Down with the sickness.

My, my, my. It's amazing how things can change in a matter of 12 hours.

On Wednesday, things started off great in the Schrock House. The girls were playing dress up and everyone was happy and healthy. Then we got hit with the bomb. At about six o'clock that evening, we noticed Dylanne started to look like shit. She was coughing, sneezing, had a headache and told us her stomach hurt. She then laid down and went to sleep. This is NOT Dylanne at all. So Heather and I decided to take her to the ER to get some medical attention. Dylanne had been indirectly exposed to Influenza A on two separate occasions this year and we feared the worst. To make a long story short, she was diagnosed with Influenza A and now all four of us are on medication. The girls have never been keen on taking medication, so medicine time is restraint time. It's an awful experience!

This is the girls playing dress up at 12 noon on Wednesday. Things at this point seemed to be going well. The girls enjoy the warmer weather, so any chance they have to throw on their summer gear, they take it! They get pissed when I won't let them leave the house this way. "We won't get cold dad!"

Micheala rockin out the shades and the hat. I told her she looked like LL Cool J and she just said, "Is he on Hannah Montana?" I laughed and told her "No". It's then that I realized that I have a lot to teach these girls.

We were hoping that Micheala would somehow avoid getting Influenza A, but Thursday night she was in the same shape as Dylanne. Once we get them medicated, they seem to relax a bit and are able to color and play a bit. Micheala is coloring while resting on the couch. She is very tough to deal with, as expected, and has spike a fever at times of 102.9.

This picture makes me sick to my stomach. Dylanne resting on the couch Thursday night. The toughest part for her was missing her school pajama party. She was looking forward to this party for a week now and had to miss it. Dylanne is suffering the most right now. Her lips are really chapped right now and we have been trying to push fluids on both of them.

It's really tough to see your kids down and out. I know that both my kids are fighters and will get through this, but it doesn't make them feel better right now. Heather and I are basically keeping are hopes up that we don't get this stuff, even though I would gladly trade places with the girls right now. Both girls did have their flu shots but the report is that the shot has only been 40% effective this year. Why couldn't we have fallen in that 40%?

Schrock Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Schrock Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Out with the old and in with the new!

Well it's out with the old and in with the new at The Schrock House. The old being the fact that Micheala has finally parted ways with her pacifier. It has been two weeks since she's had that thing in her mouth and she doesn't seem to miss it. We tried so hard to break her of her pacifier and funny enough, she lost her last pacifier outside while playing in the snow. Sometimes things just have a funny way of working themselves out. The new is that there is a new edition at The Schrock House..........it's Pinky the hamster. I've been unable to get a picture of Pinky because she spends most of her time hiding in her pink cage from Micheala. Believe me, you wouldn't blame Pinky if you witnessed the wrath of Micheala. Yes, another female in the house, so I believe I am out numbered 4 to 1 now. The idea of the hamster is to help teach the girls responsibility. We are teaching them to care for something other than themselves. Heather and i felt that a hamster was a good first step. Let's face it, a dead hamster is easier to deal with than a dead dog! Hopefully, in the years to come, we can think about getting a puppy.

Heather and the girls spent Sunday at Aunt Peb's house attending a baby shower for cousin Jamie and her little boy Ethan. Here they are, all smiles and jacked up on sugar thanks to my aunts. Moments after this picture was taken, both girls got naked and started running around the house pretending they were monsters (a trait I wished their mother would practice). It's pictures like this that make it hard for me to say "no" to these two. That's why they have me wrapped around their little fingers (a trait I wished their mother would NOT practice). From what I hear, Dylanne made friendly with my cousin Russ' daughter Morgan. Dylanne really looks up to older girls and Morgan was really good with her all day. Dylanne spent the entire night talking about Morgan and trying to get me to teach her how to knit like Morgan. Micheala is pretty easy going. The way I understand it is that she spent her time playing with Austin and his hamster, while Aaron fed her candy.

