Busy & Fun Weekend!

Sometimes I have to ask myself . . . Where did the weekend go???

We had a busy yet fun weekend full of food, parties, excursions, and motorcycles! We started off on Friday by going to the 2nd Annual Dad's Club Grillin' and Chillin' event at Grant's school followed by Emily's 1st Birthday Party at a nearby park.

Saturday morning I got up and drove to Cincinnati to the new Ikea store there. I picked up my mom and we were off to buy Evan some new furniture for his room. After shopping for over 3 HOURS at Ikea (that store is super addicting) I met up with my best friend Linda for dinner. On my way home I found out that my sister-in-law Stacy and her husband David had driven their Harley Davidson's to our house. So we all hung out by the firepit with our neighbor Pam until the wee hours of the morning.

By Sunday it was time to unload my car and start putting together Evan's bed, nightstand and bookcase - but before we could finish, we decided to go to the Harley Davidson store. So, Shawn took the kids in his car and I rode with David on the back of his Harley. Now I've never been much of a motorcycle fan, but I have to say that after this ride (and seeing my sister-in-law ride her own) I'm officially hooked. Someday, Shawn and I will have our own - but until then, I shall live vicariously through my Stacy and David . . . as will my children!!! When we got home, we finished putting together Evan's room, then it was off to life group for the remainder of the evening!

Shawn's DJ/Karaoke company (Grasshopper Entertainment) provided the music for Grillin' & Chillin' - he's also a Dad's Club member, so this was a perfect event for him and all the kids loved it!

Here are some of the Dad's Club members "Grillin'"

Our favorite principal Mr. Miller is the one waving while serving up the food.

An early shot of some of the kids on the playground (Grant and Blake have on the striped shirts on the left). I had to take most of these pictures early on because we couldn't stay the whole time, we definitely didn't want to miss . . .

Little Miss Emily's 1st birthday party which was going on at the same time as the above-mentioned event. This picture cracks me up, it's like she's telling Lauren "give me that cupcake - NOW"
Emily was sharing her birthday party with her sweet twin cousins Lauren and Jillian who also just celebrated their 2nd birthdays.
Jake (Emily's big brother) and Blake are joined at the hip lately. They both attend the same school, and I also watch Jake and Emily on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after school - so prying them away from each other when they get together can sometimes be a difficult task! ;o)
This was also a funny night because Blake has always called the sweet little princess you see here his "wife" - but now I think he believes girls have cooties or something because every time he saw her, he would tell Jake that they had to run and hide because his "wife was here". Guess in this instance, his ice cream was more important than running from her!
Aunt Stacy on her Harley Sportster
The boys decided they wanted to start riding motorcycles too - but Harley doesn't make kid-sized bikes, so I guess these Honda's will have to do!
If my kids were younger, I probably would've bought one of these Rocking Cycles. They rode these for quite some time while chowing down on the free popcorn, soda and monster-sized gumballs (which are currently in their mouths in this shot) the Harley Davidson store provides.
I guess Grant and Blake figured that if I got to ride on Uncle David's Harley Electra Glide for real, they could at least sit on it before we left the store!
The finished product of my labor - literally! Evan's new bedroom. Here is his new bed and nightstand . . .
and here is the bookcase! Next time I'm either paying someone to put it all together or I'll wait until Shawn is around to make him do it all! He put this bookshelf together in minutes while it took me - well, we'll just say it took me a loooonnnnnggggg time to do the nightstand (the bed actually wasn't that hard).

It's been a VERY good day!!!

Well, despite a fairly "blah" weekend - it's been a great Monday! The pictures below tell the story, so feel free to follow along...

This is Evan's bed/desk. He's been asking for a "floor bed" for some time though - not because he doesn't like this bedroom set, but because he happens to have the warmest room in the house, so he's been pretty hot all summer sleeping that close to the ceiling. We put this set on Craig's List and Lilly Classifieds and it sold this morning!!! We disassembled it this afternoon and they picked it up just a few hours ago. Evan is currently sleeping on his mattress on the floor until we get . . .

This bed from Ikea in Cincinnati this weekend. It's a really cool platform bed in black - which will coordinate with the black accents in his room and his dresser/mirror we kept from the set we just sold.

It was also a "thumbs up" day for Blake b/c he finally got a new battery for his Gravedigger Monster Truck. When Blake is happy, mommy's happy!!!

I personally don't understand why people spend a ton of money on bikes and such - guess you have to be a true die-hard cyclist/fanatic to want the creme de la creme. For example, the bike trailer you see here is called a Burley D'lite and they cost around $550 brand new (no, we didn't pay that much for it). So when we put it on Craigs List yesterday, I never thought we would actually sell it, much less get the $ we were asking for it - but we got a call today and as of 90 minutes ago, it is also SOLD! However, when the guy buying it came to pick it up - we had about 15 people come running to our house to see what was wrong. Why you ask?????.....

Because this is what showed up at our house! Who needs a trip to the firestation, just sell a bike trailer and they'll come to you! Grant was pretty excited! Blake was too - but he refused to get close enough to check it out - pretty funny actually.

Grant asking one of the firemen "what happens if I push this button..."

Grant, our neighbor Ian and one of the firemen. Not the greatest picture - those reflective stripes on the firetruck REALLY reflect with or without the flash!!!

All the neighborhood kids who came out were getting a personal inside tour of the firetruck, and Grant just wanted this fireman to buckle him into the back part of the truck.

"That's a wrap folks, I'm outta here!"

Throwback Thursday

Have you ever just been browsing through all your pictures, and all of a sudden it just hits you that your kids are growing up???

