Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Yes, I am a day late, but when have I ever been on time getting greeting cards out? (Don't answer that Lynne!) As you will notice from the slide show, I have pictures from last weeks post, the tree planing, along with this weeks post of Easter. I could not find the camera last week. I asked Kyra, who was the last to have it, where the camera was, and her response was "I gave it back to you." Now I know that I am getting old and forgetful, and I think kids make that come on you faster than normal, but I know good and well that she did not give me that camera... plus I cleaned the entire upstairs, very deeply cleaned, and I could not find the camera anywhere. So on Easter morning on the way to Strawn's to take the annual Easter, everyone looks nice for once, picture, I asked the girls to look under the seats in the back of the Tahoe, and also in the pockets of the front seats. Low and behold, the camera materializes. Yeah, now we have a camera with witch to take the pictures. We get in position, the camera flashes and dies, doesn't even have enough battery to open the shutter. Thank goodness for friends with a good camera with plenty of batteries.

The rest of Easter was not nearly as exciting. We came home and did the Easter egg hunt. The girls complained that the Easter eggs were a lot harder to find this year. I guess when you get older, the Easter bunny gets a little craftier. Probably from his kids trying to make him think he is loosing his mind by saying, "but I gave it to you, remember?" Anyway, it is a good thing I was helping the Easter (Mark) Bunny, as he wanted to hide the Easter eggs over the entire 5.5 acres, so we would have an all day hunt.

The girls both got movies in their Easter baskets, so the afternoon was spent watching movies. We did watch one, then went for a family bike ride in the wind. We then came back and watched the second movie. Left overs were brought out for supper, and everyone was ready for bed by 9:00, ok maybe I was the only one ready for bed, but with all that movie watching, I didn't get my Sunday afternoon nap.

Unfortunately today was a typical Monday. I went in to the out patient clinic at 8:00 this morning. Headed home about 10:00 and picked up the girls. We headed to Scottsbluff and did some shopping at Staples (for the church) then Target. I dropped Lexi off at the orthodontist a little early thinking she might get in early, then we could go to lunch before heading to Kimball. I in the mean time I ran to Wal mart to get oil and filter so Mark could change the bug's oil. I got back to pick up the girl's, and they were in the waiting room. I'm thinking great she is done. No such luck. Her appointment was at 11:50 and I got there at 12:05. She didn't get in until 12:20. She finally came out about 12:40 with her technician with her. It was announced that Lexi got a strike. OK, what is a strike. She has not been brushing her teeth like she is suppose too, so she got a strike. If she gets 2 more, they take her braces off, even if they are not done. I understand having to scare kids into doing what they are suppose too, but I was a little ticked at being threatened as the parent. I felt like saying "well, you can just refund all the thousands of dollars that I have paid you then!" After leaving the Orthodontist office, we were all starving. No time to have a sit down meal like we had planned, so we went through Arby's drive through. I ordered 3 meals, non of which were up sized, and the total was over $18. After putting $55 in the gas tank, we headed for Kimball. We didn't get home until after 5:00, then it was dinner and all the fun getting ready for school things. Now the day is almost gone, and I have one yet to get into to bed, then I plan on heading there myself.

Take care until next week.

Once again it has been almost a month since my last post. My how time flies. I am currently waiting on a phone call from Harold (my boss). I got a call from Kimball that there is another new patient that needs a PT eval, so need to know when Harold can go down to do the eval. So this might be a very long or very short post, depending on what Harold says.

I was looking at the side show from my last post, and seeing the difference in weather. Those pictures are full of snow, and even though the cold weather has not completely left, it is getting warmer. Today is suppose to be 75 and tomorrow is 81, then we start cooling down and are suppose to get some rain on Thursday and Friday. I am rushing around trying to get as many loads of laundry as I can get, on the line before I go to work. Yesterday was a nice day. Kyra spent most of the day outside with her dad and friends. Lexi wasn't feeling well, so took a 4 hour nap. The Strawn's came over for supper, and Sarah the kids and I got a walk in before it was time to cook.

On Friday, after school and work, we loaded up the Tahoe with a bunch of suit cases and sleeping bags, plus 4 girls and headed to Crawford. They had the annual scout tree planting at Fort Robinson this weekend. For those of you that don't know, a fire went through Fort Robinson in 1989, burning a good potion of trees. The boy scouts started replanting trees several years ago, and the girl scouts joined in a few years later. There were 10,000 trees to plant this weekend. We had 3 adults that split our group up. I had 4 Brownies, and we were able to plant 50 trees in the 2 hours we were out. We were very excited, when the other groups came back having only planted 25 trees each. It was a cold windy day, but we got down in some draws, and were blocked from the wind, so it wasn't too bad. On a personal note, my husband and Father-in-law have always complained that the fort has the scouts plant trees in places where there were never trees growing, so I made sure my girls were planting by fallen trees and in areas that had a lot of trees. The rest of the day was spent eating lunch, then the Fort had the museums open to the scouts to tour. All the girls and leaders headed back to Bridgeport about 2:30 p.m., but we stayed until 6:00 p.m., so our girls could visit with Grandma and Grandpa.

