Fires

Our family loves to have bonfires but hadn't bothered purchasing a fire bowl or making a fire pit of our own until now. My parents recently had some landscaping done at their house which left them with some leftover red bricks. We asked if we could have them, and Brian decided to build a brick square on which to place a fire ring. He got it built on Sunday afternoon (while the Vikings game was on no less...) and by Sunday night we were roasting marshmallows with some neighbors. I think we'll make great use of it.

Thanks for the bricks, Mom & Dad!

View from the deck

Thankfully Brian had a landscaping job several years ago and knows what to do!

Putting my parents to work...

...even while in their church clothes!

The first fire

My little pyros!

It was great!

Playing Guys

Adam LOVES to play guys. Lego guys, Star Wars guys, Toy Story guys, you name it. I love watching him be creative and imaginative, but there's only one problem.

It makes me SO TIRED when I play with him. I'll lie on the floor next to him making the plastic pig play hide & go seek with the plastic Darth Vader and I'm literally nodding off! Fortunately I don't think Adam notices. He's enjoying the one-on-one time spent together, and before I know it, I'll be wishing I could be lying on the floor once again playing guys with him.

A Blessing & A Curse

Electronics. TV, DVR, internet, cell phones, all of it.

On one hand I can't imagine my life without them. On the other hand, I get so mad at myself for letting them consume so much of me sometimes.

Why do I feel compelled to have to check my school email all morning long while I'm home? Why must I check blogs a few times a day? Why do I feel guilty if I don't leave comments?

How do other people find the right balance? What rules do you have for yourself and your kids?

Nostalgic

I came across some old pictures recently and had to smile as I looked at them. I've seen it for myself watching my own kids grow up way too fast, and I'm sure my parents would agree, children are exhausting, but at the same time the best thing that can ever happen to a person! Thank goodness we have cameras and blogs to capture our memories.

I've always loved the water!

I see Adam in this picture of me. (Age 2)

Oh how I LOVED the doll cakes!

I'm guessing my mom was pregnant with Luke shortly after this picture was taken. What a shocker it must have been to have a baby boy show up in the family! We're fairly certain that our #4 is indeed a boy...but can you imagine at this point if it wasn't?!?!

What I Wouldn't Give...

for a kitchen floor that WASN'T white vinyl with little grooves in it.

I think it usually takes about 20 minutes from the time I'm done mopping it until it's disgusting again. It drives me crazy!! A big percentage of my main floor is covered in white vinyl.

Reminder...I have 3 boys and one more on the way!

If you look carefully, you can see the bottom half of the picture shows where it's been cleaned, the top half hasn't been done yet.

Another before and after shot. The bottom shows what it looks like after just one swipe with my new best friend, The Magic Eraser Mop Refill. Seriously, I don't even attach it to the mop handle. I use it like a sponge on my hands and knees to attack this monster!

If you're ever questioning a gift to give me, I'll take as many boxes of these as you can afford.

No joking.

Self-Image

Clearly my self-image is not at its strongest right now. My last post about my hair dilemma was pretty pathetic, and this post isn't going to be any better. It's consuming too much of me, so I figure if I just post it and vent, maybe I'll get over it and move on.

My veins. Ugh! If you've seen me at all during this pregnancy, you've probably noticed the lovely veins popping out of my left leg! They're purple, green, and blue and there are lots of them. So very, very pretty. Hopefully some of them will disappear after the baby is born, but it's not likely that they'll all go away. I had ONE show up with Adam, and before that, none.

Stretch marks. Again, with Adam I got ONE little one on my belly, but this time, I'm seeing a few more appear. They're actually not THAT bad, and they're the least of my concerns since I won't be wearing bikinis EVER AGAIN in my life. However, I still notice them.

My face. Oh my face, my face, my face. Honestly I would take a picture tonight, but my battery is dead. Since July 12th (I only remember the date because it was the first day of teaching summer school and I distinctly remember thinking about my splotchy skin) I have been battling red, itchy, blotchy skin on my chin and around my nose. This is the hardest for me to handle. Not only is it uncomfortable, it's embarrassing. I've tried EVERYTHING I can get my hands on. I asked my OB about it and he thought possibly hives, so he prescribed some antihistamines. No luck. I finally hit my breaking point today and went to the minute clinic. The NP there felt sorry for me, I could tell, but unfortunately, she wasn't sure and combined with the pregnancy, didn't feel comfortable prescribing anything. I've been to a dermatologist once in my life, and I have no issue with going back except it takes about 3 months to get an appointment. I really thought I'd be able to "fix" this on my own. I decided to go to Urgent Care for it because it seems to be spreading and I wanted to take a scouring pad to my face it was itching so badly! Of course it was a beautiful day here, and I was spending it sitting inside the clinic, and of course I had to be seen by the young, hip, cute Dr. Oh well. I really have little dignity left. He thinks it's pregnancy induced eczema (this is what I first thought way back when, but my OB thought otherwise....) so he prescribed a strong topical steroid that he says is safe for pregnancy. And it shouldn't surprise anyone...I never had this with any of the other pregnancies!

