Sunday, August 30, 2009

Got Crabs?

Yesterday my family came up for our annual crab feast. Even Kyle was able to take off work, so that was a nice surprise. We had 2 dozen crabs and 5 lbs. of Alaskan King Crab legs. The crab legs were the first to go, and when all was said and done there were only 9 crabs left.

IMG_7000

IMG_7001 IMG_7003 IMG_7004

After stuffing ourselves Tish and Zoe sat down to braid bracelets:

IMG_7013

IMG_7014 

Kyle, Jaron and Landon went out to show off their skateboarding skills while Mom and Dad cheered them on from the front porch.

IMG_7006

IMG_7008IMG_7012Someone decided we needed to go to Bruster's for dessert, so we all packed in the truck and off we went to gorge ourselves on ice cream!

IMG_7017

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Sophomore Year

Today was Zoe’s first day of 10th grade. She was a little excited, a little nervous and a little sad to see her summer end. Because she has to leave so early in the morning to catch the bus (her bus leaves at 6:20) it’s still dark so we cheated a little and took her first day of school picture yesterday afternoon!

IMG_6993

Here’s her first semester schedule:

A Day

AP European Modern History

English 10

AP Statistics

Spanish 3

B Day

Ap European Modern History

Pre-Calculus

Chemistry

Weight Training

Man, I’m glad that it’s her schedule and not mine! I’d crack under all that pressure! I know Zoe will do well, she always has, and she is super smart, so it probably won’t even be that painful. With soccer practice after school, homework every night and 2 games a week she’s going to be one busy girl!

In other news, Landon started his allergy shots today. He was pretty nervous about having to go get shots, but when he came home he told me it wasn’t a big deal and it didn’t hurt at all. I am so thankful for his bravery, I know it isn’t easy for him.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Entering 3rd Grade

Today Landon began third grade. I have mixed feelings about him going; I’m mostly happy that school is back in session, but I am a little sad to see my kids growing up so fast. Time seems to be flying by. Zoe doesn’t start school until tomorrow, so she had one extra day to relax and sleep in.

Landon was a little nervous about school today, so he didn’t get to sleep until after 10:30 or so last night. And because he didn’t get to sleep until so late, he was super tired this morning. His allergies were also bothering him, and he was rubbing his eyes all the way to the bus stop. I’m hoping he’ll have a great day and that he is in the same class as his buddy Daniel.

IMG_6982

This picture isn’t the best, but it’s the best I got! He’s frowning because his eyes are bothering him. The only other one I got his eyes are closed! 

IMG_6984

This one is cute, but he wouldn’t look at me! He told me “Mom, you already have enough pictures of me!”  He did let me give him a little smooch before he got on the bus, so I guess he isn’t too embarrassed by me yet!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

A Good Hair Day

IMG_6975 IMG_6977 IMG_6980

Today was haircut day at our house. I’m loving Zoe’s new shorter do, and Landon looks handsome with his new style as well. They are going to be the cutest kids in school next week!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Heat Cup 2009

This was Landon’s first time ever participating in a soccer tournament. He played very well and I was surprised how good he did despite the blazing sun! We were sweating just watching so I’m not sure how he managed to play two games, but he did.

In between Landon’s games, Zoe had soccer tryouts. Today was the first day of that for this school year and she was pretty nervous. When I picked her up from the morning session she was feeling much more confident, and after a short nap she had to head back over for the second session. She said she thought she did really good during that session too, so now we just have to do it again Monday and Tuesday!

Tomorrow Landon has one more game, but Zoe has the day off. I’m sure she’ll probably need the one day to recuperate from today’s tryouts! The only picture’s I have are from Landon’s game(s). I didn’t think Zoe would appreciate me out there taking picture’s of her during tryouts!

IMG_6972IMG_6973

Friday, August 14, 2009

A Day at the Fair

Today we headed out to the Howard County Fair. It turned out to be pretty hot, but the fair wasn’t very busy and the kids were able to ride all the rides they wanted without ever waiting in line. Landon surprised me by riding a few things I didn’t think he would ever ride, and Zoe rode everything as she usually does. She just doesn’t have any fear when it comes to amusement parks…unless they happen to have a swinging pirate ship. For some reason that type of ride turns her knees to jelly

The kids on the Ferris Wheel.Zoe and Courtney rode the zipper twice!Zoe and Landon on the swingsZoe, Landon and Courtney on the Super ShotZoe and CourtneyEnjoying a funnel cake and some popcorn while watching a magic show.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Baseball Camp

Today Landon finished his final camp for this summer. He didn’t love this camp as much as I hoped he would, but now at least we know what NOT to sign him up for! Thankfully it was only 3 days long, I just don’t think he would have been happy had it lasted any longer.

