Emma and I escape the house

Since Lauren was not feeling well this weekend I took Emma out for the day. We had a great time doing all kinds of things. -Bill

First we went to Dance Class
After Dance We went to Zilker Park and road the train

Then we played on the playground

We can't go downtown without stopping at hut's for hamburgers.

After lunch we ewn to to Costco, HEB and then to the pool for the afternoon. It was a fun day.

fun with the infant seat

It seem slike only last week that they both fit perfectly in that infant seat. -Bill

On the Mend

I'm knocking on wood while I write this...well, it is probably MDF or some sort of plastic but in theory I envision my desk as some sort of wood product...anyway, Lauren is fast on the mend and showed no sign of sickness after the "105" incident Friday. She is out of school though today just to be super sure she's OK and that she has a healthy immune system to battle whatever else another child may cough in her face. And, as of this morning, no one else in the family is showing signs of the flu, but as my previous post mentioned - I'm sure it will strike back and try to infiltrate the Clark household again. We battled back with 2 full cans of Lysol spray and 1 mega-roll of Clorox wipes from Costco - I knew buying 4 huge canisters of that earlier this year would come in handy!

The Swine Flu Strikes Back

As most of you may have heard or read, the H1N1 flu is rampant in Texas and Austin. Health officials are not even testing for it anymore because if you get the flu now, it is like 99% swine flu. Earlier this summer we came close to the flu by being in close proximity to someone who had it. We were lucky then, but it came back to get us!
Lauren came down with a 103 fever Thursday night/early Friday morning. We went to the doctor that morning and at that point she wasn't showing any other symptoms, so they sent us home saying she just had another random virus but not the flu. I think that ticked the flu off because not an hour after we got home, Lauren went downhill fast with a 105 fever (and potentially higher because my digital thermometer errored out), not responding to me, and puking everywhere (yuck!). I called her doctor back, but of course it was during lunch and no one was in the office. I didn't want to load her in the car and drive 30 minutes to the hospital in that state, so I called 911. Within a few minutes we had the firemen from our neighborhood, an EMS crew and the county sheriff all at my house. The firemen were awesome, they assessed Lauren and said she definitely had the flu, but that because she had no other health issues it didn't make sense to take a ride in the ambulance down to Dell Children's Hospital. They would just put her in a triage tent in the parking lot (there are that many kids with the flu!!) and they said she was better off on our couch. They stayed here until they got Lauren's fever under control, got her to take her medicine, and started laughing with them. It was so nice to have them so close by...it was at that moment when I was happy to pay taxes.
After we got her fever at a more manageable 100-102, she has been great ever since...see picture as proof. All I can think about is that she had to pick the littlest toys to play/contaminate and the Polly Pockets will be a bear to disinfect :-)
Bill has taken Emma out of the house for the day to try and keep her away from what Bill is calling us "Outbreak Monkeys".

Emma Hard at Work

Emma's teacher emailed us pictures yesterday of her hard at work. These are called number rods and she has to match the correct rod to a number based on the colors on each rod. She is always so proud of her work.

Emma has been telling us about her "teeeen" bead work, which I thought she was speaking in her Texan accent and was saying "ten" bead work. I found out there are really teen beads - like thirteen, fourteen, etc. So, there is still hope that my girls will sound like midwesterners amongst the masses of Texan y'alls and fixin's.

If you had a bad day...

...there is someone out there who had worse!

This was in our neighborhood, right next to Emma's school. Someone forgot to put their car in park while getting gas at the station.

Dance Class

The girls have had 2 dance classes so far and really seem to enjoy it. We are able to peek through the doors to watch them, and they have done some super cute moves! Here are a couple photos of Lauren and Emma.

