Today we relaxed.

Mike had the day off which was so nice. Since we work opposite shifts it feels like we hardly get to see each other sometimes. His cousin Nate came up from Tucson and stopped by to see the house. Then we all went to Ryan's house and barbecued.



The boys hung out in the pool and begged to get in the hot tub. I had to be the mean mom who told them no. Honestly though, when it's 100 degrees outside do you really want to get in a hot tub?



James wanted to get in the pool so bad. Every time we put him down he would walk as fast as those chubby little legs would take him to the pool. Then Mike would swoop him up and he would start to cry.



Jason is reading the Talisman by Stephen King right now and decided a quick dip and some light reading would be a great idea. I wish I were reading there too.

We didn't stay too long. James was tired and needed a nap. We hung out at home and watched a couple episodes of 24. We are hooked on that show. We even ordered Chinese food from the neighborhood restaurant for the first time.

Tomorrow Grandma Mickey comes to town and we can hardly wait to see her. Seems like it's been a long time since she visited. It will be a short weekend trip but knowing Mickey, we will make the most of it.

Journey

Seven years ago three friends set off on a road trip across the country. They said goodbye to their family, their friends, and their lives as they knew it to make a new one in Arizona. They each left for different reasons.

Perhaps it was to start fresh, or maybe it was to see something new. Whatever the reasons, I sure am glad they did. If they hadn't I never would have found the love of my life. He would have remained a stranger to me who lived 2,000 miles away.

Whenever I ask him why he moved out here, he always says it was to find me.

Whatever the reason. I'm happy he found me.

Outdoors

Me: I am Mom

Me: Mom I am

Three kids I know: That Mom of ours, that Mom of ours, we do not like that Mom of ours.

Me: Do you want to play outdoors?

Three kids I know: We do not like to play outdoors. We would not like that Mom of ours.

Me: Would you try it with a ball?

Three kids I know: We would not like it with a ball. We do not like that idea at all. We do not like to play outdoors. We do not like that Mom of ours.

Me: Would you like it at the park?

Three kids I know: We would not like it at the park. We'd rather be eaten by some sharks. We would not like it with a ball. We do not like that idea at all. We do not like to play outdoors. We do not like it Mom of ours.

Me: Would you could you with a kite? Could you would you with a bike?

Three kids I know: We would not like to fly a kite, and would rather be punished than to ride a bike. We would not like it at the park. We would rather be eaten by some sharks. We would not like it with a ball. That suggestion was the worst of all. We do not like to play outdoors. We do not like it Mom of ours.

Me: You may like it you will see. You may like to play with me.

Three kids I know: We would not like to play with you. What the heck is wrong with you? We do not like to fly our kites. We do not like to ride our bikes. Not at the park, not with a ball. Boy your ideas are the worst of all. We do not like to play outdoors. We do not like to Mom of ours.

Me: Kids, you do not like it so you say. Try it. Try it and you may I say.

Three kids I know: We will try it and you will see. We really don't need to see the sun or trees. All we need are plasma TVs.

Me: ( Dragging the kids outside with popsicles)

Three kids I know: Hey! We like being outdoors, we do! We like to be outdoors with you! And we would like it at the park, man our Mom is so darn smart! We would like it with a ball. Where's our friends let's call them all! We would love to fly our kites, and after that lets ride our bikes. We love to play outdoors. Thank you, thank you, Mom of ours.

*Five minutes later*

Three kids I know: Mom our popsicles are all gone, we're getting bored, and Sponge Bob's on...

Our Lazy Weekend

Four days.

Four days and I enjoyed every one of them. I slept in all the way until close to 8am on Saturday thanks to my saintly husband. We went over to spend the afternoon at my mom's house and to play poker. The boys swam all afternoon and most of the evening. Even James got to swim for a little while. He doesn't have a swimsuit yet for the summer so he swam naked. Awesome.

