Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• Miss Alivia is finally registered for Kindergarten.  I have all her school supplies bought, but I am struggling to find her school clothes.   I have one week to get that problem solved!
• I did a lot of scrubbing this week.  One night Isaac decided to travel through bedrooms and throw-up in each one,  bless his little heart.   Thankfully it was only on the bedding so a dozen loads of laundry later everyone had a clean bed to sleep in. 
• Isaac refuses to keep clothing and diapers on.  I made the mistake of taking a nap while Dylan and Isaac were watching a TV show and when I awoke I found the WORST mess I have ever had to clean up.  There was poop EVERYWHERE!  The walls, the carpet, the blinds, the windowsills, and a poop trail that led me all the way through the first floor right into my master bedroom where I found a tub full of poop water where Isaac was trying to bathe himself.  Oh the horror!  I did a lot of crying (and cleaning) that day.  Can I just say I'm rather grateful for owning a carpet scrubber.
•  I decided to start a painting project.  It was quite a mess but I finished it none-the-less. 
• At the beginning of the week I decided I needed to be more positive about my life and my circumstances.  And then this week happened and all the positivity was sucked right out of me.  Maybe I'll start by being more positive this next week.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• Miss Alivia had five different immunizations this week so she could get registered for school.  I had to haul all three kids to the Dr's. office.  Between Alivia's dramatic screaming and her hysteria rubbing off on Isaac I hope and pray I never have to take all three kids to a Dr. appointment again.  We were like a circus act!!
•  It's HOT down here folks this 106 degree "feels like" 112 degree temperatures are awful!  Even the pool water is hot and offers no relief.  August can't come to a close fast enough for me.  
• The two week count down to school starting has begun.  Pretty soon it will just be me and Mr. Isaac hanging around the house.  He's very attached to Alivia so it's going to be a tough transition for him I think.
• I'm headed out to Utah in October for 4 days!  It's what I live for these days.  I can't wait to breath in the cold and crisp October air.  I can't wait to see the mountains again.  I can't wait to meet my little nephew Kru.  I can't wait to spend time with my friends and family.  I have all 4 days packed with things to do I'm afraid it's going to be the fastest 4 days of my life.  Now I have to figure out how I can get the next 9 weeks to just fly by.

Potty Training Whisperer

This morning as I lay in bed, in a half awake, half comatose state, I could hear Dylan talking to Isaac.
The words scoot back and point it down roused enough suspicion in me that I started to intently listen.
"Isaac, scoot all the way back and point it down...No point it down." kept being repeated.
Then Dylan burst through my bedroom door and says, "Mom, has Isaac ever peed in the toilet before"?  "Because he just did"!
That's right my 9 year old son sat our 2 year old on the toilet and said the magical words and Isaac actually peed in the toilet for him.
I have not tried to potty train Isaac yet, but the day I decide to, I know who gets to potty train him, and it's not going to be me!
Who'd have thought... Dylan the Potty Training Whisperer.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• I had lots of big dreams about how I was going to be a super mom this summer and that I was going to do so many fun things with my kids...Boy I really blew that one!  So one day after being sick and tired of being in the house staring at the TV I had the brilliant idea of getting a puzzle out to do with the older kids.  Turns out the puzzle was a little more complicated than they could handle, so I ended up sitting up at the table doing it all by myself.  I was just about 2/3 of the way done when Isaac decided to pour a glass of water on all the puzzle pieces.  All the pressed cardboard pieces separated and each piece became five layers of soggy cardboard.  So I gave up on finishing it, snapped this picture and learned a valuable lesson about how 2 year-olds, water and puzzles don't mix. 

• The Mr. and I sure wish our kids school was year round.  Three months of the summer heat is no way to have a summer what so ever.  Next year I am contemplating spending our entire summer in Utah.
• I miss Utah summers so very much, not because they don't get hot or boring at times too, but there was always somewhere to go and something to do.  I miss hanging out with my family, my kids miss their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, The Mr. misses having places to run and races to sign up for.  I miss camping trips, good friends and family gatherings.  We are trying to make the most of where we are now but we all miss home.  
• The Mr and I went to see the Dark Knight Rises on Friday.  We went with our friends the Highs, they were generous enough to offer their (older) children as our babysitters, it was a great little outing without the kids.  
• We had planned on taking our kids out to Hempstead early Saturday morning to the Watermelon Festival.  There was a parade as well as cook-offs and craft booths, a car show and a carnival.  It seemed like something we could enjoy ourselves at.  Unfortunately we didn't get out the door soon enough to make the parade.  We did however get to roam around the food and craft booths and take a look at the cars from the car show.  And even though the Mr. insisted it was "not that hot"  the kids and I were convinced we were going to cook alive.  Dylan kept saying, "I have to go home right now, I can't take one more second of being out here".   We wondered around the quilt show, took some pictures and then decided we all wanted to go home.  

