Nothing

As the kids get older I am finding it harder to find topics to blog about - partly because the topics we are handling in our home are more of the sensitive nature, not the fluffy stuff.

I am very thankful that my children are extreme talkers and share everything, but with that comes a very tired Momma. Lots to think about, pray about, handle.

And my kids are "good kids". I am so grateful, because if my time is consumed now with the easy-in-comparison topics ~ I can only imagine my lack of time if we were dealing with severe life dilemmas.

Being a parent is the best journey ~ but it is not for the weak.

You gotta have both feet in with your hands ready to catch multiple worries, stress, and deadlines while maintaining your moral compass with your brain set on the big picture, all the while your heart ready to love them through any topic.

Ballet Changes

I have purposefully been waiting to write this post. It was too raw to write the words four weeks ago when the news broke. I couldn't even really tell my close family and friends, I had to send them an email. Obviously, I was not ready to let go, even though I knew it was the right decision. 

It has been a long school year for my girl in many ways. More positives than negatives, but a lot of growing has taken place in the last five and a half months. She is learning the art of decision making in a lot of areas in her life. From academics, to social, to extra curricular activities. She is thirteen and she is learning young that her voice matters, and the choices she makes matter too. 

From the first day of ballet class this year my girl was hit with a surprise. Her teacher was surprised to find her feet had shifted (for a lack of a better word) and things were no longer looking like they had been the years prior, even months prior. A doctor's visit revealed the use of over the counter Orthodics, which she has worn daily. Her decision about ballet came with a price of needing to push and work hard to overcome what her feet had decided to do.

She continued ballet class, working hard, and trying her best through October. 

But then her attitude started to change. She was no longer loving it ~ the passion was starting to diminish. Pointe Shoes were an amazing accomplishment, but even that reward was not keeping her passion alive. She was slowly changing. 

There were many family discussion nights - pep rallies if you will from her parents to keep her spirits up. We hired a personal trainer to help train her outside of the ballet class. She worked upstairs in her personal studio, but with much effort. We played the tough parent role, we played the easy-going parent role, we played the "it is your choice" role. She kept fighting through her unhappy no matter the parental role we played. She needed time to work this out with herself. 

And then it just came down to a moment when we knew it was time to stop. She flat out asked to stop. She was done. Eight years of solid dancing and she wanted to hang up her ballet shoes and move on to a new passion. She was not quitting, she was making a new decision. 

She has fought plenty of adversity through her dancing career:  dancing Exams with pneumonia, and double ear infections, attending Coaching classes with low grade fevers so as not to miss, and dancing in a Final Show with a severely sprained toe (verdict is out if it was broken). She knows what it means to stick with it, to overcome adversity, to follow through, to never stop believing in herself, to work hard! 

No, she is not quitting and we have reassured her of that. She has grown into the young lady she is today because of all of her highs and lows in dancing, and she will carry her experiences for a lifetime. 

But is it hard to say goodbye to an activity that she excelled in, and we thoroughly enjoyed watching her perform no matter the location of dancing (at the Ballet Studio, her home studio, or on stage)? Yes!!! The transition will be hard, but we are happy to support her throughout all the decisions that she will make throughout her lifetime. 

Now that the shock has worn off, and we see our spunky, smiley girl back enjoying her freedom, we are very proud of her decision to have her voice heard. She took her own time to analyze and come to her own conclusion. We are so happy she trusts and believes in her parents enough too, that she is mature enough to start the discussion, and carry it forward. It was not an easy road. Very proud. 

The future? Not sure. She is taking a much needed break in the calendar routine and enjoying her last Semester of Seventh Grade with just the expectation of academics. This is just what she needed. 

Ballet Changes. 