My mom was the official lifeguard on duty and the rest of us played some tournament style texas hold'em. She was lucky she didn't play because Mike and I ran the table and claimed first and second place. I would tell you who came in first and who came in second but I have decided that is not very important. It's all about having fun right? Right.

It really was a beautiful evening spent with family.

Sunday. Hmm, I really don't have a clue what we did on Sunday. Was there a Sunday this weekend? Where did it go?

Monday we barbecued like every other family in the country probably.



I even wore shorts which I never ever wear. I guess I was feeling a little daring. That's right, I'm not afraid to walk on the wild side. Really I was just trying to tan my legs a little in preparation for the dreaded *gulp* swimsuit season.

We spent the afternoon in the backyard playing with beanbag toss game. I am officially terrible at that game.





Mike was a show off and could toss in the bags with his eyes shut. Whatev.



James was a bean bag stealer. If you were missing a bean bag you better find James.



Jason was pretty good at the game and Nathan had no patience for it. He wanted to be good at it right away. Kind of like me.



He makes this funny face now that always makes me laugh. He is sort of making it in this picture, try to imagine him inhaling and exhaling through his nose really fast while making this face. That is what he does. We have also been teaching him how to wink but right now he is still a two eyed winker.

My dad, Deedee, and Chris all stopped by for a quick hello. Deedee and Chris had never seen our new house so it was nice to show it off. We are proud of it. They even brought a housewarming gift! Soon we will be buying them one too.

My dad stopped by too while he was on duty. He is the king of the unannounced visit, but honestly we don't mind. He got some of his report writing done and ate some of our delicious barbecue and then left. Scavenger.

Later in the evening we had a fire outside. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. We laughed about funny stories and talked about summer plans. We still aren't sure what we are going to do for our vacation this year. The boys want to go to Michigan to visit family and their other suggestion was to go panning for gold. I was thinking about a trip to the beach but who knows. I guess we better figure that out soon since the summer is already upon us.

Hope you all had a wonderfully lazy weekend too!

Our Busy Weeekend

How do four days off go so incredibly fast? I felt like I was just getting reacquainted with my two favorite flat pillows when it was already time to set the alarm clock for 5:40am again.

Bummer.

At least we did get a few things accomplished this weekend. Home ownership has definitely brought on a brand new list of household chores and a whole new level of handiness out of us. More Mike than me but I am learning. We are now official door knob installers, air conditioning coil cleaners, landscapers, appliance installers, painters, etc etc etc. You name it, we can probably stumble our way through it.

On Friday I decided to start pulling out all the weeds in the back yard. This means pulling out pretty much all the greenery we have back there. Mike is more inclined to spray them all with some weed killer. I spent five solid hours out back and a few hours each day since (except for today) and am probably only 35% done. I kind of like going out there and getting my hands dirty. Nathan and Marcus come out there and help and we talk and laugh which is nice. I'll take any chance I can to spend time with my boys, even if it means pulling weeds with them. Quality time can take many different forms.



Mike had fun painting the top portion of the stairwell on Saturday. We painted it the same color as the first floor. It is sort of a wheat color that I really liked.



We also went out and let the kids pick out the paint colors for their rooms. Each of them will get to help paint their own room with me which they are thrilled about. Jason chose a nice mellow green color that I love. He did really good helping, he only backed into the wet paint once. Next will be Nathan's room.



I must have given this dirty little lady over a dozen sink baths. She officially has a name now, Alice. Alice is a lot like my other baby. They are both very messy eaters and are yet to be very interested in being potty/litterbox trained. That means lots of baths with Johnson's baby soap for both.



Try as I might, I couldn't ignore laundry this weekend. The bane of my existence. You know what my gripe is with doing laundry? It takes hours to do and even after you are done washing it you still have to fold it and put it away. No fun. It feels so good once it is all done though.

After all that work I did this weekend I thought I deserved an award of some sort. So on Monday when I checked the new item on woot.com (all of my fellow wooters know what I am talking about) and saw the infamous and beautiful Dyson vacuum at an astronomical price, I knew I deserved it. It should be here some time next week. I am downright giddy with anticipation.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

I hope I look as hot as you when I am old too!

