DAY THREE - Happy New Year!

Well, I was all set to begin telling you how much worse today is than yesterday but then Heather was kind enough to send me a link to a couple's blog who have been battling cystic fibrosis, lymphoma and a premature baby and double lung transplant -- and that kind of took what little wind I had out of the sails. Thanks Heather. While I do realize that my problems are very small compared to many other people's -- sometimes we all just need a good wallowing in whatever personal tragedy we are experiencing at the time. With that in mind, here's my update:

Today is worse than yesterday, way worse. For one thing, I didn't get any sleep last night because there is literally no way for me to lay that my gigantic uvula doesn't close off my throat and threaten to choke me to death. It is ridiculous. I can doze for 10 minutes at a time but then I wake myself either choking or emitting some of the most hideous snoring sounds you have ever heard. I cannot believe that a petite sweet young thing such as myself could possibly be capable of making the kind of sounds that have been coming out of my head at night. Trust me, I've investigated thoroughly and I'm always the only one in the room when the sounds are happening so I'm pretty sure it's me. Second, I was told yesterday to take Benadryl whenever I took my pain meds, which I did all night and I have decided that that is clearly not a good idea for me. I got out of bed at 830am today and have not touched the Benadryl since then and I STILL feel like I am walking and thinking through pudding. The combo of pain meds, nausea meds and Benadryl is just too much for me so I'll gladly be itchy for the duration since I cannot even form a coherant sentence when i take it all. I think I scared the boys this morning by making no sense whatsoever. The last thing that is making today worse is that my neck and head are killing me. It feels like the worst headache I've ever had and it starts in my shoulders and goes to the top of my head. My skin just hurts to touch it! The headache is much worse than the sore throat at this point.

SO, let's stand back and take stock: I haven't worn makeup for 2 days, nor have I gotten out of my PJ's. I cannot speak in full sentences, my face is broken out, I am snoring like a prehistoric creature, my breath smells like the creature died in my mouth, I have a headache and nausea and I am generally unpleasant all the way around --- who doesnt think Tim is the luckiest guy in the world????
He has been so patient and kind and is trying to help as much as he can -- I'd feel worse if I hadnt pre-paid him for this a few weeks ago!

Thank you to everyone who has offered to help and who has sent good wishes our way. We can use all you can send.
For those of you lucky enough to have plans tonight - have fun and BE SAFE!!!

My Uvula is ENORMOUS!

I just checked my situation in the mirror and I finally had reason to write the sentence I've always wanted to write! (see headline)

seriously... its the biggest, most ginormous, horrifyingly juicy and red uvula you have ever seen! I'll bet somebody somewhere would pay good money just to look at it and marvel at its hideousness. I'm going to try to take a picture and post it for you all for FREE!

Just thought you would like to know......

DAY TWO

Well, I know Heather is waiting for some extreme wackiness but I'm at the end of a drug cycle so I feel somewhat lucid right now. However, take heart because my pain meds are causing me to itch all over so the Dr. told me to start taking Benadryl with it... I can only assume that that will get us closer to what you are expecting. I will say that I actually wrote a post at 4am that could have been good but I accidentally deleted it trying to post it... that was probably for the best.

Ok, I'm halfway through the day and 24 hours post surgery. On a scale of things I would be willing to have done again - I rate this above gum graft, herina repair, Tim's rotator cuff and root canal but I have to place it below c-section because at least then I got a new baby which is always good...plus I think I got more sympathy for that. I haven't had ice cream because it just does not sound good. I have had a popsicle, more mashed potato soup, apple sauce and some very overcooked cream of wheat (Spongebob brand - it was all we had) I have rejected numerous suggestions from Tim who is doing his best but doesn't seem to be grasping the fact that I have loose and raw meat flapping around in my throat. I am currently working up my nerve to try a little bit of very well cooked mac and cheese but I'm not sure I like the looks of it... it may still be too sharp.

So, I read a lot more about folks who had the same procedure that I had which is called the coblation method and what I have learned is that up to day 4 things are way better for the lucky people who have their tonsils out this way. Around day 4 is when the scabbing begins and sometimes people slack off on the hydration and the pain meds and that is when things go to hell on a zip sled -- I can assure you that I will continue to drink mass quantities and take my meds as ordered and hopefully I will be one of the lucky few to say it wasn't that bad.

