A Month for Drs

It was my turn. In August I went to the dr for my sinus and he made an appt with a specialist. The appt I could get was for October 31st. Well needless to say there aren't alot of symptoms left. I do still have occasional problems and was curious. They did give me a breathing test. He thinks I may have had a deep infection in my lungs and has suggested pretizone and an innebulizer. Not sure of the right word or spelling. It is for 20 days and doesn't sound like much fun.

We didn't do our usual run of going out for supper. It is going to be a busy weekend and the house needs some TLC.

Aunt Terri's Pumpkins

Aunt Terri for many years has painted pumpkins for our family. She visited at the right time this year and once again...painted us pumpkins. Naturally the girls were in an ornery mood to try and get a pic of the pumpkins...And this is what I got. Thanks Aunt Terri :)

Tara's first Halloween

She didn't have a clue, but just went with everything we told her to do. We explained how the night would go last night. Tonight when I got home from work I dug out all the old costumes from each of the kids. She looked through all of them and chose Minnie Mouse. It lacked a mask, but for her first year was pretty good. Tia was a soccerer, the outfit was a little small...but we didn't have alot of choices since she has grown so much this past year.

When the boys were little we did the neighborhood and called it good. We live in the country so it was allllooot of driving. With Tia I started taking her to town and we walk around. They are small towns Truro and St Charles, we know most of the people of the houses we stop at. And it has been a way to see where people we know live. We stopped at Tara's principle's house and neither girl would take a treat...hmnnn. The wife and two small children were with him on the porch. We left home at 6, it is a 20 min drive and Tara was pooped at 7:15. Tia did a few houses on her own and we hit BJ the neighbor on the way home. I had to see pictures that he took with a motion camera in our timber (deer and bobcat) Wow! Maybe Gene's x-mas present. Grandma Snyder's is always last. Tia is in 6th grade this year, I wonder if she will do it again next year?

I did ask Tara if she wanted to call Xiao Ke in New York this weekend to compare notes and she had a big smile. She told me 44...me with a puzzled look. She had 44 pieces of candy that she liked. The ones she didn't like--didn't count!

As for me I just had a really big handful of malted milk balls left over from our drive home from Iowa City on Tuesday :)

Tara's First Football Game

Again it was hard to make plans. Gene mentioned the volleyball team would be playing and it would be fun to go, that was at 2 in the afternoon. The football game was at 6:30.

The neighbors called Thursday night and ask if Tara was going. They were going to this game and we could try to meet up. Levi and Tara are in the same class at school. Kristi checked in and they didn't think they would go early and weren't sure on parking with all the rain we have had this week and parking in a grass field. We ended up getting to Mike and Murts at 2, loading the truck and all eight of us heading to Ames. Two more weeks and the girls could have followed us in their car. They are the proud owners of a white Cavalier. It was a little crowded, but nothing unbearable (I like togetherness :) I also should mention it is a short ride from their house. Not too long after we arrived the Sandquists found us. Levi brought Tara a pom pom and they played catch with the football almost until it was time to go into the game. Gene had to find a co-worker and headed to the other side of the stadium while the girls and I settled into our spot. She squatted on the bleacher for the beginning of the game, so when everyone stood up she could see over them (by standing on her seat) She is a very good fan. When we had all piled into the truck to head home she was head checking, missed Tia and was worried. Tia and I had switched spots. All was good!

The Friday Usual

When I got home from work I ask the girls if they wanted to go out for supper. They were slow to answer. It has been a couple of weeks since we have ventured to our favorite Chinese restaurant. We also took in our recycling and pop cans. The girls split the money from the pop cans. We didn't have many so there wasn't much. Tara brought hers home and put in her new piggy bank and Tia spent hers on candy. The laundry is sorted and the washer is going. I ask Tara to sort her laundry and she told me tomorrow. I ask her how bad she wanted clean laundry, cause I may be done by the time tomorrow comes...she did it :) Today is cold and wet.
Tia pretty much has her spinks done for her clay project. It looks pretty good. she wants to paint it, but I don't think paint will stick to this clay.
Alright the boxes of clothes are driving me nuts. They're everywhere. I tried to sort them. I have a pile of sweaters, jeans, sweats, long sleeve t's, tooo big, tooo small and pj's. Now to get them put away and cleaned up. Uhgg!

