Bunting Questions and Fancy Bananas

So, for all you crafters and wanna be crafters out there...

if you were to go to a craft fair and were to see a booth selling kits to make these...

...would you buy one?

Would you spend $20 on it?

If you wouldn't buy one, is it because it's a kit and not a finished product?

How about these...

Would you buy a finished mini bunting?

Would you pay$5?

Thanks.

I'm just looking for some feedback :)

(please be honest with me)

Completely changing gears here...

my kitchen counter is often a mess; especially in the corner area.

One of the things cluttering the space is our collection of bananas....whether they be green, yellow or very brown :)

I saw a cute idea on Pinterest to attach one of those metal baskets with a flat back to your wall underneath your cupboards and use it to store your bananas (I couldn't find the original source).

It looked super cute!  I looked at the first few places that came to mind but couldn't find one.  (Lowe's and Home Depot didn't come to mind...they probably would have them :)

Anyway, I found myself at Hobby Lobby desperately wanting to do something about my banana dilemma.

This is what I came up with and I'm pretty happy with it...even Andy likes it!

  I think it makes our bananas look so elegant...even if they are ready for banana bread :)

I know, it's kind of dorky to blog about your bananas but there you go!

Hooray for Josh!

Josh has had a couple of wonderful physical accomplishments lately.

Before his surgeries on his feet he had a hard time running.  It was a bit painful and awkward for him.

Now, as he's been playing soccer this season, he's been kind of relearning how to run.

He's come a long way :)

In light of all of this, it was quite exciting when he scored a goal during his game last week!

Everyone cheered so loudly for him.  They all recognize the physical challenges he's overcome.

The problem was, neither Andy nor I saw it happen :(

Andy was chasing Ben at the opposite end of the field and my head was turned talking to another mom.

It was quite exciting nonetheless!

 

 He was pretty proud and excitedly exclaimed that it was the first goal of his whole life!

Way to go Josh!

That same week he ran the Wellsville Mile.

All the elementary schools on the south end of the valley send their fourth and fifth graders to the Wellsville Mile.  It's a big, all day deal.

This has been a tradition for years and years.  It was going on way back when I was in elementary school.  I never ran it though since I had asthma and therefor, a medical excuse :)

The kids have been running at school for a couple of months to train.  That along with the soccer (we think) has been causing some foot pain for Josh.  For a couple of weeks now he'll have sudden moments of pain in his right foot and just be incapacitated for a while.  He's even requested his crutches for school a couple of times.  After a couple of hours though there's no pain at all.  

The morning of the mile he had a painful moment as he was getting ready for school.  He couldn't walk and rested on the couch reading for a while.  We had kind of decided that he just wouldn't go since running was the only thing they would be doing that day.  I had been planning on going and watching him run.  I was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to participate.

About five minutes before the bus came he decided he would stand up and try to walk again.  Miraculously he had no pain.  Off he went.

I still wasn't able to go watch however because Ben ended up having two seizures that morning (one of them quite big) and stayed home from school.  Call me a wimp but it would not have been fun trying to chase him all around in the crowds and he would not have been happy in his stroller.

I was thrilled that my friend was able to snag some pictures for me.  Thanks Trina!

Apparently his friends were "corrupting" him with "gambling" while they waited their turn.  Ha!

When he got home I asked him how it had gone.  He was very happy to report that he ran the whole way without stopping.  Every time they had trained, he had to take walking breaks so this was a large feat for him (no pun intended).

I think he felt pretty good about it...as he should :)

Mothers

Here are just a few pictures from our Mother's Day evening at Mom's house.

Dad and Andy took the kids over to the farm.  They got to feed Milly the lamb.

 

Dad gathered all the men together and they sang a hymn for the women (They adapted it to fit the occasion).  It was very lovely.

 I love that Ben is singing in this one :)

 The women

 Mom, why did I not get a picture of you and me?

For those of you that don't know, that's my beautiful mother on the right :)

My two cute grandmas!

Annoying Adenoids

So remember this back here?

I never felt like Matt's breathing improved so I took him back in to the ENT office for another look.

They sent us over to the hospital for a CT scan and then we went back over to the office to look at it.

 The doctor said everything looked good except for a large adenoid right behind his nose.

I told him he had had his adenoids out in the fall.

His response was, "Well, they grew back".  

I had no idea this was possible!

He said if we wanted, he would be happy to remove them again without charge...if it were his grandson he would take them out again.

Surprisingly, Matt was not too resistant.

He had fought me about going back to the doctor in the first place so I was sure he would throw a fit about another surgery.

We made sure he knew this would not be nearly as bad as the last one since we weren't dealing with tonsils and he agreed to have it done - such a blessing!

