sick boy

We found out why Brecken wouldn't eat and was whiny yesterday.... Josh finally got home at 1:11 this morning and just as he got into bed Brecken started crying. Josh went in there, thinking his coming home woke Brecken up, but instead discovered that Brecken had thrown up. :( Brecken cried and cried and cried. We had to change his jammies and pull the blanket from his pack and play mattress. No fever according to our ear thermometer but I think he had a bit of the stomach bug. So Josh took him out to the couch and he watched the end of the movie he missed, and a while later Brecken came crawling into my bedroom so he laid with me and fell asleep again. He wasn't interested in breakfast this morning, or lunch today, but is finally now snacking on cheerios and some milk. No more puking, luckily!

teeth, whining, blood, and an accident

Brecken sure has been whiny today and won't eat anything. I think his 6th tooth is about to come through and it's bugging him. Hopefully he sleeps well tonight.

I let the dogs inside right before dinner, they had been out most of the afternoon. Then I noticed blood all over the floor. Hogan has several puncture wounds on his head and one ear- I wonder if the dogs were wrestling and Birdie got a bit rough. We had to wash the whole kitchen floor. I let them back outside so we could finish eating, and after Brecken went to bed I let them back in and he still had blood droplets. So I held gauze over all of them until they stopped and he's laying on a towel now so I can make sure if he does bleed a little again, it's not on the carpet. Poor dog- wonder what happened?!

Josh and I were watching a movie and his pager went off, for an accident on some road I haven't heard of before. There were 4 patients though, and Rawlins had been called first so I think it's out that direction. Rawlins needed help because they cannot transfer 4 patients. The dispatcher said after Saratoga got to this road, call somewhere (she said some initials that I don't know what they stand for) for more directions. Sounds bad!! He might be gone a long time.

first steps!

Brecken has on quite the outfit right now: A white onesie and his black tennis shoes. He got into his diaper bag and pulled out the shoes and tried to put them on himself, so Josh put them on. We had been working on walking this afternoon, but after he put his shoes on, Brecken walked his first steps! They must be magic shoes!! He walked four very slow and deliberate steps from Josh to me! Yay! He had no idea why we were so excited, but he got excited with us after I said that deserved some Smarties. :)

YAY, Brecken!!!

moving on

We'll be moving on to a new sport in this house. Basketball season starts next week for Josh and football practice ended last week, though none of us knew it at the time. Josh's team had the semi-final game in Big Horn yesterday and it didn't end in our favor. :( It was a heartbreaking loss. The final score was 13-8, and if we had been able to do anything with our last position it might have ended with us on top, but it didn't work out that way. LOTS of tears after the game, I'm not sure I saw a dry eye anywhere on our side! Or on our side of the field- the boys were pretty teary, too. But WOW, the crowd we had! We had just as many on our side cheering for our boys as Big Horn did, I bet! And the field was really neat- you could pull your car up and around the field and that was so handy because my van was right next to the bleachers we were sitting in, so B could take a nap inside the car and out of the wind! It was a really cool field.

So, Josh now gets a week "off" after school before basketball starts. I bet he won't come home too early though- he won't know what to do with all that time, so I bet he stays at school and finds something football-related to do for a while each day. :)

We had a fun weekend though. I went up with Peggy Hayes and their two girls, and stopped in Casper for a couple hours at the mall, then we stayed in Buffalo at the same hotel as the team. Tons of our fans did too- it was neat to see the breakfast room full of purple clothes yesterday morning!!

"first" halloween

I say "first" because Brecken slept through the whole thing last year!

Brecken had a really fun Halloween yesterday. I picked him up from daycare (where he had a great day- he even ate all his lunch for the first time ever! Pizza and peas.) and took him home to get his costume on. Then I took him downtown to the Trick-or-Treat down there. He wouldn't say anything to anyone but gave good smiles and waves. And he loved it when they let him pick out his own candy!! He got REALLY excited at the art gallery because they were giving out helium balloons! He chattered and chattered about that with the biggest grin. He loves balloons. He got his picture taken at the newspaper office, so we'll see if it makes it in to the paper next week. When we got home he got into his candy bucket and held up a package of m&ms, way up high so I could see them and said, "Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom?" He's never had candy before. He LOVED the m&ms! He had a blue nose to prove it.

