A graduation, a concert and another graduation!!!

My Aubri graduated 5th grade with a Presidential Award for Academic Excellence. I am so proud of her!! She was so beautiful and I felt so blessed to be her mom! I had to present awards to some of my students, but I got to sit back down to be her mom in the audience. The photos aren't so good, but my memories certainly are vivid. My baby has grown so much and it truly will only be a breathtaking moment before I am attending her highschool graduation. I want to enjoy each and every second with her. She is such a wonderful, sweet and charming girl!

Sera graduated Preschool with all the spunk and rhythm of a truly in tune new Kindergarten student! :-) She was a total ham on the stage. She has changed so much in the time she has been home that it is almost unbelieveable. Shy would not be a good descriptor for her at all now! She is the life of the party!!! She was not misbehaved, just very outgoing and very spunky while participating in the dances and songs the kids sang for the program. She had many people laughing at her antics and she loved every second!!It is a good thing she was so cute, because the ceremony drove me nuts.... No one would be quiet or even stay seated!! I took a video of Sera dancing and finally gave up after discovering that it looked like I was drunk while taking it. People kept standing up behind me and knocking me forward. I had to stand to take it because the people in front of me would not sit down.... The noise was horrendous and left all of us with a horrible headache. It is truly scary how few people seem to be able to be respectful of others in situations like this...... Manners seem to be non existant. I so wanted the director to tell the other parents to try to behave, since their kids were behaving better than they were..... But no matter what chaos was going on around her, my little star was a cute as can be as she moved on to the next educational step in her life! She was absolutely thrilled and her enthusiasm was contagious! She had new sparkly Princess shoes on her feet and she couldn't have been more proud of any thing. She danced and twirled to show them off all night while telling everyone in earshot that she is going to KINDERGARTEN!



Sera's graduation was on the same night as Aubri's band concert, so we flew from her noisy graduation to Aubri's concert and caught the last song! Grandpa had gone with her, thankfully, since I could not be in two places at once. She did and excellent job and will be doing summer band again as well as honor choir. She really enjoys music :-)


Andy was also excited to be moving from Kindergarten to first grade. Poor kid did not understand why there was not a progam for that, but he was a very super brother and really congratulated his sisters!
Crazy video below... I promise I was not drunk!!! I was tired, but I really was not that tired either!!! Sera was quite the bouncy little dancer though, so it is worth posting even though it may make you a bit dizzy.... Sorry!!!! I will also bet that it will make you smile, though!

The noise is overwhelming in the auditorium and you can hear it in the video.... You may want to watch it with no volume. If not, remember to tun off the music on the upper left of the page by clicking on the pause. It looks like this - II :-)

A few photos of the puppies...

I really should have taken more photos and video of these three little balls of fluff before they moved on to their new families.

Bisou went with his new family, a teacher from school who finally had time to deal with a puppy when school let out, this last Thursday and Gucci went almost 3 weeks ago....

I am terribly behind and have no hopes of ever being caught up!! Catching good photos of little black fluff balls is not an easy feat for this photographically challenged mom, though... So I am some what excused I guess. I did manage to take these the day before Gucci, or the Gooch, went with his new family ( also a teacher from school).

We do miss the 2 boy fluff balls and really enjoyed watching them grow! I also appreciate not having so many little bodies to keep track of and care for.... It looks like Madeleine, the only girl, will be staying with us since the kids are not OK with me sending her out of state and really want to keep her. It is a good thing she will never be more then 4 lbs and doesn't eat much!! She has already learned how to keep out from underfoot and has the same personality as her Dad, very laid back and quiet, so she will not be much trouble.

She certainly provides the kids with hours of entertainment since Aubri walks her, while Andy walks BaoBao and Sera walks Bitsy ( momma dog). Our big Bella, the standard poodle, is mine to walk :-)

Yep! I can walk around the block this year without pain!!! I need a cane to make sure I don't fall due to not feeling my foot, but I can go out with my kids again, finally!!! It is a bit odd looking I am sure, as I do walk with a weird limp with the drop foot, but I truly don't care what people think about me and I really don't think they will even see the old lady walking with the cute kids and puppies. They like having me along and I love being able to go with them!!! Nothing like a moving circus!

