Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Third Times a Charm

So, yes, I am the worst mom ever (although secretly AJ is more of a worse Dad because he was POSITIVE it wasn't broken and I wasn't. LOL! SHHH!). Sam has another broken bone and this time we made him wait more than a week before taking him to the doctor. Ahhhhh! Really?! How does this happen to the same kid 3 times in one year???? Especially, a nice, quiet, non-rowdy boy! If anyone should be breaking bones, it is AVERY, not Sam! Geez Louise!

So, the Sunday before last Sam was outside and he stepped off the sidewalk right into a hole. He immediately fell down and said he couldn't walk. AJ had happened to just leave to drop something off to a person from church. Sam is too heavy for me, so I tried and tried to get him to walk, but he wouldn't even move his foot in a different position. So I called AJ and made him rush back. He carried him in to the house and we were able to get his shoe off. He told me then that it was broken, but once again, nothing looked wrong with his foot at all. We decided to wait and see what happened with it. He sprains his ankles all the time so we were hoping it was just that again. Later that night, he was actually able to walk and it hurt, but he could stand it.

The next day he got up to go to school and was able to walk and get around fairly well. He went to school. When he got home he said it hurt pretty bad, but he was still walking and he barely had a limp!

That kept happening until about Friday. Friday it got worse and his limp was bad and he was complaining a lot. He was still saying it was broken, we were still saying it wasn't. I mean, he was walking almost normal and it wasn't killing him! He wasn't even crying! LOL. We decided to give it the weekend and hoped that resting it would help. We were sure he had just sprained it. Well, Sunday it started snowing so the boys went outside to feel the snowflakes. Sam was out there for 2 minutes when he pretty much collapsed again and said it hurt terribly. We brought him back in again. Once again, later he was able to walk again with barely a limp. AJ was positive he was being overly dramatic. I had my doubts, cuz he has known every time with the last broken bones, but still, he was able to walk and he wasn't dying. How can you walk on a broken foot bone??!!

So Monday I made him go to school, but I called and made an appointment to see the ortho. He takes one look at the x-rays and says, "Yep, it's fractured!" I couldn't believe it. Then he proceeded to poke and prod and manuever that foot all around. Poor Sam. So once again he is in a cast, this time blue. That darn kid. :) I told the doctor they must think I beat him, but nope, I just throw him in holes. LOL! AJ told Sam he was grounded and wasn't allowed to ride his bike, walk down the stairs, or even go outside anymore. LOL.

Yeah, I am sure you think I am a terrible mom, but really, I am positive you would not have believed it was broken either!!! He could walk! He barely complained til the end, and there was no indication at all. No swelling, nothing!!

The doctor said there is nothing wrong with his bones, kids just do that. If they are going to break something, it just happens to be that growth plate every time. But really, how do you just BREAK A BONE stepping off the side of the sidewalk or walking down the stairs! WEIRD!

I have never had a broken bone (my toes don't count) and I haven't drank milk or had a ton of calcium my whole life. If anyone should be breaking bones, it is me!

This better be the last bone!! I told him that next time I get to pick his cast color and it will be pink! Maybe that will stop those fragile bones from fracturing!

Earlier in teh week when he said he thought it was broken, I said I didn't think so. He said it was the same as his ankle. I said, "Noooo, you cried and cried about it and wouldn't walk at all." He said, "Yeah, well I'm older now!" I died laughing! I said, "Sam, it happened THIS year, it wasn't that long ago!" He said, "Yeah, but I was still 9 then!" Hahahahaha! Funny!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Long Time No See

Whew! It's been a while!

Craziness around here! How do I ever think i am going to get it all done once I beoce a full-time teacher??!!

Sooo, yeah, I have been doing another maternity leave for a 1st grade teacher at school. It was only 6 weeks, but it seemed like forever. So long, in fact, that I couldn't remember what time I usually leave to go pick the kids up in the car rider line! It went great, but boy, was I busy. I felt like I had no time for anything. The kids were great though, I really like doing it, so I guess that's all that matters. I miss them already though and I only have been gone from them a week. I don't have time to work though! Working is hard. :)

Since I stopped doing that position I have worked every day but one though, so it's not like I am free as a bird. It is less busy though, because I don't have to do lesson plans, prepare for the next day, etc. Being a teacher is hard work, man!

Anyway, our lives have basically been consumed with that, schoolwork, and our normal busy stuff. Nothing new really. We didn't have time for anything new!

I have finally started on the teaching courses for school. Yippee! Still on track for student teaching next September. i hope it stays that way. I have to take an exam next week, finish up some tasks, take 3 Praxis exams, and start teacher observations all this month though, so that will keep me on my toes.

I can't believe my birthday is in 2 weeks. Didn't I just turn 30????

