Playdate with Mommy

I took the boys on an impromptu playdate (with me) on Tuesday morning. We went to the Witte Museum (because the Dinosaur exhibit is still here through Sept. 6th!) and then to Landa library and park for a picnic lunch and playtime. We all had a great time!

The boys diggin for fossil bones!
Every time we go to the Witte, Ben asks for me to take his picture on this elephant. This is the obligatory photo! :-)

Playing at Landa park---wonderful city library and park located behind Trinity University.

Lots of Swimmin' and Fishin'

We went to the coast (Port O'Connor) last weekend and had a great, relaxing time. The weekend is never long enough when we are down there... We spent a lot of time lounging, watching movies, swimming, and fishing. Here are the highlights:

Watching Finding Nemo---a favorite with my boys; they never get tired of it!


Logi's cheesy smile...

....and Ben...hardly ever looks at the camera for pictures!

The boys getting ready to fish with Daddy and Gran. (Notice the cheesy smile and the boy who refuses to look at the camera.)

Sometimes, the cheesy smile just makes us laugh...

And yet Ben still evades actually looking at the camera...because now he is squinting so much that he can't see anymore. Jeesh---will my boys ever have normal pictures?!

Waiting on the dock of the bay....watching the tides roll away....(literally)

Logan did great for his 1st fishing adventure! He mainly just snacked and walked around watching all the other boys fish.

Ben's 1st catch of the day!

Ben literally caught 10 fish during this trip out! We were definitely in a "honey hole" of small speckled trout (none of keeper size)---catching one on every cast! Perfect for little fishers.

Gotta stay hydrated in the hot Texas sun!

Summer Bible Study

Along with a good girlfriend, Jaime, I am participating in a Summer Bible study. I have been participating in Beth Moore Bible studies for awhile now, but the group that I join for those studies always takes a break during the summer months. However, in the current season of my life, I find that I need spiritual guidance and direction in a constant manner, and I feel most connected with my Lord when I am in His Word, studying and learning about Him. So, there is a new study by Kelly Minter out, geared towards women, called "RUTH: Loss, Love and Legacy". I have always wanted to study the book of Ruth, delve deeper into the strong women that make up the stories, so I asked Jaime if she would be interested in doing it with me. I was so happy that she said "yes!". The study has been incredible. We have only completed the first 2 chapters so far, but it has been awesome. We are following the study under the "Siesta Summer Bible study" guided by Beth Moore through her blog videos. You can click here for more info, if you are interested: http://blog.lproof.org/.

Sweet boy

Today, as Ben was leaving the house to walk up to Mimi's while Logan had speech therapy, I yelled to him,

"Ben, I am so proud of you! You are such a big boy walking to Mimi's!

Be safe! I love you!"

(please know that yes, he walked by himself, but Mimi walks down at the same time, so they meet about half way---and my parents are a mere 3 houses up the street)

And Ben turns around and says,

"Mommy, I love you too; and I'm so proud of you!

You're such a big girl!"

And he turns around once more before he gets to the end of the sidewalk and says,

"Logi! Good luck learning how to talk today!"

Ben has such a sweet and soft heart. His love and his innocense is so pure and honest.

In other news...

...Logan was accepted into the ECI program for speech delay. Through his evaluation, they estimated that his expressive speech (what he actually says) was about the level of a 9-10 month old, but his comprehensive speech (how much does he understand when we speak to him) was estimated at the level of a 26 month old. So, I wasn't wrong. He really does understand most (if not all) of what we say, he just can't express himself with his own words. So, he has been getting speech therapy for almost a month now. Every Friday morning, a speech therapist comes to the house and stimulates him to talk through play therapy and gives me "homework" for the week between her visits. She is a very friendly lady, and Logan took to her immediately. And in the month that we have been seeing her, Logan is saying one more word and is attempting to make 2 animal sounds. His vocabulary now consists of "Mama" and "Daddy" (although Daddy sounds like "day"); and he is trying to make the sound "moo" and "woof". It is really interesting to watch how his speech develops. For instance, when he goes to say "moo", he only says the beginning sound "mmm". And when he tries to say "woof", he only says the ending sound "fff". But he is trying!! And that is improvement. Before speech therapy, he wasn't even trying to say words, make sounds, etc. And in one month, he has doubled his vocabulary (!) and is trying to make animal sounds. I am happy!

