Back to School & Sports!

A few days after we got back from the beach, it was time for school to start! How I have an 8th & 3rd grader plus one going to moms day out, is beyond me.  My "baby" is in her last year of middle school.  Sigh.

Pics:

So far school has been going pretty well for them all :) K hated it as first, she screamed/cried but now she cries if she doesn't get to go!

When school starts back so does sports season.  J played school volleyball and is running cross country with the high school.  H played rec league volleyball & K, she is just lucky she's cute ;)

Pics:

 Overall the middle school team did much better this year, when they seeded into tournament they were tied for 3rd but was 4th since the other team had beat them.  They finished around 4th I believe.

Pics of H:

10U 2013 Champions!

H's team did well, yes I helped coach (and no orange is not a good color for me lol) and it was her first year playing :) We won 1st place in the 10U tournament, but it was close! They played so well, we had tons of fun, but I am glad it's over!

And finally a couple of cross country pics:

1st place!

7th place

Cross country is finishing up and soon she will be on to indoor track.  H is taking a break this Winter to focus on school and will pick back up in the Spring with softball. 

Summer time?

Well the Summer flew by this year and here we are in mid to late October! Our Summer was quite busy, both the older girls had all kinds of camps for sports and then I babysat all Summer long, add in a few play dates here and there, school started before we knew it!

Though this Summer, we finally took a family vacation, first one since before K was born.  We went to Panama City Beach for a week, it was really nice. Not to terribly hot or crowded, we stayed at a hotel that had tons of kids activities, pools, splash pad & beach, oh let's not forget the wonderful ocean view.  Ahhhh.

This was from laying in our bed!

The room was awesome, had a queen for us that faced the ocean, bunk beds for the kids and a full size fridge & microwave.  They also had nightly movies down at the pool, that was pretty cool.  We went to the zoo while we were there and to Wonder Works on a rainy day.  The older girls really loved WW. 

We didn't tell the girls about the beach until the day before we left, so they were quite surprised to find out we were going :) We are all looking forward to going back again soon. 

Goals Revisited

So in Jan. of this year, I wrote a blog post about Goals and was reading old blog posts trying to make myself blog and came across that.  So I wanted to revisit it and see if a little more than halfway through the year, I've made progress.

Goal 1: Blog More : Failed but I am OK with that, I will blog when I can.

Goal 2: Spend more time with kids: Doing OK with that one, though it is hard at times because I have a lot of stuff still going on.

Goal 3: Spend more time with hubby: So-so, we could def use a date night every couple weeks rather than maybe once a month.  My dad does watch the kidlets for us, but we just slack and don't schedule it.  So new goal, schedule date nights more often!

Goal 4: Spend less time on computer: Again So-so, some days are better than others, but I am trying to be more conscious of it.

Goal 5: Spend more time with friends: Not so good here either. I thought with Summer, it might be better but not so much.  The kids activities/camps keep me pretty busy plus I am still watching V as well. Maybe when school starts? Ha, who I am kidding, I need to schedule it myself!

Goal 6: Purge house: In process of, but need to do more!

Goal 7: Replace living room carpet: Ah yes that was supposed to happen after tax time this yr, but our A/C needed serious repair and ate the floor funding.  So it's on hold until we save enough again or tax time next yr.

Goal 8: Pay medical bills: Still working on this, have paid some, but more to go.

Goal 9: Save money: still working on this

Goal 10: Save for Disney: Yep, non existent right now! Maybe soon?

Goal 11: Be more efficient with Girl Scouts: DONE, I stepped down, so how is that for efficient??

Goal 12: Lose weight & get in shape: In progress, started lifestyle change in May, down 17lbs but many, many more to go.  Hubs is doing it too, he's lost 20!

So some goals, I've done OK on, others not so much.  Maybe revisiting this will make me get on the ball. We have had a super busy Summer and the school year isn't going to be any less busier, so I am hoping I can remind myself of things I want to work on.

Hey Look!

