We Have A NEW PUPPY!!!!!!!

WOW. What EXCITEMENT!!! A PUPPY!!!!!

Amber went out this afternoon to bring in Salsa when out of the blue she hears tiny yelps. She searches for the culprit and finds Missy in the igloo (doghouse) with a tiny puppy. Amber was so excited. Alyssa is excited because this will be her puppy.

In honor of the fact that it is Christmas...the puppy (a girl) has been named:

Merry Felize

(It is either Merry or Mary).

Here is a picture of Merry Felize with her mother, Missy.

PS: The puppy was born on Grandma's birthday.

So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!!!!

OFFICIAL APOLOGY to Donna

I owe Donna an apology. She states that she emailed the Halloween pictures to me. For some reason I never got the email.

So, Donna, I know your reading this...

Donna,

Please forgive me...and resend the pictures to me.

Apologetically,

Kim

***CHRISTMAS BELIEVERS BEWARE***

******DISCLAIMER: CHRISTMAS BELIEVERS BEWARE********

We are officially, unofficially a non-believing Christmas house. Alyssa asked the big Christmas question the other day..."Is Santa real?"

Now, bear in mind, that Alyssa asked this question about 2 years ago. When she asked me then, I asked her if she really, really wanted to know (asked about 20 times). She said, "YES." So, I told her the truth. She was devastated by this news -- so I did what any mom would have done, I told her I was kidding...everyone knows Santa is real. Well, Alyssa doesn't remember this happening (which helped her to continue to believe). So here we are in the present...

"Is Santa real?" This time I wanted to make sure she really wanted to know. I asked her, "Do you really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really want to know?" Of course, she said, "YES." So, we had 'THE TALK'. I came clean about Santa. She didn't cry, so far so good! I figure, let's take it a little further...

I asked her if she wanted to know about any other people. She wasn't sure what I meant. So I said, "You know, Cupid, the Boogey Man, Mother Nature, Father Time..." She asked, "Are they real?" I again asked her, "Do you really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really want to know?" Of course, she said, "YES." So, we had another talk. I came clean about Cupid, the Boogey Man, Mother Nature, Father Time, Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny. She looked at me and asked, "So, is the Sand Man real?" I came clean again.

Alyssa has handled the news well. She shamelessly announces her gift requests as loudly as possible. I think she was ready this time. She even wrote about "the Santa truth" in her journal at school.

As I said in the beginnning we are officially, unofficially a non-believing Christmas house. This means, we still go through the motions...JUST IN CASE...someone gave us the wrong information!!

A little bird told me...Santa wants Oatmeal Raisin cookies from Subway and a cold coke under the tree.

MY BABY IS GROWING UP!!!!!

1 Quarter of Nursing COMPLETED!!!!

I have finished my 1st quarter of nursing school. I took my final on December 6th. (I have unofficially PASSED the class.) The 2nd quarter starts on January 4th. I get to learn how to give injections on the 1st day of class. I am now 1/6th of the way done. Only 5 more quarters, 1 externship, and an NCLEX (nursing boards) to go!!!!!

November 2006

Mid November - The divorce is final. I want to wish Brian the best. He will always have a special place in my heart.

Thanksgiving - The girls had a great time visiting with Nana & Papa, Uncle Chuck, Uncle Mark, Aunt Laura, Mayson, Luke, Claire, John Mark, and their dad (of course). I will post some of Amber's pictures in the next few days.

I celebrated a very quiet Thanksgiving with my parents. We chose to skip the traditional big meal (since it was just us 3) and had filet mignon, baked potato, and salad for our dinner.

We have much to be thankful for...our freedom, a loving God, our lives, our families, our friends, forgiveness, and so much more.

November 27th - My cast was removed. The wrist is still not completely healed, but they felt mobility was more important at this time. I wear a splint for most activities. Putting any weight on the wrist is still very painful. It also hurts after strenuous use. The nice thing about the splint...I can wash my arm and hands properly. I am supposed to wear the splint for the next 5 weeks.

Sorry for the delay...

Life has been hectic these last 2 months. I will now try to update everyone on what has been going on. Once Donna sends me the Halloween pictures I will post pictures of the girls in their Halloween grubbies.

Health Update!!!!

