Meet and Greet and FOUR more days!!!!!

Last night we had Venily's "Meet and Greet" at her school.  We got to meet her Kindergarten teacher for the first time, see the room, drop off supplies, sign up for parent/teacher conferences, etc.  Even though Venily had Mrs. Jacobs for summer school last year, Jason and I hadn't met her yet.  We also met the Computer teacher who recognized Venily and was telling us how much he liked her! :)  Mrs. Jacobs seems really nice.  However, as we were walking out Jason ran into his friend who also has a kindergartener and he asked him what teacher our child had. When Jason said her name, he said "Go change teachers right away... trust me!"  This is the very LAST thing I needed to hear!  He went on to say that she's really strict and not a good teacher (his older son had her a different year).  But I have also heard that she's a really good teacher.  So, who knows!

All last night I had tons of nightmares about the girls going to school- teachers being mean to them, me not being able to pick them up on time, forgetting things, etc.  I tried to tell Jason about it and, of course, just ended up crying my eyes out.  I am such a wreck!  I really hope it all goes a lot better than I've been dreading!

On a positive note, I signed BOTH girls up for dance class this fall!!!!  They are both really excited!  I was just going to sign Haven up (since Venily has already taken the class several times), but then Venily would have to come with anyway and watch since Jason has class during that time, so we decided to just send them both!  Their first class is in about 3 weeks! :)

FOUR MORE DAYS UNTIL THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

More randomness!

(Forgot to post this yesterday)

1.  We have 4 new caterpillar additions to our family!  Welcome "Worm", "Men", "Women", and "Crazy".  Lol!  They have been very busy since arriving and already look like they are starting in on their chrysalises.  "Call Me Maybe Pointy" is still in his cocoon.

2.  The girls have decided what they want to do with their lives!  They are quite ambitious at still 2 and 4 years old, lol!  Venily informed me that she is going to be a veterinarian!  Haven told me that she is going to "work at a cat home" and that she's also going to be a "violin player"!  LOL!  They are VERY enthusiastic about this, I need to get a video of them talking about it, lol!

3.  I'm very emotional about sending the kids to school this year!  Just one week from today!  I just finished reading Kelle Hampton's blog (I love her!) about sending her daughter off to kindergarten and I bawled my eyes out the whole time!  I am going to be an emotional wreck on Tuesday!!!  My mantra to myself is "just imagine grocery shopping all by yourself... just imagine grocery shopping all by yourself... just imagine grocery shopping all by yourself..."  :)  It does help a little!  That and the fact that I know how much they're going to love it!!

4.  This last month I've been putting all of my recent online giveaway winnings away for Xmas (instead of just handing them to the kids as they come in the mail)!  I'm hoping that I will have to spend very little, if anything!  Just in the last month I've won about $200 worth of stuff for them (not including the $300 in stuff I've won for things for myself/ our home/ other people) and I still have 4 months to go! :)  There's quite a few things I know they are just going to LOVE and it's taking a LOT of willpower for me not to give it to them early, lol.

5.  Today is Jason's last day of summer school!  3 of his most feared classes- Math, English, and Sociology are now done!!!!!  And we know he got A's in his Math and English! ♥  Still waiting to hear on Sociology...  Unfortunately, his fall classes start next week already, lol!  This is his last semester of classes!!!!  He has 3 classes and his police internship this fall.  Then next semester he'll be in the academy and then hopefully get a job as a police officer!  I'm glad the end is finally in sight!!  I am subbing and resume-building this year, then we'll see what happens next year!

Jason and I have been talking (and fantasizing) a lot lately about what it will mean for us to both have "real" jobs!  It's something we are both looking forward to!

6.  One of Venily's fingernails is now "loose" thanks to the hand, foot, and mouth she had a month ago.  It's like having a loose tooth, but 50,000x more disgusting! lol!

Things they say! :)

I NEED to remember to do this more often.  My girls are so funny! :)

Haven (2 3/4 years old):

Haven: "Do some kids have 2 moms?"

Me:  "Yes."

Haven: "Do some kids have 100 moms?"

Me:  "No."

Haven: "Do some kids have 10 moms?"