The Watermelon cut-outs were so high nobody could get their little heads in them for a decent picture...oh well. 

Dylan took his turn containing "I".

  

They were watching kids get zipped into giant plastic bubbles and then tossed into a pool of water.  Alivia had a screaming fit when I told her we weren't going to let her get in a bubble, honestly I don't know how those kids didn't suffocate or sweat to death inside those plastic traps! 

Frankie Lewis

With all the rain we've received in the last couple of weeks, our backyard started to resemble a jungle.  I took my chances between rain storms and decided to mow and weed whack.  I almost weed whacked this little guy who was taking refuge in my plants.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when he moved.  I guess I'll take turtles over snakes and other creepy crawlies.
Dylan was super excited to "play" with him and named him Frankie Lewis.  But I got all motherly on him and threatened his life if he handled the turtle.  We kept Frankie in our kiddie pool for the day until we could walk him to our lake and put him back where I assume he belongs. The kids all loved watching him crawl about, it's as close to a pet as this family has ever gotten.

Bless Dylan's sweet heart he cried for a good half hour after we released Frankie back into the wild.

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

Isaac getting his cowboy on!

• Fire ants invaded my garden boxes and killed off quite a bit of stuff.  I got lots of Romas and Eggplants, so I'm not that devastated.  It's hot enough that most everything has stopped producing fruit anyhow.   I'll just mulch up what's left and in about a month I get to plant again for our second growing season.  
• I am quickly gaining a phobia of microwaves.  The last couple we've owned have had spectacular zapping and exploding episodes.  Our back-up microwave decided to sketch out, so we are officially microwave less here.  That's two microwaves that's blown on us in the last three months.  I swear I don't use them for any thing but reheating food...The Mr. has been asking me to make a decision about a new microwave and I just want to cry, I'm sick of them blowing up and malfunctioning, and the last thing I wanna do is spend more money to have another microwave sketch out on us.
• I made the kids Texas style Koloches for their fourth of July breakfast. They turned out really good!  A new 4th of July traditions for sure. 

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• We had our friends the Highs over for Pizza later that evening and headed across the road to Towne Lake and enjoyed some Fourth of July Fireworks.

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We made the mistake of driving to the event (when we should have walked) simply because we didn't know what to expect.  Traffic getting out of the event parking was something out of a night mare and I feared we'd have to just give up on driving out and walk home and walk back in the morning and retrieve our vehicle.  Thankfully that was not the case.  Next year we will most definitely walk to it.

• Saturday evening the Highs invited us to join them at the Miller Outdoor Theater to see Street Beat! 

 
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"Street Beat!" is a kinetic, maximum energy explosion of urban rhythm and dance utilizing junk and found objects for percussion, and featuring the pinnacle of modern street choreography. 
Surprisingly we all enjoyed ourselves.  There was a little something for everyone to enjoy.   

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review

• I signed the kids up for VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the West Houston Church of Christ. Alivia had a riot praising Jesus and clapping and singing, and while Dylan had a great time he was a little uncomfortable with their style of worship and praise. 
• We had some friends from our ward over to our neighborhood pool.  It was fun to have some one to visit with and the kids enjoyed having some company. 
• I do not handle the power outages down here very well.  When it gets rainy down here and we lose power the house starts to feel like a sauna, it's AWFUL!  I actually spent about an hour and a half soaking in a tub of cold water just so I wouldn't go ballistic with no AC or ceiling fans to bring some relief from the heat and the humidity. 
• Alivia really loved her time at Vacation Bible School, she keeps lamenting about how much she misses it already.   At the end of the week Dylan even asked me if we could go to "their" church sometime, while I somewhat expected Alivia to ask something along those lines I was really quite surprised to have Dylan ask. 
•  I almost got into a wreck this weekend.  I don't know how the people didn't end up smashing  me from behind, because I couldn't see any other outcome, but thankfully they didn't.  It probably took about 5 minutes for my heart to settle back into my chest.  I am convinced I was being watched over and blessed.
• The Mr. bought an ice cream maker, so we've been trying it out all week long. So far we've only made prepacked mixes, but it's been fun and interesting. 
• We've officially survived one month of summer vacation just two more to go.
•  My garden is still pluggin along, I've made one batch of fresh garden salsa (which I didn't share with anyone at all) and two batches of tomato sauce for our spaghetti dinners.  We also got to enjoy some fresh zucchini.  I have about ten huge eggplants I need to use and I have 4 spaghetti squash just getting ripe.  I love my garden and I love the gift of being able to enjoy the fruits from it.