The Most Amazing Thing Happened on the Way to Thanksgiving

     The dichotomy between what I was doing and what I was interrupted with is not lost on me.  I sat here at my desk working on a graduate course I am taking, "Succeeding with Difficult Students."  I was working on a section of an assignment that asks me to look at strategies of how I will manage stress by increasing my own self-awareness.  I also realize that I can (and should) use these self same strategies at home for handling my own children and my own internal stress of managing them.  And then it began....
     The phone rang and I picked it up to be introduced to Noah's math teacher on the other end.  I was immediately wary which is completely the wrong way to be when a teacher calls because teachers are on my side as a parent. We work together.  But I was wary.
     And then it happened.  She proceeded to tell me what an amazing person Noah is.  That she has never had a student like him before.  That he greets her at the door everyday, he is on time always and ready to work, he helps students willingly, he just seems to "get" math, she has put him in charge of working with some students who need extra help,  he does whatever is asked of her and that he is always positive, and he is absolutely wonderful, amazing, marvelous, and incredible young man!!
     My tears are flowing (intensely overwhelmed) and I feel like I have just been given one of the best gifts a parent can ever hope to receive. 

Happy Thanksgiving!  I have much to be thankful for--one of which is this incredible teacher who made it her mission to make a mom happy and let her know something amazing and two-I am thankful for my most incredible son who shows such promise and beauty to make this world a better place.

Christmas card 2010

Snowflake Wishes Noir Holiday

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Freshmen POTH...and White Boys Can Dance!

So, I knew nothing about POTH 2010 until it was right on top of me.  And even more shocking was that Tobin was going to be in POTH 2010!  What is POTH you ask?  Well, you must feel like you're in my shoes since I asked exactly the same question!  Only maybe I didn't ask it as nicely as you.

POTH= Puttin' On the Hits.  A high school contest between the classes.  And if Tobin was in it, why was I only learning about it the day of?!  Believe me, this will not be the case next year.

I wasn't sure what to expect.  And of course, the freshmen went first, so I really didn't have time to get it.  I should have taped the whole freshmen class, but I didn't think to.  I taped Tobin's part mostly and what came after.  Tobin's comes out in the white/green striped shirt along with his friends, Colin and Bradley!  They were supposed to be Dougie'ing white boy style and then his friends were supposed come out and teach them the right way.  And then they were all supposed to do their happy dougie dance.  Only Tobin, Colin, and Bradley forgot to pull their pants down to their normal, cool level!

The second half, the sophomores put on the wrong music!  It was supposed to be  "It's Rainin Men" hence the raincoats and umbrellas.  But it was the wrong song, so everyone came out and saved them.  Some say it was because the Freshmen only lost to the sophomores at Homecoming by one point and they are still sore about it.

Brenna's 3rd Grade Artwork

Thank goodness we are finally done with the immigrant/puppet project!!  The learning took place in the interview and asking questions of Carlos.  The making of the puppet was purely painful!  Brenna burned her hand with a hot glue gun and then refused to use it, so I had to glue everything from then on.  Does this puppet look like it's from El Salvador?  Not really.  It's pretty hard to distinguish Latin American countries.  I looked online, but the changes were minute to my untrained eye.  Brenna loved the hat and musical instruments.

Brenna painted this in art class.  I love the colors she used.  It is also interesting how one of the houses goes completely against the slope of the hill.  :)

Niagra Falls...or Does It

Andy took Bre on a work trip to Buffalo where he had to give a presentation! Brenna was so excited and packed herself for the trip.  She took 6 outfits for 3 days!  Andy's presentation was in the same hotel where they stayed and Andy originally was going to leave her in the room while he did his presentation.  But the night before they left, she said, "But Daddy, I'll be scared." So  he told her not to worry, he would find a way for her to be in the room during the presentation.

Brenna loves to be Andy's secretary. She will often go into his office and say, "Daddy, how is your work today?  And how is CL doing?  Do you think today will be a good numbers day?"  I thought she would continue this while they were in Buffalo, but she seemed to have forgotten anything about it.  While Andy was giving his presentation, Brenna sat in the back of the room and either watched him or played on his ipad.  I absolutely thought she would take this opportunity to critique him on his tone, eye contact and so on....as his boss of course.  I think she knew a good gig when she saw one and knew that she better not say anything if she ever hoped to come back on a "business" trip with him again.

After the presentation, they had the day free to go to the Canadian side of Niagra Falls.  Brenna was so tickled that she would get a country stamp that I might not have on our passports!!  She loved Niagra Falls.  She saw so many rainbows no matter where she looked.  She had never seen that before.  She loved Pop and Lolly's the candy shop at the falls.  And they ate lunch at the Niagra Falls restaurant.

They ate dinner that night in Tornto at the Canada Tower (Space Needle) restaurant.  Brenna loved that the restaurant rotated in a circle.  She took delight in small things and in being small to her Daddy.  She wrapped Daddy around her little finger.

They had a great trip!

40th Birthday

We played like kids!

On our actual birthday we played hard, together, just the three of us!  It worked out to be one of the greatest times with Tierc and Todd that I will treasure for a long time to come.  We played in a playground in the trees.  There were ziplines, tunnels, bridges, tarzan swings and ladders to climb.  We laughed, and we smiled.  It turned out to be the perfect day.  To be swinging in the trees with the changing colors of fall was awesome and vibrant and made you feel alive.  It was warm enough that your own exertion was your sweater, but cool enough when a breeze came through to lift  up your hair.  And helping each other with the pulleys, latches, and carabeaners made us laugh and move forward.  Forward to the next 40 years.

There is one swing, at the end, that almost did me in.  I have to admit I was tired, we had been doing this for almost 3 hours.  It was about 40 feet in the air.  It wasn't the swinging that had me worried (although stepping off into 40 feet of air wasn't without it's hesitation either); it was what came after that made me want to cry.  I would land in a rope ladder and have to climb my way up to the platform.  I was out of shape and I knew it, being tired didn't help.  But Todd pushed me off the platform and off I went!

The excitement of flying through the air was like none other.  Fun. Exhilerating. Freedom.  And then kerplunk, into the ladder and those thoughts flew away.  I had trouble climbing up.  Todd and Tierc could see from the platform that I was using my arms way more than my legs and that I needed to change it around.  If it weren't for them, I would have given up and called for help.  But I didn't want to disappoint them...and I knew I would be mad later on.  They gave me so much encouragement.  And finally I did it.  I don't really remember except for one last ditch effort that worked!  It wasn't pretty nor was it graceful.  I just have to content myself that I did it and I showed Tierc and Todd the version of what not to do.

It was the perfect way to spend our day together.  I know that when we were little we used to get Todd into our nightgowns and his nails painted.  But I knew that he was old enough to care and wouldn't let us take him to the spa! This was a great place to be, to celebrate our ascent to the next middle years of our lives.

On Saturday, we had a family dinner at our house.  We had a really good time.  My mom is so funny.  She brought each of the three of us our own cake!  She is too funny.  We really wouldn't have minded sharing one, but it was something she used to do when we were little, some thing special she could do for each of us, to show that we were individuals to her.  We embraced it and had fun having a sampler of all the cakes.  It was fun to have everyone (all 5 of the siblings together).

It was the first time I had seen Buff since the surgery to remove his kidney.  I think it was harder than I thought it was going to be.  There is a lot of emotions surrounding Buff's health right now with the kidney cancer and what will happen next.  I wasn't prepared for it.  I wasn't also prepared for Buff's subdued presence.  I was so glad to see him back "to his old self" later in the evening, dancing, and singing, and rapping.  (I really don't feel like it will ever be the same again).  However, I felt like things would be fine then.

I have lived an amazing 40 years and feel like I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have the love of a wonderful husband, three children who make me smile and proud everyday, and a family who knows and loves me for who and what I am.  I hope the next 40 are even better!

Noah's Play off Football

Watch this amazing play by a Oscar worthy Quarterback.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/191540/nbc-today-show-middle-school-qb-becomes-web-star-after-sneaky-play

Noah's game pics.  And we won!!  We stay in the playoffs to live another day.  We are the underdogs for sure, but everybody loves and underdog story.  Noah had a great game and is punting for extra points!!

What I don't have are pictures of Noah kicking the extra points!  I will post those soon.  Go Wolverines.

The Orchard-A day made for us

     I had it all arranged. Brenna had never been to Butler's Orchard that she could remember and what better way to go than with a group of friends. The soccer game was on Sunday, so our Saturday was actually wide open during the day(a rarity these days). So, we would go on Saturday to the pumpkin patch in the late morning and then go to lunch. And then our soccer game was moved to Saturday morning at 10:30 because Sunday was Halloween and nobody wanted to play on Sunday. So, fine we'll go with the flow and just do the game, lunch, and then the pumpkin patch! It would be fine. And then...the email came that due to expected frost our game was going to be moved to 11:20! What are you kidding me?! My go with the flow attitude flowed away for a few minutes! Alright, fine, we would do later game, later lunch, and later pumpkin patch. It would still work.

     So, Saturday morning was really crisp and beautiful, but a little chilly. We arrived at our game excited to play hard and play furiously and then go to the pumpkin patch. But then we waited...and waited...and waited...for a referee. Darn the luck-we really weren't supposed to go! That's ok, relax, go with the flow was back. It would either happen or not! Our coach stepped in to referee and we were off. After the game we ran home, changed, and met at Noodles for lunch! And then the pumpkin patch. The girls had smiles on their faces the whole time and hardly knew where to go first.

We:
1. played on the slides

2. ran through the corn maze    Quote of the day: "We could get lost in here!"

3. romped in the hay

4. played with the toys

5. picked pumpkins

      For some reason, I can't upload more pictures right now.  But I must continue the story with Arthur.  (The little boy in the picture up above is Arthur)  In the hay barn, there was hay everywhere.  Although it was itchy, it's softness and utility far outweighed its pitfalls.  The girls had so much fun jumping from bale to bale and falling into the piles on the ground.  And because (I'm guessing) there was a huge group of them and they were rather loud, they attracted the attention of Arthur.  Arthur must have been about 3 years old and an only child so far in his life.  He was adorable and he thought our girls were adorable!  At one point, Brenna was up on the bale of hay and Arthur was right next to her looking up at her, watching Brenna as she plans her jump.  She jumped...and then he jumped.  The next time he was ready.   As he was climbing the bale of hay, he was saying, "hey, wait for me.  I coming."  And if you look at the picture below, wait for him they did.  You can see Arthur (maybe more of his hat) jumping beside the girls.  He was over the moon excited.  He was so sad when we finally had to leave there.  It was the cutest thing!

A short video of the girls jumping off of the hay!  So cute.

Katie, Diane, Kristine, Me, and Christy.  We had a great time on the playdate as well.

Finally, the pumpkins.  It was really hard to find just the right one.

Brenna had such a good time. I do hope she remembers this for a long time to come!!  I'm sure the pictures will help with that.  Happy Halloween.