Last thought for now: I have decided to change my goal for this whole thing from "I just want to make it out alive" to " I want to show my wimpy brother in law how easy this is so that he will just go ahead and do it already!" FYI: he needs his tonsils out worse than anyone I have ever known but he is scared to do it. I figure if it's not too bad for me, it will be relatively easy to shame him into it in 2010! (Right Amanda?)

Last, last thought: Tim is really doing a great job taking care of me and the boys with only one working arm. I've caught him without his sling a lot the last 24 hours and I'm afraid he is going to set himself back trying to do too much. If any of you calls the house, would you PLEASE encourage him to be kinder to his own system? thank you!

This is going to be fun!

Ok, first -- I know that it's been a long time since I posted anything at all and I have a lot of catching up to do but that will have to wait a few days because I'm inviting you to go on a journey with me starting tomorrow. Tomorrow, I am getting my tonsils taken out. Yep -- at the ripe old age of 29, I am finally having the surgery that most people have at 8. Most of you will not be surprised to learn about this since I'm sure you remember me getting braces as an adult - also something people normally do at 8.... and you are all now well aware of my love for surgery and how I try to have one or two each year just to keep in touch with my friends in the OR. My surgeons count on me to make the Lexus payments!

I may not have told everyone about this because at this point, its a little embarrassing to have to tell people that I'm having surgery AGAIN. This was confirmed by my dear friend Wendy who, when I told her that I had to have this done, laughed and said "I can't believe this, this is ridiculous!" and she is right. In addition to the tonsils, I am also having my sinus surgery from May repeated because yes.. I always have to have the same procedures twice (see earlier comment on my friends in the OR...).

I've spent perhaps too much time on various websites reading other folks descriptions of their own personal tonsillectomies -- and I have to say, it hasn't made me eager to get in there tomorrow! I haven't found even one person who says "well, that wasn't as bad as I thought". I have found literally hundreds of people who say "Wow, I knew it was going to be bad but I didn't think it would be THIS bad!" -and I've found more than one who would like to cut off their own head. As you all know, in my family we deal with everything adverse with a heavy dose of sarcasm and humor so... I figured that I would blog each day about my experience and see if any of us learns something from it.

I understand that the pain meds are a big player in this process so if you come across some posts that dont make much sense - you'll know why.

I would greatly appreciate any good thoughts or prayers that you see fit to send my way -- remember that my baby Daddy is still only flying with one wing!

Here we go......

Sometimes life hands you a bug in your beans....

Last night I had an unfortunate encounter with a beetle in my black eyed peas. The following is the email I sent to the company who produced said beans:

I love black eyed peas. They are just about my favorite vegetable. Today on my way home, I thought "Black eyed peas would sure taste good with the fish I'm making for dinner!" so I stopped at Kroger to buy some. I bought your brand purely because it had jalapenos in it and I thought that would be great, plus - my husband loves jalapenos. After making the unplanned stop JUST TO GET THE BLACK EYED PEAS -- I was starving and so looking forward to my peas and fish. I got a lovely dinner on the table and sat down with my family for a meal that I was truly excited about. That's when it all went wrong. Imagine my horror, disgust and extreme disappointment when the very first bite I lifted to my mouth contained a black BEETLE. Yes, a beetle, not a pea, an actual gross bug. First, thank GOD I am a somewhat picky eater and tend to inspect every bite before I eat it and second, I know that Bear Grylls eats worse than beetles every night on Man Vs. Wild but son of a gun.. this is MY KITCHEN where I expect my food to be cooked and BUG FREE! If I want to eat a bug, I will go outside and get one. So far that urge has never overtaken me and I don't expect it to anytime soon.What I am getting at here is that there was a beetle in my black eyed peas. I took pictures and will be happy to send them to you but I suspect that you know the exact type of beetle I am referring to as I imagine that they are all over at your factory. It's probably a sheer miracle that I haven't found one before. I know the FDA allows you to have a certain amount of bug in your product and I can deal with the knowledge of that but not the reality. As I mentioned earlier - black eyed peas have been just about my favorite vegetable and now I fear that I may be off of them forever because of the Tuesday night beetle in Allen's Jalapeno Pepper Peas.I am hoping that your sense of pride will allow you to refund my purchase price of $1.25 plus tax. I am not a litigous person and frankly, I realize that a beetle is not nearly on the same level as a mouse or a thumb -- however had I found one of those items, you would be receiving a very different email. All things considered, the only real harm here is my newfound aversion to Allen's Jalapeno Pepper Peas - which ultimately hurts you more than me.I will look forward to a reply in the near future and to receiving my refund of $1.25 plus tax.
Still hungry,Ann Carne

I have no idea what the response will be, if any but I will keep you posted!

