Okay-it has been a little over a week since my last post. But I am trying. Above are pictures of us picking out our Christmas tree and the boys at Halloween. I have been busy doing Christmas shopping and decorating the house. I asked Leonard last night if he thought it was possible to get all the presents bought, wrapped and mailed before the end of the first week of Decemeber. He laughed at my ambition and I know he is right that it probably will never happen. I am still trying really hard though to get as much done as I can. We are leaving in a week to go down to GA for an early Christmas visit and to see Shane graduate from college with a business degree. I am hoping to be able to bring with me presents for my parents and Megan and Shane to save on shipping. Shane has been going to school part-time while working for the past 4 years. I am sure him and his wife Megan are as proud and more excited then I am for him to finally be done. Now he just needs a job! He does already have a good job with UPS, but it is part time and not exactly the post college job he wants. He is in the process of interviewing with in UPS and hopes to possibly get into sales. His goal is have a new job by the end of the year.

It has been a fun and exhausting Thanksgiving weekend. I am proud to say that I am almost done my Christmas shopping. Two very early days in row out to the stores and I just have a few things left to get. The hardest gifts for me-sibling exchange gift and parents and in-laws. I have a possible idea for my parents and in-laws, for mine and Leonard's sibling exchange we are both pretty clueless.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My goal is to try to start blogging on a consistant basis. I think I feel like I need to post some great news or have pictures in order to post and it always seems really time consuming to sit down and post something. I am trying to change my outlook on posting, be more relaxed and try to post once a week. Even if it is just a sentence or two.

I have a new calling at church. I had been the senior primary music chorister over a year and a half. I was released several weeks ago and called to teach the sunbeams. Our sunbeam attendance varies from 4 to 10. When there are just 4 children it is pretty easy and fun. When there are 10 it can be chaos and a workout-especially during closing exercising. The sunbeams are ready to be done after three hours of church and asking them to sit still for 15 more minutes is next to impossible. There is poking, laughing, turning around in their seats, standing up, crawling under the seats, banging, kicking, laying on the floor, pretty much anything except sitting still and being quiet. But besides closing exercise it has been fun to do something new and to learn all about how the sunbeams little minds work. Some of their comments are priceless.
Speaking of little kids-the other day Lenny and Patrick found the tape measure in the garage and ended up bringing it inside to measure things. After measuring the room and Patrick's blankie, I measured how tall Patrick is. I told him to stand up tall as I measured. "36 inches tall, you are 3 feet tall." Patrick's reply putting a hand on each of his legs, "No 3 feet, I have 2 feet!"
It reminded me of Lenny's response several months ago to me measuring him and telling him he was a little bit taller than average. "Mom, who's Average?"

Lenny and I celebrated our birthdays last month. Lenny had a fun space themed party with sling shot rockets, a comet toss, moon rock fight, space ship pinata and way too many kids. We have neighborhood friends and church friends. Last year we just invited the neighbors. But this year Lenny had been invited to almost every kid in his class' party at church, I decided to return the favor and invite those that had invited him. When do not get to spent alot of time with kids from church because we have such great neighbor right out our front door. Lenny has been having a hard time at church, complaining he hates church and has no friends there (which is not true), but I thought inviting the kids from church would also give him the opportunity to spend more fun time with them and maybe help not be so negative about church. I realized though that having 18 kids at five year olds birthday party is not a good idea. Handing out cake was complete chaos and we did not have enough time or energy at the end to open presents. Next year we will definately go smaller.

More summer pictures. Leonard's company had a softball tournament this summer that was held at the minor league ball field in Dayton. It was really nice. Leonard got to play on a real ball field, we had the whole stadium to ourselves, free food and a few games for the kids to play. The kids had a blast.

It has been a really long time. I hope someone out there is still occasionally checking in. I thought I would post a few pictures from this summer. They opened up a new Children's Discovery Garden in Dayton this summer. It has all kinds of hands on things for the kids to do. One of their favorites, of course, is the stream/waterfall that you can play in. It is a little bit of a drive (25-30 minutes), but the best thing is it is free.

