I love watching our horses run:)

Our morning was not all smooth sailing...I woke up to a pool that overflowed all night since I forgot to turn the hose off - OOPS. AND I flushed my iphone 4 down the toilet. It was in my back pocket and as I stood up (trying to hurry and rush out the door) it went in...swirling around as I grabbed it! Gross I know, but people- it's an iphone totally worth saving. After blow dryers and 1 can of compressed air it's working. I guess that OTTER BOX just paid for itself.

She was reunited with old friends that she has not seen in months. She has been sick since March and was on home bound for the last part of the school year last year.

Stella started first grade and this is her teacher Mrs. Baker.

Levi - one of our adopted sons...came and ate breakfast with us and rode to school with us. Hank cooked a big breakfast and we actually sat at the table and all ate together! Shelby said "this is about as rare as getting struck by lightning - but way better!"

1st Day of school 2011

We went to meet the teacher night/ open house/ back to school night/ whatever it is...every school calls it something different. Anyway, I will have to say I'm really ready for school to start this year. Yes, I am a stay at home mom who devotes every single breath I take to my darling children - but mama needs some structure back in her life - not to mention 1 day of quiet:) Since March, Stella has been sick and at home so all normalcy and routines went out the window. I crave structure and (don't tell them this - so do kids). I am looking forward to a very quiet, normal, boring school year. YEA right, but one that is not filled with surgery after surgery would be a nice change. The kids are even ready to get back to school becuase they have missed their friends. I don't know how Sam has missed anyone since most of his friends live at our house. Hank said he wants to spend more time going over math homework this year with Sam and Shelby. They cried tears of joy when they heard this news...they are so grateful for a dad who cares about academics - ooooohhhh what lucky kids! I have a loooooonnnnnggggg list of stuff I plan to do...a lot of it will be house projects. Maybe I should start by cleaning out my purse. Earlier this evening I found a 2 day old breakfast burrito in there.

we messed around down at the creek....

and the boys drove the riding mower....

We fished....

They have 4 house dogs who have been trained, by dad, to howl very loudly>:( This is my LEAST favorite activity at dads house - it's so loud you can't even talk to the person next to you. I told dad that will be the thing my kids remember the most about going to his house years from now. The kids think it's hysterical!

Then we went to Pawhuska to see Tom (my dad) and Mary (my stepmom). Tom has M.S. so it was a pretty special moment when he made it upstairs into a chair to sit and give his grandson's the nice knives he has collected over the years. The boys are at the age where knives and guns are super cool.
Do you see the irony in this photo? The below photos are of me removing Jack's stitches which were in there because of a pocket knife...

Today we started off the day by removing Jack's stitches.

I'm sure there is a fancy salon somewhere to charges lots of money to treat your hair with pudding....or you can use a .67 cent box of generic pudding! We have not left this house since Friday and we have had lots of cheap/free fun. We have soaped the trampoline, made homemade donuts out of biscuits, played in the dark, hunted, had a pudding fight, built legos, watched movies, made smoothies, etc. We don't plan on leaving tomorrow either.

I guess we forgot to feed Stella before the pudding fight???

Is pudding good for dogs?

PUDDING FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stella and White made the most impressive Lego display - if I may say as the mother and aunt of the two geniuses.

Sam can wear out even the liveliest kids. Sam has never required much sleep which is nice for him, but it does a number on his friends after a few days. I have seen his friends fall asleep in the car, on the boat, sitting at the table, everywhere - while Sam is still going strong.

We made green flubber

Ta-Da!
I bet they will all be gone before winter even gets here. My plan was to store them for winter. Gardening, picking, cleaning, canning is a lot of work...but oh how we love the way it tastes. It's like eating really fresh seafood (or so I have heard because I don't eat seafood). There is just no comparison.

Earlier this summer my mother-in-law, Wanda, helped me can these organic potatoes Hank grew in our garden. That white stuff is the starch - it's normal- I was concerned about how they were going to turn out, but I fried some in butter last night and they were AWESOME! I got the skillet blazing hot and seared them. They were already soft because we boiled them for a few minutes before canning to kill everything.

This morning Sam taught Whit how to make an omelet. Jack said "just bring mine to me when you are done." He was busy watching Shark Week on Discovery Channel. Guess who cleaned the kitchen? During the night there were shaving cream pranks, late night snacking and beaver hunting. Nothing new for this house really. My house looks like we have lived in it for 25 years. It is just a very well used home... constantly full of kids. I think I will have empty nest syndrome really bad when they are gone.

He didn't seem to care though. My job in a few days is to remove the stitches from his finger.

We rigged this glove contraption up so Jack could get wet, but it leaked. I kept changing it, but no matter which tape I used it leaked. I will be researching that on the internet today.

Sam's newest thing is to see how many people he can bench press.

The cousins have arrived!!!!
My nephews Jack and Whit are here for a week and things just got a little crazier in our house. With the heat and 1 nephew who has stitches in his hand (so he can't swim, play in the mud, etc.) they all have cabin fever and I think my biggest challenge this week will be to keep the wrestle mania to a minimum...hmmmm??

As we were taking off and I looked out over Ohio, the emotions of the past 4 months flooded out. I had a good cry - just letting the stress of it all out. I was hoping that would be the last time I ever saw Ohio. If we go back it means Stella is sick again. Time to move forward and get ready for 1st grade:)

I think we wore them out.

The trip home...
When we left Columbus the temp. was 76 degrees and rainy. Shelby was wearing a sweatshirt. When we stepped off the plane in Tulsa, our faces melted off, we came home and slept like babies in our own beds...the end!

More ice cream- see it dripping down the front of her chair.

Zoombezi Bay Waterpark
Our last day:( This is the most fun and cleanest outdoor water park I have ever been to. I know I said that about Cosi too. I guess Ohio has some good stuff! Who knew? We were there 30 minutes before it opened and closed the place down at 8:00 p.m.! We had a blast. We enjoyed temps in the upper 80's all day while it was 110 here. Perfect weather and was not very crowded bc it was a Tuesday.

Stella at Nationwide Children's Hospital
Now for the real reason we were in Ohio.
GREAT NEWS - Stella is officially over her pseudo tumor cerebri! Her neurosurgeon declared victory over it which means she is one of the lucky ones to beat it. She didn't even have to have another spinal tap. The risks of putting her under again to do one were not worth is since she is doing so good. Sometimes they like to find out what a baseline normal is so if pressure builds back up they know exactly how much. Many people are stuck with this condition for a lifetime. They did extensive vision tests and her color vision is fine, some peripheral loss and her central vision is 20/25. She does not need glasses at this point...she is border line for needing them. This is the only lasting effect of having the fluid on her brain. Her neurosurgen wants to track her forever becuase he is building a database of children all over the world who have this condition. Currently there are only 300 in it. He wants to identify criteria for children who have transient pseudotumor vs. kids who have the lifelong kind. He is passionate about his work and will be speaking at the National Conference of Neurologists about this in September.
I can't tell you how happy we are to get such good news. It's been a long 4 months.