Turkey Bowling

Friday night was the monthly Cub Scout pack meeting. Pack meetings are generally quite long and quite loud (says the overly sensitive pregnant woman) and this one was no exception. The boys were psyched about it though, because this month they were turkey bowling! I don't know what they did with all the turkeys when they were done - I didn't ask - but everyone sure enjoyed it. My camera's battery had died before I got over to Spencer's den during the bowling part of the evening, but I did snap him after receiving his Bobcat badge, one of several things he earned that night:


And for my random picture of the day....

The boys lost a ball on top of the roof. Being the industrious people that we are, we decided to knock it off with another ball. Now the boys had lost TWO balls on the roof. One did come down on its own, but the other decided to stay put. We don't own a ladder tall enough for Mike to climb up to get it, which left us with a couple options: Wait to see if it eventually blew down (which would be unlikely since it was on a portion of the roof that had a small retaining wall around it) or hoist one of the boys up. We were pretty much resigned to option A since neither Paxton nor Spencer were interested. A half hour later though, Paxton had changed his mind and wanted to give it a try. He was victorious, and incredibly proud of conquering his fear.

Projects and telling time

Spencer needed a project. It wasn't a specific project at first, it just had to be a project, and he wanted it to involve screws. I suggested he and Mike build me a new DVD case since I'd outgrown my current one. He was very excited about that, but it required more planning, materials and tools than we could acquire in one weekend. Then he decided it could be a little project, so we looked at Walmart, and he was very happy to find a model truck that was put together with... screws! Here he is working on it, and the finished product:





Since we were going to Walmart, Paxton decided to bring some money because he's been wanting to buy a watch. They didn't have a huge selection of kids' watches, but he did find one that caught his eye. It was black, and covered in flames. He's been big into flames lately. It was a regular watch though, not a digital one like he'd planned. He worried out loud that he didn't know how to tell time yet, and I assured him that it was something he could learn easily if that was the watch he wanted. He decided to get it, and we headed home. We piled into the car and pulled out of the parking lot... only to return to return 30 seconds later to retrieve the brand-new watch from the floor beside the ice machine, where he'd set it down to put his change into his wallet. With the watch finally safely in hand once again, I explained what was on the face and what it all meant. By the time we got home - maybe an 8 minute drive - he had time-telling down cold, and gave us frequent updates the rest of the night.

Scout-O-Rama and caramel apples

It was hot. Really hot. Even for Arizona, especially for November. But the Scout-O-Rama (a huge, state-wide Scout fair where each pack sets up and runs a different, hands-on booth) was a lot of fun. Our pack did a booth about mining, complete with mining info, a "mine" for kids to go through - after Spencer outfitted them with their headlights - and a chance to pan for gold. After they were done with their shifts, we walked around and experienced a lot of the other packs' offerings.

The kids made caramel apples that same weekend, something I'd promised them we'd do as a family since they'd missed it at the Harvest party. It was a success, and the end result was of course, delicious.

News, notes & happenings

The mind reels that it could be possible, but another month has come and gone, and we are now officially into November. October was every bit as packed with activity as September, both good and bad.

I am now 24 weeks pregnant. I rang in week 21 with a several-hour stay in the hospital with incredible pains, the source of which was never discovered. I was pumped with fluids, experienced morphine for the first time in my life, was poked, prodded, given shake-inducing drugs to stop any contractions... and eventually sent home with instructions to call if it got worse. Whatever it was, it lasted 3 days, and then went away. Good times. That same weekend, our neighbors re-did their lawn, and Spencer and Paxton got to help drive the tractor - Spencer's idea of heaven; and my parents brought all three of them to Anabelle's birthday party. Life goes on.

The next few weeks went by in a blur. We spent an entire day unassembling and moving a swingset, and another setting it up. A kind person on one of my homeschool lists was giving it away for free, and since we didn't have one and always had it on our "someday" list, we jumped on it. It's been a lot of fun for the kids, especially now that it's cooled off; and the upper level makes a great hideway for a picnic lunch.

Mike took a day off so we could all go to AZ State Fair. It was a good fair, a HUGE fair, and the boys did everything from milking a pretend cow and "selling" vegetables, to riding rides, shooting balloons with darts to win stuffed animals, to completing a scavenger hunt and quiz to get a rattlesnake poster.

Because we apparently felt the need to squeeze as much into 2 days as physically possible, the day after the fair we set up a Zen garden:



and visited a pumpkin patch, farmer's market, and corn maze:







This past weekend was a trip to the zoo, where we saw it more packed than we've ever experienced, got to pet stingrays and sharks, and spent a long time watching the baby orangutan. I didn't touch the camera all day, but Paxton did snap this great shot of the bald eagle:

This week was of course Halloween, which meant carving pumpkins, dressing up, and trick-or-treating. They went trick-or-treating not once, but TWICE this year, as they went as a Cub Scout group to an assisted living home, as well as around our neighborhood. We were supposed to go a Harvest Party this week too, but ending up backing out at the last minute, because we were just plain TIRED. Everett had been sick earlier in the week, Spencer had his post-op eye appt, I had an OB appt... We'd finally hit a wall. Halloween was a blast though, and the kids have enough candy to last through the rest of the year.

As always, visit my Photobucket, under October 07, if you want to see even more pictures! http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b48/thriceblessed/ Password is "fulton."

And finally... After an extremely stressful several weeks dealing with Everett's UTI issues, he underwent his tests last week at the hospital. They were as miserable as expected (as were the next few days) but the results were unequivocally POSITIVE. There was no reflux, no lesions, and absolutely no anomolies that required further study or action on our part. So for now, we chalk it up to another one of those flukey things, and pray that we're done with this particular issue.

And off we go into November!

Spencer's Eyes: Before & After

Spencer has always had beautiful green eyes. Thanks to the skills of his doctor at Arizona Pediatric Eye Specialists, his eyes are now even MORE beautiful. His vision is nearly perfect, his alignment is just as it should be, and he doesn't have to go back for so much as a checkup for another year.

BEFORE, the day of his surgery on Sept 11:



AFTER, about a month and a half post-op: