SUPER SATURDAY !!

The boys had their last soccer games & both celebrated victories, woo hoo!! Casey scored 4 goals & had 2 assists, Alex sprinted around for 50 minutes (no subs!) starting the game as Defender then switched to Midfielder to push the ball up to the Forwards. Both very excellent games, played in some wonderful Fall sunshine, and fitting ends to the season. They have the Winter off then start up again in the Spring. Now we're back home except for Derek who is hanging out with some buddies playing board games. I'm home with two tired kiddos who are relaxing with Shrek. I look forward to warm sudsy baths & a fairly early bedtime :)

Derek & I got to play with some more apples & put up 3 more big jars of applesauce, num num, but oh my we still have soooo many apples left!

School is going great for both kiddos. Casey came home with paperwork for us to sign acknowledging he's a smart cookie (TAG - talented and gifted, intellectually in the 99th percentile!). Alex has been coming home with very little homework because he's been working so hard in school, and has been on average slightly Ahead of his peers in math assignments, we're so proud! He's learning so much, this has been such a great year for him & we like the teacher a lot. Right now they're studying Mayans, Incas, & Aztecs. As a nosy mother I had to read what his textbook said about these cultures, and I always feel defensive about what a textbook might say about Native Americans. Lordy knows the books I had in school (and I fear more recent ones as well) painted an unflattering (and false) image of these people that were "justly Conquered". Well I was very pleasantly surprised at Alex's textbook. It was respectful of those cultures & honest about the brutality of the "invaders". It opened up a fabulous dialogue between Alex and I.

Bear accompanied Derek to work on Friday, he is looking more & more like he could grow into a certified Therapy Dog. He got lots of positive attention (hugs & snacks I believe) and then layed down quietly in Derek's office when he was supposed to. What a good boy! Follow that with this morning, when Derek took him out in search of Geocaches. Evidently Bear was much more intrigued with nasty smells on the ground & rolled in them quite thouroughly. Well, smart & cute he may be, but he's still 100% DOG which for some reason I find much funnier than Derek who had to drive back home with the smelly pup....

I'm kinda sad that the weekend is already half over! Ah well, time flies & all that....

a busy weekend

We enjoyed a fabulous fall day yesterday. After an early morning rain the weather was kind of Crispy, cool but the sun was out. Started off with two great soccer games, the boys were tickled that each of their teams won with a score of 4-1. We stopped back home long enough for the boys to change out of their sweaty clothes & toss some balls for Bear.

Then we loaded up the car with empty bags & our friend Pamela & headed out to the country to pick Apples at a co-worker's farm. It was so fun for the kids to run around, picking apples with one hand and eating apples from the other. We had a glorious time out there & came away with lots and lots of different apples and also some fresh sweet grapes. Now Derek and I need to get productive and turn them into some applesauce :)

Got home, gave Alex a quick shower & everyone some dinner, and then it was time to drop Alex off at a friend's house for a birthday party. It was extremely weird to put Casey down to bed (we finished a Scooby Doo chapter book he'd checked out of the school library) and then just Derek and I were awake in the house ....... this is the first time we've been home when Alex wasn't !! I kept my mobile phone nearby 'cuz I half expected a call. But at 11:30 we instead had a knock on the door -- Evidently Alex had called our home # (and somehow we didn't hear it) he was "missing us" and the friend's mom brought him back home!! We knew the party was going on Sunday until Noon so we took him back over this morning to do some more partying Well, that was his first attempt at a sleep-over :)

Today is pretty darn busy too, for a Sunday. Get Alex at noon, pick up friend Jon at 1:30, take all the boys to their beloved PokeMon league, I have a soccer game at 4:30 (gotta try and S-T-R-E-T-C-H and take it really easy 'cuz owie I pulled my quads 2 weeks ago), oh & I want to sneak in a trip to the Fairgrounds to see some of the doggie Agility going on there. And oh dear, we still haven't touched our apples!!

