This past week

On Tuesday, Mimi, my grandmother, came to visit for the first time since just before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, she had gotten really sick (with pneumonia) and had to stay in the hospital for 20 days. After she was released, she went to stay with my uncle and aunt in Virginia for a few months, and has just recently returned home. She lives with my mom in Middlesex. She was so glad to be home at last, and happy to see Skylar, Bart, and Drake. It was good to see her again. Long absences make you realize how much a person means to you. I worry about her because she is on oxygen, and will be for the remainder of her life. She has emphysema and really cannot breathe well.
On Wednesday, I had another ultrasound. A friend watched Drake for me while I went. The baby is growing well, a bit above average in size, and I will probably have another ultrasound as we get closer to the due date to determine the approximate size. I generally have above-average sized babies: Skylar was 7 lbs. 14 oz, Bart was 8 lbs. 11 oz, and Drake was also 8 lbs. 11 oz. I wonder how large this one will be? I hope not over 9 lbs. Both the boys were supposed to be over 9 lbs, but luckily, they were born a week early. Skylar was a day early.
Wednesday evening, we had a pizza pool party for the Young Women at church. The pool party was held at the home of a member who was nice enough to allow a gaggle of giggling teenage girls to descend on them. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We even did a silly synchronized-swimming routine on the side of the pool. When I got home that evening, I had to bust buns to finish preparing petits fours and some other favors for a baby shower I was helping a friend throw for another friend. I was a crazy lady, pretty much. Then, Diane, my stepmom, called to let me know that my dad was in Richmond because my other grandma was in ICU. She is almost 94 years old, and her health is not good. So I was worried about her, but Diane told me not to think about coming up to see her yet. She or Dad would call with more information the next day.
Thursday was nutty. I had to make a super-quick trip to Wal-Mart. Well, while I was there, I decided to go ahead and upgrade my cell phone and extend my plan for another two years. No problem, right? It shouldn't take long. We generally do it online, but I thought I'd save some time while shopping. Ha. Ha. Ha.
We were there for maybe two hours. And they still couldn't get my new phone to work. I couldn't wait any longer. Drake was antsy, it was WAY past his bedtime, and I still had 70-something petits fours that needed little fondant stars stuck on. So, I left, ran by the AT&T store, had them switch all my data from my old SIM card to my new SIM card (because apparently Wal-Mart couldn't even do that!) and then hurried home. Well, my phone was still saying that it was inactive, and I could not make or receive any calls. By the way, it's a pretty cool phone, and I got it for free. I called AT&T customer service and the rep was thankfully able to help me out. Wal-Mart had activated the wrong SIM card. The one in my phone was NOT activated. How annoying! So finally, I was able to use the new phone. By this time I had like a million messages, and I was waiting to hear back from Dad or Diane on Ma-Ma's condition. (I call one of my grandma's Ma-Ma and the other one Mimi).
Vanessa wanted me to come over to her house early to help set up for the baby shower, which I had planned on doing anyway. After Skylar & Bart got home from school, we hurried over. All in all, the shower turned out pretty nice. Everything looked lovely, we had a good (but not huge) turnout, and the food was a success. But man, were we tired, and let me tell you, I had icing from one end of my kitchen to the next. This is Vanessa's kitchen, where we had all the food laid out.



The theme was moon and stars and sailboats (there's a lullaby goes along with it) and quite pretty. The colors were brown and pale blue. Vanessa made these adorable little cookies in the shape of moons and stars. I made the pale blue petits fours in the picture below, and she made the white ones. Mine were almond with cherry preserves and hers were lemon with blackberry preserves. They were not the easiest thing to make, but they sure look cute.











On the other table, we had buckets of crudites and dips, which were placed atop brown buoys. There was a delicious blueberry-pecan salad that Vanessa made in little paper cups lined in parchment that Skylar labored to fold by hand.

