General Update

I've been a little bit out of commission. We were really busy all weekend. Elise had a nasty stomach virus starting on Saturday morning. Today is the first day she's been 100% back to normal. I had planned already on Sunday night to stay home with her and left messages for people at work to let them know. Not long after that I ate dinner and began to feel bad myself. You can probably guess where this is going. Luckily I feel much better today, so I was able to go to work and Elise was able to go back to school. Yesterday we were in bad shape, though. I had a feeling this might happen last Wednesday when I was greeted at the door of the daycare by a note informing parents that five children had been sent home with stomach virus symptoms that day. It was just our luck that one of Elise's favorite friends in her classroom was one of the five! I thought maybe we had made a narrow escape after a few days went by with no signs of illness, but apparently not. Anyway, thankfully that is behind us!

Jamie was his usual wonderful self last night. He took great care of us. I just crashed in bed all night and he played with Elise and got her ready for bed. He also brought me sprite and medicine. I fell asleep somewhere around 8:00, and when I woke up later last night he had covered me with an extra blanket. I even noticed this morning that he cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes! What a guy! I am so glad that he didn't get sick too.

I felt so bad that I had been sick yesterday and unable to really spend much time playing with Elise that I went out and bought her a big balloon tonight. She was so good yesterday. I really couldn't do much with her, and she watched her shows and played mostly on her own all day with very little complaining. I felt so bad - I never let her watch that much TV. But I just did what I had to do to get through the day. This balloon is really neat - it's eyes light up and flash.

Jamie has taught her how to play some games at http://www.playhousedisney.com/. She thinks it is just great, and it's so cute to watch her operating the computer! She amazes me with how smart she is. She is really good at these games! There is one that is modeled after Little Einsteins where you have to identify the instrument based on the sound it makes - she has it completely mastered.

Since she loves Playhouse Disney so much, I got some discount tickets through work to Playhouse Disney Live at the Toyota Center. It will feature Little Einsteins (one of her favorites), characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Tigger & Pooh. The show isn't until late December, but I am already so excited that we are taking her! We will be on the 7th row, so we should have a great vantage point.

One of the things I love most about Jamie is that he's a very motivated person. He applied today for a master's degree program to get his M.Ed. in School Administration. I am so proud of him! I am planning to finish my master's degree eventually, but I've put it on hold until Elise is a bit older. Once Jamie finishes his, it will be my turn to get mine. Hopefully with this degree he will be in an even better position to get a head coach/athletic director position in the future. It is his goal, and I am so glad that he has this opportunity to do something to make it happen.

Speaking of motivation, we knew that we had yard work to do this weekend, and I just did *not* want to do it! Jamie kept trying to convince me that we should work on it on Saturday, but I put it off until Sunday. He mowed & edged while I raked leaves and scrubbed off our back patio. It gets pretty muddy with the dogs, so it really needed to be done. That kind of stuff is never fun, but it has to get done! Everything looked great when we were finished.

Mom is already trying to plan Thanksgiving dinner. Since this will be our last holiday season to celebrate in my childhood home, I am feeling a little bit sentimental. I'm sure I will take even more pictures than usual this year (if that is possible!). Jamie will do his chocolate pies and I know I'll be doing deviled eggs. I'm not sure what else we will be in charge of yet, but we enjoy preparing food for the big family gatherings over the holidays, so I know we'll come up with a lot more good stuff to cook!

The weather has been seasonably nice so we are also enjoying that. I am looking forward to another nice evening this Friday night for the football game. We will definitely have hot chocolate again in the stands. I'm also going to have to get out my blue and white sweaters! I can't believe that Halloween is next week. It should be really fun this year now that Elise is old enough to really understand trick-or-treating.

I hope everyone is staying warm and healthy!