Too Hot to Blog

Today is Day 34 in an exhausting string of consecutive days of 100+ degree temperatures, aka Texas Heat Wave 2011. The swimming pool is like bath water. Cooking anything besides cereal is torture. It feels like the a/c in the car isn't working, but it is--it just can't keep up. The boys and I are hunkered down with ceiling fans running at full speed in every room. It's just TOO HOT...even for August in Texas.

June Wrap-Up

Summer is almost half over. I blinked my eyes, it was July already. So, mostly for the sake of documentation, here's some of what went on around this zoo in June.

In June, I...

--said goodbye to precious friends who moved to Tennessee. Richard and Christina, you may never know this side of heaven the extraordinary impact you have had on me and my family. I miss you, and will continue to pray for you. Deuteronomy 28:3!!!

--had a painful, emotionally charged visit with Dr. M, which led me to the decision that I must find a new oncologist.

--went to 2 last-day-of-school parties with my oldest cowboys. Saying goodbye to their teachers and their school was tough.

--got my mop 'o curls cut and colored. Mustered every ounce of courage I have and went public with it. Still not loving it.

--let my cowboys visit their grandparents for six days by themselves. Oh, the QUIET!!

--traveled to West Texas with Hubby to visit family and retrieve the cowboys. I especially enjoyed pool time with my little guys and spending time with Sweet Mema, my grandmother-in-law.

--watched Little Middle shine at Lego Camp with his best buddy. That smile of his is priceless!

--got de-ported. Day surgery to remove my chemo port was not too bad. I am SO glad to have it out!

--continued with my Pinterest problem obsession. I found a few DIY projects that I loved...look what I made!!!:

That precious menu board is nothing but cute paper in a simple frame. I write on the glass with an Expo marker and erase it every week with a paper towel. Easy! And no one ever asks "What's for dinner?" anymore. :)

--taught 4-year-olds in VBS at church. I loved the time with my beloved co-teacher, but I realized that summer is not my best season for teaching. I blame the lack of patience on the heat.

--went on a day adventure with the cowboys to visit my brother at a youth camp where he was working. I got a lot more than I bargained for when we attended the afternoon worship service. Our friend John sang a song that he and my brother wrote together while I was sick last year. I was humbled and honored to have camp leaders and youth pray for me and lay hands on me and my family. It was the most extraordinary spiritual experience I've had in a long time. I left Waxahachie with a full and grateful heart.

(BTW, I highly recommend the "Declaration" record by John Sherrill. Get it!)

--continued to look for my favorite cookbook and my camera, both of which are missing since we moved. It explains the lack of creativity in my menu planning and the poor quality of pictures in this post.

A Real Mom Kind of Day

I've never pretended to be something I'm not on here, so I will preface everything I want to say with a confession: I am drinking a glass of wine right now and it is the best thing that's happened to me today.

That being said, let's talk about my day. The alarm went off this morning, and I turned it off and went back to sleep. Yes, I set my alarm during the summer. It's weird, but I like being up early so I can enjoy a cup of coffee and quiet time before the monsters children get up. So the day was already off to a rocky start when I went in the kitchen late and it was a disaster from each boy getting their own breakfast. Um, hello? We own this great contraption called a trash can. It would be fabulous if someone besides me would use it to clean up after themselves.

The novelty of summer never lasts long, and I think I can safely say it's over around here. I had barely had two sips of coffee--not nearly enough for me to be patient--when I was surrounded by "Stop it!" "He took that away from me!" "I was here first!" "MOOOOMMM!!!" I'm not even kidding that I let them watch TV/play Wii/use the laptop for most of the rest of the morning.

Electronic Time was interrupted only by requests for snacks and me defending my recent hurried grocery trip. No, we don't have any more Gripz crackers. No, I forgot to replace the pretzels. No, I did NOT buy Fruit Roll Ups. (Why do they like those things anyway? They are so gross.)

Then it was time for lunch. We had to eat early today so we would have plenty of time to get Little Middle to Lego camp with his best and oldest buddy. Everyone wanted chicken nuggets. Everyone agreed that microwaved chicken nuggets were preferred over waiting for me to bake them in the oven. I left one brother in charge of lunch while I went to work on my wretched mop o' chemo curls, which led to me closing my bathroom door so I could say an unholy word to my hair in the mirror. When I returned to the kitchen, the brother in charge had fixed himself a plate and was happily eating while the other two were practically begging for food. I unleashed my wrath on him and said some unkind and hurtful things to him...which goes against the family rules that I constantly remind the boys are so important. Ugh.

