Sum, sum, summertime . . .

I guess I'm going to have to find a different way to prioritize my writing.  I used to love to sit down and blog in the mornings after school runs, while I ate breakfast and sipped my coffee, before I got busy doing everything I did in a day. Now the busy starts before I even hit my snooze button so making myself sit down to write is getting harder and harder.

Last time I was with you it was because I was forced to stop my marathon so that workers could repair my sewer lines.  Today I have a minute to check in because I have to wait here for the Gas Company to come out and figure out why they overcharged me last month by about $150.  Sometime before noon . . .

Our summer was really a whirlwind.  Usually we are so bored and sick of each other by the end of August that we are all craving the beginning of the school year, but this summer went by so fast no one had a chance to get bored.  We went almost non-stop all summer long and school starting just felt like another step in the march.

About an hour after I finished that last blog, the plumbers at my house discovered that the second leak under our slab was a worst-case scenario situation.  We spent the entire week under repair and living at my mothers.  At one point there was a man sized tunnel leading from underneath the front bathroom to the end of my kitchen cabinets, all the way across my living room.  When they finished we had four huge concrete slabs instead of finished flooring with damage to much of the surrounding floors.

I was happy to have the work done and the peace of mind that would come with the repairs, but I was left with big decisions on what to do next.  I just finished putting in some of these floors last summer, just before school started (the tile in the kitchen was not quite 2 years old as well) and now we were going to have to start at square one.  Before I could contemplate all the ramifications though, we moved straight into VBS:

It was a great week.  I loved teaching 4-5 year olds with Riley and he and I both made some new friends.  Tyler was appointed as a crew leader assistant and worked with Ms. Stephanie on Scooter's Groovy Green crew.  Stephanie loved Tyler and told both me and the church staff repeatedly how responsible he was and what a pleasure he was to work with.  Scooter is determined that next year I will be a crew leader for him since Riley can finally move out of preschool's Hello Yellow and be Groovy Green as well.  I think that will be fun too, but I'm going to miss my preschoolers.  Hello Yellow is pretty darn awesome!

After VBS was over we had a quick week filled with baseball, t-ball, hair cuts and prepping for camp.  That next Saturday morning Tyler and I got on a bus headed for Lake Travis with 500 6th, 7th & 8th graders.  That was an amazing experience and I really can't wait to go again.  The kids are just amazing and it's an overwhelmingly peaceful experience to be exactly where God wants you to be, doing what He's asked you to do.  We had so much fun, Tyler even talked me into trying the zip line, an experience I'll never forget but probably won't repeat because climbing the tower terrified me more than the zipping part!

When camp was over we jumped into finishing our baseball seasons up (I know I took pictures, but can't find them anywhere) and then enjoyed the beginning of an unusually mild July for Texas.  We spent a weekend at Lake Texoma with all our Barrow cousins at the beach.

My kids definitely know how to chill at the beach.

Independence Day found us at Rowlett's picnic and fireworks with lots of family and friends.  It was so nice to be outside for the holiday and not miserable in the heat.

Once our holiday was over with and while our insurance company figured out what to pay us for all our repairs and our new floors, I got down to business taking bids on the work.  I had contemplated doing the labor myself again, but we were able to upgrade our floors and I wanted them done professionally.  Plus, it's a whole different ballgame replacing everything at once instead of pacing it out like I did the last time.  I started bringing home samples and interviewing contractors.

We also had a quick weekend down to Austin to visit with my sister and brother.  While we were there we got to see my nieces, Kali & Cori, who were staying with their dad in Austin.  We had a lot of good food, game time, swim time, movie time and cousin time!

Tyler was spending weeks with his dad after camp and then coming home for violin lessons and orchestra classes here and there.  We were so happy to see him when he came home!

We made a couple trips to Six Flags on our passes which let the little guys finally experience the water rides there.  Tyler brought a friend to ride the big coasters with him and even Scotty got to come along once for a family day together.

Scooter spent some time doing OT in July for handwriting, including a 2 week handwriting camp.  He was not thrilled with me that I made him do the work, but he worked really hard and his writing is so much more legible for school starting.

By the end of July, my parents were packing up to leave for Wisconsin for 6 weeks.  They helped take care of my Aunt Kaye while Uncle Bob had a much needed surgery and recovery time.  Just after they left Texas, we moved back into their house so that our old floors could be ripped out and the new ones could be installed.  We had kitchen appliances in the living room to do the kitchen and then later had everything packed up and moved to the garage to have our new super-thick, hand-scraped laminate put in.  It was crazy!  In the middle of it all, my washer/dryer connections started to leak and were evidently just days away from bursting so we got to do even more plumbing!