Amber has lost 4 more teeth...with the help of the dentist. Yesterday she had her oral surgery. She states "I have a very religious mouth because it is so holy! It is Baptist too!" One of the teeth removed had almost no roots on it, but the others had some roots. The cuspids had some extremely long roots.

I have my cast on. I broke my wrist in 2 places. I broke the center wrist bone and another bone near the thumb. My cast is boring white! I have promised the girls that they can color all over it 4 days before it comes off. That way it will still look professional for clinicals. I am supposed to get it off the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Injuries

Last week it was Christopher getting hit in the temple by a football. Today it is me...I broke my right wrist this evening. I hope that this is not the "1 injury a week" month for the families. I am typing this with my left hand, so bear with me. Yes, I am right handed. I am wondering how this will effect me at school, but I can't imagine it causing me too much problems. I am keeping this short because my left shoulder is starting to hurt (from typing by itself) and my pain pill hasn't taken effect yet. I hope everyone has a blessed rest of the month. By the way, I have a splint at the moment, but am supposed to get a cast on Monday.

Nursing School...

Nursing school is going good so far. It requires a lot of reading. Lab time is pretty fun because we just do a lot of role playing. Clinicals will be starting in 1 week. We will start clinicals at a Senior Center and then move to a hospital. I am still nervous about applying what I actually am learning and already know.

We still haven't recieved the rest of our uniforms (school shirts & "Crocodile Hunter" vest) that we have to wear with white pants. I have my first test tomorrow. I also have to take my Drug Calculation test on October 18th - I have to make a 100% on this test. I am a little nervous. We took a Drug Calculation Quiz yesterday, I made a 100% (after she removed the apothecary question). Apothecary calculations are out-of-date, they are being phased out.

A Poem by Amber

Amber has written the following poem. It is a "cinquain" style poem.

Teachers, Losers, and Amber

Teachers
Schoolmaster, schoolmistress
Teaching, helping, tutoring
I want to be a
Teacher

Losers
Sufferer, victim
Geek, weird, ugly
I don't want to be a
Loser

Amber
Beautiful, smart
Helpful, cool, popular
I will always be an
Amber

Alyssa visits with the dogs

Salsa (black dog with brown collar), Missy (black dog with blue collar), Pepi (beige dog with Alyssa), and Tasha (beige dog in other pen behind Alyssa).

A Very Tiny Baby Lizard

I found this very little guy. I took some pictures and scared Grandma with the lizard and then let the lizard go free.

Braces??????

We went to the orthodontist on September 25th. The orthodontist states that Alyssa needs to return in 1 year to be re-evaluated. Amber, on the other hand, needs to come back in 6 months to be re-evaluated. The orthodontist also told us he feels it is important and necessary to remove 4 of Amber's baby teeth now so the adult teeth have a bigger space to come in. So Amber will be having a cuspid and a molar removed from both sides of her upper jaw on October 17th. She seems excited about the procedure right now, except she doesn't want a needle in her mouth while she is awake. I told her that they will probably use a needle while she is awake, but that they numb the entry point with some ointment. She isn't to sure about this.

Our Little Bunnies

We found some baby bunnies after the yard was mowed.

One bunny died...leaving us with two.

Sadly, in the end we lost the other two bunnies. This was a wonderful experience for the girls. We hope that we have learned when to let go if we have another opportunity to help some baby bunnies.

Our visit to the GA Aquarium

We went to the Georgia Aquarium with Ken, Donna, and Chris the day before the girls went to school. A special "THANKS" to Uncle Ken and Aunt Donna for letting us come with them. We enjoyed ourselves at the aquarium. And THANKS to Chris too.

I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

After a long day of fun...

School is going good...

The girls seem to be settling into the school year great.

Amber is enjoying being part of the "top dogs" at school. I hope she realizes she will be at the bottom of the food chain next year in 6th grade. Amber likes her teacher, Mr. Seusser (pronounced: sizer). Amber is off to a good start with AR. She is currently tied for 1st in her class with 4 points. The person she is tied with had 500 something points last year, remember Amber had 107 points, so I don't really expect Amber to stay in 1st. I do expect her to do her best and to at least get her minimum required AR points for this 9 weeks (15 points). Bonus info: Mr. Seusser has a son who was born last year on what day? March 6th!!!

