Checking in

We are on vacation! A 7 week vacation! I don't know whose bright idea this was, but it isn't as great as it sounds!
We are out west, visiting family. That part is great.
The traveling and the length of time, not so much.
It's tough living out of suitcases.
We camped on our way out here and hit Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. All great places to stop, but we also hit the heat wave crossing the country, so it was pretty miserable camping.
But alas, we made it.
Once we got to my mom's, all my kids were able to meet my grandma. She had been living with my mom in her final days. On Sunday, she passed away. She wasn't in any pain the whole time, which is wonderful.
After being at my mom's for a bit, we headed to my in laws. Where we spent a week.
After that, Matt flew out and went home to go back to work.
The kids and I are back at my mom's now, and will stay here a while before heading to my best friend's house.
Then it's back to the in laws, where my dad will come visit.
Shortly after that, Matt will come back. We will do some more visiting then camp our way back home.
Then it's time to start school!
Whew, what a whirlwind.
With everything that's going on, I just haven't been able to bothered even turning on the computer.
So, that's that. Where I am, and where I'm going.
I'll be back into the full swing of things after Labor Day.
Until then, who knows if I'll be updating.
Enjoy the rest of your summer!

My How Time Flies

It seems like I just updated my blog.  I was shocked when I looked and saw how long ago it really had been.
We have been crazy busy, just living life.
The weather here is beautiful, and the city is growing on me more and more each day.  I absolutely love how green it is here, and the grass is so soft.  The kids love to go out barefoot, because they can.  The fireflies here are amazing too.  We have woods behind our house and when we go out in the evening and look to the woods, it reminds me of a Disney scene.  Actually, if you've been to DisneyLAND you will know what I mean when I say it reminds me of the bayou scene of Pirates of the Caribbean.  It's pretty quiet and you just see little flashes all over the place.  So neat.
We also discovered these little tiny frogs.  I have never seen anything like it.  They are about the size of our fingertip.
Matt has been trying his hand at gardening.  Because we knew there would be deer in the woods, we didn't want to tear up any of the yard this year, so he planted things in all the flowerbeds, just to see how it goes.  He also planted the vine plants back in the the woods.  The other day, he went out to water those plants and a baby deer went bouncing away.  He was there later too.  He was making his bed in our grass clippings.  Matt must have scared him off though, because we haven't seen him since.  Surprisingly, the deer have only eaten a couple leaves off the grape plants.  The birds are proving to be more of a problem.  As soon as we see any kind of berry, they come by and eat it!  
Moving on!
Last week, we went to a swimming party for the cast of Annie Get Your Gun.  It was fun and so great to see the kids with new friends.  They were sad to see it end.  Someone from the cast is having another party in August, but we won't be here for it.  Boo.  The best thing about these kids is that they keep friending me on facebook.  I love that my kids' friends friend me!  Not that we talk but it's nice to know what kind of kids mine are hanging out with.
Also, last week, we had our end of the year assessments for home schooling.  Here, we either have to do standardized testing, or have a certified teacher look over all our work and determine if the kids are making enough progress.  We went with the teacher and the kids all did great.  It was nice to know that we are doing a good job.  There's always a tiny doubt, when you are schooling where there are no regulations.  So, it was a relief to know that after all these years, I haven't screwed up my kids! In fact, just the opposite!  YAY!!
Finally, this last weekend we had a Mended Little Hearts picnic.  It was so fun, and I absolutely love this group.  I somehow ended up being in charge of the Christmas party, but that's ok.
OHHHH, finally finally....we leave this weekend for a long trip.  We are camping across the country, making the same trip we have made a couple other times, once when Matt and I were first married, and once when we just had 3 boys.  I'm so looking forward to taking all the kids to all the places we have pictures of...Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Yellowstone, etc.  It should be loads of fun!
I hope you are having a great summer!                                                                   

