Exciting News!

Before I forget, I wanted to get this update on the blog. Meggan came into our room this morning at 6:30!!! We are SOOOOO proud of her! I'm not getting my hopes up by any means, as consistency may not come right away, but I did want to let everyone know her exciting news. She's so proud of herself - and her mommy and daddy are even more proud of her!

It's been a pretty quiet week here. Other than dance class on Monday and then choir practice tonight, nothing too exciting going on. We had dinner with our friends for Maggie's 5th birthday tonight - how do they grow up so quickly? - so that was fun! Her party is on Sunday, so I will have to make sure I take the camera and get some pictures posted by then.

We are in great anticipation around here for Crystal and Jesse's visit this weekend! Meggan has been counting down the days for at least a week or so now. I'm so excited that Crystal is going to get to come to Meggan's school and see her in her class at the Valentine's Day party. I'm also excited that Dawn is going to come as well. Even though she lives close by, she doesn't get to take off work that often unless they're going out of town somewhere! She's going to be grinning from ear to ear - I can see her now!

Looking forward to getting these jobs done that I have out. Speaking of that ...

I Just Can't Help Myself!

Another busy weekend has just flown by, and I'm so bummed out that it's already Sunday night :( ...


Just a quick update. Meggan only made it until about 2:00 on Saturday morning before she was sleeping on our floor and then was already asleep on our floor last night when I got home from going out for a girls' night with the ladies in our ChristCare Group. Their excuse (Jason and Meggan's, that is) is that she was just so tired since it was already 10:00 that she just went ahead and fell asleep on the floor instead of even trying to start in her bed. Hey, what can I say? At least she wasn't sleeping IN the bed; right?!?!?! She's fast asleep in her bed as I'm typing this entry, so we'll see if we can make it to morning time this go-round! :)


We had a great weekend together - and enjoyed a little bit of nice weather outside! While Jason stayed home and listened for Jordan to wake up this afternoon, Sam and I went on a walk with Meggan and Will riding their bikes (man, they are REALLY fast). We aren't going to be able to keep up with them this year! I didn't snap any of those pictures, but I have to tell you that Jordan is a pretty big fan of riding in the Hummer powered vehicle that Will got for Christmas while Meggan drives him around. He pitched quite a fit when I pulled him off of it and he had to come in and lay down for a rest!!! Poor little guy, having to miss out on the fun ... but he would have been a complete mess if we hadn't made him lay down for at least a little "second" nap this afternoon. :)


Now the reason for the title of this blog:




Meggan practicing on my "old" steno machine!!!

I purchased and received the new steno machine I've been waiting for a reason to buy this week. They are an "investment" in our field that are also a necessity! My number bar decided to start not translating right (which I know makes absolutely no sense to you non-reporters out there in blogland), so it was the perfect time to just bite the bullet and order the new Mira steno machine! As you can see, I went ahead and set up my old one with paper and such and let Meggan push the buttons on it while Jordan was napping on Saturday afternoon. She's really careful most of the time, so I didn't think it would hurt. I guess we're getting her started early!!! :)

Have a great Monday!

Real Quick Update!

Meggan was pretty successful last night for her first attempt at being a big girl all night. She made it in her bed until about 4:30 this morning when she came into our room to go to the bathroom. Since Jason gets up at about that same time to head to the YMCA to workout (crazy, yes, I know) he went ahead and let her just climb up on his side of the bed to go back to sleep until it was time to get up for school. I know that may not have been the best of reinforcements, but it worked at the time!!! :)

Just wanted to let everyone know what the results were of Round 1. We have just conquered Round 2 for the evening (I had to "talk her down" a little bit before she let the waterworks flow) and she is in her bed again tonight ... we'll see how far we get again!

Thanks for checking in! We are ALL so glad that it's Friday!!!!!!!!!!

Boring Week!

This hasn't been too exciting of a week so far, and it's almost over now! Tomorrow is Friday, and we're all very excited about that!!! :) After the normal Monday dance class and Wednesday choir practice at church, I can't say we've had too much going on around here. I went yesterday afternoon/evening and had Mom cut the kids' hair (well, Meggan just got her bangs trimmed) and so we got that task taken care of finally - Jordan has been in need of a haircut for a while now and we just haven't been able to find a good time. I will post some pictures tomorrow or sometime over the weekend!