Saturday Samplings

We traveled to the countryside this morning to drop off a Snowboard to a friend in the hopes of her selling it at an awesome price at her Yard Sale where she is raising money to send her hubby on a Mission Trip. The weather was cold - slightly snowing as we drove to and from - but they were having a fair turnout despite. I love her town. Love, love, love. I could live there. My kiddos enjoyed their "main street" as we drove past to get to her house. It has a lot of charm. It was fun to see my friend and catch up in person. She is one amazing woman with an equally amazing family.

My parents came over in the afternoon to Taste Test my son's Science Fair Experiment. It was a fun conversation cluing them in on the experiment after they had done their ballot sheet. We did send big sis upstairs so that she wouldn't know the Cookie Key ~ we are seeing her cousins tomorrow and we don't want to put her in a position of making any eye gestures and swaying the votes subconsciously. She didn't think it was all that fair, but followed our directions. Our son has worked so hard on this project, we really want it to be complete with no accidental bumps.

I walked Haddie in the cold, however, I dressed appropriately. Ear muffs, mittens, ski jacket. I was cozy and we lasted a good while together. Haddie's ears were flapping this way and that in the bitter cold wind. Then I let her loose in our backyard and she went c.r.a.z.y fast running the circumference of our yard. My son taught her that during the snowstorm in January - and she has remembered the route. So cute. She has been  dog-tired ever since.

My son made homemade pizza's and bread sticks tonight - the best ones yet. He is really perfecting his dough recipe. This time he used even less flour to roll out the dough, and it looked very professional. He uses a few tricks that he doesn't share, so I can't really even cheat and pass along his tip. He also used a plastic cooking mat that he received for Christmas which works amazingly well. That too helped him use less flour.

The rest of the hours to this day will be spent either as Family Game Night or Family Movie Night. Not a bad, random, spontaneous Saturday.

Science!!

My son is deep into a Science Fair project this week. He has been working hard in writing a Hypothesis, Procedures, gathering material, taking pictures, looking under microscopes, the list continues. He is doing a great job!

Without giving away too much info to sway the outcome of this Testers, he is making four batches of cookies today. Each batch contains one difference in ingredient, and he is determining how that one ingredient changes the quality of the cookie in taste and weight.

Our family just finished doing our Taste Test ~ and I am surprised at the results. I will share his final outcomes when all the Testers are complete. We are having family coming over tomorrow, and seeing additional family on Sunday, and gathering some additional friends to get this completed over the weekend.

My lil'Scientist is doing a Fantastic Job!!

Kinda Wordless Wednesday

I like this random picture of my daughter ... and the creeper in the back who is my son. Have you ever seen photos where there is a "creeper" in the background? My kids enjoy that effect, and so he took the prime opportunity to pose in that fashion with my girl's self portrait she was taking to share with her cousin.

Mother's Day ... in February

My mom is amazing. She has been on one huge roller coaster ride since November 7th when she was involved in a home-accident that created one big domino effect of heath issues after another.

And through it all - she continues to laugh, and smile, and find her voice to communicate her highs and lows. I appreciate that part the most, because my mom has always been good at hiding pain and not wanting to "burden" others with life's challenges. But through this particular journey she has learned to open up and share. And I love that!

A "last minute" request to take her out today proved to be a good day for her. The kids and I picked her up at Noon and headed to a local bakery cafe for lunch. It was so good to see her out in public with us again. My parents are ones to find activities out and about with the kids all the time. They are creative in their outings too. All of that has had to be placed on hold since November.

She has gone to doctor appointments, a car ride outing, and one movie out with my dad in the last four months, otherwise, she's been home in recovery mode. So to get her out for lunch today was a huge treat for us, and for her. It was fun to chat the afternoon away together. While she sees the kiddos at her house on Monday's, the change of scenery was important.

My mom, the everlasting positive thinker, made mention as she walked out of the cafe to the car - "Look! I'm totally walking great! I think this outing totally healed me!"  Insert huge smile here. I love how she always finds the good in everything. Tomorrow may bring her more pain, but for today she recognized the positive and claimed it.

