Just some fun pictures.....

Hannah's Ice Cream Party at School

Today Hannah's class held an Ice Cream Sundae party in honor of Easter. And let me tell you, Mrs. Holden and Mrs. Susan know how to throw an Ice Cream Sundae Party. There were chocolate chip morsels, sprinkles, crushed oreos, M&M's, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, and whip cream. OH, and ice cream cones to put on top of the sundae just in case the kids wanted to eat cones. I was in awe watching all those 4 and 5 year olds gobble up all that sugar. I think Mrs. Holden planned the party at 2:15pm in order to send them home on a sugar high. Guess that's our pay back as parents for all of our children's' bad habits.

I have lots of pictures, but have only included the ones whose Moms I know....I don't want to post anything that might upset some one.

Here is Hannah enjoying her cone.
Sameer was enjoying all the junk for sure!

LOVE the ice cream on the nose!

Ainsley preparing her Sundae.

The kids all had a great time and were SO polite. I really appreciate Mrs. Holden's firmness in that department!

Eli's Updated Word List

Eli has been in speech therapy for about a month now, and I must say I am already seeing great improvements. He went from using maybe 3 words to having an entire vocabulary:

Map
I want this.
I want that.
What's this?
What's that?
Nana (Banana)
ZZZZZ (Please)
Thanks
Watch
Yeah
Rocks
Meow
Woof
Out
I want take bath.
Wet
Night

And many more. I'm so proud of him, and his behavior has improved SO much. I enjoy him again. He is such a joy to be around. My sweet Eli is back, and that makes me the happiest Mommy in the world.

Study Group

Tonight a few of my friends from class came over to study for our Anatomy and Physiology test on muscles tomorrow. Hannah always wanting to get on the attention sits at the table and in the middle of our discussion says, "Your frontal bone is very important because it hides your brain. You don't want to see your brain because it's disgustin."

There were a few other funny quote that went along with the importance of protein to muscles, and your zygomatic bones, but I can't remember her exact words. Maybe it will come to me later.

Quote of the Day

The other evening at dinner, out of the blue, Hannah says, "Mommy, Big Sisters are supposed to like their little brothers."

Me: "Yes, they are. Do you like your little brother?"

Hannah holds up her first finger and thumb with about a quarter of an inch of space between them and says, "I'm this close to liking him."

Things I Love.....

I'm still not my usual happy go lucky self. (It's ok to laugh...I'm laughing too!) So I thought I would post a reminder of all the reasons I have to smile.

I love watching Eli try his darnedest to be big kid.
And sometimes he is really good at it.

I love watching Ben wrestle with the kids.

I love seeing Hannah pose for the camera.

She definitely has a future as a model.

I love that I have succeeded in addicting Hannah to Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.

Now I can enjoy my my favorite, bad past time with my favorite, good girl.

I love creating things with Hannah. Here is her Easter bonnet we made for her school parade.

I love the funny faces she makes.

And I love her eclectic tastes.

Quote of the Day

My friend and neighbor across the street is about 7 months pregnant with twins. Due in May. Hannah is very excited and anxious to meet the babies.

Last night out of the blue Hannah said, "I want to go see Bippo the Hippo." (Her Dentist.)

Me: "You have an appointment already to go on your birthday."

Hannah: "I can't go because Mrs. Ronielle is having the babies that day."

I guess Hannah has been speaking with God again and has already made arrangements to ensure the twins have the same birthday as her.

Hannah's School Spring Picture

I don't remember if I posted Hannah's Fall School Picture.
Cute, right? That's the real Hannah. Crazy hair and funny face. She's always making funny faces. She's funny like that.

Well, here is her Spring School Picture.

All I can say is wow! She sort of looks like someone was forcing her to pose for this picture at gun point. I mean, I'm sure she was forced, but I'm almost positive they don't allow guns in public school. Not even plastic ones.

What is really funny is that when I asked her "why didn't you smile?" She said, "I did smile. I smiled like this." And she created the exact same smile. Seriously.

Again, Wow!

I guess I have to prepare myself for many more years of straight line, forced smile pictures.

Well, at least her hair looked nice.

Trying to Get Back.....

I'm still not in a "happy place." I'm not in a "sad place" either, but I'm still working on finding the joy in blogging again. I know that sounds complicated, but I find that if I can't find the joy in my post then it just comes across as forced, or dull. The majority of my problem right now is that I feel like I'm running around like a crazy person between soccer, school "stuff" for the kids, doctor appointments, school "stuff" for me, birthday parties, getting together with friends, and general "house stuff" that I'm continually spinning until my head hits the pillow at night. It leaves me pondering what life will be like in five years when Hannah is 10, Eli is 7, and I am, hopefully, working. I can't even fathom how the house and yard will get cleaned then!

