"Oh, give me a home . . . "

We had a wonderful time at Yellowstone, even though the weather wasn't totally cooperative. We saw TONS of wildlife--bison with their babies, elk, deer, foxes, bald eagles, and big horn sheep. We watched Old Faithful erupt, which was neater than I expected. It kept gushing out these little amounts, and I was getting pretty tired of waiting around. But we were all very glad we waited for the big eruption--wow!

We drove today through a lot of rain, but the Lord was faithful to protect us. The Wyoming scenery was beautiful, even with the clouds. I guess I'm just a western girl at heart. I really like the big, open spaces.

Tonight and tomorrow night we're at a Comfort Inn in Rapid City, SD. Our room is amazing--it has a balcony overlooking the pool! It's the only room to have this! We feel like the royal family when we step out on it, LOL. The hotel also has a nice business center practically next door to our room, which is where I am while we wait for Grace to fall asleep. She slept a lot in the car, and so she is not really tired right now. I'm glad we bought the new baby monitor before we left. It's working like a charm, and it's nice to not be in there with her while she rustles around!

You may be interested in an update on Jonathan. Bob and Jonathan got home a little after 4:00 Monday afternoon, with Jonathan's arm in a splint. The doctor said actually his arm was looking pretty good, and we should see the doctor at Bethesda in a week when we get home for a follow-up. Bob showed me the picture of the x-ray, and the lower bone is still broken a little bit, so it does still hurt Jonathan. He's doing fine with the splint on, and we can take that off if needed, which is nice. So he is healing, but it is just taking a long time. He did have extensive fractures of both arm bones in the lower arm, so it makes sense that it is taking a little while to heal. Jonathan is happy that he can bend his elbow now!

Well, Grace still hasn't fallen asleep, but Bob has returned from his swim, so I must say goodnight! We're praying that the clouds lift at least a little tomorrow so we can actually see Mount Rushmore!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!!

Jonathan is 5 years old today! What a way to celerate a birthday--on vacation, surrounded by extended family! Jonathan was 2 weeks overdue when I was finally induced. I told him this morning how glad we all were that he finally decided to make his grand appearance 5 years ago today! He was my biggest baby too--9 pounds, 6 ounces.

We had hoped to get Jonathan's cast off this morning. Bob spent a lot of time on the phone last week with Tricare and Bethesda, trying to get a referral to a civilian provider out here to do it. But Bethesda took forever to get their referral in, and so it hasn't been processed by Tricare . . . the usual sort of thing you expect from Tricare. Bob and Jonathan are at the doctor's right now (1:15 PM MDT), but I think it will be VERY expensive if we get it done without having the referral already in hand. We're considering taking the cast off ourselves. Don't laugh! It's stinky, and it's already been on a week longer than it should have been! We won't be home until middle of next week, so it will be awhile until we can get back to Bethesda. We might stick him in the bathtub and see what happens . . .

Whatever we decide, we are still going to try to make it to Yellowstone this evening. When we leave my aunt's house, we'll be out of computer contact for awhile. After Yellowstone, we are heading over to Mt. Rushmore, and then we'll eventually make our way back to Amy's house for 2 days, and then on home. And on the way to Amy's we will try to pick up the PSP from Golden Corral, that is, if we can find it again, and if they kept it for us, like they said they would!

**Update** After long conversations with both Tricare and Jonathan's PCM doctor at Bethesda, she authorized him to go to the emergency room to have the cast off, since it was way past time. They did x-rays there and discovered that only one of the bones in his lower arm is fully healed, so they are going to put on a new cast. The old cast was so loose, and Jonathan got his arm caught in the screen door a few days ago, which caused him a lot of pain. That might have been enough to jar something loose. The new cast should fit better for now, so hopefully that will do the trick. I told Bob to at least wash his hand before they put the new cast on! Jonathan was in a lot of pain once they cut the old cast off, so hopefully they won't make him wait too long. It's now after 3:00 local. I'm not sure when we'll get to Yellowstone, if at all today.

Vacation Update

Other than dealing with Anna and her fears, we've been having a wonderful time out in Utah. We sadly said goodbye to Dan, Melinda, and Emily on Wednesday. Anna spent the next day saying, "Mem-ly?" in a concerned voice. The 3 girls were just so cute playing together. They are all so close in age, and I can see them when they're a little older getting into all sorts of mischief together!

Before Dan and his family left, we were able to spend the day sight-seeing and having fun together on Tuesday. First we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon, which was beautiful--still lots of snow at the ski resorts up there! We had a picnic lunch on the way back down.

Then it was off to Antelope Island, in the Great Salt Lake. We drove to the day use area, where you can go right up to the edge of the lake. This was not such a popular choice, especially with Emily and Anna. Emily did NOT like being in the backpack, and she voiced this dislike very clearly and consistently the entire time we were out there. Anna didn't like . . . well, who really knows. The sand? The smell? The barrenness? She was a grump too, so we had quite the chorus of woe following us around, LOL.

Back here at Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim's house, the boys have been having a bit of a sports camp. First, Bob found some lacrosse sticks at WalMart, so he bought 3 sets of them (6 total). The boys have really improved their lacrosse techniques over the past week!

Next, Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim brought out the 5-in-1 big bag o' lawn games, of which badminton and horseshoes have proved the most popular. Side note--I am miserable at badminton. I took that as my gym required class in college, and it is about the only class where I seriously feared I would not make an A. I escaped with an A-, but I am very thrilled that my boys will not have that source of stress at college, LOL. They are doing quite well at serving the little birdie, which was always my bugaboo.

Then yesterday we went fishing up in the mountains a little south of here. It's a beautiful lake, and it was so relaxing. Only Uncle Jim actually caught a fish, but that didn't seem to matter. The boys were having such a good time that I loaded the girls' carseats into Aunt Claire's car so we could come back, while the "menfolk" stayed on even longer. All the boys came away with vastly improved casting techniques.

Today it was miniature golfing. This was another men-only outing, with Bob, the boys, Uncle Jim, and Grandpa. Great fun was had by all.

The only fly in the ointment has been some mysterious stomach bug that's going around. Grace and Emily were sick over the weekend and through Tuesday. Then Dan and Melinda got sick as well. Grandma and Grandpa were the next to go down, but with everyone except Grandma, it's been over in a day or 2. She has been sick for a few days now, and nothing really is staying down. We're all praying she'll be able to fight this bug off so she doesn't get dehydrated. They're supposed to start driving back to Ohio next Wednesday, and I think it will take that long for her to regain her strength back, with how sick she's been.

We will be taking off from here on Monday, on to Yellowstone. I'll try to post again before we leave!

Anna--World-Class Fraidy Cat

So, what do you do with a child who is terrified of many things, to the point of being absolutely hysterical? That is what we are dealing with in Anna. She began by being afraid of the vacuum cleaner, and then of Muslim women who cover. It progressed to dogs, cats (well, pretty much any animal), people in costumes (especially the Chick-Fil-A cow mascot), people with weird hats or helmets, and, just this evening, plastic fish in the bathtub. Sigh. It is truly ridiculous. And she's not just a little bit scared. She shakes, freezes in terror, leaps across tables into a lap, etc., all while crying hysterically.

Let me tell you the golden Corral story I alluded to a few posts ago. On our drive west, we decided to stop at a Golden Corral for dinner somewhere in Iowa off of I-80. When we got there, the cashier told us it was kids' night--face-painting, a clown with balloon animals, and a drawing for a free PSP (some play station thing). We said great and sat down in the section right next to the cashier line without thinking much of it all. After we had all gotten our food (no small feat in a buffet) and settled down to eat, the clown walked in. He only had his face painted, and he was wearing a red propeller beanie--no crazy baggy pants, red nose, or big shoes. Anna. went. HYSTERICAL. She shrieked hysterically, leaped into my lap, and clutched at me for dear life pretty much the rest of the evening. The clown was held hostage in the other side of the restaurant because he couldn't even walk past without Anna freaking out. She hardly ate another bite because she was focused on keeping him in her sights the entire time. It was miserable, and I was trying to get us all out of there as quickly as possible, because I realized we were keeping the clown from the other half of the restaurant.

I went up to get dessert for the little boys, and lo and behold, the clown was standing there talking to the manager right beside the dessert line. "I can't even GO to the other side because that KID goes hysterical," he said. I immediately apologized profusely and said we were trying to hurry and get out of there. He began a long dissertation on his theory on why some kids are scared of clowns. "It's all a control issue. You probably forced her to go near a clown sometime, so she wasn't in control of the situation . . ."

