Story Teller

As long as I can remember I have always had a love for writing.  To my memory and from what I've been told by my own Mother, I've been writing since I was very young! Anytime I could grab ahold of a pen, pencil, marker, crayon, or even a stick, I was writing.  On paper, boxes, the dirt, walls, myself, the dog, the cat, the TV, you name it I was writing on it.  I had things to say.  I had stories to tell. 
All throughout school when it came to writing I was Queen of the Pencil.  I could take a simple one paragraph answer and turn it into a novel.  Something one of my favorite English teachers commented once in high school, ha! Personally, I took it as a compliment, not sure if she meant it that way but to me that's a good thing.  I love words. Words are beautiful!

I've always been a bit of a jabber jaw and that totally flowed over onto paper and I could fill a whole note book with one story.  I've never had issues writing a school paper and meeting the amount of pages! If anything I get told my papers are too long.  Even in college.

Not bad for also being a person who procrastinates too!

Once the words start flowing they just keep coming.  I've always wanted to be a writer, it has been a dream of mine since I was three years old.  My only problem?  Not knowing what in blue blazes I want to write about.  I wanted to do children's books, then  thrillers, and horror novels, science fiction, fiction, you name it! I have wanted to write it.  I get all of these ideas and I type them out...then it fizzles and I lose it and move on to the next thing. 

In high school I entered a few contests and had a couple of poems published, and a short story.  I was so proud! In college I was on the college paper, I absolutely loved it.  Was my favorite thing about college honestly!

My husband is also a marvelous story teller.  He really struggles when it comes to reading and writing due to dyslexia and a few other issues, but he would totally be a book worm if he could.  As it is he can go through dozens of audio books a week.  At bedtime he tells our children fantastic made up stories about all kinds of things. The kids LOVE IT, I can't lie, I love listening to his stories too.  Looking at my husband, most people wouldn't expect him to be so good at telling stories, but he is. 

So our children have grown up hearing all kinds of stories, seeing Mommy write, hearing Daddy tell marvelous tales and what not.  Books have been a HUGE part of our lives and on into our children's lives. 

So needless to say when we learned all three of our children struggled with a speech delay regardless of all of the "right" things we had done since I was pregnant with them and after their birth and as they grew...it was shocking, frustrating, sad.  My daughter started out with a huge vocabulary.  At 10 months old she was saying hamster, clear as day.  She had quite the eclectic little vocabulary for a child her age! I was so happy and proud of her! Then shortly after the twins were born, BOOM.  She slowed down and then stopped saying some words.  After her youngest brother was diagnosed with cancer, she slowed down even more.  No one was worried, cept my husband and I.  He worried greatly because of his OWN issues with speech delays.  He fully believed his speech problems were due to environmental issues from when he was a child and all the crappy stuff he went through, that had he been given the appropriate child hood he wouldn't have had the issues he faced.  So when our daughter was FINALLY diagnosed with Apraxia, he was devastated and fully blamed himself for her speech issues.  Most pushed it off as her "dealing" with the birth of her baby brothers, and then her world getting turned upside down because of her little brothers cancer. 

She continued to struggle and after turning 3 she got into a special preschool and into speech therapy.  It was such a struggle.  I never stopped working with her.  I read to her ALWAYS, I always talked to her in a regular voice, in sentences and had always encouraged her to talk, we had done baby signs with her when she was little as well.  As her brothers got older we watched for the same signs, and sure enough, they had the same speech delay.  Thankfully the boys were able to get into a special program where a speech teacher came to our house and worked with the boys (and Kams as well because she got to be there and she was just included).  That was when I saw a HUGE difference in Kams, and the boys blossomed in their speech. 

My daughter was continuing speech therapy at preschool as well.  I am so thankful.  I was doing all I knew to do, but obviously, I'm not a speech therapist so I didn't know every single little way to help her, and I did a LOT of Googling and researching to find out how to help my kids!!

Although my daughter had trouble verbally communicating she did so well with sound affects and signing that adults didn't have too many issues understanding her.  In fact in preschool one of the teachers couldn't understand why Kams was in the preschool because she didn't understand what was "wrong" with her until I pointed out my daughter didn't really talk.  She had never realized it, because Kams had always communicated so well using other methods that she never had to guess or ask for help on what Kams wanted. 

Kams has also always had a love for writing.  I've always drawn with her, we've always practiced writing and she's just always had those means of communication and fun available to her.  Plus growing up being told all kinds of fun made up stories from Mommy and Daddy, and living in her own head because she couldn't get those amazing stories of her own out of her head...I know she has a LOT to say and I'm so glad she can finally now say SO MUCH!

At one point I remember watching all of my close mom friends with their little girls the same age as my daughter.  They would have some of the CUTEST conversations with their daughters.  I would just be so sad.  I felt like I had done something wrong, I had broken my daughter.  My husband felt awful, he was sure it was all his fault that she couldn't talk.  Where had we gone wrong? How did we mess things up for our daughter? Didn't help we had also given her a name she couldn't even pronounce, talk about an awful feeling! People would ask her name and she would look at me with this look of PANIC on her face (in fact she still did that up until a few months ago).  She has come a VERY long way! Thankfully it's a name we could easily shorten down to make it easier  for her (and others) to say.  Which really helps a lot. 

I would say to my friends "I can't wait to hear my daughter talk and say all of these cute little things and actually be able to have a conversation with her and hear what is going on in that cute little head of hers!" 

So many moms would say "TRUST ME when she starts talking you will wish she would shut up!!" 

Nope.  I do NOT wish my daughter would shut up! I LOVE hearing every little word she says! Even if she is being a sassy little know it all, or sassing back to me or her dad.  At least she is talking, she is expressing herself, she is letting her opinion be known, she can COMMUNICATE, and that is a wonderful feeling!

For so long I was worried that something awful could happen to my daughter and she wouldn't be able to TELL anyone.  I was always running worse case scenarios through my head and what if's (I have always had a bad habit of doing that anyway).  I was afraid to let her go anywhere with anyone or without me, I felt the need to always watch her like a hawk to make sure she was always safe because she couldn't talk like the other kids. Made me a wee bit on the neurotic side, just a little.

