How I spent my day...

While every other teacher on the planet was prepping for the new school year today, I took this day to take a deep breath.  I slept until 11:30. I took my boys to the fair and Hayden to the doctor. I watched an episode of Modern Family with Henry.  I took another deep breath. I took lots of pictures. I went for a swim in the lake. I talked on my phone a lot.  I don't really like talking on the phone.  I took some more deep breaths. I helped sign a kid up for hockey. He was really excited. I petted goats, horses, bunnies, sheep and a turkey. A turkey has a snood and those things are gross. I took the boys to XC practice. Now I'm watching the Cubs play. It's the bottom of the 12th and they are tied at 3.

I'm going to get up in the morning and take some deep breaths.  And then I'm going in to work. I'm going to pack up my stuff and take it all down the hall. I might even unpack it. I don't know. I might just sit there and breathe all over it. 

First Day of XC

Dropped the boys at Tri North today for their first practice.  I made Hayden do his inhalers before we left the house.  During practice, I left for 45 minutes to run an errand and when I got back, Hayden was having an asthma attack.  He was bright red, but still running sprints and his chest was heaving.  I asked him if he needed his inhaler and the coach, said YES, and he was waving me over.

He did his inhaler and ran back to finish the work out.  He has another doctor's appointment tomorrow right before practice.  Dr. Moore is going to look at his burns and see if they are healing properly.  I'm going to talk to Dr. Moore about this running thing.  It's making me nervous.

Day 9

Even though I didn't get the job...

Henry is smart. He's witty, he's cute, he's athletic.  That kid has the whole package. Sometimes, I just sit back and watch him move through life in amazement. I was getting ready for my interview and I said...

hey Henry, what was your favorite part of 5th grade?

Family Life!

I was like, what's familllllyyyy?? oh, very funny!!!

No seriously.  

Ok.  Bradford Woods!  And we did this simulation unit where we were assigned a country and then we came to the new world and created a colony and details. Details. Details.  Every single detail.  

When I was done with the interview, I called Kelly and told her that she could bring the boys up to the room. Henry ran in and for some reason, opened up the closet door. He said, "Mom!!  Is the shirt you wore for the interview?"  I said, yes and he said, wow!  I bet you looked beautiful. I know you are gonna get this job now!" That kid. 

So, when I didn't get the job, he was my first thought. I've disappointed him. He had to listen to me complain all last year and it was ugly. I'm not giving up.  It's not August 4th yet. 

On the EL

When the game was over yesterday, Henry wanted to walk around downtown. Our ETA for home was midnight and if we stopped to walk around, it would've been 2am.  So I said we couldn't, but I promised to take him back up there in a couple of weeks.  I'm not sure when that will happen. The boys are starting XC practice on Monday. Free weekends to hang out with mom, are coming to a screaming halt. 

Every day that we were in Chicago, I asked Henry to move up there with me.  He told me no. I listed all the reasons:  better hockey, better sports teams, bigger lake, amazing skyline, delicious pizza, outside ice skating, the museums. No way. 

 I know he's excited to go to Tri North. Well, middle school. He can't really decide between Tri North or Jackson Creek.  I know he would be happier at Jackson Creek, but Hayden wants to go to Tri North and I want them together. 

We are home now and we're watching Frozen. Henry just sang the Let It Go song at the top of his lungs. The kid has it all. 

Chicago

I finally got to ride my bike downtown on Lake Shore Drive. The waves were killer high today and I got hit several times and I loved it. I rode through all of the puddles and had a blast

We rode about 5 miles south of the Navy Pier.  I didn't realize how much of a push the wind was giving us until we turned around. Whoa!  We rode North straight into the wind for about 8 miles and it was a workout!  I can feel my legs getting stronger, but I can also feel August 4th getting closer. And that means back to the classroom.  I need to create a bicycle unit. Maybe I can bring some gears and old parts in and we can build something.   

I saw this sign near Lincoln Park. I didn't see any seniors out today. That's too bad, because today was amazing. No humidity and very sunny. 

