Feels like a Monday..

(The first part was written on Tuesday)

Today feels like a Monday and for good reason, it is my Monday. I was off work yesterday after having to take Makenzie to the doctor. Kenzie has been battling some sort of diaper rash for about 3 months now that will go away only for a couple days and then come back with a vengance. I had taken her to the doctor last Thursday but had no answers as the rash was having one of it's better days so the doctor was not able to see it in all of it's glory. Well, on Saturday morning I was changing her diaper and noticed a spot on the back of her knee that looked like ring worm. I put some anti-fungal cream on it Saturday morning and night and then Sunday morning and night but it did not seem to be helping. (This is the second time she has had this) So I decided to take her back to the doctor yesterday morning to have it checked out and since the diaper rash was rearing it's ugly head again then maybe we could up with an answer on that as well. After looking at her leg the doctor did say that she thought it could be ringworm (which by the way, is not a worm at all) and since the cream was not working we are to try an oral anti-fungal med that has to be taken 2x a day for 4 weeks! Yikes, that is a lot of medicine. Kenzie also had to have blood drawn to get a baseline for her kidney and liver functions since the medicine can be harsh on them. That was not fun but the nurse was amazing and Kenzie handled it as well as any 17 month old would. Now, if the medicine does not work then we have to go back for more test to see if she has something called Nummular or Discoid Eczema which can very closely resemble ringworm and a lot of times be mistaken for ringworm. As far as the diaper rash goes the doctor rambled off some terms that I can not remember but we are trying a new prescription strength cream and see how that does.

I'm back...It is now Thursday. Got busy sorry.
Back to the update and about our weekend. Kylie spent the weekend with Mema & Papa (my grandparents) and had a blast. Friday night they took her to Red Lobster (which she loves even though she only eats chicken fingers there!) and Saturday night they went to some friends of their's for dinner. Sunday Rian and I and Makenzie went up for dinner and to pick Kylie up. Friday night we went to our friends house and spent the weekend with them and watched Georgia beat LSU (right? that is who they played?) Anyway...it was a nice weekend and it was fun to be with everyone again since we had spent a couple weekends at home! This week has been good and I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday, the last day of October, and Halloween! Where is the time going? I am excited about this weekend, we have a couple of things on the burner since Monday is my birthday but I will let you know about it next week because I am not exactly sure what we will end up doing! We found out yesterday that my dad might be going to Italy next week which he is excited about. My dad used to travel a lot and I don't mean around the country for a couple days. He traveled the world for weeks and sometimes months. He has been to every continent I believe except Antarctica! If I am correct her has been to places in Africa, India, Iceland, Russia, Australia, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, and Dubai to name a few! He gave up traveling a while ago but has always said that he would like to do it every once in a while if given the opportunity and he gets to decide if he wants to go or not. There are several places that he has said he will never go back to! I can only imagine! Ok...I rambling now. Not sure there is too much else to mention today so I will leave you now and I hope that everyone has a very wonderdul, spooky Halloween and a wonderful weekend!

On a side note, I have decided to start ending my posts with a quote and since Monday is my birthday and I am another year older I thought it only fitting for this one:

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln

How true and an adaptation that I have heard and love is:
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away!" - or something to that effect!