Since Shannon shared about Conner's experience at the dentist I thought I would share about Lenny's. In the past two years Leoanrd and I have spent approx. $2,000 on Lenny's teeth. Last years trip to the dentist revealed 8-10 cavities, which took 4 trips to the dentist to fix. They gave him 'sleepy juice', then had him sit in the waiting room for 15-20 minutes for it to kick in and then took him back for the work. Like Shannnon, I did not go back there with him, so I have no idea exactly how things went. But they always said he did great and Lenny never once complained about having to go back. I think that is because the 'sleepy juice' actuallly made him sleep, so I do not think he remembered what happened.
This year his trip to the dentist again revealed 8-10 cavities! We were not very happy to have to be going through this again. We switched dentists due to insurance issues, so this year was a whole new experience. There was no 'sleepy juice' this time and I got to go back with him. The first visit back we tried the laughing gas, which seemed to relax him and help. He got through it fine, but hated that his lip was numb. He refused to go outside all afternoon because he did not want anyone to see his funny numb lip. (I had him smile in the mirror to show him that his lip was numb and I think it freaked him out a little that one half of his face did not smile) The second time back to get more work done was not as easy. He did not want the gas because he said it made him feel like it was all a dream and did not like that feeling. Lenny also did not want to be numb again. I tried to explain that being numb for a few hours was going to be ALOT less painful then having the work done with no shots. He finally agreed and again did really well. Having to go back the third time, however, he was not so cooperative. He compalined the whole way to the dentist and when he got in the chair he would not open his mouth. With lots of coaxing and hand holding he still would not open his mouth. He was being so uncooperative that the dentist finally just gave in and said he was not going to fight with Lenny and that he had other patients to get to and left the room. I did not want to come back again! So with some more coaxing and help from a dental hygentists and a promise of a trip to the 'cookie store' ( a woman in our ward has her own little bakery a few blocks from the dentist) Lenny finally agreed he would open his mouth for the dentist. We got the dentist back in there and Lenny did well for the little q-tip with numbing gel and okay with the first shot, but clamped up again when the dentist tried to give him another shot. I tried to stay calm. I did not want to start yelling at Lenny at the dentist's office, but I was starting to get really frustrated. There was no way I was walking out of the office with a kid with a partially numb lip and no fixed tooth. After convincing Lenny that the shot would not hurt because he was already pretty numb, he opened up and the dentist was able to finish his job. So, for now his teeth are fixed, but I am not looking forward to next years visit.
Last week I saw a commercial for this new 'Agent Blue' Listerine product that you use before you brush your teeth to help you know where to brush. The blue mouth wash sticks to the plaque to help you know where to concentrate you brushing. I let Lenny brush his teeth alone the first time and then tried the blue mouth wash to se how well he did. His teeth were still all blue. So I then brushed his teeth and flossed. Then we tried the mouth wash to see if we got all the plaque. His teeth still turned blue! They were not as bad, but still after him brushing, then me brushing, then flossing his teeth I thought they would be clean! I brushed his teeth one more time then had him use normal mouth wash and assumed that HAD to be good enough. I did not dare use the blue mouth wash again and have it tell me that after all that brushing, flossing and rinsing that his teeth still were not clean. As a comparision I gave Patrick the blue mouth wash and his teeth were not nearly as blue as Lenny's and after the first brushing the blue was pretty much all gone. I guess Lenny just has difficult teeth to keep clean.

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. It was overcast here and rained on and off most of the day so we just hung out and home then went over to the neighbors late afternoon for a BBQ. Luckily last night an other neighbor invited everyone over for sparklers, so the kids got to see some fireworks.
Tia (my sisiter) came to visit last weekend and we went to Nashville to meet my mom and Kolayna for Time Out for Women Conference. It was alot of fun. We went out to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, went to the conference, did some outlet shopping and made some cards and wooden signs.




I discovered a new water park to take the kids to. Our church playgroup leader plan an activity at the park. It is about 45 minutes away, so I would be going there often. But in the same place as the waterpark they have a small farm as well where the kids can feed goats and stuff. So, it makes for a good day trip.





