stewart falls

This weekend was Labor Day weekend. 

Labor Day weekend is also Swiss Days here in Midway.  Mary was in the Swiss Days Parade, so Saturday morning I drove Mary over to Midway, watched the parade, and then we had a blast checking out all of the booths, tents, and shops.  I have high hopes of attending it again next year, maybe with some family or friends. 

We had a normal Sunday, and then Monday we decided to do a big hike with a family that we know.  We decided to hike up to Stewart falls...about a 2 or 3 mile hike down, and the same distance back.

The mountain was EXTREMELY crowded with people hiking, camping, fishing, boating, ziplining, and everything else.  The parking lot was full, and we were told to drive up further and hike in Cascade Springs, but somehow both our family and our friends were able to find a parking spot.

The hike was pretty big for the kids, but they did really well!  They were definitely tired when we got to the waterfall, but they perked up with some snacks, and with dipping their toes...or their entire body, in the waterfall.

Ben and Mary ran under the falls.  It was FREEZING, but those two are always up for an adventure.

Mary building up the nerve

 

conquered it

We found a different trail to get back to Sundance, that was a little easier for the kids.  Molly didn't make a sound the entire hike.  She loves to be outside and to be close to Ben.  She had the best of both worlds.

Luke traded off walking, and having me hold him.  He did a great job for how hard the hike was.

 Yes, Luke has no shoes on.  He and William really don't like wearing shoes, so at any given time during our hike, one or both of them, were barefoot.  I honestly don't know how they do it!  They must have an inch of callous on the bottom of their feet.

We took a few small breaks to give the kids rest.

This was the biggest hike William had ever done, and it was very hard for him.  We really had to keep giving him pep talks and working things through with him.  I  was so proud of him for not giving up, and for walking the entire way.

Sam and Mary had no problems at all.  In fact, Sam would run ahead for a while, and then run back to us.  Then run ahead again, and walk back.  He and Mary had a great time.

Our friends, the Snyders, have two little girls that seriously pounded the hike out!  They did great!  They also have a chubby boy named Henry, who is Molly's age.  It was really fun to hike with them and to get to know them better.

We were all relieved to finish the hike, and the kids immediately had their shoes ripped off and laid down in the nice cool grass at Sundance while Ben and our friend hitchhiked back down to our cars.

On the drive home, the traffic through the canyon was at a stand still, and they were closing the road.  As we came up to Deer Creek Reservoir, we saw that there was a huge fire up on the mountain.  It had started in Cascade Springs...where we were going to have to hike if we didn't find parking.  It was so sad to see these beautiful mountains burning!  It put a pit in our stomachs.

We stopped at Dairy Keen to get milkshakes to celebrate a hike well done, and then came home to hang out the rest of the night.

Unfortunately, the fire is still burning today, and is bigger.  Heber is full of smoke, and the mountains are not visible.  We are hoping and praying that the firefighters can get the fire out soon, and preserve these beautiful mountains that surround us.

pumpkin in the petunias!

At the end of the school year in a few months ago in June, Mary brought home a bunch of "flowers" that she had been growing for various school projects.  I had already planted our flowers in the front of the house, but I told Mary to ahead and plant some of hers from school there too, and we would see if they could survive.

A couple months passed, and a few weeks ago we noticed a huge green plant growing in the petunias.  It didn't look like anything we had seen before.  It kind of looked like a weed, but Mary refused to let me pull it...just in case.

Well, it's a good thing we didn't pull it!  We discovered this weekend that pumpkins are growing from this giant green plant!

Haha!  We have a small pumpkin patch, and didn't even know it.  We are hoping they will be ready in time for Halloween.

Gotta love pumpkins in the petunias!

one of these things is not like the other...

jumble

These past few weeks since school has started have been a huge jumble.  It has been VERY busy, and to be honest, VERY stressful as the babies have adjusted to being home without their siblings, and I have had to adjust as well.  I have had some fun moments that I wanted to record though, so here are some random fun jumbles from the past few weeks.

 

Just because she is adorable.

Mary and her friends did a concert for us one night.  They sang "Fight Song" without any music.  They sounded really, really good.  These girls are brave!

Molly has been screaming and crying and demanding to be held for the past few days, especially at night.  She has been yanking her ears or rubbing them, like in this picture.  Yesterday, I finally discovered the reason.  She has molars!!!  Poor little girl.



