Isn't She Gorgeous?

We got word on the final time for Alyssa's baptism next week, so I got up this morning and worked on the invitation. (School kind of happened on Monday, and it hasn't happened since. Next week will be much easier, because everyone else will be in school, too.) I copied the idea from someone's blog - just someone I found by googling "lds baptism invitation," and I love how it turned out.It helps that I had such gorgeous pictures to work with. We took them in Brian's parent's yard last week, and it was so much fun. Alyssa was coming up with all sorts of poses, and there were a bunch of times I had to say, "Just look at me and smile." And then once I felt I had enough decent "baptism invitation" shots, I told her to just go around the yard acting like a princess. Which, of course, she did perfectly. The "ball pose" she came up with all by herself. She planned it that morning, and even asked Marcus in advance if she could borrow it.

Back to School

Oh, holy cow - there is so much that has happened this summer that I've wanted to post about, but didn't. The Jacks family reunion to Yellowstone, Alyssa's eighth birthday and all that went along with it (her first slumber party and getting her ears pierced), and Cousin Camp. I hate not posting about things, because then I feel like I need to catch up before I post again, and then I don't catch up, and the posting is delayed even further. But we have had a fabulous summer, and I actually love that I've barely been on the computer. I actually spent most of my summer reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, which I think everyone should start reading right now, because it was that good. We also spent a good amount of time at my parent's house, swimming and running around the yard with cousins. But most of all, we've been bumming around the house watching TV all day. That's Alyssa's favorite part of the summer, because usually TV is only allowed on the weekends, and she is our movie freak.

Marcus broke his clavicle last Thursday. He and Alyssa collided and fell to the ground while they were playing hide and seek. He cried and cried, and he almost fell asleep on my lap, so I put him in my bed since it was nap time anyway. When he woke up, he was just-woke-up-cranky, but mostly he would cry when I tried to pick him up, which seemed like something wasn't right. I thought it might be a dislocated shoulder, so we took him to urgent care and then to the emergency room, where they diagnosed him with a dislocated elbow, because they thought the pain in his shoulder was radiating from that. We waited through the weekend and took him into the orthopedic surgeon yesterday afternoon. Around Saturday, when Marcus started letting us touch his shoulder, Brian found that there was a spot that would kind of crunch together when you touched it, and yesterday we found out it was his broken clavicle. He's a touch little kid, though. He's acting normal, and the doctor was impressed at how well he was doing for it just happening on Thursday.

Yesterday we started our first day of school. We're getting a late start this morning, because I slept in and Marcus is still sleeping, but we're going to have Math and Reading this morning and then call it a day. We're definitely taking things slow this week to work back into our regular routine.

We decorated the school room, which is a huge upgrade from the blank walls we had all last Spring. After I put up our letter wall and a few posters and a huge map of the world, I thought, "Wow, it was really boring in here before." I love our school room now. I still want to eventually paint and start decorating in our Alice in Wonderland theme, but for now I'm quite happy with how it is.

We got a classroom mouse from Eric and Claire, and the kids are absolutely in love with her. Her name is Artimus, and she is very sweet. With Callie the Cat and Artimus the Mouse, we actually have four pets now, if you count the caterpillars the kids have brought in from the back yard. We have one that's already formed a cocoon and another that's scrunching around the canning jar, eating every bit of leaf it can find.

So we're very excited for the school year. Opening our curriculum materials when they arrived was like Christmas. I loved seeing all the books we're going to read and the activities and experiments we're going to do. Even though we've started school, I don't feel like summer is over, because Alyssa's still home with us, and we're taking it slow, and we're still planning loads of fun stuff to do before it gets cold.

Marcus's New Cooking Show

Destroying the Kitchen
with
Marcus

Today Marcus will be making a new creative dish, Brown Sugar Cocoa Noodles! To prepare the brown sugar-cocoa mixture, go to the kitchen in the morning (You really want to have at least five or six hours for the mixture to sit.) while your mom is in the shower and dump some cocoa powder in the brown sugar crock. Be sure to leave the cocoa box on the counter so your mom finds it when she comes downstairs to get everyone rounded up so she and your dad can go to a funeral. This next step is one of the most important in the whole recipe: say, "Sah-vee" in a very sweet voice when your mom yells, "Marcus Christopher Jacks, this is not your kitchen! You need to stay out of my kitchen!" That apology is what is going to make your mom trust you enough to put on a movie in the afternoon so she can take a nap to give you a chance to finish the dish.

