Leapin' Lizards...it's a tick!!!

With it being Memorial Day, we spent the day preparing to have our sump pump removed by Doug removing tile and me washing clothes as we will not have access to the addition for several days while the concrete cures. We wanted to get the kids out of the house, so we first checked out a potential pool membership for the summer and then went to Thompson Park to feed some very fiesty geese...one of which bit Taylor on the hand (luckily not hard as she didn't seem to be disturbed by the event). After playing a bit, we came home for some yummy burgers and then went for a walk/scooter ride to the Silver Comet Trail. On the way, Doug encountered a cute little turtle who seemed to be lost and out of sorts from his typical environment. Doug decided to relocate the turtle and Joshua excitedly followed. They ran through some tall grass to place the turtle back in the creek and then we continued on our journey to the trail, stopping every so often to pick some wildflowers/daisies along the way. On the way home, we enjoyed the first lightning bugs of the season and I caught a couple of them to show the kids. When we got home, Doug went outside with the kids to catch lightning bugs and then we decided to take quick baths before bedtime to wash off the stinky deet bug spray. I noticed that when Joshua took off his shirt, he had something black on his back. Doug soon noticed, too, and realized that it was a TICK!! Doug quickly got the tick off of Joshua and the tick hadn't seemed to bury his head into Joshua's skin yet. YUCK!! So, we all began scanning our bodies for bugs and I'll probably have nightmares about bugs tonight! Oh, those pesky bugs. The one downfall to summer!!! Otherwise, it was a great night!

Headmaster's Award!!

We are SO proud of you Joshua!! You graduated from first grade with the Headmaster's Award for all A's all year!!! That is a huge accomplishment and we know that you worked hard for this. You are becoming a such an amazing young man and we enjoy watching you grow and change and develop that traits that the Lord has given you. Wow! I was so honored to be your mom and watch you receive your award! Way to go! Now, you can sit back and relax this summer and have some quality family time in the pool and traveling around. Love you so much! Oh, and to top off the award, you lost your fifth tooth at home on this day as well! For your big accomplishment, you picked out an big Army Jeep to play in the driveway with. We love you!

Bible Memory Award

You brought home the "Bible Memory Award" for excellence from your class today. You have done so well memorizing scripture this year and it constantly amazes me how much you are able to memorize. It helps me memorize scripture as well by helping you! Way to go on a wonderful accomplishment that you can carry with you throughout your life. Keep those verses in your heart!

Walking pneumonia....again!

Joshua has had a fever on and off since last Tuesday (6 days) with coughing, fever (high of 100.8), sore throat, and headache. He missed two days of school last week and missed school today which is the last week of school. It was an up and down week...feeling better one day, run down and fever the next. So...we headed back to the doctor's office today to find the verdict. He was diagnosed with walking pneumonia, and right ear infection. He also had been blinking his eyes frequently and complaining of itchy eyes. He had an vision test which came back 20/20 and Dr Matthews said that he had some conjunctivitis which is related to allergies. So, we headed out of the office with three prescriptions for Azithromycin, albuterol inhaler, and QVar, a new inhaler for long term maintenance of asthma. We should have used the Pulmicort on him to keep his asthma under control, but we thought he was under decent control and so we didn't give it to him. I was told that if we need to use his inhaler more than a couple times a month, he needs to be on a maintenance medication. Live and learn! Maybe now, we can prevent a future case of pneumonia!! Praying that he can enjoy his final week of school relatively sick free with all of the meds he is on now!

Critters in the yard

Bailey had his first official "kill" in our yard today. He caught a mole and held it in his mouth at the door until I saw his catch. He dropped it on the deck and ran inside and the mole did not survive Bailey's jaws...The kids were quite interested in his catch and Taylor asked me if the mole was sleeping! The same day, Taylor had left the garage door open, which is a chronic thing in our household. The other garage door was open as well to the outside. Taylor came up to me and said, "Bird in the house". I said, "What did you say" and she said "Bird in the house". I asked her to show where the bird was, and sure enough, she trotted into the kitchen and pointed to the window. This poor bird was desperately trying to exit the house through a closed window. I opened the one window that is not permanently shut and shooed the bird towards it. The bird quickly found the open window and bolted out of the house. A little excitement in the Harding household today!

I tattooed my daughter...

Well, not really a tattoo! We were helping out at the CCS Booth at the Jonquil Festival and I helped out at the necklace/information area for an hour and then face painting for about a half an hour. Once Taylor saw me paint a heart on a little girl's face, she wanted a heart on her face...a red heart. So, after I was done painting the kids that had come up, I painted a big red heart on her cheek. Her first face painting experience...and it was done by Mommy! I was so honored:) She looked really cute and we had to get a picture of the whole experience. Joshua had fun working the booth and making a cross necklace as well. He got to eat a huge grape flavored sno cone AND a fruit flavored ice cream pop. One happy boy! Next time, we will have to get there even earlier to enjoy the festivities.