August fires

 My garden is putting out tons of goodies for us every day!

Fire season has officially started.  The last 2 years we got lucky with minimal fires.  This year we're not so lucky.  I took the below pictures of a fire that burned 200 acres right behind our development.  We saw planes and helicopters flying over our house carrying water for the fire all day long.  Several acres on the air force base to the East of us burned too.  Scary stuff!  Only 2 structures were lost though.  You can see where the fire came right up and around houses.  The fire fighters did an amazing job!  Everything is burned around these houses but the houses are fine.  We have been stuck indoors for part of September due to the hazardous air quality since our entire west coast- Washington, Oregon and California are on fire and the smoke is being funneled into our area.

Connor's best friend, Mason Moss came over for a visit.  They played Lego's and watched a movie on the big screen.  We haven't seen him all summer and really the only friend Connor has played with all summer is Raheem (whose only at his dad's house on the weekends).

Frog Hollow

 Another trip to Frog Hollow to play.  We brought Raheem with us.  The boys played in the water, caught frogs and crawfish, swam, had subway lunch and then on the way home we stopped for burgers. Raheem said it was the funnest day ever and loves Frog Hollow.

pull ups

 Around March/April of this year (same time Covid19 quarantine started) Connor's body started really going through puberty.  He has arm pit hair, acne, a very deep manly voice (and occasionally crackly) and he's started growing in height like crazy.  He used to be the first one up with Jason at 6:00am, but started sleeping in until 9:00am.  On 8-30-2020 Connor officially passed me in height.  My 12 year old is taller than me.  He's also decided (completely on his own) that he wants to get in shape and build some muscles. So, Jason and Connor walk over to the park by our house to use the jungle gym to do pull ups.  Jason is getting into better shape too, since he has to do more than Connor (he's very competitive).  This has lead to Jason building a pull up bar in our garage.  Even Kaiden and I are working out with them.

Last pictures are the boys at night.  Connor, very conservative curled up in his blanket with PJ's on.  Kaiden now sleeps like dad in his underwear.  He rarely keeps his covers on.  It's funny how different my boys are.  

Connor is quiet, mellow, total rule follower, self motivated- if you tell him to do chores or homework he usually does them right away.  He even gets up in the morning and starts doing homework before he comes down for breakfast.  He still loves to create and play with Lego's and has his own Lego table and shelves set up in the basement.  He likes to play by himself and is completely content being alone.  He loves to read.  He's excellent at math.  His best friend is Raheem and Mason. Still loves his stuffed animals in his room- the octopus George is his favorite.  Favorite color is still orange.  Loves Harry Potter.  I can see him being an engineer when he grows up, either creating things or architect.  He loves to build and create.  Connor's favorite food is tuna fish casserole and gaterade.  He also likes cottage cheese, mainly because it's soft on his teeth/braces.  He loves milk and drinks about 1 gallon every 3 days.

Kaiden is loud- I'm constantly telling him to speak quieter.  He's full of energy and loves to run around the yard with his friends. His best friends on our block are Landry, Isaiah, Declan and Sophia.  At school his best friends were Zach, Emma, Dillon and Gavin.  His favorite color was green, but recently changed to red.  Still loves his 2 stuffed bunnies that he received from Grandma the Easter he was born and takes them everywhere with him. Likes Paw Patrol, Power Rangers, PJ Masks, and cars.  He's obsessed with PDK Films Nerf War video's and loves to play with Nerf guns. Loves to ride his strider bike. He's super fast and loves to run. Loves to be the center of attention and sing/dance/talk.  He's a great dancer. He's very outgoing and loves to meet and play with people.  I can see him being either an actor or journalist when he grows up.  He likes to have all eyes on him and likes to talk and talk and talk.  His favorite food is mac-n-cheese.

Frog Hollow

 Another trip to Frog Hollow.  Our favorite boating place!  fishing, hunting frogs and crawdads, and tubing.

garden

 This year for Mother's day I decided I wanted to change the location of my garden and to create 2 raised garden beds, 2' x 10' each.  Apparently the location I chose was a great choice... or maybe it was the raised beds with new soil... or maybe it was the extra nitrogen I add from our used coffee grounds.  Below is a picture of me holding 1 of my green onions.  They are HUGE!  Plus I have tons of green beans, snap peas, massive huge zucchini- which we can't eat enough of them so I've given all our neighbors a huge zucchini.  Plus celery and 2 HUGE cherry tomato plants, which actually WAY outgrew the metal tomato cages I bought and ended up growing sideways... my dad is building me a huge metal cage to support them for next year.  We also planted some potatoes and cucumbers too.  The only thing that didn't do great in my garden is the carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.  I'm loving being able to pick fresh veggies for dinner!!

work injury

 On July 14, 2020 I injured my right shoulder while helping another RN, Natalia move her patient.  I went to the ED and had an x-ray done.  8 days later I saw occupation medicine who assigned physical therapy.  I did physical therapy 2x per week, but my shoulder was getting worse.  I begged for a MRI to be done, but apparently L&I won't approve imaging until you "try PT first without success."  2 weeks after the accident I started working as a Monitor Tech as light duty at work.  I finally got a MRI 8-27-2020.  Originally they thought I had bursitis, tendonitis and impingement.  The MRI confirmed the impingement and also showed severe adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder).  Instead of doing strength training at physical therapy they changed to stretching the capsule out.  Massage therapy was also added.  Now I'm finally getting results and gaining range of motion.  I'm scheduled to see a sports medicine orthopedic to see if a cortisone injection into my shoulder would be beneficial.   I'm ready for this to be healed and the pain to stop.  After therapy before the MRI was done I had to have a Game Ready ice machine ice my shoulder for 15 minutes.  Its still painful now, but at least it only hurts when I'm stretching it out and with certain movements... not all the time like before.  I even had to make a ice pack with sleeve when I worked the monitor tech because it hurt so bad.

below is also one of Connor's lego creations.  He still loves Lego's and spends most of his free time either creating and playing with Lego's or reading a book.  He's become a great reader and loves to read now.