Happy Anniversary!

Today is our anniversary, 11 years! Wow! We had Grandma Joddy and Grandpa Steve come over to babysit and went out to dinner. Wesley was wondering when the anniversary party was going to start. He is always looking for a reason to have a party. He also told me that I was not dressed for the occasion and should put on something "more fancy".

After the gang was settled with their happy meals, Jerry and I headed to Fratello's on the Fox River. We had gone to the Fratello's in Oshkosh when we went to the homeschool convention this spring and enjoyed it. It is pretty much set up the same here in Green Bay. I HIGHLY recommend their homemade root beer! It is so good! We sat out on the patio, enjoying the nice weather and the live music. It was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be (Jer and Roz tried to warn me) but we got there early enough it wasn't a problem.

Got home in time to put the boys to bed. No late nights for this ticking time bomb! After Wednesday's "scare" things have settled down some. I am still having occasional contractions but I the doctor said I'll just have to live with that for now. Tomorrow I will be 35 weeks! [I'm sure you noticed...I moved my little countdown ticker from the bottom of the blog page to the top so we can all see it better!] Everyday makes a difference! Continue to keep us in your prayers for a safe (& quick!) full term delivery.

Four Boys

My Great Uncle Bob was visiting my parents this past week. He is my dad's father's brother...got that?!? Uncle Bob was full of stories about his growing up years (1930's) in Sheboygan and I enjoyed listening to him during our short visit. This weekend, my dad's brothers (my uncles) came in to visit with Uncle Bob as well. In fact, my Uncle Jim flew in from Virginia and surprised everyone! Being the genealogy buff I am, I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see all four brothers together with Uncle Bob so Jerry drove all of us up to my parents for a quick visit. While we were there we took a picture that will go down in my personal photo Hall of Fame. My Grandma La (Dad's mom) had four boys and I have four boys (for now anyway!)...so we lined up both sets in order of birth and took a picture! My boys cooperated better than usual and although none of them were really smiling at least no one was covering their face with their hands or anything. The older four brothers behaved very nicely (and smiled too!) although many groans were heard as they tried to get off their knees and stand up!

Pictured above:
The McCormack Brothers: Jim, Jerry, Denny, and Tyler AND
The Shown Brothers: Wesley, Eli, Justus, and Hayden

Think Pink!!!

No...not what you're thinking...this has nothing to do with baby #6!!! This last weekend was the Pink Flamingo!! For those of you who don't know, it is a charity softball tournament turned city reunion at the park down the street from our house. We enjoy the parade each year as it comes right down our street! It is a great parade, short and sweet. Jerry loves it (he calls the Memorial Day parade the "never ending parade"). The parade consists of homemade team floats filled with a lot of people in pink.

You have two options for the parade you can chose to get a ton of candy or you can chose to have water fights with those on the floats. Our side of the street is a dry (candy) zone. My nephews Carter and John chose the wet zone across the street...and got SOAKED! We ended up with one and a half ice cream pails of candy! I took all the hard candies out for Jer to take to work and still had a whole gallon bucket! Of course, the boys had a blast. Eli was practically dancing in the street he was so excited. Grandma Molly and Pop Pop were able to join us for the festivities this year. Grandma Molly was lucky enough to get a bag of fried chicken from the Swan Club float! Never had that in years past! Thankfully, there were 5 or 6 pieces in there and she was willing to share! It was some tasty chicken too!




For the first time they had a 5K run right before the parade so we went out there a little early and cheered on the runners. Our house was the 3 mile mark so we hung a little sign on the tree that said: "3 Miles...Way to Go!!" along with a pink flamingo Wesley colored. We also hung some flamingos we colored on the front door. On Saturday night, we went down to the park to eat some Pink Flamingo food. Pop Pop and Grandma Molly came along and Abby, John, and family met us down there too! The boys enjoyed their hot dogs while Jerry and I munched on the walking tacos. We also just had to go and to see the helicopter (another new thing this year). A helicopter hovered over the park and dropped 4,000 pink ping pong balls with prizes and coupons on them! It was pretty fun to watch.

