Catch up thru some pics!

I finally got my camera, the card reader for the computer and some time all available in the same night! Here are a few pics of the last 6 weeks or so that I have been neglecting on the blog!

This is the last day of school. Can you believe it? I feel like I just blogged about the first day of school. Except that Lainey didn't have a cast, I wasn't pregnant (actually about to do a triathlon) and Lainey didn't know how much she would come to LOVE Mrs. Barnes! We had a great year!

The week after school got out, the storm hit our neighborhood and the trees hit our house! Here are a couple of better shots with a real camera--not an iPhone. What you are looking at is our backyard. There wasn't a square inch without fallen tree branches on it!
Here is the tree and the actual damage done to the roof. We found water damage inside about a week later. It's not all fixed just yet!

We came home a few days ago and Rhody asked as we pulled into the garage, "Where are our trees in the backyard?" Where the heck has he been? It was kind of funny actually.

We celebrated Lainey's 6 year old birthday--a week or so late because of the cast. Lainey has been planning her swim party for about 10 months! Gobby made another awesome cake and Lainey and friends had a great time!

The boys (Sam on left) all got buzz cuts at the beginning of the summer! Uncle Blair did all of them in one day! I wasn't sure about cutting Bo's hair off but I actually like it a lot. They all look great and it's nice for this HOT summer!

All the kids were dying to take my camera and take a few shots. Here is Rhody's picture! 

Here is Bo's shot. Lainey was trying to help him out!

A cute pic of Ridge and Bo from church on Sunday. These two are adorable, stubborn and should keep us on our toes for years to come! Precious!

All three--pre buzz cuts!

Have a great day!

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

I love kids. I think they are so funny. They can say things adults could never get away with saying.

Here are a couple of examples from my precious children!

Yesterday, Lainey and I were out somewhere together. (I have already forgotten where!) Anyway, she looked at my tummy and said, "Mommy! Your tummy is so big that it looks like you could have the baby tomorrow!"

Yeah, I'm due in OCTOBER!

Just deleted part of this post that my husband said might not be very nice. Yes, I have a husband that can be more sensitive to other's feelings than I am. No surprise. Just know that Rhody said something very funny and inappropriate. 

OK. I got permission to print the following story about Rhody.

Warning:  Dad, I am about to throw you under the bus. Don't worry, I have been there plenty of times--it's not so bad. 

So we went swimming yesterday at my parent's house. My kids were pumped that my dad (Poppy) was going to get in the pool with them! We were all in the pool when Poppy joined us.

Rhody welcomed him by saying very enthusiastically, "Poppy! You have boobies!"

We all laughed. Poppy laughed the hardest. 

They only way this is funny is because my Dad is 68 years old and looks better than most people who are 20 years younger! 

Bo woke up the other day and immediately started talking. The norm for him. He started saying names, "Nana, Poppy, Mommy, Daddy, Lainey, Rhody, Jack Jack, Sambo, Nic, etc." He named a few more and then said, "Those are my People." 

Since when does he have "people?"

Then today Lainey came down while I was watching a Michael Jackson biography. She watched a few minutes of the early part. She said, "I like the littlest one. He is a good singer." Even a six year old could recognize that Michael was the star of his family.

Then they showed a picture of Michael from the cover of Bad. Remember that album?

Lainey looked at it and said, "Bad. He looks bad. Like a mom."

I waited a second and said, "Did you say 'like a mom?' What do you mean my precious child?" Or something like that!

She said he has long hair that is curly and some makeup--like a mom. 

Everytime they showed a picture a Michael at different ages, she asked who it was. He looks so different each time.

Have a great week!

Everybody's doin' the locomotion!

I have mixed emotions tonight. 

Love that it is summer. Hate that it is so freakin' hot. In June.

Love air-conditioners. Hate that the upstairs stopped working for a while tonight. Love that it did come back on. (I hesitate to say anything because I don't want to jinx it.)

Love that I have an ice cream treat waiting for me. Hate that I still feel full from dinner--my stomach is shrinking while my belly is getting HUGE!

Love P-Y-T and Billie Jean. Hate that Michael Jackson died--living a strange, confused life. Still love me some Thriller. (I did see Michael and the rest of the Jackson's in concert during the victory tour. I was in 6th grade and it was my first concert. It was awesome! I might have worn a rolled up bandana as a headband to be cool.)

Love So You Think You Can Dance. Love the DVR even more!

Love that we have a home to live in. Hate the way home owner's insurance works. Hate deductibles that are extremely high. But did I mention, grateful to have a house and insurance?

Love the casual style of summer--no makeup, easy, comfy clothes. Hate that I go too many days without showering and looking in the mirror only to find some major eye brow issues and other skin issues.

