Well, I made the mistake of mentioning that the blog was getting a little stale and was promptly presented with the login information to give it an update – so here goes ...
To say we’ve been a bit busy lately would be a gross understatement. Overwhelmed is more like it.
Maria has been busy getting ready for her three day, sixty mile walk to help fight breast cancer which takes place on the 26th-28th of October. Maria and Beth held a crop (definition: a large scale gossip session, with some scrapbooking for pretext). They both worked really hard to pull it off, soliciting donations of food and silent auction items, decorating, advertising, ignoring their husbands, etc., etc. The event went great, a bunch of ladies showed up to ‘scrapbook’ and they raised around a million dollars (rounded) for the cause.
Maria celebrated a birthday on September 23. She gets more beautiful every year. If you forgot to call and wish her a happy birthday, you should start feeling guilty now…wallow in it…..wallow in it………. OK, that’s enough. Anyway, we went out for a great steak dinner and enjoyed some rare ‘grown-ups only’ time together. It feels like it’s been so long since the last time we had ‘grown-ups only’ time, that I’m not even sure we actually qualified as grown-ups when it happened.
The kids have been busy with the soccer season. Having all four of them playing soccer has been interesting. We love going to the games, but four games on three different fields every Saturday and practices every night of the week has been a bit of a logistical juggling act. Apparently the league got together before the season started to develop a game schedule that would create the most overlaps and conflicts for our family. Part of a vast conspiracy against us, I suspect. Nonetheless, we have persevered. The kids have all done great and the season will be winding down at the end of this month, which we look forward to with both a bit of sadness and anticipation (we need a break).
Things have also been a bit demanding at my work – it’s been a tough year so far for Dean Foods. I won’t bore you here with the details but if anyone is having trouble sleeping, give me a call and I’ll tell you a very intriguing story about how international demand for U.S. non-fat dry milk powder has led to a 100% increase in the cost of raw milk over course of the last year. Believe me, it’s fascinating. Maria says she thinks it’s sexy when I talk dairy commodities. She is a rare and special woman…..
Being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we also decided this would be a great time to move. After a few false starts with different builders (see below), we fell in love with an existing house in Flower Mound and closed on the deal at the end of September. We moved in on October 6, and have been digging out from underneath a sea of cardboard boxes ever since. It’s been a lot of work, but we’ve had a ton of help from Maria’s family, for which we are incredibly grateful.
So in spite of our best efforts to stay in the Pecan Creek Elementary boundaries, our three older kids had to change schools, roughly six weeks into the new school year. They were sad to leave their old friends behind and anxious about being the ‘new kids’ at a different school. I’m happy to report, however, that two weeks into their Bluebonnet Elementary careers, they are doing great. Madelyn made friends immediately- just like she told me she would before she started. “I just know I’ll meet a new friend that will show me everything I need to know,” she’d said. Parker, who seemed the most reluctant to switch schools, has also quickly made friends in his class. As you might expect, Tanner-- being the oldest-- took a bit longer to begin feeling socially comfortable and make friends. By fifth grade a lot of friendships are pretty established and new ones are a bit slower to develop. To help him along in fitting in, I’ve been teaching him some of what I know about being ‘cool’ in the fifth grade (which is a lot, btw) including:
- Showing him how to properly ‘feather’ his hair
- Providing him with a large swirled comb with extra large handle to keep in his back pocket for hair feathering emergencies
- Teaching him the proper way to give the ‘thumbs up’ sign while leaning back and saying “Aaayyyyy!”
- Updating his wardrobe to include a fresh pack of knee-high tube socks, a swatch, white-trimmed running shorts and a Members Only jacket. (No, he doesn’t wear the shorts together with the jacket, that would look ridiculous—he just wears a half-shirt—a mesh one) If anyone knows where I can locate some parachute pants, please let me know.
- Working with him to help him incorporate some of the lingo that the ‘cool’ kids use. He has a strong vocabulary already and is doing well at working ‘totally tubular’, ‘radical’, ‘gnarly’ and ‘gag me with a spoon’ into conversations. I couldn’t be more proud.
I can already see that he’s starting to feel more and more comfortable every day.
As for Camby, well we kept him at Footprints preschool through October. Maria has been driving him up for school three days a week (except this week – while he’s recovering from poison ivy – over most of his face). He is going to miss going to his school. He has really loved it. His teachers will miss him too (so will the little girls in his class that are in love with him). After October, he’ll be home with mom unless we can find another program that we feel good about. We’ll just have to see.
So looking back on this year so far, the kids have changed churches, schools, homes and neighborhoods (twice). With two months left in the year, we are committed to keeping up the momentum and are trying to think of new and exciting ways to turn our poor kids’ lives upside down. We welcome your suggestions. Seriously, the kids have been incredibly patient and resilient. They have kept really great outlooks in spite of all the change that has gone on in their lives and once they get through a few more sessions with their therapist, I fully expect the stuttering and nervous ticks to stop.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got.
Peace Out…
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