Hope's Best Friend

Hope is famous for her "Hopey-ism's" as we dub them. Always saying off the wall crazy things, putting her foot in her mouth and not even realizing it and making some hysterical comments throughout her 7 years. So it would only be natural that her best friend, Miss Evangelina would be no different. Yesterday after church we headed to Mexico with the Perkins for lunch. As we were looking over the menu her mother asked, "Evangelina, do you want rice or not?" To which she replied, "Yes, with soy sauce please!" The waitress at MEXICO just looked at her like she was crazy. A short while later she asks if I wanna hear a joke. OK. "A MEXICAN walks into....." Noooooooooooooooooooooo LOL Hope's waving her arms dramatically trying to hush her up and explaining in a very loud whisper that I'm sure everyone heard on why she can't say stuff like that there. Her mother had just put a big bite in her mouth and nearly choked as I just sat there laughing till tears fell. Funniest joke I've heard in a long time and she didn't even get past the first 4 words!

Paper Delivery

LandAmerica is officially in the last stages of bankruptcy and liquidation. There are still piles and piles of crap that needs to be addressed. Amongst these craps piles are many boxes of logo'ed paper products that will be thrown in the trash.

Reams Road Elementary, along with many other schools across this nation, are facing financial issues and cut backs contributing to a paper shortage. We first saw this last school year and Reams began recycling paper. It was normal to find K work completed on one side with Roman's homework on the other and such. I know our church did an outreach program "Reams for Reams" as did other community groups to help get them through.

During back to school night last week Mrs. Mattox mentioned how she was acquiring her father-in-law's old letterhead as he had recently retired and had no use for it. And how she was recycling some of her husband's work papers and suggested parents could do the same. So when I saw these stacks of LandAm paper about to be trashed I rescued a ream of each for the kids classes. This morning we delivered them. Of course the teachers were thrilled to receive them. After delivering to Ms. Neal and Mrs. Ziegler Roman and I headed over to his classroom. On the way Roman says, "This is fun! Who knew teachers would go so crazy over something like paper!"

Miss Attitude

This morning I took the kids into school. For the last 4 years we've been warning Ms. Neal about Bethany and her sassy stubborn attitude. She didn't much believe us as Miss B can be super sweet and cute when she wants to be. Well in talking with Ms. Neal, she FINALLY saw it first hand last week!

According to her, she had all the kids sitting on the carpet on Friday and began calling them one at a time to go get their things and go to their seat. So Bethany jumps up and starts heading over to get her stuff. Ms. Neal has to speak to her, "Bethany I didn't call your name yet." To which my girl turns towards her with hands on hips and lips pursed in that defiant manner James and I know so well and replies, "Yeah, I know!"

Ms. Neal said she was somewhat shocked, and somewhat amused at seeing up close what we've been trying to explain to her all these years. In the end she said she could see the conflict in her eyes, but she finally decided to do the right thing and sat back down.

A Call from a Teacher

This is our 5th year with school age kids and never, not once have we ever received a call from a teacher at home! Then last week we get a call from Mrs. Mattox regarding Roman's acceralated math program. Then last night James receives a call from Hope's teacher, Mrs. Ziegler. Uh-Oh! HOPE?!?! Apparently she has a concern with our sweet girl. As James paraphased to me: Hope had a great first week at school, but I have noticed she puts a lot of pressure on herself to be perfect and quite frankly there is no such thing in 2nd grade!

Yup, her teacher is already noticing her obsession over school and her perfection issues. This is NOT a stress or pressure that James and I put on her. She has just always been this way, nagging her teachers for extra work, complaining when she doesn't get as much homework as Roman, and on and on.... seriously this is all HER! She's not a perfectionist in all areas, it's truly just a school thing. Her parent/teacher conference in another month or so ought to be an interesting one!

Chuck E Cheese

For a job well done and a great first week of school we treated the kids to Chuck E Cheese after church. We invited the Perkins kids to come along. I loved seeing my new mini van packed to the max capacity of giggling kids. It was awesome! All 7 kids were well behaved, perfect, with not a single issue in our 3 hour fun with the big Cheese. How did that happen?? Probably the BEST trip to that place ever, and trust me, I'm not a fan of the big Cheese!

Kathryn's First Girls Night In

While our guys were out intimidating Providence, me and my girls took the opportunity for a girls night in! This was Kathryn's first official girls night in. We pillaged the kitchen for leftover chili, Oreo's, and the saltwater taffy daddy smuggled into the house. We watched 2 new movies, Nancy Drew and Princess. And of course we painted our toenails.... Katy's too!

I love spending girl time with my daughters and I especially love that love it too!

Scouting Providence

Scouting is known throughout football and we learned quickly Roman's first year of flags that scouting is known throughout ALL football! I remember sitting at a Powhatan game watching my tiny little boy playing flags and a group of guys sitting 2 rows behind me catching my attention. They were from Gordon scouting our FLAGS. Roman's number came up many times throughout the night and somewhere I know his name is forever tagged as a potential threat to Gordon football. We went on to beat them the following week.... a MAJOR upset in CQL football!

To my knowledge Reams has never been big on scouting other teams. However they were all pumped after a 3 for 3 victory and decided to head over in the evening to watch the Providence game. Providence beat Reams flags 2 years ago in a very poorly ref'ed game and the only game that Reams flags have lost in 4 years! So for Roman and his buddies they are, without a doubt, the enemy. There was some added tension regarding a coach moving over there for a "better" team for his son to play on. And some talk of merging the 2 organizations that just completely fell through this year. So basically, Providence is probably the biggest rival we're scheduled to play this season and everyone is getting pumped over it (I'll be out of town that weekend, but know I'll hear all about it when I get back!) .

Typically I've noticed that scouts come dressed incognito and do not flaunt the fact that they are from another team. You don't exactly want the team being scouted knowing that you are watching their ever play, learning their weaknesses and working on counter strategies to play them. So we explained this to Roman and he dressed accordingly understanding what was going on.... or so we thought.

As they arrived, parked and began walking to the field. James noticed Roman carrying a marble notebook and a pen. In big letters across the front it said, "REAMS RAMS MINORERS SCOUTING BOOK!" Yup, he's a genius!!!! LOL He later came back and wrote down the numbers of the 4 top players he intends to pound. He's extremely animated with the fact that Reams WILL win against Providence.

As it turned out some of the other coaches were not at all interested in going incognito. From Rams shirts to hats 6 very large Reams coaches lined up against the fence next to where the Providence Juniors huddled and glared down the former coach who abandoned them for greener pastures. We're talking 6 line man sized men here. Talk about sheer intimidation! I almost feel sorry for Providence!

Football!!!!!!!!!!

It's that time again! We had 3 scrimmage games in pre-season and won them all. Today was our first real game of the season and we won and won and WON! James always seems to acquire a riff raff bunch of kids. Many are tiny little kids, and in pre-season you'd swear there's no way possible anyone could pull these kids together.... yet he does! The did win their scrimmage games this year which was a whole lot better than the butt whooping they got from Hensley at last years scrimmage. So we were expecting a good season this year, but those kids came out as if on fire today cheered on by the cutest cheerleaders ever! (Both Hope and Bethany are cheering for flaggers again this year. I LOVE watching my girls cheer - ADORABLE!) Final score 13-6, though that 6 points for the other team was technically not a real touchdown. He was taken down at the 1 but in the last few minutes of play and the ref threw his arms up too early and since flagger scores aren't recorded James didn't argue the call. We had already won the game, so really, why beat them down any further? WAY TO GO REAMS RAMS FLAGGERS!!!!

Next up.... MINORS!!! I'm a little partial to my minors of course. And my boy was feeling it! With starting positions on both offense and defense this year due to the small size of their team, he rarely came off the field except for a play or two now and then for a quick water break. They slaughter in a 20-0 game. WAY TO GO REAMS RAMS MINORS!!!!

