July 2013 - In Review

Good Gracious!

July was a BLUR!

The pictures I took were limited
due to the craziness...
I wish I had more to share, but
alas...
I don't.
So here comes what I have.
You will just have to use your
imagination on the rest.  

We discovered some day camps in our new town

with the local 4-H chapter.

I signed each of the boys up

for about 6 classes.

And, of course,

they were 6 different classes!

So that means I made 12 trips

to and from

the 4-H meeting spot.

No worries...

they got a great opportunity to get out of the house,

meet other kids,

listen to other adults

and

LEARN!

Jackson chose classes dealing with:

cooking

bugs

animals

plants and planting

Rico chose classes dealing with:

electricity

Legos in motion

bowling

skating

organizing your room

(since he now has his own room)

These classes were spread out over the whole summer

starting in June

and

ending in August.

We spent 4th of July at

the pool in my parent's neighborhood

and our entire family was there.

It was the first time
we had all been together
since our return from Texas.
My baby sis came in from Winston-Salem,
the middle sis brought her hubby and my niece



(I am not sure Uncle Jack realized that lubing up a squirmy
baby with sunscreen was a spectator sport)

and my sister from another mother
(bestie since we were 7).
In preparation for the festivities,
I was asked to make a flag cake.
Ok, I can do that.
But this wasn't your typical flag cake...


(source)

You might or might not get a special posting on this
cake...
I can't seem to locate pictures of the finished product,
so I grabbed this one from
"Simply Southern Girl"
where I got the idea!
(well, my baby sis sent me the idea
and the cake was made at her request)

I also made these amazing Oreo truffles.

These are super easy
and super spectacular
and they will get their own posting shortly!!

Then my mother-in-law came down for a weekend visit.

THEN,

we were invited to the beach...

again...

with my aunt and cousins.

Apparently their house was too quiet

and they felt the need for some excitement.

I asked if they were sure they wanted my chaos

to come...

I asked about 5 times.

They kept saying yes...

So on Monday, July 8th,

 the kids and I packed the car

put one of those trailer hitch cargo carriers

on the back of the suburban...

and jumped in the car for a 5+ hour drive

to a little beach just south of Charleston!

I was NOT a happy mommy getting started!

We had to make a couple of stops:

daddy's work to say good-bye

fill up the beast (car)

and after all that

we FINALLY

got on the road.

We had literally JUST

gotten on the highway

when my sweet 4 yo daughter

informed me she had to potty.

I am tensing up again as I am typing this...

just remembering!

We stopped as soon as we could

unloaded everyone

(they were all hunkered down with their

travel trays on their laps

and lunch spread out before them).

So we had to pack the lunches back up,

take the trays off

unstrap

get out...

and I can't take just her in and

leave the other 3 in the car...

not yet.

So everyone goes in.

Then wouldn't ya know it...

it started raining as we were

walking in.

We finally got back in the car,

got restrapped in,

trays back on,

lunches back in front of everyone...

and back on the road...

Then we wind up behind this!



But you know what...
this actually soothed me
and calmed me down a bit.
Just the beauty of being home!

And believe it or not...

we didn't have to stop again!

I couldn't believe it!!!

We had a great time at the beach,

it is always nice having extra hands

and there was actually a

one-to-one ration going on...

One adult per kid!

It was great!!

I don't get those odds often!!

We did the typical beach stuff

and

really enjoyed the quietness of this beach.

We saw lots of sea life too!

A gigantic horseshoe crab,

a stingray or skate

and

A SHARK!

The sea life was hopping down there!

A family right down the beach from us

pulled up the horseshoe crab.

We all ventured over to take a look at it.

The guy was taking it back to the ocean,

he was in about shin deep water

and a 4 ft shark literally got within meer inches to him!

He hightailed it out of the water,

and we all watched in amazement as the shark

stayed right in that area for a few minutes!!

ACK!

We ventured down to the pier quite a few times

and they were catching lots of sharks there.

We actually saw a guy with a shark on his line,

but it broke the line before he could bring it in.

FREAKY!!!

One of the last nights we were there,

my cousin had caught about 11 crabs,

so we had crabs for dinner!

OH man!

Picking crabs is like riding a bike...

you never forget how to do it.

It all comes back to you!

Mr T, however,
wasn't quite sure what to do with it...

What a great way to end a trip to the beach!

Since, there was a tropical storm coming ashore,

we decided to hit the road the next day,

instead of keeping the kids cooped up in the house.

And unfortunately I think I drove through the tropical storm.

I had some of the worst driving conditions

if not THE worst,

I have ever experienced in my life!

When I finally thought we were through it,

we stopped for a potty break,

then as soon as we got back on the highway,

it started up again.

Traffic was down to 35 mph

everyone had their hazard lights on.

My hands literally HURT

from gripping the wheel so hard.

I was terrified!

It finally quit raining about

30 minutes from home.

When we got home,

I laid down on the couch

and literally didn't move all night!

Things were kinda calm for a couple of days...

Then the fun started up again.

We had a trip planned for August that I had to start

getting ready for...

Part of getting us ready involved us going to Virginia Beach.

I will explain in the next post.

But we ventured up to Va Bch

and went camping with

my mother-in-law

in her camper.

It sleeps 6

(uncomfortably - haha).

We had a great time,

as we always do up there.

The most exciting part of our month
was when our oldest was playing with our youngest at the pool...
they were taking turns jumping into the pool.
Rico would jump into the big pool,
then get out,
come over to the baby pool
watch Tony jump into the baby pool,
then Tony got out and walked over
and watched his big brother jump in...
they kept going on and on like this.
Then as I was watching,
and before I could stop him...
Rico came over to the baby pool and
DOVE in!
He tucked his head
and DOVE IN!!!
I saw the whole thing and couldn't react!
By the sheer grace of God,
he slowly sat up
with his hand on his head
and, of course,
within seconds,
blood was pouring down his face
and
the sides of his head.
My heart literally stopped,
but, I didn't have time to freak out.
We applied pressure to stop the bleeding
assessed the situation
gathered the other kids
and attempted to determine if he was going to need
stitches or not.
Thankfully I have two of the best nurses in the world
at my beckoning call!
(or text)
and I was able to send pictures
and skype and get the camera close up.
It was finally determined that since we could
stop the bleeding,
that we would just let it heal and keep an eye on it.
Oh.Dear.Lord!
The life of the mom of THREE boys!
In the past year
YEAR FOLKS!
We have had
1 wicked broken arm (Jackson)
1 broken baby foot (moving day - Tony Cruz)
1 busted head (Rico)

I am thankful that is it...
SOOOOO thankful.
But the hubs has decided that we are prime candidates for this new
accident insurance that is now offered.
Since our current insurance
is horrible and
doesn't cover things like that until after we have
met our crazy deductible.
(I digress...sorry)

The second most exciting part of July happened on July 31st...

the first, and ONLY,

Harris Teeter

in our town,

opened up!

I was so excited!!

It is my all-time

favorite grocery store!

And I hadn't lived near one in almost 2 years!

Haha!

The little things in life...

I didn't get to actually go shopping their until a day or so after it opened...

but I survived...

Up next...

August!