Sweet Seven

I'm a little sad today. I'm missing my Jared. Today he turns 7. Happy Birthday, Jared.

Jared and Tyler are off, enjoying life in Buffalo with their cousins. Did I mention that I miss them? Really, really missing them. Sigh...

I seriously can't believe that Jared is already 7!!! I still remember the tender moment when I first held him in my arms and knew that this crazy cowlicked, big blue eyed baby was mine. Choking up now...


And now look at him...All grown up. Such a dare devil. Jumping off the top of a boat. This child has no fear (maybe that's why he has no teeth!).

Happy Birthday, Jared!

I need answers...

At what age can I "safely" turn my back on my children?

All fixed

The video is no longer private.

Ride On

In celebration of Denise's 3* birthday, we made it a day and went to King's Dominion WITHOUT kids!!! And had a blast, OF COURSE!

The Dominator was our first roller coaster (and one of my favorites). And lucky for you, Rob filmed the whole thing!

Enjoy!

Denise, me, and Melanie are in the row in the row in front of Rob.

We're looking forward to this yearly tradition! Ride on!

A fun filled day

Yesterday was so fun!

Rob and I started our day at a Pioneer Trek training. We spent the morning cooking turkey, stew, and bread over a fire. We are so looking forward to our weekend with the youth!

I took off early to meet a bunch of "strangers" for lunch! A group of ScrapMatters girls who were in the Northern VA area met up for lunch. I loved meeting these ladies who I'd only known from looking at their avatars and chatting with at speed scraps online and working with at ScrapMatters (an on-line digital scrapbooking site). Having met these gals "live" makes this on-line community even better now! I can't wait to get together again soon!I didn't get home from lunch until almost 3pm and we were leaving again at 5 pm for dinner and a movie. I spent some time with the kids and took Tyler out for ice cream to celebrate his SOL (Standard of Learning) scores. The schools spend all year teaching what is needed to pass the tests and then the last semester is spent preparing for the tests (waste of time in my opinion). Tyler had for tests (History, Science, Math and Reading) and scored a perfect 600 in three of them and a "pass-advanced" in all of them!! We couldn't be prouder of all of his hard work!

At 5 pm we took off to dinner at Carrabas with The Beatty's and Rachelle and Dave (one of the ScrapMatter's gals and her husband). I started to not feel so good during dinner, but didn't want to miss the movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so I decided I felt fine, but even before the movie started, I knew I wasn't fine. I spent the entire movie hovered over a toilet. Joy!

My night was miserable and so was Jared's. He woke up in the middle of the night sick and we commiserated together the rest of the night and morning. We must have passed something to each other after a week of giving medicine and cleaning his mouth, teeth and stitches.

Rob took all of the kids to church and Jared and I chilled at home, sleeping, moaning in pain and hanging out in the bathroom. TMI?

This is the only thing that has made me smile yet today...When my daughter is supposed to be sleeping, she is busy playing dress-up with her dirty laundry. Silly, silly fashion diva!

Looking Good!

It's amazing how quickly our bodies heal! Four days later and here's where we are... Jared says it doesn't hurt at all. He only winces while I brush his teeth or when he takes his medicine.

This is one tough kid!

Chewing is still difficult because the inside of his mouth doesn't look much better then the outside and his gums and teeth are still sore. He's excited that his tooth is now loose, though.

I'm not because it won't grow back until he's 11 or 12, but Jared so badly wants to be tied in the never ending battle of sibling rivalry (Tyler--9 teeth lost, Jared--8).

Tyler thinks Jared is cheating...loosing them the unconventional way!

What ever it takes to win, right?

Busted

It has been a loooooong day! Jared is passed out on the couch next to me. Not even Goblet of Fire could keep him awake!

After finishing up his first day of art camp, he fell and hit his mouth on a large metal pot. His lip was pretty mangled and it looked as if his teeth had went through his lip. The Warners did a great job taking care of him. And Jared was so brave. Little did he know that this was the beginning of a long day!

I arrived a few minutes later and dropped off the kids with Denise (you ROCK!)and took Jared to the ER. He was in so much pain but he was such a trooper. The ER Dr. was able to "fix" his lower lip and align it just right. His lip was pretty much reconstructed. But the Dr. was concerned about the swelling of his upper gums, so we were sent to the dentist for an x-ray. (And we know from past experience that PW Hospital does not touch dental issues).

The Dentist took some x-rays and sent us to an oral surgeon because he feared that something may have been broken. Thankfully, the oral surgeon gave us good news and nothing was broken. She straightened his tooth and let us know that the tooth won't make it, but no reason to pull it, since the adult tooth won't grow in for another 4 years.

So, Jared survived yet another traumatic oral injury! We'd include pictures, but no need to gross anyone out. Maybe in a few days when the swelling has gone down.

Keep him in your prayers.

In preparation...

In a few weeks, Rob and I will be going on a Pioneer Trek as chaperons with the youth from our church. We will dress like pioneers, eat like pioneers, pull hand carts like pioneers and walk far like pioneers...all in the name of appreciating and understanding what those before us have gone through so we can have the blessings which we have today.

And we can't wait to go!

Over the past week, we unintentionally began our preparations for this trek. We walked all over the hilly Hershey Park and D.C. National Zoo. Stood on our feet all day while touring the Air and Space Museum. Then walked around Gettysburg. Next it was off to camping...sleeping without an air mattress and using our new dutch oven for cooking. And let's not forget the 3 hikes (each 1.5 miles) that we went on. All in one weeks time!

Needless to say, we're tired! But we feel ready!



Here's a slide show of our camping trip to Shenandoah National Park with the Zamora's!