Finally, the JUNIORS. Last season they did not pull off a single win. It was just a BAD season for our Juniors and a lot of kids did not return this year because of it. Others requested transfers to other schools to play on "better" teams. So this game was even sweeter as our Juniors completely obliterated in a 35-0 win! WAY TO GO REAMS RAMS JUNIORS!!!!

What an amazing start to the season! Looking forward to many many more victories to come. Hmmm..... could we have a chance at a Super Bowl run this year??? This could be our year across the board!

America's Funniest Animals

We had to make a quick trip to Staples after football practice tonight. As we were getting in the van Bethany was acting silly and in the process slipped off the seat backwards lodging herself between the seats. As we were all laughing at her Roman makes comment. "Mom, we need to get a video camera!" "Roman, we have a video camera." "Oh yeah, well you should be carrying it around taping us all the time. We could so win America's Funniest Animals!"

Accelerated Math

We got a call from Mrs. Ziegler last night..... Roman's been targeted for the Accelerated Math program!!!!! He is soooooooooooooooo pleased with himself. He can't stop grinning. It's pretty cute. We are VERY proud of him! I spoke with her about it and he will be doing 4th and half of 5th grade math this year and the 2nd half of 5th grade and all of 6th grade math next year. That puts him on target to go straight into Algebra heading into 6th grade..... 6th grade! YIKES!!! How are we already discussing that about my baby boy? That's middle school for crying out loud!

CONGRATULATIONS ROMAN!!!!! MOMMY AND DADDY ARE VERY VERY PROUD OF YOU!

First Day of School

Bethany has headed off to school. She's officially a Kindergartner and James is going into depression. We missed the bus this morning at their normal stop and rushed them to the other end of the street to catch it there. As the bus stopped Ms. Lynn opened the doors and was talking to James about how that wasn't a stop anymore - it had moved one street over this year - and he was standing in the way while talking. Instead of a tearful hug and wave goodbye and a few pics to boot he instead was literally pushed out of the way with a loud "MOVE I have to get on that bus!" Stunned he just stood there as his baby girl flew on to the bus without a look back. This one is hitting him the hardest. For me it was Roman who also ran full speed to the bus without looking back on his first day. We should be proud of the confidence we've instilled in them to take such a giant leap without hesitation, but it's just bitter sweet!

Tracie is going to be battling major empty nest syndrome this year, so when she called to ask if I wanted to go have lunch with the kids I went for it. Katy was sleeping so her and James stayed home. I think Ms. Neal was happy to see us and she quickly put us to work getting her kids to the proper tables. Once all the kids were seated Tracie got Graeme and went back to the parents table. I asked Bethany to join us, she said "NO"! Yup, I was snubbed twice in one day!

Hope's class came through soon after and she did sit to have lunch with me. They quickly realized there was a major screw up though. 1st and 2nd graders were scheduled for the same lunch times and there was no room. So 2nd grade headed back to their classrooms to eat. I spoke with Mrs. Ziegler who assured me Hope was fine to eat there and asked that I just escort her back to the classroom when done..... last year her teacher didn't want anyone near her classroom, so I was thrilled! I really think I'm gonna like this one!

Since it was getting late I decided to wait and see Roman too. He had forgotten his lunch and i had dropped it off in the office. Last time that happened he never got his lunch, so I wanted to make sure he did. He came in last a few minutes after his class without his lunchbox. He came over to ask what I was doing here. I asked him about his lunch, apparently he had to go to the bathroom and gave it to Truman to bring in. And that's where I instinctively knew I was again gonna be ditched! Sure enough he wanted nothing to do with me, he just wanted to go have lunch with his friends. Again, it's just bitter sweet seeing them so independent and confident but not fully ready to let them go!

Bethany came home with a frog note and was beyond pleased with herself. Roman is griping about already having homework and Hope wishes she did too. Ah, it's good to be back to school!

Lake Mormon - Labor Day Weekend

We are home. What a fantastic weekend! It has been years since we last made it up to the lake and I'm so glad we took the time to do so this weekend. Aunt Jennifer was there with her entire crewe. It was our first time meeting Craig's kids and everyone just hit it off well. We, but most especially ROMAN, are THRILLED to welcome Jamie, Craig, and Jake to the family. Craig is 13 and Jake is 6 so Roman falls right in the middle and was just beside himself to have BOY cousins at last! Bethany and Jake were like 2 peas in a pod and practically inseparable most of the weekend and of course Hope was watching Jamie's every move. She's 16 and Hope was just in awe of her. Uncle Rob and Uncle Anthony were there too. We were all disappointed that Aunt Karla, Uncle Dan and Lucy couldn't make it up too, oh and I forgot to mention Jessie what there too. He is Craigs younger brother and we're glad to welcome him to the family too. Next summer Katy and Luke will be on the move and ready to take over that place! Here's a pic of just my and Jennifer's families! Can you even imagine what the entire family picture will look like??



The weather was perfect! Not too hot, but not cold either. I little nip in the air in the night and early mornings. Just perfect! The kids were able to swim and of course lots of fishing was to be had. Roman caught several fish. Hope caught her first fish and B and Jake were able to scoop a few small ones with nets.




We all hiked to the spring, then around the lake, stopping at Great Grandma's to play a game of touch football.

The kids road the golf cart, helped harvest seaweed - what an experience that was!, and Hopey even got to go shopping. She actually called back to the house to speak to Bethany, but since she was out playing Uncle Rob took a message.... "Tell Bethany that I'm shopping..... in NEW YORK!!!" *squeal* You would have thought the big apple itself by her excitement, but no, they were in the middle of nowhere NY state!






The boys harvested seaweed while Hope and the teenagers were gone. How does one harvest seaweed you may ask! Well, Lake Mormon is a shallow lake and the vegetation on the bottom has gotten seriously out of control. The worst they've seen in 30 years. So using heavy duty rakes they scrape it off the bottom and remove it from the lake. Easier said than done! In the end the decided that this would be the best method to harvest the most seaweed:

Which produced massive amounts of seaweed that Roman and Craig then loaded into wheelbarrows to dump in the woods. Both complained heavily the entire time, but they worked their butts off. On the drive home Roman asked if he could help harvest the seaweed again next year cause it was FUN! LOL

On Saturday night the mayor of the town set off professional fireworks over the lake. It was AMAZING!!! We were probably way too close and practically had to lay down as they were directly above us, but man was it beautiful! Katy never made a peep. She was just in total awe and the noise which echoed over every mountain within miles didn't phase her a bit.

Board games were played, more football games to be had, S'mores and bonfires, Katy said "HI DaDa" which totally made James's weekend, and as the sun began to set on the mountain Monday night someone from across the lake began playing songs on a Bagpipe and it was just so surreal and the perfect ending to a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Happy Labor Day to all

Fish Tales

On our last night at the lake Katy and I went out to join Grandma in the boat (which was docked) as she fished and the sun began to set. It was very nice and peaceful. Then along comes their neighbor and friend Mr. Joe in his kayak. Mr. Joe lives in Pasadena as well and recently bought a house on the lake. He is all Baltimore from the accent to the gestures and sneers and sarcasm. Listening to Gail and Mr. Joe bicker back and forth was quite comical. She threatened to snag his big bass living under his dock, while he threatened to sink her boat! All in playful fun though. I was introduced as was Katy and shortly after here comes Hope and Bethany. As they stood on the dock talking to Mr. Joe he began razzing them. "Your Grandma can't fish. She don't catch nothing!" To which Bethany proudly announced, "Oh yeah, well MY Grandma ONLY catch WIDE MOUTH WHOPPERS!" and to which Hope proudly backed her up with a "YEAH" and displayed her arms a good 2 or more feet wide.

Of course Bethany meant large mouth bass and I honestly thought Mr. Joe was going to tip his kayak laughing so hard. Grandma was in no better shape and from now on there will forever be a special breed of fish being caught only on Lake Mormon.... the wide mouth whoppers!

