51 posts tagged “boys”

I signed *both* boys up for Fall soccer season. I hope both boys get great coaches like Noah had last year.

We won't have any indoor soccer games until July 13, however. This is a good thing: that means other things can happen on Saturdays in the summer.

I am very much looking forward to buying their gear! I hope they let me take photos of them in their uniforms. NM already makes "shin guards" for his brother and they pretend they play on the same team. It's cuteness!

We're fine, just fine.

Okay, we're fine-ish and tired. I'm sorta fine, or as fine as I can be with half of me in Mexico on a business trip.

I'm tired so if my grammar is lacking, can that be my excuse? We ran errands today. I spent time with the boys measuring our planter to see how many square foot garden boxes we could fit over it. How fun is that? I sure beats working on multiplication problems on a sheet of paper. Practical math! Whodda thunk it? Now we know how many square feet we need for two 4'x4' box bottoms and three 3'x3' box bottoms. We also figured out the perimeter total so we know how much 1x8 (or 1x10) lumber we need. Eventually, we'll get to plant our mandan corn seeds plus who knows what else the boys will want in there.

We finally picked up the bowl we painted for Father's Day. Finally! Each prior attempt was met with a "CLOSED" sign at the door. It looks great and when I get the gumption (did I actually type that? dagnabit, I did!) I will take photos and share them with you.

After a trip to Target to exchange a door mat (you were dying to know that, weren't you?), we went to visit friends and take advantage of their pool. Lovely, lovely pool. It was hot enough that I actually went in. And, check it out: my J taught himself to swim. Almost. Kinda. I remember this stage with NM. Given another few weeks of practice, he'll have it down pat. He's able to float horizontally and kick, but not quite yet the two together. He has, however, taken my advice to heart and will kick from the bottom of the pool to get his head out of the water so he can breathe. Bravo! My heart always skips a beat because it's hard to tell if he really needs air of if he's just trying to swim. Since he comes up all smiles, I guess it's the latter so I only stick my arms out for him to grab if necessary. He's having a blast! He is so driven to learn so he can keep up with his older brother in the deep parts, the parts marked 4'8" as opposed to 3'6".

I forgot to mention this from two days ago: after a trip to the pool, my boys were in the bath getting all the cooties off them (pools are very cootieful). My oldest comes out afterwards and tells me: "Mom, I shampooed J's hair for you. I soaped him off also and I was very careful, I made really sure not to get soap in his eyes. Pretty good, huh?"

I tell ya, sometimes I wonder why God picked me. Those warm fuzzies are like grace bombs that remind me how much I'm loved---and how grateful I am that we got on Feingold diet.

I just read a list of symptoms and effects that people had to deal with before the diet and one was heart breaking (paraphrasing here): "Hard is when people look at your kid's behavior and wonder how you can be such a bad parent." Because I can so relate to that one! To think I spent a lot of time stressing over behaviors that were avoidable with a change of diet.

So, God has this way of reminding me "be careful what you pray for." No, I didn't pray for patience because I doubt I'm old enough. I did ask to be stretched and to be pointed towards a ministry in church and He answered. I wasn't led to children's ministry because my reasons to work there aren't right (It's what I've always done and the people who work there are fun). I get approached to work as a greeter, get that one! I didn't think it would work since we're always late but then my hubby gets asked to help in ministry work that requires us to be 1 hour early for early service. I didn't see how it could work, but God worked it out. He's so good. I am also praying about helping with the new supply ministry which is more my sort of thing: in the background and incognito. Ministry ninja-style. I already do some graphics stuff for women's ministry and they asked me today to help with the main media ministry graphics, so I will pray about that one. That's also ninja-style ministry so long as no one talks. If they talk, well...you know ninjas ;)

I failed to mention what we did and mainly because I had absolutely no photographic evidence to share with you. I am sad. I failed to charge the camera battery and it died as I tried to take what would have been the first photo. Tsk!

[hangs head in shame]

Butaniways. We went to Pace Bend Park which is located on Lake Travis but a further drive from Mansfield Dam area. This is not as developed as Mansfield Dam park.

The water was colder than the day before (generally the whole lake has the same temp) but it was cloudy and overcast. And rainy. We got rain! Sad because we did pack responsibly this time and brought a cooler, our folding chairs and swimming gear.

I spent a few minutes in the water, thigh-deep only, and then the rain started. The breeze---not yet a gusty wind---was cooler than I was comfortable with (oi! 80s and I'm cold already?). I headed to the car. NM was of the same mind. Kinda. He really wanted to "play house" in the back of the car and set the truck up so he can convince us it's possible to sleep in it comfortably without a tent or sleeping bags. He wants to go camping very badly! J headed into the truck not long after.

