Tiger Day

Landon had Tiger Day on Saturday at one of the local Cy-Fair VFD Stations, Station #11 by Lone Star College.  This was only for all of the new cub scouts, Tigers, (Tiger rank is for 1st grade) in our district, Big Cypress.  Since it was raining all day Saturday the event was moved into the fire station.  The kids got to climb into all of the apparatus, see a fireman in all of his gear, participate in a session on physical fitness where they earned their first belt loop, draw/discuss home exit plans in case of a fire, emergency phone numbers, etc.  An ambulance had to go out on a call so the kids enjoyed the lights and sirens.  Of course Emerson's favorite part was searching for and chasing after the fire house kitty the whole time.  Once the rain was down to only a drizzle they pulled out the pumper truck and let each kid take a turn with the fire hose.  Landon was in heaven!  He giggled the entire time and loved it.  The pictures we took are so cute as they show just how much he liked it.  The fireman even let the kids squirt the back of the fire truck and Landon enjoyed that immensely as he's not allowed to just squirt down our cars/trucks unless he is helping Jason wash them.  It was a nice quick little event for Landon's 1st Cub Scout experience since he missed the rally and the pack meeting due to being sick.  We've gone through the Tiger handbook and completed the Bobcat badge and he has his first den meeting this week.  I think he will like it since he knows a few of the boys from school and baseball.  The first campout is at the end of October and I know he will LOVE that.  We will see how Jason fares!  I love how Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts teaches the kids so many important life lessons, lessons you can't get from sports.  They emphasize God and country, community service, safety, being responsible, and how to build desirable qualities of character (among many, many others).  All good things that Landon needs.  I also want him to be in an environment where he will be accepted for who he is especially with the looming diagnosis of some sort of MD/muscle disease as we don't know right now what's on the horizon for him.  I noticed at our pack meeting there were a few kids with Down Syndrome and Autism and they just meshed with all of the other kids.

I had to include this picture as they look so much like each other here.  Same silly cheesy smile too!

A Not So Happy Birthday

**Warning- if you are squeamish about throw up, you might not want to read below**

Jason's 36th birthday was on Sunday.  We had all of these great plans that quickly went out the window.  Landon and I got home on Saturday night around 10:45pm after the A&M game.  As we got Landon bathed and in bed we went to Emerson's room to check on her.  Jason bent down to kiss her head as she was deeply sleeping and he immediately pulled his head back and yelled, "AHHHH!!".  I instantly knew what that meant and up close I saw the puke EVERYWHERE.  It was literally caked in her hair, on both pillows, the headboard, and even on her chair on the floor by the bed.  Once we woke her up she starting freaking out.  Jason handled damage control while I bathed her.  It took 20 minutes to get all of the chunks of food out of her hair.  Gross!!!  I about tossed my cookies a few times too.  So, we knew that she got the lovely stomach bug that Landon had on Thursday and Friday.  The nurse called me on Thursday around 3pm telling me to come pick him up as he threw up in the gym during PE.  When I asked her if he just over-exerted himself she said, "Well, from what I was told it was pretty explosive and he even got 3 kids!".  Yep, one of the kids he puked on was his sweet girlfriend, Carolyn, from across the street.  Poor girl!  I told him next time to aim for the bully that calls him names!  :)  She said the stomach bug was heavily going around school so it was our turn.  He threw up several times (including an unexpected time on the couch!)  and had stomach pains up until about 10:30pm.  We made a pallet (with a huge shower curtain covering our carpet) on our bedroom floor and he did fine all night.  Come morning time he was asking for toast and jello and seemed better but I kept him home just to be safe.  That was the end of his puke journey.  Wish Emerson's was that easy!  We made her the same pallet on our floor and finally got to bed around 11:30pm that Saturday night.  She then threw up seriously every 10 minutes until after 3am.  It was bad!  Sometimes it was just saliva.  She would scream loudly and she got so upset.  Poor baby!  It felt like having a newborn again.  We were running out of towels, sheets and blankets.  I caught her in time a few times to get her face in the trash can.  Come morning the diarrhea began too.  Fun times!  She ate not a thing all day Sunday.  Two sips of Sprite and she threw that up too.  So, Jason's day of birthday plans were shot.  We stayed in our pj's all day.  I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, picked up Jason's cookie cake, and then we just ordered pizza for dinner.  For his birthday the kids colored him pictures/wrote him notes, gave him a new Texans Tervis mug, and a Jason Aldean sticker...that went along with what I got him.  I got him tickets to see Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan in October.  I also created a cute photo collage in Picasa with an idea from Pinterest but it didn't turn out how I wanted.  I was rushed and Landon was sick when I was taking the pictures.  We went to bed Sunday night thinking despite Emerson not eating/drinking she was all better and ready to go to school.  Nope!   She immediately threw up her breakfast on the counter, more diarrhea, and then she threw up water later ALL over the floor.  I knew she needed to see the doctor as she was dehydrated.  Once we got some Zofran from the doctor she was good to go.  It took another day or two until she was eating normal but it did the trick.  Those extra doses sure will come in handy for the next round of the stomach bug, that's for sure!  We did try Emetrol (OTC) with Landon that seemed to work but it only lasted 5 minutes in Emerson's system.  So weird how the same sickness can affect each person differently.  So glad we are past it!!  Whew!  All of this to say, Happy Birthday Jason/Daddy!!  We love you so much and you are such a blessing to us.  Maybe we can officially celebrate soon with dinner as we planned on going to Salt Grass Steakhouse that Sunday.   Life just continues to throw us curve balls!!

