An Update

I'm sorry for not updating recently! I know, I'm a slacker!

Here's a run-down of the stuff worth mentioning:

- Took Christopher to the doctor on Friday for a persistent runny nose/cough, plus tummy problems. Anytime his colds last more than 2 weeks, I take him right in since his first ear infection was diagnosed when I took him in for a lingering cough. His doctor diagnosed him this time with *just* allergies (extremely common right now in this area!) and either a stomach virus or reaction to his nasal drainage (my vote is for the nasal drainage). He's been switched from Claritin to Zyrtec, which we started back on Saturday. I'm hoping it'll start clearing him up soon, but so far, he's still got a slight runny nose and cough. :( Oh, and he now weighs 26.5 lbs, which is about what I was expecting.

- Christopher has a new swing set! We picked it up on Sunday, but haven't had a chance yet this week to put it together. Hopefully this weekend!

- I had my first flat tire in ages back on Thursday. Christopher and I were leaving to go to school, when I heard that AWFUL sound, so turned around and went home (I was only a couple of houses down). Since the tire was unfixable and because it was so worn down, Shad just went ahead and bought a new one. I went back on Monday to get a 2nd one for the other back tire, so now we have 2 new tires on my car! Yay! Let's just hope we don't need 2 more anytime soon!

- Christopher's decided that sleep is over-rated. :p He's been going to bed at his usual time, but waking up earlier. He's been in our room as early as 6:15A, which is WAY TOO EARLY FOR US AND HIM!!! If only he'd go back to sleep in our bed, but no such luck. :( I think I probably need to get some new room-darkening shades and/or dark curtains since the sun does come up on the side of his window. To top things off, he's been skipping his naps at school...3 school-days in a row!!! >:( That is NOT a good thing! It makes for a very rough evening! We've been having some MAJOR 2-year old meltdowns these last several days! I mean, all-out, in the middle of the restaurant and Kroger, kicking, screaming, the whole 9 yards meltdown!!! Yep, sweet little innocent Christopher acts like THAT! I've been *trying* to tell people that he DOES have a little demon in him, but nobody believed me! LOL!

- This past Saturday, Shad, Christopher and I made a trip over to Monterey. we started out visiting my dad, but then headed over to the high school to see the son of a friend of Shad's graduate. It was really nice seeing them again as it's been nearly 3 years ago that we saw them last! Hopefully we'll be able to see them more often that every 3 years!

- This is our last week of preschool. :)/:( I spent today helping out in the 3-year old class instead of my regular 2-year old class. The regular assistant was out, so I was asked to work there today. I was actually glad so I could get a look at how the lead teacher works and what kind of schedule they have. Today was also Water Day, which was a blast for all the kids, including Christopher! Thursday is our last day and we're celebrating by having Pizza Day and showing the DVD that DH compiled to the kids' parents. I'm going to enjoy the break, but will miss it after a short time! Plus, it's nice having that extra income right now!

- We're gearing up for VBS at our church, which is June 2-6. I'm going to be assisting with the 4th graders instead of working with preschoolers for a change. That should be a lot of fun! I may find that I want to continue working with grade-schoolers at VBS from now on. I'll let you know after it's over. LOL!

- Shad just finished Week 3 out of 6 for wearing his splint on his finger. It got old after Week 1! :p He's been doing good about taking off the bandages and splint, cleaning everything and then letting his finger dry before retaping it. Of course, he needs my help since it's very difficult to do that by yourself when you canNOT bend the finger! He's pretty bummed about not being able to play softball, but has stepped in a couple of times when needed (taking it very easy, of course!).

- Softball has been keeping us both busy. Shad's *mostly* coaching (with the occasional stepping in to help out). We're on a break this week since the TSSAA Spring Fling is going on here in Murfreesboro. That's where ALL the high school sports teams converge on our town and compete. It's a very big money-maker for the town, but also a very big headache for the residents!!! It's only for this week, though, and then we're back to playing softball again. My next game is on Thursday, May 29.

- We're still waiting on our family pictures AND Christopher's class picture that we ordered over 3 weeks ago. I'm a bit aggravated as it *shouldn't* take this long in this day and age. Plus, we were told with the family pics that we'd get them in 3 weeks or less. >:( Hopefully they'll come soon!

Hmmm, I think that about covers everything for now, so I'll end here. I'm hoping those pictures come in soon. When they do, I'll try to post them on here to show them off.