The packing up/moving furniture process was a nightmare, but those floors went in so fast and the results were amazing.

Almost every wall needed paint in my house after this whole thing was over.  The kitchen and living room walls were in such dire straits, we decided to change our color up a little.  The office also got a new color since I couldn't figure out which paint I used last fall.  We went with a darker grey than before.  I had been hesitant to go darker, but I love the results.  Once walls were either touched up or repainted, all the trim had to be re-caulked and repainted as well.  It was a job!  I finished all the work with one week to spare before school started so I could get the rest of our prep done as well.

And in the midst of getting kids ready for school, I was prepping for a different kind of semester myself.  I am taking 3 online Lit and History classes to get my feet wet again.  I'm hoping to transfer next fall and complete my BA in both genres while getting certified to teach.  While I worked, my friends approached me about working for them this fall.  I hadn't been planning on working outside the home, but guess what y'all?  ALL my kids are in school.  Even my baby.

So off to work I go!  I'm loving it so far, but I started on the first day of school so it's been pretty insane.  I work while the kids are in school and can take off when they are on vacation.  Hoping everything continues to work out.  We are still figuring out how to make all of our new schedules work together and let me still manage our family/home.  I gotta tell you though - as busy as I am, I love my family, my life.  These kids are amazing and Scott and I are so blessed. 

I know it's tough to find time to write, but I keep snapping pictures  (Love my iPhone!!!) and trying to soak up my time with these boys.  Tyler grew 3 inches in 2 months this summer and started 8th grade this year.  It's becoming very clear to me how little the time is that I have my munchkins to myself.  I'm trying to love every second of it - even the crazy ones.

Oh - and now the Gas company has figured out what they did wrong and fixed the problem.  I guess that means it's time for me to go to work for a couple hours.

Love & God Bless!

Life Moves On . . . and Runs Me Over a Little

It's funny how life works.  We have had such an intensely busy few months that I have not been able to even think about writing a blog post.  Well, I have had thoughts like 'This would be great for my blog, I could say something like . . . What do you mean you're running a fever?  We cannot be sick in this house again!'  That's it - the past few months have been saturated in sickness and crazy spring school schedules peppered with performances and lately awards ceremonies.  I haven't been able to slow down for five minutes to tell you what's happening in our lives because I've been too overwhelmed with the living of them.  Funny though, sometimes life has a way of slamming on the brakes for you.  The brakes for me:  two sewer line leaks under our house.

To be fair, I've known this was coming for three months.  It's taken three long months to go through the process of finding out we didn't have as much of a foundation problem as we thought, but more of a moisture problem; contemplating the merits of french drains and their installation processes; having a sewer line test just to be safe and discovering that we had big problems beneath our slab; filing with insurance and meeting with adjusters; paying out the nose for a leak isolation test; getting lots of bids on work and debating price versus timeline; submitting a lot of paperwork; waiting for insurance to give us some money; worrying about the extra unseen costs that insurance wouldn't pay for until we had already dealt with it and had to pay for it; pulling precious funds out of savings to cover the feared extras; waiting for a time that could be scheduled as soon as possible but preferably after preschool was done for the year.  And all the while, watching our showers backup faster and higher each and every day so that they could take hours to drain and knowing this was so not a joke or a fluke and it had to be dealt with as soon as we possibly could.

Best case scenario we would have no TV or internet (one big leak is in the living room and electronics and jackhammers don't mix) for 2 days, alternating and minimal water use for 1-2 days and holes in my house and/or setting concrete for at least one night.  We had to move to Grandma's house.  Technically a hotel would have done the trick, but what fun is that?  We packed everything up on Sunday and moved to Rowlett so that we could spend the last week of school getting up an entire hour earlier for morning drop offs and according to my two little ones have a pajama party every night.

Best case scenario is never what happens in this house.  The smallest issue turns into the largest mess when it comes to home repair or update.  So yesterday I never really relaxed as I escaped to a back room and the jackhammer began tearing a huge hole in my kitchen tile and the slab of concrete beneath it.  And then I heard one guy say to the other guy "Whoa, look at that!  Charley, come here, you won't believe this!" and my stomach did a huge flip.  That was when I found out that instead of packed dirt underneath our house we had huge voids (read holes), I mean HUGE.  Big spaces that you could literally crawl into, that could be causing my living room to sink.  Yes, you read that right.  I don't know that we could have been one of those poor sink hole people any time soon, but had we kept on for a few years with no repairs and no knowledge . . .urgh.

