Man Oh Man!

I can't believe its been so long since I've posted. I have pictures to post but I'll have to do that later or tomorrow.

The rest of the summer has just flown by. Kinda like the first part of summer. End of July we went to a Tbones baseball game with others from our church. 24 of us actually. It was a lot of fun but then it always is at those games. They make it so family friendly. My brother Shawn and his son Brayden were able to come hang out with us at the game too so that was an added bonus.

The next weekend we took our teens camping at Clinton Lake right outside of Lawrence. We left Topeka a little later than we had wanted but we eventually made it. We took 8 teens and then our family of 5. We went swimming at the swimming beach area, played several tournaments of Ladderball or Blongoball (whichever you prefer to call it). We attempted volleyball but never worked. We could get our net to stay up. We only had one mishap. All of us failed to remember to grab the meat out of the refrigerator out of the youth room before we left! LOL So we hit up this little convenience store right by the camping grounds and bought all of the their hotdogs. I've never been soooooo tired of hotdogs! Haha Friday night we had a devotion with the kids and a moment around the fire before the storm hit. The next morning we paired them up and worked on memorization. I was so impressed with how well they did. I think they were too!! It was great to hear from their parents how they went home and were so proud to recite back the verses they learned.

Since then we've been working on getting ready for school. Jonathan went through a bought of sickness and ended up getting a CT scan of his head. Some of you know this but when he was a baby, his 6 mo check up, our dr at the time said his head was growing too big too fast and rushed us over to the hospital for scans. After meeting with a specialist several times we learned he had fluid on his brain. The specialist really didn't know what to do for him so he took his scans to a conference in California where they put Jonathan's scan on the agenda as a case to diagnose. When he returned he said it was decided to not do anything because people with fluid on their brain are usually handicapped both physically and mentally and Jonathan didn't seem to be either. So we were to just watch him. Whatever that means. So we have been. Well he got a headache one day and the next day it still hadn't got away. He quit playing, he quit eating. All he was doing was lying around and sleeping. After talking with a good friend we pushed fluids and veggies extra hard to make sure he wasn't dehydrated. After 3 days of it not helping we took him to the dr and the next day had a scan done. Since it had been 8 years we figured it wouldn't hurt to look again. And praise God! He doesn't have any extra fluid. Everything looked good and normal. SO, assuming he doesn't get another headache soon, we think he just a viral thing but it was a long week with him sick. I'm so thankful for all the prayers. And I continue to pray that he doesn't get another headache anytime soon.

And this past week we worked all week at church for the men's garage sale. It took 3 days to set everything up. I've never seen such a big garage sale. But it was all worth it. They had a great turn out and made a lot of money. They use the money to help kids go to camp and do different activities for the kids and teens. Of course this was like the hottest week or at least the hottest week we have spent outside. Thursday was so hot we had to take breaks and cool off to keep from getting sick. On the upside I like helping with it. Its fun getting to talk to different people. Its at those type of events when you really get to know people. The boys even had fun helping. They would help bag up everyone's purchases and help them to their car at times. And of course shopping. I'm pretty sure they found something they had to have each day! =) They woke up each morning excited and ready to go and help.

Last night we went to another Tbones game with others from church. Rather we went to the stadium but they never played. It rained buckets! At one point the entire stadium lost power. So we actually went and talked and ate a few snacks and then came home. I like going and we could get tickets for labor day weekend but its so expensive to eat there. We might just call that game a loss and forget about it.

So this is our last weekend before school starting. Before we went to the game last night we had sneak peak night at school. Noah is soo excited about going to Kindergarten and getting to be at school all day. And as an added bonus one of his friends from preschool is in his class as well! He was so proud as he unloaded his bag and put all of his supplies away. I'm so thankful we got both of the teacher's we had requested for Jonathan and Noah. Jonathan knew where his classroom was, who his teacher was, etc. I just feel like this is going to be a really great year. I'm a little nervous for Caleb. He absolutely loves being with his brothers. Like, think of your favorite thing to do. And how excited you get whenever you get to do that. Well that's caleb with his brothers. He just loves playing with them and being with them. Being at home alone is going to be a big change for him. I'm excited about it but sad at the same time. My boys are growing up and I know I'm going to cry come the first day. But at the same time I've been praying for the day, for the boys and for me. I've been planning and preparing myself to use Caleb's naptime as a time for me to exercise here at home. I know its where I need to start. And I'm so ready to start a new routine for Caleb and I. I'm ready to start taking care of myself better than what I have been. I put myself last. I feel I should be doing something for Heath or the kids all the time and I've finally realized taking care of myself is taking care of them too. So I'm preparing...praying. I want to make the change, not just diet.

5 favorites
-water, lots of water!
-apples
-watermelon, I could eat it all day
-bubble baths
-swimming

5 gratefuls
-I'm grateful for whomever invented deoderant. This past week I used so much of it!
-I'm so grateful for air conditioning. For whomever invented it. For all of those that make the units and can repair them. I don't know what I'd do without you.
-for fellowship. Talking and laughter with friends and family.
-for the rain we got last night. It smelled so fresh.
- for Jonathan's test results and all of those who prayed for him and our family.