The Downside

Even though our vacation was wonderful in so many different ways, there is a downside to travelling: illness. It seems that after a trip, I have a tendency to get sick. This trip has proven to be no different. A couple days ago, I noticed that my muscles were really sore.  I thought it might just be stiffness from airplane travel, or my body protesting having slept in odd beds for over a week.  I was hoping it was just my body's way of protesting the two solid days of ironing I did when we got home - but, no. I got a bit nauseated, and my joints started to cry out along with my muscles.  Then yesterday it truly hit - a headache that defies words, pain in every muscle, joint, and even bone in my body, and fatigue that knocked me off my feet.  Thank goodness my husband knows how to order pizza with the best of them, or my family would not have had any dinner last night!

I think that next time I travel, I will be fanatical about hand washing and applying hand sanitizer.  At least I have many great pictures to look at while I lay in my bed and moan, so I can remember that I had a great time before I got home and got sick.

The last day in DC, Drew decided his legs no longer worked and he needed to be carried All. The. Time.

On a double decker narrated tour bus that took us through the city.

Me at the base of the Washington Monument.

My four men at Hershey's Chocolate World, getting a tour.

Andrew, wanting to smile at the camera, but having trouble looking up into the sun!

Mini Post Monday

• Go on and admit it...You figured that after a few posts "back blogging," that I had already given up, didn't you?? Ha!  Actually, I just went on vacation.  I know lots of bloggers schedule posts to publish while they are gone so there is no interruption to the blog, but quite frankly, I'm just not that organized! I barely got my family packed before we had to leave for the airport, much less wrote blog posts.
• I got to go to Washington, DC for the very first time!! I mean, I drove through it at night, on a bus, with my fellow Teen Missions friends on our way from Southern FL to JFK airport, but that doesn't count, okay?  It was amazing! Hopefully, I'll post lots of pictures soon. 

Me and my boys with statues of the George Washington family at Mt. Vernon.

On the steps of the Jefferson Memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.

• Did you know you can listen to audio books on a Kindle?  I may be the very last person with a Kindle to discover this! Upon Granny's suggestion, I got A Patriot's History of the United States for free with a trial membership to Audible.com and had it sent wirelessly to my Kindle.  I started listening to it last night.  It will be good to finally get a proper perspective of US history.  I never took a US history class in college, and let's face it - in high school, I was only concerned with finishing, not in actually learning anything!
• We got a new computer! I am typing this post on it, actually.  It is a desktop, which is going to take some getting used to for me, since I have used a laptop for the past 6 years.  But, my old laptop is dying, and it was time for a change.  The really cool thing about this new computer is that the keyboard actually has the "L" key! My "L" key fell off my laptop about a year ago and I managed to figure out exactly how to touch the empty space that should have been an "L" key just right to get an "L" to appear, but it is so very  nice to just type away without thinking about that.
• What are your summer plans? Since I went from school year, to swim lessons every day with preparing for our trip, to travelling, I feel like my summer begins today! I plan to go through ever square inch of my house this summer and purge, purge, purge as well as clean everything! I think every homeschooling mom can understand how things get put off in the cleaning and organizing area of life when school has to get done first.
• I'm sure I'll think of 17 other things to add as soon as I publish this, but those will just have to wait for another day! Have a great week!

Mini Post Monday

It's been a long time since I did one of these, but I am beginning to think that it might be the only way I will get posting on a regular basis again, so here goes!

• Did you know that if you put a raw egg in vinegar for 8 hours, the vinegar completely eats away the minerals in the shell leaving it the consistency of a balloon?
• The funniest thing one of my children has said in a long time, "Stop screaming like a Girl Scout in a cave!"

(Aaron - looking so much older than 7 year olds should be allowed to look. I'm strangely proud and sad all at the same time.)
• Why, oh why, do peanut butter M&M's have to be so good?
• We have been deep cleaning the boys' room and have come to realize that we have allowed them to collect way too many toys.  We are going to have to make some changes around here.

(Our first day of school pictures.)
• We are beginning our third week of school today!  Andrew still does not like the fact that I am spending so much more time focussed on his big brothers (leaving less time to dote on him), but he is getting better each day.  Aaron still "hates school," but Ethan is loving being "official" now!

(Andrew FINALLY gives all out smiles on a regular basis.  He has been our most serious kid by far, and getting him to smile in pictures has been like pulling teeth.)
• I'm trying to get back in the habit of exercising, but I'm having a really rough time with that!  I have always been an early riser who is ready to go to bed for the night by 9:00, but recently I have been having the hardest time waking up and have been able to stay up until 11:00 with no trouble.  Since the only time I have to get to the gym is early in the morning, this is making it very hard to get the exercise in!

(Ethan on one of our early morning hikes in Oregon.)
• Ethan officially weighs more than Aaron now.  Poor Aaron is so small for his age, and even though Ethan is the epitome of average (50th percentile on every measurement), he has still surpassed his "big" brother.
• I have beautiful pictures from our vacation to Oregon, and I hope to be able to post them soon.

(A view of Mt. Hood from the trail around Mirror Lake.)

Howdy Stranger

I didn't just have a baby, or go through a major illness, or go through a major life change.  I wish I could say I had a really good excuse for not posting in a coon's age, but alas, there is no good reason.  I did continue to add books to my finished reading list though...does that count for anything?

