Back to school!

It's early August so here in the desert that means its back to school time.  After a fast summer it was time to send them back.  This year we have two in middle school, Lord help me!  

Isabelle is starting first grade and Madelyn is headed back to preschool too.  Here are some pictures taken on their first day back to school!

What's crazy for me to think about is that we only have 5 more first days with this guy until he'll be leaving us for college.  Isn't that crazy!?!?!?!?

Start of middle school

Moving on up and braving elementary school on her own this year.

And then there's this little miss, who rules the roost!

When we got to school, Isabelle found her good friend Amelia and was excited to be back!

Here is Isabelle's Mrs. Mehan.  Silly mom again tried taking pictures as Isabelle had the sun in her eyes.  This is as good of a picture as I could get. 

As the bell rang we said our final byes and she was off.  I could tell by her smile and wave, all was okay in her world.

 And then it was time for the boys to head off to middle school.  

They were NOT thrilled that we drove them and wouldn't just dump them on the corner to disappear.  Instead with a few eye rolls and a "seriously mom" I made them walk up with us (Dad, Madelyn and me) to the front of the school and take a picture.  

I told them someday dad and I will be gone and they would do anything to want to take a picture with us again.  Gabriel rolled his eyes and said, "Geez mom, you don't have to be so dramatic"  I responded, "You taught me well son." :-)  He loves me so.

I still hadn't figured out staring into the sun doesn't make the best pictures, so we rotated to the other side and I snapped a few more. 

And as quickly as they could disappear, they did.  They were off.  Two middle schoolers, wow was my stomach in a knot all day.  After knowing that Gabriel came home from sixth grade the first day a completely different kid, I was hoping all day Michael wouldn't be the same way.  So far, three days in, we are okay but I can see the changes of middle school happening.  

But all kids are liking school, their teachers and I think they secretly like the routine that the school year brings.  Let's hope it is a good year filled with lots of learning, happiness, good friends and good choices.

Until next time,

Angie

Back to the ER- Michael's turn

It was a normal Thursday night a couple of weeks ago.  I had ran the boys to baseball, returned the library books, filled up the car with gas, stopped at the store to grab a few things for dinner and ran back to pick the boys up from practice.  Now almost 6:30 the kids I knew were starving, mainly because Isabelle was whinning from the back seat, "I"M STARVING MOM!"  and "LET'S JUST LEAVE THE BOYS AND GO EAT INSTEAD!"  

I grabbed the boys and as we were driving home explained to them I needed them to help me carry in the groceries as I as going to quickly start dinner so we could eat.  We got home, I carried in Madelyn and a few bags and went straight to the pantry to pull out the items to throw something together fast.

I heard the boys drop off the bags, head back out to the garage, I figured to get the rest.  I heard them come back in, I could tell they were screwing around with something but really that isn't out of normal routine.  I pulled the rice out of the cupboard and BAM, I seriously though they dropped a bowling ball on the ground.  I shouted "WHAT WAS THAT?????" fully expecting to hear they start defending themselves against the horsing around they were very much guilty of.  Instead I heard Gabriel say nothing and Michael screaming!  Isabelle started yelling for me to come.  I walked around the diving wall between our kitchen and family room and saw Michael on the ground beneath the pool table lying on one side and turning himself in a circle.  Still thinking they were horsing around and broke something, I said, "Michael get out from under the table, you're going to hit your head" because just a few days earlier Isabelle was under the pool table and came up too soon and cut a piece of skin out of her head.  

Before I could take a breath, Michael screamed, "MOM, I"m hurt!"  and turned around to show me behind his ear!  I saw this and immediately felt guilty for yelling at him to get up and stop horsing around...

I said, "What happened?"  and thats when all three parties decided to talk at one to explain, defend and confess the moments that had just transpired.  

