A Small Hurdle

There haven't been too many things in the past few weeks that have brought me to tears.  There are days that I miss my best friends and shed silent tears on the way home from playdates.  I miss my church.  We miss our soccer friends.  But the one thing that I have put off, dreaded really, has been picking a new pediatrician. 

We LOVE our pediatrician.  Present tense.  Not just because he is an excellent doctor, but because he is a dear friend!  We love him and his family.  His wife is my dearest friend.  Our sons have been best friends since they were infants.  So picking a doctor for me is something I don't take lightly.  But, today I had to bite the bullet.  Tegan is sick.  Again.  I sense something is wrong with him.  Not seriously wrong, but something needing some attention.  I have nothing other than my motherly intuition to tell me that something is wrong.  So, today, with tears in my eyes I called to make an appointment with a doctor other than Alan Cooper.  I hope our new doctor doesn't think I'm crazy when I cry through our whole first appointment!

The week in review

It has been an interesting week in our house!  We discovered a new BMX bike track about 30 minutes from our house that we just had to try out!!!  Surprisingly, Davian never hesitated getting on the track and was "gettin' air" before we knew it!  Tegan?  Well...its not really suited for training wheels.  So he found other ways to get air.

This week also was the beginning of a new school year.  Davian was really ready to get back into school, even if he wouldn't admit it!  Picking on your little brother is only fun for so long.  He was also thrilled that he wouldn't have to wear those blasted collared shirts anymore.  He could actually pick out whatever he wanted to wear to school.  Austin and I, on the other hand, were not so excited about having to school shop.  SMOD is just so much easier!

Here is my big guy on the first day of school! 

I think his teacher is going to be a perfect fit this year!  After all, if she can do this to my exuberant, energetic guy, she gets an A+ in our book!



Tegan also started school this week.  Pre-K at home with mommy.  We have started studying all the letters of the alphabet, learning how to write them.  We go on word hunts for words that start with the sound.  This week we started with the letter "L".  We are also learning our sights words.  We are starting out slowly, only 1-2 per week.  He is really enjoying and I am too!  All of our resources are coming from 1+1+1=1.  It is an amazing site with FREE home school resources!  LOVE IT!

Here Tegan is underlining his sight words for the week: I, see

(This sight word book comes from Hubbard's Cupboard)

Here he is sorting animals that live on land or in the sea.  We were reading lots of books about the ocean.  

Next week (or rather, this week since I am finishing this post SO late), starts soccer.  We can't wait!!!!

Gaining Gratitude (week 5)

41. starting the day with a walk with the boys
42. one last trip to the BMX track before school starts
43. early morning workouts
44. the first day of school
45. public safety officers!
46. my cell phone
47. the library with oodles of books
48. protection for little ears and eyes (seems like I have to be thankful too often for this one.  I would like to be thankful one week for not having to put this on the list!)
49. "homeschooling" advice from veterans!
50.  a successful first day of Pre-K homeschool

LegoLand (aka Heaven to my little guys)

Here is a picture walk of our day at LegoLand! 

Planning the day with their maps.

Tegan loved driving the cars.

Watch out!  They gave Davian a driver's license.

The highlight for the boys was seeing the Lego Star Wars display!  It was fascinating!

Another quick check of the map to make sure we were on course.

Somehow Cecy and I ended up in Las Vegas!

Shark attack!!!  It is amazing that all of these things were built from Legos!  We could even touch them to prove that they were in fact Legos!  Crazy!

Again, he LOVES driving the cars!  This was his second trip to the race track.

Cecy and I playing white water rafting on Kinect.  I left off some of the more embarassing pictures.

Map check!

They had a station to build and race cars.  We spent a lot of time in here. 

Our race cars.  Don't be too impressed with our creations.  The one on the right was donated to Davian by a expert builder who was done for the day.  The one in the middle was mine and the car on the left was Tegan's

 

What a fun day!  We can't wait to go back!

How can I help my child's teacher?

My dearest friend asked that I write a post about practical things you can do for your child's teacher to help her/him.  After being in the classroom for 5 years and a school aged child's parent for a year, I guess I could be considered qualified.  I have a lot to say on the subject and am considering a more in depth series in October, but to get the school year started, here are 10 things you can do to help your child's overworked and grossly underpaid teacher.

1. Buy extra packs or boxes of tissue and Ziploc bags, bottles of hand sanitizer, and dry erase markers.  Send them in to the classroom.  Also, after the first few days of school, find out if she has a wish list (most do), buy a couple items off the list.
2. If you have time (about 1 hour a week), offer to file papers to be sent home.  These can be papers that you take home and do while you are watching TV or done in the classroom.
3. Cut out laminated items.  Again this can be done while watching TV during the evening.
4. Ask if there are any upcoming picture books that your child's teacher will be using that she doesn't have.  Buy it and send it in.
5.  If your child's school does not have a person to make copies, see if you can help make copies for the classroom.
6.  Send her a supportive and encouraging note from either you or your child.  Some of the most memorable ones I received included Bible verses and specific examples of how I impacted the life of the child.
7.  Chocolate.
8.  Send her flowers/gift cards for coffee places/book stores.  They don't have to be high dollar amounts, but most teachers spend about $500 out of pocket for classroom supplies.  A cup of free coffee is deeply regarded.
9.  Buy bags of individually wrapped fun size candy and send them in.  Most teachers have some kind of prize/treasure box.  I would stay away from candy that has peanuts or tree nuts due to numerous allergies in the classroom.
10.  Most teachers could use additional playground equipment/board games for indoor recess/sidewalk chalk.

