#byebyesumma

 

I haven't had that feeling of sadness when it's "back to school" time. Summer is fun, but summer is rough. Trying to entertain these kids without much of a break is exhausting. My feelings may change when they go to school full time or leave for college, but for now I get a huge sense of relief when fall rolls around... except for my nausea I still get from being pregnant the last 3 of 5 falls. So random, I know. Joey is in pre-k and goes 4 mornings a week, Ray is in the old 3's and goes 3 mornings a week, and they all go to PDO (parent's day out) till 2 on Thursday. This was the first week Louisa didn't scream her head off the entire time at PDO! Instead of being the "weepy" girl, she was the "happy" and "active" girl. Their report cards crack me up!! Wahoo!!

 

I think I hit about 25/30 things on my summer bucket list. Once again, I never made it down to Mallow Winery, we didn't go strawberry pickin' and didn't catch a concert at Craig Park. Next year we will.

We wrapped the summer up by going to the in-law's condo on Lake Michigan. It was gorgeous and perfect, and the kids love every second up there. We did (extended) Matis family pics for the first time and the weather cooperated, which was amazing for a hot summer beach day.

 

 

 

 

Below is Joey's first day of school pic.

 I know, Louisa is sooooo cute... I hear it all day long... DO NOT LET HER FOOL YOU!!!!

She is so much crazier than the boys combined. She is at the rotten, terrible age where she can turn the house upside down in minutes, she wants her Daddy and nobody else all day, and as far as she's concerned I'm just "the help."

 

She has been a lot of fun to see how different girls are than boys at such a young age. She is very interested in lipstick, blush, painting her nails, babies, holding a purse, wearing sparkles, and brushing her hair, which is so interesting because the boys never got into those things. Lou Lou is a tough one though. She wants to be in the mix with the boys and won't even flinch after a big fall (unlike LJ who we are currently working on toughening up).

Ray is lllloooooooving school! He has been using his PBK's lunch box all summer as his briefcase, so once we got through to him that we needed to use it for food and take all of his junk out, he's been much better. The little guy will be on hoarders one day. As soon as he finds anything he wants (even if it's a strange piece of trash mail), he runs up to his room and stuffs it in his drawers. So instead of enjoying my time when the kids are at school, I rummage through his stuff trying to trash all of his junk, and if I'm lucky I may get a shower too.

Joey still tends to get sick a little more than the others. I remember when I used to get sick as a kid I would bring a sleeping bag to my dad's office and sleep under his desk all day. Last week when Joey was sick and I had to work, he dressed up and went to Dad's office all day, which he looooved!

Joey's Godmother, Tiffy, came in from LA and made a visit. We don't get to see her that often, but we light up when we do!

Last weekend we were able to go to my Uncle Joe's lake house on Sweetwater Lake. This is the same uncle I work for one day/week. He just bought a new place, and it was wonderful! The boys loved the lake, and especially loved hangin' with the cousins. I didn't realize they had never seen anyone tube before, so when Joey stepped on the backporch, he flipped out yelling "MOOOOOM, look at that boat pulling those people. They must have fallen off!"

Joey also set the record for youngest kid to jump off the high dive. He wouldn't tube, but loved the high dive. So strange.

 

This pic slipped into the mix. Our friends, the Kriner family, host the best summer pool party. I think there were 20 adults and 60 kids. I'm not kidding.

Below is some of the Meek cousins.... Garrett, Bryson and Ella (missing Kaden).

There's good'ol Uncle Joe with Lou. We were able to go to the IU vs. Navy football game last night with them also. The boys did fantastic for a 6pm game, and Joey slept with his IU football.
Melts my heart when they are inspired so easily.

 Things are a'changin' around here. We joined a new church and we love it! Big Joey and I are able to go to the gym for our Bodypump class every week and we love it! Ray's been going to food therapy and he loves it!

 

Looking forward to crazy October!! 2 out of state weddings, 1 in state wedding, 4 family birthdays and a trip down south!

Oh, Myrtle Beach...

I thought it was a great idea to take a summer family vacation. (Notice how I said "I thought.")

