I no longer walk Emma to her classroom. I pull into the drop off lane and she hops out of the van and walks into the building alone. Her wings are spreading wider each day.
George and I met with a team from the school district about running tests to see what, if anything, is going on with him besides a speech delay. (To Laura who asked a while ago, my son is three and has few recognizable words. He's been in speech therapy through the school district/Head Start program for about a year now.) The tests we talked about, combined with some medical testing scheduled for next week, are both liberating and completely frightening. But no matter what the results, I will have new information, resources, and techniques for helping my son. He breaks further out of his cocoon every day.
Jason will make what could be his last paratrooper jump in this coming month. His wings have tears and fractures. Time to fold them up and find a new journey.
I posted my final scrapbook page for the Digital Elite Team today. As wonderful as the last six months have been, from now on, I use the products I want to use and if the pages aren't perfect, it won't matter. I scrap for my family and me now. I feel liberated. My wings are open wide and I plan to enjoy the flight!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
My Power Color
| Your Power Color Is Teal |
 At Your Highest: You feel accomplished and optimistic about the future. At Your Lowest: You feel in a slump and lack creativity. In Love: You tend to be many people's ideal partner. How You're Attractive: You make people feel confident and accepted. Your Eternal Question: "What Impression Am I Giving?" |
Saturday, September 23, 2006
...and by "later", I meant "tomorrow"
I know you were just dying for me to come back and spill my secrets. But Jason came home from work early and offered to watch kids so I could take a nap. Um, gee, let me think about that.....OKAY! Then, of course, I paid the price by being completely groggy the rest of the day. But an hour and a half nap in the middle of the day??? Tops my list of guilty pleasures! I have a list a mile long of things I should have been doing, and my kitchen was a disaster area, but MAN it felt good!
Another guilty pleasure would have to be bad TV. Like America's Next Top Model bad. I have no idea when it airs but occasionally I'll stumble upon it and I just...can...not...look away!!! Part of the appeal is the standard reality show stupidity. And then there's the bonus of learning anatomy, since you can easily count each bone in each girls' body. Oh, and I love how they have episodes where they make the girls act or interview someone, in order to show that models really do have brains and can talk and walk at the same time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That was hard to type, I was laughing so hard!
So that's me, naps and bad TV.
I asked Jason what he considers his guilty pleasure. We agreed that it's Red Baron Pizza (frozen pizza in a box, for those of you lucky enough not to know). Bad pizza not a guilty pleasure you say? Well, it brings him pleasure and he doesn't inflict it on the rest of us (I usually make something else for everyone else), so no, that's not why we consider it a "guilty" pleasure. Let me share with you a story. Three years ago, after several long months, my wonderful husband was returning from Iraq. Knowing he'd been eating military food and sand for far too long, I offered to make him any homemade meal he wanted when he got home. Have you guessed the end of this little story? Yup, Red Baron Pizza and Budweiser. I can't say I was totally surprised, but a little offended that he chose it over my cooking. (And, yes, I AM a good cook!) The fact that I was seven months pregnant might have heightened my emotions. A little.
Another guilty pleasure would have to be bad TV. Like America's Next Top Model bad. I have no idea when it airs but occasionally I'll stumble upon it and I just...can...not...look away!!! Part of the appeal is the standard reality show stupidity. And then there's the bonus of learning anatomy, since you can easily count each bone in each girls' body. Oh, and I love how they have episodes where they make the girls act or interview someone, in order to show that models really do have brains and can talk and walk at the same time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! That was hard to type, I was laughing so hard!
So that's me, naps and bad TV.
I asked Jason what he considers his guilty pleasure. We agreed that it's Red Baron Pizza (frozen pizza in a box, for those of you lucky enough not to know). Bad pizza not a guilty pleasure you say? Well, it brings him pleasure and he doesn't inflict it on the rest of us (I usually make something else for everyone else), so no, that's not why we consider it a "guilty" pleasure. Let me share with you a story. Three years ago, after several long months, my wonderful husband was returning from Iraq. Knowing he'd been eating military food and sand for far too long, I offered to make him any homemade meal he wanted when he got home. Have you guessed the end of this little story? Yup, Red Baron Pizza and Budweiser. I can't say I was totally surprised, but a little offended that he chose it over my cooking. (And, yes, I AM a good cook!) The fact that I was seven months pregnant might have heightened my emotions. A little.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Bleh
It's 9 o'clock in the morning.