....I have also recently been "promoted" at work. For the last year, I have been teaching classes for a women's service unit at Christus Santa Rosa Westover Hills. I have been loving my classes! I teach breastfeeding basics, infant care to expectant parents, and childbirth classes too. The classes are all in the evening, so I don't have to leave my sweet boys during the day. I have the best of both worlds: am able to be a stay-at-home mom and work and do something that I love (teach) in the evening about once or twice a week. But recently, I was asked to be the Community Education Program Coordinator! I happily said "yes". It will require a bit more time away from home, but for this, I am willing to work! I will be in charge of coordinating teaching schedules, coordinating curriculum, managing registration of classes---basically maintaining the operation of the community education program. I am delighted and excited about the opportunity. The program needs a lot of TLC right now; a lot of organization, restructuring, etc---and I have so many ideas to get the ball rolling! The hospital where I work is new. We are approaching our 1 year anniversary in mid-July and in the past year, we have more than exceeded any estimations on patients that have come in and out of the hospital. Likewise, the same for the education department. I remember my first breastfeeding class had 2 couples---and now, we are offering the class twice a month and I am averaging 8 couples per class! Wow! Talk about growth! So I am excited about the opportunity to take the community education program to a new level and hopefully help it grow even more.

My Unexplained Absence...

I can't believe how long it has taken me to put up a new blog post! Wow...but I do have some really good excuses. Would you like to hear them? ;-)

Well, since you asked...it all started on Thursday, June 17th (yes, just a mere 3 days after my last post)... I was driving home from work one night and I called Randy to let him know I was heading home, and his reply was, "well, you can't imagine what happened here tonight..." Oh boy. Of course, the mommy in me was thinking one of the boys has really hurt himself tonight...or got sick...etc. No, what Randy was referencing was that after he got the boys out of the bathtub, dressed in their pj's, he went downstairs to find everyone's "Lovey's" and "Blankie's", and he started hearing this weird noise from the kitchen. So he went in to see what it was...and yes, there was water flooding out of the kitchen ceiling (right below the boys bathtub); it was coming out of the recessed lights, out of the sheetrock ceiling---it was just a full-blown flood in the kitchen.

And all I could think was....my Dad's 60th Birthday party is in one week...we're having tons of people and I am going to be out of a bathroom....there's going to be a gigantic hole cut out of my ceiling in my kitchen...What am I going to do???

Obviously, I called the home warranty company (which I loathe) to come out to fix the plumbing problem---and after a lot of psychotic tyraids on the phone with this lovely company (I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my voice), the plumbing problem was fixed...but they wouldn't repair this:

That's right. They wouldn't fix the gigantic hole in my ceiling that was cut out to repair the problem! Thankfully, we are friends, and loyal patrons, with a wonderful contractor and they came and saved my day.

So, problem #1 fixed.

Problem #2 quickly emerged, and also involved my lovely home warranty company. Which in turn also involved more psychotic tyraids on behalf of yours truly---to get my A/C fixed. Of which, did get fixed, but has left another gigantic hole in my garage ceiling because my condensation pipe was leaking, which left my garage flooded. So yes, we need another ceiling repair.

And in the meantime, I was up to my elbows helping my mom plan and get ready for my Dad's 60th Birthday party. The party was a blast; we had over 80 people come celebrate with us! (And unfortunately all the pictures that were taken are on my mom's camera, so I don't have any pics to post.) The party was catered with a fajita buffet; the Margarita Man catered the delicious margaritas; and my dad was completely overwhelmed by the love and friendship of so many friends and family that came. It was a really fun time.

So, with all that, and all that life brings a stay-at-home mom on a daily basis...I was pretty busy and really neglected my blog. ;-)