American Girl Fashion Show

Every year Camilla and I attend the American Girl Fashion Show & Tea.

It is such a fun afternoon. We get dressed up along with Camilla's favorite doll that year. This is an event that benefits hearing impaired children. They have young girls model the clothes with a matching American Girl doll. We eat finger sandwiches, drink tea (lemonade) and have fun desserts. It was so much fun to see Camilla act like a little lady with her girl friends Hanna and Claire. We had a great afternoon together.

Hope

Lately I feel surrounded with sadness. There is lots going on in the world. Grief, despair, abuse disconnect.

I have been affected the last while with the death of a close friend & a cousin, divorce in our family and a random act of violence just down the street from our house this past weekend.

It is amazing what a neighborhood tragedy can do to your sense of safety. I drive the neighborhood 100 times a day. My kids ride their bikes up and down the sidewalk. I go running all around the neighborhood several times a week. We socialize with our neighbors, BBQ, lunch together, but in one random act of violence your whole safe world can collapse.

It seems the same with marriage. Jason and I have been married for almost 17 years. I love the man to death. He knows me. He gets me. He can figure out my mood within 2 minutes of coming into the house. He drops everything, just to make my life easier. We laugh, cry and share our lives together. But when someone you love gets divorced it makes you look a little deeper into your own marriage. It makes you not take all those amazing things that your spouse does for you for granted.

Our High School friend died last fall of cancer and my cousin just died of cancer a few weeks ago. When I think of their kids, wife and parents going through life without them I hug my kids a little tighter and squeeze Jason a little longer each night.

With all this sadness going on around me. I am also surrounded with amazing happiness. I am filled with HOPE. I am filled with gratitude.

I have thought today of my Grandmothers and all the sadness that they saw in their life time. The depression, loss of children, siblings, disease, hardship and much more than I can possibly imagine. Both of my grandmothers were strong. They had a strong sense of family. They built a legacy. I am proud to be from such an amazing heritage of women. I am glad now, in this sad time of my life that I can look to their examples. They acted not re-acted. Women that stood up for what they believed. Woman who raised large families and took pride in doing so. Women who served those who needed service. Loved those who needed love, and found happiness in a world sometimes filled with sadness.

To my amazing Grandmother's.......who are no longer with us.

Thanks for your example.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

With a mischievous leprechaun running wild through our house. We had green milk, green toilet water, chairs stacked on the table and even green dots on the kids arms when we woke up this morning. It will be good to have things back to normal tomorrow.

Life is Good

Sometime I want to count the number of times that I back out the drive way in a day. How does life get so crazy. Why am I envious lately of my friends when they get a day to just "be home". I am craving those more and more everyday.

With kids going every which way, keeping track of homework, keeping up the laundry.....by the way.....laundry is not my friend. I laugh to think that this year my goal was to not bit off more than I can chew.
With that said I finished counting $1,000.00 worth of coins for our elementary charity coin collection this weekend
but
I did read my book club book this month...early :) no beds got made this week.
I am now a camp leader for our church girls camp this summer.....loads of work, but lots of fun.

No one signed up to coach Dylan's lacrosse team, so Jason will add 2 practices a week and a game on Saturday to our week along with going to scouts every Wednesday night as young mens president with church. He also is traveling....way to much.
Camilla starts softball which is also 2 x's a week and a game on Saturday.
Isaac swims twice a week.
Camilla has violin and Dylan does School of Rock 2x's a week.
Zach is on break, because his fun begins in August with the all to much time consuming football!

Clara is still slow to get on track. She is now getting tested for speech and development delays by the county. Lots of paper work and lots of evaluations. Trying to figure out if she should go to kindergarten next year.

Breath

I just need to document our lives. The lives that keep going. Our life that is actually working...just not at 100% right now. More like 42%

Clara still gets her hour long bath most nights, Isaac reads out loud as I fold that laundry... I hate.
Zach reads to Clara while Jason helps Camilla with her home work. Dylan practices his guitar.

Quite nights at home are a myth. Life is good. The kids laughter fills our home. I am happy.

We are so lucky.