What a wonderful weekend. Friday was spent doing absolutely nothing, we even ordered pizza so that I didn't have to cook. Rian and Makenzie were in bed by 8:15, Kylie by 9:00 and me by 9:30. The fact that it rained all day Friday and was dark by 7:30 made it all the more easy. Saturday morning started off quite chilly so we spent the morning eating breakfast and watching cartoons. (Makenzie's new favorite show is Barney) By the afternoon and after Makenzie's nap it had warmed up some and so me and the girls (while daddy watched the Georgia game) went outside and raked leaves to fill some bags that I bought at Target. The first one we tried was a giant spider. We got the body all filled with leaves and the darn thing spit right down the middle. I thought that maybe we could tape it but while Kylie was trying to fill one of the legs it too spit in half! Ughhh. I guess that's what you get when you only pay $1.99 for it. So we gave up on that and went to the trash bags that look like pumpkins. We were able to fill 3 and the girls had fun. Kylie was a little nervous about picking up the leaves because she was afraid there were bugs or one of the dogs might have peed in them. Makenzie though was determined to destroy every pile of leaves we were able to rake up. She thought it was quite funny. Saturday afternoon I took Kylie to a birthday party around 4 and had to pick her up at 8. She had a lot of fun and was not ready to leave when I got there. She was very upset and telling me that she is "always the first person to leave!!!" My response is, well sorry, when a parent says that the party ends at 8 and you need to be picked up by that time, well then, I am going to be there at that time. I am sure after spending 4 hours with 10 girls age 6-9 I would want the parents to be on time! I am always the mean mommy! I have been getting that a lot lately. I am not sure if I am really that strict or some parents just their kids do as they please. I mean really, Kylie has and does so much more than I was ever allowed. I tell her to be thankful because things could be a lot worse. I am sure it is just a phase that will probably last for the next 15 years!
Sunday we went to my grandmother's for dinner since my parents were in Florida. My grandfather was at Deer Camp hunting so it was nice to go and visit her.
Not sure what this weekend will hold but I will be back soon to let you all know!
Have a wonderful rest of the week! Hope everyone is doing well!

Not going to the beach. Doesn't that sound awful? If you have read my previous posts you would know that we were supposed to be going to the beach again this weekend for a wedding with my parents and my brother and his wife. Unfortunately with the way things have been lately we have decided that paying bills is a little more important. (Although I would like to disagree!) So off to the beach everyone goes.....except us! So we will have another quiet weekend at home and be taking care of my parent's dogs! I must say though that last weekend I was able to get quite a lot accomplished on my "quiet" weekend at home. Saturday we finally went and picked up Kylie's new furniture that was so graciously given to her from my boss and his wife! We then went to my parents to watch Georgia beat Tennessee with my brother while my parents were at the game! Oh....wait....need to back up to Friday night. I had mentioned that we would be going to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins, yeah right they wanted almost $20 per pumpkin. We had to go to Walmart Friday night so guess what....they had big pumpkins for $3.88 a piece! What a steal! Kylie could really care less where it came from, she was just glad to get one! Ok, back to Saturday. Previously, I also mentioned the Kylie wanted to be Hannah Montana for Halloween. Well the costume I found was over $30 so I told her that if she wanted that, then she would have to help pay for it with her Target gift card that she got from Uncle Dain, Aunt Amy, and Gianna for her birthday that she still had not spent. She did not like that idea at all. Papa Richard had been going through all of the boys old costumes trying to give her an idea when he came across a wedding bouquet from my wedding and suggested she be a bride. It was like a light bulb had gone off...."Can I wear my white wedding dress, Mommy?" "Of course...all of the weddings are over now, you can do whatever you want with it. You can even wear my veil and we will do your hair and you can wear makeup!" She was sold! I also found a Halloween costume in a box of clothes that came from our friends KJ & Michelle for Makenzie!!! So with what could have turned out to be pretty expensive (pumpkins and costumes) it cost us under $10 for just the pumpkins! So while Daddy and Uncle Steve were watching football on Saturday, I took the girls to Target and Kylie was able to spend her $20 on what she wanted. Of course she wanted new dry erase board markers, a notebook, and some new Halloween pens and still had money left over! Not toys! We went to the toy area and she said "what are we doing here? I don't play with toys!" Her room is done up like a class room. She has a bulletin board, a dry erase board, her new desk that came with the furniture (that looks much more "grown up" then her last one, a table with chairs for her "kids", a rocking chair and a rug for story time, she even has transperancies (sp?) that go on a projector machine, stickers galore for grading papers, math and english workbooks, markers out the wazooo, crayons of every color known to man, pens that will last a lifetime, and the list goes on and on. I think I have a teacher in the making. If she does not grow up to be one I will be really suprised. I know, I know, kids will change their mind a million times, I just have a feeling! So, if any on you prior teachers have anything still in the closet, Kylie would love to take it off your hands! Man have I gotten way off track. So, on Sunday we cleaned and rearranged Kylie's room to make way for her new stuff. We moved a couple things into Makenzie's room that Kylie had outgrown. We had our usual Sunday night dinner with my parents and then went home for an early night in bed. This week has gone well so far. Kylie has had Benchmark testing for the last two days and report cards come home tomorrow. I will be anxious to see how she is doing although from the looks of things that get sent home, she is doing wonderful. She started 1st grade on a reading level of 3 (they label everyone at this level at the end of Kindergarten) and by the end of the year she has to be at 18. Well at the conclusion of the first 9 weeks, only half way through the first half of the year she is already at 10! Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and thanks for tuning in! Be back soon!

