turn the blades to face the other direction.

Thanks again for the fun two weeks. We will miss you guys and need to plan to visit you next time.

Eric, this video only took 20 minutes to upload.....an improvement (sad to say).

Playing catch-up

For the last two weeks we have been lucky to have Julie, Eric and Olivia visiting. We have done quite a bit in that time. Here is a quick post to start catching up. Sadie and Olivia in Trier. The kids have had a great time playing and playing and playing. It was hard to drag them out of the house to see some sights.

Taylor at the cathedral grave yard.

The batmen

The oldest gothic church in Germany. (in the oldest city in Germany, Trier)

Micah is ready to go home.

Romania

Greg belongs to the 212 CASH, a mobile hospital simliar to the hospital you see in the movie MASH, only it is bigger. Last week he had his first "mission" with the group. Part of the CASH is currently deployed to Romania. They are there to help support local doctors and provide care to under served villages. Greg and two other doctors flew out for a week to help with training. They prepared a 4 day conference addressing topics like: airway management, mass casualties, transporting patients with trauma injuries, etc.

Aside from being away from family, the work was easier than his normal routine. He had an hour for exercise every day and an hour and half lunch break. Work was done at 3pm. The conditions were less than ideal, but adaquate for staying cool and dry. (In two weeks, he will be attending another conference in Bulgaria. There he gets to stay in a tent.) Also, there wasn't much to do after hours, since they couldn't leave post. After the conference, they had one day to see the local town. He also got a glimpse of the Black Sea.

We were very glad to have him home on sunday. Fortunately my sister is in town. I will blog about our experiences together. Also, I will post some pictures when our internet is faster.

It has finally happened!

Yesterday Micah lost his first tooth. He is 7 years old and has waited a long time for this day. Two of his permenant teeth grew in about three months ago, before any tooth was loose. So, he had two rows of teeth, kind-of like a shark. I was kind-of worried and called the family dentist (my dad) for his opinion. He said that eventually the adult tooth would move forward and push out the baby tooth. (It looks like braces in the future.) Sure enough, one of the front baby teeth got loose and fimally gave in.

Micah was so excited he wanted to call his Grandpa Leonard (the dentist), but with the time difference, Grandpa was sleeping. So he suggested calling a dentist from church, but he was working, so he settled with talking to the dentist's wife. He gave her the play by play and gorey details. He was so proud.

Them came the negotiations with the tooth fairy. 10 dollars? 5 dollars? What about Euro? He has figured out the Euro are worth more than dollars. Well, this tooth fairy slipped 2 dollars under his pillow. Certainly more than I got as a kid. We decided that with inflation and the strength of the euro, 2 dollars was plenty. Things are so complicated these days.

Pictures are to come.