Still not back to 'normal' here. In fact we decided we had better stay home from church this morning. That's too bad as I would have especially enjoyed a 'time out'. Yesterday, we took the boys to Emergency to have them checked out to be sure they were not getting dehydrated. I was getting a little concerned about Rory in particular as he was pretty hollow-eyed, etc. They told us we were doing fine and that they were both hydrated enough and suggested we might try them on solids today. The doctor said he had seen something like 40 cases in just 2 days - definitely lots of kids in this area struggling with the same thing. I think they need to come up with something for sleep-deprived, intensely needed parents before I become labeled a zombie

Well, I haven't been here for a few days 'cause both my boys were sick and I wasn't feeling too much better. Sleepless nights and loooonnggg days. Last night was much better and everyone seems to be over the worst of it.

Yesterday, I missed school so my guitar and voice students are getting an extra long break. (they had the week before off as well) And next week is oratory and two of my voice students are singing a number in between sets of speeches (while judges are deliberating). So I'm busy making accompaniment (sp?) tapes so I don't have to go. I just love my music program that allows me to write in the music and control my keyboard to play it (and record it from the keyboard). I'm almost finished the first one with piano, strings, bass guitar, and drum tracks. Today I have lots to do because I want to finish the second song too.

Rory wants me to post the smilie of NEMO here again.

Today I have been spending most of the day cuddling Paxton - who has a stomach flu since yesterday. The poor little guy is having a hard time keeping anything down and has diarrhea as well. He probably picked it up at church - maybe especially susceptible because of his throat and ear infection last week. I sent Rory over to the shop (next door) where Ladger is working and he just came home by himself. He rang the doorbell and was looking mighty pleased at his new found independence.

I really get a kick out of Rory sometimes - today he was calling Paxton 'sweetie' and it just sounded hilarious!! He also calls him a 'cute guy' and sometimes a 'crazy guy'. It always makes my heart smile when I see the two of them enjoying each other.

Of course I get the other too - where they don't exactly enjoy each other's company. Usually it's Paxton getting in Rory's way. Paxton is so persistent (a characteristic I'm sure will be a good thing when he's ....say, 30 years old or so).

We had a peaceful day today which is good because last night was a little troublesome. Lately, Rory has decided he doesn't want to stay in bed. He comes to our room and says he is either 'mad' or 'sad' (the only two emotions he seems to know). And so I ask him to explain how he feels but I really think it's just a way to prolong the bedtime thing a bit!!! And then Paxton was awake and fussing at 2:00am. So he ended up in bed with us. Everytime that happens, I end up on the couch because I can't sleep. But Ladger didn't know I was gone and at 6:00 am, Paxton fell out of bed from my side. So that was the end of sleeping for me. It's a good thing those kinds of nights are rare!!

Yesterday, a special friend came over for a few hours. She's home from Bible College for a week. We've built a relationship over the last years through voice lessons, a worship team and last year I hired her a few times to help me out with lots of household things like cleaning out and organizing closets, etc. So we got caught up and she was telling me about one of her school professors that she really enjoys. I know this guy because he goes to my church. I figured he was older than me but today, I actually talked to him and found out that he is 4 years younger than I. Now I feel OLD! He has buddies that were in high school at Briercrest while I was in college. Anyway, it's for sure that I don't feel my age - I feel like I'm still in my early twenties. So today I've been reflecting on my life and where I'm at compared to where I thought I would be at this time ... and where I want to go yet.

By the way, the answer to my riddle a few days ago is

Last evening was our splurge club. We are a group of 12 ladies who get together every month. Each time we each bring $25 and one name is drawn and that person gets $300 and becomes the host for the next month - kind of a glorified savings plan. The idea is then to have this chunk of money to 'splurge' on yourself. If I get too 'philosophical', I don't really like some things about it. I don't like any group that is exclusive and this one is by its nature - you're either part of it or not a part of it - not something that is open to anyone. And the whole idea of splurging on oneself is one I have trouble with - partly because I already 'splurge' on myself a fair bit and don't really need to do more and I do not find that idea anywhere in Scripture.

