THE NASTY

Warning to Christy you may not want to read this since some things about the body are better left unsaid!!!!! OK so last week went pretty good I even let Elijah walk to class with two friends on Thursday after I walked to him to the main door. I might add I have been asking him daily and he actually didn't want me to stop walking him at all!! Yes isn't it great to feel needed!!! Alas I pushed him on with his friends and watched for a minute from the window. I bet the office workers crack up at the kindergarten parents every new school year!! I then had to take Isaiah to his meet the teacher! It went especially well since his teachers from last year moved up and will be his teachers again this year! Yippee.....no screaming for him!!!! It was also nice to see they covered the toddler playground and fixed the grass, laid new tile inside, installed cameras in the rooms so you can get online and watch your kid (how cool is that).......glad to see my money is going somewhere!!! I also found out they started teaching kindergarten this year sure would've been nice to know that when I was dealing with the whole enrollment fiasco!!! But since public school is free I think I will stick with that for now! ANYWAY I worked, went to the chiropractor, went home then went with Martez to Parent night at Elijah's school for the class meeting with Miss Personality. She just talked about what they would be doing the whole year, what is expected of your child, dress code, PTA.....blah.......! Well an hour later after sitting in our child's seat in a childsize chair I realized I went to the chiro on the wrong day boy was that a waste of money. Do they not realize you can't put two parents into one child's spot at a miniature table and expect to keep that many spots at each table!! And they are the teachers!!! Well I got up and I stumbled and told Martez I was dizzy all the sudden. At first I said maybe it is because my oversize adult hinny was in the mini chair meant for a 5yr old and somehow it cut off circulation to something!! We signed up to do the whole class parent deals - I must say Martez was so excited but he is corny that way- and left. When we got in the car I instantly had a terrible headache. We went to get the boys at my moms and then my throat hurt really bad and I was hot but freezing with goosebumps everywhere. I said I think I must be getting something but I've been fine all day! I took Tylenol which brought the fever down some and eradicated the headache. Friday morning I got Elijah off to school and informed him there was no way mommy could walk him in. I went home and crashed! I called the doc and no appts so I went to urgent care after my friend said her and her other friend both had strep throat so I should go get some meds. Ok thanks but next time could you mention that BEFORE me and my family come near you!!!!!! Man that ticks me off! I hate it when people invite you over and they or someone in the family are sick or they bring sick kids to your house!!!! That has to be my biggest pet peeve and it happens again later!! Seriously can you be that stupid! If you don't know that is one thing but well you should just know!!!!!!!!!! I went to Urgent Care told him my symptoms all of which went with Strep but when he tested me he said and I quote "It isn't strep but whatever it is turned up to be one NASTY virus! Haven't seen something like that in awhile!" He sounded like he was in a sort of weird awe of the pain going on in my throat then proceeded to tell me my lungs sounded tight. What? I didn't even mention the chest since it didn't hurt YET but my throat was raw! So he put me on decongestant, an antibiotic in case I had a little some bacterial too, an albuterol inhaler which at the time I didn't understand and still don't since it is only immediate relief, and told to alternate tylenol and ibuprofen until the fever has been completely gone for at least 24 hours if not more!! It only went down hill from there! Today has been my VERY first day since Thursday night that I haven't had a fever. I have taken 5 million showers and am still paranoid I smell like sweat! I also have had to alternate tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours and with everything I had to take at different times I lost track of what I was taking when so with my luck I'll end up with kidney or liver damage from too much tylenol or ibuprofen which ever causes it!! Oh and get this the doctor instructions for the decongestant---take 1 every 12 hours but not in the evening since it will keep you up at night! Hello is that possible every 12 hours there has to be onein the evening! Good medicine for someone who is an insomniac coughing all night! Brilliant I tell you! Well Friday afternoon my husband's older son shows up at the door! Ok well he hasn't been over in awhile and Martez really wanted to see him so whatever just tell him to avoid me! Then Saturday morning Martez takes all the boys to the barber shop and it was wonderful. Peace and quiet! Elijah and Isaiah think every time Tez comes over they have to wrestle and fight like big boys and then someone always gets hurt and it is just a vicious cycle that I think they would learn by now but I guess that is why they have parents huh! THEN HE COMES HOME WITH SIX KIDS AND AN EXTRA ADULT!!!! You have GOT to be kidding me!! I am still mad about this one! He must've completely lost his mind to think this was ok! He had to pick up this one at his cousins then the cousins kid and his other cousin wanted to come to the barber shop! That is totally fine with me but he shouldn't have brought ANY of them back to the house. Even if your not thinking about me - which obviously he was NOT - did you stop to think about them at all!!! Do you honestly think the parents of all these kids want them to get sick and possibly pass it on to their family? I seriously doubt it! There goes the lots of rest part of the prescription! Now I go to the anger portion of the blog: I lost 8lbs in the first 48hrs from a fever average of 103.7 and going as high as 105 so far lasting 5 days (and hopefully won't return tonight because I am so sick of