Thanksgiving 2014

For Thanksgiving this year we drove to Vancouver WA to my sister's house. Ryan didn't go because he didn't want to ride in the car with his shoulder hurting, Jayden got sick on Tuesday night and he stayed in bed for the next 48 hours, with Ryan watching over him after we left. Destina drove down with my niece and her family on Tuesday so that just left Me, Scott and Avrie. I started getting sick on Monday, different than what Jayden had, I had a deep chest congestion but it really affected my asthma and I spent the next 5 days trying to breath. We arrived at my sisters house in time for dinner Wednesday night and hung out with them for a while. Scott, Avrie and I rented a hotel, my sister's house was bursting with her family. The next morning Scott took Avrie swimming, the highlight of the trip for her.  Once at my sister's house I helped a little in the kitchen and then I watched football all while trying to breath.  We had a good time it was fun to see my sister's kids and their cute families and the cousins had a great time all playing together.

We made it home around 11:30 pm. The only traffic we hit on the way home was at all the shopping centers every parking lot was packed. I spent the next two days sleeping and resting trying to get better and I finally feel almost back to normal. I am very grateful that I did not have to cook and organize and clean up this Thanksgiving, I would not have made it. I am grateful to my sister she always has my back.  I am grateful that Tim's mom fed Ryan and Jayden for Thanksgiving. It was different having my family scattered about but I knew everyone was taken care of. Kelsie had Thanksgiving on the beach with her ward, Kate hosted most of Jeremy's family at her apartment with her sister-in-law doing most of the cooking. It was a fun Thanksgiving, I loved watching the kids play and get along so well, I am thankful they have each other.

Breaking News

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Ryan is fearless and is always doing crazy things, he comes home scraped and bruised a lot of the time but he always reassures me that he knows his limits on the bike and skis. This video was made a  month or so ago and shows him taking a pretty bad fall off the bike going way too fast, he came home scraped up and with a broken helmet.

On Saturday Ryan and two buddies went up to Canada to go skiing, about 9:50am Scott got a call that Ryan needed a ride home because he broke his collarbone. Ryan had just bought his ticket and was running back to catch up with his buddies and tripped on the sidewalk, he thought it was icy and was trying to slide into his friends but it was dry and he fell right in front of his friends. He made it back to the car and started getting all of his gear on. His hands and knee were hurting from being scraped up but then as he tried to get his ski pants on he felt like he was going to throw up and realized that his shoulder was really hurting. He made his way to the ski patrol and they confirmed that he broke his collarbone. I think Ryan tried for a little while to just wait it out until his buddies were done skiing but he said that he was really bored and just wanted to come home so he called Scott.  Ryan spent the whole afternoon following me around talking my ear off, must have been the pain killers, then he went out on a date later that night, he isn’t one to sit around when he can be doing something.  On Sunday he made it to church, looking a little pale and then slept most of the afternoon. Ryan was in a pretty good mood even though the first 4-6 weeks of the ski season will be a loss for him, he said the good skiing starts in January anyway!

 On top of all that drama we had family in town for a couple of days, we love it when they come visit!

My nephew JT had a soccer game about halfway between my sister's house and our house so he wanted to come visit! Then my niece and her family are heading to my sister's house for Thanksgiving but decided to come spend a few days with us. The kids had a great time and they all got along really well playing soccer and games.

Loud and Clear

I haven't been blogging very much lately, I am really "busy" but that is not the only reason. I have been in turmoil about a few things and didn't want it to all come out here so I have been avoiding the blogging world. But we had some friends go on a trip to Hawaii and they were kind enough to take Kelsie out to dinner and then to the beach another day, they even mentioned stalking her while she was at work and taking a blurry picture of her washing the dishes.  After hearing all about their fun trip, my friend said that Kelsie told her to tell me I needed to blog more, that is her connection to home. We don't always have schedules that line up to call or Skype so we are not talking as much as I would like. Although, Avrie has been Skyping with Kelsie for hours some days I hear. Anyway I got the message and will do better at blogging what is going on here at home.

Thanks for taking care of my daughter and taking the time out of your vacation to spend some time with her, she loves your family!

