Thank God I Am Sick!

Okay normally I would never wish this on myself. I got sick in Omaha over Christmas because Savannah was sick and wasn't sleeping at night. I have had a head that weighs 80 pounds, a fever, aching body and slight nausea, which could be attributed to not eating. However, the key is the ability to not smell. This is a plus and a problem. I can't smell if Savannah has dirtied her diaper so she has been spending a bit more time in stinky pants. The plus side was when I walked upstairs yesterday and found dog diarrhea all over the floor. I couldn't smell it at all, so I voted myself carpet cleaner. Jaesen walked in the house and almost collapsed downstairs from the smell. He used a whole can of Febreze and opened all the windows, I still couldn't smell a thing. Needless to say the carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow morning to do a sterilization and power cleaning, maybe I will be able to smell the freshness by tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath!

Christmas 2008

With all the crazy weather I had no idea if our trip to Omaha would happen, but we got really lucky and made it with only an hour delay. Savannah who doesn't like to wear coats and always pulls off her shoes and socks was shocked at the super cold air that hit her leaving the airport and she snuggled down into her winter parka. The first full day we were there was "Gingerbread House/Candy Day". Pops takes all the kids to the candy store and they come home and consume ungodly amounts of sweetness while occassionally adding a piece or two to the gingerbread structure.


The day after that (Sunday) we headed to the symphony to listen to some really great Christmas tunes. Unfortunately, once Santa made his appearance all I heard was Savannah screaming (remember, it's ear piercing) "Hi Santa". She kept waving at him and shouting and I was really hoping he would look over at her and wave since it was not possible that he could tune her out, but he didn't, so she just kept screaming his name. Fortunately, most people thought it was really cute so they didn't kick us out of the theater. All in all we had 6 adults and 5 kids and they all did really great.

The day after that was sledding day! The boys had a blast. Savannah......not so much. I took her down one hill, she screamed, she threw off her mittens, fell in the snow, screamed some more, I tried to put her in the sled to get her back up the hill, she screamed yet again. So she went to the car and sat in her carseat while we finished sledding. She promptly pulled off her socks and boots so she couldn't have been too cold, she apparently just doesn't like sitting in a cold sled with snow hitting her in the face. Who wouldn't love that?


We always celebrate Pop's birthday the day before Christmas and this year we did something totally different, we went bowling. We had such a great time. And I would just like to add that I won the first game, with the adults, not the kids (although I beat all of them too and they had bumpers!). By the time we bowled the second game I had too much beer and came in second to my brother. Note to people: Don't call yourself "The Hammer" if you aren't going to win a game! The kids had fun too and Tristan ended up being the only kid bowling the second game so he bowled for all 6 of them for 8 frames. His little spaghetti arm was pretty pooped out by the end of the day.

And then Christmas Day. I barely caught Tristan as he dashed down the stairs at 6 am. I could have killed him, because he woke Savannah up then. So the rest of us got up and headed down. Tristan first saw his night vision goggles which are really cool and he is excited about scaring people in the dark. Then he opened his letter from Santa. Remember he asked for a Siberian tiger? Well Santa adopted a tiger named Nokia from a wildlife sanctuary for a year for him. Oh and the sanctuary happens to be 5 miles from our house and we get to go and tour the facility and watch a feeding, so he is so excited. Savannah got a pink scooter (so she will stay off Jack's) and a Hello Kitty tent which she loves. Jack finally came dashing downstairs and hugged his alligator that he asked for and promptly told us it's a crocodile and his name is Salty. I guess I would have to say Christmas was a success.

Savannah is 2!

Well we said that we would never allow that purple dinosaur across the threshold of our house, but when Savannah came home infatuated with Barney, we crumbled and bought her a Barney singing stuffed animal for her second birthday. Her sheer joy at getting that toy made listening to that song 400 times already completely worthwhile (but check back with me in another week or so-if my wine runs out we may be in trouble....) It was a fantastic birthday and we just celebrated at home with us, presents and cupcakes and that was enough for her. Happy Birthday big two year old girl! Please stop growing up so fast, Mom can't handle it. We love you.

Nursing School Graduation

And finally school is over!!! Thank goodness. It is worth it but I was about to the breaking point of having to fit everything in and that was getting complicated. At any rate it's over, the confetti has been popped (no really I popped some on stage and the boys helped pop a bunch at the house), the champagne is gone (was there ever any doubt that I would drink champagne?) and now I am waiting for some relaxation. That probably won't happen since it's the holidays and I am so far behind. At any rate, I will blow my own horn. Yay me!!!!!

Happy Birthday Savannah

It is so hard to believe it's been two years since we added a girl to the mix here in Yerger central. She is a true blessing and she makes us laugh, which of course fits right in with our kids. Her big hugs, kisses with the dogs, telling Daddy no, no Daddy!, saying good night and hi each night and morning to the boys, we could just eat her up. Happy Birthday Bean!

In the wee small hours of the morning

Okay so maybe it's not so late, but it's after 10 at night and I am still cracking away procrastinating. I have spent the whole week in a Kaplan program to help me pass my RN boards (from 9-5 every day-shoot me in the head). The one problem with that is that I have a project due tomorrow morning, the last thing to do before graduation....and here I am just typing away on the computer. Well I am almost done, poor Savannah keeps interrupting. She of course has a molar coming in on the top and one heck of a draining ear infection, plus the wind is whipping so hard it keeps shaking the house. We were under tornado watches today, but I digress, back to the procrastinating. I kept thinking I would get it done this week, but alas, no. Jaesen was of course out of town (conveniently), tonight he is at the command Christmas Party. Now that would have been the ultimate in procrastination-if I had gone..... wow, I wouldn't have even started yet. So this is late for me, I am worn out, school has completely drained me, graduation is around the corner, and I honestly don't care. I would just love a really good night sleep, no cries in the middle of the night, no Jack at 600 asking if he can have a piece of candy yet, no wet, cold Merlin nose on me at 615 begging for a bowl of food. A good night sleep.....well guess it won't happen tonight, crack the whip, it's back to work for me.

And the hits just keep on coming

You know, it never seems like we have a dull moment around here. It was a week where I had 4, 12 hour shifts at the hospital so Jaesen was in charge of picking up kids at the daycare. It's about 6:15 and my phone starts buzzing like crazy in my pocket. I step out of my patient's room a couple minutes later and the words I hear on the other end are not what any parent wants to hear. "Savannah has lice!" Jaesen proceeds to tell me that it's not just one, her scalp was crawling apparently. I tell him to stop at the store and pick up a bunch of lice shampoo because we don't know when she picked it up and the boys have to be treated too. I promptly went to one of my classmates and had them look me over to see if I had them, because of course as soon as you hear the words lice, your head itches. Aren't you itching now? By the time I arrive home one hour later, everything we own is in the garage. The kids are all in tubs and life pretty much sucks. I spent four hours picking nits out of her hair and finally put her to bed at 11:15 that night. Noone else seems to have gotten it and the next day they found another child at the daycare overrun with lice and nits, yuck! I did a total of 21 loads of laundry on the hottest water setting and dryer settings possible and we still have stuffed animals in bags, fumigating. Savannah had 8 days straight of lice shampoo and gel and may get one more dose of it tomorrow night because I would rather be safe than sorry. I did have to cut her hair though, it was hard enough to clean her up with short hair, can't even imagine if she had long hair. Of course Jaesen wanted to shave her head, fortunately I spared the poor dear that humiliation. She seems fine now and only has one ear infection, a molar popping through and is constipated. We are all much happier with all of those things than those damn lice. I haven't stopped scratching my head in a week......