Back to School Orientations

Well I can't call it "Back to School Night" anymore cause Bethany's Kindergarten orientation was at 11 am today! We headed in and found Ms. Neal right away. After lots of hugs Bethany was tagged with her FROG!!! So cute. A short while later the new Kindergartners were marched off with their new teachers while the normal start of school schpeel was given. Nesheta was there to represent the athletic association and James held back to answer questions for those interested in football.... and there actually several so that is promising! We could use a more flaggers this season. Hope and I headed on down to the class right away and Ms. Neal gave her start of school talk and went over all the folder stuff with the bezillion papers to fill out and turn back in.... the usual. The kids came back and Bethany announced they were "stuck on the bus the whole time" and were "riding around and around around until [she] got dizzy!" She was very excited to see several kids she already knew. Most importantly Graeme Delauder from next door, Anna Young from swim team, and Julie from cheerleading. There were others she knew already too. She was completely comfortable and confident.... as if we expected anything else!

Since I had to get back to work and Roman's "open house" to drop off supplies wasn't until 2 we, of course, went by 4th grade anyway. Katie Bailey was there and we talked with her. Her and I are both relieved not to have him in her class this year, even though Roman was very disappointed about it. We meant the other 4th grade teacher and at the last minute Mrs. Mattox came in from lunch and we got to briefly meet her. I liked her alot and more importantly Roman seemed to take to her pretty quickly. Oh, and Truman Murray is in his class this year. I can't tell you how thrilled my boy was to see that! Kevin and Zach are also in there this year so he has quite a few good friends this year.

As if that wasn't enough for one day, we headed back to the school yet again for Hope's back to school night. Again sitting through the usual schpeel in the cafeteria before being dismissed to classes. Hope has Mrs. Ziegler this year. I had already gotten the 411 on her from the 4th grade teachers earlier in the day as Mrs. Ziegler just moved to 2nd grade from 4th this year. I really really like her. She seems very sweet and I think Hope will take to her quickly. She was also open and easy to talk with which I love. Hope's teacher last year was fantastic with the kids but didn't like a strong parent-teacher relationship. Fortunately Hope is my least concerning in the school life. She is just a great student and any teacher is lucky to have her. I think Mrs. Ziegler is already discovering that! Hope has several friends in her class this year too, though none of her really close friends. Still, there's Brianna from Girl Scouts, Naiyah, Bonnik, and Kaitlyn from cheerleading, little Greyson from football who had a big crush on my girl in Kindergarten, and her buddy Sam along with several others she knows well.

Overall I think it's gonna be a GREAT year!!!!

Katy's First Words (and sentence!)

Katy said her first real words tonight and it came out in the form of a 2 word sentence! We were watching Roman's scrimmage game and Roman sacked the quarterback. I got excited and yelled "YEAH ROMAN!!!!" Which was echoed back "YEAH BOBO". We've gotten her to repeat it many times now. Roman is definitely her BOBO!

Sending Another Kid off with Confidence!

The kids teacher assignments arrived in the mail yesterday and Bethany has Ms. Neal! This is the same beloved teacher that gave Roman and Hope the best possible start to formal education possible. I can not say enough great things about this woman. She is amazing! I know there are many Ms. Neal references throughout this blog and I look forward to adding many more in the coming months. Baby girl has been looking forward to this day for years.... not going to Kindergarten, but finally going to Ms. Neal's class and I'm so happy for her that that time is here!

We took the kids out for dinner last night and announced their teachers. Roman and Hope had never heard of theirs, which is fine, and Bethany just gave a little "told ya so" look. When I asked it she was even a little excited she grinned and said, "YEAH!" but that was it. I was a little surprised with her reaction. Hope was literally jumping for joy and squealing for days when she found out she was in Ms. Neal's class, but James is probably right when he said that she has been so adament about going into Ms. Neal's class this year that had any other name been on her card we would have seen a huge reaction.... and not in the positive sense!

Oh, and Hope was assigned Mrs. Ziegler who I'm told just moved down from 4th grade. And Roman will be in Mrs. Mattox's class. He is a little bummed not to have Mrs. Bailey, who is our "backdoor neighbor" and whom he knows well and is already comfortable with, but I'm sure he will do just fine with Mrs. Mattox. I just hope he has some good friends in his class this year.

Looking forward to a great 2009-10 school year!

Peanut Butter

It's back to school time and that means packing lunches. My kids get soooooooooo sick of routine or repetitive foods, so I have to vary things up. Thanks to a great sale at Kroger, James brought home 2 CASES of peanut butter. PB&J everyday will NEVER fly in my house, but the kids do love peanut. I have several variations, some tried and true, some new ones to try out on them. So here's a list of things to do with peanut butter. If you have any great suggestions to add, please to so!

1. Traditional peanut butter and jelly
2. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches
3. Peanut butter and diced apple sandwiches
4. Peanut butter, banana, and chocolate chip rollups
5. Peanut butter, strawberry preserves, crushed peanuts, banana and strawberry rollups
6. Fluffer Nutters - peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwichs
7. Peanut butter and honey sandwichs, or on toast for breakfast
8. Peanut butter cup sandwichs - peanut butter with chocolate (especially good grilled)
9. Straight peanut butter toast (a fast breakfast fav)
10. Peanut butter balls.... okay, so not really a great lunch option, but an awesome sweet treat!

So, that's my top 10 ideas for using peanut butter this school year. Do you have any to add??

Gearing up for School to Start

It's the time again. We should fine out tomorrow who the kids' teachers will be this year. Please please please let Bethany be in Ms. Neal's class - we'll NEVER hear the end of it if she's not!!!! Anyway, washing up fall/winter clothes and going through summer stuff to see what still fits and what they've outgrown. Overall we've had to buy very little for this year! Yeah for that! So far they're looking pretty good. School supplies are bought, and food menu for the next month complete. Now, if I can just finish cleaning the house and sorting through laundry we'll be set! Only 4 more days to pull it all together as we're off to the lake this weekend!

Newest family members

We welcome the crabs.... all 18 hermit crabs, to our family! Tonight we went out and got a tank, sand, air filter, rocks, and salt water to set a new home for our new family. The kids helped pick out everything at the store and we had the best family time we've had in awhile putting it all together. The kids took turns pouring water into the tank. They learned how to test the water and add the salt to the proper levels. They poured in the sand and set up the rocks, then named and added each crab. It wasn't a big project, but we all just had the best time putting it together. Definitely a great memory for us all!

Bon Voyage Sammons

They've been dropped off at the airport. Hope you have a great trip home to Austin. We miss you tons already!!!

We've been so very fortunate to have not one, but two awesome vacation with them this year. 2009 has definitely been a great year!

Cape Hatteras, NC with the Sammons

What an AWESOME vacation!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, talk about picture perfect. I can't think of anything that could have made last week any better! The house had a major upgrade since our last trip. Added 3 new rooms, an elevator, and a hottub - as if it wasn't big enough before! At first arrival our beloved hammock was MIA, but we located it and put it back up and enjoyed the complete relaxation and peace of lying in the hammock listening to the waves crash upon the shore. Sheer bliss! We spend many many hours at the beach this year. Katy was such a trooper. She napped easily on the beach, enjoyed eating the sand, and halfway enjoyed the water itself.... got a little freaked out when some of the bigger waves would come up and knock her over, but overall she was content sitting in the surf. Josh, Roman, Madison, Hope, and Bethany have grown up tremedously since our last time there with them in 2006. Amazing the changes in 3 years! They spent most of their time IN the water instead of on the beach. They did a lot of boogie boarding and even went out passed the breaks to swim around. We took several walks down the beach and had a perfect bonfire experience. I love beach bonfires. Everything in the world seems perfectly aligned and the stress just melts away. Add some flashlight tag with the ghost crabs and a few s'mores and life was just perfect! We had a few storms while there, but the little bit of weather we experienced certainly didn't hinder our trip in anyway. We spent a good chunk of two days playing in the sound. The kids collected 18 hermit crabs to bring home. We found several clams, saw lots of fish, and Jason caught a blue crab... with his hands.... I doubt he'll ever try that again! LOL We discovered the BEST hotwings ever at the Froggie Dog. Ate great seafood... heck we ate great food all week, even if we did cook it ourselves! The hottub was great for winding down the day, or to hide in during a storm. LOL Honestly when we vacation with the Sammons it doesn't matter where we go or what we do, we know we're going to have a great time, but this trip was just too perfect for words!!!

