End of School

Okay it has finally calmed down a little so here is some information on Brandon's last days of school. First they had field day. I hope it gets better as he gets older, because they don't put much effort into the younger kids. It was chilly and the kids froze during the water sports but they seemed to have fun anyway. Scott and I took Jessie and she did pretty good but got cold and tired towards the end. Then the next week was their final field trip. They went to City Park to ride the rides for an hour, then ate lunch in the park and played around for awhile. I stayed the whole time but Scott just took Jessie to the park to meet us for lunch and she played on the equipment for awhile with Brandon. He was so worried that she was going to get hurt playing with the other big kids. After the park, Scott took Jessie home and I went with the kids to the library for a tour and story time. Trying to keep 56 first graders quiet in the library is real fun by the way. They split us into three groups and we took a tour of the library, visited the Infozone, which tells the history of newspapers, and then had story time. The kids got very bored because they were tired and it wasn't enough action for them. Last year the first graders got to go ice skating and we got the library. I think the best thing for them was the glass elevators. The final day, the kids had their final assembly in the morning where they got awards. Brandon got awards for spelling, knowing 200 site words, and the helping hands award for always being willing to help everyone out. He also got a special award for the AR reading program for being in the top 3 in his class. The first grade also was noted for helping to get the most chain links on the Rachel's challenge. Rachel's challenge is when the kids are challenged to do acts of kindness. When they do an act of kindness a paper chain link is made. The chain was pretty big by the end of the year. The teachers seemed pretty sad to lose this group. After the assembly we could take the kids home, so we met mom and dad at the park for lunch and fed the ducks and played around. When we got home, shortly after is when the storm hit. Nice ending to a good school year. Also Jessie got into the preschool program at school so she will be starting school next year also. It will be interesting because they are going to a four day school week and also contracting out the bus services to a company instead of the school district, which will add re to the usual start of school year confusion. I guess I'll worry about that closer to time.

hailstorm

I was going to do a blog about the end of the school year and all of Brandon's activities, which I will still do soon, but yesterday we had a massive hail storm that did a lot of damage and it is too hot to think much right now. We had everything from pea to golf ball size hail. It not only trashed the trees pretty good but mom and I both lost most of our flowers we got for Mother's Day. (Everyone buys us flowers to plant in our planters for Mother's Day). A few may still survive but most didn't. Our roof is going to have to be replaced and the siding on the house as well as the gutters and the worst part was our skylights broke and allowed water to gush into the kitchen and bathroom. Today some guys came out and put in giant fans to dry out everything so it won't mold and we can't run the air conditioner and of course today was almost 90 degrees and about a 100 in the house. It is really miserable right now and everyone is sleeping in our room because we have a window air conditioner to try to cool down that room at least. And of course everyone thinks I am some super mom that can do six things at once and do everything as soon as they ask and with the heat I am not handling that as well as I probably could be. Mom and dad had a lot of damage to their roof also so now we all get the fun of the insurance and roofers game. I will try and do the end of the school blog as soon as we get the fans out of here and some coolness back in.

Easter

We had a really nice Easter this year. It started with egg decorating the night before. The kids love decorating Easter eggs and so do the “big kids”. Dad and Scott really get into it. They have their traditional decorating they do every year. Dad always makes one look like a green olive with a stuffed pimento and Scott always makes an elaborate fire scene. I enjoy it too and mom usually ends up taking pictures and video instead of coloring eggs.

The weather was nice enough for once to hide the eggs outside (plastic ones, not the real ones). It’s so much more fun doing it outside where they have more room and there are more places to hide them. After the egg hunt Grandma, Chris and Rachel showed up for dinner at around 1:00. We had a really nice ham dinner with our traditional deviled eggs and then we all went back outside and the kids had a treasure hunt for another Easter surprise. We had gotten them some audio books that have the book with it so they can read along and it was too big for an Easter basket so we thought we would do a treasure hunt. A couple of years ago for Brandon’s birthday Mom and I made up pictures of various places in the yard that we use for clues and had bought a box that we used for his birthday gift bags that was the treasure, but we like to play this game with the kids in the summer and bought some small dollar toys that we put in the treasure box. They get a kick out of it. Anyway…we used the clue cards for them to find the books. They had fun with that and then they hid some eggs for their Uncle Chris to find. After that they played with the toys they got in their Easter baskets. It was so nice out no one wanted to go back inside, but we did finally go in for dessert because Chris and Rachel were due to go have dinner with her mom soon too. It was a very memorable day and I hope all of you had a great Easter too.

