Schmitz News

Finally

2010-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I knew it had been a long time since I posted, but did not realize it had been this long. Wow. I keep saying I will get better. I guess I just get busier. We are definately getting very tired of the rainy summer so far. We are really hoping for some sun soon.....and not just one day of it either! We are wet enough already. Gregory and Maggee are even getting used to playing in the rain. I have been off of work for only a few days and am really enjoying being home.....but boy do I run in circles trying to keep things in order and get everything done. We have also been busy with activities. Gregory has been in T-Ball since the beginning of June. We have played two games and had two rainouts. Looks like next week, we have games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That is a lot of t-ball for a 3 year old.....but he enjoys it and so do we. We have come to the conclusion that 2 innings would be just right for those little guys instead of 3....but I guess we don't get to make the rules. Maggee also enjoys getting in the action, but gets a little discouraged when she does not get to participate. She wants to be right out there playing with them. Yesterday, Gregory also got to participate in the Buckley Kids Log Show for his first time. He got to do the wood ax throw, which he was in 4th or 5th place out of about 20 three to five year olds. He also got to do the choker setting. He had fun. His first words when waking up yesterday morning were, "is today my loggin' show mommy?". Maggee enjoyed the events yesterday as well. She just got dirty and loved Timber the Clown, from a distance of course. Jon and I have been doing great. I am glad to be done working for the summer. Jon is ready to work in some dry weather. The rain is getting pretty old for him to work in every day. He did get some fishing in this weekend. He lost a few good ones yesterday, but brought home a nice 7 pound steelehead today.
We have a fun and busy summer in store for us. Next week, I have a three day technology workshop, which should be great. In July, we will head to Spokane where we will meet up with my mom and grandma before heading to Montana for our annual trip to Dutton. Upon returning to Spokane, we will hang out for a few days so that I can co-host a baby shower for a great school days friend, Kim Lawon, who will be having a baby girl in September. That will put us away from home for two weeks. When we get back, Jon will be on vacation for two weeks. Who knows what will be in store for us then. We may head to Winthrop for a few days.... we shall see.

2010-02-17T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I have lots of time to post today since I am sitting in the UW Medical Center waiting for my moms surgery to begin and then, of course, end. My mom has been with us for the last week and will be with us for the next four weeks at least.
We have sure enjoyed having my mom at the house. The kids love having her there to play with and it is sure nice to have the extra help. She brought the kids to my school last Friday for our little Valentine Celebration. My class loved having the kids there. Maggee did very well, but Gregory was not too sure. I was very surprised at how shy he was in the classroom. I think that he was overwhelmed by the 22 children who mobbed him upon entry. Jon and I went out to dinner and drinks for Valentine's Day while mom stayed with the kids. We had a very nice time. I was great to get out.
We have been staying busy. I assume that will not end for the next 17 years or so. We are looking forward to being able to sign Gregory up for T-Ball in the spring. I can not wait to watch them. So cute. I keep threatening Jon that I am going to sign him up to coach all of those 3 year olds.....he just shakes his head at me and smiles.
I am on my winter break this week so no school. With yesterday and today at the UW Medical Center, the rest of hte week is going to go by fast I am sure. I am hoping for nice weather so we can get out and play a little. The kids just love going outside. A couple of days ago, Gregory hopped on his Gator and headed down the driveway to see what was going on. He is just getting so big. I can not believe it.
Maggee is talking more and more every day. We love to listen to her talk. She will attempt any word that we tell her to say. We have also discovered that when Maggee wants more, she says and does the sign for more. It is so sweet!

Long Lost Us......

2010-02-02T21:36:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are well!! I keep promising to post more often and it just does not happen. So....I am done apologizing for not posting more often.....I will just do the best that I can.

We have been doing great! Both Gregory and Maggee are amazing! They are doing great. Gregory's favorite things right now are Legos, Calliou (On Demand TV), his BB gun that he gets to shoot with daddy, and just getting some time to play outside. Maggee loves carrying her little purse around, singing all of the time, Barney, and pushing her babies in her stroller.

