Rain....

We have been sitting inside all day today because the rain has finally come. We had the last few weeks of upper 80's, low 90's and all of a sudden we woke up this morning to 60 degrees and rain. It's alright though, we are all sick with a horrible cold. As I'm typing the kids are playing Mario Brothers with Chris and they are having a blast. It's the best to listen to them laughing and going crazy with their Daddy. I figured since I'm feeling rather crappy today and not doing anything I would finally update with the past few weeks.

I don't remember if I posted that we are moving to Chico or not but, most people know we are. We bought a brand new house there and escrow closes mid November although we won't move until Brynn is out for Christmas Break. We are also selling our house in McKinleyville to my brother. We figured since we have no plans of moving back we may as well sell it. The timing was right for my brother and his family so, it's going to work out great.

Chris put in for a transfer to offices near Chico, we won't know until December whether he got one of them or not. The transfer won't take effect until April 1st so, it means he'll be commuting for some time. He's going to try to keep the same schedule so we can have weekends with all of us home. It's been great since Brynn started school to have us all home together on weekends.

Brynn has been enjoying school and is doing really well with spelling, writing and reading. They have weekly tests for spelling with ten words and two bonus words and she's got them all right every test. Her teacher said she's performing above grade level in both spelling and reading. She's started reading chapter books at home and loves writing. They have started doing timed math tests at school. 40 questions with 3 minutes to complete them. They have to get 100% to move up to the next level. Brynn has been being hard on herself over them since she doesn't like if she has to retest on a level. She's doing fine with the tests but, I think she lets the timing get to her so she tries to rush. She's still doing ballet but, will be done the end of the month until we move. She'll probably go back to doing gymnastics as the ballet pace is too slow for her. She continues to excel in her swim lessons, she's at the intermediate level for her age and has been working hard to perfect the different strokes.

Parker is also doing great at school. He loves going to school and loves his teachers. I can say when we move it'll be hard to find a school as awesome as his is. His teachers are the nicest women I have met and they truely love each kid. Parker is learning so much. He is so hands on with most things, I had really no clue on how he would take to sitting still and learning. In the month and a half he's actually learned a lot. He's learned some letters and is working on writing his name. Something he would not sit or have anything to do with before preschool. He's also doing really good with swimming. He was our timid kid with the pool this year. He passed his preschool swim test a few weeks ago and is now moved up. He's not afraid to dunk under water and stay under anymore. It's been great for him.

I've just been doing much of my normal. Still trying to get used to not having kids at home three mornings a week. I've been keeping myself busy though. I drop Parker off at school and go for a six mile run, come home, shower, and by then I have a little less than an hour before I pick Parker up so, it's really just been time that I can get my running and exercise in. Honestly I don't think I could handle just sitting alone for that time.

This past Friday Parker had his first field trip with preschool. Chris and I both went. It was at the Ardenwood Farms. They had all these activities set up and we got to go in the corn fields and pick corn and a train ride. The highlight of the field trip was when we were walking to meet up with the rest of the preschool group we saw what looked like a really large bat in a tree. As we got closer we realized it was actually a crow that had his legs tied together and was stuck to a branch in the tree. Seeing the crow was panicked and hurting, we knew we couldn't just leave it. Chris took Parker's second shirt off of him and used it to wrap the bird up and get him loose. He got the bird down after a very hilarious few minutes of Chris freaking out. He put the bird on the ground and started freeing his legs from the fishing wire that was wrapped very tightly around it. The rest of the preschoolers walked our direction and everyone stopped to watch the rescue. Luckily it all turned out good, Chris got the wire off the birds legs and the bird flew away.

Brynn had her walk a thon at school that afternoon. It was a bunch of fun. She was so happy to get to go. We let her go even though she's been really sick, it was outside and it was 90 degrees. She walked a total of 6 laps and said that was enough. She wanted to play all the games, we stayed for about two hours and just as we were leaving they called my name that I had won a free haircut out of the raffle. Chris was busting up laughing since I keep saying I need to get my haircut but, I'm too cheap to go get it done. I guess I have no excuse now. It happened to be a raffle ticket Chris wrote my name on too. Ironic... Anyway, it was fun to see Brynn interact with her friends and I got to talk with one of her friends mom's for awhile which was nice considering very few people have been friendly enough to even say hi to us since we've been here.

I had a phone call into Brynn's ENT specialist since she has been pretty sick with this cold we all have had and they wanted her to be seen by the pediatrician Friday and to come in this next Tuesday to see the ENT. We went to her pediatrician when we were done at the walk a thon and he said yes she does have another sinus infection, her ears look alright right now. He wanted me to wait to give her the antibiotics for another day or so to see if it would get better on it's own. As of today I've held off on giving her the antibiotics but, I think it's time. We are doing her sinus rinses twice a day and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I'm just frusterated at this point. I just want her to be healthy again. We'll see what her ENT says on Tuesday I guess.

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch yesterday. They climbed up the hay pyramid, did the hay maze, posed in every wood cutout thing they had there. They found their pumpkins really quick this year. We probably were there no longer than an hour. We got home and they wanted to carve them but, we convinced them to hold off for another week so they would last until Halloween. Instead we made a pumpkin pie and had a relaxing evening.