Sweat Pants

Okay Tara has worn capri's all week. Tia is wearing jeans. Tia called me and asked me to stop after work and get clay. She has a double project due in a week and since Tara would be at tumbling she could stay home and work on it. I made a deal with her that she had to make a pot of chili. I have dug through the boxes and can't really find any pants I think will fit Tara. After finding the clay (which by the way is in the scrap booking isle??) I headed to the girls section...stretch pants, jeans or sweat??? I ended up with sweat pants, if you aren't sure of the size your chances are better they will fit. And they did, she wore them to school. And yes they were pink and they looked very nice on her :)
I did ask Tara on the way to tumbling if I get a hug yet. At least tonight she told me China Mom. I totally understand, I know I will get one some day. For now I am waiting....
Tia laughed when I came in, she said it was dad's fault. Me with a puzzled look. Gene told Tia to put some water in the tomato juice container to rinse it out and she filled it up and dumped it in. By the time it was done and cooked down, you could't tell. nice job Tia!

Hand Me Downs

It is getting colder and it is suppose to rain all week. First I went to the garden and dug up my pepper plant. I want to see if it will give me peppers in the house?? Tara loves to chop them up and scramble them with her eggs.
I didn't get all the boxes out yesterday, so I tried to find all of the clothes that I have been saving from Tia. I didn't count the boxes, but...Tara keeps telling me too much. I can't quite convince her she needs to go through these boxes. She did wear one of the pairs of shoes to school. They are her size, but she says they aren't that comfortable. (that's because she is used to flip flops)
We got the phone call on Jeff and he will be having surgery to remove a tumor on his adrenial gland (which is causing his high blood pressure). He has to be on meds for 2 wks, so hopefully it will fall on x-mas break.

Late Birthday Wishes

Since we had our Wu reunion on Friday, we missed cake with Gene #51. Since Tara had tumbling we missed cake with Tara...So tonight was the night. The girls didn't have school today. I had made them dentist appointments. They got their teethe cleaned and checked, dad got to take them. The Dental Hygenist said she would have liked to work on Tara's tartar, but wanted to be gentle this first time. So next time won't be as fun. The dentist was pleased with Tia, but she still may need braces.
Tia made a cake when they got home and Tara joined Gene as they put up a fence behind the house to turn the cows out to graze. They both helped grandpa and grandma crank the freezer of ice cream. It is tradition at the Snyder's to have homemade ice cream for your birthday (except me, I don't like it) I should mention Tia loves candles, I'm not sure how many there are-but there are way too many!

It is getting cooler out and we have had our first fire in the fire place to take the chill from the house. I dug out the boxes of hand me downs to see if there are pants for Tara. She wasn't interested in the pants, but tried on the shirt that we brought Tia home in at 3 yrs. She could get it on, but it was skin tight. She got tired before she got all the boxes gone through. Well she now has 3 more pair of shoes and lots of sweaters, but still No Pants!

Jeff had a scan today on his abdomen. I haven't heard from him, but I checked with his dr and will check back on Tuesday for the results.

Camper goes to storage

Okay I have finally noticed an extra body in the house. I can not believe how much laundry I do. I was almost done washing when Tara decided to bring her hamper to the wash room. Everyone is in charge of getting their dirty things to the washer. It was funny though...I had been talking on the phone making arrangements to take the camper to moms to put in her shed for the winter. I told her we would be over as soon as the laundry was done. I like to hang the clothes on the line when the weather is good and it maybe one of the last ones for this year. As soon as I would get them hung up, Tara was taking them down and putting them in the dryer. I think maybe she was in a hurry to go see Grandma:)

We also had team work picking up walnuts. Tara and I picked them up and Tia was stirring them in water and rinsing them off. We all like to pick them out and eat them.

Happy Anniversary to my Hubby of 28 yrs!!

Iowa State vs Nebraska

It's hard to make plans when you never know until the last minute just what can happen. Curt had tickets for the game and had hopes of being in Iowa. His car is being painted and wasn't done, plus he didn't have approval to work with the Airforce recruitors in Iowa. So maybe next month. Gene has been working on Jeff's car the past couple of weeks. He has a new tire, tires alligned, new breaks, oils changed, antifreeze checked and something else (I've lost track). We were suppose to change back vehicles, but Jeff stayed in CF to study for classes. Mike and Murt headed to MO to watch Kelsey play softball.

It was a small crowd for the game. We met Greg and Kristi in Indianola (Gene, Tia and I) and rode together. It was a sub sandwich kind of day. The weather was just right for football. We were in Ames at 9:30 for an 11:30 game.
Another lousy game. Well the Cyclones showed up for the 3rd qtr this week. Gene and I both sighed with relief when we finally made a TD. We weren't sure it could happen.