All over the place...

Finally getting to an update for the week. Last weekend was amazing. The rehersal dinner and the wedding were perfect (almost as perfect as my wedding! =) Of course it was a whirlwind of activity that kept us going until Sunday evening. The girls were amazing. Kylie looked like a princess as she always does and Makenzie had a blast with all of the people, lights, music, etc. We are really looking forward to a weekend at home this weekend with no "big plans". We do plan on taking the girls to a pumpkin patch to get one and taking them to get their Halloween costumes. Kylie of course is wanting to be Hannah Montana and I have not decided on Kenzie yet. I think though that a devil costume would be probably be the most fitting!
You see, Makenzie has always had a problem with biting. I have tried everything from biting her back, spanking, time outs, etc. Now she has quit biting or at least biting hard. Now it is a game with her. Kylie knows how to push Kenzie's buttons and get her in trouble. Kenzie will now "pretend" to bite Kylie and sometimes catch a little skin. Never enough to leave a mark but Kylie and the drama queen she is comes screaming and this is how it goes:

Kylie: "Mooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm...Kenzie bit me!"
Mommy: "Kennnnnnnnnnnzzzzzziiiiiiiieeeeeeee...did you bite Kylie?"
Kenzie: "Momma bite" (which means yes)
Mommy: "No bite Kenzie, that is bad"
Kenzie: "Momma bite"
Mommy: "Not nice Kenzie, you don't bite"
Kenzie: "Na Nice" (not nice)(and she starts crying)
By this point Kylie had quit crying and starts again!!!!
Mommy: "What are you crying for now Kylie?"
Kylie: "You made Makenzie cry!!! Why are you so mean to her to make a baby cry? You should not make your baby cry!"
Mommy: "Well she did something wrong and something that she knows she is not supposed to do."
Kylie: "Well it's not nice and it didn't even hurt that bad!"

I can't win!!!!! Makenzie drives Kylie absolutely crazy sometimes but as soon as she gets in trouble, hurt, or is crying for something, Kylie comes running to the rescue. She absolutely hates for her baby sister to be upset.
Makenzie's knew infatuation (sp?) is baby dolls and baby bottles. She will now play with her baby doll and bottle for an hour straight enertaining herself. Of course sometimes she insists that you assist her in feeding her baby if she needs to do something else. She loves to say "Bebeee". When it is Kenzie's bed time she will take her baby in with her to her room and lay the baby down and put the baby's blanket on her and give her a bottle. She will tell her "nie nie, bebee" (night night baby). It is absolutely precious.

I will wrap this up now. Sorry it was all over the place but that is how my brain is functioning today. I am so glad it is Friday. Kylie has Monday off of school so it should be a nice long relaxing weekend!!!!

Oh I almost forgot. We had absolutely wonderful time with Ron and Duke last week. Everyone came for dinner Wednesday night and Rian grilled pizzas which turned out awesome. Thursday everyone went up to Reid's so Ron could see his house. I stayed home with the girls because I knew it would be a long night and they both had to get up for school! Friday afternoon they left to stay with friends in Atlanta for the rest of the weekend!

Also, yesterday was Richard's birthday! Happy Birthday Papa!

