Thirty-Five

Birthdays aren't QUITE as exciting as they once were. However, I decided that I needed a day away this year. So, Mom (Grandma Cathy) and Grandma (Grandma Audrey) came to stay with the kids while we spent the day/night in Des Moines. We went to Wellman's Pub in West Glen for lunch and watched some of the ISU game, went to Jordan Creek Mall and Trader Joe's. Next we headed downtown and tried to go to West End Architectural Salvage, but they were already closed. So, we checked into the downtown Marriott and relaxed. Yes, just sitting in a hotel room with NO kids is SO relaxing these days. Next we headed to Dos Rios for guacamole and margaritas. I think we were asleep by 11:00, so it wasn't a crazy night out, but it was much needed and a great time!

Love him :)

LOVE Dos Rios Margaritas!

I came home to THIS!
I picked cherry cheesecake as my "bday cake" for many years when I was younger. Grandma Audrey remembered, and brought the ingredients to make this.

A night away is great, but who wouldn't want to come home to these two?

They had been playing "dress up" while we were gone :)

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And this little gem is my birthday present!!!! I got the new iphone 4s and it's worth every penny. It's more of a mini computer with a phone, than a phone. I LOVE it.
(It take better pictures than our Canon camera)

Pumpkins!

We took our annual trip over to Larry Joe and Jean Vandewater's to get pumpkins last week!!!

Grant got to drive the lawn mower, by himself.
He's sure moving up in the world :)

Finding the PERFECT one.

Got it...

Got his too.

Family photo

Playing in the hay.


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The next day was Grant's ALL SCHOOL field trip to Patch's Pumpkins. Lee had worked like crazy all week, so he took Friday off to go with us. We drove some of the kids (GCA relies heavily on parent volunteers) and chaperoned! It was fun, but SUPER windy that day.

Grant is second from the right.
Remember this is the entire school, not just his class.
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

Random Cuteness

I realize these are all of Brynna, but now that Grant is at school in the mornings,
we have some time to take pictures.

That is a tiny tree frog sitting next to her :)

Cheesin'

IN the toy box


When school first started she seemed to miss Grant, now I think she enjoys the one on one time with Mom. Her favorite is still Tuesday mornings when she has "baby gymnastics" as she calls it.

Tire Swing

The sack swing that the kids got from Grandma Cathy was SO loved that the gunny sack wore out...we replaced it with a tire. I think they would play on it all day!!!!

Yes, both of them are in military style camo...oh well, let's just hope they get over this phase :)

ER

As if we hadn't had an exciting enough week...Friday night we ended up with Grant in the emergency room. No not from the 4-wheeler, his bike, or the swing set, just from running. Yep, he was running, tripped, and fell into the trailer that is parked behind the dog kennel. I heard him screaming, ran outside to see him holding his head with blood running down his face, neck and arm! No, I didn't panic, I know head wounds bleed a lot. I got him inside, applied pressure and layers of band-aids/gauze (yes, I have mad first aid skills), and had him lie down. We waited for Lee to get home (he was about 20 minutes away) then peeled the band-aids off to take a look and decided we should take him in.

He FREAKED out!!!! He cried the entire way to Winterset, saying he wanted to go to the doctor tomorrow NOT today. I literally had to drag him into the hospital, while we were checking in he was crying and hitting me...oh yeah, NOT cool. Lee took care of that little problem, and then we waited for a few minutes. The nurse looked at it first and said he probably wouldn't need stitches, they could just glue it. Immediately, Grant calmed down! He was smiling, happy, and having us read him a deer hunting magazine while we waited for the doctor. Thankfully the nurse was correct and it only needed glue. He didn't even whine when the doctor cleaned and squeezed it together to apply the glue. All of that DRAMA over fear of stitches...I don't even think he actually knows what they are.

Smiling after it was all over...maybe it was because we told him we'd get dinner at Pizza Hut AND let him have candy :)



HOPING for a much calmer weekend!!!!

Promotion Ceremony

Pinning the new rank on his hat.
I was a little nervous standing in front of all those Army guys, so the Colonel had to help.

We're SO proud of him!

The cake we brought (from Costco-YUMMY!)

The kids and their Happy Meals...thanks to Lee's boss from the deployment, for helping them with their food so Lee could chat and I could serve cake and juice.

Our sweet little family!

A really bad day.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we're having a hard time settling into a routine. Now, not having a good routine may work fine for some people, but it doesn't work so well in household with two "Type A" personalities. We're trying...but things have just been hectic. Add to that, two BUSY kids and well, you get some bad days.

Thursday was one of those really bad days! It started with Lee taking the day off for some doctor appointments. He went to Winterset for his first appointment of the day...only to be told he didn't HAVE an appointment, um excuse me, I made the appointment for him! Well, after a little arguing, they looked back in their notes and realized it was THEIR mistake (um, yeah!) and he WAS supposed to have an appointment. Okay, they were going to work him in, UNTIL...they realized he was scheduled to see the WRONG doctor. WHAT!?!??! Oh yeah, Tricare (our SUPER annoying, can't do anything right until they get a phone call from me GOVERNMENT health insurance) made a referral the wrong doctor (mind you, this is AFTER the referral first came in MY name...anyone still want to sign up for government run healthcare????). Needless to say, it was a frustrating morning for Lee and in turn for me, as I spent most of the rest of the morning trying to figure out what had happened and what to do to straighten it out.

Well, Thursday lunch time was normal and the kids went out to play for a bit while I cleaned up the kitchen. I went out about 10 minutes later to check on them and call them in for naps. When I walked outside, all I could hear was muffled screams and crying from BOTH of them! I was a little panicked wondering what had fallen on them or what they had fallen from...or who knows what!?!?! Turns out, they had locked themselves in the shed where we keep the mower, etc. (even though they've been told to stay OUT of it). I thought, no big deal, I'll get the key and unlock the door...um, not so easy, the door knob was BROKEN, in the locked position! That's right, they were truly locked in! I had to first calm them down, encourage Grant to be brave and strong and to help keep Brynna safe. We tried the door knob, we tried the dog door...nothing. I eventually had to talk Grant through getting a bucket to stand on, reaching up and fining the vice grip we use to "lock" the overheard garage door on the shed, and then how to get the thing off. YOU try explaining how to unlock a vice grip to a 5 year old who is locked on the inside of a shed with a two year old...a two year old who has now peed her pants...while sitting on the mower! It took about a half hour, but he did it! I just pray that this "life lesson" isn't soon forgotten!!

You may be thinking, what a stressful day...and you'd be right, but it gets worse.

Early that evening, I went down to the laundry room to find a clogged and OVERFLOWING toilet. Yeah, like water running out of toilet, onto the floor and under my shelves and totes! I'm tired of typing so I'll make it short. We're pretty sure one of our "precious" children put something down the toilet...it was SO clogged that Lee ended up renting some roto-rooter type thing to get it unclogged. He was NOT a happy camper, to say the LEAST!

Anyway, we did survive and now that I read this it actually is kind of funny. I'm just wondering WHEN we get to relax and enjoy what we work so hard for????