Scout Campout and Canoeing on the Colorado

Husband drove a pack of boys 5 hours (plus traffic) out to Vegas.  

They arrived late at night, camped in 92 degree weather, and got up early the next day.

At 4am the next morning, they packed up the campsite and took off for the Colorado River.

They entered just below Hoover Dam.

Looks gorgeous.  Lovely day, right?  

Well, mostly.  You see, very early on in the day, Husband and Three both got foot injuries.  Husband likes to shake off injuries so he just walked on it, albeit tenderly, but walked, hiked, canoed for several hours after the injury.  Then he drove 300 miles back home.  Then he decided to go to the emergency room.    

I don't think you can tell in the picture but it looked like he was smuggling a baseball in the side of his ankle.

Bad sprain.  In a place where he had fractured a bone before.  According to the x-rays anyway.  If you ask husband if he has ever broken a foot bone, he would just shrug it off.  "If I did, it was better in a few hours," he would say.  (He always thinks he will heal in a few hours - and usually it does.)  Anyway, he is on crutches.  They say 4-6 weeks to heal.  Husband says 4-6 days.  We'll see.  (Although I have been proven wrong many times before.)

Three is also feeling a little better.  He tweaked his toes and they were sore.  But he is now walking without wincing so I take that as a good sign. 

Boomers Water Park

To the Last Drop

We have these tiny plastic fancy glasses from Ikea.  The kids love them.  Baby especially.  They are the perfect size for his little hands.  

Here are a few very proper pics of him licking out the inside of the glass to make sure he got every last drop.  

What was he drinking?

Fresh Orange Juice.  Yummy!

Link

We are starting to prepare for Halloween.  I know.  I'm later than usual.  Last year was way late.  This year, I got it going by the second week of September.  That's a little better.  

All the boys have decided what they want to be.  Now we just have to plan everything, alter whatever needs to be altered, and then sit around and read scary ghost stories until candy time.

I love this time of year! 

Shoe Abuse

I've posted about Three's shoe abuse before.  This is another installment.  I honestly can't figure out how he breaks his shoes down in such an unusual fashion.  I mean, have you ever rubbed the toe area down in such a way?  Keep in mind that his feet are growing like mad and he gets new shoes every three months.  He does this to shoes every three months!  I have shoes that are fourteen years old that are in excellent condition, that I still wear.  And he has this. 

At the store I bought him three new pairs.  That should last til spring.  I hope.

Flyaway Hair

Baby's hair is getting a little wonky at the back.  It makes him look like a crazy old man.  

Drive Time

Outside Play

I didn't get a picture of it but Baby was carrying this giant stick around for a while.  It was funny looking from a scale perspective. 

And a pic of Baby throwing balls.  He throws balls everyday, all day.  He is a complete ball fan.

Me?

Me?

What have I been up to, you ask?

Since school started, I have had a fairly neat house.

And on the second day of school, just after the younger boys left, I plunged into a new writing project.

I love writing.  It is fun for me to disappear into a 'what if' world.  I have created several novels, a handful of novellas, and lots of short stories, mostly Halloween themed for the kids.  However, I don't get to do a lot of writing these days because of time.

But sometimes, the need to write is almost manic and I have to write or I will go batty.  So on Wednesday I wrote.  And wrote.  And wrote.  Twenty-two singles space pages by bedtime.  It felt so good to expel the story from my soul.  Cathartic.

Over the next few days, I wrote in every scrap of free time that I had.  (Alright, alright, I even wrote when I didn't have free time.  Sheesh!)

And on Saturday night, I finished my latest novella.  Forty-four single space pages with 18, 575 words.  The crazy drive to write was finally satisfied and I felt like I could think outside that fictional world again.  What a rush.  What an adventure.  

Reboot

Just before school started, Husband's parents took all four boys for the night.  I am rarely away from my boys as I have a hard time sleeping without having them in the next room but I welcomed this opportunity.

As soon as the boys were gone, I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned.  For seven hours straight.

I'm the kind of person that likes and needs orderliness.  However, having four wild boys, can put a crimp in my needs and wants.  I'm often amazed at how many darts, cars, nerf guns, swords, shields, capes, legos, and other boy detritus can get strewn across the house in under two minutes.

My mother-in-law suggested I go to a book store and enjoy it by myself for a little while.  No.  I needed to be in a clean and orderly house.  So I scrubbed and sorted and threw out.

Then I sat.  And enjoyed.  It was amazing the next day, when I woke up, because the house was still clean!

So grateful to my in-laws!

I picked up the boys and joked that I was going to let them pitch a tent outside and stay there from now on because I didn't want my house to get messy again.  They laughed but I gave them the serious eyes.  When we got home, I could tell that they tried, but alas. the house went messy again.

However, now that the boys are back in school, I get to have a clean and orderly house for several hours a day.  And it is heaven.  Sure, I miss them.  But, a tidy house can go a long way to soothe that ache.

Baby Six

Baby Six is entering one of the funnest stages.  

He babbles constantly, is into everything, and wants to interact.

I love it.

This last shot was taken at church yesterday during second hour.  I was sitting with him in the back on baby row and there were a lot of girls.  With girl toys.  He played along with them very well and his favorite toy was this princess purse.  So, while I am used to seeing him with a car or ball or sword in hand, he felt very comfortable with the purses and dolls.  

My Oldest Scout

Husband was away on a Scout training weekend.  And when he returned, I couldn't resist taking a picture.  With all his gear, he looked like a boy scout.  Note to the authorities - if you need someone to pose a teen and go undercover as a boy scout, you've got your man.  Although, he will probably need to pack a razor...