Avery's still as wacky as ever! Maybe even more so. He is still his funny, wacky self, but he is still freaked out when I leave him. He still cries every single time I leave. Weirdness. I don't know what started this all, but I have come to the conclusion that he is just going to have to get over it on his own. We have tried everything. I guess it's like being afraid of the dark, he just has to "grow" out of it on his own. He has said some funny things lately though. Like, he though that before the 1960's there was no color in the world. He kept seeing old pictures and movies in black and white, so he thought color didn't exist back then. LOL! That was quite funny. He said something else too this week that made me die laughing, but ughhh, I can't remember what it is right now. He is LOVING our new neighbor boy. He plays with him every day, and wants to play with him way more than I let him. :) I am SOOO happy we have boy neighbors!

Sam is still sweet Sam. For the most part. 5th grade attitude has crept in also. ;) He is also loving the new neighbor boy that is closer to his age. They are constantly outside riding bikes and playing some sort of hide and seek game. I am glad they have friends right here. A couple weeks ago, Sam and our neighbor were doing homework together. Sam ended up helping him with his homework and even read his reading story to him. It was cute. He is constantly worried about other's feelings. He decided this week that he wanted to quit swim team. He hasn't been liking it for quite a while, so he finally made the decision that he was going to stop for now. He was so worried that the coach would be sad though, so that is one reason he has held on for all this time. Sweet boy. Besides that, he is on his way to his typical fall/winter bout with pneumonia. Lovely. Maybe he will beat it on his won this time. We'll see.

AJ is working like usual. He has also become friends with our new neighbors so they have been having fun playing football on Saturday mornings. This Saturday they are going to work on the floor that still isn't finished in our old house. Yea! It is on the market now and we had a showing the first week. I hope it doesn't take too long to get rid of that house!

I also love our new neighbors. Have I mentioned that??? :) They are perfect for us. except for the having dogs part, but I guess we can let them get by with that. :) I hope they stick around for a while. AJ might run them off though. We all know how annoying his little "jokes' can be. Hahaha! :)

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. As soon as my birthday hits, it means everything else comes like lightning. This year was a whirlwind. The boys have been writing their Christmas lists. Sam's has like 6 things on it. Avery's is the front and back of a whole page. LOL. He probably doesn't even know what half the things on his list are.

Anyway, here are some pics from Halloween. The boys had a good time, although Sam stopped halfway through. he's on his way to being too old, I guess. Ahhh!




Thursday, September 2, 2010

Newness

Well, this school year seems to be bringing with it a lot of new things for our boys!

First, this is what Avery learned to do the other night.


No training wheels!

He is SOOO proud of himself. He asks the minute he wakes up if he can go ride. Um, no, school is in 5 minutes. LOL! Then as soon as he gets home, he hangs his backpack up and is right back outside riding away! It is 95 degrees out there, but that doesn't stop him one bit! He rode last night until after it was dark outside. Crazy kid.


Go Avery!


So excited!


By bye training wheels!

He is dying to lose his first tooth. He keeps telling me all these tooth are loose, even though none of them really are. :) He is reading like a champ! His teacher told me that she is sad because that is her favorite part of teaching 1st grade, teaching the kids to read, and Avery already knows. He amazes us with the words he can read.

Sam is growing up! He told me today that a girl in his class told him that another girl likes him! He was all shy and embarrassed, but he secretly liked it. :) I told him I had my first boyfriends in 5th grade. ;) Then he admitted later that he had 2 girls he liked too. That is a secret though, so don't say a word! He would kill me!

He also has some big news. 5th grade had a contest to see who could design and draw the new logo for their field trip t-shirts. Each class got to vote on their favorite. Sam won from his class! He's a finalist. They haven't voted on the overall winning design yet, but he is very hopeful. Ugh, I am so mad because I didn't get a picture of it before he turned it in. I meant to, but then as Sam was going to bed, he dropped his water cup and it splashed all over his drawing. We were so worried about it that I completely forgot to take a picture. Thankfully, the water didn't mess it up at all. What a good little artist I have. :)

They also are excited because we have new neighbors. New neighbors WITH kids. New neighbors with BOYS! They have 2 boys, ages 5 and 7. They are super nice and fit right in the cul de sac. We felt bad for them because they moved here from Las Vegas and their furniture didn't get here until a week later! They had nothing all that time. YUCK! We are glad they are here though. Yea for good neighbors.

I guess that is about it. The kids have adjusted well to the new school year and everything is going great. Ta ta for now! :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Big

5th Grade




1st Grade




Ahhhhh! How can this be?! They are so big! :(

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Summer's End

Summer has come to a close. How sad. How fast! These last few weeks have been a blur. I barely remember what went on.

We tried to make the last couple of weeks great. Linds and fam plus our fam decided to take another trip to Holiday World a couple weeks ago. We each took our kids best friends. It was a great time.

Linds went up the day before we did. Our friend Julie and her kids came up that night and stayed the night with us. The next morning we got up early and got started on our way. The GPS took us a new way and it ended up being a roller coaster ride before we even got there! The road was REALLY hilly and the hills were steep so everytime we got to the top it was like the bottom dropped out and we were falling down the road. We all kept screaming the whole road there. Funny, but at the same time scary. Did I mention I hate roller coasters?! The kids loved it though. We spent most of that first day in the water park, then we let the kids ride on what they most wanted to ride. Julie's oldest, who is Sam's best friend, went on the Voyage 2 or 3 times. That is the TALLEST roller coaster and just looking at it scares me! Yikes! Crazy kid!

