Then and Now

I try to take the girls pictures on the first and last days of school every year. I didn't get started until C's Kindergarten year, so I don't have very many yet, unfortunately. But I have this years. Okay, so the end of year picture is actually from a day or two after the last day. Oops.

 

 

 

Oh, of course I forgot where I took the first set. Shoot. No size comparison there. Oh well, their faces sure are different in just a year! Wow.

10 Years

This March 15 marked 10 years married to my amazing husband. Still, today I find myself looking over at him in the living room and wondering how in the world I could be this blessed. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away. I hope not. I know I'm doing everything in my power to make sure it doesn't. 

10 years filled with babies and cancer treatments and now with others' babies as we jump into our latest adventure. Filled with trips and date nights to keep our sanity, and parenting and learning each other and loving who we're growing together to be. Filled with long, late night talks about our future, and more and more now about what God truly has planned for us, and with philosophical debates and inside jokes. 

I can't even believe how amazingly blessed I am. I still blush when he looks at me across a crowded room. I still get butterflies when he shows up somewhere I wasn't expecting him. I still think he's the most handsome man in the world. 

He's the most forgiving person I know, and knows just how to treat me when storms are boiling up in my mind. He's an amazing father and loves our girls completely. He's adventurous and kind and compassionate and full of integrity. He can do anything he puts his mind to and loves to figure out how things work. He has been my rock in more storms than we've been able to count, and I love that he's the one God gave to me for that.

Truly, I am blessed beyond what these mere words can say. Truly, God knew what he was doing when we met nearly 13 years ago. Truly we are blessed every day with God's protection on our marriage. 10 years. Feels like a lifetime and a second in the same thought. Forever and not nearly long enough.

At it Again

We currently have the second placement from Safe Families going on in our house. This time we moved in two little girls, age 5 and 7. They fit right in at the end of our line-up of girls, and besides feeling a bit more overwhelmed and a bit busier, this placement has been much easier than the first.

The girls have even been going to their parents for overnights on Saturdays, which gives us a break from extra work, and them a break from strangers! It has worked out really well so far.

We've made sure to keep to a structured schedule. Everyone is up by 8:30 (I don't wake them, they're all just early risers), and as they roll out of bed they get breakfast. We usually have cartoons on at that time, because it's summer and why not. They then get to play for a while. Sometimes they play outside, sometimes inside, and sometimes, with 5 of them, I have half in one place and half in the other.

At 10:00 we have snack. Our school district does a Summer Stretch program, which is some math and reading review during the summer, and the girls came with some workbooks from home too. So as they finish up their snacks, we do 'school time.' Each is allowed to go their own way again after that, and they play until lunch. After lunch we usually get swimsuits and sunscreen on, and play with our water toys. The slip-n-slide is almost always going. We have popsicles at 2:15 and once everyone is done the girls all take turns picking out one of our movies. As they are all over the age of 5, but I still need to have a quiet time (and so do they), they are watching movies. Don't judge. ;)

The movie is usually done at 4:00. We have a snack and they get to play again until supper time. After that is either more play or we do bath time. The girls get to call their mom and dad and then it's off to bed between 7:30 and 8:00.

This schedule has been working amazingly well for us. Discipline issues have been at a minimum, and it's usually just a small tift about who had a toy first. And if it gets any worse than that, it usually means someone needs a nap. We've had two impromptu naps, which made me realize why they were so upset at the time, since they moved in.

I have no real guidelines for how to act online with the kids we move in through SFFC. So I err on the side of caution and do not post their names or any pictures. So you won't be seeing any of that on here.

They have been a blessing. We are so blessed to be able to help people in this way.

In other events, A and C have started their summer tap classes and this week is summer camp. S goes to summer camp in 2 weeks. We visit the local mobile library and go swimming at my parents' pool some nights. It has been low-key and so much lower stress than the first time around. We may actually be getting the hang of this.

Boring Blog Update

I got a shout out from a former teacher the other day who actually has a bit
of a readership and of all things he linked to my blog. This brought
to my mind the fact that I hadn't actually written anything in
something like 6 months so I thought I'd throw something on here for
once.

We've seen some changes around our little house in 6 months. We made
that trip to Disney. All three girls are in school full time. And we
started working with a group called Safe Families. This group offers
temporary "Safe Families" to the children of people who are going
through a crisis. Be it homelessness, job loss, health issues or
anything along those lines, this program keeps these kids from
becoming homeless as well, or from having to enter the foster care
system.

We were approved and signed up way faster than we thought we would and
already have had our first placement. Three little boys came to live
with us on February first. I was telling people that we doubled
our kids and tripled our noise. Hubby and I had an infant sleeping in
our room, all three girls were in the basement bedroom, and the two
older brothers were in the upstairs bedroom.

