It's a.....

B-O-Y ! My ultrasound today confirmed what I had known all along...that we are having another boy! When I found out that I was pregnant, the first name that came to my mind was a boy's name and that's the only name that stuck in my head. Purely "scientific" deduction eh? Well, and of course Jim comes from a family of 5 boys out of 7 and I from 2 boys out of 3. So, here's little Gabriel at 19 weeks--and already 12 ounces. The doctor think he's on the big side but then again both Ronan and Patrick were over 8.5 lbs at birth. I am also happy to share that so far both baby and I are very healthy. My doctor is referring me to a pediatric cardiologist just to get a closer image of the baby's heart to make sure all four chambers/septums are intact. Today's ultrasound showed a little shadow near one of the chambers--she wants to make sure that there are no ventricular septum defect. I'm not worried about it. Today's fetal heart rate 154 bpm strong!

So tonight's, bedtime story, I read from Patrick's beginner's bible, the story of when the angel Gabriel came to visit Mary to announce that she's is going to have a baby. "Don't be afraid. You are very special to God. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son". We are so blessed to have a chance of having another child to raise and love.

Ah, for the love of Buddha!

I can't believe it. Ronan is sick with a stomach virus again. Since Jim has been gone, someone is sick every two or three weeks in this house. If it's not the boys, the cats have issues. It is not easy when someone is sick around here. All I can say is...I better not get sick!!. Poor Ronan spent the afternoon intermittently throwing up in the bathroom. He's not going to appreciate this photo someday. But today, he laughs at it. Poor baby, he didn't want to throw up in his room so he just wanted to hang out in the bathroom until his tummy felt better. Did I mention it really sucks when one of the kids are sick? Just when you think you got it all under control and can handle the temporary single mommyhood---when one of them boys get sick I feel not so all together and just want to wail like a banshee.

My favorite Reds player

Ronan's Trophy

Ronan's last Koosh ball game was this past Monday and what a great game it was! We only had one missing player on our team. Every single kid on his team had their game ON. It's so fun to see how much they've changed in the last four weeks. I'm so proud of them. They received their trophy after the game and then we went to the Children's Park for after game pizza party.
Nicholas got it!
Elijah getting someone OUT
Batter up!
Ronan playing first base











Jackson in action!


Congratulations Tigers!

Laurie's 'venture down South

A few weeks ago Laurie came by to visit us for the second time since we've moved here. She came after the Neurosciences Conference in Nashville. Wished she could have taken some of our other friends from Stanford who attended the nursing conference. She flew to New Orleans and drove to Mississippi. She would have gotten here in an hour and fifteen minutes but I mistakenly gave one wrong turn with the directions and she ended up in the "sticks" for about half an hour until she found a 7/11 and asked directions from a man who can only talk while limping...after midnight at that!. We enjoyed Laurie's visit tremendously...it's so nice to have someone from "home" visit. Ronan for the life of him could never remember Laurie's name so Laurie for the whole time she was here was affectionally called "that lady".


Laurie by her brand new rental car! She drove that car back to New Orleans loaded with moonpie!
















A visit would not a visit without a SPA DAY. Here we are at the Beau Rivage Spa. Thanks Kristen for watching the kids!
















"That lady" loved the donuts from TatoNut. Here's Ronan passed out with a box of donuts on his lap. He insisted on holding the box on the ride home.

While the boys were in school, Laurie and I got to enjoy a nice lunch at the fabulous Fuze Sushi House in downtown OS.

We went to Cafe New Orleans for some genuine Cajun lunch--southern style serving! We had enough leftovers for 4 meals!! But man! there's nothing like fried southern food! really!

She got to visit Patrick's classroom! She was a teacher after all before she became a nurse!

Camping at Flint Creek

We just spent a fantastic weekend at Flint Creek! Ronan fell asleep in the car on the way home and he's still sleeping! We were supposed to get there on Friday but due to bad weather (tornado warning, heavy rain), we decided to head out Saturday morning. We were blessed with very low humidity, lots of sunshine, light breeze and hardly any bugs. We had so much fun that on the way out of the campgrounds, Blake and I booked for another camping trip in June!



The Browns--professional campers. We enjoyed spending time with them along with our neighbors, the Murphys. If you look closely, you can see we had hobo meals for dinner! Margaret, however, made the healthy version--turkey hobo instead of beef hobo.


Patrick, Ronan, Morgan and I went fishing on the pier by the light of a full moon!! Ronan got a little frustrated that he didn't catch anything. Perhaps if we actually had real bait we would have caught something---I'm not touching any worms! ew!!

We were asleep by 10pm! It was the first time I slept a full 9 hours with no insomnia attacks. Ronan was the last person to wake up at 8:15 am!! We were done eating our waffles, bacon and eggs when he woke up. It got cool during the night but these two little snuggle bunnies kept me warm


I woke up to the sound of birds, ducks, and leaves rustling and to this shadow made by the sunrise against our tent.


And when I opened my tent window, this is what greet me! Now, why can't I wake up like this every morning?


Ronan never cease to amaze me with his agility. This is his first time playing on a knee board.



Chris was the ultimate entertainer for the boys! He took them tubing multiple times on both days. Patrick and Ronan really enjoyed being around A DAD! Chris was great with them! I think it made them miss Jim even more. They both demand that we buy a boat when Jim comes back from Qatar.


Hayden and Patrick having a blast tubing. He was laughing so hard he said he kept getting water in his mouth. The boys called themselves, tubing daredevils. I just love what the wind and water did to their hairdo

And lastly..a camping slideshow! Turn off the Dolan Island music before playing the slide show

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Flowers, herbs and hobo meals

I've decided to plant flowers and herbs on pots this season instead of planting them on the ground. I'm hoping it's less maintenance. Last year, I planted on the ground and since I didn't have a truckload of top soil for a flower/herb bed they didn't do so well. Anyway, I love that colors come early around here and I just had take photos of my pots--the flowers make me smile each time I pass by them. And I love being able to just pick the herbs outside when I need some.



Some cilantro and parsley

Spearmint, petunias and somewhere there some Thai basil


Maribel and family had us over for an impromptu bonfire and hobo meal cookout. The boys had spent the afternoon playing over their house. Dominic had all the boys(theirs and mine) clear up the "woods" out back and they built a huge fire. This is our first hobo meal. We put hamburger meat, vegetables, potatoes and seasoning in aluminum foil and put it over the fire--no grills! For dessert, we made smores and roasted PEEPS! YUM!! We spent the rest of the spring evening sitting by the fire and talking. Patrick wanted to sleep outside, so I went home to get a tent and sleeping bags but by the time I got them out of the attic, he and Ronan had fallen asleep. So the boys ended up carrying them home . They were pooped! after all, the it was midnight already!













Patrick and Ronan DEVOURED their hobo meals!




















Elijah calmly eating his meal










Hobo meal, upclose and personal

Wiffle ball Casualty and a Toad Rescue

Last week, Ronan came to the house excited to show me something. "Mom, mom look what I got!". It was a DEAD gecko--the culprit probably Cameron or Sylvester. The other night while Patrick was practicing his T-ball swings, he noticed Sylvester chasing something...a baby toad. Patrick went running "I'll save you toad, I'll save you! " Well he did, and he wanted to take a photo of the rescued toad. Eww! just don't make me touch it!












We have to practice with wiffle balls otherwise someone's window will break. Patrick has an awesome swing!











Ronan still in early training.






Patrick broke 5 new wiffle balls! Here's Chocolate showing them off