Summer Highlights!

As you know we are at the end of summer and getting ready for school.  For some reason I am not so nervous about this new school year.  My girl will be going to a new building and taking some serious classes but she knows what it takes to be successful in her studies and hopefully the courses won't prove to be to challenging for her parents.  My boy will have the same teacher that we loved from last year and we expect to see lots of new and exciting things coming from his school year.  Before we continue to move forward I want to catch you up on our summer.

We started the summer off with a little bit of disappointment.  My girl had tryouts for soccer right away this summer and she was injured days before tryouts.  The injury didn't have anything to do with the outcome of soccer tryouts because the day of tryouts we received a phone call from the new coach of her current team telling us that we didn't need to come out for his team tryout because he wasn't going to pick my girl back up.  We all knew this was a possibility but this was sure hard for my girl to take in.  She had to get her emotions in check so she could think clearly and go out that same day and find another team to try out for.  Honestly her heart just wasn't in it.  This process has always been hard for me to swallow but honestly we do need to learn how to take rejection because we do deal with it throughout our lives, but as a mother I wanted to just make it all better but at the same time I wanted her to jump up and shake it off.  It took a couple of weeks before we shook this off and found another team.  I think my girl found out that you can't get comfortable in whatever situation you are in.  You need to always be improving and working hard if it is something that you want to do.  She found out that day that she does want to play soccer, and that you can recover when things don't go the way you planned.  I am proud of the way she handled this.  She certainly has grown this summer and I am not talking about her height, but it does also apply. 

Talking about growing my boy is maturing and growing just as fast as my girl and I can't believe how much he is learning and doing this summer.  Some of the little things that we have enjoyed this summer is the way he is communicating with us and wanting to play.  We have been able to take him out to eat more without worrying so much about that exit plan.  He loves the show Wipe Out and he is trying to do more independently, LOVE IT!  Because it is getting easier to take my boy places we enjoyed our trip that we planned to the lake this summer a lot and that takes us to our next adventure.

This summer my girl attended band camp again and this year we picked her up and headed to the lake afterwards.  This plan was all Denis, he planned for my girl to bring a friend and we stayed in a hotel on our way to the lake.  This hotel totally catered to my kids.  Half their pool was 2ft deep so my boy could walk around without us having to hold him.  Don't get me wrong we were still right by his side but just not clinging to him.  We gave him a little bit of freedom and he ran with it.  This hotel also showed a movie at the pool that night.  The evening was perfect!

The lake was equally fun if not more because the kids got to swim everyday, ride in the boat and they went tubing.  I would have to say summer has been good to us. 

We are now just trying to get ready for school.  I am ready to go back to working days when the kids are in school, because I switched to nights during the summer.  This old lady had a hard time with this schedule. 

That was the highlights of the summer but there was so much more that went on as most of us know. 

Puppy Love

She will grow into this bed. 

We have been known as a family to jump into to things, or should I say fall into things.  I like to think that we are not afraid of trying new things but sometimes I think it is just the opposite, but it is that fear that pushes us forward that fear of not moving forward that keeps us moving.  My husband is the main reason we do a lot of the random crazy things that go on here.  He is constantly trying to figure out how he is going to get him and little girl down to Kansas City so they can watch a Kansas City Sporting soccer game.  His latest bit of excitement that he has brought into the house is a puppy.  He was just as excited as my girl was about having a puppy in the house and I do believe his exact words were "Our family needs a dog" so we have a dog.  My boy wasn't so sure about the puppy and in fact he doesn't always want the little pup to be near him and when the pup insists on playing with my boy that little pup ends up hanging upside down everytime.  It has been a long time since we have had a pup in the house and in fact I forgot how they like to chew on my stuff.  We have even designated chew toys for her and she still seeks out our things.  Shoes, cords and socks.  Yes we have a puppy in the house and her name is Holli short for Hollister.

