Oops, it's been a while!

I'm surprised people haven't been pounding on my door saying...where's my water buffalo, why don't I have a water buffalo...oh wait, that's Veggie Tales, my bad! I'm surprised more people haven't been asking where's the updates??? Guess I don't have that big of a following, that's okay.

Most recently we found out Kaden is allergic to sunscreen! At least he is to the sun screen we used this weekend on him. Monday I noticed his face was covered in tiny spots. I didn't think much of it, not sure why, bad mommy me. Then Tuesday I noticed they were still there and decided to check it out more. He had all these spots on all the spots we used sunscreen on him...hum, I can make a connection! It is a new sunscreen from previous years. Heck last year we used stuff from the $1 store and he was fine! This year we used Coppertone Sport and he broke out. I've been doing a bunch of research online to find out what might be good ones for him to use. I've got a few ideas to try, just need to see if I can find it locally or if I'll have to shop online. Locally would be good as we're going to be outside all this weekend and he's needs protection.

Salem fell last Wednesday in gym class and scrapped a couple layers of skin off his knee. It's still not healed. It's right below his knee so he doesn't bend it too well. With all the kids do at home and bike riding, it's funny how Salem hurts himself in school! And in gym class because he tripped over some other kids shoe...of all things!

Memorial Day weekend we had some bike racing going on. Keith has stuff on his blog about it. Saturday was my b-day and we had Snake Alley Crit. I don't mind races on my b-day, gave us a definate thing to do. And it was a fun race to watch. Weather wasn't too bad, minus the few rain showers and high humidity...hum I guess it wasn't too good then either. Oh well, it's Iowa, lol. Had lots of HBA racers, so lots of company to chat with. The kids had a good time, Kaden wasn't too whiny. I got to play with my new camera presents. After the races we headed off to the hotel where sadly they had a big pool party so we didn't even attempt to swim there. Our room did have a whirlpool, which oddly enough was situated in the corner of the main room! Very weird, was not expecting it there. The boys had a good time playing in that though, well Kaden really wanted to swim in the pool, but there was no room, so the whirlpool worked enough for him.

Sunday was Melon City crit and we decided to let Salem race. They had a Juniors 10-12 group that was supposed to do 2 laps. Ends up they change dit at the start line and they did 5 laps! Good thing we gave Salem a water bottle, it was HOT and sunny that day! The juniors were all exhausted afterwards! Salem did a good job. He finished 9th out of 12 boys and girls. He had a big group and lots of "real" juniors. The one team from Kentucky has a junior junior team (must be very young I guess) and they brought a bunch from their junior team (10-18) to the races. They all have coaches and skin suits and all sorts of things we don't have here. Salem had a fun time though and I think he realizes now he has to train some more!

Next race is this Sunday and it'a MTB (mountain bike) race, so those are always a blast! I've got the posion ivy wipes all set for Kaden (so far no PI this year). I might stop to get him some soccer socks though for this year. Maybe they have some nice green ones for him.

Okay that's all for now, the kids want to go playoutside.

Salem didn't drown!!

And yes we are shocked at that one!! Monday night Salem had a swimming test for BSA (Boy Scouts). For the past 2 weeks we have joked he's gonna drown...okay I guess that's not the best thing to joke about. We knew he'd be okay since they have lifeguards and such, but still scared us they wanted him to jump in the deep end first! We said he was going to jump in but not make it back up. Salem himself was saying he wouldn't get very far, but wanted to try. I said just make sure someone is ready to jump in after him! They had a lifeguard there and the one scoutmaster swam along side of the boys, so it was very safe for them!

They have a canoe trip planned for the end of May and the boys needed to pass the swimming test in order to be able to go on the canoe trip. Well bummer for Salem we have a bike race that weekend, so he won't be able to go...pass or fail. But they wanted all the boys to do the test anyway. I guess it also might count for their summer camp swimming test too. Monday night was also our cub scout committee meeting so I had to be at that while Salem and Keith were at the Y doing the test. Keith did promise to text me updates and that he did! Salem was the last boy off in his group so had to wait a bit. Most of the kids were really good swimmers and had no probs. Keith said a couple kids were slow and not so good at swimming. Finally it was Salem's turn. They have to jump in the deep end, surface, swim to the shallow end, turn swim to the deep end, swim to the shallow and and then back to the deep end (final lap on their back). And then they have to float for 1 minute. All this without stopping. Any stroke could be used, although for the "official" test you can't use the doggie paddle. So Keith is texting me saying he jumped in and came back up and started swimming!!! He got halfway down the pool before he had to stop and grab the side. So for the real test he would have failed then, but heck that's really impressive!! He did the 3 lengths stopping a couple times and then when it was time to do the back he had trouble, kept running into the wall and stuff. Salem was saying the backstroke would be the easiest too. So geez we were all wrong about this swim test!