Me:  "No."

(pause)

Haven:  "Do some kids have a mom made out of puppies?"

Me:  (couldn't stop laughing) "Umm... no!"

(After pooping in the toilet.... she always comes up with the most interesting things about what her poop looks like, lol!)

Haven:  "There is the mom and the dad and they are laying in bed trying to sleep.  And all of those little ones are the children.  And the mom and dad are getting mad because they want the children to leave them alone!"

Umm...okay! :)

Me: (handing her blueberries pancakes) "Do you want syrup on the top or on the side"

Haven:  "On top!.... WAIT!!!!  On the side!!  On top is WAY too messy!"

Lol.

Venily (4 3/4 years old):

Venily: "Can squirrels swim in hot lava?"

 

Venily:  "Is Rusty (her caterpillar) really dead or is he actually just sleeping?"
Me:  "Sorry, hunny, he's really dead..."

Venily: "Well, can't we just give him like 10 more chances?!"

(Sadly, both Rusty and Fainting have died.  And "Call Me Maybe Pointy" is currently in its cocoon)

Venily:  (very thoughtfully) "I was thinking about it and I've decided that magic really is real."

Me:  "That's great!  I think magic is real too."

Venily:  "Yeah, but how come we never see any unicorns then?"

:)

Caterpillars (part 2!)

Yes, our lives are so exciting that I need to post not one, but TWO caterpillar posts in a row! ;)

I found Rusty this morning!!!!  She was crawling around in my kitchen (1 week after we lost her, lol!).  I am not 100% sure what kind of caterpillar she is, but I think she is most likely some kind of moth.  (She is the black fuzzy thing in the middle)

 

 And if that isn't crazy enough, we found another caterpillar today as well!  Welcome...

"Call My Maybe Pointy" (yes, that is it's name)!!  He is an "American Dagger Mouth".  A very pretty caterpillar that turns into a not-so-pretty moth, lol.

Here are all 3 caterpillars hanging out together!  They are getting along quite well!  "Fainting" and "Call Me Maybe Pointy" have races around their cage and "Rusty" likes to hide mostly.

I dream of a day when we can get a normal pet like a cat!  LOL!  (Though Jason says it's never going to happen :(  )

Speaking of pets, "Careful," one of our 4 fish, died a few days ago.  :(  This was the first REAL pet loss my girls have had (if you don't count the time I thought Edward the fish died, but he never actually did, lol!).  The girls didn't really mind.  They were more interested in the whole process.  Venily sat by the tub watching them for hours the night it started looking like it wasn't doing well.  She was sad, but the next morning when it was official, she took it fine.

Caterpillars!

Venily has literally been eyeing up this butterfly kit for YEARS (she LOVES bugs and animals)!  She finally decided that she wanted to use some of her money to buy it! (which I then took and put right back in her piggy bank when she wasn't looking, lol ;) )

We were in luck and found a caterpillar right away!  It was black and fuzzy and she named it "Rusty", lol.  We also sent for the starter kit of caterpillars (which takes several weeks to get by mail).  Unfortunately, the caterpillar escaped sometime in the night and was never found again (it has to be somewhere in our house!).

The next day, however, Jason found another caterpillar in our garden!  We looked it up and it's a "Tomato Hornworm" (though it's actually a caterpillar).  It is not the most attractive thing in the world, but Venily loves it just the same, lol.  She named this one "Fainting".  (Don't ask, I don't understand why, lol!).  It is BIG and FAST and super creepy to watch!  Here's what one looks like (though it's not ours).

This gorgeous caterpillar actually turns into a giant moth like this, lol!  We've seen these on our tomato plants last year! :)

So we are anxiously awaiting him to make his chrysalis and turn into a moth while in the meantime giving him a steady diet of tomato leaves every day, lol (luckily we have plenty to spare!)!  We are also awaiting our new mail-order caterpillars and hoping they arrive when it's not too hot out so that most of them are still alive when they get here...

Cavity Fillings!