Luke, oh Luke.  The poor kid is bored to tears without his buddies home all day, so he is getting creative with his new games.  The newest one is to bury himself in Molly's crib, and then scare me when I walk in the room.  It works, he laughs, and the day is brighter.

I heard all of these really weird noises coming from the hallway the other day.  As I walked over to see what was going on, Sam and his friends were doing everything they possibly could to get Molly to laugh.  It was adorable! And it was working.

Did I mention that Luke is a little bored?

The end.

surgery and carrot cake

Ever since I had Molly, my body has had a hard time getting back in to a groove.  Without going in to much detail, I will just say that for about 10 days out of every month, I am in a lot of pain.  For about 4 of those days, I am in severe pain.  It has only been getting worse as time has gone on.

So, lucky me, I got to go see my good friend Dr. Clark, my obgyn.
 (yes, that was sarcastic, although, I really do like Dr. Clark)

He talked to me for a long time, looked up my history and ordered an ultrasound.

He diagnosed me with endometriosis.  Basically, I have some tissue that is extremely painful and flares up once a month.  It effects my entire core, my back and even shoots down my legs to the point where I can't even handle standing up for very long. The effect of this takes days to calm down and mellow out agin.

He told me that it will only get worse from here.

Bottom line, I can either try a ton of different birth controls, which I have done already and did nothing but make me lose my mind, or he can take out my uterus and fallopian tubes.

I talked to him for quite a while, and I talked to Ben for several days before making a decision.  Once I decided what I was going to do, I took my decision to the Lord for confirmation.  He let me know that I was making a good choice.

I am going to get a partial hysterectomy on November 2nd.

Thankfully, Dr. Clark wants to leave my ovaries in, so we don't have to mess with hormones, and throw my body into a menopausal state.  That would really make things crazy!  He is going to take out the fallopian tubes though, so I will never have to worry about ovarian cancer.

I chose to get the surgery, because I don't think I can handle the pain much longer, and it is only going to get worse.  I figure that I can go through a good month or two of some tough recovery, in order to spare myself pain for the next 20+ years of my life.

I know it is the right choice, and it will be a very good thing, but I am really, really struggling with the idea of being down for so long.

I have waited for this time in my life for 10 years now.  I am healthy, I am running at full capacity and training for a half marathon, I am very active, I feel good, I feel alive, I am busy and active with my 5 children, running them to their sports, helping with homework, playing outside with them, and being a very active mother, and I am absolutely loving it!!  

I had high hopes of never having to be knocked down like this again, now that my childbearing years are done.  I get to just maintain from here on out, instead of going back to ground zero over and over again.

I have worked for a year to get to this point, and it is killing me to think that I will be down for at least 6 weeks.   That is enough time to lose a lot of what I have built up as far as fitness and stamina.

I am really struggling with this.  One thing that is helping me is that I will be running my 1/2 marathon just 3 days before the surgery.  At least I will be at peak fitness before I am laid up in bed for a while.  Hopefully that will help with the recovery, and with bouncing back faster.

My only other concern is that my grandmother died after having this surgery.  She was much older than I am, and she was unhealthy. She died from a blood clot, but it still is a very real and very scary thing for me.

After my appointment with Dr. Clark, when we had discussed all of this, I got in the elevator to head back down to the parking lot.  When I got out of the elevator, I saw the cafeteria to my right.

After I had Molly in this same building, I had the best carrot cake of my entire life.  I blogged all about it. When I saw the cafeteria, I decided to see if they had any carrot cake.  I have tried numerous times to get it, since I have had Molly, but they have not had it there since.

I walked in to the cafeteria and went over to the fridge, and there it was!!!  One last piece of carrot cake just for me!  I was thrilled! God works in mysterious ways to let me know he cares, even about the little things. 

I bought it, grabbed a fork, and ate the entire thing right there in the lobby.  I savored every bite.

I then decided that if I'm going to get this surgery, and if I'm going to be laid up in this hospital for a day or two, at least I will have more carrot cake!  And all will be right in the world.

he folds!

With 5 kids, three of them in sports, one of them being a baby, one of them potty training, all of them extremely active and outside a ton, a husband who works, and downhill bikes, and me with running and working out daily, we have A LOT of laundry every day.

I used to be so awesome at folding and putting the laundry away right when it was done drying.  I didn't judge, but I could never figure out why people would have piles of laundry in their bedrooms, waiting to be folded and put away.

I now completely understand.

