Not Much Luck Here

Okay here goes from beginning of vacation to present:

1. You all know Henlee was sick when we left and the PA prescribed a Sulfa based drug (which most likely Henlee is allergic to and she wasn't supposed to be exposed to the sun). I rebelled and did not give it to her. She was better by Sunday. Her poor thumb though began to look horrible. It had huge blisters and looked nasty. UPDATE: We saw Dr . Robbye yesterday for our 18 month well check and she gave us pencillin. Thank you Dr. Robbye. Henlee is in the 75% on everything.

2. I get sick on vacation. Started with a sore throat and one canker sore in my mouth on Wednesday. It all grew into huge canker sores and blisters in mouth by Friday. Running fever, couldn't eat or drink very well. Felt the worst every yesterday. UPDATE: Saw Dr. Robbye at the same time as Henlee. She have me some mouthwash that numbs my mouth so that I can at least drink a little and swallow a little yogurt or ice cream so I can take my meds(I wanted I diet plan that was fool proof, I guess I got it) and some anti-viral medicine. I think Henlee had Hand-foot-mouth and kindly gave it to her mother. Anyhoo, I am at least up to 75% today.

3. We got ready to pull out on Saturday from the coast and we had a flat on our 5th wheel. Thank goodness DW is always prepared and the other guys helped out and it was changed in no time. It was hotter than HADES that morning. We were all soaked and changed clothes before we left.

4. We got home Saturday afternoon around 4:30. I felt like junk. We carried in all the dirty clothes and sheets and towels. Need I remind you we were gon 8 days, 3 adults sometiems 4 and at least 2 sometimes 3 children were living in our trailer. Do the math girls. Lots and lots and lots of laundry. I knew that it would take me all day Sunday just to get a grip on things so I started on Saturday. I went to move the third load to the dryer and my utility room floor was wet. My washer went out. Not just a hose but leaking from the tub. So Sunday morning we load all the clothes up in my Mother's car and she does it for me. Now my Mom likes to do laundry but when my Mom says "that was a lot of laundry" you know it was bad. Oh and did I mention that I still felt like crap.

5. Did you notice there are still no pictures? Well, I called when I got back and they really don't know when it will be fixed. The pole is up but now they are waiting on the Electric Company. My kids will be graduating from high school but I will still be posting pictures of when they were 8 and 1.

Have a great week. I know I am looking up because I don't think I can go down any further.

Just my Luck

You know I told you we were going on vacation, leaving tomorrow. Well, yesterday Henlee starts running a fever (only symptom other than a little hoarse) and she has this cut/sticker red place on her thumb. So I quickly call the doctor this morning. Take her in, get antibiotics, sticker, if there is one, may come out in a few days, and her throat is a little red. I go pick up the medicine and it is a sulfa drug. I don't know that Henlee is allergic to sulfa drugs but I am and Reagan is. How much money you wanna bet that Henlee is too? Oh, more good news, this particular drug makes her more susceptible to the sun. GREAT!!! WE ARE ONLY GOING TO THE BEACH FOR 8 DAYS.

Editing

Goodness gracious. I think someone should have edited my blog before I posted it. I am totally embarrassed that I wrote hear instead of here. Bloggy friends out there, call and tell me when it is that bad.

I'm Leavin In A......

4-door Chevrolet pickup pulling a 5th wheel heading to Port Aransas for a week. Yea for me. Not as noble as spending a week doing missionary work in Honduras like my blogger friend Shelley (read about it here http://haleshousehold.blogspot.com)/ or as romantic as going to the Bahamas with my husband for our anniversary like Betsy (read about it here http://killianfamilynews.blogspot.com/), but I am headed with dear friends and family to do nothing that I really don't want to do and a lot of the things I do want to do - like read, visit, watch the kids be kids, drink fruity drinks, and worship the sun. I don't know about you but trying to make sure everyone has enough underwear for 8 days is quite a chore.

As you can tell, there are still no pictures and that equates to still now internet service at home. They are now blaming the electric company. Maybe by the time I get back, they will have all the kinks worked out.

Reagan is at softball camp this week in Midlothian. My cousin (who played softball for the Texas Aggies and also played on the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Softball teams) coaches in Midlothian and is having her camp this week. Ms. Reagan insisted on going even though her Mom was a little unsure. For one, she is staying up there with people she knows but it is not like she "knows" them if you get my drift. Secondly, she doesn't know anyone else at the camp besides Jennifer. I am astounded that she was this confident. I am very proud of her.