BONUS:
11.  If you notice a teacher in the check out lane in front of you buying 25 packs of crayons, 25 glues sticks, 25 folders, 25 pairs of scissors, buy them for her if you can afford it.  It might not be your child's teacher, but she is some parent's child's teacher.  She will never forget it!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that you need to pray for your child's teacher!  It takes a lot of time, energy, and patience to teach.  It is comforting to know that people are praying for you!

I hope this helps for all you moms that are going to send your babies off to school for the first time soon! 

If you have any other ideas, post a comment.  I am sure we would all like more ideas to help our kids' teachers!

I stand corrected...

I apologize to all you spelling Type A's...apparently graditute should actually be spelled with a "t"!

Thanks to my in-house spell checker :)

Reunited after 17 years!

The summer between my sophomore and junior years in high school was one to remember.  I spent that summer living with a family in a small town in Mexico.  I learned how to speak Spanish, eat tortillas and homemade salsa, and drink Yolis out of a plastic bag.  I also learned about friendship, family, and love.

I was blessed to stay with an amazing family of four girls led by a strong man and his hard working wife.  Cecy was also in high school that summer.  She seized an opportunity presented by her teacher to bring in an American student.  Little did this family know that their American student would be a crazy chic from Michigan!

Cecy and I became fast friends.  She was patient and kind with my very poor (very, very poor) Spanish.  We had lots of fun that summer.  I probably had more fun than was allowed for a 15 year old!

We stayed in touch over several years with visits interspersed during vacations.  However, with the passage of time, I lost contact with this sweet family.  Through the years, I would come across the photo albums of my time in Mexico and wonder where they were and how they were doing.

About 10 years ago, Cecy got in contact with me through my mom.  I learned that they were in the US now.  Again we fell out of contact. Then about a year ago, Cecy found me on Facebook!  The family was in the throws of tragedy with their patriarch in the hospital dying from cancer.  This wasn't their first battle with cancer as it turns out.  One of the four girls also has courageously faced the demon and still suffers from the repercussions.  Shortly after our Facebook reunion, Abel lost his battle with cancer.  My heart aches that I wasn't able to see him again this side of heaven.

As it turns out, when our family moved from one coast the other, we were able to reunite with Cecy and her family for a fantastic weekend!  More of those details to come.  It was wonderful to see them and hug them again.  It was that weird feeling that no time had passed and yet so much has happened in both of our lives. 

Now our families will enjoy many years of friendship! 

Gaining Graditude (week 4)

Better late than never....

31. 3 showings on our house in NC this week!
32. lunch at McDonald's with a new friend.
33.  phone calls from my dearest friends.
34.  the treat of frozen yogurt (super cheap with a coupon and punch card!)
35.  morning Bible study with the boys before the day officially starts.
36.  God protecting little ears from colorful speech at the bike park.
37.  Spontaneous "I love you, Mommy.  All the way down to your heart!" from Tegan.
38.  Davian's sense of humor. 
39.  I am not in the throws of preparing my classroom for a new school year! 
40.  the ability and desire to stay home with the kids.

Have a thankful week!

Out of the mouths of babes...

Davian just totally called me out.

He and Tegan were playing with their food at dinner.  Putting water in, mixing it up, spitting out the chicken, etc.  I told them that they were not going to get ice cream for dessert because they were playing with their food.  Davian asks if they can have a second chance.  I quickly replied with a stern "NO!".  (It's been a long day). 

Davian says the following: "Oh, come on Mom.  Don't you remember Jonah and the whale?  Jonah messed up and God gave him a second chance.  God believes in second chances."

I guess he got me on that one!

Gaining Graditude (week 3)

I have had so much to be thankful for this past week!  Here are the highlights.  I have a bunch of posts about this past weekend...stay tuned...

21. a phone call that reminded me that it was Tuesday.
22. a week so busy that I forgot what day of the week it was!
23. the abililty and time to help with VBS this week.
24.  chairs, beds, our washer and dryer, TV, table, drawers. 
25.  birthdays for two wonderful women in our lives (my mom and mother-in-law)
26. San Diego and all the family fun we had
27. the Bravo Vargas family and their hospitality
28. ice cream
29. my morning quiet time (I haven't had any over the past few days and I miss it dearly!)
30. TWO showings at our house this week!  Please pray that we would sell the house!!!

I hope you have a blessed week!