Just for fun

My handsome boys!

I just have to share pictures of the boys. Logan hates to get his picture taken (like me!) and he is gone a lot this summer, so today he actually wanted me to take his picture. Plus, you usually have the 12 year old attitude with that, so......Brandon is always willing. You just have to know that spunky little squirrel who rarely runs out of energy.

Zoo and Museum Fun

We picked up Justin today and headed to the Zoo and it got hot and then we headed to the Children's Museum. Anna's favorite part of the zoo was the giant snake that the workers had out. She LOVES snakes. She and Brandon were recently pictured in our local newspaper petting a snake at the park program.

Justin had a blast with us and always enjoys doing things with Anna. I love watching the world through Justin's eyes. He takes it all in and loves every minute of life. He had a fun week at our parents' church at VBS. He is such a good boy. He is so smart! He is going to kindergarten a year early! Anna was squirmy all week there a naughty at times, but not Justin. He had a lot of fans there that knew him from his parents' restaurant. He is a sweetie. They gave me a Dairy Queen Ice Cream cake last night for my birthday. It was called Chocolate Extreme. It is like a slice of heaven on earth!

Brandon enjoyed telling us all about the zoo since he just spent a week working there as a ZOO KID. It was nice having Logan with us today! He is usually off doing 12 year old things when we go to the zoo and has been so busy this summer with his camps, etc. I took some great pictures of him and will post them next.

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Wooo....she did it!

I think that Anna has kicked the finger sucking habit! We got this stuff from Walmart called "KICK THE HABIT! STOP THE BITE!". Well, we got it last week and I thought I would try it out first. I thought...geez...I just paid $3 for clear fingernail polish. I put it on all my fingers and later made the mistake of licking my fingers while cooking. OH MY! NASTY STUFF! It REALLY works. Anna has gone 5 nights now. She only made the mistake once and put her fingers in her mouth on the way to church Sunday. It only takes that ONE time...seriously. It is sooooo bad. There is no taste quite like it. It remains with you forever. The bottle says to use it for 3 months to really break the habit.

So, today, I let her have a couple of the Hannah Montana stuff that is waiting for her. She has to make it 7 more days until we have a PARTY.

I just had to add some pictures of my Guangxi girl at various ages sucking her fingers. Plus, a couple of others since I am thinking about cutting Anna's hair shorter. Can't decide.

Well, we are off to the zoo or the park to escape all of the driveway construction and noise.

An Eventful Day

What a day! The day started off too early at 5:30 with Barry getting up to go to Chicago for meetings today. The good part was that on the kitchen table for me were cards and flowers for my birthday from Barry and the kids. I am 37...no big deal. Just another day in the calendar.

I had to move my van at 6:00 am to get ready for the driveway people to come by 7:00 am. Then I noticed the back tire was almost flat. The other day I had to fill it with air and today it was pretty bad! Luckily Barry rode with someone today and I could have his car. Mom helped get me to and from the tire place. THANKS, MOM!

My neighbor called and said that apparently there is a gas leak in our cul de sac by their house. I thought maybe our driveway work was causing issues, but the Power Company said NO...it was been there for 5 years! NICE. So, the power company has been outside 2 times today and are doing something out there now. The leak has to be worse than 15% for anyone to care. Never mind the fact that we have children who are constantly playing outside.

The boys must not have gotten the "BE GOOD ON MOM'S BIRTHDAY" memo and have been extra rotten to each other today.

Driveway....it rained some and little progress was done today. Plus, I think a snag has been hit or something. I really think we might sink through the earth soon with the driveway. Major issues and for the high price it is costing to fix this, let's just hope this works!

Anna's little friend, Kailee, just called to sing happy birthday to me. She is so cute.

So, that is just about it in a nutshell...an eventful day. Tomorrow seems to be a calm day in the calendar!
JEN

Playing in the rain!

Not a very exciting day around here today. Barry worked and Logan arrived home from his week at camp at Noon. Then my new freezer came. WOO HOOO...our garage freezer was needing replaced, so..happy birthday to me a week early. I know....sad that I am excited over a new freezer. I would be even more excited over new carpet!

It was very dark in the morning and rainy, but no lightening, so Anna wanted to put a swimsuit on and play in the rain. I was a bit sad that Brandon didn't want to. He said it was for "babies". That is a first.....he always loves that! Boo hoo....he IS growing up.

Speaking of Logan......He had a blast at camp and is exhausted! I am working on his laudry right now and OMG....it is soooo stinky. I washed the darks two times and I am bleaching the whites right now. STINKY. He swam in a pond or lake all week, so things are just GRODY! He wants to go back again next year.