This past weekend, we went to the Chipmunks movie and Gregory loved it. He had so much fun at the movie while Maggee had fun playing at Aunties house. On Sunday, Jon and I took the kids to the Sportsman Show. Gregory loved seeing all of the animals there and especially loved catching two fish there. He was so proud of his fish, he had to hold them in his lap on the way home (in the bag of course). Maggee just kept pointing at all of the animals and saying, "deer".

Both of our kids amaze us on a daily basis. Gregory is so smart. We can not believe the things that he remembers. He is always making us laugh. Maggee is talking more and more every day. She is also at a point where she knows what we are talking about when we talk to her. They are so very much fun...

And then we have the not so fun moments.....Gregory is getting better about his language (shutup and stupid, I mean). He is learning that saying those words when he is angry do not have fun consequences. We are enjoying that he is making better word choices lately. Maggee is quite the tantrum thrower. When she is angry, she will throw quite the fit on the floor or she starts swinging. We are working on it....Yikes!

Jon and I are doing great. We are both busy with work. Jon started at his work with a new crew and the site and new machine that they are working with have presented him with some challenges to say the least. He has had a rough couple of days, but still tries to come home with a good attitude. Hopefully, things will get better soon. I have been busy at work with lots on my plate. In addition to teaching, I am on two different committees as well as trying to aquire lots of clock hours in order to bump up on the pay scale next year. I have also started selling Scentsy. I enjoy that, it takes little time, and brings in a little extra money, which is nice . http://www.kimschmitz.scentsy.us/

We are looking forward to having my mom stay with us for the next few weeks while she recovers from surgery. We love to have her.

For now, I must get......clothes to fold and put away.

2009-12-30T21:45:00.001-08:00

Holidays.....

2009-12-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we headed to Colville on the 22nd to spend Christmas with my family. Jon and the kids picked me up after work and we headed out. Maggee had had a cough and seemed to be coughing quite a bit. I pondered getting her an appointment for Tuesday morning before we left.....just to make sure she just had a cold...but we ended up just heading out. We got to Colville about 8:00 on that evening of the 22nd. Maggee did not sleep well at all that night. We decided to take her into the Dr. the next morning. Upon getting there, they checked her oxygen levels. The first nurse that we had was far from pleasant and clearly did not know the best way to do this with a baby. I tried to tell her, but she did not like my advice. She wrote Maggee's level down as 65....really??? Well, 65 means Maggee would be blue(she needed to be 93 and above)...so I don't think so. I was so irritated with this woman, I wanted to choke her....and I don't usually get like that....but my baby is sick! So, a much more reasonable nurse came in to try it. I told her how it works best for Maggee and she did it...and it worked.....but her reading was in the 80's. Dr. Johnson came in and told me that she does not sound good, her fever is up and oxygen levels are down. We are thinking Pneumonia and he told me he would be admitting her into the hospital. Small tears for a minute just because I was nervous....but I knew that there are plenty of children much more sick than Maggee and we are just going to the hospital for a short stay to make her better. Dr. Johnson said she would probably get out on Christmas Eve...which means one overnight. I could do that. Meanwhile, Jon is at my mom's with the worst head cold that he has ever had. I told him to stay there in bed and my mom took care of getting him meds and making him stay in bed while I was in the hospital. On Christmas Eve, Maggee was much better and so was Daddy. Jon came and picked us up and we went back to my mom's at about noon that day. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve with my dad at his house and then back to my mom's in the late morning of Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas there as well. On Sunday, we headed to my brother, Jason's house, for Gregory's birthday party with friends and family on the east side. What a wonderful day that was as well. With the truck full to the top, we headed home on Monday. Gregory has now been sick today. He has a yucky tummy. We are going to the dr tomorrow for his yearly checkup, so we will see what they say about this little bug of his then. Maggee will also see the dr in the morning to just follow up and check out her lungs.... I am hoping they will say we can stop the multiple breathing treatments every day. We are supposed to do it for 10 days and she hates it. It takes 15-20 minutes per time. So, there we are in a nutshell. We are actually great, even though it does not sound real good. We just need to get the kiddos healthy. I am thankful that it happened when I was off of work for a couple of weeks. We hope to all be 100% healthy on Saturday when Gregory will have a little birthday party with his friends at 2 and then to Aunties for a family party at 5. Busy Busy!
I want to end this with our thoughts going out to the Hall and Blackman family. Little Gregory Hall is a very sick little boy. He is pretty much sedated now to manage his pain. They are expecting that he will be passing away within a couple of days. Childhood cancer is such an ugly ugly thing!!