Love that my children all finished swim lessons and loved them. Hate that my 6 year old daughter was discouraged because she knew most of the other girls swim faster than her. (it felt like a real "parenting" moment to hear her disappointment and frustration when talking about "losing" the relay swim. I didn't even think she noticed that part. She doesn't like failing at things and I can see that I will have to re-frame her definition of failing. She wasn't interested in that little life lesson tonight. The whole thing left me a little sad for her.)

Love that we had our first dinner guests tonight. I have no conflicting feelings about that!

Off to eat and watch tv. 

Yea, the title had nothing to do with the post. I like any 80's or Tiffany references.

I am so popular

Think of the song from Wicked. Pop-u-lar.

Seriously, I am so popular right now. Well, actually not me--more like us and our house. Really, it is just our house but since I live in it--that sort of makes me popular too.

Every neighbor has come by to see us (it). I have had phone calls all day.

But not for the reasons I would pick. Take a look at what happened this morning during the storm.

We lost almost every tree in our backyard.

This picture is actually during the clean up but I can't figure out how to move it to the bottom of this post. We are at my folks using their computer. Because we don't have power--and won't for a while.


It must have been straight line winds at very high speeds or something. It literally uprooted one big ol' tree and knocked down two others.

It did hit our house. See the poor gutter? And the edge of the roof?

I was home with the kids when it happened. We were actually in the boy's room--right where the trees fell--when the power went out and the winds took out the trees. I heard loud, cracking and popping sounds and thought it might be really big hail hitting the house.

I got the kids quickly down stairs and immediately saw a huge tree right outside of our backdoor. That's all I could see out of the back door--tree, branches and more tree.

Then I got the kids set up with a movie on the laptop and sort of freaked out. It was actually a bit scary. But then Kyle, my folks, our tree guy (who happened to be in our neighborhood), followed by the roof guy, then the fire department, and then OnCor all were at our house. Plus, lots of concerned friends and neighbors.

The power is out. The yard is a mess with all the carnage from our trees. It will be a few days before it is all cleaned up. We have a 5ft mound of tree branches on our front sidewalk.

But we are safe. And have family close that can put us up for a night or two.

Oh yeah, my car that is sitting in our garage--has a completely flat tire.

oh well.

We are in "New House"

I am pumped and feeling rather brilliant because I totally hooked up our internet (including wireless access) all by myself tonight! (only one slight phone call to Rob). I am so back online! I have been living on internet access strictly from my iPhone for the last two weeks. 

I still believe the iPhone is awesome but it's not easy to search for denim bedding or search for anything for that matter on an iPhone. I got to keep up with my email and occasionally check some blogs. Of course, it took 15 times longer to read those blogs, but I didn't want to totally lose touch.

So, we moved! We are in our new house! We love it. Except for Bo who has multiple times said he "didn't want to live in new house. I want to live at we house." He means our old house when he says, "we house." But we are thrilled to be in this house, out of the other house and slowing down a lot. 

I have thought of so many things that I wanted to blog about when I didn't have internet access. Like how Home Warranties are bogus. They cover some things and not others. They covered some of the plumbing issues but not the plumber having to get on the roof. You know the story.

Or how nothing is on tv right now. Except for So You Think You Can Dance!!!

Or how I never want to move again. 

Or how I was told by the doctor that I need to eat more of that yogurt--the probiotic something or another. You know, the one Jamie Lee Curtis advertises. Just more proof that I am getting older.

Or how I still love warm glazed donuts.

Or how my youngest child is the most independent kid I know. I think he said, "I do it myself!" before he said "mommy."

Or how we are having another boy!!! Thought it was a girl after a couple of early sonograms but clearly it was a boy in my 20 week sonogram! We were definitely surprised. I love having boys so we are thrilled. Just don't have any names just yet.

See, I guess my blog didn't miss much. I didn't have a whole lot to say. 

Glad to be back online.

It always comes back to Little House

Yesterday I woke up with shooting pains in my jaw. You know, right behind where the jaw bone ends and almost to my ear?

At first, I thought it could be referred pain from a tooth. No good for a pregnant person. You can't get much done (without anesthesia) while pregnant!

Then I thought I could have an ear infection.

Then I remembered that I have a history with TMJ or clinching my teeth at night. And I figured that was definitely where the pain came from. (just ended a sentence in a preposition--not good!)

The point is that I thought I might need to take some pain medicine or it was going to be a LONG day with the boys. Not easy to parent two little boys while experiencing shooting pain. Another one of my mommy limitations!

So I went to the medicine cabinet and then remembered that the only thing I can take right now is Tylenol. No-good, very-bad and more importantly ineffective Tylenol.

I had a moment of self-talk right then (as I took the Tylenol). 

I need to be grateful for this medicine--as crappy as it may be. Because back in the "old days" they didn't have medicines for people-pregnant or not. I need to be grateful. I am grateful. But wait. They did have medicine in the "old days." I know they did. I remember they had morphine! 

