Summer has come at last

The story of my life.
I am surrounded by maniacs.
Luckily these maniacs are related to me or I might be tempted to lock myself in my room, while huddling in a corner, only to pretend I am alone.
That may or may not be how I spend my evenings.
What am I saying?
Anyway, this week we spent a lot of time outdoors.
We went strawberry picking at Duyk's Peachy Pig Farm.
I have no idea why on earth it is called that.
And collected 12 pounds of freezer jam-bound berries.
We also visited several parks and even hit up McMenamins for happy hour.
And no I wasn't there for the cocktails.
Remember I am pregnant.
Oh, and the church frowns on becoming inebriated.
But the company was good.
As you can see.
And the plus side to all that vitamin D?
My kids were zonked by the days end.
They slept great, I slept better, and everyone was much happier.

Yes, that is Ezra in my bed and Ryan (and her Heffalump) in Ezra's bed.
That arrangement seems to produce the best results.
And that way Scott's side is all warmed up for him when he returns on the weekends.

And as for Ezzy's head, it is healing quite nicely.
The scar is already starting to disappear.

Which is good because now I can use my spare time to tend to a humongous cement burn Ryan procured while riding her bike.
Yeesh.
But other than that, all is well.
Scott will be coming home for almost a whole week, which we will spend celebrating my father and Heather's wedding.
It may be a little crazeeee but we are looking forward to it.
I can only imagine how incredible I am going to look 8 months pregnant in the July heat posing for their pictures.
Grody.
Have a great week!

A busy one

Well, the last few days were quite a doozy.
Starting Friday we had visitors up from Eugene.
Five of them.
So that is a total of nine people in our shoe box of an apartment.
And you know, it went really well.
So well in fact, that we have already scheduled a follow-up visit.
I love when my sister is here!
It started off with a bang.
We spent Friday night in the E.R.
This little monkey was jumping on my bed, when he whacked his forehead on the headboard and split it wide open.
Being the together mom that I am, I started screaming hysterically and running around frantically wringing my hands.
Britney, however, grabbed Ezra, applied pressure to his wound whilst blood was squirting all over her clothes, and headed straight for the car.
And hour and a half and six stitches later, we made it home.
Ezzy was fine and hasn't really complained of his "owie" since.
Our baby Frankenstein will be good as new on Saturday when Scott removes his stitches.

Luckily, the rest of the weekend was all uphill from there.
Britney threw me a baby shower on Saturday with some of my girlfriends here in Forest Grove.
I have no pictures.
Obviously.
But it was perfect.
All of Britney's events are a smash and this was no exception.
She is so talented, and had some talented help.
Thaaaaaank yooooou (imagine this in a high sing song voice).
Then we spent the remainder of our time just hanging out, staying up late, eating popcorn, and even made a trip to Red Robin (courtesy of a Mother's Day prezzie from my Dad and Heather - thank you - muah!).
Then once the festivities died down, the weekend wrapped up, and everyone split we took a trip to the dentist.
I only have a picture of Ezra during this escapade.
The reason for this is that he was calm.
Ryan was not.
I had Ezra go first because he is too little to think about being nervous.
He sat there contently grinning like a fool and watching Sponge Bob Square Pants.
But once it was Ryan's turn (even though, mind you, she watched Ezzy's whole pain-free appointment) she began hyperventilating and screaming.
Once we closed the door, to avoid scaring anyone else, and I restrained her the cleaning continued.
Then she slowly realized that her panic was unnecessary.
Yeesh, what a drama queen.

And just for good measure, I added this pic of the two maniacs relaxing after their bath right before I put them to bed and then did a celebratory dance.
Made it through another day.
Whew.

This week

It's official.
Mostly.
He's in undies.
And doing quite well.
Knock on wood.

And in unrelated news, Ryan has taken a recent liking to Bob Ross.
She insists on painting with him while Ez takes a nap.

I know.
She has awesome hair.
We are looking forward to the weekend.
Britney and her fam are coming to visit, along with Scotty.
It will be a house full, but we are excited.
Next week, I will try to share a little more.
I had some spectacular finds at the Goodwill and a project or two up my sleeve.
Perhaps I can talk about those.
Have a fabulous Friday!

Food for Thought

Nothing really new to report.
Our first week of rotations went fairly well.
Only about 723 more to go.
And because I have nothing interesting to share, I will therefore be pestering you with some rather obscure thoughts.
Numero uno, I may or may not have felt a little smug when Scott told me he needed to finish vacuuming and organizing his closet before leaving his "dorm" at the VA hospital, and that his non-married roomies were, for lack of a better word, slobs.
Once you get used to a certain standard of cleanliness, there is no going back.
Even if it is a slightly neurotic and unrealistic standard.
Set by one's wife.
I am just saying.
And may I just say pregnancy flatulence is borderline out of control.
TMI? Sorry. You know you all had it.
And as far as my mothering skills are concerned, I feel they may be deteriorating in relationship with Scott's departure.
For ever day he is away, my patience shrinks exponentially smaller.
Good thing he will be home on weekends.
And speaking of haircuts or lack thereof, Ryan is begging to grow out her hair.
Is it mean to force her to keep her perfectly adorable style?
I mean, I know what is best and will also be held responsible when she looks back on childhood pictures of herself.
Plus, if her hair is anything like mine, she will end up with a head of hair as thick as a My Little Pony's mane. (That one is for you Tracy :)
So to wrap things up, here are a few photos of my latests acquisitions:

A super cute hammered metal vase.
I am not sure how I lived without it before.
I smile every time I see it.
And the best part is that I got in on sale at Target and purchased it with a gift card. Booyah.

