Riley, Camp and The Oasis

With Regan at camp, it was time for some boy time! I took Riley to see Despicable Me, we spent one day at Gattiland, and then on Friday night, we took Riley to the Oasis. We had a gift certificate that we won at NYOS almost 3 years ago and never used. I wasn't sure it would still be valid, but it was, so we ended up having a nice, cheap dinner at one of the hottest places in Austin! It was hot too! But nice sitting on the deck and watching the sunset.

We had our consultation with the lady that did Regan's assessment and found out that Regan has mild dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. The good news is that with tutoring and some specialized work in a few areas, she will not have to struggle with this forever. She just needs some extra help right now to learn how to deal with these issues. So we will be starting tutoring soon, and I'm looking forward to learning exactly how to be able to teach her this year.

On Saturday, Regan came back from camp, both kids had a great time, I have gotten great reports about both of them, and I'm so happy they had the opportunity to go and have such a great time!

Oh, and Regan's cheer this year (Sunflower Girls was their cabin name):
Who Rules? God Rules!
What Rocks? Camp Rocks!
Sunflower Girls, Sunflower Girls,
Can't be stopped! Can't be stopped!
(But she liked the Pink Power Puffs cheer better!)
P-I-N-K Praise high!
P-I-N-K Praise low!
Pink Power PUFFS!

Off to Camp!

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Girl Days!

While Riley was away at camp, Regan was really wanting to spend some quality girl time with me. I am only too happy to oblige! She had an interview first thing Monday morning with a one day school that she will be going to next year. We were both apprehensive about it, until we met 2 of the teachers, they were both super nice and they liked Regan immediately (what's not to like, right?) And she loved them because they had dogs (Whippets) that she thought were totally cool! So she will be going every Wednesday for "specials" which are art, music, speech, PE, Spanish, recess, and character building. She's very excited to make new friends and be back in a "school" type of environment, and this is a good compromise!

Riley will also be going to a Wednesday one day school, a different one, his is only for middle school, he will learn American History, Earth Science, Cartooning, MythBusters, Geocaching, and will help produce (or star in) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Back to girl time...after our interview, which was all the way in Leander, I decided to stop by my mom's grave since I hadn't been there in a long time, and Regan has often asked to see it. I know it's somewhat morbid, but she wanted her picture taken by her Nana.


Then we went to Lakeline Mall, again, we aren't that way very often anymore, and Regan tells me all the time she is tired of going to the "Outlet Mall" which is right by our house, she wants to go to the "Inlet Mall"! So we went to the Inlet Mall. She got to build a new best friend at Build A Bear. Try as I might to get her to pick out a cute, girly pink frilly bear and outfit, we usually end up with a sled dog, or like this time, a blue peace bear (?) but it's what she wanted! She named it Ali, after her cousin.


Then she wanted to ride the carousel, which I thought was a little young for her, but she just couldn't pass up a chance to ride a giraffe! His name was Checkers, and once she was on and it went a blazing .5 MPH, I think she realized it wasn't as fun as it originally looked.


And then she decided she wanted to walk the mall, and look at just about every shop. I was surprised because she didn't want to buy anything. Except a few dresses, but she asked if they were on sale first, and when I said no, she just put them right back! I couldn't believe we walked the entire mall and only bought a bear, and an ice cream!

And then of course, she sees the trampoline. She's always wanted to do it, Riley has done it before, but she's never had a chance, and please mom, oh please can I do it?! What could I say?! It was girl day, and she was having so much fun, so of course I let her! She had so much fun too. She jumped so high, tried to do some flips but couldn't quite get it. She told me afterward that it was her most favorite day ever!


Then on Tuesday I took her to see Ramona and Beezus, which she loved, and then we went to get her hair cut. It's much shorter, mainly since we swim a lot and she hates brushing all the tangles out, I thought this might be a lot easier. She loved it and said she looks like Ramona now! It's very cute, and we had a very fun couple of days together.

Happy Birthday Papa!

We went to Iron Cactus for brunch to celebrate Dave's birthday with the family. Riley was about to head off to camp, so he was happy to spend time with everyone before he had to leave. It was a really good brunch buffet too!

Amorphophallus Titanum

We heard about this on the news, and thought wouldn't this be a great trip, run down to Houston to see and smell this awesome flower! Well, it just so happened to be blooming while we had nothing on our calendar, which in itself is rare these days, so I called my cousin to see if they wanted to see it too, and after a few hundred phone calls, we got it settled, packed our bags and hit the road! Nothing like spontaneity!

We got in Friday and let the kids stay up playing most of the night, and left first thing Saturday morning for the museum. We've been there before, it's one of our favorite places to go in Houston, but it's been a while. On the way there, a car nearly hit me, but wrecked into the guard rail, so Benny and David pulled over to help and wait for the police, so Tina and I went ahead and picked up our tickets.

Then I was surprised because we had no line really to get in. The news showed people waiting in line for hours and we pretty much walked right up. When we left though, there was a HUGE line, with the next available time to see Lois the next morning! So we must have just gotten there at a rare, slow time.

