Cameron's 8th Birthday!

Cammy had a great birthday. We went to Hazen pool with a bunch of his friends. Some funny stories about that. Let me just say that I will not be catching Cameron off the diving board again. Afterwards we headed to Dairy Queen. I LOVE the Strawberry Cheesequake Blizzard. Okay, I just love cheesecake. Anyway, I had a migraine all day until 30 minutes before the party. God blessed me with the timing. There is no way I could have handled that with a headache. Cameron got lots of presents and gift cards. Saturday I took him to Target and he went shopping. He bought a bunch of noisy trucks and cars and a chainsaw. Yes, the chainsaw makes noise, too. And now we have an 8 year old again. When Alex was this age Cameron was just placed with us. So much has happened since then. Just click here for the birthday pics.

Zoo Day

Cameron, April and I headed off to the zoo today. It was supposed to be raining, but we only had a few sprinkles. Not even enough to bring out the umbrellas. We had a great time and were lucky enough to see the big cats and hear the lion roar. I think the most beautiful would be a tie between the giraffe and the tiger. Cameron loved all the animals and had a blast. He really loved the squirrels. Go figure. Like we don't see enough in our back yard! He didn't have a favorite. He just loved seeing more and more animals. He was so good while we were there, too. And I even got 3 1/2 hours walking in. My feet didn't hurt too bad till the end.

Lost tooth

We didn't think this tooth was ever coming out. It's his 3rd lost tooth. Just in time for 8th birthday pics. I took an idea from a friend, (thanks Andressa!) and tied a piece of floss around it. I had him yanking on it and i finally popped out.

Sassy

Cammy finally got one of the stray cats in our neighborhood to allow him to pet it. Well, it seems that we have adopted him. He's not allowed in the house. Jim was like, "oh great!" Totally complaining about it. Then he asked if I was going to feed it. I told him no and he said I should. Then a little later he made a cat toy for her. Yeah, Mr. Anti-cat! Cameron is absolutely thrilled. He could barely go off with Gerry for therapy. Homeschool focus was tough. I did let him have breaks to play with her.

Birthdays

We have the party themes set. Cameron is having a pool party and Alex is having a sleepover game night. They should both be fun. Of course, Cameron is jealous of Alex, but that seems to be the norm lately. He's jealous of everyone and thinks people should be jealous of him when he does stuff. Where does this thinking come from?

As they turn 8 and 16 many memories come to mind. Alex was Cammy's age when he was placed with us. So much has happened in the past 8 years with both of them. I've watched Alex grow (taller than me) physically and mature so much mentally. He's looking forward to his birthday so he can look for a job. Cameron, well...he's come through so much. They are both my miracle boys, but Cameron truly has had to fight for his life. It's hard to believe the kid who doesn't stop was ever so sick. Can you imagine him on oxygen now? He'd have the tube all over the place making barriers!

Birthdays are always so nostalgic. It's great to look back at all the blessings God has granted us with these two boys. Of course, God has quite a sense of humor, too!

Weight Watchers

Okay, so I am starting it again. I did it a couple of years ago and then one thing after another just slipped away. I have a dear friend who has lost 20lbs and looks AWESOME! Seeing as she did it on WW, I was inspired. It's day 2 and so far so good. It's mentally challenging, but I'm hanging in there. I know I can do this. It's just going to take work. When I struggle I need to turn to the Lord. I can gain strength from Him.

Ocean Shores

We had a great trip to the ocean this past weekend. We arrived around 4 or so and parked the camper and headed out to the beach. It was low tide and I can't believe how far the water was. We got a few good shots on the camera and decided to head back to camp, set up and start a fire, while we waited for our friends to arrive. We had a great evening, great fire and fun together.

Saturday came and was very windy and misty. We figured that the sun would burn off the fog at any moment. Not exactly sure how long we were waiting, but it just didn't happen. We still had fun. We went down to the beach with the horses. The kids had a blast playing. Alex and Cameron rode the horses. Alex has decided that he's not really into them. Cameron was thrilled he got to ride without anyone holding the rope.

I didn't get many pictures. Some are on Andressa's camera, but I did upload the ones I had here. What you will notice is that our visibility was about 500 ft. Sunday we woke up to a beautiful sunny and warm day. We should have headed down to the beach, but decided to head home instead. We had a good trip.

A big weekend

Alex had his first meeting at the library today. He is on the teen advisory board there. He is really excited about it. Turns out that there were 4 boys including him.

Tomorrow morning the kids and I are off to co-op. It's the first day and they are each taking a class.

After that we are headed out to Ocean Shores! Another camping vacation at the beach! This time with our friends the Grosso's. They are bring their horses so the kids are looking forward to riding on the beach. This is going to be the last nice relaxing weekend before the schedule starts filling up. We are supposed to have gorgeous weather while we are there, too. I'll put up a report and pics once we get back. Right now Cameron is asking me to put Devo and POD on his ipod. He's been listening to too much music with daddy.

Back into things...

This week we get back into some of our routine. We went to church this morning and really enjoyed it. Cameron had a good time and his teacher made sure to tell me a special thing he did during class. Tomorrow Andressa and I are going to our first homeschool meeting of the year. Then Friday we start co-op.

The best thing is that Friday we head out camping again! Ocean Shores!! I love camping with the camper. I'm already planning the next trip!

Venting out my bad day...

It started with a headache as the alarm went off. I decided to opt out of our routine and sleep in a little. Big mistake! Cameron did a great art project with all my post it flags and water in a Sprite bottle. Now if he had done this with permission it would have been great. I may have even helped him cut up colored paper, but no he had to use up all my flags which I use a lot.

Next came Bible time. Wow can that kid argue and whine! "It's too hard," "I don't want to do this," "Why do I have to do this," "Can I do it later?" I think about 20 minutes later when he realized that he wasn't getting out of school work he finally gave in. Then homeschool went much smoother. Almost even fun! Of course, at this point all privileges had been taken away so I didn't get to throw him outside! Oh, that's another story. The night before, Cameron is only supposed to ride up and down the sidewalk or alley. He decided to cross the street and ride up and down next to the train tracks!

Okay, my day continues by getting a piece of mail that while it was no big deal, just seemed to bring up some bad feelings of things in the past.

Alex being so sweet offers to give me a break and watch Cameron. That would have been awesome if they weren't bickering like cats and dogs!

I tried to sync my Centro and Palm Desktop froze on my computer. I searched the boards, uninstalled it, reinstalled it a dozen times. No fix! More frustration!

Jim came home from a bad day, but was chilling at home. He was watching the Republican Convention on the computer. I decided to finally take that "me time." I go to watch a streaming movie, but with both of us trying to stream, my movie wouldn't start for an hour and a half.

I gave up and watched a movie in the living room with Alex and Cameron (half the time.) It was a good movie. I recommend it. We watched "Amazing Grace." It's not something I would have normally picked out, except that it was based on a true story with such great biblical principles.

I try one last time before bed to fix my Palm issue on the computer to no avail! Off to bed, but can I sleep? No, I'm tossing and turning about that stupid Palm program. Up I get, search more through Google, try a few things and FINALLY fixed it.

Off to bed for a good night's sleep! Today is a new day and I did NOT sleep in!