Katy-bug - 7 1/2 months old

Since I'm updating today I might as well finish off with the Bug. Kathryn is now 7 1/2 months old. She is doing fantastic. Milestones: crawling, sitting, crawl to sit, sit to crawl, mimicking, pull to stand, starting to cruise. She's been sleeping through the night since about 5weeks old and now sleeps a good 10-12 hour stretch. She's laughing and smiling and babbling. She eats solids, but isn't a huge fan of food.... yeah, we're sure she's one of ours!.... she prefers her "bah". She's just starting to get the slightest resemblence of hair. She's still completely toothless, but I've been swearing for months she was cutting teeth and someday I WILL be right! She has busy busy little hands right now and is exploring everything. She loves to play with her feet, still takes a binkie but also sucks on her toes, thumb, fingers, or generally anything within mouth's reach. She's probably about 15-16 lbs now, still petite, but def no longer failure to thrive! Her eyes are still blue and her hair is coming in quite light so far. She has an infectious giggle and a heartwarming smile. She has NO stranger anxiety or attachment issues. She is very friendly, loves people, especially her big sisters and brother. She often full belly laughs when seeing them walk in the room. She is very happy, laid back and easy going with a slight temper when provoked. Overall we honestly could not have asked for a more perfect baby. She is AMAZING!

Sears Checkout Lady

Last night Angie and I went bathing suit shopping. I needed one or two for our beach trip next week as my old ones don't fit well post-pregnancy. It was a late last minute trip. I tried on about half a dozen and settled on 2 that were decent. While I was finishing up in the dressing room the store closed. By the time we got out of the dressing room the door was locked and half the lights were out. So basically NO ONE was left in the store but us. We walk up to the check out counter where the cashier is finishing up with another customer and aside from us only employees are anywhere within sight. We are standing behind the lady checking out and the cashier says, "Ma'ams please stand in line over there by the ropes." Angie and I just looked at each other and moved to the "line" on the other side of the counter. The cashier then goes on to tell the customer "next thing you know I'll have 3 different lines going and everyone rushing to check out." There's NO ONE left in the store! Angie and I are barely containing ourselves by this point. So, if that isn't bad enough, the cashier finishes up with the customer, turns toward the "line" and starts looking around, not AT us, but AROUND us and says loudly, "Who's next in line?" Of course we're DYING by this point trying not to look at each other. The cashier never makes contact with either of us. She carefully folds the first bathing suit, then can't find the tag on the second. I commented that it was in the armpit cause I had just tried it on and it was poking me. To which she removes the security tag grabs up the suits with one turned inside out, wads them up and stuffs them into a bag. It was just the oddest thing ever and Angie and I walked away shaking our heads and giggling the whole way back to the car. The only that would have made the scene any better is if the checkout lady had again asked who was next in line after we left, cause there was NO ONE else in the store but us! LOL Maybe it's one of those, ya just had to be there, moments, but seriously that's about the funniest thing that's happened to me since Jeni got the one armed man to move her couch!

Summer 2009 - time continues to fly by

What a crazy summer it's been. We kicked it off with me in the hospital with a MRSA outbreak. Swim team was a lot of fun. The kids did good and had a great time. Roman didn't have the season he imagined and was a little disappointed not to make Champs again this year, but he bumped up to midgets this year and swimming 50m is a tough adjustment from 25m. He was back to competing by end of season and I look forward to watching him kick some butt in this division next summer! Hope and Bethany also swam this summer and did great and improved tremendously throughout the season. It was INSANE how big our team grew this year. Kari and the girls were home for the summer. We had a lot of sick in the house with me especially due to a weakened immune system from all the antibiotics fighting the MRSA. Finally getting back to my normal self now. We were able to finally catch up with them and spend their last 2 days in the states with them before putting them on a plane back to Texas. It was much too short of a visit but we are thrilled we got that much at least! In July we had a Cunningham family reunion. It was great to see everyone. The kids didn't want to leave at the end of the day, even Roman who is notorious for getting bored with my side of the family and "all those girls!" He found there are a few boy cousins floating around afterall and loved riding the tractor and playing all day. Got a hotel that night and learned very quickly that we are definitely not a 1 hotel room family anymore! It's all suites or 2 rooms from here on out. LOL Roman got to spend an incredible week in Myrtle Beach with grandma and Aunt Bonnie. Kari and the girls were there too, so he got to spend some great time with them even if the rest of us didn't. He went to the aquarium, Medieval Times, the beach, fireworks, and on and on. It was a great week for him. Bethany landed a case of MRSA to round out July. 12 spots across her stomach and chest. Fortunately she responded amazingly to Bactrim and was such a trooper. Almost can't even tell they were there now! Otherwise it has been a fast, crazy, yet boring summer! LOL

The Sammons are now in town visiting and we're all off to the beach for a week tomorrow morning!

Cinna Lee?

Post by James
So we finally bit the bullet and purchased a new van so our family wouldn't be cramped up everytime we hit the road. This past Sunday while on a Father's Day drive Roman mentions that he likes Cinna Lee. Julie and I of course are thinking girl from school, swim team or something so we start asking questions. Well, Roman starts looking real confused, so now Julie and I share that "huh" look and we arn't sure what he's talking about. When we pull in to the parking lot Roman jumps out, runs to the back of the van and shows us. Yeah, you guessed it...

Toyota Sienna LE

So of course while I think naming a car is silly, our van is now named Cinna Lee.

Itsy Bitsy Spider in Real Life

Roman is studying tornadoes in school right now. While driving in the car recently we had a discussion on tornadoes, something that fascinates both James and I. At one point he asked is we had ever seen one and we both admitted we had not... not for lacking of trying in our younger days! I then mentioned that the closest either of us has seen were out over the ocean at the beach - water spouts. To which Bethany pipes in from the backseat.... "Were there lots of spiders too??" After a moments hesitation and thought we all busted out laughing.

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the WATER SPOUT!!!!!


This type of comment is generally expected from Hope Elizabeth, so coming from the B made it all the funnier. Her first Hopey-ism!

Happy Mother's Day

Okay, so Katy-bug just deleted my entire entry.... so here goes round 2 with the short version.

Breakfast in bed, lots of homemade gifts, church, picnic lunch by the river, hiking with the fam, Lowes, HomeDepot, Mexico for dinner, all was good, great family day, exactly what I wanted... minus the part about them cleaning my house for me! One can dream big, right?? :)

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my godmother, my mil's, sisters, and all my great mommy friends! Hope yours was just as great!

Kathryn's First Fortune

In celebration of Mother's Day a little early, we took Barbara out for Chinese. Now we've been out for Chinese a few times since Katy's arrival - especially since I could stomach it all throughout the 9m i carried her! - but this time upon completion of the meal the fortune cookies were handed out. After we read them and were finishing up the waiter came back over and handed me another and said we could leaves the little one out of a fortune. While i don't remember the exact wording, honestly I'm not sure I read past the 1st 2 words from laughing so hard, Kathryn's 1st Chinese fortune cookie read something like this..... "German Proverb:......" LOL

By-doh Speak

Driving in the car Bethany says, "A pokey-pine spindle bit my pinkie toe." Translation.... she stepped on one of those spikey gumballs in the yard and it cut her little toe. James and I couldn't help but giggle over her terminology!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Whew, what a weekend! James has a April 23rd birthday while mine falls just 3 days later on the 26th. It always seems to be such a whirlwind with them so close together.

