So here's what's been going on for the past week and over a half. Let me just kick my brain into gear...the wheels are turning...kind of...anybody seen the WD-40?
Saturday of last week Amelia had a rehearsal for the kids' choir musical at church. I had planned to drop her off at church then head to Gainesville for a Target shopping spree for the oldest two so they won't have to be naked this summer. Elizabeth had been grumpy and coughing the day before and got up grumpy Saturday morning too, so instead I spent that time hauling her and the other two well kids to the doctor. She has an ear infection and 10 days of antibiotics. I kicked in my life's motto, "It's always something."
The most notable thing that happened last week was the big performance of Fun in the Son at church. Amelia's choir (K-5th grade) put on an incredible performance. The hours that went into the set, costumes, rehearsals, and every part of it are surely innumerable. Amelia was excited to be a part of it. I like that even if no one in the audence got anything out of it (which I'm sure they did), what the kids who participated learned was worth all the effort. They had an eight-week devotional that went along with it, which we completed as part of school time each day. She memorized Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (so did I), and learned several spiritual truths through the songs and the speaking parts. We must have listened to our Fun in the Son CD at home at least 1,024 times. Then there's the clam, a googly eyed, sparkly hand puppet.
Amelia and two other kindergarteners' hands got to be stars. The cast was amazing for a bunch of non-professional church kids. We have a talented bunch of kids and adults alike at Concord. The littlest kids were hilarious, mostly because they were yawning through most of it, even while singing. It was kind of an early morning for some of them (like us!). Naps were had by all of the Himstedt kids Sunday afternoon and I went to the barn for a little while.
I'll post Fun in the Son and clam photos next time. My camera is on loan and I didn't get the photos off first. This week's photos are brought to you courtesy of James' camera, who has been kind enough not to eat them before I could load them to the computer. (See a couple of posts ago for my angst over losing Easter photos.)
Saturday we got some cruddy news. James' mom (in Texas) fell somehow and broke both bones in her leg above her right ankle. She had already bought her plane ticket to arrive here in three weeks. She always spends 3-4 weeks with us here at camp in the summer, so now that's off. A big fat bummer for me, especially! I'm the one who gets to enjoy her company the most since James is usually doing camp things all day, and the kids will miss spending all those days with Mimi. She was working at a Good Neighbor project, carrying some wood, and proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished.
I can't remember a darned thing about Monday, so I'm guessing nothing worth mentioning happened. Just a little art work with pipe cleaners.
She made this herself. If you have little kids and have never bought them pipe cleaners to play with, go get some now. 
Shannon is finally attempting to draw. He's never had much interest in it, so this is a major accomplishment. The stick folks are truly his very first effort at drawing people. The middle picture is a Jeep (duh), and the bottom one is where he traced his hand. His freaky, four fingered hand.
Avery enjoyed driving cars through play dough. Every little car or truck we have has dried play dough somewhere on or in it.One thing I remember about Monday is rain. LOTS of rain. Thanks to God's abundance of precipitation this spring the grass is doing great, the flowers are beautiful, Lake Lanier, which is our area's water source (stricken by drought this summer and down 17 feet) is looking pretty good, and we've had LOTS of quality indoor time together. God has been good to provide. There were a lot of area churches collectively praying for rain last fall. We dare not complain about His answer to the prayers!
During one heavy rainfall Monday the kids asked if they could go out and play in it. So I gave them the usual default "no" answer, then reconsidered since I couldn't find a good reason for the no. They had a blast, though they were cold. It worked out good since it was late afternoon and we went straight to baths and pajamas.
Other random shots from Monday, before the giant outdoor shower.
D.J. Shannon cues up the tunes...
...and the rock band kicks in! Shannon and Avery are pretty good on the sword guitar.
Cuttin' a rug. You can't dance without a dress. Most of her dress up clothes are getting too small, so she's resorted to changing in and out of real clothes a few dozen times a day.
Dance with me Avery!
Thank you, thank you for your applause.
Elizabeth's new trick; pulling up to her knees. She is now 11 months old. Shannon was pretty much running everywhere by this age. She has no interest in even pulling up to standing yet. Please ignore the alien toes in the lower left corner.
An attempt to capture Elizabeth's strange mode of transportation. She still doesn't crawl, but reaches forward and kind of scoots along on her rear.
She can empty a box very quickly. Pretty fancy toy box, eh? Tuesday we had playgroup here. Fun was had by all, in spite of the fact that Shannon and Avery were the only boys. That never happens, so they weren't sure what to do. Afterwards Avery confessed that he, "likes shooting girls." Terrific. I'll refrain from too closely analyzing what this might mean for future domestic bliss.
Tuesday after naps we headed BACK to Gainesville, since I never got in that clothes shopping trip. I also had a special delivery to make, a birthday cake for Bliss (my riding lesson student and niece of Rebecca, who works in our office). I practiced my cake decorating, ahem, "skills" on a cake for her 15th birthday. I was supposed to see her Monday for a lesson but the monsoon wrecked that plan. There were no pictures taken of the cake because I didn't feel it's memory was worth preserving, though hopefully it tasted good. I saw them the next day, so at the very least it didn't kill anybody! Target proved a bit dissapointing this year in the sumer clothing department. I usually stock up there because their stuff is cute enough for being el cheapo to get through a summer of hard outdoor playing at camp. We left with a few items, dinner at Wendy's, then home again.
More Elizabeth pictures. Apparently she's the chosen one this week.
She hates actually getting in the saucer now.