Zoe came home today, and she had a blast while she was away. I’m glad she had fun, but I’m happier that she’s back home. I really do miss arguing with her. ;)

IMG_6847

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Howard County Fair, but right now it’s looking iffy. Landon has been throwing a fit about getting to bed tonight, so I’m having second thoughts on treating him to anything. I might just have to be mean and stay home. We’ll see.

Today was also our consultation with Landon’s orthodontist. First he saw his regular dentist to get some sealant’s put on, then the ortho looked around and told us what a mess Landon’s upper teeth were in.

Basically his top two front teeth are coming in weird. Well, one of them is anyways; he has a cross bite. And a crooked cross bite at that! He’ll need to wear head gear in order to make room for his two incisors and he may also need to snip the little flap of skin that connects his lip to his gums on the top in order to help his top teeth come in straighter. (I don’t know what that thing is called!) So, we have our second appt. (another consultation basically) on Sept. 10th.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

HOT! HOT! HOT!

It was H-O-T here today! I think it must have been one of the hottest days we’ve had this summer. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, possibly breaking the 100 degree mark. I know that it is hotter than that elsewhere, but for us this summer has been quite mild…until now that is!

Zoe left for Virginia today, and she won’t be back until Thursday. I hate when she leaves even though when she’s home we drive each other crazy! There is just something about my kids going somewhere for that amount of time that doesn’t sit well with me. It doesn’t seem to matter where they go either, whether it be camp or to grandma’s house, I don’t like it either way! I guess I just need to get over it though, because soon enough she’ll be going on to college without me. But, I’ll cry about that later.

Landon had a friend over to play today so he had a BUSY day. They skateboarded, played on the waterslide, had a water gun fight, played Gauntlet and a million other things. They were pretty happy all day though, and they were never bored.

Landon on the water slide!

Tomorrow is the beginning of another tiresome, busy week. We have one more day of tennis camp, then Landon starts baseball camp. He also has two nights of soccer practice, an orthodontist appt. and we are going to the Bowie Baysox game Thursday night. No wonder our summer seems to be flying by!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Pizza, anyone?

My dad sent this to me today, and I thought it was funny. Make sure your sound is on. 

Thanks for the LOL dad! ;)

Friday, August 7, 2009

One LOOOOONG week

This has been one seriously busy week. Between tennis camp, soccer, jury duty, car shopping, Landon’s allergy appointment and all the regular weekly crap, I don’t feel like I’ve stopped all week long.

I finished jury duty without actually having to sit through a trial, so I guess that is a good thing. It still didn’t make sitting in the “jury” room any more fun, but at least it’s over.

Today was supposed to be the last day for tennis, but because we had a rain day, they are making it up on Monday. Zoe won’t be able to make that because she is heading out of town to stay with her Oma until next Thursday. But Landon will be going to camp! Both kids really enjoyed the camp, and learned a lot. Now, they just have to teach me so I can play too!

Here are a few pictures of the kid’s at tennis today:

Landon at tennis lessons 2009

Zoe at tennis lessons, 2009 

And a couple of Landon at soccer practice tonight…

Landon playing soccer 2009 Landon playing soccer 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009

A Girl and Her Drawer

This is the story of a girl and her drawer.

This little girls drawer was full of pens. Every size, shape and color pen was in her little drawer and she carried her little drawer with her wherever she went. When the little girl went upstairs, so did the little drawer. When the little girl went downstairs, the little drawer also went downstairs. When the little girl visited her grandmother’s house, the little drawer also visited the grandmother’s house.

IMG_6788

The little girl drew many beautiful things with her pens and when the ink ran out of her pens, she begged her parents to buy her new ones. She even “borrowed” her mom’s scrapbooking pens, and slowly used up the ink in them as well.

