1st grade Field Trip

On Thursday, Logan's class (plus 2 others) had their 1st grade field trip. It was to the Wild Basin Preserve in Austin. I didn't even know this place existed. It's very rugged and not commercial at all. They gave several groups of us guided tours around the basin telling us all about the different plants, trees and wildlife that live around there. I was in charge of Logan and another boy. There are 18 kids in Logan's class and there were 10 parents who came along, so that was nice. It really is a beautiful place if you and your family ever feel like taking a little hike. The trails are very rough (no strollers) and several of the kids fell down. Fortunately no one was really hurt. It was pretty hot yesterday, but in the shade, not bad. There was even a really beautiful waterfall there. If you look closely at the picture ( top) you can see it in the back to the right.

After the wild basin, we went to Zilker Park for lunch. This was also fun. We ate our lunches then the kids played for about an hour on the big playground. It was a little nerve wracking being in charge of these 2 kids who ran from place to place in the sea of other kids. So I was constantly searching both of them out to make sure I knew where they were. Also, I forgot to get my camera out of the car at lunch, so no pics!! Sorry!

Overall it was a good experience. I feel like I learned a lot. Some about the basin, but mostly about myself. Logan's teacher wasn't with our group and the tour guide was a little too nice, so when I felt like the kids were taking advantage of him or not acting the way they should I found myself taking charge. That sounds really dumb, like I'm trying to brag. On the contrary, I worried that the other parents might think I was some kind of know it all or something. It's just that no one was saying what needed to be said, like "don't go ahead of the guide" and "OK, everyone it's time to go", just stuff like that. I wasn't being all bossy or anything. I just wanted to help corral the crazy kids (my kid usually being one of the craziest). Anyway, all that to say that I realized yesterday that I could be a teacher or sub or something if I wanted to. Before I didn't know for sure if I would be able to handle a bunch of kids with any kind of authority. There's nothing worse than a teacher who the kids know they can walk all over. I've thought about subbing when Ellie goes to kindergarten, so we'll see. I definitely feel much more confident about it now and that's good.

I wanted to say a special thanks to Erica for watching Ellie ALL DAY for me so that I could go with Logan. I was really thankful that I was able to share this experience with him. Thanks, sis!! I owe you one!

Logan's "Special Mother"

Logan brought home something from school yesterday that I had to share. It's very sweet and funny. It's basically a fill in the blank paper. It goes like this...

My mother is the most wonderful mother in the whole world.

She's as pretty as a hart (heart). She weighs 98 (my favorite) and she's 100 tall. In the good old days when my mom was little, she used to billed casls in the forest(build castles in the forest). I think my mom looks funny when she sleeps. I wish Mom would eat with me every day (I ate lunch at school with him on Monday). I wouldn't trade my mom for a bed.

Happy Mother's Day.

Isn't that funny and sweet? Gotta love him!!

This is a picture of Logan from about 2 months. Sammy has a picture of Jacob on her blog that really reminded me of this one. So cute!! Can't believe he's about to be 7!!!!

Logan's Arm, the Saga continues...

Ding, ding, ding, ding... we have a winner! Or do we? It's broken, probably. That's the diagnosis. Apparently the type of break that Logan (may) have is very hard to see on X-Ray, but based on his symptoms the doctor feels like it's best to proceed under the assumption that it is broken. So, Logan has a temporary cast/splint. It's basically like the bottom half of a cast that's held on with an ace bandage. This way we can take it off to bathe or if it gets itchy, etc. It's perfect to me. All the advantages of a regular cast with none of the inconvenience. Logan was happy, although he did wish he could have picked the color like you get to do nowadays with a regular cast. When are they going to make Ace bandages in different colors? There's an idea!! (They probably already do somewhere.)
Anyway, just wanted to give you all an update on his condition. It really seems to be helping him too. He hasn't been complaining nearly as much about the pain as before. So I hope it will be all downhill from here.
Also, the whole thing with my mom picking up the after school kids went fine. I sure did stress about it though. I actually wound up rescheduling Logan's appointment for tomorrow morning when I couldn't get a hold of her this afternoon. But then she came over in plenty of time, so I called them back (for the 3rd time) and got my original appointment back. What a freak they must have thought I was. Anyway, it all worked out great. I'm really glad we were able to go today to help get Logan on the road to recovery a little faster. Thanks Mom!! I might have to make this Mother's day a little extra special for you!!

This is my comedian son with his new arm contraption! He thinks this is sooo funny!

Logan's Arm

Don't say, "we told you so". I know I've been posting stories about Logan getting a skateboard and a ramp and the terror that these items filled me with, but this I never would have seen coming.

On Friday evening Logan and Ellie went outside on the porch with Stu while he was grilling. The next thing I knew Logan was inside on the couch writhing around in pain and Ellie was telling me that "Logan told me to push him off the porch in the car." Hmmm. I asked him where it hurt (The scene of the accident)

and he said his arm. A minute later he got up and said he felt like he was going to throw up. He went in the bathroom and laid on the floor by the toilet. I was worried that he hurt his stomach or ribs or something. But he kept saying it was his arm that hurt. I looked at it but couldn't see much wrong except a small red mark on his forearm just below his elbow.

He came back out of the bathroom (without throwing up) and laid on the couch again. He stayed there for probably the next half hour without getting up. Whoa! There has to be something wrong with that boy to keep him curled up in a ball on the couch like that. We had dinner. He didn't want to eat. Again, not like him. So we decided to take him to the urgent care center for X-rays. I had given him some ibuprofen for the pain, made a sling out of a Star Wars pillow case, and off we went.

