Busy Weekend

The Sleep Study felt very busy and like a BIG DEAL, but that was just the tip of the iceberg that was this last weekend.

Friday I had another dress rehearsal (SO MUCH STANDING), this time at UVA, which always stresses me out a bit because I've got to park and walk to the right building and all the buildings look exactly the same, so I'm always worried I'm going to park somewhere that isn't allowed and either get a ticket or get my car towed, and that I'll get lost and be late.  And being late always feels like a fate worse than death to me, but choir practice is the WORST thing to be late to-- our director runs a very tight ship in that regard.  So, yes, even though I enjoy the actual rehearsal (sore feet notwithstanding), I tend to be a bit of a wreck beforehand.

And this Friday, on top of my rehearsal, was ALSO the father-son camp out!  So Grandma and Grandpa were coming to babysit again (bless Tom and Donna for being at our beck and call all weekend!).  Craig was running around getting packed, I was trying to help, and there was just a lot of chaos involved.

But everyone got where they needed to be.  And I was NOT late.  

Just bought a new tent at Costco, and it turned out the family camping right next to them had gotten the same tent!

I *guess* this is a pretty place to camp...

My goofball sons

Colton concentrating hard on his watermelon

Gotta love a rope swing!

That's my hubby!

Watermelon + sand + weird filter = Crazy Colton!

That's Colton catching fireflies out in a field.  Craig took a video, too, and it is amazing and nostalgic.  Perfection.

The boys had a great time.  The girls had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.  And my rehearsal was great, too, so everyone was happy, albeit tired!

The next morning I got up right away to exercise and work on getting the German translation written into my score of Brahms' Requiem.  Before I'd even finished, Craig and the boys arrived back home, which meant we had plenty of time to get me, Kendra, Craig, and Bentley all showered before...  The kids' piano recital!!!

Waiting for their turn

The whole recital crew, including our neighbors Abby and Mackenzie, standing next to Kendra

Camille enjoys refreshments with her friend, the aptly named Scarlett

Bentley and Kendra both performed wonderfully, and I was very proud of them!  Kendra played Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony and the hymn "I Stand All Amazed."  Bentley played "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from The Lion King and the theme song from Jurassic Park.

Unfortunately, I'd decided to let Colton go to a birthday party during the recital, but then the location of the recital changed to a place much further away AND it took a lot longer than I'd been picturing, so I spent a good chunk stressing out about what time I needed to leave to pick up Colton.  (I'd planned on just asking another parent to grab him for me if the recital was running over, but then there was NO cell service at this church, so that was out of the question.)  It all worked out just fine, so my stressing was pointless.  But I didn't know that until after it all worked out, did I?

And then, that evening was MY concert!  I was super excited because I have just grown to LOVE Brahms' Requiem AND because the soprano soloist was the same one we got last year and I absolutely love her, too.  She has the most incredible voice and she's super sweet, too.  As soon as we found out she was coming, me and my friend were both totally geeking out, we were so happy!

Craig and his parents and Kendra all came.  Bentley wanted to stay home, so he was our babysitter for the night.  Craig had put everyone else to bed, so Bentley didn't have to do much, but still!  This is an exciting new phase of parenting that we have been easing into-- being able to NOT have a babysitter!  Concert started at 7:30 and didn't end until after 10, so I was beat by the end. 

But very happy.  We'd had a very full weekend and everything had gone splendidly.  Now I could relax and make Craig do everything for Mother's Day.

What more could a girl ask for?

Colton's Hearing (part II)

It was over two years ago that I blogged about Colton's hearing not being great.  At the time, I was focused on his stuttering, but we also worried about his hearing.  We got him into speech therapy, which he just "graduated" from because he is totally stutter free now!  So that is exciting stuff!  His speech therapist was WONDERFUL.  I cannot sing her praises enough.

The hearing issue has been a long, dragged out process.  At the time he was tested, he had his 4-year check up coming up, so I asked them to test his ears very thoroughly, and they said he was fine.  But the doctor looked in his ears and said he had fluid in them.  She suggested we check back in again on that later.

Which of course, I never did.  (In my defense, we have terrible insurance and nothing is covered.  So I didn't really want to shell out a hundred bucks for another appointment just to look at his ears again.  It felt a little silly, especially when the doctor was saying his ears were fine.  Except for the fluid?)

Over the summer, Bentley caught swimmer's ear, so while we were at the doctor's, I had her look in Colton's ears, too.  Still had fluid.  She prescribed flo-nase or some other such thing, a nasal spray.  You can imagine how much Colton loved that.  And I couldn't tell that it did any good, so we just sort of stopped bothering with it after a short time.