GO BEAVS !!!!!

Rout 66 !!!!!!!
Our condolences go out to our Cougar Friends.
But not really.......

Alex Update

It has been two years since Alex has had an EEG and the neurologist wanted to get another peek. He was enthusiastic about staying up nearly all night so he could be "sleep-deprived" for the EEG, he announced that we didn't need to stay up with him, he'd just close himself down in the family room and watch movies/play computer games, and joked about ordering a pizza behind our backs. I thought it would be a struggle to keep him up, but I was wrong -- he had a blast! He watched "What's up Doc" with Barbara Streisand twice (very funny movie), and played a number of games on the PC. He had a shower at 1am (gotta arrive with a clean scalp) then I put him down at 2am & was waaaay more tired than he was.

When Derek woke him up at 6am he was pretty sleepy, the boys and I took Daddy to work & drove south on Hwy 99 to the hospital. It was a challenge to keep Alex awake for that 45 minute drive in the early morning when the day was foggy and dim!! But he did it, and then got tucked into a queen-sized bed & allowed the technician to scrub his head all over w/ an abrasive q-tip & attach little electrodes with long straggling wires. Then it was Nap Time while the machine kept track of all sorts of little blips and bleeps!

Next we found some lunch & a spot to let Bear run around and chase balls... until it was time to drive across town (Eugene is a big city!) and see Alex's neurologist to go over the EEG results. This guy has a disappointing bedside manner and I had to pull teeth to get any details. In a nutshell, Alex's EEG showed some activity that could have been seizures if he wasn't on his meds. So he'll continue taking that for another year, and then perhaps take another look.

Alex was incredibly fabulous and handled each & every little thing so well, I was extremely proud of him. I'm going to ask our family doctor if we can get a referral to another neurologist, I want to talk to someone who will treat Alex as a King, & I need details about what is in that EEG. I had pencil & paper in hand but couldn't write down a single thing, and he even acted annoyed when I asked him to write it up & send us a letter! That doesn't trouble me a tiny bit, they'll be hearing from me next week to check on the status of that letter! So I'll be making some phone calls next week, trying to be an Advocate!!

Girls Weekend - a very brief account

Like they say about Vegas, baby, many adventurous tales must remain at the beach .... Derek is pretty sure a Girls Weekend involves pillow-fights in undergarments and I'm loath to burst that bubble for him.

On Friday eleven of us took our sweet time getting to the house we'd rented in Lincoln City. Ate some good food, sipped some good beverages, and hit the Outlet Stores. In fact, now that I think about it, that's what we did Each Day -- food, beverages, Outlet Stores!

Other printable highlights:
-- visited the traveling Vietnam War Memorial Wall that was at the Casino. They also had a section for those we've lost in this most recent tragic war :( :( very sobering. I didn't know any of the names (I believe dad knows some folks that ended up on that big wall) but we were all very affected by it.
-- kareoke. We had the good fortune to stumble on extremely good singers. We almost didn't stay as the bartender nearly chased us out with his bad attitide, but I'm glad we stuck it out because the music was phenominal. Our group contributed one duet (thankee Shania!), one solo (Ug, yes, I tried a very sober and sobering Gretchen Wilson "Homewrecker"), and one group song (Good Lord, who knew "RESPECT" had so many *other* words!!??) to honor our sweet girlfriend that wasn't with us since she's saving her energy to battle breast cancer & care for her eensy newborn baby. I'd like to say that our sweet musical notes were on par with the other singers, but, um, I'd be lying. We called our girlfriend so she could hear us, and her exact words were "oh you girls are sure trying!"
-- Lots of games. Catch Phrase for hours. Sequence (good game!!)

I spent the weekend headachy and nauseous for legitimate reasons (never, EVER get a tetanus shot just before a girls weekend!) so I stayed sober & enjoyed free pepsi in the bars as the designated driver :)

Good Times! Good Friends!