starting with the most recent updates first…
Matthew
Matthew is as happy as happy can be. Since the age of five, Matthew has known that he wants to go into some sort of military service. Never in my life have a known a kid who has such laser focus and drive. He bases all of his decisions on what will best help him achieve his goal. At the beginning of January, he got one step closer to his dream when he enrolled in the Navy Sea Cadets program.
Once a month, he has a Drill Weekend held at the Coast Guard Base. He spends eight hours on Saturday and eight hours on Sunday receiving military-type training. He has a 700 page Basic Military Requirements book that he takes 15 tests on (he’s already completed nine since January). The tests must all be finished before he attends RT (Recruit Training – as in BOOT CAMP!!!) this summer. Yes, my baby – my 14 year old once-a-five-pound-peanut – will be going to Boot Camp this summer! It’s crazy. But we couldn’t be prouder and he couldn’t be happier.
Just two days ago, he and I embarked on another big step – attending incoming freshmen night at the high school. There, he’ll be able to also do JROTC (also Navy affiliated). The kid seriously glows when in his element. It’s really ridiculously amazing to watch your kid embrace their calling and live his passion.
Zachary
As we’ve always said, our two boys couldn’t possibly
be more different (and equally awesome in their totally unique ways). Zachary –
while Matthew was in Navy uniform attended Drill – was dressed in this ‘uniform’.
He was an Oompa Loompa in the school’s production of Willy Wonka.
He’s also recently
joined the Dungeons and Dragons club at school (a group we all lovingly refer
to as the “D’nD Nerd Herd”) and is excited to make more fun-nerd friends there.
He’s been adjusting to
the massive load of middle school homework and is still attempting to make
peace with math (as am I) and the fact that it’ll be a forced required part of
his life for quite some time.
Kayliana
The girl has finally
lost some teeth! She felt like the last one in her class (though she did lose
her first this summer on August 4th). She bit into an apple –
shouted with excitement, “My tooth came out!” But then a moment later shouted
with total horror, “BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!”
In the end, she chose not to leave it for Tooth Fairy, instead left a
note with a picture explaining that she’d like to keep her first one. She
recently lost her first to one and looks like such a goofball. I crack up every
time she gives me a big grin.
My news
My kindergarten class
will be putting on their musical – Goldilocks and the Three Bears – in a couple
of weeks. I wrote the script for it and am pretty darn excited with how they’re
doing! I think it’ll be great. The best part (in my opinion) is when they put
on funky shutter-shade sunglasses and sing ‘Porridge Funk’ – the Goldilocks-ified
version of Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk – cuz, you know, the porridge was too hot! Burned tongue…’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OTW6mmokXY
The last few months I’ve
been feeling more and more like I’m ready to graduate from preschool music. It’s
time for me to move on to working with bigger kids. I’d been feeling like this
when – ask and you shall receive! – I got an email from Kayli’s elementary
school music teacher asking if I might be interested in a potential position.
Um, YEAH! But, here’s the catch…I’ll have to go back to school and finally, at
long last, fulfill my dad’s dream of me getting my certificate and Masters. So,
I’m in the process of spending every spare moment relearning everything about everything and the stuff
about all the stuff so I can take the state required teacher exams next Spring
and enter a program next Summer. I can still get hired for this coming fall
with a conditional certificate. Once I have my foot in the district’s door
(fingers crossed), then my paid teaching position can count as my student
teaching too.
I’ve never wanted to
play by the rules. I just wanted to teach, so I jumped in right out of
undergrad and taught 3-8th grade music. Then we got busy having the
babies, adopting the baby and raising the babies, and I was able to continue
teaching through starting my business and working in private schools and
preschools. Dad always wanted me to get certified and Masterified, and I always
resisted. Just a few months before he died, we had discussed me going back to
school and I had (begrudgingly agreed) to start getting ready. Well, then we
know what happened and his whole plan for me got put on hold. Now, finally, I
know and feel that my plan is actually His plan (which was his plan). You
follow? It just feels so right. I have NO idea how I’ll manage to balance teaching,
becoming a full-time student again (all while supposedly still raising three
kids)! It sure feels like it’s The Plan, so if it’s meant to be, it’ll work. Super
overwhelming but super exciting too!
We got to see Hamilton with one of my high school besties, Brianna. It WAS as amazing as everyone says it is!
Christmas 2017 & New Year’s 2018
Well, it was an
interesting one. First of all, it was a WHITE CHRISTMAS which was pretty
magical! But unfortunately, Christmas was a little overshadowed by the fact
that we discovered that Kayliana had brought home a very unwelcome souvenir
from school – LICE. Yes, it was as nasty as I had always feared. We went into
lice-lockdown-quarantine for much of the holiday break. We still managed to
celebrate our annual Camp Christmas/New Year’s Staycation with the besties
though (although some of it was spent with us double-triple-quadruple nit-picking
everyone’s heads like a bunch of mama monkeys and vacuuming and black-bagging
every possible thing in the house). Thankfully, Licemaggedon 2017 wrapped up
before we rang in the New Year.
Our New Year got off to
a very sad start though, on New Year’s Day Kayliana’s incredibly beloved
Kindergarten teacher from last year passed away. Michelle Robinson was one of
those people (and teachers) who absolutely impacts everyone’s life with whom
she came in contact. She was a bright light and such a beautiful person. She ‘got’
Kayli so quickly and at our first conference together told me that she already
knew the perfect first grade teacher she would recommend for her (because –
this person ‘wouldn’t make Kayli think inside the box.’ And sure enough, Kayli’s
first grade teacher – one of Mrs. Robinson’s closest friends – is, indeed, a
perfect fit for Kayli). Kayli was devastated on the last day of school. Just
saying goodbye to Mrs. Robinson for the summer was hard. She even drew a
picture of her to have on our fridge so she could still see Mrs. Robinson every
day.
Michelle had Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and was already planning
on taking this school year off for a health sabbatical as she waited for a
double-lung transplant. Sadly, her lungs and body weren’t able to wait any
longer and she got ill before Christmas, passing away on New Year’s Day. She
left behind her husband and a sweet ten year old daughter who goes to our
school as well.
So loved and so missed.