The Sickees Are Invading My House

Spring is here so why are we still sick in my house? I feel like the sickees/flu bugs have won. I'm throwing up the surrender flag. It all started a few weeks ago with Danny and a cold. He's been coughing and then last week he just felt terrible. Great it only takes one to wipe out the whole house. We go to Columbus for the weekend and Sunday I start to feel bad. We get home Sunday night and by Monday when I wake up I feel like my head is going to explode. I felt so much pressure in my head and I was stuffy and sneezing and of course coughing. I felt so bad Monday that I didn't even get on my computer. Now here it is Thursday and I still have a terrible headache and tons of pressure. But to top it off Sami woke up at 3am throwing up. She's had a cough since the weekend but I was hoping that is all she would get. No such luck. She has eaten in 2 days and I'm trying my hardest to make her drink but come on everyone how do you get a 3 year old to drink when they don't want to?! I beg, plead, and bribe. Sami has had a fever today as high as 104.1 and not below 103.4. I'm giving her medicine for her fever and her cough so that she won't start coughing so hard she throws up. I went to Rite Aid and got her some of those Pedilite popcicles and she took a few licks of that then wanted no more.

She looks so sick it just breaks my heart. If she still has a fever tomorrow I am calling her doctor just so I know that its nothing more. I hope she is feeling better tomorrow cause I need to get this house cleaned up at least a little and I have to get to the store. We have all the kids this weekend and no food. That is not a good combo 7 kids and no food. Somehow it will all work out I know that it just has to run its course. I just wish it would skip over my house.

Welcome Spring!

Well life in the Camp-Robins house is about to get very busy. This week is going to be crazy. I am babysitting the neighbor kids during the day. Bailee and Maddie have cheering practice Tuesday, Wenesday, and Thrusday from 5-7. They have cheering tryouts Saturday at 9am. I will be in Columbus for Brittany's 16th birthday party so Bailee will be staying with her friend for the weekend. Anyways back to the hectic week...Brennan and Sonny have baseball practice Tuesday at 5. Who knows what other day they will have baseball practice. Maddie has volleyball game Tuesday at 8pm and then on Thrusday at 7pm. Oh my what a week.

Not to mention I have a ton to do this week to get ready for Brittany's party in Columbus on Saturday. I have to scan pictures and get them sent to my sister so she can do a slideshow and I am doing a picture board. I gotta decide on food and shop for that. Wow when will I get it all done? Who knows but somehow it always gets done.

Welcome Spring! Love the nice weather and love baseball season. Stay tuned to see if I survive the week.

I'm Addicted

Danny says I have gone crazy. The last 2 weeks or so I have spent hours on the computer searching the net. For what? COUPONS!!! I am addicted to coupons. I never thought it would be this fun looking for coupons and collecting them. I'm not even sure what got me started. A few weeks ago I searched coupons and found tons of sites that I can print grocery coupons from. Then I started reading message boards and blogs about how to save over 50% on your grocery bill. Ok you got my attention. I would love to cut my grocery bill in half. So after reading some message boards I went out and bought a Wheeling and a Pittsburgh paper. Why those? Cause the papers in bigger cities have more and better coupons then in small cities. Plus I have my mom in Columbus buying me the Sunday paper there. I have found tons of sites to print coupons and I have emailed a few companies and gotten coupons from them.

The coupon world is crazy fun. I have learned so much. Such as I can use 2 coupons for one item (a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon). I can preload coupons onto my Kroger card. I have spent hours looking up brand name companies and signin up for their newsletters to get coupons. The craziest thing is you can buy coupons on ebay. I got 100 coupons for $1.50. What?! It's crazy. It is AWESOME!

My goal is to cut my grocery shoppin in half by summer. And I can't believe how much fun I am having finding coupons and finding the best deals. This week on my grocery trip I saved $128( now that includes my Kroger card savings). I want to get a small group of moms together so we can trade coupons here in my town.

Well I just wanted to share my coupon addiction with all of you. Stay tuned for futher family updates.

Crazy February

Sorry I have not blogged lately but February has been very crazy in the Camp-Robins house. To start the month out Brittany was admitted to the hospital and spent 3 days there. We thought maybe she needed to have her appendix out but after many tests the doctors seem to think that the pain she was having was from a ruptured cyst. This poor girl has had more test then most adults I know. The doctors have no idea why her stomach is always hurting. Whenever she eats she has bad stomach pains. I am hoping to get her into a GYN doctor this week to rule out anything female related.

Brittany hit a huge milestone this month. Her sweet 16th birthday. However, due to her being in the hospital and basketball we postponed her party until March. She is excited to take the driving part of her drivers ed and then in March get her license. OH BOY everyone watch out. No really she has been doing a great job driving. She already has a car, thanks to her Aunt Janelle. Thank you Janelle no way I could afford to get her a car. I am so excited for her and sad all at the same time. I can't believe that my little girl is 16 and getting her license.

Basketball has also been keeping up busy. Brittany has come so far this year with it and has learned a lot. The seasons last game was yesterday and they played the defending state champs. Needless to say they lost but they played hard. Brittany has come so far with the game this year and I am so proud of her and I can't wait to see her play next year. She is sad that the season has ended.

This month I also I had to sign Sami up for preschool next year. I can't believe it is the time already. She will go 2 days a week for the entire day. What will I do with myself on Tuesdays and Thrusdays? I just don't know yet. Stay tuned to see how I handle my alone time.

The boys are the boys. I can't wait for winter to be over so they can get outside. They seem to have hibranated in their room with their game systems. Brennan and Emerson are selling pretzels to help cover the cost of 6th grade camp. I can't believe that next year they will be in the 7th grade and at the high school. Watch out everyone!
Spencer is now taller then Danny. That is freaky crazy. He is taking guitar lessons and is enjoying it.

Bailee and Maddie are taking dance classes and loving it. They can't wait for cheering to start up again. They have been teaching Sami some new cheers so that she can be the mascot for them. Well at least that is their goal. Bailee has gotten her back hand spring down and is working on a tuck. Maddie is working on getting her back hand spring down. They love to dance around the house with Sami.

Well, I think that is all for now. I promise to blog more often so that they are not so long.

Snow Days

Well we have used our 5 snow days that we get each year all this month. Last week we used 3 of them. The snow just kept coming and coming. Of course the kids were thrilled that they didn't have school for 3 days. They got to go out and play in the snow and go sledding. Bailee, Maddie, and Sami went out and played and made snow cones. They loved it. Sami came in and her face was all red from eating the snow. Then the girls come in and get in the hot tub to get warm. They love it.

Brennan went sledding with his friends down one of the known sledding hills. And even Brittany went one day with her girl friends and went sledding. Too be a kid again.

Now I hear that it is possible we could be getting a huge storm Monday and Tuesday. Rumor has it that it could be as bad as the blizzard of 93. NO!!! More snow! More snow days. We are now going into our Spring break, which they only get 3 days, or going later into the summer. Great we have summer vacations already planned and schedule I don't want the kids to go longer in the summer. Oh well I guess we will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday to see if we really get this snow storm. The cool thing is I don't remember the blizzard of 93 so it would be neat to see that much snow. Guess I better get to the store so we have food in the house.

However, beautiful the snow is I am ready for warmer days, sunshine, and summertime.

Brittany and basketball

Brittany is a sophmore at Toronto High School and is playing basketball this year. Our neighbor is the coach and I was talking to another parent who said they only had 11 girls and Britt should play. I wanted her to get involved in something to make some friends and to feel part of something. She was not happy with me that I signed her up. I told her to go to practice and try it out and if she didn't like it then she didn't have to go back. She came home and said she hated it but she was the 12th girl and she was going to stick out. They practiced Monday-Saturday for 2 hours each day. Britt hurt in places she didn't even know she had. Then one day at practice they were fitted for their shoes and travel outfits and when she came home she was so excited and happy that she was part of a team. I was happy for her. She worked really hard at practice and even during gym class would get extra help with shooting and other basketball plays. She plays for the JV team and even though they have only won 3 games they are improving every game. Their 2nd win was againist the catholic high school Brittany almost went to so she knew alot of the kids at the game. The game was close and Brittany made her 1st basket. Her whole team was so excited for her. I was screaming in the stands with the other moms who knew this was her first basket. That night they won by 3 points. Brittany helped with that and I am very proud of her. Her coaches are always telling her and me that she is improving and she is doing so good. We are all so proud of her.

How Camp Robins Got Started

How we became the Camp Robins Clan. My best friend, Kristal, worked for Danny and kept telling me that I should go out with him. I kept telling her no I was already dating someone; but she wouldn't give up and finally I was single again. She called me to tell me that Danny got run over by his own car. Once she told me he was fine I was cracking up but I wanted to see if he really was fine so she gave me his email address and I sent him an email asking him about getting run over by his own car. What a story!!! He emailed me back to tell me he was really fine and we started emailing each other. Now just so you know that I wasn't a complete weirdo I had met Danny once before while I was dating the previous guy at the bar one night while out with Kristal. So he did know me when I emailed him, well sort of. During our emailing I asked him what kind of music he liked, see Kristal, her hubby, and I were going to see Brooks and Dunn and I had an extra ticket and was going to invite him. Well his response was "anything but country" well that was not good. This concert was 5 different country artists and lasted like 6 hours. When I told him why I was asking he said the only way he would go was if he could pay. Well hell yes. The date for the concert was July 6th. Then came Kristal July 4th party and Danny came, this was the first time I'd seen him since starting to email him. We talked at the party and a bunch of us made plans for the next night to go to dinner. Then came the day of the concert. I have to give him huge kudos for hating country he took like a pro. The next day we went to a Columbus Crew game and a Columbus Clippers game. Now all this was in July of 2001 and we have been together ever since.