Happy Bat night!

I hate giving away surprises but I just can't take it! Vivian selected our kids Halloween costumes this year. Thanks to my sweet mom-in-law who gets us the special grandma treats I call them, we get this expensive catalog that I like to thumb through every once in a while. This time the kids looked with me at the Halloween edition. It's loaded with elaborate costumes that I cannot afford but still fun to get ideas. We usually do a whole family theme as we kind of enjoy this sort of thing and my extended family gets way into Halloween. I was thinking this year would be fun to let the kids decide but how would we ever theme it? Cue Vivian, "Mom, I want to be that!" She points at a Batgirl costume! VIVIAN wants to be a superhero?!? No problem! Cue the pictures...

Now I daily have a batman costume appearing including at bed times. I come home from work and find Isaac in full costume with mask over his long sleeve pj's passed out in bed. I pull up his mask and hair is plastered to his dripping forehead. Gotta love it! Probably the best $20 I ever spent!

Fall Soccer

Let me just spend a moment saying, mom's of older kids bravo! I don't know how you do this!! I really wanted to give Vivian a chance to connect again with some friends that unfortunately did not make it into her classroom roster. These two sweet girls are the main reason we decided to sign up to play fall soccer, but it's killing me! There is just so much going on in the fall that having something on the calendar every Saturday is tough. Still, there are some sweet times ahead with friends and I think Vivian really is challenged and enjoys soccer. We'll see how that proceeds. For now, we'll just enjoy it not being super competitive and only having one in sports! Just wait another year until Isaac gets going!

Family Reunion

I really didn't capture much in the way of pictures but we did make a trip down memory lane. Some of my mother's family got together down in Salado where we used to have family reunions annually growing up. Just being in that older setting carries some nice nostalgia with it. The kids really had fun playing on the play ground, jumping in the pool, and eating hush puppies. Nick and I got an extra bonus as our parents offered to keep the kids in their room. We had so much fun playing table tennis aka ping pong. Nick had no idea how good I was! Little did he know dad and I would have tournaments growing up in our garage weekly! It was really fun just hanging out and having fun, walking around the hotel, and watching a movie way too late.

Here's a couple of pics.

School Carnival

Here's a couple shots from our school carnival. Thanks to our friend Pam it was a smashing success. We really had fun this year seeing familiar faces and just playing as a family. My favorite shot is this last one with Vivian's arm around Isaac. I'm finally starting to see a glimpse of their friendship and some protective instincts coming out of them. Sadly, I often see too much of the other. Maybe, I'll get around to starting that kindness jar!

Crazy Injury met up with exhausted mommy

So, as I briefly alluded to in the last post, I have had a forced slow down. It's been quite a few weeks but a crazy start to this school year with an unexpected occurence a few Fridays back. Vivi was at school and Isaac was chilling out while I grabbed a few light boxes down from the attic. I really mean three and they weighed less than Isaac does. When I got down from the attic, I started to have some chest pains. I thought maybe I jerked something funny and I decided to take a shower and feel it out. It got worse! I called Nick and proceeded to try and get a hold of family members or anyone. It was very odd. It was like a tightening grip on my chest shooting down my left arm. Of course, I'm thinking what you're thinking, sounds like a heart attack. It was really bizarre. After speaking with my father-in-law and dad, I decided to call 911. They came out very quickly one officer played with Isaac while the EMS guys checked me out. They ran an EKG on me and said my heart was fine but I still needed to go to the hospital. Everything was happening so fast and so slow. Neighbors showed up to be with me and Isaac. Nick came home to take me in. About that time, my dad showed up to take Isaac. We headed downtown to the hospital stopping to pick up the lifesaver of aspirin (just in case!) and parked across the street. The walk to the front door was painful!! A lady with a wheelchair saw me and comes running up just seeing my face in agony she knew. Of course, when anyone is gripping their chest screaming in pain they are seen pretty quickly so I get rushed in! They run a lot of tests on me and do find it is not my heart-praise GOD! The best diagnosis they can give me is a pulled muscle somewhere in my pectoral/shoulder. They release me and of course, I haven't eaten anything since 7 in the morning. It's now about 3 p.m. I felt terrible! Nick wheels me out and runs to pick up the car. He gets me in and I nearly vomit in the car from low low blood sugar. I yell at him to get me a burger because the only food we have is raw fruit-more sugar-no!! I inhale a burger and some carrots and am much more pleasant to be around. We get home and basically the doc says do not use your arms for a few days. Oh yeah, no problem, I'm just a mom of two kids under 7. Fortunately, I have a close mom that comes to take care of us. I really just sit on the couch for two days and take some heavy duty meds. They knock me out. This is fine for the weekend but what happens when school comes on Monday? I have to figure it out. I take kids to school and Isaac's first day is Tuesday. I'm feeling slightly better but I have a little pain so I go to take my meds and I literally fall asleep on his floor playing army man with him. He has to wake me for his first day of school. Needless to say, these drugs and me are not a good match up. I see my regular physician and he gets me on some less heavy-duty stuff. However, I realize fairly quickly that it doesn't really help with the pain. The only thing that does are the muscle relaxers which knock me out. Basically, I suck it up for a few weeks not doing much. Today a month or so later, I'm feeling perfectly normal with the occasional fear factor about throwing my arms around or holding a plank or loading shelves. But this is life, you just got to do it! Through all of this drama I realize, how little control I really have over anything, and how dependent I am on those around me as well as my ultimate Healer. He knows. He knew all along what is going on with me. He knows the plans He has for me. I don't know them, nor am I supposed to until He lets me in on them. This can be scary or exciting depending on our faith. I do believe even though this was small it was a test of my trust in Him. I'm so grateful that He gave me another day with my family and loved ones and to see His goodness.

