Oh my

Can I just say that life has been a whirlwind?  This summer has totally flown by! It started with football camp for Caleb. Followed by church camp for Samantha. Then Christian Youth Theater camp for all 4 of them. The next week Josh was at Baylor for band camp, and Samantha had softball camp. Then we finished out JUNE with VBS! WOW...that was only one month.

July has been a little less busy. Josh had a day trip to Schlitterbahn. We had Summer Week of choir last week. Josh is at Rush Week this week. We are going to the Rangers game Tuesday. Friday is the family mission trip, and next week Marc and I go to Vegas.

I can tell you that we have NOT been bored this summer.

Hannah--she seemed to have fun at CYT camp. She helped me sell a lot of VBS t-shirts. She was not happy about not being able to participate in Summer Week of Choir.

Caleb--he had his first solo during CYT. He really impressed me! He loved football camp. He got to be Jesus in Summer Week of Choir. I have been so impressed with him this year. He studied his CYT script every day. He practiced his solo over and over again.

Samantha--she ROCKED at softball camp. She was the best in the group. She also had a solo during Summer Week of Choir. She did great! She also had a solo in CYT.

Joshua--he has had a FULL summer. He had a few parts in CYT. He was the only boy with a low voice, so he had a big solo. He went to Baylor University for band camp. He had a blast, and learned a lot. He came home energized for music, and has not stopped practicing all of his instruments since then. He was a helper during VBS, and a helper during SWOC. I have heard that he is an excellent helper. This week he is in Missouri for Rush Week. I can't wait for him to come back, so I can hear all about it.

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over, but I think we will be ready for it.

:)

My kids ROCK!

What?

It has been way too long since I logged into blogger! I had to reset my password AND there is a new look. So far, I do not like the new look!

Anyway, life is chaos! We have had baseball, softball, swimming, church...just normal everyday life. I broke my no playing with Josh rule Saturday, and ended up with a sprained ankle. We just do not play well together. LOL I am on crutches for about a week...hopefully only a week! My ankle hurts! Maneuvering through the ballpark is not easy either.

Amazingly, I don't have much time. Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes...yes, I realize how early it is. Then we have to get to the ballpark. Caleb has an early game, and Samantha has a late game. I just have a feeling that Samantha's team is going to win tonight! It would be a first win. It totally stinks, because she rocks. She is a natural athlete, and has blown away her coaches (it is her first time playing). Caleb has amazing potential...if he would just focus.

One last thing before I have to go...Josh will be 13 tomorrow! How did that happen? When did I become old enough to have a teenager?  Just WOW!!

Confession

Hannah wore her pajamas all day yesterday. That includes to baseball and softball practice last night. She is still wearing THOSE pajamas today.

Caleb

Caleb is a very special little boy. Sometimes he gets  a bad rap, because he exasperates me. He is a very loving boy. Yesterday  he knew I was leaving to sing at church...he just didn't know when. He came to give me a hug and kiss goodbye every few minutes until I left. I asked him what was up, and he told me he wanted to make sure he got to kiss me bye. Those are the times he melts my heart. He had a deep (for him) moment on Valentine's day. He was frustrated because he wanted to wear a Valentine's shirt. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about. He explained it to me. He wanted a heart shirt. I told him I didn't think they made those for boys. He said, "It doesn't matter...boy shirt or girl shirt. It doesn't change who you are." WOW! Who knew he had it in him?