After the sugar and cocoa gets a chance to sit, get out a bowl of leftover plain spaghetti noodles that your mom usually puts cheese on for your lunch. Place it on the floor and dump your sugar-cocoa mixture on top of it. Keep a cupcake pan handy, just in case you might need it, but place it on the floor upside down (this is very important!) to, uh, keep it clean. Have your mom move the bowl to the counter before she thinks to take pictures, and enlist her help in trying to salvage your ingredients before throwing them away.

Place the sugar-cocoa mixture in a 9 x 13 inch pan, and mix it up with a fork. Smile for the camera when your mom takes a picture, and then yell, "Me? Me!" after every picture.

Once the sugar and cocoa powder is sufficiently mixed, dump it in an extra bowl and spread the spaghetti noodles into the pan. Look cute.

Spread the sugar-cocoa mixture on top of the noodles, cover in plastic wrap, and cook in the microwave for a few minutes.

Enjoy, and throw away the leftovers. Really. You're going to be the only person in your family to take more than one bite.

I've Been an Awful Blogger

Brian has pulled up my blog on his laptop multiple times over the lat few weeks, saying, "Maybe my wife updated her blog today. Every time I check, I think that this will be the time..."

There are multiple reasons I haven't been blogging lately. Three of them are named Alyssa, Ethan, and Marcus. They're on official summer vacation, and they've been occupying the computer a lot more than I have. I've also been working on some projects around the house: flowers along the side of the house, planning what colors to paint the school room, etc. And I've been reading Brian Sanderson's Mistborn series, which are very good. Oh, and I got the flu, too. That wasn't fun....at all.

The other day we went to my parent's house for a baked potato bar and swimming party, which was great. Alyssa was the photographer for the evening, and I just put the pictures on the computer. Let's see what we've got.

Cecily

Callie

The other side of Callie

Whirlpool!

The girls

Alyssa and Kenna, picture taken by Emma

Kenna and Emma

Marcus

A shoe?

Brennan

And don't forget the seal/dolphin thing, relaxing by the tree

Lawn Gopher Do

Have you ever played Mad Gab? My parents got it forever ago and my sisters, my mom and I sat around for hours just going through the cards. "Lawn Gopher Do" had us stumped for quite a while!

Let's just say that I've been meaning to post for a long time. Actually, I've been meaning to get on the computer for a long time, but I just haven't.

We finished school on Monday, along with the public schools, and we have definitely been enjoying summer vacation. We've been driving with the windows down, which gets Alyssa very excited. As soon as the windows go down, she shouts, "Turn up the music!" and starts bustin' a move in the back seat. The kids have watched a ton of movies while I painted the family room. Green, by the way. The exact shade of green that we had at our old house. I really liked it.
Ethan just came home from an almost-day-long fishing trip with Brian's dad. He caught three fish, and I think his grandpa caught six. They called me about an hour or so after they left, and Ethan exclaimed, "I caught a fish!" He had a blast!

Since Ethan got a surprise this morning, we surprised Alyssa and Marcus by inviting over a couple of cousins, Callie and Cecily. They played princesses, Harry Potter, army, Star Wars, and who knows what else while I put the family room back together and cleaned the kitchen. Yes, it took me most of the day to clean the kitchen. Yesterday I went back to bed after I got home from my walk, then I let the kids help themselves to breakfast while I slept in for a bit. Believe me, the milk spilled across the table and dry oatmeal spread throughout the kitchen and dining room was well worth it. I went ahead and left the mess while I continued painting, then we had some Marie Calendar freezer meals, which usually go to work with Brian, for dinner last night. I finished painting just before dinner time yesterday, and that's when the kids started getting interested in what I was doing, so I sent everyone up to the school room and we had a picnic dinner while watching a movie on the laptop.

Last week we went up to Brian's parent's cabin with his dad so Brian could help fix a broken pipe, and so we could go mushrooming.

Brian found a lizard, He picked it up in a ziplock bag, because he didn't know if its skin was poisonous or not. Don't worry, we let it go after we looked at it for a few minutes.


Ethan found a couple of mushrooms. This was the first time we went that he was old enough to pay attention and know what to look for. Mostly, though, he just loves being outside!