Kindergarten has really brought out my daughter so much.  She is so excited to read to me her little kindergarten books, and write out her little sight words and use them in little stories.  She is doing really well in kindergarten.  Her progress report for this quarter is right where I expected it to be.  She'll need extra work when it comes to letter sounds, but we know where she needs the help, so that's where extra time will be put in.  She is a good kid who loves to learn and takes it all quite seriously.  She doesn't give up! She's always been a wee bit of a perfectionist on many things so I know she'll get this figured out.  Just a matter of practice, practice, practice!

Right now she is doing her first school fundraiser, selling pizzas.  I will be happy if she can sell 10 pizzas.  That will mean she can get a free cheese pizza for herself. 

Friday she has her first school field  trip and my husband and I are excited to go along! Cept I have to find a babysitter for my sons since they don't have preschool that day and my mother in law hasn't been feeling well so I won't/can't ask her to watch them.

My daughter has to go to the ENT next week so we can get her skin looked at and possibly do some more allergy testing and possibly get in to see a dermatologist and figure out what more we can do for her keratosis pilaris.  There is no cure for it, but we can help her manage the flair ups (something she unfortunately inherited from her mommy)!

Trying to get her enrolled into Girl Scouts is like pulling teeth, still waiting for a response back from one of the local troop leaders (I actually think she's like the head of the area Girl Scouts).  Would like to hurry up and get her enrolled, she's been waiting patiently for two years to join!

We've also got school picture day coming up, fun times.  As well as a well child check up with her pediatrician  (and I'll be asking about her continued tummy issues that are driving us both nuts)!  She also has an appointment with the local ENT about the ear tube she had put in nearly a year ago, that same ear has been bothering her again. 

Then Parent Teacher conferences are this month too!

Kindergarten is BUSY and EXPENSIVE!

Next year I will have two sons in kindergarten and a daughter in first grade.  *sigh* THAT will be busy busy!

We've already turned our front door into the "Educational door to the future", meaning we have all kinds of educational helpers/charts/practice things all over the door and the kids have to review it before they can go outside to play, before they go to bed and other random times.  There is the dry erase board/book basket  that the kids can get out at any time as long as they are practicing their letter and number writing. They have a HUGE note bad they can use to draw and write stories on and encourage creativity, and a whole cabinet full of craft stuff they can access whenever they are feeling crafty! Between it all, I think they'll do just fine!

Tonight before bed my daughter decided she wanted to write a story about her mom. 

Page #1 goes like this: 
"Mom in the bathroom going poop" (for the record, I was NOT in the bathroom nor was I taking a poop), I was in the kitchen making supper when she wrote this story.  What does that say about my cooking?

She refused to ask me how to spell bathroom or poop so she scribbled something down and then read to me what it was SUPPOSED to say.  Anytime I try to help her say a word she says "Mom, I got this, hush" 

Page #2 goes like this:
"Mom goes swimming at the pool"  (Keep in mind we didn't go to the pool at all this year). 

Oh look, she even drew a little picture of me swimming in the pool.  Not really sure what is on my head?

There was more to her stories but unfortunately I had to referee a fight her brothers were having at the time so I didn't hear all of the story, then it was time to eat supper and then off to bath and bed so I didn't get a chance to hear the rest of her stories.  I'm sure she will read them to me tomorrow!

While my daughter writes odd stories about her mom going poop and of me swimming in the pool, at least my son Keegan is nice to me, ha!

He got a little golden right out of a vending machine the other day when we were out and about.  When we got home he came up to me and said to me that I needed to wear this wring for ever and ever and that I was his Princess and that he loved me and I was the bestest mom EVER and I was very pretty.  *sniffle*  He knows how to melt a Mama's heart! So now my new little pinky ring doesn't come off, until he decides he wants his ring back.  Then he'll play with it, then he'll lose it, and then I'll be ring less again *sniffle sniffle*

My other son Marshall just builds swords out of blocks and then either tries to "save me" with said sword, or he impales me with it after deciding I'm the bad guy.  He kept informing me today that he was going to run away.  He had a back pack packed up and everything.  Funny because my husband and I have always joked that he would be the son that never leaves.  He'll live us till he's 40 and live in our basement collecting Star Wars stuff, or other geek stuff (Hey don't knock the geek stuff nothing wrong with that darn it)!  So when he announced he was running away I said "peace out little dude, love you. Remember me when you are outside and it is cold, and you are hungry and you wish Mommy was there to tuck you in...." 

He had to stop and really think about that one.  He decided that if he was moving out that Mommy had to go with him.  Keegan wasn't having that.  He said NO WAY Mommy couldn't move out because Keegan needed him here.  My daughter was like "eh whatever I don't care...." 

In the end Marshall decided he better not move out.  We would miss him too much and we would need him, because he is the Blue Power Ranger and his job is to protect the family from the bad guys, him and Keegan both. Because Keegan is the "HOT" ranger (Keegan associates the color red and orange with fire and calls it hot so if anything is red he calls it hot).  There fore, the red ranger is the hot ranger.  They keep us safe.  So Marshall thought he better stay here. Good move little man, good move. 

Well, tomorrow is a late start day for Kams school but I really need to drag my butt to bed.  My baby sitting kiddo was asleep a couple hours ago and I really should have went to bed once she was out, but you know me....I just had to keep typing!

Mae

Time For Homework

My daughter is now in kindergarten and is learning that homework isn't exactly what she thought it would be.  Her little brothers are more and more glad they aren't in kindergarten yet.  As fun as it is to "help" their sister with her home work, they are glad it isn't them having to do it (yet). 

Tonight my daughter was kind of dragging her feet and putting up a bit of a fight on doing her writing assignment.  I know that with her if you force her to do it, then it isn't going to get done at all, and I will just end up with a headache, and she'll be crying because she doesn't want to do the homework, and I just really didn't want to deal with it all. 

So we put it up.  Yep.  I put the homework back in the folder tonight and we sat it up for awhile.  We both needed a break. 

