Saturday, September 29, 2012

Clover Run 5K


The weather has cooled off significantly, and that means it's time to run.  A few Saturdays back Quincy, Maura, and I drove to Jesup to run in the 4-H Clover Run 5K.  It was a small race with a standard course.  It finished with a loop around a lake- that was nice.  I got so tickled at Quincy.  She must have been really into her run because she completed the final loop around the lake and kept on going- completely missing the finish line.  We were all yelling at her to come back, but she couldn't hear us because she was playing music in her headphones.  Someone finally flagged her down and she came back.  I like to tease her about missing the finish line.  That's pretty funny.  Anyway, we all had a pretty good run.  I finished in 25.47- that's getting closer to my desired finish time but it's not quite there yet.  Still, I placed first in my age group.  Coming later this fall- a few local 5Ks and four half marathons.  Should be exciting.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Everybody Shout "What's the Big Idea" (Hey, What's the Big Idea)

My kids (and I) loooove the Imagination Movers.  We won tickets to see them in concert last year, and it was so much fun that we decided to go back again this year.  Thanks to Brian- who set his alarm clock on his day off so that he could get up and buy concert tickets- we had great seats (row 7, dead center).  Once again, the concert was tons of fun. The band played all of our favorite songs.  Since we listen to their CD on the way to school every morning, Owen and Olivia knew all the words to songs like "Seven Days", "Shake-able you", and "Can you Do It?".  Olivia spent most of the concert in the aisle near the stage dancing with the other kids.  There was a lot of band interaction at the show, so she got to get close to movers Rich and Dave.  Owen stayed with me in our seats.   Even though he loves the band, he had a rough time at the concert.  He said that it was too loud.  He did have ear surgery last week, and the tubes were supposed to make him hear better.  Brian and I felt bad because it didn't occur to us that the noise of a concert may be too loud to Owen (who isn't use to the noise).







Saturday, September 15, 2012

Owen at the Dentist, Doctor, and Hospital

Owen says that if he never has to see a doctor again- that's okay with him.  These two past week, it has been one thing after another.  The one "scheduled" thing that Owen had was a dentist appointment.  This was his first cleaning, and he did a great job.  He actually liked sticking the flouride in his mouth, and he really liked the stickers, toothbrush, and toy that he got at the end of the appointment.

On the same day as Owen's dental appointment, he had an appointment with the otolaryngologist (aka- the ear, nose, and throat doctor).  There has been an on-going issue with Owen's ears.  We first realized that something was wrong when Owen failed his Pre-K hearing screening in May.  We went to an audiologist for a more extensive screening- which he also failed.  We were then referred to the otolaryngologist who determined that Owen had fluid built up in his ears.  The doctor tried to clear up the problem with medication, but it didn't work.  He told us that Owen was going to have to have tubes.  Before leaving that day, we made the appointment to have the surgery the following week.  Unfortunately, this would not be Owen's last doctor's appointment of the week.  On Saturday Owen started running a fever and on Sunday he developed a rash all over his torso. I took him to convenient care where he was diagnosed with scarlet fever.  Scarlet fever!  Who gets scarlet fever?  I didn't even know that that disease was still around.  The good news is that Owen recovered from it relatively quickly and was still able to have his ear surgery on Friday.

 Owen did great with his ear surgery.  I was a little nervous because they had to put him to sleep, but it turned out well.  There was no serious reaction to the anesthesia.  He was a little grouchy when he came to, but the nurses gave him a couple of popsicles and he felt better pretty quickly.  Today is the day after surgery, and he is acting like his normal self.  He has handled these last two weeks like a champ.  Hopefully these tubes will make a big difference in his hearing and his speech.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Summer Waves


A few months ago I purchased a Groupon for Summer Waves, a waterpark on Jekyll Island.  The deal was just too good to pass up (more than 50% off the price of admission).  Since summer is coming to an end, we decided that we needed to go ahead and use the tickets while we still could.  So, Brian and I loaded the kids up and drove to the Golden Isles.  The kids had a ball at the waterpark.  There were two kiddie areas for them to enjoy.  The newer kiddie area had one of those buckets that fills up and then dumps on everyone standing under it.  This was Olivia's favorite thing, and she stood under the bucket getting "dumped on" many many times.  In the same area, there were little guns that shot water.  Owen liked playing with those the best.  In addition to the kiddie areas, there were also slides, a wave pool, and a lazy river.  The kids were happy to learn that they were tall enough to go down three of the large slides.  That's much better than the one large slide that they can ride at Wild Adventures.  Our day at Summer Waves was a success, and it was definitely worth the (deeply discounted) price of admission.












Friday, September 7, 2012

A Visit from the Cook Clan




 My cousin, Pam, and her family visited over Labor Day weekend, and we had two wonderful evenings of good food and good company.  The kids have certainly grown since I last saw them.  I am sad to say that TWO of them are now taller than I am (and it probably won't be long until the third one is, too).   Pam's family is also hosting a German exchange student (Tim) this year.  It was neat to hear him compare life in Germany v/s the U.S.  While everyone was thrilled to see the Cook clan,  Owen was especially excited to get to have a boy to hang out with.  He has deemed Benjamin as "cool".  Here are some pictures that I took / stole from Pam.