McComb Family

I'm sure everyone living in California has the budget on their mind these days. Things are looking pretty bleak. Makes me want to pack up and head somewhere else. But, here I still am!

Education, of course, will be affected, so there has been lots of talk about what will happen next year. In order to minimize layoffs this year, my district has offered job sharing as an option. This is the first time it's been on our paper we have to fill out about what we'd like to do the next year, so of course I said I was interested. We had a meeting yesterday at the district office, and it looks like it might actually happen. I've even got a partner picked out and ready to go!!

Today I'm home with Adam who's running a fever and getting a little taste of what it might be like next year!! :) Of course, I wouldn't have had to go in at 6:45 to do sub plans, and I wouldn't be trapped at home with a sick kid.....but I can imagine!!!

Bret couldn't stay home with him because he is doing interviews today. Even in this economy he's still hiring, and they're even adding another corporation (that'll be 4!). Good for him, and good for me so I can stay home part-time.

We'll see what happens!!

Posted in: on Friday, February 20, 2009 at at 10:06 AM 2 comments  

I thought I was bad with my digital camera, DVR, blogs, and so on, but I've just added one more piece of technology to my already full life......Facebook! Ugh, I'm already addicted to it and have barely been on it a mere 24 hours! My full-time job is really starting to get in the way of more important things!!!!

So if you're on Facebook, let me know....we can be "friends"! And for those of you who aren't on it yet, what are you waiting for? I'll see you on my wall soon!! : )

Posted in: on Monday, February 16, 2009 at at 6:54 PM 4 comments  

The kids had friends over and things seemed to be going well -- Briana and Ashley were off playing together and Adam and Megan were playing in his room. There was no fighting, arguing, crying....what more could I ask for!? However, when their mom showed up to pick them up, we noticed what the younger two had been up to, and it was no good!!!

The funny thing is, they've done this once before. I should have learned!! They took everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, from his room and piled it on the floor. I pushed and pushed on the door and got it open about a foot. In that small space, I saw more than I needed to see and marched downstairs to get the camera. Adam must know that when the camera comes out, I'm documenting some evidence of his poor choices. He promptly slammed the door as soon as he saw the camera coming his way.

He opened it up far enough to poke his head out and say, "No cameras!" I felt like the paparazzi. You can tell by the look on his face that he knows he's in big trouble!! [Notice the bed frame in the background with no mattress or shelves underneath that are normally there!]

This is what I saw when I was able to poke my head around the door. Lovely, isn't it?!

And this my fellow parents, is why kids cannot be left alone. Frequently checking in on them is imperative!!! If it's quiet and you think things are going well....there's big trouble. Trust me, I know!!!

Posted in: on Sunday, February 15, 2009 at at 1:01 PM 5 comments  

Today ended up being a snow day. No school!!! They make the determination based on weather in Georgetown since that is where our buses are kept. Snow there does not necessarily mean snow here. It didn't even dawn on me until it started to get light, that we might actually have snow ourselves. What a surprise to look out the window and see everything covered with a dusting of snow. Yea!!!The kids of course love any opportunity they have to play in the stuff.

And I loved the view out my bedroom window. The dark branches contrasting against the white snow and sky......gorgeous!!! (Hard to tell from the picture -- you'll have to use your imagination!!!)They say more snow is coming this weekend, so we'll see what else is in store for us. Pretty crazy to think my parents are sitting on a beach somewhere in Mexico right now! : )

Posted in: on Friday, February 13, 2009 at at 5:19 PM 2 comments  

We had a 3-day weekend this weekend for Lincoln's birthday, and I was planning on getting lots done! Friday started off well enough. I got this brilliant idea to host a T.G.I.F. at my house for everyone who works at my school. It sounded like a great idea, but it ended up being a little stressful. We were cleaning all week when we'd get home from school, trying to get things ready. By the time Friday came, I realized I just needed to let it go, and whatever happened happened. It turned out great, lots of people showed up, and we had a very nice time.


Then came Friday night/Saturday morning. Adam had come home from school with a raspy voice, but that didn't stop him from running around and having a good ol' time Friday night. About 4:00 a.m. though he woke up and was really struggling to breathe. Then because he couldn't breathe, he started to panic a little bit, which then made it even more difficult to breathe. I got him calmed down and he fell back asleep, but then I laid there wondering what to do. I finally decided he was doing okay and to just let him sleep (at least that way one of us would get some sleep!!).


