The Clutch hit....

Two outs and we're down 0-5. Jackson comes up to bat. Everyone silently knows...through watching him play in past 5 games....that he will likely strike out....hey I'm only honest!
Pitch one....strike.
Pitch two....contact.....HE HIT IT!!!
And he hit it good!! And we were able to not only stay in the inning but we were able to catch up and win the game. "Clutch hit" the coach called it and for hitting that clutch hit he got the game ball!!
(but more importantly he learned that he can do this after all....and that's so much more important that some ball)

Update on Jackson

Jackson had his Dr. appt. today to discuss possible food reactions. The dr. said it does sound like something is going on but since the G.I. system is so diverse it could be a number of things. So right now we have to play a game of elimination. They unfortunately had to draw 3 tubes of blood out of his arm and they will test it against Wheat/Gluten, Tomato's, and H. Pylori (bacteria). I have no idea how long it will take to get the results...I'm assuming 3-5 days. He was very brave about the blood draw....there were tears involved but they didn't last long at all! I was very proud of him. Hopefully we can get him some answers soon. Poor kid!

While we are on the subject of Jackson and bad news......his feet are now bigger than mine! I asked him to stop growing them but he didn't listen!

Chicken Spaghetti recipe

We had this recipe last night and it was a hit! It comes highly recommended! The recipe may look a little daunting but it really was rather easy to make and very much worth it. I only wish Jon wouldn't have taken the left overs to work with him!

Chicken Spaghetti

2 cups cooked chicken
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup finely diced green pepper
1/2 cup finely diced onion
1-4 oz jar diced pimentos, drained
3 cups dry spaghetti, broken into two inch pieces
2 cups reserved chicken broth from pot
1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 additional cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

Boil 1 cut up fryer and pick out the meat off the bones to make two cups (packed). Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional 1 cup sharp cheddar. Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. (If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil.)


Enjoy!

Bad News...

Cooper does need surgery. We had our doctor appointment yesterday with the ENT and it didn't take him long at all to see that Cooper's tonsil had a 20-30% growth since the last time we had come into the office. I think that was in the fall. So he said that there is no more waiting around to see if Cooper's body would grow into it like he told us last time....it needs to come out.
I am very nervous as I think any mother is when she finds out her child needs surgery...no matter how simple it is. It does help that Trenton (my nephew) has been through it so I kind of know what to expect but I'm still scared for him. He of course has NO clue what is going on. From the time we pulled into the Dr.'s parking lot to the time Cooper actually had to get examined he was trying to convince me that it was Grant that needed to go to the doctor....not him (he has a fear of doctors...he did do really good for dr. though, no crying). But even when Cooper was done he told the Dr. that it was Grant's turn. I guess he thinks they have to do everything together! Which could make surgery day interesting since Grant will be staying home with my mom. They've never really been alone. They don't really like to be alone. My mom will have to keep track of how many times she'll hear Grant say "Where's Coopie?".
Surgery day is May 29th and for 2 weeks afterwards we will be having to feed Cooper only mush (oatmeal, yogurt, applesauce, etc.) which could get interesting when he sees Grant eating whatever he wants! We will also need to restrict his activities...no swinging, no riding bikes, no swimming. If you don't know Cooper very well then you have NO IDEA how hard this will be....the child can't sit still. It's going to be very difficult but on the bright side it will give me some very interesting things to write about!

Jackson's appointment is tomorrow to discuss possible food allergies. He asked me last night if he could take the day off of school because dr. appointments make him tired and my answer was.....ummmm NO (nice try little stinker)! His appointment is at 4:15....well after school is out.

I'll keep you posted on that one too! Hope your day is a great one!

Random weekend pics...

If these pics are too small for you to see them you can click on them to make them bigger.

Our beloved hot dog vendor!

Grant playing rocks with Cheeto (Zelia). Yes her parents know that my boys call her Cheeto and they think it's hilarious!

This is what happens to 3-year-old twins after a full day of being outside, no nap, a warm bubble bath and a bowl of warm oatmeal!

Put me in coach...I'm ready to play!!

Cuteness!

More cuteness!

Racing to the car. I don't think Grant's going to win!

My mom doesn't believe that innocent little Grant would say something naughty like "boobies" so I took this picture of him doing it. See that naughty glare in his eyes? That glare is the first sign that things are about to go down!!

Just a picture of Cooper being cute.

If Jon and I had a girl she would look something like this. (They found a daycare girls barrett and wanted to put it in their hair....I have to play hair with someone since I can't have girls of my own!!)

Or maybe our girl would look like this??

My Mother's Day weekend

Yep...it lasted the whole weekend. Jon took the boys shopping Friday night while I was at a party and let them each pick out a flower arrangement to give me on mother's day. I got woken up Saturday morning by some very excited boys holding their flowers and cards. I tried to get them to wait until Sunday but they were way too excited. That's great and all but then we had to go to Jackson's ballgame and Cooper just HAD to take his flowers with him for HIS GIRLFRIEND!! He carried that little pot of flowers around with him all day long. They were his flowers and every once and a while I could smell them but otherwise I swear he was going to make me get a signed note from my mom before he would let me hold them. The flowers finally reached their final resting spot on the kitchen window sill at around 10:00 p.m. last night and he hasn't asked for them for at least 12 hours.