I spent my Sunday on the ice. I entered the 27th annual Cedar Rapids Bass Masters Ice Fisheree at Pleasant Creek Park in Palo. Basically, I fished in an ice fishing tournament. It was only one dollar to enter and they gave away numerous door prizes, none in which I won. However, the contest was to catch the biggest fish in one of the following species: Walleye, Bass, White Bass, Catfish, Crappie, Bluegill or Perch. The tournament was from 9am - 3pm. I got up at 5:45am and went out to the lake to secure my spot (I am dedicated or territorial, you take your pick). I fish mainly Crappie and Bluegill in the winter, so these were the categories I was trying to win. I started out good, catching 2 crappie and 6 bluegill in my first 45 minutes of the tournament. Then the fish stopped biting.........but not only for me, but for the other 500 plus fisherman out there. I spent the rest of the tournament looking at my ice hole and not catching fish. Finally, one of my crappies I thought was pretty big, but I was unsure it was big enough to consider getting weighed for "Biggest Crappie", so I asked one of the Bass Master members that was fishing near me if he thought I should have it weighed. Without hesitation, he told me "yes" and thought that I may have caught the winner. Long story short, I won the Crappie category of the tournament. My prize was $100, but did not compare to the amount of buzz the fish stirred up from the other fishermen while proudly being displayed on the leaderboard. The winning crappie is pictured above, moments before becoming just another meal. The fillet knife is 12 inches long and placed beside the fish for size reference (fellow fishermen know the importance of doing this in pictures. My first tournament of the ice and a victory!

That was our Sunday. No more pacifier! Now if we can just get her to drop a deuce in the toilet, we'll be set! From The Schrock House to yours, God Bless and GO HAWKS!

A little ditty from the minority in the house

I have 3 goals that I try to achieve everyday at our house:

1. Make Heather happy

2. Make Dylanne happy

3. Make Micheala happy

If I can achieve at least 2 out of the 3 listed goals, it makes my life just a bit easier for that day.

It's hard for me to feel like a "manly man" in our house because of the presence of 3 "alpha females". I spend a lot of my time fishing, which I use as a tool to keep my sanity, but don't get me wrong...I love my 3 little ladies!

Some of you may think that this picture is visual evidence of me trying to brain wash my girls. Just for the record, I believe the girls both chose to love the New York Giants on their own. What's not to love about the Super Bowl Champs?! Okay, so maybe they're not completely sold on the New York Giants ............. yet, but at least they're Hawkeyes!


Quite honestly, this kind of brings a tear to my eye. Micheala may be a bit on the goofy side, but she's definately on to something here!

Recently Heather and Dylanne went to see Hannah Montana's concert at the movie theatre. It was a 3-D concert and they had fun.......for the most part. Dylanne dressed the part and got a lot of attention at the theatre, but did not see all of the concert due to not following directions at the theatre.

Finally, with all of the snow outside, why not eat some, or at least that's the girls' philosophy.

Only 193 days until Hawkeye kickoff. I can't wait as it gives me one more thing to stress about, haha! I'm finally getting my season tickets this year and I can't wait. As a Valentine's Day gift, I bought Heather 2 tickets to Kelly Clarkson on April 18th. I told her to treat it as a girls night out, so she's taking one of her friends.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more updates.

Catching up

We decided that maybe it would be a good idea to jump on board and do a blog of the family for our friends and family to keep up with us. I'll just catch everyone up on the last year in this posting and let Mike do the fun posting another day. He will be much better at this than me. The picture above is a picture of our house.

Last Spring we went to see Elmo on stage and the girls loved it. Daddy took this picture of us.

The picture above is of the girls cruising around the yard in their hummer.

This is a picture of Dylanne's first catch with Daddy last summer.

This is a great picture of Daddy and Dylanne. Notice Daddy's glasses. We got these cute masks at our friends' daughter's first birthday party. Daddy took Micheala's away from her and played with it.

This is Micheala's first time riding a bike. Now we can hardly get her off of it. She even tries to take it out in the snow when she gets a chance.

We had 2 very important weddings this past summer. Mike was in his cousin Chris' wedding. This is a picture of Micheala passed out after a night of dancing at that wedding. We were also very excited that Mike's sister Joni got married and Mike and the girls were in that wedding. The next picture is of Diva Dylanne getting her hair done. She woke up on the way wrong side of the bed that day luckily it all got better. She thought she was really grown up when she realized at the reception that she could go up to the bar all on her own and get as much soda as she wanted. She kept saying, "My grandpa paid for it!"

The picture below is of Dylanne at big old Urbana Days. She loved it and competed in the Little Miss Urbana competition. My friend Erica helped me with the competition since Mike was working. We thought it would be a big deal, but all they did was interview each little girl and then drew their names out of a hat. Erica is actually the one that drew the names and didn't pick Dylanne so we picked on her a lot, but as it turned out none of the kids really wanted to win because then they would have to ride in the parade and not being able to sit and watch and get candy.

This is a picture of the girls at halloween. Of course daddy talked them into being Hawkeye Cheerleaders. Of course they had fun and got way too much candy!

This is a picture of the cardboard hawkeye helmet that Mike made and hangs out every Saturday morning during football season. It is huge and everyone seems to enjoy it, except for the cyclone fans!

I will end this quick. This is the girls with Santa. I actually ended up on his lap with them on mine, poor Santa. Will catch up with more soon.

The Schrocks