Tia's Crib Mate Reunion

I am not sure who likes these visits more Tia or Mom. We recieved an email the Ohio family would be in Iowa, could we get together? Well Surrrre! Okay Mo is coming up I need to plan a meeting place and time. I am the worlds worst planner. My first thought is a place that is quite, but somewhat entertaining. Tia asked for eating Chinese. I couldn't think of the name of the place she wanted to go and we ended up at PF Chang's. Somewhat pricey, but we have tried it now and know. The service was good and the food was good.

My first thought when I saw Wren was Ohhhh...she's so grown up and Fuyin. They look closer in age now.(sisters) And when Lily arrived she confirmed it, our babies aren't babies any more. Happy and sad moment all at once. Fuyin is taking Chinese language classes in school and tried to practice on Tara. She was nervous and got a little tongue tied. Tara just laughted. Then Wren practiced what Fuyin helped her with and Tara was too shy to tell them her name. This was the first year I think I can say the girls acted like they have never been apart, but hadn't seen each other for awhile. They immediately started chatting like best friends. My heart smiled!

The Mo family (the Martins) have other people they know in Des Moines, so they got a hotel downtown and the girls had swim suits and went swimming for a couple of hours. So much laughter and screaming, not sure how the dad's could take it. They must be used to it. Exchanging gifts, having hot chocolate...it was a Wonderful Day...Thanks Martins and Hellwigs!

11th Birthday

What a fast paced day and not the day I had quite dreamed for her first birthday with us. She pretty much took it in stride. Tara was very happy to take her cupcakes to school. She originally told me "Tia no", I asked her how many she needed and she told me 22. We counted the cupcakes and she saw that she had 2 extra, I told her Tia and Baba. She was happy :) After school I called on the way home, it seems I stop at the grocery store almost nightly. Tonight they ask for Chinese take out from Hy-Vee. I kind of guessed that is what Tara wanted for supper. I wasn't sure whether to leave Tara's gift for her to open when she got up or give it to her when I got home from work. She doesn't get up until after I leave, so I went for the second option. She loved her piggy bank. I also grabbed her some more hair ties and this bunch had a watch on it. She immediately started telling me the time and it was time to leave for tumbling. We still had 20 minutes, but she was ready! At tumbling we took skittles to pass out after class, usually they do swivel hips on the tramp to your years of birth. Tara hasn't learned that yet, so we tried for straight jumps (yes we were to embarrassed for that too, maybe next year)

More Family

Tara got to meet her first cousin and her family today. Nykki has a son that is a little younger than Tara, but they are in the same class. It will be fun sharing the kids experiences as they grow.

Gene has most of his corn chopped, he hopes to finish tomorrow if the rain holds out. As he was working yesterday he saw the neighbor boys with a catch. They told us they have a picture of a large Bobcat in our timber. He sold his Goldwing motorcycle today, never really liked that bike.

Last Sunday we picked up walnuts at grandma's. This week I cracked a few and Tara was getting into picking out the nuts until I took a picture of her doing it. Tia was quiet and had disappeared to her room. Come to find out she was playing Monopoly with her imaginary friend Bob???












Stuart came home today. He went out at bedtime Friday and decided to stay away all Saturday. I was in the dog house, Tara and Gene love that cat. This morning he announced his arrival home under the kitchen window.

Good news! My screen is normal again. I can't believe I didn't think to google it. Thanks for the suggestion to ctrl, alt up arrow :)

Need Help??

Okay, I have a new computer (it is a Dell). While I was away Tara was working on the computer and now my screen needs rotated. I took the screen off the stand and have it leaned against the stand to be able to view it correctly. Ugghh! Any suggestions will be looked into.
Jeff had a good eye dr visit, he thinks they will correct themselves. Yeah! He is not happy that all his appts. fall on his class days.
Curt called to check on Jeff. He had good news, he was promoted to staff sargent in August. He also had bad news, he needs to re-roof his house next summer (that is also good news, cause we may get to go visit and help). The El Camino is being painted and the Grand Am is listed in the paper.
Tara came home on the bus for the first time without Tia. Tia went home with Cheyanne after school. I picked them up after work and they haven't stopped laughing since. Now they are playing hide n seek, Tara hasn't quite got the hang of it. It is Tia's favorite game, so she needs to learn. Tara was a little out of place when the girls first got home. Wonder when we will get to go to bed tonight???
I received an email this week from Tia's crib mates. Our family from Ohio will be visiting Iowa next week. We are trying to plan a reunion for the girls. Any suggestions are welcome.

