Rachel's dance

Last night was the Father/Daughter dance at Rachel's school.  Last year she and Sam went and had a wonderful time.  They got all dressed up and danced the night away.  Sadly, this year Sam is off gallivanting in Dubai and was unable to take her.  She and her friend Aubrey decided that non-attendance was just not acceptable and that Rachel must go.  So Aubrey asked her parents if it was ok if Rachel came along with her and her dad and sister.  Mike very kindly agreed to take Rachel with them.  She spends a lot of time at Aubrey's house so she's like a 3rd daughter some days anyway! So, Emily helped Rachel get her outfit together and did her hair and off Rachel went to Aubrey's.  Mike was so sweet.  He went out their garage and came up to their front door to pick up his dates.  He brought each of them a wrist corsage of red roses--that he made himself!--and Kristin grilled him on the time he would have the girls back home.  Rachel loved it.  She loved getting to be with her best friend Aubrey and not having to miss the dance.  And she especially loved her wrist corsage.  Thanks Mike!  You rock!!

The end of an era

Well, it happened.  I hit the wall.  I ran out of gas.  I finally cried Uncle! Of course, many days it felt like I literally hit a wall, but I meant that figuratively.  So, without further ado....drumroll please.....starting tomorrow my friend Tommy will be rejoining the World of Academia! Everyone out of your seats to do the Goin' to School Dance!!!  (you'll need to provide your own music and/or sound effects) I don't know who is more excited--me or him!

He will be attending Bios Christian Academy (where Katya goes to school).  It is a great school and they are well prepared for him.  The principal and his wife (who teaches there too) adopted an older child a few years back who displayed many of the same characteristics as Tommy does. So, they'll be able to handle him quite well.  I think he will find them, shall we say, less than accommodating for his errant behaviors.  

What will I do with all of my "extra" time??  Maybe I'll take up painting.  Nah.  Actually go to the gym again?  Maybe.  Stay ahead of the laundry?  Not likely.  Enjoy my time with Emily?Absolutely.  Rejoice because I won't have to go 20 rounds with Tommy faking confusion on an assignment?  You can count on it!  He really took his act to the absurd some days.  And my heart and soul were growing more and more weary as a result of the constant battle. Thankfully our friends at Bios are willing to stand with us and help us point Tommy to Christ and give me the respite I need to be stronger to continue his training at 3:30 each day.

Sadly, there will be fewer Tommy stories.  Although they were growing fewer already because they were getting so repetitive!  I am confident that some very interesting stories will be coming home from school though and I will be glad to share those with you and record them for posterity.  And of course, he'll still be here after school and on weekends which is sure to provide hours of entertainment for one and all.  

So, tonight I feel a little like the Israelites getting ready to enter the Promised Land.  There will still be rough patches, but to be able to rest from our wanderings in the Wilderness of Tommy's Rebellion will be a wonderful thing!!  And I want to publicly thank my husband for allowing Tommy to go to school.  He has blessed me by making this choice solely for my benefit and I am very thankful for that lovingkindness!  You, Sam, are an exceptional man! 

The Plus Side

A totally unexpected side benefit of having Tommy home this year has been that his shoes have become like the Energizer Bunny--they keep going and going and going!!  He had been blazing through shoes at school at lightning speed since he is what you would call an "active" boy at recess.  He is not content to sit and play a quiet game of four square.  No, he must be diving and rolling and racing at top speeds.  And his shoes reflected that level of activity.  He usually came bursting out of them after about 6 weeks, much to my chagrin.  And when I say "bursting" I mean that literally.  They looked like they had been to war and back.   And now, at home, with no soccer game to join at lunch in the backyard, he is in the same pair he got in September.  I'm going to actually have to check to see if he is outgrowing them.  Another fun and exciting experience we would never have gotten to experience if he wasn't home with me.  So, I've got that going for me, which is good.

