sweet summertime

I'm alive!  I'm still breathing and my head feels much better.  Would you believe stress was causing my headaches?  A little medicine, a few margaritas, and unloading nineteen extra children seems to have done wonders.

We spent our first weekend of summer entertaining Buck and Emo, plus Jackson and his girlfriend.  Bridget tagged along {bless her}, and she was quite a delight to have around. The fact that Jackson is old enough to bring his girlfriend on trips is almost as distressing as his impending graduation.

To celebrate our first day of summer, Reese and I did some errand running after we watched cartoons in bed.  We have a busy June on tap so I thought we deserved a few hours of laziness.  I was looking back through previous blog posts {while simultaneously being traumatized by Doc McStuffin on Disney} and stumbled upon this picture--

My how he has changed in two years.

Yesterday I barely was able to snap this one--

Try as I might to thwart his letter writing interest, he persists.  So much so that I bought him some handwriting practice workbooks at Target.

Tomorrow we have a lunch date with sweet friends planned.  Do you know how much I love being able to have lunch dates?  So much so that when Ashley called and invited us I got overly embarrassingly excited. Then tomorrow night Lofton and I are hitting the town for the East Alabama Showcase Home open house {Lofton sold the material}while the blonde bombshell comes to entertain Reese.  It's almost like a date.

a series of naps and with a little bit of grace

Sleep.  We didn't get much last night.

It started with my massive headache.  That in itself was enough to keep me tossing.  Add to it, Jake busting out of the bedroom to roam the house, Reese falling out of his bed and scaring the dickens out of  Raleigh which in turn scared all of us, both dogs needing to go out at 2:30 in the morning, and Jake then running off after a deer.  We let him go, but he returned around four... welcoming himself home by barking outside the house.  Like I said, we didn't sleep much.  Sleep last night was, in fact, a series of naps.

It's okay, though.  Only five more days then I can nap with Reese all summer.  Itissoclose.

During private confession time at church this morning I prayed for two things. One, grace for my school children.  Grace for them, and grace for me.  These next four days are going to be long.  Long and unstructured, which as you know, I do not enjoy.  The second thing I prayed for was my headache to go away.

I had a little scare on Friday at school.  Brace yourself, this sounds really dramatic {and makes me feel really ridiculous}.  Friday morning I woke up feeling fine, but around 8:15 my left arm suddenly got very cold and went numb.  After about thirty minutes I went next door and told Janet, who in turn sent me to the office to call the school nurse.  Long story short, the nurse recommended I call my doctor.  By this time Lofton had come to school.


{Did I mention that Friday was the day ALL the second graders come visit our school?  Oh yes.  So while my arm is numb, and I'm beginning to freak out, I'm also smiling and welcoming parents and children to the room.}


We went to the doctor and after answering a few questions she sent me to the hospital.  Cue the scary music because what transpired was 5,000 times worse than a numb arm.  An MRI.  I am beyond claustrophobic.  I can occasionally tolerate getting in Reese's tent with him.  But not for long.  Small spaces, and being confined in any way, freak me out.

Without going into the specifics, it was the worst experience of my life.  I'm not at all exaggerating.  I had to hit the panic button, they couldn't finish the panels the doctor ordered, and there was extreme hyperventilating and an abundance of tears.  We ended up coming home, at which point I decided I would sleep on a blanket outside for the rest of my life. Late Friday afternoon we were scheduled at the Open MRI place.  That experience was tolerable, but only because Lofton was allowed to go back with me.  It was still confined, I still had to have my head strapped down with a cage over my face, and there was still a machine hovering so close to my face I couldn't see light.

We still don't have the results, but I assume it's nothing life threatening since I'm still alive. Whew. And now I'm off to nap, because this silly girl promised her cranky three year old she'd bake cookies after nap time. WhatwasIthinking?

full

Seven school days, friends.  That's all.  Amazing isn't it?  The year flies by.  My babies at school are no longer babies {as evidenced by the fact that I had three girls brawl in the library yesterday}.  

