THE INFORMER

That's what we call Gracie. "The Informer". That's because we know that no matter where she is or what she's doing, we are going to get the full report of everyone's wrongdoings at any time. Here is just a smattering of what I've heard just since I got home at 3pm:

"Mom, Cole's chewing on his shirt sleeve. Isn't he going to ruin his shirt?"
"Mom, "so and so" (I won't mention names) doesn't use respectful words at school"
"Mom, Cole's got the wii remote cord in his mouth"
"Mom, is heck a bad word? (After careful consideration, I said "not really"). She looked dissapointed and said "Oh, because Cole totally just said it"
"Mom, do you think Cole should be having ANOTHER (said with great gusto) string cheese so close to dinnertime?"
"Mom, Dad gave Cole a mohawk for spring break"
"Mom, "so and so" and "so and so" were talking about "so and so" from the neighborhood yesterday. That's not very respectful, is it?" (after which she shook her head in dissaproval)
"Mom, Cole just said the "D" word". I looked shocked and said "What?" and she whispered in my ear.."yep, he just said DUMB" and a little while ago he also said the "S" word. ( "S" word = STUPID). I warily replied "thank you for letting me know", at which time she did her trademark hair flip and said "just thought you would want to know!"

What's that you say? You haven't SEEN the trademark hair flip? Take a look!

Now, its not as though she's trying to get others (her brother, in particular) in trouble, she just generally likes to "help" others make good choices. Hmmm, ok, maybe she IS trying to get her brother in trouble?! Regardless...these endless reports of wrongdoing is starting to drive me crazy! She is such a nurturer and really does have so much concern for others...but I try to tell her that she just needs to focus on herself and let others do what they will. Sigh....maybe I don't want to completely break this habit....it IS nice to know what Cole is upto...

On to other news...we have had family in town and went to Raptor Reef indoor waterpark in Hayden, ID. After we got past the fact that it cost us $72.00 for our family of four (Are you KIDDING me?), we had a pretty good time, although it wasn't as great as I was hoping. The kids enjoyed the wave pool, kids area and the big waterslides. All in all it was a fun day for all of us.

Uh oh, I just spoke with the "Informer" and she suggested that I "should probably be working on dinner, don't you think?". Thank goodness for her. She's ever so helpful. After all, watching out for everyone does make a person hungry.

ENDLESS BABBLE

Whew!! What a week its been! We had commitments every single night! This will serve as my weekly catch up of all our exciting happenings. Let's see...where to start...

Oh yes...conferences!! I actually really look forward to these. Both kids are doing really well academically...Gracie in particular. She received "exceeding expectations" in every category. She is so "into" school!! She's reading at a "mid-1st grade" level. The only area that she's not exceeding in was health and fitness. They seem to think that she hasn't bounced back completely since she was in the hospital. She seems to wear out really easy now and still complains of headaches. Hopefully she will be completely back to her old self physically soon. Cole is really doing great in reading and writing in particular. I spend alot of time with them throughout the week working on homework, workbooks, etc and the extra effort really shows. I will "homeschool" (in a very loose sense of the word) again this summer to keep them sharp for the next school year.

We had a bit of good news this week. I called Sacred Heart hospital on Wednesday night regarding our portion of Gracie's hospital bill. They had told me a month ago that if I paid it in full by today (3/27), I would get a 10% prompt payment discount. Her total bill was roughly around $25k-30k, and we have a max. out of pocket of $2600.00. So, potentially we could save $260 just by paying a bill that we would have to pay anyway. So, we socked away the money from our tax return and earmarked it for this purpose. HOWEVER....when I told the representative from Sacred Heart that I wanted to pay my bill over the phone, she said "you show a balance of zero". HUH? Apparently, our insurance picked up the entire thing. The kids are double covered, but we were under the impression that we would still have to pay the max. out of pocket of $2600.00. Needless to say, this was a pleasant surprise. I'm still a bit skeptical, so I've put the money back in savings in case it ends up being too good to be true. If not, we will finally be able to build a new fence in our backyard to keep our nosy neighbors away....errr...I mean to get a little privacy.

Yesterday miss Gracie got a fancy new "do"!! After almost a year of painstakingly waiting for her hair to finally get long, she opted to chop it off!! Here's a picture of my little sweetheart:

While we were at it, I decided it was time for me to do something with my neglected head of hair as well:

Obviously you can't see the back but its cut really high and then tapers down...super cute! I love it!

I've been a very good girl and have been really consistent with getting to the gym in the early mornings before work....4 days this week! Today I went a bit later due to the fact that Paco had to work at 5am and I had to get the kids off to school, so I went after I dropped them off. I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the elliptical machine and VOILA....I burned off 680 nasty calories and left feeling great. (Although right now my legs are very angry with me).

Time to get off the computer and hang out with my little darlings. We've got family coming into town tomorrow for 4 days. The kids are so excited to see Aunt Rose and cousin Sydney...we've got all sorts of fun in store for them. Of course, I'll take pictures!

APPARENTLY, WE'RE NEEDY

Today Gracie comes home with an application for free and/or reduced-price meals. I found it in her backpack and tossed it in the garbage. Later, she comes tearing into the dining room looking for the "important paper" she brought home for me. After we determined what she was looking for, I asked her why she wanted to keep it. She said "It's so I can have breakfast at Cole's school".