We did bring the homework back out though and she finished it, there was some moaning and groaning and hopes risen only to be dashed.  THAT conversation went as follows....

Kams:  "Yay, I'm all done with my home work Mommy!"  (She was so excited she thought she did it all with NO help) 
Me:  *reaches over and flips the page over to reveal work that she didn't know was there...*
Kams:  "Awww NUTS Mom, REALLY!?  REALLY!?" 
Me:  "Yes, Really, really." 
Kams:  *grumble, growl, whine, complain yadda yadda*  "I can't.  It's too hard.  I'm tired.  My hand hurts"  (Apparently she has writers cramp, because you know...she did a WHOLE BUNCH of writing). 

Even while she was complaining she was still finishing her assignment and she did really well. 

It wasn't just her whining today though, I think it was just TODAY, because her brothers were whiney and complainy today as well.  Gotta love days like that.

They were fighting so bad it wasn't even funny. I figured they'd go to bed early tonight, but noooooo somehow they had enough energy to fight me on bedtime! That, is never fun.

As much as they grumble and growl, they are good kids.

I get the privilege of watching an adorable toddler over night most of the week.  She's the easiest child on earth to watch.  She gets here right at bedtime.  She snuggles up with her pillow and BLOOP she's out like a light and sleeps all night till her Mommy gets off work and picks her up in the morning. Tonight she decided she wanted to talk awhile before going to sleep.  So her and I had the cutest little "conversation".  I was just copying whatever sounds she was throwing at me! She thought it was the great time ever though.  I have to admit...I miss my little ones being that age!

That doesn't mean I want anymore though! Noooope.  I'll pass.  I'm happy with the 3 kiddos I gots.  I will have fun spoiling other peoples kids instead!

So here is to more rest, so we can deal with WEEKEND HOME WORK! Friday's they send home the "poetry folder" which is all SORTS of lovey....I get to help her memorize all kinds of little poems and songs.  For a child who has NO interest in singing it isn't easy.  (ETA:  They did NOT send the weekend poetry folder home this week, so apparently no assigned Friday homework, but that doesn't mean we didn't work on stuff! I have copies of everything she has in her folders so she still worked on it all any way this weekend)!

Mae

We're Going Buggy!

It's fall! That wonderful time of the year when bugs come out to play, well at least some of my favorite bugs anyway.  The kids have had a blast this year catching HUGE grass hoppers and little crickets.  Now they enjoy hunting down giant praying mantis bugs.

I'm glad my children are not afraid of nature! I've always taken them outside and let them dig in the dirt and just enjoy nature.  Letting them explore all there is around them to explore, safely.  They will rescue worms from the side walk so they don't die, they will collect rolly polly bugs and have rolly polly races across the back patio.  My daughter loves to collect the most gigantic grass hoppers she can find and take them to school to show all of her friends.

They will hunt down locust shells, and living locust too! Mainly my daughter loves to chase her terrified father around with them, but we won't discuss his screams of terror and his pleadings for mercy from his very tricky daughter ,ahahaha!!!! No idea where she gets it from .... NONE.

They would catch caterpillars if we could find any, but they have been far and few between this year.

My kids aren't mean to bugs thankfully.  They don't hurt them, well there was a moment when the kids didn't understand the PROPER method of catching fire flies! They thought when you "cupped" them in your hand....that you just smacked your hands together...that made for some dead fire flies, and glowy hands, and sad kids. Oops.  They finally got it figured out though, after they frightened the population of fire flies away from our yard!

For the most part my kids are kind to bugs and realize they serve a purpose, they respect them.  If there is a spider in the house though they will kill it without hesitation.  If they see one outside, they leave it alone or simply move it with a leaf or a stick. 

While we were outside the other day we found a VERY large praying mantis. The kids hadn't seen one quite the large before.  They were gently petting her and she was very nice and just hung out so we could pet her.  We made sure she got moved over to the grassy area, very gently.

One of my sons reaching out to gently pet the praying mantis and telling her how cool she was.

This morning, I saw a walking stick, or stick bug.  I haven't seen one of them in literally YEARS! Plus I had never seen one as big as this one was! He was pretty good sized.  The kids thought it was really cool that it was a bug that looked like a stick.  Honestly, yes it is pretty cool!

Can you guess which end is up?

As long as bugs stay out of my house, we're good.  You invade my home, You are going DOWN DOWN DOWN! I will not hesitate to call in an exterminator to exterminate your little antennae!

So now that it isn't so horribly hot, get outside and dig up some bugs! A little dirt won't hurt, it's fun to learn about nature. Last year we did a science experiment where we sat an apple outside and let nature "take it's course" to see what would happen to the apple.  We left it sitting right on the ground. We checked on it every day to see what it was doing.  The kids thought this was a really cool experiment.  We watched what the weather did to the apple, what animals did to it, what bugs did to it and how it looked each day. The kids saw the bees and ants that loved the apple and we talked about each of the insects.  It was a really good learning process for them!

It's good for our children to understand, respect, and appreciate nature.  Even the smallest members of nature, the bugs!

Mae

Conversationalist

Conversations at my house can be interesting, you never know exactly what my kids are going to say, or do for that matter.  I think nearly every parent can relate to the whole "kids say the darndest things" scenarios.  I'm sure we've all had our fair share of embarrassing moments thanks to our children and their adorable little mouths. 

My kids recently got a home made wooden play house from a family member of mine, and they absolutely love that thing, especially my sons.  Yesterday evening my sons were busily playing inside and Kman comes out and scribbles next to the door and darts back inside the little wooden building.  Curious to know what that was all about I wandered over so casually and asked the boys what that little "sign" said.  Kman without hesitation informed me "NO GIRLS ALLOWED IN OUR TREE HOUSE".  Ooooh gotchya.  So Mommy can't come in then huh?  My little Marshall pipes up "You can Mommy because you are a mom"  Ooooh K.  Mom's aren't girls, we are immune to the no girls allowed signs (for now), what a relief.

