Shoe Shinin'

Because it was Rodeo Day and WHS is the 4th child to wear these black boots, his boots needed a shinin'.  And shining boots is Babe's forte.  WHS was so excited.  Babe showed him the entire process...

...and he waited ever so patiently...

...while Daddy shined his boots.  He was so excited about his boots being shined that he pulled them out for his big debut as Student of the Week.  Such a proud, proud little guy.

Climbing! Climb on!

The boys were invited to a birthday party where they had the opportunity to do a ropes course.  It really was nothing more than a climbing course, but it was still exciting for the boys.  I was certain that JLS would soar to the top and JBS wouldn't give it a shot at all.  I was wrong for both.

JBS went up, up up! 

He said he wanted to go further, but his shoes were too big to step.  Thats what he gets for being a big foot!  (He wears mens 7 ½ and he's 10!)

And JLS went up quickly (missed the shot!) and stopped where his brother stopped and floated down.

They were troopers.  I {secretly} wish they went to the top, but proud of what they did accomplish!  They certainly didn't stay on the ground.  Soon enough!

The Lap Desk

Almost 35 years ago, my Gigi, gave Vin and I each a lap desk for Christmas.  They were corduroy on the bottom and stuffed far better than lap desks are made today.  Mine was navy , hers was green.  They were, of course, personalized with our names on them.  I can't tell you the letters I wrote, the tests I studied for, or the plans I made on this lap desk.  That lap desk went on road trips, to college and grad school with me and, of course, to my first apartment, my first husband and has survived 35 years up to this point.  Thirty five years of my doodles and friends' doodles.  It is a slice of history.  

I have glued and re-glued this lap desk from every angle to keep the foamy beans inside for years.  There are glops of Gorilla Glue hanging out the sides.  As I was cleaning my work room on my forever pursuit to purge all unnecessary items, I picked it up and a pile of foam beans fell out.  JBS laughed.  He doesn't get it!  I couldn't bear it!  So....I called Vin.  She informed me that hers broke in half years ago.  This was the information I needed to hear.  I had outlasted her and it was OK to let it go.

I still needed confirmation.  How do I throw something away that I have kept for 35 years?  I am good at purging, but this is THE lap desk!  So, I called Grammy.  Told her I had outlasted Vin and felt like I just needed an OK to let it go.  She thought I was nuts.  I probably am....I am fiercely sentimental at least.

I truly remember getting that lap desk like it was yesterday.  We were in the living room of our little house on Hanover celebrating Christmas with our small family plus Gigi. Isn't it amazing how something as silly as a lap desk can bring back such vivid memories?  I am fairly certain it was also this Christmas that I got my doll house, too.

Hmmmm.....Lap Desk, may you rest in peace.  You served me very, VERY well over the years.

Crafty Boys

They don't always like to admit it, but my boys are crafty boys.  They absolutely love the aisle at Hobby Lobby with all the crafts.  Our last walk thru Hobby Lobby led me to show them the latch hooks and they were smitten.  While WHS is a great cheerleader, JBS and JLS each got their very own latch hook.  

The video games and TV got a little out of control at the beginning of Spring Break, so I unplugged them.  When I woke up one morning, this is what I saw.  Heavenly.

Three cute boys working on their latch hooks:)

Your welcome, wives.  I know you will appreciate that your husbands know how to do some crafty things for you.  I mean, doesn't every one need a latch hook creation in their family?

Rodeo Day

We look forward to Rodeo season every year.  In fact, my sister is coming down on Thursday and I cannot wait to take them to the Rodeo for their first time...evah!  There is just something about the Houston Rodeo and all the activities that surround it.  I don't know a school that doesn't celebrate Go Texan Day and we LOVE it!   Of course, JBS was mad I was taking this picture, thus the scowl on his face, but by golly, we go the pic!

We had to buy new cowboy hats this  year as the ones from years past have seen better days.  These two cuties loaded up and headed to school and came back to report it was the BEST Rodeo Day to date.  Confirming, yet again, that they love their new school more than their old school.  (Praise the Lord!)

WHS refused to have his picture taken, but every day is Rodeo Day for WHS.  He is a boots and belt man every day of the year.  And I LOVE that about him.

The Flews

Many moons ago {pre-marriage}, my family was playing a board game. It was a game that we had to guess what words were and one of the words was "Flews."  Of all the words we learned, "Flews" has stuck for years.  Flews are actually the upper lips of dogs.  So, when they open their FLEWS, and their mouth makes that quiet smacking sound, it is made by the FLEWS.  If you have a  larger dog, you know exactly what this sound is.  

Today, our Mona discovered the sun roof in my car.  

