Time To Celebrate!

Oh My Gosh! Hannah, who is 6 did something today for the first time! She TALKED in school. Yes, I said it was her first time. I know how strange it sounds.

Let me give some background.......

In America, she was in preschool when she was 4. Only sat on the carpet for 2 1/2 hours. Never participated and never talked.

Then she started Kindergarten in America. She participated a little because the teacher made her stay late to finish things if she did not do them when the class did them. But she still did not talk.

We moved here to Germany. Hannah has been going to Kindergarten, which is like Preschool in America. She has never talked at school. But she does participate. She runs around with the other kids, she does art, eats breakfast. So I felt she had made super progress. She just was not talking.

Some of the kids have invited Hannah over to play and Hannah will talk at their house, but not at the school. They always say that Hannah has such a pretty voice. I think it is because they are not used to hearing it.

Well, today, I went to pick her up and one of the kids said to me.....Hannah talked today in Kindergarten. I was pleasantly surprised. Then one of the teachers gave me the look of: It was amazing! She actually did it!

So as I was walking to the van with Hannah, she told me. Mom, I talked at school today. I said, really, to who? And she said, the whole Kindergarten. There are 50 kids and 5 teachers. So when she decided to talk, she really went for the big "Here I Am!" effect. I thought perhaps she would talk to one or two people when she first said something. But no, she did it in front of the whole school.

Hopefully, this means, she will continue to talk. If history repeats itself, then she will talk, every day. That is how everything is with her. Once she does it one time, she continues to do it. She did not eat breakfast for so long at school. Finally, one day she did and has ever since. Same thing with going to the bathroom at school. She refused to go. Sometimes, she would have accidents on the way home from school from holding it so long. She finally broke down and went at school and now goes all the time. So I am hoping the talking thing is no different and that she is finally going to talk everyday.

I am sooooooo very happy right now!

Did Someone Want A Haircut?

Soooooo, Today I noticed that Hannah, who is 6, decided she wanted a Hair cut. Did she tell me she wanted a hair cut? NOOOOOOOOO. That would of been too easy. Instead, she took matters into her own hands and chopped. I asked her when did she cut it and she said yesterday after lunch. Somehow, I can't see that I was that out of it and did not notice it. So I really think she did it today. I hate it when the kids decide to cut their hair! ARGH!

Shantal said that Hannah cut her own hair before when we lived in Wisconsin. And Shantal was right, Hannah's hair was cut. But Hannah did not do it then. It was Spencer and Shantal who did it. So this is the second time I get to try and fix her hair. I am considering leaving it as is.

I seriously was mad! Now her hair can not be put in braids or even a pony tail anymore. I made her cry when I told her I could just shave it all off. I know....I get the bad mommy award AGAIN this week!


Now, this is too cute. This is Hannah's Baby Born Car. It is for her doll. Well, the kids have started to put Ian on it and pull him around the house. Ian LOVES it and is sooooo unbelievably happy!

So my sore muscles have gone away from working out in the yard on Saturday. Just in time for me to do some more work. We ended up planting some carrots and some cucumbers out where we were working on Saturday. We were going to plant some flowers and plants, but decided after so much work, we wanted to plant veggies. So, before we leave here, we will have to plant some flowers. But for now, I look forward to the end of summer when we get to eat what we planted. Too bad we don't have more room for more stuff like we did in Wisconsin.

I went to the doctors again today. Of course, got another wonderful shot. I am starting to have more energy. I don't just want to lay around all day like before. I am able to take care of the kids. I might still get tired or light headed. But it is short lived and with a little rest, I can get something else accomplished.

Saturday Is A Working Day

Seems so strange that it is 9:30pm and it is still light outside. The sun is going down, but still there is light.

Today I spent a good couple of hours outside working in the yard. In our way back, where I can't even see, we had weeds that were almost as tall as I am. They were so thick as well, it took a lot of effort and strength to pull those things up. I think I over did it just a tad today, and now am feeling pretty sick tonight.

I just finish putting the kids to bed. It is late as they normally go to bed around 7:30pm. As I was putting everyone in bed, Emma, who just turned two, blew me her first kiss. It was so cute and amazing. Just made me smile and feel so loved at the same time.

