Cooper's new school

Ever have those times with your kids where you are more anxious/scared about something than they are?  Well, that was me last week when Cooper started his new preschool.  He has been looking forward to January for quite a while, because he knew he was starting his new school in January.  Not that he didn’t love his old in home daycare, he did, but he just got excited at the thought of starting big boy school, which is EXACTLY what we wanted!  His girl-friend from the previous daycare, Hayden, was also starting at the new school on the same day, which we knew would make the transition much easier. 

He was supposed to start on January 2^nd, and he did, he was there for that day only last week due to him being sick on Thursday and us going south for my dad’s surgery on Friday.  Anyway, that was probably a good thing, because his teacher was on vacation last week and there was a substitute, so that meant more adjustments, thankfully, he didn’t have that much yesterday since he was there only one day last week. 

When we brought him in yesterday morning, we finally got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Marilyn.  She is a very sweet lady and we know she’ll take good care of our boy.  She works from 6:30 am until midafternoon, at which time another caregiver comes in so that the teachers can go home.  Miss Ellen is his teacher for the last part of the day, where they mostly play and read books.  They do the “school” part when Mrs. Marilyn is there. 

We knew the teacher wouldn’t be there when we picked him up yesterday, but we had completely forgotten about his “cubby” where any paperwork they did during the day would be.  When I remembered it this morning, I checked, and she had written us a note!  She answered all of my questions and I’m so glad to know he did pretty well.  When I talked to her this morning, she said he only cried when she was laying out their cots for naptime before lunch.  He thought that he had to take a nap at that time and he just wasn’t ready yet.  Once he knew he got to eat lunch and had more time before naptime, he was fine. 

About lunch, Cooper might be THE pickiest eater I have ever seen.  That boy will not touch most food given to him by anyone.  We’ve got to break him of this habit, and pretty quickly.  I’m getting tired of specializing a dinner just for him! 

Cooper has met at least one boy who is not in his class that he really likes.  Jacob.  Jacob is in the next class up and Cooper LOVES him.  He talks about him constantly so far.  I’m hoping that he’ll bond with a few others, and it looks like from Mrs. Marilyn’s note, that he is working on that. 

He was hesitant about leaving me this morning when I dropped him off, but I know he’ll do just fine after I leave, there was no crying, so that definitely helps! J 

How have your transitions to new daycares/preschools been with your kids?  Have they handled it well?  Any tips for me?

Crazy Weekend

It’s Monday again!  I say that with great JOY.  Honestly.  After the weekend I had, I am actually glad to be back in a regular schedule, routine, back to normal.   This post is long and rather intense.  Feel free to skip this one, I just wanted to get it in the record books before I forgot to write it out.

You see, last Thursday night, as I was driving home alone (because Cooper was sick and Tim stayed home with him), I got a phone call.  One of those types that you hope you don’t ever get.  My dad had been in a car accident.  My brother didn’t really know how bad it was, he knew that his leg was bad, but wasn’t told anything else.  He would get back with me as soon as he knew more.  You see, I live 2 hours away from my dad and brother and I was struggling with whether or not to get home, pack some things and jump in the car to head there.  My brother advised me to stay put until they knew more.

Turns out, he had broken the bone in his lower leg twice and had another break that went through the skin and they had to fix this one immediately in the ER.  And by immediately, I mean whenever their busy ER at The UofL Hospital could get to it, it took them a few hours to get to him.  He also would have to have surgery in the next couple of days to repair even more damage.  I was a basket case Thursday night to say the very least.  Then, around 10pm, I got a phone call, and it was my DAD!!!  He sounded awful, but he wanted me to know that he was going to be ok.  I told him that I would be heading that way after work tomorrow OR as soon as they knew he would be in surgery. 

On Friday morning, I had just dropped Cooper off at preschool when Gwen sent me a text saying that Dad would be going into surgery soon, so I hightailed it into my office, picked up my laptop and any other essentials and went to pick Cooper up and headed to the hospital.  Tim had a conference already scheduled in Chicago this past weekend, so he had to go there, which meant taking Cooper to the hospital with me.  I am glad I had charged the iPad so that he could be busy while we waited for the surgery to be done.

Dad was finally out of surgery and back into his room later Friday evening, which was great.  He was in lots of pain and was quite incoherent.  I stayed for a while then headed to my mom’s house so that Cooper could get some energy out and play with his cousins.  Larissa and Layne were scheduled to be there all weekend because my brother had plans to be out of town this weekend also.   I finally convinced my brother to go on his trip so the kids had a great time together. 

I spent Saturday in the hospital most of the day, letting Gwen head home to take a shower and rest a bit, Dad and I snoozed in his room.  He would be either going to rehab on Sunday or heading home depending on what the doctor and physical therapist said.  In the end, he headed home yesterday afternoon and was home around 5pm.  He is doing alright, he even hobbled down the hall in his house a bit.  I took a look at his leg before he left the hospital yesterday and I couldn’t have been able to tell how bad it really was from it.  They doctors and surgeons did an excellent job.  Yes, he has several pins sticking out of his leg, yes, he almost severed it during the accident, but the repair they did was amazing.  I am so thankful that they were able to save his leg and then on top of that, for it to look so good was simply awesome.