Tis the season.....

2009-12-12T19:51:00.001-08:00

We are having so much fun trying to fit in all the goes with the Christmas season. With our fun, we have also worked on helping to get the kiddos healthy. We have had our share of sick kids, that is for sure. Today, I wrapped up every unwrapped gift that needed wrapping in the house. We are most of the way done with our shopping. We just need to get a few more things. Gregory and Maggee are both having such a good time. Tonight, we went out and looked at Christmas lights. We saw some amazing lights. Such fun! Last week, our niece Taylor came over and we built both a gingerbread house and a gingerbread train. Every day, we have an elf who watches over our house and reports to santa at night. Gregory and Maggee both enjoy looking for the elf in the morning since he finds a new place to sit every day. The surprise of all surprises is that neither kiddo has tried to mess with the tree or any presents under it. Gregory does have a list 47 miles long for Santa. We have had to have the talk about how santa will just bring a few things, but not everything that he wants. We hope that goes ok. We are sure it will. Gregory is also getting very excited about his birthday and turning 3. We can not believe he is turning 3 already. Maggee is talking more and more all of the time. She is saying some things very clearly. It is so very cute when she talks. She is a happy little baby and we love to watch Maggee and Gregory interact. They absolutely adore each other. This year, we will be heading to Colville after I get out of school on the 22nd. We will spend Christmas there and then to Spokane on the 27th for a birthday party for Gregory at my brother's house. We will then head home on the 28th.

Long Lost Me

2009-11-16T20:35:00.000-08:00

It has been entirely too long since my last post. September, really?? I feel like I have just been running around chasing my tail..... So, here is the rundown of what has been going on with us. It has been so long that I feel like I am about to write a Christmas letter. So, let's see....October.... Jon spent some time at the cabin in Winthrop in October hunting with family and his friend, Tom. They had a great time and Jon came home with meat for the freezer. he shot a 4 point buck. He was very excited and Gregory was so so excited to see it when he got home. While Jon was gone, the kids and I went to Colville. We really enjoyed our time there and got to see a lot of family and friends. We went to a halloween party there for Gregory Hall, the nephew of a friend of mine. Gregory has cancer and his make a wish was a huge Halloween Party. It was a huge success. We really enjoyed the party. While we were in Colville, our Gregory started to not feel real great and got a fever. His fever lasted a couple of days. He still had a good time, just did not have the energy that he usually has. At the time, I thought nothing of it....now I am pretty sure that he had the flu....more on that later. A week after we got home on a Sunday, Maggee got a fever. She was at 102. This was after many kids in my class and students in our school were absent with the H1N1 flu. This was also after our niece Taylor was diagnosed with the flu. At this point, I was pretty sure that Maggee had it. I got online and made her an appointment for the next day. Sure enough, Maggee had it. Her fever did break before we even went to the dr. and it never did come back. I was home with her that week for three days. We took Gregory to daycare just to help and try to avoid him getting it from her. After he escaped it and about a week later is when I thought about it and realized with Maggee's case so mild, I am sure that is what he had in Colville. Maybe that is why he did not get it after she did. At the end of the month we enjoyed going to Jacob's always fun Halloween Party and then trick or treating the night after. Gregory was an adorable dragon and Maggee a sweet pink poodle.
And, now it is November. Maggee is now a year old. We can not believe it has been a year. And on the other hand, we can not remember our life without her in it. We are so lucky to have such amazing kids. Jon and I were talking tonight about how sweet she is and how amazingly precious Gregory is to her. He is always calling her sweetie and giving her kisses. They have really started playing well together and he is very good about sharing with her. He absolutely adores her. Maggee had a birthday week for her birthday......just like I used to get. It started the weekend before her birthday with a party at Grandma Schmitz's house. She was so adorable and had a great time. Then, with her birthday being Veteran's Day and a day off, she had her birthday celebration at daycare on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we played and celebrated her birthday at home. On Friday, she had a little birthday celebration at Kim's (the kids last babysitter). What a busy birthday week it was.