Exposed

Me and my man



I still find it very funny that I have a blog and I share stuff that I normally wouldn't share if I were talking to you face to face.  When I started this blog I had a lot of feelings that had been just sitting waiting to surface and be exposed for all to see.  So what is going on when I suddenly disappear from the blogging world for a while?  Well it is simple, I am trying some new things and searching for new opportunities.  I for some reason can't focus my attention to more than one thing.  I sometimes feel like my opportunities have all passed me by and I did not jump when I should have.  Things around me are moving and I feel like I might be moving to slow.  The world does not wait for those that have been stalled, it keeps moving and changing.  I am always trying to tell others you have to create your own opportunities.  This is so true.  Sometimes it might just be a matter of making one simple phone call, but you have to do it.  So I decided that it was time to do something and why not get back to exposing myself in the blogging world.  I have to say that even though I feel like I am not moving, my kids are.  They are growing and changing everyday that makes us so very proud.  My boy is trying very hard with everything he has to communicate with words.  My girl is becoming a teen and she is blossoming into a beautiful young girl.  The summer has provided us with change but a lot of the same, if that is possible.  School starts in about a month and I have failed to share our summer with you.  I will my friends catch you up but not today.  

My Brother



This post is for my brother, who is one of my biggest blog supporters.  He so nicely has been nudging me back to my blog and brother here I am. 





Me and my sweets

My Mom

My beautiful sister







End of Season

The end of May signifies the end of a couple of things, school and my girls soccer season.  This soccer season has taken us to different places and has introduced us to some nice people.  I have to say this soccer season brought us a lot of great soccer and some great opportunities for learning.  We learned last year that things can change without any notice and we understand that with the end of the soccer season anything goes when it comes to the team my girl is on.  The future is always uncertain when it comes to everything, but the one thing that is for certain is that we are always moving forward.  I know some of you have heard me say that before, this is our family motto,  I borrowed it from Meet the Robinson's.  This time of year is always full of new and fun things.  Summer is approaching, school is ending which always means that things are going to change again and there really isn't anything we can do about this but to just jump in with both feet and go for it.  So before we jump into summer I wanted to just recap our year of soccer and school with pictures.  Here is to a great year for both my kids and a warm welcome for summer. We are ready!! 

2 Weeks Left

Summer break is approaching fast and to be honest the two weeks leading up to the break are just a blur.  There is all the end of year activities that take place that fill up our schedule and cause me to spin in all directions.  Every night this week my girl has something and two of the events that she is participating in I think are worth mentioning here.  She is involved in Peer Connections at her school.  Peer Connections is a group of students hand picked by their teachers to team up with their peers that have special needs.  They play games and socialize with them, basically they are trying to give the children that have special needs the opportunity to practice on their social skills along with making some new friends.  Tomorrow they are having a day of sharing and are going on a field trip.  I wish I knew more about the event but you see my child is getting to the age of questions asked, little info given.  All I know is that I am extremely proud that she is involved with this group.  The second event is Friday night and she is participating with her fellow National Junior Honor Society peeps in the Relay For Life at the high school.  Her group raised money all year and I can't wait to hear how much they raised.  The event takes place all night long but she has an early soccer game so she will be leaving early.   Each year that passes she gets closer to graduation and honestly I am not ready for that so let's move on.

 My boy's end of year activities do not require any after school time but he did get to go to the high school to see the Toad and the Frog.  Honestly I wasn't sure about him going since we can't get him in any kind of auditorium.  That silly boy followed his peers into the auditorium and watched half of the play.  Now of course he cringed each time the kids laughed and clapped causing the whole event to just take all of his energy from him.  He could only tolerate the first half but he did it and I was so proud.  I took the flyer for the event and wrote on it his accomplishments that day and of course I dated it.  I love what school is providing my kids.  They are introducing them to things that I would not be able to.  My boy would never do some of the things that he does at school for me and on top of that he is interacting with his peers everyday and making friends.  I see this happening when I pick him up.  Kids are saying bye to him.  I like to think that the kids at my boys school are learning something about acceptance.  My boy doesn't talk but he is communicating with these kids and they are understanding him.  So I have to say this year so far has been a success.  I guess the only thing left to do here is get ready for summer!!

Monkey Business

So recently my boy has discovered the cartoon, Curious George. He is funny when it comes to what he watches. He has a few things that he watches over and over and Phineas and Ferb has been his favorite for a while and we were glad when he switched from Dora to Phineas and Ferb. But Curious George is different because my boy imitates George as much as he can. We watch him with pleasure but the other night he included us in his pretend play. George was having x-rays done of his foot and then the doctor put a cast on it and this is where we come in. My boy needed someone to x-ray his foot and then it needed to be wrapped, just like George. My boy is eight and when other kids were pretending to feed their babies or have Godzilla smash an entire town, he was playing with his cause and effect toys. As he got older he mastered the iTouch without being shown and now he uses my iPad with ease.

