Sick again!

Jack has come down with his 5th or 6th cold since school started - I'm starting to think we're going to be blowing his nose until next May! I came down with something this weekend too, unfortunately - yesterday woke up with a sore throat and by afternoon it had turned into body aches and a headache, so I was down for the count for the remainder of the day. Still not feeling great today - still have the body aches but I'm only giving in to this thing today - tomorrow I have to be back in action no matter what!! Too much to do! We have a big week coming up - I provide snacks for Noah's class all of this week, the boys have gymnastics tonight, I work in the kids' classrooms tomorrow and Wednesday, we have a field trip for Jack's class on Wed., Halloween is on Wednesday, Mark's birthday on Thursday, and we leave for a 6-day trip on Friday, so somewhere in there I have to get us all ready to go for that!!! Ugghh!! No time to be sick! Aren't moms supposed to be completely immune to these things?!?? Ha ha.

We had a good weekend up until yesterday afternoon, though - Friday night we went out to the Olive Garden with my brother's girlfriend (he's on a hunting trip), so we pigged out (YUM) and caught up with her, which was nice. Saturday we went to Sam's Club, went out to lunch and then took the kids to the movie - Casper - appropriate for Halloween time, we thought! They loved it of course. Late Saturday afternoon my Dad came in from Spearfish to hang with the kids while Mark and I went to a church dinner. Then Dad stayed over, and did our whole Sunday morning routine with us - bagel shop, Sunday School and church. It was fun to have him around - I love how much he loves the boys, it's really a blessing.

And so we're off on another busy week - can you believe October is already over??? WOW!! And can you believe Mark will be 37 on Thursday??!? Bigger WOW!! :)

"All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth"

(or Halloween, or Thanksgiving . . . . ) Remember that song? I remember my mom and dad making me sing that one Christmas when I was missing mine . . . Here are a couple pictures of MY toothless baby - remember I mentioned that Noah's first upper tooth fell out a couple weeks ago - - well, the second front tooth fell out on Sunday night, so he's looking really different - actually just adorable when he's caught off guard and looks at me with a huge smile (which isn't that often because he's kind of self-conscious now!). You should hear him talk, it's the cutest thing!! I just love it. We're so mean, we're thinking of words to have him say that you really can't pronounce well without those teeth :) (thistle being one of them!) - he's a good sport though, and is getting used to how it feels. Personally I don't know how he eats, but he's managing! It's so fun to go through these stages, but you know the sentimentalist in me is lamenting over the fact I can remember when those two teeth came in like it was yesterday (it was yesterday, wasn't it???). And so my babies (and their teeth!) keep growing . . . . .

Cold, Flu and General ICKY Season is Here!

I am at home today, tending to my poor baby Jack who got hit from all directions yesterday. He's been fighting a cold and yesterday morning it was particularly bad - nasty coughing, etc. so I brought him home from school around 10:00 a.m. and he laid on the couch ALL DAY - didn't move. Then at 5 p.m. he started throwing up, almost continously through the next 2 1/2 to 3 hours. THEN when I went to bed at 11, he had developed a fever of 102. This poor child, his little body was absolutely racked with misery. His stomach wouldn't even allow him to lay still, he was coughing, nose running, and had the chills with his fever. I prayed HARD that he (and the rest of us!) would be able to sleep during the night, and sure enough we did (thank you God!!). This morning he is doing better. We seem to be through the stomach issue and now he's just really worn out so hopefully we'll have a good day of recovery. It's gorgeous outside here, so I opened all the windows this morning and got some fresh air circulating through the house - it feels good!

Noah managed to sleep nearly 12 hours last night - amazing!! So my prayer now is that he can be spared of this. He's fighting his own cold and his cough is sounding like it might have traveled to his lungs, so we may have to get him in to the dr. today.

I'm threatening to home-school again! We've been dealing with health issues in this house ever since school started - even Mark and I haven't been immune - YUCK! You go into either Jack or Noah's classrooms and nearly every kid there is hacking away with a nasty cough - I'm wondering if we're ever going to get healthy again in the next 7 months! It's only October!! I think schools should shut down for 1 week per month to get everyone healthy and disinfect the rooms. Ha ha - yeah right. Nevermind, that's just my panicky side talking, I know we'll get better and I definitely know things could be much worse . . . .

Needless to say, we don't have anything planned for the weekend - but that's okay with me! I love boring weekends at home, just enjoying normalcy! :)

Cedar Rapids, A Lost Tooth and Pickles!

WOW I'm getting really bad at this - need to try and improve these time lapses between posts!! We have just been crazy busy the last two weeks, but at least with all good things. Last weekend we headed to Cedar Rapids, IA to see my sister Betsy and her family - LONG drive (11 hours!) but very worth it, we had the BEST time! Friday night we got a babysitter and went out to eat and then to the Newsboys concert - oh my goodness, they are my new favorite band! It was just awesome!! Mark and I have both become total Newsboys junkies now - every time we get in the car, that's what we put on. Saturday morning we headed to the MALL where we had a family picture taken for Christmas - and this was no ordinary mall - they have an ice skating rink right and full-size carousel right in the middle of it! So we took advantage of both:

It was the boys' FIRST TIME ever ice skating, and it was a challenge!! By the end, they were doing pretty good, though. Here's Jack starting out:

This is what they looked like most of the time - this is Noah: (but bless their hearts, they were NOT going to give up, and they did improve quite a bit!)
Gaining some confidence towards the end:
and Mark and I practicing our Olympic routine . . . .
Here's my sweet nephew Colby on the carousel (LOVE this picture!):
So, our family picture session was somewhat of a struggle because Noah had an upper front tooth hanging on my a thread, and he kept pushing it with his tongue during the pictures - UGGH! We did manage to get a couple decent ones - - and then wouldn't you know, an hour after the pictures were done, his tooth falls out!! Anyway, it was pretty exciting because it was his first upper tooth to come out and now he really does look different (and talks a little different too!) :)

The rest of the weekend with the Wraneks was great - we always have so much fun there with them. Jack and Noah were very sad to leave Colby - here they are the night before we left:

Back on the homefront, the boys were able to open the first jar of their pickles from the batch we made last month. They made this jar (and a few others) BY THEMSELVES - they just love doing it and they love eating them even more! True Roisums!!
And then we did another of Jack and Noah's favorite things, decorating for Halloween. I started collecting Dept. 56 Halloween stuff when they were babies, and now they have the BEST time getting it all out every Halloween. Here's our favorite piece - "Jack's Carving Studio" (says that on the sign, not sure if you can read it in the picture) . . . .

And here's Mark's favorite Halloween decoration - we got it from a Roisum family friend for our wedding. (The mouth says ROISUM).
So that's what we've been up to! The next few weekends we don't have any plans, other than to spend time at HOME and get our to-do list done! It felt so good to wake up this morning knowing we don't have one thing on the calendar for the next two days - love it!!! Have a good weekend!!