First week of school

I have no pictures to show, but I can tell you that Matthew rallied well after the first day and forever after did not want to leave. He was tired but time Saturday came, but refused to let a little thing like sleep hold him down. I am enjoying my work at school. I rallied after Monday as well, but was so tired by Sunday, that I took a 4 hour nap and probably could have slept longer.

Wednesday we had to leave the house by 7 am to rush to the hospital to get Matthew a school physical. Matthew is 43" tall and 38.4 lbs. He was proclaimed perfectly healthy.

Dad left the hospital Wednesday. After they examined the pint of fluid they drained, they determined that he hadn't experienced a blood clot after all, which is excellent news. No blood thinners for him! He has rallied well from all enforced bed rest.

Yesterday was Matthew's first day of gymnastics, for the fall session. He enjoyed himself and Mom was impressed with his concentration. She hasn't watched him since last year.

Hopefully I'll get some photos taken soon and write my tardy garden posts!

1st day of Pre-school!

He was so excited to go this morning that he thought I took way too long to get him there. I doubt I needed to even hug him goodbye! I just wish by time I got off work he hadn't been so tired. About all I got was crying.

What will $5 get you?

One manly stove. And I kept the perfect dishes and food to go with it.


And just for giggles...

First 2 days of school

2 days of school down! The 1st 2 days of ASP went fine. Thursday Matthew and I started our day by visiting his new preschool. He wasn't too sure he wanted to be in a building separate from my school, until he saw his new playground. As I was parking in the parking lot, he was exclaiming, "This is a GREAT SCHOOL!" Nothing soothes the mom guilt like an excited kid! We stayed for 1 1/2 hours and he loved every minute. The boy is ready to fly. Even better, 4 of his friends from our school daycare (which is now closed) will be in his preschool class. He can't wait to start on Monday.

Thursday he stayed in Mom's classroom, katty corner across the hall from where I work in ASP. He brought some toys in his new school backpack.

Friday was supposed to be Mom and Matthew Fun Day, since it would be the last day we'd be home with each other all the time. The end of a chapter, if you will. Instead, we took Dad, at 8:30 am to his dr. appt to get the last staples out, and didn't leave till 2 pm. My Dad had developed a sharp pain in his right side, which prompted x-rays, which promoted more discussion, which promoted a CT scan, which led to more discussion, which led to more chest x-rays. Because they discovered that he had fluid build up around the rt. lung, which was starting to collapse it, they had to drain him. After that he was supposed to be released, but they decided he had had a blood clot end up in the lung, so now the poor man in stuck in the hospital for 5 days, on bed rest, while blood thinners get to work.

Since my ASP boss works in radiology, during the day, she knew that we'd been up at the hospital all day and insisted that Matthew stay, instead of going back to the hospital with Mom. Matthew was so good and had an awesome time. It was interesting because in the other ASP, it was the girls that felt the need to mother Matthew. Here, it was the older boys. Here he is playing soccer with them.

How August has been going!

I absolutely can't believe that today is the 17th of August. This has been the craziest month of the summer, I swear. I guess the place to start is with the first of August. It was our first day home from TX. We thought it was going to be a pretty normal month. We started doing more sorting in anticipation of school starting soon. Friday we woke up and Dad didn't feel good again. All the symptoms he had, smacked of the blood infection he had in early June. So we got him a early afternoon dr. appointment. By 2pm he was in the hospital awaiting gallbladder surgery and possibly appendix surgery. Sunday, he had surgery the old fashion way, because the gallbladder was just that bad, with around 8 big gallstones. The surgeon said in 30 years he'd only seen 5 that bad. If Dad wasn't so tough it would have come out several years ago. He got released the next Friday, which was last Friday.

*photo by Mom

Around the last night Dad was in the hospital, Matthew has alot of fun in the hospital bed. *photo by Mom

The day after Dad's surgery, Matthew and I had doctors appointments. Matthew got his kindergarten shots. Tuesday, my Grandmom went in for x-rays to see what the mass in her breast was. It turned out to be where her bones healed a little out, from where she broke her collarbone around 22 years ago. Thank goodness!

Last Thurday, I interviewed for a job at the elementary school. Several hours later, I was offered an assistant position with the afterschool program. I accepted. This will be my 3rd year at afterschool, first at this particular school.

