Wow.

I forgot about my blog. Not really, but I just haven't had the time or the energy to deal with something on my plate. This school year has gotten off to a great start. I feel good about getting back into a routine. I just wish that there would have been a little more transition from lazy to hit the ground running... I have to figure out all of the new bells and whistles on this site!

Time to get back to it

I'm looking forward to a new school year, and for things to get back to a bit of normalcy. We've had a great summer. Lot of traveling, memories, and family time. This picture was taken at my grandparent's farm in July. It was great to see them.

Grace is under the weather right now. She has lost about 8 pounds in the last month, has stomach cramps, and is very lethargic. We got some test results back this week, and they are looking at the possibility of a parasite. Two weeks in Mexico and a season pass to Hawaiian Falls have added to the likelihood of that conclusion. We'll find out more next week. I just hate the waiting, and I hate that she'll start her first week of 5th grade not feeling well. Happy first day of school to everyone!

Can't look back...

A week ago, I finished my first 1/2 marathon. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. We started off great, but by about mile 12, I was ready to sit on the sidelines and people watch...needless to say, my running buddies cheered me on, and we finished in about 2hours and 20 minutes. I have already signed up for my next one...the Dallas Rock and Roll Half has teamed up this year with the Susan B. Komen foundation so there will be a fundraising component to it. I'll be hitting you all up :)

P.S. Please keep my college roommate, Stephanie, in your prayers. She's been diagnosed with breast cancer, and will begin chemo on the 29th. I'm pretty done with this whole cancer business!!

The week from hell...

Lots of tears this week. I think that the hardest thing about the diagnosis from Monday is that we just were so taken by surprise.

It started on April 9th when we were admitted to the ER at Medical Center of Plano. They told us that dad had tumors on the right side of his brain that they thought were brain cancer. That weekend they ran NUMEROUS tests. Head CT, MRI with Dye, a contrast CT, etc. What we initially learned from all of that is that there were no other tumors anywhere else in my dad's body...they wanted to do a brain biopsy.

The neuro-surgeon, Jeffrey Cattorini, did the biopsy. He told us that he felt like on a scale of 1-10, it was a 7 that it was cancer. The pathologist in the surgery told him from two different samples, there were no cancer cells.

We rejoiced. He said that it may be viral encephalitis or a fungal something. No cancer cells = no cancer. You would think, right?? He did tell us that they were going to have to send it off to the Mayo clinic for further testing...they ended up sending it to UT Southwestern.

On April 26th, 2010, my dad had a routine visit to the neuro-surgeon to get his stitches out. We (steve and I) found out about the appointment on Friday, and I cleared my schedule to go..so did Steve...that's when the bomb was dropped. Dad has a glioblastoma. The brain cancer that defies all odds and can double in size in 10 days...

We've met the radiologist, the neuro-oncologist, and everyone in between. We just want a little time with my dad.

My Dad...

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/norwynwilliams

Cadenisms from the last week....

On Monday, he asked Memrie..."Why is your toilet paper softer than ours?"

On Tuesday, I took the kids with me to the PISD spelling bee competition at the administration building because one of the students that I teach was the 5th grade winner for Mathews. We sit down (Grace, Caden, myself, and another teacher on my team) and sometime during the competition Caden told my friend that the lady in front of us has "two sets of hair". Hmmm...actually she was a really butchy woman who had the chilibowl haircut. Shaved on the bottom which was brown, and the longer top was blonde.

At this point, I tell Caden that he needs to filter his words. Not everything he thinks is okay to say out loud.

To which he proceeds to say out loud at Grace's piano lesson after the spelling bee, "mom. Are boys supposed to wear Uggs?" I look over and the little boy coming in for his lesson after Grace is wearing Uggs. Really???