Dedicated to Erin

A family from our travel group has a 13 year old daughter that holds a special place in my heart. Erin is mentally and physically impaired. Shortly after she was born she developed cancer and survived that. She has had seizures all of her life, too. Currently she is in Milwaukee having brain surgery. She had one surgery on Monday to do a mapping/grid system to determine where these big and bad seizures are occurring. The area was located and another surgery was performed yesterday. The surgeons felt confident that the two portions of the brain that are causing the problem could be removed. In a few months it is the hope and prayer that the surgery was successful and that Erin's quality of life will be improved. She is a fighter. Erin is blessed with wonderful parents who have done everything they can for her. Please keep Erin and her parents Janis and Ed in your prayers. Also, Nathan, her 17 year old brother and Maya, age 4.

I am adding a picture that I took of the family when we met them on vacation a couple of years ago.

Also....I remembered this video this week of this disabled man who had an amazing father. I thought I would add this in honor of Erin and her family this week. When I was in college, I worked for many disabled young men and one man, Phil, reminded me of this young man in the video. I miss my work with the severely impaired population. After Anna goes to kindergarten, I am hoping to do more again.

This video is am amazing testimony of a parent's love for their child and that we will move mountains for our children.

Woo Hoooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Anna and I went to the pediatric urologist today and she is FINE! She is under no restrictions at all now. So, Barry ended up taking the afternoon off and we went swimming at Barry's parents' house! They just live here in town just a couple miles away and it is so nice to have the pool for the kids. We are really the only ones that use it, so this summer it really hasn't gotten much use.

Anna enjoyed being back in the water. We loved having Barry home in the middle of the day. We swam and picked more apples for applesauce. Then we cooked yummy ribs and Anna and I had to have shrimp scampi, too. Logan missed out on a good day here. I am sure that the camp didn't have ribs for dinner!

Cute jammies, etc !

I don't normally take pictures of my kids in their jammies, but Anna wanted all her Guiping friends to see her panda jammies from Target. They are so cute. She said you are all supposed to go out and buy them. They are in the big girl dept. so that won't work for so many of you! The pants actually don't fall off too much for being a 4/5, but the top is falling off. I am hoping my mom can make it a little smaller (hint, hint).

On a side note, the finger sucking war has begun. For 3 nights now Anna has gone to bed with vinegar soaked fingers. Who would want to suck on those now? Well, last night when I checked on her before I went to bed, the fingers were habitually in her mouth, as usual. She didn't suck them as she went to sleep, though. The first night was pretty bad. It was like she was in DETOX or something! Tomorrow we will go to the store to buy some pretty nail polish, too. Maybe that with the vinegar at night will do the trick!

Anna and Brandon got fish today and also a frog for the aquarium, so we see how long they will last before we have to flush them into fish heaven.

News from camp

Boy did I panic today when the head of the camp that Logan was staying at called. It is sad when my first thoughts were "What bone did he break? or What trouble did he get himself into?" I shouldn't think like that but we have had our share of the latter types of moments when teachers call me. Anyway...the man (Bruce) assured me that all was well and I didn't need to worry. He was calling to say that there was an opening for a Mission Trip to Ohio for next week and he thought Logan would be a great one to go on it. We are going to pass on it, but his buddy Jacob may go. We just aren't comfortable sending him off for a second week in a row with people we don't even know. Plus he already went to Scout camp for a week this Summer and also this camp, so that seems like enough. Logan even called at dinner time to plead his case, but I told him that I was pretty sure that he would not be going. He will be disappointed, I am sure. I know that the trip would have been life changing and we will consider it for next year. Bruce said that he was very impressed with Logan and Jacob's maturity (and Teddy's) and that everything is going well at camp. Logan seemed to be having a great time. He will return on Saturday.

Barry and I had our share of mission trips in our high school days. Things sure start earlier these days! I am not sure I am ready for all of this. He is only 12. The youth group that Barry and I grew up in didn't do trips until high school. I did start the trips in 8th grade, though, because there were no other 8th graders, so they let me in early. Gee....I remember this cute tall, skinny boy on these trips (Barry!). We really did some neat things to help others on those trips and we taught Bible School in underprivleged areas like the Appalachian Mountains.

Park Fun

After dropping the boys off at camp, Brandon, Anna and I had lunch and then went to the park nearby. We have always talked about going to this park when we drive down this way to St. Louis, so Brandon was excited to stop.

Logan off to camp!