No. We have NEVER forced her to go near a dog, or a clown, or even the vacuum cleaner. We told her how silly she was being, and we told her she couldn't be so loud, but we are definitely not the kind of people who force their kids to do things like go up to clowns! I am not even personally so fond of clowns! Good grief. I told the clown this, but you could tell he wasn't convinced. We continued talking, and somehow I told him that we were military, on a cross-country trip (I never say we're going to Utah, though, because then people thing we're Momon, LOL), so it was just a coincidence that we were even there at all that particular night, etc. He warmed up a bit and told about his military father and their cross-country trips, and I felt like he at least thought we weren't abusive parents anymore. As I turned back to the dessert line, his parting words were "You want to know my original theory? Weinie kids have weinie parents."

Well. So. Yeah. Nothing to say to that. I hurried back to the table and got us out of there as quickly as possible, feeling about as humiliated as possible.

The real kicker is that 3 days later, on Friday, I received a phone call from Iowa as I was waiting to get a pedicure/manicure with my sister-in-law Melinda. It was Golden Corral, telling me that Caleb had won the PSP. Huh. I'm not real eager to go back, frankly. I guess we'll see if we can even find it again. We should be driving back through there the morning of Saturday, June 7.

So, any ideas? I really don't know how to handle this. It is not okay for Anna to be petrified of a zillion little things, and it seems like there are new things all the time (such as the bath toys tonight). It is incredibly frustrating.

A Spectacular Wedding

Sunday afternoon was the wedding for my cousin "Pilot" and his bride Sarah. It was as spectacular as I had imagined it would be, and it went off without a hitch!! Yes, this even means that Anna was cooperative! I will admit that I figured out the secret--M&Ms, and plenty of them. I bribed her, and she was quite happy to hold Caleb's hand, carry the basket of petals, and walk all the way down the 2 parts of the staircase and the long aisle to Daddy. Whew!

There is a lot more to say about the wedding, but we're about to play a game of Balderdash. What I really want to do is show you pictures, because you really won't believe how grand this wedding really was without seeing it. My Aunt Claire (Pilot's mom) has posted a ton of good pictures at her blog, so you really need to head over to her blog and check them out.

We made it!!

We're here in Utah! We made it safely Thursday in time for dinner, after 4 days of driving. We left Monday and drove to Amy's house in Ohio. We ate a quick dinner at Youngs, and then we went to Zachary's baseball game, in time to see him make a spectacular double play on first base! We were not expecting it to be freezing cold in Ohio, but it was about 50 degrees and drizzling, so at Youngs I had to dig around in the back for our cold-weather clothes--the ones I thought we would only be needing POSSIBLY at Yellowstone. Ha! We wore our jeans and sweatshirts every day except one! It's supposed to warm up here over the weekend. Yay!

The driving went well. Halfway through, we switched Anna and Grace around, so Anna sat in the middle row, and Grace sat in the back. Anna had become very loud and insistent, so Bob and I thought she needed more feedback from an adult, LOL. That helped, so the cofiguration has remianed. The boys took turns switching around too, so everyone got to mix it up a bit. We listened to A Long Way From Chicago, Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, and half of All Creatures Great and Small. They made the miles fly, as usual. I must say that listening is the way to go for James Herriot's books. I simply can not do the Yorkshire accent justice, either out loud or in my head!

We had one interesting time, thanks to Anna, at a Golden Corral, but that will be its own post when I have more time. The only other excitement was at the hotel in Cheyenne, WY, on Wednesday night, where Bob realized he was not wearing his wedding ring. A frantic search ensued, but we couldn't find it, and we couldn't even figure out when he had lost it. We decided we'd look in the car in the morning, but we both went to bed a bit sick to our stomachs, praying mightily. The enxt day, Bob searched the car but didn't find anything. Then, as I was packing up one of our pack-n-plays, it fell out on the floor! We're not sure how it happened, but we were all dancing around happily, thanking the Lord!

Now we're deep into final wedding preparations. This afternoon Sarah took Anna, Caleb, Jonathan, and me to the wedding site, so the kids could get a feel for where they'll be walking. James and Sarah are getting married in the rotunda at the Utah state capitol building, and it is going to be STUNNING. Oh, it is just going to be beautiful! I was so excited after seeing it all! The kids practiced, which was a good thing, so now I am just praying that Anna is cooperative here, and doesn't throw a temper tantrum and refuse to walk.

I did 3 loads of laundry last night and this morning, so now I have a good bit of folding in front of me. It's so fun to be here with family!!

One Wedding Down . . .

This afternoon, Bob's niece Christi got married down in Richmond. It was a lovely ceremony, although the weather did not cooperate. It was supposed to be outside, but it rained all day, so everything was moved inside.

I was a little worried about how Anna would do, seeing as how 3:00 is her naptime, and she's not in a particularly cooperative stage of life ("2"). She and Angelo, the little ring bearer, both balked once they saw all the people, but they both ended up going down the aisle and looking cute. She even stood next to the bridesmaids for awhile, which I didn't think she'd do.

As you can tell, the dress I found matched the bridemaids' dress PERFECTLY. I was so thrilled! Everyone thought she looked so pretty and told her so, so I'm sure she thinks she's a real princess now, LOL. She will be expecting the same attention, and no less, next weekend at my cousin's wedding!
Tomorrow morning we leave to start out big drive west. We will stay the night with Amy in Ohio tomorrow (yay!), and then we should eventually make our way to Salt Lake City on Thursday, in time for my cousin's birthday dinner! I still have some packing to do, so I am signing off . . . probably for awhile. When we get back, I'll be sure to post pictures of all our adventures, both with family, and also at Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore!

Where we're at . . .

Schooling: We're done for the next little while, which means until mid-June, when we get back from the big trip.

Caleb finished his phonics book awhile ago and moved into the first grade one, and he just finished his math book and moved into Saxon 2. Jonathan is working through his phonics book and is thrilled to be doing "real" math now!

Luke is a few lessons away from finishing Saxon 5/4, and then he'll move up to 6/5. Nathan has about 30 lessons left in 7/6, and then . . . I'm not totally sure if I'll just jump into Algebra 1/2 or have him do 8/7 first. Something to worry about when we get back, though.

He and Nathan both have about 35 lessons left in Rod and Staff (3 for Luke and 5 for Nathan). We didn't start R&S until late October I believe, since it took us longer than I thought to finish up Easy Grammar after Grace came.

We are on lesson 17 in Latina Christiana II. We've been taking this slowly, and we haven't actually done many new lessons since we left for Ohio. I felt like it was more important to really review the vocab, since there were so many new verbs lately. The last few lessons covered the principal parts of 4 conjugations of verbs, and it was all just a lot. We'll probably review more for the first week or 2 after we get back.

We haven't gone too far in history this year--we're only on chapter 14 of Story of the World 4. We'll do more of that this summer. We're moving into World War I, and I must say it's absolutely fascinating. I really never understood that war and what led up to it and drove it. We have been doing lots of outside history reading.

For science, we've been learning about atomic structure, chemical compounds, and so on. I love chemistry, so it's been fun to help the boys learn about this stuff. We'll definitely do more with some other books in this area this summer.

Packing: I've started all the laundry, and tonight I'll begin laying out the piles of everyone's clothes. The piles line the upstairs hallway! I've got plenty of lists, and I'm always adding stuff. Today we picked up the books on CD that I reserved from the library, and I put those, as well as the ones we have here, in the car. Our listening choices for this long trip include:
--All Creatures Great and Small
--Charlotte's Web
--Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
--All the Way From Chicago
--The Long Winter
--Tale of Despereaux
--Galileo and the Stargazers (Jim Weiss)
--"Your Story Hour" CD on Louis Pasteur
--FOTF Chronicles of Narnia

We're getting excited! Less than a week until we leave!

A Mother's Day Questionnaire

Someone on the Well-Trained Mind board posted this questionnaire that their preschooler had brought home. I asked these questions to Caleb and Jonathan, although sometimes only one answered, and sometimes they both said the same thing.

