Not much to talk about. The guys are finally getting back into the fields after the 3 day (or so...don't really remember) rain delay. The boys are good. Ethan has had a snotty nose off and on for a few days. Some days it runs, others it doesn't. Who knows. He is doing fine with it though. Dylan is ok. He had a decent day at school. They said that a boy bit him in the arm. There was no mark, and honestly, I don't see it as a big deal. Kids will be kids, and like I said, there was no mark, so it happens. He said he didn't cry. Last week at school, he pushed a kid down and tossed a toy and hit someone, so its almost like Karma getting him. What goes around, comes around.
Dylan's birthday gifts arrived this week. We got him a little John Deere wheelbarrow, and a little LeapFrog writing toy. I have yet to get either one out of the box yet to look at it. I don't want to show him what they are before his birthday. From the looks of the wheelbarrow box it looks like I have to put it together. I can't tell how big it actually is either. That should be fun.

Here are a few pictures from harvest last week:

FRUSTRATED!

-thats me yelling

Keeping busy. Both boys are napping. Yay! I am relaxing. Yesterday both of them napped at the same time, and I napped too. Today I don't feel like napping, but it is nice to have the time to myself. All the machines are moved down this way, so they are starting on the beans here. Hopefully it all goes well and they can be done down here in a week or so. The sooner they get all of this done, the sooner we can actually see daddy again.
Dylan got a cough from his allergies the other day when he spent the day with daddy in the combine. Today it seems almost gone. The kid just loves being in there with Ryan, but his nose does not! Dylan has it coming from both sides. Ryan has allergies, and so do I, so he was doomed.
I am getting my pictures developed from our little vacation. I think if I had it my way, we would go somewhere at least 2 times a year. I just love traveling, and getting away. I hope we get to take the boys on a summer vacation next year. Why can't money grow on trees? Haha

Why is it 90 some degrees in late September? Shouldn't it only be in the 70s?
Dylan is spending the day with daddy and papaw in the combine today. Ethan and I ran to town to get a few things. Dylan got in trouble a couple of times at school on Monday. Not good. I feel so bad when he gets in trouble. I feel like it is a direct reflection on me. I felt embarrassed. I really couldn't get anything out of him. He didn't want to talk about it at all. I tried to get him to talk about it, but so far nothing.
Dylan's birthday is next month. Its hard to believe that he will be 4 years old. I am still trying to figure out what we are going to do this year.
Ethan is so close to crawling. He has been holding himself differently when he is on his tummy lately. By doing this he can scoot himself backwards. Of course that it is not the direction he wants to go, so he gets frustrated. If he would just figure out how to go forwards, he would be a lot happier!
I had in my head a bunch of stuff to say, but I'm a little distracted. That's all!

Back from vacation! We enjoyed it so much.

Packing for all of us was not easy. Finally got everyone packed on Monday and I put Dylan to bed early since he was going to get up early. Then I went to take Ethan up to Ryan's parents to put him to bed up there. Got home, loaded the car and then went to bed. I was tired. We got up on Tuesday at 4:30. Woke up Dylan and started down the road. A couple of hours later we dropped Dylan off at my grandparents. It was a long drive after that. We ended up in at the hotel about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon. The hotel was nice. We walked around the hotel for a while that evening, and then found some place to eat. We played a little in the casino and went to bed. We were tired. A lot of the same the next few days. Walked up and down the beach, and the boardwalk. Hit a few casinos, and gambled some. I could go into more detail, but that could get really long. Our ride home was ok. We got stuck in traffic for about an hour in Pennsylvania. That was not fun. Also, did you know that Philadelphia charges you $4 to cross one of thier bridges? Crazy!!!! $4, really? Yeah. Oh, and the state of Pennsylvania also charged us $18 EACH WAY to drive through thier state. Toll roads are expensive these days. Ryan drove through Philly each way, because I am not good at big city driving. Traffic getting through that town is nuts! Scary, and nuts.