Our weekend.... last weekend and news from this weekend

Andy would not sit down to let me take his photo until we checked carefully that there were NO BEES in sight!! For some reason he is now petrified at the thought of possibly getting stung. He has never been stung and has endured far worse pain, but he literally panics at the thought of a bee being anywhere near him right now.
Pop at the Wamego Tulip Festival last weekend. He wanted to come with us and brought his own seating. We are so glad that he did. Even if there were a few complications with fussy kids, we love spending time with Grandpa! There weren't many tulips, but the kids enjoyed eating outside and playing in the park and petting zoo. We didn't stay too long, since we had stuff to still get done at home, but it was a fun time, when the kids were not fussing at each other that is :-)






Andy and the llama who decided she liked me a lot and would not leave me alone..... She even jumped out of her pen to walk with me. Scared me to death, but it turned out that she was a real sweetheart. Kind of like a big dog!



This weekend we have stayed in a rested up a bit, while getting some things done at home. One of the puppies went to his new home and Pop gave us a huge scare. He had to be rushed from church to the hospital due to supra ventricular tachycardia. Evidently he told the folks at church to not tell me... So I did not know until he came home. I was so angry at them for not letting me know, but I am better now. He had told them to not call me. Why they listened to him I will never know. I love my dad so much! He truly is a stubborn old goat though!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Our Week, the good and the bad....

Busy and crazy as usual.... We have been able to spend our dinner times this week with grandpa and the kid have loved it. We are so happy he has time to spend with us now!!

We had steaed asparagus this week and as you can see, Sera is a huge fan! This girl loves foods that are good for her! Beets, wheat bread, okra, asparagus, you name it!!!

Grandma had her 87th birthday and Pop went to see her during the day. By the time we get out of school, she is having a hard time, or we would also have gone. We will see her on Easter
though!

Aubri scored exemplary on her state exams and has started taking her placement tests for homeschooling. She is so excited to be able to learn at her own pace and go as fast as she wants!

Sera got to go to Kindergarten round up and was tickeled to the bone about it all! She told me as we went in, "Mommie, I be a Kindergarten girl because I am grow and grow and grow!!!" She loved the games and activities and is proudly wearing her super kid medal from her goodie bag. She tells everyone she sees that she is going to be a Kindergarten girl :-)

My leg sems to be doing better, where the hematoma is. Hopefully it will continue to shrink more on its own and there will be no surgery in the future.

Monday my glasses blew off my face, literally and I am wearing an old pair, which really is not easy, but at least I can see somethings, until my new frames come in to put my old lenses in. Thankfully I will not have to buy new lenses too!!

Friday was a long day for me, with para evals due and paras unhappy with each other... Then I find out that my sweet little boy, who I had hoped had learned to not use his fist when he is upset, had punched a very nice little boy in the nose for simply asking to see his watch.... SO.... we had pizza rolls, soda and ice cream for dinner and the girls got a new movie to watch. Andy sat on the bed, with a peanut butter sandwich and milk for dinner. I hope his punishment was sufficient so that he can enjoy the Easter we have planned. He is dreading having to go see the principal and he will not get recess all next week as well as no DS or TV for a week. Who knows....

I so pray that he will eventually learn to think before he acts and someday not have the thought of hitting someone even cross his mind!

Today we are off to ride an Easter train and see the Easter bunny. We have never done this before, but I had better stop typing, because I need to get a new tail light first!!

A litte fresh air!!

While we missed the St Patrick's Day parade today, due to my cleaning bug and not realizing the time, we did get out for some air. The kids all enjoyed the sun and while we were a bit miffed that we missed all the shamrocks, we still had an extremely enjoyable and fun day. Aubri's bedroom is on it's way to being reorganized too!!

It is amazing to me to see how much these little people are changing and growing. I had to post some photos just for this reason. We weren't doing anything special, but the sun on their faces and their sunny smiles sure made it a nice day, nice enough to share!

BTW.. It was 81 degrees today!! I could really get used to this spring weather, but alas, this is the midwest.... It will be cold tomorrow!

Whew… catching up

It has been a wild few weeks here. We have yet to get to celebrate at T-Rex with Andy and our birthday celebrations for both Andy and Aubri were pretty low key. I like them better that way but it was not what we had really planned on. Both kids had chosen to take a day to go into Kansas City to eat out and enjoy the day as their party. Aubri wanted to just go and enjoy the day 1:1 with me and get her nails painted and do a little shopping. Nothing super huge on most people's scales, but none the less something we really only do for special occasions.

