LOVE this!!

May

I had every intention of being a good blogger last month…  I took pictures of our happenings, and actually thought through what I was going to blog about, but obviously my follow through went awry. 

So for a quick “catch up” here goes, enjoy. ;)  (I’ll try to go in order of occurrence.)

For starters I took a million and a half senior pictures.  Okay not literally a million and a half, but it was sure a marathon.  These last minute sessions required me staying up till 12, 1, 2, even 3:30 in the morning editing so that I could get their pictures back to them in enough time to be printed and sent out in their invitations.  Crazy, crazy, crazy… ha ha, but after it all I do have to say I think Seniors are my favorite.

Here are just a few.

   

After church on May 15, I was craving chocolate cake SO bad…..  I have a recipe that I love, but was feeling lazy.  I kept teasing Court, don’t you want to learn how to make a cake?  He really had no desire, but after a little more teasing, and asking, don’t you want to be able to say you have made a cake, and from scratch.  He finally agreed after I promised I would help him through every step.  Yum-O , he did AMAZing!  This seriously hits the spot every time, especially with the whipped up cream cheese frosting.  He was seriously beyond words proud!!  We even took some up to his parents and sister to share.

 

Easton created an AWESOME lego ship.  When I saw it sitting on the counter I couldn’t believe he had created it himself.  It was completely symmetrical on all sides.

Easton finished 1st grade, and will be moving up to 2nd next year.  He is SO smart, sweet, thoughtful etc etc etc.  I am beyond proud of him, and cant believe he will be 7 this summer.

Last but not least, Denise graduated from high school.  I am so relieved this is the last graduation we have to go to for a while, ha ha.  But I HATE that she is leaving!!! :(

Oh wow I almost forgot this happened in May, Ian came downstairs got his helmet and told me, “I’m taking my helmet upstairs Mom.”  I was a little worried, wondering what he would need it for, I figured I would give him a couple minutes before I went to peek.  ha ha.  Two minutes later he came down like this.  Introducing SUPER KID!!

  

A few minutes later he took his cape and helmet off and asked me to take pictures of “Ian.”  ha ha

 

Thanks for listening, and I promise to do better this June!! :)

Warning: Proud Parent

Yes, that is right, I’m very, very, very proud.  When we put Easton in Kindergarten, it wasn’t without studying, thinking, praying, worrying, second guessing etc etc.  Easton is one of the youngest in his class, and I know the new “thing” Is to hold your kids back a year, especially boys.  I worried A LOT about this.  I asked a lot of people/teachers their opinions, I heard both sides, some said for sure hold him back, others said if I felt good about it, and thought he was ready then to send him, and others were completely flabbergasted with the whole new hold them back thing.  To be completely honest my logical side kept coming back to holding him back, he would have the age, maturity, experience and time to be a lot better at school, he would have a better chance of being a leader amongst his friends, the whole sports thing would be a little easier, and then after he graduates he would only have a few months till he could leave on his mission, that would be a huge sigh of relief!  Through prayers, and a few opinions that I really respected, we decided to send him. 

Kindergarten was hard, I still worried about our decision, I had the peace knowing that we had followed the answer that we had been given, but sure enough that human part of me still worried.  There are kids more than a year older than him in the same class, and the developmental difference when they started was pretty apparent.  As I am typing this, I feel almost guilty for the way it is reading out, I am not trying to say that Easton was slower than the rest of his class, he is  and always was a very bright child, like I said before it was just the stage of their development that made things easier for the older kids to pick up on.  By the end of the year he was just where he needed to be for 1st grade, and I was feeling a lot better seeing how the kids were all starting to level out, it wasn’t quite as obvious who the oldest and youngest kids were in the class anymore. 

 

We had Parent Teacher Conference last night, and I just need a moment to brag.  Easton is in the top percentage of his class, they are expected to read 60 words per minute, and he is reading 80!!  By the end of Second grade they are only expected to read at 90.   Yes like I said very proud moment.  There is a test that they take weekly to chart their knowledge of the math concepts they are supposed to know by the end of the year, I’m holding the test in front of me, but can’t find a name on it….  So you’ll just have to go along with me, ha ha.  There are 30 concepts they are supposed to have mastered by the end of the year, and Easton got 28 out of 30!!  The teacher also went on to tell me, Easton should have gotten this one and this one right, he knows them, and that there were a few questions on the test that were tricky, and the students didn’t understand them, and out of the entire class there are only a few who have gotten all 30/30 so far.  Overall our 1st grade has an 80% average, they are very very proud of the 1st grade accomplishments this year!

  

I need to put a huge plug in here for the teachers, the faculty, and the community.  I LOVE that we live in a small town, I doubt any other school in the district is quite like ours, the community is so tight knit, and they come together and create an amazing experience for our children.  The teachers go above and beyond, and we have an awesome principal. 

  

BTW Legoland was awesome!!!  And so child friendly!  Easton especially loved the miniature star wars land.