But he did a good job for what we all thought he'd do! Makes us realize swimming lessons need to be on the list of things to do! We got an email later that night saying he did pass and could go on the canoe trip, too bad we won't be here to pick him up. None of the other kids (whose mom I know) are going so I can't even have Salem stay with them Sunday till we get home. Ah, there will be more trips, they do this every year! But yeah for Salem and not drowning!!

Lovely Mother's Day!

I had a lovely Mother's Day...did you?

The boys let me sleep in and I woke up just after 9am. They expected me to sleep in longer, so no breakfast in bed. I put some cinnamon rolls in the oven and Keith made some coffee. I grabbed my laptop to read my email and find the boys had put their cards to me in it. Then they had a couple presents for me. The boys got me a Vermont Teddy bear, a blue google and a pink google! Relaxed for a short time then realized we were burning daylight so off we got ready to go.

Our plan was to find some caches, then mountain bike riding at Beverly then dinner at Cici's. And that's just what we did!! We found 6 caches and 1 dnf. 1 cache was really cool, we dnf's it the first time then came back and found it! The cache was located on a train bridge...a VERY high train bridge! You had to climb up the slope to get on top of the bridge and then climb halfway across so if you looked down you were over the creek. The bridge hasn't been in use for many many years, most of the ties are no longer there, and the railings are not there either. Not kid friendly by any means, but we kept the boys by us and it was okay.

Mountain biking was fun. Kaden wanted to take me around the trails, so I went with him and Salem and Keith went together. Well actually we all started together so keith could show me the "yellow brick road" then off we went. Kaden got us lost a couple times, but I wasn't too worried as the trails all lead back to the start, just some take longer and are harder. We kept seeing Keith and Salem along other trails. We met at one that had a creek crossing and a rock hill. That was a cool feature. Keith rode down the rock wall then decided he wanted to try riding up it...not possible! He crashed, smashed his elbow and ankle, but not too bad. Kaden kept riding back through the creek (aka mud hole) a few times so he was nice and muddy. I realized I really need clipless pedals on my mtb as my feet kept slipping off the pedals and smacking my leg. My left leg is covered in bruises!! You can match up one bruise to my pedal exactly and the bite marks match too.

After biking we hit Cici's. Man that place is yummy!!! Of course we ate a ton! You can't go wrong with their pizza, brownies, pasta and cinnamon rolls!! Kaden found they had croutons and snacked on a bunch of them this time. I went over board with the brownies, Keith ate way too many cheesy breadsticks and Salem ate tons of it all!

Back home we chilled outside until dark. It was a great day today, had a blast hanging with my boys!

Kaden...such a kid!

So today we had to go to the mall (where Sears is at) to get a new tire for me car. I swear something is not right with the front passenger side. Just after we got the car it needed a new front tire and now it needs one again. But the places have said it all looks fine, just bad alignment. Not sure why that one is always out of wack. So anyway while that is being done, we wander the mall. We walked by Clair's and I said oh, you boys could get your ears pierced. Salem immediately says NO WAY!!! But Kaden starts to ponder it and asks all sorts of questions about it. Before I know it he says he wants his ear pierced. Really? I wasn't 100% serious, but in no way am I against it. So Keith and I agree he can have it done, why not, it would fit his personality and no harm in having it done. So we head back to Claire's where his main concern is how much will it hurt. We talked to him beforehand about the pain (alot at first, but will get better with time) and about keeping it clean! He saw some guitar earrings and wanted to get those, lol, um no, never on those ones!


So up he went in the chair, they have a stuffed bear you can hug and boy did he! We had to wait a few minutes and I could see him getting kind of nervous, but he wanted to do this! No pressure from us, he was able to back down at any moment, but he was excited to get it done as well! It was over in no time and he didn't even cry! He did squeeze Keith's hand and the bear. I had my camera (always have it in my purse) and was taking pics. Kaden kept saying if he didn't cry than Salem would have to get his done...no we didn't uphold that thought! If Salem had wanted his, sure that's be fine, but no forcing it since he didn't want to.


