New shade/tent awning!! My hubby did a pretty good job for someone who's only supposed to be using one hand... (He had a little help!!)

Homemade Ice Cream!!

"Introducing the Cuisinart Automatic Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker!!"

I wish I WERE doing a commercial, I'd do a really great one... I can see it now - the scene opens with a gaggle of children coming inside from a long, hot afternoon of playing outside in the perfectly manicured back yard. They hear the "whir" of the ice cream maker and immediately their eyes light up! "Mommy! You're the greatest!! You make the BEST ice cream EVER!!"

"Oh no, my dears! Not ME!" the fresh and perky and not-at-all-tired-looking mommy replies with a knowing and exagerated wink towards the camera. "Cuisinart does!" (tee hee hee)

OK that might've been a really sappy commercial, but I DO really like this new little gadget that has replaced my rarely used juicer on the counter top. I'm not a big fan of the slushy mushy icey kind of home made ice cream. I like the TASTE of it though, but I'd rather have soft serve from Dairy Queen. (Don't hate me.) But NOW, I have the best of both worlds!! Perfect soft serve ice cream in 20 minutes and I don't even have to crank!

Spoiled much?? I think so!!!

"Stone"henge Collapses!!

Well, I don't know how a 6mm kidney stone disappears seemingly overnight, but I will attribute it to the grace of God and His miracles, cuz He's a lot bigger than a 6mm crystal!! Aside from a few random pains and completely tolerable twinges, I've had virtually NO symptoms since I went to bed last night! NOTHING compared to the nauseating, doubling-over, "honey, can you carry me to the car" agony that I was in on Thursday. I don't know if I passed it or it disintegrated and disappeared, and I don't really care, but I woke this morning pain free and ready to go to a swim meet with my babies!! Hallelujah!!! God, you're so good!!

R.E.A.L. Championships in Petaluma

Today was a fun family day at a swim meet in Petaluma!! Only Ma-lak and Rea competed this time, but hopefully at the next one in September all four will be ready to!

Tomorrow is day #3 of the 3-day meet, and I think I'll be sitting that one out.. It was a very long day (I was still pretty worn out from the previous 24 hour's ordeal AND I got a little sun-burnt again today!) Rea had a few issues with her goggles when she dove in for her 50 free style, had to pause a few times to adjust them, and Ma-lak got down to the end of the 25 on his 50 free and forgot that he was swimming the whole 50 and almost didn't come back! For their first big meet with tons of people yelling and shouting and screaming and cheering them on and how DAUNTING that can be, they did awesome!

My sister had gotten these little camp chairs for the kids for their birthdays earlier this summer and boy did they come in handy today! Thankfully some of our friends who were old pros at this swim meet stuff warned us to bring something to sit on and be prepared for a long day. So I did pack a lot of snacks and drinks and a blanket and chairs. But we didn't prepare for the weird northern California weather where it's 50 degrees till noon and you're drinking coffee wrapped in blankets and then all of a sudden it's 80 and you're fried within the hour... Lesson learned! We got a little awning tent/canopy today and tomorrow will be much better!

Hopefully I can actually get some decent pictures!!

Great job, guys! We are so proud of you!!

Ma-lak Competes!

Ma-lak competed in the 25 backstroke and 50 free style today, as well as a 100 relay! (Rea competed in the same first two except the relay today, and somehow it was hard to get pictures of her!) They both did really well and are looking forward to more swim meet fun tomorrow!

One, I Mean TWO Horse Town...

We went out for a bite of sushi in Rohnert Park this afternoon after the swim meet. It was a little odd to see two guys on horses making their way through town, stopping at stoplights, obeying traffic laws.... Except for this particular moment when they were on the sidewalk!

"Stony" Disposition

Yesterday did not turn out like it was supposed to.

I went to bed at noon after a very loooong night at work followed by a long-over-due grocery shopping trip. By the time I got home and put groceries away and FINALLY made it to bed, it was noon. A very short hour and a half later I woke to excruciating pain in my left back/flank area. I immediately knew what the problem was, been there done that.

A trip to the ER and a CT scan confirmed it. "Ma'am, you have a 6mm sized stone in your left ureter." That's the size of a pencil eraser! Ouch.

I got a liter of fluid in ER, a little shot of medication that didn't help, and some potassium pills for my strangely low potassium level. I actually felt a lot better and was sent home with prescriptions for the pain and the nausea that I didn't know was coming and was told, "Good luck, drink lots of water."

Well, it was a very. Long. Night. The pain pills made me incredibly nauseated, and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. I couldn't keep anything down all night or all morning today. And you can't move a stone along if you can't drink....

So, I went to see my urologist today and discussed my options: 1. surgery for a stent, 2. laser treatment to break up the stone, 3. go to the hospital for iv fluids and iv pain medication and hope I pass it, or 4. go home and "tough it out, it'll pass eventually."

I'm currently working my way through option #4. And praise God I'm feeling much better, thanks to lots of prayer and a different pain medication! But no stone yet...

I'm hoping for results soon, the kids have their first major regional Swim Meet in the morning and I WANT TO BE THERE!

To be continued.....

"The Help"

I recently finished this great read! I laughed, I cried, I got really REALLY angry, and then I counted my blessings. Have you read this book?? What do you think of it?!

Jedi Son

We got these Mickey Mouse light sabers for the kids a couple years ago at Disneyland. They got tired of them after the light burned out, but Ya'shar has taken a renewed interest in his lately, discovering a new way to "holster" his sword.

Broken toys + creative over-imagination = inexpensive, QUALITY entertainment.