taking a break

No swimming for B for awhile.

B started complaining a week or so ago that his ear hurt. It was intermittent. He ran a fever one night. He's been snuffy & coughing at night. He's never been prone to ear infections so I passed it off as bad allergies.

Yesterday he started crying when I touched the nubby part of his ear (it's called a tragus, you learn new things every day). This morning he cried when he pulled his shirt off.

Time to go to the doctor. I didn't tell B where we were going until we where in the car. He freaked out. He said he didn't want the doctor to cut his ear open or give him a shot. I assured him that those things wouldn't happen.

That was the shortest trip to the doctors office ever. We were in and out in 20 minutes. There was no ear cutting open or shots so I didn't lie to him. His diagnosis is a sinus infection and bad case of swimmer's ear. I suppose I should have taken him in earlier. His ear canal was so swollen, it was almost closed.

We got sample drops (lucky because dr said they are terribly expensive) and prescription for the sinus infection. As soon as we got home, I put in the drops and a ear wick to get the medicine into the swollen canal. After a half hour, B sat up and said he was feeling much better. He wanted to call that doctor and tell him thank you for the ear drops. Considering he screamed the whole way to the office, that's good sign.

Now, just keep my fingers crossed that the infection clears up before we go to the lake for the 4th. No swimming until his ear is all better, no swimming at the lake will not be fun!

End of the season in pictures

The boys has their last games today. I finally brought my camera.

Bearcats

Father & son (don't they look alike?)


A hit


Catching


On deck


All Stars

At the tee


Onto second base


Big throw


Going for the last out ....


And he barely misses!

End of the season

Tomorrow is the last day of t-ball & baseball. The boys have had a fun time and I think DH enjoyed coaching J's team.

B loved absolutely everything about playing t-ball. This was his first team sport and he loved wearing a uniform and going to practice. Even though this summer has been super hot, he hasn't complained once. He only stopped to pee in the outfield once. I'd say that's a good season.

He got his trophy after his game on Monday because his coach is out of town this weekend. He has hardly put it down since he got it. It eats with him, goes in the car with him, plays with him. We have convinced him not to sleep with it.



All week he has been begging me to take pictures of him practicing baseball and put them on the blog. We did a mini-photo session yesterday.







Now we just have to wait out the rest of summer until he can join a soccer team.

Father's Day

We planned to start off the day with a trip to the Dallas Zoo to see the new Savannah exhibit. But after the hot day at Cub Scout camp and another hot day of yard work & t-ball & baseball, DH decided he wanted to sleep and go somewhere with air conditioning. So instead of animals we went to see Toy Story 3. It was a cute movie.

Afterward the whole family came over to our house. DH made mess of poppers on his new popper grill. I was busy and didn't get a picture of it in action.

We had barbeque for dinner. It was enjoyed by all.






For dessert, strawberry shortcake with homemade vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream.


My friend in WA told me to try these. Everyone was glad I did. It was delicious. Yum!

First Harvest

We have produce from the garden this year. It has been a lot of work. We have had a very, very dry May & June so far with no rain predicted in the next week or so. I've been hand watering when I remember. At least I'm getting something for my efforts, lots of jalapenos. I wonder if they will be extra hot because of the hot dry weather we've had. DH is going to make poppers today for Father's Day celebration, so we'll find out.



Besides our lima bean pod, we also got one teeny tiny strawberry about the size of my thumbnail. I cut it up into 4ths and fed it to the children before I realized I forgot to take a picture. Oops.

We have some green peppers growing and some tomato flowers that seem like they will actually produce a fruit. I'm not holding my breath because they got to this stage last year and then the stem broke and the flowers fell off. We got maybe a total of 5 tomatoes last year. I'll keep trying.

Happy Campers

Friday was the end of Cub Scout camp. J had a great time despite the heat. DH went out to volunteer for the day on Friday. He survived too. A & B & I joined them for a family picnic Friday night. It was stinkin' hot. 99 degrees and it felt like 110. Okay, maybe not that hot, but hot.

DH & J enjoying some shade.


J demonstrating the throwing thing they made (That's what he told me it was.)


The pack picture (w/o J because he went to the car with DH to get something)


B hanging out with his sibling friends



A brought her books and read in the shade so she was a happy camper.

I got my car back with the bumper all fixed so I was a happy camper too.

Mosquitoes

B was wiped out going to VBS this week. He has fallen asleep every afternoon. When he naps, he doesn't go to bed until late, late, late. Last night he has trouble falling asleep because there were mosquitoes in his room. He complained and complained. I told him to kill the mosquitoes when they landed on him.

He finally fell asleep close to 10pm. I waited awhile after the room was quiet before sneaking in to turn off his lamp. I almost freaked out when I discovered an empty bed in his room. Luckily I saw the corner of his monkey pillow sticking out on the floor. This is how I found him:



I thought about moving him back into cribby but decided it would be too much effort and left him on the floor. I asked him this morning why he went to sleep under the crib. He said the mosquitoes couldn't get him there. He's back under the crib tonight. He is definitely a third child.

Suburban Mom

I drive a minivan. It is a very utilitarian vehicle. I love the open by remote doors. I love that it is easy to get a bunch of kids in and out. I don't really love the car itself. My Mustang GT was a much cooler car. My Maxima was a much nicer car.

I paid off my van last Monday. As the fates would have it, I was rear-ended in carpool line on Tuesday. It wasn't bad damage but the bolts from her front license plate holder punched 2 holes in my bumper. Today I dropped the van off at the repair shop and got a rental. I requested a bigger car and ended up with a Suburban.

