For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise This our grateful hymn of praise.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Giveaway, & Other Stuff

They are having a particularly wonderful giveaway over at Sally Clarkson's blog, I Take Joy.  Please do not enter, though, since that detracts from my entries (as if the other million entries won't). ;D

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  I have started my clean-out-the-garage project. I have another project in the works.  Between the two, I may have to cut back on my Treasure Isle time. 8O!

The Teenager & Thing 2 have started Summer Intensives.  I need to figure out a schedule that will work for us, having two out of the house all day, and having to drive back & forth several times a day.  I should get that all together right about the time they finish the 5 weeks. lol.

Gee, that's all the excitement around here.  I'm good with that. :)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Texas 2011

This marked our 2nd annual trip to Wichita Falls, a place I only visit because my grandmother is in an assisted living facility there. Last year the trip went smoother than anything I'd ever planned & executed in my entire life. The trip itself was the final break, imo, of the horrible false teaching I had received at the hands of certain people that God was only a God of hate looking for a reason to pour out his wrath. My theological education since then had brought me to the head knowledge that God is faithful & loving to those who are his, the trip gave me the heart knowledge . It was pretty amazing.

This year, it was a test of my metal. :D

As my previous post indicated, we didn't get off to a glorious start.  Thing 1 was sick the night before we left so we cancelled all the reservations and my dh took him to the Urgent Care. It was his gut that was in pain and we don't mess around with that with Thing 1. His innards are pretty jumbled up and he has a higher risk of intestinal blockage than a normal child.  It turned out to be nothing serious so when I woke up the next morning I suddenly found myself feeling that I must leave the next day, not wait until August. So off we went with a still woozy 9yo. Poor kid.


Our first stop was McDonald's in the pass to eat breakfast and watch the trains go by.  Woozy kid scarfed 3 pancakes. Should've ordered some to go since that was pretty much the last thing he ate for the next 2 days. I understand though. When I was preggo with Babycakes all I could get to stay down was MD's french fries.


At the rest stop outside some town in the California desert that exists only because it has a DQ & a gas station.





On the second day we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park to eat lunch in the parking lot & watch the large ravens. (That's one flying there in the left of the picture.)


This is going into NM from AZ.



Sky City, NM. It was probably more pleasant before the confusing off-ramp was built to accommodate the casino.


Day 3. Welcome center in Amarillo, TX.  Here, let me help in case you've forgotten the words to the song you are now humming...Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone. Everything that I've got is just what I've got on...I'm sure you feel better. :)


H-F was so excited to see all the metal cows. :)


At one of our favorite rest stops in TX. It was a bit hot so they played in the shade more than on the playground.  Yes, TX rest stops have playgrounds. :)






Outside my grandma's "villa." H-F loves this perpetually empty bird-feeder cuz it's shaped like a barn.


Walking back to the hotel from my grandma's.  That was one of the cool things that happened last year. Without knowing my grandma's address, I picked the Hilton-brand hotel (I prefer Hilton) right next to her place. :)


My grandmother's hair hasn't been this long in about 50+ years. My uncle took her to get it cut Tuesday after we left.


H-F loves his grandma and prays for her every night. 


Getting up close & personal with my uncle's horse.  You know, for a kid who desperately wants riding lessons, he sure has no interest in getting near a horse. :D


Thing 1 was much less nervous.


Thing 2 & the Teenager with my aunt and her horse.


Babycakes probably would have been far more interested if the wind velocity was not upwards of 40mph.



Thing 1 feeding the horse a carrot for a treat.

A pause from the footage to explain how things went directly south after this.  Triple-digit heat aside, it hadn't been too bad a visit up to this point.  That night, the night before we were supposed to leave on our return trip, the Teenager became more sick than I had ever seen him.  I would have taken him to the emergency room if I hadn't suspected the cause.  About 4 years ago he went GF to help with his hyper-activity and his growth.  See, he hadn't grown in 2-3 years. I convinced him to try the diet by reminding him how Thing 2 also didn't grow for a year before he was dx with Celiac.  I suspected his behavior problems were related to gluten after all the reading I had done.  Sure enough, in less than a month everyone began noticing a difference in his behavior. His teachers noticed he was able to sit still longer & focus better.  He's never truly gone back on gluten before.  However, I told him that if he could control himself I'd let him have some, including pizza.  By Sunday night it had done it's damage, I believe. I will probably have to call the Celiac center down in SD to see if we might not have to have him scoped. It's possible it's not just a sensitivity he has. :(

