Happy Birthday Nathan!

Today is Nathan's 6th birthday. We're not having a big celebration. Nathan's not very social, so he didn't want a party. He's going to Backyard Bible Club tomorrow, and then we'll go out for supper tomorrow night. Of all the restaurants we have here in the metro Atlanta area, which one did he pick? Burger King. He told me it was because they have Transformers toys. I can't stand BK. Oh well, I guess it's cheaper than O'Charley's. Then, I made him a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. I convinced him to have that instead of his original choice. Vanilla (yellow) cake with white frosting. That just did not sound very appetizing.

He was also very hard to buy for. He loves to read, as you can tell from the picture, so I got him some books from Barnes and Noble. I bought a book about the skeleton, plus two Seymour Simon books about space. I wasn't really sure what else to get. So, I went to Target and wandered for awhile. I finally bought him two Lego sets, a Bakugan (don't ask), and the game Operation. Then, just as I was about ready to leave, I saw a box of Uno cards. I had to get them. I know that if my grandpa was here, he'd love to teach Uno to both Matthew and Nathan. Maybe tonight, I'll sit down with the two of them and teach them Uno over a 2 liter of Mountain Dew.

Vacation!

My favorite picture from vacation.

The first week of June we went to the Smoky Mountains for vacation. I live in North Georgia, which is really pretty in the fall, but there's nothing that compares to the Great Smokies. The whole area is beautiful. My parents found an RV resort in Seiverville that also had cabins that people could rent. They brought their camper, we stayed in one cabin, and my brother and his family stayed in another. Our cabin faced the river, and it was really quiet. While we were a little crowded in our one room cabin, (I would have never made it as a pioneer) we had a great time. My sister-in-law, Heidi, taught Matthew to fish. He never caught anything, but he had a great time. There was also a pool, and the boys went swimming almost every day. We didn't really do a lot of touristy stuff. If you've ever been to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, you understand what I'm saying. We did go into Gatlinburg one day and walked around. We found an old style arcade where you could play different games and earn tickets. (Think Chuck E Cheese) My dad changed $20 into quarters, and we split it among the four kids. They had a blast. Of course, after they got done playing, they had to spend their tickets. Matthew and Nathan got two paper fans, (I have no idea why) a spiderman that stretched, and a couple of huge plastic flies. They were happy, though, so I can't complain. Plus, $20 to keep everyone busy for a couple of hours really can't be beat. We also went into the national park one day and drove to Cade's Cove. There's a number of cabins and other buildings there that you can go through. We even got to see a bear while we were driving. We didn't stop to get a picture, though. Here are some of the pictures we did get.

Sitting alongside the river fishing.

Trying to take a picture with all five grandchildren

Matthew and Elli swimming in the pool.

It was a great time. I can't wait to go back next year.

What In the World Have I Been Doing?

I know all two of you who read this blog (Hi Mom!) are probably wondering why I can't seem to keep it updated. I mean, it's summer vacation, and I'm at home all day. So, why can't I keep up?

Well, first of all, I'm lazy. That's right. The school year is so busy that during the summer, I don't get very much done. I start the summer with projects I want to accomplish, and not very many of them get done. I'm bad, I know.

Second, I have been working on a REALLY big project. My goal for this summer was to get a grip on my writing and reading lesson plans, and I am making progress on it. So far, I've finished all of my writing lesson plans for the first four months of school. My goal is to have all of the writing plans done by the end of June so I can begin to work on my reading plans. I've also been spending an insane amount of money on Amazon for books. There's actually one more I want to buy, but Jeremy's threatened to hide the computer modem if I order it. (That's OK, I can wait until August when I can have it delivered to school. :-) )

So, I promise that I will get vacation pictures up soon. (Hopefully, before next year's vacation.)

Summer has started!

If I didn't already know, the 90 degree temperatures all week have made me sure. Good grief, I don't think I can take another three months of this. But that's not the reason our summer finally started. This is the reason. . .

We went to the pool today! I've been out of school for four weeks now, and we finally got to the pool. Of course, last week we were on vacation. (Pictures of that to come!) Of course, I only got to take Matthew since Nathan is fighting a weird stomach virus. He was sick on Monday, but felt fine by the afternoon. Tuesday he was fine the whole day, but today he was sick again this afternoon after feeling fine all morning. I'm not sure what's going on. It was a little weird going to the pool with just one child. Last year, I had to hold Andrew the whole time while making sure I always knew where Matthew and Nathan were. The rule at our pool is kids 6 and under have to be within arm's length at all times. They stretch the rule to pretty much being within sight all the time. Of course, now that Matthew's seven, I don't have to be within arm's length. So, I could sit on the towel and read while he went all over. I was so excited, until I got to the pool and realized it was too stinking hot to sit and read! So, I went back and forth from the pool back to the side where I could read for awhile until the heat got to be too much. Matthew had a good time, though, and we'll be heading back on Friday! (When it'll be 95 degrees. Lord, have mercy on me.)

Worry

I took Andrew to the pediatrician today for his 18 month check up. While she was very happy he's walking now, she's still worried about his lack of speech. He's not saying any recognizable words yet. Since he had been on an antibiotic to get rid of the fluid in his ear, she used a tympanometer to test whether his eardrum was vibrating. If he still had fluid, we were going to have another round of antibiotics with a re-check in two weeks. She also suggested waiting until he was 22 months old to see if his speech improves before we went to an ENT. That was the plan until she saw the results of the tympanogram. It showed that there isn't fluid behind the ear drum, but his hearing is still very poor. So instead of waiting, we are headed off to the ENT in two weeks.