We had several complications come up which complicated our lives a bit. Nothing life threatening, but it has been an absolute whirlwind of Dr visits and recuperations, to say the least. I had a tooth pulled and ended up with a dry socket, and on pain meds, so driving long distances was not an option for the kid's desired out of town celebrations…. Then Aubri fell off her scooter when the handle bar came off and landed on her left hand. She fractures all of her growth plates in her knuckle joints and fractured two fingers. Then Pop decided to climb a step ladder to change a light bulb, rather than ask for help, and fell from the 2nd step. He tried to tough it out when his doctor told him that he would be fine, other than being sore. After 4 days of excruciating pain, I had him taken by ambulance to the ER. Sure enough, he had fractured a vertebra! Amazingly, after I had imagined having to have him in the rehab hospital to be able to care for him, they glued it back together and sent him home that day! He has been sore, but it really changed the recuperation time for the better! Sera had pneumonia in the midst of all this. Andy had a tooth pulled and another filled and also chewed up his lip. After Sera was off her antibiotics, she came down with a viral cough and a serious asthma flare, and has been down with it for over a week, now. She started antibiotics again yesterday.

We ended up eating at CiCi's on Andy's birthday because he wanted to make his own pizza. He really enjoyed this too and also liked being allowed to play in the arcade a bit, which I never generally allow them to do. ( I know…. I am cheap, but we ARE on a budget ;-) He loved his Ben 10 Voice changer and has been avidly playing his DS games and Leapster games. Aubri went out to eat 1:1 with Grandpa for her birthday and got a new DS lite. She had the older version, but was very excited to get a pink metallic one like her friends. She also got a game and an American Girl evening out IOU, for when we go to Chicago again. She also got to go out and eat at Applebee's so that she could be sung to. I also took her to have her nails done. ( jus 3 days before she fell and messed up her hand L) We had cake and ice cream at home with Grandpa. All was low key, but still went OK for them. Maybe next year I will do a party for them where they can invite friends. Aubri wants to do a skating party, so that will probably be what we do.

Sera was just getting to feel better from her first round of pneumonia for CNY, so we did not do the big group FCC activities. Getting too excited and playing hard just seemed to make her cough so much more…. We did go eat out at HuHot, however and I let the kids dress up in their Chinese clothes. They had fun showing them off and they looked so CUTE!!

I did not want Sera coming down with anything else at that point. Even with all the precautions I took, though, she still caught something …. I so hope the spring brings better health for her!! Respiratory difficulties seem to be a problem for her and everything she gets seems to settle in her lungs. Aubri had fairly serious asthma when she was younger, but she never struggled as hard as Sera has these past few weeks. Honestly, even with steroids, inhaler, breathing treatments and trying to keep her quiet, she sounds like she is coughing up a lung….

Pop has been recuperating well. He stayed house bound for over 2 weeks, but he is now getting out for short periods and is even driving again. We were both a bit worried, but he has done really, really well. He vows he will never climb a ladder again. I know this is hard on him, though. He is so independent….. We are just so glad to have him close and able to spend time with him!

Oh, also our little yorkiepoo, Bitzi, had a litter of 3 pups about 3 weeks ago. We stayed with her on puppy watch for a week, and I even took her to school with me . Finally I took her to the vet and they ./'
}|were delivered by C section. She is so tiny and I was so afraid of losing her. She weighed 6.2 lbs when she went in and 3.8 lbs when she came out. She has 3 very cute pups who are looking around now and trying to get up on their feet to walk a bit. Holding puppies is so calming. I just love our puppy therapy!!!

Ok… outside of all the normal chaos of work and daily life, I think that is all that has been going on! Please say a prayer for us that our Spring break will be totally boring and uneventful!!! No more Dr. visits!!! J

Wahoo!!! We have a DATE!!!

Sera's surgery has finally been scheduled!!! She will have 3 docs for a 4.5 hour surgery, so that complicated things among the other complications of lost 3D CT scans. HE has his hand in everything and they will be done during the summer while I am off work!! Sera has been down with pneumonia all this past week and has been such a sick little girl that I have almost used all my sick days already this school year and the deducts for a single parent hit hard. While part of me would love to have her have it sooner, and just stomach the deduct time, the docs even feel this is the best time for her growth wise.

She is very comfortable with me now and wants me when she is sick, which will definitely help when she tries to rock and bang herself when she is uncomfortable. I do believe that she will let me hold her, since she is enjoying having me rock her to sleep more and more each night now. I will worry that she will still want to rock herself hard and possibly disrupt her stitches, but that worry is easing too, each night she snuggles in with me to rock her to sleep in the rocking chair now.

I just love being out of LIMBO!!! :-) I can make plans now for spring break!!