1st day out of the way!

It was a bit crazy this afternoon! I suddenly felt like "the new kid on the block". I really don't like that feeling. I had no clue where I was going, what I was supposed to do. All I knew was what classes the boys had and where I was supposed to be. So, I had to ask. A lady pointed me in the right direction and off we went.


Christian did just fine going into his classes. I didn't worry about him too much. I made sure he got a seat and then we headed down to the preschool class. That was a NIGHTMARE!!! There were 5-6 ladies at any given time and I had no clue who was the teacher or the assistant. Come to find out, there were only 11 kids who were signed up and supposed to be in the class and there ended up being around 20, if not more. What made it worse is that the teacher brought 6 of her grandchildren in the class and they were not signed up and on the list. That made it even more chaotic! I heard one of the panel members talking and she's not happy about it and is planning on saying something. So, we'll see. I had to stay in the class with Zachary. He would not leave me, except towards the end when he got to be part of "tea party" and got apple juice and teddy grahams. Of course, it was food, so no surprise there. But, when I had to do my time in the nursery, he came with me.


One thing that really got me was the fact that when I came out of the nursery and went to get Christian, he was not in his class. No one was in there. I was not happy. I eventually found him, sitting BY HIMSELF at a table. Hello...where's the teacher?!??! I understand that they may have to get to another class to teach, but under no circumstances should a child be left alone! I'm going to have to talk to my friend who takes over the nursery for the 3rd hour and let her know that as soon as she gets in there, I have to leave. And to top it off, the lady who works with me during 2nd hour was 15-20 minutes late and did not do much at all! A little frustrating!

There are some things that I'd change and other things seem to work well, but being that I'm not in a position to say anything, I'll just keep my mouth shut.

So, we'll see how this semester plays out.

It's over and I survived!

Our Missionettes/Royal Rangers awards ceremony is over. I survived being on stage. It actually wasn't bad, but I've been practicing all year getting out of my comfort zone. It paid off!


I started working on the stuff at 7 this morning and it took ALL day to get every little detail taken care of. We didn't even get to do school. But that's ok, we can make it up tomorrow or Friday.


But, I'm a horrible, horrible mother! The worst...





I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!! This coming from the woman who takes her camera EVERYWHERE and is always looking for a picture moment. AGGHHHHHHH


And what really sucks about the fact that I forgot my camera is that Zachary was the only boy in his class to earn every badge this year and Christian (the youngest in his class which is made up of kindergardners through 2nd graders) earned 9--the most in his class! I'm a proud mama!


Tomorrow is our first day of our homeschool coop meeting. Christian is very excited. Zachary is a little more nervous, but he says he's looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to meeting other homeschooling moms. So, we'll see what tomorrow holds.

Conversations

I got great news yesterday! I was talking to a friend at church yesterday and she informed me that her daughter is coming home. MY FRIEND IS COMING HOME!!! I told her that if I wasn't in heals and a skirt I would have skipped down the hall. You know, I may have done it just in the skirt. Anyway, she'll be back at the beginning of September and I can't wait. Unfortunately, her first Sunday back and I'll be gone. That's ok, cause she's moving home!!! I tried calling her yesterday but we ended up playing phone tag and she' now it. LOL


A conversation between the boys and me.

Z: She (Eliana) smiled at me
Me: she always smiles.
Z: did she smile when she was born?
Me: she did
Z: she was naked when she was born
Me: all babye's are born naked. there aren't any clothes in mommy's tummy. You were born naked too. And Christian. And Mommy. And Daddy.
C: even strangers.
Z: even strangers?
Me: yes, everybody.
C: even zebras.
Me: that's different. They don't wear clothes. They just have hair.
C: You can tell it's a boy; their penis hangs down.


Cue the mouth open, jaw hit the floor look. What in the world make them think of things like that?

Me: Yes, you are correct. Eat your dinner.


Busy week ahead for me. Wednesday night is our annual Missionettes/Royal Rangers promotion service and I as the Miss. coordinator have to take to the stage. I'm not as nervous as I normally am though. This past year has given me many opportunities to be on stage to help combat my MAJOR scare of an audience looking at me. I can get on stage with the kids and bounce around and sing, no problem. Put me out their in front of hundreds of adults and you might as well forget about me making any sense. But this time, I'm not going to be doing most of the talking. That's up to the teachers.


