First swim of the season

It's getting warmer. That means school is almost out and the pools are opening! We took the boys to the pool for an hour or so on Sunday. They were so excited about it! Unfortunately Evan has very little body fat, so he got cold pretty quickly. He still had fun, even wrapped up in a towel stretched out on a chair. Joel has asked me about this year's swim lessons. Guess I better get working on that!

Crazy, crazy week

I may have mentioned before that I need to adjust my idea of "normal". This week just proves that again. What is normal when you have little kids? They are constantly growing and changing, so our lives seem to be in constant chaos. I know that it is not really chaos, but it is constantly changing, and that feels like chaos.

This past week has been an especially challenging one. We are getting close to the end of school, so I am trying to take care of things that need to be done without the boys. Unfortunately, my boys decided to get sick this week. Now, I know that they didn't really plan this, but if they had they would be in a lot of trouble. It's hard to get upset with them when they are sick, but after a couple of days of crying, whining, complaining, and arguing about everything I try to do for them - it gets much easier!

It started with Evan complaining about a headache when he was supposed to be getting ready for bed on Monday night. When I got home (from a meeting at church), I checked on him and he looked bad. He woke up around my bedtime crying with a sore throat. The thermometer confirmed what I knew after touching his forehead - high fever. He ran the fever all day Tuesday, even getting up to 103.8 degrees. I looked in his throat that afternoon and saw red spots, so we went to the doctor. The strep test was negative, and the doctor wanted to do a mono test, too. It was also negative, so we got the "viral infection" diagnosis. His fever finally broke overnight, so Wednesday we dealt with a sore throat. By Thursday he was able to go back to school. I was very thankful because: 1. he had a special "writing open house" event at school that day 2. I needed a break.

Unfortunately, I didn't really get a break because Joel started running a fever Wednesday night. He missed school yesterday with a fever and a sore throat - complete with red spots on his throat. His fever seemed to break last night (pretty much on schedule with Evan's run), but today his temp is a little elevated. It's below 100, so it's not really a fever. Joel is actually eating food, though. This morning he had peanut butter toast for breakfast. (When Evan was sick I would only get him to consume smoothies and applesauce. Joel, on the other hand, won't touch the smoothies or popsicles that I bought for him.)

In the middle of all that, Joel had his spring program on Tuesday. When I started to take pictures, I realized that my camera battery had died. When I tried to get it out to charge it, I couldn't. (This is my new camera.) After checking online and calling Sony, it was determined that I needed to send it in for repair. Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh! It's tough to get to the post office with sick kids, but I finally made it yesterday. I am relying on friends for pics from Joel's program. For Evan's writing open house (and in anticipation of his last football game and the awards night to follow, and the pool's opening), I went back to old-fashioned film. That camera has a zoom, so I am hoping I can get some good pics at his last game. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find film easily, but I did, so all is well.

I really feel like I need a nap! Poor Steve has been getting the kids to bed without much help from me this week because my nerves are pretty much shot by the time he gets home. I won't say that I hope that we are getting back to normal now, but I will say that I hope that I am getting more sane!

Feeling like a Queen!

The guys gave me such a nice Mother's Day! It was more like a weekend, actually.

It started out with the boys giving me gifts that they had made for me at school (Joel on Thursday and Evan on Friday).

Joel wanted to eat the cookie that was part of his gift. He thought it was his cookie, so we had lots of discussions about that. We did share it on Saturday. The pink flowers are made out of his handprints. Such a cute idea!


Some of the things Evan wrote made me almost cry! He is growing up and that was evident in his writing this year. It also touched me because he is more of a "daddy's boy", but what he wrote was really sweet and special for me. Here is one example (but you may have to click on it to read it better):
On Saturday I helped to host a shower for a friend who is getting married. I was gone for most of the afternoon, and when I got home this is what I saw as soon as I walked in the door.
What a treat! Steve had decorated so nicely and had cleaned a lot while I was gone! He had also bought me some roses. That night he grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for me, too. They were so yummy!

On Sunday we went to church together early in the morning (at least it was early for us). After church Evan took me to the Texas Rangers game. We had a nice time, even though it was cold and kept trying to rain on us. And the Rangers won! Since they had won the first three games against this team, I figured we would lose yesterday. But we won and swept KC!

Steve grilled for us again last night, so I had another great meal with my guys. He also made some cupcakes for me to finish off the meal. What a great weekend and my guys made me feel very special! I love them all very much!!!