It was a whirlwind of an experience but we've really been shown that
we are right where God wants us. We were approved the day before these
boys needed us. Our church has rallied around us with support. And we
trust that as this is where we are called to be, that all our needs
will be provided for. From keeping our sanity with this many children
running around to the monetary expenses that will surely start to show
up.

We brought the boys home to mom and dad last Wednesday. Yesterday I
realized we hadn't sat down to dinner at our dining room table since
they left. In all that busy-ness I think we were just relieved to not
have 3 more kids in the mix. Plus I don't think 3 weeks was long
enough to get hugely attached. We miss them, to be sure,  but they
didn't come to feel like members of the family in that time. More like
really cute guests. Good friends. I'm sure wrap-ups will not always be
so smoothly.

So that's where our family stands now. Welcome, if you're here from
Walker's blog. Sorry I don't look as busy as he made me out to be. I
am training for the riverbank 10k, and S is training along with me.
Hubby is simultaneously training for a GoRuck challenge and the
riverbank 25k on back to back weekends. A has a dance coming up and
she and C have a dance recital in the spring. We're on a rest period
until we get more Safe Families kids. And I hope to take more time to
get some words on here and process stuff through a little better. I
guess that’s pretty busy.

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

We have some pretty great neighbors. We live in an association so of course there are a few that are sticklers for all the tiny little rules and want huge dues for silly reasons and things like that. But for the most part, we get along really well with the neighbors. Many of them have kids our kids' age, which makes it even better. This past Saturday night we had our block party. One of our neighbors even got in touch with her volunteer firefighter friend and they brought a firetruck for the kids to explore. My kids thought that was pretty cool. They got to try on a hat, climb the outside of the truck, and even hold an axe. We had a great time.

Thanks to the volunteers who took the time to let these kids play on the truck! What a great community we live in.

Other Stuff

We went to the beach a couple times! We went with the neighbors one time, and I'm not sure I got my money's worth out of buying the State Park Tag for my truck, as that was the only time we used it. Oops. I'm going to have to work on that next year. My girls get along with their neighborhood friends brilliantly, and I love the women we live near. We get along famously with almost everyone. We went a couple times too at The Conference Grounds, where my Grandparents have been camping since they worked summers there in the 70's. The girls are turning into quite the water bugs. They love diving into the waves and playing in the sand. 

We spent a couple nights this summer staying up late. The first time Hubby's sister and her husband came and helped the girls catch fireflies. We have a fire pit in the backyard so we had a cookout both nights, with s'mores of course. The second time we did sparklers and the girls got to have glow bracelets. Hubby showed them some constellations. Eventually I want to get to the point where we're using that fire pit almost every weekend. I love sitting out there with them. 

Hubby's other sister lives in MN. She was home for a while this summer and my mother-in-law wanted to go to the zoo with all the grandkids. We love the local zoo. They have a budgie cage, and I think the birds are getting more used to people because they will land on you with almost no fear. I even saw one dive into a guy's pocket! One landed on my shoulder and I didn't even have a stick to feed them with. 

Most of the grandkids, minus 2 babies and 2 on the way. 

Our oldest nephew with my mother-in-law

We went to a nearby fair. They had a cute little puppet show and the main character did a 'meet and greet' at the end. A and C went up to give him a hug. We wandered through the horse barns because I'm raising horse lovers after my own heart. There was one horse who was very friendly, didn't mind all kinds of people petting it, so we got a picture with it.

S and C are having fun, I promise. I don't know what's up with the scowls. 

Those were some of the activities we got to do this summer. I've said it to many people this week who've asked if I stay at home (seems that question comes up a lot as kids go back to school). I am so blessed to spend my days with these beauties. We had a great summer.

School

Last year, C had a really, really difficult year. She came home on the very first day with names of children who had been mean. On the FIRST DAY. This year, we're to the 4th day and she hasn't had any reports of anyone being mean. Weird, yes. But no one has been mean. And we've been there for 4 days and I've received lengthy emails from the teacher explaining things from class or praising the kids on how well they did twice already. I have warm and fuzzy feelings that this year is going to go much better than last.



A has some kids in her class who were trouble last year, but she has glowing reports about how much she likes her teacher so I hope that she will have a better year than last year as well. Last year I found it amazing that A learned anything considering how disruptive some of the children in her class were. That makes me proud that she can work in a difficult environment, actually. She and C both made me very proud that they learned so much in such difficult classes last year. I'm hoping for a break for them both this year. Hopefully some of the trouble children have reigned it in a little over the summer.


A and C are in a brand-new school in our district. This building is just beautiful. The classrooms all have high ceilings, the playground is really cool (though I won't be playing on it as nearly everything spins), and you can just tell the teachers are excited to be there. The grounds are beautiful too. You know you're a parent when you call the school beautiful. But the kids agreed with me, so that's something.