Brian and Kimber love each other, very much.

And going with the love pictures theme, Alyssa found a heart stump and wanted her picture with it. I love how she finds things like that.
!
Brian's dad found a fawn, just laying out by itself in the middle of nowhere. He called us over with the walkie talkie. It was so sweet! We got about five or six feet away from it, and it just watched us, holding perfectly still. We watched it for a few moments, then left it alone. We're hoping that its parents were hiding somewhere nearby, because when we went back to look for it a little later, it was gone.


And last, but certainly not least, a couple of weeks ago Alyssa had her first ballet recital. She looked so beautiful! About a week before the recital she worked herself up to tears and sometimes hysterical crying, because she was so nervous about it. We kept telling her it was nothing to be worried about, and that she had watched her cousins in the same recital before and that they had had a wonderful time, but she wouldn't listen to us. Then one day she came up to me, laughing, and said that she remembered when we went to the BYU Fairy Tale ballet show, and they had all of the kids come up on the stage to dance during intermission (which was genius, by the way) and she said that she wasn't nervous at all then. Her conclusion was that if she could dance in front of "all those people!" at that ballet, then surely she wouldn't get nervous just dancing for everyone's families.

She was so excited to perform, and she did wonderful! As soon as I figure out how to get the video off of my phone, I'll put her performance up.

Wonderfully Wet

the new LDS chapel in the rain this morning

It has been uncommonly rainy for the Tri-Cities this Spring, and everything is green and beautiful. You can tell that we're still conditioned from our time in Oregon, because it hasn't stopped me from going on walks in the morning or the kids from playing outside or Brian from, um, going to work. The kids spent all of May wondering when it would be warm enough for me to let them play in the sprinklers, and now that it's June, it's still not warm enough for sprinklers, but they're getting wet playing outside just the same.

I Spoke Too Soon

We've named the quail Old G.Q., which is short for General Quail. I think he's the lookout for the quail family living in our neighbor's and our back yards. In truth, it's probably a bunch of quail taking turns, but we've happily glossed over that thought.

This last weekend was hard! The main thing I learned, which I'll share with all of you so you don't make the same mistake I did, is that if you ever have surgery for anything, no matter how small, give yourself a few days to recover. I tried to treat Saturday like a normal Saturday, and by the end of the day, I was done.

I woke up with the kids, thinking I was feeling better, and I cleaned the kitchen, put dinner together to pop in the oven later, packed clothes and coats and food to go mushrooming in the Blue Mountains, and took Alyssa to ballet. After ballet, we piled in the car, and I just crashed.

"I don't feel good," I told Brian, and he told me to lay back and get some rest. "No, I mean I really don't feel good." All day Friday, if I stood up, I felt nauseated, but if I lay back down, I felt fine again. On Saturday afternoon, I just felt sick, no matter what I did. It was that sick feeling you get when you're pregnant and you think, "If I just eat something, I'll feel better," but then eat something and you don't feel better, so you eat something else and you still don't feel better. And because of my horrible cold, I couldn't breathe through my nose again, and my throat was sore and nasty from the surgery. It was crazy!

So we got to the cabin and I slept on the couch while Brian and the kids ran around finding mushrooms. I felt well enough to stick dinner in the oven, but once we were done eating, we packed back up again and headed home, instead of staying through Monday like the original plan. I could tell Brian was sad that we wouldn't be able to do more mushrooming, but he was so nice to take me home.

I stayed home from church on Sunday and slept and slept and slept, and I even took a nap yesterday afternoon while Marcus was sleeping. It's been a strange recovery, and I still feel a little bit of that icky sick feeling, so I'm wondering if I came down with something that decided to show up at just the right- er, wrong- moment. And no, I'm not pregnant. Believe me, I did my fair share of wondering this weekend. We stopped at the dollar store while we were running errands yesterday and picked up a few tests, but also they had me take a test before my surgery on Friday, and I'm assuming they would have told me and probably canceled the surgery if the test had turned out positive.

I'm still glad I had the surgery, though. My voice is so much clearer; it's so much easier to talk. I've caught myself singing a couple of times, and I've had to stop myself to follow the quiet-for-two-weeks rule. I think I'm going to sing at church next week, maybe a little.

A Glorious Day

This little quail lives on our neighbors garden structure. He's there all the time. He's become a permanent fixture in the view out our back window, and I love it.