I know you were all wondering where milk came from…..

Life here is never boring.

Pictures

I’ve been wanting a new profile picture of Court and I for a year now.  I finally decided to just pull out the old tripod the other night and snap a few.  I need to download the remote app for my ipod, that way I wouldn’t have been running back and forth from the camera to Court.  We only had about 10 minutes before the light was going to be completely gone, so these were really rushed.  I really just need to have some family pictures taken by someone else. 

  

 

From the proud owner of a Robot Horse.

I’m going to type as I ask Ian a few questions, I want you to experience one minute with Ian.

What is your robot horse’s name?

“Well, well, his name is Hawk, now type in his name.”

Is there anything else you want to tell me about Hawk?

“Well, he has that black letter on him.”

A black letter?

“mmmmhmmm, he has that on him…. but that one goes on my robot talking pillow….. ha ha ha ha…  that’s funny!”

Why does your robot horse have a black letter on him?

“Oh, cause he is a black letter robot.  He has lots of them, to spell his name.  But they float in my swimming pool, he is at my tent.  I don’t know which mountain it is on, it is on a really far away one, a bumpy one, it is really bumpy.”

 

What color is your robot horse?

“Well he is black with his black friends….  Well he has, well he has…  Well I have dragons too.  Will you type in my robot pillow’s name that talks, I have one…  ha ha ha ha.”

Do you want to tell me anything else?

“No, well um, that is all the questions that I have.”

I’m going to start a section called ask Ian, do you have a question you don’t know the answer to, or a dilemma you don’t know how to fix…  Well I know someone who has all the answers, or at least give you a good laugh.

Come on ask away, I dare you.

It isn’t your business…

I worry so much… along with all the other mothers in this world.  lol.  When Easton was born I cried for weeks that someone was going to steal him, all I could think was that he would never remember me.  I am sure Court thought I was going crazy, and I’m sure I probably was in a way….  After a few weeks that passed, and then I worried that he wasn’t growing enough, then that he was growing too much, then something else, and so on and so on…. 

Then came Ian, I cried for a week that someone was going to steal him, cried for a week that something was wrong with Easton because he seemed so different.  (Looking back all I can think is, lady calm down, breath, of course he was different, he just had the carpet pulled out from under him.)  The funny thing is Easton probably handled it better than me, ha ha. 

Then I worried whether I should put Easton in preschool, whether he would get along with the other kids, how would Ian react to him being gone….  This goes on and on, and the worries just change.  The thing is looking back I can laugh at myself, laugh at the worries, and see how everything has fallen into place better than I could have ever even imagined.  I wish we could take the things we worry about now and know just how to handle it, have the knowledge of the future to soothe the worry. 

This sounds a lot more in depth than I had planned, now looking back just from this moment to the start of this post, I can laugh….  Kristi my dear you are getting way to deep.  So be it.  This is how my mind works. 

We as parents, as friends, as sisters, as neighbors, as mothers, as family, as human beings, in each role we have worries.  The one that was on my mind this evening was one that is on my mind most days…  What people think of me, do they like me?  Do people get and accept me.  I worry and recount all that I have said during the day, the way I said it, the context I said it in….  Did it come across as I had really meant or did they take it wrong.  You see, I am a sarcastic, shy, talkative, weak, strong, right brained, left brained, creative, un-organized, clean, spiritual, line crosser, weird, average, normal girl.  You get, got… all that?

Do you like me?  Do you get me?  Do you accept  me for who and what I am?  Do you shun me for my weaknesses (many weaknesses.)  Do you judge me for my strengths. 

As I was recounting my day today, I was overwhelmed with these thoughts… 

Then something calmed me that I have heard from somewhere before but can’t recall exactly how they said it, or where I heard it.

“It isn’t your business if someone likes you or not.” 

Did you hear it, did you feel it, did it come across in the right context, ha ha. 

“It isn’t your business if someone likes you or not.”

All I need/can do, is to worry about trying my hardest, doing my best.  My best isn’t someone else's best.  So it is impossible for someone to measure me against any other yardstick than my own, and if they do guess what….  yes you know.

“It isn’t your business if someone likes you or not.”

Lately I haven’t been doing my best, giving my hundred and ten percent.  I’m going to though, you will see, no regrets.  I’m sayin it….  right now.  So from this moment on, here is to living, loving, giving, trying, succeeding, failing miserably, suffering, growing, learning, breathing, but most of all giving my all.

AND I’m going to stop worrying, or at least try to stop worrying about whether someone loves and accepts me for who and what I am cause guess what.

“It isn’t my business.” 

I tried Googling that quote, I wanted to know whether I made it up or if someone had actually said it,  it wouldn’t come up. 

Here is one that did come up though, and I thought it fit really well :

"It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with god."
— C.S. Lewis

Sorry for the book with no pictures, no pictures is boring….  Do you still like me?  ha ha