It's June! Yep, long time no see, my poor neglected blog.  Oh well, life happens.  So life has been busy as normal, we're done with school, yay! Now the countdown is back on until school starts back ;) hehe, not really but I am sure soon enough I will feel that way.

So what's happened since my last post? Just the normal, sports, sports, school, girl scouts, and work.  That about sums it up. Jess enjoyed being on the track team at school, the girls took 1st place in the city championship meet, so that was pretty awesome, got some neat awards from that.  Hailey played Spring soccer but the days and days of rain made for a very short season.  Jess is finishing up Spring softball right now, they are in the tournament days, we've lost 1, if we lose 1 more we're out.  Hoping they win tonight! I think next Spring I will make H play softball again, rather than soccer. 

This Summer is being filled with various sports camps, hope to fit in a few art camps as well.  Jess made the school volleyball team again, so that's her main focus.  H is playing rec league volleyball in the fall, so we'll do a few camps for her as well. Oh and let's not forget VBS in July, but that's easy and FREE!

This fall will be a big change for me.  K & V (the little one I babysit) will be going to moms day out, twice a week.  Whatever shall I do, with 4 hours each day to myself??? Oh I know it'll be a little bittersweet for me to not have K at home, but I will sure enjoy some me time! I could get a haircut, go shopping (fun and boring stuff lol) or even take a nap! I may even get to enjoy some lunch dates with friends.  I am hoping K transitions well to that, she didn't love playgroup and it was only an hour.  Fingers crossed!!

I made another big change in my life this year, I gave up being a girl scout leader. I know, you're shocked.  I really really enjoyed my 4 years as a leader, but right now, I don't have the time to dedicate to full time leadership for them and half the girls aren't returning anyway.  So J will go to a Juliette troop and H will continue with the one she's in now.  They both enjoy it and I am glad to give them the opportunity to do this.  I will still volunteer and help where I can for the service unit, go on camping trips with them etc, but it will be nice to not have to do the rest.  Perk, we still get to sell cookies, but I won't be responsible for the troop amounts!

Lots of changes this year, but in good ways.  We are now in the process of working on the house and hopefully putting it on the market by Spring, or earlier.  We would like to move into Madison, different/better schools for the kids.  It would also save us TONS in gas money, as my mom is in Madison, the girls sports stuff is mostly in Madison and lots of my friends live in Madison.  So please say a prayer this all works out for us! :) 

Catch up!

It's been awhile since my last post, even when I thought I was going to do better this year, I fell off the wagon. Again.  So maybe I am not cut out for this blogging thing, or maybe I am to tired to care, either way, it sucks!

So what's been going on in my world since February? Today you'll get some bullet points with a bit of detailed info.

• We had H's 8th birthday party in March.  She had a luau themed sleepover. I made almost all the decorations, the cake and had to many 8 yr old girls over for the night. ;) It was crazy but she had a great time, so it was worth it. 
• Cookie season is over, thank you!
• Hubby got a new job! It was the one he has been interviewing/talking with since Nov 2012 
• Softball and soccer season are underway along with school track for J, so we are always busy with something these days. 
• K had her evaluation for school to see if she qualifies for services.  She does not. 
• K turns 3 in 23 days.  Not.Ready. 
• I really need to plan K's birthday party! Perhaps Minnie Mouse theme. 
• I have been working 4 days a week babysitting and just about every Sunday at church.  In fact I am scheduled 8 in a row right now, not happy.  I purposely scheduled myself off on certain days, like our anniversary weekend and that's gone now.  
• We got to put in our schedule for June-Aug and I took 3 weeks off in a row in June, but I expect that will change and I will have to work.  We are going to lose 2 workers in July/Aug because they are college kids going off to another city.  They really need to hire some more people and soon.  
• I am in the midst of trying to plan Summer activities for the kids but some of these camps are outrageously priced. :/  
• I will be babysitting all Summer, so yay for extra money? I guess that can be camp money.... 
• I finally had some pictures made of the girls and I can't wait to get them printed.  They turned out so good! 
• A little bad news, our compressor went out on the a/c unit.  Not good.  We also needed freon, a leak fixed and a new valve that wasn't working properly.  What started out as about $400 in cost, now has gone to about $1300.  
• The good, hubs new company made a mistake and paid him for 2 full weeks of work instead of prorated but they told him to consider it a welcome bonus, so guess what is paying for the a/c repair?  At least we have the cash to pay for it.  