Venily went in yesterday to FINALLY get her cavity filled.  It turned out that she actually had 2 small cavities on her back molars on her bottom right side.  And because I HATED being lied to as a child, I told her that she was probably going to need a shot in her mouth.  She was not happy about it and would alternate with saying that she wasn't going to go and that she was going to be brave.  So, I was quite nervous!  Luckily, my rockstar daughter showed up to the appointment! ;)  She did amazing!  She did everything they asked her to do without hesitation and behaved great!  They put numbing stuff on her before they gave the shot, so she didn't even feel the "sleepy medicine" they gave her in the shot.  They had a big plastic piece over her mouth to isolate the teeth they were working on and she didn't even care.  And she got white fillings so you can't even see where they were- they look great!  

I'm really glad everything worked out, but it's not something we want to have to do again!  I am actually very proactive on dental health, but we are making a few improvements anyway!  We are now brushing 3x a day when possible (with me "finishing" them to make sure they get the backs really well) and flossing and fluoride rinsing every single night.  (They always did fluoride rinse, but I've been slacking on their flossing even though I floss my own teeth every single night).  Hopefully that's the last we see of any cavities!

This and That!

Sorry, this is going to be a totally random compilation of items, lol!

Addresses!

 Venily got a sheet home from summer school of all the things the kindergarten teacher wanted them to learn or start practicing before kindergarten started.  The only one that Venily didn't really know was her address, so we learned that!  She has been so proud to know her address, telling anyone who will listen to her.  I've kind of put it off because it is not an easy address to remember.  It's 4 numbers, followed by a 3 number "th street", city, state, and 5 digit zip with no fluency whatsoever, it's quite awkward to say.

Well, the whole time I've been teaching Venily her address, little Haven has been right there listening!  I asked her what her address was one day and she told me the entire thing, LOL!  It's crazy how fast kids learn with a big sister to help them along!  Haven can say her complete address and tell you what both my phone # and her Dad's phone #'s are!  I can't wait until she starts school, she is such a little sponge and is going to love learning so many new things!  ♥

Toenails!

The girls have been "hand, foot, and mouth disease"-free for 2 weeks now.  However, the fun never ends with it!  Both girls are now losing toenails! (one of the possible side effects to the virus).  I am most definitely NOT good with this kind of a thing!  I'm really hoping that it stays with just their toenails and doesn't include their fingernails as well because I can barely keep it together as it is, lol.  And I REALLY don't want to have to explain it to their teachers in a few weeks.  Gross!

Dentist Appt!

 Venily will be getting her first cavity filling in 2 days.  I'm so nervous!  She has always done great at the dentist (she's been 5 times for cleanings and sealing her molars), but has never needed a shot before or any kind of real work done.  My fingers are crossed she does great!!  (And Haven has her first dentist appt ever in Nov, but I am not worried about it at all, lol!)

Fighting Naps!

Haven hasn't been taking naps very regularly at all lately!  She used to fall asleep like clockwork, now she'll lay in bed for an hour completely awake and then ask to be done, lol!  She only falls asleep maybe 1 out of every 3-4 afternoons.  I'm sad and happy about it at the same time.  I LOVED that she still took naps, but I knew that she was going to preschool 2 afternoons a week coming up and has surprisingly made the transition all by herself at just the right time! :)  Hopefully this means she won't be tired or crabby for school!

Invitations!

I'm so excited!  I won a $60 gift card with free shipping to get invitations done for the girls' party!  I'm not going to have enough money to get separate invitations for just Venily's class and for the girls' combined, so I'm just going to get them for Venily's class, but I'm still really excited.  The ones I have picked out are really cute and I'm going to get a bunch of stickers too! :)  I think we're going to do the party at my in-law's house and do like pizza and cake and invite all of Venily's class and our family and friends all at once (like we did last year).  Jason got a big blow up slide and bounce house so we can do that too.  Jason is still pushing another park party, but we've done that for the last 2 parties and I know how iffy the weather and stuff can be!

 

Exactly 3 more weeks of summer before BOTH girls start school on September 4th!!!  Soooo excited!!!  We have all of the girls' supplies bought and ready and just need slippers for Haven's preschool (but we have to wait another 2 weeks when the stores put the slippers out)!  Both girls are anxiously awaiting the start of school!  (as am I!) :)  Jason will be finishing up his last semester of school this fall as well and has his internship this fall too!  Plus I'll be subbing.  Looks like we're ALL going back to school this fall! ;)

Bunk Beds and Party Planning!