1. What is your mom's favorite song? J--the pilates song

2. How old is your mom? J- 10 C- 46

3. What is your mom's favorite food? J- the stuff we had for dinner [broccoli chicken casserole] C- cake

4. What does your daddy call your mom? J- Baby C- Claire

5. What does your mom call your dad? J- Bob

6. What is your mom's favorite color? J- blue

7. Why does your mommy love you so much? J- ‘cause God told her to C- because I came out of her tummy

8. What is your favorite thing to do with your mom? J- huggle-snuggle and kiss her

9. What makes your mom so pretty? J- pretty clothes C- pretty hair

10. How does your mommy make you feel better when you are sick? C & J-- she gives you medicine

11. What TV show does your mom like best? J- pilates

12. When are you the most proud of your mom? J & C-- now

13. What does your mom do best? J- not be fat C- help us

14. Where does your mom work? C & J- At home

15. How do you show your mom that you love her? C & J- Hug and kiss her

This made me laugh. Jonathan is obviously on a fitness kick--"the pilates song"--LOL!! I need to do a better job of communicating my food loves ("chocolate") because cake certainly isn't it, and neither is broccoli chicken casserole! And for the record, Bob has NEVER called me "Baby". LOL!! I don't know where Jonathan got that!

All Hail the Conquering Hero!!!

In this case, my brother Dan, who came up with an incredibly easy solution for our crazy printer problems. We spent over an hour of frustrating time on the phone last Saturday trying a variety of different things, with no success. He had to dig deeper, so he emailed me a list of new things to try. Johanna also came up with a potential solution, but I decided to work down Dan's list first, since his items seemed less complicated and drastic. The second one worked. Here's the golden sequence:

1. Click on "tools", then "internet options"

2. Click the "advanced tab", and then click on "security"

3. Tick "let active content run on my computer"

4. Restart Windows

And it worked!! I was so incredibly excited. I printed off one of my new reservation confirmations, and it was so beautiful to see actual recognizable words there, and only one page, instead of 50 pages of gibberish! Wow! I am so thankful to have personal tech support like Dan (and Johanna!). I would have gone broke before someone at Microsoft would have hit on that, I'm sure. And since I didn't have to reset IE, all my cookies, etc. are still there. Yay! I'm big on no inconvenience, LOL. Thanks, Dan! You're the best brother ever!

Big Truck Day

The Department of Public Works for a nearby city opens some of their big equipment to the public each year. They display trucks and other earth-moving type vehicles in their parking lot, and kids can climb on them and get in the cabs, honk the horns, etc. Although it was rainy, it was still a lot of fun.


We went with the McC family, who also had one tag-along boy from our homeschool co-op (his mom was the head tester). So . . . 9 boys, 2 girls, and 2 moms. We were not the popular people to be behind in line.
Climbing all over a front loader.


Nine boys in the cab of a "leveler".


Nathan is on . . . something.


Luke and Jonathan on a bobcat.

Anna loved driving the street sweeper. She did not want a yellow plastic hard hat, however.


Gracie loved eating the free cookies they provided. She did not want to keep her hood on, even though it was raining.

Update on Jonathan

Yesterday Bob took Jonathan back to Bethesda to get his permanent cast. As you can see, he was able to get the camouflage wrap he was hoping for, and everyone who sees it agrees that it is indeed a very cool cast. And you can also see that his cast is not hindering his light-saber fighting techniques (whew!). The doctor said everything is healing fine, and he doesn't need to wear his sling as much. The doctor said the cast could come off in 3 weeks, which is when we'll be in Utah. He said we could try to get it off at the base there, but he "wouldn't get involved with someone else's work". So we might have to wait until we get home. The nice thing about getting it off would be that Jonathan could swim in the hotel pools on the way back. Bob might try to get the doctor to write a letter or something telling the docs at Hill what he did and that it should be okay to remove after May 27. We'll see.

Since this is an updating post, in other news, Bob's TDY did get cancelled today. I was disappointed, but it is certainly better to find out now than, say, the Monday we started driving. So now we're trying to rework how we'll get out to Utah, probably taking 4 days instead of 3. More reservations, which still can not be printed. Grrrrrr.

More Testing . . . Issues

So today should have been the last day of testing for everyone. It started off on the wrong foot back last week, actually, when the lady in charge of testing told us that another group had sort of bumped us out of the rooms that we were signed up to use at the church. Our co-op meets at this church on Tuesday through the year, and then the testing person reserves the facilities a year in advance for the 3 days of testing. Except this year some other group that has been around longer planned something for today, but didn't check to see if the rooms were already scheduled. When they found out they were, they basically went to the top of the chain of command, and Leisa, our testing lady, felt she had to give in. So we were all supposed to be at a different site today, the site that the high school co-op uses, but which we had never been to. But we found it with no problems, so everything was fine.

I dropped Nathan and Luke off at 9:15, and then the rest of us went to Target. As I walked in the door, my cell rang. It was the lady who was testing Luke. Somehow, his test booklet had fallen out of her folder or something--anyways, it wasn't there, and she lives the farthest away of anyone in TNT, so she couldn't go back home and look for it. So Luke wasn't testing, and could I come pick him up. And yes, he was upset.

Well, I felt so bad, but of course not as bad as she felt. She was so apologetic. Unfortunately, Luke is the worst one to have something like this happen. He doesn't do well with changes, he hates being singled out and embarrassed, and this pretty much hit both of those things full on. Nathan is much better at just rolling with the punches. So, umm, which one is like me? LOL

So we went back and picked him up, and he was indeed a silent puddle of tears. I told him how this was just a good opportunity to practice grace. People let us down all through life, either intentionally or unintentionally, as in this case, and we still have to respond with forgiveness and grace, even though it's hard. He said he was just ready to be done with testing, and he didn't WANT to go another day. Poor guy.

Assuming the lady can find the test booklet (pray pray pray), then he will go tomorrow to the house of the head tester to finish up. As it turns out, Caleb McC is doing an extra test, and Leisa is administering that tomorrow, so Luke will just join up with him. That made Luke feel a lot better, knowing one of his best friends would be there as well. In fact, Christine is going to pick Luke up and take him, so I don't have to rouse the girls early for another day in a row! After the testing is done for both boys, our 2 families are going to go to a "big truck day" in a local city, where all the big city equipment will be out for kids to explore. Should be fun!

Testing

Nathan and Luke have their standardized testing today, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I always get all nervous about it, but they are very blase about the whole thing. No test anxiety here, LOL.

After testing was over today, the kids were playing a ball game, and groups of moms and other kids were just standing around talking. A baby bird, I don't know exactly what happened, but somehow came out of the nest and was flying really low by the sidewalk where some little kids were playing. The bird was kind of fluttering and skipping around, obviously not too strong, and then one of the kids STARTED STEPPING ON IT AND SQUASHED IT! I was horrified and started yelling at him--"WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP THIS INSTANT NO NO NO!"-- since I seemed to be the only mom that had seen what had happened, although a lot of the older kids had seen. I was so shocked! A whole bunch of kids gathered around the poor bird, who fortunately died a quick death, and I got the mom's attention and told her what had happened. Of course, she was absolutely horrified and mortified, and she marched her son right out of there. This family goes to the church we used to go to, and I know they are not advocating random acts of senseless violence against baby animals at their house, LOL, so I know she was as shocked as I was, and I'm sure she and her husband will train their son (who is only 3, but is very big for his age) appropriately, but it was still so horrible!

My boys were just blown away and couldn't believe anyone wouldn't just love and protect a baby. I told them that to a 3-year-old, maybe he just thought it looked like a big bug or something, and we smoosh those. We left the church and went out to eat at Moe's with Daddy, but it still bothered especially Luke. He asked the other boys to stop talking about the baby bird, and even after we got home, he came to me and told me how he just couldn't stop thinking about it. He is definitely my most sensitive child. He was also the most deeply affected by Jonathan's broken arm. Sensitive, detailed--maybe he'll be a doctor! LOL At church, our pastor has just started going through the book of Luke, and as an intro to the first in the series, he talked about the characteristics of Luke as we get them from the Bible. Bob and I looked at each other and both thought, "We named Luke well", because he exhibits many of the characteristics Mike mentioned.

Anyhow, quite the ending for that first testing day. Hopefully tomorrow will be less traumatic.

Am I Losing My Mind?!!

So all of a sudden all these things are breaking or not working right--Jonathan's arm, the printers, our AC unit. Now we've started losing things. The first thing that has vanished was a Sports Illustrated For Kids magazine that Nathan got out of the library. We all remember it being on the couch, and now it's just gone. We have thoroughly searched the whole house to no avail. I think that it must have gotten gathered up with newspapers and recycled or something, because it simply is no where. Oh well. I guess we'll have to pay.