What is it with my kids and puke??

We're sitting at Chili's having a nice family dinner. Hope is done and playing with the baby sitting in her infant seat. She goes in for a kiss as she often does and what does Katy do?? She throws up in her face! Literally, Hope starts yelling, "ew ew ewwwwwwwwww!" Stands up and puke is dripping from her nose to her chin! Seriously?? Why do my kids find it hysterical to puke on each other and how the heck is Katy picking up this little family trait so quickly?? Must come from James's side! hehe See Evil Karma for past puking experiences. These are some sick sick kids I'm raising!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This year we kicked off the evening of daddy's birthday with a surprise "party" I pulled together for the kids on my way home from work complete with presents, cake, and balloons. We had discussed taking the kids to the movies earlier in the week as a special treat and it had fallen through so he decided to go ahead and take us all to see Hannah Montana the movie for his birthday. We got our 50 cent popcorn.... still holding tight to our Indiana Jones bucket for those 50 cent refills!.... and candy and drinks and headed in to get out seats just as the movie was starting. As luck would have it we were the ONLY ones there! What do you expect on a beautiful spring Thursday?? It was great, perfect really. Everyone enjoyed the movie much more than we expected too. Kathryn did fantastic at her very first movie. And the girls were so cute running down front and jumping around screaming during the concert scenes. Heck we enjoyed just watching them! It was really a great evening! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!! You're the best dad in the whole world!!!

Kathryn's 4m Stats

Katy had her 4m checkup with Dr. Grossberg this morning. And drum roll please...........................................................................................................................

Weight: 11lbs even - that's the 10% percentile!!!!!
Length: 24 1/2 inches - 55%
Head Circumferance: 39cm - 10%

This is the first time Katy has made it ON the growth chart and she did so in a big way with a 4 week growth of 2 lbs!! Way to go Katy!!!!! She is meeting all her milestones and doing just beautifully right now.

On a funny note.... when the doctor went to check her length she stretches her out on the table and draws a line at her feet and at her head then measures that. Well, the original measurement was 24 3/4 inches and while that little quarter inch may seem insignificant it actually means the difference between the 70th percentile and the 55th. She was only in the 25% at her 2m checkup so that was an incredible jump! Determined to verify that the doc remeasured her about half a dozen times.... she was wiggling a lot, and doc got confused on which lines were which. That was cracking me up enough, but then on the last measurement she was flustered and went to measure at the top of her head and marked ON her head instead!!! LOL She felt awful and kept apologizing and swore she'd never done that in all her years of practice. Of course, being the reserved person that I am I laughed till I had tears in my eyes! LOL I can see where a lot of moms, especially first timers would be appalled by this, but me.... I just found it hysterical! LOL And Kathryn, well she didn't make a peep, just gave her this look like, "Aw man, seriously? You wrote on my head!" which made it all the worse for me! LOL

Day 2 in Texas

Well this morning we were supposed to sleep in and take our sweet time heading to Austin. James gave strict orders for no one to wake him up. So why is that Katy and I woke up around 6:30am and by 7 James was up, showered, dressed, suitcases waiting by the front door and waking up the kids to go! LOL Who's more excited to see those Sammons??? I'm not real sure today!

We did stick around long enough to head down to the hotel lobby and enjoy some breakfast. Over practice I pretended we should do something on our trip other than going to Austin. "So, who thinks we should head back to the beach today?" no takers "hmmm..... how about we go to Dallas instead?" home of the Cowboys?? NO WAY! "Who wants to go back to JSC today?" no one "How about the aquarium you all wanted to go to?" nope, nada For awhile I wasn't sure there was anything they'd rather do than go see Josh and Madison, but finally I began to crack them all with their weaknesses...... "Hope, how about we go shopping today? No limit, buy anything you want as much as you want. An unlimited shopping spree!" that was met with an almost violent heading nodding till the boy roped her back to team Austin and B reminded her they could shop anytime. The boy's a tough one seeing as how Josh is his best friend and all, but after awhile I got him to falter too.... "Why don't we head south and go into Mexico for the day?" oh you could see the struggle on his face then finally a "I guess Josh could wait another day, okay, but then straight to Austin!" Bethany fussed at him and he too changed his mind. "Bethany, how about we take advantage of Texas and spend the day horseback riding!" no hesitation at all... forget Austin we're off to see the horses! Sorry Josh and Madison horses beat all! hahaha Of course daddy stepped in and whined that he wanted to see Mr. Jason so we all agreed to stick to our plans and after breakfast we loaded up the van and headed for Austin. Roman took a bezillion pics in route!

Once we got to Austin we found the Sammons house with relatively no issues..... Angie sucks at directions! LOL Since Josh and Mad were still in school we met there and sprung them. Having been 2 years since we last saw them it was cute and downright hysterical at moments watching the dynamics our children with the Sammons. As Josh walked out with a huge cheesy grin on his face he stiffened up a bit and sorta looked around as the girls ran and hugged him and he sorta patted them on the back. Then he ran full force to Roman and for a second we thought they were gonna jump in the air and chest bump or just grab each other in an obnoxious frat boy style hug, but no at the last second they both stopped and just looked at each other with this sudden flash of 'oh crap, it's not cool to hug another guy in public'. LOL For a second there I thought they might even shake hands, but no they just stood and grinned at each other, then started talking and as usual it was as if they had never been parted. Madison was different too. She ran up and hugged the girls without hesitation, but got a little shy and backed off with a cute little smirk when she came face to face with my boy. Wow are these kids growing up, all 5 of them! Of course, once off school property and in their home, all bets were off and it was just 5 little goof balls loving every second of being together with the occasion, Bethany did this, and Madison did that, and Get out of my room girls!

Everyone in life should be blessed with at least one true friend they can be 100% themselves around and despite distance, or time lapse, or life changes, that friendship holds tight and as if you just saw them yesterday, as if picking up in mid sentence even, life rewinds and erases all obstacles. I have been truly blessed in my life with 4 absolute friends... or 2 friends then Angie and Jeni, my sisters of the heart. It warms me to the core watching Roman and Hope and even Bethany to a slightly lesser degree (she's everyone's little sister!) develop and grow this type of lifelong friendship with Josh and Mad. It is an amazing thing to have in one's life. It is even more amazing to watch it develop in your children's lives! And I can not begin to put into words the enormity of having it come from just 1 single family! The Sammons will always be treasured by us Trettels and we are so happy to be able to spend this week with them!

The Honey Mustard Mystery

On our way back to the hotel we planned to stop for a nice family dinner at Cheddar's to see what exactly Kari and Kermit rave about. As we arrived I went to pick up the baby's seat and underneath it was a big blob of dark yellow mustard looking something. It actually looked like someone dumped honey mustard out of one of the little dip containers onto the seat. Roman went in for a closer looked, smelled it and said, "Yup, it's honey mustard alright!" The quick thought was I had sat the seat on a dip container.... Hope investigated the bottom of the seat and confirmed it was all over the bottom and that "Yup, it's definitely honey mustard!" Problem with this theory as I quickly pointed out..... we hadn't picked up any food since we got the van! Where did the honey mustard come from?? So James went in for a further peak. It wasn't honey mustard at all, it was POO! Kathryn pooed and it blew out her diaper so massively that it covered the bottom of her car seat and dripped through the seat belt loops plopping onto the seat below. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I spent half the night cleaning her infant seat and we felt incredibly bad about the fact that she crapped more than her weight in poo and no one even noticed!

