Monday

The inside of our mailbox has a wasp's nest in it.

Robbie had a baseball game tonight in the cold.  William was hanging out with a young man we know who is about 13 and some of his friends.  They were walking around the baseball fields.  William was excited - getting to hang out with the big kids.  It was written all over his face.  When he got home, he told me that they were walking around looking for "hot girls".  Nice. 

Sunday

We had hail today.

Robbie and William got new shoes today.  They were actually in the store when the hail came.  I write this merely as a way of tracking how long it takes the boys to tear up their shoes.  Seems like it's every three months.  I will keep you posted on that.

Saturday

Today is cold!!  We a baseball game at 9 am, but the other team did not show.  Robbie had practice at 12.  William had games at 5 and 6:30.  We froze and so did all of the kids.

See Jonah in the back with his winter coat on and a hat?  It was 46 and the wind made it feel like 44.  I got confused and yelled,  "Touchdown!"
Ok so I didn't do that, but it felt like I was at the wrong sporting event.

We made a fire when we got home.  I slept on the couch in front of it half the night.

Friday

We made it home.  I am feeling better, but very tired and thirsty.  I read a book almost all day.  Fortunately, the boys were pretty tired too.  They were not asking to go anywhere.

This is the book I read:

I am trying to get Robbie and Jonah to read more.  I figured that if I checked this out and read it, it would spur interest.  Plus, this is the first Harry Potter book I have read and I wanted to see how the saga ended. 

Thursday

I took the boys to climb Pinnacle Mountain.  I was not sure if William would make it to the top.  We went slow and steady.  Jonah and Robbie raced up.  We made it to the top!  William, as it turns out, is afraid of heights.  I mean really!  How was I supposed to know? I just met him five years ago!

I was really proud of him for making it to the top.  The journey down was much easier.

I would not be telling you the whole story if I did not mention that after our climb, I took the younger boys to my brother's house for a sleepover.  I ended up sleeping over too because I could not stop throwing up!  I could not drive home to take Robbie to practice or even just to sleep in my own bed.  To be perfectly honest, I barely made it to Conway, I about fell asleep at the wheel several times.  Shane and Anna were really troopers about the whole thing.  They set up a bed for me and let me sleep off the heat stroke while they watched the boys.

Wednesday

Went to the new library by our house.  Pretty cool.

Tuesday

We had an interesting encounter today.  William and Jonah were out riding on their scooters.  A car came around the corner and both boys swerved to get out of the street so they would not be hit by the car.  William fell off and cut up his knee.  The man in the car stopped, found a water bottle in his car and washed William's knee.  Then he found a white cloth or shirt and wiped the blood off William's knee.  The stranger then put neosporin on William's knee. 

In the meantime, Jonah had come in the house to find me.  He told me William was bleeding badly and a man had pulled over to help him.  When I got across the street, the man was done.  The only thing he had not done was put a bandaid on.  He would have, but he said he did not have one big enough.  Isn't that amazing?

What a sweet man!  I really could not believe it.  I asked questions like, 'do you live around here?' and 'do you have kids?' Mostly, I was just shocked and grateful for his kindness to my son.

Monday

Welcome Spring Break and warm weather!

Went to the zoo to see the new penguin exhibit with friends.


At lunch, Robbie asked me to explain a 'no fly zone' and Libya to him.  That was difficult.  He is ten, so he will understand, but did I want him to know how terrible it is?  I did.  I told him that the guy in charge was hiring people to kill anyone who didn't want him to be in charge.  The ugly truth.  That is what I told him today.  The ugly real life truth.

Sunday

The last day of our Red Card Kids class.

The children collected change to raise money to add four new classrooms to a school in Ethiopia.  They ended up giving $243 towards the classrooms. 

These children bought books to send to children in Sudan?  I think that was the country.  We missed last week. 

What a great class this turned out to be.

Saturday

Robbie had a birthday party at Playtime Pizza.  Jonah and I came later because he had practice.  I paid our way in because Robbie was the one who was actually invited.  I scored when we got two free passes for Spring Break Week!  Guess I know what we're doing!

Friday

I got a wild hair to rearrange the pictures in the dining and living room.

Before

Ok so, this picture used to be in the dining room.  I understand that the other sconce needs to be moved over, but I have created a lot of holes in this wall and was trying to decide if I liked it before I made more.

Before

After

This picture used to be in foyer where the circle painting is on the above picture.  This looks too big for the mantle doesn't it?  I might put it in the dining room.

This picture is in the same place, I just lowered it.

Thursday

I saw that the trees that I had posted earlier are now turning green.

I kept Jonah home from school today.  He has a project due tomorrow on the planet Venus.  It has not even been started.  We worked on it for a while.  He read the information, picked out the pictures he wanted on his poster and created an alien that would live on the planet.  Then the printer ran out of ink and that threw a wrench in the progress. 

