I forgive you, Mother Nature...

Last Friday, I had the honor of playing a concert with the Flint Symphonic Wind Ensemble at the Flint Institute of Music. I say that I had the "honor" because it was truly an honor to perform a concert in my old stompin' grounds!! I arranged a concert with the Flint Youth Wind Ensemble and our group a few months ago. I played with the FYWE for 6 years, 7th through 12th grades!! It was probably the best time I EVER had playing my clarinet. The conductor, Jim Lee, was and is a mentor of mine still, even though he passed away from a brain tumor in 2001. The FYWE performed first. They are SO small! They have 13 members, TOTAL. BUT....they sounded FABULOUS! Took me back, especially because their conductor is Jamal Duncan, whom I played in the same group with back in the day! :) It was really a great concert! So, here is a picture of the Flint Symphonic Wind Ensemble last Friday!!

Emma has been so disappointed with this wave of snow and ice...she's SO ready to play outside...and Bradlee's right there with her! However, on our way home this afternoon from school, I made sure to point out all the beautiful ice-covered trees!!! Just gorgeous!!! This tree greets us when we pull into our driveway! :) Okay, Mother Nature...I forgive you for this crappiness! :)

Cookied Out!

I am officially cookied out...and I really mean it.

Emma Daisy troop was selling Girl Scout Cookies. C-R-A-Z-Y. The troop got screwed out of a cookie booth this weekend, so that left the leader and troop with over 150 boxes of cookies to sell before Sunday (the "official" end of Girl Scout Cookie Sales!)... *sigh*

I got on the email at work today, as did Lynne (Tony's sister), and together, we sold 57 boxes of cookies!!!

The best part is that there are NO MORE cookies in our troop's possession that are not paid for!! HOORAY!

This is brutal!

Emma's final count of cookies sold = 428 boxes...she's the top seller in her troop (or, Lynne and I are!)!!! :)

Feelin' Better!!!

Well, after a LONG week of missing school, Emma attended school for 4 days last week! HOORAY! She's feeling SO much better and acts that way, too! Here's what the kids did at Nana's last weekend...

It's watercolor paint they got into...and Bradlee's tongue is NOT blue from paint, but from a blue Popsicle he had just before discovering the paints. They were so happy to be back together after Emma was sick...and today they were arguing....ahhhhhhh.....back to normal! :)

On Monday, I took the day off of work to stay home with Emma for one final day. She slept in, watched a movie on the couch, and then decided she needed "some fresh air". So, I made an appointment for both her and I to get our haircuts and we headed out. I figured it was a good outing, since she wouldn't have to push herself too hard...just sit there and enjoy! :) She also decided she wanted a ham sandwich for lunch (appetite back! HOORAY!), so we went to Subway first...here she is on Tuesday morning, right after taking her medicine!!! Such a cutie...

Tony and I learned that if we give Emma her medicine, give her a time frame as to when it needs to be gone and then leave her alone, she takes it with no problems. I tried this on Tuesday morning (same morning as the picture above). I set the timer for 5 minutes and said that if her medicine wasn't gone before the timer went off, we wouldn't be able to go have breakfast together at her school (something they do special in March for the parents and students!). It was gone with 30 seconds to spare! :)

That night at dinner, we did the same thing...we poured her medicine into one of the little cups, set it next to her at the table, then told her that before her dinner was finished, her medicine had to be gone. I came back into the kitchen while the kids were starting to eat to get Emma's milk, took it out to her, came back to get Bradlee's milk, took it out to him, went back into the kitchen to get my dinner ready, and all of a sudden Bradlee yells, "Emma took it by herself!!!!" Emma bursts into tears and yells, "BRADLEE!!!! You weren't supposed to tell! It was going to be a surprise!!!!" She had taken her medicine in between the time I gave her her milk and gave Bradlee his!! Tony and I started to laugh and once we told Emma that Bradlee was going to do this the rest of their lives, she laughed, too! :) I told Emma, "If you ever have a secret, don't tell Bradlee!" :) She got high-fives all around for taking her medicine so well and we moved on with dinner! :) :) :)

What a week...

If I said I've had a good week, I'd be lying...

It actually started last week at work...I won't go into specifics, but let's just say there are some things going on (not with me) that are so incredibly frustrating and has still not been corrected. We will find out tomorrow what's been fixed in the last week! Pray HARD!

Emma woke up on Tuesday with a 101 temp. Great. Took her to the doctor, diagnosed with a virus. So Tylenol and Motrin regiment for the rest of the day and night and was doing okay...

Bradlee was doing great. He had pajama day at school (perfect for him!), and got to wear his "mooooooose jammies" all day long!!

Wednesday, her temp peaked at 103.9, and an hour and a half after having Tylenol, it was still at 102.7...so back to the doctor we went. This time she had puss on her tonsils, and was diagnosed with strep throat. Nice....She's now been on antibiotic for 24 hours and is doing fabulous!!!

Her and Bradlee decided to perform for me...they are using McDonald's Happy Meal toys as their instruments/microphones...

Then she decided that she wanted to be a snowman...complete with sticks in the mittens for the gloves!!

Do you want to know what's even more frustrating than having a sick daughter and problems at work??? Having a daughter with an incredibly loose tooth who refuses to pull it out...or let anyone else pull it out for her!!! Look at this:

Can you even believe it? I don't even know what that tooth is holding on to!!! Ugh....seriously. I am at my wit's end with this one...it's driving me CRAZY! I thought about pulling it out when she was sleeping, but thought that was a little too mean. I tried telling her that if she swallowed it, she'd have to go through her poop to find it...no luck! :) *sigh* I guess it will come out sooner or later!