First Day of School 2012

And another year begins

Quick Update

Since it is now 2012 I felt I should do a quick update.  Both boys have the first month of this school year in the books.   Dixon is in Pre-K and loves every minute.  His favorite part is getting to ride the school bus and having o be in his booster seat.  Porter is in 3rd grade.  This year is going really well for him.  He loves everything except spelling and writing.  I am amazed at how quickly he learns new math concepts.  He definitely has his father's gift with numbers.  He also loves history.  Non-Fiction is his favorite type of book from the library.

Porter is also in braces.  This is phase One and is expanding his upper and lower jaw and correcting a cross bite.  He is being cooperative with all the rules and appointments thus far!  I am so proud of him.  It is great not to have an argument over this since he will have this first set for 14 months.

Week Two Brings New Challenges

It has been a long second week of school at our house.  My little second grader has been getting into trouble for talking too much and acting goofy in class.  Oh, this does not sit well with his parents.  I am hoping that the problem is more of it's a new school year excitement rather than foreshadowing our year to come.  After several discussions with him and a sit down with him and his teacher, he finished the week much better.  Whew...let's hope it lasts.

In case that wasn't enough excitement.....Matt gets to switch things up and go teach 1 class over at a middle school for this semester.  The middle school was short a teacher for their Ag class and Matt had a class with low numbers so his bosses thought the best solution would be to send Matt over to the middle school.  The only catch is that his low numbered class was last block and the middle school opening was 1st period.  To make this work, Matt's entire class load had to be dropped and reassembled but that was easier than messing up the entire 8th grade's schedules.  I would run for the hills at the thought of teaching 8th grade but Matt has taken the challenge with his normal laid back manner.  He is even looking at the positive in that he wants to get these kids excited about Ag and FFA so that they will want to be in his classes next year in high school.  Way to be a team player!!!

School has started.

Week One is down in the record books.  Porter started a week ago on Monday and Matt's students returned last Wednesday.  Porter and I were both ready for him to be back in school.  Life can be a little boring for him when I am home babysitting and not able to take him to the pool or park as often as he would like.  Porter's teacher this year was the reading instructor he had in 1st grade so he is excited for 2nd grade.  His two best buddies are in another class.  That is good and bad but I think he will make more friends quickly.  I just hope he continues to be 'good' in school.  I had some rough days with him over the summer in terms of his behavior.  I am sure part of it is just his age and my expectations aren't always realistic.  He seems to be enjoying reading more this year and that is always positive.

Matt has had a very interesting week.  For reasons beyond his control, he will be driving over to the middle school and teaching one class a day then returning to the high school to teach 2 other classes.  I personally couldn't think anything much more difficult than teaching 8th grade but Matt, always the team player, has had a good attitude about the situation.  He looks at it as a way to get the kids excited about FFA and hopes they will sign up for his classes next year when they start high school. 

Tubing Down the River

One day this summer we had a free afternoon and decided to drive up to Helen and go tubing down the river.  I had heard this was an affordable, fun family activity but had never tried it with our boys.  It was a nice sunny day so we weren't worried about the cool water of Helen.  What surprised us was that we spent almost as much time getting off rocks as we did tubing.  We were very glad we rented a stick/pole thingy to aid in pushing ourselves off some of the rocks.  During our trip down the river,  Porter kept "falling" out of his tube to play in the water.  Of course, I kept telling him not to do that because he was going to get hurt from all the rocks.  Can you guess what happens next?  He is out of his tube when we come to some swift water with massive rocks and he is banged up pretty good.  After we got the tears under control and finished the rest of the river, I told him that I knew where we could go tubing without any fear of  rapids and rocks and he could get off his tube and swim as much as he wanted.


Some of my fondest memories from my childhood involve tubing down the Ichetucknee River.   I remember the COLD water and black tire tubes.  We would swim in the head spring while Dad would take our car to the midpoint (South entrance) parking lot/picnic area.  I was so excited to take my boys and continue this summer tradition. 