It's a good thing Brian and I agree that we are done having babies. Who knows what would happen to my body if there was a #5?!?!?

Hair Advice

I am in desperate need of a hair style! I suppose 7 1/2 months pregnant isn't the time to make a radical change, but I just feel UGLY with my hair the way it is right now. It's gotten the longest it's been in a long time, which is nice for quickly pulling it back, but I can't be doing that every day. Do you like it better short? Medium? Let it continue to grow? I have a ton of hair and it gets heavy quickly.

Can you say GROSS! Again, it doesn't help that I'm chubby and puffy, and that my classroom is hot and stuffy!

Like it, but I'm not good with a straightener.

This one is okay.


I think I like this one the best of the longer styles.



1st day of school last year with shorter hair...a bit of a helmet head.

Some shorter styles I think are cute.

Give me your HONEST advice! I'm also due for a foil, but that can't happen until after baby.

First Day = All Smiles

We all made it and had good first days! We didn't even have any big meltdowns after school. A little fighting between the boys, but nothing more than the usual.

Ben and Matt had great things to say about their teachers and classmates, and Adam was thrilled that he got to have a long "playdate" with his buddies.

Brian was happy with how his first day as a PE teacher went, with the exception of the 1st and 6th graders. He'll need to do a little revamping of his lesson plans with these age groups, but he'll figure it out.

My job-share partner and I work a full day together on the first day. It's nice to split up all the talking of the first day with another person, and we had a good day. We've got a big group (30 students), but they seem like a nice bunch.

They all wanted to match today!

Hard to believe he's in 2nd grade already!

This was as far as I was "allowed" to go. He didn't want me to go into the pod area and give him a hug and kiss there.

Let me explain: My partner and I do a "Guess Who" activity with the kids. We read statements like "I do not like mushrooms." "I have two kids." "I have been to Europe." "I can do the splits." They take their best guess as to who matches which statements. When it was revealed that I can do the splits, they begged me to prove it...so I did, 7+ months prego and all! My partner was laughing pretty hard when I dropped to the floor and did these, and she suggested I make it my profile picture on FB. : )

We just need it to start!

The anticipation of another school year has been building for a while in our house. With two teachers and two kids in school, the beginning of a school year really changes the atmosphere around here after being home all summer.

This year the anxiety level is quite a bit higher due to new jobs for both Brian and myself. He moved from 12 years of high school special ed to elementary PE. I'm still job-sharing a 5th grade classroom, but in a new building and teaching new subjects. Oh, and I'm having a baby in 8 weeks, taking 14 weeks off, and then returning to work as a mother of 4 boys!

Once we get into our rhythm, and I know we will, we will be just fine. I have a history, as many of you know all too well, of having a VERY difficult time with transitions in my life. Given all that is happening this fall, I think I'm holding up pretty well, but now, we just need the year to get started, get into our groove for a few weeks, and then readjust all over again with a new little boy in the house!

Okay, I need to stop. I'm having an out-of-body experience right now just thinking about all of this!

One Last Hurrah!

Last weekend we headed to Wisconsin for our second annual trip with some great high school friends of mine! We had a busy week ahead of us and several commitments on Sunday, so we decided to make it a one-day trip for our family, and forego the camping part of the weekend. We left at 8:00 am, drove the 2+ hours to Aleesha's house, stayed until about 10:00 pm and were tucked into our own beds by about 12:45 early Sunday morning. We had a beautiful day, spent a few hours out on the lake fishing, ate some great food, walked through the barn and saw the horses and other animals, and enjoyed spending the day with friends.

We knew this was our last getaway of the summer, but as we were driving, we realized that this was probably going to be our last getaway as a family of 5! School starts this week, I'm 7+ months pregnant, so there won't be any road trips happening for us this fall. The next time we hit the road, we'll need a van, or a trailer, or a car-top carrier, or all of the above!

Victoria and Ben

Clara, Ben, Adam, Matt, Isabelle, Parker

Big Ben and Little Ben

Matt caught the first fish of the day!

The largest fish Brian's caught to date!

After the pontoon ride, Randy (Aleesha's husband) decided to take the speed boat for a spin. His famous last words, "The gas gauge says it's on E, but I'm sure it's fine."

This picture was taken as we approached them after they waved us over to pull them in. The speedboat had run out of gas!

Towing the speedboat in with the pontoon

Thanks for another fun summer visit Drosts and Wigtons!

Running Out of Ideas

We've got one week left of summer, and lately the number of times I've heard, "I'm bored" are too many to count!

We recently entertained ourselves by hanging out in the garage with a former neighbor who stopped by on his motorcycle. (Dream on boys!)

And Ben and his buddy played with soap suds in the bathroom for quite a long time, considering they're entering 4th grade!