sweating), been to urgent care twice, I have been taking 29 pills a day, now I am doing 6 breathing treatments a day using a nebulizer, I can't eat, sleep, be around my own kids for fear of them catching the "NASTY" virus, can't work :), my house is a mess since someone can't seem to pick up and you are worried about them being "bored" at their apartment so you bring them to our house to have FUN!!! Man I am SO MAD! Did you not think maybe I want to sleep whenever I can actually fall asleep? Did you not think that maybe if I am able to get up to venture into another room that now I won't since I look like death warmed over and we have company? Did you not think that potty training Isaiah would involve actually making him SIT on the potty chair for more than two seconds instead of running around naked peeing whenever, wherever? Good thing we have wood floors and carpet cleaning machines! Did you not think that when I call your name even though I barely have any voice and haven't said more than 20 things all weekend I might need something and not yelling "what" three times expecting me to respond before coming to my aide would be really nice? Did you not think when you asked a million times that I don't know where I caught this, what it is, or who I caught it from and it really doesn't matter you are just supposed to support me and help me with whatever? It isn't my fault and I didn't have it worked into the plans for the week! What is it with husband's that are awful while their wives are sick? It is like a switch goes off and they instantly are buttheads and we are the grumpy ones! He really said Sunday morning after feeding breakfast to our guests (Yes they slept over! How sweet! Just wait until they are gone!) "I hate seeing you like this baby! I hope I don't catch it! You are just so grumpy!" I thought it was going to be a sweet comment but grumpy oh please if he was in my position he would be dying, call 911, he has to be in the hospital. He is NEVER sick so don't think I didn't want to rub all up on him but feared catching it again myself only worse the second time around! But when he is sick he is the biggest baby and everything is terminal! And me next time I am inviting over a ton of people~ anybody he knows that I don't like and don't care to get sick and allowing them to throw a major party while me and the boys go out on the town to Incredible Pizza! So by Sunday evening my future twelve pack (with all this coughing I have to be making twelve pack abs screw the six pack they hurt so bad it better be something amazing) hurt so bad and I didn't realize I kept moaning while trying to reposition on the bed and I guess Martez was in the bathroom and heard me and his response was "Are you hurting?" I instantly starting bawling hysterically and said you can't possibly be this dumb or inconsiderate to invite people over while I am sick and ask me if I am hurting. Are you kidding me? Please say that was a joke. So I went on and on about everything that was wrong with me right down to diarrhea from antibiotics to sweating buckets feeling like I was so hot I might just explode to finally coughing up mucus all day long but now all I taste is snot and the list went on and on and on and I made it gruesome for him! He actually even gagged - I was proud! I then called my mother to tell her Martez was bringing the boys over because there was no way I would be able to get them ready and drive them to school without interacting with them!! Martez took them I did a breathing treatment and fell asleep and when he got home he walked straight in and woke me up to ask if I needed anything! WHY would you wake me up??? He really is an amazing person so caring with the inability to tell others no (that is all new to him), he is a lover not a fighter, he is an amazing father and he has the most beautiful, contagious laugh and smile BUT if I am sick .zrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrzrrzzzppppp.....rewind because all that goes out the door!! Went to the doctor yet again yesterday and now am down to 4 breathing treatments a day until Friday because of mucus in a plug or something I think my friend Melanie has mentioned that before and it was scary! I am feeling better not good but better than I was this past weekend! Still unable to go back to work he said maybe tomorrow I said that like I missed weeks when I haven't missed but half a day yesterday because I HAD to go in yesterday for sales tax day because no one else knows how to do it! I have got to start teaching other people how to do my job! Oh and the doctor said yesterday to go ahead and take the nightly dose of the decongestant it shouldn't keep you up! RIGHT!! I did and it did! I have been going to bed about 7 every night these past 5 days sleeping about an hour and a half, up for about 2 then repeat all night long.....not last night I was up until 3 a.m. WIDE awake just sweating and coughing with no outlook for sleep. Won't be doing the decongestant at night again! I must say though there are two benefits to the ever elusive "NASTY" virus: 1) you lose weight due to excessive sweating from a very long drawn out fever and 2) it in no way involves your nose!! No stuffiness, no running it's great I think if the nose was stopped up too I would have rather been shot like wounded cattle but it is only throat and chest nastiness and trust me it is nasty! I love The Never Ending Story - don't ask me why just accept and move on - and I feel like I am fighting the NASTY like they were the the NOTHING!!! I think I will go watch that now! Oh Elijah is such a sweet boy he came home from school yesterday and said "Mommy I love you millions and millions and I am so sorry you are sick! I hope you get better soon so you can read to me because Daddy won't do the cool voices!" He is so sweet and I said "I love you too baby and because I love you I need you to stay out of mommy's room so you don't get sick and you should go practice cool voices of your own" He did and then I heard a coughing which was promptly followed by my prayers asking God to only make it allergies because I can't fight The Nasty for both of us right now!!!