Yesterday was wonderful. I had a pretty busy morning, but then I came home and slept, and lay down for a while, then slept, lay down some more, and then went to bed and, you guessed it...slept. You know how sometimes when you're sick or pregnant, and you get to lay in bed all day, and you just can't truly enjoy it because of how awful you feel? Yesterday was not that case at all! I just felt very tired, and it was wonderful to lay around all day, taking naps as I needed them.

I woke up at 5:23 to meet my neighbor for our morning walk. I figure that if I lose track of Shaylene, I won't have to call the police to report her missing, and we have a great time talking together. We walked through a drizzling rain until 6:00, then I ran upstairs to take a nice, hot shower. Brian didn't have work, which meant that I didn't have to hurry for him to take a shower, so I stayed in for a while, enjoying the water, then I got out - didn't put my make up on, didn't do my hair. All I did was brush my teeth, because that was allowed, and pull on some clothes.

I kissed Brian good-bye, wrote a note to leave on the table that said, "Daddy, Alyssa, Ethan, & Marcus, I love you. Love, Mom," just in case, and I headed outside to wait for my mom to pick me up. She arrived just a few moments later when I was walking to check the mail from the previous day, and when I met her in the middle of the street, we joked about how I've always been one of her kids that was ready for everything either on time or early, and we reminisced about my high school days and all the yelling I had to do, which never did any good, to get my younger brother up and ready to go on time. Ahh, good times. I miss David, I really do.

We pulled up at the hospital, signed in, and waited. We sat in front of a wall with a waterfall cascading over it, and a cross suspended in the air in front of the water. We talked quite a bit about the water feature, and I decided that they put it in because they tell you not to eat or drink anything for 12 hours before your surgery, but in the same breath tell you that they'll need a urine sample when you first come in. The waterfall helps a little with that, I think.

We waited for a little while, then were taken upstairs to a room, where I put on my super cool hospital gown and fuzzy-grippy socks. It took two tries to get an I.V. in, one on each hand, and the first try really hurt. Second try, went right in. My mom compared the happy, joyful floor of nurses to a three ring circus. One of the nurses compared themselves to the girls from "The Facts of Life." Either way, they were fun to watch.

It didn't take long until a nice man, who was worried about the rain ruining a barbecue that night, came to wheel my bed downstairs. My mom was able to come down with us, and then we sat for a few more minutes, met the anesthesiologist, then I was taken away for surgery. When they asked if I had any concerns or questions, I asked about my crazy stuffy nose that I've had for the last few days, and about how I can't breathe through it. They said it wasn't going to be a problem. I was pleasantly surprised at how happy everyone was. It made it fun. They must have pushed medicine through my I.V. before they gave me the oxygen mask, because it wasn't two seconds after putting it against my face that I was asleep.

These were my first thoughts when I woke up: 1.) Gee, I wonder when they're going to put me to sleep and get started, 2.)I can breathe through my nose! and, 3.)Wow! My throat really hurts! I woke up with this incredible urge to sleep, so I closed my eyes again, and just listened to everything that was going on around me. The doctor said he couldn't find my mom, and it turned out she had been moving the car to a closer parking spot for me, then he said he had found my mom and told her that everything went well. They then wheeled me back to our upstairs room, where I rested for a few more minutes, got dressed, and was told I could go home. A nice lady wheeled me out, and waited with me while my mom pulled the car around, and then we were done.

I was home by 11:00, and met at the door by some happy kids and a loving husband, and after giving my mom a huge piece of cake as a thank you, I was helped up the stairs by Alyssa, where I plopped on the bed and went to sleep. I spent two hours sleeping in my bed, then I went downstairs and slept on the couch through the afternoon and evening. I watched bits and pieces of "Flipper," which Alyssa watches on Hulu every chance she gets. Alyssa took fabulous care of me while Brian took care of Marcus. Alyssa kept coming over to give me a hug, or offer me water, or just to let me know she was happy that I'm okay. My sister, Christina, made a wonderful dinner with chicken noodle soup, a fabulous salad, and warm homemade rolls, and she sent her husband Nathan over to give them to us. Thanks, Chris! It was delicious! When she asked me when I wanted dinner brought over, I kept telling her we didn't need it, but I'm glad she insisted, because I didn't know how completely wiped out I was going to be.