From what I gathered Gabriel was trying to get a ball out of Michael's hands and swatted the ball away from Michael. Let me stop here and point out that the boys have probably heard me say 1,599 times NO balls in the house and yet they can't seem to remember that rule. 

Anyway, after Gabriel swatted the ball Michael went after it, (it went under the bench in our family room) to get it before Gabriel and went Michael came up after getting the ball he hit his head on the corner of the bench causing this!

Right away we put ice on it and I made him sit down as he said he felt weak and like he was going to faint.  I called Jarrett quick and said, please come home as quickly as you can and sent him a picture of the latest injury.  

I then texted my friend Melanie who I trust with any medical questions and asked her if I need to take him to the ER or just an urgent care.  We got the bleeding to stop relatively quickly it was just that he felt really dizzy, and faint.  She said you can see about an urgent care but I bet they will send you to the ER. I called the urgent care closet to our house and they said, "NO don't come here, go to to the ER."  I gave Michael some pain medicine right away, made him sit and hold an ice pack on it and told him to calm down.  By this point he was convinced he was going to have that lump and open wound the rest of his life and was already dreading the fact that others would see.  He asked me if we could glue some of his hair I cut off his head, to that spot, so no one could see it.  Seriously.  

After Melanie's recommendation, the info from the urgent care and the insurance 24 hour nurse I called to confirm an action plan, told me to just call an ambulance, I decided it was time to head back to the ER again.

I called Jarrett and said, just meet me at the entrance to the ER and I'll let you take the other kids home.  Knowing full well, we'd be spending the rest of our evening in the hospital.  

Doesn't look bad from this angle I told him!

After arriving at the hospital and having a bit more excitement with a person in the adult side ER who was out of control and scared Michael, the triage person decided to pull him back to a room right away.  I appreciated it! 

We sat there for several hours as they wanted to monitor him and they determined the best way to treat it.  

After the pain medication kicked in, Michael was happy because he got to watch Live PD and the nurse and him talked all about it.  

It wasn't until one of the docs came in and said, "We might have to staple this shut, Michael was freaked out, "Mom- let's just leave, I'll be fine, I promise.  I don't care if I have a bump here the rest of my life, I do NOT want them to staple my head!"  

After several hours they decided the wound has closed up pretty good, so no staple was needed.  It was the answer to Michael's prayer.  He said it about 50 times on the way home.  The nurse came in, cleaned the would really well and gave us care instructions to go home.

Oh and the bill.  They never forget that. :-)  I'm beginning to think I should start keeping track of the number of ER visits we get to have thanks to Gabriel. Perhaps when he's old enough to get a job he can reimburse us. :-)

Thankfully Michael is okay and it's been 2 weeks since we were in the ER.  I'm hoping I don't jinks ourselves, but so far so good.

Until next time,

Angie 

Color Project

With the extremely high temperatures last week, I happen to see an activity on the news that I wanted to try with the kids. Michael had his friend Bella over in the afternoon so we decided to make a picture with colors.

We glued colors on a poster board in rainbow order of course and then we let Mother Nature take it's course.  Here's how it turned out.

Long time friends working hard to put it all together.

Michael took several of these pictures.  I love the angel of this one!

Got it all glued on!

And then we took the poster outside in the sunshine and set a timer for 5 minutes

We check in and watched the science experiment unfold.  

After about 20 minutes we came back outside and saw this!

We stood outside and watched as the blue colors were the last to melt.  

Here is the final product!

When it was all done we brought the picture back inside and let it cool to dry. 

After we let it dry we decided to frame it and put it in the hallway between Michael and the girls room.  

We thought the final product turned out great and for less than $20 dollars we now have a picture on the wall.  

Such a fun day!

Until next time,

Angie 

The randomness of good moments...

 Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks that remind me of our normal crazy life.  While there isn't anything too big that stands out, these are moments that remind me life is good.  Amidst moments of sadness, heartache and questioning that seem to come more often, I try to search for moments where the weight of what loss I feel, doesn't have to have as much power. 