Aside from the rare occasion where I don't have any loads of laundry to do for one day, there is a mountain of clean laundry in my room, waiting for me to have the time to fold it, and for the kids to put it away.  That window of time seems to be going further and further down on the priority list, and the mountain seems to be getting bigger and bigger.

Last week, I decided to go in my room, and not come out until the mountain was conquered.  I was folding away, when William walked in looking for his "special shorts" for the time being.

William is my clothing boy.  He genuinely obsesses over his clothes.  They truly do effect him mentally.  He gets very attached to a certain pair of shorts or a shirt, and he will wear them, and only those clothes, for months.  When I wash them, he stresses like crazy and follows me around asking me when they will be clean.  He gets moody and insecure the longer it takes to get his clothes back. He is my only baby that never took a pacifier, but geeze, maybe his shirt was all he needed!

He does like clean clothes though.  If he gets anything on them at all, even a drop of water, he will take them off and put them in the laundry.  At lagoon, we got soaked on a ride, and the poor boy bawled and bawled and bawled until his clothes were dry.

So, back to the story.

I was folding laundry and William walked in and asked how to fold a shirt.  I told him that I don't fold the shirts, because we hang them up, but that he could fold some pajama shirts if he wanted to.  I then showed him how to fold a shirt, and he took very attentive mental notes.

He then grabbed a shirt and folded it perfectly!!!  It took him a while, because it had to be just right in his mind, but he did it.  I told him what a great job he did, and thanked him for the help. He giggled out of joy, and I figured he would then get bored an move on.

Instead, he went on to fold every single shirt in our huge pile of laundry.  He folded Ben's huge shirts, he folded Molly's tiny shirts, he folded garment shirts, he folded sweatshirts, and so on.  It was awesome, and so adorable!

Once he finished the shirts, he sat by me as I was doing the socks, and asked me to teach him how to do those.  I taught him how to fold socks, and he then matched and folded all of the socks.

He absolutely loved folding the laundry.  It completed something in him, and helped him to feel needed and helpful.  He loved the perfection part of it, and making the clothes look nice and neat. 

It was the perfect job for William.

He is hired!

peek a boo

The other day, Molly was playing around in the kitchen.  This is not out of the ordinary, so I didn't think much of it. 

Aside from unloading the dishwasher, her favorite thing to do is to go through the cupboard that has all of my Scentsy smelly things in it.  Can you blame the girl!  Those things smell great!  She usually just unloads them, and then moves on.

Things started to get a little quiet, which in my house, means anything but good, so I glanced over at the cupboard to see what Molly was up to.

This is what I found.

Check out the little teasing grin on her face. 

She had somehow squished her chubby little body up on to the top shelf, and she was getting the scentsy bricks way in the back. 

She was extremely proud of herself!

We opened and closed the cupboard for a while and played peek a boo, and then I got her out.

It always blows my mind with the spaces the children can get themselves in to, but not out of.

Oh, I love my cute Molly baby.

fuzzy love

Mary's best friend Lydia has a little brother who is best friends with William.  His name is Tyson.  He is the only 5 year old I know whose cheeks are bigger than William's.  He and William are adorable and extremely hilarious!

Tyson loves Mary.  Like, really loves her.  He has a little 5 year old crush on her, and makes no effort to hide it when Mary is at his house hanging out with Lydia.  He is always asking Mary to live in his house. 

He told Mary the other day that his sisters can just leave, and Mary can take their place.  He begs her every evening to eat dinner with them and to sleep over.  He is quite persistent.  I think he has a good future in courting the ladies!

Mary came home the other day with this slap bracelet with fuzzies glued all over it.

She had just come from Lydia's house, and said that Tyson had made it for her, and had given it to her as a love token.

For some reason, this hit the right spot, and I could not quit laughing. It was adorable, hilarious, ridiculous and random, all at the same time.

From now on, when Mary goes to hang out with Lydia, she wears her fuzzy love bracelet, and I am sure Tyson just beams. hahaha!

little lukie goes to preschool

With all of the hype of his older siblings going to school each year, Luke was finally able to join in this year.

He is going to preschool at Heber Valley Elementary twice a week, and...he gets to ride the BUS!!!

At this age, that is what it's all about, and Luke is no exception.

We went to his preschool testing, where he whipped out all of the colors and shapes like he has been doing it for years.  He then ran over to the toy tools, and I literally had to drag him out of there.  I had no worries that he would struggle going to preschool.  After all, they had toy tools, with batteries. 

