Let's get Physical...

I can remember it like it was yesterday, I was about ten years old and my mom had sent me to go visit my oldest brother Jim in Maryland. It was my very FIRST flight & due to some family connections I was able to fly FIRST Class on Eastern Airlines. {Remember that airline?} You see my Dad's cousin Pete worked there & on the day of my flight we stopped in to see him. Somehow he finagled me a FIRST Class ticket. Don't know how but he did. I was excited just to be going on a trip let alone FIRST Class! This was back when they served you fancy food on REAL plates. Don't remember the food but I do remember that they did not seat anyone next to me! I was a talker even back then so no talking for an ENTIRE flight was just plain awful! When my brother arrived at the gate to pick me up I was literally speechless! LOL! My brother Jim is twelve years older than me so he had his own apt and a COOL job working at the Pentagon. I remember his stereo system the most. It was not normal tapes but something that looked like a movie reel. He had ALL kinds of albums for me to listen to but the one album that I really loved was Olivia Newton John. I listened to it OVER & OVER! By the time my trip was over I knew EVERY song by heart including the one I mentioned, "Let's get Physical". Boy am I dating myself!!


Fast forward to the other day when I had to bring Dustyn in for his fifteen year check up. He graduated from the eighth grade & next year it's High School! YIKES! So off to the Doctor we went! From the moment the nurse said "I have a few things I need to check you on for this physical" I just knew there would be a GREAT post in those words! Hehee! I immediately took out my camera & started taking some pictures! [=




Besides getting two vaccines he had his vision tested {FYI it was NOT as good as his Dad's}, his hearing tested & lastly his blood pressure. Let's just say that D was NOT happy to have me taking his picture! LOL! What? I write about the mundane yet funny things we do! And just like almost every other activity we do a song comes to mind when we do it! So the next time you have to take your kid in for a check up just remember me and sing...

Let's get Physical...

check out our brown eyed beauties...

While searching for a few pictures to add to my next blog post I found some OLD photos of D & Cam stored on our PC. I also found ones of him & the others but these were so darn cute I just had to share them! I could not believe that I had "misplaced" them inside our computer! I guess when you take as many pictures as I do you are bound to misplace a few! LOL! Our two brown eyed beauties! D may not like being called a beauty but he is one handsome boy! And beauty is in the eye of the beholder! If ever two children looked alike it would be the two of them! Boy did I start reminiscing when I found these pics! It amazes me at how much they both have grown over the past three years! WOW! Camryn has always been our biggest baby but even she has grown into herself & D, well he is now taller & bigger than me PLUS he wears a size 14 shoe! CRAZY! She is the only one that has the same olive complexion (she can tan in like 5 minutes!), the same brown hair & adorable brown eyes! There is NO way he can deny her as his sister! She is the female version of him! (=

Check out these MIA pics! (=









check out our brown eyed beauties...

Disney World!...

You know the ad where the team just wins the Super Bowl, they run up to the MVP & ask him "You just won the Super Bowl, What are you going to do next?", and they reply "Go to Disney World!". Well that is how I felt yesterday! I got to take the tribe for their very FIRST visit to Disney World on of all days MY birthday! I just want to give a shout out to whomever thought up the get in free to Disney on your birthday sales promo! What a great idea! I do not think I could ever get my hubby to take us ALL to Disney World any other way. I was psyched! We invited our niece to tag along so our tribe of seven expanded to eight! Once we got to the hotel, Disneys Pop Century, and I saw the decade signs out front I knew I needed to get a picture! Being that I was born in 1970 it was perfect! Look really close & you will see me in the bottom zero! There was just one glitch to our last minute plan, the weather! We had a cold front come through & the temp's were frigid! This Florida girl is not used to COLD weather & Mother Nature sure did provide us COLD weather! Once in Orlando we awoke to FOURTY NINE degree weather, YIKES! It was a bit nippy & even with all the preparations we could not keep the tribe or ourselves warm! It was BAD! We ended up returning to our hotel just to warm up! CRAZY! I know, there is a blizzard going on up North but remember this is Florida people!We are used to WARM weather! Once we warmed our tushes up we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. All the tribe kept talking about was seeing Mickey Mouse. I knew this would be short lived because like most children they usually talk a good game until thee moment & then they bawl. I was preparing myself for that exact thing! Oh to be in Disney World with my family on MY birthday! It was such a fun day even if my hubby was "Grumpy" himself. He does not do well in the patience dept. and when you have 5 kids plus one to get ready & out the door by a certain time he just could not do it! Patience is NOT his virtue! LOL! Lucky for us we had reenforcements already at the park! Our good friends Andy, Laurie, Travis, Carol, Norman & their families were there to help us wrangle our brood. THANK YOU GUYS! They are pros at all things Disney so we followed them. The BIG boys went to do BIG boy stuff while we ladies PLUS Daddy went to see little people stuff. We decided to hit "Toon Town" first to nip the whole Mickey & Minnie experience in the bud.After waiting about 45 minutes in a line that seemed to go on FOREVER we finally met the Mr & Mrs of all Disney! Brendan of course freaked out & wanted out of there! I think his seeing Mickey was fine if he was about 50 feet away but once he got up next to him he wanted NO part of him. Lindsey felt the same way but not as extreme as Mr B. Avery was okay with both of them. Not overly excited but not scared either. Camryn on the other hand LOVED Minnie! She did not want to leave & kept hugging her & giving her kisses. "Aunt Larry" said waiting in that 45 minute line was worth every minute after seeing her reaction! awhh... After that experience I realized just how difficult it was going to be to take our family of 7 anywhere! Some of them are going to be "easy" and some are going to be "difficult". I am just going to have to figure out how to meet them halfway. Trying to get pictures was even harder! I ended up doing Disney's photo pass. What a great idea! Even if it will cost us an arm & a leg to get copies made at least we can say we went to...

