Boo boos and blah blahs

I hate being behind on blogging. It can be so fun, but when I'm behind it just becomes another stress. And it's silly, but it oozes into other areas of life. all areas are so connected.

On Thursday I heard a thud, cry, and Chris' footsteps. He brought laney up to me and told me she had fallen and hit her head on the edge of the coffee table. Right between the eyes!

It was a huge lump!

She was so mad that I kept taking pictures of her. When Lexi got home and i tried to get another picture, she swung at Lexi. Angry baby!

She looked like a villain because it pushed down her eyebrows. And she kept putting her hand to her bump and saying "ooowie." Poor baby.

This morning Addie woke up with a super splotchy face and what looks like a bug bite. Nothing else seems to be wrong, but her poor face looks like it's taken a beating.

Matt brought Addie and laney home after sacrament meeting because they were both a hot mess. What a week!

We've got the grad school blahs, and it's bad. Can't wait for Matt to be done.

And I'm beginning to accept that I have another cold. I keep telling myself it's just allergies, but my achey body and constantly runny nose tells me otherwise. Blah.

glasses

on wednesday morning laney and i went to a mandatory volunteer orientation at the elementary school. that is one hour of our lives that we'll never get back. we did learn some pearls of wisdom though. like that you shouldn't date students (who knew?!) and that you shouldn't wear midriffs or anything with guns on them to school (darn, now i have to rethink all my ensembles). laney cleaned my feet with a wipey i gave her to keep herself occupied and i listened and learned.

johnna came over at 11:30 and we fed the girls lunch as we waited for lu to get home. when she showed up we headed up to her dr's appointment in annapolis.

i have called alexis 'barbara' forever, i'm sure i don't know why, i just called her it once and it stuck. so when i saw this sign as we left the dr's office i begged her to hold it for me so i could get a picture. she refused, so i made do. hahahahaha.

so now we wait some more. she's had blood in her urine (tmi, i know) for 3 years now (that we know of). they took some blood and will check to make sure her kidneys are still functioning properly, and if they are then we will just continue to wait and see. if they are not (which the doctor says is very unlikely) then we'll do a biopsy. i asked why not just do a biopsy now to try and determine the problem and he said because if it is genetic, which it probably is, then there's nothing that can be done. genetic testing is expensive and not covered by most insurance (as he explained) and it won't really give any answers, other than just to satisfy curiosity. it is interesting what a guessing game the medical world is. we are praying that kidneys are fine and we can sit around and wait for another several years. oh, and the blood draw was fraught with all the drama and crying of blood draws of the past, just fyi.

after our appointment, we hit the mall. when you live in small town, usa, you seize any opportunity to shop in the big cit-ay. i love pottery barn and i found my dream couch.

we window shopped and were really good. all we bought were 4 pairs of $2 earrings. even though we really wanted these hot glasses.

lexi seems like she's grown up overnight. the insight and maturity she's shown throughout recently has impressed me so much. we talked and she was pleasant and informative, it was just really awesome. she even said she thought she might like to go to byu (idaho, not provo, because she's a small town girl - as she explained to me). then on the way home though i put her to sleep with some little women cd's. it's all good.

matt made dinner, so when we got home lexi headed off to a soccer game while the rest of us enjoyed a culinary fete, before chris and i headed up to church, (mutual and pres mtg) with a quick stop at target to pick up lexi's new glasses. we've been thinking about doing some juicing and christian's little heart is all a flutter to get going. silly boy is all excited and doesn't know why i'm not. ah, young padiwan, i have gone without food for days before, i know what's in store for us, and it's not fun. we shall see.

see glasses, must try on. i actually picked christian's turquoise frames as a joke and he fell in love. silly boy.

t'was a happy wednesday.

lessons

on sunday morning matt took the girls up to brush their teeth and frankie came down all happy and excited in this leather jacket. and then i tried to get a picture, and she was not happy about it.