I dropped Logan and his buddies Jacob and Ted off at Camp Maranatha today. They will be back on Saturday around noon. Jacob and Ted went last year, so I got the full tour. Logan was excited to have aircondioning and a REAL bathroom in the cabin...unlike Scout Camp where you sleep in tents and the bathrooms are NASTY. It will be strange without Logan this week around the house. Plus, we usually have 2-3 extras of his friends here on many days. Logan is blessed with a lot of good friends.

Grandma Weber's

Logan sang at my Grandma Weber's church today. He did a great job.

I think I can! I think I can!

Anna and I went to the Railway Museum's "Little Engine that Could" that was visiting. It was fun and we escaped the rain before it hit there. She enjoyed the train ride and luckily picked the air conditioned car! Whew...it was hot out there! It was nice having a day with just her. Hard to find in the summer!We try to take the kids separately to do things so we can have that one on one time with just them. Last night I took Brandon and his buddy Nick swimming, so he was thrilled about that. Logan leaves for camp today, so there will just be Anna and Brandon all week.

Apples to Apples......dust to dust

Christine....where are you? It is apple picking time! We sure miss you guys! I know you would LOVE to make some applesauce!

Oh my....Barry's parents' Lodi apple tree is ready for the pickin'! The apples make a tart applesauce. We picked four 5 gallon buckets heaping full and we didn't even make a dent in the tree. I think this is the biggest crop ever. We could pick 4 buckets every day and it would still take forever to empty it!

One batch of applesauce is cooking up now. I really hate to peel apples and it is hard to find time in this house to just peel and stir for hours, but I will figure it out. Barry helped some before work.

Barry's parents left today with his sister, Angi and hubby Brad, Faith and Nolan for Germany. They will be back next Saturday. We hope they have a fun and safe trip. Apples will still be here for her to make applesauce when they get back!

Little Engine that Could, etc.

I used to love that book. Anna does, too. I am taking her to a local Railway Museum to see this on Saturday afternoon. She will enjoy getting out and doing something fun. Brandon would enjoy it, too, but it doesn't seem too age appropriate. I think I will do the Polar Express Train with Anna and Brandon in November. We did the Santa Train there when the boys were little with my parents and that was fun. I am not really sure what they will do on this train at all. I am sure we get to ride some, there is a petting zoo, and other fun things.

Anna's incisions were getting infected, so she is on an oral antibiotic. We drove 45 min both ways for a 2 min appt. I do like the dr., though. He is very good with kids. We still have to go back next Thurs for another checkup. I would hate for them to have to go back in if the antibiotic doesn't work. I do NOT want them to open her back up!

The Hannah Montana Rule

It is no secret that we deal with the fact of Anna sucking her fingers. We were doing sooo well. She had only been sucking her fingers mostly at night and occasionally during the day. While on vacation, she sucked on them a little bit more for comfort. That is understandable. After vacation I found the hernia on the right side and since I knew she was having surgery, I kind of let it go a little bit. What was the point? I can't expect her not to suck her fingers after surgery. Well, no more surgery now, right? Hmmmm..

A long time ago Anna started really liking Hannah Montana. I told her IF and WHEN she stopped sucking her fingers for 2 weeks or 14 sleeps that we could go pick out some Hannah stuff at the store. So, as we were shopping, I would play it up that she couldn't get any Hannah stuff until she stops sucking her fingers. It didn't seem to work. Walmart had a huge thing on clearance with tons Hannah stuff, so I brought it home and Logan and I really played that up. Well, it is still sitting in the garage on the freezer.

Get this...last night I asked Anna what she wanted to do today. She said "GO SHOPPING AND LOOK AT HANNAH STUFF AND NOT BE ABLE TO BUY IT!" I cracked up. She cracked up and off she went to go to sleep with her fingers in her mouth.

So, today at Target she said..."I can have Miley Cyrus stuff. She is not Hannah Montana". Smart girl, but she still didn't get anything remotely related to Hannah Montana.

I am giving her 3 days (since she had surgery 1 week ago and we visit the dr. for a possible infection tomorrow) and then I declare war. Any ideas?

Doll Hospital Day

The boys have been gone today and apparently Anna's babies needed hernia surgery, too. She was having a blast forever. I am taking Anna back to the urologist tomorrow because one of her incisions is red and doesn't look quite right. They may want to do an oral antibiotic.

4th of July Parade!

We had the annual parade today, despite the fact that we were poopooing (IS THAT EVEN A WORD?) the fact that our neighbors, the Hamby's, moved. Afterall, it just isn't the same here without them and they were at least 1/4 of our neighborhood parade population. We had a good turnout and had some newby's this year. Anna hung out in the stroller and didn't make the trip around the block. She is walking great today, but is still cautious. It is shower day for her, so she is excited to finally get clean after surgery.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy 4th of July!

