St. John's Auction Night

I teach at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School which is connected to the Parrish, St. John the Baptist, Catholic Church.....anyway, the parrish has an annual auction that benefits the school. It's our major fundraiser for the year. I didn't get to go last year so this was my first year. It was so fun!!! There was dinner, silent auction, live auction and dancing! I ACTUALLY DANCED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS!!! It was so liberating!!! I'm finally getting better!!! Anyway, at this auction, dinner with the priests went for around $10,000. One set of parents bought their child the honor of principal for the day for around $1500.00. No expense is spared at this place! It was a fun time for Travis and I to get dressed up and go out by ourselves and be with friends. We also had fun bidding on some silent auction stuff too. Each class creates something to put in the silent auction. Carter's 'Extended Day Pre-K' class put their hand prints on this huge serving plate. It was sooo cute, I just had to have it! Travis had his eye on the OSU football signed by Mike Gundy. There were a couple other things but these were the ones we won! I don't have a pic of the Ft. ball 'cause it went straight to the office to be on display. But below is a pic of my wonderful plate! I'm not sure when we'll be able to use it and I have no where to display it...it's huge and heavy, so right now it sits in the middle of the dining room table where we get to see it everyday! Carter's handprint is the blue one on the left-hand side. I'm so glad to have this neat memory and be able to help out the school at the same time!

The Singin' Machine!!!

Carter has such a great music teacher this year! Don't know where she came from, but he sure likes her! And he's singing more and more! I'm so excited!!! Finally!!! I asked him which 'specials' teacher he liked the best, he said his PE teacher. I'm a little hurt, but that's okay. He LOVES his mommy and I love having him in class...though I wasn't too sure in the beginning! Here are a few songs that Carter learned in music class and the last one, he learned in his Pre-K class. He loves to sing!!! Yea!!!

"What A Mighty God We Serve"

"Alleluia" (Gotta LOVE the facial expressions!!!)

"Ants In My Pants"

"The Ants Go Marching"

I was so excited to see that he remembered all the dancing for "Ants In My Pants". It goes fast and slow and then we all put our hands up in the air during the high part...then we all sit when "the red one's bite cha". What a proud Momma and teacher!!!

Band-Aid Picture Day

I feel like I've been out of the loop a bit. We moved 3 weeks ago and since before then, I haven't posted anything. Here's a little something to laugh at. The night before Carter's big picture day, he slipped and fell...scraping his temple on a Transformer...just our luck!!! I was asleep when he came to me with 3 scratches on the side of his face. The middle one actually took some skin off. Anyway, through all the drama, I put on medicine, and found that a regular band-aid was too small. All I had was this huge thing to put on the side of his face. I stuck it to his hair and everything...Truthfully...I just wanted to get back to sleep.

I had forgotten about picture day the next day and when we woke up and realized it, I tried to take off the monstrosity. You would think that I was killing him. I decided to get him dressed anyway and thought that maybe I'd have the opportunity to take it off at school before the pic. For pictures, they have to wear their dress uniforms. He looked soooo precious, I just had to take a pic of my own. I found him 2 times at school and tried to rip it off...no such luck. Miss Nan, his teacher, tried too. He ended up not getting to take a picture because I wasn't going to pay for a band-aid picture. We got home that night and Travis and I decided to wait until he was asleep and then yank it off...well...that didn't work either. He immediately woke up and started screaming. I ended up wrapping my arms and legs around him to hold him down and Travis ripped the band-aid off.

The moral of the story is...sometimes band-aids may make your kid feel better in the moment...but, not the next day when you have to rip hair out to get it off...

Anyway, he is by far scarred for life and I swear that the scratch was bigger when I put the giant band-aid on. After we took it off, 2 of the 3 scratches had vanished and the big one...wasn't that big after all..............my life..............thank goodness for picture make-up day!!!

Singing and Playing the Harmonica

Carter has been really excited about singing lately. I'm not talking about the singing he did earlier for school. This time he sings his own things and has just started putting this vibrata in that makes me laugh!!! I had to get it on video to share! He also LOVES to play the harmonica. We can only stand a few minutes a day but that's enough for him to do pretty well. I love that he plays a bit and makes sure to resolve it to the tonic...sorry, music teacher talk...he ends it well. Maybe he'll be my little performer!!! On a side note...Carter and I were driving home from school a few days ago and he says, "Mommy, sing for me." I said, "Okay, what do you want me to sing?" He sang 'la' up really high with vibrato. I mimicked him. He said, "Wow, you're pretty good at that!" I said, "Really? Well, thank you." He said, "You need to teach that on TV on channel 6." I just said thank you and died laughing! What a sweet boy!!!

Surgeries leave scars

WARNING!!! GRAPHIC PICS...

This picture is of my right side where they took the bone graft from my upper hip bone. I didn't realize it would be so high up on my side. My pants hit me right in that spot so it's been 'fun' trying to adjust my pants so that it doesn't hurt. I'm hoping this scar tightens up a bit...it's pretty ugly looking!

My first scar from my 2nd surgery (scar #1) was 9 in. long down the side of my leg. For my latest surgery my Doc used what he could of the old scar and then veered off to the left to make this scar 12 in. (scar #2)
I couldn't really get it all in one pic so here's the rest of the pic above...
This pic shows the bottom of the long scar and a little one down by my knee. After taking out the plate and screws that didn't adhere to my bone, he put a long rod thru the center of my femur from my hip to my knee. There is a screw to hold it in place down by my knee (pic below) and a huge (it looked huge on the xray) thru the top of my femur and into the ball of my joint.l
Taking pictures is the best way I know how to explain what I've been thru the past few years. This time I had 38 staples to be removed. Hopefully this is the last one! I feel better and have less pain now than I did all year last year. Thank you to everyone who said prayers and remembered me in their thoughts. I have a long road of rehab ahead but I know that I will make it thru this!!!