Kids Say the Darndest Things

We were out to dinner at the Melting Pot a week ago and Savannah was feeding Jaesen mints after dinner and she kept dropping them on the floor, and finally Jaesen said, "Savannah, you suck." She promptly replied back to him, "you suck". We all about fell out of our chairs.

Jack was listening to Christmas carols on the radio and started singing, "Sally, Abby, a wonderful Christmastime." Instead of "simply having a wonderful Christmastime."

Tonight Tristan heard Feliz Navidad on the radio and said that it was his favorite Christmas song. He said, "I love that song Felish Mashitash." I think he lived in Japan too long and is giving everything a Japanese twist. Aaahhhhhh kids, they sure can make you laugh.

A Visit With Ole' St. Nick

Well this turned into a whole family picture when Savannah decided she wasn't going to sit on Santa's lap. She was really quite flirty when I was holding her in line, calling "Santa, Santa" and blowing him kisses and waving, but as soon as it was her turn to go and sit on his lap, well you would have thought he was a leper. So the wonderful Santa bowed out and I sat in the chair with her and the boys and then Jaesen jumped in at the last minute. The boys had their lists ready to go, Jack wants a helicopter with a rainbow propellor, a toy jellyfish, a wooden snake and a huge stuffed dog. Tristan wants spy goggles, a giant stuffed Siberian tiger, a camoflauge 4 wheeler. I apparently need a job. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

It was a great birthday party

Well all in all Tristan's party was a success. I worked a 12 hour shift the night before and came home, made pancakes, his birthday cake and thought I would catch a couple hours of sleep when Savannah napped. I got a total of an hour and 45 minutes until 2345 that night when I could no longer keep my eyes open. We had pizza, cake, presents, a campfire and smores, a movie, pillow fights, Wii games (then I bowed out) and Jaesen got them all tucked into bed upstairs watching Eragon in their sleeping bags. In the morning I made eggs, sausages and biscuits and the kids ran around outside until parents began picking them up. I was just worn clean out. Then I had a 12 hour day shift on Monday. Now I get a week break then in 6 days we have 4 more 12 hour shifts to do and we are complete!!! Jack was not allowed to participate in most of his brother's festivities due to what we are calling, "The Duck Incident." It happened at school. I can see you now wondering how could Jack get into trouble at school with a duck. Obviously if you are asking that question you don't know Jack! He had a rough week at school anyway keeping his hands to himself and I had told him he had to stay on blue (which is a good color at his school) if he wanted to hang out with the big kids at the party. Well I get to school to pick them up, I pull up and ask Tristan, "Hey, where's Jack?" Tristan nonchalantly replies, "He's in the office, I heard he killed a duck." My mind began racing, is it possible? Isn't this how serial killers get started, killing animals? Where did he get a duck? I get to the office and there is little Jack, eyes closed because he knows he is in for it, sitting in a chair in the back. One of the 4-H teachers comes up to me and begins to tell me what has happened and I just burst into tears before she got to how it happened because I didn't want to be the Mom of the Duck Killer. That's not what I signed up for. Soccer mom, yes, homeroom mom, sure, the mom who makes her kids scrub their bathroom, you bet, but not this. And once I started crying I couldn't seem to stop, guess I needed a good cry. Thanks Jack. So this is what really happened. He and another child from his class were walking to the library when they came across a duck nest. I know, what school has duck nests anyway. And why does a nest have eggs in the middle of November? Our school obviously. So Jack picked up an egg and threw it on the ground. It didn't break. Did that stop him? Of course not, so he threw it harder and it broke. All this was witnessed by the other student who was telling him to stop and 2 of the 4H kids. And if that wasn't enough, he decided to poke some kid and then hit him. So he was on purple (which is really, really, bad). Long story short (too late) he had a sore rear end, had to write an apology letter to the 4H club and will work for restitution money to pay for the broken duck egg in some form, whether he buys rabbit food or whatever. So it is a pretty funny story today, but it really wasn't last week. Yesterday he had a great day and stayed on blue and we all let out a huge sigh of relief. Now we are crossing our fingers for today, please cross yours too.......

And Happy Birthday Bug!

It's hard to believe it has been 8 years since you came into our life, what an amazing little guy you are. We all love you so very much, Happy Birthday Tristan.

Happy Birthday To Me....

And another year has flown right on by.........

Just another weekend at the Yerger's House.....

We were so excited for this weekend to come, it was the final soccer weekend of the season. Unfortunately, I had spent 3 painfully long days in an auditorium listening to people speak on our board exams that are right around the corner. We were there for 8 hours a day which is a really long time to sit and listen with only a short lunch break. Needless to say after all that time of feeling like a sardine I got sick. Along with about half the other students. I'm not talking just a cold, I'm talking fever, joint pains, muscle pains, headache, congestion, coughing things up that shouldn't be allowed in the human body, and last but not least my voice completely went. I came home Friday night after picking up the kids and made cupcakes for after the games and that was about all that I could muster for that night. Games started right at 9, Tristan was first. It was the most awful game, Jaesen had to walk away twice it was that bad. Our team had their first loss of the season and it was a slaughter. Tristan, being the sensitive one, blamed himself for the loss since he was playing the lone defender (they play 4 v. 4). I just told him he got his ass kicked. Okay no I didn't really say that, after all it was only him against two or three opponents, but really noone even came back to help him out so how on earth was he supposed to stop all the goals. If he wasn't as good as he is the score would have been so much worse. After the game was over, he cried for a good 5 minutes. I told him all the things about how there is always someone better and that you have to lose to appreciate the win, blah, blah, blah. I'm glad to see he that he is so passionate about winning and being so good at something. Hopefully it will only make him strive harder to learn more next year. Then there is Jack. The bull in the china store. His team won, but not by much, he did manage to score two goals though and then both kids got their trophies, cupcakes and the depression was averted. Cupcakes do make the world a better place, don't they? So originally I had planned to study for the rest of the day as I had a 4 hour exam on Monday but that didn't happen, I felt miserable (maybe it was sympathy pains for poor Bug). We did make it to Panera that night so I could get some really good soup. We are standing in line and Jaesen is getting everyone's orders since I really cannot speak at all and all of a sudden Savannah decides this is her 15 minutes of fame and she starts to strip. She pulls herself completely out of her shirt, even with Jaesen trying to wrestle her back in. And right then the lady looks at me and says, "Can I help you?" So I start to mouth our order to her, Jaesen is on the floor with Savannah trying desperately to get her clothed again (and it's not balmy out, it's 45 degrees!) and Jack keeps changing his mind about what soup he wants so I have to keep mouthing different things to the poor girl behind the counter. Jaesen finally gives up, hands me Savannah's shirt and finishes up our order. Impressively, I got her shirt on in about 20 seconds. All this with a huge crowd of people waiting to order food, we were definitely the entertainment of the evening. I took my test today and passed which was a miracle considering the lack of studying that went into it. To make things more interesting (as if I needed that) Tristan got sick last night with an intestinal bug and we had a lot of cleaning to do during the night. I had to send him to school today in tears because he was afraid of embarassing himself in front of his friends. Today was not a day that either Jaesen or I could miss, so I got to feel like the worst mother in the world for the whole day until I picked him up and spoiled him with love. I just keep reminding myself that kids are resilient (thank goodness!)

And Another Halloween Has Come and Gone.....

