Couch Potato

Today is a week that I’ve been anchored to the couch.  I had arthroscopic knee surgery last Tuesday & tomorrow is my post op follow up appointment where hopefully the doctor will release me to drive & go back to work.  Of course, I’m more excited about one than the other.

Let’s see what’s been going on in our lives… Ethan is in 1st grade now & does well in school for the most part.  We haven’t had any behavioral issues in quite a while so that’s nice.  Evan is in Pre-K at the daycare now. I can’t believe that they’ll both be in school next year. It seems like the last 5 years have flown by. They are constantly growing and changing. Evan had his 5 year appointment the day before my surgery & we found out that he’s right at the 50th percentile for his age. 42 lbs & 42 7/8 inches. I’ll have to measure Ethan’s height, but I’d guess that he’s a few inches taller than Evan & when he weighed himself on his birthday he was 47 lbs. He won’t have his annual appointment until later in the year.

The boys are looking forward to spending Spring Break with Mamaw & Papa & going to the zoo & we’re all looking forward to summer vacation. Evan still doesn’t understand time frames & that tomorrow isn’t summer, so we don’t talk about it with him too much.  He’s still convinced that it’s almost his birthday (& Christmas) since Ethan has had his birthday. It’s pretty silly sometimes. :) They’re adorable either way.

There isn’t much else that’s been going on with us. Just working & hanging out at the house with the little people.

Pre-K Graduation

Our big boy graduated from Pre-K tonight.  They had a cute little program & gave them diplomas.  Ethan did not sing any of the songs or do any of the motions (even when they had the parents up there with them).  The kid’s all came in carrying little handheld flags & Ethan got to carry a bigger one & walk at the front of the group..  As much as he enjoys attention, since we’ve been home he was telling me that everyone was taking pictures of him, so I guess that’s what he didn’t like.  Since he was on the front row & closest to a lot of parents, I can see where it would seem that way.  After the program, they did a balloon release & had some cake.  Then we took the boys to Mighty Fine for dinner.  Ethan said he wanted burgers.  Evan was in a crappy mood all afternoon/evening & went to bed as soon as we got home, but Ethan got to stay up & watch some cartoons.  That’s about it for our night.  We just took a few pictures with my phone, but here they are.

Pre-K Graduation

An Entire Week’s Vacation!!!!

Yes, you read that correctly.  We got an entire week’s vacation this year.  We dropped Cody at the kennel in Hutto & headed out of Austin last Tuesday morning.  We got to South Padre a little before 6 that night & went to the brewery. :)  Beer was great as usual, but the service was crap. We go there every year on our first night & we know we’ll be back.  The particular waitress that we had that day was awful & I noticed a man at a table close to us that was having problems with her as well.  I wanted to go guy her a box a q-tips & tell her to clean out her ears.  The food was still good & we filled our growlers up to go so we had plenty of beer for the rest of the week.  Actually, Erik still has a growler of his Speckled Trout Stout in the fridge.  We didn’t do much that night.  Erik set up the wireless router for us to use & Evan & I went over to Port Isabel to the store. 

I don’t really remember the day by day breakdown like I did last year.  Lots of awesome seafood, lots of beach time (without having to share it very much) & lots of relaxing.  I think I read 6 books while we were there.  :)

We tried a couple of new restaurants this year as well.  Pelican Station in Port Isabel was wonderful & the boys both ate calimari with us & Ethan even ate some of Erik’s grilled tuna steak.  It was wonderful.  The food & the boys’ mood.  The last night there we went to The Big Donkey.  Funny name, but good Mexican & hell when you’re that close to the border why not throw some Mexican food into the mix.  We had one bad experience & honestly it was so bad that we won’t go back.  It was Thursday or Friday night & we went over to Pirate’s Landing in Port Isabel.  We’ve been there every year & normally it’s good food.  This year we had a problem from our first moment with the waitress.  Erik asked her what beer they had on draft & in the list, she included one that we hadn’t heard of.  So Erik asked what kind it was & she said it’s dark.  So he says okay, is it a stout a lager, what?  She was clueless.  Didn’t even know what he was asking.  He gave up at that point.  So we get our drinks & it’s time to order our food.  I ask what the specials are because the year before last they had an awesome deal on fried shrimp (yeah I’m a junkie).  She didn’t know.  She told me that she’d have to check.  So she walks away & then comes back a few minutes later & says that there isn’t one.  Okay, you don’t have to be a genius to remember if there’s not a special.  Anyway, I wish I could say that that was the end of it, but it wasn’t.  Erik had ordered blankened flounder with pontchartrain sauce.  So out comes our meal… with no sauce!  We actually ended up having to ask the manager for it (who was walking through the dining room) since we still didn’t have it several minutes later.  We finished our dinner & didn’t even think about dessert.  The Godiva cheesecake sounded good, but not enough to suffer through anymore of that place.  We had dinner several times at Daddy’s again this year & the boys enjoyed eating the fried crawfish with us. 

I got to go back to my favorite toe ring store & loved it as usual.  I had a really nice chat with the owner (last year it was the wife, this year the hubby).  Found out the DL on a few local places.  He calls the restaurant where we had the awful experience Disney Land.  LOL.