Well, since I really don't have any new pictures or news to post about, I decided to post just a few pics from when the kids were small-er!

Enjoy your day/weekend!!!

November of 2002, Evan and Grant loved getting baths in our jetted bathtub - they called it their "hot tub".

February of 2003. Millions and millions of dollars spent on the toy industry and Grant plays with coasters - guess they taste good too!

Halloween of 2003 - Tigger and the race car driver!

July of 2005 - Sometimes it's just easier to bathe them (Blake in this picture) in the kitchen sink.

Still one of my favorite Christmas card option pictures - this was December of 2005.

Random Monday Thoughts and Pictures

RANDOM THOUGHT:
I've been "sick" for about 1 1/2 weeks. It was bad at first with the flu, but I've gotten gradually better - which is a good thing! I'm usually a VERY SLOW healer. For example, if I get a mosquito bite and I scratch it, I'll have the bite and eventually the scar to show for it. They say scars show character - but I hate my scars! It's one of the downfalls of being a Type 1 Diabetic - we just don't heal as quickly as the normal person. Whether it's sickness, injuries, insect bites, etc... I hang onto it longer than the average person.

So why this preface you ask? Well because I've been so tired lately that I finally decided to pony up to my Endocrinologist - I was WAY behind on seeing her and decided it was time to fess up to all the things I haven't been doing lately and find out if anything else was wrong with me (cuz' I knew something else was wrong - I just wasn't sure I wanted to know what). But the fatigue won out and I just needed to know why I was so tired all the time. I thought it was because my 3 boys are just hard to keep up with! So I called Dr. Ayers and they told me they didn't have any appointments until February. I thought, "whew, good - don't have to listen to her yell at me for 5 more months", but after I left a message with her medical assistant, they called me right back and said "you need to come in in the next few days"! Darn, I thought - oh well, had to deal with it sooner or later - and I wasn't really sure I could deal with the fatigue that much longer anyway. So I went to the lab the day before my appointment to get all the bloodwork done that they wanted, and that was all it took to tell us the real story of what's been going on. Now granted, I have NOT taken very good care of myself lately, but I don't think I realized (or more truthfully, wanted to admit) how quickly things can go downhill if you're not careful. I'm sure other people with chronic illnesses can relate to wanting to "ignore" the illness - it's almost a quest to at least "appear" normal and act like the illness just doesn't exist. I won't bore you with all the details, but I was shocked (as was my Dr.) to see how low my Thyroid function is, and that that is what has been causing my extreme fatique the last few months. So, I guess it's no biggie that I'll be on the Thyroid medication for the rest of my life - I'll just add it to the list with my insulin. I've also been instructed to take a "kidney protection" medication so I'm not asking for a kidney donation from any of you in the near future - haha. I guess this is my wake up call, so it's back to testing my blood sugar 4 times a day (cuz' I'll admit I've been REALLY bad about that lately) and eventually I'll be able to get my energy back up in about 2-3 weeks with the medication according to my doc, and be able to get back into my exercise routine. Most people say exercise rejuvenates you, but for the past 6 months, it would completely wear me out - I would just want to sleep after a spinning class, so I'm hopeful I get back to "normal" as quickly as possible and won't need 2 naps a day just to get through the day!!! Bottom line? We don't always get the "wake up" calls we want, but at least we get a second chance at making it better - no matter how big a pain it is to get it done!

RANDOM PICTURES:
So below are some pics I've been meaning to post, but just never got around to doing it. I hope you all enjoyed the Summer, but honestly I'm really looking forward to the Fall - it's always been my favorite season!!! And since I'm a huge college football fan - I have to give a shoutout to my team here! GO BUCKS!!!

Evan washing Shawn's 4Runner - I just can't wait until he can cut the grass!!!

Blake would rather wash his bike . . . or me and the camera anyway!

This cracked me up the other day. Grant comes downstairs in his unbuttoned dress shirt and with his hands in his jean shorts pockets and says "Look Mom - I look just like Dad" - I was laughing so hard! If you've seen my husband, you know where Grant gets it from!!!

Being sick, I missed the big labor day weekend in Cincy for both our best friends' party and my nephew's birthday party - so I'm REALLY looking forward to going here in 5 1/2 weeks with...

Our best friends! Lake Rudolph Halloweekend 08' baby!!!

Blake's First Day of Pre-Preschool!

Today was Blake's first day of pre-preschool. I call it "pre" preschool because he still has 2 more years before he'll start kindergarten at his brother's elementary school. Either way, it was a new experience for us because we decided to switch schools on him this year from our home church to a different church closer to our house.

Blake was really excited this morning, he kept telling his older brothers that he was going to his new school (I think they got tired of hearing that by the 50th time he told them). We also thought this was a good move because now he can differentiate between school and Sunday school - as his MMO (Moms Morning Out) classes and Sunday school classes were always in the same room, and that tended to irritate him a little that he didn't see his school friends during church services.

Anyway, some of his really good friends go here too - so that was really enticing and exciting for Blake. He couldn't get out of the car quickly enough this morning. I decided to walk him in on his first day so I could take these pictures, but the one thing I'm really looking forward to is their drop off policy. You literally drive up to the door, and the teachers' aides all come out and get them out of your car and take them to their classrooms - that's gonna be really nice on cold, snowy or rainy days!!!

So here's to my Tuesday/Thursday 4 hour kid-free mornings!

Blake was so excited to be in his friend Caleb's class. Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Debbie.

The early birds catch the worm! Blake and Caleb were the first ones to arrive - they got "write" to work practicing writing their names.

The class!

Scissor's anyone?

We even got a picture of Blake's buddy Jake. Jake is in the class 2 doors down from Blake's.