The End.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Nothing to sneeze at…

Today was extremely busy for us. I had to get the kids to tennis camp by 8:30am, then I went to the gym, then home to shower, back to get the kids by 11:30am, a quick lunch at home and then I took Landon to the allergist’s office at 2pm for a scratch test. This isn’t the first scratch test he’s had, he had one in 2003, but he needed another to identify what environmental allergies he had. The first test determined what indoor allergies he had and those that were positive were mold/mildew, cats, eggs and peanuts.

Landon’s allergies seem to be getting progressively worse every spring, so we thought it was time to figure out just what’s bothering him.

Allergy testing, 2009

As you can see from his arms, they tested him for 28 different pollens, weeds, molds and other possible allergens. He tested positive for every. single. one. The hardest part for him was waiting 15 minutes without scratching. I can only imagine how itchy he was, especially since we now know he' was allergic to every one of them she put on his arms!

No wonder the poor kid is so miserable!

There are some mornings that he can’t even open his eyes because they are so irritated. He sniffles almost constantly and he’s always itchy. In the picture above you can see that his eyes are really red, and that’s because in order to do the allergy test he had to be off of his Zyrtec for 5 days prior. The poor kid has been going to tennis lessons in the mornings and then he’s also started soccer! Not to mention all the skateboarding he’s doing right now…he spends a good deal of time outside, he really needs his allergy meds!

So, our next step with his allergy/eczema dilemma is to start weekly allergy shots. And, because he has so many allergies, he will get 2 shots per week for possibly the next 6 months to a year. At some point he will go from once a week to every other week and then on from there, but I see a very long road ahead of us.

I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that this will be his “cure” and he won’t have any more days where he has to lay on the couch in the living room with a washcloth covering his itchy swollen eyes, while all of his friends are outside playing.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

If you guessed…

Skateboard ramp, then you guessed correctly! I’m not sure if I like it, but there is no question as to whether or not Landon’s happy with it! Tony did do a good job building it though; I’m just worried someone’s going to break an arm or something.

IMG_6772IMG_6781 IMG_6782

Monday, August 3, 2009

Tennis Camp

Today the kids started tennis camp. They were both very hesitant about going, and I’ll admit that even I was a little nervous they weren’t going to like it. I am happy to report that both kids really enjoyed it and are looking forward to another day tomorrow. Maybe not the 7am wake up call, but definitely the camp! 

IMG_6759IMG_6770

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Helping Dad

Today was a nice lazy day for the most part. Well, it was nice and lazy for me I guess, but Tony was pretty busy. He and Landon were building.

Tony Landon wearing gogglesToo scared to use the saw It's coming together now!

Landon really wanted to use the power tools, but when Tony put him in front of the saw, he wasn’t so sure anymore! He was too scared to do it. He did get to help hammer a little and use the drill some too. Those goggles he’s got on mean business, don’t they? Anyone got a guess as to what they’re building? I’m thinking they’ll finish tomorrow, as long as the rain holds off.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Labadee, Haiti

Our final port was Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s private island. It’s pretty much an all day beach day. There are lot’s of things to do or you can do nothing. Tony, Landon and I didn’t do much, by we had a great time. We got Landon a pass to ride down this giant water slide all day, and he sure took advantage of it! He must have gone down that slide at least 100 times.

Landon on the giant water slide.

We also paid for the kids (yes, that includes Tony) to go to their ocean water park for an hour. They were having a great time out there, but it ended quick for Zoe because she cut he leg on the trampoline and it was bleeding pretty bad. I was too worried about the cut to get pictures, but it sure looked nasty. (It turned out to be just a little surface cut, and she was fine.)

The kids swimming out to the slides.Zoe at the waterpark

My parents went on a boat around the island where they learned about the history of Labadee. Both of my parents said it was awesome and that should we ever go back to Labadee we should go on that excursion.

Mom and Dad on the Discovery

LaTisha, Lorenzo, Jaron and Zoe went out on the jet skis and had a great time! So great in fact that they wanted to go out a second time, but it was just too expensive for a second run. I was dying to do it, but Landon wanted to go and he was just too young. Maybe next time.

Lorenzo and Jaron on the jet skis

Tish and Zoe on the jet skis

Me hiding behind a palm tree

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...