And she was magnificent! She wasn't as smelly as I expected, but when you got close, you could certainly get a whiff, and when you stood on the opposite side of here, the air flow would just blow the stench to you. It was bad. The kids hated it and left pretty quick. Benny said it just smelled like the Houston morgue, but to me it smelled like hamburger meat that had been left out too long. Either way, not a smell you expect from such a big and beautiful flower!

Then we spent some time in the butterfly area, watching all the beautiful butterflies and the kids tried to get them to land on them, but they couldn't stay still long enough for that to happen. Then we went to a cute little diner for lunch that had some really incredible food and milkshakes, and then hit the road for home. It was a quick, whirlwind trip, but it was a lot of fun, and something I'm glad we got to experience.

Christmas in July

We volunteered to help out with Christmas in July, where our church held Christmas parties around town, in a couple of apartment complexes, and the Boys and Girls Club. We donated gifts, and sugar cookies, they had Santa show up, all the kids got to unwrap a bunch of presents and decorate Christmas cookies. It was a lot of fun! Riley made a triple decker cookie concoction that he ate (after all the summer interns started chanting at him 'EAT IT EAT IT EAT IT') and then when we left, he was like, "Mom, my stomach hurts!" No duh! And Regan wrapped herself up in leftover bows and ribbon.

But, they had fun, and I am glad they are learning that it's not all about getting, and that it's fun to serve!

New Mask Smell

Apparently, she doesn't like that new mask smell!

Blue Hole

It was time to revisit the scene of the crime. On July 4th, whatever year I was 11 (1982 or so) I went to the Blue Hole in Georgetown with my cousins and dove in and hit my head on a rock and cracked my head open. I had to have several stitches, and vowed NEVER to return to the Blue Hole. Until today...

We went with some of our home school friends today, and while there are signs posted all over that it is "unlawful" to jump from the cliffs, that didn't stop anyone from doing it. Well, my adventure seeking kids wouldn't be held back, if there was cliff jumping to do, they wanted to do it!

There are a bunch of cliffs, Regan stuck to the smaller one, Riley headed (of course) right off to the biggest one. He got a little nervous once he got up there, and then when he did finally jump, he loved it and jumped several times. I video taped his last jump, where the force of the water nearly took his toenail off. It's hanging by a thread anyway, and it's nasty.

It was fun, I love that my kids aren't scared of anything! They had a blast, and I had fun, but was kind of freaking out over the dirty water. Everything is slippery and slimy and there's mud and silt and fish and it was kind of gross for me. I missed our pool, but was glad we went.

Chuck E Cheese

They DO love each other! Funny though, when we checked out, the kid says, "Thanks and have a magical day!" Riley looks at me and goes, "Really? Who says that? What a dork!"

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Visiting Family

We've been trying to visit our family in Deer Park for a while now, but coordinating schedules takes so much work! We finally managed to carve out some time this weekend. We headed out, later than planned, which meant we got stuck in Houston traffic (after our regular going-out-of-town lunch at Southside Market). Got to their house in time for the kids to enjoy a quick swim before getting ready for bed for the evening.

My cousin Tina's husband Bennie, is a police officer, so he had fun teaching Riley some take down techniques, and Riley had fun trying to steal his gun, and begged to get tased. They also have a bunch of turtles that Riley enjoyed playing with. We had a leisurely evening just chilling and hanging out and letting the kids play around.



Then Saturday we got up and headed to Galveston Island. We rode the ferry across and back, saw a bunch of dolphins, then swam for a while on the beach. The kids played in the sand, caught a bunch of jellyfish, and buried Riley in a big hole. Then we ate dinner at a touristy seafood place, right across the street from the hotel where David and I stayed on our honeymoon, and now has extensive hurricane damage and hasn't reopened. Then we hit a souviner shop on the way home and got some cool shells.

On Sunday, we laid around the house, the kids swam in the backyard all day, and my Aunt Janis and other cousin Danny and his wife Melissa came over and we had brisket that David made before we left, played cards, had a strawberry daiquiri and passed a good time!

Then Monday we got up and got packed up and headed back to ATX. The kids were sad to leave their favorite cousins! And we were sad to be heading home, wish we had more time to spend down there. We stopped by the Blue Bell Factory so Dad could see it, but we missed the last tour and had to settle on just getting a scoop of ice cream! Made it home in time to grab Princess from Mimi and grab Riley's cleats and head right out to football practice.

Phil's Big Top Cupcake!

We met up with our friends, the Turner's today at Phil's Ice House, even the dad's got to come and have lunch with us. They have the best burgers in town, and a playground! And it had rained most of the morning so it wasn't crowded as usual and it wasn't as hot as usual!

Then we let the dad's go back to work and we went down the street to Hey, Cupcake. Regan had a red velvet that was super yummy, and I had the new strawberry flavor. Then we went to SoCo for a true sugar rush, Big Top Candy Shop. One of the best places in Austin, hands down! We got saltwater taffy, chocolate covered coffee beans, chocolate covered cookie dough, a sucker with a scorpion inside, a giant butterfly lollipop, candy cigarettes, gummy everything, gold chocolate coins, and sour candies. I love that place, it's like walking back in time.