And a little footstool. I have yet to determine what material it is made out of, but it looks like leather and wipes off easily. $4 at Goodwill.
Fun.
Well, I am off. Scott is returning any minute and I can't wait.
I will probably kiss his face off.

And so it begins

Scotty left on Friday for Tacoma.
And six months of craziness starts now. Ready go.
It is only day three and I am so over it.
What was I thinking?
Anyway, we don't have much to report around here.
The most exciting thing to happen is Ezra's semi-regular bowel movements.
That and I saw Water for Elephants last night with some girlfriends.
So good.
As if I need more reasons to love Robert Pattinson.
Oh and I was able to attend Relief Society today for the first time in 7+ months.
That is noteworthy I suppose.
Hmmmm, I am really reaching here.
According to my blog sidebar I only have 74 days left of pregnancy!
So here comes the belly shot.
It has been about 8 weeks since the last HOT picture.

I think I am about 30 weeks along, 10 more-ish to go. I think it sounds shorter in months (2) so that is how I count it.
And here is a picture I forced my kids to take. I instructed them to hold hands and be happy, dammit. Ryan's smile looks a little strained.
They are getting so big, I cannot believe it.
Please stop growing.
Oh well, once we add to our brood, I am sure I will be happy they are a little bigger.
And by the way, I like the names Micah, Jude, Graham, and Hudson.
Scott isn't a fan of any of them.
I told him that it is therefore his job to come up with stellar name.
We'll see.
Gotta be off.
Peace out.

Week off ...

Scott has been home the entire week!
This is a Christmas miracle of sorts.
The down side is that he will soon be gone all week, every week.
For. six. months.
However, it has been nice having my honey home.
To help nurse a bunch of sick kids back to health.
And give me back rubs.
Last night, Scott got to take Ryan to the E.R. at 1:00 a.m.
It was her first ear infection, and she was screaming bloody murder.
I thought the neighbors were going to come knocking, to see who was strangling our child.
But after 45 minutes and a good dose of drugs, she was sleeping like a lamb.
And as a side note, Ezzy is still refusing to go #2.
Awesome.
My kids are super fun to be around right now.
Oh well, I am sure we are on the mend.
And I have no pictures, yet again.
Obviously.
And on a happy note, my fugly baby bangs are growing out.
This is how I measure my days now.
That is where the time continuum starts.
Almost six weeks since the hack job, and six weeks closer to have a grown-up hairstyle again.
I know I am pathetic and need a hobby.

Crappiest. day. ever. literally

So we have been sorta busy. (Too busy to take pictures apparently).
It started with a potty training test run.
Ezra has been asking me to change his diaper frequently and exhibits signs of discomfort if I don't do it right away.
He is quite insistent.
So I thought perhaps he would rather wear undies and be dry and comfy all the time.
And he took to it rather well.
The first day he had one tiny accident but successfully used the potty five, I say 5, times!
He was enthusiastic and loved his ca-uuute underwear.
What is it about a tiny person in tiny underoos?
Anyway, the next day was different.
He was annoyed and wouldn't sit on his potty.
And every day since he has been unwilling to cooperate.
Except to tell me when he needs to go but and how much he doesn't want to go on the potty.
Plus he defiantly held his ... well, poo for four days.
Finally after trying to coax him to use his diaper with no avail, Scott administered a suppository.
It was traumatizing for all three of us.
Traumatizing, yet quickly effective.
So effective in fact, that I became the potty as he shat all over my leg, the carpet, Scott's shirt, and everywhere else within a 5 foot radius.
It was awful.
That was on Saturday.
Scott's birthday.
Happy Birthday to him.
He said it was definitely his crappiest birthday ever.
Pun intended.
However, as soon as we emptied an entire bottle of carpet cleaner on the floor and had baths, we proceeded to do Scott right and fix up a cake and decorations.
I didn't take pictures because Scott isn't a huge fan of celebrating his big day and I was in my skivvies.
Anyway, other than that we have been enjoying Scott's time off before he heads to Tacoma for his first rotation.
After passing his 1st set of boards with flying colors he is starting his final year in optometry school!
We are so proud of him and all his hard work.
What a smarty-pants.
This year will be a little hairy.
More on that later.
I am feeling a little lazy and secretly want to watch Dancing with the Stars.
But I will leave you with one happy little picture ...

I can barely stand it. So. dang. cute.