We all got together yesterday for a fun family cookout over at Heidi’s house, and the kids had a blast playing with all of their cousins, and the adults just had a great time hanging out and chatting. We brought our grill with us to cook the meat and then everyone pot-lucked all of the other side dishes. Heidi made her famously delicious (as always)Potato salad and an amazing cheese ball w/ crackers, Mel made the all time favorite Berries and Cream Salad, Holly made a yummy Tiramisu, Mammy made a delicious Pasta Salad and Chicken Salad, Pappy brought the steaks and chicken and made Rootbeer(of course!) and I brought Cherry Chocolate cupcakes, Chocolate Swirl bars and a pan of Funeral Potatoes. We all enjoyed the food and company immensely!

   Afterward we all went to the cemetery to visit Grandpa’s grave and leave some flowers. His gravestone had quite a few pots of flowers around it and looked very nice, especially the big pots of Mums (I love Mums!). There was a man playing the Bagpipes a few rows up from where we were and it was so appropriate for that moment, and beautiful to hear. Holly is so right, it’s one of the only instruments that really sounds best, and the most stirring with no other accompaniment, it stands beautifully on it’s own. Auntie Lorayne came shortly after we got there and brought some beautiful flowers too, and I got several really lovely pictures of her and my dad at the gravesite (I posted pictures in my gallery of everything). We stayed just long enough for Mathes (of course Mathes!)to trip, fall and smash a pot of flowers left on someone elses gravesite. I won’t tell you who accidentally tipped over a vase full of Gladiolas on another grave site, spilling ALL of the water onto the grass, but suffice it to say she was mortified! How embarrassing! (sorry Mammy!)

   And it was so much fun to see how many cowboy boots were on little feet that day. All four if my little ones had theirs on (Mathes ended up in sneakers later on so he could run) and both of Heidi’s wore theirs. Korby’s kids have boots too, they just weren’t wearing them then, but they love boots just as much as the other kids do! So here’s to cowboy/cowgirl boots, no wardrobe is complete without them! Well at least at my house that’s true!

   Dylan has been saving his money for over a year now and looking for a good motorbike to buy. He and Craig made a deal that whatever Dylan saved Craig would match him dollar for dollar. Well today Dylan found one, called, and the guy said that Dylan had better come quick if he wanted it since there were a couple of prospective buyers coming later in the day to look at the bike, so Dylan and Craig took the trailer down to meet the guy and to take the motorbike out for a test run. It turned out to be what Dylan and Craig was looking for so they bought it! It’s a Kawasaki 100cc (like I even know what I’m typing! I have no idea what all of the motorbike stuff means, I’m just parroting what I’ve heard them say!)and it’s in pretty good condition, especially for it’s age, and runs great! We brought it with us to the Memorial Day family get-together since it was already in the trailer and we were loading up the grill to take to Heidi’s anyways, so Dylan had a great time showing all of the guys his new toy, and they all had fun taking it for a quick ride up and down the street. Dylan is already making plans to do some cosmetic work to the body and stuff so he has a fun summer project and toy all in one! And he’s made all of the arrangements to take it camping with us this weekend so it should be fun! So now Craig is on the hunt for a motorbike for him……I don’t know why I didn’t see that one coming!

   Little Miss G is 14 months and has been crawling for a while and we have been trying to encourage her to walk for some time now. She can cruise all over the place, walking along while holding onto furniture, hands, walker toys, you name it. I just thought she liked crawling and that eventually she would decide walking was faster. Well apparently, unbeknownst to all of us, she already knows this and has decided not to share it with anyone! I have seen her on numerous occasions walking when she didn’t know she was being observed, and twice when she happened to turn and see me she immediately dropped to her knees and crawled the rest of the way, acting like nothing had happened. Another time she began to walk right in front of me, Craig and D and as soon as she realized what she was doing she got a look on her face like “Whoops, they’re looking at me, better crawl!” and she immediately dropped to her knees and crawled the rest of the way.

I realized she didn’t want us to know she could walk because then we wouldn’t pick her up and carry her all of the time. She thinks H is her personal taxi service, and H LOVES to carry G everywhere, but it’s probably because she thinks G is a big doll and lots of fun to play with. I must admit it’s a lot faster to be carried by H, or anyone else for that matter, than G could walk or crawl so it’s no wonder she doesn’t want us to know she can walk. I have tried telling everyone not to pick her up all of the time, but my request has fallen on deaf ears, and all G needs to do is sqeak and someone swoops in, picking her up and taking her wherever she wants.