When we left the park we went in search of a place to eat. You would think there would be tons of food options around an amusement park, but no. We drove forever and finally found a Taco Bell. Whew! We got to our hotel, after some navigation mess ups at around 11 that night. Craziness.

The next day we got up and did it all again. Then we drove home straight from the park. The kids had a great time and were so excited to get to spend their vacation with their friends.

Vacation ended and all of a sudden school invaded our lives! We spent all of this past week at school helping get classrooms set up. Fun, fun. Ha! The kids went on Wednesday to meet their teachers. They are happy with them and I know they will have a great year.

Sam gets to switch classes with another teacher so he will have 3 subjects with one teacher and 2 with another. I can't believe Middle School is almost here! How did he get so big! 5th grade! WOW!

Avery has Mrs. Tarpley, our favoritest teacher. :) He was worried because she always tries to hug him (we all know about Avery and his hug and kiss phobia), but after spending time there this week, he feels better about it. He is going to have a fantastic year.

Let's see, what else?

Ohhh, so the rest of July has been spent working on a house. No, not our house. Our OLD house! It's a long story, but basically the guy who "bought" it from us went bankrupt and we ended up taking it back. He had a renter living there. We were nice and started a new lease for her, rather than kick her out, since it wasn't her fault. Mistake! She paid rent on time ONE month out of the whole year. In fact, right now, she owes us 2 months rent. Yes, we did end up making her leave. Well, the house was in shambles. So we have been working hard on getting it fixed up and ready to sell. I was so sad when I walked in there the first time. I really loved that cute, little starter home, and to see it so messed up was terrible. It is looking great again though, so I am much happier. You wouldn't think painting an 1100 sq ft house would be hard, but man, it is taking forever and is a ton of work! Of course I can't stay there long with 2 kids, but it seems like I have been working on paint for months (really only 2 weeks) and it still isn't done. We think we already have a buyer so I hope that works out. We have some money to make back, that's for sure!

Well, I guess that is about it. Just wanted to give a little update on us.

Bye Bye Summer! School starts Monday!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Swim!


So Sam finally had his first Swim Meet this past Saturday. Every meet that we have been able to go to has been canceled. He was so excited. We started on our way there, only to hit a downpour of rain, thunder, and lightning. UGH!!! There was a HUGE possibility we would get there and the meet woudl be canceled again. Since we were on our way, we continued on. I looked at the weather on my phone and 3 different weather sites said it was partly cloudy, with no rain! Um, what?!

We get there and there are a million of us packed in to this tiny hallway. It was a huge meet, with several different teams competing, so there were A LOT of us. They said, at that point it looked like they would cancel, but they would give it a few more minutes and then decide.

Thankfully, it cleared some, and we were able to start the meet. It was an hour late, but at least they got to swim!

With all that craziness, Sam got super nervous! He said it was worse than being in teh school play! LOL!

It was very disorganized, which made it worse. I totally wanted to get out there and get things in order! LOL!

His first race was a relay with 3 other boys from his team. Sam was the last to go in. One of the boys, stopped in the middle of his race and messed with his goggles, so their team was in last place. Sam jumped in and passed the girl in front of them, pulling them out of last. Woohoo! It was really different for him because they had to start on a starting block, which he had never done before and he had to jump OVER the boy coming in from his team, which freaked him out some, but he did great.

Too bad he just had his birthday because that moved him p in to the next age bracket. He had to compete with much bigger and older boys, but he still did great.

His next race he placed 2nd. He was in first almost the whole race and then the boy from our team that won every race pulled ahead at the last second and got 1st.

His other races went well. It was hard to tell who won most of the time, they were all right there at the finish together, so I am not sure his placement on the other races yet.

He did have a few problems, which I thought would devastate him. He is a perfectionist, just like his mommy, so he lets things get to him that he does wrong and beats himself up about it. On one of his races, he was only supposed to swim down the lane and stop at the end. Well, he forgot with all the craziness, and turned around and started back across the pool. He realized halfway down. Oops. He was super embarrassed, but it was totally fine.

One race, he did come in last, but he was right up there with the whole rest of the pack, so it wasn't like he was way behind. That upset him, but thankfully he didn't let it ruin his whole night. He actually loved the meet and can't wait to do it again! He has another meet in 2 weeks. Hopefully, it won't get canceled!

Great job, Sam!!!



Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Dreams Come True

So yeah, it's summer. Give me a break on the posting. Summer is for laying back and letting things go, right? Oops, it has definitely been a while since my last post. I should keep up better.

July already! Wow! Summer is half over. Sigh...

June flew by. I don't even know what we did. Craziness.

A lifelong dream came true for me this weekend! I got this.