Day 1 in Texas

Today Katy awoke bright and early at her usually 5am, which means in Texas it was only 4am and being that we didn't get to bed till after 2:30 this morning, I was EXHAUSTED! Fortunately she ate and went back down. At the real 6am Bethany woke up ready to start the day.... remember they had all slept 3 hours on the plane, I had not! Somehow I convinced her to go back to sleep. At 7:30 Roman awoke and I gave up! Of course James slept through it all! Men!!! SHEESH!!!!

We waited around a bit to see if anyone else would get up and a little before 8 decided we'd sneak down for breakfast. The mere mention of the word and Hope shot out of bed quickly. LOL She woke Bethany who in turn woke Katy. And of course getting 4 excited kids out of the room quietly was impossible and soon daddy was up too. So at 8 we all headed down for breakfast. It was a nice buffet with make it yourself Belgium waffles, and hot foods like sausage, eggs, and fresh biscuits on top of the normal continental breakfast fare.

After breakfast we all got ready and headed out for Johnson Space Center. I thought ahead and bought tickets online at half price and printed out directions from our hotel to JSC. The roads and highway system was a little confusing at first, but once we made a U turn or two and got our barrings straight we found that the roads are layed out very logically and easy to follow.... not at all what we're used to back home in VA, hence why were we so confused at first! LOL We finally got off in the right direction, following the print out from MapQuest we get to a point where we can see the space center grounds and the directions tell us.... "Now make a U turn!" LOL Must have been to another gate we assume, but it still cracked me up. We found the visitor lot on our own without issue and walked right in with no wait for tickets and all.

JSC is nice, but tiny compared to Kennedy Space Center which we did last year. We took the tour of the original mission control center and sat in on one of the shows that did a video of actual takeoff and slight simulation (nothing compared to KSC) and then discussed in detail the current missions and what's going on in space. Roman enjoyed it but I was surprised at how much Hope Elizabeth got into it! Space Center Houston is definitely geared more towards kids, so that was nice. We had a lot of fun! There's an enormous 2 story playground that the kids loved. There was an entire section of hands on kid fun. Things like lunching a shuttle simulator by muscle power, lifting weights on various planets, scales to see what you would weigh on different planets, a wind tunnel, and there was a simulator seat to try and dock a shuttle at ISS but Hope and I couldn't get it to work.... yeah we felt like retards, but whatever! We found one section where they mined for gold, searched for items with little metal detectors and piloted a submarine camera, stuff like that. Roman and James flew full motion simulators. And everyone tried to land a shuttle with a video game simulator.... Roman actually did land successfully on his very first try! James did too, but the girls crashed and burned. They all tried an MMU trainer which is sorta like a hover craft that moves around in this contained area. You can maneuver it with hand controls to go up and back or spin around, and there's a board hanging over head with different tasks that you have to complete while on this moving chair of sorts like pressing buttons and cranking things in circles and whatnot. James got on and did pretty well - the chair kept pulling to one side and away from the board, Roman did great, then Bethany took a whack at it.... she was really too small and was hysterical to watch. She actually drew quite a crowd with her determination! Then Hope stepped up and must have taken notes from B cause she used some of her tricks and knocked it out faster than anyone I think! Overall everyone had a great time at Johnson Space Center and we were kicked out at 5:30 after being told they had closed at 5. LOL Oops!!

Being 5 o'clock, having eaten a late lunch at JSC, and having some warn out babies, we went for a drive and ended up in Galveston. Katy and Bethany were long gone and fast asleep. So we drove for awhile looking at the hurricane damage still painfully clear and in awe of the accomplishments that have clearly been made since last fall! Eventually we ran out of road and came to the beach. They have parking right up next to the beach so James parked there and stayed with the sleeping ones while Roman, Hope, and I went out on the beach and stuck our feet into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time (yup, even for me!). We collected a bunch of pretty shells for B, chased some birds and just enjoyed the beach. It was really pretty and relaxing. I think we could have spent the entire week there! But we had other things to do..... so back in the car and headed back to Houston. We were going to stop at Kari's favorite restaurant - Cheddar's - on the way back, but that didn't exactly work out and worth a full post of its own! So we picked up Jack in the Box through drive thru and headed back to the hotel for a picnic dinner, baths, and some silly family time before calling it an early night!

So far we're off to a great vacation!

Everything's BIGGER in Texas!

Okay I just have to post this.... Last night when we arrived at Alamo Hope really had to pee. So she goes to the bathroom while we're signing the papers and she comes out jumping around and all excited. "Mama, you're never gonna believe it.... you know how our bathrooms back home have the 2 toilet paper rolls? Well here in Texas they have 4!!!!" I refrained from laughing in her face, and all I could say was, "Well, honey, everything IS bigger in Texas!" LOL

We're in Texas!!!!

The Trettels are finally in Texas. Yesterday was one VERY long day. Nothing seemed to go right in the morning, but somehow we managed to finish packing and get everyone to the airport by 2pm for our 4:15. That was awesome! Anyone who knows us knows that's also a miracle. LOL The staff at Airtran in Richmond, VA are incredible! Everyone we met along the way of this trip was pretty great actually. We started off being greeted by Miss Hope at check in. She quickly identified our little Hopey. She also let the kids weigh themselves on the luggage scale. The good thing was our large suitcase that I had overpacked and said screw it at the last minute and planned to pay the over weight fee and be done with it, weighed in at 49.5 pounds!!! There's a 50 pound weight limit. Yikes! No suveniurs to be packed in that one for return! We then made our way through security with relatively little issues.... James got randomly pegged for a full body scan, Roman actually read all the little signs one of which apparently says to take off glasses, so they all did. Hope dropped her tray and when we came through security her glasses were not on the other side. They had bounced away from the rest of the stuff and she hadn't noticed. The guard found them for us, but not before they were stepped on. They are little bent, but fortunately no major damage was done! Katy's formula and bags went through with no issues and I was complimented by the guards on being an insanely great packer.... as in they couldn't believe how much stuff was crammed into that diaper bag and how much formula one person can squeeze into a standard lunch box! :) After we boarded we were informed of a 20 minute ground delay due to delays in Atlanta, but otherwise it was an uneventful flight. One of the stewardesses was a Katie and the kids have been on the look out for "Bethany".

Once in Atlanta we had a 3 hour layover, so went straight to dinner without checking our status. After blowing a good hour and a half we mosied over to our terminal only to find another plane there. Check the status board and we were at a different terminal and delayed till 10pm. We were suposed to fly out at 8:50. We took up camp on the floor and the kids kept busy playing video games and talking with other passengers. One girl in particular was a college student heading home for Easter in Houston and all 3 of the big kids took to her quickly and pretty much harrassed her all night! She was apparently the oldest of 6 and used to it so was very sweet and good with the kids. They got a little rambunctious here and there, but a walk for ice cream and multiple trips to the trash can and bathrooms also kept them busy. Overall I am so so so proud of my kids! They were FANTASTIC, never really complaining, no fighting, a little bickering maybe, but nothing serious. They were just awesome. We got so many compliments from the passengers. Especially about Katy who was a total trooper through it all. In the end our flight took off around 11pm EST. It is roughly a 2 hour flight so got us in Houston around midnight Texas time. The kids (and James) slept the entire way. Not a peep out of any of them!

Once in Houston Hobby the kids woke up quickly and were practically bouncing off the walls with excitement. They LOVED the airport there and were thrilled about everything little thing from the NASA photos on the wall to the new marble floors, just everything. It was too cute! We found our luggage quickly but also discovered that the Alamo desk at the airport was closed, so caught the first shuttle we could find and were driven to the offsite Alamo dealership. They got us through fairly quickly and painlessly and we were soon off in our new Caravan trying to find the hotel.

