Bottoms up to the winners.....

Wendy has been having a series of tests done this week. For nearly a year, she has been dealing with stomach pains, and has been to the specialist numerous times trying to determine what is going on. In May, she had an endoscopy - nothing to worry about there. Later this summer, she had a fructose test done and some other test (I can't remember just what right now) - again, nothing to worry about as everything came back normal. Tuesday, she had some tests done to check her gall bladder and today, she is the lucky recipient of a colonoscopy! It has not been the most pleasant couple of days for her (we have still managed to find some humor in it while still being sympathetic to what she's going through). Yesterday she was on a clear liquid diet, and also had to drink magnesium citrate - lemon flavored (she couldn't have anything red or purple, so that eliminated her choices of cherry or grape flavoring). She refused to take a second dose last night. Her reasoning was, "I'm already peeing out of my butt hole! I shouldn't need to take anymore!" I guess she has a point there. (We do feel bad for her - no 14 yr old should have to go through so much, especially some of these things that can be so humiliating and embarrassing - particularly at that age). So, to Wendy and her colonoscopy - bottoms up!

And the winners are... Tommy had his first flag football game on Tuesday afternoon. He was so excited about this. On Monday evening, he was going on and on about how his team was going to totally kick some butt. As it turned out, his team did win! Congrats Tommy on your teams first win! Bottoms up!

Front Yard Makeover.....

Well, thanks to our neighbors John & Lynnette, our front yard has received a makeover. The sod that was originally put down was not very good, and no matter how much weed & feed and watering was done, the lawn still looked quite sad. Lynnette did some research and found some type of grass that would do extremely well in this part of the country. Last week, they rented a rototiller and John found that it was much easier to go all the way across our front yard as well, instead of trying to stop and turn around half way across (it was previously agreed that we would participate in the yard makeover). And wearing a neck brace DOES have its advantages, as they took pity on me and restricted me from doing too much of the work! So, here are the before (above) and after (below) pictures of our front yard makeover....(maybe this will make our Gladys Kravitz nosy, wench of neighbor a little bit happy)!


But, riddle me this...

Why is it that the tree in our front yard can look like this...


And the neighbors across the street have a tree that looks like this?...


I'm having a problem understanding this!

Happy 19th Birthday, Steve!

Today Steve is 19! It's funny to see, that as the kids get older, they still enjoy the old traditions. When the kids were tiny, Monique began their birthday by waking them up early in the morning, singing Happy Birthday and opening presents (her take on it is, it's your birthday the entire day - why wait?! She thinks everyone in Holland does this, too). Yesterday evening, we took Steve (and his friend Jon) out to dinner for his birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant - Mazatlan. Again this is a tradition of Steve's. When I asked the other day where he wanted to go for dinner, his reply was, "Mazatalan! That's where I always go for my birthday"! Later he was going to watch a movie at Jon's, but was definitely going to be home so we could wake him up this morning! Now seriously, what 19 year old would really want the family to wake him up at 5:00 am singing to him?! And of course, we couldn't disappoint him.




We did birthday cake last night too (the kids will be leaving this afternoon to spend the weekend with their dad). It's amazing how bright a cake can be with only 19 candles! What is even more amazing, is how smoky it can be when the 19 candles are blown out! I hate to think how much smoke there is when there are 40 + candles to be blown out (maybe that is why we don't have any of those pictures).

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission.......

Well, it came today! Steve's mission call. I think we have all been waiting on pins and needles hoping and praying for his mission call to come. When it didn't come over the weekend, Monique was a little put off thinking that she would need to wait for another week. Today, we both had the thought, that since Monique's pay stub wasn't in the mail on Saturday, that maybe Steve's mission call would have been there too! This afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised when I checked the mail and found the "big, white envelope"!. I immediately called Monique and said, "I think his mission call is here! How close are you to being home? Should I give it to him, or not say anything and wait?" We agreed to wait at least until Monique got home. We did call Jon (Steve's friend) and had him come right over. When we told Steve his call was here, he decided to call a couple more friends to come over (including Alex, a non-member friend). We each had to guess a state and a country that we thought Steve might be called to. Finally, Steve opened the envelope and read that he had been called to serve in the Belgium Brussels/Netherlands Mission! What?! No way - certainly he couldn't be called to where his mom grew up and where I served my mission! Surely they wouldn't call him to a mission where he has so much family living! But, he is, indeed, going to serve in this mission and will learn his mother's native tongue! The ironic thing is, when Steve was younger and needed speech therapy, they told Monique not to teach him Dutch - now he will learn it! He will report to the MTC on Dec 17th!

The Nightmares Continue......

Okay, you would think that after being out of school for 20 + years, that I would no longer be traumatized by certain school things, namely band. Horrid flashbacks came back to mind earlier in the week when Ryan brought home paperwork to be in the 5th grade band. The worst part was when he indicated what instrument he was interested in playing. I asked him about other instruments, but to no avail. He had his mind made up. I was holding out some hope that his band teacher would have him play something different, but when another paper came home, it also had his instrument of choice written down. So, this morning, we went to the music store to pick up the instrument that he will be lugging around and tormenting and torturing the rest of the family with. And with our luck, he will become quite proficient and we will have to endure years and years of Ryan's entertainment.

Calling Caleb....

