I Can't Keep Up

There is so much catching up to do that this is certainly not going to be one of my better posts, but it is our life at the moment so here goes.

Last Saturday both boys had soccer. Chris and I decided to practice our man on man defense only somehow I always get left with man on 2 man defense (how does that happen???). So he took Owen to soccer at the ripe hour of 8am. Only to sit on the side lines because Owen refused to participate. Don't ask me. He did GREAT the Saturday before. When they got home Owen said it was because I wasn't there. Not sure I am buying it, but I will go to his practice this weekend and call his bluff.

Then Chris left for his last t ball game and I took all three kids (wait, I thought I said above it was man on 2 man defense, strike that - man on 3 man defense. The odds are not in my favor!) to Ethan's game. Now things have changed now that Ethan is playing in U7 division (Under 7). They play real games on Saturday now and have a practice on Wednesday nights. So although they are only 6 years old I am quickly learning that this is a little more serious. My father in law would laugh at what I am about to say because he says the worst best is yet to come. But really, the parents. Oh, the parents. Enough said? They are just six. Ethan came home saying he didn't have fun. That only 2 people on the team were scoring. He hardly got the ball. It was awful. Part of the above is true. Ethan isn't scoring right now. And really he may be settling into a defensive position (maybe we need Uncle Cam to step in right about now and explain this better to him). Ethan also tends to bite his nails and look everywhere except at the ball (so do all the children) but if the ball comes to him (note, he doesn't always go after the ball) he is all over it and does not hesitate at all or back down from the other players. He is good. Mama or no mama saying it. He just needs more confidence in himself. He will get there, now if only I can.

Sunday was a nightmare all together. Eliza woke up with a fever. She had felt warm for probably 12-24 hours but I didn't think too much of it until about 11am. I told Chris I might as well take her to urgent care because it was probably her ears and at least they could go ahead and prescribe an antibiotic. Well, they took her temperature when we got there and it was just above 104. Eek! They gave her tylenol and motrin right then and a few minutes later the doctor came in to check her ears. They were perfectly clear. Everything checked out fine so the doctor suggested I take her to the emergency room. Now, I am not one of these people who runs to the emergency room at the drop of a hat but when a doctor tells you that you should consider it, it makes you stop and think. So I did. They put in an IV line, a catheter and she had chest x rays. It. was. awful. I remember when Ethan was about 2 and he had stitches in his chin. They "papoosed" him in a straight jacket type thing to hold him still. I had to leave the room and let Chris handle it because I was going to get sick. This was so much worse, only Chris wasn't there and I couldn't see leaving her with complete strangers and not holding her through all that. So we toughed it out and I cried right along with her. Just pitiful. Her temperature dropped to just over 99 but then as the medicine was wearing off it started climbing right back up. After 6 hours the conclusion was she probably has a virus that cannot be detected and it just needs to run its course. Her lungs looked great, her urine was clear and her blood work was perfect. Praise Him!

So we have been alternating tylenol and motrin since Sunday and this afternoon she actually acted like she was starting to feel better. I still gave her motrin tonight before bed, but she is definitely eating and sleeping better. So we will see. I was told she could possibly break out in a rash after the fever goes away which would be indicative of Roseola. So we will see. Neither of the boys have ever had fevers above 102 so 104 kind of freaked me out. Goes to show you it doesn't matter how many children you have they are all different and they are all equally precious.

So that's it. I haven't wanted to post because I didn't have any pictures to go along with it which I know can be really boring. But life has been unexpectedly hectic the last few days. Owen and I are getting cabin fever since we haven't done anything the past couple of days with Eliza being sick. Maybe we will be able to get out of the house tomorrow. He told me today he wanted to go back to preschool. Hmmmmm.......I do have him on a wait list for a church preschool program so I may start more actively looking for other programs to get him into.

Hope everyone is having a good start to their week. Until next time.......

Thankfulness

We had guests this past weekend. My sweet cousin Kallie

and my wonderful Aunt Jan.

It has been a while since we have had guests for dinner and all our spring/summer'ish plates were dirty so I ended up getting our fall plates out a little early.

I should stop here and say until I became close with this sweet woman (my mother in law)

I didn't even know that people had more than one set of every day dishes.

So anyway, I got out our fall dishes which are yellow gold with fall leaves around the edges. I love these dishes. They remind me of cooler weather, bowls of chili, football season and leaves falling. Everything that makes fall the most wonderful time of the year.

So this evening while I sit here listening to Ethan and Owen jumping way up there and sounding like they are going to fall right through the ceiling I am thankful. Thankful for a wonderful family. Thankful for a sweet 12 year old cousin who teaches me to make homemade biscuits. (Now she just needs to teach me to make cornbread.) Thankful for an aunt who goes out of her way to be close to my children. Thankful for a mother in law who listens to me for hours at a time on the phone and teaches me about seasonal dishes. And thankful for an amazing husband who puts up with my day to day ramblings and loves me in spite of myself.

