I've really noticed a difference in Brooke in the last couple months. She is changing all the time and turning into quite the little lady.
*She loves 4th grade. She doesn't want to miss school and really enjoys her teachers. She has quite the group of girl friends and is very social.
*She is exactly 3 inches shorter than me.
*She is starting to really like to read. It seems that her nose is always in a book. This is great because she hasn't always liked to read. Right now, she's into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.
*She still loves to play Barbies. And house. And with her American Girl dolls. And school. She has a very creative imagination. I am forever asking her who she is talking to me and she looks at me and rolls her eyes.
*She will be starting softball practice soon. She seems to like most sports. She played basketball this winter and has intentions of playing sports in school, just as soon as she's old enough.
*She is my "right hand". She is good to help me with whatever I ask of her. And if I'm having a bad day, she seems to kick it in gear and do more around here to make it easier for me.
*She is very thoughtful.
*She is not fond of storms. She wakes up at the first clap of thunder and wants me to tuck her back in. She turns up her CD player to try to drown out the sounds.
*She loves her calves and talks to them like they are her babies.
*She is a lot like her Dad. She picks up after herself and gets mad when Blake doesn't do the same. She likes her things "just so". And there's nothing she likes more than a good supper. She gets that from her Mom and Dad.
*Did I mention that she is only 3 inches taller than me????? And wears a size 8 1/2 shoe in women's. Yep. For sure.
*She is starting to "bake" by herself. A couple weekends ago, she made me stay outside while she made a cake by herself. And it was yummy, too. So add pumpkin pie and cake to her list.
She's a great little gal and I'm sure glad she's ours!
what a week we have had around here! Geesh, I am so glad that it's Friday, and I'm only hoping for a quiet, not-much-to-do weekend. We only have 2 1/2 weeks of school left, which right now might as well be eternity. I'd say that I'm ready more than the kids are. Brooke really is "in" to school right now, she has really come to love school and just hates to miss. Blake will tell you that he "hates" school but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Although this week he hasn't been there much! Here's just a brief recap of what has gone on-
last Wednesday(May 6th)- Brooke's teacher called me at the high school about 2:30 in the afternoon to tell me that Brooke had a terrible rash on her arms. It was really, really red and itchy and her teacher never calls me at the high school so I figured it must be bad. I was on my way to the vet in Roseville after school (to get a "cedar" for our heifer to bring her into heat- I'm learning a lot about this AI stuff) so I called Wanda. She got Brooke and headed to the Alexis Clinic where I met them. The doctor there said it was a reaction to the sun, plus she said she needed to have the wax flushed out of Brooke's left year. After 6 syringes of warm water flushed down her ear, we left!
Monday (this week) - I took the afternoon off to take Blake to get his cast off. The fracture had healed nicely and he was released back to normal activity - which was good since he hadn't really stopped normal activity! So we picked up Brooke and headed home. Jeff called at 7:10 and said that we needed to move trucks around from field to field. That lasted until 8:35 p.m. That's way late for us to start homework and showers so we started our week off with the kids getting to bed at 9:30. If you know me, I am very anal about getting the kids to bed on time on weeknights. Needless to say, not the way I wanted to start my week. While we were moving around trucks, Brooke was complaining about her arms really bothering her and the rash looked just horrible so Wanda (who was helping move from field to field) said she would take the day off to take Brooke to the doctor since I had meetings at school all week.
Tuesday - Brooke went to the doctor and he said that her rash was Fifths Disease. However, once it reaches the "rash stage" it's not contagious anymore. He said that she was fine to return to school which she did. We just have to let the virus run its course. Also, he looked at her ear and said it was just fine. Of course - she had just had 6 syringes of water pumped into it!! Duh. Blake had his first baseball game that night. They lost 13-20 but that was actually pretty good since it was 3-20 in the start of the 5th inning.
Wednesday - Blake had to be at the oral surgeon at 8:00 a.m. to have a baby molar taken out. We found out a couple weeks ago that it was infected and since we know from previous experiences that novacaine doesn't work on infected teeth, I opted to have the oral surgeon put him to sleep so he wouldn't know a thing! He did pretty well. Didn't freak out too much when they told him they would put him to sleep, but he was very nervous. As was his mother.... he came out of the anesthesia pretty goofy, but at least he made it! There was a lot of infection so they put him on Amoxicillin (which the dentist didn't - kinda makes me mad) three times a day. He didn't feel good at all so I stayed home with him all day. When he was "under" he became pretty aggressive and fought the doctor so the nurse said that alone would wear him out. He rested most of the day and about 3:00 pm got his energy back!
Thursday - When I went to wake Blake up to get ready for school, he said to me "I must be really tired cuz this one eye doesn't want to open" and when he rolled over to me, there it was.... a giant, red, swollen right eye! I didn't know at that point if it was the infection from the tooth that moved to his eye or if it was pink eye. So off to call Nanny Cathi (Aunt Cathi) to see if he could go with her for the day so he could go to the doctor. She was nice enough to meet me with him and off they went to the doctor.... yep, Pinkeye. He got $65 drops and they started to work right away. So another day at home for Blake.
Friday - TODAY!! YEAH! Everyone made it through the day with no problems. Other than the fact that it rained all night and all day and we have like huge ponds of water in our yard, it was a pretty normal day. Blake had his field trip to the Geology Museum and Blackhawk State Park and then off to Happy Joe's to make pizzas for their lunch. He had a really good time. We have so much rain, it's sad. The fields and creeks are absolutely flooded. Some of the roads even have water over them. What does that mean for this farmwife? It means a suicidal farmer of a husband who I think I will try to avoid this weekend.
So after 4 trips to some kind of doctor, 2 prescriptions, 4 diagnoses, and about $500, the week is over...finally.
Now it's time to move our attention to our heifer. I never imagined that I would be studying a cow to see if she's in heat... and that doesn't mean looking her "good" end if you know what I mean.... but I am. I am out checking her "other end" to see if she's ready to be bred. That should start tomorrow. I'm sure you probably won't want to read a post about bovine artificial insemination, but guess what? ----------------You probably will!!!
