summer cut

today, the last day of june, is the first day maxer proudly wears his hair newly shortened. getting max's haircut has been on my list of things to do for weeks, but there was always something keeping me from scheduling the appointment. last week, for example, max battled with poison ivy and i dared not bring him to booker in fear that the cosmetologists would think he was diseased.





so yesterday i bit the bullet and gave booker institute of cosmetology a call to get max in there yet that afternoon. apparently many people wanted to get haircuts yesterday because amy the sweet lady who answered the phones relayed that the one and only available appointment was in half an hour from right then and there. sometimes, when i want to get max's haircut i just want it done. i was sick and tired of thinking about it, hearing brad gently suggesting that i take care of the ever increasing size of max's head, and i did not want to add another thing to do for the next day, so i said amy, we are on the way. i frantically finished making our sandwiches and was about to drag kids to the van when i remembered i had no cash after an especially pricey aldi outing earlier in the week. that means i would also have to stop at an atm before the appoitment time. even with my most positive attitude and optimistic outlook, there was no way we could make it.





amy and i talked again, this time i admitted my inability to make the appointment i just made and promising to be there at 9am the next morning. my mother in law was planning on watching the kids for me in the morning so i could go to stow company and scan my heart out. i planned to get the haircut out of the way before work and just be productive as possible with my day. after an early waking by me and my children, we were in the veen around 8:30. amazing. i even called brad as this is an accomplishment worth celebrating. when we arrived at booker with 7 minutes to spare, i made a very disappointing discovery: the boys did not have shoes on.





not having enough time to go back to the house, i reprimanded the boys and told them not to make a big deal out of it, maybe no one would notice. flip flops are not all that visible, so bare feet may not stand out to much. wrong. after loading all three into one single stroller, we made it into the salon only to have a lady having a bad day demand my kids where shoes. i do not fault her. because gross. and then the whole hair slivers thing. (she may have made up this evil and painful ailment, but it does sound awful.)





i convinced her i would not let their piggy toes touch the ground. so i had ayla on my hip, max standing on the front of the stroller, and weston riding in the seat. i almost peed my pants trying to get to the chair. but we made it the 10 feet necessary. max did awesome. answering questions sweetly, sitting patiently and not letting his barefeet touch the ground. ayla cooed and smiled and looked adorable all the while she was held close. bear whined, complained and tried to escape the confines of the stroller. i buckled him in and used an amazing amount of restraint in not slapping him upside the head.





$6 later, maxer has a brand new haircut and i have finally written another blog. i would say that is a success, even without shoes!

dr

guess what we did this morning?

here's some hints: we do this a lot lately, it is expensive, and its the title of my post...

thats right! we went back to dr lunds office this morning. this time, we had two items on our agenda: the baby's 9 month well child visit, and bears clavicular concerns.

here is what i know:

ayla jo

cutest little cupcake ever!!

waving, clapping, sniffing, and babbling right on schedule.

weird click of the hip, not so surprising as both me and sister kels can pop our hips out of joint.
little cyst on ring finger of her right hand, something i also have.

no crawling yet, or creeping, but no worries!!

27", 18 lbs 4 oz the 25th and 50th percentile respectively

weston bear

29 pounds, 37 3/4 inches tall

BROKEN clavicle. at long last, his little bod sprouted a calcified deposit that is evidence of a broken clavicle. his first broken bone. poor little bear!

now he just got stung by a bee. not even kidding.

here's what happened before the dr

i was loading up the van with bear, and Bear had to poop. in order to speed up the process, i insisted he use brads bathroom, where we keep harv's kennel. bear screamed hysterically because harv was barking at him and who could poop when that is happening? so i took harv out, chained him to the doorknob, and assisted the pooper. then left.

brad texted me while at the dr "did you forget about harv". why, yes, yes i did forget about harv. no water. 90 degrees. leash stuck so he could not even sit down. whups. sorry harv. brad rescued him.

ps- i did apologize to dr warpol and give her a card. humbled.