Then, this winter, Colton's hearing got BAD again.  When Craig would talk to him first thing in the morning, we could tell that he couldn't understand a word that was said.  If I repeated it, then he'd get it.  I asked his speech therapist if she could test his hearing and she confirmed that he wasn't hearing stuff in the lower registers.  Once again, he had his 6-year check up on the horizon, but I was afraid I'd just get the run-around from his pediatrician again, so I felt totally stuck.

I complained about all this to my sister, and she had a brilliant suggestion: why didn't I just take him to an ENT doctor?  Skip the pediatrician as middle man!  That made perfect sense.  So I got recommendations and made an appointment.  She looked at his ears and put him on antibiotics, explained the importance of actually using the flo-nase, and also told us to use saline nasal spray, too.  She said to do all that and she'd look at him again and see if the fluid had cleared out.  We did it all for several weeks and at the next appointment, his ears were better, but there was still some fluid.  The audiologist was there to test his hearing again, and she said his hearing was fine, but there was more fluid that couldn't be seen that was making it hard for his eardrums to vibrate.  (I think this is what she said; I could be messing some of this up.)

For reasons that I still don't understand, after all that the doctor said she still didn't think he was a good candidate for tubes.  She said the antibiotics had helped a lot, and she didn't want to rush to surgery.  I give her full props for not just wanting to cut my kid open-- I'm very leery of any doctor who's knee-jerk reaction is to recommend surgery-- but I also felt like we weren't doing anything for my kid who clearly had a problem!

So then a few weeks later Colton got another ear infection.  After much internal debate, I took him back to the ENT (who miraculously had an opening-- the first appointment we made with her had to be booked a month out!) and she looked at both ears and gasped.  The one that Colton was complaining about clearly had pus in it, and she said the one that he wasn't complaining about looked like it was about to rupture!  So NOW she's ready to put tubes in and take out his adenoids.  Finally!  Let's DO something about this recurring problem!

She asked if I wanted to do a sleep study, very much leaving that decision up to me and what I thought was best.  Since Colton has been a TERRIBLE sleeper for the past three years, I said Yes.  A resounding yes, at that.  (We're going to hit our deductible anyway, so let's go whole hog!)  She explained how the sleep study works and told me the sleep center would be calling me.  She said she wanted the whole thing expedited so we could get this surgery done before he had time to develope another ear infection.

So, of course, I never heard from the sleep center.  After waiting five business days, I finally called them.  They said they had called me, but the lovely thing about cell phones is I know that's not true.  Maybe they mis-dialed?  In any case, their first opening was June 25th.  So much for hurrying the process along.  I was back to being frustrated.

Then, just a few hours after that conversation, the sleep center called again: they had a cancellation.  For that night.  Did we want it?

Now, this week is concert week, so I had dress rehearsal from 7-10.  And Craig had to cover sports at his school and fix a leaky sink at our condo.  We already had Grandma and Grandpa lined up to babysit because we had more than we could handle.  But I hated to pass up this chance...  I called Craig.  He pulled some strings at work.  We took the appointment.  I ran around packing for Colton and Craig.  Craig had a five-minute window where he stopped by the house to grab suitcases and Colton and then they headed back to his school and then on to the hotel for the sleep study. 

And Colton was GREAT for it!

A little nervous

Letting him see all the wires in the mirror

Everything is better with a stuffed animal

So. Many. Wires.

Next morning, all the wires gone and the glue washed off!

Hotel breakfast was included, so totally worth it!

Anyway, they said it should be a couple days and they'll get back to me.  Hopefully we'll be scheduling his surgery soon!  Maybe it will even help him to sleep better?

Smarter Than a Smart Phone

I love a good rain storm any day.

But I especially love a good rain storm in the spring, because it clears the pollen out of the air and lets me not get all allergic for a day or two, which makes for a lovely break.

So when I look at some dark, gathering clouds and think, "That sure looks like rain!" and I check the weather app on my phone and it assures me that it's NOT going to rain, but then an hour later the heavens split open and it pours for a good twenty minutes, so I get a pollen-free day AND I get to feel smarter than my iPhone, well, what's not to love about that?

Cale Carnival

The kids' school PTO puts on a carnival as a fundraiser each year.  Last year, Craig had to work and I wasn't going to try something so scary as taking all the kids on my own.  But then we were bored.  And I thought, They're a lot older and more manageable now.  I can do this, right?  And off we went.  And it was way cheaper than I'd thought it would be ($10 per person, but they capped it at $30 per family!  For us, that's a STEAL!).  And the kids were great and loved it.  And Craig was able to join us there!  Best of all worlds!

