Don't drink to our health

Well August has not been our month. Eric had his surgery, and he came through just fine, but he IS  still recovering. Ray had his appendix out. He is going back to school on Monday (just look in my face how sad I am about all the boys FINALLY being in school) and the doctor said that he healed up quite well. Christopher had to get his Varicella shot since he never had chicken pox when he was little. That caused him to have a little fever and a very very sore arm for a few days. Stephen is currently sick with a nasty cold. He says he sounds like he's going through puberty again... although I don't think he needs a deeper voice LOL. And then there's me, I have had mono for about 2 weeks apparently. This is good to know because I have just been assuming that I'm lazy since I need a nap every day and to go to bed early. :) Now I at least have an excuse for going into the only quiet room in the house. All I ask of everyone is please know that I went to my doctor's appointment yesterday morning. In one afternoon/evening of being sick my kitchen turned into this:

I'm so glad I'm leaving the boys in charge. :) Oh well, it will get done eventually. Probably when I finally have the energy to do it.

Surgery Anyone?

You, all three of you that read this, might be asking yourself... where has Alison been? What is she doing? Why isn't she blogging to give us updates on family life?

Let me tell you about my Monday:
 4:30am - wake up, get ready to take Eric to surgery
 5:30am - Bryan is up, I wake up Steve for school and Eric, Bryan and I go to the hospital for Eric's surgery
 6:15am - take Bryan to McDonald's because we needed breakfast and I needed coffee
 6:45am - go home, get the other two boys up for showers. Chris is going to school and Ray is going to the doctor's office since he's been sick
7:25am - take Bryan to school
7:50am - get home in time to say goodbye to Chris catching the bus
8:15am - finish tidying the house for when Eric gets out of surgery, take Ray to hospital for doctor's apt and to pick up Eric
9:30am - get call from Bryan's school, he needs something dropped off. See Eric out of surgery, give hug, drop Ray off at the clinic
10am - make it to Bryan's school
10:20am - go pick up Eric who is discharged and ready to leave. From there, go to clinic to pick up Ray
10:30am - find out doctor has a few issues with Ray's health
10:35am - take Ray to get his blood drawn (Eric is walking at this point by the way, two hours after surgery on his leg!)
10:45am - get more coffee for Eric and I. Take Ray for a CT scan
11:15am - get told that Ray has appendicitis and check him into the ER
12 pm - meet the nurses
1:45 pm - Eric decides he's well enough to drive. He goes to pick up Bryan
3 pm - get into a private room for the evening
4 pm - Ray gets taken to Pre-Op
4:30 pm - Eric picks me up to go get my car (since we only had the one that morning)
4:32 pm - get call from surgeon we need to sign another paper
4:35 pm - arrive back at hospital after turning around, go sign paper
4:45 pm - with Eric and Bryan go pick up dinner
5:20 pm - eat my second meal of the day
6 pm - get a change of clothes for Ray and some stuff I'll need, say goodnight to the boys
6:30 pm get back to hospital for the night. Ray came out of surgery
11:30 pm - finally get everything settled for the night at the hospital. go to sleep
12:15 am - Ray's alarm goes off, after that little or no sleep

So, that's a Monday for you. Ray and Eric are now home. Everyone is doing well. Ray has two weeks off of school and Eric has two weeks off of work. I am on my summer vacation... ha ha. I promised Ray no hospital pictures of him and I didn't have time to take ones of Eric. :) So, a rare picture of me... tired at around 10pm on Monday night.

I'm obviously on my side, I was pretty tired.

I'll make sure to keep everyone updated on people's progress. I'm sure everyone will be just fine! (Including me, after a VERY VERY long nap)

Vocabulary Lessons

I like to find new ways to teach the boys new words to use in daily life. Yesterday Ray was semi-pestering people during dinner. I asked him if he knew what an "instigator" was. He said no.

Before I had time to say anything Steve popped out with "He does too know what an investigator is!!"

I think I actually had tears rolling down my face from laughter. Gotta love em!

I know, I know, I'm horrible

So today is the first day of school for the boys. The first time they've ever been in a school in Georgia. The first time they've ever started school in the second week of August.

I had great plans: get up at 5:30, get everyone showered and out the door by 7:15, and have all lunches and people packed off with pictures taken for the grandmas. Eric had to take some of the boys to register, so three of them didn't have to catch the bus today.

WEEEeeeellll, let's just say that life acts a little differently than you plan it. I have been sick for over a week now and my body said, "you are NOT getting up before 6:30". There I was at 6:33am thinking holy crap 1/2 hour 'till everyone has to be out the door! The last thing I thought about were pictures.

I guess I'll have to take 2nd day of school pictures. Those are as good as 1st day of school pictures, right?

Happy Birthday Steve

Well, barring an ugly cake, the birthday party went well. The food, which Steve got to pick whatever menu he wanted, was delish. We had lasagna, homemade french garlic bread and salad. The cake was moist and the frosting was good. The army men (who froze in the line of duty holding up the icing) were also a bigger hit at a 15 year old's birthday then I thought they would be. It was fun. The grandparents (on my side and Eric's) sent birthday money to buy lots of toys and treats for everyone. All in all Eric and I were exhausted. The boys ended the night with an epic Nerf gun war that spanned the whole house and outside. This morning I discovered army men casualties spanning the whole of the living room and Nerf ammo in EVERY room of our house. How fun!

Eating birthday dinner

The birthday (ugh) cake reveal

Blowing out the Candles

A HUGE birthday present from Dad and I

The really tiny present at the bottom of the bag (a year on XBOX live)

Playing with bubbles (1$ party favors that Eric told me no one would play with.... LOL silly man, bubbles are fun)

A Thank You to everyone who gave them presents.

Excuses

Firstly, this blog is to excuse myself from the pictures later to come in the next blog about Steve's birthday soiree today. Um, I decorated cakes for YEARS... wedding, birthday, baby shower... you name it. So, thinking that I would just jump right back on in there, I made Steve's birthday cake from scratch. He wanted yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I made the cake, the frosting... weeeeelllll, lets just say I might have messed that up a wee bit. I made a easy 7 min frosting out of the Joy of Cooking that my mother raved about. It was great! But, it was vanilla. So I added chocolate... which promptly turned my frosting into chocolate soup. So I added powdered sugar and butter (thinking: hey, meringue butter cream, right?) and I got a denser chocolate soup. Having totally committed to this cake and frosting, Eric and I were going to make it work.

Thus... a paragraph of excuses to explain my picture. When in doubt, add army men to hold up the icing soup. :)

MMmmmmm Brains

Today in anatomy it was like Christmas! I love dissection.

I know, I'm strange. This is a sheep's brain and a cow's eye.

How fun! (The smell was pretty bad though)