It’s funny how with each baby they all began walking a little bit later, and a little bit later until here we are and G has the system all figured out. D walked at 9 1/2 months, C at 10 1/2 and each baby thereafter walked after their first birthday, so the more older siblings my babies have had the less need they had for walking. It’s nothing new, and our Dr. said it was the same with his children but it’s still pretty funny all the same. To think we’ve been fooled for who knows how long! Also, G really loves boots. She doesn’t care what size the boots are or who they belong to, she wants them on her feet so she can admire herself and see how beautiful she looks in them. I love the way she always makes me laugh, she knows she’s funny! And how she fits the determined spirit of a giant into her tiny little baby body is beyond me. What a cute little stinker!

   I stepped on a large splinter of some kind in the driveway this morning and it went right into the bottom of my foot in my heel. I tried to pull it out but the end broke off and the rest was stuck in my heel. It hurt no matter what when I walked on it so eventually I ended up going to the Dr. to get it taken out. It turns out it was a good choice after all since the Dr. was so surprised that not only was it in there really deep, but it had splintered into 3 pieces and had also gone straight in, not at an angle.

   He took a small curette and began to scrape and dig into my heel, and at first it wasn’t too bad. He got the first piece and I was just grimacing. Then he went for the second and I was really clenching my hands and trying not to vocalize my pain. He finally fished out the second and went in for the third and last piece, and it was awful. Listen, I had 4 of my 6 babies without so much as an aspirin, completely au natural, no epidural, no pain meds, nothing, and I’m not afraid of needles or anything like that, but let me tell you he was really digging, and digging and DIGGING into my heel! The tears were running down my cheeks and I was trying not to cry, so I finally asked him to please stop and numb it before he burrowed any further into my flesh, it really hurt! So he whips out a syringe and said “Ok, this will feel just like stepping on a needle” and he plunged the syringe right into the hole he was making and pumped it full of the numbing stuff. Whoa! He wasn’t kidding! I was surprised it hurt that much! In fact the first thing that popped into my head was wondering how those Heroin addicts were able to repeatedly shoot up in between their toes when my callused heel hurt this much, I couldn’t EVER do it!

   It numbed up really fast though, and in a matter of a few seconds I couldn’t feel a thing, so he picked up the curette and began to dig again with a lot more gusto, and within a minute he had the last splinter out. He said it was a good thing I had come in because it was in there so deep and far that it would have become terribly infected in a very short time, so this was the best thing. Then he swabbed some liquid nitrogen on a wart I had on the side of my foot, and said “This will really sting, so hold still.” Not even close! After my heel it was a piece of cake! It just felt cold and stung a tiny bit, nothing I couldn’t handle after the heel gouging! The Dr. was really very nice about it everything, even when I was whimpering, and I was glad I didn’t have anymore splinters in my foot! Like a total goon-chimp I took pictures afterwards of my heel, blood and all, and posted it in my gallery in case anyone wanted to see, but since it looks pretty gross I didn’t post any gory shots here so you can choose whether or not you wish to be grossed out or not. Enjoy!

   My Mom got a call last night from Auntie Patti saying she and Uncle Al were on the road and would be stopping by my house for a visit. They were staying overnight before they finished the last leg of their trip to pick up Mallory from the airport and then meeting Brennan and his girlfriend downtown for dinner. My Mom was over spending the night since she had come to watch the little ones while I was at the Monster Concert with D and C, which I truly appreciate her doing! Patti and Al got here a little after 8pm and we had a fantastic time visiting and catching up, trying to hear about everyones happenings and all of the news as we tried to cram it all in, staying up late and having way too much fun! We were thrilled that we all got to see them and have such a fun visit since the last time they were here was last March, and Patti came to stay at my house with My Mom to help take care of my children while Craig and I were at the hospital having Little Miss G. It was such a treat to have her here before and after I came home from the hospital, especially since we don’t get to see them often as we would like, and it’s so fun when my Mom gets together with any of her sisters! H was completely enamored with Auntie Patti, and kept telling everyone how Auntie Patti used to change her mama’s bum when she was a baby. It was such a novel concept to H that her Mom had once been a baby in diapers too.