Much, much better!

Anna had fun making stuff yesterday. The bean bag works great to sit on around the house.

Anna is doing great most of the time. She walks like an old lady, but does walk a few minutes and then sits down for a while. She wanted to help me make our 4th of July cake. Our parade is tomorrow, but she will be a spectator and wave as the boys go by. I really don't think she would have any interest in attempting to go around the block anyway. She took another giant nap today, so she must have needed it. After making the cake, she had to rest for about an hour, but now she is ready to run around again. She sneezed, though, and thought that wasn't such a great thing. Tonight the bandages come off and tomorrow she can start her 2 weeks of showers.

Last night we had big storms here. Lots of thunder and lightening. She is always afraid in the night during storms and ends up in our bed during them. She asked me "Why is God doing so many fireworks?" CUTE.

By the way....Justin and Iveny brought by a DORA balloon, chocolate, fortune cookies and FRIED RICE. Unfortunately Anna had only been asleep for about 20 min so I didn't wake her. She was disappointed that she missed Justin, but she was soooo excited to see the goodies he had brought. THANK YOU JUSTIN, RICKY AND IVENY. Anna loves you!

Update...doing well

We had a rough night, but Anna is much better this afternoon. She actually woke up at 5:30 am today and needed more tylenol. She then asked for watermelon and Princess Soup (Thanks to Cambell's..they make DORA, too.) She has eaten and eaten today, so that is great. She has taken a few steps here and there, but staying down seems much more comfortable at this point. Her Grandma's and brothers spoiled her with presents and balloons and she liked that.

This picture shows her with her Surgery Buddy/Doll and her bear from the hospital. A Child Life Specialist came and "played" with Anna before surgery. Susan was awesome. She used the doll to show Anna things about surgery and Anna named the doll Jessica and got to dress her and everything. The bear was given to her just before surgery. She has had it next to her all day. When she was under the loopy drugs, she named it Brad, but today she says it is Baby Bear today. It has a Kohls tag on it with the Hospital name. Cute. Since the surgery was delayed, Susan was really great. Anna was able to paint suncatchers, color and watch TV. I had a goody bag of activities and didn't even need to get things out! I was so impressed with the hospital making Anna so comfortable. She had a blast and was so happy and had fun before surgery for 3 hours.

She is sore, but is doing great!

Anna update

Hey...we are home. Surgery was at 4:15....love it that they make us wait longer. Anna was amazing before surgery. Such a trooper and so happy and flexible. The usual Anna. She had to "play" for over 2.5 hours. I will go into that more tomorrow.

Everything went well and was done at 5:00, left the hospital at 7:00 and drove 45 min home. Lots and lots of pain and discomfort. Recovery room was slow and she was just so sad and crying and scared. Of course,didn't like the IV, etc. A side we have never seen before. She is not a drama queen and doesn't fuss much, so she is just in a lot of pain. Not screaming since that hurts too much, but often a constant whimper and tears. Poor thing. She will be with me tonight in my bed.The dr. removed a good sized hernia on the right side, which we were hoping he would find. It was pooching out more lately. A left one was starting to form and it was removed, too. Just a small incision on both sides. They are with clear bandage tape for 2 days. Nothing more was found and no problems. She is just so sad. No showers for 2 days. No baths for 2 weeks (she loves her baths...like her Mommy!) No swimming for 2 weeks ( we go almost everyday...bummer), no bikes for 2 weeks, etc and NO FUN basically for at least 2 weeks. We have already been doing low key things for 3 weeks and it has been hard on our active house!

I really don't think she will want to for a while anyway.Well, I am getting off for the night...just on a quick break to email. Please post to LL that we are home and all went well. Heart wrenching day to see her in this pain. Just aweful. Daddy is comforting her now and she is liking that.

PS...We woke her at 10:00 to go potty. She hadn't gone since around 12:30, so we thought it was a good idea. She didn't, but she did go and we got a little water in her, too. She hasn't eaten since 6:30 am today and had a popsicle at 10:45 am and a little slushy at the hospital. I am hoping she will want watermelon tomorrow. After they gave her the "loopy" medicine she did ask to go to Justin's for Fried Rice. That's my girl! She loves her Justin and Ricky and Iveny! Since that wasn't close, she did ask for McDonald's after we left the hospital, but she took one look at a french fry and there was no way she was going to eat it.

They gave her a caudal block and explained it kind of like an epidural to help with pain. She can't walk until it wears off, but I can't see that happening anyway for a while.

Thanks to all of you helping with the boys today and tomorrow!