5 Miles

Today was an annoying day…  Lots of silly little things kept going wrong and piling up. (I don’t want people to think I only write about the good things, wanted to “keep it real” here!   So forgive the whining here.)   Things like trying to vacuum and the vacuum cleaner not sucking. I tried to burn a CD for the boys and the burner didn’t work several different times. I had lots of things I needed to get done, and very few things were getting finished (partly because I promised the kids they could paint, and while they can paint without me being RIGHT THERE, I needed to come to help often). I felt we needed a chance of scenery, so we cleaned up the painting and went to Kroger for our last chance at strawberries for $1/package (the pound size packages). I wanted to get some to make more strawberry jam. So then I needed to get Sure-Gel (or the non-brand name equivalent). I started going down the rows and realized they had rearranged the store. And were still in the processes of moving things around. I looked and looked and looked and could NOT find the silly stuff. I went to Customer Service and asked the guy there and he said “Oh yeah, it’s on Aisle 12!” I said “No, it’s not, I looked, several times.”  He came over to show me and they were not there. (Made me feel a tiny bit better!)  He looked and finally found them on Aisle 17, with the cleaning supplies. Yeah. I hadn’t thought to look there for some crazy reason. He said it’d probably get moved again. I probably won’t be going to that Kroger again, it was too annoying and there’s another one 5 minutes in the other direction–and they give out free samples!

So I resolved to turn my attitude around and our day was going to be better.  We had lunch, kids went outside to play, I started to work, and James came home and fixed the vacuum cleaner (it was the hose attachment that didn’t work, it was clogged by pine needles. Don’t judge me on how long it’s been since I used it!)  and the CD burner started to work for me.   Then Will came in crying. He had cut the top of his foot on the edge of a brick. It wasn’t good, it was deep. Made me a bit sick to look at. Thankfully, James was still home and he was able to help out. He ran and got butterfly bandages and fixed it all up. But now Will is limping around because of this. Poor kid, it’s going to be a long summer if he keeps it up at this rate.  And poor James, it wasn’t much of a “break” for lunch for him.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and having Will keep his foot up. We enjoyed watching the US soccer team beat Spain, the kids helped make birthday cards for their Aunt, Uncle and cousin, and I got a few small things on the list done.  And we’re hoping for a better day tomorrow.

I finally remembered my camera to document the boys soccer classes they take on Tuesdays. (Well, last week it was inside so I didn’t bother to take the camera.)  Will LOVES his class and wishes it happened more then once a week. Alex enjoyes it at times but I don’t get the impression he LOVES it like his brother. I’m just happy he’s willing to do it–several of the kids in his class are not quite as enthused about it. 

I couldn’t decide which pictures to put up, so I put up lots, sorry.

Will’s class and coach Josh (Will has the blue shirt, and the girl next to him is a friend from church).

 

Kicking the balls towards the net.

Alex’s group, just breaking for a water break.

Alex and his friend from church (sister of the girl in Will’s group)

Will coming for a water break.

Alex’s group doing some thing with the one of his coaches.

Alex kicking a ball (they do more games, less kicking of balls)

Will, helping pick up the cones at the end.

Friday night I went to Kroger where I noticed they had a package of 5 dozen eggs on sale for $2. Since one dozen eggs costs $1, this was a great deal–you get 3 dozen free! James likes eggs in the morning, and I know of several recipes that we could use those for supper, so I picked them up.  When I was checking out the cashier asked me, “So are you going to do some bakin’ or do you just like eggs?”  As she was asking, the cashier next to her asked, “Did you just ask her if she was going egging?!?” We all got a laugh about that as I said “Yeah, the kids are in bed, I thought I’d go egging now.” 

* * *

Tonight Alex asked James: Daddy, will you put my shoes on?
James: I can try, but I don’t think they’ll fit.
Alex: Not on you, on ME!
James: How do you ask?
Alex: Please?
James: Please, What?
Alex: Daddy, will you put my shoes on?
James: I can try, but I don’t think they’ll fit.
Alex: Not on you, on ME!
James: How do you ask?
Alex: Please?
James: Please, What?
Alex: Daddy will you put my shoes on?

At this point James and I were laughing really hard and it was rather difficult to point out to him the need to say “Please, will you put my shoes on ME?”.

