Thank God I Am Sick!

Okay normally I would never wish this on myself. I got sick in Omaha over Christmas because Savannah was sick and wasn't sleeping at night. I have had a head that weighs 80 pounds, a fever, aching body and slight nausea, which could be attributed to not eating. However, the key is the ability to not smell. This is a plus and a problem. I can't smell if Savannah has dirtied her diaper so she has been spending a bit more time in stinky pants. The plus side was when I walked upstairs yesterday and found dog diarrhea all over the floor. I couldn't smell it at all, so I voted myself carpet cleaner. Jaesen walked in the house and almost collapsed downstairs from the smell. He used a whole can of Febreze and opened all the windows, I still couldn't smell a thing. Needless to say the carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow morning to do a sterilization and power cleaning, maybe I will be able to smell the freshness by tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath!

Christmas 2008

With all the crazy weather I had no idea if our trip to Omaha would happen, but we got really lucky and made it with only an hour delay. Savannah who doesn't like to wear coats and always pulls off her shoes and socks was shocked at the super cold air that hit her leaving the airport and she snuggled down into her winter parka. The first full day we were there was "Gingerbread House/Candy Day". Pops takes all the kids to the candy store and they come home and consume ungodly amounts of sweetness while occassionally adding a piece or two to the gingerbread structure.


The day after that (Sunday) we headed to the symphony to listen to some really great Christmas tunes. Unfortunately, once Santa made his appearance all I heard was Savannah screaming (remember, it's ear piercing) "Hi Santa". She kept waving at him and shouting and I was really hoping he would look over at her and wave since it was not possible that he could tune her out, but he didn't, so she just kept screaming his name. Fortunately, most people thought it was really cute so they didn't kick us out of the theater. All in all we had 6 adults and 5 kids and they all did really great.

The day after that was sledding day! The boys had a blast. Savannah......not so much. I took her down one hill, she screamed, she threw off her mittens, fell in the snow, screamed some more, I tried to put her in the sled to get her back up the hill, she screamed yet again. So she went to the car and sat in her carseat while we finished sledding. She promptly pulled off her socks and boots so she couldn't have been too cold, she apparently just doesn't like sitting in a cold sled with snow hitting her in the face. Who wouldn't love that?


We always celebrate Pop's birthday the day before Christmas and this year we did something totally different, we went bowling. We had such a great time. And I would just like to add that I won the first game, with the adults, not the kids (although I beat all of them too and they had bumpers!). By the time we bowled the second game I had too much beer and came in second to my brother. Note to people: Don't call yourself "The Hammer" if you aren't going to win a game! The kids had fun too and Tristan ended up being the only kid bowling the second game so he bowled for all 6 of them for 8 frames. His little spaghetti arm was pretty pooped out by the end of the day.

And then Christmas Day. I barely caught Tristan as he dashed down the stairs at 6 am. I could have killed him, because he woke Savannah up then. So the rest of us got up and headed down. Tristan first saw his night vision goggles which are really cool and he is excited about scaring people in the dark. Then he opened his letter from Santa. Remember he asked for a Siberian tiger? Well Santa adopted a tiger named Nokia from a wildlife sanctuary for a year for him. Oh and the sanctuary happens to be 5 miles from our house and we get to go and tour the facility and watch a feeding, so he is so excited. Savannah got a pink scooter (so she will stay off Jack's) and a Hello Kitty tent which she loves. Jack finally came dashing downstairs and hugged his alligator that he asked for and promptly told us it's a crocodile and his name is Salty. I guess I would have to say Christmas was a success.

Savannah is 2!

Well we said that we would never allow that purple dinosaur across the threshold of our house, but when Savannah came home infatuated with Barney, we crumbled and bought her a Barney singing stuffed animal for her second birthday. Her sheer joy at getting that toy made listening to that song 400 times already completely worthwhile (but check back with me in another week or so-if my wine runs out we may be in trouble....) It was a fantastic birthday and we just celebrated at home with us, presents and cupcakes and that was enough for her. Happy Birthday big two year old girl! Please stop growing up so fast, Mom can't handle it. We love you.

Nursing School Graduation

And finally school is over!!! Thank goodness. It is worth it but I was about to the breaking point of having to fit everything in and that was getting complicated. At any rate it's over, the confetti has been popped (no really I popped some on stage and the boys helped pop a bunch at the house), the champagne is gone (was there ever any doubt that I would drink champagne?) and now I am waiting for some relaxation. That probably won't happen since it's the holidays and I am so far behind. At any rate, I will blow my own horn. Yay me!!!!!

