September 24, 2016

(click here for pictures)

• Day 4 of Agony (well, not for me but for Tara)  New meds still are better than the first set but it's all temporal.  Tara can definitely feel when the meds wear off. I can always tell because she heads to the shower as it brings a bit of relief.  No real change and more waiting for her.
• The boys slept a bit longer than normal since they were out a bit more later than usual. After a big win by Robinson High, they tagged along with the Wilson's to Senor Tequila for some late night nachos.  So Campbell was the first up, well maybe Whitman was as he joined Tara in bed, but I awoke to Campbell staring in my face. She had wanted me to come wake her at 7:30. Needless to say ... I wasn't up at 7:30.
• Checking email this morning, I noticed the new Pie 5 was accepting reservations for their pre-opening celebration.  I made us a reservation for 1:00 thinking we would need something to do today and to let Tara have a bit of peace and quiet.
• Mom called checking on us and thought we might enjoy going to see the Clydesdales that were in town this week. Word on the street was that they would be making an appearance at the Little Rock Food Truck Festival.  
• We all did a few chores catching up on some that might have been missed earlier this week. Then we ended up scrambling to meet Mom and Dad for the ride downtown and leaving Tara to sleep.
• Downtown was buzzing with people and we finally found a parking spot around 6th Street. Walked a few blocks and finally stopped to ask where the horses were.  Well, they weren't showing up until 1:00 and it was only 11:45 and a bit on the warm side.  The lady said they might still be in their temporary stables at River Front Park.  That was another half mile but we made the trek down there and did find the horses. Our timing was actually pretty perfect - we made it within the trailers before they roped off the area and then were there as they brought the horses from their stables to be dressed and readied for their parade to the food truck festival.  We were definitely up close and personal with the horses ... those are some big horses!
• I made the trek to the car with Whitman and then picked up the others so we could make our reservation at Pie Five. With the chance of free pizza for all, there was a bit of a line but everyone enjoyed getting to pick out whatever pizza they wanted.  We even splurged and bought a big chocolate cookie pizza.
• We made it home to check on Tara around 2:30 - she was still in bed.  So we thought we would clean the potties ... another chore that had been missed earlier this week.  Soon the kids noticed the neighbor kids were outside ... so they invited them in for some Xbox and Wii time. They were only here for about an hour before their mom text to come home.  So we had some down time and movie time.
• Around 5:00 and with the sun finally fading, I decided I better tackle some of the mowing.  I hadn't mowed since August 23 or 24th - so basically a month of now mowing of these 4 acres and it's fairly noticeable.  I guess with the warmer weather and not as much rain this past month - it wasn't really too bad - more weeds than grass. I only got the part around the house down with the push mower but it still looked a lot better.  Meanwhile, all the kids (except Reagan who is still having a blast living the RV life in Branson) were outside as well with me riding bikes and scooters and trying to avoid the many ant piles.  I did bribe them with about 3 popsicles a piece to keep them outside and Whitman did manage to explode a coke can from the outside fridge as he was trying to get a water bottle. (Anderson and Graham were quick to help clean it up ... in fact, I didn't even know about the explosion until I was done mowing and Anderson reported what happened.)
• Everyone came in for showers and it was already 7:00, so kids were eager for supper.  Everyone but Anderson had bbq (Andy had his leftover pizza). The kids then started a movie as we waiting for the Razorback/Aggie game start. 
• Tara joined us for the game and Whitman went to bed.By halftime, the kids were getting pretty tired so they called it a night and asked me to wake them if the Hogs ended up winning. Hope I can make it to the end of the game. I'm tired!