Not much later, hubby comes in with all the folding chairs since it's not just rain anymore. These drops are huge and they hurt! They were pretty loud, too. We found out that there was hail in some places which makes sense.

It didn't last long and we decided to drive to the other two swimming-only areas in the park. The second was only ok though the beach was nice, but not as nice as the first. The third was interesting. There were signs that said "jumping from cliffs is not advised" and we found out why. There were, in fact, sort of cliffs. But the water wasn't clear at all so you have no idea what you're jumping into or how deep it is.

The boys' gut reaction was to stay out of the water; they weren't happy about the imperceptible bottom. Hubby jumped in, swam to the other side and managed to hurt himself badly on a rock he couldn't see. He scrapped the front of his shin. We ended up running home after that. It's lake water, after all, and he needed to get it cleaned up.

We did have lots of fun in spite of the injury. J spent a lot of time in the water and NM and I played in the truck (well, he played and I napped). I was so tired I fell asleep in the car on the way home! I don't think that's happened since J was a newborn (trip from CA doesn't count here). We hope to go back when we have a tent and two more sleeping bags so we can enjoy real camping!

Okay, here goes.

Monday: wait for KT, DT and family to arrive. Our boys are particularly antsy since they miss their friends. They arrive later than they hoped. They get here and nap. Hehe. Afterwards, we take them to Amy's Ice Cream and then to see the Capitol building. It's very late (10pm+) and the building itself is closed but we still enjoy walking around the grounds. Our boys are troupers! They went to bed at nearly midnight.

Tuesday: we have breaky, have lunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe (NM had a burger and no reaction, w00t!) then went hiking at Barton Creek Greenbelt. We found a letterbox (microbox, actually) and tried to look for another but I suspect we went the wrong way. It was hot. Our other friends arrive later: RT, DT and their kids. My boys were so crazy happy! More friends from CA that we haven't seen in ages! Another late night.

Wednesday: we get up really, really early. KT&DT's poor doggie was crying, thinking they were going to leave him with us. We help them pack and get on their long drive to CA. The remaining kids manage to sleep through the noise (being up til midnight helped). We had breakfast and the men went to take care of car matters. The rest of us were left at home since we don't all fit in the truck (legally, anyway). After 3 pm (and lots of Wii time), we head out to Barton Springs pool. RT and I get to chat while the kids enjoy the cold (62F) water. Brrr. I didn't even bother getting a suit on. KT caught a tiny minnow and called it a tadpole. She and J had a blast together, so did GT and NM (NM wanted to go to the "real" pool though, and wasn't too happy to be there). We had dinner and the kids went to bed at a more reasonable hour. Kinda: 9:30 p.m.

That brings us to today. To help RT out while she was making arrangements on the phone, I made her daughter a stuffed animal she named Mister Red. They changed her name to Mistery since Mister is for a boy and she's a girl. I made one for her son also, different color. I wish I had them take photos. In the morning, we went to the Zilker Park nature center and found out they have this neat program for kids. You bring in specimens you find in nature (animal, vegetable or mineral) and trade them for points or other items. Pictures or written descriptions count also. If you can specifically identify the item, you get more points. If you earn 500 points, you can get a cow skull! So we'll probably be doing a lot of trading since we have a lot of photos of bugs and lizards and whatnot. Too bad I threw away the dead blue bottle fly and dragongfly I kept in a baggie on the fridge door. After lunch at Culvers, we went home and vegged (well deserved!). J fell asleep on the couch while watching Mythbusters and then hubby took them to the airport. We get to see them since they left us with their car (haha!). After vacation/missionary support raising in CA, they will fly back here to Austin then drive back down to Mexico.

But it's not over yet.

Tomorrow, I think we rest a little. Then Saturday, much to my oldest son's dismay, we will do something to celebrate our anniversary (16 yrs) and it will include the boys. He is dismayed because we are keeping him from his soccer game. I'm gonna try and see if I can get someone to take them so hubby and I can go have dinner. Not sure yet.

Day one, day two pics. Link on the right goes to a video, hence no image.

Let me explain.

We were invited to go camping with the children's ministry folks at church (we love them...they invited us though we're not really a part of CM) about a month ago. The venue was McKinney Falls State Park which we visited when we were in Austin two years ago. We originally told them we couldn't go because our friends were coming to visit us for a couple of days and we thought that it would interfere.