After driving to Fort Myers in March, I feel like I can drive anywhere with these kids. I have even applied for all of us to have passports, like we would actually take the kids to another country soon. Well......

after checking out numerous condos, beach houses and resorts, we decided it would be more fun to be at a resort where the kids can play with other kids and Joey and I could get a few drinks at the poolside bar. We stumbled across a resort called Long Bay Resort where they had about 20 water attractions, a beach, a Starbucks, a tiki bar and an available 3 bedroom condo for us. Perfect!! So I thought.

 

We left at 8pm in the evening and drove all night. I did not anticipate how scared I was going to be driving through the Smokey Mountains in the middle of the night. Those hours were supposed to be when I was getting some shut eye, however, I slept with one eye open. We rolled up to Myrtle beach at about 8am and that's when Big Joey told me that we couldn't check in till 3pm (he still will argue with me that wasn't the case). We decided we would swim all day sans nap and make the best of it. I wasn't getting a good feeling about the resort once I saw the first baby pool. I went to the bathroom and after seeing what that looked like I decided we couldn't stay there for the week. It was disgusting!!! After talking to Joey we threw the kids back in the car and started driving up and down the strip calling every hotel that looked descent. NO VACANCIES ANYWHERE!!!! The boys were so upset they weren't at the resort swimming, so I googled a few places for Joey and Lou to look at while I took the boys putt putting... twice. Wait.... as I was googling resorts, I noticed all of the freaking resorts had the same exact happy family and exact same pictures of the water attractions. This couldn't be real. It was a nightmare. I was in the twilight zone.

 

Well we had to find a place to stay. A few hours later Joey picked us up from the creepiest putt putting place to let me know we had a hotel room with ONE ROOM!!! BAHAHA! He had to be kidding. I have never slept with any of my kids, my kids have never slept in the same room, and we have so much crap that would definitely not fit into a one room hotel room. It seemed like our only option other than driving to another city and the kids were having nervous breakdowns because we weren't swimming yet... and it was 100 degrees. Luckily we got a full refund on our first POS room, otherwise I may go "West Virginia back country" on someone.

 

Kids were pumped. We got to the resort and there were several slides, lazy rivers, pool,  kiddie attractions, a beach and more kiddos to play with... and Mama had a drink in her hand. We were going to be fine. It was only noon though, so we had to change in our car where there was zero room and sunscreened up in the parking lot. There is something so very special about Myrtle Beach that made me feel comfortable about having nude kids in the parking lot and a Mama in a bathing suit with Toms.

 

5 kiddie pools, ok. One was closed off already from a kid dropping a deuce in it. I'm trying to teach Ray that today and today only he could pee in the pool. He didn't quite approve of this and couldn't really grasp why I couldn't take him to the bathroom. It was a good 10 minute walk to the bathroom and you needed your room key to get through several doors to get there and we still didn't have ours. So, today and today only he could pee in the pool. BUT he decided to poop!!! And he was so proud that he came running through people to tell me. Awesome, and disgusting. Oh, but wait. It wasn't but 10 minutes later that Louisa decided to mark her territory too.... in a different pool. Now, only two pools clean. Thankfully I have the best husband in the entire world and he took both kids back to the car to clean them up in the 100 degree heat. Ughhh..... disgusting!!

 

 

 

We get our hotel room. Ahhhh, finally. By 7:00, Joey and I are losing it. It had been 36 hours since we had slept and we were all going to sleep in the same room. Lou was going bazirk... sleeping in the car the night before and no nap the next day made her a wee bit off of her normal routine. We decided to set up the pack n play in the bathroom and put her to bed asap. But wait.... where would we pee?? Oh have no worries, the super laid-back, not tired, not pulling her hair out, not drunk Mama made us all pee in a pot for the rest of the evening. Bahhaha!!! Whatever it takes. Trust me, one day you either were there or you will be there.

God was definitely looking out for our marriage though. We all slept great, ate a great breakfast and found out we were going to have a 3 bedroom condo in the resort in a few short hours.

The rest of the week was fun. The boys loved sharing a room for the first time, and loved watching the waves every morning and every evening.

Although it rained at least once a day and the resort wasn't  ideal, the beverages were nice and the company was perfect.

 

I beg to go on vacations just the 5 of us. As hard as it is, it totally recharges my battery and brings us closer. There won't be a day in the future I turn down a vacation. Thank God I have those passports.