It was after 1 before we checked into the SpringHill Suites Marriott. James had fussed a bit over me going with a suite instead of a "regular" hotel until we walked through the doors and now I'm not sure I'll ever get him back into a plain old hotel or motel! LOL The man at the desk greeted us by name (well a butchered version of it, but close enough!) and had everything set to go. James was surprised at the space when we walked in and the kids loved it, except that they said it smelled like and old person's house. LOL Just a little musty and they got over that part pretty quickly once we turned up the air for better circulation. No cramming into beds or splitting girls and guys as we've done in the past. James and I had our own bed, the girls shared the other bed and Roman slept on a pull out couch while Katy spent her first night still sleeping in her carseat.... they're bringing a crib in for her tomorrow.

It is now roughly 2:30, the kids are starting to settle down, and we're all heading to bed after a VERY long day!

Cooped up too long!

After 5 weeks of insane sickness, we're all on meltdown right now. Last night it started boiling to the point of no return. Bethany's smart mouthing everyone thinking she can get away with whatever she wants. Hope is off in lala-land and not listening to anyone. Roman is an emotional mess crying at the drop of a hat. Even little Katy is cranky, along with mommy and daddy too. We've been cooped up together for far too long with no escape. Soooooooooooo as James and I are about to hit our breaking point we decide, it's time to get out! So off to ChuckE Cheese we went! The kids know how much we despise the place, and never in a million years dreamed we'd take them without a lot of begging on a random Monday night, but we couldn't think of a more theraputic outlet for us all. It was a great time. The kids played and played. We all needed the change of scenery, and by the time we got home we were all ready to drop!

Soccer Soccer Soccer

Wednesday nights and most all day Saturdays the Trettels can be found out on the soccer field! Roman is playing in U10's this year and there is truly no living with that boy as he has earned himself the position of forward. Roman has ALWAYS been a dominate defensive player with great ambitions of being a scorer, but never quite fast enough to keep up with the natural forwards. He has an amazing foot and could send the ball the width of a full size soccer field by the time he was 6, so naturally every coach has played him back. Coach Bill sees something different in him and is using that foot to get the ball in the goal! His first game this past weekend landed him 1 assist.... though we're not 100% sure if it was actually his assist or his goal with his team mates assist! Here's the play, you decide..... the ball is passed to Roman with him in clear line of the goal. He goes for the kick to take the goal as his teammate rushes to the net signaling he is there to accept a pass. Too late, the ball goes soaring, hits his teammate in the head and bounces into the goal! Regardless of assist or goal, Roman was on cloud 9! His team won 6-1. It could have gone a lot higher, but at half time with a 5-0 win his coach asked them to back off the goal and practice their plays and passing instead to give the other team a chance.... they were very obviously the dominate team. We discussed a lot about that call on the way home. Yes they could have run up the score, but why?? His coach is awesome, we are thrilled with him. He is fair, loves the game, and instills that love in his boys.

Hope too is playing this year in the U8 division. James is coaching her team. There's a lot of individual talent on the team, but we got our work cut out for us getting them to act like a team! They lost their first game, but in the 3rd quarter James paired Hope up with the other little girl, Haley, on the team as forwards. Now I'll admit a gawked a bit at the sight. Haley is a good soccer player, when she stays focused. She easily bores or gives up mid stream. And Hope, well, she's our Hopey Hope, but God love her she is just not the most athletic one in the family. Still those 2 together were great! That was the most soccer I've seen Hope truly play ever!

A funny story about Hope this season..... on her first practice James had them all practicing goal kicks with each player taking turns as goalie. So Hope's the goalie and the first kid comes up to take a kick and she stands there as the ball rolls in not 2 feet away from her watching all the way into the net, then she begins clapping her hands and jumping up and down cheering him on. "Yeah, woohoo! Way to go! That was a great kick!" .... ummm, Hope.... let's discuss the job of the goalie again! LOL

And this year we add Miss B to the game! Bethany met her coach finally on Saturday morning just minutes before her first game. As crazy as that sounds, she and her team did fantastic! They kicked some butt on the field and had a blast. This age group is just too cute for words!

Katy-bug Update

It has been up and down for Miss Bug, but as of yesterday at exactly 3 months and 4 days Katy weighed in at 9lbs 1oz! That was up from her 8lbs 6oz weigh in 2 weeks earlier..... 11 oz in 13 days. We'll take it!!! That means that she has been growing within normal range for her age for 3 weeks straight. Go Katy!!!! She is still well below the growth curve for babies her age, but at least she has a curve now and not just a slightly sloping straight line. She is smiling like crazy, cooing, and has rolled over a few times now. In fact she did so for the doctor yesterday rolling from front to back and freaking her out a bit as she hadn't had a hand on at the time, and fortunately Katy at least rolled towards the wall and not off the table. LOL I don't think Dr. Grossberg will underestimate the bug again! She may be small, but she is mighty!!!

On the mend!

Well it's been almost a month to the day since I last updated. Since them we've battled 2 more stomach viruses, one of them lasting 19 days, and a round of influenza strain A. It's been a FUN month in the Trettel house!!!!!

Fortunately Miss Bug did not come down with anything more than a slight cold and a couple cranky days!

As of right this second **knock on wood** we are all healthy at the same time!!!!

Evil Karma?? I think so!

So we have been sick and battling some sorta stomach bug/flu thing that's going around. It's been a good solid week now with ups and downs. Every time we think we're all better someone throws up again!

Bethany is notorious for not sleeping in her bed and often sneaks in with Roman, Hope, or even us in the wee hours of morning. So Tuesday night she starts off in her bed and ends up in hours. Meanwhile Roman wakes up in his bed covered in PUKE! He swears he didn't do it and B eventually confesses that she had snuck in his room, got sick, cleaned herself up and came to bed with us. She didn't want to wake him. Ewwwwwwww!

Hope and Bethany share a room and have a single over double bunk. Hope is on top and Bethany on the bottom in the bigger bed that is wider than the top bunk. So Wednesday everyone goes to sleep in their own beds and Hope wakes up feeling sick but can't get out of bed fast enough from her top bunk, so she leans over the side of the bed and pukes.... straight down on a sleeping B below!

Roman meanwhile is sleeping in the nursery on the guest bed as his bed is airing out from B's puke-fest the night before, so James cleans up the girls and sends Hope to bed with him and B to bed with us since both their beds are now puked on. Around 5am the scream came.... Roman threw up in bed!

So, Bethany pukes on Roman, Hope pukes on Bethany, and Roman pukes on Hope. Is that evil karma or what?!? Of course little Katy is not to be left out of this fun. She just pukes on EVERYONE!

Treeing Walker Coonhounds

On April 1st our crazy psychotic hound turns 2. We adopted Trooper in June of 2007. He was just a little guy at the time. We were told his mom was some sort of small hound and father unknown but that by all appearances he looked very much like a purebred beagle. GREAT! That's exactly what we wanted. Fast forward a year and it was clear that Trooper was a very LARGE beagle. LOL Fast forward to modern day and James is watching a Nascar special in which Elliott Sadler is discussing his dogs, all 26 of which are walker coonhounds, and lo and behold, there's Trooper on the screen. He asked me to do some research on them and this is what we found per Wikipedia and backed up by numerous other online sites:

Appearance


Walker hounds stand between 20 and 28 inches at the withers, weighing between 50 and 70 pounds and their markings are bicolor or tricolor with smooth short haired coats. (Trooper is tricolor and towards the small end of this scale for both height and weight) They are extremely powerful, especially throughout the shoulder region, and have large ears compared to head size. Their legs are straight and lean, not well muscled. Some people have mistaken them as being very large beagles.

Temperament

Treeing Walker Coonhounds are great with children and get along well with other dogs. (Yup, that's Trooper) They love to nest and cuddle. Getting a walker hound out of your bed,off your couch or away from your fireplace will be a feat in itself. (Most definitely!) They love to sleep after a long day and are the perfect dogs for watching television. Generally easy to train with little trouble, (yes, he learns quickly when worked with regularly, but he's still quite irony too) they make excellent pets if well exercised. <--- if well exercised!!! This is a key that unlocks a LOT about our boy!