Luke started preschool the same day William started kindergarten.  He got the same treatment as the others.  A warm breakfast, pictures, new clothes, and he even got a school blessing from Ben during FHE that Monday, along with the others.

Luke was content to walk to the bus stop with Ben and I.  He was just thrilled to have a backpack and to be finally riding the bus, instead of waving to his siblings every day as then drove away in it.  Sam and his friends decided to take complete care of Luke, and they took over.  They talked to him, walked with him, and got him all pumped up.  It melted my heart.  We have good kids in this neighborhood.

Sam and Blake pumping up William and Luke for their first day of school.

Luke happily chattered and ran/walked to the bus stop.

Once we got to the bus stop, William got right in line, and Luke followed.  Check out how many kids are at the bus stop!

Finally, the big moment came!  The nice bus drive let the preschool kids get on the bus first, and she asked Sam to help Luke.  Sam was so sweet and good to Luke.


Luke was so excited, he couldn't stop grinning and giggling.

 Poor Luke tried to get up that first step, but just couldn't quite reach.  Sam came to the rescue, and this is now one of my favorite pictures.

Sam helping Luke on the bus.

Once Luke got up the steps, he turned and gave us a big wave.

Sam helped him get all buckled right next to his buddy who is also named Luke.

And then they were off!  Ben and I waved as long as we could, and that was that.  It was pretty crazy actually!

About an hour later, after fretting like crazy over Luke peeing his pants (potty training is still very new, and I was sure Luke would not tell his teacher he had to go), I ended up driving to the school and taking Luke to the bathroom.

Before I went in the room, I stood at the window and watched.  The teacher was reading a book to the class, and Luke was just sitting there, completely into the book.  He looked so tiny, and so cute.  Thankfully, he went to the bathroom, and went back to class just fine.

He came off the big bus after preschool grinning! 

I think Luke is pretty into this whole preschool thing.

we don't know crap

Mary: potty trained at 22 months
Sam: potty trained at 2 years
William: potty trained at 2 years
Luke:  3 1/2 years old and not potty trained???

Luke is living proof that no matter how many children people have...we don't know what the crap we are doing!

He is our fourth child to potty train.  We should be the ones writing all of those "potty training your 12 month old in a day" books that make everyone in the world feel like horrible parents, not the ones frantically reading every single one we can get our hands on.  For crying out loud!

It isn't that we haven't tried to potty train Luke, it is that he has absolutely and completely refused to have anything to do with it, even down to just talking about it.

I tried a few times in the spring, when he turned 3.  I was shocked that I had a 3 year old who was not potty trained! 
I bought him the fun underwear...he ran away from it.
I bribed him with treats....he didn't care.
I told him about all of his buddies that are going pee pee in the toilet.....he would just shrug.
I tried, and talked and begged until I was blue in the face, and he wouldn't budge.
So, I just gave up for the summer, hoping time would eventually help.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.
I was lying in bed, and my brain was spinning with everything I had to get done before I had 4 kids begin school the next week.
All the sudden, I literally bolted straight up as I realized that Luke would be in preschool, at Heber Valley Elementary twice a week, for 1/2 a day...and I was pretty sure they weren't planning on changing his diapers!  I freaked out for a while, and then I got determined.  I promised myself that no matter what it took, I would potty train Luke...starting the next day.

The next morning, I bribed Luke with everything I could think of to get him to just put the underwear on.  After him refusing everything, I just took his diaper off, and put the underwear on him.  He screamed and thrashed and wailed like I had just chopped off his arm or something.  We were going nowhere fast.

Then, I decided to try to see if he would just sit on the toilet.  I had the older boys show him, and he watched, but when it was his turn, he ran away.

I spent the entire day trying one thing after the next.  I went to bed extremely frustrated and defeated.  I concluded that I knew nothing about raising children.  Dramatic...oh yes, but I was so frustrated!

I finally decided to pray about it.  I am not sure that Heavenly Father potty trained any of us, but I am positive that he knows Luke, he knows what will work for him, and he could guide me in the right direction.

It was very weird praying for my child to please pee in the toilet, but alas, I was to that point.  Go me.

The next morning, I again tried to get the underwear on Luke, no success.  And then out of the clear blue sky, or should I say it was beamed down to me from above, I knew what the problem was.  Luke just wanted to keep the diaper on.

So, I looked him right in the eye and said, "Luke, if I promise to put your diaper right back on, will you try to go pee in the toilet?"

