First Day of School

Matthew and Jacob started school last week!! They have been talking about it for months and months. And they've thanked Heavenly Father every night in their prayers (for the past 6 months) that they get to go to school.

They love their teacher, Miss Michelle, and have done all kinds of fun things already!

Here they are on their first day!! Handsome little guys, huh?! (Please ignore Matthew's black eye!!)


Mommy and Zachy are keeing busy with the boys being away. Every Tuesday, Zachy has music class with all of his little friends at our house (same as the boys last year). We have 14 kids total!! And on Thursdays, Zachy has his own little preschool with Rose, Claire and Scott. We take turns - so I teach every 4th week. He'll love it and I get a few hours to do who-knows-what!!!

Our family is getting so big!! They're not kidding when they say that "kids grow up so fast" and "treasure every moment!" I know they're all only gone a few hours a week, but I'm SO excited when I get to go pick them up!!

I love my boys!

SEAWORLD!

On Labor Day, we decided to take the boys down to Seaworld in San Antonio. I have the best memories of going to Seaworld in San Diego with my family when I was growing up. So I wanted to take advantage of living so close to one and take the boys!! We had a BLAST!!!

A few favorite moments of the day...........................

1 - Seeing the amazement in the boy's eyes as they watched the Shamu show - it was absolutely stunning! And they still can't stop talking about how the lady rode on Shamu's nose!!

2 - Watching Matt and Jake in the 4D Pirate show - every time something would pop out of the screen, they'd lift their glasses up off their eyes (a few times, on and off, on and off, on and off) just to make sure it wasn't real!!

3 - The wave pool - the entire family LOVED it! How smart are they to put a water park in the middle of Seaworld in Texas!!

Here are a few pictures!

Dolphins!

Mommy and the boys at the Shamu show!

SHAMU!!

All of the boys getting splashed by the Journey to Atlantis ride!

if you can't find any other reason.................

I don't often post opinion blogs, because frankly, I have VERY strong opinions and I don't really want to put anybody off. I usually try to post cute pictures of my boys for the grandmas and leave the opinion blogs to others.

But something happened to me today that I can't pass up!! Seriously - what has happened to the medical profession. Now, don't write me off just yet. I know there are great surgeons and Dr's out there. My father-in-law is a surgeon, we have trusted every specialist we've seen, I LOVE my OB and we LOVE our pediatrician. But we don't have a family Dr that we love.

So last week when I was dealing with a wierd taste/dryness in my mouth, I went to a Dr at a local clinic that people have referred us to (the clinic, not this particular Dr - but he had a last minute opening). This was a BIG mistake.

The Dr walks in, asks me what's going on. I tell him I have a metal taste in my mouth and dryness and he looks at me and asks, in all seriousness (I thought he must be joking, but he wasn't) "Do you know of anybody who might be trying to slowly poison you with lead?" I laughed, but he didn't even crack a smile. So I quickly wiped the smile off my face and said, "um, no."

As if I wasn't already to just run out the door, then he pulls out his handy little palm pilot thing (I know they have a new name, but I'm still caught in the early 2000's technology-wise) and types in dry mouth and metal taste to some symptom checker, turns around so I can see the results (as if I should be impressed that he is SO technologically savvy) and says - do any of these other symptoms fit?

NO, I told you that these were my ONLY symptoms!! Then, after a short, LAME physical that would produce NOTHING, he says, "Well, we can do some blood work labs and see what we find and then I'll see you back here in 2 weeks." I say "Ok" partly because I'm completely dumbfounded that he thinks what he has just doe is OK and partly because I just want to get out of there.

SERIOUSLY!! Is this what the profession has come to? Have they not heard of the internet? Do they not know that before I walked into their office, I had already visited the Symptom Checker on WebMd as well as every holistic medicine site out there? I was going to him for his "medical expertise", to find out something I couldn't find online and he pulls out his handy, dandy palm pilot!!

Jump to 1 week later, I'm feeling a lot better. After a rough last week, symptoms are almost gone and I think they'll go away on their own completely.

So I call to cancel all appointments, and they won't let me without talking to a nurse and the Dr. Whatever - that's not going to change my decision. The nurse called me back this morning because of course the Dr isn't in on Mondays, and here's the kicker..............................

"We'd like you to come back in for some depression and anxiety tests."

Oh No You Didn't!! Since I'm a WOMAN and you can't figure out what's wrong with me - it must be depression or anxiety, right?!

Needless to say, I told them very nicely where to put their tests and hung up the phone!! End of story. Thoughts?!

