Broken bone and other stuff

Well, Peter another broken bone. It's his second one in two years. This time he did a pretty good job of it and is in a full arm cast. He's taking it pretty well, especially considering he cannot swim, play football, run, or roughouse with his brother. He fell off a slide when trying to climb up the slide part while his friend was sliding down. He put his arm out to catch himself and he cracked his elbow.

I took some pictures the night of the accident and then I took some more with his cast on. I think he is enjoying the attention he is getting from the cast.

a blog about nothing

I am blogging about nothing. I don't have any remarkable tales or amazing ideas to share. I'm just trying to keep in touch. Although I have been busy lately, life hasn't been extremely exciting. Peter finished his second camp of the summer and we are trying to figure out what to do for the 4th of July. I really enjoy the fourth. It is one of my favorite holidays, the food, the activities, the fireworks...what could be better???? It's a little different here in Poway. We cannot have our own fireworks, not even black cats, little black snakes, or smoke bombs...if we want to see fireworks we have to go to the local high school and hang out with thousands of other fireworks lovers. But we can still eat and there are lots of activities going on at the park down the street from where we live. They have an "Old Fashioned 4th of July celebration", complete with mock train robberies, gunfight demos, quilt show, and craft market. And then there is the food....burgers, dogs, snowcones, ice cream, etc...

Next week the boys will both have swimming lessons. Peter is a pretty good swimmer, but it is always good to have a refresher course. Liam is getting the hang of it. He has even started diving down to get rings off the bottom of the pool in the shallow end. But he will have to take a break from doing that for a couple of days because he has an ear infection. He can still swim, but the doctor said no diving. He wasn't too happy about that and was even more unhappy about the eardrops three times a day. He has to lay down for 10 minutes after getting them and he doesn't enjoy that in the least...he's much too busy.

I am including a couple of pictures from Peter's open house at school. His teacher is really creative and the masks on the wall are made from molding them on the kids' faces. The life size astronauts are sitting in a large "space shuttle" ready for their mission into space. The heads for the astronauts are paper mache that the kids did and then the heads are stapled onto a "body"made up of clothes stuffed with newspaper. Peter is the astronaut in the forefront of the picture.

Here's a cute pic I snapped of Liam "shaving" with daddy.

Pictures from Puerto Rico

Here are the promised pictures from our trip... Enjoy!!!! The first one is Liam with Gracie the dog. The second is Liam and Peter with the turtle that Peter accidentally caught when he was fishing. The third is Peter and Liam sleeping in the car...the looked so angelic!!! The fourth picture is Peter on the zipline at the kiddie pool. And the last picture is Liam sitting in the kiddie pool with his snorkel gear on.

Vacation

We just returned last night from a lovely trip to Puerto Rico. This is the third year in a row that we have gone there and I always enjoy the weather and the beautiful beaches. I will post pictures soon, but I am much too tired to do it right now.
On our second of two flights to Puerto Rico Liam wasn't feeling well and threw up. Luckily, he told me before he did it and I was able to get him a barf bag, so I didn't have puke all over me at least. He ended up throwing up about 6 times during the flight, so I had to keep borrowing bags from everyone sitting around me. Then when we got to Puerto Rico we had to drive about a half hour to Ben's parents house, and when we got there Liam got out of the car and puked in the grass. I felt so bad for the poor kid. By the next morning he was feeling mostly better though.

We were in Puerto Rico for a week and got to do a lot of swimming and relaxing. We also got to travel to the southern side of the island and go snorkeling in the Carribean. That was really an amazing experience. I had never been snorkeling before and I was very nervous about it. The guide was very helpful and did a great job of explaining how to put on the mask/snorkel and how to work the fins. Our first stop was in about 3 feet of water and we got to see lots of different fish. We even saw a barracuda...but it was moving so fast I couldn't get a picture. Then we went to another sight which was about 5 to 6 feet deep and got to see some beautiful blue fish and lots of other colored fish. There was a small coral reef that was also really neat to see. Ben found a Conch shell and we got to bring that home with us. We also got to tour a coffee plantation and the Bacardi factory as well as a fort in Old San Juan.

Overall it was a good trip, but it was nice to get home and sleep in my own bed. Now if I can just get my internal clock set back to California time I'll be in good shape.

May update

Okay, it's been awhile since I blogged. I really don't have any big news to report. Peter just finished his first season of rugby. He really enjoyed playing and is anxious for the next season to start. We signed up both Peter and Liam for football this year. Liam will be playing flag football and Peter will be in his second year of tackle football. Ben got selected as a head coach for Peter's division in football. Peter is excited about the idea of having his dad as his coach. Liam will have the same coach Peter had when he was in flag football.
Today I signed Liam up for kindergarten. It really is hard to believe that my "baby" is going to kindergarten.
Last month my sister and her hubby and kids drove from Nebraska to California with my parents to have an enjoyable spring break. I got to visit with them for a few days and it was nice playing tour guide. Ben and the boys went to Kansas at the same time to celebrate Ben's grandma's 90th birthday. So, although I missed them at least I wasn't all alone.
At the end of May we are going to Puerto Rico to visit Ben's parents for a week. We are all looking forward to a little RandR.
Other than that, not much is going on other than the usual running errands and school things.

March Madness

March really has been full of madness for me and I'm not talking basketball frenzy either!!!!

Liam has been really sick this month and after 4 trips to the doctor, 2 strep tests and a blood test he was finally diagnosed with scarlet fever a week ago today. He is on antibiotics 3 times a day for ten days. I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis for him.
It all started fairly innocently when he complained that his neck hurt one night and I figured he was just sore from a hike earlier in the day. When he woke up the next morning and he wouldn't straighten his neck and I noticed that he had a big bump on his neck I decided I better take him to the doctor. When the doctor checked him out he told me the bump was a swollen lymph node. He told me that it could be strep or possibly mono. He took a strep culture and gave me a lab form to get blood taken. Both those tests came back negative, so the doctor said it must have just been a virus that ran it's course because the lymph gland was also down. That evening Liam started running a fever of 103 and had the fever for 4 days. I took him back to the doctor on the 3rd day of the fever and the doc gave him another strep test and looked him over and discovered the rash all over his stomach and back so he gave me a prescription for antibiotics. This time the strep test came back positive which meant that the doctor was correct that Liam has scarlet fever. He is feeling better though and we are thankful that it wasn't something more serious.

Sunday

Yesterday Ben and Peter went on a whale watching trip. They didn't get to see any whales though. Liam and I went to Legoland for a fun, relaxing day. Liam doesn't like roller coasters, so he was really excited that he only had to ride the rides that he likes (ones that stay on the ground and go slow...) We only spent a couple of hours there, but it was a beautiful day. Since we have annual passes, I don't feel so bad only spending a short time there. Yesterday Legoland unveiled their new area/rides. Only pass members and media were allowed to ride yesterday. It was a lot of fun.
Then we came home and took a short nap to recharge. Not much else to report from this weekend.