The next thing to disappear was Jonathan's sling. This has about driven me to the looney bin. Wednesday night, he took it off to put on his pajamas. I clearly remember it being on the kitchen floor by the island, and Grace playing with it. The next morning Joanthan went to put it on . . . and we can't find it anywhere. I have looked in all the drawers and cabinets, of course, thinking that a curious little girl might have hidden it somewhere. We've looked all over the rest of the house. It. Is. Not. There. I'm beginning to regret the fact that I'm not Irish, where at least I could blame the leprechauns or something. I literally can not think of another place to look. We've ALL looked. Believe me, we have spent many productive manhours serching for this sling. After all, he just had it on Wednesday--how far could it have gotten?! Grrrrr. Hopefully he's not doing any damage to his arm, as he waves it around in the air. He was doing so well with wearing it. I will confess that I did think that maybe he hid it, but he says he doesn't know where it is, and I really don't think he's lying. He's been concerned about the fact that we can't find it too, and he's really not the sneaky kind.

So . . . maybe I'm living in some sort of alternate crazy reality, where things walk off by themselves break randomly. That's what I'm hoping for anyways, LOL.

**Update** I came back downstairs after putting Anna down, and Caleb and Jonathan were tearing around down here. I told them to stop, since we didn't want Joanthan to hurt his arm, and we already lost his sling. Jonathan disappeared upstairs and came down a few miutes later with . . . his sling. Hmmm. I asked him where he had found it, and he showed me. It was between his dresser and his yaffa blocks, these cube-like stacking blocks that we keep some of their clothes in. It must have fallen there after he put the sling on his dresser Wednesday night (which I don't remember him doing, and he never mentioned while we were all looking yesterday). The timing is a bit . . . suspicious, shall we say. But I am very relieved to have found it. And he is wearing it again. Maybe the new rule is that it goes on MOM's dresser at night, LOL. I still FEEL crazy anyway.

Happy First Birthday, Grace!!!

Grace turned one today! Bob took the day off, so he got to spend lots of time with his little princess! We went to Chik-Fil-A for dinner, and we had cake when we got back home. You may notice there is no picture of the cake. That's because she got a big pink rectangle cake, LOL. I did write "Happy Birthday Grace and Daddy" on it, but that was about all the extra frills. I felt guilty about that for . . . a few minutes, but then I remembered that she would not remember this birthday, and I got over it. She didn't mind the lack of a uniquely shaped cake, and she thoroughly enjoyed what she got!

She's been taking more and more steps, which is so fun to watch. Her other big birthday accomplishment was climbing the stool in the kitchen for the first time. You can see how excited she was about that! Power to the little people!
Grace has been so much fun to have in our family. She was such a surprise, coming so close to Anna, but I can't imagine not having her now. She and Anna are already such good friends, and the boys just love her to pieces. She adds a lot of light to our lives!

Printer Frustration

We are having huge issues with our printers. Namely, they only print HTML code from the internet. Here's exactly what happened. We have 2 printers, both HP. One is an all-in-one printer/fax/copier, and the other is a laser jet. The laser one is the one we usually use, but it ran out of ink after we got back from Ohio. We switched over to the all-in-one as our default printer until we could get another cartridge, and when we tried to print our library list, it spewed out dozens of pages of HTML gibberish before I could cancel the printing. We tried printing other stuff off the internet, and it was the same.

We thought the problem would be solved when we went back to the laser printer, but after getting a new cartridge, now it prints the same way. I AM SO FRUSTRATED!!!!! I literally want to cry.

We need a new baby monitor, since one of ours has given up the ghost after having served faithfully for many years. I was so excited to get an email coupon from Babies R Us for 12% off of anything in the store today! I went to print it off, but of course it was nothing but junk. I can't even forward it anywhere else to get it printed off because when I clicked on it again, a message popped up saying you can only print off one coupon! Argh!

I guess downloading something like Firefox is the only option, but then I once again have to refigure out all my favorites and everything. I can not believe that this just happened out of the clear blue sky to us, and there seems to be no solution for it at all. We might as well just throw the 2 stupid printers away (and the computer too, for all I care at this point). I'm back to writing down all the important information, like from our hotel reservations, anywhere. Where's that old typewriter of ours, anyhow?

Huge Praise

I was able to make all the reservations needed for our trip today!! This is a big deal because it's really not that easy to make reservations anywhere near Yellowstone (and even not that close to it!) only a month before you want to be there. I was so incredibly discouraged this afternoon, and by the time Bob got home from work, I was thinking we'd have to call the whole thing off. But God somehow opened up a room at a Comfort Inn in West Yellowstone, right by the gate of the park, this evening (I mean that literally--the room wasn't there when I was looking this afternoon), so I booked it. And then I booked a room near Mt. Rushmore, and another one near Des Moines for the way back home (actually Bob booked that one over the phone, getting a better rate than the internet offered). This is all such a huge relief for me. Now I can start thinking about what I actually want to do in those places!

In a totally unrelated matter, I can now officially say that Grace has started walking! She took a few steps starting Friday, but yesterday before dinner she walked all the way from our kitchen table over to the refrigerator. If she wants to get somewhere fast, she still drops down and crawls, but more and more, walking is becoming her first choice until she falls on her bum. Then she continues on by crawling. I love watching new walkers--the stiff legs, the teetering gait, the moon steps. Grace has taken a page from Dumbo's book and is much more confident if she is holding something in her hands. So cute! If we had a digital video camera, I'd post a clip, but we don't, so you all will just have to use your imaginations . . .

Yay, Anna!

Anna wins the gold star of the day by pooping in her little potty! What excitement we have over here in our house! This is the first time for that particular accomplishment, so when I joyfully announced it, everyone had to come running from all other parts of the house to see the evidence of this great feat and praise Anna profusely. She is going to be in for a rude awakening several years down the road when she realizes that in the real world there is not a chorus of supportive boys around to cheer her every move, LOL.

Normally I would take this and run with it, but May is not going to be a normal month for us. We are gearing up for some serious driving, and we simply can not be tied to a 2 year old's erratic potty schedule.

Here is the (hopeful) schedule; you can then argue amongst yourselves as to whether or not we are crazy. Bob's niece is getting married on Sunday, May 18 at 3:00 in Richmond, VA. We will drive down there and back home on Sunday. Monday we will leave and drive to St. Louis (825 miles), and Tuesday we will drive another 825 miles to where Bob has a TDY scheduled for Wednesday (that's always subject to budget issues, so that's why that part of the plan is hopeful, not definite, LOL). Thursday we'll drive to Salt Lake City, where my cousin in getting married Sunday, May 25. Then we'll spend another week or so out there, visiting with family before heading back home by way of Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore. Like I said, serious daytime milage amounts (usually we only do a max of 700), so I don't want to have to make extra stops for tender toddler bladders.

If the TDY gets cancelled, then we'll take the drive out to Utah in 3 days. That would be more enjoyable, but with the TDY, the government will pay for gas up to the price of an airline ticket. That's a pretty significant help, with these gas prices! Plus, that would be 3 less days of leave Bob would have to take--2 travel days, and 1 actual day of TDY.

Right now I am trying to figure out the back half of the trip. We just got some Yellowstone books out of the library, and some of the Well-Trained Mind ladies gave me some great websites to look at as well. I'm going to be busy the next few days!

How To Spoil A Beautiful Piece of Music . . .

We drove down to meet Bob for lunch today, and as we were driving, we were listening to the classical music radio station. They were playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2, a lovely piece of music. Except that I have totally ruined it for myself by always listening to the Brandenburg Concertos when laboring. I am such a creature of habit, and I listened to this one CD all through my labor with Nathan. So of course, when I went in with Luke, that's what I listened to as well. Eventually I have started listening to other CDs during active labor, but by the time I get around to transition, Brandenburg Concertos is what I want to hear. But now I can not hear any part of the concertos without feeling sort of a nervous sick feeling, like it's almost time to push. I think I can even make myself feel a contraction, LOL. Hmmm . . . maybe next time, if I'm having trouble going into labor, I should start listening to this CD. I never even thought about that before.

Another CD I always listen to is the Newsboys He Reigns. I always listen to that when I am walking on the treadmill in the morning. I'm sure that would drive a lot of people crazy, to always listen to the same music, but for me I really like knowing where I am in my workout by hearing which song is on. I love all the songs on that CD, and I never grow tired of hearing them. I do find it hard to listen to those same songs in the car on the Christian radio station, however. I really feel like I need to get out and start walking, LOL.