Then the topper of the day was during church today, Ash Wednesday. I have been having conversations with the kids for the last couple of weeks about what we are going to give up. Caden immediately speaks up with, "church." Yeah..not really the point, Caden. So he tries again,"CCD." Yeah, still not working for me. We are supposed to give something up that we like. "Well. I'm not giving things up like cheeseburgers and soda." I obviously need to keep working on it with him...

So, it was a crazy day today and I forgot about Grace's volleyball practice. It worked out because we went to the 4:30 prayer service instead for Ash Wednesday. During church, Caden complained the whole entire time about everything. His shoes, how he wanted to give up church for lent, etc. You can imagine that all I am thinking is that God is testing me. So as we leave after the ashes and before the last prayer because I've had enough...Caden says to me in the parking lot, "Whose ashes are these on my forehead?" Wow. Thanks for that one. So then we get to the car and I tell the kids that we are going to Lifetime so that I can do a spin class and Grace says, "We left early for you to go exercise? I think that church is more important than that." One of my Lenten goals is working on positive interactions with my words for my children. I was really silent this afternoon :)

Crazy Happenings

We've had two fires in our neighborhood in the last 3 weeks. Both are total losses. The first family has a 1st grader at Mathews and a preschooler. I'd never met the family before, but had the opportunity to meet them in person at a birthday party two weeks ago. They had a repairman at their house working on the furnace. The mom and two girls were out running errands while the dad was at home. The repairman went to the car to write up everything, and while he was in the car the homeowner turned the heat up...it was at 50 while he was trying to work on it. Well, apparently a current went through the wires and it sparked the furnace in the attic. The attic was on fire for about 20 minutes or so before they even knew it. So sad, but they are all okay. The company is liable, but that's not going to bring their stuff back. Lesson to be learned - fire alarms in the attic...

The one on Saturday was a street north from us and close to the school. It was an older couple who collected antique cars. They started the car and it sparked a pile of oil that was in the garage. They escaped, tried to put it out with an extinguisher in the garage, but the car blew up. They are fine, they got their pet out, but once again...the house was a total loss. The kids and I walked down the street and watched it for about an hour. It was so sad..really makes you think. Do we have copies of all our credit cards, passports, licenses, all important documents? What's our homeowners policy for fire? Do we have a video of room to room in our house? Do we have copies of it with our parents? We now have a few projects to take care of.

Here are some pics of the fire from Saturday.

Seriously Slacking

So much to do and such little time to get it done. One of these days I will update this thing. Had a great 1st day back to school. I really do love my job!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Bags packed, car loaded, kids occupied with electronics, we left for the ranch on Tuesday after school. With George Bush opened all the way to 30, it made for a quick escape from Plano. We made the trip in about 5 1/2 hours, which isn't too bad considering that we stopped a couple of times, it was dark which is a slower speed limit, and we were constantly on the lookout for deer. When we were leaving Comanche and headed toward Brownwood we saw the biggest buck on the side of the road. Chris and I agreed that was probably going to be the biggest deer that we saw on our trip :)

I'm looking forward to hanging out with Chris and the kids on the ranch today. I'm thinking of my friends who have lost loved ones this year. It is going to be a tough day for them and I wish you a day filled with remembering old times and making new memories of your own.

Today we're going to attempt to take some family pictures for our Xmas card this year, ride out on the land looking for critters, and watch some football. GO BRONCOS!!!

p.s. Chris was so disgusted with the Broncos after last Sunday's game that he changed his shirt when it was over. That was a first for me and I am hoping that he gets to wear his shirt ALL day today!

A lot to catch up on....

I don't really even know where to start. Our life right now is full of games, games, practices, and more games. Grace had a FANTASTIC weekend of games. We've had to make up all of the games from the rain, which led to a game on Thursday, one on Saturday, and one more on Sunday. She had 3 goals this weekend. Two on Saturday and another one on Sunday. She was ON FIRE!! Fun times!!

Caden is still going through phases. He's really particular about everything. Sometimes love and logic just doesn't work.

