A Little DIYing

Ever since we moved into this house, I have despised the yellow-orange color on the walls. I have been wanting to get it painted, however choosing a paint color has proven very difficult for me. After one year and fourteen paint samples later (literally, fourteen) I finally decided on a color.

So, mid July we had the interior of the house painted, minus the boys rooms and the guest room, since I know we will eventually be painting the boys room to match whatever 'decor' they pick out.

From yucky to pretty!

I can't tell you what a difference the paint has made. Everything looks so bright and clean. The only down side I see is that the carpet looks absolutely horrible now. I knew it was bad, but now with the pretty walls, my wood floors need to come sooner more so than later. To tell you how bad it looks, Shane, who has not been a fan of getting wood floors until the boys were a bit older, feels we should probably go ahead and get new floors. So, after much discussion, I think we have decided to put the kitchen upgrade off for another year or so and go ahead and get new floors. Woo Hoo! Stay tuned for that - since I already know exactly what I want, it should not take me forever to pick out a color.

Now that I feel like our house is becoming a home, I have started doing some things to work towards what I have envisioned for our home. The first thing I did was make a roman shade for our stairwell window. What Pinterest said would take 30 minutes or so took me well over 3 hours - darn that OCD. While I am not 100% totally pleased with my finished product, it definitely is better than what we had.

The second thing I have done is I used some hand me down door knobs from my sister, spruced them up with some oil rubbed bronze spray paint and changed out all our door knobs in the house. I love the way they look and am anxious to see how well the paint job holds up - yet another Pinterest find.

The knobs in a box

After 'ORBing' them

Installed on some upstairs doors

Unfortunately summer is coming to an end, so my DIYing may just have to slow down - not that it was in over drive or anything. : )

Twin Time

Don't you just hate when your friend, who just happens to have twins, has to go to work and her mother-in-law can't watch the babies???? I DON'T!!!! That means twin time for me!!! Woo Hoo!!! I headed to Orange on Saturday afternoon after the boys soccer games so I could spend some time not only with the babies, but to catch up with Lisa since her reign of mother hood began. I can't believe how much Finn and Madison have grown. I must say, taking care of two at one time is definitely more taxing than taking care of one, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Maddie looking so big in the new chair

Finn testing out the new chair

Lisa and the babies before church

A selfie with the sleeping babies.

Such a sweet smile

I had a great time with Lisa and the babies, and I am already looking forward to our next time together!!

Soccer Playing Fools

All I can say is we had a VERY successful day playing soccer! Like I have said before, when Casen finally decides to quit being stubborn and shows what he can do, he goes full force! He played soccer like a champ today running all over the field and having a great time.

Red faced and sweaty.

Up until today, Camden has refrained from playing goalie. Honestly, that does not bother me one bit - that is too high anxiety for me. Shane felt he needed to try goalie one time this season since he is always defending the goal from his brother when they play together. Generally the coach asks for volunteers, but today Camden when right up to him prior to the game and told him he wanted to play goalie. I was so proud of him for taking the initiative - that is big for his shy self. He started off a little timid, but once he got settled into the position he did well.

A Celebratory Frosty

It may have taken some bribery, but Casen actually played a little soccer today. Aside from standing on the field, and maybe running a little, he kicked the ball away from another player which is more than he has done since soccer started this summer.

Casen standing in the middle of
 the field as the other kids are playing

Casen kicking the ball

Since he did actually play today, after his game we headed over to Wendy's for a celebratory Frosty. It may have been 10:00 am, but as far as I am concerned, it is never too early for ice cream!

After we finished our ice cream, we headed back to the soccer facility for Camden to play his game. He did great - he was aggressive and made some awesome plays and goals. Camden's team tied today, which is better than what they have been doing. : (  All in all, I would say we had a successful soccer day!