I have wanted a piano for as long as I can remember. Not that I can play, but I have always wanted to. I took lessons for a few short months before I got pregnant with Avery and my life became one of throwing up, not moving from the couch, and all things baby. I didn't learn very much, but that's ok. I now have my piano. Yippee! I am so excited. So are the kids. I brought out my piano learning book, and really just fell right back into it. I can still play some of the things, even if they are only Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells, and When the Saints Go Marching In. Oh, there is something from Mozart too, I believe. :) So obviously, I can still learn it. I hope to teach my self. We will see how far that goes. Avery is very excited, although he says he is not taking lessons, he will just play it by himself. Sam wants to take lessons, but only from my friend, Jen, who doesn't live close and is expensive. We'll see. I don't care. I have my piano!

Guess what else July brings? Fireworks! Oh, you knew that, didn't you. I really wasn't too excited and didn't feel like doing them or taking pictures. Bad Mom.


The boys ahhhing at the first few fireworks


Avery sparklering


Sam sparklering


This is what Avery liked to do with his sparkler


Ahhh, Sam's arm is on fire! No, not really. Cool effect.

Oh, and the most important thing to happen this July.... Sam's 10th Birthday! How in the world did that happen?! 10 years old!


We pretty much celebrated this whole weekend. he didn't want a party again this year, so we made sure to make this birthday special. We started on Friday by going to Nashville Shores. It is a Water Park here in Nashville. It wasn't nearly as much fun as we wanted it to be. It was really crowded and people didn't care about anyone around them. I don't know how many times Sam got hurt. Nice. Holiday World is definitely better. Oh well, tons of money down the drain. We also went ahead and took him to Target to pick out some of his presents. This kid is expensive. All electronics and he is only 10! Greeaaattt.

Saturday we went swimming and he got his most favorite present of all. An Ipod! He LOVES it! I put a ton of songs on there, it has a video camera, he got new headphones, and an alarm clock docking station. Fun, fun!

Sunday was a typical day, besides the fireworks.

Yesterday, AJ was still off. They got haircuts. What fun! ;)Linds and fam came over for Brownies (Sam's version of birthday cake).

Today is his actual birthday, but AJ had to go back to work, and we have our normal stuff to do, so this weekend was his special time. Although I will get him his favorite tonight for dinner, Mexican! Yum, my favorite too. :)

Happy, Happy Birthday, Sam! I hope it is an awesome year!


Don't mind Avery's nakedness. He would be totally naked if he could. Weirdo.



And of course, Avery couldn't let Sam have all the picture taking fun.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Project

What do you get when you put this


with this



You get THIS!


and this


Yep, we built this this weekend.

I have been wanting to build something from Ana's blog at Knock-Off Wood for a while, but didn't feel like I had the time. I am DYING to build customized computer desks, etc. In fact, I have a whole room cleared out to make into our office, but it is sitting there empty. Well, last week Sam's bed fell apart. I mean, literally, fell apart. I looked on craigslist, looked at the stores, but did NOT want to pay so much for a bed that was probably going to fall apart in 5 years again. Soo, I decided to take the plunge. I looked all over Ana's site trying to decide what to do. Finally, I chose a couple, and then asked Sam what he thought. He actually saw a drawing for a daybed. Nooo, not your typical, girly daybed. He called it a couch bed and was DYING for it. He also wanted a trundle underneath so he could have a "bunk" bed like Avery's. Well, I didn't love the daybed, so I wasn't convinced. I printed off all the plans and shopping supplies for the bed I liked and decided he would like it too. :)

The next day, I decided to go get the wood. We went to Home Depot. Wood was so expensive. It was more than double what people were saying it cost to buy on Knock-off wood. Then we went to Lowe's. It was cheaper, but still so much. We just went on vacation and I didn't have that much extra money lying around. Plus, I wanted wood as cheap as people were saying! So we gave up and came home. The next morning, I searched Craigslist again. Still nothing good. AJ started looking at the Furniture stores and said to just go buy what I wanted. Then he happened across this bed.
Rooms to Go Daybed

I really liked it, except for the headboard, it was a "couch" bed and had a trundle. The only problem. $700 just for the bed. Um, no. So then I thought, "Hey, I think I could use Ana's plans and modify them to build this bed. So that is just what I did. I figured out the new measurements myself. What, you ask! Shauna figure out MATH. No way! But, yes, I did. Dad, you would be proud of me. Then I told AJ to call some lumber yards and see how much wood cost there. Woah! What a difference! The prices were 3 times smaller than Lowe's. Now that's more like it! The problem: they didn't cut it for you and they closed in 30 minutes. Oh well, nothing like spur of the moment! I sent him running! LOL! He went and got all the wood we needed for $100!! That's right, I made this bed for $130 total which included lumber, screws, nails, paint, and poly-urethane. $130 for a more than $700 bed! Plus we made it all by ourselves, know it is quality work, and made it with extra support so it lasts forever! Go us!