On another note: Since I've been back on the kick of getting Meggan to sleep in her bed, we pulled out the sleepovers threat again last night. I told her that only big girls get to have sleepovers and little girls who sleep in their mom and dad's room can't earn that privilege. She was so distraught already (this was after an hour or so of almost hysterics in her room) and so she ended up choosing to sleep on our floor all night (she never even budged once). Why can't she do that just on the other side of the wall??? Her room is right next to ours, only a wall in between.

She informed me first thing when I picked her up from school today that she was going to sleep in her bed all night by herself, and I think she can do ANYTHING she puts her mind to. Tonight she went right to her bed and fell asleep probably within 5 minutes after I walked out. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for her that she can just stay in there all night ... she really wants to earn her sleepover privileges back! I'm just praying and hoping for strength and comfort for her to make it through the night and wake up feeling so PROUD of herself (and her mommy and daddy so proud too)!

I will update with the results tomorrow ...
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About 10 minutes later:


Okay. I just can't help it. I was going to just leave it at that and not post any pictures tonight, but I can't stop myself. I was getting ready to do some work real quick and saw my camera laying out, which prompted me to check out what Jason had taken pictures of tonight. I had to post these once I saw them.

The first picture is the outfit Meggan had on while she and Will were playing after school before we went and picked Jordan up from Nancy's. Yes, it was only 20 degrees here today - try to tell her that! The other picture is the one Jason had taken.

As you can see by the picture of her giving her little brother his breathing treatment, I guess she really is truly our biggest helper ... and I really mean that! She will do anything you ask her to (with a few extra pleadings and even a little bit of an attitude every once in a while) - and even things she isn't asked to do sometimes too. :) She's really so sweet to him and (usually) always looking out for him and wanting to help him.

And don't let me forget about Jordan ... he's something else too. He may not be old enough yet to "help" us, but he really is an amazing kid. He was put on Prednisone last week because he wasn't even moving enough air in his lungs to make a wheezing sound, and he was just going on with life as usual. How does a kid get so used to not breathing exactly right that he doesn't even cry and whine and cling when he's basically struggling to breathe? He's also walking around right now with fluid behind his ear drums (the ENT doc said that he basically walks around feeling like we adults feel when we're on an airplane and would probably have about a 30% hearing loss if we were to test his hearing right now with that fluid that's behind there) and he's all smiles (for the most part at least, as long as he's fed and gets sleep when he wants and needs it). He's scheduled to get tubes in his ears, but the first available time was February 27 and so we wait another 3 weeks for that day to come.

What miracles they truly are! And what would we ever do without them???

I believe her exact quote once I put the Libby Lu hair clip in her hair was, "Mommy, now I look like a REAL princess, don't I?"

You're looking at my very heart right here!

Have a great Friday!!!

SuperBowl Fun and Monday Night!

We had a nice (but as always busy) weekend! Jason had to work Saturday morning at the bank, so the kids and I headed to the YMCA for aerobics class. After playing a little while in the big playroom, we headed out. Meggan got to go help Mom with the cats (she took them to show at work) and then went home and spent the afternoon with Mom. We headed to Best Buy after Jordan took his nap and came home with a 22-inch wide-screen monitor for our computer ... a suggestion from the chiropractor in order to "raise" the monitor up that I use to do work at home on. We had a birthday party to go to on Saturday night, and that rounded out one busy day!

Sunday was church and Sunday school and then stopping by Best Buy quick to get a different set of hook-ups for the monitor. We got home and had some lunch and played a little while, and then we got some desk sorting done while Jordan took a nice nap. Then it was off to our friends' house for the SuperBowl! I still wish that the Cardinals would have pulled it off! :(

The kids playing on Sunday after lunch!

Meggan helping us make the caramel Rice Krispies bars! They weren't nearly as good as Jason's mom's are ... maybe THAT'S where I went wrong on that top layer is letting the 4-year-old "read" me the recipe!

