the Schrader 5

We are back to reality! School started today and the temperatures warmed up to the Florida norm. The boys did remarkably well this morning getting up early, showering, having breakfast, and getting out the door. Noah's day got progressively worse, but I'll share that story in a minute.

Will had his first horseback riding lesson on Saturday morning. Since our new computer arrived Friday afternoon and Chris does not have everything set up yet, I have no pictures to share just yet. Chris has been working hard all weekend getting everything up and running on the new computer so you are only safe from pictures for a short while! At any rate, Will absolutely loved horseback riding. He really likes his instructor. He rarely comments on anything and said that Hope is very nice when we got in the van. Sunday was a relaxing day. I was finally able to ride my bike a bit on Saturday and Sunday. My back is healed enough to not be in complete agony when I get home! After my ride Sunday, I promised the boys that I would take them for a ride to the park. I strapped their tennis rackets on my bike and off we went. I brought my book along to read while they played tennis. Well, Will lasted about 2 minutes on the court with Ethan and then was off to the playground with Noah. Since Ethan didn't have a partner that left me to fill the vacancy. It was a big mistake. I thought I was taking it easy while I was playing, but obviously not. My back has been killing me since. It is still better than it was though, so that is good!

So, I got radioed during my lunch today by the nurse. My first reaction when I heard her calling me was that Ethan was up there complaining about his ear. His ear was hurting all day Sunday. Well, it wasn't Ethan. She said she didn't want to explain it over the radio and that I needed to come up to the clinic. So, I get up there and Noah is sitting there looking quite cross. As it turns out, he spilled his juice all over himself at lunch and his shorts were soaked. The shorts that Nurse Lisa had given him were not at all meshing with his fashion standards. They were too big, ugly, and most of all didn't match his shirt! So, I was called to get him to back to class in the "ugly" shorts. After explaining to him that we had no other shorts to offer, and we indeed were not the klutzes that spilled the juice he was off to class. When we got home he got on the step stool on the pantry to plan out his dinner and fell right on the big Kitchenaid mixer. He got a nasty bruise and huge bump on his shin. We iced it as long as we could before we had to leave to take Hanzie to the vet. While at the vet he hit his shin on the chair and was crying in pain when the vet came in. He kindly offered to give Noah a shot of something to make it feel better. Well, Noah just said, "You're not a real doctor!" Umm... well I had to explain to Noah that he was indeed a real doctor. Noah said, "Yeah for animals!!!" He was so upset from his bad day that he passed out on the couch the second we got home from the vet. The poor guy had to be woken up just minutes later to go to football practice!

Hanzie got a shot of cortisone. Hopefully that will help with his allergy issues. He was also given an antibiotic in case his paws are infected. He has completely chewed off one pad on each front paw. It looks horrible and he can't even walk! He also needs to continue on his Benadryl routine. He takes two each morning and two each evening. They haven't seemed to help much this year. This is the time of the year when he should be out enjoying the dog park, dog beach, and parks. Instead he is stuck inside and miserable!