Emerson was feeling somewhat okay here, probably because she had nothing in her system all day.

A&M vs South Carolina State

Last Saturday was the Texas A&M vs South Carolina State game.  This time Landon went with us since it was a 6pm game and it wouldn't be too hot.  Not sure when Emerson will go to a game.  Landon first went when he was 3 years old, but even at 4 I don't think Emerson would last.  Landon is interested in at least watching the game and keeping up with the score and when he's not he is good at entertaining himself with simple things.  Emerson, not so much!!  We left around 1:30 and first headed to HEB in College Station so Andy could visit his co-workers and friends for a little bit and then we dropped him off at a friend's house where he stayed and hung out while we went to the game.  It was good for him to get out of the house and to see one of his good friends.  We then headed to Cotton Patch for an early dinner and then to the campus for the game.  We walked around, checked out the newly remodeled MSC, amazing how nice it is now, and watched the corps march in.  We then headed in to our seats for the pre-game activities.  Landon loved listening to and watching the band especially since he recognized all of the songs and being on the look-out for Revile.  I showed him the place where all of the former Revile's are buried.  He asked me why the score board was outside of the stadium and I had to explain to him that they are there for all of them to see.  He didn't quite understand that!  The fly over never disappoints except for the fact that they were about 30 seconds off and flew over right before we began to sing the national anthem.  My parents have had season tickets for about 12 years and they have never seen that before.  Landon really enjoyed the game and he dictated the score to us each time there was a score.  He would loudly say, "The Aggies have 14 and the bulldogs have 7, we are winning!!".  Or all worried he would say, "The other team scored, I hope they don't catch up!".  He would do this each time and the people around us thought it was so cute.  Of course a favorite was the Aggie band at halftime as he stood in the seat with his arm around my dad intently watching and of course asking questions.  Priceless!  He was also highly entertained with the spray bottle/fan and when he wasn't watching the game he played with it which kept him nice and quiet.  And what's a football game without some kettle corn and a snow cone.  I think he almost ate the whole bag of popcorn on his own!  It was a great evening and an even better game since we stomped them after a slow start in the first quarter.  I like games like this as I can't handle close games like the first game against Florida.  I get frustrated and stressed with close games!  I take football seriously.  Maybe I should skip the rest of the SEC games??  Don't know if I can handle it.

Reggie McNeal was the honorary captain of the game.  He was the quarterback starting back in 2002.

Love to see so many players praying before the game

My favorite coach, RC Slocum, was inducted into some hall of fame.  He's such a great guy and I loved having him as our coach for all of those years.

Documenting the score as we won't see a score like that for a while

Watching half-time and the Aggie band

Entertainment at its finest!

Back at home Jason and Emerson went to dinner and watched the game at Nana and Grandpa's house.  Emerson loves her one-on-one time with us!