We are talking about moving the kids around, bedroom wise. Right now, we have Spencer (8 years) and Ian (almost 9 months) in a room together. We also have Shantal (10 years) and Emma (2 Years) in a room together. Hannah (6 years) sleeps in a foyer at the top of the stairs. We are talking about putting the babies together in the small room because bedtime has become so terrible now that it is light so long outside. Then we will put the three big kids in the other bedroom which is really big. We can get all 3 bunk beds plus all their dressers in there and they still have lots of room in the middle for playing. That is how big it is. We would then put a couch out in the foyer so the kids could have their reading corner like I wanted when we first moved in our house.

Of course, something like that takes time and energy. There is no school or work until Wednesday. So we might be using our days off working on organizing our house more.

One more thing, I failed to mention earlier in the week that I did something to my ankle. I don't exactly know what I did, but it does hurt to walk on it. Finally I asked Gardner today if it looked swollen and he said it in deed is. Probably sprained it doing who knows what. Just add that to my list of goodies I am going through. Oh, and I enjoyed another shot in my butt again yesterday. I bet you are jealous!

Blood Test Results

So I went to the doctors on Tuesday. The long awaited day arrived.

My doctor said he was shocked that I was able to do ANYTHING besides just lay around almost dead like because my numbers looked terrible. Of course, he used some other english words, but I probably should not share them. My hemoglobin level should be at a 13 for me and mine was an 8,8. I don't know if that says much in english as I am not good with stuff like this. My Anemia did take a turn for the worse, and I was right about that.

Anyway, I ended up getting a Vitamin b12 shot right then and there and have to go back 2 times a week for awhile. Then it will drop to 1 time a week. Um, yeah, my kids were laughing that I had to get it in my butt.

I also have iron pills that I have to take 2 times a day to start. Then after the 10th day, I can decrease it to 1 time a day. Once again, my kids laughed hearing that these pills will turn my poop black. (What is it with my kids?)

I also have to start checking my blood sugars to see what my levels are at. I have my own monitor from all my pregnancies where I had to consistanly check them. That was good enough for him.

Then I have to go back in and get more blood work taken.

None of it is fun for me. None of it makes me want to shout I'm happy to be taking that or getting pricked there!

Dr does not know how long until I can get back to "normal". It can be still a good few weeks before I start to feel a bit better.

Then Wednesday morning, I woke up VERY sick. I got up at 5:30am to feed Ian. I knew that my stomach did not feel well. After I fed Ian, I ended up in the bathroom for a good 45 minutes just dry heaving over and over and over again. It was terrible.

Week At A Glance

So it has been a week since I posted. And so much has happened. But, I have been so sick, that my posting has been neglected for a comfy position on my couch. Now, I will try to fill in the best I can on things that have been happening this past week, but remember what I just said, I have been so sick. So, chances are I will miss a thing or two.

For starters, the thing that pops into my head is Hannah. Hannah lost her first tooth. She lost it on Tuesday May 15th. It was right before bed. She was so very excited. She pulled it out right there in front of me. Of course, it grossed me out. But what is a mom to do? So I did only what I could at that point. I grabbed a baggie and told her to toss it in there. As she was tending to the bleeding that came with the tooth being pulled out, I wrote on the baggie, as I have done with every single tooth that has come out of my kids mouths. I wrote her name, the date in which it came out, what number tooth it was and which tooth it was. Spencer saw me doing this and I told him I did it to all of his as well. And all the teeth in the baggies are in my top dresser drawer. What I will ever do with them, I am not sure. But I still have them all. Funniest part to me about the whole tooth incident was, Hannah never did put her tooth under her pillow that night. Once she pulled it out, she forgot about it. But, thankfully, the tooth fairy is Smart enough to know where to find these teeth even if they are not under the pillow. In exchange, Hannah got a shiny Euro coin. She instantly told me she was going to go and buy another pretzel from the bakery with it so she can get even more loose teeth. On a side note, I did get a good picture of her tooth hanging the day before it came out. And of course, got the hole in the mouth shot as well.

I have spent a lot of time on my couch this past week. I have been so light headed, dizzy and nauseated. I went into the doctor on Wednesday and they took my blood. Sent 3 things of blood off to the lab. I do go back tomorrow afternoon to see if they can figure anything out.

