Jaysons fishing expedition

A couple of weeks ago Jayson had the opportunity to go fishing with a family at church. They went out on a boat into the Chesapeake Bay and fished for "striper" which thanks to Google I now know is Striped Bass, also known as rock fish. Jayson took the honor of biggest fish caught with a 34 inch specimen. He caught a few others, including one that didn't meet the minimum size requirement and had to be thrown back. The following night for dinner, my wonderful non-fish-eating husband finished cutting the filets so that I could broil them for dinner. He even happily ate some since our boy caught it. It was pretty good!

Summer has begun

We are not through with school yet for this year, but the crazy summer schedule is in full swing already. We run all the time it seems, and when we are home it is a mad rush to catch up on chores. Unfortunately the chores are winning this week. Today was supposed to be art co-op, but our hostess cancelled. That should have given me plenty of time to clean, but instead I have spent the day nursing a bad headache. You have to love all the pollen this time of year. I have new pictures to post, but happen to be sitting at the wrong computer at the moment, so those will come in a later post.
While I am whining, I may as well mention my bad technology luck of the last week or so. For about the last 9 months I have had the env2 for my cell phone. I have been happy with it, small, cute, qwerty keyboard, what more could a girl ask for? Well a couple of months ago, Maddox decided it needed a bath. Or maybe it was thirsty. Whatever it was, he dropped it in a glass of water. Allyson happened to be close enough to grab it and pull the battery off before any real damage could be done. Unfortunately it got wet enough to void my warrantee. So fast forward to last week. The charging port became loose or broken, and the phone will no longer charge. Great. Short term I activated my old razr, which is pink and cute, but no keyboard. This will just not do. I ended up finding an older Palm Treo on craigslist and activated it yesterday. I like the phone and the pda features, but am no longer able to use the internet because it is not compatible with the new plans. Bummer. The bigger issue though, is that it also isn't compatible with Verizons contact back up system, so I now have to input 90 contacts by hand.
In the midst of all of this phone chaos, my computer decided to develop problems as well. This is MY computer, not the family one, my brand new pink Dell laptop. I get Dell tech support on chat (I love the option of tech support chat rather than having to call them on the phone!) and it turns out I have a bad hard drive. How does that happen? They solved the problem by sending me a refurbished hard drive via Fed Ex. I just got done installing the new hard drive and am ready to start installing software and we will see where we are at.
I certainly hope I don't have a 3rd technology calamity on the way.....

Exhausting day

After my bout with insomnia last night, I got a late start today. You know how it goes, once you get behind, you just never catch up. Brad was home early from work, which further throws the schedule off.
He has been hobbling around on a sore knee for a month or so now. The orthopedist referred him for an MRI, which is why he was home early. We should have the results by next week.
Jayson and Dalton both had games tonight, so no scouts for us. Both of our teams were defeated, unfortunately. Jayson was sad that he didn't get to bat, he went in as a substitute late in the game.
While the guys were at the ball field, I was home with Landon, Maddox, Phoenix and Ari. The babies were in rare form with lots of crying and trouble making. This year is proving to be harder with the babies than last. Phoenix is into everything, and takes any opportunity to wander out of my sight. Ari is still young enough to need lots of hands on, which provides Phoenix those opportunities. Maddox goes back and forth between demanding extra attention and showing signs of jealousy, to being Phoenix's partner in crime. Poor Landon can get over looked amidst all of the chaos.

Bunch of sickies

We have had quite a month around here with illness and injuries. It started with Allyson at the end of April. She was having some "girl" issues and saw her primary care doctor. He wasn't able to get to the root of the problem and she ended up hospitalized on April 30 and May 1, and was out of work and school for a few more days after that. Thanksfully she is doing better now, just has some follow up appointments to deal with.
I managed to be a parent for 22 years without having a child hospitalized, and now have had two in about six months. We also have had more than our share of ER visits recently. The most recent one was on May 9. I had gone to PA to attend the CHAP homeschool convention and took Maddox with me since he is still nursing. He was such a trooper, rode well in the car, was content while we shopped and dined. Near the end of the day on Friday, he started getting fussy, very much unlike him. I skipped dinner that night to let him rest at the hotel, but he still was not acting right Saturday morning. After watching him for awhile, I realized he was not using his left arm at all. A trip to the local ER revealed that he has a partially dislocated elbow called "nursemaids elbow". Luckily it is an easy fix and he was back to his normal laid back self pretty quickly.
You would think that would be enough for one family for awhile, but not our family. The next day after church, Jayson complained he felt sick. He began a round of a stomach virus that went through him, Dalton, Maddox, and Ari. And to add insult to injury, Dalton started running a fever on Monday, along with a headache, that has endured off and on for the last week, and now Maddox and Phoenix seem to be coming down with it.
Please let this be the end of it. Maybe if the warm weather decides to come and stay for awhile.........