Ahhhhhh, the pumpkins are now rotting, the tombstones put away for another year, the cobwebs pulled down and the kids are already trying to figure out what to dress as for next year. It was a successful Halloween, lots of fun, candy and good times. Our little neighborhood is sure a fun place to trick or treat. We had some friends over for a cookout before we took 4 Star Wars Characters and two little girls trick or treating. Savannah had a good time going house to house but chose to ride in the big wagon a lot too. Jaesen had fun playing with the fog machine and handing out candy to all the kids. Now we are in to the last days of soccer and then the big two holidays for me, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Zoo Spooktacular

And now back to the kids fun. The zoo has their annual Spooktacular where you hit different treat stations and there are places to dance, get snacks and of course you can see some animals. The highlights for us were the giraffes who were feeding at the overlook and Savannah was so excited, she was shouting giraffe, giraffe, and it actually sounded like giraffe. Then when we went to see the jaguars, they were both out and right at the fence and windows. They have two jaguars, a spotted one and a black one and both were absolutely gorgeous, they have never come up that close before. Savannah kept saying hi kitty. We went through the Haunted Temple and got to see the anteaters right at the window too, it was great. And of course there was candy, popcorn, donuts and chocolate milk handed out. Another great year at the zoo. This was Jaesen's first year going and he was pretty impressed by it all.

Big Kids Halloween Party

Okay so this is the update for what we were for our halloween party. What a day that was. We had soccer games in the morning until 130, then we split teams. I ran to the grocery with Savannah and Jaesen took the boys to the Halloween Superstore (yea!) to choose costumes for us. I baked pumpkin cheesecakes, did 3 loads of laundry, mopped, cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed and Jaesen was still deciding what we should be. Now the party was supposed to start at 5, we got there at 640. Jaesen had technical difficulties with his horns and once he got them on we weren't sure they would come off so easily and we laughed at how he may sit in the front pew at church with horns still attached. That would be a talking point, I'm sure. We had a great time though, Happy Halloween!!!

Tristan's big moment at church

Two weeks ago it was Children's Sabbath at our church, meaning the kids do a large portion of the services and participate in a lot of ways. Well Tristan was among four kids his age chosen to light candles in honor of children from around the world. He was so nervous and so serious. I told him afterwards that he could have smiled, he just looked at me and said "No Mom, I had to concentrate."
And of course this post wouldn't be complete without a funny story from Jack. Last night was the fall festival at the boy's school. Jack won a beanie baby leopard. On the way home he was deciding what to name it. "I think his name should be Sprinkles." He had just named another one of his animals Sprinkles as well. It seems to be popular these days. "And then I think Lin Lin should be his second name, and Octopus will be his third name. His fourth name will be Merlin and Belly (no not Bailey like our dog) will be his last name." So the leopards name is Sprinkles Lin Lin Octopus Merlin Belly. Poor leopard, the other leopards are all gonna tease him. I was dying in the front seat because he was so serious. And Savannah, well she has an ear infection-----again. We have a costume party to attend this evening and have no idea what we are going as, will have to update that later.

Corn Maze

This picture says it all. It was a good day at the corn maze. It was the same place we went last year, the bonus was this year Jaesen got to go, and I wasn't quite as stressed having to do it all. The corn maze was fun (although we all agreed we love the huge one in Massachusetts best), the food was great and the weather was cool so we weren't burning up. The highlight for Savannah was seeing ducks up close and personal. She was thrilled beyond belief and her excitement made us all laugh.
We ended the day buying some pumpkins for the kids (which took about an hour to choose) and by that time Savannah had had enough. It took all I had to get her to the car, diaper changed and strapped in without losing a chunk of hair to Little Miss I'm a Grouch!!!!! All in all though it was another fun day, and a reminder to not take any of it for granted cause who knows what the next set of orders could be.

The beginning of Halloween

For those of you who really know Jaesen, you know that Halloween is his holiday. We always have the best decorated house and the most pumpkins, the most bones in the yard, the most tombstones, etc. So it has been a real disappointment to him that he has missed the last 3 Halloweens due to deployments on the Kitty Hawk and then Iraq. So it was with great fanfare last weekend that he announced, "Get in the car, we are going to the Halloween Superstore." The boys cheered, and so did Savannah since she will do anything that they do. Little did she know it was full of scary Halloween stuff. The whole entire time she was in the store, she screamed. I am not talking little girly screams. But ear piercing, shoot me in the head and put me out of my misery screams. People kept looking at us as if to say, hey your kid is screaming make her stop. I can only hope that one day they experience the joy of a from the bottom of their lungs type screamer. I had finally had enough and took her outside where she was much more pleasant. So we bought out Target, Wal-Mart and the Halloween Superstore. Jaesen is making up for lost time. So we have giant cobwebs on the front of our house, a skeleton hanging from the roof, a graveyard, a boneyard, spiders, strobes, fog, soon it will be pumpkins, but they rot so you have to get them late here in Florida. He is beside himself and can hardly wait for Halloween night. I can only hope he doesn't make too many kids cry when they come to our house for candy.

Smoke Alarm Wake up Call

There really are not many dull moments in our house. Thursday and Friday I have my clinical days at the hospital so we are up and out fairly early, no later than 6 a.m. or so. So it's about 5 minutes to 6, I go in to get Savannah to find out her diaper leaked and she and her bed were soaked. The boys meanwhile are making waffles and crashing in to each other in the hall as they try and find their clothes that are laid out for them in the same place as always. You never know I may try and hide those clothes someday.... Anyway, I am stripping Bean's bed after changing her whole outfit and this horribly loud noise goes off. I run out into the kitchen, pull the waffles out of the toaster, and my english muffin which the boys had recooked and probably caused the whole calamity, and started out to the garage with the toaster to remove the smokiness. I run into Jaesen in a tshirt and boxers trying his hardest to beat the code into the keypad for the house alarm. At this point we have one child crying from the noise, two eating waffles, one person trying to solve the problem at the wrong alarm box. I got the toaster to the garage and shout and point to Jaesen that he is doing no good since it's the smoke alarm, not the burglar alarm going off. I start to fan the alarm with a towel and get Tristan to fan using the front door and just as Jaesen gets up to be able to reach the alarm it stops buzzing. Par for course. By this time it's about 6:10 and noone is in the car or has shoes on, including me. Fortunately I made great time on the freeway!

The End of September Already

I took a nap today and it was nice. I had to take a nap as I have been up the last two nights with Savannah. She has yet another ear infection and has dried blood in her ear this time. I am concerned her tube is gone and she has blown her eardrum again. That girl and her ears. And when she is in a pissy mood (as with ear infections) she wants nothing to do with Jaesen. She only insists on torturing me. Thus the nap this afternoon. Jaesen got home last Friday, a week early from training. I was so happy, it meant that I didn't have to coach another soccer game by myself, trying to keep Savannah off the field, the members of our team on the sidelines behaving themselves and offer words of wisdom to our team. Fortunately, Savannah will sit a whole game in her stroller if you feed her ice, and Jack will actually sit quietly on the bench if you feed him oranges. So as long as I have ice and oranges we're set! There wasn't much to coach though, the other team couldn't score a goal the whole game. For the second half, they had their whole team of 5 against 3 of our players, plus we made ours pass 3 times before they shot and we still held off the goals. What can I say, they rock! Tristan scored about 5 goals and did it with authority. He gives up though if he loses the ball so we are going to have to work on that. He did inform me that he was born to play soccer. I told him to wait on that statement, as next year it's more competitive, there is more running at practice and there is none of this giving up. He looked at me like he wasn't sure if I was pulling his leg. Little does he know what is in store for him if he continues down the soccer path, lots of running!!!!! Jaesen is working on getting the website set up for our new business of fishing rod building, his business is called Cajun Custom Rods, I honestly don't know where he finds the time. I am trying to keep my head above water with school, house and kids. I looked at my scrapbooking yesterday and realized I am almost a year behind. Time flies when you are in school I guess. We are in the final couple months and then we are finished. My last clinical day is Halloween, then we have a bunch of test and then role transformation, which is 7 shifts at the hospital, basically working as a nurse for free, then we get pinned on December 15th. I can't wait for school to be over, but I have met so many great people and it has definitely kept me busy. Ciao.