Sundays

When I was in college I loved Sundays. They were by far my favorite day of the week. My roommates and I would spend Sundays laying out in the sun on the front field or taking in a late breakfast as Bageltime. We would lay around on Sunday evenings catching up on any homework we had and talking about our weekend. Who we saw, where we went, what we did. Sundays were the essence of relaxing. We weren't planning our Saturday nights. We weren't calling this one or that one. We were just hanging out. Just us girls.

These days Sundays are still just as wonderful, only slightly different. Now Sundays are spent listening to a great sermon. Having a wonderful lunch with my family. Playing soccer with the boys until the sun starts to set. Watching their daddy teach them about passing and watching the ball. Drinking in every last drop of Sunday while the summer lasts and we have evening sunlight. And now we have a new Bordman joining the ranks of soccer.

And he's good. And cute.

He gets in there.

He's not afraid of getting run over.

Just as I would expect out of a second child.

This kid has his ball.

And he isn't taking his eyes off of it. :-)

That was our first game on Saturday.

This was our second.

Ethan's age starts to play actual games.

Ethan is still figuring out where he is comfortable. In the spring he was very assertive and scored a lot. So far he is settling in more at defense.

But this was just his first game so he is still learning. His coach repeated over and over to the children - relax. Relax into yourself.

They won 14-2.

I'd say they are going to be a pretty good team. Not to mention their coach is one of the directors at CASL (the soccer club they play in). So they are all in good hands. :-)

And just because....

Just Because

She's cute.

He's goofy.

And he's grouchy.

We took a family outing tonight to The Cupcake Shoppe in downtown Raleigh. I always feel so hip and trendy when we head downtown with all our many, many children. I mean, people LIVE down there. I mean really LIVE. You see families out walking their children in strollers. Walking dogs. Sitting on patios watching the world go by. And then there is us. We are like when the suburbs decide to come to town. Like we just don't fit in. It is a huge treat for us. Parallel parking and EVERYTHING!

Someone

didn't eat

their dinner tonight.

It's tragic. I know.

He likes to call my bluff.

Unfortunately for him, he never wins at this game.

Guys and Dolls

I got out some of Eliza's dolls and their clothes the other day wondering if she would take an interest in them.

She kind of looked around. Picked a few things up. Set them back down. And wandered around.

But I have two boys that were fascinated with changing the babies clothes.

She liked the toys that went with the dolls more.

Her hair is getting so long on top - and blonde!

Bringing the baby a toy rattle.

I took her bottle away about 3 nights ago just to see if she would let it go. She fussed about 2-3 minutes but calmed down quickly. I sang a couple of songs and rocked her and then off to sleep she went.

She was quick to find the baby dolls bottle though. :-)

This is one of the few pictures where she is actually looking at the camera. There are far too many things that are more interesting that having your picture taken these days.

Finally Ethan put this doll down and Eliza started playing with it.

She got the brush and started brushing its hair (or head).

The two Cabbage Patch dolls were mine when I was a little girl. My grandma Dottie went to Kmart in Hendersonville at midnight on Christmas Eve because they were expecting a new shipment and that's what I really wanted for Christmas that year. She would be so thrilled to know I still had both of them and all the clothes that she got for them that Christmas. It may have been about the same time that my mom took me to the Cabbage Patch Hospital. I was doll crazy as a little girl and I hope my girl will be too.

I think she needs a few more dolls.

Sprinklers

We set up the boys new sprinkler today. They have been begging to play with it for a couple of weeks now and for whatever reasons we just hadn't gotten around to it. So today was the day.

It started out tame enough.

Well, I say tame. It didn't take them long to figure out they could make the water squirt down the slide and create a water slide.

And from there it didn't take daddy long to figure out that he could put the slip and slide at the bottom of the play set slide to create a longer water slide.

And there you have it

Extreme sprinkler'ing.

And of course, where you have water and dirt

you have mud. Mud that ends up in hair and faces and nails and ears.

After we came in and got cleaned up it was watermelon time.

We love watermelon! Well, all of us except one.

Chris really can't stand it. He asked me if there was anything I could put on it for him to make it taste better. Ummm.....well, some people put salt on it but I have never understood that. He didn't want to try it. The boys and I don't get it. We think watermelon is one of the best foods ever.

And baby thought it was pretty awesome too!

I realized today when I looked at the calendar that I completely missed the 13 month post for Eliza on Saturday. I started to do it tonight but didn't have many pictures of her from today. I will try to take some tomorrow and do a 13 month post, but don't hold your breath. My track record for posts during the week isn't too consistent right now.