MY 5YR OLD HIGH SCHOOL BOY

My baby started school today. I cannot believe he is old enough for school. It seems like I just had him! Today was his first day of kindergarten. I am in shock he is old enough but I didn't cry. I thought I would not because I don't think he is ready or I'll miss him but simple because he is starting a whole new adventurous chapter in life - school!! Maybe the crying is more for stay at home moms - tears of joy for more free time and tears of sadness for not knowing what to do without their child in tow! Me - I am used to not seeing him all day since I am at work all day. I think my mom is more upset than I am especially since Martez will get off earlier now and will be picking both the boys up from school. I have been very blessed to have my mom watch the boys when they got out of Wee Ministries at two everyday which I might mention is an amazing learning program for children and my boys have both been there forever! My mom is upset and insisting to pick them up a couple of days a week because Martez "must" have something to do! She said I need to wean her off slowly. My mom and the boys are obsessed with each other but I am sooooooo glad they have the relationship they do. She has kept Elijah since he was six months and had Isaiah since he was 6 weeks. They both went to Wee but she had them when they got out and all day on Monday so they are all addicted to one another. I told her no in hopes that she will keep them more often on the weekends so me and Martez can go out on dates since I wouldn't let her watch them on the weekends before because she had them all week!! Yippee maybe we will actually be able to go out more often!! I call Elijah's new school "big kid" school or kindergarten but he is jumping years ahead and calling it high school. I am more panicked about his teacher that seems to have no tact or personality or maybe that is just towards me or maybe just adults. Hopefully she isn't that way for the children or this could be a long year. The thing that scares me the most is letting him walk into the school then to class alone. Ahhhhh! How would I know he actually made it to the classroom? Would they call asking where he is? For this week I will be walking him to class for my own peace of mind then next week I will also be taking my friend's little girl every morning so maybe I won't be as anxious if they walk in together since they are both in kindergarten across the hall from each other. What are the odds of them losing each other and getting lost somewhere in the building? Hopefully small! Check out the new slideshow it is his first day of school pics with the outfit he picked out and he did a pretty fine job if I say so myself. I have taught him well. If I could only get Martez to match his clothes that well! lol Elijah even wanted to do a photo shoot with his own modeling poses. It was so funny! God I love this boy he is so handsome and he cracks me up!!!

