Summer is here.....

Summer is officially here at the Bruggman's house. We have been swimming, playing softball, and working in the garden. I have been watching the girls cousin's again this summer. They all love being together every day and they are old enough that I really don't have to hover over them all the time. I usually make them go outside in the mornings while it is still cool. We have lunch and then head outside to the pool to play for a little while before their mom comes to pick them up at 3:00pm.
Abbie's softball team is doing ok this year. We moved her up to play Midget Girls (where the kids pitch). Her team is actually good enough to make the playoffs this year. We were not expecting that. These are 3rd graders (about to be 4th graders) that are playing against 5th graders (about to be 6th graders) and they did great! I should have some pictures to post next time.
I have applied for a job with Rogers ISD. Until I know about school for sure, I need to have a job that gives the family health benefits. Working with the school lets me still be at school with the kids and I have the same hours that they do. That is a huge plus. We will see what happens after that.

Camping....sort of

I don't like to camp. I am a girl who likes her nice soft bed, nice smells, no sand, dirt, mud. I like showers. I don't like to "squat". So imagine my husbands surprise when our friends asked us to go camping and I agreed. We made our plans and we joined them on Saturday afternoon out at the Brazos river near Calvert. Things were going great. The boys had gone to set their "lines" and some boys and all the girls stayed behind to start cooking dinner. Cole started making a campfire so we could roast weenies and marshmallows.
The boys returned and we finished with supper. We roasted marshmallows and made some very yummy smores. It was starting to get dark and all of the adults were sitting around the campfire talking. The kids had locked themselves out of the camper so Derek had walked over to the camper to open it up. Abbie says that he was taking too long so she started to walk back over to me. And that is when it happened. She let out a piercing scream and RAN over to where we were sitting. She crawled up in my chair and there they were, 2 small puncture marks. That's right folks, you guessed it, a SNAKE BITE!!!!! Abbie was starting to panic a little so I was trying to calm her down. In the mean time, Shelby was starting to panic because of what happened to Abbie. AHHHHHH! We decided to just leave all of our camping stuff there and got in the truck and began the 1 hour and 10 minute drive to Temple. We got to the ER around 10:45 pm and luckily we knew 2 of the nurses working so they got us back to a room really quickly. We saw a doctor really quickly and were quite the star of the show for a while. We had 3 doctors in our room taking pictures with their iphones and such.

We got moved up to the Pediatric icu at about 3:30 am and they gave her the first dose of anti-venom at 4:30 am. She finally slept at 4:00 am and didn't wake up til 8 am. She is feeling pretty good right now, and will probably get out of the hospital tomorrow some time. She has had alot of visitors today and mom is exhausted. Dad went home to sleep because he has to work tomorrow. Unfortunately for us, we do not have health insurance right now and this anti-venom medication is going to run about $20,000. Luckily this is a charity hospital and they will work with us on paying for it. Thanks to all of you who knew about this and said prayers for Abbie.

Sad Day

Today when the mail came I had my letter from TC in it. If you have read my other posts, it was an Unfortunately letter. I'm not sure what I will be doing now. I may apply to MCC for their Spring 2010 nursing class. Right now I am very unsure of what I will be doing and even if I want to go thru this again for the 3rd time. Maybe that will be the charm.....

It's been a while.....

Well, almost 2 months have gone by since my last post. I have been subbing at school everyday as a PE teacher (boy do I have a good tan). We have 8 days left of school (yay)! The girls are getting very excited for the summer to be here. Their cousins be coming again every day to play (and earn mom a little extra money), their Aunt Valerie is home from school and they get to go away to camp again this year. What more could a kid want!
We have been getting the pool summer ready the last few days. It always takes a while to get out the leaves that have gotten in their over the winter and then one of us has to get in and get the yuck off of the sides. Not a fun job. It should be ready to swim in by the end of the weekend.
I should be hearing in a couple of days whether or not I got into nursing school. Hopefully it will be a Congratulations! letter, not an Unfortunately, letter. Keep your fingers crossed!
I have been working in my garden. WEEDS are overrunning it. I go out every day just to stay caught up with pulling them. My tomato plants are so big and heavy I have to go out and stake them today. The radish's are already out of the ground and have been very delicious. I can't wait for the squash to get ready. Abbie is excited about the cucumbers. She wants to learn to make pickles. I swear that child has to be related to Joey somehow! I sure don't like pickles that much.
I will try to post more often, especially now that we are gonna be out of school and I will be home every day.

