Being a Mom/Cross Country Update!

So... this has been a rough week! Yesterday we went to Menlo, Georgia to a Cross Country race. I watched Brady suffer through another race. This is the second race I've been able to attend. I thought that last time was bad, but that it was maybe just a fluke. Um, no. This was excruciating. I seriously hope nothing truly bad ever happens to my children, because I can tell you that I won't be able to handle it. I was in tears. I pretty much recognized instantly what his problem was. Asthma. Geez, where have I been? Why was I at work when he had ALL of his cross country meets? Why didn't I help my poor child? You know, sometimes, you just drop the ball when it comes to parenting. I feel like I'm an average parent. Somedays I'm better than average, and some days I don't quite hit average. But overall, I'm average. But if anyone could recognize his problem, it's me. And I was at work! Nice. This poor child has been suffering for weeks!! So, we're sad. I'm sad for him and I'm sad that he's inherited this from me. I know exactly what it feels like and I don't wish that on anyone. I'm also a little relieved to know the problem. He has an appointment on Tuesday to get an inhaler. He's not happy about it. It's only for exercise, but he sees it as "geeky". I've tried to explain, but oh well. I'd rather him have it if he needs it, than not at all. He has decided to sit the Pumpkin Race out on Monday. I can't say I blame him. Brady has shown more grace and character during this cross country season than most adults. He has blown me away with his dedication and commitment. He deserves to spend this race having fun and not struggling to breathe.

It's interesting because I feel like last year was all about Christian. I spent so much of my time with him and being consumed by his needs and issues. This year has really been all about Brady. From his struggles in Cross Country, to him going on his first overnight school trip, to all of the "lasts"; my thoughts have been consumed by Brady. I guess that love goes where it's needed. Being a Mom is tough. You try your best, but sometimes, it's just not enough. You love all your children, but they need you in different ways at different times. And then sometimes, you just miss the mark no matter how hard you try. I guess all you can do is hope and pray that the next time is different. And that's the thing with children... there's always a next time.

I'm Sad!

I'm sad today! It's shocking, I know... I'm moody on a good day. But really... Brady announced this weekend that he was not dressing up for Halloween! Now, I don't want to hear any comments about how I waited until the weekend before to go and buy costumes. No, I don't make the costumes. No, I don't have someone else make the costumes. No, I don't go to a lot of trouble for Halloween anymore. No, I don't spend a lot of money on the costumes. I am so over that. When the children were little, I spent an enormous amount of time planning their costumes. For the past several years, I have really dropped the ball. But that's okay, because at their age, it's all about the candy anyway. However, I have to confess that when Brady announced he was not dressing up and then stuck to his convictions, I was sad! He revealed his plan for not dressing up a few weeks ago, but I was sure he would change his mind. I was looking through some of my pictures and came across some of Halloweens past. I don't have any of him when he was a baby because I didn't have a digital camera then. But I did find these...

It's Darth Brady! (I was a little sad this year because it was the first EVIL costume that he chose. Although, Darth Vader is pretty cool...)

It's Buzz Lightyear Brady! (You can see here that I spent the money on Brady's outfit and really skimped on Christian's. Christian refused to wear ANY type of hat and so that drastically cut down on the effect of his costume.)

It's Dinosaur Brady! Grandmom made these costumes and they were SO cute!

It's the Princess and the Power Rangers! (It doesn't exactly have the ring of a fairy tale, does it?)

Sigh. My baby is growing up! It is going by too quickly. If I had known that last year would be the last time he would dress up, I might have put a little more effort into it. Or maybe I wouldn't. It's hard to say. But I will say this to all of you who have young children that revel in Halloween... enjoy it. All too soon, they will look at you and say, "Mom, I'm too old to do that"...

Going to the Grocery Store!

Last week was "G" week in Kindergarten. That can only mean one thing... Grocery Store Week! The Kindergarten went on a field trip to Piggly Wiggly on Monday and learned how to set up their own store. Parents had been sending in empty boxes of everything from cereal, to eggs, to drinks, to you name it for weeks. I couldn't go on the field trip because I had to work, however, I decided to stop by on "Shopping Day" to take a few pictures.