I told the boys that this play house is for all THREE of them, not just the boys.  Which in turn Keegan pointed to the plastic play house and informed me THAT one was for GIRLS.  Fair enough, my daughter does love to play in it, however the new wooden is also a huge hit with her too, so she bounces back and forth.

The boys again informed me it was THEIR tree house.  I casually threw in the fact that it isn't REALLY a tree house because well, it needs to be IN a tree...or at least near a tree and their little wooden structure is in the middle of our back yard not really all that near a tree.  Keegan looked at me with a poker straight face and said "Mom.  It's a tree house, it's made out of wood and that's a tree"  And both boys gave me this total 'duh' look. 

Well, what can you say to that?  He's got me there.  Moving right along. Don't argue with 4 year olds.  Just.  Don't. 

This morning I was prodding the boys along trying to remind them that YES they did indeed need to get ready for preschool.  They reminded me I needed to refill their glasses with some more milk.  How about AFTER you get dressed for school I'll get you a bit more milk?  So once again...trying to herd them into the whole YAY let's get ready for SCHOOL idea. 

Essentially our conversation went as follows:

Me: Time to get ready for school boys.
Keegan: Mommy, I need more milk.
Me: No, it's time to get ready for school.
Keegan: But Mommy, I'm watching Doc Mc uffins. 
Me:  You are watching what?
Keegan:  Doc Mc uffins
Me:  Hmmm what show is that?
Keegan:  DOC MC UFFINS
Me:  Can you say that just one more time?
Keegan:  DOC MC UFFINS!!
Me:  I just love to hear you say that word, it's so cute....one more time????
Keegan:  *glare* Leave me alone mom....

*sigh* I can't help it he says it so cute.  They have that really cute little boy voice right now and when they say certain words it's just "AWWW SO CUUUUTE!!!!" 

At least he decided to get dressed after that conversation.  I think they both decided going to preschool was totally worth it because then they didn't have to deal with their very annoying and pestersome Mother.  Who?  ME?  Noooo way! I'm innocent! I would NEEEEVER pester my children. 

So after my sons went to school the day was slooow.  Paid a bill, ate some lunch, cleaned house, did laundry (it was blankets and sheets day), and then finally it was time to go get my daughter off the bus. 

To the child that threw up all over my daughter this morning....thanks a lot.  *GAK* That, was disgusting.  Cleaning up MY OWN kids vomit out of clothes is bad enough, but cleaning up the vomit from my daughters shirt of ANOTHER child...not so cool, not at all.

The girl was dressed in her favorite shirt that her favorite Auntie sent her for her birthday.  She was sooo excited to wear it.  This boy in her class just upchucked and a good portion of it went all over her.  Of COURSE it happened like right at the end of school right as it was time to leave, so was there time for her to change?  Of COURSE not.  So she had to ride home on the bus with throw up on her shirt.  DISGUSTING!

Said favorite shirt that was thrown up on this afternoon.  This was before said cookie tossing incident.  Thankfully the shirt came out of the washer still looking great and my daughter couldn't be happier. Don't you just love the outfits she comes up with?

I don't know how that girl took it all so casually.  She was just like "Eh, no biggie" and asked for a snack.  Really?  We left the bus stop and I took her home to carefully sanitize said shirt, and child.  I hope that kid that threw up on her didn't have flu or anything contagious! Thus far my kids haven't been sick with anything worse than a mild case of allergies and I'd personally like to keep it that way!

I told Kams to dodge the vomit next time, she said she tried but too many kids were in her way.  I would have been MAKING some room, ha! I do not enjoy the whole being thrown up on thing.  Especially by some other kid. 

The only thing that upset my daughter was she thought the shirt was going to stain, and it did not.

Later while I was making supper I heard little miss outside playing with her brothers in the new play house (I can see them out the kitchen window and it is quite comical to watch them play).  I heard my daughter getting a bit bossy out there so I poked my head out the door and reminded her to not be so bossy.  She looked at me and said "I'M NOT BEING BOSSY MOM, I'M BEING THE MOMMY!!" 

Well.  Touché, I had no rebuttal for that. Carry on.

Apparently they were playing house and she was the mom and the boys were her sons and they were NOT listening and she was trying to tell them to do their home work or something to that affect, and the boys were definitely NOT diggin' the idea of playing house with their sister.  They were too busy trying to play zombie castle instead.  Later they thought it would be fantastic to dump some muddy water on their sister "SUPRISE!" oy vey.  She was NOT happy, she was muddy, disgruntled, crying and had to change IMMEDIATELY.  Then she went back out and promptly shoved both boys face first into the mud.  *sigh* Glad it was bath night....

Found a genius way to help my daughter with her homework AND at the same time teach my sons whatever my daughter is learning.  She pretends SHE is the teacher and she teaches the boys what she is learning in class and they (who are super eager to help their sister with her homework) learn what she is teaching and repeat after her.  You know, the same thing I've been doing with all of them for the past 4 years.  That they were NEVER interested in listening to but now that Sissy is in school....OH WOW THIS STUFF IS SO INTERESTING AND FUN I WANT TO LEARN IT ALL!! But not from Mommy.  Nope.  Not Mommy, has to be Sissy.  It works. Sissy is reinforcing what she is learning by teaching her brothers.  Works for me everyone is happy.  Homework gets done and the boys are kept occupied and are learning to.  Can't go wrong with that!

Listening to my daughter "teach" her brothers is hilarious.  One of my absolute favorite things is just sitting listening to my children talk to each other.  The best conversations can be heard while they are building with their Duplox blocks which are the coolest thing ever. My children are big fans of the game Minecraft and they love to watch their daddy play this game in the evening and they even get to play WITH their daddy sometimes if they are being good. So now my sons love to play Minecraft with their Duplox blocks and are constantly creating amazing water falls and houses, and all kinds of fun little things. Their conversations are quite cute.

Listening to my daughter play with her baby dolls or Barbie's is also another favorite thing.  She always says some pretty hilarious stuff! I'd like to ask where they get a lot of this crazy stuff, but I know that's a silly question.  Of course they NATURALLY inherited all their odd behaviors from their father, right?  Of course they did....

