Lately In The Castello...

The school year is coming to an end. YEAH!!!! My children are thrilled and so am I. I enjoy homeschooling. We get to go at our own pace and delve deeper into what they are interested in. I wouldn't trade homeschooling for anything.

Soaring Amongst The Clouds is officially done with her semester. She will be taking one online coarse this summer. So she only has a one week vacation. :o( Still Waters is taking finals this week and part of next week. She is not taking any summer classes. Once the fall semester starts, we will have three college students at home. Time has flown by too quickly. Still Waters will return to her University. Soaring Amongst The Clouds and Daughter of the King will be attending my Knight's Alma mater. What an exciting school year they will have.

It has been busy around our Castello. Lots of baseball and softball practices and games. We have done a little bit of gardening, plenty of baking, mega loads of laundry and lots of playing. Allow me to share some pictures...


Good thing we have a sectional couch. Every one has a 'section' that holds their clothes while we fold them. The basket of laundry sits on the rocker. We put each folded item in each indivisual's section. It all goes in order. Soaring Amongst The Clouds is on the far left. You can't see hers, cause she already picked it up and put it away. Still Waters pile is next, then we have Daughter of the King, G.I. Joe, The Warrior, Lady G~ (me) and my Knight. I do 1-2 laundry loads a day. If I skip a day, then I do 2-3 loads a day. Keep in mind that there are 7 dwellers in our Castello. Four of them play softball or baseball. One of them is a coach and an umpire. So as much as I'd like to cut down on laundry, it really can't be done.



Daughter of the King decided to make some corn bread. It was DELISH! But even more YUMMO when I slathered it with tons of butter. Mmmmmm....



Ever since I was a little girl, I've been a Dodgers fan. When G.I. Joe moved up to the major, he was picked by the Dodgers. When he came home to tell me the news, I told him, "I can die a happy woman now, my son plays for the Dodgers!" I was a happy woman already, but I was thrilled he on the Dodgers. A couple of years later, The Warrior was also chosen by the Dodgers. I can't begin to tell you how I felt. He still has one more year in the majors. Which means one more year of my saying, "GO... DODGERS!" The Warrior is sitting on the bench waiting for his turn for batting warm ups. He is the one wearing goggles.


My children and I sometimes do some background acting. We don't really have any lines to say, but we are in the background of some movies or commercials. This is one of the pictures I send in when they ask me for a head shot of Soaring Amongst The Clouds.



This is the one I use for G.I. Joe. They always ask for solid bright colors or a two color stripped shirt for guys.



I can't believe The Warrior smiled for me! His eyes do sparkle when he smiles. We were recently asked to go into the studio and have professional head shots done. YEAH!!! How KEWEL is that! We plan on going as soon as Still Waters is done with her finals. I can't wait, it should be fun.



The catalytic converter in my Knight's car went on the fritz. So he had to replace it. Good thing my Knight knows a lot about a lot. :o) He ordered the part and went to work on his car. The Warrior is being funny and giving me a 'posed' look. My Knight is laughing, knowing full well, that The Warrior's 'look' is not the look I was going for. I only wanted a candid shot. But not to worry....


My G.I. Joe didn't 'pose' for me. He was just busy helping his dad. Good job Darlin', thank you for not giving me a hard time. MUAH!!! xoxoxo



Steps came over to visit for a while. Our family enjoys playing cards or board games. During this visit, he and Daughter of the King played, Life. I'm not sure who won. But I do know they had a good time playing. :o)

A little funny to make you laugh: Daughter of the King has been wanting to color or highlight her hair for quite some time. We went to Wal-Mart and she picked a hair color she liked. She followed the instructions and applied the new color. Now that her hair is dry, it looks EXACTLY the same color as God gave her. I find it interesting that the color she liked on the box is the color of her own hair. The color she wanted to change. Hmmm... I guess God knew all along what color was the best for her. Sorry Darlin', I know wanted something different, but your hair color is beautiful just the way it is.

Now I want everyone to hear this, I'm saying it loud and clear, my Knight was right and I was wrong. This is nothing new. In fact it's something that I've know for years. The man is seldom wrong. It's the truth! Let me share what he was right about this time...

Last week, I decided to go and practice with one of our co-ed softball team. He's been telling me not to play because of some of my health issues. He knew I was going to go any ways. So, he reluctantly told me to be extremely careful. I really should of known better.

I LOVE playing! I really enjoy getting out there, running, sweating, hitting and catching... my breath.! LOL! I really miss playing. FLASH BACK:In the winter of 2003 I had a shunt installed because I was diagnosed with hydrocephalus. In the summer of 2004, I had decompression surgery to help alleviate my chiari malformation symptoms. At that time I was also told I had cranial settling. Both of the surgeries I had are brain surgery. I was told at the time that I should no longer do 'physical' sports, running, ride roller coaster or do anything that might cause my brain to be 'jarred'. My brain is already 12mm herniated into my spinal cord. If it continues to herniate, permanent paralysis will occur. I figured, it's been 5 years since my surgery. I really haven't had any more symptoms. I've been feeling fine and energetic. The docs were probably just trying to cover themselves. Why not go to softball practice and have a little recreational fun? It felt great being out there on the field. I didn't care where they put me. I made it through the whole practice. I had a great time. I took it slow or so I thought. I didn't think that batting practice or running to catch a ball would cause me any problem. I was wrong.

I've been feeling like I did before I had my surgery. I'm having numbness and tingling in my arms and hands. My head is feeling 'full'. I can't turn my head to look from side to side. Hurts to look up and hurts to look down. Ok, let me rephrase that, cause the word 'hurt' doesn't even come close to how it feels. I've been in excruciating pain since last week. I'm having trouble sleeping. I've gone back to taking my muscle relaxant and some of the other meds I was taking prior to surgery. Nothing is helping. I'm wearing my aspen neck brace and it's comforting. It makes the pain tolerable. I hate wearing it in public, cause I don't want the attention. I've been to Wal-Mart during the lull time. I'd hate to run into someone and have to put a mask on and pretend like everything is peachy keen. But as always, God is good... ALL the time. Today I was able to get out of our waterbed without catching my breath due to the pain. My Knight told me he even heard me snoring a little. Which he told me that I never do. So we figured that at least I got a good night's rest.

I have learned my lesson. I need to listen to and obey my Knight. He has my best interest at heart. No more sports for me. I will be content to watch my children play. I will joyfully be the photographer. Well, that's if they let me take pictures of them. Maybe I should just do it without asking them. :o)