What a weekend....this is a long one

Have a seat, we are going to be here for a while....
We had a very busy weekend but I am going to keep the update short because I have something else more important to talk about. Before I get to that though....Friday night we had Tony, Tommy, and Danielle come and stay with us for the Chilli Cook off on Saturday. We did not camp out or enter this year due to my brother still recovering from knee surgery. He is usually the cook for this thing. We still got up Saturday and all of us went for the day! It was a lot of fun as usual and the girls truly enjoyed it. Makenzie loves to people watch and there were definitely a variety of people there. It amazes me though that so many different types of people can be in one place and yet seem like they all belong. Of course we saw many people that we know as this is a huge thing for our area and it was nice to catch up with people we hadn't seen in a while. Saturday evening everyone came to our house for the Georgia vs Alabama game. We will not even go there about the score. It was fun despite our disappointing performance. Sunday morning was cleaning day to get ready for Ron who will be here today. My brother called Sunday also and said that he was coming over because he had something for Kylie. It turns out that while driving down the road there was a turtle crossing the street and since Kylie is my reptile lover he thought she would like to see it. You have to understand that ever since I can remember, my dad was always catching snakes and such and we would hold them and keep them for a day and then let them go. I have always done the same with Kylie. We have rocks around a flower bed that on any given day in the summer you can find at least 1 or 2 snakes under them and sometimes we have had as many as 10. Kylie loves snakes. She knows the rules and that is that she cannot touch one or pick it up until she tells me and I make sure it is one that she can pick up (I am quite versed on the snakes in GA and can identify most or at least tell if they are poisonous). This rule also goes for daddy (Rian) since he is not so much the snake guy. He always comes and gets me to remove them or he will kill them and he knows I don't like that. Anyway, so back to the turtle thing. Knowing that Kylie loves snakes, we thought she would enjoy the turtle. We were kinda wrong on that one. She was not too sure about it. She loved looking at it but was not about to pick it up. I found it quite funny that our snake girl is a little afraid of turtles. I do have to say though that she has never seen one up close like that. They are definitely not as common as our snakes.

On to my next and more important topic. I wanted to get the word out about the month of September. Not many of you are aware that September was National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Not many know that a gold ribbon represents Childhood Cancer Awareness. It's not your fault. Not many people in the country know. What we do know is the pink ribbon. We know October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. We know because it is everywhere. You can furnish your entire kitchen from Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Target in nothing but PINK appliances. You know because Delta flight attendants are wearing PINK this month and sky miles are being donated for breast cancer research. We know because it is EVERYWHERE!!! Did you see any GOLD ribbons? I fully and whole heartedly support Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. Please do not get me wrong but did you know that every school day 46 children are diagnosed with cancer, 2,300 children will die each year, only 2/3 of children diagnosed will survive! Helen Jonsen, Forbes.com senior editor and mother of a child who recently underwent treatment for osteosarcoma, stated in a September 12th article, “Cancer is the No. 1 disease killer of children in the U.S. ...We tend to talk about it in hushed tones instead of screaming for help. But scream we should.” The article goes on to say, “The funding for pediatric cancer clinical trials has gone down every year since 2003, and is currently $26.4 million. By comparison, NCI funding for AIDS research was $254 million in 2006; funding for breast cancer topped $584 million the same year.” For the past year I have been following the stories of several children with cancer. Most are the ages of my children. Many have died, leaving their parents with a whole in their heart that will never mend and their arms aching to hold them again. One particular boy named Coleman I have been following since the beginning. He was diagnosed at the age of 2.5 with Medulloblastoma after a tumor was found in his brain the size of a tangerine. Coleman is now 4 years old and has recently relapsed. Their options are limited and the statistics are not in their favor. This little boy has a twin brother who has been more effective medicine than any doctor could give him. This family's Faith though gets them through each day with a smile on their face and love in their hearts. What they have been through, I can only imagine. They need your prayers, our prayers. So many children do. So many families do. It just doesn't seem right that the children who will one day be the leaders of our country, some day be mothers or fathers or doctors or teachers may not have the opportunity because we don't deem their cause important enough to let everyone know what a GOLD ribbon means! I challenge you today to help us take a stand and make gold ribbons as well known as pink and to help us make a difference! I am a mother, not a mother of a child with cancer, but a mother with a goal that God forbid that day to come I hope that the statistics that are given to you today will be different and I am doing my part to make that change. Are you willing to do the same for your child, your niece, your nephew, your grandchild?