The Best Week

Last week I turned 29 and it was spectacular!

 My dad's best friend was over at my parents detailing his 1968 Merecedes on my birthday. So of course, I took a pic inside of it, posted it to facebook and I got the best reaction of all time from some fb friends. Isn't she a beaut??

I took the kiddos to The Flying Cupcake for my birthday. This is one of my favorite traditions. We love to sit on Mass Ave and watch the cars go by and we get as messy as possible.

 This was Lou's first big girl trip to "the cupcake shop." She is choosing to attempt to fit in with the boys more and more. At 15 months though, she prefers no shoes and crawling still. She's taken quite a few steps at home though. LJ didn't walk until 20 months, so I'm not too concerned.

We finally bought Joey a lizard for his birthday. The kids are in love with Green Tail. Me, however, not so much. Did you know that lizards eat 3-6 crickets/day? You only can buy about a 6 day supply of crickets at a time AND YOU HAVE TO BUY CRICKET FOOD!!! To top it all off, the crickets have yet to survive for more than 3 days at a time. I can't even begin to describe how much fun it has been taking all 3 kids back to the pet shop every 3 days with dogs all over the place (Little Joey is severely allergic to dogs). I don't think I had any idea what we were getting myself into.

 

We try to have a lemonade stand every week. The kids make about $15-20/stand. It's amazing. We've learned how to roll money and deposit it into the bank. I know exactly where he gets this from too.... me!! I opened my first bank account when I was 8 with  $1000 after I had my first garage sale. Yep, I'm patting myself on the back.

With some of Joey's money from lemonade stand we bought a butterfly net. We sent off for caterpillers and watched them develop. It was pretty amazing, especially since we propped the net right on the dinner table, which kept them seated for quite a bit longer.

We did swim lessons for the last 2 weeks. It was such a great deal at Perry Meridian High School. It was only $45/kid for an hour lesson for 10 days. Deal of the summer, baby!! The boys bawled their eyes out the entire first lesson like I just left them at an orphanage. After that day, they loved it. So strange.

Our mornings are filled with watching our lizard. We feed him and talk to him. I think Louisa loves him the most. I think it's a matter of days before he escapes.

Our summer days are filled up with dressing like Spiderman every morning (walking around the neighborhood and freaking people out) and trying to find a pool every afternoon (thank God for tea tree oil for their dry, crispy, chlorinated hair). We were able to go to Holiday World yesterday and plan on going to Myrtle Beach next week. These 3 little boogers have begun to be my best friends. I love our inside jokes and giggles throughout the day. My days are so long and so hard, but when I do find some quiet time I love looking into our ginourmous back yard and thinking about how lucky I am. Cheers to my last year in my 20's.

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the entire world!! He gives and gives and gives his time and energy, and I don't understand how he is never in a bad mood. He amazes me and I thank God every day that I landed such a perfect man!

This is one of Louisa's Godmama's Katie. I think Lou finally got over her "I'm glued to Mama all day long" phase. She is starting to go to anyone and can kill ya in a good game of Peek-a-boo.

What, he's 5?

 

Like that, he's 5. Like THAT, HE'S FIVE!!!!

 

It's so hard to believe!

 

We had a super cool Spiderman birthday party last week, and the REAL Spiderman came!!!

Joey's Godfather came too!

Uncle Dog made Joey his very own lemonade stand.

And we now have Spiderman on everything we own.

 

 

We took all of our allergy meds and took our first horse back riding lesson on his birthday.

I grew up riding horses near by and wished so badly my kids would too, but it's not looking good with these crazy allergies.

We have had a challenging month, but a special month. I did want to journal quickly about Joey's terrible anaphlactic reaction to Septra, a sulfa drug. OH EM GEE! Pcitures to follow. Uh, scary.

The kiddos are getting easier in some aspects, but a lot harder in others. Finding ways of entertaining them is getting more expensive and harder to do on days when I'm with them alone. School is out for the summer, and our neighborhood pool is open. That is probably where you will find us on a daily basis.

 

Lou is getting sassier and trying her best to fit in with the boys... sometimes.

 

Who does she look like?