All the children took turns with different jobs in the store. Leah's first job was as a person giving out "samples". She took a tray around to the shoppers and offered samples of food. I think that the hardest part of this job was not eating the samples herself. All those yummy treats just waiting to be eaten... whew! It was tough!

Leah then went on to become a shopper! Yay! She was very excited about this job. I thought it was because she would go and pick out food and just love the role playing aspect. But no! It was because she could then eat the samples. And believe me, every single time a sample person came up to her, she readily stated, "Yes, I would like a sample please". At one point, there were three sample people around her at once and she was just munching away. She was forgetting to shop!

Finally, it was time to check out. Leah dutifully unloaded her cart and was happily on her way.

Oh, if only all shopping was really that fun. I hate going to the grocery store!! The Kindergarten certainly did make it look fun. The only thing that could top "G" week is "H" week and that's because it's Halloween!

Pumpkin Carving 101

Yesterday, we decided to carve our pumpkins. These are the ones that we dilligently and lovingly picked out a couple of weeks ago at the pumpkin patch. For the past 2 years, we have not carved pumpkins; we have painted them. I couldn't remember why we chose to paint instead, so I told the children that this year we would be traditional! Scot went out and bought a pumpkin carving kit and the children carefully looked at each picture in the book to decide what they wanted to carve. It turned out that Brady and Christian were going to share a pumpkin and Leah and I would carve the other one. Scot was just going to be floater and help out wherever he was needed. Brady and Christian picked out the picture of the haunted house. Leah picked out a picture of the spider web and spider. I looked at these pictures and thought, "Hmm... that looks a little complicated...." but then I decided "Why not? It'll be fun." (Just so you know: anytime you think that as a parent, you are in for a bad time...)

So we started. Here are our pumpkins....

Scot started on his pumpkin first. I think mine senses that the end is coming and is scared and trying to escape.

The children were all excited at first. Scot cut the top off and began to remove the "guts". I'm not sure if he should have described them as guts because the children immediately became squeamish.

Brady refused to put his hand in the pumpkin at all; but Christian gave it a try. Once. And that was it. He then stated that he had to go wash his hands. (This is the child that I have to BEG to wash his hands normally). Scot pretty much had to remove the rest.

Then we were on the patterns. I sat down and began to trace the spider web. It was here that I began to get a clue. A clue that this was not going to go well. My pumpkin was thick and hard and that spider web was complex. There's a reason that the traditional pumpkin face consists of triangles and straight lines, people... and it's because you can't make a curved line on a big, thick pumpkin wall no matter what trendy little tools are at your disposal. Scot was helping the boys with their house and started to trace his pattern. He took the pattern off his pumpkin and looked at basically what consisted of a bunch of holes. I started to work on the spider web. I decided to take some creative liberty with my design (looking back, that was probably not the best idea). The boys began to argue. My hand started to cramp. It was here that Leah stabbed me with a pumpkin tool and I began to bleed. Wait, wasn't this supposed to be fun?

Scot decided to intervene and turned Brady and Christian's pumpkin around and began to carve what he deemed a "goblin face" (i.e. the traditional triangle face- no fair! I was too far along to do that!). It turned out pretty good.

I had gotten through the web, although I'd been told it really didn't look like a web, and moved on to the spider. I contemplated having a 6 legged spider. After all, it was Halloween and that spider could have met up with some sort of tragedy. I decided to do all 8 legs, but the spider looks like he met up with some sort of radioactive material. I declined to take a picture. It's one of those pumpkins that you have to stare at for a while and everyone seems to see something different. I could blame my helper...

In summary, I now remember why we have painted pumpkins for the last 2 years. And I believe that we'll be painting them again next year.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

This weekend we picked out pumpkins! It was fun! We went to a new pumpkin patch in Woodstock and really enjoyed it. There was a hayride, a cotton field, small animals, and apple cider (yum!).

We had good (hot) weather! It didn't feel like October. It felt more like September. But that's okay; we're in Georgia and it's to be expected.