Wednesday dawned dull and dreary, another rainy day. That would be because Wednesday mornings are barn time for me. That always brings on the rain. I did get some things done to get ready for camp, though I didn't get to ride. Any barn time is good time. Wednesday afternoon everyone went down for naps, Amelia and I did school, and I planned for Wednesday evening church departure. I should have known something was up when I had to wake Shannon up after THREE hours. He woke up with a fever of 102.8. I'm always amazed how these things can come without warning. Again, it's always something. So Shannon got ibuprofened up, and stayed home with James while I took the others to church. He was coughing a bit, but I immediately thought strep because of the high fever and because we had been exposed to it recently. (Poor Alison carted all three of her boys to the doctor the week before, all for different things, and all on different days!) Grandmas everywhere are probably sure it was letting him play in the rain that brought it on...
He slept on a mat by our bed that night so I wouldn't be trucking it up the steps all night, and pretty much kept the fever until the next morning. He was miserable. I had a busy Thursday with getting 16 horses' feet trimmed by the farrier at 9:00, teaching a riding lesson, gymnastics, and Thursday night dinner, supposedly at our house. So James took him to the doctor, and after the diagnosis we skipped gymnastics and moved Thursday night dinner to the Hicks. Not strep, but an ambiguous, no-name respiratory virus of some kind, most likely contagious while he still had fever. So, yay for fun with breathing treatments for five days and oral steroids. We don't mess around with breathing stuff anymore, not after the lesson learned with Avery in February.
Shannon thinks the way the breathing machine turns medicine into smoke makes him look like a train.
I think it looks more like a peace pipe. "Come, Kemosabe, sit. Join me in smoking the Albuterol pipe, which will promote harmony and good repiratory health between your people and mine."Friday was a crazy day at home. Some days it seems like everyone is just needier, grumpier, and/or more likely to aggravate siblings than other days. This was one of those days. Is it a full moon? We did have some fun with play dough and art projects, but didn't get to burn off energy outside because of come and go thunderstorms all morning and afternoon. James' work on the blob tower came and went around rain showers as well. I suppose that was a strange phrase for those who don't know what a blob tower is. Camp is getting a blob, which is a huge water toy. The blob needs it's own deck and gang plank of sorts to jump off of, so James, Daniel, and Rick have been working on it this week. For progress and photo updates check out camp's blog on our website, www.strongrockcamp.com.
James came home for a few minutes during the day and Elizabeth had some fun with Daddy.
Yes, those are camo pants she's wearing.
Friday evening was also another "it's always something" episode. Amelia got a shower and was on her way up the steps, fell somehow, and hit her nose. It bled for around 20 minutes, I got it stopped, then 30 minutes later it started again. Between James and I we worked on it for around an hour and a half before it finally quit. I even called our doctor's after hours line, since we had done everything we knew to do. They said take her to the ER if it wouldn't stop. It was crazy! About two months ago she had a nose bleed that took me from 3:00 to 4:00 to get stopped. A.M., that is. Misery for all! She was so tired she just wanted to go to bed but couldn't. She actually fell asleep in my arms while I was trying to stop the bleeding.
Today (Saturday) Mom and Dad were here. Dad and James worked on the blob tower all day, and Mom stayed with the kids so I could get some work done at the barn. I will be instructing a clinic to certify 10 riding instructors from four different camps May 20-22, and need to get some things organized and ready at the barn. It was a fun day for me, though it's kind of a mess out there. My barn time is usually limited to two hour blocks so there hasn't been a lot of time for good barnkeeping.
Just before bed we were visited by a princess and a bride. Oh how I love blackmail.
I think he fills the dress out rather well. This is Cinderfella.
Dance party! I dream of Shannon's first dance with his wife at his wedding. I wonder whose dress will be prettier?
This is probably what he'll actually look like at his wedding if he isn't able to kick the sillies between now and his twenties.
Mom and Elizabeth join the dance party.Tomorrow is Mothers' Day, and we will do baby dedication at church with Elizabeth. We're getting to the end of an era. Our last baby dedication, AND she's nearly quit nursing. She nurses once a day now, in the morning, and will have nothing more to do with it after that. She's drinking milk out of a cup and eats everything in sight, so I guess she doesn't need it anymore. I nursed the others for a year also, and I thought I might be sad when the time came for her to be finished, since she's the last one. I'm actually pretty okay with it. It's exciting to see all these little folks becoming their own people. I can see how the next several years are really going to be fun.
Hopefully if it doesn't rain, we'll go to church, out to dinner with my folks, and then mom and I will go on a trail ride. It's been at least five years since she's ridden, so I'm proud of her for being willing to go. Should be fun!
I will go to bed now. After I leave you with these quotes from the kids from this week.
Shannon to Avery: "What in the earth are you doing?"
Amelia: "Mom, he's chasing me!" Me: "Stop running."
Shannon to Amelia: "Beat you up the stairs!" Amelia: "It's not a race." Shannon: "Oh yes it is!" Then (after winning the NOT race), "I'm the rotten egg!"
Avery (this happens regularly): "Mom, when can I be a (race car/whale/shark/etc, you name it)? Me: "How about now?" Avery: "Not yet!"
Shannon, while riding in the car this week: "Mom, are there lots of kinds of sausages?" Me: "Yes..." Shannon: "What kinds are there?" I thought about giving him the Forrest Gump answer, "Fried sausage, boiled sausage, sausage gumbo, sausage kabobs, sausage soup, sausage biscuits..."
Goodnight, and Happy Mothers' Day!
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