Ten on Wednesday

1.  Today I had outpatient surgery and my first full anesthesia experience.  All went well and I am fine.  We're actively trying to stay ahead of my pain and I'm glad I have a couple days off work to really rest before reentering the fray.  Thanks to all of you who sent supportive emails, texts, and phone calls.  Big thanks to my siblings and their spouses for the help with the kids and the scones today.

=== as a result I am lazy/tire so there will be limited photos today.

2. Yesterday we flew kites for the first time at the new house.  To my tremendous surprise, the kids made it work even with all the trees.  I think you can see the video here: Fly a Kite Video

------ This is as far as I got, two weeks ago, before I realized that sitting up for more than 15 minutes the day of surgery was a bad decision.... then two weeks passed.

3. Good news! Surgery recovery went well.  Taking a full three days to rest was a great decision.  I restarted exercise on the following Monday and am now on day 10 of 30 day Yoga Camp (via utube).  This does mean double run/yoga days at least twice a week as the race is coming up very soon... eeek.

4. B's first communion is this weekend.  It has been a long time and a lot of learning in coming.  I am glad they  are doing a thorough job teaching them about it.  We're having a party afterwards at our house complete with some of his friends from his old school, special cookies form his Godmother, and pork made by Uncle Able.  Should be fun!

5. This weekend, we made a last minute trip to the OU Red/White game. It went pretty well.  It was very clear that E is not ready for a real football game.  Everyone else did pretty well and enjoyed wandering campus a bit.  We had awesome Rusty's frozen custard afterwards too.

6.  On Friday, M, E, & I spent the duration of B's tennis lesson playing at Hafer Park.  This is becoming a bit of a Friday afternoon routine and the weather was lovely.  Can you believe this big boy can pull himself up like this repeatedly and easily? So big!

7. Thursday, Brent, Able, Kari, Tracie, Nikki, and I joined about 445 of OKC's coolest people for the Starlight Super.  Able, of course, knew everyone and Tracie knew the people he didn't.  This is one of those moments when I realize that thanks to telecommuting, living in north Edmond, etc... means I don't know anyone and that is kind of sad.  I then retreated to my forest home and am happily loving it here.  In other news, the food was delicious, the company wonderful, and the setting pretty magical.  I would definitely do it again!  (This was a fundraiser for downtown OKC and featured 5 courses of food from OKC restaurants and local wine pairings.  The dessert from Guernsey Park was definitely my favorite!)

8.  Due to his baseball team not reforming this spring, B is not playing baseball.  He has been to see Zane's team play a few times lately and I think there is some wistfulness there.  We will see if he starts again, but both boys are currently loving playing in the front yard til then.  Playing baseball with beginner tennis balls is greatly improving the safety and fun.

9.  Meanwhile Spring at the new house is completely beautiful.  I love it.  This was taken a week or two ago and it is already different and fully leafed out, but the flowers continue.  My iris haven't bloomed yet, but I'm watching them daily. Running in the neighborhood is awesome too.  M went with me last night and commented on how beautiful it was.

10. Also, there was Easter!  We spent part of Saturday with the Rouse/Richards crew and part at the farm where we made it through Easter Vigil mass in Bison and the Easter bunny found us too.  Maybe more pictures of that to come? 

Ten on Wednesday

1. This guy is getting so little sleep this week.  It is hard to fathom how late he routinely gets to stay up and how many naps he misses.  At 3, his big brother's schedule was still pretty tight and naps/bedtimes were carefully observed.  We, however, do things as a family and I like that even if sometimes he is out late.  Here he is yelling at B to cover 3rd (as was everyone around him).  He does look so big here.  Someone in my office even commented on this today as they had seen the picture and couldn't believe this was our littlest lad.

2.  Even with all the baseball game everyone wanted to practice more during Zane's game.  We had come early to watch the Lake Monsters as we haven't seen a full game yet this season.  It was adorable, simple, and great fun. Everyone gets a hit every time in t-ball at this point so there is so much more action than with the 8yos where hits are still pretty rare in kid-pitch land.  The little boys and M especially loved practice. I tried to capture E in his attempted catcher's crouch as it was so cute, but sadly missed it.  I am terrified that M will decide she wants to play softball..... Can you tell we had games two days in a row and were at the baseball field for 3+ hours yesterday? There are four games left in the season, two of which I will miss so I'm sure I'll make it :)  B, for the record, is generally doing well and scored in the game yesterday. (Ps, thanks to all the Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents who join us for these games!)