We went and borrowed a miter saw and table saw from some friends and got to work. It took 2 days, with lots of interruptions and stopping times, but we did it! It looks great and we are ALL happy. Yes, AJ helped this time. I didn't know how to use most of the stuff, but next time I should be able to do it by myself. Yes, there will be a next time! Go me! I loved it! I hated sanding though. Yuck and it took forever! Ugh, sanding. I made Sam take over a few times. He did a good job, and now he can say he helped build his own bed and he isn't even 10 years old. :)

Here is our building process in steps.

I showed you the first pictures above of the wood and sanding. Then the next pictures are of the building process, then painting. Isn't it cute! I love it! It was all so pretty, I almost didn't want to paint it, but Sam wanted a black bed. Did I mention I hate black furniture? I decided to go with it though since it would be in his room. I do like it though. It looks good. I sort of liked it better before I put the poly-urethane on because now it is shiny, but at least it is protected and in a kid's room, it needs protection. We are so proud of ourselves. Go us!





Monday, May 31, 2010

Summer Beginnings

I cannot believe school is out! I am sure I say that every May, but this year went by so quickly, it feels like it should still be January! How is it June?!

The kids were so excited for the end. The last few weeks were busy spent doing fun things. Parties, Water Days, extra playtime, field day, etc. Every day was spent at the school doing something fun. Now it is all over. I am sad, but happy at the same time. I can't believe Sam is now a 5th grader. Weird! This is his last year at our school. Then he moves on to Middle School. Now that is huge! Avery is in first grade. He graduated from Kindergarten. I still haven't got the pics off my camera, so whenever I do that then I will post some. We will SOOO miss his teacher. We LOVED her and she was perfect for him. He even said he will miss her, which is a HUGE deal for Avery. He is totally boy and doesn't show love or sappy stuff EVER.

Usually on the last day of school we go to the drive-in. Welll, this year we went all out. I told the boys we weren't able to go to the Drive-in this year because they weren't playing any good movies. They were sad. I told them we were on our way to AJ's work to pick him up and we would figure out something fun to do. Well, we sure did. We drove 4 hours to Indiana and pulled up at this hotel with a water park attached. They couldn't believe it! They were so excited! So we went in, got all situated and went to the park. They loved it. They had a lazy river, water slides, and outdoor pool, basketball pool, and a water playground in the middle. It was a little bit annoying though that even though Avery can totally swim, since he was short, they made him wear a life jacket everywhere except the playground. Yeah, that didn't go over well. They had no swim test or anything to show that he could swim, so he had to wear it. needless to say, Avery spent all of his time at the playground. He was NOT going to wear that little baby life jacket! He still had fun though. He was sad that first night about the life jacket, so we told him we would find something fun for him the next day.

The next day we ate our free breakfast and started driving. We drove for 45 minutes and then Avery saw a Roller Coaster. he was like, "Wow! Look! A roller coaster!" We said that it was a grain carrier thing, not a roller coaster. A few minutes later Sam said, "No! Look, it is a roller coaster! It's Holiday World!" I said, "What?! Wow! I had no idea we were by Holiday World!" We totally passed the park and then turned into the parking lot across the street. Not until then did they realize that we were actually going to Holiday World! It was FUNNY! We got out of the car and then Avery started crying!!! He wanted to go back to the fun hotel! Crazy kid! Anyway, it was the perfect day. it was warm, but not too hot to walk in the park. It wasn't too cool to swim in the water park. The water was perfect. Everything was. We had a great time. So yeah, I am a bad mom. i didn't feel like lugging my big camera around, so we really didn't get any pictures. Oh well. The blog will stir our memories.

They had tons of fun, were VERY surprised, and everything went great. We loved it! What's weird is that you all know I am a BIG planner. I plan everything way in advance. When it comes to vacations though, I don't! We planned this all on Thursday night! Our vacations are always mini vacations that are planned at the last minute, and it doesn't bother me a bit. I don't even understand it! It's fun though!

Avery woke up yesterday with his eyes stuck shut! Our allergies have been SOOO bad, so we assumed it was just allergies. As the day went on though, they got worse and worse. His eyes were oozing constantly. YUCK! Sooo, it may be pink eye instead. Thankfully, AJ works for an eye surgeon, so he is already on drops, and should be doing much better soon. It may still be allergies, it is hard to tell the difference without special equipment, but either way we are safe. he looks TERRIBLE. his eyes are HUGE, bruised looking, oozy, and red. They were stuck shut this morning and it took me 10 minutes to finally get them open. He came down out of his bunk bed, walked across the whole house to my room, blind. he couldn't see at all. They were completely shut and stuck. Funny if it wasn't so sad. Poor kiddo!

We were going to have people over for Memorial Day today, but that is out now. Oh well.

Oh, I forgot. We also had our anniversary this weekend! Yesterday we were married for 12 years! Craziness! I can't believe it has been that long. I am old!

Okey doke, I suppose that is it for now. Summer, here we come!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Bad Timing

So the last few weeks have all been about bad timing.

I talked about the flood in my last post, which started out the bad timing of May.

The next week went ok, although it was all messed up because of schools being closed, etc.