Parent Teacher Conference

It is that time of year again, parent teacher conferences. I always get a little nervous like I am being sent to the principal's office and wonder what is it that my kids are doing. I have had kids that do great in school and make parent teacher conference a breeze and I have kids that have struggled in school making conferences uncomfortable. Honestly, I have worked harder with the kids that struggle in school than I ever did with the ones that do good yet, that hard work rarely finds rewards in the classroom. I have children that do not fit the normal school mold of learning. I have even home schooled and that has taken some of the stress off of fitting into the mold but has brought other problems as well. It is really hard to know what to do and how to help children that don't fit the mold. I am sending some of my children off to, what feels like for them, 6 hours of a prison sentence.  I have no easy solutions for them, I feel that my hands are tied.   We all want our kids to succeed, to do their best and be the best that they can be...it just might not happen in the normal school setting.  Parenting is frustrating. Helping kids see and recognize their self worth isn't necessarily tied to a letter grade, to help them recognize that sometimes life is hard and we have to push through the hard stuff, and that tomorrow is a new day, all of these things can be challenging when they are struggling.  It is hard to be positive and motivated when they keep getting beaten down.  I don't have the magic answer on how to make their life easier, I can just do my best to love, support and encourage them, and sometimes I fail at that as well. I feel their pain and can't fix it and that is frustrating.
So when I went to Avrie and Destina's conference, I have been doing P.T.C. for almost 20 years, I knew that when I heard good things it was because they fit the mold and I really have nothing to do with their success at school other than loving, supporting, and encouraging them it doesn't go to my head because I have been on the other side as well, but it is nice....
We had Destina's conference first, she is still playing catch up but Destina's teacher commented that she has never seen a student work so hard, and be so motivated in class. She stated that she will never forget being Destina's teacher. Then she told me a story. The first week of school the kids were given an assignment to fill a shoebox of things that would reflect who they were and what they liked to do. We were in Hawaii for this assignment so I didn't know what Destina had put in her box.  The teacher said that some kids brought Lego's etc to show what they liked to do. Destina, and at this moment the teacher grabbed a tissue because she was tearing up, brought a pencil. Destina told the class that they might think it is silly that she brought a pencil but when she was in Haiti she would watch the "other" kids walk to school each day and she dreamed of going to school. She told the kids that she loves going to school and how lucky she feels to be able to come to school everyday. The teacher told us how all the kids respect and look up to Destina as a leader and how much she loved having her in class.
Next we went to Avrie's conference and we walked in and sat down and the teacher jokingly said, I have nothing academically to talk to you about Avrie, lets just spend the next 30 minutes talking about how great she is! We did talk about some issues, apparently Avrie gets upset when the kids at her table are not being quiet and doing their work, clearly there are more than a few kids in the class that don't fit the school mold. The teacher tells Avrie that she is welcome to move to a more quiet area to do her work and that bugs Avrie, why should she move when she is the one doing exactly what she is supposed to do? I let the teacher know that I was/am a parent to "those" hard boys in the class and that I worked really hard with them, more so than I work with Avrie, and that I would talk to Avrie about those boys that don't pay attention in class and how she can be more patient and kind.  Then the teacher mentioned that Avrie told her that when she was younger that she almost died. The teacher didn't quite know what to think about that. I gave the short version of the first 2 1/2 years of Avrie's life and explained that Avrie has been reading my blog books before going to bed and has been reading about her time in Haiti and although she can't remember things like Destina can, that is still part of her story and she wants validation for it.   So yes she did almost die, hard to believe when you see her now.
I keep waiting for parenting to get easier but even the adult children have bad days/weeks and I can't solve their problems. I have lost sleep, done my share of worrying and praying for them, but in the end all I can really do is love, support, and encourage them along their journey.

Kelsie's Adventures

Kelsie is doing great in Hawaii. Because of the time change and our schedules being off, I don't get to talk to her very much. She is doing pretty good in school her Trig class is giving her grief but the rest of the classes are fine. She is working at Taco Bell, and loves her boss but it is not as fast paced as McDonald's was and so gets a little boring, but she works the late shift on Friday nights and has Saturday and Sunday off. She loves her roommates and has a good group of friends, they make dinner on Sunday's invite a bunch of people over. And there is always an adventure on Saturday. 
There are 19 people living in her house in 4 different apartments, she has avoided getting bed bugs, 2 of the other apartments got them. She helped her roommate, who has the top bunk, avoid a water leak from the apartment above by making something to funnel the water away from her face as she was sleeping. They were awoken at 3 am one morning by a fire alarm. Keslie didn't wake up until she heard fire fighters tromping around by her window, luckily there was no fire. I am sure her roommates love her because she is a clean freak, on her down time she cleans out the fridge and cupboards and scrubs the bathroom.
She recently told me that time is going by really fast and that she can see the next couple of years zipping by and she just wants to get to the beach more. She is acclimated to the heat, she loved the cold, but now loves the warm weather.  She still has a hard time getting a tan but claims that she is a little darker than when she arrived in Hawaii. She is learning how to live on her own, manage her money, and balance everything she has going on....wait she has been doing that for years. Our goal for Kelsie was to have fun and I think she is reaching that goal!
How did I do Kelsie? Did I miss anything?

Halloween Picture Fail

I failed at taking a picture of the kids for Halloween this year. I had 3 opportunities, a school party, a church party and Halloween night and I did not get a picture of the kids.  But just because I don't like Halloween, and just because there is not a cute picture of Avrie in a new Halloween costume that I actually bought for her, or a cute picture of Destina in her older sister's cheer uniform does not mean that Halloween did not exist. They had a great time trick or treating, and have been eating candy all week long.  I even decorated the house with some Halloween decorations, and really enjoyed putting them away on Sunday!
My kids that live far away have been complaining that I have not blogged in a while, and I agree. I  have been busy, and I hope to be back to happy blogging again soon. I really need to blog about Kelsie and the great time she is having.  She lucked out on the roommates and one of them even has a car so she is off doing fun things when not in school or working. Katie needs to start manufacturing the happy drug that she takes, I have not talked to Katie once when she has not been bursting with happiness, either she is really good a faking it or she is really happy, I will go with really happy!