Busy weekend

We had a great weekend here. Annika's grandparents were down here for the weekend so she had a great time seeing them. We went shopping on Saturday to get groceries and also the last few pieces needed for her Halloween costume. Of course Mom's plan has been overrode by Princess Annika. We have a cheerleader costume that I was going to have her wear for Halloween. Annika keeps saying tha she is going to be a princess this year. I did have her convinced that we were going to do cheerleader this year but I have finally gave up. Yes, it is her Halloween and if she wants to be a princess for the 3rd year in a row, who am I to argue? Thankfully the clothes that I bought her her to wear under the cheerleader costume matches the princess dress she wants to wear so I am not out anything.

On Sunday, we had an early Thanksgiving with my mom and dad, my brother, my sister-in-law and all the kids. We had 6 adults and 9 kids. The kids were split between teenagers (5) and the little kids (4). There was a time during the get together that we were more concerned on what the teenagers were doing versus the little kids. Aren't you supposed to trust them more as they get older? Who knows.

Then we also got a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with all 9 of their grandkids. You can never guess which group gave us more trouble in the picture-not the little kids. My boys either stuck out their tongue or waved at the camera. So much for a good picture but at least it is true to life. Our next challenge is going to be trying to get a picture of all 9 of the grandkids together as we want to get one before Marcus graduates this year. Believe me I am not taking this crew to a professional for this!! Wish us luck.

After her busy weekend, Annika was off to visit her neurolgist on Tuesday. Everything is going just fine. No changes and he is very please on how she is doing. We talked about how far she has come since her menigitis and how much of an impact she is having on the world. She teaches us every day more than what we are teaching her.

On that note, she has secured another victim. Marcus is working in a 3rd grade classroom for his child development class this trimester. This classroom is about 3 doors down from Annika's kindergarten classroom. She came home yesterday from school with a sucker from that 3rd grade teacher. He says "she's too cute". Uh oh, watch out if he ends up getting her in his class 4 years from now. All kidding aside she doesn't do this intentionally, she just has that drawing personality that people just can't help liking her. I spoke to her special ed teacher and really this is happening. She has lots of friends at school and they are really great to her. It is not how you think some people are-they don't like her out of pity or feeling sorry for her. They genuinely like her and enjoy playing with her. Annika's love for life is just so contagious!!! I know that God really has plan for her life and it is going to be exciting to see her grow and mature into the person God created her to be.

Last night, the teacher was back at work. The poor cats were put in time out. Ashly (her PCA) and Allen were getting their "frogs" taken away for wrong behavior. That is the behavior management program they are using in the Kindergarten room. All her stuffed animals had to go to school and she was off. I can't help myself but just sit back and watch her antics. Yes, some day I will feel sorry for our cats but for now they are little and they just love having the attention no matter what it is.

The Hungry Caterpillar

Annika's kindergarten this past week did a unit on "The Hungry Caterpillar". To make the highlight of the week, the kids did a play on "The Hungry Caterpillar". All the kindergarteners lined up in a long line hanging on to one another on the hips. They went around and around the gym, eating the various foods and then eventually going into the cocoon and coming out as beautiful butterflies. Annika got to do this all via a ride in a wagon as physically it was hard for her to keep up. She had her 4th grade reading buddy pull her wagon through the play. She was so excited because both Mommy and Cassie were able to come to watch her play. What was so neat to see today was when we went to Applebee's for lunch, guess what was on their kid's menu? Activities based on the books by Eric Carle and the first one was "The Hungry Caterpillar". She was so happy to be able tell me the whole story again with the help of the pictures. Of course her favorite part was changing into the butterfly so she was trying to rush through to get to the end. Then she told me all about her play again. Way to go Annika!! I love when things work together and she gets to replay things to us because that auditory memory of hers continues to be the struggle in her life. Here's to all those beautiful butterflies out there!!

Annika will be a teacher, I think

I know that we have a long time until Annika has to decide what she is going to do in life but right now I can see her choosing to be a teacher. When she is home for the weekend, all that she talks about is school. Last night, Allen, Annika and Jon were leaving to go get supper from the store. Annika is standing in the doorway having a meltdown. So we ask her what is bothering her. She cries "I want to be the teacher.". We, of course, tell her she can be the teacher. She turns and hollers out to the van where Jon is "Jon, see I am the teacher." Oh my goodness!!