I'm bored out of my skull.
So is George.
Ever get the feeling it's going to be a long day?
***************
Today's prompt is "Guilty Pleasures".
What are yours?
I'll come back and embarrass myself later.
I'm bored out of my skull.
So is George.
Ever get the feeling it's going to be a long day?
***************
Today's prompt is "Guilty Pleasures".
What are yours?
I'll come back and embarrass myself later.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Nap Time?
George seems to be on a day on, day off schedule with his naps. Some days, he'll lie down willingly and sleep for as long as I'll let him. Other days, I go in to get him and find this:
Let me list the various items in his crib for you.
Acceptable Items:
pillow, two blankies, pacifier, comforter, one monkey, one frog, one hanging toy, one little boy sitting on the edge of his bed
Contraband Items:
Little Tykes workbench
burp rag (acceptable as I've been using it to wipe his runny nose)
package of diapers
Playskool Busy Poppin' Pals (behind him)
one dump truck
one fire truck
Alligator xylophone (under the dump truck)
Magnadoodle
hammer from workbench
two Wiggles slippers
cover from changing pad
toy phone (under monkey, behind fire truck)
one blue plate
Somehow I don't think he slept any. Guess who's going to bed early tonight?
Edit to add: Like I mentioned, he has a runny nose. He's not flashing a gang signal here.
Let me list the various items in his crib for you.
Acceptable Items:
pillow, two blankies, pacifier, comforter, one monkey, one frog, one hanging toy, one little boy sitting on the edge of his bed
Contraband Items:
Little Tykes workbench
burp rag (acceptable as I've been using it to wipe his runny nose)
package of diapers
Playskool Busy Poppin' Pals (behind him)
one dump truck
one fire truck
Alligator xylophone (under the dump truck)
Magnadoodle
hammer from workbench
two Wiggles slippers
cover from changing pad
toy phone (under monkey, behind fire truck)
one blue plate
Somehow I don't think he slept any. Guess who's going to bed early tonight?
Edit to add: Like I mentioned, he has a runny nose. He's not flashing a gang signal here.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Playing Catch Up
Whew! We're already in our third week of school!! I can't believe it! Emma loves every minute of it. Here's a glimpse into her first day: 
She comes home each day with papers full of happy faces and fun stories (mostly focused on recess and lunch, but that's generally the way it goes, right?). I'm so glad her first school experience is proving to be a good one!
George has resumed his speech therapy as well. Today was his second session this year and the first ever with other kids. He did great! Last year, being around other kids was just too much for him, but after our busy summer of swim lessons and play dates, he's very interested in kids around him. His therapist told me afterwords that he "spoke" more today than she's ever heard from him. The whole time, I was outside waiting for screams. Not from him, but from the other little boys. I was sure that someone would knock down a block tower or something and he would chuck a block at their head! Apparently there was lots of knocking down blocks, but no tantrums, just laughter! YAY!! I can't wait to see how being around other little boys on a regular basis helps him with both vocalization and socialization.
Jason goes in for surgery consultation tomorrow. Once we have that scheduled, we'll be able to plan our move. We're hoping that we'll be able to ship me and the kids off during the Christmas school break, to make it easier on Emma, and then Jason will follow at the beginning of March. But, if he can't get in to surgery soon, those plans will change. (The surgery is on his feet, so I thought it would be the right thing to do to stick around for a while after to help him out. I'm pretty nice like that!)
I'm up to my eyeballs with scrapbooking, but nothing new there! I agreed to judge a contest and critique all of the entered layouts. Well, we're up to 50 layouts, and I expect about 10 more before the contest closes tonight. The other judges and I are critiquing the layouts in 6 categories, so 360 insightful comments to make in the next week! ACK!
