It's been awhile.....

I figured it was time for an update. Nothing too exciting to report. We did have a little scare with Reggie a couple weeks ago. He has a relatively large mole that concerned us last year in a very sensitive, manly place. We had it checked out and it was fine, but it developed what looked like a freckle on it. So, I took him to the dermatologist here and he didn't feel good about the changes and thought it would be a good idea to biopsy it. I had a long talk with Reggie, explaining what they were going to do and he said o.k., as long as he got a toy. We read a book during the procedure and he almost lost it once, but I focused him on his prize (Optimus Prime) and he was all smiles. I think it was more traumatic for me than anyone-Ainsley watched them cut/stich and was very interested! When the whole thing sunk in the next day, I was having a hard time with the thought that something might be really wrong. I put in a prayer request at our church and gave it to God. It took an entire week to get the results, but thankfully, everything is fine. It is a good reminder of how fragile life can be and how I need to work on my appreciation of my kids on a daily basis (as I sit here and write, Reggie is screaming/crying because once again Ainsley took something, destroyed his train track and pinched him-so, fifteen minutes later, after a time-out and snack, maybe I'll finish this!). I don't know what I was thinking trying to do this while they "play". Anyway, we went back this morning to get the stich out and it was a complete disaster. Thank goodness Ryan came because he was holding his legs while I held his arms and we could barely keep him down. I wonder what the other patients thought was going on? He has hundreds of tiny broken blood vessels on his face from screaming/crying and trying to get away. Glad that's over!!!

On a more positive note, Reggie is still enjoying school and we've been spending lots of time with his new friend Michael. He started swim lessons again and none of the other kids have showed, so he's been having a private lesson! His teacher is pretty aggressive, which I think is what he needs at this point. He's been playing the games and doing their activities for awhile and not doing much new. She has him hand crawling along the edge of the pool and going pretty deep and working on differents strokes. She dunked him 2 weeks ago and now he doesn't want to go, so we'll see what happens the next couple weeks.

Ainsley has started a mommy and me class Wed. nights. and she loves it! I think she feels like her big brother. They have dolls/babies there, so I always ask her if she is ready to go and she says, "Babies?!" and runs to the car. This week they gave the dolls a bath. She is very much into the arts/crafts which is so different from Reggie. We have an art wall in our hallway that is filling up quickly! She has been talking up a storm lately and although everything isn't perfectly clear, we usually get the message.

Ryan has been working hard at work and we are still getting used to this new schedule. Reggie has said more than once he wants to go back to our hold home so he can see daddy more. But, then in his next statement, he never wants to go home because he loves that he and Ainsley have their own sinks in the bathroom. Too funny! I'm sure we'll adjust soon. Ryan joined a parenting class through our church called "Boundaries" which teaches parents how to create boundaries with their children. He has started to learn not to parent in the present, but parent for the future. Many times we get busy with work, chores, errands, etc... and when our children are acting up we want to fix the problem quickly. Well sometimes that isn't the most healthy/wise thing to do because a lot of the time it means giving into their wants. Learning to step back and take a deep breath and being able to say no is the best thing for our children down the road. It teaches them respect, discipline, structure which are key elements to a Godly child. It's been very helpful....

I joined the MOPS group here and that has been really great. It is nice to have a morning with adult conversation and interesting guest speakers. We've had a few park play dates with school mates, which has been good for me to meet other moms in his class. I'm still looking to join a gym, but I think I have another month of daylight to do my running/biking/swimming outdoors.

The whole family (except Ryan) got our first cold of the season and I seem to have it really bad. I'm not quite ready for this! I thought being in a warmer climate, the sun would kill more "bugs", but I'm not sure that is going to be the case.

We've been bad about taking pictures lately, but I'll try to get on that and post some soon.

Earthquakes, Black Widows and Fires

What a crazy few days!!! We just had an earthquake about 45 minutes ago. It was a strange one, a big jolt and then nothing for a few seconds. Then we got some soft rolling. It was a 4.o in magnitude and pretty short. Ryan was freaking out a bit and wanted to go get the kids and I was like, "no way, they're sleeping!" It wasn't nearly as big or long as the 7 whatever in the Seattle area a few years ago. I was curious about the magnitude, so I got online and it turns out there were about 8 earthquakes today, mostly 1-2 in magnitude. It looks like that is the norm for everyday.

Spiders, spiders everywhere! When we first got here, there were spiders all over the house, on the walls/ceilings, in the closets, just about everywhere. We'd walk through webs and it was not good. We see them far less in the house now, but I have gotten quite good at killing them, although I don't have to anymore because Ainsley is the spider killer. She finds them and comes running for a kleenex, smashes them and then throws them away. Works for everyone! Until, Ryan was getting something out of the shed and noticed a big black, shiny spider. He took a second look and saw the red hourglass on its tummy, so he called us all over to look at it. It was a Black Widow. That was it for me, I was looking in every nook and cranny in the house worried one was inside. I was just getting over that when Reggie had a friend over and they were outside playing. Oh yes, one had crawled onto his play leaf blower. He told his friend, "that's a dangerous spider, don't touch it. I need to get my mom." What a good boy!!! So, we are going to get some spray this weekend and do our best to encourage them to leave.

Reggie had a super time playing and it was so good to see him running around, being crazy and laughing. His new friend, Michael, asked if he could do a sleepover here (I guess he's never done that before), so I think he had a good time as well. Michael has a brother, Sam, who is Ainsley's age, but they didn't play much. The best part is Michael's mom, Sarah, is going to have a baby in Jan., so Ainsley will be happy, happy, happy!!!

Too close for comfort

Well, it started out a boring weekend and we didn't really have plans, but we found a few things to do and we had a great time!

Today, we rounded the corner to our house and saw flames/smoke at the end of the street. No fire trucks, just one family watching the fire. We pulled over to talk with them and they had called 911, but it took forever (like 10 minutes) for the trucks to arrive. My first thought was maybe we should go back and start getting stuff out of our house, but the neighbors assured us the fire department would get it out quickly. There's a walking/biking trail across from us and that's where the brush fire was, directly across from the park and it was going pretty good and making a lot of noise. We dropped the car and walked down to get a few pic's and thankfully, the fire department put it out quickly. But, YIKES!!!!

This morning, we went to ride on the Niles Canyon Railway train. They were doing a special steam train today for the holiday, so that was really cool. We were greeted all along the way by people taking pictures. It was about an hour and fifteen minute ride through the canyon and they both did great. We, of course, forgot our camera, but Reggie had his, so we were able to take some pictures. The quality isn't so good, but at least it is something:

Sunday afternoon we went to the water park, but it wasn't toddler time, so all the water was spraying and the kids were a little hesitant. Finally, right before we left, Reggie started going down the slide. Ryan was happy to witness it :o). Ryan also went down the "big" slide: