Whale Watching

One of the highlights of our trip to Boston was a whale watching cruise. We managed to book our trip with several other American Family friends, so it made for a really great day. Our family had been on another whale watching cruise when we went to Bar Harbor, Maine six years ago. It was an incredible experience, so we knew we wanted to do it again when offered the chance. When we went in Maine, there were only about fifty people on board the boat, and it was FREEZING out on the water. This time about two hundred fifty people were on board, and thankfully, it wasn't as cold. The big crowd made it a little harder to view the whales than our previous trip, but still, it was an amazing thing to see.

~Heading away from Boston~

We were delighted to have such a great "show" by two humpback whales. We only saw two during our three hour trip, but our boat stayed right with them the entire time.

~ Up close and personal~

The most amazing part of the cruise took place during the last twenty minutes we were out at sea. This funny girl, Ursa, would stick her tail out of the water and slap it down, making enormous splashes. She repeated this over and over. She would also roll over onto her back and stick her pectoral fins out of the water. The "show" she gave was far better than anything we've ever seen at Sea World.

11 Years Goes By Way Too Fast

June 28, 1999

One of the four most beautiful babies I have ever seen

Summer 2010

Ross is a lover of all things Yankee/Gator/Cardinal.

He is a lover of baseball/soccer/wrestling/basketball.

He is an outdoorsman as well as an avid reader.

He is quick to laugh and quick to feel compassion for others' burdens.

He is a good friend and a great big brother.

He is a wonderful son.

We love you, Ross!

A Prank 11 Years In The Making

You know these things? These little devices of torture for any newborn? Around our house they are called booger suckers (I believe the correct name is nasal aspirator.). And they were the tools used to pull off The Great Bathroom Prank of 2010.

Nearly eleven years ago I watched a hidden camera/prank television show in which the booger sucker was used. At the time I was watching the show, I held a month-old Ross in my arms and decided then and there that when the time was right, I would use my new boy to commit what I thought was fantastic prank. After waiting patiently for over a decade the time finally came while we were in Branson.

A few months ago I filled the majority of my family in on my little plan. The intended targets would be my fun loving brothers, Aaron and Ben. We all laughed as we pictured their reactions. Here is what we did:

One hot and steamy morning, shortly after arriving at Silver Dollar City someone in the group announced we should all stop at the restrooms before hitting the rides. Our victims were unaware that earlier in the morning we filled two booger suckers with water. There they sat, in the bottom of a bag, where the water began getting warm. To speed up the warming process, my dad sat holding the booger suckers in his hands.

Warm weather means shorts. And shorts mean bare legs. :)

Ross and Grant were selected to do the dirty work. Ross was designated to get Ben, and Grant was designated to get Aaron. Ross walked quickly behind Ben, and two urinals sat empty side-by-side. It took only a second of squeezing the booger sucker before Ben disgustedly shouted, "Are you kidding me!?!" He looked down at Ross and was relieved to see what he held in his hands. Ben later said the thought it was weird that Ross was standing so closely.

And Aaron found a stall. Grant entered the adjacent stall and got to work. In a matter of seconds, Aaron was yelling, "HEY! HEY! HEY!" My mom was outside waiting for everyone, and she said she could hear Aaron's shouts all the way outside."

We were glad the uncles were such good sports, because the rest of us certainly got some belly laughs out of the ordeal.

The pranksters and their victims

This Is What Happens When You Get Rid Of All Of Your Baby Gear

How shall I put this?

*Baby #5 is on the way.

*We're trying to catch up to the Duggars.

*We've jumped on the baby bandwagon. (It would be more appropriate to say we've been thrown under the wheels of the bandwagon.)

We got a HUGE shock recently when we found out we are expecting again. Whoa. I posted recently about Mallory's obsession of getting a new baby. Elizabeth joined in on the requests as well. After being told countless times, "No, we're done." she took matters into her own hands and began praying... for twins. Well, apparently her prayers have been answered. But so have Edward's because the ultrasound only revealed one. New baby is due December 15th.

Surprisingly, I'm not feeling as sick as I normally do. This is a completely new concept for me. It's strange not to have to be confined to the house for fear of V.A.A.A. (that would be Vomiting Anytime and Anywhere). I do feel nauseous in the evenings, but I am grateful that it isn't so severe. It's starting to subside some as I am nearing the end of my first trimester.

It has taken a while for this to sink in. The other kids were all invited to join our family. This one is definitely making a surprise appearance. I truly believe he/she is meant to be here as Edward and I were taking the necessary steps to prevent an expansion in the family.

