Blogging Break

I took a blogging break for a week or so. A week or so ago Isabella's asthma flared up and poor thing was miserable. She went on prednisone to calm things down and it did the trick but wow, was she ever a grouchy bear while on prednisone. The last couple of days the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and she's back in full asthma attack mode. This is the normal time of year weather that triggers it. The school nurse called today for me to bring Isabella her inhaler because she was having trouble breathing. Poor thing is going to have to stay inside from recess until it warms up a bit.

Then, last Monday Ava spiked a high fever and horrid cough so off to the doctor again for her. We never really got a hard core diagnosis - just some antibiotics to take if she didn't get better. She ran a fever all week long and was finally fever free Saturday.

The girls and I went back to my hometown for the big Persimmon Festival. It's a great weekend and tons of people who have moved away come in town for it. We had a great time visiting with old friends and family but I'm too old to stay out and up late several nights in a row and add to the lack of sleep some cocktails here and there and I feel so sluggish. It's always hard coming "off" of festival weekend because it is such a good time that the drive home is always filled with feelings of being homesick for all my old friends. Whats worse - I didn't take one picture the entire weekend. Darn it!!

Just as I get things unpacked and laundry washed and put away the girls and I will be packing up to head out of town again. We are going over to Ohio to visit with my aunt and uncle again and celebrate his birthday. All my aunts and uncles are coming in so it will be a good visit. I will take pictures this visit I promise!

Traditions

Today as I was pulling out the Halloween and Fall decorations I enjoyed looking at all the halloweens of the past. Each year I buy a halloween themed picture frame (usually from Target for $5 - yeah!!!) and put a picture of the girls dressed up in their costumes. So, I have a total 4 Halloween ones so far and each year I just put them out when the fall decorations are up and then they are stored until next year.

I do the same thing with Christmas pajama's. I have pictures each year of the girls wearing matching Christmas/Holiday pj's in a Christmas themed picture frame. The matching pj's will be stopping soon because I can't find too many options now that Isabella is older. But - they will still be Christmasy or winter themed. And like the Halloween pictures frames, I only display the PJ pictures during the holiday season.

I love having traditions and wish I did more. I do always buy a Nutcracker each Christmas as well as a new ornament from each place we vacation. I'm thinking next year for St. Patricks day I'm going to serve green foods all day.

I love being a mom (even though I complain about it often) and I want to create fun memories for the kids. Anyone have any other traditions they do - doesn't just have to be Christmas traditions?

Labor Day - Part 2 Long & Picture OVERLOAD

I had originally planned to post these pictures the day after the fishing post but got sidetracked as you can see.

We spent all Saturday over at my aunt and uncles - Dave and Barbs house. I felt like a country girl this day. All the women did was cook, set the table, serve lunch, eat, clean up. Sit for 5 minutes, pick lima beans from the garden, shell lima beans, cook/prep more food, set table, serve dinner, clean up dinner and dishes. I was wore out from hanging in the kitchen the entire day but it was great fellowship with my mom and my aunts, the kids had a ball playing outside and with all the old school Little People sets and it was nice to prepare meals for my uncles who were working so darn hard the entire day.

It is hard to describe the feelings I had when I would look outside or stand on the deck and listen to the men working. My uncle Dave is the 2nd to oldest and his baby brothers - ok, so maybe they aren't *babies* but *younger brothers* all came up (1 lives in Knoxville, 1 in Champaign, IL and another in Columbus, OH) to help my uncle build this garden shed. It just showed what families are suppose to do in a time of need. Sacrifice whatever they had planned to come and help their older brother who is fighting a non-discriminating disease. I went away from this weekend being so proud to be a member of this family.

Descriptions will be below each picture.

This was around 10:00 am on Saturday. David (green hat, Dale white hat and Merlin -hidden but wearing a white doo rag (is that how that is spelled?).

Going with the philosphy of measure twice, cut once.

My aunts - Barb, Debbie, my mom and my cousin Tonja shelling lima beans (a first for me. I did try the lima beans and I'm with my Uncle Dale - they still taste horrible after all these years. Not missing much by not eating them for the last 34 years or so).

My mom and I did take about an hour away from the kitchen work to take the girls to the creek...or *crick* as it is called in Lawshe. :) Growing up when we went to visit my Grandpa - my sister, brother and I looked forward to swimming in the creek all.year.long. It wasn't until I was about 25 did I realize most people didn't swim in nasty creek water while visiting grandparents. lol

Isabella testing the water out.

Ava copping a squat on a rock. The creek was really low due to lack of rain this summer.

I wish I knew how to draw on a picture so I could circle and put a big ole arrow on the photo so you could see what Ava was doing. She had caught a toad and was throwing it up in the air. PETA...don't bother writing me - I already discussed this with Ava. :)

Ava going after another frog.

Almost catching it.

Got it!

Here Ava was just soaking up the sun! I love this kids zest for life. She wears me out - but she can enjoy the smallest things to the fullest. I love her to pieces.

Ok - Ava has finally released the frogs to freedom and she has decided to do what all of her great Uncles do while at the creek and *skip rocks*. Problem is, Ava picks up 3 lb rocks to try and skip. lol She had a blast doing it - and in the grand scheme of things, that is all that matters.

She's released this one like a discus. Her Aunt Michelle would be proud of her form. :)

We saw a crane just enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Beautiful Isabella.

Ava was so funny with this rock. She knows it is a Garza tradition to stand on a rock and have your picture taken while on vacation. So, she spotted this rock, climbed on it and said for me to take her "rock" picture. She's caught on quick and I hope she continues this tradition with her kids.

