Scott's Justice League birthday

Well as many of you know, Scott turned 8 on the 31st of December. I know, I can't believe it either. Well with his birthday being over the Holiday Break, we really arn't able to do much for it until after school gets back. So on the day of his birthday we had a special lunch for him and then some cake and presents. Well, he is now at an age where couriousity is getting the best of him. We had bought him a drum set for his birthday before Christmas, and had it out in the garage. Well on Christmas day he whispered to me that he had seen the drum box out in the garage that was hidden there for him. So I made him wait until the day of his birthday before he was aloud to get it. The drum set is pertty neat. It has color coded stickers for each of the drums to help teach him as he goes.
Then to finish up his birthday fun, he did cookies in school on Friday and a Justice League theamed birthday party. We sent out 15 invites, but for some reason kids just don't go to birthday parties. At least we can say that we had 2 times as many kids here then we did last year. Of course there was only 1 here last year, so that isn't saying much! When I have talked with other parents though, they say I was lucky to see that many. So with the 3 kids we had an obstical type course for them to compleate with points being awarded in each catagory. We started off with the Flash Gordon dash. This is where the kids had to run around the pool 2 times, and attempt to doge the dogs at the same time. Unfortunatlly Teddy (our little doxie) wasn't as fast as some of the kids, and ended up taking a sneaker to the eye. After a little crying and alot of squinting, he got lots of attention and was all better for the moment. Our next event was the Superman standing long jump. I must admit that Michael really took this one. I think he might have had springs hidden in his shoes, as he went at least a foot further then any other kid! Next was the Wonder Woman lasso toss. This is where the kids had a lenghth of magical gold rope that they had to get it over 1 of 2 golden milk jugs. It was so funny watching the kids try to get this rope even a foot away from them! They had a hard time grasping the concept that they needed to hold onto one end of the rope when they tossed it. Scott somehow though was the only one that managed to get one jugs hooped. Those that know him, also know that he has no cordination, so for him to do this was one of those "wow" moments. The picture for this one shows just how easy it was with the rope all twisted around Scott's arm. Our next super hero was Batman. For this one we had a bat toss. I made up some bat shapped bean bags, and they were given 3 targets to hit. 2 were blue circles that I painted on the ground, and then there was also a hula hoop down as well. They did pretty good one this one with each kid getting quite a few in the targets. If you look at the picture for that one, you can see the bat flying through the air to it's target. That wrapped up the out door activites. Inside we did a Marsian mind melt. I drew a picture and then described it to the kids and the one that came the closest to what I had drawn took that round. Our next event was the Hawk Girl feather hang. The had to balance the feather on their lip and see who could keep it there as long as they could. Our last activity was the Green Lantern light shine. This one was kind of like pin the tail on the donkey, but after they were blind folded, they were given a flash light and then had to try and shine the light onto a picture. If they hit one of the Justice League figures they got 5 points for helping a friend. If they hit a bad guy they got 10 points for stopping them, if they hit Green Lantern they got 15 points, since it was "his" game. I included a picture of the poster I made just to try and give you a better idea of what I'm trying to describe.
Finally it was time for some cake (no ice cream. Trying to get everything put together I compleatly forgot to buy any...opps). I had worked the night before on making his cake, and just wasn't overly happy with it, but Scott brought down all his minature statues and we added those to it, and they really helped to make the cake. Scott liked it though, that was what was important about it. After cake we did the awards presentation for the kids. Michael took gold, Scott took silver, and Matt took bronze. Scott opened his presents and loved what he got. There were some Justice League and Batman figures as well as a really neat set of Nerf dart guns. It had 4 guns in it, and the kids took off shooting each other (this included Tim as one of the kids). I had darts flying all over the house for the next few hours.
So another birthday has once again come and gone, and because of how late his party was, I only have 11 months left to prepare myself for the next one!