Hopefully each spark of happy will provide her the motivation, strength, and patience to get her to each level of better. Today kinda felt like "Mother's Day" ... it was perfect.

Sleepover + Movie + Food

Last night our son spent the night at our dear friend's house and had a blast! They have a brand new little boxer puppy named Archie, so my son was in a slice of heaven being able to spend extra time playing with the fur-ball with his friends.

I am thankful for good friends that I know my kiddos are having fun with in a great environment. It was the perfect timing to spend the night away outside of family before Camp at the end of March. Thanks, W-Family!! We would enjoy having your boys our way soon!

Today we spent the day with a caravan of kids to the movies. We were in my SIL's car with six kiddos to see the cheesy, but action packed movie, Journey 2; meeting up with additional cars of friends with parents. It was a fun way to spend a rainy day off from school. 

I need to get to the grocery store, but I am lacking the energy and motivation. I turned over a new leaf when I flipped the calendar to 2012. The new leaf found was not wasting food. We are eating out most of the food we purchase on a weekly basis; that includes the fridge, freezer, and pantry before heading back to the store.

Some days are better creations than others, and we are nearing the end of our options, and dinner is looking like trying to convince the family to have breakfast .... or I get my rain gear on and brave the grocery isle, parking lot, and commuter traffic. 

What to do, what to do .... 

Surprise!!!

I had a small bag of items that my niece and nephew left at our house while they were staying with us a few weeks ago. I had kept forgetting to hand it over during the times when we've seen one another since their departure. So yesterday I finally had a break in the action that corresponded with me remembering about the bag and drove it over to my sister-in-laws house.

My SIL and my niece who had been hospitalized at the beginning of the month took the entire week off to rest up from their week of sleepless hospital nights. My niece will return to school at the end of the month (due to our break). It was so nice to see her answer the door with a smile, no tubes, no pain, just her "real" self back!

I had swung by close to the time that I needed to leave to get my kiddos from school. It turned out to be great timing as on a whim I asked if my niece wanted to hop in the car with me and surprise my kiddos - and stay with us for the evening.

I was happy that it did not take more than a second for her to make up her mind with a Yes, Please! Yay - this was going to be FUN! And it proved to be as my girl's eyes were that of shock and awe as she saw her cousin sitting in the front seat of our car, totally not expecting her there. And my son who stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his cousin picking him up too. It was awesome!!!

The kiddos hung out the rest of the night doing kiddo things. Talking. And laughing. With bits of girl screams here and there about girl topics boys. Sigh (wink).

It was so fun to squish around our little kitchen table as a family and have her sitting with us for dinner. It was fun to hear her laugh. To hear her stories. To see her Smile!!! To not have to worry about her health. It was an awesome night!

Thank you, M, for spending the evening with us ad-lib style. We love you so much, and we are so thankful that you are feeling back to normal. Smooches!!

Misc Friday

Paperwork. The fifth graders of our District are prepping for 5th Grade Camp at the end of March. Paperwork has been sent home and I am busy getting it all organized and writing all the different checks for sweatshirts, rockets, and tuition. I can't believe my baby is going to Camp C*! Seems like yesterday we were sending our first born. This time around I will admit that I am more confident. I know what to expect, which is half the battle of parenthood - knowing what is coming at your kiddos.

Chocolates. I received a nice box of chocolates for Valentine's Day from my Sweetheart. I am finding that the combo of dark chocolate and lemon is my favorite. Mmm-Hmm!!

Love. My son wrote a personal note to each member of our family for Valentine's Day. The sweetest, most heartfelt, most personal note to each of us. That is just the kinda sweet boy that he is. My love-note included only the ingredients to a recipe. It took me allllll day to figure out what it would make. Can you figure it out?

2 cups self rising flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup teff flour

5 cups warm water

Teens. Oh my, my girl is growing up. I am thankful for all that she is and has become. I am excited for her future and the good choices she continues to make. Her second quarter/first semester grades were received via the mailbox yesterday. Amazing girl. So happy for her ~ she is an independent worker and every grade she received was truly all from her. Smiles here.

