hello

Hi everyone!
I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July. We went up to Washburn with my parents and sister and Vinnie, Nic and Gianni. We had a great time!! Spent the night on the 3rd and went home on the 4th. The kids had a great time lighting off fireworks on Tuesday night. Wed we went to the parade in Ashland and they got a TON of candy!! Then they played outside all day long in the sprinkler. Everyone had a wonderful time. It was hard to leave!
My mom made a ton of gluten-free food, so that was nice too. She made the best chocolate chip cookies...which I OD'd on of course. I think I may need to hire her to make my food!!!

Not much else is going on around here. Just enjoying the warm weather!! Summer is finally here. Too bad my gardens look so pathetic though!! I am going to have to move all of my bulbs this fall. All 95 of them. Of the 30 or so irises I planted, one bloomed. Live and learn.

The baby is moving pretty much all the time now and is getting stronger every day!! I have my ultrasound on the 12th. Can't wait for that, but we won't find out what it is. I had the craziest dream the other night. I won't tell you all of it, because it doesn't make sense, but I had the baby in my dream and it was a boy and we named it "Steffani Gianni", and I kept saying the name over and over and was crying because I loved the name so much and everyone kept telling me what a beautiful name it was! (We were in a field with all our family and friends). ---Mason keeps saying we should name the baby Gianni if it's a boy and he has been "rapping" a lot lately. That is probably why the name rhymes.

Mason continues to grow and grow and grow!!! He is getting taller every day!!! He wanted the toyroom to be his bedroom because of all the toys, and I said "no". so he sat down with some paper and markers and made a sign stating "My bedroom. Please Stay out" and taped it to the door of the toy room.

He told me the other day that he hopes the baby is a girl. I asked him why and he said"Well, you're a girl and a mommy and Daddy is a boy, That way I can be a daddy and the girl can be a mommy and then we can get our own house and make all our own choices alone" We are already having conversations about him moving out so he can make his "own choices and decisions"...at 4 1/2 years!!! We may be in trouble later :)

Lately our conversations typically go like this: (MS stands for Mason and M stands for me)
MS: Mom, is Gianni taller than me?
M:Yes
MS: Am i taller than Gianni?
M: No.
MS: Gianni is taller than me?
M: Yes
MS: Am I taller than Gianni?
M: No
MS: I'm not taller than Gianni?
M: No, Gianni is taller
MS: Gianni is taller than me?!
M: Yes
MS: WHY?!?!?!?!?!
We have several of these conversations throughout the day:)

Mason caught his first frog yesterday. It is a tree frog and it made it through the night last night!! He wants to keep it until Monday to show his friend Naomi. I hope we can keep it alive until then. I feel kind of bad for it.

Well, I'm sure that is enough information for everyone. I need to get some cleaning done before it hits 90 degrees. We are going to the beach when Craig gets home. I always feel bad for him in this weather. He still drives one of those aluminum trucks and they don't have air conditioning. Just a cage fan. He could drive a van with air conditioning, but he would need to change his route. They need the aluminum trucks for the mounted mailboxes.

All right. Take care everyone and stay cool!!! Cathy, I hope you are having a great vacation!!
How are you doing Aunt Janis...haven't heard from you in a while.