THE SLITHERY STRANGER

My neighbors called their mortgage company back in September to tell them they would no longer be making payments and planned on declaring bankruptcy. They declared bankruptcy, divorced, and moved there separate ways. She didn't move out until March but it has been empty since. They have a pool and hot tub in the backyard aka breeding grounds for mosquitoes and frogs. In April I hooked up the pool in an attempt to empty it to ward off the mosquitoes and frogs! No such luck they had already begun their vicious cycle and you can only empty a pool so much and even that took two days. Needless to say we have a major infestation of mosquitoes and the boys can't play outside without being eaten alive and the mosquitoes always manage to make it in the house too! The boys enjoy catching the hundreds of frogs we have in the yard. We even have two rather large ones that come every night to sit under our front outside light to eat the bugs it attracts! Anyway the yard is out of control!!! I went several months ago to trim around the fence area since some weeds were poking through our fence. WOW! I opened the gate and had to walk with the weed eater in front of me to even create a path and ended up weed eating about half of the yard. It was unreal! Most of it was to my mid-thigh but other spots were up to my neck. I was really scared small forest creatures would attack me for destroying their home!! I called Helen, the neighbor, to tell her how bad it was - we are friends but she just said I am so sorry! Sorry really doesn't help me much now does it!! But I don't want to make her mad since she is also my hairstylist and I like my hair right now!! Well we have managed to keep the front mowed and edged since it is small and we just do it when we do ours. However the back is a completely different story! Martez tried to go in the other side of the fence but of course that half of the yard has not been mowed since only God knows when so it was taller than him and he could not even get back there. The side closer to our house wasn't as bad since I had weedeated part of it before but the mower won't fit through that side of course. Well now months later it is sooooooo freaking tall in the back and the mosquitoes are out of control! I was telling all of this to get to this: this morning I hear Elijah yelling at Isaiah then he comes in the bathroom to tell me there is a snake in the house. He is in to telling tall tales now so I didn't believe him until he was yelling at me about in tears that he wasn't lying. He said Isaiah kept trying to pick it up calling it a worm but he shut Isaiah in his room! Martez and I go out there and sure enough there was a snake between the backdoor and the dining room table! Granted it was just a baby but who wants a wild snake in there house with two small children. Sure as hell not me! So I called Helen and asked her to call her ex to see if he could arrange someone to tear down the forest because when I call the city they will charge him anyway! Well when and if they ever get around to it! So today we did our normal yard work which includes their front yard and now I am planning on going to the other neighbors to ask them to also call the city and complain about the yard, mosquitoes, snakes, etc and hopefully if enough of us call it will get taken care of sooner. I know the other neighbors are sick of it because a couple of them will stop every time we mow it and thank us for keeping it mowed, but I guess they aren't bothered enough to pitch in and take turns!!!! Gee there's a thought! But hopefully they are bothered enough to just make a phone call because if I can just get someone to cut the back I will try my hardest to keep it up until one day their foreclosure takes effect and it gets sold!! For now I will be dropping moth balls over the fence since my mom said that will hopefully keep the snakes from sneaking into our yard! Doubt it!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

I haven't been able to blog in soooooo long and I actually miss it! I know it probably sounds corny but I love to tell stories! We have been soooooo incredibly busy since we got back from the family reunion. It has been absolutely insane and hopefully it will calm down soon because I really need to do some major housework!!! We got back from Iowa and instantly started helping my mom and dad sort through their zillion belongings to prepare to empty their house to get their piers done for the fifth time! That Olshan commercial is a bunch of crap!!!!! Well we helped sort, had a garage sale, took ten days to move them out putting some stuff into a storage unit and the furniture returning to the house into the garage. While the pier work was being done we then helped his mom and four adopted children move from a 3 bdrm house into an apartment for about 5 days. THEN we had to help repair cracks in my parents house and paint after the cement was poured to fix the giant floor cracks, the carpet cleaned and then stretched. Then we helped them move the main furnishings back into the house and put some decorations back up to "stage" it so they can hopefully sell it however we had to hurry since my uncle, his girlfriend, my cousin and his girlfriend were coming from Illinois to stay for a week followed by my parents best friends from Iowa. In the midst of all the moving there was work, July 4th, SIX children birthday parties, decorating for one adult surprise bday party, Elijah lost his first tooth and had to get three shots to go to school, my car brokedown, the whole enrolling Elijah in school fiasco (it was an awful, stressful, complicated, anger inducing.........experience and all I have to say is it is a bunch of CRAP!!!), flag football evaluations and then Elijah got croup AGAIN! So now 5 weeks later I think it is all over and he starts school in one week followed the next week by football! Man do I need a vacation and a maid!

