Returning to the Land of the Living

Within 24 hours of returning from the beach (two weeks ago), C came down with a very painful ear infection that sent us to the Urgent Care.  Then a few days later, just as he was beginning to feel better, I came down with a really bad cold.  I started feeling more myself over the weekend...just in time to take C BACK to the doctor on Monday for what what turned out to be a now double ear infection and a little bit of wheezing.  Thankfully, the new antibiotics kicked in almost immediately and we are FINALLY all healthy!

I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to being sick.  So we didn't do much last week...except watch a whole BUNCH of cartoons :)

This week, however, the kids were signed up for swimming lessons.  C's lessons were mainly just a refresher from last year.  He assured me that he was feeling up to it and Dr. T gave his blessing, so C took the lessons as planned.  [My kiddos do not share my wimpy tendencies when sick.]

I wasn't sure what to expect for G.  We didn't attempt to teach C to swim until he was 4.5, but that plan wasn't really an option for G. She LOVES the water and she has NO fear of jumping right in.  Really, it was the craziest thing!  She did NOT like flotation devices of any kind (pretty much took them off at the first chance), but she also did not like being held - yet she couldn't swim.  This makes for a dangerous combination!  If I wasn't already in the pool waiting to catch her (which sometimes I wasn't), she'd jump right in and just stand there and look up at me from the bottom of the pool....just waiting for me to retrieve her.  I tried waiting a second before I went to her in hopes that she'd get a little scared. That TOTALLY backfired!  She thought it was hilarious. That left me with disciplining her if she removed her flotation devices without permission.  I was fine with  that, but I still didn't trust her around bodies of water.  At any rate, it became very obvious that this child MUST learn to swim and FAST! :)

Swimming lessons were a big hit!  Both kids made great progress. C is much more efficient with his technique and G...well she still can't exactly swim, but if she jumps in, I'm pretty sure she can now make it to the side.  SHEWWW!

I forgot to take pictures during G's last lesson, but here are a few of C:

PS - if any of my local friends are looking for a swimming instructor, I'll be happy to provide you with Ms. Katie's info.  She really is GREAT!

Lost in Translation

About two months ago I subbed for one of C's Sunday School Teachers. During their Mission's Moment that day Mrs.Diane, a friend from church who was born in Argentina, shared with the kids some basic geographical facts about Argentina and then showed them some toys and souvenirs her family collected when they lived there.  As part of her lesson she explained that Argentina is WAY down at the bottom of the world at the very southern tip of South America (she used a globe for illustration).

The days and weeks went by and then out of nowhere, yesterday, C drops this little factoid on us:

"Ms. Diane was born in Argentina.  Argentina is the 2nd from the bottomness of the world...it's nearest to hell."

[Ok - time out -  I just want to make this clear.  I was there.  Ms. Dianne didn't say one word about hell in her lesson :]   

So (after J and I finished discreetly laughing), we asked C to elaborate.  C went on to explain that heaven is up and hell is down.  Since Argentina is DOWN (said with emphasis) near the bottom of the earth, that makes it nearer to hell.

We tried to reassure him that Argentina is not located any closer to hell than any other place on earth...but I don't think we convinced him. :)

Beach Trip

The kids and I joined Leah, Stephen, and Grant on part of their family vacation at the beach. As you can tell from the pictures, the kids had a blast!

I've spent a lot of time on the beach over the years, but I'd never seen a star fish until this week!  Very cool!

Marsh view from the back porch

The kids and I LOVE the beach.  It is probably my favorite place to be, but man I am TIRED! :)

Here are lots more pictures from our trip.  The password is beachtrip.

I Live With A Lumberjack!

Earlier in the week, I noticed C and Grant (his cousin) pulling entire sheets of bark off of a pine tree right next to the playset.  I thought that very odd, so I went to see what was going on.  What I found when I got over there was SUPER CREEPY!  As the boys were pulling off huge chunks of bark, termites were streaming out everywhere....EEEEEEKK!  The next day after the termites cleared out (hopefully they didn't relocate to our house!) I went over to get a better look.  I took a shovel and barely touched the trunk and huge chunks of saw dust just fell to the bottom.

J was in Atlanta this week, so I showed him the tree Saturday morning.  He did some figuring and ciphering and decided to go ahead and take it down.  He's cut down big trees like this before - but normally with the assistance of my dad and/or brother-in-law.  Not to worry though...he had some muscle at his disposal this time too...me :)

This 40 foot tree came down with out incident or injury!  Go us (and praise the Lord :)!  

The only thing I didn't really anticipate was that once J got the chainsaw all gassed up he would go on a tree-cutting-spree. (He insists it was a matter of practicality - all the tools were out and ready to go...I say the power went to his head :)  At any rate, we also ended up taking down 3 very messy sweet-gum trees.  They weren't nearly as big as the first tree, but because they were "live" and hadn't been eaten up by termites, the logs were HEAVY!  Kinda confirmed to me just how trashed the first tree really was!

The Inevitable Question...

We are spending this rainy afternoon watching old family videos.  On one of the tapes, there is footage from when we visited my sister and Hayden in the hospital the day after he was born.  In that same footage, J shows me still VERY pregnant with G.

Of course - the natural question presents itself...

"Mom, how does the doctor get the baby out of the mommy's belly? Do you remember how the doctor got me out of your belly?"

I told him to ask Daddy when he gets home :)

This And That

A long time ago, J's mom gave C one of J's childhood toys...a "Bogglin."  C loves playing with it during the day, but insists that it be put away in his closet at night (the eyes glow in the dark :) 

Rarely a day goes by that C doesn't do something that makes us laugh...he's a total clown!  But the REALLY funny stuff is sometimes what he says when he's NOT trying to be funny.  Like the other day when we had this (very sincere) conversation:

C:  Mom, how do you NOT poot at the dinner table?

Me:  [trying my best not to choke on my food] Ummm....I'm sorry, I don't think I understand what you mean.

C:  Mom,  you don't poot at the table.  How do you do that?

Me:  I'm not sure what to tell you about that, Honey.

Lastly,  I wanted to share the latest fashions by G.  Today G is sporting fashion rain boots with coordinating Fancy Nancy knee socks and a "Cowboy Hat" (despite C's insistence, she won't be convinced that it is not a Cowboy Hat :) 

Classic G

Not a cloud in sight...apparently impending rain isn't a requirement for wearing galoshes :)

The dirtier the bathtub, the better the day