Photos I took of us...

Happy Anniversary....

Today, Michael and I have been married for 8 years. We have been a "couple" for 16 years. This was the first anniversary in those 16 years that we were not going to be able to be together and have dinner and see a movie. Michael, as part of his police academy class, was on duty for the funeral of a fallen police officer and left home that morning before we got up. He was then scheduled to attend class until late that night. I was very sad about not being able to be with him on OUR day, but did understand that sacrifices had to be made. I was going to get the house cleaned up and the boys were going to spend the night with my mom, just because they could. I had taken Makenna to daycare that day so that she could ease back into the routine of going to school. I left my grandmother's house around 2:30 to go pick her up from school. I asked the boys to go with me, but they were more content playing without their sister bothering to go with me, so I left them with Mama. As I approached the "bad" curve on Kathleen road, my life changed. As I entered the curve I saw the other car. I hit the brakes as fast as I could, but there was no place to go. The girl was in my lane headed straight for me and we collided. The trooper estimated we were going around 60-70 miles per hour total, if you add our speeds together when we hit. The last thing I remeber before the crash was thinking "Oh my God" and then the hit. My van ended up on the side of the road about 3 or so feet from going over into the ditch. The other car was spun around and facing the same direction as me in the middle of the road. The girl and the two passengers in her car were able to get out of their vehicle, walk around and no major injuries. I was in shock, the whole world was still moving, even after the vehicle stopped, and I was shaking all over. I was not able to open my door because it was bent too badly, the fire department pushed it open when they arrived. One of the passengers from the other car came over to me and made sure I was ok and that I had no kids with me. He had a cut on his face, the girl was very shaken-up, and the other guy was dizzy, but coherent. I called 911 as soon as I put my car in park and could see straight. Luckily, there was a good samaritan in the lane of traffic who happened to be a paramedic. He checked everyone and held my neck in a brace until paramedics arrived. All four of us went to the hospital to get checked out. Luckily, by the Grace of God, none of us were seriously injured. I ended up with a severe chest contusion, bruised feet, and bruised shoulder and my van ended up totaled with more than $14,000 in damages.

December 27, 2011 will never be a day I will forget. I am so thankful for the little things that happened that day so that my children were safe and kept from harm, that I was not injured more seriously, and that the people in the other car were kept safe as well. I am thankful for airbags, for the technology of today's vehicles, for 911, and for my family. I am thankful for people who are willing to stop and help, even if it inconveniences their day, that there are some people who are still concerned about the well-being of their fellow human. I am thankful that I was able to walk away from such a crash and be home that night for my babies.

Michael and I ended up spending the evening with eachother after all, but it was definately not the anniversay I had in mind, but am glad for the lessons learned and the time I still have!

The last 4 months...

So, I have been extremely busy the last 4 months. It is really tough being home alone with the kids most of the time. Michael has been super busy going to work and going to school. He is literally home long enough to change his clothes every day and to sleep. It is crazy, but he only has 109 days left of the academy. Here is a recap of the things we have been up to since August:

September:School has begun and Conner and Riley are doing great. Makenna is also adjusting well to going to daycare without her brothers. She has dance class every Friday as well.

October: Halloween is super fun. This year the kids dressed up as a Kitty Cat, Darth Vader, and a Vampire. Daddy was at school and couldn't trick or treat with us, but he did go to the corn maze with us!

November was a pretty calm month. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house and at Aunt Telena's house. Lots of good food and family time.

December is upon us now. Today is Christmas Eve. The kids are all very excited about the visit from a very special guest this evening and we are getting ready to spend some time with our extended families tonight. We did get to visit ICE at Gaylord Palms this year, thanks to a special offer for 50% off. It was really cold and everyone enjoyed seeing all the sculptures. Christmas is going to be fun and I am glad Michael doesn't have to work, like he normally does on Sunday so at least we get him for a whole day!

A new chapter...

As the 2011-2012 school year commences, my little family is beginning a new chapter of our lives. I have had my career for 8 years now and enjoy what I do, working with kids in the school. Michael is now entering the final stages of his career search as he started the police academy last week. For the next 8 months I am going to know somewhat what it feels like to be a single parent. Michael will be in class 5 nights a week after he gets off of his full time job as a truck driver. I will see him for approximately 30 minutes a day everyday except Saturday and Sunday. He will be exhausted, working his butt off to achieve his dream of becoming a police officer. I am excited for him, but also nervouse for our family because with every new thing comes adjustments and challenges. This year we also have two school-aged kids with Riley in first grade and Conner in kindergarten, so that is two times the homework, two times the lunch money, two times the uniforms, and two times the fun of learning new things. It has only been a week since school started for everyone in our house and I can say that I truly appreciate having my partner with me as opposed to doing the routine all by myself. Michael definately knows how to push my buttons, but he does a lot for us at home and really helps our household to run more smoothly. I know these next months are going to be challenging, but I see a bright future for all of us when he if finished!

Some semi-recent photos...

Ahhh...the love

Nothing beats camping in the living room!

Baseball Brothers on the Fourth!

Conner's pre-K graduation!

Momma, mommy, mom....

I have many names. Being a mom is definately the hardest job I have had to do. It NEVER stops. I am always on duty, even when I sleep because I have night-time visitors occasionally during the week. I love my three babies so much that I sometimes think I try too hard to be the "perfect" mom. I have very high expectations for my brood and I forget that they are still little, at only 6, 5, and 2. Having my babies has shown me my weeknesses and my strengths. I find much I want to improve about my parenting and I know I do not do everthing like I should. My greatest hope for them and me is that we all stay close once they grow up and that they feel that I am the one person they can trust, come too, and count on, no matter what is happening with them. My thing I want to work on is more patience. I thought I had a lot of it, but being home with my three for the summer really tests how much I really have. They are at the ages where they can push me to the limit and I want to work on not falling off the edge of the cliff....I am a professional educator and counselor who knows the book stuff about raising a successful, happy kid, but putting it into practice is not always as easy as it sounds. I want to work at being better at the best job I have, being a mommy!
Some photos I took yesterday of my babies! They are growing so fast and I want to make the best memories possible for them!