Awards, baseball and spiderwebs

On Friday Scott's school held there end of 1st semester awards. I was lucky enough to be working in a second grade classroom so that I could attend. Scott was awarded with certificates for Perfect Attendance for the semester, Honor Roll, a Leadership award, and a Citizenship award. Needless to say, I am a very proud mother at moments like this!
Right now is baseball season here. Well actually we are playing through the Y, so the kids are able to play any sport year round. There are 14 kids on Scott's team, and about 9 on the other team. That's right, there are 2 whole teams in the league. Maybe if they condensed the sports down to "we're only doing baseball in the fall" or whatever it might be, they may be able to pull a few more kids and have more then 2 teams to play against each other every week. Oh well. Scott has progressed a bit since he started. His heart is in it, but his body just hasn't caught up yet. As this season winds down I am being informed that soccer will be next. I wasn't here for last years season, but I do know that it wasn't very impressive. Guess we'll see.
As for the spiderweb, well to make a short story long...Tim had cleaned out the pool yesterday after some newspaper blew in and clogged up the drain. They were sitting on the edge of the pool and Scott was to clean them up this afternoon. Well we had really high winds here today, so paper blew everywhere including back into the pool. So when I came home from work, I started to fish it all out right away and set Scott to work on getting the rest bagged up. As he was going around the yard doing so, he came across this neat web and ran for his camera to get a picture of it. Just thought I'd share a bit of nature that managed to catch the eye of an 8 year old little boy who managed to find something neat in the middle of a messy job.

New appliance, new journey

Well for those of you that don't know, Scott's mouth is a cluster of missing teeth! In fact while I was gone last year he lost 6 in that time. So now if you were to see his x-rays they look like a tooth orgey going on, as there is no room for them to fall into place. In fact a few were even trying to push through the roof of his mouth. At that point we headed to the dentist with him. They sent us onto the orthodontist for an evaluation. Well because he lost so many so fast, his jaw hasn't grown to keep up with it, so started a new journey for Scott. He has had spacers in for the last few weeks, and yesterday he had this appliance put in that will work on spreading his jaw out. He will wear that for about 2 months all total. For the first 2 weeks of it we (Tim or I) will have to turn this crank like device in it 2 times a day. Each turn is maybe about a centimeater or so. After 2 weeks we get re-evaluated and then it gets left alone for about 6 weeks so that everything can get set into their new spot. After that comes out then Scott will get partial braces to help move a few teeth together (as there is a pretty big gap between front teeth, and this is actually going to make that bigger). All total we are told that this will take about 18 months to finish up, and because of what we are doing now, he shouldn't have to have full braces at all. Even with the fact that all his side teeth are still baby teeth, they say that because we are making the room now, and getting everything lined up, it will stay that way.
So far he is doing pretty good with this whole thing. He is having a bit of a challenge saying anything that requires the roof of the mouth (like T's), and he is having to learn how to re-swallow. The pictures I've included here are the starting point for all of this. One is just a close up of his teeth, and the other is a picture of the new appliance that they put in. I'll keep everyone posted on how this goes!!

Long pants, movies, and upset tummies

So here I am back from California. The trip was an ok one. I got the chance to meet a few other people from the different sites that my unit has, and even took the "platform" to teach a class on patient evaluations. I got in late Friday (the 13th) night. I got in and was very happy to see that the clothes I had ordered had shown up. I am now the proud owner of a pair of ladies jeans that I can walk on the cuffs of! See most women take for grante that they can go to any store in the mall and walk out with whatever they want. Well when you have legs that go all the way to your ass and then some, it just dosen't work that way. I have been wearing pants from the mens department for so long that I didn't even know what size I was. I just knew my measurements. Well awhile back I had found a catalog that I had ordered from, but I always ended up having to send stuff back. Frustrated I turned to this wonderfull thing call the internet and just did a search for amazon women's clothing. Low and behold I found a great catalog that has an accurate size guide on and so far everything that I have ordered has fit. Well I broke down and bought a pair of jeans from their new line of longer inseams and I LOVE THEM!!! I do hope that they expand on the line of jeans offered in that section.
Coming home on Friday night put me back in time to see Scott's game and watch them get their pics done. Well around 3 am Scott came in saying that he had been sick. After sitting in bed with him for a bit he went back to sleep. The next morning seemed better until we got to the game. Right after his picture was taken he was over by the fence heaving his guts out. Guess it was a good thing that he didn't have any breakfast that day. Well with Tim being the coach Scott and I just sat on the side lines, as he didn't want to play at all. We came back home and he had some soup and a hot tub and then took a huge long nap and seemed all better after that.
On Sunday we went and saw Hoodwinked. What a cute movie. It is set up kind of like Boomtown where the story is told from each persons point of view to come up with the actual story of what happened. I highly recommend it to everyone...kids or not.
Yesterday (Monday) was pretty nice outside, so after we finished cleaning up the house we went out back and cleaned up out there as well. Pulling out the weeds that seem to grow so much better then the plants that we have put in. Tim also went ahead and covered all of Teddy's land mines that he has created. We have a retaining wall across the back and it is only dirt there so it is by far his most favorite place to dig. After all that was done I sprayed all the decking off, as well as every surface around. We really haven't had much rain (none in the last 3 months) but we'll get a small sprinkle and because of the dirt in the air it pretty much just rains mud. It was amazing what a little water could do to help the back out though. Have to say that I am really looking forward to spending time in my back yard this year!

