Ham's hair

Samuel has great hair. Think what you may about the length, but it is a great color and lovely to look at. I like it long. He likes to twirl it in his fingers and rub it on the back of his neck. I think it's adorable. His dad, hmm, not so much. This summer shile camping Samuel got something in his hair...soda...ice cream...maybe both. He then went to sleep and woke up with the biggest head of medusa-like hair I have ever seen.

The pictures truly don't do it justice and Samuel thought it was particulary awful to take a bath while camping.

Dandy, Mama Oatie and Aunt Ha Ha

About the same time that Gabe has his accident, Samuel started calling his dad, Dandy. The name has stuck. Gracie has long been known to call me odd balls names like Mother board, Mama oatie or Mama bear. After a few week of helping to care for the Chapeks Tori bestowed upon me a name I take great honor in repeating. Aunt Ha Ha. She also got Ham hooked on ca ca milk. He always loved a good hot toe-toe, but now, must spoon his ca ca milk straight from the container. Thanks TT.

Gracie in the morning

That should be a song title. If I ever regenerate my brain cells (lost from lack of sleep), and restore my wit and good humour, I will write a song about Grace. It will be about her lack of desire to attend school. She would LOVE to be home schooled. If she is late one more time, that may be her only option! Gracie has to be physically dragged from bed . While she hates to be late, she has no desire to leave our sweet little home in the morning. She will lay wrapped in a blanket and refuse to move. I try to coax her out with cups of steaming hot cocoa.One of these days she will end up at school with mea-pillow hair and Tinkerbell pajama's. Then, she will really want to be home schooled.

Boating

Grandma and Grandpa took us boating to say goodbye to summer. My small ones showed a complete lack of an adventurous spirit. We took the slowest ride imaginable on the tube. Truthfully, I could have fallen asleep. The littlest bit of water seeping up the tube was enough to put both of them back in the boat. Chris and I took a slightly more adventurous ride, but his bad back limited our ride options. Still, we had a great time.

We boated around the lake, and Gracie talked Grandma into stopping and letting her play on the beach. Gracie and Grandma both loved to sit in the front of the boat together. Then Grandma invited us to her house for Nacho's. Yummy

My bummy day

This semester I am taking a pathophysiology class and a statistics class. I took my first timed test today. I put Sam in front of the TV ( We can talk about my parenting skills later) with his tractor movie, a game and a snack. I thought that would buy me enough time to finish my patho test.

1st question:

Vascular hemodynamic stage of inflammation is initiated by momentary vasoconstriction followed by vasodialition that results in what?

Great, I thought, I know this one. Redness, heat, edema.

my options

A. bleeding

B. congestion

C. Paleness

D.cold

Crap, where is redness and edema? my nose gets red and swollen when it's congested, same thing? The doorbell rings...I'm ignoring it, but not Sam. Darn, I didn't lock it. Now Samuel and the dogs are in the front yard while whomever was at the door is in the foyer. It's the YW pres wanting to discuss our activity next week. Oh pickles...I try to coax Samuel and one or both dogs back in, Sophie falls for the, I have a treat trick, but Abba is on to me. She is down the street chasing our neighbor and his son...Finally after an infinite amount of time, I get the dogs in the back and sit down to discuss the activity. We reach a resolution after about 15 minutes and she is on her way...back to the test.. How long have I been gone? Samuel wants to go to the "back yardie". Perfect.

2nd question:

What is the "master switch" of the immune system?

When did we talk about a master switch? I have listened to the lectures 10 times each, this was never discussed...what are my options?

A. Granulocytes

B.Neutrophiles

C. T helper cells

D Cytotoxic cells

Oh, my goodness, I can't remember anything... what are neutrophiles? I've been studying this, why can't I remember? I somehow make it to question 5. Samuels back. He is filthy. He watered the sandbox, rolled in it, pooped...rolled in that and then threw a little dirt on top. Crap...

Run the bath...Sam left the door open, the dogs are in...they rolled in the sand and poop too. Now it's tracked all over the hardwood floors. Shoot, didn't we do this same thing yesterday? This is his 4th bath in less than 24 hours. Put the dogs out, Sam in the bath.

Enter Chris, "Do you know what is going on out there?"

"No", I reply" but I know what isn't going on in here." He willing agrees to sit by Samuel in the bathtub while I attempt the test. It's been an hour, I have 30 minutes left and I am on question 5. Technically I haven't answered 2 of the question, so...

I finish amidst plees to hurry, Chris has to leave. I hit submit with 1 minute and 15 seconds to spare...whew. Next time I'll lock the doors.

Staying with the Chapeks

We were blessed to be able to spend a lot of time this summer with Rainee, Kaiya, and Tori. While the reason we were there, wasn't a happy one, we loved able to spend our summer break with them.

Camping with the 'balds

We went camping on the 4th of July with Grandma and Grandpa Archibald to Stanley. We had a great time watching fireworks, hiking and playing in the lake. We found a huge patch of obsidian and the kids and Grandpa spent hours collecting it.

Starbright...sophie...sofa...doph

Meet our newest family member Sophie...She is Samuel's dog. He spent the first few weeks of her life with us dressing her up in tractor shirts (the only thing Samuel will wear), and carrying her around. They enjoy eating treats and being naughty together.

What Chris Buillt

Grandpa Dave's Birthday

We got to celebrate Gandpa Dave's birthday with him. We made him a special cake and spent a lot of time dumping sprinkles on it...er, I mean decorating it. Grandpa Dave was such a good sport. He kept telling the kids how beautiful it was. Then we all ate a piece with ice cream. It was so crunchy...I mean delicious.

Gracie's award

Gracie got an award at the end of the year for good citizenship. She was so excited. We went out to breakfast at IHOP and then to the award ceremony prior to school. Gracie wore her favorite dress and couldn't wait to show off her award. She asked me after school what she did to get it. I guess it's hard to understand good citizenship in Kindergarten.

what we've been up to...

Father and son's with our best buddy, An-doo (Andrew Curtis). Mommy and Gracie stayed home and had a slumber party with Emma Normand. (It was quite and adventure trying to do my paper route with a carsick 6 year old.) I thought Samuel would miss me terribly and ran to great him when they got home. He started to cry and shouted "NO....go camping" Evidently they had a great time.

Irony

Yesterday as we started to sing the opening song at church, my children started to throw a fit. Yes, already...so soon into the beginning of the meeting... they were upset and screaming as they each grabbed for the same granola bar and each held on tight, all the while trying to out scream the other. Nice, I know, don't judge me.

What was my response? I laughed because everyone around me continued to sing "We are all enlisted till the conflict is o'er. Happy are we. Happy are we..."

Easter

(Samuel picking up the bunny trail to find his basket)

Yes, I know this is late, but if it is taken in the perspective that I haven't yet posted birthday and Christmas pictures, I'm actually early...

Girls day...boys day

Gracie and I recently spent a lovely afternoon window shopping and eating lunch at the mall while the boys took in the sight at the roadster show.

Yes, I know my eyes are almost or entirely closed in these pictures, but that is sort of my thing. What is more surprising is that there are actual pictures out there of me with my eyes open