1st Grade

Max started school on the first.  I am so loving year round school.  July was just the right amount of time off.  When Max made it home on the first day he reported that he liked his class and has been happy since then.  I didn't realize how nervous I was for him.  Subconsciously I guess I figured things went so wonderfully last year that it could only go downhill from there.  Kinda sad if you think about it, I would hate to peak at age six.  Regular school starts up this week and so will the regular bus schedule.  Theoretically, Max will get home 10 minuets earlier, but I'm not holding my breath.  Have I ever mentioned how awesome it is that the bus stop is my driveway.  Yeah I love that.  Its not that way for everyone out here, Max just happens to be the only kid on our street on that bus.

 An aside on Max's Mohawk.  Max has my crazy frizzy thick hair.  If left uncut for too long it becomes a nasty white boy afro, but I so dislike the total buzz cut look on kids that we have to settle for a Mohawk.  Its sort of a compromise.

I'm already lazier then last year.  I didn't drop him off on the first day, Jeff did.

 

Interrupted

ha ha ha, just kidding about blogging more.  No seriously, almost the whole family was struck down by a nasty virus last week.  It has been so long since I was sick with something other then a stomach bug or a cold.  We got fever, chills, and just crummy feelings.  Spike, Mae, Jeff and I fell but Max managed to stay immune.  It helped that we have him sleeping downstairs at the moment.  So he'd go to school then we'd send him downstairs away from everyone.  Poor guy got kinda lonely.  We're better now and ready to go. 



Such a sad sickly face.

She was so hot it was a fight to get her to keep clothes on.

journaling

Today's Sunday school lesson was on the importance of journaling, and since this blog is a close as I will ever get to journaling I should probably not abandon it altogether.  So this month I am going to make an actual effort to get back to the blog.  I missed Spike's second birthday for pete's sake.  That's not cool.  So I suppose I'll just start short and not overwhelm myself.  Today I baked with the kids.  Max and Mae love helping me in the kitchen, but I'll admit that I don't like the mess they make and the extra time it takes me to make the food.  But I want to make memories and also allow the kids to learn, so mess time today.

Why yes, I am alive.

It has been quite an eventful month.  I went to Utah for a long weekend to meet my new nephew and help my sister pack.  Jeff and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and Max finished his first year of school.  Now the busy schedule is not the reason for my lack of blogging, that is for the previously mentioned reason of using my Ipad mini almost exclusively.  The only reason I am blogging right now is because I had to haul my butt downstairs to print off a coupon.  Utah was good, I was unable to see most of Jeff's family due to some flight delays, but I was lucky enough to be picked up by his sister, Sarah, and it was so good to see her again.  My sister Krista was very indulgent with my desire to eat my way through Salt Lake County.  We hit up In and Out Burger, Rodezio's, Jamba Juice, 7-11, Godiva, Cheesecake Factory, Smash Burger, and Sees Candy.  I got to try out a gourmet donut.  I even snagged a loaf of Grandma Sycamore bread to take home with me.  It was also good to see my sister whom I had not seen in over three years.  The weather was perfect.  I forgot how pleasant a lack of humidity can be. 

Jeff and I didn't really do much to celebrate the big 10.  It was almost a point of go big or go home, so we went home.  The only thing I hate about living out here in Arkansas is that we are so far away from family.  It would be nice to be able to drop the kids off at a grandparents for a weekend away.  The two times we have gotten away for a 24-48 time period have been thanks to friends and expensive babysitters.  Oh well.  We still like each other all things considered.

Max finished up the school year this week, and has had a great year.  He is doing well in reading and excels at math.  I am bummed that he will have a new teacher next year, but am grateful for the time he got to spend with such a wonderful lady.  I wish I could have volunteered more at his school, but I did make it for the water day and let Max dunk me in the dunk tank.  Max is now taking tennis lessons this summer and we are all excited for bible school next month. 