We recently got back from a glorious 2 week vacation to Oregon.  I just love the Pacific Northwest.  I really hope it is in God's plan for me to one day live there, because really?  I don't think I could ever get tired of views like this:

Or of having sights like these on my morning walks:

Isn't God's creation marvelous?  Normally all I see is suburban sprawl and green/brown shrub growth, so this trip was a real treat!

Less than a week after returning home, we started another school year.  I was excited, Ethan was excited, Aaron was not so much.  We are less than a week into the school year and there have already been tears, pouting, whining, complaining, and melting into blobby heaps on the floor at the mere mention of writing.  I was still thrilled about school in the 2nd grade, so I really don't understand all of this drama.  It could be a very long year if we don't find some way to motivate my oldest child.

Also adding to the commotion is my youngest, who does NOT appreciate having mommy's attention pulled away from him and suddenly showered on his brothers for hours at a time.  He is more than a bit jealous of me normally, but this week his jealousy has been off the charts.  We have done some lessons over the loud screams coming from Andrew.  Usually he is screaming the word, "ME! ME! ME!" over and over again.  I don't know where he gets that from...

Regardless of these issues, we are getting into a routine and personally I am glad to be back to some normalicy in my days.  Hopefully I'll be able to share more about my vacation and the goings on around the house with kids, school, and home improvement, too!

Sorry I haven't been here in a while...

...I've been busy. Wanna see what I've been doing? You do! Okay. I'll give you a glimpse. I've been...

feeding goats and sheep with my children...

taking pictures of my family with beautiful Mt. Hood in the background...

taking pictures of myself with beautiful Mt. Hood in the background...

discovering steamy, lost lakes...

hiking to waterfalls...

climbing to new heights...

having a little cheesy fun...

watching my children see the Pacific for the first time...

picking raspberries and marionberries....

and posing for family pictures at Multnomah Falls.

It's a rough life, but somebody has to do it.

Branson

So I have been gone for a while - literally! Our family took our summer vacation this last week to Branson, Missouri. Jerry's parents chose the location and then we all (2 of his sisters with their families and us) met them there. It's funny, we wouldn't have chosen the location ourselves, but we really liked it. We would even go back again! We stayed at this resort. The resort is the reason that we had so much fun. We think that we could go back with the boys and not even leave the resort other than one or two times to go into town. There was fishing, swimming, a lake, paddle boats, a playground - plus other things the kids weren't really old enough to enjoy yet. Each condo had two bedrooms, a kitchen, laundry, a living area, and a patio. For the four families, we had two condos, and it was quite comfy.


We all went to several attractions together. We went to a Chinese Acrobat show that was fascinating. The things these people can do!! We went to a musical called "Noah" that was really neat. They had live animals and mechanical animals that looked so real, and they stuck to the true account from the Bible. They added some stuff that isn't stated, but it wasn't anything that seemed like it couldn't have been part of the actual story. We also went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. That was interesting. They do a rodeo type show while you eat your dinner. The only catch is that they don't give you any silverware for your food. They serve soup, Cornish hen, pork loin, potato, corn on the cob, and an apple turnover. To be eaten with your hands. It was a bit messy, but Ethan was totally in his element. He loved having permission for once to eat with his hands. Then as our family of four, we rode a train, took a cave tour, did some outlet shopping, went swimming and fishing, and did a lot of driving! It would normally take about 7 1/2 to 8 hours for us to drive to Branson, but for us (with two young boys and a pregnant lady) it actually took about 9. Yeah, we stopped for a lot of potty breaks!


Here are some pics of our fun:


These were taken inside Talking Rocks Cavern. Ethan thought it was really cool to be in a cave, but Aaron was scared for the first half of our time in there.

The boys also had fun playing with play dough on the patio. Aaron here is modeling his fish that he made out of dough.

Overall, our train ride was a bust - it was boring. But one of the workers let Ethan put on his ha for this cute picture. I think he still looks so babyish here...such cute chubby cheeks!

This is all four of us on one of the dining cars on the train. I hate to say it, but the pink milk and snickers bars we bought the boys were the only redeeming things of the whole ride for them. And all that for over $80! We could have just gotten them the milk and candy at the convenience store on the way to the train and saved a lot of green...

We had fun fishing too. Believe it or not, this was my very first time to go fishing. My parents weren't really the fishing sort...Ethan did not want to hold the pole at all, but he played with the worms the whole time and was as happy as could be. Aaron caught the first fish of the day. It totally freaked him out when the fish first started to pull the line though and he was about to throw the entire pole into the water when I took it from him and brought his fish in! He was disappointed that we threw it back though. He really wanted to take it back to our room and cook it for supper! Notice Ethan holding up half a worm to show. Yes, he tore it in half himself.

As it turns out, we should have had someone take a picture of all four of us with Aaron's fish because after he caught it, the fish swam off and told all of his friends to avoid the worms and we didn't catch anything for the longest time. Even I as bored. Finally Jerry caught the one shown here - yes, there is actually a fish in that photo with us. Look really hard! Did you see it???

Finally, I reached the halfway point of this pregnancy this past weekend. Suddenly, my belly popped too. I am half sick of people telling me I have suddenly "blossomed." Okay, so I know they are trying to come up with a nice way to say that my stomach is suddenly twice as big as it was last week, but I am not a flower. I feel like I have exploded. I guess it is appropriate considering it is almost the fourth of July. My baby thinks he is a firework and needs to explode in size all at once! Well, it was bound to happen...