Summertime

 I am really enjoying having my container garden this year!  Almost every year we've lived her I tried growing tomatoes and I am hopeful that this year I will have success!  There are these big green caterpillars (I think they are called cutworms) that love to eat my tomatoes.  I haven't found too many of them on it this year and I've been trying to keep up on picking them off.  I have a ton of grape tomatoes on there, now they just need to get ripe!  I also have sugar snap peas, jalapenos, strawberries, lettuce and some herbs.

 Estelle loves eating sand playing at the beach!

A couple weeks ago we headed up to Julian for the day.  We walked up to Washington Mine to check it out.  It was fun day, until Estelle screamed much of the way home :)  She's doesn't love the car.  Funny girl.  Lane loved exploring the mine, he just soaks things like that up!

Giant Bubbles

 A few weeks ago we decided to construct a giant bubble wand to use this summer.  I found instructions on the Tatertots and Jello blog .  Lane and I had fun constructing it and mixing up the solution.  The bubble solution calls for glycerin.  I found it at Rite Aid, I just had to ask someone who worked there and they found it for me.  I think they also have it at Michaels.  The bubbles that we were getting were really big but the problem was that they were popping before they came off the wand.  Then Reese came home... and the first time he tried it he was getting giant bubbles.  Of course, that guy is good at everything he does!

The bubbles will be a fun addition to our door play time this summer.  We have already had a crowd of neighborhood kids running around and popping them.  And it's totally addictive, once you get a good bubble you want to do it again and again!

It's been a hard couple weeks.  As I said before I went to see a cardiologist about my heart.  He decided to do an echocardiogram.  It came back "mildly abnormal."  So the next step is to wear a holter monitor for 24 hours and MRI of my heart.  The MRI isn't until July so this is just a lot of waiting.  I am concerned and worried, after all my mom died at 45 from a heart disease.  But I am trying to not get ahead of myself and just trust.  I know God has a plan for us, and it's a good one, even if it's not easy or what I want.  I am feeling so thankful that Reese is home for all of this.  His command has been wonderful throughout all of our trials the last few years.  I know not all military families have that, so I am grateful!

18 months +

 Estelle turned 18 months in May.  I finally got her to her well baby appointment the other day.  She weighed about 26 lbs and is 33 inches tall.  She is starting to slim out now.  When the doctor asked me if she said seven clear words, I was like umm.... we are getting there.  Her talking cracks me up.  She really jabbers and although I know a lot of the words she is saying, other people would not understand them clearly.  She loves being outside, riding her bike, watching bubbles, and sitting on my lap :)  Some days when she is really crabby I just have to sit down with her for a little while and it usually makes everything better again.  Estelle is quite emotional.  Sometimes I love it because she gets so excited about things and she is so happy and loving towards us.  And then there are days when it drives me up a wall, she gets mad about everything and screams when I can't hold her or if we are doing something she doesn't like.  I guess that's a toddler for you.  She is so much fun, I love her sugar and spice!

 

Major Awards

Lane received some major awards in the last couple weeks :)  We joke that they are "major awards" like the leg lamp on A Christmas Story.  We are so proud of him and what a great kids he is.  First grade has been a great year!

Lane has been during AWANA this year and has really had fun.  He finished two books this year.  They had an awards ceremony a couple weeks ago.

On Memorial day we had a end of the season baseball BBQ and pool party.  Lane got his baseball trophy there and his coach said a couple things about each kid.  The things he said about Lane is that he swung as hard as he good every time (whether it was a good pitch or not it didn't matter, the kids just swung!) and that he would throw the ball as far as he could from the outfield.  Those were things that his coach thought were unique to Lane and they certainly were :)

Then last Saturday we went to the closing ceremonies for baseball and they had another awards ceremony.  Each CAPS team (the league Lane is in) chose one player from each team to get a Character Award and Lane was chosen.  His coach told us that Lane had great sportsmanship and worked hard every time and that is why he chose him.  Reese got to be here for this one too.  He is home for a little bit.  I had a couple of trips to the ER last week.  My left side of my face and my arm went tingly and the second time I had burning in my chest (not heartburn :).  Given my family history with heart problems I am seeing a cardiologist to get it all checked out.  So they sent Reese home so we can get it figured out.  The ER doctors told me that it is probably stress (and a possible pinched nerve).  But we don't want to take any chances (since my mom was told it was stress for quite a while before she was diagnosed) and I will get some tests done.  So prayers are appreciated.  The good thing is that I don't have any of the symptoms she had like a racing heart or dizziness.

I will try to update the blog a bit more often.  I feel like life is really getting in the way of doing the fun stuff like blogging (as well as other things).  But... my classes are over (until I start the next one on June 18) and I got all A's!  I am looking forward to summertime when there isn't a whole lot going on.