Catching Up

Whew..I haven't updated in a long, long time...
We moved to Arden NC at the end of August, and we all love it here. I enrolled the boys in a local private school...very non-traditional, and my former homeschoolers took to it right away.

I stay home with Baby J..who's now not such a baby at 13 months.. He's still trying to get a hang of that walking thing though...

D is working here in Asheville, and if things work out right, we'll be able to stay here permanently. If not, we'll be heading back to GA...but that is up in the air at the moment. And what a huge thing to have hanging over your head...

What else? Oh yes.. I have diagnosed with SEVERE obstructive sleep apnea, and am now sleeping with a CPAP and feeling much much better. And with some of this newfound energy I have, I can begin working on weight loss again.

Guess that's all for now.

Catching up

It has been entirely too long since my last post. We've wrapped up the school year, with the exception of some testing that we are currently working on. S and D are spending their days at a local Y daycamp and DK is commuting to Asheville on business alot unfortunately. My 15 year old niece, L, is staying with us for the summer. She is a tremendous help and baby J just adores her.

Unfortunately the kitchen flood that we experienced 2 months ago ruined the kitchen floor and subfloor, causing the complete destruction of our kitchen. (Cabinets, sink, counters...everything got ripped out!) So for the moment we have no kitchen at all, save a fridge, microwave, and toaster. (No, not even a sink!) I'm now on a first name basis with the contractors.

We are also helping my dad get his house ready to sell and L has been a huge help there too. hopefully that will be all wrapped up in a week or so. I hope all this mess will be wrapped up, and I can relax a bit this summer!!

The Drive

This last week has been quite a rollercoaster of ups and downs. My children attended a funeral for the first time- my grandmother passed away and her funeral was one week ago. I was incredibly impressed with both their behavior and their sensitivity.

The following day we all loading into the minivan and began a 14 hour drive from GA to WI. On the way up we drove for 6 hours and stopped for the night and finished up the next day. We had a very nice visit with DK's mom and step dad and all the cousins. My southern boys got to stomp around in some snow, and we witnessed the (fairy themed) wedding of two very dear friends. We were all in costume, and the boys were all adorable!! D was a dancing fool at the wedding. We;ve got to get him involved in community theater or something...he's a natural!
The drive back was a bit more difficult. After a lovely luncheon with family we hit the road around 2 pm and hit post ballgame traffic in Chicago. After spending 3-4 hours in traffic, and not making it much father than Gary, IN, we stopped for the night exhausted and frazzled. We got up the next morning and had to do the remaining 12 hours in one day. This is tiring for adults...but throw in 2 kids and an infant and it's a *really* long drive. But the kids once again did amazingly well.
I've learned a few things- my family can log close to 40 hours of driving time in just a few days with very little bickering. Driving cross country can be a blast. Peppy music makes the drive more fun. And Gameboys are invaluable on a long drive. Some rest stops are very nice, and some are just nasty. And lastly, when you are nursing a baby at a rest stop, truckers steer clear of you. :) I look forward to making that trip again next year..with hopefully more time to explore all the interesting things along the way.

Insanity

I have noticed that when crises occur, they seem to somehow come in waves.

Our kitchen flooded 2 weeks ago, the flooring and subflooring were ruined and I'm dealing with the insurance company, contractors, etc and our kitchen is pretty unusable.

I already mentioned in a previous entry about my dad. He's still in the hospital. He's developed an infection and is still getting transfusions because his hemoglobin keeps dropping and no one is sure why.

My 93 year old grandmother developed pneumonia earlier this week and now her lungs are collapsing and her heart is in failure, and she is being released to hospice. The doctor thinks she'll only live a day or two longer.

Oh and yeah..we are supposed to be leaving Wednesday for a 14 hour drive from GA to WI.

And I think J has another ear infection brewing. Can someone cut me some slack, please?! :(

At this point I'm very glad I scheduled 2 spring break for the kids...at least with everything else going on, I don't have to worry about lessons next week.

Today we are heading to the vet school open house, and I am really looking forward to some lighthearted fun...like the dancing dogs show!

Hectic Weekend

I haven't posted for a while. My father has been in the hospital. He was in ICU for several days, but is doing better now, though he hasn't been discharged yet. I've been running back and forth between home and the hospital, which is about an hour away.

Monday, there was no schooling accomplished at all, but Tuesday and today we worked hard and made up for it. Tomorrow we have our co-op and then we'll trek back over to the hospital. Friday we have an event that S has been waiting for all year! The local university has a top rated vet school...and this vet school is having an open house. DK even has the day off (for Good Friday), and we can all go on this field trip together.

This weekend I will simultaneously be catching up on everything from this week, and preparing for a big trip we have planned towards the end of next week. We are taking next week off from school (Lucky kids get 2 spring breaks!) Though we have to make it up by running a week longer into the summer. I am only hoping my dad is better and out of the hospital before we leave..otherwise I'm not sure what will happen!