Playing with Fire, School Dance and First Game of Soccer Season

Well it has been an eventful 24 hours at our house (of course when isn't it?) We all actually ate together on Friday night, the first in a while due to weird flight schedules for Jaesen and soccer practices that usually cause us to eat really early. If you have ever had the pleasure (or fear) of eating at our house you know that 99% of the time Jack is still at the table long into the evening, due mostly to his procrastination to eat. He would rather chat, daydream or fall asleep. We were in the process of cleaning up when Jaesen walked back into the dining room to see Jack with a flaming napkin. In shock he dropped it on the carpet. Jaesen rapidly stomped it out and then the fun started. Jaesen went on the we could lose everything we own, toys, house, dogs, cars, pictures, whereas I went for the you could burn yourself and have to have a million surgeries, be scarred for life, not be able to move right and be scrubbed with a metal brush approach. I think we scared the crap out of him. Then we were on to part 2 of our night. I got voted designated parent of our brood to take our two boys to their first school dance. The big favorite of the night was the Chicken Dance, followed by YMCA and then the hokey pokey. It was really loud and kids were running all over the place, eating nachos and candy. Jack was promptly chased down by a girl in his class and she didn't let up the whole time. It was pretty cute. Tristan got bored, he wanted to try breakdancing but didn't want to be embarrased by his lack of "breakdancing talent". I just told him to talk to Jaesen, heck if that guy can breakdance, anyone can. When we came home from that totally awesome fun, we had company over picking up a fishing rod from Jaesen (his very first money from his new company by the way!!!!). So our kids played with his kids until at 9:30 Jack ran into a doorknob and (I know you are thinking wow that sure happens a lot to that kid----I know!) really swelled up his eye and nose. At that point I basically kicked out our company (sorry if I was way too rude), dropped Savannah off in her bed, made Tristan go to bed and iced the head of Jack down. So flash forward to Saturday morning. I almost dreaded soccer after last years doses of Jack's temper tantrums on and off the field, and the bad attitude. Fortunately this year Jaesen is home to help combat the "attitude". Tristan was up first and he scored two or three goals, none of us is really sure, and he played well but not as great as I have seen him play. He made a great play when he ran 3/4 the length of the field though and saved a goal, that was probably his best play of the day. And then came time for Jack's game. We took over as coaches of his team when the previous coach's son came down with a brain tumor and they were going to disband the team. So in addition to the rest of our lives we are coaching U-6 boys soccer. Anyway, Jack takes the field (and oddly enough we were playing the same team he played on last year) and proceeds to score 5 goals! That's right you read it right, no tantrums, no yucky faces, just 5 goals. And he put power behind them, he wasn't kidding around. Another one of our players scored 6 and almost everyone scored a goal. I bet they wished they had chosen Jack to play for them again this year, although I can't really blame them for not wanting to after last year. He had a great time and it was honestly a joy to watch him having fun and being proud of himself and his team. So now the boys are all off fishing and it's just me and Bean at home. She by the way did really well for being out during her whole entire nap, and only screamed for about 15 minutes of the whole entire day. I just kept feeding her (yes I know she doesn't really need it, but sometimes that's all I can do!) and giving her ice cubes and life was pretty good. Go Strikers and Green Lightning!

Grapes Beware!

Well I have tried and tried and Savannah is finally starting to eat some actual fruit that is whole and not pureed. But tonight we suffered a setback.....I was so excited when she asked for some of the grapes we were all eating. I handed her quite a few and watched her start to eat them. I got up to clean the table off and came back to grape carcasses. Yes, she just takes them, sucks out the insides and randomly throws away the skins. Poor Savannah, she is a grape sucker!!!!

Celebrating the Beach

Tropical Storm Fay

Well the storm has finally left us and we did most of our cleanup yesterday. We were without power for 39 hours! And all this for a minor tropical storm. Usually though they seem to move a lot quicker than Fay. The pond got high but never came up as high as our fence although the porch took on significant water, probably because it was raining sideways. Jaesen repaired two screens yesterday and we cleaned up the outside as good as possible. We were forced into buying a generator which was great for keeping the fridge cold and our food safe. We will have an electrician come over soon to install the hookup for our generator to run certain aspects of the fans, air conditioning, etc. The last night we couldn't see anything so I broke out the glow in the dark necklaces and we put them on everyone, including the dogs who seemed to love them. They worked great! Just when you thought it was all over though I found water in the wall of our bathroom this morning when I was drying my hair. It was hard to miss, a giant bubble in the wall. So we will see how bad it really is, but I am fearing the worst. We have already had some sunshine and we went walking in it this morning. And then we came home and sat in the wonderful air conditioning! Boy did I miss that for the last 2 days. The kids missed 3 days of school and I can't wait until they go back. I had my school cancelled and missed a final but it is rescheduled for Monday which happens to be the first day of the next term, there is some major reshuffling going on but I guess it will all work out in the end. I can't wait to put away the blankets from forts, flashlights, anything that is battery powered, and the mop. I yearn for the quiet of the car when I have finished dropping off the last kid at school...........I love my kids but being stuck in a house with them for 5 days and noone sleeping well, .........well that is a little much for even me!

The First Day of School

Ahhhh, the day we long for as the summer draws to a close. The kids constantly at each other's throats and whining about there is nothing to do anymore, when does school start. Well today was that day! Tristan moves into 2nd grade where they now have letter grades and spelling scores count towards their final grade. Jack started kindergarten and has the same teacher that Tristan had when we moved here from Japan. She has already commented to me that they are nothing alike. I just smile and say, nope they are night and day. He was excited because he got to play on the playground, paint and have brownie, chicken nuggets, salad and fries and a chocolate milk for lunch. He made new friends and generally had a great day. Savannah on the other hand just got pushed out the door of the car at her daycare (okay, not really-but it probably seemed that way to her, because it was Jack's day) and she was one pissed off kid. Well and not only that but she has an ear infection with a lot of drainage. When I picker her up I was informed that a kid came to school with lice. I went through her hair with a fine tooth comb (literally) and treated her, but still found nothing (thank goodness!). So now they are all in day #2, but day #3 may be cancelled as Tropical Storm Fay bears down on us. They may be opening schools for shelters for flood victims because it looks like we are going to get a lot of rain. We'll see-I have the water, finished 3 loads of laundry, have lots of grill items and batteries, so I am not worried. We can always hang out in the car, with a/c and watch movies on the DVD player!

In Honor of 10 Years Together!!!!!

No More Training Wheels

And another one is onto two wheels! Yesterday I told Jack that he really was getting to big for his little Japanese bike and he needed to practice on the "big" bike. He took it to heart and worked hard for the rest of the day and he can now ride on two wheels. Unfortunately for Jack though he is used to hand brakes and the red bike has pedal brakes. This causes him to have phenomenal crashes when he deems it appropriate to stop. So of course when I videotape him he proves me wrong and actually stops without a crash. Well that is one less scraped body part for the moment. Of course if he didn't have a show stopping crash I would think his career as a stunt man wouldn't have much of a future. At least I know he can crash without getting too hurt. On a happier note, school starts two weeks from today and the boys are very excited, but I don't think that they are happier than I am. They need to spend some quality time APART or they are going to drive the rest of us crazy!

Savannah Update

Well yesterday I took Bean in for her 18 month checkup-a month late but at least I was relatively close. That whole broken arm thing really caused a lot of scheduling issues. Anyway, she seems to have finally slowed down the weight gain (yippee!) and even lost 2 whole ounces. She did however grow 2 whole inches since her last appointment 4 months ago. I was amazed. She is off the charts for height and weight for her age, and I literally mean off the chart. She is just her crazy wild self, a real screamer (which by the way I am completely over). I dream about silence. She loves to swim and you really do have to watch her closely at the pool as she just goes and jumps in. It doesn't bother her at all to get her head submerged and she just loves it. I am halfway through my pediatric rotation and really loving it, but have seen some really sick kids which just makes me appreciate my screamer that much more. Cheers!