So, that's life in a nutshell these days! (Or maybe I should say "in a nut house"!) I'm trying to get back into a routine that doesn't involve too much video time for George and still allows plenty of computer time for me. The blog prompts continue, so if you need one, check out the link to the right! Fall is in the air and that's awfully hard to resist, so I'll probably have lots of new pictures to play with soon. Stay tuned!
She comes home each day with papers full of happy faces and fun stories (mostly focused on recess and lunch, but that's generally the way it goes, right?). I'm so glad her first school experience is proving to be a good one!
George has resumed his speech therapy as well. Today was his second session this year and the first ever with other kids. He did great! Last year, being around other kids was just too much for him, but after our busy summer of swim lessons and play dates, he's very interested in kids around him. His therapist told me afterwords that he "spoke" more today than she's ever heard from him. The whole time, I was outside waiting for screams. Not from him, but from the other little boys. I was sure that someone would knock down a block tower or something and he would chuck a block at their head! Apparently there was lots of knocking down blocks, but no tantrums, just laughter! YAY!! I can't wait to see how being around other little boys on a regular basis helps him with both vocalization and socialization.
Jason goes in for surgery consultation tomorrow. Once we have that scheduled, we'll be able to plan our move. We're hoping that we'll be able to ship me and the kids off during the Christmas school break, to make it easier on Emma, and then Jason will follow at the beginning of March. But, if he can't get in to surgery soon, those plans will change. (The surgery is on his feet, so I thought it would be the right thing to do to stick around for a while after to help him out. I'm pretty nice like that!)
I'm up to my eyeballs with scrapbooking, but nothing new there! I agreed to judge a contest and critique all of the entered layouts. Well, we're up to 50 layouts, and I expect about 10 more before the contest closes tonight. The other judges and I are critiquing the layouts in 6 categories, so 360 insightful comments to make in the next week! ACK!
So, that's life in a nutshell these days! (Or maybe I should say "in a nut house"!) I'm trying to get back into a routine that doesn't involve too much video time for George and still allows plenty of computer time for me. The blog prompts continue, so if you need one, check out the link to the right! Fall is in the air and that's awfully hard to resist, so I'll probably have lots of new pictures to play with soon. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
September 11th
I've asked my blog pals today to use Alan Jackson's Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)? song to help them share their stories. Here's mine. 
Dear Emma,
I was a fool not to write these reflections down five years ago, because I can no longer remember the details. But I want to share with you where we were on September 11, 2001, and how our lives changed.
You were six months and two days old. We had been living in Amity, OR for a little over a month. Daddy had left the Army at the end of July. He didn't want to, not in his heart, but it was either that, or he would have had to spend your first year away from us, in Korea. You were more important. We moved to Amity when he got a job at a prison near there. He hated it. He had to work the graveyard shift, the pay was much lower than we expected, and the job was boring. But we loved the tiny town we lived in, loved walking in the evenings with you, picking blackberries for dessert, loved becoming a family.
Daddy worked the night of the 10th. I can't remember now if he called me when the attacks happened or if I found out when I got up with you that morning and turned on the TV. But I do remember sitting on our couch crying, watching TV all morning, while you rolled around on the floor in front of me, smiling and playing. When Daddy got home from work, he told me he was heading back out to go to the local recruiters to see about getting back into the Army. I was not in the least surprised. From the moment I realized what was happening that morning, I knew he would have to go back in. That's just who he was, and is, and one of the many reasons I love him.
I know we talked to many family members that day, but I can't remember a word. I remember being really angry at Gramma. Seems strange to remember that. You see, Emma, she and Papa Jack were on a road trip in California. I couldn't reach them all day and it was driving me crazy. Then, when I did talk to them, their reactions to the events were so unemotional. I remember saying to her repeatedly that America had been attacked and we would be going to war, her son-in-law would be going to war. But she didn't get it. I didn't realize at the time, that when I talked to her, they hadn't yet seen any TV footage or really known any details, so it wasn't real for them yet. So, you and I waited for Daddy to come home and you generously shared your baby cereal (mush) with me for lunch.
