On Tuesday I took Joey to the Bone Dr. for an evaluation on his arm. They cut off his old cast-- his arm was so filthy underneath! Joey immediately asked me if he could wash it off- I helped him to wash it 3 times before he was satisfied with it's cleanliness ad lack of odor. Then then took a new X-ray. Then we waited for the Dr. (and waited....and waited...)  -- when he finally showed up we looked at the X-ray and you could see how well Joey's arm is healing- you can still see where the break is, but it is forming new bone.  The Dr. was confident that Joey would be fine without a cast! He just needs to be careful for the next month. (i.e. no ultimate wrestling or tackle football....) 

Since it has been 6 weeks since he has been able to swim I told the kids I would take them to the pool--- only later at home when I was getting ready to go did a friend remind me that on Tuesdays the pools are closed for maintenance and cleaning. Bummer!!! So I promised him I'd take him on Wednesday- fast forward to Wednesday afternoon--- we all get our suits on and bag of towels and floaty rings and noodles and walk the 5 blocks to the pool--- so see a sign hanging on the fence saying that they are closed for the day! Joey was so upset, he started crying, and I didn't blame him. So, we walked home, loaded everything in the van and drove to the pool in the neighborhood next door- which was OPEN (thank God!) The first thing Joey did was run and jump in- they all swam for two hours and had a great time. I think Joey is going through a growth spurt because for dinner last night after the pool he had THREE servings of beef enchiladas!

Yesterday was also Meet and Greet at their elementary school. We walked there at 8am and already I was dying of heat- We met Joey's teacher, Ms. Johnson- a little old Asian lady; and Sophia's teacher Ms. Stotts.  Ms. Stotts is a young  white lady with long blond hair - not  a very common sight for teachers at this school. We also dropped off our huge load of school supplies at each classroom. I made the mistake of telling Joey's teacher- Ms. Johnson that if she needed anything to let me know--- she already put me to work ripping paper towels in half!?!? To "conserve" them. Ahhhhhh! I really, honestly do not have a couple hours to sit and rip paper towels apart!!! Next time I won't volunteer myself.

Both teachers seemed VERY nice and both kids are excited and ready for school to start on MONDAY!

Yesterday was also our Bi-annual trip to the dentist.... Joey is doing great with No cavities. Sophia... not so much! She has several small shadows on her back teeth that will eventually turn into cavities unless we do thorough flossing every night!! And Chris must STOP allowing the kids to have SODA! I TOLD him how horrible it is for their teeth, but everytime was go out to eat or to the movies he always says "oh, it won't hurt them..." But it DOES hurt them, it ROTS their teeth out!  They already so not drink any juice- and milk only with meals. And really not that many sweets.. so it has to be the Soda consumption. Vangie had a great visit with zero cavities- way to go Vangie!  The dentist also showed me Sophia and Joey's X-rays and all I can say is "Holy crowded teeth!!!" They will both definitely need some dental work in the future. But Chris and expected that!  They are both losing baby teeth and there is really not enough room for their big teeth to come in... thank God for modern orthodontics!

Yesterday Chris and I had our "hospital tour" at Tripler Army Medical Center.  Being this is my 4th baby you'd think I wouldn't NEED to tour the hospital- but I have given birth in a different hospital every time! The first was in Big Rapids, MI (civilian hospital) then Newport Rhode Island (civilian hospital) then Lansing, Michigan (civilian hospital)... So this will be my 4th hospital and my FIRST MILITARY HOSPITAL! I am a little nervous about the "military" part. I have heard a lot of horror stories... just about how the people who work there aren't as nice, how its super crowded... and overall just not a great experience.

Chris and I were very pleasantly surprised on our tour! The rooms are on the 6th floor and were nice and good sized- every room has a jacuzzi tub (which I PLAN on using!)  And you can have who-ever with you when you are having the baby- even kids. I thought about having the kids there.... but having completely "natural" delivery involves quite a bit of PAIN and perhaps a tiny bit of SCREAMING.... so I think I will leave them with the babysitter. After I have the baby in the labor/recovery room I recover for about 3 hours and then they will move the baby and I to the 5th floor to the "Mommy and Baby" room where we will stay the rest of the time. At this point I want the kids to come and visit Lucy and Me. They will be SO EXCITED to see their sister! I will definitely get it on camera because I just know it will be so precious... they talk to her all the time already, she is already such a big part of our family.

This weekend the kids and I finally took Chris to hike Diamond Head- can you believe we have lived here over a year and he hadn't been?? We went Saturday at 4pm so it wasn't crowded- the gates are closed and locked at 6pm, so you need to be able to make it up and back down before 6- which we did, it takes us about 90 min to hike up, enjoy the view and hike back down. I put all our new hiking pictures on the HIKING page, so go check it out!!!  I will admit, the kids did NOT want to hike. They wanted to lay in front of the TV and eat Cheeto's. (well, not really Cheeto's, because I refuse to buy Cheeto's, but you get the picture.) I had to use my "I'm the mom and I said so!" card to force them into the van. However, like ALWAYS, once we got there they had a blast! 

After Diamond head we went to Target. Joey was begging and begging me all week for some Pokemon Cards. Chris made him this really organized binder that he stores all his "cards" in and he plays with them all the time. One pack in about 4$ so I said fine... then Sophia started and wanted something. I told her NO, you don't ALWAYS get something- Joey had his own money and was able to purchase the Pokemon cards on his own. She was SO upset.... and Chris finally gave into her and took her to the make-up section and bought her some (child) eyeshadow. And then of course Vangie needed something so she picked out some lip gloss. - which she loves and wears all the time. I have been reading the book "The 5 Love Languages of Children"- which is amazing and I recommend to everyone- and one of Sophia's top "love languages" (if not THE top) is receiving Gifts. She LOVES to receive things- anything, it makes her feel loved. I hope her future husband is prepared for this.