There were little watermelon sailboats with flags on the top, and a tasty margherita pizza.



skewered starfruit and blueberries and placed them in sand-filled bottles. The blueberries were so sweet, but unfortunately, the starfruit was not. I don't think it is in season, but it sure is expensive right now, $4 apiece.
I think Melissa enjoyed her shower. I hope she did! We did a few cute games and put together a couple of party favors. Vanessa had filled three glass jars of different sizes with blueberry and marshmallow-flavored jelly beans and the guests were able to guess how many were in each jar for a chance to win the jar.

Another game we played was to see who could birth their "baby" first. I had frozen small plastic babies in ice cubes and placed them in plastic cups. Each guest had to try to get the baby to unfreeze the fastest without actually taking it out and running it under hot water or eating the ice. Some people licked the ice, or blew on it, and some found interesting places to put it...Anyway, Skylar ended up being the first one to "birth" her baby.
Vanessa made little fabric bags full of rosemary sea salt and I made hurricane votive candles with sand and a blue tealight inside.

After the games, Melissa opened her gifts. And we talked...and talked...and talked some more. I got home pretty late. George had come over straight from work to take the boys. He and James took the younger kids over to Melissa's house, where her husband, Jake, was hanging out with their little daughter. There they had pizza and played video games. Skylar stayed to participate in the baby shower with me. By the time we got home, George had put the boys in bed. As much fun as it is to make and bake for a baby shower, I sure was glad to see the end of it.
Here's a picture of Melissa opening one of her gifts.

Girl Scout Camp

Last weekend was Girl Scout Camp for Skylar's Brownie troop. They were camping out Friday evening to Sunday morning. Skylar and I decided to ride up on Saturday morning with Darcy & Caitlin, a little friend of Skylar's. I was a little apprehensive about going almost an hour away without my car, but normally, I don't even need it, and it never hurts to carpool these days with gas at $4.00 a gallon. So, Darcy picked us up at 8am on Saturday, and away we went, to Chocowinity.
Skylar had been feeling a little unwell earlier that week. She had a persistent headache, and I actually kept her home from school on Friday to make sure she wasn't sick, and that we should still plan on going on the camp-out. Well, she said she was fine, and really, she seemed OK. I was apprehensive about that, too. I just really had a feeling we should sit this one out, and go camping another time, though I couldn't really put my finger on a good reason. I felt guilty and figured that with this being Skylar's first Girl Scout camp-out, and the fact that we needed to spend some mother-daughter time together, we couldn't miss it.
So, we went...and at first, everything was OK. Skylar was having fun with the other girls. They did crafts and games, and even went fishing with their own makeshift poles.



Camp Hardee is really pretty. It's right on the Pamlico River, and as we sat on the pier and tried to catch something, we could look out and see all the sailboats and speedboats go by. We even saw boats crabbing.



After awhile with no bites, the girls got bored fishing and we let them wade up to their ankles in the river. They collected shells and splashed. It's quite amazing how high some of their ankles were...some girls ended up with wet and sandy bottoms. It was also pretty hot out. It was probably about 85. It was at this time that Skylar really started complaining. At first she complained about the heat. Which, yes, it was hot, but honestly, it's been hotter. She was just really cranky and uncharacteristically whiny. I started to get a little annoyed with her.
After we headed back to the lodge where we were staying (which is actually the kitchen and dining hall), she mainly wanted to sit inside in the AC rather than play outside. She participated in the activities when it was time, but I could tell she was not happy. She ate a decent lunch, an entire hot dog, but she was still very frowny.
The girls learned about worms and received an earthworm of their own to keep in an empty baby food jar. Unfortunately, it must have been too hot for the worms, or maybe they were handled too much, because most started dying fairly quickly. Skylar and Caitlin buried their worms and erected tombstones with the help of their friend, Kelly. As you can see from the picture, Skylar is not her usual camera-happy self, and it is not due to grief over the untimely passing of her earthworm, either.



