August Here and Gone

August started in the mountains of Montana and ended melting in school in Houston. We endured Olivia's surgery in the middle and celebrated my birthday along the way. We had a mini birthday party for Grandpa Joan and went to the Broadway show Wicked downtown. We went to the mall with the Vernons to escape the heat, went to a besties birthday party and had a scare with the fire department. We played with pals after missing them all summer and were some of the first to get flu shots. It was a busy month as we rushed to fit the last few summer activities in and were also caught off guard when Ben was suddenly called to the High Counsel. I guess our busy calendar just got a new line item. Here we go again....

BACK TO SCHOOL 5th & 1st Grade

No one here likes school. Not Ben, not Isabelle, not Olivia and not I. We, as parents, can appreciate the need and the girls like to see their friends...but none of us would ever choose to go to school. So the summer ending was not popular around this house. Either way, the first day arrived and we put on our big girl panties and we rocked the first day of 1st and 5th grade!

Isabelle is the oldest in the school this year and for the first time has a locker. She liked decorating it and finally got the knack of how to open it. While her homeroom teacher is Mrs Sheffield, she switches between 3 teachers all day for Science, Math and ELA/SS. Plus she visits Mrs Lummus 4x a week. Belle has friends everywhere she goes and seems to shine in academics without too much effort.

Olivia is in Mrs Debose class this year and although she is not with her BFF Vera, has both Olivia K and Lola in her class to keep her smiling. She still dreads going everyday but scored a 101 on her first spelling test and math is a breeze to her. This year she will spend 2 days a week with a stop in Mrs Lummus' class and so far that is the best part of her long days. She also continues to love ART.

We are grateful that if they HAVE to to go to school every day, we have a wonderful option in our neighborhood. Good luck sweet girls!! We know you will be a light everywhere you go.

Under the knife

Sweet Olivia has been congested for years. Ben is convinced it is because we live in south Texas, but whatever the reason, our poor Livi constantly has congestion running down her throat and nose. She has gotten to know Dr Raney at Texas ENT well, just like Isabelle, and after being on drug after drug we finally consented to a major sinus surgery in the middle of August.

Olivia was brave as she had blood drawn and has gotten quite use to Dr Raney numbing her nose and then sticking a vacuum up her nose and down through her mouth. She gags and her eyes water but when he is done she smiles and almost always cracks a joke. She is a good little patient and handled all of the pre-op appointments like a champ.  And just like her sister, is considering a career as an ENT.

Ben and I have put our girls under anesthesia both multiple times before. We've paid for 3 sets of ear tubes, 2 frenectomies and an adenectomy between the two of them but the sinus surgery was the worst by far. Dr Raney ballooned all 4 of Olivia's tiny sinus cavities and then removed small amounts of bone from her lower two. Meanwhile he removed her adenoids and vacuumed out lots of mucus and puss. After nearly a whole hour under the knife, Olivia was finally done and had a terrible time waking up. She was confused and in A LOT of pain as she came to. She ripped out her IV and had blood gushing out of her nose. She screamed that the surgery didn't work and Ben and I did our best to comfort her and help her wake up. They didn't want her to lay flat because of the amount of blood but she wasn't awake enough to sit up. The nurses could not give her more pain medication since she had ripped her IV out until she was awake enough to swallow so our poor little girl sobbed and sobbed in pain. It was a rough hour or so and all three of us were SO glad when she finally got some good pain meds and could recognize us and where she was. Olivia was even more thrilled when they released us to go home.


After a rough 48 hours, our little trooper was up and about and doing her best to feel normal. We were told the recovery would take a few weeks before her sinus swelling would be gone and until then, she would feel like she had a bad sinus infection. Olivia was sadly used to the uncomfortable feeling though and was her chipper self in just a few days. We are grateful for a good doctor and are REALLY praying that this is the solution Olivia is in desperate need of. Fingers crossed!

JULY was The Great Cosby Roadtrip

The last week of June the 4 of us did something we had never done before...we began a HUGE road trip. Ben and I toyed with the idea all Spring and finally convinced ourselves to give it a try early summer. Now, looking back, we are so glad that we did. We left the Gulf of Mexico on a Friday and made it to nearly the Canadian border the next Tuesday. We had each day of the drive planned with stops and activities in the car and the girls had the time of their lives in the backseat together. We spent the first night in Dallas, the second in Denver and the third in The Grand Teton National Park. Fortunately for us, Isabelle was still considered a 4th grader which granted her and our whole car free access to the National Parks all summer long. We toured around the Grand Tetons a little while and slept in a cool little rustic cabin where we ate fresh caught trout for dinner at their cafe. The following day was the moment the girls had been waiting for as we spent the entire day exploring Yellowstone National Park. Grammie, Grandpa and Cocoa drove down and met us at Old Faithful and we drove from the south side of the park to the west and then east and out the north. We hiked, saw lots of wild animals, ate lunch at the lodge and covered lots of ground in the First National Park. The girls are such nature lovers and enjoyed every minute of the park and spending the day wild and free with their favorite adults. That night we slept in nearby Bozeman, MT and then made our way the last couple hundred miles to our home for the summer, Sigh-Bar.





The next 5 weeks we spent living in Whitefish where the weather was beautiful and we were surrounded by nature and adventure. We hiked all over the area, spent time at multiple lakes, visited the Farmers Market every Tuesday, and even went to Cheer Camp at the Kalispell City Park. We celebrated the 4th of July and both Ben and my birthdays. We went to 2 parades, the rodeo, ate lots of huckleberry ice cream and Ben and Grandpa saw a bear run right in front of them. Tara and the Vernons both came to visit, we rode the ATV, tractor and of course Livibell, we bathed cocoa and we made lots of mud soup outside. We hammered nails, painted things, played on the tire swings and cooked dinner over the fire outside. We slept in and stayed up late and did puzzles and played cards. We spent a couple of days on Big Mountain and rode the Alpine Slide and swung like monkeys on the Aerial Adventure Park. We rented kayaks on the lake, ate at the Fart and Slobber Inn and attended the Whitefish Ward every Sunday. We visited Glacier Park several times and hiked to Avalanche Lake, which can only be reached by foot, where the girls FROZE in the water and we got caught in a hail storm hiking to the top of Logans Pass. The girls were tired and dirty every single night and Ben and I felt like we were actually living in a little piece of Heaven on Earth.

Tears were shed by all when it was finally time to make the long voyage home in early August. The trip home was less exciting but easy and fine like on the way up and we realized that sometimes, just sometimes, a road trip is amazing. We truly had a summer to remember and even still all 4 of us ache to return to the simpler life, where there is less chaos and more family time. What a treasure Sigh-Bar is to our family. We are grateful that Grammie and Grandpa opened their home and hearts up to us once again...the memories will last forever.