First day at a new school

Tomorrow is going to be the first day at a new school for my 2 youngest kids. They are switching schools.
My youngest son is going into second grade, and is soooo excited. He had all his clothes layed out before dinner. His back pack is ready to go. I just need to make his lunch in the morning. As I put him to bed tonight, he said "I am so excited to be going to a school that is just perfect for me. I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight." Such a change from not wanting to go to school last year. It was a tough year for him. My prayer is that he finds some solid christian friends. As solid as a second grader can be.

Babygirl is not so excited. She has never wanted to change schools and wants to stay in her preschool classroom for the rest of her school days. A funny picture to imagine a highschooler in a preschool room, LOL. She usually has a very difficult time with the separation part. Cries, and clings, you have to pull her off of me. It's heart breaking for me. Last school year she would come home and tell me she cried a couple of times throughout the day. "Why?" I asked. She would say "cause I missed you" or "I didn't want my carrots" or "I had to go to the bathroom". Always some reason or another that she would have tears during the day. I pray she has matured this summer, enough to be able to get through the day without tears. Hopefully she will notice the other kids NOT crying and then won't do so herself.
I also think her teacher didn't mind her tears and would treat her special because of the tears. Maybe babygirl is smarter than we give her credit for and was using tears as a way to get attention from her teacher. Hmmm....
That won't work this year. Even though her teacher is as sweet as they come, she will need to be a big girl. My prayer for her is that she can drop off and go through the day without tears. And that she makes some nice friends.
Here's to the start of something new!

Soccer tourny

Today was a busy day, but a fun one. It started with an all day soccer tourny for Oldest son. He is in high school now (ugh...can't believe it) and is playing on the varsity soccer team.

Being a freshman he wasn't sure he would play at all. Much to our surprise and delight, he started the game. I suddenly became the proud mama, only to be humbled later when son said all the seniors and some juniors were not there to play. That was why he started. Ok I was still a proud mama.

Coach apparently said "Ok, freshman and sophmores, here is your chance to show me what you got. Let's go." So away my boy went. He played an awesome game. And again I was the proud mama.
He started the next game and played the entire first half, until.....he twisted his ankle. Ugh. He was hopping, and limping around, but refused to ask to be taken out. When half time came and went, and the game restarted, my boy was on the bench. Apparently, he told coach about his ankle. He did not play anymore the rest of the day. :(
At least when he was able to play, he did play very well, and was able to show the coach what he could offer the team.........when he is healthy.

Oldest son came away from the day, saying "Mom, that was so fun playing with those older guys. They were shovin me around pretty good, and I gave it right back to them. Did you see how they totally grabbed my jersey? That just fired me up more! It was such a blast!" Yup, that's my Mr. Intensity.

Oldest son was also exposed to playing with the varsity teams of 2 public schools. Needless to say he heard LOTS of swearing and using the Lord's name in vain. He was so disgusted about it. He commented "Mom, there really was no need for all of it. I know I get pretty intense (an understatement), but it just looked bad. It really surprised me. I even saw them get so mad they were on the ground and pound their fist on the ground. It looked like a tantrum. It was kind of funny to watch that." I am so grateful that he could see what bad sportsmanship looked like and how NOT to act. Oldest son plays for a christian school and represents Christ everytime he puts his uniform on ( well, really at all times). What does he look like when he gets beat on a ball, when his team loses, when the referees are being unfair. Is he being Christlike in sports? You don't have to be a wimp and be Christlike. Just gave him something to reflect on.

What a great experience.

A whirlwind

These last few weeks have been some of the most stressful times and yet when I look back at it, I see God's hand in all of it.

Dad's surgery went very well, however the recovery part has not been so easy. He spent 4 days in ICU and is now on the stepdown unit. He, finally, is starting to recover the way he was supposed to. All the complications have resolved at this point. Hopefully he will come home in the next day or two. Praise God he is ok. I spent one night at his bedside so Mom could go home and get some sleep. She came and relieved me the next morning at 6am. Again, praise God he is out of the woods. Now it will be just the typical recovery and rehab.....at least I pray it is.

The other stressful thing that has been going on for the last several months, started in March, is my job situation. This will have to be another blog entry as so much has happened. To me it is an absolute evidence of how God loves and takes care of me....even if I was the only person on earth, he loves ME! It is a chapter in our love story.....God and me. Like I said, another entry as it still is unfolding.

Please pray

Please pray for my dad. He is have a quad. bypass this friday, 2 days from now. This is not a surprise to me, but I think it is to him and my mom. He has had many stents put in every so often. I knew it was just a matter of when they would say no more stents, we need to do a bypass. Please keep him and the doctors in your prayers, thank you. I will post on how he made out.

Summer life

Wow. It has been forever since I last posted. Could it really be 3 weeks? Wow.

As you can imagine life here with 4 kids and being summer just moves very swiftly. We currently are having my nephew for a couple days as his parents are away. We also have oldest son's friend who was supposed to spend one night, has now decided to stay another night. So we have added an extra 2 boys (one 11 and another 13) to add to the testosterone bunch. Whew! Poor babygirl, surrounded by 5 boys on a rainy day. Thank goodness for coloring books.

We soon will need to get into preparing to go back to school. I ordered a few uniforms a couple of days ago and will soon get all their school supplies. I am torn about school starting. I sooo enjoy the sleeping in and being lazy and doing whatever we feel like during the day. But I do miss the structure and routine that school provides for us. So I am looking forward to that. I dread the homework and projects. Mostly the projects. UGH!!!

Since I last blogged we also took a trip to DC/VA. We toured the national zoo, the museum of natural history, the air and space museum, and visited my sister and her family. It was a great getaway. BTW, we are now experts at riding subways. They are so fun and the kids LOVE them.

Friday while we were at the zoo, a severe thunderstorm came ripping through DC. We had to take cover in the gorilla exhibit. An entertaining exhibit, albeit stinky.

Tomorrow morning we are going to the pool with all 6 munchkins. We have a dentist appointment for older boy in the afternoon then going to the minor league baseball game with all you can eat food. Yummy!! So tomorrow will be a busy day. Then the fun stops and the work begins. I am on call sat-wed. Yuck.

I will blog later about my adventures in the cabinets and closets.