And if the FLEWS don't take the cake, I don't know what does.  She absolutely loved sitting on the console and sticking her nose out the roof.  When I looked up, this is what I saw...

Her FLEWS were flapping in the wind as she kept her eyes shut and enjoyed the beautiful spring day in Houston.  If there was an onamonapia (no pun intended!) for the sound her flews were making, I would give anything to spell it for you.   But there are no words.  Just smiles.

I think we just bonded.  

Star Student

From the moment WHS found out he was going to be the Star Student, he could NOT wait for Monday to come.  We bought a poster and printed pictures.  He glued his own pictures and name and wrote legibly and illegibly about his brothers, his dog and his family.  When he went to bed Sunday night, he picked out his clothes for the next day...choosing his newly polished cowboy boots.  And he slept with his poster right next to his bed.

When I woke him up Monday morning, you would have thought it was Christmas.  His eyes were still closed and I said, "It is Star Student day!" His eyes popped open with a sleepy, "YEAH!" and he ambled out of bed to put his clothes on. Of the three boys, no one has been as excited to show their Star Student poster as this one.  

He was the big man for the whole week. 

And he loved every moment of it.

1000th Post

I happened to look at my posts and this is my 1000th post!  It is so hard to believe the time that has flown since I first started this blog in June of 2007.  I started it when we found out we were moving to Houston and blogs were still new to me.  I thought it would be a fun way to keep in touch with our families when we moved.  I wasn't sure if I would stick to it or not, but seven years and 1000 posts later, here we are!

The ups and downs of our family AND the blog are all recorded here.  Amazing, really.   I really hate to discuss it much because it is still so painful to talk about. But, I deleted the first My Home on the Range {ugh} and went about two weeks thinking it was gone forever.  Until an angel emailed me and had copies of over 200 of my posts on her reader and sent me every single one! 

This is where I shared first steps, first foods, no sleep, illness, pregnancy, and everything in between.  After I lost and found my blog, I started printing it into a book for each child at the end of every year. Their books are actually more treasured than photo albums, as all their pictures and stories are bound in a nice book.  They love them!  And their stories are in print...never to be lost again!

So...its only appropriate to post a very rare moment of all three boys on the 1000th post.

WHS worships JBS.  JBS fell asleep first and WHS moved so that his head could touch JBS' head :) A full day of sports for all.

Such angels when they are sleeping....

And the third angel is tuckered out after a double-header baseball game.

And the car was silent.   It was ah-mazing!

Sweet Baby

In the whole rigamarole of the last two weeks, as we dropped like flies in our house, I hung my white flag and took the remaining two healthy creatures to the pediatrician.  My INTENTION was thinking they were destined for Strep, as 3/5 of us had it, was to prevent a long weekend and nip it in the bud.  It was a Friday, I was exhausted, Babe was 5 days behind me in poor health and was flat on his back in bed.  I still NEEDED to be flat on my back, but it wasn't an option.  

This cutie was so obedient it cracks me up.  He hopped up on the table, allowed them to take his height, weight, temperature and blood pressure without batting his long eyelashes.  I just want to eat him up sometimes.

As we discussed our house of germs, the nurse practitioner said, "It's good you are here!  We have had 4 cases of the stomach flu just today."  To me, that means....GERMS!  WHY did I do this to my children?  I was ill and not thinking straight.  I only made things worse by bringing them to the den of germs...the pediatricians office.  

Of course, both boys were Strep FREE and we slathered ourselves in Purell at every point as we left the office.  

It didn't help.

That night at 1am, I flew out of bed to JLS yelling and so the night continued.  JLS ended up in the ER with dehydration the next day.  All from me trying to PREVENT a chaotic weekend.

Maybe one day I will learn.

God and Me

JBS and Babe took part in the 8-week God and Me program at our church for the cub scouts.  In fact, Babe actually taught the class each week with a really great guy.  In the end, I think he enjoyed it, albeit more work than he anticipated.  It was a great time to spend with JBS every week, for sure.

This is JBS "graduating" from God and Me with his two fearless leaders!  Way to go, boys!  I am so proud of both of you! 

Pink Dress

Oh my goodness!  I couldn't pass this one up. I was breezing thru my posts and found this one still in DRAFT stage. It was from at least 3 years ago....

I was just in my closet changing clothes when JLS pointed at something hanging and said, "Why you don't wear dat pink dress?"  He was pointing at the 3 maybe 4 remaining pieces of lingerie that I received at my lingerie shower when I got married....8 years ago.  Trying to play it off without having to explain to him exactly what that pink dress was, I said I wanted to wear THIS pink dress that I was putting on over my swimsuit. He persisted, as usual, and said, "Why you save dat dress if it is from when you were a little goirl?"

A Loooooooong Week.