Saturday, Auntie brought Matthew's big boy bed and we were finally able to use his new bedding. He loves it! Finally he's sleeping through the night in his own bed!

This week Matthew and I ran into town, to run errands. The sun was shining at our house. We went 2 tenths of a mile, went around the corner and it was threateningly dark! We've been loving the showers we've been getting.

One night I was in the kitchen and heard the funniest sound on the back window. I discovered the hugest moth I've ever seen, beating the window with it's wings, as well as the poor tree frogs. They looked like they wished the moth would leave. If you've ever seen a swallowtail butterfly, this moth was just as big as one of them. The only bigger moth I've seen is a luna.

Yesterday I took Dad back to the surgeon, to have half of his staples taken out. Friday he'll go back and get the rest out. We are so glad that he is recovering well. We believe the gallbladder caused all the problems in June. So hopefully he'll have a long time of good health now.

Today I got a call from the principal that hired me. She just got clearance to hire a teacher's aide for the 2 second grade classes, which are extra large this year. I got offered the position! I said I'd love to take it, if I could find a daycare/preschool placement for Matthew. I had been told basically all the daycares in town were full. And both I called were, but revised their positions. In an hour, I was able to get Matthew the very last preschool slot at the daycare in town. He starts Monday and can't wait. I start afterschool tomorrow and will start the aide position Monday. The neatest part is I will get to work with my Mom 2 1/2 hrs a day since she is one of the 2nd grade teachers!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 15

This week as been about rain, which means we haven't watered the garden in a week now, and tomatoes.

Matthew's tomato bush got so big it dragged it's cage over, so I just left it there. That hasn't stopped it from producing and growing.

I believe we picked 22 tomatoes. Matthew has been encouraging us to eat tomatoes, not that he wants to eat them!

The only other garden news is that the luffa vines are taking over radish plants and starting to bloom. They better set fruit soon if we're going to get anything! For that matter, all the squash better start setting soon!

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 14

Finally, I have time to post and finally I can say that we got rain! Three nights in a row we got rain, amounting to 3.70" total. This morning we got another 1/2" so thing are looking happier!

That and the temps have dropped some. Now I have weeds to pull.

I believe my favorite marigold bloomed and the cinnamon basil has pretty blooms.

The one lone green that the rabbits haven't ate.

Matthew's tomato plant has had some ripe tomatoes this week. He actually ate half a tomato before he remembered he didn't like tomatoes, yea!

San Antonio trip days 3 & 4

Friday, Phil took the day off, so we slept in. Then we got up and took Matthew to his first ever movie in the movie theater. We hoped to see Cars 2, but Matthew picked Winnie the Pooh. It was cute and short. After that we went home, ate, and relaxed. Then we took off to go bowling and have supper at the bowling alley.



*photo by Mom

It was the first time Mom had bowled in 36 years. Matthew looked so cute in his bowling shoes I wanted to take them home. He was so excited! He has obviously gotten that from his dad and Grandma Bev.

Then we went shopping for groceries for Phil and scored a kick board for Matthew. So of course we had to go swimming again.

Saturday was another slow start. Then we got into 2 movies on tv. After we tore ourselves away, we headed back downtown. Some of the architecture was just awesome.

We drove right by the Tower of the Americas, but we decided that it's restraurant was too expensive and Phil didn't want to go to the top just for the view, so we didn't go see it.

My Dad highly recommended going to see The Alamo, so we headed to find it. Turns out we drove by it the first night and didn't realize it.

These were the barracks. *photos by Mom

Mom and Matthew in front. They consider it a shrine, so we aren't allowed to take photos inside.

Here we are on the street side. *photo by Mom

After looking at The Alamo, we went looking around at stores and buildings in the area. I found a clothing store that had all it's clothes 50% off and got a couple things. I would have liked to get a ring too, but Phil wasn't springing for it. After that we cruised the Ripley's strip trying to figure out what we wanted to pay big bucks to see. We finally decided on the Ripley's Believe it or Not!, but Matthew was scared so he had to be carried in. He still calls it the weird museum. Today he called it the fake museum. Hmmmm....