"what'chu talkin' 'bout, willis?"

i was trying to bribe her and even offered candy, but no smiles for me! of course addie was all like, "candy?! i'll smile!"

and then because addie did, frankie did.

these sistah's. i swear.

church was good and then as we drove into lg we unbuckled the girls and let them stick their heads out the sunroof. they were in heaven! for the whole minute we let them do it. ;)

alexis worked it all out with laura that we would go over and share their sunday roast and celebrate maggie's birthday (that i took no pictures of). we had to hustle out of there though to get to leo's baptism at 6. the sunset on the way home was so beautiful. so thankful for the beauty we have all around.

this morning dawned bright and early. we shared the breakfast of champions because mama has a lot to do this week and only 3 days to do it.

i just had to take a picture of laney when i laid her down for her nap, she was smiling at me with the goofiest smile, isn't she funny? i could eat her up!

i got our hotel room for this weekend all booked! as i was looking through the photo gallery i saw this! do you see it? the little red ligthhouse out the window? soooo excited!

and laney enjoys light reading. in the bathroom. you know.

 

addie got off the bus today and was very sad. after some prying and a rice crispy treat, she finally told me "some boys are being mean to me and it will never end." broke my heart! there are 3 boys that sit behind her on the bus and they crawl under the seat and try to take her shoes off. and she said they say bad things to her, and then she whispered in my ear, "like pee, and poop." my poor baby!

 matt had the good idea that for fhe we would do a little role playing to help her know how to handle these situations. alexis and christian were up in arms, they were so mad. matt and i know that kids are silly and need to be redirected, sometimes constantly. i'll talk to the bus driver and school tomorrow and hopefully we can get everything squared away. it will be hard to send my little kindy off in the morning, but hopefully we helped her know how to stand up for herself. she also told me "i just want to be kind to people." i know you do, sweet girl.

alexis also had drama on the cheer squad. moms working things so that their daughters get the best of the equipment and uniforms. i hope that alexis (and all my kids) know that i love them even though i would never do that. i hope they can learn to handle injustices gracefully and with love and forgiveness. 

i hope i can too.

thomas point shoal lighthouse

laura and i have been dreaming of taking a little lighthouse cruise out of annapolis for a long time now and on saturday we finally made it happen. we left our houses at 6:30 (or maybe a little later because laura's phone died and she didn't wake up till 6:30:) and met up with the senior citizen crowd for a fun morning of lighthousing!

we cruised right past the bay bridge. so pretty!

one of my favorite things is when you're driving (or boating as the case may be) out to a lighthouse and boom! you see it, and it's amazing! isn't she pretty???

30 minutes and we were on a lighthouse! in the water! a first for these lighthousers!

the black piece out in the water is an ice breaker, but when that didn't fully work, they added the rocks on either side to break up the ice before it took out the lighthouse. again.

lots of climbing up and down hatches. supah fun!

there was also a regatta going on and it was beautiful with all the sailboats in the water.

the thomas point shoal lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation, but since 1986 it's been unmanned. so they had 1 room set up to reflect it's 1986 glory.

loved every minute of it!

 

it was a little bit chilly on the water, but inside it was perfect.

 

 laura experimented with her phone.

 awkward panorama...

 

 and awkward postcard stamp face.

 

 we got to climb up to the top and peek in at the fresnel lens.

 

  the front door. 

welcome!!!

can you imagine?!

 

 after an hour loving on the lighthouse it was time to go. 

goodbye, beautiful!

 

picstitched.

  

and another awkward stamp. i'd love this picture if my big ol' face wasn't right in the middle.

laura made me. i swear.

and then it was time for lunch and we were starving!!! we got recommendations for a good seafood place and it was beautiful! we ate outside and when the wind quit and the sun shone down, it was just perfect!

 

 we each ordered the specialty cream of crab soup and it was soooo yummly!

the delicousness of the soup got us super excited for our meals. they looked so good and then... meh. not great. darlaina's fish taco's were underwhelming too. laura's crab cake was yummy (doh! that's what i was going to get!), and the soup was great, but the rest, boo.

