The death of a bracket

Can you hear Taps playing??? It's playing an ode to the death of my bracket...
You gotta hate it when you go down in round 2. I picked Maryland to go all the way. Yeah, they were a 10 seed and historically that's not a successful number, but hey, Gonzaga was THE Cinderella team one year. I really though Maryland had a little magic going this year. Oh well, I'm still at 8 of 16 for the sweet 16 and still have the possiblility of going 50/50 in the final four.

Let the games play on...I need to go get a tissue.

I tried to open the gate

Soooo, Chase and Delainey went to play outside this afternoon. A few minutes after they went out, the front door opened, and in they came carrying a long object. I was thoroughly confused as they came in since there was a shadow behind them. It looked like a long box that you would put posters in or something. Chase then says, "Dad, I was trying to open the gate, and this just came off!" I laughed, which made Chase cry (he's not feeling well today so he's crying hard over EVERYTHING!!). We had to console him and tell him how cute it was that he brought the actual piece of the fence in with him!!

Cute girls

Delainey's friend Mattie came over for a visit. As they were leaving, the girls beat us outside. When we came out we found them picking clover blossoms. It was sooo cute. I'm glad I was able to catch it on film. I was really glad they did it because the last time we had Mattie she had picked some clover for her mom and I, not understanding fully what she wanted, had her leave them behind. She was devastated when she got home and she didn't have her flowers for her mom. I felt awful. I feel better now!!

I really shouldn't let them do this..

But how do I make them stop??? This is Chase near the top of the loquat tree...

3-2-1- Countdown

There aren't that many launches of shuttles left...le sigh...Fortunately by a great twist of luck we were able to run outside and catch this one-right out our neighbor's front door. I didn't have the camera ready to get the start of the launch, but the reflection of the sunset on the smoke trail was beautiful. If you look carefully to the right of the "trail" you might be able to see the little white dot that is the shuttle. It's right above the right side of the top of the tree. It seems strange to have it in such a different place than the trail, but it's a good lesson on the curvature of the earth for all the nerds out there (and their children..)

Gardening

We're starting a garden! The little kids have had a fun time helping to plant the seeds and watch things grow. It was time to put the seedlings in the ground so they headed outside...


Working hard aren't they?

Reverence Books

No matter what my children might say about how grumpy my mom might be sometimes, she is awesome!! To help the younger kids be reverent in sacrament meeting, she ordered blank books from her favorite Oriental Trading (she seriously may need to attend meetings to help curb her obsession), printed off and clipped a whole bunch of pictures and sat down for two sessions to make reverence books for the little ones. Each one has a picture of them sitting reverently at the end. It's cool and I love it when she does fun things like this with them!!

Deadly Pencil Shavings

So, no srep throat-and I took Braden in too since he's been complaining of a very sore throat for a day or so.

The doctor did indeed say the words "I think it's viral..." but then proceeded to go on and say "I'm going to give you antibiotics anyway because I'm a bit concerned about the swelling of the (right) lymph node." (YES!! Antibiotics-and a Z pak to boot!) He then says "Now if that swelling increases over the next day or two or you develop a high fever be sure to come in before the weekend. And I want you to come back in in a week or two to check in with your doctor." Anyone else feeling all giddy with warm fuzzies yet????

Insert some episode from House....woman goes in with sore throat, gets majorly ill with lots of weird symptoms, biopsies and MRI's are done, and after nearly dying it is discovered that she's having a reaction to the pencil shavings brought into the house by her school attending children.....House saves the day and all is well.

Of course I'm not feeling all THAT dramatic over the whole thing, but I did chuckle as he said watch for more swelling/fever. I SERIOUSLY thought of House.

Just for the record, the right side of my neck is quite swollen, and the lymph node is the size of and feels like a peach pit. And it really hurts if you touch it...

Watch out for those pencil shavings!!

I hope it's Strep Throat

Before you think I'm absolutely CRAZY (probably a forgone conclusion) remember that with something like Strep you get antibiotics and then you start feeling better fairly quickly.

Background...

Friday I went to the gym, hit the treadmill for 30 minutes and lifted some weights. Friday night I took the three youngest kids up to the stake center to play women's hoops. It was a great night for ball. I ran most of the time, except for the occasional fast break when the "younger" ladies had it under control. Felt really good. Made a few good shots, missed a few good shots, and made some good passes. AND since the men's teams weren't there on time we got to play a bit longer.

I then took the kids to Steak 'n Shake for fries and shakes-does it get much better?

Then, after the kids were tucked into bed-WHAMMOOOO!! Enter Mack truck. Long night, felt fevery, sore throat on the right side, up and down through the night. Aches and pains, sweaty at some moments, cold later. It's now Sunday and I can honestly say that I feel pretty much the same. Braden stayed home from church with me today with a sore throat as well.

If I go to the doctor tomorrow and they say "Sorry, it's just the flu and you have to endure..." I might just cry....

Mr.Evil C continued

Chase did actually get up and go to school on Monday. Mr.Evil C did indeed show up, but the kids actually won yesterday!! So it was a good day and we're learning about how to lose-I think!

He may look like a Christensen...

but the Wilson tendencies are STRONG!!!

A little background information. Matt's mother is a Wilson by birth. Wilson's are INCREDIBLY competitive. So much so (no offense to the wonderful Wilson family) that early in our marriage I coined the phrase "Wilson competitive constipation". This simply means that, on occassion (????), the Wilson's are SOOO competitive that they can hardly enjoy the game they are playing.

It seems that Chase has inherited this highly competitive gene. Lately he's been breaking down and not wanting to go to school on Monday's because of Mr.Evil "C". Mr.C is the school's music teacher. Seems like a really nice guy, Braden thinks he's ok, can't really figure it out. So tonight after family games (which he, of course, broke into sobs when he didn't win) Chase is all but begging to stay home from school tomorrow because of Mr. Evil "C". Ok, so now I'm concerned..

To sum up, after many tears and sobs, here's the gist of the problem. On occassion, Mr.C will show up as Mr.Evil "C" and will play the same game of Q&A with the kids that he usually plays, except that as Mr. Evil "C" he usually gets more points than the kids and he wins the game.

Have you caught the problem-Chase is "scared" to go to school and see Mr."Evil C" because the class will not get enough points to win the game.

Classic Wilson competitive constipation disorder if you ask me.

After many hugs and a promise of Wii bowling after school I think he's convinced to go to school tomorrow.

We'll see what happens in the morning.