Rants and Raves and Other Things!

The boys are driving me CRAZY! Thank goodness school starts in 18 days! I get it. They're bored. We haven't done any summer camps this year. With the new babies, it just hasn't worked out. But it's not like they've just been sitting at home twiddling their thumbs 24/7! They've been to Colorado for a week, where they got to play with their cousins, Byron Hosier and Andrew Moore, and attend a Renaissance Festival. Joseph has attended several birthday parties, and had a birthday party of his own at Pump It Up, and when presented with opportunities to do other things, they whine and complain about it so much, that it ends up not even being worth the effort. Take last night for instance. Jillan and Lee have bought a house in Round Rock, and they were going over there to do some work, and took the boys with them. The first thing Joseph does is go around and mess with exposed electrical cords and cable wires...so he's been banned from visiting house, swimming pool and new friend, Tyler, that lives across the street for a couple of days. Later the same evening, after dinner, Jillan and Lee go back to get in a little more work, and Jonson goes with them to "help". I see trouble coming with this scenario from the get-g0, but keep my fingers crossed that it will work out. Alas, my intuition proved correct. I'm not sure of the details, but it now appears Jonson, too, has been banned from the Hanel's new house for a couple of days as well! It's been a long time since I've been a stay at home mom! I don't think I'm a total bust at it, but I'm sure I was much better 21 years ago!

John continues to grow weaker, but his condition hasn't changed markedly in a couple of weeks. He is still ambulatory, but it takes him a lot longer to walk from his wheelchair in the living room to the bathroom. We have a wonderful CNA, Kristina Elizondo, who comes out 3 times a week to help him bathe, and we've found a great lady, Margie Davis, who comes twice a week and sits with John so I can get out and run errands. That will be nicer once school starts, and I don't have whining, complaining boys along for the ride! (See paragraph above!) John is having more difficulty controlling his right hand, which is making it more difficult, and taking longer to get in and out of the van, and with this August heat, we haven't been taking too many road trips. He and the "big boys" (Lee and Russ) went to see The Bourne Ultimatum last Sunday, though, and he's made several trips in his wheelchair over to Jennika's house, so he continues to get out quite a bit.

The babies are growing like the proverbial little weeds. It won't be long until Lillie's sitting up on her own, she's almost there now. Once she gets that figured out, I predict there will be no stopping her. She's very curious, and much like her mother was as a baby. She isn't going to waste a lot of time just sitting around. She'll be crawling and walking before we're all ready. She is a really beautiful, sweet baby, and Jacey isn't far behind her. He's catching up, and I'm pretty sure it won't be long until they're about the same size. The girls already get asked if they're twins when they're out together. Jacey has the brightest smile, and he looks and acts an awful lot like Jonson did as a baby, but with Lillie to lead the way, I'm betting these two are going to give us all a run for our money! Of course, I'm sure Jonson and Joseph will be up to their eyeballs into whatever shenanigans the little ones might come up with!