See Camille perched up there?

Kendra and her besties, Kinsley and Grace

So THIS year when the PTO began advertising for the carnival, I was totally excited to do it again! Craig didn't even have to work, so I figured everything would be even better this time!  I ordered our tickets early.  I planned everything all out.  I had dinner ready just a few minutes before we had to leave and told the kids we would go as soon as they were done eating.  Everything was perfect.

We were just getting our shoes on when Colton threw up. 

I was pretty sure this was a "one-and-done" deal, but obviously I couldn't test that theory by bringing him to a bouncy castle.  So Craig took the other kids, and Colton and I stayed home.  To cheer him up, I let him sit around watching as much tv as he wanted. 

So that was kind of a bummer.  The other kids had fun.  Craig got this amazing picture for me:

I usually hate these things, but this one just cracks me up!

And me, I got this lovely picture to document our evening:

I'm glad his teachers will know what a fabulous mother Colton has!

Easter

I actually had my act together this year, and took time on Thursday and Friday to hard boil 4 dozen eggs for my kids to dye.  I figured we'd make time for all that on Saturday, but then everyone had a surprise early dismissal on Friday because of RAIN!!!!  (They were predicting 3 inches in a couple hours and possible flooding. We got... maybe half an inch?  It really wasn't nearly as exciting as I'd hoped!)

But with a long afternoon stretching before us, we decided that was the perfect opportunity to dye eggs, so we got right to it.  And then, once the kids were bored with that, I put on Peter Rabbit for them and heated up some frozen pizzas.  While they were watching, we tried another experiment I'd seen on Our Best Bites and been itching to try: Silk-Dyed Eggs!  You wrap them up in old neckties and boil them in water and a little vinegar, and the pattern will transfer onto the eggs, like silly putty and newsprint! Anyway, they turned out pretty good:

My absolute favorite is the paisley one on the bottom left corner

Easter morning the kids ran around finding their baskets (hidden in the basement this year) after they were all dressed for church.  I sort of like how they lined up on the couch here puts their baskets in rainbow order!

After church, the kids changed into play clothes and we drove straight to Culpeper to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa.  They had an egg hunt all organized for the kids (and that really is the best word for it-- it was the best organized egg hunt I've ever seen!) and then they fed us (and fed us and fed us!) and the kids ran around outside climbing trees, flying kites, and getting rides on Grandpa's riding lawnmower (I may have taken my standard Sunday nap during this time!).  It was a really lovely day.  We took lots of pictures of it, too, but they're all Live Photos, which I can't seem to be able to post to my blog (what the heck, Google???).  But trust me, it was great!

Yay for Easter and spring and family and all that good stuff!

Changes

Last week as Danielle was picking up Theo and Quinn, she mentioned that she would be putting Theo into daycare next year.  She explained, "We need him to be in the same place every day so we can actually keep track of our schedule!"  This makes perfect sense, especially since a few days before, Tim TOTALLY forgot to pick up the kids and was over twenty minutes late, even though he works from home and lives two minutes away.  This schedule where we're constantly trading between me and Grandma watching the kids is definitely complicated for everyone.  (And I suspect that Grandma is less than enthused to be providing free daycare two days a week, plus shuttling the kids around on her off days.)  The daycare won't take Theo until he turns two, though, so Danielle was hopeful that I could babysit for those few weeks where work has started but Theo is still too young. 

I have SUCH mixed feelings about all this.  Part of me is relieved-- I can do WHATEVER I WANT next year!  It will just be me and Camille and Camille is SO EASY to take places!  We're going to have a blast together!  It will be so easy not trying to schedule all our other stuff into two days!  But part of me is also sad-- No more extra money coming in.  And I really will miss Theo and Quinn.

And then there's that loud, obnoxious part of my brain that keeps worrying, Did I just get fired...?

This'n'That

I feel like there are SO many other little things we've been busy with, so we're going to make them all into a hodgepodge, photo dump post!  Enjoy!

Colton's new post-church look.  I've started calling him Magic Mike XXX

Squishmallow pillows were on sale at Costco, so each of my kids bought themselves one.  Now we have...  a LOT.

Can you tell who is nervous about swimming lessons and who is overconfident?

Bentley after camping

Scooter has been molting, and getting these adorable orange feathers along his forehead-- so cute!

The kids totally let me sleep in one Saturday because they were busy setting up a "store" in Ryder's room.  SO FABULOUS!

