Saturday & Sunday

The last show of the dance recital was Saturday night. It was great. I think it was the best of the 4. And I say this with my daughter having performed in all 4 shows. :-) We had plenty of people there to watch her...Corey, Alex, GC (Kelly's mom), Ilene (Kelly's aunt), Gloria & Tom (Corey's parents), Jon & Jody (Corey's brother & his wife), and Maddy (Morgan's best friend). Morgan received flowers from everyone and loved it. After the recital we all went out for a late dinner at Applebee's.

Today we all slept in and then headed over to Tullahoma for one of our nephew's graduation party. He graduated from high school Friday night. We got to visit with everyone which was great. MIL & FIL are heading home tomorrow ... to snow! Yes, you read that correctly...May 31st and they got snow back home (NY). One of the girls called from NY to let them know.

Alex has been having severe pains in his legs for about a week. It wakes him in the middle of the night, makes it so he can hardly walk or move his legs at all (like to get up on the bed),etc. We've given him ibuprofen and applied heat to help. I've heard "growing pains" several times but I've always thought that was an old wives tale...something people pull out of thin air to explain unexplainable aches & pains. The pains for him are in his thighs, at the top, front & inside...but radiates towards his hips. He literally sobs because it hurts. :-( *IF* he is having a growth spurt it isn't anything like any he has had in the past 8 years. Normally Alex is a picky eater that eats very little at one time but during previous growth spurts he goes through several days of almost non-stop eating. Well, he is currently going through a period of almost non-eating. He will wake up at 7am and claim he is not hungry and won't eat anything until 2pm....and then not very much...will claim he is full after part of a sandwich or 5 chicken nuggets,etc. Then at dinner he will eat 1/2 of his normally small dinner and claim he is full. While talking with family last night we came up with a theory that maybe he is having a growth spurt but isn't eating enough to help it and thus is having the pains. So we stopped and got him some PediaSure. He drank one last night and one this morning. He was already having the pain last night (started during dinner) but fell asleep and slept until after 10am this morning....hasn't had pain today (so far). We shall see what happens in the middle of the night tonight. I am planning on calling his pediatrician tomorrow to schedule an appointment to get everything checked out.

Playing Catch-Up

Where has the time gone? Just flying by. I've been slacking on the blogging and posting of pictures. Sorry about that. I am playing catch up today. I uploaded a bunch of pictures to a photo page. You can click on the link on the right. Look for May 2009 pics and you will see pictures of the various things we've done during the month of May.

We are currently in the midst of Dance Recital week. :-) It started Tuesday with a special practice for the finale cast at the theatre. Then Wednesday was dress rehearsal. Morgan had 4 class dances plus the finale so it was several hours for that plus time in between. She and I stayed at the theatre for the day, packing a lunch, so that she could see the other dances. It was a long day but fun to see so many of the dances. This year she is in all 4 shows and has to stay backstage for all of it. She has started the move into the realm of "bigger girls"...not yet a "big girl" yet. ;-) I am staying backstage with her, not only to help her change but also volunteering to help keep an eye on all the dancers that must remain backstage this year. Thursday night was recital show #1 and it went very well. she had dances for tap, jazz, ballet & then the finale. They are providing a viewing room backstage for all the dancers (and moms) that have to remain backstage. Nice so we don't have to miss much. Tonight is recital show #2 and she just has dances for hip hop, ballet & finale. Tomorrow morning she has recital show #3 and will be dancing tap, jazz, ballet & finale again. Saturday night we have recital show #4, the biggie for us, when she has all 4 dances (hip hop, tap, jazz & ballet) plus finale. We have 10 family members coming to see her and we will be going out afterwards for a celebration dinner.

