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I want to thank my family and friends for their good wishes and fun surprises. I had a great birthday. I was surprised with a bouquet of sunflowers delivered to work from Miranda and Rob. They sent me a piece of Kansas. Sunflowers are Kansas' state flower. Who knew?

My co-workers took me out for lunch at Baratta's, which a is quaint family owned Italian restaurant. I had a delicious steak salad. When I got home I had flowers waiting for me on the front porch. Sara and Marnie sent beautiful arrangements. Eric and the boys took me to dinner at Bennigan's. Eric surprised me with the 2nd season of "The Office." My main gift was a new gas grill! We found it at Sears 2 weeks ago, on sale. Oh yeah! I have cooked on it almost every night.

Tonight we are headed to Wisconsin. We are going to celebrate my birthday and Justin turning 30 on May 3rd. My mom is going to watch all four kids Saturday afternoon, so the four of us can go out and celebrate. Then Saturday night my grandparents are going to stay with the kids, after we put them in bed. "The Brittians" are playing at a bar in Milwaukee. They play all Beatle tunes. It should be fun.

Tony-Our Little Swinger

He just giggles and grins every time he gets to swing. I think our record is 30 minutes straight. I then talked him into sliding. That last about 5 minutes, and wanted back in the swing for another 20 minutes.

The Braves

Chase pointed out that the "A" on his hat stands for Agans. We weren't going to argue with him.

Pampered

Last night I had my first facial and manicure. Last Mother's Day I bought Delana a gift certificate to the spa for a facial, manicure and massage. I have been on her for months asking if she went yet. Last month she says, "Please don't be offended, but I am giving this back to you to use. You need it more than me. Plus I am not comfortable with having someone touch me and my face is sensitive, and I can only use Mary Kay products. So please go and use it."

Okay, I wasn't going to fight her on it. So I made an appointment and went last night. I left feeling so good. My hands were super soft, my nails all filed and painted. I was there for over 2 hours. The massage therapist worked 5 knots out of my back. She said I would be sore today, and I am! However, it is a good kind of sore. I have decided that at least once a year I will treat myself to this.

Batter Up

I missed Tee ball sign up for Chase back in January. I didn't know they did it that early. So I found the website and filled out the paper work and paid an extra $10 for late registration. I then noticed that the age cut off for t-ball is April 30th. The age bracket is 5-6. So I put a note in the registration and said, "I would like Chase to play t-ball. His birthday is 5 weeks after the cut off. If you can make an exception, that would be great. Otherwise send back my money and we will sit out a year." Bam-Bam was fine for one year, but it would be a waste of time and money for another season.

I didn't hear anything forever, and finally we got a call from his coach the week before Easter. He ended up on a team with older kids. Most of his teammates are 5 almost 6, and two are 6. However, a couple of the kids have never played before, so Chase will do fine with some practice.

Dale has a tee ball stand and net for Chase to practice hitting into. He has been working with Chase most afternoons for 20 minutes or so. His throwing and batting has improved immensely already. Eric took him to get a new glove. They now make gloves with synthetic material that is already flexible and soft. So Chase can open and close his glove. The biggest thing we have to work on is his catching. He is afraid to catch the ball.

His first game was last Saturday. Only 6 of the 9 kids showed up on his team, but they covered pretty well. The other team had all 10 players, so their batting took a lot longer. In t-ball each kid gets to bat and run the bases, there are no outs. Each team keeps going until the hour is up. They play with a ball that is softer than a hardball, but they still make the kids wear batting helmets. I didn't know you were suppose to buy your own. Chase now has his own batting helmet. Good thing Wal-Mart sells them for less than $10 bucks. His games are only on Saturdays, so he is going to miss 4 or the 10. Two of them we will be in WI and the other two are for Miranda's and Meagan's wedding.

Say No to Cows

On Thursday Anthony started running a 101 temp. Friday morning he woke up and still had one. I also noticed his left ear was draining again. We already had follow up appointment scheduled with the ENT doctor, so I kept him home with me and we went to that at 1:30. I knew he had another ear infection. The 4th one in 2 1/2 months. He had just finished his last round of antibiotics five days earlier.

As soon as we walked in, Anthony recognized where we were and started crying. I finally got him calmed down and then they called us in. So the crying started all over again, and didn't stop until we left. The doctor came in his right ear was just fine, however his infected ear had a lot of fluid, and he wanted to suck it out. Myself and two nurses had to hold him down while the doctor did that. It was awful, I was almost in tears.

After that the doctor said he thinks Anthony eating dairy products could be the culprit to his chronic ear infection, runny nose and even eczema! So for the next month he wants all dairy eliminated. Now, when he was first tested for allergies, milk came up we switched to soy milk. However, the allergist said he could still have yogurt and cheese. I thought it was strange, but hey he is the specialist. Well, now everything is out. The doctor said after 30 days we will then let him eat as much dairy for one day as he wants. We will then see what kind of reaction he has. The doctor thinks he will outgrow this allergy, but the key will be moderation in the future.

I went to four grocery stores on the south side and none of them carry soy yogurt or cheese. I was up in Ankeny Monday night and found yogurt and cheese there. The yogurt is kind of tart, so he only ate two bites. I will have to put some Splenda in, and see if he will eat it that way. My concern is that he gets enough calcium. Prior to this he was eating 2 yogurts and a cheese stick a day. I am now making sure to read every label.