We had our first official guests to come and stay at Hotel Wheeler. When Gardner was here in Germany on his mission 16 years ago, he met a Girl named Elke. All these years, they have kept in touch. She now lives in Hamburg with her husband Joe and son Tom. They came on Wednesday and stayed for two nights. We actually got the bed put together the day they arrived. Gardner had to run out to IKEA one more time (total of 4 times) to tell them to open a box and give us the pieces we needed. They still have not arrived in the mail. We never did get the dresser put together or the nightstands. But, the room was clean, a king size bed with new sheets, a twin bed for Tom and of course, the shower and bathroom which is right next to the bedroom. Gardner even bought a brand new shower head that morning for them as well. The biggest thing they commented on when I was showing them their room, was the sauna that is in the bathroom area. So note to all potential guests and visitors.....There is a sauna if that is something that interests you. We just need to figure out how to use it. So give us a heads up.

While they were here, We had a holiday. Of course, I can not keep track of what holidays are what anymore, since there are so many of them. And I just asked Gardner and he said the same thing, he can't keep track either. (Gardner just looked it up and it was Christi Himmelfahrt, Ascension Day) The point of the story is, there was no school or work last Thursday due to a holiday. Then Joe was telling us that it was also Father's Day. Gardner and I were more than shocked. I said outloud, I guess we will be celebrating in June, like the American's. I definately was taken off guard and was not prepared for that. I did have one child that was prepared. It was Hannah. She had made Gardner a Father's Day Card at School the day before.

To celebrate this day, Gardner found a Baseball Game in Duesseldorf that was going on. So everyone went to the game except myself, Emma and Ian. I was not feeling well. Remember, the couch was my best friend. And then Emma and Ian were napping. They all came home telling me they had hamburgers. The Kids were very excited about this.

Gardner has another trip to Sweden planned for work next week. I am a little nervous about that with as sick as I have been the last two weeks. I just hope that whatever is going on with my body can be fixed fast. I need more energy, most definately. And then this nauseated crap has got to stop. Reminds me too much of my pregnancy days!

Speaking of Sick....Ian is sick. The poor boy. I feel so bad for him. And he is so hot. I keep giving him tylenol. He just cries. There is not much I can do for him. I hate it when the kids are sick. What is worse is when I am sick as well. It really is harder to take care of him. I am hoping he will sleep through the night. I doubt it. But for him and me, we both need it.

Emma's 2nd Birthday

The short of the story is.........

Two years ago, I was at a weekend Scrapbooking Event. It was Friday Night. I was getting ready to head to bed. It was almost midnight. I must mention, I was pregnant and 5 days over due. As I went to bed, my famous last words were.....Don't worry. I'll see everyone tomorrow. This baby is not going anywhere. After going to my hotel room and getting ready for bed. I laid down, my friend and I started talking for perhaps half an hour. Then almost drifting off to sleep. I thought to myself, I think I need to go to the bathroom one more time before I sleep so I can sleep longer. I started to move in the bed when I heard a "POP". I woke my friend up and told her I think my water just broke. That or I'm peeing the bed! I could not believe it as I had never experienced my water breaking on its own before. Called Gardner and told him to meet me at the hospital. I got to the hospital at 2:30 in the morning. I had a baby at 6:45 in the morning on Saturday May 14th. The best part of the story......I was back at the hotel Sunday Morning at 10am to finish out the crop with brand new baby Emma.Yes, today Emma is 2 years old. My kids are so excited that she has a birthday. I plan on making a Cake. We have some friends coming over for dinner tonight. She got a tricycle and some sandals for her birthday from us. She LOVES the tricycle and did not want to get off of it to go to nap.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!

Here is a picture of Emma on her tricycle.


This is Emma opening her present from Hannah.

Emma blowing out her candles. It was so much fun, she asked to blow them out a second time. We went ahead and lit the candles for a second time. When she asked for a third time, I said no.

She was loving the ice cream. She was eating it with her hands, not a spoon. BRRRRR.

This is what she got from Shantal for her birthday. Emma was very happy when she opened the box to see the crown and sunglasses she always would take from Shantal to wear.

Mother's Day

Just a fast update to show what I got for Mother's Day from the kids:

These are some things Hannah made during Sacrament Meeting with the Lady who sat behind us, Sister Klein.


This is a picture Frame Shantal made at school. In English it says: mama is nice. She likes Scrapbooking. I am always there. Shantal And then it says in the corner, Mom and I.

Here is Spencer's Picture Frame. It says:

Love is Mama. Mama is nice. I like my Mama. Spencer. Around the frame it says: mama, Mother's Day, Mama.

Emma made this in Nursery. It is a snow globe where they put a picture of Emma inside.

