The Bits: May 1st Through May 7th

I'll try to keep up on the Bits a bit better...but no promises.  Life is busy for us all!

Happiness is getting a front-row parking spot at Costco on a rainy day.

Two trips to Costco in as many days, pantry shelves and two fridges stuffed full: I think I am finally equipped to feed 7 boys, plus Adam and I, for the next couple of weeks.  Along with Andi the dog came two of her human brothers, Jake and Bryson, who are living with us for the month of May while their family house hunts.

This is how our sweet Luke decompresses after testing day, in a quiet house with a good book, while his brothers noisily bounce on the tramp.

We remembered Josh's piano recital four minutes before it began, but we are speedy and arrived just in the nick of time.  Josh played beautifully!  We were most proud of his performance of "Pachelbel Canon," a difficult song which he chose from music he found in our piano bench, convinced his teacher that he could do, and practiced dutifully to master the song.  He played so well!  Here he's pictured with Marianne, his teacher and one of my young women, and also with his buddy, Ryan, a good friend from school who also takes lessons from Marianne.

Ram's first win!  Tommy was so happy!

It's lilac season and the world smells lovely!

Bruthas from anutha mutha...Jake is one of our two bonus boys for May.  They are enjoying this arrangement, and may soon start to finish each others' sentences.

Sunday twilight street football.  Here you can see Bryson, Jake's little brother, our other bonus boy for May.

Two years after having Tommy's second round of ear tubes put in, one of them had not healed its way out as it was supposed to, which is not surprising, because Tommy's body seems to like to do the unexpected.  Unfortunately, surgery was required to remove it.  On Monday morning, we woke up early for Tommy's quick and easy surgery.  Everything went really well and Tommy is now tube-free with a little patch in place that is supposed to help the hole left by the tube heal up.  The best part: watching Pokemon (banned at home) on his own personal TV.  The worst part: Mom having to watch him go under from the anesthesia.  awfulawfulawful. 

Tommy was pretty grumpy from the after-effects of the anesthesia and spent most of the day with this look on his face.  So sad!  When he finally perked up, we had to spend the afternoon vigilantly watching the trampoline, which is off-limits to him for at least a week, so he wouldn't try to sneak a jump with his brothers.

A weird/creepy souvenir from the anesthesiologist that Tommy carried around like a badge of honor for the rest of the day, telling everyone to smell its sweet strawberry scent.

Since his game on Saturday, Ben had been suffering from a low-grade headache that became worse with physical activity.  He had been nailed with a ball that was intended to be cleared down field, but went sailing into the side of his head only abut five feet away from where it had been booted by an opposing defender.  Tuesday morning we took him to the doctor, who diagnosed him with a mild concussion.  He said no mental or physical strain until the headaches subsided, and then a slow step up back to activity.  Ben said, "So, no school?"  I said, "That's not what he means, Ben."  The doc said, "Actually, it is.   No school until his headaches are gone."  He also said, "Concussions are the most boring thing an active kid can endure."  Which is 100% true.  No straining his eyes or his mind, which means no screens, no reading, no catching up on homework, nothing to stretch his mind at all.  Poor buddy!  And pretty scary stuff! 

So, it's been kind of a cruddy week.  Surgery, concussion, and...fever.  Sunday, Josh came down with a fever and a wracking cough.  It lasted three days, and although he went back to school on the fourth day, because the fever was gone, he was dragging.  Our poor, sweet Josh!  He is so hardy, he never really gets sick, and this was a bad one.  It really took him out.  And to top it off, he shared it with Ben, so now we can't tell if Ben has a headache because he's concussed or because he's fevered.  I hope it's the latter. 

Tuesday night, I was in charge of our ward's Senior Recognition night.  I think it came together to be a lovely night, filled with just the right amount of laughter and tears.  We only have one young woman graduating with a group of six young men, but she's a pretty special girl; her faith and integrity are a source of unwavering strength for us all.  Jessie is going to leave a big hole in our hearts when she leaves us! 

Even with all of his restrictions, it is not surprising that Ben still finds fun things to do.  He's already listened to two audiobooks and built a kiragami bowl using over 200 folded paper triangles.  This was before the fever hit, which now has him kind of sleepy all the time, and wanting to take a lot of baths.

A stunning storm front plows into our area.  Our monsoon season seems to have hit early this year with thunderstorms and rain nearly every day.  I love it!  Soccer coaches don't.

Tommy checking out how deep our "moat" is during an afternoon storm.  When he first asked if he could go see our moat, I wasn't sure what he was talking about, then he explained that it was where the water flows in front of our house.  Ah!  The gutter!  I guess our home IS our castle!  Speaking of castles, the other day we decided to watch a Disney movie and Tommy hurried to turned it on for us.  When I sat down next to him he said, "Don't worry, Mom, you only missed the temple part."  Huh?  Then I realized it was the part at the beginning of Disney movies where the outline of the Sleeping Beauty Castle is drawn above the word "Disney."  Haha!  Love his Tommyisms!

MEGA HAIL STORM!  This is the biggest hail storm we've ever seen in our seven years living here in The Springs, and we've had some big ones.  It came in and just went on and on.  Thunder, lightening, hail dumping in buckets for a good long while.  By the end, there were four inches of hail on the roads, even the hail rivers had become too clogged with hail to flow.  The kids were held at school and couldn't leave until the lightening cleared and a parent or other known adult was there to check them out.  In the bottom left corner you can see the lightening strike map with the little blue marker pointing to our red location dot, which is barely visible because it is covered in yellow lightening bolts.  Yipes!  It was pretty incredible! 

Once the storm cleared, Luke, Tommy and Bryson spent a couple of hours floating aluminum foil boats down the rain gutters...or moat, as it would be.