I LOVE HIM TO PIECES!

So tonight after a long day out and about my baby boy passed out on my bed. He looked so sweet and innocent....which normally is untrue.....I decided to take pictures of him. I had always wanted that deal from Sears where they take photos then piece them out to individual parts of the body then frame them. I am unsure if that even made since. Ok they will have a frame with about 9 holes and in each hole there are "body parts"...nose, smile, eye, hand, etc. Isaiah HATES having his pictures professionally done and always has since he was about 6 months old. Literally everytime we would take him he would flip out and then all the pictures he was either crying or was redfaced from screaming so long. Now the second my mom or I get out the camera he is a complete ham so even though he is older than they normally are when they do those sets I decided to go at it on my own....in black & white! I love these pictures!

The funny part is half way through I realized he had ketchup on his face and like all little boys no matter how hard you try to keep their nails clean it just always seems they attract dirt under their nails. So I stopped the photo shoot then cleaned and trimmed his nails! Sad but true and he slept right through it all!

THE WEALTHY TOOTH FAIRY

Well Elijah lost his first tooth yesterday! Actually he didn't lose it, Martez pulled it. It was so funny! He realized it was loose on our trip to Iowa and refused to eat for awhile unless it was noodles. Eventually he got over that and it was really loose and Martez really wanted to pull it but he would barely let us touch it. Yesterday he decided or I should say "bargained" with daddy to let him pull it. If he let daddy pull it, then he had to take him to Toys 'r Us and buy him a toy and of course Martez was all for that. But when it came right down to it he was scared and I was watching grossed out. Loose teeth and pulling loose teeth totally disgusts me! Everytime Martez would get ready to pull it Elijah would shut his mouth and bargain or ask how bad it would hurt. Martez would pinch him a little and say this is how it will feel and that didn't hurt, right. They went back and forth like a hundred times and I still stood there with the camera gagging everytime I would even think about it. Eventually Martez said he was going to "shine" it aka dry it off since it was too slippery and just yanked it out! Elijah started to cry then saw the blood and went into a complete screaming frenzy! He hates blood! Martez said see that didn't hurt show me how it felt. Then Elijah proceeded to hit and pinch the crap out of his daddy to show him how it felt! Too funny! Now I bet Martez will never get to pull another one! I can't believe my baby boy is losing teeth and going to start kindergarten this fall!!! Time flies!! Well then it was time for the tooth fairy and I asked Martez for a dollar and he said I have a twenty! What kind of tooth fairy gives twenty dollar bills?!?!?!?!? Hello! Then he said well I have a ten so I went with it in hopes that Elijah would just see "one" dollar bill not realizing it was worth ten dollars!! It worked! That is until my entire family told him the truth about my plan and switching it with a one dollar bill!!! They did this because my mom and I made tooth pillows for the youngest grandbabies to match their rooms and I wrote "Nothing less than $10 accepted!" with a paint pen on each pillow. My nephew Nehemiah decided that he was "either getting jipped or the toothfairy can't read"! Isn't that hilarious!! Needless to say he got his toy and now he'll be lucky to get a quarter. I guess all the tricks I played on my nieces and nephews will come back to me "ten" fold!!

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Happy July 4th to all! Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th! We went to my nephews' Noah and Nehemiah birthday party and watched the Rhema fireworks. On the 4th we had friends over and did our own little show! Zaya is afraid of the fireworks now that he can actually hear them....he used to love them but then again he couldn't hear then.

RHIANNA-A-A-A-A

I am soo sooo sooooo sick of the Rhianna song Umbrella!!!!! On our way to Iowa I think we easily heard that song thirty times in the first 5 hours. Once you hit a certain area radio stations are few and far between unless it is talk radio or seriously country not normal country so every time we would find a station that song would be on-on-on! I am not kidding!! That is how we would find other stations because they would either be talking and talking or playing Umbrella-a-a-a-a! Elijah knows the entire song! It makes me want to shoot the radio-o-o-o-o! Now I am home and they are playing the remix! Who cares it is still the same song? Umbrella-uh-uh-uh........Cinderella-a-a-a-a-a...........ack....ugh!!!!

