the other night we sent him to get his pj's on.....

when he didn't come back downstairs and we didn't hear anything upstairs...we saw this..him sound asleep on his bedroom floor, wrapped in his blankets...
with his "mantra" tee shirt and jeans still on from that day....
sound asleep...







and......






with the hands of a typical 8 year old boy...dirty palms...filthy fingernails.... and numerous cuts and scrapes...ugh. 

debut.....

don as an ayso soccer coach...
and austen in his first full field ayso soccer game. they did very well, both of them. don actually looked {and sounded} like he knew what he was doing on the sideline....
and austen scored a goal in their 3-0 win.
mom of course, took 300 pictures as the team photog. too bad i can only post 4 at a time on this blog. scarlett was there with us and despite some cold wind, it was really fun. next game is tomorrow morning at 11:00am so it will be a big rush to go to church, grocery shopping and try to make the game by then. 

this morning......

me: "austen, finish your breakfast, you left almost a full bowl of cereal"

austen: "my tank is full"

i think we have to cut back on the spongebob watchin!

thomas is alive and well in our house.....

we thought that austen outgrew his thomas the tank engine trains many moons ago. we had them packed up in the basement for years and austen found them down there a couple of years ago. up they went to his bedroom where they were played with sporadically since then.


in the last couple of weeks however, the trains have occupied a large portion of our great room. we haven't even put them away for the last week, we just step over the tracks and trains. he usually gets a couple of minutes of playing time in before leaving for the bus or before going to bed. scarlett even likes playing with them.
i actually love seeing him play with these trains. it brings back memories of when he was two and lived and breathed his thomas and friends collection. we had {and probably still have} all of the thomas videos and dozens of the trains. papa made him a train table to set up a track on and it was permanently situated in our
living room at our old house. you never saw austen without a train or two in his hands and he is holding his train engine in his two year old professional pictures because he cried when i tried to take them away for the picture. it was easier to let him hold it. there were always trains in his crib because he had to take them to bed with him at night and naptime. he was obsessed and we were obsessed {okay, i was} about adding to his stash of engines and cars. we even went to ohio for a weekend to see "a day out with thomas" , a full sized thomas engine that we were able to take a ride on, and meet sir toppem hat, even though it poured rain the entire weekend. he was little enough to not know where we were going and it was a complete surprise to him to see that thomas engine puffing around the corner. what a happy little boy he was that day. it is a good memory...a happy memory...its good to see these trains again...

we love that he loves her...

how could he not? is she not beautiful? she is charming and stubborn, loving and defiant and giggly and weepy. ...and he loves her. he hugs her, he holds her hand, feeds her, plays with her and defends her.


he loves her.... 

"she's got a frog"...

....is what scarlett said when she saw these pictures of herself with the frog she and allison found down by the pond.
she wasn't afraid to hold the slimy, wiggly thing and was very gentle with it.
"look at my frog, nonna", she said to me.
....and even gave it a kiss. then her and allison took it back down to the pond and threw it back in so it could be with its mamma. 

i'm going to have to try these.....

they sound delish. i hijacked this recipe from another blog.


Rachael Ray's Halibut Fish Tacos with Guacamole Sauce


4 pieces fresh halibut, steak or filets, 6 to 8 ounces each (I used Tilapia)

Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Salt and pepper

1 lime, juiced

3 small to medium ripe Haas avocados, pitted and scooped from skins with a large spoon

1 lemon, juiced

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, eyeball it

1 cup plain yogurt

1 teaspoon coarse salt, eyeball it

2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle

1 heart Romaine lettuce (I used shredded cabbage, already in a bag)

12 soft (6-inch) flour tortillas (I used corn tortillas that I softened on a non-stick skillet for 10 seconds)

Preheat a grill pan or indoor grill to high heat or, prepare outdoor grill. Drizzle halibut with extra-virgin olive oil to keep fish from sticking to the grill pan or grill. Season fish with salt and pepper, to your taste. Roll lime on the counter top to get juices flowing. Grill fish 4 to 5 minutes on each side or until opaque. Squeeze the juice of 1 lime down over the fish and remove from the grill pan or grill. Flake fish into large chunks with a fork. (this is why it's ok if it falls apart!)While fish is cooking, in a blender or food processor, combine avocado flesh, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, yogurt and salt. Process guacamole sauce until smooth. Remove guacamole sauce to a bowl and stir in diced tomatoes and chopped scallions. Shred lettuce and reserve. To assemble, break up fish and pile some of the meat into soft shells and slather with guacamole sauce. Top with shredded lettuce, fold tacos over and eat!

