Ice Day!

No school for two days in a row! That never happens! Like Natalie, I always thought Texas was a warm state. In the summer, we fry, it's so freaking hot. The winters are mostly mild, be we do get a wicked cold front now and then. Sadly, snow is rare, what we get instead are ice storms. We get sleet, and something called freezing rain. It actually rains frozen raindrops, it's the weirdest thing. I'd never seen it before moving to Tx. It coats everything in ice, making it look like a crystal wonderland. It's pretty, but it's dangerous. At noon they reported 600 accidents just in Ft.Worth. We get yo-yo weather in the winter. One day will be 80, two days later the high is 38. Then two days later it's warm again. It makes everyone sick, it has caused our trees to start blooming out already, and frankly it messes with my head! I'll do a load of laundry on a day it's raining ice, and it's a load of shorts. It's just not right.

Ivan was home with us today, it was great! He did work on his computer most of the day, but he's at least physically here.

The boys and I went out early before everything started to melt and had a good ole time. Sliding, discovering, breaking icicles. (Only Tan and Cam, not little Max, though, he's running a fever. :( Says his "throat tastes yucky." Here we go....)

It's hard to see the ice on the branches in all my pictures, I wish I could capture the awe-inspiring beauty I see in person.

Day 8

Today school was cancelled, due to an ice storm. I should have gotten a picture of the kids home doing their thing, but I didn't think about it (gasp!) Instead I caught the dog napping sweetly in a chair (he's not allowed on any furniture.)

Day 7

Here's just a good snapshot of a random moment in my house. Ivan and the kids horsing around, the laundry room open for business, the dog in the background trying to get in on the action. I just like it. Also you can see just how tall Tanner is getting.

And the paint samples taped to the wall. Still trying to decide. Any suggestions? lol.

Day 6, Sunday

I love any variant in my day that allows for a unique or special picture subject. Sunday best, works great! Couldn't find Cam's white shirt anywhere. At one point he had one of Tanner's on, tucked in and all, with the sleeves hanging way past his hands. He thought that was going to work, and was annoyed when I made him take it off. Kids!

Day 5 of 365

This is a little alcove I have in the computer room. Soon it will be my sunny little craft area. We're going to build a table top all the way across there. I'll finally be able to organize and utilize everything I have. To be able to start a scrapbook page, and not have to put everything away when it's time for the next meal, that would be great! Most of that is craft stuff. I can't wait until I can get it done, I'll be so happy!

Day 4

Tanner will be a teenager in less then 2 months, and he's already acting like one. Being picky about his clothes, shoes, appearance. Suddenly one day he wanted converse shoes. Didn't fit his personality, but ok. Then one day he was with his dad and grandpa, they were in Justin, TX and went into the Justin boot factory/store. He came home saying he wanted boots, a cowboy hat, shirt, the works. This was also a surprise, but by now I'm realizing teenage boys are almost as fickle as teenage girls. So with his Christmas money, I took him to a wester wear store (going out of business, everything was 60% off, weeee!) He got boots and a shirt. Last weekend he went to visit his grandpa, and he gave him a hat and a second pair of boots.

Tonight Tanner went to a rodeo in Ft.Worth with his friend Taylor and I made him pose for me before he left. Yeehawww! (Have we been in Texas too long!?)

Day 3

Oh Happy Day! Yesterday the UPS man came and left a brand new iPod on my doorstep!! My other one fell on the tile and broke. :( Luckily we bought the extended service plan (we always do, and we're never sorry.) I sent my broken ipod, which is like a third arm to me, in a box to florida. Almost two months without one. It was a sad, quiet time. Now the replacement has arrived! Although it feels like a stranger to me, it feels like a brand new, shiny, thinner then the last stranger that I will warm up to quite nicely. :)



(The spongebob in the picture... Max came up one day and said, Here mom, this is your prize! No idea what I did to get a prize, but he loves spongebob, so I guess it was something great!)