Irish Citizenship.. 1 year away

After about 6 months of getting all my paperwork together I finally sent in my application to become a Irish Citizenship. It is a dual citizenship with the US and I can get it because my grandmother was born in Ireland. Should be about 1 year until I get the paperwork back. -Bill

Sk8r Girl

Emma tried our neighbors skateboard this week and was a natural. She was posing like this and I had to take a picture. -Bill

Puppet Show

The girls put on a Puppet show for us this week. It was very entertaining. -Bill

My Poor Car

Coming home from the airport last week I was hit while stopping at a light. I am ok of course but my car suffered about 2,500 in damage. I should get it fixed in a few weeks. -Bill

Birthday Fun

These pictures are from a party we went to last weekend. It was at a bounce house place and the girls had a great time. Emma loves her cake!! -Bill

More on the lake

These pictures are from last Saturday. We has a great time out on the lake and then went to the volente park for a few hours to let the girls play on the Pirate Ship. -Bill

Our little ballerinas

Pictures to come, but we've signed up the girls for dance class once a week on Saturday mornings. They will both be in their own class, not together, which takes up our whole Saturday morning. Emma's class is from 9-10 and Lauren's from 10-11. I filled out the paperwork last night and heard from another friend who enrolled her daughter that there is some sort of dress code to attend classes there. I thought our Target pink leotards would be just fine, but just in case I called the dance studio and realized it is much more specific. A specific brand of brown leotard, specific brand of pink tights and a specific pair of canvas ballet shoes. And I thought golf or hockey would be expensive sports for a child! I'm running at lunch today to get the uniforms and to drop off the enrollment forms. Luckily, the dance studio allows month-to-month payments just in case the girls aren't as interested in it as we think they are. They love dance parties at home but part of me thinks this dance studio won't be playing Notorious B.I.G. or Fergie, to which the girls are accustomed to dancing along.

My "Good" Book

I just finished "My Sister's Keeper" which I acknowledged in the blog as My Good Book. This was one of the hardest books for me to read, and the only other book in my life that actually made me cry at the end.

Side note - the other was "Bridges of Madison County" and I read the book after I saw the movie and both made me cry uncontrollably -you know, one of those snot running down your nose and wiped all over your sleeve because no one told you to bring Kleenex kind of cry - ugh.

This book should have one of those Warning stickers on it, like an R-Rated Uncut movie version or like my Guns-N-Roses CD back in middle school, to warn me or the parental unit buying it that there may be some content unsuitable for young listeners or watchers. The warning should read, "To any adult with young children, some if not most of this book's content will be an uncomfortable read, could cause nightmares and potential paranoia should your child show a bruise or complain of aches". The story was told well, I just didn't like the story told. So, skip this book, skip the movie if you have young children now, are planning to have them, have grandkids, or have ever had children - this is one story I could have gone without.
On to a more daunting book of historical fiction, for which I am better suited.

My Daisy

Lauren has signed up to be in Girl Scouts. Ever since I brought her along to my volunteer event at work helping 60 middle school girl scouts create mechanical hands, Lauren has been talking about being a girl scout. Last night was the official rally for our area, and it was there where new troops would form, or where new girls would enter into an established troop, if space allowed. I was hoping for the latter, as we've already had to initiate a brand new elementary school, and I just wanted one thing to be more well oiled than squeaky clean brand new. We ended up in a hybrid - new troop but with a lot of moms who have been through this before or have close friends who are in the higher rankings within the Central Texas Girl Scouts, so I couldn't be more thrilled. The troop leader is a go-getter with no frills and very inclusive - I like her a lot already. I can't wait to buy Lauren the outfit - I wish the Daisy uniform had the cute little berets. The troop already decided to go with the traditional vest versus the newer smocks. I couldn't be happier!

Classic Lauren Comment

A neighborhood friend who has a son in Lauren's class, has been helping in the cafeteria and on and off in the classroom. She emailed me yesterday to tell me something Lauren talked to her about, and here is her exact email to me:

"I've been going in at lunch to volunteer - Lauren is hilarious. She is a big talker, and she always fills me in on what you guys are doing. My fav lauren comment was when I told her I loved the color of her hair and she told me I could probably go somewhere and get mine the same color, she wouldn't mind."

The Single Mom

I'm not sure how they do it day in and day out - work full time while raising children. I know it's done and done well a lot of the time, but I am certainly grateful when I hear the front door open at midnight and Bill getting home from his business trip. I just function better with my "better" half. Last night, after putting the kids to bed, I opened up my work computer and lost all track of time. As I almost rested my head on the pillow, I realized I had not made Lauren's lunch for the next day, nor had I selected the clothes she was to wear. I did not want to go through that battle at 6am the next morning, so I selected a new shirt she got in the mail, knowing it'd be a winner. What 5 year old would ever turn down sparkles...plus it rhymes.