Then we headed to Academy to buy Riley some new cleats for football, and got home in time for the sky to open and rain was coming down sideways! The kids ran out and played football and danced in the rain, trying to work off some of that sugar I guess. It's been a great day!

Swimming Part Deaux

We love to swim. Love, love, love to swim. So any chance we get, we head to the pool. And of course, we like to do tricks and take pictures. We had a great time, the kids have been getting along great lately, and that makes me want to do more stuff with them. Funny how that works. Here they are being silly at the pool.

Pfootball

Riley has been wanting to do tackle football for a LONG time now. Well since he isn't in gymnastics right now, we figured it would be a good time to try it out. It was very last minute, I was talking to Joe and they were taking Mark to practice, so we jumped in the truck and headed up there and we were lucky enough to get in the junior league. He looks SO small out there compared to some of those kids, but he says he can do it. They told him he would most likely be a wide receiver and he did a great job of catching the football every time they threw it at him. I just hope he learns to run *really* fast so he can avoid being tackled! And Joe and Regan tossed the ball around a bit, and that kept her mind off the heat for a while. Riley was ready to throw in the towel after 30 minutes or so. He's used to those indoor sports, the heat was new to him!

Happy 4th of July!

I know it's late, we've been crazy busy. David spent Saturday smoking meat. He smoked a brisket, a pork shoulder, some ribs, and another fatty (melted cheese, sauteed onions and potatoes wrapped in sausage, wrapped in bacon). He and Riley went to a friend's house to watch UFC and the fatty was consumed before I even had a chance to try it. Oh well, there's a reason it's nick-named "heart attack on a plate."

Sunday was our week to serve at church, so afterward, we went to the Turner's with all our meat and had dinner and let the kids play and watch fireworks outside. They were wondering why we weren't jumping up and heading out to watch them, and we tried to explain that at our age, we've seen our fair share of fireworks, and are no longer too impressed by them.

Then the next morning we met the Turner's again for movie day. The girls went to see Eclipse, the boys (and Regan) went to see The Last Airbender, and then had lunch at Chick Fil A. I took Regan to her first round of testing for dyslexia, and that is making me nervous and probably will until we get the results back, which won't be for a few weeks.

Riley's toe is doing better, the nail is still on for now, it doesn't look like it will come off, not yet anyway. I know on Saturday it was bothering him just because he walked on it a lot that day. But he's not using crutches anymore and it's stopped throbbing, so I think he'll be okay.

Not much else going on these days. Trying to stay indoors and be cool, or swim a lot. David and I are doing a marriage class one evening a week, and I am doing a women's Bible study one night a week, and he's been playing disc golf with friends, so it seems like we've got something going on every night of the week now. Which is fine by me, we all know how I love to "run the roads!"

We are planning a trip to see family this weekend, and were hoping to make it to Galveston, but saw on the news today that oil is washing up on the beach, so not sure if we'll make it to the water now. But, we'll find something else to do and we'll have fun with all the cousins!

Riley and Monte

Monte loves Riley!

My giant garden!

Our weedeater has been broken, so ignore the weeds around it, but my tomato plants have gotten so huge! I has one good squash but the rest are puny, I'm leaving them for the rabbits. No big tomatoes yet, they're starting but still green.

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Never A Dull Moment!

The kids are at Camp Doublecreek this week, having the time of their lives! They love going to camp there, and I love them being there! They come home so tired and happy. Well, last night I sent Riley up for his bath around 9, and he tried to open the blinds a little bit, and the whole thing fell and landed on his toe. I heard him scream immediately, "CALL 911!" and Regan and I ran upstairs, and I saw blood all over the bathroom floor, his toe was cut open, and he's standing there screaming. So I grabbed a towel, wrapped his foot, helped him back into his shorts, and nearly had to slap Regan to get her to stop screaming (she thought his whole toe had been cut off) and we rushed out the door to the ER. Called David who was on his way home from church so he just met us there.

It was a crazy night for the ER they said, normally a Wednesday evening is pretty tame but they were pretty busy, so we did have a bit of a wait (even with our insurance VIP card). But they finally got Riley back, and asked if he wanted a shot to numb his toe so they could clean it out. He wasn't sure, but David and I talked him into it, thinking a little shot like he got at his last doctor appointment, but turned out to be much more traumatic. They had a male nurse hold him down while he screamed bloody murder, "Mom, make it stop!" I felt horrible, but as soon as it was done, his toe was numb and they got it cleaned up pretty quick.

They took X-rays to make sure the toe bone wasn't shattered (it wasn't) and then the doctor said it was too close to the nail to stitch, but he wanted to make a hole in his toenail to relieve the pressure. So he used a hot cautering tool, and it was pretty gross, but as soon as he finished, a lot of blood oozed out, so I know that had to feel better. Then they wrapped his toe in gauze like a giant mushroom cap and sent us home. He is now on crutches, has to keep his foot dry for a few days and he will more than likely lose his nail, but for now it's all good.

Today was the big paintball tournament at camp and I know he's bummed about missing that, but knowing him he is going to push it to the limits and will be back up and running in no time.