Fair Fun

The NC State Fair was in town, so we had to take a trip to visit it. Actually, Eddie wanted to take a trip with hte boys and I decided last minute to tag along. I had a curriculum night at the kids' school, but decided the memory making would be way more fun.

It took us a while to get there in traffic-- but we finally made it and parked and shuttled in.  Lots of other people wanted to go to the fair too.....

 After watching the motorbikes and bmx bikes, we grabbed hotdogs for all and did some people watching.

We got some tickets for rides about the time Andy declared he would NOT be riding any rides.   So Cal and I rode the Cobra-- a kiddie ride that was just scary enough for him.

He was nervous and it was super cute. I was secretly enjoying him grabbing on to me and wanting the extra cuddles. Not complaining there!

 Both boys wanted to do the trampoline jump thing. I think this attraction must have made a million dollars during its time at the fair. I have seen so many people posting pictures and videos of their kids on this! It is popular, that's for sure.

Next up, Andy wanted to ride the slide and Cal decided he was STARVING and needed food. I waited with Andy while Cal and Eddie disappeared-- they returned with a massive turkey leg. Cal gobbled it up....#punintended

 As soon as the boys spotted the midway games, there was no stopping them from begging to do every.single.one.  Several tries and several (several....SEVERAL) dollars later, we had two light up swords in our hands. Andy finally said "can't we just buy the sword?!?!" We agree, nug.

Continuing on our food journey, cotton candy was up. 

And soon, it was time to head home. Showers were oh so necessary after all that fun. 

 Eddie is usually the one encouraging the fair going. I am hoping after this year, he will be good to take a year or two off. The crowds stressed me out. And Eddie would walk about 20 yards ahead and then turn around and wonder where we were-- and I was trying to hang on to both boys and carry sweatshirts etc. while Cal would veer right to see something and Andy would pull me left (he held my hand pretty tight the whole time).....Mom life, right?

Until the next time, state fair.... may it be in a few years.......

 

Bruce's baby

Bruce got a bath at Petsmart last week. As we were walking in, he spotted a huge display of stuffed animals. The pup loves a stuffed animal. So I explained that he could get one after his bath if he was a good puppy. Because he understands that stuff. 

Fast forward two hours and I am picking him up from his bath and he makes a beeline straight for the stuffed animal display. They were super cheap with a bath, so I let him pick one out. Y'all. You would have thought I gave the dog a steak. He went prancing through the store crying out loud with happiness, his whole body wagging as he walked to the checkout.  Everyone was staring and smiling.  Hard not to.

 I mean.......talk about precious. He was SO excited.  I posted this pic on instagram and a series of videos of him.

We got home and he carried about his baby with a whole lot of pride. Bless his heart- this makes me so happy to see his happiness!

 We went to bed that night on the baby.....

 ...and carried it around the whole next day.

 And then I posted a video of him ripping the baby to shreds and pulling out all of the stuffing.  And holy smokes, the amount of comments I got, you'd think he ripped off a head of a human-- I was dying with all of the comments! Everyone was in shock he would tear apart his baby! But, this is what Bruce does... he pulls out the inside and carries around the carcass. You can sort of see below, some of the stuffing coming out. This was before the mega massacre.  

 He still loves the baby and carries it around everywhere-- it is just missing a few limbs and a whole lot of stuffing right now.  We don't buy stuffed animals in our house because they get destroyed, so that's what made this one so special, I guess?

 If you were one of the many, many commenters on the instagram videos, thank you! I was cracking up! I also got a ton of requests for more Bruce posts- how funny.  He is quite the character.....!


 

Nuggie Update. Again.

More poop for ya?! Well, I posted the last update here and guess it's time for another one! I soooo wish I was writing that he was all better and going to the bathroom without a problem!....but I am not. ugh.

Okay, where to start? So we did the massive clean out in the above post.  And then he was totally backed up the following week.  So we did another miralax clean out, which worked, but was no fun.  And then he was backed up the following week. I decided to make myself heard with the doctors, so I started emailing the office daily.  Sometimes multiple times a day-- letting them know he was in pain, he was trying to go and couldn't, he was miserable, etc. They replied with different meds to try-- nothing helped.

The nurse called on a Thursday and we chatted for a while and she said it might be time to do an xray and labwork. I agreed.  So that Friday, Andy's sweet teacher texted that he was struggling at school and seemed to be in a lot of pain, so I zipped over there and got him and we headed down the road to Duke.

 We hung out in the waiting room and of course, I was taking in my surroundings, super thankful we weren't there for something serious-- a little poop problem is nothing compared to some of these kiddos.

He was called quickly for his x-ray and the technician was awesome- she said she could see some poop, some bones and a lot of gas in his tummy. He asked what gas meant and she said "it means you need to fart!" and the kid about died laughing.  ha

 Next up, we headed to another floor for some blood work- he thought this chair was amazing and he hopped right up and chatted this woman's ear off....until she stuck him, and he did NOT appreciate that one bit. He cried, but it was short-lived and soon he was back chatting again.

 We drove straight from there to target to pick out a fidget spinner-- momma will not say no after that. He lined them all up to debate which one he wanted.

So, the doctor called, and the bloodwork was all clear (thank you, Lord), and his xray showed "significant bowl blockage" in his tummy. We were told to give him an enema. I did. And it didn't work. At all. Nothing came out.
 And so, we were instructed to do YET ANOTHER cleanse- this one with magnesium citrate. My sweet momma helped with this one as we were at a swim meet with Cal! Eddie's parents came in to town and took over the poop patrol-- he finally started going around 6:30 Saturday night- and seems to have gone a ton. We have follow up xrays today to see if we got it all or not.

More to come. But that's where we are today!

