A success!!

Yesterday we celebrated Sarah's 10th birthday, and I must say I believe it to be a success!!
We rented a pontoon boat to take around Kaneohe Bay for four hours, and docking at the sand bar that is out there for us to snorkel or swim, or just walk around. I prayed all week that the day would be nice, i was worried about taking all the kids out on a boat when it is raining and cold. Well we woke up yesterday morning to clear blue skies, and warm weather!! God answered my prayer even more then what i had hoped for. The kids loved going on the boat! They were so excited and amazed. We parked on the sandbar, and the kids had fun exploring the area, and jumping off the boat into the water. Derek got to go snorkeling around and I had fun exploring and swimming. After we were done on the sandbar we drove around the bay and headed back. We couldnt believe how fast the four hours went.
Yesterday evening Sarah got to have two friends come over and spend the night,and got to open her presents and have cake. I think the day was a total success!!

Sex Education

Well I got the dreaded permission slip the other day. The fifth grade Sex Education form. How can any of my children be ready to learn about sex?!! Arent they still in the phase of "boys have cooties"? Honestly though, I am not that much in denial about my children. I know they are reaching the age where they are curious about those types of things. My two oldest are starting the first steps of puberty. (Scary!!!) I have had "thee talk" with my oldest Katie, but with Jessica I have waited. She is the type of child that gets overwhelmed and confused quickly, and I worried that she would not be able to comprehend those type of things. When she handed me the form to sign, she honestly didnt know what it was for. The word "sex" really means little to her. She was curious about having a period, but was confused when I started to explain it, and then asked " do boys have periods?" ha!! I wish!! Ultimately I did sign the slip for her to take the health class. I thought it would be good for her to learn about her body, and understand what will be happening to her as she grows. I thought they might explain things better then I could, or at least give her an idea so she can ask me. I will talk more about it with her. But honestly, how did all this happen so quickly?!! It seems like only yesterday that they thought babies come out of our belly buttons!! Next thing we need to do though~ Derek needs to buy a gun. :)

Easy Peasy

Last night our pastor and his wife offered to take three of our children for the night. So that left us with just three kids. We (or I should say I) thought it would be fun to have an evening at the beach with a picnic dinner. After dropping the three kids off, we headed out. We ended up at one of our favorite beaches in Hale'iwa. (Think 'Lost') It was such an amazing evening!! I got to go snorkeling, and found some fish, and a sea turtle!! I was so close to it, but I looked up to tell Derek and the kids that there was a turtle, that by the time I looked back down I couldnt find the turtle. Sarah and Matthias had fun playing in the surf. A good amount of waves, but not too rough to knock them under. Laurelin had fun playing in the sand and going in the water with momma. Derek spent most of his time snorkeling, he was able to find the turtle again and was able to swim with it. And he found some big fish that went swimming by his head, and some blowfish. I wanted to stay until sunset, but the kids got pretty tired, so we headed home to have some treats and watch a movie. I must say it is much easier to have just three then six. I was much more calm and relaxed. But I miss my others, and cant wait to see them at church. It was a nice break to spend more quality time with just hte three.

Belly button whoas

Derek has been having pain in his belly button area for the last few weeks, last week he went to the doctors to see if they could figure out what the problem could be. After having blood work done and some xrays, we went home and waited for the results. And of course we heard nothing. The next day Derek called them, and they said they would have a doctor call him back when he read the results. We waited some more, finally the next day Derek went into the office, and waited for a doctor to read the results, well what would you know?! There was a problem on the xray and they feared he might have appendicites. So they told him he needed to rush to the hospital as quickly as he could. We rush down there, and wait, and wait, and wait. Finally they run a CT scan and rule out appendicites, and a hernia, which left them with the question "what is wrong?". A couple surgeons came in and checked him out and felt that the problem was he had a connection from his belly button to his bladder that never went away from when he was born, and felt that he could have surgery to remove it and he would be better. They felt an Urologist would be the best at performing the surgery. So this week we got in to see the urologist, and was told " I dont really see anything that could be the problem, and I dont want to rush into surgery if that wont solve the problem, so keep taking the pain medicine and come back in two weeks, and we will see what we should do then." What a great answer, huh? Thankfully Derek is feeling better, but we have no answer as to why he was in pain to begin with.

Verse for the day

"Be sure to do what you should,
for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction
of having done your work well,
and you won’t need to compare yourself
to anyone else."
Galations 6:4

I was sent this verse today, and I thought it was great.

Birthday girl

April has come again, and that means planning for my daughter Sarah's birthday party. I dread this day. Sarah has always been a child who has felt that her birthday should be a national holiday, and I make the joke that the world was not created until Sarah was born- at least in her eyes. So I have this pressure to do something great for her birthday that will please her, and not break our budget or upstage our other children's birthdays. I spent the day looking online for places to have a birthday party. Good grief!!! The costs are outrageous!! I mean, I might consider it if she was my only child, but I have five other children, so I cant afford to go all out all the time. After hours of searching, and falling short of any great ideas, Derek came home for his lunch and told me we should rent a pontoon boat, that we can drive around the bay. We did this last week with our church, and it was so much fun!! You can drive around the bay, and park the boat on one of the sand barges, where you can walk out on the sand, and go snorkeling or swimming or jut play. I checked into getting a boating license, and it only costs $15, and to rent the boat for four hours, it costs $75. I am excited, should be a lot of fun, and not too stressful for me, but very memorable for her.