Concrete, and other things

Crete's poured.

Next up... Landscaping.

And who's this cutie about to celebrate his first American birthday Sunday!?

Can you tell nobody want's to sit in the back seat alone?

In school news, students are competing in a Grilled Cheese Competition.  

The description of this one cracked me up.

And Ross had his 6th grade science fair.

I have zero idea whats going on with the fake bulge in his shorts as he sits by his oral bacterial poster.

Yep, this is our life right now.

And Molly's in soccer.  If you close your eyes real hard you can probably imagine what it's like.

There are no words.

And baseball...

Jay had his neurological and endocrinological appointment at Blank Children's Hospital Wednesday.

He nailed it and walked away with flying colors.

Meanwhile, the Child Life employees were a Godsend (and a career option I will be advocating for in my Child Development classes).

Humanity in this world continues to amaze me...

Placentas, Ten and Branching Out

If you told me 6 months ago I'd be posting photos of a placenta, I'd tell you to get lost AND it better not be mine.

Oh, the lengths I'll go to keep myself (and my students) entertained through the remainder of the year.

The nurse brought it to the room in an ice cream bucket.  

Below, she's holding up the empty bag of waters, which is connected to the placenta (which tears off the uterus like a scab), and is attached to the cord.

Why does this stuff fascinate me so much?

The miraculousness of this invention completely blows my mind.

I'm pretty sure I vacuumed most of this mud (below) from the mudroom Saturday morning.

Maybe even more a little more...

But by the end of Friday, we had concrete.  

Speaking of Friday, Sugar Plum turned 10.  TEN!  

The basic theme of the event was "Squishies"

However, I can only buy so many squishies before Amazon starts to question my identity and I must think of something else to surprise her with. 

Since my last hair appointment, where she saw a hairdo in a style book with highlighted tips, she's been asking about the possibility of some highlights..

Hey, it wasn't a squishy.

Jayson was very concerned for her.

And held her hand through it all.

She got the new lady. 

The new lady didn't process the color as long as she should have.

Ross was acting feisty though, so she was probably trying to get us in-and-out.

It was a subtle change.  So subtle I emailed her teacher to be sure she'd notice a difference at school the next morning.

She loved it.

2 friends were invited to spend the night Friday night.  Guess what the main entertainment was?

A balloon/squishy pit on the stairwell landing.

Yep, there were 160 balloons and 30 mysterious squishies found at the bottom of the pit.

We knew we'd need a HUGE cardboard box to contain the balloons as the kids fell into the pit.  

Guess what we found in someones garbage pile on our way to school Friday? 

You guessed it... I huge cardboard box!

She's 10.  

Somehow or another.

I feel like i just posted 'the' newborn photo of her with the umbilical cord still attached on this blog and didn't realize my vagina was in the shot.

But in other news, our Moo is branching out.

This morning marked her first soccer game.

She was nervous and insecure (stuck close to her friend Madison) and didn't touch the ball, but she played!  

And loved it.

Plus, the Sunny D and donuts afterwards didn't discourage her either.

Then it was onto a double header pee-wee baseball game.

She struck out twice, made it to base once, hit the ball but got out at 1st because she forgot to run and hit many fouls (which is contact!).  And again, she loved it.  

Plus, she only peed her pants in the outfield "a tiny bit".  

You go girl.  You'll be knocking it out of the park before you know it!

So Many Questions

As I sit down for a few minutes Sunday afternoon, I get the 'full storage' message on my phone.  As I begin the tedious task of deleted unwanted photos, I fully admit I can barely remember taking some of them.

I've always tried to be 'present' in this motherhood business, but let's face it,  

It's easier said than done.

I never expected parenting to be easy.  

But for crying out loud, this is bordering on an Olympic athletics.

Yet looking though the photos on my phone and about to hit the delete button, I'm left with so many questions. 

For example, why do Jayson's toes look like this?

What's with all the black?

And how did her hair get so blonde?

And this loose tooth wedge itself on the brace?

And is it a sign of creativity or disappointment that my oldest girl is forced to create her own happy meal out of construction paper, scotch tape and bread when I refuse to take her to McDonalds.

 And why can't Mother Nature give us more days to be outside during my baby's first American spring?