   Dylan and Ciel had their end of the year “Monster Concert” tonight, they each played beautifully and had a great time as well! At the end of each school year all of the orchestra members from grades 5-12 get toether to play an end of the year concert and it’s so fun to hear all of the different skill levels playing and how far they’ve come. Ciel did a fantastic job, and we could actually see her for some of her performance this time. She has been working very hard to learn her violin this year and did wonderfully with each piece of music they played. Dylan was in front as usual since he’s the cello section leader so I got more pics of him since he was so much easier to spot. And the end of the concert a woman that Dylan and I had never met or talked to before came up and began gushing to Dylan about how she watched him the whole time he was playing, how he must love the cello to play so well, that he looked like he was having such a great time and that she had taken some really great pictures of him onstage. She then gave us her name, “Gwen something” and said to call her and she would give Dylan the pictures she had taken of him and then went on and on again about how amazing he was. It was kind of flattering and yet kind of creepy since she was a total stranger, but Dylan was very gracious about the whole thing and very polite too, thanking her for her kindness and such. I’m so proud of Dylan and Ciel for all of their hard work and the wonderful job they did playing tonight! I posted pictures from the concert in my gallery in case you want to see if you can pick them out in the sea of orchestra students. Both Dylan and Ciel are to the right of the conductor so good luck!

   We are still working on the house trying to get it ready to put on the market, but Craig is the one doing the majority of the remodel work and he has so little time to do it nowadays. We are in the home stretch and are close, but it’s been frustrating with the trips back East for work and the school assignments that Craig has to do. The good news is that we’re pretty sure Craig will be completely done with his Masters Degree by November, so he is taking the summer off to get all of the work done he can around the house before starting up again in the Fall to finish school. I am so excited for him to be done and to have his degree! He has mentioned doing his doctorate but that one is still up in the air and I don’t know if it will happen or not. Maybe, maybe not.

   I am really looking forward to house hunting though because I really enjoy touring homes and seeing what’s out there and finding the right one for us. We don’t want to start looking at houses until our own is ready for the market, we’re trying to focus on this right now and get it done so we can move but we are checking out some areas and info on some homes for sale here and there, especially in the neighborhoods we want to live in. I am very excited about finding a larger home since ours is bursting at the seams. I love this house, I really do, and I will be very sad to leave it since it has been such a good place for us and given us very little trouble, but I am looking forward to more bedrooms and bathrooms since we are sadly lacking in both of those here. Our little family grew faster than we thought into a large family and our needs have changed too. I am desperate for my own sewing room/space and I am really hoping to find one that’s not in the basement since I want to be accessible to the kids while I am working on a project so we’ll have to see if that one works out or not.

   Oh, and a big thankyou! to all of you that wrote me about the Baby Change’n Bathe, I really enjoyed what you had to say and it was so fun to read your thoughts. Keep them coming! Yea or nay? You tell me!

   Well, the Dr. says it’s asthma and set us up with a nebulizer for Mathes and Noah. And the best part about it, our insurance bought it for us so we can have continous care for the boys and have the right medication at hand without having to run to the ER every single time. It’s such a relief! It comes with a childrens fishy face mask which both Noah and Mathes decided to model in the pictures below while I explained to them both that they would have to wear the mask to get the special medicine to help them breathe better sometimes, prompting Noah to ask “So fish face means Asthma?”. Here’s hoping they don’t hate the “fish face” too much.              

   In talking with several family members I was amazed at the amount of asthma that is prevalent among my siblings, nieces, nephews and in-laws, I had no idea and I greatly appreciated their candor and willingness to pass along information. With that said, a special “thankyou” to everyone that shared their thoughts, suggestions, experiences and knowledge from their own personal dealings in this, it’s so very appreciated and I’d love to hear more! 

    We took the kids to the park today for some fun and a picnic supper, and they loved every minute of it! We’re always trying to spend time together as a family since Craig is so busy with work and school and this was made even better with the fantastic Spring we are having with all of the warm weather so we were taking full advantage of it. There was a covered pavillion with tables so we could sit in the shade while we ate our supper, and the kids hurriedly munched then ran off to play some more, leaving Craig and I actually able to sit by and talk to each other, which never usually happens when we’re wrangling the kids so it was a nice bonus! They had such a great time playing that when it was time to leave we had to carry some of them to the car kicking and screamimg the whole way. Proof of a good time, but hard on the ears!

 It was seventeen years ago today that my horse Dusty died and I’m amazed that much time has really passed. I was 17 years old, a junior in High School, and I loved that horse more than anything. It was such an awful and unexpected loss, but I am grateful for the truly happy memories of the fun I had riding him and the many hours I got to spend with him. I especially remember the Black & White Days horse show we rode in the day before he died where we won the all-around champion ribbon, even beating my riding instructors daughter. It was so much fun and Dusty was at his absolute best, looking so elegant and easily responding to each request I made in the ring. That day definitely ended on a high note with our win and I look back on it with such happiness that I was given the opportunity to compete with him at least once. I am surprised at the amount of emotions I have from writing about it after so many years, but it was such a terrible day and I was so heartbroken that I had lost my perfect horse that I don’t mind the few tears that this brings.