This week will continue on the "too busy to get everything done theme", with Holy week, and needing to get 3 bulletins done. Not sure what we are doing for Easter. I guess if Strawn's aren't invited anywhere, we will spend time with them. Grandma and Grandpa COWS may come down, but not sure as of today. I just hope the weather turns out nice. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Just got my call from Harold. He is going to Kimball on Wednesday, so I will have that day off. We are closing the clinic on Friday, then I will see patients on Monday, as he will still be out of town. Lexi has an orthodontist appointment on Monday, so Harold is going to schedule everyone early so we can be gone to Scottsbluff by 11:00 a.m. Her appointment is at 11:50 a.m., then we will eat lunch then the girls will go with me to Kimball. They enjoy spending time at the nursing home. The activity director always gives them a job to do. Lexi also enjoys pushing wheel chairs for me, and helping in other ways.

Good morning. Yes, it has been a few weeks again since I have posted, but hopefully my routine is back to normal and will have Monday mornings off (my posting day), so can get things done like I use too.

Last weekend, our family took a mini vacation to Cheyenne WY. We have had a gift card to a Marriott hotel for 15 months, so needed to get that used up. We also had 2 gift cards to Red Lobster. We headed out Saturday morning, and got to Cheyenne about 11:00. We did a little shopping, then headed to Olive Garden to eat lunch. We then shopped some more then headed to the hotel. We all donned our swim suits and headed for the pool and hot tub. After showers, Mark and I left the girls to watch TV, and we went to look at campers. We couldn't afford anything, but it was fun to look and dream. We picked up the girls went to the mall and looked at more campers then headed to Red Lobster where we ate so many appetizers that we were full before our meals got to us. We then headed to Sam's to walk off our meal. Back to the hotel were the girl's and Mark swam and sat in the hot tub while I sat and read my book. Sunday morning we did a little more shopping then grabbed lunch before heading home. Sorry there are no pictures of our trip. I never even got the camera out.

This last weekend was busy for us. The girls were out of school on Friday. Lexi had a girl scout activity in Chadron, so was gone all day. She got car sick on the way up there, then they went to a planetarium and she was sick in there with all the movement going on, then was sick for the car ride home even though her leader put her in the front seat. Lexi then had another girl scout activity in Sidney on Saturday through Sunday morning. We made sure she took her Dramamine before she left on Saturday.

Mark, Kyra and I headed to Scottsbluff on Saturday afternoon. Kyra has been saving her money for a bike, so Saturday was the day to go and get it. As you can see by the above pictures she is very happy with her purchase.

Sunday afternoon was a nice windy day. We went and cut a pickup load of wood, then came home a split and stacked it. We then went to Strawn's for supper. It was so nice not to have to cook after being out of the house all day.

Now it is Monday again, so the work week begins. I now have a patient down in Kimball, so will be heading there this afternoon. Hope everyone has a good week. We are suppose to get rain for 3 days then wind, then maybe nice again for the weekend.

All's well... for the moment

I have been so negligent in writing this blog. I will try to catch everyone up on what has been going on in the Douthit house.

Mark is well (for the most part). He finished his antibiotics last week, but is still tired a lot. He also wears out easy. The weather has been a little nicer, so he has been trying to get out and get fresh air when he can. He went to an equipment auction yesterday, but his mean wife would not give him the checkbook to buy a tractor.

Kyra had her 9th birthday last Saturday, February 6. I talked her into postponing her party until this weekend, as Mark had come down with a stomach bug and was not feeling the best. The girls both were sick with this bug and it had a tenancy to make you sick leave then come back 2-3 more times. After having to postpone Kyra's party last year because she had strep throat, then having to change plans the next week when I got it, I decided that I was going to make sure everyone was well before the party. This year worked out great! The girl's were out of school Friday, so we went to the bowling alley at 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon. We had the entire place to ourselves. The kids had a blast. They bowled 2 games, then we headed home. They were able to play outside for a while, then came in and opened presents while the pizza was cooking. After pizza we had cake and ice cream then more playing until I made them start winding down at 11:00. I had 2 fall right to sleep, another one in about 30 min., then I made the T.V. go off and sat in the dark until I heard deep breathing. I got to bed about 12:15. The next morning started bright and early with giggling girl's at 7:00 a.m. I proceeded to fix breakfast of apple pancakes, sausage and eggs. At one point I was deemed the "Best Cook", to which Kyra responds "that's why I hired her". OK where is my pay for all this work? The girl's got to play for a while, then had to take 3 in for basket ball games, so took everyone home at 9:30. The rest of Saturday was spent napping, doing laundry and cleaning the basement.

Today we went to church and bible study, then came home to the most pleasant sight. The dog had diarrhea on the carpet upstairs (of course the light colored one). What I want to know is why they never go on the linoleum that is only 2 feet away. On went the rubber gloves, and out came the carpet cleaner. Mark said after it was all cleaned up "boy that really stunk", you think, yeah, my stomach was getting queasy, jeez all the way in the kitchen, I didn't have any problems being right next to it cleaning it up! Men!

Tonight we have the "Sweet heart" dinner for the hospital foundation. I guess that will be our Valentines dinner this year, a nice intimate dinner with 150 other people in the gym at the community center. Oh well, it is for a good cause.