Out of town - again.

I guess this post will be about me and not the kids. That doesn't happen very often. I am in a hotel in Orlando Florida missing my cute family and getting ready to go home. At the same time, I am enjoying myself very much. Every year, my company throws a user's conference. Earlier this year, I received a promotion to product manager and my career - life has changed a lot since then! For this conference, I have given 6 different presentations in 4 days. One in front of the entire group (~250 people). I have gotten reacquainted with customers and colleagues that I spent a lot of time back in the day before I had kids and stopped traveling. I have also met a lot of people that I have only spoken to over the phone for the last few years. I am very lucky to have some of the greatest people to work with. My new job as product manager means that I am responsible for determining the future road map for our product. It means that I have to listen to my customers and then decide what will be best for all of us. I have spent many years of my career taking the customer requirements - creating a design document and then working with programmers to develop the software to the requirement of the users, but I was never the one that decided which features to include. It is scary to be in this position, but it is also really exciting. I love working with people who have a passion for their jobs and are dedicated to protecting their employees and the environment. Also, the hotel is amazing! There are alligators in the pond outside of my room in a giant atrium. Crazy! I also found out today that I get to go to Germany the first week of November. I will be getting a new passport as soon as I go home.

The best part is that tomorrow my brother David and his family are coming from Tampa to visit me. I cannot wait to see them and meet their little baby Lucas for the first time. It is also wonderful that my parents flew out to CdA last weekend to spend this week with my family. It is much easier to relax and concentrate here when I know they are home taking care of my boys (including Tyler). Apparently, mom made them meatloaf and it was the best thing they had ever eaten. Definitely not one of the meals that I make; I still do not eat hamburger and have not since I was 11 years old. We don't usually have it at our house, but Tyler had a client that gave him 20 lbs as a thank you. It has been fun teasing him about what he will get next - chickens, pigs?

I will be home Friday - my boys better get ready for lots of hugs and kisses. I miss them!

Happy Birthday to Sam!

Sam turned 4 on the 15th. This was a fun birthday year; Sam asked every day for several weeks, "what day is it today?" He was very excited. As excited as he was, he could not tell us what he wanted for his birthday presents. He could only provide general instructions like, "I want that star wars guy, and that star wars be-hicle (vehicle)." Tyler's parents came, and we decided that we would just take him to Toys R Us and let him show us what he liked. Then he went to the car with grandma; grandpa, Jack, and I stayed behind and picked out some of the items. He also wanted everything spiderman. I decorated the kitchen table, and he was so cute and excited when he woke up. He about burst when he saw his presents all wrapped up and waiting. He kept picking them up and asking me, "Is this one my star wars guy?" He would go through the whole list of items that he saw at Toys R Us. After church, we opened presents, sang, and had cake. He was so excited about everything he opened. It was a lot of fun to watch him concentrate on opening. I love this picture of him with his tongue hanging out. That is such a "Ballard" thing.
I am also glad that he was thrilled with his spiderman cake. I get off pretty easy when all he needs is a spiderman candle to be thrilled with his cake.

Then we went for a drive to explore a new area. We found people picking huckleberries, so we joined the fun. We picked enough to make a home made huckleberry cobbler. Sam sat on a stump and ate huckleberries. Jack was all business and picked his purple little fingers off. Logan enjoyed being carried in the back pack and loved getting a huckleberry popped into his mouth every once in a while. For dinner, Sam requested pasta bake. I also made chicken parmesan and everyone gobbled up dinner.

I don't know where the time has gone, I still think of Sam still as my baby. He is getting all lanky and grown up. I miss his chubby hands and feet. Luckily, his cheeks are still soft and squishy, and oh that grin...! He also tells me that I am beautiful almost every day. I love my Sam!

It also must be documented that this is the 3rd year in a row that he got to his cake before it was served and used his fingers to get a little taste!

Are you kidding me?!?

It has been crazy around here. I got back from my trip to Alabama and then my brother Steve and his family came to visit the next week. We had so much fun, and I planned to post all about it, but Emily posted today and she did a great job. If you want to read about it, click here.

After they left, I had the busiest week of my whole life. I had several deadlines at work, a busy YW week, swimming lessons, scouts, and everything else that comes along with 3 little boys. I ended up working until swimming lessons almost every night, then staying up late to get everything else done. That would have been enough, but Sam started throwing up and had a fever - again. Being the best mom on the planet, I gave him Tylenol and made him go to swimming lessons. In my defense, what was I supposed to do with him while the other two had swimming lessons and swimming lessons are expensive! Don't worry I still feel guilty. Then Sam stuck his tongue out at me (in a totally darling way, not a naughty way :) cuz that is what kind of kid he is cuz I am such a great mom). It was covered in a white crust. So gross! From experience, I knew that Sam had a nasty strep infection and needed antibiotics. I took him into the instant care, they did a rapid strep test, and sure enough it was strep. We picked up the yucky pink medicine and started the fun. He felt better after the first dose, so we went about our daily routine. This consisted of me realizing at 2:30 in the afternoon that no one had eaten and asking Jack to feed them lunch. Nice.

Fast Forward to Tuesday. Work has calmed down, and things are almost back to normal when I notice that Sam has some spots on his belly as he got out of the pool. I called his pediatrician and scheduled an appointment for the next morning. When he woke up, he looked like this.

We rushed in and guess who is allergic to penicillin. He has had it several times without a reaction, and he had 8 out of 10 days worth of medicine, but from now on - penicillin is forbidden! I kept him home from swimming lessons last night; can you imagine what you would think if a kid got into the pool looking like this? The dilemma is what to do today. It is the last day, and Tyler is in Canada. Do I take him and risk the stares? Should I make a t-shirt that says, "I am not contagious!"? Or do I skip it all together and go the grand opening of Hobby Lobby?

The Great Goggle Debacle!

Maybe, I should buy this poor kid some goggles. The problem is that I hate goggles. They never fit right, so the kids spend the whole time at swimming lessons adjusting their goggles instead of learning how to swim. The rubber piece breaks off, so you have to tie them with knots. Then they don't adjust properly, they are too loose, or too tight. All of these problems trigger whining.

This year, I have deflected the goggle request, but the other kid in Jack's classes has goggles. Oh the horror! Yesterday about a 1/2 hour before we left for lessons, Jack came up with a brilliant plan. I am pretty proud of myself. Instead of telling him that there was no way this was going to work, I took his directions, tied his knots, and almost kept a straight face. When he saw me smiling he said, "You are going to take a picture of this and put it on your blog aren't you?" Yes goofball, I am! After the bottles failed, he found a second alternative. A battery package was a lot closer to the proper shape, but alas it did not keep water out of his eyes. Then he asked Tyler to buy him goggles. Tyler said no, and he cried. Good times!