Henry and his friend Bo are having camp at The Edge Ice arena in Bensenville. It's about 20 miles east of Chicago.  Right across the street from The Edge is a pond. There are some baby ducks that live there and tomorrow, I'm going to give them some crackers. 

This camp is kicking Henry's butt. They are running a lot of stairs in addition to getting 4 hours a day of ice time.  He's also learning that push ups are important.  

Hayden is having fun at his camp. I face timed him today, so that I could see his burns. They are looking much better. I guess they played a game outside their rink in Indy, shirts vs. Skins. Hayden was on the skins team. Everyone freaked when they saw his chest. His dad told him to put his shirt back on because he's not allowed to let the sun near that part of his body.  I miss Hayden so much right now. Henry is sore and grumpy end Hayden is always my little love bug. 

Henry at Battle Camp

Camping part 2

There were kids everywhere. They were really good and no one there was under the age of 12. That helped. I did learn something new. Hayden dropped the super hot marshmallow roaster on his stomach. When you have 2nd and 3rd degree burns, you have to pour water on them for 10 minutes. Then you drive to the hospital really fast. Or maybe the driving to the hospital should have been first.  

The nurse put gauze on his burns and I continuously poured saline solution on the gauze for about 25 minutes. Silvadene is the best ointment in the world for burns. 

I'm including the picture for you Leeway. I'm still waiting for you to get the MD license. 

They are healing nicely, but I'm not sure about hockey camp in the morning.  I'm with Henry in Chicago and Allan is with Hayden in Indianapolis. I hope the chest protector doesn't rub them while he's skating. 

Hayden is going to have a wicked scar.  I told him that it looks like wolverine slashed him.  

Grumpy

I have been grumpy with a capital B today. I got about an hour and a half of sleep last night because my OCD kicked in and I got completely obsessed with trying to finish two projects that I've been working on all summer. They are still not done.  I was in an extremely foul mood most of the morning and my kids were avoiding me like the plague.

I had a doctors appointment at 8:30 this morning and I think I last looked at the clock at 6:30. Harrison woke me up about 7:50 to tell me that he was leaving for his run. Thanks Harrison.   

After my doctor's appointment, I started packing for our camping trip. I just got back from the most amazing, relaxing camping trip that I've ever taken in my life.  This trip is different. There are 6 children here and four of them are teenagers.  At least, they are in good moods. My van and my friends extra large SUV were completely packed for two nights of camping. Two nights!  Just as I was headed out the door to go camping, I got an email from our new principal  that put me over the edge. He sent out new teaching and room assignments for this coming school year. And by this coming school year, I mean in two weeks. I'm out of town until the 28th. 

The teacher that is taking my room wants to know when I'm moving my stuff.   Now she has to wait to move all of her stuff.  I've met with my 3rd grade team twice in the last month. We planned quite a bit for this school year.  I guess, I need to start reading over the 4th grade standards now.  

I need to go to the gym. I'm leaving for Chicago on Sunday.  I hope they have a workout room at the hotel with punching bags. It's midnight. I can't sleep.   The frogs are croaking. They sound pretty happy. 

Henry William

I really do love that my kids like to camp.  They love setting up the tents, building the fires and biking through the camp ground.  Henry has his little book light on and he's reading the newest James Patterson book.  Hayden is passed out.  He was up most of the night playing video games. That kid is a total gamer. 

3:40am ramblings

Henry knocked my brand new iPhone into the toilet. The only thing that doesn't work is the sound. When someone calls, I can only talk on speaker phone. He spent about an hour on the internet trying to  find a way to fix it. His apology was very sincere. Why didn't I get insurance?!?!??!!

I signed myself up for the dunes half marathon in Gary, Indiana. It's a loop through a park close to Lake Michigan. I'm hoping that they have a lot of police presence that morning. It looks beautiful and it's in October, so hopefully it will be cool. My last half marathon was black flagged.  I was trying to remember the last time I went an entire year without doing a half or full. I think it was back in 2003. I gotta keep this streak going, plus I want something to talk about other than school.  I'm seriously not ready to hear the words, Back to School. 