S is in an advanced class at her school. The program didn't move anywhere so she is still at her old school. She doesn't much care for shuttling over there but she didn't have to last year so now she's got a taste of what over half her class had to do both years. She loves her teacher too, but she gets frustrated easily if she can't figure a bit of homework out. My hope for this year is that she learns new ways to tackle things if the first way doesn't work out. I already know she'll like her classmates and love her teacher, since she knew them well already last year.

So I know I said these would be about summer for a while, but I'm feeling proud of my kids and how they like school and get along with everyone they meet so this one is sneaking in there.

Something Sad

I had a melancholy day today so to match that I'll share our melancholy news from this summer. Our dog is a Lhasa Apso, a dwarf breed with a long back and short, stocky legs.

As such, Benji belongs to a group of dog breeds that are susceptible to something called Intervertebral Disc Disease, a disorder where the discs around the spine swell and put pressure on the spine, which causes pain and, if left untreated, paralysis. 

I had heard of this in daschunds and corgis, dogs notoriously long-backed, but I had never thought of it for Benji. Turns out Lhasas are prone to it as well. 

When it first presents itself, IDD can look like abdominal pain. When Benji couldn't jump on the couch and yipped when we tried to pick him up, we thought he had colic or something like it. When it got bad enough that he couldn't walk on his back legs, we knew that even if it was colic it was bad enough that he needed to see a vet. Of course it was a Sunday, and our normal vet was not open. So we had to drive all the way to, and pay for, an emergency vet. 

Benji got bad enough that he lost all feeling to his back half. Outside of neural surgery, he didn't and still doesn't have very good odds that he'll ever get complete control back. Now, though, he has control over his tail, some muscle control over his legs but not enough to stand, and some control over his bladder to the point where he won't have an accident but we do have to help him go to the bathroom. #2 he doesn't seem to be able to hold, so we have to get him out on a schedule, but he does seem to know if he's going to do #2, so we've been able to make it outside just in time a couple times. 

So far we feel we've been able to still provide him with a pretty good quality of life despite his troubles.  If we ever get to the point where we feel we can't take care of him well enough or keep his quality of life high we have researched a couple rescue hospitals we can go to. 

Just now he's getting off of bed rest so he's starting to drag his buns around. He's getting pretty quick considering he has to waddle (we say he looks like a penguin with a big rear end). We're also planning to build him a wheelchair so he can get around the yard and go on walks. 

So that was the bad thing that happened this summer. Mostly the summer was good but this was definitely a bummer. 

Bookends

I realized as I came on here to write that I've book-ended our summer with these blog posts. The last one was just after Memorial Day and now it's just after Labor Day. I don't know if it was a particularly busy summer but I didn't get anything written. So for the sake of the fact that I'd like to keep this as a kind of diary of my kids' childhoods, there will be a few posts in a row all about summer.

We. Went. To. Disney. It was the best week of the year, hands down. We LOVED it. The girls were better behaved than I ever dared to hope for. We stayed in a time share condo with my entire family. My parents, my brother and his girlfriend, and my sister all went too.

I have so much to say and I have access to something like 600 pictures, between the 3 of us who took a lot of pictures. But I won't bore you with that many. In fact, here's a link to an album of them.

Believe it or not, we took one vehicle down. We stuffed 10 of us and all our luggage in a 15-passenger van and drove for 24 hours straight. This even went better than I thought it could possibly go. We did learn the truth behind the joke-term 'hangry', or anger and irritation from hunger. We would be growly and impatient and then we'd stop at a restaurant and all be much better.

We spent Monday in the Magic Kingdom. To give you a taste of how well the day went, we were in the front of the line to get into the park. We didn't see a single line until we had been on 4 rides. We walked right onto every ride for the first hour. It was amazing. We opened the park up in the morning and then left as it closed to the general public at night.

We took a couple days off from parks to get some actual vacationing in. We swam (our complex had a water park), played volleyball and tennis, and chilled in our room. We also went to Downtown Disney, where they have all kinds of shops, one of which was LegoLand. That was pretty cool. We ate out and in and enjoyed each others' company.

Thursday we went to Universal. We had a good time there too, but it was hampered a bit by the fact that a few of us got sick on the very first ride. The Harry Potter theme park was awesome, and so was that ride, but those of us prone to motion sickness (myself included) got REALLY sick on that first ride. That combined with the fact that the two little girls couldn't go on very many rides meant many of us had less fun at Universal than at Disney. But it was still a fun day. I can't wait for the day I can go back and explore Harry Potter World even more. I am quite a nerd for that stuff.

Friday was the Animal Kingdom. My wonderful mother treated us all to breakfast with the characters. This meant we were there before the park even opened that day. The breakfast was delicious and we got a few signatures and the girls got pictures with the characters. They even got to dance with Goofy.  Then we got to get in line inside the park to get to the safari first (the thing we wanted to see the most). We were on the first truck out and got some really awesome pictures of the animals.

We piled in the van and came home. It was a surprisingly great ride in spite of everyone being really, really tired! We have such great memories from that week and I hope the girls are old enough to remember it well.