I spent most of the day online (plugged the modem back in when I found out they wouldn't touch the second spot until the next day at the earliest) researching mud jacking.  Somehow and someday I will have to have something called slurry, which could be anything from a foam or mud/sand/clay mixture to straight concrete, piped under our house to level it back out.  There's a huge void along the side of our house where our kitchen lies too and that one might be worse.  Once the light changed in the afternoon I found out that the living room spots were not as massive as first believed.  In fact, since they have to bring in some extra dirt before they fill the holes with concrete that one might be okay for quite a while.  I submitted photos to insurance since they won't be able to see anything after the holes are filled.  I called agents and adjusters.  And as I was doing all this, the plumbers moved on in their work and discovered the next problem of the day.

Sewer lines come in basically two types in a house like mine, big and small.  The big pipe is for the main line, it runs from the bathrooms, through the main part of the house and out to the city line.  The small pipe runs from all the other drains and joins into the main line.  My kitchen has the small pipe and I had heard that these old cast iron pipes can rot through on the bottom after 30 years.  Our pipes are over 50 years old and the smaller kitchen line didn't rot through, but it had a big hole and then a crack that led away from it and all the way to the end of the line underneath my dishwasher.  I came within a hairs breadth of losing half my kitchen cabinets (and sink, countertop, sanity . . .) but the guys decided they could get away with a second hole in front of the dishwasher and then tunnel back towards the end of the counter.  The $$$ started piling up and I started feeling more and more sick.

That's most of the pipe they pulled out.  Lovely, hey?


By the time I picked the kids up and Scott met me at home, they had finished the daunting task of crouching in one big hole and then trying to tunnel out underneath a few feet of cabinets in front of them and decided to call it a day.  I was left with two enormous holes in my house covered with plywood and a feeling kind of like shell shock.

Wouldn't you?

Today they are putting in the new smaller pipe and filling the holes - that's the easy part and pretty fast.  I am sitting on my computer waiting for the next hole to be opened in my living room so we can discover what kind of fun awaits us with another leak.  Supposedly the big pipes don't rot out as much so I'm just hoping for one big crack or hole and nothing else!  But all this house drama did afford me time to think about my blog again since I'm sitting here alone while people work and I obviously can't do laundry or clean or anything else.

So I'm gonna give you a run down - the fast version with lots of pictures - of our spring before I have to go unplug my modem again.

We had a huge rash of flu, flu-like sickness, stomach bugs and fevers between mid January and mid March.  Two of these were remarkable for different reasons. Tyler had the full blown flu which we found out after I had made him take his scheduled SAT with major symptoms.  That makes me sound horrible, but it is not uncommon for Tyler to get 'cold feet' before he does something he has committed to so when he complained of tiredness, headache and sore throat that morning I told him I had paid for the test, it was scheduled, he was going.  He suffered through taking the test that most high school juniors agonize over and within 18 hours he was running a 103 temperature.  I told him not to worry about the results, the experience was what mattered.

The second crazy sickness was later in the spring when Riley ran really high temperatures for a few days with no other symptoms and when I took him in we discovered he had an alarmingly low white blood cell count for no known reason.  We kept him home for the week since he had such low immunity and breathed a sigh of relief when his numbers came back up.  I'm still concerned about this since I don't know which came first, a nameless virus or the low blood count, what caused what?  Keeping a pretty close eye on him.

The SAT test was an opportunity provided by Duke University through their Talent Identification program to exceptional youth.  We thought it was a great opportunity to see the test and get anxieties about it out of the way as well as show Tyler why learning SAT vocabulary from now until he graduates is so important.  We were in no way prepared for how well he would do on the test.  I love bragging so I'll tell you that he scored high enough as a 7th grader (with the flu, mind you!) to be accepted today at most state Universities.  This was due mostly to his math scores, but his reading and writing were not far behind and he did extremely well on the essay portion.  As thrilled about this as I was, the past months have shown me even more what an amazing accomplishment this is.  He was honored by the school Board of Trustees, by his school and teachers and also by Duke University at a cool ceremony at UNT.  A couple of Tyler's friends also achieved this level that only 5,000 7th graders in Texas hit so I'd say he chooses his friends very, very well.  They are all very smart and all in different ways so they challenge each other a whole lot.  I'm so proud of him, but also I'm excited about the prospects of scholarships in the future if he keeps all this up!