I reserved a hotel for the weekend, packed a picnic and we headed south.  The kids were excited because they knew we would be staying at a hotel (isn't that always the case though).  I showed them some you tube videos to sort of let them know what to expect.  I knew from the website that we needed to show up at the state park early.  They limit the number of tubers at the north entrance to 750 per day but they allow about 2500 in through the south entrance launch per day.  We didn't just drive 5+ hours to miss out on half the trip down the river so, we were there early.   I was so excited.  It was a moment of such happy nostalgia for me.  I was a bit teary eyed as we pulled up.  We rented 2 person rafts rather than tubes.  I did this for a few reasons: #1-my Dad NEVER let us rent anything but the black tubes and I always dreamed of having my own raft, #2-I was secretly afraid that the water might be too cold now that I am a grown up and #3-I was concerned that Dixon might be too little for his own tube.   During our trip down the river we learned that Porter needs his own tube.  He was in the water almost as much as he was in the raft and having his own tube would allow him to get in and out without drenching his raft partner/Dad.  Dixon did get brave and started jumping out of the raft and swam along by the raft.

We exited the river at the midpoint launch for bathroom breaks and our picnic lunch.  Once we were refreshed we hit the river again to finish the last portion.  The boys swam a lot during the last part and we decided that instead of doing a second trip down the river(from the endpoint, they have a tram that takes you back to the midpoint and you can keep going down all day) we would just get back to the van and go back to the north entrance and swim in the head spring and check out blue hole spring.  We had some goggles in our swim bag.  It was amazing to look under the water at the fish, plants, springs and caves.  Matt and Porter really want to get snorkeling equipment for our next trip.  Dixon didn't want to leave but the poor kid was turning purple/blue and shivering.  Lucky for us, it started to thunder and we have a rule about leaving the pool when it thunders so they didn't argue when I said , "there's thunder, Let's go!"

Oh the memories!!!  I am already looking forward to our next trip!!

A year can pass so quickly

So, summer is almost over! Porter starts school again in 2 weeks!! Our year flew by so fast and I didn't post any of it. That is pretty sad. I don't have time or energy to write about a whole year lost. I will simply recap by say we are doing okay and looking forward to another school year! I will try really hard to keep up with blog postings.

Porter will start 2nd grade. He has discovered a love for Legos. He can spend hours creating and playing with those little things. We spent a small fortune on them over the summer but decided it was money well spent.

Dixon is into anything that Porter likes. He wants to do everything just like his big brother. Whether it is good or bad...they are Pete and Repeat!!

1st Grade

Porter started 1st Grade on August 9th. He was soooo excited to be back in school that he couldn't sleep. He came into our room at 3am, fully dressed and asking if it was time for the bus to come. We were not too pleased and even less happy when his little brother woke up minutes later! Matt was a good sport and got up with both boys. I was much too grumpy for a pre-dawn breakfast and cartoons.

He needs to be outside waiting for the bus around 6:45 am....he was more than ready for the day at this point.

at last....the bus came and he was off!

This is what happened when Dixon crashed. He slept until lunchtime!

Porter's Surgery

Porter suffered with multiple strep throat infections last school year. Our Doctor recommended that he have his tonsils and adnoids removed. We opted to have the surgery performed last month. We are glad we waited until after swim team was over because it turns out there is a 3 week no activity for his recovery process.


Here is Porter after he had his first medicine that makes him sleepy.

He kept asking Matt and I, "what if I don't go to sleep?" As you can see here, he could hardly keep his eyes open and this was how he looked when they took him to the operating room.

Porter was resting peacefully when we were able to go to his recovery room. I wish I had a magic spell for this at home.

We soon had to start trying to get him to wake up and start drinking. Keeping his throat moist is the most critical part of the recovery process. This also turns out to be a major challenge. I never imagined that I would struggle to get a 6 year old to eat a diet that consisted solely of Popsicles, juice, pudding, jello or slushies.