The rest of Saturday was a busy one. We went to Jackson's ballgame. They won. I was rather impressed by some of the players we have...they did great. Jackson is having some issues with fear when he's up to bat. Last year they had a pitching machine pitch to them and he had gotten quite used to having perfect pitches every time he was up. Well this year we have the kids pitching to each other and unfortunately he has seen a couple of kids get hit....nothing bad but it has put a huge amount of fear into his head. We have some work to do to get over it.

After the game we went to our favorite hot dog vendor in the park for some brats and dogs. This guy is a regular of ours in the summer...however he has raised his prices a very little bit and Jon noticed this so I may have to cook more on the weekends this summer...grrr!

I have been bugging Jon to buy a playset for the back yard for long enough and he decided that he has heard enough and got me one for mother's day. Some would question if this would be a gift for me or one for the kids....and my answer to that question would be this....anything that gets the kids out of the house, gets them fresh air and makes tired enough to sleep for 12 hours in a day is every mother's dream. I am feeling like a very lucky woman right now!
Jon and I spent all afternoon putting it together and got 75% of it done...and without scalping each other..that's always a plus! Of course the next day it was rainy with hurricane force winds...and we were stuck inside....again!


Sunday I woke up to breakfast in bed. Jon made me a wonderful spread of pancakes and an omelet....and as a bonus it was edible!! I did allow Jon to get some work done in the basement in the afternoon....I want this project done!!
The weekend ended with a trip to the local Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que joint. I love this place...wonderful food!! We had to kinda rush the trip though as Jackson got an upset stomach...again! It's time to get him into the doctor for allergy testing. He seems to get upset stomachs quite a bit anymore after eating...poor kid!
Speaking of doctor's...Cooper has his appointment with the ENT tomorrow so we can hopefully get to the end of his sleeping escapades! I'll keep you posted.

Like I said it was a very busy weekend. We got a lot done. We heard the word "boobies" a couple hundred times. What more can you ask for??

Hopefully yours was a great one as well!

oops!

I posted in reverse order! So you will have to scroll down to the story to understand the pictures! Sorry.

Sunken Garden at the zoo. It was filled with beautiful tulips all around walking paths!

Do you see that fountain in the pic above this one? As soon as I got done taking this picure of these beautiful tulips I looked up to find my 3-year-olds scaling the fence of that fountain....yep right in the middle of the beautiful tulips. Don't worry no tulips were destroyed during our trip to the zoo!

On to McDonald's where the twins figure out how much fun bubble blowing in your bright red juice can be!

Remember when I told you Grant was stuck at the top of this contraption?? Well here he is giving his savior a hug!

I just asked Cooper if he wanted to take this one home and he looked at me like this. I'm convinced that they think their mother is an idiot!

These gorgeous and very fragrant flowers were wonderfully placed right outside the reptile house at the zoo! God bless those grounds keepers at the park!

Coopers' favorite thing to do....slide!

He's growing up!

In fact he is bigger than most of his team (a team that includes fourth graders).

Grant and Cooper's favorite at the zoo was the Crocodiles.

The Python....Cooper's hissing....can you hear it??

Grant at the garage sale. Sold for $2.50.

They didn't know it was a Buy One Get One Free day!

He wants to play ball in the worst way!

This is a little sister to one of Jackson's team mates and Cooper is totally in love with her. The twins call her Cheeto...her real name is Zelia (don't ask....I have no idea)!

Our wild weekend!

Okay not really wild but I got your attention. We did have a busy weekend but none of it included anything remotely wild unless you include the nasty animals we saw at the zoo yesterday.

Jon took Friday off to help me kick-start our garage sale. The sale was supposed to be from Friday to Sunday and we did good the first day but when Saturday rolled around and it was 50 degrees, raining and down right cold we decided that we couldn't bear another day. Jon was even so cold he had to get a stocking cap on. He decided to call it quits when his fingers became too numb to play his PSP!

Here are the other activities we had going on besides the garage sale:

Jackson had ball practice.

Jackson had a birthday party at a bowling alley (he had a blast).

Jackson had ball pictures.

Jon worked in the basement.

I decided I needed to get out of the house so I took the boys to a nasty zoo!

I then decided to take the boys out to lunch at a nasty McDonalds to eat outside and play on the playground where Grant got stuck at the top of the closed in tunnel toy and I had to convince him from the bottom that he could trust Jackson to help him come down...there was no way I was going in after him!

All in all it was a fun weekend. I'll post some random pics from our weekend in the next post.

(Oh...I know I promised pics of the basement progress but we ended up trashing the basement to find things to sell at the sale so I wanted to wait for Jon to clean it up before I went down and took pictures. Jon has since cleaned it up quite well and I will be posting his basement progress soon.)