God and Donuts

I got a day off from Tommy today.  That sounds terrible when I read it back, but it's true and even he knows it.  So there it is.  Some friends offered to take him for the day so I could return to some level of sanity after a four day binge of rebelliousness he has been on.  All while Sam is out of town leaving me with no backup.  I'm definitely feeling better.  I got to spend some time at Dunkin Donuts this morning sipping a white hot chocolate and chomping on some yummy donuts!  Chocolate cake and strawberry frosted with sprinkles!  Yum!  DD is hands down my favorite donut place--way better than Krispy Kreme.  Cake donuts rock!  And I don't go there often enough.  Which I suppose is what made it such a nice treat this morning.  Too many donuts make the senses dull and the backside bigger.  So, I'm thinking it's a good idea to limit my visits. 

I spent some time in Psalms while I munched and sipped.  And God reminded me that He will fill me spiritually just like my yummy, fatty donut did physically--but much longer lasting for sure.  I am so thankful for that.  God has been so gracious to give me the strength and patience to deal with my little Tomster.  And He promises to continue and be the donut of my soul! How cool is that!!  And I don't have to limit my intake of God donuts!  

I'm convinced my house in Heaven is going to have a donut shop--with only CAKE donuts--right next door. That's where Jesus and I will hang out.  

On a percentage basis

I was just discussing lying with Tommy.  I asked him about how much he lies vs. telling the truth. I asked if it was 50/50 or if it was more 75/25 and he replied:

"It's 21% truth.  I lie way more than I tell the truth."

And before you think he's just being a cute youngster and has to be overstating his lying out of ignorance, I just want you to know that he has a full working knowledge of percentages and that is probably an accurate statistic.  Sad but true.  Which further explains the twitch in my right eye.

Favorite line

Here is my favorite comment from watching the Inauguration Day proceedings.  After the luncheon at the Capitol when President Obama was getting into the limo to start the parade, Brian Williams from NBC said, "I bet he's jonesing for a piece of Nicorette gum right about now." (And then when they zoomed in on Obama in the car you could see him clearly chewing a piece of gum!) Really, how often do you hear a newscaster talk about the President "jonesing" for something???  Not too often, I'm guessing.

Just Being a Home School Mom

Yesterday I was a total homeschool mom.  We made something that went with the literature curriculum!  Historical cooking!  Extra points for me! A reason to use exclamation points!

Anyway, Tommy read a book called The Sign of the Beaver and one of the activities we could do was make Johnnycakes (cornmeal pancakes).  Usually we don't do the extra activities because either I don't feel like it, Tommy is in "Tommy Jail" because of his behavior, or (if it's a food project) it has flour in it.  But this one, I was in the mood for a fun project (cause it was simple!), Tommy was out on bail, and it was flourless!  This was clearly our project.  So we made Johnnycakes and Tommy and Emily ate them for lunch (I tried them but wasn't thrilled so T got mine).  He was very excited (probably because we don't usually do things like this because of his poor behavior!) and wants to make them for breakfast and lunch and dinner every day.  Not happening.

This one's for Walter

I'm trying to post more because my friend Walter tells me that I don't post things often enough. So, I sat down purposefully to write just for Walter's sake.  That's just me.  Serve, serve, serve.

Let's see, what's going on....OH!  I forgot to tell you that Emily is now at home and doing the online charter school that Tommy does.  Hers is a bit different because it's high school as opposed to elementary.  Elementary is more like traditional home schooling without the prep work (they do it all!) but Em has individual teachers and has to turn in her work to them.  Which is nice for me 'cause I don't have to do anything except log her attendance hours.  So far it is going very well.  Except for a few outbursts against the "stupid computer" every once in a while when it is not working properly.  (Technology-friend and foe all at the same time)  I am really enjoying having her home with me. It balances out the insanity package that Tommy brings with him.