W (5.75yr):  What is 10 plus 10?

A(3.5yr): 2?

W: no

A: 5

W: no

A: 7

W: No, count to 10 and then count 10 more.

A: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 — 61?

W: No, 10 plus 10 is 20.

A: Oh, right!

Today we went up to visit Mom and Dad. Since it was a beautiful, warm day we went over to Taylor Lake to let the boys swim/dig in the sand (it’s the closet to the beach we’re going to find in Indiana unless we go up to Lake Michigan).

Last year Mom tried to take the boys and they were scared. The second time I was there, and a thunderstorm came in. Our third attempt was the last time week the lake was open, and they really enjoyed it.  This year I wanted to get them there earlier in the season, and have hopes to go several more times.  They both loved it and we stayed almost 3 hours.  Heidi and Doug, we have plans to go when you’re visiting in July!!!

Will got into the water more (we forgot our floaties, that might help more next time with Alex).  Alex spent a lot of time digging. Oh, there was a time where they were the only two in the lake, and they were trying to be really still to see if the fish would nibble their toes. Alex got nibbled on his belly button and that seemed to keep him out of the water for a long time. Later more kids came and all the splashing kept the fish away.

Team Work Gets The Job Done! 

 We had a great time playing and having a cook-out. The boys were HUNGRY for supper and Alex fell asleep rather quickly in the car on the way home.

This week was  a crazy, but fun week. We had VBS, or Kids Camp, all week. The theme was Paul and the Underground Church. It was a really cool program, the leaders dressed up s if they were during Roman times. The main fellowship hall area was turned into a market that held tents for various crafts and a food market area. While the kids would be in there doing crafts or eating, various skits would happen each day. They also had our Youth Pastor act as Paul, he was in an upstairs room, chained to a Roman guard (one of the high schoolers) under house arrest. Across the hall was a cool set up where the kids went into a dark room and crawled through a secret tunnel to a church hidden in a cave.  I got to see what they did one day, and it was really amazing to hear Paul’s words in Romans being spoken/taught as if they were just being shared. I know our boys really enjoyed it.  Here are a few pictures:

Alex and his friend Caleb. Can you tell they are trouble together?

A nicer picture!

Every time I saw Alex he was next to one of the helpers, Natalie. He told me on Friday “Mommy, we should have Natalie to our house sometime.”  I made sure he was thinking as a baby sitter, not for a play date. I think he just liked it because she’d let him sit on her lap all the time. The preschoolers had their own Kids Camp (it was thought parts of the other one would be too scary) but they did get to come out to the market and see the skits.

Here is Will with his “family” or small group. He had a great time, but got pretty scared one time in the underground church when they hear Roman soldiers getting rather close.

The last day the kids sang their songs for the adults–Will had a great time singing along and dancing.

My job was to work the Scribe tent. The kids got to write in ink and then seal their scrolls with a wax seal.

So our big new thing was the announcement below. But we do have other small new things and updates to share–enough to make a WHOLE blog post of them!

Heidi requested a picture of the new (to us) van:

Here is the new (to-us) play house we got free from a couple in our church (our church has an awsome system called E-Board where you can post to all of those who subscribe. People sell or give away things or ask for requests through it, it works really well!).

It’s the perfect boy house, on the other side is a gas tank (thus the car “parked” near it–ok, James threw it to the side because he was mowing the lawn when I took the picture), and on the 4th side is a basket ball hoop and soccer goal net.

We also are finally heating up, so a water feature was needed. The boys voted on a slip ‘n slide this year:

Finally, the update on the garden–here’s a quick shot of it (sorry it’s not centered well):

To the left is a tomato plant that is going crazy. I’m hoping it doesn’t grow so much that it doesn’t produce fruit.  Right in front are a few empty squares. One used to hold spinach but that went to seed (it was a great crop) and the other has basil seeds in it that never came up. I’m going to be planting more green beans there this week.  You can see more lettuce I need to pick on the left, and behind it is another crazy growing tomato plant. So far we’ve harvested several squares of spinach and lettuce (plenty for us, I do have spinach I’m going to cook and freeze tomorrow) and some sweet peas. I need to plant more peas next time, we’re all eating them right off the stalk and I’m not getting many!   Also, we’re going to need to do a different arrangement of tomato plants (all at one end probably) and I’m thinking the string isn’t working so well so I may be getting some cages for them.   So we’re learning as we’re doing.