Here is a picture later in the day before dinner. They worked for over 8 hours. After dinner my uncle Merlin (my moms twin brother) had to head back to Columbus because he is a preacher and had to preach the next morning - but my other uncle Eddie (who closely resembles the Uncle in Christmas Vacation in so many ways its funny) had arrived and he took over with the construction.

Side note about Eddie - he is all about bargains. Well, free is more like it - but he brought the girls some stuff he got at an auction and so now they think he is just about the greatest thing since sliced bread. He brought them a HUGE bag of magnets. I will take a picture of my fridge with only a small fraction of the magnets - needless to say there is not any available room left - and some of the magnets are quite questionable with their sayings. He also gave us a big box of Christmas ornaments. These I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. I am addicted to Christmas ornaments and having a memory or story behind each ornament so this makes me so giddy and happy you can't begin to imagine! Also he brought a Barbie computer (working even!!) for them and a couple other toys. I love that he thought of my girls to bring this stuff for them. :) I know I'm getting off track and long winded but - hey - it's my journal/memory keeper so to speak so I'll ramble...I love watching my aunts and uncles with my girls. They love on them like they are their own grandchildren. They are constantly playing with them, hugging and holding them, pestering and teasing. It just warms my heart to see it and how the relationship develops.

Ok, enough sap....

When we were getting ready to leave for the evening the girls were sitting at the end of the driveway with Barb and my aunt Debbie. It was so cute seeing them sitting on the flower bed rocks watching the cows...even though the girls were dirty, dirty, dirty and hair falling out of ponytails.

Here is a picture of my aunts brother moving the calfs (I don't know at what age a calf isn't a calf but anyways...) from the Mama cows (probably a farm word for that as well) to another field. The Mama's were NOT happy with this move. But - my girls loved seeing the cows run by so close to them. Me - on the other hand was scared one was going to jump on my car and put a dent in it. lol

Ava crashed after a shower. It took a matter of a few short minutes and she was fast asleep in the recliner while watching TV.

Isabella flashing her peace out sign. She's so cool. lol :)

Sunday morning at Dave and Barbs church - Dale and Debbie sang the special music. It was a goose bump causing song. They sounded so good. And the bonus for us is they are going to be singing again when we all go back over in October for a birthday party for Uncle Dave. Thanks Dale and Debbie! You are such a blessing to me and my family! Love you!

And after church at a restaurant eating lunch. Ava wearing her frog princess aluminum foil crown she made in Sunday school with my mom.

There were many tears shed during this photo op by Ava but she made me promise I wouldn't post the pictures of her crying so I'm keeping my end of the deal. Now, lets hope she keeps hers by not crying the next time we visit. :)

Fishing

Ok - it is no big surprise I am not a camping, fishing type of girl. But...I could get use to this type of fishing....drive up to private pond, have someone bring out the fishing poles with hooks already on them, worms in a bowl of dirt and having Joe there to put the fish on the hook, remove fish once it was caught, discard of fish, put new worm or fix remaining worm left on hook. Fish for a couple hours, leave and not smell like fish! This type of fishing I can get use to!

Since my Uncle was diagnosed with cancer we have been trying to go over to Ohio and visit with him once every 4-6 weeks. Like I said before - it stinks that we have to wait until someone gets sick to visit often. We go over to a very small, rural town - so small that you literally have to go "up the hill" in order to get ATT cell phone service. :) We stay with my moms childhood friend from school Cecelia and always play cards and visit with Cecelias sister Pam and her husband Joe. My kids think Cecelia, Pam and Joe are our relatives (they think they are their aunts and uncles) so I just let them think that. We went fishing on Joe and Pam's property - they have a pond in their back yard. So beautiful.

Isabella waiting for a bite.

Mom trying not to get her line caught in the cat tails.

Joe and Mom

Ava watching Pam

Isabella caught one! She actually caught a lot - too bad the storage cage for the caught fish was broke or we could have maybe had fish for dinner the next night. hahahahahahaha Maybe next time.

Isabella has caught another one!

Ava was over the whole fishing thing in about 5 minutes. She doesn't have the patience for it. She did always want to "touch" the fish each time someone caught one and then Ava would throw it back in the pond. GROSS!!!

Isabella proud of her catch.

Ava thought it was more fun to torture the bait instead of fishing. Here she is with a worm.

Ava and a fish before she threw it back to freedom.

The girls playing with Pam and Joes dog Lily.

Speech and the Cat

Our long last cat reappeared on Sunday afternoon. We think she had been locked in a little storage shed. She was in the backyard area when the neighbor girl came and rang the doorbell to let us know she was back there. She lost soooo much weight - she was just fur and bones. It was sad. I saw the shed opened on Sunday and the lady who lives there working in the yard so I'm thinking that is what happened because it was on a weekend that she disappeared. Poor Daisy was so hungry - she was literally scarfing the food down without even chewing it. I'm glad she is ok but I was liking it better when I thought she was just living with the little old lady and we were down to one cat. Oh, well.....

Ava had her first speech appointment today. Ugh - this is going to be work. It's not something that is going to be a quick fix and definetly something we have to stay ontop of here. I can look ahead and see many tears shed - both by me and Ava during this process.

Karma came back to bite me in the behind. I was trash talking Drew about running and I ended up pushing it too hard too soon and have bursitis/tendonitis in my left knee. I've continued exercising and just icing it at night but I'm going to have to take a few days off so it can heal. Darn it!!! The Dr. put me on some heavy duty anti-inflammatory steriods to knock down the swelling quickly. Hope it does the trick - and quick. I'm impatient!

Heading away for the weekend to visit family. So off to pack and ice the old knee. Isn't aging great?