Porter had a 6 hour recovery room stay. We passed some of the time watching Scooby-Doo! He loves those cartoons. By the end of our stay, he was eating Popsicles okay. He was ready to get home to see Nanny and Papa. They had spent the day with Dixon.

Our care instructions were for us to keep him hydrated and he was supposed to take antibiotics 3 times a day and pain medicine every 4-6 hours. We were cautioned to stay ahead of the pain. His prescription was for Lortab. I get sick when I take Lortab. At one point in the recovery room, Porter was a little queasy. I asked specifically if the Lortab could be making him sick, since it does to me. I was told that it would have happened sooner, if the medicine was to blame. We left the hospital and faithfully gave him his medicine around the clock. After a day of this, he started complaining that he didn't want the medicine and his stomach hurt. I kept forcing the medicine and told him he was hurting because he wasn't drinking as much as he should. By 2 am on Wednesday night (surgery was Monday am), he starting vomiting and didn't stop. He could not keep anything down, even 1 tsp of water. This poor little guy. Matt had to go into work for a summer project he was doing. I had brought some friends over to play and keep him company. Then I called the doctor to find out what they considered continued vomiting to be....they said come in NOW. I got the other kids ready and in the van and told Porter he had to get off the sofa and go to the van. He stood up and promptly collapsed! Talk about a scary moment!! I cried out for Jose! (Did I mention that our AC broke and a friend was installing a new unit at the time?) Jose carried Porter to the van, I called Matt in a panic and we went to the Doctor who admitted him to the hospital. My friend met up with us and took her kids and Dixon so that Matt and I both could be with Porter. Turns out the Lortab I keep making him take, was upsetting his stomach with caused the vomiting which quickly led to dehydration.

I felt like the world's worst mom! I just cried myself as he cried as they kept having to restart his IV since his veins were 'blowing' due to the dehydration. It was so sad. Poor little guy of mine! My heart just hurt so bad.

Fortunately, after IV fluids and some shots of steroids to help with the swelling in his throat, he perked up and we came home the next night. Once home, he started giving me grief about not wanting to eat his Popsicles (we only had like 5 different varieties too), I gave him 15 minutes to eat it or I was heading him back to the hospital. He got up and ate it and from that point on, we did not have any more problems with him eating/drinking.

I guess the other downer part of surgery is that he can't get hot or do any activity that would raise his heart beat for 3 weeks. This has been as much of a torture as was the physical pain. It is the last 3 weeks of summer and he couldn't go out to play or swim! We have survived however and are looking forward to a strep throat free school year!!!

HOT, HOT, HOT Summer Fun

Now that summer is almost over, I think I need to post some of our fun times. Truth be told, my little brother, Jared, reminded me it was July and not April. Before the official start to summer, we spent some family fun days picking strawberries, playing in some local parks and we ventured north to visit some gold mines. We have been blessed with the time to take these day outings.

Ummm, our summer has not be too eventful. We have mostly stayed around home. We do join a pool for the summer and the boys really enjoy swimming. The pool has a slide and diving board and both boys take full advantage of both. We also found some great ear plugs for Dixon. They are could Docs Pro Plugs. Our ENT has always recommended Max's wax plugs but these pro plugs are great. They are fitted to his ear which makes it easy to put them in, none of that squishing and shoving of the wax stuff. The big bonus is that they float, so you can find them when they fall out. (which does happen on occasion)

Porter was on the swim team this year. He competed in the 25m Freestyle, the 4 person Freestyle relay and 25 m backstroke. He loved getting ribbons, whether they were for participation or winning, as long as it was a ribbon. I learned that swim meets are a whole lot of sit around and wait! We would be there for about 4-5 hours. It is unbelievable the amount of stuff you need to pack and bring along. It was as much fun as it was work. We do hope that next year will be more fun for Dixon. This year he was too big to keep contained to the stroller but too little to be entertained in a camp chair with activities. He only wanted to run around and I just wanted him still. He loved cheering on his big brother. He couldn't understand why Porter got to be in the pool and he couldn't.

