Teeth, teachers, soccer and illness. . .

Funny how life throws us curve balls. Connor is so attached to his teeth that he refuses to wiggle them. I write letters to the school to describe what kind of teacher I want. We sign our kids up for soccer and they are at the same time so I miss half of Corrins and Donnie misses half of Connors. I leave the house w/Kolette so illness strikes. But honestly what makes any of us think that we have any control over anything?

Connor has to face the inevitable and lose the tooth eventually. This time by jumping on his sister in a laundry basket covered by a blanket. Corrin gets exactly who I wanted for her as a teacher. She has health issues, we have a teacher in the kinder die and so they move Corrin's teacher to that spot. We get a new never taught before teacher. But this teacher deserves our respect and kindness just as much as the much desired teacher. Kids in sports that is just par for the course. Kolette isn't in the hospital so I am happy. I guess I am just learning to go w/the curves that are thrown my way. I am not in control as much as I like to think I am.

I am sorry for the deep thoughts today. I guess when you don't post much you have to jam it all together. My life has gotten hectic but isn't it all worth it? YEP!!!! God is in Control and Hallelujah for that!

Change and me relaxed? How odd. . .

It sure seems funny how I post so much less when my life is busier and I have more to post about. Well change seems to be in the air. After Janet passing they finally hired a new Kindergarten/1st grade teacher. The only hitch is that they hired Corrin's 4th grade teacher. Now the background is that she was a kinder/1st grade teacher and when they had a kinder class too small to have 5 teachers and a big 4th grade class they swapped her up. So although she is awesome w/Corrin's class she has health issues and Corrin has an unusually hard grade. So while the kinder/1st will be so blessed to have her we will miss her so much. But for me the control freak I am amazingly calm about this change. Corrin met her new teacher today and she will team teach w/Corrin's teacher for a week and then they are all hers. Wow - - - this is going to be strange. But considering all the circumstances w/everything I think God is completely in control here and I don't need to get in the way. So I will look forward to meeting this completely new(this is her 1st year) lady who will be Corrin's teacher. But for those of you who know me this puts me completely out of my comfort zone. God is in Control!!!

Coffee

Just a silly post for today. It has become a busy life since the school year has started and soccer is now in full swing it is busy. But I have to admit I have become a coffee addict. I would first like to thank my friend Holly for starting this wonderful habit. I spent a few days at her house back when I only had one kid and she introduced me to it. She has laughed at me alot over the years as I have ordered a mocha w/a quarter shot of decaf. Next i would like to thank my friend Kristi for introducing me to a coffee house that makes heaven in a cup. Yum. For these wonderful friends I owe you a coffee of your choice. Love ya coffee sisters:o)

Dealing w/loss

This has been a hard week. We lost a dear friend and cousin this week. Losing s/one you love is hard all on it's own that's for sure. But when that person dies b/c someone else decided to end their life is a whole different ball game. For me it is so hard to understand why this would happen. I don't understand mental illness at all. I think it is so confusing. But the hardest thing is explaining this to my children. I tried so hard to not give many details other than she died. But she is a teacher in our school as well as related to us. So unfortunately kids talk. So Corrin now has the details of it all. She doesn't understand but says she does. Connor my very sensitive boy just bawled. How do you help a child understand s/thing you don't get yourself? I tried to tell him that she just passed away but when all the details started to leak out at school I had to say more. I have told him that her husband was sick in his brain and that he made a bad decision and that is why she died. I told him she is with Jesus and holding her son that died as a baby. But it sounds so empty. I don't want him to have to deal w/this or any of my kids either.

Ian's teacher is the only one out of all my kids who's teachers who told them anything about her dying. She didn't say details and knowing and loving her I know she handled it very well. She was very close w/Janet. Ian called her Matt's mom which was a title she loved. She was a very wonderful lady and teacher. Ian is young so it is different watching him deal w/it. But she always said hi to him everytime we passed her class for the past 5 years and we have spent time at their house. It will definately take time to adjust.