Other than that we are in the midst of basketball season for Katya, soccer for Noah and school musical practice and Girl Scouts for Rachel.  Rachel can't seem to limit herself to just one activity.  She'd have more if we let her.  She says it's in my best interests to have her over-involved because then I don't have to worry about her being bored and nagging me about coming up with something for her to do.  So selfless.

Girl's Best Friend

Last night I was looking for Macy (the Wonder Dog) before I went to bed.  I have accidentally left her outside before and so I now have the habit of checking to see where she is so it doesn't happen again.  I checked the boys' room and Emily's room before peeking in to the girls' room. At first glance I didn't see her but then I realized that there was something next to Rachel instead of curled up at her feet.   When I got closer this is what I found:

A girl and her dog having a sleepover.  Macy was still awake.  She must have been bummed that Rachel fell asleep during their girl talk.

25 vs 1

Today I worked in a 3rd grade class.  Why is it that a class full of 3rd graders is so much easier than my own 3rd grader?  Well, perhaps it is because my precious little Tomster has decided it is his life's mission to frustrate me as much as is humanly possible so that I will put him back in school.  Seriously, that's his plan.  Most kids his age don't have a "Master Plan," but I guess that's what makes him "special."  Thankfully I have the Holy Spirit residing in me and it allows me to exhibit more patience than I know I possess many days.  Like this week when I had Tommy redo a math page and he put the exact same wrong answers down each time--6 times in a row!--for the sole purpose of seeing my eye twitch.  He was willing to spend hours rewriting his wrong answers in order to try to send me over the edge.  But, praise God, I was surprisingly patient each time I had to have him redo it and in the end he decided to confess his foolishness and stop.  There are unfortunately bad days though when he hits his mark and I am ultra frustrated with his antics.  Those are the days when I think, "You know that move that Darth Vader can do where he chokes people without even touching them?  Tommy should be glad I can't do that." 

Noah extreme sledding

This was a sweet run Noah had down a long, steep sled run.  I was glad I had grabbed my camera since he inadvertently did a bit of trick sledding at the end when he switched to his knees from his stomach midair.  

Skatesnowboarding

Here is Tommy "snowboarding" down the hill.  You have to read my post to hear the "rest of the story."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We went up to Flagstaff last weekend to play in the snow.  Well, for the kids and Sam to play in the snow and for me to watch and take pictures.  Somehow I became the mom that sits on the sidelines and watches much of the kids' activities.  I guess that came along as a side effect of having breast cancer, leukemia and just plain ol' getting old.  Thankfully Sam is still game to sled with them 'cause he's just getting old without the exciting diseases and medicine on top of that.  Lucky.  

The kids had a fantastic time and there was a ton of snow.  It was cold too--in the 20's and teens a couple of days/nights!  But when you live in the desert it is way fun to get to play in snow so they spent as much time in it as they could.  Thankfully we had a coffee maker in the room and could heat up water for hot chocolate.  A lot.

Of course no trip would be complete without a few snags.  First off, we arrived and discovered rather quickly that "someone" had forgotten to pack Sam's winter coat.  I was responsible for packing for myself AND the 5 children AND acquiring snow gear for everyone AND packing the food AND making sure the dog was taken care of so I'm quite certain that "someone" wasn't me. Thankfully I had stuck an extra coat in the car for the kids and it mostly fit Sam (except in the sleeves) so he had something he could wear besides a sweatshirt.  

Second snag, the website for the hotel we stayed at said that there was a microwave in the room so I brought some soup and whatnot to feed Tommy "Mr. Gluten Free" when we ordered pizza for dinner.  We discovered that to be incorrect when we arrived.  But I discovered that if you put soup in the coffee pot and leave it there for a long time it eventually gets hot.  You just can't be really, really hungry to use this method of cooking.  I also used the coffee pot/stove/oven to prepare some oatmeal and grits for breakfast.  I had to do the grits (for Mr. GF again) the same way as the soup because they unfortunately weren't "instant" and I couldn't just add hot water like I was thinking.  In the end I spent a good portion of the weekend in my "mini kitchen."  I felt sort of like Bear Grylls on Man v. Wild making soup out of whatever I could find and being ultra resourceful.  Sort of.

