Tuba

I thought I'd write an end of the year recap for each kid. Lots to share!

Tuba worked all year at the school district headquarters. He worked in the offices delivering mail, shredding, putting paper into copiers, and wiping tables. He loved it...and they loved him!! It was a good fit for him because he loves the social aspect and the positive feedback from the wonderful staff. On the last day the staff had a party for Tuba and the other two students.

Lucky for all of us Tuba was able to catch an extra hour and 1/2 of sleep this year. Not having to get up so early helped his grumpy morning disposition improve. And...his new aide was wonderful!! They worked great together. He would fling open the door every morning when she arrived and yell, "TI-NA"!! Loudly! This cute pic is of Tuba and his good buddy on the bus. She is graduating the job program and Tuba is going to miss her friendship.

Tuba's seizures had their ups and downs this year but right now they are good. I see a few small 1 sec. "jerks" about once a day. I see a big seizure about every 4 or 5 weeks. Much better that the fall when we were seeing several big bad ones daily.

Tuba is stillllllll growing. He's huge! 5'10...or 11 and weighs 143 lbs. And size 12 shoe.

Summer can be long and hard for Tuba. He gets bored and is too sedentary. We have him in swimming twice a week and we are having him go for frequent walks. He tends to want to sit....I call him grumpy old man. I inquired about a trampoline for him but his neurologist said no. It's too dangerous for his VNS leads. So, I'm working on other activities to stimulate him and keep him busy and active.

Tuba is looking forward to beach days, and swimming, and bonfires....FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!

Mother's Day / Father's Day

I haven't posted our Mother's Day photos yet so I'll combine it with a Father's Day post. I LOVE Mother's Day! My favorite thing is all the beautiful and sweet things the kids make for me at school. I cherish them!!

After a leisurely morning we headed out on a bike ride and picnic. We grabbed lunch to go and ate at the trail head. There are chickens and a crazy rooster that crows about every 2 minutes. The kids like to little park there too. I like the restroom...a real restroom and not the portapotties along the rest of the trail. 

We love this beautiful lake along the trail. We like to ride to it, get off to rest, and enjoy the view before turning around to head back. 

There is a board walk and dock and the wildlife is amazing. So many birds!

Along the trail a creek runs under a bridge and we always stop for  water break and have fun looking in the water. We saw crawdad and tadpoles! 

Unfortunately Moses had a total tire blow out! The pop was so loud I thought it was a gun shot. We made the most of the bad situation....we put Moses AND his bike into the trailer with Tuba AND Kali. Sheesh. Kind of squishy! 

After a couple of miles Moses was in pain from the bike on his lap so he opted to get out and jog. He ran the last 2-3 miles. 

Father's Day!! The sun was shining and we headed out for the same bike ride again. 

It's very peaceful on the dock watching birds flit around. There were a few row boats on the lake with kids and dads fishing. 

I adore the lily pads. 

The bike ride was uneventful! The kids rode 16 miles total...they rock!! 

We went out to dinner at a favorite pizza and calzone place. We had our rehearsal dinner at this place many years ago. Since then it had changed owners and then closed. We were thrilled that it re-opened with the original owner. The food was delicious!! AND....when I went to pay the bill I was told a gentleman had anonymously paid our bill. I was stunned....and got teary. How nice is that?!! We will be paying that kindness forward. 

Long Weekend Fun

I don't know why but the month of May is always a "belt tightening" month. Meaning our checking account was looking rather empty. There is also a long holiday weekend in May...and five kids home wanting to go do fun things.

So...I pulled out our coupon file (I put all coupons and gift cards into a folder on my desk). Low and behold I found five movie tickets! Score! I also found some Five Guy Burger gift cards....totalling $45.00. Woot!

We took the kids to dinner at Five Guy. If you've never been there it is a burger place that makes all their food fresh...not from the freezer and hand cut fries made fresh. It sounded good. I was really in the mood for a beer and was sad to learn they do not sell any. Darn.

I like to be positive so I'll start with the good. The food was good. The restaurant was very clean. The service was friendly. The kids were happy. We had gift cards.

And the negative. You order at the counter and for each burger you order you have to tell them which condiments you want....and the list is REALLY long! So for each kid I had to say, "do you want lettuce, pickle, relish, onion, tomato, ketchup, mustard, etc.......UGH! What would you guess the total cost for 7 burgers (small ones not the double patty large size), 3 large fries, and 5 small sodas?

I'll give you a minute to compute.






It was $70.00!!!!!!!! I about died!! Good thing we had $45.00 in gift cards. But still! Yikes. Okay, on with more of the negatives. You take your bags of food to your little table in a crowded room and then unpack all the burgers trying to match the number on the burger to the number in which you ordered it. Then pass out fries and condiments and drinks. I was squished and cold from the AC blowing on me.