Overall I'm feeling great. My throat has been sore, but that's to be expected, and even despite the soreness, I can tell a difference in my voice quality. I'm not supposed to talk very much for two weeks, so that's a lot of fun. My doctor said that ideally they would ask me not to talk at all for two weeks, but he knows that's impossible, so to just be careful. So Brian called someone yesterday for me, and I have Gospel Doctrine taken care of, which is nice not to have to worry about. Alyssa and I finished her History and Science classes last week, which is great, because I do a lot of reading aloud to her in those classes. She's sad that they're over, because she loved them, but the kids have still gotten on the computer a couple of times to play some of the Science games, so it's not so sad. Also, I've been reading a chapter of "Little Women" to Alyssa each night after the boys go to bed, and Brian has taken that over for a little while. It was fun to just sit and listen to the story last night, instead of reading it. Anyway, summing it all up. (See? I'm not trying to make this long, it just is, I guess.) Good experience. I'm happy to have my throat fixed, and I can't wait until I can try singing!

Trying to Be Cool Like My Friend Brooke

This morning I wandered into the craft room, which right now is actually the if-it-doesn't-have-a-place-throw-it-in-here room, and I saw a pretty maroon flower on the floor. I picked it up and thought, "Hey, it matches my shirt," then I thought, "I have a few minutes," and I proceeded to take the flower apart to stick a pearl on the front and a clip on the back, just like I learned from Disney's blog, which is not at all related to Disneyland.

I tried putting the flower in my hair, but it looked ridiculous. Then I remembered way back sometime when Brooke was pregnant, she made a pretty flower and put it on a pretty belt to sit above her pretty pregnant tummy, and I thought, "I may not be pregnant, but maybe I can do that, too." So I did. And actually, it's a great thing, because with the ribbon around my torso, I don't want to look like I'm pregnant, so I'm going to have to suck in my gut all day long, which will be wonderful for my ab muscles and posture.

picture by Alyssa Jacks Photography

Alyssa saw my flower, so I whipped up a yellow one for her really quick before she left for MCP.

And speaking of Brooke, when I posted a few days ago about Brian's super-awesome purple shirt (which, by the way, he wore to work on Tuesday, and one of the women in the office said, "Way to go, Dr. Jacks!") Brooke said that she wasn't convinced about the color and that she would need to see pictures, so I decided to take a picture of Brian when he came home from work. But, well, he wouldn't let me. Everyone's just going to have to take my word for it. He looks good.

So the funny thing is that a couple of times that day, while I was waiting for Brian to come home, I caught myself worrying, "What if I post the picture and Brooke doesn't like the shirt?" and I thought it was funny that even though I haven't seen her in many, many years, I still value Brooke's opinion. And actually, when Brian came home from work, I was finishing up dinner, and I said something to the effect of "I've heard that it's a better way to do it," about something, and one of the kids yelled at the same time, and Brian thought that I said, "Brooke says it's a better way to do it," and Brian asked, "What is it with Brooke all of a sudden?"

What is it with Brooke all of a sudden? I don't know, but she is pretty cool.

I Know That Fear Now

This morning I woke up a little before six o'clock to go for a morning walk. As I was rolling out of bed, I heard Alyssa in the bathroom down the hall. I was surprised, because Alyssa is our child who likes to sleep in, and she is rarely out of bed before seven-thirty. I stood quietly for a moment, thinking she would go back to bed and go to sleep, but instead, she came wandering into our room, and when she saw me getting dressed, I whispered for her to go get dressed, too. You should have seen the excitement that glowed in her eyes before she turned to run back down the hallway to her room. She was dressed and ready within forty seconds, and we headed to the garage to get her bike.

I thought that it would give me a better workout trying to keep up with Alyssa on her bike, but it was a little stop and go. She stopped to walk her bike back up a driveway so she could ride down its incline, she stopped a couple of times to go from the sidewalk to the road and then from the road to the sidewalk, and she even stopped to examine a puff ball on the ground, which I think turned out to be the tip a cat's tail that had been lopped off. Through all of this, I kept walking, and she would catch up to me in less than a minute.

We walked up Sandifur Parkway, going through Viking Homes, and when we were headed up a street to the new church, I told her she could ride on ahead to circle the parking lot while I met up with her and walked around the church building. But when I made it to the church just a minute later, I didn't see her. I thought she must have been on the other side of the building, so I kept walking around, but as I followed the sidewalk around the entire building, I never saw her.