So there you have it--one of my little eccentric quirks. If you expect me to relax, don't play Brandenburg Concertos or Newsboys.

Jonathan's Long Day

Jonathan and Bob were at Bethesda by 10:00 this morning for the first appointment, which was a regular appointment with pediatrics. That doctor got them a referral for an orthopedic walk-in appointment at 1:00, so they enjoyed a nice lunch at Subway while they were waiting. Jonathan was also able to see a girl get her cast cut off at 11:30. Her cast, which was decorated with a flag, got him excited about having his own cast.

The ortho doctor aligned the bones while the cast was hardening. He did that under local anesthesia. The cast was cut on both sides and then wrapped with an ace bandage. This was to allow for swelling. We will take him back next week to wrap the cast with a more permanent layer, and that cast will be on for 4 more weeks or so. Jonathan is hoping to get the camouflage wrap for his cast. The cast goes midway up the top part of his arm. At least it's short sleeve season! They finally got back home about 5:30.

The intern who was putting the cast on cut Jonathan's shirt. You know how in times of stress you can focus on one tiny detail? When they walked in the door, my eye was drawn to that cut t-shirt, and that was SO all I could really think about--"Why did they cut his shirt? I liked that shirt. I'll never be able to sew that . . ." and so on. I had to just tell myself to stop thinking about the stupid t-shirt. The doctor must not have been married though. I mean really--he could have taken the shirt off, or at least cut under the arm or something, where it wouldn't be so noticable! This was NOT an emergency, get-the-shirt-off-right-now sort of situation! But I digress . . . (deep breaths . . . )

Jonathan's been a real trouper. As Bob told the other boys at dinner, he didn't cry once the whole day! He's still a bit floaty from all the drugs, I think, but he's in good spirits. The other boys were all so glad to see him when he came back. They had been very concerned about him all day. Now hopefully, we'll have a nice, relaxing weekend . . .

A First For Us

Yes, Jonathan broke his arm this afternoon--the first broken bone for our family! It wasn't even any dramatic way or anything. He was goofing around on a plastic car you can ride in by climbing on the hood. He fell off backwards not more than 2 feet of the ground, landing on his arm some funny way, and he broke both the ulna and the radius, the two bones in the lower arm. Fortunately Bob was home, so he ran him to a civilian ER just 5 minutes down the road from here. There was no way he could have gotten to Bethesda at 5:45 P.M.! Bob will take him to Bethesda tomorrow for a peds appointment, where they will refer him to the orthopedic surgeon for a long-term cast. At least he is left-handed!

They gave him demerol at the ER, which accounts for the glazed look in this picture. Bob is off getting tylenol with codeine right now, so hopefully he will be able to sleep through the night.

Other than that bit of excitment, it was a great day! Johanna and her kids to include her brand new, not even 2 week old baby Olivia came to play this afternoon and stay for dinner. Anna was very interested in this real, live baby! The boys played around outside and generally had a great time.

I'll let you know what the doctor says tomorrow!

Chiropractic Update

I had another chiropractic appointment this evening. My last one was a month ago, and my next one won't be until mid-June, so we are really spreading them out now. I am still utterly amazed at how much better both my shoulder and my hip feel. It's like a miracle. I can even sleep on my right side again!

The chiropractic appointments had helped my hip a lot, but it was still bothering me. It always felt so stiff, especially after exercising. The doctor had recommended pilates (which was why I took that free class), and I was using Johanna's DVD once or twice a week before the Ohio trip. After we got back, however, I really ramped up my whole exercising routine. Someone on the Well-Trained Mind board had posted that to lose post-partum weight, she had to start exercising an hour a day. I had been averaging 30 minutes 5 times a week, and I just didn't think I could swing 60 minutes, but I started averaging 50 minutes on the treadmill almost every day. I also added pilates pretty much every afternoon, instead of just 1-2 times a week. I don't think the pounds or inches are just flying off, unfortunately (although I can't tell for sure because our scale broke last week and I haven't yet replaced it, LOL), but I have really been able to tell a difference in my hip. It is so much less stiff and painful!

I have 3 DVDs that I am primarily using right now. The one from Johanna has 5 segments of 10 minutes each, and I do that one when I am pressed for time. Usually I do the abs segment and the hips and thighs segment. I have a pilates for dummies DVD from the library, which I recommend if you have never done pilates before. It is just like that class I went to, where the lady tells you very specifically what to do and what not to do for each position. Then I have this pilates/yoga blend DVD also from the library that is more of a workout and is almost 45 minutes long--I do that one when I haven't been able to walk as long in the morning. I think the yoga stretching moves on there have been particularily effective in stretching out my hip muscles.

As I am sure you can imagine, with this regimen I have no free time, and I am becoming backlogged on things like laundry, so I simply can not foresee this being a long-term routine! I'm trying to do it until we leave on our big trip in mid-May. Maybe it will help me firm up a bit before the weddings, and the whole hip thing has been a most pleasant surprise. I really can't overstate how much better I feel that I did in January! Then I felt like such a crooked, achy, old woman, and now I feel like a totally different person!

Every Princess's Dream

Anna has the honor of being a flower girl in two weddings next month--and they are one week apart! Saturday afternoon I spent a few hours in the crowded mall searching around for a dress for Anna to wear to the wedding of Bob's niece Christi. Her color is yellow, which apparently is not a popular color this year, since there were not many things in yellow in stores. I had about given up in despair when I stopped in Lord and Taylors. That was the first time I've ever been in the store. If I had buckets of money, that's definitely the place I would shop because it was so peaceful and not crowded, LOL. Also, it was the only store that felt like the air conditioning really was working. But I don't have buckets of money, so . . .

Anyhow, they had this beautiful yellow dress, and it was on sale for half off. Yay! Anna loved it but wouldn't stop messing with the tag for pictures.

This afternoon we had to run some errands, and when we got home, there was a package on our front stoop--it was the dress from Sarah, my cousin's fiancee! Another dress to try on! Anna was in heaven. This dress didn't have any distracting tags on it, so I was able to get a picture of Anna actually looking up, LOL.
Yes, May is definitely going to be a princess month to remember!!

Car Maintenance

We're big proponents of taking care of your car. After all, it is much cheaper to prevent problems than to fix them, right? We'd tell that to anyone! So last night we took Bob's Honda minivan in to get the timing belt changed. It just seemed like a good idea . . . since they recommend doing it at 65,000 miles, and the van now has 137,000 miles on it. Seriously, we are thanking the Lord for his mercy in keeping the belt together for so long! I guess it just never was a good time to take it in . . . Actually, we had gotten a quote from the Honda dealership down in Tyson's a few years (ahem) ago, and it was about $1300. Well, that's a lot of money (I know, I know--not as much as replacing the engine), so we just kept putting it off. The Leesburg dealership charged us right around $700. We're not sure if they're just a ton cheaper, or they lowered prices because of the bad economy or what, but we were grateful that it was half of what we expected it to be!

Is this normal all over? We dropped the car off last night around 5:00. They told us it would probably be done by 10:00, but it would at least be done by 2:00 (AM) because "that's when the second shift gets off". Second shift? It's a car dealership, not a hospital! Sure enough, there was a message on Bob's cell phone when we woke up. They called at 2:08 to tell us the van was ready. I've never heard of that before.

So, let's see . . .

Obviously being home hasn't produced a surplus of blogging. That must mean nothing exciting or blog-worthy has happened, which frankly, is not always a bad thing. But surely we've done something in the past week.

1. Right before we left for Ohio, I finally got around to making a big Rainbow Resource order. I literally have been meaning to do this since after Christmas, which is when I told Jonathan we'd start doing math as well as phonics. All I needed to do was order his Saxon 1 book! Of course there were a few other things . . . and then I might as well make it a BIG order of over $150 so as to get free shipping . . . and I just never got around to figuring out what other things I should order until the end of March. The box came while we were gone, and we finally opened it on Saturday. To say Jonathan was thrilled at having his math book would be quite the understatement. Sunday morning he was in our room at 7:30 ready to do math, LOL. I managed to convince him to wait until Monday, although it was a hard sell.