Then we went to Encampment's Halloween carnival that happens every year. I bought him some tickets so he could play some games. We did the fishing pond a couple times and the first time got a treat bag with a small notepad in it, a bat tattoo, a little monster that when you squeeze it his eyes bulge (B thinks its funny!) and a couple other silly things. Then the next time he fished, he got a blow up black kitty! His eyes got real big and he grabbed that kitty and KISSED it! It was so funny. He also threw the football and did the beanbag toss too. :) He got to pick out his own candy for playing the games, and he would pick through the selection until he found something he thought he liked and then would put it in his bucket. Smart boy. :)Josh met us at the carnival after football practice was over, and took B home early so I could stay and make sure everything was cleaned up. The Senior class that I sponsor did easy booths this year because they didn't want to stay and clean. :) They did a basketball throw, a football throw, a booth where the kids guessed how many Tootsie Rolls were in the jar (397) and the closest one won the candy, and a bowling lane. Each booth took one or two tickets and tickets were 25 cents each. I have to count my class' tickets today and see how much money we made.

Brecken sure likes candy, for never having it before! Josh said he knew Brecken would, because that's what Brecken inherited from his mother. :) B was WIRED last night, and he didn't even have that much candy! He wouldn't go to bed. After Josh brought him home he gave B some dinner and gave him a bath and he said he was all over the bathtub being crazy. Crazy after I got home, too! We had one trick-or-treater all night while we were home (one of Josh's students) and a high school kid selling Christmas wreaths. On my way into our neighborhood, there is a house with lots of Halloween lights and decorations, and the main door was open so you could see into the house, and there was a HUGE buck deer standing right at the steps, staring into the house like he was asking for candy too. It was funny.

I'll post pictures when I get around to loading them on the computer.

lil' pumpkin

We had to take a roadtrip to Laramie today; Brecken outgrew his shoes and it's way too cold to be just hanging out in socks when he goes outside. We couldn't even shove his shoes on. So we needed to go to Laramie to buy some more for him today. While there, we stopped to see my sister and Ryan and take a few pictures of him in his halloween costume.

I of course had to take a few of Brecken, too!

semi-finals, baby!

Oh my gosh, what an exciting game we just witnessed! Saratoga WON, 26-20, against Tongue River! Tongue River was "picked" to win by the Casper Star-Tribune. Josh loves when they pick against Saratoga because Saratoga usually wins that week. It was a heart stopper, that's for sure- the last 2 minutes were especially intense. And the last 8 seconds- oh my gosh! Tongue River had the ball and threw a long pass and ALMOST got a touchdown to tie it up, then who knows what would've happened with the point after. What a heartbreaker it would've been to lose 27-26. LUCKILY, that didn't happen and we won!!! WAHOO!

The next game is in Big Horn. It will be Saturday, Nov. 3, at 1:00 p.m.

a world away from the world series

Josh and I, along with a gazillion other people, tried really hard to get World Series tickets. We were both online yesterday morning trying our darndest before we found out the whole server crashed! We tried again today with no avail. My dad was also trying- we figured if we all ended up getting lucky somehow, it would be OK to have 12 tickets because we surely would know people that would want to buy our extras! However, we don't have to worry about it, because like the other gazillion people, we couldn't get through the countdown page.