Alyssa is also in 1st place in her class for AR. She leads her class with 2 points, which is also what she is required to get per week. As you might have guessed, no many kids got the required 2 points - matter of fact Alyssa was the only one. Alyssa seems to enjoy Mrs. Carrasco. This is the same teacher that Amber had last year. Alyssa's biggest competition for AR will come from a boy named Cameron in her class. He was in her class last year. He is a very intelligent boy who has his head on straight all ready. Hmmmmm, I will have to remember him when she is old enough to have a boyfriend.

I have been volunteering in Alyssa's class. I volunteered in Amber's at the end of last year. Everything was going good until yesterday. My car got hit by a teacher at the school. It is not that bad. They put a small dent in the passenger front door and loosened the side view mirror on the passenger side. I think the teacher only had a busted tail light. She called the police and came and got me. I appreciated her honesty. She said that last year someone hit her car and she never found out who. Oh well!!! Life goes on.

I have almost purchased all my school supplies. I still need to buy a watch with a second hand on it. Today I purchased my scrub pants, shoes, pen light, and bandage scissors. This is really starting to feel REAL!!! I mean I really feel like I am getting ready to start nursing school. I am still full of MIXED EMOTIONS!!!!

A New Link....

I have added a new link on the right hand side of the screen. It is Christopher's Blog. Donna has finally joined the blogger craze. I am excited about her new venture into blogging.

Donna is the sole member of the Blogging Police. Donna sends out reminders to bloggers when they do not update their blogs frequently enough. You see, Donna checks everybodies blog daily for updates. Oooooooooooh, do you see where this might be going? I would like to welcome Donna to blogging and remind her to update frequently as I have just joined the Blogging Police (I will be assigned to her blog only). Just picking with you Donna!!!!!!!!! I actually appreciate the reminders in a backwards kind of way!

I hope everyone enjoys getting to know Christopher and seeing how much he has grown up.

I am officially in the ADN program!

Back in April I posted that I received my acceptance letter to the ADN program for Nursing. Well today, it is official. I am in the ADN program. My major is now Associates Degree in Nursing. And I have registered for my 1st nursing class. I have purchased all my books and my stethoscope and blood pressure gauge. I have had my physical ($600 later) and I have most of my immunizations. For some reason the only thing I am not immune to is MEASLES!!!! So I will probably have to have a measles vaccination very soon. I still have to purchase my nursing shoes and scrub pants & the official Athens Tech nursing program shirts & vest to complete my ensemble.

I am really excited about classes starting. I have mixed emotions about clinicals. They start in October and I am SCARED, NERVOUS, and EXCITED about them. I still have to finish the 3 textbooks that we are supposed to self-teach during the summer. The Medical Terminology and Math for Meds are both interesting as they have software to practice on, but the Diet and Nutrition Therapy is boring and depressing because junk food tastes so GOOD.

Amber is growing up!!!!!

When Amber got back from Middle School Summer Camp she talked about how all the 7th graders and most of the 6th graders shaved their legs. I told her she could start shaving her legs before Summer Camp next year. I talked with some of my friends who have daughters that are either Amber's age or a little older and they said they did the same thing with their daughters. Well Amber must have caught me at a weak moment because I agreed last night to let her start shaving her legs today. My mom and Amber both pointed out how long Amber's leg hairs were and Amber reminded me she could be going into the 6th grade. I relented because I remember what it was like to have that long leg hair at school. So here are some pictures of Amber shaving her legs for the 1st time. She woke me up early so I could teach her how to shave.

Tooth Fairy to Visit Amber!!!!!

A.P. Press 7-16-06

Amber has lost her 10th tooth!!!! This was the 1st molar tooth for her to lose. Amber said, "The tooth came out pretty easy. The new tooth was coming in, which helped push the old tooth out." Amber's mom said, "I really enjoyed pulling the tooth out for Amber." Amber's sister, Alyssa, said, "No fair, you get money from the tooth fairy." Amber tells us that she still has another loose tooth that should be coming out in the next 2 months.



A.P. Press 7-17-06

Amber received $1 from the tooth fairy. Amber stated, "I was hoping the tooth fairy would accidentally pull a $20 from her wallet like she did on an episode of Full House. But I didn't get that lucky. Oh well, $1 is better than nothing!"

A Tribute to Great-Grandma Cook

January 18, 1909 - June 20, 2006

I hope everyone enjoys these pictures.