Book. My dear friend mailed my girl and I a book to read; Start Something That Matters by Blake MyCoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes. The note was super sweet from my friend, and both my girl and I are excited to get started reading.

Break. The kids have a week off from school next week in honor of Mid-Winter Break. It feels like we are cheating, since we had an entire week off of school in January due to our unexpected snowstorm. Seems like the kids have not had a consistent schedule for a very long time; between the breaks, and the random half days on Friday's for teacher meetings. We will be hanging out with friends, and getting some school projects accomplished.

Family. My mom's January surgery continues to show success, but she still has some catching up to do that will just take lots of patience and time. She'll get there ~ she is one determined SuperWoman! My niece has been home one week from the hospital, all tubes removed this week, and blood work continues to show no signs of infection. So happy!! She is resting at home and will return back to school after break.

Dogs. Simple and joyful. Not every day is stellar with the puppy, but even those moments make us pause and laugh at her antics of misbehavior. She is just a little toddler that can throw a fit doggie style. For the most part, however, she is just an angel. Our Beagle continues to be the Diva of the four legged's and has not changed in personality one.bit. - still very well behaved, cuddly, and passive-aggressive.  Awww, Cora!! We like her spunk and attitude, and her favoritism to the two-legged's in the house.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Haddie's Expressions

7th Grade Valentine

She baked and decorated a dozen of these for him who is on a select baseball team.

She said that he did not share with his buddies, and he had two left by the time school was over. I consider that a well planned Valentine gift.

He gave her these:

She carried the flowers around all day, and opened the chocolates on the ride home from school. So thoughtful.

Oh, the memories they will have of their 7th Grade Valentine's. 

Girls

My girl and I share the same BFF family, and it is fantastic! Nothing like being able to share a night out with people that we just adore, and continue to be together as Mother and Daughter. 

My girl and her BFF went to a kick-off of a new Youth Group meeting on Saturday night's at her friend's private school, which is also at a church. The atmosphere was over-the-top, very welcoming, and packed with kids their age. My friend and I didn't want to leave it looked like it was going to be so much fun! But we eventually got "the look" from our girls that it was time for us to slip out before it got started. 

My friend and I hung out at a golf course across the way having salads and getting caught up with life. We missed our girl's text that said they were done ... and ... Where are you guys?! Yep, bad Momma's get grounded from their phone. How many times do we tell the girls to reply to our texts right away, and then we blow it. The girls had a good laugh at that one. We were only late by a few minutes. 

The girls had a small bite to eat at their gathering but not enough to call it dinner, so we headed to a second restaurant to get them food. There we hung out for a few hours talking about young-teen-stuff. It was such a great conversation - I give a lot of credit to my friend who knows how to say things so well the first time around. We had a great mixture of laughs and seriousness. 

We returned home to find my son (who had text'd me while we were driving home, to which I had replied right away, I am a fast learner like that) being silly with the porch lights. Typical little brother response for having his sister gone at a sleepover the night prior, and a night out with her BFF on this night ... he was looking for her attention. And he got it ~ laughter ended the night and a grinning brother met us inside. 

Love Girl time ... and my family!

Flash back moment ...

It was my brother's turn to clean the kitchen after one particular family dinner when he was young, and it took him forever! Not because we necessarily had a large feast to clean up after, but because he got distracted.

My brother was more on the science side of life; definitely more so than me. He had a curiosity of how things worked and functioned, and as a result, we could find him taking things apart or researching to see if this book, or that teacher was correct.

On this particular night, my parent's empty wine glasses were filled with varied amounts of water by my brother upon cleanup, and then he proceeded to ring his finger around the rim. Music. That went on for awhile until he got bored of the same sound and decided to fill up the entire dozen place setting of stemware that my parent's owned with different water levels. He got it to the point of using his best eight levels to pull of playing the C-scale.

