Brother of Mine

It's come to my attention that as I compare raising my sons and growing up with a brother, I've painted a pretty poor picture of my dear brother Eric. :) So I will set the record straight! He takes daily showers, he'll boldly do what's necessary to rid his home and surroundings of 8-legged critters, he doesn't blow on my food anymore, and he is an all-around amazing brother! He's also a terrific uncle, adored by Braylen, Kaleb and Aaron. His wife is such a fun aunt to them as well. We are blessed by them! So Eric, is this better? :) Just one more thing: We love you AND your kitties. The only 3 cats in the whole world that are safe around Derek!

Baseball Boys

It's hard for me to believe that our baseball season ends tomorrow. Both older boys have had lots of fun playing and learning more about the game. I still wonder how old they need to be before they learn they can outrun first base and not be out! I really enjoy watching Kaleb run around the bases. He's finally learned not to throw his bat after hitting the ball. Yikes! My favorite parts of watching Braylen play are: he stuffs his batting gloves in his back pocket and they flop around when he runs, he spits sunflower seeds in the dugout, he makes a throw to first base and gets the runner out (a miracle at how far they come from age 6 to age 8!), and he's still my little boy who isn't ashamed to call out to me when he's running in from the field. I love to see the boys play baseball for fun. I remember many whiffle ball games in my backyard growing up!

Tomorrow we're taking Braylen to summer camp. He'll be gone for 2 nights! This will ease him in slowly, so maybe next summer he'll stay for a week. He's all packed. When we were getting his things ready today, he was horrified that I was putting his initials in his underwear. Doesn't every mom label their 8 year old son's things? My brother never opened his soap when he was at camp for a week. I'm not sure how old he was. I wonder if Braylen will use his soap at all? :)

Aaron keeps making us laugh. Tonight he put on the face mask to swim in the pool and he called it his binoculars! He entertained Gramdma and Grandpa this weekend at the lake with his funny comments on things. He saw some cigarette butts by Grandma's chair at the beach and thought they were hers! Anyone who knows Grandma Jacki knows they were not hers. :)

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged. Rachel tagged me to spell out six quirks that I have. Here are the rules:

Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules in your blog.
Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag a new set of six bloggers by linking them
Six quirks about me....

1. I count steps as I go up or down on them. Even in my own house!

2. I check to see if my doors are locked throughout the day. If we are in the backyard my front doors are all locked, and vice versa. Even in the car our doors are always locked!

3. My house may have clutter in it, but my clutter piles are organized. Derek's pile better not infringe upon mine. If it does, I move it to his dresser.

4. I get really upset when someone blows on my food. It used to be my brother, but now it's my sons who do it most often!

5. If I don't want to wake up with my alarm (and that is every morning) I pick a number and count to it, telling myself I'll get up when I reach that number. If I reach that number and I'm still sleepy, I pick another number. A bigger number!

6. I will easily remember your birthday, your kids' birthdays, your phone numbers, etc. But like Rachel, I am not a math whiz. I have a great ability to store numbers, not work with them.

Okay, those are my quirks. Since I am relatively new at this blogging thing, I only have 3 fellow bloggers to tag. Since one of them tagged me first, here are my other 2 blogger friends.

Pam
Dusty

Summer's Here

We are getting into the summer routine around here and it feels good. This weekend we were able to take the boys boating at the lake and it was great to see the lake full again! It's been years since there's been this much water. In fact, the boys were able to play at one of the swimming beaches for the first time. Last time there was enough water for a swimming beach, Braylen was 10 months old and I'd dip him into the water in a little floatie. How much has changed since those days! On the boat, Braylen tubed on the torpedo. Aaron and I tried, but I fell off! (I was able to go on my own) Aaron and Kaleb opted to just swim with Daddy instead. All in all, we had a wonderful day on the boat and at the beach.

Braylen and Kaleb are playing baseball this summer and seem to be having fun with it. This week I hope to take my camera along and snap some pictures of them playing. When they both have games Aaron and I go between the fields to watch both games. It's MUCH easier when one has a game and the other has a practice day.

Last week we brought my niece to one of the games, which makes Aaron very happy. While they were playing at the park, Analise sneezed twice and didn't cover her mouth. Aaron replied, "Analise, you just bless-you'd all over me!" She sneezed again and he said, "You just bless-you'd on me again Analise!" It was too cute.

Happy Father's Day Derek and to my dad!!!

Tornadoes, Hawaii, & Grandparents

These past 9 days have been anything but ordinary. On May 30th Derek and I drove 2 hours to stay at an airport hotel, since we were flying to Hawaii early the next day. About an hour after we left home, storms moved in and attacked our town. Derek and I watched the TV coverage of the storms, and wondered how our family was doing and if our house was still standing. Later we learned that 6 tornadoes touched down in our town; one was 2 blocks from our house. Talk about a rough start to our getaway to Hawaii! With about 3 hours of sleep (at the most!) we flew away from the storms' destruction and enjoyed a wonderful week in sunny Oahu! While we were gone, Derek's parents watched our boys for a couple of days. Monday evening my parents took over, and Grammy has quite a tale to tell of their time with our boys! Here she is!




Being from Illinois, we are familiar with tornadoes. What we don't have is a weather radio. The first night it went blaring off and we stumbled around in a daze only to find out we were under a flash flood watch. The thing about the weather radio is that it doesn't just go off once, but waits a few minutes and starts up again and again. Ugh. We did manage to get a full night's sleep anyway. Wednesday evening, the radio was playing the alert tones again (and again and again). Braylen quickly decided we needed to prepare, and the preparation place was the bathroom in the basement. He piled bean bag chairs, cushions, blankets, flashlights, and some air pumps (in case we needed more air), and brought his Bible as well. He filled 9 bottles with water, so we were all set.



By bedtime, all was clear and after re-assuring Kaleb we would get him during the night if a tornado was coming, we all headed off to bed. Well, . . . again with the blaring siren from the weather radio. We got the map out and located the counties mentioned. By 11:30, we determined that the tornado warning was close enough to get the boys. We settled down on the bathroom floor for the next hour and a half. Thankfully, there were no tornadoes, but severe storms with hail and high winds. (Keith was watching the radar on his Blackberry.) By 1 AM, Grammy and Grampy were sore from the floor, so we put the boys to bed in our downstairs bedroom and we slept on the couches. Whew - what a night. Aaron said it was "awesome" and wanted to do it again. On Thursday, Braylen kept hearing a different noise, so Grampy went off to investigate. It turns out the west wall of the garage had pulled away from the rafters and was swaying slightly back and forth. Hmm, now what? Grampy, Grampa and Uncle B worked for hours to get it temporarily re-attached. Through it all, we were kept safe. We've had a lot of fun these past few days. Sarah had left us several pages of instructions and helpful hints. Bedtime was a bit late (especially on movie night), but several mornings we slept in. By Saturday, the excitement about Mommy and Daddy coming home was building. The boys made welcome home posters. Grampy, Braylen and Kaleb rode bikes to meet the van. Mommy snuck in the door and surprised Aaron. After giving her a big hug, he turned to me and said "Bye, Grammy!" My job was over as far as he was concerned. Sarah & Derek however, were so tired that we took pity on them and stuck around another day to help out. Now we'll be heading back east as things go back to "normal" around here.

Ahhh, what a week. Thanks so much to Grammy and Grampy for all they did for us! Derek and I are still adjusting to this time zone, and getting used to being parents again. :) We scaled an inactive volcano, swam at many beaches, snorkeled in the reefs, and swam with dolphins! (just to name a few things) We will never forget this week!