I uploaded some pics from our fun in the sun this weekend:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Funai.family/SanAntonioJuly09?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWigMSyp_65Ig&feat=directlink

@ the pool:
“I’m a fishie.”
“I’m a shark!”
“Well, I’m a white shark.”
“I’m a tiger shark!”
“Well, I’m a saber-tooth tiger shark!”

We’re having a fun time in San Antonio this weekend. The boys and I spent a total of four hours at the hotel pool yesterday!

The boys were quiet until about 7:15am, when I let them turn on the tv. I tried to go back to sleep, but that was a futile wish! ha! We had cinnamon rolls that I brought from HEB and bananas for breakfast. Everyone watched cartoons or played cars for a couple of hours, but by the time 10am rolled around, the natives were restless.

We swam from about 10am – noon, then came back to the room for Goober Strawberry (pb&j) sandwiches with Cheetos, Capri Sun and then Swiss Rolls for dessert. We had “quiet” time where not everyone took a nap, but it was nice to relax in the a/c for a couple of hours.

We went back to the pool from 2-4pm then came back for a Chex Mix break and get dressed for dinner. (They snacked all day but were still hungry! Growing boys!) As soon as Lane got in from his Army job, our famished bunch went to Pappasito’s for dinner.

Funny quotes:

1) A. told J., “It looks like you’re going to have a lovely tan,” then turned to me and said, “It looks like you’ve got a lovely sunburn.”

2) Ry told me, “All the boys are fishies and you’re a motorman.” I asked for him to repeat, b/c I didn’t understand. “You know, Ariel is a motorman! Girls are motormans.” Ohhh … a mermaid! Of course! 😉

I was exhausted (and sunburned – waah), but Lane took the boys swimming AGAIN after we got back from dinner. They stayed about an hour, and thankfully, everyone settled down pretty well for bedtime.

I even got to sleep till 8:30 this morning! Wow! 😉 Right now, we’re finishing packing up all our stuff. When Lane gets here in a few minutes, we’ll check out, load up and head to the Army Family Day festivities, then hit the road for our long drive home.

Praise God for these precious, sweet moments. The big kids were at a church thing with Lane last night, so I was tucking in the little two.

I gave each of them a hug and kiss on the cheek, then Ry said: “I love you, Mommy,” and I replied, “I love you, too.” Then Ri said: “I love you, too.”

He’s told his Aunt Angela that he loves her plenty of times over the years, but last night it just felt extra-special.

We may not have the next Jonas Brothers band in the making … or maybe we do! 🙂 All the boys love music, and A&J have been taking piano lessons for about a year now. Now that I know how to upload videos to youtube, I’ll try to get more vids posted in the near future. Enjoy! 🙂

J. the composer wrote this song himself, and this morning he mustered the courage to let me videotape him playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0875W0Jp2U

Here is big brother’s slower tempo version that J. wrote for him to play, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6onE-BJ7chA

Perhaps I’m a glutton for punishment, or maybe just had my hopes set too high for Day Two. I tried going to the grocery store with the youngest three while the older two were at karate. It could have been worse, but it could have been better. I think, for the foreseeable future, I will wait and go to the store at 11pm when everyone is in bed and I can walk leisurely down the aisles without having to call down anyone or mediate between who’s touching who.

Just when things looked to be settling down at bedtime, we (and apparently the whole street) lost power. Idk why losing power when it’s already dark would be such a big deal, but the kids freaked. Thankfully, it only lasted a couple of minutes, and all is calm again. The good news is, we got a little rain!

The boys were glad to see each other this afternoon, and it took no more than five seconds for them to fall into stride with each other for a grand tour of the house, showing off beds and toys and beanbags, etc.

Dinner went pretty smoothly. My homemade pasta sauce from our garden Roma tomatoes was a huge hit. *grins! Our idea to have all the boys sitting at the curved bar seems like it will work out ok, as long as the little ones don’t tip over the barstools climbing up! It’s been working out great with three, so adding two more might be a little challenging, but I think it’ll be fine. The idea is to eat dinner together and have a chance to talk and be together … not necessarily sit around a huge table together. It’s unconventional, but it works for us. Besides, nothing about our lives right now is conventional!! ha!

Bedtime was a little more trying. Everyone was wired and didn’t want to settle down. I had to put on my stern hat and issue some warnings, but they quieted down soon enough. The problem arose when someone tossed a stuffed animal from his bed up to the other one on the bunkbed and hit the ceiling fan cord in flight … the plastic “basketball” pullcord do-dad hit the fan blade, broke off and hit the bedroom window, ricocheted off and landed on the floor. Yes, it broke the window. The interior pane of a double-paned window now has a golfball-sized hole in it. *sigh … I know it was an accident, and it’s really pretty comical if I wasn’t aggravated about how much it’ll cost to fix. The pair did get a sermon on throwing things (even soft things!!) in the house and not being still & quiet like they were told. 😉 I didn’t hear a peep after that, so I think my stern hat worked that time.

I attended an RSS seminar yesterday, and it was so cool! It’s such a neat concept – having news & info come to you, rather that you having to go fetch it. Now I can read updates on friends’ blogs, news sites, magazines and newspapers, even journal articles and scholarly publications! And the updates come as they occur, so you don’t waste time sifting through different sites to see if there are any updates.

This site also has RSS (see the lil’ orange icon on the top of the screen w/the signal waves?) … all you need is a free viewer like Google Reader and subscribe! Way cool.

In the car on the way to daycamp/work this morning:

A (pointing at my office building in the distance): “Look, Mommy – there’s where you’re going in the future!”

J: “Nuh-uh. She’s going there right after she drops us off, not in the future.”

A: “That’s still the future.”

J: “Ok, then – in the future, we’re going to pass the post office and then get dropped off at daycamp.”

A&J in unison and with exaggerated excitement (as we round the corner and see the p.o.): “Whoa … it’s amazing! It really happened. We can tell the future!”

When I picked up the guys from day camp today, J. was beaming with pride and told me that they played field hockey (kids against grown-ups) and HE scored the first goal of either team! Woot! wtg, buddy!

This is the same kid who participated in some sort of dance-off (so the tale goes) yesterday at day camp and strained his shoulder while doing a one-armed handstand. He wasn’t complaining about it this evening, so hopefully it was just a muscle strain. We’ll keep an eye on it.