Then today we are sitting at Applebee's having lunch. She turns and says, "Mommy, I like school. I work hard at school." So I ask her what is her favorite thing at school to do. She looks at me and says, "I like making "T's" at school. Making "T's" at school is my favorite thing. Okay, last year it was playing with dolls or playing outside or something like that. Making "T's"??? Where did this child come from?

She is forever now playing school at home. I fully expect her to start "teaching" her kitties. She already does it with her dolls and Barbies. Watch out Smokey and Princess you are next!!

Annika's cats

Yes, I said cats-plural. Those of you who know what happened this summer bear with me while I do a little update. This summer Jon was picking on our cat (they had this love/hate relationship even though it was his cat) and she went pyscho on him. She basically stalked him all over the house for 2 days. We had to pack up the cat and send her off to the farm. After she left, Annika would ask at least weekly when Nermal was coming home. Allen, the person who does not like cats very much, went on a quest and found a baby cat at a co-workers house. Her name is Smokey and she came to us about 2 weeks ago. She is grey in color and a very big baby. She likes to sleep in my hair at night on the top of my head. Even though she is old enough to be away from her mother she probably left too early before we got her. We have heard that her sister is the same way so we bascially had one baby cat and that was enough for me. Annika was very happy but still would ask if we were going to bring Nermal home. Well, last night Allen was out for his walk and he heard this tiny kitten cry from over in the ditch. He went over and found a mother cat and her little kitten. The mother cat had been hit by a car and was dead; the kitten was fine but all alone. Allen walks late in the evening and it is pretty cool here at night. He couldn't leave this little one on her own so now we have Princess. The picture attached is the two kittens sleeping. At least we know that it will be okay to have these two together. They are still so little and definitely are still working on who is the dominant cat so all last night and this morning we would have the non-stop cat fight cry. I was being to wonder if this was going to work. We left to get some shopping and left the cats on their own. We came home to find them sleeping together in a ball. All our fears are gone. Annika is very happy now because she has "2 kitties". Right now the youngest one, Princess is the most patient with her and puts up with her. In fact just now Annika walked in with her princess dress, crown, wand and was going up to Princess saying "bibidi bobidi boo". I am not sure what she is turning her cat into but Princess thought it was a hoot and even chased her wand like it was something to attack.

Football is over

Well, it was a sad night at our house last night. Annika's older brother's football team lost in sections to our rival school and the season is now over. We didn't bring Annika last night and I was glad. The last quarter of the game it started to sprinkle and the wind really started to pick up. I wrapped up in my extra blanket and pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt. Marcus, who is our senior, did get a chance to play in the last minute or so of the last game and at the end of the game he fell to his knees. It was hard for him and Mom of course was crying. It was so great to hear as the crowd was yelling for Marcus when he got into the game. To explain it a little bit is Marcus is one of the smallest kids on the team but he has the biggest team spirit. So most of his time on varsity was spent on the sidelines. You can always hear him on the sidelines cheering on his teammates, pacing the sidelines, and just being a huge supporter of the team. But he also loves to get out there and "hit". He doesn't know the meaning of give up. The big guys will plow him over and he gets right back up and goes at them again. What a kid!!

Other than football being over, not much has been happening at our house the past week. It was MEA weekend here so the kids were all home. Annika got some well deserved rest for her physical needs and watched lots of her "movies". She did have some therapy sessions and actually went to her last speech session with the local SLP here in Litchfield. She is only seeing her now when she has a break from school but now the SLP is "retiring" from the hospital to spend the summer with her daughter and her family in Florida. Annika doesn't realize that this was the last one as we kept it pretty low key at the session. I will miss her greatly as Annika has been going to her for speech ever since she was 18 months old. So that means we will move on to another chapter in our life and not have any medical speech for the rest of the school year. I don't want to have her see a new therapist on a sporatic basis so we will need to see what is available this next summer and go from there. Actually with her level, we may be done with speech permanently as Annika's speech is really great. She really just needs help with language and some of the pre reading skills.

Better go get the princess up for school.

Wedding, Grandparent's Day, oh my!