2 weeks ago the girls FINALLY got bunk beds (we've been wanting them for over a year now!)!!  They love them and have done great with them!  Their room seems a lot bigger now and my poor little tall-girl Haven doesn't have to be cramped up in a toddler bed anymore, lol!

Venily is on the top and Haven is on the bottom (obviously, since that's one of the benefits of being 1st born!).  But Haven takes her nap in Venily's top bunk bed every day, lol!

The girls have also decided on a theme for their joint birthday party... unicorns and rainbows, lol!  (Venily heavily influenced the selection and Haven is happy to go along with anything! :)  ).  The girls got matching unicorn shirts for their party a few days ago!  The date is also tentatively set for Saturday, October 6th!



And UPDATE on the girls' health:  Both girls are 100% better!!!  They finished all of their antibiotics about a week ago and Haven has been completely rash-free for several days now.  Soooo... people can stop running in the opposite direction when we come around now, lol!

Hand, foot, and mouth disease in addition to strep!

My poor girls!  Yesterday we went to Haven's doctor appointment to get her wrist looked at and the doctor confirmed what I thought- it's a Ganglion Cyst. :(  Nothing we can do about it except hope it goes away on its own.  She is going to reevaluate it at her 3 year well check and if it gets bigger at all or gets painful, then she's going to have to see a specialist to get it removed.  Luckily, right now it doesn't bother her at all and you can only see it when she bends her wrist.

While at the appointment, we noticed that there were little red bumps all over Haven.  Some on her hands and legs and stomach.  I pointed this out to her doctor and she said "oh, it's probably just a strep rash".  Well, we went out to eat and 1.5 hours later we looked at her again and it was much worse and had spread.  We called 1,000,000 different doctors because every one was out of the office and I kept getting transferred to people I had already talked to.  Uhhh!  Anyway, we were super nervous that she was having a reaction to the antibiotic.  Finally, we ended up at the walk-in in Lake Geneva and the doctor told us that she has hand, foot, and mouth disease!  Yuck!  We noticed that Venily had a few bumps on her as well.

We have never had hand, foot, and mouth before, but I guess it is really going around right now and we have seen 5 different doctors in the last 5 days so we probably picked it up from one of the offices.  Venily's bumps have all cleared up already, but Haven is still really rashy.  She not only has them on her hands, feet, and mouth, but butt, legs, arms, knees, elbows, cheeks, etc. as well!  Luckily it is mostly only red dots all over her, no blisters and only a few raised bumps.

Here's some pics of Haven (it's hard to get good pics of it):

Both girls have remained in remarkably good spirits despite this week of sicknesses though!  I am really nervous to have BOTH girls in school AND me working in the school this fall though, lol!  We are probably going to be doing some immunity-building this winter for sure! :(

P.S.  Venily's school registration went well.  We waited in line for hours just to do a few things.  I had Venily's hair PERFECT for her school pictures- washed, blow dried, straightened and styled just the way I wanted it and, of course, Jason takes them into the gym while I'm waiting in lines and Venily comes back a complete and total sweaty mess!!! :(  Oh, was I mad!  Her hair is literally soaking wet in her school picture- the one that will be in the year book! :(  

I also signed up to officially be a sub for Wheatland this year.  I have such mixed feelings about it.  I'm sort of excited and look forward to checking in on Venily every once in a while (oh will it be weird if I sub for her class, lol!) and getting back into teaching and building my resume again and all that.  BUT... I'm also nervous about giving up my full-time Stay-At-Home-Mom status!  It's been almost 5 years since I've done any work outside of the home.  Raising children is all I know right now!  I am also nervous to leave Haven.  Not only will she be going to preschool 2x a week, but I'll also not see her all day on the days I sub.  Haven is my mommy's girl!  I can count on her for non-stop love, snuggles, hugs, and smiles all day long.  I can't imagine not seeing her for even an hour! :(