Weezer's Birthday

We had another birthday while Mom was here, hers!!!! We took her to a Brazilian steakhouse where they bring out meat on these huge skewers and cut pieces off for your plate. They also have a to die for buffett area with everything from lobster bisque to rice and beans to salmon and olives and cheese. Needless to say we all left a size larger than when we entered. We will definitely hit this restaurant again, plus it was at the beach and was a beautiful night. The last time we spent Mom's birthday together we climbed Mt. Fuji, so this year was a bit more low key, but fun just the same. I'll have to step it up for the next one we spend together, maybe skydiving (yeah right!!!!)

Happy Birthday to Jack!!!!

We celebrated Jack's birthday at a place called Pump It Up. It is an indoor inflatables playground. He only had one other family of friends there as the other kids he wanted to invite live in Maine, Hawaii or Japan. Sometimes it is so hard to be a military kid. This place was loads of fun though and they really do take care of everything. You play for an hour first on all the inflatables and then go to your party room for cake, ice cream and presents. They even have a huge blowup king chair for the birthday kid to sit in. After last year's very low key birthday celebration, this year really was over the top. All the grown ups even jumped or ran the obstacle course, which I did three times and ended up so sweaty by the end. The major catastrophe of the day was when the cake fell apart but you can't even tell, they did a great job of reconstructing it as good as possible.

Geese in the Pond

Well they say that geese fly south in the winter for that warmer weather but apparently these geese love heat and humidity because they haven't left our area yet. The other day we had 22 geese around our little pond. I think if they all got in at the same time the pond would possibly overflow! They are sure beautiful from a distance though.

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

Well we finally had a relaxing day with not a whole lot going on. We were waiting for night to fall so we could finally bring out the fireworks for everyone. We started off with sparklers and then moved on to the big stuff. We had about a half hour of stuff and had a lot of fun. Even Savannah stayed up for quite awhile (way, way past her bedtime) and watched the show. Then we sat on the back screen porch and watched what everyone else was launching. A bunch of folks within a couple mile radius of us shoot off quite a few large shells and we had a good time watching. At ten we finally decided to round up the boys and get them to bed, Tristan of course went without any coaxing, he was pooped out. Jack wasn't quite ready to head to bed though so he watched a bit of the Boston Pops show. Then Jaesen came running inside shouting that there was a fire behind the house. I went outside and sure enough just behind one of the houses behind us was quite a large brush fire. Jaesen got into long pants and flight boots and grabbed a shovel. I knew our neighbors were gone so I grabbed our hose reel and headed out behind Jaesen. He went and threw dirt on the fire until the fire department showed up and I watered the neighbors backyard down. It came within about 40 feet of their backyard. Then we decided to go over and meet our new neighbors who moved in two days before. We promised them that we don't have this kind of fireworks show often, only for the most special of neighbors! That was the big excitement for our neighborhood last night though. Jaesen's parents left on Thursday after helping us out for a couple weeks while I am in school and the kids had a bunch of fun with Cappie and Gran. Weezer comes in tonight and hopefully Pops will be here on Wednesday for a bit, so the kids are being spoiled with grandparent love. You can never go wrong with that.

Savannah's Broken Arm

Well the summer is starting off with a bang. Baby girl dislocated and broke (well fractured) her right ulna. So then we went through the absolute pain of trying to splint an 18 month old. It took 2 adults and one tech to complete that. I must say though that once her dislocation was set she was fine again, grabbing things with her hand again. We aren't sure how it happened as Jaesen was in with the boys monitoring their room cleaning and she was in the hallway by herself. She is one tough cookie though, but honestly I can't see this splint/cast thing lasting too long. The sling lasted approximately 1 minute before it was ripped off her head, never to be seen again. She is walking around saying oowwwie and holding up her arm. I think she's looking for love and sympathy, which of course we are more than willing to give her.

The Black Widow Spider

Okay, this is going to give me nightmares for quite some time. The other day I was out jogging and saw something inside one of those cement boxes dug into the ground. I stopped and looked and saw the biggest black widow I have ever seen in my whole life. She has a gigantic egg sack as well. Seeing as how our family seems to be going the way of the Irwins (Croc Hunter) we called several places to see if they wanted to come and get the beauty. I think we have a taker, a 30 year arachnologist, or whatever they call themselves. Read that as someone who really loves spiders (which is definitely not me!) So we of course took the kids down to see it. Tristan was oooohhhing and aaaahhhing and being very croc hunter'ish about it all. Yesterday seemed to be our weird animal day: when Jaesen went to get Bug from zoo camp they walked through the butterfly garden and Jaesen almost stepped on a 6 foot black racer-he almost fell over in shock. Then the spider thing and then just when we thought it was safe, Jack comes running out of his bedroom screaming about seeing a snake. He saw it through his window, so Jaesen and I go outside to investigate and there is a 5 foot black racer. We were worn out by all the animal excitement and went to bed at 930.

Our Trip to the Zoo

Tristan started zoo camp on Monday and to avoid the persistent nagging from Jack all week I took the other 2 to the zoo bright and shiny early on Monday morning. We got to pet the sting rays, goats, see a bunch of animals (Savannah especially loved the birds) and stop by the splash ground. It was Savannah's first time for that at the zoo and she loved it. We also went by and did the petting zoo which is basically 10 goats that pee and poop a lot and all the kids laugh. I meanwhile was trying to keep Savannah from picking up the poop or stepping in the pee. Jack wanted nothing to do with the goat poop and was trying to tiptoe around the pen. This is exactly why we don't go to the petting zoo!

Happy Birthday Merlin

And now Merlin is 9! So he got an ice bday cake with dog treats and peanut butter. What more could any dog want?

Baseball party

Well now we are officially finished with baseball season since we had our party last night. We went up to Georgia (which is only about 20 min. away) and went to an aquatic center that has a waterpark. The kids had a blast, got trophies and swam like fish. Savannah loved the water playground and had the big bucket dump on her several times without any crying at all. She loved it. The boys really liked the lazy river and stayed in there for a good hour or so. The really crazy thing that happened though was this: as we were getting ready to eat I looked out into the parking lot and saw a man, a woman and 3 kids. I thought to myself, wow, that really looks like our neighbors from Japan. They lived on the other side of the playground from us and had a dog named Sake. I grabbed Jaesen and asked him what he thought and we walked out to the parking lot and sure enough it was Roland and Marla and the kids. What are the odds? We talked for a bit and let them get on their way and we went back to eating, but what a crazy coincidence.

Jack's Pre-K Graduation

And now Mister Jackson is officially out of preschool and into big kids school and off to Kindergarten! He is really excited and I just love this picture of him. They couldn't have gotten a better picture. He is most excited about getting to select his lunch in the cafeteria and getting to drink chocolate milk. Tristan has prepped him well for school and is giving him all the ins and outs of Sheffield Elementary. They just got new playground equipment and Jack is ready to break it in. Happy graduation big boy!

A new Wiggles fan

Well although the big girl really doesn't watch tv, she does love those 4 wacky guys that sing and dance. She is hooked on the DVD with Steve Irwin though too and loves all the animal songs. Her other favorite movie right now is 101 Dalmations which has been playing in our car for the last 3 weeks or so. She loves the dogs. School is out as of today and Jaesen and I went and watched his awards ceremony earlier this week and Jaesen was able to attend the last day of school festivities to include an ice cream social. That was great since there are so many other days he has missed. I was jealous though, doing my 12 hours in the postpartum ward at the hospital. Anyway, I will have two of the three in real school now, Jack to kindergarten and Tristan moving on to 2nd grade, time is just moving way too quickly for me. Happy Summer!!!!!