But, I absolutely love getting together with this group of ladies - it's a ton of fun. And it's meeting a need that I do have - social interaction with other ladies. I'm starting to get to know some of these gals much better - most are from our church in town but live out of town like me.

Ladger looks after the boys when I'm gone and usually everyone is still awake when I get home so I make a point of not being too late coming home. Sure enough last night at a quarter to 11, everyone was up when I got in. So I sent Ladger to bed No, he wasn't sick just tired :-) And then I put the boys to bed.

Yesterday I went to town with the boys. Ladger's mom was quite insistent that I leave at least one of them with her. I realize that a lot of moms would love to have someone always available to look after their kids when grocery shopping but I really feel the need to know that I can manage just fine on my own. And... I really enjoyed it. (I very seldom go to town without either Ladger or his mom.) The boys had a great time in one of those shopping carts with a car in front for them to 'drive'. I went down empty aisles where I didn't need anything just to give them a good ride. And did they ever giggle.

Lately a lot of people have been raving about "Finding Nemo" telling me that adults enjoy it as much as kids. So I bought a copy yesterday and last evening we watched it. Not really Ladger's or my thing - but cute in parts. Rory is watching it again now.

And since I have no space for a treadmill - I bought something new for my efforts at working out - more space efficient and cheap:
A skipping rope. Now I have to clear some floor space :-)

My friend sent me a riddle the other day. I figured out the answer as I was lying in bed this morning. Here's the riddle: What is greater than God, more evil than the devil, something that poor men have and that rich men need and if we eat it, we die. I'll post the answer in a few days if no one gets it.

Today is an office day. The kids are with Ladger's mom for the day and I have most of the day to dive in and get things organized. A big part of my job is to pack up last year's financial papers for the farm (I've already sent the accountant what he needs for income tax purposes). And then I've got to start computer entries for this year and file, file, file. And if I have any time left over, it's high time to get our personal papers in order to make income tax filing as easy as can be.

Ladger is in the shop setting up his new seed cleaner. He's putting a wheel base on it so he can move it from bin to bin. And then he has to set up a couple of augers for it and then he'll be anxious to start cleaning seed so he'll be ready in plenty of time for spring. Seasons can be so deceiving. We feel we are in the dead of winter here and yet it can change so fast and catch one off guard. It's hard to believe we could be seeding in 6-8 weeks. I'm guessing it won't be that soon but one never knows! Ideally, Ladger would like to start by the middle of April. It all depends on what the weather does.

Last evening, Rory was 'in a good mood' - we had to keep working at keeping him from getting too carried away and by the end I was not in such a great mood. We got his pajamas on him and just when I thought I couldn't take much more he says, "let's sit down and relax". It sounded so funny coming from him - I don't even know where he picked up that phrase as its not something Ladger or I say. And then he and Paxton went to bed and to sleep quite easily and we didn't hear another peep from either one until this morning.

The boys are both asleep - miracles never cease!! They were both pretty lively after getting home from church today. I helped out in Rory's class - I should have counted how many were in there - but it was quite a busy class. I took my camera and got quite a few pictures of Rory and his classmates. Hopefully they turn out well. Their craft was making hand prints on a facecloth - Messy!!!

Once the boys are awake, I'll head over with them to Ladger's parents place for a faspa. Spelling may not be right but it's low german for a lunch. Traditionally, many eat buns and sugar cubes dunked in coffee. Ladger's mom usually adds some sausage, pickles and maybe some potato salad.

Last evening, Ladger and I decided to take Paxton to the hospital because I suspected he had an ear infection. There wasn't a lot of symptoms but I felt that something wasn't quite right. And sitting there waiting for the doctor, I wondered if the doctor would think I was nuts - Paxton was crawling everywhere, grinning at everyone and acting like a very healthy baby :-) Sure enough he has a minor infection in one ear and a bit of throat infection as well. I'm so glad we caught it early as he is back to his normal self this morning.

