Obe Wan returns to the Doctor

Obe Wan went to the doctor yesterday for the six week check up at the Urologist. We have learned that Miralax is not what he needs. He poops everyday and we even were given a POOP chart to ensure it is a nice, healthy poop. OMG. TMI.

He is going on a 10mg dose of Oxybutin daily. This is a muscle relaxer to help his spastic bladder. We also got notes for the school and his teacher. He needs to be able to go to the bathroom whenever he needs to. I learned there is only one bathroom on the 3/4 grade hall. Not nearly enough. I know he holds his urine for fear of being embarrassed or other people hearing his bodily functions. This is awful. It is putting additional strain on his bladder and colon. He does not need this, so I'm hoping by giving him the opportunity to go whenever it will alleviate the problems.

Another six weeks and we return....

Diet Bet

So, while talking with my Portland Sister the other day, it occurred to me the only person who can make me miserable is ME! I need to fix that. No more excuses. No more anything. I can always find an excuse. I do loathe exercise more than ANY thing and I do LOVE food. Those two do not go well together. I swore I would never do another diet bet, but I lie.

On August 5, 2015 I joined a DIETBET game. I bet $30 that I could lose 4% of my weight in 30 days. It is a dollar a day that I am betting myself. The bet is from Aug. 5 - Sept. 1. There are over 5,000 people also in the bet and over $150,000 at stake. I'm kinda excited to see how I can do. You have to get on a scale with the word they choose to ensure there aren't any cheaters.

While I'm at it, I'm also making myself walk a minimum of 10k steps a day. My goal is 10 before 10. So far, so good. Then the rest of the day I'm just lazy! Tee-Hee.

Blunt Brothers Construction MADE MY DECK aAHh-mazing!

Here is the deck I bought (with my house)

 This is the deck in its former glory. J-Bird fell through a step a couple months back and two boards were threathening to take Prince Charming out if he didn't do something about it and fast. He was truly worried he too would go through the boards. At first we thought it may be termites and it would be covered by the home warranty. Wouldn't that be great? Yeah, well we know how that works out....

The deck had two exits. One out to the garage and side yard. The other was all the way down to the walk out basement. It had lattice on the underside and our mower is housed in this area.

Here is the NEW and IMPROVED DECK!

It is so ah-mazing and nice! Here are several shots to show off the work they did. I also took these pics while my guys were chilling in the hot tub. J-Bird was skinny dipping. It seems to be his new norm. It is quite disturbing when he dances out of the water....

 We still don't have it stained, but we'll get there. It has an awesome spring-loaded gate now. It makes it super easy to get in and out of there. It is pad locked and completely closed in. It makes for a 100% water proof shed without building one. We also have steps into the back yard instead of having to go all the way to the walk out level. 

We went to Kroger and bought lawn furniture this last weekend for a BBQ we had. It was quite enjoyable to sit out with the kids and watch them in the tub while we all visited and drank some bourbon. One of the friends that was at the BBQ bought us Willett Bourbon as a house warming gift, so it was only apropos to open it while he was here! 

My three guys hot tubbing! 

Book Review: Awake by Natasha Preston

A young girl meets the new, gorgeous boy in her homeroom class and he finds her to be the best thing he has ever seen. The young girl, who we learn is our protagonist, Scarlett, is immediately enamored with the new boy to the envy of her best friend. Sounds pretty typical YA, but poor Scarlett endured the loss of everything she owned in a fire when she was four years old. With the loss of all things material, she also lost her first four years of memories and this is where I was hooked. It is through the pages of Awake, by Natasha Preston, we learn Scarlett was destined for greater things than a mere high school romance. She was to be the sacrifice for a Irish Cult, Eternal Light.

We see the classroom relationship evolve into dates, meeting parents and falling in love as Scarlett and Noah plan for their future together. The underlying shadows of Scarlett's past is what kept me turning the pages. I wanted to see what happened in those first four formative years of her life to get her to this time period of blissful ignorance. Noah starts questioning the missing years; Scarlett starts seeing visions and her part of Eternal Life is slowly unveiled through the answers.

You can see the full review at Books & What Not.

Around the world in miniature LEGOS!

As I stated in my Legoland Review Blog, I think one of the coolest aspects of Legoland was the Miniland. Here are some pictures. Believe it or not, but NASA actually has a count down and steam comes out of the engine of the shuttle. It is pretty cool. We got to go from Fl, to D.C. to the Golden Gate bridge within minutes of walking around.