Shoe Tying Pro

I am proud to say that I now have a shoe tying pro in the house. We have been encouraging Camden to learn several things prior to going to Kindergarten, including our phone numbers as well as our address, which he has mastered. The other thing we wanted him to learn was how to tie his shoes. He truly has not shown much interest in it at all, so we told him if he learned how to tie his shoes we would go to Splashtown. (Little did he know we planned on going regardless if he learned or not). Well a little bribery is all it took. We practiced today, and after teaching him the bunny ear method, he is now an official shoe tying pro!

Sicker Than We Thought

Since the beginning of June, Camden has had a wet sounding cough and runny nose. Of course he has allergies, so I have not thought much of it and have continued to give him his Zyrtec. He also got tinea capitis, ringworm of the scalp, about a week or so after we were out of school (thus he most likely got it at school). So, even though I know good and well that anti-fungal creme normally does not treat scalp ringworm, it was worth giving it a try. I will say his bald spot did not grow after I started the creme, however it just didn't look like it was completely going away.

Over the weekend, Camden has just not really been himself. He did not really play all that well at his soccer game, and we noticed he was really huffing and puffing while he was running. Also, he has had several melt downs, which is not 'normal' for him. So, I decided we would go to the doctor and let him get looked over. Sure enough, he does have ringworm of the scalp and Dr. Worrall feels he has a sinus infection, along with wheezing and his chest sounding really tight, and also fluid behind his ears. Poor guy, no wonder he has not been himself. He was prescribed a steroid, Zithromax, breathing treatments every four hours for two days and then Griseofulvin (a two month treatment) for the ringworm. I sure hope this gets him back to his old self!

Poop

As you may recall, we have had nothing but trouble with Casen and his bowels since he was an infant. Pooping has NEVER been his favorite thing and as of late, we have struggled and struggled with trying to make him go poo poo without throwing a fit. While at my parent's house this past week, he of course cried and carried on when it was time to poop, however out of the three times he did poop, Mom said that each time his crying lessened. When we left their house on Tuesday, one of the last things my Mom told Casen was that he needed to poop without crying because he is a big boy.

We arrived home later that afternoon and Casen announced he needed to go poo poo. What???? You actually want to go poo poo? So we went to the bathroom, he asked me to leave and several minutes later he announced that he had 'poo poo'd big'. Sure enough, lots of poop, and no crying! We couldn't believe it - NEVER has it been this easy. Was this just a fluke? No, no fluke at all. As a matter of fact for the past several days he has tried to poop every time he goes to the bathroom to tee tee. He is so dang proud of himself, as are we!!! Now we just have to convince him that he doesn't have to poop EVERY time he goes to the bathroom. : )  It is all or nothing with him!

He 'poo poo'd BIG'

My Day With Grandma Key

One of my most favorite people on this earth is my Grandma Key. She is 97 1/2 and unfortunately her memory is failing her, as it has been for several years now. Despite that, she still has her sense of humor and looks great.

I haven't really taken the time over the past several years to spend good one on one time with her and have regretted that. So, I felt it was the perfect time to do so when we went to pick up the boys from my parents. Due to Grandma's schedule I went for several hours in the morning and then went back in the afternoon for several hours. We played a lot of cards, which was really awesome because despite her memory loss she seemed 'normal' while playing cards. She made the same comments she used to when we played when I was a kid and she still could beat me, with no problems. It really brought me back to those days I so cherished spending with her.

Low score wins . . . .

She asked me while I was there if I really enjoyed staying at their house during the summers when I was younger? She has no idea how much I enjoyed my time with her and my grandfather, the valuable things I learned from them and the memories we created. She truly is one of my most favorite people in this world.

The Boys Week at Grandma and Grandpa Key's

For the past two years, Camden has spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Key during the summer, and he has loved every minute of it. Now that Casen is potty trained (Grandma's rules), he was able to join in the fun. Camden has been looking forward to his time with them and was ready to go. We met my parents at Buccee's in Luling and sent the boys on their way with them. We honestly did not know how Casen would act when we dropped him off, but he was more than willing to go with no tears at all. That makes it so much easier on everyone!

While we were on our trip we checked in every day with them to make sure all was well, and when we called to Facetime them, Casen would talk to us, but Camden never wanted to talk to us. He was just too busy playing.