The final snag involved Tommy.  He was having a great time sledding on Friday and again on Saturday.  On Saturday he pulled out the wheelless skateboard that our neighbors had used to play in the snow the weekend before and decided to "snowboard."  He actually did quite well on it for about an hour.  And I just have to say that whenever I have actually worried that he would get hurt he never, ever has.  This time I wasn't worried.  That should have been when warning bells went off.  As I said, after about an hour he had one fateful run down the sled hill and as he flew off the board, hit the ground and just laid there.  His brother Noah, ever the sensitive one, checked on him and declared that he had just had the wind knocked out of him.  Noah tried to drag him up off the ground and then Katya went over and held him.  Sam was sliding down the hill toward him at this point to check on him.  When he got there, Emily had him in her lap cuddling him.  We got him over to the side and found out that he had landed on his arm funny and it really hurt.  One thing you need to know about Tommy is that he does not get hurt easily. I took one look at his face and I knew this wasn't just a bruise.  So, we packed everyone up to go back to the hotel to play in the snow (the other kids of course, not me) and Sam went off to the ER with Tommy for a few hours of reading time with the 25 other sledding injuries that day.  In the end he scored his first fracture!   Woo hoo!  It was a minor buckle fracture and they put a fiberglass splint on it.  We have a follow up on Monday with our doctor to see how much longer he needs to wear it.  His first question:  What will we do about school since it's my right hand?  I assured him that we would be able to work around it and still get school done.  He was bummed.

Here's a few pictures from our weekend.  Unfortunately I didn't record the fateful run down the hill or I would absolutely post it for you. I did snap some pictures of the aftermath with his siblings fawning all over him.

.

Sam is lucky our kids are getting big enough that he can wear a jacket that they can wear!  YOu can't even tell that it's too small for him from here!

Playing in the snow at the hotel

Warming up at the hotel!

Tommy with his former friend the skateboard.

Noah, convinced that he just needed to get up and shake it off.

Katya's turn.

Now it's Emily's turn.  I'm sure in the midst of his pain he was quite pleased to have all of that fawning.  Quite pleased.

The Year Without the Christmas Classics

Every year I am saddened by my kids' lack of interest in watching the old holiday classic shows--you know, Rudolph, Frosty, The Year Without a Santa Clause, etc.  But they'll have nothing to do with them unless, of course, I force them--which I am not above doing. I have so many memories of waiting for those shows to be on t.v. back in the day and enjoying them soooo much because of the anticipation building effect they had in preparation for Christmas.  I think they were ultra-special because you could only watch them on that one night that they were on.  No re-runs.  No videotape.  No tivo.  If you missed it that was it until the next year.  Sorry, pal, you can cry all you want that you missed Rudolph, but he's gone and won't be back for 365 days.

My favorite is The Year Without a Santa Clause because I love Heat Miser and Snow Miser. They are hysterically ridiculous.  I watched it when I was sick last week.  Noah was sick with me so he watched it too.  Begrudgingly.  Apparently it needs a car chase or two to catch Noah's interest.  Here they are for your holiday enjoyment.  Tonight I'm hanging out with Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys.  And you can be sure my children will be there too! 

Jingle Bells and O (little) Christmas Tree

Rachel and Noah had their Christmas concert last night.  You can never have enough of "Good King Wenceslas" or "Jingle Bells."   Well, that's not really true.  You can when your child practices them daily for two months leading up to a concert.  At the concert they were allowed to wear a Santa hat, but of course, Rachel had to "march to her own drummer" (get it? drummer--band--aren't I so incredibly clever?) and wear the antlers.

Rachel, since she plays the flute, is in the front row.  