Graduation Day

My babies are growing up!!!

School is officially out for the summer. The boys had their last day today and it was basically party day. They didn't have to take back packs, instead they took board games to school. Then at the end of the day they had their stepping up ceremony. I forgot to take my camera but it really wasn't needed unless I wanted to post some pictures of the backs of strangers heads. I couldn't see anything!

Each of the boys got an award. Jason's award was for being the most friendly person in his class. Who would have guessed that one right? Nathan got a journalism award for being the best writer in the class. I beam with pride on that one. And Marcus' got the Golden Rule award, which is for always treating others how you want be treated. He told me that was the best award.

I will really miss the boys' school. Before this school, I used to be naive and think that there really wasn't a such thing as a good school, only good kids with good parents. I was so wrong. Nowhere else have I seen a school where all the staff and teachers are so caring, helpful, and just all around great people. Everyone in the office knows my kids names, including James. I actually woke up this morning and decided I needed to write thank you notes to the boys' teachers which I have never done before. Maybe I am just getting old and sappy. I hear that happens as you age.

Marcus' teacher made one of these books for each of the kids to take home today. It is so cute and I am sure she worked hard on them. She took a picture of Marcus every month and did a sort of scrapbook page with his art and writing.













I had to restrain myself from posting every single page of the book.

I really hope their next school has great teachers like this one does.

Now that the boys are out of school I am sure my creative juices will kick into gear. I usually try to find different "free" things for the boys to do instead of be lumps all summer. I am sure by July I will be counting down the days until they go back.

We Could All Use

A little less talk about the Nation's crumbling economy....

And more warm sunny afternoons with a bowl full of juicy red strawberries on the back porch.

FINALLY

He walks! Last weekend he just decided he was tired of crawling and just stood up and started walking. I'm not kidding!

Right now he sort of walks like Frankenstein with his arms up. He also always leads with his right foot and does a funny sideways shuffle sort of. Today after I got off work he was playing a game of walking to me and giving me a hug then walking around the room and giving daddy a hug then doing it all over again. He is a good hug giver.

At the end of the video he is walking into his favorite room in the house. My office. He loves to bang on the door while I am working and try to break in. He is getting close to being able to open the doors all by himself. He has also found a drawer in there that he can reach that has a lot of pens, markers, pencils, tape, glue, you know sort of our junk drawer. He likes to open it and throw everything out onto the floor. We need a taller junk drawer.

He

Is not a morning person

Has a huge heart

Is the whiney one

Loves to cook

Has a funny laugh

Will eat ants but only if they are alive

Never wants to go to school

Always needs a bandaid

Has the longest eyelashes

Is the tidy one

Still hasn't learned to tie his shoes

Could never be a vegetarian

Will taste anything once

Is scared of Chuck E Cheese

Wants to be just like his older brothers

Loves to snuggle

Could go fishing all day long and never get bored

Loves Max and Ruby

Is the chatterbox

Always wants to help

Is mommy's sweetheart

You know you live in Arizona when....

Your CD cases melt in the car.

It isn't even summer yet!

Games

Child friendly non violent games that were played today:

Charades


Paper ripping


Computer games


Get wet in the fountain


Spray mom with the spray bottle


Thumb wrestling

The adult friendly game that was played today:

Poker!

Mike put on his poker face today and battled it out with the fam in a very competitive game of poker. We played at Rick and Sharon's house and had a potluck style lunch with cards after. When cards were all over, Mike came out in second place to Stan who in the end had a ridiculous mountain of chips. I was the super nice wife who volunteered to entertain James so that he could play.

It was a great day with lots of food and chilling out.

Is the weekend really over?? Where the heck did it go?

Play Date

Well, it was actually more like a stroller date.