The boys did well. Ethan spent the whole week Ryan's mom, and Dylan spent a couple of days with my grandparents and a couple of days with my dad. As far as I was told there were no problems with either of them.

Here are a few pictures. The first one is the boardwalk side of our hotel. And the second is looking north on the boardwalk.

Not doing anything. Yesterday was a decent day.
Yesterday was also the 9 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Like I do every year, I watched what memorial coverage that I could and reflected on that day. A lot of things changed after that day. No those changes may not affect you in your everyday life, but somehow, at one time or another they have affected us all. Lives are still being lost because of what happened that day. Last night the History Channel ran an encore presentation of a program called "102 Minutes that Changed America." If you have never seen it, find it somewhere, somehow and watch it. I recorded it on dvr. All I can say is UNBELIEVABLE. The footage that was obtained and put together is horrific, tragic, heartbreaking, and real. Those poor people trapped in the towers. Those amazing firefighters and police officers and EMTs that risked their lives. Those poor people in the airplanes. What's so scary is that something like that can happen again.


Ethan's been in a decent mood these last couple of days which has been nice. Yesterday he actually ate green beans! He ate half of the jar for dinner, and he finished it today at lunch. He is finally eating his vegetables. I'm so proud of him! Dylan has school in the morning, hopefully that goes well.

Ahh...quiet time. I took Dylan to be with his dad and papaw who are working in the fields today. He need to get away to something different. He was thrilled, as he always is to go work with daddy. Ethan is napping and all I hear is a ticking clock, and the whoosh of the fan in Ethan's room through the monitor. Nice.
Yesterday I finally got vegetables into Ethan! Yay for small victories! He had a container of "mixed veggies" at lunch and then squash at dinner. He finally eats veggies! I'm probably jinxing it all right now though.
I am kind of down on myself for the moment. I wish I could drop some of this weight I am carrying around. I fix decent meals, and try to control my portions, but I never seem to get very far. I just tried on my shorts from 2 summers ago, and while I could get them on, I don't believe that I could ever sit in them. They became a second skin. In my head I knew that would happen so this whole summer, that is why I have avoided shorts. I just wore the 2 pairs of jeans I have and left it alone. I hate buying clothes, because nothing ever fits right. So I don't buy clothes, unless I really really have to. Its almost a traumatic experience to go clothes shopping. I should have never tried those shorts on. I did it because of our (possible) trip next week. I should have been smarter and checked the weather forecast BEFORE I went to get them out. If I would have seen the temps for out there next week, I wouldn't have even attempted. 70s next week. That is perfect jeans weather for me. Right along the beach in the 70s will feel cool, because there is always a cool ocean breeze coming off the water.
No plans for the weekend. Ryan doesn't have to work and its supposed to rain, so we will probably just hang out here.

Ever since Ethan got sick, he became a wonderful sleeper. He would nap like a baby should. Well as of today, I think that is over. He is back to his short naps that I hoped had gone away. Its so exhausting. He has had 3 naps today. 3, because he woke up at 6:30 this morning!!! Only one of these 3 naps has been over 30 minutes. Now that he is up from this 3rd nap, he is wonderfully grumpy! Ahhh...is it my bedtime yet?!
We are still working on the whole poop thing with Dylan. Our latest attempt seems to be failing miserably. We have been leaving him in underwear for his nap. Hoping that since he is in underwear he won't poop. I tell him, and he knows, that I can see and hear him on the monitor, and all he has to do is tell me if he has to go to the bathroom and I will take him. So I put him to bed, and he has later told me that he needs to pee. So we go the to bathroom, he pees and goes back to his room. The last 2 days, he has fallen asleep right after that, and then poops in his underwear. Ugh. So today, before I put him down for his nap, Ethan was napping, so I made Dylan go to the bathroom, and made him sit there for near 20 minutes trying t get him to poop. He peed, but no poop. He started to get upset, because he wanted to get up. Fine. So I put him to bed, and told him again, not to poop in his underwear. Well, Ethan woke up, and I went to get him, fed him a bottle. While I was feeding Ethan the bottle, I saw Dylan get out of bed and start playing with his toys. After I fed Ethan, I went in there to tell him to get back in bed. I smelled him. He had pooped. In like 10 minutes or so of me leaving his room!!!!! Before today, I thought maybe he was pooping during his sleep. Nope. He was awake when he did it. So leaving him in his underwear is not working. What will!?
Enough for now. Ethan is getting shrill in his shrieking.