So sorry, we won't be asking any of you to join us at a World Series game. :) But how cool that our team made it- who knows how many more times in our lifetime the World Series will be just hours from us! GO ROCKIES!

home field advantage

Well the past 24 hours have been full of anticipation. We've been awaiting scores from around the state from football games last night and then the brackets to come out this morning. Saratoga tied for the conference championship, but it was a 3-way tie. We won against Pine Bluffs on Thursday so we were hoping for a Sundance loss to guarantee a home game in the first round of playoffs next week. Didn't happen that way- despite the 50 mph winds in Burns Friday afternoon, Sundance won. Hence the 3-way tie. We were all thinking we'd have to go to Riverside (Basin) next week, but then this morning we learned that we might be wrong about how the tie-breaker works. We thought the criteria might apply to all three teams, but then heard that they might just use the tie-breaker to figure out who would be seeded #1 in the conference, and then the tie-breaker would start over for the other two teams: Sundance and Saratoga. That would give us a home game. This is what we read on Sports Goulash:

Lusk, Sundance and Saratoga are all tied for first, and we know that Lusk wins that tiebreaker on the third criteria — strength of schedule. From there, we’re not exactly sure if the criteria starts over between Sundance and Saratoga or not. If so, Saratoga wins the tie with Sundance because of the head-to-head win. If not, Sundance wins the tie by having a higher strength of schedule than Saratoga.Our first projection had Sundance as the (3) and Saratoga as the (5). We’ve since changed that to reflect Saratoga as (3) and Sundance as (5). Sorry about the confusion.

So we waited all day for the news, and finally the brackets were posted. We get a home game! WHOO-HOO!!!!!!!! Josh spent the next hour on the phone. :) We are hosting Tongue River Friday afternoon. Wear your purple that day!!

Here are the 2A brackets for anyone interested... http://www.whsaa.org/stateevents/football/2a/bracket.asp

tired

Man, am I tired this morning. I drove to Pine Bluffs last night to watch Josh's football game with Peggy, the head coach's wife, and her 8 year old daughter and the 8 year old son of another coach. Brecken got pretty bored on the way over but slept the whole way home. I sure am glad Peggy was with me- she kept me awake on the way home! We didn't get back until 1:15 this morning. Yuck! 4 1/2 hours of sleep before coming to work isn't doing much for me today. Lucky Josh, with his 4-day schedule, got to sleep in with Brecken this morning. I had to wake them up to say goodbye when I left for work- I sure was jealous!

Josh's team won, 21-8! It was FREEZING cold though. The wind was howling hard. Luckily, there is a street that passed the football field that people can park on and watch from their cars. So that's what we did!

Now we need Sundance to lose to Burns this afternoon and we'll have a home play-off game next week.

adventures in babysitting

Brecken got to spend the day with his Aunt Annie and cousins Trevor and Karlee today. Loree's son was still sick so she wasn't taking kids today. Luckily Annie was here and she wanted to have Brecken over to her cousin Maria's house, where they are staying, for a play date. So today was the day. He had a great day playing with Karlee and Trevor and Maria's daughter Madison who is 2 months older than Brecken, and also Maria's preschool aged son, Geoffrey. Annie said he only cried when she turned on the vacuum cleaner. :)

Brecken gets to hang out with Aunt Annie tomorrow, too. Loree called Josh this evening and said Carter is still sick. I'm not excited about that- it's looking like we paid Loree $100 to watch Brecken for one whole day this week. A lady Josh works with sends her son to Loree also, and she told Josh today that she had a chat with Loree and said she's not paying her for any more days off. Loree's contract says she gets 4 paid days off, and she used her 4th one today, just since we've started there! So next week I think our check will be lower- docking tomorrow's pay and Friday's pay if she can't babysit on Friday too. Thank the Lord that Annie is here and is saving us!! The poor other teachers- they are paying double this week because they have to pay someone else to watch their kids! The science teacher Josh works with is new to town and today she didn't even know the lady that watched her baby- it's one of Loree's friends. How nerve wracking to have someone you don't even know, watch your baby!!

Anyway, when you read this, Annie, we REALLY appreciate you keeping Brecken for us!! How lucky we are that you are here in our week of need!