The other evening, my sister and I were playing phone tag. When it was my turn to tag her, Caleb, her six year old, answered the phone. Here is how the conversation went:

UD (Uncle Doug): What are you doing?
C (Caleb): I was on my way to play Star Wars Lego's, but got interrupted by the phone ringing!
UD: Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt (note to self, try not to call Caleb when he is trying to do something).
C: Hey, I know who you are!
UD: Really?! Who am I?
C: Umm, Umm, ... you're Uncle Wally!
UD: ummm, nope! I'm not Uncle Wally.
C: But I know who you are! You are.. umm, umm, Uncle Alan!
UD: Nope!
C: But I know who you are!
UD: then who am I, if you really know who I am?!
C: Umm, Umm....
UD: I'm Uncle Doug!
C: Uncle Duck - I knew who you were! Laura said she used to call you "Uncle Duck"!
UD: I'm sure she did! Is Jillea home?
C: Not right now, she's at a meeting.
UD: Will you please let her know that I called?
C: I can't! I'll be in bed when she gets home!
UD: Okay! I'll just call her later then!
C: Maybe you should call tomorrow. Do you know when I get out of school?
UD: Probably about 3:00 or 3:30.
C: Maybe you should call about 10 or 15 minutes after that, 'cause then I'll be home!
UD: Okay! Have fun playing Lego's Star Wars Caleb!
C: It's not Lego's Star Wars - it's Star Wars Lego's!
UD: Sorry! Have fun playing Stars War Lego's (another note to self, get the names of things correct the first time).
If anybody needs to be entertained, just call Caleb for a few minutes. That should do the trick!

Thursday evening wakeboarding....

The Egbert's called this evening inviting the kids to go wake boarding on a local lake. Of course, Wendy, Tommy and Ryan would not pass up this opportunity. We were all invited to go, but as Monique was not yet home from work, she opted to come home where it was quiet to relax. Steve, at 18, can very seldom do things with the family and Tyler was with some friends and felt a little rusty on the wake board, as he has not been out very much doing it this summer. I was able to go along for the ride (only the ride!). The kids made sure I was taking it easy with the neck brace and all. They had a great time out on the lake. Tommy, in his eagerness, mentioned that maybe next year, they can get me out on the water and teach me how to wake board. Wendy quickly deflated all hopes by saying, "You'll probably break something!" It really didn't help when we got home and Monique made a comment along those same lines (she did clarify by saying that in four years I have only broken my knee cap and then the surgery for my neck (like that makes it all better)).

It's been confirmed.....

For those of you that have been thinking this for years, it has been medically confirmed - I have a screw loose! Hence the reasoning for getting to wear this lovely neck brace. For those that aren't aware, with the surgery that I had the end of July, they put a plate in my neck which is attached with four small screws. Apparently, the doctors were able to see that one of the screws had loosened on the x-ray from last week. I'm not exactly sure how wearing the neck brace is going to tighten the screw - maybe there are magical creatures living in the brace that can magnetically tighten things while I'm sleeping!

On a different note (yes, I'm trying to turn the subject away from me), last night, Monique and I took Tommy to WalMart to look for some cleats for football (he's playing flag football in 7th grade). While waiting for some assistance, we were reading the directions for forming his mouthguard. Part of what we read was "with one hand, hold the mouthguard in the boiling water for ..... seconds. (Use a second hand for an accurate count (yes, it really says this on the packaging)). At this point, my sarcastic self felt the need to explain to Tommy that this would be the second hand on a clock or watch. To this, his comment was, "Oh! that makes sense, I was going to use my other hand to count with!" (his second hand). We needed that little laugh!

My new LEAST favorite thing...

Well, I have found it - my new least favorite thing. No, it's not making school lunches. No, it's not playing ball with the dog. Nor is it even unclogging the toilet in the kids' bathroom. My new least favorite thing is the neck collar that I now get to sport around for the next six, yes SIX weeks! I met with the doctor on Tuesday for a follow up visit where they took x-rays, and I left thinking that everything was just fine. Late Friday afternoon, the dr's office called informing me that the dr wants me to wear this thing 24/7, and of course, they couldn't give me an answer as to why. We are suspecting that there was something on the x-ray that they didn't like, so they are having me wear this as a precaution. To answer any questions, yes, it is rather uncomfortable. Yes, I do sleep in it. Yes, I sweat profusely while wearing it. And no, Monique does not find it to be a turn on (I asked her if it would be more appealing if I wore my blue gym shorts and church socks with it). I didn't get a response!

1st day fo school (Wednesday)

Yesterday was the first day of school! What a happy day (at least for Monique and I)! And even though I'm sure the kids would deny it, there was excitement in the air emanating from them as well. After enjoying nice quiet mornings for most of the summer, I was able to experience the hustle/bustle of kids starting their day. Monique was patiently awaiting her turn to get ready for the day. Wendy asked the night before if I was going to fix breakfast for the first day of school. I laughed pretty hard over that one - guess it didn't happen. I did, however, make their lunches (and that is something I really don't care to do (I must admit, that Monique was going to make their lunches, but I told her I would do it)). I even made Steve's for work (what's one more when you're already doing it?)!

As you can tell, the expressions on their faces speak volumes: Tyler - Oh man! I can't believe I'm getting up this early to go to school. Wendy - Isn't this fun & exciting?! Tommy - yep - I'm a ladies man alright! Ryan - What? School? Today? Just kidding - I knew that! And of course, Sammy is once again left behind to hold the fort down.

All in all, it turned out to be a good day for all of them. Tyler's classes, even though they sound dumb, might turn out to be pretty cool (his words, not mine). Wendy was excited to start seminary and to be in the midst of everything again. Tommy has a locker this year, so it's all good! Ryan said his teacher is actually pretty cool! Do you think we can keep them this happy and excited all year?!