Remy is proving to be a silly dog. She is getting the hang of the potty training, and is even doing a great job on her leash. We are still working on the "down" and not jumping on the kids, but it's a work in progress. Her latest trick is to climb the rock wall on our swing set. Yes, you read that correctly. She goes up and down the rock wall. The first time she went down the slide, but after that she decided to just jump. Now, she goes up AND down the rock wall. She's really starting to mellow out some, and she is a very loving dog.

Grace decided that she wanted to be the Twister game board this year, and Caden wanted to be scary. It's funny that he chose that since he won't go into a dark room by himself right now :)

We've had lice go through our house, the kids went to Disney for a week with Gma Mem and Granddad, and they both had Flu A. We're ready for the holidays and some down time. I am even thinking of getting out the X-Mas decorations next week so that they'll be ready to go when we get back from Ann's at Thanksgiving. I haven't done a lick of shopping, but I figure that it'll all get done. Happy Monday!!

Good Grief...Grace!

My little smarty pants..so proud of her!! I just was going through her folder and looking at the work from the week. There's a blue letter from her reading teacher attached to a test. The gist of the letter is that it's their first test, first tests can be challenging, and that the grading on the first test is very lenient. Points will be taken off for spelling, no excuse words, and not using complete sentences. Hmmm....turn the letter over...Grace got a 100!!! Atta girl Grace!

96 on a math test, 100 on another math test from last week. She is off to a great start this year!!

Getting Back to it....

The transition from summer mom to working mom seems like it's been a little rough the last few weeks. We are all having our "days" it seems, but just not on the same one (smile). We have something literally every afternoon of the week. Monday - soccer for Grace, Tuesday - piano, Wednesday - CCD, Thursday - baseball for Caden, and Friday- soccer for Grace again. Then...the games on Saturday and Sunday. It has not left us with a lot of down time, and that has been a huge part of the transition also.

My mental health rests on me getting some time to myself each day...even 5 minutes to go to the bathroom by myself. I also like the time to be when I exercise. I have been making a lot of excuses lately, but this morning Remy and I ran 3.0 miles without stopping and it made me realize that the time for excuses is over. So...cheers to a great school year!

Grace is Turning 9..

Grace's birthday is Monday, September 7th. To celebrate she brought a cookie cake to school on Friday and she is having 4 friends spend the night tonight. My sweet baby girl is definitely growing up.

It seems like yesterday that she was born. Finding out that the baby in my belly for 9 months was a little girl was the best surprise ever. I'm so proud of her and the little girl that she has turned into.

Remy...

Remy is doing well...as well as you can expect for a playful puppy. She is so darn cute and the kids absolutely love her. Chris and I love her also...she's doing really well with the sit command. She's really a smart little cookie and we're hoping that she figures out this potty training thing really soon.

We had a bit of scare this morning. We've been putting her outside in the backyard in the mornings while we are getting ready so that she can run around before she goes in her kennel for the day. She either got into something or something stung her because her WHOLE face was swollen. Her eyes were almost swollen shut, her glands in her mouth, hives on her tummy, etc. It scared the daylights out of us. We took her to the vet and they gave her a steroid shot and some steroids for the rest of the week. She's back to normal now. Thank goodness!

Cadenisms....

During practicing spelling words he spelled citizenship...c-i-t-i-z-e-n-s-h-i-t. It was ABSOLUTELY the funniest thing. He, of course, had no idea what he had done. He was just trying to figure out how to spell the big word. Grace's eyes got huge and I told Caden that he needs to NOT put those four letters together again. He got it correct on his spelling test!

"Does Remy have her eyes back?" You'll see why he said this in the next post...

First Day of School 2009-2010 School Year...

Well, we've officially made it through our first few weeks of school. Grace is getting back into the routine of things and Caden is still moving right along too. We've only had a few hiccups along the way...such as getting ready in the mornings. Caden all of the sudden dislikes all of his socks and Grace seems to have grown out of everything that we have...even the stuff that we bought a few weeks ago. So, it's a process. Trying to get us all organized and such is the goal right now.