Training must be consistent as Walker hounds are extremely intelligent and will take full advantage of loopholes in the training regimen. These hounds have been known to use objects as levers/tools and often manipulate their environment to accomplish a task (e.g., moving furniture to climb over gates, using household objects to manipulate kennel mechanisms, etc.). They love to carry plastic soda bottles. (I don't know about the soda bottles, but the rest of this is right on! Trooper is like a canine houdini, and very manipulative. He has busted out of his crate, twice now!)


Because they are eager to please, loving, intelligent and confident, they make a splendid companion dog for an owner willing to give them proper exercise. Because this breed requires intense exercise to match its energy levels, this breed can not settle for mere walks in the neighborhood, <--- Again back to that excercise stuff!


Most Walker hounds are capable of scaling fences in excess of 6 feet so a proper yard system whether fence or electric fence is a must. (People think we're insane we tell them we can't let Trooper out back by himself or he'll climb over the fence and excape! And he's manipulated the electric fence too, so with a fully fenced backyard and a full parameter electric fence he STILL can't be trusted on his own for too long as he just seeks out trouble!) They bury bones and dig if they are on scent. In general, they are oblivious to commands when trailing a scent, (leash training has been a great task and a very looooooooooong process that we're still working on because of this) much like a beagle or basset hound so it is imperative for a walker hound to have serious training and a safe running area free of cars or other potential dangers. They have strong tracking instincts, which is why they are popular as hunting dogs. They can be quite adept at catching small varmints such as squirrels, roof rats, opossums, and skunks. They are also known for their ability to tree raccoons, bobcats, cougars and bears when hunting in packs of two or more.

I don't have a great pic of Trooper on this computer, but here is one with the kids from Christmas 2007 and I'll try to update with a more current one later:




And here are a few pics of a Treeing Walker Coonhound found on this site:





For those of you that know Trooper, the pic above and below this are NOT him, just random pics of other Walker hounds. The one above looks nearly identical to Trooper and I'll try to capture a similar pose of him to post up later. This next one looks very much like Trooper in the face....

Coach Trettel

This spring all 3 of the big kids are playing soccer. This will be Roman's 8th season, Hope's 4th, and Bethany's 1st. We have been out of soccer for 2 years now due to fall football and last year Roman's insistance on trying baseball. I am really excited to be back to soccer though and I know the kids are going to enjoy the new league we finally decided on.

So, with this being a new league and all James asked if I minded if he volunteered to assistant coach and if he did would I agree to being team mom for his team. I said sure, so he went online to fill out the paperwork only to find them asking for his social security # which he refuses to give out ever! So with that in mind he x'd out and we had sorta decided we'd just step back and just relax and check out the new league this year instead of diving in head first as we have a tendancy to do.

With that said, you can imagine my shock when I receive an email today to "Coach Trettel" consisting of his U8 Roster for this spring! LOL Apparently he got far enough along in the application portion that he was tagged and they are in need of coaches at Hopey's level! Not assitant coach as we had originally discussed, but head coach. Soooooooooo, SPLASH! Head first into a whole new league and all new rules once again. It's been 2 1/2 years since he last coached soccer. Wish us luck!!!

Katy's 2 Month Update

Yesterday we had Kathryn in to see Dr. Grossberg for her 2 month well baby checkup and weight check. She only weighed in at 7 lbs even, up a mere 4 oz in 3 weeks and just 1 lb above her birth weight 9 weeks ago. Doc wasn't pleased and I'll admit I was a bit surprised, but more just disappointed. She did grow 2 inches in the last month and 2cm in head circumferance too. She is meeting all her milestones and doing fantastic except in the weight department. Still, she was officially marked "Failure to Thrive". That isn't a title any mom wants to hear! Dr. Grossberg still believes it's a supply issue on my part and inefficient nursing on hers. I asked if she felt we should give up nursing and switch her to formula and she said NO. She's not ready to give up on us just yet, especially with her progressing wonderfully in other areas.

Katy is very alert and active. She sleeps through the night already. She can hold her head up well, and nearly rolled over at the doc office for one of the nurses who was quite surprised to see this tiny creature twisting and turning all over of the table. Her head circumferance is only at 5% and her height at a small 11%, so overall Katy is just SMALL. In otherwords, although she's been labeled "failure to thrive" she is still thriving overall, we just need her to start gaining weight.

This week's plan of action.... lots and lots of pumping (Ick! Mooooooooooo!). She'll be getting almost all expressed breast milk (EBM) that we are fortifying to increase her caloric intake. Breast milk on average is 20 calories per oz. We are fortifying it just enough to bring that up to 24 calories per oz. This will help to get weight on faster. We are logging her eating habits, and although the doc says it's not necessary, I have started logging mine. I'm finding that when I'm at work especially that I get busy and often forget to eat or drink throughout the day. When I'm at home I tend to snack a lot all day and drink water constantly. So, if nothing else, this is keeping me accountable for proper nutrition and hydration on my part.

So far today I have managed to pump 2 oz over what she has actually eaten, which is great cause I've been pumping less than she requires and we've depleted my freezer stash already. Maybe all that Fenugreek is finally kicking in??

Although we are obviously concerned that Katy is not gaining, we are thankful that she is otherwise very healthy and happy. Just the sweetest little baby girl ever!

Next checkup is in 1 week for another weight check: Monday, March 2nd at 10:15. Let's pray our plan of action for the week puts some meat on her bone!


..... James just called, Katy is on poop #2 for the day! (she's only been pooping once every 3-8 days since birth!)

It Takes a Village....

The old saying goes "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child". In our case it would seem it takes a church to raise a child. Trinity Church of the Nazarene has not welcomed a new baby in quite sometime. Never could we have imagined how excited they would be to welcome our baby girl with open arms. And I do mean open arms! LOL

James and I both play in the church band. (no snickering please... I can at least fake a half way decent bass!) So that ties us up on stage for the first half of every service. Although there are 2 toddlers and one other little baby born just a few days after Katy, that occasionally attend services, she is the only regular baby/toddler in the church right now. So, needless to say, there is not really a nursery for her to stay during the service. They're working on getting one up and running but for now, my good friend Miranda or her wonderful mother, Mary, will snuggle with Katy while we're on stage. Or she just gets passed around as EVERYONE always wants to hold a Katy-bug, and never need I worry about finding someone to hold her for the first half of service. Jim, our sound tech, is about to become a first time grandfather and is getting lots of practice in as he now shows up on Sunday earlier than ever to ensure he gets her first thing while we practice. Two Sunday's ago Jan, another lady in the church, asked to hold her for services, and now I am attacked at the door to see who gets to hold her this week! LOL So although it shouldn't be a complete surprise, I still almost peed my pants laughing when my mom came to church this past Sunday and Ms. Betty.... this tiny little old sweetheart of a woman... approached mom and informed her that they take turns holding the baby each week and this week was HER week, then scooped Miss Katy right on up and went to sit down. LOL

It takes a village to raise a child, and Kathryn is so fortunate to have her very own "village"!

Report Cards are in, drum roll please ***********

Hope Elizabeth brought home straight E's!!!!!!!!!!! Roman not only made A/B honor roll, but was only ONE B away from straight A's!!!!!!!!!!!! We celebrated at Kabuko's. It was the kids first Japanese Steakhouse experience and they had a ball. Bethany was thrilled with the onion volcano and wowed by the fire. Roman couldn't get enough of the food, especially his shrimp, and dad's steak, and my chicken, and any other meats thrown his way. And Hope was in awe of the decor and took back a whole list of "must haves" from Japan for Aunt Kari and Uncle Jay. And James and I couldn't keep from grinning at our 4 wonderful kids whom we couldn't be prouder of!

Keep up the good work Roman and Hope!!!