 I know that's not everything that's gone on the last couple months but that is the gist of it.  I hope to update again soon with pictures too!

Growing Up

I don't want to grow up! A little late for that, I know.  How about I don't want my kids to grow up? Will that work? I know they have to, but it is so bittersweet.  We get excited for those beginning firsts, the first words, first steps, first time they go to school (though it is sad) but with all the other first that come later, we decide it's time to slow down!

My oldest who is 12.5 is growing up so fast, I don't feel like it's possible that I've been a mom for almost 13 years.  That means I will soon have a teenager in my house, though her attitude these days makes me feel like she is already one.  ;) Just random times, not all the time thankfully.  She only has 1 year of middle school left....and I already feel like hyperventilating at the thought of her going to high school, learning to drive, having boyfriends, dating, etc.  ACK! Slow down!!!

I am a bit biased as I think all my girls are pretty, but obviously some of the boys at school do too...and I not sure that I am really ready for all that.  Last year for Valentine's Day a boy at school bought her a single red rose.  Awww, so sweet.  Mmmhmm until it's your daughter getting these things!  This year, she got a chocolate rose, a teddy bear and a "I Love You" balloon.  Um yeah, from a different boy.  It was given anonymously, so she doesn't really know, but has an idea of who it is from. 

While I do that it's sweet that these boys have their crushes, it also makes me scared for what the future holds.  She's only 12! Could we please freeze time for a little bit? It would make me feel a little better, even if only for a short time. 

Transition

This week has been a busy week, and this will be the trend for the next several months until Summer.  It seems once it gets to be near Spring sports season, things just can't slow down.  Though this post has nothing to do with sports, I just wanted to point that out. 

So on Tuesday this week, we had a meeting with our local school to talk about phasing K out of Early Intervention/UCP and into the school system.  She will be turning 3 in May, so EI stops.  :( I hate that, because we love our therapist there and K has come so far since we started seeing them.  The purpose of this meeting was.....well I am not really sure to tell you the truth.  It seems everything they asked us could have been found in her records from UCP.  The case worker from UCP was there as well, so she could have just given them the information. 

I guess it was really just to talk about how they decide if your child can enter their program or if they will only qualify for one service etc.  They didn't tell us anything spectacular and I didn't feel like we left knowing anymore than we did before we got there.  They asked us what concerns we had for K, which was communication and mobility as that is what we are seeing EI for.  She seems to be pretty caught up on speech, but I could be wrong.  Her mobility is my biggest concern at the moment.  She can walk, yes.  However, it's still not without her falling down at times, or tripping because she is trying to move to fast etc.  I don't know if that is something she will outgrow in time, or if it will always be an issue. I guess only time and strength will tell. 

The lady running the meeting, asked if we wanted her fully evaluated, meaning all the "testing" they do and I said yes.  I would rather they go over everything than me assume she is doing well on something specific and she's not.  With our schools the delay has to be 30% in an area to qualify for services.  I and even our case worker at UCP do not think she will qualify.  Yay? I mean I should be happy that she doesn't, but on the other hand, I feel like we're stuck.  If she does qualify, we get services through the school free.  If she doesn't, and we want to continue Speech or PT, it will have to be out of pocket and our insurance doesn't pay much. :(

Our meeting for the evaluation is not until the 21st of March..... that's a long ways a way.   Then I think well if she doesn't qualify perhaps we'll do MMO twice a week, BUT registrations begin in Feb for the following fall.  See my dilemma? I don't want to spend money on registration fees to hold a spot for her and somehow she does qualify for services, because I don't have that kind of money to throw away.  On the other hand, if I don't register her, we may not get a spot in the fall if she does not qualify for school.  Am I talking in circles yet?

Sigh.