Noah and one of his best friends, Sergio.  Sergio smiles so nicely whenever I take a picture of the two of them and Noah required 4 do-overs and a few threats before he actually had a real smile in this one.  There's just something about him and cameras and I'm hoping it is a something that he will be outgrowing at some point.

Up close with the antlers.

Noah, since he plays trombone is in the back row.  Last concert I didn't get a single picture of him playing as a result.  This one I had to go stand on the side of the auditorium to try to get a shot.

Then today Tommy and I went to Rachel's class to see the trees that she and her classmates all made.  The room looked really cool with all of the trees lit up.  It was a really cool craft using wire hangers and garland and a string of mini lights.  

Rachel likes all things craft so this was right up her alley.  She's been planning for weeks what she would put on her tree.  I'm certain that she will continue to add things to it all the way up through Christmas.  

And, BIG NEWS!  We found out this morning that Rachel won the contest for designing the yearbook cover at school!  She did a great design, which I unfortunately didn't think to take a picture of before she turned it in, that included a honeycomb pattern on the back and a really cool hornet that she drew freehand (that's their mascot).  We are so excited for her to have the whole school get to have a piece of her artwork for the rest of their lives...or as long as they own their yearbook!

WNBA future?

Katya started playing on the basketball team at school.  She may have found her calling!  She is currently 5'7" and is all legs and arms.  She is quite adept at rebounding--at times she just reaches over everyone and grabs the ball they are all reaching for!!  And it's not easy for her opponents to shoot around those extended reach arms!  They come in real handy when I need help getting something off of a high shelf at the store too!  So far their team is 2-0 and she is having a great time learning the game and using her height to its full advantage.   

 

Game over

Just in case you were wondering what happens when you drop your bluetooth in the parking lot at work and a semi truck drives over it.  Semi truck: 1  Bluetooth: 0

Like Mother, Like Son...and daughter

I forgot to post this from my birthday last month.  We have a tradition that was started way back when Emily was 2 or 3, that I put up a sign and balloons and streamers in the birthday child's bedroom so it is there when they wake up.  There is also a sign on the back of their chair at the kitchen table along with some balloons and streamers.  

On my birthday I woke up to this:

Noah made it.  H couldn't find any balloons so he made them!  The one on the left is actually 3-D!  So cute!!  I was very blessed by this.  Also, on the sign, I put squiggly lines (i.e. streamers) and confetti dots as well as the age they are turning all over the paper.  On mine, Noah very sweetly omitted the number and put question marks instead!  

The other ultra cute thing that day was Rachel's card.  She doesn't give a typical 10 year old card.  She has a way of turning a phrase that makes me laugh out loud.

All in all they made it a great birthday!

The house that Sam and Noah built

Sam and Noah have been building a "house" in the backyard for a little over a year. It was a father/son bonding project that was inspired by Noah.  He just wanted to build something! God bless Sam, he invested the money and time into the project and he and Noah have something to be proud of.  

The last few steps are to finish the inside, starting with painting.  Katya and Rachel helped. Happy siblings painting Noah's casita:

 

Noah had decided he wanted to do a "splatter" look in the casita.  That's when the real fun began.  I only saw the aftermath.  I heard something about something "was an accident and then Noah..."  And that was all she wrote.  

I think Sam's left eye started to twitch upon discovering their mayhem.  I actually thought it was funny.  I'm guessing they'll be talking about this for years based on the amount of laughter post splattering.  "Remember the time we painted Noah's house...and each other?!"  Surprisingly there was only a little bit of paint that was hard to remove from their bodies, and they actually did get some on the walls of the casita.  So, it was successful all around.  Except for poor Sam's eye twitch.

Can you say 70's?

This is a family picture I found today.  I am so lovin' my dad's suit! Not to mention my brother's glasses.  I, of course, was looking adorable in my snazzy high collared dress that matched my sister's. If I appear to be hiding behind my mother--it's because I was.  I was deathly afraid of men and the photographer, being a man, fell into the category of things to be deathly afraid of.