This last weekend was a fun one. Jon ended up going to the cabin with Tom for one last hurrah....they saw lots of deer, fished a little, and just enjoyed their time there. They even got a little snow. We would have loved to go as well, but already had things going on. I went on my annual shopping trip with my friend Jackie on Saturday. We had a blast. It is always something I look forward to every year. A fun time was had for sure. On Sunday, Gregory and I enjoyed our mommy son day to Disney on Ice. Gregory absolutely loved it and did not lose interest the whole time. We will definately be doing that every year. It was wonderful.

Now, we are caught up....wow!~ We are looking forward to some up and coming events. Nephew Marcus started wrestling today. We look forward to starting to attend his matches coming up in December. We are looking forward to seeing our nephew Michael as he is getting home from college in North Dakota for the Thanksgiving holiday on Sunday. We will be home here in Buckley for Thanksgiving this year. Jon is looking forward to doing some elk hunting. I am looking forward to Black Friday shopping. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving with family. For Christmas this year, we will be going to Colville. We will be looking forward to that as well. It is always a wonderful family filled time.

Little Guy

2009-09-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

This morning began with my thoughts to venture out and about to the mall and to Costco. I got up, got myself ready and then the kids ready. Jon elected to skip the shopping and stay home to clean the house (which means vaccuum....but better than nothing). I was happy with that. The house looked great when I got home. Back to my shopping adventures. We went to the mall to get Gregory some new shoes. I had been eyeing a pair of Nike Shox Camo that are so cute and I was prepared today to bite the bullet and buy them. Of coarse they do not have them in Gregory's size. We will be waiting for them to come in the mail next week. We are leaving the shoe store and a woman is coming in with two small girls. One is about 3 and one about 5. The three year old looking one is in a stroller and her eye looks freshly blackened. Swollen and purple underneath. Ouch!!! I say to the nice lady, "Oh it looks like she took a fall". The lady says back to me, "It is a birth mark."...............oh crap........bury my face in the sand. How embarrassing! Now I have made myself a fool. Off to Costco. We are in Costco minding our own happy business and shopping along. I am looking at something and Gregory says from the cart, "Mommy, that just a witto guy". "What?" I say. "That just a witto guy," he repeats. I look and there, near our cart, is a little guy (I am sure the correct term is no longer midget)....but there he was with Gregory pointing at him. And then my two year old says, "Mommy, I am not little, I am a big kid." "Yes, Gregory," I say as I push my cart away from the little guy.....

not so new computer....

2009-09-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have not been good about posting this month. I have a new computer, which I do not like. It is a laptop that we bought from someone Jon works with and I hate typing on it, because I am typing along and then I touch something and it just erases the whole entry. This is my third try on this one. GGGRRRRRR! That is issue #1 with this computer. Issue #2 is that I can not figure out how to get my pictures off of my camera and onto the computer. I think I need an updated USB drive. Where the heck do I get that? It is making me crazy!!!

I just finshed writing a bunch and then it erased....so for now...I am going night night and I will be back soon... maybe this weekend if I am lucky.