My First Speeding Ticket EVER

Monday was a horrible day. One of the worst that I've had in a long time. My birthday is this Sunday (April 20) and I'm turning 30. That means it's time for a new driver's license. unfortunately, the station here in town is closed on Mondays, so I dropped off Little Man (who was already very whiney for me) with my next door neighbor and drove 30 minutes or so to LaVergne where I waited for approximately 1-1/2 hours. I finally got through, got my license and left. I remember thinking as I put my new license in my wallet that I'd better not need it! Sure enough, I had just barely entered Smyrna (about 5-10 minutes after I left) when I got pulled over. I was talking on my cell phone and didn't see that the speed had dropped, so got caught red-handed. To make matters worse, for some reason, the current copy of my insurance wasn't in my car, so I got cited for that, too. Thankfully, that'll be completely dropped when I show up for court in June. Also, I can go to Traffic School to get the ticket dropped. Seeing that I haven't had Driver's Ed in about 14 years, I know Traffic School will do me some good. However, I'm still mad at myself for speeding in the first place. Grrr! I've NEVER been ticketed in my LIFE!!! That's 15 years worth of driving!

The rest of that day only got slightly better. Shad and I both had softball games that evening and it was COLD!!! I think it got down to about 38 while we were playing. I layered up, though, and Shad sent some hot chocolate for the team, so I ended up doing much better than expected!

My team had a double header: we won our first game 11-2, but lost our second 9-8. The 2nd game was againt our nemesis, Lady Elite. That's the team that beat us twice in the regular season last year (we ultimately beat them twice in the post-season tournament and took 1st place!). Dadgummit if they didn't beat us the EXACT same way as last year's games! We led the ENTIRE game until their last at-bat. We had a rally. When they went to bat, they also had a rally...and went ahead of us. We had 1 more chance, but couldn't pull it off. We get to play them once more this season (we'll be home team), so hopefully we'll beat them then!!!

So, that was my Monday. Loads of fun! Hopefully, I won't have anymore days like that for a LONG time!

House Hunting?

Shad found out a couple of weeks ago from a co-worker that there's a place in Lascassas (just outside M'boro city limits) up for sale. It's a double-wide on about 6 acres of land. We really want to buy something in that area with about that much land, so jumped right away. I was pretty skeptical about the fact that it was a double-wide and not a regular house as mobile homes tend to be tornado magnets. I kept an open mind, though, when we went to look at it.

The first thing I noticed was that it's on a permanent brick foundation, which nullifies my fear of safety. According to a friend, as long as it's bolted into the brick foundation, it's no different than a house.

DH and I both really liked the place. However, DH could've cared less about the actual house as he was most concerned about the land. We eventually would want to build our own house on the property, but we'd still have to live in the double-wide until then, which would probably be quite a few years.

The house has 3 bedrooms/2 baths, a living room and a den and a really nice kitchen. I like the idea of a separate living room and den; I could designate one room as a playroom. I love that all except the kitchen and back entryway/laundry area are carpeted since I'm so sick of hardwood floors! The master bedroom is on the opposite side of the house as the other 2 bedrooms, which would be good for us. ;) It has a walk-in closet (yay!) and a master bath with a jacuzzi tub and stand-up shower. It has a separate nook in the kitchen for a computer setup, so we wouldn't have to worry about a computer room or our big 'ol computer desk. I'm wanting to get rid of that thing anyway.

Unfortunately, the price is WAY out of our range. After speaking to the owner, we learned that the contract with the realtor is almost up and that the owner would be willing to negotiate when that happens. We still don't think it's something we could afford. First of all, I think they're asking WAY too much. We haven't done any research, but I think it's not even close to the appraised or even market value. But, what do I know?

With as much as we both want to buy a house on a decent-sized plot of land in Lascassas, I'm not sure that now's the right time. We probably shouldn't have even gone to look at the house and property, but we couldn't help ourselves. Maybe, if we're lucky, we can be out there by the time Christopher starts kindergarten as we really want him to go to Lascassas School (elementary and middle). That's about 5 years away (he'll be about 4 months shy of his 6th birthday), so we've got some time.

Softball season has started again. This time, it's co-ed. We were supposed to have our first game last week, but it was cancelled beforehand since a team dropped out. So, our first game was then supposed to be this past Tuesday...a double-header. However, I found out on Sunday that the schedule had changed again. Our first game was then scheduled for this past Monday at 8:30 instead of Tuesday and it was only a single game. Well, our whole team showed up only to sit and wait for the other team to NOT show up...not a single player. >:( I'm sure with all the schedule changes, they were probably just not aware of when they should've been there. However, I was still pretty aggravated since me being there meant missing Christopher's bedtime. A few of the people on my team wanted to hold a practice instead, but the majority of us threw that idea out! Even at about 9:00 (the previous game went late), it was TOO HOT! I broke a sweat just sitting down waiting for our game! I really wasn't looking forward to playing in that heat! Our next (first?) game is next Tuesday (Aug. 28). However, they need a guy to sub and have a few girls they can call, so when they asked if Shad could play, I just told them to count on him but get another girl to replace me. If it were earlier, we might both could've played, but since it's another 8:30 game (Christopher's bedtime), one of us has to stay home. So, Shad will play in the next game and I'll stay home, but that's fine with me as long as it stays as hot as it's been!