Eat, Live & Breathe

Girl Scout Cookies!

My life and weekends for the next month and half will be nothing but Girl Scout cookie related.  Not to mention daily sales/delivery as well. I love Girl Scout Cookies, I do, but it also a stressful thing.  Always rushing around, trying to make sure everyone gets their cookies and in a decent time, collect money, turn in money, go to cookie booth, every weekend, sell, sell, sell. 

Other than cookies, everything else in life seems to be going wrong or trying too! Where to start, oh yes, my husbands car.  Died last week on Thurs no less, the day we had all the sleet/ice/rain/snow weather.  We had to get it towed, yay another bill.  :/ Waited a few days to find out it was not the starter but some kind of parking switch, electrical. So $241 later, we have his car back, but it took some reworking of the budget to get that paid.

Then our wonderful utility bill came in a few days ago too, and while it has been cold, I knew the bill would go up but I didn't think it would come to over $100 more.  :/ ARGH! We do need a new a/c unit, but that cost is way, way more than we can afford right now.  So we'll start saving for that, it'll take some time, especially since we have so many medical bills to pay.  Just trying to take it one day at a time.

So in the mean time I've been trying to sell all the old baby clothes that K has outgrown, most of them are from when H was a baby.  Going through extra toys we don't need, we seriously have TOO many.  I need to get back to making items and selling too but that's not on my immediate to do list.

How about some good news now? H participated in the school spelling bee a week or so ago, she came in second place in her class! Pretty awesome since she didn't study the words like she should have.  She did advance to the school spelling bee but didn't win, she said she got about halfway through though.  So I am proud, but I did tell her she could have done better had she studied like she was supposed to.  Maybe next year!

See I can do weekly blogging ;)

Have a great day! 

What I've Learned This Week

Or maybe the post should be called, What I've learned in the last two days since it's only Tuesday....

*I can't survive on 4 hours of sleep, I should be sleeping but it feels wrong to go to bed at 8pm.  Plus I worry I may wake up at say 4 am and be wide awake and I am not cool with that. 

*I should know better than to rely on someone else to get certain things done and it's my fault, since it's every year around this time.

*That my gas cap will not stay shut very well for very long.  Though it does seem to come and go?

*I hate days and days of never ending rain.  It's rained for days now and more is expected.  I may need an ark to pick the kids up from school tomorrow.

*I still have an addiction to Pinterest.  Yes I know, it's a time suck, but I've got tons of great ideas from there, like dinner ideas, craft projects for me and/or the kids and dreams about home remodels!

*Facebook allows for to much getting to know my "friends" at times.  Sometimes I don't care what you think about a certain thing, what you did before you brushed your teeth last night, or what your cat did when you went to sleep. 

*And the number 1 thing I've learned so far, I shouldn't blog on 4 hours of sleep. ;) So please excuse the grumpiness, I am sure tomorrow will be much better.

New Year & Goals

We are at the beginning of a New Year and I have been thinking about some goals I want to achieve this year.  So in no particular order here are my top 12:

1. blog more
2. spend more time with kids
3. spend more time with hubby
4. spend LESS time on the computer, which leads to 2 and 3
5. spend more time with friends
6. purge the house of junk and clutter
7. replace living room carpet
8. pay more medical bills off
9. save money
10. save for disney 2014
11. be more efficient with girl scout related activities
12. lose weight and get in better shape 

I know some of them I will fail at or I will get half way but as long as I continue working on them, I'll be happy!

So some random thoughts for the week (hey maybe I can blog weekly?):

*We had a great Christmas, we scaled back but the girls still thought they got a lot, most of it due to the amount of $ we saved.

*Glad school started back! The kids were ready to go back even with all their cool things from Christmas.

*My sister spent Christmas week with us, it was a nice visit.

*The girls got their report cards this week, all A's. :)

*K is growing like a weed, think she had a growth spurt over the holidays! 

*Hubby and I spent a kid free weekend together this past weekend, it was bliss! I need that more often LOL :)

*Kid 3 is being whiny right now, so this concludes today's post ;)