Hush.  Stop laughing. 

Currently all the kids are at school (I have a habit of beginning a blog and then not finishing it until the next day)! So the kids are at school and the house is super quiet and just weird.  So it's time to turn on some MUSIC and get some stuff done!

Mae

Happy 6th Birthday

Well thank goodness THAT is over, and by that I mean my daughters 6th birthday party! I do this every year, well ok technically twice a year.  Drive myself insane, stressed out, cry, pout, worry, procrastinate, blah blah blah, and then everything goes just fine and then it's all over until the next birthday.

Originally I didn't think my daughter was even going to HAVE a 6th birthday party (other than a simple cake with her family and that's it).  After carefully budgeting we were able to squeeze in a party.  Complete with balloons, streamers, cake, a craft project, 2 games, and even a piñata, and I even made a photo booth for the girls to dress up in play clothes and take some fun pictures. I know that other parents have much BIGGER much more AWESOME birthdays then what I do, but you know what, when my daughter and her little friends are having a blast it's all worth it no matter how much or how little you spend.  It's not about the money, it's about the memories!

I tried for 6 years to avoid the "tacky and over done" Princess themed party. I'm not like anti princess stuff, but I really have tried to avoid the Princess birthday parties. *sigh* My daughter finally got her wish this year.  She really really really super badly wanted a Sleeping Beauty  themed party.  Sooooo I gave in, of course.  Naturally I had suggested every OTHER theme first, but she was set on having a Sleeping Beauty party, so I just gave in.  I knew she wasn't going to change her mind.  After all it IS her party! I even took her Sleeping Beauty themed birthday photos I took the week before her birthday and made a little slide show and played some songs from Sleeping Beauty with it.  She loved that, that is something I try to do every year for their birthdays.

I love this photo with the fake bird!!

My very own little Sleeping Beauty (she was soooo trying hard to not laugh while taking this picture and trying not to roll off the log!)

She was standing on the log and her brother tried to push her off and I got this awesome shot (made even awesomer by some extra editing with the cool affects)

The day we took my daughters birthday pictures was also my husband's 29th birthday.  So of course I had to get a picture of my husband with our daughter.  He loves this photo, I think it's so sweet.

This is the best photo I have ever gotten of my husband with our kids! Usually someone is blinking or turned around or mad, or talking.  Purely by accident I got this shot! I can't wait to get it printed and framed!!

Of course I drove myself nuts trying to get stuff done, I was up until 3am the night/day of the party to get stuff finished, ha.  Not cool. 

The over all affect was pretty nice though.

The streamers were a pain to hang up and I hand made the little triangle banner on the food table, time consuming, but worth it!

THIS little lady was happy with her party, so I am happy with how it went too.

We had fun "Princess" themed food items.  Princess  tea sandwiches that were just simple PB&J on  croissants, Princess cloud bites (Marshmallows on a tooth pick), Princess Breath (little tiny adorable mints), Golden Princess Treasure (cheez it crackers), Lilly Pad chips (Sour cream and onion chips), Princess Pearls (They were some cute sixlet candies I bought to be jewels on her cake and I served the rest of them on the food table), and there were Soft as a Princess bed bites (bigger colorful marshmallows on a tooth pic).  Eh, the kids enjoyed the foods even if they were cheesy! We also had Princess Lemonade (pink and yellow lemonade.  Note to self, NEVER buy the cheap store brand lemonades, they are kinda gross). 

When my daughters little friends showed up for the party the little girls gasped "Ooooh it's soooo PRETTY!"  and "Your Mom is the BEST at birthday parties!"  and "We are having so much fun!"  Just seeing how happy my daughter was during her party made ME the happiest mama. OK OK and can't lie hearing the kids say such nice things made me happy and made all the stress totally worth it.  It'd be a lie if I said I didn't like to do my best to have impressive parties.  I have ALWAYS loved to plan a fun party! I've been throwing parties (not the wild drinking frat boy type of parties I am talking classier parties, and minus the alcohol), but I've been throwing parties for YEARS.  I've gotten good at doing them on a tight budget.

They had a little craft project where I had precut some paper plates into hats that looked like tiaras, and the kids could color and decorate their tiaras.  That was a fun opening activity while we waited on other guests to show up.

Then we moved on to a game outside, the poison apple game.  They were each given a red balloon, the poison apple.  They had to bounce it in the air, and if they dropped it they were "out" of the game.  The kids had fun with that game, and once every ones balloons were finally popped we moved on to the piñata. Pinata's are always so much fun!  The kids had a great time busting it open.

Do NOT under any circumstances get between this girl and a piñata....

After the Pinata we moved back into the house for snacks and drinks.  We played another game, pin the kiss on the frog.  I had made a frog cut out on green construction paper and had taped it to the fridge then the husband and I drew and cut out little pink lips and numbered them and applied some tape to the back of them.  The kids wore a blind fold and then played like you would pin the tail on the donkey. 

Then the kids were allowed to get into the dress up items I had sat out and dress up and take photos in front of the castle back drop I had made for the party.  I think they enjoyed themselves!  I know I did!  They were all so cute and funny and hamming it up for the camera.  Photo booths are awesome. 

Cake and presents came last, well ok presents came before cake because I honestly totally forgot about the cake! Ooops! Who forgets to bring out the cake? I DID! HA HA! We DID have the cake and before all of the guests had to leave. 

I promise the birthday cakes I make are usually WAY cooler than this one.  This cake and I did NOT get along very well.  My daughter loved it so that's what mattered.

Opening presents from Mommy and Daddy and Grandma, and all of her awesome guests that came to help us celebrate her birthday.  She hauled in lots of Barbie stuff for her birthday, and several cool Princess items!

After all of the guests had left we quickly cleaned up and then my kiddos got changed and we got to go to Kams last birthday surprise.  We scored tickets to a Veggie Tales Live concert that was in town, and WOW that was a TON of fun! I'm not gonna lie, I LOVE Veggie Tales.  I always have a blast singing and dancing along with the songs.  You can't go wrong with a Veggie Tales song! My kids had a blast at the concert and loved hanging out with some of their friends at the concert as well.