When he got up that morning I called the advice nurse, and they wanted to see him at 11:30. Well, before we made it that long, he started having trouble again. It sounded like he was breathing through a straw, and he just threw himself on the floor crying and gasping. Bret was on the phone with the advice nurse trying to get something sooner, and I almost had him hang up and dial 911. It was that scary!!



Once again I got him calmed down and off we headed for the ER. They got him in right away and when the doctor saw him, he told all the nurses that "this kid takes priority over everyone else". Yikes -- really made me realize how serious he was. Here he is receiving one of the five breathing treatments he had to have.


He was not a happy camper! After the treatments he did fine for a while but then started getting raspy again. The ER doctor wanted a pediatrician to see him, so they asked one to come down and evaluate him. He decided that they wanted to continue to monitor him since his breathing wasn't completely better, so they ended up admitting him into the hospital. He thought it was pretty cool to get pushed through all the halls of the hospital in a bed. Here his is getting set up in his room with monitors and all the other goodies.

He had a good time checking out all the buttons of his bed. He could adjust the feet, head, lights, TV......everything right from his bed!! We had gotten to the ER at 10:30 and by the time he was all settled into his room upstairs it was 8:00. Needless to say, we were starving!!! The nurse was able to find us two extra trays so we could have dinner. So here we are at a table for two!!
He was too busy watching TV to be bothered to look at me! : ) You can tell he was feeling much better!!! He thought it was pretty cool to have the room to himself, all the buttons to push, nurses to wait on him, but by the next morning he was ready to go home (me too!!!). They discharged him shortly before lunch and we were out of there! Too much excitement for me! I came home, peeled the contacts out of my eyes, and tried to catch up on some rest. I thought we had avoided croup this year and he had finally outgrown it, but no such luck! Maybe next year!!! And now it's back to work tomorrow and nothing has gotten done!

Posted in: on Monday, February 09, 2009 at at 1:02 PM 3 comments  

It seems like everyone is trying to mess with my mind lately. Like I'm not already going crazy enough. Okay, Bret does it on a regular basis, but the rest of the world should have a little more compassion!!

I went to the eye doctor again this week for a check-up of the new contacts he gave me a week before. They were supposed to be my new prescription, but when I started wearing them I noticed they weren't quite right. Things were blurry, I was getting headaches, this was not good. I would have switched back to my last pair of previous contacts, but I had lost them. Apparantly drinking large quantities of alcohol and keeping track of contacts don't go hand in hand. Who knew?! Anyway, I toughed it out for the week and when I went in for my appointment, he was stumped. He couldn't figure out why I couldn't read any of the letters on his little chart. Well, come to find out, they mixed up the R and L on the contacts, and I had been wearing them in the wrong eyes for a week. No wonder I couldn't see!!!

And then work likes to keep me hopping, so I found out this week I have to make some changes in my class. Two of my kindergarteners have to go and two new 1st graders will be coming my way. Now my ratio is 3:18. Ugh!! Nothing like changing things up to keep me on my toes. How many days until summer vacation??

Anyone else have a story? I'd hate to think I'm the only one dealing with these things!!!

Posted in: on Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at at 7:00 PM 2 comments  

We've been in our house now for 8 years and our living room has never been furnished. Sure it's held the papasan left over from our college days, the piano that until recently never got used, and the yearly Christmas tree, but the room was never used. Now that we have the fish tank in there, it would be nice to be able to spend time in that room. Bret has taken to sitting in a chair from a patio set I got and refinished, but as you can see comfort can be a real issue!

I started looking recently for furniture, but since we will hopefully be putting an addition off that room soon, Bret was not too eager to decorate yet. It never hurts to look though!! : ) So, I found these leather (?) chairs at Target that I thought would do nicely. They were $320, and I figured if we didn't want them in there later they could always go up into our bedroom, because I've always wanted a sitting area in front of our window anyways. Well, I don't buy them at the store, but I checked online a few days later and they were on sale for $210. Yay -- my lucky day! I see what Bret says, and by the time he says yes the next day, they are no longer on sale! Figures.

As I continue looking around online, I start thinking that maybe cloth chairs with a leather love seat at a later date would look good. Hmm....sounds good to me. I find some online for $230 and when I stop at Target later that day to see them in person -- they happen to be on clearance for $160. Yippee!! I tell the lady I'll take two, but the only two they have are the one in the box and the floor model. The floor model is screwed down to the floor and has had a million people sitting in it. Um yeah, no thanks!!! Folsom has none left, but Auburn has 4 so I can still get one somewhere else though.

So, we pay for all of our purchases and the kid follows us out to the parking lot pushing the big flat bed dolly with the chair on it.

