Recappin' {August 26-Sept 10}

The day of B Boy's surgery, friends from school brought cards, coloring book and chocolate shake by that evening. It was so kind and thoughtful!

 We just hung at the house and took care of the boy the rest of the week.

 He started to go downhill on Sunday. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty tough.

Wednesday, I took him to school to have his yearbook picture made but then brought him back home.

C Girl picked out her school picture outfit. She is very independent and opinionated lately, more so than usual!

 I sent B Boy back to school on Thursday. C had an ortho appointment. They removed her bottom expander and then added a few more brackets.

B Boy did great and made it through the entire school day!

He had to miss recess until this week and that was a little hard on him.

 The kids were out of school on Friday and Monday for the holiday. They were thrilled that I wanted to clean out the playroom. Ha ha.

 Saturday morning, the kids were up bright and early and excited about the Razorbacks season opener game!

The Hogs crushed UTEP and we are No. 18 in the country!

I drove to Ft. Smith to meet Jessica so that we could have a friend day! We haven't had one of these in a very long time and it was much needed! We got pedicures, had lunch and then did some shopping! So fun!!!

 We laugh so much!

 Sunday morning, the whole family was back at church! B Boy is now in the same children's church group as C Girl.

 Monday was Labor Day and we had a nice day at home. 

We grilled yummy burgers for dinner. 

B Boy finally started getting his appetite back!

 I pulled out the DSLR this week.

Tuesday was the start of fall Bible study at church.

I'm doing Fight Back with Joy by Margaret Feinberg.

I was glad to get to hear from her recently and I'm reading the book that goes with this. 

I know that I could definitely use some more joy in my life.

I will be looking for #joybombs!

My joybomb for Tuesday was getting to know a new lady that came to our Sunday school class. 

We chatted after Bible study and she is so sweet!

Margaret Feinberg commented on my blog! What!!!

 I'm so very happy to see this sweet boy back to his normal self again!

He is doing a Mad Scientist unit at Trec this semester and he is very excited about that!

Wednesday morning, I met with my mentor, Susan. We have the best time talking and discussing the book we are going through. It almost feels like a counseling session every two weeks. I love her so much!

After meeting with her, I headed to school for a PTO meeting. I'm going to be more involved at school this year, hopefully!

 Wednesday night, Awana started up again at church. Again, B Boy is now in the same group as C Girl. They are both such big kids now. [tear]

Thursday morning, I had a BPTO meeting and then I rushed over to be with C Girl on her field trip to the Peel Mansion. I missed a few stations but I really enjoyed the time I did get to spend with her there! I also got to know another mom in her class. I'm trying really hard to be involved more this year and to get to know other moms better. The past couple of years I haven't done this as well. My health took such a toll on everything :-(

Learning about pioneer life.

 Racing with potatoes on spoons!

 Bobbing for apples!

 The Peel Mansion is so beautiful and has so much history!!!

The Weekend

I cannot begin to express how touched I am by the blog comments, Facebook comments, emails, and texts. It's incredible (a) that people read that novel of a post and (b) that people took the time to write and give advice/support.  Thank you.

It's really kind of hard to lay all of that information out there about myself. I'm so glad I will have it to look back on though.

I know I said that I was going to blog everyday this month, but I decided to give myself some grace this weekend. 

I'm glad I did because I was really tired and last night I was in an incredible amount of pain. I'm still not sure if it was just pms cramps or the beginning of an obstruction. I'm terrified all of the time of that happening again. Crohn's can make pms symptoms a lot worse, so I'm hopeful that that was all it was. I don't want to constantly talk about my Crohn's, but it is part of my life now so I will talk about it when I feel the need.

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Friday, the kids were out of school. We had the repairman for our heater come and finish fixing it and we were just really lazy all day. We introduced the kids to the first Harry Potter movie that night and B Boy is now officially obsessed. He has been pretending to be different characters and he wants to start reading the books.