Park Fun

Last month on a warm day the boys and I went to the park. We have two in our little town, we went to both because they couldn't agree on one. lol. One has swings and tetherball. The most the boys knew about tetherball was that Napoleon Dynamite liked it. lol. So I taught them how to play. The other park has a giant slide and the boat docks. Max sat at the top of that slide for 15 minutes crying and clinging for life, one brother on each side of him holding him and begging him to slide down. FINALLY we managed to get him to do it. He lived through it, and happily did it again and again.

I love the light at sunset, it's my favorite time of day. I took some pictures of the boys with the intent to put one in the Christmas cards. Yeah, I never got around to the Christmas cards. But I want you to know that everyone reading this blog would have gotten one, with love, had I sent them. :)

Just wanted to share some pictures.











Max was sad that no one would swing with him.




Before. (look at Cameron's devious expression! lol)


After.




The lake was so calm that day.




This dog came out of nowhere and made friends with Cameron.


Then he posed for me.










Outtakes. Tanner pinched Max for not listening, so he cried.


Cried loud apparently.


But soon was good as new.

1-21-09

Bad day. UTI. Not fun.

January 20, 2009

I'm going to borrow an idea from Misty, Project 365 sounds like fun. Heaven knows I take enough pictures to make a flip book of my life (more like of the kids' lives), but narrowing it down to one will be interesting.

Today I was in my room watching the inauguration coverage, and there were a ton of birds out on the balcony. So I opened the sliding glass door (I love this house) and got my camera out, and was just enjoying the birds and the news. (in between the dog trying to escape out there, and Max running in scaring them away.) Flipping through the pictures this one made me stop and laugh.



"Do you mind?? I'm trying to eat here!"

Drug Altered Max

Max is usually pretty silly in his normal state, alot like his brother, Cameron the Entertainer. So imagine him on a big ole dose of tylenol with codeine. I felt bad laughing at him, but it was too funny. As soon as it hit him, he sprung to life. He was laying in my lap and reaches up, pats my cheek and says, III luuuuuuuuuuvvveeee yoooooouuuuu, mooooooom! lol. I told Ivan I couldn't find the thermometer. He started making up words that rhyme with thermometer. Flerbobeter, Merflopteter. Cracking himself up. Mumbling a million miles a minute. And he's apparently a physical person when he's under the influence. Like the girl on friends that would punch Joey. Does it in a nice way, but still, ouch! He told Ivan, I'm gonna beat you up, daddy. lol. "Calm down, Killer," he told him. And then there's the reaching for things in the air, that really aren't there. He only did that a couple of times. Anymore then that and I'd start to worry. lol.

He's been sore, more sore every day actually, but I assume it's part of the healing process. He walks kind of bent over, he looks like a little old man shuffling around. He's been living the life, though, King Max. He's played video games so much that he voluntarily turns them off because he gets tired of playing. !! He mostly stays in my room, but moves downstairs to that tv a couple times a day, for a change of scenery I guess. The first two days, he wanted to eat upstairs in my room. He doesn't use a sippy cup anymore, but I pulled them out for the occasion because I can get him to drink more that way. Plus he's on my bed!

On Tuesday I started a blog, detailing the whole day Monday. I got half way through, and it was far too emotional and sappy to subject others to. So I'm going the photojournalist route. I didn't take many pictures. I only had my camera phone that day. But here's what I got.

This was Monday morning, before I woke him up. So sweet, and so not deserving the torture he was about to endure.



Here he is when we got to the hospital. They had his room set up with a tiger hospital gown, a stuffed dinosaur and a book about sick dinosaurs. This was before the IV (which he didn't like, but he did VERY well.) They let him be in charge of the cartoon remote.



This is after the IV. I think he was realizing all the scary things he'd imagined were starting to happen to him. But he was being very brave, and everyone noticed and told him so. The anesthesiologist was especially impressed with him; he even stopped by afterward to commend him.


This was after the surgery. He was sleepy, confused, angry, sad, and in pain. When they wheeled him in he looked so tiny and helpless and it broke my heart.