Happy Birthday Savannah

It is so hard to believe it's been two years since we added a girl to the mix here in Yerger central. She is a true blessing and she makes us laugh, which of course fits right in with our kids. Her big hugs, kisses with the dogs, telling Daddy no, no Daddy!, saying good night and hi each night and morning to the boys, we could just eat her up. Happy Birthday Bean!

In the wee small hours of the morning

Okay so maybe it's not so late, but it's after 10 at night and I am still cracking away procrastinating. I have spent the whole week in a Kaplan program to help me pass my RN boards (from 9-5 every day-shoot me in the head). The one problem with that is that I have a project due tomorrow morning, the last thing to do before graduation....and here I am just typing away on the computer. Well I am almost done, poor Savannah keeps interrupting. She of course has a molar coming in on the top and one heck of a draining ear infection, plus the wind is whipping so hard it keeps shaking the house. We were under tornado watches today, but I digress, back to the procrastinating. I kept thinking I would get it done this week, but alas, no. Jaesen was of course out of town (conveniently), tonight he is at the command Christmas Party. Now that would have been the ultimate in procrastination-if I had gone..... wow, I wouldn't have even started yet. So this is late for me, I am worn out, school has completely drained me, graduation is around the corner, and I honestly don't care. I would just love a really good night sleep, no cries in the middle of the night, no Jack at 600 asking if he can have a piece of candy yet, no wet, cold Merlin nose on me at 615 begging for a bowl of food. A good night sleep.....well guess it won't happen tonight, crack the whip, it's back to work for me.

And the hits just keep on coming

You know, it never seems like we have a dull moment around here. It was a week where I had 4, 12 hour shifts at the hospital so Jaesen was in charge of picking up kids at the daycare. It's about 6:15 and my phone starts buzzing like crazy in my pocket. I step out of my patient's room a couple minutes later and the words I hear on the other end are not what any parent wants to hear. "Savannah has lice!" Jaesen proceeds to tell me that it's not just one, her scalp was crawling apparently. I tell him to stop at the store and pick up a bunch of lice shampoo because we don't know when she picked it up and the boys have to be treated too. I promptly went to one of my classmates and had them look me over to see if I had them, because of course as soon as you hear the words lice, your head itches. Aren't you itching now? By the time I arrive home one hour later, everything we own is in the garage. The kids are all in tubs and life pretty much sucks. I spent four hours picking nits out of her hair and finally put her to bed at 11:15 that night. Noone else seems to have gotten it and the next day they found another child at the daycare overrun with lice and nits, yuck! I did a total of 21 loads of laundry on the hottest water setting and dryer settings possible and we still have stuffed animals in bags, fumigating. Savannah had 8 days straight of lice shampoo and gel and may get one more dose of it tomorrow night because I would rather be safe than sorry. I did have to cut her hair though, it was hard enough to clean her up with short hair, can't even imagine if she had long hair. Of course Jaesen wanted to shave her head, fortunately I spared the poor dear that humiliation. She seems fine now and only has one ear infection, a molar popping through and is constipated. We are all much happier with all of those things than those damn lice. I haven't stopped scratching my head in a week......

Kids Say the Darndest Things

We were out to dinner at the Melting Pot a week ago and Savannah was feeding Jaesen mints after dinner and she kept dropping them on the floor, and finally Jaesen said, "Savannah, you suck." She promptly replied back to him, "you suck". We all about fell out of our chairs.

Jack was listening to Christmas carols on the radio and started singing, "Sally, Abby, a wonderful Christmastime." Instead of "simply having a wonderful Christmastime."

Tonight Tristan heard Feliz Navidad on the radio and said that it was his favorite Christmas song. He said, "I love that song Felish Mashitash." I think he lived in Japan too long and is giving everything a Japanese twist. Aaahhhhhh kids, they sure can make you laugh.

A Visit With Ole' St. Nick

Well this turned into a whole family picture when Savannah decided she wasn't going to sit on Santa's lap. She was really quite flirty when I was holding her in line, calling "Santa, Santa" and blowing him kisses and waving, but as soon as it was her turn to go and sit on his lap, well you would have thought he was a leper. So the wonderful Santa bowed out and I sat in the chair with her and the boys and then Jaesen jumped in at the last minute. The boys had their lists ready to go, Jack wants a helicopter with a rainbow propellor, a toy jellyfish, a wooden snake and a huge stuffed dog. Tristan wants spy goggles, a giant stuffed Siberian tiger, a camoflauge 4 wheeler. I apparently need a job. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!