Happy eating!

Just because it's funny...

And I know my sister will get a laugh... here are some pictures of our parents - aka Nana and Grandpa -- actually swimming with my boys. I honestly think the last time I saw my Dad in a swimsuit was before I could drive... it doesn't look like he's gotten much sun since then.

The boys had a fantastic time with them! Isn't Grandpa just like a Rockette in the water?

And this is where it starts.....

This may be your very first glimpse of the epicenter of a Texas Male's lifelong obsession with football. I will admit that I have lots of reservations about this whole thing. He's only 7. The coaches are way too serious about it. The mom's are a little too rabid... and they want to have practice 3 times a week for 2 hours!!! THEY ARE ONLY SEVEN. If any of those folks get ahold of this I will be shunned, I'm sure. Everyone knows that any Texas woman worth a can of Aquanet wants her boys to play football as soon as they can walk. It's no secret that football in Texas outranks nearly everything else on the scale of vitalness to life. We HAVE to play football here - it's what we do. There are movies and tv shows about it just to prove the point.

There is a part of me that is a little proud and excited that one of my boys is trying football on for the first time, but the bigger part of me is concerned that it is going to be too much too soon and that it will not be a positive experience for my guy. Big Daddy even signed on to be an asst. coach in order to keep some kind of lid on the mania. It's a big commitment for the whole family but commit we did so we will ride it out and see where we end up. So far he loves it and can't wait to get to practice but we'll see how this all works out when school starts.

FYI his team is the Bobcats Black (there is also a Bobcats Blue) and he is being trained to be a wide receiver. We explained that wide receivers get a lot of glory and they also get to run a LOT which is something our little Forrest Gump just loves to do. When we told him that if he ran fast enough he wouldn't spend so much time eating the turf, he was all over it. No matter how he actually plays I'm proud of him for just trying it... and I WILL be getting a Bobcats shirt with "bling" on it and my baby's number on the back -- if I'm going to do it, I"m going to do it right!

He does look awfully cute in his uniform!!!

I think Ben Franklin had it wrong

Supposedly, Ben Franklin once wrote "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." While that may be true to some degree, I think he missed the mark. In my opinion, fried squash on a summer day edges out beer under any circumstance. Maybe that's just the Southern girl in me talkin' but give me a big plate of fried squash (with just a cornmeal coating and plenty of salt) over a beer any day. I actually personally know people who have never had fried squash and I feel plenty sorry for those folks. Now that I have my super fryer -- maybe I will make this my personal philanthropic mission for the world -- to introduce the fried squash ignorant to the joys of this delicious summer treat. If you happen to be one of those poor souls - stop by any time and I'll fry up a mess for you....you'll thank me for it.

And if you want to bring cold beer to go with my squash, I won't say no. :)

What a GLORIOUS day!