Our new friend

This beautiful hawk landed on our fence and I was able to get a picture of him through the blinds and the screen porch. He was looking for his lunch and with all the lizards, frogs, turtles and fish I am sure he got a nice lunch. I just thought he was magnificent.

Mean Merlin

The video says it all. Weezer sent our dogs a present in the mail. It's a bucket and you freeze treats or peanut butter or toys, whatever the dogs like, into water and then set it up outside. Well poor Bailey couldn't even look at the treat because Merlin kept boxing her out and literally ate all the peanut butter out of the ice block. He was kind enough to leave her the apple slices though. For those of you who know Merlin you know how he gets his tongue stuck to the carpet or his leg. Well I was concerned with the extended licking of the iceblock that he might give himself some frostbite and be stuck with a tongue lolling onto the ground. Fortunately that wasn't the case (he might have tripped over it!). His tongue is probably raw though from licking so much ice :)

Another weekly update

Well another bit of time has flown by so thought I would give a synopsis of our week. It started on last Saturday morning when Tristan, who plays pitcher in baseball, took a line drive to the left eye. I knew right away and ran to get ice. He came out of the game put an ice pack on for maybe 5 minutes and he went back in to hit. Although he was sore we managed to keep the swelling and black and blue away. That night, Jaesen was working in the garage around 10:30 or so and heard someone in the laundry room, he called out to see who it was. Jack opens the door and starts peeing into the garage, slams the door and finishes peeing into the laundry room and dog water dishes. I woke up to a refreshing smell in the house which I later found out was an abundance of cleaner. Poor Jack, I don't think he had any idea where he was. I asked him the next day why he peed in the laundry room and he looked at me shocked and said "I didn't do that mommy." I said "yes you did honey don't you remember Daddy making you help clean up." He stopped and thought for a minute. Oh yeah, he says, I did that. "Why?" I ask. "Well I really had to pee." So the next day we went up to Georgia to Wild Adventures, they have a water park, animals, roller coasters. It was a lot of fun. Everyone rode coasters and had a blast. That afternoon we went to the water park and my Dad, Jaesen and the two boys went to the wave pool. Karen and I were sitting in the shade while Savannah napped and I commented on how someone was getting rescued because I saw the lifeguard jump in. So we watched and then saw poor Tristan being rescued. It turned out he was bobbing (safely) in the waves having a great time when the lifeguard made him hold onto the red floaty. He couldn't understand why but did as he was told and was towed in. The wave pool had been shut down and everyone was watching. When he got in he contained himself until he got to me and then started to bawl. He was absolutely mortified. The head lifeguard agreed with Jaesen that the other guard was a bit overzealous but I guess our kids will never drown while they are there!! Yesterday I had a 12 hour shift in Labor and Delivery and saw two babies being born which was so cool. When I got home the boys were getting out of the shower when Jack came out stark naked, bleeding on his finger and his face all covered in hair. Jaesen just looked at him and asked if he had been shaving. "No sir Daddy." Well we could tell he had tried as his right side burn has an interesting pattern cut into it. Jaesen sat him down and told him he is just too young to actually try shaving yet. Next thing I know he'll be missing eyebrows or leg hair or something. This weekend we are going to take it easy and chill, especially with gas as high as it is. Happy Memorial Day!

Tree Frogs

I had to take a picture of all the tree frogs that like to live in our umbrella. This day there were 13 of them here and 5 in the BBQ. We have to constantly check the grill so we aren't making tiny frog legs when we grill. They make a heck of a racket at night, although I guess we are used to them by now.

The New Car

Well with gas prices continuing to rise Jaesen traded in the truck for a Subaru Forester, that will still tow his boat and has room for all of us. The kids loved it, especially the gigantic sunroof. Jaesen wants me to add that no he is not a tree hugger (yet!) but he is being rational in the face of insane gas costs. At any rate when he came home last night with the new car the kids went ballistic, they love it. We all went for a ride and had fun looking at planes, birds, clouds and the sunset out the sunroof.

The Girl Who is Afraid of Everything

I am not sure if Savannah uses the tactic of ear piercing screams to try and disable the dog or scare it away, but I must say that her high pitched squeal and fear of coneheads is driving us all crazy. Poor Bailey can't even maneuver through the house without crashing into something and here is this child screeching at her constantly. And not only is Savannah afraid of coneheads, but also tree frogs (which we have loads of on account of the pond behind the house), lovebugs (which happen to be mating right now), and her shadow (loads of fun in sunny Florida). We definitely have our work cut out for us.

It's been a busy 10 days

Wow, I can't really believe that it's May already. Last week I had my finals and I missed my straight A's for the semester by 1.11%. I was pretty bummed. It's amazing that I am so excited about my grades nowadays because it sure was never a priority before. It's a good excuse to ride Tristan about his grades though, although he seems to do just fine without my bugging him. Anyway so usually we have a week off until we start our next semester so it's relaxation time. I tried to pack as much as possible into one week. I had my final and then went on Tristan's field trip to the zoo. I was so exhausted by the end of the day. I had forgotten what hanging out with 15-20 7 year olds can do to you. Wednesday I claimed for my own and scrapbooked all day long which was long overdue. Thursday was Tristan's reading celebration at school. All the kids have a goal to get to for the year depending on their grade level. If they make it they get shirts and a BBQ outside and inflatables to play on and the high school cheerleaders, drill team, chorus and drumline all come. The mascot and owner of the minor league baseball team came out as well, and it was just a great time. The top readers in each grade get to a throw a pie at the principal so the kids have a ball. Then Tristan, Jack and Savannah all had doctor appts to go to Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, it was crazy. Savannah's ear had still not gotten better so we are on a new antibiotic, Claritin and I have to clean her ear and add antibiotic ear drops. They cultured it as well so hopefully we will see what's growing in there. Jaesen and I went on a date on Friday night and then it was the weekend. We never bother to slow down for that though. We had baseball on Saturday afternoon and Jack was allowed to play. There were several other teams that had 4 year olds on them and we were told well if they are a coaches kid they can play. So Jack played. He scored a run and hit a pitch that was thrown instead of just off the tee. Of course he also picked the grass in the outfield and played in the dirt, but it was great to see him finally able to play and his favorite part was drinking gatorade in the dugout. Then we were off to see our friends from Japan, the Smith's, that are here for another two months before heading up to Maine for awhile. We had a great time and the kids were all really good, except for Tristan letting their dog out the gate so he could swim in the pond! Sorry Greg! And now Bailey is having ear surgery because she whacked her ear on the table and it all swelled up. Poor girl, Merlin is lost without his mom. He is somewhere here moping about. That about sums up my week off though, makes me tired to just think about it. This week I start my OB rotation which I am really excited about!!!!