Lost and Found

As the parent of a toddler...or is she a PreK'er now, a thick headed boy, a moody girl, and a forgetful preteen boy, I am ALWAYS looking for things. Usually it is shoes...Hannah's shoes. This is at least a once a week thing. We have now learned to look for church shoes on Saturday nights. It makes for a somewhat easier Sunday morning. Speaking of shoes, I had to buy Hannah some new shoes last week. She left her Tinkerbell tennis shoes outside and Comet ate them. She loves her new shoes. She calls them her "fast shoes." So, Monday I sent Hannah to get her shoes on, because we had to go to the grocery store. She of course couldn't find ONE of them. She swore she put them in the closet, and that is where she found the one. We looked and looked...and looked, no shoes. Samantha cleaned her room AND closet. The rest of us cleaned the rest of the house...still no shoe. I get mad when we have to look for the same thing over and over again...especially when we have gone over and over where shoes go. Needless to say, when I was finally at the end of my rope, I found the shoe. The shoe was on the TOP shelf of the closet on top of some games. I just assumed Hannah threw her shoes, and it ended up there. NOT! I showed Josh and Samantha where I found the shoe. They both laughed. Then I asked Hannah how her shoe got up there. She laughed, and said, "OH yeah! Josh put it there." What? Josh was one of the kids helping look for the shoe! I called him in, and he thought about it. He finally remembered putting the shoe up there. He was trying to get a game at the same time Hannah was putting up her shoes, so she gave it to him and told him to put it up. The games were starting to fall, so he put it up there as he was catching them. Seriously...how does someone who spends 2 days looking for shoes not remember where HE put it?

The other thing I am constantly looking for is my keys. I even have a place to put them, but never do. When I was retelling the shoe story, I was reminded of a key story from years ago. I am pretty sure I was pregnant with Hannah at the time. We were trying to get out of the house to go somewhere. I looked for my keys for HOURS. I couldn't find them anywhere. I was just ready to sit down and cry...remember, I was pregnant. I don't know if I actually sat down and cried, but I did sit down. When I sat down, I found my keys hanging very nicely on the Christmas tree. Laugh or Cry? Pregnant, I did both!

What are you always looking for? Where is the strangest thing you have found it?

Disney World-Day 3

Day 3 was spent at Animal Kingdom. It was fun. We rode everything! We also watched the Lion King show. It was awesome. 

Before going into the park. (Caleb hated getting his photo taken) They were holding just a plain Christmas package. 

Hannah got her face painted while she waited for the big kids to finish a ride. 

We had great seats for this parade! This guy wanted the chocolate covered banana in Josh's hand. 

Josh wouldn't give it up! HA!

Marc rode Triceratops Spin with Hannah. 

Donald LOVED Samantha's hat!

Disney World-Day 2

I confess, I had to go back and look at the photos to find out what we did on day 2. I used to be so good at updating the blog...what happened? We spent day 2 at Epcot...also known as the golf ball park. It was a fun day with LOTS of characters, and LOTS of photos. 

Hannah got to ride Test Track for the first time. She would scream, and then laugh, and then scream again. She decided she didn't like when it went really fast in a circle outside. She also got to ride Soarin'. She got a little scared when we first went up in the air. In the end, she LOVED it! We also did quite a bit of the educational stuff there too.

We found Nemo!

The line for the Character spot was not enormously long. We knew we couldn't pass it up for the sake of Hannah. She LOVED getting to see all of the characters. Her favorite is Pluto! I think we had 4 or 5 different Pluto's sign her book. 

We had dinner with the Princesses at Akershus in Norway. Oh my goodness Hannah LOVED this. The princesses would come to the table and talk to her. Then they would sign her book and give her a hug. The food was excellent too!

After dinner we staked out our spot for Illuminations, Epcot's firework/laser show. We had a really good spot. Momma bear only had to come out once when a mom had her kid step over and nearly on the stroller to get closer. Caleb was sitting in the stroller at the time. The kid would have ended up standing right in front of him. There was lots of laying around, and of course lots of goofiness while we waited.

Here is a shot of the show!

You would think after a long day in the park they would sleep instantly! 

Disney World-Day 1

Way back at the beginning of summer, we decided we wanted to take a trip during Christmas break. We had a hard time deciding between skiing and Disney World. In the end, I decided I didn't want to get snowed in at an airport over Christmas, so we decided on Disney World. Thanks to insanely high airline ticket prices, we decided to drive. This of course meant Samantha would have to break her almost 3 year perfect attendance streak, but she was all for it. HA 

Our first stop at the parks was Hollywood studios. It was after 4 when we hit the park, but they had extra hours. I was really excited about seeing the Osborn Family Spectacle of Lights. Of course we had to wait until it got dark first, so we headed over to The Tower of Terror...probably not the best ride to start Hannah on. She did NOT like that ride, and spent the next few days complaining about all the rides being like that one. We did get to see the light show, and it was AWESOME!!!! We also decided to see Fantasmic. It is our favorite show.Then we followed the masses out of the park to the busses. 