I know I am two days late on this but I wanted to share anyway -- you all know about Griffin's food allergies and how we have always had to be so careful to avoid anything that he was allergic to. For the past 5 years this has meant that he had to be "different" from other kids at mealtime. I've done my best to make sure that he never felt overly segregated but it has always bothered me -- much more than him -- that he has never been able to eat a birthday cake at a party or have pizza with everyone else. I have always provided "Griffin's version" of every special event food under the sun. Well Tuesday we got the tremendous news that he has finally OUTGROWN HIS MILK ALLERGY!!!! Yay! He was so excited and the first thing he asked for was ice cream like Carson's... which is just regular old Blue Bell but something that has always been off limits to him. We raced right home from the doctors office and I made him a huge ice cream sundae, complete with chocolate, WHIPPED CREAM and his favorite cherry on top. I even videotaped the first bite --which earned two thumbs up from Griffin! I realize that in the grand scheme of things, we have been so blessed to only have a few food allergies to deal with -- there are certainly many more sinister things that we could have been handed and I have always been very thankful that God gave us something that was manageable. Still...as a Mommy, It has always broken my heart a little to watch my sweet baby eat different things from the other kids and ask his brother what cheese tastes like and wonder if he would ever get to eat what the other kids eat. He is still allergic to eggs but we can certainly work around that for another year. Tonight I am just so very greatful that my baby boy has taken a giant step toward being able to be just like everyone else. And I am enjoying watching him try new foods as much as he is enjoying having his culinary world opened up to him. My heart is just bursting with joy that he will be able to start kindergarten this fall and be able to eat pizza with all the other kids. God is good and this is just a small bit of proof.

I can't keep up!

there is too much going on to blog every day. Yesterday was my birthday - complete with a delicious cake made by Timothy. I dont have time right now to do a proper post but enjoy these pics of my pretty princess and a few other items!

I DO know how to add pictures!!

The internet connection here is not strong so I could not get the pics to load last night. Here are the pics for the previous post:

Day 2 and 3 in Pensacola!

Whew! we have been busy! Doing a lot of nothing really takes it out of you!
The boys are having a fabulous time and so are the adults.... we've eaten so much seafood we may sprout claws ourselves! Yesterday was my Mom's birthday so shout out to Barbara.... we went on a cruise that was supposed to take us to see dolphins... what it actually did was give us 2 hours to corral the boys on a hot boat while we "looked" for dolphins. We did end up seeing a few fins in the water but it was NOT what we were expecting. We also took a drive over to Pensacola Beach to check that out in the afternoon. Wouldn't you know it? as soon as we got over there, the sky opened up and it just poured for a couple of hours. Luckily we were able to find refuge in a really cool restaurant with all kinds of fun things for the boys to look at and fun things for Krystal and I to drink. Griffin had his first popcorn shrimp and loved it. Today the Daddys played golf and the Mommies and boys went to the beach. We saw Dolphins today and we didnt have to pay a dime to do it so that was cool. Carson found half a crab in the surf and the boys all enjoyed dissecting it and grossing each other out. We found lots of shells and brought back lots of sand in our swimsuits and other areas that were not intended to haul sand. In the afternoon we went back over to Pensacola Beach where the Dads went into the fairly large surf in search of the big shells and sand dollars. So far we are having a wonderful time. Here are a few more pics from the last 2 days!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Parenting error #23,962

OK, with all the recent coverage about the untimely and tragic passing of Michael Jackson, I realized that my boys had no idea who he was. Although I did not agree with most of his "personal issues" I can admit that he was perhaps the greatest musical and video genius my generation will every know. That thought led me to show my boys what I described to them as the first and best long form music video that was ever created -- Thriller. I have seen this video roughly 1,000 times and my most recent viewing was maybe 15 years ago so I had forgotten some the nuances of the work. Specifically I forgot that if you are 5 and 7 and have never seen anything like that and then all of a sudden the guy turns into a scary warewolf before your eyes --- you might not think that your Mom is doing you much of a favor. Griffin literally jumped off the couch into my arms and Carson covered his eyes yelling "Mom that's mean! This is a scary movie -- why would you make us watch that?" We never got to the dancing zombies part. Apparently no one at my house is ready for the complete Michael Jackson crash course.

Lesson learned.

More pictures from day ONE...

The first day of vacation!!!!

We are having fun so far -- one day into our Florida adventure. So much fun in fact that all 3 boys on this trip fell asleep before we got to the restaurant tonight and all slept through dinner and were brought home and put to bed with no dinner and no tooth brushing. Don't judge us. They were all so tired and cranky that we figured they could miss a few calories and one brushing episode. I'm posting some pictures from today. Hopefully I will be able to do a little every day.

Day One: we were up at 630a, had breakfast, went to the beach here in Perdido Key, came back to the condo for lunch then out to the very cool pool at our resort for a couple of hours. then we took showers and headed to the dinner that wasn't at about 630p. All boys were asleep by 631p and are now sleeping soundly. I expect that they will all be awake and demanding a LARGE pancake breakfast by 6am.