To top off our busy dance recital week, we will be attending a graduation party for one of our nephews. He is graduating tonight and is having his party on Sunday, so family members can attend Morgan's recital. SOOOO sweet when it all works out this well. My mother-in-law & father-in-law are down here visiting and they get to see the graduation, the recital and attend the party. Woo! :-)

By Monday we will be back to good ole business as usual around here. :-)

Bruster's

While posting about Alex's birthday party I wrote about the mishap with Bruster's and Alex's ice cream cake. On that day the girls working couldn't reach the manager and did their best to remedy the situation, which I will tell you we felt they did a very good job & we were happy. We did ask that they have the manager contact us because we wanted to let him/her know about the mishap that occurred so that could hopefully be prevented in the future AND to let him/her know how well the girls handled the whole thing. We really believe in offering kudos when they are deserved.

The manager contacted us the following day and was so apologetic. Then, we received an envelope in the mail Tuesday from Bruster's. Inside was this very nice letter from the manager along with a giftcard. We took the kids there for dessert last night.

I just have to say that my goal in wanting to talk to the manager was to make sure that a mistake like what happened to us didn't happen to someone else. What if we couldn't have gotten another cake that quickly? I would have had one devastated little boy on my hands. I am so thankful that we were able to find a solution that worked out great. The extra contact from the manager is a bonus. Showing us how they value their customers and take seriously their business.

So, if you are in our area...give Bruster's a visit. And even if you aren't in our area, they have numerous stores...so give them a try. You can search for a Bruster's near you.

CSA week 1

CSA week 1 bounty! Check out our first box. Just harvested, farm fresh produce. Nothing is better. I promise you! If you have access to a CSA, farmer's market or something similar then you must check it out. The taste of just picked fruits and vegetables is monumentally better than anything you can find in the grocery store. Even my little picky guy will eat more veggies since we've been getting them from the farm. The CSA we belong to is Avalon Acres . Just scroll down past the picture of our first box to see each delicious thing that was in our box. :-)

Strawberries...just the beginning. They smell & taste so sweet!

Buttercrunch Lettuce


Broccoli

Cauliflower

Radishes - 3 varieties

Cherry Belle (solid red), Easter Egg (purple) and Burpee Whites

Romaine Lettuce

French Breakfast Radishes

Loose Leaf Lettuce

Spinach

And last but not least, spring onions

We also receive a meat & eggs package and this week it included: 1 dozen eggs, 1 ground beef, 1 package of pork chops, 1 package of sugar-cured bacon, and 1 whole chicken.

Oh the deliciousness! Everyone has already eaten a strawberry out of the box and Morgan is preparing a nice big salad for lunch. We look forward to the next 26, well 25 now, weeks.

TN State Bowling Tournament

The TN State USBC Youth Bowling Tournament was held in Chattanooga, TN over the last two weekends in April. The kids teamed up with two friends in order to fully participate in all three events...teams, doubles, and singles. Our main goal is that the kids have fun, otherwise why are we doing this? They had fun and did their best. Can't ask for more than that. :-) Here are some pictures.

Team pic: Seth, David, Alex, and Morgan

Alex bowling

Morgan bowling

David bowling

Seth bowling (with a broken collarbone & muscle spasms!)

Alex came in 55th out of 83 boys in his division and Morgan came in 52nd out of 60 girls in her division. We are proud of them both.

We had a great time in Chattanooga and I'll be posting pictures from all the other stuff we did and saw while there for the weekend. :-)

Alex's 8th Birthday Party

Yesterday we had Alex's 8th birthday party. We invited family & friends for a big cookout and cake. We cooked up 4 pork roasts in 2 slow cookers for barbeque shredded pork, ground 3 beef chuck roasts for homemade burgers, and hot dogs...for sides we had potato salad, baked beans, pasta salad, and chips & dip. And then of course cake for dessert! Alex has been talking about having a Bruster's ice cream cake for months. We ordered it several days ago and Corey headed over to pick it up at 1pm....an hour before party time. He gets there and there is no cake made for us...it is on the cake sheet saying it should have been made but no cake there. So with much scrambling around & the help of friends we got a small ice cream cake from Bruster's (free...thank you sweet employee) and a regular cake from Publix.

My happy 8 year old boy! A good time was had at the party and he had 2 of his friends sleepover. They are currently playing chess but will be heading home in a little bit. Thanks to everyone that came to help make Alex's party a fun success!