Port Aransas 2009

We made it back in one piece!!! Port Aransas was awesome! We went with 3 other families and really had a blast! There were 7 children under 5 (well one just turned 5) and we only had one choking incident and a couple near miss drownings in the pool. All in all, I'd say it went pretty smooth!

The house we rented was fabulous! 3 bed, 3 bath, private pool and hot tub, full kitchen, etc. We only went to the beach once (I know!!!) but having that private pool made it so much easier and with 7 kids to tend to, you want easy!!! Port Aransas is a quaint little fishing town with beautiful beaches! I would highly recommend going there!

John had a blast as usual! He's not real hard to please...just loves getting to play!!! The hard part was trying to get him to rest and take a nap. He didn't want to miss anything!!!

As for us, Tim and I were just excited to have a nice get away with great friends!! Hopefully we can make this an annual trip!!

Here are a couple of pictures from our National Lampoon's adventure.....

Father's Day fun

Father's Day weekend was busy, but it seems like lately all of our weekends are busy!

I orginially intended to use this weekend to prepare for our upcoming trip to Port Aransas but that didn't happen.

Saturday we went to 2 birthday parties. The first one was at 11:45 and was a gymnastics party (what a great idea, by the way). It was a blast! I think the adults had more fun than the kids! This place was an acutal gymnastics training center so they had the sunken trampolines, vaults, balance beams, bars, etc. I couldn't remember the last time I jumped on a trampoline so I HAD to do it! And you better believe Tim was out there....he was flipping on the trampolines and made a valiant effort to pull himself up on the rings. I don't know how those gymnasts do it!

After that party, we hurried home hoping to get in a quick nap before the next party at 4:00. All three of us had no problem falling asleep. It was one of the best naps I've had in a long time, guess it stems from all the gymnastics we were doing that morning!

Next party was a swimming party! Yeah! A nice cool pool in 100 degree weather....perfect! John always enjoys the water! The party was from 4 - 6 and we left at 7:30 or so! John was really enjoying himself!

Sunday we got up and I made pancakes for breakfast. Then we had to get ready to head to Bentwater for more swimming..... but this time with Grandma, Poppy, Aunt Stephy, Uncle Scott, Isabella and Alexandra. MAN was it hot, but alot of fun!!! We topped off the weekend with dinner and ice cream!!!!

Possums really DO "play possum"

Last night around 2 am, I learned that possums really do play possum!!!

Just a side note, we live on 10 acres, with a natural spring fed pond in our back yard. The pond is inhabitated with beavers. We've seen snakes, deer, coyotes, you name it...we're not strangers to wildlife.

Back to the story...I let our dogs out in the backyard before I went to bed not realizing the back gate was open. So, 1:30ish I'm awoken to John crying. I got him situated again and went back downstairs to let the pups in. I opened the door to the back porch....no dogs. I proceed to the side door, off the kitchen which opens to the deck. I barely got the door open and here comes Wrangler barreling at me with something in his mouth (it's bitch black and all I see are shapes). He makes in the door and thud....a very LARGE furry animal. At this point, I had no idea what it was but I couldn't get to the lightswitch fast enough.

Lightswitch on...OH MY GOD (that's exactly what I said but just a few octaves higher)! It was the largest possum I have ever seen! It looked freshly mauled and we assumed it was dead. I ran into our room to get Tim. Tim scrambles into the garage to get something to move the possum back outside. So he pushes it out with a broom and says he'll move it with a shovel in the morning and walks away. I'm thinking, great we're gonna have this possum carcus hanging out on the deck which will attrach other varmits but he wasn't gonna mess with then so I didn't push it. Well as soon as he walked away, I looked down and the possum's body starts moving. Tim just thought it was probably just it's dying muscle contractions. I shut the door and attempted to go back to bed but couldn't help wonder if that possum was alive.

My alarm went off at 5:30 this morning and the first thing I did was go and check on it....sure enough, the possum was GONE!!!! He was totally playing possum on us! I mean we're actually lucky, b/c possums are mean and carry all kinds of diseases so I'm glad he was playing possum!