My daughter with one of her bestest buddies, they were being total hams at the Veggie Tales Concert.

Now that this birthday party is done, we can focus on MY Birthday (hahaha no not really, we'll be skipping my birthday next month)! 

My husband and I will have been married for 7 years next month too!

I'm more excited for Halloween than anything else, can't wait to dress the kids up for Halloween and go trick or treating this year!!

Mae

Homecoming Spirit Week

Well, what a very busy September this has been! Been a bit since I've been by here.  Just haven't had the time to stop in and even say boo. Stopping in today because the husband is giving me a much needed Mommy break.  I've had a bad migraine today, so some piece and quiet (ok well as quiet as it can be with 3 kids and 3 small yippy dogs running through the house playing)! Our newest fur family member, River, her bark is like a freaking axe between the eyes.  My head feels every bit of her annoying little bark.  She might be hanging out outside more often today, she gets too wound up playing with the kids in the house, and today my head just can't take it today.

The husband brought me lunch in bed, that was very sweet of him.  He could tell I was not feeling well. First of all, once I'm up I never go back to bed.  I get up at 6am every day, and now that I'm babysitting I'm definitely up early so she can go home (she stays over night, she's a super easy kid to watch she sleeps the whole time she's here).  So this morning after she went home with her mom  I got my kids to snuggle up on the couch with me until it was time to get ready for church, but the kids all felt warm and were all complaining of tummy aches and Keegan was burping like he was seconds away from upchucking all over.  So we stayed home and just hung out on the couch today until the husband woke up and I made a bee line for the peace and calm of my bed and told him good luck you are in charge of the kids.

Apparently though the kids don't feel well they still have enough energy to run and scream and shriek at each other, and get the dogs riled up. Sounds that my brain hates right now.

So this past week was homecoming week in our town, which I fondly remembered back to my high school days where I used to live and I thought about all of the fun times I had when it was homecoming time! I've always loved homecoming, I'm a very spirited person so sharing some of that school spirit was always a blast, and I wanted to help make sure my daughter got to have some of  those fun school spirit memories.  Even though she is just in elementary school they still participate in spirit week, so we had a fun time coming up with stuff.  We didn't  get as creative as I had hoped, but next year....we'll see what happens!

The first day of spirit week was HAT DAY! So Kams put on her favorite fedora and went to school, her little brothers even went to preschool with their favorite hats as well, they wanted to show their school spirit to!

The next day was SILLY SOCK DAY! That one was a little bit trickier! The silly socks she wanted to wear well, one was missing and so we had to spend (and when I say "we" I fully mean I) my night digging through laundry baskets of clean laundry to find it.  I did, finally! WOO HOO! She was quite the happy camper when she woke up in the morning to find that Mommy had come through and found that missing sock.  Score one for me! Other wise...*sigh* I would have totally RUINED her silly sock day. HA!

The next day in Spirit week was RED day! So we dug through and found some red apparel.  It had warmed up so the red pants I had picked out she refused to wear, sooo we went with some shorts.  She was excited to FINALLY get to wear her red suspenders though! I even stayed up late that night (when I should have been working on her birthday party plans) and made her a matching red hair bow to wear that day! I learned that using a hot glue gun late at night...not such a good idea.  I still have a couple of blisters from that darn hot glue!

The next day during homecoming week, which also happened to be my daughters 6th birthday was SPORTS APPARELL DAY! I found a MIZZOU T shirt for her to wear and a matching hair bow and she was ready for the day, of course she had to wear her birthday ribbon! That day my husband and I went in and ate breakfast with her at school, she was soooo adorable walking through the hall ways waving to her friends and other teachers telling them "Today is my birthday, I'm 6 now, and this is my Mommy and Daddy and they are coming to eat breakfast with me!"  SO adorable.  When she walked in her class room and the teacher said happy birthday to her she just beamed.  She looked at the teacher and said "You remembered it was my birthday, WOW!" 

The last day of homecoming spirit week was wear your school colors and school apparel. So we surprised her with a new school shirt which tickled her well, pink! She loves pink, incase you haven't noticed.  Of course she had to rock the rain boots because it had been raining the night before and she didn't want to get her feet or other shoes wet. 

 

We walked in the homecoming parade again this year with the other animal shelter volunteers, so that is always a fun time! As we were going through the parade Kams went past some of her friends from her class that were standing watching the parade and they were all yelling her name and were excited she was in the parade, ha! It was adorable.  Kams just smiled big and waved.

She is really enjoying kindergarten and I am so proud of her.  From the sounds of it she is a very polite little girl in class and listens very well.  Not surprised she always did wonderful in preschool as well.  The only thing she doesn't enjoy learning is her sight words, but she is getting much better at that.  She also practices reading everything.  Reading time is her favorite time, several of our neighbors will come over and sit in the living room and she will sit in front of them and she will read them her little books.  She does a very good job. She gets a little frustrated with practicing her letter writing but that's because they kept sending her home with a crayon in her packet to write with.  My daughter doesn't write with crayons.  She has used a pencil for years to write with, she knows crayons are for coloring not so much the writing. Thankfully after talking to her teacher found out it is ok for her to use a pencil instead, since she is used to it.

So now that homecoming week is over things can slow down a little, maybe!

For Kams birthday last Thursday we surprised her with 2 helium balloons when she woke up, and as I mentioned earlier my husband and I ate breakfast with her at school, and bought her a pink school shirt, and later that night we made home made cheese pizzas (her favorite). 

OH and by the way, our towns school won the homecoming game, something like 47-7, way to go team! I miss going to high school foot ball games lots of awesome memories there too.  I was the "nerdy band girl" and I had so much fun. 

Yesterday (Saturday) was her birthday party, and WOW that's a whole different blog post coming up! It was a fun day though!