 Before surgery

 They let me watch this one!  They took me to a little room with a t.v. and a phone where I could watch and talk back and forth with the doctors and nurses during the procedure.

It was really interesting and.......weird :)

I made sure I recorded what I could with my phone so I could show it to anyone who wanted to see it later.  It only took about 10 or 15 minutes total...pretty slick.

Take a peek if it won't bother you...

This is Matt's upside down mouth.  (Before I realized it was upside down I couldn't figure out what the fleshy chord was that you see coming down over his teeth.  Once Andy pointed the orientation out to me I realized it must be his uvula-----every time I hear or say that word it makes me think of this.)

Anyway, the doctor said they came back with a vengeance...the two red arrows are pointing to the recurring adenoids...pretty big!

Poor little guy :(  He came back pretty sleepy.  He was ready to get out of there though so he drank some liquids and walked around not too long after he came back to the recovery room.

The same nurse that had taken care of us after Josh's nose surgery, the one that had been Josh's preschool teacher helped us again.  She's a sweetie!

I loved the bee wrapping they put on his IV spot :)

There's a smile :)

Something that was so fun throughout this experience was that everyone kept telling Matt what a cutie he is.  The first nurse told him how cute he was in the beginning and then later on she looked at him and said, "You are so cute I can't even believe it!  I'm not even kidding!"

Then the doctor, the anesthesiologist, and several other nurses said the same thing.

I counted about 7 or 8 instances that the "you are so cute" phrase was used during our stay.

He just grinned each time which only made him even cuter :)

Matt has recovered very well.  That night he was out throwing the baseball around with Andy.  He took some Ibuprofen a couple of times when it was hurting mildly...but nothing like last time.

Tonight while he was reading to me I noticed that he was still blowing air out through his nose in short bursts like he did pre-surgery (I'm wondering if it might just be habit at this point) but he doesn't sound like he's congested any more.  He says he can tell a difference in his breathing so I'm happy about that.

The doctor says that Matt's old enough now that they shouldn't grow back again, but you can be sure I'm going to be keeping a close eye on them :)

Double Digits

Josh turned the big 1-0 last week.

The day before his birthday Andy's parents came up.

We celebrated by going to lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe...

...and then going to Josh's soccer game.

Sunday morning Josh was anxious to open his gifts.  I made them all get ready for church first.

Josh is pretty into "Skylanders" right now.  He had asked for "Whamshell" which he said was pretty rare.  Thus, I was thrilled to find it and win it on Ebay.  I hadn't bid on Ebay for years and was worried my timing would be off and I would lose it to an expert Ebayer.

Wahoo!  I got it!

Josh was pretty excited when he opened it :)

We went to my parents' home that evening for dinner and a celebration.

I know this post is about Josh but I loved these pictures of Ben with his great grandmas.

He got a kick out of stealing Grandma Kidd's glasses.

 Happy Birthday to You!

Blurry self portraits :)

Josh and Matt sat down at the piano and played a "duet" (Josh played one of his pieces and Matt kind of just improvised along with him).

Special Birthday Boy!

Josh's Notable Nights

Josh has had a couple of significant events in the last week. 

Josh participates in a school enrichment program.

For the last few months they have been working on a project researching a notable person of their choosing.  Josh chose Thomas Edison.

Several small writing projects were required and it all culminated in an evening where they presented a biographical poem.

 He did a great job!

 It was somewhat of a relief for both Josh and I to have it all over with as it had been a source of stress in our home the last few weeks :)

Last night he had his second orchestra concert.

I'm so proud of him for completing a school year of orchestra.

He's trying to decide if he wants to try out to be an ambassador for next year.

This is a more elite group that has extra practices and music to learn and goes on a neat field trip at the end of the year.

Although I would not be excited about driving up to the university each Saturday morning for practice, I think it would be a wonderful experience for him and have been encouraging him to go for it.

Well done Josh!

A Week with Angie

 Get ready for some pictures folks!

My awesome sister came into town for a little over a week.

It was so great to see her!

She's been in New Hampshire for the last year and Northern Idaho before that so we haven't seen her much lately.

I knew there were plenty of things she would want to do and people she would want to see so I was grateful for every minute I had with her.

We did soccer games...

...had a late night crafting session at my house...

...went to lunch with Mom and our friend Chris...

...supported Josh one evening for a school project (more on that later)...

...spent another late night at Mom's learning how to quilt on "Gidget", her mid-arm machine...

...did more soccer games...

...played peek-a-boo...

...had Sunday dinner with the fam...

...went to the farm...

(we grew up next to Grandpa and Grandma's farm)

...gave kisses...

 ...and played late night games with the four siblings.

 

 (I have a couple of goofy brothers :)

I had a blast Ang!

Maybe next time I can come visit you :)