Our special trip for the summer was a weekend in Sevierville, TN. We booked a night at Wilderness of the Smokies. It was super expensive but with the room rate, we got 2 days of water park admission and the kids ate for free when we bought a meal. We had never taken the kids to a water park and it was so much fun for all of us. I am not sure who had more fun. Porter loved riding the 'big slides' with Matt and Dixon had his own water slides which he loved. Everyone had fun in the lazy river and wave pool. To help stay within our budget, we booked a 'cheap' hotel for the second night and just went there after the water park closed. It was a wonderful weekend for our family. We had not done anything like this since we have had Dixon and it was time for a mini vacation. Matt played with the boys a lot and gave me time just to chill out and read a book.

On our way home, we detoured through Greenville to visit with Jen Thomas Gaillard (best buddy from high school) and her family. Her boys and mine are the about the same age and it was great to have the day with them. I love to see our kids play together.

July has brought us some challenges. Matt had some medical testing done which turned out to be okay but for a few days, I was terrified. From the testing, we learned that he has a left branch bundle blockage in his heart. All further testing came back normal so we are going to assume this is just part of his makeup and do nothing further. Should he develop more problems or blockage, a pace maker would be the remedy. Once we knew that Matt was okay, Porter had his turn. He has suffered horribly this past school year with strep throat. His Doctor wanted him to have a tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy. He did that on July 19th. We were given pretty clear instructions that he needed to drink a lot and take his pain meds around the clock to stay ahead of the pain. I faithfully gave him his meds and tried with all my might to get him drinking enough. On Wednesday following surgery, our AC broke and we went to spend the night with friends. He started vomiting and we couldn't get it to stop. The next day we knew we were heading back to the doctor. When he went to stand up to go to the van, he collapsed. It was so scary for me. I yelled up to the AC guy who carried him to the car. I called Matt at work in a panic and told him to meet me that we were heading to the hospital. Porter was admitted to peds and put on iv's. It took several attempts because his veins kept 'blowing' due to extreme dehydrati0n. As it turns out, the pain meds I was so adamantly giving him, made him sick. Even though he would complain, I made him take the medicine. Can you imagine how I felt? Talk about worse Mommy of the Year Award!! Send it my way now. My brother, Joseph, was kind enough to take a day off work and come up to stay with Dixon so that Matt and I could tend to Porter and his needs. We discharged from the hospital the next day. Porter perked up over the weekend and is now on his road to a full recovery.

As if our medical things weren't enough for one month, we had some appliances trying to see which would be the first to die and which would be fixable. The ac won the dead competition. We have a brand new unit now installed and are hopeful that it will keep us cool and happy for years to come. Handy Dandy Matt was able to keep trying this and that and was finally able to solve the refrigerator problems with a new evaporator fan motor which turned out to be relatively inexpensive as compared to a new unit or even a service call from the repairman.

We are looking forward to starting back to school in another week.

Soccer Season Has Begun

Porter wanted to play soccer again this spring. We participate through the First United Methodist Church league. It works great for our schedule. They only meet on Saturday mornings. Last year Porter played for the first time and did not do much but run around and learn to not use his hands. He is on a team with 4 boys and 4 girls. He is do 100% better than last year. His team even scored 7 goals today. (His team did not score 1 goal in any game all season last year!) He is doing really good a being a team player and trying hard to stay with the ball and kicking. He even mastered kicking the ball out of bounds when the other team was close to making a goal.

Dixon also loves soccer. He really, really, really wants to be out on the field. I have a feeling that we will have 2 soccer players next spring.

