Slow Down!!!

This morning I was talking with a dear friend of mine who lives out of state about our Summers and what all we have been busy doing...and it hit me-Summer is almost over. I hate even typing those words. In a few short weeks, we will be school supply shopping, buying new school shoes, new school uniforms....and I will officially be the mother of a Forth and First grader, and a 3 1/2 year old who will be starting her 2nd year of pre-school.

How did this happen??

The realization has come at the perfect time...these past two weeks, we've had no plans, just long Summer days, full of fun, sun, playing, swimming, reading, resting, watching movies....and if I'm honest- arguing, boredom, attitudes, impatience-ALL of us-which is a part of it...but a hard part, and a part I was growing VERY weary of. Realizing that sooner rather than later, I will be sending 2 of my 3 off to school for hours each day, is forcing me to stop and change my perspective. How many times did I hear it when they were babies??.... "Enjoy this time, it will go so fast!!" THEY WERE RIGHT! It DOES go so fast. Too fast.

So, thank you Lord (& Amy) for reminding me of that, and help me Lord, to keep that perspective when I'm breaking up the next argument, or hearing "I'm hungry" 5 minutes after I've just cleaned up breakfast...this will pass....all too quickly I'm afraid.

Summer Days

Happy Summer!!

Miles of Piles

Lately my house has been overtaken by piles...

Some are mine, most are not.

So today I decide to combine all of the little piles that I found in my kitchen/breakfast/den area and make one big pile.

Here is it...


And that doesn't even include the 4 bedrooms, hallway, dining, living room and bathrooms!
The kids will be thrilled when they see this waiting for them to go through and put up! :)

Put Me In Coach

It's Springtime and you know what that means for our family.....

BASEBALL!!!

So, if you call and we're not home, we're at the ballpark cheering on our boys!
Go D-Backs and Cubs!!!!







And little sister is having her own fun at school this year making new friends and just being the little social butterfly that she is!!!



It's crazy busy some days, but it's fun!
Happy Spring!

Where to Begin????

Y'all, I can't even believe it's been so long since I've posted anything. For a while, I contemplated just deleting the whole blog because I felt so bad about it! I have been a bad, bad blogger, but I'm gonna try and do better!! :)

Since I seriously have no idea how and where to begin catching up, I'll just take this opportunity to invite y'all to my very own pity party, where I will be serving myself a HUGE slice of "humble pie"....

I am convinced that I have the worse case of Poison Ivy known to man. Seriously. It's baaaaaddd. Long story short, B gets poison ivy, one week later, suspicious spots pop up on me....I ignore it until I feel like cutting off the right side of my body due to all of the itching, (oh the burning and itching!!! Will it ever end????) then I finally give in and go to the Dr., who kindly informs me that I do NOT have poison ivy, but shingles instead. WHAT???? So, I spend the next week FREAKING out over the fact that I have shingles. I google "shingles" no less than 215 times trying to figure out how I ended up with this....all the while, milking this thing dry...poor B!!! He has "NO IDEA how I feel", "I am soooo tired", "I can't beliieeeeevvveee this is happening to me", and "no! I am not cooking, are you crazy? I have shingles for goodness sakes!"...on and on and ON-until yesterday, when I had to go BACK to the Dr. (my REAL DR. this time, not just the random Dr.-who by the way, I am sure is a lovely person, but apparently needs to brush up on his studies a bit) who informs me that I have poison ivy.

Um, I'm sorry, what?

Yes, poison ivy, which now, by the way has spread ALL OVER MY UPPER BODY due to the misdiagnosis! So, she then proceeds to give me the BIGGEST SHOT EVER in my boo-tay, puts me on some serious steroids and sends me home....tail between my legs, face a little red (from humiliation, not the rash), and a little more humble.

So, B, um, sorry about all that whining, and Ali, thanks for bringing us dinner that night, and Mom, thanks for coming over that Sat. and Shan, Kalen, Stac, and Renae, thanks for reading all of those pitiful emails....uh, yeah, I think the Lord has used this to reveal some heart work that needs to be tended to... :)

Virus, Get Thee Behind Me!!

We've been sick. When I say we, I mean Jake, and now Trent.
Just when you get one well, another one bites the dust. I can't really complain...it's very mild, just annoying, :) fever and headache that goes away once the Motrin kicks in. I don't mind being at home, actually, I would say I am a homebody, but 3 days in, and looking at the prospect of 3 more days in...and that's if Ellie doesn't catch it, I feel myself wanting to throw a pity party....BUT then I read a post like this, and realize, yeah, I can do this any day.

Perspective, it's a good thing!

A Not So Broken Arm

Not too much going on around here these past two days. After our trip, it has been a week and a half of getting back into our groove. Catching up on laundry, puppy-sitting for my parents while they were away, a great dinner date with some old friends and enjoying the long weekend.

There have been a few high-lights, one of which was the dreaded phone call from the school nurse....It was last Thursday-I had just put Ellie down for her nap, was about to start ironing, when the phone rang. It was the school nurse. Uh-oh. She proceeded to tell me that Trent fell at Recess and that another little boy then fell on top of his arm, and that it was hurting him a lot and it was even a little swollen and I should come get him and have some x-rays taken. Okay...at that point I have to admit the adrenaline started pumping. I'm not the parent to handle broken bones...but here's the thing, B was out of town that afternoon, so apparently I was the parent. Of course, my mind starts to race...here is a little glimpse into the thought process that followed...

Ellie, she's asleep, so I'll call mom to come watch her...oh no, mom is out of town, and oh yeah, I have the puppy, I need to crate her...okay, I'll wake Ellie up and take her with me...that should be fun.
Now Jake, oh shoot, he's off campus today, how am I going to get Jake? I can't wait until 2:30 for Jake to get back to campus before I take Trent to the Dr. -and speaking of Dr. do I just take him, or do I call???
I call the Dr. - "no we don't do x-rays, but if you want to make an appt. we can schedule you one for later this afternoon and if he does need x-rays, we will send you to the other office, etc."
O.K. Now what?
Call Kelli, "Uh, Kelli, this is one of those days..."
(Thankfully, she stepped in rescued Ellie, picked up Jake, and sent me to a place that took x-rays and got us in and out in less than 45 minutes-I know, a rare medical miracle.)

So back to Trent, when I arrived at the school, I was mentally prepared for the worst. What I ended up seeing was my precious middle son, flanked on each side by the nurse and his teacher, with a make-shift sling on his arm and a slight grin on his face. Hhhmmmm. He doesn't look like he is in that much pain. Well, maybe he is just being extra brave. I hugged him and got a good look at him and right then knew, uh, he is going to be just fine, but after the nurse cornered me and suggested that I might even want to let an Orthopedic Surgeon look at it, I thought maybe he is just being REALLY brave, and that even though he can move it in any direction without even flinching that it could still be broken...I'm not a Dr., what do I know? However, maybe I should become a Dr. because as my gut suspected, he was fine. No break, and by the time we got back to Kelli's to pick up the other two, he was jumping on the trampoline and riding the electric scooter. Oh well, maybe he just needed a little extra TLC-and that, he did get. The funny thing is, that by the time Kelli got back to school to pick up Jake the rumors were flying...Trent broke his arm!!! The bone was sticking out!!! Ha! I bet there were a lot of disappointed little Kindergarteners yesterday when he returned arm-in-tact. Oh, and those of you who know Trent, won't be shocked to read that he proceeded to wear the make-shift sling all weekend...not so much at home, but mainly any time we went anywhere in public or had company. Oh yes he did. He said it made him feel tough. Oh these little boys-how boring life would be without them.