We are not homeless, Jason has a job, we have plenty of food. Life is good.
We keep busy to help the kids stay out of trouble. To make them well rounded. We stay involved in the community because that is what we should do. It is great feeling to give back, to serve others

At the end of the night all the kids feel loved.
I feel exhausted.
Jason feels stressed.
But we sleep and "recharge our batteries" for another day....life is good!

DYLAN IS FIFTEEN!!!

In 1992 Jason and I went from being a couple of kids to having a kid. Dylan wanted to come to this earth faster than his little body was ready. I went into pre-labor with him and was on bed rest for 2 months. He came by c-section (he was breech) at 6 lbs. at about 35 weeks. WE WERE SO EXCITED TO HAVE A BABY!
Dylan is an amazing young man. It is really strange to now be able to see the man he will soon become. Dylan has always brought such energy into this family. He has a very contagious smile. I am constantly told by his teachers, youth leaders, coaches and other adults what fun Dylan is. Dylan always has a good time. He rarely lets anyone bring him down. Dylan has so many talents. Right now he is studying with the School of Rock. He plays the guitar, and is getting quite good at it. He got a new guitar for his birthday. He was very excited.
Dylan loves to see how things work. He has always been a hands on learner. He wants to build a car, so he went down to our neighbors house the other day and helped him with his cars. He can't stop talking about how cool it would be to have a garage full of cars to work on. We may have an engineer on our hands? Although his dream is to be in the CIA or a Navy Seal.
Dylan never really liked sports until Lacrosse came along. He now loves it. He is obsessed with it. He has played for the last 2 years.
Dylan is a great friend. We is kind hearted and always looks out for his friends. He is very trustworthy. He has a lot of responsibility being the oldest of 5. He will most of the time do anything I ask of him around the house. I am embracing this new stage of parenting. It is great to talk about serious subjects with him now. We talk about current events and he knows about what is going on. Dylan will say he absolutely "hates" so much family time.....but he usually comes away with a smile on his face. Dylan has a "cool" factor about himself that all the kids look up to. He is a huge role model for this family.
I love Dylan's ability to make people laugh. I love it when he gets really passionate about something. I love it that he still hangs around the kitchen and talks with us. Dylan is an all-a-round great kid!
Happy Birthday to you Dylan.....D, Dyl, d-man, dill pickle!

ISAAC IS 7!

I cannot believe that my little man is 7 years old. Isaac is such a fun loving kid. He always has been. He was the easiest baby and the most easy going child. He loves to play. Play Lego's play computer, build blocks, build roads, built cities. He builds and builds all day long. You can give Isaac 5 or 6 Lego pieces and he will make something really creative out of it. Isaac always gives a hug or kiss when ever asked. He still will grab hold of my hand when we are out running errands (something I now realize 12 and 15 year old boys do not do anymore). He talks, talks,talks about his day at school or what he wants to build or whatever is on his mind. He tends to always have a raspy voice because he talks all the time. Isaac is game for anything. If kids are playing out side, he will get his shoes on (or sometimes not) and run to join in. If Jason needs to run an errand Isaac will always volunteer to go. Isaac loves his older brothers. He wears "cool" clothes because of them. He knows more about skate boarding, you tube, x-box and google than any 7 year old I have ever known.
On March 1st or 2nd 2002, Jason and I were board I guess so we decided that on March 4th (a Monday) we would head to the hospital and tell them I was in Labor with Isaac. When we arrived at Arlington National Hospital I was "fake breathing". They sent me too a room & hooked me up to the monitors. Camilla had come very quickly so I knew that I just needed a little push and Isaac would come no problem. Well the monitors were flat. Nothing was happening. So the nurse said I think we are going to send you home, but I'll let the mid wife come check on you first. When the mid wife came in she could tell that I was faking. I don't know how we did it but with March Madness on the TV and a newspaper in hand Jason watched on a lazy boy recliner as they broke my water. Out came 8 lb. 7 oz Isaac. He was beautiful.

Isaac ....otherwise known as....Ike, Ikkie, Ikester, Izach or pronounced ezach in spanish.
Happy Birthday Ike! We love you!!