I just hope everyone can pray for the family, friends and the entire community b/c this affects so many. The funeral is set for Sat and hopefully from there people can start to heal but i think it will take a very long time. Rest in Peace Janet. We loved you.

Out of the mouths of babes. . .

It is funny to hear how your kids act when they are out of your sight. I know that my Ian is a stubborn little boy. He is a very sweet boy too but man is he stubborn. He is also very independent. So last week he decided that he didn't want to put his workbox away in class and then didn't want to get in line. So he lost 2 straws which means that he gets no treat at the end of the day. So I talked to him and told him that he needed to apologize to his teacher for not listening b/c this approach worked on Connor. He got really upset so I told him to tell his teacher that he would listen better from now on. So the next day I took him in and told his teacher he had s/thing to tell her. Of course he wouldn't so his teacher said she would talk to him later.

I run into her today while helping in Connor's class and she filled in what happened that day he was susposed to talk to her. She said she tried to ask him later if he had anything he wanted to say to her. He said no. So right before the end of the day she asked him if he had anything to say to her b/c she knew his mommy wanted him to. He answered "My mom wants me to but I don't"

And that is that. His attitude is better and he is proud of that but wow he knows his mind I guess.

Catching girls

It's really funny to watch Ian go to school. He has always gravitated towards the girls. I thought I needed to find him some boys to play w/but I don't know why I worried. He has his little posse' of girls that he plays w/daily at school. So I am signing Kolette up for Ballet last week and one of the Mom's there was saying her son told her that all Ian talks about is his brother, Dad and the trucks. So I ask Ian who he plays w/at recess again. He names all the girls. I ask him if he plays w/this one boy. He says "No, he just follows us around". So one of Ian's favorite girls tells her mom the same thing about this other boy. Only she says that she told the boy "Stop following me I need time to myself!". Now this little girl is very opionated so I am sure she said this quite loudly.

So yesterday Ian goes to the shop w/his dad and I went to Costco w/the rest of the kids. Ian was in the shop yard digging holes w/a shovel. His Papa asked him what the holes were for and Ian replied "To catch girls". Hmmm.... not sure what to think of that boys thinking pattern.

Privledge not a Right

Just a small vent on my part. I am busily trying to figure out if our school is going to be showing the Obama address to the school children. The thing that makes me the maddest is that if I didn't watch Fox news or or have a Facebook account I would have NO idea. My opinion on the public schools is this "It is a privlege not a right to have my children in your classes". So I am trying to figure out whether or not they are going to show it and if they are at what time. I will pull my kids out b/c I DIDN'T give them permission to show this to my kids. I want my kids to go to school to learn the basics not be brainwashed by the President. People would be in an uproar if they had done this w/Pres. Bush. So I am not sure if my kids are going to get a 3 or 4 day weekend.

Missing the big kids

Last week Kolette was kinda enjoying having her mommy all to herself. Well yesterday she said it was too quiet at home. So we walked to watch who was at recess. We saw Connor but he was playing w/his friends and I didn't want to bug him so I told her we weren't going to tell him we were there. She starts to cry. I told her we would come back and see Ian or Corrin later. So we sneak down and are watching for Ian. We notice everyone else we know and finally we walk by and 2 of his friends tell us where he is and he comes over. I told him she missed him and wanted to say hi. He had a notepad and a pen so he draws her a quick note and puts it thru the fence. She was on cloud nine. She said hi to all his friends that she knows and we left. Then we notice that Corrin's grade is also outside. 8 of Corrin's friends come over but no Corrin. The girls all say hi to Kolette and say that Corrin stayed in to work on writing(optional??? what's up w/that?). So we say goodbye and walk home. Kolette still wanted to see Corrin but we had to wait till school was out.

So we go to the school and are waiting for the kids. Connor comes out first and she gets a big hug and kiss and then she gets the same from the rest of the kids. I just love that she loves her brothers and sisters and that they aren't afraid to love her back. They are all keepers!!!!