Leaving again

I just wanted to let everyone that checks this know that I will be gone for the next week. I have to head out to Camp Parks CA for a week to do an EMT refresher class. I doubt that I will have internet access while I'm gone. Please check back here though next week and I'll have updated our info. Lots of new things to talk about, but no time to post them right now. Also please if your checking the site, leave some comments so I know that you've been here. We can get a good conversation going if you do! Just click on the comments at the bottom of an entry and it will give you whatever comments have already been made, plus a spot to type yours. When you go to post it may ask you to create a sign on. This is free and you DO NOT have to actaually create a blog. When I first started I skipped this step. It is done mostly so that your name can be attached to your comment so I know who left it. I hope to hear from everyone soon! Happy Blogging!!!!

Crystals and Crabs

So our Christmas vacation is slowly coming to an end. Scott has been busy spending time with some of his friends, but there are still times that we need to find things to keep us busy. For Christmas Scott got a hermit crab island, so today we finally found a crab for it. His name is Kermit the Hermit. Having a crab in the house that isn't on my plate is a first for me, so we'll see how this goes. All I can say is it better be cleaner then those damn hamster babies! The kids all got lots of neat things for Christmas this year and many things that will keep them busy for awhile (haha), but one of the neat things that Scott bought with some of his money was a crystal growing kit. We now have a table that is out of the way growing 3 different crystal experiments in them. One is even supposed to come out looking like a geod. It has been fun watching all the different changes in them as the water slowly leaves.

Since I came home

I came home at the end of September to a crazy month. We went to Ohio the first week of October to see family and friends. It was such a good trip. As soon as I stepped out of the airport I felt at home. Our week there just seemed to fly by so fast and I didn't get to do nearly everything I wanted to do. Leeann and Celeste both, thank you for opening you homes to us for a visit. I love both of your places! After that trip we came home to have Michaela come and visit us for a week, and at the end of that trip my parents came down to visit (I finally got my dad out here after 3 years!). While my parents were here I did up my traditional "gross" Halloween dinner for all the kids (we had Cory, Leah, Michaela and Scott). For desert that night I made them an eyeball cake. Scott had such a wonderfull idea to have it made so that when I cut into the cake it would bleed out! Leah wasn't too sure about eatting it after that, but one bite and she forgot about the gross part.
I had a wonderfull time seeing everyone and just relaxing. I do have to say though that it took me until around Thanksgiving time for me to really feel as if I was home to stay. Things have settled back to a normal routine. I have gone back to work at the school as a sub, although I keep trying to get in there full time to have my own class again. Thank you to all my friends and family for all the support and encouragment that you gave me over the last year. It really meant alot to me.

Happy New Year!!!!

On the first of the year Tim asked me what my New Years Resolution was. At the tme I told him that I didn't have one. Well I was wrong. Ever since my deployment I have stopped doing my newsletters to all the family and friends. So thanks to an idea from my good friend Rod, I have deceided that my goal for this year will be to get back into the swing of things and keep everyone up to date on the Sizemore clans happenings. Only this time it will be in this Blog format.
So here is my new site. It isn't compleatly finished yet, but my goal will be to update it at least once a month. Please feel free to post any comments along the way (you might have to make a sign in for this), or just email them to me. I hope that everyone has a wonderfull new year!

Ann