celebrations

oh what a weekend of celebratory activity! it all started with a sunny saturday perfect for farming. finally. my boys (yes, all 3) reached new levels of excitement as the tractor began fieldwork again after a super long hiatus due to the rain. my heart burst with love as my baby daddy parented and cultivated the day away with his sons.

sunday afternoon we celebrated my precious baby sister's graduation from west ottawa high school. huge moment. i was honored to have been in attendance along with our bro, dad, mary dykstra (our other mother) and my dads fiance naomi. alex and i arrived a little late, but had super seats thanks to my dads thoughtfulness. the ceremony was concise and full of cliches. when jesus is not a part of your future, it seems overwhelmingly lonely and vast. occasionally the commencement speaker would allude to god, but he was not really front and center as i pray he is for me and for kels. perhaps the most memorable part of the commencement speech, at least to my farming mind, was the following analogy: "the difference between being committed and just being involved can be exemplified by and egg and bacon breakfast. the chicken was involved but the pig was committed." well now, go eat a bacon and egg breakfast, lunch and din din people!!

kels was absolutely gorgeous. the students were sitting in a '11 formation that i did not realize until kelsey told me afterward, but that kinds threw off the whole alphabetical arrangement. we were able to prepare for her walk across the stage in time to scream loudly in excitement and pride.

kelsey lauren, i pray that you align your incredible future with the lords so as to become the fabulous woman god has made you to be as you navigate your independence, education, and career choice. you are beyond gifted in so many areas and have such compassion. i look so forward to participating in your life in these days, years, and months ahead. may they be full of love, joy, and peace. you bless my life and i praise the lord for you!!

we meistes did not make it to the graduation supper my little sis megan hosted as we were busy celebrating our nephew carlos' 15th birthday! brads parents opened their home to us all and we had an enjoyable evening of summertime bliss complete with boat rides, fishing, pizza, sues cake, rhubarb pie and presents for carlos.

so grateful for carlos' presence in our lives. he is a constant reminder of god's faithfulness. his sweet personality and patience with the littles in our family melt my heart. so excited to see how god will work in carlos, and use carlos to work in others this next year of his life!

clavicle

it finally happened.

the fact that this has not happened before now is a testament to the fact that kids are resilient, and possibley made of mostly rubber.

i am referring to my little bear getting an injury that required immediate medical attention. here's how it all went down:

tuesday morning i was feeling energized, refreshed, and ready to tackle some errands with all three cherubs along. after retrieving my replacement knife from teermans, i felt so generous of spirit that i decided to celebrate this accomplishment by heading on over to smallenburg park in holland.

as soon as we arrived, the boys shot out of the veen and ran over to the play structure. oh, fun loving boys, sweet as can be! as i began to unbuckle my adorable little cupcake from her seat, i heard bear start to cry. it was an owie cry. i hear this same cry about 5 million times a day as bear is a wild child willing to climb up and jump off anything. so i finished getting baby ayla and then tended to his tears.

only this boo boo did not get better with a kiss. the crying escalated and other mothers looked rather concerned. and maybe i am just imagining it but they also looked a little judgemental. upon further investigation, bear was holding his arm all crooked and screamed if ever i touched his neck area. then i got worried. i called dr lunds office, thinking maybe his shoulder came out of joint or something. they suggested i bring him down. so away we went.

the entire drive bear screamed, hysterically crying over every bump and repeating his mantry "ooowiee. i want my daddy". dr. lund conducted a preliminary exam and sent us to radiology to get an xray of his clavicle. we registered, waited, and prayed a lot. on the walk down the long hallway to the xray room, bear tripped and fell and howled anew with pain. my heart literally broke in half.

we went back to the dr's office to wait for the results. no break. then grandma came. dr lund felt bear should get a neck xray to rule out any vertebrae injury. this caused mass confusion as i missed the fact that a neck xray requires the er. i apologized profusely to all the registration nurses, xray peeps and other patients as i then came to grips that an er visit would cost us at least $1200, with the cost of more xrays in addition to that.