3. I love this adorable picture.  I found a praying mantis in the bushes and Brent captured it.  He helped M hold it and did a little science time explaining how it captures food, etc.  They are adorable.

4. Our first night to stay up late was for the Lunar Eclipse/Blood Moon on Sunday.  We had our kids come outside and were quickly joined by more kids and neighbors until there were 16 people, many phones, cameras, chairs and our telescope set up to enjoy the show. I love that everyone joined us and it was great fun to hang out together.  Our neighborhood is lovely and I'm glad we could share the telescope fun with everyone.  The moon was pretty awesome too :)

5. My job is intense right now.  The uptick in responsibilities, tons of "new" stuff I know nothing about, and my normal busy season are colliding.  Before one of those meetings I was leading with very little clue what I was doing I decided to blast "Virtuoso" through my house first --- sort of like athletes before a big game.  Decided to at least fake being the virtuoso of project planning for today!

6. Lady M was sick this weekend. It was pitiful.  She is rarely sick and wasn't even terribly sick this time, but mostly curled up in balls on pillows, the couch, or her bed for a day or so with an intermittent fever and stomach ache.  She eventually rallied sometime on Sunday. This did shift all of our plans for the weekend to basically no plans, which wasn't such a bad thing.

7.  B attended his second slumber party -- both with his friend Adam. I think they may have gone to bed a bit earlier this time.  It sounds like plenty of junk food, electronics, and then doughnuts and a movie the next day. I took the littles to see the movie the night before with Audra so everyone got to have some extra fun. He didn't return until nearly 1pm on Saturday so he missed out on the coffee/farmer's market run, but seemed fine with that.

8. E continues to be adorable and loves being outside.  He also continues to dislike potty training.  He has childcare pretty intermittently right now for a variety of weird reasons.  He is pretty excited to get to stay home whenever that comes up and will get to play with Grandma Friday morning, or so I hear. He is a sneaky guy and will find his way outside anyway he can, scarily without telling people.  I love that he has good safe places to play, but really has to still have an older buddy if he is going to be in the front yard as his judgment is suspect.

9. Brent and I now have bicycles, which so far we haven't ridden further than a couple houses away.  In theory, we'll go on rides together sometimes on nights when my mom stays over or ride with the kids in some combination.  E needs a seat or carrier of some kind probably so we can all go on family rides. I hadn't ridden a bike in MANY years, but it seems to be coming right back.  I refused to try it without a helmet though as my brain is probably one of our most valuable family resources at the moment.

10.  We had planned to build a table for the craft space in the new house.  It was already becoming clear that that was not going to happen anytime soon. I discovered a local craftsman who is now building us a table and two benches.  The table is only maybe 10% more than I was planning to spend making it ourselves and will actually (gasp) be here by November.  I'm really excited to get to work with an actual person in Oklahoma building furniture themselves.  It is in no way fancy and we definitely "could" have done it ourselves with some tools borrowed from Zach, but this is much less angst inducing and actually happening in a month or less.  We also ordered a storm shelter last week to get state fair pricing.  It is being installed in about a month too.  Progress all around!

Ten on Wednesday

1.  I haven't done a Ten on Tuesday for a couple of weeks because we have little league games every Tuesday and aren't even home until 9:30.  It is probably fair to say that it will be Ten on Wednesday around here until at least late October when fall baseball is over and my busy season is winding to an end.

2.  Speaking of baseball, B had his best and first hit of kid pitch this week.  It was awesome. It was a pop fly and I was absolutely sure the second baseman was going to catch it.  Luckily, he did not. B made it to third by stealing a few bases, but sadly did not make it home before his buddy Adam struck out for the final out of the inning.  B's team continues to be basically a comedy of errors, but perhaps slightly improving.  Humorously, one kid is a son (or grandson?) of a Mathis Brother (huge Oklahoma Furniture store family) so we see a minor celeb most games.

3.  E is staying home with me a few days this week as his childcare is randomly closed.  He is a great companion.  Today, it all worked out for me to not work a bit in mid-morning and instead work later in to the afternoon past my normal hours as he slept on in his room.  Between late night baseball and much shorter naps at school (and sometimes no naps on the weekend) he is often very tired.  We are taking full advantage of his days home this week to sleep as much as possible :)  Otherwise, we play ninjas, run around in the yard, invent games with his "guys," build blocks, or read lots of books.  He now sleeps with at least one book too, just like brother and sister.