I would type more but my brain is kind of empty right now. It is not that late but I feel exhausted and Leonard had off work today, so I keep thinking it is Sunday. I just feel out of sync. I should probably go get in bed.

I decided it was about time for my monthly post. Things have been busy here. I have been hard at work trying to finish my many projects.

I finally put up the last piece of chairrail in Lenny and Patricks room. Although it still needs to be painted. I finished the rest of the room last September. I was really falling behind on that project.

I finally planted flowers in one of my mulch beds on the left side of the house. I still need one big bush or a dwarf tree to put in the corner, but I am going to wait until next summer and see how my flowers fair. If some end up dying or not growing the way I want I might do a little redesigning, so i think I will hold off on the bush/tree till I get a better feel for how my garden will grow. The other mulch bed has some plants but I do not like what I planted. If the plants die they have a money back guarentee. So I am hoping they die so I can choose new plants.

I have also been trying to paint my front hallway, upstairs and upstairs hall. I finished most of it today, but there is still that one part in the stairway were the ceiling is really high that I can not reach. Plus, I was running out of paint. I am hoping Leonard can help me finish up the painting next week and that the almost completely end paint can holds enough paint to get the job done. I still have the upstairs doors to paint though. They are an off-white and I want them pure-white.

I am also working on a path/walk way next to my flower garden. There is a park about 20 minutes south of us that we sometimes meet friends at. Next to the park, in the woods, there is a stream. Everytime we go to the park I go down by the stream and hunt for medium to large flat stones that I lug back to my car to take home and add to my path. Everytime I come home with stones I feel like I am carrying 500 lbs in my trunk. But when I get home and put the stones down it looks like I brought home nothing. It is going to take a lot more trips to the park then anticipated to finish my path way.

My attempt at a vegetable this year seems to be having mediocre success. The carrots and the tomatoes never sprouts. We have big leafy yellow squash, zuchinni and green been plants and 3 tiny corn stalk sprouts(Lenny's vegetable choice). We still have yet to see if any vegetable will actually be produced. The garden been has been over run by some sort of clover/vine like/ground cover weed and seems to be situated above the world's largest ant hill/hole.

We took a trip to Atlanta for Memorial Day weekends. It was kind of last minute and we were worried about feeling rushed and not being able to really have to time to enjoy the trip. But we all had a great time. We got in Friday night around 9pm and took a dip in the hot tub before going to bed. I got a pedicure Saturday morning with Kolayna. Then we went boating on my parents boat. Kolayna's friend Brian came too and Shane and wife Megan met up with us later. I got to ski, we convinced both Lenny and Patrick to take rides on the tube and Lenny swam in the water alone with a life jacket on for the first time. Later that night we had pizza at my folks and Megan and Shane over to visit. Sunday we went to church, BBQed for dinner and just hung out. Monday morning my Dad, Leonard, Lenny and Shane played golf while I packed up and did some window shopping with my mom and Patrick. Then we met up with the boys at Megan and Shane's house, said our goodbyes and were on our way back home. We were home by 10:30 that night and then Tuesday it was back to things as normal.

Well, that is probably enough rambling for now. It is getting late and I should get to bed. I will try to write again sooner.

So I am averaging about one post a month. Not great, but at least it is something. Lenny is an amazing bike rider now, who daily tries to one up himself with stunts like starting on the grass, going down steep driveways, riding with one hand and riding with his eyes closed.
Leonard started a new position at work yesterday. He has kind of been slowly transitioning over the past few weeks, so he already is some what aware of his new responsibilities. I hope he will enjoy his new position and co-workers as much as he did his old ones. Life can be pretty miserable if you don't like your job.
My sister Tia is pregnant with her third baby. They found out yesterday that it is a girl. So in the fall they will have Chloe 6, Tyler almost 4, and baby girl.
Kyle has been on his mission for 6 months now. We were getting regu;ar updates from him through email, but then the mission president had to shut down email do to some violations. All the missionaries were suppose to get new church issued email addresses a few weeks ago, but we have yet to hear from Kyle exactly what is going. My mom can ask this Sunday I guess when she gets a chance to talk to him on Mother's Day. And I suppose I could probally pick up a pen and paper and write him an actually letter, rather than using the email as an excuse to not feel so bad for not keeping in contact.
I have been working hard on our lawn(curb appeal), unfortunately a lot of hard work does not always get results. I did some reseeding and fertilizing, but it will be months before we can tell if that is doing any good. I cleared a spot and started a garden, but again we will have to wait to see if anyhting actually grows and if it is edible. I also have created two beautiful mulch beds lining both sides of our house. Now I just need to decide what to plant in them so that they look more than just piles of mulch. I picked up a garden magazine at the store the other day. I am hoping it will give me some ideas.