Back to School

Well, it's official everyone is back in school now! Isaac started back yesterday and did beautifully despite his persistent statement of desire to return to Ms. Shelbi's class with the 2 year olds. Then I told him he is almost four and he found a new friend to our preschool in the 4 year old class and now he's ready to skip up to that one! It's so amazing how you see your worst and best in your kids sometimes. If we could just learn to be content with what we have, but clearly I haven't mastered that yet myself. Once he got into his classroom, he saw familiar faces and jumped right back in. I had a nice quiet day to myself but it was amazing to see how fast the time flew by! I think this little break though makes me appreciate what I have with Isaac-lots of sweet and innocent fun times blowing up army men, kicking soccer balls, and hammering nails (golf tees) into our block (styrofoam covered in foil). He is so animated and active and just my sweet little boy that cries like mad to have to wear this red polo then turns around and gives me the sweetest "I love you" and snuggle. Soak it in Jen! (Scroll down for a little picture of our giveaway that Vivian and I made for her classmates.)

Happy Happy Birthday!

Well, as I pass the 34 big day, I have so much to be grateful for. I was spoiled rotten by the love of my life and on the cusp of a yucky argument over miscommunication. It always baffles me that this is still a struggle, it's like I think we'll grow out of miscommunicating! It's hilarious! It will always be work, but it's so worth it! After all of that, I was met with a sweet smile and a yummy breakfast cereal. I have to admit that Nick has the ability to still surprise me. As my half closed/half awake eyes drug a spoon out of the cabinet, I flipped around to see a wrapped box balanced on my cereal bowl. He took the kids the previous weekend and got me some hot pink new athletic shoes- a request of mine but these were so perfect- fun and light! A kiss goodbye later, and I loaded the kids into the car to take Vivi to school. I was met with a sweet note and cd Nick had made for me called Thinking. Each song was hand-picked for different ways he's thinking about me or our relationship. Of course, no dry eyes anymore! The music kept me company all day long and reminded me how Nick is still so thoughtful even after 11 years of putting up with my craziness! The day was quiet but beautiful to the light breeze and the soft pink blooms covering our crepe merdel out front. I headed to the gym with Isaac and completed a very difficult spin class, probably my last for awhile. (More to come on that later.) Then my parents came over-my dad to be with Isaac and my mom to take me to lunch. We shared stories of trips and sweet memories over a yummy chicken salad and small dessert. The afternoon gave way to naps and relaxation. Then we picked Vivi up from her third day of school and enjoyed each other's company. We worked on gifts for her class and they gave me some precious moments to get ready for a date. I picked out a sweet new dress given by my sister and dabbed on some perfume and fresh mascara. Nick showed up ready to go. He took me for a lovely steak dinner with quiet and dark atmosphere. It was so pleasant. It was slow and smooth like the wine we tasted with dinner. Again, I glanced down and magically appeared a new copy of Hunger Games. We ended the night with a new flavor from Nothing Bundt Cakes= blueberries and an intriguing film. It was truly a beautiful day. Thanks to all who made it so special.