Back to Work

2009-08-25T22:15:00.000-07:00

OK..so this is the week....the week that Tahoma teachers come back to school for four days of meetings before school will begin next Wednesday. This is a tough week. It did not used to be this hard...before we had kids. It is hard to get back into the swing of getting up at the crack of dawn (5:30ish) and getting myself ready very quietly so I am ready before the kids wake up. So far this week, I was almost ready yesterday when Maggee awoke and I was barely ready today. Yesterday, I grabbed Gregory's nice soft blanket and wrapped him in it before plugging his sleepy body in the car in his jammies. Since I have to be at work at 8:00, this means we must leave before 7:00 to get to Maple Valley where the kids are going three of the four days this week and get them settled before getting to my meeting by 8:00. It really has not been that bad. I am realizing why I am glad that the kids have childcare during the school year in Buckley close to home rather than being close to my school. Gregory has been choosing not to nap during the day so he zonks out within 5 minutes of being in the car. This means he is sleeping at 5:00. Maggee is so happy to see me after becoming quite the mommy's girl this summer and then I have to plug her in her car seat facing the rear....for a 45 minute drive home. She is not impressed! So, I will be glad when this week in over...when I am done with my meetings at 6:00 on Thursday. That will leave us with 5 straight days before the real day of back to school and daycare. We will find some fun things to do on some of those days....hmmmmm...maybe the zoo.

And then there is Jon. He is getting up before the crack of dawn to leave before
4:00. Tomorrow morning he will need to leave before 3:30 so he can be at a meeting at 4:30. OUCH. Of course, tonight Maggee did not want to go to sleep at 8, she needed to do a little grouchy crying. Jon was not impressed that he could not sleep. We need to get Maggee going to sleep a little easier. We may have to begin that training over the weekend.... stay tuned for how that goes. We were not so good at this with Gregory...

Ok, I am a sleepy girl. Night Night!

Terrible Twos Day!

2009-08-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here is the picture for your head. Picture the nice little family of four going into Costco today....Myself, My Nephew Jacob, Sweet Maggee, and Gregory (the two year old :( Got the picture....ok... We are in the store and Gregory does not want to ride in the cart anymore after about 2 minutes. "I wanna walk," he says. I tell him he must stay by us and that is fine. But...it is Sunday...there are a thousand people at Costco...and they do not want to shop at the pace in which Gregory Schmitz wants to get out of their way. He is definately holding up traffic. So I pick him up......"WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," he wails. I calmly walk down the isle like I do not have a screaming two year old on my arm, maybe throwing things in my cart a little quicker. Luckily, Jacob is there to man the cart..and Maggee (who by the way has a smile on her face the entire Costco experience). So, I play the put him down and pick him up screaming game with Gregory for the entire Costco shopping excurtion. I also point out nicely to him every single other nice child in Costco as I tell him, "look at that sweet little boy listening to his mommy and sitting so nicely. I bet he might get a prize today." I am sweating by the end of the trip. I pay for the goods and we have headed to the car. By this time, I have given Gregory the information that he will not be getting back the little gun that we had just purchased prior to this shopping spree. We get in the car and he says to his sweating mommy, "I'm bein a good boy mommy. Can I have my gun now?" I then give him the information that the gun is going bye bye. And...........the gun will be put away for later use....much later....like a stocking stuffer or something.

Vacation

2009-08-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

We, just this afternoon, returned home from a week long vacation first to Winthrop for a few days at the cabin and then on to Colville for a couple of days with my Mom and Dad. What a fun time we had. We arrived in Winthrop last Monday at around dinner time. Jon and Gregory immediately hit the river for some fishing. Yep...they caught some. So much fun! We spent the whole week in Winthrop enjoying ourselves there. Jon did some fishing with and without Gregory. Besides fishing, we enjoyed evening rides to look for deer, and a trip to the swimming pool in Twisp only to find out they did not open for us to swim until 1:00 (it was 11:00). 1:00 was not going to work for a toddler and a baby. Back to the cabin we went. One of the days we enjoyed a lunch in town with ice cream to follow. There were also lots of deer to look at. Gregory really enjoyed just being outside at the cabin with his chainsaw by the woodpile. Here are some pics of our time there. Oh....I forgot to mention our trip down to the river for some water time with Maggee and throwing rocks for Gregory.