Ladger and his folks are on their way to town. (lots of snowplowing yesterday) I'm planning to head out myself for coffee with Janine and her girls and another neighbor and her boy. Ladger couldn't see why I'd wanted to go for coffee so soon after her being here for a few hours - He asked ' Aren't you all talked out?' I'm never all talked out!!! :-D Besides I love it when Rory gets a chance to play with other kids and he gets along really well with these girls (he still calls them boys) lol

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It started out with our 'Moms of Preschoolers' group. We heard the weather forecast that it was going to get very windy by noon but since this was in the morning, most of us regulars were there with our kids. We decided to cut the meeting short to avoid bad weather and then we got a phone call from a mom who told us she hit the ditch trying to get there and that we shouldn't try to get home. We all banded together to travel and since I live the closest - everyone was to phone me when they got home. Before we started, one mom started out and just got to the corner and turned back and told us that there was extrememly poor visibility. We were all pretty nervous but decided to try anyway.

Well it really wasn't so bad and the boys and I got home easily. And then I was on the phone for a while and realized my closest neighbor, Janine and her two little girls were not home and should have been by now. They live a half mile from us and their road goes by our place. I asked Ladger to walk out to the road to see if he could spot their vehicle. He found them stuck in deep snow just to the west of his parents' yard. Janine knew her husband would be looking for them so decided to stay in their minivan and wait for him. Ladger said if he didn't hear from them in an hour, he'd go back out and get them.

Meanwhile I got a hold of her husband so he knew exactly where they were. Well an hour later with no word, Ladger went out again and didn't come back until another hour and I was getting really worried - it was a white out situation by then - I couldn't see anything on the yard. As it turned out Ladger and the whole family were at our house and then they left in Bob's 4 wheel drive truck to try to get home again. The visibility was so poor - I had no idea they were sitting in my yard until they were gone and Ladger came in the house. That was about 1:30 pm. I couldn't believe they would head out again in that terrible storm!!!

I must have just about worn the phone out trying to get through to them. I didn't hear from them until 3:00 pm. They phoned with their cell phone to say they had gotten stuck in pretty much the same place except now in the ditch and just were unable to get themselves out. So Ladger went again and brought them home again and this time I was determined they were not leaving again. I was so happy to see them when everyone got in. Of course the family was starving by then so we made a lunch and were set to keep them overnight.

Only Bob really wanted to get back because he had been doing chores when he left that morning and decided to leave his tractor running for the 'few minutes' it would take to get Janine and the kids. So he walked home. By then the wind had died down a little so visibility was improved - the wind had gotten up to 91 miles an hour. He finished feeding his cattle and then later decided it was clear enough to come through with his tractor and push some of the snow out of the way. So he made it to our place by 10:30 pm and they all left again. They got home safely and phoned me at 11:30 pm. An hour where normally would take less than 10 minutes!! Unbelievable - much more like the stories I used to read of prairie life in the Laura Ingall Wilder's books.

Rory enjoyed his valentine party this morning! It was cute to see him handing out his valentines to the other kids. I thought it was interesting how almost all of them included candy of some sort - what happened to the days of cute paper valentines with tacky little sayings? As if we need any more candy, anyway!! It did show me that I was a little behind the times - Rory and I made up his valentines from cute ones we got from the internet. He helped me paste them onto colored paper.

And I got chatting with some of the parents sitting around me and naturally the conversation ended up on farming
:-) These days the Hutterites are buying up land in our area and have everyone stirred up.

We just got back from church - I miss most of the message these days as I'm in the nursery but I really enjoy the format of our service that allows me to participate in the worship music and testimony time and then the coffee time and then the kids go off to Sunday School. Rory is actually starting to stay on his own so Ladger gets to listen to the message. The focus lately has been on prayer and how much we need to be actively praying. That is certainly true for me.

Today it was good to catch up with a number of people I hadn't seen in awhile - some due to the weather and some due to work schedules.

Rory and I will be finishing up making Valentine's for his AWANA cubbie party tomorrow morning. That ought to be a lot of fun - his first party!!

New to Blogging
I think this is going to be a fun way to journal days of my life so that others may read and write comments if they wish.

Yesterday I was at the elementary school teaching guitar and voice lessons. It was good to be back at it - last week was no school due to some horrific weather and the week before that dh, I and the boys went to Calgary for a couple of days. We missed getting to Banff and Edmonton because the boys came down with a cold - YIKES!! But we were so thankful when we got home and the next few days were a blizzard with an incredibly cold wind chill (down to -55 degrees Celsius).