Wrapping it Up!

Soccer is officially over :)

It will be nice to have our Saturdays back, but it sure was good for each of the kids for many different reasons.

Matt's team never got together for a picture... but here are the other two.

(The difference between the two poses cracks me up :)

The end of the school year = school programs.

Matt had his kindergarten program and sang and danced his little heart out...

 Josh had his 4th grade Utah program and sang and danced his little heart out...

 I love this natural picture of him.  Such a handsome guy!

 Awesome teacher...Mr. G.

 

 

sorry for the blurry zoom

I really enjoy these cute programs but I just wish my camera would zoom a little more.

I recently ordered some detachable lenses to go on my phone and I hope they will make a significant difference :)

The final Reading Counts assembly was on Friday.  Abby came out as an "Iditarod Champion" and Josh as a "Hot Dog".  Josh was the first of three Hot Dogs this year to earn 1000 points.  Abby was among the small percentage of the school to make it to 500 points.  "The thing is" (that's totally an Abby phrase :) Abby's reading more now that the program is over than when she was earning points.  She recently discovered The Boxcar Children, a series that I enjoyed when I was her age, and is zipping through books like never before.

Abby was kind of hard to get to behind that wall...

 All the Iditarod champions (and higher) did a song/chant at the beginning of the assembly.  Of course my two children were on opposite ends of the stage so I did a little racing around trying to get close up pics of them both.  I felt like a dork scooting around on the floor trying to stay out of everyone's way...the things we do for our kids :)

I love Abby's facial expressions!
She's always got some good ones :)

Abby's teacher was pretty proud that two of the three Hot Dogs were in her second grade class and that the third was a sibling of one of her students :)
 

Matt was proud of his Pokemon card :)  (Next year he'll be right there with his own award).

Way to go guys!

So proud of them both!

Update on all things Ben

I thought I'd fill you in on how Ben is doing.

First, the diet.

Ben is eating the same three meals every day.

Chicken/mayo and banana for breakfast, hot dogs/ketchup and cream for lunch and chicken/butter and peas for dinner.  Until he complains we'll keep it that way.

Last week I was aware that Ben had gone into the pantry and closed the door.  After a bit I got curious and went in to find him eating cheerios off the floor.  Oh I felt so bad ripping them out of his hand :(

A day not long after that I was preparing popcorn for his snack.  Matt asked if he could have some too so he popped a bag in the microwave.  He asked me to open it and I spilled a bit when I did.  Ben asked to get out of his chair and as soon as he hit the ground he bee lined it for a kernel that had fallen.  At least that time I could console him with his own piece of popcorn.

Last week Ben had 6 big seizures.  The last one was ten minutes long and we had to pull out the Diastat.  Haven't had to use that in a long time.  It was a strange seizure too.  It was normal for the first few minutes and then the jerks got really hard for a minute.  Then they tapered off until he was no longer convulsing but he was still seizing (his eyes were big and round and staring off to the side and his hair was standing straight up and his bottom lip was curved up in the biggest frown...never seen that look before).  That lasted for a minute or so and then the jerking started again.  I gave him the meds and it stopped within 15 seconds.  He slept for 3 1/2 hours and then woke up and sat on the couch with me for 30 minutes before falling asleep over his iPad.  He slept for another 3 1/2 hours.

We're hoping it was just a coincidental bad week and that we're not starting a new pattern here.

Last week we went to a program at the school.   Of course Ben didn't want to sit still so Andy and I took turns walking around with him.  Ben and I stepped outside at one point and an elderly gentleman made a comment about Ben's helmet and what a good idea it was...his grandchildren are always falling and getting hurt when they're learning how to walk.  I just smiled and agreed thinking the topic would pass quickly.  He kept going on however, so finally I mentioned that Ben had epilepsy and that's why he wore the helmet.

The man said, "Oh, so he has a little bit of a problem...well, he'll grow out of it".

I can rarely let that pass.  I explained that he wouldn't.

Then the man made Ben belly laugh by talking like Donald Duck.

When we went back inside Ben sat down on the floor next to a 9-12 month old little boy.

I think the boy was afraid of how Ben looked in his helmet and how aggressively he sat down next to him.  He started to cry and so his dad picked him up.  The same thing happened a little later.  I felt so bad for Ben...not understanding what was going on.  Bless his heart!

 

My sweet sister in law alerted me to a super deal on a BOB stroller recently.  These are good, strong and sturdy strollers that run between 4 and 5 hundred dollars.  We've had the same stroller that we bought years ago when Josh was born.  It's old and not in very good shape.  Ben will probably need a good, tough stroller for at least several more years so I was excited and thought it was a great opportunity.  We ended up paying half of the original price!

I love it...so does Ben!

It's kind of an all terrain stroller as well as a runner.

Gotta love it!

As far as personality goes, he is just as sweet and precious and funny as ever.

I love this little guy!

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 :)