Once they finalized their trip dates, we realized we could go camping. We figured out it could work this past Thursday. Too soon to go buy a tent, camping stove and two sleeping bags (for the boys). Those kinds of purchases can't be rushed, you know?

So, instead we went to the camp site Friday night, went home and then went back the next day. It cost us $ each time, but since we planned to pay for four people and only had to pay for adults, it worked out. It is also really nice that it's only 30 minutes away from home at most. Not really camping, is it?

Friday, the older kids had a scavenger hunt then we had dinner. J had gotten really upset when he put his hand on a rock wall to lift himself up so he could get over it only to find his hand was covered in fire ants. I got to him quickly and brushed them off. Though he was crying "OW!" a lot, we didn't find any bites. I did get bitten once, on the foot at another time so I decided it was a good time for bug spray. We had our dinner of hot dogs after the scavenger hunt but since the rangers said no open fires except for camping stoves, we didn't make any s'mores. They're in the pantry waiting to be made, though!

The following day, we arrived as they were packing up. We headed for Lower McKinney Falls where the kids were hanging out while some of the parents packed the gear. J didn't want to go in at first, then when he finally did, he was really upset when he was told "no" by his Abba. The other dads had admonished us not to let the kids stick their heads under the water in case of bacteria (I have a photo of some standing water in the Flickr set for today). There have been scares of bacteria/parasite that can kill you if it enters your body through the cavities in your head and that stuff lives in standing water.

But the real excitement is not J's crying over being told no--nor was it one of the kids crying because she, doing her best being a toddler, was told to throw the used chewing gum in her mouth--but the kids' sighting of a snake in the water.

I had heard from hubby who was in the general vicinity of the thing that it went towards the boy who saw it first, but after the kids on the rock near him started hollering "A snake!" well, the thing turned tail and swam to safety. I got the movements on video, but that's about it. I didn't have the presence of mind to zoom, just to get it on video. The pool did empty (I was glad NM was on the rock and J was with me) but it didn't take long for everyone to go back in after a while.

Our guess is that it was a water moccasin which is a venomous snake that's pretty common here in Central Texas and lives in water. I guess they've got a nasty temperament, too, so you do want to keep well away from them. Ick. I can deal with bugs (mostly) but venomous snakes aren't my thing. I'm glad no one panicked though.

Note the time I'm posting. It's not that I couldn't sleep. You know I don't dream at all, right? Or rather, I don't remember any dreams I've had for months and months now (if not years). Well, I finally got myself up after back-to-back dreams about identifying this snake and videos of this snake and boys and this snake. I'm posting this in hopes that I can get it out of my system! Blech. Indiana Jones and I have one thing in common. If I make myself that khaki safari dress then we'll have two: snake heeby jeebies and khaki clothes.

I should have posted about this today since he's doing much better. Much, much better and thanks for praying for him.

We went to the doctor yesterday and she took a look in there. He was clearing up; she was sure the other doctor saw a lot more pus inside than she was seeing. Never the less, she felt that the antibiotics should have worked better by now and felt that we needed to get him stronger meds so we did and now he's on the five-day Zithromax.

Today was so nice! He was so much his normal self it was great. He still had tantrums but those are easily chalked up to being four.

I hope to take the boys swimming tomorrow but I'll have to make sure that J does his best to keep his head out of the water!

Things seem to be going much better with J. Lord willing, the antibiotics are working. I am only concerned because yesterday morning, he was complaining about his ear hurting and needed ibuprophen to ease the pain. Last night's dose was the one that would determine whether or not we need to go back for a recheck today; I wasn't home though (bible study) so I have to wait until later to find out for sure.

Someone last night mentioned the possibility that it's dairy that could be doing it. I know J is sensitive to cow's milk but certainly not as much as some kids. My friend said that when she has some dairy, she can get ear aches and ear infections. I had never thought of that so I will have to watch J's intake to see. It could be a combo of water in the ear from swimming and dairy; it could just be that his right ear is just built differently and is more prone to that.

The good thing is he's back to being interested in "school" stuff. I like doing his workbooks with him and he does too. That is, when his brother is ok with school work he loves it. He still idolizes his older brother of course. This week has been great with school in spite of NM's new cold which he is ignoring in the hopes that he can be at Saturday's indoor soccer game. Yep, we signed him up for indoor soccer league this summer. No practices, just games so it's obviously very casual.

He really, really wants to sign up for the more "serious" soccer league that involves more traveling and probably more practices but I'm not sure we are ready for that level of commitment. He loves, loves, loves the competition and is eager to up the ante. We'll see.

