Eleven years ago today, our little family grew by one. Our precious Aric Angelo was born at 10:15 AM Eastern European Time at Incirlik AB in Adana, Turkey.

Hard to believe that newborn has already grown into the fine young man who is mowing lawns, operating tractors, and shooting guns as well as men two and three times his age.

Aric is an old soul - at times he seems an old man trapped and tortured inside a young boy’s life. One of his teachers last year said to us that Aric just needs to “get through childhood” as best as he can so he can begin living the life he is so ready to live. As much as I want that for him - I know it will free him - I am dreading it because I just want him to be my baby boy forever. I love spending as much time with him as I possibly can; he’s such a character and always has the funniest and most interesting things to say. You never know what you’re going to get from him, either, as part of his charm is his unpredictability. I love that he’s so completely random - it keeps us on our toes and almost always keeps us laughing.

Rob and I have been incredibly blessed in this life. We’ve got two wonderful boys who both offer us their unique gifts and I couldn’t be more grateful. Today I’ll be spending some time in quiet reflection of my memories of Aric through the years and I’ll give thanks for every day we’ve had the pleasure of knowing him. I couldn’t have asked for a second born son that I’d love any more than I do Aric. He is a true gift to me and to our family. We’re all so extremely fortunate to have him in our lives and today we celebrate that fact!

Have you ever used a Diva Cup? I have a few friends who swear by it, so I decided to give it a try and bought one tonight. I swear, I’m turning more granola by the minute over here. I’m looking forward to not having to change every few hours… and not having any more messy leaks! Sorry if that’s TMI, guys. Just like I told my 10 year old, though, it’s only natural.

Speaking of the 10 year old, he came with me to Whole Foods where I bought the Cup, and got himself a little education in the process. I’m pretty open with the kids, and I’m not embarrassed to talk about bodily functions or sex with them. He asked how the cup worked, so I told him. He seemed okay enough with it until I put the package in the cart. His eyes popped out of his head and was speechless for a moment. When he regained his composure, he said, “THAT is going to…. never mind. You are crazy.” Hahaha! When we got home, I had to pee really bad, so I was running to the bathroom and he yelled out, “Don’t forget your DIVA CUP!” Love that kid.

Connor and his friends were in a talent show this morning at camp. They decided to perform US & Green Day’s version of “The Saints Are Coming”. These kids practiced this song for two hours last night and that is it. I think they did pretty darn good for only practicing one time and the drummer not having a bass drum. Heh. Check ‘em out, Connor is playing guitar:

And here’s a still pic, just because they’re so darn cute:

Rob and I did a lot of work around the outside of the house yesterday. We cleaned out the garage and the shed (actually Rob and Connor did the shed while I did laundry and lunch), power washed two sides of the house, and the back deck. I also took down a huge ivy-type weed that was growing on one our trees; it had pretty big leaves and had winded its way almost half-way up the tree. I thought the leaves were from the tree itself for a while! After busting our butts all day, we hopped in the shower, got dressed, went out to eat, and headed to my parents’ house to soak in the hot tub. That felt good, but it was really too hot outside to enjoy it for long.

On the way home, I wanted to check in on Connor to make sure he was okay. It’s funny, not too long ago, if we were gone for just a few minutes past when it got dark, Connor had us on the phone wondering when we would be home and when we got there, every light in the house would be on. Now, he doesn’t even think about us not being there! Rob said that he probably wouldn’t even answer the phone. I decided that I’d be hip and send him a text message instead of calling. I guess your first clue that I’m not really hip is the fact that I used the word “hip”, a point that was driven mercilessly home to me after texting Connor.

I break out my cell phone and start typing the numbers that correspond with the letters I wanted to use, but I noticed the words weren’t being pre-populated once I typed in a letter or two. Sindy clued me into that cool little feature last week after I told her how slow I was to type up a text. I thought I’d learn the predictive text thing and *really* be hip. So I start sorting through the settings, trying to find where to change it to iTap for predictive text.

General Settings - let’s see here:

- Ring Styles - it wouldn’t fall under here, right? Next.
- Personalize - hmm, maybe this is it. Okay, a bunch of settings under this menu, none of which seem to have anything to do with text messaging. Next.
- In-Call Setup - another maybe. Another fail.
- Security - I think I can bypass that one. But I will return if desperate. Sadly, I did have to return. And sure enough, not there.
- Initial Setup - See Security.
- Network Info - I feel safe in skipping this one.
- Car Settings - Thankfully I knew that my cell phone wasn’t smart enough to know that I was, indeed, in my car at the time. But don’t think I didn’t think about looking here.
- Headset - Okay, another one I feel safe about skipping. Whew. But where is this damn setting??
- Location - Confirmation that my phone didn’t know I was in the car. See? Smart. And hip.
- Connection - This is the last option in the list, and even though I know I won’t find anything about texting here, I check it anyway.

Okay, fine, so the Settings menu most likely wasn’t the place to change my text messaging settings. Moving on, I create a new text message and look for the options there.

Eureka! I find the setting I need and make the changes, then go back to creating my message.

But, wait, what’s going on here? Why is the first letter not being capitalized? Why won’t any letters come up when I click on a number? I head back into the options menu to change the entry mode to Primary and try again. Still no first letter capitalization, but I can deal with that. Besides, having the first letter capitalized probably makes me less hip. But something is wrong. The predictive text won’t let me type in the word “hey”. It assumes I want to say “hi” and when I try to correct it, I get a bunch of nonsense that starts with the letter “i”.

By now I’m really getting frustrated, and Rob is not helping matters. “Hey, hon, want me to just text him? Why don’t you just call him?” Um, shut up. I am hip and I will be sending a freaking text message with predictive text if it kills me.

I finally figured out what was going on with the message - after I saw the menu option for “Contacts” for the umpteenth time, I figured out that I was trying to enter the message in the place where I’d normally enter a phone number. Yeah. Not only am I hip, I am apparently brilliant, too.

After a few more minutes, I did get my message sent, but I had to start it with another word besides “hey” - I couldn’t figure out how to get around the phone telling me to say “hi” or “ig”. What gives?

So I ask you: Does taking 15 minutes to send the message, “Everything OK?” mean I’m un-hip? Come on, tell the truth. I can handle it.

The more I read about Lyme disease, the more upset I get. There is so much conflicting information out there - it seems like there are no hard and fast answers. I’ve read that the disease is curable. I’ve read that the disease isn’t curable. I’ve read that having multiple rashes is a symptom of the second stage of the disease. I’ve read that the multiple rashes happens in the first stage at times, too. I’ve read that we should only take him to a LLMD (Lyme literate MD). I’ve read he should be on antibiotics for 3 months. I’ve read that he should be on them for 3 weeks. My head is spinning and I’m basically just worried, scared and upset. What if he has relapses for the rest of his life? I guess we will just deal with it as it comes, but still. It’s not a pleasant thought or future to look forward to.

For tonight, I’m going to stop reading about it and pray instead. I think that will bring me more peace of mind than anything else right now.