Disney World!...

13

Today is our son Dustyn's birthday, his 13th birthday in fact! He is now a TEENAGER!! YIKES! I cannot believe it! It seems like yesterday when he was just 5 years old and I just started dating his Dad. He was a peanut then & now he is SO tall! Pretty soon he will be towering over me. I can wait for that! (= 8 years and 4 babies later he is a teenager! WOW! We have gone through SO many things together. Michael & I have been room parents in many of his classes, volunteered at his school, Summit Christian, even chaperoned some school field trips. I miss that! Now I get to savor his school memories from afar. Dustyn is one SMART cookie. He excells in Math, go figure! He is sensitive & inquisitive, he is alway's learning. Most of all he is a WONDERFUL big brother. The babies absolutely ADORE him! He loves them too! I think having these babies helped him grow as a person. He was the only child for so long. He's adjusted very well to having to share us with them. What can I say? He is one great kid! There is so much I could say about Dustyn. He LOVES cars, knows everything there is to know about them. Especially the high end ones. Knows how much they cost & how fast they go. I do not have the first clue about that kind of stuff. Where we live we have quite a bit of property & he loves to take his air soft gun out to shoot various things. He mostly shoots lizards to feed his dragon, yes we have a pet dragon. After we found some eggs under it he became a "she" & was named Puff. Puff the magic dragon she became, LOL! We have had many "boy" pets. MANY snakes, spiders, iguanas, a fish & even a dog. For now it is just a pet dragon. He is quite the well rounded child and keeps us busy. I need to remind myself that he is just...


13

bats, baseballs & just being boys...

Today Uncle Bob took Dustyn & Brendan to a Marlins game. The Marlins played the Phillies at 4:05pm. It was the last baseball game of the regular season. The best time to take a 20 month old who still takes naps. Dustyn has been quite lucky to be invited to a few games but this was Brendan's FIRST invite to a Marlins game & hopefully not his last! We prepared the night before to make sure we had EVERYTHING. It was so strange planning what to bring for ONE kid. I set out the CUTEST outfit for him to wear. Had to make sure that he had plenty of sunscreen on before & during the game. Sippies with PLENTY for him to drink & of course a "manly" diaper bag with all the necessities. I packed him a toy doodle pad. I had wanted to pack some grapes, that never happened. Daddy decided on the snacks & packed some pretzels since they were going to feed him "JUNK" ie: pizza, hotdogs, popcorn, etc. once down at the game. Today was a special day so we allowed it. Having just the 3 girls home alone without him that is going to be weird. We do everything in pairs so when one of the 4 is missing things go awry. A few times Daddy asked them where Brendan was & Camryn got a concerned look on her face when she could not find him. This happened quite a few times. We wanted to see how they would react and what they would do once he finally came home. They got to stay up later tonight to wait for the boys to get home. Once Brendan arrived they each loved on him and squealed when they saw him. That reaction reassured us that we will continue with activities like this. Once home they shared what a BUSY afternoon Brendan had watching the game, eating, seeing the Mermaids, running the bases & meeting Billy the Marlin. Now we are going to have to think of a good activity we can take just the girls to. Anyone have any GOOD ideas?? Because we need to make it fair. What can we "Mom's" do with our little girls that can be just as fun? (Pictures of their "boy's day out" will be posted as soon as I get them!) Brendan is such a sweet little boy. He stays pretty content most of the time. I just wish that I could have been there to see him watch his first baseball game. To see him watch them swing their bats & hit those balls. There was a home run but it was a Phillie that hit it. Such our luck! It was a boy's afternoon, a great oppurtunity for him to get in some male bonding time with his Uncle & BIG brother. Maybe they can make this a new activity to do on the last game of each season. Uncle Bob bought him another cute toddler baseball cap. He is starting a collection. Of course he has an FSU cap just for Daddy's team! After all was said & done The Marlins ended up losing to the Phillies by 3 runs. Darn! After the game they let the kids run the bases so Brendan had his chance! Dustyn, Uncle Bob & he ran from 1st base to home plate where "Billy the Marlin" greeted them. From what I was told Brendan was a little afraid of the large fish. If I was just under 3 feet tall I'd be afraid of the 7 foot giant too! (= I guess we will have to re introduce them later! Today was just their day for...

bats, baseballs & just being boys....