I have a ton of bug bites from camping. They itch all the time. The next time I go camping, I'm just going to take a bath in deet. Benadryl does nothing for this itch. 

Harrison is letting Goodwoman take his picture tomorrow. We are gonna call these "senior pictures."  He really wants no part of this, but he promised me that he would stand still for 2 shots. I asked him to get his XC jersey from his coach. Did he?  Uh, no. And I asked him to get a haircut. Nope. At this point, I'm just hoping he shows up with clothes on. Shoes optional. 

 The twins have their school physical tomorrow. I warned them, just like I warned their brother 6 years ago, about the cough test. They both said I was lying.  Harrison said the same thing. Zero trust going on here.   Henry finally started to believe me, and then he said that he's quitting sports forever.  Whatever.  Both boys are going to run XC for Tri North. It's going to be fun watching them compete. 

My softball games got rained out today. The twins soccer game was also cancelled. It's been about 2 weeks since I've played softball and I don't know why we paid for summer soccer. Almost every game has been rained out and they don't make those games up.

Time to go home.

We packed almost everything up last night and put it in the car because of today's rain forecast. The smell of sweaty clothes, shoes, and helmets almost knocked us over this morning when we opened the doors. We rolled the windows down, even though it was pouring, so that we could breathe. All the smelly stuff is going to be double bagged on the way home!  And I think we are gonna find a car freshener. Maybe one of those little trees. 

For now, we are relaxing at a little bakery in the tiny town of Utica. I bought a piece of peanut butter mousse pie for the road. 

Day 3 camping.

Mathiessen park is really beautiful. We hiked for about an hour this morning.  I think I liked Cascade Falls the best which is funny because we have some pretty falls right in Bloomington, Indiana at lower cascades. 

 We saw a lot of little kids out hiking today. I really want to bring my boys back here. I think they will love it. 

After hiking, we headed back to the pool to cool off. We ate lunch at a great little restaurant called the uptown grill. They gave us iPads to view the menu. Very cool for La Sallle, Illinois. 

We finally found a part of the I & M trail that was open. We were on it for about 5 miles and grew tired of the mud and rocks.  We jumped on the road and biked for 28 miles. I am so sore. 

We drove back through downtown Ottawa. Lincoln spent a lot of time in that town. They have built huge monuments to show their love for him.  I need to watch the Lincoln movie again. 

No fire for us tonight. I'm so tired. We are headed home tomorrow. I think I'm going to try and find a trail on the way home to hike through. I'm  not ready for this to be over just yet. 

Day 2 camping

This morning we took a 20 mile bike ride. We were going to bike to Ottawa, but of course, the I & M trail was closed.  So, we headed to Buffalo Rock State Park. We didn't see any buffalo. We did see the effigy timuli park. It was a little disappointing. I wouldn't recommend it, but the bike ride was amazing.

We got back into Utica and headed for the corner pub. Cute little place called Duffy's Tavern that was very Irish and quaint. 

On our way to the La Salle city pool, we saw a guy flip his car. Luckily, he flipped it to the left because if he would have flipped it to the right, we would be in the hospital right now. I called 911 and I was trying to tell the guy where we were. I had no idea. We were in the middle of a bunch of corn fields. A farmer stopped a couple of minutes later and told me where we were. 2 miles south of Jonesville.  The guy survived the accident  but he was definitely freaked out. He was a lucky man. 

This evening we hiked down to the Ottawa canyon and the Council overhang. We hiked up to the top and walked for about an hour. We could not find a way to get down!!  Three Northwesten students were following us the entire trip. We finally decided to risk our lives and climb down a rock wall.  Most of us threw our shoes off to get down. It was scary. I fell on my butt and got pretty muddy, but no one was injured. 

Ottawa canyon. 

We are sitting by the fire planning tomorrow. Next on the list is Mathiessen Park.  

Day 1 camping

1.  Rock flew up and hit Kelly's windshield on the way here. Probably $500 to fix it. Do not travel on 46 toward Terre Haute. Lots of loose gravel on the road and the trucks are not slowing down.  