Carter's 1st day of Pre-K

Carter was so excited to start PreK this year! NO NAPS!!! That was his favorite part!

So cute in his uniform!!!

He loves his personalized bag that they use for a backpack!

SWIMMING LESSONS!!!

Carter started swimming lessons for the first time last week! Miss Meredith really had her work cut out for her though. Carter would barely get on the first step. She finally coaxed him out to the second step and he kept running back up to the top! He then jumped over into the "baby pool" and let her hold him while he swam a bit for her. He actually put his face in the water before he trusted her enough to go swimming with her! She's definately good!!! Thank you Miss Meredith! Carter had a great time and even asked the next day if he could go back over to her house. Maybe next time he'll get in and go swimming sooner than 30 minutes into the lesson! It was so funny! He argued his way (politely) out of each situation that he didn't want to experience. I believe she said that he needs to be a lawyer when he grows up!!!

ALMOST!!!

BUBBLES!!!

YAY!!!

YOU DID IT!!!

MONKEY CRAWL!!! (This was Carter's favorite part)

Then he realized he could touch and do it by himself!!!

The first half of swimming, he held onto Meredith's neck...

NOW YOU'RE DOING IT!!!

WHAT A PRO!!!

Dinosaur, the Hermit Crab

We've had hermit crabs for around 4 yrs. now...or has it been 3? I can't remember but anyway, this is the first time one has molted!!! I've read and re-read info on them but was actually kind of nervous about the process...just didn't know what to expect. A couple of weeks ago, Dinosaur got REALLY active! I mean constantly moving, digging, climbing, etc... It's weird for him because he has never changed shells, you hardly ever see him walking around, he wouldn't come out during his bath & it took him forever to get comfortable enough to be out of his shell on you hand. Anyway, I took his activeness as him probably preparing to molt. Today when I went in Carter's room to water his sponge, I saw his exoskeleton. At first I thought he might be dead but as I looked closer, this outer shell is pretty much see-through and I could see a shadow under his yellow shell. Now, I should really move him and his exoskeleton to a different container to keep him safe but I'm afraid the move will disturb him too much and he'll die. I don't know yet what I'll do. He will eventually eat his disposed of outer shell because it has calcium and is really good for him while his new skin is turning hard. I'm not sure how much you'll enjoy the pictures but I thought it was pretty interesting!!!

Shopping with Dad at Bass Pro Shop...

My little fisherman!!!

At the Movies!!!

We took Carter to see the new Ice Age movie last night. It was great to view it in 3-D although I did get motion sick during the middle. This happens to me quite frequently so I took some Dramamine and was able to enjoy the last half of the movie!!! Thank goodness for my big purse and all of the things I keep in it!!! FUN TIMES!!!

My little poser..

Rarely, Carter chooses to have his picture taken. These pics that follow came on a day that I just noticed that he was RIDING his REMOTE CONTROL Hummer. I have no clue why but it was another one of those times I couldn't pass up. So he LET me take a picture of him and then got all excited and wanted me to take picture after picture of him doing 'moves' on this thing. I thought it was funny! He would run to me to view the pic after each one! What a goober!!!

My Child...

Carter loves wearing glasses, masks, goggles, ANYTHING that will alter his appearance. He calls it his 'Secret Identity. This day, in late April, he chose safety goggles (with no lenses in them) and of course no shirt. I couldn't keep a shirt on this kid if my life depended on it. He was just sitting there in the living room, eating his pop corn out of a massive container (another favorite past time) with the goggles on. I couldn't help but take a pic. Can we say, 'future blackmail'? Then of course he had to show me his punches!!!

And then there were three...

We decided to surprise Carter a fish tank and a few of those cheap little gold fish. We ended up with 7 and unfortunately, since it took me a month to get this post out, we only have 3 left. He's handled all of the 'floaters' well. He will actually get them out of the tank and flush them himself. He's such a boy!!! I'm just glad that I don't have to do it. If you'll notice in the pics there is a tiny orange and white fish. That one was my favorite. 'Tiny' was stuck in the filter when we returned home from vacation. That's the last casualty we've had and hopefully the last. We may have to go get more cheapies!!!

The OKC Zoo...

Carter's Ancy Gramma and Aunt Callie (Travis' mom and sis) asked us to go to the OKC Zoo so went for the first time in a long time...needless to say it was HOT...but we had a good time!

The Swan Boats!!! So Carter's main thing he wanted to do at the zoo was to ride in the swan paddle boats. Travis bought a ticket for Carter and himself, and Nancy got a ticket for her and Callie. There was no way I was going to be able to get in and out of them let alone help paddle so I was more than happy sitting on the sidelines taking pics. When the time came for Carter to get on...he decided he wanted to go with his Ancy Gramma and Aunt Callie. That left Travis by himself and he wasn't going to waste the $6 it cost to ride them so...trooper that he is...he went by himself. There were several pictures of him that just cracked me up but I figured he wouldn't be too excited if I put them all on there. He was mighty tired after doing it all by himself!!!

We got to see the sea lions perform for us. I got more excitement seeing Carter's reaction to watching his first live animal show. He was soooo serious!!!

Here are some other pics I like. I love the way he is holding on to his Daddy and what a sweet moment that was.

Next to the Dinosaur exhibit was a bouncy thing. We were hot and tired by then but Cart sure had a blast using his newly learned punches on the pillars inside! I've never seen one that had those things on the inside before. It was pretty neat!