On Thursday is our first day of the homeschooling coop for this semester. Looking forward to getting together with other homeschooling moms and children and hopefully mine will make some friends their ages. It helps that I already have a friend that goes and I've talked to a few people who head up some of the departments, so in a way I feel like I already have been there.


And then on Friday, we're getting together with a friend so the boys can play. This will be a nice and welcome break. I did get a break last Friday when Steve took both the boys to work with him for the day. They had a great time and it allowed me to get some things done. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to (darn internet), but I did accomplish some things without them underfoot.


And since it's Monday, I need to get ready before the kiddos start waking up cause we have school today.

Changes

We've seen quite a few changes this month.


We have a 1st grader. We're doing more work this year than we did last year and he's handling it very well. He asks to do school everyday. Today I decided to do school this afternoon and Christian didn't like that. He wanted to do it this morning. The way we're doing it is allowing us to get through the subjects that we need to cover and have lots of free time to do whatever we want. The best part is that we'll still get all the hours that we're required to get in. So far we're really enjoying the new companies that we chose instead of everything through one company.

Zachary has been sitting with us and wanting to be a part of school. I'm not doing a full blown curriculum with him. He looks forward to the math part of the day. He's grabbed on to this new curriculum very fast, almost better than Christian. Christian is good at math, but he loves history (and is better than me when it comes the different wars!). Zachary is doing well with it and really likes it! It will be interesting to see what they consider their favorite subjects.


Eliana is 8 months now and growing way to fast! She got her first tooth the day before she was 8 months and her 2nd tooth is about to break through, any day now. She loves clapping and when we feed her, after every bite she expects someone to say "yeah" and clap with her. Soooo cute!!



As for me, I finally have a picture of me that I like, so I thought I'd share. Don't get used to this, it doesn't happen very often. A friend saw this picture and commented on how short my hair is. My hair is still long, not like it normally is, but in this picture it looks shorter because of the layers.


I also need to add this in. On Sunday, apparently the outfit I was wearing did wonders for me. I had quite a few people tell me how good I looked and how much weight I've lost. But, last night, I had a friend tell me that she saw me walking on Sunday and said to herself "who's the new teenager?". She said I looked so cute and 10 years younger. Music to my ears. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to turning 30 in 6 weeks and 1 day, but to be told that I don't look my age, yah, I'll take it!

I now have a new favorite outfit.

Too bad I couldn't get away with wearing it more often!

Homesick

I've been reading friends posts, one in paticular, who has added to my feelings of longing to be back where I grew up. But, in order to really understand, you first must have a little background.


I'm a brat.


More importantly (and I wear this "title" proudly!), I'm an AIR FORCE brat.


I'm almost 30 years old and I will always be a brat.


But, I don't come from a typical military family. Yes, I had a mom and dad, brother and sister, cats and dogs. But, the typical military family moves around every so often. Depending on the member's job, some move more frequently than others.


I was born in Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Both my parents grew up close enough to here that when I came along, both sides of the family got to enjoy me. Then my sister came along (14 months 6 days to be exact). Shortly after she came along, we moved to Hill AFB, Utah. At this time, my dad was still flying helicopters. We were at Hill for about 2 years and then had orders for California. But, before we made the trek to Cali, my dad had school (Alabama I think), so we lived in Arizona with my mom's parents who had left the east coast. We moved to California in 1979 and that's where we stayed. And stayed. And stayed. My dad wanted to be stationed in Germany and me, being the wonderful "daddy's girl" took up that desire. Only, that desire is as strong today, if not stronger, than it ever was. While in California, my dad quit flying helicopters and took on the C-131; big, noisy cargo planes. That could be why I love planes today!


While in California, we added a baby brother, found a church we loved, friends that became family to us, and a school system that allowed me to have the same friends from elementary school through my first year of high school. We settled into life, like all military families do, and expected that my dad would retire there. Well, that all changed one winter day in early 1991.


I had been on a ski trip with friends and when I came home, my dad was waiting for me at the front door. He told me that he and my mom needed to talk to me in their room. My first response was "I haven't been here all week, I didn't do anything!" My dad just said come with him. So, I sat down on my parents bed and he handed me a book about Germany. He asked if I'd be interested in going there. I yelled yes, after all, this is what my dad and I wanted! I'm thinking, this will be a great vacation. Then my dad says, "for 3 years". My mouth dropped. Was he serious? Yep, he was. Remember, this was early January. He had to be in Germany by April. Not much time when you've got 3 kids in school and 11 years of friendships and memories. I was on cloud 9! Then they hit me with the bad news. I could not take my cat. Then I crawled under their bed and cried, "I'm not going without Frisky". They managed to get me to calm down and sit down and tell me that my grandfather had agreed to take mine and my sister's cat for us and when we moved back to the states, we could have them back. That settled, I was ready to go.