The next week was going to be full of fun stuff for the kiddos.

Sunday night Sam started throwing up, got a fever, and felt terrible.

He was up ALL night long, which, of course, kept me up. We all know how I do with no sleep, um, not good! Anyway,Sam is in a club at school called the RAK Club (Random Acts of Kindness). Monday was their field trip to the Ronald McDonald house. They were going to get to skip school, go and tour the Ronald McDonald House, help wherever needed, and then go eat at McDonald's. Wellll, needless to say, Sam was still throwing up so he had to miss it. He was SOOO looking forward to it, too. :(

Tuesday, was Sam's last day of RAK Club after school and they were having an end of year party. Then right after that was swim team practice, where they were having a party to celebrate their great pizza sale success. The pizza sale that Sam won, and was getting a prize for. Well, he wasn't throwing up anymore, but was still sick, and still had a fever. No parties that day. He said" Why do I have bad luck! This is all bad timing!"

Wednesday came and went with no improvement and I started feeling yucky too.

Thursday, he woke up, no fever! He was getting ready for school, ate breakfast, then started feeling horrible again. Checked temp 15 minutes later, and the fever was back! I had an exam that morning, so I took that, passed it with flying colors (Woohoo!), then took Sam to the doctor. He had strep! What?! His throat didn't hurt! Weirdness. I never would have guessed.

Friday, went to school, only to have them call me by 9:00 to come get him. Ugh.

He missed the entire week of school. He missed all of his fun stuff, it made me have to reschedule stuff, and get on antibiotics for myself. Whew! When this kid is sick, he is SICK!

Saturday we had a yard sale. We did GOOD!!! We made over $500 on just stuff laying around our house not getting used. Yippee! Sam and I made some treats the night before, and Sam had his own little stand where he sold brownies, different kinds of cookies, and soda. He made over $50! Boy, was he happy! Avery lasted about an hour selling with Sam, so he made $7. LOL.

Now on to another bad timing episode.

we now have sugar glider babies!!! OOPS! Ben and Gwen are brother and sister. We went and had Ben neutered as soon as he was old enough. Well, obviously we missed by a day or two! He got neutered, everything went fine, then a few weeks later, we noticed that Gwen's stomach was big, and it looked like she had 2 little balls in it. We talked about pregnancy a bit, but dismissed it, because Ben was fixed. Well, the balls got bigger and bigger and then started MOVING! So yeah, we knew it was definitely pregnancy. We were worried because you shouldn't breed brother and sister, obviously. It usually will cause bad things to happen, and alot of times the mother will reject the babies or even eat them. YUCK! We prepared the kids for the fact that the babies may not last.

Well, finally on 5-5-10, they came out of the pouch. Sam heard a weird noise coming from the glider room and went in to check on them. He peeked in their sleeping pouch, and saw a tiny little baby! He was sooo excited. We worried about them for a few days, but they are doing great. No problems at all. They are so tiny and so cute. Their eyes just opened a few days ago. They are still staying in the pouch or riding around on mom and dad, but we can tell they are getting ready to start doing some exploring of their own. Our cage is big enough to keep all 4 of them, but sometimes it is not good to keep parents and babies together, so we may have to sell the babies later, but for right now everyone is doing good. I am putting on a slideshow of baby glider pictures (no, we haven't named them yet. We have no way of telling them apart!)as you can see, they are smaller than Avery's hand. These were taken Weds or Thurs, the 12th or 13th.

Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Baby Sugar Gliders
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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Like Lightning

Wow! Where did April go??? It seriously only felt like it was one week long. Wow!

I don't know what we did all month, maybe because the month disappeared.

Sam got his cast off. His arm is doing good. Much better than his ankle. In fact, his ankle still hurts him quite often.

The end of school is almost here, you can tell by how busy we have gotten. may is always so out of control. Craziness!

The biggest news around here is... Nashville is a flooded, drowned mess.

Saturday, the 1st, it poured rain. All day long. Lots and lots of rain. Hours later, more and more and more rain. Lindsay tried to leave our neighborhood, only to find the road outside of it flooded. She turned around and went right back home. If you know us at all, you know that we aren't scared of weather and we do what we need to do. For her to go back home was a big deal. It continued pouring rain. Our little town was overrun with water. Flooding was happening all over. We turned on teh news. As we we were watching we saw cars on the major interstate that runs right behind our house completely submerged in water. Cars were just floating around. One whole side was completely covered up to the median. In fact, the water was pouring over the median o n to the other side. People kept trying to drive through. Crazy. Then, on live tv, we watched a building float right down the middle of the interstate! A building!! As we watched, it got pushed up against some of the floating cars. Within seconds it started collapsing in on itself, the roof ripped of, and the whole building dissolved and disappeared in to the water. It was amazing. It was scary. I don't think i will forget that for a long, long time. We started worrying about what was going to happen. Thankfully, we are on a bit of a hill so we were pretty safe, but it was supposed to keep raining the whole next day as well. We already couldn't get out of our subdivision. Where was all that water going to go???