There is Gold in Them There Hills

Matt and Porter are in different school systems and do not have the same school holidays for the most part. This week has been spring break for Matt. On Monday, I did not have any babysitting to do so....we packed a picnic lunch, checked Porter out of school and headed North. We went up to Dahlonega for a family fun day. The boys were very excited for this change of schedule. We toured the Gold History Museum then took off for some panning for gold. We found a great place called Crissom Gold Mines. Although we did not 'catch the fever' we had a great time. Dixon had much more fun splashing the water than panning for gold and gem stones but Porter became a pro....well Matt might have been the family expert if I recall correctly. We finished off our gold mine adventure with a wagon ride (aka tractor) through the area. We got to see some antique mining equipment, animals and some old mines. This particular mine provide 16 of the 54 total ounces of gold that cover the state capitol building.

If you are ever in the area and need an activity, we would highly recommend the gold mining experience.

Time Hasn't Stood Still

I realize that I haven't posted since Halloween and my dear sweet little brother, Jared, is afraid that we are frozen in a time bog of some sort. I just have not had the vast amount of time required to uploading my pictures thanks to a very old computer. Thanks for a little bit of tax money, we bought a new computer! Yay for us!! Now, we only need to find the software so that I can download from my camera! Oh no....Easter is approaching....my goal is to have pictures up by say....4th of July!


We are doing good though....busy as ever!

Dixon is back to suffering with ear infections. It is spring and we are very sad that his antibiotics (that were expensive) did not clear it up. A visit with the ENT is in our very near future.

Porter has suffered with several strep throat infections. We are very close to having to send him to the ENT also. When he is healthy, he enjoys school. He had a sight word test today and he passed on 80 of the 100 words. He is playing soccer of Saturdays and seems to like it better than he did last spring.

Matt is now wearing glasses. He looks quite handsome. He has spring break coming up and will spend some time getting the garden prepped. We have been planning what to plant at Family Home Evening.

I am working really hard to strengthen my bad knee. It is very frustrating. I can have a great day...meaning I can walk 'normal' and then all of a sudden and without any hint/warning, I will take another step and can hardly walk. Please keep my in your prayers.

Halloween

We shared Halloween with the Vess Family, Robertson Family, Graham Family, Robbins Family and the Call Family. It was a fun afternoon with play time for the kiddos and visiting with the Mom's and Dad's. Everyone shared in a potluck supper then we dressed the kids and headed out for trick or treating! The rain stopped long enough for us to accomplish our mission!
A really, really tired Dixon after all of the fun.

The gang as we started out in search of candy.

Dixon (fireman), Porter (Venom aka bad spiderman) and Ely (Ninja Turtle).

Dixon after returning home. In case the kids did not have enough excitement for one day, we also celebrated Dixon's birthday with an Elmo cookie cake. He loved getting to have 'Happy Birthday' sang to him.

Trunk or Treat

Happy Birthday Dixon

My baby boy has turned 2! Time sure does fly when we are having fun! Dixon has changed so much over the last few months. He loves to wrestle around, climb, jump and is always on the go!!! His best friend would be his big brother with a close tie between Miss Ava and Miss Emily.

We celebrated his birthday with buddies on Halloween. His favorite cartoon character is Elmo. He loves, loves, loves Elmo and Sesame Street. He pronounces him as "Ut-Oh".

Dixon is my 'sweet-tooth boy'. He loves candy and seeks it out at every opportunity! Here he was spying Ely and Ellie's candy machine. Too bad he couldn't find any money.

Family Fun Day

In an effort to find budget-friendly family fun day activities, we loaded up and went to the local Real Estate Associations' kids fair.

The highlight of the fair might have been a ride in the miniature firetruck.

No ride on a firetruck would be complete without fireman hats!

A close second could be the animals. Dixon and Porter got to pet a pony, goats, sheep, bunnies and look at some chickens up close.

Here are my little firemen checking out the interior of the truck. There is a lot of room inside that cab.