Mae

Childhood Cancer 'Awareness' Month

So some of you may know from years past what September means to me and so many others.  September, is the start of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  For anyone who is on my Facebook list you will see lots of gold, lots of facts, lots of photos about Childhood Cancer.  I will talk about my sons journey with Neuroblastoma that he was diagnosed with when he was just barely 3 months old.

July 31st 2013 marked four years since Keegan was diagnosed with the 4th most popular Childhood Cancer, out of roughly 12 MAJOR types (there are more than 12 types though)!  Yet Neuroblastoma is often called a 'rare' Childhood Cancer.  It is far from rare! Every day I see where another child has died from Neuroblastoma, or has just been diagnosed, or has relapsed for this awful cancer.  (They are ALL awful, but having dealt with this one with my son I have the most dislike for it)!

Today, being only the 3rd day in to Childhood Cancer Awareness Month I was at the grocery store with my family.  Literally the moment we walked into the store pink ribbons are instantly in our face.

Now do NOT misunderstand me on this part, as I am NOT out to offend anyone or make anyone mad. 

It is NOT the breast cancer warriors, survivors, angels that I dislike.  I think they are VERY strong and amazing individuals who have my support, and prayers and love.  Come October I'll sport some pink just for them.  I cheer them on at our local Relay for Life and I know many women who have had breast cancer or who have lost someone very dear to them from breast cancer.  It's an awful cancer, as they all are.  I am VERY happy with the advancements in diagnosis, and treatment that have come for breast cancer.  It has been a long time coming and I'm glad it's helped so many. 

HOWEVER...what I DO have issue with is the massive amounts of PINK wash that are everywhere.  Pink ribbons plastered on everything.  You see it ever day, we've almost become numb to it.  Pink ribbons on your light bulbs, your Swifter sweeper, your children's toys, your yogurt, cereal, clothes, shoes, notebooks, you name it, the likelihood of it having a pink ribbon on it is very high.  Do you really think all of that money is going to benefit people with breast cancer?  VERY unlikely. 

I think by now MOST people know the biggest name in Breast Cancer, and how they spend more of their time paying their own employees, and paying off lawyers to sue every small cancer group for daring to say the words "for a cure" (even though their are HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS of things out there that NEED A CURE, and not just cancers!! With a phrase THAT vague you can't own it. 

I do my best to avoid buying anything with a pink ribbon on it, and I don't do it out of spite because I have some kind of grudge against breast cancer survivors/warriors etc.  I do it because I do not want to contribute to the continued falsehood of it all. 

Cancer families (from most of what I've seen) support one another in each others fights.  Regardless of the type of cancer or your age I've found that they are all very supportive of one another.  They aren't out to compete against one another. 

We met through our local WIC office an amazing woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer.  That sweet woman would always ask how my son was doing with his cancer (before I even knew she had cancer herself)! She never ONCE made it about herself, she was more worried about a small child who was fighting cancer. Once I discovered she was also fighting cancer, I still make sure I find her and talk to her every chance I can to ask her how she is doing and let her know we are still praying for her, and after 3 years she is still praying for my son.  That's been the theme of things from everyone we've met through our local Relay For Life as well.  They are wonderful people that I adore and respect, and even THEY get tired of all of the pink wash and think that it is time for CHILDREN to be allowed to step up into the main light and take some MUCH needed attention in the cancer world. 

Kids fight VERY real cancers.  Infact, since a lot of childhood cancer symptoms mimic other child hood illnesses they are often treated for other sicknesses and by the time it is discovered they have cancer, it is often too late or their fight is made much more intense by the extended time before diagnosis.  Most moms, if their child has an odd bump, bruise, temp, seizure, etc...anything out of the ordinary they rush their kids to the hospital.  Relying on the doctor to know what is wrong with their child.  A lot of pediatricians or family doctors are not trained or kept up to date on what to look for when it comes to Childhood Cancers, so it can go undiagnosed. 

A lot of adults are often too busy to go to the doctor to get their check ups, and will often put it off and put it off.  Either because they don't WANT to know and feel ignorance is bliss, or because life gets in the way.  They are busy moms, or dads or grand parents.  They are living life, raising kids, working etc and just find it difficult to get in and get that odd lump or bruise or mole checked out.  I know this isn't always the case, but it is true for many people.  I myself am guilty of not getting myself to the doctor on a regular basis like I should!

When it comes to our children we are MUCH more hurried to get them in to see a doctor than we are ourselves (at least in general anyway).  Yet the kids are STILL not getting diagnosed with cancer in time. It is still often times advanced cancer. 

Children are using cancer treatments that are nearly 30 years old because no new treatments FOR children have been developed.  So adult chemo's are being used on children.  A child's body is NOT like an adults.  Their hormones are different, their little bodies are still growing and developing and changing.  The damage that those adult chemo's have on their bodies is spectacular. 

Often times the treatment or side affects from the treatment is what actually kills the child, not the cancer itself.  Either a severe infection kicks in and the child's body is not strong enough to fight it, or the chemo or radiation has caused their heart or liver/kidney's to function so poorly that the child just cannot survive. 

Surgery's can leave children disabled for the rest of their lives.  Whether it be brain injuries from numerous surgeries, learning disorders, the amputation of a limb, heart/kidney/liver problems for the rest of their lives, hearing problems, or the inability to have children when they are adults themselves.  Not to mention that they have a higher risk of developing a secondary cancer later on in life, and the ever looming threat of relapsing with the original cancer. 

The average age for children to die from cancer is (if I remember correctly don't quote me on this) 8 years old.  These children have often been fighting cancer for at least HALF of their lives.  8 years is not a lot of time to live life.  They've not gotten to go to school much in that time, making friends is hard, getting a chance to play outside and be a normal child is difficult, their relationship with their siblings can also be drastically affected as well. These children are also forced to grow up a lot quicker than any child should.  Often asking life and death questions at very young ages and having a grasp of understanding about life that would blow many adults away. 

