Shingles

I came down with a nasty case of shingles. I am not talking about the kind on a roof, but the painful, blistering, itchy but you can't itch it because it is a blister and painful, skin rash kind on your body. It is the virus that causes chickenpox. For whatever reason, I got it. I thought about putting a photo of it on the blog, but it gave it me the creeps/goosebumps on my arms to look at it again and so I thought I would spare you.

At first I thought I had 5 nasty spider bites. They were at the back of my neck and up in my hair/scalp. They hurt so bad. I got a blinding headache with them. Finally, after three days of this, I went to the doctor. By then, they were spreading. They told me it was in fact shingles. I was surprised to find out there is such a thing as a medication for a virus. Antiviral medication called acyclovir that I had to take 5 times a day (It was pretty intense!) along with prednisone and hydrocodone. The doctor said it could last along as 3 months. Everyone is different. We caught it pretty early and were able to decrease the course of the bug by a lot. After 2.5 weeks I was better. Thank goodness.

My sweet husband did get me some flowers after we found out what it was. I couldn't find a vase, so look how resourceful I am. The magical transformation of the popcorn bucket into a vase.

"APPY" BIRTHDAY Tommy

Happy Birthday to Tommy/hubby/daddy! No I didn't spell Happy Birthday wrong. It is APPY for a reason. We LOVE the angry birds app on this ipod. This is an Angry Birds birthday party. The banner is ipods. I always tease Tommy, "there's an app for that." Perfect that there was one for his birthday. We had his favorite cupcakes (and mine too, truth be told. I can't resist them even though I am trying not to eat sugar right now. All resolve goes out the window when I make these bad boys.), chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

(Note on present: "Real Dads like pink!")

So, not everything is as it seems. Under that pretty pink paper was a manly DeWALT cordless drill Tommy has been asking for. However, I am pretty sure I am going to get a lot of good use from it too.

APPY BIRTHDAY Tommy, we love you lots. Hope you enjoyed your day.

Stacking with Stoney

Stoney was stacking close to our house. So I took Livy and we went and visited him (took him a chocolate peanut butter cupcake). Livy got to ride with him for a bit and absolutely LOVED it. She talked about it for a long time afterwards. It was run to see two stack wagons in the same field. They busted that stack job out pretty quickly.

This is right after she got in with Stoney. She wasn't sure if she wanted to stay in it. It kind of scared her.

Look at that grin! Turns out she likes it.

Horseback Riding

I don't really know if you consider riding horses around the pen horseback riding, but it totally counts for my family. My kids have never been around horses nor have they ever rode one before. So it totally counts. Briar, don't laugh. Baby steps.

We started out on a pony named Butterscotch. She was gentle, old, slow: perfect for us. She didn't really want to do what we asked her to, but she would follow any person around the pen. That helped us get familiar with horses.

(this one if for you Briar, our little cow, girl. Do you see her boots?)

It is so sweet when these two get along. I mean when Howie is nice to his sister. She just adores him and wants to do everything he does. This is one of those rare moments when he is happy to be the big brother and help her.

Yes, that my feet can almost touch the ground. Safer that way, didn't you know? Less distance to the ground when you fall. Howie and I were giving each other high fives.

I finally advanced to the big horse. This is me looking like I know what I am doing. Not.

Thank you so much Karen for a fun couple of hours for our family. It was super fun, the kids had a blast and keep asking to do it again.

We had packed a lunch and went to the park to eat and let the kids play and get their energy out. It amazing me how much energy kids have. Seriously, where does it all come from?

Then we stopped at the local fruit stand and picked up some blueberries (another canning project for myself) and snagged these photos.

Howie's the 1st Grader

I just love the First Day of School. I remember it as a kid and how excited I would get. It is still fun for me. I just love those first day of school photos and how neat and clean everyone it. I love the school supplies and organizing your desk. It is just a fun feeling. Well Howie was excited to start school too. My impression of Howie's attitude was, 'ya, I've been to Kindergarten last year. I already have this school thing down. I am big stuff.' Of course, in a totally cute, matter of fact kind of way.

Jealous sister. She wanted to be going to school too.

With his teacher, Mrs. Martin. I love that there is only one class per grade in our small country school. I love that in Howie's class there are only 15 kids. I love the one on one attention. There are some great perks to small.

Excitedly putting his supplies in his desk.

First day of school, getting home from the bus. Love it.