We have always encouraged pretend play but at some point you just come to realize that maybe just maybe it isn't going to happen. Looking back on the situation where he invited us in to play with him, I realize now that we must have looked confused and uncertain about our role and what was being asked of us. But it didn't take us long, we x-rayed and wrapped his foot so many times and honestly I think we could have done it all night long, but a little pretending boy needs his sleep.  So we had to say goodnight to George and my boy hobbled off to get his teeth brushed with his foot still wrapped.  I am not sure everyone will understand how this moment of monkey business made us all feel.  We even hollered at my girl so she could see what was going on and of course she was just as happy as we were when she saw that little foot wrapped.  Several things were happening here that don't normally happen and for starters he was allowing us to wrap his foot while he sat there.  I can't get him dressed without a wrestling match so this was just unusual.  Second he included us!

I often forget about all that my boy doesn't do until one day he goes and acts like a monkey and realize I have missed that all this time. 

Celebrate

First year in school! 

So the time has come to celebrate the birth of my youngest child.  He will be eight on Friday.  It is very hard to believe that he is eight, because he is my baby and forever will be.  I can still pick him up, ok that time is about to pass, but I can still do it and I will probably break my back continuing to try.  When it comes to celebrating his birthdays we have come a long way.  We weren't always able to have to many people in the same room at one time and we always had to give him his space when he was at the table.   We still have to be careful with all this but we definitely celebrate big and with candles because besides balloons, blowing out candles is one of his favorite things to do at birthday parties.  It truly is a celebration!  It is not just a celebration of his birth but of what he has accomplished in his eight years of life.  He has come a long way baby and he isn't stopping.  Happy Birthday to my boy!!

Remember When...

Grandma and Grandpa

Remember when they used to sell the chocolate round mints by the registers for 5 cents.  I do because that was my favorite part of the meal.  My grandpa always bought me one and I never had to ask.  That is just what you did after you ate, you bought a mint.  I traveled a lot with my grandparents when I was growing up, so we ate at a lot of diners and we visited a lot of family.  I used to sit in the front seat between my grandparents.  That was before they started putting cup holders and all the compartments in the middle.  There was even a time when my grandpa had a CB radio.  I don't know what CB stands for but all the truckers had one, you know what I am talking about.  Me and my cousin used to chit chat in CB talk, you know 10/4 big buddy.   We each had our own handle, handle being like a nickname.  One of us was mash potatoes, I think this was me because I loved mash potatoes, but honestly I can't remember.  I just remember that these days were fun and simple.  I only had to worry about when grandma and grandpa were going to stop and what and where we were going to eat.  I usually got a grilled cheese sandwich.  I loved those diner grilled cheese sandwiches and the pickle that always accompanied my sandwich.  You can't have one without the other.  Our trips were pretty predictable.  Always the same.  We would travel by car always and always we would go see family.  I mean who else would we go see.  Now days it is harder to get the time to do this and my grandparents are older, older but not older.  They still get out and travel but just not the distances they used to and they do their traveling now without me, but they have added my mom.  I am pretty positive that their trips are not as much fun with my mom in tow.  She truly tries to keep those two kids, (grandma and grandpa) in line. 

It is funny how times change and it happens so gradually that you sometimes don't see it until one day you are remembering when.  This happened to me the other day with my girl.  She was just standing there looking at me and suddenly I saw the changes in her.  The taller, older girl making her own dicisions and mistakes.  I am not sure how or when it happened but she has changed.  She requires less from me at bedtime.  You know the rubbing of the arm and maybe a song or two.  Those times are disappearing and how and when did this happen?  What is next?  I don't want to be remembering when just yet with her.  I still need that little girl that is standing at the top of the slide yelling look mom as she jumps the full length of the slide, (our swingset slide) I will always remember that moment but I will be adding new moments with her as she coninues to change and grow. 

Her first airplane flight, when she was nine.