The kids loved it and we will never go back. For $70 we could sit at table relaxing while a wait person brings us drinks (including a beer), and food and then takes it all away.

Okay....on to the movies the next day. A much better deal. We took the kids to see Tomorrowland. Since it was a new release we had to pay a dollar to upgrade our movie passes. Tuba stayed with Grandma so we only had to buy one ticket. The total was $13 for six of us. Yeah!! Then of course we all wanted popcorn and drinks. Ouch! But still $38 for six of us to see a movie and have treats isn't bad. PS We loved the movie!!

We also did a couple of FREE outings. We took a hike. This beautiful place is only 10 minutes from our house. It was very peaceful and the trail is nice and wide and level which is great for Tuba.

On the last day of the weekend we took the kids to a car show. We love this yearly event! I'll tell you a secret about me. I LOVE muscle cars. My fav is a Charger...with stripes. Ohhhh! The sound of the engine is magical. It moves me. 

The other thing I love looking at is how clean the engines are! Seriously! You've never seen anything so sparkly clean. Oh! And the interiors of these cars...some of them with white uphostery...obviously they have never had kids in those back seats!

We have a great time walking around finding our favorites. The Slug Bug row of cars is always a big hit.

This pic is hilarious to me. There was someone smoking a cigarette near us while we waited in line for kettle corn. Ha! The boys did not appreciate the smell! 

It was a really fun weekend. We also went to the library and the park...both free! We spent a little money on outings but did LOTS of fun things. 

Year's End

It's the end of the school year. It's been full of field trips, and loads of extra fun things.

Field trip to release salmon fry. 

This is good because the end of the school can be hard to get through. I'm tired and have lost my sparkly enthusiasm of the beginning of the year.

Lunches at the end of the year become a stale boring chore. I adore my BIL and his childhood story of his dad packing a can of tuna and a can opener in his school lunch. I know I'm suppose to side with the BIL and feel outrage but really I relate to the dad....it must have been the end of the school year.

This year I bought some fun treats (junk food) to spruce up lunches and make lunch making more fun for the last few weeks. Nothing motivates my kids like a mini bag of Cheetos in their lunch box!

As for homework. Oh! It's so hard to muster up the energy for end of the year homework. I have slacked off on some of it, but make myself feel better by maintaining nightly reading time. It's all I've got.

I'm looking forward to lots of unscheduled hanging out time...beach days...and loads of snuggling.

See This

So....this happened recently. I've never had glasses....never needed glasses to be more exact. 

Here's a confession for you. I didn't know what "readers" were. Nope. That might sound silly but I really had no clue. I was at a bridal shower and was having a terrible time reading some little tiny print on the side of a disposable camera. So....my friend says, "here, try these" and hands me her glasses. 

WHOA!!!! And holy moly and WOW!!!! I could SEE THE TINY PRINT!!!! AMAZING!

Everyone laughed and I quickly made note to run out and get myself a pair. 

I now am the proud owner of four pair of readers. If you too need these fantastic little helper you know that one pair isn't nearly enough. I have one in my purse, one on my nightstand, one in the kitchen and one in my cosmetic drawer (eyebrows, people!!). 

I am loving being able to see so much better. In my defense this is why I think I never knew what readers were. You see my parents are young. So young that they never wore readers while I lived at home. I do remember my grandpa pulling his glasses out of his pocket to read something. Ah-ha! Readers! Until this point I thought all glasses were by prescription only. 

I didn't really understand that you use this special type of glasses to look at things up close. Warning: Do not look at items far off...it will make you woozy. I'm learning the fine art of perching the glasses far enough down my nose so that I can look up and over them for distance. 

And yes, I did go to the eye doctor to make sure I didn't need a prescription. I've still got 20/20 vision. Yeah for that! 

Other epiphanies I've had since discovering readers:

1. Old ladies with long whiskers on their chins and upper lips don't know they are there. They need readers! And then they need tweezers. 

2. Emoticons are making lots of different faces and even hold different things. Who knew?!

3. My husband thinks my readers are hot. Like smokin' hot. Sheesh...I would have gotten a pair 10 years ago if I knew. 

My elementary school librarian wore that chain around her neck so she could put her readers on and off and not loose them. Ohhhhh! I get it now. 

And maybe I might want one of those chains!

Sleeping Beauties

This post has to be a secret! So....if you see my children...DO NOT tell them you saw this post...or the pics...please!

I love to take pics of my kids sleeping. They are so precious, and sweet...and they are holding still. And most of all they cannot protest. 