Enjoy our pics from today - love you all!

What the...? SERIOUSLY?!?!?!

Listen, I admit it. I have only watched a collective hour of American Idol this season but yet I still cared about the outcome. Somehow, against all logic -- America voted more times for Kris than Adam. WTF?
Adam is clearly the better showman and the better vocalist. But once again -- Americans had to be "safe" and pick the boring and vanilla over the exciting rainbow flavor (with sparkles). I'm sure the bored housefraus of the USA got together in every little wide spot in the road and decided that Adam was just "too freaky" to be their American Idol. Yes, he is flamboyant and in your face and most probably all the way gay. But the boy can sing and he is for sure never boring to watch. The irony here is that all these people who voted for Kris to keep Adam out of the sight and ears of their impressionable children have failed already. The truth is that Kris will put out an album (of the AI producer's choosing) and most people will buy it, but then it will come time to support Kris in the biggest moneymaking way -- attending his concerts -- and they will not show. Because it will be boring to watch. I predict that he is playing county fairs by next summer. Meanwhile, by coming in second, Adam has been freed to make any kind of music he wants to and to promote himself any way that he wants to and people will not only buy his album, they will attend his shows because they are GUARANTEED to be a great spectacle and worth the money. And I'll bet a pair of Jimmy Choos that Adams album is great. I get that he doesnt appeal to everyone but what I dont get is how people fail season after season to realize that what they are SUPPOSED to vote for is the BEST PERFORMER who can sing. Taylor whatshisgreyhair anyone? What about thier buddy Ruben with the giant shirts? What happened to them? Nothin. you know why? boring.
How about Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson and Chris Daughtry? Big careers because they market themselves well and put on great shows and have interesting personal lives. You don't have to answer, you know I'm right. When you get right down to it, wouldn't you truly rather have a little sparkly Adam in your life than a beige Kris? I know I would.

SUCK-inthia is not sucking any more!

Well, phase one is complete. Yesterday I had the sinus part of my correction done. I had to be at the hospital at 6am! It was very quiet at that time of the day and all the nurses were still in good moods so it was a good time to go. My surgery started at about 820a and was over in about an hour. My doctor, Dr. Natalie Roberge is just so wonderful. she is always cheerful and calm and so far, in 5 combined surgeries for me and the boys she has a perfect track record, which is good. She came in and talked to me for a while before the procedure and then talked to Tim for a while after. She thinks she was able to accomplish everything she needed to and that I should be feeling much better sinus-wise in about a week. I have to say that it is not nearly as bad as I was anticipating. My pain is very manageable, I slept just fine last night and I don't even look bad - if you don't count that I'm not wearing makeup. I don't have any bruising on the outside of my face at all and I have swelling but it's all inside so you can't really tell except that my eye is a little swollen. so for those of you who were eagerly anticipating some really ugly pics -- I'm sorry but there is nothing to share! The most disturbing aspect for me has been that when I stand up or move around a bit, my nose bleeds and I cough up blood. If that is gross to read, believe me, it is WAY grosser to have it happen! My brother in law, Kevin, could definintely attest to that! SO - everyone at my house is encouraging me to lay down as much as I can stand it and the boys are being so sweet! After school yesterday they brought me some yellow tulips and they made me several very sweet cards and my Carson has been in my room every 15 minutes asking if he can get me anything. The best part is that since I am forced to just lie still, we have had some good snuggle opportunities and we have plans to watch some movies together this weekend. Maybe this is God's way of giving me TIME with my boys which is something that I have been missing lately. I'm going to take as much advantage of it as possible! Thank you to everyone who has called to check in on me and sent prayers my way - they definitely helped. And special thank you to my friend Wendy who was nice enough to take Tim to the hospital yesterday after the boys went to school!

Look for more posts soon since I have time to do it now!

I know what the "C" word is....

Yes, that is what I was informed of at the dinner table tonight. My Carson asked if he would get in trouble if he tried it out on me. Since I wasn't sure WHICH "C" word he now knows, I assured him that I would not be mad one time. He whispered "crap" and then immediately asked if that was a really bad word. I told him it was bad but not real bad - but that I still didn't want him to say it. He seemed OK with that. I guess we still have a ways to go before we confront REAL problems!