Sunday was just a lazy "hang out at home" day. I made pancakes and bacon for breakfast, played the Wii with Chris and we took the kids to the pool in the afternoon. There is a NEW VIDEO on the "Video" page of Vangie riding her tricycle. Also notice the picture of Joey- to the right- he was so bummed out to be at the pool and not able to swim because of his cast. We only stayed at the pool an hour because the girls have been begging to go- Joey goes in on Tuesday to get his arm re X-rayed. He could get his cast removed, but I have a feeling it is going to have to stay on a couple more weeks.

On Sunday Chris also fixed the closet in the girls room. Last week the kids had some friends over to play. Joey and one friend and Sophia had two- so there were SIX small children running around the upstairs. ( and I DO mean "running", and yelling and chasing each other!) I was exhausted on this particular afternoon and laying on the couch watching Opera and half asleep. Suddenly I opened up my eyes to see 4 children in front of me telling me some story of a "white shelf falling down..." They all looked concerned. So, I peeled myself off the couch and went upstairs and into the girls room. Turns out that all the girls were sitting on top of the lower closet clothes rack (there is a rack at regular height and I hung one lower so the girls could hang up their clothes on their own..) and they RIPPED it OUT OF THE WALL!!! Thankfully no one was hurt. I was shocked that they would think about crawling up on it... so I had to lecture them about staying off and out of places where they do not belong!! Then I closed the closet door (because I couldn't stand to look at the mess off tangled clothing, broken closet rack and chunks of drywall) and went back downstairs.

Soon after the closet disaster I kicked all the kids outside where they were playing in the garage. I have a box of "otter pops" that I bought from Costso sitting on a shelf in the garage- it has about 300 popsicles that are not frozen, so they are liquid in their individual bags. - I put them into our freezer a few at a time, because our freezer would not hold all 300 at once. The neighbor kids and  started opening them up to drink- spilling sticky, sugary Popsicle liquid all over the box, and the garage floor!!! And immediately there were 89,000 ants swarming the pool of stickiness. This was my last straw- I kicked them all OUT. Chris pulled up at about this time home from work and was greeted with a torn apart, sticky garage and a destroyed closet.

Before I left for Michigan I spent a lot of time in my back yard, tending to my flowers. I am definitely NOT a flower person naturally, but through enough trial and error I managed to get some flowers and plants to look beautiful and lush in the back yard. I watered them daily, weeded them almost daily and was pretty proud of the little outdoor oasis that I created. Well, Chris did help a little... He was the one who had the original IDEA to put flowers in the back yard and he also dug up the sod and put  in stone paver's- and also it was his idea to put in a fountain. This was back in January- when I was just starting my 6 months of morning sickness hell. ( I think it's so funny how every single memory from the first 5 months of 2010 I can instantly recall by thinking about how horrible I felt...) We went together to the lawn and and garden center and picked out some flowers and  planted them. Then Chris liberally surrounded them with wood chips. 

The months passed with me laying prone on the couch, puking; and Chris working all the time. Our beautiful little oasis fell into dis-repair. The weeds overtook everything,  the flowers all died because they had no soil to get their roots into -- just mulch-- and everything looked pretty sad and sorrowful. Around May I was feeling good enough to walk out there and start pulling weeds. Then I just pretty much pulled everything-- all the dead plants, I threw out. All the mulch I shoveled out and threw away too, cursing Chris the whole time for this stupid love affair with mulch!   Then the kids and I drove to the garden center and I actually paid attention to what I was getting--- I needed plants that liked FULL SUNSHINE! And a few that liked mostly sunshine. Also, since it never rains here- plants that didn't need too much water. AND I bought several 30lb bags of compost soil to help the little guys to grow and to give them something to sink their roots into.

I came home with the van loaded down and commenced operation back yard over-haul. I kept waiting for the folks from HGTV to show up but they never did....  Afterwards it looked amazing!! And since then several plants have doubled and tripled in size. Every time I looked out I felt like a proud parent.... Then I left for 3 weeks....and my husband got crazy with the "weed killer", as he liberally sprayed pretty much everything in the back yard. Most of my beauties were DEAD on my return!!!! Chris said "I sprayed weed killer, they'll grow back, I don't know WHY you are making such a big deal out of it..." He also, in his attempt to make the grass lush and green... planted two piece of sod... I posted a picture of the sod to the right. Chris is hoping the grass will "spread" to the area around it that has no grass. I am  just thankful he does not have a job in landscaping. I think we'd be in trouble.

So today I went out into MY yard and pulled the dead plants, pulled the weeds the old fashioned way (err.... by hand) and watered what was left of my beauties. I think they'll come back, they just missed me while I was gone.

Yesterday was a day off for (almost) everyone on Chris's boat- The USS Chicago has the hull number 721, so yesterday being July twentyfirst was a day off for a picnic at Bellows Airforce Base. I didn't make the connection between the hull number and the date being 7-21 until late in the afternoon, so I felt sort of silly, but now it makes perfect sense!!

Chris, the kids and I headed over to Bellows at around 11am. We had never been to that side of the island before so It was fun driving on uncharted territory. Once there the kids jumped in the bounce house (well, Vangie got pummeled by a few older boys and had to be rescued...twice....) and ate a picnic lunch before heading down to the beach to sit with our friends from the boat.  The girls played in the sand and Chris took them into the water- the waves were pretty big!!! Vangie got a face-full of sea water and was NOT happy (it was just not her day yesterday...)  Joey was bummed that he couldn't swim "I wish my arm wasn't broken!!!" but there was a playground for him to play on and some other boys his age so he had fun regardless.  I even donned my bikini to take Vangie into the water and we jumped into the waves together.