Summer Vacation Weeks: 8,9,10,11

Had the Glazier 24th of July party at our house. I didn't get many pictures. I guess I was busy with the food. The kids kept busy on the Zip-Line, on the plastic water slide, eating, making homemade ice cream and doing fireworks.
Ryan took swimming lessons. After his first lesson he walked out in total amazement. "That was so awesome. I can swim without a life jacket!" I am not at the point of trusting him without it yet, but he definitely loved his time at lessons.
Madisyn competed in a soccer tournament with her team the end of July. I was very reluctant to have her sign up for competitive soccer again because it was such a challenge to get her to go last year. She had been playing on a team a year older then herself. They won ZERO games last year and their confidence was low. Madisyn got to the point where she seemed scared of the ball and wouldn't get anywhere close to the person that had the ball. She had considered trying out for the team her age in the spring, but things came up and she missed the tryouts. I was inwardly grateful that I would be spared the trauma of last year. A week later I received an email from her coach last year wondering if she was going to play for the 12 years olds, because if she wasn't he had a spot for her. I figured when I asked Madisyn she would say no, but I was wrong. I began to feel a lot of stress. Getting her to the first practice was a challenge. She wanted to get out of it. I wouldn't budge. When she made the choice to do soccer this year I committed that I would be supportive, even if that meant I had to be mean and force her to go. Back to the tournament. The first day of it she didn't want to go, but I got her there anyway. I do understand that playing against girls a year older (that actually look three years older) and are a head taller can be scary. They ended up playing 4 games and losing all of them, but they played better as a team then they had ever played last year. Watching Madisyn, you would have never guessed that she was the same girl that played last year. She fought for the ball, and when she would get pushed she would push back. The coaches were flabbergasted, and at the end of the tournament said that she had improved the most over the past few months. All of a sudden my job as supporter is much easier. I don't have to be the enforcer anymore and she goes gladly. It also makes it nice that she is making friends with the other girls. That can be hard when you are the timid youngest. I am glad I resisted saying no when she said she wanted to do competitive soccer again and let her make her own chose, even though I knew her chose would play a big effect on me.

Ryan got his kindergarten shots. I have always been so prepared with those with my other kids. Maybe it's because Ryan is the youngest, but it was at the point when I got the letter in the mail about school registration that I realized Ryan didn't have his shots yet. Anyway, he was so tense throught the whole physical because he thought at any moment they would give him the shots. He had just let his guard down and was smiling at me when they did the little finger prick to draw blood. He started screaming "I"M BLEEDING, I"M BLEEDING". After that his guard was not down for one second. The doctor came in to do the physical and the first thing out of Ryan's mouth is "Are you the one doing the shots?" The dreaded moment finally came. None of my kids have screamed and jumped as much as Ryan did. I am sure people could hear him outside. We left the office with him still screaming at the top of his lungs.

I really failed the month of August when it came to doing fun stuff with the kids because I didn't feel well at all. The kids came up with things to entertain themselves though.

Madisyn, Ashlyn and Tyler set up shop across the street selling snow-cones, suckers and lemonade. They did exceptionally well. I guess that is one advantage of living on a well traveled street. Some of the Young Women of the ward offered to advertise in exchange for free treats. They were hired on the spot.
I ventured to the mall with the kids to finish up some last minute shopping. Ashlyn got brave and decided to get her ears pierced. She was feeling pretty confident until we walked up to the shop and I said we were here, then the confidence left pretty quickly. Fortunately the girl at the shop noticed us right off the bat and came right over to get us started before Ashlyn had a chance to run out the door. It also helped us avoid the 2 hours in and out of the store and never getting the ears pierced we experienced last Christmas. Tyler couldn't watch, but Ryan had to since he was so experienced after getting his kindergarten shots.

BEFORE

AFTER

This is what I call summer burnout! Teasing your brother so much that you end up in time out and then fall asleep.
The day before school I had surgery for kidney stones. This would have been nice to have happen at the beginning of the summer when I knew I had them, but two doctors both told me they didn't think that this was my problem and kept me trying different anecdotes. I could have avoided a summer wanting to sleep all of the time and needing to lay down after doing minimal jobs like cleaning out the dishwasher and laundry. I guess I shouldn't say all summer. I had good weeks and bad weeks and was blessed to feel great during the month July when we were so busy. By the middle of August I was tired of feeling like I was in pre-labor 24/7 and decided to bypass the doctor who's anecdotes were not working and go straight to a urologist. It's so nice when you finally find the person that can help you. I was able to have surgery to shatter the two finger nail size stones into minuscule pieces the day after my appointment. To make a long story short, just hope you never have them. One didn't pass as nicely as the others and I experienced the most painful 14 hours of my life. Worse then labor: No epidural. No 5 to 10 minute breathers between contractions. Who knew something the size of a small nerd candy could cause such torture.