Wordless Wednesday

Brandt goes to camp

Several people have asked me about the camp Brandt is going to this summer that I mentioned here. He is going to go to Carolina Creek Christian Camp. He will be gone for a full week, and he is very excited. They have so much fun stuff for him to do: blobs, tubing behind a speed boat, zip lines, archery, rifling, ropes course, zip line into the pool, etc. He can do everything there as long as he wants to, there is not an age limit. I love love love that this is a Christian camp and will hopefully help him strengthen his relationship with the Lord he has recently started. Carolina Creek had an Open House on May 3rd that we went to. It is only 1 1/2 hours from home so it is perfect. We were very impressed with the camp and the staff members. Here are a few pictures we took while there. It rained over 5 inches the morning we went so there was a lot of standing water which normally wouldn't be there.

The Entrance to Camp
A cabin he will sleep in

Zip line on the ropes course

Brandt going down the zip line into the pool

Their outside chapel...normally there wouldn't be water between the 2 decks.

Wordless Wednesday

Sisters: Me, Kristi, Kim

WOW! That is A LOT of numbers!

Kelly told me about a week ago that I was welcome to post to her blog anytime I wanted. Well, after me telling this story on her she may regret giving me permission just before her birthday!

That's right, today is Kelly's birthday. We all love her a bunch and she is a wonderful wife, mother, daughter, sister, etc. But rather than go on and on about all of that stuff, I think I would rather share a funny story from this morning.

On our way to Shipley's to grab a birthday kolache before dropping Bryson and Brennan off at our friend's house for the day, Bryson innocently asked Kelly, "Mommy, how many numbers are you?(3 year old speak for, "So how old are you, anyway?")." Kelly replied that she was 29 (I may get in trouble for divulging that, but she has been giving me such a hard time for creeping up on 30 this year that I figure she has it coming. . .). Bryson, without missing a beat, exclaims, "WOW! That is A LOT of numbers!" Of course we died laughing. Bryson always keeps us smiling. The boy just has something built into him that makes him realize what inflection and facial expression to use for maximum effect.

All kidding aside, I do want to wish Kelly a very happy birthday. She has been such a blessing to me and such a great mommy to our four wild, crazy, sweet, and loving boys!

We love you, Mommy!

Dustin & the boys

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

A few weeks ago around 9 PM the house was quiet, the kids had been in bed over 45 minutes and everyone was sound a sleep. Or so I thought...

My 3 year old did not start hysterically screaming, because he is very controlled crier and he goes to bed the second his head hits the pillow. He is always calm and collected. He didn't come sheepishly down the stairs, because he knows he is not allowed downstairs after he has been put in bed. When I got him calm enough to understand he didn't tell me he had put a marshmallow in his nose. Not my son! My boys never put things in their ears, nose, or mouth they shouldn't, as you can tell from this "Not Me" Monday post. Our 5 year old didn't have to be put under 2 years ago to remove a popcorn kernel from his nose from our $1 movie date. What kind of a mother doesn't watch her child close enough to prevent that? Who cares that it is pitch black in the theater and you are holding a then 1 year old in your lap and actually trying to watch the movie.

Ok, back to this story: I didn't sit and try to figure out how he could have gotten a marshmallow instead of trying to remove it from his nose. I obviously needed to help him 1st and foremost. I was just intrigued you see, we don't normally have marshmallows in the house. The 6 year old had a homework assignment to make 3D shapes out of marshmallows and toothpicks and his creations were drying on the kitchen table. But I have stealth eyes and he never could have snuck by me to get one. Hmmm.....

Ok, I had to get back to the task at hand. I didn't have him lay on the stairs and turn every light on to see in his nose. There would never have been enough light and all I would have seen was black. I wouldn't have been too lazy to walk out to the shop to get a flashlight. I didn't need that, I had everything under control. My heart wouldn't race when I couldn't see anything but black and assume he sniffed it so far up it wasn't visible. I wasn't thinking in my head "ugh, now we have to wake everyone up and waste $50 to go to Urgent Care, if these kids would quit putting things in their body parts it would feel like a raise". I would be way more concerned about his welfare than money.

I wouldn't have thought back on all the things they have put in their ears and nose, like cotton balls, goldfish, a shell, several popcorn kernels, a rolled up sticker, now a marshmallow because they would never do that! They way know better. A genius idea of blowing the nose covering the other nostril wouldn't have come to mind because I wouldn't have past knowledge that it works well most of the time. I wouldn't have been mortified when on the second blow out popped a sold BLACK squished marshmallow. Upon closer examination I wouldn't have discovered it wasn't a marshmallow after all but a small black foam cylinder that was from a Halloween craft my mother in law gave the kids oh 7 months before. You see I threw them all away about 5 months ago and my house is always so impeccably clean they could not have been missed.

