Seven things on a Sunday!

Where have I been the last two weeks?  Well, now that the boys are home all day every day, I am way busy.  It seems like we are constantly going from one place to another.  They go back to school on July 31st, so we are trying to cram in as much as possible!!  Here are seven very random things that have happened the last two weeks.

1.  My oldest son took $160 with him to our public pool.  He put his wallet in his backpack in an unlocked locker.  When he went to get some money to buy a snack, his money was gone!  He called my husband (knowing I would freak out on him), and they told me after the fact.  Poor guy learned a lesson the hard way.

2.  I decided I was tired of taking care of my oldest son's bearded dragon, and he had zero interest in it.  So I listed it on Craigslist and sold it in less than a day!  No more cutting up broccoli and buying berries for the beardie.  Last summer I sold our gerbils, this summer the bearded dragon.  I told my kids they may get sold next summer!

3.  My youngest son got a clean bill of health from his surgeon.  He can now go back to normal activities and baseball.  Yahoo!

4.  I have decided I am going to pronounce July differently.  I am going to start saying

Jew ly instead of Ju ly.  A friend of mine from work says it that way and so does Luke Bryan in his song Drunk on You.  I'll see if it catches on!

5.  I am going to see Luke Bryan in concert on July (said Jew ly) 21st!  I am going to one concert this summer, and am very excited to see him perform live!

6.  It is our local 4H fair this week.  We went on Friday night and I found a 20 dollar bill on the ground.  I was pretty sure my son had lost it (see #1), but it turned out he kept track of his money that night.  So I came home with $20 after spending $80 on rides and food.  Fairs are expensive!!

7.  I have been making broccoli salad like crazy with fresh broccoli from our garden.  It is so good!!  I could so easily be a vegetarian if I didn't have four boys/men in my house who expect real food on a regular basis!

Time Flies!

We just finished our first full week of Summer break.  And we have stayed out of Riley Hospital for a full week...Hallelujah.  Riley Hospital is a wonderful place, but I do not want to return any time in the near future.  Devin came home from his five day stay, went to school the next day, then two days later we ended back up in the emergency room.  Three enemas later and an overnight stay, and he was back to normal.  Yesterday he woke up and said he is back to 100%, which makes this momma very happy!

A few weeks ago, my husband decided to give our backyard playset away.  The only thing our kids used it for was to jump off the top of the monkey bars onto the trampoline.  I was a little sad to see it go, but we get to visit it at our friend's house.  And over there, my boys are actually swinging (and fighting over the swings, of course)!

Here is Moose on his last day of school with his teacher he had for two years.  We loved her!!  He is going to be in total shock when he has a new teacher and different classmates.  Hopefully third grade will be good to him.

Devin took a lot of naps this week while he was recovering.  He hasn't slept this much in a long time!  Healing from surgery is tough work.

We have gotten spinach from our garden three times now.  It is so good!  It makes a great salad.  That's the only way I have eaten it so far.

And here are the chickens that we hope will be producing some fresh eggs in a few months.  I am excited about farm fresh eggs!

And lastly here is Noah on the first and last day of sixth grade.  I think he looked like a baby at the beginning of the year.  He has really changed and grown a lot.  He is a great kid, but still has his moments!  He is excited about basketball camps this summer.  I think he will end up participating in three of them.

And really for the last thing, I found this great article titled, What Every Mom Needs to Hear  (on the first day of summer) on one of my favorite blogs, We are THAT Family.  I am making this part of my required daily reading because summers can be long and rough, especially when I am outnumbered by boys!!

Last Day of School!!

It has been a rough week here at our house!  Today is the last day of school for my three boys.  On Friday night, our youngest son, Devin, had to have emergency surgery for (another!) bowel obstruction.  He started to get sick Wednesday night and progressively got worse over two days.  He never had a fever (which would have indicated a virus), so I started to get worried Friday evening when he was still getting sick and had lots of belly pain.

So Friday my husband took him to the Riley Emergency Room, and he was in surgery within a few hours.  Thankfully the other two boys had places to spend the night.  So I went up to Riley and waited until he was back in his room for the night.  I got home at 4 AM Saturday morning!  The surgeons were amazing (like all of our other experiences).  He did have to have an open laparotomy this time, which means a bigger scar and more pain.  He was a trooper.  That boy was up walking the halls Saturday afternoon, not even 24 hours after his surgery.

This is Devin after all his tubes were out.  He was much happier tube-free!

He came home yesterday and begged to go to school for his last day of 2nd grade.  His teacher is awesome and he really wanted to tell her goodbye!  So I drove him to school and will pick him up so he doesn't have to ride the bumpy bus route and risk being jabbed in the stomach by rowdy kids on their last bus ride home!

And at 2:20, the summer fun begins! Yippee!

MAY

READING

I just finished the book Sacred Marriage.  The author talked about the Lindberghs several times, so I decided to look for books about them.  Our library had two books by Reeve Lindbergh {Charles and Anne's daughter}, then I found this fiction book in the new release section, and I loved it!  It makes me want to read more about them.

