Friday, August 12, 2011

The Happ's


Where does the time go? Buzz turned 9 the beginning of July. I made cake in a jar for his birthday/4th of July. They turned out super cute and of course I forgot to get pictures. This is the link I got the idea from. I did red and blue cake with white frosting, Americana sprinkles and Americana ribbons. We BBQ'd hot dogs and hamburgers, had macaroni salad, watermelon and root beer. Then we watched the fireworks and called it a night because JC had to work the next day.

I found a lump on the back of my neck at the base of skull that week. I figured it was probably just a swollen gland from fighting allergies or a cold, I had been pretty run down feeling and tired and thought a couple times that I was "catching" some kind of bug. The pain kept getting worse and eventually spread up the back of my skull and became pretty intense. I decided I should go get it checked out. I was diagnosed with mono and told that the reason I had so much pain and pressure in my skull was because all the lymph nodes back there were swollen up and putting pressure on optical and cranial nerves. So for the last month I have been resting A LOT. I did manage to keep up my studies and pass my insurance exam, but haven't managed to do much else.

Dub had his birthday this month. The night before his birthday I overheard him tell his brothers, "Boys, what do you have to tell me tomorrow?" Then he told his dad, "Dad, what do you need to tell me tomorrow when you get home from work?" JC said, "Dub what should you tell me tomorrow when I get home from work? If it weren't for me you wouldn't be having a birthday tomorrow." Dub's reply was, "Daad, mom did all the work." His Aunt Nae came to babysit that day so I could go do my exam. When I came home, they had totally transformed my house into Batman Party Central. He was so excited!

We are still job hunting for JC and have decided that we are going to quit being so stubborn about where we are willing to relocate and instead adopt the attitude, "I will go where you want me to go Dear Lord..." The boys are not on that same page yet. They do NOT want to leave their school under ANY circumstance. We have been very blessed that the school they attend has really wonderful staff that welcomes and encourages family involvement and we have not had any problem with the curriculum being too "dumbed down" or too "liberal". I am worried however that eventually our rather "conservative" staff we have been blessed with will not have a say in what they teach or don't teach. I am aware that moving (or at this point, thanks to our Governor, even not moving) could place us in a school that does not meet our educational standards or our moral standards and so I have been trying to research alternatives to the public education system to prepare myself for the ugly truth that not all school systems are created equal.

I have been trying to organize the chaos around here. It's amazing how much stuff one family can accumulate in six years. I sold a bunch at my mother in law's yard sale and took what I could not sell to the Goodwill. I still have plenty more to do and I am sure I will have plenty more to sell or donate. My goal is to be ready to move when and where we need to and start fresh and uncluttered in our new house, when ever and where ever that may be.

I took the boys to the Fresno Zoo this summer and was so surprised at how nice it was. It was cheap, quiet, shady and not crowded at all. The boys had a great time. I think the highlight of their day was getting to pet the sting rays. Dub was disappointed that their were no Rhinos, not because he wanted to see the Rhinos but because he wanted to see the ox pecker bird or the "tick bird" that sits on the rhinos back and eats the ticks. He told me all about them, even telling me they (the bird and rhino) have a symbiotic relationship. I told him that symbiotic was a great word and asked him if he could tell me what it meant. Of course he he looked at me like I was an idiot, huffed and rolled his eyes and then told me precisely what it meant. His brothers did not disappoint me with their knowledge either. Through out the day just dropping bits of information about animals and habitats that I had NO IDEA they knew anything about. My boys are pretty smart little cookies.