Well, I have been trying to get this done for the past week but never got the chance to get in and also was waiting for a picture to attach. Anyway, last Friday it was Grandparent's Day at Annika's elementary school. Grandma and Grandpa N were able to come down for this. Annika was so excited. She got to show them areound her school, eat lunch with them, and even more important she got to spend the afternoon with them as I was at work. That evening it was off to another football game for the boys. It is now really starting to cool off around here in the evenings so blankets and extra clothing is a must to head off the to games.

Saturday morning Annika woke up just in time to see Grandma and Grandpa take off for home. She said goodbye to them and even thanked them for coming down for Grandparent's Day. What a kid!! I hadn't even coached her on that.

Then also on Saturday, Annika had to give up her "boyfriend". Cassie's old roomate, Sarah married her sweetheart Heath. Annika fell in love with Heath and he has been her "boyfriend" ever since she has met him. She was so cute though because once he was married she would only hug Sarah and not Heath. She said he broke her heart. What a goof. She is over him now and on to others but Heath will always have a special place in her thought. It was a very unique experience for Allen and myself because we were only at the wedding because Annika was invited. Go figure-she is 6 years old and has a social life!!!

It is MEA around here now so Annika is a little lost with out her school. She has had some good time to recover and relax but by the end of the weekend will be climbing the walls for entertainment. Thankfully she has a few medical appointments that we scheduled during this time to give her a chance to get out and about.

Well, the picture included in the post is one that was taken with Heath and Sarah on their wedding day. Leave it to my daughter to just walk up to say "hi" and the next thing you know pictures are getting taken. What a little princess!!!

Catch up

Wow What a week!!!! As I thought the week was wild and crazy with it being Homecoming week. As sometimes things go our van started to act up on Wednesday so we spent about an hour at the repair shop instead of getting the hamburger fried for the next day. Only to find out that we needed to leave the van there and borrow a car from the shop. We were able to pick it up on Saturday and that is another story but not for here. Anyway, from the shop it was off to church and get the hamburger done. It went quicker than I thought and that was a blessing.

Thursday was an event itself. It started with a phone call from the school letting me know that Annika was not herself and her urine smelt very bad! That was at about 1 p.m. so I was off to pick her up, get her home and try to get a sample to drop off with the doctor all in about an hour and a half. I did get it all done and there was no doubt in my mind that she had an infection. So antibiotics were ordered and she is doing much better. Of course we had one really bad night on Thursday so Annika and I spent the day recovering on Friday.

Okay, so after getting the sample done it was off to my chiropractor appointment and then to the church to get the spaghetti supper done. There was a few tense moments but all in all we served around 50 guys in a little more than 20 minutes. I can't believe it went off as well as it did with the problems we had (still boiling noodles and warming up bread as the boys started to walk in the door) but the kids ate and were thankful. We even came home with enough leftovers to feed us for at least 3 meals. We will get tired of spaghetti around here but all in all I am glad we did it but won't be looking forward to next year.

Like I said Annika and I laid low on Friday until it was time for the football game. By then she was ready to go and acting very much herself. As for Mom I could have stayed home and slept. But it is Marcus's last home game and I can't miss that. I was glad we went but it was a downer of a game because we lost. Annika lost interest in the 4th quarter and started to take a nap in Dad's lap. Because it was so packed that night we decided to head out with about 3 minutes left in the game. That was a mistake in our part because we missed seeing Marcus play the last 3 plays of the game. We had forgotten that if at all possible they try to play all the seniors on the last home game so they have that opportunity.

Saturday we laid low and cleaned house. At least Annika, Dan, Jon and myself. Marcus had training in the cities so Allen and Marcus headed off bright and early. It was a nice day to get relax and recover. We made some homemade applesauce too.

Sunday Annika and I were invited by her friend, Noah to go to a play on Junie B Jones. It was put on by the Youth Performance Company in the Twin Cities. It was a great play and they did a great job. The kids enjoyed it. Annika laughed through the whole play. We took a picture of Noah and Annika with Junie B Jones.

On top of that I think we have a little "love" blooming between the two kindergarteners. As we were waiting for the play to start, Noah decided to give Annika a "kiss". When we came home Annika told her brothers that she didn't love them anymore; she loved her boyfriend, Noah. Oh boy!!! That did not go over well with her brothers. They are going to have to "talk" to Noah. No boyfriends for their princess.

Well, it is time to wake up the princess so I will need to end this update.