Busch Gardens Again!

The kids have been begging to go back to Busch Gardens and with season passes we can!  They had today off of school so we went.  We had a blast (again)!  We went on some new rides, some of our favorites from last time, and saw a 4D Pirate movie.  We can't wait to go back (again)!

Here we are waiting for our 4D Pirate movie to start.  If we all look like a hot sweaty mess it's because we were.  It was 88 and humid!  I was just glad to sit down in an airconditioned building for a few minutes!  The movie was great!  The 4th D is vidbrating seats, water squirting, and wind blowing at all the right times. The kids had never seen anything 3D before and they loved it!  Calvin was convinced that they shot that cannon ball just at him.  Lilah figured out really quick that if it got too scary she just had to take her glasses off.

Here is Celeste waiting for her sisters.  She isn't very happy with me - she can give some dirty looks, beware of her stink-eye!  She is not like my other kids at this age, she loves wearing shoes and brings them to me to put on her and tolerates her hat. 

Psoriatic Arthritis

As I look back I think I've had mild psoriasis off and on for years.  The most recent round started last fall and instead of clearing up on it's own, it got worse.  Last month I finally went to the doctor to have the psoriasis diagnosed and get a perscription.  Today I went to the arthritis specialist and was diagnosed with the arthritis that sometimes accompanies psoriasis - Psoriatic Arthritis.  I'm lucky, in that right now it's only affecting one finger on my left hand.  The pain is manageable but unfortantly the inflamation can cause permanent damage and can easily spread to other joints and cause other problems.  So I'm going on several medications to see if we can manage the nflamation.  It's not a bad thing that the pain, stiffness, tenderness, and swelling will also get better :).  I'm hoping the pills we try work and don't cause too many side effects so that we don't have to try the shots.  I'm also glad that I was refered to a good Dr. that I like, since I'll be seeing a lot of him.  This kind of arthritis can come and go and I'm hoping it goes and that it goes sooner rather then later. 

Can you tell which finger it is?  It actually looks good today - it sometime gets so swollen I can't bend it.  It also happens to be a good rain predictor - seriously, it gets much worse when it rains.  I always thought that was an old wives tale!

Good Monday

The other day my older kids were saying how they love the weekend and didn't like Monday.  I told them that I LOVE Mondays!  I do.  I like getting back to the structure of life.  I like to run errands and go grocery shopping and I usually do that on Monday mornings.  I know I'm weird, but there it is!   Today was an exceptionally good Monday.  After I got my older 2 kids off to school I spend some time making my lists and clipping my coupons and off we went.  The cashiers at Rite Aid know us and they love Celeste.  After that we hit the Grand Opening Sale at Michaels - they opened one at the shopping center only a couple miles from my home - I'm so excited!  We finished our errands and got home in time for lunch with Dad. I don't usually work on Mondays but today was an exception.  I went to work and Mike stayed home - he cleaned up the house, helped the older kids with their homework when they got home and bought me flowers!  I was so happy to come home to a clean house and a beautiful bouquet on my table!  Mike and I played with Celeste and helped her walk all over the living room.  Her 1-2 steps over the weekend have already turned into 5-6 steps all over the room - she gets up and walks completely on her own without any encouragement now.  It's so fun!  After I made dinner we had family home evening, we read to our kids and put them in bed!  Now it's me time!  I just love Mondays!

Garden Makeover

We had to put a fence up around our garden.  Something (I'm guessing a rabbit, they run wild around the neighborhood in the spring) was eating my plants!  I was getting tired of replanting my cucumbers so Mike and I put up a fence last week.  So far, so good.  On a more positive note - we picked some broccoli!  We're looking forward to having it with dinner!

Strawberry Jam

I made 4 batches of strawberry freezer jam.  I don't know if it will the last the whole year like it has in the past.  We'll see how far it takes us...

Here are two batches.

First Steps!

Celeste took her first steps today!  It was so fun!  We quickly got the camera out to try and capture her second steps.   Celeste Walking

64 Crayons

I always buy small boxes of crayons.  The kids are required to take the small boxes to school and that's what's usually on sale so we only have 24 count boxes of crayons.  The other day the kids were talking about a HUGE box of crayons one of their friends had - it had 64 crayons in and a sharpener on the back.  I remember coloring as a kid with a box of 64 crayons.  Today I went to Target and bought a box of 64 crayons with a pencil sharpener in the back.  All the kids were so excited.  It's so easy to please them sometimes!