Tyler also received awards for violin solo and ensemble, orchestra student of the year, violinist of the year and was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this spring.  He worked his little tushy off this year and it really paid off.  He also made a great group of friends, attended his first couple dances, and started spreading his wings more socially.  He's playing baseball this summer and just spent his own money he had saved up to buy an electric violin to play on.  What an exceptional young man!  It kind of blows me away, since a lot of what I've said to him over the years seems to have sunk in.  Right?  And then he turned 13 in April and overnight he didn't want me around anymore, developed a huge attitude and hides some serious moodiness that likes to show up at the most unusual and inconvenient times.  I can't believe I have a teenager - and I'm not always sure what to do with the teenager I've got!  Lord have mercy, he's gonna be lucky if he makes it to 14!

 (Bottom one was first dance!)

I think looking at these that Tyler really needs another nice dress shirt, lol.  However, Riley loved it so much that one day he made me take him out to buy him his very own 'tie shirt' like Tyler has.

Scooter turned 7 and after not wanting a party at all last year, decided he should have one here at home with all his family and a bounce house.  We had a great time with lots of friends and family and Scooter did really well.   When he got overwhelmed he'd go hide in his bedroom for a while with Riley and his favorite cousin, Cori.  We had lots of babies here (and baby wearing!), plus some rambunctious 2 and 3 year olds.  It was an awesome party!

It had poured the night before so there were puddles all over my yard.  We made due and then I went outside one time and discovered that the toddler mamas were letting their little ones do this:

Auntie Heather's house is so much fun!  Then Auntie Heather got to have some fun when she wrangled those little mud-fiends into the bathtub and got them all clean while their mommies took lots of pictures.  Those faces are all so priceless and precious to me.  It wasn't the way I expected the party to go, but I was grateful for the fun of it and the moments I got to love on them.

I got to spend some serious time with my niece, Jocelyn, this spring including having her over for Easter Egg decorating with the boys:

Easter this year was with my family and we had a nice day at our friend Claudia's house eating lunch and hunting Eggs.  It was the first one for my nephew, Augie, and my kids were happy to hunt and munch, even my camera shy Scooter.

Asheley and Perry brought Augie to Dallas for the first time before he was 8 weeks old to visit. And then we had Augie here another time this spring as well, unexpectedly, after my dad took a huge fall off a ladder and spent a long day and night at the hospital.  Dad's fine and I'll spare you the story - just remember all the wonderful projects we did together without injury, mmmmmkay?

Lets just look at the sweet baby pictures - that's more fun.

We also had a short trip this spring to Clovis, NM for Christening of our nephew, Ben.  This is him at Scooter's party - I had no battery in my camera for our whole weekend in Clovis, bummer.  He's an October 5th birthday buddy with Dad and I so we had to make sure we got a picture of the three of us together!

The trip was so much fun and we had a blast, but my camera died just as we were leaving Lubbock where Scott got to share his Alma Mater with the boys.  Tech, Tech, Tech - we'll just see about that (Gig 'Em Aggies!).  Scooter wouldn't take a picture that required posing, but I did document him for the visit anyway:

Hmmmm - what else did we do?   There was some dental work at the hospital in there and a huge diet for Scott and I that did more for him than me, but helped us learn to eat better. What else? I cannot remember.  I am toast.  I am done.

We did have to say goodbye to one of our beloved dogs, Bella.  Her multiple health problems were brought to a head when she was additionally diagnosed with Diabetes.  I started her on insulin so that we could buy some time and make some decisions, but she immediately stopped eating.  That first week was very long, but Scotty finally got her to eat real chicken (which she is allergic to) and chicken broth on her dog food.  We eventually decided as she wasted away more that we would not continue the insulin after the first month and by the end of that time we were resorting to mixing cream soups and yogurt into her food to help her appetite.  The whole experience was tough because she was still acting like a happy puppy even though she was 8 years old and really ailing, but we did not want to drag it out, watch her suffer and break the kids hearts any further.  She was Scott and my first baby together though and it was so very, very hard to say goodbye.

It's strange getting used to being a one dog family, but we've enjoyed taking care of my parents dog for a couple days and now taking Brewer over there as well.  It's helping us ease into something different.

I just read this great blog post the other day by one of my favorite author's, Jen Hatmaker, about the end of school nastiness and never-ending-madness.  If you haven't read it yet, you should.  If you are a mom or a teacher or you know any of either you will be rolling on the floor, trying not to pee in your pants and laughing so hard you can't breathe.  My kids and hubby were so worried about me and the sounds I was making when I read it.  It's so true - which is what makes it so awesome.  And Jen didn't have to deal with some of the crazy we've been adding to the mix either.  I had ARD meetings and therapy screenings and lots and lots of preparation for my kids going to a new school next year since Scooter doesn't do change or transition well at all.  It'll all be worth it though!