Family Time

I feel the need to blog.  I hate when I slack. 
It's just...I don't know...I get feeling a little down. 
I am lonely.  I have made a couple friends here, but, hmm, I just don't know...I'm lonely.
Maybe I'm just hormonal.  Who knows. 
OK, onto a different topic, cause I could go on and on about how I feel so disconnected from the world lately, but that would be boring.
Course this might be boring too.  Oh well.
We went to Missouri last weekend.  Oh my, it was a loooong drive. 
We went to see my brother-in-law get his doctorate in Physical Therapy.  We are all so proud of him.  I know they are so glad that he is finally done with school so they can get on with living!  He has a job all lined up in Washington, so as I type they are busy cleaning and packing and getting ready to hit the road.
The rest of my in laws already live in Washington and they came down for graduation. 
It was so great to see everyone.  The last time we saw my mother-in-law and father-in-law was when Nannie was in the hospital having open heart surgery!  We've come a long way since then.
We hadn't seen my sister-in-law in three years. 
We had two nights that we played Minute to Win It games.  That was lots of fun. 
We're heading out to Washington this summer and I'm looking forward to a rematch!
The cousins all had a blast together, and I hope they all remember last weekend with fond memories.  They don't see each other often, so I hope the times they do see each other will stand out in their minds forever.  If not, we have lots of pictures.

Crazy Busy

The problem with waiting for a while in between posts is I never know where to start again.
We have been so crazy busy that I could make multiple entries, and maybe I will.  Or not.  We'll see how things go.
Last week we, and by we, I mean me, decided that we would have a week of no TV, no iTouch, no DS, etc. 
We also downloaded the geocaching app on my phone last week.  It also happened to be the week that the weather finally warmed up.
We spent last Sunday traipsing around finding caches.  It was a lot of fun, and I think it will help us learn where things are here.
Throughout the week, we stopped at multiple caches. 
It was also a great week for playing at the park.  We spent a lot of time at the parks this week.
What we didn't do was a whole lot of school.  Shame on us.  It was just too nice to be inside.  I'm thinking school is about to end.  We are at stopping points for everything except math.  And I'm the boss, we can stop math when I say.  Hehe.  Besides all that, geocaching is educational!
Today, we decided to add Letterboxing.  We spent a good chunk of the afternoon walking around.
Our first letterboxes were a series of 4 that told a bunch of history of the town near us.  It was cool, we went around the cemetery where many of the founding fathers of the town are buried.  When we were done, we checked out the first buildings in the town.  Very cool.
I have always thought I wanted to explore cemeteries.  There are so many stories buried in cemeteries.
I changed my mind today. 
The final letterbox was right beside one of the baby cemeteries there.  I wandered.  Matt told me not to, but I just couldn't help it. 
So much heartache.  I shed a few tears for all the lost babies.  All the hurting parents.  I cannot imagine.  There was a stone that simply said, "Williams Twins".  Another was for twin, one lived 2 days, the other 7.  Can you imagine?  Losing two babies??  At the same time?  There was a family plot in another part, from the 1800s.  There were two stones for babies.  They were both a year old.  They passed about ten years apart.  Still,  the pain, ugh. 
I wandered and couldn't help but wonder how many of the babies had passed from CHDs.  The area we were in were all babies from about the 1950s-1960s.  Surgeries weren't what they are now.  I don't think they were even repairing TAPVR at that point.  How many babies died from this horrible thing?  It was all just too close for comfort.
Anyhow,  we then roamed downtown looking for geocaches.  We ended up along the bike path.  We covered several miles today.  We only found two caches, but it was so fun.
We have waited so long for lovely weather in which to spend time outside in.
OK, I am rambling.  We also went to the doctor last week.
Matthew saw the new glaucoma doctor.  His pressure was higher than ever before.
He is having surgery on Tuesday.  This one has hit me hard.  It was so unexpected.  And while Matthew doesn't really complain, he has started saying that this week is going to be awful and not fair.  We try to be upbeat, but he is right.  It all stinks and I wish I could take it all away from him.
On Friday we are headed to my brother-in-laws graduation.  He is getting his doctorate in physical therapy.  We are all so proud of him and are looking forward to seeing all the family. 
However, I am so overwhelmed with what needs to be done this week.  My house is in such disarray right now, and honestly, we are going to be going, going, going. 
It will all work out, I just feel way overwhelmed.
I guess I decided to write it all out right now, and if you are still around, thanks for reading! 

Happy kids

My dad is here.
He took his stuff up to his room and promptly pulled out a TMX Elmo. Collin and Zachy think it's pretty cool.
Then he came downstairs, stripped off his shirt and declared to the boys that it was time to pretend we're in the tropics.
In case you don't know, we're in the middle of tropical depression Erin. The boys were beyond thrilled to run outside in the rain.
Next time I looked, they were all on the trampoline, with Papa shooting them high in the air. I thought for sure they'd soar right over the net.
Then they decided they just had to swim in the rain. And much to their delight, papa hopped right in with them.
He's just like a big kid. And the real kids couldn't be happier.