We had our own half-time entertainment (don't ask me what happened to Maggie's Hannah Montana hair wig that Meggan has on - we think they might have tried to "fix" it with Angi's hairspray)!

Tonight was dance class as usual, and then we came home and just hung out. Jason decided to go to the YMCA with Jer after work, so it was just me and the kids until he got home. We had a little supper and then just played. Meggan had a Ring Pop and so I gave Jordan a little DumDum sucker, and they were both happy as could be! Before we knew it, it was time for bed (and one of Jason and my favorite shows, One Tree Hill). Meggan is asleep in her bed - yes, I'm back on that kick again - and now I'm going to do some work before hitting the hay myself. Enjoy the pics!

The kids enjoying their suckers!

Oh, I almost forgot ... they had to clean up too, you know! Don't call the authorities or anything, as it was Meggan's idea! :)

Monday sure came and went awfully fast ...

Snow Day #2 Fun!

School was closed again today, so Jason was home with both the kids. Nancy was off today anyway, so Jason had already planned on staying home so that I could go take a job since I haven't had one that hasn't canceled all week.

Jordan is taking breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock plus some Prednisone, and he seems to be already doing MUCH better! His cough is loosening up a little and he doesn't seem to be working quite as hard to breathe as he was yesterday until I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore and had to take him in to the doctor's office ...

When I got home around 4:00 from my job, Jason and Meggan decided they were going to go back outside to sled for a little while. I decided I just HAD to get a few pictures, so I bundled Jordan up too and went out to snap a few. I'm not sure how impressed he was, but he DID cry when we came back inside and kept going back to the door ... :)

Jordan not quite so sure about all this snow!

We did finally put him on the sled with Meggan, but he only made it a foot or so. There's a reason I didn't take the picture showing his face ...

He runs at full speed and then lets go and she continues flying down the road - and screaming and laughing all the way!

He did finally take a couple steps into the snow (with a little assistance from me) and then just stood there looking at it!

Meggan's finished snow angel just before we went back inside!

Hope everyone had a good Thursday. I was just glad to have a job that I got over 100 pages out of and it was a decent one with nice people who (pretty much) took turns talking, in complete sentences even. Those seem few and far between at times ...

So far I haven't seen anything for school tomorrow, no delay or anything. We should be home free for tomorrow and then the weekend will be here!!! I'd better head to bed so I can set my alarm to get up at 1:00 to give Jordan his first middle-of-the-night breathing treatment - poor thing!

Snow Day Fun!

Monday night after dance class we met Dawn, Jer & Lucas and Mom at G.T. South's for a little supper. Dawny had bought Meggan and Jordan something from the $1 bins at Target a couple weeks ago and mentioned something to Meggan about it, and since she doesn't forget ANYTHING, she had reminded Dawny that evening. Since Dawn didn't bring it with her to supper, she came to our house after we all ate and brought the stuff over. Meggan loves her stickers and coloring book - and Jordan will love his coloring book too, just give him another year or two!

Of course, Lucas was hungry while they were here, so Meggan made sure he ate his bottle all gone!

Meggan feeding Lucas his bottle!

While Meggan was feeding Lucas, Jordan was busy "rearranging" the remotes!

So on to the snow day:

Today school was canceled because of the snow, and Meggan was excited! They were going to go to Nancy's together, but then when my 6:00 job got called off by 9:00 this morning, I just figured I would keep them home instead and not mess with even taking them to Nancy's house. We were playing this morning and Meggan asked about Cami, so we gave them a call. Since they're off of school today too, we went down and played with them for a while. Once it was Jordan's nap time, we all decided to bundle up and play out in the snow for a while!

The snow is a good 10 inches high!!!

All the kiddos flopping into the snow (Michael and Cami were doing "flips" into it)!

Even their dog, Buddy, was loving the snow, running around EVERYWHERE!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the snow day! I feel bad for those that had to go out into this craziness, including my own husband - I just pray he gets home safely (and within just 1 hour instead of 2 or 3 hours)!

We'll see what tomorrow brings ...