Me on the way to the car: So, we'll have to take the chair out of the box, because I kind of have a small car. It's not a problem though, I do this all the time!

Briana: Yeah, she does have a problem with doing this a lot.

[We proceed to rip the box apart and put the back and legs into the trunk. There is still quite a bit of room in there and we haven't even touched the back or front seats.]

Kid: Umm....the base is pretty big. I'm not sure where it's going to go.

Me: Oh, no problem -- I'll just put it in the back seat.

[Now I'm inside the car trying to pull the chair in, and he's outside trying to push it in.]

Me: Can you just turn it a bit so we can get it in?

[Pull, pull, wiggle, wiggle.]

Kid: Umm...you know BMW and Mercedes make SUVs, don't you?

Me: Oh yeah, but they suck. I want a Saturn. Plus, what would be the fun of that?

Needless to say, we finally got it in and Briana had about 6 inches of seat to sit on. Good thing her butt is so tiny. One of these days, I 'm actually going to be stuck in a parking lot with my purchases and no way to get them home. There have definitely been some close calls, and yesterday was no exception!!!! It's really lucky they only had one, because there is no way two would've fit!!!

I almost headed into Auburn last night to get another chair, but we didn't get home until after 8:00 and by the time I got the chair together, I wasn't that motivated to head back out. First thing this morning though, I call Auburn and guess what they tell me -- they have NONE of the chairs left. Uh oh!! I hadn't figured I'd need a back up plan -- last night they had 4 for goodness sake!!

Pretty soon I've called all the stores in the radius they give you online and none of them have any of the chairs left. *Gulp* If all else fails, I guess I can pay full price online, but by the time they add tax and shipping it was about double of what I had paid. So, I persevered on. Finally, Lincoln says they have 8! Within minutes, the kids and I are loaded up and heading to Lincoln. We get there, find the chair, and...are you ready for this....they have them on clearance for $115!!! I'm giddy. Well then.....I think I need a table, and while I'm at it a lamp, and oh yeah, an ottoman. I had two sales associates helping me. After numerous trips to the stock room, three different attemps at the table (too wobbly, don't like the color...), and several different ottomans.....here's what we ended up with.

Posted in: on Monday, January 19, 2009 at at 5:31 PM 7 comments  

We've added another activity to our already busy schedule -- piano lessons for Briana!! When she was 3 my grandma bought a piano for her, but she was still a little young to start lessons. She knows several people now though who play and has started showing an interest in learning how to do it herself. Our neighbor at the bottom of our road teaches piano, so it worked out well!!

She had her first lesson today and was so nervous going into it. Of course, once she got going, she was just fine. I left her there and took Adam home because he interrupted constantly for the whole two minutes we were actually there. When we picked her up, she talked non-stop the entire way home and then had to play for us everything she had learned. : ) Too cute!

We'll see how long it takes us to get sick of hearing "Sea Whale" over and over again.

Posted in: on Thursday, January 15, 2009 at at 8:37 PM 1 comments  

Briana and I had eye appointments today, and I can no longer read the E. THE E!!! That giant letter at the top of the chart that they reserve for blind folks. Ugh! And then to top things off, he dilated our pupils to check our retinas. If there was such a thing as double blind -- that would've been me. When I finally got to put my contacts in again, the world came back into focus......until I had to see up close. Bret had called and I tried to text him back, but I couldn't even read my phone. I have a pretty good feeling what it will be like in a few years when I start needing reading glasses.

Getting old sucks!!!

Posted in: on Monday, January 12, 2009 at at 5:32 PM 0 comments  

Today was our last day of Christmas vacation, so we went and did something fun before having to head back to reality tomorrow. Here we are getting ready to go sledding!!!
Of course you need food and drinks while you're playing, so here's our "pack mule" hauling our stuff. Sleds come in handy for more than one use we found out!!
Here are the kids hitting the hill. It was pretty icy, which meant snowball fights were out, but boy could you get going fast down the hill! The kids had a great time. Oh heck, who am I kidding.....all of us loved it!!
Ride 'em Cowboy!!!
Oh, whoops.....I don't think you're supposed to end up tangled in the tree!!!
You've also got to have a nice warm beverage while you're out there. Here are Bret, Brian, and Dawn enjoying theirs!!
And a cute shot of the kids.

We had a really fun time, and it was a great way to finish up the vacation. Great weather, great snow, and great company.....what more could you ask for!?

Posted in: on Sunday, January 04, 2009 at at 7:56 PM 1 comments