Easter '11

With me being sick for so long, Easter really snuck up on us!!  Luckily I had purchased the stuff to decorate eggs a while ago.  Acacia sat me down with the deep question of what is real and what is not a while ago too.  Now that she knows the truth about Christmas, Easter, Tooth Fairy, etc she wants to help.  So, she and Randy got up at 5a today and made Chris' Easter trail.  But, she is still a kid so she said she was going to go back to bed and hopefully the Easter Bunny would still make her a trail.  Sure enough, he did.

The kids went through their trails.  Chris screamed with excitement that Easter is now is favorite holiday ... ever.  I cooked all day.  I now understand how mom could spend all day in the kitchen to get these meals on the table.  Sure does not seem like one would have to spend hours in the kitchen to "heat up" a ham, make scalloped potatoes and a broccoli casserole.  Not to mess with this tradition .... I dirtied every pan and spent a solid 4 hours prepping for this meal. 

We all went to church.  Chris complained that he did not want to go.  I explained it was only for an hour and that he should remember what Jesus did for him on the cross.  Chris' reply to this was "well, that only took like 30 minutes!!"  I quickly stepped aside with the hopes of not being struck by the for sure lightning bolt that was going to come from the sky to strike Chris.  Seems he has not yet figured out what the sacrifice was that Jesus made for us. 

We hope you all had a lovely Easter, got some candy and were able to dwell a bit on what this day truly means.

Chris' Art Fair '11

Chris has really impressed Randy and I and so many of his teachers with his drawling ability.  So, when the school art fair came around he decided he wanted to display some of his work.  He LOVES to draw Pokemon characters. He has done so many he could not select which one to submit.  He and Randy put together a collage.  He also submitting a Calvin and Hobbs drawing.  Here he is with his work at the festival.

Karate Belt Graduation Cerimony '11

Every three months if the kids accomplish what they are supposed to they graduate to the next belt level. This time Chris went from double orange to green stripe and Acacia went from solid green to solid purple.

Acacia missed the real graduation as this happened in the middle of her time to be sick so the studio had her come to her very own make up graduation. I missed the make up graduation as it was my turn to be sick. But, she got the belt just the same!

Illness runs through the Learish household '11

Oh what a joy! Acacia got sick. She started complaining of a sore throat on Friday and on and off all week end. She made it through the school day Monday but then called to come home and not to soccer practice. Temp was 101.1. As she started to feel better she opted for lunch in a sunny spot of the house. She ended up being sick for 6 days. She returned to school Thursday.

Chris got sick Thursday night. Same thing. Fever, headache, cough .... The weird thing was that their fevers would go down and they would say they were feeling better and then 24 hours later it would start all over again. This past Sunday (a week plus since Acacia was first sick) Chris was fever free for about 18 hours. It was 70+ degrees out so I took the kids for a bike ride to get some ice cream. Chris was not able to finish his .... so I did. WRONG MOVE on my part. Later that evening, Chris CRASHED. Feel asleep at 4p. We woke him up at 10p to give him more meds and put him to bed. Sooooo, Monday AM (11 days from the Acacia's first symptoms and about 17 hours after ... I ate the ice cream - I died. Chis still had to stay home since he had a fever the night before and now I am dead. Chris was apparently on the mend and having nothing to eat all day he finally begged for pancakes. He said since I was sick, that he would make them on his own. And, he did!! He was VERY proud of himself!! Best tasting pancakes ever. There were even enough for Dad to have some for dinner that night.

Tuesday, both kids were back to school but no way was I even close to going to work. It's Friday now ... I am still sick. I have missed an entire week of work and if Saturday was a work day I would be missing that too. Sorry, no photos of me enjoying any meals. I was ecstatic to have taken a shower yesterday. It took me nearly an hour as I thought I was going to pass out every few minutes and had to sit down. Between the two kids and myself, we've been to the Dr's 3 different times and made 3 different emergency calls. Acacia's fever was over 104 one night and I panicked. A different called resulted in my dehydration. So, I am hoping that after I consume several bottles of Gatorade I will start to feel more like myself and be able to rejoin the living as my lovely children have.

Note to self ... no matter how tempting ... don't eat your kids ice cream.

FYI - Randy did not eat the ice cream.

Weird part of town '11

The Dells have so much stuff in them and we drive through there a lot. I have always wanted to take photos but it's always been so crowded with tourist. Today ... not so much. Here are a few photos of some of weird things in the Dells...

ummmm .... Italy ....

Trojan horse .... right??



well .... it's a federal building after the .... earthquake.



federal car .... after the earthquake



Our rental ... after the ... earthquake.



Me, sizing up the damages ...



I think it's totalled ... at least it's a rental.



perhaps if we just leave it, no one will really notice.

Wrestling Tourney '11

Chris had a wrestling tourney this past week end up in the Dells. So, we decided to spend the weekend at the water park. This was a new water park for us so we were looking forward to it. As luck would have it I had a furlough day on Friday so we were able to leave as soon as the kids got out of school. We got up there, weighed him in and went to eat at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty!! One price, all you can eat family style!! Food was not so great but we had enough and headed to the water park. Chris weighed in at the very lowest in his weight class which meant he would be wrestling against kids that weighted up to 5 pounds more than him. We all headed over to the wrestling tourney Sat AM and Chris started to get his game face on .... see below photo ....

Getting his game face on .... ummmm ... Chris??  Might want to at least take your coat off ....

The tourney was HUGE!! Hundreds and hundreds of wrestler and the skill level was MUCH higher than any tourney he's been to. He was pinned within a minute or two in both matches and we were free to leave. So, in a way, it was nice he lost as we then spent the rest of the day in the water park. Chris was more excited about the water park anyway.

We spent the rest of Saturday at the water park. This park was pretty small compared to the ones we normally go to but the kids had a good time. We arranged for a babysitter Saturday night and Randy and I went to an "adult" comedy show. It was a hypnotist. OMG!! Adult does not begin to explain this show!! I can't go into details here but I will NEVER allow myself to be hypnotized!! EVER!!!

Swim Banquet '11

Once a year the swim team has a banquet.  Acacia and I went and she got her 2011 badge to put on her plaque.  She also got awarded for being on the travel team.  Tons of food but Acacia had a loose tooth and wanted nothing to do with eating.  But, we were both excited to here she had earned 119 team points in the 2 sessions she saw compared to most team members swimming 4 sessions earning the same number of points!!  She will be taking a break from swimming for the spring and summer and maybe start back in the fall.

Acacia's Orchestra Concert '11

Acacia has her second concert of the school year.  This one was much smaller but still proved to be very entertaining.  The kids got to select which songs they were going to play (from a list of preselected songs).  So, the number of kids performing at one time varied from 2 to 20.  Acacia and her friend Kristine were the only ones to perform a duet and they did great!  Sorry I can't link the video feed all together but below are some one minute videos of the performance.  Also, learned quickly that you have to record the right way as you can't change the orientation of a video ... sorry about that!  :(

This is the a large group doing London Bridges.

This is Acacia and Kristin doing ummmm  Frer a jauka ... NO idea how to spell that but you should recognize the tune!!  They do a round ...

My camera only records 60 seconds at a time so this is the rest of the song ....

This is the entire group and me not realizing the problem with the orientation of the camera.