What's all the fuss Gus?

#1 was roaming through a rainy day art book that Grammy gave us a few years ago. He picked out several things he wanted to do. I told him which projects we had the material to do and he settled on a Yarn collage. Gathers the supplies he needs and is ready to create his master piece.....or is he? Soon he is screaming "I can't do it!" Jumping up and down, throwing something in disgust. I try to remain calm and banish him to his room as I say he needs some time to collect himself and cool off. He screams "You are not listening to me". I reply "No, I am not." "I will be happy to listen to your problem after you cool off and are thinking more rationally." That didn't make him any happier but he did go calm down and we had a nice little chat later. He had felt frustrated because the yarn was sticking to his hands and not the paper as easily as he thought it should. We discussed ways that might make it easier and this is what he created
. This year we have taken a look at paintings and read how artists sign their name and name their work so I asked him to do the same to his work. I guess all his creativity was used up for the day as you can tell by the title he named it exactly what he 'drew'.
This kid of mine gets so easily frustrated of seemingly easy things, often to go on and find that he can do them easily. I keep thinking he will soon understand that once he takes a step back and then comes back to the problem he will understand it in a new way. I guess some lessons take more time then others.


The following picture is an example of why we have a very sad looking garden. I have 3 boys. All of whom like to play in the dirt(ok the girl does too but we aren't talking about her today). When one plays in the dirt they often pull things out of the dirt. Things that I plant. Things that I'd like to grow. *sigh* My poor, poor tree-I couldn't bare to take a picture of what it looks like now. Instead I will leave you with my new flower arrangement.

Friday

next Friday the 18th #2 will be having surgery again. The good news is the mass is now down to a mere 2cm. It is expected to be a fairly easy procedure(the point is to completely remove the mass) and only require one overnight stay. She seems to be in good spirits about this, she told her brother that the last time she had surgery she was asleep and it didn't even wake her up;)
She was also pretty happy to have some mommy time today. We had a couple appointments today so we got to have lunch together and there happened to be a band playing at the hospital that we got to listen to.

A few pictures

because there aren't enough below;) Do you know what movie the waterfall is from below? Maybe I'll tell you later if you're good.

Surprise, surprise!!

Guess what!! I got a big surprise this weekend! My great husband(have I mentioned how great he is?) arranged to take me on a weekend getaway. He came home around lunchtime Friday and gathered us all around and instructed us to pack some things for the weekend. So we did, the kids kept asking me where we were going. I don't think they ever realized I was as clueless as they were. So within an hour we were packed and in the car off for our adventure.
So we start going up this road, James had said we had some errands to do first. Now up this road there are only 3 things that it could be. We past church so no surprise party or anything there(err, did I mention Friday was my birthday?). So up the hill we keep going, the next possible place would be a friends home or the park where we go hiking sometimes. He pulls into our friends home and parks but doesn't say to get out or anything.....although the kids are piling out of the car. He drops off the kids bag-Um, honey are we going somewhere without kids?? Wow! What IS going on? Everyone gets back into van and we drive to the airport where James and I get dropped off, me still clueless as to where we are going.
We get checked in and I find out we are going to Kauai. I love Kauai! It's so green and rural and just a great showcase for the Lord's beauty.
I ask ""how long have you been planning this?" "Am I the only one who didn't know?" All you people(and you know who you are) are way too good at keeping secrets!!
He rented a fun car for the weekend. It's fun to hear the grass move as you pass:) We had a gorgeous room. The bathtub was probably as big as our bathroom. Stone, stainless steel and granite in the kitchen. Quite the beauty that room was! We didn't get a chance to tryout the pool but it looked lovely as well. A heated seahorse shaped with slides and a lazy river. We could see the pool from our room and the ocean was on the other side of it. It was lovely to sit on the balcony in the morning and watch the sun come up.
Friday we spent enjoying the surprise, wandering around some local shops and making a run to Kmart to pickup those forgotten items(toothbrush!), too bad we didn't realize then that someone*cough* james *cough* had forgotten his swimsuit-we could have picked one up and tried out that pool;)
Saturday James had more surprises instore. The first was driving to a green and white gate and waiting for an ATV to meet us. There are no signs telling me what is instore. I had asked James what I should wear when getting dressed and he had told me pants and tennis shoes so that was the only clue I had. Someone comes up to the gate and lets us through. We manage to not get stuck in any of the big pot holes on this dirt road and pull into another gate and I see a platform. Aha! We are going to go on a zipline!!
It was soooooooo much fun! Can't wait to do it again:) We went in a group of 8 and between the 4 different couples that made up our group, 3 of us had birthdays and one was a honeymoom couple-so we were all celebrating something! It was really fun to be that high up in the trees, little did I know that we'd be getting higher later.
So after that adventure was over we got some lunch and drove down to an old harbor waiting around for something that would have james recommend to me to take some Dramamine. Turns out that was a helicopter tour. This was neat and yet not for me. I had a great seat, 'co-pilot' as it was. But the drugs didn't help me and I didn't appreciate it as much as someone else may. I was more squeezing my hands hoping we'd land soon LOL. It was beautiful and pretty cool to see things from air, gives you a whole new perspective. Our pictures do not do the island justice. It was rainy, the sun would play peek-a-boo with us and you can't see how GREEN it really is. Trade winds are up too so that's why you'll see me in a sweater all the time.
Sunday we had planned on a hike but just didn't get going soon enough. We should have just went on a short one but I had wanted to to a harder one since we were 'alone' but to try to get that in on the last day proved too much. We did drive up Waimea Canyon and have made plans for 'next time'.

All in all a WONDERFUL weekend!! We had a good time exploring Kauai together, and I had fun getting spoiled. The kids had a good time getting spoiled by their 'auntie and uncle' so much so they didn't want to leave;0. .....Now back to the 'grindstone'