Luke broke into a huge grin, screamed (yes, he actually screams everything he says lately..it is so fun) a big "yes!" and went sprinting into the bathroom.  (he also runs everywhere...he does not walk).

I was completely shocked!  I just stood there stunned for a second, and then followed Luke into the bathroom.  He did not pee, but he at least willingly sat on the toilet every hour that day.  SUCCESS!

The next day we did the same thing, no pee, but at least he sat on the toilet.

The following day, I decided to make Luke put his diaper on by himself after every trip to the bathroom.  It worked.  He realized that it was hard and time consuming, so he ended up asking for underwear!  And then the heavens broke open and the Hallelujah chorus burst forth!  At least in my head.

By the 5th day, Luke was finally peeing in the toilet and wearing underwear.  I felt like I had just conquered the world, and started to finally get rid of my certainty that I would be driving to Luke's High School to change his diaper.

 It's amazing what our children's bodily functions can do to us as parents.  Its ridiculous really.  "oh good Johnny, you just pooped in the toilet!  Let me sing while I wipe you bum."  Oh the things we do.

Luke is now trained to pee in the toilet, pooping is still in progress.  Baby steps...baby steps.

It pays to pray...even when it comes to Mickey Mouse underwear and peeing in a toilet.

big buddy goes to school

William has finally reached the ripe old age of 5, and gets to go to Kindergarten!  After two years of preschool, this boy has been more than ready...or so we thought. :)

At the end of preschool last year, they administered a test to all of the students to see if they were ready for kindergarten.  William passed the test without a problem.

Little did we know, that after summer, they have them take the test again.

The day William had his test was absolutely chaotic.  I had taken all three of my babies, to 2 back to school nights(days), taken Luke to his preschool testing, been to the doctor to get immunization records, and had also been to the gym.  The kids were done, I was done, and we were all ready to just go home.

Poor William still had to do his testing.  Luckily, they let me go in with him.  He passed the shapes and colors with no problem.  Then, it came to the letters.  The lady would point to a letter and ask William what it was.  By this point, William was looking all around the room, and just saying random letters and even some numbers.  HA!!

He wasn't even looking at the testing paper, or the lady.  She just kept right on pointing to letters, and he just kept right on rattling off random stuff.  I couldn't help but crack up, and also feel a little mortified that my child was completely failing his kindergarten testing!

Next up was saying the sounds of the letters.  William has a SERIOUS lisp, so I tuned in to this one.  I knew it would be interesting.

The lady said, "All right William, what does pu, pu, P start with.  (she was kind of telling him the sound already.

William said:  "mmmmm, lellow (yellow). "

I about bit my toungue off trying not to burst out laughing, but I was also dying inside.  What the heck William?

This continued on for each letter sound.  William would respond with a random noise and a word.

At this point, I knew we were headed straight to all day kindergarten.

Kindergarten is 1/2 day here, unless they need some extra help, then they go all day.

Sure enough, a week later, I got a phone call from the school.  The kind lady told me that William "qualified" for all day kindergarten!  He would do Spanish the first half of the day, and English the second.
I was not the least surprised, and kind of glad.  I know William is smart, and I am not worried about him.  He is also a boy, and he is very young for his grade.  I also know that he is so bored at home, and would love all day...if he didn't get too tired.

So, finally Williams big day came.  He had watched Mary and Sam have their first week of school, and it was finally his turn!  He is completely OCD with his clothes, and I mean real OCD.  He changed shirts over and over and over again, until he found one that "felt right."  Then he came down for breakfast.

He ate breakfast with his backpack on, because he was so excited and so proud.  He reminded me for the 100th time that I was not to walk to the bus stop with him.  I had to hang back and walk with Luke, while he walked with Sam and the big boys.  He was very proud to finally be walking with Sam.



I can never get enough of William posing for the camera.  I thought I would die laughing.

His school shoes mean everything to him.  He loves them so much!  He kept them in the box for a week when he wasn't wearing them.

First day for these two buddies.

I sent four kids off to school for the first time.

William proudly walked out the door with Sam, and Sam was wonderful to walk by him and include him.

William picked up his best friend on the way to the bust stop, and they both entered the bus like champions!

William and Tyson...best buddies.

I worried all day about William getting too tired, finding his way around at lunch, and everything in between.

He came home very happy, and very tired.  He was so proud to walk home with Sam, and to go to school "all day."

I love my buddy so much, and really hope the year goes well for him.  Go William go!