Brecken got his first haircut last night. Josh made me do it. Annie trimmed the back of his hair so he looks like a little boy now! I scooped up all that pretty curls and put it in a baggie so I can save it in his baby book. I was putting off getting it cut because once I did, he wouldn't be my baby anymore! He sure hated the clippers. Cried like they were slicing his head open the whole time. I think the vibrations on his head freaked him out. Poor kid. Afterwards, I was holding him and Annie picked up the clippers to put them away and he started crying again at the sight of them!

yay!

I took B to get weighed today after I got him this afternoon. I was hoping really hard that he gained more than 2 oz... and he did! He kept trying to wiggle off the scale and laughing really hard about it, but it finally centered on 18 pounds. Yay! A 14 ounce increase in a month. I was really happy. So was the nurse.

Josh got to stay home with Brecken today. Our babysitter called late last night and said that her son had a fever, but she'd call us in the morning. We didn't have a backup babysitter today- Deb works in Rawlins on Tuesdays and Jake had to go in to the Clinic today too. Loree never called, so I finally called her at 6:50 this morning. She said she was OK to take kids. Then she called 5 minutes later and said that Carter still felt warm so she was going to see what he felt like when he woke up. We didn't have that long to wait- Josh needed to get a sub ASAP. So he told Loree to forget about us today and he called in to work. I'll have to ask him when he gets home from football what the other two teachers that take their kids to Loree did today.

walk to d'feet

We participated in the Walk to D'Feet ALS walk in Fort Collins yesterday. My great-aunt Dorothy has ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and her granddaughter puts together a team last year and this year to raise money and walk for this great cause. It was POURING rain yesterday, so it wasn't as much fun as it could've been. My sister went last year and it was perfect weather. Brecken didn't seem to mind the weather yesterday, he had on his winter coat and hat and mittens and was nice and cozy.

This picture is my uncle Earl, my aunt Dorothy in the middle, and her daughter Becky. It was on the CSU campus. I don't normally like CSU, but it was really pretty yesterday. Their leaves are just beginning to change colors. The loop we were walking in had green leaves, red leaves, yellow leaves, and peachy-pink leaves. How pretty!

another win!

Saratoga knocked off Burns this afternoon! Hip, hip, hooray!! We were the underdogs but we didn't even struggle, led the whole game. The score was 27-6. What a great homecoming for the kids, and an even better for those Seniors since it was their last regular-season home game. I think the win today made it official that we'll go to the play-offs. If it will be at home or away will depend on next week's score against Pine Bluffs.

men.

I think the most hilarious thing that has ever happened in one of my classes happened today. I was doing an activity with my 4th graders and our principal's son goes, "Mrs. Sandlian. You aren't supposed to make us guys' armpits wet!" Somehow, the discussion between the boys then turned to how boys don't sweat, men do. And at that moment, a normally very quiet, serious boy goes, "You guys, she's making men out of us."

I almost died from having to keep the laughter in!!

what a boy.

I picked B up from daycare today and Loree had quite the story to tell me! Apparently during his nap, Brecken managed to squirm out of his pants (not surprising since his pants are too big) AND his diaper! That has never happened before. She thinks she didn't put it on tight enough. Anyway, instead of waking up and leaving the diaper in the crib, he tossed it over the edge. That sounds like him- he tosses things he doesn't want anymore. I laughed though- what a boy thing to do! I told her I hoped it was an accident that he got out of his diaper instead of him figuring out how to do it on his own- that's a can of worms I'm not ready to open yet! :) He didn't mess with it at all tonight though, so I think it was an accident.

Josh wasn't on call tonight and Brecken was in a good mood so we tried to go out to dinner after Josh got home from practice. We tried our Mexican place and it was closed! So we went to the Saratoga Inn, and THAT was closed too! Wonder what the deal was. We ended up having to come back home and cooking a late dinner.