Sneak Peek

I painted my bathroom pink this week.  I also painted the vanity white.  It was a nasty off white which just came off as dirty white.  The walls were a boring beige that I am slowly banishing from every room in this house.  I still have a few more little finishes but here's a sneak peek.  I am so in love with how it has turned out. 

yeah i'm too stupid and too lazy to get it going in the correct direction.

ipad mini

yeah so composing blog posts via ipad mini is a pain.  Composing anything longer then a few words is a pain on the ipad mini.  It took me waaay to long to learn the keyboard to suddenly go back to plucking away at each letter.  It is the one sucky thing about the ipad.  Other then that it is a blast.  Just as I was contemplating getting my MBA I found the itunes university and have been listening to Yale History course that I love. This happens every time I contemplate going back to school.  Whenever I pick an area to pursue I rediscover an old academic love.  How can I get my MBA when I love history so much?  What about teaching?  Grrr...  I suppose there are worse problems to have.  I have had a lovely weekend with Jeff taking some days off and watching the kids so I can basically do whatever I want.  I have been painting my bathroom, watching Gilmore Girls and just not taking care of the kids.  It has been guilt free relaxation.  I suppose that is the best gift I can get these days is not feeling guilty about taking a break.  Max had last week and this week off from school.  That has been a mixed bag.  He is great with Spike and Mae, but man can that kid talk!  Yet, despite this I am thrilled with the year round calender.  I adore his kindergarten teacher, if I were to pick the best qualities of a kindergarten teacher and put them into one adore spunky lady it would be her.  I am so glad that she has been there for him since last August until the end of June.  Sure it is the same 180 days but over a longer time period of his development.  (But I can see how this would suck if you hated the teacher, luckily I always have the option of switching schools.)

Eyeball

If the title alone made you uncomfortable then I suggest you avoid this post altogether.  My whole life I have suffered from watery eyes.  Several times a year when I was either sick with a cold or allergies my eyes would water so badly and continually that I couldn't see.  When I was a child it was annoying to have classmates assume that I was always crying and now that I am an adult it keeps me from driving, cooking, and taking care of my kids.  Medicine never seemed to help.  Cold and allergy medicine would take away my other symptoms but nothing touched my eyes.  And it always bugged me that none of the symptoms listed in the commercials talked about watery eyes.  This past month I learned why.... I don't have watery eyes, I have dry eyes.  My eyes get so dry that they over produce tears.  Yeah that doesn't makes sense to me either, but that's the truth.  I discovered this recently by going to the eye doctor.  I never really thought of going to the doctor about this before because I always assumed there was noting that could be done.  I only ever went to walmart to get my eyes checked cause I am cheap like that so I've never had a real specialist look at my eyes. 
This latest round started the same way, at Sam's Club.  The guy looked at my eyes and suggested I try contacts again since my prescription had changed.  They were better this time, but my eyes were still dry after 30 minuets.  So I went back and the guy was being very weird saying that there was nothing he could do about it and that I should just give up.  Since I was already going to buy glasses at this clinic down the street that my neighbor works at; I decided to meet with the specialist there about contacts.  The doctor looked at my eyes and listened to my history.  He said I was a classic case of dry eyes.  He gave me some different contacts to try and sent me to come back a week later for a follow up.  These contacts weren't much of an improvement.  I went back and looking at my eyes again saw that the ducts were all gunked up.  I wasn't producing many tears to begin with.

 *WARNING STOP HERE IF SQUEAMISH*  The only thing to do was scrape the gunk out.  Yup he scraped my eyeballs.  I thought running a half marathon made me pretty bad-ass, but that was nothing to sitting through 30+ minuets of eyeball scraping. And yes, it was as bad as it sounds. 

*SAFE TO CONTINUE*  A week later and not much change.  I still have dry eyes, so yesterday we switched to a different brand.  We can try dailies next and if none of that works then I get to have my tear duct drains plugged.  Seriously.  But despite all the pain, headaches, and dry eyes, I am encouraged to maybe solve a problem that has bothered me my whole life.