Camille found the wolf ears from our trip to Great Wolf Lodge and shared with Theo!

SPRING!!!!  I LOVE these eastern redbuds!!!!

I signed Camille up for an Art in the Park class.  The boy behind her-- I am NOT making this up-- is named Beowulf.  I'm usually against most government interventions, but in this case, maybe someone should have stopped his parents...

Camille borrowed clothes from Casey so they could play outside even though it was wet.  When he saw her, he said, "Hi, Casey!" and they repeated that back and forth a bunch-- it was hysterical!

Kendra's friend invited us to participate in a fundraiser for Type I diabetes.  I had no idea it would be SO MUCH FUN-- we had a great time (and walking a mile was cake-- phew!)!

Another choir concert!  This was the one where people from the community can practice with us Saturday morning and then participate for the concert-- it's a lot of fun to suddenly have twice as many people (even if the risers do get very crowded!).  This time we were singing Rutter's Requiem and it was lovely.  So much beautiful music that I get to learn!

Just the Oratorio Society

Trying to make room for all the newcomers!

The Young Men (and their leaders) have been busy doing yard work projects to earn money for scout camp.  Bentley was pretty excited to get to drive this tractor:

And now that the weather has warmed up, Craig is back to working on the tree house with the kids.  Look at all they've done!

Tough Colton!

I love girls that can use power tools!

That was a pain to do!

Floor is done!  Now what???

This girl.  I'm not sure what kills me more, the Beauty & the Beast nightgown paired with the snow boots, or that face as she rides her Harley Davidson tricycle...  Either way, she's crazy.  But in an awesome way.

Back in the fall, I saw this gorgeous ceramic pot and fell in love.  We needed something to go where our poor deceased cherry blossom tree used to be, so this was as good a cover up as any.  And now I finally have something planted in it!  I'm pleased with the arrangement-- yellow roses, heather, snapdragons, and a couple other flowers I can't name.  Now we'll see if I can keep it all alive...

The weather is gorgeous all the leaves are unfurling so fast you almost think you can see it.  In on fast week, the view of the freeway has disappeared behind the foliage and am LOVING seeing green everywhere outside my windows!  Also faithfully taking my Zyrtec and trying to stay inside as much as possible and shower a lot to get all the pollen off me.  It's not easy being allergic.  But oh, that green!!!

Life is good!

I'm Dying 😂

A few weeks ago, Colton came home saying he'd had a bad day at school because one of the other kids stabbed him with a toy kitchen knife.  The kid had done it hard enough to leave a (small) mark, so this was unacceptable.  Craig immediately emailed teachers and asked that they get to the bottom of this.

The next day, Colton came home with this AMAZING card:

"Sorry Colton.  -Alexandre"

"Sorry for stabbing you"

Notice the detail here-- my favorite are the angry eyebrows!

This kid TOTALLY has a future with Hallmark.

My New Family Room!

In March, Danielle (the woman I babysit for) was asked to increase her work hours, which meant she turned around and asked me to increase MY work hours, too.  So now I babysit two or three days a week, instead of one or two.  And then her mother (who is their other babysitter) caught the flu, which turned into bronchitis, so they asked me to fill in even more while she was recuperating.  So I've felt a LOT busier this last month or two than normal.  (Which is also why I haven't been blogging as much.)

But on the plus side, I made a chunk of money and we were able to buy all new furniture for our family room, so that's been pretty awesome!

I should have cleaned the desk and waited for better lighting.  Oh, well.  This is why I am NOT a lifestyle blogger!

The whole thing has been a HUGE pain.  I bought the chaise lounge from a local lady-- she was selling it for a good price and it's from Pottery Barn (or Crate and Barrel?  I can't remember now-- one of those expensive stores that I never shop at), so it should last a good long time.  We found the couch on Target.com, but when it arrived, the whole frame was bent so we had to send it back and order it again.  All of this was a tremendous amount of work with lots of very long phone calls with Target and trying to convince them (successfully!) that someone needed to pick it up INSIDE the house and NO I could not leave it outside to be picked up!  And then I was so nervous that the next one would be damaged, too!  But Couch 2.0 was fine.  Phew!  And then I found the chair on Overstock.com, and it was on sale for $100 off, so that made me happy!

Also, in order for the electric recliners on the couch to work, Craig needed to install a power outlet into the floor.  (Well, I guess the other option was to have cords all over the floor.  That seemed like a terrible idea, though...)  He did this while I was in Seattle-- isn't he so talented?

I really like how it all came together.  And now I would like to NOT do this again for a very long time!