We watched the news all night. I hate the news. I never watch it. This day, this terrible wet day, I watched. Til midnight. I watched all the stories of water pouring over roads and into houses. People who were told to stay home, were suddenly trapped with water surrounding all sides. Terrible.

Finally, we went to bed, hoping to wake up and the weather predictions would be wrong like always.

Sunday, church was canceled. We woke up to no rain. It looked like rain any minute, but it wasn't actively raining. Whew! I then turned on the news. We were tricked. It wasn't raining at our house, but it was raining all around us. Things were looking worse and worse. Homes were being evacuated. People were stuck in rising water. Every interstate in the area had parts of it that were closed because they were covered in water. People were stuck on the freeway with a flood behind them and a flood ahead. They had been stuck all night, with no way to get to them. Rivers were rising quickly and no end was in sight. Then the rain started at our house again.

It rained and rained and rained. The stories kept getting worse. All the stations were covering the downpour. People were having to drive in boats to rescue people. Boats in places that should have been dry land. It didn't seem too bad here, and we were all stir crazy so we went for a drive. The roads were pretty clear, except for here and there. We watched one car drive through a big puddle of standing water in one lane of the road and kill there car. AJ got out in the pouring rain to help them push the car. After that, things got worse quickly. Suddenly a place that we had just driven through had water rushing across the road. Police were rushing everywhere, trying to block off roadways. We almost didn't get across one section of the road leading to our neighborhood. The water was over the bridges alongside us. Water was up to people's doorways. I took pictures. They are on facebook if you want to look. My pictures don't even come close to the devastation that happened just miles down the road.

We got home and continued to watch the news. Continued to watch as whole subdivisions were flooded, trapping people inside. Watched as the water inched closer and closer to the cars who had been sitting for hours and hours on the closed section of interstate. Watched as the death toll went up.

Finally, the end was in sight. They told us the rain would stop. We went to bed.

School was canceled the next day. We woke up to bright sunshine, with not a cloud in the sky. Everything seemed normal. The road in our cul de sac was almost dry. Then I turned on the news.

The Cumberland river that runs through Nashville was beyond flood capacity. It had flooded dramatically. Downtown was underwater. Opryland hotel was under water. The Titans stadium was under water. Streets that our main tourist spots were under water. The river was still rising.

We still had not received help from the government. No one but our citizens were helping. In fact, we barely made the national news. Nothing. But we watched as volunteers, regular people that lived right here, brought out their boats and started rescuing people. Hotels full of people were evacuated 4 at a time. Pregnant ladies in labor were airlifted from their rooftops. Countless homes were lost, either swept away or completely under water. The aerial views of the area were astonishing. Whole sections of cities were under water to the rooftops. The water continued to rise. Barricades kept moving up and up and up as the water inched its way through the streets.

Flooding in Nashville. Who would have thought. Yes, we have rivers everywhere. We also had flood plans in place. Flooding might occur, but never even close to this capacity. Decades have passed since seeing a flood even close to this magnitude. Sadness. Most of these people didn't even have flood insurance. In fact, they couldn't even get it because they weren't in a flood plain. They lost EVERYTHING and have NO WAY to replace it. Many are even out of jobs because the business they worked at is now under water. They have nothing. Nothing. No one could plan for this. No one could forsee this. Sadness.


Finally, a few of our counties will receive assistance from the government. A few. Almost every county in the middle Tennessee area were affected by this, and only a few were deemed bad enough to warrant government aid. Opryland alone, has over $75000 in damage. I can only imagine the other historic landmarks that are ruined forever. Many businesses won't even be able to open for months. MONTHS. We, thankfully, did not get hit as hard the 2nd day, and our baseball fields are still completely under water up to the rooftop of the consession stands. Yes, that isn't as important as Vanderbilt Hospital who's first floor flooded, or the news station that still can't broadcast in their building, but when does or community get to fix all that went wrong and with what? As of yesterday, 15 roads were still closed in our county. Parts of the road we travel down everyday have chunks missing. I haven't even seen the hardest hit areas of our city.

We finally went back to school today. Most counties still are not able to have school because the roads to get to them are under water.

I feel so sad. I am awestruck by the severity of this, that happened right in front of me, right in the place I live. I am thankful that we Tennesseans did not just sit by and wait for help from the outside. We jumped in, drove our own boats, carried out unbelievable rescues, waded through stinky, contaminated water, all to help our fellow citizens. We didn't wait, we took action. I am proud of this place we call home.

What we can't do is provide the financial assistance needed to help all of the people affected. What we can't do is give back the lives that were lost. many lost so much themselves and are still giving in any way we can. Thankfully, we were personally affected, and actually aren't particularly close to any of them that were (at least that we know of), but whether you know someone devastated by this or not, do what you can to help out. Take food to a shelter. Help someone tear up their stinky, wet carpet. Send money. Whether you are in this area or not, help is needed. These lives need to be rebuilt. Find a way to give.