Kaden played with his ear for the next hour walking the mall, but he said it didn't really hurt. And at home he said it was fine...until I cleaned it and had to twist it all. I was a little rough though so that was my fault. He really likes how it looks and can't wait to show it off at school. He wants to make sure mommy and daddy clean it, he says he isn't sure he'll do it just right, and that's fine. This way we know it is really getting cleaned and turned. Kinda like when they shower, if they clean themselves, we know it's mostly water being used, where as if we clean them, we know they are getting really cleaned!


So we'll see how this earring thing goes. Like I said he is super excited to have it done and was so brave, no tears nada! Plus he looks pretty cool with it!!!

Got bad news about Marcus

Well last I heard from the twins, they were doing good. I actually hadn't heard from them since they arrived in NY. I told them I was in no rush to get new pics and updates, I told them to settle in as a family and figure that all out, lol. I had to email them Friday because I got some stuff from the lawyer and it was wrong, so I wanted to let them know there would be a couple days delay in getting the birth certificate papers done. I got an email back saying they have been at the new house and the computer is at the old house, so haven't been up to date on all the emails, no prob with me. Anyway the dad them tells me that Marcus has had some serious issues...as in he stopped breathing! Here's what he told me so far...

"Marcus gave us a very big scare last Friday, when he developed an episode of apnea-he just stopped breathing!!. Luckily he was in Anca's arms. She stimulated him and he started again but after a few minutes he did it again. They rushed him to the hospital where he repeated it a few times and the intervals were getting shorter and shorter. They had to call anesthesia Stat, and then pediatric anesthesia Stat to intubate him. He just came home yesterday. He has an apnea monitor. He didn't repeat this in hospital after he was admitted, but stayed in PICU. Anca was home with Ariela and I slept in hospital every night with him, and then went to work in morning. Now all is well."

I sure hope all is well! Quite the scary thing to have happen! He's going to email me again in a few days to let me know how they are doing and I hope it's a better email this time!

I totally forgot I never posted pics of the twins. Here, now you can see how cute they are! Ariela has a cabbage patch kid nose and what looks like blonde highlights in her hair and big eyelashes! Marcus looks so much tinier, even though he's only a pound smaller, she looks so much bigger than him. He is way more expressive than she is and loves to look around! She also has the funniest cry, it's more of a squeaking mouse, not really a cry at all.

Biking, biking and more biking!

That's what been going on the past few days. Keith had wed, thurs and fri off work and we took advantage of the nice weather and my new bike! As I posted before Keith and I went out Wednesday. Thursday I had to volunteer and work in the afternoon so Keith took the time to do a bike ride for himself. Friday we went to lunch at Fazoli's (yummy, lots of food) and then went for another bike ride. This time being shorter at only 13 miles.

Saturday brought us dropping Kaden off at his Cub Scout event then Keith, Salem and myself headed off for a bike ride. It was on between Salem and I as to who could beat who. Yeah he kicked my butt!! But he's also younger, more energy and he didn't ride 2x in the past 3 days. Of course he hasn't ridden in the past 3 weeks, so that was his downfall. It was fun to go out with them and ride! Salem decided he wanted to do Rosedale...not sure why as he NEVER wants to do that hill. I thin k it had something to do with mommy being on the ride. I am NO way ready to climb that hill, so I stayed at the top while Keith and Salem rode to the bottom and started their climb up. Salem was having a rough time and had to stop. As he's standing there I see him fall over for no reason. Oh yeah, he does this just as a car is driving past (the other way, in no danger) I can hear Keith laughing along with me. And then I do yell down to ask if he's okay or not. He's got a hole in his knee (not too bad) and smashed some other things, but overall not too bad. He gets back on his bike and starts climbing again...good for him!!! So they make it to the top with me and off we all go for home. At home we find ourselves just short of 21 miles, and Salem decides he's SO close to 25 miles he wants to go for the extra 4 miles. I'm pooped and done, so those 2 head off. Honestly after they left I realized I wused out and could have done the extra. Instead I got the stuff ready for strawberry milkshake recovery drinks.

Sunday found us making our way to Sugar Bottom for some mountain bike riding. Keith wanted a work out so he rode his road bike down there and the boys and I headed down in the car with the 2 mtb for the boys and Keith's to switch to. My MTB should arrive sometime this week, YAY! Anyway I hiked back to the shelter and parked myself while the kids and Keith rode the trails. We were out there for a couple hours, got some sun to show for it too. After that headed back to CR and hit Cici's for a ton of food!!! Again we all pigged out!!

It's been some great days we've had. great weather, great fun, great family times. I'm so glad the weather is nice and we can be outside more where we're all happier being!