JESUS TAKE THE WHEEL

I forgot to tell you all about our near death experience on the highway. I didn't tell anyone since he didn't want hear about it all weekend but my hubby almost killed us by falling asleep while driving on Wednesday night! He had been up since 5am Wednesday morning and we left Tulsa around 6pm so he was understandably tired but willing to drive. About 50 miles south of Kansas City I asked him if he wanted me to drive and he said "If you want to". I said "Do you need me to?" He said yes and I told him to stop at the next gas station about 4 miles away. This was the plan but he only made it about two more minutes before I noticed the edge of the road was further away and two lanes of highway were on my right. How is this possible you ask. Well he was in the long center area meant for highway patrolmen to do a u-turn. I looked up and all I saw was grass from the center median and cars coming head on. I screamed and grabbed the wheel and he woke up all confused drove across two lanes of highway traffic then onto the shoulder where he said I can't drive anymore and jumped out of the car not even looking for cars. I obviously took over the driving after I sat on the shoulder totally freaked out in disbelief at what just happened. I drove about two hours then stopped at a hotel. Needless to say I did not sleep the whole entire way home and it was hard my head was bobbing and he kept telling me to go to sleep. Yeah right are you kidding me! It was a struggle since we had no sleep all week but I wasn't about to relive the prior incident and not be able to keep him awake! Thank God I didn't sleep on the way there or we might not be here today!!! Thank you Jesus!!! It gave new meaning to Jesus Take the Wheel

THE BRYAN CLAN

The Bryan Family Reunion was this past weekend in Montezuma, Iowa at Fun Valley a ski resort my Great Uncle Edwin started forever ago then passed down to my cousins and boy did we have fun! We left on Wednesday and arrived Thursday afternoon. I also decided a good 'ol map is better than a GPS system unless you need to find a close gas station or restaurant. The boys learned all about corn, beans, cows, pigs, creeks, frogging and met even more cousins then last year. It was really good to see everyone! There was almost 100 family members there and about 80 still missing! We are breeders!!!! Anyway we got there Thursday and stayed in my cousin's camper parked next to mom and dad's. There was a corn field about 100 feet from one end and a creek about 40 feet on the other so we had to watch the boys at all times when at the camper. It rained bad Thursday night and they even had tornadoes much to Elijah's dismay. Well mom tells me that when my brother Curt was two he got lost in a corn field and the only one that could find him was Boots their Great Dane. WHAT? Don't tell me this when I have a two year old staying about 100 feet from a corn field. So between the corn field and bridge over the creek on the opposite side, Isaiah made us a nervous wreck. Friday we went to meat market. The smell in there was horrific!!! If you know me then you know I was gagging! Elijah instantly said "Mommy it smells really bad in here". Then he saw the dead animals hanging in the meat locker and saw the butcher chopping up pigs and cows and decided he will just eat chicken well in nugget form!! Then my dad took us to see the sights aka fields. It went a little something like this: This is the house where I grew up but they tore it down so now it is a field. This is the old farm schoolhouse I went to and where we peed across the dirt road as boys but they tore it down too! This is the gas station where Grandpa worked and the house behind it is where they brought Uncle Steve home from the hospital but they tore that down too! Pretty soon Elijah was asking why Grandpa kept showing us fields and when will he actually show us something! Now everything was fields of corn - imagine that! We went back and my cousin Allison was there with her three girls so Martez took them all fishing but they only caught frogs. Then her daughters who are scared of absolutely nothing took Elijah down into the creek for the first time. So I went to my Great Aunt Kaye's house to see her and my Grandma and listened to them do there old lady bickering. Grandma then told Aunt Kaye to go ahead and go to the lodge to see her daughter and her girls since I could just bring Grandma down after the ham was done. Little did I know when I obliged that the ham still had to cook for another hour and a half so I would have to listen to my Grandma go on and on and on about all her woes. Did I mention it was an HOUR AND A HALF?!?!? I love my grandma dearly but ever since my Grandpa died in 2003 she has become very lonely and bitter very bitter! I had to hear all about how no one comes to see her and I am the only grandchild that calls or visits and how her sons should be closer and blah blah blah. Only about a quarter of what she said was even true!! She is a completely different person since Papa died and I have always come to her defense when everyone complains about her because she is alone now for the first time in 64 years but oh my goodness it was the longest conversation of my life and I only said about 10 words!!!!!! It was a major stuggle for me to even stay awake! Luckily when the ham was done I rushed her down to the lodge for others to enjoy!! We all ate and had a good time regardless of the storm going on outside. Saturday morning Martez took Elijah frogging with my cousins Adam, Kris, and James. They had a really good time but only caught little frogs so the frog legs were even smaller. Martez got to experience frogging and the skinning! Yuck!! We all just hung out, talked and ate all day long! I think the only time I even really saw Elijah was at dinner time and bedtime! He had a blast! He lived in the creek for four days and loved it! Isaiah just played with the little kids! It was wonderful - at bedtime they actually fell asleep in record time!! At night it was nice to go to the picnic table outside the camper, listen to the mini waterfallI, talk, watch the deer come out and eat, and watch the fireworks made possible by the hundreds of lightning bugs in the valley! We were up until at least three o' clock every morning talking. I learned several of the women in my family have plantar fasciitis so I am not alone. I also never realized how many people in our family had blue eyes until now! There was MAYBE fifteen people there with brown eyes but the rest were all really pretty blue!!! Why couldn't one of my boys be a blue eyed heart breaker? We left Sunday and Elijah cried and cried because he wanted to live at Fun Valley with all his frogs. We then went to the Newport (my grandma's side of the family) family reunion in Oskaloosa about thirty minutes away. It was mainly older people until more of the Bryan's came! Fun time again just talking and eating. The Bryan's definately know how to cook and eat!! Not good when you are dieting!!!! We left late sunday afternoon and made it home in record time and the boys were amazing the whole ride home especially since we only stopped once! We all had a great time and everytime we go to Iowa I want to live there but it would be so far away from everyone here and I want my boys to grow up around their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins here too! I then begin to think I should just visit there more often instead because I couldn't handle driving thirty minutes to Wal-mart to get groceries and necessities or eat out or do anything not involving nature! Love you all up there but I am staying here for now!

