Hives

I have them. I hate them. They refuse to go away. Worst of all I have no idea why I have them. All I know is that I am taking everything the doctor said to take and still nothing helps. Perhaps I am allergic to relaxing because as soon as I sit down and just relax for a second they pop out with a vengeance. I must admit I am getting pretty good at functioning in this haze of allergy fighting medicines. Every morning I have a benedryl hangover and all through the day I fight the urge to just close my eyes for a minute. I am getting a good amount of pity from my children though and that's always nice. I am bummed however because I have been taking St.Johns Wort and Gingko Baloba for almost two months and have been feeling great and the Doc made me stop taking it. I had fallen short on taking it the last several days so I really doubt that is what this is all about. Nonetheless I am trying to do it all right in hope that I might find sweet release from the itching!! I have to wonder though if by taking the Wort and then sitting in the sun for two hours watching Bec play soccer, if that's what triggered this whole thing...is that possible? I may never know, but what I do know is that hives are evil and I can't wait to get rid of them. I took the max dose of Benedryl so I will either get some sweet relief or it will go the other way and I will have enough nervous energy to finish cleaning up the basement. Pray for me...oh how I want to scratch!!

Bark, Bark

So for some unknown reason my son has taken to pooing in his pants. Not full loads but just enough that I have to scrub it and enough that he smells like a barn until I do. I have no idea why, but this new things is so very annoying and frustrating. At any rate, the other day I was pretty upset with him about it and so I say, "Ryan, why did you poop in your underwear again?"
"Bark, Bark" was the reply, "I'm a doggie mom and I can't talk." So I tell him to become a little boy again and answer the question. So he looks at me with those dark eyes and charming smile and beings to bark a "sentence" to me while he makes gestures with his arms. Darn it all, I laughed. That single laugh was the kiss of death to my serious mom conversation. I cleaned him up and told him don't do it again, to which he said, "OK" so I dove back in with the "why did you do it?" and the reply..."bark, bark..."

Amazing Changes

Rebecca has grown so much this school year I can hardly believe she is the same girl! She began the school year quiet and withdrawn, afraid to eat in the lunch room and never raised her hand. Fast forward several months and here we find a happy, confident girl who is willing to not only eat in the lunch room but buy her lunch. She encourages others to work through their fears and is talkative and reads books in front of her class. Rebecca is smart and intentional about every thing that she does. When she sets her mind to a project she works at it until she gets it and she usually gets it fast. She learned to ride her bike in two days and by the end of a week a girl who could not swim was jumping into the deep end and swimming to the edge alone. She amazes me and makes me believe that the things I have been to afraid to try are actually within my reach if I but take the first step. A few days back I posted about courage, well here are the photos to show that Rebecca was indeed courageous and it paid off big!

Memorial Day

First of all a big Thank You to all the men and women who serve and have served in our military. I am always amazed at how much those families give up to defend our freedom. In honor of our military my two American Heritage Girls got to march with their troop in the Memorial Day Parade. We were toward the end of the parade so we got to see a bunch of it. Ryan was so excited to throw candy and be in the parade too. It was great fun!





All the badges on their uniforms they earned this year. The medallion hanging under the troop number was for a eight week religion class they took, did homework for and memorized the Lord' Prayer and the Ten Commandments. They worked very hard this year we are really proud of them!

Courage

Next time I give one of my children a lecture, I think I will be prepared to learn the lesson myself. This morning Rebecca was upset because they have started swimming at school. One of the tasks is to just jump into the pool toward the person standing there. For most of us that is not a big deal, but to my first grader who cannot swim, it's huge to jump into water over her head toward a stranger. So this morning I told her that before she jumps to ask Jesus to give her courage and trust that He will keep her safe and then plug her nose and jump! I also mentioned that no one was going to let her drown because Mommy could be a scary person if someone hurts her babies!! So off to school she goes. In walks Ron and says, "there is a blood drive at my store today, want to go with me and give blood?" UMMM...no? However, not wanting to appear less awesome than he, I say sure I'd love to. It took forever in the little bus and then it happened someone was about to get started and like an accident I couldn't look away. Then she pulled out the needle. Instant tears as it looked much more like a rod or skewer for ka-bobs or something. Of course I am standing there with some of Ron's co-workers so I went with the Las Vegas slogan...What happens on the bus, stays on the bus! As far as they are concerned I was the picture of courage. Then my little conversation with Rebecca popped into my head and I had to laugh at how funny God thinks He is. So I took my own advice and prayed for courage and laid on the table. Clearly I lived and it wasn't as bad as I thought. It's clear now that I cannot blame Ron any longer for the drama that goes on with our kids...they do in fact get it from me...Darn it!

Cake Walk

I volunteered to donate two cakes to our school's cake walk for Family Fun night. I figured the best way to entice children to walk for cakes was to cover them with candy. So while the cakes baked Ryan and I spent 20 minutes separating mini M&M's into different colored bowls. It was actually fun spending that time with him. He is very good at sorting. The end result was a mosaic looking picture that was super fun to make. Hopefully it will be the cake of the night. I, however, will not know because we are not going. I am sorry to say that the thunderstorms are rolling in already. Hopefully they have a plan B for all of the outside games. Here are my masterpieces:

After working so hard on these, Ryan has it in his mind that we must make another for when his grandparents come on Sunday. The white one has chocolate cake and the Chocolate one has...yep....white cake. Pretty sneaky, huh?!

Stuck

So I met some new friends last Friday that have children the same age as ours. In fact they even have the girl, girl, boy order. The time at the park was wonderfully fun. We had a picnic lunch and all of the kids played so well together. Because I am me and I have a daughter just like me, we always seem to be able to make the event memorable. Yes, there is a story here...

Reagan and her new friend Emily were messing around on the baby swings. Since we were initially the only ones at the park no one cared. As any good mother would, I cautioned my eldest to NOT put her legs in the holes as she will most certainly get stuck. I refuse to divulge how I know that. Anyway, Emily is very petite and she accidentally put her legs in the holes but was easily able to get her legs back out. A few minutes later my dear Reagan has this very same accident with a minor exception...she got stuck. I am not suggesting a let me help you out of there kind of stuck, it was more of a "are we going to have to call the fire department" kind of stuck. So my friend, Michelle and I are trying our best, after laughing and taking pictures, to get Reagan out. No luck. Have you ever tried to lift someone as tall as you out of something and over your head?? It's VERY hard. Anyway, soon a gracious man comes over and asks if we need help. We, all three, worked on trying to get her out for at least 20 minutes if not longer. As I looked at everyone I was mortified at the thought of calling the fire department to CUT MY 10 YEAR OLD OUT FROM THE BABY SWING!! Reagan was equally embarrassed by that thought and insisted that she could get out. Finally we tipped her backward and with the strange man tugging on her, Michelle and I were able to get the swing in position and pretty much dump her out with much shaking and tugging. This was unpleasant for Reagan so say the least. Finally out she comes. We go in the bathroom to check out the damage. Her legs look scraped and starting to bruise and then she bursts into tears. Poor thing. So I ask if she is hurt or embarrassed and she sobs, "both." So we dry her tears do a final check to make sure all is working well and dig out some ice packs from the picnic lunch. Our new friends will not forget their time with us...that's for sure!

Reagan insists that now she will listen to me more often as it is crystal clear that I am not just trying to prevent her from having fun but actually know what I am talking about...sometimes! Oh and she as a healthy aversion to baby swings too!

Rebecca and Elizabeth were across the park...I think they were pretending they didn't know us!!