Anyway, we had a wonderful trip.  The boys were really good… super hyper, but good.  They slept in twin beds in a room by themselves & managed to stay out of trouble even then.  Granted, Erik told Ethan that he could do whatever was necessary to ensure that Evan didn’t touch anything to do with the TV, but we don’t know if he had to assert his temporary authority or not. On our last day at the beach the water was beautiful & warm (okay there was a ton of sargassum too, but still).  Anyway, both of the boys FINALLY decided that they liked the water! HOORAY!!  I guess that’s enough about our trip.  None of us were ready to come home yesterday & Mr. Erik (Smarty Pants) took today off so that he could sleep in.  I went back to work & dreamed about catching up on sleep all day. So now, it’s off to bed for me.

Here’s the link to all the pics.  I believe Erik has a few pics on his phone (I know several of the the boys running off some excess energy on the hill by the lighthouse), but I’ll have to add those later.

South Padre 2010

The Little Boys are Growing Up

My little men are growing up.  They recently took school pictures & Ethan’s class took some in a cap & gown since they’ll be graduating soon.  I can’t believe that in just a few weeks I’ll be registering him for Kindergarten. 

Evan is growing up, too.  They moved him into the 3 year old class at school & he’s working hard (at school anyway) on potty trainning.  He’s still giving us some grief at times at home, but we’re working on it.

There hasn’t been much else going on lately.  We went out to have a late lunch/early dinner yesterday & then went to Best Buy & got a scanner.  Hooray!!!  So, here are all the school pics.  Enjoy!  The files are pretty large so it make take a little bit for them to load.

School Pics 2010

Back to the Swing of Things

wow.  I can’t believe that it’s been so long.  We’ve had a lot of adjusting in the last few months.  I went back to work full time at the beginning of December & so the boys started going to “school.”  They seem to enjoy school, although Mr. Evan is still fighting potty training.  He can’t move up into the 3rd old class until he accomplishes that even though he turned 3 in December.

I’m enjoying my new job & being back in the maritime field.  I never thought I’d find a MARA job up here & am so thankful of the way that it has worked out for us. 

We haven’t really done much lately.  We took the boys to their first Renaissance this year.  Well technically Ethan had been before, but he was under a year old.  We all enjoyed it & Ethan managed to handle the whole day walking around & not bugging us to be carried.  We had Evan in the stroller of course.

We also had a beautiful snow fall in February.  It’s was the most snow that I’ve ever seen actually fall.  Of course the majority happened while I was at work, since I work California hours & don’t get home until late, but Erik took the boys out for a while after they got home & took a few pictures.  I took a few pictures of the snow men in the neighborhood the next morning, but the rest of the snow had already started melting.

Then yesterday, Erik & Ethan had a big boy day & went out to Enchanted Rock.  Ethan says that he enjoyed it.  Evan was home with me while I spent my first weekend on call for work. 

I uploaded all of the recent pics to our Picasa Albums this morning so if you have time, enjoy.

Ren Fest: http://picasaweb.google.com/mwilder99/RenFest2009?feat=directlink

Snow: http://picasaweb.google.com/mwilder99/Snow?feat=directlink

Enchanted Rock: http://picasaweb.google.com/mwilder99/EnchantedRock?feat=directlink

Halloween

The boys were Buzz Lightyear & Optimus Prime for Halloween this year. We took them out around the neighborhood trick or treating & then they came home & ate WAY too much of their candy while Ethan "helped" me hand out candy to our trick or treaters. He seems to like Optimus Prime more than Bumblebee for some reason, but that actually turned out good because we had at least 3 Bumblebees come to our house & didn't see another Optimus at all. ;)

We've been doing well. We're working on getting back on the BBQ trips & went to Southside in Elgin a few weeks ago on our way down to the coast. Erik & I both really liked it. I even spied a few Bonfire pics on a backwall. Yesterday, we had BBQ again while we were out & about, but it was Rudy's & we've been there a few million times. Love it & Erik says that their brisket has improved. I wouldn't know since I'm such a creature of habit & always get chopped beef from there.

We went to Dickinson/Hitchcock a few weeks ago. Erik & I went to our friend's annual Halloween party as Slash & Jessica Simpson (the theme was music). I'll have to download everyone else's pics to put one up because we didn't take any ourselves. The boys stayed with Granny & Grandpa Hamm in Hitchcock & loved it. Ethan keeps asking if we're going again.

There isn't much else new that has been going on. We have a reliable car now so trips out of town are more of a possibility. We got a new Nissan Rogue for my birthday a few months ago & I'm loving it. Having 4 doors is AWESOME! I think Erik's tired of me telling him how much I love my new car, but I do. We haven't been up to much otherwise. The boys are growing like weeds & are both over 30 pounds finally. They differ about 5 pounds in weight & 5-6" in height. Evan is quickly catching up. Mr. Cody is also growing. He's not the puppy that he was when we got him back in June. He's full of energy & loves to play which is exactly what the boys needed... and he's finally learned to stop chasing the cats... for the most part at least.

I'm not sure why the rest of the pictures aren't on here. Here's the link: Halloween Pics

Little Boy Logic

Quick, but funny stories of our day.

Evan got really mad at me & threw a pretty ugly fit this morning.  He thought that I had given Cody a cookie & he wanted one.  What I really did was put a doggie bone in Cody’s kong toy for him to chew on.  No cookies involved.

Later he saw me get a doughnut out of the box that we had stashed in the oven (to hide from them).  He waited until I was back in the living room & went in & got his own out.  He only got busted because he didn’t come back in the living room when I called him.

Both of the boys are napping now & I just finished getting my papers together to take to the county tomorrow to protest our appraisal.  Now it’s time for mommy to relax & maybe even get a nap in before work.  Doubt it, but there’s always hope.