Well Ethan is feeling better. He's been better for a few days now. So I'm glad we got past that. He did get a bit of the rash, but it was no big deal. Over the weekend, Ryan's sister took Dylan for a day and we left Ethan with Ryan's parents. That was the first time that Ethan has been away from me for a night. He did well, and so did I! I needed that bit of a break too. He can be very exhausting. Ryan and I ran some errands on Saturday and then went to dinner. We went to a place in Cincinnati that had been featured on that Food Network show, Diners Drive-ins and Dives. It was very busy, but since we didn't have any kids with us, we decided to just wait the hour. I'm glad we did. Who knows when we would get a chance to do that again. Its not a place I would think of as kid friendly. Its not fancy or anything, just small, noisy, and no high chairs. Sunday Ryan worked. I went to pick Ethan up that morning, and stayed for lunch, and waited for Dylan to come back. They took Dylan to a place with model trains and trains to ride on and play with. I was told he had a good time, so that's all that matters.
We aren't doing anything today either. Its just another normal day. No big plans for the week. All I want is for everyone to stay healthy! No more sickies!

A very long last couple of days. Lets see if I get the days right here. Tuesday Ethan started running a fever. So I started the Ibuprofen. Lunch time came around and his fever was over 100, so to be safe I called his pediatrician's office, and spoke to the medical assistant. She told me what to watch out for and said they wanted to see him if he still had the fever the next day. Ok. He is not acting well either. He just wanted me to hold him. He kept sleeping on my chest. Normally he fights his sleep and certainly wont fall asleep on me. He is too nosey for that! So I keep on the meds all day, between the ibuprofen and tylenol. That night put him to bed as usual. He started fussing around 2 am. Ryan was already up. He just got home from a fire. I came down as he was going in Ethan's room. Ethan was burning up. Took his temp...the correct way...and it was 104.3! Ryan and I started to worry at that point. So we gave him more medicine, he was due anyway, and waited a bit to see if his temp would come down. It didn't. Well not enough to make a difference. So we checked his temp again, it was 104.1. So Ryan called his parents to come down and to stay here with Dylan while we took Ethan to the Er. It was 2 am, and we didn't want to wait around until 9 for the doctor to open.
I am so thankful that his parents came down. So when we got the the Er, their temperature reading came up to 103.9. They took blood, did a chest xray, gave him more meds and then a shot of antibiotic just to be safe. So we stayed around for a bit to make sure he was not having a reaction to the antibiotic. His fever had come down to 99 when we left. His pediatrician's office told the Er doc that they wanted to see him later as well. So we went home, Ryan got ready for work, and thankfully Ryan's parents took Dylan home with them. Ethan was so clingy, it would have been hard to do what I needed to for Dylan. I ended up getting an appointment for Ethan that morning. His temp was finally down to normal by the time we got to the office. We were keeping him on medicine so it was definitely working. His doctor said that all signs pointed to a virus. She thought it maybe roseola. Nothing serious, just fever, then rash. He hasn't the rash yet. He may or he may not we'll see.
So last night I made sure to keep on the medicine schedule of every 3 hours of ibuprofen and tylenol. He slept through me giving him the meds thankfully. His fever is staying down. I'm hoping we are almost through this. He seems like he feels somewhat better this morning, but he wasn't really awake very long before he was ready for a nap. So I'm hoping that this afternoon he will be feeling better. I'm still really tired today, but not as sleepy as I was yesterday. Hopefully tonight will be filled with more sleep. At most I think it would only be one more day of him feeling bad. He should be back to normal shortly.