From what I could tell from pictures of the accident and from the story I heard of what happened, the end results could have been much worse.  Praise God for saving my dad and for the only damage to him being his leg.   He has one more surgery scheduled on January 18^th – and I’m hoping that is the end, we’ll find out more when they are done with that one.

My weekend was stressful emotionally and I’m so thankful that I have such a great Mom and her husband Shawn to watch my son so that I could take care of necessary stuff with my dad, I’m thankful for Gwen and my Grandpa and Kieran and brother who will be helping dad on a daily basis as they did this weekend also.  I’m exhausted today, but I wanted to get this post written so that I wouldn’t forget it.

I sure hope your weekends were much more pleasant than mine, and Happy Monday!

Emily from A-Z

So, I've been seeing everyone do this little A-Z survey and so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and participate too.  So, here goes nothin....

A. Age: 32, eek how did I get so old?

B. Bed size: King – I LOVE all of the space!

C. Chore you hate: Cleaning toilets and showers.

D. Dogs: One red-headed step dog named Chauncey.

E. Essential start to your day: A shower and checking my phone while blow drying my hair.

F. Favorite color: Blue, I loooooooooooooove almost every shade.

G. Gold or Silver: White Gold or Silver.

H. Height: 5'5

I. Instruments you play: None!

J. Job Title: Sr. Financial Analyst

K. Kids: One, and one on the way.

L. Live: Huh? I love live Improv comedy?  Does that work?

M. Married: Yup, the hubby's name is Tim

N. Nicknames: Em, Emy, Emmers

O. Overnight hospital stays: Only with Cooper, another stay coming in late May/beginning of June!

P. Pet peeve: I have so many, but I have to say my biggest at the moment is when people don’t send THANK YOU cards.  I really think it’s the least a person can do when you’ve given them something, either in the form of a material item or your time and energy. 

Q. Quote: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

R. Righty or Lefty:  Righty

S. Siblings: One brother, Craig.

T. Time you wake up: 6am

U. University attended: IU Bloomington

V. Vegetables you dislike:  Lima Beans

W. What makes you run late: My husband, my son.

X. X-rays you've had: My teeth, and my foot.

Y. Yummy food:  Spaghetti, Pizza, brownies, ice cream.

Z. Zoo animal favorite: Monkeys.  I’m not a huge zoo fan, but I love monkeys.  Plus, my son makes the zoo more fun.

So, did ya learn anything you didn't know? 

Happy New Year

Well, after a looooong break, I’m blogging!  Happy New Year everyone!

We’ve had an eventful 12 days.  I was off work from 1pm December 21 to today.  I cannot explain to you how wonderful and much needed that break was.  I was burnt out, and I really wanted some time to rest, relax and unwind.  I’ve got about 5 months of nonstop work without a day off coming up and I really wanted to enjoy this last Christmas with Cooper before his brother or sister comes.

Speaking of brother or sister….. My anatomy scan is scheduled for January 14 so we are hoping to find out the baby’s gender that day.  Yippee!  Only 12 days away.  Back to our break….

We got to visit lots of family, the weekend before Christmas we visited Tim’s family in Ohio….

All of the cousins

The Johnson Siblings

Then, on Christmas day, we open presents at our house, then we visited with my dad at his house, then my mom at her house.  My brother and his family visit with us at dad’s then mom’s also.

Christmas morning at our house

At Dad’s house Christmas day

At Mom’s house Christmas evening

Our Christmas was wonderful, we are truly blessed.  Time with family was the most precious, and Santa went above and beyond, as usual.

After Christmas, we spent the rest of the week hanging out around the house.  We had about 7-8” of snow on Christmas night, so Tim and Andrew spent the majority of the day after Christmas snow blowing the driveways of our neighbors and our house.  Cooper and I spent the day inside enjoying new toys and watching too much television.

We finally left our house on Friday, only because Tim and I both had dentist appointments.  We were home by 1 and Cooper and I did our normal daily nap from 1-3.  Boy am I going to miss those naps.  Saturday and Sunday we spent at home, not leaving for anything. 

On Monday, New Year’s Eve, Tim went to work for 1/2 day, and while he was gone, Cooper and I cleaned some and ran some errands.  Then Tim picked up Kampbell and we spent the rest of the day hanging out with the Coop and the Soup.  That night, we had some friends/family over.  Erica and Mel, Andrew’s friend Garrett and girlfriend Hannah, and Stephanie and Ryan of course.  We played a euchre tournament and had lots of good food.  We also let Cooper stay up until after midnight, it was almost 1am before I put him to bed.  It was the first time he has stayed up that late and he did great.

Yesterday was spent catching up on sleep, laundry, cooking breakfast for all of the overnight guests and getting the house back in order. 

All in all, it was a wonderful break.  I’m so glad I was able to start the New Year fresh and relaxed!  I’m glad to be back in the blogging world too!!  I’ve been reading blogs so I hope to get back into the groove of writing! 

Happy Wednesday ladies and Tim :)