The boys also enjoyed jumping in the large inflatables, eating boiled peanuts and winning candy from the carnival style games.

Henderson Family Birthday Dinner

My family tries to get together for a dinner to celebrate each other's birthday. It was a stoke of luck that Jared had a business trip in Alabama for the week following Porter's birthday. His company was kind enough to make his travel arrangements such that he could spend the weekend at Home before his meetings began. We were so happy to spend this time together. Porter felt so special that Uncle Jared came on the big airplane just for his birthday!


Aunt Paige came to visit too! We had a great time visiting before dinner.

Uncle Joseph and the boys had a dance competition. Porter was the winner!!

Late on Saturday afternoon, Porter told me he wanted a vanilla cake for his birthday dinner. I kept telling him that vanilla cake was what we had for the sponge bob cupcakes and he didn't eat them. After much discussion, I realized what he was talking about was pound cake!! Uncle Joseph came through and made his favorite cake (now we know)....a vanilla butter pound cake! In true Joseph style, he put sparkler candles on the birthday cake. Porter was a little startled by the sparks flying around. Thanks for the great cake, Uncle Joseph!!

Happy Birthday Porter

Porter turned 6 on September 25th. A special birthday surprise was a weekend visit from Cousin Amelia. His birthday was on a Friday night and we wanted to keep things simple....we invited 6 friends to come for dinner and cake. For his birthday dinner, we served his favorite meal...spaghetti! No birthday party would be complete without cake. Porter wanted Sponge Bob Square Pants. I learned from previous parties that after I would spend hours decorating character cakes (you know the ones with thousands of 'stars') that Porter really doesn't eat cake with frosting. He just likes the idea of cake frosting. I decided to look around for a bakery cake. For anyone who does not know (like me), Sam's Club offers 30 cupcakes for $12.63!!!! I could hardly buy cupcake papers and character sugar candies for that much money!!! It was fast and easy and no one complained (especially me)!

Blue Ridge Apple Picking and Amicolola Falls State Park

A favorite family fun day activity is to go on our annual Apple Orchard adventure. This year was especially fun because the orchard allowed you to pick your own apples during a few weekends in September. Even though it was officially fall...it was HOT!! We did not let that stop our fun! The boys loved getting to taste all kinds of apples. I loved getting to pick only the little apples. They are the perfect size for our little hands....which leads to less waste. Our favorite apple was the Ambrosia variety.



Dixon and Matt on the tractor ride up into the orchard.

Porter and Julie on the ride.

After apple picking, sampling homemade goodies and eating some fried apple pies, we left and headed to the state park. We found a great picnic spot and enjoyed our picnic supper then headed to the playground. While I was packing up the picnic food, I spotted a long lost friend, Jeff Hibbert. He and Marigold were there with their kids. What a great coincidence. We were able to introduce our children to each other and visit for about an hour while the kids played. Such a special treat for our family fun day!

After we said good-bye to the Hibberts, we drove to the top of the mountain. Porter was unhappy that the park was closing and we had to leave. This is a face I often get to see....thought you might like a peek!!

Dixon was in good spirits. He loved the big slide at the playground where we had our picnic.

Uncle Joseph comes to visit

One of the first names that Dixon could pronounce, fairly clearly was 'Joseph'. As a result, he has a fast friend. Dixon loves to play with Uncle Joseph and keeps him hopping when we go to Nanny and Papa's house. It was a fun treat to have Uncle Joseph come to our home for an afternoon.

Joseph and Dixon looking at the salt water tank at the Nature Center.

Porter also loves the Nature Center.

The favorite tank....TURTLES!!

Playing on the playground at the park. Joseph was very patient with the boys and just let them play as long as they wanted.

After our day of playing at the park and looking at animals, Uncle Joseph headed off for the rest of his vacation. He was kind enough to treat us to a yummy, yummy Chinese dinner. Thanks!!!

We love having visitors...come again.