When he got home from practice, it was 9:00 and he was supposed to go upstairs to bathe and then we would assemble the poster and I would type the paper for him.  He never came back down, just went to bed.  He was so tired, he did not even take a shower.  I assembled the poster and typed up the paper for him.

I can be honest about this because we had parent/teacher conferences today. So, I was back at the school with all three boys.  I told the office ladies that Jonah had an extreme case of "idonthavemyhomeworkdoneitis".  See, I am honest!

Conferences went well.  Robbie has pulled up all of his grades except one.  He still has a B in Math.  Jonah has straight A's.

Wednesday - More Pics

Today is the first day since Saturday that William has left my side.  We now have an "action plan" so the school will administer his inhaler to him.  That helps.

Nothing exciting to report.  I will show you some more of the pictures that we had taken.

This is my charmer, he bats those eyes at you and you have to fight not to give in

This is the look I get when he is yelling "What!"

This is my mischievous child.  Anyone who has met him has seen this look.

This is the man.  He is entering middle school next year and things are changing.  He is not a boy anymore.

Serious, confident and capable

Again with the charm

Tuesday Field Trips and Doctors

Everyone goes back to school today.  William has a field trip to see the play, "If You Give a Pig a Pancake".  It is intended for very young audiences.

I am not sure what this sad face is all about...

You have to get to the theater early to be seated and then you wait

and wait and become restless

Then we were off to the doctor.  When William went to the after hours clinic, we realized this was the second time in three months he had to be put on steroids, so we needed to follow up with our regular doctor.  Plus, Jonah had another game and never saw a doctor Saturday. 

The boys all got DSI's for Christmas and it has changed visits to the doctor and long drives dramatically.   Although we do have weird arguments.  Robbie called Jonah selfish because Robbie had charged Jonah's DSI to take along and Jonah would not let him play it.  I asked Robbie where his was and he said he didn't know, that is why he charged up and brought Jonah's.  Really?  Instead of just taking the time to find your own, you charged Jonah's so that you could play his and he is the one that is selfish? 

Both boys are going to a specialist for allergy testing to see exactly what is setting off their asthma.  Otherwise, they are in good health.

I almost forgot the best part - I met a friend from college that was passing through for lunch.  I also got to meet her kids.  She is the one who inspired me to start this blog.  Would you believe I forgot to take a picture of her and her kids? Whoops.  Here is a picture of us from the glory days.  I personally love this picture.  We will see what she thinks...

Monday - Cleaning

The big boys are out of school and I still do not want to let William out of my sight, so he stays home too.

I made the kids help clean house.  William always tries to weasel and fuss his way out of helping.  Today, I was ready.  A friend had let me in on a secret:  Clorox wipes work great on baseboards!  Guess what William was cleaning today?  I had a picture, but it was too dark.

Sunday - Shut Down

The Wallace house has shut down. 

William and I got home from the clinic and Walgreens (prescription) around 10:00 last night.  Jonah had a game that was supposed to start at 8:00, but they were running behind.  Jonah did not get home until after 11:00.  The kids are exhausted, and sick.

Saturday -Needing Medical Assistance

We left the house at 8:00 am to get to the ball fields by 8:30.  William had a game at 9:00, Jonah at 10:00, Robbie had a game at 2:00.  William won his game and so they played at 1:00.  Jonah won his game so they played at 4:00.  William won his game and his next one was at 3:00. 

I had seen both William and Jonah's debut in the morning.  That afternoon, I headed over to Robbie's game, but was called back to William because he was coughing so bad.  I started pumping him with his inhaler.  Victor bought him a hot dog and water.  Nothing seemed to be working.  William's team was missing two players and if I kept him from playing, they would have to forfeit the game.  Victor asked me to sit in the dugout with William during the game to make sure he was OK.

Meanwhile, Robbie lost his game and had returned to William's game.  Jonah's game had started and I sent Robbie over to represent our family and support Jonah.  Wouldn't you know it - JONAH HIT A HOMERUN!!!  This is fantastic right?!?  Well, yes, it is, but I felt so guilty because I missed it.

William's eyes were bloodshot from coughing so much.  I knew we needed a doctor ASAP and a fellow mom suggested we take him to the clinic at WalMart in Bryant.  Made sense, it was close, (Jonah's team won so they played again at 8:00) and they accepted walk-ins.  So off we go during the break.  Would you believe the Nurse Practitioner heard William coughing and refused to treat him because she said he was too sick?  I wanted her to look at Jonah too, but she said since she would not see William, there was not point in seeing Jonah. 