So, I was up most of the night with him. Then the baby was up with a cold.  By 4 am my allergies (I'm allergic to whatever the heck is in a/c) had turned into a sinus infection.  We didn't get out of WF until after 10am.  It was only by God's grace I even was able to stay awake all the way to Santa Rosa.  After getting the kids in & fed I let them know we'd not be swimming that night but going to bed.  Thankfully, they all slept all night.  Well, Thing 2 tried to crawl into bed with me twice but I booted him.  It's hard to sleep with a 7yo's feet in your back. ;)


Anyway....on the way to SR, we saw the Billy Elliot truck.  This is probably only significant to us. The Teenager auditioned for BE a few years ago, when I was pregnant with Babycakes.


Another great TX rest stop.


Give Babycakes a room full of perfectly good & safe things to play with & one dangerous thing and he will immediately go to the dangerous thing.


At the AZ Visitor's Center checking out this relic.  I'm sure the kids are thinking, "50cents? Why don't they just use their cellphone?" :D


Again, BC wants into the janitor's dangerous closet.  He can probably smell the toxins a mile away.


Finally we were home & I was still sick. So I opted for the carwash. I mean, who wants to deal with millions of dead bugs when they are sick? Not me, that's for sure.


Ah, that looks much better. :)


We arrived home to a few open sunflowers.  My faves. :)

I have some pics on my phone that I might get around to publishing later. We'll see how that goes.  Gotta go see Cars 2 tomorrow morning with our good friends N & D. Then Summer Intensive starts Monday.  If you're not into ballet that means nothing so let me just say that two-a-days are probably the only thing in sports that comes close. :D

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

So Complicated

Yesterday we went from going to Texas, to maybe not going to Texas, to going to Texas, to maybe not going to Texas, to definitely not going to Texas. This morning we went from definitely not going to Texas, to maybe going to Texas, to definitely going to Texas.

Hey, I told you it was complicated. :D

So off we go to Texas in the morning.  When I told H-F I explained we were not leaving right now, but we would sleep here then go when we woke up.  He wanted to go to bed right away.  I think we'll at least eat dinner first.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Sleeping Beauty 2011

If I said I was sorry it was over, I'd be lying. I'm glad. It was fun while it lasted, but it will be nice to have my weekends free for a few months...until Fall Term starts & Nutcracker rehearsals start and... :D It really wasn't as stressful this year as we took turns on weekends instead of me driving the whole thing.  That really helped.

Here are a few pics.  I forgot my camera on Friday night. (Where's the "bang-head-on-wall" smiley?)


Um, no, H-F was not in the recital. *sniff* This is Thursday morning outside CB&TL. Haven't been there in a while.  I miss my Pom-Blueberry. 


Thing 1 having fun jumping the fountains.

If you really want your hyper active 7yo to sit still, give him your iPhone.  Works like a charm.  A lesson the moms of those kids behind obviously need to learn. ;)

The Teenager dragging Little Red Riding Hood offstage.

Wolf mask. The violin teacher came by to work with him on his posture for the mask.  She helped him with his pain & injury using something called Alexander.  She uses it with Thing 1 during his violin lessons.  It works. Some day, when I have the extra money (cough-cough) I'd love to learn it.


Babycakes is getting ready to leave for Texas.  I don't think will pass for a carseat even there.


The Teenager with his classmates.

With his bud, N, who will be leaving us for a year. *sniff* We're going to miss them.
After the show.


We went to CFA for dinner afterward, as always. It was a real treat now that we don't eat out anymore.  I think we all enjoyed every last bite.  This sweet ride was outside when we went to leave...nearly 3 hours later.


Here's a close up of The Teenager. He's adorable. :)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Happy Second Birthday, Babycakes

The following happy moments were brought to you by pro-life parents who got a little surprise but wouldn't think of doing anything but look at it as a blessing. There's a lot to that, but it is enough to say that today is a happy day millions of Babycakes' peers will never get to see.


With Mom


With Dad


With The (now) Teenager (age 12)


With Thing 2 (age 5)


With Thing 1 (age 7)


With Cousin H (age 13)


With all the kids.  Had to put my dh in there coz H-F (who was obviously not H-F at the time) refused to go voluntarily near his usurper. :)



With Tia


With Grandma


On the way home.  He was sooooo tiny. He was our smallest baby.


This morning at breakfast.

Poor Babycakes has a bad day for a birthday.  June just is so busy.  He won't get his party until some time in July.  As he gets older I'll make more of an effort to do something in the morning coz the rest of the day is just too busy.