tulips make me happy....

i love them. they make me feel like spring is finally coming after a long, dark, cold and gray michigan winter. i vow to buy a bouquet of flowers every week at the grocery store. flowers just make life brighter.

he is.....

clear. the colonoscopy today showed no growths. we are estatic. he is beyond relieved. dr. said that he now just has to wait for the genetic blood testing to come back to find out if don has a gene predisposing him for this cancer. if he does, it means that he will have to have a colonoscopy once a year probably for the rest of his life, {small price to pay} and that austen will need to be tested to see if he carries that gene also. if he does, he will need to have colonoscopies starting at age 25. all of don's siblings and first cousins will also have to be tested for this. now hopefully don can live his life without worry. he will have to be tested periodically with ct scans and ca blood levels (which can indicated cancer if elevated). we are so happy.

this man.....

is my world. i love him. i would give my life for him. today is the night before his repeat colonoscopy...just one year ago he found out he had colon cancer. it changed our lives, shook us to the depth of our being, knocked us for a loop. who would have thought that this could happen to a 46 year old who was athletic, exercised and ate (kinda) good. in december of 2004 he had an appendix attack. while removing it, the doctor found a lump at the base of his cecum (where the colon meets the appendix) but thought it was swelling or infection. he told him to have a colonoscopy after 3 months..so we did. we were stunned. his colorectal surgeon told us there was a 95% chance that it was cancer and scheduled him for surgery the following monday. don was holding out for the 5%...i told him they don't schedule surgery that soon unless they know. they knew. he was lucky though. his was stage II which meant that it just barely penetrated the colon wall {with 35 clean lymphnodes} but penetrated enough that they wanted him to do 6 months of chemotherapy :( it was a very tough summer. don was sick, out of work and depressed. i on the other hand looked at this whole thing as a huge blessing. had the appendix not gotten infected, they would have never found the tumor, which they thought caused the appendix to become inflamed. he wasn't due for his screening colonoscopy for another 4 years. he had no prior symptoms, he would have never known. he considers it a curse, i consider him extremely lucky and i remind him to count his blessings often. even though the chemo has been done for some months now, every little change in bowel habit or stomach pang causes him major anxiety. like this week leading up to his colonoscopy tomorrow morning. he just can't shake the feeling that something is going to be wrong, that they are going to find something. i have told him that this is the very best possible time to have this colonoscopy because he is so fresh from chemotherapy. nothing has had time to grow. i have no doubt that he will be clean as a whistle. now i just wait for tomorrow morning so he can be relieved as well and i won't have to see him scared, depressed and unable to function from the fear of the unknown. please pray for him.

i cant wait....

allison is coming tomorrow for a few days. we always love when she comes over. i plan on getting some pictures of her, a little mini photo shoot. girls love that stuff.

baseball, that all american tradition...

don and austen had a chance to go to the tiger game with curtis clarke and the boys. don was so excited because he thought they were going to have to sit in the nosebleeds and pay 20.00 for the tickets. he called me at work and said

"guess where i am right now, in the suite over home plate".

curtis was able to get the suite from his work company and it was located over the dugout. best of all....it was all FREE. free parking...free tickets...free food. thanks so much curtis!! they also got to see tiger great gates brown and austen got his autograph. i actually got gates brown's autograph back when i was in high school. i think he came to the school for a celebrity basketball game. i'll have to go through my OLD stuff and see if i still have it. this was austen's first baseball game and he had so much fun. austen isn't feeling too good tonight though, slight fever and cough. i guess i'm going to have to take him to work with me tomorrow and have him seen. gave him some cough medicine and tylenol. hopefully he will have a restful night because if he does, i do.

bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles...

easter bubble fun and easter egg hunt. look at my handsome little man with his tie on, {didn't stay on long though} i'll post more pics of scarlett when I figure this thing out a little better

easter today was church in the morning and then brunch at shannon's house. we had a great meal, shannon's first easter brunch. austen and scarlett had an easter egg hunt later in the day. see pics in next post (until i figure this stupid *&$%$&(*)^% add photo to post thing)

boundless energy, constantly, perpetually...

love this boy!