Cancer isn't fair. It doesn't play nice.  It doesn't care if you are a mom, dad, grandparent, cousin, or whatever.  Cancer doesn't care if you are young or old.  Cancer doesn't care if you are healthy or not, it doesn't care if you've EVER had a history of any cancer in your family or not.  Doesn't matter.  Cancer will strike who it likes when it wants.  Cancer doesn't usually play by the rules either.  No one persons cancer is going to be the same as someone else's.  Our bodies are different so our cancer will be different even if it is in the exact same location and stage.  There is no rhyme or reason to cancer.

Yet some cancers get more attention than others.  They get the funding, they get the research, the new advancements in technology and treatments.  Too many people think "cure one, cure them all"  no.  That is far from true! Yes of course an advancement in the fight against cancer is amazing, but remember every cancer is so different that it is impossible to say if that new treatment would help any other cancers.

It is sad to read time after time, parents who are forced to bring their child home just a few months after diagnosis.  They get to watch their child slowly whither away and become less and less of the child they once knew.  They get to watch  their child suffer, helplessly watching, knowing there is NOTHING they can do to save their child because there are NO other options.  No hope.  It's the end of the road.  Their child will die. 

Why?  Because there was no funding to research their child's cancer.  No one cared enough to wonder why this cancer did the things it did.  As a parent you want to be able to take away your child's pain. To fix any problem they have and to make it all go away.  Just to see them smile, to hear their life.  To feel their hugs and sweet kisses.  Unfortunately...parents cannot fight their child's cancer for them.  They can help their child by advocating, by fighting for awareness, fighting for research to be done.  We raise our voices UNITED for the children.  We activate and take action and do our best to get attention from the world...but it isn't enough.  Our children are still dying.  We aren't loud enough, yet.  We still aren't being heard.  Not the way we need to be.  We are trying to save our children. 

If it were your child, wouldn't you do whatever it took, anything to save your child's life?  Would you walk to the end of the world to find a cure for your child?  Would you pray and research and follow every lead you could to help give your child a fighting chance?  That's all we want.  That's what we do.  We don't JUST do it for our children, we do it for all of the children.  Everywhere.  Every day. 

Mae

I'll Pray For You

Generally I really try to not post out of emotion, but some days it is really hard! Especially when something is affecting my family, friends or something I believe strongly in. Right now, all three of those things are being affected by something, and it has me seething. So I will attempt to stay as calm as I can, for living in hate and anger is no way to live!

I graduated from a small rural community in North East Missouri in 2003.  A quaint little town with a smallish population, when I moved away I think they had a little over 1700 people living there. There were 54 people in my graduating class. I did not LIVE in this exact small town, but rather an even SMALLER country town about 12miles away, with a whopping population of 166 people when I finally moved away from home after graduating high school.

If you had a job, or needed to shop, or wanted to "hang out", or went to school, you generally went to the town I went to school in, Milan. 

A town of farmers, pig processing plant workers, they used to have a chicken processing plant several years back that all of my family has worked at, at some point in their lives.  My Grandma worked there for years to support herself, and small farm.

They are good people.  Patriotic people.  FAMILY people. 

When news that a soldier from town had died serving his country the affects were felt by the whole town, and the surrounding communities.  It isn't too often that a home town boy dies serving their country, so when it happens, they pull together.  If you are from that small town and you hear about the loss, your heart instantly goes out to their family! Because while you may not know the individual personally, you DO know the family, because you grew up knowing everyone back home. 

This family just wanted their son home so they could give him a proper burial.

Unfortunately, a "Church" that this Country knows all too much about is yet again rearing its NASTY little head.  The Westboro Baptist Church is wanting to do it's usual thing of protesting/picketing the funeral of this young gentleman who died serving this country.  Died protecting the rights that give these awful people the right to be ABLE to protest outside of soldiers funerals.  How twisted is that?

They stand, they TRAMPLE on those rights that these soldiers die to protect, just so they can spread their "message". 

I had to step back for awhile after reading their "message" about how they would be protesting the funeral on Thursday.  I was too angry, too full of hate, which isn't good either, and honestly makes me no better than that supposed "Church".  It's easy to think all kinds of mean and nasty thoughts about a group that is doing wrong.  However, just thinking those thoughts makes you guilty of doing them in God's eyes.  So you are better not thinking them, just pray for them.  It may be easier to think horrible thoughts about them, but it is more beneficial for your heart to pray for them and wish good upon them. It is hard...especially through clenched teeth, sometimes you just have to step back and take a break for a bit and come back to it with a clearer more level head.

I wish I were able to go back home this week and be there with the 100's of people that will be there Thursday supporting this young soldier and his family.  Since I cannot be there physically I will be there in spirit!

I find it sad that groups can make a mockery of a soldiers death and what he was doing for our country and it's people, and sadly, that soldier died protecting the right that allows that group to make a mockery out of the soldiers death, all in the name of freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. 

Would those people be so vocal should we become part of another country?  Would those people be so vocal should war literally be at their back door threatening their lives? Do any of them sign up to defend their country?  No, they hide behind their little picket signs "peacefully" protesting at funerals. 

It boils my blood thinking about it, but I have to stop and remind myself that I cannot allow hate to cloud my judgment.  It brings me to their church's level, and I was raised better than that.  I was raised to love my neighbor and to help those in need.  I was raised in a patriotic world where we stand for the Star Spangled Banner and proudly sing a long! I grew up in a world where the Pledge of Allegiance was recited every morning in the classroom.  I grew up in a world where the students could gather and say a prayer at school if they wanted to. Where even if you were a different color or religion we would still help you if you were in need.  I grew up in a world where we respected War Veterans and thanked them for their service and listened intently to their war stories learning history first hand from someone who was there.  Some of my most treasured memories are listening to a gentleman talk about his time as a young soldier.  He was a soldier at Pear Harbor when it was bombed during WWII.  It was an honor growing up knowing this man and hearing his account of history.

So to the Westboro Baptist Church...I'll pray for you.  Your hearts are hard, and angry and full of hate.  I am sad for you. 

To the family of Pvt. Hostetter my prayers and thoughts go out to your family as you bury your son on Thursday.  From the bottom of my heart I thank your son for his service to our country and fighting to defend our way of life and all we love and hold dear.

Mae