Progress Report

In case you hadn't noticed, it has been 3 months and 1 day since my last post. I guess I forgot to inform everyone that my blog would be taking a "quarterly" approach to updates. I am sure everyone can be in agreement that the holiday season was a beating, so that is my excuse for November and December. As for January, I don't have a really good excuse but I am currently in the process of renewing my state teaching certificate and need to earn 150 hours of continuing education before my birthday this year. This is something I should have been doing for the past 5 years, but I thought I would just go ahead and cram it in within a few months. So, you can find me doing online courses almost every night. Even though my posts are sporadic, I can be assured that at least my mom is still reading, so I will keep it going.

The next question that begs to be asked is "what has brought you out of hiding?" Simple. A teacher conference. It is hard to imagine that I am attending these things as a parent, but I am on my second "real" conference with Ashley. In these conferences they present a portfolio of all her work and things she has been doing these past few months. Just a few snapshots of a lot of work. I figure if that is good enough for our schools, then that will work for my blog as well. (It also helps that little man was home sick today and I had time to catch up on things). I can just give a few glimpses of our past few months and then we will be caught up. No need for those awkward "let's get reacquainted" games or conversations, just a straight forward replay, a progress report if you will.....

Ashley

Since the teacher conference inspired my blog I figure it is the best way to start my recap. As many of you recall, Little A had a rough start to school. She is now perfectly fine and even conquered her Spirit Rally phobia. The best news came in her academic area. I have known for quite some time that Ashley is an amazing reader. The girl can read my MIL's real estate contracts for crying out loud. I also am quite biased in thinking she is brilliant but of course I am her mom. Now I have some hard facts to back it up. They give all these tests to the kids these days and in her tests she scored at the 3rd grade level in BOTH reading and math. Yes, she is still in kindergarten. The teacher told me she had never seen any kindergartener in all her teaching career (20 plus years of teaching mind you) with scores like Ashley in both areas and who could read like her. They want me to apply for the gifted program next year, which is something they rarely do for kids this age in our school district. Yes, I am shamelessly bragging. Is it probably in bad taste? Maybe, but I figure parents brag about their kids' athletic accomplishments all the time why can't I brag about something that my daughter is good at? So there. I am bragging. I am proud and I don't mind saying it. Now we are just patiently waiting for her to conquer her fear of dressed up characters and we should be good.

Landen

Little man is definitely no longer a baby, he is all little boy. He is fully potty trained now, which is awesome. I finally feel like we are at a good point and I am loving it. He is also very chatty. He does not stop talking and even talks in his sleep. He loves sports and asks me on a daily basis if he is old enough to play football. School is also going well. He loves to tell me all about all his favorite friends and teachers every day. I am also happy to report that he will finally watch tv. While some parents would find this highly inappropriate, I have no shame in jumping for joy. Landen has never watched tv, even for a few seconds. I am not advocating 24 hour tv watching, but there are certain times of the day, like dinner making, when tv is a necessity. With his new attention span, I can now cook dinner without a crazy man underneath me. Hallelujah. His favorite shows are a little odd, Caillou, Berenstain Bears and Wiggles. With the exception of Wiggles, this is probably not your typical 2 year old boy's line up, but he tends to just attach himself to whatever his big sister does.

Jessie

Jessie's eye is stable. He will have to be on his blood thinners for life, but hopefully that will prevent any future clots. The rare condition he has causes clots at any given time and with no warning. The clots could occur anywhere in his body, so we are hopeful the medicine will prevent this from happening. Of course his dreams of being a professional athlete will have to be put on the back burner but he can live through Landen's sports aspirations.

As for school, he is in his surgery rotation right now. This means incredibly hard hours but we are all hanging in there. He has been in emergency surgery and trauma for the past month and now will be in vascular for the next month. The stories he has are pretty incredible and I am still in awe of how he does it. It is getting closer to the time he has to decide on a specialty. This is a difficult decision but I know everything will work out just like the rest of the process has. I can't believe he is almost done with his third year and will be starting fourth year in just a few months.

Me

I am still teaching but have decided to not return in the fall. With everything that has happened it has been a stressful year and I am ready to just take a step back and get things in order. As J starts interviewing for residencies I also want to be available to travel to potential new cities. I actually do like my job, but I am also really looking forward to being done in a few months.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. It was filled with lots of parties and events. Ashley and I enjoyed going to two adorable events, the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea and the theater production of Madeline's Christmas. J took the little man down to the trains at Northpark one day too. Both kids were excited about anything Christmas this year so it was neat for us to share our special traditions with them. We also had a lot of fun with all the family that came through. We had the Lubbock brothers out in waves and we spend many nights playing our favorite domino game with grandma and gradpa. The best part was all the family time we had. J had three weeks off and the kids and I had two weeks off.

I think that pretty much catches us up. It is amazing how much things change and how much they stay the same in a few months. The kids are growing too quickly, time is passing too quickly and I am just trying to catch my breath and slow things down. With school, J's crazy schedule, piano lessons, dance and soccer starting this week I am thinking that is not going to happen. Stay tuned.....