I can not speak of the car ride to and from Lego camp. It was too ugly and involved too much shouting.

After Lego camp, we headed to the pool. Goliath reminded me that I am under doctor's orders not to go in the pool until Saturday, but I didn't care. That doctor doesn't have to stay home with three kids all day.

All three of my boys know how to swim. Well, Baby is still learning, but he is plenty tall enough now to touch the pool bottom in most areas. So I can't figure out why they must hang on me, cling to me, grab my legs, jump on my back, etc. while we are in the water. They don't NEED me. And it's not like I don't play with them there! I sure don't sit in a lounge chair like a lot of other mothers and watch them from a distance. I'm right there with them wherever they go. They're not even close to drowning, so I wish they would LET GO.

Goliath had to go to jiu jitsu, which required me to make elaborate arrangements with my friend at the pool, another friend whose son is in the same class, and Hubby. Three kids isn't really that many, but there are times (like today) when it feels like too many! I managed to get Goliath there on time, only to arrive and remember that I still had to sign him in. I had to go into the studio in my swimsuit cover-up and my semi-wet mop 'o curls. Awesome.

I went back to the pool and swam with Baby and Little Middle a while longer. Before I knew it, it was close to 7:00 and there was no way I would have time to cook. Chick-Fil-A for everyone! Oops. A few small someones might have been too busy complaining that there wasn't enough of their particular favorite sauce(s) to say "Thanks, Mom, for picking up dinner for us. We really appreciate all you do." Or maybe they were just too busy spilling 2 (!!!) glasses of water all over the table, floor, and each other.

Enter more brotherly bickering, a few more raised voices, tears, one go-to-your-room-and-don't-come-out-until-tomorrow-morning, and one removal of Wii privileges. I am flying the white flag of mothering...I surrender.

They're great kids (usually). I'm not a bad mom (usually). Just today was not our best...theirs or mine.

Thanks, Lord, for letting me be their mom. Thank you that when I wake up on time tomorrow morning, your mercies will be fresh and new. And thank you for wine. Amen.

Peace and Quiet

It's Saturday night. My little cowboys are in West Texas starting their summer off right with their grandparents. Hubby is watching the UFC fight at his brother's house. Abby Dog and I shared a Schlotzsky's sandwich and now we are catching up on my recorded DVR shows and enjoying the peace and quiet.

I deserve some peace and quiet, if you don't mind my saying so. We bought a new house and moved. Preschool ended and I watched my Baby graduate. I kept on dragging Goliath and Little Middle out of bed and to school every day, long after every other school district in Texas was done. I had a less-than-enjoyable doctor visit (I am fine.). Finally--FINALLY--Summer 2011 is here! I usually am not a fan of summer. It's way too hot and there is a little too much quality time with the kids. But this year, I am more than ready.

The last day of school was tough. Because of our move, the boys will attend a different elementary school next year. I have done everything possible to get them excited: We visited the school book fair and bought--what else?--Star Wars books. We took a tour of the campus and met the counselor and the principal. We admired the playground. But I know that none of those things make it easy for my sons to leave behind their friends and favorite teachers. There were tears in all of our eyes when we walked out of the doors of their school for the last time.

We celebrated the end of school by heading straight to the pool. The first swim of the season was great! It's already 100+ degrees here. You know what they say about Texas...we have four seasons here: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, and Christmas. Anyway, Baby was triumphant at the pool when I showed him that he is finally tall enough to touch the pool bottom in the lazy river, and that he is tall enough to go down one of the big slides. Victory! Now if we can just get him swimming confidently like his brothers...

