Well, you can tell that school’s started and that I’m teaching a
lot more – crazy busy, people. But this
is my Public Service Announcement: I will no longer apologize for how
infrequently I update my Blog. It’s
silly to start every post like that. I
wish I could update more – we always have plenty of adventures to share – but I
guess we’re just too busy livin’ ‘em for me to be typin’ about ‘em. Bummer.
Anyway, let’s go chronologically. School and music teaching has been in full
swing for over a month now. Our schedule
is ca-razy. (Especially with 3 kids in 3
different schools – that definitely
doesn’t help!) But it’s going
AWESOME. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new
teaching gig. It’s 4 mornings a week
(plus I do 2 afternoons of traveling to different Montessori schools). I love that I get to see the same kids twice
a week. Holy Moly – the stuff I can
teach them. My 2 year old class can
already tell you the difference between quarter, half and whole notes and can
demonstrate playing (on a rhythm instrument) – Largo, Moderato, Vivace,
Pianissimo and Forte. That’s music
theory, people – with 2-6 year olds! It’s
going great.
School’s going well for our 3 kiddos too. Kayliana LOVES her new preschool and never
wants to leave – like ever. She pretty
much greets me with a scowl ‘cuz it means it’s time to go home. Zachary is SO much happier in 4th
grade (he had a rough end to 3rd great with the Substitute from
HELL. Honestly, she was horribly mean to
him. Worst ever). Matthew is starting (slowly) to get a handle
on Middle School. It’s been a tough
transition. Having to be at the bus stop
at 6:40am, having 6 teachers/classes, and WAY more homework (definitely
struggling and most nights he’s doing homework for a couple of hours) – all tricky. He’s also had ongoing stomach issues (really,
for over a year now). We’ll be meeting
with a G.I. specialist at Children’s Hospital in a couple weeks. BUT Matthew’s playing the trumpet in
beginning band; he’s going to start private lessons with this really cool, fun
guy (named Mat!) in a couple of weeks, and Matthew’s really excited about
that. It’s starting to click and I
finally feel like (after waiting 10 years – since realizing his natural music
ability!), at long last, he’s brave enough to start exploring and using the
musical gift God gave him! Super
exciting.
Mike’s sister Jamie and her hubby Daniel and their son Tucker
came for a visit last weekend. We had a really
nice time! We went to Brick-Con (Lego
creation exhibition – totally up EVERYONE’s alley), watched Kayli’s soccer game
(she scored a goal!), and Matthew got to watch Goonies for the first time. A right of passage.
Just a few days after their visit, we learned that Uncle Harry
passed away. Uncle Harry and Aunt
Dolores are Mike’s Godparents. They took
Mike and Jamie in after their mom died.
They raised Mike like a son. They
got him through Cancer (the first time ‘round).
Uncle Harry made sure Mike had a wish granted by the Wishing Star
Foundation. Through that, Mike received
his first computer…which led to his career as a software architect/engineer. Who knows where Mike would’ve ended up
without them!
Another unexpected event changed my teaching plans for
yesterday. I’d
received a call from a phone number I didn’t recognize and ignored it. A while later, I got a call from my mom. She was already at Kayli's preschool (after answering
HER phone). Kayliana had fallen and hit her head and had a pretty deep
gash above her eyebrow. I cancelled my afternoon class, met up with my
mom, saw how deep the cut was, called our pediatrician’s office, but they were
booked at all their branches. I called
our local Urgent Care - they recommended we go to Children's Hospital. Drove to Children's only to find out that
Urgent Care wouldn't open until 5pm. Ended up at Overlake Emergency Room
- pretty much the last place in the world I wanted to go as the last time I was
there was the day dad died. I had a really hard time holding it together
since all the memories were flooding in, but I (mostly) managed (until I got
home).
Anyway, we had an AWESOME doctor. She
said while the cut was deep, it was perfectly straight across and she was able
to use glue instead of stitches - THANK GOODNESS. Kayli did pretty well until
the end when one of her eyebrow hairs got caught in the glue. Plus, she
was terrified she'd have to get a shot.
(She definitely remembers the traumatic 2-days-of-stitches from two
years ago).
When I called Matthew from the ER to let him
know what was going on, he said, “Are you kidding me? Why does this keep happening to Kayli?! She’s too little for this. It should be me next time so she doesn’t have
to.”
I said that was very sweet, but how ‘bout we
just call it good and be done with urgent care, stitches, emergency room
visits, etc.
I decided after all that crappiness that our
first Chick-Fil-A meal/experience was in order. (I totally don't
understand the hype). Split a chocolate milkshake with Kayli and that
was good. Came home for 2 glasses of wine, a big cry and a bubble bath.
Harry at Thanksgiving with 3 month old Matthew
Harry and little cheeky Zach always had a good time together. This was Easter 2009.
This was Easter 2011. We also visited them this past April.