Another Reagan moment I have to brag about happened this past weekend at the local triathlon. Reagan did it and was very proud of herself. She did great in the swim (came out 2nd) but the transition (or as her Daddy calls it the pitstop) did not go so well for her. She fell way behind. Anyway, she finished and was proud of herself. The official accidentally named her as the 3rd place finisher in the girls her age division. Reagan was very excited to have the medal, yada, yada, yada. But I knew she didn't finish 3rd and told them. I also told Reagan and told her to think about how she would feel if she had really finished 3rd and they had given it to someone else. I left it up to her to make the right decision. She sat there a little while and then she walked over to the other girl and told her, "This medal is really yours. You finished 3rd." I was so proud of her.

Okay so now you want to know about little miss Henlee. Well, she is quite independent. Absolutely insists on feeding herself. If you don't let her, she won't eat. She loves to be outside and go up and down the porch steps - by herself none the less. It is hilarious to watch her back up to sit down on the steps. I wish I could show you a picture. Please say a prayer for Henlee on Friday that she is patient and takes a long nap on the trip to Port Aransas. This would help everyones' nerves a lot. Thank you.

Okay, now on to the book club thingy I was trying to get started. Are none of you reading out there or what? I am reading Brad Thor's Scot Harvath series right now. They are about a Secret Service Agent turned covert operative Scot Harvath who is constantly fighting the war on terror. I love CIA type books and I especially like series where the characters are recurring. I think I have 2 more books in his series before I am caught up.

Newsflash for all you Janet Evanovich's Plum series fanatics. Her new book, Finger Lickin' Fifteen hits the shelves on Tuesday. If you haven't read any of these books, you must. They are laugh-out-loud funny.

Have a great week and hold the fort down while I do nothing.

Friday's Footnote

Okay, in last week's blog, I said that I wanted to start blogging about the books we are reading. I finished John Grisham's The Associate last weekend. I kind of gave you the synopsis last week and it was an okay book, I hated the ending. I don't like books that leave doors open and don't tell you exactly what happened and you basically have to finish it. Too many possiblities. You know I am a pretty black and white girl, I don't like much gray,

No I am reading Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin and almost done with it. It is an easy read. The main character, Ellen, is married to her best friend's brother, Andy. Andy is from a wealthy Southern family, a lawyer, an all around great guy. Ellen grew up in Pittsburg and lost her Mom to breast cancer while she was still in school. Needless to say, Ellen runs in to her first "true" love, Leo, which stirs up emotions she thought were long gone and replaced by her love for her husband. Will she stay in the secure, safe life she has with Andy or will she trade it for something that is a little darker and more mysterious? ( Just 30 more pages and I will find out.)

I really have enjoyed this book. It makes you do a little introspection of yourself. If you were Ellen what would you do? For me, I like safety and security, and the sensible and practical side of me chooses Andy.

By the way, Hometown is promising my country-fried internet (Betsy's term) will be up and running next week. I am holding them too it.

Blah, Blah, Blah

I still don't have any internet service at my house so therefore no pictures with this post. If any of you see Larry and any of his goons on the street would you tell him that you sure would appreciate it if he would get Kristi Wagner's internet service up and running.

Okay, now with that out of the way, this will be another post where you are privileged to find out my deepest and darkest thoughts.

1. I sent my daughter to school today even though I think she is trying to get sick. Her throat hurts, her head hurts, her ear aches, and she has a barking cough. But being the good mom that I am, I gave her some ibuprofen and sent her out the door. It is the last full day of school and she was afraid that today would be the last day she would get to see Mrs. Chapman - her favoritest teacher in the whole wide world. Anyway, I told her I would bring her lunch so that I could check on her. So see I'm not so bad afterall and I have emailed Basha so I can get a potion.

2. I think I should post like this all the time. I had 5, count'em 5, comments on my post from last week. I was pumped. That is the most I have ever had. And I had lots of people tell me that they read my blog all the time and that they love this picture etc. We all need reassurance that we aren't in an empty room talking to ourselves. Thanks guys for the lift.

3. Bonnie over at http://alphabetsnipes.blogspot.com/ posted about the season premier of Jon & Kate Plus 8. I am sure everyone knows all the troubles they are having right now or else you have been living in a hole. I had DVRd (should this be just a d or ed?) the show and watched it the other night. Kate wrote a book and has been out on her book tour and Jon quit his job so that he could stay home with kids. Well, just like everyone else, except the male/female roles are reversed here, Jon stays home all week wiping noses, fixing meals, cleaning house, taking the kids to school (and maybe stopping at a bar a two), and then Kate swoops in and I am sure complains about the way something was done or not done, instead of just saying thank you for being there for our kids and for me. Jon has lost his identity. And Kate needs to quit griping. She did not put that party on by herself, she had how many assistants? I counted at least five. Us real world people do it by ourselves. Also, she needs to quit complaining about the paparrazzi. What did she expect when she signed on with TLC. She put her family under the microscope at that point. Okay, I could go on forever, but I think Jon hit the nail on the head when he said, "We only wanted to document are children's lives. Now this has become a business." In my not so professional opinion, they need to shut down the cameras and get back to living and loving as a family. They have lost sight of the most important things.