Last weekend, we were outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  It was gorgeous so we embarked upon my first garden venture.  There was approximately 3 feet of river rocks wide that go the length of my house.  I wanted to move those so we could put good poop dirt in there, till it in and plant an herb garden.  Then, bring back some of the rocks to edge it out.

I offered to pay the boys to help me and thought this would be a good afternoon project.  It turned into two afternoons and back breaking labor.  Once we got to work, there were layers of river rocks in there...not just one.  And we had to dig so many out.  The boys came and went, but I sat hunkered over that garden all afternoon on Sunday while the boys dragged wagon loads of rocks to our dump spot in the back yard.  It was grueling, but once we started, I didn't want to stop!

We finally finished up around 5pm on Sunday night.  I was covered in mud, grossed out by all the millipedes and grubs I had uncovered and went straight to the bath.  When I was relaxing on the couch afterwards, I started to feel my body curl up.  I looked down at my old ankle injury from tennis and it was swollen, my legs were swollen, my joints started hurting all over, my neck, my head, my sinuses.  I was falling apart before my eyes.

I am not sure how I forget, but I do.  Since taking Humira, I don't bounce back like I used to.  My immune system is intentionally so low, it doesn't have any fight, especially after a long day in the yard.  I woke up the next morning in more pain.  Babe was off so we ran a few errands and I returned home to climb in my bed....where I stayed for a record breaking  three days!  I have never been flat on my back (barring tummy issues) for days at a time.

Wednesday morning, JBS complained that his neck and throat hurt and I knew exactly where he was coming from so I put my big girl panties on and drove him to the doctor.  While I sat there at the pediatricians office, I started to really go down hill FAST!  I looked at JBS and told him he might need to drive home :)  I called my doctor while I sat in his appointment and when we finished with him, we went straight to my doctor.   JBS was confirmed with Strep.  An hour later, I was confirmed to have Strep.  The flu test was negative, but he said I probably still had it because I was SO congested and a sinus infection to boot.  We made it home and crashed.

I have never been down for so long and in so much discomfort. My neck, my head, my body aches...and I am still not well.

Thursday night, I was startled awake to Babe moaning.  Drama is Babe's forte and toughness while sick...is not.  I tried my best to ignore him until his massive hand grabs my arm and he said, "ADVIL!!  ADVIL!!" I was at a loss for words, as I was still sick and here this man is begging for me to get him Advil.  I knew at that moment, my time to be sick was over.  I left him in bed while I attempted to get the kids out the door.  The sooner the better so I could go back to bed!

JBS said, "Oh, Dad's up."  I didn't see him and was moving slow myself and said, "Where?"  JBS said, "Well, I thought it was Mona at first...." and proceeded to giggle his way thru the conversation.  Babe was CRAWLING on the ground because his legs hurt so bad.  He does have an affinity for drama.  So Friday, Babe was out.  I had been on antibiotics since Wednesday, so I made a big effort to get JBS and JLS to their Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet Friday night.  It was a struggle, but we made it.

As we loaded up the car, my head was shooting sharp pains.  As one hit my eye, I put the car in drive.  The parking lot was empty by this time, so I drove forward...right into the lamp post.  Yes.  It was in my blind spot on the left and my head hurt so bad.  The car was unbelievably silent.  I just backed up and drove home and the car remained silent the whole way.

Of course, the boys giggled and ran straight to tell Daddy what I had done.  I got the boys in bed as quickly as possible and hit the hay myself.  As I tucked JLS in he said, "Mommy.  I feel sorry for you."  {Thanks baby...I feel sorry for me, too!}  I was out like a light until 1am.  JLS was SCREAMING and this meant only one thing...he puked.  Babe was bed bound, I felt like poop and JLS had vomited all over the top bunk.  As I kept saying Philippians 4:13 in my head, I fought back tears.  I stripped the bed, took care of JLS, set him up with a pallet on the floor and a trash can.  I found some Phenergren from WHS' surgery a few months ago rubbed it on JLS and dove back into bed.  Ten minutes later....SCREAMING.  This happened NINE times that night.  The meds weren't cutting it.  God bless him, he was scared and miserable, I was miserable, Babe was miserable.  By 7am the vomiting hadn't stopped, so we called the pediatrician who sent us to the ER for dehydration.

That was Saturday.  Today is Sunday.  We took a Mental Health Day and skipped church.  I am still not 100% and neither is Babe.  I have no idea what we had, but as Babe pointed out, he isn't on Humira and this has kicked his butt, too.  We got a bad bug.  A REALLY bad bug.

To date, WHS is unscathed.  As our energy held out for us today, we fully scoured and sanitized our house.  Be GONE little bugs.  BE GONE!