It was quite an experience!

John's "grill" - UPDATE

Update - I just got back from John's
1st dentist appointment and it went SOOOO well! He did great! He let them clean, polish and even use the flouride! I am still in shock but very proud of him!

As for the "dark" front tooth, the Dr. confirmed that
he definitely damaged the tooth but said to just watch it. If it gets any darker
or starts to hurt, we'll have to go to a pediatric dentist and have a cap put
on. LUCKILY...they do offer white caps vs the silver! THANK
GOD!

Tomorrow is a big day in the Spengel household. John is having his first dental visit! Now, there are many opinions as to when is the appropriate age to visit the dentist for the first time. Some "people" suggest taking them as early at 1 1/2 and others suggest waiting until they're a little older.

I chose to wait simply b/c I know my child and I know he's gonna lose his mind as soon as we walk in!

So I made the appointment thinking that the visit would be just like when I go in for a cleaning. NOT SO...the nurse right off the bat, told me that we'd maybe be there for 30 minutes. Apparently, this is just a "get to know the instruments/teach how to brush" appointment. The Dr. will attempt to do a cleaning but if the child puts up any resistance, he stops. Which makes perfect sense! Whew...what a relief to know that I don't have to restrain or gas him!

Other than the regular check-up, I made the appointment because it looks like one of John's front top, big teeth is about to fall out.

Let me explain....he was clowning around in my bathroom about a month ago. He fell and hit his mouth on the travertine floor...there was blood but it looked like it was only coming from his lip. Well now I think it may have been coming from that tooth too, b/c the whole tooth is turning gray. Like smoky gray! CRAP! It just started turning about 2 weeks ago and it's progressively gotten worse.

The good news is, it's a baby tooth. The bad news is, if he loses it, I think he may have to get one of those silver cap teeth. Great, my kid's gonna have "grill" at three!

Rantin' and shoppin'

I have to rant a little....in 3 weeks we will be heading to Port Aransas w/ some other families and then in July we're heading to Mexico (swine flu be damned!!!) So of course, I need a new swimsuit. I absolutely dread swimsuit shopping but it is a necessary evil. At lunch I ventured over to Dillards to attempt to find something fitting for a young mom but yet not too grannified. I walked over to the swimsuit section and I'm immediately completely intimated by all the "Junior" suits that are right up front, staring at me. Seriously, we're talking strings and not even a yard of fabric! Come on now! I just can't seem to understand why designers don't make suits for people with curves that aren't butt ugly. I mean really, I'm not fat but I do have hips and a butt that need some coverage. Those little bitty string things are for little girls who shouldn't be wearing little bitty string things.

Breathe.....I could feel the anxiety building so I just took a deep breath and proceeded to the "Misses" suits. I pulled every suit that I thought could possibly make me look decent and headed to the dressing room. My arm is still shaking from holding all of them. I probably tried on 20-25 suits. One pieces, bikinis, tankinis, shapers, lifters, sucker-inners..you name it! As with every year, it was quite a depressing experience but I was successful and found a suit that didn't make me look horrible.

Here's a picture of the suit...what do ya think?!?

Happy Birthday Timmy!

June 2nd was my wonderful hubby's 33rd birthday. We celebrated last Saturday night with dinner at Crabby Daddy's, which was really really good by the way! So last night we just did dinner at home. I sat at work pondering what to cook all morning and then it hit me...lobster tail! I wanted his actual birthDAY dinner to be special so that's why I went with lobster.

I ran over to HEB at lunch and I hit the jackpot...they had lobster tail on sale. 7 ouncers too! So I got a couple tails, some pre-mixed salad, wine, and french bread. As soon as I got back in the office I realized I didn't have a cake. I had planned on making him a cake but let's get real... I hate to bake and I'm not real good at it . So again, the light went off over my head and I gave Cheesecake Factory a call! I ordered Crazy Craig's Carrot Cake Cheesecake. I don't eat this stuff but it sounded yummy and Tim loves carrot cake! I think he enjoyed his birthday dinner and cake!!

Steamed lobster tail....yummy!