Stories Of Everyday Life At The Steendahl's

Settling In

Christine — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:27:53 +0000

We’re settling back in. It is good to be home… although we thoroughly enjoyed our trip! I still don’t have all the suitcases unpacked! We have been busy swimming, playing with friends, having sleepovers, going for walks, drinking slurpees, working in the garden, catching up on life… Laundry can wait.

Annika has completely changed over to normal crawling instead of marine crawling in the course of our trip. I even periodically catch her standing by herself for a brief moment. She has been so happy and fun since we have got home.

Ryan has also been unusually helpful and kind the last few days!

Tomorrow morning I hope to hit the Farmer’s Market (first one of the season) and probably go to “the big town” for some needed items. (still haven’t hit the grocery store yet either - except for a few essentials.)

Before I go, I leave you with this - MERCY - go read that post from one of my favorite bloggers & ENJOY!

C-

WA Get-Togethers

Christine — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 05:56:50 +0000

FYI
For those of you in Western WA - We will be at the Chuck E. Cheese in Lynwood (Alderwood Mall Area) this Sat. the 27th at 5:30 p.m. For those of you in Eastern WA - we will be at Chico’s Pizza in Moses Lake next Tuesday the 30th at 6:00 p.m. We’d love to see you if you can make it! Please comments here or send me an e-mail if you plan to come! Also feel free to invite anyone else who you think would like to come!

I am still updating day by day of our trip at www.dinewithoutwhine.com/blog

C-

Road Trip Day 4

Christine — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:00:26 +0000

Road Trip Day 4

http://www.dinewithoutwhine.com/blog/road-trip-day-4

Road Trip Day 2

Christine — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:08:19 +0000

Day 2 was tons of fun!

Read About it here.

Road Trip Day 1

Christine — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:00:40 +0000

We made it through our first day - although I think we had enough drama to last for awhile..

Read About it Here

I’m Not Sure Why I Garden

Christine — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:46:00 +0000

I’m not sure why I garden… I really don’t enjoy the bees, spiders, biting flies, frogs that jump out at me, mud caked on my shoes, or sweat dripping off of me - all of which I encountered this morning while working in my garden… (I did tell the frog he could stick around - after I got over the fact that he scared the bajeebes out of me… He might eat some of those flies & spiders!)

However, when I bring in this every other day:

And then make this:

(A Delicious Strawberry Smoothie)

And hear the kids pure happiness and see their smiling faces enjoying delicious produce I know I could not buy at the store…
I know why I garden…

This is the Bug That Never Ends…

Christine — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:11:38 +0000

This is the bug that never ends… It just goes on and on my friends. Dane started sharing it, not knowing what it was, and now we keep on sharing it forever just because…. It is the bug that never ends….

Good News…. Christian is feeling great!

Bad News… Ryan has a fever now. (On Sat. of course when the Dr. is not open) He is hoping to be better by Tue. for Boy Scout Camp!

I was hoping to go to Christian’s T-ball Game, Two Graduation Parties, Church on Sunday - both Morning & Evening, and somewhere fun on Monday for our Anniversary / Christian’s Birthday. But… since Ryan is sick and our car is STILL in the shop… I guess it is homebound for me! Thankfully I got out yesterday to get my hair done and have a nice lunch with Matt. Otherwise, I just might be going crazy about now!

Please join me in praying that neither Annika or I catch this bug next week when we are leaving for vacation! We are the only two who haven’t had it yet!

C-

The Dreaded Long Butt

Christine — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:32:58 +0000

Alright, if you need a good laugh (or a new pair of jeans..) You need to go read this post - Mom Jeans and the Dreaded Long Butt.

Enjoy!

C-

I Spoke Too Soon

Christine — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:45:03 +0000

So…. I spoke too soon on the “And no, no one else got it” statement. Monday Christian came down with the tonsillitis bug. Welcome to first day of summer vacation! Hey, at least he had perfect attendance all year! I also came down with a cold, but thankfully not tonsillitis…. YET!?! The good news? He is soooo much easier to take care of then Matt!

The car is in the shop this week - all week…. So that means we are stuck at home. Well, Matt has his car, but we don’t all fit in it. So I guess all things considering, it was a good week for Christian to get sick - we can’t go anywhere anyway! Matt has been doing a lot of running kids here and there - to the Dr. to baseball games etc. I’ve been staying home with the rest of the gang. The car is supposed to be done Friday - I’m hoping that is the case!

We are getting close to our 6000 mile road trip! We leave in a week and a half! I’m starting to get nervous about all that packing and getting ready. I’ll probably start a list tonight. If I forget something, I have to go without it for a MONTH! (I suppose unless it is something easy to buy..) You can read about our stylish new suitcase shopping trip here.

I don’t have too much else to say. We are just enjoying lazy summer days, the kids haven’t driven us too crazy yet, and we’re looking forward to vacation!

C-

CRAZY Week

Christine — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:43:04 +0000

Wow, last week was really crazy. Started out with the car accident, then Matt got sick, and Annika is teething, then we spent all weekend researching dyslexia as we believe that is what Christian is struggling with, then we had an issue with Ryan being teased at school - then we added in baseball and just basic end of the year stuff. I’m telling ya, it was crazy! If you want all the details, check out my post here.

Tomorrow is the last day of school - they go for a whole hour… Then it is SUMMER VACATION! YEA! Tomorrow we also meet with Christian’s teacher, principal, reading teacher, and school psych. to discuss next year. After both Christian’s reading teacher and we did a ton of research, we are pretty much positive it is dyslexia he is struggling with. Of course the state doesn’t require schools to test for that for some reason…. so to get him officially tested it is out of our own pocket at $750-$800 for the testing. If you are interested in the topic at all, here is a great resource www.dys-add.com At any rate, we are pretty sure we are going to homeschool Christian next year using the Orton-Gillingham Method for reading & spelling (another big expense) which has a huge track record of being very successful with dyslexic kids. (actually & adults for that matter) and then 2nd grade level for the rest of his studies. (since he is doing fine in everything but reading) Our hope is to catch him up to grade level and then re-access what grade he will be in the following year. It’s all fairly stressful, but I am feeling optimistic at this point. His reading teacher has been a HUGE help in helping us decide what would be best. She is an incredible lady - spending numerous hours outside of what she is paid for - doing research for us, calling & e-mailing us, calling the state for us etc.

Today I sent to the awards ceremony at school at 1:00, and then they got out of school at 2:00. The boys had a nice time playing at Holly’s house after school. She is my dear friend (Annika’s Godmother) who lives just down the road. Her two boys are Ryan and Dane’s age and we just found out she is expecting another little one as well! We couldn’t be happier for them and they are the most wonderful friends ever!

Our garden is doing well…. I probably should have watered it today though… OOPS… It did rain a little this morning, so hopefully that was enough.

HOPEFULLY the car is getting fixed on Monday.

And YES… Matt is feeling much better. And NO, Thankfully no one else got it.

Any other questions?

C-