Braggy Mom Post

A beautiful piece of artwork and an even more beautiful girl

One Friday a few weeks ago, Elizabeth told me, "Mom, I have some of my artwork in an art show. It's tomorrow at ________ (our local community college)." In the midst of my mom duties I muttered something like, "Oh, that's nice, Honey." The next day Elizabeth said to me, "Are you ready to go to the art show?" "Uhh... sure." It wouldn't be completely dishonest of me to say I forgot about it. The girl and I freshened up and headed out the door. I expected to see a nice little display of elementary schoolers' artwork. When we walked in the door, I saw this:



Oh. Um... wow. Apparently it was a pretty big deal. There were about twenty school districts from the area that participated. Grades 3 - 12 were a part of the art show. A total of 1,100 pieces of art were exhibited.

We searched and searched and searched until we found Elizabeth's. We were thrilled when we saw a third place ribbon on her 3-dimensional mask! The crazy thing is that when Elizabeth's art teacher gave her a note telling her she submitted this mask made at the beginning of the year, Elizabeth couldn't even remember what she was talking about. After a while it dawned on her what her teacher was referring to. And her teacher later told me that she realized that she didn't have any artwork to submit for the design category so she went through her stash to see what she could find. She came across this piece that was in the back of a closet. She decided to submit it, and we're glad she did!

Birthday Girl

April 25, 2007

April 25, 2010

Our sweet little Mallory turned three! She brings such joy into our family and is every one's toy. She is a very obedient child, and she is eager to help others. She is such a sweet girl.

She likes for me to carry her around. Obviously at three years old, she's getting a little too big (even though she is a very tiny thing) for me to do this. For the last few weeks I've told her that when she turns three I'll hold her on my lap as much as she wants, but she will have to walk when ever we go somewhere. So she's been taking full advantage of it this last week. Last week as we were running errands, I would get her out of the van and put her down. She would immediately raise her arms to me and say, "I'm still two, you know." She's pretty hard to resist. She has been doing a great job walking by herself now that she is three. This morning, I carried her out of bed to drop the kids off at school, and she was still in her jammies and bare feet. When we got home, I just carried her into the house so her little feet didn't get cold on the garage floor. She looked confused and stated, "I'm three now." Obviously I was breaking my own rules.


The princess and her new motorcycle

We opened birthday presents before we left for church Sunday morning. After church, we headed over to my sister's house to celebrate her and Mallory's birthday.

Poor Mallory didn't have a chance when it came time to blow out the candles. She was surrounded on the left...

...and right by candle bandits.

The birthday girls, Andrea & Mallory

Andrea had Mallory convinced that she turned three as well. She told her that if it was your birthday on that day, that meant that you turned three. If you ask Mallory how old Annie is, she will tell you that she is three as well.

2010 Walk to Cure Diabetes

Saturday, April 10 was a beautiful day for a Walk to Cure Diabetes! It was a special treat for us as this walk was held in our small town. About 40 people joined our team, Ross's Gator Crusaders. Again, we were humbled by the support we received from family and friends. Our small diabetes support group worked with the organizers of the event, a young lady named Brianna (diagnosed at age 7) and her mother, Becky. They originally hoped to have 100 walkers take part and to raise $1,500. An estimated 500 walkers were in attendance and $15,000 was raised for JDRF! As a family that is affected by type 1 diabetes, we can't even begin to say how important this is! This money will be used to make life easier and more comfortable for Ross and will put a cure within our reach!

Easter 2010

Easter Morning

This is what joy looks like. The boys LOVE to get dressed up and take family pictures.

Mallory

Elizabeth

Drew

Ross

Mommy & her girls

Daddy's Girls

Daddy & Mallory

Edward & Stephanie

March 32nd

...or in other words, APRIL FOOL'S DAY! Ahhh, one of my favorite days of the year. As I've said before, I don't like the mean-spirited tricks when victims feel bad. But come on, who doesn't like a good gag! I've participated in April Fool's Day over the years, and my family still keeps me around. I've spent the last few nights getting some ideas off the Internet. This was the first year Edward pulled some of his own. Man I'm a lucky gal!


First of all, I invited my old pal Jose over to welcome everyone to the breakfast table. Jose came to be from old Halloween gear from the basement.

I filled Ziploc bags with air and placed them behind Edward's tires. I also set the windshield wipers, and blasted the radio and the heat in Edward's Jeep. Apparently he read the same website as I did because I found the same welcome when I started my van today!

Ross and Elizabeth lay their school clothes out each night before bed. After they'd fallen asleep, I snuck into their rooms and switched their underwear. I laid Elizabeth's underwear on Ross's clothes and Ross's undies on her clothes. Neither one appreciated that prank. I wrapped Drew's underwear around his arm while he slept and place some of Mallory's Barney underwear in his shoes. He liked it at least.