4. Lady M lost her second tooth this week.  Her pronunciation is a little funny at times and I still am not used to the new smile.  She seems to be enjoying it though.  She is doing pretty well of late with her full schedule.  This week, for the first time in ages, she returned to picking up her French vocabulary more quickly and was a great student in the lessons too, I'm told. She continues on with double dance lessons on Wednesdays and is still glowing when I pick her up--- although frequently she admits to sore feet right after.

5. So, it is busy season.  It is a little different than prior busy seasons, but what is ever the same. I am adding a bunch of new tasks in to the mix, but some of the older ones are taking less time, thankfully.  I am not, so far, having to work outrageous amounts, but there is still plenty of time for that before things calm down around Halloween. (Yes, I'm totally jinxing myself I'm sure... .sigh).

6.  Fun with the neighbors continues to be a happy theme here. All three kids (and the Korenak boys too sometimes) have great fun with the boys next door.  There is lots of bike riding, hammock time, scooters, LEGO building, minplex, and a variety of other random games.  I'm so glad it has worked out that there are friends right next door for them.

7.  There is also much, much more exploring in the front yard here at Echohollow House. At our old house, the front yard was pretty limited and slopped steeply down to the street.  Here there is a lot of side walk, yard to run, shade trees, flower beds, a strawberry patch, etc.. M&E are the biggest explorers and found a turtle in their adventuring this week.  He was a very speedy turtle, but they followed him all the way to a safe flower bed.  (Yes, E has PJs on at 4pm --- he changes back in to PJs for naps lately for better sleeping and sometimes we forget to change back...)

8.  Saturday was another day of too many activities.  One of the most tasty was a stop at the Spice Shop for Pie and spices.  The kids had a lot of pie. I managed to eat only a little, but at many of the rhubarb strawberry hand pies that made their way to our house the night before. I didn't make as many pies this year as I was working, but I hear it was a blast.

9.  B attended his very first OU Football game on Saturday with Brent. His favorite part, after some reflection, was the OOOOOOOU they do at kick off (If you've been you know what he means).  He also loved that they played Whip and Nae Nae  for the kids cam, eating funnel cake and a pretzel and getting a little of Brent's Dr. Pepper. He can recite various facts about the actual scoring in the game, but it rarely makes his top hits list. It was a perfectly beautiful day for football and it sounds like he had a wonderful time. Big thanks to Granddaddy for the tickets!

10. While they were at the football game, M and I went to a wedding shower where we got to dress up cousin Janna as a bride in a dress made out of toilet paper.  M loved it and we happily won.  Then, we attempted to sign up for Girl Scouts. It is a little ambiguous how that is all going to work as most of the troops are full, but we're giving it a shot.  Thankfully, Grammie and Granddaddy watched E during those two events.  He loved getting their full attention and I think they like it too:)

This weekend--- a slumber party, French lessons, Church/Sunday school, and maybe that's it as we need a break here. I had some other ideas planned, but am getting the sense that the troops may need to chill a bit at the house more than they need more fun things to do. Somdtimes, that is a good idea for everyone's sanity and rest. 

Ten on Tuesday

1.  I'm pretty sure you've all been waiting for the next chapter in the AC saga, right? So, when we left it last week the replacement unit was damaged and the installer was injured. So the parts were reordered. Wednesday original installer goes to get parts and there are none so he bails on the project for the day.  Friday, the second installer goes to pick up parts on and says they are the wrong ones for what we have.  He officially throws up his hands and refuses to work with our insurance any longer.  Original installer is back on the case, but can't install until Monday.  Meanwhile, I discover the pipes are caked in ice and turn the unit back off.  I cry some on the phone with insurance, but naught to be done.  Saturday night I turn back on the not particularly functional unit. Sunday we hold M's party (more on that later) with partially functioning AC on what turns out to be a relatively cool day. Monday at 5pm (!) installer arrives, finds new issues, and that everything is iced.  Then, offers to either turn it all off and come back some other day when it has thawed OR turn on the HEATER to thaw the ice on the lines and install that day.  We obviously went with install asap and the kids and I fled to Audra's for dinner and cooler climates. Happily, before bedtime it was installed, cooling, and the house was well on its way to cooler temps, hooray!  (tentatively because very gun shy about if it is really fixed).