When your kiddo puts the ball on the tee like this because he is in so much pain, you know it's time for something to happen. 

 

LOVE ALL

I started playing tennis about a year ago.  Well, I started taking lessons about a year ago-- and formed a team to actually play last spring.  It has quickly become one of my favorite things to do! I love the women I play with, I love the exercise, and we have so much fun out there, most of the time. 

This fall, I have been playing more and more and even joined a "mixed" team (just means different ability levels) which has been interesting, but fun. 

Stacey and I were playing together in an upcoming match, so we decided to prep for said match with mimosas.  We are that serious about tennis, Y'all.  We mean business. 

In another match last week, I requested to play with my mom.  She is on a level above me and we probably won't get to play together in the spring, so I really wanted to to this.  We had SO MUCH FUN. 

 AND WE WON!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?! I can't even believe it.  We played two good players and we won.  It came down to a tiebreak and we literally just about lost, but WE WON... and it was awesome!

I want to add here that I definitely do not take for granted that I was able to do this with my mom.  So many people have lost their mothers or their mother's are not healthy enough for tennis-- or they do not have a very good relationship with their mom.

I truly adore my mom and feel so thankful for our relationship, and her good health.  I never ever take that for granted.   So much could change over night, so I count my blessings for this match.  The win and all. 

And, to wrap up my tennis week, this past Friday we had the member guest tennis tournament.  I invited my neighbor Amy to play and we had a great time! We didn't win it all, but we sure had fun out there.  Mimosas might have started flowing too..... we played for three straight hours with no breaks.  It was so much fun though!

So there you have it-- I have been loving tennis lately and want to play all the time.  Can't wait for spring for my team to start back up again. 


 

Cal's first swim meet

This weekend, Cal had his first swim meet-- he has had plenty through summer swim, but this was his first with his new year-round team. 

It was Saturday morning and at NCSU in Raleigh, so we headed there nice and early to watch our buddy swim! Eddie was out of town, so I had to drag Andy with me- I was dreading entertaining him the whole time, but he really did well for the most part! (we had another really bad week with his tummy last week--UGH-- so he was in the middle of yet another massive clean out at the swim meet, which is awesome.....thankfully he got most of it out Friday night, so Saturday wasn't too too bad for him)

It was an intrasquad meet, so all of the YOTA swim team was there-- basically about 80 8 and under boys....there were a LOT of swimmers! They decided to not swim freestyle, which I was sort of bummed about, but every swimmer did every other stroke... and it was a LONG meet.  We arrived at 9 and we walked back into our house at 4.

Cal did SO well and I was really proud of him! One major difference in these meets is that there is VERY little parental involvement.  The kids have their events written on their arms and it is up to them to get to the right place at the right time.  I was stressed.  Cal was not.

He did great in all three strokes and dropped quite a bit of time from the championship swim meet.  I was nervous for him swimming butterfly because he never really loved it during the summer and then had a hard time during a meet once, so he wasn't excited to do it-- but he did it beautifully!

Okay so pics:

Thankfully, Cal's buddy is on the team with him, so they stuck together through the meet and helped each other keep track of everything- which was scary, haha! I had fun sitting with his parents too.

They were taking it all in-- it was a bit overwhelming, I will be honest.  I was nervous, so I am sure they were too. 

YOTA caps on and they were ready to leave their parents....!

Cal's cheering section (yes, that is a huge gash on Nug's nose.  We can only hope for school pictures while it is nice and bloody....)

 The big arena:

Getting ready to warm up:

There he is in the camo! Still during warm up....

 And this is pretty cool! This is Ryan Held who was on the Olympic gold medal relay team with Michael Phelps.... pretty sweet! He was a swimmer at State so he was at this meet-- he was timing Cal's lane for fly and when he got out, he high fived him and said he did a great job.  Means a lot coming from him! ha!

 And two videos-- you really don't need to watch these.. I just have to document this on here.  (if they even load....)

The first swim meet is under our belts! We are looking forward to the season!
Take aways from this meet:
-I do not do well not being on the pool deck....I am not good at sitting in the stands.
-Swim meets are long
-and very very hot
-and long
-people at these big wig meets don't yell like I do.... I was seriously like the only person screaming... didn't stop me.  Just saying. 

 

First Golf Match (and book info)

Quick side note: I updated my "books" page this week-- it isn't fully done, but it is a little better than it was before...still a work in progress.  I have had three people ask me in the last week for book recommendations so that is super fun...and nerdy! You can find it here. I have read several new books so it's about time for a book report on here.  Class Mom was freaking hilarious.  Just FYI. 


Okay, so GOLF!

I mentioned before the boys have started a golf program where there are clinics during the week and then matches-- well we had our first match this Sunday! I was on an airplane heading back from Napa so I missed the match :( but I got a text from Eddie as soon as I landed letting me know how they did!
(it should be noted they are playing from 25 yards from the hole.  Once they make par, they back up to 50 yards from the hole, and then once par is made, they back up again and so on and on....)

They LOVED it.  Had the best best time.  Apparently, Andy started out not caring much about what was happening, but once he caught on, he turned it on and got it going.  Cal knew right away what was happening and tried his hardest from start to finish. 

It was a par 36 and Cal shot a 32-- four under par! He was PUMPED. 

Andy shot a 44, which is still great for his first golf match! Eddie thinks if he had tried harder earlier he would have shot even lower.  Next time, maybe!!

I made Eddie take me back up there once I landed so I could go see this for myself (hahahaha).  I had to document this,  right?!?!

We are all pumped for the next match.  Cal will be playing from 50 yards out, so that will be an added challenge.  He is beyond excited.  I am proud of the boys for taking on a new sport like this- they are eager to play play play!