Yes, it was the longest "Clean Up The Kitchen Night" on record.

My son, for whatever reason, grabbed one of our wine glasses from the shelf this afternoon, inserted the water, rung his finger around the rim, and Music. More wine glasses came out of the cupboard ... you see the cycle. The only thing missing was the messy kitchen waiting to be cleaned.

And for me, recognizing that my son looks so much like my brother at the same age, I am totally having a flash back moment.

Awww.....

There's been a lot on our family plate lately, with the medical "stuff" of my mom's and niece's situations only being a portion of "what's up" in our life. So when I came home from volunteering today in my son's classroom to find these plunked into the pots on our porch, I smiled ... and grabbed my camera.

My hubby generally works from home, minus Monday's when the house if filled with newbie and veteran piano students. Otherwise, he is home and I can overhear conversations wafting from his closed den door while he's on conference calls, or I see a peak of him during lunch time when we sit together and catch-up mid-day over a taped television show and lunch. We see a lot of one another. Thankfully, that works great for us!!

So when he is missing in action because the conference calls turn into face to face meetings, my house is quiet and lonely and I am not a fan. I will be honest and say it was a good-30-day transition years ago when he started to work from home. I will fully admit that it cramped my stay-at-home-mom-lifestyle. I am glad my attitude changed because now I like him home more than I like him away.

When I saw the hearts on the porch today, it was just what I needed. A gentle pick me up to coming home to an empty house, knowing I'd have lunch by myself, and no friendly face to chat our over-sized family plate with. I don't know if he did it on purpose, or if he just stumbled upon the signs in the garage and thought, with five days remaining until Valentine's Day, it'd be better to have them out than in.

No matter which it was ... Awww ... loved the love signs!!

Side Note Update: My niece came home last night, and my son is back in school. All is well!! Yay!

Update

It's not like I don't have things to post about, but our life has had more spunk in it than what I am used to, and juggling one more action item (blogging) on my To Do List was just not happening. I now have a spare moment.

The update on my niece is that she is still in the hospital. However, there are three positives to the current story.

First, she was surprised by a visit from our local NFL Team when a player walked into her room yesterday carrying a giant gift basket for her. Through all the cheerful text messages that were flying about, I forgot to ask her what was inside the basket. That was trivial compared to the joy he brought to my niece. The picture of the two together spoke awesome ~ her smile was so wide to create the perfect pose. My niece is an athlete and sports fan, so this truly was the perfect surprise match. The nurses/hospital staff did a great service by adding my niece to the list of patients for him to visit.

Second, the tube to drain her stomach was removed last night. The updated picture of her following that shown another perfect smile. Her last bite was a week ago today, while she was at home mustering the energy to finish a Subway sandwich after her basketball try-outs (which she made the team, while having an unknown ruptured appendix). She had been sick for five days prior, but had been keeping food down for three days, so she knew she needed to continue to eat. Wednesday brought no food, and then it has continued that way ever since, due to obvious medical reasons from the rupture and post-op. The milestone she has been wanting since surgery has been f.o.o.d. and l.i.q.u.i.d. By midnight she was finally enjoying a Popsicle.

Third, her scheduled release date is Tomorrow; pending she keeps her food in place throughout today. She will continue to have antibiotics administered via her Picc Line at home by her parents. I know that will be a learning experience for the three of them, but they are a smart and well organized crew that will be able to handle that.

On a personal home front update, the nurse at my son's school called me during my Home School piano hours yesterday, requesting that I pick up my cutie as he was running a fever and had a sore throat. So, my After-School piano lessons were cancelled and we have been side by side ever since. Today looks promising, however, so it looks like we had a short run on that topic. We will hang again today to be sure he continues to be fever-free, while taking advantage of working on a Science Fair Project. 

That's my update. Hoping that my next post will be sooner than later, and with more good news.

Prayers for M.