Carson's wonderful mind

Some things are just too precious not to share.

My Sweet, sweet Carson Reese was saying his prayers last night - and as he neared the end and got ready to sign off he added "and please let it be warm tomorrow..... or snow... your choice. Amen"

I love that kid so much.

I won the lottery -- but not in the good way.

I'm just going to say it: all the bizarre medical stuff happens to me. I am SO very thankful that at least to date - all the bizarre stuff has not been life threatening - but it is getting a little annoying that I seem to be a human magnet for unusual ailments but I never earn any money for them. First it was the c section that would not heal. Then it was the c-section that herniated, then it was the other c section that would not heal. Then it was the other c section herniation. Seriously -- to date I am the only human being I know who has had not 2 but 4 c sections but only 2 children to show for it. I thought I had put all that behind me but today I managed to outdo myself.
Here's the quick timeline of what happened: several months ago I started having problems with my right eye. it would swell up and burn and seemed to be getting smaller. I also noticed that I thought my face looked a little crooked but I just chalked that up to getting older and more sensitive about my looks - or lack of them. Went to the regular Dr. She said I had dry eyes and told me to use drops. Didnt work so she sent me to an ophthalmologist (did you know there were 2"l"s in that word?) he said I had dry eye and an overgrown eyelid. Gave me drops and sent me to an opthalmic plastic surgeon. I think "great, I'll get an eyelid lift and look 10 years younger and permanently surprised" and it was all good. Plastic surgery guy says I have blepharitis (inflamation of the oil glands in the eyelid -- yes you have them, and yours are probably clogged too so don't judge me) but he is also concerned about my facial asymmetry. What he actually said was "Do you know one eye is a lot lower than the other one?" Way to boost my ego doc. He asked a whole bunch of questions that I figured were leading somewhere I didn't want to go and that was confirmed when he said I needed a CT scan! what?!?!?!?! I thought I had a dry eye! I thought I was going to get some freshening up! what the @*#&($^ do I need a CT Scan for? PSG won't discuss what he suspects. I spend the next 5 days googling my fingers off only to come up with mostly bad scenarios and whipping myself into quite a frenzy on the inside. CT Scan was done on Monday - with and without dye. I preferred without. Tim and I sat in the car for 15 minutes trying to read the films. I google my fingers off trying to learn to read a CT scan -- no useful info found. Today was my follow up with PSG. He begins by saying "Well -- this is interesting" You are wondering what that means, right? I was too. In this case what it means is that I have a condition/syndrome/disease called Imploding Antrum. It is also referred to as Silent Sinus Syndrome or SSS. Turns out, I dont have an eye problem, I have a sinus problem and a doozy of a sinus problem. PSG says he only deals with eyes and that I need to see an ENT -- are you keeping count? this is Dr. #4 for a dry eye. He says he's not sure what the treatment is and sends me on my way. I google. Immediately. I learn that there isn't much information out there on Imploding Antrum outside of medical journal stuff written in medicalese that I cannot deciper with my journalism degree. I manage to find out that this is because this condition/syndrome/disease only has about 100 documented cases - thus the lottery comment. You are welcome to look this up yourself but basically, I have a black hole in my sinus cavity that is creating suction or "negative pressure" that has been sucking in there long enough to deviate my septum and pull my eye socket down among other things. It is essentially pulling my facial structure towards it and wreaking havoc on my eye and my nose. a strange little factoid about this is that people who have this never feel any pain from it. Doctors do not know why - most people feel quite a bit of pain with a sinus infection - headaches, clogged nose, ear pain etc. SSS people have none of that and what usually drives us to the Dr, is an eye problem. Who would have guessed? The treatment is of course surgical only which is awesome since I thought I made it very clear after my last hernia surgery that I would not be having more surgery. (Insert God laughing) Again -- let me be clear -- I am VERY thankful that this is not life threatening. I am not thankful that I have it though.
I will make an appt with our ENT- who I adore -tomorrow and update as necessary.

In the meantime, if any of you know something about this please send your knowledge my way!

PS -- I guess this means that I really do suck -- at least in my face!

We've got girl trouble.

These are actual comments made by my little chick magnets tonight:

Carson: Mommy, today wasn't very good at school.