 

 we decided to walk off our lunch a little bit with a walk around downtown annapolis. we were looking for our token lighthouse magnet, when we found this little diddy. can you see what's wrong??? well, can you? those are north carolina lights! on an annapolis tshirt! 

some people.

(occracoke, hatterras, currituck, and bodie island lights)

 

 before we headed home we got the best ice cream! salted caramel and toasted coconut, so good! we had seen this awesome yacht and thought it fitting.

such a fun day to refill my cup.

a mama with a full cup is a better mama.

fry-day

on thursday night i was surprised and pleased when laura reminded me that the next day was a cws friday!

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, a day off for daddy!

because daddy is always doing school work, i decided to take the littles to a neighbors thirty-one party to get them out of his hair. we had a good time visiting and eating and it all goes towards my goal of getting to know my neighbors better. win-win-win.

laney and i enjoyed some doritos with our lunch.

1 - because we're super healthy and

2 - because they're delicious.

during naptime matt did homework. definite theme of our lives right now, and although it might seem like i'm complaining about it, and i do hate doing everything alone and miss my hubby, i'm really proud of him and how hard he's working. 

during naptime i cleaned out the jolly green giant and listened to little women, trying to get back on track with my booklist challenge. i read it forever ago and loved it, so it's fun to "read" it again.

ps - i loooove books on tape/cd/self playing audio! 

at 4:30 i loaded up the jolly green with my 3 mini cheerleaders and off we went to the make-up football.

there's our big cheerleader!

there are a few cheers that she's taught the girls, and some they just love to copy, so they had fun dancing and cheering in the stands.

'ma girls!!!

juice-aholic.

who are these boys winning these games???

now i know what you're saying, so what, they've won 2 games (3 if you include the first scrimmage, which i do. i really do). but this is a big deal for these raider fans! i don't know if they've ever won 3 games in a row, and definitely not at the beginning of the season! everyone is so excited, it's so fun!!!

frankie and roni met up and played together. they are so cute.

the game was fun and it's always a good time to see alexis cheer. it's not always such a good time to corral 3 little cheerleaders. they get bored watching, so then they like to stand in the aisle and dance and play, only there are always tons of people walking around and it's not really convenient or safe for them to play in the aisles. they also like to play down closer to the field on the gravel, but it's kinda gross, there are still people walking by, and they push their luck and try to climb the fences and run too far away. they are really good girls, there's just a lot of them, and they have about a 5 minute memory, so i have to keep reminding them not to go too far, not to climb, and to try to stay out of peoples way. it's stressful, especially when you have a one-year-old that almost falls 4 ft under the bleachers. one of those mothering moments where you feel the glare and judgement of a thousand eye's. 

stressful.

so after that 2 1/2 hour game, we headed over to christian's 2 1/2 hour game, just for good measure. big deep breath! at least there are no bleachers to fall under and they can pretty much just run around without bothering people. except that i'm always a little bit nervous that one of them might get kidnapped.

 the boy and one of his cheerleaders.

 

they love each other!

 

 the game started at 7, so it didn't end till after 9:30. these 3 have been going to bed around 7:30, so they were pooped! thankfully jordan was there and she held and cuddled with frankie for a long time. it got cold, and when you've got a cold and tired girl, that can be catastrophic. when the game ended i got to carry frankie, laney, and my big bag'o'tricks all the way back to the car. that was fun. happily, i probably worked off the calories from that cheesy soft pretzel i ate. see, there's always a silver lining!

alas, our fall ball rangers lost, by a lot. chris got a hit but was called out on 1st, it was a really close call. then he got hit by the ball and got on base that way too. he played center field and catcher - which he loved. he's talking about getting catchers gear and everything. as i was visiting with my big kids in the basement (friday night = movie night) i managed to snap my fancy lad with his facial mask. haha, he wasn't happy about that!

 

matt was able to finish his homework around 10:30. it was a long day for everyone.

long, but good.