Saturday morning, I took B Boy to a birthday party for one of his friends. He had a great time and I got to sit and talk with some friends from church that I rarely get to talk to!

Tim came to pick up B and brought C Girl to me so that we could have a lady date! We ate lunch at Olive Garden and then shopped at Target. It was a lot of fun to get some QT with my girl!

Saturday evening, the ladies in my book club and I all met up for dinner and to watch Wild. Since I had just read the book, it was so fresh in my mind. The movie was good, but they left SO much out from the book!

Tim has been really sick the past week and even went to the doctor on Friday. Neither him, nor I was feeling well Sunday morning, so we stayed home from church. We had a little bit during the day where we felt well enough to pick up around the house some. The house is finally starting to feel clean and normal again after Christmas. 

I'm still trying to participate in the cleaning/organizing challenge from A bowl full of Lemons. It took the entire week, but I pretty much completed the kitchen. I will be doing the laundry room this week.

I looked over and saw this on B Boy's forehead yesterday. He drew a Harry Potter scar on himself!!!!

C Girl started back to choir and GA's last night and B Boy back to RA's. They love these programs and I am SO thankful that our church offers them! 

The kiddos are out of school today and it is going to be a beautiful day. We have an appointment this afternoon, but I'm hoping we can get outside and do something! It's going to be too pretty not to! I need to store up some vitamin D!

the weekly recap

It is wonderful writing tonight from a body that feels good.

I have had a few things going on with my health the past month, but this latest thing was an awful reaction to a medication. I couldn't take it anymore, so I quit taking the medicine.

I'm so happy that I'm able to enjoy my kids' break now and the perfect weather and the beautiful leaves outside! 

I'm also enjoying the first 3 tracks that have been released from Taylor Swift's new album!

On Sunday, we drove down south to attend my nephew, Parker's 3rd birthday party!

We had a great time and lots of fun.

We stayed a few days and visited family. I didn't feel the greatest because I was still taking the medicine at that point. 

However, we had a wonderful time catching up with some of our very favorites!

 What your son might bring you when you ask him to go look for interesting things in the yard...

 Two peas in a pod.

 Tim and I had a donut date Wednesday night while the kids were at AWANA. 

Go get a pumpkin spice donut at Krispy Kreme. Trust me.

 B Boy had a playdate yesterday morning, so C Girl and I got a little girl time :-)

She then went to a sleepover that night and we had some time alone with the boy!

He had his last fall soccer game last night.

He scored a goal!

We had to go for treats and celebrate!

FYI: Spark Cafe downtown has really good pecan pie.

We ran some errands today, I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch so they could spend their giftcards, picked up some groceries, came home and made a cake, got some stuff ready for a family gathering tomorrow, and had dinner with daddy before he had to chaperone a school dance. We got comfy and watched, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and ate some of our pumpkin cake! It's been a good Friday!!!

Sports camps and girl time

I was so sick all weekend and stayed pretty much on the couch or bed. 

Saturday evening, the kids put on a puppet show for us. They built the whole set themselves!

B Boy had a baseball clinic on Monday morning. We were so excited that he got to hang out with one of his good friends the entire time!

Tuesday afternoon, we visited some friends and then I went to my hair appt, and to get groceries afterwards. I will do just about anything to not have to take both kids to Walmart!

Wednesday and Thursday mornings, B Boy went to the Tigers in Training football camp.

He had a blast! He got to work with Tiger football players, coaches and got to hear from a couple of Razorback football players.

During his first camp day, C Girl and I went and got pedicures! She was in heaven!

I realized that her and I do not get very much one on one time. It was very nice to get two mornings alone with her.

 Yesterday afternoon, I painted a table that I bought while we were in Kansas. I still need to distress and seal it but I love the way it turned out!

I'm adding this last pic for two reasons: 1. I love C's natural, mischievous smile. 2. This is how her room always looks unless I make her clean it. We can just caption this, "real life."