It's 1:41pm. Hubby just came home from looking for a 24-hr. pharmacy. J has been waking up crying about ear pain. Tylenol doesn't seem to be doing anything. He has no fever, just severe ear ache. Our after-hours clinic appt. is at 8:20am. Guess what? TV seems to help distract him from the pain. Maybe LaMaze is right: you can distract yourself and the pain isn't as bad.

For my boys.

I wasn't truly privileged to understand and hear my mom's perspective on her illness during the months that she recovered from the surgery of losing her right lung. All I remember was that she had my prayer book, she would smile some but mostly she was very tired.

School, for me, was hard. It was difficult enough under normal circumstances but high school is hard for all the politics and what with it being an all-girl school, well, it was even harder. Our class had planned a soiree with another class from some all-boy school and I decided not to go. Somehow, my mom got wind of it and asked if I wanted to be at the party. I said no because "I don't know what to wear." It might sounds silly but I really didn't have a whole lot of clothes since we wore uniforms to school and, well, my mom would pick out my clothes for me.

She told me she'd take me shopping. I was mortified. "You're supposed to be in bed!" She insisted.

Mommy took me to Greenhills to browse the shops at Virramall with me. Well, at first, she sat on a bench and had me go browse. I kept walking past a certain cotton dress with puffed sleeves and faint pinky-peach stripes on cream. I didn't try it on. I went back to her on the bench and, seeing I was empty-handed, walked with me. She saw the dress and had me try it on. We both liked it and she found me a belt to match. I would get to go to the soiree after all, and since she picked out the dress, I didn't have to feel bad about enjoying myself because I knew she consented.

But I didn't enjoy myself, not really. I couldn't get past the souvenirs someone thought would be great to give the guys: tiny test tubes with cigarettes inside and a note with the date of the party and our respective classes. A cigarette?

I'm pretty sure that's the party where this guy Mon met me. He is one reason I really appreciated that I had a strict mom who only wanted me to date after I graduated from college. This guy called me too often and would talk and talk and mostly I just said "aha" or "okay" or "I really have to go now." He called me during the Live Aid concert (yes, I'm that old) and talked and talked and talked and somewhere in there he said "I love you" and I didn't know what to say so I said so. I thought it was a little ridiculous.

He badly wanted me to go to his prom so I asked my mom and she said no, not unless I had my friends to chaperone. My friends didn't think they could get permission to go with me. Mon shows up at our front door the night of his prom and I had to tell him my mom said no. He was sad but I was so glad I didn't have to deal with going. I really wasn't too excited about spending time with someone who invited me to go watch him and his friends rumble with a bunch of other guys (too much like West Side Story except without the point).

Mommy scored again. I was quite happy to use her as an excuse to get out of something I knew I didn't want to do or something I knew I shouldn't do.

For my boys. This took a while because this task is exhausting.

It was April and our house was still under construction. We were converting the one room we girls had into two rooms along with building things for my parent's business. That was hard for me to deal with because there were so many trees cut from the back yard, including the lansones tree that my parents planted when I was born (it never bore fruit).

Because of the construction my parents thought it would be best for my mom to live elsewhere and avoid the dust, fumes and dirt that were around our home. The doctors urged her to be cautious about things like that and to avoid moving too much and straining herself. So Mommy and K moved into a townhome across the street from us (the street where we drove the pedaled jeep). I have no concrete memories of that summer. I remember impressions of the townhome and as far as I know, it's still there though our house isn't any longer. Most of what I remember of it are negative; when they built it they covered our uninterrupted views of the Manila sunsets each night.

School started not long after and that was hard. I had been used to Mommy fretting over the first day of school after vacation and she was focused on getting better.

At some point, I had told my best friends about what was going on. When? I don't recall that either and I'm not sure they knew what to say about it but they didn't hesitate to listen and I felt confident they were going to be there for me. Mostly, they were hopeful for me.

I don't remember which teacher told us about her dad's death nor do I have any clue whether it was known when she spoke of it that my own mom was dying. But she spoke of her own dad's battle with cancer and said that at some point, she prayed that God would take him home and relieve him of the pain he was going through. In hindsight, that was a word for me from the Lord. The idea of praying that for someone was so foreign to me; I wanted my Mommy because I needed to have her around for me. She picked out my clothes. She kept me from dating. But she was going to be in a lot of pain and to hear that teacher's prayer gave me the strength to realize it was ok to let go and let God deal with everything.