A friend is a brother who once was a bother

I have to share these after the post yesterday:

See, they do love eachother and they can play nicely for a little bit...

I had to get this on film to prove that there are moments of peace here, not many but they do exist.
A coworker has assured me that brothers are worst enemies and best friends, this quote about sums it up:
It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea. ~Dylan Thomas

On another topic completely, Ashton got into Donner Trail Elementary (the summit school)! This is such an answer to prayer, we have been sick over the thought of him going to Truckee Elementary. We still have to find out all the specifics on how and when to get him to the bus that will drive him to the top of Donner Summit (yikes!) and where he stays until the bus brings him back down in the afternoon (kindergarten is only a half day). But, things seem to be falling into place, the childrens center is a bus stop in the afternoon for the Donner Trail bus, so he can still go there after school for 45 minutes until I get off work. I still don't know if Noah got in, so please keep praying that Noah will get in too. Although, with Ashton enrolled, it puts Noah to the top of the list for his grade (if he isn't in now, which of course is what we are praying for!). If Noah doesn't get in I can ask the psychiatrist to write a letter for us, but I really hesistate to do that, because I'm afraid the school will label him as a problem. And he isn't. So, I feel like I should just be waiting to see what happens and not try to do this my way, which is super hard for me...

Bubbles anyone?

For Dillons birthday, Dolan got him a bubble blower. This is one of his favorite gifts (along with his tractors, that jump out in front of me and get tangled on my foot...I'm still limping).

See, he even has a tractor that he is chasing the bubbles with. If you have little kids and don't have one of these, GO GET ONE! It is truly the most fantastic toy, they will play with it forever. And bubbles are cheap, you can even make you own if you want.

Ashton even gets in on the bubble chasing, and so does Noah. I didn't get a picture of Noah because my next picture was this:

Because tractors make fabulous weapons to hit your brother with. This is what these boys have been like lately, it is driving Troy and I absolutely nuts. They spent the weekend picking weeds and throwing rocks...except Dillon of course, but when his brothers are working he has no one to fight with or scream at. Any suggestions on how to make brothers stop fighting? It is seriously out of control, they fight over anything and everything...

Our 4th of July

So, I'm totally late getting this on here...but here it is anyway. On the 4th we got up before 6am and motored back to the marina after a very late night. The boys slept most of the way in, while we packed up and got ready to hit the road. Once we pulled the houseboat out of the water and put it away, we headed home for the parade. Ashton knew that the parade was today and was insistent that we go.
We hurried and of course got stuck behind every slow person on hwy 20...we made it back into town in time, BUT you couldn't get anywhere near the deli to watch the parade. We tried asking a cop to let us in to get to the deli, no luck. I was really wishing I had my hospital badge, that would have got us through the road closure. We ended up having to take the 89 exit and then take High Street above downtown and then we got to Donner Pass Rd and could walk to the deli form there. We got there just in time to see the parade start. Everyone was happy!
After the parade we went home and hung out for the day. I did laundry and some cleaning and the boys watched movies, we were all still super tired from the night before. Troy and Dad went up to the top of Richards to park my car to save a spot for the fireworks that night.
Once it started getting dark, we made hot chocolate, put it in travel mugs and drove up the street to see the fireworks. It was really crowded, and we had a big group of kids next to us who seemed to want to share our little space, we didn't really want to share, and they eventually got the hint. It also strangely smelled of skunk up there, as Ashton told me. I just agreed, yep it smells like a skunk.

The boys thought it was fun to turn the 3rd row around and watch the fireworks from inside the car. Dillon also got stuck in there to avoid him falling down the hill and ending up on the freeway. He really wanted to run around, but that was not going to happen. We watched the fireworks, and all the boys fell asleep.
We got home and quickly got everyone in bed - only to be woken up after 11 by our new neighbors setting off overhead fireworks in front of our house. For those of you that don't know, fireworks are absolutely illegal in the Tahoe Basin. This is a huge forest and people seem to forget that sending fire into the air when you are surrounded by trees, brush and pine needles is a really stupid idea. I don't know how many they shot off (Mom counted 20), but they were loud and lit my bedroom up light it was daylight outside. I called the police, and Troy went outside to see if he could catch them. Two cops (see, we're not messing around here) showed up within 10 minutes and drove up and down the street, but they were all back inside by then. Luckily, no more fireworks for the rest of the night.
The next day, Mom and Dad brought Dillon home for his nap and told me to come outside to see something. Here is what I saw:

That is one of our neighbors cars, in the drainage ditch in between our houses. Now, I don't really believe in karma, but this sure shows that what goes around, comes around. I think they must have still been drunk to manage this. She was apparently backing up and wound up in the ditch. I've almost ended up in that ditch myself, but it was in the winter when my driveway was a sheet of ice. They seemed to think that they were going to pull that out with a Ford Ranger, I told them good luck on that one, I'd send Troy over with the Bobcat when he got home. Troy did go over there, but told them they needed to call a tow truck, because he didn't want to be responsible for ripping the bumper off. The tow truck came and got the car out with no damage, I was impressed...

