Towel

This morning.

Me at home 9:00am: Does everyone have their towels for swimming lessons?

All 4 kids: Yes!

Me at home 9:10am: Does everyone have their towels for swimming lessons? We're going now!

All 4 kids: Yes!

Me in the van: Does everyone have their towels?
All 4 kids: Yes! Stop asking

*we get to swim lessons and get out of the van*

Cole: Oh no! I forgot my towel! Why did you let me forget it?!

It's gonna be a long, chilly walk back to the car and an even longer ride home. (It's only 69 degrees, with a slight breeze.) And I'm not empathetic at all.

Bad Mouth

Today we went in for Spencer's semi-annual orthodontist appointment. The boy has been having orthodontia since he was 6 years old - 2 expanders, braces, head gear, retainers... all the fun stuff. (He inherited my bad Roper genes, poor kid.) ((And poor me.))

Anywho, the orthodontist was really excited because he has this super-neato (to orthodontists, at least) 3D x-ray scanner that can show you all sorts of things. We had this same scan the last time we were there, but this time was even more exciting because now he could compare this time's images to last time's.

Excitement was abundant.

Random side note the first: I was not that excited. Mainly because as we were pulling into the orthodontist's parking lot Tess spilled chocolate milk ALL OVER HERSELF. (We had gone to McDonald's earlier and she was finishing off her drink. A drink I explicitly told her to be very careful with. Dang it.) I had baby wipes in the car to clean off her legs, but nothing could get it off of her pants! Brown stain on the crotch and backside of your shorts? Not a pleasant look. There was much explaining in the office, and Tess wasn't allowed to sit down the entire visit. Motherhood is glamorous, no?

Anyways, I wasn't surprised with the doctor's recommendation: Spencer is gonna need jaw surgery. See, his lower jaw is growing way bigger and narrower than it should, and his top jaw is not growing enough. (It's also too narrow, but the expanders have helped.) In order to correct this he will need surgery to remove some of and reposition his lower jaw and expand his upper jaw. Major surgery, but necessary. Not doing so could affect how well he eats, speaks, breaths (bad jaws = bad airways), and looks. 

Fortunately/unfortunately, this type of surgery isn't done on kids. He will likely have to be at least 18 years old. (Although the orthodontist did say that with technology and techniques improving all the time, there's always the possibility he could have it done sooner.) So now it's a waiting game to see how this kid grows. It was crazy to discuss timetables that far in advance, but 18 is a big year. See, it's a major surgery, so he'd need quite a bit of recovery time, which means it would need to be done in the summer so he wouldn't miss so much school. That probably means the summer after his senior year. That conflicts with missions and college and such. It's hard for me to fathom Spencer being that old!

Random note the second: because he has to wait for the surgery, and because the surgery will make more room in his mouth for his teeth, there's no reason to put him in braces between now and then. So the lucky guy at least won't have to deal with that anymore. For now. (I don't know if that's much of a trade-off...)

Spencer wasn't actually in the room during this discussion - the doctor had put all the kids back in the waiting room because he didn't want to freak any of them out. He doesn't know my kids - they were REALLY interested in this information! I didn't give them all the nitty-gritty details, but they sure were fascinated with the idea. Spencer didn't seemed phased by it at all, but I suppose part of that could be because 6 years in the future is pretty far away for someone his age.

So... we have quite a bit of time to see what happens. Who even knows what will be going on in our lives 6 years from now? In the meantime, I've already started thinking about setting up a separate savings account just for his surgery, wondering whether this would be covered under medical or dental insurance, and calculating just how much babysitting Spencer will owe us to cover all of these expenses. (Ha!)

The Longest Summer

Recently I have been marveling at how fast summer seems to fly by. It just seems so short and there's so much I want to do and have fun doing with my kids.

And then there are days like today.

Where summer vacation cannot end soon enough.

It's like all 4 of them declared war on each other this morning. The fighting and the whining and tattling and the tears... I just wanted to run away.

Far, far away.

None of my 12+ years of mothering experiences helped me out. None of my proven tricks worked, none of my mean-mom voices worked. Neither did ignoring the problems or trying to stop them before they started.

It was not my finest morning.

In fact, I felt quite defeated and unmotherly.

But, the Scarlett O'Hara in me keeps repeating that "tomorrow is another day". And hopefully tomorrow I'll get it right. Or at least better.

In the meantime... only 48 days until school starts again.