THE MOUNTAIN LION

My cousins Adam and Tiera told Martez they thought they heard a mountain lion outside the lodge a couple days before we arrived so Martez was telling me the story. Well Saturday night I was picking up stuff around the camper at 1:00 am when I heard a noise. I looked across the small bridge over the "crick" and saw an animal but it was hard to tell what it was since its head was down. I instantly thought of the mountain lion and thought I could just crap my pants and run right now but I didn't want to make any sudden movements. It raised its head and I could see then that it was a deer but then it starred me down. No moving just looking right into my eyes. Then I thought this may not be good since I don't know if deer ever charge. I live by no deer! It starred for quite sometime and I stood frozen the entire time then it resumed eating and never crossed the bridge but that was okay since it didn't even have to in order to scare the crap out of me! I am not scared of deer as a matter of fact I had got out of the car a couple of days earlier to take a picture of one stopped about three feet in front of my car before I realized that probably wasn't the brightest idea I've had; however, once you are told about a possible mountain lion on the land where you sleep a mouse could put the fear of God in you!!!

CHILDREN OF THE CORN

We have returned from our oh so fabulous trip to Iowa for two family reunions! We had sooo much fun and there will be more blogging to come but I had to tell you about the ride there on Wednesday. Normally it is are we there yet and there was some of that but mainly it was identifying things for Isaiah. He saw plenty of "dow dows" aka cows and had to point out each and everyone. Do you realize how many cows are between Oklahoma and Iowa? Mostly though it was Elijah saying what is that and I had to become creative since the only answer I had for each question was corn so it went a little something like this:

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Corn

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Corn

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Beans

Q: Mommy what is that? A: More corn

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Shorter corn

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Tall corn

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Diagonal corn

Q: Mommy what is that? A: Corn planted in straight lines

Q: Mommy what is that?

A: Criss cross corn - besides a few beans, pigs, cows, barns and silos it is ALL corn okay!!!

His response to my attempt to stop the questions: Wow these people must really love corn and eat a LOT of it! Then on Sunday we went to a second reunion that was in a neighborhood and the corn field butted right up to their houses and he said "Momma are we going here to eat a lot of corn because look they even planted corn in their backyard and it is almost touching their house."