On the otherside of the Snow Globe, is a picture of Hannah. She did not have a present for me, felt bad and so the Nursery Leader saved a spot for a picture of Hannah.

Is That A Hole?

What a great day it is already! No, I still have my headache. But for right now, it is a small headache. I'm sure as all the kids get home, it will worsen. But for now, I am happy for a bit of relief.

Also, I enjoyed a very LONG HOT Shower just about 1/2 hour ago. Oh, it was heavenly! I soooooo needed a shower. Which means, the heater man showed up at my house right on time. He was here at 8am. No waiting around all day for someone to perhaps appear. He was here. And I have never been so happy to see someone come into my house, make a mess and leave it for me to clean up. I did not care. He gave me a wonderful gift. HOT WATER!

So for the rest of the day.....the weather here is crappy. Rainy and the wind is blowing strong. I hope to play some games with the kids this afternoon. They deserve it. They have put up with me all week and Helped with the babies. We are also having Family Movie Night tonight. We do that every Friday night. THEY LOVE IT! They chose Just Like Heaven. They think it is funny.

And you know what? We have a sauna here. We have never used it. I kind of feel like using it. We will see what happens. Will I even know how to operate it?

Ended up also getting 3 loads of dishes washed in the dishwasher and 3 loads of laundry washed, dried and hung up. Very Successful, I must admit!

Here are a few pics of the kids I took today.

The first one is Ian. He was getting into the vacuum and was just so cute. Of course, everytime I tried to take his picture, he looked away.



This one is a picture of Spencer's socks. These are not his worst ones either. He refuses to throw them away. He loves these kind of socks. And if they don't have HANES on the bottom, well, he won't even acknowledge that they exist. Anyone up to sending him some new ones? I do throw them away when I can. But he more often than not finds them in the trash and pulls them back out. I don't know what his obsession is with these socks.

This is a picture I was trying to get with all the kids together. Did not work very well. And the two smaller kids were tired of trying for that "perfect picture".

My Joyous Day

So, I woke up again this morning with the same headache I went to bed with. Matter of fact, I woke up too many time to count during the night because it hurt so much. So, I called the doctor this morning. They got me in within 2 hours from the time I called. From my visit, this is what I got: I have low blood pressure. Other than that, I know nothing. He said my headaches could be from the low blood pressure. It could be from the change in the weather, It could be from vision problems, Perhaps it could be from the Anemia I mentioned. It could be because I have gained a bit of weight since I had Ian. There are so many reasons why I have these headaches and you just can't be too sure. So, he said we will start with drawing blood. OK, I thought. We need to make an appointment. So off to the front desk I went to make my appointment to get some blood work done. My jaw about hit the floor when she asked if I could come back next Wednesday to get it done. I have to suffer at least 6 more days before they will do anything else for me. I am so frustrated and in so much pain. I just cry. He did tell me not to carry my kids so much and also to try to relax and take it easy. None of those things are going to be happening. Not with my 5 kids. He did say they would normally give something to me, I would assume for the pain. But since I was still breastfeeding, that he could not give it to me.

Well, onto the Joys of my next thing that happened today. We got oil! Yes we did. I have never been so excited to spend 3,000 Euros that we don't have. We ended up buying 5,000 liters of oil instead of 2000. Gardner thought we had 1500 liters when we moved in. But he checked and there were 4000 liters. So we decided we needed at least that amount, and then a little bit more as well.

Well, our oil delivery started out terribly. We live in a row of townhouses and my house is not next to the street. But, there is a long row of garages right in front of our house. We are not allowed to use this and people like the oil truck is not allowed to park there. Well, I heard his truck backing in due to the beeping it was making and threw on my shoes to tell him he had to move. Just as I came out my door, so did the neighbor. So, with his better German, he told the man he had to move. This did not go over well at all. The man refused to move. Then I was telling him and he said, it is only 5,000 liters. I'm not moving. Next comes over one of the owners of the Garage demanding him to move his truck. The two of them were having a yelling match. In the end, the owner of the garages got him to move his truck and also took down the name of the company he worked for to make his complaint. It was high drama all over me getting some oil for some hot water.