This time of year is hard.  Work is hard. So much to wrap up, so much to plan ahead for, so many children to keep focused. And home hasn't been much better.  Precious boy was a bit spoiled by his mini-vacay last week.  He has yelled every morning this week about having to go to school.  He really doesn't want to... Ever again.  As I explained to him this morning, Daddy and I are very aware of his feelings so continued yelling is unnecessary. 

But the title of this post is full and that is what my heart is.  Monday, Reese came home with my Mother's Day goodies.  One of them was a small questionnaire for which he provided the answers.  I die.

My age?  Ten.

What I say to Reese most often?   Lay down, Reese.

What is my favorite food?   Roast Beef.

And the best... When am I the prettiest?  When I am eating food.  

Seriously. As I told Cassie, I suppose I need Reese to lay down so I can stuff my face with roast beef.

I love this boy.  My heart is full.

thoughts on mother's day

I'm thankful every single day to be Reese's mama.  He's my heart.  The best {and sometimes worst} parts of Lofton and I.  Lofton often says, "I just love him so much." And I know exactly what he means.  You don't realize, until you have your own child, how much love you are really capable of feeling.  It's just indescribable.

I went to a baby shower yesterday for a sweet friend.  I wrote on her wish tree that I hoped she and her husband would feel so much love in their hearts that they thought their hearts might burst.

That's how I feel about our sweet boy. Not just on this day, but every day.

{ And happy mother's day to my Mama.  She is beyond the best.  Not going to lie, after four days at home I cried like a baby on the way back to Opelika. Love you Mama.}

only my child

Remember last year when Reese had that yucky virus and we spent some time in the hospital?  And it was this totally rare thing that NOBODY ever gets?

He got it again.

Adenovirus hit us hard about midnight Wednesday and held strong all weekend.  We've been a popsicle feeding, late night rocking, motrin dispensing, movie watching, snuggling bunch for the last five days.

Pitiful boy has had fever upwards of 102, sore throat, and a headache.  I actually think this is the first time Reese had ever had a headache.  It was awful.

Lofton kids me that I like sick days.  That isn't exactly true, but I do love the extra snuggle time.  And I don't mind missing work in May.  The three nights of sleep I missed?  That's another story.  This old lady cannot handle nights of no sleep.

Luckily, today we feel much better.  We've caught up on sleep, our fever is gone, and we all went back to our respective jobs today.  Good thing, we have a busy week ahead: play date with Mimi tomorrow because she's headed to Ireland, a senior band concert for my brother {who I continue to pretend is NOT graduating}, and then a beach day on Friday.

Germs, be gone.

brain dump

I'm too tired for a cohesive post, bullets will have to do--

• We took our third graders bowling today.  Field trips give me anxiety, but this one wasn't too bad.  We had the whole bowling alley to ourselves, the bus ride was fairly short, and the kids had a blast.  It was our most successful field trip to date.  
• My brother was awarded another scholarship to UWF yesterday.  Although I'm in complete denial that he is graduating from high school {seriously, i spontaneously burst into tears just thinking about it}, I am so proud.  I remember the day he started Kindergarten like it was yesterday.  And I cried that day, too.
• We are in our last week of soccer--thankyoujesus.  Tomorrow night is our last night, actually.  It's been a great introduction for Lofton as to how Reese will participate in fall sports.  Our expectations have been lowered to a more reasonable level.
• Our resident sassy pants has a bum knee.  He fell at school Monday afternoon right as Lofton was picking him up.  It took both Lofton and I to get the nasty thing cleaned up.  There was yelling, lots of tears and snot, and then a refusal to walk for the rest of the evening.  Dramatic? Yes.

But also adorable.  And why are knee injuries so hard to bandage?

And that's all she wrote, kids.  We are in strict survival mood for the next few weeks.  May 25th, where are you?