Report Cards and Inconsolable Crying

Well, J woke up this morning with a fever of 101.4 and a red welt the size of my thumb where he had received one of his shots. So after speaking with the nurse a couple of times, I took him back to the doctor. The reaction was within the range of normal, but he seems to be one of the sensitive kids they told me. He has spent the day either sleeping or crying inconsolably. He seemed to be feeling a bit better before bedtime. I sure hope he's much improved by tomorrow. The nurse practitioner we saw seemed to think he would be.

In other news, I tallied of my averages for S and D's school work so far. D had all A's, very high A's. I think his lowest average was 95. And this despite me moving him up to second grade curriculum. S had one very high A in language arts, a B in Science, a B in Social Studies (all of these are a grade level ahead for him), and a B in math. And S was upset, quite upset that he didn't have straight A's. We talked about he's doing very challenging accelerated work, and he should be quite pleased with his work. I am. But he wants nothing less than perfection from himself. How do you deal with that? I wish I knew..because I have the same kind of hangup.. I'm never pleased with my accomplishments, no mater how well I do. Bah... I hate that I'm passing my hangups on to my kids. :(

Shots! :(

J had his 4 month check up this morning. It kinda put our whole day off as far as school goes. I hate morning appointments because they disrupt our schedule so much, I never feel like we accomplish nearly what we should on those days.

But the good news is that J looks good. He also got 4 shots and has been pretty miserable today. Shots always make him feel ikky. So he's been fussy and clingy and I'm exhausted. Comforting miserable babies can wear you out! He's now sleeping in the swing. Whew!

Here's hoping that tomorrow and Friday are super productive days!

On being the only girl and multiplication...

There are many advantages to being the only girl in my house. For example, there are never long lines for the bathroom. No one takes my clothes. No catty arguing. And my sons have me on a pedestal....all lovely things indeed. (And growing up in a house full of sisters, I don't take these things for granted!) But then sometimes I get voted down quickly- like when it comes time to see a movie for example.

Last night we went to see the new Ninja Turtles movie. It was alright. The guys all loved it. J watched it intently. The animation was spectacular, I'll give it that. But I would still have preferred to see The Last Mimzy.

In other news, J can now roll both ways and last night was attempting to scoot. I fear that mobility is right around the corner! So that means it's time to baby proof and set up a safe playing/crawling area. That will be this weekends project for DK and myself.

In schooling news, S and I have begun an intensive multiplication learning program. Once we began homeschooling in January, I realized why math was such a horrible chore for him- he didn't know his times tables! He was trying to do long division without knowing his times tables! Yikes! So we slowed down, and actually dropped back a grade in math. (He is now working on grade level as opposed to a year ahead while we fill in the multiplication gaps) And now it makes perfect sense why he went from a math loving 2nd grader (who was on grade level) to a math hating 3rd grader (who was jumped a year ahead to a 4th grade math level), but the time he was a 4th grader he had quite the case of math anxiety and believe he was just incapable of doing math. Hopefully we are now rectifying that.

Also, I signed us up for a cool science project, doing research for the Canadian Space Agency. We are all very excited about that!

A case of the wiggles

I think Spring Fever must have hit our house. It was incredibly hard for anyone to stay on task today. S and D moaned about working, and I can't say as I blame them..it was gorgeous outside. They played outside for about an hour after lunch, but then I insisted they come in and finish schoolwork..which they were working on until after 4 pm! Every time they began an assignment, they got sidetracked and it took forever to finish anything it seemed. We weren't even able to make it to our martial arts class this afternoon because they were still finishing up the days assignments.

I have decided that a picnic table is a desperately needed addition to our back patio. I would have loved to have held school outside today.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my blog. This blog will give you a glimpse into my daily life. Perhaps you are a friend, or a family member, or someone who has just stumbled across this page. As this is my first post, it seems fitting and right that I tell you a bit about me.

I am a 30 year old wife and mother of 3 boys. My husband is DK- he's a systems administrator and all around geek. In August we will have been married 11 years. He's a great husband and dad. We have alot of fun just being silly and goofy with each other and our kids! My eldest son, S, is almost 10. He is a video game fanatic. He loves science fiction and fantasy. My middle son is D. He is seven and a half. He loves the arts in any form or fashion. Be it painting, ceramics, or music- he is drawn to it. He is a very sweet and loving child. My youngest son is J. He is 4 months old. His primary interests are eating, sleeping, and diaper filling. He also loves watching the antics of his elder brothers!!

What about me? Well, aside from my kids, my other interests are reading, being outdoors, and being with friends. I love music, and can sing some mean karaoke! I also study martial arts with my boys and while I aspire to be a black belt someday I am also struggling with shedding quite a bit of excess weight. And trying to return to a fitness program after having a baby is miserable I tell you...absolutely miserable!

I am homeschooling my older 2 boys. So most of my days are spent teaching the older ones and nursing the younger one. I hope to update this blog daily...but I'm pretty busy..so don't hold me to that! :-)