Thursday, December 10, 2009

Our Shining Star




Last night was a big night for Kyle! He sang his first ever solo in front of many people. He chose to sing A la Nanita Nana, a Spanish song, as a surprise for his Spanish speaking Grandpa. He did such a great job and we are so proud of him! We hope to see him do it many more times!!!

Monday, December 07, 2009

Where We Have Been....

I can't believe so much time has slipped by that I have not blogged! We've had many things going on~ both exciting and difficult (such is life). Since I'm so far behind I'll skip some of the photos and maybe try and find time later on to post them. In the last month or so, here are some of the highlights of what's been happening around here~

We finally got that home school day field trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium! The kids were so excited! It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach and the rest of the day exploring the Aquarium. It was a wonderfully memorable day for me and the kids.

Unfortunatley it ended on a very bad note. We stopped at McD's before our couple hour drive home to pick up dinner. As unbelievable as it seems... an employee slipped a roofies into my drink and then held up our meal a long time waiting for it to kick in. It was an awful, shady, creepy weirdness going on during that time that left me and my children in a very bad situation. What I believe is truly only by the grace of God we managed to get out of there. However, I was totally out of it from being drugged and had no idea really that I was out of it so I drove the remaining 1.5 hours home that way. Within 5 minutes of reaching home I passed out and didn't come to until 10 hours later. It was awful awful awful dealing with the medical field afterwards. Then dealing with the police investigation was equally as frustrating! Perhaps sometime I will blog about the experience. It was pretty scary stuff. This came at the end of other big family struggles and disappointments. Admittedly it was the breaking point that sent me into a real funk for a while (hence the lack of blogging). But God is good and doesn't allow us to pout for long. ;-) He knows when we need a "pick me up and dust me off" and then he sends it in bucketfulls!

Other unblogged excitements are~
*All the children are now home schooled. It was a tough adjustment for the first 6 weeks or so and I wondered if I were making a big mistake. Now that we have all fallen into the new routine I am thrilled to have them all home. They are all doing excellent. Luke has started 3rd grade so now all 4 boys are sitting at laptops to do their work.

*We got an adorable new kitten named Oreo. He is so cute, yet such a trouble maker, but we love him. The kids went bannanas when I went out for milk one night and came home with a kitten!

*Halloween was much fun this year. It started off the weekend before when we all went to a costume dance party for home school families. The kids had a blast dressing up and dancing the night away! Then on Halloween it was time to put the costumes back on and head out to dinner and then pounding on doors to score some candy.

*Kyle turned 11 on November 7th. Yet, it seems like he turned 13. We can't beleive how grown up he seems all the sudden. For his bday we hit the road and had a pizza party with my parents to celebrate Kyle's bday and theirs as my Mom's bday is on the 14th and my Dad's is on the 19th.

*Thanksgiving threw us for a bit of a loop. We were hosting it at our house this year and were expecting a few of Jim's siblings and families and my parents. However, the very day before Thanksgiving 4 of us ended up with a flu/cold! We felt so bad for everyone we had invited because we didn't want to get them sick and yet didn't want to make them have to make very last minute plans either. It all worked out well though as we were able to deliver half of the already purchased food to Jim's siblings and they met at a different house together. My parents decided to brave getting ill and came anyways to help with the cooking and cleaning. We spent it in PJ's, eating, and watching movies together.

*Jude turned 12 on November 27th. Can you believe it? We can hardly wrap our minds around it! He had a really nice celebration (even though half the family was still sick). The day of his bday was pretty mellow and included birthday cake and presents. The day after we took him to a roller skating rink for the very first time. We signed all the kids up for lessons before skating through a session. Jude caught on really fast and him and Kyle just loved it. Hopefully we'll be able to take them more often.

*Kyle and Jude both had their very first basketball game on Saturday. They are off to a great start with a win! I'm so thankful that they ended up on the same team. It's fun to watch them play at the same time. I've seen it build between them a teammate type attitude that is way better then what a competitive situation would have likely created. The two of them have struggled in their new relationship in the last year and it is so neat to watch that change.

*We are hiring a Mother's Helper! I'm thrilled about this. It has been a year of trials and joys unlike anything we could have imagined. Truth is... after all the excitement I am feeling a bit run down. So we will be having a Mother's Helper coming in twice a week to assist me with the cleaning, cooking, and childcare. We are planning on (Lord willing) doing this for the next 2 months or so in hopes that I'll have a chance to catch up and recharge a little!

*We are going on a CRUISE!!! OKAY, I can still hardly believe it is happening!!! A couple months ago Jim and I saw an online ad for a cruise that lead us into looking at different cruises. We dreamed about how great it would be but discussed also how unlikely it would be that we would be able to get away like that until many many years from now~ when our kids are much older or even grown. During their stay over Thanksgiving my Mom dropped an unexpected and wonderful bomb on us! She offered to come and stay with all the kids and let us get away together for my birthday and our anniversary next month! I was stunned. Jim and I both knew right away what we wanted to do and it didn't take us long at all to purchase tickets for a cruise in the Bahamas!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

So there it is~ a sampling of just some of the many many many things going on around here. I'll try and update more often. ;-)