It has been a while. We got rid of our dog dash. He was Lenny's 4th Birthday present. He lasted about six month. He was just getting too big for the kids and was still very much a puppy (he chewed on everything-screen doors, shoes, furniture, the boys toys, his leash, etc). It had gotten to the point where the boys and Dash could not be together or it would cause chaos. So, Dash spent almost all of his time in his kennel or outside. I felt bad gettting rid of him, but we where just not giving him the attention he deserved. We took him to a shelter and with in 3 hours he was adopted by a family with five kids. Hopefully he and his bew owners are happy and he is getting lots of attention.

Lenny has had some exciting mildstones this week. He learned how to pump on the swing (Yeah! No more having to push him). He also learned how to ride a two wheller yesterday. I took his training wheels off a little over a week ago, but had spent maybe a total of ten to fifiteen minutes working with him. Yesterday morning he wanted to try again and with in five minutes he was riding by himself. I have to steady him to get on and help him get started and he can not go off the curb or turn around yet, but he can stop and get off all by himself with out falling down (most of the time). He was so proud of himself. He wanted to invite all of his friends over so he could have a big audience and show everyone that he can now ride a two wheeler.



Patrick is getting into everything as usual. The boys were supose to be in their rooms this afternoon, but I think Lenny had to use the bathroom so Patrick followed him. I am not sure exactly what happened but after some comotion upstairs followed by a warning that the boys needed to get back in the room we where in formed by Lenny that Patrick was drinking water out of the toilet. I have chosen to try to belief that that is not true, because it completely grosses me out. But knowing Patrick I am pretty sure he did drink the toilet water. Patrick also has gotten into getting him stuck in some weird situations. Several times know he has getten himself stuck in our neighbors storm windows and the other day he got stuck in some tires in our garage.

Happy Easter!

We got SNOW yesterday! I am sooooo ready for Spring! There is hope that next week could be in the 50's (yeah!), but the rest of this week is going to be cold, dreary and rainy(hopefully not snowy). Good thing I had not done too much Spring cleaning yet. The boys snow clothes and boots were still in their closet, so it was not too much of a hassle to get them all bundled up to play in the snow. They did get use their end of the year clearance child size snow shovels that I expected to not get any use until next year. This winter when ever I tried to use the snow shovel the boys would fight over who would get to use it next and even when Patrick did get a turn he would throw a fit because it was way to big for him to control. So, now they each have their own little snow shovels. No more fighting.

Lenny is all better, except for the constant stuffy nose and cough-but that doesn't seem to bother him and I have just accepted that that is how things just are for most of winter. Both Leonard and I got a little sick, but Patrick seemed to make through fine.

Terrible thunderstorms were threantening all day long, but it was mostly dry and despite the dark clouds fairly warm outside. So, I was able to spend sometime outside this evening visiting with the neighbors and kids. It was great to see everyone outside. I can't wait for true Spring with nice weather and green grass and blooming flowers.

Lenny got sick at church yesterday. He kept complaining his tummy hurt and cuddled in my arms all during sacrament meeting. I let him stay with me the whole second hour of church and two minutes before I was suppose to start Senior primary signing time Lenny threw-up all over my arm leg and the back corner of the primary room. With some quick shuffling around and real speedy clean up-I was able to teach singing time while Leonard sat in the hall with Lenny then we all left church early. Lenny slept the rest of the day and threw-up once more, but seems to be doing better today. His fever is gone and although he still complained of some stomache pain, he ate several times today without any problems.