Then the parental advisory episode of Little House on the Prairie came to mind. Not the one with the girl who was evidently abused or raped. That one gave me some bad dreams for a while.  

Remember when Albert experimented with Doc's medicines? He got a hold of some morphine and got immediately addicted. Back to my thoughts.

Hey, they had morphine back in the old days. They didn't have Tylenol because they didn't need it. Albert used morphine. Of course, he did literally foam at the mouth and vomit some sort of white substance. Maybe Tylenol isn't so bad.

And then I realized that probably 95% of the reason I never tried drugs as a teenager was as a direct result of Albert Ingalls and his unfortunate experience with drugs. It scared the crap out of me! The other 5% was because Nancy Reagan said that I should "Just Say No!" And that was enough for me.

So thank you Albert and Nancy. You saved me years of pain and suffering. And evidently foaming at the mouth.

PS. The Tylenol actually worked and the shooting pain stopped. I need to be careful who (or what) I have bad thoughts about!

Another day, another doctor

Please note the picture below. I will let Lainey's own words (in this phone conversation) to her friend Addie explaining what happened. 

Get ready for some run-on sentences. 

Lainey said, "Yeah, I was twirling in the den and I got dizzy. I fell over on something hard, like something metal or something on the couch. . . then I put an ice pack on it--that didn't help. I started crying so hard that I had to go potty. Then we took some keys to a guy at the new house and then went to a t-ball game. . .  (pause for a breath) and then I went to school (clearly the next morning) until recess and then went to a couple of doctors and they said it might be broken and it was broken. And then the lady told us to meet her at this place and it was the wrong place and then we went to the right place where they put castes (casts) on. Right now I am standing next to the couch. And you know what color it is? Kind of light blueish. It sort of matches my shirt. . . " (I think Addie realized lainey was talking about the color of the cast--not the couch)

Then 10 more minutes of more light conversation including who might win American Idol  "either Chris or the other guy, but not your dad Chris--it's another guy named Chris." Lainey is nothing if not detailed and informative.

So there you have it folks. Lainey broke her arm last night after twirling in our den and braking her fall (literally) on the sofa. And then came into the kitchen (to see Kyle and I both) crying --some weird, never-heard-before cry--and exclaiming between sobs that she had broken her arm. 

Like any good parent, we totally dismissed the whole broken arm thing. And dealt with the unending, starting-to-get-obnoxious crying. I mean it was dinner time and we had a t-ball game to get to. And plus, she is 5 almost 6--she doesn't know if she broke her arm or not. And did I mention that she has a flare for the dramatic?

Anywho, she was right. She did brake her arm. It is called a buckle fracture. 

She has a cast. It is light blue. She has to wear it for 3 weeks or so. My plans to start living in swimming pools might be dampened a bit. (pun intended)

She is feeling good now. And can't wait to go show her teacher and fellow classmates her new cast!

All this after a not-so-fun-visit to another ENT on Monday.

Let me first start with this basic fact about me. I will do almost anything to NOT take multiple children to a doctor's visit. I loathe sitting in a germ-invested office trying to entertain children with crayons, books, granola bars, and an iPhone. All of that before you actually see a doctor. It is always a crap shoot (I am not sure that is the right way to spell or use that phrase). Sometimes it is ok and other times it is the stuff that anxiety attacks are made of. 

But Rhody and Bo both had appointments with a new doctor. Just to get to know him and get him up to speed on their ears and the poor "drainage system" they seem to have inherited.  And because I had a not-so-good experience with our other ENT. 

Let me be as quick as possible. (I know, not possible)

The doctor comes in and introduces himself. I automatically called him by his first name instead of "Dr. RosenRosen*." I was immediately mortified that I was so casual and possibly disrespectful to this new doctor. 

I am still hopeful because he does treat children in his practice and has four of children himself.

He looks at Bo first. Immediately a problem. Major, yucky fluid coming out of his ear. He decides to suction some which causes Bo to start screaming. He stops and tells me that he will have to put Bo in a harness (straight jacket) to get the rest.

We have done this before (with aforementioned doctor--remember the bad experience). It is a nightmare to have your child literally strapped down screaming for help. Just thinking about it-- I might start crying.

We move on to Rhody. He starts crying before the doctor looks into his ear. The doctor says, "Why is he crying? Kids his age don't usually cry?"

Wow. That is helpful and encouraging. 

Could it be that he just saw his brother screaming when you did something to his ears? Of course, it is Rhody and tears are not hard to come by with him.

Anyway, I called my mom to come get Rhody the heck out of that office before we do the straight jacket procedure with Bo. It might possibly scar Rhody more. And I would have 2 screaming boys (and pregnant) wanting me.

It's over now but it wasn't pleasant. 

Do they teach "bed side manner" anymore in med school?

Off to watch Idol!

*Doctor's name changed.