On Friday, we headed to Colville to visit with my family. On Friday night my mom watched Maggee and Gregory while Jon and I went to the beer garden in the park with some friends. We had such a great time. I saw so many people that I had not seen in years. The added bonus for the weekend was that mom slept with the kids all three nights, even getting up in the night with Maggee. Wow! What a gift that was. On Saturday, we enjoyed our perfect day with my dad on the water. My mom also joined us. We went out in dad's boat and had a very relaxing afternoon. Maggee loved it. Gregory was very nervous at first, but got used to it and couldn't get enough. What fun that was. After that, we went with my mom and visited some friends who have property on a lake. What a great evening. We tried Indian Tacoes for the first time. YUM! On Sunday, we went to Kettle Falls to visit with both of my Grandmas. Gregory figured Grandma Millie (GG to him) needed some help with her trees in her yard so he had his chainsaw ready to go while we were there.

Jon is probably off work for a few days while the woods are shut down for fire danger. We will enjoy some more time with him off work. Not sure what this week will bring... stay tuned!!

Oh yeah.... What is Maggee doing this week: Sitting up, saying more sounds including mamama...finally, scooting all over, smiling and laughing more than ever, eating some baby snacks, and drinking water from a sippy cup.

What are we doing now?

2009-07-26T22:13:00.001-07:00

I will give a quick update of what we are up to and then I will try to keep up with myself from here on out... Our Munchkins: Gregory is now 2 years and 6 months old. He is so amazing. Every day, something new is coming out of his mouth. Luckily... it is mostly cute stuff and nothing terribly bad. :) Some of our Gregoryisms are: "NO WAY" "What the heck?" "OH MY GOSH" (we had to work on the gosh part a little) and his newest one that Taylor taught him yesterday... "Mommy, you beautiful". Gregory is growing up so quickly right before our eyes. He loves to sing and play. He is completely into the thought of anything hunting and fishing. He has his dad's blood in him for sure. Yesterday, he got some hunting pants at Cabelas that he just had to have. They are so cute! Greg is learning his ABCs and his counting. We are also working on colors. We have to get on that one a little more though!
Maggee is 8 months and such a smiley, happy baby. She loves people and just grins the entire time she is around them. We love to hear her giggle. It is so cute. She likes to lie on the floor and roll around, playing with her toys. She is not yet crawling....just rolling around. Last Friday, she started waving. She says the bbbb sound..maybe it is bye bye. She definitely says Hi and has been saying that for awhile. She also likes to say dada. Maggee is a huge fan of her brother and he is very good at making her laugh. They play very cute together.

Our newest project is in the works. We are adding onto our house finally. We will be adding as much square feet as we have now on our new bottom floor and then we will also have a master bed and bath upstairs. We have cleared the land and now just need to complete the permit process to get started. We are looking forward to having more space for sure.

Other than that, our summer is going by quickly. We are leaving tomorrow on our annual July trip to Winthrop. We are looking forward to spending time at the cabin there and just hanging out. Gregory gets very excited when we go there. He looks forward to fishing with his daddy!

Bye for now...

A New Journey

2009-07-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

OK.. so as I embark on the journey to get more techy, I have decided to create this blog. I have been reading other blogs for awhile now and I enjoy reading about what others are up to. I have often wondered if a blog would be something for me....but when am I going to have time for it??? I still can not answer that question. I barely have time for my babysite, which is a form of a blog....so now I have two. We will see how that goes. This may take the place of my babysite. That site is fun, but it is hard for me to find time when I can post a journal and pictures about both kids. So, here my blogging journey starts. Note: I actually began this blog without it going anywhere before I even had Maggee.... Maybe I am ready now.