So much to do, so little time

I have been seriously falling down in my blogging. We have been very busy. Softball has started so we have practice twice a week on Sunday and Thursday evenings. We have CCD at church on Wednesday evenings. This week we are getting ready at our church for our annual Spring Fest. Last Tuesday I went to Green's Sausage House and helped the ladies of our parish prepare the dressing that will be cooked that day for the meal. It took us most of the day to get it prepared. Tonight we will meet at the church hall to cut the vegetables that go into our cole slaw and then on Saturday morning we meet back at the hall to mix the cole slaw and do last minute preparations.
And during all this, Abbie's birthday is tomorrow. She wants cupcakes to take to school for her friends since she is not having her party until the end of the month. I just don't know where all the time goes. I am turning in my application for nursing school today, after finally receiving my transcripts from Blinn yesterday (after requesting them 2 times).YAY!! I will not know if I got in though until after the fourth week of May. Keep your fingers and toes crossed! I have been substitute teaching at the school quite a bit. As much as the kids can be so bad, I will admit that I will miss it next year. I love being at the school with my kids and they really like me there too (it means they don't have to ride the bus to school).
To sum all this up, I am feeling the pressure of too much to do, and to little time. Anyone else feel this way?

The results are in.....

Well, a few weeks ago, Abigail (3rd grade) took the Reading portion of her TAKS test. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (I think, it changes every few years). Well, we got report cards today and enclosed in the envelope with her report card was the TAKS test results. I am very proud to say that Abbie only missed ONE!!! (the last one, as a matter of fact). She had a very good report card as well. She takes the Math portion of the TAKS in April. Steve and I are very proud of her.

I'm back....

I didn't realize that it had already been two weeks since I promised an update after the San Angelo Stock Show. Time is just getting away from me. Well, Jack-Jack ended up getting sifted out of the show and once that happened he has to get on a truck to go...well, we don't say the B-word (bacon) around our house right now, but that is where he went. There was some tears after she left the ring and she went outside to watch Jack-Jack in the holding pen before he was loaded onto the trailer. She was better by the time we got home later that night, but the next morning she asked me if I thought Jack-Jack was still alive or not. That is the last she has asked about him.

Baseball season is upon us now. Abbie is going to play and Shelby is not. Abbie is actually going to move up & play with bigger girls this year. She has one more year to play coach pitch, but because of some other things that happened, and not much of a returning team we decided to move up one year this year, get all of the girls back on one team together (they were split last year), and then we would be able to play together for 3 years, instead of just 2. Her first practice is supposed to be tomorrow, but we are expecting rain and very cold temps so I doubt we will have practice. Opening day is April 18th so wish Abbie luck with her softball season.

Shelby is ready for Spring Break which is next week for us. She likes school but hates waking up in the mornings. She was music student of the month for the whole 1st grade last month. I am so proud of her. She is always singing and dancing around the house. She is not playing ball this year. It interferes too much with her social life when we are at the ball games.

I have still been subbing quite a bit at the Elementary school. I like being there with the kids and it give us some extra money each month. Keep your fingers crossed and the prayers coming that I get accepted into nursing school this fall. I will find out by the last week of May. I know that sounds far away, but it will be here before we know it.

Steve is still working hard at the dealership. He has been such a blessing to me. He has worked so hard so that I can go to school and stay home with the kids this past year. He always puts me and the girls first and I can't even begin to say what that has meant to me and what it will mean for our family in the years to come. He has been unselfish and giving and I just can't believe how lucky I am to have him in my life. Enought mushiness (Joey stop crying.), I just realized recently how lucky I am to have my family and my friends.

I hope everyone else is doing well. Joey, good luck finishing up the move. Know that I am with you in spirit! Spring will be here before we know it. Today we are getting some good rain that we need so desperately. Hopefully it will rain the rest of the week.