Stung

Today was SUPER HOT AND MUGGY.  Just awful. I was out putting netting on all my berry bushes - because birds and chipmunks keep stealing them - and after 15 minutes I was drenched in sweat.

Such a glamorous life I lead.

So when Tess asked to play in the kid wash I was all for it. Way easier than going to the pool.

I was trying to get into the garage but side door was locked, when

AAAAAGHHHHHHHHAHJCLGLLCHSGSGJ!!

A wasp landed on my mouth, I gasped and inhaled, and then he STUNG THE INSIDE OF MY LIP!!

AAAAAGHHHHHHHHAHJCLGLLCHSGSGJ!!

It hurt so bad. So, so bad. I ran inside to get an ice pack and swallowed a double dose of ibuprofen. Tess and Josh were kinda freaking out and it was all I could do not to start crying and freak them out more.

Ouch ouch ouch.

I kept the ice on for a good 30 minutes. I could feel the venom moving through my lips. I actually watched a rather large blister form on my bottom lip, from the crease of my mouth and then about an inch down.

Mother of pearl, it hurt.

I didn't think to take a picture during the worst of it. The one above was taken once the swelling went down, so you can only see a little of it. As of now it's not that bad, although I suspect it will be tender for a day or two.

Lance came home and went wasp nest hunting, finding a ton all around the eaves of our house and on the playset. 'Tis the season. He quickly dispatched them to wasp hell with some spray.

Not the funnest way to pass the afternoon.

Ouch.

Sometimes In June

Sometimes in June...

You try to get just one good picture of father and children on Father's Day.

And fail.

Sometimes you get a good picture of your husband trying out one of his Father's Day gifts.

And sometimes you find a child enjoying the gift instead.

Sometimes in June you go to Pink Walrus for Family Home Evening. And the child who had been complaining about feeling sick - all afternoon and on the way to Pink Walrus - puts the most stuff in his bowl. And polishes it off. (I'm looking at you, second son.)

Sometimes in June you go out to lunch at Steak 'n Shake. And your daughter and third son both have meltdowns over dumb things. But then calm down once they actually get to eat.

And sometimes you fall in love with blue eyes and freckles on a nose.

Sometimes you get the side eye from your kid.

And the rolling of eyes. Mercy, he's good at this.

Sometimes just one kid's expression makes the picture of all 4 worth it. Like Spencer here.

And Cole here.

And sometimes you get a picture that could be in an ad campaign. This girl will never be accused of not having personality!

Indy Zoo

While Spencer was off camping, the kids and I played and played and played.

Not really.

In Josh's mind that's what we should have done. He really liked being the oldest kid at home and had all sorts of grand plans in mind. Unfortunately, his mother is more realistic and has a budget.

We compromised and went to the zoo in Indy with Gigi and Bergen instead. We all won! (Especially my budget - Craig got us discounted tickets through his work. Woo-hoo!)

The weather was beautiful and the company fantastic. We hadn't been to the zoo for quite a while, so it was fun to go back and see the new exhibits. Tess hadn't been since she was a baby, so it was all new to her! We of course started with some shark petting.

We saw lots of animals, and then passed by the splashpad area - it was closed. Tess and Cole were DEVASTATED because that had been part of the deal: they behave at the zoo and I'd let them play in the water. Heartbroken. Tears and tantrums. Fortunately, this happened right before lunch. Once we got some food into them (almost) all was right with the world again. I took this picture right after we saw the "closed" sign at the splashpad.

Lunch was a little crazy because the wind kept gusting and blowing plates away. Cole's plate flew into my head three times. Lots of "PLEASE hold your plate down" and "But I am! I AM" *swoosh* *growl*

Here's the brown bear exhibit. I'm not one for taking pictures of animals at the zoo, but he just seemed so content sitting in his pond. What a life! We watched for a while, and then the bears went into their cave. I was pretty sure they were being fed. Then the smell of fresh french fries wafted by. I decided to have a little fun and told Cole that the bears were eating french fries. Couldn't he smell them? Well, I was a little too convincing because he kept bringing up the bears and their french fries all day.

He totally believes that bears eat french fries at the zoo!

I am an awesome mother.

I don't have the heart to tell him the truth yet. Maybe when he's in high school...

We got to check out the new orangutan center - it was pretty impressive. Orangutans are so cool! Cole was NOT impressed that their poop and pee were left out. Apparently in his world orangutans should be potty trained.