In front of the Hollywood Studios Christmas tree

The Osborn lights

waiting for Fantasmic

Outside of our hotel...we were in the Lovebug (Herbie) section

I will try to not overload you with photos. Between my camera and the photopass I have nearly 800 photos. I am proud about only adding four to this post.

Good riddance to 2011!

Hello 2012! 2011 was a medically challenging year! On January 1, 2011 I was in the ER. I was diagnosed with a migraine, but it was unlike any other migraine I had ever had. On December 31, 2011, Josh was in the ER. There were also many trips there this year thanks to my car accident, Caleb's playground accident (neck injury), Josh's head tic thing, and Marc's many issues. I am hopeful that 2012 will include ZERO trips to the ER!

Are you curious as to why my oldest child was in the ER last night? My seafood loving...well my food loving child had a severe allergic reaction to lobster. This was not the first time he ate lobster. He was doing the "all you can eat lobster" at Pappa's at age 4. He had steak and lobster for his birthday, and again at Benihana's for my birthday. He had clams, shrimp, and muscles while at Disney world last week. Anyway, last night I was sitting in the living room while Marc, Josh, and my mom were eating lobster. Josh mentioned that his mouth always tingled when he ate lobster. I made a mental note of that, because I KNOW that is a sign of allergy. I didn't bring it up though because he has had lobster many times before. I don't think anyone else immediately caught on to that. They ate, cleaned up, and went outside for fireworks. He came inside and his eyes were watery and swollen. Initially we figured it was because the smoke of the fireworks...cause that happens. I looked at his stomach and sent him on his way. He came back in. His eyes were yuck! He couldn't breathe through his nose, and his throat was swollen. I looked at his stomach again (it was clear) and told him to stay inside for a while. He started coughing some, so I gave him a benadryl. Then I looked at his back. He was covered in hives. Marc looked. My mom looked. I mentioned that I thought he was having an allergic reaction to lobster. Marc thought it was weird, because he had never had a problem. Then I mentioned what Josh had said earlier about his mouth tingling. It clicked for Marc. He told Josh that wasn't normal. Josh just thought it was, because his mouth always tingled when he ate lobster. By this time Josh's lips were puffy and he had bumps on them. I looked at his stomach again. This time it was red with hives starting to appear. I grabbed my keys and we headed out the door to the ER. On the way there Josh started itching like mad. He said he was itchy from head to toe. He was starting to freak out too. He told me I needed to drive faster. I was going slightly over the speed limit, but being very cautious. Drunk drivers terrify me, and there are way too many drunk driving fatalities on the two roads I drive the most, especially on a holiday. We walked into the ER, and the attendant immediately took his vitals. Five minutes later they took them again. Then they took him back while I filled out paperwork. About that time the benadryl I gave him kicked in. He started clearing up some, and could breath normally. They gave him another benadryl, because I could have given him more based on his weight. The doctor did confirm it was an allergic reaction. She gave me a prescription for an epipen and steroids. I am still trying to grasp what this all means for us. I know about allergies and label reading. I know that each exposure causes a worse reaction. I know lots of stuff in my head, but this changes things. Sure, Caleb can't have soy, but if he does it won't kill him. Sometimes I let it slide. I can't let anything slide with this. Does this mean he is allergic to ALL shellfish, or just lobster? Do I really want to try and find out? I know he can still eat his favorite, salmon, but do I have to worry about cross contamination? At what point should I choose the Epipen over the benadryl? How many questions do I have to ask at restaurants? Should we even bother? This is just all so new to us. Can I still give him his omega supplements? I have lots of questions. If you have any experience with this at all, please get in touch with me.

This Epipen is now a part of our lives. I  (or he) must carry this at all times, and be prepared to use it. Scary thought!

 Did I mention that Josh LOVES seafood...all seafood?