James and Brody finally got to meet for the first time today. I was super excited since James hasn't really ever been around any kids his own age. James and Brody are only 2 days apart! The only time James has been around another child close to his age was at his last well check appointment. There was a fifteen month old boy there and James kept being a bully and pushing him down.

While we were waiting for Nicole and Brody to arrive I entertained James and took some random pictures. James loves the camera.



James and Brody were so funny. They were so quiet and just sort of checking each other out. James seriously never really made a peep the whole time we hung out.

They were brothers in hawkhood since they were both sporting their super stylish mohawks.



We decided to get lunch since it was sizzling outside and we were all starting to get hungry. We ate at My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. I had no clue what I was ordering since I have never eaten Greek food. I have heard of a gyro so I went with that and Nicole said Souvlaki (I still don't really know what it is) is good so I got that too. It was all very yummy.



James kept stealing Brody's food off of his placemat even though he had the exact same things in front of him. He is a food hoarder. Brody wasn't feeling the restaurant so Nicole took him outside for a little while to let him run around.



Back in the strollers. Cute little Brody wasn't very happy but he did let us check out a few stores. I think he started to figure out that this wasn't so much a play date for them as it was for us. He entertained himself by playing in the water he had put in his stroller tray. James did his usual people watching and was still not making a peep.



Sorry Nicole, I had to post your Superman pose. We also figured out that the thing she is standing next to is a random giant rabbit statue. Not a donkey like I thought.



The boys were ready for naps and I had to get the boys from school so we had to leave. James was asleep in the van within five minutes. Maybe next time we will be nice and let them have a play date that involves a little more playing and a little less shopping.

The ER....Again

Lets just say I picked a bad day to get dressed exceptionally late for the day. After work yesterday (I work from home so I was still in pajamas) I decided to watch an episode of 24 with Mike since James was taking a nap. I completely forgot that the boys got out of school early on Wednesdays and didn't remember until it was almost time to leave. I didn't have time to shower or change out of my very sleek pajama ensemble which consisted of a tshirt and basketball shorts. It scares me to think about being late to get them. I just imagine them wandering around lost and sad. So I figured it wasn't a huge deal since I didn't have to get out of the van to pick them up. I could go home and shower right after.

WRONG

On the way to pick up the boys from school yesterday I got a call from the school saying that I had to pick up Jason from the office. He had hurt himself on recess. I thought it was strange because Jason hurts himself all the time and never really complains.

When I picked him up (in the office, in my pajamas, unshowered, nasty, and embarrassed) I could tell that something was wrong right away. Something about how he was standing didn't look right. The nurse told me he was playing two hand touch football at recess and in Jason's words, a much bigger kid fell on top of Jason and they heard a crack. Jason's shoulder hurt.

I could tell just by looking at it that it was broke or separated or something. We all piled in the van, gently of course, and headed to the hospital. Jason was crying the whole way and I felt so bad for him. We tried to talk to him about other things to keep his mind off of it but it hurt him a lot.

Diagnosis: Broken clavicle

One Vicoden and thirty minutes later he was feeling a lot better. While waiting to get his sling that he has to wear for the next 4-6 weeks I passed the time by pointing out all the other triage rooms I had been to at that hospital.

Me: We are in the same room James was in when he had Rotavirus. You are actually sitting wear he got his IV.
Jason: (Feeling very happy and poking his face) Oh that's funny.
Me: And that room right there is where Ryan was when he got stitches in his foot.
Jason: Sticking his tongue out and completely oblivious that I am talking to him.

An hour later he was discharged from the hospital with a new fashion accessory

I went and picked up the other boys from my dad's house and filled Jason's prescription (still in my pajamas), and finally went home.

He is feeling a lot better today. And last night was the best shower of my life. Simple things are hard for him to do now. And painful. Like putting on a shirt or tennis shoes, sleeping, and bathing. I get to help him with stuff I wouldn't normally get to do. I sort of like that I am able to baby him now. He can still manage to play the Nintendo though.

Lessons learned: Always take a shower before work, even if you work from home.

And

Football is meant to be played with pads on.