Easter Weekend

This year I was volunteered to run the Easter egg hunt at church. Saturday morning was a brisk 38 degrees, but the Easter egg hunt must go on. We decided to have registration, prizes and snacks in the fellowship hall. That way the kids would only be in the cold for less than 5 minutes. I had three different age groups. 2-4, 5-7 and 8-11. We had 45 kids show up, and we put out 300 eggs. So all the kids had a chance to find plenty of eggs. Chase had lots of fun.

After the egg hunt we went home to color eggs. I had everything ready and then realized I hadn't boiled the eggs yet! So the coloring was delayed until after lunch. I didn't think Anthony would want to do it, but he was very excited. I covered the counter in newspaper and let him have at it. I took one of Chase's white crayons and showed him how we could write our names on the egg shell and then color it.

We then all took naps. I was able to get 30 minutes, which helped me to keep going. Sara and I then started on making dinner. Stephanie and her three kids came over for dinner and games. They weren't able to come over Easter Sunday, so we had an early celebration. Sara and I made cheese dip, beef and chicken enchiladas. Sara also made some brownies for dessert. Everything turned out really good. I was so grateful to have her there for the weekend to help, since I wasn't running on full capacity.

After dinner we played Apples to Apples. Chris, Justin and Kira joined Stephanie, Sara and myself. Eric had a terrible headache and went to bed at 7pm. We had a delightful time playing and laughing. Chase and Anthony played and then it was bath time. So I missed a few rounds in the game, but I still managed to win a game! We have a new ritual now before bath time. The boys strip down and then go streaking through the house laughing. Well, Saturday night was no different. Even though we had guests, Tony went running into the living room. Stephanie and Sara screamed, which caused Anthony to laugh hystrically. He then decided it was a game. He would run down the hall and then back into the living room, waiting for us to scream again. This went on for 10 minutes. Well, Chase didn't want to miss out on the attention, so we then he appeared naked. It was quite a sight.

Sunday morning the boys got up and hunted for eggs and their Easter baskets. Anthony found two eggs and then gave up. Chase found his baskets for him. The Easter bunny brought one and then Sara brought baskets for the boys as well. So they really made out. We then went to church and then scooted home to get dinner ready. Lisa, Sanchez, Shayna, Jody and his two kids Sam and Josh were coming for dinner. I took the easy way this year, and bought a pre-cooked ham that only need to be warmed. Well, it didn't get warm in the oven, so we ended up slicing it and microwaving it, which worked out great. I should have done that from the git go.

After everyone left, Sara, myself and the boys walked over to the park. We played there for an hour and then headed back. It was cool out, but it was nice to get out of the house and stretch our legs.

Sara had business up in Dike, IA on Monday afternoon, so she was able to stay until Monday morning, which gave us some extra time to visit. I went to work Monday morning exhausted. I needed to go to work just so I could sit down and catch my breath!

Brotherly Love

Help, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

For the last seven months, a group of co-workers have been meeting in the gym over our lunch hour to play volleyball two or three times a week. It has been a lot of fun and we are getting better the more we play. Well I have always been competitive and I don't like standing back to watch the ball get pummeled at me.

Last Wedneday we were playing, and I was at the net. I jumped up to block the ball and Scott who was on the other side, also was up trying to spike the ball. When I came back down I landed on his foot and rolled my right ankle. I was paralized with pain. I couldn't move for a minute or two. I then got up. I walked around and continued to play for another 20 minutes. I couldn't jump anymore, but I was getting by. I have a hard time giving up volleyball, if you couldn't tell.

I went into the locker room to change and took off my shoe. My ankle was swollen big time. I was having to limp. I ran into my supervisor and he told me to go home immediately. He said to follow the RICE regiment. Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. It started bruising really quickly. I woke up Thursday morning and it was still very swollen and black and blue all around the outside of my ankle and down to my heal and then towards the middle of my foot. I worked on Thursday and kept icing and elevating it all day. My supervisor brought me his crutches so I could use them at home.

I had taken Friday off so I could clean and shop for Easter. I woke up Friday morning and I was able to put pressure on it. I found that as long as I was moving it didn't hurt. Once I sat down and rested, then it would throb. So opted to keep moving.

Perhaps I am paying the price now, because all day Tuesday and now today it has been giving me a lot of pain. However, the swelling is gone and I just have the bruising. I have a brace which is helping give my ankle more support. So for the time being I am laying off the volleyball.

A Surprise Birthday Party

On Monday the 2nd, I went to pick up the boys. I walked in the house and was greeted with singing, decorations and candles glowing on a cake. I wasn't sure what was going on. After everyone got done singing, I said, "Thank you, but it isn't my birthday yet."

Delana was sure she had missed my birthday. She was looking at her calendar and saw that she had written down March 26th for my birthday. Well, she and Dale had been sick on the 26th, so she was feeling just terrible for missing it. Chase made decorations, we had cake, pizza and she gave me a beautiful arrangement of flowers. We had a great time celebrating. It was the first time I had surprise party, and I was really surprised! Delana couldn't believe she had mis- marked her calendar. Everyone gave her kudos for being early this time. I was very touched by her kind gesture.