I found George asleep this morning wearing sunglasses. I think they were on the whole night since there were deep grooves on each side of his head from he arms of the glasses. 

Tuba came home from church on Sun. and took a little nap on the deck.

Okay...especially this one...you cannot speak of. My Tween would kill me if he knew I took this photo...and shared it. But, isn't it the most precious of them all?! 

On the weekends the kids do slumber party. Moses sleeps with the big boys and the littles...Thing 1 and Thing 2 sleep together. 

I can't resist getting one of the napping dad too. 

Sis is famous for piling toys and things on her bed and sleeping in the middle of it all. 

Well, at least this one doesn't mind the photos. 

Hmmmm....I seem to be missing a photo of Moses. I'll have to get on that. It's really hard to get a photo of him. He gets up the earliest of all the kids. He's often up before I am.

The Spring Slice

It's A Dog's Life -

Outside My Window - Sunshine!! And wind. I can see the trees blowing and swaying. But, the sun is amazing! The sky is brilliant blue with white puffy clouds. The trees are bright shades of green and lots of beautiful bright pinks, reds, and orange blooms on rhododendron and azaleas.

From The Kitchen - Meatloaf for dinner. Yum! Some of my people didn't used to like meatloaf but the last time I made it I put BBQ sauce on top before I cooked it and now...viola...they all like it. I love baked potatoes and green salad with my meatloaf.

Also I have a roast ready to go into the oven. George and I watched a YouTube video on making the best roast beef sandwich. We are slow roasting the meat....which has been rubbed in olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and rosemary. After cooking it to a perfect rare tenderness I will put it in the fridge over night and then thinly slice for sandwiches. Oh...it's going to be good.

I Am Thankful - I've gone on several field trips each year with my kids. I love going! I'm lucky that I am able to go so often.


I Am Wearing - It's a miracle people! I'm wearing clothes. Not sweats, not pj pants. I'm wearing dark navy jeans, white t-shirt, denim long sleeve shirt....and slippers....but I have my hair fixed AND jewelry on. It feels like a Sunday....since that's really the only regular day I wear an outfit, with cute hair and accessories. Alas, it's a Thursday but I'm trying something new....it's called WEAR THE CLOTHES IN YOUR CLOSET BECKY!

I Am Creating - A flower garden with the kids. We tried vegetable gardening two years ago and it was okay but really the plot is so small and the hedge next to the plot isn't so great for the garden. This year we picked out some flower seeds and started them in Dixie cups. It's been fun to watch them sprout up. This weekend we will put them into the plot. We hope to have lots of beautiful flowers for cutting and also for just looking at in the garden.

I Am Going - Camping this summer! Yeah! The kids are over the moon excited. We are renting a camper...that's the best part!!

I Am Reading - I'm almost done with Gone Girl. I saw the movie with Cam. HOLY MOLY!! So, I decided to read the book for more info. Actually, the movie is very close to the book. When I'm done with it I will start my book club book called The Girl With All The Gifts.

I Am Hearing - A lawn mower buzz in the neighborhood. My dog snoring and George in his room cleaning up. 

I Am Planning - Cam has a new job. Well, same job as an ICU ARNP but he is changing over to the surgical ICU and his schedule is changing. This is a BIG change for us. He will work very long 13 hour days. But, he will work three days one, one off (Sunday), then three more on and then.....SEVEN days off. Yeah!!

Cam is excited to the max! I'm of course excited too but it is going to be new...and different and have it's own challenges.

This week he is trying out the new schedule so he had the weekend off and then Mon.-Wed. off too. That was nice!! He was a huge help around the house and with the kids. Now we are onto the part of the week where he is working the 13 hour days. Eeeeek!! So the planning for me is crucial. For example tonight Moses has practice and usually Cam is home to hang with the other kids but tonight I've got to take everyone with me. Tomorrow same thing...plus pick up and drop off the other 5 boys in the carpool for Mr. P's team. Good thing my van seats 12!

So, I'm busy planning dinner so it's ready on time, and packing a bag of items for the kids to do in the car during practice. Then home and into bed before Cam will even get home.

One Of My Favorite Things - This year Mr. P and Moses are both playing Flag Football. I LOVE watching my kids play sports. LOVE!! I don't follow any pro sports...don't watch the games on TV or live nor do I read about them. The sport's page is just fire starter around here.

But, I adore cheering for and watching my kids play. They've played soccer, basketball, and flag football for team sports. It's the best!! Go Team!!

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week - The rest of the week will be busy and tough without my help mate. I'm going to plan accordingly and pace myself. School to sports to bed...repeat. Then Saturday games and planting our flowers. 

A Picture Thought I'm Sharing -