Meanwhile, what causes my oldest to have peeling finger tips?  Is this an Asian thing?

And how did our little neighbor girl become old enough to drive herself home from practice each night?

And go to her first prom as a freshman?

 And what in the world did I ever do to deserve being this man's wife? 

How?  Seriously, HOW do they make Pancake Art look SO easy on YouTube? 

And I wonder what flipped in this little girl to WANT to try a few sports this spring.

And where his love of nature (especially dead nature he can skin) came from?

Sometimes lactating nature...

And how amazingly well my '3 littles' play.

Yep, we're in the process of finally getting concrete (machinery in the background)

And again, yep that's a mattress on the front porch.

Just don't worry about it.

 And who decided to make the movie, "I Can Only Imagine" so darn sad?

Lastly, I wonder how Ross is going to pull off his 6th Grade Science Fair Project as to whether Dogs or Humans have more germs with results that look like this.

These are just a snapshot of some 'surface questions' flowing in and out of my mind each day.  Questions I'd casually bring up with the lady checking my massive amount of groceries at Fareway to make conversation.

But naturally there will always be the bigger, harder, sometimes scary questions I wonder and pray about during the rest of the day.

The kind of questions that make me mentally tired and have no other choice than to know that 

'The Will Of God Will Not Take You Where The Graces of God Will Not Protect You.'

As we dig deeper into learning what our little Jay is struggling with emotionally, and as I begin to think I've finally gotten 1/8-inch closer to earning Mack's respect as his Mom, and as Ross embarks on the weirdness of puberty, and as Maisie searches for her true passions and interests and comes up with Squishies and Slime and watching YouTube videos and then to watch Molly help shove Jayson's snow boots on his feet to play in the snow while making sure he's taken all his vitamins for the day.  

But then there's this guy named Mike. 

He's the calm to the storm.

The easy to my hard.

He's my single constant these days.

The one who hangs out with me at the prom so I can watch my students dressed up.

Who listens to me bark about the unfunctionality of the mudroom and lack of bathroom decor in our house.  Who knows seeing a psychic is on my bucket list and who knows my dream date is a bottle of wine and trip to Hobby Lobby.

I know fully well 5 years will bring on a whole new level of questions and hardness with my little loves, but something tells tells me this Mike-guy will be rooting for me the whole time time. 

The Coon

MOM!  Get up... I'm hungry!

I've gotten used to being woken up lately.

And it's not just these two snuggle bugs.

Ross has started a new career path.  He wants to trap.  Not just any animal.  

Coons.

For the fur.

To make Coon Skin Hats.

To sell at Covered Bridge Fest in October.

Naturally.

College isn't cheap people.

He sets his trap before bed each night.

Then, wakes Mike to 'get the gun' incase there's a coon before he heads out each morning.

And on Tuesday morning, he had a bite.

Sure enough, a coon was caught in the trap.  But the coon pulled it out of the ground and was running through the woods with a trap on his foot!

As I was round-brushing my hair for school, (a little pissed I was woken before my alarm for the gun request). I heard a panicked pounding and yelling at the front door.

Lo and behold, it was my first born telling me he needed Goose.  His brand new trap was running around the woods stuck on a coon foot.  

He needed his tracking dog.

Below (Ross on the right side... Coon on the left).  They don't see each other.  

5:15 a.m.

The coon found safety under some tree roots in a hillside.

Meanwhile, Goose went Ape-Shit.

Needless to say, Ross was going to be late for school today.

Eventually Goose rangled the coon out of the hole, wrestled it down a hill and the two were in a battle.

Goose was clearly ready to protect His Ross at all costs.

Until Mike showed up with 2 shots to the coons head.

I was ready with crunchy peanut butter sandwiches at the mudroom to reward Goose's efforts to protect my boy during the struggle. 

But he was scared.

Gun shots freak him out each time.

Which is the only reason I allow him into the mudroom (on the rug) to settle his nerves  

And seriously, look at all those opportunities!

Yet, he doesn't even make an attempt.  

He just needs a safe spot.

...tear.

It sort of makes me want to make him a plate of bacon.  

But there's no time...

And on-top of it,

They take his hunt.

Skinning his first coon before school Tuesday morning.  

Seriously, someone pinch me.