2. Tuesday was the last day of our homeschool co-op for the year. Much as I love TNT, I am always glad when we have another day in our week where we don't have to go anywhere! I've turned into such a homebody. I really never expected that. The last unit was a short 3 week unit on geography, and we missed all but the last week. I think it was a good unit to miss because the boys are pretty up on geography. For the last week, they went around to different rooms with a big salt dough map on cardboard (the salt dough was already in place for the younger kids). They went to a different room for each continent, and there they would paint and glue on features for that particular continent--yarn for major rivers like the Nile and Amazon, rocks for mountain ranges, shrubby stuff for rain forests, etc. I need to take pictures because with 4 of these big maps--well, let's just say we don't have room for long-term storage of these works of art!

3. The weather has turned nicer. This has some very positive effects, such as less laundry (yay for shorts and short-sleeve shirts!), and lots of good outdoor time for the boys. One very negative effect is that Caleb is insanely allergic to nearly all pollens, so he is so snuffly. So far not wheezy, however, so that is a good thing. I have also noticed such a change in his personality when he is suffering from seasonal allergies. He becomes so whiney and tear-prone. EVERYTHING is a huge, major drama, ending with his collapsing on the nearest flat surface in a puddle of tears. I will not be sorry to see the beautiful blossoms go.

4. Bob's oldest sister Ann and her husband Wally spent Tuesday night with us. We took them to the airport yesterday so they could fly off for a relaxing vacation near my brother's old stomping grounds of Sacramento. It turns out that Bob's mom has a brother who lives in Auburn and has a cabin at Lake Tahoe. Nice! Wally is an accountant, so he was really ready to escape from all the last-minute tax questions. Their staying the night neccessitated a furious clean-up of all the Legos on the floor of the basement. How have we ended up with so many of the crazy things?!!

5. Grace is still not walking, sadly enough. (If she had started, that would have warranted its own post, LOL.) She stands so confidently, and has been for so long. But it's as if her little feet are rooted to the ground, because even if you are just inches away, she will drop right down and crawl. She still is not crawling backwards down the stairs either. I am SO ready for her to pick that up. For awhile she was just ignoring the stairs, so that was okay, but within the past few days, she has again headed for the stairs (going down) and acted as if she was ready to just put her hand down on the lower step and start going down that way. Fortunately her brothers have been vigilant and rescued her (good thing she has so many, since obviously her mom is a clueless dork, LOL!)

Now you're caught up! And now you know why I haven't felt like there was anything worth blogging about!

Hiking at Glen Helen

The first week we were in Ohio was so cold and rainy. I found myself wishing we had brought our heavy jackets instead of just our fleeces! Fortunately things cleared up and got warmer on Friday, so on Saturday we headed to Glen Helen, in Yellow Springs, with Amy and her boys. First we went to the small raptor center there, where they rehabilitate injured raptors. There were several owls, hawks, and even a bald eagle there. Then we hiked around for awhile, thoroughly tiring out all the boys.



A big forest--plenty of room to run around and be loud!

Does anyone know why there is this big tumor on the side of this tree? I meant to look it up but never got around to it, LOL.

The original "yellow spring" perhaps?
Boys, sticks, and water . . . they could have stayed here all day.


The four girls

Anyone still out there?!

We're back!! My parents' computer is acting wonky so I couldn't blog the whole time we were in Ohio. I'm sure it seemed like we fell off the face of the earth (or maybe the dog cake got us, LOL).

The kids and I had a great drive back yesterday. The weather was nice, we only needed one stop, and we listened to Because of Winn-Dixie on CD. I really liked that book. The boys had watched the movie maybe last year at Grandma's, and they liked it, but they all agreed the book was much, much better (isn't that so often the case!). The nicest part for me was that the person reading the book made the character of a little old well-to-do Southern lady named Miss Franny Block sound exactly how my Nana sounded.

So to re-cap the trip, we had a nice time with Bob's family. The anniversary party was lovely, and we had a nice lunch at Ponderosa with the whole clan the next day before the kids and I headed to Ohio and Bob headed home. Sunday night through Thursday night we spent with my parents doing the usual fun Ohio things like Youngs, ladies' Bible study at Faircreek, and OCF Bible study. For school, I ran off a bunch of old Latin review sheets, and I brought the Spectrum test practice books that we use to review for the Standford tests they will take the beginning of May. Those things kept the boys occupied in the mornings, and I didn't feel like the whole year's knowledge and learning was leaking rapidly out their ears right before testing, LOL.

Friday night through Sunday night we spent at Amy's. The weather cleared up and warmed up, which was such a blessing, and the boys ran themselves ragged. We went on a hike and visited a big playground, as well as playing football, basketball, and other outside things. Amy and I stayed up late each night scrap-booking and laughing hilariously at old stories and memories. What fun! And I got Luke's scrapbook done for this past year, and I finally started on Anna's.

Then we went back over to my folks' house for a few more nights. This enabled me to do laundry, repack, and just get things ready for the drive back.

It was a great trip, although it was nice for everyone to sleep in their own beds last night! I'll work on downloading pictures and posting some later on. And I guess I should work on unpacking too . . . the most un-fun part of a trip, LOL.

Happy Birthday, Anna!!

Anna is now 2 years old! It seems like just yesterday when I was writing her birth story. We celebrated tonight at Bible study. We celebrated with Amanda L., with whom Anna shares a birthday! Isn't that special?! I actually watched the L's kids when they went in to the hospital at USAFA to have Amanda, never dreaming that 8 years later, I'd be having a girl on that same day!
Anna enjoyed the cake. She looked like a disreputable miner, LOL.
Grace also enjoyed the cake, obviously. Good practice for her birthday in May! She thought she was a pretty big girl, sitting up in that chair eating cake!

This is jsut a quick post--tomorrow we drive to PA for a 60th wedding anniversary celebration for Bob's parents. On Sunday, the kids and I will drive to Ohio for a week, and Bob will brive back down here. So I've got tons of packing left to do, and it's already late!!

Anna's Cake

I made this dog cake to celebrate Anna and Amanda L's birthday. Amanda requested it, and while Anna doesn't like real, breathing dogs, she loves dogs in pictures, stuffed dogs, etc., so she was quite excited about the cake when she woke up and saw it this morning. I actually cut and decorated it last night, and let me tell you, I don't do my best work at night. I had a really hard time with it, and the snout is still too long. I cut too much off the sides of the face, so it started looking more like General Grevious (of Star Wars fame). I put the side back on and secured them with toothpicks (!), something I've never had to do before. Measure once, cut twice and all that. Ah well. The ears gave me a hard time too, so I built them on in 2 parts. That would be fine except for that pesky thing called gravity, so I had to put a little piece of extra cake under them to prop them up AND put half a shish-ke-bob skewer in each one to secure it. Geesh! But it was a success, so I'll stop nit-picking, LOL.

Belated Birthday Present

For Luke's birthday, we wanted to get him an Eli Manning jersey. (He and Nathan sort of fancy themselves as the Manning brothers, and once they even asked Bob if he thought they could both still be in the NFL, since he (Bob) hadn't been, LOL). Of course, since Eli's Giants won the Super Bowl, we were not the only ones with that bright idea, and there was nary a youth medium Eli Manning jersey to be found anywhere at all on the internet in February. We finally ordered one from Dick's Sporting Goods that would ship the end of March, and we printed off a picture of it and gave that to Luke for his birthday.
The jersey finally arrived, and everyone was very excited. Nathan is dying to wear it. Luke was going to wear it on Friday to Bible study, but then he decided he'd save it for Saturday. But he didn't wear it then, because he wanted to save it for Easter. Except then he decided that would be a weird thing to wear (not to church of course, but afterwards) on Easter, so he'd save it . . . Well, finally today he wore it to co-op. He was quite nervous about it, because I think he thought people would notice it and so then he would be the center of attention (bad). There was much discussion about what pants to wear with it. He has no jeans that fit his waist, so sweats it had to be. Finally he decided on dark blue ones, I think because they don't draw attention to themselves. After co-op, I asked if anyone had said anything. "No," Nathan says. 'He never took off his jacket." LOL! He is so much like me. I can totally see myself behaving this same way back in elementary school. But he does like it, and he wants to wear it again tomorrow . . . and Friday to Bible study . . . and next week, if we do make a quick trip out to Ohio . . .

This week at co-op was the last week in the current unit, which is "Jewish Feasts". It has been an interesting unit for the boys, and they have all learned a lot. They covered Passover, Feast of Booths, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashannah, and today they covered Purim. The neatest thing was when Nathan came home after the Passover week so excited about how Christ perfectly fulfilled all the requirements for the Passover lamb, and how his sacrifice was just like that of the Passover lamb. He had never connected those things before, and it was so neat to see him excited about how God had obviously planned everything, even back in Exodus, to point directly to Christ.

