My friends are SO good about doing 10 on Tuesday posts but seriously, I haven't been able to think of anything noteworthy (not that my kids aren't amazing or anything but their mother lacks creativity...HA!). So I am just going to keep writing until I run out. How is that for an intro?
1) I got a call at 7:30 on Tuesday morning while I was sitting at my desk at work. As I was deciding which patient to see first, I got a call from Jason. I could tell he was so excited to tell me something. He said that Matthew said the word, "Laney." He put MJ on the phone and he said his sister's name as clear as day. I then told Matthew he is NOT supposed to do these new things when I am at work (I mean, I only work two days a week!!).
2) We got Ella the BOB books to help her with reading. She is into book 10, and I am really proud of how well she has been working on her words. There is less guessing going on.
3) With that being said, her biggest motivation for reading is money. Not money for her but rather the charity that HPE is collecting money for, the Leukemia Society. Ella's kind heart amazes me!
4) Not only am I proud to donate money to charity, but proud of the charity that the money from HPE is going to. My cousin, Jason, was diagnosed with Leukemia when we were in high school. He was very sick and in and out of the hospital for years. He got a bone marrow transplant when we were in high school and today he lives in Cleveland with his wife, Alison, and their one year old son, Mitchell (who we also call MJ).
5) As I was working with Ella on a BOB book last night, Laney was starting to recite one of the books. She has picked up on some of the techniques the teacher has been doing with Ella and we work on at home. So we thought tonight we would bring out the first one in the series. Laney read it 3 times through. I was shocked. So yes, I am going to keep working with her on this. She loves trying to do everything her sister does.
6) Ella is still taking basketball on Thursdays after school. The Y comes to her elementary school and practice is for an hour. Ella has loved it (mostly because she is the only 5 year old and she thinks this makes her the most advanced. Whatever works!).
7) Matthew is such a happy guy but boy is he tough! He exemplifies the term All Boy! Today I took Ella and Matthew to Ulta to finish up our Christmas shopping. He would run away from me as quick as possible. So he was running, Ella was running after him laughing and I would be running on a parallel aisle trying to catch him. He then ran behind the cash register trying to "help" the worker. Plus everything was at his eye level so he loved pulling down the lotions. I am thinking he might be one of those backpack kids (the moms that read this board know what I mean). I used to make fun of those kids that wore backpack leashes but now I GET IT!
8) My last day at The Heart Center is Tuesday! My coworkers threw me a party on Monday and brought in amazing food. The cards were incredibly touching. I have been a registered dietitian for 10 years and 8 of those years have been here. I started there when the lobby had no ceiling, the rooms had no beds and the kitchen didn't have an oven. The Heart Center defines me as a dietitian and practicing at one of the top 6 hospitals in the nation has been an honor. If you can't tell, I do love my job and my coworkers. What I have learned from the nurses, doctors and other specialties has changed my life! Nothing beats having a surgeon, one-on-one, explain an open heart surgery and what he did and then I see the patient's care throughout their recovery. I work with the best!
9) Our kids have been sleeping in until 7:15-7:30 for the past 2 weeks. I KNOW! I am amazed because it has been a long time coming! Ella's speech teacher came at 8 AM, and we were just eating breakfast. Quite a change from the 6:15 breakfasts we had been having!
10) No house showings the past week but that is ok. The right people will come through when the time is right. My parents are planning on moving out of their place in March so the perfect timing might just be selling our house in May/June and moving after Ella finishes the school year. This would leave my parents' house vacant for a few months so we can make some changes.
11) Laney has her preschool Christmas play on Friday. Yay, fun. However, she has a her debut as an actress with a HUGE role. The role of dasher. Her line is.....drum roll please..."Have we missed something?" Videos to follow.....Hollywood will want these one day, right??
12) The post below shows the Trip to Bethlehem outing. What I forgot to talk about was the dinner before. We went to Wendys as it was right down the street. Thinking that the kids would be great was our first mistake. While Matthew was sticking his hand in and out of the trash can, Laney and Ella were fighting over who sat where and in the midst of this chaos Jason and I were trying to scarf down food (I don't think we talked to each other once during dinner as we were "manning the fort" and not manning it successfully). I left there laughing but sweating. I have to learn to roll with these dinners because if not, I would cry. But honestly, I can't wait until all 5 of us can sit down for dinner and actually get a conversation in!!!! Yeah, we rarely go out to dinner...it is TOO much work!
13) One last story: I was talking with my friend, Jenny, the other day and she was saying that her daughter, Amanda, who is in Ella's kindergarten class, was having a tough time with Ella moving. Jenny told Amanda we were moving to Ohio and Amanda went up to her room and cried. :( Their friendship is so incredibly cute and it makes me sad to break them up. But we are moving to a street with tons of kids so I know Ella will adapt well like kids do.
14) Look at me......I did it!
Thanks, friends, for getting me motivated to write some of this "stuff" down.