Kids really do say the funniest things

Jack has made us all laugh a lot lately so I thought I would share a bit so everyone else can laugh too. The lovely fish that he caught we finally cooked and ate the other night. He ate all his vegetables and rice and picked at the fish. He really didn't want to eat it. I had him try a bite but then he kind of slid it around his plate. Finally he looks up at me and says Mom, I don't think I want to go fishing anymore. I said "Why baby you had a lot of fun with Dad." He said to me "Well I don't like to catch them because then they have to die." Jaesen assured him that they would no longer bring any fish home, with Jack it's just catch and release. It sure was a good redfish though! Today I pick him up at school and as usual ask him what he had for lunch. "I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but I didn't like it." Why, I ask. "Well it had bones in it and I don't like my peanut butter with turkey bones." I almost drove off the road trying to contain the laughter. I tried to explain about crunchy peanut butter but am not sure he fully believes me. And then of course there was the day where he made up a principal of his school named Jack Mennack Menena. Menena is his really first name though according to Jack Riley. He always hears Tristan talk about his principal and so he thought he might need a principal too. Tristan has been doing his baseball and in the last 2 games has hit 3 homeruns and one triple. His last game though he couldn't field for anything, and even standing on his own two feet was difficult. It was running through the team, somebody must have slipped something into the water cause our team sucked! Savannah is running now but obviously not quite fast enough as she has had two bite marks to the face this week at school. We are counting down the days until the Grandmas come to help out this summer and the kids can take a break from the daycare drama.

Jack on Trapeze

well I just had to add this one too, Jack did so great on the trapeze, I think he has found his calling. Of course having no fear helps too!!! I didn't get back on the trapeze this time, I chose to relax and watch Wacky Jacky do his thing.

Spring Break Vacation

Well for spring break we decided at the last minute to head to Club Med Sandpiper again down in Port St. Lucie, FL. We got a heck of a deal on a two bedroom suite so we couldn't resist. The kids were so excited to go back and saw a bunch of the same counselors from our last trip at Thanksgiving time. They had loads of fun in their clubs and Jack really excelled on the trapeze this time, hanging by his knees by the last day. Savannah was in a Wild West Show and both boys were in the Hip Hop Show and the Circus Show doing the "Swing of Death". Jaesen played some golf and I even joined him for 9 holes one day and we had a blast. I hung out by the pool a lot and drank pina coladas and ate some good food. I was just so excited that I didn't have to clean a room or make a meal. I walked around a lot taking pics of the kids doing their activities. Tristan really took to rollerblading this time and we bought him a pair when we came home. Jaesen even did some fishing at the resort and caught a pretty big fish that he took to the kitchens to have them cook. All in all it was a successful trip and very relaxing which is what we were looking for. It was back to the daily grind of school and work once we got home. Jaesen starts flying this next week and I have two weeks left in this semester before starting summer session which is OB and pediatrics. Jaesen has had a mild week this week and took Jack fishing today so they could spend some good time together. They had a blast and caught a huge redfish. Jack was just ecstatic about it all. Then he swapped kids and took Tristan for some night fishing, we will see what they catch. Sorry Gran, you no longer have the biggest fish, that honor goes to Jack who helped reel in this whopper!

Happy Easter

Well another Easter has come and gone. This year all the kids were able to hunt eggs which was pretty cute. Our church had a great event that included a great puppet show, songs, loads of crafts (we now have a couple more decorated frisbees, sand art, necklaces and stained glass art projects to decorate with) and of course a huge egg hunt. Each of the boys (who I wasn't able to get pictures of) had more than 50 eggs and each found a prize egg which entitled them to something extra. Tristan chose another stuffed animal much to his Dad's delight as he is trying to get rid of them, and Jack chose a race car, big surprise. Savannah found her first egg and sat on the ground trying to open it for several minutes and when she got it open realized there was something shiny inside, candy!!! She got about ten eggs and all and had fun carrying her basket around. She didn't like the easter bunny though and wanted to stay far away. Jaesen and I were both feeling yucky that day but were bound and determined to finally go on our date night that had been continually postponed. He got us reservations at Ruth's Chris for that night and John and Jackie watched the kids. It was great, he had champagne waiting for when we arrived and we had a cozy little booth. I ordered the steak and lobster tail and I ate a total of 6 bites of food before the bottom fell out on me. I hurried to the bathroom where I was violently sick for 10 minutes. Jaesen paid (of course they had just uncorked our lovely bottle of wine which we couldn't drink), what a waste of a night! He got me home, put me in a hot bath and to bed with a 104 fever, it was awful. We didn't make our brunch the next day either which broke the boys hearts, but there was no way we could go anywhere. So it has been a wonderful weekend, I only hope next weekend is better, but then again, if you throw up in the bathroom at Ruth's Chris, I don't think there is anywhere to go but up. Easter morning was pretty funny. Savannah discovered jellybeans and horded them. We threatened to take them away and she said no. The dogs got plenty too so everyone was covered in the general sugar high. Jaesen meanwhile replanted our front flower beds and they look awesome, but it took all day so guess it was okay that we didn't get to brunch after all.

And Baseball Season Begins

Well last Saturday was opening day for baseball. Let the chaos begin. Tristan is already doing great though on the team, not using the tee at all and hitting like a champion. Jack is practicing with the team since he missed the cutoff age by a month and a half. Next year he'll be ready! Savannah is walking all over the place and just got over having a lovely fever of 104. We have another game tonight and then all the weekend festivities that go along with Easter. Jaesen's dad has been here for several weeks and his mom flies in tonight for her chance to squeeze all the kiddos. I promise I will post a picture of our beautiful new screen porch just as soon as I stop drinking margaritas on it! :)

Our fun Saturday at Ollie Koala's

Well since Jaesen took Tristan camping this weekend I had to find something to amuse Jack especially. He took it hard that he didn't get to go. Fortunately he is quick to recover especially if I announce we are going somewhere "fun". So I thought we would check out this new place called Ollie Koala's that I had heard about but haven't yet gone to. First of all though the weather here has been less than desireable. The winds were actually steady at 30 mph and gusting to over 55 so the drive became quite exciting. We had to go over a big tall bridge and let me tell you what, it was a bit on the unnerving side. The waves from the river were actually hitting the side of the bridge on occasion. We finally arrived at the spot and it is one of the cleanest indoor play areas I have ever seen. Savannah was walking all over the place and she finally got brave enough to let me help her up into the climbing structure and it was all over, she absolutely loved it. She was walking, crawling, making new friends and having a great time. We came down for a break and to have some water and the power went out. It had gotten so windy that it actually blew down the power poles in that area and all the power went out. Of course Jack didn't understand why we couldn't buy any food or play any games. The staff was really cool though and handed out coupons for a free large pizza, four drinks and a $5 game card. I thought that was way above and beyond so we will definitely go back. We stayed and played in the structure for a bit longer but Savannah was getting really tired and finally was laying on the floor whimpering and throwing a fit. Jack tripped over her head and fell on her. It was at this point that I decided it might be time for us to pack up and head to the safety of our car seats. Everyone was okay, no permament damage done. Other than that Savannah is all over the place walking but is in that horrible stage of falling down and smacking stuff, she had her first major mouth bleed last night and with as much blood as there was I was expecting a lot worse, but she is a champ.

RaceDay!!

And today was phase I of the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby Races. Jaesen arrived home just in time to get the boys going on what designs they wanted for their cars and then cut them down. He had them help sand and paint and today we raced. Tristan came in first in every race but one and that one was so close it had to be run twice. In the end he came in second, not too shabby for his first year designing and racing. Jaesen had a lot of fun too, big surprise. And when he isn't hard at work on pinewood derby cars he is adding a screened in porch to the backyard. And mind you it isn't just screen, there is a knee wall running around and today he ran electrical (only got shocked by his dad once), there is a high speed door and then he's going to lay tile down, stucco the outside and put the rock facing on like our front. Maybe I can talk him into having a margarita machine put in out there too! Well if he did that he might not see me until the heat and humidity drove me inside again, sometime around late June or so. Savannah has waited until Daddy's arrival home to really launch into her walking and does a lot of it on her own, but I got some video of her holding onto Jaesen today at the race. She is doing well, ears are still sort of bad so we are watching her. Baseball season has started and Jaesen is an assistant coach. We are pretty busy right now. I am just not sure that he will have time to go back to work.

