Meatal Stenosis...what?!

My Zachary is having "minor outpatient surgery" tomorrow at LeBonheur Children's Hospital. I hate when things are called minor but seem incredibly major. Zachary is 9 and is more than old enough to understand anatomy and surgery. He's not excited about having someone cut into his boy parts. I'm certainly not excited about it either. I pray for his doctors and nurses, that they will be sure of hand and kind of heart. I pray for his spirit, that it will be easy and unburdened. I pray for his little brother Alec who still has to go to school and have a "normal" day while everyone else in the family is doing the unusual. I pray for success and quick healing for my boy. And I pray that he will not be bothered by this sort of thing ever again! God be with my baby.

Family Traditions

It's Friday night and my family is about to enjoy one of our family traditions: pizza and game night. I think we started this when Zach was a kindergartener and Alec was 2. Back then it was one medium cheese pizza and Hi Ho Cheerio. Now we order two pizzas with lots of different toppings and play Monopoly or the Wii. It's a good way to end the week, and I always love the lack of cooking involved.

Another tradition of ours is to share favorite moments of the day over the supper table, and yes, we do eat at the table every night that we're home. I think it's important for a family to sit down together and share a meal.

A third tradition of ours is to bake something together on the first day of school. This year Alec started school a few days after Zach, so we baked brownies for 4th grade and cupcakes for kindergarten.

Saturday mornings are almost always greeted with cinnamon rolls and cartoons. This is as much for Mike as for the boys. My husband has a weakness for breakfast rolls (and for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.)

I hope that when my boys are grown that they will look back and fondly remember our family traditions. What are your family traditions?

Fourth Grade Celebrity

My boy Zachary has had a big week at school. He's completed his art project at school, which was a self-portrait. I think it is pretty awesome and he's pretty proud of it.

He was also one of a handful of fourth graders chosen to have a speaking part in the fourth grade musical last night. He did great! That boy has no fear when it comes to speaking on stage.

He also completed his Native American Village diarama. He chose to do the Shawnee tribe and I think his diarama turned out great!

He's a superstar! My superstar is going to have surgery on Monday. We'd really appreciate your prayers on his behalf!

Fingering strings

I know I've said it before, but I just feel the need to say it again. My husband is incredibly good at what he does. He is gifted, but also extremely hardworking at his craft. Plus he just looks pretty dang good in that uniform!

Old Photo of Mom

My Aunt Lida emailed me some old pictures last week. This one just hit my soft spot because it of the smile. This was the girl my dad fell in love with about 50 years ago. They have been married 43 years, but were high school sweethearts as well. Look at that smile!

Fighting Closet Monsters

Okay fellow moms and dads. I need words of wisdom on fighting off a 5-year old's irrational fear of the Dreaded Closet Monster. Alec is terrified of the scary things living in his closet and the fear is getting worse instead of better. Anyone have a tried and true tactic for fumigating closet monsters from homes? I'm getting desperate!

Family Time and Catching Up

I haven't done very well with blogging lately. I taught a summer school class in July, which took up a lot of my time. When the class concluded I took on a kitchen painting project that took up much more time and energy than anticipated. Then, of course, school started back and my summer to-do list kind of went out the window. On that to-do list was: #7-Catch up on blog. Hmmm...

Anyway, here we are on Sept. 6, Labor Day. I celebrated my 36th birthday on Sept. 1 and then went home to Oklahoma with my little guys for a quick weekend with my parents. My dad was improved since our last trip home. My mom was about the same. I suppose that when she doesn't worsen in a couple of months, that is actually a good report. I spent some time with her, brushing her hair, singing to her, talking to her, putting lotion on her, etc. At one point she looked right at me and called me Mama. It hurts when things like that happen, but it hurts more when I spend time with her and she only stares into some unknown world and mumbles like she is frightened. I will take her mistaking me for my Grandmother anyday over those terror-filled looks and mumblings. I hate Alzheimer's.

It was very good to see my dad with more energy. He's still not back to "normal" but I'm not sure that we'll ever see normal again in my family. He certainly enjoyed his grandsons, and I can't really ask for more than that. He and Alec are special buddies. Alec spends a lot of time snuggling with Poppa Jim when we're home and Dad just treasures that time. Zach has kind of outgrown the snuggling stage, but he still thinks his Pop hung the moon.

My dad humbles me with his love and devotion to my mom. He is the very best of men and I ache every time I see him brush a hand over her forehead. He is so good to her. When I run into people in the small town of Wynnewood everyone says, "He's a good man, Andrea. He's doing a great job with her." I've always thought my dad was a gentle giant, but more and more I'm seeing that gentleness and more and more I aspire to his devoted love for my mom.

Anyway, so we're back home and readying ourselves for getting back to school tomorrow. I'm going to try to do better with my posts!