I will even help you by giving you a way to make a donation so that it helps right here in the Middle Tennessee Area.

Flood Relief- The Tennessee Emergency Response Flood

To mail a donation by check, send to:
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
PO Box 440225
Nashville, TN 37244


Help, however you can. It's important.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Six!


For weeks, we heard the countdown to a very important date. The day Avery turned 6! The first thing he would do in the morning would be to tell us how many days were left. When he went to school, he gave his teacher a countdown every day as well. In fact, his whole class knew that Avery's birthday was in however many days. They all remembered too! I had several parents tell me when Avery's birthday was and that they heard about it every day. Funny!

We usually throw a big party for the kids on their birthday, instead of buying them presents. Well, this year, Avery decided he didn't want to have a party. He wanted to go camping instead! Sooo, luckily his birthday fell during Spring break. AJ took them camping for 2 nights. I don't camp, so I stayed home all by myself. It was strange.

He loved the camping of course. It did rain one night and their tent ended up flooding, but they had fun anyway.

Avery's birthday fell on Easter this year, so he had a double good day. He made up a new name for that day, "Eastday" since it was a combination of Easter and Birthday.

They hunted for eggs, checked out their Easter Baskets, and opened Birthday presents, all at the same time. Fun stuff.




Lindsay and her crew came over for a little while later in the day and we had ice cream cake from Maggie Moos. Yum, yum!




He had a great day and is so excited to be 6! I love when they turn a new age because I can say things like "Six year olds don't do ...." or "When you are six you now do..." As of right now he believes me that things suddenly change when you turn a new age. Hope that keeps up. It's a great way to get them to stop behavior that I don't like! LOL!

Happy Birthday, Avery!!! I can't wait to see how much you grow this year!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Derby

The Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts is a huge event that the boys love! Ours was this past week. Sam and AJ worked hard to build a cool car. Sam picked the design and the color scheme. He picked a red car, blue wheels, and white stars. It looked great. Much more snazzy than last year's plain jane car. :)AJ was still finishing it up the night before the race and accidentally broke off a piece of wood while he was trying to put the wheels in. I was sure it would do horrible in the race. So on our way to the race, I talked to Sam about how each year is different, each car is different, and you never know what was going to happen. He won the derby last year, so I didn't want him to automatically think he would win this year. He didn't think that at all. In fact, Avery said, "Yeah, it's not about winning, it's about having fun!" Um, yeah, where did I get such smart kids. :) I am glad they listen. :)

So we get to the race, weigh-in, etc.




The boys were all so hyper and so excited. They couldn't wait!

We brought Sam's car from last year and even Avery got to race a little bit. Last year's car was not a winner this year though! ;)

So Sam had his first turn. He was so nervous. It was funny!




He won! He could NOT believe it!!!

Next race, winner, next race, winner, next race, winner....

He kept winning every race. Each time he was getting more and more nervous. In fact, every single race, he looked like this. Notice his fingers.


Anyway, he was such a good sport. I kept hearing him be so nice to the other boys. One little boy, heard he was racing Sam, and the boy said, "Aw, man. Guess I am going to lose." Sam was like, "Hey, don't think that! You never know, we haven't raced yet. You could totally win." He kept saying super nice things like that all night. I was proud of him. He didn't want anyone else to feel bad. Sweet boy.

Avery was sad because he wasn't winning at all. i think at the end he finally won one or two, so that helped, but he was not very happy. Then at the end, he got an award, and that made all the difference. He was great after that!

So back to Sam. It was getting down to the end, Sam was up again. He was racing another boy that he had already won against. They ran and the other car won! At that point we didn't know what was going to happen. That was the only race he had lost. So the derby ended and the judge went back to figure out the final stats. We waited and waited and waited. He finally came back and said there was a 4 way tie for 2nd place!! So they had to do double elimination rounds to determine who was in each spot.

They called the first two, then the next two, then a few more, but never did call Sam.

Finally, they were ready to call the race. Here was the outcome.




Sam was 1st place again! He couldn't believe it and was so ecstatic. None of us could believe it, actually! Since he won, that means he gets to go to the District Pinewood Derby and race against the other champions from other packs. What's funny is that AJ did not want to go to District this year. HAHA! He said it is terrible. There are these dads there that bring their huge, rolling tool chests, and are so serious and wacko over these cars. Oh well, Sam deserves to go. After everyone had pretty much left and we were cleaning up, Sam said, "Woah, this is crazy! I don't even know how I feel! I just feel weird!" Ha ha. His cheeks were all red and he had this huge smile on his face the whole rest of the night. He was beyond excited, is what he was!

That night, the boys had two friends come over and stay the night. Boy, that was interesting! Coming from such an exciting activity, a late night, and lots of treats, made for some very excited, wound up boys. AJ had to work the next day, so trying to get those boys to go to sleep was quite an ordeal. Whew!

The next day I took all 4 of them to see "How to Train a Dragon" to celebrate. Cute, good movie!

Anyway, congratulations to our 1st place Pinewood Derby Champion! Go, Sam! :)