Let me explain.

Gracie catches a bus to her Kindergarten at Cole's school in the mornings. She waits in the gym, which is also where they serve a free/reduced breakfast (for qualifying families) in the mornings. She's bummed because she doesn't get to take part in this breakfast....so today she relayed her discontent to one of the supervisors and hence the application for assistance. Little did they know that this poor, darling child doesn't get breakfast in the mornings! It's no wonder she tried to sign herself up for free meals! The poor thing! I tried to carefully explain to her that this is a program for families that need a little help with meals for their kids, because they might be a little "low" on money, really trying to be as tactful as I possibly could. She answered by saying "I'm low on money, I'm broke!"

Somebody feed this girl.

JUST THINKING

So, I was reading an article last night about Michelle Obama. Now, whether or not I voted for her husband is irrelevant...I'm finding that I really like HER! She was saying in this interview that she insists that her daughters are not catered upon while living in the White House. They are expected to make their beds, help set the table for dinner, make their own toast and so on. What a great example that is setting for families all over the country! My kids have their own responsiblities in our home, I refuse to do it all on top of a full time job. They keep up their bedrooms on a daily basis, put away their own laundry, help feed the animals, dust and so on. It gives them a sense of being part of a working family, and also gives them the feeling of accomplishment and pride of ownership. I want them to know that we all have responsibilites, and how rewarding it is to follow through on them. Neither of them really even complain anymore about doing them, they know I won't budge. Gracie has gotten smart enough not to create a big mess in the first place because she doesn't want to clean it up! Cole on the other hand.....well lets just say he creates alot of work for himself! Now, don't get me wrong, its not like I've got them spending hours a day doing chores. Usually its 10 or 15 minutes a day, and sometimes not at all. We almost always get to do something really fun afterwards because we all pitched in and did it together. What great teamwork!

Birthday Tickers

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

GOOD MORNING SUNSHINES!

Yes, morning already. Saturday morning, in fact, which is my favorite morning of the week! (Hmmm, except the occassional Sunday morning when Paco is off because we all know that means omelets are headed our way). I'm having a tough time waking up this morning! Funny thing is, I woke up at 4:20 like I was ready to get up for the day, since I got up at that time everyday this week to go to the gym. Instead of staying up, I went back to bed and now I'm dragging.

INTERESTING.

Anyhoo, thanks to everyone, and yes I mean ALL of you that voted on my hair color poll. That would be all 8 of you! It appears that the popular vote was strawberry blond. After careful consideration I am afraid, dear friends, that I must pull rank on you and go with the brown. Oh, and to the one voter who chose "no amount of hair color is going to make THAT mess look good", I humbly appreciate your honesty.

YEAH RIGHT.

Ahhhh, the coffee is brewing, hubby's in the shower and the kids are watching spongebob. Gracie and I did some delicious snugglin' in bed this morning, she is my most loviest lovebug..it's one of my favorite things. That girl loves her some mama.

AHHHH...SNUGGLIN'.

Okay, okay, this post is taking a weird turn...time to get my coffee and do...well...something.

WOW!

Can you believe it has been THREE WHOLE DAYS since I've blogged?! Unheard of! Give me a little slack though, I've been sick. Okay, Okay, so that hasn't stopped me from doing anything else this week but for whatever reason I just didn't get to the blog.

So, busy, busy week!! I'm so glad its Friday! We just got home from the park with my girlfriend Amy and her adorable little people, and now the kids are playing in the tub and I'm thinking about dinner. I am looking forward to Saturday morning in my comfy clothes (the same ones I wear every weekend, hmmmm, and come to think of it, most of the week)and enjoying my delicious coffee. If the weather is good the kids and I will be outside most of the day in the yard cleaning up the mess that Old Man Winter left for us. Ok, I'll be real here, I doubt I'll get much help from the kids!

I have been a fabulously committed girl and hit the gym 4 times this week by 5am!! Getting up an hour earlier (especially when I get up so stinking early to start with), was easier than I thought, because I really am enjoying the workouts and I feel great when I'm done. It's becoming an addiction!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the first day of spring!!

YUCK, UGH, AND EWW

So, apparently my daily "miracle cocktail" of olive leaf pills and orange juice mixed with emergen-c is not failproof. Yes, I've got something icky. Just a sore throat and gross nose stuff combo, but that's enough for me. I did manage to get in a great workout this morning, logging in a couple miles on the treadmill and burning a decent 430 calories! Sweet! Remember Mr. Annoying Guy from yesterday's "Not Me! Monday" entry? Yeahhhhh, he didn't pick the treadmill next to me this time. Weird?! Was it something I didn't say?

I promised the kids we'd go swimming tonight but what I really want to do is crawl into bed! Maybe I'll take tomorrow off from the gym and give myself an extra hour of sleep. We've got primo tickets to the Spokane Shock game tomorrow night (can you say Budweiser suite? go ahead, say it, doesn't it sound impressive?) so it will be a long day. A huge thanks to Bubba and Jeremy who are entertaining the little Suttons while we go!

Well, time to muster up some energy and find my second wind...

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

Here's a few pictures of the kids in their green, enjoying shamrock cookies and green milk after school...yummm.