Here's a bonus picture of Grace. She placed a lovely chunk of banana in her "hair" this morning--just like a bow! And banana is sticky enough to stick to peach fuzz! : )

Happy Easter!!

What a wonderful day to celebrate Christ's resurrection and victory over sin and death!!

We went to church this morning. I worked in the nursery, and Bob taught children's church, so we didn't hear the sermon. But it is better for people like us, who have heard the incredible news, to be serving, so that others can hear!

After church, we rushed home and gathered up a bunch of food, and then we headed over to the L's house for Easter dinner with 6 other families. There were 37 of us all told, with 23 kids. Well, only 13 of those were 10 and under. It was so fun! There were many arms willing to hold Grace, even though she was very tired, so that was such a nice break for me. Zachary L. was especially gallant, and held her quite a bit at the end.

We had mountains of food, although we had a small army of people, so there wasn't much left! We brought a ham, spinach strawberry salad, sweet potato biscuits, and watermelon. There were also smoked turkeys, courtesy of Ed, sweet potato casserole, potato casserole, cooked carrots and green beans, another green salad, more fruit, whole wheat bread, and a raft of desserts as well. We were all well-fed, and no one left hungry, LOL.

We also really enjoyed the good fellowship. Most of us are Air Force, and then one family had no military ties whatsoever, and there was one token Army family, so there was some ribbing about that. Lots of funny stories and laughter. Like I always say, a fore-taste of heaven!

I hope you all had as enjoyable an Easter as we did!

Ice Skating Fun

Today we went ice skating at the local ice house with a group from church. We went during the normal open skate time, so it was fairly crowded, but the boys had such a great time. It turns out that Nathan and Luke are really good skaters (who knew?), which tells you right away that they did not get that gene from me, LOL. They skate once a year at the co-op ice skating party in December, but I've never actually gone and seen them skate. I've always stayed at home with my little ones and Christine's as well, and she takes the older ones. My convenient excuse previously has been that I was pregnant, so I couldn't be the one to take them. Caleb actually has never been skating before that we could remember, so I was very surprised to see him do so well out there. He has really good balance, and he just whizzed steadily around the rink, not holding onto anything, and maneuvering around like a pro. As I think about it, the 3 older boys do a lot of roller blading, so I am sure that helped things a lot.
Luke looks really natural out there. He fell the least, and at the end, when everyone else was pooping out, he and Bob had a big game of tag out on the ice.
Nathan's a pretty confident skater too, although he fell once and hurt his hip. I think he's going to be black and blue there tomorrow! It didn't seem to slow him down much, although he did stop skating earlier than the other boys.

You notice there are no pictures of Jonathan. He did actually skate, but he was very hesitant out there, and one time Nathan took him around, and he fell. After that, he was not too eager to get back out there, LOL.

The girls and I (and sometimes Jonathan) hung out at the pizza place in the lobby, snacking and talking with the other church folks who were taking breaks. It was really fun for me--much warmer and more comfortable than the cold rink, or the cold ice!

Commissary Trip and Future Meals

Yesterday was one of our big commissary trips, so that meant that Tuesday night I had to prepare. I always go through my recipe box and write down menu ideas for the next 6 weeks. I try to get a variety of dishes in there: different meats, some crock-pot, some 30-minute quick ones, some soups, etc. I don't designate which day gets which meal, so I have a lot of flexibility, but I can know at a glance what meals I have all the ingredients for. Then I make my list to ensure that I have all the ingredients needed for all these meals (except maybe fresh vegetables, which I get in the other weeks at Sams or a local grocery store).

A few weeks ago, a friend of Michele's inspired me to put my commissary list on the computer. Before, I would always spend forever organizing my list into the order (as best I could remember) of the aisles in the commissary. It was a real pain, but it was certainly better than wandering back and forth trying to get all the items on my list. This time, I had already made a list of 3 columns of most of the things I might normally get there, plus blank spaces for me to write in meats, cereals, etc. I printed one off, circled what I needed, and voila! I was good to go! How nice is that! I should have done this a long time ago!

After we got home from the commissary and unloaded everything (notice I did not also say "and put everything away", LOL), I started on the second part of my big shopping day. This involves meal prep for future meals. I start browning ground beef and putting it in quart-size ziploc bags to freeze. I browned a little more than 9 pounds, putting 2 pounds per bag plus one smaller bag that we'll use for tacos. We never seem to eat 2 pounds of taco meat, LOL. So that's 5 future meals right there. While I was browning, I also cooked up a bunch of boneless chicken breasts (4 packages, I think--they're pretty cheap at the commissary). I just put all the breasts on a big 10x15 pan, sprinkled them with Mrs. Dash, and cooked them at 350 for about 35 minutes or so. Then I chopped those up and put them into 4 bags to freeze as well. Usually this is also when I thinly slice beef for stir-frying and put it in a ziploc bag for marinading in the freezer, but there were no beef stir fries on the menu plan for the next 6 weeks. (Although that sounds good right now, LOL) I also try to put some chicken breasts in Italian dressing or some other marinade to freeze before grilling at some point down the road. This is all tiring, and it does take a bit of time, but it really does save so much time later on, like when I'm deciding what to have for dinner at 4:00 in the afternoon! I haven't been very successful at "once-a-month cooking plans" or things like that, but this is a good compromise for me.

So now you know my secrets for meal planning. I'm sure they aren't anything new and original, but maybe someone will benefit from some little nugget!

Quick Question . . .

Has anyone ordered pictures from Snapfish?

Usually we get ours printed from Sams, but I had a bad experience there today, so I'm looking at other options. I uploaded 15 pictures last night to Sams and ordered them printed with the 1-hour option so I could pick them up today. Usually I choose the 2-3 day option, which means they are sent away for processing. I'm not sure if that is the difference. Anyhow, when I picked them up today, the pictures were not good at all! The bottom part of them was cut off! It was really obvious because you can just see the top part of the date stamp, but you can tell from the pictures themselves that they are totally off (people's heads are cut off, the bottom of cakes are missing, etc.). So I went back by myself tonight to see if they could correct that, but the guy showed me their computer screen, and the pictures looked exactly like his screen. He said he could only print off what his screen showed. The thing is, MY screen doesn't look like that--all the pictures look perfectly normal, even when I go back and look at them in the album on samsclub.com! So I'm not sure what the deal is, but I am definitely not happy.

Any other options out there?

Bionicle Birthday Cake

Today we finally were able to bring Luke's birthday cake to Bible study to celebrate. It is a Bionicle character who I thought was named "Visok". I searched around the internet to try to find a picture and description of this character, but I was totally unsuccessful, and all the boys are already asleep. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to shed more light on the guy, and at least make sure I have his name spelled correctly. I know he's a bad guy though.

**Update** The cake is a Piraka named Vezok, and you can read all about him here, at the Bionicle Encyclopedia. I'm sure you will all rush over and increase your knowledge level right away!!

The cake was met with mixed reviews here at home. Nathan, always the encourager, said it was "really pretty good". Luke, ever the perfectionist, allowed that he didn't think anyone else could have done better, so it was okay. More of a "you did the best one could expect" reaction, LOL. I reminded him that I had said it would be really hard to make anything Bionicle, and he said, "Lesson learned!" LOL! I guess he won't be asking me for anymore of these particular cakes! At Bible study, however, people were impressed, especially the McC boys, and now there is just a little chunk of the middle left.

To make the cake, I baked a 9x13 cake, as well as 2 pyrex bowl cakes. The larger bowl cake sat on top of the 9x13, which I trimmed in the back to make the sort of correct shape of the head. Then the smaller bowl cake sat on the back part of the 9x13 to make where the Bionicle pieces would connect the head to the rest of the body. The spike out the front is a graham cracker that I gently cut in the shape of a spike and stuck way into the cake.

Easing back . . .

I think things are returning to normal around here. Jonathan's eye is a lot better, thankfully. Luke (and Bob) are the only ones who resisted the pinkeye. I thought Luke might have been coming down with it as well Monday, but his irritation never turned into anything. The girls and I all got colds though, so we have been battling coughs, snottiness, and other assorted annoyances. But snotty noses are much better than snotty eyes!!

After a complete week off of school last week, we started back up Monday. Things were sssslllllloooooooowwwwwwwww. Even Luke took forever! Today was also very slow. This is why we never take vacations, grumble, grumble. Just kidding! We are getting everything done, though, so if they want to still be doing their stuff at 5:00, then hey, whatever. Just as long as my part is done way before then!