Now, that we have oil, we had to wait 6 hours before we could turn it on. Or so our landlord told us. The oil company told Gardner on the phone 2 hours. And the man who delivered the oil said 1 hour. I waited 3 1/2 hours and then turned it on. Guess, what? It would not work. Something is STILL wrong with it. Which means we have no hot water....STILL. I made a phone call and now we have someone coming out at 8am to check it out and hopefully get us back in the land of hot water and a bit of heat. I so want to wash dishes. So I hope it works out tomorrow. ARGH!

Tomorrow, Hannah goes to the Elementary School for a few hours. She walks with all the kids going to the school next year from her Kindergarten. I am anxious to see how she does without me there. I am actually VERY nervous as last time we went, she screamed and cried and refused to participate. Hopefully it will be different without me and with Debbie, her friend who loves to hold her hand.

Hannah also has a loose tooth. She has had this for a week now. But today when I picked her up, It was basically just hanging there. She went to bed tonight with it still in there. Sure looks like it will fall out at any minute. I find loose teeth disgusting and yet my kids always want me to wiggle it. It is kind of like the nails down the chalkboard type of thing for me. And I think that is why my kids like me touching their teeth, to see my reaction.

Headaches....Oh My!

So, I am on day 5 of my HORRIFIC (is that a word?) headache. I did happen to talk to my friend who is a doctor. I can't officially see him because he works at a hospital, not in an office. But he did suggest to me to wait until Friday before I see a doctor. And if I still had my headache then, well, I should definately be seen. He says I am probably right and it does have to do with my anemia. He says I have way too many other signs. I have been taking my multi-vitamin with Iron since sunday. And I even started doubling up on my doses each day. My headaches would probably be more bareable if I did not have kids that fight and scream so much.

So, yesterday, I woke up to no hot water in our house. This has happened one time before. We use oil here to heat our house. Well, something happened and we just had to start up the burner again. Our land lady came over and helped me get it going. Well, Yesterday when it happened again, I went into the basement and after 45 minutes, I got it going again. I was so excited. I had to wait 30 minutes before the water was hot, but then I got my nice warm shower. Well, by night time, it was out again. So I got it running again. By 2am when I got up to feed Ian, there was no hot water again for me to make him some cereal. And then, again this morning when Gardner got up for work, it was out. So I went into the basement and stood there. It would start up but within 20 seconds, it would turn off again. Guess what.....WE ARE OUT OF OIL! Actually says we have 10 percent left. But the dipstick does not reach to the bottom of the tank. So, I took a FREEZING shower today and Gardner called and got a truck to come out tomorrow to bring us 2000 liters. That will only put us at about 1/2 a tanks worth. We plan on buying another 2000 liters the end of August or something. We just can't afford to fill the whole thing at once. When we moved in, we had 1500 liters of oil and I believe it cost us around 2000 Euros. Gardner will correct me, I am sure. But for now, that sounds about right.

So, it is freezing again outside (and now inside since we have no oil). We have had rain for the past 3 days. And I just want to stay under a blanket. I would of made a fire already, as it is that cold in the house. But we *JUST* took all the extra wood out to our garage on Saturday and got it all cleaned up. I might send Gardner out to the Garage tonight when he gets home from work so we can try to have a bit of heat for the morning when it is time to get up. Sure, if my garage was attached to my house like it was in America, I would walk out there and get it. But it is not. Our garage is 2 houses away. And it is a one car garage and our car is parked in front of it. So it requires us to move our van to get into the garage. And then, I don't know which is the dry wood that has been in there for Months or the brand new wood Gardner put out there on Saturday for next winter.

On to kids news..... Emma is talking up a storm. She is so amazing to hear. I love this part of the kids growing up. And she has continued to surprise me on how well she has done without her bottle. The next thing will be her binky. But I think I will wait a good month before I go down that road. The thing is, I might have to take Ian's away at the same time. I remember doing this with Shantal and Spencer as well. I think it will be an easy transition for Ian, as he really does not use the binky anyway. He just likes to swing that thing around and hit me with it. If I don't take Ian's away, Emma will just take it and use it. She already does it now so I just know that won't work out too well unless we de-binkify both of them.

