A Very Unorganized Update

I am way, way overdue on the updating and if I wait around to organize it...it'll never happen. So in no particular order...here is the past week or so!

1. Margie's 9 months post-chemo scan results have come back NED :-) Yippee!! NED means No Evidence of DISEASE!

2. Miss Cleo has had THE awaited appointment and is now declawed and spayed. I LOVE this cat - she is a total doll, but she put some serious hurtin' on our leather couches during the couples weeks that we had her with claws.


3. 6pm or so on a Sunday - Silas and Daddy on the porch enjoying some gorgeous weather. We have been SO spoiled with gorgeous late summer weather. It might look like we have Silas in his pajamas pretty early...but the truth is...he never got out of his pajamas that day. He loves his "lazy days"!

4. Klutzy Silas has struck again. He fell out of the blue porch chair and did a head-dive onto the concrete. I'm seriously surprised that Childrens Services hasn't come calling on us...


5. Silas started his first round of swim lessons at the Y. He did great. I remember when Mason started taking swim lessons - it took about 10 sessions before he'd even put his face in the water. Luckily, Silas has been around pools and water since birth (thanks to the James' lovely pool). He is totally at ease in the water. He was freezing his butt off though.

6. This school stuff is putting a totally whooping on the kids - they either crash out at the end of the night or are manic for hours on end and refuse to even contemplate sleep. Silas often tells me "I cannot close my eyes in my room" - that is his way of trying to get to sleep in our bed. He's been waking up in the middle of the night for the last 5 or 6 days and coming into bed with us. He is not subtle...he'll come in on my side, I'll sit up so he can climb in and then he totally takes my spot and zonks out in an instant, leaving me to move his jello body over into the middle of the bed, where he promptly completes the H between me and Justin, head in Justin's back and feet in my ribs...this morning he was laughing and giggling in his sleep.


7. This wonderfully, beautiful weather that we are having has gotten us outside a lot in the evenings. I would take the weather year-round with a couple days of snow at Christmas.

8. Justin bought new jeans. Finally. Sam's club jeans. Nice jeans, $12 - can't complain. Here he is in his new jeans moments before leaving for work...luckily I had downed several cups of coffee before he left and was pretty observant...

Yes, I told him before he left the house...


9. Mason - he avoids the camera as much as possible. but he still exists. More about him later....

Parties, Baseball and Zoo Fun...

Well, I did an update last Thursday and already, more to update again because of such a busy weekend. It's hard to keep up with the blog when I'm so busy DOING stuff!

Saturday we helped Sam celebrate his 2nd birthday!

My kids are the ones that never smile!

Sunday we went to the Clippers game. First time at the new
Huntington Field. Very nice! Very expensive food!
And it was VERY hot out.

Chowing on some cotton candy

Kevin and Mason looking too cool!

Monday, Jen and I took Mason, Tyler, Sam, Ella and Silas to the zoo.
I didn't get any pictures of the kids but got a few animals :-)

This stingray was eating lunch - I've never
seen a stingray eat, or even realized where the mouth was.
He's much nicer looking from this angle, when you can't
see his long stinger.

And Mr. Monkey guy was very cute and even
smiled at the kids (seriously!)

'

Today was Margie's 3rd and hopefully final surgery! It went very, very well - it did not take as long as Dr. L said it might and he was practically tap dancing when he gave us the post-surgery update - he was very pleased with how well it went. Thank God and thanks for all the prayers!

This week is busy with getting everyone ready to get back to school.
All 3 in school this year - wow!

This - That - and the Other

A hodge podge of stuff - the first is that Ella has her very first loose tooth! Just like with kindergarten, she has waited for this day forever!! The minute that her new teeth would come in, she'd ask me when her tooth would be loose and fall out like her friends! My girl is definitely growing up.
Notice the wide eyes in most pictures? After every picture she asks "did I blink??"



On to Ike - we managed to escape any damage from the high winds, even though all around us were lots of roofs being blown off, trees down everywhere, etc. This morning I went down to the basement to get something and discovered huge amounts of water dripping from the ceiling all over Justin's desk area - where he just happened to have a big basket of pictures that I usually keep in the front room - soaked - totally soaked. Ella's baby calendar, school pictures of Mason and Ella, lots of vacation pictures. I took some out and started trying to dry them off but I don't know how much I'll be able to salvage. Really a bummer. I can't imagine if it were everything I owned like those that really got hit by Ike, Katrina, etc.
Mom/Dad and Margie/Tim are still without power so they brought food from their fridge and freezers over tonight. Luckily we have a big stand-up freezer in the basement to load the stuff in. I just got an email that the schools are closed again tomorrow too...ugh!!!


A Margie update - today was chemo number 7 of 12. After #6 they did the CT scans - all looks good. NED as they say (No Evidence of Disease) according to what they can see on the scans but because there could be itty bitty nasty cells still in there, chemo will continue as planned. Any and all continued prayers are requested and appreciated!

Last - today was the first day of no work for Justin - Friday was his last day. He plans to work hard on the floors over the next few days to get them done - DONE!! and then really hit the search hard (so in the meantime, I'm hitting it hard). He is exploring starting his own business as well - which could be very exciting and very scary too. You may see me rummaging through your trash cans at night if things don't go well over the next few months!

And very last, a couple pictures from last week - Justin caught one of Siley and I smooching. And then we have Ella looking like Marion the Librarian...