Finally got to see Camden as he was just walking
while we were 'Facetiming'

They had a great time, swimming almost everyday, fishing, visiting the neighbors, golf cart riding and playing outside nearly all day long.

Camden loves to go fishing and caught some really nice fish. Casen apparently did not love fishing - he was scared of the fish, so Grandpa would catch the fish for him.

Take note in the swimming photos that Casen is not wearing his floaties. He is jumping in and going striaght underwater with no problems. I don't know what kind of magic Grandma and Grandpa Key have, but it is so hard to believe that that is my child. After the two weeks of swimming lessons he was a bit more comfortable with the water, but he did not want to go under water and he wanted his floaties on. Mom sent us a picture of them at the pool on Friday with no floaties on and said that after an hour at the pool he announced he no longer needed his floaties, he cold swim without them. And there he was, a jumping and swimming fool sans floaties. I tell you, when that boy makes his mind up to do something, he can do it, but it is all on HIS schedule.

They were there on July 4th, which Camden was so excited about since he had to miss out on it last year. They have a parade at the resort, have fun games for the kids to play, popsicles, ice cream, BBQ and fireworks. Nothing but FUN!!! The boys did not want to participate in the games, they instead enjoyed watching them, however Camden did take part in the balloon toss and fight. Luckily this year, Casen finally was not scared of the fireworks and thought that they were "awesome".

Getting ready for the parade

Getting ready for the fireworks

They were looking so forward to their time at Grandma and Grandpa's and I do believe all their expectations were met, plus some. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of the boys for us while we went on vacation. I do believe it was a 'win-win' for everyone!

Some Time Alone

Anyone that knows me knows I love to travel. I would go, go, go all the time if I could. Shane, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. (They say opposites attract, right?) Well, after 8 years of marriage and not one fun trip alone, I finally convinced him earlier this year to go on an adult only vacation. Woo Hoo!!! I honestly did not care where we went, I just knew that I wanted blue water, sand and relaxation. So after much research, and recommendations from several of my student's moms at school, we decided to go to Riviera Maya, Mexico to an Iberostar Resort. I thought it would be a great destination since there are straight flights from Houston to Can Cun and I could set up our transportation prior to our arrival so there were no issues. (I was doing everything I could to make this vacation as stress free as possible so that Shane will be willing to go somewhere again sooner more so than later! : )

We met my parents in Luling on Sunday and dropped off the boys for them to keep for the week while we were away. On Monday morning we boarded a plane, headed for Can Cun, Mexico.

When we arrived at our resort, we made our way to our room and then walked around the resort to get ourselves acquainted with our home for the next 6 days. Let me say, the resort is rather large, so we did a lot of walking while we were there.

The entertainment at the resort was very good. The food, which they had a wide array of choices at the buffets, was good, the coconut ice cream was AMAZING and the staff was nothing but nice.

The BEST ice cream

Two nights we ate in 'specialty' restaurants, one a steak house and the other a Brazilian restaurant and I will say the food at both those restaurants was fabulous. Unfortunately, the waters had a lot of seaweed, which was abnormal for them, but the workers did their best to keep it cleaned up. Regardless the sand was very pretty and I very much enjoyed relaxing on the beach, reading my book and people watching.

All the seaweed bagged up in garbage bags

A nice view after the bags are picked up

Enjoying some lunch at the resort mall

At night the walkways were lit nicely

One side of the pool at night

The pool area was absolutely huge.

I promise I am not topless!

 We enjoyed seeing some of the animals that are native to their land, including iguanas, and the cute coati.

Iguana

Coati

On Thursday evening we did a fun excursion to a place called Explore Fuego. While there, we were able to zip line (both during the day and at night) over a rainforest, raft through the river caves, swim in the caves and drive ATVs. We really had a great time.

 

When Saturday arrived I was sad to leave, however I must say we were missing the boys. We had a great time, and I am hoping that this might be the beginning of some great travels for us!