After lunch we went to White River Gardens (which is right next to the zoo) to check out the Lego sculptures. The kids stopped to build their own creations first, which was fine with Gigi and I because it was air conditioned! They were quite proud of their Lego animals.

Cole quite liked the Lego chameleon. He also liked learning how many Legos were in each sculpture and how many hours it took to build them. (Answer to both: A LOT.)

After the Legos we hit the dolphin show. We totally forgot you had to have tickets for the show and were worried we might not get in, but we lucked out and did! Not only that, but Bergen, Josh, and Cole were able to sit in the splash zone and were THRILLED. After we checked out the dome under the water. Cole quite liked it. Can't you tell by his manic smile?!

We of course hit the desert area and checked out the snakes in the snake house.

Nothin' cuddlier than a cement python!

We saved the African plains for late in the day. It was hot, but the kids held up pretty well. They even wanted to do the "Race a Cheetah" activity. (It's only $.50 now, so I actually let them do it! Normally I'm not a fan of paying to do extras and places like this.)

I didn't realize Cole still had his Tootsie Pop in his mouth when he ran. I'm winning at this parenting thing. According to the stop watch, a cheetah would have caught up to and passed Cole six INCHES into the race. Not much of a race if you ask me!

Josh did slightly better at nine inches.

The last area we visited were all the bird aviaries. Birds are pretty, but noisy and kinda stinky!

Bird masks are fun, though. Tess cracked me up.

They got to feed some of the birds, which was pretty exciting.

It was a great day with some great friends. Did we miss Spencer? (Or Logan, who was also at camp?) Kinda. But not really. Gigi and I were both pretty sure the older boys would've just complained and been snarky most of the day. Still, I kept catching myself looking around for all 4 of my kids and panicking for half a second because I only counted 3!

Scout Camp

Spencer went to Scout Camp last week. It was kinda surreal. HOW can he be old enough for this? Seriously.

I was talked into taking a van load of boys up to camp early Monday morning. (We're talking 6am.) And hour drive there and another back - you don't have to drive far from Lafayette to be in the middle of nowhere! It was actually kind of nice to see all the boys he'd be with and get a glimpse at the camp.

This is the first time Spencer has ever been away from us for more than a night. That's a big deal! But in true Spencer style he didn't look back and rushed into his new adventure. Literally. I had to call him back to me and demand a hug. (He did the same thing on the first day of Kindergarten.)

Overall, Spencer had a really great time at camp. He enjoyed hanging out with his friends and he had really great leaders. He worked and played hard and earned several merit badges. He really enjoyed his kayaking class. I don't know that he really liked leatherworking, but he did make a little knife pouch and didn't lose any fingers, so I call that a win.

He complained of being a little sick for a day or two, but I suspect that was more to do with the heat, humidity, and diet. (Then again, I had a very mild bug the week before, so perhaps he had that, too. Nothing to go home over, though!)

Wednesday night was family night, so I piled the kids in the car and we drove out. (Lance came later.) We took Subway sandwiches because I figured Spencer would appreciate it and I knew my kids wouldn't eat whatever was being cooked. (Also, we weren't 100% positive we were going to be fed. Communication was a little iffy sometimes!)

That night was HOT. And HUMID. I can't describe just how miserable it was. Seriously. SO MISERABLE. I was pretty glad I wasn't the one camping!

In all the hubbub of getting ready and hauling all our chairs and food to the campsite I didn't realize Tess had brought her girliest purse, filled to the brim with ponies. She stood out quite a bit at that camp! She also proceeded to get so dirty, from head to toe. It was quite impressive.

I forced Spencer to take some pictures. Because that's what moms do.

He tolerated it.

I also snagged one with his tentmate, Chris. He also tolerated it.

We only stayed for about 90 minutes. Tess hollered and screamed during the walk back to the van because no one would carry her and her "legs were broken". Nevermind the fact that I was lugging 4 camping chairs and a soft cooler and had nary a spare arm. That girl.

Anyways, Spencer was supposed to get home Saturday morning, but they ended up coming back Friday night. I guess they finished everything they needed to early Friday evening and decided they'd rather break camp and sleep in their own beds that night instead of doing it all in the morning. I can't say that I blame them! (Bonus: their leaders drove them home so we didn't have to drive out to the Stake Center to pick them up. Not usually a big deal, but with all of the road construction lately it takes a good 30 minutes to get out there!)

I'm really grateful Spencer had this opportunity. I'm even more grateful for his fantastic leaders!