Elizabeth and Edward pulled the old "tape down the sprayer" dodge. Crazy me! They got me! Elizabeth was really into the holiday this year. She tried to sneak into my room to re-set my clock early this morning. I knew what she was doing and pointed to the door and said, "Out." Mama don't play that. Don't go messin' with my sleep. She later came back in and tried to tell me I'd overslept, so I played along. She also filled one of the kitchen cabinets with balls that fell down on me when I opened the door. She put peanuts in Ross's shoes, and she sprinkled salt on every one's tooth brushes. That's my girl!

Edward also monkeyed with my computer. He set the mouse to move like molasses as well as switched the functions on the left and right buttons.

Last night I painted the soap with translucent fingernail polish so it wouldn't lather when Edward used it in the shower this morning. It was still like that at bath time tonight and Drew asked me, "Why does this soap look like cheese?"

My two favorite pranks of the day were 1). when I sewed the fly closed on Eddie's undies and 2). I smeared a little chocolate pudding on the toilets. Neither one was particularly mature, but they yielded the best yuks! Edward said he was thinking, "What in the world?!?!" when he visited the men's room. Edward was in the bathroom when Elizabeth walked in and saw the pudding. He said she was literally gagging. And I walked in when a sleepy Drew took a gander at the foulness on the toilet. I asked, "Did you do that?!?" to which he emphatically denied his involvement. I replied, "Hmm" and took a swipe and pretended to lick my finger. He had a look of utter terror and disgust on his face. I could hardly get out the words, "April Fool's" because I couldn't even breathe through my laughter. Oh how I wish I'd recorded that moment!

I ended the day by freezing Edward's toothbrush.

Well, I guess it's time to start planning for next year!

The McDorklesons

Every time we go into a shoe store Elizabeth always smuggles home a few of those nylon stockings people can use when they try on shoes. She smuggles them home for the sole (heehee) purpose of putting them on her head. All six of us traipsed over every inch of the mall last night to look for shoes for Ross. And I should have known that the nylons would appear in our house today. And this is what we did with them....

Mrs. Clean

Drew rocks as a bald man.

Elizabeth kept saying, "Mallory looks just like Justin Beiber!!!"

And I don't know what it is about this nylon that made Edward look like he had lazy eye.

I think it is only fair if I'm going to post these pictures of my family that I make a fool out of myself as well. I've never really cared for my nose, but after looking at this picture I realize it could be WAY worse! That, and some day I'll probably need an eye lift.

Ross was way too cool to participate in this afternoon of Tom Foolery. When I begged him to join in on the fun, he proclaimed, "No WAY!! You're just going to post these pictures on your blog!" He knows me well.

And may I just add that this is the first time I've ever gotten in on this particular bit of recreation. I've always worried that people put their used nylons back in the box after using them. Let's hope that's not the case this time.

Chicken Terror

This weekend we tagged along with Edward on a business trip to Branson. Edward's district manager organized a group outing to Dixie Stampede Saturday night. The Dixie Stampede Dinner and Show involves live animals, acting, stunts, lighting, sound and pyrotechnics. It was a lot of fun, and the dinner was ENORMOUS. No silverware is allowed, so the kids thought it was wonderful! At one point during the show, the waiters put huge, hot Cornish hens on each plate. I leaned over to Drew, and while reaching for his hen, I started to say, "Here. Let me open up your chicken so it can start to cool." But before I could finish the sentence, Drew nearly flew into my lap and screamed, "NO! Don't! It's too scary!!!!" I was a bit stunned, and it took me a minute to figure out what he was even doing. I thought he was joking at first, but it was soon evident that he was scared to death. I tried to get him to calm down, and he finally explained that he was too scared to see the "chicken's insides." I got it out of him that he was scared to look at it's skeleton. You would have thought someone was chasing after that boy with a chainsaw!

This Kid Can't Catch a Break! Except He Kind of Did.

This is almost getting comical. It was off to the doctor again today with Ross. This time, the diagnosis is a fractured thumb. At baseball practice last night, he took a hit right on the knuckle. It was the very last thing he did at practice, and he toughed it out as we left. We put ice on it before bed, just thinking it was just smashed. I got a call from the school nurse this morning telling me she suggested we get it checked out. I ran him over to our beloved family practice physician where she splinted him and sent us over to the hospital for x-rays, just to be on the safe side we thought. We left the hospital a half-hour later, and we were told our doctor would probably call us in the morning with results. Another half-hour later our doctor's receptionist called to let us know his thumb was indeed fractured. I must have sounded like a total moron when I very exaggeratedly (made up word, I know) kept saying, "IT IS?!?!" Next stop is ortho in the morning. To be continued....
As Ross was walking down the hall at school this morning, sporting an ice pack, a girl that has a crush on him stopped him and asked him all about it. When he told her he got hit with a baseball at practice, she told him, "Oh, you're SO tough!" For those that know Ross can just see him rolling his eyes as she said that! :)

Cute Question of the Day

This morning Mallory asked me, "Do grandmas have mommies?" I love how two-year-old's brains work! It reminded me of some of Elizabeth's questions at that age. I vividly remember her asking, "Do chickens have lips?" and "Do cats have hineys?" I love it.