I'm not dead!

I've been asked if I'm still alive, and the answer is YES! Aren't you so glad?
So much has happened since my last update, I don't know where to start.
Maybe I'll do the short version! Wait, there's no such thing!
Ok, so Matt's parents came to visit the third week of June. We had such a great time! It was sad to see them go. We did all kinds of fun things like the Alamo, and Sea World, and even a mission or two. Unfortunately, the day we did the Alamo and Riverwalk it was sooo hot. It was pretty miserable. But we made the best of it anyway. Then a couple days it poured! Phooey! We never did make it down to the coast. This was a huge bummer. When we lived in Ohio, Matt's parents came to visit and we were going to go to Niagara Falls, but we had a blizzard! This time the rain ruined things. Oh yes, and a baby who HATES the carseat! Maybe next time they come we'll make it down there!
As for said baby...she is doing great! The night Matt's parents got in we got a new to us couch and love seat. Suddenly, Em's breathing got better! Then there was a definite pattern to her crying. She cried when her meds for the reflux wore off. But we quit the breathing treatments and she has done great. We know we are dealing with an allergy for sure now. She has started to roll over now, but I don't put her down too much because when she is down on the ground (even on a blanket) her face is breaking out.
Stupid dog, I seriously cannot get rid of her. No one will take her. The humane societies are all full. I have no idea how to get rid of her, short of taking her to the country and dumping her...which I wouldn't do! She has to go though. We are on the waiting list at a couple humane societies, so pray for an opening for us!
Emily sees the pulmonologist on Monday, and we are going to keep that appointment. We just finished up VBS, it was a wild west theme and we had hay and all sorts of horse stuff in the chapel. Em's breathing was bad then. So, we need to see how to control all of this.
She saw the gastro who said it sounded like we were doing a good job controlling the reflux, which I agree about.
We also saw a new ped for her four month check. I really liked her, even if she wasn't that pro breastfeeding! Oh well. Can't win them all.
Matthew finished up pathfinders and was awarded pathfinder of the year. YAY MATTHEW!! So Matthew was pathfinder of the year, Dill was adventurer of the year, and Collin was Eager Beaver of the year. All their hard work paid off for them, and we're so proud!
In August we are headed to Colorado Springs for 6 weeks. It will be so nice to have a break from Texas for awhile. They needed a temporary audiologist, so Matt volunteered to go. Fun times!
Let's see..what else? I don't know. How abot some cute poop stories??
Zachy insists on getting naked to poop, and we still have to wipe his bottom. So he called for us to come wipe him. When Matt walked in, Zachy was sitting on the pot, in the classic meditation stance...heels together, elbows resting on his knees, middle finger and thumb together..chanting "ummmm..yucka yucka yucka..ummmm..yucka yucka yucka yucka" So funny!
The week of VBS, Collin was having some intestinal issues. He was in the bathroom when I heard, "oh no..I pooped a little in my pants" Then a horrified, "OH DEAR" I asked what was wrong, "it's melted" he replied!! It was just a tad in his pants, by the way.
The melted poop carried on for several days. I had to stop by Family Christian Book store on my way to church one night. And Collin said, "I have to poop, and I know it will be melted" So we hurry to the bathroom. It was one with just one toilet and sink. It took awhile so I was standing there nursing Emily. He is pooping, while someone is rattling on the door. I hollar out that someone is in the bathroom. It was Zachy. He had to go. He had to go now or else he was going to poop his pants! His had melted by this time as well. So, I'm standing there, nursing Em, telling Collin to take a break and let Zachy sit down so Zachy doesn't poop his pants. Collin freaked out that he would then poop his pants. I'm trying to plead with him to get up so Zach won't poop his pants. It was mighty comical I'm sure. But no one pooped their pants. When I opened the door, there was a line of people waiting to use the bathroom! HOW EMBARASSING!
Anyway, that's it..my poop stories, and my update. Have a great week!

More pictures

Pictures galore

Just a ton of pictures from our park day, yesterday. I have more to upload, but am going to take a break for now!