4. We spent Memorial Day weekend with my sister as I said we would. My niece, nephew, Reagan, and I had a volley tournament type thing we played in the pool. My hands and wrist were so sore on Tuesday. I think Bryce and I had the most with 143.

5. Do any of you read books? I think we should each do a weekly post on what book we are reading at the time. I am currently reading The Associate by John Grisham. I am enjoying it and I haven't quite figured out the ending yet and I am half way through. We have Kyle who is fresh out of Yale who wanted to do some public service defense before making his way to the big leagues but a past incident from his fraternity days changes the course he takes.

6. Last day of school is tomorrow. Yippee.

7. Our wheat is getting harvested today. I took pictures of DW and the girls in the wheat field last night. They are similar to the ones I took of them last year in the oat field. Super Dave came up last night to test it to see if it was ready and he started combining as we were taking the pictures. Henlee rode in the combine with her Daddy and loved it. I have all these pictures ready and waiting. We sat outside with Dave and Beck and the kids and I told Dave how I love to watch the field change through each season. In late summer Dave plows and gets the ground ready for the new crop. Come September, the new crop is planted and before long you can see sprigs of green emerge. Before long it is April and the dark green is fading and is replaced by a lite toasty color. The short green sprigs are now long toasty sprigs and sway with each breath of wind. Now we all start getting excited because it won't be long before it is harvested and we can see the bounty that is produced. Then it all starts over.

I hope everyone is having a great week and that the weekend will be even better. I am looking forward to taking Reagan swimming on Friday and seeing all of my extended family at a graduation party on Saturday.

Internet Frustrations

When you live in the country your internet options are few and far between. We currently have wireless service through Hometown Computing via a tower at Blue Ridge that is probably going to fall into the gravel pit. To make a long story short, I have not had internet service at my house for 2 weeks. I have had tons of things I want to blog about, and yes I can do it at work, but I can't upload my pictures here, unless I unplug everything from my home computer. (Was that a run on sentence or what.) So I am going to tell you about everything I wanted to blog about.

1. Three weekends ago we spent Saturday afternoon and night with the McAnallys. Amy and I toured the pawn shops looking for bikes. After we ate, Amy took the children to these little gum-ball machines where they have trinkets in them. Each kid could pick what they wanted. Funny guy Gage picked a grey mustache and came out of the restaraunt prouder than punch. It was hilarious. He kind of looked like Captain Kangaroo. (Hopefully I can post this picture soon. No pressure Hometown.) Then we headed to the dirt track in Kileen for Saturday night racing and a demolition derby. The kids loved the derby.

2. Reagan has learned to ride her bike. Thank you Dadu for teaching her. I know you said she learned on her own but you instilled the confidence she needed. And for Mother's Day, DW and the girls gave me a bike. Almost every night, Reagan and I ride to the end of our road and back a couple times. This is quite a feat if you have seen the grade up to our house and she doesn't have gears on her bike. However, last night when we were riding, she decided to try to look back to see where me and Iaka (our dog) were, and she slipped and fell. She skinned her knee up pretty good. Her Daddy told her that that wouldn't be the last bike wreck and she said, "And it probably won't be the worst."

3. We went to the dentist the other day and he was talking to Reagan about school and that she was probably just marking time since she didn't have any big test to finish. She quickly told him that they had just finished the TEMI test and so they were done. This cracked me up because for one thing, he doesn't know diddly about TEMI and secondly, Reagan was dead serious.

4. Henlee is growing by leaps and bounds. She is constanly wearing everyone's shoes. I think DW and I better start saving our money because she is definitely a shoe gal.

5. All of my clothes closets and drawers are cleaned out. Yea for me. Now on to the toy closet. I think I should just set a bomb off in this closet and get my friend Patrick to seal it up. They may be easier than trying to sort through the mess.

6. Softball is almost over and I think it is time. Our team started off with a bang and now are struggling. When you aren't winning (specifically getting creamed), the kids are less forgiving of mistakes made by their teammates and aren't very nice and feelings get hurt, yada yada yada.

7. On a happier note, we are headed to my sister's for the long weekend. Lots of sun and fun.

8. I forgot to add this: Reagan and I are going to see Taylor Swift in September with another Mom and daughter. We are so psyched.

I think this post was more for me than all of you because I was feeling the need to blog. I hate that I can't share my pictures with you, but I am hopeful that Larry and his crew will get it fixed SOON. In fact, I think I will call them right now. Ciao