2. Yesterday, it was fairly cool so we decided to go on a walk/bike ride to the neighborhood park.  Just leaving was a task as M & E changed their minds multiple times about what they were riding and M also required an outfit change as maxi dresses (not surprisingly) don't seem to work well when riding bikes... We finally set out with E sobbing in the stroller over some perceived injustice.  We made it to the park and they seemed to enjoy it, but, as usual, it didn't hold their attention that long.  They were immediately distracted by a small wood nearby (this is Oklahoma so there were probably less than 25 trees, but still...) As they explore through the wood they found a hidden pond we hadn't seen before.  It was incredible.  It was idyllic and an amazing slice of the countryside right in our suburban neighborhood.  We loved it.  They skipped rocks, looked at turtles, dangled their feet in the water, watched birds, etc... Great fun.

3.  Today, we ran some random errands in the morning and had French & Spanish lessons.  The coolest part though was finally trying out the neighborhood pool with the Korenaks.  We, strangely, had the place to ourselves on a totally beautiful evening.  I loved every bit of it.

4.  In other fun news, B is back to reading voraciously.  This week,he read The Guardian Heard, Starfire in one day.  He also read the first and second books in the Wings of fire book and is somewhere in book three of the Mysterious Benedict Society and working on Reach Me as well.  I love talking about books with him and now usually read what he is reading so we can discuss. It is great fun.

5.  Yesterday, after AC craziness, Zane decided to try a slumber party at our house.  He was here for an hour or so and "attempting" to sleep for 20 minutes or so before he asked me to call his mom to come get him.  It was a valiant effort. I will admit I did not focus on finding a house super close to my sister because they tend to move fairly often.  I am SO excited that it worked out this was as being 3 minutes apart is totally amazing.  LOVE it.

6.  M had her first freak out about Kindergarten tonight.  She sounded exactly like me rambling on and on about totally random and illogical things she was worried about or not looking forward too.  For example, she is not excited about information day because she does want to meet her teacher, but does not want all her classmates to be there or to meet them? (so random)  She was also concerned about being in a bigger class and with more stuff in the room, etc.. etc... Really she seemed more excited than worried.  Maybe she would say nervocited.  I am in complete denial that school starts in two weeks and really want my kids here with me.  I'm sure less chaos in the day will have its merits, but really it has been so nice to have these last few weeks especially all together in the new house.  Sigh.

7. M's big birthday party was on Sunday and will get its own post, but surely we have to mention it here.  I think after lots of drama about the AC and the house in general it went rather well.  I loved having people here and having space to include everyone easily.  I'm excited about more gatherings here as we pull things together.  M, randomly, spent much more time with the boys than the girl friends she had been so excited to invite and finally see.  One just never knows!  Most notably, for the only time in her life every single Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Parent, Sibling, (surviving) Grandparent, and Godparent was in attendance at her birthday party.  Such a banner day!

8.  E, E, what about E? Well, he got a new remote control car from Aunt Jamie and Uncle Carl for his birthday that is very popular with everyone.  It does sometimes start driving a little by itself, which is odd.  He remains interested in Ninjago and continues to have mixed results with potty training.  He does tell me he loves me at least a dozen times a day and, less happily, seems compelled to jump on me at least that many times as well. He continues to be completely adorable, but is growing SO quickly.

9.  Brent's camps are over and I think were a big success.  They, of course, learned a few things that they can improve on for next year, but all in all they went surprisingly well.  He is now on to finding contractors for some of the house projects (which I so appreciate) and getting his car repaired.  Not to mention, of course, getting ready for the fall semester, which he would normally have done in July if he weren't running camps.

10. I have run through my neighborhood the last two evenings.  They are short runs and hillier than in the past, but I've enjoyed them.  My prior neighborhood was pretty cookie cutter with many of the same houses and little variation in landscaping, etc.. The new neighborhood is anything but.  The houses and landscaping are quite varied.  I would buy almost any house in the edition, which I think is a good sign. I am fascinated by all of them and it does help distract me as I run.  Hopefully, I will start rebuilding mileage soon, but really need to pull my asthma back under control before that is likely to happen.  In the meantime, I'll just enjoy what I have and the beauty of my current setting.