Once having made it completely around the building, I doubled back to check for her, and when I still didn't see her, I figured that she might have not seen me and headed home. This didn't worry me too much, because even though I didn't like having her be alone, and I was uneasy that I didn't know exactly where she was, I knew that she knew her way home and would hopefully make it there safely.

I went ahead and followed our tracks back home, thinking that maybe she would be waiting for me somewhere, or that maybe she had fallen and needed my help, but still, I didn't see her. "She's just gone home," I kept telling myself. "I'll just hurry home, and she'll be there."

But when I walked in the garage door, there was no purple bike in its parking spot, and when I called for her, Alyssa didn't answer. I made a quick sweep of the house on my way to our bedroom and woke up Brian saying, "Alyssa's gone." He shot out of bed and threw his clothes on while I quickly told him the story, crying uncontrollably. When he headed to the garage, probably to get in the car to look for her, I called 911. I briefly considered not calling the police, because it would be silly to bother them if she was happily riding her bike just a couple of blocks away, but I knew that if someone had seen her on the side of the road and had taken her, that I needed help as soon as I could get it. And I worried that if someone had taken her, how would we ever get her back?

I'm surprised the man on the phone understood me at all, with my raspy voice being made worse by my tears, but he was able to get our information and told me that someone would be coming to help right away. The second I hung up I quickly dialed my parent's number, and that's when I saw Alyssa ride up the driveway. I hung up the phone mid-ring and called 911 again to let them know she was safe.

Then I ran down the stairs into the garage, and pulled Alyssa into my arms. We sat down on a chair in the garage and just cried together for a few minutes. That's when my parents called back, and Brian answered the phone to let them know I would call them soon to explain everything. At that point he didn't even fully understand what had happened, but he was just glad that everything was all right.

Oh, I'm so glad we didn't lose Alyssa today. I'm so glad she came home to us safely. Apparently she had parked her bike by one of the chapel doors and was drawing pictures in the sand with a stick. I'm assuming that's why we didn't see each other, and I am so relieved that we just missed seeing each other for a moment, instead of losing her for good.

New News

New News #1

Last week Brian and I met with the bishopric to, well, meet with the bishopric. It was just a get-to-know you meeting...or so we thought. I was completely caught off guard when they extended a calling to me, especially when I heard what the calling was. They asked me to be the new Gospel Doctrine teacher now that Nicki's moved away. (Oh, how I miss Nicki!) No, it's not that bad - it's just going to be one of those callings that pull me out of my comfort zone and help me grow, and believe me, I've got a lot of growing to do. After preparing and giving today's lesson, I not only learned about things from the Old testament that I haven't studied since Seminary in high school, but I learned better ways to prepare the lesson for next time, and maybe better ways to conduct the lesson next time, and definitely that I need to slow down when I talk in front of people. See? I'm already growing.

New News #2

One of the things that made giving today's lesson more difficult is the fact that I've been having trouble speaking since, oh, about Christmas-time. Yeah, I know that "since Christmas-time" is not new news, but the reason behind the rough speaking is the new news. See, since December I've had a rough, scratchy voice, and when people have talked with me they've asked, "Do you have a cold? You sound terrible!" when I didn't have a cold. I haven't even had a sore throat! Just a raspy voice, and the worst part about all of it, is that I can't sing anymore. I can sing the lower range pretty well, getting up to about a low E, but if I go any higher I sound like something between a fourteen-year-old boy and a dying cat. It's so sad to sit in sacrament meeting and not be able to sing the hymns!

So it obviously took me a long time to do something about this. Some days I wouldn't notice it as much, because I wasn't talking as much, and I also tried to ignore it just because life is busy, but when we were in Utah and I was talking with Erin, she mentioned that I should see a doctor. I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. I should have gone in a long time ago.

I called a couple of weeks ago, just after getting home from vacation, and I went in on Thursday to find out that I have a blood blister on my larynx, which is causing it to not close all the way when I talk and sing. Crazy, huh? Dr. Carl said that it wasn't going to go away on its own, so I'm headed to the hospital next Friday for an easy-peasy, extremely short surgery to get it removed, and he said that most likely I'll be talking normally right away. Yea!