This was that night, after he was feeling fiiiiinnnee. Showing off his spongebob bandaid.


Thanks again for everyone's good thoughts and prayers. :)

My Little Max

I've been sooo extremely lucky, having three boys who are so healthy and strong and perfect. I don't usually say this outloud, as to not jinx it, but we've never even had a broken bone, in the 27 collective years these boys have lived. How is that possible? (I've broken 2 toes and a foot in that time. Better me then them, I say.) I'm thankful for my blessings.

That's why Max having a minor surgery on Monday is such a foreign situation for me. Poor Max. He has what's called a hydrocele. Quoted from a website that will say it better then I could: "During normal development, the testicles descend down a tube from the abdomen into the scrotum. Hydroceles result when this tube fails to close. Fluid drains from the abdomen through the open tube. The fluid builds up in the scrotum, where it becomes trapped. This causes the scrotum to become swollen." It usually closes up soon after birth, but the Dr said if it hasn't by now, it's not going to and it will always cause problems if we don't get it corrected. What I first noticed was the swelling. It didn't hurt him at all, but it wasn't normal so I took him in. Our family Dr said it's probably a hydrocele, but sent us to a urologist. (Wow, a urologists office is the anti-gyn; male receptionist, manly decor, very strange. I felt out of place for sure.) Of course tumor and Lance Armstrong were going through my head, but luckily it was only fluid in there. The urologist shined a little flashlight through his scrotum to determine that, most inexpensive ultrasound ever! And, Max thought it was pretty cool when the lights were all off and his 'stuff' became a laser show. lol. He's been a trooper through this, considering how many times he's had to show his unmentionables to strangers. I keep telling him how brave and grown up he is. We've known since November that he needed surgery, but we didn't really discuss it with him until Friday, when we went for the pre-op appt. We met with the dr again, who went over with us how it'll go, and told Max he had to stay in bed and be really still for a few days. All Max heard of that was NO TRAMPOLINE! BUT, PLAYSTATION ALL DAY LONG! lol. Then we had to go to the hospital for pre-op stuff, and had a fantastic nurse. She talked to him on his level, she gave him teddy grahams, she was a hit! She told him how cool it would be to pee in a cup...he didn't find it so cool, only odd. Also, the dr had ordered a blood draw, and she really didn't want to do that to him, so she hunted down the anesthesiologist to get permission to skip that, so she wouldn't have to stick him. She was great with him, and really made a difference in his feelings toward surgery.

(He was feeling good about it, until we came home and Cam's friend Jacob told him how they were going to take all his blood out, then put it back in. And told him his uncle had to swallow a camera that went all through his body. I told him that wasn't true, that wouldn't happen to him, and managed to calm him down again. Kids!!)

During surgery, the dr will make a little incision above all his 'stuff', kind of where his waistband would sit on his belly. They will drain the fluid, then close off the opening, then close it all up with dissolvable stitches. Will take about an hour, and we go home the same day.

I know it's very minor, and the risks are small. But that's my baby! The nurse told me I have the best team of drs, and a great hospital. Yes, but that's my baby! My biggest fear is the sedation. People don't wake up!! !! I know he'll be fine, but a mother worries, and I'm good at that. Luckily Ivan's taking the day off and going with us, more for me then for Max I think. Wish us luck. And wish me luck keeping Max down, and not zooming down the stairs head first on his belly, which is his usual mode.

We went to Mcds and to the park after the appointments.

Christmas Memories

Around the time I was in middle school, and on into high school, I had a great, close-knit group of friends. Every year we'd have birthday parties for everyone, and every year we'd have a Christmas party and exchange gifts. Mostly homemade gifts. I still have many of them, and while taking the tree down I took some pictures, since I'm back in touch with alot of my friends. I know who made the first three of these, but I want someone else to guess who they're from. The last one I do not remember who made it, if someone knows please tell me. :) This is so much fun!








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