Of course once we got there and saw the doctor he was feeling better. They did the x-rays first. The doctor came in a few minutes later and asked what happened. He asked Logan to straighten his arm, to bend it, twist it, etc. Logan did all of these things without complaint. The doctor squeezed his arm in several places and asked if it hurt. Logan replied "no" to all of them. The doctor looked at me and said, "it looks like he just banged it". Then went to look at the x-rays, which of course didn't show anything. He sent us home with a paper all about "contusions" a fancy word for a bruise, and another with one sentence about icing it and taking ibuprofen for pain. He did give us a real sling though. He also left me with one sliver of doubt, telling me that sometimes it takes a few days for a fracture to show up on an X-ray. So basically I still don't know if his arm is broken or not.
For some reason I can't go to the urgent care center or ER without feeling like a loser for coming in the first place. Logan was in pain. A lot of pain. After we left I asked him why he didn't tell the doctor his arm hurt? "I don't know" was the answer. So then I'm second guessing myself. Maybe he's not hurt that bad. But still in the back of my mind is that if he's not better in a few days we may need to go and have another x-ray.

So for the last few days we've been in the wait and see mode. He did pretty well all weekend. Although I had to keep him on ibuprofen every 6 hours since the pain kept coming back. We were also using a lot of ice packs. This morning of course he was in agony. He got up himself and got an ice pack. He was begging me not to go to school. I just didn't know what to do. He can't just keep staying home because his arm hurts, right? So I decided to send him to school and call the orthopedic doctor that Erica used when she broke her wrist as soon as I could.

So he's at school now. I hope he's OK. For some reason he doesn't like to use his sling in public. It seems to really help his arm feel better. I'm sure he's not wearing it now though. I talked to his teacher this morning to let her know what was going on. We have an apt. at 3:10 today.

This opens up a whole new can of worms since I watch kids after school (at 3:00) My mom is coming over to pick them up and watch them until I get back. I'm sure it will be fine, but it's just something else to worry about, you know?
We'll see what happens. I'll keep you "posted". Ha ha, get it? I know, I know... dork!

Girls night!

I know this is a little late since our girls night was last Thursday, but I had to post this picture of us at Chuy's since magically it seems to knock about 10 years off my age!! We had a great time eating, drinking and most of all talking. I don't know what I'd do without my girls!!

Tag, I'm it!!

My friend Lisa tagged me. I've never been tagged, but apparently I have to post 3 random things about myself. I've actually been writing my 100 things for my 100th post (if I ever get there) so I'm stealing a few items from that list. Here goes...

1. I don't personally own any CD's. Yes this may sound weird to many of you (or possibly all of you), but I don't. Now, I must let you know that my husband owns over 1000. Wait a minute, that' s not cheating. I hardly ever listen to them on my own. I don't know why. I just always listen to the radio. I don't have an ipod either. (Although now that I'm going to the gym more, I want one.)

2. I really love to travel. Our whole family does actually. The kids love staying in hotels and can't wait until our next trip. Stu and I have been to quite a few places (Puerto Rico, NYC, Seattle, Wyoming, Las Vegas, Disney World, San Diego and Disneyland, Cozumel, Belize) mostly before we had kids. We can't wait to visit more.

3. Sometimes I dance around the house while I'm cleaning. I turn the satellite on the 80's music channel really loud and let loose. I know, I'm a dork. It's actually fun and makes the time go much faster. It also adds a little cardio to my day. So if you ever come to the door and hear the music blaring, before you look in the window, brace yourself.

OK, I'm tagging Erica.

Mourning the loss...

I know I've been pretty bad about blogging lately. I had a post all ready to go on Monday about what happened in my neighborhood, but then decided not to post since I thought it was giving up too much personal info about where I live, etc. (Not that anyone I don't know reads my blog anyway, but you never know.) Although now that I think about it, everyone who saw me on the news knows I live where I live and I guess that's not safe either. Oh well, you can't live like a hermit, right?

Also, my lovely laptop that I'd been using in the kitchen is on the fritz. Thus the title to my post. It's been horrible without it. I'm actually thinking of moving my computer somewhere else in the house because where it is now is just too hard to get to easily. I haven't even been checking my email regularly.

First I have a little catching up to do on pics. If you've read Erica's blog you've seen that I gave her kids haircuts. She didn't post about Grace's haircut because Ray isn't supposed to know. (Shhh) But I actually gave Grace a little trim too. Men don't understand that even if girls are going to have long hair they still need to get haircuts now and then. Anyway, I digress. The haircuts went really well. Erica was a little hesitant, so I just took it upon myself to make the first move.

I got Carter and put him in the highchair in front of the TV with a snack. Then I went to town. His hair was really long. I think Erica was a little shocked by how fast and how much hair I was cutting off. I've been cutting hair (non-professionally for about 16 years) Wow, that's a long time now that I think of it! And I've been doing Logan's hair since he was born. So I know that with little kids you have to go as fast as you can since the haircut could come to an end at any time. Like I said he did really well. I pretty much got to do what I wanted. I could have trimmed a little more, but Carter had had enough and so that was it. I think Erica liked it though. And she said Ray liked it too, so that's good.

After I was done with Carter we asked Grace if she wanted a haircut too. At first she said no, but then we said that She and Ellie could get haircuts together and she liked that idea. So we sat them in bar stools next to each other and I gave her a quick trim, just to even up the ends basically. I also gave Ellie a "pretend" haircut since she really didn't need one. After that we all went to lunch with my mom at Taco Cabana. It was a good day.

I wanted to include this picture of Ellie in her new dress with a really full skirt. She loves to twirl around and have the skirt fly up! And just one more picture of Ellie painting on the "weasel" that Aunt Erica gave her and Logan. Too Cute!

P.S. Lisa, I know you tagged me and I'm working on my post for that too!!