The Last Few Months...

The last few months, since I blogged last, have been a whirlwind of exciting things, work, stress, fun, and summer! Here are some of the things we have been up to since March.................................

Baseball: The boys played baseball again this year. They both were on the same team, which was nice for practice and games. Michael was one of the assistant coaches as well, which was good for him and them since they got to have fun together. Kenna and I were their cheerleaders at games and practices and helped keep everyone in line. Their coach was interesting and rather unorganized, fortunately they had some really great assistants that helped them stay focused. Riley really improved his catching and throwing skills and got to play first base a few times, which is really a big deal in T-Ball because you have to be able to catch to get anyone out in that group. Conner improved with playing on his own. He didn't need his daddy as much this year and is starting to become more independent, just in time for Kindergarten!
Kindergarten Trip and Awards: Riley had a successful year in Kindergarten. We all survived our first year with a kid in school! At the end of the year the kindergarten as his school got to visit a petting farm. We had a great time and Riley was very brave and petted many different animals, picked up a chicken, held a duck and a chick and got to milk a cow! He was awarded for having some of the best overall Kindergarten skills in his class, being one of only 5 in his class who began AR (accelerated reader), and one of only 5 in the entire kindergarten to get PERFECT attendance! We are extremely proud of him and his accomplishments in school! He is super excited about first grade and all of the things he will get to do next year too!

Wedding: In June one of our cousins got married. She married a marine and is young, only 18, and they didn't have much money to work with for their wedding. Therefore, all of us, her family, chipped in and helped her out as much as possible. Our part in the wedding included cooking pulled pork for 120 guests and making pasta salad. Riley was also the ring bearer and I was the photographer, thanks to Jennifer Karol for letting me use her camera! The day of the wedding was fun, but very tiring. All three kids were great and had fun and I took over 1500 photos which I edited and selected about 300 that were worth keeping. The happy couple had a great day and live in North Carolina, where he is stationed for now.

Davis Day Camp: As summer started I had to prepare to keep my three loves busy so that they don't get bored and they learn a little as well, its the teacher in me, I can't help it! The first week of summer the boys went to VBS at church for the morning and Kenna went to daycare. At the end of the week we all had fun at water day at Kenna's school. The second week of summer, I decided to have themed days for the kids. Monday happened to be July 4, so our theme of course was Independence Day. We made red, white, and blue jello snacks, went swimming, made foam hats, painted our hair red, white and blue, and went to the fireworks! Tuesday was "messy day". I let the kids go outside and play with silly string, finger paints, slip and slide, colored hair spray, and we had a messy dinner of tacos! It took two baths to get all of the paint and silly string of of them and out of their hair, but they had a great time.

Wednesday was "cooking day". On this day I let the kids cook each meal and allowed them to make some neat snacks too. For breakfast Conner made us green scrambled eggs, Riley made french toast, and Kenna cooked bacon. At lunch time we made ants on a log and pigs in a blanket and a snack of puppy chow, chocolate, peanut butter, powdered sugar and chex mix. For dinner the kids made mini pizzas and chicken wings. Thursday was "arts and crafts day" and I had about 6 different things for the kids to do. We played with modeling clay, colored a felt picture, made a foam figurine, painted a statue and used pipe cleaners to create something cool. Friday was supposed to be "camping day" but it rained. Instead of doing our nature hike, bike ride, and water fun outside, we went bowling, to birthday party, and then camped in the living room while we ate smores and watched a movie. It was a busy but fun week and the kids liked doing the theme days.
Independence Day: July 4th was fun this year. My mom and step-dad went out to the fireworks with us and the kids did a great job! Noone cried this year and Kenna fell asleep during the show!
Pets: We got a couple new additions to our family this summer too. Meme, my mom, bought the kids a parakeet from a friend of hers. He is really pretty, but he likes to try to bite so we are working with him on that. A couple weeks after we got him, Mama, my grandma, adopted a baby gerbil for the kids. He is super cute and nice. Kenna is kind of scared of him, but she will pet him as long as I hold him and he doesn't move too much. The bird's name is Doc and the gerbil's name is Buddy. They are fun little pets for the kids and will help them work toward maybe getting a puppy one day!
Conner and School: My Conner man starts Kindergarten this school year. He and I got to go to Kindergarten Round-up and get a tour of the school and some fun little things for him to have to welcome him to school. He is excited and little nervouse too. I can't believe how time flies and that he is already old enough for school. He is so smart and I know he will do well. Hopefully he has a great teacher who will help bring him out of his shell a little this year. He is my most sensitive child and gets his feelings hurt easily. We went the other day and got school supplies. He got his big-boy back pack and his school books and pencils. He is more than ready for school....we just gotta work on that shoe-tieing!
Swimming: We were so lucky this summer because Meme and Poppa got a house with a pool on the porch, as the kids say. They have had so much fun going swimming this summer. The boys learned to swim last summer and have done a great job remembering and improving their skills this year. Makenna has come a long way. At first she would only get in the water and hold on for dear life. Now she will put on the swimmies and jump in from the side. She can put her face in the water and blow bubbles. I almost have her floating on her back alone as well. I love having three little fishies for kids because the beach and water are some of my favorite things.

We still have about three more weeks of summer vacation and I have some things to do on my "to do" list, but we will have fun.