It is funny because I know plenty of people (some of my sisters included) who outright refuse to drive a minivan. Too "West Virginia" was a reason sited. I, on the other hand, have always refused to drive a Suburban. Too "Texas soccer mom polluting the earth sitting by the park with the car running to stay cool while the kids practice" for me.

So despite my feelings, I'm driving a Suburban for a few days. So far, I'm not sold.

• It is too big.  I feel like I'm driving an 18 wheeler. 
• Have you backed up a Suburban in the parking lot of St. Monica's School before?  Don't like that part at all.
• The steering wheel is loosey-goosey!  I like tight steering.  This car has way too much play in it.  
• I cannot figure out the radio.  The steering wheel buttons are strange.  I still haven't been able to change the fader.  B spent the afternoon yelling at me to turn up the radio and I refused because it was way too loud up front. 

What I do like about the car is the display for the preset radio stations.  It shows the numbers for each station on the screen.  I don't have to punch all the buttons to find the station I want.  But that's about it.

I don't think I'll buy a suburban, much to B's disappointment.  I think I'll drive my paid for minivan until the kids don't need to ride with me anymore.  So in 20 years, I'll buy a sporty 2 seater that is fast with stick shift.  The virtual opposite of the minivan!

Bible Pirates

B is going to vacation bible school this week. The theme of VBS this year is High Seas Adventure, so lots of sailing references. B has interpreted it as "Bible Pirates". He has been playing pirate since yesterday afternoon.

He decked himself out in his pirate gear and went outside to play. All was good until J went outside and found him with his treasure chest. I followed to end the commotion and found him building a pirate ship out of bricks. The pirate ship part of the game has now ended.

He is still playing "Bible Pirates" inside with his regular pirate stuff.


Mean Pirate


Happy Pirate



B did ask me where the pirates were. I said I didn't think there were pirates any more. B told me I was wrong. The Pirates play the Oklahoma State Army Guys and the Pirates beat the Army Guys. Oklahoma State's nickname is the Cowboys. I have no idea what sport and what teams he has been watching. I just nodded and said "O.K" It is way easier that way.

people are so nice

I have a friend from school. Her daughter and A have been in class together a few times. They played on the same soccer team for a couple of seasons. She knows I knit. Well over a year ago, she mentioned that she picked up some knitting thing off the clearance table at Borders because she thought it was so pretty. She was going to learn to knit but she never did. Denise decided that she would give it to me. Every time I saw her, she remembered that knitting thing.

Well, this morning after dropping the boys off at VBS, I saw her in the parking lot. She stopped me and told me that she had been carrying the knitting thing in her car for 6 months waiting to remember to give it to me. Now was the perfect time.



I was so excited, the lace patterns on the cards are pretty and it is published by Chronicle Books, one of my favorite publishers. I can't wait to put the cards to use. Of course, that means I need to start knitting again!

All about J

I pulled some photos from DH's blackberry and decided to make a post of it.

Our last day of school was May 28th. My sweet little J spent the last week of school crying every morning and evening because he knew it was his very last week with Mrs. F as his teacher. He loved loved loved loved her. On movie day, he pulled his chair next to her desk so he could sit next to her. He skipped singing in the choir at mass so he could sit next to her in church one last time. Oh, how he is going to miss her. I couldn't have asked for a better teacher for my J.



After our trip to the lake and a few days of doing nothing, summer has started. Last week J spent his mornings at golf camp. He had a great time and has a decent swing now. He wanted his coach to sign his bag, but settled for a picture with him instead.



Next week is a busy one. The boys have VBS in the morning and J has cub scout camp in the evening. DH & J went up to the camp site yesterday to help set up. Here is a picture of J with his doppelganger decoration. I didn't think it looked much like him because he isn't wearing his glasses in the picture but DH assures me that it is him.

B's beans

B's class did the lima beans in the bag experiment this year.


picture link

He brought his seeds home when we started working on the garden. We decided to plant them to see what would happen. The ziploc of beans was left in his school bag over the weekend and I wasn't sure if they would survive. Luckily they grew.



We got our first pod of lima beans today.


B informed me that he didn't like those yucky beans and he wasn't going to eat them even if they did come from the plant he grew! I guess I'll blanch and freeze them for S#4 next visit. She was always the crazy sister who loved lima beans and ate them for after school snack.

First Day of Summer vacation

We did a lot of nothing today.

I spent a lot of time attempting to work and not getting much accomplished. My brain is just not in think mode yet.

I did no laundry from our vacation. We turned the water off to the washing machine while we were gone and I can't reach the faucet. I guess I'll do that tomorrow.

The kids stayed in jammies for most of the day. Lots of lazing around watching too much Disney Channel. I figure we could get that out of the way today so we don't do it the rest of the summer.

We have one more day of relaxation until camps start up. The kids are busy the rest of the month with DECATS (A), golf camp (J), VBS (B&J), cub scout camp (j) & basketball camp(J). Plus we have baseball/t-ball on top of all of that. I get to shuttle them everywhere. It's going to be a busy June!

The highlight of the day was dinner. Chicken was okay but the salad was very good. I used less dijon because I'm not a dijon person. DH loved it, kids not so much.

Memorial Weekend

We came up to Missouri for a long weekend. The kids got out of school at 10:30 on Friday. We met them at the park with the car parked with luggage and the dog.

It's been a typical lovely lazy weekend at the lake.


The boy cousins played with J in charge



We had a fish fry.







J got to eat the perch & bass that he and PaPa caught that morning.



We spent lots of time at the big dock









We went on long boat rides. Today it was a trip to Big Cedar with a stop on an island to geocache.













We head back home tomorrow. The kids aren't too happy about. J told PaPa this morning that he was going to glue his rear to the chair to that we couldn't take him home. I guess they like it here!