Happy Valentine's Day and a big storm

I got up at my regular time so that I could do my routine and let Staci go.  She had the option of sleeping upstairs in the Aunt room but she thought she'd be fine.  We heard lots of snow plows out and I could see cars moving pretty well on Route 7 and West Milton Road.  I let the boys sleep, of course!

Karyna made it for 8AM.  I was pretty surprised to see her so early.  Nancy H made it for 9:00.  She was not happy but she made it :)  Gene had tons of work to do so he was stressed out working and worrying about the snow and driveway--and then we had a little leak again in the wish room!!  I guess it was warmer than it had been so some of that snow decided to melt into the boys room.  Poop.

I made this for Gene:  A Valentine's Jib Jab 

For some reason I was digging in our old website and I found these:

Valentine's Day 2006

and

SMA Support Valentine's Day 2006

Boys slept in a bit. They did their thing.  Casey got up in his chair and played some computer with Nancy and flipped channels.  Colin watched some movies and he and Karyna played a memory game--I made them use their brains even though it was a snow day! 

Gene plowed some and worked.

I was very surprised that Aunt Chris came over.  She even went to Kathy's and got her nails done and a pedicure!  She really must have wanted to have nice feet and nails for Florida if she went out while a Winter Storm Warning was still in effect.  AND, she wanted to see her boys, of course, for Valentine's Day. 

 Aunt Chris gave Casey Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 DVD and Colin got Free Birds.  We gave Casey the choice to pick the movie we'd watch but he wouldn't pick so Colin picked Free Birds.  It was pretty good, but I didn't watch the whole thing--I had to make formula and fix up their room for bed time, etc., but I'm sure I'll have a chance to watch it again.

Our friend from the corn rows, I mean Indiana, Hannah, sent the boys a fun Valentine's Day package.  Casey got cool dude stickers and Colin got wrestling ones and they each got a bouquet of heart shaped lollipops.  AND, Hannah colored and decorated very cute cards for each boy.  Thank you, Hannah P!!!

Gene wanted to make something a little special for dinner, and um, he tried.  He had picked up a rolled steak with spinach and cheese.  In a perfect world it would have been great, but for me, not so much.  Some of the steak was kind of yucky and rare and there was way too much slimy cheese.  The rice pilaf and broccoli were good!  He also picked up a black forest cake with yummy cherries so that ended everything on a good note. 

Have the boys again tonight--Casey had better be good! 

Snow Day for tomorrow!!!

SNOW DAY for tomorrow!!  We already got the automated call.  It's supposed to be a doozy.  Each time I check Weather Bug there is an increase in the amount of inches we're supposed to get.  The main reason I'm glad is that I don't have to worry about Casey getting to/from the bus down the driveway in the snow, and worrying all day long about his ride home on the bus in crappy weather.

Bummer for Colin because he bought two carnations for two of his 'girl'friends and they were supposed to be given out on Friday/Valentine's Day.   

Gene ran out for some groceries much to my chagrin.  But, he came home with some beautiful roses for me.  This time he was able to find yellow ones, which he knows are my favorite.  

 

snow day for Casey and belly brace prep

 I declared a snow day for Casey today.  No public schools were cancelled in Chittenden County but it looked pretty nasty out to me and was only supposed to get worse.  Nancy H came and she masked up because she had been fighting a cold.  She only stayed until noon to go home and get rest and to beat the weather. 

Casey got up for a while and read some of his ebook; Speak.  Watched some TV, some football, etc.  I think he thought it was funny that he didn't have to do school and Colin still did. 

I made another batch of rugelach today and I will say they were even better than last batch.  I think there was more apricot in them and I think I had a perfect amount of nuts/cinnamon/nutmeg.  It also helped that I used the Penzey cinnamon Peggy gave me, and also the Madagascarian vanilla. 


Deb from Biomedics came today at 1:00 so Colin got to finish school a bit early.  No sweating or high heart rates when she worked on him.  I think he is finally getting used to her after all these years, ha ha.

We've decided to go with a 2 piece belly brace/ TLSO.  We've always used a one piece that has Velcro straps in the front and a cut out for his g-tube.  Now that Colin is getting bigger it's pretty awkward getting him into it so we're opting to try this.  He'll have Velcro straps on each side to fasten and hold him snugly in.  We'll have the first fitting in a couple of weeks and Deb will mark out the g-tube hole and cut it out at the shop and do another fitting.  Colin was glad to pick out a new print for his belly brace.  We'll keep it a secret and unveil it when he gets to keep it :)

I always encourage Karyna and Colin to do a 'non-screen' activity after school before he puts his face back into an ipad, computer or TV.  So today I started pulling out some games and things that I want them to focus on.  I'm trying to get Colin to use the abstract thinking/predicting part of his brain.  Today they got to choose between Mr. Potato Head Yahtzee, Red Sox/Yankees Tic-tac-toe and Scooby Doo concentration.  Colin picked Yahtzee.  He used to play it with Nana Lanza so we had a moment when we made our sad sounds and missed her.  I can just hear in my head how they used to play that together and it was so cute.  Anyway, I made sure to let Karyna know that Colin had to make all the choices whether she thought there was a better move to make.  She could point out something if he didn't pick it but had to honor his final choice.  He won :)  

Colin has played some Tic/tac/toe before but I don't really know if he can strategize or if he just picks random spaces.  So, we'll see.  And, I know he has a good memory for some things--like movies, or wii games, but not sure if he will use that memory in a matching/concentration game so we'll work on that, too.  I'm going to make them a special box and maybe even build in some rewards for them for completing these activities.  They'll get a kick out of that.