We are enjoying sharing our home and time with our niece and nephew while their parents and sis are hanging out at Children's. The six of us squeezed into her room last night, joining her grandparents and parents. It was a packed party, but it was great to all be together and rally around our sweet niece.

I will not go into explicit detail, but prayers would be awesome. She is not out of the woods just yet, anxious and ready for all the tubing and machines to be unhooked from her. That moment can not come soon enough.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment and frustration is through all this she has not eaten since last Tuesday, and she will not be granted food until the tubes are out. Until then, she is just getting fluids, not nutrients, through her Picc Line. They will start nutrients on Monday if she can not eat prior. Words can not even describe the pain I feel for her.

Rightfully so, when we saw her last night, she was a little blue. She is fighting quietly, and I hope that each hour brings back her spunk.  Each hour I hope she feels better than the prior, and realizes that each hour she is one step closer to food. I am sure that eating will make a world of improvement towards happy.

The earliest that she will be released is Tuesday, but she needs to stay out of school for an additional two weeks (and then we're into Mid-Winter Break, so the earliest to return will be at the end of the month). If she is not released on Tuesday, I am not sure how long the hospital stay will be.

The kids had a slumber party here last night - but it just wasn't the same with out their cousin. They were asleep by 11pm. Definitely not a traditional party. But they are finding themselves busy, and responsible, and being tough while they wait for their sis and cousin to rejoin the crew. I am very proud of each of them.

Prayers for M.

My Niece

Why do medical scares happen at night? Why not in the middle of the day after a fresh night's sleep, a shower, and a full stomach?

About 10p last night my sister-in-law and I were texting as she was headed to Children's Hospital in the big city with her sweet young teen. She had been sick with the "flu" over the weekend, but never seemed to shake it completely. Previous (and multiple) doctor visits earlier in the week ruled nothing, but her parent's were not convinced. Appendix was the first thing to come to her parent's mind when their daughter was doubled-over and could not walk.

A long night of testing, and waiting, revealed an emergency appendectomy by 8:30a. I am convinced the minutes tick slower when you are staring at the clock. Three hours later a text reveals that surgery is complete and our niece is strong.

Unfortunately, the appendix had a severe rupture and now the prayers are for infections to stay away. The surgeon made comments to her parents that their girl is a fighter and could not believe that she could tolerate the amount of pain that she did, for so long.  She will be staying put at Children's for a while being monitored closely and receiving the right mix of antibiotics.

Not to mention the fact that she tried out for her school's basketball team earlier this week (while not even close to being 100%) and made the team! Beating out girls who were cut, and healthy. The fighting spirit and brave mentality definitely runs on my hubby's side of the family, I am sure those genes rose to the occasion for our niece. For those reading that know her personally, I know you all are smiling. You know what kinda girl she is.

I cared for my nephew before school, and he's with us now after school. What a treat! Although it feels like Homework Club over here with the cousins sprawled across the kitchen table and onto the family room couch, television off, phones put away, popcorn munching, and bantering back and forth about math problems, they are a cool unit of fun. Although under different circumstance would have been welcomed (!) memories are being made.

Sweet Niece - I will repeat a quote given to your mom on her Facebook page from her cousin:  "It all makes us stronger in the end!" You are very strong, and I know in the future you will look back at this week's journey and draw strength for whatever challenge you face. Remembering how hard you fought, how brave you have been, how strong you are will only help you overcome the next obstacle, setback, challenge. You are so loved, M, and so strong! God Bless. xoxo

Two Months Away

I can't believe that we have welcomed February, and we can legitimately start getting excited for our Spring Break Get Away. We are headed to several locations which involve a plane ride, city life, and a beach. We are hoping to perfect the re-application process of Sunscreen since the below vacation photo was taken in 2009, but I am looking forward to those late night dinners after an exhaustive-relaxing day with sand, sea water, and sun.

South Padre Island, Texas.
Daughter soon to be age 11.
Son soon to be age 9