Haven't had much time to write lately. To make a long story short Slade had tubes put in his ears last week.....I'm sure you can figure out the why. He feels a lot better now.....for now anyway. The nasty bug he had draining from his ears after surgery infected me and I ended up on antibiotics, and I have two exams and two quizzes this week, and Slade is on like a million meds, drops, suctioning, etc. Blah Blah Blah.....I know it's a lot of complaining but it feels good to say it all. Anyway, we are getting along great....really.....just very busy lately. Hendrix is moving up to the 4 year old "pre-K" room at school a little early because they say he is "bored in his room" which probably means he is misbehaving. Never the less, he is moving to a room with a lot more structured time which is probably good for him. Here are a few pics of Slade right before his surgery, happy as usual even with a very bad earache and some hearing loss already(reversible I am sure). Actually the Dr. that ended up doing the surgery is the husband of one of my classmates and a good friend of mine so it worked out well.

Another trip to the zoo this weekend, fun as usual. It was great weather for the trip here......high of 82 and cloudy. Slade is 7 1/2 months and is now pulling up to stand. Here is a video.

Hello anyone who might take an occasional glance at our blog. This weekend we went to a wedding on Friday of a girl I am in Dental School with, then headed off Sat morning with another friend of mine from school and went camping to another Jellystone campsite, but this one was in Tennessee close to the Opryland Hotel. We swam, camped, and spent most of the day Sunday at the hotel and the mall next door. The hotel has something like 4 acres of enclosed gardens with a river, shops, and restaurants

On the home front, nothing really new, just school and work, juggling kids around and watching them grow like little weeds. Slade is crawling and pulling up a little. He has two teeth still. He is babbling.....sometimes I think he is saying "mama" but I'm not sure yet. Pics are on our blog.

This weekend we went camping to Jellystone Park and hung out with Yogi Bear and his friends. It was great and made us realize how much we miss camping a lot. We decided to go again on Labor Day weekend. It's a great way to run all the energy out of our little boys.....yes Slade had a blast too. Both boys slept great which I was a little worried about, but we just set up the pack n play in the tent and Hendrix has a new cars sleeping bag/air mattress combo that he was excited about. This particular campground has water and electric hook up at every site and we were close to the bathhouse so we really didn't "rough it" as much as usual but it's a great place because it has lots for kids to do like a duck pond for fishing, a clubhouse with games and cartoons, a pool and kiddy pool, a water slide, minni golf, and constant activities headed by the staff like arts and crafts and a light parade and a hay ride we did on Friday night with flashlights and yogi bear leading the way. The kids also start the day by raising the flag with yogi bear. The picture below is linked to our pics website. I am definitely not looking forward to starting school back but we gotta do what we gotta do right? Hope all is well!

Well, here are our new cars:................And here is why:

I came up over a hill on a local highway in our county where the speed limit is fifty five and a car seemed to be stopped in the middle of the road. All I know is I remember seeing the rear of the car a split second before we hit......going 55mph!!!(it registered as it is supposed to when the air bags are deployed). Needless to say it was a horrible wreck. I am lucky that I had a very good car that protected me perfectly from major harm but the passenger in the little piece of crap truck involved was hurt badly. He was elderly and he shattered his pelvis and broke some ribs, which is kind of weird as they were hit from behind and there was no damage to the cab at all, but he is very old and probably wasn't wearing his seatbelt. I found out later that the truck was going to turn on a road off this highway (yes they have a few little roads now off this highway to turn even though the speed limit is 55 and there are NO TURNING LANES. So, I learned a lot of lessons for sure, mainly that anything can happen at any time. I still don'tknow why the truck was at a complete stop, except that they were older gentlemen. Anyway, I am very glad that I am here to be writing this right now and thankful that the kids werent with me and no one was killed. We now have a civic hybrid that I will drive during the week to school and back since I drive an hour each way. We also have another pilot. I loved my first one, it has a five star crash rating as does the civic and it saved my life. I don't think we will have anything else but Hondas from here on out. The pilot is still mine but with gas prices so high my husband will get the leather heated seats and sunroof most of the time during the week. Yes, I am mourning my loss a little but we will save hundreds of dollars not driving the pilot 100miles per day. Well, hope all is well with everyone reading this.......and stay safe!!

mmmm.....good



We were supposed to have our first party since our new basement has been done AND we fixed the fence, BUT the first party was canceled before it even started. It began with Hendrix and 104 degree fevers, then Brandon started running the same fevers, now sure enough Slade has the same thing...a virus that swoops down and attacks each person for about 3 days. I just hope I don't get it because the way I figure it, it would hit at it's worst on Friday or Saturday, the day of my SISTER'S WEDDING!!! That CAN'T happen so I am washing my hands like crazy and trying not to breathe too much in my house...ha ha. Hendrix is still doing swim lessons and loves it, but not as much as he loves swimming with papa. He does what his teacher says at lessons but is much more daring on his own with papa and will hold his breathe under water much longer.







Where Hendrix practices his moves.



Our new clothes line.









Our new neighbors, mommy and baby bird in one of our trees.

So boards are over..........yah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I have a week off before starting in clinic with full days of patients. Hendrix and Slade are doing great. We are looking forward to having a few cookouts this summer now that we have the basement finished and our fence almost fixed. I can't wait to actually enjoy a little bit of summer before we add classes back into our schedule again in August. As stressful as seeing patients is, at least you can leave that at school at the end of the day......classes mean tests which means all day all night. Well here are some pics we took lately. I took the one of Slade sitting up at around 4 1/2 mos!