Josh has had a lot of heart calls lately. He had 3 on Saturday alone. The first one, the guy didn't want to go to the hospital, so they had him sign the forms to refuse transfer. As they were finishing, they got another call for a heart attack in Encampment. The people met the ambulance on the highway and the family was doing CPR in the car on the guy. They got him into the ambulance and continued CPR. The doctor in charge of emergency medicine was in Saratoga giving a class, so they called him to meet them in Saratoga. Josh pushed heart drugs for the first time ever, but it didn't matter. They lost the patient. :( I personally think the guy was gone long before the ambulance got there, but Josh sure feels bad about it. That was the first patient that he has lost. I felt bad that he was so sad. :( Then, late that evening, they had ANOTHER heart attack call. Good grief. This guy didn't want to go to the hospital either- they talked to his heart doctor in Casper and made a plan and didn't take him to Rawlins. Josh came home saying, "If that pager goes off again, PLEASE make it be for a broken arm!" :)

Busy week this week- it's Homecoming for Josh's team. Lots of practices and film watching and so on and so forth. This is the last home game of the regular season- here's hoping for a play-off game!

itsy bitsy spider

So here he is, the goofy itsy bitsy spider. I sure wish he would leave hats on, it completes the costume! (Not that you can see much of it as he is falling down the slide!)

win!

Josh called a little after 4:00- they won BIG against Pinedale! 39-0!! I knew they were going to because a guy at the game called the school this afternoon and that's what the score was when he called in the 4th quarter. :) Their quarterback had a record game for him with 6 touchdown passes. Now if Burns will beat Lusk and we beat Burns, we can be #1 in our conference!

So yesterday was so nice outside that I got home and put B in his Halloween costume to see if I could get pictures of him out in the leaves. He was not interested. He only wanted to play on his slide. It was HYSTERICAL. He'd crawl up, quite the feat in his fat round spider costume! Then he'd stand up and either go down the slide on his belly head first or belly feet first, and he'd go zooming down the slide. He was laughing so hard at times that he would fall down the slide. But in his rolly poly costume, it didn't matter because he'd be padded and he'd bounce a little bit, which would make him laugh even harder! I was out of breath from laughing so hard at him. What a goof.

a sleeping partner

Brecken has been an awesome sleeper for the past week or so. Hasn't woken up in the night. I put him to bed about 8:30 last night and shut his door all the way so the cats couldn't get in there. Josh and I went to bed about 10:00 and had just fallen asleep and Brecken cried. He fell back asleep but then about 5 minutes later cried again, harder. I went into the hallway and noticed his door had opened somehow- I must not have latched it all the way. Charlie was in his room on the glider, and I looked in the pack and play (where he sleeps now- he hates his crib for some reason) and curled up right next to Brecken was Ditka! It was so cute. Brecken didn't think so though- he wasn't awake, but he was crying and holding his arm up like he was saying, "HEY! There's something here that's not supposed to be and it's yucky!!" So I got Ditka out of there, put both cats in the hallway, and Brecken fell right back asleep (even though he really wasn't awake to begin with.) Poor Ditka- he loves Brecken and Brecken usually loves Ditka right back, but I guess he doesn't love his kitty when he's trying to sleep!!!

new picture spot

I was driving home from picking Brecken up yesterday after school, and as I drove down the hill, I noticed this beautiful old barn/garage that looks like it's about to fall down. The colors are really pretty though- the front is really weathered, more brown, but has a bit of green in it. The sides are more green. It was behind the house of a teacher I work with, so I asked her today if I could use it for pictures. It was probably the strangest question she's ever been asked at school, but she was really excited about it. I had to take Brecken down there this afternoon and take some pictures. When I picked him up from Loree's, he was in the greatest mood, laughing and playing peek-a-boo, but by the time we got down the hill, he didn't want much to do with the camera. I only got one semi-good one.

The sun was a little bright, causing bad shadows, and the other side of the garage was ALL shadow, so I'll have to find another time of day to use this garage. I'd love to get the green side of it!