Mommy: Why not?

Carson: Because TWO girls are Koo Koo over me and they won't leave me alone!

Mommy: You'd better just get used to that buddy.

and I bought Griffin a t shirt that says "Lady Killer" on it - and when Carson told him what it said, he threw it on the floor and started to cry and said "I'm NOT gonna wear that!" when I asked why, he said "Because then all the girls are gonna love me!" Poor guy -- he has such a looooong road ahead of him.

Naked Hula Hooping...

Sometimes, it's the only thing that will pull your day out of the ditch.

Girl parties are tricky...

Today Carson went to a girl birthday party. For the record, he only agreed to go because it was at a gymnastics studio and he knew that there would be trampoline time and time to swing on a rope into a huge pit of giant foam blocks. The girl in question is a nice little girl who adores Carson and therein lies the problem - he does not adore being adored. One day that will be funny.
Anywho - I bought the present, card and wrapping on my own since Carson could not be bothered to look at boring girl stuff. I picked out a nice present and a nice little card that said something about a sweet girl having a great birthday. The "incident" happened as the birthday girl was opening her presents. They had all the kids in a semi-circle around her and she decided to read each card out loud before opening the presents. All the parents were standing behind the kids watching as the room got quiet so they could all hear who the present was from and what the card said. When she got to Carson's present, she read the card about a sweet girl having a great birthday, at which point, Carson turned to me and yelled "What kind of card did you BUY?!?!?!"
All the parents burst into laughter as I tried to reassure him that it was just a nice card and that there wasn't anything weird in it - his ears were so red and he was truly upset with me for that card. I was trying not to laugh but I couldn't help it and he yelled, "I DO NOT think she is sweet!" One day he will see how funny this was - but for now, I've learned my lesson and from this point on, all girl's birthday cards will simply say Happy Birthday and nothing more! Seeing as how there were lots of girls at this party who witnessed this -- I may never have to buy another girl's birthday card anyway. That boy just cracks me up!

We have PROPER ducks!!

That is what I woke to this morning... two very excited little guys hopping up and down and gleefully yelling that I had to come look at the ducks in our swimming pool. Apparently, a lovely pair of wild mallards had decided to take a little vacation in our pool and the boys were thrilled. There they were, just swimming about, happy as you please while our 140 lb dog laid in the yard and watched. He's getting older and I guess the thrill is gone from chasing stuff that shouldn't be in the yard. Carson, who can always be counted on to find the wonder in the smallest things, proudly told me that these weren't just any ducks, they were PROPER ducks because they used the steps to get out of the pool instead of just flying. And lo and behold, while he was telling me that - they did use the steps to get out to his delight. They hung around long enough to keep them entertained for a couple of hours and then they were on their way again. I hope they come back - its amazing how happy a couple of random ducks can make a couple of random boys!

My Sweet Boys of JOY!

Well, here it is!

I cannot believe that I let my sister talk me into this. Ok, she didn't so much TALK me into it as much as she just went on and on about her own blog and how great it is and how much everyone was enjoying it and THEN she stopped telling me things about her life on purpose so that when I heard them from someone else she could say "Well, if you read my blog you would know that". So I guess in a way this is kind of a grudge thing. I can't let her have a whole world that I know nothing about so here I am just plunging in. Let's just get a couple of things out of the way right now: 1) I am really, really, really busy so I may not be too regular about the posting. 2) Any post that I manage to get done will very likely not be interesting in any way to the great majority of the world so you have been warned. 3) I like to talk in really long run-on sentences that use a lot of descriptive words and adjectives and sometimes I don't always use punctuation -- it's how I talk and how I type. If that is going to bother you, erase the link to my blog now or our friendship won't survive. 4) if you are my friend or my family, you will more than likely show up here from time to time. You all know what your relationship is with me and therefore I don't think I should have to get signed release forms from you. Again, if this bothers you, delete the link now.
I hope that in some way this gets me closer to some of you... I have a lot on my plate and I dont always have the time to call everyone and check in -- even though I would like to. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions but don't get your feelings hurt if I ignore them. I've never had a blog before and I want to try it my way first -so let's just agree to ride along together for a while and see where this takes us. If I get us lost, you can take over.