We’re pleased to announce Miles Baby #3 will be joining our family in early January (or late December).

 

The baby is about 10 weeks old, and we had an ultrasound yesterday that showed no problems. It was great to see the heart  beating and baby wiggling all over the place.  (Round thing on the right is the head, white on the head are the facial bones. You can see a small hand there and the baby is kind of frog legged.)

Since this is my blog, this is my time to talk about how I’ve been feeling (and you’re free to skip if you don’t care! .  This pregnancy seems harder then the last two. It could be that my memory is bad, or it could be that I’m just older. The Dr. did say with further pregnancies, the hormones effect your body sooner.  I suspected I was pregnant with Will when some smells were just HORRID (like cooking eggs–YUCK!) and I was feeling queasy. I suspected I was pregnant with Alex when I was REALLY emotional over some TV commercials about a show showing soldiers coming home from Iraq (I just couldn’t stop crying over them).  This time I began to suspect I was pregnant when I was REALLY tired and forgetful.  Since then I seem to find more foods make me nauseous then ever before and there is a fine line between being hungry (and sick) or too full (and sick).  The biggest change is the Coke or Diet Coke I loved now make me sick, so it was quite easy to break that addiction.  Most sweet things leave me feeling sick.  I’ve also been rather tired.  I’m thankful the boys are older and so good at entertaining themselves, that’s been a huge help. How did I do this while I was working or with a toddler running around? 

So, in a few more weeks we’ll be through this stage.  I try to remember the sickness means things are going well for the baby. We’re thankful things are going well so far and we can now feel comfortable sharing the news. We didn’t mean to leave people out, we just wanted to make sure everything was going well.

Oh, and the boys do know. Will’s more impressed with the idea then Alex. We talk about the size each week when I get an email telling me what is developing and I’ll tell them that. While we were in PA the baby size was a blueberry, and Alex thought we should call the baby Blueberry.  Baby Blueberry is why we bought the van, our current car will not hold a third car seat, so we were going to need a larger vehicle by January.

(If you missed how Will broke his shoulder, it was at the end of this post.)

So Tuesday morning we went to the Pediatric Orthopedic Specialist (same guy who saw Alex when he had the bone infection 2 years ago! He’s a good guy.). He confirmed Will’s shoulder was broken, but it was a small one (not even all the way through the bone, just a crack on the top of it). He gave us a nifty sling (in size XX-S) and told us the pain would be gone within 2 weeks and we should come back in 4 for another X-ray to make sure it healed correctly.

Tuesday was also soccer classes…Will REALLY wanted to play. He showed me how he could run. So I talked with the coach, who liked how Will wanted to play and pointed out he’s not supposed to use his arm anyway (and that we signed a waiver so if he got hurt worse he wasn’t to blame), and let Will play. I was struggling with what’s the right balance of being over protective and letting the kid be a kid.  Thankfully he didn’t fall or make it worse, so I guess it was an OK choice. Couldn’t believe I was letting him run around with the sling on–in that shirt (button up are easier to get on then T-shirts)…he sure did stand out!

The first day he liked the sling and how it helped hold his arm and how it was more comfortable then he thought. After the fun at soccer, he was ready to take a rest and laid down while listening to a book on CD. Two days later and he’s choosing to not wear the sling most of the time (but still resting during our afternoon rest time) and tonight he showed me how he could raise his arm a bit.   Proof that kids heal quickly, or that he has the Miles High-Pain Tolerance, I’m not sure which.

The week we got back from our vacation, Will’s preschool had a fundraiser at one of those stores that has LOTS of fun bounce houses/giant inflatable slides.  The boys had SUCH A GREAT TIME there. I need to remember it for rainy or wintry days because they ran around so much, it was great!

Will was excited to see friends from school and ran off to play with them, while Aex was a bit cautious at first. I showed him some of the smaller slides and bounce houses for the “Under 3″ crowd, and he enjoyed those.

Then Will went with Alex on a few of the bigger slides:

And they both LOVED them.

After that they were both running everywhere. The kids were quite sad to leave, but there was no way I was paying the prices they wanted for food, so when they got hungry, that was time to go! I promised them we’ll go back though.