My Little Green Friend

The boys let Baby play with the alien as he sat on his throne (as they call it) in the car.  

Cinnamon Roll - Uh Oh

I wanted to see if cinnamon rolls were any good if made with olive oil.  

(I frequently use olive oil when baking because my body can't handle some of the other more common oils.  And I use this exact recipe with olive oil when I make my homemade pizza recipe.)

So I made a half batch.

Uh.  No.  No, olive oil is not good for cinnamon rolls. 

It is fine for the dough part but should definitely not be used for the filling part.

Lesson learned.  And will definitely not be forgotten any time soon.  Ugh!  

The next day I whipped up a full batch with butter.  Ah, yes.  That's the good stuff. 

And my kids forgave me for the travesty with olive oil.

Four's Mission

Four made this as part of his mission project last year.  I wanted to save the memory without saving the work.  So I took a picture.  

First Day of School Update

My fifth-grader had a fantastic time.  Could not stop talking about how awesome it was.

My seventh-grader kept all his papers neat and orderly and managed to find all his classes.

My second-grader greeted me with the line, "I got a behavior notice."

I gasped.  Loudly.  It's the first day of school, for crying out loud.

Then I heard a soft giggle and a quiet voice say, "A good behavior notice.  Hee hee hee.  Mom.  You freaked."

Haha.  Yes.  I'm sure I did.

So...so far, so good.  I think.

My Nefarious Summer

Now that school has begun, summer has officially ended.

I thought I might take the opportunity to cop to what I was up to this summer.

I committed genocide on thousands of living things.  And I don't feel bad about it.  It was the summer of ant invasions and if I could have killed more, I would have.

I cheated and wrote in the letters on several of my piano pieces.  My mind just does not work fast enough to figure out what line the note is on.  So I wrote in the letters and suddenly sounded mildly competent at the simple piano pieces I attempted.

I pocketed rocks from Sedona and coral from Hawaii to add to the collection of rocks and shells from our travels.

I bribed the children to be good.  Repeatedly.  They enjoyed many ice cream sandwiches and Popsicles for incentivized good behavior.

I lied to the children about what fun things I had planned so they could be surprised when it was time to go somewhere fun.  Husband did this too.  He told the boys to get ready for the pool.  But then he surprised them with the water park at Boomers.

I became addicted to Studio C and I enticed the children to fall victim as well.  Oh, the laughs!

When it is all tallied, I cannot help but notice how wicked my summer was.  Oh well.  No need to clean up the act now.  Halloween is just around the corner.

First Day of School

I have a fifth grader.

I have a second grader.

I have a seventh grader.  Gulp.

And I have a home buddy. 

Enjoy your freedom, kid.  It will end soon enough. 

My fifth grader was all ready to go.  His backpack was packed, his hair was gelled, he was itching to get started.  

He got a teacher that another child had had before.  And this previous child had been less than 'on top of it' for this teacher.  It felt like we engaged in weekly email updates on classroom choices.  

So I am excited for this teacher to get a whole new perspective on the kids I am raising.  Hopefully this new kid will give a much better perception of me as a mom.

***

My seventh grader was looking a little nervous today for his first day of junior high.  And I was nervous too.  

Keep in mind that I have actually sent a junior high schooler to this particular school before.  And I wasn't this nervous when I sent M that first day.  

But I was extremely worried today.  Would he find his first class?  Would he understand how to get around?  Would he be able to fend off all the girls?  

He is not my most observant child.  So I am worried about him getting lost.  Repeatedly.  We actually took him to an eye doctor a year or so ago because we were concerned that he couldn't seem to notice things right in front of his face.  Perfect vision.  Just unobservant.  

And he really likes attention from girls.  Which is very distracting for someone who is easily distracted.  And his striking blue eyes don't help my case at all.  Girls flock to him.  I hope he exercises self-control.  

I have never felt more compelled to go to school with my child to keep him out of harm's way.  But, I restrained myself.  I dropped him off at the front with a good luck.  Here's to hoping...  

***

My second grader is the least flexible of my children.  He has a hard time with transitions.  

He was up early with his backpack ready, his snack packed.  

He was a little touchy before we even left the house.  Then we got to school and found his classroom.  He didn't see any of his friends.  And he freaked out a little.  Truthfully, there were hardly any kids there on time.  

So I tried to distract him, coming up with all the ways the kids could have been kept from coming today.  I thought for sure he would laugh at the fact that half the class had gotten bitten by sharks over summer break.  Not even a smile.  Which is unusual because he shares my very dark sense of humor and usually that would make him laugh.  

His unease was worse than I thought.  And when he is uneasy or things don't go exactly as he envisioned them, he gets aggressive and easily offended.  

When the teacher opened the door and welcomed the kids in, I gave him a big hug and asked him to do his best to be nice today.  We'll see how his day went when I pick him up.    

***

As for my buddy and me, we came home, cleaned the house, and have been trying to catch up on long term stuff.  

And since all of Baby's brothers are at school, apparently it is my job to keep him entertained.  Normally I am persona non grata.  With three big brothers, Mom usually falls to the bottom of the fun scale.  Not today.  Today, my playing on the floor skills are welcomed and sought.  Wonders never cease.

Here is to the new year.  Let's hope it is a good one. 

Boy Lunch

The boys went out to celebrate a friend's birthday.  And they took pictures.

At some point Baby hit Husband's cell phone - which landed in the birthday cake. 

And then the frosting landed on baby.