Although the house was clean at that moment, I still have no idea where he found it. I hadn't seen one of those pieces in a good 3 months. The good news is Brandt's homework assignment was not harmed in the process. It was still whole the next morning when he took it to school.

Wordless Wednesday

ETA: Ok I am going to add a few words. lol

*As you can see he was not very cooperative. He kept trying to crawl off and wouldn't hold still. No matter what we did we could not get a smile out of him.*

Ten on Tuesday

Today was the last class day of the school year for my 8th through 12th graders. I have 7th grade through Friday, and elementary through next Wednesday. With summer so close on the horizon I am getting very excited. Here are 10 reasons I am ready for summer.

1. Spending all day with my kiddos
2. Free splashpad
3. Snowcones
4. $1 Movies
5. Playdates
6. NO alarm clocks
7. Vacation with a paycheck
8. Family nap time
9. Fishing/Swimming/Boating
10. Brandt going to his first ever, spend the night away from home camp

Watermelon fun

This past weekend we went to my parents' house to celebrate Mother's Day and both my sister's and my birthday. My grandmother brought over some watermelon, and Brayden and Bryson loved it. They went on the back porch and made a huge mess, but that is the fun of watermelon.
This was Dustin and my first attempt at digital scrapbooking. It turned out ok, but man is there a lot to learn. lol

"Not Me!" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Earlier this week when I was in my classroom, I did not get a call from the office that I had a sick child. I did not go down there to see my son Brayden throwing up into a trash can. As soon as the elementary assistant went to sit in my class until a sub could be called, my son did not tell me "momma, I ate my money". Not my 5 year old, he is way too old to put things in his mouth.

I did not panic, for as a mom to 4 boys I have to remain calm and level headed at all times. My mind did not race, and my heart did not stop when I realized he was referring to his Presidential dollar he had found on the ground 2 days earlier.
I did not barge into my 6 year old son's class during nap time and wake up all the other kids. The teacher would have been pretty upset with me. I did not turn and look at Brayden every 30 seconds on the car ride over to urgent care to make sure he was ok. For heavens sake he had already swallowed it and he wasn't blue so that would have been pointless?

I didn't have to wait forever in the waiting room with 2 squirmy kids (no really they called us back in under 2 minutes...pretty sure that is a record). First thing they did was check his oxygen saturation, and praise the Lord it was 100%...perfect! We didn't have to go to the other side of the building and wait 30 minutes to get x-rays taken of his insides; sadly this time we did.

The doctor didn't come into the room and tell me this was the 3rd case of a child swallowing something she had seen in 2 weeks. What is up with these parents that let their children around small objects that can be swallowed? I have never been so happy to see a clear x-ray. The doctor told us he must have thrown it up when it first got stuck in his throat.

When I asked Brayden if he had thrown up the money he did not say "I don't know, there was just lots of puke". How could he not know if this huge coin that is a little bigger than a quarter had came out of his mouth? Again, he is 5, so certainly he would know if it had or not.

*Apparently, at nap time he had put the dollar in his mouth, it had been in his pocket because he wanted to show his friends. He tried to reach in and pull it out and accidentally shoved it down his throat. When he found out he threw it up he was sad and said "now I can't show my friends because it is covered in puke". Like it would have been so much better had it come out the other end. He did have a spot in his left lung on the x-ray that the dr was concerned about. He evidently got throw up in it, but praise God it didn't turn into pneumonia.*

Happy Mother's Day

Today I feel so blessed to have 4 wonderful, sweet, loving, HEALTHY children. I am amazed that God chose me to be their mom, and I am not sure what I did to be so lucky. They each made me very sweet cards, and we had a great family day.

My sweet firstborn that made me a momma
My momma's boy

My little comedian that always keeps me laughing

My wonderful baby, really there has never been a better baby!

Wordless Wednesday

Brennan
Brandt, Bryson, Brayden

"Not Me!" Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. This is my first Not Me! entry.

A few weeks ago I did not send my 3 year old and 6 year to the bathroom in Sam's Club together. I was not too lazy to go with them. I didn't tell them to use the buddy system instead of going with them. I didn't sit at the table eating pizza and watching for them. That would be terrible, and no way would I do that!

It was not my 3 year old child that came out of the bathroom screaming with his pants around his ankles. It was not my child the teenage Sam's employee tried unsuccessfully to cover while he continued screaming. It was not my child everyone in Sam's turned around to stare at, and it was not me that tried to crawl under the table and hide. Whew, that would have been so embarrassing, and I am so glad that is was Not ME!