J-Bird liked this one the best. I didn't know it actually "FIRED" and he told me to 'stand here Mom' so you can see it better. Than the little turkey hit the button and "FIRED" water all over me. Ah, man. That. Kid.

I think the oldest boy liked the Star Wars the best. He kept walking around and around looking at the details of the scenes. 

I have to say mine was the full scale replica of NASCAR. They even had dumpy trailers. Cracked me up!

More Visitors to the Knob

Gotta love to have Kansas people come our way---even if for a short visit. Do you know Louisville is only 3 hours to Cleveland and Cleveland is only 3.5 hours away from Niagara Falls? My good buddy Justin (married to my friend Brandi and Dad to four lovely ladies....one of which babysat the boys for almost seven years) decided to take his family of six on a road trip to Cedar Point--an amusement park in Sandusky, OH. Well, this simple amusement park trip turned into a 6 day journey involving a drive to Louisville. We really are SO CLOSE to anything. We are a mere 9 hours away from NY, 8 hours to the nearest beach, 10 hours to Destin, FL, 6 hours to Atlanta and only 6 hours to Niagara Falls. How convenient for anyone who wants to stop by and visit. And I so DO LOVE visitors! If you get here, I will feed you till your stuffed, buy you a coffee at our amazing coffee place and give you a bed---all free of charge. How great is that?

We had a great visit with the Brenners! The boys ran around like banshees enjoying seeing the girlies again. I took the oldest four to the walking bridge and we had a nice walk across the states. I love walking from IN to KY in a matter of minutes. AND we got to sip on coffee! DeCaf for the crazy one, but the rest of us sipped on fully loaded coffee. It was wonderful. It was too short, but tis life!

This week we will be hosting another out of town guest. I'm pretty stoked. I am making a Mexican fiesta as he will only be here for a day, but one day is enough to visit and have a piece of your past come stay. I always think of Jodi Messina's song I'm Alright---Wichita BF and I went to see her in concert. (I'm dating myself....) But it is so true with life and friendships.

Bag Worms come from the Devil

 Having worked at a Christmas Tree Farm I know a thing or two about Conifer Trees and one of them is bag worms are the death of a tree. These little parasites, if left alone, can destroy a tree over time (depending on the stress of the weather and the amount of bag worms in a tree.) It is a tedious task to remove them because there are few home sprays that are given to the general public. (Upon further research I do believe Tempo should work and you can find it at Lowes/Home Depot.) Since I no longer have access to the chemicals at the farm, I had to remove these bad boys the hard way: by hand. I started picking them off and realized it was a lot of work to remove them. Single handedly that is....ohhhhh, boys.....

I swear yesterday they weren't even in my tree and now there were tons. I went to the KY Ag website and learned that these little guys come out in Late May/early June. Well folks, we are now late July/early August. I believe due to our cooler summer and the amount of rain we have these parasites don't realize they missed their month. I soon holler at the Jedi Knights to come help me remove these things. We picked about 100 off the tree and threw them in the trash. OH MAN. I so know better. Last night I was mowing the yard when I look over and there are even more in the tree. They are building their little homes at a rapid rate. I grab another 10 off the tree. I walk over to the trash can to add them in and OMG those little bad boys had crawled their way to the top of my trash can and some of them were even hanging onto the side. THAT WAS IT. This stuff grosses me out as is, but now those little things are trying to get out. AND bag worms have the ability to make strings--kinda like a spider--and attach or fly to the nearest tree. SO NOT COOL. I knew how to kill them. Truly kill them. I came into the house and yelled to the Jedis that I needed more help with the bag worms. They were sighing and "Ah Mom-ing" me and I said, but today we have to kill them....with FIRE. Yep, that did the trick. They were all about helping if it meant burning them. It truly is the only way to kill the bastards.

Give the Jedi Knights an unused FIRE PIT and LIGHTER FLUID and they were keen to help! Woo-Hoo. I kept picking off the little jerks and they kept lighting them on fire. It was a win-win. I think we killed 90% of what was in the tree. We may have S'More picking to do later tonight. Tee- Hee. And then we will have a fun, sweet treat afterwards. We are having some of Prince Charmings work companions over for a BBQ tonight and conveniently I am thinking S'Mores will be the dessert! 

The boys swear they heard them screaming in agony. Good. (I don't really think bag worms can squeal, but if they heard it and enjoyed the torture, more power to them! Sick kids.)