Bullards Bar

While I was off last week, Ed and Sheri invited us to visit the lake with them. We, of course, said yes, yes, yes! We left Wednesday and arrived and found this:

on the back deck of the houseboat. It is a wasp nest, and here is what I found out about these little creatures. We drove down to the parking area, where we tried to figure out what to do with it. Troy climbed up onto the deck and no sooner set foot on the boat, and they all came out of the nest and started to swarm. He quickly got down (obviously). Ed found a fire extinguisher and sprayed the nest with it. They all flew out, covered in white, and then quickly fell to the ground. He did this several times, until he was sure they were all gone. Then Troy hit it and knocked it down. Inside were the combs with the larvae, I picked up one of them to look at it and noticed that they were moving. Oh. Yuck, that was gross - I very quickly dropped it.

The boys were in the truck this whole time, feeling very left out that they couldn't come out and watch. We didn't want the boys out there in case the wasps/yellow jackets were mad about the whole eviction process. It turns out that fire extinguishers are pretty effective at getting rid of them.

Once that was taken care of, we got the boat in the water. It took a little time to get the houseboat running, so the boys jumped in the water on the shore at the marina. Not where I would normally let them swim, but it was hot and its a small boat for three excited boys!

We spent our time hanging out on the boat, swimming, knee boarding (Noah and Ashton), tubing (Noah and Ashton), riding the jet ski, swimming some more...you get the idea. I can't think of anything better during the summer. Here are a bunch of pictures, just keep scrolling!

It apparently never gets old to climb on the boat, them jump off the back.


This is a BIG deal for my very cautious Ashton, he has such a good time and was so proud of himself.

Noah was practicing all his "tricks" like going outside the wake, turning around backwards, and my favorite "the spin and fall" as Noah explains it, you try to spin and then you fall. Hopefully, that will eventually become just the spin without the fall. He didn't want to try wakeboarding yet, maybe next time.

This is their new thing, everyone want to make silly faces for the camera all the time now. My favorite is Dillon's he will do this anytime you ask him to make a silly face, turn his head, stick his tongue out and put his finger on his cheek.


Playing in the water to Ashtons air guitar...




Tractors are even fun at the beach. But if you ask him, he'll tell you "noooo(pause)pe".
It was a great 3 days, the boys had a blast and now I am back at work, but if I turn my head just right I still feel like I'm swaying on the houseboat!

Well, it was hot

It has been hot around here, and the boys wanted to play in the sprinklers last week - and I had just cleaned the windows...so we got out the whale toy and put it in the middle of the lawn. The grass looks a little dry there anyway, right?







I swear I do feed these two boys, why can we eat (mostly) the same things and you can't count my ribs?

By the way, I took these pictures from inside - through my so very clean windows! I know I'm weird, clean windows make me happy...

New Look

How do you like it?



I have spent all my time recently learning how to design blogs, here is my first design!

I also changed the name of the blog to 'Let me hold you longer' which is also on the header. This is a book that makes me cry every time I read it. It is all about paying attention to the last time your children do something; like the last time they crawl in bed with you, the last time you help them with their homework, the last time you practice dancing before prom, etc. It breaks my heart to think of all those things being gone...so I write them down here so I at least have the memories! I still love to scrapbook, but have so little time and this is so very quick that I can just get it down. It even dates and times everything for me. So, my point is you will no longer see 'bits and pieces' on your favorites list, it will now say 'Let me hold you longer'.

I need more practice, so if anyone wants a new blog look, leave me a note in the comments and I will make your blog beautiful and all you!

Darcie - your blog is on it's way, you are going to need it!!

P.S. You can find the book here.

A visit to the doctor

Noah had his appointment today to be evaluated by a psychiatrist for ADHD. No big surprise, but Noah has IT. Here is what we learned today:

1. There are 3 types of ADHD, Noah has the inattentive type. It is characterized by not paying attention to detail, making careless mistakes, failing to pay attention and keep on task, not listening, being unable to follow or understand instructions, avoiding tasks that involve effort, being distracted or forgetful, losing things that are needed to complete tasks. I think this could read as Noah's biography most of the time.
2. We are doing all the right things, like having him in tutoring, trying to change schools, monitoring his diet for sugar and processed foods, keeping him busy in sports and activities, and following a pretty consistent routine.
3. We will still hold off on any drug therapy until school starts and then revisit the issue.
4. The Dr. suggested we try some omega-3 supplements and see if it helps, there has been some research that suggests that it might.
5. We should try to do school work in short bursts instead of trying to get it all done at one sitting.
6. Allowing him to draw, or do something with his hands while doing times tables flash cards is okay, he is still listening and may even learn better that way.
7. He needs to do puzzles (jigsaw, sudoku. word search or crossword are fine) these are good for developing focusing skills.
8. It will get better.

She was a great, soft spoken lady who listened and asked great questions. She was happy with the things we have tried and made some new suggestions. She told me that yes, it is extremely frustrating, but it will get better. Either through time and maturity or through some drug therapy if we decide to do that. She was very supportive of either route we choose and encouraged me to get him to another school with smaller class sizes and english only teaching. She agreed that the half spanish thing was far too distracting for him and should not happen again. She offered to write a variance to try and force him into the school on the summit if that would help. She told me to get this magazine for some common sense advice and new research.

Overall, it was a good morning. We won't change anything right now, but at least I know we are doing all the right things for him. And if we decide that he needs medication later, we can do that.