DRINKING

Somehow I won a contest and got 12 coupons for free cartons of Iced Coffee.  They came in the mail this week, so I tried the Light Mocha version.  It is very yummy!  I think this will be my summer coffee drink, if I can keep Noah out of it.

PLAYING

The twins are playing baseball, and Noah is not playing a sport right now.  He has been going to the gym and playing basketball in the evenings.  It is a pretty quiet time right now for us.

PAYING

I am starting to register the kids for all the summer activities they want to do.  Between sports camps, VBS, and a work/mission trip we are going to have a very busy {expensive} summer.

EATING

Nothing exciting!

WISHING

I could get a pedicure before the boys get out of school.  But I don't think it is going to happen.

EXCITING

There are only 7 more days of school!  I think my 3 boys are more excited about this than I am.

DREADING

Some really good friends of ours {who have 3 boys also} are moving to Tennessee.  We are so sad they are leaving because we typically hang out a lot with them in the summer.  We are going to a couple of going away parties for them this weekend.

TRYING

I am really trying to have a positive attitude about this summer.  I am hopeful that my boys will get along and not fight. all. day. long.  I am really trying to be thankful that I get to spend time with my boys on my days off!

3 Goals for the Day!

I had three goals for today.

1.  Sell my big pile of books at Half Price Books

2.  Find a pair of capris that fit

3. Get my free Cinnabon for Nurse's Week

Here's how it all turned out.

1.  I went to the location for Half Price Books and the store was gone.  So I got out my (very smart) phone and researched where it went.  I found out it moved a few miles away.  I found the address and thought I knew where it was.  I only drove through 3 strip malls before I finally found it.  I sold my big pile of books for 32 bucks.  I had never sold books there before, and everyone I talked to said they got offered 20 bucks no matter how many books they took in to sell.  So I was happy with the amount they offered and quickly took the deal.  It was so hard not to buy more books, but I resisted the urge and left with my cash in hand!

2.  I tried on some khaki capris one place and they were very baggy.  Then I went to the Buckle.  I had a $10 coupon and a gift card left over from Christmas.  I tried on 7 items all together and decided to just buy one pair of capris.  I really like them.  When I got to the checkout, the sales gal offered me an adorable Buckle beach towel for only $5.  I gave in and got the towel. (I never give in to impulse buys, but it was really really cute!)

3.  I thought for sure there was a Cinnabon at the mall I went to.  I was all ready with my work ID badge stating I am an RN!  As it turned out, there was no Cinnabon at the mall (big frowny face).  There was an Aunt Annies pretzel and the Great American Cookie Co., but no Cinnabon.  So I didn't meet this goal.

My kids only have 13 more days of school.  So I know my days of goals will be coming to an end.  It's hard to go to one store let alone multiple stores with kids in tow.  I probably won't be setting very many goals this summer!

24,279th Place!!

So I was able to finish the mini marathon, yes all 13.1 miles of it, on Saturday!  It took me 3 hours 5 minutes and 31 seconds.  I think it is about 17 minutes faster than the one I did in 2010.  My pace was 14 minutes 9 seconds per mile.  And I finished in 24,279th place. When I got home the first thing my two 8 year olds asked me was if I won the race?!? HaHa!!  They couldn't understand why I would enter a race I had no chance of winning.  

{I'm the tall one}

It was a beautiful day weather wise.  No rain, just a touch overcast, and temps in the 60's made it very tolerable.  I didn't stop to use the bathroom the entire time (which was amazing for me!), and I got to taste a Gu packet for the first time.  They had several different flavors to choose from, and I picked the Mocha flavor thinking it would taste like coffee.  It actually tasted like rich chocolate frosting with a hint of mocha flavor.  Walking around the 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was very cool!  I had never even been to the track, and I've lived in Indiana 33 of my 38 years.

I am seriously ready to sign up for next year's race.  Maybe I will continue to get faster (or maybe not!). 

Exercise!

Last year, I bought an elliptical machine at Dick's Sporting Goods.  I think I got it around the end of January 2012.  I told myself I was going to get my money's worth.  And I told myself I would use it every. single. day.  Well, I have kept my end of the deal up!  I have pretty much used the machine for at least 30 minutes every day for the last 14 months.  Except when I had the real flu {influenza} and felt like I was going to die.  There was also one night we were out really really late, and I didn't feel like getting on the elliptical at one in the morning!

Last month, my husband joined our local wellness center {gym}.  He signed up for a year and decided to add me to the membership.  How nice of him!  Really, he said it only cost 10 bucks a month to add me, so he thought it was totally worth it.  I have yet to go to the gym!  I just cannot find the time in my days off work to go.  There is a yoga class on Wednesday nights that I would love to try out, but we have been busy or my husband has been gone every Wednesday!

Last week, a friend announced she had a free entry to the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.  She was not going to be able to use it and was hoping some one would want to do the race.  I was laying in bed Sunday night and decided I wanted to do it!  I have not been training at all, but I think I am in decent enough shape to survive.  I walked a marathon almost three years ago when I was much heavier and had not exercised or trained at all.  So I am thinking I am pretty good shape now.  I even found some girls who are going to be there and plan to walk with them!  So hopefully I will survive the cold rainy weather they are predicting for Saturday.