Disclaimer: I have many friends and family who deal with depression/anxiety/etc and I believe it can be a very real thing and is a big trial in their lives. I have my own issues (can anybody say OCD), just not depression. And when a Dr uses depression as a general diagnoses, it's not fair to those with the disease and those without it!!

Chuck-E-Cheese

Just like we did for the boy's 2nd birthday - we took the kiddos to Chuck-E-Cheese for some games and fun (armed to the hilt with anti-bacterial hand sanitizer - YUCK!!)

They had an absolute blast!!!

Really - Zach did LOVE every second of it............except when I tried to take his picture! The boys were happy to pose!





And knock-on-wood, we didn't even get sick................yet!

Happy Birthday, Zachy!!

Can you believe it? I can't!! My baby boy is 2!!

We celebrated his b-day Thomas-style - because he LOVES choo-choos!!

Here's his b-day cake!! I know I'm no Alison (Kloft - my amazing baker friend!) - but my boys LOVE this little cake.

Zachy was thrilled with his presents!! He got a puppet set and puppet theater from Grandma Sheen, a fun musical guitar from Grandma and Grandpa Wilde, a truck and tractor from M&J (although it took quite a bit of convincing for them to understand that this was ZACH'S b-day) and he got a Sit-n-spin and little tool bench from mom and dad!



I can hardly believe that it was 2 years ago that this sweet little boy came into our lives!! He LOVES his big brothers and they LOVE him!! He has a strong personality - he has to with twin older brothers!! He can definitely hold his own!! He is our little comedian - I don't know where he gets his crazy, animated expressions from - must be his dad!! And boy does this kid know how to manipulate his parents!! He has us both wrapped around his tiny, little pinky finger - and we LOVE it!! Even though he's growing up - and too fast I might add - he's still my baby boy!!

Did that girl just hit my car?!

So I was sitting waiting for my half-priced drinks at Sonic today when I heard a big THUD and my car moved a bit. I looked back to see if the kids were out of their seats and as I turned around - I saw one of the food delivery girls walking past my window. She didn't stop but the timing was too perfect - so I said out loud "Did that girl just hit my car?" I don't know who I was talking to - maybe to her, maybe to myself, maybe to the boys - it was just my natural reaction! But she heard me, turned to look at me and then walked quickly inside the Sonic doors.

I was still trying to figure out what had happened - so I got out of my car to make sure I didn't imagine it - and sure enough, on my rear tail light - there were 2 long scrapes from her tray!! She had clearly run into my car - and by the sound of the THUD - she hit is pretty hard!!

Now this wasn't a huge deal. The tail lights still work. You can see the scrapes but they're not hugely obvious.

But this chick clearly hit my car - HARD - and ran away. As I was looking at it, my server came out and asked if something was wrong and I said, "I think one of the girls hit my car." And the girl who did it was walking out to another delivery and came over to look and said "Did I do that?" and kept on moving - as did my server. No apology, no comped drinks - nothing!! I was kind of shocked!! I took the drinks and sat back inside my car right outside the windows where all of the delivery girls were standing - and I can see them all looking at me and laughing.

In most cases, I would have said, "Whatever, it's no big deal" and would have gone on with my day. But they were laughing. So..............................no more nice girl!! I pushed the little red button that you push to order and said "Can you please send your manager out?!" I asked him what he could do (at this point, I could see all of the girls inside nervously watching). I got his card and and an insurance claim report. (Oh - and by the way - his card was a FREE MEDIUM DRINK card with his name and number scribbled on the back! A medium, not a large, not a meal, a medium drink!)

Now seriously - am I really going to file an insurance report? I don't think so - depending on my mood of course!! But had this girl just stopped when she did it, and owned up to it - oh and possibly apologized...............I would have driven away with my drinks!! Maybe next time she'll do the right thing!

If this had happened to you, what would you have done?!

Kids are SO literal!!

So we're driving home from the Rock'n River water park near our house and Matthew suddenly has to pee. The following ensues...................

Matthew - "Mommy - I have to pee"

Jessica - "We're almost home - can you hold it?"

Troy - "Hold it buddy - squeeze your legs!"

We look back and Matthew has one hand on each of his legs - and he's "squeezing his legs" with his hands - just like we told him! At that point, I start cracking up!! Troy maintained his composure as usual!

Troy - "No Matthew, squeeze them together!"

So we look back and Matthew has moved both of his hands to one leg - hands "together" - and is squeezing!

Kids take things SO literal!