After the dust settled, Jerry ended up winning a free drink, a pound of Seroogy's coffee, and a cash prize of a whopping $1 !!! We all got so excited when he came back with a ball that had a dollar sign on it thinking he had won something BIG...oh well, it bought a hot dog! Carter ended up winning a pound of Seroogy's chocolate. We also got a ball that is good for a "prize" at the Toy Box but we didn't go see what it is yet. So mark your calendars for mid-July next year and come enjoy the FUN!

Roz Church Mission Trip

For those of you that don't know Roz went on a church mission trip to Lodge Grass, Montana the last week of June. They drove 2 days in a loaded 15 passenger van, stopping at Mt. Rushmore on the way (see picture). Once in Montana they did various service projects. Roz spent two days at a kids camp with the children on the Crow Indian Reservation and two days painting a house for a local resident. The youth also had rotating kitchen duty and had to make a few meals. They were able to get in a few fun activities like swimming and hiking as well. After another 2 day drive they arrived home safely! They had a great time and hopefully made a difference during their short stay. A special thanks to all of you who helped send Roz with your financial donations to her youth group fund!!

Bay Beach

We went to Bay Beach with Pop Pop and Grandma Molly today. The weather was nice but it was pretty crowded. The boys had a great time! Hayden even went on a ride for the first time. He tried the boats first. Then a little later the fire trucks. He was a rather crabby since he missed his nap but still seemed to enjoy the rides at least. We've been keeping busy while the grandparents are visiting. I'll post some more pictures in the next few days...

Thanks Piggly Wiggly!

This is actually from a few days ago, but I didn't have time to upload the pictures until now. We don't do our regular shopping at Piggly Wiggly but will go there on occasion if we just need something quick. The boys LOVE to go there. When you go through the checkout they give the kids a token that can then be used to get a choking hazard...oops, I mean toy...out of a little machine. We have gotten all sorts of treasures: bouncy balls, baby lizards, sticky eyeballs, rings, etc. The new thing they have stocked is a candy stamper. You lick it and you can then stamp things. When you've had your fun then you just eat the whole thing. Actually, it works out better than one of the little toys that I end up having to throw away on the sly. Here is what the boys looked like after their ride home from Piggly Wiggly with their candy stampers in hand. Oh boy, was that fun! Took a good bit of scrubbing to get those off. Justus, since he had purple, looked like he had bruises all over! Wesley was looking like he was having breathing problems since he was blue around the lips. Eli had red and looked like he was bleeding. "Daddy, when can we go back to Piggly Wiggly?!?"

I don't like Mondays...

I guess I really shouldn't say that since all these things could have happened any day of the week, but since it was Monday we'll just assume that had something to do with it! Also, all these things didn't happen to me some happened to Jerry but since we're married we share. Imagine with me...

Your twins have gotten progressively worse during their 5 (so far) swimming lessons. Today, they both cried through the whole half hour lesson. You try to explain to them you paid $22 for them to learn to swim so they better shape up (actually $44 since you have twins) but they don't care.

While your kids are crying away your $44, you discover an ant infestation in your living room of all places! Not in the kitchen where there are crumbs all over. And you can't figure out where they are getting in. You kill as many as you can by sucking them up in the vacuum but it is an all day battle of you vs. the ants.

When the mail arrives you find out you've met your HIGH deductible (which is the polite way of saying you've spent WAY to much on broken arms, CT scans, and cholesterol meds so far this year). In checking the math however, you discover the insurance company is not paying their 80% of your outrageous prescription costs and then spend the dinner hour on the phone trying to explain to them how it doesn't add up. To no avail, of course, you'll have to talk to the benefits person at work tomorrow instead...