3rd grade rocks

Sam is in third grade this year!  I know it sounds so cliche', but of course, I can't believe it.  He was so excited when we found out who his teachers were.  He got Mr. Johansen and Mrs. Probst.  They are known for being some of the best teachers at Heber Valley Elementary.  They team teach, so Sam has each teacher for 1/2 the day.
To top if off, Sam had a class full of good friends.  He literally could not stop grinning when he heard the news, and started counting down the hours until school started.

Just like Mary, we went to his back to school night, where he got to go to his classroom and say hi to his teachers.  This only added to his excitement, and made me really happy and comfortable that Sam would be in great hands.

This was the scene in his bedroom the night before school.

I love how he put his belt in the shape of a heart.  He told me he got up three times in the night to rearrange his belt.  haha!

Sam was soooo excited the morning that school started.  When I woke up, he was standing in the kitchen, completely dressed with his backpack on.  It was all I could do to get him to sit down and eat breakfast.

 

As with Mary and Molly, some of us were more excited than others to see Sam go.

They missed him A LOT that first day.

Sam's friends came to the door to pick him up to walk to the bust stop, and after a hug and a swift kiss (yes, he still gives me a kiss, and I am not about to stop it), he blasted out.

Look at how incredibly cute this boy of mine is.  What a heart-stopper!

 

When he arrived home that day, he blasted in to the door and said, "School was awesome, third grade rocks!"  This is music to my ears and comforting to my heart.  He loves his teachers and is having a great time with his buddies.

I am hoping for this to be a great school year for my Sammy Boy!

it t.i.s. time

Here in Heber, the 5th and 6th grades are in a separate school called Timpanogos Intermediate School, known to everyone around here as TIS.

When I was growing up (oh my gosh..did I just say that!), Elementary school went all the way through 6th grade, so this was a new idea to me.

Mary was definitely nervous for this new change, and so was I.  It truly felt like I was sending her off to Jr. High...and we all know what kind of a hormonal rat race that is all about.  I had to keep telling myself over and over and over again that she is just 10, it is just 5th grade, it's all good.

I took her to the open house, where she got her locker!  Yup, they get lockers!  Mary was extremely excited for a locker, and had her bag full of locker décor all set and ready to go. 

the worlds skinniest locker, I swear!

We met her teacher, found her classroom, walked around for a while, and worked on opening her locker about 100 times, she is Mary, therefore, we stayed at that school and I watched her spin that locker combo over and over and over again until she could open her locker fast and accurately.  :)
I just sat there saying right, now left, now right. I am pretty sure I fell asleep saying that that night.

With the open house under way, Mary felt a lot better about going to a new school, and was very excited!  She is my separation anxiety girl, so this was a huge deal that she felt so comfortable and excited.

We did end up taking another trip to the school the following day though...with all of her siblings...so she could "make sure" she knew how to open her locker a few more times.

We also got to make a trip to the Middle School for Mary to pick up her netbook.  If it wasn't already weird enough that my daughter had a locker, and was changing classrooms, now she was getting her own computer!!  She was bursting with excitement, I was just trying to get over the shock.  All of the 5th-12th grade students here get their own netbook, it is basically a laptop that they do all of their homework on, and get their assignments on.  It has the internet, mircrosoft word and excel, and everything else a normal computer has.  Our school district rocks!

William was addicted to the locker, and made Mary show him how to open it over and over again.  I honestly thought we would never leave the school that day.

The night before school started, this was the scene at our house.

The kids were so excited, I thought they would never go to sleep!

Mary was up at the crack of dawn, and had decided on a different outfit.  I am pretty sure she had been trying on clothes for an hour.  hehehe

Some of us were not as happy as others for the first day of school.  Poor Molly didn't want her sister to leave!

I sent the kids out the door with a warm breakfast, a prayer and a warm hug. I was pretty nervous for Mary, since she was charting new territory. She didn't seem phased at all.

re-packing her purse, netbook, pictures for her locker, and who knows what else for the tenth time.  love it!

She came home that day all grins!  She absolutely loved it!  I was so proud of her for taking on this new adventure and fighting her demons that so easily make her nervous and anxious.  She has grown so much in this area and is a fighter.

It has been a week since school has started, and Mary is still loving it.  Her teacher has taken a special liking to her, so she is really enjoying the classroom.  :)  Of course, she struts out the door every day with her computer, her cute new stylish outfits, and is talking about lockers and friends all the way to the bus stop with her friends she walks with.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

And so it begins....welcome to TIS Mary!