Living in Munchkinland

And it still goes on. Michael left for El Paso this morning, but his brother and sister-in-law and their kids are still here and so is my mother-in-law. My cousin Marcie and her partner Ann and their two boys come in tonight or tomorrow. Michael's family leaves on Wednesday and then my cousin Jackie comes in on Thursday. On Thursday afternoon we head for the beach for the 4th of July weekend with my cousins and my grandparents. We pick up Michael on the way there. We come back on Sunday night, and will be here until Wednesday when we leave to go back to the beach with three couples and their kids for a second beach vacation in a row. Then Michael is gone for two weeks in a row to El Paso again and then we leave for our family vacation to Canada. Yeehaw! So if you're wondering where I am and why you haven't seen or heard from me, that's why.

This last week I helped host Michael's family reunion. The Walters are a prolific bunch and extremely close. Every two years they have a reunion and everyone attends. I mean everyone! It's not like most families where you go if you can, it's a really big deal. It's a three day gathering and people really look forward to it. It used to be Michael's parents' generation that hosted, but starting this year, our generation has taken the reins and accepted responsibility of the tradition. Since Michael's father is the eldest of the siblings, his children were first to take it on. Michael and his brother and brother's wife and I all worked together (with a LOT of help from my in-laws) and held the reunion at my parents house this past weekend. Immediate family came in on Wednesday and the rest came in on Friday. We had 12 family units with a total of 41 people, 12 of whom were under six. Crazy! We spent Wednesday and Thursday getting to spend some spec...

He finally put it together. He knows the sounds, but it took a while for him to realize that if he put the sounds together, it could actually make a word. A word that he could read- to himself- from a page. We sat and looked at sounds today during "special" time and all of sudden he was putting them together. Today. For the first time. It's rocking his world right now, though he's still afraid to do it by himself. (How did we already instill fear of failure????) Anyway, as you can tell by my shouting on the video, I'm obviously proud. Enjoy!

The kids have got it. On Sunday night, Davis woke up crying every two hours saying his mouth and throat hurt. He did the same on Monday night and his appetite was off so I took him to the doctor Tuesday morning. He had no fever, and while our pediatrician did manage to take a throat culture it was with great effort, because ever since Davis got his stitches, he is terrified to see a doctor. He wouldn't let her look in his mouth at all. It wasn't strep and we couldn't see anything wrong, so I took him home and resumed daily life. Wednesday, Davis still complained, but not as vigorously so I figured maybe it was some weird growing pains. Though his appetite was still not great. Then Sam started complaining that his mouth hurt. He was pointing at the swollen areas where his two year old molars are forcing their way through so I assumed he was teething. Later in the afternoon, he started running a fever. I started getting nervous, but hoped that it was just related t...

1. Michael is out of town for the second week in a row. It sucks. 2. I am sore all over and can barely move, but I love my new gym membership. You get muscles AND free childcare all in one. 3. We got new patio furnture and I picked it up and assembled it by myself. It's too hot to go outside and enjoy it though. 4. The kids inhaled curried lentils with beef that I made for dinner. 5. Davis is still extreme in his emotions, but I feel we may be turning a corner. 6. I locked my keys in the car today. 7. It's a lonely week, but somehow still really busy. 8. Every time I clean something up, the kids are in the other room making a mess. 9. I'm supposed to throw a family reunion on the ranch in two weeks. 10. I'm going to travel a lot in July and I am really looking forward to it even though I'm supposed to be staying in the moment. 11. Sigh.

For months, Michael has really wanted to have a camp out down at the river behind our house. It is a perfect place to have a camp out, with a deep cool river, tons of space, bbq grill, sand box, swim dock, etc. We postponed because our weekends were always so busy and Sam was so young. The whole camping season was passing us by and so in March, we picked our next empty weekend (the first weekend in June) and wrote camping across it on the calendar. We invited a few friends and made big plans. This weekend was the camp out. We had four families plus ourselves come to play. At one point we had four tents set up. On Saturday night, my parents threw a great party at their house and invited all of our guests and us to join them. We hiked up the hill from the river and had the opportunity for a great swim in the pool, delicious food and an amazing concert under the full moon. This worked our well for some, and less well for others. The thing about camping is that it is a lot of work...

Farewell Pumpkin. You were a good cow. We liked to visit you and feed you grass. We talked about you every day on our way to school. Yesterday Uncle Larry and Gramp loaded you into the trailer and took you off to "vacation". We hope you enjoy the greener pastures there. We'll see you in a couple of weeks in butcher paper and shrink wrap. Ranch life is interesting. I wish the kids hadn't named him.