Long weekend....and Galveston pictures

It was a long weekend. I'm so tired of someone in our house being sick....this month it's been one thing after another. Grant first got this stomach thing on Thursday afternoon, but on Friday he acted like he felt okay (he just had no appetite). So Saturday morning, we gave him some milk. Big mistake! He threw up again, but then seemed to feel okay. My parents came in town that day for a few hours, and while they were here I started feeling nauseous. They left around 3pm, and a couple hours later I got sick. But it really only lasted a few hours, and then by the end of the night I was feeling a lot better (just weak).

Then this morning Dean woke up with it. He hasn't moved from our bedroom all day.....he definitely has it worse than I did. I was hoping to be able to rest today, but I was by far the more healthy of the two of us.....so I was alone with the boys all day. It's so frustrating when weekend days are just like weekdays. We couldn't go to church, which I was really looking forward to because they were having a potluck lunch (and we still don't feel like we know people very well, so I was excited about going to that). Things like that don't come up very often at church, but inevitably those seem to be the weekends that something like this happens.

And I was just so short with the boys.....so resentful that I can never have any time to myself, even when I'm sick. So I was getting upset with Grant for backtalking and mistreating Drew, but I just had no energy to try to discipline him correctly. So instead I just yelled and fussed at him a lot. Then at around 7pm, Drew kept trying to grab Grant's trains that he was playing with, and he shoved Drew a few times before I took him upstairs and put him to bed. I know that in order for him to learn the correct way to behave, I need to be consistent in disciplining him (instead of just getting angry), but this is so hard to actually do. Especially when I've been around them all day long, and all I want is a break. It's so much easier just to drop him in his room and be done with it.

Things are just really hard right now. Even having friends over isn't easy.....it drives me crazy to not be able to have more than a 10-second conversation with a friend because one of the kids is crying or needing something. It's nearly impossible to have an in-depth conversation with someone when you have small kids around. They're just so dependent right now. I just want them to be a little older so I can do fun things with them (instead of just feeling like a babysitter). And believe me, if we could afford to put both of them in school (or to put Grant in for more than 2 days per week), we would! I know they'll both be there next year......

Okay, here are some pictures from Palm Beach in Galveston, when I took the boys about 10 days ago.The boys had the most fun just playing here on the beach part....we were just about the first people there that day, so we claimed a good spot right next to the water. There are a lot of different parts to the park, but Grant was actually pretty afraid of doing very much (probably because it was our only time to go this summer). We went a few times last year, but I'm sure he doesn't remember it!



Drew found a rock, so of course that means that Grant MUST have it!

Drew is learning to protest when his big brother takes something away from him. Unfortunately, there's not much he can do about it yet except to cry (although he has slapped at Grant a few times in frustration, which is quite funny to watch)!

It's so hard getting a good picture of them together (where both of them look reasonably happy and one isn't trying to mess with the other). I thought this one was pretty cute....

Grant was a good little helper and pushed Drew's stroller all the way to and from the parking lot. I know I complain about Grant a lot, but the moments that he's not being a little stinker, he's actually quite a gentleman (and is proud of himself when he helps out). It seems like it's always one extreme or the other!