Riley finished last week, thankfully.  They had this really cute graduation ceremony for Pre-K and my kid strolled in, looked for where we were sitting at the Christmas program and didn't find us.  We were sitting right on the center aisle since he was front row center, but he didn't know that.  So he pouted.  Yep, this is my munchkin:

Lovely to see that right in the center of the group.  He got over it and sang and did all his sign language and cuteness.  When he walked right by us on his little procession in for the graduation part and saw us he nodded and smiled so big!  I guess he had thought we would dare miss!  Silly boy.  I didn't get a great shot with his cute grad hat on, but I did get him saying goodbye to his beloved Ms. Lori and in the silly glasses she gave the kids.

This school has been so awesome.  I can't believe I'm done with having any preschoolers or babies or anything close to that!  We are all going to be in school this fall.  Wow!

Speaking of school - I'm rethinking mine.  I did not stick with A&P since I missed so much class at the beginning of the semester thanks to sick kids and sick hubby and sick me.  Then I hated Statistics and didn't do well in it.  I did love my Psych class though and the research and writing I did for it made me remember what I so loved about History and English to begin with.  So I'm on hold for a minute, rethinking my options and the ramifications of switching gears so drastically.  And for the summer I'm just finding a new level of acceptance of Scooter's 'labels' so that I can help him in a more proactive way.  I'm finally getting what some of this stuff really means in a detailed way and how I can maybe help him more.  So I'm reading and researching and trying a bunch of different stuff for him for now.

Our summer is looking almost as busy as this spring was, the only difference being that I won't be taxi mom every day for three different school drop offs and then pick ups.  Tyler is playing baseball and Riley is trying out T-Ball (oh my goodness that's got to be the cutest thing ever - pictures to come at a later date!).  Tyler had auditioned for Advanced Orchestra for next year and made it so he'll have some Advancement classes for that followed by an Orchestra camp that gets everyone back in gear before school starts.

We are all doing VBS again this summer with Tyler as youth volunteer, Scooter part of Groovy Green crew and Riley and I will do the Hello Yellow preschool gig for the last time.  I will be Riley's class teacher which will be fun.  We're breaking from swim lessons while everyone else gets moving on them, but we've gone for 2 years straight throughout the year.  Scooter will be doing some Occupational Therapy this summer to work on his fine motor skills and he's doing a 'Handwriting Camp' there that will help him double his printing speed and get him writing neatly on real notebook paper so he's ready for 2nd grade.

Tyler is registered for Junior High camp again this summer.  And don't fall off of your chairs while reading, folks, but I am going to camp too as a JH counselor.  I love this age of kids and always have.  I am so grateful that Tyler isn't having as rough of a time as I did back then, but I have a very soft spot in my heart for the kids that do.  This will be new for all of us, but I kinda can't wait.  And I'm kinda terrified.

We don't have any big trips planned this summer, but I'm keeping an eye out for a way to go visit my Aunt Kaye in Wisconsin.  And we have family coming in town from Clovis that will keep us busy as well.  We also have free bowling, discount kids movies and season passes to Six Flags to keep us moving and grooving.

The kids have just 2 more days of school after today and tomorrow morning will find Scooter and I getting a private tour and meet & greet at his new school for next fall.  {This is actually the same Magnet school that Tyler attended and we turned down two years ago, but we are very ready for the move now and I know he's going to do great there.}  Two more days of alarm clocks and packing lunches and checking folders and everything else.  I'm ready for a break, even though I know I'll be very ready for them to all go back next fall.

I'll try to stay more on top of updates and also fill you in on more of what is going on with Scooter and his journey. I think it's worse the longer I go because catching up takes me hours instead of minutes.

The last two hours of writing this has been bliss in a way.  Despite the fact that I'm listening to a jack hammer tear away another huge hole in my house and that the floors I have only enjoyed for the last year and a half are going to be replaced, I am at peace.  Never mind that I'm paying way too much money for this repair than I will ever see in equity, I am enjoying the quieting of my mind.  I can feel summer coming, I can feel the slow down emerging.  The crazy of life has forced me to stop today, stop working and thinking and managing and driving and cleaning.  Life has been running me over lately and it was time to put on the brakes for just a minute.

Okay - that was awesome, now I gotta get moving people!!!  Come on!

God Bless