We're Gonna PUMP... You Up!

Something exciting is going on at the Felker house, and it's called an insulin pump! Hooray! We are all very excited. We've heard nothing but positivity from people who have pumps. I've been ready to get one as soon as possible, but when we were initially diagnosed, our endocrinologist said he kind of likes to wait until a patient is about a year out of diagnosis so we can learn the ropes of diabetes, so to speak. We work REALLY hard to keep Ross's blood sugar under control. At the end of last year we ran into a really rough patch. Ross would go to bed within normal range (80 - 150), would sleep all night without getting a snack of course, and wake up in the 300-400's. It was very frustrating. Our nurse practitioner suggested getting started on a pump, and I think we were all more than ready. After trying something new in the mean time, we got over that hurdle of highs.

We attended a pump class at the hospital in January to familiarize ourselves a little more with how pumps work. They are pretty awesome. It's kind of similar to an IV that will be hooked up to him pretty much 24/7. He will remove it to shower and to play full-contact sports. He can leave it unhooked for up to an hour. If he needs to have it removed for a longer period, say for swimming, he would just hook it back on, enter a dose, and remove it again. The actual pump houses the insulin that travels through a tube (similar to an IV) to a patch on his skin. He can wear this patch on his stomach, legs, or arms. The outside of the patch will have a clip type of mechanism that actually attaches to the tubing. On the side of the patch that will stick to his skin will be a very tiny cannula that will go through his skin about a fourth of an inch to his fatty tissue. This cannula looks like a small spider leg to me. It is about the width of a couple of strands of hair. He will rotate sites where the patch attaches every three days. He will have a little insertion device that will "punch" the patch into place. It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. Most people say that the finger sticks are much worse than attaching a patch. Ross even had one attached at the pump class, and he said you couldn't really feel it.

In addition to having a pump, we are also getting a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). He will have a second patch, or sensor, on the opposite side his pump is attached (other side of the stomach, other arm, other leg). This is a tubeless system. A handheld device (to me it kind of looks like one of those electronic 20Q games) will be able to tell us where his blood sugar is at all times without having to prick his fingers. He will have to prick his finger twice a day to calibrate the device, or make sure it is reading his blood sugar correctly. It will be able to tell us how he is trending. If we take a BG (blood glucose or blood sugar) reading and it says 100, that sounds good to us. But is he dropping rapidly from a 250 to a 100? Will he continue to go down? That is a big benefit of a CGM. Those kind of things will help us have a little more peace of mind when it comes to sports. To us, one of the biggest benefits of the CGM is that we can set an alarm to sound anytime he drops below a certain number or rises above a certain number. After the episode that landed us in the hospital and another scary situation in January, that gives us a lot of comfort! Unfortunately, the device only registers up to five feet away. Edward and I wish we could keep the device miles away to see what his BG is any time! :)

We made a decision on our pump, and it arrived last week. We go back up to his hospital next Monday to get started. And, we've been bugged for months by this 10 year-old boy for a cell phone, and he's been repeatedly told, "No way, no how." Well guess what? This pump that we chose came with a smartphone that houses the control center for the pump! So, he got his phone after all. I was telling a friend about this situation, and she told me something I hadn't really thought of. She said, "After everything that boy has been through, that's just fine! That's the least that can be done for him." And she's right. Ross says, "I'll be the only kid in my whole school that can have his phone out at school!!!" I don't know if he's more excited about the pump or the phone!

Exciting times here!

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

Mallory has changed her tune from wanting a kitten to wanting a baby. That is her new obsession. I hear, "I want a baby" several times a day. My reply is always, "You'll have to talk to Daddy about that. He doesn't want to have another baby." She knows she's not getting him to budge at this point. So her little brain has been hatching a plan. She informed me earlier this week that, "Since we can't have a baby, we will just steal one from some people." She told me this with a straight face and an earnest heart. She is completely serious. I told her, "Oh my! We could never do that." She simply and sincerely asked, "Why?" I told her if we stole a baby from people, they would be very, very sad. I asked her if she would be sad if we had a baby and someone stole it from us. She barely shook her head yes. And then said, "We can still steal one." She's getting desperate.