New News #3

New News #3 is completely unrelated to the other news topics, and was brought about by me repeatedly ordering curtains from the JCPenney Outlet online (with a free shipping code!), then taking them back to the store if they didn't work out. The last time the kids and I were there, we stopped by the mens' section and found that the Stafford shirts were on sale for $15.20, and they actually had Brian's size. It's pretty hard to find shirts with sleeves long enough for him, and when I actually find them and find them for cheap, it's wonderful! They had some fun Spring colors, so I grabbed a green one, and an orange one (which was the color of cantaloupe, and made Brian's face look like a cantaloupe, too - that one's going back), and a purple one. I knew that he would be okay with the green and orange ones, but I was hesitant to buy the purple one, because, well, it was purple. I really didn't know if he would consent to wearing a purple shirt.

It turns out he was even more hesitant to try it on than I had been to buy it, but I finally got him to try all the shirts on so we could see how they looked. Green - looked good. Orange - cantaloupe, I already told you. And purple - wow! My husband looks good in purple! He put it on, joking that it looked great with his cargo shorts, and maybe he would wear them to work on Monday, and I told him how great he looked, then Alyssa came bounding down the stairs and rounded the corner at the bottom just as Brian was walking out of the bathroom. She stopped and yelled, "Wow, Dad! You look good!"

So that's the news. Brian has a purple shirt. And he will hopefully be wearing it to work sometime this week, minus the shorts, but plus a pair of slacks, and nobody better make fun of him, because I think he looks hot.

Etc., Etc.

We started out by going all the way around the park on the train, a Lewis family tradition.

Then we were lucky enough to catch a ride up Main Street on the horseless buggy.

Alyssa loved driving on Autopia.

Marcus loved Dumbo's Flying Circus.

A nice family we made friends with in line for the Matterhorn took our picture. I think this was the first time we went on it this trip, so the boys very first time. They weren't too thrilled at first, but it ended up being one their favorite rides.

Alyssa's A

Marcus loved the ladybug ride. We went on it four times while Brian, Alyssa, and Ethan were doing Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies.

Big Thunder Mountain Ranch

Alyssa played Musical Chairs with the Mad Hatter and Alice. Each time someone got out the Mad Hatter asked them to tell a joke. Alyssa said, "Why did the house cross the road?...To crush cars!" She would fit in very nicely in Wonderland.

Ethan was so excited to see Lightning McQueen and Mater that he got mad when we wanted him to hold still for a picture. This is about the happiest picture I took of him with the cars.

Brian taught the boys to wrap towels around their waists after their shower. They were quite proud of themselves.

The boys and I went on the rocket ride in California Adventure.

And Ethan even rode by himself. He was a little worried, but very proud of himself.

Alyssa discovered Muhulland Madness, and loved it! We also loved that her shirt matched the fence.

Alyssa got in line to see Cinderella, and we were a little behind her, and the Cast Member watching the line told us the line was closed. Instead of having us join Alyssa in line, we went ahead and had Alyssa back out of the line. I was so glad that Cinderella stopped for a minute to talk to Alyssa on her way out. Cinderella told her that she liked her glasses, and that they made Alyssa look very pretty.

I don't know what ride we're on, but Marcus looks way cute!

Alyssa participated in the Jedi Training Academy. (Holding a sign will definitely get you in!) She loved doing it, but she didn't want to fight Darth Vader or Darth Maul.

We were able to ride in the front of the Monorail. Ethan was so excited to ride the Monorail - it was his absolute favorite ride!

This is from our Splash Mountain trip that killed my cell phone. I was holding my purse under the front of the log, thinking it would be safe, but on the first waterfall a huge wave splashed over the side and dumped water all over me. I couldn't have gotten more wet if I had jumped in the water myself!

This was the first time we staked out a spot for the fireworks - totally worth it! And the Dollar Tree glow wands I bought ahead of time were fabulous, too!

Ethan threw up on the drive home. He threw up all over himself, so we pulled off of the highway into the parking lot of a paint store to clean things up. I went ahead and bought a couple of paint buckets just in case we had any repeats. It took about a half hour to clean up, then after (seriously!) thirty seconds of being back on the highway, Ethan yelled, "I have to go poop!" and we stopped again.

The kids liked all the curves in the road as we drove home. We've got a few roller coaster fanatics in the making!