Chris wedding

Chris and Rachel have finally found a hall and a church available on the same day so they are officially setting the date for August 28th. Invitations will be sent out hopefully soon but I figured I would give everyone a head's up since I don't know when they will get them sent out for sure. It should be interesting because they want Brandon and Jessie to be the in the wedding. I will put in more details when I have them.

cute story

The other day Brandon found some matchbox construction cars that none of us remember him getting. I kind of remember he got a set a few christmas' ago but I didn't recognize some of the cars. Since neither of the kids ever put anything where it belongs it doesn't surprise me that they have been lost. Well after a while, when he was done looking to see if anything else appeared, he came in all excited and said he figured out where they came from. He said, " God was having a yard sale and loves construction toys and since he loves Me so much he decided to give them to me." Then yesterday he found a nickel and said he was rich and that God must really love him for letting him find that nickel. Remember the days when things were that simple and a nickel made us rich?
Spring break is here and of course the weather is only going to be nice for like one more day and it wasn't nice on Friday or Saturday so we will be lucky to have three days of going outside.
Chris is still tentatively set on the wedding date of August 28th. They are having a really tough time getting anything set. Carmen (Rachel's mom) is not helping much she keeps promising them stuff and then backing out. They thought about postponing the wedding but her grandma isn't doing well and even though she wouldn't be able to come to the wedding they were hoping to visit her after and be able to show her the pictures and video but I am not sure she will even make it to then. Hopefully everything will finally come together and I will post the date as soon as it is set for sure but the 28th is the date as of now unless they have to postpone. The only thing they do have is the dress.

Jessie's 4th birthday

I know I am a little late in writing this as her birthday was on the 7th but better late than never. She had a good birthday weekend. Brandon and her both usually get two birthdays out of the deal because we do the birthday dinner and party with my family and then Scott's family comes out for their presents on another day. Anyway we had my family's party on Saturday and she had a great time. It was princess themed of course, half general princess and half Cinderella. She chose all of her decorations and then told me where to put them up. She even tried to tell me how to decorate the cake. Brandon was a little upset because she is now old enough to want to open her own presents and he didn't like that. He liked it better when he had to do things for her. On Sunday Scott's family came out to give her their gifts. She started to come down with a cold that day so she was a little under the weather but she still had a good time.

She is finally able to reach the doorknobs enough to close doors but she can't open the doors because she is just short enough that she can't get a good grip on the knob so she is always locking herself in places and then hollering to get out. She can also now turn lights on and turn them back off if she is standing on something, she needs about another inch to reach the top of the switch when it is turned on. So now when I put her in her room for her "nap/ quiet time" (which almost nevers actually happens, as she is usually knocking on the door asking if it time to get up yet) she turns the light back on after I leave the room. I don't think I am going to have any trouble with her in school because she is picking up a lot from Brandon and is constantly wanting to read but she gets bored quickly with anything that doesn't involve reading. She is quick to learn though and I think she will have no problems.

Brandon on the other hand is still having difficulties with numbers. He seems to have a block when it comes to math and he does not like to write. I still think he was supposed to be left handed and it is messing with his brain but he was adament about using his right hand because everyone else was. He is doing really well in reading though. They have what they call accelerated reading books that are different levels and when you get three 100%s on the tests, you move onto the next level. He is breezing through the books, one of them he only had home one day and he passed the book and is on to the next. He just moved into a new level so he has two more 100's to go but I am very proud of him. We have resorted to bribery to try to get him to work harder and it is helping to a point but he is only earning his stickers towards a prize for the books and site word lists that he passes not for any of his other homework. It is still a work in progress. I still get amazed when I hear him read to me it just doesn't seem possible that he is old enough to read and to see his progress as he masters it. I forgot how hard the English language is until I started helping him with spelling and phonics. We really do have a difficult language. I am so proud of both of my kids and they are growing up way too fast.

Chris's graduation and engagement

Chris graduated from college again with his bachelor's degree in October. This time it is a Bachelor of Science for Technical Engineering. Anyway we were waiting for them to mail his diploma to him before we celebrated. They wouldn't give it until everything was paid. (His employer helped pay for his degree). Mom and Dad received it at there house so we gave him a surprise party and he didn't even know that he had his diploma yet.

It was fun. We made him wear his old cap and gown from high school and Dad presented the diploma. He also got some gift cards and a frame for the diploma. I think he appreciated it. It was also sort of a double celebration because he finally asked Rachel to marry him. He waited for their two year anniversary to propose. I guess he was pretty nervous but made it pretty romantic. Rachel was surprised he was nervous because it wasn't like she was going to say no. They are tentatively setting the date for August 28th. We'll see though because they haven't decided where they are having it yet so the date may change. I wasn't sure about their relationship at first but she has really changed and I think they will be happy together.

As for the latest on Scott, he is still having issues. I swear the doctor is just trying to milk the insurance. Anyway they are finally going to blast the kidney stone next week and if all goes well he can get the stint they put in over a month ago out a week after they blast it. Hopefully that will be the end to all of the major problems and things will go smoother. I am not sure how much more I can take. Scott can't even really try to get work because he is on pain pills all the time. We have been looking but there is just not a lot of options out there right now. Please keep praying because we need all the help we can get.