Thursday, July 16, 2009

I've Always Been a List Maker

Life just happens. It seems just like yesterday that I was unpacking from the Bahamas, rushing around getting last minute Easter things ready and reeling from the fact that my baby had just turned three! Well, as this blog vividly points out, time just flies by!

I have and always will be a list maker. Shopping, packing, lesson planning, daily to-do's...I'm all about lists! (Don't tell anyone, but if I do something during the day that was not on my list, I'll add it later and cross it out just to feel like I've accomplished more!--I know, I'm sick!)

Anyway, sad to say, that these last 3 months of lack of postings will have to come down to this--A list! (I will even have to put off adding pictures until later, so get ready for some brief, non-exciting, chronological events without any cute pics of the boys to make you think it was even worth reading!)

Here goes:

Top Ten Things That Have Happened Since My Easter Post

1. John Thomas fell down the stairs and busted (I know, not a word, but what do you say?) his lip and hit his tooth. Over the next few weeks it consequently began to turn grey. My heart was crushed, but the dentist said that there was nothing we could do short of a root canal!
A few weeks afterwards, we all went to watch my nephew, Brett, play in the spring game for TU. We were so pumped to see him run out of the Golden Hurricane Helmet for the first time! (He graduated early and came on to TU in January.) He plays receiver and after a GREAT diving catch near the sidelines, he fell and broke his hip.:(

2. Joshua began his second season of baseball. This year it was modified coach pitch--3 pitches from the coach and if no hit, two chance off the tee. He had a great season and had improved SO much from last year! Several home runs!:)

3. I love to volunteer at Joshua's school. It has always been my prayer that I could stay home with my kiddos and be involved in their activites, etc. Well, it just so happens that all of the major responsibilites of mine at his school all fell at the end of the year! Teacher Appreciation Week is a MAJOR event at Cedar Ridge and the week went very well, but the coordinating and executing of it was not without stress, preparation, and lots of effort! Then came school wide student school supply kit orders for 2009-2010.--I thought that this would be an easy, behind the scenes job for me. Yes, but oh, my! LOTS of work and down to the wire deadlines, involving several thousand dollars! Got it done, just waiting until the beginning of August to get everything delivered and every kiddo's box to their classroom! And Field Day!--It was a great day for everyone, but an exhausting one!--Maybe next year someone else will help coordinate!

4. After field day, we left for the lake for Memorial weekend and had a marvelous time of recovery! Kirk and I both noticed about that time, that JT's tooth didn't look grey anymore! (Upon talking to the dentist, this is NOT the norm.--Once the trauma occurs and it turns grey, it will either stay that way or get worse. God is good! My smily little guy looks great!) We did have to go back to school for Tuesday thru Friday the next week, but it wrapped up a TERRIFIC 1st grade year for Joshua. He couldn't have had a better year of growth, fun and learning. He is "looping" next year, so no anxiety about 2nd grade! We are so glad to have Mrs. C again!:)

5. Summer began with a bang...
Week 1: Swimming Lessons
Week 2: Basketball Camp
Week 3: VBS (I worked crafts this year, so John Thomas got to go to VBS as well!)
The last day of VBS was Friday. We were to leave for the beach on Friday morning, so we were going to have to miss the last day, but even more devasting that that, was that JK's city championship game for baseball was that night!
So, being a coach's son, Joshua and Kirk stayed and played (they won the championship!) and flew out to meet us halfway the next morning.

6. That brings us to THE BEACH! A heavenly week was had by all in Fort Morgan, Alabama. The house was unbelievable, the white sand was as gorgeous as ever, the weather was great the whole week and the food and company even better! Beach in the morning, lunch and naps and deck time in the middle, pool time in the afternoon, yummy dinners, and evening strolls on the cool sand in the evenings. LIFE WAS GOOD. Kirk even caught 2 sharks! The cousins all got a long, all the adults all had king sized beds and we even had an ice maker! Kirk (AKA Pit Master) smoked unbelievable ribs, pork and chicken, we went to Lulu's (2 hour wait, but worth it--at least to the girls), Mom did a fantastic shrimp boil, the men and kids went to watch the Blue Angels practice at the Naval Base, the dolphins rolled out in the water all week, and the kids got air brushed t-shirts!--Add in our nice tans and it doesn't get much better than that!:)

7. The day we left was Joshua's 8th birthday. Hard to believe my baby is 8. In fact, let's just not talk about it! No seriously, we felt bad that his day was to be spent in the car driving all day, so we had made homemade ice cream complete with oreos and opened some presents earlier. We had reservations to stay in a hotel halfway, but took a short detour to Oxford Mississippi to see Ole' Miss, Grandaddy alma mater. The Lord smiled on us, because Nana found an open gate and we got to go in and run on the football field! I have a picture of Joshua running out of the Rebel tunnel! We finished the evening at Chili's with singing and a "Chocolate Volcano Cake". Unbeknownst to Joshua, when we got home, we had gone together with Nana & Grandaddy and Nanny& Gramps and gotten him a Wii with all of the extras! He was ecstatic!

8. We returned home from the beach on Sunday night and left to join the Fridrich clan at the lake on Wednesday! We stayed until Sunday and had a great 4th of July. Aunt Cindy provided us with all the fireworks we could ever use and the rain stopped enough that day for us to get sun, play, go to Pete's for dinner, have great homemade ice cream and see the display. The Lord blessed us, because it seemed to rain that day BETWEEN each of those events! Our neighbors at the lake kindly blew up their trampoline complete with slide and rolling log and anchored it out for the boys to use all weekend. They had a blast playing "Wipeout!"

9. Upon return, I went into full birthday party mode! Josh had his 8th birthday party at Tuttle Stadium. He invited 18 boys and 16 were able to come! We did drills and games on the turf, they got to wear the players real jerseys, eat in the locker room and do a slip-n-slide on the field afterwards. One of his friends told him that this was the best party of his whole life!

10. This long list is getting longer and I am getting more rambly than usual! I had a gum graft yesterday and am on pain medications, so please excuse any and all grammatical errors. (Without the medications, you know it would be perfect!--NOT!) The surgeon took a graft from the roof of my mouth and grafted it onto the top of two-three of my teeth on the top left. If you are still reading this at this point, listen up!---SAVE YOURSELF NOW! If you are an aggressive brusher, change to an electric toothbrush so as to prevent the constant erosion and receeding of your gums! It is not fun and the bad part is...I have to do another set of surgeries next year when my insurance will pay again! So with that warning and this endlessly boring update...I am going to go eat some yogurt and take a nap!