While it may not have been cool, it was certainly windy! As you can see from my sheep-dog like hair in the above picture, the wind was annoying! A good day was had by all and we picked out two large pumpkins to carve this weekend. Now, I have to go find a recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds....

The Adventures of Victor the Viking

We have a new addition to our family... It's Victor the Viking! Victor is part of an ongoing 5th grade project. Victor is supposed to go where we go and then we send his picture to the 5th grade for them to practice geography and grammer.

Originally, I felt that Victor was going to be bored at our house. After all, we're not very exciting people. The first assignment for Victor was to photograph him over fall break at a location. My first thought was, "Hmmm... maybe I can photograph him sleeping late...". After all, that was the extent of my plans for Fall Break. But, as it turns out, Victor had a very full day today.

The first place Victor went was the Pumpkin Farm. He saw many things here! He decided to start the day by taking a Hay Ride...

Following that, Victor moved on to the cotton field. Being a Viking and all, Victor had not seen cotton and was very impressed by it...

He quickly became bored, however, and moved on to the pumpkins. He had difficulty deciding on the perfect pumpkin, but finally came up with this one...
As a perfect ending to a perfect day, Victor went to the Twisted Taco and had dinner. He ate really unusual tacos and listened to mellow music.

Overall, it was a super day!

The Olympics!

Ok, so it's not the real Olympics... but it was pretty good! There was action, drama, and of course sheer exhaustion when it was over. The day started off with a march..

Everyone was chanting their class cheer! It was drama at it's finest. Which class was the loudest? Which class had the best banner? They were all great! We moved on to an assembly where each class got to demonstrate their class cheer. Here is the 5th grade. They were fantastic. I particularly loved that their teacher was right there with them...

Here comes the 2nd grade. Their cheer was also terrific, although they got a little stage fright once they were up in front of the entire school...

And finally, there was the Kindergarten. They were ready to beat the 8th grade at the tug of war so they dressed to impress. They looked fierce and practiced their "smack" look all week. They were ready! Their cheer was the song, "We will... we will... ROCK YOU!". Gotta love it! I, personally, feel that the 8th grade was very intimidated at that point...

Look at how they are intimidating the 8th graders... It was magnificent!

The day was filled with lots of fun and games. There was the egg toss...

There was the "crab walk", which Christian was actually really good at...

There was hula hooping! This is more complicated than you think when you're 5!

The finale was the tug of war! I will showcase this later because it deserves a post all it's own! It was a fun, if not tiring, day!

Good Morning!

Because there is nothing better than starting your day with a big giant Viking by your side...

Chapter 4: Confusion

So where was I? Oh yes...

I was slowly warming up to Scot despite my best intentions. He has that effect on me. However, I felt like we were really just tagging along with Tim and Vicki. We would talk about superficial things, but honestly I can't say we were really connecting. The next day after the waverunners, Tim asked Vicki if she would go for a walk with him on the beach. Alone.

I half expected Scot to ask me to do something, but he didn't. He went and sat in the jacuzzi alone. I was left in the condo to ponder what was going on. Was he just hanging around because Tim liked Vicki and he was just trying to be a good friend? Was he just tolerating me? I couldn't read Scot well, so I was truly puzzled. And why did I even care? After all, I really didn't want to like anyone, so why was I so put out? I couldn't make relationships work in the same town, much less long distance. However, I was really irritated! That should have been my first clue. ..

I decided not to worry about it. We were leaving the next day and we'd never see them again. I could just chalk it up to a fun vacation experience. It was here that the muffler on my car decided to fall off. I don't know why. I've always had car problems. Vicki and I looked at it to get a better idea of what we were dealing with. Did we really want to drive 9 - 10 hours back without a muffler? Tim and Scot being the gallant gentlemen that they were stepped in to help us. They rigged the muffler with wire so that it would stay in place for the drive back. I'm told by Scot that it was mostly Tim's design and that he was just the assistant. We were even more impressed. Here we are checking out their handiwork...

That night we decided to cook dinner for them. After all, they had saved us a trip to a strange mechanic to fix the muffler. We made chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls. They came over and we all ate and had a really good time.