i hate that my mind went to the financial aspect when my son is in pain. do not get me wrong, i would absolutely sell the farm to pay for anything this boy needs, i just knew there had to be a better option. there was. urgent care. zeelands did not open til 5 so we went to hollands urgent care facility in zeeland. baby ayla went with grandma to nap and i dragged the boys both to another dr.

we arrived and registered and demonstrated and bear cried and talked two more doctors and when we were trying to leave my efforts to lift bear down from the table resulted in excruciating pain and much tears. so we reevaluated and discussed and got suckers and ate suckers and maxer got some wrapper stuck in his throat. drs and i determined no other xrays were needed and we would go to a follow up appt the next week. maxer's throat problem progressed to an all out gag fest and necessitated a trip to a drinking fountain were he tried to make himself vomit to get that tiny piece of wrapper out of his throat. he was successful and i charmingly informed the other mother in the waiting room that my son did not have the flu, only a bit of wrapper stuck so she need not worry about all the gagging. said mother and i are NOT bffs.

fast forward to thursday: another call from dr lund asking for another dr visit and another xray. unfortunately, i was at the end of my rope seeing my son all in pain and tears and discomfirt and not getting any results. add to that the gnawing knowledge of how much this is going to cost, hundreds of hundreds of dollars, and i was bratchy to the dr. i know. that is awful. i feel rotten about it and will be making her cookies. i actually said "well, we will go ahead and get a small loan and be back next week. thanks"

people, do not judge me. just say a prayer that next time i will be jesus and not some mommy monster to poor dr warpol. absolutely i am convicted that jesus gave me an opportunity to demonstrate self control, a fruit of the spirit, and i failed. miserabley. "but put on the lord jesus christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" romans 13:14

so here we are: no real answers, a swollen clavicle, a sore neck, a lot of whining, and now

some improvements like carrying his sippy cup with right arm. thank you jesus. stay tuned for further developments. or injuries.

a memorable memorial

memorial day was everything it should be: beautiful, summery, filled with family and good food. we took advantage of the holiday by taking the family to the beach!

with the amazing recreation pass deal i bought with our license renewal tabs, the meistes actually got to park right in the parking lot instead of down the road a ways. i felt a little rockstar ish about the whole thing. and extra friendly to the toll dude. poor guy

oh bliss. sweet, summery, bliss.

we arrived early in the day and rolled right into a primo parking spot. a beautiful breeze greeted us and we walked the pier to check out boats and fishermen. that big fuzz behind my head in this pic is just my hair, do not be alarmed. summer brings out the frizz. i am really counting on my little cupcake ayla to be cute enough for the both of us these days.

the boys especially enjoyed seeing all the dead fish on the pier. exciting!

the sun was shining big and bright.

eventually, we planted ourselves alongside the pier in the midst of dunes, and grass, and trees.

can we just take a minute to admire this pic of my studly husband 60 pounds lighter? hot!

the spot was absolutely perfect for our explorers, and first time beach goer. brad and i lounged together for about 2.5 seconds before we realized our boys were getting ever braver in their little jaunts down the dune. then we alternated our positions and soaked up the sun while chasing boys or scraping sand off our girl.

we utilized the swings, the bathrooms, and the sidewalks all to the delight of the entire fam. when we departed around 1, there was a line to get into the beach all the way to obi. great minds the alike :)

at the homefront, the temp was a climbing inside our house as well as out. apparently my attempts at suggesting we turn on the air conditioning were perceived much more as complaints. finally, brad sternly said he would agree to turn the air on if i agreed to stop complaining. he finished the bargain by saying if i complained again, he would smash the thermostat right off the wall. for those of you who do not know brad well, this was said with good humor and fun. he is not an angry man and really a jokester. before i could sign on the dotted line, max intervened:

no daddy. then you will go to jail. we wont be a family anymore. everyone will be sad"

well that sure stopped us in our banter. where in the world did that come from?! funny! we both assured maxer that his concocted scenario would never happen and we were still happily in love, the night continued on with love all around.

no more soap operas for mommy! just kidding, i really do not watch soaps. because when? and my life is drama enough!