By dinnertime, she was a mess. She barely ate, complained the whole time about her back hurting, and I was sick of hearing it, frankly. I mean, I was the one who was six months pregnant with my ankles and hands swelling, for heaven's sake! Unfortunately, I finally told her I didn't want to hear another word of complaint or see another frown on her face, and did she really think I was going to send her to week-long Girl Scout Camp when she couldn't survive one day?
Well, that I thought was that, until I found her lying on her air mattress, curled into a ball, crying. Her stomach was hurting her. Bad. And she seemed to have a little fever. It didn't help that the air conditioning unit in the lodge had frozen up and it was 87 degrees inside - actually hotter than it was out-of-doors. So, we took her temperature, and gave her Tylenol and Pepto Bismol. She got to the point where she just couldn't stand it any longer, so I decided to call George to come pick us up.
Darcy offered to drive us halfway back and meet him, so we were in the process of doing that when Skylar just got hysterical with the pain. She was doubled up, crying, and she said her arms and legs were numb. So Darcy and I decided to drive her to the hospital in Washington, 3 or 4 miles away. To make a long story short, it was such a stressful experience. Skylar was miserable, but the triage nurse was able to get her to stop hyperventilating, which made the numbness in her arms and legs go away, but she still had stomach pain and a headache. When George got to the ER (he had taken Bart and Drake to James & Vanessa's), we were able to get Skylar settled down enough to where she just really wanted to go to sleep. The waiting room was PACKED. We were there probably two hours when we talked to the nurses who told us it would be another several hours before Skylar would be able to get back into a room. We just couldn't leave the boys at the Nicolaysens' for that long, especially Drake who was freaking out with us gone. Skylar seemed to be much better now, so I talked to the triage nurse. She told us as long as Skylar's fever didn't worsen, or the stomach pain increase, we could take her home and let her pediatrician check her out in the morning (gladly, her pediatrician has Sunday emergency hours). While there, some lady was yelling at the nurses about how her husband had been waiting for 6 hours and hadn't yet been seen. All the swearing on her part, and the fact that someone had been waiting there that long, hardened our resolve and we went ahead and took her home.
Skylar slept most of the way back to New Bern. We picked the boys up around 10:30 or so and dumped them all in the bed. The next day, Sunday, George stayed at home with Skylar and Drake and I took Bart to church. Skylar felt much better, but I still took her to see the pediatrician on Monday morning. The doctor said it could've been the combination of a little virus and the heat which made her so sick, or just the heat itself. At any rate, she was OK, and I sent her back to school on Tuesday. However, I did find out some information on Bart, and discussed some things with the doctor in regard to his defiance and difficulty at home. But that's an entirely separate post...
So, that was our lovely adventure at Girl Scout Camp. Quite a first experience, isn't it? I'm not sure that Skylar is quite as enthusiastic to go to the week-long summer camp now. And I'm not certain I want her to go this year!

Awards

On May 29th, Skylar was honored as one of the top 30 AR (Accelerated Reader) kids in her school. Those kids were taken out to breakfast at Golden Corral. With the AR program, kids read (age and reading level-appropriate books) and take a test on them. They earn points doing this throughout the year. Skylar ended up with 320.6 points, the 4th place reader in the entire school, which I thought was pretty awesome. Way to go, Sky! Here she is in the picture with her principal, Mr. Gatlin.



That evening, we had an awards night at BDQ. Bart and Drake filled up on cookies and punch and were way hyper. Drake must have eaten 10 cookies, but it kept him quiet to sit there and poke his finger in the icing and lick it off. It kept him quiet for about an hour. I remember the days when I swore to myself I wouldn't use sweets as an incentive for good behavior...

Memorial Day Weekend

I can genuinely say that we had a great Memorial Day weekend. The end of May in eastern NC is usually not so pleasant. It can be really humid, and often is as much as 90 degrees. This Memorial Day, though, it was just around 80 or so and there was little to no humidity. The air was breezy and it just felt like the perfect early summer day. If we had more weather like this, I would never want to move from NC.
Our weekend (unfortunately) started early. After the whole school fiasco on Thursday, I did not send the children in on Friday. They stayed home and relaxed. They were really grateful to have a day off after all the drama.