It seemed like I was the only one ready to go. My dad left in April and we stayed behind to pack up and finish the school year. It was very difficult time for my family and our friends who had to say good-bye. I didn't even go to the surprise going away party that my best friend threw for me. For me, it was easier to start distancing myself from everyone, so that when I was actually gone, it would seem like I had been gone for awhile and hopefully it would be easier. It wasn't, but with the idea of moving to Germany before me, I didn't dwell on the fact that I was leaving the only home that I had known. We had a family reunion, minus my dad, in early July and then we were on our way.


On July 9th, I stepped into the Brussels airport, forever leaving me with a very deep love and desire to be in Europe! Of course, at that moment, the only thing I cared about was seeing my dad again! We saw him standing up behind some glass waiting for us, but we had to go through customs and all that jazz before we could get to him.


Our family reunited once again, we began our journey to our new home in Niederheid, Germany. My dad found us a house before we got there, so we were able to move in right away. We had some stuff already there, but we had to wait (I think it was a couple months) before we got all our furniture and our remaining household goods. My mom and sister had a very hard time adjusting, but I was LOVING it!!!


We had a new home in a new country, a new school in a different country and my dad had a new job now on a NATO airbase flying the NATO E-3A. We lived in Germany, but my school was in the Netherlands. I went to school with Americans, Canadians, Greek, Turks, Brits, Portuguese, and the list goes on. There were Germans in our school, but they had their own section. The school was k-12th grade, but of course, everyone had their own sections. The high school was very small. We only had 57 or something like that in our graduating class. And apparently my reputation preceeded me when it came to softball. My coach couldn't wait until I got there. We started softball in January and that's when I really began to fall in love with Europe. I got to travel to many different countries doing what I loved most, playing ball. I got to experience many different things. Things that you wouldn't experience if you were to just sit around and wait for your tour to be over. We know families like this. They are miserable in their assignment because they're not in America.


Europe is where I grew up. I graduated, learned to drive, met my "first love", met the one who is now my best friend (playing ball), got married (in Denmark), honeymooned (in Australia). I went from being more than an AF brat, I became an Army wife. I have many memories, but I still have a longing to be back there.


While in Europe, I made more friends and had to say good-bye to more friends than I ever did while living in California. Some of those friends I still keep in touch with today others are just a memory. If Steve came home and told me that there's a job opening for him overseas, I'd tell him that I'll be on the next plane out and I'll be waiting for him over there!


So, if you ask me where I'm from or where I grew up, now you know your answer.


I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco, it's in Europe!

Reflections

Getting up at 6am is KICKING MY BUTT. I'm a night person, so I can't get myself to go to bed at a decent time so that by 6am, I've had the amount of sleep my body needs. I'm the type of person that NEEDS her sleep. But, I did manage to get up 3 out of the 5 days and make hubby breakfast. Hopefully I can sleep-in tomorrow morning, especially since Steve has a lot of homework that needs to be done by Tuesday!


Tuesday is his last night of school until the end of August. I'm looking forward to this break. When school starts back up, it's going to be even worse then his summer session. He'll be taking 4 classes and the kiddos will get to see him Sunday and then not again until Wednesday night and then not again until Friday night and Saturday is going to be our family time. We are going to NEED that time.


On Monday, I finally found a left handed golf set cheaper than anywhere else. So, I bought them. They charged me for it and then I get an email saying that the order was cancelled. I'm thinking, "you know what is going to hit the fan now!" I emailed them and called them but they weren't open yet. I sent the info to Steve who called them from work and he was able to get through. Well, they had run out of the set I ordered and instead of backordering it (and telling us about it), it was cancelled. So, for the trouble, they upgraded the set to a better set (the putter and the bag are better) and said it would be here Tuesday or Wednesday, next week. Well, last night I got an email saying that it was shipped, get this...NEXT DAY AIR!!! That's right, it'll be here sometime today. With shipping and the upgrade, this would have cost us over $200 and we're getting it all for only $54!!! Oh, and Christian has no clue that I found him a set!