We love, love, LOVE our new house. It is nearly twice as big as our old one. Each of the boys has their own bedroom, and they are really enjoying having their own space. I have a huge bathtub, a kitchen with two ceiling fans and more than enough cabinet space, and a laundry room that is an actual room. That hasn't endeared me more to the laundry chore, but it makes it a little easier to keep up! We have nice neighbors and fruit trees in the backyard. Our own little piece of paradise...aaahhh. Of course, no experience in this family is complete without some sort of mishap. We had lived here almost three weeks when our washing machine went berserk and we had a flood. The water in the laundry room was deep enough to cover the top of my foot when I was standing in it. Even worse, the Gain-smelling river ran straight into the hall where we have wood floors. I ran around town like a crazy person before I finally landed at Home Depot, where I rented a wet-vac and made friends with a sympathetic old man with chewing tobacco in his back pocket. With a little help from my good friend Momma Wolg, I managed to suck up the water, but not before it damaged the flooring. The silver lining: My feet smelled nice and felt super-soft from all that sloshing around.

Things have been pretty quiet here in CancerLand. Back in the spring, I went to M.D. Anderson in Houston. MDA has been on my radar for a while, but I haven't felt well enough to make the trip for quite some time. My reason for finally going was two-fold: One, I wanted/needed to get a second opinion about "what's next?" and two, MDA is renowned for their clinical trials and experimental drugs to treat cancer. Having been assured that cancer will forever be a threat, I want in on that action! I spent nearly a week there and during that time, I had every test and met with every specialist imaginable. At the end of the week, I was informed that without a doubt, cancer is not currently present in my body. I worked out a plan to return for scans and to remain under "surveillance" by the staff there. And, I asked about and gratefully accepted a prescription for a drug that I hope will keep cancer at bay for a while. The drug is an anti-estrogen--theoretically, the less estrogen that my body produces, the less chance there is that cancer cells will be able to feed and grow. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but it would be silly and irresponsible for me to not explore any and all options.

My news about MDA was not greeted with the enthusiasm I had hoped for by Dr. M here in Dallas. In spite of that, he will be performing yet another surgery on me next week to remove my chemo port. I can't say that I'm excited about surgery, but I will be thrilled to have that thing out of my body! Hopefully I won't need one ever again.

With the little boys out of town for a few days, I've had time to explore a new obsession: Pinterest. PandaMom gave me a few pointers, and I am well on my way to digital organization! It makes me feel all artsy and crafty, which I am NOT in real life. Still, it's nice to imagine that one day I might be able to bake a pink heart into the center of my plain-Jane cupcakes or make a wreath out of crayons for Teacher Appreciation week.

Every year I buy Little Middle a new pair of flip flops, and every year he wears them for just a few weeks before he breaks them. Every. Single. Year. When I went to his class party on the last day of school, he was barefoot because his shoe had broken. So I gave up and I bought him a more solid, pricier pair. If they don't last him the rest of the summer, he's just gonna have to wear tennis shoes. That might have sounded heartless when I said it out loud when pulling out of the store parking lot, but Baby assured me, "You're the best mommy we could ever have." Little Middle retorted, "Yeah, but that's 'cause she's the ONLY mommy we can ever have."

And on that note, I'm gonna go enjoy my peace and quiet. Happy Summer!

Wordless Wednesday

So Long, Summer!

Today we say farewell to Summer 2009.

We have wrapped it up in the last few weeks with a fun mini-vacation in Galveston with my parents,

a crazy afternoon adventure exploring downtown Dallas with some friends (even though that's not what we set out to do!),

and spending sweet time together.

So long, Summer '09. It's been fun!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Sleepovers, Swimming, and Wiki Wiki!

Summer is well underway! Let's see...what have we been up to?

Goliath went to his first sleepover at his friend J's house.

Eating Twinkies and watching TV


J's VERY fun parents took the boys to the Red, White, & Blue Festival where they
got their faces painted.....

Goliath won a T-shirt....

They did some bouncing.....


and saw some fireworks.

FINALLY asleep!

This past week I also had my first big undertaking as our church's children's director:

Vacation Bible School was so much fun! I had awesome people working with me, and the kids really enjoyed it. I loved seeing little ones really get into the stories and asking good questions--eternal seeds were planted! Just between you and me, though, I'm glad it's over! Now if I could just convince my boys to stop singing "Wiki Wiki..."

We also bought a membership for our family to the new community activity center. They have an indoor and an outdoor pool. We have been swimming. A LOT. Goliath and Little Middle are both doing really well in the water this year! Goliath is tall enough that I don't have to worry as much about him. He can even go down the water slides alone, and he loves it!

That's a quick update. I've been lax about the blog (I blame it on VBS)...sorry! I'll try to do better. For now, I have to run. We're off to the pool!