Jaesen is home at last

And after all the waiting, Jaesen is finally home. I have to say it is really weird to have him here. I actually ran to the store to grab something and didn't have to take all of the kids, that was strange. We are all still getting used to having him around and it definitely takes a load off of me to have the other half of tag team Yerger here to reinforce rules, etc. Savannah is doing well with the readjustment and thinks he is funny, still not too sure but figuring it out. Right now we are just taking it slow and easy and having fun with each other. It has been a great weekend so far. Tristan wants to take Jaesen for show and tell and Jack wants a continuous piggy back ride. Life is good here at our house!

Love you Mom!

Mom, just want you to know I am thinking about you, hoping you are home soon out of the hospital. I love you and I wish I was there!

A Very Bad Dog!!!!!

Oh, this is a very bad dog! If you see him, don't love on him. That is Jack's Valentines Day candy box sitting there on the carpet. It was still wrapped in cellophane when we left home this morning. Now it is torn up, chewed up, licked on and laying on my kitchen rug. Poor Jack, he will be oh so very sad. I can hear him now. Merlin I am not your friend anymore, you are a bad dog and noone loves you. Merlin says, I thought it was my chocolate box! Oh what a very bad dog!

The ER Staff Loves Us!

Well two weeks later and we were back in the ER again. This time it was for Savannah. She had been out of sorts for about a day, but nothing overtly wrong with her. I laid her down for a nap about 4 and when she woke up I thought she was warm but passed it off as she had just woken up. About 15 minutes later, it seemed much longer since she was shrieking at the top of her lungs, I felt her head again and she was still hot. I got the thermometer that runs across the forehead and took hers, it read 105.9. Okay I am a moron, I can't even use the dumb thermometer on my kid. I went the other direction, 105.7. Okay, now I feel even more stupid. I ran it across my head, 98.8. Now I was slightly alarmed. I ran it on her again 105.9. Okay, now the grilled cheeses were burning but I needed another thermometer. I quickly flipped the sandwiches and started rooting in every cabinet, no thermometer. I am a mother, I should have more than one stupid thermometer! Finally in Jaesen's undersink cabinet I found one. Of course it was there, because he really needed the extra thermometer while he was gone. So the poor girl had to have her temp taken the other way and in the short time she would let it stay in position it read 104.9. I yelled at the boys to scarf down their grilled cheeses, tried to call a babysitter. Who was I kidding? It was 615 on a Friday night, not a soul available, so lucky me I got to drag 3 kids to the ER for what I was sure was going to be a banner night. We spent 5 glorious hours there, getting urine samples, xrays, blood drawn, throwing up (her, not me) and trying to get an IV into the poor dear. She was a great patient though and as long as I sang to her she was fairly calm. I only wish the seat Jack was in had a seatbelt, he was up and down and up and down I was ready to smack him. All in all the boys did great and we watched cartoon movies that they had on the tv. Finally just before midnight we left with the diagnosis of a virus, keep a close eye on her and keep her hydrated. She is just back down for a nap, but her fever has almost gone and that is huge. Now all of my kids have been seen at this ER, what an accomplishment!

One Year Anniversary and Savannah's Predicament

Well this weekend was our one year anniversary here in the US. I have to say that I still am having culture shock back into my "home" culture. I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would love Japan as much as I do and never thought I would say that I want to go back. I only hope that we are able to go back again so Savannah can see where she was born and do all the things that she will hear her brothers talk about. We came home on February 3, 2007. It was a long process that took exactly 24 hours from leaving the Navy Lodge to arriving at the airport in Jacksonville. I just remember sitting in baggage claim staring at our two carts of luggage, the 3 kids, it was about 11 at night and just wishing for a limo to pick us up. Instead Jaesen and I each drove a car to our hotel, took the dogs for a quick walk and headed off to Denny's at midnight to eat. I have to say that I did miss Denny's for a quick bite to eat at any time day or night. Now as we are waiting on Jaesen to come home from Iraq I just think how fast this last year has gone. Savannah is just about walking, her surgery did her wonders. The boys are each progressing at an alarming rate. Jack is excelling in school and Tristan can devour a book in one night. They are both so athletic (they get it from me you know!) and I started nursing school. What a crazy life we lead. And on that note the other morning Savannah was crying, when I found her this is what she loooked like. Instead of helping her I ran for my camera, it was really too funny to pass up. I don't know how she did it, but she got herself good and stuck.

A chocolate pudding facial

Well, who says it couldn't be good for you? I gave Savannah pudding for dessert last night topped with a little whip cream. At first she didn't know what to make of a whole bowl of something just for her on her tray. She got over that fast, by the end it was in her hair, on her neck, down her shirt, under the tray, chocolate pudding was everywhere. The dogs got their fair share too, in fact they were licking each other last night, Savannah might have patted each of their heads. It sure was good amusement for me, to watch her though, then just stripped her down and stuck her straight into a tub.

Another boring Saturday for us!

I sat sipping my coffee this morning thinking about the workout at the gym in an hour or so and did I want to shower there or at home? Should we get the boys some haircuts today? It's raining outside so maybe we will have a movie day. Ahhhhhh, but nothing is ever as it seems at our house. Just when you think you have your day sort of planned out the unexpected happens. Today that meant Jack. He decided to run up the stairs. I know what you are saying, that doesn't seem so bad. Well it wouldn't have been bad except for the fact that he came up under the handrail and never stopped moving his legs, thus he came up right under the corner of the rail and it connected perfectly with the top of his head. It laid him out flat on his back. I casually got up as he wasn't spurting blood from the top of his grape, but when I got to him could already see the blood starting to run down his forehead. While Tristan ran around helping me get towels and got dressed, Savannah decided it was perfectly appropriate to try and sit on top of Jack. God I love my house there is never a dull moment! So I ran to at least brush my teeth so I wouldn't kill the nursing staff with my morning breath and lo and behold we were off the ER. Once there I found out to my amazement that Jack had never been to the ER here. Surely I thought they must be wrong, but they assured me that their computer system was quite up to date. Fortunately they had the Disney Channel to watch and while I steadily fed Savannah snacks the boys waited for the doctor and watched tv. Two staples later we are at home where a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and "smarshmallows" makes everything better. And to think it's only 1000. Maybe I'll go back to sleep.

Savannah's surgery

Well the poor thing finally had tubes put in yesterday. We left the house at 515 which was absolutely painful. I thought she would be so cranky since she hadn't eaten anything, but she actually did fairly well (well if you consider screaming at me from 0300-0400 in the morning okay). We got to the hospital and got all settled and they finally took us down around 645 and once we got all the details sorted out they took her around 730. By 0800 she was screaming mad and wondering where I was so they took me back and I just rocked her. She was a champ, although the doc said her eardrums nearly exploded from being so full of mucous and fluid. We stayed at the hospital for our required 2 hours which was painful since she just wanted to get down and play. We finally left the hospital for home and just as I was drifting off in hopes of sleep when I got home I looked in the rearview to see a great representation of the Exorcist happening in the backseat. The poor dear was puking her toenails up. I called Mom (who thankfully had flown in to help out with the assorted children on different days) and told her to start a bath as we would be flying in as fast as the car would go. I couldn't put the window down as I was afraid I would hurt or disturb her ears so I was overloaded with the pungent aroma from the backseat. She proceeded to throw up for a full 15 minutes but it was thankfully all contained in the carseat. So she got a quick bath at home, ate a grilled cheese and headed off for naptime. Last night she slept 14 1/2 hours and is doing fantastic. The doctor said with how full her ears were she undoubtedly had trouble with equilibrium and hearing, so now is a new start for her. Anyway, we are all great, especially Miss Savannah.

Old pics of Australia Trip, May 2005

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