2.  A storm hit this area on June 30th. More than half of the canyons are closed. I think there are 4 open. The lady actually said to me, don't you watch channel 7 news???  Um... No, our news is on channel 8 and 13. 

3.  The car battery is dead. 

4.  My back is killing me, but I have muscle relaxers, so it's all good. 

5.  I made a spectacular fire.  

6. It's nice and cool outside. Perfect for camping. Good thing, because we are locked in here. The gates are locked at 10pm. No one can go out or come in.  

Spitz Nevus

Harrison had a spot removed from his nose about 3 months ago.  They did a biopsy and apparently several pathologists looked at it.  Not one these doctors could decide for certain if it was just a mole, spitz nevus, or melanoma.  So they sent it to Fresno State college in California.   Still no one knows.  So, the plastic surgeon told us that he has to have surgery right away to remove the rest of the mole. I honestly thought this mole was just a scar from an out of control pimple.  The doctors here in Bloomington, only scraped off the top layer, this guy in Indy wants it all gone and now.

Determined to finish this off at Buca di Beppo

He is not allowed to exercise for 3 weeks after the surgery.  I mentioned waiting until XC season was over because, after all it is his senior year.  The Indy doctor told me that XC was not a reason to wait for this surgery.  He basically told me that was an insane idea.  He then proceeded to tell us about a new genetic testing procedure that they can run on the skin that they have removed.  It's going to cost about $1,200 and insurance does not cover it.  We elected to have this testing done and we'll get the results around August 1st.  We will know then whether or not he has melanoma or just a wart.   His surgery is scheduled for November 21st, but if the results show melanoma, he has to have surgery next month.

When we got home, I asked Harrison if he was ok with all of this news and he said, "yes??"
I said, "well you do have to have surgery on your FACE and the doctor said there will be stitches!"  He said, "mom, it's 2014, it's fine."  Ok.  good point.

   

Hockey School

It's hockey camp week.  Last year, Allan dropped the boys off and I picked them up.  That was a bunch of bull.  The boys DID NOT want to leave camp and they were exhausted and grumpy.  I remember fighting with Henry all the way home about a kid riding his moose to school.  Drop off was so much better.  It was fun and the boys were so excited.  We walked into the Goggin Ice Arena and Henry started spewing fun facts about the rink and Hayden told me all about the ice cream that they serve at every meal.  Henry gave my mom a tour while I waited to check in.  The line was a mile long, but it went quickly.  We got the boys to their dorm and unpacked their clothes.  They are staying at Dodds Hall and supposedly, "it is sooooo much better than Minnich Hall."   My mom wanted to photograph the event, so the boys and I put on a little show.  Well, Henry and I did....

The boys had a meeting at 3:30, so we took off for Bruno's Pizza.  It's a little hole in the wall, but the pizza is tasty.  When we finished stuffing our faces, my mom and I took a long walk through campus.  I found a few things that reminded me of the IU campus.

Slant Walk Gates
Entrance to Miami University

This reminds me of the Alexander Calder sculpture that's in front of the MAC.

"For Kepler"
Painted Steel Sculpture
by Mark di Suvero

I left a backpack full of the twin's favorite snacks at the front desk of their dorm as we were leaving town.  I hope they use their brains and eat a little bit at a time.  Hayden has a hard time with this.  He sees food and he wants to eat it all, especially if it's ice cream.  It was such a beautiful day.  I had a great day with my mom and the boys.

Just Hayden

So the other day, I was talking to my phone and I asked Siri to call Tyler Ness for me. This is what Siri said to me...

Hayden told her to call me this. 

Today I noticed that Hayden had some weird marks under his mouth. I thought he had just drawn all over his face again, but these are bruises!  He has no idea how they got there and he says that they don't hurt.  What in the hell???

I don't get it. 

We were on the lake for a long time tonight. It was beautiful and the boys swam for hours. They did a little skinny dipping and of course Hayden lost his trunks.  I only told him to put them on the boat 50 times.  

I love when my boys say, "hey mom, take my picture."  It's usually Henry, but tonight it was all Hayden. 

Tomorrow, I get to get up and do this whole mom thing all over again.