Shantal continues to fight me on a daily basis over her homework. I got to the point today I just said I did not care about her doing it or not anymore. She can repeat the second grade AGAIN. And then I started to walk out of her room. She screamed no to me. Well, I told her that her teacher could decide to do such a thing if she feels Shantal is not ready to move on to the third grade. And when one does not do homework, then the teacher can not know if someone is ready or not. She still did not complete her homework today. Part of it is because of her teacher though. I have to admit that. Shantal and Spencer are in the same class. And when Shantal moved into that class, they never gave her a reading book or math book like all the other kids. They copy the math page for her instead and then they expect Shantal and Spencer to share this reading book (which is actually there German studies). There is never enough time for both the kids to use it. Like today, they had to memorize stuff out of there that they have to recite in front of the class tomorrow. Well, Shantal and Spencer can not both use the book at the same time for such a homework assignment. And this has happened more times than not. I wish they would just give her a book.

Today, Spencer got into another fight with a boy from another class. One of the moms, Frau De Wendt was there at recess and only saw the ending where she saw Spencer re-act to what happened. Of course, Frau De Wendt called Spencer over and started to get mad at him. (this is usually the case!) Luckily, there were several kids there (including her own son) who told them Spencer did not start it. The other boy did. What more is, Frau De Wendt told me there was a teacher from the school there and did absolutely nothing. So she went up to this teacher and told her she needed to do something about it. She basically shrugged her shoulders and said she did not know the other boy. So Frau De Wendt told her to go get this other boys teacher, Frau Pohlman (which used to be Spencer's teacher). Anyway, I hope I have not lost you yet. Frai De Wendt told Frau Pohlman that she HAD to do something about the situation and could not just let it go like it has in the past. So, Frau Pohlman came out and got both boys together had them apologize to each other. Frau De Wendt couldn't believe that Spencer had an opportunity to say something about what happened and he was laughing and having a good time. Like nothing ever happened. That is what I actually want from him. That in the end, everything is good and he can move on. But I agree with Frau De Wendt that he FINALLY had a teacher on his side helping to resolve a situation and he did not say what happened in the first place. In a sense, this was a GREAT step in the right direction. But I am still very Frustrated that this first teacher did nothing even when she saw things happening. Oh and I heard this whole story from Frau De Wendt. Spencer said nothing to me about it today. That must mean it was not that terrible.

Oh, I have a Hannah story. Yesterday, Hannah had a friend over to play. The problem with Hannah having friends over is that Shantal always takes over and the friends from Hannah's Kindergarten end up running off with Shantal and leaving Hannah behind. I don't like it. Hannah needs that time with her friends. Well, this happened again yesterday. So Hannah was by herself upstairs. Next thing I know, she starts coming down the stairs crying hysterically. I run up to her and ask her what is wrong. She told me her tummy hurt. Well, I could smell fingernail polish. She bought make up with her own money a few months ago. Kids make up, but make up all the same. She had been in the bathroom and painted our sink with purple fingernail polish. Where do the kids come up with this stuff. Hannah is 6 years old! So, I don't think Hannah had a tummy ache. I think she knew she was in big deep doo-doo! I told her she was not old enough for make up and I took it all away. Threw it all away except for the nail polish which I put up WAY high where none of the kids can reach it, not even with step stools. She can have her nails polished, but only by mom. I have not yet been able to get it off the sink. Frau De Wendt (yes, same mom as in Spencer's Situation) sent some fingernail polish remover to school for me to try, but we left it at the Kindergarten. (Her daughter is in Hannah's Kindergarten class and was playing here yesterday. And her son is in Spencer and Shantal's class as well). I am a little worried about it taking the enamel off the sink as well as the nail polish. Any ideas would be FABULOUS.

Don't know that I have anything new to report besides that fun stuff. Remember, when it rains by the Wheeler's, it pours!

National Scrapbook Day

Here are my scrapbooking layouts I did this past weekend for National Scrapbook Day. But, make sure you read about my weekend as I just posted right under this one.

This first layout was a sketch challenge. They gave us something that is like an outline of a layout and then we take that sketch and make our own masterpiece. I used the birth announcement that my sister, Coleen, made for me when I had Ian. I love the birth annoucement and wanted it to have it's own page.


These here are what is called Altered Coasters. I got some coasters (like you can get at resturants) and fixed them up with ink and paper. Love how it turned out!

This is for a Scraplift Challenge. They gave us names of some terrific scrapbookers and asked us to look at their pages they have made. Once we found one we liked, we were to make a page with their design. I chose Angela Daniels. I love how this turned out.

This one is from a Manufacture Challenge. They gave us a list of several different manufacturs and we were to pick 2 of them off the list. I choose Chatterbox and Junkitz. And this layout is of Shantal the day before we left Wisconsin. It is her best friend Regan.