Also, Monday was Christian's first day of 1st grade. He's doing very well, except he hates when I tell him to write something! After we were done with the "formal" part of school, the boys were sitting at the table drawing and coloring and Christian brings me his drawing and a blank piece of paper and asked me to write what he says. So, he starts out by saying "the title is 'The Castle'". I immediately realize, I'm writing his story down for him. So, I wrote it down and it wasn't until the next morning when I realized, hey, this counts for composition. Alright Christian. He works so much better when it's something he wants to do. That's what is called as "unschooling" and I may have to incorporate that more into my style of homeschooling.


On the 24th, we start with our area homeschool group. Christian will be fine, but I'm not sure how Zachary will do. Good thing is he can stay with me wherever I go. We're supposed to work 2 hours of the 3 in some type of capacity. For some reason, I only have to work the nursery 2nd hour, even though my daughter will not be in there unless I'm in there. I'll probably stay in the nursery for 3rd hour with my friend. After all, she has Eliana's boyfriend. :)


I also got to talk to (aside from my husband) my very best friend in the whole world. He just got back from Iraq a few weeks ago and right now his dad and (dad's) wife are over visiting so I didn't get to talk to him too long. But he's home and he's safe! He's home at his base in England, but he won't be home home until 2009 :(. Unfortunately, he has to go back in January. I can't stand that! So, SKV, welcome home!! Give dad a kiss for me before he goes home tomorrow! hehehe. Love ya!


For some recent pics...


Yesterday the boys were playing music from their leap pad and this is Christian and Eliana dancing. She LOVES music and if someone isn't holding her and dancing, she'll stand at the couch (or where ever she happens to be at the time) and dance. So cute!



During school, Buttons (the cat) wanted to be all over the books. Christian picked her up and she curled up on his chest and went to sleep, purring so loud! That is her boy and she is absolutely crazy about him. I've never seen a cat act the way she does with him!

And also during school, I looked behind me and Eliana was lying on the floor with her head on Bear, but by the time I got the camera she had moved slightly.



A lady from church gave me a couple tupperware sippy cups that she won, but doesn't have any use for and she told Zachary that because she was giving sissy something, she had to give him something too. This is that "something". A frisbee. As you can see, he wasn't allowed to throw it in my house (I know, I'm mean like that), so he found other uses for it. This was one of them. Oh, and it did get thrown once. Had to see how it worked!



This pic is from Tuesday night. The boys were riding in the cul de sac and decided it was too hot for a shirt, so off it came. EXTREMELY uncharacterstic for my boys, especially Zachary!



So, all in all, a great week. I'm very blessed!

Life's happenings

I have a lot that has been going on and no time to post it all, so this is going to be a quick post.

• We had to take a trip to the hospital Friday afternoon. Steve took a golf club to the face. Thank God his glasses were on (and that's what cut him) because it saved his eye!
• My baby boy is now a 1st grader. I asked him to stop growin up on me and he said he couldn't. *tears* At least he's home with me everyday so I get to cherish it all. I was going to put a pic of him by himself, but these are too sweet not to share.

• Said first grader LOVES golf and is very good at it. I bought him a set of left handed golf clubs on ebay today for 40 bucks. Cheaper and better than what wal-mart sells. And they retail for $130. WOO-HOO!!! Watch out Tiger Woods! White boy can golf!

Yes, I know the clubs are for a righty, but that's all we had at the time.

• Zachary just may turn out to be my mathaholic. I'm not going to call him a math nerd because he's my other baby boy and I don't like the vision that I get in my head when I think of the stereotypical "nerd". I'm blessed with highly intelligent children! He blew my mind away answering questions I was asking Christian. And he's only 3!
• Eliana is as cute as ever, especially with her repetoire of funny faces that she makes. She had me crackin' up in church (during worship) last night. Now, if I could only get her to learn that the dog toy is for the DOG. They even fight over the toy. Too cute!

• Police came to our house and told us that we have to have a fence around our pool. Since we weren't here to ask questions, we called the station. They called us back today. But, we had already talked to a friend at church who works for the city and he told us that it's a city ordnance. But, since it's the end of the season, don't worry about it. So, we'll get something for next year. Blah...
• Someone/something cut our electric fence in 5 different pieces! That's means it had to be dug up first. GRRRRRRR....
• My nephew is turning one in a few weeks. I CANNOT believe it. So, we're heading to OKC for his birthday.
• Happy birthday maw-maw, great-grandpa and happy belated birthday grandma!

Until next time...