While you are trying to figure out the insurance mess you are trying to access your online account because nobody uses paper any more and the internet continually disconnects, it has been doing this on and off for a long time but as long as you are in a mood you think you can take on AT&T as well. So you spend another hour unplugging & replugging in wires and restarting devices only to be told they don't know what is going on...if you want them to come out it will be $60 minimum.

Time to get the boys ready for bed. You get the toothbrushes all set up and step out of the bathroom for literally 2 seconds. You come back to find your 19 month old has two of the four toothbrushes floating in the toilet--that hasn't been flushed! Yuck! New toothbrushes all around! Thankfully, it is bedtime...but not for you!

The rest of the evening is spent doing things you could have been doing earlier if you hadn't been on hold...dishes, putting laundry away, taking the garbage out, etc. Finally, you are put out of your misery when you fall asleep...thinking Tuesday will be better right?

WRONG! Your glasses break first thing (you fix them as best you can with an Elmer's glue stick) and now you HAVE to make time to go see the eye doctor to get a new prescription to replace the glasses that broke for no apparent reason...

...oh, yeah and you still have to deal with the insurance mess and did I mention your parents/inlaws are coming in today for a visit! Maybe Wednesday will be better...???


[Disclaimer: All of the above it true. The part about the inlaws coming for a visit was mentioned as a "negative" for dramatic effect. We are actually looking forward to their visit! We might actually outnumber the ants when they are here!]

First Lesson for the Twins

Well, today was the BIG day we've all been waiting for...Eli and Justus started swimming lessons. They did so well, I have to admit much better than I thought! Like Wesley last session, they also have a young man for a teacher. His name is Nick and he was very good with the whole group. That first level has to be the hardest to teach. I waited to start them second session thinking it would be warmer by the beginning of July. Hah! It was a chilly 60-something and mostly cloudy. (I think it was in the 80's the first day of the first session.) Gotta love that Wisconsin weather!



I got the boys settled with Nick and headed outside the fence. Justus kept giving me a "thumbs up" and Eli crabbed walked all over the deck while they were going over the safety rules. Who needs safety rules anyway! Then the big moment...off in a little line to get in the BIG pool. As they walked off Eli and Justus held hands for just a minute, it was so cute! Once in the water, it took Eli a minute to figure out he could touch the bottom (barely!) and he was a little scared but he didn't cry (maybe a whimper or two). They sat on the edge and played "Chop, Chop, Timber" (your a tree and when you get cut down you jump in) and Ring Around the Rosy. Justus actually put his face in a little and was able to blow bubbles too! Neither was interested in leaving the wall and mostly just sat on the edge shivering.

In the end there were tears after all. Upon being told class was over Eli started to cry, "My class is oooovvvveerrrr!". Nick and I both told him about a hundred times not to worry he gets to come back tomorrow, but he still cried all the way to the van. He was sad about it up until lunch. I'll have to let you know if their doing so well was beginners luck or if they will continue on!

At the "Sea"

We made a little trip out to the "pirate ship" park this morning. The weather was perfect! Sunny and 70 with a slight breeze and no humidity. The boys played for awhile at the playground. Hayden figured out how to get up the stairs to the little slide so he was having a good time! Jerry helped him on the tire swing as well, which he really enjoyed.






The highlight of the trip was driving down the big hill to the bay, which the boys kept saying was the "sea". They enjoyed throwing rocks into the water and finding sea shells. Watch out when these guys throw rocks...I thought for sure we were going to end up with someone getting a rock in the back of the head. Wesley was looking for turtle eggs and I said with all this rock throwing we were much more likely to see a "goose egg"...he didn't get my little joke and kept asking "where, where?". We saw several boats. Most of which I thought were too small to be out today since the water was a little choppy and the waves were pretty big. I took a little video while we were there and I'll try and get it posted either on here or Dropshots to share.

After we left the park we drove back into town to Burger King for lunch. The boys enjoyed the playland. Then it was back home for naps!