Saturday, of course, was the recital, so we didn't do a whole lot else besides our normal Saturday chores. The children were all excited because Renee (Nana with the Boo-Boo, as she is known in our house) spent the night with us. After church on Sunday, and naps, the children played under their rocket sprinkler, then we took them fishing at Lawson's Creek. It was absolutely gorgeous. Perfect weather for being outdoors. We didn't buy bait or anything, just let the kids use the fake lures they had in their tackle boxes - we are not exactly expert fisherman, by the way - so they didn't really get any bites. We saw plenty of fish jumping, though. We had a really great time, even Drake, who didn't try even once to jump into the water.





Drake occupied himself with his juice cup, and later, a water bottle while Skylar and Bart fished.








Eventually, the boys got a little restless, so I took them on a little walk. Bart was convinced we were going to see a bear once we got out of sight of everyone else and into the woods. Even though we were on a wooden and fenced path, I couldn't rule out the possibility. There are bears in New Bern. So we headed back.



We didn't actually catch anything, but the time together was worth it. We were all getting pretty hungry, so we left to rustle up some dinner. On the way out, we saw a mother duck and her adorable, fuzzy little ducklings. It's exactly how I feel some days, with my brood of children surrounding me.



After we ate dinner, we headed over to one of the fields at BDQ Elementary. Even though, I knew it had all been made up, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous as we stood outside near the woods there at dusk. What if, just what if, there really had been some nut with a gun out by the woods?
It was so beautiful and peaceful, though, that I couldn't help but let go of my apprehensions. George brought along one of his planes and flew it. The children went to dig in the shark tooth pile, and we even caught sight of an adult fox. It was running too fast and was a little too far away for me to capture it on film, though I tried. I did succeed in getting a shot of the pink sunset
in the background.




Monday was Memorial Day. We spent the morning catching up on some chores. In the afternoon, we went to a cook-out at the home of our friends, the Airharts. They go to church with us and are pretty new to the area. Our other two good sets of friends, the Nicolaysens and the Weekes, were there, also. Altogether, there were eight adults and nine children. Both Melissa Airhart and I are expecting. She is due almost two months earlier than me, I think, and is having a little boy.
The children had a great time running through their back yard, splashing in the wading pool, and playing under our rocket sprinkler. Melissa had hidden little farm animals in the back yard for the kids to find and trade in for a prize. I brought my camera to take pictures, but the batteries died on the way over. I was pretty annoyed about that.
We ate way too much food. I totally pigged out on brisket, salads, watermelon, cupcakes, and the yummiest lemonade. I was so full, in fact, that I had the absolute worst reflux ever later that night. It was so bad, I could not get to sleep until 2:30 am, even though I was falling asleep sitting up. Every time I tried to lie down, I felt so bad, I had to get back up. I took Zantac and Tums, but nothing seemed to help. I was so tired and out of it the next day, I totally forgot about a Young Women's presidency meeting at 10:30. I felt lousy that I had forgotten, but I was really wiped out. I met Vanessa and her kids at Target, where we browsed for stuff for Melissa's upcoming baby shower. Vanessa loves doing parties probably about as much as I do, and she has really cute ideas.
That evening was Bart's last karate class until August. For whatever reason, Craven Parks and Rec isn't going to be able to use the gym at HJ MacDonald Middle School in June or July, so the kids will have to wait most of the summer to start back. Bart's instructor invited him to come to Ayden, where he teaches another class, on Monday nights during the summer so he can practice. Bart was promoted with another stripe on his white belt (George asked him if he was going to end up being a 45-year-old white belt), after being promoted the week before, too. He's working really hard, but he's going to have to push just a bit more if he wants to get his yellow belt.

