Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sprinklers

The girls (we have an extra this week - Big Al's friend "Big I" is staying with us until Sunday) were bored and bugging Blondie's OT who now visits us at the house, so I threw out the idea of running through the lawn sprinklers. We have about 6 or 8 of them for the front yard that we rarely use, so the girls thought it was a great idea. After a few minutes they came in and got umbrellas, because APPARENTLY water for the yard is COLD! So, even though the idea of running through 8 sprinklers at one times sounds appealing, it apparently is not. BUT UMBRELLAS ARE FUN, and SO IS THE HOSE, so this is what they came up with:

Friday, June 26, 2009

Anes


Anes is a little boy from Bosnia that is being flown to the US for potential hemi surgery. He is landing today in Indianapolis, and many people have worked very hard to make this happen. There is a blog to follow the family at http://anesjourneyforhope.blogspot.com/ or you can read more of his story at http://hemifoundation.intuitwebsites.com/AnesStory.html . While Anes has something different from Blondie - his is called HME, or Hemimegalencephaly, the needs are the same, this little guy needs a hemi. Please follow his story, and donate if you can.
In just one year the hemi foundation has done such great things and to cap off 1 year of work with helping this little boy is phenomenal. I am so greatful for Cris and Kristi for taking on this cause, because while I wanted to do something, I just didn't know how to put together a nonprofit. I'm honored to take a small part in the foundation, and hope that it continues to grow. I am definitely directing prayers toward this family and the Dr. who has agreed to help him.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Hula Hoop

Blondie and Cheesie are 18 months apart, and while they are great friends, there is still the problem for Blondie that things she can't do, Cheesie can do with STYLE! Part of Blondie's therapy has been working on using a hula hoop - just get those muscles doing coordinated movement. So to support therapy I bought a hula hoop for the house. The reality though is that it is too tricky for Blondie at the moment ..... so ..... just to show off, Cheesie picked it up.

She is having a ball with it and luckily Blondie doesn't seem to care too much.




I love the tongue sticking out!
Brian took these pictures - he really does incredible things with that camera.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Marry a Thief









Last night we went to a downtown park and listened to Marry a Thief (my little brother's band) play in a summer concert series. It was a lot of fun, but incredibly hot! The band is working on a new CD this summer, and we're all looking forward to it coming out. Last night they stuck with their usual songs, and it was lovely to sit outside and have the girls able to watch. They usually can't watch Colin play because I don't let them go to the clubs (imagine that) even though they could probably go in - not the message I want to send to them. After they played we went out to eat with Colin, his girlfriend Charley, and her parents. A really great evening.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Going in Circles

Big Al and T-Rex took out the inflatable kayak the other night, and discovered they had zero talent in the paddling department. They spent about 45 minutes squawking about how to get back to shore, and which way to go. Most often they just went in circles. I just sat on the shore and laughed at them.... they did eventually make it back. Since then they, and their friends, have gone out everyday....but I don't think they are much better, AND everyone comes back soaked every time.

Sorry for not posting for so long, I've been out of commission with an infection that knocked me down pretty good.... I'm starting to move again, so hopefully we'll have some interesting posts...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Free Range Kids?

Okay, so one of my goals was to turn off the TV, and today, Day 1.... no problems.

Neighbor boy was waging war on them this weekend with a nerf guy, and the girls were hooked. So Brian ran out and bought 2 (now we need 4 more because the little ones love them, and Brian and I need one for self preservation). Today, after Blondie's therapy, I hear a lot of giggling and gun clicking. and I walk out of the kitchen to this:
Each girl took turns standing on the other side of the porch door and acting as a target. Bonus points were earned for getting it in the open mouth area..... Cheesie likes to strike a pose, Big Al just offers a clear shot of her rump .... so what did your kids do today?
Many thanks to Megan over at Jet to Thailand for giving us this blog award. I don't think that we were too adorable today.... more like wild banshees ...... but I'll take it. I'm passing it on to Jessie Hall's family, and a few others.... I'll amend this post tonight with their names. Megan, I can't wait until all of the legal stuff is finished with and he is officially yours, and we can see pics of him.....


Finally, trying to slow down... I think

I always tend to read blogs where families are slowing down, and living simply and able to almost homestead their land. Maybe I want to be a farmer, I don't know... but I'm glad to say that the school year is over. So, I'm using this mark to try to simplify myself and my family. Our goals for this summer (yes, I blog about it so I feel more responsible for it):

1.) PURGE PURGE PURGE - I cleaned out the linen closet yesterday. I know, everyone else in the world has a perfectly organized linen closet, but I didn't. It is located right outside my door and as it overflows and is unfolded, or used as a place for hide and seek it gets worse. In cleaning it up I realized I had 5 sets of queen sized sheets, and 0 queen sized beds in my house... so they are going to the lake, or my brother, or goodwill.... anywhere but here. The girls also got the study/playroom shoveled out and I refuse to look in the bags of things that Brian deemed unworthy. Now I can get in there and finish the job. There are so many of those corners in my house I"m using this summer to get at them.

2.) RELAX - folks, I need to seriously decompress. The biggest reason I haven't been blogging is because we're so busy. I run 3 girl scout troops, work full time as a teacher, take Blondie to therapy, Big Al to soccer, thankfully Brian jumps in to take Blondie and Cheesie to tennis, and T-Rex to archery. Later this week I think we're going back to the lake house, and I can't wait.

3.) REDUCE TV time. The girls and I have a goal to shut off the TV. Big Al asked last night if we could unplug them. I pointed out that all she had to do was not turn it on. It is a very difficult thing for them to do. So no TV until after dinner, and even then I'm betting that we don't watch a lot of it.

4.) CUT COSTS - I'm really focusing on cutting all debt because I have a quietly personal goal I wish to attain. I need to get in the routine of planning dinners, eating leftovers, etc. I need to recycle a bunch of things that we haven't gotten in the habit of recycling, because a new recycling drop point has opened near us and they take the things our curbside doesn't.

5.) WORK ON THE YARD. Man it needs it. Standing in my neighbors house a few days ago, I looked at my yard, and was not happy with what I saw, so it needs a facelift.

6.) FIND MY iPOD - 'cause I don't know where that thing is... technology getting smaller isn't always a good thing.

Those are my goals, and I'll check in on them periodically to show how I am progressing.