Last week it was fun to see what they came up with to amuse themselves, since we didn't have any new library books, and I wasn't feeling like providing anything creative to occupy their time. One thing they rediscovered was a book on making paper airplanes,which they recieved for Christmas a few years ago. They made all the paper airplanes in the book and had various trials to determine the best design. They also spent some time watching the military channel, and so a whole new interest in World War II has opened up. Since we are heading into that time period in Story of the World, that was timely. They also played some games like Yahtzee, which is great because Caleb and Jonathan can play too.

Grace has started just standing up by herself in the middle of the room. She must have super strong thighs, because she'll just be squatting there, and then she'll straighten all the way up! She will stand there a little bit, but so far she has not showed any inclination to move her feet.

Anna is finally saying more words (understandable ones, even!). I will have to say that none of my kids have been any sort of early talkers, although Anna did babble a lot more than the boys ever did. Right around 2 is when they finally start saying more words. I love to hear her say the boys' names. She calls Luke "Ducky". It's so cute! She's great with the "n" sound, so she says "Na-nan" and "Jon-na-nan" quite clearly. She has a harder time with Caleb's name. I can tell that's what she's saying, but it doesn't really sound like Caleb, LOL. And of course she's got "Dacie" down pat.

So that's a brief run-down on what we've been doing, non-sickness-wise. Tomorrow is that dreaded pilates class, unless someone else gets sick between now and then . . . could happen . . . .

Deja Vu All Over Again

We had a lovely weekend. We enjoyed going back to church yesterday, and our pastor preached an excellent sermon on suffering from the book of Habbakuk. (I think you can go to that link and download it if you want to listen.) He's in the midst a series overviewing the minor prophets. We had a relaxing afternoon, and we didn't go back for evening service because we were just all still tired and recovering. But it was a refreshing day . . .

And then at bedtime, we noticed that Jonathan had a big piece of gunk in the corner of his left eye . . . . . . . . Sigh. I really couldn't believe it. At least we already have antibiotic ointment for eyes, so we put that on last night. This morning I washed all his and Caleb's sheets and pillowcases again. He won't be able to go to co-op tomorrow, and I really am hoping I don't have to move my pilates class again on Thursday. The people in the office are really going to think I am totally just afraid of the class--I mean, what kind of a family could possibly have pinkeye for 3 Thursdays in a row?!

Laundry Inspiration

Bob made it back safely yesterday! Yay! This morning he has taken the 4 boys plus Anna first to the Lowes kids' project class at 10:00, and then on to Nathan's last basketball game at noon. After that, they may go out to eat. I am here enjoying the quiet while Grace naps and attempting to make headway in the huge backlog of laundry that has built up over the last week. Then I basically was just washing towels and washclothes, and that was all I could handle, LOL. So I thought this was the perfect time to share the inspirational laundry mountain speech from Lord of the Rings--don't you remember that? I got it from someone on the Well-Trained Mind board awhile back . . .

Aragorn's Laundry Mountain Speech

"I see in your eyes the same mountain that would take the heart of me. A day may come when this laundry pile of mine overwhelms me, when I forsake clean towels and break all scoops of soap, but it is not this day. An hour of soiled shirts and dirty pants, when the laundry room comes crashing down, but it is not this day. Today, I fold! For all of the children in my house, and for my dear husband too, I tell you I will sit, and fold my laundry!"

Pictures

Here's a visual, although it's hard to really see how swollen it is without seeing it in person, and comparing it to the middle finger of my other hand! This was taken after I'd been on the antibiotics a day, so the swelling had already diminished a lot. The dark spot is where the doctor lanced it. Yesterday it was more swollen, with a white ring around the nail bed, and then a very red part around that. and that was the part that was spreading down my finger. It's still a little red, but the colors have muted a bit now, LOL.
My position of choice over the past few days. Nice. But I really had no choice, as I could not bend my finger at all! The swelling now is down such that I can bend it a little.

Last Doctor Update, Hopefully

So, by afternoon yesterday, my finger was still not improved one tiny bit. I called my physician's assistant pastor's wife Karen again to see what she recommended. She said I clearly needed another stronger antibiotic, and she couldn't figure out why the doctor had prescribed Bactrim in the first place. She asked if I could go in again Friday morning, and I told her I really didn't think I could face the Fairfax Clinic for a third morning in a row with all the kids. I said I figured I'd just wait until Saturday and go to the ER at Bethesda while Bob was home with the kids. She immediately asked if there was anything she could do to help to make it so I could go in sooner --like tonight. Could she watch the kids for me? I told her I'd think about it, which I did for about a second, and then I called Elizabeth to see if she would mind coming over after the kids went down, while I went. She has older kids and lives so close, so I figured it would be a little easier for her than for Karen. She was a true loyal friend and said yes, even though she knows how long military ERs can take! Almost right after I hung up with Elizabeth, Johanna called to tell me about her son's infected foot, and how they let it go a little too long, and he was admitted for 8 days for IV antibiotics. Well! I took that as a divine sign that I was doing the right thing, LOL!

I left at 9:30, and when I got to Bethesda and was getting my temp, etc. taken, the lady who was doing all that warned me that there were people who had been waiting "since 3:00" to be seen! This surprised me, as I didn't actually see anyone else waiting in the waiting area, but I looked sad and went into my tale of woe--I have 6 kids (6 KIDS?!), 4 of whom have strep and pinkeye, and we've spent the last 2 mornings at the Fairfax Clinic, and my husband's TDY, and I just didn't think I could go back again in the morning, blah, blah, blah . . . The lady said well, she didn't think it would take ME that long to be seen; she just wanted to give me a head's up, but she recommended jsut going out there and waiting for a little while and seeing what happened. Well, yeah, that's what I had planned to do, LOL. I guess she was trying to weed out people who didn't really need to be there?

So I got called back at 11:30, after only an hour of waiting. Whew! The doctor was really nice. She looked at my throat and agreed that I had strep based on all the pussy stuff back there, and she was surprised the other doc had prescribed Bactrim as well. She said my finger was way past that. She asked if I had been soaking it, and at my completely blank look, asked if the doctor had even mentioned that? No. He hardly even looked at my finger, much less give me any positive things to do about it! She had to lance it and drain it, and let me tell you, that was one of the most painful things I have ever had done. Remember I can't let anything touch it, since it hurts so badly, even a bed sheet. The actual lancing wasn't too bad, but then she squeezed the pus out. Oh. My. Word. I thought I was going to vomit. I almost passed out. The room spun, and I saw stars! Really--give me childbirth any day. She kept talking but everything was all blurry and buzzing. Eventually things cleared, but I had to lie down as soon as she left to get my discharge papers written up! She started me on Zithromyacin, gave me tylenol with codeine for last night to help me sleep, and gave me more motrin. I was home by 1:45. Thank you Elizabeth for staying up so late for me!!!

My finger is already much better. It doesn't throb anymore, and the swelling has gone down quite a bit--I can even bend it some! What a huge relief! I am so thankful we live in a country with effective medicine readily available.

Another Day, Another Doctor Visit . . .

I decided last night that I would go ahead and try to get 4 appointments today so that Luke, Caleb, Jonathan, and Anna could get throat cultures. Our pastor's wife had called, and she is a P.A., so I asked her if the antibiotic I am taking for my finger would also work against a strep infection, if I did indeed have one. She said yes, so I'm not worried about me at this point. It was such a blessing that Karen called, because I had been wondering who I could call and ask that question to!

As it turns out, Luke, Caleb, and Anna were all positive for strep, and Anna also has an ear infection. Jonathan was sad that he didn't need any medicine--feeling a little left out, LOL. Hopefully now that they all are on antibiotics, everyone will start really getting better.

My finger is still very red, swollen, and painful. There definitely hasn't been any improvement, and I would actually say it is worse, as it seems like it is swollen further down my finger now. I have no fingerprints because it's so swollen! I can't stand to have it touch anything, which makes it hard to keep with with dishes and the massive amounts of laundry that we produce. Since I am allergic to penicillin and am also nursing, there aren't a whole lot of antibiotic choices for me. I know the sulpha drugs are slower-acting, but I am really ready for some improvement here! The nights are the worse because it just throbs, and I can't let the sheet or pillow touch it. Maybe tomorrow it will be better . . .

Tomorrow will be better, since Bob gets home then! He is supposed to land at 4:00. Yay!