Skylar's Dance Recital

Friday the 22nd was Skylar's dance recital dress rehearsal at Grover C. Fields Middle School. It was our first year having a lot of dances to dress for. Skylar danced in 5 numbers this year: ballet, 2 tap numbers, jazz, and lyrical. I had volunteered to be a backstage mom, so I was on my feet (doing a lot of running) the whole time. With my big, pregnant stomach, I imagine I was pretty humorous running around. Skylar did beautifully, and went to spend the night with her friend, Hannah, who is in all of her dances with her.
Saturday was the actual recital, which began at 7pm. My mom, George's parents, Mindy, and Leslie-Grace came over for a cook-out around 3pm or so. George grilled burgers and hot dogs which were really tasty. After we ate, Skylar had to get ready and we had to rush on over to the middle school. There was a lot more running involved, and a ton of costume changes, but a lot of fun, too. Skylar's ballet production number was really good. It involved tambourines, I was really impressed with the work that went into it. I think George was even impressed, and he is notoriously merciless when it comes to dance recitals. The favorite of the night was probably one of Skylar's tap numbers, Revenge of the Nerds. All the girls really let loose and hammed it up for that dance. You could tell they were having a ball, and they were hilarious. At the end, Skylar almost got closed out of the curtain, by mistake, but it just added to the performance. The girls had the most fun designing their nerd costumes and acting "nerdy". It was like Halloween; they got to dress up and pretend to be something that is not usually "acceptable".
Skylar was exhausted by the end of the whole thing. Her feet hurt, and we didn't get home until 10:30. We were both pretty hungry, so we ate again before bed. Here is the only picture (and a really bad one) that George bothered to take at the recital, even after I reminded him that I really wanted him to take pictures. Sure, I have Skylar's formal dance portraits, but I really wanted some action shots. So, I guess he can say that he technically took a picture, although it's a really stinky one. In the background, you can - almost- see Skylar's ballet production number. I'll just have to scan and post her formal portraits later.

Sunday morning, Skylar was so tired that George stayed home from church with her and Drake. I took Bart and Renee to church - late. Still, we made it, so that's what counts, I hope.

Just a hoax?

Regarding last Thursday's school scare, the police were never able to find any sign of a gunman in the woods or on school grounds or really any evidence to confirm there was one at all. There was never a formal statement issued, but the rumor is that the story was started by a second-grader (whose name I am not going to mention because it hasn't been officially confirmed). Apparently, when the police were able to get the boy alone, he admitted that he had not really seen a gunman near the woods. However, something similar was reported a few months ago (I'm not sure who reported it, but I think it was still someone in second grade, possibly the same class), but there was no lockdown or police response then. I'm not really sure what the truth is, but the children are safe, thank goodness, and the school responded well to the entire thing. However, tragically, the driver of the Lexus (who was hit by the officer responding to the emergency at BDQ) died. If it was all one big hoax, or some game of pretend blown way out of proportion, it is horrible that someone died as a result of it. What a mess. I am so glad the children only have a few more days of school.

What is wrong????