It's cute..Caden is still pretty clingy to me in the mornings. Sometimes it makes me wonder if he wouldn't be better off without me at the same school, but I know that he has plenty of time to be independent and I am enjoying all of the extra hugs and kisses :) I leave for school around 6:45 and I work in the mornings rather than staying late in the afternoons... (I still usually work at least an hour or two in the evenings once they are in bed)...so I leave right after the kids are awake and dressed. Caden comes to my room each morning and we walk down to 1st grade together. Grace is too worried about making sure that she is unpacked, in the right switch class, and ready for the day to take time to walk Caden down. She is very meticulous about dates, times, etc. She definitely takes after her mom with that!

On another note, my 50 5th graders that I teach each day seem wonderful. I am excited to come to school each day and see what they have in store for me. Happy new school year to all my friends out there!!

Getting Caught up...

I'm going to be better about updating my blog. I have lots of fun stories to tell and I'm sure that you are all DYING to hear them :) Much more to come...

Crying Kids....

Chris and I leave tomorrow for Cancun with a bunch of friends for 5 nights/6 days. The first one of our "group" is turning 40 next week and we are all taking the opportunity to get away and celebrate "adults only" style. We've had this planned for MONTHS...and my children are acting like we are leaving and never coming back.

Caden is telling me that he is not able to spend more than one night away from his room. That he'll only spend one night at Gma and Granddad's and then he needs to come home. Can't you change your flight? Why can't you come home early? Why can't we come? I'm sure that you can hear everything his little mind is thinking. He even ended up with a stomachache this afternoon because I know that he is so worried about it. My sweet little man.

Grace had tears in her eyes this evening when I went to kiss her goodnight as well. I think that they are both just exhausted from Hawaiian Falls today. We tried to make it a fun family day for them and I think that we succeeded.

Say a little prayer that Chris and I depart and arrive home safely. I am going to miss my children, but not enough to stay home :)

****UPDATE...just went into Caden's room and he put a pillow and blanket on his floor for me to come and cuddle with him later...breaking my heart!!

Remy update

Remy is still the focus of our household right now. She is a bundle of energy and teeth :) She is a huge pain to Bailey...his favorite thing to do is growl at her, but he is also very patient with her.

We've learned...to keep our shoes in our closet if we don't want her to chew on them...that when she whines in her kennel she needs to outside...even when it's 3am or so...that she can make it several hours during the day without having an accident...that we need to keep paper towels handy for when she has an accident...that even though we just had her outside 5 minutes ago she still will pee on the floor...to keep her in an area without carpet...that we love her dearly and I made Chris call his parents on her every day that we were on our vacation...that Caden is a great helper with her...that she's lucky she's so cute...that she is growing bigger every day!!

Family Vacation Part 2....

Hill City was a great little town. Several restaurants and it really felt like a small ski town like we are used to in Colorado. VERY touristy, but that is exactly what we were looking for. We also loved Keystone, SD, again the same feel but had a lot to offer for all of us to do. I recommend staying in either one of those towns if you decide to do Rushmore. Both towns do a little "Shoot Out" since that area is where Wild Bill had his last fight, died, etc. Grace was chosen to give the cowboys in Hill City a quarter and they gave her it back with a hole in the middle of it. I wonder why the metal wasn't warm when we got it back AND the circle was perfect...hmmm...Grace and Caden both loved it though :)


So the 2nd day in Hill City we decided to go to Custer State Park. This is a prairie complete with roaming buffalo, antelope, and prairie dogs galore. It was great to see animals roaming free instead of cooped up in areas like we saw them the day before. I bet by the time we left we saw over a 100 of each one of those animals. It made me want to sing, "Home on the Range." This buffalo was HUGE and it just was walking down the road. We had to take a picture of it.