While in Ripley's Believe It or Not! there was a couple spots for kids to play. Here is Matthew on the largest tire in the world. *photo by Mom

And here he is in a weird tunnel that I refused to go through. Good thing Phil was there! *photo by Mom

After that, we were tired and hungry, so we went and found the Brazil steakhouse Phil wanted to try, but it ended up being $42 a plate per person, so off we went to the Riverwalk again. This time, we decided to eat at a Tex-Mex restraurant, on it's balcony.

I was staring at the Tower of the Americas.

To my right was Coyote Ugly. We'd fallen in love with their huge flags.

To my left was the river and stores up and down. It's amazing maze of levels and buildings down there. A few minutes after our food came, a small storm fueled by the tropical depression at the coast, came through and we had to go in. We were supposed to take Mom to the beach, but weren't able to because of the storm.

Here is Phil and I going over one of the many bridges the first day. *photo by Mom

Somehow we got free tickets to the wax museum, so after we ate, we went through. I finally got to meet Sarah Jessica Parker. I don't think they did her justice. She looks a little scary. *photo by Phil

Then we walked back to the car and went home to, you guessed it, swim! Matthew would have been fine living in the pool, I think. And that is the whole trip in a nutshell!

San Antonio trip days 1 & 2

Early last Tuesday, Matthew, Mom and I got in the car and headed south to visit Phil. We got there late in the evening and got sorted out for the evening.

Wednesday, Phil went to work and we sat around relaxing at the apartment. Mid afternoon Phil got home and we decided to go to the riverwalk. I managed to take off without my camera. Thankfully Mom packed hers.

The riverwalk is a beautiful blend of water, bridges, buildings, shops, and restraurants. *photo by Mom

But man was it hot. Matthew and Mom were dying and stopped for drinks. *photo by Mom

Matthew and I got to see the "knees" of swamp trees that we read about in one of his books. *photos by Mom

After this Mom's camera died, so we missed alot of photo opportunities. We found an icecream store, Justin's, that had gelato. It was good, but not nearly as special as I thought it would be. That stuffed me, so when we stopped at Mad Dogs, a British pub, for dinner, I really wasn't hungry. After that we were so tired and hot, we walked back to our parking garage and went home.

Thursday, in the late morning, we met Phil at his job at Brooke Army Medical Center. We ate in the cafeteria, which was yummy. Then we walked around with him, while he checked on things for work. We almost had to go home, because Matthew was walking on the little wall next to Phil in this photo and fell off. He skinned up his knee so bad, Matthew was convinced he couldn't walk. But he pulled it together. And thank goodness, because it's amazing the facilities they have for the soldiers and their families. It made me proud to be part of it. *photo by Mom

We went to Phil's favorite building, which is the Warrior and Family Support Center. It is amazingly beautiful and full of every convenience you could possibly want for the soldiers and families. And the most amazing part is that it was built totally from donations and is completely run by donation. If you are looking for a cause to support, this is the place folks. It is awesome. And very needed.

Above the fireplace, which is what you see when you walk in, is this beautiful butterfly art. It was designed by a recovering solider based on a story of something that happened to family members. The story goes that one particular unit had been hit hard and as a result, had many seriously wounded soldiers. There was a period of time, where some where dying. When the family members of the deceased would walk out of hospital, a butterfly would land on their shoulder. This happened every time someone died. Doesn't that make you smile and cry all at once? *photo by Mom

After our little tour, we went home and let Phil finish up stuff he needed to do.

After Phil got home from work, we traveled north out of town and arrived at Natural Bridge Caverns. We decided to take the Discovery Tour. This is a photo of the sink hole. Once upon a time, it was probably the upper room of the caverns.

Here is the natural bridge, the only thing really left on the surface.

Here is the beginning of the tour, where the tour guide announced that we should be wearing walking shoes and I'm in flip flops and a sundress. Lovely.

Descending down. We aren't allowed to touch the walls. It is so steep that we need to hang on and go slow. The path is wet and slippery as well, but Matthew only fell once and somehow I managed to stay up right in flipflops.





The formations were amazing. It was worth the steepness and fear from the wrong footwear. After we crawled up and out of the caverns, we headed back home and went to our favorite Mexican restraurant. Sadly they have a new cook, who doesn't cook to our taste, but it was ok. After we got home, we took Matthew to the pool and played in the water. Phil taught him more in one evening, then a whole week of swim lessons, last year. It was a great day!