Within days, we knew we'd be returning to military life and moving from our tiny house in the tiny town in the country. You and I went to live with Gramma & Papa until just before Christmas, when we could join Daddy at our new post, Fort Campbell, KY.
Daddy didn't end up leaving for Iraq for another year. We found out December 27, 2002 while we were back in Oregon visiting family. We returned to Ft. Campbell on New Year's Day and he was gone within a couple of weeks.
September 11th was a frightening day for everyone, everywhere. But it played it's part in shaping our family. I am so thankful that I had your happy, silly self with me that day, to remind me that the world wasn't falling apart.
Love you,
Mommy
Dear Emma,
I was a fool not to write these reflections down five years ago, because I can no longer remember the details. But I want to share with you where we were on September 11, 2001, and how our lives changed.
You were six months and two days old. We had been living in Amity, OR for a little over a month. Daddy had left the Army at the end of July. He didn't want to, not in his heart, but it was either that, or he would have had to spend your first year away from us, in Korea. You were more important. We moved to Amity when he got a job at a prison near there. He hated it. He had to work the graveyard shift, the pay was much lower than we expected, and the job was boring. But we loved the tiny town we lived in, loved walking in the evenings with you, picking blackberries for dessert, loved becoming a family.
Daddy worked the night of the 10th. I can't remember now if he called me when the attacks happened or if I found out when I got up with you that morning and turned on the TV. But I do remember sitting on our couch crying, watching TV all morning, while you rolled around on the floor in front of me, smiling and playing. When Daddy got home from work, he told me he was heading back out to go to the local recruiters to see about getting back into the Army. I was not in the least surprised. From the moment I realized what was happening that morning, I knew he would have to go back in. That's just who he was, and is, and one of the many reasons I love him.
I know we talked to many family members that day, but I can't remember a word. I remember being really angry at Gramma. Seems strange to remember that. You see, Emma, she and Papa Jack were on a road trip in California. I couldn't reach them all day and it was driving me crazy. Then, when I did talk to them, their reactions to the events were so unemotional. I remember saying to her repeatedly that America had been attacked and we would be going to war, her son-in-law would be going to war. But she didn't get it. I didn't realize at the time, that when I talked to her, they hadn't yet seen any TV footage or really known any details, so it wasn't real for them yet. So, you and I waited for Daddy to come home and you generously shared your baby cereal (mush) with me for lunch.
Within days, we knew we'd be returning to military life and moving from our tiny house in the tiny town in the country. You and I went to live with Gramma & Papa until just before Christmas, when we could join Daddy at our new post, Fort Campbell, KY.
Daddy didn't end up leaving for Iraq for another year. We found out December 27, 2002 while we were back in Oregon visiting family. We returned to Ft. Campbell on New Year's Day and he was gone within a couple of weeks.
September 11th was a frightening day for everyone, everywhere. But it played it's part in shaping our family. I am so thankful that I had your happy, silly self with me that day, to remind me that the world wasn't falling apart.
Love you,
Mommy
Monday, September 04, 2006
How I'm Feeling, In 100 Words
I am loving the grey weather. I wish it meant that autumn had started.
I’m enjoying being lazy one last day, before the school year begins! I am excited about Emma’s first day of school tomorrow, but maybe a little nervous, too.
I was saddened this morning to learn of Steve Irwin’s death. I always thought maybe we’d get to see him at his zoo someday.
I’m feeling distracted by all the lists in my head of projects to accomplish this fall, time to break out my planner!
I have a lot of sewing to do…. feeling sluggish about that!
I’m enjoying being lazy one last day, before the school year begins! I am excited about Emma’s first day of school tomorrow, but maybe a little nervous, too.
I was saddened this morning to learn of Steve Irwin’s death. I always thought maybe we’d get to see him at his zoo someday.
I’m feeling distracted by all the lists in my head of projects to accomplish this fall, time to break out my planner!
I have a lot of sewing to do…. feeling sluggish about that!
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