Now the panic sets in because we only have one car and Jonah has a game and we are in the wrong town!   Plus, the nurse started throwing out words like pneumonia and flu (William did not get a flu shot this year).  I don't usually worry about him being sick, but if William gets pneumonia, he might have to stay in the hospital because of his asthma.  I started racking my brain about who I should call to come pick me and William up to take us home so I could get our other car. Victor assures me that he has plenty of time to take me home and get Jonah back in time for his game. 

So William and I are now off to Children's Hospital After Hours Clinic.  I called ahead to get an appointment. As always, the doctor at Children's was far less than alarmed by William's cough.  He just sat back in his chair and told me his lungs were clear.  He does however, bring in a respiratory therapist to administer an inhaler to William.  The conclusion of the visit - the inhaler I had been using to pump William with all day was empty.  Yes, I said EMPTY.  The inhaler we have does not have a counter on it to let me know it is out.  The inhaler makes all the appropriate noises even when empty, so I really had no way of knowing.  I tend to agree with the diagnosis because after William received the treatments at the clinic, his coughing decreased significantly.  I now have an inhaler with a counter on it.

Friday- Close Call

Remember how I told you that on Fridays we review spelling and vocabulary words?  Well today, Jonah quizzed Robbie, relentlessly, on Science.  Robbie had a test today that he did not really study for and he does not have an A in the class.  It was funny because Robbie got so irritated with Jonah.  He really has a hard time understanding that if it wasn't for Jonah, he would not be doing as well in his classes.  Robbie ended up getting a 100% on his test.  I made him thank Jonah and told him he owed that A to Jonah's help. 

And of course we had the tournament tonight.  Robbie had a game at 6:00 and a game at 8:00.  It was again about 48 degrees at 7:30.  Robbie played catcher for an inning.  He actually went on the field and was catching before a parent pointed out to us that Robbie did not have on his chest pad.  The coach stopped the game and put it on him.  Fortunately, even the coach told him, "don't ever forget your chest protector again!"

That was a close one!  This tournament was pitching machine and they had it set on 55 mph.  I want my son to be tough, but I really did not want to go to the hospital.

Thursday Cold Practiice

Tomorrow is the tournament.  William's first baseball tournament.  Both Robbie (5:30) and William (7:00) have practice to prepare for it.  It was so cold.  I begged Victor to call it off.  It was super dark and the wind chill made it about 30 degrees.  Victor had practice, but after an hour. he called it.  One kid was almost purple because his mother did not dress him properly.  I made him put on William's coat.

Here is our catcher:

Here is William on the pitcher's mound:

I have to admit, they needed the practice.

Tuesday - Mardi Gras

Happy Mardi Gras!

Since it has poured all day, all practices were cancelled and William was able to go out for his birthday dinner.  Purple Cow.

Monday - Happy Birthday William!

Today is William's 5th birthday.  I took a cookie cake to his class and they all sang to him.  He is so excited he could literally jump out of his skin.

This is William and his BF talking about very important things.  Star Wars, I believe was the topic of conversation.  It melted my heart to observe how serious and sincere the conversation was.  It looks like they are discussing the situation in Libya.  So cute.

This is William and one of his teachers.  She is really neat.  We all have really enjoyed getting to know her.  I am so lucky that at this school, I can leave William and not really give it another thought.  The principal is amazing, William's teachers are amazing, and even the nurse is really good.  She calls every time she sees William just to let me know what's going on.  I really appreciate that.

Can I just show you this adorable little boy?  I want to pinch his cheeks so bad!!!  I confessed this to his dad, but assured him that I understand that it is totally inappropriate.  His dad gave me permission to pinch his cheeks.  I still have not done it because I am afraid that if I pinch his cheeks once, I will not be able to stop.  I will pinch them every day.  He will have to run and hide every time William's crazy cheek pinching mom comes in the classroom.  It would be scary.

PS. I took Robbie for another fitting for his second retainer since he broke the first one.  The doctor assured me that the record was one day.  He said the child came to the clinic, picked up his retainer, lost it and was back in the office the next morning to be fitted for another one.

Anyway, I talked to the doctor about this picture:

This was one of the choices that the professional photographer made for us.  I really am not pleased with this picture becasue his teeth are so crooked.  The doctor told me that the picture was cute.  I understand that his teeth cannot be helped and he got crooked teeth from me, and that he is only five. I told the doctor that William could be his poster child for kids who need braces.   I left a copy of this picture on the doctor's desktop and he is going to put it on his wall in his examing area.  Cool huh?

Sunday

We are still doing the Red Card series with Robbie.  This week, we learned about child labor.  We saw a video about a girl who is 11.  She had to quit school because her father died and her mother and brother took ill.  She works 14 hour days for 35 cents.  It was gut wrenching to watch.  We learned that in Bangladesh, there is no gravel.  They make gravel by crushing bricks with a hammer.  This is a job that young children do.

Our hands on experience was to take a hammer and try to crush a brick so that we could see how hard it was.