Today was probably number one on my scary days as a mom list, right up there with having to take my 3-week old baby (Bart) into the emergency room with a high fever and then watch as he was strapped down for a spinal tap and endless x-rays. He ended up having the flu, by the way. But while we were in the hospital that long night, the TV in the room was playing back-to-back Stuart Little, which I cannot watch to this day. But I digress...
Apparently, some kids sighted an armed man on campus today at Skylar & Bart's elementary school. The school went into complete lock-down mode, what is called a "Code 300". All the children and teachers in the building took cover and the 91 children outside during the incident were evacuated through the woods. The last I'd heard, the police called for a bus to pick those children up and take them to a nearby church. Meanwhile the rest of the school was locked inside. All this happened around 11am. The school was supposed to release today at 1pm, but the children didn't get home until 2:30.
I didn't know that anything was happening until Christy, the mom of one of Skylar's friends called to tell me. I was totally freaked, but I was surprised at how calm I was able to remain. I was frustrated that there was nothing any of us parents could do but sit and wait. Irrational though it might be, your first instinct is to go get your kids and bring them home. Christy continued to call me and keep me updated. I passed on the info to my friend, Kelly, whose boys also go to Ben D. Quinn. Her two boys ended up both being among those kids evacuated to the church. Christy called to let me know that the school was finally letting the children go home, that the area was as secure as it could be, but no suspect was found. We were all weirded out to learn that something similar had happened at Brinson Elementary, across the river, just yesterday afternoon. There wasn't (as far as I know) an actual gunman sighted, but someone had tried to get into the school, which immediately went into lock-down mode. There just isn't a lot of information right now. The kids ARE NOT going to school tomorrow, because I just don't know what's going on frankly. That there aren't any leads at this time on the alleged armed person is disturbing. That there was a sighting several months ago of an armed person on campus by several children (there was no Code 300 called that time and not everyone even knew about the sighting) is even more disturbing. What is going on?
To complicate matters, a police car which was responding to the emergency at BDQ - with his lights and sirens on, mind you - T-boned a Lexus SUV at an intersection near the school. The driver of the Lexus had to be cut out of the car. What a day...
I wanted to go pick the children up, but by the time I found out they were releasing them, they had already started putting them on buses and sending them home. When Skylar and Bart got home, Skylar was more afraid than Bart had been. It was more like an adventure for him. He said he had found "clues" and a "secret passage" at the school. Skylar had spent two hours in the girls' bathroom while the school was locked down, at least an hour of which she stood on the toilet seat in one of the stalls. Apparently, they've been taught that during a Code 300, if they are in or near a bathroom, they're to lock themselves in a stall and stand on the toilet seat, and that if anyone opens the door, to climb over the wall or under to the next stall. Scary. Skylar said there were other kids (including boys) and teachers with her in the bathroom. Eventually, once the police were inside the building, they were allowed to go into a classroom. Skylar said she cried, and that this brat girl who keeps making fun of her, made fun of her while she was crying, so she kicked the girl. George was kind of mad that Skylar did that, but I told her good for her. I don't want to encourage violence or kids fighting, but Skylar has to stand up for herself sometimes. She has put up with a lot this year (and last year, too) in regard to people who have taken a disliking to her and have decided to just be plain mean to her on a regular basis. There are plenty of really nice kids at school, but there are also a handful who are just spoiled little snots who need their ipods and cell phones taken away for good and who need to actually be made to do chores and think about other people for a change. Ranting? Yep, I sure am. Don't even get me started.
But anyway...I was just really thankful that the children came home safely. We laid low for the rest of the afternoon, had a snack, played Cars Uno. Skylar won three times, Bart and I each won once. When George got home, we went to get dinner at Waffle House. I didn't feel like cooking and hadn't taken anything out of the freezer for dinner. We tried to make it a pretty normal night as far as bedtime routines go, but we had to keep re-capping everything for people who had heard on the news what happened and were concerned. I think I was on the phone for a total of several hours today.
Now I'm just exhausted. I know Skylar and Bart must be. Drake could sense the stress and had a hard time falling asleep. Great way to start off the Memorial Day holidays, huh? Skylar has her dance dress rehearsal tomorrow evening, and the following evening is the actual recital. No time to stop here. She was supposed to have a Girl Scout meeting at the River Bend Country Club at 3pm today, but since they didn't get home until 2:30, we didn't go.
So, my question is: if there was really someone with a gun, what on earth were they doing or thinking? What is wrong with the world that someone would get a kick out of scaring a bunch of little kids? I'm just sick at heart. I don't want to send my kids back to school. However, I am thankful that BDQ was so prepared and efficient with their emergency drill. They were able to keep all the children safe and that's what's important. In the meantime, I'll be keeping them close until I get some more information.