That's life though. There's always something to do. Always more to do than you have time to do. And no matter what you think, there are at least fifty more things that need to be added to your list, but you haven't thought of them yet.

So you add all of this crazy running around to an emotionally life altering event, along with a major test in Anatomy & Physiology, a husband who is out of town.....again, the stress of a prayer for the best outcome of a bad situation that has taken months to get through, and then throw in spring forward and it seems as if you are just too exhausted to scratch anything else off of your to do list.

That's where I'm at today. Not sad, not happy, just medium. An ok, unproductive, pretty darn tired medium.

OH, and blogging again. ;-)

Just a few pictures......

I must apologize.....

I started this entry to apologize for my long absence. I've had a lot going on the past couple of weeks, and it has all begun to wear on me. I know. You're asking yourself what that could possibly have to do with your much needed updates into the crazy mayhem that is my life. For this I am sorry.

You see....I truly don't like to update the blog when I am in any place but a happy place. I mean. You don't come here to read dribble about how sad, stressed out, or lonely I am. This is a place of satire and comedy, meant to bring joy to all those that take time to view it.

So.....it may be a few more days before I can bring the smiles back. But I will leave you with this
If that doesn't make you smile, well, I'll try again later. Love you all.

Eli's Exercise Regiment

Eli has started working on his upper body strength.
It's an integral part of his future golf career.

Strong shoulders and arms will help him hit the bar much farther; giving him the edge in the pro tour.

I just wish he would find other ways to get his workout.

I'm not sure how much longer my door knobs will be able to hold him up.

Sleeping Like A Rock

Eli had a pretty rough Friday night and Saturday. His cold progressed to terrible coughing that caused him to throw up. Repeatedly. Finally after about the sixth or seventh time Ben said "You're taking him to the hospital." So off we went at 10pm to the ER. I didn't think there was much they could do for him. He didn't have a fever and I was already giving him breathing treatments. What else can be done?

Well, they took a chest x-ray and it turns out my poor Boy had slight pneumonia in his left lung (which today was re diagnosed by a radiologist to be bronchitis, either way, my Baby was sick). I felt terrible. I felt even more terrible when they gave him two shots of antibiotics and sent us on our way with three prescriptions. Poor little Guy seems to catch everything within a mile radius, and yet rarely runs a fever.

Guess I should back up a bit. Saturday night in the ER I was nervous about how Eli would react. He doesn't like being held down, poked, and prodded. He became even more weary after the Triage Nurse decided it was necessary to take a rectal temperature. Eli wouldn't even walk in the same direction as that guy after that.

But!

Lucky for me Eli passed out around 11:15pm. And when I mean passed out, I mean out to the world. The Radiology Technicians came in shortly after for a portable chest x-ray. They sat him up, turned him left, undressed him, and Eli never batted an eye. I was in awe. I think the lack of sleep the night before, the lack of a good nap since he threw up every time I tried to lay him down, and the exhaustion of throwing up all day had just worn him out. Around 12:30am the doctor came in to give the pneumonia diagnosis. I told him that if he really wanted to listen to Eli's chest now was the best time. So he listened. Eli didn't budge. Then the two nurses headed in with the two shots of antibiotics. I asked if I should wake him up, they said it would be best. Well.......he wouldn't wake up. But let me tell you, once those two shots went in his poor legs he woke up pretty quickly, cried for about a minute, and went back to sleep. My Baby was exhausted.

We headed home, went to bed, and he slept till about 9:15am. He spent the majority of the day on the couch watching movies. I didn't think he would take a nap since he slept so late, but when I checked on him around 3pm he was out. I decided to leave him on the couch since it was so late in hopes that maybe all the commotion would allow him only a short nap.

About an hour into his nap we found him like this.
So Freaking Cute!

Dead to the world. Poor little Guy.

He woke up about 6pm and was feeling more like himself, and is feeling even better today. He's so tough. Such a sweet boy. I just love him.

The Swing Set Is Complete!!

Ben and his Dad worked long and hard all weekend putting these screws, bolts, nuts, and washers

into these pieces of wood.

And of course there were helpers. According to Hannah, "He can get it done much faster with five helpers!"

I think they made pretty good time. It took them about 12 hours total compared to the last swing set he built taking a week. I'd say that's progress.

Look at that concentration. Such dedication to ensure his kids enjoy themselves. (Not to mention that his wife his happy.)

And here is what all those pieces of wood, screws, nuts, bolts, and washers looks like finished. Hannah was VERY pleased.

It was hard to get her to hold still long enough for me to get a few pictures.

She likes the glider most of all!

Thank you to Ben and his Dad for all the hard work. I will really appreciate their efforts once the weather warms up and the kids can be outside more. I mean, it is all about the kids!