Well, well, well.

Aric came home from his grandparents’ with bullseye rashes all over his legs. They were all very nasty and mean looking, and I was immediately concerned. I spent a good portion of the weekend Googling bullseye rashes, and every single thing I came up with pointed to Lyme Disease. Rob doubted that’s what it was, but agreed we should take him to the doctor just to be sure. I wasn’t sure what it could be, so I just wanted to get some answers. I was hoping the doctor would say it was a reaction to the green flies on the bay while he was fishing. However, that apparently isn’t the case. The doctor took one look at his leg and immediately called in two other doctors to check it out, too. They all agreed that they were most likely looking at Lyme Disease.

Then the doctor asked if Aric had been sick recently. Remember when Aric was sick a couple weeks ago? I had almost forgotten about it until today. Now things are starting to piece together - his sickness was exactly how it is described in any of the symptoms for Lyme Disease I have read. They drew his blood to perform the screening test, and we’ll wait to see what the official results are. In the meantime, he was sent home with a script for 21 days worth of antibiotics and he is to take them whether the test comes back negative or not. From what I’ve read, the screening test has false positives and negatives, so it’s not a perfect indicator. I just hope the antibiotics do their job and he doesn’t experience any further trouble after this. I’ve heard horror stories about this disease; I would like it very much if we’re not one of those.

Aric is at Rob’s parents’ house in Mays Landing, NJ for the week. He left on Saturday and I am going through some serious Aric withdrawal right about now. I talked to him on Sunday and he didn’t have a lot to say to me. Then he called me last night and wanted to chat for quite a while. I could tell he is missing me now. :-) I’m really glad he is doing this - I know he’s having a great time, and he gets to bond with his grandparents. My kids have been blessed with two sets of grandparents who are young and who just love them to pieces. I’m jealous because I didn’t have that experience. I didn’t get to see my maternal grandfather until I was 12 - and he died a few years after that. I never met my paternal grandfather, and only learned in the past year that he passed away years ago. My maternal grandmother died when I was 9, and my paternal grandmother died when I was 17 - however, they all lived 8 hours away so I didn’t get to know them really.

Anyway, Aric has his own pimped out quarters at the grandparents’ place. They set him up with his own room complete with his bed, a couch, a dresser, and a TV mounted on the wall. He’s been enjoying chilling out in there as well as doing all the activities they’ve been doing with him. He’s gone fishing a couple of times - his favorite pastime! I wish he could spend his whole summer like this - just being able to relax and chill and just enjoy being a kid - if only he wasn’t two hours away. He normally goes to camp all day, and while it’s not high pressure or anything, he does have to get up at a certain time and spend his whole day in a structured environment.

I know he’ll be home before we both know it, but the days are just dragging right now. I want my baby! From what I hear, his grandparents are going to miss him something fierce when he leaves, and this week I know exactly what they’ll be feeling.

I swear, some days I think Aric’s whole life is going to be spent on punishment. We went shopping for summer clothes tonight and he absolutely lost his mind. I can’t even explain to you how insane he was, and frankly, I’d be kind of embarrassed to type it all out. It was embarrassing enough in the damn store. KIDS! Who wants one?

Aric has barely rested all weekend, but the kid has been in his glory. Our weekend plans got turned upside down when Rob got sent to Florida for work on Friday night. The original plan was for him and the boys to go to a shooting range Saturday morning followed by going to my parents’ house to do their lawn for them since they are out of town. Saturday night the boys had a birthday party sleep over to attend, too. Well, Aric didn’t want Rob being gone to keep him from doing any of the yard work. In fact, he wanted to go early and head to my parents’ on Friday night! He got quite pissed off at me when I told him we were not driving to Jersey after I got off work. I told him I was going to a meeting on Saturday morning and afterwards a friend was coming over so I could help her with setting up her Match.com profile - and once we were done, then we could go to Jersey. I called Rob to make sure he was okay with Aric using all the lawn tools by himself. Rob said that Aric does a better job than he does, and that he would be fine. This boy should have been born and raised on a farm, he just loves that kind of stuff.

Well, my friend was barely out the door when Aric had his bag packed, a blanket in the back of my car, Grace’s leash on and the nagging for the rest of us to hurry up began. By the time I got my food ready and my overnight bag packed, he had himself, the dog and his brother in the car, with the A/C already running just waiting for me to assume my position in the driver’s seat. When he found out I still wasn’t ready to go, he flipped out! Ha! Finally, we were on our way and Aric wasted no time getting the tractor out of the shed to get to work once we arrived. A few hours later, he had mowed, weed whacked and blew away all the debris on my parents’ yard and their next door neighbor’s as well. Poor kid had gone through 4 bottles of water and was sweating his ass off - it was 90-something degrees yesterday with high humidity. He didn’t complain, though.

After he took a shower, we were heading to the birthday sleep over - however Aric confided in me that he didn’t want to go because the kids would be older and he feared Connor would have them all gang up on him and he would be left out. The boys really do struggle when they are with a crowd, constantly fighting for the same friends and attention. I respected his wishes and told him he could come with me to my brother’s house. And wouldn’t you know it, when we got there, my brother asked Aric if he wanted to mow his front lawn. Aric immediately answered with, “Sure! I’ll do it for free!” :-) (He gets paid by us, my parents and my parents’ neighbor when he does the lawn.) It didn’t take him too long to finish the front, and we all came inside to say goodnight to my nieces. By the time Greg got downstairs from putting them in bed, we heard the tractor going again - Aric had started on the back yard on his own initiative. Greg was like, “Cool!” Heh. Aric mowed his entire back yard (it’s huge!) and then weed whacked for him, too. By this time, it was getting dark and he had to finish with Joseph holding a flashlight for him to see. Very cute stuff.

So now it’s 9:30 on Sunday morning and Aric is still sleeping, bless his heart. I know when he gets up, though, he’s got plans. He said he missed a couple of spots with the weed whacker here at my parents’ and then he wants to get our yard at home done. This boy will have spent his entire weekend working and loved every minute of it! As a bonus, he’ll also end up about $50 richer. Not bad for a 10 year old, eh?

Connor is so freaking talented in the arts. He’s an awesome musician who can hear any song and then pick up his guitar and play it. He also is quite the artist. I even made him a cute little website a few years ago to display his artwork. Those are all about 6 years old, so he drew them around the ages of 5 and 6. Pretty good for that age I think.

Check out his latest piece of a Mallard Duck. I just love it.