I know these crazy moments of raising four kids are fleeting and while I'm not too much a fan of attitudes of pre-teens, I'm trying to appreciate it too.  Because this is the life I longed for, the days I prayed to have and I guess while it didn't go as I had hoped or pictured, its what I wanted most. 

So here are a few photos of what daily life is like...

Surprise surprise... Gabriel doing something athletic.  Last week even though he was in a 2 hour swim camp each day followed by 2 hours of baseball 4 days last week, he seemed to want to come home and swim again.  I love his determination and his drive to improve himself in sports.  I'm encouraging him to carry that over to his academics too.  He participated in a swim camp with high schoolers and while the coach first thought he was in high school, had him fitted for uniforms and even talked to him about practices, it wasn't until I got a text that night confirming his sizes that he realized he's only in 7th grade!

 Also last weekend, Dad wanted to get some new clothes and he was definitely long overdue.  I think that's how most parents are... sacrifice what you could use for the sake of what the kids want.  While the boys were at baseball, the girls, dad and I went shopping.  The girls, even though there wasn't anything girly around, found so many things to play with.  They were so funny!  Here's a short clip.

And then there's Michael.  He must have been doing a lot of thinking about what it was going to be like to head to middle school because the other night when we were outside playing (yes it was 110 and why he's wearing a sweatshirt I have NO idea) he was talking to me about his hair and how he was going to style it for school.  He asked me to take a few pictures and then he analyzed them to see which "pose" looks best. 

It's hard to me to believe our little Michael, the boy with the high-pitched voice at 3-years old and the imagination and creativity to write books about is old enough to head to middle school.  Where does the time go.

The other night before school started, I wrote each of the boys a letter.  They aren't much for listening to me give them life lessons in person.  I always get the "I already know mom!"  so I wrote them a note telling them about all the things Dad and I wish for them and how we hope they will always stay true to themselves.  Middle school is a hard time in one's life, a time when you often don't feel confident in who you are and are clueless about what you are all about.  It's a time when you feel like you have to impress others, be like everybody else and standing up against peer pressure is like holding up a the wall at the Hoover Dam.  I hope the boys always know and find courage to do the right thing and when they fail, because we all do, that they learn their lesson, find strength to pick themselves back up and to keep pressing on. 

I'm sure lucky to get to be the mom to these kiddos.  Who would have imagined 15 years ago (next week) when Jarrett and I got married that our lives would look like this.  That three of our kiddos would be born from another mother and a bonus one, we thought was not in our cards.  While we've endured challenges we have found great blessings.  These four crazy kids are the main reasons why.

Ah, Mom, next time can you take the picture when the sun's not shinning directly in our eyes?

Sure kids... but see this imperfect looking perfect picture is an accurate reflection of our lives.  We are not perfect, but it sure feels pretty darn close.

Until next time,

Angie

Chuck-E-Cheese!!

A few weeks ago, the kids and I got to spend our lunch with our friends the Faulkner's.  They are an incredible family who inspire me with their constant desire to help others, share kindness and love.  While the kids had a fun lunch, Carrie and I had a working lunch as we were planning some upcoming activities for  Noah's Kindness Project.  I'm so excited to share some of the things we've partnered together on this year!!!! It's going to be amazing.

Here are a few photos of some of the fun the kids had with Campbell and Sage at Chuck-E-Cheese! 

The kids played lots of games!  Scarfed down the pizza and sandwiches and collected a TON of tickets.

We are so thankful for their support and friendship. 

Such a fun afternoon!  

The summer seemed to fly by just as quickly as past summers, in fact maybe even faster than the past.  Tonight we try to get ourselves prepared for heading  back to school  tomorrow!  How can it be that we will be sending off Isabelle to 1st grade, Michael  to 6th grade at Middle School and Gabriel to 7th. Wow - time is flying!

Until  next time,

Angie