I think it is Hereditary

What a day. Jeff had an eye dr appt., after his appt he called me to say his eye dr has made a dr appt for him. He thinks he is diabetic. He calls me from that appt to tell me they have admitted him to the hospital. I got the call from his internal dr first, she says he's in good hands. He had really high blood pressure and he is not diabetic, but they would like to know what is causing the high blood pressure. We hang up and the eye dr calls. He has made another appt for Jeff with an eye specialist on Tuesday at 2 and would like us to be there to hear what the dr has to say. With his BP being so high it made the blood vessels in his eyes seep and he now is near sighted. Gene and I started for Cedar Falls Tuesday morning and got 1/2 hour from home when Jeff called and said we didn't need to come up, his eye appt had been cancelled. Gene and I talked fast and decided to go ahead. It poured on us all the way. When we got to the hospital and ask for his room we found out he was in intensive care, huh?? He was having a test when we got there. He looked fine when we finally saw him (maybe a little grouchy with the whole thing). They had taken out his IV early AM and given him 3 pills and by afternoon his BP was 136/80, not great but alot better than when he was admitted. We waited until the dr made her afternoon rounds, the nurse warned her the indian was restless and she started with he will be released. BUT he needs to fill a med prescription and make a follow up appt. They are requesting a stress test and he sees the eye specialist on Thursday. Meanwhile he's missing 2 days of classes. I had the nurse write down his test and meds and now I lost my cheat sheet. There is still one test that won't be back for a couple of days. It was close to 7 pm before we left the hospital and then to grab a few groceries, supper and the meds. On our way home at 8. The girls were home, Tia checked in a couple of times. She made frosting for the cake that was baked the day before. First time, she did a good job. Grandpa says he tried to call threee different times and they didn't answer so he came down to check on them. They were outside playing catch.

Mamma's Happy

When I came home from work Monday Tia and Tara were playing catch with a tennis ball in the living room...WOW! After a while they moved outside. They had to have played for more than an hour. I didn't get in a hurry to make supper. Tara needed to put the dishes away, but I didn't say a word. This was a day I had been waiting for--for some time. A Good Day :) !!

So Many Things to Do

We had an invitaion to make apple cider. We have 3 apple trees and could have donated some of our apples. We had a home game with Iowa State and Kansas, the point spread was 13. Cade Taylor and Scott Williams will be getting married and Cade had a bridal shower. And Kelsey Williams was playing a softball tournament. Gene was able to get Jeff's car into the shop to be aligned on Monday, but we had to get it there. It was a tuff decision, but we ended up going different directions. Gene and Tia went to the football game, the cyclones were ahead the first quarter and ended up loosing 35-33. Tara and I started with watching Kelse play ball, they lost that game and we headed to Indianola. First we dropped off the car at the tire shop, had lunch at A&W and headed to Cade's shower. Tara thought it was great and enjoyed it. Cade got to chew 7 pc of gum at one time, because she didn't know answers to questions about her husband to be...too fun!! We had Kasey checking in often with her dad on the score of the game. The Cyclones went slowly downhill and ended up losing, but beating the point spread. After the shower we headed back to watch Kelsey's last game for the day. The day was beautiful, but when the sun went down it was quite chilly. Jamie watched the game we weren't at with Kelsey, he wasn't happy that every where he turned they were talking about the ISU game. He had it Tvoed and wanted to be surprised :( At the end of the day Tara and I ended up falling asleep in the recliner.

A Good Night

Wow, it's been 4 wks of tumbling. We missed last week, cause coach Sue had a toothache. Tara wanted to know if she could go Monday night. I told her she would have to wait until tonight. I gave her a leo and capri's and ask her to get ready. She smiled and said no. I left the room and she came out dressed and ready to go....Wow! She was so excited about tumbling when we came home she was rolling all through the house. I hadn't planned on having her compete this year with her being new, but I think she may want it. It will be fun to see where we go from here. Tia on the other hand, stayed home tonight. She tumbles on Wednesday night. Tia gets very nervous in competition, but excells with exhibition. Tia only missed one on her Social Studies test. Way to go girl! She showed me her bridge she made in industrial tech class. I said it looked like a sled, she was offended. A very good sled!!