(Okay, when was this picture taken Vicki? We look awful! I know we looked better than that when they actually came over!!!)

Afterwards, we went for a walk on the beach. We took some pictures to remember our trip.

Then we decided to go swimming at Tim and Scot's condo. They had an indoor pool in their building that would be a little warmer than the one outside. Tim and Vicki immediately got into the pool, while Scot and I sat at a table on the side. This was the first time we had been together without Tim and Vicki and he started asking me more personal questions. It quickly became apparent that we were actually a lot alike. The first thing we discovered that we had in common was a love for Phil Collins (his music). We talked about our families and school; likes and dislikes. We found out that we were both pretty shy people. We had so much fun talking! We talked until late that night. That was the first time I felt we had a connection. I realized that I did not want to stop talking to him...

It was time to leave to go home the next day. We briefly went out on the beach that morning. Scot asked for my address and told me he would write me. I thought, "yeah, right. What man sits down and writes a bunch of letters?" But I wrote it down and gave it to him anyway.

We then went over to Tim and Scot's condo to say goodbye. I actually felt a little sad about this. It seemed that we had just connected and now I was leaving. I wished we had talked like that sooner. As we were about to go, Vicki went to the bathroom. She came back and said (in front of Tim and Scot), "Don't you want to go before we leave?" I said, "No". She said, "Oh yes you do! Now go!" and she pushed me towards the bathroom. I wandered down the hall thinking "what is wrong with her?" I came back and she frowned at me.

They walked us to the car and we got in and drove away. The first thing Vicki did was fuss at me because I went to the wrong bathroom. Apparently Scot had written me a goodbye note and then decided not to give it to me and he left it laying in the bathroom. She relayed some of what it said. I was speechless. We rode in silence for a while. Vicki was driving and staring straight ahead. I looked over and saw tears in her eyes. As I stared out the car window, I had this strange feeling that something really important had just happened to us on this trip; although I didn't know yet what it was.

To be continued... Chapter 5: The Letters...

Possum Trot

Yesterday, the school went to Possum Trot. It's been years since I've been here. It looks exactly the way I remember it. Possum Trot has such a presence about it. When you walk in, this is the first thing you see...

Martha Berry painted this on the wall of the church so that everyone who came would be able to read it. We had a such a good time. Brady's class led the assembly and he started it off with a prayer. He did a wondeful job. After assembly, we played outside for a bit.

We also got to see an old classroom and we pretended it was Martha Berry's classroom...

Although we drove up there, we walked back to the school. We saw many things on our hike back...
My (city) children did not like the smell as we passed by. However, I tried to explain the beauty of our surroundings.

It was a great day!

Hair Watch 2008!

Once again, I'm back to blogging about hair. I thought I would blog about two things simultaneously. First, I'd like to demonstrate the lightening speed with which Christian's hair is growing back and I'd also like to showcase the children's hair for Crazy Hair Day at school. Let's begin..

We all remember the agony of Christian's shaved head. It has now grown back to the point where you can't see his scalp AND you can actually make it look crazy! Woo hoo! Le me demonstrate...

It has body, it has curl, and it has color! Gold and white to be specific. Here's a side view...

Look! No skin! No holes! He doesn't look like he has the mange. I mean, he looks like a punk rocker or something, but he doesn't look bald! I had way too much fun fixing his hair.

Now, his sister is a different story. It pained me greatly to make her hair look bad. I literally don't have it in me. I thought I was doing well until Christian walked in the bathroom and said, "Wow, Leah's hair looks good". Clearly, not what I was going for. Here is a picture of her hair...

Ok, I'll admit that from the front, it still looks pretty good. But then you turn around and...

She has 5 different ponytails. It's the best I could do. I had to resist the urge to curl them...

But what about Brady, you ask? This is the look he gave me when I asked if he wanted me to fix his hair...

He's just not crazy!

Sadly, my mother is picking them up at school today. I called and told her to be aware that they were not going to look good. Can you imagine if she'd just shown up at school? She'd wonder what in the world was wrong with me to send my children off looking this way.