And this one is a Color Challenge. Like I mentioned before, I participated in an online scrapbook day. I was to use Scrap Freaks logo Colors. They are black, pink, green and orange. I love how it turned out and would never of thought to put those colors together. This is Hannah on her last day in Kindergarten in Utah....Just a day before we left America. The pink box at the bottom opens up where there is writing inside about Hannah and her class.

And for the record, I did not win any other prizes. Just the one I previously knew about. And if anyone loves to scrapbook, here is the website to Scrap Freak. http://www.scrapfreak.com

Saturday, What A Day!

So, I was woken up Saturday morning by some kids. And I noticed I had a huge headache. It really hurt. And I don't get headaches very often. And when I do, I usually sleep and it goes away. Here it is morning, and I have one. I was not too thrilled.

Like I said, I was woken up. Shantal came into my room with Emma and showed me Emma's bottle. She had bit the nipple totally and completly off. I immediatly said, Emma....you are done with bottles! She had bit a nipple earlier in the week and we only had one left. And they are the playtex bottles that take liners. They don't carry them here in Germany. Matter of fact, the ones we had Gardner's parents brought to us at Christmas time. When Emma bit her nipple earlier in the week, I told her that when she turns two, she will no longer have a bottle. As if she is biting them, she is defintaly too old for them. So here we are with no more nipples. I was already sharing the one bottle with Ian and Emma.

I was a little worried about taking the bottles away from her. The only thing she has in the bottles is drinkable yogurts anyway. But she has one everytime she goes to nap and bed. But I must say.....She has done REMARKABLE. Seriously, no crying. She cried more with the bottle. She has not missed it. And she has gone down for nap and bedtime 3 times each.

On Saturday, we also put up a swing set in the backyard. Or, I should say we tried to put up a swingset. We have had it in our garage since February. We got it from our friends who moved back to America. They gave it to us for free. The whole time we were trying to put it together, Spencer was commenting on what a piece of junk the swingset was. Remember, we could not figure it out how it went together. I told him, at least it was a free piece of Junk. But we did finally figure it out and got it put up. Emma was the happiest by far with this new piece of equipment in our yard.

We also re-arranged our furniture in the Living Room on Saturday. I folded 4 baskets of laundry. Went Grocery Shopping at 2 different stores. And then, I tried to do some scrapbooking on top of it because Saturday is what is known as National Scrapbook Day. But remember my headache, it was so bad, I ended up getting in bed at 10pm and looked at the computer for a bit before getting to bed.

And guess what! I woke up Sunday morning....with a headache again. This is so abnormal for me. And the pain was so intense, I am sure it had to be a migraine on Saturday. And Sunday when I woke up I decided to actually take something for the headache. It made me feel better for part of the day.

And then it came to me. Some of you know that I am anemic. When I was in the hospital while pregnant with Ian, I had a full overhaul. They have me 5 bags of potassium, a bag of calcium, a bag of zinc. And they told me I was anemic. As I was being fed intreviously for a month, my iron count started going up. And it continued to go up while I finished out my pregnancy. But I was still anemic when I moved here to Germany. But I stopped taking my iron pills. Why, I guess I thought I just did not need them anymore. But I was wrong. I have so many symptoms of Anemia and I am guessing that my anemia has worsened in a big way. I started taking my pills again yesterday. But it will take months before I am totally better. I need to get to a doctor and see how bad it is. I am not to the stage of craving dirt or paper yet. (yes, this is one of the symptoms that it is overly bad.) And I still get up out of bed everyday.

And here I am on day three of my headache. And my joint in my knees hurt real bad today. I am just hoping I can get back to normal soon.

On another note, today I bought a new movie at the Grocery Store. We shop at this Grocery Store that brings in some non food items 2 times a week. And when they are gone, they are gone. Today the movie, "Just Like Heaven" came out. Gardner and I were talking about this movie just within the last month. So we decided to get it. Great thing about movies here in Germany, they come in English and German.

I also got a few scrapbooking layouts done this past weekend even with my headache. I'm going to upload them seperatly. I was participating in an online scrapbooking event for National Scrapbook Day. It is a place called Scrap Freak. And I already won one prize and am hoping I am the lucky winner of another prize. I will find out later today.

Netherlands Video

Just finished the video for our trip this past weekend over in Holland. Check it out. It is just on the right hand side under Family Videos. ENJOY!