Above: Patrick and Lenny in Flordia, Christmas 2005

I suppose I should add another post. If I wait to long it may never happen. The little boys have been sick for a while, but the past week patrick's runny nose and Lenny's come seem to have gotten worse. I felt like I was getting sick, but took it easy yesterday and had a friend watch Lenny for the afternoon. So, I am hoping I continue to feel okay and things don't get worse.

Leonard had his yearly evaluation at work yesterday and received high marks. I am very proud of all of his hard work and glad that he is enjoying his job.

We bought Patrick his very own plastic scooter this week. It is still fairl y cold here, but the boys have occasionally had a chance to go out and play. Patrick kept trying to steal Lenny's bike and scooter, and Lenny did not want Patrick touching his stuff. So, when I saw the little scooter on sale at Walmart I thought we'd give it a try. The first day Patrick kept complaining that it did not work or that it was broken because he was having a hard time making it move. But after two days of practice he is doing much better. Getting him to wear a helmet is another thing. We live in a cul-de-sac and he is supposse to stay on the sidewalk and he moves at a turtle pace on the scooter, but I am still trying to teach him the importance of wearing a helmet and try to get him in the habit early. We need to get some more padding strip to go in the helmet because it is a little big and wobbly on his head. But I don't think they make them any smaller then what we have.

Lenny just has four more weeks of school left. He attends Tuesday school just once a week on Tuesdays, thus the name Tuesday School. He is not a big fan of going, but we thought it would be a good introduction to some structured learning atmosphere. Although, Leonarand thinks that's what primary is for. After a year of talking about it, I have finally got Leonard's support to put Lenny in a 3 day a week program next year. Lenny still has a lot to learn before he will be ready for Kindergarden, but I have seen some good progress over this oast year and hoope he will continue to grow and learn over the next year and a half. He is really starting to enjoy his role as a big brother. He now tells me when Patrick needs something that he can take care of it or "I can help him Mom. I am a big so I now how to do it." Lenny is also constantly full of questions. "Mom, what if I only had one foot?" "What if ther was no sun?" "What if I never went to school again?" "What if a car kept going when the light was red?" It used to be the classic why, but has now become what seems like a neverending list of "What if this?", "what if that?", "What if...?" Sometimes the questions are so out of the blue I just don't know what to say. One time he asked "What if I got a cut and it did not stop bleeding?". Well, of course I don't want to "THEN YOU WILL DIE!". But that was the first thought that came to my head. After many flustered conversation and feeling sometimes like I have just given my son why to much information I have resorted to the "What do you think would happen?" and "Oh, that is something you don't need to worry about." and changed the subject witht he real difficult questions.

Parenting is full of all kinds of surprises and learning experiences.

Hapa Day Dear Tatrick!

Patrick is now 2 years old. We celebrated his birthday on February 10 with cake, icecream, presents (sleeping bag, hot wheel cars, head flashlight, and bat and ball), a movie and a campout in the familyroom with tent and all! Athough at 11:30 with Leonard asleep on the couch, Lenny cranky because Patrick would not sit still and be quiet so he could go to sleep and me not being very comfortable on the flooor-I vetoed the "campout", put the boys in their own beds, got in my bed and left Leonard on the couch. In all though I think PAtrick had a good birthday. He will still walk around sometimes trying to sing Happy Birthday to himself.
Above: Patrick enjoying his cake and showing you that he is now two.

First Ever Week Alone

Leonard went on his first official business trip last week. So, Lenny, Patrick, Dash(the dog), and I were on our own from Sunday night until late Friday night. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. My friend watched the boys for 3 hours Wednesday afternoon and then invited us to stay for dinner. So we had a nice midweek break. I was most concerned about Leonard taking the cellphone with him. Calling my mom or my sister with my free minutes is usually what I do for a little break from the kids when needed. But without Leonard taking the phone we would not have been able to get a hold of each other. I made it without the phone and was able to enjoy a nightly phone with Leonard after the kids were in bed.

My First Blog Post

Okay Shannon! I started a blog page! Hopefully this should be as easy as you make it seem to keep up. My old website I have not touched in two years...wait maybe it has been three.